soaring through the christmas lights: klance

Chapter Two - Lance

My pillow is my best friend. That's how lonely it's been in my bedroom the last couple of days. He had been the only thing around that could give me some genuine comfort. He had let me cry on his sheets and never got annoyed with me for it. (If only it were like that with people.)

Duh-d-duh! Duh-d-d-duh-duh!

The ringing forced me to slowly lift my head from my fluffy friend. I gently rubbed my eyes while my hand scrambled to search for my phone. That annoying ringtone droned on and on for far longer than I would've liked. But right as I had finally grabbed it, my body slipped off the bed.

Apparently, I had left my phone up on the side table next to the bed. Thanks a lot, furniture placement. I groaned, gently rubbing my back and finally answered the phone call.

"Hello?" I asked, the phone up against my ear.

"Tio Lance!" Two familiar, high-pitched voices answered back. It was enough to bring a bright beam to my face, grinning from ear to ear.

"Nadia, Sylvio, hola!" I chuckled. "How's everything going?"

My niece and nephew giggled on their side of the line. "Pretty good! We miss you." Eight year old, Nadia, whispered wistfully.

"I know, I miss you too kiddo."

"When are you going to come back?" asked Nadia.

I bit my lip. "Um, la sobrina, no volveré." It broke my heart how it became quiet on their end, which was not something that was common for my sweet niece.

Suddenly, I overheard a loud "You two!" from my twin sister, Rachel, with them.

I just blinked, pulling the cell phone away from my ear. My eyes gazed upon the contact name, Womb Hog, which was Rachel's number. Oh no, they had stolen her phone again. But it made me laugh regardless.

There was a lot of shuffling for a bit, and it wasn't a fun thing to listen to, so I kept the phone away from my large ear for a moment.

"Hello, accident," Rachel said. A small smirk spread across my face like peanut butter.

"Hey, disappointment," I replied.

We laughed together. And for just the smallest moment, it felt as if I were there with her. The bright Veradero sun glowing onto her sun kissed skin, her long brunette locks draped down her back with a few stray hairs peeking out. Rachel was a beautiful woman. Although, I'm the pretty one of the two of us.

I cleared my throat. "They stole your phone again?"

"Of course, they took it while I was in the shower," Rach explained.

"How many times have I told you," I stated. "To not leave the bathroom door unlocked!"

Rachel grumbles and I can almost see very clearly that she's rolling her eyes. "I can't help it, you're not here to keep them occupied anymore."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed.

"They really miss you, especially Nadia," She remarked.

That broke my heart a bit. "How's she holding up with school?"

"She's doing okay, but Luis and Lisa are getting really concerned," Rachel explains, but there was some anxiety in her voice. My eyes started to water, and my hands began to shake. Which was making it hard to keep the phone to my ear.

Rachel continues. "I'm sorry that you couldn't afford getting a plane ticket this year, by the way."

"It really sucks," I admitted. "But there's only so much money I have and it's mostly spent on tuition." For the Garrison, the price for a single semester here was $10,000, and that isn't including the dorming cost.

She sighs. "Hopefully you'll be able to come during Spring Break. Te amo, hermanito."

"You're only older than me by two minutes!" I exclaimed, but there was a snicker from her. "But, te amo también hermana. Give everyone a hug for me."

"Will do," Rachel replies, before hanging up.

Another sad sigh slipped out as I laid back down on my bed.

The day that I first left for school is one that tends to replay in my mind a lot of the time. The comforting hugs, the tearful goodbyes, absolutely everything about it. But the part that I tend to remember the most clearly was Nadia's pleas for me not to go. She had grabbed onto the sleeve of my jacket and managed to keep a very strong grip onto it, despite that she was only six at the time. The tears from her dark indigo eyes were very real and her brown pigtails looked very uneven.

You see, the thing about Nadia is she's a very shy kid and has a rough time making friends. While she does have a couple really close ones, her best friend has always been me. I was the one who taught her how to pull her hair back into pigtails, willingly played dolls with her when her brother wouldn't, or even watching Frozen long after everyone else in the household was already sick of it. The two of us had a really special relationship, so it made sense that me moving to NYC for college was the hardest for her.

"Why did everything have to cost so much money!" I exclaimed loudly, causing the small room to echo. Holding my stuffed shark close, my eyes slowly closed.

There was a knock at the door. Why is there a knock at the door? And, why did it have to wake me up?

Begrudgingly, my legs carried me from the comfort of my bed and over to the door.

At the top of the door, there was a small, gold peephole (which had a Friends peephole frame surrounding it, but not the point) that allowed Ryan and I to look through in order to see who was at the door. We rarely used it, but this was a time that I was probably going to need it. After all, he and James had already left, along with my other friends, so who could it be? Since Ryan and I were both relatively tall, the peephole being at an average eye level meant that we had to crouch down.

Doing so, I got a glance at who was outside my dorm.

It was a guy that quite obviously does not go here. What the frick? (censored bc school laptop) The stranger had black hair, bored violet eyes, and seemed to have on a red, white and yellow striped crop jacket. I looked back at the window behind me. The snow was coming down pretty hard, as though the snowflakes were dancing in the air for the spectacle of showing off to the humans everywhere. Why was this guy not dressed warm enough for this weather? Well, may as well find out for myself.

Taking hold of the handle, the tall, painted white door opened slowly. The weirdo and I both started to take in the other's appearance, as if we were potentially thinking the exact same thing.

"Woah," I comment. "You have a mullet."

Mullet looked completely unamused. "And you have large ears, so what?" He says bluntly.

The audacity of this random person! He wakes me up from my self-pity nap, showing up with a mullet, and has the nerve to say that I have large ears?! Rude!

I glared daggers. "Listen here, Mullet, I don't know who you are or where you came from but now is not the time. So, if you have anything to say, say it now or I'm closing the door on you."

"Fine, I'll get right to the point, I'm Keith," He introduced himself. "and I'm here to help with you."

"With what?"

"To get home to your family," Keith answered.

A/N: Spanish Translations: La sobrina = niece, no volveré = I won't be coming back, Te amo, hermanito = I love you little brother, te amo también hermana = I love you too sister

Yes, I do plan on including a little more Spanish here since Lance's family plays a very large role in this story, as well as to learn some myself. Although, Keith calling Lance's ears large is actually one of the many running jokes between me and Brixie (a good friend of mine) in our roleplays so I thought I'd include it here. Also, Nadia is a precious child who we must protect!

~Autie