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“I’m sorry,” Coran says. It’s the first thing he’s said in days. He looks so sad and guilty, and Hunk just wishes they could have the old Coran back. “I’m so sorry about what I did.”
Allura sighs, sitting down beside him. Coran flinches away, as though he doesn’t consider himself deserving of her support.
“You don’t need to apologise again, Coran,” she says, patting his arm.
That’s true. In the hours after he finally got that weird worm removed from his head, Coran was constantly apologising to anyone who would listen. But he never really got a proper response (it makes Hunk feel bad to admit, but everyone was more focused on Voltron than Coran at that time), so eventually, Coran just stopped talking. And now he’s finally opened up to them all again, it makes Hunk want to cry to know his first words are yet another apology.
“Sorry,” Coran says, and he smiles weakly. “I just don’t know if I can ever forgive myself for what I did. I could have got you all killed, just to improve the show.”
“But it wasn’t you, Coran,” Hunk says. “It was that worm thing.”
“And who put the worm thing in my brain in the first place?” Coran says, staring down at the floor.
Hunk doesn’t know what to say to that. Thankfully, someone else does.
“We know you chose to use that worm pill, Coran,” Shiro says, clearly trying to sound reassuring. “But you didn’t know what it would do to you.”
“Yeah, there’s a big difference between wanting good ideas and actually going manic and putting us in danger,” Pidge adds. “You didn’t know how weird it would make you go.”
Coran sighs. “Yes, but who was stupid enough to trust something bought on the black market?”
Coran tucks his feet up onto his seat, hugging his knees to his chest. Hunk wants to hug him, but he knows Coran will just flinch away.
“Come on, Coran,” Lance says, smiling. “You don’t need to beat yourself up about it. We’re not mad at you.”
Any more, Hunk adds in his head, and he’s sure Coran does too. Because they were all really angry with him at first, but the anger died away pretty quickly. And now they all just feel sorry for him.
Coran finally looks up. “Really?”
“Of course we’re not,” Hunk says.
“No one could possibly stay mad at you, Coran,” Pidge says, grinning.
“Yeah, you’re our Space Uncle,” Lance adds. “We care about you, man.”
Coran raises an eyebrow as if to say, is that seriously my nickname now?
“And while we’re on the subject, Coran,” Allura says. “Why did you feel so compelled to come up with more ideas in the first place? There was nothing wrong with your original ideas for the show, you know.”
Coran sighs again. “I don’t know. I just felt that… I mean, I sort of let you down a few times in a row and… I didn’t want to ruin it for you. The Voltron Show of Arms is so important… and I didn’t want to mess it up.”
Hunk really does want to cry now. “Why didn’t you say something? We were annoyed, but we weren’t mad at you. We didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
Hunk must look as upset as he feels, because Lance pulls him into a hug and Shiro starts patting his back.
Coran sees them comforting Hunk, and his face crumples.
“Don’t you cry too!” Pidge says, rubbing at her eyes. “You’ll set me off.”
Tears start running down Coran’s face, and Allura hugs him, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“Please don’t cry,” she says, and Hunk hears the pain in her voice.
“This is ridiculous,” Shiro says, and he has tears in his eyes. “Why’re we all crying?”
“Because Coran feels bad and we feel bad he feels bad,” Pidge says thickly, and then she splutters with tearful laughter. “Did that even make sense?”
“Not really,” Lance says, stroking Hunk’s hair as he continues to sob.
“Why are you all crying?” Coran says, his voice hitching with sobs. “Is this my fault? I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s not your fault, Coran!” Lance says, a bit too firmly.
“We’re sorry too,” Allura says, and even she has started sobbing. Hunk has never seen her cry before.
And the Paladins all hug Coran, and everyone keeps saying sorry, and everyone’s crying but they’re smiling too, and, finally, Hunk thinks they’re going to be able to move on from what happened.