Keith looked around with wary. He knew this place. He had only beenhere a couple of month's when he was younger, but it was by far oneof his favorite foster families.

Miss. Clarson had been the nicest person alive. Not quite as awesomeas Hunk, to be honest but that by standard is impossible.

Her husband had been a gold smith and had shown Keith the one or theother trick with melting stuff. Maybe that's were his epiphany withmetal and knifes came from.

He would later visit a course that helped him release his stress andlearn to make swords. Ever since then he called himself aprofessional at deciding what knifes are actually good and which onesweren't.

Maybe Lance was right. He was a bit obsessed with swords.

Keith sighed, stressed and anxious of his situation. The hotchocolate was already getting cold, but Keith had never been a fan ofhot chocolate before, so -

The younger boy who had found him earlier was sitting in front ofhim, staring into his eyes as though he recognized him fromsomewhere.

Which, as a matter of fact, made absolute sense.

"You don't like chocolate?", he asked very seriously.

Keith shook his head slowly.

The boy exhaled a deep breath, empathy in his eyes. "Me neither.But it will keep you warm.

And Mrs. Clarson might get sad if you don't drink it."

Keith almost chuckled at the ridiculous tone in the boys voice. Theserious concern, the curiosity.

"Yes, you're right.", he sighed and took a sip. It was stillwarm and actually did sooth his stomach, but it tasted bitter.

He had completely forgotten how shitty Mrs. Clarson's hot chocolatewas. Hmm. Maybe it wasn't actually him disliking hot chocolate, butactually disliking Mrs. Clarson't sorry excuse for it.

By the way: Mrs. Clarson was actually also in the room, staring athim intently, even though friendly.

It was an intoxicating glance.

"May I ask who you are and what you were doing on the street?",she finally asked.

"Erm-", Keith hesitated. He had known where he was and what washappening the moment he had lied eyes upon himself in that ridiculousred jacket (let's face it, nobody has this emo kind of style, atthat age).

But he couldn't let them know that right? What if he messed up andruined the timeline?

(The fact that he had turned back in time had not surprised him asmuch as he would have expected it to. Maybe Slav had annoyed him toomuch with his theories on time and space.)

Also, he did remember this precise situation. But he couldn't recallwhat the familiar stranger had called himself. Was it Alonso? Healmost chuckled at the name idea. No, he would never call himselfthat.

"I'm – uh – Akira.", he said. Slowly. Only after he said it,the memory made him sure that that was indeed what the stranger hadcalled himself.

"I was just passing through town and uh -"

"By foot? And without a suitcase? Don't you have any belongings,my dear child? Are you living on the street?", she asked,incredulous by his answer.

Keith opened his mouth to answer, or rather, Akira did. Keith, theboy, interrupted them excitedly.

"I bet Akira is a superhero. Look at the scar in his face! I bethe's fighting evil witches and aliens and -"

Akira actually recoiled at that. How the hell was this child soaccurately guessing his weird life conditions?

"Don't be ridiculous, Keith. This boy is homeless, not a hero. Adelinquent perhaps -"

Akira flinched a little. He used to be, thank you very much.

Keith turned to her, as though he was personally insulted by herwords, which – he was, but he couldn't know that yet.

"Don't be mean, Mrs. Clarson. You can't know that.", he turnedto Akira expectantly.

Akira took a deep breath, as he tried to remember the stranger heused to hang out with. He remembered that he had been safe around himat all times.

He had been hanging out with him and this boy he had a crush on whenhe was younger and the strangers -

Akira's mind stopped. Memories flooded his mind, of a forest,flowers and butterflies and two grown men.

He looked at the child. The boy who was him. Akira said, kind ofembarrassed.

"I'm actually here with my boyfriend."

Mrs. Clarson looked up at him startled. "Your boyfriend?!", sheasked in disbelief.

Akira nodded slowly. Right, Mrs. Clarson was an old fashioned person.He remembered that. But she had always just frowned, when he hadmentioned his crush. She had never called him out on it and that wasbetter than what could have happened.

"Yes, erm..", he stopped himself.

"He – erm. He's visiting the family behind the forest.", hesaid. He couldn't say his name. What if Lance was actually here, butwas using a false name as well. But this was odd. If he rememberedcorrectly, the boyfriend of the Akira stranger had been visiting hisown family – so why?
His eyes widened.

"You mean at the McClain house?", she asked in confusion.

Akira stared at her and nodded slowly.

Because in this moment, he realized a couple of things. First of all,Lance was indeed here, if his memories weren't betraying him. Hewas visiting his family, which means that his family was living here.

Which means that the boy Keith used to have a crush on, who lived inthat very house, was a family member of Lance.

Maybe it was his brother? But they were the same age, weren't they?Did Lance have a twin brother?

You might wonder why Keith didn't see that Lance and Lance were thesame person.

But the answer is quite simple, actually. He will soon realize justhow much of an idiot he really was.

Though, admittedly, it was Lance's doing almost entirely.

 And I bet, some of you can guess why.