"Well, Shiro," Keith said, turning to face Shiro. "What do we do?" Shiro inhaled deeply. What do they do? Lance was in pain and Shiro was the leader, he had to fix it. But how? Coran said that the curse wounds can only be healed if Lance comes to terms with his inner turmoil. And the only way to do that is to talk to Lance and get him to tell the truth.
"We need to have a talk with Lance," Shiro said finally. The rest of the paladin's nodded. "In the meantime all we can do is keep Lance comfortable until he wakes up." Another nod. Coran stepped forward and placed white bandages on Lance's injuries. Lance whimpered in sleep when he was jostled but otherwise didn't respond.
"Hunk," Keith said. Hunk looked up, his brown eyes wide and puffy. "You're his best friend. Do you know anything that can help us? Help him?"
Hunk thought about it for a little while. "He didn't like to tell others his problems. It doesn't seem like it, but Lance has major self-esteem issues. He always worried that his problems aren't important compared to others so he just stopped telling me things." Hunk's voice broke and a few tears fell out of his eyes. "I can't believe I never knew.."
Hunk was right too, it didn't seem like it. Lance was always boasting about his appearance. Flirting with girls randomly. He was always puffing up his ego, and yet he hated himself more than he hated anyone.
"Thank you Hunk," Shiro said softly, hoping to control his voice. He was dangerously close to breaking down, and he needed to be strong for his team. "When he wakes up we'll talk to him. He has to--" Shiro was cut off with a groan.
The team turned their heads to Lance so fast, Keith wouldn't be surprised if they all got whiplash. Lance was waking up. He tried to sit up but let out a grunt. "Nope, bad idea," he said softly. His voice was hoarse and scratchy. He opened his eyes and stared at the rest of the paladins. They were tense and were staring at Lance with heavy concern. "Hey guys. What's up? I see the curse got the better of me."
"Lance..." Hunk trailed.
"Coran has had some interesting developments about your curse," Shiro cut in. Lance raised an eyebrow and lifted his head to see Coran.
"Oh?" he asked.
"Right, ahem, well," Coran looked rather sheepish as he avoided the gaze of the questioning stare of the blue paladin. "It would appear that your wounds cannot be healed until you come to terms with the pain that caused them." Lance looked wide eyed at Coran.
"I see...." Lance said. Keith could see the gears turning inside Lance's brain as he thought of a way out of this. "Well I guess I'll have to suck it up until the curse wears off, won't I?" Lance said, surprising everyone.
"What?" Hunk screeched.
"Hunk, I'm homesick," Lance said, staring deeply into the teddy bear's eyes. "We're in the middle of a war. It's not like we can drop everything and go to Earth just cause I'm in a little pain. The curse only lasts for a week. I'll be fine."
"No!" Hunk cried. "Look at you! This is only the first day! Do you really think you'll last the week? You could die, Lance. Die!"
"Then I die," Lacne shrugged. "So what? Big deal."
"W-what?" Hunl stuttered. He stepped back at the blue paladin's declaration. "Lance...what are you talking about?"
"So what if I died?" Lance said. "The you'd get a much better paladin who actually deserves to be here."
"BULLSHIT!" Keith screamed, scaring the rest of the paladins.
"Keith," Shiro warned. Keith turned around and silenced him with the look in his eyes.
"No, Shiro," Keith cried. "Look at him. He's still lying to us! Lance we know you're not homesick! We saw the cuts on your wrists! What's wrong, Lance? Why won't you tell us the truth? We can help you! You deserve to be here! We want you to be here! Please just tell us the truth!"
Lance swallowed. "You....know...about the...that I...oh." Lacne seemed to be at a loss for words. "I...it's not really important. I'm just being petty really. Honestly, I'm f-"
"Don't you dare say fine," Keith warned.
"But I am." Lance argued.
"No you're not, Lance," Keith exploded. He walked over to Lance and grabbed his arm, gently, and pointed to the cuts and scars that littered it. "This is not fine. You're not fine!"
Lance yanked his arm back and scowled. "And what do you know? Keith you never cared about me before, so why do you now?" He turned and looked at the rest of the paladins. "None of you cared before! Why do you now? Is it because you found out that I'm unstable? Huh? Is that it? You realized that I might kill myself and you don't want to deal with the guilt? If so leave... I can't deal with this right now."
And with that, Lance pulled himself up, ignoring the screaming in his joints, ignoring the opening of new cuts from his spiel. He limped out of the room, ignoring the calls from the paladins. He ran away.
The rest of the paladins were in shock. Then Hunk started screaming. "Are you kidding me?!" He screeched, pointing a finger at Keith. "That was your brilliant plan?! 'Let's just yell at Lance because he cuts himself instead of talking to him calmly like you should in such a situation'." Hunk did a poor imitation of Keith. "How could you do that?"
"Hunk it wasn't Keith's fault.." Shiro tried to reason. Hunk glared at the leader.
"Of course it's not!" Hunk yelled. "But because it was Keith, Lance got angry. And he should. Keith never like Lance. And because you yelled at him, I got grouped with the rest of you! I love lance! He's my best friend and because of you he thinks I don't care!"
"What are you talking about?" Keith shouted back. "Of course I care! I like Lance! He's the one who came up with the rival thing, not me! I never had anything against him!"
"He only did that because he wanted you to notice him," Hunk shouted back. "Lance actually likes you! Back at the garrison all he'd talk about was you! How he was going to be a fighter pilot for you! He wanted to be your friend. But he was always compared to you! How he wasn't good enough! How he needed to shut up and be more like you! How he would never be as good a pilot as you! How he was only in the fighter class because you dropped out! Do you know how he felt? Finding that he would always be stuck in your shadow? He hated it there! That's why he made up that stupid rivalry!"
Keith sat in silence.
That explained so much.
"GUYS!" Pidge screeched. The team turned to look at Pidge who was red from anger. "When you guys are done being selfish dicks, Lance needs help!"
"Pidge is right," Shiro said. "Right now, Lance needs us. We can come back to this later."
"Come on," Pidge begged, pulling Hunk away from Keith. Pidge was terrified. She had never seen Hunk get angry. He was the bug, cuddly, pacifist teddy bear, but right now...he was rabid. His face was red and he was right in Keith's face.
"Yeah," Hunk said composing himself. "Let's go find my best friend."
Keith scoffed and pulled his shirt indignantly. "Yeah, Lance needs his team."
"God," Pidge said under her breath. "Men. I swear the only thing that drives them is compulsion and their stupid egos. Douche bags." Hunk glared at her. "Not all men," she rushed to say. "Just compulsive dicks. You're fine."
Hunk nodded and turned around to find Lance. This time Hunk would do it right. They were going to solve this. Lance was going to get better, Hunk would make sure of it.
Welp...I guess I'm making this a three part story.
(Yaaay multiple updates in two days! Go me!)
