Summery: Hunk is technically the first paladin to figures out the meaning to his soul mark first.

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"Hunk… Are you seriously making calzones?"

Hunk looked up mid cheese sprinkling (it was not actually cheese, but he thought the texture and overall flavour was pretty close to mozzarella) to see Lance scrutinizing his handy work with a raised brow.

"Uuuh… yes?" Hunk smiled nervously. Was he not supposed to? I mean, he knew they would be leaving tomorrow on their mission to defeat Zarkon, and he probably should be getting rest instead of cooking. Or maybe he should be training. That's what most people do when getting ready to fight a big powerful overlord, right? But he can't because he's too nervous. After all, they are leaving tomorrow on their mission to DEFEAT ZARKON! The big powerful overlord. The baddest bad guy in the universe. The literal destroyer of worlds whose been in control for- like- ten thousand years. Oh, and by the way, last time they faced him they nearly died! All of them. Like, more than once!

(Keith probably holds the record for number-of-times-almost-died during that mission. Admittedly, Hunk would not be surprised if he held that record for nearly every mission they've ever been on.)

So yeah, Hunk is cooking. It's the only thing he can think to do right now to keep him from hyperventilating.

Strength washes over him and Hunk is immediately comforted as he feels his Lion press into his subconscious- purring deeply as she tries to reassure him that she will protect him and in turn they will protect the others. Hunk smiles as her presence fills him with confidence and warmth and he sends her his thanks from the bottom of his heart. It's really great knowing a gigantic power house will always be there for you. Plus, there is just something about Yellow that is so pleasant and warm and feels just so emright/em. She is literally the best and Hunk would never want to be anyone else's paladin.

"I did say I was hungry." Hunk, no longer so unsure of himself, adds. "Plus I've been wanting to try this konzoki- or whatever the Olkari called it- in one of my dishes. I've already tested to see how it reacts to heat. Besides turning a little green it still tasted fine."

Lance considered this a moment, then his eyes brighten and he grins. "Sounds tasty. Wanna make me one pal?"

Hunk's face brightened and he nodded enthusiastically. "Of course!"

Excited, Hunk finishes crimping the edges of his calzone together and glazing the dough with butter (it's not butter). He pops it in the oven and turns to whip up some more dough and white sauce for Pidges meal.

Weeell, that's what he would have done if the oven hadn't exploded in his face the moment he opened it.

Hunk gives a squeak and just manages not to drop his masterpiece (he worked so hard on it!) as he leaps away from the malfunctioning oven that is now spewing fire like an angry dragon. Lance gives his own impressively high pitched cry of surprise before rushing over with the altean version of a fire extinguisher. Trusting Lance to handle the unruly oven (probably not a smart decision on his part), Hunk retreats further to place his calzone on a counter that is safely far away and out of reach of whatever blue chemicals are spewing out of the fire extinguisher. It's only after he's got his food to safety that he actually notices that his hands are on fire.

It's not his hand exactly, more like the oven mitt and his gauntlets that are going up in flame. But still….

He's on FIRE!

Hunk gives another cry of alarm and rushes (trips) over to the sink while trying to pull the burning material off of him.

A minute later and Hunk is sighing with relief as his now sopping mitt and gauntlet smoke in the sink while Lance finishes off the fire and gives his own sound of relief before slumping against the countertop next to him. Hunk's pretty sure he can hear Yellow laughing in his subconscious. He sends her his disgruntled feeling and tries to impress upon her that no, this really isn't funny. He almost lost his calzone!

Yellow only laughs harder.

"Oh dear. What has happened here?"

Hunk looked up to see the princess, Coran, and Pidge walking into the kitchen. All are looking at the billowing smoke and scorched floor.

Pidge assesses the damage immediately and snaps her eyes over to Lance to give him one of her death glares. "Seriously Lance? What did you do this time?"

"Me?" Lance squeaks. "I didn't do anything! I bet it's Keith's fault. He's got the lion of fire anyway! He must have made the oven explode on us!"

Pidge scoffs. "Last I checked none of us can actually control the elements our lions represent."

"But he's part Galra! I bet he can control fire."

"Galra aren't fire benders, idiot!"

"Actually." Hunk stepped in between them before Lance can tempt Pidge into using the frying pan that has suddenly appeared in her hand and which she is brandishing rather menacingly. "I was the only one to touch the oven so I guess that means it's my fault. Sorry Coran. I'll try and fix it."

"Don't worry number 2," Coran, who was sticking his head into the black maw of the still smoking oven. "It's not your fault. The holocoretex misaligned with the riztack which has fried the crystals. Afraid this poor girl is dead as a boffnet in a hoard of disquims. We are going to have to replace it."

"That's not the only thing needing replacing." Lance says, pointing to the sorry sight in the sink. "Dude, did you actually catch on fire?"

"Yeah," Hunk sighs, shoulders slumping. "I'm going to have to get a new pair of gauntlets and an oven mitt."

"Hunk?" A slightly worried voice calls out, and everyone looks up to see the Allura pointing at Hunk's right wrist. Hunk is hit with a sinking feeling as he looks down to see that his strange glowing yellow soul mark is there for everyone to see. He gulps. Yellow tries to reassure him that the others will not think it weird. Not very reassuring since even he thinks it's weird.

"I did not know you had a tattoo like Lance." Allura says and Hunk is momentarily confused until he spots the ever visible blue soul mark twisting around Lance's wrist. Ooooh. Now he gets it. Allura must not know what a soul mark is.

So wait, if she doesn't know, then do Alteans not have soulmates?

Before Hunk goes any further in his thinking Allura's next words halt him dead in his tracks.

"Why is it in balmarian?"

Wait… what?

Hunk looks down at his mark, eyes wide as Lance and Pidge gasp.

"Y-you- this- I- B-balmarian?" Hunk stammers. Yellow hums in the back of his mind and he gets the feeling she's amused and self satisfied by this new revelation. Wait… did she know the whole time?

"No way. NO WAY!" Lance laughs, grin far too wide to fit on his face and eyes practically sparkling with amusement. "It's Shay! Isn't it! It's gotta be her!"

Hunk clears his suddenly extremely dry throat and tries to ask, "C-can you… can you- uh- read it?"

Allura steps forward as Hunk holds his shaking hand up for her to examine. After a moment she frowns and shakes her head. "I am sorry. I was just starting to learn Balmarian before the war broke out. I am afraid I only recognise two of these words. This one here is brother while this mark shows that the sentence is formed as a question. That is it I am afraid."

Hunk feels his hope die and his gut sink at her words. Before he can become too disappointed though Pidge marches over to Coran, grabs him by the arm, and bodily drags him away from the oven which he was still inspecting. Glasses glinting she thrusts a finger toward Hunks wrist and demands. "Can you read that?"

"What? Oh, Hunk! I did not know you had a tattoo like Lance. And in Balmarian too! I haven't seen their language in literary form for years." Coran beams, grabbing Hunks hand and holding it closer to his face. "Let's see, my skills might be a bit rusty. It has been a few thousands years since I even saw an example of the balmarians literary language."

"Come on Coran!" Lance says as he and Pidge both crowd Hunk in their excitement. "Just tell us what it says?!"

Coran's brow wrinkles and a deep frown forms under his mustache.

"That can't be good." Pidge says. All of a sudden Hunk is feeling quite sick. He might throw up.

Yellow purrs, impressing upon him that he has nothing to worry about. In fact, she is quite sure he would be pleased by the revelation.

Now Hunk is more nervous than ever.

"I do not understand." Allura, trying to peer past everyone's shoulders to see the object of everyone's attention, says. "What is so important about Hunks tattoo?"

"For starters, it's not a tattoo." Pidge says, readjusting the perch of her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "It's his soul mark."

"A soul mark?" Allura asks, tilting her head to the side. "What does this mark have to do with the soul?"

"It's a mark that helps us find our soulmates." Lance answers.

"What is… a soulmate?" Allura, still sounding completely confused, asks.

"You know, they're your soulmate. Don't you guys have soulmates?"

Pidge takes a step back and gives the two alteans a studied look. "I don't think they do, Lance. I've been considering for a while now that having soulmates and soul marks might just be a human thing. I mean, Keith… nevermind."

"Wait, what about Kei-" Lance begins to ask but Allura interrupts him. She seems frustrated at being left out of the loop. Not that Hunk blames her.

"Please," Allura says imploringly. "What are soulmates? It seems all so very important to you humans."

"That's 'cause it is," Lance says. "Soulmates are the fated person you're supposed to be with! They're, like, the other half of your soul!"

Allura eyes widen. "Really? I have never heard of such a thing. It sounds fascinating. Do all humans have soul marks?"

Lance cires, "Yup!" while Hunk gives a more tentative, "Mostly, yeah."

He notices Pidge says nothing.

"Does… Shiro have a mark?" Allura asks, her curious voice has a tint of hope.

Oh-ho-ho! Is she blushing?

"Of course!" Lance grins (he gives Hunk a look that says he noticed the blushing too). "All marks appear on our dominant hand. I bet he'd show you his mark if he asked. He hasn't shown us his mark to anyone. Probably for the same reason you didn't, Hunk."

"Oh, you mean you think his mark is alien." Hunk nods.

Coran, looking up from his study of Hunks mark, asks "Why would that make a difference?"

Hunk scratches the back of his neck nervously. "Well, you see I always thought my mark was wrong or something because I couldn't recognise the language- plus the colour was off and… well, human eyes don't glow. So I hid my mark. If Shiro hasn't shown his mark to any of us yet it's probably because it's alien too, like mine."

"Oh." Both Alteans eyes widen in understanding.

"Guys..." Pidge speaks up, there is something off about her voice. If Hunk wasn't so overwhelmed by the prospect of finally finding out what his soul mark says he would probably pick up on what is bothering her. "I don't think asking Shiro about his mark is a good idea."

"Why?" Lance and Allura ask at the same time.

"Because he's left handed."

Hunks eyes widen in realisation. Oh.

"Yeah, so what?" Lance asks. Allura doesn't seem to get it yet either.

"Um," Hunk's voice warbles, but he doesn't care. He can't stop thinking about how awful this must be for Shiro. "Thats- thats the arm the druids amputated."

There is sickening silence as realisation dawns on Lance and the Alteans. Hunk decides he might need to talk to Shiro after this whole Zarkon thing is over- just to make sure their strong and fearless leader is… okay.

"There is still something which I am still curious about." Allura finally breaks the silence. "How does this mark show you your 'soulmate'? How can a mark say anything and what does humans not having glowing eyes have to do with it?"

"W-well." Hunk clears his throat. "The colour represents your soul mates eyes. The characters of the mark are the first words your soulmate says to you."

Allura stares at him for a moment, then down at his wrist, then to Coran who is still glaring at the mark, then back up to stare at Hunk some more. He can see the moment something clicks within her blue and pink eyes and she gasps before turning on Coran, grabbing his arm, and shaking him wildly.

"Quickly Coran! What does the mark say! You must tell us this instant!"

"Yes, princess!... But I haven't figured it all out yet. There are two words which are escaping me. I have never seen this one before," he taps the first character of the mark which starts the strand "And this one here" he's tapping another character. "Is also a mystery. I assume they may be names but I cannot be sure what those names are."

"Well, why not just make one up! It doesn't matter as long as we know what the rest of the sentence says."

Hunk gets worried at that because what if it does matter? It's probably a really generic sentence like 'hi, how are you' and the names are the only defining part about it? Then he'd never be able to find his soul mate.

His lion, Yellow, reminds him that he is actually closer to finding his soulmate than he ever was before. Also, if its even viable to have an alien soulmate (which seems like a real possibility right now) then his soul mark isn't as freakishly weird as he always thought it was. He must admit, that in itself is a huge relief.

Coran takes Lance's suggestion and clears his throat before taking a huge breath. Everyone subconsciously leans forward, waiting.

"Moxif Vango the Third. And this one, my brother Fomble-Damble-Dop. How did you fall to us?"

There is a moment of silence in which one could hear a pin drop. Then everyone (but Hunk, he's still in shock) blinks at the same time.

"Well that's weird." Lance frowns and rubs his chin. "Hey, but at least you now know what your mark says. Right buddy?"

But Hunk doesn't hear him. He can't. All he hears is Shay's sweet voice as she stares at him with concerned (and just a bit of wonder) soft yellow eyes.

"Shay. And this one, my brother Rax. How did you fall to us?"