July 28, 2007

Cuba

9:15 pm

"Lance, wait in the car honey, mommy will be right back."

Ms. McClain gets out of the car and just before she closes the door, she peeks back inside and looks at her son. "What did mommy say, Lance?"

He shuffles in his car seat, "To stay in the car?" She smiles at him, each crinkle by her mouth and eyes is full of love and old age.

"That's right pooh bear, te amo."

"I love you too" but the sound is muffled as she closes the door.

She walks around the car and lifts up her skirt to grab the handgun strapped to her thigh. She cocks the gun and aims it at the man across the street with radiant blue eyes. The rain cascades, each drop pounding harder with every step she takes. The man laughs and pulls her gun against his forehead. Under his heavy breath, he says, "Do it, Bitch"

A loud bang resonates through the air and a small cloud of smoke is the only visible thing Lance can see out of the back windshield. Ms. McClain steps back and throws the gun at the man's chest. " The next time you come near my son will be the last, try me bitch." She walks back to the car and climbs in on the drivers' side. She buckles in her seatbelt and cranks the car, the vibrations gentle shake their bodies. She turns around and smiles at Lance, reaching her hand back to wipe the tears from his cheeks and around his eyes.

"Lancey?"

"Yes, momma?"

"You did really good today, mister, I'm proud of you"

"Gracias, mami"

"You're such a good boy and I love you. And listen to me" She grabs Lance by the collar and pulls him close, their noses almost touching. Lance averts his eyes.

"Look at me Mijo when I tell you this, don't let anyone get to you. No matter how hard things might get, pain is just weakness leaving the body. I want you to be strong, and listen to your instincts and of course your momma. I love you baby, and I'd be damned if anyone takes you away from me." Ms. McClain gently shoves Lance back into his car seat and wipes the tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She looks in the rearview mirror and sees Lance fidgeting with his fingers. She slams on the gas pedal. "Mijo, you better be ready to kick some ass! Tu comprendes?" He nods his head with a smile plastered across his face.

April 18, 2022

Garrison University

Student Lounge

1:48 pm

Lance was dreading the fact that he had to meet with Lotor. Well, he didn't have to; but wanted to give him a piece of his mind. Lance was sick of seeing Lotor parade around school with a smile plastered on his face while he sulked and had to force himself not to commit suicide. Every day was a nightmare and having to breathe the same air or be in the same place as him was devastating. Today was the day, and Lance didn't care, he couldn't care if the whole school would be talking about this for weeks. Lotor was a piece of shit.

He walked into the student lounge and gazed around the room for luscious white hair, which didn't take too long since he only knew three people with such hair. He makes eye contact with Lotor and his whole body is covered in chills. His chest feels heavy and each step feels likes he's stepping on needles. His palms are sweaty and his knees are weak. But that doesn't stop him, there's nothing you can do to stop this man. He thinks about his mom telling him to be strong, but he can't help but feel like an emotional baby boy, an emotional man. Lance stops right in front of Lotor, eyes watering.

"Hey!"

Lotor turns his body to Lance and crosses his right leg over the left. He flips his hair off his shoulder and says, "What?!"

Lance's hands are trembling, "Shut up and let me talk, and you better not say a damn thing till I'm done, capisce?" Lotor holds his hands up in defense, a small crowd of people form at a safe distance, obviously distracted by the noise. Lance looks around the room and takes a deep breath. He thinks to himself 'Go big or go home'

"Daily, I tell myself that I don't need you. That I never needed you. That I never really loved you, just the way I thought you loved me too. I tell myself that I didn't necessarily need you to love me, but anyone who was willing to hold my pieces together for a bit was all I wanted."

Lotor begins to speak but Lance tells him, "Shut the fuck up, I'm not finished!"

The crowd gasps and more people join in to watch. Shiro and Keith are towards the front of the group. They were just heading to their dorm but got caught up in the commotion. Lance begins to choke up tiny sobs but he's determined to stay put and not run away.

"You took that away from me, and even though everyone thinks I'm fine and moved on. I'm torn to pieces and fallen completely apart. I hate myself and I hate that I'd still take you back if you came to my doorstep" He walks away, as the tears grow heavier and trickle down his face like a hurricane.

Shiro and Keith are pained to see Lance like this, but it's not their place to interfere. And what would they even do? They hardly know Lance, better yet speak to him.

Lotor grabs Lance by his wrist and pulls him back towards him. The crowd awes thinking this is some sort of drama performance. Lance is screaming, "Get the fuck off me!" He accidentally socked Lotor in his face causing his upper lip to immediately swell. "Let me go!"

He shoves Lance to the ground. He wipes the blood off his lip and spits the small pool of blood forming in his mouth onto the floor. The crowd steps back, while Keith and Shiro are still cautious of the situation. Lance picks himself up off of the floor and yells, "Fuck you...you piece of shit!" Lotor chuckles to himself but loud enough for the people surrounding him to hear. "Hey Lance, I may be a piece of shit but no soy el que ha matatdo a mi Madre!" (I didn't kill my mother) Lance is infuriated. He lunges at Lotor, violently grabbing his neck. His nails deeply digging into his skin. Lotor tries to push Lance away, but every jab at Lance only makes his nails dig in harder and grasp tighten. The group of people are hysterical but nonetheless, they're still recording. Shiro and Keith shove a couple of people out of their way, trying to get to Lance before he kills the dude. Shiro picks up Lance and tosses him across his shoulder, while Keith makes sure Lotor is still breathing. Lance is still full of adrenaline and won't stay still in Shiro's hold.

"Put me down! Me bajes! Me bajes!"

"I can't until you calm down!" His grip tightening around Lance's firm but smooth waist. "Keith, let's go, and leave him!"

Keith glares at Lotor, "If it wasn't for the laws of this land, I would've slaughtered you"

"Eat a bag of dicks!" said Lotor in between heavy breaths. Keith grabs him by his shirt collar."I will, but they won't be yours, and if I see you near Lance count your blessings because I won't hesitate bitch!"

"Keith I said let's go!"

"Alright alright, I'm coming, calm your tits!"

He lets go of his collar and jogs up next to Shiro's left where Lance's limbs are dangling. He stopped resisting but the tears don't seem to be going anywhere. A soft hiccup escapes his lips. Shiro and Keith have to turn their heads to hid their embarrassment, because that was the cutest thing they have ever heard. This boy is going to be the death of them. They finally reach the infirmary, the nurse isn't there, but that's nothing new. Keith pulls back the third curtain closest to the back window and Shiro sits Lance on the bed. They both pull up chairs and stare at the boy who's fidgeting with his thumbs. Keith begins to speak up but Shiro stops him and nods his head in Lance's direction. Lance sits up straight and wipes the tears from his eyes using his sleeve as a tissue. He looks between the boys in front of him and awkwardly laughs.

"Thanks, I guess, but I could've handled it myself."

"You tried to kill him!" Shiro jabs Keith in his ribs and shushes him.

"No, haha, Keith's right I did try to kill him, but I didn't so thanks" His smile is innocent, warm, and anxious. He places his hands to his knees to prop himself off the bed. Shiro puts his hand on his and Lance looks up and stares directly into Shiro's grey eyes.

"Oh..uh...um" Shiro is starstruck. He always liked the color of Lance's eyes but seeing them up close made him fall in love with them. A crystalizing blue with specks of brown around his pupil was god himself. The freckles on his cheeks and around his eyes pulled the knots in his heart tighter, refusing to unravel. The grip on Lance's hand was tense.

"Uh, ha, Shiro you're kinda crushing me here man"

He lets go and quickly averts his eyes. The tips of his ears are a bright pink. "S-sorry, haha"

Keith rolls his eyes and looks up at Lance."What happened back there?"

Lance looks back at Keith almost sending him into the same trance Shiro had to endure.

"Well, depends"

"Depends on what?"

"How much did you see?"

"The whole thing really, sorry but you were kinda making a scene" Lance flinches at Keith's words.

"So...that basically sums it up, what more do you need to know, huh?"

Keith and Shiro were about to respond but Lance's phone starts ringing the Hetalia theme song. He gives them an apologetic look and answers his phone. "Hey, Buddy!" His voice was strong, enthusiastic, yet gentle. Something Shiro and Keith weren't use to hearing, especially from Lance McClain, who's kinda loud and flamboyant.

"Yeah I'm good, well I'm not, I actually feel like shit, but what's up?" The look in his eyes was full of fear and vulnerability. "Y-yeah, I'll be the soon and please Hunk don't let them call my Tio. Like I swear to god ...please promise me Hunk...thanks, buddy te amo."

Shoving his phone back into his pocket he waves the boys goodbye and runs out the room. Shiro and Keith get up and chase after him.

"Lance, are you okay?!"

"Where are you going?!"

He abruptly stops and the boys almost run into him. "Please stop following me, I'm fine, so drop it okay? Stop acting like you care."

"But Lance.." said Shiro his voice wavered in concern.

"Shut it, look I appreciate you, but I don't have time for this. I'm sorry" He turns his back away from them and continues to run down the corridor.

While Lance is running he can't help but feel that nothing he does will be good enough. 'I can't do anything right' he curses to himself. He opens the door to the principle's office and his eyes scan the room. Hunk is mouthing 'Sorry, he was already here' Lance waves his hands to let him know that it wasn't Hunk's fault. He can't exactly stop something that already happened. Lance's Tio walks over to him and places his hand on his shoulder, he quickly takes it off when Lance smacks his hand. "No me toques!" (Don't touch me) His uncle nervously laughs and sits down on the chair across from Hunk.

"Lance please take a seat," said Mr. Iverson who's the principle of GSU. Lance shakes his head "No, I'd rather stand, thank you." Iverson clears his throat. "It appears to me, that earlier today you attacked a fellow student. Do you have anything to say about this? Why did you attack him?"

"Listen, he deserved it, fucking prick. I hope he dies"

"Lance, you should be glad that Lotor didn't press charges, he's been admitted to the hospital because he had too much blood loss"

"Hmpf, good, he should've lost more."

"Lance! You stop right now!" said his uncle

"Or what? I have the right to express my opinion!" His uncle purses his eyebrows together and nods his head, "Remember that, no vas a estar luego mijo" (you'll regret it later son)

"Lance, you look like someone hit you with a truck, are you good?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine buddy, just don't feel well"

Lance's uncle gets up and shakes Mr. Iversons hand and waves Hunk goodbye. "Well, I guess this is our call to get out your hair and thank you for not expelling my mijo Lance. We all know how hard he worked to get accepted here. Right mijo?"

"Oh, uh y-yeah" Lance is feeling uncomfortable and shoves his hands into his jacket pockets. "I have class at 3, so I gotta go haha"

With a final wave goodbye, his Uncle wraps his arm around Lance's shoulder pulling him close. He shuts the principle's door and they both walk down the hallway to the right. He whispers in Lance's ear, "Don't ever talk back to me again like that and embarrass me in front of your principle and little boy toy. You better be home today, or I will come get you." He lets go of Lance and gently shoves him away. "Now, stay out of trouble, haha!"

Lance is walking towards his dorm room, his hands' tremble in his pockets. He fumbles trying to pull out his keys and ends up dropping them on the floor. He bends down to pick them up but someone has beaten him to it. He looks up and notices that its Shiro.

"Ah fuck me, another person I didn't want to see. No offense"

"Oh, haha its okay you seem to be having a rough day, and sorry about you know, getting all up in your business"

"No, I'm sorry, you guys were just worried about me"

"Here's your keys, you going somewhere?"

"I have class at 3, but I don't plan on going, why?"

"You look like you need some company, and I'm off the rest of the day, so what do you say?"

"Hmm, well if I'm back by 5, I could hang I guess."

Shiro's face brightens up like the sun, like a million suns. He feels on top of the world and also kinda guilty that he's getting to hang out with Lance first. When Keith stated that he had dibs on the first date. But Keith was the least of his worries at that moment, a whole two hours with Lance alone was a one-time opportunity. This was something he couldn't pass up.

"Hey Muscle-man, times a wasting, are we going or not?"

Shiro chuckles softly, "Muscle-man?"

Blood rushes to Lance's cheeks. "S-shut up 'Kashi, is that a better nickname?"

Shiro's eyes go wide and the scar across his nose turns a different shade of pink. Lance laughs, "Well 'Kashi it is, so where are you taking me?"

"That's a surprise"

"I hate surprises"

"Really?"

"No, but that surprised you right?"

They both look at each other and burst into a fit of laughter. The good kind of laugh that gives your abs a mini workout. At this moment Lance knew that everything was going to be okay for awhile.