Gemini, Letters to the Sky (ONC Entry - Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic)

Cooks in the Kitchen

Cooking – one of her least favorite activities...

Rachel found herself heading into the kitchen in a mood she'd definitely describe as irritated, but not long after Lisa insisted on her helping, they were ambushed by her nephew and niece along with the young teen. Both hurtled over, smiles on their faces. Nadia smiled up at her. "Aunt Ray-Ray, is Uncle Lance coming home soon?"

"Yeah, is Lance coming home?"

"Not any time soon."

"Perhaps never, given the fact he's fighting in a war," Rachel thought, watching her sister-in-law respond to the children with such ease.

"However, we did bring home a guest who will be staying with us."

"A guest?" The girl who watched the girls perked up slightly. "Who?"

"Hmm, you'll meet him at dinner."

Rachel's eyes blinked. "Wait."

"That was part of our agreement for her to watch the children."

"I wasn't aware of that."

"We weren't trying to leave you out of the loophole. We honestly weren't."

"And madre knew this?"

"Well, yes."

Rachel let out a sigh, loving her mother while finding herself quite frustrated with her at the same time. She glanced at the girl, taking in who their family selected to babysit her younger siblings this time around. The girl was also from a Hispanic family, although not Cuban. In the back of her mind, she didn't remember where, as the girl was, in fact, a year younger than Lance, so not within her own social circle. She'd not thought to really remember her name either. "Sorry, but I forgot your name."

Savannah Velazquez-Ruiz."

She still couldn't place the girl. "If I remember, you're a year below Lance in school, right?"

The girl shook her head. "I wasn't friends with him."

"That's not what I actually asked."

"It was what you really wanted to know, right?" The girl looked at the floor. "Look, I'd rather not get into it. I mean, your brother is missing after all."

Again, she felt guilty, yet she honestly didn't know the girl, being that she was a Freshman when she was a Senior. In the back of her mind, she kept telling herself the obvious answer was that Lance ended up going to a different school for middle school and high school, meaning they weren't friends because they didn't attend school together, yet Savannah still felt the need to emphasize the fact she wasn't friends with Lance.

She headed into the kitchen with her sister-in-law, not looking forward to the task of cooking. Lisa, of course, set her up cutting vegetables, a majorly boring task in her opinion, although they'd not started in. "Let's see, I think papas rellenas and croquetas. If there are leftovers, we can use them for lunches, particularly a Cubano. We'll follow up with fricase de pollo. We'll finish with arroz con leche. What do you think?"

Rachel simply stared at her, open-mouthed and baffled, given the fact she honestly knew absolutely nothing about cooking, although everything seemed nice, yet a lot of hard work. "Are you sure?"

"Why not," Lisa started into the food. Rachel watched, unsure of how her sister-in-law kept track of everything as she cooked. She barely managed cooking one thing at a time, and instead always followed the lead of the other women in the house. The fact she couldn't do anything but follow – that was a likely reason why she never liked cooking. "Isn't he a special friend?"

"You'd better not be implying that he's my boyfriend."

"But how do you specifically feel about him?"

"I don't know. I mean, I've enjoyed our conversations as we penpaled, but this is the first time we've met face to face. That's not much to go by, is it?"

"No, but he does seem smitten by you despite the fact the two of you have never met. It may be the reason he caught contact."

"Because, what? He has a crush on me? He didn't contact me because he was ashamed of how he treated his twin brother, yet he didn't know. He could have talked to me about that, right? And about his music career. I mean, he talked to me about his family, and farming, and so many, many other things."

"My point is, maybe he held back on those things because he felt they would negatively affect your relationship."

"It wouldn't." Rachel shook her head.

"But he doesn't know that. He does care what you think."

Rachel let out a sigh, wishing she didn't have the feeling in her gut that Lisa was right. Up until now, she'd thought of him as her penpal, yet now things were different. They'd met face to face, not to mention they'd not spoken in some time. Taking a deep breath, she helped Lisa prepare the food. Some of the preparation was in fact finished already, almost as if they'd planned for if they had an extra person at the table, which was when it hit hard – the reason they had an extra spot was because her mother and Lisa hoped Lance would be coming home tonight. Her eyes narrowed. "Lisa..."

"Cee."

"You and madre weren't planning on hooking Lance up with the girl who was watching Nadia and Sylvio were you?" She watched Lisa's facial features twist.

"Of course not. He needs to learn to treat a woman with respect before he starts dating anyone of the opposite."

"I'm not sure mother would agree with you."

"Perhaps it is more of a hope on her part he'll mature into a young man who is ready to be dating more than anything. I mean, it has been a year since he disappeared."

"Then there is a chance she did intend to hook them up."

"No. Well, she might have contemplated it if she saw Lance matured, though to be honest, he has a habit of taking one step forward and two back."

"I see." Rachel looked at the counter where the first dish was ready to come off.

"You on the other hand – you are ready for dating seriously."

"Ryo's not someone I want to mess my friendship up with."

"Well, I thought the same thing in regard to Mario. If the opportunity comes, don't let it slip by.