Fly Away From Your Troubles (Klance AU)

4- Cuts and Scars

Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and I walked into the café, bundled in many layers as it was snowing. (Well, except for me, who only wore a sweatshirt because I kept forgetting to buy a winter coat.)

"Geez, were you born in Alaska? How are you not cold?!" Lance asked me as soon as we walked into the Starbucks. Unlike me, he wore many layers(a sweatshirt over his baseball tee, and a thick winter coat, along with a winter hat), and was still shivering.

"I just don't get cold," I told him, shrugging. "Also, I was born in Texas. So not really anywhere near Alaska." I heard Lance snicker behind me. Great. Now I'm probably never going to hear the end of it.

I walked up to the cashier, and ordered a cup of black coffee. Lance ordered a caramel macchiato, Pidge a caffé mocha, and Hunk a hazelnut mocha macchiato.

Once we received our drinks, we all sat down at the couches in front of a fireplace.

"Keith, I've never understood how you can drink just plain coffee," Pidge said as she added a heap of cinnamon to her drink.

"I like the taste," I responded, and shrugged.

"Well, I agree with Pidge. Raw coffee tastes awful. You have to add something sweet to it." Lance held up his drink. "Like caramel. Dulce de leche is better of course, but they don't have that in Starbucks."

"Oh yeah, Lance, you have to bring us some sometime! Or at least tell me where I can get it," Hunk said.

"Ok, I'll try to remember to bring some next time," Lance replied. 

The conversation continued, but I stopped paying attention as when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, and took it out. Before even looking at whatever the notification was for, I noticed that the time was 9:55. Oh no. I only had five minutes to get to the lecture! I stood up quickly and  basically ran out of the café, all while telling Hunk, Lance, and Pidge why I had to leave.

My motorcycle was still at the apartment, so I had to run to the school. It was only four blocks away, but I was still going to be late. I ran down the streets, and almost got hit by a car as I crossed a street. As I ran up to the building, I checked my watch, which read that it was 9:59. One minute. I managed to run into the room just as the clock hit 10:00. Phew. I made it.

"Buenos dias, víctimas!" The professor said as I sat down. (He said that at the start of every class. This wasn't Spanish, but he was from Venezuela and those who didn't know Spanish soon learned what it meant.) The professor started talking, and I soon doodled more feathers were on my arm.

- - -

It was five minutes after 12 when I arrived home, so I still had an hour before going to work. I decided to ride to an area of the city with less people, where I could go for a quick flight without being seen. I parked my motorcycle near Fitler Square, and walked down a few streets to the small park nearby. Luckily, there was no one there at the time. I hid behind a bush, took off my shirt(because of the wings) transformed, and flew up through the trees.

Most of the houses here were row houses, with red bricks and different colored doors. I flew just over these, looking around the neighborhood as I don't come here very often. (Though it was a good place to relax and draw.) I reached a house that had a large chimney on the roof, and landed there. I lay down on the roof, using my wings as a headrest, and looked up at the clouds. I fidgeted with the feathers on my tail, and ran my finger down one of them. They were soft, but also bristle in the other direction.

After maybe ten minutes, I heard some voices from the street. My heart rate went up a bit, and I crawled onto the other side of the roof to avoid being seen. As I did so, some snow fell off of the roof. I swore to myself when the people noticed.

"What was that?" One of them said.
The other responded with "I'm not sure," and then, "I saw something move on that roof. .... It looked....purple..."

As they said this my heart rate went up even more and I backed further down the other side of the roof. As I stepped back, my foot landed on an icy spot. Fu—I slipped, falling down onto the street. Right where I could be seen.

I panicked when I saw someone on the street, staring right at me. So I did the first thing I could think of in this situation; I flew away. As quick as I could. I heard a gasp and footsteps behind me, but I didn't care. I didn't care where I was going, I just had to get away from there, from whoever had seen me. They must think I'm a monster. Like what my father thought.

I glanced behind me, hoping that I had gotten away from them. They were still chasing me, so I turned a corner, and then another, and another. I over my shoulder to see if they were still there. No one. Phew.

But, I also wasn't looking where I was going. Before I knew it I crashed into a wall, and heard something shatter as I did so.
There were pieces of glass at my feet when I looked down. I looked up(which hurt to do) and of course I happened to crash into a mosaic mural that was on the street. I rubbed my head, to try to ease the pain. (It obviously didn't work too well) I tried standing up, and everything hurt. Walking(limping) into a nearby alleyway, I plucked out a few long feathers from my tail. I didn't have any bandages, so feathers will have to do. There was blood on the snow where I stepped, and I had cuts all along my wings, legs, and arms. There was also one large cut on my right shoulder, that surely would leave a scar.
I transformed back to a human, and watched the purple disappear from my skin. I wrapped some of the cuts with feathers; they weren't much use but at least stopped the bleeding a little.

I glanced around the corner of the alley; luckily no one was there. I ran(well as fast as I could go at the moment, which wasn't very fast) down the block, trying to get back to the park where I left my sweatshirt. I was currently shirtless, freezing, and bleeding. And getting a little bit lightheaded, at that.

But, then I heard voices around the corner where I was headed.

"Ahh! Why does it have to be so cold?!"

Wait a second, I recognize that voice...

"We're almost at my house, Lance, just wait a minute."

That was Hunk and Lance! Oh no. And, from the next voice, it seemed like Pidge was there too. But, they were about to turn the corner, and I couldn't get away that quickly without my wings. And I couldn't be seen. Not by them.
I began to walk in the other direction, though I was getting very lightheaded. I glanced behind me, and sure enough, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge had turned down the street, and were walking in my direction. Of course, how could I forget that Hunk's house is in this neighborhood?! Why was I so stupid as to fly around here—

"Keith?" I heard Pidge say. I froze. Then, slowly, turned around.

"Hey," I said. The three of them stared at me, clearly surprised by my many cuts, and probably why I was shirtless too.

"Oh my goodness, what happened?!" Hunk said, rather loud.

"Yeah, where did you get all those cuts? And also why are you shirtless?" I needed an excuse. Something they would believe.

"I, uh, crashed my motorcycle. Yep. Right into a window..." As I said that, I suddenly felt as though I was going to faint. I rubbed my head, which still hurt exceptionally. When I pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood. I wavered, and found myself starting to fall. But, someone caught me, and sure enough it was Lance.

"Keith, don't worry you're gonna be okay," Lance said. His eyes showed that he was actually concerned. "Come on, let's go inside. Hunk, do you have bandages?"

"Thanks," I said weakly as I leaned against him. It was like that the whole walk to Hunk's house.

A/N:
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Just a few notes:
I'm not in college yet, so for that scene I wasn't really sure how to write it, and as you can see I mostly tried to avoid writing about that. So, I hope I did okay with that.
Also, I've left a few hints (mostly in this chapter) about what city they live in. Can anyone guess? It'll be more obvious as the story continues, and I promise I'll say it at some point XD

Anyways, thanks again for reading!
~Soni