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“Are you guys seeing this?” Lance asked, pressing his face to the glass of the window in the bridge. “Tell me I’m not the only one seeing this!”
“We’re all seeing it, Lance,” Allura said. “It’s why we’re here, remember?”
“Well, yeah, I know that, but still, getting to actually see it is – it’s – God, it’s rain! Actual rain! Not even rocks or some sort of weird space sludge, just rain!”
Hunk joined him at the window. “Are we totally sure it’s just regular rain? It’s just, you know, considering some of the other stuff we’ve run into out here in space, it wouldn’t really be surprising if this stuff burned your skin on impact.”
“It’s definitely just rain,” Pidge called from where she stood in front of a screen displaying readouts of the temperature and air pressure and humidity around them. “Vrutera has a water cycle pretty much identical to Earth’s, and it looks like the atmosphere’s composition is almost exactly the same as the air we breathe there as well. It should be perfectly safe for us.”
“Yes!” Lance pumped his fist in the air. “Hunk, make sure you have your helmet’s cam on. The moment we’re out there, I’m finding the biggest puddle I can, and I’m belly-flopping into it, so I’m gonna want video evidence.”
Keith, who had sunk into the background as he always did, leaning up against the wall near the door with his arms crossed, let out a sigh, just loud enough to indicate that it was to make a point. “So while the rest of us are rebuilding the dam and evacuating Vruterans, you’re going to be hunting for puddles?”
Lance shot him a glare. “We haven’t seen rain in months, man. I’m allowed to be excited.”
“You are,” Shiro said. He strode over from his seat and toward Lance and Hunk, subtly positioning himself so he was blocking Lance and Keith from each other’s lines of sight. “We’re not saying otherwise. And we’ll try to take sometime and enjoy the weather once we’re finished getting this place secured against the floods. But remember, this isn’t just spring shower. The storms here can get heavy; they wouldn’t have called Voltron in for just rainfall.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Lance huffed. He leaned around to look past Shiro and send Keith a scowl that clearly said, Way to be a killjoy. Keith met the scowl evenly.
“Whatever the case, let’s not just sit around and discuss it,” Allura said, turning around from the panel at which she’d been navigating the castle ship. “We’re here. Time to get to the lions. Shiro, would you mind if I join you in Black for flying down?”
“No problem,” Shiro said.
Lance frowned over at her. “Hey, wait, how come Shiro? I’d be happy to give you a ride!”
“It really doesn’t matter,” Allura said. “It’s just getting down to the surface; the ride won’t even last a dobash.”
“Oh, fine,” Lance sighed. “Go with Shiro. Whatever.”
“I see you’re not even bothering with subtlety anymore,” Hunk said softly as the group started moving toward the entrances of the zipline chutes to the lions’ hangars.
“Some women prefer a bold approach,” Lance replied. “I’m mixing up my strategy.”
“Because your strategy was so low-key before?”
“Oh, hush,” Lance grunted, and Hunk simply smirked before ducking away to take his zipline down to Yellow. Lance rolled his eyes and turned to take his own to Blue.
The storm Shiro had warned about already seemed to be in full force in the sky the paladins descended toward Vrutera. Rain pattered forcefully against Blue’s windshield, the foliage below – and, as they approached the city they were aiming for, the milling citizens and various pieces of buldings that had partly broken away – swayed and bowed as if threatening to simply fly away, and low soft rumblings could be heard echoing all around from the thundering masses of clouds gathered above.
And Lance was loving every minute of it. If he weren’t busy piloting Blue to go on a mission for Voltron, this was the sort of weather that Lance could fall asleep to, if he weren’t busy staying up to watch the lightning like it was a firework show.
They touched down in Zormesa, the Vruteran city that had sent out the distress signal to Voltron, the one whose dam system had been destroyed after an attack by the Galra army and who had not quite been able to finish rebuilding before the stormy season hit. They lowered their Lions onto a wide flat lot to which their missives had directed them, one that apparently was usually in use by a local commercial hangar, and there they were greeted by a small assembly of Vruteran officials as they disembarked from their lions
The Vruterans were slick-skinned and stumpy-legged, ranged in hue from a grass green to a deep blue, and if the ones here in the square were a good sample, seemed to average about a head shorter than Lance. One of them, a slightly hunchbacked Vruteran in a heavy-looking and bauble-laden headress, approached to introduce himself, shake Allura’s hand, and get right to business.
Lance only vaguely paid attention as the Vruteran leader the group met up with – Sorgnak, he thought he’d heard him call himself, or maybe Sorbmak – since most of his focus was on the sharp pattering of the raindrops against his helmet. He was quick to lift his visor and tilt his head upward, smiling as the droplets struck his face alongside that fantastic, warm rain smell.
He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was back on Earth, standing on the porch of his house during an April storm, leaning out beyond the roof’s overhang to feel the precipitation despite Mamá’s assertion that he was going to wind up giving himself pneumonia. Only after he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to catch the rain was he pulled from his musings by a nudge from Shiro, and he hastily turned his attention back to the others with a sheepish smile.
Sorgnak had been outlining what needed to be done. The smaller dams in the outlying areas of the city were beyond repair and, being on lower ground, had mostly already flooded already. An evacuation order had been sent out for the citizens living in those areas to come into the town proper where shelters had been set up, and they were keeping their focus on finishing rebuilding the dam guarding the city’s higher ground. The Vruterans wanted assistance both in finishing the dam and holding off the flooding to the city, and sweeping the outlying areas to transport those citizens who hadn’t made their evacuations in time and had been caught in the floods.
Allura readily agreed that this was a task Voltron was more than capable of handling, and was quick to give out assignments to the team. “Pidge, Shiro, why don’t you start here with the dam. Keith, Lance, Hunk, you three go on ahead and check the flooded areas of the outskirts, pick up the stragglers and bring them in to the shelterhouses. Then you can rejoin us here and help finish up the dam.”
The paladins all nodded and took to their posts, Pidge and Shiro following Allura and their Vruteran escort farther into the town, Lance, Keith, and Hunk returning to their lions to take flight. Keith barked out orders to them over the comms the moment they were in their cockpits, assigning each of them a direction to fly and search for stragglers, and Lance made a show of groaning and sighing at Keith taking charge, but he didn’t actually have any argument against the instructions, so he went along all the same.
The three of them went their seperate ways, each focused on the ground below them, watching for signs of stragglers in the storm. The rain was picking up already, and although it was nothing the Lions couldn’t take, it still was no good for visibility.
A particularly booming crash of thunder sounded several doboshes into their flight, the sky lighting up a fraction of a second later from a heavy bolt of lightning, and a small yelp came over the comms.
“Aw, geez, Hunk,” Lance said with a grin. “You’re not still scared of thunder, are you?”
“I was never scared of thunder,” Hunk replied indignantly. “I’m scared of what comes with it.”
“Well, hey, you got nothing to worry about, right? If these lions can handle fights with robeasts and Galra cruisers, a thunderstorm’s gotta be no sweat.”
Keith’s voice came next, “Uh, Hunk? Would you happen to know whether these lions conduct electricity much?”
“Pidge and I put some rubber insulation in,” Hunk answered, “But there’s still the rain and high winds to worry about, and even though the cockpits are safe from lightning, doesn’t mean every component on the lion is.”
Lance groaned. “I don’t need this sort of negativity right now, Hunk. Blue’s tough, she’ll be just fine.”
“Lance, Hunk’s not wrong, we can’t get too reckless in this weather.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve forfeited the right to ever lecture anybody about recklessness, Mullet.”
Keith let out a sound that might have been a groan, might have been a growl, and Lance smirked and continued on his way, flying low over the land to keep a visual on the flooded outskirts, eyes peeled for signs of life in the clearings between trees.
Fortunately, the majority of the Vruterans seemed to have gotten the message in time to evacuate and either get to the town or move to higher ground, so Lance was able to cover a decent-sized area picking up the spread-out stragglers on roofs and makeshift life rafts before Blue started getting crowded enough that he had to make the return trip to town to drop them off before setting off again. The three paladins kept up a chatter along the way, updating one another on their progress and locations.
Back and forth Lance flew across the stretch of land west of the town, watching his dot on Blue’s navigation screen and trying to ensure he didn’t miss any of the area. It was admittedly tedious having to be keeping such a sharp eye out for signs of life, so it was a relief to reach the rough terrain that indicated he’d made it to the furthest outskirts of the inhabited area, anything beyond that being simply forest without a soul for miles.
He flew Blue down over the river’s path, but staying well above it. The rocks and trees left the land out here massively uneven, and the available space to fly fluctuated, some places clear enough that the Lion could have been able to touch down on the water’s surface without a hitch, and other places where the rock walls or the lines of trees on either side of the river grew so close that Blue would have to be a tenth of her current size to stand a chance of squeezing through.
Eventually, he came across the portion of the riverbank that had been settled. What little he could see through the thick canopy of the treetops along the rocky walls of the river showed bits of rooftop from houses tucked out here, nearly out of sight. When he brought Blue to steady mid-air stop so he could get a better look, he was able to spot movement that didn’t match the direction of the wind or the river. Vruterans, he figured.
He lowered Blue to just above the treetops, then slid out of his seat, giving the dashboard a pat and thinking to Blue, wait here, before moving to disembark. “Moving to helmet cam only,” he said into his comm. “I’ll have to get these guys out to where Blue can reach them.”
“There some sort of problem?” Hunk asked.
“Nah, just didn’t want you guys to be freaked if either of you tried to video me and got an empty cockpit.” He exited Blue’s hatch and slowed his fall with his jetpack, lowering himself past the trees and to where he could see the river’s surface and the contents of the banks alongside it. What looked to be a group of young Vruterans, or at least much smaller ones than average, were caught on the roof of a house that had been half-swallowed by the floodwater.
Thankfully the thick canopy and the positioning of the rocky outcropping left this part of the water, although still flowing, calmer than other areas along the way, and the closeness of the steep banks made it a narrower channel. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but it looked to be a short enough area for him to jetpack, and if not, he was a strong enough swimmer that he was sure he could make it across that way as well.
He reached the group of Vruterans with a friendly smile and a, “Need help?” And it wasn’t long before he had the first in the group latched onto his shoulders in a piggyback. The added weight threw off his ballistic prediction for his jetpack, so he landed in the river rather than on the other bank, but he did so fairly gracefully and had been correct in his assumption that he’d be able to swim the last few yards. After dropping the Vruteran off and seeing that the kid had safely ascended the hill of rocks on the bank to go out and meet Blue, he went back, beginning a back and forth of trips from one side of the river to the other.
“I’ve finished out the clearings in the north and west,” Keith said over the comm as Lance was pulling himself and the fourth kid up out of the water. “Lance, want me to join you out there? It would be maybe five doboshes tops to get there.”
“No, I think this batch is the last of them,” Lance answered as he gently set the Vruteran child down and turned back to cross the water again. “Besides, I’m swimming for part of this, so you wouldn’t exactly be helpful.”
“What? I – what do you mean?” Keith spluttered. “I can swim!”
Lance snorted. “Yeah, I’ve been in the pool with you before, Keith, I’ve seen you ‘swim’. Your only stroke is basically a doggy paddle. If the doggy had severe arthritis.”
Hunk laughed over the comms, drowning out Keith’s indignant, “I swim just fine!” Lance simply grinned and focused on climbing out on the opposite shore, offering his back as transportation for the remaining Vruteran, who grabbed on tightly, hooking their arms around Lance’s shoulders and neck.
“Well, it’s a moot point anyway, Keith,” Lance said. “Like I said, nearly done. I’ll be back in Blue in just a moment, this is the last passenger.”
“If you’re sure,” Keith said.
“I am.” He finished the jump across with no trouble and let the kid slide off his back, and he followed behind them as they made the final climb up the rock wall.
It was just as the Vruteran successfully made it up to the top of the slick rocks that the lightning struck. Lance didn’t even have time to realize what had happened before the trunk of an enormous nearby tree seemed to be lighting up from the inside for a split second before a loud crunch filled the air. The rocks had kept the lightning itself from hitting Lance, but couldn’t stop the tree from crashing down on top of him, aiding in its speed by the howling wind, slamming into the rocks with enough force to knock away Lance’s grip, and the paladin rolled into the water right alongside it.
He must have cried out, or at least made some sort of noise, because the voices of Keith and Hunk sounded over the comm, suddenly urgent, but Lance could barely hear them over the rushing water around him. As strong a swimmer as he was, he was no match for the current when he also had to fight off a tree careening downstream with him, and he found himself swept along by the whitewater that buffeted him against the rocks jutting out from the edges of the river along the way.
It was not until there was a drop in the terrain like a tiny facsimile of a waterfall that the current stopped shoving him along, and even then it was only because the tree had slammed him into a particularly jagged wall of rocks, and then proceeded to wedge itself in tightly as the increasingly harsh waves shoved it down.
The position was painful, but at least Lance was holding still now, and could finally get his head around what had just happened and assess his predicament. He was sore all over from his trip downriver, but has far as he could tell, his armor had protected him from getting any severe injuries. He was underwater, the top of his head several inches deep, close enough to the surface that he could perfectly hear and feel the waves still crashing over him. The phantom sensation of water splashing around even made it inside his helmet.
His head spun as he regained his composure, and kept going as he finally moved to get out from amongst the rocks and the smashed tree, only to discover that it was easier said than done. Something was keeping him pinned in place. Most of his left side, his leg all the way up to his hip and his arm up to the elbow, was wedged hard between some of the rocks, a splintered chunk of the tree caught above his arm at an angle that held the rocks firm.
Not good.
Eventually the spinning in his head settled down enough for him to finally manage to make out the words spoken by the voices over his comm, a mix of Keith and Hunk frantically looking for information. “Lance? Lance, are you there? What happened? Lance, are you okay?”
“I, uh – ” Lance said into the comm, “I slipped.”
A relieved sigh came over the comm, and Lance noticed the audio was hissing oddly, echoing in his helmet. “Fuck’s sake, Lance,” Keith said. “The sounds you were making, I thought – ”
“And I’m stuck.”
A pause. “What?”
“I’m – I’m stuck. One of the trees near the river got hit by lightning, took me down with it. It, uh, it kinda got wedged in some rocks, and… I’m stuck.”
“Okay. Okay, I’ve got your location on the scanner, neither of us are too far from you, I could…” That’s where Lance stopped paying attention to Keith’s voice, because the hissing sound that he’d assumed was coming from the comms had stolen his focus. As his vision settled, he noticed a movement at the edge of his visor, a sliver wobbling as if melting, and although it took him a moment, he realized that this was the source of the hissing; water was slipping in through the crack, slow but as steady as a barely-open faucet.
Apparently the feeling of water on his neck wasn’t a phantom sensation after all.
“And, um, could you hurry? Time is a factor.”
“Don’t worry, Lance, just hang tight,” Hunk said. “Your armor and helmet are watertight; remember that water planet?”
“Well, yeah,” Lance said, “But my helmet wasn’t cracked that time.”
There was a tick of silence in the comms before Keith burst out, “What?!” His voice did that Keith thing where it would crack and go up about two octaves, and in any other circumstance Lance never would have let him hear end of it, but now didn’t seem like a good time for that.
“There’s a crack in the visor, about two inches long, and water’s coming in. Like I said time is a factor!”
Keith let out a string of colorful swears before saying, “Hold on, I’m bringing Red in as fast as I can.”
“How fast is the water coming in?” Hunk asked.
“I don’t know!” Lance snapped. “Silly me, I left all my liquid speed measuring tools in the castle!”
“Considering there shouldn’t be any water coming in at all,” Keith said, “Any rate is too fast. Hang in there.”
“Not like I have much of a choice,” Lance replied, but he went quiet as he waited, and the couple of doboshes that passed next felt like an eternity. He could barely hear the chatter over the comms updating him on the other Lions’ distances from him over the sound of the water in his helmet.
He could have cheered with joy when Keith finally said, “I think I see the tree that went down. I’m coming in.”
“Thank God,” said Lance, feeling just a bit of the tension in his body fade. Not a second later, a bit of the water that had pooled in his helmet splashed up over his chin high enough to hit his nose, and the tension was back in full as he tilted his head back.
“Leaving Red now.” Lance held his breath in anxious anticipation until Keith spoke again: “I see the spot! I - here, I’ve got you, I see you, Lance. Okay, I think I can cut this tree out of here and get you enough space to - hang on a moment.”
He cut himself off with a couple of grunts, and Lance stared up at the top border of his visor, trying to catch a glimpse of the other paladin. His neck was getting stiff from tilting his head back this way, but when he righted it, he found the water was already high enough to cover his mouth, and nearly to his nose, so he went right back.
“Should we open a channel on the comms to let the others know what’s going on?” Hunk asked. “Allura would want to know that something’s gone wrong.”
“I, um, I don’t know. It’s not like the others could do much from – “
“Hunk, how far out are you?”
“Nearly there,” Hunk answered. “Getting there as quick as Yellow can take me.”
Lance waited long enough to take a couple of long, slow breaths from the remaining air in his helmet, just enough to try and steady some of his nerves, before he asked, “How’s your progress, Keith?”
“Um… not great?”
“Wait, what? What’s going on?” Lance asked. He tugged experimentally away from the rocks and the debris from the tree, and it seemed they hadn’t budged an inch from where they’d been stuck when Keith had first started working away at it. “Keith, I thought you said you could take care of the tree!”
“I’m trying, it’s – ”
“Your sword is sharp as hell, can’t it cut through a tree?”
“It’s the rocks that are the problem, I can’t get to it!” Keith snapped. “I need to get these out of the way, and I can’t budge them on my own!”
“Well, um, what if you bring Red in, have her help?”
“Too tight a space, she won’t be able to reach.”
Lance pursed his lips in frustration even as the rising water lapped against them, and with a grunt he craned his neck back again as far as he could. “Well, how about, um, you – you could – ” he stammered.
“Lance, buddy,” Hunk said, “I’ll be there real soon, hold tight.”
“But what if – ”
“Lance,” Keith cut him off. His tone was sharp, but tight, a hint of fearfulness managing to leak into the authoritative voice. “If there was something else I could do for you now, I’d be doing it. I’ve gotta wait for Hunk. I’m sorry.”
Lance gulped. “Right. Sorry, I just, um…”
“Yeah. I know.”
Neither of the two said anything further, and for a little while the only voice on the comm was Hunk’s, giving them an undending stream of updates on our location. “Okay, I’m here. Getting out of Yellow now and I’ll be - ”
Lance couldn’t hear what he said next, because the water in his helmet had risen high enough to submerge his ears even with his neck craned as it was. He could now only hear the echo of the voices through the water, as well as his own heartbeat thumping loud and fast. “Guys!” he cried. “Guys, hurry, I - I don’t know how much longer I can hold out!”
Even with the water covering his ears, Lance could hear the frantic tones of Hunk’s and Keith’s voices as they sounded from the comms, too muffled and garbled by the water for Lance to make out the words, but the fear in their voices was unmistakeable. He pulled again at his arm, but the rocks still had yet to be loosened.
The voices kept up, but Lance didn’t bother responding, mainly because he was keeping his mouth tightly shut to keep himself from swallowing any water as it slowly rose higher. He felt numb, and he wasn’t wasn’t sure if it was from the cold water or from fear.
Come on, Hunk, come on, Keith, what’s taking so long -
The water splashed up into his nostrils, and Lance strined upward as far as he could to take in one final, enormous breath through his nose before he went under.
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to think about the fact that he was underwater and had no way of getting out. Stay positive, he told himself, you’re not done for yet. Most people, he knew, could hold their breath for about two minutes underwater if need be, but he’d had practice with static apnea from his past as a swimmer, and his own personal record was just under three minutes.
So he had less than three minutes left before…
Don’t think about that, don’t think about that, don’t think about that.
But it was impossible not to think about it. The longer he held his breath the more he felt like his head was going to burst. It was cold, it was thick, it was pressing on him, trying to squeeze him inward and down. Some instinct telling his body that he needed to swim to the surface tried to get the arm and leg that weren’t wedged between rocks to begin kicking and paddling, but they were too heavy to lift.
He wasn’t keeping track of time, so he didn’t know whether or not he managed to reach that three-minute personal best before he simply couldn’t hold his breath any longer, and involuntarily he opened his mouth and gulped down a mouthful of water. At least, it should have been water, but it felt like fire going down his throat, and he couldn’t stop it, couldn’t hold his breath again because there was no breath to hold.
And he was exhausted. How could he be expected to do anything else now? He’d tried, and there was nothing left to do, and he’d tired himself out and maybe, as long as he was stuck here anyway, he should get some rest, his chest was on fire and he just wanted to go to sleep so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore...
He fell asleep. He must have fallen asleep, because you have to fall asleep in order to wake up.
Which is what he found himself doing moments later, or maybe hours later, he didn’t know. All he for sure was that when next he peeled his eyes open, it was to see a blurry face framed in yellow, saying something that he couldn’t quite hear.
Probably wasn’t important. Not nearly as important as the air around him, or the water inside him that he felt bubbling up and wanting to come out. He already seemed to be tilted a bit where he was lying, so he just had to turn his head a bit to vomit up the contents of his stomach, and probably his lungs as well.
As he heaved and coughed onto the ground, the voice above him kept talking, and he could finally focus enough to identify it as Hunk’s. That’s right. Hunk and Keith. They’d been here, trying to help, trying to get him unstuck. And they must have succeeded, since he wasn’t underwater anymore. He must be on one of the banks, on the ground, Hunk beside him and raindrops pelting down on him with the strength of bullets.
And why was the rain hitting him so hard, he wondered; it hadn’t been hitting him that hard before, had it? It took him several moments of trying to orient himself to the world around him for him to notice that he wasn’t wearing his helmet or chestplate. Hunk and Keith must have removed them before… before assisting him.
“Hunk?” he managed to gasp out between coughs.
“Yeah, buddy,” Hunk said. “I’m here. You’re okay.”
“He’s conscious again, coughing a lot but breathing.” That was Keith’s voice. Must still be nearby. “He’ll - yeah, don’t worry, we got him. We’ll get him back to the castle.”
“He - he talking to the others?” Lance panted.
Hunk’s hand came down onto his shoulder as he said, “Yep. That was - that was scary, honestly. You were, um, when we got that tree taken care of and got you out, you - you didn’t - you weren’t breathing, so - ”
“Thanks,” Lance cut him off. He neither needed nor wanted to hear any grisly details of his state when the other paladins had gotten him out of the water. “You resuscitated me, then?”
“Yeah.”
“Who did mouth-to-mouth, you or Keith?”
“I did.”
“Thank God.” He doubled over again in another round of hacking coughs, spraying what was left of the water inside him onto the ground until the coughing finally subsided enough for him to sit back on his knees again, gasping and wheezing. Hunk was rubbing circles on Lance’s back with his hand, muttering assurances and instructions to “just let it all out, buddy.”
There were footsteps, and as Lance lifted his head suddenly Keith was there in front of him, squatting down and peering analytically at his face. “You doing okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lance replied. His breath was starting to even out, his vision getting steadily less blurry. “And, um, thanks for the save.”
Keith gave him a small smile. “No problem.”
“Also, thanks for not waiting until the last possible second to pull me up,” Lance added. “That really would have sucked.” Keith dropped his smile, and Hunk snorted.
"Aw, you know I’m just joki - ” He stopped fast as a shiver racked his body, and he pulled himself up onto his haunches to cross his arms against the cold of the rain.
“You really need to get some real medical attention,” Hunk said. “Yellow right past this treeline here, I can take you back.”
“What about the Vruterans?”
“I’ll transfer them over to Red and take them the rest of the way,” Keith said. “You just go with Hunk and get back to the castle, have Coran take a look at you and make sure you’re all right. You didn’t drown, yes, but we’ll still have to watch out for infections or pneumonia or hypothermia or - ”
Lance raised his brow at Keith and gave him a wobbly smile. “Aw, Mullet. You really are worried about me.”
“Uh, yeah? You almost drowned.”
“Right. Don’t need reminding. Just always nice to see Tin Man’s heart start ticking is all.”
He let out a little laugh, and Keith frowned at him, opening his mouth to respond before Hunk cut him off. “Go on ahead to Red and Blue, Keith, don’t wanna keep the Vruterans waiting too long.”
Keith nodded and took off, and Hunk lifted Lance up off of the ground to lead him to Yellow. He was sore as hell still from being knocked about in the river, but he obliged, letting Hunk half-support, half-carry him on unsteady legs into the Yellow Lion.
Coran had already been informed of the situation by Keith by the time they reached the castle, and immediately he had him remove his armor and, after a quick inspection, made him lie down on one of the cots in the infirmary area adjacent the med bay so as not to move around and jostle him too much while the Altean readied a cryopod to take care of the nastier bruises. Lance groaned at the prospect, not looking forward to repeating his last time in the pod, and even Coran’s reassurance that it would be a shorter stay this time couldn’t make him pleased about the whole scenario.
“Oh, don’t get on Coran about it,” Hunk said when the other had left to the med bay. “It’ll be better than waiting for those bruises to heal up the natural way. Besides, I think he enjoys fretting over us.”
“The nerve,” Lance said, making a face. “But all right, all right, he can play doctor all he wants if it makes him happy.”
“He’ll be glad to hear it,” Hunk said with a smile. “Hey, by the way, sorry you gotta miss out on that whole puddle-splashing thing you were planning. I know you were looking forward to that.”
Lance shrugged and settled into the stack of pillows propping him up at the head of the cot. “You know what? I’m okay with it. Think I’ve had enough splashing to last me a long time. In spite of everything, though, I’m still glad I got to feel the rain on me again.”
Hunk chuckled. “Just try and feel a little less of it next time, okay? It’s a scary thing, that the guardian of water needs guarding from water.”
Lance scowled, grabbed one of his pillows, and whacked Hunk with it. “What kind of bedside manner is that, man? I’m sick, I’m entitled to my special treatment. You’re not supposed to speak ill of the ill.”
“It’s ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’, Lance.”
“Oh, whatever. I came pretty close to that too.”
A moment of uncomfortable silence fell over them then. This was the first time that Lance, or anyone, had spoken that truth out loud. It had been a close call, far too close a call. If Keith and Hunk had taken just a minute longer to get that tree out of the way, Lance could very well have died. Hell, if they’d taken seconds longer, Lance may have survived but with permanent brain damage.
The thought was harrowing to say the least.
Lance shook his head. No point in dwelling on what hadn’t happened. He was alive, he was safe, that was what was important, and that was what he had to focus on. “Hey, Hunk?” he said, “Can I ask you a favor?”
“Sure, man, anything.”
“Could you go belly-flop into a puddle and have Pidge film it? I really had my heart set on getting that video. For historical documentation of Voltron and all that.”
Hunk laughed. “Will do, buddy.”
“And if you can maybe figure out a way to get Keith to trip into one - ”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Awesome.”
Hunk smiled and stood to leave. “Get some rest, buddy. I’ll have them ready by the time you get out of the pod.”
“Thanks. And, um... thanks.” Lance smiled back, certain that Hunk had caught just how much was contained in that second ‘thanks’ before he went out the door and left Lance to rest.