Disclaimer: I don't own VLD!

A/N: Omg Lance, I'm sorry in advance! I'm a terrible person. Takes place post S2, after they've magically found Shiro because I refuse to believe he's gone for good. Eh, and I've decided healing pods can't do surgery because I'm awful?

This May Sting

Chapter 1

Ugh, Lance was really starting to regret eating so many of those blue sugar puffs at that sweet shop. The dull thud of pain centered around his belly button was definitely cosmic punishment. The Voltron gang had visited a space station around lunch, and there had been an amazing selection of restaurants and diners that had food humans could eat. The paladins might have overdone it once they found the candy store. Pidge had practically gone into a sugar coma at the sight of it, and they had all sampled practically everything in the shop.

Actually, what Lance really regretted was making the highly intelligent suggestion that everyone have an eating contest to see who could snarf down the most sugar puffs in ten minutes. Yeah, he was never doing that again. Coran had morphed some kind of alien vacuum mouth and devoured more puffs than Lance could hope to eat in an entire day. It had been amazing and disgusting and would possibly haunt his dreams for years to come.

Curling up around his aching stomach, he vaguely wondered why it hadn't hurt until now. The pain had been enough to wake him up at…uh… He checked the clock display and groaned. Three in the morning. Did that time even exist? What was his life.

Normally if his stomach was hurting like this, he would trudge down to the infirmary at the Garrison and ask the medics for medicine. Or if he was at home, he would have simply raided the medicine cabinet. But on the castle, it was more complicated.

With Coran's help, they were still figuring out what space meds worked on humans and what didn't, and he honestly couldn't remember if they had figured out something for stomachaches. At least they had that headache-banishing fruit-based stuff. Oh, maybe that would work for the stomachache too, sort of like Tylenol did for general pain? Worth a shot.

The meds were down in the infirmary, so he had a trek in front of him. Pushing up out of bed, Lance pulled his blanket with him and wrapped it over his shoulders, comforted by its warmth. His slippers were by the bed, and he stepped into them since the cold floor of the castle would freeze his toes.

Grumbling to himself and cursing his own bad decisions, Lance shuffled out into the corridor and started on his epic early morning adventure.

The lights were bright beyond the darkened hallway where their rooms were, and he blinked against the glow. He just wanted to get something for the pain and go back to bed. Maybe he could convince the others to let him sleep in for a little while tomorrow. Just an hour or so.

It was too quiet. Normally the ship was a tad creepy anyways, being so big and so empty, but at night, it was worse. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he crept down the hallway, unconsciously staying quiet himself. He considered whistling just to fill the void, but he knew it would echo back and that would increase the haunted house vibes.

"Lance?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected sound of Shiro's voice behind him. As it was, he let out a yelp and backed up against the wall, startled. The quick movement aggravated the ache, and he winced, one hand on his stomach.

"Sorry," Shiro said, holding his hands up, half-smiling until he saw the look on Lance's face. "Is something wrong?"

"Beside you almost giving me a heart attack? Nah…" Lance waved him off and straightened up. He didn't want to look weak in front of Shiro, especially since he had brought this on himself. Stupid blue puffballs of deliciousness! "I'm just…walking…"

"At three in the morning?" Shiro asked, an eyebrow raised.

"You're out at three in the morning," Lance countered, frowning back at him.

"Good point." Shiro rubbed at the back of his neck, and Lance felt bad about pointing out Shiro's habit of 'patrolling' at weird hours. Allura had noticed it first, and now they were all aware that Shiro's sleep cycle was a total mess. The man catnapped more than anything else. He probably needed a few years worth of REM sleep to catch up. "Still, you're usually not up until someone drags you out of bed." His tone was teasing not accusing. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Lance said, "I'm just…I've got a stomachache." A blush warmed his cheeks and he wondered if it would be way too childish to hide under his blanket. Kids got stomachaches from eating too much candy. His metabolism should've put the smackdown on all that sugar with ease. "I'm just going to go get something from the infirmary then go back to bed."

Now it was Shiro's turn to frown. "How long have you been sick?" he asked, concerned. He reached out and before Lance could protest, he pressed his wrist to Lance's forehead for a moment. "It feels like you have a fever." He put two fingers against Lance's neck, and he realized Shiro was taking his pulse.

"No, I don't," Lance said, pushing Shiro's hand away, "Quit it. I'm not really sick, I just ate too many of those blue things. Remember? We had an eating contest, it was lots of fun?"

"I'd still feel better if you let Coran run a few tests."

Oh, no, no way. Then the whole team would know, and he would just curl up in Blue and die of embarrassment. He was way tougher than that. He should've just stayed in his room and suffered in silence until the stomachache passed.

"Bro, you worry too much. I'm just going to go grab that anti-pain fruit juice from the infirmary. Don't go even more grey over it." Stepping backwards away from Shiro, Lance forced a carefree smile. "Seriously, it's not that bad."

"Lance—"

Before Shiro could stop him, Lance rushed off down the hallway and ducked into a lift, heading to the infirmary. He just needed some medicine, and he wasn't going to let Shiro or anyone else turn it into a big deal. He liked attention, but he didn't want them to be all concerned about him. It would make him feel like he was bringing the team down.

When he reached the infirmary, he started rummaging through the cabinet that Coran had designated for human use. It was where they stored any kind of medication they found that humans could use without serious repercussions. Luckily, the only side effect of the headache medicine was fatigue, and he could use some of that right now.

Grabbing the right bottle, he poured some of it out into a little beaker, feeling like a mad scientist. "Insert evil laughter here," he said to himself before he downed the medicine. Sour, sour, he had forgotten that it tasted like a pickle and a lemon had a baby. Sticking his tongue out and trying not to gag, Lance put away the meds and pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulder. He wished the relief had been instant since it almost felt like the pain was steadily getting worse, but it would take some time to take effect.

There were a few exam tables in the room, and he wandered over to one of them. Maybe he would just camp out in the infirmary for a while instead of trying to dodge Shiro to get back to his room. Hopefully he wouldn't come down to the infirmary. Lance curled up on the table, settling his blanket over him and cushioning his head on his hands.

Just a short nap, then he would go back to his room.