Katie stood at the edge of the steps at the back of the school, shifting through her backpack and hoping her dumb luck would grant her wish to make it as if her past self had slipped in an umbrella this morning. Of course not. Matt would be in a seminar right now and both her parents were out on a date they had been planning for weeks which both she and her brother had sworn not to interfere unless a life or death situation were to arise. She really didn't want to go back into the building, Ash and his gang were probably in there waiting for their next victims but it seems that the pouring grey skies didn't give her much of a choice...
Letting out a defeated sigh, Katie turned around to go back into the building but was suddenly halted when a bright red umbrella was handed towards her by an unfamiliar hand. She straightened up her back to see who had the gall to offer the school's biggest nerd a helping hand in broad daylight.
The stranger... Keith Kogane. Well, he wasn't really a stranger since they were in the same class but had never spoken a word to each other since the beginning of the school year. There were a few times when Katie did try to strike up a small conversation or have him greet her back at least because despite his unfriendly expression, he never looked down on anyone. Not once was Katie able to get a word out of him. But here he was, staring right at her and holding out his own umbrella. He was looking down at her with slight curiosity written across his face.
Shaking her head, Katie refused the stranger's sudden offer. "Oh no, I couldn't take it. You would get wet!" She was met with silence, an awkward one. The other students passing by stared at the odd duo for one would never imagine them being friends if you attended this school. It only made the girl squirm uncomfortably. Just when Katie was about to refuse another time, the umbrella was thrown at her and while she tried to catch it, the boy rushed into the rain as he held his school bag over his head. Strands of his hair clung to his face as he turned around to give the flustered girl one last look. "H-hey wait! What about-" Her eyes widened at his response.
Sign language?
He waved goodbye after he signed to her, leaving Katie with her mouth hanging open as she could only stare at his retreating back. The girl looked down apprehensively at the umbrella then slowly opened it, her grip on the handle tightened. Why didn't he tell her? Katie imagined all the times where she tried talking to the boy. She must have looked so stupid to him. A piece of paper fell from the umbrella as it was opened; Katie picked it up and turned it around when she spotted something scribbled onto the other side.
"You owe me now. How about ice cream?"
NSFW Deaf!Keith headcanons because I forgot to include them earlier...
Top Keith:
Keith loves putting a hand to his partner’s throat. Not to choke them but to feel their breath and their noises with his palm. It gets him extra excited to know that he can feel someone’s trembling voice in his hands. Its even better if they’re calling his name.
He loves when his partner presses their face into his chest as they come. He can feel the vibrations of their ecstatic cry right in his chest.
He loves loud partners as opposed to quiet ones for obvious reasons.
Prefered position: his partner riding his dick so he can free up his hands to sign to his partners. To praise them or direct them into going faster or slower.
Bottom Keith:
When he’s close to release, he wants to sign that but his hands shake too much to get any words out with accuracy.
His partner always thought begging was cute but when Keith signs out ‘please’ and ‘more’ with his trembling hands and flushed face---nothing’s cuter than that.
He tries so hard not to make noise or whimper or whine because he’s afraid it’ll sound weird. (His partner just finds it endearing)
He doesn’t like being bound. Losing access to his hands is like being denied his voice and it scares him like nothing else.
Prefered position: on his back or riding so he can use his hands if he needs to.
Just in general:
He loves kisses to the back of his neck, traveling up to right behind his ears.
Moth and Flame | By: witty_name | Completed | 29,050 words | Mature
Keith has been coming back to Altea Tattoos for months now, and it has little to do with the fact that his best friend is the piercer and more to do with the beautiful tattoo artist with talented hands and a smile that makes him weak at the knees.
Lance has had a lot of customers in his days, left his mark on plenty of people, but none so memorable as Keith. He finds himself turning to the door with every chime of the bell, hoping to see eyes like the night sky and a shy smile that could rival the moon.
When they meet at a concert, the spark between them ignites, creating a heat that’s impossible to resist. They’re both inexplicably drawn to each other. Like a moth to a flame.
Notes:
For some reason I love the deaf or blind fics. This happens to be one of them, but I just love the genre I don't know what it is. Any who, I hope you enjoy todays recommendation with deaf Keith and tattoo artist Lance. Just an FYI this fic has smut in it. So, if that's not your cup of tea *insert shrug* maybe my recommendation will tomorrow might be more your style.
Okay, so this is a Voltron fic, and the ship is Klance. In this, Keith is deaf, and it's a modern au library setting. The workers know Keith is deaf, but I really like the way the writer portrays everything! I find it kind of funny too, and it doesn't make fun of deaf Keith but does address the problem with living as a deaf person. Lance is also super cool in this, because he doesn't treat Keith any different from a normal person. They have notepad conversations at first, and they way they interact just makes you smile. It's still ongoing, but I'm excited to see how this plays out and maybe learn more about disabilities like deafness or blindness, as fics like these usually have facts on things like that.
Oh, yeah, by the way, just because someone can't see or hear or speak like you do, doesn't make them any less of a person. Life is just a little bit harder, and it would help if you treated them normally, if only with a few respectful differences, like calling out to a blind person and saying who you are when you reach them, and lightly touching their hand if you know them, which allows them to know where you are. Or lightly tapping a deaf person on the shoulder to get their attention if needed, since they aren't ignoring you, they just can't hear you. I usually try to respect people if I can, like when my friend has an issue with being touched. I used to just be overly affectionate (because I'm super clingy to my friends since I don't have very many, but I'm working on that) with her, but nowadays I ask if it's okay to hug her or touch her shoulder. So yeah, respect disabled people. It'd probably help make their life a little less frustrating :)
Remember how I said I had deaf!Keith headcanons...
I have TWO deaf!Keith au ideas that will probably never get around to writing but I’m throwing them down right here because I need them out of my brain so I can do some actual writing, kay? (Both are Klance btw)
It’s long so it’s under the cut. Feel free to leave comments, thoughts, etc in the replies since my ask box is still closed haha.
Born deaf Keith AU (not as angsty)
Parents figured it out a little late as he wouldn’t respond to them when they talked. But he was always watching them intently, his stubby little baby fingers on their mouths.
Gets his first hearing aid at two. Cries when he hears his parent’s voices for the first time.
He doesn’t like it when people stare at his hearing aids, so he keeps them out for the longest time when at school.
Falls behind in middle school because he can’t hear the lecture-only teachers and they talk too fast for him to figure it out via lipreading. And since he’s not a particularly outgoing kid he doesn’t ask others for their notes.
Shiro becomes his tutor. He’s fluent in sign language as his brother is deaf. Keith comes to admire Shiro a lot and starts wearing his aids again but growing his hair out to hide them.
He’s one of the smartest kids in the high school. Has a few friends but he doesn’t talk. He doesn’t like the sound of his voice when he does talk so he avoids it. They chalk it up to him being introverted since they don’t know about his deafness.
Meets Lance in high school and it’s rocky. Lance thinks Keith’s a pretentious straight-A asshole who was ignoring him when he asked a question about his notes (he couldn’t hear him sometimes he just doesn’t wear his aids) so they don’t get along at first.
Lance throws things at Keith sometimes and shoots rude glares at him. Keith then begins to actively ignore him.
Lance catches him adjusting his aids in his seat and stares perplexed. What the hell are those? Is he listening to music in class? Typical. The straight-A student gets to do whatever he wants because he’s so smart.
More animosity.
Someone comes to talk to Keith at the school about colleges and asks Lance for his classroom. Lance points the way, shocked that Keith talks to anyone since he doesn’t think he’s ever heard Keith speak even once. He watches as they have a conversation with his hands with confusion.
What the hell? Keith’s deaf? Why didn’t he just say that? He never would have picked a fight with him if he’d known.
Keith signs at him ‘But you still would have picked a fight with me if I’d been able to hear? I shouldn’t have to tell you that I’m deaf for you to be a decent fucking human being.’
Lance leaves Keith alone for a while. Keith thinks he’s finally gotten Lance off his case.
Several weeks later Lance taps Keith’s shoulder and asks if they can talk. He does a whole practiced bunch of sign language to apologize.
Signs out ‘I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I should have been nicer, regardless of your hearing. I was terrible and you don’t have to forgive me but can I tell you why I got so mad at you?’ Keith nods, arms crossed and waiting for an explanation. ‘Do you have your hearing aids in?’ Keith nods again so Lance speaks to Keith. ‘I have a big family and uh, I love them but the worst thing about it is sometimes it feels like no one’s listening to you. Like no one is hearing you even when you scream. It’s annoying and they’re not even doing it intentionally. So when it felt like you were ignoring me on purpose it got me frustrated. And angry. You don’t talk much but I get the feeling you know the feeling. Being ignored or not listened to…sucks.’ Keith admits that true with a nod. ‘So can we start again?’ he asks and signs out ‘want to be friends?’
Keith and Lance start over. Lots of talking on Lance’s end and lots of listening on Keith’s.
Lance does some tutoring with Keith and Shiro to bring his grades back up. He learns a little sign language by proxy. Sometimes Shiro will teach him some when they finish their lessons.
Lance and Keith start having conversations at school with sign, their friendship growing. He stops caring if people know if he’s deaf. Leaves his hair long in case he wants to cover them but starts wearing his hair in a tail so people can see his hearing aids without feeling embarrassed.
People ask Lance how to say things to Keith. They want to talk to Keith too. Now Keith’s got lots of school friends eager to talk to him.
Lance starts falling for Keith over the summer break. They hang out regularly with Keith’s super smart friends from other schools. (Pidge and Allura from an all girls school and Hunk from another school) YAY! THE SQUAD!
By the end of high school they’re both in love (BECAUSE I LIKE A HAPPY ENDING DAMN IT)
Not born deaf Keith (ANGSTY TW: PHYSICAL ABUSE and BULLYING)
He was a really quiet infant and toddler, almost never opening his mouth to speak. But then his parents died in an accident and he stopped talking period.
He was shuttled off to a foster home and was teased relentlessly by other kids for not talking. He knows how but he doesn’t want to. He just wants to be left alone. He gets into fights with the kids until he’s moved to a different home.
The second home is worse. The kids don’t pick on him but one of the adults beats him regularly when he doesn’t answer or doesn’t do what he’s told.
He takes a beating so bad he has to be taken to the hospital. It’s so bad that he ruptured both eardrums and loses his hearing.
Keith gets moved to a new home again, this one with an older couple, one of them deaf. They try to teach him sign but he’s obstinate. He figures he’ll just be shuttled off again when he’s too inconvenient for them. But things get better. They’re nicer than the last few homes.
He gets teased in middle school about his hearing aids but it doesn’t last long when he beats up his bullies.
One of the older couple passes away. As much as they want to keep them she can’t take care of all her foster kids on her own. They’re all sent out to new homes.
The newest home isn’t bad but it’s not great either. The parents do the bare minimum but they don’t beat him and the other kids give him his space. Better than nothing. He starts high school in the fall.
Lance comes into the school two weeks late. Just moved. Settles into the class pretty well but takes note of Keith who always seems to sit alone at the back of the class.
He notices that people tend to avoid the deaf kid but some of them mess with him. Throw paper airplanes and such at him. He sits alone at lunch. And the kid never talks. Not even to the teachers about the bullying that’s clearly going on.
Lance sees Keith getting beat up after school. They take out his hearing aid and toss it around. Keith’s about to just leave without it until an enraged Lance decks the head honcho. He returns Keith his hearing aid that he puts back in.
‘I didn’t ask you to help me’ Keith writes in a small steno pad. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘I don’t need a reason to help someone’ Lance tells him. ‘Besides those scumbags had it coming…taking someone’s means to navigate the world around them. No mercy.’
Keith keeps an eye out for Lance after that. Sees the way he’s constantly helping people and teachers with anything they need. Turns out Lance has a blind sister who used to get teased a lot. Kids would steal her walking stick and hide it when she was little and Lance always came to her rescue.
Keith doesn’t get picked on for over a week. It’s weird. He keeps expecting the usual guys to come and try to take his hearing aids but they don’t. They seem to be preoccupied with other things now.
He asks Lance about it after a few days. Lance says he told them to leave Keith alone is all. ‘Really? That’s it and they listened to you?’ Keith asks on his steno pad. ‘Yeah’ Lance tells him with a smile. ‘I’m a very persuasive guy’
Someone tells Keith later that the reason they aren’t picking on Keith anymore is that they’re picking on Lance instead. They saw him get beat up in the locker room the other day. He had bruises all over.
Keith is furious. That nosey idiot! Doesn’t he know that if he gets hit hard enough he’ll end up just like Keith? He can’t let that happen to the only kid who’s ever been nice to him.
He overhears the beatdown behind the school. ‘What a moron, taking that deaf kid’s place’ they say and ‘what has that guy ever done for you or anyone other than scowl at them?’ and ‘why are you even helping him? He your boyfriend?’ Lance just answers ‘I don’t need a reason to help someone, so just…leave him alone.”
Keith slams the door open and they drop Lance to the floor. Keith readies his fists but the group laughs. They’re done there so they leave. Keith helps Lance up off the floor and to the nurses office. (The nurse thinks for a hot second that Keith beat him up but Lance assures them it wasn’t him.)
Once they’re sure there’s no permanent damage Keith angrily signs at him. Lance doesn’t understand. He uses the notebook instead. ‘You’re an idiot. A moron. You could have gotten hurt, badly hurt. You have friends and family. You shouldn’t get beat up for me.’ But Lance says that’s his choice to make, not Keith’s.
After that Keith doesn’t let Lance out of his sight. Hell if he’s getting beat again because of Keith. That works two fold because the bullies don’t want to mess with two people at once since there’s a chance they could lose. Keith and Lance together is too much of a gamble to risk.
Being together all the time after that, Lance talks with Keith regularly in his notebook. Then he learns some sign language to talk more. Keith actually starts smiling at school after that and Lance’s new friend turns into his new crush.
The one time the bully group tries to take them both the bullies fail spectacularly. Keith and Lance trounce them (suffering a few bruises for their troubles). In their victory, they kiss. After that they begin dating.
They make it through high school without any more hiccups. Keith’s never been happier. They end up going to the same college so they won’t be split up. Because as formidable as the are on their own, they’re best as a team. (BECAUSE I LIKE A HAPPY ENDING OKAY??)
Lately I’ve been very attached to the idea of deaf!Keith and couldn’t help myself so here, my good people. *throws this post at you* Take some headcanons.
• So first things first, you have to admit the idea of Keith being deaf makes a heck of a lot of sense. Like remember how when people are deaf, one thing is that all their other senses make up for the loss of one? So it would make sense that Keith has such great instincts and why he’s so good at sword fighting since it’s not like he’s got any noise to distract him
• He never really minded his deafness when he was a kid—he barely noticed it, actually. But once he started school, kids always picked on him for being deaf and it sucked because Keith is already socially awkward as it is, plus there’s the whole galra thing, (obviously he didn’t know he was part alien, nor did anyone else, but still it was clear he was very different from other kids; he just had no idea why that was until he found out he was galra) and now kids teased him even more for being deaf. He spent a lot of time keeping to himself, the only consolation being that when he turned his back, he couldn’t hear all the whispers and snickers around him when kids were being mean.
• He’s not as open about it during his Garrison days, though. Keith is an introverted person by nature, so the thought of being The Deaf Kid again isn’t too appealing. So during his time at the Garrison, only the faculty knew he was deaf; none of the students (aside from Shiro) knew about it. Keith took years of speech therapy to be able to talk without slipping up, he learned how to read lips until it’s practically effortless by now, and he would always wear headphones during school so at least on the occasions in which someone who didn’t know he was deaf needed to get his attention, he would have an excuse for not hearing them.
• And back to the Shiro bit, of course Shiro knows about Keith’s deafness. When Keith first told him, Shiro asked him to teach him sign language so they could communicate better, and pretty soon he was fluent.
• Shiro, signing: Keith, clean your room
Keith: *closes his eyes* *signs* Sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying. come back later
• Shiro: “Are you sure you’re going to remember your Spanish test tomorrow morning?”
Keith: “Yeah, I bought an alarm clock and everything. I’ll definitely wake up on time”
Shiro: *stares at him for a long time*
Keith: “wait”
• Matt, sitting with Keith and Shiro at a lunch table: “Hey Keith you can read lips, what are those two teachers saying over there”
Keith: “They’re talking about you. They said you’re ugly”
Matt: “What? No they’re not talking about—“
Keith: “They said you’re ugly”
• Boy don’t sneak up on Keith, his instincts always make him jump straight to fight so this kid’ll punch you so fast you won’t even see it coming. Once Shiro walked into a room Keith was in and Keith didn’t see him, so when Shiro tapped his shoulder, in five seconds flat Keith had already judo thrown him and broke a table.
• Keith’s bond with Red is one of his favorite parts of being a paladin. Their communication isn’t based on sound; it’s based on feelings. They can know what the other is thinking, feel what the other is feeling. Keith can “hear” Red’s growls or purrs from the vibrations in the cockpit and the waves of emotions he can sense in the back of his mind, and the whole thing is just incredible to him. He feels really comfortable with Red, liking that they don’t need words or signs to communicate.
• After getting to space, Keith doesn’t tell Team Voltron about it for a while because he just doesn’t think it’s relevant. He can read lips fine and he gets video feed of everyone when he’s in Red so the comms aren’t much issue, thus it hasn’t caused much of a problem. Though they do wind up finding out eventually when Lance tries to get Keith’s attention from across the lounge one day. Keith has his back turned as he reads a book, so eventually Lance gets fed up of shouting and marches over to him and demands, “Dude, I’ve been calling you for like five minutes! What are you, deaf?” And Keith blinks right back at him. “Uh, yeah?”
• Nobody on the team knows sign language aside from Keith and Shiro, so they’re always having their own private conversations in sign. No one knows what they’re saying besides them so it’s kind of cool, it’s like they’ve got their own secret way of communicating.
• Keith, signing: Have you seen Allura’s outfit today? That is the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen
Shiro, exasperated: Keith, please stop gossiping about our teammates to me
• Keith and Lance are talking and Lance laughs.
Keith, signing: Please kill me he’s too cute I can’t handle it
Shiro, not looking up from his newspaper: Kiss him I dare you
• And I know the paladins usually talk through the comms, but I mean, Alteans have all kinds of crazy alien technology. There’s bound to be some kind of device that like transfers what the paladins say in the comms to Keith’s armor that uses little clickers that work like Morse code.
• Pidge has offered before to try making Keith hearing aids, but honestly? He’s not all that concerned with it and turned her down. He doesn’t mind being deaf and isn’t in a rush to take any extraordinary measures to change that status.
• Keith uses the sign for loser as Lance’s name sign this isn’t even a question.
• Keith’s deafness is also part of why whenever he is fighting someone and he goes into that really angry ready-to-kill mode—you know the one—it takes a lot to get him to tear his focus away
• He’s fighting an enemy one-on-one and it’s apparent Keith is either going to kill the guy or get himself killed but he’s not paying attention to anything but the fight, and so Shiro has to physically grab him and force him to look at him because of course Keith knew they were all yelling at him to stop the whole time even though he couldn’t hear it, he just knew because he knows them. But he ignored them because he gets this tunnel vision when he’s fighting and it’s only easier to do this when there’s no sound to distract him, which is both a gift and a curse.
• Keith: *flips off Lotor*
Lotor: “What does that mean in sign language”
Keith: “Uhhhh it means best friend”
Lotor: “Oh. Okay, well, thank you”
• (Later) Lotor: “I am offering you paladins friendship” *proudly gives Hunk the finger*
Hunk: *gasps and bodyslams him while Keith wheezes in the background*
Ok so I just told @bluedlion about this idea and I think it’s worth sharing. I’m putting it under a read more cuz it’s kinda long. Let me know what you think!
Okay, so! Most people have seen the headcanon for Keith being Autistic. That lead me to imagine this idea: Deaf!Keith
Basically, Keith is the new kid in town and doesn’t speak, but instead uses either American Sign Language, paper, or his phone to communicate with others. He and Lance meet, don’t like each other at first, and have their little insult competitions and such. Well after a while, they decide to try and be friends instead. They get to be pretty close to the point that Lance develops a crush and so he decides that he wants to learn ASL so that he can better communicate with Keith. He ends up taking ASL classes without Keith’s knowledge and as soon as he’s completed the course, he gathers up the courage to ask Keith out. Keith is deeply touched and agrees, so the two start dating.
Cue a few months later and Lance finds this video on YouTube. He loves it and decides to memorize the song. He records himself performing it for Keith and posts it on their anniversary; he sends Keith the link and Keith absolutely adores it. They continue to date until they finish high school and once Keith turns 18, he decides to get cochlear implants. Of course, this puts an idea for yet another surprise into Lance’s head. Keith’s surgery goes well and after a few weeks, he and Lance come back to the doctor’s office to test out the new implants. The doctor turns them on and asks Keith if he can hear her. He signs to her that he can and then he immediately turns to Lance. Lance is sitting there smiling and signs for Keith to wait a second. Lance grabs his phone, pulls up the original music video, and presses play. He sings the entire song and at the end of it, looks at Keith and says, “I wanted me singing our song to be the first time you hear my voice.”
