Hey there! This was my story for the Voltron Primary Big Bang project, where I partnered with several artists to illustrate the story. I don't know how works with art, so if you want to see if, you can head over to my Ao3 account under the same name, 5557. This is intended to be an archival copy of the fic in case it is lost on Ao3. The original word length was 10,000 words, but due to popualr demand, I decided to extend the story instead of leaving it at its original cliffhanger ending.
Hunk became aware of his toes first.
In the blackness of his waking, he could feel them, tingling, at the end of his body. He slowly wiggled each one, gently testing his body's capabilities before he risked opening his eyes or lifting his head. They worked, thankfully.
He noticed that his breath was shallow, and he was incredibly cold. And he was upright. No, Hunk wasn't in his bed, as he'd first imagined. He must've been in a medical pod.
As if responding to his thoughts, he heard the faint hiss of something in front of him sliding away, and felt a warm rush of air hit his face. Hunk opened his eyes. Yes, he confirmed. He was in a pod that had just released him into the medical bay of the Castle of Lions. Hunk gathered his strength and steadied his knees and took a step forward; bleary but otherwise alright.
As his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the bay, Hunk took in his surroundings. He was alone in the entire room as the quiet hum of the other pods around him stood in activation. Hunk counted the four other pods. And everyone in them.
Pidge, Allura, Coran, Keith. All of them, frozen in stasis except…
"Oh, my god! I'm so sorry, I forgot! I ran up here to meet you on time! I wrote it down, I swear!"
Lance's voice came at him in a high-strung panic as he burst through the doorway and into the bay, gasping for breath and running straight towards Hunk. Hunk couldn't get a word of his own in edgewise as Lance barrelled into him, fingers suddenly digging into his sides and Lance hugging him closer and tighter than Hunk ever thought possible.
"You're out! You're out. Oh my god, Hunk. You're here. Oh my god, my buddy. My buddy ." Lance's words were barely distinguishable as they slurred together through his incessant rambling, and that was before Lance pressed his face down into Hunk's chest, further muffling himself. After a bit more unintelligible mumbling, Hunk swore he could pick out the words "God, it feels nice to hug you" from somewhere under his left breast.
There was a brief struggle of awkward squirming as Lance refused to let him go, but Hunk managed to loosen an arm from under Lance's death grip, pulling it out and bringing it around to pat his best friend's head, smoothing his tousled and, frankly dirty, hair aside. Lance stayed like that, mollified by the sensation until Hunk could feel Lance's growing self-consciousness pull his head away from under the weight of his touch.
"I'm sorry I didn't clean up," Lance apologized, rolling his head to the side as Hunk took in the dotted stubble of brown hairs on Lance's chin, "I just… I got really tired and I kinda forgot until it was too late."
"It's fine," Hunk replied, "All good. I'm just glad to see you awake instead of in one of those pods like everyone else."
He gave his friend a firm squeeze as Lance nodded silently in his arms.
While Lance calmed his near-hyperventilating against his chest, Hunk had a moment to really take him in. He was completely dishevelled. As well as not shaving, Lance looked like he hadn't showered or even changed his wrinkled and stained clothing in over a week. Hunk couldn't bring himself to comment on how Lance smelled.
Hunk's gaze eventually moved away from Lance and around the wider room. There was a tablet and several books on the bench near the active pods, as well as a pillow and blanket half-fallen onto the floor. There were empty bowls of food, too, he noticed. Littered here and there and in other places Hunk hadn't quite expected; over on one of the dashboards, or right next to Allura's pod. Obviously Lance had spent a good deal of time hanging around the bay, visiting with his friends in stasis while waiting for them to heal.
"But," Lance exclaimed suddenly, pulling back and away from Hunk, "That's enough of that! No need to panic," he grinned, clapping his hand together, "You're here now! We can talk and- and hang out!"
"Hang out?"
"Yeah! Oh my god, Hunk, it's gonna be so great to have someone else around while the others are still in!" Lance bubbled with excitement as he started to dance around the room, waving his arms wildly over his head.
Hunk enjoyed the brief moment of giddy silliness that seemed to have overtaken Lance. He watched Lance skip and pirouette and nearly fall after tripping on one of the leftover bowls, all the while laughing at himself. Despite his dirty clothes and unwashed state, he was still Lance, and still able to make joy out of nothing.
"What's that?" Hunk inquired, pointing to what was obviously Lance's handiwork. Just behind Lance, Pidge's pod had a moustache drawn on it in what looked like black sharpie.
"Oh," Lance laughed, glancing over his shoulder, "I got bored. I think it suits her, don't you?"
"Ok, yeah," Hunk smirked, amused at the absurdity of the gesture, "But, Lance…" His voice trailed away as Hunk attempted to regain his composure, too many questions flooding his mind to ignore, "What happened? Why's everyone in the pods?"
Lance's playful exuberance melted away and he stared bluntly at Hunk.
"You don't remember the bomb?"
"...No." Hunk shook his head, trying to pull any recent memories to the forefront. He could vaguely remember heat, and a deafening crash, but nothing before or after that.
"You don't remember the sentries or wormholing?"
No. He couldn't. Everything was a blur. Hunk woke up in the pod, found Lance, and... that was it.
"I'm sorry, Lance," He shrugged apologetically, "It's all coming up blank. Can you fill me in?"
"Oh, yeah. Yeah!" Lance's face lit up at the suggestion, and then, suddenly, "But, why don't we get you something to eat, first? I bet you're hungry, big guy!"
It was certainly a tempting invitation.
"I am, I am," Hunk nodded, smiling, feeling the warmth of Lance's enthusiasm reinvigorating him from the cold slumber of the pod. And, for a brief moment, the way Lance spoke oddly reminded Hunk of that first order of fries he'd shared with his best friend when he'd dropped his own on the cafeteria floor one fateful day.
And Hunk let his thoughts drift back to several years ago, to a new school with new classmates and plenty of expectations for the chubby brown kid who skipped a grade and got in a year early. To ugly pink walls and grey cement steps and kids milling around outside in brand new jeans and brand new sneakers, cloistered in tight circles, waiting for the bell to ring.
"Uh, hey Lance? Can I get some clothes?"
Hunk folded his arms as he felt a small shiver run up his back. He was wearing only the thin, white medical bay leotard, and it was about as warm as it was modest.
"Oh! Shit. One sec, I was just gonna grab some of these," said Lance, now busily marching around the room, scooping up bowls and bits of strewn garbage.
"Shit, shit," he muttered, standing up straight and spinning himself around in circles, "I think I left your clothes in your bedroom. I can go grab them. Just a sec. Or- can you deal with the blanket for now?"
"Yeah, sure," said Hunk, grabbing the grey woolen emergency blanket off the floor and wrapping it around his shoulders. It wasn't much, but he felt a little more decent standing in a tight onesie with no shoes on.
Hunk overheard Lance breathe a little sigh of relief.
"Hey, Hunk?"
"Yeah?" Hunk shrugged the blanket up a bit higher and watched as the pile of bowls and food garbage in Lance's arms grew steadily larger.
"Remember when we first met and you bought me french fries?"
"Yeah. Weird," said Hunk, "I was literally just thinking about that..."
Lance made an indistinct noise of agreement.
"Geez, I don't remember making such a mess up here," Lance laughed, a little self-consciously, as he carefully leaned over one of the bay dashboards to pile yet another bowl onto his stack, "But, y'know buddy, I do remember your stupid haircut on that first day of school."
"Oh, god, don't remind me," groaned Hunk, burying his face in his hands.
"You shaved half your head to look like what's-his-face! That rapper!"
Hunk could hear spoons clattering onto the floor from behind his fingers.
"It was a phase! "
"That's not what you said in middle school!"
"Yeah, well… " Hunk shrugged, hot flush of embarrassment rising in his cheeks, "Thanks, again. For standing up to those assholes for me."
"Hey. No problem, man. They deserved it. And, y'know," Lance grinned as he placed the final bowl in his stack, "Thanks for buying me fries."
Lance haphazardly dumped the pile of empty bowls and food wrappers at his feet, scanning the room to see if he'd missed anything. Hunk's gaze kept drifting past Lance to the sleeping faces of his friends in stasis, their frozen bodies floating silently in the pods behind them.
"Hunk?" Lance began, his voice a bit more apprehensive this time.
"Yeah?" Hunk was shaken back to the present, and he watched as Lance carefully considered his words.
"...Can I hug you again?"
Lance seemed to be avoiding his gaze for some reason.
"Of course," said Hunk, surprised that his friend even needed to ask, "C'mere."
And within seconds, Lance fell into his arms once more, but this time it was much softer, gentler and slower. Hunk could feel Lance's quivering body sinking into his grip as he wrapped the grey blanket around them both and rubbed his hand reassuringly up and down his friend's back. It occurred to Hunk, as Lance leaned against him quietly in his arms, that he could clearly feel Lance's protruding spine and bony shoulder blades, even through the layers of his shirt and jacket. It unnerved him a little. Lance had always been scrawny, but this was different. Lance looked and felt like he was sick.
"Good thing we're getting food, you skinny asshole," said Hunk, smiling and patting his friend. Lance laughed into the heavy thumps on his back.
They began wandering down towards the kitchen, Lance leading Hunk with the stack of bowls under one arm and refusing to let go of Hunk with his other hand the entire time.
The hallways were strangely dark. As Hunk counted, more than half of the lights weren't working, and where there was light, there were also huge black streaks of smoke stains rising up the walls and coating large portions of the ceiling. Along with piles of mechanical rubble scattered here and there, a thick layer of dust covered the hallway floor, interrupted by many, many Lance-sized footprints.
"I cleaned up most of the bodies along the way up here, so it'd be easier to get around..."
"Bodies?" Hunk felt another shiver as he glanced down one of the side corridors they were passing by and caught a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a severed arm or leg lying in the middle of the floor. Or maybe it was just a shadow.
"Er, the sentries. Even though I know they're just scrap metal, they remind me of bodies. It started to bother me."
Hunk nodded, tempted to stop and take a few steps back for a second look down that hall. Lance kept pulling him forward.
"Jesus, this bomb, dude. You'll have to tell me all about it." Hunk let out a low whistle as he eyed a large crack running diagonally up one of the castle walls. The light above it was flickering on and off erratically.
"Yeah. The castle's been on pretty minimal power ever since the sentries went off," said Lance, following Hunk's eyes along the jagged crack, towards the flickering light where electric sparks sputtered from it, floating down towards the dusty floor. "But, eh y'know, it's more than enough for one person. But it was a helluva fight, man. And you put up a great defense! I remember your… You used your cannon really well."
"Did I now?"
"Yeah!" Lance grinned at him, and Hunk couldn't help but notice his chapped lips and the dark circles settled under Lance's eyes.
"Dude, no offense, but you look like shit."
Lance's face sank and Hunk internally kicked himself, immediately regretting his words. He was scrambling to think of something nicer to say when Lance cut him off.
"I'm sorry, man. I know. I just…" Lance paused, scratching his head, "I've been waiting for you guys out here. Heh. And when it's just me by myself, I kinda... stopped caring as much."
Hunk nodded. "How long was I out?"
The cheeky grin returned as Lance threw his head back and laughed.
"Oh... Like, a couple weeks, more or less. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm such a gross mess. It's just been me here all alone, you know. Doing the Risky Business dance naked through the castle."
Hunk looked around as the lengths of various corridors off the main hall slowly disappeared into dim lighting and dusty haze.
"Lot of freedom to walk around nude, huh?"
"Yep. Lotta time to think."
Through the hallway, down towards the main stairwell they walked together, and Hunk was oddly struck by just how much dust was everywhere. The battle Lance kept mentioning must have taken place throughout the entire castle, as there was no corner where Hunk didn't see a greyish layer of finely blasted marble and powdered chemical exhaust.
As they made their way down the hallway, he noticed that Lance's footsteps barely made a sound as he walked. His own bare feet slapped heavily on the ground, stirring up puffs of dust, and making Hunk feel incredibly self-conscious. Lance seemed to float beside him, effortlessly silent, as if he had grown used to trying to make as little noise as possible.
Hunk wiped his finger along the bannister when they reached the top of the stairs, revealing the smooth, polished black surface underneath the thick layer of grey dust coating it.
"Yeah, I know," sighed Lance, "I gotta work on it. I did try to clean up some of the junk right after the battle, but, as you can see, it's everywhere... And the castle's super damaged, and I don't know how to fix half the shit that's broken so, uh, I mostly just... gave up."
"Pfft, lazy-ass," Hunk snickered.
"Heh. I know. I'm kind of a slob."
After a few more steps, Hunk noticed the words I'm a motherfucking HERO written into the bannister dust in huge fingerprint letters as they descended the stairs.
"Uh, dude?" Hunk thumbed at the graffiti.
"Well, I am!" huffed Lance, "I saved all your asses! Dragged every single one of you up to the pods and got you all stuffed inside, safe and sound!"
"Even me?"
Lance shrugged, and the pile of bowls and garbage under his arm shifted slightly.
"Nah, uh, actually I think you still were able to walk. But if I recall, you were completely out of it. Your head was bleeding."
"Makes sense." Hunk brought his free hand up and ran it smoothly through his hair. He felt fine. Not a trace of any wound remaining.
"See? Told you!" said Lance, "I kept you safe and got you better! You can thank me later, pal."
Lance shot Hunk his trademark cocky smirk. It was slightly undermined by the fact that Lance was still holding his hand. It made Hunk feel that warm sense of connection again. He liked it. He liked Lance.
"So, you said there was a huge battle. Are we at least safe now?"
"I assume so, yeah," Lance replied as they continued down the stairs and into the large entrance hall, "When Allura wormholed us, it spat us out into deep, deep space. Like, it's insane, Hunk, when you pull up the celestial map. We're not near any galaxies. We're not even in the galactic cluster! We're practically off the edge of the universe! There's nothing out here..."
Lance's voice got really quiet as he kicked a piece of rubble from an area in the main hall where the ceiling was crumbling overhead.
"... Not even stars."
Hunk wished he hadn't been watching Lance when he said that. He caught a glimpse of something he felt he shouldn't. Something deep and dark that Lance wasn't yet ready to reveal to him as he quickly plastered that toothy grin back on his face and squeezed Hunk's hand reassuringly.
"Oh! Yeah! I forgot!" Lance exclaimed as they rounded the corner and entered the dining hall, "You get to meet someone!"
Hunk didn't have time to process the sudden whiplash of Lance's mood. He was too busy being utterly flabbergasted by what he saw.
"Lance, why is the training room bot sitting at the table in the dining room?"
Awkwardly slumped in one of the few chairs that wasn't mysteriously missing from the room was the practice bot the Paladins used for combat training. It was wearing a makeshift bow tie around its neck and a pair of Altean slippers. The deactivated bot sat hunched over, its ovular head propped up by a metallic elbow on the table and a loose palm under its chin. Hunk imagined that if one sat down in front of it, they could pretend that the bot was listening intently to deep conversation.
"His name is Theodore Richard Archibald Ignatius Nathaniel Ivan-Evans," said Lance, proudly, momentarily breaking his hold on Hunk's hand to motion with a grandiose flourish towards the bot.
"What?"
"I call him Trainie. We're buds. And, hey! Did you know that Altean training bots have a dance mode? Dude. I can lead and follow now!" And Lance was now starting to launch forward in a way that told Hunk he was about to demonstrate, but Hunk gripped Lance by his skinny wrist and held him back.
"Yeah, ok. But… why? "
Lance shrugged.
"I got bored."
"Apparently."
Boredom seemed to be a key theme with Lance.
Before Hunk could comment further, a deep, rumbling metallic groan echoed loudly up from the base of the castle, thundering through the very foundations of the walls until it passed upwards, rattling the pipes in the upper floors, leaving Lance still and Hunk momentarily speechless.
"Shit."
"What was that?" asked Hunk, looking around to confirm that the castle walls were still intact and holding them in.
"Nothing much, really," Lance replied casually, "It happens from time to time. I haven't figured out what's causing it, but I think it has something to do with the air circulation. Let's just get our food quickly and go sit down in the common room, 'cause it's about to get really cold in the castle for about an hour. "
Not entirely convinced, Hunk nodded as Lance dragged him away from the overdressed training bot and towards the kitchen.
"Ok! Lemme whip you up something real good!" said Lance, rubbing his hands together after dumping the pile of bowls on the kitchen counter with a loud clang of ceramic on metal.
Hunk coughed expectantly.
"What?" Lance was now trying to inconspicuously shove his pile of wrappers into an overflowing trash can under the sink.
"Put them in the dishwasher. Don't just leave them on the counter."
Lance let out a childish whine. "I'll do it after we eat."
Hunk glared at Lance.
"I promise."
"Alright."
Hunk was mostly teasing, and he was glad that Lance was mostly playing along. Some things never changed. Either way, Hunk didn't want to press the subject too hard. He couldn't stop thinking about the feel of Lance's spine and his bony wrist in his own meaty hand and the way Lance looked like he needed a few square meals.
The broken monitor near the food goo dispenser stated that it was nearly empty, but with a few precise bangs on the machine with his fist, Lance was able to produce two full bowls of green foodstuff for them on two miraculously clean bowls he'd found at the very back of the dish cabinet.
"Well, erm, actually... It's just food goo," sighed Lance, putting the dispenser back in its socket, "And I don't know how to cook it, and I'm pretty sure anything fancy has been turned off to save power. But, y'know. Food goo."
"Food goo." Hunk nodded, accepting the bowl of green slime from Lance.
"I'll do the dishes as soon as we eat, I promise ," said Lance, running his spoon around the bowl and stirring the green slime within. He didn't look terribly pleased with the meal, and Hunk made a mental note to fix him something nicer later.
The common room was surprisingly clean and devoid of garbage and mechanical junk. Only that same omnipresent layer of dust permeated the room, with far fewer footsteps from Lance trailing around. Lance hadn't spent much time in here while Hunk and the others were away in the pods healing.
After shoving his bowl into Hunk's hand, Lance balled up his fists inside his jacket and started wiping furiously at the couch with his sleeves. The effort didn't really make the seats much cleaner, instead he just ended up smearing the dust around on the cushions and floor.
"Don't worry about it," said Hunk, holding the two bowls and heading to cut Lance off and sit down. Lance brushed his dirty sleeves on his dirty pants and climbed onto the couch beside him.
Lance was right. The temperature was dropping fast, and Hunk readily welcomed Lance cuddling up beside him as he wrapped the grey blanket around the both of them while Lance kicked off his sneakers and tucked up his legs. And, in those few quiet moments, where Lance was leaning against him, and the only noise was metal spoons clinking on ceramic bowls, Hunk could ignore the unsettling darkness in the hallways and the staleness of the air. He could ignore the black traces of old explosions and the random bits of robotic shrapnel scattered throughout the castle. Hunk dug into his first real meal in weeks with his best friend by his side and he could actually feel cozy under the dim and flickering lights of the empty common room.
"This room seems a lot cleaner," said Hunk between bites, "Was there any fighting in here?"
"Oh, right," choked Lance, pounding his chest as he swallowed a large mouthful of food, "The battle! It was intense, man. And, uh, no. Not in here. I remember Allura and Keith kicking ass against those waves of bots, though. And- God, she was the worst to put in the pod. Did you know Allura weighs, like, a ton? "
"Oh, yeah?" mumbled Hunk as he scarfed more food down.
"I had to drag her on a piece of metal to get her up to medical bay! And then," Hunk felt Lance involuntarily flinch against him, "Oh god, I remember her hair got caught on a sharp corner, and I was panicking at the time, and I tried to be so careful, Hunk, but I accidentally ripped out a few- like… Like a chunk. I felt so bad about it for- forever, dude."
Lance was staring down at his bowl, absently stirring his food, and Hunk could see his eyes flickering; could see Lance reliving the memory.
"Lance, it'll heal up. Chances are she won't even remember it," he said softly, while giving Lance's shoulder a squeeze, "I certainly can't."
"Yeah," Lance nodded, slowly, "It just… it just really sucked putting everyone in like that. Just staring at them. At you. And waiting for you to get better. I mean, I did write down your pod timer. I did. I just… I'm sorry I forgot to be there when you woke up, Hunk. I really wanted to be there. It was important to me."
Hunk heard the cracks in Lance's voice as he spoke, and he felt the weight behind Lance's words.
"Hey. It's alright, man. Don't worry about it. I mean, I was unconscious the whole time, so it's like I just fell asleep a couple minutes ago!" Hunk laughed, patting his best friend on the back.
"...yeah…" sighed Lance, eyes drifting back down to his bowl.
"How many were there," asked Hunk, carefully trying to get back to the subject at hand, "The sentries?"
"Tons. They infiltrated the whole castle," said Lance, waving his spoon around the room for emphasis, "The entire diplomatic mission was a trap. Every one of those aliens was a galra sentry in disguise. And every sentry had a bomb implanted in them."
Hunk's face felt numb as he tried to imagine the horrifying things that Lance had seen. What he had seen, but evidently forgotten.
"You said it happened when we warped?"
"Yeah, as soon as Allura put us into the wormhole to take us out of there, all hell broke loose. Every single one of the sentries went off at once. Some kind of chain reaction."
"Sounds like they were attached to some kind of timer or distance monitor," Hunk mused, mentally combing through various schematics and programs in his mind, "If Allura warped away, they couldn't contact their lead signal, and they'd all go off at the same time."
"I mean, I was fighting in the back, and-" Lance suddenly stopped short. "Yeah. Nevermind," Lance's voice lowered into a quiet monotone, "It doesn't really matter, now... Does that fill you in enough?"
Hunk detected the subtle irritation in his voice. Lance didn't want to talk about the battle anymore. He waited patiently to see if Lance would add anything else to his story, but Lance just sat there, chewing his lip. He didn't say anything else. Lance stared straight ahead into some dark corner of the room as the temperature around them steadily dropped.
"Yeah. It's alright," said Hunk, "You're cuddly today."
After placing his and Hunk's bowls on the floor, Lance had stretched his arms over his head and curled up into a tighter ball next to him. Hunk instinctively wrapped his arms around Lance's shoulders under the blanket and Lance settled himself in.
"I just missed you, is all," said Lance, resting his head against Hunk's shoulder, "And, y'know, it's freezing in here."
Hunk nodded, tucking the blanket into the air gaps between them.
"Oh, shit! Hang on! I'll be right back!"
Suddenly Lance was up and out from under Hunk's arm and tossing the blanket aside as he hurried back to the kitchen. Hunk heard some briefly concerning crashing noises and then Lance was back in the common room at a swift jog, hands carefully cupped together in front of him, and barely able to contain his excitement.
"Look. Look! I've been saving them for today!"
Lance peeled open his hands to reveal two small, round, bright-red candies. Leftovers from the last time they'd traded with friendly aliens, only a few days before this disastrous diplomatic mission. Hunk remembered Lance going through half his bag on the first day and going on and on about how similar it was to raspberry flavour before he'd wised up and started rationing out his candy more carefully.
"Oh my god, Hunk. It's exactly like I imagined. I've been saving this for today," Lance practically moaned as he popped the little candy in his mouth while trying to recreate his position next to Hunk and under the blanket.
The candy was stale. Lance obviously hadn't taken care of it, like himself or the rest of the castle, but Hunk nevertheless appreciated the gesture. He could forgive Lance for forgetting to close the bag properly, and it was an amusing tradeoff to watch Lance have a near-euphoric experience in front of him as he sucked delicately on a raspberry-flavoured space treat.
And together they drifted into silence once again, as the sweet taste rolled around in Hunk's mouth and Lance curled his fingers into the blanket, hiking it up to his neck. Hunk tucked his bare feet in and Lance rested his hand over them, his palm radiating warmth to the tips of Hunk's frigid toes.
"Hey Hunk?" Lance's voice was little more than a sleepy whisper with his face pressed into Hunk's side.
"Mm?"
"Do you remember that time in second year Garrison when we stayed up all night playing truth or dare?"
"Yeah?"
"And I told you about my parents' divorce, and you told me about how you sometimes thought of kissing other guys?"
"Yeah."
"And we almost did, but I chickened out at the last second and said I had onions for dinner?"
"Yeah…?"
"Just… I dunno, it stuck with me."
"This remind you of that?" asked Hunk, curious about Lance's sudden wistful tone.
"Yeah. No. I dunno." Lance shook his head. "I thought about you a lot while you were asleep in the pod, Hunk. I know I missed being there for you when you woke up, but I wanted today to be nice for you."
Hunk couldn't think of what to say to respond, but his heart felt full and warm, so he just held Lance a little tighter under the blanket.
"And," Lance continued, "I remember back in middle school when we first met, and, besides your stupid haircut, you were the coolest guy there. You wanted to play with me."
"You had to mention it again, buddy," Hunk sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, but, I mean, You found me eating in the corner by the library when nobody else wanted to let me sit with them. I was a loser, Hunk."
"We were both losers."
Lance laughed quietly, and Hunk laughed along with him.
"I thought because I was going to a new school, I had to be all grown up, and I couldn't like kid stuff anymore. Right when summer vacation ended, I told my mom to box up all my Transformers because I couldn't be caught playing with them."
"Dude, you were gonna get rid of them all?"
"Yeah. I thought I needed to be cool."
Lance found Hunk's hand and gave it a squeeze.
"And then when I met you, you… I dunno, you made it cool for me to still be a kid for a little while longer."
"Maybe that's why we're such good robot pilots."
"Heh. Yeah."
Another deep rumble echoed throughout the base of the castle ship, and Lance shut his eyes tightly, clenching his fists around the grey woolen blanket.
"Like I said, it'll stop after about an hour. Then it'll get warm again," Lance panted through clenched teeth as he continued to burrow himself into Hunk's body, now climbing directly into his lap. They could both see their breath now, as puffs of white in front of their faces and Hunk got the distinct impression that Lance was scared, but somehow used to this.
The rumbling and groaning continued. Lance shuddered in his lap.
"Since there's no stars out here," whispered Lance, after the noise died down a bit, "I like to imagine that we're actually deep, deep under the ocean. Where it's all mysterious and dark. And maybe the noises are huge monsters swimming around, wondering if our castle is a nice piece of food or not."
"Why?"
"Because imagining monsters makes me feel less alone."
Alone. Lance had spent all this time alone. He seemed fine enough at first, but the more time Hunk spent with Lance, the more cracks he started to see in the facade of Lance's casual optimism. It worried him.
Hunk had seen Lance like this before.
"Lance…"
He nudged Lance gently with his arm and Lance hummed in response.
"Look. I didn't want to say too much right away, but when you were alone for these past few weeks…" Hunk paused, gauging Lance's reaction. Lance turned to look into his eyes, woollen blanket tucked up and covering the bottom half of his face. "Did your depression come back? You just look… rough, man."
"You could say that," Lance mumbled from under the blanket.
Lance got lost sometimes. When life started to overwhelm him, he'd fall off-track, and things would quickly snowball from there. First it would be subtle things, like forgetting his keys or missing a homework deadline, but the more his confusion and exhaustion and guilt took over, the worse it got. Eventually Lance would stop showing up to class or eating or sleeping. His illness would quickly invade his entire life until Lance ground to a halt and stopped functioning entirely.
Hunk found himself staring at Lance's blue eyes, lined by heavy dark circles, and the subtle fear and worry expressed in them; it'd happened again. He wished so badly that he could have been there, that he could have been well enough to stay out of the pod and keep his friend company while the others healed. But he was here now. And Hunk was going to make sure that Lance didn't have to feel like the world was too much for him anymore.
"It's ok, man," he said, "We all have our days. We can do it like we used to, you know. I'll help you make a list."
"Yeah," Lance nodded, "That'd be great."
Hunk was the kind of friend that was in it for the long run. This, and everything that'd happened while he was away in the pod was merely a temporary setback. He'd get Lance a meal, get him to rest, and then they'd make a list. Together.
"... And, Hunk."
"Yeah?"
Lance looked to him implicitly and Hunk leaned in a little closer.
"I just wanna say, because I don't know if I ever really have before, how much I appreciate having you in my life. And I'm sorry it took you being away from me to say it, Hunk."
The words surprised Hunk with their quiet sincerity. Lance wasn't usually the type for deep compliments. He was a flirt, for sure, but Lance always struggled so hard when he had anything meaningful he needed to say.
"Something wrong?" He asked, a little unnerved by Lance's uncharacteristic seriousness.
"No," Lance replied, "Just… keep holding me. Please. It's nice to have you back. I missed you."
He would. Hunk kept his arms wrapped around Lance, and let his friend lean back and rest his head on Hunk's shoulder. He rubbed his hands up and down Lance's tucked-up shins and listened to his breath steady itself in the frigid, stale air.
And they stayed that way for a long, long time.