Pairing: Klance.

TW: None but Lance is sick and gets dosed up on drugs.

Lance hadn't been feeling quite right for a while but he kept it to himself, knowing he had to stay strong. The team hadn't been themselves since Keith had left for the blades as his departure had taken its toll on all of them. It was weird not having the grumpy, impulsive red paladin around the Castle, even if he spent most of his time in his room anyway. If the team found out Lance wasn't feeling the best, it might ruin their moods even more.

That's why he went on the mission and forced a smile.

"Lance, what are you doing? Why did you stop?" Pidge questioned from where she had been tagging behind the blue lion. She raised an eyebrow and let out a frustrated huff when Lance didn't even bother to respond. "Alright then, I'll go around you then." And she did. She had no idea that Lance was sat in his seat, eyes weary and head spinning. He could feel bile rising in his throat as his hand clenched onto his shirt, face scrunched up in pain. He couldn't speak. He couldn't think straight long enough to form a coherent sentence.

"Lance, come on! We're waiting for you. We can't fail this mission." Shiro's words seemingly bounced off the walls but, still, Lance didn't respond on the comms. He tried to stand up for long enough to turn on his video call, knowing his team would figure out something was wrong, if only they could see him. His knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor.

"Lance, buddy, is everything okay? You've gone quiet and that isn't at all like you." Lance curled in on himself, silent tears trailing down his cheeks as he failed to respond to Hunk.

"This isn't a funny joke." As one last ditch effort, Lance raised his hand to blindly reach for the button. Unable to find it, he pulled himself up on shaky legs, only for the world to go black just milliseconds later.

"We're going to be late. Stop messing around!"

"We can't afford to miss this meeting or we'll lose our alliance!"

"Maybe we should check on him."

"I bet he's being dramatic."

"Pidge! Don't say that. Blue could have shut down on him or something."

"Hunk, check it out as quickly as you can. You can meet me and Pidge at the meeting."

"Okay." With that, the yellow lion lurched towards the blue one, pausing by the lion's side. Blue immediately opened her doors for him, something that was far from usual as the lions usually blocked off anyone that wasn't their precious paladin. Hunk jumped across the gap, glancing around the blue lion and gasping once he noticed Lance's limp body on the floor. He was paler than Hunk had ever seen him and the first thing Hunk noticed when touching him was how hot he was.

"He's out cold," Hunk murmured into the comms, hoisting the blue paladin over his shoulder. "I think he has a fever. We won't be able to make it to the meeting."

"What? Since when was he sick? I bet the dumbass was hiding it." Pidge responded, exhaustion lacing her tone.

"Probably. He's too selfless..."

"Get him back to Coran and the med-bay so he can rest." Shiro ordered. Hunk nodded to himself as he headed back into the yellow lion where he was able to lay Lance down.

"We're going to get you help, okay?" He pressed his own cold hand against Lance's forehead before brushing his fringe out of his eyes.

-

"He needs to be checked over!" Hunk yelled, holding Lance as he rushed into the Castle. Coran immediately rushed out of a nearby room to help Hunk before they both raced into the med-bay. Once Lance was laid down on the bed, Coran started to fuss over him by doing necessities like checking his temperature and vitals.

"He has a really bad fever, we need to cool him down. Take off his jacket whilst I get some ice packs." Hunk nodded and began to unzip Lance's jacket until he was able to pry it off. Coran practically ran into the room with some ice before he pressed it into different parts of Lance's body.

-

When Lance woke up, he felt disorientated: the last thing he rememebered was flying inside Blue. "Wha..." He murmured, glancing around the med-bay with thin eyes. Hunk was standing over him with a pair of knitted eyebrows.

"How are you feeling?" He asked. Trust Hunk to be the one to have worried about him.

"Crap. I feel like I'm dying."

"I'm sure you do. Coran dosed you up on drugs, by the way."

Lance turned his head to bury it into his pillows with a long groan. "Everywhere hurts."

"I know, buddy."

Lance murmured something that was muffled from where his face was hidden. Hunk asked him to repeat it so, rather reluctantly, Lance said, "I want Keith..." He sounded like a young child on the first day of school, begging to see their parents again. A smile tugged at Hunk's lips before he held up a single finger and rushed out of the room. When he returned a few minutes later, he was holding a laptop-like device.

"I got you Keith."

Lance tried to grin but stopped himself once his cheek muscles began to ache. He reached out and latched onto the laptop, eyes widening as they laid upon Keith. He looked tired with thick, black bags underneath his eyes and a long cut running across his right cheek. "Keeeeeef." He practically whined, eliciting a soft laugh from Keith.

"You sound drunk. What drugs did they give you?"

"I don't know but it didn't make me feel much better. I still feel like death."

"Poor you."

"Yeah, poor me. Do you know what the others did when I stopped responding on the comms? They thought it was a joke. It was really funny because I was dying." Lance started to laugh hysterically but soon stopped once he realised it hurt so much that the joke didn't seem so funny anymore.

"They... what?"

"Joke, Keith. You do know what that means, right? Like why did the chicken cross the road? kind of jokes. Or.. do you not know what those are? Are you too emo for jokes?"

"I'm not emo."

"Tell that to your emo fringe."

Keith brushed his fringe out of his face, rolling his eyes as he did so. "It's not emo but I think I should come back to Voltron."

"But the Blaaaaades, Keeeeeef. They need you."

"You clearly need me too. They won't even miss me. I'm coming to see you, alright?"

-

"Keith, oh my God, all I feel is pain right now. I'd hug you but I can't move my arms." Lance murmured into the blanket he had pulled up over his mouth. His eyelids were heavy but he was forcing them to stay open so he could see the boyfriend he hadn't seen in what felt like forever.

"It's okay. You really need to rest."

"I know but you're here. I can't waste our time together."

Keith smiled softly. "It's alright. I need to speak to the others anyway."

"Oh... okay." Keith tucked Lance into the cover even tighter so he could barely move before backing up and appreciating his work.

Keith then left the room and returned around half an hour later with the rest of the team in tow. They each looked ashamed, hanging their heads and avoiding eye contact by all means. "We're sorry," Shiro was first to speak. He was chewing on his bottom lip and shifting his weight from one foot to another in a nervous nature that seemed so unfamiliar for the leader. "We didn't notice you weren't well so this is our fault."

"It isn't. I hid it from you." Lance let out a soft yawn, body exhausted from all the pain.

"We should have noticed. We hope you know that we all love and value you as a paladin. We don't want you to hide your feelings, alright? We care about you too much to let you suffer in silence."

"I'm fine, Shiro."

"You passed out, Lance. That's not fine..." Lance stayed silent so Shiro continued to speak. "We're sorry and we understand if you're angry."

"I'm not."

With that, Shiro stepped forward and pulled Lance into a long hug. Soon enough, each paladin was wrapping their arms around him as they shared a loving group hug.

Once they had dissipated to go to bed, Keith remained with Lance. He had climbed into the small bed so they were pressed right against each other without any space to move. Keith wrapped his arms around Lance's middle, snuggling his head against Lance's back.

"Why did they apologise?" Lance murmured, sounding distant as a result of his tiredness. "It wasn't their fault."

"I have to admit," Keith shifted his position so he was more comfortable and his arm wasn't stuck beneath Lance. "I shouted at them."

"What, why?"

"They can't treat you like that. You could have been seriously injured, Lance. They should have noticed."

"Oh..." Lance's face was bright red but, luckily, Keith couldn't see from where he was laying. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now, rest." Lance let his eyes flutter shut as he felt Keith press a gentle kiss to the back of his neck. Embraced with warmth and love, Lance drifted off.

I feel like this one shot could be better but I'm too tired to edit it again so I hope you enjoyed it regardless.