Home

by Geekery

Summary:

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6! The team finally gets to go home! Yay! But what if not everything is the way they remember it when they get back, especially for one "just a boy from Cuba".

Notes:

I have not been in love with something enough to write something for as much as I am in love with Voltron and my little cuban boy Lance till now. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Lance wasn’t easily excited. Well that was a lie.

But he was excited. Like super excited. And he was making sure everyone knew.

Well everyone already knew and Pidge and Keith were more than tired of hearing about it.

Without the castle, Allura couldn’t wormhole them closer to Earth, so they had been flying for days with Lance getting more excited the closer they got.

“And you guys have to taste my mom’s fricase de pollo. My mom always makes it because there are so many of us. And she adds something to it that even Hunk hasn’t figured out yet!”

Hunk makes an affirmative noise but doesn’t say anything beyond that. He’s happy his friend is so happy. Keith lets him babble on, rolling his eyes and turning his comms off to converse amongst Shiro and Krolia. Allura also has her comms off, talking amongst the other two alteans. That left Pidge, who, though excited to be going home to her family again, was getting annoyed by the constant noise coming out of Lance’s mouth.

“And then I have to show you sun rises on Varadero Beach. And then..”

“Lance! Can we please just fly in silence?!”

Lance flinched at her tone. “..Oh. Sorry. I’m just getting excited.” He slumped in his chair.

Hunk finally spoke up. “Aww we know, bud. We are all excited too. This is just a very long road trip… Space trip? Or flying trip?”

“No, I know.” Lance went quiet.

Hunk frowned. He quickly switched his comms to private between him and Pidge. “Hey Pidge. He was just excited. There was no need to go off like that.”

Pidge sighed. “I know. I am just getting anxious about being back. It will be completely different, you know. We are completely different people than when we left.”

“Yeah but we are still friends. And because we are different, we have to be there for each other, especially when we get to Earth. Re-entering our society will be really hard.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Pidge switched her comms back. “Hey Lance, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go off like that. I’m just anxious. You fit in better with people back home than I did.”

“No you’re fine, Pidge. I have been babbling a lot. And don’t be scared. Just think about how your mom will react when she sees you.”

Pidge laughed. “I’m pretty sure she might put me under house arrest so that I can’t run away again.”

Lance smile grew across his face. “I can’t imagine that you would stay that way for long. You can hack your way out of anything.” Pidge grinned. “And hey, by the way, did anyone get in contact with Matt to let him know we were heading back?”

“Yes! Of course I didn’t forget Matt! I messaged him right after we took off. He should be arriving about the same time as us if we don’t meet him along the way.”

Hunk smiled while listening to his two best friends talk. He would do anything for these two. “Hey Lance, do you think your mom will tell me the secret to that stew?”

Lance laughed loudly, bringing the black and blue paladins out of their conversations. “Hunk, I doubt she will ever tell anyone her secret. She will take her recipe to her grave most likely. If you ask, she might just tell you that it’s ‘love’ again.”

“What are you all talking about?” Allura asked, smiling at the excitement in the other paladins voices.

“Lance’s mom makes this incredible stew and she won’t share her recipe with me! Allura, you will love Lance’s mom! She is an incredible chef and just a wonderful person in general, kind of like Lance.”

Lance blushed but smiled, thinking of his mom and how hard he was going to hug her when he got home.

Keith broke in to the conversation. “We should be arriving in a few dobashes. Get focused. We are heading straight to the garrison. After we deal with business there and meet up with Sam Holt, then you may go see your families.”

Earth was in view and now it wasn’t just Lance excited. The whole team was feeling the anticipation.

—————

Landing in the-middle-of-nowhere Texas was simple. Keith sent out a signal to let Sam Holt and the Garrison know they were landing and not to shoot at them.

There was a welcome party waiting for them.

Well, not exactly. The Garrison obviously took precautions and had a lot of their military there. You know, just in case.

Sam Holt was the most welcoming, running to his daughter who was literally flying out of her lion.

“Welcome home, Katie! And welcome back to Earth everyone.”

The other paladins and Voltron crew stepped out into the sunlight. Lance tentatively stood at his lions mouth, not having stepped out yet. He took in his surroundings and stared at the earth that he had missed. He breathed in the fresh air and took his first step back on Earth. He would have fallen to the ground and hugged it if he didn’t think he would be teased for it. Slowly he made his way to the others who were introducing the group of Alteans and the Galra woman to the heads of the Garrison.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be here on the planet my paladins have talked so much about!” Allure went straight into her diplomatic princess routine.

Commander Iverson stepped forward. “We will need to bring you back to the base so you can each brief us on all of your information.” He turned his head in Lance’s direction. “McClain!” Lance snapped to attention, right hand in a salute, scarred of the older man. “I hope your flying isn’t as shitty as it was when you were a cadet here.”

Lance flushed in embarrassment. Luckily Shiro spoke up, “I can vouch for Lance. He is one of the best pilots I’ve ever met.”

Iverson huffed and turned his back to them, motioning for all of them to follow him back to base. Lance stood stock still for a few moments, before finally breathing again and catching up with the group.

When they got into the headquarters, Iverson went to separate the group. Allura, being the charming diplomat that she was, argued for a moment and convinced the Commander the it would be best and quicker for them to be together to be able to fill in any holes. Sam stepped up and explained that he had already done his part in explaining as much as he could. There was very little else to explain except for the lions and Alteans and the random Galra member amongst them. Iverson relented and let them stay together.

The talking was mainly between Shiro, Allura, Sam, and Iverson, with Keith speaking up occasionally. Lance, Pidge and Hunk were standing off to the side, after having to explain how they snuck out of the Garrison, which earned them several tsk’s from the rest of the group.

The blue (red?) paladin was getting fidgety. He just wanted to go home. Was that too much to ask? This had nothin to do with him. Well, a little bit of it did, but Allura and Shiro were doing a great job on their own. He just wanted to see his mom. Yes, he wanted to see the rest of his family as well, but he missed his mom the most.

Finally, Iverson let them go, letting them know that they would be watched closely and would be called in if more questions arose. The team finally got to be alone to relax and it almost felt like a pressure was taken off their shoulders.

Sam smiled at the group before turning to his daughter who had practically latched on to his side. “Katie, is Matt coming too? Your mother really would like to see both of her children.”

Katie giggled. “Of course he is coming. His pods aren’t as fast as the lions. I thought we might pass him on the way, but he may have stopped at one or two planets to refuel.”

“Uh, Mr Holt, sir,” Hunk stepped up anxiously. “I was wondering if our messages home made it to our families.”

Sam smiled but it wasn’t full, like he was thinking about something. “Yes I did deliver them like you asked.”

Lance perked up from his spot against the wall. “Can we go now? Can we go see our families?” He started bouncing around the group, looking between Shiro, Allura, and Sam. “Can we go? Can we go? Can we go? Please oh please oh please oh please?”

Shiro caught him by the arm, “Stop bouncing and we might.”

Sam looked down at Pidge, and looked back up at the group. His smile was gone. He looked to Lance, who stopped short at the sight. “Mr. McClain,” Sam took a breath.

Lance had heard this voice before, when there had been an accident at his father’s work. Lance tried not to shudder, but Shiro definitely felt it as he loosened his grip on Lance’s arm.

Sam started again. “Lance, my boy, there’s something you should know.”

“You delivered my message didn’t you?” His voice sounded foreign, almost like a child’s, as Lance spoke. “You saw my mom, didn’t you?”

“I went to your island to deliver your message.” Sam’s voice caught. “There’s something you should know.”

Lance stepped back into Shiro, who caught his shaking shoulder’s in his hands. “My family is fine. I know they are.”

Sam took a breath. “I went to your island, to your town. I never found your family. I never found anyone.” He had to take another breath. “Your town was completely destroyed. There were no survivor’s in sight.”

“No!” Lance started hyperventilating. He turned to run towards the door but ran into Coran and fell against him into his arms. “No! Their fine! They’re there! You went to the wrong place!” His breathing quickened more and before long, he had fallen against Coran, completely blacked out.

Chapter 2

Notes:

Sorry it took so long to get this up! Between a convention and work, it's been a week! Enjoy this!

Waking up felt like ton of brick were laying across him, as Lance tried to sit up. Blinking his eyes groggily, he took in his surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar bedroom with no accents or colored lights to indicate where he was, but took note of his jacket on hook by the door and his shoes under it. As he sat up, he noticed Shiro sitting in an armchair nearby, arms crossed and head tilted back as though he’d been sleeping.

As Lance tried to position himself, the ruffling noise of the sheets caught Shiro’s attention and he stirred and opened his eyes. “Ah. Hey there, Lance.”

“Shiro, where are we?”

Shiro lightly chuckled. “Sam, procured us a house. It’s completely ours, the paladins of Voltron, for whenever we want to come back in the future as well. It’s more like a mansion than a house though. And of course it isn’t on base but Sam did what he could.”

“Hmm,” Lance nodded.

“Lance,” Shiro sighed, “are you okay?”

Lance jerked his head up in confusion. Did something happen?

Seeing the pitiful look in Shiro’s eye had everything rushing back to Lance.

“My family! Oh My Gosh Shiro!!” Lance started to hyperventilate again. Shiro rushed to his side and pulled him into a tight embrace, saying soothing words to calm him down. It didn’t work and Lance started to struggle. “He said they weren’t there! Shiro, he said they weren’t there! But they are there! He went to the wrong place! Shiro, Please!”

The yelling had been loud enough for the rest of the house to hear but the only other person home at the time was Keith, who came bounding into the room just as Lance got out of Shiro’s grasp. Lance made a desperate dash for the door. Keith managed to grab ahold of his arms but Lance fought back. Somehow, in Lance’s adrenaline rushing state, he was able to turn the other boy around and knock him over into Shiro who had just stood up. Lance wasted no time running to the door and grabbing his jacket on the way out.

Lance practically jumped down the stairs, his bare feet barely touching any of them, and, though not knowing the layout of the house, managed to find the back door.

Once outside he looked around and just started running. “Blue!! Please!!” There was a small light purr and nudge in his mind, making him stop in his tracks. “I mean.. I mean Red.” Tears were now making their way down his face. “I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Red. Please. I-I-I need you.” He took this moment to realize that his hyperventilating had returned.

Red came pouncing out of nowhere, landing in front of him. The lion gave her paladin a sad yet understanding nudge before open her mouth to let him in. Lance ran up in to the cockpit, barely registering the yelling of the 2 black paladins coming out of the house. Before Shiro and Keith could make it to the lion, she turned on her heal and flew away.

The two paladins looked out after the lion and then to each other. “What happened, Shiro?”

He older paladin sighed. “It took him a few ticks to remember why he had passed out but when he remembered, he started hyperventilating. That’s basically when you came in.”

“Do we follow him?”

Shiro made a face. “I don’t know. I think we should. Let’s give him a good head start and tell the other paladins to hang back a bit longer before coming to us.”

With their resolution made, Shiro went back inside to call everyone else and Keith turned to call the Black Lion to prep her for take off.

——
Red was the fastest lion out of any of them. It definitely showed on her flight to Lance’s hometown. What would take a normal flight just about 2 and a half hours, took Red only 30 minutes.

Lance was curled up in the pilot’s seat the whole time just trying to breathe. Red purred into his mind to calm him and almost reassure him. She didn’t like her cub feeling this way.

Lance didn’t notice Red land. It took a bit of nudging from Red to bring him to life. He sat up slowly, tears making tracks down his face as the lion knelt down in position for hime to exit.

“Red?” The lion purred in response. “I don’t… I can’t…” Lance made himself take an extremely shaky breath. “Is… Is he right? Was Mr. Holt right?” The lion stayed silent, mouth still open for him. “If… If he’s right… I can’t…” He was forcing himself to not hyperventilate at this point. “I don’t want to go out there if he’s right. If he’s right about there being no one. I just… can’t.”

Red was silent. Lance almost didn’t know how to interpret it. And then she purred. It wasn’t her reassuring purr that she had been sending him. It was more of a “You have to find out for yourself” purr. If Lance hadn’t been so on edge about everything, he would’ve scoffed at her.

But she was right. There was only one way to find out if Mr. Holt was right.

Lance shakily stood up, his arms wrapped around himself almost in a comforting hug. He moved so, so slowly towards the exit, as if his families life depended on him moving slow. He turned and was able to see the light spilling in to Red’s mouth but was far enough back that he couldn’t see out. Lance took a few shaky breaths.

“Come on, Lance. It’s going to be okay. Your family is going to be there. They are going to be so shocked that you are back. Mr. Holt just went to the wrong town.” He breathed again, closed his eyes…. And then took off out of Red’s mouth in a dead run.

In his mind it was a good idea. You know, just rip the band-aid off. Get out there before he changed his mind and became too anxious again. The only thing he forgot was that at the end of Red’s mouth, there was almost a step off… and he missed it… because he still had his eyes closed.

Lance landed hard on his hands and knees. He hissed in a breath from the pain and opened his eyes to stare at the ground.

Sand. There was sand. Lance stared at it with wide eyes. And as the rest of his senses came to him, he could smell the fresh ocean air, hear the waves hitting the coast, even feel the oceans breeze hitting his neck.

He was home. Lance was home.

Red purred and Lance almost felt relief. He almost felt complete. He just needed to look up and see his family and he would know it was okay.

And so he did.

But instead of his family or even his town, he saw destruction. He saw buildings all around leveled, save for a few here and there that looked to be just barely keeping together.

“No.” His voice didn’t sound like his own. It sounded fragile, even to his ears.

He forced himself to stand. His right foot moved forward, then his left. He didn’t realize he was running till his breathing was becoming hard. He hadn’t even paid attention to anything he passed but he knew exactly where along the beach his house sat. And he was too soon there.

He fell to his knees.

His home, his childhood home, his FAMILIES home, it was demolished. The red clay brick his house was made out of was just about crushed into powder, mixing with the sand around it.

No. This wasn’t right. His eyes were lying.

“Mom?” It came out as a whisper and almost startled him. And then he was screaming, tears pouring down his face. “Mom! Mom, please!”