Chapter 1.
Lance POV.
Lance was tending to the farm in peace, his long-brimmed hat on his head to block the sun from his face. Yes, he knew his friends were going to be arriving soon, but he had sort of a late start to the day that morning. He didn't get enough sleep that night because his thoughts had been keeping him awake until who knows when. There was no use sitting around the house, waiting for the Paladins of Voltron to arrive. Or, former Paladins of Voltron. He kept on having to remind himself of that.
He wiped sweat from his forehead. What a coincidence that the day his friends were getting there it was his turn to tend to the farm. His family had a cycle. He never really paid attention to it; he just knew that it was his turn to take care of it on Sundays and all his other siblings and family did the rest of the week.
He heard the door swing opened and the little footsteps of his Niece and Nephew. "Uncle Lance!" he heard, and he was tackled to the ground. He groaned, trying to stop his fighting reflexes from kicking in. He had been having trouble with that recently. Ever since the war he had been having trouble with that. He didn't tell his family about it, of course. He also didn't tell his family about the time he ran shoulders with someone when he was walking back from the store and sweep-kicked him on accident.
His Niece and Nephew giggled and ran off. "Hey!" he called after them. "What was that about?" They just let out another series of giggles before reentering the house. He heard a much more grown-up-y laugh from inside. Must have been Veronica putting them up to it. Even though it wasn't very bad at all. He had obviously been through much worse.
He felt a drip of sweat go under his eye, right on top of the Altean marking. He brushed it off with his hand. He heard a small whirring coming from the front yard and knew that it was the other Paladins. He didn't bother to go and greet them. They were going to be coming around in time, and he wasn't exactly super enthusiastic to hang out with people. He had been pretty antisocial lately. Maybe it was that he had began having trouble trusting people outside of his family, maybe it was that he really wasn't interested in getting back into space-politics again. He just wanted to go back to having a normal life. Nothing to do with aliens, spaceships.
He didn't even know why the other Paladins wanted to stay on the farm for a while. It was really weird. They reached out to him only days before they were coming. It was as if they had already made plans about them coming over to his house without him even knowing about them. He sighed. He was finished with the flowers, so he went down to help with the horses. His family had gotten them when he was out in space fighting a war. They told him that it was like some sort of coping mechanism. They offered to get rid of them, but Lance was already attached. He had wanted horses since he was a little boy and the fact that his family got them without him was mildly infuriating.
"'Sup, Loverboy!" he heard a voice behind him as he brushed the mane of his pitch-black horse named Rookie. He could tell by her voice that it was Pidge.
"Hey, Lance," he heard another voice, Keith. Lance caught a glimpse of all his friends: Hunk, Pidge, Keith, Shiro.
"Hey, guys," he said. He grinned at them, still brushing the horse. Keith ducked under the fence and pet the horse. Lance went and put away the brush and washed his hands.
"Long time no see, man," Lance said to Keith. They grasped hands in greeting. Lance turned to everyone else and gave them each a hug in turn.
Hunk lifted him off the ground. "Oh, Lance, it's so good to see you dude!" he said.
Lance laughed awkwardly. "Uh... yeah, you too." He patted him on the head and Hunk put him down. He gave Pidge a quick hug and the same with Shiro.
"I didn't know you had horses," Shiro said.
Lance shrugged. "Well, I didn't even know about it until after we came back." He patted Rookie on the neck. "She's been great, though. Basically my horse now. Won't bond with anyone else."
Then Keith said, "Seems to be doing just fine with us here."
"If I'm fine with you guys around she is too." Lance put his hands in his pockets. "She'll probably let you ride her if you're nice."
Lance heard an echo-y bark and a bright flash of light and then Kosmo was on top of him, licking his face. "Ugh! No! Bad space-dog!" he said. He crawled out from under him only to see that his friends were laughing their faces off. Keith, however, was climbing up onto Rookie's back. It was no surprise that he was doing well with her. He was always reasonably good with animals. But Lance couldn't help but feel just a little jealous how easy it was for him to be able to ride her.
"You've ridden a horse before, Keith?" Lance asked, walking up next to him.
"No, but I piloted a giant red lion and a giant black lion. What difference could there be?"
Lance snorted. "A lot, actually."
Then Shiro spoke up, "Well, guys, let's go get our stuff from the ship. Lance and Keith can stay back and give riding lessons." He gestured for Hunk and Pidge to follow and they did. Lance took off his hat and threw it to the ground and ruffled his hair out. With his other friends, he was all jokey and funny, but with Keith, he was allowed to let himself relax a bit and open up. It was good to see him.
Keith got off the horse. "How have you been, Lance?" he asked. "You don't look so good. Are you alright?"
Lance could see the worry in his face and rolled his eyes at it. "I'm fine. Come on. In the place I'm in, on earth, with my family; it's everything I could ever want..."
Keith drew his eyebrows together. "But...?"
Lance sighed. "Something still feels missing. Like... I need something but I don't know what it is."
Keith put a hand on his shoulder. "I get it. If you need to talk to someone, I'm here." He patted his shoulder. "I'll go get my stuff." He walked away, leaving Lance alone in the stables with Rookie. Lance patted her mane, opening the gate to let her outside into the field to graze. She ran out, running around for a little bit before slowing and stopping to nibbled on the grass.
He went ahead and went to the other stable to brush and feed the next horse as well, a brown and white splotched horse that was named Snowflake. Veronica had named that one. It was pretty stupid.
"Hey, girl," he said, taking out the brush. After he was done brushing her, he scooped hay, then he went back to his house where all the others were. It was summer, and he had ditched his hat in the stables when the rest of the Paladins had arrived, so the sun bit at his skin, but he didn't mind. He entered the house, took off his muddy boots, and went into the living room.
The other (former) Paladins were all just sitting around. Hunk was playing with Lance's Niece and Nephew, Pidge was hunched over a laptop, typing furiously, Shiro was examining a bookshelf in the corner, and Keith was sitting on the couch fiddling with his finger-less gloves.
Lance walked across the living room and hung up his jacket, then sat down next to Keith. "So, why are you guys here? I didn't really get much details since it was so sudden and you guys didn't give me any."
Hunk sat up, gesturing the children away. "We were just all in the same area at the same time and had nowhere to stay. Trust me, we wouldn't have bothered you if we didn't have to."
"Ah, I see. What brought you all to this area?"
"I was showing a few Galran's what earth looks like," Keith said. "They were really curious. They didn't have a way to get here."
"I was just visiting," Pidge said, her glasses gleaming from the light of the laptop shining against them. "Decided to stay for a while."
"Uh, yeah, and I was just wanting to see my best bro!" Hunk said. He reached over and nudged Lance with his arm.
"What about you, Shiro?" Lance asked.
"They asked me to come along, and I've never seen your house before, so I said yes."
"Huh." He stood up and said, "Well, I'm going to take a shower. So, bye." He started up the stairs.
"Wait, Lance!" he heard Hunk call from downstairs. "You need to show us around first! The only thing we've seen is the living room and the stables!"
Lance groaned and started back down. "Hunk, we can wait," Shiro said.
"No, it's fine," Lance replied. "Probably gonna get dirty anyway. You guys did bring some spare clothes, right?" They nodded. Lance sighed as he said, "Alright, let's go then."