Down Memory Lane - Voltron

Chapter 3 - Hunk

/* Finally getting to the juicy part!  Hope you like it! TW: Bullying and death */

Hunk's POV

Hunk stumbles into the middle of the room, like someone or something had shoved him forward. He turns around to find out what had pushed him, but he sees his friends trapped against the wall behind an invisible partition. They are striving to break through to him, but he can't hear anything they are doing.

Hunk gazes around the rocky cavern, which is well-lit despite no obvious source of light It's spacious and there is only one exit aside from the one they came in. A sudden terror overcomes him. What if a bunch of monsters are about to come through that door and kill him because his friends can't help?

He runs to his friends, banging on the clear partition. Suddenly, the lights dim, making it hard to see what is happening. Hunk's heart ricochets around his chest and panic begins thrumming through his veins. He feels like he is in one of those cheap horror movies Pidge loves making them watch, where one of the characters gets separated from the others and is brutally murdered.

The hairs on Hunk's neck stand up. A solid figure elbows harshly past him into the center of the room. The figure came from nowhere but somehow Hunk can see them clearly. It's a boy with blonde curls and dark brown eyes. Liam. Hunk hasn't seen him in years; what is he doing here in a random space cavern?

"Watch where you're going fat boy," Liam says rudely when he turns around. A group of people, Liam's old posse, materialize behind him laughing raucously at what the boy said. Hunk is back in grade school.

"What're you looking at, fatty? Do I look like food to you?" the boy sneers, setting off a bout of snickers from his buddies.

Tears run down Hunk's cheeks as he is once again confronted that bully. Hunk runs away from Liam, from his posse. He hears the snickers and laughter quieting as he keeps running, running, running, until he is back home.

He sprints into the kitchen, where his mom and grandma are cooking dinner. Hunk hugs his mom tightly, sobbing into her chest as she hugs him back, startled.

"Honey, what's wrong?" she asks, running her fingers through his hair gently. He shakes his head; he doesn't want her to worry about him being bullied.

The scent of burning food and dark smoke arises from the oven. Hunk rushes to the oven, pulling on gloves to remove the burnt food before a fire starts. When the food is out of harm's way, Hunk turns back to his mother and grandmother.

Except, they aren't there. Hunk furrows his eyebrows, where did they go? They would not have left him alone while he was dealing with the burning food, would they?

"Hunk!?!" his mom's voice calls from the living room. "I smell something burning, what happened?"

She, followed by Grandma and his uncle and niece and nephew, enters the now-smoky kitchen.

She glances at the burnt food worriedly. Hunk follows her gaze. The ruined dinner looks a lot like that Thanksgiving dinner that he messed up all those years ago. Man, everyone was so upset and they ended up eating leftovers from a few nights before.

"Oh. You burnt dinner," his uncle says, disappointedly. Hunk's heart sinks in his chest. Why did he think the incident was years ago; it's happening right now. A strong feeling of deja-vu sweeps over him; he must have dreamt that this would happen.

"I'm sorry for ruining Thanksgiving, guys. I thought I could handle it, but I guess not," Hunk whimpers.

"It's ok. Why don't you go throw this away? Grandma and I will start warming up those leftovers," his mom says quietly. Hunk carries the ruined food, pot and all, to the back door. A line of disappointed family members watches silently as he walks through the hall.