Chapter Text
Lance was feeling a lot of things on his first day at the Garrison.
Excitement was a big one. He could barely hold it in, the feeling churning in his stomach as he bounced on his toes and fiddled with the cuff of his uniform. This was something he had been dreaming of for an eternity. He had been staring up at the sky for as long as he could remember, and now he was so so close to being there, to being nestled in the stars. He could barely breathe over how excited he was.
Underneath all that overwhelming excitement, though, he was feeling nervous. This was new for him, like really new. He hadn't ever really done anything like this before, and he had done a lot of stuff in his time on earth. It was nerve-wracking to look around at the shiny facilities that the Garrison had to offer: the ships, the uniforms, the salutes. It was so unfamiliar and foreign that he couldn't help feel like he didn't belong.
Lance was also feeling a kind of fond exasperation. This, however, had nothing to do with his first day at the Garrison and everything to do with Hunk's first day at the Garrison.
Hunk made a distressed noise from beside him as he covered his stomach with his hands.
"I think I might throw up," he whined. "Is that normal, or should I be worried? Oh god, am I going to die? Should I see the nurse? Lance, I'm too young to die."
Needless to say, Hunk was also feeling a lot of things on his first day at the Garrison, the main one was panic.
They were sitting on a bench against a wall as other students milled about around them. Lance was trying to calm his best friend down the best he could, but Hunk's panic was a unique kind of panic that Lance hadn’t quite figured out how to beat.
They were at the annoying mandatory get-to-know-your-fellow-cadets gathering before classes started the next day, and it was getting to be a lot for Hunk's delicate state of being.
He was already so freaked out about classes starting that throwing him in to forced socialization with a room full of strangers on top of that really set him off.
Lance was trying his best, rubbing his hand across Hunk's back in a soothing manner, trying to distract him from panicking.
He started to say something, but as he opened his mouth to speak, he looked up and the words stuck in his throat as his eyes met someone else’s from across the room.
There he was.
His other half.
His fated match.
His rival.
His soulmate, though Lance used that word very lightly and with a full bucket of disdain.
Of course he'd be here. Of course he'd be going to the Garrison too.
It wasn't fair! Just one life, that's all Lance was asking for, literally just one! But no that would be too easy and the universe loved giving him a hard time apparently.
This was Lance's dream. It had been Lance's dream for forever, and now it was being messed with by this guy, who Lance was not afraid to call his arch rival no matter how melodramatic that sounded.
Lance narrowed his eyes at the figure leaning there in the corner, back to the wall, arms crossed in a way that read, 'don't talk to me or you will regret it'. He obviously hadn't registered that he’d seen Lance yet from where he was standing because his eyes were just drifting around the room.
Before he knew what he was doing, Lance was out of his seat and elbowing his way through the crowd of cadets standing around the room.
He could hear Hunk's questioning as he got up, but it faded into the sounds of the other cadets around him as he waded through the crowd, closer and closer to his rival who still had yet to see him.
When he was almost there, he stopped to observe for a second, to do a little recon.
His rival was, of course, dressed like everyone else in that orange uniform that all the Garrison cadets had to wear. His hair was long and shaggy, brushing the collar of his uniform, which, Lance noted, was definitely against the Garrison dress code. He was standing there slumped against the wall like he really didn't want to be here.
Lance let his eyes drift over the boy one last time before he pushed through the group of students he was hiding behind and presented himself with a flourish before his rival.
His arch enemy who didn't even look at him.
If Lance hadn't already been fuming, he would be there now. The disrespect! The audacity! The nerve! How dare he!
Lance put his hands on his hips and said with what he hoped was authority, but was probably mostly whining, "This is my dream and you know it!" He crossed his arms over his chest with a huff and continued even though he was still being ignored. "How dare you try to take this from me! I have half a mind to fight you right here, right now!"
Finally-finally!-his rival looked up.
His eyes passed over Lance without a single hint of recognition, and he said, "Do I know you?"
Lance felt his heart drop to his stomach. He knew he was gaping, but he watched in horror, astonishment, hurt, fear, shock as his other half, with that same blank look in his eyes, pushed away from the wall and made his way to a different corner where he could be alone again.
Lance knew that he looked like an idiot standing there with his jaw dropped, looking like he had just been sucker punched, but he couldn't help it.
This had never happened before.
Throughout all the years, in all the lives they had lived, all the centuries that had passed, one thing had never changed--they always recognized each other.
Lance had never been on the end of that blank look before, he hadn't even considered it a possibility.
He stood there gaping for who knows how long until he was broken from his thoughts by a gentle hand landing on his shoulder.
It was Hunk there with a concerned look on his face. "Hey man, are you okay? You kind of disappeared earlier."
Lance shook his head to clear his thoughts, but he couldn't force his gaze away from the corner across the room with one grumpy, disinterested inhabitant.
His shock was slowly turning to anger. Anger at his nemesis for not recognizing him, anger at the universe for always shoving them together, anger at himself for even caring.
"I'm okay, Hunk," he finally said, tearing his eyes away. "I just really don't like that guy."