Langst Oneshots

Running out of Time

{A/N- Before we start, this is an AU. I don't usually write AU's so I wanted to make this clear. This oneshots is based off the photo above, the artist it called one Smol hurt.}

Trigger warnings:
-mental institution
-gore ish (mentioned but not too explicit)

Ship- None

The constant ticking of the clocks became sickening. Not just for the unbreakable rhythm of tics, but to witness what is was doing to shiro's patient. He had been observing this man for only a few days. The boy had been brought in last week, yet the doctors ended up having to restrain and heavily drug him so he wasn't a threat to himself or anyone else. Shiro found the boy peculiar. His name was lance, an eighteen year old Cuban boy who was completely fine up until a few weeks ago. His mother had reported that just before his strange behaviour became apparent, he had gone missing for almost two days. Lance apparently had a history of sleep walking, so the mother wasn't particularly worried at first. She had just assumed he got lost on his way back home. She trusted him a great deal, so she never stopped to think he could be in danger.

She told them that he was speaking as if he'd been away for months, years. He seemed to think everyone was at least two years older. He became extremely forgetful, to the point of where he could barely remember English. But his outburst is when Lance's mother decided to bring him here.

Everyone was asleep at the time, so no one had an exact statement of what happened. They could only throw together fearful assumptions and suggestions. His mother was the first one to hear the screaming. She'd raced into his room, frantic motherly instinct kicking in. He was on his floor, staring intensely at his reflection, screaming. Dried blood had laced itself around his arms, and buried itself underneath his finger nails. He pulled at his hair, clumps of it matted with blood. She frantically ran over to him, pulling his hands away, tilting his eyes to meet hers. But the terror filled, pleading eyes that started back at her weren't her son's. His voice had come out in a stained, cracked, barely audible whisper. "Who are you?"

Throughout shiro's few days of observing lance, he'd come to notice a few things. His outbursts were almost like clockwork. The amount of time before each attack, and the severity of it varied tremendously from day to day. For example, today, his outburst came in twenty minute intervals. Or more specifically, There was a 18 minute build up time, a one minute out burst, and three to five minutes directly afterwards where his dissociation would kick in, and it seemed as if his body was an empty husk. He'd break out of that phase with a tremendous yelp each time, it sounded almost agonising.

Today was the worst they'd had so far. Usually lance had intervals of around two hours, one hour if it was a bad day. Only having twenty minutes in between was akin to a war zone. The most skilled caregivers would usually perform hygienic processes, like clothing, bathing and feeding lance, in the build up windows. Yet today, since his calmed windows were much shorter, everyone's schedule was extremely jagged and tossed around.

Lance had a really bad episode at 3:40. It seemed to wreck his entire body. Multiple jolts and spasms tore through his body, in a vicious whirlwind of fear and need. What was really bugging Shiro, was his behaviour at 4:00. Shiro figured it would be another intense episode, so he'd opted to give lance a straight jacket, so he wouldn't hurt himself. The build-up was following as usual, nothing too major happening, until it reached 3:59. Shiro's entire team had braced themselves, sleeping pills at the ready, more than prepared to restrain him if he proved difficult. Four people were stationed in the room at the time. Two guards and two doctors. Shiro was the doctor stationed at the door, while his co-worker and good friend pidge was stationed directly opposite him. Ready to jump lance from the back if need be. Keith was to Shiro's right, and hunk was to shiro's left, two highly respectable and worthy body guards.

A shattering scream shook the room as 3:59 hitting them all like a truck. Lance sat up from his place on the floor. "Shiro?" He'd asked calmly, his voice was so soft, having screamed all day. Shiro stood there, almost amazed. Lance glanced around, a delighted smile crawling its way up his face at the confused faces circling him. "Pidge! hunk! You scared me, what kinda prank is this anyway?" Lance laughed as he swivelled around uncomfortably. "Keith? You're in on this too? I mean, Shiro and Keith! Must've taken a hell of a lot of bribing." Lance chatted, oblivious to his surroundings. "Where are we anyway?" He hummed quizzically, the strange environment suddenly setting in. His face dropped considerably, fear creeping into his expression. "Guys, you can stop the prank now. You're scaring me." He laughed nervously, surveying the worried faces of the room. "Ok fine you got me. The great lance McClain is scared. Are you happy yet? Now please stop!" He pleaded, trying to back himself into the wall.

Hunk and Keith acted immediately. At his side in a matter of seconds. "Hunk, buddy, please stop." Lance cowered further into the wall. Shiro sneaked a glance at his watch. About 20 seconds of this phase left. They were all still stunned. Doctors in these facilities often used fake names, or didn't use names at all, as a precaution, yet lance knew their real names. Hunk played along well, trying to act as friendly as possible towards the frightened man. "Yeah, sorry about that buddy, guess we went a little overboard there, just being overprotective. Uhm, we found you unconscious, care to tell us what happened?" Hunk asked in a soft tone. Lance struggled at his restraints, much more frantic than a few seconds prior. Five seconds. "Lotor's back. Haggar kidnapped me. Voltron's destr—" Lance's eyed grew dull, his head lulled back, his shoulders relaxed, his breathing became shallow. Keith caught him while Pidge rushed over to check his breathing.

{A/N- So hi. Sorry that was so bad. I've just been wanting to write that AU for so long. There will definitely be at least one more part of this. So I hope this is good enough.}

Bubyee~