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.

"That... That is what happened, mamá..." The way Lance's voice cracked when referring to his mum elicited a sharp, intake of breath from both of his parents. They were looking at him as if he hadn't just spent a year in space but had, instead, been through something much more terrifying and traumatic. He hated it. His parents were supposed to joke around with him and spread smiles like a beautiful disease, not look at him as if he was made out of glass.

His mum shook her head, blinking enough to make it obvious she was fighting tears. Somehow, her frown got even deeper. "Hijo... you've been missing for over a year. The police thought you had been kidnapped. There is no way you went to space all that time..."

"I did."

"Then where are you friends?"

"Well," Lance's next words were rushed; full of desperation. He leaned forward and scrunched his face up with clenched fists at his sides, hoping his words would actually get to his parents and not go right over their heads. "Keith had to help the Blade of Mamora," At the mention of something else she hadn't heard of, Lance's mum turned her head to hide her tears from her son. He still saw. "Hunk and Pidge stayed to help Coran build another Castle and Shiro stayed with them because they were going to build him a new prosthetic arm." Lance was prepared to talk for days about his new friends but his parents couldn't tear their minds away from the idea that something wasn't quite right with Lance. He wasn't the same boy that had gone missing over a year ago.

"Come here, hijo... Come here..." Lance didn't say anything as he catapulted forwards into his mother's arms. He buried his head into her neck, breathing in the scent that never failed to comfort him. He felt like he was a baby again and he was in the world that was his loving mother's arms. "We missed you so much."

"I missed you too, mamá."

-

As much as Lance loved food, he never thought he would appreciate his kitchen so much. The sight of the toaster alone was enough to elicit an excited squeal from him. He had raced forward and pressed his hands against the plastic, the thought of toast making his stomach rumble. Space food wasn't his favourite thing in the universe, though it was definitely interesting. It was nothing compared to a piece of toast, toasted to perfection (almost burnt) with the right amount of butter on it. Lance was trying to tempt himself out of putting some bread in the appliance when his dad called him into the living room.

He tore his gaze away from the toaster to walk the few metres to the living room. "Is everything okay?" He asked, leaning all of his body weight against the doorway. His confident body language faltered once he realised his parents were refusing to meet his gaze. The room was also filled to the brim with tension as thick as syrup, restricting Lance's ability to relax and move freely. Just before Lance could flee to the safety of his bedroom, his mum spoke up.

"Hijo, we spoke to the police."

Lance's mouth dropped open and his eyebrows flew to the roof. "The police?" He couldn't wrap his head around the situation. His parents were meant to trust him. They weren't meant to accuse him of lying to the point that they had to get the police involved.

"You went missing for a year and they were investigating your disappearance. They need to talk to you and take a statement."

Like a fish, Lance let his mouth open and close multiple times, at a complete loss for words. What were you meant to say when your parents thought something terrible had happened to you and were wrong? What were you meant to do when they got the police involved? "But... But I'm home now mamá... I'm okay and- and it's not like I was kidnapped or hurt in any way."

His mum stood up, eyes glossing over with tears. Lance had never seen her cry so much; not even when they had lost his abuela. She wrapped an arm around Lance's lanky frame and, if Lance hadn't missed his mum's touch so much, he would have shaken her off. "You- You said you were abducted by aliens. They don't exist, honey. Something happened to you and we need to get to the bottom of exactly what."

"You don't believe me."

"Lance-"

Finally, Lance gathered the strength to push her away. He backed up and shook his head in disbelief, so much that it almost made him lightheaded. "You don't believe me. I wasn't kidnapped or whatever you think happened to me!" With each sentence, Lance backed up further. He wanted as much distance between him and his parents as possible; especially when they had a net total of zero amount of faith in him. They had at least pretended to believe him when he was a little boy, terrified of the monster underneath his bed. Now the monsters were in the sky, they suddenly didn't believe a word that came out of his mouth. "I'm fine! I'm as mentally stable as I was before I left and I didn't make any of this shit up!"

It was his dad's turn to speak up. Lance's mum had turned her head as tears collected in her eyes, rendering her unable to speak. "Lance, just talk to the police. Tell them exactly what happened, okay? That's all we're asking you to do."

"No." Lance dropped his gaze to his feet. Both of his parents hyper-focused on Lance's hands as they formed loose fists. "I'm not telling them anything."

"Why? You must understand how serious this is... those kids you were with, they're still missing. Hunk is still missing. If you can tell the police anything that might help them find them and bring them back to their hurting families, you need to tell them."

"We went to space. That's where they are."

"If you want to tell that to Hunk's family then go ahead. I doubt they're going to believe you either. We know you think that happened but it can't have."

"It did happen!"

"Lance, we aren't going to judge you. We just want to make sure you're okay after whatever happened. If someone threatened you into silence or-"

"I'm not speaking to the police." With that, Lance let his shoulders drop in exhaustion before he rushed out of the room. He skipped every other step and nearly threw himself up the stairs multiple times but he didn't care.

He just about heard his dad yell, "You-" before he slammed his bedroom door to drown the rest of the sentence out.

Oh, just so you know, I haven't actually finished editing this book yet so the next part might be posted in awhile. I usually like to finish things completely before posting them so I can stick to a schedule but it's Keith's birthday... how can I not post today?