"To ask the right question is harder than to answer it."

-Georg Cantior

Chapter One - Fire Stars

The village was a small one, yet, still one of those that it took a long while to walk around. It was one of those, where most knew most names, families. It was much a community. And Lance loved places like these. His mother and other siblings lived down south, but he didn't mind. If anything, in the strangest way, it made him feel much more connected whenever he went down (or they came up). The only way he could think to describe it was like… doughnuts. If he ate them every day, he wouldn't like it as much than if he ate only once a year. It was a bad allegory, but he was so hungry. And the sweet scent of festival food picking on his nostrils wasn't helping in the slightest. Actually, he wasn't even that famished. He just craved sugar. But setting a good example may've had to of come first…

Mateo's tiny, gloved fingers laced with his own, Marisa linking his and her arms on his right side. Against his exposed cheeks, December air licked his skin as it blew past, creeping in the gap between his neck and his woollen scarf, spreading across his skin like a lacy tide on a frigid winter beach. Their breaths were vapour, tip of Lance's nose numb with the whited song of the wind. Even as they squeezed between the crammed people on the festival grounds, it seemed that even the heat of the village and lapping flames of the bomb fire could not replenish his warmth as quickly as he lost it. As a rogue gust let loose in the field, Marisa gripped tighter into her father, seemingly pushing her curly locks from her eyes with his coated arm. Lance smiled.

They'd been making their way through the festival for a while, and after what seemed to be an endless search for the food stands, they finally found a space to breathe. Running a brief head count of only two, he knelt down to Mateo's eye-level, brushing some brown strands of hair from his brow, sorting his scarf which seemed to have crept up his face making him look a little like a bandit. "Okay you two,", he began, "do you want to grab drinks before the fireworks start?"

With a cheer from the younger and a, "yes please", from the other, Lance smiled warmly and attempted to pull the three towards the queue, but toppled over before he could grab his children's hands. As his back hit the ground, he thought he had stumbled on a rock, or a stray water bottle, but his shoulders kind of stung and it wasn't because of the fall. For a second, he had to squint away some stars collecting in his vision, before giving a proper look as to what had happened. There was no bright moon in the cloudless sky, instead, a reflection of strangely familiar, purple irises. The hair too, almost matching the sky with its matte-black appearance seemed to pull at something in the back of his mind. But it wasn't until the person sat up in a frantic blur, when the gears finally clicked.

"I'm so sorry!" The man held out his hand, squatted in front of him, "I should have watched where I was going- I-" He stopped and raised his eyebrow at Lance's shocked and downright confused expression, then, it seemed to physically hit him as well. "Lance?"

"Yeah- uh. Keith?"

Keith stopped, a little taken back, pulling his hand away, more out of shock than anything else, but putting it back out once again when he realised the other still needed a lift off the floor. "Yeah."

Lance was on his feet with a sharp tug (which surprised him, since the last time he'd probably seen the raven-haired boy was when all he was, was skin and bone, barely able to lift a twig if he tried). Keith had changed so much over the years. For starters, there was a long burn scar, curling up from beneath his t-shirt, all the way up to his jaw. Which, had grown so much more chiselled, but that wasn't an important detail if you hadn't known him all the way through high school with the roundest baby-face of the whole year. Faint wrinkles of both frown and (adding to Lance's initial shock) smile lines dented into their places on his naturally pale skin. But his build, thin, muscly and (holy heck) actually fricking gorgeous. And Lance briefly thought that was something he'd never think about Keith Kogane of all people but, wow. He must have had a massive glow up during collage or something because, Lance had to give it to him, he might be just as (or even more) handsome he was. Again, a thought he could have betted his life on that he would never say.

He wasn't sure if he was gaping. He sure hoped he wasn't, and thankfully when he slingshot himself back to reality, Keith didn't seem creeped out in any way- so, that was always a good sign.

Lance had so many things to ask. Like, 'where have you been all these years?', or, 'why did you leave?', and, 'why didn't you tell us where you went?'. But, his kids were there. And even though he'd moved on from his anger twelve years ago, some part of him still wanted to give the other a little interrogation. But, again, he couldn't: not in a public place like this. So he just settled with, "hey, man. What are you doing here? I don't think I've seen you since collage freshman year. You know, when Hunk dragged us to that café place, off the bowling alley?" Lance kept his voice as natural as he could muster, the questions still racing around his head.

Keith chuckled into his hand, which sent Lance's mind reeling because, since when did he laugh so freely? "Yeah, I remember. Didn't you try to hit on that waitress and she actually refused to serve us?"

He cringed at the memory, "yeah… I think I tried to go back the next week and she'd banned me from entering the place."

Keith laughed at that, and Lance couldn't help catching on. It seemed contagious coming from the other man, and yet again, something he never thought he'd ever think.

"Dad!" Through the parting crowd, Lance noticed a slimmed hand wave and not-so-subtly shove its way against the people to make it through. Once she'd made it into the clearing, Lance had to blink twice to see what he'd thought he's really seen. A girl. Teenager, with thick, raven-coloured hair which should have reached just above her waist had it not been pulled up high in a ponytail. Her skin was so fair and pure, slightly more tanned than that of Keith's but that detail became harder to notice the dimmer the light began to shine. Her eyes though. That was the detail which sold who she was referring to as she called out to her dad once again. Her eyes were just as pristine as that of her fathers: strikingly pigmented with the dark blue beaconing purple.

Then, again. Another hand, much smaller and younger trailing on behind who must have been her sister. The same coloured skin and hair however, it was cut much shorter into almost a thick, wilder, longer kind of pixie. The ends were dyed a faded electric blue, much similar to flashes in her eyes amongst the same stark purple. She looked between ten and twelve with a curvy, attractive figure much like that of her sister (obviously less defined, but still there). The edges around her face were much sharper than round like the older sibling. So, in that way, looked a lot like Keith.

Lance mentally cursed himself when the two daughters reminded him of his own two and began spinning around to make sure they were next to him. They should have been, since he'd fallen right next to them, and thankfully, they were. So he could wipe away the metaphorical nerves from his brow- since the air was far too chilling to ever make him really sweat. Marisa held her brother's hand and linked her arms once more with Lance's, staring questioningly between the two grown men, asking silently what was going on.

In the background the other two girls and bustled themselves between the other families stumbling to Keith's side with breathless giggles. The older one stopped when she saw Lance and gave the same looks as Marisa except tapping Keith on the shoulder and asking loudly, "who's this guy?"

Lance bit back a chuckle as Keith scolded her about manors, kind of being a hypocrite since young-Keith would have probably have been just as rudely blunt, if not, much worse. Something along the lines of, "and who the heck are you?", seemed to fit the man just right.

"Sorry about Olivia," Keith rubbed the back of his neck, "she can be a little…" Keith gave a sly side wards glance to the girl, "quick to jump."

"No, no. It's fine honestly. I think I'm used to it."

Keith smiled guiltily, but turned his gaze back to the girl- Olivia- and her sister, fiddling with the skin on his bare forearms.

Lance warmed slightly on the inside. No matter how much Keith seemed to change in Lance's eyes, it almost reassured him once he saw how awkward the man could still be when carrying on conversations. It brought him back to many times in high school when Hunk and Pidge would have to leave early for their chemistry class and the two had to make their way to math. Lance was a chatterbox, and still is to this day- just not as erratic as he used to. He had always prided himself on being the guy who would always know what to say when a conversation needed a heating back up, however Keith was always the exception. For most weeks, they'd have to remain in silence on that walk because Keith had the rare ability to find a way to shut Lance up. Sure, many people didn't like talking, Lance understood that. So most of the time, Lance would tell a long story about his family or just jabber on for ages about how watery the pasta was in the cafeteria, so in the end, all they'd have to do is walk and smile. But Keith could always shut him down as soon as he opened his mouth, and Lance had no clue why. He pinned it on the awkwardness the boy carried. The poor guy never really knew what to say whenever Lance would begin chatting so he kind of ignored him whenever the two were alone together. At least when Pidge and Hunk were there, someone would talk to the babble-mouth of a billion words and all he'd ever have to do was listen. Being alone with that jaw moving faster than the speed of light, was extremely daunting to a guy who even struggled introducing himself to friends of friends. But after a few weeks, Lance did finally catch on to what Keith was trying to say in his silences. Of course, with the help of ever-so-honest-Pidge, but it taught Lance to calm down a little: slow his pace. And eventually, Keith began dipping his toes into Lance's waters. And gradually, they began to talk closer as friends.

Sure, Keith would always be the awkward, feisty guy he was no matter how close they became. But it helped Lance learn how to control the other and himself; how to lead in the areas the raven-haired boy wasn't strong in. So, the silence between them in the present day didn't last long. All Lance simply had to ask was, "so, are these your two daughters?"

Lance didn't know the Keith now- he only knew the Keith back in high school really. But keeping a conversation with the other that would last a while only had to include two things: common ground and Lance asking all main the questions. Some could lose disinterest with the other man, thinking he was being 'rude and distant'. But Lance knowing Keith after all those years of parties, tests and family hardships, it would have been disappointing if he didn't know that it wasn't that Keith didn't like conversing, it's just that he didn't know how to. Even after his thirty-five years on this ever-socially-active planet, the skill never seemed to set in. Hopefully, Lance was still right about this, even now.

"Yeah, Lance, this is Olivia,", he pointed to the girl from earlier, "and this is Peggy.", to the one with the short hair.

The two girls waved in unison exchanging, 'hey's' and 'hello's'. Lance, too, waved back.

"So, I'm guessing they're your two?" Keith knelt down to a level between the children attached to Lance's arms.

Lance hummed in conformation, "Marisa, Mateo, this is one of my old friends from high school, Keith."

Keith waved at the two, the six-year-old bubbling up on the spot in excitement of meeting a new person while the older just smiled back with her lips and a calm wave from her hand.

"What are you doing around here then? D'you move up or are you just here for the festival?"

"Err… both? Kinda? Well, we don't exactly live here per say. Got a family bus we move around in."

Lance's eyes widened, "wow. That's really cool, dude! How'd you get your hands on something like that?!"

"Big inheritance and too many shifts at Bills." He laughed, "but she does us well, doesn't she girls?"

They both nodded their heads proudly.

Lance felt a slight stab for a second, "how long are you staying around for?"

"About two weeks/two weeks and a half. We've come down to see Shiro before we head west for Christmas. Didn't know I'd be seeing you again too."

"Yeah, well, surprise!" He made jazz hands which got a soft nudge of embarrassment out of Marisa, "we live just a five-minute walk from here. It's a good village, good school for these two so everything's smooth at the minute." He paused, "hope you don't mind me asking but, why haven't you three settled down?"

"Four, actually." Peggy spoke up and stepped further forward with a nudge from Olivia, "there's me, Olivia, dad and another little sister. She's five. We can't settle down, can we, Dad? We have to move around because of the shows."

Lance smiled at how much better she was at talking than her father, "the… shows?"

Keith laughed sheepishly, "yeah, uh. We perform fire shows around the states. That's why we're here really."

So that's why they're in t-shirts… He briefly thought.

"Whoa. That's seriously the coolest thing I think you've ever done. Which isn't exactly that hard to beat, since you're probably the biggest dork I know, but still. What happened to that astrophysics major at the Garrison?"

"You know, Lance? It's great how you're trying to set yourself up as if you're the cool one here, but remember you got labelled the dork in the year book. I was the 'ninja' according to Scott Roberts."

"Yeah, but that's Scott Roberts."

Keith turned to Marisa, "he says that but really, that guy was his role-model. Scott, with the perfect teeth and voice that 'simply makes all the angels sigh'."

Marisa laughed hysterics into her hands and Lance gasped in mock offence.

It was then that Peggy bounced in with a sheet of realisation over her face, "ohhhhh. Wait, wait, wait- so this is that Lance? The one who egged your principles house? In that case, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sir!"

Lance shook her out stretched hand with pride, "yup. That's me."

"Can I just say, you are a legend from what I've heard!"

Lance grinned slyly, looking back to Keith, "so, you talk about me a lot?"

Keith 'hmffed' with his arms crossed across his chest, "only when telling them what not to do."

Lance's jaw dropped to his toes with a theatrical gasp making Mateo giggle sunnily, but couldn't let out a comeback before the other interrupted to take the conversation back on track before they got too carried away, like usual.

"Oh, about that masters? I have it. And loads of other qualifications. I could get a real job if I wanted but I'd rather live on the edge for a while longer. Plus, it's not like the girls aren't at school."

"Yeah," Olivia rolled her eyes playfully, "if anything, it's harder than actual high school. He works us way too hard."

"True. But you'll thank me one day."

"Pfft! You said that years ago! And I'm still waiting for that day!"

"Give it 'til you're twenty-one. And then you can yell at me."

"Fine!" Olivia turned to her younger sister, "Pegs? Remind me of this moment in four years and I'll tell you if he's telling the truth."

Peggy smirked devilishly and shook her sisters outstretched hand, "deal!"

Keith brooded at the sight of his girls ganging up against him and it looked like he was going to say something until a blond woman with overly-applied makeup came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. She whispered something inaudible into his ear which made his eyes light up and check the watch around his wrist.

Lance cocked an eyebrow once the woman left into the sea of people, and he noticed they all seemed to gradually move over towards where a big stage lay with a few contraptions set up on it. He looked back to Keith who was telling something to Olivia and Peggy, the girls jumping excitedly and followed off in the direction of that same woman.

"Hey, the show's about to start so I'm going to have to get going. I promise we'll catch up after the show. Just wait beside the black bus with fire-star-things on the back?" Lance nodded but before Keith could fully let his body turn he ran right back, "were you getting drinks? Before I bumped into you?"

Lance nodded.

"Ah, okay. What were you going to get?"

"Err, two waters and an orange jui- what are you doing?"

But Keith didn't look behind him as he made his way to the back of the truck, gaining a few huffs from the queuer's tapping their feet impaciently. He knocked on the door where a large man answered with a grin on his face as he pulled the other into a bone-crushing hug. They talked for just a little bit before the server walked into the truck and came out with five waters and an orange juice. As Keith pulled out his wallet to pay, the large man shoved the money back, ushering away a Keith who yelled with protests high in his throat, but the man locked the truck door before he could say anything else. The whole scene, made Lance chuckle.

Keith jogged back over with a defeated expression but handed over the drinks to Lance.

"You didn't have to do this, man, but thanks. I would offer to pay you back but… seems that guy was a really nice dude." Lance smiled.

"Nice? Yes. Annoying? Also, yes. Seriously! That guy never lets me pay for anything! Heck, I even snuck the money I owed him once under a bag of bread buns but he actually tracked me down and shoved it back at me and then gave me the same bread buns!" He groaned.

"Hey, it's Christmas! Maybe he just wants to help people. That, or he wants to make up for bad karma."

Keith breathed out in amusement, scuffing his shoes against the frozen dirt. Then, from the enormous speakers towering over the field, a voice shook the ground with slight feedback from the cheap mic's.

"What a night we have ahead! I bet you're all excited for the fireworks, am I right?"

The festival grounds erupted in cheers.

"Good, good. Well, before that, we're going to kick-start the night with a fiery performance. Something unlike you've ever seen! Because this time, it isn't just any fire show- it's the fire show of a life time! Traveling from town to town, city to city, state to state- ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in only three minutes will your eyes be witnessing the breath-taking performance of none other than the Kogane's! A family of burning flames! So-"

Keith's ears picked up, but his face cringed at the whole introduction and he shot up to look around for his best escape as the commentator mentioned something about health and safety, "sorry!" He yelled, zipping off through the masses of people heading towards the stage, "remember! Black bus with the fire-stars!"

"I will! Good luck!"

But Keith didn't hear him, too far into the crowd.

Lance joined hands with his two kids and they pulled near the stage as to where the family had just run off to. Fortunately for him, said bus was only a short distance from the stage and looking over, he could see Keith and Olivia talking, Keith with such a dad-face of concern. They'd changed outfits with Olivia in shiny black tights, a leotard and it seemed also like her father's gloves too- Keith in tight, black pants and calf-length boots without a shirt. Lance gulped. His chest was just as hot as he had suspected earlier. He wouldn't be surprised if the women in the crowd wolf-whistled him as the show started.

Olivia's face was full of care in response to her father's, she pulled him into a hug which, even from where Lance was standing, he could tell Keith crushed her way too tightly, but she didn't seem to care. From just around the corner, Peggy seemed to walk from the DJ booth with headphones strung around her neck, looking up and running into the hug too. Then, from out the bus, the same woman from earlier brought out a little girl by the hand- her hair long like her eldest sister, but platted on both sides in pigtails. Her hair like everyone else's: as dark as the night. Skin as fair and pale as a smooth quartz ball. Lance couldn't see her eyes exactly, but he knew what colour they shone. Her chubby little legs ran from the woman over to the group hug and launched herself into her dad's arms. They remained like that for a long time that Lance had to look away because it felt rude to intrude on such a intimate moment, even if he was quite far away.

Mateo pulled on his sleeve, bringing him out of the trance.

"Papi, I can't see."

Lance smiled warmly, bending down for the child to climb onto his back, his soft head of hair leaning on his shoulder.

"You good, bud?" He asked jolting his son's weight into a more comfortable position.

Mateo hummed a, "yes", into his ear. Lance looked over to his daughter with a nostalgic smile on her face.

"Marisa? You want a piggyback too?" He teased, earning a playful punch to his upper arm.

"Yeah right! Papá, I'm twelve."

"And?", he chuckled darkly knowing the reaction that was coming, "you'll still always be Papi's little girl."

"Papá!" She screeched as if he had just condemned her to the worst possible fate imaginable.

Lance only smirked as he saw her attempt to hide her smile in the oversized hood. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, holding Mateo with only his left arm, pulling her close next to him. She leaned into her father and suddenly, it felt like nothing in the world could harm them, the world around them had frozen.

Author's Note:

SO. I already have over 10,000 words of this written but it's not done unfortunately.
I'm sorry Christmas had just been... but I hope you can still enjoy the Christmassy vibes!
I actually came up with the idea on 5th November (bombfire night here in the UK!) but shrugged it off. Then on the 23rd December I realised that:
'oh shit. I forgot about my annual Christmas story' and ended up with this xD
I hope you stick around, I really do! I know im not the best writer out there but I hope you can still enjoy what I put out :) the next chapter is already written so maybe tomorrow or the day after that will I release it xx

Comment on what you thought, what you hope to come! And ill see you soon :)

-L.E-Rae _x_