Disturbed Utopia

The Confusion.

Lance felt at peace. His alarm tried to pull him from his slumber yet he felt too comfortable to care.

Yesterday was a long day and had made him tired beyond belief. Meetings, studying, socializing, kidnapping...

"Kidnapped!" Lance shouted and sprung out of the bed. He looked around, taking in his current surroundings. He knew this place. He was home. But how did he get there? The last thing he remembered was being drugged by some guy... some guy called Akira? "Shit! Fuck!" What was he to do? Report this? But how would they go through with the investigation? He knew nothing; had no helpful information.

Lance decided the first thing he would do, was call in and request a sick day and rid himself of this burden of tiredness.

...

Lance awoke to the sound of his phone once again. Yet this time it was his ringtone.
He reached over to his phone on the desk next to his bed. He didn't bother looking at who was calling, and answered with an abrupt "what?"

"You're sick. Do you need me to come and help you or take care of you? What's wrong?" It was Shiro.

Lance sighed and sat up. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I will come over right now if you need me to"

"Are you sure you're not doing this just so I vote for you to be our leader?" Lance replied, sounding a lot more bitter than he had intended.

"I'm sure I am actually worried. Please Lance, just tell me if you need me to take care of you,"

Lance knew that he was fine, he wasn't actually sick after all. But he must keep up the charade. "Actually, I would prefer Allura come take care of me. I mean, she could check my temperature, make me chicken soup, massage my fe—"

"That's enough Lance. You sound well enough. Allura is very busy today and if you're okay I have other things to do. Goodbye, see you tomorrow."

Just before Shiro hung up something popped into his. Something the Akira told him to say. "Wait!! Shiro, there actually is something really important that we need to discuss. It's the actual reason I took a sick day,"

Shiro was quiet. He was unsure whether or not this was serious. "Fine. I'll be over there in the next hour."

"Don't you need my address?"

"No. I can just look your details up. How do you think I got your number?"

...

"Okay, what is it?"

Shiro and Lance currently sat in Lance's lounge room. They sat on the couch, each holding a mug of coffee since Lance knew it was only common courtesy to offer a drink to guests.

"So, last night when I was walking home I was drugged and kidnapped," Lance says matter of factly, sounding more casual than he probably should.

"Is this a joke? I don't have time for this."

"No! I'm being dead serious. I was terrified!"

Shiro was unsure how to react. He didn't know if he could believe him with how casual he was acting, but what if he wasn't joking? This is some serious shit. Everyone knew the risks of being on the council, but this happening so soon seems unplausible.

"What happened?"

"Well, I was in this room that I have never seen before, and someone was talking to me over these speakers. This guy came to drug me again wearing a hood covering their face. And really the only thing I remember being said was, 'Tell Shiro Akira says' says something... says something like 'verbit sa?' I have no idea what it means."

Shiro looked shocked. He had no idea how to go from here. His face was frozen.

"Um... 'vrepit sa' ?"

"Yes! That's it! What does it mean?"

"It... is a saying. And are you sure Akira is the one that said this?"

"Yeah. Who is he?"

"It... was Keith."

Lance stood, shocked, "KEITH?! He was the one that kidnapped me?! Why did he say Akira? What?! I don't understand!"

Shiro sighed and put his mug down on the coffee table. "Look, I can't tell you anything besides that. Just... if you see him again, tell him I want to speak to him alone."

"Okay... wait. I thought Keith was with the Blade of Mormora against his will? How is he able to do things so freely?"

"I have no idea." Shiro stood to take leave, "But all I know is that we have more to worry about than just gang wars."

Shiro walked to the front door and put his hand on the doorknob. He stopped and took a quite look around at Lance's lounge room. "Look, I am aware you live alone, so if you ever need company, I'm here," he gave a tight smile then left without saying goodbye.

Lance felt as if this discussion was much too quick, Shiro was much too eager to leave.

He was confused. He had no idea what had happened, he knew he knew those eyes, but for them to belong to Keith? That was a surprise. Lance was sure he would never see the idiot ever again in his life.

Lance knew Keith as his competition, and nothing more. Keith always was on the top of their year level, everybody was jealous. But their rivalry really started when one day in P.E.; Lance had always excelled in that class; he tended to be taller than everyone and was well acquainted with how his body moved. But Keith was always right there. Just beating him, always doing so well, always having the teachers praise him. God, he pissed Lance off.

But he really topped the cake during a game of good old 'Basketball.' Keith and Lance were on the same team, so Lance had no doubt in his mind their team would win. Except Keith seemed to think this wasn't a team game. He kept keeping the ball to himself, barely passing it to team members. He shot most of the goals. All as if he didn't believe anyone else good enough for him.

When the other team scored they cheered, but Keith was beyond mad. He had the audacity to call the team together and tell them that they needed to concentrate and do better.
Lance had enough.

"We could help more if you just trusted us and passed the bloody ball!" He yelled. Too loudly, too angrily.

Keith narrowed those purple eyes of his, "Fine. I'll pass more, but you better be ready."

Lance took that as a challenge, and in his mind from then on, everything with Keith was a challenge he had to win.