The morning alarms blared at the same time they always did every day, indicating the start to a new day of training and possible missions. This had been the life of the paladins of Voltron for the past few months. Well, really, they'd only been effective for waking the blue, yellow and, when she decided to sleep, the green paladins. Keith and Shiro were normally always up before the alarms sounded, as were the Alteans, so they signified that breakfast was soon. Everyone trickled into the kitchen/dining room within fifteen minutes of the alarms sounding, with the exception of Lance. Though Lance being a few minutes late to breakfast wasn't a rare occurrence so no one really commented on it. Allura gave him a few minutes and, once he was a no-show, sighed and took them through the day's plan, trusting one of them to pass the message along that it was, baring any distress calls, the same training plan as always. When Lance still hadn't shown by the time everyone finished their breakfast, Hunk was fidgeting where he stood.

"Where's Lance? He's never this late." He chewed his bottom lip worriedly. Shiro placed a calmer hand on the bigger boy's shoulder.

"Head for the training deck. I'll go see what's holding Lance up." Shiro ordered and everyone moved to follow said order, though Hunk was a little hesitant. The princess paused before she followed the rest of the Paladins to oversee their training.

"When you find Lance, please tell him I'd appreciate him taking training more seriously." Shiro didn't get the chance to respond before she swept out of the room to catch up with the others. Shiro thought that was a bit harsh. Sure, Lance was a bit of a goofball but he'd never seen the teenager take training anything less than seriously. He certainly didn't act serious during break times or when they were waiting for the level change or reset but the rest of the time he was focused solely on his shooting. He shook his head as he found himself in front of the blue paladin's door. He paused, placing an ear against the door, and listened for any sounds that would indicate Lance was up. When he heard nothing, he knocked and waited. When no answer was forthcoming, Shiro opened the door and prayed Lance was decent. He didn't bother switching on the light, the hallway illuminated enough of the room and bathroom. A quick glance around the dark room confirmed Lance was still in bed. Shiro sighed. Maybe the princess had a point after all.

"Lance? Lance?" He called the teenagers name as he approached the bed and gently shook his shoulder with his prosthetic arm. The kid barely stirred so he called a bit louder before he heard a disgruntled groan.

"Vete, Jamie. No me siento bien." Shiro blinked at the Spanish the boy mumbled. All he recognised was the name. Jamie was one of Lance's siblings. He continued to shake Lance's shoulder, a little more persistent than last time.

"I'm not Jamie, Lance. It's Shiro." Lance's eyes fluttered opened and looked at him, confused. Shiro couldn't be completely sure because of the lack of light in the room but he thought Lance's eyes didn't look as lively as they should. He put it down to the kid having literally just woken.

"Shiro? Why're you in my room?" Lance's words were slurred as he looked around his room a bit dazed.

"You didn't wake up when the morning alarms went off and you missed breakfast." Shiro informed him and frowned when it seemed to take Lance a few seconds to realise what he said.

"Shit. Sorry, Shiro. I'll meet you in the training room once I'm dressed." Lance scrubbed his face with his hands. Shiro nodded and left the room to give Lance the privacy he needed. He barely made it to the door when he heard a loud thump behind him. Spinning, he was confronted with the sight of Lance collapsed on the floor. By the time Shiro got the light on and was back next to him, Lance had pulled himself up so he was sitting on his knees and was clutching his head in his hands. Shiro was kneeling in front of him, hands over Lance's in worry.

"Lance? What's wrong?" He asked, slightly panicked. He got a proper look at Lance now that the light was on. The Latino's face was completely flushed, his eyes were screwed in pain, his hands were clammy and his breathing was laboured.

"Me siento como una mierda." Lance managed to gasp out and Shiro groaned in frustration. He didn't miss the way Lance flinched at that.

"English, Lance. I don't speak Spanish." Shiro used the softest tone he could muster at the moment. It took Lance a moment but he did manage to answer.

"Feel sick." Was all Shiro caught. Okay, now they were getting somewhere.

"Can you tell me what your symptoms are, Lance?" If he could, Shiro would be able to tell Coran and hopefully the orange haired Altean would have something in the medical bay that could help Lance.

"Feel hot." Shiro frowned and moved his flesh hand so it rested on Lance's forehead and hissed at how hot the Latino felt. "My stomach." Lance groaned.

"You feel nauseous?" Lance managed a weak nod. "What else? Is there anything else?" Shiro pushed.

"My head hurts. My throat. Achey... Tired." Lance certainly sounded tired. Shiro didn't bother asking if there was anything else. He doubted Lance could think straight with how high his temperature was.

"Okay, you did good, buddy. Let's get you in bed so you can sleep." Shiro positioned himself so he could help Lance up and was surprised he was met with resistance.

"No. Gotta train or I'll be more useless." Lance muttered, pushing weakly at Shiro's hands. God, Shiro really hoped that was the fever talking and not what Lance really believed. Unfortunately, he had a bad feeling it wasn't the fever talking. He grasped Lance's upper arms and made the Cuban look at him.

"Lance, you are sick. You need to rest and get better." Lance's blue eyes were dulled with fever and pain but Shiro knew he had his full attention. "Do you understand?" Lance nodded and this time when Shiro helped him back into bed, he didn't resist. Shiro pulled the blankets up over him before crouching so he was eye-level with the younger boy again. "I'm gonna find Coran and see if we've got anything to help you feel better. Will you be okay?" Shiro wasn't overly keen about leaving Lance by himself but the boy nodded and shut his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Shiro." Shiro had just gotten to his feet when he heard Lance whisper those words and Shiro would be lying if he said that the fact Lance sounded more upset that he'd let Shiro down than he was about being sick didn't get to the older boy.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about, Lance." He told him sincerely but he doubted Lance heard. From the way he was breathing, he'd already fallen asleep. Shiro flicked the lights off and hesitated slightly before actually leaving Lance's room in favour of locating Coran.

Finding Coran was honestly not that difficult considering Shiro knew he'd be at the controls of the training deck. He went straight for the observation deck that was primarily used by the two Alteans and glanced out of the glass to check on the other three. He couldn't hear them but he could see the varying states of worry in them. Hunk was the worst, naturally, and Pidge and Keith seemed tied, though if you didn't know Keith as well as Shiro did, you would probably miss his tells.

"Ah, Number One. I trust Number Three is almost here?" Coran asked as soon as the alien spotted Shiro approaching them.

"Actually, no. Lance is really sick. Do you know if you have anything that can help him? He said he felt nauseous, clammy and his throat hurts. He's also got a severe headache and his temperature is way too high." Shiro listed the symptoms off as quickly as he could. Coran looked worried that Lance was sick.

"Unfortunately, the cryo pods can't be used in this case. They're for physical injuries, not diseases or illnesses. I'll have to go search the infirmary and see what we've got that he can use. Not everything in there is safe for humans. I'll meet you back in his room." Coran sped out of the room, leaving Shiro and Allura by themselves.

"Princess, could you please tell the others? Tell them to wait for me to talk to them before they check on Lance themselves. I'm gonna head back and check on Lance." Shiro asked and she nodded, guilt evident in her expression.

"I'm sorry, Shiro. I just assumed he'd decided to blow off training and-" Shiro cut her apology short.

"You didn't know. Besides, it's not me you need to apologise to." She nodded as they both left the control room together. He kept going while she stopped outside the door that lead to the training area. He heard her open it and the other's talking before he turned a corner and was out of earshot.

He beat Coran back to Lance's room, though he would've been shocked if he hadn't. He pulled the chair that sat at the desk over so he could sit next to Lance and keep an eye on him. He was still fast asleep, though his face was still flushed and his breathing heavy. He didn't do anything except watch the rise and fall of Lance's chest. He wasn't sure how long he sat there before he was suddenly blinking rapidly to get his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in the rooms brightness as Coran flicked the light switch on. Lance scrunched his eyes shut and muttered more Spanish before settling back to sleep.

"How is he?" Coran asked as he used Lance's desk as a table for the supplies he'd grabbed.

"The same. He's still asleep." Shiro spoke quietly, eyes flicking to Coran before focusing back on Lance. Coran put something on Lance's forehead and was watching the small machine it was attached to intently. Faint beeping was heard a moment later and Coran frowned at it. "What?" Shiro asked concerned.

"It says his temperature in 38.1C. Is that bad for humans?" Coran asked. Shiro sighed relieved. He'd thought it had felt worse than that.

"It's not great but it's better than I thought it was. He just has a high fever." Shiro explained and Coran made a noise of understanding. He looked back at the stuff he'd grabbed and snatched up a brown bottle.

"Well, unfortunately, this is the only thing that will help him, I'm afraid. It'll reduce his fever, get rid of his headache and settle his stomach. I'd recommend wetting some cloths to help with his fever as well." Coran was upset he couldn't offer Lance any more help. "Other than that, it's just a matter of waiting for his fever to break. Once that happens, he'll heal a lot quicker." Shiro nodded.

"Okay so how much of that stuff and how often should he take it?" Shiro nodded at the bottle in Coran's hand.

"One capful every six hours should do it. Do you want to give him some now?" Coran asked, leaving the decision up to Shiro. Shiro didn't want to wake Lance up but the sooner he took the medicine, the quicker he'd start feeling better so he gestured for Coran to hand it over.

"Lance?" Like he'd only done a little while ago, Shiro shook Lance awake. This time Lance woke up a little quicker.

"¿Qué?" Lance asked once his eyes landed on Shiro.

"Do you think you could sit up and take some medicine? It'll make you feel better." Shiro coaxed as Lance eyed the medicine warily but gave in when he saw Shiro's pleading eyes. He sat himself up and took the cap from Shiro. His hand shook but he downed it in one go and regretted agreeing to take it once the taste hit him.

"Yuck!" He complained, coughing harshly to get rid of the taste. Shiro rescued the cap before Lance could toss it and gave it back to Coran.

"Sorry, Lance but it'll help you get better." Shiro offered with a sympathetic smile and Lance shot a thoroughly ineffective glare at him as he lay back down. "Get some sleep, kiddo." It didn't take much convincing for Lance to follow that order. Shiro and Coran watched him for a minute and, when his breathing deepened, spoke.

"Do you think you could find some cloths that we can use as cold packs for him? I'll get the water set up." Shiro asked and Coran headed off to the closest linen room to find what he could. Shiro went into Lance's bathroom and grabbed the bowl every bathroom had under the sink and filled it halfway with cold water from the sink. He carefully carried it back to Lance's bedside and placed it on the floor next to his bed. Coran came back only a few minutes later, arms full of small clothes. He dumped them on the half of the desk the medicine's he'd brought in didn't take up. Shiro grabbed one and examined it. It was about half the size of a hand towel and was perfect for what he needed it for. Folding it in half than half again so he had it the right size, he dunked it and placed the cool cloth on Lance's forehead. They knew right away it was effective because Lance sighed in relief and relaxed slightly. They lingered for a couple of minutes but finally had to admit they couldn't do much more and Shiro gestured they leave the room, turning the light off and shutting the door as they did so.

"Do you know where everyone is?" Shiro asked as they headed away from Lance.

"I believe Allura had them gather in the room where we debrief after each mission." Coran answered after a moment.

"Okay. Let's go talk to them. I'm sure Hunk is rather worried." Coran nodded in agreement. It wasn't hard to see how close the two of them were. Shiro was proven right when he was nearly flattened as he entered the room Coran had said they were waiting in.

"Is Lance okay? What's wrong with him?" Hunk asked as soon as he'd backed off slightly to give Shiro breathing room. Pidge was looking just as worried and so were Keith and Allura, though they were polite enough not to crowd Shiro and Coran.

"Lance will be fine. He has, well, it's similar to the flu back home, though his seems to be a bit worse. Coran found some medicine to help him and we've got some wet cloths to help with his fever. Other than that, we need to treat this like we would a normal flu. Make sure he drinks lots of water and gets lots of rest." Shiro paused to let them take in what he said and all of them visibly relaxed. Shiro continued. "Until his fever breaks, he'll need constant supervision so I want to set up a schedule so he'll always have someone with him, just in case. Is everyone okay with that?" He wasn't met with any objections. So now came the last part. "Princess, Coran, I won't be including you in that schedule." He held up a hand to stop the protests that were coming at him. "You're both needed to run the ship and make sure we're safe. I'm sorry, but the four of us can handle looking after Lance." He could tell they didn't like it but they also knew he was right.

"Okay. We'll leave Lance's care in your hands. Let us know if we can help in any way." Allura acquiesced. Shiro thanked her and the Alteans left the room, leaving them to sort out the details of the schedule. The oldest of the remaining group faced the rest of them.

"Before we figure out the schedule; Hunk?" The yellow paladin looked at him. "Have you been around Lance when he was sick before?"

"Yeah, why?" Hunk was rightfully curious.

"Does he normally respond in Spanish?" Understanding flickered through Hunk's eyes.

"Yeah, it's habit. Spanish is his native language and his parents aren't as fluent in English as he is so whenever he got crook back at his home, he'd always answer in Spanish. He never grew out of it, even in the Garrison. He'll stop once his fever breaks." That made sense.

"Thanks. Now, let's figure out this schedule." Shiro said and they got to work. They ended up agreeing to do four hour shifts each, Shiro would take the first four hours followed by Hunk then Pidge the Keith before Shiro was up again. Shiro made sure they knew that Lance had to have the medicine every six hours, which meant Hunk was the first of them to have to give him his next dose.

It took nearly one and a half days for Lance's fever to break but not before it spiked dangerously during one of Keith's shifts. The poor boy had panicked and woken Shiro up an hour before they were due to switch. It took until Shiro was halfway through his shift to convince Keith to go and catch some sleep. It seemed Lance had a knack for scaring Keith because, even though his fever broke while Pidge was in charge, Lance woke up coherent for the first time while Keith was looking after him.

"Keith?" Lance asked once his eyes had adjusted and made sense of the shape sitting right next to him. Said shape jumped in surprise.

"Lance? You're awake? How do you feel?" Keith rapid fired questions at the poor boy as he grabbed the device Coran had used to measure Lance's temperature. The orange-haired alien had given them all a crash course on how it worked. Lance got himself into a sitting position before drawing his knees up and resting his head on them.

"One thing at a time, dude. What happened? Did I screw up on a mission again? I don't remember being in Blue though." Lance asked once his head stopped spinning. He couldn't remember going out in Blue recently but with how much his head hurt, he wouldn't be surprised if he had and just couldn't remember. Keith's face screwed up at the phrasing of the question but answered it.

"No, we haven't had any missions for a while. You got really sick two days ago. Shiro found you after you didn't turn up for breakfast. Don't you remember?" Keith asked. Lance thought and came up with flashes of Shiro kneeling in front of him, concern all over his face.

"Vaguely." His head no longer felt like it was being split open so he turned to face Keith properly. He was honestly shocked to see real concern in his violet eyes.

"How do you feel?" He asked for the second time, using the chance Lance had offered to take his temperature. A few beeps sounded and Keith was relieved to see his temperature was well within the normal range for a human.

"Like Blue stood on me. Really tired. Like I need a shower. I have a massive headache. That's about it." Lance told him honestly and Keith nodded like he expected nothing less.

"Yeah, you basically had the flu, only on steroids. Shiro said you'd feel really tired for a couple more days. Coran actually found some painkillers if you want some." Lance nodded and Keith handed over the tablet and glass of water. Lance mumbled a thanks as he took the painkiller and drained the glass. Keith placed it next to the jug they'd dug up.

"I didn't get anyone else sick, did I?" Lance asked, worry all over his face.

"No. Everyone's fine." Keith assured him and Lance relaxed. Lance could feel the painkillers working already and he was extremely grateful for that as he lay back down.

"Good. That's good. I feel fine now so you don't have to stay here anymore. I'm sure you have better things to do. I'm just gonna sleep." Lance yawned and spoiled Keith's oncoming rant by falling asleep straight away. Keith was forced to settle for glaring at him which was, admittedly, not as effective as his rant would've been.

Lance was still out when Shiro showed up for his shift. Keith turned in his chair and flashed him a brief smile.

"How is he?" They'd made this a habit. The person who was taking over would ask the previous shift how Lance was, if there were any changes and made sure they were okay.

"His fever broke. He woke up about three hours ago and took a painkiller and went back to bed." Shiro was beyond relieved to hear that. It was nice getting good news instead of bad or the same news.

"Did he say anything?" Shiro had wondered about whether Lance would actually remember what had happened. His fever was pretty high.

"Yeah. He asked whether he'd screwed up on a mission again when he woke up and once he'd taken the painkiller, he told me I could leave because he was sure I had better things to do." Keith relayed and watched as Shiro's face fell.

"Damn. I knew it wasn't the fever." Keith didn't think that last was supposed to have been said out loud but he didn't care.

"What wasn't the fever?" Lance shifted in his sleep and turned so he was now facing them instead of the wall. They waited a few seconds but he didn't wake up.

"Look, this is something I need to talk to Lance about first, privately." Keith scowled but knew he'd nothing if he pushed the matter. He'd have to corner Lance later, if he wanted answers. Keith left Shiro alone with Lance shortly afterwards and decided to vent his annoyance on a training robot. Shiro let him go. He did feel bad about keeping Keith in the dark but it was up to Lance to tell people his problems. It was Shiro's job to make sure Lance knew that.

When Lance woke up next, Keith was nowhere in sight. However, Shiro was sitting where Keith had been previously and Lance gave an annoyed huff, alerting Shiro to the fact he was up.

"I told Keith I was fine. You don't need to be watching me anymore." Lance told him as he sat himself up a bit more carefully than he had the first time. That painkiller Coran had found was the best drug Lance had ever put in his system. Not only had it wiped out his headache but it had also helped with his full body aches, courtesy of the space flu. Shiro watched him as he got to his feet, a little unsteady a first but he soon got his balance back.

"Where are you going?" Shiro asked as Lance dug through his cupboard and came up with a new set of pj's.

"Shower. I so need one." He said as he shut his bathroom door behind him before emerging again. "Hey, Shiro? Keith said you were the one who found me when I got sick and made me rest so thanks for that." Shiro smiled at him.

"There's no need to thank me for that." He said honestly.

"Yeah, well, you could've gone and gotten Hunk to deal with me and you didn't so thanks. I'm gonna go for a shower now." With that, Lance disappeared back into his bathroom, leaving Shiro with something else to wonder over. Shiro listened to the water run for nearly fifteen minutes before it was turned off. It took Lance another five minutes to come back to his bedroom. He nearly jumped out of skin when he realised Shiro was still there. "Why are you still here? I told you, I'm fine now. I really appreciate everything you guys have done the past couple of days for me but I'm fine. You can go back to more important things." Lance said as he sat down on his bed, leaning against the wall that acted as a headboard, feeling so much better after his shower.

"I believe you but we still need to talk." Lance tensed. Those were never good words. Nothing good followed that kind of sentence. "Firstly, why didn't you tell anyone you were sick before it got this bad?" Shiro didn't sound angry, more concerned.

"I didn't tell anyone cuz there was nothing to tell." He shrugged a shoulder. "I dunno what to tell you. I went to bed feeling fine then the next thing I remember clearly is waking up with Keith sitting there." He gestured to the chair Shiro was in.

"Oh, I just assumed with how bad you were that morning, that you'd been feeling off a day or two prior. Sorry." Lance shook his head at the apology. It was a fair enough assumption. "There was something else I wanted to talk to you about. After you collapsed, I tried getting you back into bed so you could rest but you told me you didn't want to skip training because you'd be more useless and then you apologised for getting sick, like you'd somehow let us down." Lance flushed with embarrassment.

"It was just the fever." His voice wasn't as smooth or confident as he'd been aiming for but hopefully Shiro wouldn't notice.

"That's what I thought." Thank fuck. "Except," oh no, "Keith told me what you'd said when you woke up before." Lance was gonna seriously injure that stupid mullet. Since his brilliant plan of avoiding the unspoken question was to not look at Shiro, he felt said man move and sit next to him as opposed to seeing him, causing Lance to lean into his body thanks to the dip in the mattress. He brought his knees up to his chest and kept his eyes focused on them instead of the man next to him and shuffled a little so there was more room between the two of them. For a few heartbeats, neither paladin said anything. Then Shiro started talking.

"Lance, you are so important to this team. You are vital to this team. Without you, we'd fall apart. Everyone's been so withdrawn and worried while you were sick. You're the glue that holds us together. You make us forget we're fighting a war with your jokes. You help Coran and Allura with their grief. You make Pidge and Keith remember that sleep is as important as training or whatever project Pidge is absorbed in. You help Hunk with his piloting and cooking and you provide him a shoulder to lean on. You help me more than even I realised. Listening to you tell us stories helps me forget what I've been through and you have this knack of knowing when I've had a nightmare because you always make me that special not-quite-but-close-enough coffee before morning training." Tears had started trailing down Lance's cheeks halfway through that speech and Shiro wasn't done yet. He wrapped his arm around Lance's shoulders and kept going, determined to make the teenager realise just how important he was.

You even make the Lions more relaxed. I have no clue how you do that but I noticed that you'd hang back after a stressful mission and when you catch up to us, the Lions are happier. And there's the fact that you're our sharpshooter. No one comes even close to you in that department. I don't even wanna think about how many times we owe you for taking out a threat we didn't notice until it was nearly too late. If you need further proof as to how much you are worth to us, take the last two days. I had to effectively ban the princess and Coran from visiting you more than three times a day so that the castle could keep running and we wouldn't be snuck up on. Hunk and Pidge used any and every excuse under the sun to check on you when it wasn't their turn to sit with you. I even had to talk Keith into leaving your room more than once, especially when your fever spiked while it was his shift." Lance's tears were flowing thick and fast now and he was having to stifle sobs. Shiro pulled him closer and Lance went willingly. He buried his head into Shiro's stomach and wrapped his arms tight around Shiro's waist while he cried. Shiro ran his flesh fingers through Lance's locks.

I don't know how you managed to talk yourself into believing you weren't absolutely crucial to this team as more than just someone to pilot Blue because you are her paladin and so much more, Lance. You're our sharpshooter, our glue and we would be completely lost without you. Don't ever let yourself think otherwise and if you do, come and find me and I'll tell you how wrong you are." He gave Lance a squeeze as he finished speaking and kept up his ministrations with his hair while Lance kept crying. It didn't take long for the stifled sobs to calm down to hiccups and soon they disappeared altogether. Lance didn't make a move to pull away and Shiro didn't make him. Lance did twist himself so his face wasn't buried in Shiro's gut anymore but he didn't loosen his hug and neither did Shiro. Shiro was almost convinced Lance had fallen asleep again when he spoke.

"You check on us." He sniffled as Shiro made a questioning hum. "When you've had a nightmare and can't back to sleep, you check on us. I don't know if the others have noticed but I did 'cuz my mamá does the same thing. But that's how I know you've had nightmares 'cuz you do what mamá does." Lance explained, voice a little raspy after crying so much.

"I'm sorry I woke you." Shiro knew how much Lance liked his eight hours a night and he felt guilty for interrupting them.

"It's 'kay. I don't mind. Made me feel safe, that someone cared enough to make sure I was okay." Lance admitted, yawning widely as he fought to keep his eyes open. Shiro noticed his struggle and shifted himself so Lance had his head cushioned on his thigh as opposed to awkwardly on his stomach. Lance adjusted to the change in position and ended up facing the door with his arms curled up in between his own chest and Shiro's thigh. Shiro was still running his finger's through Lance's hair which did not help with his fight to stay awake.

"Of course I care about you, Lance. You're part of my family now. You and everyone else on this ship have become my space family and I wouldn't trade any of you for the world." Shiro's voice left no room for doubt. "Now go to sleep. Coran will have me scrubbing cryo pods for months if he discovered I've kept you from getting enough rest." Lance chuckled at the mental image and Shiro smiled.

"Okay. Thanks, Shiro." Lance shut his eyes completely, ready for sleep to wash over him once again. "And thanks." Shiro watched as his breathing evened out to a slow, deep rhythm that was so much more comforting than how it was when he was sick.

"Anytime, kiddo. Anytime."

A/N - This is my very first fic for the Voltron fandom so please tell me what you think! I have a couple more ideas for one-shots and an idea for a multi-chaptered story but I've got a story to finish for a different fandom before I start on that. This was just an idea that wouldn't leave me alone so I caved and typed it up. Please let me know what you think to how I wrote the characters! Translations are as follows:

vete, jamie. no me siento bien - Go away, Jamie. I don't feel well

me siento como una mierda - I feel like crap

¿Qué? - what?

Once again, thanks for reading this fic!