#carnivoroussquirrel

“Lance, you doing okay, buddy?” Hunk asks over the comms.

“Yeah, I’m good,” comes the reply.

He at least <em>sounds</em> okay, Shiro thinks, but he’s afraid of what shape Lance will be in once they make it back to the castle. Being hit point-blank in the face by a druid can’t have a good outcome.

“You’re sure?” he probes. Not like there’s anything they could do if he wasn’t, but at least then they’d know.

“Yeah, it’s just… my eyes. Blue’s fine on autopilot, though. Don’t worry about me.”

The silence that follows is filled to the brim with worry.

-----

Coran frowns as he peers at Lance’s eyes, holding the young paladin in place with a firm hand cupped around his jaw.

The others are all telling Lance that he looks okay, but he’s struggling not to blink furiously as Coran examines him. The burning sensation grows more and more unbearable by the second.

Finally, Coran releases him, and Lance closes his eyes gratefully, burying his face in his hands. The relief is minimal as he feels his eyes twitch uncomfortably under their lids, but it’s far better than nothing.

“I don’t think we have reason to be alarmed,” Coran was saying. “I’ll need to look him over more thoroughly, but since nothing looks noticeably damaged I think that there’s a good chance I’ll be able to fix this.”

“How long will that take?” Shiro asks.

“It’s impossible to say right now,” Coran admits. “We still don’t know exactly what sort of spell we’re dealing with.”

“So you’re saying he’s stuck like this until further notice,” Keith mutters.

“I’m saying it’s inconclusive at the moment,” Coran replies evenly. “Now, why don’t you all make yourselves scarce. It will be far easier to work without you all crowding us.”

The other paladins and Allura obediently file out, leaving Coran alone with the blue paladin. Coran gives him a gentle tap on the shoulder. “Lance, I need you to look up, my boy.”

Lance does so, a grimace twisting his features as he struggling to blink away the blurriness clouding his vision. It has little effect and he quickly gives up trying.

“Tell me again what your symptoms are.” Lance can vaguely make out Coran picking up some sort of instrument.

“Um, my eyes feel like they’re burning, and I sort of thought they were dry, but earlier they were watering like crazy. And my vision’s foggy.” With this last development, it occurs to Lance that he might be in danger of going blind. That would end his time in Voltron for sure - what use would a blind sharpshooter be?

Coran hums thoughtfully, and the rest of the tests are conducted in silence. Lance is lost in a whirlpool of imagined scenarios, each one more bleak than the last. Being kicked out of Voltron, being left alone on some planet, hurting one of the others by accident… Coran’s voice is what finally snaps him out of it. Belatedly he realizes that his thoughts have at least kept his mind off the burning, but this only makes the sensation return with a vengeance.

“The spell used on you appears to be some form of anti-water magic, causing your eyes to lose their ability to hold moisture. I don’t know exactly what this might entail with regards to human biology, but an antidote should be simple enough to create. Some form of concentrated water magic should do the trick.”

“Am I going to go blind?” Lance asks in a small voice.

Coran tips his head to the side, weighing his answer carefully as he meets the blue paladin’s damaged eyes. “I don’t think so,” he says cautiously. “Again, I know very little of human biology, so I can’t tell you the long-term effects of having your eyes in this state. However, I have seen blinding spells used by druids before, and those spells all worked instantaneously to render their victims sightless. If that was their intention for you, they would have simply used that spell instead. And I promise you that Allura and I will work as quickly as possible to develop a remedy.”

Lance nods, his shoulders relaxing as he sighs heavily. “Thanks, Coran,” he manages. “I… I really needed to hear that.”

A warm hand clasps his shoulder. “Of course, my boy.” Lance can hear the gentle smile in Coran’s voice. “Do you need help getting back to your room?”

Lance nods, a little ashamed of himself. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ll be able to see where I’m going.”

“Not a problem.” Once Lance is standing, Coran lays a hand on his shoulder and guides his from behind, careful to match Lance’s pace, until they reach his room.

With the blue paladin is stationed safely in bed, Coran nods to himself, already imagining what materials he and Allura might need. He wastes no time in going to find her; they’re going to be in for an all-nighter.

-----

Lance wakes up the next morning to find tear tracks cascading down his cheeks. He wipes them away in annoyance as he sits up in bed. Logically, he would think that the tears being forced out of his eyes would at least offer some relief for the irritation. Then again, he knows nothing about magic.

Lance gets dressed and heads to the dining hall, preparing to blink his way through a blurry breakfast. He can feel the other paladins shooting occasional glances his way, but his relative normalcy seems to reassure them, and the group’s strained chatter becomes more comfortable.

“All right, everyone,” Shiro announces as they finish up, “we’re going to be working on combat today. We’ll get started in five minutes.” The team disperses rapidly, not wanting to get caught on the wrong side of five.

Thankfully, no one says anything when Lance does exactly that. It had taken him far longer than it should have to find his bayard, but the combination of his injured eyes and his helmet’s visor had greatly reduced his eyesight. Lance was wondering how he would even manage to get through training.

Shiro addresses the assembled group. “We’ll warm up with hand-to-hand before we do anything too crazy. Hunk, you’re with me. Keith, you’re with Lance. Pidge, you’ll switch out with someone after the first round.” Lance nods and faces Keith, putting his arms up in a defensive stance. The red paladin follows suit, eyes narrowed as he studies Lance.

Keith strikes first, and Lance is barely able to get an arm up in time to block him. Keith continues with a relentless barrage of punches; Lance isn’t able to get any hits in, but he’s able to block Keith pretty well. The fight stays pretty even until Keith suddenly aims a kick at his side. Lance flinches when it connects. Out of nowhere, Lance’s eyes throb harshly and begin to well up with tears. He hisses between clenched teeth and takes a few steps back from the fight. “Stop - stop, I need a minute.”

“Oh, come on, Lance, I didn’t even kick you that hard,” Keith protests, exasperated. The irritated look on his face quickly shifts to one of guilt when Lance pulls off his helmet, swiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. “Oh - quiznak, are you crying? I didn’t mean - Lance-” Keith’s almost panicked voice surprises him. He squints at Keith in confusion, eyes still watering uncontrollably, as the rest of the team hurries over to the two of them.

“It’s alright, Lance,” Shiro tries, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re injured.”

“Yeah, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Keith tries, still seeming uncertain of himself.

“Woah, woah, guys -” Lance waves a hand through the air, trying to cut off the cacophony of their consolations. “It’s fine, I’m okay. It’s… this just happens. From the stupid druid magic.”

Awkwardness trickles in as the others realize what had just happened.

“Well, good,” Hunk finally says, a little too loudly.

“I take it back, then. You messed up real bad,” Keith says drily. Both Lance and Pidge give identical incredulous snorts at his poor attempt at a joke.

“Well, at least I know when I’m supposed to say ‘Tron,’ unlike someone here,” Lance fires back, thumbing away the last remaining drops from his face. “Who messed up then?” Keith only rolls his eyes.

Pidge takes control of the conversation. “Okay, so, clearly training isn’t gonna work out for Lance today if his eyes are acting up. I say we all start working on less intense stuff that still needs doing. That way, we’re still being productive and Allura won’t kick our butts.”

“Like what?” Hunk asks.

She shrugs. “We could clean our lions.”

Keith pulls a face, but Lance nods. “That would work. There’s a lot of stuff in the castle that we could clean, actually.”

“So we’re agreed?” Shiro puts the question to the group. Looking around to see everyone nodding, he returns the gesture. “Fine. Take your suits off and start looking for the sponges.”

Lance grins as the paladins split up. “Bet I can clean the most things.”