Chapter Text
Presence made itself known beside Lance while he sat staring out into the open in front of him. He used to think space was never-ending, the wide open speckled with stars and planets, but being out here seemed to change his thought process.
It was suffocating. The wide-open stared back at him with piercing eyes, taunting him with what he already knew, he was not coming back from the past seven months. His eyes trailed down to the metal leg he now bore. Assisting with reminding him who he would never be again, the old version of himself.
“Lance.”
He had forgotten about the space taken up next to him, making the wide-open seem a bit less enormous. He could recognize the voice anywhere. Lance could pick this specific voice out of a crowded room of thousands. It was the same voice that reminded him of what he had back home.
“Stop thinking.” The voice commanded him, which drew him from his thoughts. It seemed like his voice was the only one to draw him from the fog that consumed his every waking moment. His eyes met with a set of purple ones, ones that used to make him melt where he stood.
Lance’s hands clasped together in an air-tight hold in an attempt to ground him to the chair he sat in. He watched as another hand slipped in between his, breaking the seal between them. Keith’s hands could ground him more than his own could.
And for the first time since he fell out of that cryopod, he felt in the present.
Lance looked away from him with an exhale, an exhale that seemed to carry the weight of planets. Lance drug his calloused thumb against the knuckles of the hand clasped in his own.
And there they sat in silence. Basking in the present.
-
“They’re landing.” Pidge had burst into the room around an hour later, after an hour of comfortable silence between the two paladins.
Lance broke away from Keith in a sharp instant, he stood up before his legs broke out in a sprint. A run that seemed to leave all of the grief and guilt behind him in a way that gave his chest enough room to heave and bring air in to carry his legs farther.
He paid no attention to the feet that ran behind him.
-
His breath began to pick up as the ship touched the ground of the hangar. His eyes stared up at it as if it carried his lifeline, the other paladins joined him in anticipation.
Lance watched as the door opened, falling to the ground in a ramp that seemed to connect the heavens and the earth in his mind. It was mind-shattering the sheer amount of emotions that piled out of his brain and filled his heart full of unshed tears he wouldn't let himself cry.
She stood there, and the moment she saw him tears began falling from her face in waves.
Her little legs carried her at a speed that almost knocked the two of them over as they met, Lance crouched down to receive her at her height. Arms wrapped around each other as both of them exploded in emotion and tears.
“It's a child..” Pidge whispered through her tears, along with the rest of the paladins assumed it to be a woman. Even now, some failed to give Lance the benefit of the doubt.
But Keith knew, the shared moments and sweet nothings they had months before proved to Keith Lance's loyalty.
“I promised.” The blue paladin spoke in a soft voice while small high-pitched sobs filled the room as Lance held onto the small girl, rubbing circles into her back as his tears dried up. He stood up, holding her in his arms. One arm wrapped under her and one reached up to the back of her head.
He mouthed a thank you to Matt standing back on the ramp, who made eye contact with his sister.
Lance cradled her head and whispered comforting nothings to her as she dug her face into his shoulder and wailed. He took this as his signal to leave, making eye contact with his friends as he walked through the door behind them.
-
Laying her down on his bed he took a seat next to her as she sniffled, bringing an arm up to wipe her eyes only for those tears to be replaced with new ones.
He listened as the door hissed closed behind him.
Lance took in her form, she was bruised, had a black eye, and cuts lining her neck and down her arms. He felt sick to his stomach. If he had any less self-control he would have turned and emptied his contents out on the floor next to him.
She turned to look at him, finding comfort in his ocean-blue eyes. And for the first time, he smiled. Lance reached out to drag a thumb across her cheek to brush the tears away.
He wouldn't show it but he was filled with rage, who would consciously torture a child? It filled the blue paladin with a type of bewilderment and wrath he'd never known before.
They stayed like that for an hour and a half. She told him everything.
-
The rest of the paladins stood outside his door, waiting for their friend to come out. They stood there and lingered anxiously.
They were silenced once they heard the door hiss open, watching Lance emerge alone. He bore a confusing twist of anguish and emotion, looking down at the floor as the door whizzed shut behind him.
The team hadn't been ready for it, and neither was Lance.
The emotion he had been concealing for the past six months, all of the terrifying moments of wondering if he would ever see his friends and family again, the torture, the numbness came flooding out.
He gasped for breath, unable to catch it, Lance struggled to force air in and out as he raised a hand to press it against his forehead to force the emotions to stop, but to no avail. The male pushed his body against the wall as he began to sob, moving his hand to push the back of it to his mouth in an attempt to silence himself. His cries came out in crushing, strangled sounds.
Keith surged forward, bounding steps to connect him with the broken boy in front of them. He wrapped his arms around Lance in a way he hoped would convey all of the feelings Keith had felt. Lance’s legs failed him and both of them came to the ground. Keith pulled Lance into his body, pressing a kiss to the side of his head.
“You’re okay. I've got you.” He whispered, the rest of the team now were in tears watching their friend break down like that. It was wrecking to watch. Hunk placed a comforting hand on his back and he and Keith shared a look of mutual worry.
Their friends joined them, crowding around Lance in comfort.
It would be a long journey, but the road to recovery had begun.