Oh god Lando would not be able to believe Lance likes him back and whilst they’re on their first date say some bs like ‘I don’t know what you see in me though’ and Lance is like ‘bro wtf I can’t see I’m blind’ 😂🤦🏼♀️
asdkfjs HE WOULD
He absolutely would blurt that out and then when Lance makes the joke, Lando would half be laughing and half worried that he's offended Lance
But then Lance is taking his hand, and reassuring him that he wouldn't have asked him out if he didn't want him here
I just wanna let yall know, I’m shit at writing longer fics so this’ll probably be just as short as the last klance ficlet I wrote. like, 500 words. fml
The key points of this AU are:
-Lance is blinded while the team is on the ground attempting to liberate a moon colony.
-probably some kind of acid flinging explosion of some sort. definitely acid.
-the healing pod helps his wounds heal but can’t save his eyes, and he’s pretty scarred up.
-lance feels like he can’t be a paladin anymore
-lance struggles to find his way through the castle
-keith just wants to help his bf but lance doesn’t want help and it just makes him feel even more useless.
-Coran, precious space uncle that he is, tries to help
-Blue fuckin kidnaps Lance to make him learn how to see through her eyes.(like they try to do in like episode 2)
-He can still fight, and form voltron, but walking around the castle and planets is still new and a challenge.
What happens when @azure-mirror tells me she has yet ANOTHER Voltron au to share with me.
Keith paced impatiently across the floor of the infirmary, arms over his chest and worried gaze flickering to the pod that Lance was in, lips pursed. “How much longer?” he asked Allura. “It’s been almost three days, what’s wrong?”
Allura spread her hands to either side of her, shaking her head. “I don’t know,” she promised. “His vitals are entirely normal, his brain waves appear to be functioning as per usual, and he is mentally stable. But the computer says he isn’t fully healed.”
“How long has it been saying that?” Pidge asked from where she and Hunk were playing a card game on the floor.
“Since yesterday morning.”
“That’s over 24 hours,” Shiro pointed out, standing with his hands in his pockets and his eyes gazing over Lance’s prone form. “Maybe it’s malfunctioning? We can take him out, and if anything is seriously wrong we could just put him into a different one.”
Allura furrowed her eyebrows and looked to Coran, who had been uncharacteristically quiet for the last three days. She knew he thought of Lance like a nephew, knew he treasured him above the other paladins, even if he would never admit it, and she was worried about him. The only one who had rivaled his depth of concern outwardly was Hunk, which made sense. “Coran? What do you think?”
Coran glanced up from the book he had been reading and gazed at Lance’s pod for a long minute before answering. “I think we should try what Shiro said,” he agreed.
She took a deep breath and nodded, hovering her hands over the override controls on the pod. “I’m going to turn down the lights,” she decided at the last moment. “He’s been asleep for quite some time, I don’t want him to be disoriented.”
The rest of the group huddled around the pod, Shiro and Hunk on either side to grab Lance when he came out, and Allura dimmed the lights before hitting the switch. The pod hissed open with a blast of cool air and Lance stumbled forwards, straight into the reassuring arms of his best friend. The blue paladin groaned and pressed both hands to his head, voice hoarse when he spoke. “What happened?”
Everyone relaxed a little once they heard him speak, Hunk adjusting his grip on him so that he was no longer basically bear hugging him from behind. “You uh…you got hit pretty hard by a Galra, man.”
He didn’t say what everyone else had been thinking. Lance had jumped in front of a shot meant for Pidge, plowing her out of the way of a blast that would have stabbed her through the chest. It had glanced off his head instead, leaving him unconscious and very bloody, something that had made Hunk pass out the moment he saw him.
Pidge stood silently to the side of the group, palms pressed firmly together to hide how much she was shaking and fingers pressed to her lips. “How are you feeling?” she asked timidly.
Lance huffed and dragged his hands down his face, straightening up just a little and glancing around. “I feel fine…why is it so dark in here?”
“Oh!” Allura yelped. “Sorry! I wasn’t sure if the lighting would hurt your eyes or not, so I turned them down. One moment.”
She twisted to the control panel and turned the lights on quickly, making the rest of the paladins groan in irritation at the suddenness. Lance, however, stood perfectly still like nothing had happened. “Any time now, Allura.”
Shiro frowned and turned to look at Lance. “Lance, she already- holy shit.”
The swearing from their usually held together and calm leader made everyone spin around to look at Lance in the normal lighting, all the breath leaving the room at the same time. His eyes, formerly the color of the deepest part of the ocean, were unfocused, grayed, nearly milky, and though they could still make out each part of the eye, it was clear he wasn’t using them. Pidge let out a choked sob and bolted from the room, Coran flying after her without hesitation.
“Guys?” Lance said, his voice starting to tremble. “What’s wrong? Seriously, someone turn on the lights.”
Hunk choked and let go of Lance, backing away and pressing his hands to either side of his head, looking completely helpless. Shiro whipped his gaze to Allura, silently begging her to think of something. It was Keith who finally stepped forward, fingers trembling as he settled a hand down on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance,” he whispered, his eyebrows furrowed and his face paler than usual. “The…the lights are all the way on.”
There was a beat of silence and then Lance wrenched his shoulder away from Keith, venom on his lips as he spoke. “No…that’s…that’s not possible. Cause that would…I mean…that would mean…that I…”
His voice broke and Lance dropped like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground hard and digging his hands into his hair. A ragged sob spilled from his lips and he rocked forwards, struggling to breathe. Shiro knelt instantly at his side, putting a hand on his back, and Lance nearly jumped out of his skin at the unexpected contact. “Go away,” he managed to get out.
Shiro pulled back, clearly surprised. “Lance-”
“Go away.”
The black paladin bit his lip but stood. “Do you…do you want someone else?”
Lance whipped his head back and forth and clenched his fingers more. “Please just go,” he whispered.
Shiro nodded and gestured for Hunk and Keith to follow, leading the paladins out of the room. He paused in the doorway, looking back at Allura, and she waved him on. He left and she sat down in front of Lance, making just enough noise so that he would know she was there. “Allura, please,” he murmured.
“How’d you know?”
Lance managed a weak, nearly nonexistent laugh. “You’re the only one who can get away with disobeying Shiro.”
She chuckled and reached forwards, pulling his hands from his head and clasping them in hers. “Lance,” she tried. “I’ll leave you alone in a moment, I promise. This must be a lot to have thrown on you at once.”
“Why didn’t the healing pod work?”
She started, glancing towards said healing pod and shaking her head before remembering that Lance couldn’t see it. “I…I don’t know,” she said softly. “It should have fixed this with all of your other injuries. Aside from…you…you being…”
“Blind,” Lance sneered, fingers tightening in Allura’s hands. “Just say it, okay?”
She didn’t scold him for the harshness with which he spoke, instead squeezing his hands reassuringly. “Aside from you being blind,” she continued, wincing at the whimper that spilled from Lance’s lips at the word, “you’re completely back to normal. Perhaps it doesn’t think sight a necessary sense?”
Lance laughed, a fake laugh, one that chilled Allura to the bone. “Yeah. Okay. Sure. Next time I hope I get a limb cut off, see how important it thinks that is.”
She fell silent and Lance swallowed, hands shaking. “I’m…I’m sorry, Allura. I…thank you. For…for saving me, I mean.”
Allura smiled and stroked a thumb along his hand, wishing for once that he would at least try to throw a lame pick up line at her. At least then she would know their Lance was still there. “Do you remember what happened?”
Lance pressed his lips together and ducked his head, hair falling and hiding the stillness of his eyes. “I…Pidge.”
He cursed, softly and under his breath, and pulled his hands away from Allura to hold them over his mouth. “Is she-?”
“She is all right,” Allura promised instantly. “Though I believe…I believe she feels responsible now.”
Lance felt like the world was collapsing in on him, and without a word he scrambled to his feet, swaying at the lack of balance he suddenly had and holding his hands to either side of him. “I…Allura, I can’t…”
His voice broke and she was there, hooking her elbow through his gently and tugging him close to her side. “It’s all right, Lance.”
He shuddered and swallowed, face wrinkling as he attempted not to cry. “Thank you. C-Can you take me to Pidge? I need…I need to talk to her.”
Allura nodded before remembering again. “Of course.”
She led him silently through the castle halls, his body solid but shaking against hers as she avoided the common rooms and headed straight for Pidge’s quarters. Coran was leaning outside the door, almost like he was standing guard, and he straightened when he saw them. “Lance,” he murmured, eyebrows furrowing sadly.
Allura passed him over to Coran, touch gentle. “I’m going to leave you with Coran, all right Lance? Would you like to se- visit Hunk later? Or Shiro? Or Keith?”
Lance pursed his lips at the loss of contact, hand closing firmly around Coran’s elbow to stay steady. “I…no. I think I’ll stay with Pidge for now. If…if that’s okay. I don’t really want to s- talk to anyone else.”
They heard the break in his voice as he switched words and Allura sighed, nodding and speaking at the same time. “All right,” she murmured. “I’ll let them know.”
She turned and darted down the hall, leaving Lance to glance in Coran’s general direction. “Is she okay?”
Coran frowned and looked at Pidge’s door. “I’m…not sure. She hasn’t come out of her room since leaving the infirmary, and she won’t let me in.”
Lance nodded. “Where’s the um…where’s the door?”
Coran gently pushed him in the right direction and Lance lifted his hand, settling it on the cool metal of Pidge’s door before pulling his other hand away from Coran’s arm and letting it join the first. Softly, very softly, he tapped out something that Coran thought sounded like a code of some sorts, fingernails just barely clinking off the surface. “What are you-?”
“It’s a song,” Lance informed him, his voice low and his forehead pressed to the door. “It’s…you don’t know it, it’s from an Earth movie about a talking frog. But…if one of us three ever had a bad night we would sneak out of our room and go to the others, tap this on the door to let each other in. I never realized why she had so many bad nights.”
He paused in his tapping and flattened his hands on the door, leaning against it with his whole body. “Pidge, please,” he whispered.
The door slid open a moment later, and Lance would have toppled in if not for Pidge flying out and tackling him around the waist. He huffed out a breath and carefully got to his knees, startled to find how tiny she felt when he couldn’t see her. Coran left silently, standing guard at the end of the hall while Pidge sobbed into Lance’s shoulder and he rubbed her back.
He closed his eyes, finding that he could handle the darkness around him better if it felt like he was causing it himself. “Pidge…Pidge, hey…come on. Let’s go inside.”
She shivered and backed away, fingers never leaving his hands and pulling him in. The air was cool around him, blanketing him in goosebumps and he sighed, settling onto the floor and feeling for her bed. He leaned back against it and held an arm out. “C’mere.”
“I’m sorry, Lance.”
He heard the quiver in her voice, heard it break, and he surged forwards towards the source of it, grabbing her by the waist and yanking her down into his lap, her head cradled against the curve under his jaw. “This is not your fault,” he hissed, tears prickling his eyes. “Do you hear me, Katie? This is not your fault.”
“But you-”
“I jumped in front of the shot for you, I know,” he assured her, feeling the way she trembled in his grip. He tightened it. “I would do it again. I’d do it for any of you, you have to know that.”
She hiccupped and Lance swallowed the lump in his throat, having never heard her sound so broken before. “I promise I don’t blame you,” he whispered, tucking his forehead against her scalp and pressing the softest kiss he could muster against her hair. “I promise. I couldn’t blame you even if it was your fault, okay? You’re like…you’re a sister to me. I’m not letting you get hurt on my watch.”
She punched him hard then, his shoulder stinging from the force of it, and immediately wrapped her arms around him and dug her fingers into his shirt, body shaking. “You jerk,” she choked.
He smiled, albeit a bit wobbly, and curled his hand into her hair, breathing deeply and leaning his head back against her bed. “I love you too.”
They fell asleep for the remainder of the night, curled up together on Pidge’s floor, only waking up when Coran looked in and tapped lightly on the doorframe. Pidge unwound her arms from Lance’s body but remained where she was, blinking sleepily in the early morning light of her bedroom. “Coran?”
Lance had gone still under her and Pidge turned back to look at him, voice catching when she saw the panicked look that had momentarily swept over his face before he apparently remembered what had happened. He shook it off fast, she would give him that, and then glanced in Coran’s general direction. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, of course,” the man assured them, glancing between the two of them with a sad smile. “Just…the others have been asking after you two, and Hunk has prepared breakfast for everyone.”
As if on cue, Lance’s stomach growled loudly enough to wake the dead, reminding him that he hadn’t actually eaten in almost four days. “I…I don’t know if I can…”
He trailed off, chest tightening, and pressed his lips together. Pidge turned to face him, fixing her glasses before resting a hand on his shoulder. “Please?” she asked.
Lance shuddered at the helplessness in her voice and nodded, waiting for her to stand up before reaching behind him and using the bed to push himself up slowly, frantically attempting to remember how Pidge’s room was laid out so that he could get out without killing himself. Pidge’s fingers latched around his without a word and she tugged, pulling him out of the room and into the slightly mustier air of the castle.
He realized as he walked how much he had relied on his sight; now that it was gone, he could hear every step they took, feel the reverberations through his arm of Pidge’s steps, the closeness and protective feeling of Coran just at his back, the way the castle air almost tasted stale.
“We need to get air fresheners in here,” he found himself saying before he could filter the words through his brain.
He could almost feel Pidge give him a weird look, nose scrunched up and eyes curious behind her glasses. “What?”
Lance flushed and ducked his head, tightening his grip on Pidge’s hand. “Um…never mind.”
She giggled, a real giggle, and Lance couldn’t help but smile at the sound, the way it rang through the hallways just enough so that you knew she was happy about something, how raw and genuine it felt.
He could almost feel the silence when they stepped into the dining room, all previous conversation dying, and he felt all eyes on him. Usually this didn’t bother him, usually he reveled in it, but now he wanted to do nothing more than turn on his heel and fly back the way he came. If he didn’t think he would trip and fall on his face, he would.
Instead, he put his hand up in the air in the direction the conversation had been coming from and gave a halfhearted wave. “Um…morning, everyone.”
Shiro spoke first, his voice warm and welcoming Lance realized, filled with a quiet kind of sadness that he wondered about. “Morning, Lance. Feeling okay?”
“About as okay as I can get,” he tried to joke. He felt it fall flat, felt it hit the floor. “What um…what’s for breakfast?”
Hunk spoke then and Lance relaxed at the sound of his voice, tension falling from his shoulders as the larger teen described what he could only call space pancakes, which even Coran deemed edible by Altean standards.
The conversation started again after he and Pidge had sat down, side by side with no one on Lance’s left. He was at the end of the row, he realized, and he made sure to double check that there was nothing he might accidentally elbow off the table. No need for him to be more useless than he already was.
He faltered at the thought, the realization dawning on him for the first time since waking up the previous night: he was useless. He couldn’t see, couldn’t fight, couldn’t pilot. They couldn’t form Voltron.
His fork clattered and the room went silent again as he pushed back, away from the table, heart racing in his chest and bile climbing into his throat. “Lance?” Hunk tried softly, his voice close, calming, nervous. “Are you okay?”
“I…I need…I need to go.”
“Okay, I’ll-”
“No!” he cut Hunk off with a snap, knowing he’d feel bad about it later but too lost right now to care. “No, I…I c-can’t.”
“Hey.”
Coran’s hand found his shoulder, large and warm and gloved, and Lance swallowed, shaking his head. “I’m…I just need to leave,” he whispered. “Please.”
“All right.”
He steered him from the room and into the hallway, where Lance settled his hand onto the wall and glanced back in Coran’s direction. “I can find my way,” he promised softly. “I…I’ll just stick to the wall. I need…”
“To be alone. I understand. I’ll make sure they don’t follow you.”
“Thank you, Coran.”
He wasn’t sure where he was going when he started, wasn’t sure where he could go, honestly; all Lance knew was that he couldn’t be around them, couldn’t be around their pity.
He wasn’t sure when he ended up in the training room. The only reason he knew that that was where he happened to be was because he ran his fingers along a shield mounted to the wall, and then the glass case containing what he knew was Hunk’s paladin suit.
Hunk.
Lance groaned and hesitated, twisting to look back over his shoulder. He had been such a jerk. Hunk had made breakfast and he had just…snapped.
Vowing to himself to apologize later, Lance continued, faltering a little when his hand jumped to open air and stepping forwards hesitantly, sighing in relief when it landed on Pidge’s container. He smiled and tapped the container once before moving, unfaltering, to stand in front of his own.
It felt heavy, standing with his fingertips pressed to the glass of a suit he wouldn’t wear again, and Lance pressed his hand down on the sensor, fumbling around and reaching in until his fingers closed around his bayard, familiar weight lifting something unidentifiable from his shoulders.
He turned away, the door whooshing shut behind him, and willed the weapon to change. It did, but not into the heaviness of the gun that he was expecting.
No, it stretched, the weight tipping away from Lance and indicating something long, lithe, limber, and when he pulled it towards him and found a pole, made of some alien metal that hummed under his fingertips, Lance gasped softly.
He settled it against the floor hesitantly, remembering the few blind people he had met in his life, and swept the ground in front of him with the bayard. Nothing. He stepped forwards, eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he swung to the right and it buzzed against his fingertips. He stepped in that direction, pole promptly smacking into something and another vibration going through his hand. He reached his free hand out and pressed it against the capsule next to his, Shiro’s.
“So you vibrate when I’m getting too close to something,” he muttered under his breath. “Like when a car gets too close to something and starts beeping. Cool.”
He had no idea how the bayard had known to change, how it had known exactly what he needed, but holding it in his hand made him feel just a little more confident.
“Lance? What are you doing in here?”
Keith’s voice was curious, and Lance turned in the direction of it slowly, eyebrows furrowing. “Um…I don’t…really know?”
There was a pause as Keith took this in and then a quiet sound of surprise, much closer and to his right than Lance had anticipated. “Dude, what happened to your bayard?”
Lance shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know,” he said again. “It just…changed.”
“Cool. I wonder if all of them change like that.”
“I mean…” Lance bit his lip and ducked his head. “I think it just changed because…my needs changed.”
Keith didn’t miss a beat. “That’s cool though. It’s weird to think that our bayards can sense when we need something different. Think you could fight with it?”
Lance tossed him a bewildered look, or at least what he hoped was a bewildered look, and cocked an eyebrow. “You’re kidding, right? Me? Fighting? Like this?”
“Like what?”
Lance realized Keith was being dead serious and he shook his head. “I don’t…I don’t understand. What are you-?”
Keith lifted the pole and pressed it firmly into both of Lance’s hands. “I’m saying,” he said, close enough to Lance’s face that he could practically feel his breath, “that you’re not helpless, Lance. Anything but. And I have faith that you can learn to fight despite this setback. The sooner you start, the faster you’ll get this. Who knows; you might even get better at fighting.”
It was the dig that got Lance to smile again, and he laughed, licking his lips and shaking his head. “Yeah right, like I wasn’t great at it in the first place.”
Keith snorted. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Lance paused and lifted the staff/pole thing a little higher, worrying his lower lip. “Will you…I…”
His pride prevented him from asking, so Keith answered for him, the soft “schink” of his sword forming answering Lance’s unspoken question. “Up. Maneuver six.”
The images flashed unbidden in Lance’s mind and he lifted his pole up with his left hand, holding it so that it faced right at a 45-degree angle (approximately, he couldn’t really tell) and feeling the weight of Keith’s sword swing down against it. “Good. Four.”
He switched hands, swiping down this time and blocking the blow Keith had aimed at his knees. A thrill went through him at the feeling, and as Keith continued, calling out the maneuvers he needed, Lance felt his chest swell at the thought that maybe he wasn’t totally useless while blind. Even though Keith was essentially telling him where he was, Lance appreciated him treating him like he wasn’t fragile, like he was just…Lance.
“Okay, I’m going to stop calling out the maneuvers.”
“You’re what?”
“Lance,” Keith breathed, voice choppy because of the workout. “It’s okay. I won’t go too fast. Your bayard lights up whenever I get too close to it, so I bet you probably feel something whenever you hold it near anything.”
Lance paused. He had felt the pole vibrate every time Keith swung at him, only a few seconds from actually hitting the staff, and had learned that, if the pole was held in the center of him, whichever side Keith was attacking from would vibrate first. “Okay.”
The first hits were slow, methodical, and Lance always had time to lift his pole when he felt Keith swinging. He started to notice the small things: Keith’s breathing, his footsteps, the sound his sword made when he lifted it. Keith was right handed, so it was easier to deduce where the blade would be.
At some point Lance realized they were moving much faster, parrying and striking and defending themselves, and he actually laughed, holding up a hand to stop Keith’s next swing and shaking his head.
“You okay?” Keith asked, the touch of concern in his voice heartwarming.
Lance managed a nod and lowered his bayard, cheeks burning. “Yeah. I’m…thank you, Keith.”
Keith’s sword “schiked” again, indicating that he had put it away. “What for?”
Lance flushed and fiddled with his bayard for a moment, fingers dancing over the sleek metal and wondering just for a moment what it was actually made of. He’d have to ask Coran. “For not…I don’t know, treating me like I’m broken.”
Keith seemed confused when he responded. “You’re not. You’re just blind, Lance. A lot of people do amazing things despite that. I don’t doubt that you can too.”
“Am I going deaf too, or did Keith Kogane just compliment me?”
Keith shoved his shoulder and Lance could hear his smile, hear his laughter. “Shut up, loser.”
It became a routine after that, Keith helping Lance with his bayard, helping him learn to fight with a weapon again. Eventually, when he was comfortable, he got Shiro to help him get his hand to hand combat up to speed. Pidge pitched in, making him some machine (he didn’t ask for details) that would enhance his hearing in battle, so that he could react more quickly. Lance trained without them for the most part, though he assured Pidge that he appreciated the thought.
It took him a long time to open up to Hunk, to apologize for being distant, for making his best friend worry, and when he finally did, Lance felt like he had lost 100 pounds, standing in the warm embrace of the yellow paladin and clutching at him hard enough to leave a bruise.
Eventually he was comfortable in his own skin again, swinging his bayard aimlessly while talking to people or maneuvering around the rooms without any assistance. He still needed it if he was going further than a single hallway, but it was freeing to be able to lounge around the commons room again without having to hang on to someone’s body.
Things in the castle slowly returned to normal.
And then nearly a month later, in the middle of jokingly jousting with Keith, he laughed, landing a blow on Keith’s hip that made the robot that had been keeping track call out his winning point. “Ha! Take that, Mullet!”
The moment the words left his mouth he froze, body going utterly rigid. Keith kept quiet for a moment, confused, but when Lance’s face crumpled and the bayard clattered to the ground he was sprinting for him, throwing his sword alongside Lance’s staff and clasping Lance by the shoulders. “Lance? Lance, what’s wrong?”
Lance could only choke out a sob and he sank to his knees, Keith kneeling with him and still holding his shoulders. “I can’t…I can’t remember.”
Keith frowned, heart calming a little. “Can’t remember what?”
Lance looked up, eyes teary and staring at somewhere on Keith’s face. “What you…I mean…I can’t…your face. I can’t…”
He choked and Keith felt like he was going to start crying alongside him, he looked so scared. “Hey. Lance. Breathe. It’s okay. I’ve got an ugly face anyway, right?” he tried to joke.
Lance shook his head violently, tears slipping down his cheeks, and Keith cursed. He wasn’t equipped to handle this; this was Hunk’s territory, Coran’s, not his. But he couldn’t leave him here, like this. He hadn’t seen Lance break down this badly since he realized he couldn’t see the stars anymore.
“Lance. Come on…give me your hands.”
He said it without thinking, not waiting for Lance to cooperate before gently taking Lance’s wrists in his fingers, lifting the blue paladin’s palms to his cheeks and settling them there. “Just…touch. It’s okay.”
Lance stiffened, face wary. “But you don’t…you don’t like…”
“Lance. It’s okay. Go ahead. Touch me.”
Any other time, any other time, Keith knew that would have gotten a dirty joke out of the paladin. Now, however, kneeling on the floor of the training room with Lance’s forehead nearly touching his, Lance ran his fingertips over Keith’s face, sending shivers down his spine and making him instantly regret it.
Until he saw the look on Lance’s face, that is. The way his lips stopped twitching as his hands curled over the top of Keith’s forehead, brushing back hair. How his tears stopped as Keith closed his eyes, letting Lance run his fingertips over his lids and keep them there, just for a moment. How his breath hitched as his right thumb caught on Keith’s bottom lip and hovered there, stroking along the edge and making Keith gulp.
“Do you remember?” he asked, voice low, forehead brushing Lance’s.
Lance swallowed, gaze shooting up to lock almost perfectly on Keith’s, and Keith froze, caught in a moment where all he wanted to do was kiss him as hard as he could. “I do,” he murmured. “I…thank you.”
He lifted his hands, shaking hands, to curl around Lance’s wrists again, and Lance continued his movements, fingers sliding back over Keith’s jaw, under his ear, and curling into the hair on the nape of his neck. “Stupid mullet,” he muttered, voice filling with laughter again.
Keith grinned and couldn’t help it; he kissed him, gently at first, so that he knew it was coming, and then harder when Lance responded positively, fingers tightening in his hair and Keith’s arms lifting to cup Lance’s cheeks, caressing the tears away and making his heart pound.
Lance eventually pulled away and buried his face, burning and red, into the crook of Keith’s neck, taking a shuddering breath and wrapping him in a tight hug. Keith returned it without a word, saying nothing, and stroking his back on the training room floor.
“Are you sure I can do this, Allura?” Lance asked, shifting from one foot to the other. He had been out of his suit for far too long, and it felt weird to be back in it. A solid hand, Hunk’s hand, he noted, settled on his shoulder and he calmed down a little.
“Positive, Lance. We know Blue has missed you, and she will help you in every way she can.”
“Plus, I like flying alongside Blue,” Hunk declared cheerfully. “Even if sometimes you do get our asses kicked.”
Lance laughed brightly, nudging his friend in the stomach and fidgeting with the helmet in his hands. He hadn’t worn it in over a month, and it scared him to put it on, to feel the weight of being a paladin on his shoulders again. “What if I fuck up?” he asked, voice low so Shiro wouldn’t yell at him.
Hunk was the only one who heard him, and he squeezed Lance’s shoulder tightly. “That’s why we’re just doing a search and rescue, man. No Galra anywhere around here, as far as Coran’s scanners go. It’ll be okay. Promise.”
Lance took a shaky breath and nodded, pulling out his bayard and extending it. He didn’t really need it, was able to feel Blue’s excited energy from where he stood drawing him forwards, but he did it anyway, feeling more secure in himself. Hunk squeezed his shoulder one more time and let him go and Lance stepped forwards, past Keith and Pidge, who were discussing the best and safest way to get the people off the planet before it died, past Shiro and Coran, who were going over the number of villagers they needed to get out, and into Blue, who purred in his mind the moment he entered.
Lance relaxed, a calming sensation spilling over his body, reminding him of the tides of the ocean, the way the water would caress him, get rid of his worries.
“Lance?” Keith said into his ear, the receiver crackling a little. “You okay?”
Lance smiled and made his way to the cockpit, gingerly fastening his seatbelt and settling his helmet into his lap. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
He heard the rest of the paladins clambering into their lions and he paused, unsure of how to start up Blue when he couldn’t see any of the controls. He should have tested himself, made sure he knew where everything was situated before he got in, and he cursed under his breath as a feeling of helplessness swept over him and got rid of the calm.
Blue purred again, urging him on, and Lance took a shaky breath, shutting his eyes and pulling the helmet on over his head. “Okay, Lance,” he murmured, flexing his fingers. “You got this. She won’t let you fall. They won’t let you fall.”
He opened his eyes.
And his heart stopped.
Because in front of him, through his visor, through the screen of Blue, he could see everything; could see Keith saying one more thing to Coran before hopping into Red. See the Black lion, charged and ready to go, lights bright as day. Could see Allura, her hair, her skin, Coran next to her, the entire castle.
Lance sobbed, hard, his throat nearly constricting, and instantly there was chatter on his comm, stuff he couldn’t hear because he was so busy seeing, so busy looking at everything he had missed so dearly, and his chest ached for it all.
“LANCE!”
Pidge’s scared voice echoed through his head and he snapped out of it, swallowing around the dryness in his throat and reaching shaking hands out to grasp at the controls. “Sorry. I’m…I’m here.”
“Are you okay?” Keith asked, sounding beyond concerned.
“I can see,” Lance whispered.
There was dead silence for a moment, where he could see Allura and Coran whip around to stare up at his lion, and he gave them a sheepish wave. The moment he did so, screeches of disbelief overwhelmed his comm and he had to pull the helmet off entirely. The world went dark the second he did so and he froze, fingers tightening their hold on the sturdy plastic.
“It’s the helmet,” he said, putting it back on and blinking at the sudden brightness of it all. “Or maybe it’s Blue. I don’t know. Whatever it is, whenever…whenever the helmet’s on…I can see.”
A laugh bubbled out of him, almost hysterical, and Lance pressed a fist to his mouth. “I can see!” he said again. “Not…not all the time…but I…”
“I’m happy for you, Lance,” Shiro said sincerely, and Lance realized that even though he couldn’t see him in front of him, he could see his smile, could hear it, and that startled him more than he cared to admit. “Ready for the mission?”
Lance grinned. “Absolutely.”
Their lions roared in unison and took off, and Lance shuddered as they launched out of the castle and into space, the stars around them glittering for lightyears. He paused for a second to brush away the tears that had started to cloud his vision.
He could see, at least for a while. He wasn’t going to miss a moment of it.
I hope you’re ready for another part of MMOTB!! Again, this au is so much fun to write. Thank you @koshkavinni!!
Summary: On the battlefield, anything can happen. Never turn a blind eye to the possibilities.
Word Count: 1346
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
On Ao3
{Comic 1} {Comic 2} {Comic 3} {Comic 4}
“You can’t get rid of me that easy guys,” Lance said as he crossed his arms.
After Hunk and Pidge (mostly Hunk) calmed down, everyone sat down again to eat. Lance didn't eat much but was enough to keep everyone off his back. Keith kept an eye on him, he could see how uncomfortable he was with trying to use the spork, but somehow he was managing. Everyone stayed away from the topic of him piloting the blue lion, tiptoeing around the topic like it was suddenly a taboo. Lance acted like he didn't notice, but when no one was talking to him Keith saw something sad cross his face.
Eventually, they all parted their ways. Hunk led Lance back to his room. Lance joked about Hunk being the best boyfriend ever as he took the big guy's elbow. Hunk laughed pretty hard at that, wiping away a tear as the exited the room. The pull that Keith felt on his heart hurt. It was slight, but it was just Lance joking around like normal. There was no reason to get upset about that. He looked down at his food and tried to reason out his emotions. He was being unreasonable by even thinking about being jealous of Hunk. Keith took a deep breath and calmed himself, letting it out slowly. Focus on the team, make sure they stay together.
Despite all that, Keith lost his appetite. He cleaned his plate of goo and put it away before making for the training deck. His nerves were still pretty shot from the last couple of days and mindlessly cutting down drones sounded like a really good idea right now.
It took hours of striking down drone after drone on the training deck for Keith to finally feel normal – well closer to normal. While he was training, he was able to forget that they had a mission go bad, that they had almost lost a team member, he almost lost a friend, that Lance was blind now. It was a few hours of hard earned ignorance, and by now the whole castle was asleep. But now that Keith stood under the showerhead, washing off his training session that everything came crashing back down.
He slammed a fist against the wall. Why did it feel like it was his fault? Was it because he had been the closest one to Lance at the time? The whole situation had been chaos…lasers everywhere, drone parts littering the whole corridor. It had been a nightmare.
Keith lowered his head under the water, letting it run down his back. He glared two holes into the ground. He should have provided more cover for Lance, he had been stuck behind that truss long enough that the Galra could have targeted his spot. He should have seen that coming, he should have done something to get Lance out of there.
Now Lance was blind.
And it was his fault for not looking out for him.
He wasn’t going to let another thing like this happen again. Keith swore that he would do whatever he could do to help Lance. He couldn’t let him go through this alone.
Keith turned off the shower and wrung out his hair. He still felt like he couldn’t sleep, but he was used to a sleepless night here and there. As soon as he was dressed and his hair was mostly dry, Keith set to wandering the halls of the castle. It was his way of winding down, and after all that’s happened, he was surprised that he hasn’t done this yet. He let his mind wander, just like his feet. He didn’t want to come off to Lance like he was trying to baby him, but there had to be someway Lance could still pilot Blue. Even if he had told Shiro that Lance wouldn’t – couldn’t be replaced, Keith still hadn’t thought of a way for Lance to still be a paladin. All he had was his bond with the blue lion, who chose him for a reason, much like the rest of the lions chose him, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro. But was Lance’s bond with the blue lion enough to still pilot her?
He turned a corner and came to a stop. Normally the observation deck was the darkest place on the ship, simply because it was open to everything around them. But now it was glowing and the star map was activated. Keith frowned. No one on the ship stayed up this late, even Pidge who he would find in some strange places sometimes. He let his feet carry him into the room.
The map was set on the milky way, Earth pinpointed with a marker, coordinates listed. A small pang of homesickness from just seeing their home planet there. He didn’t have anyone to return to, but he missed being able to travel through the desert on his speeder and just enjoy the wind on his face, and the rush he got from pushing his limits.
“What are you still doing up, Keith?”
Keith flinched slightly. He hadn’t seen Lance sitting on the edge of raised platform in the middle of the room. What was he doing up?
“How’d you know it was me?” he asked as he sat down next to Lance.
Lance shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno, it was more of a guess really.”
Keith didn’t say anything and pulled a leg up, resting his chin on his knee.
They were quiet for a while. Lance was leaning back on his hands, head tilted up like he was actually looking at the stars.
“Thanks for sticking up for me earlier, Keith…”
Keith glanced at him from out of the corner of his eye. “That was nothing. You would do the same for the rest of us.”
Lance smiled a bit at that. “Yeah, I probably would, wouldn’t I?”
Keith smirked and looked back out the stars. “There’s no doubt about it. You did throw yourself in front of a bomb for Coran.”
“As much as I love Coran, I’m not doing that again. That hurt.”
Both of them chuckled at that.
"Are you doing okay? You know-" Lance cut Keith off with a sure voice.
“Keith, I’m fine.”
The red paladin picked up his head and looked over at Lance.
“I’m still going to pilot Blue.”
Keith felt his eyes widen. Lance’s face was determined.
“I am still the Blue Paladin. That’s not going to change.”
It was in that moment Keith saw a glimpse of the old Lance. He could see the spark of confidence, the determination to save the universe. He could hear it in his voice, see it in the set of his shoulders. Lance looked like the Lance for the first time.
Keith smiled softly, glad that Lance was still striving to be himself during this.
“It’s good to have you back, Lance.”
Lance deflated. “I’m not even back yet…I’m still going to pilot Blue, but I have no how. I can’t see anymore, I only made it here because I have it memorized. But flying Blue around in space where there’s everything and anything? Fighting the Galra? Flying with you guys? Forming Voltron is going to be a disaster!”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. His hands were clenched into fists, trying to stop them from shaking, but Keith could still the small tremors. He reached out and covered one of them.
“You still have time to figure it out, Lance. Blue isn’t going anywhere. She’s still your lion.” He meant what he said in the dining hall earlier, Lance wasn’t going to be replaced.
The blue paladin leaned into to Keith. “I’m scared…I have no idea how this is going to work…”
Keith pulled him into a hug and Lance buried his face into his shoulder. “It’s going to be ok, we can figure it out – you can figure it out. Believe in yourself, Lance.”
Lance didn’t say anything, just nodding.
It was going to take some time for everyone to adjust to this, most of all Lance.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Everyone bonds with everyone eventually as a space fam
Characters: Lance (Voltron), Lance's Family (Voltron), Hunk (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Keith (Voltron), Pidge (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Coran (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Zarkon (Voltron), Haggar (Voltron), Sendak (Voltron)
Additional Tags: Lance (Voltron)-centric, trigger warning: car crash, platonic paladins - Freeform, Pidge's family mentioned, maybe they'll show up later?, Bonding, Blind Lance, Voltron au, I love Galra Keith so that will most likely happen, lance is blind so there may be triggers for some people just in that, Fluff and Angst, Biracial Lance (Voltron), trauma and injury, lance is still a goof, but he's also oceans deep and so layered, lance and Blue are great
Summary:
I'm sorry I really stink at summaries. Lance is blind, Hunk is wonderful, Lance and Keith get off to a rocky start, Shiro is space dad always, Pidge is salt-incarnate (but also sensitive and wonderful) that just wants her family back. A story of origins and the formation of Voltron; follows canon but with obvious deviations where necessary because of Lance ;)
Ok I finally caved so I’ve started writing my Blind!Lance AU. So I probably won’t be posting anything but headcannons regarding this AU because the story will be addressed in the actual fic.
