Another chapter. Hope you enjoy :D
"How do you know my name?" Came the confused reply with a shuffling of feet as Matt moved around to Lance's front.
"Oh man. Holy shit. You're Matt. Matt Gunderson! No way. That's crazy. What are the chances?" Lance was freaking out. He'd found him! Somehow. He had found Pidge's brother and the guy was looking down at him super confused but otherwise looked okay. He was okay!
"You've got ten seconds to tell me how you know my name." Matt's voice was less gentle now, Lance guessed being a prisoner for so long would make you suspicious of people. But this was Pidge's brother! Practically family! Lance would reunite them. Somehow. He had found one of the people Pidge had been looking for! She'd be so happy, now they just had to bust outta here somehow.
He tried to sit up, putting his hands beneath him he pushed. That was a big mistake, his limbs shook under him and he just fell back to where he started. He growled in his throat in frustration as the pain returned.
"Whoa, take it easy there."
"Finally found you and I can't even get up. Hey, can you help me sit up?"
"Uh, I don't think it's a good idea to move." A gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Please? I can't just lie here forever. I'd like to sit up to talk for a bit."
Matt seemed to chew on the inside of his cheek before he decided and reached out.
"Okay, tell me if I should stop."
With a nod of conformation from Lance, Matt put his hands under Lance's armpits and as softly as he could eased his body off the floor and towards a nearby wall. He tried to breathe through the pain but there was something sharp inside him that spiked and his vision darkened and he was gone into the sweet world of unconsciousness.
He came back, feeling as if he never passed out but some time had obviously passed. There was a blanket draped over him, slipped behind him too so his back wasn't cold against the wall. A voice was muttering, if he didn't know any better he'd think it belonged to Pidge. He listened for a little bit at the paranoid ramblings and hidden apologies directed at him that made him smile. They were so family.
"I told you moving you was a bad idea and then I went and moved you anyway...but I mean if you opened your stupid mouth to stay stop like I said then I would've stopped..."
"Well I would have if I hadn't passed out right away." Was Lance's retort. Matt flinched, stopping his worried pacing and kneeled down next to Lance.
"You ready to answer my questions now?" Matt asked, eyes hardening. Lance sighed as he struggled to keep his eyes open, a nap would have to wait.
"I'll answer as much as I can, can't say most of it won't sound crazy." Lance stated, working his jaw a bit. He could feel it swelling and his mouth tasted like blood, his lip was sore too but it didn't feel like anything was broken. He wondered what his face looked like. No skin care routines here, his poor skin.
"You working for the Galra?"
Lance's eyebrows furrowed at that one as he looked up to meet Matt's eyes.
"Does it really look like I get along with them? What kind of question is that anyway? Wouldn't I be saying 'no' either way?" Lance asked.
"Well, can't say I trust them with who they give me for roommates." Matt said, looking away to the far side of the room. Small room actually now that Lance looked quickly. Some kind of toilet in the corner of the room, a sink like thing too. Some blankets in the corner. Quaint really.
"Well, I promise you I'm not on their side. What I really want is to get you, and I, out of here."
Confusion returned to Matt's face. Lance had a feeling he'd be seeing a lot of that.
"Why? How do you know me?"
"That's the best thing. Prepare to have your mind blown." Lance said, pausing for effect. "Your sister."
Another confused pause.
"Katie? What does Katie have to do with any of this? How do you know her?"
"My man, Pidge has been looking for you and let me tell you nothing is going to stop her until she finds you. That girl is dedicated, she will fight through anything for you. Quite the sibling you got there."
"Wait, wait. I'm confused. She's on Earth. Safe on Earth."
"Sorry to burst your bubble but she's really not. Not on Earth. Being safe on the other hand is debatable. I mean, if anyone could handle themselves in intergalactic warfare against a vicious alien species it's probably her."
"She's here?!" Matt grabbed Lance's shoulders in alarm, his face showing blatant panic. Lance sucked air through his teeth as his injuries were jostled. A small apology reached his ears as Matt released him.
"S'okay. She's not on this ship no. She's part of Voltron, the green paladin. I'm the blue paladin." Lance explained, leaning his head back against the wall as he grew more tired.
"She's a paladin? As in a paladin of Voltron? I've heard of Voltron. It's all the Galra talk about, what the hell has she gotten herself into?"
"Well, she's been saving hundreds of aliens on her way to find you. She's a hero. Got us out of a lot of bad situations, couldn't do it without her really."
"Really? Hah, I can't picture it." Matt laughed lightly.
"She snuck into the garrison as a boy, was learning how to fly. She was on my team actually, you know before the crazy flying robot thing became an option." Lance continued, seeing Matt's eyes light up.
"Katie hacked her way in didn't she? Dad always told her that would get her into trouble one day." Matt rubbed a hand down his face in exasperation but Lance could tell he was truly happy that his sister was well.
"Yep, she's hacked a lot of stuff since then too. Hey, where is your Dad?" Lance rolled his head, looking around somehow expecting him to be nearby.
"He escaped, about a week ago actually. A bunch of rogue aliens busted in here, saving a bunch of prisoners. Well, all but me. I got caught on the way out. Dad obviously didn't want to leave me but one of the rogue picked him up and carried him away. Left me behind."
Lance frowned, he didn't seem to blame his Dad at all but he could feel the loneliness radiating off the young man.
"I'm sorry. At least he's safe." Lance didn't add the 'probably' in there like his brain wanted to. He was probably safe, there wasn't a lot of rogue groups out there that were saving prisoners just for the greater good but he had to hope.
There was a pregnant silence, a bit awkward as Matt clearly thought about it probably along the same line that Lance was thinking. Lance decided to try to cheer him up.
"You know, I think you know our black paladin. Quite well actually." He begun, showing a smirk at the raised eyebrow he got.
"Just this awesome guy named Shiro. He's been looking for you too, you're pretty popular hey?"
"Shiro? Takashi Shirogane? He's okay? He's really okay? I haven't seen him since...I thought..." Matt's face cracked, his hands coming up to hide his face as his shoulders shook. "I never thought I'd hear about any of them again... but they are okay? Really?"
The watery eyes looking up at him now took the air out of his lungs, he could only nod in assurance as the tears finally spilled over and he hid his face in his hands again. So far for making him happy, he made the guy cry. Out of happiness perhaps but still. He made a mental note that he never ever wanted to see Pidge cry, he didn't want to know what crazy things he'd do to make her stop. That was not a face he ever wanted to see.
Just when Lance thought it was getting awkward and wishing he had his hands free so he could at least pat the guy on the back or something Matt's head raised, his face determined.
"So. How are we going to get out of here."
Lance pursed his lips in thought.
"That's a great question that I do not have the answer to."
The determination dropped off Matt's face.
"What do you mean? You don't have a plan to get out? I thought you were one of the great paladins of Voltron?"
"Now, now...I didn't say great. If you hadn't noticed it wasn't really part of my plan to get caught in here in the first place. I can hardly function enough to stay awake at this point, let alone come up with a daring escape plan."
Matt just continued frowning, clearly disappointed with Lance.
"Ugh, you're smart right? Why haven't you figured a way out yet then?"
Now Matt crossed his arms and looked away. Pouting. Yeah, that will solve their problems.
"Okay, okay, listen. I'm gonna have a nap. A probably very long nap and when I wake up we will think about this again okay? I can't think straight when my thoughts have to battle against my heartbeat."
"We should probably check to see how bad your wounds are..." Matt muttered, uncrossing his arms and walking over to the sink. He grabbed a small metal cup that was on the edge and filled it with what Lance really hoped was water.
"Here." The cup was placed in his hands and Lance thanked all the crazy alien gods that it was actually water, lukewarm but Lance was truly never more thankful. Plus it was still better than nunvil, anything was really. He chugged it in seconds wincing as he used the swollen muscles in his face but it quenched his thirst for now. Matt had gotten up and returned with a wet rag, he handed it to Lance.
Once Lance put the cup on the ground he took the wet rag and placed it gently on his face. It was heaven, it felt cool on his face though he knew it wasn't, his face was just hot with swollen flesh. He sighed. He wished he was back on the ship, sleeping in his own bed.
"We should take a look at your chest too. Though there's not a lot we can do for you at this point..." Matt looked apologetic, Lance got it. No Advil here, check.
"Fun." Lance muttered. "Could you?" He asked, leaning forward a smidge so Matt could reach the zipper on his neck. Without another word Matt helped him out, unzipping to his lower back and easing as much of the fabric forward off of Lance. It was a bit awkward since his hands were still tied so they couldn't take his hands out of the sleeves so he just had to crumple the fabric at his waist and wrists instead. Plus, also awkward getting half undressed in front of a stranger but by this point Lance was so tired he didn't care. He was truly distracted from feeling tired and awkward once he got sight of his chest.
They were both a little speechless.
You know when you hurt yourself and it kinda hurts but you're okay...until you look at it and suddenly it hurts a million times more.
That was what was happening now.
It was a purple, like his whole chest was purple deepening to black in the middle. Lance had never seen anything like that before, how did he get that. How did he survive that? How was he even breathing? That had to be the worst bruise he's even seen.
It was suddenly harder to breathe, his breath didn't get into his lungs. It hurt, it hurt so bad he was gonna pass out. He couldn't breathe. He was bleeding internally. This was bad. He needed to breathe.
"Whoa, whoa, breathe man. You're okay. That doesn't look good but you can still breathe, come on now."
His voice was calming, like Hunk. God, Lance missed Hunk right now. He needed a hug, a good ol' Hunk hug. His eyes stung with tears. Hell, he'd take Keith yelling at him even, nothing was more distracting than that. He needed his family, blood or his Voltron family. Lance had been gone not even a day and already he felt an ache in his chest. He missed them.
Hands on his face brought him up to meet Matt's eyes.
"Come on, focus here. You gotta stay with me okay? What's your name? I don't even know what to call you."
Distraction. Good. They should do that.
"L-Lance." Okay. He had air. Or he wouldn't be able to say a word. Good.
"Okay Lance, you've gotta breathe okay. Here with me."
Now Matt made obvious deep breathes and Lance did his best to follow along. Lance guessed he was having some kind of panic attack, great, way to appear cool in front of Pidge's older brother. They were really off to a great start.
Eventually they got his breathing under control. Now he couldn't keep his eyes open. Not an ounce of energy left.
"Alright, come on now. I think it's best you lie down to sleep."
Lance understood but didn't make a move.
Gentle hands guided him to the floor, something soft under his head. He lay on his side again, hands still tied and sleeves still pulled down around them. A blanket was fixed on top of him and he thought no more.
That's all folks. Don't forget to drop a review please. Let me know how you liked it, constructive criticism is welcome too. Pce out.