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Lance's little legs carried him swiftly down the big set of concrete steps, the structures seeming like mountains to his tiny body. The bright sunshine greeted him like an old friend as he was released from the interior walls of the school, even if just for an hour, still, it was an hour he'd savor every second of.
He liked recess the best out of the entire day. Sure he liked English and sometimes he liked math. But recess was the reprieve of the monotonous drone of his teacher, he counted the minutes until that bell rung and the class scampered out of their seats, forming into a neat little line. He would always bounce on his heels the whole way down the hall.
Lance jumped the last step, landing on the ground hard. Hunk watched him warily, not quite brave enough to make that kind of a leap. He opted to walk down the steps at a very steady, safe pace. Hunk wasn't quite as fearless as his best friend.
"Lance be careful." Hunk whimpered as Lance beamed, quite proud of sticking his landing.
"Careful is for babies!" Lance announced proudly as he waited impatiently for the slightly taller, rounder boy.
Lance's dirty sneakers beat the ground as he tore off for the jungle gym with purpose. Hunk headed after him, doing his best to keep up. Lance hung off the monkey bars, hefting himself up until he was hanging by just his feet.
"LANCE! Right-side up on the monkey bars!!" His teacher barked from across the bustling play yard.
Lance moaned huffily and did as he was told. Only because he was sure his mama might just feed him to the alligators in the creek that ran behind their house if he ended up in trouble again.
Lance sat on one of the large metal bars, warm with the sun shining down on them.
"You wanna play monsters?" Lance asked Hunk, who had found a nearby stick and was happily drawing in the dirt.
Hunk grimaced.
"I don't like that game it's scary. I don't make a good monster." Hunk complained.
Lance rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Fine. You wanna play astronauts? We can make the play castle our ship!!" Lance pitched his next idea confidently.
Hunk beamed from the ground.
"Yeah I wanna play astronauts. But nothing too scary." Hunk said eyeing Lance with a tight lip.
Lance plunked down off the metal structure and took Hunk's hand, leading the other boy to the plastic and wood castle on the edge of the playground. Lance stood at the very top, scanning out over the play space.
"This is captain Lance, Hunk! Are we ready to fly??" Lance bellowed loudly.
Lance wasn’t exactly known for being the quiet type of child.
Hunk clambered up next to him.
"Yes captain!" Hunk chimed.
"Oh no we are being chased by aliens!! Hunk we need to jump to hyper speed!!!" Lance yelled, getting far too into his pretend game.
Hunk's eyes widened.
"Lance I said nothing scary!!" Hunk whined.
Lance huffed.
"They are only slightly bad aliens who want to take our food. Better?" Lance reasoned.
Hunk nodded.
"We've gotta lose them!!" Lance yanked his pretend steering wheel this way and that, creating his own set of sound effects to go along with it.
As Hunk and Lance giggled and laughed, Lance suddenly looked down at the picnic tables just below them. He cocked his head.
It was a small community. New kids always attracted a lot of attention. Lance recognized the little boy immediately. He wasn't in Lance's class, but he'd heard the other kids talk about him. It was hard not to recognize the little kid with only one arm.
Lance frowned.
He was sitting by himself at the little table, coloring on a piece of paper, the contents of his backpack laid out on the sun bleached wood.
Why wasn't he playing? Lance thought curiously.
He could color at any other point during the day. Recess was for playtime! Maybe they didn't have recess where he was from...
Lance's eyes darkened as two other kids approached the table, coming right up to the little boy, hovering over him like vultures. The tiny, dark haired boy instinctively pulled his paper closer to him, tiny fingers setting down his blue marker.
Lance wasn't close enough to hear what the two other boys were saying, but their faces didn't look nice.
Lance grit his teeth.
One of the bigger boys grabbed the sheet of paper from him and Lance gasped. The boy tore the paper, laughing and saying words Lance couldn't quite make out. He was sure none of them were kind.
The dark haired little boy didn't try to get his ruined paper back, but Lance could see tears streaming down his little face.
Lance didn't like that at all.
He puffed his little chest out and turned to Hunk.
"Hunk where's your stick?" Lance asked, remembering Hunk's branch he'd found earlier.
Hunk held it up proudly.
Lance snatched it.
"I need it really quick." Lance explained as he shimmied down out of the castle.
Hunk tilted his head to the side.
"Why?" Hunk asked.
"I just need it." Lance repeated as he got to the ground.
Lance gripped the hearty little stick in his curled fingers, small sneakers crunching the grass beneath him as he marched with purpose. Lance rolled up his sleeves and did his best to remember everything his older brother Marco had taught him about swinging a baseball bat. Lance was trying out for the little league team that weekend. He'd been practicing a lot
"Hey! You leave him alone!!" Lance barked as he stomped right up to the other boy.
Lance didn't even give the kid a chance to respond before he reared his little stick back and swung it as hard as he could across the kids turned back. There was a wail as the stick made contact, the kid surprised by the sudden attack from the much smaller, skinny little boy coming after him.
The other boy was already scampering away at the threat of Lance's anger.
Lance huffed out in victory, watching as the bullies ran.
The two little boys were headed across the playground in tears and Lance knew he was about five seconds of being in a world of trouble. But his mama taught him to stand up for others. She was most likely not going to be pleased with him wailing on the mean kids with a stick. But…he would deal with that later.
Lance turned, bright blue eyes falling on the dark haired little boy. His little cheeks were still shimmering with shed tears and he looked both confused and maybe a little scared Lance might come after him next with that stupid stick.
Lance's eyes glanced to the boy’s right sleeve, hanging empty with the lack of limb. Lance tried not to stare for too long. Mama told him that wasn't nice.
"Hi! I'm Lance!" Lance chimed as he sat down next to the little boy.
His grey eyes soaked Lance in, up one side and down the other.
"I'm...S-shiro." the little boy stuttered.
Lance smiled wider.
"You wanna be friends? You can come play with me and my other friend Hunk!" Lance offered kindly.
Shiro looked hesitant.
"I'm not good at climbing stuff." He said very softly.
Lance frowned. Oh. Right.
"We can play on the ground!" Lance giggled.
"Tomorrow we can play! Promise?" Lance said smiling.
"Cause I'm about to be in real big trouble so... we probably can't play today..." Lance sighed.
Shiro laughed softly.
"Because you hit that other boy?" Shiro asked with a shy smile.
"Eyup. My mama is gunna be real mad." Lance groaned.
Shiro laughed again, he had a soft little voice.
"I'm sorry your mom is gunna be mad...thank you..." He said shrugging his shoulders up.
"LANCE FUENTES, GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!!" His teacher’s voice bellowed across the playground.
Lance groaned.
"Bye Shiro! Remember, tomorrow you come play with us!" Lance reminded as he slid off his seat and began his trudge over to his teacher.
Yep mama was going to be very mad. Maybe he could talk his way out of it. He was just standing up to the bullies! Mama would still be mad he was sure.
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Lance sighed as he dropped the groceries on the kitchen island, the home already filled with the bustle of three children, backpacks being dropped on the floor in various areas.
Lance shifted his weight as his counterpart entered the room, briefcase set by the door.
Shiro smiled at his mate, soft and warm and enamored.
"Oh and guess who got a call from the principal today?" Lance said as he crossed the room, opening the fridge to grab the jug of lemonade there.
Lance snatched a cup and cracked it down on the countertop.
Shiro chuckled and crossed his arms as he leaned on the counter next to Lance.
"Oh no, what happened?" Shiro sighed.
"Your daughter got in her first fight. Punched a boy right in the nose. She claims he stole from one of the other kids but...I don't know if I buy it." Lance said taking a long drink from the glass.
Shiro laughed hard.
"I wonder where she gets that from." Shiro said giving Lance a devious expression.
Lance huffed.
"Yeah, yeah I know." Lance rolled his eyes.
"I'll have a talk with her." Shiro said kindly.
"She can't help it. She has one hell of a spitfire dad...at least she didn't beat the kid up with a stick.." Shiro teased, placing a small kiss on Lance's forehead.
Lance smiled softly.
“Oh hush.” He snorted with a wry smile.