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Lance stared down through the scope of his rifle. Sweeping across the room in a calculated manner, he took out enemies one by one as they targeted the blind spots of his team. He was one with his weapon, and his weapon one with him. Looking to his right from his sniper’s nest on the cliff he saw Hunk take out a battalion, but a soldier was coming up behind him.
Bang.
One more down, tons more to go. Hunk waived up at him in thanks, and Lance smiled from his spot. He tapped his comm. “You’re welcome buddy, but remember not to wave at me. We can’t have them knowing where I am.”
Hunk made a sheepish face and moved on to take out more enemies. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Lance laughed and kept up his routine. He knew he was deadly from a long range, and when the battle began to settle he knew he’d done his job right. The others had nothing more than minor scratches and bruising. “Shiro, you ready for me to come down?”
Shiro gave him a thumbs up towards his spot, but then Pidge was screaming with rage. He could see clearly even without the sniper that she’d been grabbed by one of the generals who’d pointed a gun at her head.
Lance was in position and targeting the Galra’s head before any kind of conscious thought passed through his mind. The Galra was smart though. Lance felt his frustration well up as he tried to get a good shot, but the general had Pidge in front of his face.
“I don’t appreciate little birds hiding in their nest, Blue.” The Galra knew he was there, not surprising.
Slowly the Galra’s gun moved away from pidges head and towards… Lance? “Goodbye, Blue.” The glass of his rifle shattered as the bullet went up the chamber and flames attacked the left side of his face. Everything went black.
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Waking up in a pod was always a bit frightening to Lance. It was cold, he couldn’t move, and all sound except his own breathing was muffled. If he was awake that meant he was coming out soon though, and the whoosh of the pod door opening eased his fears.
He fell forward, but experience had him standing before he’d fallen into Keith’s arms. Not that he wouldn’t have minded too much, huge crushes tended to do that to someone. He blinked the fog from his eyes and frowned a the teams faces. Why were they looking at him like that?
They looked wary, but also surprised. No surprise that it was Keith who spoke first. “Coran, what did the pod do to his eye?” Lance ignored the fact that Keith sounded strangled in exchange for listening to the words.
“What did the pod do what?” Lance jumped and ran to the pod next to him and stared at his reflection. His right eye was still the same, pigment deficient and blue as ever, but his right was… brown?
“Holy crow.” Lance didn’t even bother looking at the rough scarring that covered the area around his eye. He’d always looked like his father, blue eyes and all. It had been a small chance, but Lance had gotten the same disorder that blocked the pigment of his eyes. He had wanted his mother’s eyes though no matter how unique his blue. They were a dark brown that turned honey gold in the right light, and now he had both.
His chest, no, his heart felt like it was swelling, bigger and bigger until it overflowed and the tears ran down his cheeks.
“Lance?” Keith touched his shoulder gently and Lance turned.
“Keith, I got my mom’s eye.”
Keith’s face scrunched up in confusion, but Pidge asked the question the whole team had been wondering. “If that makes you happy we’re all happy for you, but that doesn’t explain why the pod made your eye brown.”
Lance wiped his tears and sat down on the steps. “I think when the gun did so much damage to my eye the pod fixed everything, even stuff I’d had since birth. My dad had a disorder where the pigment didn’t correctly develop in his eyes so instead of brown they were blue. Genetically speaking it was a one in millions chance based on our family tree, but he still managed to pass it down to me. I was supposed to be born with brown eyes like my mom. God, she had, has the most wonderful eyes. They turned honey in the sunlight and I was always so mad when I was little that I had gotten my dad’s. But, now I have both, and the memory of her eye color will never go fuzzy like her face and voice.”
Coran interrupted the sentimental moment. “We’re very happy for you Lance, and while there doesn’t seem to be any major damage other than the scarring, I still need to check some things like your vision quality and range of motion, just to be sure it’s all healed up.”
Lance nodded and stood to follow Coran as the others shuffled out of the room, assured he wasn’t in immediate danger. Keith didn’t leave though, instead he stood shuffling his feet in the middle of the floor. “Something up, Keith?”
“I um…” He crossed his arms over his chest and took a deep breath. “Your eyes look really good like that, bye!” He ran out of the room after his confession, practically leaving a dust trail in his wake.
“Come along, Paladin!” Lance turned to follow Coran once more, but his stomach fluttered. Maybe that crush wasn’t so one sided.