It was a warm perfect day, Sun was high in the sky, there wasn't a cloud in sight, the water was cold and the sand was warm. Lance couldn't have asked for a better beach day...even if the ocean water here was purple.
Lance sighed from his seat on top of Blue's head. "This sucks, Blue," he grumbled. "We got everything we could possibly need for a beach day and I can't enjoy it!"
He slumped back, letting his head gaze up to the sky. "Come on, Shiro, come get us already so we can party."
"Lance!" Hunk's voice called out. "I got lunch!"
"Yippee," Lance said softly with a raised fist that dropped to his side like a stone. He gradually rose as he rotated the kinks out of his shoulder and climbed down Blue to the sand below.
Hunk was exactly where he expected him to be. Tending to the small campfire, and finishing sprinkling some kind of herb he found on what seemed to be fish today.
He, like Lance, was currently stripped to his pants since it seemed pointless to stay in their armour for the hot weather.
Hunk gave a grin as he passed a fish on a stick to Lance and took one for himself.
"Good news," he said as he sat back to lean against Yellow's paw. "Found something I think is close to coconut."
"Great," Lance said with a small smile as he sat on the sand.
If there was one thing he was grateful, it's that he wasn't alone when he crashed landed.
The trip through the wormhole had now gone onto Lance's 'worst experiences' list and was ranked third just after surviving an explosion and almost being sucked into space.
From what they could tell, the wormhole and sent them to some kind of tropical planet. Thankfully, instead of landing in the middle of the ocean, they had crashed on this very beach.
After he and Hunk inspected each other and their lions for injuries and damage, they looked around. They couldn't find any locals, although they could just have the 'great' luck of landing on the unpopulated part of the planet.
They weren't in any immediate danger, and with the palm trees for cover, it did help hide the lions from flying ships over head. Thus, Lance and Hunk agreed they would be safe to wait until Shiro and the castle arrived.
However, that was over a week ago now and each passing day made both of them more and more uneasy.
Lance took a nibble of his fish and grinned. "We should make sure we take some of this seafood with us when we find the castle."
"Yeah," Hunk said with a wistful smile. "I remember Shiro saying seafood was a fave of his."
Lance paused, and twirled his fish on a stick in his hands. "Think..Shiro is okay?"
Hunk stiffened at the comment. It was something they both tried not to wonder, but every day Lance found himself worrying what state the others were in more.
"I don't know, Lance," Hunk muttered quietly. "I'm hoping so."
"He's strong though," Lance added.
"Yeah, but you didn't see the wound he got from that scary witch lady," Hunk remarked with a shudder. "It was even like glowing...and Red took a heavy hit too. Don't know if she would be able to land properly."
Lance growled. "Stupid, Keith. Why did that idiot have to fight Zarkon?" He punched his hand into the sand. "What was he thinking?"
"That he was distracting Zarkon from taking the Black Lion," Hunk replied. "And you got to admit that did work."
"Yeah, and he's lucky he didn't get himself killed," Lance muttered as he tore off more of the fish. "I swear, if he's dead I'm going to kill him!"
Hunk gave a small laugh. "Aw, Lance you do care."
"Yeah, yeah," Lance muttered and then took a deep breathe. "On that note...Hunk, I think it's time we go searching for the others."
Hunk dropped his grin and grasped his chin. "Got to admit, I've been debating the same thing."
Lance grinned. "So, let's go then."
"But Shiro and Allura's instructions were to stay put until they found us," Hunk said as he scratched his head. "At least, I think that's what they said. That static over the communications wasn't too helpful."
"I know that's what they said," Lance replied. "But it's been over a week! We don't even know how they're going to find us, and what if one of them is hurt or got captured."
He pointed his thumb over to their lions. "If anything, I think we can both agree having the lions in one place just makes us sitting ducks."
Hunk sighed. "Yeah, I'm kind of amazed the Galra haven't seem to find us yet."
That is a bit of a small miracle, Lance thought and shook his head.
"Still, I don't know," Hunk continued, as he drew a circle in the sand. " It might be best if we stay put."
"But what if something happened that makes it silly to stay here," Lance retorted and pointed to Blue. "For all we know, Blue and Yellow are the only workable lions and the others need us to save their butts."
Hunk rubbed his neck uneasily. "Can't deny that hasn't crossed my mind." He chewed his bottom lip. "But with our luck, the minute we leave is when Shiro or the castle finally shows up."
Lance growled as he shut his eyes. Hunk did have a point there, they had been pushing their chances lately. He took a deep breath and looked to Hunk.
"Compromise," he started as he held up a finger. "We stay ONE more day, but after that we get out of here and make a plan on how to find our friends."
Hunk fiddled with a piece of fish and sighed. "Okay, one more day, and then we get out of here." He frown deepened. "Although, we have no sweet clue where to or how to start looking for them. They could be anywhere, we don't even know where we are."
"Can't you lock on the lion's signals or quintessence or whatever?" Lance asked, hopefully.
"The castle can, but the lions haven't been equipped with it," Hunk replied. "Although, Pidge and I have been working on making tracking signals for the lions to use so we can find each other easier."
Lance pouted as he leaned on his hand. "And you couldn't have finished that little project before we got into that fight with Zarkon?"
"We didn't exactly have the time to do so," Hunk argued. "How were we suppose to predict that we get tossed through a wormhole? Frankly, I'm still amazed we got out of there."
"Fine, fair enough," Lance muttered as he ate a piece of his fish. "Still trying to figure out how that barrier came down?"
Hunk sighed as he speared another fish and add it to the fire to cook. "Yeah, it's still bugging me. They had us right where they wanted and it suddenly crashed?"
Lance shrugged. "Maybe it just glitched."
"Galra tech doesn't just glitch," Hunk insisted. "From the stuff Pidge and I examined, it's almost impossible for it."
Lance finished his fish and land back to tan on the sand. "Well, I have seen it. Keith managed to get a hangar to close back on the Balmera just by touching the control panel."
Hunk blinked. "Wait, what? That's not possible since only Galra and their tech can use it."
Lanced sighed. Why didn't he get the point? "Yeah, we know and that's why I'm saying. It glitched somehow."
Hunk didn't look convinced. "That's doesn't seem right. It shouldn't have-"
Both of the lions suddenly growled in their minds and at the same moment they heard footsteps approach.
Lance and Hunk leapt to their feet with their backs pressing against each other.
Lance cursed as he held out the stick he'd been eating his fish off of. "I left my bayard in Blue. You?"
"Unfortunately, same," Hunk whispered as he sweated a little. "Think it's Galra?"
"REALLY, hoping not," Lance replied. "Be rather undignified to be shot at with only my pants on...granted could also be badass if we beat them."
"Lance, I don't think they care on what you're wearing!"
"They don't, but I do-"
"THERE YOU TWO ARE!"
Hunk and Lance yelled as they spun around ready to fight, but then froze. Poking her head out of the bushes was no Galran soldier or any kind of enemy, but was merely a face they been wishing to see for the past week.
"ALLURA?!" the boys cried in unison.
Allura gave a smile of relief. She wasn't in her gown, but her battle uniform and also had her hair tied back as normal. She rushed over and hugged them both.
"I'm so happy to see you're alright," she said.
Lance gave a slight blush as Hunk gleefully hugged the princess back.
"Man, it's about time!" he exclaimed. "We were getting worried.
Lance relaxed as Allura broke the hug and glanced around. "So, where are the others?".
"Coran went to look for you on one of the other islands," Allura explained. "It took some doing, but we managed to track your lions' quintessence."
"And that's great," Lance replied, "but I mean where are Shiro, Keith and Pidge?"
Allura's smile dropped into a frown. "I don't know, you two are the first ones we managed to track down."
"What?" Hunk asked, disappointed. "I thought you would at least found Shiro by now."
"After we got out of that wormhole, the castle landed in the Katerra System which is a long way from here," Allura explained. "You two were the first ones we managed to track down."
"So, what you're saying is that Pidge, Keith and Shiro are all still missing," Lance confirmed with his arms folded.
"Exactly," Allura replied, and looked to Hunk. "And I'm worried for Shiro since he was severely wounded when we escaped."
"And not to mention Red was beaten up pretty bad due to the fight," Hunk replied as he folded his arms. "There's no telling what kind of state they're in right now."
Lance growled as he raced towards Blue. "Well, let's quit standing around here and get going already! Come on, Hunk! Move it!"
Allura blinked, slightly surprised as she turned to Hunk. "I'll admit, I didn't expect him to act so fast."
Hunk sighed as he began to dump sand over the fire. "We've been sitting here the past week, and while I get we had to follow orders, it drove us crazy." He wiped off his hands and pointed to Lance. "He doesn't like to admit it, but he's been worried sick, especially about Shiro and Keith."
Allura frowned and gave a nod. "I am too, but there's no point focussing on that until we know for certain." She tapped her earrings causing them to glow as they always did when communicating. "I'll contract Coran and tell him to meet us back at the castle."
"Will do, and you can ride with me," Hunk said as he pointed to the foliage. "Although, I like to snag some of this food before we leave-"
"GUYS MOVE IT!" Lance yelled from Blue. "We don't have all day!"
Hunk sighed as he shook his head. "I just hope Shiro is doing okay where he is," he muttered.
