The Monster in the Sky. Klance AU

Chapter 1: Home

Happy birthday Keef!!! To celebrate, here is a new book just for him :)

It was a dark, Tuesday afternoon and Lance was stood outside of a house he hadn't seen in at least a year. The door seemed to tower over him so, for the first time, Lance felt small in front of the home where he had lived in for half of his life. The only reason Lance actually knocked was because rain began spitting, dripping onto his face and eliciting a small smile to spread. It had been a while since he had seen rain and, though it might have seemed menial, it meant the world to him. A good author would have argued pathetic fallacy and warned Lance not to go inside but it was too late. He had knocked.

The seconds the door took to open seemed to dragged into hours, days, months even. Lance's hands were trembling so much that clenching them into fists didn't help calm them down. Before Lance could consider bailing, the door was thrown open.

For a second, Lance stared into the eyes of his brother. Lance could always remember his little brother having the kindest eyes and nothing had changed in the year he'd been gone. "Lance?" Luis questioned, swallowing back the lump in his throat. Tears gathered in his eyes and, as soon as it fully registered, Luis dived forward and tackled Lance into a hug. A sob escaped as Lance was able to bury his head into his brother's jacket, unable to fathom that he was back home. He was back home. He couldn't believe it.

"Oh, hijo..." Lance raised his head to look at his mum who had come to see who was at the door. "Am I dreaming? Are you really here?"

"Si, mamá. I'm here." He couldn't help a further sob as his mum joined the hug. Lance breathed in her vanilla scent, something that hadn't changed at all since he'd been in space. It had been so long but, finally, Lance felt like he was at home. He didn't even care that he hadn't entered the actual house yet: his family were enough of a home.

"You came home..." Lance could only nod as he didn't trust his voice. A lump was finding a home in his throat where even more sobs were trying to get out.

-

"So I found this blue lion, right? It was massive like..." Lance held out his arms to emphasise the size of the ship, though he was aware that it didn't give her justice. Blue would have been double the size of their small living room, if not triple. His parents looked a lot less excited than he had expected: they were staring at him with eyes that looked more sad than anything. He understood that he had been missing for a year which had been hard on him; let alone his family who hadn't had a clue where he'd been- but that didn't excuse their distraught expressions. Who wouldn't be impressed by lion-shaped spaceships? "It chose me to pilot it. Out of everyone on Earth. It took me out into space with some others from the Garrison. Do you remember Hunk?" At the name of Lance's best friend, his parents's faces softened but it only took a few seconds for them to harden again. "He was there. I also met these aliens- Allura," Both his parents noticed the way his energy faltered upon saying the name. They wondered if it had triggered the surfacing of a real memory but, soon enough, Lance's energy had returned. Little did they know, he was throwing on a mask he had recently grown used to putting on. "And Coran. They had these pointy ears like elves. Allura was the princess of this planet, Altea, and she was so beautiful. I have never seen anyone like her before... you should have seen her. I bet you would have loved her."

His mum turned to look at his dad, exchanging furrowed eyebrows with him. She shifted her hand forward to lay it on top of his son's larger one. "Lance..." She murmured, rubbing her thumb against his tanned skin. She smiled softly but her eyes were filled to the brim with a contrasting sadness. The only time Lance had seen so much pain in her was when his abuela had passed away a few years previous. As much as Lance wanted to, he didn't understand why she was so upset when he was there. He had come home. He was with them, alive and well, unlike his abuela had been. It was her next line that shattered his heart inside his chest, explaining why his mum was feeling like that but only making Lance feel more confused. "You can tell us what really happened, you know?" She didn't believe him. His own mother didn't trust him.