Hello! This is a continuation of Culture Shock. Well, this is more a series of one-shots detailing Keith trying to learn about humanity and the results. If you haven't read it, some of this might not make sense.

Space Flu

Keith gets sick. Of course he's convinced he's dying. Everyone else just says it's only the flu.

Keith tossed and turned, sweat clinging to his body and his body on fire. Fluids leaked out of his nose and eyes, his head ached with unyielding pressure, and he could hardly breathe without a wracking cough echoing though his room. He shivered with cold and felt like his limbs had been dipped in lead. In effect, he felt like he was dying. Coran had tried to diagnose what was slowly killing Keith with little success, and had advised all the other Paladins that Keith was highly contagious with a violent disease that could take them all with little difficulty.

So when he opened his eyes and peered from his nest of blankets, he was surprised to find Hunk carrying what looked like a pot and ladle, a bowl, and a spoon.

"All right Keith, sit up, chow time!" Hunk settled himself in a chair he'd pulled over from the desk and opened the pot up, ladling the odd substance into the bowl and holding it out. "Now, I know that this probably tastes nothing like what you're used to, but it's the best I can do to make chicken noodle soup. Eat up, you need it."

Keith pulled himself sluggishly up from his prone position, wrapping himself firmly in his blanket as he eyed the bowl with apprehension. "What's a chicken?"

Hunk rubbed the back of his head as he laughed sheepishly. "Oh right, I forgot that you wouldn't know what one is. Um, well, it's a kind of bird on Earth that lays really tasty eggs and we raise for food."

"So why are you giving me soup made from it?" Keith took the bowl and frowned into it, picking up the spoon and stirring the contents carefully. He couldn't be too careful. After all, he'd seen some weird things that the Alteans ate and he figured the humans had even odder palettes.

"Well, it's not really made from chickens. We'd have to go all the way back to Earth to get one." Hunk sighed, and Keith got the impression that the larger human was disappointed. "But, this is probably the closest we can get and what with you having the flu and all…"

Keith blinked and stared. "The flu?"

Hunk nodded. "Well yeah. I wouldn't think that Allura or Coran would know what one was. They're probably immune or something since they're not human. But you have every symptom I can think of, so I'm just going to take a stab in the dark and assume that's what this is."

Keith continued to look at the bowl doubtfully. "So why the soup?"

Hunk grinned. "Oh, that's an easy one. My grandma makes the best chicken soup, and she always said it was the best thing for being sick. Usually makes you feel better when you feel miserable. Thus why it's soup since it warms you up and is easy for sick people to eat."

Keith prodded the soup now, a frown pulling at his features. He couldn't smell it, considering the state of his nose and how stuffed his head felt. It did look passably edible unlike some of what the Alteans tended to eat. He'd never thought that green goo could look less appetizing, but somehow they'd managed. "So this is safe to eat?"

Hunk nodded. "Perfectly safe. I had to forage a bit to get the veggies, and the noodles I had to figure out on my own, and maybe the bird too, but I made sure everything there was edible before I made it. Figured that if you're the first one out of everyone to catch the flu, then everyone else was going to catch it too. It's just a matter of time before that happens."

Keith chewed on the inside of his cheek before he dipped his spoon into the bowl to have a bite. The moment it passed his lips, he realized it actually did taste good, and Keith ended up emptying the bowl faster than he thought he would. When he finished, he handed the bowl and spoon back before leaning back. "How do humans deal with this? It feels like I'm dying."

"Well, kinda like how you are now." Hunk shrugged as he placed the bowl onto the desk next to the pot. "I know I sleep a lot when I'm sick, and Lance turns into the biggest baby."

Keith's lips turned up into a small smile as he imagined Lance being as weak and helpless as a newborn kit. Lance didn't have claws, but otherwise he could see it. "Last time I was sick, I lost all my fur. This doesn't feel the same."

"Wait, you had fur before?" Hunk blinked then looked Keith over. "You were sick recently, weren't you?"

"My mane." Keith gestured to the top of his head. "The fur there. I'm not- I never had a full coat before."

Hunk just blinked and tried to process this, while Keith just sat and watched. The human must have had some sort of epiphany, because he straightened up and gestured to Keith. "Okay, so um, what are the differences between a Galra and a human, anyway? I just realized it'd be bad if you got hurt and something went wrong while we treated you."

"Uh…" Keith wasn't sure. Until recently, he'd never had a human to compare himself to, and hadn't thought about the biological differences between them both. Shivering, he pulled the blankets close to him in an attempt to stay warm while he considered it. "Um, well, I guess the first is that humans don't have fur. No offense, but humans look really naked."

Hunk snickered and pointed toward Keith. "Hate to break this to you buddy, but you're just as naked as the rest of us."

Keith looked at his own arm. "Yeah, I guess I am." He then shifted awkwardly as he coughed into his blankets. "Um, well, I guess one of the other things is that I can't see in the dark as well as a full Galra."

"Wait, you can see in the dark?"

"Um, yeah, but it's not that great." Hunk suddenly stood and went to the control panel of his room. "…What are you doing?"

Hunk pushed a button, and the lights went out. Keith frowned and narrowed his eyes at Hunk's form, who had turned back to him with a searching look. "Okay, wow, I can't see now. I'm just testing to see how well you see."

"Only in black and white?" He glanced around, looking over paneling and everything before looking back to the larger human. "It's not as great as a normal Galra. They can see in full color in the dark."

"Holy crap, that's creepy!" Keith looked over to Hunk, and had to wince when the human turned the lights back on suddenly. The throbbing in his head increased, and Keith groaned. "Oh wow, um, sorry! But wow, man, your eyes were glowing there for a second."

"Yours don't." Keith pointed out. "I've never seen eyes that don't glow in the dark." Maybe his father's hadn't either. Keith didn't remember that much about his father to know for sure.

"Nope, they don't. It's just, that was really weird. It kind of looked like a cat."

Keith blinked. "Um, what's a cat?"

Hunk sat back down, his eyes focused at some point above his head while it appeared that he was thinking. "Well, they're small and furry. Like, um," he made a gesture to demonstrate some size, "that big, and they have eyes that can see better in the dark than a human can. They're actually kind of cute."

Keith however was frowning. "Wait, did you just say I reminded you of a kind of animal?"

"In a good way!" Hunk raised his arms defensively. "They're the closest I can think of to what your eyes looked like. They glow too."

Keith sat back and considered that. "Okay, so like a cat." He then looked himself over, trying to think about the differences he had noticed about Galra that maybe he shared with them. "Well, Galra have a third eyelid for dealing with sandstorms. I have one too, it's just useless though since it doesn't cover my whole eye."

Hunk frowned. "Third eyelid? That's weird. Okay, so what el-wait, is that why Galra always seem to have yellow eyes?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "No, that's something else I think. It's clear."

"Okay then." Hunk looked a bit embarrassed, which caused Keith to smile slightly. "So what else?"

Keith has to pause. He's not sure because he's never had to evaluate himself before. Fighting in the arena was all he learned how to do, that and the basics every Galran learned. They never trusted him enough to learn more than they were willing to teach him.

Hunk must have sensed this as well and winced. "I just realized you probably don't know much beyond just the outside stuff. Sorry."

Keith snickered, then covered his mouth as a cough wracked his body. "No, it's fine. I'd be pretty curious too if I didn't already do some comparing between myself and the others." He then glanced toward Hunk. "Please tell me that this flu doesn't take long to get over."

Hunk shrugged. "Well, how long does that going bald disease take?"

"One, it's called telkor tox, and two, about 10 days, give or take. You only get it once though." Keith recalled when he got it. A kit disease, he'd gotten it when he was fifteen, and had to spend some time away from the arena before he was well again. "I got it when I was fifteen."

Hunk considered Keith's answer then. "Well, that's about the same amount of time for the flu. I'm just hoping that we don't have to form Voltron before you get over it."

It was around day two of the 'flu' as Hunk called it that he got another visitor besides Hunk. Shiro peeked into the room and Keith hissed at the intrusion of light into the small space. Shiro blinked and shut the door, and glanced around the dimly-lit room before glancing at the blanket pile Keith was in. He then settled into the only chair available in the room and looked over the Red Paladin. "So, you've got the flu, huh?"

"I'm dying." Keith's voice was a croak, mostly from coughing and hacking up mucus. He swore he'd never produced that much in his entire life.

"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad." Keith had buried his head underneath his blankets and Shiro pulled them back, exposing bleary violet eyes half-covered by a third eyelid. Shiro blinked. "Oh, so that's what Hunk was talking about."

Keith made a weak grab for the blanket before giving up, his arms flopping and glaring at the intruder. "How can humans deal with this? I feel like I got pummeled in the arena."

Shiro shrugged. "It'll pass just as long as you're taking care of yourself. Not much we can do out in space for it." He then crossed his arms. "Coran was asking if he could check up on you. We've got him convinced that we could deal with it and Pidge suggested that their alien physiology might react badly to an unknown sickness." Shiro's mouth quirked upward. "Now he's busy trying to sterilize the entire castle."

"I bet you've had this before. You probably don't have to worry about getting sick." Keith tried to manage a glare in Shiro's direction, but he got the impression it was lackluster at best.

"Actually I probably haven't. I haven't been back on Earth long enough to catch the latest version, and the last time I got my shots for it was back at the Garrison." Shiro shrugged, but Keith gaped.

"Wait, you mean you catch this thing regularly? Is your planet trying to kill you or something?"

Keith had sat up, and stared at Shiro with wide eyes. The effect was probably made more pitiful by the fact that his third eyelid was casting everything in a weird glaze, and Shiro chuckled. "The flu keeps evolving, and well, best we can do is try and get over it. Though honestly any planet is trying to kill its inhabitants, I think."

Keith had to concede that point. He'd heard stories about Gal, and how dangerous of a planet it was. There was a reason he had never been taken there, and it had more to do with his fragile skin with no fur to protect it from the sand and sun. The local wildlife was another story however.

Shiro must have been reading his mind, because he regarded Keith with a quirked eyebrow. "Humans aren't as weak as you thought, huh?"

"Well, if they were anything like you, I could take a few guesses." Keith had to admit, after seeing the others fight, they showed promise. Only problem was trying to get them to work as a team. Even Keith was having to adjust, as he'd always fought solo in the arena much like Shiro. "Please tell me Coran isn't trying to feed me his paladin recipe. It smells like death."

"He hasn't tried yet, since Hunk persuaded him that his chicken soup's better for it. Pretty sure that once you're back up and around, he'll have it whipped up." There was a chuckle in Shiro's voice and Keith's mouth turned up in a smile. "So mind the company right now or should I just get going so you can sleep?"

"You're going to catch this flu thing if you do." Keith cocked his eyebrow, aware that he was probably contagious and, as Shiro stated, Shiro hadn't had the disease in a while.

"I've caught worse." Keith stared at Shiro, unsure if the older man was kidding. Shiro simply shrugged.

Keith ended up flopping back down and scowling. "Well, if that's what you want. Don't blame me if you're dying in the next week."

True to Keith's prediction, Shiro did in fact end up sick a few days later. Coran ended up enlisting every able body to clean the castle from top to bottom. Keith, recovering from his own bout of illness, simply gave Shiro a smug smile that clearly said I told you so.