Coran Coran the Missing Man

In perspective, maybe playing hide and seek on a massive ship hadn't been such a great idea. It was fun though, and it wasn't like they had anything else to do that day. Pidge had first suggested the game, and Lance had excitedly explained the rules once he found out that the Alteans had never played.

Coran was walking away from the kitchen, where he could hear Hunk counting down slowly. He grinned to himself, his mind racing to think of a perfect hiding place. From the kitchen Coran could hear, "!0, 9, 8, 7,..." he panicked and started walking faster. The red-haired altean refused to be the first one found. He reached the engine room and circled the engines to reach the air shafts. This was great! He could hide on the shelf just above the shaft; the only way he could be seen was if one of the paladins stuck their heads over the shaft and looked up then to the left above themselves.

Coran leaned out and grabbed the edge of the shelf, swinging himself over the shaft to scramble onto the self. But his boots slipped, and the gorgeous man fell into the shaft with a surprised yelp.

*1 hour later*

Allura stood with her arms crossed, frowning worriedly. "I'm just concerned that something has happened. We have even used the intercoms in case he couldn't hear us shouting. It isn't like him not to respond!"

Pidge nudged her glasses up from their slow slip down her nose and called over her shoulder, "I'm doing a thermal search of the castle here. See there's us, and oh there he is! Oh no..." Pidge started frantically tapping keys, and the image enlarged. It showed a small spot of heat at the bottom of the shaft, not moving. Allura looked over Pidge's shoulder and gasped, "But that's the air shaft to cool the engine room!"

She turned and ran to the engine room, closely pursued by the paladins. Allura dropped to her knees in front of the shaft and screamed, "Coran!" Thankfully the shaft wasn't too deep from the engine room, but Allura's heart still wrenched when there was no answer. She turned to the paladins to ask for a rope, only to find that Shiro already had one.

They lowered the rope down with Pidge, since she was the lightest, and had her tie it under Coran's arms so they could bring him up. Once Coran was dragged into the light, the situation seemed much worse. The altean man's red hair was darkened with blood, and his body was limp. Allura tried to wake her friend, but Coran was deeply unconscious.

The paladins patched him up in the castle's infirmary; once they had gotten past the original shock, Coran's injuries weren't too bad. He had a concussion, his right arm was broken, and he was generally beat up, but once he woke up he'd be fine, just stuck healing for a couple weeks.

Allura told the paladins to go to bed, but she refused to leave Coran's bedside. She resolved to herself to sit there until he woke up, and she would confirm that he was really alright.

She must have been sitting for hours; her muscles were cramped and fuzzy, and she was forcing her eyes open, but it was a losing battle. Just as she started to give in, the prone figure in the bed stirred. "Coran! Coran can you hear me?" Coran groaned, scrunching his face up, whispering, "Hello... princess..." He blinked slowly and raised a hand to his head, gingerly touching the bandages with a wince. "Sorry... to cause problems."

Allura snorted and gently lowered Coran's hand back to his side. "Don't be silly. You didn't do anything wrong. Everyone has accidents! I'm just glad you're alright." She paged the paladins, and within minutes Coran's bed was surrounded by relieved and happy teenagers. Eventually Allura tried to shoo the group back to bed so Coran could rest, but they refused to leave and instead bunked up on chairs. Coran was happy to see his friends there for him, but soon fell asleep again.

Late the following day, Coran was helped back to his own room by Allura. He had insisted he didn't need help, but when he tried to walk he almost fell again so she insisted on helping. The red-haired altean muttered something about not wanting to look weak. Allura raised her eyebrows and pushed him gently down onto his bed, "Don't be ridiculous! We need you, we could never see you as weak! I mean, You're the gorgeous man! All that can be taken from this incident is that we all need to be careful when we choose hiding spots!"

Coran nodded and smiled, saying, "You are right Princess. Thank you. I really am just embarrassed, that was a terribly stupid hiding spot." He laughed suddenly and added, "But I did win!" Allura laughed and shook her head, bidding her good friend a goodnight. But before she left, she took her chance to sign Coran's sparkly blue cast: From Allura- you're the best gorgeous man we'll ever know.