Stealing the World

Chapter Eight: Laser Tag

Lance hurriedly put on a graphic tee and ran out the door.
Him and Matt were gonna be late to meet the gang. They were going to the most popular burger joint, then to the arcade. He hopped into the passenger seat of Matt's Mazda, where his roommate was waiting for him in the driver's seat. "Floor it!" Lance yelled. Matt looked blankly at him for a second, then rolled his eyes and started driving.
Once they got to the burger joint, otherwise known as "Noxzela's Burgers", the group was ecstatic that they could finally go in and eat after waiting on Lance and Matt. Once they entered the building, Lance was overwhelmed by the smell of burgers and fried appetizers. It kind of reminded him of all the little resturaunts on the beach back at home. His personal favorite was the pizza shack because of the garlic knots.
After ordering, they all sat at a table for six. Lance got the seat closest to window, Hunk across from him, Pidge by Hunk, Matt by Pidge, Shiro across from Matt, and Keith by Lance.
"I'm just saying, I think Breath of the Wild has been a pretty good addition to the Zelda series," Hunk stated through a mouthful of fries. "But you can't deny how truly ICONIC the previous games have been," Pidge argued. Lance rolled his eyes. Pidge and Hunk had been in an argument about whether Breath of the Wild was a formidable game compared to the previous games.
"So Shiro," Matt smacked his food. "How's it going with your... giiiiirlfriieeeend?"  Lance almost choked on his food at Shiro's expression. "Don't tease me about it," He defended himself. Lance heard a small grumble from Keith. He looked over to see the dark-haired boy kept his gaze down and had an angry expression on his face. Lance could tell he wasn't happy about the whole "Shallura" thing, as everyone else called it. Lance knew how he felt.
His parents had split up a few months after he went to college, and in just a matter of a few months, his mother was already in an intimate reltionship with some guy from her work. Lance had felt almost abandoned with how quickly his mother had gotten over the divorce. Everyone else living in the McClain household did, too.
Lance realized he had been staring at Keith when the other boy looked up to meet his gaze. He quickly looked away and focused his vision on the burger sitting in front of him.
"You okay, Lance?" Lance almost jumped up in his seat when someone's words startled him. He looked over everyone's expressions at the table. They were all focused on him, and had worry. He didn't even realize he had been looking worried. "I'm fine," He assured them. They didn't look any less worried. "I'm fine!" He repeated. This time they looked a little more convinced. Excpet Keith. He still had a concerned expression, but entually pulled his gaze away.
After everyone was done eating, they went to the arcade down the block. Lance could barely keep his excitement inside as they entered the arcade. He was bouncing up and down until he got warning glances from Keith and Shiro that made him simmer down. Lance LOVED the arcade. It was one of his favorite places to be. Other then the beach, of course. All you had to do was play games, and just have fun. First thing they had to do: Laser Tag. Definitely Lance's favorite game in the arcade. It was good there was an even amount of them, because it was teams of two. First thing they had to do when they entered the small preperation room was pick teams. Immediately, Matt and Pidge picked each other so they could use their sibling-genius-strategies or whatever. Hunk picked Shiro, because he thought it would give him a better chance at winning. That left lance and Keith. The Holt siblings were the Green Team, Hunk and Shiro were the Yellow Team, and Lance and Keith were the Purple Team. Lance wanted to be blue and Keith wanted red, so they just decided to go purple because it was a mixture of both of them. They all lined up at the door to go into the huge arena. There was an employee who had a name tag that said Brittney.
"You have twenty-five minutes in there," She told them. "Make the most of it!" With that, the doors swung open to reveal the arena. Lance was immedistely overcome with excitement. He grabbed Keith's hand **It's not gay yet but don't worry** and pulled him to their base. They needed to make a battle plan. "Listen," Lance snapped to get Keith's attention. "So first, we need to take out the Green Team. They'll try to use their smarts to to win. So they're definitely our biggest competition. I think, we go to their base, and I'll be waiting right outside it to ambush them. You just need to lure them out, then I attack. Sound good?" Keith looked at him blankly. "I just want you to know, you think about this kind of stuff WAY too hard," "You got a better plan?" Lance retorted. Keith paused. "It... actually is a good plan." Lance smiled at him smugly. "Trust me, I know. Now, let's go!"
Lance Naruto-ran out of the base and across the arena, close to the Green Team's base. "I can't beleive you heckin' Naruto-ran!"  Keith said, exasperated. Lance rolled his eyes. "You just wouldn't understand, Keith. Anime is truly an art. Now, all you need to do is go over there to where they can see you, and do something to lure them out so I can take 'em out!" "Well, what do I do to distract them?" Keith asked him.
I don't think he plays Laser Tag very often... Lance thought. That was the only way Keith could act so clueless on the matter. "I don't know, just do something!" Lance hissed, and pushed Keith out into the middle of a huge clearing to where he could be seen by Pidge and Matt. Keith turned back to Lance and shrugged. Lance face-palmed, and gave Keith a look that said, Fine! I'll do it myself!  Lance took a deep breath and cupped his hands around his mouth, and let out the loudest rendition of the Yodeling Kid Song he had ever done. He knew it would make Pidge absoloutely lose her marbles, making her vulnerable. "LANCE I SWEAR!" Pidge shouted, to no direction in perticular. Lance giggled to see Pidge and Matt so confused. Until they spotted Keith. "There!" Matt shouted pointing at Keith. Lance knew they would try to take him out.
Nope, not today, Holts!  Lance slid out to the clearing to cover Keith, and the two boys made a short eye contact and already knew what to do. It was like their eyes had a short conversation.
Sorry I'm useless in Laser Tag.
It's fine! Just cover me!
Fine.
They stood back to back, so nobody could take them out from behind. They were prepared to defend themselves, until Pidge and Matt just left. They scattered out of the clearing like rats. Lance and Keith broke apart and looked around in confusion. "Where'd they go?" Keith asked. Lance was just about to ask the same thing. Then, he saw a flash of green through the cardboard obstacles throughout the arena. "There!" He shouted to Keith, subtly pointing to the figure that was one of the Holts, he couldn't tell which one. He saw they were aiming at Keith, and Lance, being the sharpshooter he had always wanted to be, quickly drew his gun and shot at them, disabling their gun for a minute. That was one point for Team Purple, and only about three minutes into the game. "Nice shot," Keith complimented him. Lance smiled at him. "Guess we make a pretty good team, huh?" A soft smile grew on Keith's face.
Maybe he's not so bad after all... Lance thought. It might be true, or it might just be the adrenaline from victory. It was probably just the excitement getting to him, but this stupid mullet-dude didn't seem so bad after all.

AUTHORS NOTE
Wow this chapter wwas long. Hope you guys liked it!! It was really fun to write, and, as you can see, their relationship is growing a bit!! Yay!! Anyway, hope you're liking the story so far, and thank you for making it this far!!