MamaBear: I still think you should drop out
MamaBear: lance
MamaBear: things are going to end badly if you continue at the garrison
MamaBear: mark my words
MamaBear: don't ignore me
MamaBear: I am your mother
MamaBear: RESPOND YOUR TEXT MESSAGES NOW
MamaBear: …
MamaBear: Lance?
Hunk was worried.
Sure, he worried about a lot of things, like the newest piece of homework that Professor Montgomery set not being up to her standard, something that was very hard to reach, or the upcoming simulations that was supposed to act life like. While he was one of the top students in his classes, he got travel sick easily, so he didn't think he was that desirable for a team member. Not only that, he also didn't know who was going to be on their team, meaning that he didn't know if he'll get along with them. Okay, sure, he did get along with everyone somehow, Lance was very proud of that fact and would tell him all the time, but what if they didn't like him or something? What if they hated him? Hated him for being too sick to fix anything that broke, or being too chatty when they were trying to concentrate.
Those were not the things that currently worried him.
Nowadays, it was Lance he worried about the most.
Lance was everything Hunk could have wished for in a friend, as, for some reason, he was able to read him in a way that nobody else could, always knowing what he was feeling before Hunk even knew what he was feeling. He made it as if they had been friends since childhood, able to calm his anxieties like it was nothing and able to keep a steady conversation between them with no effort needed. Not only that, but he supported him with his studies, happy to help him with the flashcards even if he doesn't know what the hell Hunk had written, he listen to his long-winded rants about the Garrison's awful food.
Hunk considered himself lucky to be able to call Lance McClain his very first best friend.
But after the holidays, after hearing about the Kerberos crash, Lance had been acting… off? Like, he still did everything that he did before the holidays, he still listen to his rants and helped him with his flashcards and somehow knew when his thoughts were getting the best of him, except, sometimes when he was in lesson he would stare into space, as if he was listening to a voice that wasn't there, or when his phone would buzz too many times in a minute, he would look up from studying on his bed to look at it on his bedside table with a look of mourning, but not as in a 'someone died' kinda way but more in a 'they don't get me' kinda way, and ignore the notifications, despite wanting a reason to stop reading the very dry flier manuals.
Hunk already knew there was tension between Lance and his family, it was already there before the winter holidays. Lance had admitted one night while eating some stolen food from the cafeteria that most of his family didn't want him to even go to the Galaxy Garrison, and not because of the cost, since Lance was one of the lucky people on a full scholarship, nor because of the distance, because Hunk had been told many a story of his older sister (Caitlyn?) who was studying history in Oxford, and England was further away from Cuba than Arizona was, but rather because what it stood for.
Hunk didn't really get it at the time, but he nodded his head and supported his friend nonetheless.
After the Kerberos failure, Hunk understood it, not fully, but just a little bit more.
After all, his own family were concerned about sending him back, and it was only until after he convinced them that he didn't really want to go to space, but just make the things that sent people to space and make sure that things like the crash wouldn't happen, did they relent and let him go back to the Garrison. For others, he had heard, it had been harder to convince their families, resulting in them dropping out of the program altogether. Then there where those who were still on the program, some of them were the ones that were cocky, thinking that they could be better than those on the Kerberos mission, those who thought, had they been their instead of Captain Shirogane, the mission would have been a success. There were some who protested against that view, saying that he couldn't have crashed it, that it must have been something to do with the hardware, or the software, and how it could not have anything to do with the hero pilot that was Captain Shirogane Takashi.
Everyone had something to say about the crash.
Everyone except Lance, that was.
Every time the subject was brought up, Lance was able to artfully dodge the questions that asked for his opinions, speak empty comments about it that gave away nothing about what he really felt towards the crash, only telling the other person facts that everyone already knew about the crash, but perhaps in a different wording that made them think that what they got an opinion from him.
It was as if he was hiding something behind his flirting persona and his dazzling smile, which worried Hunk, as Lance couldn't lie to save his life, at least, not to Hunk at least (though that was a story for another time).
It made Hunk feel uneasy with the idea that Lance was hiding something from him, which then just made him angry that he even considered that because who was he to demand every one of Lance's secrets? Just because he liked to overshare when he was comfortable with someone (sometimes he doesn't need to be that comfortable with someone, just in a very stressful situation) don't mean that Lance needs to share the same.
But, it would be nice to know what was on his best friend's mind sometimes.
"Hunk, I'm back from my mission to find more material for my fighter pilot classes," At this, Hunk raised his head from its resting position on the pile of books that he was currently loaning from the library to stare at Lance enter their shared room with a small pile of flight manuals in his arms, his head just barely visible over the books, "and you'll never guess what I found out from Ryan, who was told by Bryony, who apparently said that Shantell got a text from Becky saying that saw a girl be kicked out of Iverson's office." Hunk frowned as he sat up, his attention onto the only other person.
"Wait, what?" Lance broke into a wide grin, knowing that he has caught Hunk's interest, his work now laid forgotten on the bed.
"I know right! Apparently, the girl doesn't even come here!" Lance exclaimed as he slammed his books down onto his desk, a large thud echoing in the small room, and quickly sits down so he can start to flick through them. "Which means that she came all this way from proper civilization to break into Iverson's office, which seems like too much effort if you ask me, and according to Andy, Andrew Robertson from Physics that is, not Patterson, who, did you know, is currently cheating on Brooklyn for Hermione, and… What was I saying? Oh yeah, Andy was there at the time that Ryan was telling me about the weird girl and he thinks that she's a conspiracy theorist that believes that the Garrison was hiding something about the crash, but then Ryan butted in saying that the Garrison wouldn't hide anything, the god damn brownnoser that he is- Quiznek!" The other boy shouted as he started to hold his right hand, a small trail of blood leaving his index finger.
Ah the curse of paper cuts.
"You okay?" Hunk asked as he watched Lance nod and started to suck his finger. He sighed, but then frowned.
"What kind of word is 'quiznek'?" Hunk asked, saying the word slowly, confused of how comfortable it felt in his mouth, as if the alien word was supposed to be part of his vocabulary. Lance had a look of panic flash over his friend, only to face his friend and smile, well, as much as he could smile with a bleeding finger in his mouth.
"It's um, it's a word that me and my sisters made up because, err, we aren't allowed to swear unless we wanted the taste of washing up liquid in our mouth for a month." He said, his smile not leaving his face as he removed his finger from his mouth, the blood and the cut suspiciously missing from his index finger.
Like Hunk said earlier, his very first best friend just so happened to be a very, very bad liar.
MamaBear: are you coming back for the easter break?
MamaBear: no
MamaBear: you ARE coming back for the easter break
MamaBear: Lance
MamaBear: Lance Jackson McClain
MamaBear: You better respond to these texts right now before I demand the Garrison to send you home immedently
MamaBear: *immediately
MamaBear: …
MamaBear: please lance
Paulyne sighed as she stretched her arms over her head, her skin an unnatural light purple, her nails looking more claws and her eyes bright yellow, her legs jittery as she sat at Denise's dressing table and stared at the mirror in front of her.
She wanted a bit more fur on her arms and proper ears poking out of her purple hair, all tied up in a loose bun on the back of her neck, but she did manage to hide her markings, so this was probably the closest she was going to get to looking like a Galra, until she figured out how their bloody ears worked that is.
And she thought human ears were hard.
Maybe she just needed a live specimen in front of her to copy.
Did that half-breed have Galra ears?
A knock at the door made her jump, but the growl at the bottom of her throat was enough to sooth her mood, happy with the knowledge that she had at least got the proper vocal cords for a Galra, which should make up for the ears, at least a little. The door opened to see a very confused and slightly scared Skye, eyes as wide as dinner plates and jaw resting on the floor.
"What the fuck?!" She exclaimed, only to hurriedly cover her mouth at the swear. Ugh. Paulyne hung her head at the action. What was she going to do, grass her up? She wasn't like that.
Sometimes.
"Just practicing, as I'm in between projects at the moment." She stated, nodding her head towards the bright pink mouse that was sleeping in its cage, a blue one nibbling on some cheese she had fed it and two smaller dark purple ones chasing each other. It had taken her an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to change the genetic code enough for it to mix so that the off spring would be a mix of both, but Denice was able to nudge her in the right direction one day after her shift. Next on her list was to get it so their core colour would show on their fur like their scales, but she wanted at least a break from it first, then she needed to buy some more mice.
She didn't want to experiment on them to the point that they were subconsciously connected, something that Mama experienced when Paulyne was about 7.
The mice died about two weeks later, much to Mama's relief and baby Catharyne's horror.
"Okay. You look weird, are you sure you're not looking for a way to get away with killing humans?" Skye asked innocently, smiling, and tilting her thought at the idea of her committing mass homicide.
Paulyne didn't know what was so funny about it.
"Don't give me ideas squirt. What do you want?" The smile fell from her youngest sister's face, the humour gone from the air, and for a moment, Paulyne wondered if Skye was able to change of the atmosphere through her quintessence.
Though, knowing that she was still struggling to enter her mindscape after a solid month of trying made her think otherwise.
"Mama's crying again." She stated. "She's not getting any texts from Lance. She thinks that Lance isn't coming home, but he has to come home, right?"
Oh, shit now she was crying.
"No, probably not knowing him." She sighed looking back at the mirror to have a closer look at her eyes to see any flaws, only to realise what she said a few seconds too late, just in time to hear a chocking sob and the slam of the door.
Denice was going to have her head when she got in.
Well, it wasn't like she was lying.
MamaBear: why aren't you responding
MamaBear: lance
MamaBear: please come home
MamaBear: I don't want someone else to leave
(Seen 19:38)