Gone and Mute

Chapter 3

Keith was, to put it simply, having a rough time teaching Lance sign language. It's not that Keith was a bad teacher, per se, nor was Lance a slow learner. They just butted heads too often to be able to get much of anywhere. It was made worse with Lance's inability to speak because, in order to signify he was annoyed, he'd just turn and fold his arms and become distant, and Keith didn't know how to deal with that. Keith barely knew how to handle his own emotions, much less try and deal with someone else's. So Keith would get fired up.

"Lance," Keith tried when Lance turned and shut himself away. "Are you even paying attention?"

As usual, Keith got no response, which started to tick him off.

"Lance. Lance!"

Lance finally turned to look at him, eyebrows angled downwards in a cross between a glare, a scowl and a general frown.

"Is something wrong, Lance?" Keith asked in a tone that threatened what would happen if Lance said yes.

Lance turned in his chair slightly towards the diagram Keith had pulled up on the table in front of them. He glared at the screen, obviously not reading it, as he held up his hand and signed out a slow N O.

"Then why were you turned away from me?" He asked accusingly.

Lance didn't answer. He didn't want to answer. Keith was pressuring him, and he was going to say- sign- something wrong if he tried to answer. Instead, he shrugged.

This didn't help the situation.

"Lance, just look at me!" Keith snapped. Lance jerked his head over to Keith, shooting daggers with his gaze. "Will you just tell me what's wrong?!"

The words were out before Keith realized, and he knew he had messed up before Lance took the time to react.    His breath caught in his throat at the wide eyed, almost pained expression on the other Paladin's face.

"Wait, wait, I'm sorry Lance it just-"

A horrifying noise came from the boy, causing Keith to flinch back in alarm. Lance had clearly been trying to say something, like Keith had told him to, but it ended very poorly and suddenly Lance was doubled over, blood splattering on the floor of the metallic room.

"Lance?!" Keith cried in alarm, rushing forward and trying to get him to sit up by grabbing his shoulder. Lance jerked away, coughing and spluttering and still managing to glare at Keith through the streams of blood leaking out of his mouth and staining his shirt. Keith's hand jerked away and he felt kind of hurt, but it was muffled by the feeling of panic swelling in his chest. "Lance, we have to get you to Coran."

Lance's jaws opened and another gurgling noise came out of his throat before another mouthful of blood gathered on the floor, and Lance was silenced by pain, resorting to violent trembling. Keith glowered, looking around the room before leaning down and scooping his arms under Lance's leg. He propped Lance's back up against his other arm and he raced out of the room, much to Lance's convulsive-like thrashing.

"Lance just- stop," Keith snapped, earning a confused and frustrated look from Lance. "I get it, I said something wrong, but that doesn't mean you can-can just hurt yourself like this, dammit!"

Lance's breath hitched, and another jolt of panic spread through Keith's nerves- was he choking? Was Lance gonna get blood on his jacket? Why was that the biggest of his concerns?

He shook these thoughts from his head and booked it to the bridge. He could feel Lance's blood leaking out of his mouth, and onto his shirt, and the violent jerking convulsions as he choked on the blood, and oh god Keith was about to start crying.

The doors slid open to the bridge and he skidded to a stop, holding Lance to his chest. The team turned to look at him in alarm, and Keith choked out a noise of distress as someone moved forward and took Lance from his arms- he hoped it was Shiro, or Coran. Keith was shaking and someone wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He didn't seem to mind this time. Why was he so worried about this? Maybe it was because Lance had felt so... vulnerable in Keith's arms. Maybe it was because Keith had said something that had set off this whole chain of events. This was his fault- all his fault.

He gasped for air without realizing he'd been holding in a breath and looked up numbly past the sudden tears in his eyes to see who was leading him towards the medbay. When he saw it was Shiro, he assumed Coran had taken Lance.

Shiro looked at Keith and the two stopped just outside the medbay, letting the others go inside. He set his hands on Keith's shoulders and turned the Red Paladin towards him. Keith wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and sniffed stubbornly, looking up at Shiro.

"What happened."

"I just said something dumb," Keith muttered, trying to brush him off.

"What did you say."

Keith stared at the ground, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

"Keith, what did you-"

"I told him to just tell me what was wrong!" Keith snapped suddenly, before grabbing Shiro's the wrists and forcing his hands off of him. "And he-he got frustrated and..." He gestured to the medbay, glaring at the ground. This was all his fault, and now... who knew what damage he'd caused.