#deaf!matt

DEAF LANCE AU that no one asked for

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The team was back in the lounge after a hard mission, an extra member with them

Matt. Pidge tried to talk with him, but he in return only rapidly made motions with his fingers. Only Lance understand, and promptly lifted his right hand, and signed, ‘Are you deaf?’

Matt nodded vigrously, before clapping his hands together and pulling them apart in a swift motion, also pursing his lips. “Explosion?” Lance spoke, head tilted. Matt nodded, looking excited that someone understood.

The team only watched, confused by the signing. 'How do you know ASL so fluently?’ Matt signed to Lance, worry written on his face. His own letters were sloppy and slow.

Lance’s grin fell. 'I’m deaf. I had to learn as a young kid. So I’ve been doing it for years.’ Matt, at this discovery, made a sound of surprise. The team looked at him. Lance started frantically signing to Matt, Matt rapidly signing in return, eyes wide. 'Don’t say anything! They dont know!’ Lance made a gesture over his neck, implying that Matt dont say anything about it. He gulped and nodded.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Pidge questioned. Hunk shrugged and tapped Lance’s shoulder, gaining his attention. “Hey, Lance, why wont Matt talk to us?” Lance startles and intently stared at Hunk’s lips, Matt realizing that he was also crazy good at reading lips. So that’s how he got by.

“Matt is deaf, from an explosion, he said.” Lance explains, voice somewhat loud, but that was normal for him. “I know ASL because..” he trailed off for a moment, “I know because my.. sister, yeah, that’s it, was born deaf and I wanted to talk to her.” With his left hand, which was facing Matt, he translated. Matt looked suspicious.

“Well, anyhow, I need to talk to Matt. Uh, or sign. See you later!” With that, Lance was off, dragging Matt behind him. “Pidge, can you work your magic, and get us an ASL translator?” Shiro asked the brilliant girl. She smirked and nodded. Of course she could.

—

Lance dragged Matt into the kitchen and sat him down in the seat across from his own. He started signing again. 'So, have you dealt with any bigots about your deafness?’ Lance slowed his signing down, knowing Matt was knew. He chuckled and nodded, and lifted his hand. 'Of course. My allies dont understand it. We have to speak through weird telepathy things. I hate them. How about you?’ His sign was slow, and maybe a bit off, but Lance could still understand the basic idea.

'Naturally. I got picked on, and kids talked behind my back. Sometimes my older brothers would sneak up on me and scare me. Other times, my sisters would throw things over my shoulders, also scaring me. Only mom and dad made an effort to learn about my disability, cause dad was partially deaf.’ He sighed at the end, not noticing the paladins in the doorway, all with visors over their eyes to follow the conversation.

'Was the sister thing true?’ Matt tilted his head at Lance. He was curious. 'Partly. My cousin was born deaf and no one learned sign language for her. Only I could talk to her, and we bonded over it. We were close.’

'Were?’ Matt questioned. 'Did something happen?’ “Hmm?” Lance wondered aloud before nodding. 'Yeah. She still had some hearing left, so she got conchear implants. We weren’t as close after that, because she could hear and I couldn’t. She did like to describe sounds to me, though. We just didn’t have anything in common anymore.’ Lance shrugged, looking bored, but his eyes sad.

“You’re deaf?” Pidge screeched, Lance sensing her movement from the corner of his eye. He, too, screamed and jumped up, staring at her with wide eyes. “Uhhh, what was that, Pidge? I didn’t quite catch it.’ He chuckled awkwardly. Matt 'oohed’ behind him and when Lance when to glare, he saw Matt signing 'The car is out of the bag.’ With a smug smirk. Lance flipped him off and signed something the other paladins couldn’t quite read from their visors.

"I said you’re deaf?” She hissed. Lance paled significantly.

“Uh, no?”

“I just saw you sign it. I installed a software in our visors to translate ASL to english for us. How.. how did you do it?”

Lance went to pick up his hand, but dropped it. He spoke instead. “I learned to lip read from a young age, and B- I mean, Red, translated things for me on missions, into my head. I didn’t want to be a burden.” He scratched the back of his neck, voice still loud.

“No wonder you have volume control issues. You can’t hear yourself!” Keith exclaimed, astonished. The whole concept was new to him.

Lance sheepily nodded. “Yeah, I just brushed it off as being a 'douche’, I guess. Sorry for not telling you sooner.”

Coran laughed. “Aw, m'boy, it’s alright. No more secrets.”

Lance laughed, echoing. “Yeah, Im lacking something, but I promise no more secrets.”

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I know its bad but I have 4 other fics planned so pls dont kill me