Lance came to slowly and painfully. He could hear sounds around him but they blurred around him confusingly. His head was pounding and his everywhere ached.

"Shiro, wake up," said a voice. At first it reminded Lance of Leida, but then he remembered he was in space – he was in space? Huh. Anyway, Leida wasn't in space, Leida was in college in North Carolina. She wasn't coming home until Christmas break. But then she still wouldn't be in space, because home was on Earth and space was space.

"Shiro," said not-Leida again. "It's Pidge. Wake up."

Pidge. Lance knew this name. Yes. Pidge was not Leida. Pidge was his teammate and friend. In space.

Then Pidge screamed. Lance forced his eyes open as a new voice spoke. "You actually thought your little hologram would work on me, runt?"

His vision was too blurred at the moment to see exactly what was going on, but after a few moments he could vaguely make out Pidge being held above the ground by a giant purple cat.

A giant purple cat?

He decided it didn't matter. He pushed himself into a better position and drew his bayard – his space weapon – and it morphed into a gun – his space gun. He aimed it as best he could with his blurred vision and shot.

The cat dropped Pidge.

Lance nodded to himself and fell back, suddenly exhausted, everything hurting even more. He heard the fight continuing, but he couldn't bring himself to pay attention.

"Lance?" said a voice, bringing him back from his dozing off. He opened his eyes again to see Keith holding out a hand towards him. He reached up to take it.

"We did it," he managed to say. "We do make a good team."

Keith laughed weakly. "You have a concussion."

"I have a concussion?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," said Keith. "Can you walk?"

Lance blinked at him. "Usually, yeah."

Keith nodded and stood, trying to pull Lance to his feet as well. Everything still hurt, and Lance stumbled and nearly fell, except Keith caught him.

"Okay, never mind," he muttered. "I'm going to just carry you."

"Okay, knight-man," mumbled Lance, as Keith shifted him and finally lifted him into his arms.

"What?" he said.

"I'm the damsel," said Lance. That was kinda funny, actually. "You're the knight. In red armour."

"Uh, okay, sure then," said Keith.

Lance leaned up against his friend, closing his eyes to try to keep his head from pounding so much. He was still kind of out of it and confused. He knew he was in space but he didn't know who the cat was or why they were fighting the cat or why he hurt so much.

"You still with me?" asked Keith.

"Mmm," said Lance.

"Okay, good," said Keith. "Hunk and Coran should be back soon."

Lance didn't know where exactly Hunk and Coran could have gotten to. He guessed anywhere. It was space. Space was big. Lance used to want to explore space and find aliens. It was so big and there had to be aliens and there were, Lance was right.

Then he wasn't held by Keith's arms, he was on some surface. Had Keith put him on the ground? That was kind of rude.

"What do we do to help them?" he heard Keith demand.

"There's not much we can do," admitted Allura. "Unless either of you are trained in any sort of medicine. I – am not. I was always more inclined towards the warrior side, like my mother."

"I know first aid," said Keith. "I lived alone for a while."

"Matt was always better at first aid and stuff than me," admitted Pidge.

Lance decided to stop paying attention at that point. It was just making his headache worse. A bit of shut-eye wouldn't hurt. He let the chatter fade into murmurs and slipped into dreamless sleep.

Lance awoke to pain and someone shifting him.

"Mmm?" he managed. It was supposed to be a question, but no words came out, which was odd but didn't really matter. He was sore all over and his memory was a blur. He remembered… Keith?

"It's alright, my boy," said a voice, soft and fatherly and incredibly familiar. Lance couldn't currently place it, as out of sorts as he was. "We're going to help you to heal."

Lance leaned into the comforting presence. "Papa?"

There was a pause.

"It's okay, Lance," said the voice – Papa? It was weird that Papa wasn't speaking Spanish. "It's going to be okay."

"Hurts," murmured Lance. No Spanish from Papa, so he should stick to English, even though finding English words were getting harder and harder to find at the moment.

"I know," said Papa. "The cryo-replenishers will fix you right up."

"Mmm," said Lance. "Te amo, Papa. Love you."

Another pause.

They weren't moving anymore. Lance was standing upwards, but Papa seemed to be steadying him because he wasn't very steady himself.

"I love you, too," said Papa softly, "my son."

His hands disappeared and cold closed in on Lance as he drifted back into unconsciousness.

Lance woke up cold. He was kind of drowsy and definitely cold and the last thing he really remembered was chatting with Coran during the party. He had that song stuck in his head, behind his headache, soothing him with its familiarity.

The rest of Team Voltron was all gathered around something or other a few steps away, so Lance wandered over to them. He peered over Hunk's shoulder in confusion.

"Are you guys having a clock party or something?" he asked.

"Aw, Lance, come on, you ruined it," complained Hunk as everyone turned to him. Then his best friend lit up. "LANCE! You're awake!"

Hunk grabbed him in a Hunk Hug™ and Lance grimaced. He was a bit sore from something.

"Hey, okay, bud," he chuckled as Hunk put him down. "What happened?"

"We can tell you about it while you get something to eat," said Allura softly. "Can you walk?"

Lance blinked at her. "Yeah, unless you want to carry me. Wouldn't object, personally."

He tried to send her a grin, but he didn't feel very successful. She looked amused. "I guess you can walk then. Come."

"I'll go prepare something good," offered Coran. "Maybe more of the Paladin Lunch, since you liked it!"

Lance blanched. "Nah, man, that's fine, just goo is fine, you don't have to go out of your way for me."

Coran waved him off. "I want to! I'll catch up with you in a few doboshes!"

He speed-walked out of the room. The rest of the group started after him at a much slower pace. Hunk supported Lance as they walked.

"Glad you're okay, dude," he murmured.

Lance smiled at him, then shook his head. "Did Coran seem kind of off to you?"

"He's been off ever since you got blown up," said Hunk. Lance first tried to process that he'd been what!? Hunk continued talking. "The whole time we were on the Balmera he was all contemplative and he was asking me about your family and stuff? I told him you were adopted, by the way, hope you don't mind."

"I told him," Lance said.

"Okay, good," said Hunk. "But he got kinda sad and stuff? I dunno. He was even weirder after we got you into the cryopod."

"Said something about being right," piped in Pidge, appearing out of nowhere at Lance's side. "Didn't he? I'm not the only one that heard that."

"No, we all did," said Hunk. "Allura tried to talk to him about it, but looks like he's not talking. Honestly I think he blamed himself that you got hurt."

Lance winced. "I still don't know what happened, but I'm positive it wasn't Coran's fault."

"Yeah, well, tell that to Coran," said Hunk.

They'd reached the dining room by now. Lance got to sit at the head of the table, which made him feel powerful except that everyone was hovering over him like his mama and his abuela would whenever he was sick and they wanted to make sure he was eating.

Coran came out with what definitely looked like the Paladin Lunch, except a bit differently coloured.

"Hunk gave me some tips to make it a bit more similar to your Earth food," he said brightly, placing it in front of Lance. "I did worry about putting the one tuber in there, but I know Alteans can withstand fairly high levels of capsaicin and Hunk did assure me it was considered delicious on your planet!"

"What's a cap-whatever?" asked Lance.

"Dude, he made it spicy, say thank you," rebuked Hunk.

Lance blinked and grinned at Coran. "Oh, man, thanks!"

Coran smiled fondly. "Of course, my boy."

Lance took a hesitant bite. With the new additions, it was actually pretty good. It was barely spicy, which Lance supposed had to do with Coran's hesitancy to use cap-whatever. Hunk would be more generous with it when he cooked next.

"So, clue me in, I heard I got blown up," said Lance.

Coran winced – it was subtle but Lance had been looking for it, and it pretty much confirmed Hunk's suspicions. "Yes. Well. The Galra sent a bomb in a copy of Pidge's Rover. You saved my life."

Lance nodded. "Good, I'm glad you're okay."

Coran rested a hand on his shoulder. "Please promise me to never do that again."

Lance stared at him incredulously. "Yeah… no. Nope, not a chance. I'd save you or anyone in this room in a heartbeat. I mean, I'm sure you guys would do the same."

"Oh, you bet, bud," said Hunk, beaming at him. "One for all and all for one!"

Coran didn't look too pleased with this answer, but there was no chance Lance would promise something like that. He hated breaking his promises, so why make a promise he knew he might have to break?

"Well, after that, me and Coran went off to get a new crystal because ours was destroyed," said Hunk. "We met this cool rock, her name's Shay."

"Hunk is in love," murmured Pidge teasingly. Hunk flushed red and glared at her.

"I am not, I just respect her, okay?" he defended.

"Well, after they left, the Arusians were supposedly attacked, so Keith and Allura went to rescue them," said Shiro. "I stayed with you, but then Sendak attacked the Castle. I tried to fight him off but… he was too powerful."

"Allura helped me try to sabotage everything the Galra were doing in the Castle," said Pidge. "But, actually, it was the mice that took down the particle barrier. I tried to fight off Sendak, but that was a mess, and you, like, woke up from your coma to shoot him! Then me and Keith fought Sendak until Allura could trap him and then Keith carried you to the infirmary."

"Yeah," said Hunk. "Then we got back and found out what all went down, and Shiro needed a pod too, so Coran did all that. And then we've just kinda been waiting."

"Huh," said Lance. "Thanks, you guys. Sounds like you all did great – and literally saved my life."

He glanced at Keith.

"Sounds like the mice did more than you, though," he said, grinning mischievously.

Keith bristled. "Excuse you? We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms! You called me the knight in red armour!"

That unfortunately sounded like something a concussed Lance would say. He forced down the blush that ensued.

"Don't remember it," he said, which was very true. He remembered absolutely none of this and attributed that, too, to his concussion. "Didn't happen."

"That's not how it works!" Keith seethed.

"Is too, ask my siblings," retorted Lance. "Ask Hunk."

"He's right, that's how it works," said Hunk. "Rule of both our houses, combined. You shall not hold anything a concussed person says against them. Lance and his siblings are really clumsy."

"You walked into a wall holding your little sister!" Lance argued.

"One time! One time!" said Hunk.

"One time's enough, rules apply to you too," Lance shot back.

Shiro chuckled. "Good to have you back to normal, Lance."

Lance laughed and grinned at him. "Good to be back."

A/N: This chapter was fun, especially since Lance remembers none of the first half of it. The bonding moment was fun to write. The moment with a very confused Lance and Coran was also very fun.

GUESS WHO'S FIGURED THINGS OUT? I had planned for this discovery to take place now, but for Lance? Not yet. So, so far, one person and five sentient robot lions know. :D

Thanks so much for reading, you guys! I love you all so much! 3