"Are you ready?" Katie asked. "The others are already here." She jumped out of the car and ran into the laser tag place. Hunk and Lance quickly followed after her. When they found her, she was already hugging a group of people. "Ahhh, I missed you guys!" Being crushed in her arms were Keith and two girls. Shiro and Matt were standing behind them.
Keith patted the top of her head. "Happy birthday-"
"Thanks."
"-but why didn't you tell me you were inviting Alex?" Keith asked.
Katie smirked, "Cause then you might run away. Also, I like your outfit. It's about time you wore it." She gestured behind her, "Lance is here." And indeed he was. Katie clapped her hands, "Alright! Since we're all here, let's head in." She walked up to the counter. "All eight members for Pidge's fifteenth birthday are here."
"Okay." A bored looking employee with dark pink hair and piercings stood up. "Follow me, please." She led them into a dark room with benches and a single screen. "Please pay attention to the safety information." She started the video and stood on the side of the room, phone in hand.
Lance sat down next to Keith. "Hey, um, what are you wearing?"
"S-Something Katie picked for me," the Korean boy responded, face flushing. "Does it look bad?"
"No." Lance responded with a soft whisper in his ear. "You look great, actually."
Neither one of them said anything else. The video was over and the employee was speaking again. "Please split yourselves into two teams of four."
"Okay, I will be leading one team, and Matt will have the other." Katie put her hands on her hips. "We'll be picking names out of a bag." She pulled a tiny cloth bag out of her bag. "I will pick first since it's my birthday." She took out a folded piece of paper. Matt pulled out one after her, and they each took two more. "Okay, on my team is Keith, Alex, and Lori." Katie jumped up, "Ha!" She whispered something to Matt, who just smirked.
Matt put his papers in his pocket. "Shiro, Hunk, and Lance are on my team."
The pink-haired girl opened a door. "Please come this way to get your vests."
"We're red!" Katie yelled. The eight picked their vests and looked at the names. "Oh, cool!" Katie smirked, "I'm Talon."
Keith held up his gun to read the display, "Cyclone."
"Firestorm." Alex struck a pose.
Lorika looked at her gun. "Typhoon."
The red team turned to look at the other four.
"I'm Blaze," Matt looked at his.
Shiro looked slightly confused. "Slicer?"
"Mine says Thunder." Hunk shrugged.
Lance made a peace sign over his eye, "Bombshell."
"Um, okay then." Katie walked into the play area.
The employee called out, "Red base to the right, blue base to the left!"
The groups split up. The four red team members were huddled in a square. "Okay, so here's what I'm thinking." Katie pretended to draw a plan in the dirt. "Lori stays on defense, while the three of us head out. Alex and I will go to the upper piece and snipe off anyone that tries to go past us. Keith will get to the base and shoot the alarm. Sound good?"
The other three nodded. A voice came through the speakers. "The game will begin in three seconds. Three... Two... One. Start!"
Keith dashed off first, Alex and Katie following along behind him. Once the three were on top of the bridge-like structure, they regrouped. Katie pointed over the wall. "Okay, Keith, I would go along the right side since there's more windows to shoot through. Stay low, though."
He nodded and went down the stairs. It was oddly quiet in the section he was passing through, although he heard Pidge yelling angrily at Matt on the other side. Then it happened. He saw Lance coming, but he wasn't firing, which was odd. His arms wrapped around Keith and suddenly they were kissing. Keith could've sworn he saw his brain burning and he was dying because dear god Lance was kissing him.
He was pressed against the wall, gun still in his hand, Lance's arms around him and his stupid itchy vest. Lance's warm fingers touching the side of his freezing cold stomach. In this whirlwind of surprise Keith wasn't thinking about the game or what the consequences would be or what if someone was watching or how Pidge was going to kick his sorry butt if he didn't get to their base, he was just thinking about Lance and his pretty face and soft lips and-
Lance pulled away, gun swinging, and bang! Keith's lights went out. "Sorry, love." Lance smirked and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Duty comes first." He ran off the way Keith had come, out of sight. A moment passed and then Lance could be heard angrily yelling "Chanclas!"
"Don't distract my soldiers, McClain!" Katie yelled back.
Keith recovered from his flushed, heavily breathing state and dashed off toward the blue base. His gun was now glowing a bright red again and he pointed it forward. He saw Hunk's glowing vest through a window in one of the obstacles, and he quickly pulled down on the trigger. A cry of surprise came from Hunk a couple seconds later. Keith kept going. There was the base, a bright blue light glowing on the ceiling. Shiro turned toward him, but he was a little too slow. Keith had already pressed the trigger. The lights on Shiro's vest went out.
He kept running. He passed under the alarm and shot three times. An alarm played for five seconds before it stopped again. Keith shot Shiro one more time and took off. In a couple seconds, he was back on the bridge. "I got it."
Alex shot Matt again and turned back around to smirk at Keith. "Did you have fun?"
"What are you talking about?"
Alex shared a glance with Katie. "Oh, nothing, never mind." She got up and made her way down the stairs toward the blue side.
"What was she talking about?" Keith asked.
Katie leaned over the side and shot Hunk over the obstacles. "I can't tell if you're being serious or not. It's just the game, but there's always a second layer."
He decided to stop asking.
"Surprise!" Lance had come up the other side.
Keith got up and started running, Katie following behind him. The two turned right toward the blue base. The alarm started ringing on that side and they split up. The red alarm went off a second after. Keith moved along the left side, seeing a flash of a blue jacket. He fired and crouched down. An angry yell was heard a moment later, and he realized that he had shot Shiro... again.
"I'm back," a voice sang in his ear.
Keith whirled around, already pulling on the trigger. "Not today, Satan!" He got up and started running again. Katie was already firing at the alarm, and it went off again. She took off and was out of sight a second later. He ran forward, lunging behind an obstacle, and shot Hunk as he passed. He fired three times, successfully making the alarm go off a fourth time, before running back in the direction of the red base. Keith made it back to the base safely, after shooting Matt twice on the way, to see that the other three members of his team were also there. "So what's the plan now?"
Katie eyed the passage behind him. "Now... the plan is to wait it out. We're in the lead so we might as well wait for them to get here." And so they waited.
But by the time the blue team was within their sights, the match was already over. "Please leave the playing area to see your final scores."
The eight walked back out to the second room, taking off their glowing vests, before heading back into the main part of the arcade. Katie and Alex high-fived. "We won!"
Katie took out her phone and took a picture of the screen. "Welp, guess I win." She turned to Lorika, "Lori, do you want us to wait for you to be picked up?"
The girl in question shook her head. "No, it's fine." She leaned forward and hugged Katie. "Happy birthday, kiddo. Your present is at your house."
"C'mon, let's go guys!" Katie started running toward the door. "Food awaits! I'll go with Hunk and Lance. Shiro can drive Keith, Alex, and Matt."
And so the two groups split ways again to head off to the Holt's house. Although the game was over, Keith still felt like he was playing. What would happen if he went with A? Or what if he picked move B? His thoughts were so alive, overwhelmed, barely thinking about anything as he followed the others out to the parking lot. The only thing on his mind was the kiss, and oh dear god, what did it mean?
Well would you look at this 1.5K monster