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Waking up to the blaring sound of his alarm once again, Lance groaned in annoyance. Rubbing his sleepy eyes with one hand, the other reached out to turn the loud sound off. Just like every single day for the last three years.

A knock sounded at Lance's door, just like it did every morning. "Come in, Ma." Lance said through a yawn.

"Morning, Honey!" His mother was way too enthusiastic in the mornings, but Lance was used to it. This happened every morning, every day, for the last three years. She placed a tray of food down for Lance on his bed side table and ruffled his hair before reminding him to eat up and get up soon. "Chores, no snores." As she said. Every day.

"Yep, got it." Replied Lance as she closed his door. Lance was twenty one now. Definitely too old for his mother to be treating him like this, but he supposed this is what happens when you live with your parents past the age of eighteen. They still treat you like a child, just with triple the responsibility.

Lance could move out, he has the money for a small apartment, and he's thought about it countless times. However, it's hard to bring yourself to move out of the comfort of your family home into a small, lonely, one bedroom apartment. Lance didn't like being alone. He detested it.

Honestly, ever since the paladins returned to Earth, Lance has been having nightmares. Really bad ones. You might think to yourself, well that must be normal, right? Taking into account everything that they had all been through in space, it would make sense. But for four years? Every night? The same few nightmares on repeat? At first the nightmares were just about Earth losing against the Galra, or that his family or friends would get hurt, normal things like that. But after the fight ended, after- she sacrificed herself, the nightmares were worse. Much worse. They felt more real, because Lance had experienced a loss.

When Lance turned eighteen, the second year after coming back to Earth, everything finally calmed down and was beginning to go back to normal. Or, well, whatever normal meant after getting invaded by aliens that got defeated by giant, colourful, robotic lions. This is when he decided to tell his parents about the nightmares. All of the paladins were put into therapy, twice a week, every week. For the first few weeks, everyone went and everything was fine, but then they all gradually stopped going. They all got too busy with their own lives, some of them even going back into space. Lance however, still attended. Every week. He got prescribed medication, which he was promised would help him, so he took it for a year until he realised it wasn't helping. He tried to tell his parents and doctor, but they just told him to be patient. "You went through a traumatic experience." They would say. "You lost someone you loved." They reminded him. "It just takes time." They would promise.

Lance doesn't really do patient, so he gave up and stopped taking the medication. Nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing. The same few nightmares still play every night on repeat. But he was used to them now. It's kind of hard not to be after four years of having them, so it's whatever. Depression was easier to deal with now, and what he went through started to become easier to forget. But sometimes, sometimes that's exactly what made him tick. Lance was starting to forget her, and he hated it.

For the first year, her voice was the only thing Lance could think about, playing in his mind like a song you so desperately want to forget but can't. Her smell lingered in the air like cheap perfume everywhere he went. Her face plastered on every wall in pay of respect, blinding him every time he left the house. It was a nightmare in itself, being reminded of her empty presence. But now, Lance was forgetting all of those things. And that's the biggest nightmare of all.

Lance quickly scoffed down his breakfast while scrolling through his phone. If you told him a few years ago that he would be sitting in his bed at twenty one, about to go do chores at his family home's farm, actually he would probably believe you. But if you mentioned it was after he saved the world from an alien invasion, well he would probably still believe you. But he'd definitely be disappointed. Just because he's always wanted to be a pilot doesn't mean he would ever get to be one. Hard to dream of becoming something when all you get is nightmares.

the end was only the beginning -klanceWhere stories live. Discover now