"What was important wasn't the fireworks, it was that we were

together this evening,

together in this place,

looking up into the sky at the same time."

-Banana Yoshimoto

Chapter 3 - Fireworks

Lance, Mateo and Marisa stood behind the fencing separating them from the black family bus when the adult called out his old friend's name. The woman from earlier answered by saying he wasn't allowed back there until a familiar voice called out behind the vehicle.

"It's okay Macey! I told him to!"

Macey looked sceptical but sighed, and allowed them through the metal gate, leading them around to where the voice originated.

Keith was sat on the steps leading to the bus's door, a first aid kit laid next to him which instantly turned Lance's smile into a concerned frown. Behind him, Olivia was stood against a kitchen top inside the home, sharing his same look of worry. Peggy was keeping her little sister busy inside but she'd look to her dad slightly scared and then back to the smaller one, trying not to worry her too.

"Marisa?" He looked to his daughter, "wait here and keep an eye on Mateo, yeah?"

She didn't ask why and just simply obliged, bringing out her fist to play 'rock, paper, scissors'.

Lance walked over carefully, raising his hand in a wave and squatting down to Keith's level, "hey, man. What happened?"

Olivia was the one to answer, "he burned his hand as he was taking the fire-hoop off stage."

"Yeah, but it's not that bad, Lance. Seriously, it's just a small blister. You're all over exaggerating." But Keith didn't make eye contact.

"Show me your hand, Keith."

"Why?"

"If it's not that bad, then prove it."

Keith hesitated but knew there was no way out of this really, "well, it's not as bad as it could have been."

Lance's shoulders untensed with a sigh. The burn was a large one, and yeah, it wouldn't even leave a faint scar after it healed, so it was manageable, but it also looked angry. It wasn't thick or seriously deep, just long as it reached from one end of his palm to the other. Well, it wasn't as terrifying as he's originally thought, at least.

"He's gonna be okay." Lance looked to Olivia and Peggy who was listening in from inside the bus. "Do you mind grabbing a bowl and a glass of cold water and some pain killers, Olivia? Oh, and a blanket?"

She nodded and picked herself up towards the right of the doorway.

Keith moved along on the step for Lance to take a seat once a few beats of silence rang past from the faint music of the festival. Sitting closer to the man, Lance could see how cold he was. Teeth chittering, lips faintly blue and the vapour leaking whenever he breathed. On the surface just above them was the fire dancer's t-shirt, so he pulled that off making it over Keith's arms and head, carefully trying to avoid agitating the burn. Lance looked behind him to see where Olivia was with that blanket. But she wasn't even in the kitchen.

"You think we can move inside?" He asked with an arm around the smaller man, trying to warm him up.

"There's no point. In there is just as cold as out here if that's you're getting at."

Lance sighed, shuffling to pull off his coat and drape it over the other's shoulders. A tsunami-sized shiver ran through him as soon as the frigid December air slapped his skin, but he could handle it. He still had his jumper and about three t-shirts underneath anyway.

"So,", Lance began, wrapping his arms around him once more- Keith just leaned into it. In all honesty, it's not like they hadn't done this before. Back in high school, it wasn't just out of the blue people thought they were dating. In their younger years, they had gotten up to a lot of gay stuff in the eyes of other people if you didn't know the boys' humour. But, like, no-homo though. "you burn like this much?"

Keith chuckled lightly, "no, not really. I think the last time I did something like this must have been at least… three years ago maybe?"

"Is that how you got that kick-ass scar on your face?"

Keith reached up in surprise to his right cheek as if only just remembering that was there, "oh, right. Nah, I did this when I was twenty-five. There was this gasoline spillage I had to clear up. I was running late for a show and didn't bother to change my shirt so some of it must have spilled on me or something because before I knew it, I was on fire. But that's the only one I've ever had to be hospitalised for so..."

They smiled at each other kindly, "well, it's still kick-ass anyway. You could scare off gangs with a mark like that."

This made Keith laugh heartily and as contagious as yawning, Lance was set off too.

Olivia came back with said items in hand and raised an amused eyebrow at her father.

"Thank you, Olivia." Lance said as he took the tablets, setting them into the slight gap between the two men's thighs. Keith put his hand in the water only wincing at how cold it was, even after the blanket was wrapped around him.

Lance giggled into his gloved fist, "you look like an Eskimo."

"You're the one who made me like this, Lance."

"And? You still look like one."

"Freak you." Keith attempted to swear, but the mass of children present, his dad-self couldn't bare the after-guilt that would plague him for the rest of the night.

"Freak you, too."

After ten minutes, Lance was satisfied with how long the burned hand had soaked and begun using the anti-septic wipes from the First Aid Kit to nurse the area, being thankful that no more blisters had formed with the small one at the start. Marisa and Mateo had made their way over near the beginning, being the restless two they were, and now sat in the bus with Peggy and her younger sister, of which Lance had learned her name, Sofia. They were currently playing a game of hang man, Marisa in the lead at present growing an instant liking to Peggy's competitive attitude. Olivia however, stayed with her father and this man she barely knew. Almost like she was watching over protectively, ready to hit Lance, should anything go wrong.

"When do you have your next show?" Lance looked at the two Kogane's and back to the gauze he was gently wrapping around the red hand.

"Not until New Year's Eve." Olivia peered over Lance's shoulder to get a better look on why her father was flinching ever so slightly. "Right, dad?"

"Yeah."

Lance hummed, "okay. Your hand should have healed in around a week so, try and resist using it as much as possible. Olivia, I'm putting you in charge because I know what your dad's like when it comes to being 'Mr. I-Can-Do-It-All-Without-You-Go-Away' Kogane."

Olivia chuckled and the other just pouted unamused, "yessir!", she saluted elbowing Keith teasingly.

"Make sure to keep it clean, change the dressing- yada, yada, yada. If you forget, there are loads of article's online about it."

Keith smiled warmly that even the cold nipping his tanned skin seemed to fade for a moment and for some reason, that sensation seemed to only dissipate from everywhere but his cheeks. "Thanks, Lance. I'm glad I bumped into you again."

His cheeks only grew warmer, "yeah, me too."

They gazed at each other for a long time, comfortable trapped in each other's eyes. It had been over sixteen years since Lance had taken a really good luck into those twilight irises, each fleck a new shade, some blanked out by the shadows or light depending where he was looking.

He'd missed his best friend, really. Lance'd think about him a little every now and then when something in his day would remind him of the black-clothed, hippo-loving, dark-humoured, lactose intolerant guy he'd grown up with through the hardest years of his younger life. But he'd just completely ridden off the map a few weeks after their last meeting at that café. And no one really knew why. When he'd tried to ring him one time, he'd changed his number and social media wasn't something Keith owned back in 2002. His dorm room too- an apartment somewhere in their childhood city- but that was only a guess, really. Pidge and Hunk couldn't keep up with him either, and they'd only ever really met Shiro a handful of times here and there so even he may as well have been non-existent too. He'd snooped around the Garrison campus a couple of times but always got kicked out because of their strict regulations. It got to the point where he'd follow students from the other's collage just to ask them if they knew him or had seen him anywhere. Most of the time he was bunked off, but only once did he actually get a decent answer, however it didn't really make any sense to him at the time. The snarky girl mentioned something along the lines of, 'yeah I know him. Well- used to. He was in my math last semester but moved up. Can't say I've seen him anywhere though.' She chuckled almost mockingly, 'probably on daddy-duty. Hmmf! Doesn't really have much time for anything else but that and studies these days.' Before Lance could ask what she had meant by 'daddy-duty', she'd ran off with the rest of her friends.

Being the dirty-minded teenager he was, he'd instantly put Keith's disappearance down to fucking some girl. And… he was mad. Really mad. He was so offended that the guy just ran off and left him behind because of some random fling! They were supposed to be best friends. And best friends didn't do that to each other. At least, not without talking. So after he'd gotten it stuck in his head that Keith no longer needed him around- he stopped looking. He gave up. And as much as it had pained him at the time, he forced himself to move on.

However, he'd look back on it years and years later when Marisa was first born and realised that the girl in the street probably meant that Keith was a dad. And for a few days after that, he'd felt nothing but guilt for not being there for him. Being a father at twenty-three was as daunting enough. But Keith would have been, what? Eighteen when he got the mother pregnant? Nineteen when the kid was born? For all he knew, the mother left him to take care of the baby all by himself (because Lance knew Keith, and that guy would never in a million years leave a kid to struggle after all he'd been through himself). Plus, Lance had a wife back then! He had his own house, a well-payed job and a family to fall back on if things got rough. Keith? Back then, he'd have had none of that other than Shiro but even then…

Then, Lance an overwhelming feeling of realisation made his brain hurt and he shot his gaze to Olivia.

"O-Olivia?"

She nodded.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen. Seventeen in June."

Olivia was Keith's child. That's why he left.

He whipped his gaze back to Keith. But he wasn't scared. Or ashamed. If anything, he looked sympathetic for Lance sat next to him.

"You… you were-"

"Eighteen? Yeah. That's why you never heard from me for sixteen years."

"But why? Why didn't you let us help you? Be there for you? We looked for you for months but you'd just completely disappeared. We-"

"I know this sounds really strange now but, I guess I was kinda embarrassed that I'd let it happen. I generally thought you guys would've yelled or teased or disowned me as a friend so instead of taking the risk that you'd shut me out, I shut myself out because it hurt less. Plus, I had to be there for Olivia and… and her mother… at the time. Even I don't understand my logic, even now. But by the time I realised how stupid I was being- it was too late to find you all again. But I'm happy now. That's all that matters."

Keith smiled warmly again and all Lance could do was smile back. He knew there was more to this story than he was letting on because he knew that when it came to revealing deep insecurities, Keith was a tough nut to crack. It took him three years of their tight friendship to find out about what it was like being in the system, the tales and where he had been. Lance knew Keith's mother and father were dead, but even to this day never knew why. But he was fine with the secrets because sometimes, you could only really trust yourself.

In Keith's head anyway.

"Papi!" Starting his body up right, Lance shot his gaze to inside the bus to Mateo bouncing his little legs on the spot and pointing to the window, "the fireworks are starting!"

The man on the speaker confirmed it as both the McClain's and Kogane's jostled their way from inside and around the bus to outside the front of the vehicle. The whole village erupted in a countdown from ten. Lance and everyone joining in on seven. By the time they reached one, the sky blossomed in storms of colour. Fiery sparks whipped through the night, smothering over the natural canvas of stars glistening from amongst the shadows. From his right, Mateo pulled on his sleeve, nudging his head towards a Keith with a shuddering Sofia giggling atop his head. So, as he climbed on, he noticed Keith spare a glance in his direction, a soft one. A look Lance would love to get used to.

Vermillion sieged the black under its vivid grasp and the same sparks lit up in the amethyst lagoon of the smaller man's eyes. Lance watched enticingly as the green fell to gold to red to blue and then to purple. He didn't even need to look at the sky, the display was sparking right there next to him, unbeknown to the one the eyes belonged to as he stared towards the sky like everyone else. However, unbeknown to Lance, that wasn't the case.

In fact, behind him, only a couple of steps away, two particular Kogane's and his own eldest daughter grinned far too devilishly to match heavenly scene playing out above.

Author's Note: Chapter out... it's mediocre I guess xD

Just to let you know, I'm planning out a Klance AU and I KNOW that I haven't been sticking to any work for like... well... I've NEVER finished a story...

*sweats nervously*
But this one, as well as the other I'm planning, I will try my absolute hardest to do so! My new years resolution is to finish a story completely, anyway!

It's going to be called, "If Birds Can Fly", and if you like Zombie Apocalypse AU's then I know you will like this too!

If you've ever watched Bird Box or read the book... well... it's going to be set in that Universe! A different story, just placed in the same time with the VLD characters!

Like I said, you like zombie's..? you're gonna LOVE this I swear! You don't even need any knowledge of Bird Box since you'd be learning with the characters!

Anyway... I'm babbling xD If you want to find out more, my name on Voltron Amino is 'L.E-Rae'! I have a group chat open and you can help me plan it out! The people on there are so joyous, kind and so helpful!

But, yeah. Leave a comment on what you thought of this chapter! I love hearing from you all!

-L.E-Rae _x_