"Welcome Paladins!" The king said. He gestured to the castle. "Before we begin I insist that our healers check you for any wounds. Please step in here!" Lance was ushered in against his will.
An alien entered and asked Lance to take off his shirt. Lance compiled and hoped that this species didn't know what self harm was. Thankfully they didn't.
"Paladin, how did you get all those cuts on your arms and legs?" They asked. Lance felt himself freeze before he shrugged.
"The battle." The alien nodded and healed Lance. Lance sighed, grateful for their ignorance. The alien left soon after he had had healed all of Lance's cuts and went off to heal the other paladins.
Shiros pov
The alien was talking to me as they searched for wounds. He was very nice and they had interesting things to tell about the other paladins.
"I'm amaze you all came out unscathed!" The alien exclaimed.
"It was a rather easy battle." I simply said.
"Yes but the blue Paladin was severely injured!" The alien exclaimed. I blanched. Lance was injured? When did he even get hit? "His arms and legs were covered in hundreds of cuts. He said he retained them from battle. He had many other battle scars on his arms and legs too. Unfortunately there were too many for me to heal all at once so some of them are just scabbed over. I wonder what hit him?" The alien muse to himself.
I was frozen in shock. Lance never went into battle. He stayed in his Lion the entire time. So where did those cuts appear from? The way the alien described it made it seem like self harm, but Lance doesn't self harm right? He wouldn't.
I thanked the alien for their help. They just walked away with a smile on their face, oblivious to te grim meaning behind the cuts on Lance's arms. I walked into the grand hall and saw everyone mingling with the other aliens. I looked around until I found Lance.
"Lance!" I called out. Lance paled and turned around to look at me with a look of...fear? "Hey bud! Nice job out there today!" Lance looked shocked.
"Wait, really?" he asked. I flinched at his blatant surprise for a compliment. "I thought I messed up the mission? You're not mad at me?"
"Of course not." I said. Then the reason for looking for Lance popped back into my mind. "Lance can I talk to you?"
Lance's eyes widened before he controlled his face Whatever he was thinking wasn't good because Keith had the same expression back when he was depressed a few years back. I clenched my teeth.
"Of course!" he said a little too cheerfully. I took him aside.
"Lance," I said softly. "You would tell me if you were having any problems wouldn't you?"
"Of course!" Lance replied, he looked confused at the question.
"Great," I said. I reached out and grabbed his wrist. He jumped back and tried to get out of my grasp but I wasn't letting go.
"Shiro?"
"Show me your arms." I said. He froze, his blue eyes wide with fear. He took a deep breath and forced a smile on his face. It looked like a grimace.
"Why? If you want some arm models you should talk to Hunk," he said faking a laugh. It was far too bubbly and cheerful to be real. "Trust me, mine are not the ones for the job."
"Lance."
"Can you let go of me now?" he said. I shook my head and brought my robotic arm to pull up his sleeve. His eyes widened as he saw what I wanted to do. He grew desperate. "No! Shiro stop it! Let go of me!"
"What's happening here?" Hunk cried. The party was in full swing, so none of the guests could see what was happening. None, except the rest of the paladins. Keith and Pidge were behind Hunk and staring at me wide eyed. "Shiro what are you doing? Let go of Lance."
"I can't" I said. "The alien! They told me Lance is cutting himself! I need to know if it's true!"
There was no movement between the team. Everyone was staring at Lance wide-eyed. Lance was frozen in shock. Taking the perfect moment I ripped his sleeve up and gasped. The alien was right. Lance was cutting himself. And it was bad.
"Oh, Lance." I said softly. He wrenched his hand out of mine and backed away from us.
"Congratulations," he whispered, his voice dark and broken. "You've found out the truth. Not that you care anyway." he turned and ran, and left the paladins in shock, standing still.
