Title: A Place to Remember

Rating: T

Chapter: 7

Author's note: first season story


Hunk's soup was actually really good. Not like anything my mom could make, but then chicken noodle wasn't her go to soup. I would kill for a bowl of her ajiaco right now. I shouldn't have thought about it, because now I'm laying in my bed thinking about it and her. She would start a batch cooking in the morning and by the evening meal the whole house would smell like it. It was a lot of work for her, especially with us kids running around the place, but she said all that work put extra love into the stew and made it taste even better.

I can't remember what seasoning she would add at the end. I can see the bottle and her hand, but I can't remember what she added. It is driving me nuts. I can't sleep. It's driving me nuts. My head is killing me. I think maybe it's time to go grab one of those weird Altean aspirin seed things.

I made my way down to the med bay and found the bottle in question. It was one of the few things I knew on sight and Coran had said it was okay to take one for aches and pains so we were free to get one if we needed. A lot of the other stuff hadn't been tested for use on humans or was too strong for us to just use. I took one and grabbed a couple to stash in my room in case this didn't do the trick. Coran said one every twelve varga was okay.

I finally got some sleep, not sure if the pill did the trick or I was just exhausted. When I got up I took a quick shower. I actually fell on my butt in the shower. I must have slipped on something and down I went. I swear I bruised my ass and the fall jarred my headache back into full swing. This was not going to be a fun day.

I managed to get into my armor and down to the kitchen, but everyone was already leaving.

"Lance, training in 10 dobashes. Pick up something quick." Shiro ordered on his way out. Hunk gave me a sympathetic look on his way out.

"There's some biscuit things on the counter and that weird jelly stuff I made in the fridge."

"Thanks!" I picked up a biscuit and nibbled it. My stomach rolled and I decided maybe it wasn't a good idea to eat anyway. I just grabbed a hydration pouch and headed to the training deck.

I felt like turning around and going right back out the door when I saw Keith with the darkened helmet dodging bots.

"Lance, you're up next. You'll direct Hunk for the first round." I moved over and watched Keith dodging around blow after blow. Honestly, I think he was doing more dodging on his own and not really listening to Pidge anyway. Maybe I should have tried that instead, except I'm not a super ninja so it won't work for me.

"Hunk, do you want me to tell you where the blow is coming from or where you should go?" I was helping him up to the area where the bots would be. He already had his helmet on.

"Where to go I think, if you tell me where from, then I have to think where to go, it will be easier if I just follow you." He sounded completely sure that this was going to work.

I was less sure. And two hits in, I'm guessing so was Hunk.

"Lance, I'm not as fast as you, see if you can give me a little more lead."

"Okay, down left. Roll right. Back back." I cringed when the bot brought the staff down on Hunk's hand as he was crawling back. "Stop simulation!"

Hunk was holding his hand and his face was scrunched up in pain.

"I'm sorry, man." I reached over and removed his helmet.

"It's okay, I just didn't move my hand fast enough."

"No, I should have figured it out and angled you back. You already told me to give you more notice. I'm sorry." The pain building up in my head was beyond annoying, it was distracting. I should have seen that hit coming.

"Hunk, can you move your fingers." Coran was there checking Hunk's hand. He didn't find anything broken, but he still wanted to do a scan. Hunk and him left and headed out to the med bay.

"Okay, Lance. Your turn in the helmet and today I'll direct you." Shiro turned back to me and gestured for me to get onto the mat.

Well it was better than having Keith do it I suppose. I put the helmet on and stepped out.

"Left, Down. Right. Back. Jump. Down." I felt like I was doing some weird dance at least up until that down. Down I ducked, but somehow ended up face planting on the mat.

"Ow." I vaguely heard Shiro shutting down the simulation. He was there beside me.

"Hey, buddy, you okay?" He helped me up. I could feel blood dripping from my nose. I felt someone press a cloth in my hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose and leaned forward.

"Yeah" I answered nasally. "I just tripped or something, sorry." My head was spinning like I'd gone five rounds on a tilt a whirl.

Shiro reached over and looked at my face. He searched carefully and finally nodded. "It doesn't look broken."

"Oh, thank goodness. I didn't even think about that. My nose could have been crooked or something." I reached up and patted my face, everything seemed to still be in place.

"Oh sure, we wouldn't want to mess up your face, your brain okay, but not your face." Keith smarted.

I just stared at him. Either I'm that pointless to him or he thought that was funny.

"I can't tell if you are kidding or you're just being really mean right now." I guess my brain to mouth filter is off today cause that just came out.

"I'm joking Lance, why would I…" He just gave me that funny look again and then looked kind of hurt.

"Oh. Okay." I'm not sure what else to say.

"Paladins are you going to continue training?" Allura's voice came over the com.

"Yes, but we are done with this exercise for the day. Set us up with some long range targets, please." Shiro requested.

At the end of the training room several round flying targets floated down from the ceiling.

"Lance, go ahead and take the first round with your bayard. I'll get everyone else set up with rifles." Shiro, Pidge, and Keith headed out to the weapons storage area. While I pulled my bayard which morphed into my gun.

I missed the first three targets, hit one, and then missed four more. I couldn't get my eyes to focus on the sights. The pain was getting worse, I really needed another one of those pills.

"Lance, quit messing around, I know you can shoot better than that." Allura sounded peeved. It's true I shouldn't have missed a single one. I'm lots better at shooting than this. It's like my thing.

"I'm not messing, I can't see straight. I think my nose is swollen or something its messing with my ability to use the sights." I figure go for the sympathy vote, should have known better with Allura.

"Very well, I've activated an obstacle course at level three."

And sure enough the room put up a dividing wall and on the far side was the obstacle course.

"Go run through that since you are unable to participate in this exercise." She really didn't sound like she believed me.

I was dreading the course, on a good day I can make the level three unaided. On a really good day I can get through a four. Today isn't even close to a good day. By the time training is done I have a lot more bruises than just the one on my ass and my face. My head won't stop pounding and I am beyond nauseous. Matter of fact I puked on the last hill, but no one saw me.

Hunk and Coran were back by the time I got over to the others. Hunk had his hand wrapped and was chatting with Shiro.

"Paladins that will be all for today. Keith, excellent work with the teamwork exercise. Pidge, wonderful improvement on your ranged attacks. Keith, you need more work on that. Hunk, I hope you are well." He nodded and she continued. "Shiro, we will need to plan some additional work on understanding team members abilities. As a team, each of us needs to understand our teammates strengths and weaknesses. I think this will aid in the dodging exercise. Lance, your time of the obstacle course was atrocious. Please log in an additional varga of running this afternoon."

The groan I let out was only partially due to her punishment for me.

Hunk caught up with me as I was heading for my room.

"Hey, Lance, where you going? It's lunch time." He stepped up next to me and put his arm around my shoulders.

"I don't think I'm up for it man. My head's killing me." I gestured toward my nose and let him think it was just from the face plant.

"Oh, well do you need something? I could get you one of those aspirins?" Hunk offered looking concerned.

"Nah, I have one in my room already. I'll just take it and maybe lay down for a bit. After all I've got more running to do this afternoon." I opened the door.

"You should have told her your head was hurting. She might have given you a break." Hunk patted my back.

"She already thinks I'm pathetic, Hunk. Why should I give her more reasons?"

"Lance, she doesn't think you're pathetic. Seriously, buddy, you are so down on yourself lately." Hunk grabbed my shoulders and turned me to him. "Give yourself some credit and give them some credit and a chance to get to know you better."

It's not like he doesn't speak sense. It's just so much harder than he makes it sound. I've always been good with casual relationships, acquittances, working the crowd kind of stuff. Paint on a smile and a laugh and throw on confidence and I'm off like a champ. I love it too, it feels good to be in the middle of everything and everyone with all that noise and action. It's when it gets down to the long term, get to know you really stuff, that everything falls apart. It's like past that first level no one ever really likes the rest of me. I've had as many great first dates as I've had horrible second dates.

I've learned over time that if I want people to like me I've got to keep the act up. This whole let people get to know you thing Hunk's suggesting just doesn't usually work out for me. On the other hand I may not have much of a choice here. We are kind of stuck together like almost all of the time. I sighed.

"Really, Lance. You need to relax. How about I bring you some of that soup later?" He offered looking a little sad.

"I'd like that buddy, it was really good." I gave him a smile and turned to go into my room. As the door closed I slid down to the floor. Maybe I really was getting sick, if this doesn't get better soon, I'm going to have to go see Coran. Once the dizziness reduced to a more bearable level I made my way over to my desk and got one of the seed aspirin things. I dry swallowed it and laid down on my bed. I don't even remember falling asleep.

When I woke up there was a bowl of chicken soup on my desk. Bless Hunk, he is so much better of a friend than I deserve. It tasted good and seemed to set on my stomach without causing more of the nausea. My head's throbbing was back to a bearable level. Maybe I was getting over this whatever it was. I did a few stretches and then headed out to do my running. I liked to do laps around the halls better than the training room. It was just more scenic.