Little Wonders

Waiting

Forty-eight hours.

Forty-eight hours and Red was still offline. The comms weren't working yet and Lance was becoming desperate. He had no food, water or any means of flying anytime soon. And to top it all off? There was a large piece of metal keeping him pinned down to his chair. All in all, things weren't looking too great.

"..Red? You still there girl?" His voice was weak from the lack of use.

There was no response.

Anxiety clawed at his insides as he tried not to think about what had happened to Red and himself. Surely, his lion was fine. Chances were that Red was just recharging, because whatever had hit them, had hit them hard.

He needed to get the metal out of his leg. That much was obvious. He had considered all possible options and outcomes. On one hand, if he left the metal in his leg, it raised a higher risk of infection. On the other hand, if he took it out, he could accidentally slip up and cause more damage.

Both outcomes had cons.

He felt tired. He had spent the last two days basically asleep and yet when he woke up, he felt worse.

With sleepy eyes, he glanced down at the metal shard that was poking out of his leg and then glanced back up at the roof of the cockpit.

"...If you're here Red, I would appreciate it if you didn't judge my poor life choices." He paused and took a breath."Well, at least not this one."

Managing to unbuckle his belt from his waist, he managed to lift his thigh up just enough to slip it underneath it. He paused for a minute, taking a moment to breathe through the pain that seared through his leg, before continuing.

Once he was convinced the belt was on tight enough, he prepared himself.

"This is going to hurt like a bitch," he muttered under his breath, before placing his hands on the metal shard- and pulled.

Tears streamed down his cheeks as pain washed over him; he wanted to vomit. Never in his life had he felt pain this excruciating.

"Shit! Fuck! Shit!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

The metal shard was a lot deeper and thicker than what he had expected it to be. Yet, he continued to pull on it.

"Stop."

Red's voice was stern in the back of his mind, almost as if she was a mother who had just caught her child stealing from the cookie jar.

He immediately froze.

"I know you're scared. But please refrain from trying to pull that metal out by yourself."

Lance frowned. "But we can't stay stranded out here for much longer girl."

Red gave a small, but reassuring purr in response. "Rest."

*

For the first time in months, Katie couldn't sleep.

Endless thoughts were running through her mind as she tossed and turned in her bed, as her mind ran with various scenarios of what could have happened to Lance and where he was. To top it all off, she was feeling nauseous and more irritable than usual.

Everyone had been working to the brink of exhaustion since she had discovered the leak. Allura and her had worked closely together as they ran tests to make sure the castle wasn't infected from the inside. After a day of multiple scans and tests, the castle seemed clear.

Normally, they would prioritize something like this; often spending a few days to run the tests to be extra certain. But time was limited and there were more pressing concerns.