Here is a poem I though you all might enjoy (it also works as a summary for the fic as a whole):

*ahem*

Keith is with Red

Lance is with Blue

This fic's about brothers

Who are pretty cool

To my amazing sister who's been asking for this fic ever since I started writing the 'Lost Paladins' series - here it is, finally, an entire fic devoted to Lance hurt/comfort. :-) :-)

Sis, you are the epitome of 'laughing on purpose at the darkness', and to be honest, this series would not have been written without you. You're pretty freaking awesome, and I love you.

PSA: In some fic, at some point, I promise that the characters I love will get the break they deserve. But it is not this fic.

The thing that really frustrated Lance about his situation was not being able to talk.

It wasn't that he thought everything he said was the most important thing, all the time, every day - but for him, it was a way to reach out and interact with the world around him, by asking questions and sharing his ideas and most importantly of all, to contribute and be part of the team.

He liked to talk. He liked it a lot.

Which was probably why Haggar wasn't letting him do it right now.

Lance huffed out a breath and tried again, without success, to shake off the mask that was buckled around his face.

When they had put it on his face at first, he absolutely freaked out, shaking his head wildly and snarling wordlessly, but the witch had just laughed at that.

Lance hated the way that went, so he decided to take a different approach. He stopped snarling and instead, he forced himself to take in deep breaths, in and out through his nose - easier said than done - and focused his mind on how stupid Haggar would look in pink, and with a bow on her head.

And how ridiculous she would be if she ever got a case of the slipperies.

The mental image of Haggar, all in pink like Umbridge, her spooky and threatening ambiance completely gone, sliding around the deck of her ship with no traction whatsoever, flailing wildly and falling right off of some walkway and face planting into the floor seven stories below like a Loony-Tunes cartoon actually helped Lance regain some fraction of his usual spirit for a few seconds.

He'd even had to hold back a chuckle.

Oh, man, Hunk was going to split his sides laughing when Lance told him about this -

If…he ever…made it…back…to Hunk…and the others…

Quiznak.

Annoying, that's what this was, being captured by Haggar and having his Lion impounded like a car with too many unpaid parking tickets.

Really, really annoying.

…and scary, if Lance was being honest…and terrifying…especially because he really hadn't been able to do anything about it.

Also, he hated being on his own. Come to think of it, he had never faced the witch on his own before. The only times he'd been facing her had been with his team…but that wasn't the case now.

It was just him, and her, and this dark void of space where she'd taken him and his Lion after taking them by complete surprise when they were out with the others, scouting a system for drained planets and prisoners in need of rescue.

In hindsight, he probably should have waited for Red to a little bit nearer to him when he'd taken a detour to check out that distress beacon.

He'd been near the others, in their usual pattern - but when he saw the distress signal come up on his viewscreen, he'd been the closest one to it. He'd seen that the signal was faint - almost completely gone - and he'd been afraid whoever was sending it wasn't going to last for much longer.

He'd started flying in that direction - and of course he had told the others where he was going and why he was heading there immediately - he wasn't completely stupid - and Red had changed course to accompany him - but then a Galra tractor beam had hit him out of freaking nowhere, and Lance hadn't been able to get away.

It was really depressing, getting his Lion caught twice.

Lance actually felt pretty embarrassed about it, but at least the others hadn't yelled at him or called him stupid or anything like that.

They'd just been frantic with worry.

Somehow…that had almost been worse.

When someone was frightened for you, there really wasn't anything you could say in response.

Especially if you were too scared to say anything at all.

Earlier that day

"Guys! GUYS!" he shouted, trying to get out of the tractor beam, without success. "It's a trap! It's a trap - they caught me in - in - a tractor beam - I - I can't get free - "

Then, Lance saw the wormhole open, and he felt his stomach drop into his shoes. He had wanted to throw up, but he had to tell his team, he had to tell them what he was seeing so they wouldn't get caught too.

It was a normal Galra ship…but…

"…uh...guys…I…think…I think Haggar…is on…the…ship…that has...me..."

There was a split second of horrified silence over the comms, and Lance used it to describe what he saw through Blue's viewscreen.

"Th-they're taking me into a wormhole - and - and it looks a lot like - it did - when Haggar corrupted ours - that last time - uh - "

He wanted to tell them to stay away, to stay safe, because losing one Lion was bad enough, but the words wouldn't come in time, because then his comms went crazy as everyone started screaming his name at once.

Lance winced as he heard the absolute terror in the voices over his comms.

"NO! Lance! Lance, hang on, we're coming!" Shiro, their awesome leader, trying to be encouraging - which Lance appreciated - really - he did - but -

"LANCE!" Pidge, in the middle of saying something about whoever got to him first had to break the tractor beam device and help him get away, because there was no way were they letting Haggar take Lance -

"LANCE!" Hunk, his bellow of fear almost physically painful to hear over the comms. "LANCE, activate Blue's particle barrier! Do it, now!"

Lance did, wishing his best friend (who was nice and smart and quick-thinking and really an all-around great person who had been nice to him - Lance, the most annoying kid in study-hall - all those years ago) hadn't needed to remind him to pull up one of the most basic shields a Lion could have - but then again - everything was happening so fast - it was all happening so damn fast -

Lance even heard Coran and Allura shouting over the comms, and they were usually the ones who stayed calm - they saying that they would try to lock onto Blue's coordinates, try to make sure they could keep a track on Blue and Lance's signal after the Galra ship made the wormhole jump.

Then Shiro was telling Lance that he should just stay calm, and stay with Blue, and they would find him, they would -

Throughout this, Keith hadn't screamed out Lance's name like the others, but Lance thought that was because the Red Paladin had been too busy cursing out the Druid and her lackeys who had managed to catch Lance in their trap.

"-it should have been me - it should have been me - Lance, hang on, I'm coming - I swear - I swear I'll get you out of there-"

Then, the Galra ship had worm-holed away, Blue still caught and helpless in its tractor beam, and his comms shorted out, and there was nothing Lance could do but try and stay mentally connected to his Lion as they disappeared into the black wormhole from Hell for a second time.