It could safely be said that Christmas was Lance's favourite human holiday.

Not that their family really did religious holiday's as they already had something that some of them (Paulyne) followed to the letter, but it didn't stop them from being festive and celebrating the fact that most of their family was still together after so long. They didn't really get each other gifts, but they all got together, tried not to find something that would cause an argument (something that Lance hoped didn't happen, not when he hadn't seen some of them for ages), celebrated the past years achievements and remembered those who couldn't join them.

It was weird to celebrate such a human holiday, but in the absences of any Altean celebrations, all of which had probably been lost to history now, and the general desire to disassociate from everything Galra as much as possible, they were left with the human holidays, and by Altea was there lots of human holidays to choose from.

They celebrated practically everything under the sun, though, if he had a short life span just like a human did, he too would try to make sure he was making the most of the deca-pheobes given to him.

Not that he wasn't already doing that, but the point still stood.

The flight from Arizona to Cuba was uneventful and boring, spending most of the time he could texting Hunk, who had gone back to his Mums for Christmas, and thinking of a good gift he could get Hunk for his birthday, which happened to be straight after he got back to the Garrison. At that moment in time, he was stuck between a good recipe book or some parts for whatever project the boy happened to be planning next.

He'll have to ask Denise. She was good with these sorts of things.

After the flight, he was picked up at the airport by Ashleigh, who happened to be the best aunt in the 'Verse, and the only one in the family who actually owned a car. The ride back consisted Ashleigh giving Lance the run-down of what had been happening during the four months he had been away and staring at the Christmas decorations that littered the festive humans.

He was so glad to be back home.

Walking into the house, Lance smiled at the amount of tinsel that was wrapped around the banisters, most likely Skye, the piles of shoes that lived by the front door, looking a bit more worn than before he had left, and the coin sized glowing crystals that had been left there and forgotten to be back.

Sighing, he silently put the crystals, a brilliant white that brought out his dark tan when placed against each other, back into his pocket, ready to be put into the shed later, and moved further into the house, where the living room alive with the sound of the TV, the petty arguments of siblings and the quiet chatter of the adults as they discussed 'adult' things like taxes and how the good days of yonder were.

He had missed this from the Garrison. Sure, there was Hunk, and he was a great friend, don't get him wrong, but nothing could make the same atmosphere as his family, especially not the strict and competitive Garrison. You just wouldn't find people gathered into one room and arguing and smiling and shouting and laughing over the insignificant things, not when there's exams to study for, simulations to complete, Keith Kogane's top score to beat. At the Garrison, there was always something going on, always something to do, always keeping busy and moving forward. Here, it was slow, calm. Not a competition, at least, not one with dire consequences if you lost.

Time here in Cuba, in this household, seemed to be put on hold, so while the planet kept spinning and the rest of the planet's population went on with living, everyone here smiled over what life had given them.

"Lance! You're back!"

Lance got no other forewarning before he got overwhelmed by Skye's hug, almost pushing the both of them back onto the floor with the amount of force that she put into it. Huffing, Lance hugged back with as much vigour, relaxing into it as he felt his skin ripple from the human cover to his natural form, the scales becoming visible under his eyes and his hair becoming blue again. After so long of being trapped in the unnatural form, it felt similar to a good face cleansing, wiping away any dust, dirt, make up, grime and grease until all that's left is the radiant skin that was previously hidden underneath.

The noise of the room had dropped significantly, the only thing left in the background was the television, playing whatever nonsense that Grandpa had decided to put on. However, if stares could make noises then the room would be full to the brim with sound, all trying to be heard over one another.

Well didn't that make things awkward.

"So, you're back then."

Lance winced at the crude wording form Paulyne.

These next two weeks were going to be so fun.

The first week goes by in a flash, filled with fun times and silly conversations, all equally avoiding the elephant in the room. Lance helps out with Skye's studies as she learns the properties of quintessence types, laughs at Catharyne's, sometimes crudely worded, jokes that she had learnt during her time in England, remembering them to tell Hunk later. He grins widely at Denise's stories of her work place while doing their nails together and artfully avoids Paulyne's jabs, throwing some right back at her. He helped Ashleigh with the cooking, Mama with the cleaning, and Grandpa with the farming, helping to milk the three cows that they kept, collecting the eggs first thing in the morning from the hens and making sure that all the animals were fed in the morning and in the evening.

It was weird, being home. After four months at the Garrison, where everything was constantly moving, always something new to learn and gain, with a rumour mill that worked its way around the facility faster than Kogane in the simulators or even Shirogane and his team in their ship towards Kerberos, home hadn't changed a bit, with the same coloured quintessence that he had grown up with, the same people who knew him since before he could even talk. There was not mysterious force watching over him here, no Hunk to make him laugh even when he was feeling sad, no crazy competitive kids trying to prove that they were the best, better than everyone else.

Here it was him, his family, and the quintessence crystals that they surround themselves with, where time didn't affect them as much as it did for humans.

What was four months compared to centuries?

What was a single week compared to four months?

Because, sometimes during that week, they forgot the reason why Lance left for America, for the Galaxy Garrison.

Because, sometimes, they forgot that he even left at all.

Because sometimes, they were just as happy as they were before.

"They're late."

Looking up from his meal of peas, corn and mash, Lance glanced at Paulyne who was looking at her own dinner, her short pink hair covering up her eyes and face scales, making her facial expressions almost impossible to read.

"Who's 'they'? Don't tell me you got yourself a human date-mate and invited them to dinner, especially after the crap you gave me when I had one." Catharyne teased and she ate a forkful of mashed potato, smirking at the thunderous face Paulyne pulled at her at the mere thought.

"I do not have a human date-mate, thank you very much. I would much rather die than 'date' a human. I was talking about the Blade, they should have visited phoebes ago, and yet we've still got nothing from them!" Paulyne hissed, making Lance frown at the way that she worded her dislike for the humans.

It was a well-known, but little-discussed, fact that Paulyne hated humans, with only some of the hate being justifiable. Between the bullying at school causing her to drop out as soon as she could along with her bad experience with Catharyne's ex, Lance understood where some of the hate towards them came from, 'some' being the key word as for the rest was really uncalled for. She never took the time to understood them and their remarkably brief lives along with how far they've come in the short time they've existed, and just hates them on the account of the small number of humans that she's met in Cuba, believing that they were the same around the planet.

Nobody did anything to prove her wrong, or to discourage her degrading language when humans came into the conversation, just accepted it, and moved on. (Well, except that time that Catharyne tried, but that was when everyone liked her ex.) It was that or face the wrath of a very knowledgeable (when it came to quintessence) and skilled druid, which none of them really could be bothered to do, not with someone as stubborn as Paulyne.

"Yes, well, I don't believe checking up on us and seeing if the Blue Lion is still here after so long is their biggest concern, since, as you may have forgotten, there is the whole intergalactic empire that they're trying to take down takes up just a bit more of their time and attention." Ashleigh said sweetly, scooping up the last if her vegetables as she ignored the glare that Paulyne sent her way.

"She does have a point." Denise said, moving the peas around her plate. "The Blade, while busy, have always made time to come to Terra to check on the Lion due to what a large-scale weapon could become in the Empire's hands. It is pretty concerning that they haven't visited, or even left some kind of sign that they're on their way or even still existing."

"Well, I reckon we would know if at least one of us was there with them." Lance muttered to himself as he pushed his own half-filled plate and began to stand.

"Where do you think you're going Lance?" Mama asked tersely, and never before had Lance felt more disconnected from his mother, as even the text messages felt more welcoming than the tone of voice that she had just used.

"Out to the barn. Abuela didn't come in for dinner and I don't want to have another argument about my life choices." Lance said over his shoulder, missing the look of regret that filled his mother's face, nor did he see Catharyne's face screw up in confusion.

Knocking on the door, Lance waited for about 10 ticks before letting himself in into the barn, making sure not to drop any of the peas onto the floor before reaching Abuela, who sat on a floor cushion and seemingly meditating over two crystals that were on the larger side.

Shaking his head, Lance simply sat down across from her, the same position he would take only months ago when she taught him the quintessences, placed the plate of food in front to him and simply waited until she was done before starting a conversation, not wanting to break her concentration since it was the project that had been making her skip meals in the past months that he had been absent for.

It was mesmerising to watch the crystal shimmer from what Lance guessed was a faded purple to a quick flash of blue, red, white, black, then back to the faded purple, only for the cycle to start again. The crystals were ones that Lance had never seen before, as instead of the white crystal that was still in his pocket from the week before, having forgotten to put them away, these were easily bigger than his hands, reminding him of a crystal ball, though he doubted that he would see the future using it.

Taking out the crystal from his pocket, he fiddled with it, spinning it between his fingers and sat there feeling the way that the White quintessence would flow within the stone like the calm but strong winds on the beach. It was always comforting to feel, and it easily took his mind off any problem or any nagging worries that consumed his mind, and would be the perfect gift for Hunk if Lance didn't already know that his best friend would ask where he got the crystal, and the that would open bag of worms that he didn't want to sort out.

"What brings you in here Lance?"

Lance looked up from the crystal to smile at Abuela, taking note of the extra stress marks and the bags under her eyes.

"I was wondering if I am allowed to know the oh-so-important project that was causing you to skip meals is all. I even brought you food." Lance gestured the food in front of him, now cold from the December chill (as cold as it was going to get in Cuba anyway), but Abuela smiled nevertheless.

"I take it that people are ready to start to have arguments during a meal time again then." Lance frowned at the comment, knowing it was almost completely unrelated to his question. Sure, most of the arguments did happen over a meal, the last one about the Garrison had been during breakfast and the amount of times that Denise and Paulyne argued over something petty over a meal was countless, an event that had been happening before even Catharyne was even born.

"You make it sound like it stopped."

"It had according to Skye. She mentioned that the tension was still there, but it was mutually agreed that mealtimes were family time, not times to argue." She replied, looking back down at the crystals, watching the way the light would illuminate the surrounding areas, as if it held the secrets she needed.

"That's the reason you stopped going to meals then?! Lance asked, though he felt stupid for asking such a question. He always did with Abuela, even with the smiles and all the encouragement that she gave to him, he always felt idiotic when asking something when it was obvious of what the answer would be.

"Partially." She simply stated, smiling almost sadly at the crystals below, then cocking her head and looking towards the door.

"I believe this one's for you dear." Abuela said as she glanced back down towards the two crystals, placing a hand on each of them as they began to flash the different colours as she went back to her project. Lance took at the dismissal as it was, standing up at the knock on the barn door and beginning to walk towards it, leaving the plate of food behind.

"Lance?"

Turning his head, Lance glanced at his role model, who hadn't moved during his entire visit, inclining his head slightly in a silent gesture of acknowledgement.

"You should keep hold of that crystal Lance, you'll never know when you'll need it and don't let anything hold you back, even if you think that there's no way forward. Okay?"

"Sure?" Lance replied, frowning as he left Abuela in the same state as he found her, leaving with now more questions than he arrived, like he always had done when he had been under her tutelage.

That feeling that Lance had gotten during the Garrison was back again, but he didn't think it was for the better.

Lance shouldn't have been surprised when he opened the barn door to see Catharyne staring intensely at him, nor should he have been surprised when she grabbed his top and began to pull him out and away from the barn.

"I take it I missed something big during my time at Uni, something that the entire family thought was unimportant to tell me but important enough to hold against someone they hadn't seen in four months." Lance winced at the wording. He had been the person to tell her about the acceptance letter, the only one it seemed, as he had glossed over the argument they had and his reasoning for going over Catharyne's congratulations for him, as she was the oldest child that had decided to go onto further education past 18 years old and thus the only other person in the family who knew how competitive post-mandatory education could be.

Maybe he was a little selfish to take the praise that he got instead of telling her the full reason as to why he applied for the Garrison in the first place.

"I wouldn't say that the argument was that much of a deal-"

"Really? Mama looked really guilty, Skye looked as if she was going to cry, Denise left without finishing her meal, so Ashleigh went after her, quiznak even Paulyne looked tense after you left!" Lance bit his lip as Catharyne ranted. He knew that the family was at least slightly tense after what he said, what with the texts he'd been getting at the Garrison and the way that they had tried their best to completely avoid the topic of him leaving them to go and help people light years away, to the point that Catharyne really had no idea of what was going on.

He'd have thought that Denise would have asked for her opinion, Paulyne ranting at her for his idiotic move or even Skye texting her as much as she had done for him during his absence.

"Well, at first they were scared that the Garrison was going to find out that I wasn't human, as if I was that stupid, but then I told them that I wanted to do it to help the Blade and the other rebel groups and I can't do that if I'm stuck here an-"

"Okay." Lance blinked stupidly at the interruption. Okay. that it?

"Just promise me one thing." Catharyne had stopped ragging him around now, leaving them in an empty field between the house and the barn, away from anything and anyone.

"Anything."

"Promise me that, after you leave Earth, we'll see each other again." Lance eyes widened at the statement then frowned.

"I am coming back-"

"No. No you're not." Lance could have sworn he felt his stomach drop.

"Cath-"

"No Lance! I don't know a lot about space, but I know it big and dark and dangerous. You've always wanted to help people, and I've known since the day that you asked me about the Blade that you want to help the people fighting against the Empire, something that I know a lot about.

"The thing about Earth is that it isn't our home, not really. You won't feel the need to come back to the planet as much as a human would, as our planet is dead. It was destroyed 10,000 deca-phoebes ago, and it's never coming back.

"So, I'm not asking you to come back here, that too mean. I'm asking you to see me, the rest of the family, again after you leave."

Mutely, Lance nodded his head, taking in Catharyne's words, turning them over in his head while fiddling with the small crystal that now held a permanent home in whatever pocket he was wearing that day.

See his family again after helping the universe. That wasn't that hard, all things considered.

"LANCE! CATHARYNE! THERE'S SOMETHING YOU'VE GOTTA SEE!"

The mentioned people stole a quick glance at each other before following Skye's voice back towards the house.

It better not be one of those cat videos that she was addicted to.

It defiantly wasn't one of those cat videos.

Instead, it was the breaking news, where the Kerberos mission had failed, with all members of the Shirogane-Holt team dead, and the pilot to blame.

(After the news, Lance had at least three arguments with his family, as he didn't believe that they had died due to piloting but due to the Galra. Only Paulyne believed him.)

(Who would have thought)

(Mama didn't want him to go back to the Garrison, tried to forbid him from going.)

(Not that it worked.)

(A day before classes started again, Lance got a letter stating that there was now a spot for him in the fighter class.)

(He wondered what drastic action had taken place for that to have happened.)