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The takredem is an insect that lives on the planet Zeren and within the surrounding atmosphere. It is about the size of a songbird, and is best known for the unique properties of its venom. When hunting or threatened, it releases venomous barbs into its prey, which deprive the unfortunate creature of its sight and hearing, making it easy to overtake.
Takredem are reletively harmless to most larger creatures, which it attacks only when threatened. However, its venom is powerful enough to deprive the average humanoid being of its sight and hearing for several vargas. After this period of time, the person’s senses will return to normal.
At least, that’s what Coran could have told them, had the paladins waited a bit longer before flying off in their lions to explore the planet. Pity, since Keith had promptly been stung by the beetle immediately upon leaving his lion. He'd stepped right on top of its nest.
There's no real way to describe how unsettling it is to feel your two most heavily relied on senses suddenly shut down and submerge you in mute darkness. There's little point in trying, but here's an attempt anyway: Everything was empty. It was terrifying. Isolating. Chaotic. It reminded Keith of being lost in a void in space, like the time he got sucked out of the airlock trying to retrieve Red. But now he was someplace with no stars, and no Red to save him.
Then it occurred to Keith that that wasn't true. The lions communicated through thoughts and feelings, not sound, and somewhere through the storm of panic, Keith found the corner of his mind that he used to talk to Red. That one place was as vibrant as it had ever been. For a moment, Keith rested there, away from the void.
But then Red’s frenzied distress at his condition rose up and filled even that place, and everything was frightening again. He fled their connection and felt the ground shake, having no way of knowing that it was Red roaring for help. He lost his balance and fell to his knees. In a weird way, he almost felt better for the pain of hitting the ground. He couldn’t feel the pebbly surface much through his gloves, but he knew it was there.
The shaking of Red’s roar stopped, and Keith hurried to his feet. Already, his teammates were chattering into their communicators, asking what was going on, though he was unable to hear them. Even more unnerving, he couldn't hear the blood that must be pounding in his ears.
He took a few deep, shaky breaths to calm himself and tried to focus. He tried to remember what had happened before everything went dark. There had been a pain at the back of his knee, one of the spots least protected by the paladin armor.
After a moment he said into the helmet, “Guys, something happened. Something stung me, and now I can't— I can't see anything. I can’t hear anything either. I’m near… I’m not sure where I am, actually. Just in some kind of ravine. Can you trace my signal?”
He strained his ears for an answer, then realized it was hopeless, and considered trying to make his way over to where Red was. But Red was still somewhere at the top of the narrow crevice, and trying to fly blind out of it to where his lion waited was too risky. Definitely the type of thing Shiro would yell at him for. So he stood there and waited, hoping that there weren’t any more dangers around. He wasn’t exactly in fighting shape at the moment.
He kept his bayard in hand anyway.
Lance was the closest, so they sent him to retrieve Keith. The others might have gone, but the thing is, there were other dangers on the planet (big, robotic, many-legged ones) and while it was nothing they couldn’t handle, the pests were keeping them busy.
Coran immediately identified what had happened to Keith, and assured them that it was nothing permanent— though of course there was no way to tell Keith that just then. And inside his mind, Keith was freaking out despite his best efforts to keep a cool head.
So when the blue paladin finally located Keith, leaning against the wall of the dried-up ravine and gripping his head in his hands, it was pretty apparent that Keith was fighting the very real threat of an oncoming panic attack.
Lance flew over, and reached a hand out to touch his shoulder.
“You okay there, buddy?” he asked.
Keith let out a surprised, hostile sound and swung his bayard in the direction of Lance, who narrowly avoided it.
“Woah! Hey! And here I thought we were finally starting to get along… Keith?”
“He can’t hear you, Lance,” Pidge cut in impatiently. Then the communicator in Lance’s helmet went silent again as she returned to battle.
Lance exhaled loudly and looked at Keith. His unseeing eyes were darting back and forth, and his posture was defensive. But by now the idea that it could be one of his teammates had pushed past his alarm, and he stopped moving.
Lance tried again. This time he walked over to Keith slowly and stood in front of him. Grip mild, he reached for his hand. He saw Keith tense up and knew he was about to jump back and jolt into fighting stance, so Lance hastily placed the other hand on top of Keith’s.
He stilled, then relaxed. “Who is it?” Keith asked. Then, for good measure, “Quiznak.”
“You got that right,” Lance replied, and removed his own helmet. Then he removed Keith’s gloves. He couldn’t very well feel much through the thick, protective fabric, and he might as well have one of his senses working.
Keith made a face when he did that, but let him. In his head, Keith was narrowing down who it could be.
Not Hunk. The hands were too small. But they weren’t small enough to be Pidge’s. Allura was still at the castle. Maybe it was Shiro?
Then Keith found his palms being placed on either side of a very warm expanse of skin. He reflexively jerked away, but Lance held his hands there against his cheeks, gently, and then drew them up to feel his hair.
He’ll know who I am this way, right? Lance thought.
Slowly, Lance’s grip loosened around Keith’s wrists. The red paladin dropped his hands to the back of Lance’s neck, feeling the length of the hair there, and then up to where his hairline began at his forehead.
Oh. “Lance,” he said. His voice sounded strange.
“Yup,” Lance replied, then reached for his hemet. He didn’t put it back on though. Keith’s hands where at his cheeks now, fingertips curling around his jaw a little. Tense.
Lance spoke into his communicator, “Hello Team Voltron, this is your sharpshooter speaking. Hellen Keller has been retrieved.”
“Good job, Lance,” Shiro said, then Allura added, “We need you to wait there with Keith for a bit. There are a lot of these… things—“
“Jokumanian drones!” Coran announced in the background.
“…Jokumanian drones” Allura continued, “flying around. We should be able to clear them out without much trouble, but I don’t want to risk giving away the position of the red lion while its unmanned. At least not until we’re all there to escort it. We’ll come pick you up as soon as we’re finished here. Can you manage?”
“Aw, man, I’m on babysitting duty!” Lance whined halfheartedly. Halfheartedly, because Keith’s breathing was becoming a little shaky again, and he kept closing and re-opening his eyes.
After confirming a few more details he put down the helmet again and turned his attention back to Keith. He wasn’t looking too good.
“Keith? Buddy…?” There was, of course, no response. Lance frowned, shook his head, and resolved.
Slowly, he took Keith’s hands again and guided him down so that they were sitting on the ground facing each other.
Keith kept cursing under his breath, and rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands. They were starting to look sore. Really, Keith kinda looked a mess. It occurred to Lance how isolated and confused Keith must be feeling. Then he realized that Keith's only anchor to the world around him, besides his connection to his lion, was Lance.
So Lance did the only thing he could think of to fix that. He drew Keith in and wrapped his arms around him. One palm against the back of his helmet, and the other flat across his shoulder blades. He was essentially cradling his teammate in his arms. Lance bent his head over Keith’s shoulder and stared off into the space beyond it.
“You’re okay, Keith,” He murmured. “You’re not alone. It’s gonna be fine.”
Keith, who had fallen motionless when Lance hugged him, vaguely felt the boy’s jaw work as he talked, and the vibrations of his voice traveled through it, buzzing through Keith's fingertips. He couldn’t bear to break away from his newfound support, but he did say quietly “Lance, I can’t hear you, remember?” A moment passed, then he added. “Thanks for coming to get me. I’m okay now.”
“Pfft. Liar,” Lance immediately scoffed.
Keith felt the puff of air leave Lance’s lips and frowned. “Did you just laugh at me?” He sounded scandalized, and started to pull farther away. “Let go. I’m fine now,” Keith insisted, though the idea of feeling alone in the world again, with only the assumption that Lance was still next to him, was less than pleasant. The idea of reconnecting with Red after that last shock was still uninviting.
Keith pulled away without trouble, but then his hands were being tugged back to the sides of Lance’s face, so he could feel Lance shake his head “no.”
“What do you mean ‘no?”
“You’re not okay. Just let me help you, hotshot,” Lance said.
Keith sighed, having, of course, guessed what Lance meant, despite being deaf. Feeling too tired to do much else, he fell forward with a huff and leaned the front of his helmet against what he thought was Lance’s shoulder, but was actually his forehead. It kinda hurt. Lance moved to push Keith’s head away and to doff the boy’s helmet. Keith helped him, and when it was off, Keith was met with a new sensation. The scent of the ravine, chalky and foreign, and the scent of Lance. Touch and smell were all he had at the moment, so he noticed everything. It surprised him that he knew Lance’s smell. It surprised him that he liked it.
Keith swallowed.
Now, it just so happened that Lance was also affected by having Keith so close. He could feel his own cheeks flushing. At least Keith can’t see it right now, he thought, and watched him.
Keith’s dark violet eyes had shut again, and he seemed calmer, which Lance figured was a good sign. Quiznak, his eyelashes were so long. It wasn’t fair. How does he still look this good when he just got over an almost-panic attack? Jerk.” Lance thought, then his own eyes widened and he grimaced. “Okay. That’s it. This crush is getting way too out of hand."
Keith felt it when Lance tensed and shook himself, so he leaned back, sitting cross-legged on the ground. He began focusing on what was around him again.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. What was he not seeing?
“Noth— Oh,“ Lance began, then caught himself and just shook his head “no" again, so Keith could feel his answer.
Two of Keith’s fingers were tucked behind Lance’s jaw, and he felt a few strands of hair tickle his skin. Suspiciously, he slid his hand farther back and ran his fingers through the hair there. It was getting longer. A thought made him grin.
“It’s getting long. Are you trying to grow a mullet?”
"Not a chance!” Lance exclaimed, offended. Keith felt rather than heard his reaction, and laughed aloud for the first time in ages. It felt good.
Lance punched Keith’s shoulder, not putting much force into it. He's probably scowling, Keith guessed. But then Keith's thumb slipped closer to the corner of Lance’s mouth and he felt the edges of a smile.
And that’s all it took for him to get lost again— this time in a good way.
Lance’s hand was gentle and warm over his own, but his face was even warmer. The heat seeped through his skin. He shifted his hand up slightly. High cheekbones. Without really considering the action, his hand began gliding over Lance’s features very, very lightly.
Long eyebrows, sloped nose, soft skin…
Keith’s hands travelled down. Lance tried to remember to breathe.
Pointed chin, sharp jawline.
Lance’s mouth moved. He was saying something Keith couldn’t hear.
Large ears. Thick eyelashes.
Lance’s mouth moved again. “Kiss me.”
Eyes half-shut… Keith’s heart was pounding.
“Kiss me.”
Lips are moving. They feel…
“Kiss me.”
“…Kiss me."
There was hardly an inch between them by this point, and when that space closed it was like there had never been a time when they weren’t enveloped in each other.
The touch of Lance’s lips was so heavenly soft. And they were moving against his and were as warm as everything about Lance always was. Warm as his cheeks, warm as his heart, warm as the arms wrapped around him, pressing, and the hand in his hair and everything was Lance, Lance, Lance.
For his part, the blue paladin was feeling much the same despite still possessing all his senses. Those seconds before Keith had kissed him had nearly killed him. And when he heard Keith ask for the same thing he wanted, despite having no way of knowing that it was a kiss that Lance had been begging for over and over again as Keith mapped his face…
They both let out slow, easy breaths when they pulled away gently and kept their eyes closed, foreheads leaning against each others'.
“Woah,” Lance sighed, wearing a goofy smile, and Keith felt that flutter of breath against his face and smiled too.
He didn’t know what to say, or if Lance has asked a question, so he kissed him again. A peck touched to still-parted lips. Lance laughed, a little astonishedly. Then his smile stretched into a pleased smirk when he noticed that Keith’s face was steadily reddening.
“Uh…” Keith, sounding awkward and embarrassed, stiffly returned to his cross-legged position.
He'd pulled away unhindered, but soon Keith’s ungloved hand was being guided back towards Lance. Passing through a cloud of warm breath, it came to rest barely touched to Lance’s lips.
Grinning, Lance pressed an unhurried kiss to Keith’s knuckles, and for once, said nothing.
A short while later, the other paladins arrived. Soon Keith had what what was instantly recognizable as Shiro’s arm lain across his shoulders as he helped him into the black lion. While stepping aboard, he toyed with the idea of thanking the taka-whatever beetle for helping him to finally just show Lance already, and wondering what kind of expression Lance would have the next time Keith saw him with his eyes.