"You worthless piece of shit," he screamed. He kicked Lance in the face, the resounding crunch of his nose attesting to the force that was put behind the force. "The teacher called me because you told her you were afraid to come home!"
"Please," Lance begged. "I don't want this!"
"Shut up!" he screamed again. He brought the knife to Lance's throat. "It's be better if you didn't speak, or I'll have to cut out your tongue to keep you quiet."
Lance shot up, the nightmare causing him to tremble. No, it wasn't a nightmare, it was a memory. The reason why Lance refused to speak. Even though Lance was safe now, far far away from his father in space, he was too afraid to speak.
When he was younger his father would beat him and as he got older the beatings became more frequent and more violent. Finally he escaped by getting into the garrison, yet he still said nothing.
The doctors called him a selective mute, 'a traumatic experience caused it' they'd say. The teachers accepted it and told all the classes that Lance was in that he was a mute. They chose not to admit that it was selective for fear that there'd be questions. So nobody knew that Lance could, in theory, speak.
Until yesterday, anyway.
Yesterday started out normal. Lance got up, did his face routine and he went to breakfast. He was greeted by the rest of the paladins. He signed hello to them before he went to get food goo. He sat down at the table and began to eat.
He was grateful that they let him be a paladin despite being a mute. Allura claimed that he didn't need a voice to save the universe. Blue could warn the others if something happened and that was that.
Pidge came in late that morning, yawning loudly. Lance wanted to comment on her lack of sleep but he was unable to. She sat down with a grunt and asked, very unlady-like. for a cup of coffee please. Shiro looked at her sternly.
"No Pidge," he said. "That's unhealthy."
"Suck my dick, Shiro."
Lance laughed. The room turned silent as they all turned to stare at him. Lance clutched his throat, his eyes wide. Holy shit, he laughed! Lance can't even remember the last time he made a noise. Suddenly he remembered his fathers promise and started to freak out.
He started to claw at his throat, hoping that if he hurt himself enough the punishment wouldn't be as severe. The response from the paladins was instantaneous. Shiro stood up and ran to Lance, prying his hands away from his throat. Lance was sobbing and fighting Shiro, trying hard to hurt himself more.
"Lance! Lance! Lance stop it! Stop!" Shiro cried. "CORAN! Lance I need you to breathe, stop it your hurting yourself!"
"What's happening to him?" Pidge cried.
"Lance is having a panic attack!" Shiro responded, cradling Lance to his chest. Lance had finally stopped trying to hurt himself and just cried. "It's okay Lance, it's okay."
"Does he need a sedative?" Coran asked, brandishing a syringe. Lance whimpered and buried his face in Shiro's chest.
"No, I think he's okay now, just....don't crowd him." Shiro said. "Lance?" Lance slowly let go of Shiro and looked at him. "Don you want to write down what just happened?"
Lance nodded shakily. He didn't really want to explain everything but he knew he owed it to everybody. They just found out that Lance was capable of making noise therefore capable of making speech. They were bound to be confused.
Lance wrote out an explanation of everything and it was passed around between the paladins. They all had expressions ranging from pity to horror to homicidal rage. (Pidge) Shiro held Lance and whispered soothing words into his ear before Lance fell asleep.
And now they all knew the truth. They didn't seem disgusted with him so that was something. The alarms going off distracted him from the oncoming panic attack. Lance got up and put on his suit, preparing for battle.
Lance raced into the hangar where Allura and Coran and the rest of the paladins were. "Good, everyone's here. We've found a galran battle cruiser not far from here. Your mission is to infiltrate it and collect intel on the shipping records."
"Of course," Shiro said.He looked at everyone and nodded. "Let's go team!"
=============
It was amazing how quickly everything went to shit.
There had been far more drones than they had expected and there were ten times the amount of actual fighters on board. Lance grunted as he shot at another drone coming towards him. His back pressed against another and Lance jumped a foot in the air.
"Relax, Lance," Keith said as he cut a drone in half. "It's just me."
Lance smiled and returned to destroying the battle drones. They were everywhere. A stray piece of a bot cut into his cheek. Lance wiped the blood and returned to making sure nothing touched his teammate.
At the beginning Lance wanted nothing to do with Keith. He was rude, brash and a dumb hothead. But now, Lance was so happy to have Keith near him. Keith, though frustratingly awkward, was a wonderful person and he fought fiercely to protect the people he cared about. An admirable trait.
Lance had finished the drones on his end and turned to help Keith. He sniped a few that were running down the hall. When all of them had been taken out Keith turned to Lance with a giddy expression. God, Keith was so fucking cute!
"Thanks sharpshooter," Keith said. Lance nodded happily. "Lance...about yesterday.." Lance's expression soured. Right, they'd most definitely have to talk about that, wouldn't they?
Lance looked back to see a drone raise it's sword above Keith's head. Lance didn't see it. Lance's eyes widened as he shoved Keith aside. "KEITH LOOK OUT!" Lance screamed.
The sword cut through Lance;'s stomach like a hot knife through butter. Lance could even hear the sizzle of his skin as it came into contact with the burning hot sword. Keith let out a gasp and a cry of rage before the bot was dismembered, pieces of it everywhere.
"LANCE!" Keith cried. He wrapped his arms around Lance's face. "No, no, no NO! Hey look at me, keep those pretty eyes open okay? Lance! Lance, you spoke!"
Lance let out a bitter chuckle. Lance wasn't afraid to speak anymore. Why should he? He was dying, there was nothing his father could do to him anymore. "Way to point out the obvious." Lance coughed up blood.
"Lance it's okay, we're going to get you back to the castle and you'rte going to be fine, okay?" Keith cried, his tears dripping onto Lance's face. Lance didn't have the strength to wipe them away. Not that he would if he could.
"Keith.....I'm sorry. I have to go...I just wanted to say..................I love you all..." Lance said, a sigh of relief escaping his lips when the numbness began to spread through his limbs. He wanted to say it all before it was too late. "You...especially...I love you Keith.."
"You can tell me how much you love me when you're all better," Keith wept, gently lifting Lance so he could run, careful not to jostle Lance too much. "Then you and I are going on a date and we're going to be the cutest couple in the universe okay?"
"Keith," Lance said, mustering all of his strength to cup Keith's face. "It's been honor fighting with you. Take care of them....for me.....goodbye..."
Lance's hand fell limp and his eyes closed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
