#i'm scheduling this from right before US thanksgiving so i guess if I can fix the hair i'll just replace it stealthily haha... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

poor-sickies · 5 years

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hey I'm the anon who asked for braces Lance, i was thinking maybe he had to get when he's like nineteen and feels kinda upset about having them so late when usually people get them in middle or high school? And idk he just feels self conscious and uncomfortable, plus he's hurting, so Keith tries to distract him because he went through having braces too?

Ahh this is such an old request and I’m so sorry I’m only writing it now! It was kind of a quick thing, so I hope there aren’t any mistakes. It’s also a fic that happens in my band AU. I hope you like it!

Also kudos to @cinquefoilelove who left some replies that gave me ideas for this one :)

“Can I come in?”

It’s Keith voice from the other side of the door, and despite their usual and familiar bickering, Lance can be sure he hasn’t come to make fun of him.

But he still wants to be alone.

He knows he’s probably making a big deal out of this – and really, it’s not even that bad, all things considered. All in all, it’s nothing worse than a simple teenage drama, in Lance’s opinion.

Except he isn’t really a teenager anymore, he’s nineteen, and nineteen year olds shouldn’t be getting braces.

It had started with some dull pains in his lower jaw, the joint clicking each time he opened his mouth, getting worse and worse until he was avoiding eating and singing because of the discomfort.

While visiting his family on Thanksgiving, his parents had noticed the problem and dragged him to a dentist. The outcome was…not pleasant. Something about a bad positioning of his jaw that needed to be fixed? Lance can’t recall the details over the dread filling his stomach, but the only solution was braces, and he was not happy.

And just because some days just kept getting worse, this morning, on his way to the dentist, he receives a call from Hunk, about a last-minute scheduled show Allura had got for them tonight, at the local University bar.

Two hours later, returning from the dentist, and he’s starting to wonder if he’s brave enough to go through with the show at all.

Just talking feels difficult enough, with all the wires and foreign pieces muddling his speech, and the new sores around his cheeks and tongue stinging at every little movement of his mouth. Not to mention the annoying and constant pressure all over his gums and jaw. If Lance had the night to himself, he would probably head to bed right after dinner with a couple of painkillers and hope it all felt a little better tomorrow.

The prospect of singing for fifty people isn’t nearly as appealing as usual when he’s in this much pain.

And looking in the mirror only reminded him of why this all had bothered him so much in the first place.

It’s no secret to anyone that Lance puts a lot of effort in his appearance. Even before stepping up as frontman of the band, his image has always been something he pays a lot of attention to. And even though he’s seen a lot of cute girls that look adorable in braces, he’s wasn’t exactly confident about how it all would look on him.

Now that he has the answer, he feels an urge to hide any mirror in sight.

How is he supposed to talk to his fans? To sing for them? He feels so unattractive and awkward, and not even his upbeat personality will help. Lance’s confidence is enough when he’s wearing his best shirts, glowing skin, crooked smirk that leaves the girls swooning, but that’s where most of it comes from.

He doesn’t care if his mother said he looked fine, these braces make him feel awkward and young all over again. He doesn’t know if he’s more embarrassed about the way he looks or the extent to which he’s taking this drama, but either way, he wants to be alone.

So no, the last thing he wants to do is to talk, even with Keith.

“I wanna be alone.”

But Keith was nothing if not persistent. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and open the damn door.”

And brutally honest, for that matter.

Lance opens the door and Keith goes in, quickly taking a seat on the edge of the bed, his arms crossed against his chest.

“So,” he starts, “you wanna talk about it?”

Lance sits cross legged in the floor, leaning against the bed. “You just told me to stop feeling sorry for myself.”

Keith is caught off guard for a moment. He was expecting Lance to just spill things out, like he usually did, but apparently, this was getting to him a bit more than usual.

“I- look, I’m just trying to help, okay? Talking usually makes you feel better, right? So talk to me.”

“It’s uncomfortable,” Lance sighs, looking down at his lap, “and my speech is all fucked up, and my tongue is cut up all over, and my teeth hurt and - it looks bad. I look like a middle school kid. It just looks so awkward…so yeah, that’s it. You happy now?”

“I think you’re being dramatic,” Keith says, “I mean, I get the pain, I’ve been there - your teeth are moving, of course it’s gonna hurt for a while - but you don’t need to feel self-conscious about it. Besides, you’re only wearing them for like… a year, is it?” Lance nods, looking down, and Keith carries on. “Try wearing them for three years, maybe then you’ll have a reason to sulk.”

Well. It’s nothing he hadn’t expected from Keith. Trust Keith to be blunt.

“You had braces for that long?” He manages to ask.

Keith nods, eyes rolling involuntarily at the unpleasant memories. “Yeah. It sucked. I’d show you pictures if I had them - I’m sure you’d feel a lot better about yourself after seeing them.”

“That bad?”

“Oh yeah,” Keith continues, “Yours look somewhat discrete, actually.”

Lance scoffs. “Yeah, they sure are really invisible,” he trails off sarcastically.

Keith sighs. This isn’t working so well.

“Do you remember last summer when you were drunk and Pidge convinced you to get a death hawk for that rock festival, and you shaved half of your head?”

“Wow Keith, is that how you’re trying to make me feel better? By bringing up all the times I looked freaking terrible?”

“Would you just hear me out?!” Keith interrupts loudly, clinging to every last ounce of patience he still has. “Do you remember what you said at the time? The next day, when you saw yourself in the mirror?”

“That I would hide in my room and never see the sunlight again…?”

“Exactly. But you got over it. Do you remember why?”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Uh, cause… hair grows back?”

“No. Because you get used to it,” Keith says, “look, I’ve been there, okay? I know how much it sucks. But I can promise you, it’s not always gonna feel like that. And honestly, people don’t care that much.”

“Ugh. I hate it when you actually sound reasonable.” Lance sighs. “Alright. I’ll try to keep positive. And hope the show doesn’t go terribly.”

Keith chuckles with a fond smile. “Now will you come? We still have to get some dinner before.”

“Ah, that’s gonna be fun..” Lance rolls his eyes, and gets up. “Let’s get moving.”

“Hm. I see you’ve added something,” Shiro says as Lance takes a seat beside him, at their usual table at the bar.

“Yeah,” Lance chuckles, still looking down, “lucky me.”

“Oh Lance,” Allura says, “you have such a nice smile. I’m certain that’s what people notice right away.”

“I - thanks, Allura,” Lance blushes, feeling better for the first time since the day started.

“So, we were talking,” Pidge says, “and we agreed that if you’re not feeling up to it, Keith can do the vocals for most of the songs and hand you the guitar for a while.”

Keith nods, fingers still busy tuning the strings on his guitar.

“My voice is working fine,” Lance explains, “I can still do it.”

“Yeah, but we know it’s not comfortable yet, so just let us know if you need to stop, okay? And maybe take a painkiller.” Hunk reassures, giving a gentle squeeze to Lance’s forearm.

“The show starts in half an hour, we should probably have dinner now,” Shiro points out.

“Oh good, they have those amazing burritos, I’ll be set for the night!” Hunk grins, before calling the waiter.

“Ugh, guess I’ll order some water then,” Lance grumbles, rubbing his cheek, “ice cold.”

“Aw, buddy,” Hunk looks over at him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “you should really eat something before the show…did you even eat lunch?”

The waiter stops at the table and starts taking note of Keith and Pidge’s orders.

“Maybe some scrambled eggs?” Shiro suggests, leaning closer. He then turns to the waiter, “make them soft.”

Lance manages to eat, slowly and carefully. The painkiller starts kicking in, and the pain isn’t as bad, but talking is still uncomfortable, and he really doesn’t want to imagine how singing will turn out. The thought gives him some unusual stage fright, and it’s not a sensation he likes. He puts down his fork, and tries to relax. He’s done this dozens of times. Why is he so anxious now? The stage is usually his happy place, and it really sucks that such a tiny problem is making him feel like this.

“Hey, Lance,” Pidge calls out, tapping his shoulder. “Calm down. Your leg is bouncing like crazy.”

“I – yeah. Sorry Pidge.”

“Oh, I think we have to go now. The stage is set up,” Shiro announces, and they all get up, walking to the back to get ready.

“It’s okay, Lance,” Pidge says, plugging her bass to the amplificator, slinging the strap around her neck. “It’s gonna be fine. You’re an amazing singer. How terrible can you be? And why does it matter if it doesn’t go well? I mean, we’ve done tons of great shows, it’s not a huge deal if this one doesn’t go that great. Just relax and have fun, like you always do. That’s usually what makes our songs great.” She argues. “Besides,” she lowers her voice with a sly smile, “this place doesn’t have amazing acoustics. So even if you mess up some words, the crowd will most likely not notice. You’ll be great.”

That’s some kid of security Lance can lean on. He trusts his bandmates. This is not some new situation. He just needs to relax and have fun. Feeling revigorated, he nods. “Thanks, Pidge. Let’s do this.”

#vld #lance #band au #fanfic #a writes #m #ask

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vickisventures · 2 years

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Is it REALLY winter?

Sunset at Roadhaven

Our work schedule has changed more times in the last 2 weeks than I've changed socks. (Not really!) But it has been a work in progress. We think we may have the final winner as of yesterday and it will take effect on Monday. We will no longer be working in Hospitality. I'm not sure they ever really wanted us there. The lady in charge always felt like since we weren't residents, then we couldn't make the impact with prospective owners that people who live here could. In ways, she is right. She has also had several people volunteer that she didn't have spots for because of our need for hours so our leaving Hospitality will help. So...what will we be doing? We are back to what we know the most: Office and Maintenance. We will work Monday-Friday from 8:30-1:30. I will be in the activities office helping the activity director since she doesn't have an assistant this year. She is the main reason for the schedule change. She was really needing more help and they said they had plenty to keep Steve busy in maintenance, so there you have it! I liked having a weekday off but getting off at 1:30 will help if we need to schedule an appointment or something.

They finally widened the driveway of our site. It’s still tight but I can now park the truck by myself.

We have already talked to the general manager about returning next winter. He is good with it. We know it's early and we may change our minds but as I've mentioned before, deals like we have here are few and far between. I still want to try and find a way to winter in Mexico but for now, this will work!

It's hard to believe next week is Thanksgiving. Nice weather, like we've been having here, makes it difficult to remember what season we are in. We plan to spend Thanksgiving at my brother's house in Surprise.

We haven't gotten really into any activity or club here. Every time we run into someone who is a big club supporter, they want to recruit us. What they don't seem to grasp is that we are not like everyone else here whose main job every day is to get out of bed. I am not bashing retirees; if anything, I am jealous. But I don't want to pay $25-40 and not be able to enjoy the club benefits due to our work schedule. We did play a little pickleball on our day off. There are open court times for members and non-members. Two guys were playing on the court next to us and asked if we wanted to play so we played a couple of games against them (and won!)

2 weeks later-

I started a blog and then never got it together to send out, so I guess I’ll just add to it now. We are now fully into our newest schedule. It is working out well. Steve has kept busy outside painting, shoveling rocks and trimming greenery. I am enjoying working in the activity office. Some of the “rules” are different but it is much like the job I had last winter at Mesa Regal, so it’s not hard. I just have to learn how the director wants things done. Most of the time, the day flies by. I usually don’t get off at 1:30 because she wants me to close out the register and make the bank deposit and I usually can’t start that until close to 1:30, but it’s just more money in our bank account!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Brian’s. It was a small affair but the food and company were good. We played some cornhole after lunch and watched a lot of football. We will spend Christmas with them as well! We put up our tree and lights so we are ready!

Steve is still trying to get some help with the RV costs. It has been stressful for him trying to deal with Keystone and Lippert (the hydraulics manufacturer). No one wants to help...either it's been too long or we are the 2nd owner. We got a little help from Lippert but most of the cost will come from our pockets. We just hope that it fixes the problem. And then now, we have a truck leak that appears to be the radiator. So it's going to the shop Thursday to have that problem diagnosed. Not sure what is up, but we have had more car/RV troubles in the last 3 years than we ever had in a 3 year stretch back in Amarillo. Just trying to remember that God has got this!

Things have gone backwards here. We are back to wearing masks at work. The General Manager got Covid and then the communications manager did along with her husband who works in maintenance. Then another office worker got it…and so Monday, they shut down the front office completely so everyone could quarantine for a week and hopefully stop the spread. There are some residents who have it as well but I’m not sure how many. Thankfully, we have been spared in the activity office so we are still working and hopefully we will stay that way (no work=no pay). Sometimes I think the activity director would like things to close down so it would be easier on her, but I keep telling her to bite her tongue. So far, they haven’t cancelled anything (except the Christmas staff party) and they are only suggesting that the residents wear masks in buildings. We have to wear ours when at work around residents. I’m hoping we’ll get a hold on this thing and get back to where we were last week. I was enjoying feeling “normal.”

I’ll end with a “Get Real” story: Every Tuesday, the office ladies take pictures of residents who need new badges. (The old ones don’t have their pictures on it.) Well, today they had to cancel that since the front office ladies are at home. A guy came in and wanted to know how he could get his picture taken and I explained that it would have to be when the office was reopened. He heatedly explained that he’d take the day off from his regularly scheduled golf game to get his picture taken and said it would now have to wait until next year because he wasn’t going to do it again. Tracy, the activity director, gave her a piece of her mind and I also got in my two cents saying this wasn’t planned and no one wanted to have to close the office, but he would still need to come in and get his picture taken when they returned. I told him that he could either miss a golf game or could play another day. He said he wasn’t going to do it. I mean, seriously?!? He’s retired…how big of a deal would it be to take 30 minutes out of a single Tuesday to get his picture taken? Some people!

#workcamping #full time rving

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