Chapter Text
“Looks like it might rain today,” the portly bus driver called back to his only passenger.
“Yea, looks like it,” Lance said, peering through the window at his side. Heavy grey clouds drifted through a cerulean sky. Trees swarmed past in blurs of green, some tall enough to brush the heavens with their branches.
“You said you were coming to visit Five Lion Ranch, right? Nice lady that owns it,” the driver smiled up into the rearview mirror, eager to make amicable conversation as most small town southerners are wont to do. “Are you family?”
“Mi madrina,” Lance answered. The driver didn’t seem to understand. “My godmother,” he explained. Lance’s mother and Allura had been close friends ever since they were young girls, and she’d been a part of their family for as long as Lance could remember. His mother had moved away from the small town of Azle, Texas when Lance was just starting his senior year of high school for work, while Allura had stayed to take over her late father’s ranch.
“Well, she’s a very fine young woman,” the driver reassured him. “That uncle of hers is a little odd, though. Eccentric some would say.”
Lance flipped through the album of family photos he kept on his phone. Laughing and smiling faces looked up at him from the screen and sent a pang of longing straight through his heart. He scrolled through photo after photo of his younger siblings pulling silly faces and smothering him with affection looking for one picture in particular. It was an older photo of his mother when she was his age. Beaming up at the camera and squinting in the sun, she sat in a field bursting with wild flowers, pressed shoulder to shoulder with another young girl that could only be Allura. He studied the photo closely as the buss rumbled on, rocking with each hump or hole that it rolled across. Even then she was very pretty, with wild white hair that tumbled over her shoulders like clouds and eyes that could rival the clearest summer sky.
The next photo was far more recent. It was the picture his godmother had sent him when she found out he was coming to stay for the summer. Allura was older now, her hair had grown longer and wilder, though her eyes were as young as ever. Years of hard work out in the sun had darkened her skin, which only made her features stand out further. Next to her stood a large boy that looked more like a bear, but with the friendliest face. Hunk was one of Lance’s best friends growing up, and he was excited to see his kind face again. On Allura’s other side was someone much shorter with a wild head of auburn hair that flipped out in either direction. Pidge’s eyes were partly obscured by the flash of the camera reflecting off of their glasses. Pidge didn’t seem to grow any taller in the three years Lance had been away.
They rode in silence for a while, Lance lost in thoughts of home and the driver nodding along to whatever was bouncing around in his head. Small towns faded in and out of focus, like islands in an endless sea of fields and trees. Once they drove past a large lake and the late afternoon sun glimmered off of it like the surface of a shattered mirror. Great patches of darkness slid across the water’s surface as if some giant creature swam beneath, but it was only the shadow of monstrous clouds. As the sun began to set they turned a darker grey, growing so large that they could hardly move without brushing one another, and so heavy that they seemed to touch the tops of trees.
Lance must have dozed off for a while, because when he awoke the sky outside was bleeding away. The last rays of sunlight were smothered by the thickening clouds, darkening everything beneath them.
“Now, when we get there I won’t be able to take you all the way up,” the driver called, keeping his eyes on the road. “I’ll be dropping you off right by the post office. Got someone coming to pick you up? If not, the ranch is just a short walk up the road a ways. Large iron gate that says Five Lion Ranch. Can’t miss it.”
Lance thanked the man. His eyes followed the white sign the swept by his window. Welcome to Azle was painted on it in large red letters and lit from below. He wondered whether or not Allura and his friends would be waiting for him.
By the time they pulled up next to the post office dusk had faded away and night was creeping in to take its place. Thunder roared ominously from the sky as the first fat drops of rain hit the bus’s windshield. Lance stood up, stretching as lightning struck overhead, blinding them both for a moment. “Good luck!” the driver called, closing the door behind Lance as he pulled his suitcase behind him. Thunder peeled through the sky once more as the bus rumbled away.
Lance looked around for any sign of his godmother, but there wasn’t any sign of anyone. Just my luck, he thought bitterly. He took shelter beneath the post office’s small awning. It was an old white brick building smaller than a house. The light inside was dark and a We’re Closed sign swung in the window. He dug in his pockets for his phone as the rain began to fall in earnest. He had planned to call his godmother, but when he pulled it out he found that its battery had died.
“What? Really?” he snapped, attempting to turn it on but to no avail. Angrily he shoved it back in his pocket and resolved to wait, either for Allura to arrive or the rain to stop. Whichever came first.
Patience, however, had never been Lance’s best virtue. After only minutes he found himself pacing. Each second seemed to take longer than the last, and the rain showed no sign of lessening. Waiting for what had felt like hours, and seeing no sign of rescue, Lance resolved to make the trek to Allura’s ranch on foot. Cursing under his breath and wrapping his jacket tightly around him, he shouldered his way out through sheets of cold, drenching rain.
“Just a ways down the road, right? How hard could it be to find this place?” Lance muttered to himself. There were no street lights, and the rain made it even harder to see. He managed to stumble along the dirt road now turned to mud by the sudden downpour. Slipping and sliding, Lance lost his footing more than once. He walked for what felt like forever, but there was no sign of Allura. Frustrated, he continued on, stumbling and cursing under his breath with every few steps. The rain only seemed to pelt him harder the longer it went on, beating against his face and dragging at his clothes. He squinted through the downpour and thought he could see the road widening. No, that wasn’t it…
“Oh come on!” he yelled in frustration as he got close enough to see that there was a fork in the road. Lance had no idea which way was right, and without his phone he couldn’t pull up a map. The split paths mirrored each other, both being equally dark and turned to mud. Without much thought, Lance chose the left path, trusting in his natural sense of direction.
He went back and forth between holding his suitcase up as some kind of umbrella and hauling it along behind him, pulling it free every few steps. There was still no sign of anyone. Dense undergrowth pressed closely to the sides of the road, rustling and waving as if alive. Once or twice Lance could’ve sworn he heard a branch snap somewhere off in the inky blackness. A cold ripple that wasn’t caused by rain went down his spine. He had the suspicious feeling he was being watched.
“Maybe this wasn’t the best idea,” he said to himself, alone in the dark on an unfamiliar road where who knows what could be stalking him. The fact that it was raining only made matters worse. Thunder rolled overhead and lightning streaked across the sky. Everything around him was lit for a moment. Light and shadow danced together for a split second, giving monstrous shapes and illuminated eyes to ordinary trees and plants. Lance could feel his pulse quickening, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Thunder peeled in the sky once more, farther off. It continued in a low drum, slowly growing louder. It wasn’t until headlights swept over him from the distance that Lance realized it wasn’t thunder, but an oncoming car.
Lance’s fear melted into relief as he waved the vehicle down. Allura must’ve been coming for him after all. He didn’t even care how cold and wet and miserable he was at the moment, he just wanted to go somewhere warm, preferably to bed.
The truck stopped a few feet in front of him, and Lance had to shield his eyes from the blaring lights. Lance made his way towards the driver’s door, scrambling and sliding in his haste.
“Yo, Allura! Coldn’t have come sooner? I’ve been wait—,” Lance’s happiness fled as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by sudden irritation. “Oh. It’s you.”
The driver’s window rolled down, and it wasn’t Allura at all. Dark eyes peered down at Lance from inside the truck. “What’re you doing out in a storm like this?” Keith’s calm voice drifted out through the rain.
“What’s it matter to you?” Lance snapped. Keith looked perplexed, as if he didn’t recognize Lance, which only made him angrier. Throughout their school years they’d always been competing, both in the classroom and at sports. Keith had always managed to surpass Lance in all of their endeavors.
“Want a ride or not?” Keith glared.
“I don’t need your help Keith. I’ll make it to Allura’s just fine on my own.” Lance made to turn away, but the wheels of his suitcase had gotten sucked into the mud.
“How do you know my name?” Keith asked. Lance could see his eyes glimmering darkly beneath the shadow cast by the tuft of hair that fell across his forehead.
“You seriously don’t remember me? Lance? From school?” he fumed. Keith continued to give him a silent, perplexed stare. “We were always competing! At everything!” With a final tug Lance managed to free his suitcase, stumbling back from the force of it. He tried to catch himself but the ground was slick and he fell.
“Oh, it’s you,” Keith said, eyeing Lance the way one would look at historical plagues or uninteresting headlines. Lance, gathering himself and what was left of his dignity, stood. He brushed off what mud he could and began trudging away in the opposite direction. “Allura doesn’t live down this road,” Keith called. Lance stopped, pressing a closed fist to his forehead.
“Just tell me how to get there then,” he called without looking back. Keith was silent. When Lance finally turned around he found that Keith wasn’t even looking at him at all, but instead up at the sky.
“Can’t. The road will be flooded by now. Besides, it’s too dark. Looks like your only option is to come with me.” Lance groaned loudly, and Keith’s eyes snapped back to his face. “Hey, I’m not too happy about it either. Or would you rather stay out here?”
Lance stood indignantly for a moment, weighing his options as rain continued to pull at his clothes and chilling his skin. Finally, and against his better judgement, he gave in. “Fine.” He made his way around to the passenger’s side of Keith’s truck, throwing open the door and chucking his suitcase in.
“Hey, watch it,” Keith said as Lance pulled himself into the cab. At least it was warm and dry inside, he thought.
Keith didn’t say another word to him as he put the truck into reverse, carefully turning it around and heading back up the dirt road. Lance avoided looking at him, focusing instead on the droplets of water that streaked against his window. As they rode on in tense, uncomfortable silence the clouds above parted for a brief moment. Water glistened like star light, each bead streaking against the window a shooting star in the light of the nearly full moon.