request: Katty_Zebra

An elements thing

Lance could control water his whole life. He kept it from everyone including his family. The older he got, the more powerful he became.

He wasn't given directions, there was no other being who came and explained why he was the way was. It was confusing and even lonely at times. He had many close calls of letting his secret out to family and even some close friends.

Lance wanted desperately to tell someone, to talk to them. He had so many feelings that were ready to flow out of him as water is to a faucet.

He was attached to water somehow, in some way. It wasn't just control, it was more than that, it was a bond.

He felt his feet touch the sand. The unstable area between water and land. He dragged his bag from his beat up car to a safe spot where it wouldn't get wet and let it drop. He pulled off his shirt and set it on his bag.

Lance wearing his swimming trunks walked into the water feeling his body sink into it. The sun was beginning to set and the blue sky was dancing into a faded orange. He submerged himself underwater completely.

A perk of his abilities did include him breathing underwater. Yes, like aqua man.

He resurfaced pushing his hair back and wiping his face with relief. He opened his eyes only to see a group of four standing at the shore line.

"Can I help you?" Lance asked sternly stepping back further in the water, going from shoulder height to being just under his chin.

"Lance McClain. We need to talk to you. It's about your abilities." The tallest of them spoke. He was muscular with brown hair excluding a single white tuff in the front.

"I'm not talking to any of you until you tell me who the hell you are and how you know... my name." Lances eyes narrowed. He couldn't say his power out loud, years of silence training him to remain silent.

"I'm Shiro. I'm a wind elemental." He spoke again.

"I'm Pidge, I'm a plant elemental." She said lazily pushing up her glasses.

"I'm Hunk, I'm an earth elemental." A boy, slightly bigger with tanned skin smiled.

"I'm Keith, a fire elemental." Another boy said. He had black hair and violet eyes. His pail skin gave his look a contrasting look but was stunning nonetheless. 'Breathtakingly handsome' as Lance thought.

"So I guess that makes me a water elemental." Lance crossed his arms under the water.

"Yes, it does." Shiro said seriously.

"And where have you been?" Lance challenged walking forward so he was only waist deep.

"We found your identity about three years ago. We decided it would be best not to disturb you unless we deem it necessary." Shiro explained.

"Well thanks, thank you for showing me mercy by withdrawing this information from me." Lance said sarcastically his voice raising slightly.

"I sense that you don't truly appreciate it." Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"No! I don't! You're just now deciding to tell me because it was convenient for you. I thought I was the only one! I was alone! To think, I actually thought there was something wrong with me because I could do something others couldn't. I had no one to talk to. But thanks, great that it's convenient for you to tell me this now." Lance felt tears run down his cheeks mixing with the water.

"Lance, you need to calm down." Shiro put his hands up softly. The other three with him looked prepared to fight.

Lances head fell in his hands as towers of water floated about him. He cried and the water hung loosely floating in the air. It became evident it wasn't meant to hurt them, it was simply an effect of his raw emotions. The boy wasn't angry, he was just sad and lonely.

Lances head rose and he saw the water around him. He made it fall rejoining the sea and looked at the four again. "I don't want anything to do with any of you."

"Didn't you just say you were lonely and didn't have anyone to talk to about your power?" Keith asked sternly like Lance was stupid.

"That's true. That doesn't change that you all withheld information from me and ignored my existence until you deemed it necessary." Lance walked out of the water casually and cut them a smile full of loathing. He grabbed his bag and headed for his car.

"Wait, wouldn't you like to know about your power? Why you have it?" Shiro asked.

Lance was just about to throw his back into the backseat of his car but froze at the question. "What do you want from me? Is there something you want in return? If you want my power you can have it." Lance tossed the bag in.

"No, of course not. Aren't you proud of your power? Shiro asked stepping forward.

"Well it's hard to be proud of something you thought was the only thing keeping you from being normal. I thought there was something wrong with me." Lance shut the door and opened the door to the drivers side.

"Then perhaps we did make a mistake." Shiro spoke. "But please, hear what we have to say."

Lance bit at his cheek for a moment contemplating. "Fine." He climbed in and started his car. "Are you coming? It's getting dark and this is a bad area."

They got in his car hesitantly. He drove onto the road and headed to town. "Okay, start." Lance spoke as he stared at the road ahead.

"You're the son of the ocean." Shiro stated plainly.

"Are you serious? Son of the ocean? Is that like a metaphor or..?" Lance glanced at him.

"No, you're the son of the ocean. Just like I'm the son of wind, Pidge is the daughter of plants, Hunk the son of Earth, and Keith the son of fire." Shiro continued.

Lance sighed, "That doesn't make sense. What about my mom and dad?"

"They may be your parents, your mom may have birthed you, but you were born from the ocean. It doesn't need to make sense, just accept it." Shiro looked out the window.

"Don't worry, we were weirded out at first too." Pidge assured.

"Right..., so what am I supposed to do exactly?" Lance asked.

"What do you mean?" Shiro looked at him.

"Why was I given the power? There's a reason for it, right?"

"Well, not exactly. It's a gift." Shiro explained. "But we do use it for good."

"Why now are you deciding to tell me this?" Lance tightened his grip on the wheel.

"We want you to join us."

"To join you? Join you in what?" Lance stopped at a red light and looked at all of them like they were crazy.

"Saving people" Pidge smiled.

"Helping society." Hunk added.

"And preventing havoc." Keith joined.

"Like hero's?" Lance scoffed.

"No, like super hero's." Shiro laughed. "What do you say?"

"I say you're all insane." Lance took a deep breath. "But I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little insane myself. Sure."

"Welcome aboard." Shiro put a hand on his shoulder.

"Congrats fish boy." Keith said with a smile.

"Fish boy?" Lance glared at him in the rearview mirror. (I kinda just made a self realization that I've been saying review mirror my entire life instead of rearview.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

"You heard me fish boy." He smirked.

Lance took some of the water from his hair and swimming trunks and splashed it at Keith.

"You are so dead." Keith huffed rubbing the water off with his sleeve.

"Nope, no distracting the driver." Lance said cheekily.

"Nock it off you two." Shiro said being the dad he is.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you roll your eyes a little further you might find a brain back there." Lance took a turn.

"Your ass must be pretty jealous of all the shit that comes out of your mouth." Keith fired back proudly.

"That's actually pretty good. How about this: I don't know what your problem is, but I'm guessing it's hard to pronounce." Lance glanced up at him in the mirror.

Keith chuckled. "Everyone's entitled to be stupid one in a while, you however, abuse the privilege."

"That one hurt." Lance smiled and hey both laughed.

"Did you both just bond through insulting each other?" Pidge squinted.

"I think they did." Hunk looked horrified.

"Whatever." Lance grinned rolling his eyes. "So this team thing? What exactly do I have to do?"

"Everyday, after school, on the weekends every moment, will be dedicated to training and saving people." Shiro spoke sternly.

"Well, if that's not dedication, I don't know what is." Lance looked at the road nervously.

"It is. We need to know you're serious about this."

"I'm serious. I'll join you." Lance took a deep breath.

The car began to lift off the road and Lance panicked. He looked to Shiro for some kind of explanation but the mans eyes were glowing a bright yellow.

"Dude! My car! What are you-?" Lance let go of the steering wheel horrified.

"Relax, he's just taking you to our headquarters." Pidge assured.

"Right, Okay." Lance leaned back in his seat trying to calm down.

The vehicle launched through the air and Lance screamed like a horrified little girl. It flew over buildings and eventually an open empty field. His screams broke off in into short heavy breaths as he was pushed back into his seat.

A castle appeared into view, it was blue and metallic looking out of place in the yellow deserted field.

The car landed softly and Lance bursted our as quickly as he could. "I think I'm going to barf." He muttered.

"What a manly scream you had back there." Keith said walking past with a smirk.

Lance didn't have a comeback this time as he tried to calm down. "W-whatever." He huffed.

They walked in, Lance a little further behind. The four were a casual and sped through having done it a million times before. Lance however was inspecting every inch of the place as he cowered through the halls.

"Hurry up waterboy." Pidge smirked back at him.

"Yeah, sorry if I'm a little hesitant going through a castle in the middle of nowhere with four strangers." Lance scolded.

This caused a chuckle from them and Keith walked backwards to talk to him. "Strangers? You know our names and elements, I'd say that's at least mildly aquatinted."

"Right. Half an hour ago I was sure you were going to try to kidnap me." Lance said distractedly as he stared up at the ceiling. It was dark now and a giant glass roof displayed the stars.

He stared in wonder before he jumped at the sound of his phone ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket quickly and lifted it to his ear answering it. "Hello."

The four watched as yelling came through the phone. They couldn't understand it as the person was speaking Spanish.

"Um no I..." Lance looked at them for a moment before looking to the ground, "I stayed a little later and had to get gas." He paused. "Yes."

Lance rubbed the back of his head as he listened.

"Okay, I'll be home in ten minutes. I gotta go." He spoke. "No, estaré en casa en 10 minutos." He repeated. "Te amo, bye." Lance hung up and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

"We'll make this quick." Shiro promised.

"Thanks, you might have to work your wind voodoo so I can get home in time." Lance began following them again.

"It's not voodoo." Shiro sighed. "Besides, you have it too."

"Yeah, but I don't understand anything about this. I have no idea why I was given this power and that what frustrates me." Lance walked behind them into a room.

Before them stood a man with and orange mustache and beautiful woman with dark skin and bright white hair.

"Hello Lonce, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Allura." The woman spoke with a smile that lit up the room.

"Uh, hi." Lance spoke awkwardly.

"Hello water paladin!" The man with the orange hair greeted. "My name is Coran!"

"Hello Coran." Lance laughed a bit shaking the strange mans hand.

"This is where we will be training everyday." Shiro crossed his arms with a smile.

"Training how exactly?" Lance asked.

"You will be pushing your strength and fighting abilities to the limit and exploring your powers like never before." Shiro explained.

"Okay. Um, I should probably be heading home now." Lance smiled. Although he acted pretty confident about it he was horrified. He was a tall lanky boy with no muscle or fighting skill. He spent his 18 years of life hiding his power opposed to them who had been practicing for years. He doubted he could do anything they could.

"You're right." Shiro led him back outside and sent Lance away in the car... by himself... soaring through through air at a deadly speed.

Lance softly landed in the street and he took deep breaths as he gripped his wheel tightly. He started the engine and drove down the street shakily before parking in the driveway.

He walked inside to see his family.
——-

It was late and Lance glanced at his alarm clock. 1:56 a.m.

Lance sighed. He couldn't fall asleep as he thought of what he had gotten himself into.

Lance stood up and walked to his window climbing out.

He walked through the street the dim lights illuminating his face. Water ran through the gutter and Lance watched it calmly.

He thought of what Shiro had done and wanted to try the same. He closed his eyes and felt his socks get wet. He looked down to see a mound of water encasing his feet. Suddenly the water rushed quickly, the more water he added the faster he went. Before he knew it he was flying to the beach standing on a mound of water the height of a small building. It slowly got slower until his feet touched the sand.

Lance stared out at the ocean and sat down. He didn't get in but rather hugged his legs to his chest and buried his face in his arms.

"What are you doing out here this late?" Keith asked from behind him.

Lances head shot up and snapped in his direction. "Keith?!"

Keith sat beside him with his legs crossed and he leaned back on his hands.

"What are you doing here?" Lance asked.

"I asked you first."

"I couldn't sleep." Lance looked back at the ocean.

"Me neither." Keith stared out with him.

"So you, a fire elemental, came to the ocean to relax?" Lance looked skeptical.

"What? Should I have thrown myself into a volcano instead? Believe it or not, I actually find the ocean calming." Keith sighed.

Lance laughed. "Talk about irony."

"No kidding." Keith mumbled.

Lance yawned as his eyes drooped. Keith saw how tired he was and when Lances head swung down he let it sit on his shoulder.

Keith felt incredibly awkward. Lance was asleep on his shoulder with water droplets floating around him effortlessly. Keith slowly slid Lance to his lap so the boy could sleep peacefully.

——

Lance woke up in his bed tucked in to his blankets. He yawned and sat up. Was it all a dream?

The saw a note sitting on his bedside table and snatched it.

'You fell asleep on the beach, I didn't want to wake you up so I brought you home. Hope that was okay. Anyway, I believe Shiro planned to take you to the castle at eight. He isn't showing up in person, just be ready by then. See you at eight.'
-Keith

Lance melted as he read the words. He smiled sweetly as he held the note. That was until he saw the time. 7:57 a.m.

Lance sprung up and threw on some clothes with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. He quickly put on some deodorant and did a quick spritz of cologne. His window opened and a breeze came through. Lance panicked and rinsed put his mouth before being swept away.