Marks or masks

Make It Stop

By the time Lance woke,  the only person awake was Shiro. The black paladin always had a hard time sleeping,  so he lied and told the others that he'd wake them up for shifts.

The blue paladin opened his eyes,  covering his eye from the head splitting  sight of light,  although it was dim.

He recalled the previous events,  although his memory was a bit fuzzy.  He sat up a bit and groaned,  the full extent of his headache appearing shortly after.

He took a look around,  only to see the residents of the castle ship sleeping,  all but the black paladin.  He looked to the opposite side of the room to see Shiro,  smiling softly and making his way over to the teen.

"Headache?" He tried to talk quietly,  but to Lance,  it sounded like a pair of speakers being blasted through his skull.  He could only manage a nod.

Shiro looked solemn, and Lance didn't have the chance to wonder why before the headache worsened,  and he fell back onto his pillow,  clutching his hair. 

"God... Shiro... It hurts... so bad,  oh my quiznak!" That sudden outburst was enough to wake the others, eyes wide with alarm.

Shiro looked over Lance,  doing his best to stay calm.  This brought back memories that didn't need to be resurfaced,  it reminded him of the other underling he had in a situation similar to this,  but the other boy had physical wounds. Shiro couldn't do anything about splitting headaches and whatever the hell else was happening to Lance.

Allura, Pidge and Coran were on the brink of panic, having barely awoken and only to see Lance in extreme pain.

Keith was panicking, not caring what the others thought. He had been with Lance all day, and he concluded that he didn't deserve any of this.

Hunk was the only one who was remotely calm. He knew this would happen sometime, just not today. He knew exactly what was happening and how to deal with it.

"Can everyone please calm down for me? I'll explain in a minute, but it need to be quiet for this." He was almost whispering, barely audible. But the others heard and backed up, quieting themselves.

Hunk took his friend's hand in his,  flipping it to look at his mark.  The others watched carefully,  noticing that the beautiful discoloration in his skin was glowing a deep red.

All eyes were wide,  though Hunk was thinking something different than the others.  The majority were thinking, Why is the mark glowing!? I've never seen that! But Hunk was much more alarmed.

It's never been this bad before!  We don't have any materials to help him!

Meanwhile, Lance was letting out strained groans and pained screams.  All he could think was, It hurts.  This had happened before,  but it was never this bad. All he wants is for it stop.