Hola mis amigos, cómo están?

I hope to add maybe a bit more action and confrontation and stuffs like that in this chapter, but we'll see. Wish me luck!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me no own VLD

The Shadow in His Eyes

Chapter 2: Second Day

Lance

The morning dawned, and to Lance it was an unfathomably beautiful sight. That, that right there, the calming hues of the sky gently fading into a soft pink, that was one of the biggest things he missed from Earth, It truly was all the little things, and sometimes they hit him all at once, shocking the breath out of him to the point that he wondered why he had ever left.

And as Lance rolled over on the cramped, rickety old bed that he had slept on, having arrived on such short notice (more like none at all), he was met with the sight of that reason. Keith's too long black hair was piled to the side, cascading like a little waterfall over his shoulder. The purple mark on the left side of his face was just barely visible in the dawn light, despite how much it contrasted with his pale skin, and it added another layer of intrigue to his appearance. Not that he needed it, though, because Lance found plenty of intrigue already. Like the way Keith's mouth hung just slightly open, and how he knew that Keith would deny any notion that he drooled in his sleep upon his waking. And that, after years of being alone, and more years of adjusting to having friends, to having a family again, Keith still couldn't shake the his habit of almost curling up like a cat in his sleep. Lance always teased him about it (because honestly, as if he wasn't already half space cat, this wasn't helping his case at all), but really, it was just so endearing. That, and so many other things.

Lance just couldn't comprehend how his family didn't see how good Keith was, how soft, how Lance saw him. The way they'd looked at him, like he was dangerous, like he was more disgusting than the scum on the bottom of their shoes, made Lance angry enough to do something he might regret. He only hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Groaning, Lance rolled out of bed, and stumbled a few steps to the nearby bathroom. When he returned Keith was sitting up in bed, blearily rubbing his face.

"Sorry, Keith, did I wake you?" Lance plopped down beside him on the bed, making the mattress jump a bit. Keith shook his head mutley and stood up, but Lance caught his arm before he could go anywhere.

"Hey, I know how my family treated you last night, and we're going to set this straight," Lance assured.

Keith looked down, furrowing his eyebrows and quickly looked back up, a firm set to his jaw but a caring glint to his eyes. "Okay," he agreed, "but you can't get mad at them, Lance." Lance opened his mouth to protest, but Keith continued. "I know you're not quick to anger, but I saw how you looked. Not many things press your buttons, but that did. I'm not unused to this kind of stuff, and I hope we can fix it, but I do not want you to damage your relationship with your family because of a misunderstanding over me."

Lance looked down, sighing. Keith was right. Keith was right, but it didn't mean Lance would have to like it too much. "It sucks that we can't actually tell them where we've been," Lance said glumly. "That would clear up a whole lot; they looked at us like we were criminals," he laughed bitterly.

"Well, if you think about it, we kinda are, in a sense!" Keith chuckled, referring to the fact that to the Galra Empire, they were at the top of the most wanted list. At that, Lance's bitter laugh turned into a genuine one, and so when Luis poked his head through the door to call them down to breakfast just a moment later, he was met with the sight of two men nearly rolling on the floor in laughter that had spiraled out of control much too quickly.

"Um," Luis piped up, "breakfast is ready, when you want to come down." He quickly retreated, and his footsteps could be heard receding down the stairs. Huh, that was a bit odd. Luis hadn't been nearly that, what was it, antsy, the night before, so what had changed?

When Lance and Keith arrived downstairs to have breakfast with the rest of the family, Lance could practically feel the tenseness in the air. Something was definitely going on.

"Morning, everybody!" he exclaimed with fake cheer. "Is something up?" he asked with feigned ignorance when no one answered his greeting. Mamá looked guilty, Veronica angry, Uncle James curious, and Marco nudged Abuela with his elbow. The lady in question's face was unreadable as she readied to speak, and Lance knew that something bad was coming.

"Lance, Keith, why don't you two sit down," she rasped. "We would like to talk with you about a few things."

Oh boy.

Mamá Camila McClain

Camila could only feel a sense of apprehension as Lance and Keith took their seats. Her mother was very blunt, to say the least, and she could see it in her eyes that some scathing remarks were probably going to escape those weathered lips. She could also see something ever so slightly hostile thinly veiled under Lance's expression.

She prayed that this wouldn't break something between them and Lance, just when they had gotten him back. But they had to know. They had to know where he was, and why he only came back now.

"Where have you been?" Abuela began.

"Abuela, you know we already said that we can't-"

"And why is that, hm?" Abuela quickly cut Lance off, a cutting edge to her voice. "What could you have been up to for five years that was so important that we thought you were dead, and so bad that you cannot tell us what happened?" Abuela paused to glare at Lance, daring him to respond. Lance, in turn, kept his mouth shut, but Camila thought she caught a trace of guilt in his eyes. Evidently Abuela caught that too, because she resumed digging with renewed vigor.

"Did you run away from the Garrison and become so ashamed that you didn't dare come back? Or maybe you're a criminal, on the run from the law?" Camila wanted to stop her at that, after all, how could her precious, lighthearted son be the kind of person that her mother suggested? However, she said nothing, and instead watched Lance. He seemed surprisingly calm, which would have been unnerving on its own, but at the moment Keith had the look about him of a wild lion lying in wait. It was not a reassuring image, and if Camila was honest with herself, it both scared and baffled her how her son came to fall in love with such a person.

Abuela's next dig at Lance seemed to mirror Camila's own observations.

"Not to mention this shady boy you brought along with you! Did he drag you into all of this?" she waved a finger threateningly. "My boy would never come home with such a- a diablo!" Abuela huffed.

Ah, Camila realized part of why Abuela was so angry. It was because of how much Lance had changed, and Keith was practically the living embodiment of it, and quite possibly the catalyst for that change. Camila herself hadn't decided what she thought about the Lance that had returned to them, or Keith, for that matter. And Abuela's violent musings did bring up some worries. Some very, very troubling worries.

It wasn't like Abuela was delusional, either. She had voiced what Camila, and probably everyone, had been thinking. Lance was different, in the way he looked, the way he acted, even the way he moved. There was a subtle weariness about him, and a lithe grace lying just beneath his usual happy bounce. And the way his eyes moved, surveying everything around him with a piercing stare like it was second nature, to say that was unnerving would be an understatement.

And Camila would be lying if she said Keith didn't make her feel uneasy. Maybe it was just because she didn't know him, but there was an aloof, almost foreign air about him at times. He was sharp, in both demeanor and appearance. He was the kind of person that you could see being a punk, or a troublemaker, or a criminal as Abuela had stated. The tattoo and scars didn't help, either.

The pointed mark of intense purple gave Keith's face a wild, feral quality in Camila's eyes. The pale scars that lined his arms and poked out from under the dark t-shirt he wore harkened to a life of violence, and Camila did not like that one bit.

She liked it even less that even though Lance still wore long sleeved shirt, she thought she could make out a few scars on his collarbone, and one at his wrist, the pale tissue starkly contrasting with his tanned skin.

This was not the life she had wanted for her son, whatever it had become in these recent years.

A few seconds of silence had passed since Abuela's accusation, and no one had dared to speak. However, Keith broke the silence, standing up stiffly and facing Abuela with a clenched jaw and balled fists.

"I swear, I did not drag Lance into anything, and at any rate, it was probably him who-"

A mechanical roar filled the house, as if a helicopter or plane was passing directly overhead and only ten feet above the house, shaking the floorboards and making the pictures clatter against the walls. It filled Camila's mind, and for all of two second the din was her unbearable reality. Then it passed.

"The hell was that?" James remarked, hunched and holding one hand to his ear.

"I'll go look," Veronica strode towards the door. She was stopped short when someone grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the door. Lance wasted no time in putting himself between all of them and the door, which only baffled Camila.

"Lance, what's wrong?" Camila asked, concerned. Lance looked at her for a long moment, and Camila could see him working out what to say, if anything. Camila only hoped that it would be the truth, and shed some light on the strange situation at hand.

A loud knock sounded on the door, and a gravelly voice called out.

"This is the authorities, please allow us to search your premises immediately!"

Lance snapped his head to face the family, and quickly pressed a finger to his lips. Despite their opposition only minutes ago, the entire family complied. Camila supposed they must have seen what she also saw in Lance's eyes.

Fear.

Veronica McClain-López

Veronica crept back into the kitchen as Lance gave them the signal to be silent. Just as she reached the kitchen, Keith padded past her, silent as a cat and… armed to the teeth with their kitchen knives?

Veronica exchanged looks with the rest of her family, and found that they were all varying degrees of angry, scared, nervous, and suspicious, just as she was. The only thought that ran through her head was that her baby brother really was on the run from the law, and they were all going to pay for it.

But something had seemed a little off about that officer's voice…

Veronica watched with bated breath as the two men moved towards the door with stealth and precision, and Keith passed Lance a few of his knives. They took up positions, Lance ready to yank the door open and Keith standing at the side, ready to attack whoever was on the other side of that door.

This was really happening, wasn't it? The situation felt so unreal, but Veronica knew it had to be.

Lance ticked off the seconds on his fingers.

Five.

Lance's hand hovered at the door.

Four.

Keith dropped into a fighting stance.

Three.

The officer pounded on the door again, shouting louder this time, more demanding, more hostile.

Two.

It felt like the house itself was holding its breath. Veronica didn't dare move a muscle.

One

Lance yanked the door open and before Veronica could blink, they were upon the huge figure in the doorway. She barely had time to register the sleek and cruel looking armor it wore, and even more strikingly its skin purple skin, before Keith roundhouse kicked it in the head. The force from the kick sent it stumbling into the house, and barely seconds passed before Keith had pinned it to the wall, all but one of his knives now stuck deep into the chinks of armor and what Veronica had to assume were important tendons, effectively immobilizing the soldier, and ripped the visored helmet off its head. Lance ducked outside for a moment and then returned inside, slamming the door shut and saying that they were safe. The "for now" went unspoken as he joined Keith in front of it.

Now, Veronica had labeled it as it because she just could not, in no uncertain terms, comprehend what this creature, however humanoid, was.

Its skin was dark, vivid purple, and it had a thin layering of fur of the same color. It was a towering hulk of a thing, maybe somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, but somehow Keith kept it pinned to the wall like it was nothing. When it opened its mouth to speak, it revealed wicked fangs. And its eyes, sickly yellow and glowing, devoid of irises and pupils alike, made Veronica shudder.

"Your actions are in direct opposition of the mighty Galra Empire," it sneered. "Cease your treasonous actions or risk the wrath of the Empire!" it ordered, despite its somewhat helpless position. When an answer was not given in what it apparently had deemed a reasonable amount of time, it began to speak again.

"You earthlings will feel the guns of the Empire, and no one will come to save you, not even V-"

It was not able to finish its statement before Keith slammed its head against the wall, and pressed a knife to its throat. His face was like thunder, the anger written all over his every action.

"How do you know that?" he hissed.

"What did you do?" the last question sounded much more like a threat, and somehow even more menacing than the first. And what was truly terrifying, to Veronica at least, was that it had come from Lance, standing at Keith's shoulder, glowering with bottled up rage.

The purple creature gulped in fear.

Oh man, that one got away from me.

Once that chapter started it just ran off without me. This may be the longest chapter I've written on this site so far! Hope you all enjoyed, please remember to follow, favorite, and give me a little good ol' feedback by reviewing. School's getting pretty crazy at this time of year, so I can't promise how timely I'll be with updating this. I'll try my best, though!

Lots of love!

~TheFullmetalSociopath