This may come as a surprise, but Lance holds little hope for his love life. Sure, he flirts and winks at every possible candidate. But, in reality, Lance doesn't believe he'll live out the happy romances he sees on TV. His parents met when they were in high school and shared their first kiss at the top of a Ferris wheel. That was sweet, he always loved it when they'd tell the story. His siblings would roll their eyes and grimace, but Lance always smiled and listened happily. His mom called him Loverboy Lance and said he always had a love for the romantics. Yet, here he was, a hopeless romantic.

Lance knew from the bottom of his heart, his current lifestyle didn't allow much for romance. They passed through planets full of people to which they likely would never return. It didn't matter anyway. As much as Lance flirts, he knows it's all done in vain. He has his heart set on someone else.

Keith. Stupid moody emo, Keith. Keith who has a mullet and wears a red cropped jacket.

Lance groaned. Laying in bed, he buried his face in his arm thinking about the idiot. Lance Loverboy McClain is in love with the least romantic person known to man. The biggest issue of all, however, is how little his interest in Lance is.

His time spent in the Garrison was plagued by his failed attempts at befriending Keith. Later, in their teen years, him and Lance crossed paths again. Keith didn't even remember him.

Lance then started in with the rivalry thing. At least this way Keith was paying some attention to him. Even if they were arguing, it still made Lance feel better to have those fiery eyes cast on him. At least then he knew they weren't looking at someone else.

Lance knows there's no hope for Keith returning his feelings. That's why he started in on the whole 'Allura thing'. Lance flirts with her endlessly, trying to draw the attention of Keith even in the slightest. But when he looks at Keith to see any reaction, there's none—besides a few occasional eye rolls.

He gave up after some time but his teammates never forgot his weak attempts at flirting with the princess. They lorded it over him still, and teased him relentlessly about it. He could care less though, he just wanted Keith. That's what it was all for.

The castles alarms echoed through the hallways booming around Lance's room. He sat up startled and bathed in red lights.

"Paladins! This is not a drill! Suit up and get in your lions immediately! The castle is under attack!" Allura's voice dominated the alarms.

Lance was ready in a matter of moments and was running down the hallway. He saw Pidge running just ahead of him and Hunk followed suit to the two.

The three got in their lions and found the other two were already out. A battleship was firing at the castles shield and was being heavily guarded by drones.

"Lance and pidge! Go for the ones on the right! Keith and Hunk, to the left. Cover me while I disable the ion cannon." Shiro shouted through the coms making Lance wince.

"Please hurry Shiro, the shield is already weakened significantly." Allura pleaded.

Lance and Pidge followed their orders, but Lance was lagging. His breathing felt shallow, like he couldn't quite catch his breath. He didn't feel well. He hadn't felt the absolute greatest the last few days, but he was sure it would pass with some extra sleep. But here he was, performance lacking at the expense of the team. He gave a weak cough which contorted into hacking.

"Lance! Stop just sitting there and help!" Pidge scolded over the speakers.

Lance reached for the panel but his hand fell as he began to cough and hack again. It felt like something was caught in his throat. Tears rose in his eyes as he couldn't quite breathe from whatever it was he was choking on. Finally, whatever it was dislodged itself and fell from his mouth in a feathery fall.

An abundance small red petals.

Lance's face contorted into a look of confusion. Petals? How? He picked one up and inspected it to be sure. And yes, sure enough, it was a petal.

"Lance!" Pidge yelled again.

Lance immediately dismissed the flowers and sprung back into action. Maybe it was nothing and he was overthinking it. He tried to think of an explanation as he picked off drones one at a time. He fought well making up for being MIA.

A loud boom erupted and Lance looked up in time to see the mothership explode in large plumes of debris. The Paladins cheered over their speakers and Lance ignored them staring at the petals in his lap. He turned Blue back to  the castle, the first one to dock their ship while the others still cheered. "Lance? Where you going? You okay buddy?" He heard Hunk over his helmet but he pulled it off. He hopped out of the lion and dropped the helmet on the hangar floor. He held the petals in his hands carefully like they were something delicate and booked it to his room.

He wanted to ignore the occurrence, but he couldn't help but feel that it was significant. That this is why he isn't feeling well. Why his breathing is so shallow and there's a small bit of pain in his chest.

He tested another cough and found himself in the same fit as earlier. Hacking and coughing and gagging. His time, he felt a long burning pain as whatever it was moved through his throat. It burned and scratched as it passed.

He spit out a rather large and disheveled red flower. He realized why it was so painful as it had a long stem covered sparsely in thorns. Blood dripped from his mouth onto the flower red blending into red. His mouth tasted strongly of iron and he tried to swallow it down.

This wasn't right.

A small knock on the door made him jump and he dropped the flowers on his bed and covered them with his sheets. Running to the door he opened it, trying to keep his composure.

"Pidge, what's up?" Lance was surprised to see the small girl. She still wore her armor and was looking down at her toes.

"I wanted to apologize. I didn't mean to snap at you during the battle. I was just a little stressed and lost my cool." She toed the ground. It was surprising to see her apologize as she was always headstrong and proud. She rarely ever apologized and rather would show small bits of gratitude instead.

One time they had an argument and instead of apologizing, she left a controller at his door. Soon enough they were playing video games and they never spoke of the incident.

"Are we cool?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course we're cool Pidgeon." Lance winced at his hoarse voice. He felt how raw and painful his throat actually was.

She looked up sharply and gasped. "Lance! Are you okay?" Her eyes were wide.

Lance knew if he spoke it would say other wise but he tried anyway. "Yeah I'm fine,"

"But, you have blood..." She pointed to his mouth and he quickly swiped the back of his hand over it.

"I bit my tongue during the battle. That's why I had to speed off." Lance lied.

"Oh, okay then," Pidge nodded. "Well, I'll see you at dinner. Uh, maybe Coran can help you with your tongue problem."

When she left. Lance closed the door fast and began hacking again. Whatever this was, he was getting it out now.

After a while of violent coughing and producing flowers and petals from his mouth, he realized it wouldn't be that easy. Whatever was causing it, there was too many and they were rooted deep. His attempt however left his mouth bloody and a small pile of flowers sat in front of him of the floor. His throat was in pain and his vocal cords were scratched up.

His airway didn't feel any more cleared than when he started and it caused almost a soft whistle or whine sound as he breathed.

He checked the time and saw it would be dinner soon. He had to make an appearance otherwise the others would worry and he didn't want that. Gathering the petals, Lance dumped them in the trash and stealthily snuck through the hallway to the bathrooms to wash his hands and face of the blood. He finished and patted his face dry with a towel.

As much as he doesn't want to hide stuff from the team, they didn't need this problem as an addition to their already full plate of issues. Lance wasn't sure what was going on with him, but they had access to one of the worlds largest databases and surely he could find an explanation there. And if that doesn't work, he'd take to the castle's library.

He headed to the dining hall and sat down wordlessly and a little late.

"Look who decided to finally join us," Keith raised an eyebrow already detecting Lance's quiet mood.

Lance was going to talk, maybe say a snarky remark, but his voice was surely rough so he just turned away. He took note of the way Keith frowned and went back to talking to Shiro a little distracted.

"Lance, what happened after the battle? You sort of took off." Hunk asked his friend concerned as per usual.

"He said he but his tongue. He must've bit it good too, because he had blood on his mouth." Pidge chimed in, noticing Lance's reluctance to speak.

Keith snorted. "Smooth move."

Shiro elbowed Keith like a scolding parent. "Be nice." Keith glared at his brother.

Moments later, Coran emerged with bowls of soup for everyone. As he set one in front of Lance, the boy quietly thanked him, his voice soft and gravelly.

The team looked at him a little worried but Lance ignored them and tried the soup. The heat of the soup both irritated and soothed his aching throat.

"Maybe I should have a look at that my boy." Coran said in that fun voice of his.

"No, it's fine." Lance responded hastily.

"Very well, but don't hesitate to ask for help!" Coran chimed. "If it's bothering you, I have many drugs."

Pidge broke into laughter and the Paladins couldn't help but join. Even Lance.

"Not those drugs." Coran scolded.

Lance admired the way Keith laughed. His smile was an absolute delight, the way it curved into a beautiful bow. It pulled back and shot Lance right in the heart like Cupid. Just as it did so, Lance felt that tingle in his lungs that made him cough ruggedly. He quickly stood up and rushed out of the room hacking again.

He made it to the bathrooms and locked the door. Rushing to the toilet he began to deposit flowers and blood into the bowl. He sighed slumping against the wall feeling trashed and scraped raw. A knock sounded on the door.

"Lance? Are you okay? Why'd you lock the door?" Keith asked sternly from the other side.

"Can't a guy shit in peace?" Lance gaveled.

"Shut the fuck up. Open the door." Keith pounded.

Lance's head rolled back on the stall with a thump. He shakily reached his hand to flush the toilet and moved to the sinks to wash the blood away. He picked up the trail of flowers and tossed them in the bin and cleaned the toilet of any blood. When he opened the door, Keith was waiting for him impatiently.

"What's your deal? Is your tongue that bad? I'm taking you to Coran." Keith grabbed him by the shirt and began to drag him from the bathroom.

"Keith wait." Lance pulled back stretching his shirt. Keith let go and turned around. "It's okay, I just choked on my soup. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine." Keith eyed him. "Plus, you look like shit. Like you haven't been sleeping."

Lance was surprised at how attentive Keith was. Normally Keith would be looking anywhere but him, so how he noticed, Lance was unsure. "I-I'm fine Keith. You don't don't have to worry about it. I won't let it effect the team." Lance assured. He knew that's probably why Keith was reacting the way he was.

"Are you sure?" Keith asked in a low stern voice.

"Yes." Lance squeaked.

"Fine, but if you don't look better by tomorrow, I'm taking you to Coran." Keith turned on his heels and hurried away.

Lance couldn't help the feeling in his chest at having Keith fuss over him. Even if it was only the good of the team he cared about. The flood of affection was chased by a sharp pain in his lungs. Right, he had to get to the bottom of this before tomorrow.

Lance, rather than head back to the dining room, took the moment when everyone would be occupied eating to check the castle database. He snuck in and rushed to a panel reminiscent of a computer and began to type.

It took him a while to find out where to go and how to search for something like this, but when he did, he shakily typed 'coughing up flowers'.

He scrolled and it didn't take long to find a name: Hanahaki Disease. Lance quickly tapped the screen and his eyes flicked across the text.

One sided love

Flowers in lungs

Feeding off body's nutrients

Suffocation

Lance's heart began to race and he backed away from the holographic monitor in horror. Was he going to die? Oh my god, he was going to die. Lance tripped over a chair and landed hard on his ass just as his reality came crashing down with him.

Flowers were going to fill his lungs until he suffocates to death. All because Keith doesn't love him back. Lance shook his head, there had to be some cure—some way around his terrible fate. He picked himself up and continued to read.

Only two known cures existed. One would be for the other person to return their feelings and the flowers would clear away on their own. But the other would require surgery. In addition, with the removal of the disease through surgery, the feelings felt for that person would also be taken. Lance quickly realized surgery would not be an option. He couldn't get that kind of help in his situation. Not to mention, he didn't want to lose his feelings for Keith. He loved him, and even if he could never have those reciprocated, he'd take what he could get. He didn't want to ruin the already fragile friendship he had with Keith either.

Lance realized that left him with no options. Either die a horrible floral death or ruin his friendship with Keith and still die a horrible floral death. Or he could tell the whole team about his situation and have them track down someone able to remove the flowers.

He decided to let it happen in peace. There was no point in warning the team about his soon death because, after all, Allura could simply take over his lion. Maybe he'd leave some sort of letter, as a little explanation. One letter for the team, one for his family. That could work.

He stared at the article and clenched his jaw. He probably only had a week or two. He felt unwell before, but now that he's started coughing up flowers, that shows his days are surely numbered unfortunately.

"Lance!" He heard his name being called down the hall. It sounded like Hunk and Lance looked from the doorway to the screen in front of him. He had to keep this to himself.

"Lance? Are you in here?" Hunk called again, undeniably close. Lance quickly minimized the hologram and turned around trying to act natural.

"Hey buddy!" Lance responded just as Hunk walked through the door.

"Lance, what are you doing in here? Are you going to finish dinner? Coran made desert too." Hunk asked looking around suspiciously.

"Uh, yeah," Lance smiled and followed his friend out the door. He didn't like lying to his friend, but it would be easier.

When they sat back down at the table, Pidge was already gone and so was Keith. Lance ate the soup and had a few bites of dessert to satisfy Hunk.

Lance had a few light strangled coughs but managed to keep them down.

"You have a bit of a cough. Are you feeling well Lance?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, I feel fine. Great actually." Lance smiled. His voice sounded otherwise though.

"If you say so." Shiro looked unconvinced.

Lance cleaned up his food and went to his room to stew in self pity.

A knock rung on the door and Lance sighed. He couldn't catch a break. He just wanted to be left alone. But he stood up and opened the door anyway. Pidge stood wringing her hands and she looked nervous.

"Lance, tell me it isn't true." She said quietly almost a whine.

"What?"

"I saw the article on the castle's database. I was going to hook it up to my laptop and it wasn't closed out of. You were looking it up weren't you? Hanahaki Disease. Please tell me you don't have it." Pidge looked to be on the verge of tears.

Lance felt all air escape his body, which was getting easier. He grabbed her and pulled her into his room. He shut the door behind them and slumped against the wall, tired and lacking the energy to hold himself up anymore. "Pidge... I'm sorry." Lance shook his head. "I didn't mean for you to see that. Hunk almost caught me earlier and I had to turn it off—god I'm so stupid."

"Lance, you aren't denying it. Please." She pleaded.

Lance bit his lip and tried to suppress the urge to cough. "I..." he couldn't restrain the need anymore and let lose a violent hack. Blood speckled his fingers and he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "I'm sorry."

She looked mad and tears streamed down her face. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't want you guys to worry." Lance looked away from her.

"Worry? Lance we have a right to worry! You're fucking dying! Don't you get that?" Pidge snapped.

"Keep your voice down." Lance hushed her. "I understand that I'm... dying. But Pidge, there's nothing I can do."

"Bull shit. What's stopping me from telling the team right now?" Pidge lowered her voice but she was still yelling.

"Look. Pidge. I'll tell everyone. But not yet." Lance moved off the wall to stumble to his bed. He slumped down and looked at her pleading.

"When then? Huh? After you're dead?" She practically growled.

"Pidge. I'm going to die from this. There's no way around it. I rather wait as long as I can. I don't want to prolong making you all watch me die. I don't really know what I'm going to do. I just know it's not fair to do that to you guys."

"And what makes you so sure you're going to die from this anyway?" Pidge scoffed. "It said there were cures."

"Yeah, there are. Did you read them?" Lance raised his voice a little but caught himself.

She silently shook her head.

"There's surgery. But the likelihood of tracking down someone able to remove the flowers in time isn't reasonable. It's a risky job even at that and to top it off, if it's successful, I'll lose feelings for the person I love." Lance spoke quietly. Enough that Pidge had to listen in silence to hear.

She opened her mouth to protest but understood. "Then what about the second one?"

"That's even less plausible." Lance looked away. "It's for the person I love to love me back. If it's accomplished, the disease will dissipate on its own."

"What are you talking about?! That's not so hard-" Pidge snapped.

"It can't be platonic Pidge. It has to be romantic. Real love." Lance shook his head.

Pidge went quiet. "We can still try."

"I don't want to alarm anyone of my condition. I don't want to drag the team down with me." Lance wheezed a little at a small tickle in his lungs.

"I'll keep it a secret, but you have to at least try to fix it—I'll help you. And you have to tell everyone eventually. Don't wait until it's too late." She bargained.

"Yeah." Lance nodded. "I can do that."

And then she was pulling him into a tight hug. He felt her tears on his shirt and he felt guilty for making her cry.

The next few days had been miserable for Lance. He hid his condition better, but he also avoided the team like the plague. He feared the team noticing his fragile state and taking him to Coran.

"Lance they're going to suspect something if you skip dinner. You already skipped a few meals." Pidge opened Lance's door when he refused to come out.

"Well they're also going to suspect something when I cough up a large ass flower on the table, so what do you suggest?" Lance was laying in bed wrapped in his sheets. He looked worse. Tired and a little leaner than before.

"I don't know." She clenched her fists. "But if you really do end up dying soon... you should spend as much time with the team as you can."

Lance noticed how worked up Pidge was and sat up in bed coughing up a couple petals. "Okay, I'll go."

Pidge opened the door and waited patiently for Lance to pry himself from the bed. "When are you going to tell the team?"

"Tell us what?" Keith suddenly approached the door.

Lance panicked and pulled his sheets up to try to cover the sea of flower petals on his bed. He looked at Pidge pleadingly.

"Lance has mouth herpes!" She blurted.

"What?!" Lance screeched, a little rough in his throat. "I do not have herpes! I just accidentally knocked Shiro's toothbrush in the toilet and didn't own up to it." Lance covered quickly.

"Ew, seriously Lance?" Keith grimaced.

Lance felt a tick in his lungs and coughed a couple petals in his fist. He held them tightly so that Keith couldn't see and he seemed satisfied.

"Well, I came to drag you to dinner. I thought you were skipping again." Keith rubbed the back of his neck and adverted his gaze.

"I'm coming," Lance smiled, "just running a little late."

"Well, then..." Keith blinked, "I'll see you at dinner. With the team that is." He awkwardly turned around and stormed down the hallway.

Lance tossed the petals from his fist into his room and followed Pidge out. "You're stopping by the bathroom first. You look like shit. Fix yourself up." Pidge added.

Although Lance attempted to make himself look less sick, you couldn't deny the dark around his eyes—impossible to cover with makeup, and his eyes lacked a certain brightness. Lance also tried to walk and talk with feigned energy which was gravely apparent.

When he shuffled into the dining room, there was a plate already made up for him. The eyes of his teammates all eventually gathered on him as he walked to the table and sat down.

"Lance? Have you been sleeping well?" Allura asked.

"I skipped my skincare routine a few nights, what's the deal." Lance fake pouted. In reality, he'd been upping his amount of skin care to try to compensate for the terrible things this illness was doing to his complexion.

"My bad," the princess smiled innocently.

Pidge looked from Lance to the Princess a little desperate. "I think you two should go on a date." She blurted.

Lance dropped his fork and looked at Pidge in shock. Then it dawned on him. She thought he was in love with Allura! Not Keith! "Pidge, no."

"No, really. Allura, you should at least give Lance a shot right?" Pidge eyed Allura like a falcon.

"No pidge." Lance repeated kicking her shin under the table.

Allura was just sitting in utter shock—flabbergasted.

"Lance," Pidge grit her teeth, "we had a-"

"I don't want to go on a date with her." Lance looked at Pidge single minded trying desperately to communicate his lack of interest in Allura. "I mean, sorry Allura." Lance looked to her who was still trying to find words.

"Lance, go on the fucking date." Pidge seethed.

"No." Lance stood suddenly. A little too suddenly. And snatched her up pulling her outside.

"What the fuck Lance?" She was practically foaming at the mouth angry.

"Pidge, Allura isn't the one I'm in love with." Lance calmed her immediately.

"Oh... well then who?" She asked quietly.

"Keith." Lance admitted.

"Oh. My. God." She brightened. "Holy shit!!"

"Sh! They'll hear you you idiot." Lance dragged her back to the dining room and they sat down on better terms.

It was dead silent for a moment before Pidge decided to ruin it. "Keith how would you like to go on a date with La-" and just like that, Lance launched a spoonful of food goo at Pidge's head.

She wiped the goo from her face and picked up a handful from her plate launching it at him. Lance weakly dodged it and laughed at her only to get hit with a follow up attack.

"Food fight!" Coran yelled and threw a glob at Shiro. Just like that, all hell broke loose. Food was flying from all directions and no one was safe. Lance ducked under the table, all the excitement was making the disease flare.

Keith ducked and rolled under the table from the other side and the two were impossibly close. "This is my hiding spot!" Lance croaked.

"Well now it's mine." Keith chuckled pushing his way under anyway.

Lance enjoyed how close he was, how Keith was almost in his grasp. It made the pain in his chest worth it. He gave a pitiful cough suddenly and tried to catch the petals in his hand. But when Lance looked back to Keith, he saw the boy wasn't looking at him anymore. Instead, he was staring at a single frail petal that had escaped Lance's grasp.

"What's that...?" Keith's eyebrows were knit together in confusion and Lance panicked rolling out from under the table and leaving in a hurry. Dodging the food goo in the process of course.

Lance's heart was racing and he began to worry Keith would find out. What if he did? In fact, what if Lance told Keith that he was so much in love with him that he was literally dying. While he was at it, he might as well just punch Keith in the stomach and tell him he killed his dog too. He could not tell Keith. That was too much pressure to put on someone. Not to mention, Keith would harbor guilt for Lance's death if that were the case. He knows Keith.

It was then that Lance really began to spiral. Fear of death brought chills up his spine and he desperately wished for Keith to return his feelings. He ignored Pidge's knocks on the door and she eventually left knowing he was going through a lot and wanted to be alone.

The next day they had training.

"Paladins, we've been slacking off! It's time we get back to a schedule. I know we've been having a lot of peace treaties and visiting planets and all, but Allura said we'll be traveling a while without stopping because there are no habitable planets in this area." Shiro clapped his hands. "So we're taking the opportunity."

Lance didn't feel great. He was tired and distracted by how sexy Keith looked in his tight black tee. Not prepared to get his ass kicked in the slightest.

"Lance and Keith, please partner up." Shiro was speaking to them and Lance only chimed in hearing his name.

"Can I actually be partners with Pidge?" Lance asked a little desperate.

"No, Lance. Stop with the rivalry thing. It's getting old." Shiro shook his head.

Lance looked at Pidge pleadingly but she shook her head. Why couldn't she understand? There was no hope in this. Keith didn't love him back, that's the whole premise of the disease!

Keith looked at him stone faced and Lance swallowed hard. Fuck. "Why don't you want to train with me?" Keith asked and a flash of discomfort found its way into his features.

"I-it's not that! I just... told her I'd partner up with her next time we trained." Lance cleared his throat trying to hold back the need to cough.

Keith nodded but kept his gaze away. "So you're not mad at me then?"

"What? No, of course not. Why do you think I'm mad at you?" Lance was shocked.

"You've been avoiding me—more than usual." Keith answered nonchalantly.

Lance opened and closed his mouth a few times only quiet squeaks escaping as he attempts to find worlds.

"It's fine. Let's just spar." Keith changed the topic quickly and assumed a fighting stance.

"Uh Keith?" Lance laughed nervously. "Would you mind taking it kinda easy on me? I'm just a little out of shape, you know? Too much dessert-!" Lance ducked Keith's rapidly approaching fist heading straight for his face.

Lance was on complete defense. All he was doing was dodging Keith's rapid fire attacks. Keith had always been a pro at sparring. Lance couldn't catch his breath and before he knew it he was on his knees in a coughing fit. He pulled his shirt over his mouth and coughed feeling blood spray from his mouth and petals collected in his top. He felt Keith's hand on his shoulder and Lance pushed himself to his feet. Blood stained his shirt and his eyes were tearing up. Quickly he fled to bathroom and shut the door. Flowers poured into his hands and blood dropped from his mouth. He heaved trying to breath and successfully clear his airway.

Finally he caught his breath and he noticed just how many flowers he coughed up. It was getting worse. Pounding on the door rung through the bathroom and Lance jumped. "Pidge?" He asked in a raspy horse voice.

"Lance!" Keith pounded again. "Open the fucking door now!" Lance sat and scooped flower petals and whole flowers off the floor and deposited them into the trash. He heard Keith messing with the keypad and it clicked what he was doing. Lance, having cleaned the flowers, swayed to the sink and splashed cold water on his face watching it drain red.

Keith finished typing in the override key—which, mind you, he wasn't allowed to have access to. He rushed in and his strong hands grabbed Lance by his arms turning Lance to face him. Lance's face was dripping with bloody water and he looked like death. Keith was looking him over for wounds and Lance grabbed his hand stopping him.

"Calm down, I'm fine, it was just a nosebleed." Lance spoke soothingly but his voice was like gravel.

"I didn't hit you yet," Keith combated the explanation.

"It was probably just from jostling around too much." Lance dismissed it quickly. "Told you I was out of shape."

"I'm taking you to Coran." Keith grabbed his hand and began to pull him.

"No!" Lance said loud and stern before realizing his abrupt reaction. "I just mean, no, I'm fine. There's no need to get everyone worked up over a nosebleed."

Keith looked startled by Lance's reaction and softened. "It's not just the nosebleed. You've been coughing bad. I can hear you in the halls. You don't look as healthy as you did a month ago. And... yesterday I thought I saw..." he shook his head. "This is gonna sound crazy but it almost looked like you coughed up a... a flower petal."

"Keith?" Lance met his eyes. "What do you think of me?"

"What?" Keith looked at Lance as though he was crazy.

"What do you think of me?" Lance asked again squeezing his eyes shut.

"I don't..." Keith began looking a lost.

Just then, alarms began to blare and the boys stared at each other for a moment cast in red light. They both trailed out of the bathroom to see the others storming out of the training room.

"To your lions!" Shiro ordered.

All this running was doing Lance no good. He was struggling to get the breath he needed and his body was already worn out. He quickly fell to the back of the running group and eventually had to take a knee.

"Lance? What are you doing? We gotta go!" Shiro noticed the lagging paladin and pulled him up.

Lance could feel something was wrong. He was going to have a fit if he kept this up. He looked at Shiro and tears formed in his eyes. "I'm so sorry Shiro."

"Hey, Lance," Shiro's tone changed and turned soft, "it's okay. You're fine don't worry. Let's get to our lions and we'll talk when this is all over." He comforted.

Lance couldn't take the weight of such a secret anymore, and he felt so horrible he couldn't take doing it alone anymore. He jogged along lagging behind Shiro and when Lance finally made it to his lion he collapsed in his chair.

It took a few minutes of coughing and regaining his composure before he flew out to meet the others.

Two large motherships and drones surrounding them. That was the damage.

"Lance and Keith, take the ship on the right. I'll take the one on the left. Pidge and Hunk, take out those drones and keep us safe." Shiro barked out the orders and jumped into action.

"Lance, hurry up, what are you waiting for?" Keith was already on the move, Lance felt like he couldn't keep up.

A wave of sickness pulled over Lance and his lungs felt like they were shrinking on him. He rushed his lion forward and attempted to blast at the ship but missed by a long shot. He went to try again but he broke into a violet cough. Gagging and gasping as he could feel a large thorny flower ascending.

Lance forgot about the controls and rolled from his chair to the floor of his lion.

"Lance? Are you alright?" Keith's voice was persistent through his helmet. "Lance!"

Lance could feel his ship moving but he was too preoccupied to find out where. Finally the larger flower fell from his mouth bloody and trashed. It was followed up by petals that he coughed showers of.

When it slowly subsided, he was sweaty and shaking. Laying on the ground in front of a pool of flowers and some blood. He felt blood trickling from his mouth and haphazardly wiped at it just smearing it further.

He lied there for some moments before he heard thundering footsteps and the door open. "Lance! Oh my god! What the fuck happened?" Keith ran and dropped to his knees grabbing Lance.

"I'm fine." His voice strained.

Keith ignored Lance and picked him up carrying him from his lion. "Thank you Blue." Keith said as they exited.

He could tell Keith was taking him to the medical bay and he pushed against his chest. "Keith no, I don't-I'm fine! I just..." Lance tried but was fiercely cut off by coughs. Flowers trailed behind them as Keith only moved faster.

"Lance?" Hunk's eyes went wide as he watched this friend speed by. They had all just landed from the battle and were getting out of their lions.

Pidge was wide eyed seeing Lance and she averted her gaze dragging Hunk after them.

Keith sat Lance down on a seat they had in the medical bay. "Keith, calm down," Lance said seeing how panicked the boy is, "I'm fine, it was just the nosebleed again and-"

The rest of the Paladins burst into the room frantic. "Somethings wrong with Lance. I don't know what but he's been trying to hide it." Keith immediately told Shiro the moment he came through the door.

Shiro looked Lance up and down and he ran a hand through his hair with stress. "I should've listened to you. You were trying to tell me before the battle,"

"It's fine Shiro, I'm fine. It was a bloody nose." Lance continued to try and cover it up. He restrained a cough that threatened to break in his chest.

"No it wasn't." Pidge shook her head. She wasn't looking at Lance but rather her feet.

"Pidge." Lance warned. "You promised."

"That was before Lance! And you said you would tell them eventually!" She snipped. "Lance has Hanahaki Disease."

"What's Hanahaki Disease?" Keith immediately asked.

Lance coughed and a plume of petals fell from his mouth onto his lap.

"That's... Hanahaki Disease." Pidge had tear stained cheeks. She walked to the computer and looked up the same article Lance had read when he found out. "Flowers are filling up his lungs and feeding off his nutrients."

"Lance, why the fuck didn't you say anything!" Keith looked at him angrily. "How do we fix it?"

"You don't." Lance shook his head.

"The disease is born from unrequited love." Pidge let the cat out of the bag. "There are only two cures. The person they love loving them back romantically, or surgery. But the surgery in space is unlikely and it also takes the feeling you feel for that person with it."

"So what! We'll find someone. They can do the surgery and Lance will be fine. We'll just keep him in a healing pod until-" Keith began to ramble but stopped when he saw Pidge shaking her head. "Then who do you love Lance?"

Lance looked at Keith blankly, "I... I don't..."

"Lance, this is life and death. There is no time to be shy right now." Shiro spoke sternly.

Lance looked at his teammates at a loss.

"It's Allura right?" Keith asked and Allura's face dropped.

"No." Lance whispered.

"What?" Shiro prodded.

"No, I don't love Allura." Lance said louder, his voice cracking.

"Then who?" Keith asked softer now.

"I can't say." Lance was crying now.

Keith was going to keep pressing but Shiro put a hand on his arm. "Lance has been through enough for the moment. We'll ask more questions later. Coran, you can do your thing."

"Okay my boy, let's get you to the cot over there so you're more comfortable." Coran prompted.

Lance stood up shakily and relaxed when he felt Keith hold him. He was half walked half carried to the cot and Keith helped him settle.

"Okay, let's leave them alone so Coran can do what he needs." Shiro ordered everyone out solemnly including Keith.

Hours had passed and Lance was laying with a warm blanket and had an IV. He was sitting up memorizing the strange alien symbols on all Corans medicines. If Coran found out he was awake instead of sleeping like he was told, he'd be in big trouble. But Lance couldn't sleep despite being tired.

"I thought you'd be awake. Coran said you were supposed to be sleeping." Keith walked in.

"I-uh, I tried." Lance looked away.

Keith walked up to the cot and sat on the edge making Lance's heart pick up. "Are you going to spill now?"

"Spill what?" Lance fiddled with the edge of the blanket.

"Lance you're dying right now, don't you get that? Don't do this." Keith was calmer than he was earlier but there was just as much power to everything he said. Each word brought a stab of pain to Lance's chest.

"It wouldn't matter. I can't force someone to love me Keith." Lance shook his head.

"You're not hard to love, Lance. Maybe there's hope." Keith spoke softly and hearing the words made Lance's heart go wild. It was silent between them for a moment. "Do you know how long you have left?"

"Coran said a few days." Lance looked at Keith to find him go stiff at the number.

"God Lance..." Keith shook his head. "Why couldn't you have said something earlier? We could have found someone to do the surgery!"

"No, and it doesn't matter. I don't want to stop loving them either." Lance smiled weakly.

"Please Lance." Keith tried again. "What if she does love you back?"

"I'd be pretty surprised if he did." Lance looked up to see if he could catch any reaction by Keith.

"Lance? Is it someone on the ship?" Keith asked.

"Keith, I'm not giving you anything else. That's it." Lance let go of the blanket and sat up more.

"You're so stubborn." Keith frowned. "Fine."

They sat in silence for a moment before Keith spoke up again.

"If I tell you something, can you promise not to be weirded out?" Keith asked. Lance nodded and Keith took the sign to continue. "I was hoping it was me. I want you to love me."

Lance stared wide eyed. "W-why?"

"Because I love you." Keith let out a breath of relief like he was getting something heavy off his chest.

"I love you too." Lance responded still in slight shock.

Keith stared at him a moment before pulling Lance in to kiss him. "God why didn't you say anything?"

"Why didn't you?!" Lance fired back.

"I didn't exactly think it was life and death until it was!"

Lance felt himself need to cough and he rolled over on the cot and began to deposit flowers upon flowers. Keith panicked and Lance heard him yelling for Coran.

"Lance is going to be fine! He's currently in the healing pod to help get rid of the last of the flowers and take care of the wounds from the thorns. But he's cured!" Coran told the Paladins.

"Wha-how?!" Pidge grew ecstatic. She paused and looked at Keith. "You sly dog!" And she tackled him making the man break out into laughs.

"Wait a minute." Shiro grew a large smile. "You two?"

Keith nodded biting back a larger grin as he received pats on the back and gentle punches to the arm from his team.

"All this because you two didn't have the balls to confess to each other."