Chapter 4: Taking Flight

Lance didn't know where he was. It was dark and a dull pain throbbed steadily throughout his body. He looked around but his movements were slow, as if he were moving through-

That was when Lance realized that he wasn't breathing. He kicked his feet and shot upwards. Head breaking past warm water. As he gasped for air he shook his head to clear his vision, looking around in an attempt to orient himself. The sun was bright and high in the sky. How had it been so dark beneath the surface?

"There's no way you could pull that off again!" Clara snorted, her voice still held the beautiful lilt of an accent that came from speaking English only as a second language. The sort of inflection that Lance had struggled to rid himself of. She shook her head in disbelief from where she sat on her own board.

"Woooooaaahhh!" Came the dueled voices that had Lance snapping his head in the opposite direction, twisting his body in the water. Both of his younger siblings were standing knee deep in the ocean that surrounded him. The soft sands of Veradera beach stretched out behind them.

"You gotta show me how to do that!" David was laughing as he jumped up.

"Like you even could!" Mia splashed the boy.

"What?" Lance blinked, confusion filling him. Clara was shouting towards the other two, an empty threat about what she would do if they didn't start getting along right this instant.

Lance continued to tread water as he tried to make since of what had happened, what was happening.

His sister wasn't giving him a chance to process though, as she hollered across the water, language switching to Spanish as her choice of words grew more colorful. Without thought Lance grabbed the edge of her board, pulling himself up as his voice filled a question.

"What the cheese just hap-" They were both suddenly flipped over, splashing into the water. In his own hectic eagerness he'd not been paying attention to how hard he pushed into the wood.

Clara came up sputtering, sending a small wave over her younger brother.

"Que diablos Lance!" She coughed.

"Language-" He murmured absentmindedly, even though they were nowhere near either of the younglings.

"WHAT THE HELL LANCE!" This wasn't repeated just to irritate the boy, but because he had just pinched her arm none too gently, before repeating the action to his own. It was so real… though there was still a strange underlying ache that felt as if it were right beneath the surface of his skin.

"I'm not dreaming?" He asked out loud.

"What are you talking—of course you're not!"

The calls of his younger siblings drew his attention towards the shore and he began to swim towards them with Clara still clamoring behind him. Lance ignored her. By the time he could touch the boy was out of breath. This didn't stop him from stumbling towards Mia and David, picking the later up and hugging him close before dropping to his knees and pulling his sister to him as well.

"You're really real…" He babbled, feeling a thickness in his throat. "I missed you guys so much! I didn't think I'd ever-"

"Oh I see, they get hugs but I get pinched, cool Lance." Lance could practically hear the curse word she'd barely bitten back from calling him due to the close proximity of the other younger boy released his grip, standing as the two little ones stumbled back and giggled. Clara was walking up. Her long curly hair a disshelved mess atop her head, dripping wet. She held out both her board and Lance's. "You forgot this." With a practiced movement she pushed the tail end of her own into the sand, eyeing her brother. "Mind telling me what the heck all of that was about-Leandro?"

Lance shook his head again, as if that alone could disperse his confusion. "You know I hate being called that… and nothing?" His answer was unsure. The word felt wrong upon his tongue.

"Well whatever. It's getting late, we should probably head home. Dinner'll be ready for you brats soon!"

Lance raised his perfectly sculpted brows in surprise. "No way the sun was just-" he'd pointed towards the sky, where he could have sworn was at it's zenith. But now it hung low over the water, which reflected the deep orange and purple hues of the sunset that now washed across the wide open expanse above him.

It was breathtaking but Lance couldn't enjoy it. A chill breeze had replaced the warm kiss of summer against his skin. He couldn't place where the hours had gone and puzzled over it. He turned to ask Clara if she knew what was going on. But as his eyes landed on his siblings their shadows seemed to twist as they elongated. The growing darkness around him felt heavy and the gathered twilight shifted their retreating forms grotesquely.

"Hey wait up!" Lance shouted nervously. As he caught up with them he leaned towards the eldest. "Is everything okay?"

"Si, porque?" She was giving him such a strange look that Lance once more murmured nothing.

Abruptly pain like he'd never known shot down through his body, sinking into his very bones and leaving his skin prickling unpleasantly. But it passed as quickly as it had come. He'd kept pace with the other's, steps not even faltering somehow. The agony gone too swiftly that Lance questioned if he'd felt anything at all.

As they approached the pueblo style home music danced through the air, as it almost always was within and around the boy's home. A sad smile curled his lips up… only Lance couldn't figure out why he'd be sad.

The source of the melody became evident as they entered the large three story home. Each of them kissing their hands before placing them on the cross that hung right within the entryway. Something that Lance had never really thought about before. It was simply something that they all did. But now, bringing his fingers to his lips slowly, he realized how long it had been since he'd even made this motion.

The living room had been cleared and an old Hispanic man was snapping his cane towards a young man as salsa thumped out of an old radio. "*Keep your back straight! Your body needs to flow more naturally with the song!*"

"I'm trying grandp- I mean Senior Vicente!" Mason, Clara's fiancé stated, shifting out of the stance he'd been in when he spotted them all.

"* I didn't tell you to stop dancing! And you know Spanish so speak it!*"

"Buenos noches abuelo." Lance went up to hug the old man, wondering again why he felt the need too. He and his Cuban Grandfather did not often hug upon simple greetings.

Lance didn't get the chance to complete the gesture however, for the other threw his hands up in the air as Clara spoke accusingly.

"You guys started without me!"

"*This tonto desesperado needs all the practice he can get or your first dance as husband and wife will be a nightmare instead of a dream!*"

They could easily hear as their grandmother tutted from the kitchen, already the sweet scent of spices drifted into the living room teasingly. Lance's mouth began to water. "*David, Mia come help your Aunt Lucina set the table porfavor!*" Her scratchy voice rang through the house. Groaning the two children ran for the dining room, each pushing the other out of the way in an attempt to be the first there.

"Where are Grandpa Lori and Grandpa Nathan?" Clara asked, stretching to warm up. Mason had stopped moving, his eyes glazed over and a goofy smile upon his features as he watched.

Grandpa Vicente swiftly tapped his cane once more, "out in the greenhouse, where Loretta always is." He muttered, shaking his head as if he could not see the merit in gardening, even though he'd owned farmland down in Cuba. It had made since to grow food, but flowers? Bah! Lance could practically hear these thoughts.

The sound of key's jingling and the door opening once more had Lance turning to see his mother breezing into the house, her sandy blond hair falling from the up do she placed it in every day, still in her scrubs from work. She sighed tiredly, slipping out of her shoes.

"Busy day momma?" Clara chimed in, and the woman simply nodded.

Lance felt oddly removed from everything as he looked on. His family was all behaving very… normally. Business as usual with all of them.

But nothing was normal! Was it?

Again that weird excruciating sensation worked through his body. Once more ending as soon as it descended into his perception. This time a dull ache lingered upon him like a weight, dragging his limbs down.

"Mijo!" A sudden harsh voice snapped Lance back to the here and now.

Officer Learco McClain was standing before Lance. His father's intimidating figure wasn't even enough to chase away this feeling of wrongness that permeated everything.

"Pay attention. Tomorrow make time, we are going to the shooting range. You have to work on your hit average."

"No…"

Lance had simply whispered this but his dad's eyes flashed with irritation at his son's insubordination.

"Excuse me?"

"Something is wrong."

Learco was shaking his head. "There's nothing wrong here. There's something wrong with you."

Lance felt his stomach bottom out, body shivering as if he'd just been dunked in ice water.

"Oh hush," His mother pushed past the man, shooting him a quelling glare, he was always hardest on Lance. "There's nothing wrong."

"Come on Lance let's eat!" David's voice broke through Lance's thoughts in a way that his mother's could not and he shook himself, looking over to his younger brother. "After dinner wanna play some Mario Kart?" The boy was pulling on his arm but Lance slipped it out of his grasp.

"Where's Hunk?" Was that it? Was it just because his best friend wasn't around at dinner time, as he typically was?

"He's fine mi querido." Aunt Lucina said, trying to guide Lance into the dining room.

But no. Something was too erroneous here and it wasn't just Hunk's absence. Words, memories, and faces all swam disjointedly behind his lids as he closed them, hoping to chase away this feeling of oddness. It didn't work.

When he opened his eyes again Lance had been herded into the dining room. Everyone had sat down. The boy looked at his vacant chair and it was like that emptiness mirrored in his own chest, expanding with a density that dragged him down.

"Come on mijo, sit down." His father's tone made it clear that this was not a request.

"But… the Galra…" Lance's voice faltered, for the family was already eating. He took in a deep breath. "I have to go back. My team…Voltron-" Lance wished that he could organize his thoughts so that he'd say a real, full sentence.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Learco was shaking his head and giving his wife a pointed look.

"What about Pidge? What about Hunk? What about Shiro and Allura and Coran and… I … I have to go!"

"What about your family? Who are these people?"

Another wave of pain broke over him. Like an echo of something, an injury he'd suffered. It wasn't immediate but it was there and as it passed it left him nauseated.

David's voice sounded from behind him as Lance turned.

"But you can't go bro! What about my soccer? You promised that you'd teach me how to do your special move!

Lance grit his teeth, "I still will-" right?

Clara spoke next, "what about my wedding, will you be back for that?" Lance almost turned around. He couldn't hear the normal sounds of silverware clattering and hums of his family enjoying his grandma's cooking.

It felt as if all of their gazes were boring into his back.

"I don't know Clara-"

"Where do you think you're even going?" His dad's words cut through him and the boy scrambled after his reasoning before it could escape him.

"T-they… they need me-"

"What about us Leandro?" Sarah McClain's voice was so soft, so filled with patience as it always was. The opposite of his father's.

"They're in danger."

"Of course they're not!" His grandma Loretta's tone was crisp and final. "Everyone is just fine. Come now, sit with us!"

Lance's hand rested upon the doorknob, shoulder's shaking as he tried to force himself to open it. Just turn and push. That was all there was too it. Easy peasey.

"They… need me?"

"Do they?" Learco of course was the one to voice Lance's buried worry, bringing it to the surface.

"Y-yes!" He shouted, spinning around. He'd been right. Everyone was looking at him. "I pilot the blue lion! I'm Voltron's leg! Without me they can't form Voltron at all. They can't fight the Galra! I need to be there! To protect them! To protect you!"

Slowly everyone turned back to their plates, conversation around the table picking back up as if it had never been interrupted at all.

"Is that really all?" Learco was the only one who's eyes were still locked onto Lance. The boy didn't even know what his dad meant and shrugged stiffly, turning his back to his family once more.

Only as he opened the door to step out into the night it wasn't to his front yard. As he took a step snow crunched beneath his feet.

Startled Lance spun. The door and his house were gone. White flakes drifted lazily down from the sky. Though he could see his breath crystallizing before him Lance felt no chill. The snow that blanketed the ground also seemed to dull the sense of urgency he'd felt mere moments ago.

"Are you even listening to me Lance?" He twisted around. Out of the darkness and flurry stepped someone Lance hadn't thought he'd ever see again.

"Keira?" He asked, disbelievingly. They had met over holiday. Lance, miserable in the cold Jackson winter, the rest of his family enjoying the ski lodge. The only thing at that time that had made it bearable… memorable even, had been this beautiful girl. Her eyes were so dark from beneath her coal straight fringe. Skin as pale as the snow that fell around them and she'd had a bright and contagious laugh. Lance had loved trying to get her to make that bell like sound, which was not an easy task. They'd had such a short time together, yet the boy still remembered her so clearly.

"Still roll down hills that you're supposed to snowboard Mr.' Wave rider?'" The way Keira teased had always been on the rougher side of things. Lance nodded mutely, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh yeah, you weren't the greatest teacher."

Her laughter rang out like a clear chime in the cold still air. They began to walk through the night. "what have you been up too?" Lance asked. She shrugged. Pulling words from her was about the same as getting the dark haired girl to giggle.

"What about you 'Leandro?'"

"Come on you know I prefer Lance!" The boy didn't answer her question however and the silence stretched on. He looked up. Clouds obscured the stars. A slow and building tension coiled in Lance. He was forgetting something important. He knew he was.

"Well? you gonna tell me or are you trying to charm me with silence and mystery for once."

It was his turn to shrug. He went to slip his hands into his pockets, a signature posture of his. But there were none and as his right hand passed over his thigh he heard a soft sound and felt a sudden weight against his palm

The blue bayard had materialized out of the paladin armor. Which he now wore.

"Lookin good Leandro." Keira snorted. "So you've been what, playin power rangers or something?"

Lance looked down at the item in his hand, it fit so perfectly there, as if it were meant for him. He wasn't even sure what it was. He could feel the memories struggling to make themselves known within him.

"I've been … fighting Zarkon…" He didn't care that the girl was outright laughing at him, for the strain that had been twisting inside of his chest reared up and morphed into a palpable dread.

"My friends… they're in danger! I have to get back to them! "Lance pivoted trying to figure out which direction he needed to go in.

"Calm down hermano, or you're going to have a conniption." Clara stood next to Keira now, wearing a flared skirt and a cropped halter. Apparently as immune to the snow as he was.

"*Where are you off too?*" Grandpa Vicente's voice sounded to the boy's right, but he couldn't spot the man anywhere around him. Other voices joined the older male's.

Lance covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.

"I have to get back," he shouted past the cacophony, "I have to save Pidge! And Hunk! And Allura! They all need me! Keith needs me!"

The silence descended so suddenly that it was almost like a weight and his head ached with the ringing emptiness that was left.

Only Keira was there still. She advanced towards Lance, who matched her steps backward. It didn't seem to matter because when he blinked she was suddenly before him in the dark. The snow had stopped falling and hung suspended in the air around them eerily. As if time itself had stopped.

"Keith…" The name dropped from her lips almost like a sickly sweet poison, followed by the rest of her words, settling into Lance. Almost as if it was a way to seal his fate. "Is that the boy you like?"

"Yeah!" Lance had answered without thought, but a moment later his heart seemed to have jumped up into his throat and he shook his head as a flush heated his olive cheeks. "I mean no! Well-like- okay he's a cool guy and we're teammates or whatever and I guess you could say that we're friends-" Lance couldn't meet Keira's dark gaze, could feel how it saw through all of his useless words. Only one still hung inside of him. 'like' was made of tensile. Was too weak to stand alone. Was too breakable to hang over his hear like it did now.

"Lance do you like me?"

He couldn't keep his deep blue gaze from snapping to meet hers with how blunt the question was. His own eyes were wide, their color warming to an ocean azure in confusion. "Of course I do! Or… or I did… I mean you-"

"The same way you like this Keith?"

Once more Lance found his tongue tied, a silence not like him at all expanding from the number of excuses, explanations, and denials that were trying to escape him. But they failed as the truth broke over him.

"Yes." He choked

Keira released Lance then and stepped back, her head tilted to the side. Lance wanted to bring her back to him. To attempt once more to drag his denials around him. As if he could lie to himself, insist that he'd been mistaken. He couldn't like Keith because he didn't like boys. But… even thinking that felt wrong, mind reeling with more memories. The girl drew him from them, but her next words were far from comforting.

"How are you going to face your family?" She breathed life into the core of his fears with this realization.

"I-I don't have time…" Lance was shaking. He could feel it, or perhaps it was everything else in his world that was trembling. "My team, they're in danger-" There was no safe place for his mind to turn too. But the need to make it back to the castle, to Voltron, outweighed this new revelation. In fact Lance was pretty sure he could just go back to sweet ignorance. He turned away from Keira, who was now as still and gray as a statue. But even as he moved Lance felt hands catching his sleeves, he flinched away from David's voice.

"Why are you leaving us?"

"Why are you hurting us like this?" His grandma Loretta's voice was next and Lance knew that if he turned to look she would be clutching her rosary tightly in her withered hand. No doubt praying for him. The boy wished he could do something, anything to stop their accusations. No longer sure if it was that he was leaving them or it was who it was he loved… that earned him this.

Loved? No. Lance hadn't meant for that word to cross his mind. Nor for Keith's visage to rise. But as soon as it had a sharp guilt twisted like a knife in his chest.

"If he really is the one maybe it's best that you don't come back." This last comment landed like a blow from his dad, and Lance didn't have time to try and gather himself before a rushing filled his ears, dragging up him up and away

Water was filling his eyes as he blinked rapidly. A too bright bluish glow surrounded him and Lance couldn't quite feel his limbs. Vaguely the boy could make out conversation, though the words made little sense to him.

"Winning what? The intergalactic time competition?" And even though the voice that replied sounded so irritated it was the best sound Lance had ever heard.

"Yes!" Oh he knew that voice… that was his best bud… someone who'd stay by his side no matter what… right?

Even more distantly came his own voice filling words that were surprisingly comprehensible, "you guys having a clock party or something?" They were slurred, though he wasn't sure if that was more in his own head or not.

The first sensation that made it past the strange numbness that encompassed his body was the warm squeeze of Hunk's arms circling his frame and lifting him.

Everything for the next…. However long (Time had become kind of strange) blurred together. Lance was only indistinctly aware of what was happening. Mind trying to reconcile too much information. But slowly it all began to come together. At least… at the start it was slow. But once the memories had been invoked, trickling back in as Team Voltron caught him up it was like a dam had broken. Every moment flooding clearly, though for a tick Lance struggled to separate the nightmarish scenes from his time in the healing pod and the equally nightmarish scenes of Sendak taking over the Castle. Sure Lance had been weak (he'd been practically blown up after all) he'd barely been able to move. But he'd still been mostly conscious, able to hear what was going on. Weaving in and out of awareness each time pain had flared across his body but unable to move or speak.

Lance kinda wished, in that sarcastic way of his, that he had been blown up. It would have been simpler. Ah well chance missed. Good thing he was in a war. He was sure another Galra would come around and do the job right. And in the meantime he'd fight to save the universe he supposed.

Lance blinked slowly, holding a spoonful of food goo out to the mice. He'd had to cover up the scowl that passed over his features. Holy crow that had been dark.

Instead of continuing that train of thought Lance tried to focus on the conversation at hand, only that was hard too. Because everyone was looking at him. A strange enough sensation on its own. Making sure that he was really okay and that the pod had done its job. Perhaps they were thinking that his head was still a bit scrambled, and that they should pop him back in. Honestly they wouldn't be wrong either. And if this was something that a quick nap in the cool unit would take away Lance would be all for it.

Feeling Keith's gaze upon him? Not normal. And of course the main problem with that was how hard of a time Lance was having not looking at the red paladin in return, lest their eyes catch and Keith somehow figured it out. Not focusing on him and nothing else. If the boy had a say he'd just let the rest of the world fall away from him while he did so.

And so all there was left to do to keep himself from that was feed the mice, make random comments while keeping his own blue eyed gaze dropped down.

As he listened and sifted through all of the information he came to a decision. It didn't matter if he had a crush on Keith. (Not saying that he even did of course! This wasn't an admission or anything!) Because he couldn't do anything about it. Before anything could come of this…. Maybe possibly probably being into guys and girls thing Lance had to tell his family. He had to know. Had to see with his own eyes what their reactions would be. For his family he could keep quiet. Yeah sure they were Catholic but… but his family was everything to him. If they really were against him loving Kei-

Lance had to cut off that thought process. No one was saying the L word! Or tying it to the other boy!

Anyway there were like a million other reasons why he couldn't say anything right?

There was Voltron! Something like this could totally wreck the tentative connection all of them had made thus far with each other. Which was precarious at best, without this adding to it. For the team Lance could keep quiet.

Regardless, even if Lance did tell Keith there's no telling what the hot headed pilot would do. Probably punch Lance square in his beautiful face. He was always annoyed with the Cuban, finding this out would just add disgust onto that…right?

There were just so many reasons Lance could even list off more! So many more…

That's right. Lance would just have to ignore this… whatever it was. Hope that it would go away and in the meantime he'd just go about things normally! As normal as this new life allowed at least.

Okay… so what would normal Lance do right now?

"Wow, thanks everybody! Sounds like the mice did more than you Keith." He kept his tone purposefully light, bright smile hitched up into place feeling more unnatural than ever before.

"I punched Sendak!" If Lance wasn't focusing so hard on acting 'normal' he might have found the tone of Keith's voice, more flustered than he'd ever heard, comical.

"Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off!" Lance shot back, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!" It was just him Lance knew, that heard that strange desperate edge to those words… right?

Lance's heart was pounding loudly and had hopped up into his throat. He thanked all the saints that he didn't blush that easily and tried hard to not recall how Keith's heat had felt even through their armor. "Nope! Don't remember. Didn't happen."