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Lance woke up to darkness. Wait that doesn’t make sense, sitting up in bed Lance used whatever morning strength he had to to peel his stuck eyes apart. God how long had he slept for his eyes to be this glued.
The thought came with a start. If he had slept so long that his eyes were stuck, then he must’ve over slept
“Shit..” he screeched with a cracking voice. Just then he realized that his throat was kind of sore too, and his head was giving him a slow steady pound. Great.
As terrible as he felt and as bad as he knew moving would be for his current state. Lance had things to do today, he can’t just slack around and do nothing, he’s apart of Voltron dammit. A little cold won’t be what stops him, not after coming so far.
He’d been in space for a little over a year, at least what Coran would call a year. It’s obvious he’s the worst on the team, so letting a little soreness deteriorate his status even more is the worst case scenario,
If Lance wants to stay on this team he needs to prove it. Today, tomorrow and everyday to come, without Voltron Lance really is nothing.
Right late. Lance knows he must’ve missed breakfast by now but he cannot miss Alluras new ‘learn the castle for emergencies’ lesson or whatever. She thinks it’ll be helpful if anyone can get the castle away from danger, but does it really have to be today.
While Lance rushed to get ready the fatigue of sleep really started to soak in. He was sweaty and out of breath just from getting dressed.
“Ughhhhhh” Lance groaned. Today was about to be the worst. That truth seemed to trigger a reaction because as soon as he finished the castle alarms started to blare straight into lances head and ears.
“Palidins! Get to your lions quick there’s an emergency!”
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“Lance”. Started Shiro
The boy flinched in his chair at the voice breaking him from his thoughts. With the alarms ringing and the already settled ache from sickness, lances Voltron fighting wasn’t exactly up to par. Some could say worse than par. Lance would say worse than par.
He was starting at the wall thinking of all the things he should’ve done differently and would’ve done differently if the situation had been on a different day.
After feeling a pound in his head from turning to look at shiro, Lance was really falling out of it. Shiro was obviously mad, Lance did terrible he’s probably about to kick him off the team I mean why wou-
“I could tell your a little off your game today and it’s fine, today’s battle wasn’t the worst but I suggest you get more sleep if you can’t handle the after math” Shiro finished
Lance could hear Pidge snort in the corner, and he could see Keith smirking in amusement. “Right I-I’m sorry” the embarrassment coming off of Lance’s reply hitting everyone in the room.
As Coran finished the after battle meeting Lance couldn’t help but tremble. He was all sweaty from fighting and it was so cold in the castle today. Couldn’t anything go his way.
The next thing Lance knew everyone had dispensed and gone off to do their own things, that meeting was fast maybe he fell asleep or something. Keith suddenly appeared out of midair causing Lance to jump out of the chair he was slouched in.
“Keith!” Startled Lance croaked. He needed to clear his throat soon.
“Hey sleepy pants are you still planning to spar with me or are you going to be too busy taking a nap while shiro and Coran talk to you” Keith teased in his obvious Lance-teasing voice
Lance tried his best to reciprocate the tone they normally use when talking to each other, but with his head slowly banging harder and his bones falling apart inside him, his voice came out more like embarrassed. Again.
“No! I’m not sleeping and obviously I can still train with you, Keith.”
“Great then let’s go” Keith switched back to a normal speaking voice as he turned and started walking to the training room, assuming Lance would follow.
Lance did follow but his movements were starting to feel sluggish, as did his thoughts. He was just unnaturally warm today and he was still shivering from his sweat getting cold. He needed to get back in the zone though if he was going to spar with Keith..
“Ready?” Keith questioned with anticipation. Lance had completely zoned out again, and Keith was now standing in front of him bayard out and ready to go. Lance took a second to catch back up to reality when he said “y-yup!”
The fight started off even with Keith still warming up into the fight and Lance going as hard as he can on a day like today. But as Keith continued to push himself Lance couldn’t keep up anymore.
Lance was blocking hit after hit and not attacking back. It was frustrating Keith for sure, and Lance could feel it in every hit getting harder than the last. “Hit me back Lance!” Shouted Keith as Lance used his arms to stop another attack.
“Sorry sorry” at this point lances legs were shaking, and he was sweating more then he should after only just starting to spar, but despite that he wounded back his arm for an attack. Swinging his arm straight at Keith’s face with all this strength, about to get his first hit in.
Time seemed to slow down as Lance inched closer to his sparring partners Jaw. A paler hand then his raised up and grabbed lances punch and pushing back. The force of Keith’s much stronger counter attack forced Lance to the floor with a bang of his head on the wall.
Lance winced at the crash, his head only feeling worse. He couldn’t even open his eyes at this point. He was way too dizzy. Lance tried to wallow in defeat on the ground and hope Keith would just go away when suddenly a calloused hand griped his chin and pulled his face upwards toward to oh so bright lights.
“Lance! Are you even trying?!? What are you doing?” Keith screamed right into lances face. It was so loud lance tried to curl into himself even more to spare himself from more head pain. He did all that just to be yanked back out by Keith again.
“You said you weren’t going to be falling asleep. Are you really so useless that you can’t fight me for even 3 minutes? Why are you even here then Lance?!? You’re a paladin of Voltron for Christs sake!” The yelling continued.
Each word out of Keith’s mouth was like a stab in the head and a stab in the heart. Keith was right Lance really was useless he couldn’t even take criticism without crying. The tears were leaking out of his eyes by now.
Keith froze in his tracks as he felt hot tears touch his hand, coming straight from lances squeezed tight eyes. “Are you.. crying?”
The question only made Lance hiccup. “Yes I’m crying Keith! I’m sorry okay! I’m sorry I can’t be perfect everyday and every second like you can! I was trying to spar good I promise” hiccup “but but I just feel like total shit today and this sweaty hobby of yours isn’t helping!” Lance cried
It was only then that Keith realized how unnaturally hot lances face felt. He shouldn’t feel like this after less than 5 minutes of training.
“Lance do you have a fever?” The question came much calmer then the previous words out of Keith’s mouth, but the only response he received was quite hiccups and lances head slumping into Keith’s grip.
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The next thing Lance knew he was waking up again, feeling much worse then when he woke up that morning. His head was unbearable, his throat was raw, and his bone and muscles ached with every breath. Why is this happening to him?
“Lance? Lance how are you feeling?” A awkward but nice voice spoke to him. It was a voice he trusted, one that he liked more than he should probably. Must be Keith’s voice then. Keith was so nice, Lance loved Keith.
“What?!? L-Lance your delirious with fever” the nice voice screeched, attacking lances head even more. I guess he said that out loud.. whoops.
“Sigh. L-Lance I’m so sorry, I pushed all you buttons and all your limits all while you were sick I’m a terrible friend. I’m sor-“ Lance cut Keith off with a sloppy slap of his pointer finger on Keith’s mouth “shhhh Keith it’s fine I’m a adult, I should have noticed I was sick and been more responsible, I’m fine anyway. Just a little sore, and tired, and dead-like”
Keith laughed, “yeah you sound great to me”
“I’m going to fall asleep again will you stay.. for me” Lance said slurring his words with sleepiness
“Of course I will Lance.” Keith whispered his next sentence “because I love you too”
Lance was already long gone by then.