ch. 2: Lance is excited
Lance looks over, wide and and overjoyed, to Hunk from the passenger's seat of his stylin new 2014 blue ford focus he has oh so lovingly named Blue. He was gonna drive but he's just too excited. They're doing it. They're really doing it!
"Dude we're finally doing it!" He exclaims as they wait in the driveway of Pidge's apartment. A place he's never been inside of. The plan is to pick her and this Keith guy up and go together to investigate. Hunk already packed some filming stuff and Pidge is going to be bringing recording supplies.
She already made a youtube page yesterday.
It's official.
If little Lance could see him now he would no doubt weep with joy.
"Yeah, dude, it's pretty awesome." Hunk admits, shooting him a large toothy grin. They both have been fascinated with ghosts and the paranormal since they were little and stumbled upon his mama's ouija board. "I'm excited to meet Pidge's friend, Keith, too! We've heard so much about him, I can't wait to put a face to the name!" He adds and Lance shrugs.
"I guess..." He grumbles, but his eyes practically shine when he speaks again, "But nothing compares to ghosts!"
"Oh, there they are!"
Lance looks over and his heart actually stutters when he sees the guy walking (arguing?) with Pidge as they head to the car. He's hot. Way too hot to be coming with them on this dorky trip. His dark black hair is pulled up in a lazy ponytail and he's wearing a painfully hipster red flannel shirt but dios mio he makes it work.
Pidge says something to Keith that Lance can't hear but he sees the exasperated, fond, smile on his lips and-
Ay, chico, that is not playing fair.
Once the duo arrive at the car, Pidge motions for him to roll his window down so he does.
"Open the trunk so we can get this shit in there." She says, struggling a little with the equipment in her arms.
"Gotcha!" Hunk calls, hitting a button and smiling at Keith as he stands awkwardly behind Pidge, "Nice to meet you, Keith! I'm Hunk and this guy's Lance!"
Keith give Hunk a shy smile and Lance dies a little inside, "Nice to meet you, too, Hunk. It's an honor to meet the man who has saved us from starvation so often." He jokes and Hunk laughs while Pidge gives her friend a dirty look.
"Come on, we aren't that poor!" She protests and Keith shrugs, going over to help her put stuff in the trunk before they slide into the backseat.
"So, Keith!" Hunk calls, all smiles and joy as Lance tries to subtly keep checking the new guy out from the rearview mirror. "How did you meet Pidge?"
"I moved in next door." Keith mumbles, clearly still uncomfortable but trying, "Then on the second day some weird little five year old girl appeared in my bedroom holding a dismantled toy robot and asking if I wanted to help her modify it." He says and Hunk laughs, Pidge rolls her eyes, and Lance dies a little inside at the small smile on the guy's face.
It's cute.
He's cute.
Lance is fucked . (Not even in the good way! Haha..ha...ohgod)
"Lance I don't think I've ever seen you so quiet before." Pidge teases and Lance notices a gleam in her eyes.
Oh shit.
This bitch knows.
"Hah! What? Psh, I'm just letting Hunk get to know Keith." Lance scoffs, "He was super excited about it, after all. Don't wanna interrupt."
Hunk looks at him a little embarrassed, "What the hell, bro?"
"It's alright," Keith shrugs, "I was excited to meet our favorite chef anyways."
Hunk gives Keith a beaming smile and the boy awkwardly returns it and Lance is dead. Gone. Fucking done. He's obviously a ghost now and just staying here out of pure willpower.
"Yeah, well, he wouldn't be your favorite it I cooked you something." Lance brags, earning an unimpressed look from Keith.
"Is that so?" He asks, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat, "Put your food where my mouth is, then, Lance ." There's a smirk on his face no and Lance is pumped.
"Oh, I will." Lance smirks right back, "I'll cook something that'll knock your pants off."
"Lance, you met him like two minutes ago, please don't try to get into his pants already." Pidge groans and Lance sees the faint blush on Keith's face.
"Aw, Pidge, now you made it awkward!" Hunk points out, trying hard not to laugh too hard as he drives.
"So...how exactly are we doing this thing?" Keith asks, trying desperately to change the subject. "Like, who is going to be the main focal point? Lance and Hunk?"
Hunk shakes his head, "No thanks, I don't really wanna be in the spotlight."
"Me neither." Pidge quickly adds. "Why don't we try you and Lance as the 'hunters'? I mean, we'll all be in it, but Hunk and I understand the equipment better anyways so we will be less in the videos."
"But…" Keith begins, sounding genuinely confused, "Isn't the whole reason we are going because Lance wanted you to be in the video with him?"
"I just wanted to involve my little bite-sized bro." Lance points out, a teasing smirk on his face.
"Ugh, why do I talk to you?" Pidge groans.
"I'm not quite sure yet, but going off his attitude I'd assume it's because you're both meme garbage?" Keith prompts and Hunk bursts out laughing.
"Oh my god, it's true!"
"Whatever, nerd." Pidge huffs and Keith simply rolls his eyes as the car falls into a comfortable silence until they reach the building.
Lance stares at the building for a minute. It's off on a dead end road, and they don't come to Olansbay often anyways, but it seems smaller than it did when he was little. Definitely nothing compared to more well known haunted places.
It's an old building, and the place itself is probably only about 10,000 square feet.
There's definitely an eerie feeling to the place, though, with the vast amount of vines covering the old brick walls. What once was probably pristine white has now chipped away to just give the place an overall dirty appearance. The concrete stairs leading up to it on it's small hill are broken, large chunks missing in them where weeds now spring to life.
It's not exactly underwhelming but he knows it's not going to get them a lot of attention on youtube.
Unless they find something.
"Who's ready to find some ghosts!?" Lance cheers, pumping an arm in the air.
"Yeah! Let's do this!" Hunk copies him before going and grabbing equipment with Pidge as Keith comes up to stand beside Lance. He has two simple camcorders for both of them, so all viewpoints can be seen, and he hands one to Lance.
"This place looks pathetic." Keith points out and Lance gawks at him, appalled.
"Um, excuse you ? This place is very creepy!" Lance huffs, "You just don't know it's history."
"Pidge said something about a couple on the job deaths and, like, hippie satanists in the 60s? Not exactly spooky."
"You know what ?" Lance begins, preparing to tell Keith off, because pretty or not you don't just shit on Lance's excitement. He's cut off, though, by Pidge popping up out of seemingly nowhere.
"Here you can see our two leads for this investigation, Lance McClain and Keith Kogane! Totally not in the middle of bickering, of course." Pidge diseases, covered in recording equipment to match Hunk's beside her. "Now Lance is our resident expert on the story of the building. Care to share with the class?"
Lance gets excited again and looks to the camera, wiggling his eyebrows at it, "I'm so glad you asked, Pidge. Back in 1920, this darling little factory was a paper mill, accounting for a large amount of jobs in this area. Sadly, back in the 20's workplace safety was lacking and during it's thirty year run as a factory there were over 17 deaths, leading to it being shut down. It was emptied out and abandoned for ten years before a little group of satanists in the 60's used it for their rituals. Upon finding the animal sacrifices and pentagram inside, the town completely boarded it up so no one can enter...until today." He begins heading towards the stairs now, Keith slowly catching on and following him to open the door as he keeps talking to Pidge's camera. "I've attained special permission for us to enter this building for the night. So let's get a move on and see what's inside."
Keith lets Hunk in at that, following close behind. "...Nothing." He says, a dull look on his face that Pidge records, "Nothing is inside."
Lance rolls his eyes and stands next to the skeptic asshole, trying to hide his nerves, "I told you it was empty. We have to look and try to entice the ghosts." He points out, making Keith and Pidge laugh. "Oh you guys are just the worst type of people."
The place is cold and barren and Lance can feel an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach as they look around. He's on edge, definitely ready to snap at any moment and so naturally as soon as the four of them fall silent, a loud wailing sound passes them, making Lance and Hunk shriek. Naturally, being a man of instinct, Lance does the first thing he thinks to do; climb onto Hunk's back.
"That's it! We're getting the hell outta here!" Hunk screams and Lance nods.
They're not ready for death, damnit!
They are too young and beautiful to die!
"Yes please!" He feels Hunk move to run before a hand latches onto the back of Lance's hoodie, making him scream again.
"Oh no you don't!" Keith growls, holding on tight, "This was all literally your idea!"
Pidge just sighs as she records them, "Get your shit together, losers. It was the fucking wind."
"You don't know that!" Lance yells as Hunk panics, "It went right past us, I could feel it!"
"Ghost hunters my ass…" Pidge mutters before speaking up loudly, "I'm not away from my computer so you can run from nature."
Lance and Hunk frown, but they have to admit she has a point so Hunk lets him down and Lance reluctantly goes back to Keith's side. "I don't know if my heart can take this…" He mutters weakly and Keith just looks at him, unimpressed.
"...Hm…" Keith looks around the room, contemplating something, before a strange spark comes to his eyes and he slowly turns to Lance with a smirk on his face, "Hey...so...did they clean this place up from the satanic rituals?"
Lance eyes him wearily, "What...are you getting at…?"
Keith leans in conspiratorially, "I'm gonna find me a pentagram." He declares, heading off in a direction.
"Ooooh, sounds fun!" Pidge agrees, following him.
"Wh-? What is wrong with you!? A ghost just tried to kill us and you're looking for a damn demon circle!?" Lance gasps, sharing a look with Hunk of pure horror before the two chase after them.
They walk around the building, Keith and Pidge searching for the pentagram. Lance is on pins and needles, looking everywhere in the dark praying they don't find it and subconsciously grabbing at Hunk occasionally.
"Ohhh nnoooo, Keith!" Pidge calls and Keith turns to her, making sure to record her with his own camera, "It's a dead rat! Think he's haunting this place?"
Keith nods grimly, "Yes, I'm afraid so. This dead rat and all the dead parasites on him are stuck here, haunting this horrendous building."
"Probably buddies with the dead bird we found a while back."
"Oh, no doubt."
"You guys are assholes." Lance grumbles and Hunk laughs nervously.
It's true, they are little sarcastic assholes, but he has to admit (not out loud, of course) they are distracting him from how fucking scared he is.
"This place isn't so bad with them around, though." Hunk voices his thoughts and Lance can't help but smile at that.
"I guess…"
"Holy shit!" Pidge exclaims, bringing everyone to her, "It's the pentagram!" She points at the floor at a dark reddish brown shape of a pentagram.
"Oh...god, do you think that's blood it's made of?" Keith asks, "Some poor animal's blood?"
"Aw, I hope not. That's just sad…" Pidge frowns and Lance shrieks, getting just close enough to grab the small girl by her shoulders and pull her into his arms protectively.
"Don't get close to that! You'll get possessed!"
"Will she now?" Keith asks, another unsettling look in his eyes, "Just from being close…?" He starts walking closer, his eyes never leaving Lance's.
"Keith! You get back over here!" Lance commands and Hunk nods.
"Y-you shouldn't mess with that, Keith."
Keith's expression softens for Hunk, biased bastard, but quickly enough a shit eating grin is back in its place. "I'm sorry, Hunk, I can't help it. Almost...like...it's dragging me there!" He says in an overly dramatic fashion before standing in the middle of the circle and Lance feels his heart drop into his stomach.
"KEITH! GOD DAMNIT! G-GET BACK HERE!" Lance demands, his grip on Pidge tightening.
"Oh my god, Keith," Pidge begins, amusement evident in her voice, "Lay down on it."
Keith looks hesitant at that, "It's so dirty...though…" He mutters before something in his mind seems to switch and his grins again, "I'm gonna do it."
"Hell yeah!" Pidge cheers, throwing an arm in the air that Lance has to move his head to avoid.
"Keith! I know we don't know each other but dios mio don't fucking be a dumbass!" Lance hisses out as Keith sets his camcorder down before laying on the pentagram. " KEITH!"
"Comfy." Keith says, spreading his arms and legs out before turning to Lance with a cocky grin, "You should try it."
"No thank you, I don't need to go to hell !"
"Hmm...I don't think I'm going to hell right now…but I suppose I could- JESUS CHRIST !" The raven haired boy jumps up, moving away from the pentagram some and Lance begins shaking Pidge.
"HE'S GONNA DIE NOW! HE'S DYING AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE YOU EGGED HIM ON!"
Pidge is unfazed, looking to Keith indifferently, "What's up?"
"Fucking-! Shit-! God damn bug touched me." Keith hisses, running his hands all over himself to check for a bug, and effectively shutting Lance's hysterics up.
"...Oh." Lance smirks as he lets go of Pidge and moves closer to the other man, "Afraid of a little bug, Keith?"
"At least what I'm afraid of exists." Keith hisses back, removing his red flannel button up and shaking it while also revealing the unfairly tight black long sleeved shirt beneath it.
"Psh, yeah, some tiny little bug that's gonna do a whhoooole lot of damage." Lance mocks and Keith gives him a pointed glare.
"And just what is a ghost gonna do, if they exist? Float through you?" He shakes his head and looks down at his shirt, "Ugh, it's covered in dirt now."
"Ghosts are dangerous, Keith ." Lance huffs, crosses his arms indignantly, "If they are strong enough they can lift things, throw people, drag and scratch them. Mentally corrupt someone into murderi-oh no, wait, it's, um, demons who do that I think."
Keith smirks, "Don't even know what your little buddies do, huh?"
"You little-!" Lance begins, bringing his face right up into Keith's to properly tell him off before something falls over in the distance, making him scream and latch onto the nearest person.
A very unamused Keith.
"It was a rat." The man points out and Lance looks over, not letting go of Keith's shoulders, to see a small rat scurrying away from the mess.
"...Shut up." He grumbles, taking a second to enjoy the feeling of Keith in his arms. The guy looks skinny and frail but damn he's not. Lance can feel the muscles under his shirt and holy shit that's hot.
Too bad Keith is a total asshole.
"...So...you gonna let go of me anytime soon?" Keith asks, pulling him out of his thoughts and making Lance jump away, arms up in the air.
"Sorry."
"It's fine," There's a smirk on Keith's face again, "Rats can be terrifying."
Lance scrunches up his face in annoyance, "At least I'm not afraid of bugs."
"Bugs are fucking gross and they can sometimes sting!" Keith huffs, "At least rats are cute ."
"I'm not afraid of rats! Only ghosts!" Lance groans and Keith chuckles under his breath.
"Ghost rats."
"Shut the fuck up."
"Okay, so…" Pidge begins, pulling their attention from each other, "We've gone through the whole building now. It's getting cold and Keith is kinda...not dressed for the weather anymore. That shirt's fabric is flimsy as fuck."
"Yeah, it is." Keith shrugs and Lance frowns. It did feel pretty thin when he was holding onto him.
"I guess we should go, then. We don't want Keith to get a cold." Lance teases.
"Ugh, finally, if I had known stripping would get me out of here faster I would have done it much sooner." Keith groans and Lance chokes on air for a second at the thought.
"Hey, you guys hungry?" Hunk asks, "Because I could definitely go for some food."
"Yeah," Keith nods, "I could eat."
"Oh thank god, me too!" Pidge sighs, resting a hand on her stomach, "Every time we come to this town all I can think about is that Italian place down the road."
"Oooooohhhh yeah, that's a good one." Hunk agrees, "Let's definitely go there."
Lance gets a big grin on his face, "Who's ya boi?" He asks, receiving weird looks from everyone but Hunk who emphatically raises his hand and calls out 'me'.
"Just him." Keith says and Pidge nods.
"Well get ready to change that." Lance says, pulling out his wallet as they head down the stairs to the car, "I made sure to save eating out money for this trip."
Keith looks at him confused, "Are you...saying you are going to pay for everyone?" He asks and Lance nods.
"That's right! Dinner is on me! Just this time, though. Next time we're leaving this county so we will need all our own money." Lance explains and Keith frowns.
"No. Absolutely not." He says, grabbing the wallet and shoving it into the pocket on Lance's hoodie, looking pointedly at the now flustered teen, "Keep your money for yourself. Save it for the next trip, if we're going far. Everyone can buy their own meal."
Lance blinks, staring at the boy in surprise, "But...it's my way of thanking you guys for coming."
"Nah, we don't need it." Pidge speaks up, getting into the back seat with Keith again as Lance and Hunk get into the front. "I came out of curiosity and if anyone owes Keith, it's me."
"Nobody owes Keith." Keith grumbles, "It's fine. Everyone pays for themselves."
Hunk nods as he starts up the car, "I agree. We should all be responsible for our own expenses."
"Fine," Lance sighs and looks back at Keith, "I guess you aren't as much of an ass as I thought."
The smirk that comes to Keith's face is just criminal, "How kind of you to notice."
"Keep it in your pants, boys." Pidge calls out, fidgeting with her phone as they head to the restaurant.