We're Going Home

30

If I Get High ~Nothing But Thieves

I don't know if you remembered, or if you ever will. I just know that what I felt was real. It took me a long time to accept that. I love your smile, and your hair and how soft it is. I love the way you would fight anyone, but for me you're soft, and you keep me safe from myself. I love the way that you laugh at my jokes. I love you. I hate to have to write this but I do have one request for when you find me. The battle is over now, we ensured that. You probably won't be needing Voltron for a while. Still, get Blue the best pilot possible. She deserves it. And take me back to earth, to my family. don't tell them how I died, only that I did so in the stars, like I always wanted to. And tell them that I love you, and that you were mine. I wish we could've had a family together, but you can take mine in place of that. You're gonna love Mamá so much, Keith. And all of my siblings. And they're gonna love you too. They'll love you so much. Don't forget, okay? I love you, Mullet.

The trip back to earth consisted of Keith being really fucking ticked at Lance because how dare he leave, and him crumpling the note Lance had written and throwing it away only to retrieve it and read it again. He inhaled the scent of Lances coat deeply and then laid down, wearing it and closing his eyes, wishing to never wake again.

They landed all too soon. Keith had to make himself presentable for Lance's family. He'd been assigned the job of telling them. So equipped with two notes in his pocket he knocked lightly on the door, not even stopping to notice that at some point his skin had changed from purple back to its normal pale white.

A shorter woman opened the door. Keith didn't say a word, just handed her both notes in silence. She read them both, tears slowly building in her eyes. The two strangers hugged like they'd known each other their entire lives.

He tried to give her Lance's coat but she shook her head and pushed it back to him. From that point on he refused to take it off.

He met everyone, and Lance was right, they did love him, and they were so welcoming and kind and he couldn't breathe because Lance had to be gone for Keith to finally have a family.

The Paladins all stayed with his family, an odd silence over them as compared to the slowly filling house. Keith tended to stray away from the others when he could. He rarely made an appearance until the funeral.

It had rained that day. Lance would've liked that. He loved the rain.

Keith was wearing a suit for probably the first time in his life. But it didn't feel right. He had the coat folded dutifully in his arms, as he read the grave stone. His name didn't belong on that cold gray slab. He was always so vibrant and alive, it couldn't be his body just laying down there.

Keith stood by the muddy, freshly dug soil for much too long. He'd finally gotten to be with his family, on earth, like he'd wanted to. And maybe it was okay, because he was smiling when he went, and it seemed that all the demons had finally fled.

Keith's heart wrenched as he held back tears. He wouldn't cry, not yet. The funeral had been so beautiful. Marigolds were everywhere. He laid a single daisy under the headstone. Apparently, he hadn't gotten the hint about marigolds. "It wasn't for long, but you gave me the world, and for each kiss a blossom grew. Time bombs waiting for me to love again. I remember that asylum, I do, and in it, I was alive. And perhaps, with just one more kiss, I can live again. I love you, Lance McClain. I always will. And I'll see you soon." Tears dripped down his face but his smile held firm. And as his grave turned to mud in the torrential downpour the kisses from heaven mixed with a violent red. "I'll get that kiss soon. I'm going home. We're going home."