maychorian:

binart:

drawing in voltron style is really fun! also oh no lance what happened space dad is very concerned 

Lance was not responding well on the comms.

“Lance?” Shiro asked, voice rising a bit. This was the third time he had said Lance’s name with no immediate response, and fear was starting to build up in his chest. “I need to hear your voice, buddy. Lance, can you hear me?”

“…Yeah…”

Too soft, too distant. Shiro sat forward in his seat. He could feel Black surrounding him, thrumming in mutual concern. The chatter of the others on the comms, celebrating the completed mission, talking about what to do when they got back to the castle, abruptly halted. “Lance, what’s going on?” Shiro’s voice was urgent now.

“’Mokay,” Lance said. He still didn’t sound like himself. “’M…cold…”

“Cold?” Hunk’s voice, rising in anxiety.

“Hunk, quiet,” Shiro snapped, not angrily, just quickly. Hunk shut up, and Shiro turned his attention back to Lance. He was trying to pull up a visual on his screen, but nothing was happening. “Lance, why are you cold?”

“Dunno… I…”

“Did something hit you?” Keith asked, fire sharp. “When we got separated on the Galra ship. You said you handled it fine, but what happened?”

“There was a…a druid… Hit me with some kind of…’tricity…”

“Electricity?” And now Shiro really was starting to panic. “A druid hit you with a magic attack?” Finally, he got up a visual feed from Blue. Lance was slumping in his seat, face wan, eyes drooping. He looked awful. And yes, he was shivering.

“Lance, hold on,” Shiro ordered. “We’ll be back at the castle soon, okay? We’ll check you out. We’ll have Coran standing by.” Pidge was on the comms already, communicating with Allura and Coran. He knew they would be waiting in the hangar for them to come in. 

“…Okay…” Lance’s eyes fell shut, chest heaving for breath.

“Lance!” Shiro shot forward in his seat, reaching out to touch the screen as if he could physically grab Lance through the distance. “Open your eyes!”

The furious shout seemed to have an effect. Lance opened his eyes again, though he couldn’t get them more than halfway up.

“Stay awake, Lance,” Shiro said, half-yelling. Lance looked distantly worried, afraid that Shiro was angry at him, and Shiro tried to back off the urgency in his voice. “Just stay awake, kiddo, okay? Don’t close your eyes. We’ll be back soon. Just keep ‘em open.”

“Okay.” Barely a breath. Lance’s chest was heaving, and his face looked even more pale. But he was fighting. Fighting with all he had. “I…I’m cold, Shiro…”

“I know, buddy.” Shiro tried for reassuring, hoped he was hitting it. Lance stared at him through the screen, unblinking, so maybe it was working. “I know you’re cold. We’ll get back to the castle and warm you up, okay? Everything will be fine. Just keep your eyes open.”

“…Yeah…”

They flew. The castle had never seemed so far away.