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Chapter Text

He sat in the quickly filling bathtub, his back pressed against the slit on the side of the bathtub that created the exquisite effect of a waterfall. Hurtful words lapped around his mind as did the water around him, painful jabs aimed at his own self, no instinct of self-preservation holding them back.

Bad friend
Nuisance
Annoying
Dumb
Not worth it
Stupid
Ugly
Damned
Weirdo

They sent shivers down his back more than the cold water did. He clenched his arms around himself, cold fingers digging into his sides, nails catching on the wet clothes sticking to his shivering form.

Heavy droplets of water rolled off his hair, onto his forehead, on his lashes. He screwed his eyes shut, curling his knees to his chest and let the cold water pour on top of his head, along his eyes, down on his cheeks, like the tears that still didn't seem to come.

He leaned with all his weight on the wall of the bathtub, the cold water sending soul-wracking shivers through his body as he released a shaky breath. A deep-rooted feeling of uselessness weighed down on his already heavy conscience. He couldn't even cry when he felt the need to.

He tilted his head back on the side of the bathtub and started weakly humming the long forgotten lullaby that his mother used to sing to him.

xxx

Shiro felt a deep feeling of dread pooling in his stomach at the absence of their usually lively and cheerful Blue Paladin. As much as they played the part of being annoyed with his jokes and flirting, they still very much appreciated the way he just seemed to know when to crack a joke to lighten the mood.

He tried to remember if Lance had said anything about not feeling well and skipping dinner but none of those seemed to be the case.

He hurried to his room, concern knitting his brows together as he strode through the now-familiar hallways. Reaching Lance's door he knocked softly against the metal.

"Lance? Are you okay buddy?" Shiro called, forcing the worry out of his tone, though no answer came through.

Shiro dropped the facade and started calling more urgently. After the third call, he typed the forced-unlock code on the keypad, telling himself to remember to apologize to Lance for barging into his room.

He noticed the small puddle of water seeping from underneath the bathroom door and he couldn’t help but panic. He rushed to the bathroom door, knocking violently, worry clearly etched in his voice as he called for the Blue Paladin.

Still, no answer came.

Shiro found himself ramming against the bathroom door in an attempt to dislodge it right from its hinges, the desperation to find Lance safe as soon as possible stronger than the voice of rationality.

He slammed his flesh hand on the keypad and the door opened with a soft whine as water continued on slithering into the bedroom around his feet.

The scenarios he imagined in his head could not properly prepare him for the real situation as it was laid in front of him.

The water was overflowing the bathtub's edges and there was Lance, submerged shoulders-deep into it, his head limply hanging to the side.

His brows were slightly furrowed together; the corners of his mouth lightly strained into a grimace, thin lines of weariness accentuating the dark circles under his eyes and his lashes were stuck to his cheeks, all these features brought together into a saddening portrait. Cold hands were wrapped tightly around his thin frame in a morbid embrace and Shiro couldn't help but think of how lifeless he looked.

His body kicked into motion by its own accord and Shiro found himself running out of the bathroom and into the hallway with water splashing at his heels and the frail body of his friend in his arms.

He ran through the hallways as cold water dripped from Lance's clothes onto the floor and seeped through his own, the need to get help being the only thought flooding his mind as did the water in Lance's bathroom.

Chapter Text

Shiro rushed into the med bay where he - thankfully - stumbled upon Coran who was discussing the capability of the cryo-pods to heal internal wounds with Pidge and Hunk.

"Coran! How fast can you set a pod up for hypothermia?" Shiro urged, feeling himself shiver at the coldness of the shirt that was now clinging to his torso. He realized with horror that Lance has not moved in the least.

Coran's body kicked into motion at the sight of Lance's still body in Shiro's arms and hastily tapped away at the pod's
programming pad.

"What happened?" Hunk asked worriedly and reached to touch Lance's face only to recoil at the coldness of his skin. Hunk's eyes widened with something resembling realization just as Coran turned towards them, his brows creasing in worry.

"I'm afraid the cryo-pod's mechanism of lowering the body temperature of the patient during the cryo-sleep may be the exact opposite of what we need." The Altean explained quickly before reaching into one of the cabinets and pulling out a few warm blankets. "Use these. I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough of the human body to know how it responds to low temperatures. I believe at least one of you knows..?" He left the question hanging, his gaze drifting on the Pladins' faces, lingering on their leader's eyes. He quickly passed the blankets to Hunk then excused himself under the pretext of going to inform the Princess.

Shiro started stripping Lance of his clothes, his fingers quickly going numb, but not slowing down in the least. He wrapped a blanket around the Blue Paladin then began shrugging his clothes off as well. He ignored his embarrassment, being well aware of how Hunk and Pidge were staring at the scars littering his body, reasoning that Lance was considerably more important right now.

He slipped under the blanket and hugged Lance close to his chest, shivering slightly at the contrast in temperatures.

"Hunk, get in here." Shiro ordered to the Yellow Paladin, lightly rocking from side to side, trying to fight the chill that threatened to slither into his bones. Hunk obeyed and soon enough he had a surprised Shiro and unconscious Lance both huddled in his lap.

Pidge bit the inside of her lip as she popped her fingers with her thumbs at her sides before throwing her clothes off in the blink of an eye.

"You're not leaving me out of this, nuh-uh, not when my brother’s life is at stake." She muttered rather furiously while slipping under the blankets only in her underwear.

Shiro felt the corners of his mouth lift into a proud smile, but stopped at the sight of Keith entering the room, the beginning of a greeting dying on his lips at the situation before him. He wheezed out a 'what the fuck' while narrowing his eyes almost comically.

Shiro didn't bother to correct his language and instead explained the situation as quickly as he could, rubbing soothing circles on Lance's back all the while.

"So let me get this straight." Keith cleared his throat. "You want me to get naked and get in there with y'all just because this-" he gestured wildly towards Lance, the word 'dumbass' threatening to tumble off his tongue "- couldn't keep himself out of trouble?"

He let the question hang in the air and watched Shiro's expression shift to something resembling bitter amusement.

"Well, technically... we aren't naked. We're in our underwear." Pidge reasoned from her place on Hunk's right leg while her arms were wrapped around Lance's waist and her legs draped over his lap.

Keith started shoving off his shoes despite his annoyed mumbles and strings of curse words passing under his breath. Shiro couldn't help but stare at him, his eyebrows rising up to his hairline in surprise.

"Hunk, stop staring at my back, it's not going to be purple." Keith stated, a hint of exasperation pulling at his tone, voice slightly muffled by the shirt he was pulling over his head. Hunk closed his mouth, as he was about to comment on Keith's half-Galran heritage, and flashed an apologetic smile.

After stripping down to his underwear, Keith positioned himself right in front of Hunk huddling under the blankets. He nudged

Hunk's right knee then brought Lance's feet into his lap and crossed his legs, gently rubbing - Keith now noticed - his unusually cold feet.

After a tense while, Lance finally made a sound, a throaty groan escaping from his throat as he started shivering, his teeth chattering loudly. Soon enough Lance started blearily blinking his eyes open. He squinted at the white lights, slowly adjusting to the brightness and glance around the room enough to recognize the med-bay. He suddenly became aware of the warm bodies pressed against him, all huddled under a pile of blankets. All of them seemed to be in a half-asleep state, but as soon as Lance has so much as moved his leg their heads shot up, eyes wide and alert.
Pidge and Hunk started instantly telling him how worried they've been, hugging him tight and making him promise he'd never do such thing again. Shiro soon calmed them down and fixed Lance with a worried look.

"Lance, what happened?" Shiro finally asked the question he dreaded and the sheer concern that laced his voice made Lance wince with guilt.

"I-uh, guess I just fell asleep! Training today was really harsh, my man.." He laughed rather nervously, shrugging his shoulders tensely and suddenly feeling extremely small under the stares of his friends.

Shiro's gaze did not fall from the Blue Paladin's face, his eyebrows furrowing pleadingly.

Lance closed his eyes, gently rocking from side to side, clutching his arms around his torso and biting the inside of his lip hard enough to feel the metallic taste of blood on his tongue.

"..It helps me clear my head.." He finally mumbled, averting his eyes form his friends'.

"So, this has happened before?" Keith suddenly snapped, clearly unsettled.

Shiro threw him a look but immediately turned towards Lance.

"Lance, you could've talked to us if something was bothering you. You can always talk to us." Shiro insisted, taking in the way Lance seemed to hunch over himself at the statement.

"I know... I just.. I guess I didn't want to bother you all with my stupid problems." Lance mumbled, still not looking into his teammates' eyes.

"C'mon, Lance, don't do this to yourself again." Hunk argued, squeezing Lance tighter to his chest. "Who knows how many times you've helped me through an anxiety attack." He continued, nuzzling his friend's hair with his cheek.

"Yeah! You've pried me away from my laptop in the middle of the night to send me to sleep a hell lot of times than I remember doing so on my own." She joked, poking Lance in the sides with her fingers.

"You also managed to-" Shiro glanced away, "-help me more than once just by making one of your silly jokes." He smiled with gratitude at the Cuban boy before ruffling his hair.

"I guess I should thank you as well.." Keith suddenly added, to everybody's surprise. "You've shut down the battle simulator before I got hurt fighting my anger away.." He did not raise his gaze from the floor, instead focusing on rubbing soothing circles with his thumb on Lance's ankle.

Big, happy tears started rolling down Lance's face as he took in all the kind words his friends had just said to him.

He stuttered out a string of 'thank you's and sobs and sniffles as he wrapped his arms around Shiro and Pidge who were the easiest to hug from his current position. Shiro reached towards Keith and pulled him into the hug before Hunk wrapped his arms around them all and squished them together.

Keith managed to get himself trapped between Shiro, Lance and Pidge, unable to escape their suffocating embrace.

At Shiro's comment of Keith being caught in a 'booby trap' they found themselves snorting with laughter as Keith tried to pry their arms away, not being able to hide the smile on his face