#shiroxlance

Lance knew he was the weak link, and couldn’t stop thinking about it, especially after what happened during the mission a week prior. He messed up and it could have killed someone. Thankfully, they got the information they needed and everyone got out with no more than a few scrapes and bruises. The angry scolding from Keith and Allura hurt, but the disappointed look he saw on Shiro’s face was what really got to him.

Shiro and Lance had been together for a while now, and their relationship was going very well. But the uncomfortable tension between them since that mission was upsetting. They hadn’t talked much since then, but that also could have been due to their busy schedule as paladins.

Maybe Lance was overthinking all of this. Maybe the lack of sleep was getting to him. Or maybe it was the fact that he was starting to feel under the weather.

He couldn’t sleep well that night after the mission, and instead decided to get some training in. “Some training” ended up being five hours, almost to the point of passing out on the training room floor. Lance thought he would sleep better the next night from the exhaustion of all of that training. However, as always, the universe was out to get him and he ended up training the next night as well. And the next. And the one after that.

Basically, he had only gotten about two hours of sleep each night for the past week, which probably explained why he was so tired during the day. Lance knew this was bad for his body, but he was the weak link. He needed the extra training so he could be useful to the team. Pidge, Hunk, and Coran were incredibly smart, Allura and Shiro had amazing leadership and planning skills, and Keith was a talented fighter. Lance didn’t have any special skills like the rest of them, he was only there to pilot Blue.

“Lance!”

His head shot up and realized everyone was staring at him.

Allura approached him with a furious look, and stopped mere inches in front of him. “Have you been listening to any of this? Do you even care about being a paladin?”

Lance’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Of course I care.”

Keith then stepped forward next to Allura. “Then why did you look like you were about to fall asleep? Are we boring you?”

“No, I’m just tired.” Lance mumbled. He was already feeling irritable, and a second scolding from Allura and Keith in the same week was definitely not helping his mood.

Before anyone could say another word, Shiro stepped in front of Lance and took control of the situation. “That’s enough. We’re all worn out from these constant missions, so why don’t we take the rest of today to get some rest?”

Allura looked as if she was going to argue, but instead sighed and left the room without another word. The other began filing out afterward, slow and sluggish in their movements. Shiro was right, they all needed a break.

Lance silently made his way to the training room, despite what Shiro said about all of them taking the day to rest. He didn’t deserve to rest, he needed to be a better paladin.

Lance hadn’t even gotten through halfway through the first practice level before he heard someone call out “end training sequence!” He turned to the door and saw Shiro walking towards him with a concerned expression.

“What the hell, Shiro? Why’d you stop it?” Lance bit out. He regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth, feeling guilty at seeing the surprised and hurt look on Shiro’s face.

“Lance, we seriously need to talk.”

Lance froze, afraid of what was going to come next. Was Shiro going to break up with him? Kick him off the team? He felt himself fall forward to the ground, and then everything went black.

---

Lance woke up feeling refreshed and in a much better mood. He yawned as he sat up, stretching his arms over his head.

“Hey there, sleepy head.” Lance turned and saw Shiro sitting beside his bed with a teasing smirk, holding a tablet in his hands. He must have been looking over information for the next mission.

“Hey, what are you-” It was then that everything came back to him. Lance groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Shiro, I’m really sorry. I was being such an ass earlier and-”

“Lance.” Shiro interrupted. “It’s okay, really. I understand what was going on with you now.”

“You do?”

Shiro turned the tablet for Lance to see. It was displaying his training log for the past week. “You’ve been working so hard, Lance. This shows how much you’ve improved and I am so proud of you for it.”

“Really?” Lance asked, embarrassed from the praise.

“Of course. But you overworked yourself to the point of collapsing. You trained so long every night, and it’s obvious now how little sleep you’ve been getting.”

Lance looked back down to his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to be a better paladin, to catch up to all of you.”

Shiro frowned at that. “Lance, what are you talking about? Why do you think you need to catch up?”

“Because all of you are obviously better than me. You all have these unique, helpful skills you can contribute and I… I have nothing.”

Shiro moved to sit on the bed next to Lance and wrapped him in a tight hug, stroking his hair and peppering kisses to the top of his head. “No, baby, you are so important to this team. I don’t know where you got the idea that you aren’t helpful, but it’s not true. You are so talented with your sniping, it’s because of you that we’ve gotten out of some dangerous situations.”

Lance shook his head. “But I really messed up during the last mission. It was my fault that someone could have been hurt.”

“Lance, everybody makes mistakes. Keith and Allura were too harsh on you and I talked to them about it already. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it too, but we’ve been so busy. I’m sorry, Lance, I really should have gone to you sooner.”

Lance sighed. “It’s okay. Thank you, Kashi.”

Shiro smiled, a fond look in his eyes at the nickname.”Now, how about you and I spend the rest of the day relaxing together?”

Lance nodded. “That would be nice.”

“On one condition, that is. You have to actually get a reasonable amount of sleep tonight. No training.”

Lance hummed in thought and smirked. “I don’t know… I think the only way I’d be able to do that is if I slept next to someone.”