Note: Sorrrrry I'm so late to publishing a new chapter. School is kicking my butt. Anyway, I hope you like it!
Shiro~
Shiro opened his eyes drearily, blinking as the sharply bright light hit his face.
Noo, Shiro thought to himself. He didn't want to open his eyes to that horrible light.
"Shiro?" Keith was calling.
"What," Shiro groaned, refusing to open his eyes.
"We should leave in five minutes or so. Are you ready?"
"For what?" Shiro mumbled, too tired to think about what he was doing.
"For school? Y'know…. Don't you have Astronomy today?"
Shiro made himself roll over, squinting to get his eyes opened.
His head was pounding and his stomach felt like it was sloshing with acid… which it was… being a stomach.
He couldn't think.
He rubbed his eyes absently, sitting up yawning. He blinked and ran a hand through his short hair, trying to work up the motivation to stand. He picked up his phone, which was on the bedside table, and clicked it open to check the time.
7:06
Shit. Shiro swore in his head. He bounded to his feet and took two large steps towards his closet to get dressed before his legs gave out on him and he fell flat onto his face with a loud thud.
"Shiro?" he heard Keith yell. "Are you okay in there?"
Shiro didn't respond. His face hurt. His head hurt. Everything hurt.
He heard the door open and turned his head slightly to see Keith standing in the doorway. The hall lights behind Keith were too bright. He closed his eyes to try to settle the pounding in his head.
"Shiro!" Keith said, sounding like he was trying to suppress laughter. "What are you doing on the floor?"
"I died," Shiro grumbled into the carpet, refusing to get up.
Keith didn't make any remarks like Shiro had expected him to, instead he knelt down next to Shiro and offered him his hand. "Hey, buddy. Come on, let's stand you up."
Keith helped Shiro to stand up and held him steady once they were standing.
"I'm not surprised," Keith said with a chuckle, "Matt got you pretty drunk last night."
Really? Shiro thought. The idea surprised him. He had a vague, blurry memory of Matt handing him more wine last night even when he knew he should be done.
"Did…" Shiro started to ask and then decided against the idea. "What happened last night?"
Keith sighed and rubbed the back of his head… "Ummm… well… you got drunk… and then Matt took you… um home…"
Even in Shiro's delirious state, he knew that Keith wasn't telling the full is no way that Pidge and Matt and Lance would have settled for just letting Shiro act a little loopy. Instead they would prompt and force Shiro to act like a lunatic because he wouldn't be opposed to it.
"Keith… what did I do?" Shiro asked seriously.
"Just… I'll just let Pidge show you. That would be way easier."
"What?" Shiro moaned. "Pidge videoed me?"
"I did too but it was a really bad video so I deleted it." Keith stared off at the wall. Shiro was pretty sure that there was something Keith wasn't telling him but his head hurt too much to bother with prying. If he had done something stupid, he was sure that he would hear about it from the others.
Shiro sighed, "I need to get ready. I'll be out in just a moment."
Keith gave him a worried look but Shiro just waved him off, "I'm okay, Keith. I can stand on my own. I'll just have… a bit of a rough day."
"Okay…" Keith conceded reluctantly. "Tell me if you need help."
Shiro waited for him to leave and then he stood up and walked to his closet to get clothes. Even just the thought of tying a tie hurt his head. Shiro decided that he could not deal with dressing nicely. Buttoning polos, tying ties… he couldn't even do it in his head.
Instead he grabbed a black t-shirt that he suspected once had a decal on the front but was now so faded that the whole thing just looked black. Then, looking at his pants, he decided that he really didn't want to deal with wearing nice clothes and that he really didn't care.
He walked out of his room with his phone in his hand and headed towards the door.
"Shiro…." Keith said slowly. "You… you can't wear yoga pants… to teach…"
Shiro glanced at him and grabbed the keys, ready to head out.
"And… Shoes?" Keith said, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Right," Shiro sighed walking over to the closet and pulling out his pair of moccasins. He did not want to tie shoes or wear those uncomfortable dressy ones.
"Shiro...!" Keith said louder.
"What." Shiro deadpanned. He reached onto the counter and grabbed a pair of sunglasses, donning them as he turned back towards the door.
"Shiro… I'm not going to— you know what? Let me drive. Scratch that, Give me the keys, I'm driving," Keith snatched the keys from Shiro's hand, deciding not to argue with Shiro's fashion choices.
Shiro got into the passengers side of the car while Keith got in on the driver's side. Keith checked his phone one more time and then turned it off and set it to the side, starting the car to take them to school.
Shiro dozed for most of the drive, his head tilted back and pounding with every thought.
Keith rubbed his shoulder gently when they got there and Shiro opened his eyes, hissing at the light of the sun through his sunglasses.
"Come on, old man," Keith was smiling warmly as he pushed Shiro out the door. "Time for you to get to class."
Shiro turned around to head off and then he was pulled back by Keith once again. "And here," Keith said, "You might want this."
He handed Shiro his bag of teaching supplies.
"Keith…" Shiro said softly.
"I also put some fruit and water in there. Please drink water. We both know you are dehydrated."
Shiro nodded, feeling like a lectured two-year old.
"Can't I just burn this though?" Shiro asked as he looked down at the surplus of books and looseleaf papers. "And maybe myself? My brain feels like it is on fire."
"No, Shiro," Keith rolled his eyes. "You have to pretend that you want to be the responsible teacher in class."
"In sweatpants," Shiro added absently.
"Yeah…" Keith sighed. "Just… good luck.
Shiro waved to him and turned off towards where he thought his class was.
"This way!" Keith called pointing Shiro down the opposite hallway.
Shiro didn't respond. He refused to look at Keith.
It would be fine. He would be fine. He didn't have to worry….
He rubbed at his blurry eyes.
Yeah…. He didn't have to worry about his class….probably.
Keith has made a chat. Fantasy Dad
Keith: hey, guys… Just fyi, Shiro's really out of it.
Hunk: Oh no! Is he okay?
Keith: Yeah…?
Lance: well… after last night I would ve suprised if he wasntokay
Pidge: AND I RECORDED TI
Keith: so you DO still have the video?
Pidge: why wouldnt I
Pidge: what has I done to make you have such little faith
Hunk: Has?
Lance: they has the precioues. they must treasure the preciuses and keeps the preciouses away from the nasty blackmail deleteres.
Pidge: Yes. Wes likes the blackmails.
Pidge: they are the preicouses.
Hunk: Guys. Stop sounding like Gollum.
Keith: Sméagol is just a misunderstood character who needs to be comforted.
Pidge: KEith…. Pls dont tell me you have a fucking crush on that thing
Keith: first: ew
Keith: second: no
Keith: third: my love is Mothman.
Keith: fourth: duh
Lance: how long is this going to keep going?
Keith: fifth: you should know that I relate very deeply to Sméagol's loneliness.
Hunk: Once again, are you okay? And can I give you a hug?
Allura: What is going on here?
Keith: Shiro is so hungover.
Lance: dude… how bad's his headache
Keith: he woke up twentyfive mins ago
Keith: and fell on his face.
Matt: Who fell on whos face?
Keith: he doesnt look human either.
Matt: Guysssss what kind of shitty group chat is this this time
Pidge: the normal
Lance: yeah you really shouldnt' be suprised by us anymore
Keith: to answer your previous question: Shiro
Matt: Is he okay?
Pidge: ;)
Keith: define okay?
Matt: oh god
Matt: what's wrong
Keith: he's hungover.
Matt: howwww?
Allura: because he has literally zero tolerance.
Matt: I drank more than him and he literally got off the walls drunk and hungover?
Lance: yes, I would like to thank you for that.
Lance: fantasy dad was so beautiful last night.
Hunk: He was being Reckless!
Lance: i know
Lance: wasnt it amazing?
Pidge: yep.
Pidge: I only wish I could have recorded what happened on the way back to his houes
Allura: so… Shiro got drunk?
Lance: what happened on the way back?
Pidge: Ya kudos to Matt for making him drunk
Keith: Lance, I don't know but I know Matt was still there when I got home
Matt: Keith
Matt: we
Matt: don't
Matt: speak
Lance: ooooh
Matt: of
Hunk: What happened?
Matt: that?
Allura: Pidge, give me the dirt.
Pidge: you know I would
Pidge: but Matt would skin me alive
Matt: damn right I would
Lance: well now I really want to know what happened.
Pidge: ;)
Hunk: I feel like I should stay out of this
Lance: Keith… what was happening when you got home?
Lance: what did you hear
Keith: Um..
Keith: Not that.
Keith: But SHiro was asleep and Matt was imprisoned.
Matt: Keith.
Matt: Don't say another word
Matt: if you ever want me to keep my promise
Pidge: You know, I really love drama.
Lance: Me too, Pidge.
Shiro: 'sup bitches.
Matt: SHIRO?!
Hunk: What have you done with our Shiro?
Keith: this… is what I was tlaking about.
Lance: this isn't our fantasy dad. This is some fucked up clone of him.
Shiro: fuck fantasy dad
Shiro: dad dad s head hurst
Pidge: Matt? You dead yet?
Matt: …
Shiro: Joint the club
Lance: guyssss. I'm shook
Lance: Shooketh
Lance: Shiro is
Allura: swearing like a sailor?
Keith: No, you aren't imagining things.
Keith: Shiro, shouldn't you be teaching?
Shiro: no
Hunk: Shiro… that is literally your job?
Shiro: its nap time
Pidge: did I mention that I love drama?
Keith: Shiro? no? what?
Lance: Yaaay nap time.
Shiro: I gave them nap time.
Shiro: And they sounded ungrateful
Shiro: don't they know the importance of sleep
Matt: probably, but you are sleep deprived too
Pidge: WHAT THE HECKL
Pidge: SOME FUCKED UP COLLEGE GIDS DON"T APPRECIATE NAPS
Lance: I KNOW
Lance: what the heck is wrong with them
Keith: its the perfect time ot look up conspiracies.
Hunk: Normally, I would say that students should be working not napping, but sleep is also important.
Allura: Speaking of working, Hunk? Why are you texting while in class?
Hunk: because class hasn't started yet.
Lance: if the teacher is there 15 mins late the students can leave.
Keith: Of course you would know that.
Lance: you didn't?
Shiro: I want to leave.
Shiro: if I'm 15 mins late then I can leave
Keith: you already arrived Shiro
Shiro: or did I?
Keith:...
Lance: Well?
Lance: did you?
Shiro: I'm leaving.
Pidge: Can I go video tape Shiro all day?
Pidge: seriously.
Pidge: all day.
Hunk: No? Pidge? That would be stalking him and you should be in class anyway?
Pidge: im too smart for this class
Pidge: it's boring.
Shiro: guys
Shiro: the door is locked
Shiro: we're officially in a prison
Pidge: PRISON BREAK
Lance: PRISON BREAK!
Keith: Shiro, what have you done?
Shiro: I am trying to pick the lock but the students keep talking to me.
Matt: Shiro… are you okay? Are you still drunk?
Shiro: No.
Shiro: my head hurts
Shiro: My pain is always growing
Pidge: same.
Lance: IF WE HAVE APRISON ESCAPE
Lance: CAN WE RIOT
Keith: riot
Lance: YES, KEITH
Keith: I was meaning that to sound exciting
Keith: riot!
Lance: you can just feel the enthusaim wafting off of him
Keith: I've been waiting for a riot.
Keith: I have my knife
Shiro: I may want to get out of here and die, but Keith, no
Hunk: Yay! Responsible dad is back.
Shiro: No, fuck responsible dad.
Pidge: yay! Dead Dad is back!
Shiro: can you give me your knife Keith
Lance: why?
Shiro: I wanna break this lock
Keith: I would say yes
Keith: but I don't really want to let you free on this world.
Allura: Yeah… keep Shiro there. Make him rest.
Allura: I gotta go. See you guys at lunch.
Hunk: Me too.
Matt: I'm just quietly watching this conversation while taking notes.
Matt: Shiro, you need sleep.
Pidge: Of course Matt is the concerned one.
Matt: Pidge…
Pidge: Alright, Alright
Keith: Shiro, you really do need sleep.
Lance: yeah, you aren't able to break out so you might as well sleep.
Shiro: But sleep is for the WEAK. The fucking weak are the only ones who need sleep.
Matt: Shiro, I'm not disagreeing with you, but please sleep.
Keith: yeah….
Matt: is someone able to check on Shiro?
Lance: no.
Keith: Not really. Plus, I had him all morning.
Matt: alright.
Shiro: I don't need to be checked on.
Shiro: I can fall asleep whenever I want.
Matt: *sigh* I'm gonna go check on him.
Keith: report back pls
Lance: Yeah! I want to know how dad dad is doing.
Shiro: Dad dad is dead dead.
Matt: See, this is what I mean.
Shiro: Matt, I"m fine.
Matt: doesn't matter. I"m coming over.
Shiro~
Shiro rested his head on the cabinets next to him. The cool surface of wood felt good against his head.
He was dully listening to the astronomy teacher, Mr. Ulaz, while scrolling through his phone.
He wasn't really so dead inside that he wanted to escape and riot and do all those crazy things...but he was just tired enough that he found the pandemonium within his friends to be hilarious.
As soon as he had walked into class, he had gone up to Mr. Ulaz, who he was supposed to be help teaching, and told him about how much of an idiot he was the previous night. Thankfully, Mr. Ulaz had understood and decided to help Shiro out and just let him rest instead of doing any of the activities he had been planning.
Shiro was thankful that he was able to just listen and let his mind rest while Mr. Ulaz taught. He knew that this was a one time thing and that he wouldn't get this lucky again, but it was still nice that Mr. Ulaz understood and didn't force Shiro to work. He knew he would have been a mess if he had tried to teach.
It had seemed like a good idea to check in on the group chat that was blowing up his phone with messages.
But… Shiro had been so tired, he hadn't really cared what he had written and writing things that resulted in his friends laughing and freaking out over text was entertaining.
And… and then Matt had said he was coming over.
Shiro didn't even know what that meant. Matt had a class during this period as well. Was he planning on just skipping class to make Shiro skip class?
Getting him both drunk and skipping school? In 24 hours? Shiro laughed to himself. The great nerdy friend Matt was being a poor influence on him. It was ridiculous but also true.
Shiro shook his head, hoping that Matt wasn't really coming over.
A text buzzed on his phone and Shiro picked it up to read.
Matt: … Look behind you…
Shiro stared at the message for a moment. If it wasn't Matt texting him, he would be concerned, but given that it was just Matt, Shiro turned and looked at the door which was technically on his right.
Through the small window of the door, Shiro could see Matt with his face pressed up against the glass, staring at Shiro. Shiro chuckled to himself and shook his head.
Matt grinned and waved for Shiro to leave.
Shiro rolled his eyes and stood up, acting like he was heading to the restroom.
He opened the door and turned around, closing the door softly behind him.
"Are you okay?" Matt asked promptly once the door was closed.
"What are you doing here?" Shiro asked at almost the same time.
"I am here to comfort you," Matt told Shiro.
"But you are out of class."
"But you were more important," Matt told Shiro. Shiro sighed inwardly. He wanted to believe that Matt cared for him as more than a friend, but he knew that even if Matt did care for him, it would be in a best-friend way. Shiro knew that they would never be anything more. He had accepted that a while ago when he had realized that he had a crush on his best friend.
Shiro shook his head slightly.
"I… I felt bad about last night," Matt told him softly.
"What do you mean?" Shiro asked slowly.
"For… for getting you drunk…." Matt looked like he had something else he wanted to say but was too afraid to say it.
Before Shiro could react, Matt was hugging him.
Shiro froze up at the sudden touch. Matt had his arms wrapped around Shiro's torso with his head resting on Shiro's chest. Shiro forced his limbs to move so that he could return Matt's hug, wrapping his arms gently around Matt.
"I'm sorry, Shiro," Matt whispered softly.
"Don't be," Shiro told him. Matt stood back and looked up at Shiro, his amber eyes glinting. "I had fun. Even if I don't remember it, I had fun."
Matt beamed, "You did?"
Shiro thought that he saw a tint of pink on Matt's cheeks but he couldn't be sure. His vision was a little bleary unless he tried very hard to focus.
"So," Shiro said, pulling back from Matt to lean up against the wall, one leg propped up behind him. "What did I do last night?"
Matt ducked his head. "Well…. You sort of one-upped Keith in cliff jumping…"
Shiro's eyes grew wide. "I did what?!"
Matt chuckled, not looking at Shiro, "Yeaaaahh…. That wasn't even the worst of it."
"Oh god," Shiro whispered, "What did I do?"
"Well… you decided to jump the cliff. Twice." Matt was looking anywhere but at Shiro.
"Matt… tell me," Shiro said, having picked up on Matt's hesitation. "I don't want to find out what I did later…"
Matt sighed, "So after you went cliff jumping, I took you home. You cried about Big Hero 6 in the car. Um… we… walked up the stairs… and then… uhm… I made sure you got into bed and I left once Keith arrived…."
Shiro stared at Matt. That couldn't be it. He had vague memories of the car trip, now that Matt had mentioned it. But… he also remembered holding Matt. That didn't make sense. Shiro would never act on any kind of the feelings he may or may not have. He wouldn't have wanted to carry Matt. So had Matt prompted him? Or was Shiro just hoping that something had happened that didn't really happen?
That thought hurt his brain.
Shiro closed his eyes and leaned his head back until it rested against the wall.
"You weren't around most of the group for most of the time."
"Well that's good," Shiro muttered. He could only imagine the kinds of things that Pidge and Lance would make him do.
"Pidge has a video though, don't they?" Shiro asked quietly.
"Yeah… I think so."
Shiro nodded. "Well… that will stay with me until the day I die. Fantastic."
"Eh," Matt shrugged, "Don't worry about it. They have so many bad videos of me. Ones that are way more embarrassing. Being the older brother means I have to suffer ten times as much."
Shiro laughed softly. "I suppose that's true."
"Plus…" Matt added, looking up at Shiro, "I'm pretty sure that they respect you more than most people…."
"That is a very high placed honor."
It was Matt's turn to laugh. "Yes. Treasure it. Honor it. It is valuable."
Shiro smiled. "Matt, sadly, this isn't D&D where the characters are able to hold non-tangible valuables like that in their pockets. Which just really sucks."
"Yeah, I wish that I could store whatever I wanted in my pockets."
"We could carry so many useful things then!"
"We could!" Matt agreed.
Their laughter died off into a pause of silence. Shiro glanced at Matt. "You know," he said, "As much as I love spending time talking with you, and as much as I want to know what I did while drunk, I should really get back to class."
Matt smiled, "Yeah, me too. We've turned into such the rebels."
"I know!" Shiro cried. "Drinking, getting hungover, jumping off of cliffs, leaving class… I am turning into such the badboy."
Matt snorted. "Shiro… you will never be a 'badboy.' Maybe more like 'Golden boy.'"
"Then I could blind my enemies with my light!"
Matt whacked at Shiro's arm, "Well, I know that you are a beacon for weird nerds, apparently…"
Shiro scoffed, clutching his chest like he was hurt. "A beacon for them? First of all, my beacon is for everyone's weirdness. Second, I am not a beacon, I am their supreme leader."
Matt started laughing. "Hail supreme leader Shiro!"
Shiro grinned and stretched his arms wide, pretending to accept cheers of praise and glory.
"Alright, supreme leader," Matt told him, still grinning. "I'm going to head back to class."
"Yeah, me too," Shiro said, pointing behind him.
"Okay," Matt said with a soft smile. "Sounds good…. I'll see you at lunch!"
"See you at lunch," Shiro asserted, turning back to go into the classroom. He waved to Matt as he closed the door softly, returning to his spot at the back of the classroom.
Mr. Ulaz was giving a lecture on novas and how they could be viewed from great distances. Shiro wished that he could give the lecture instead. That his head would stop pounding.
He wanted to distract himself.
All he could think about was how soft Matt's smile had been. How his face had lit up when he had seen Shiro. The soft warmth of his embrace.
Shiro already wished that he could have more time to talk to Matt…. While at the same time not wanting to see him at all. His brain was confusing. Matt would never, never, feel anything towards Shiro. Not in a non-friend way.
So there was no point for Shiro to waste his brain-space thinking up reasons why Matt might like him. There was no point in Shiro trying to decide if his feelings were greater than their friendship.
Because… Shiro knew that he valued Matt as a friend more than he wanted him to be… more.
Shiro sighed, staring at the vibrant multicolored nebulous up on the screen.
Why can't things ever just be easy?
Why can't things just sort themselves out without all of the pain and struggling beforehand?
Why does everything have to be so complicated?
Keith~
Keith had arrived at the lunch table before Shiro, sliding into the next available seat before realizing that it was a seat next to Lance and that he had just made a grave mistake.
"Well, hello there, Princess," Lance said, leaning with his head resting on his arm that was propped up on the table. He had one eyebrow raised and the other slanted downwards while he smirked at Keith. "How is my fair lady doing?"
"Screw you," Keith muttered, adjusting the tiara on his head with disdain. The thing was starting to bother him. It would fall off at the worst possible moments and if it pulled at his hair, it would pull out a giant tangled clump of hair instead of just coming out of his hair.
Keith picked at his lunch, wondering if Shiro was okay or if he was in need of some kind of help. Keith hadn't been able to stop worrying about him since the morning when he had been so out of it.
"Do any of you guys know where Shiro is?" Keith asked the group.
"No, but he'd better get here. Quickly," Pidge growled. "I'm dying to show that video."
"I'm sure he's okay," Matt told Keith. "I was talking to him earlier and he seemed mostly okay."
"You call that group chat 'mostly okay?" Hunk asked skeptically.
"He… was joking for most of that…" Matt said softly.
"GASP! Our dad was making Jokes," Lance said loudly. "Like he was trying to be funny?"
"Apparently," Allura added as she took a bite of her salad.
"Guys," Keith said, drawing everyone's focus back to him. "I'm just a little worried about Shiro. Should I try to fin—"
"Nope!" Lance declared loudly pointing behind Keith. "There's our hungover dad!"
"HI DAD!" Pidge shouted, waving their arms around.
"Though… what is he wearing?" Lance asked.
"Comfy clothes," Keith and Matt answered simultaneously.
"But—!" Lance said, gesturing to Shiro's yoga pants, faded t-shirt, sunglasses, and slip on shoes, "Shiro…."
"Hello everyone," Shiro said, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, "I would very much appreciate it if death were to visit me during the course of today."
"Shiro…" Hunk said slowly.
"Bravo. Me too," Pidge said. "Now watch this."
"No, no, no," Lance interjected. "I need an explanation. Why?"
"I'm dead," Shiro told him.
"But… you have sunglasses on…"
"They keep the light away and keep my soul trapped in the eternal dark within myself," Shiro said plainly.
"Shiroooo," Pidge whined, getting out of their seat to drape themself over Shiro's arm. "I need you to watch this now. The fate of whatever sanity I have left depends on it."
"Wait," Hunk said slowly, "You have sanity?"
"I know," Pidge sighed, "Insane isn't it?"
Hunk whacked his forehead in exasperation.
"Laaance," Pidge moaned to Lance, "I need you to film this."
"Film what?" Lance asked through a mouthful of the sandwich he had just taken a bite of.
"Um, I want you to film the gum crusting on the walls? No, his reaction!"
"Oh," Lance said softly.
Keith snickered into his hand. He couldn't help being insanely excited to see how Shiro would react. It would either go very well or very poorly and he didn't know which.
Once Lance had pulled out his phone and nodded to Pidge to indicate that he was recording, Pidge started playing the video.
The screen work was shaky and every time Pidge laughed the speakers crackled with sound but you could see Shiro and the rest of the group along the sidelines and hear what they were saying.
Keith watched over Shiro's other shoulder as he got on the motorcycle and drove off of the side of the cliff.
"Well at least I remembered a helmet," Shiro commented.
Shiro was driving off of the cliff. Pidge was laughing like a maniac, the camera shaking with every movement that they made.
In the video, Shiro yelled "FUCK MY LIFE," as he did a 180 flip.
Pidge started laughing over the film, "Fantasy Dad is schooling us!"
Shiro watched in pensive amusement.
"STOP IT YOU FUCKING SHOW OFF!" Keith yelled through the video.
"Nice one, Keith," Lance said dryly to him. Keith glares at him, rolling his eyes and not knowing how to respond.
Shiro came back up the top and did a beautiful jump up onto the top of the cliffside.
"Why is drunk me so much better at this than sober me?" Shiro asked. No one responded.
As Shiro came up on his bike he yelled "FUCK THE SYSTEM I AM INVINCIBLE!"
"And I have no filter," Shiro noticed.
He watched as his drunk-past self was persuaded into going down the cliff again. Keith couldn't help but laugh along with the group at Drunk Shiro's antics.
"YEET I CAN'T DIE!" Drunk Shiro yelled.
"Did I just say 'yeet'?"
"That you did, Fantasy Dad," Pidge said, patting his shoulder in a somewhat comforting, somewhat menaicle way.
Hunk shouted about safety but Shiro ignored him to keep doing more tricks.
"Guys," Hunk interjected in the present, "I'm not kidding. Safety is exceptionally important. It is what keeps you alive."
"But what if you don't want to live?" Shiro asked. "And also, why did none of you stop me? I can not believe I did that twice. Matt, I thought you were the responsible one!"
Matt shrugged, "Sorry. Drunk Shiro was just too funny."
Shiro sighed. "Apparently drunk me is good at executing really hard motorcycle tricks and not dying even though I would want to."
Allura scowled at him. "You don't really want to die. You just say you do."
"Mmm…." Keith trialed off for Shiro. "I think that all of us in the 'death' party legitimately want death. We just won't actually die. But if death was right here, in our face, I think we might just be like 'hello old friend."
"'Hello darkness my old friend," Lance sung quietly.
Keith immediately looked at Lance. No matter how annoying he could be, in that one line, his voice had sounded oddly beautiful. In an unused scratchy sort of way.
"'I've come to talk with you again," Pidge continued.
Keith decided to join in softly, "Because a vision softly creeping," But at the same time, Lance had sung the lyrics. Keith might not have had a perfect ear for music, but their voices oddly complimented each other.
"Left its seeds while I was sleeping," Lance and Keith continued, their volume growing as they got more in tune with each other and more confident.
"And the vision, that was planted in my brain," Keith leaned closer to Lance and Lance leaned closer to Keith in their duet.
"Still remains," they sang dramatically, their voices still quiet enough that only the people at their table could hear.
"Um, Guys?" Hunk interrupted.
"No, no, no," Pidge scolded him. "I was filming that. They were just getting to the good part."
"Yeah, dude," Lance crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head in mock shame. "You didn't let us even sing the chorus."
"I'm sorry," Hunk said genuinely. "Your bonding was very adorable, but I wanted to remind you that there is only about five.. . now four minutes left of lunch so if you want to finish up your lunch, now would be a good time."
Keith glanced at Lance. He chose to ignore hunk's 'adorable' comment and instead stared intently at Lance. Lance nodded. At the same time, they sang, louder than before, "WITHIN THE SOUND OF SILENCE."
Shiro clapped. "Bravo. Beautiful work."
"Encore, Encore!"Pidge shouted while they pulled open their phone's camera.
Keith rolled his eyes, adjusting the tiara on his head. He smiled at Lance faintly.
Lance did have a pretty good singing voice, though, when Keith paused to think about it. His voice almost reminded him of a cartoon he used to watch where the main character would sing sometimes and would go on crazy adventures with his talking, best friend, dog.
Keith shook his head. It didn't matter what he sounded like. Because the things he said were obnoxious. And that was all that Keith focused on.
Not at all the very faint freckles that were speckles across Lance's cheeks. Nope.
The bell to end lunch rang and everyone packed up to leave.
Right before Lance walked away, he leaned closer to Keith and sang, "In restless dreams I walk alone."
A part of Keith wanted to continue onto the song and the other part of him wanted to scoff and run away.
So of course, like an idiot, he sat there and stared, like a deer caught in headlights, at Lance until Lance waved goodbye and left for his next class.
Keith blinked away his paralysis and, against his own volition, whispered "Narrow Streets of cobblestone…"
~The next day~
Hunk~
"You walk up to the yawning mouth of the cave," Coran told them, leaning close to the table in order to act ominous. "Stalagmites hang from the ceiling—"
"Stalactites," Pidge corrected. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't know that. Haven't you heard the rhyme?"
Coran sat up looking at Pidge, perplexed. "Number five, I am not a science teacher. I haven't scienced for 60 some years."
"Coran… you aren't even 60 years old," Hunk sighed.
"But I feel that old sometimes…" Coran told them.
"A mood," Shiro said dryly.
Hunk couldn't help but put a hand to his forehead as Lance and the Holts started laughing.
"Anyway," Pidge interrupted, "The rhyme… well… not really a rhyme. More like a saying…?" They looked to Hunk but Hunk merely shrugged. He wasn't sure what 'rhyme' Pidge was talking about.
"Matt?" Pidge asked.
"Sorry," Matt shrugged, tilting his head to the side. "I don't know what you mean."
Pidge sighed.
"Do you mean that one about the 'Might' and 'Tight'?" Keith asked.
"Yes!" Pidge cried.
"'Stalagmites might grow up to the ceiling while Stalactites have to hold tight to the ceiling,'" Keith quoted.
"You are my new best friend," Pidge told him.
"Where did you even learn that from?" Lance asked.
"Yeah, I have never heard that before," Allura told them.
"I'm surprised that you guys didn't learn that—" Keith started to say before Coran cut him off by raising his hands in a 'hail-me' gesture.
"Attention! Attention in the court!"
Lance put a fist around his mouth and pretended to make a trumpeting sound.
Hunk smiled at the group's antics. This. This right here was why they got nothing done. They would go off into random tangents and never get back to actually playing the game.
"I shall now continue the entering of the grand cave," Coran told them like he was someone of royal importance. "You walk up towards the yawning mouth of the cave, the large stalactites hanging down from the ceiling like fangs and dripping water like blood from a great beast's maw."
"Oh, yes," Hunk said dryly. "I definitely want to go in there. I'm thinking there will be a nice warm fire with some porridge sitting out for us to eat."
"And then the bears will come eat us…" Pidge told Hunk .
"What? Why would there be bears?" Allura asked.
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," Pidge moaned. "You haven't heard of fucking Goldilocks?"
Allura shrugged. "No? What is it? A horror story? Like those Steve Kind books?"
Lance burst out laughing, "Nope. It's—"
"AND YOU WALK INTO THE CAVE," Coran said loudly over the table in an attempt to progress the game forward.
"Huzzah," Pidge added dryly.
"Once inside," Coran continued, pausing only to glance shiftily to each person in the audience. "You see that there are three doors. One is green. One is blue. And the final is yellow. Above the green door there is a carving of a tree. Above the blue door you see a picture of a mother and a child. Above the yellow door, there is a carved butterfly with the wings spread wide. The only other thing of interest that you can see is some writing along one wall but it is too dark to be able to make out clearly."
"I've got this," Allura said, her character pulling out a glowing orb of light. "The wall reads…" She paused while Coran handed her a slip of paper so that she could read the writing that was on the walls. "'Follow the Sun.' but Sun is a drawing of a round circle with small lined rays coming off the edge."
"So it's a riddle," Matt said. "I'm good at riddles."
"I've got this," Lance smiled slyly, turning to Coran. "Coran, I would like to seduce the door on the right."
"You would like to do what now?" Keith asked, for some reason surprised.
"He wants to seduce the door once again," Hunk sighed. He had stopped being surprised by Lance years ago.
"Again?" Keith asked, surprised.
" is the twelfth time. This campaign." Hunk breathed out, sighing.
"Coran! I got a 13! Can I do it? Can I?"
"SURE! Why not, my boy," Coran said joyfully. "Pike walks up to the door and leans on the wall next to it, smiling seductively."
Lance stood up and walked towards the classroom door, leaning on the wall next to it. "Well, hello there, Sunshine. Aren't you beautiful… wanna… have some fun?"
Hunk couldn't help but laugh with everyone else as Lance successfully "seduced the door' and then proceeding to sit back down at his own chair, triumphant.
"Coran… why do you endorse him?" Keith asked
Coram merely shrugged.
"So…while Lance is fucking a door… let's figure out this riddle," Pidge said to the group.
"Alright," Matt announced, taking lead of the group. "So, we are looking to follow the sun. One of these doors must imply sun, or light… or warmth… or life…"
"The tree would imply life," Allura said thoughtfully, tapping her chin with her forefinger.
"True…" Hunk said, visualizing the doors in his mind. "But as Lance said… the yellow one is probably the color of sunshine."
"You do have a point there Hunk," Pidge said speculatively. "But… that seems too obvious."
"Guys," Keith said quietly.
Hunk turned his head to listen to what Keith had to say, but then Allura was talking, "No… but we have to follow the sun. Trees' leaves follow the sun. Isn't that just… a plant rule?"
"Yeah…" Shiro added, "I don't see how butterflies have anything to do with the sun."
"Guys..." Keith said a bit louder.
"Um…" Hunk tried to interject, "I think Ke—"
"But!" Matt interrupted triumphantly, "Maybe it isn't a butterfly! Maybe it's a moth! And moths follow the light."
Hunk heard Keith mutter something about following mothman to the end, but then Keith was saying "GUYS!" much louder.
Finally, everyone turned to him, to hear what he had to say.
"Are you guys all stupid?" Keith asked.
"What? No," Pidge said "We are all the most advanced forms of human stupidity that there is!"
"True," Hunk agreed quietly.
"Well…" Keith sighed,stopped in the middle of what he was going to say. "You guys are overlooking the OBVIOUS answer."
Lance leaned next to Keith, "And what might that be, Princess?"
"Oh, are you done with your door?" Pidge asked him monotony.
"Yes. We had a great time," Lance told them.
"I thought I told you, Lance," Hunk sighed, dramatically rolling his eyes, "I don't care to hear anything about your sex life. I don't care with whom or what you do it to… just don't tell me."
Lance started to laugh, "Alright alright. I just think that this whole dilemma is ridiculous. We all know that blue is the best color so let's just… knock on it?"
Lance rolled his dice and told Coran to let them push through before he got consent from the others.
"Sounds great!" Coran said. "Pike presses into the blue door and it swings wide into a normal looking hallway. Large rock is carved into a roughly rounded shape to form the walls and there is a dull light emanating from the ceiling. You can't see the end of the tunnel but you continue forwards regardless, confident in your choice of doors."
"I am in fact not confident in our choice of doors," Allura said skeptically.
"Once Princess Keith, the one at the back of the group, has made it into the hallway," Coran continued slowly, pausing…
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound.
Hunk jumped backwards on instinct, arms splayed out to catch himself if he fell.
"BLAM," Coran shouted, "The ground caves out and everyone falls downward!"
"What?!" Keith shouted. Hunk noticed that he had also jumped back from the table, knife in hand. "This is the door?!"
"CORAN!" Pidge yelped, hands on the table, "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT!?"
"YES CORAN!" Lance shouted, "I, too, would like to know WHAT THE FUCK?"
Coran was bent over laughing. Allura looked panicked and frozen in place. Matt's eyes were darting around like he was searching for an escape. Shiro's eyes were narrowed in preparation to attack anything that came at them.
"Okay, okay," Coran said, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. "You guys can take a seat. All I did was open this container of dominoes and drop them onto the floor."
Hunk nodded, "That… That is the loudest most terrifying sound in existence."
"I THINK WE JUST FIGURED THAT OUT," Lance said, still shouting.
"What I would like to know is why we are falling when that was the right door!" Keith cried.
"What?!" Pidge cried, sounding genuinely shocked. "You mean that Lance didn't fuck this up?"
"No," Keith sighed, "for once, he didn't."
"W-w-wait," Matt said, making the 'time-out' sign. "What was the answer? How did you know? Just.. explain things in general for me."
"'Follow the Sun,'" Keith quoted. "It didn't say the word Sun written out as S-U-N. It had a picture of a sun. You had to read it. And when you read out loud, you hear the word Sun."
"I'm sorry Keith," Hunk told him, "But I'm not following."
"The word it was saying was Son as in S-O-N," Keith said somewhat patiently and somewhat frustratedly. "And what was above the blue door?"
"A mother and her child!" Allura shouted triumphantly.
"Exactly," Keith nodded.
"Wow," Lance breathed. "I am really good at BS-ing riddles! Sweet!"
Keith whacked Lance in the arm. "No, you got lucky this time. You are not good at riddles."
"How do you know, Princess Mullet? I could be great at riddles and you just don't know it!"
Keith rolled his eyes, "I don't know, I just somehow suspect that the bard who just crashed through a door isn't that good with riddles."
"Well, you are right there," Hunk said, jokingly. "Lance gets like those 10% of riddles that no one else can get."
"True," Pidge added, "and that is a useful asset."
"Guys, can we find out what happened to us falling to our deaths," Allura asked impatiently.
"I don't know," Shiro sighed. "I think it's kind of relaxing."
"What? The falling?" Matt asked, "Or the knowing you are heading towards death?"
"Both," Shiro replied.
"Coran?" Allura asked.
"Alright," Coran nodded, "So everyone continues to fall for what seemed like an eternity, the walls rushing past and closing in as you fall. Everyone is screaming as they near… something."
"Coran…" Shiro interjected. "I really feel like my character would be sitting there meditatively. Maybe sitting cross-legged and staring at everyone in the group."
"Well fine, sure. Why not?" Coran said lightly before returning to the story. "Suddenly, the walls widened you could see a floor beneath you. But it wasn't just any floor! Everyone fell into a pool of liquid. The liquid was such a vibrant blue that it was hard to look at and almost impossible to see through. It felt grainy and thick compared to normal water.
"Everyone collided with the water in one ginormous splash. Once the whole team was able to surface, they looked around frantically until they spotted shore and decided to swim towards it.
"Once on the shore, everyone attempted to get themselves as dry as they could with the limited space and towels. Keith's dress was sopping, Lance's lute was full of liquid. Pidge had dropped their knife in the lake of liquid—"
"Oh what?" Pidge shouted. "That is just… no!"
"Pidge, do you want to go look for it?" Keith asked. "I mean, Coran… this is like torture. You are forcing Pidge to lose their knife and me to be in a dress."
"A wet dress," Lance laughed. "I can't imagine how you would fight in that."
"It would be so hard to move in," Allura agreed, nodding.
"Coran?" Keith said turning to the mustached man who was smugly watching their suffering, "Can I cut my dress short? Or Something?"
"Roll," Coran told him.
Keith picked up his dice and rolled it. "I got a 6."
"Yikes," Lance laughed.
"You can only cut the dress to your knees," Coran told him, "No shorter."
Keith sighed, "Okay. Deal."
"Coran," Shiro interjected, "Can we please just move along with this story? I would like to know what this blue goop is."
"I, too, would like to know what this blue goop is," Matt added raising a finger to add his point.
"On the shore, you see two tunnels along the wall," Coran described to them. "One looks larger and the other smaller but otherwise they are identical."
"NOT MORE RIDDLES!" Pidge moaned.
"I thought you liked riddles?" Hunk asked inquisitively.
"I want to beat stuff up not use my brain, Hunk."
"That's fair," Hunk replied.
"So anyone up for the I-don't-give-a-shit tactic of tunnel choosing?" Lance asked.
"What is that?" Keith questioned.
"It is exactly what it sounds like," Lance told him. "It is where we go on random mode with Pidge taking the lead because they remember the path we take so when we hit a dead-end we aren't lost."
"Oh, okay sounds good. That makes a lot of sense actually," Keith replied.
"See," Lance leaned closer, smirking, "I do have moments of brilliance."
If Hunk wasn't mistaken, he swore he saw the faintest twinge of pink on Keith's cheeks. "That… that wasn't brilliance. That was you explaining something."
"Pidge, lead on!" Shiro told them.
"My pleasure," Pidge replied.
Pidge pulled out a coin and flipped it. Hunk sighed as it landed on heads. Pidge announced that they were immediately heading towards the right, same as they normally would. Every time they reached a split in the tunnel Pidge would flip a coin and they would head in that direction. At the first dead-end that they reached, Coran described a giant glob of goo was hovering on the ceiling and crashed down on top of them engulfing Keith, Allura, and Matt.
Lance had cried out in outrage, declaring that he was supposed to protect the fair princess. Shiro rolled and lept up with his sword and hacked off a portion of the goo creature's body, almost cleaving off Matt's arm, Coran told them.
"SHIRO!" Matt cried through the goop. "DON'T TAKE ME WITH IT! I NEED YOU TO SAVE ME!"
Hunk cast a slow spell on the goo creature, slowing it down even further from its lethargic state. He loved these times because everyone could see the creature before them and acted like they could, screaming out lines and grumbling over actions they had no need to grumble over all while frantically rolling and attacking.
Pidge wasn't of any help, stuck on the ground with a battle axe which caused them to get very angry. "COME DOWN HERE AND TAKE A PIECE OF ME! WHAT ARE YOU? A SCARDY SLUG?"
"Pidge," Allura called from the goop, "Please stop antagonizing the slug creature and try to get us out of here!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?" Pidge shouted, "I'M A STUPID BARBARIAN AND I'M SHORT AND I DON'T HAVE SUPER POWERS LIKE SHIRO."
"I don't have super powers, Pidge," Shiro told them. "I am just…"
"Super?" Matt suggested.
"I was going to say 'determined' but that works to."
"YOU CALL THAT SAVING?" Keith yelled at Lance.
Lance— who was unfortunately rolling horribly low— jumped up and got his legs and right arm stuck in the goo. He pulled out a dagger with his left hand and started slashing at the goop aggressively. "I AM HELPING," Lance told Keith angrily.
"Guys?" Hunk asked quietly, "I know this is an intense moment of the adventure, but can we please just all just stop yelling? We are literally two feet away from each other.."
"Oh, sorry Hunk," Lance said, relaxing. "But! I have to kill! This very! Obnoxious! Slug!"
"And save your princess?" Pidge added.
"Yeah, Lance," Keith smirked, looking at Lance, "I can't believe that you would let your princess, the one you swore to protect, be consumed by a large pink goo blob."
"WELL," Lance retorted loudly before realizing that he was supposed to be quieter, "Well, cutting a large pink blob isn't that easy!"
"Hey, hey guys?" Allura announced, reading from a slip of paper that Coran handed her, "This goop, this goop is like that blue stuff we had to swim through. We can get out of this."
"We just need to swim and dive," Matt said, nodding along.
"Oh, what?" Lance cried indignantly. "I wanted to save the day!"
Keith glared at him and attempted to swim along with Allura and Matt. Unlike the others who were making progress in their swimming, Keith was more floundering in the slug's gelatinous substance.
Hunk watched with both fascination and amusement as Keith splashed around (miming it in real life), doggy paddling to try to get to the thinnest part of the slug.
"Dude," Lance said, treading the slug's goo, "Come on. Just swim."
"I'M TRYING!" Keith yelled. "THIS SHIT IS HARD." And he had gotten a low roll.
"Why?" Lance asked. "Just swim."
"Lance, I swear, I grew up in a FUCKING DESERT. LEAVE ME ALONE."
Lance burst out laughing and drew closer to Keith. "May I assist thee, milady?"
"Lance…" Keith said warningly, "You need to take that assistance and—"
"KEITH!" Pidge yelled, "Enough! Just let the fish help you swim!"
Hunk listened to Coran as he described Matt and Allura being covered in goop but on the ground. Only Lance and Keith were still stuck in the pink goop.
"Yes, Princess Keith," Lance smiled, "Let me show you the world."
"Those aren't even the lyrics," Keith grumbled as he took Lance's hand very reluctantly. "I mean, come on!"
"SHIMMERING, SHINING, SPLENDID!" Lance shouted.
"Ah," Keith said dryly. "This hurts my ears to listen to."
Lance was holding Keith's hand as he pulled him across the slick surface of the goop.
"Now tell me, princess, when did you let your mullet decide?"
"Okay," Hunk said, "Lance, this is hurting me."
"A NEW WHOLE PLACE! A NEW BRILLIANT P. O. V." Lance was laughing as he was swimming with Keith next to him, holding his hand. From what Hunk could see, he was pretty sure that Keith was blushing faintly as he was swimming, but that could have just been 'pink goo' glowing on their faces.
"Lance…" Pidge sighed, "You are killing my five year old heart."
There was a chorus of 'same's from everyone in the group save for Lance who was singing and Keith who was turned away from Lance, holding his hand, and blushing.
"Wait," Matt said, elbowing Pidge, "Are you admitting to having a heart?"
"I am admitting to once having a heart when I was a young and innocent child."
"For some reason," Hunk stared at them, "I really cannot imagine you as innocent or a child."
"Yeah, neither can I," Lance piped in..
"Oh, wonderful," Shiro said brightly, "you stopped si—"
"NO ONE TO TELL US 'NO' OR WHAT WE CAN'T TO DO!"
"Aaaand he started again," Allura sighed.
Finally, Keith and Lance got back on the ground though it was another couple of seconds before Lance and Keith let go of each other's hands and looked away frantically.
"WHELP!" Pidge said. "That was a dead-end. Now, we head the other way!"
Everyone sighed in unison except for Coran who looked at them with a savage eagerness in his eyes.
They continued and took the opposite of the first tunnel they came across, hoping that they wouldn't hit another dead end.
Of course they did.
Large gargoyles were clustered in the room.
They chose to flee.
The pattern continued with them going down tunnel after tunnel, finding a monster at the end of each dead-end.
"CORAN," Lance moaned after their 11th tunnel, "Is this revenge for falling asleep in your class?"
"Maybe."
"DUDE! WHAT?" Pidge slammed their fist on the table. "THIS IS ANARCHY! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!"
"But… Coran… I haven't slept through your class," Shiro whined.
"Ehhh," Matt interjected. "You remember that one night?" he asked Shiro.
"Oh. Right. That…"
"Has even Hunk slept through your class?" Allura asked.
"YES. EVEN HUNK," Coran told them.
"Coran," Hunk tried to argue, "I think that we should try to move onwards in the story…"
"But torturing you guys is so much fun. And I mapped this whole place out already." He reached under the table and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. Coran slowly unfolded the paper to epic proportions until it was taking up the entirety of the table. On the paper, thin lines of tunnels and small sketches of what lay in the dead ends and notes written in a scratchy handwriting covering the entire page.
Lance whistled appreciatively.
"You guys are about here," Coran said, pointing to one of the earlier parts of the maze.
"ARE YOU KIDDING US?!" Everyone yelled in variation at once.
Coran shrugged and smiled at them all.
"At least," Pidge grumbled, "Let us use the map so we aren't STUCK in these SHITTY TUNNELS FOREVER."
"It isn't forever," Coran said, smiling.
"Would you cut it short?" Hunk asked kindly.
"We promise not to sleep in your class anymore," Matt sighed.
"Wait. You don't even take his history anymore…" Lance objected.
"Still, I swear to that," Matt told Coran.
"Hmmm…" Coran tilted his head pensively. "I don't know… I have a lot of really fun traps planned."
"Coran," Hunk said tiredly, pinching his nose, "I am pretty sure that if you don't speed up this labyrinth, then someone is going to rage quit."
"I'm betting Keith," Lance smirked.
Hunk looked over to see Keith with his arms folded across his chest, his eyes narrowed at Coran, and his golden crown sitting awkwardly crooked on the top of his head.
"I will join you on that bet," Pidge agreed.
Keith inhaled sharply and then breathed out muttering something like "Patience yields focus."
"Guys… can we just keep going?" Hunk requested.
"I will continue if we get the fucking map," Pidge growled slamming their fist on the table.
"Coran, can you just… move us forward?" Hunk asked solemnly.
Coran cleared his throat and tried to look regal. "Alright, so you move forward only to have a swarm of large, twisted, bat-like creatures attack you!"
BANG
Shiro slammed his hands on the table.
"Nope. Nope. I'm done. I cannot deal with this stupid labyrinth anymore!"
"Shiro…" Keith said softly, "There are monsters. And… and Patience Yields Focus."
"Keith, right now I say eff patience. I am running on nothing and don't want to be in these stupid tunnels anymore."
"That's fair," Lance sighed.
"Coran?" Allura asked, "Can you please let us leave these tunnels."
"You're hurting Shiro's brian," Matt said. He had gotten out of his chair to stand behind Shiro and hold his arm in what Hunk supposed was supposed to be a comforting way. "We all decided not to hurt the child."
Hunk looked at them for a second longer than he probably needed to. He swore that there was something going on between those two.
"Fine fine fine," Coran muttered unhappily. "You guys don't appreciate my art."
"We appreciate it very much," Allura said, "just… maybe let's continue the story and use your beautiful tunnels later."
"That's sugar coating it," Pidge groaned. "LET'S GET OUT OF THESE FUCKING TUNNELS I WANT TO DO SOMETHING OF INTEREST."
"I'll be right back," Matt announced over Pidge before leaving the room.
"Guys," Hunk interjected, starting to get worried. "It's okay. Coran was just… trying to create something difficult. Not very fun in practice… but that's okay! We'll just shorten it and get out of here quickly."
"Yes please," Lance sighed, burying his head in his arms. "Coran?"
Coran sighed, "Alright…."
"Yes!" Shiro exclaimed, "We can get out of here!"
"Finally," Pidge sighed. "Lance being Coran's favorite nephew has saved us!"
The door to the room opened just then to reveal Matt carrying three small desks stacked together. "Okay everyone," he gasped, clearly winded, "I have brought in some desks. Commence the table flipping!"
"Fuck yeah!" Pidge said bounding out of their chair and towards the desks at the same time as Shiro stood up saying, "Yay! Table flipping."
"Shiro," Keith said slowly, "I'm surprised that you… are okay… with potentially damaging school property."
"I don't see why this is necessary," Allura huffed.
Shiro turned back to Keith and said, "I usually don't advocate this sort of thing, but I'm going to make an exception today."
He turned around towards his table and flipped it over with a low grunt/yell.
"Huzzah!" Pidge shouted as they flipped their table.
"Let's get out of these tunnels!" Matt agreed as he flipped the last table.
Everyone at the table stared at them as they sat down.
"You know," Lance said, raising his head out of his arms, "I always thought that Shiro was the sane one out of you two."
"Well," Pidge interrupted before either Matt or Shiro could respond though Hunk was certain he saw Matt blushing and trying to hide it. "Is anyone at this table truly sane?"
A chorus of "no"s echoed around the table.
"I don't know," Lance tilted his head to the side, "I think that Hunk and Allura are pretty sane."
Allura snorted a laugh. Hunk just shrugged. "I don't think I'm either sane or not. I think I'm just… somewhere in between there."
"Probably true," Lance nodded, "I don't think that anyone who can be friends with Pidge is normal."
Pidge snorted and grinned mischievously. "Ah, yes. Wonderful."
"Okay everyone," Coran announced, "I've cut down the tunnels. You can escape within ten turns if you do lots of things in the remaining parts or you can probably get out in one to three if you don't."
"Fantastic," Matt said, grabbing the dice to roll.
They all agreed to not dautle in the tunnels and made it out in the next two turns, much to everyone's relief.
Lance flopped onto the table. "The outside world! Oh what a beautiful thing you are!" he kissed the table which was probably infected with all kinds of bacteria. "I thought I would never see you again!"
"That may still be a possibility," Coran said, smirking. "You begin to look at your surroundings and notice that you are, in fact, still inside of the cave."
"Whaaat?!" Everyone sighed in unison.
"This cave, however, is tinted blood red and it seems like there is something creating bubbles beneath the surface of the red-brown water."
"FINALLY," Lance said excitedly. He grabbed onto Keith's arm and leaned close to him, "Did you hear that? We get to get to fight a monster."
"Yay? I think?" Keith replied.
"Yes, yay!" Lance echoed. "Fighting monsters is the best. When they are larger boss monsters and not those petty goo blobs or whatever."
"You walk towards the bubbling liquid and wait to see if something happens. The ripples in the pool grow larger. The bubbles stop all together. You don't know what to think,"
"I'm thinking that this is amazing!" Lance announced.
"Well, okay," Keith sighed, "I guess Lance is the only one who knows what to think."
Pidge gasped, "Lance can think?"
"This is brand new scientific data everyone. Ground breaking research," Hunk said, pretending to write like a reporter.
"Plip, Plip," Coran said ominously, interrupting their teasing. "The water begins to bubble upwards. Then… suddenly… there's an eruption of water and…" Coran paused dramatically, "And you are all placed under the creature's spell."
Coran~
Coran bit his lip with excitement. He had been waiting for this moment for so long.
He remembered everyone's confused faces when he had asked them to write down what they thought beauty in a person meant. He had read their cards and translated them into the story.
And now, he was able to pass back the new and improved cards.
"Before you," He announced, trying to hold back a smile, "Is the creature that exists on these cards."
"It's a shapeshifter then?" Allura asked as she took her card.
"Of sorts…" Coran replied. "Now, the rules are: You can't share what's on your own card. You can make hints, you can let your actions speak for you, anything along those lines, but you cannot share with others directly what is on your card."
"Coran… this is making me nervous," Lance pursed his lips as he spoke.
"Don't worry, my dear nephew. It'll be fun!"
"I think we have different definitions of fun," Hunk told Coran.
"Maybe!" Coran declared joyously. "Now, commence the turning over of the cards."
Coran watched each member's face as their eyes darted across the paper. Allura, whose card described a beautiful person with long light colored hair and a rich voice that seemed to resonate throughout the room, was smiling softly at the card.
Keith was scowling at his card. He hadn't requested much. Only that the person was both mothman and someone that he could trust. So Coran had embellished the details a little and decided to describe two people. One was mothman and one was of someone who had brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles across their nose. Just to see how he would react.
Hunk smiled warmly at his. Coran knew that Hunk had requested someone who just had beautiful singing. Perfect for a siren.
Plus, Hunk was an all around cinnamon roll.
Coran's favorite was Lance's though.
Lance's description of what a beautiful person was was rather jumbled so, in Coran's mind, he had pictured someone who would switch genders so at one moment he would see a woman with beautiful black hair and bright blue eyes and the next moment she would turn into an equally handsome man who maybe had messy black hair and grey-ish eyes. And then he would switch into a girl with short blond hair and dark brown eyes and she would change into a, blond haired man in a never ending cycle. If Coran could project it from his mind onto the table, he would have loved to. But his description of some of the features that Lance could see would have to suffice.
Though, without being able to communicate what they saw, Coran knew that this was up to Matt, Shiro, and Pidge. Matt and Shiro both saw a white figure who had a fair form but no distinguishing features. They had both described not being attracted to anyone physically but Coran was 75% sure that they were both gay. So he had described the figure before them vaguely but as a male. He wondered if he would get a reaction out of them when the truth of the monster was revealed.
Pidge was the only one with the real power. On the paper he had had them all fill out, Pidge had written "All life is hideous just give up on trying to reach beauty." So Coran had just decided to let Pidge see the creature as a hideous goblin-esque thing that was sort of made of mist and smoke like it didn't have a definite form.
"Okay! Everyone ready?" he asked the group when it seemed like everyone was done looking at their respective cards.
He heard murmurs of agreement and smiled up at them mischievously.
"Who moves first," Coran asked. "Anyone want to take a stab at guessing what this creature is?"
"A creature of beauty?" Allura asked, smiling.
"A creature of manipulation?" Matt asked.
"I would like to stab this creature," Keith added.
"Keith, I don't think that's what he meant," Lance told Keith.
"Well, I don't really care," Keith muttered, "because I want to stab something and technically it could be hostile so…. You never know."
"How could a creature that looks like that be hostile?" Pidge asked sarcastically, staring at their card.
"I mean, you have to be wary of singing but, yeah, I don't know how it could be hostile," Hunk said kindly.
"I don't know about yours," Keith said gesturing across the room, "but mine definitely looks hostile. We should stab it."
Coran could do nothing more than stare and watch as the chaos unfolded around him. Pidge kept trying to sneak glances at the cards of people around them but Matt, at least, was a master escape artist after having lived with them for years.
Hunk was humming quietly to himself and it was a song Coran was 85% sure that he had heard Shay singing at one point in time.
Allura was smiling around the table, laughing with the group. Keith and Lance were bicking and Shiro and Matt were staying as far away from the conversation as they could. Though… they both seemed interested in what the other's card said.
"Who wants to make the first move?" Coran asked allowing his words to have duel meaning.
"I will!" Lance declared. He rolled his dice and leaned onto the table, "Hello there, gorgeous. You look mighty handso-beautiful."
Coran smiled, happy that Lance was playing along with the idea he had laid out.
"I love your long blonde hair— I mean your short black hair is so dashing!"
"Having fun there, Lance?" Pidge asked, propping their head up with one arm.
"Why yes," Lance replied. "I love flirting with this beautiful wo-handsome man."
Lance turned to Coran, "Coran. Do I have to.. .can't I just like… give general compliments? That apply to everyone? This… this is too hard."
Before anyone could react Keith snatched Lance's card out of his hand and got out of his seat to read the card and evade Lance. Keith's eyes skimmed over the card. "Hmm, interesting," he said pensively.
"No nono!" Lance cried. "If you read mine, I read yours."
Keith continued to walk around the table, his lips moving as he read the words to himself.
Lance stood up and started following Keith around. "This is not fair," Lance told him.
Lance grabbed his forearm, trying to grab back both his own card and Keith's. Keith just wiggled like a cat and managed to escape his grasp.
"KEITH!" Lance yelped trying to wrap his arms around the wiggly boy. Lance lunged forward and managed to wrap Keith in his grasp, his head buried in Keith's hair.
Coran couldn't help but grin as he watched the beauty before him unfold.
Then, before Keith could wiggle out of Lance's grasp, Pidge jumped up and grabbed the cards from Keith's hand. "I knew it! Mothman is Keith's beautiful person. OH? Though… this one is interesting."
Keith threw Lance off of him and lunged for Pidge, knocking them on the ground. Weakly, Pidge reached up and handed the card off to Shiro who accepted it. He nodded, "Yep. This is about what I expected."
"The second one, too?" Keith asked incredulously. "The second one makes zero sense, in my opinion," he turned back to glare at Coran.
"Hey," Lance muttered, "You have nothing to be mad about. Coran, you wonderful uncle, Keith is the one who isn't playing by the rules."
"That's true," Coran glanced at his watch. "Plus, there isn't much time left so, Shiro, return the cards and everyone sit down. Then we can get on with some monster butt whooping."
Hunk and Lance both burst out laughing.
"Alright," Allura said to the group. "I think it's fair to say that we are dealing with a shapeshifter or a siren or something."
"I bet it's a siren," Pidge declared. "I mean, I just… don't see… anything else…"
"True," Lance agreed.
"So how do we kill it?" Keith asked.
"I think I should attack it," Pidge said. "I think I'm the only one who isn't entranced by it."
"I'm not," Matt offered shyly.
"Me either," Shiro added slowly.
"Okay so we have a three way attack force," PIdge said. "Sweet. We can use an air-attack or something to see if we can dispel the mist around it or something. Except… none of us are mages or magic casters…."
"I can sneak very well,"Matt reminded them.
"Yes, Matt," Pidge replied snidely. "I had no idea that you were a rogue. Come on, we need ideas!"
"Um… um…" Shiro murmured, "We could… I don't know, throw Pidge or something? Since they can see the creature? Maybe that would stun it or something?"
"Yeah!" Matt said a little too excitedly. "Let's yeet Pidge."
"Let's not yeet Pidge," Pidge told them.
"What would a creature of water not want to touch," Coran supplied, trying to be helpful.
"Fire!" Matt said excitedly. "Water's exact opposite is fire!"
"Okay," Pidge said slowly, "Do you happen to know where we can procure some fire?"
"No…" Matt admitted.
"My fire casting isn't strong enough," Keith told them.
"What about Earth?" Shiro suggested. "If I were a mermaid I wouldn't particularly want to be dragged onto the shore…"
"That… actually isn't a bad idea," Pidge commented dryly.
"Let's try to chase it down and drag it on shore?" Matt asked.
Coran covered his mouth to hide his smile. Nothing shy of a perfect roll of the dice would let them catch the Siren and, more likely, the siren would catch all of them first.
Matt rolled his dice. He only got a five. Fantastic.
"Ummm…" Shiro stopped Coran and Matt from having his character chase after the siren futilly. "What if, instead, we don't do that."
"Do you have a better idea?" Pidge asked.
"Um. Coran?" Shiro asked tentatively, "Are there stalactites on this ceiling?"
"Yes…." Coran said slowly. What is he thinking?
"Then I would like to yeet Pidge. At the ceiling."
"Yes," Matt said, immediately agreeing to what Shiro was suggesting.
"Again, I would not appreciate being yeeted at the ceiling," Pidge told Shiro.
"No, wait, hear me out," Shiro said, leaning closer to Pidge and Matt. He brought them into a huddle so that Coran couldn't hear what they were saying. He hated when they did that. He liked to know all of the juicy details of their plan. Though, he supposed that was the point of making it a secret in the first place.
"Alright," Pidge said leaning away from the huddle. "I consent. Let's do this." Shiro's eyes darted across each member, analyzing them. The rest of the team was sitting in patient amusement watching to see what their "saviors" would do to save them.
Shiro rolled his dice dramatically and mimed picking Pidge up. He declared that he was throwing them at the ceiling where they used their barbaric abilities to hack off one of the stalactites at the apex of their height. Then, they would both start to fall. The large stalactite would land on top of the Siren and Pidge would land in the water.
That was the plan anyway.
Coran watched it all unfold with interest. He had never imagined that they would defeat the siren with the aesthetically added stalactites."
But miraculously, it worked in execution. Matt used some potions to give Pidge the ability to temporarily breath underwater so they could resurface and fight without the fear of drowning. Matt was also the one responsible for trapping the Siren in chains which he was successful in completing. Shiro had used his strength to throw Pidge up to the stalactite where they were able to slice the stalactite down in one swipes.
"As the stalactite falls," Coran narrates, "Pidge lands in the water a few feet away while the stalactite hits the siren on top of the head, ceasing the sound of singing and removing the trance on the other team members."
Keith lept to action, using a water spell to hold the Siren in place while Matt secured it with ropes and iron chains that he happened to have in his inventory.
"The Siren is defeated," Coran announced to a cheering group. Lance swung his arm around Keith's shoulders saying that they could work together at times though Keith protested that they hadn't really been working together. Hunk stood up from his chair and picked Pidge up to put them on his back, parading them around the room. Matt and Shiro awkwardly congratulated each other, Shiro patting Matt on the back while Matt ducked his head awkwardly. Allura was smiling warmly at the group and giving them a speech about good teamwork.
"And just in the nick of time," Coran continued as everyone took their seats and settled down a little. "We are running over on time, but first! Your prize!"
"Loot! Loot! Loot! Loot! Loot!" Pidge and Lance chanted rhythmically.
"Below you, the water level begins to sink," Coran told them. "The water seems to funnel together like the water in a bathtub that had it's plug pulled. Soon, nothing more than a few speckled puddles of water remained on the ground below you."
"And where the water drained out, you see a spiraling staircase leading downwards into the depths below."
"Deeper? Lance whined. "I want to get out of this small area. I like being in the towns and exploring and stuff."
"It isn't too much longer," Coran assured him. "Or… is it? "
"Coraaaaaaan," Pidge, Allura, Lance, and Matt whined simultaneously.
"Alright," Coran conceded, "Just head down the stairwell."
The team headed down the stairwell and found themselves in a room with a single treasure chest placed in the center. Matt immediately set to work unlocking the trap and opening the chest. Everyone else spread out to look around the room but they didn't find anything of interest.
Once Matt opened the lid to the chest, Coran continued narrating the story. "You open the chest successfully and inside, is a single, small ring that is filthy with rust and odd colors."
"What is it?" Hunk asked softly.
"That, my children," Coran announced to the group, "you will have to find out next time because we are out of time!"
"Are you kidding me?" Shiro groaned. He stood up, walked over to the already overturned table, turned one over and then flipped it again. "Okay," He told the group.
Coran announced to them, "Well, I guess you'll have to find out more next time. Farewell my children!"
Note: Thank you for reading!