Shiro might start re-evaluating his life choices

Shiro gets out of the car and stares down at the Ghost Town, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. Not because of the ghost town, or the weird objects he sees his baby brother and Pidge pull out of a bag, snickering about ghosts and riling Lance up. No, his unease comes from all of the actual shit he's dealt with on this trip. The ominous feeling he gets when he looks at Keith and Lance, the lectures he got from his baby brother and said brother's new friend Hunk.

It's just not his weekend, really.

He looks to the man opening the gates of the town to them and watches Lance pay him a certain amount they worked out over the phone before coming, he's not sure how much it is, but from the pained look on Lance's face when he hands it over it's probably a substantial amount.

Nonetheless it gets them in.

"I still can't believe you had your mom make me this shirt…" Keith grumbles, looking down at the red shirt he's wearing with an identical print to the one on Lance's.

"Well you liked it so much at our christmas party, how could I not?" Lance smirks, "Besides, it's the official shirt, isn't it?"

"I regret so much." The older boy sighs, looking down and running his fingers over the word 'bootiful' beneath the ghost in a magnifying glass on his shirt with a gentle smile, "It was nice of your mom, though. To make it so quickly, for some kid she doesn't even know, she must be a really kind person."

Lance blushes and awkwardly clears his throat, turning to look anywhere else and accidentally makes eye contact with Shiro, "Um," He practically squeaks out as Shiro raises a brow, an amused smile on his face.

There's a small feeling of power Shiro gets when Lance quickly looks away from him as well.

"M-mom is the best!" Lance laughs, "She, uh-"

"She got it done so quickly because Lance pestered the shit out of her." Hunk explains, earning a dark look from his best friend. "Lots of 'Mamá, por favor, es muy importante para mí!' filled our apartment and probably drove his poor mom insane for the last month." He mocks, earning an elbow to his side as he laughs.

Keith rolls his eyes before smiling at Lance again, "You get so intense about your jokes sometimes."

Shiro notices the look Lance and Hunk share, and he can't help but stare at his stupid brother for a moment.

"Okay, yes, we all love the shirt," Pidge says, still wearing her alien shirt from earlier in the day, "Clearly Lance and I have the best taste in clothing here, but can we figure out what we are gonna do for this episode? Matt is practically jumping out of his skin to run around the place, but I know you want to do an explanation first."

"Let's goooooooo!" Matt groans, shooting Shiro an annoyed look, like he has any say.

"Alright, let's set up a spot." Lance says, placing two chairs in a random area, "Alright, Keith, come sit."

"We have guests, aren't we gonna have them sit with us while you tell it?" Keith asks, raising a brow when Lance tenses up some.

"W-we...we only have two chairs…"

Matt lights up, "I can sit in Shiro's lap, and Keith can sit-!"

"No way!" Lance and Shiro exclaim, glaring at the now grinning Matt.

"Keith and Lance can do their thing on their own, we'll just walk around with them after." Shiro says, Lance nodding from his spot off to the side with the chairs.

"Fine." Matt grumbles, dejectedly.

"Why don't you and Matt do it?" Keith offers, everyone but him noticing the fleeting look of hurt on Lance's face at the suggestion.

"You really want Matt to take your spot?" Shiro asks and Keith rolls his eyes.

"Not really, but he looks like he wants to."

Matt laughs a little, "Nah, you boys do your thing. I'm more excited for the actual ghost hunting." He turns to Pidge, "Why don't you give Shiro your camera and show me how the ghost equipment works?"

"Sure, why not?" She hands Shiro a large camcorder that he's honestly shocked she can carry, before running off with Matt.

"Um...ok…" Keith plops down in his seat next to a much happier looking Lance as Shiro gets the camcorder ready.

"Tonight we are taking a trip through Vulture mine and it's surrounding ghost town." Lance says, smiling at the camera, "Pidge has always said that if ghosts were real, in some alternate reality, they would most likely be in mines."

Hunk turns his camera to Pidge and Matt.

"I said in a fantasy world , Lance, don't go changing my words!" She hollers and Hunk chuckles a little under his breath before turning back to the two.

"I guess that would make sense," Keith shrugs, "Dying trapped underground would make someone pretty bitter, and in a fantasy world where ghosts exist I know that I would haunt the place that buried me alive."

Lance laughs a little, "Think you might be a little bitter?"

Keith smiles at him, "I might be."

"Welp, with that out of the way, time for some history! In 1863, a prospector named Henry Wickenburg found a quartz deposit containing gold, setting up Vulture Mine. It quickly became the most successful, producing over 340,000 oz of gold and 260,000 oz in silver, between 1863 and 1942."

Keith gawks at him and Shiro must admit even he's surprised at the amount, " Jesus that's a lot of gold!"

"Sure is!"

"I always thought, honestly because I never gave enough of a shit to look into it, that mining towns and whatnot happened after someone found like a tiny bit of gold and then others found out and flocked to it hoping they might find some, too. Didn't really connect that there was a time when our country was full of gold."

"This town was literally overflowing with gold, but don't worry," Lance grins at him, "That's why you're the pretty one and I'm the smart one."

Keith scoffs, "That literally could not be further from the truth. You're looking for ghosts , Lance."

"So are you."

"No, I'm going to interesting new places and watching an idiot freak out over the wind."

Lance gasps, "How DARE!"

"Suck it up, buttercup." Keith smirks and Shiro has to stop himself from laughing behind the lens.

Lance crosses his arms and pouts for a second, " Anyways, the mine was so lucrative that they created the small town for the miners. It ended up with 5,000 residents, which might be a small amount these days but back then was a lot."

"That's pretty much a boom town back then. A town full of gold lovers. That's the dream."

"Yeah? That's the dream?"

Keith nods, "Just imagine it, everyone does the same thing for work so you always have something to talk about. Not to mention everyone is there for gold, for greed, just a big old town of like-minded people."

Lance laughs, "Yeah, I'm sure the conversations were great. 'Hello John!' 'Hello Jim!' 'Get a lot of gold today?'"

"Ohhhh a smart man wouldn't tell the others how much gold he got." Keith points out, "Town full of greedy people isn't very safe."

"Neither of you understand how mining work." Shiro sighs from behind the camera.

Both boys awkwardly clear their throats before Lance speaks up again, "Anyways, during World War II they shut it down, as they shut down all mines not helping out with the war. Once it shut down, naturally everyone left and it became a ghost town, leaving us with the skeletal remains we see before us."

"They're not-" Keith groans, "They're not 'skeletal remains', Lance, jesus do you even hear yourself?"

"Watch it, Keith!" Lance warns, "It's a perfectly acceptable way to talk about this place!"

"I would use remnants, but I guess you're just edgier than me now." Keith teases, earning himself the bird from Lance.

" Boys. " Shiro groans, making both of them sit at attention, "Lance, continue."

Lance practically beams at him and Shiro can't help but smile back. "Anyways! This town is said to be haunted by those who never left, the area in general has reports of disembodied voices, orbs, cold spots and apparitions. That being said, let's get out there!" He jumps up from his seat and yanks Keith to his feet as well, "We'll start with a famous hot spot! The generator room!"

Pidge and Matt hear him and quickly join, the former taking the camcorder from Shiro so the latter can take his hand and follow Lance and Keith.

"By the way, this trip we have two special guests!" Lance says when Shiro and Matt come up, "Shiro here is Keith's older brother, he got all the kindness and coolness in the family-"

"Hey!"

"And this is Matt, Pidge's older brother. He's the second coolest dude, only to Hunk."

"Awww, thanks buddy." Matt grins, "Now lets go hunt some ghosts!"

"Yeah!" Lance cheers, leading the way.

"That's your boyfriend, Shiro." Keith points out and his brother can't help but laugh.

"You keep saying that, like it's supposed to be some bad thing and I'm not super happy about it and thank god every day he's with me." Shiro says, making Keith blush from second-hand embarrassment.

"You, um...you know Pidge is like right there recording us." Keith points out, gesturing to Pidge a few feet to their left with a shit eating grin.

Shiro blushes a little but shrugs it off, "I am literally living with him. I think he's aware I love him."

"Glad to hear it, I'll show him this later." Pidge smirks, "Now get a move on boys, your nerds await."

"He's not my-!" Keith begins, getting cut off when Shiro grabs his shoulders and pushes him forward until they are all back together in the dilapidated generator room.

"How kind of you to join us." Lance says, looking more than a little annoyed, surrounded by old and broken machinery.

"Sorry, Shiro had to wax poetic about his boyfriend for a minute." Keith shrugs and Shiro buries his face in his hands.

"That's not- " He scowls to himself because it kind of is what ultimately made them take longer, "God damnit, Keith."

"Anyways," Keith begins, walking over to stand next to Lance, "Tell us about your wonderful generator room."

"Well, it's rumored that a man died a grizzly death in here."

"Ya don't say."

Lance shoots him a look, "He was said to have been pulled into that machine there and was ground up." He says, gesturing to a large machine, "Don't quite know what it was for originally, though."

"Clearly it was a people grinder." Keith smirks, the smile softening a little as soon as Lance starts laughing.

And that's when it hits Shiro.

Keith is aware of his own crush, which is probably Shiro's own fault after their little talk.

Damnit . What are the kids saying these days? 'You played yourself?'

Yup, looks like Shiro did.

"I doubt that was the official use, Keith." Lance says, grinning at him.

"Looks like an old machine that utilized centrifugal force to create energy." Matt suggests, "But it's kind of old and falling apart so I can't really tell what it is."

"See, Keith? Not a people grinder."

Keith shrugs, "I dunno, Lance, grinding people would make a lot of energy."

"That would actually take a lot of energy, Keith." Matt points out and Lance grins.

"He's my new favorite." Lance whispers loudly to Keith who just rolls his eyes.

"Hooray."

"This place is pretty creepy, though." Matt says, inching closer to Shiro as he looks around, "Without the floodlights there is definitely an eerie feel to it."

"Yeah," Shiro agrees, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him closer, "Aren't you into that, though?"

"As long as you're here." Matt answers easily, and Shiro can't help but smile because it's not teasing or flirty, it's just a fact. His presence makes Matt feel safe.

"Are you scared?" Keith asks, smirking at Lance.

" Obviously ! How are you not?"

"Well, I'm scared this machine might fall apart, but scared of the ghosts? No."

Lance sighs, "Wish I had someone to cuddle up to."

Shiro notices Keith's arm twitch, reaching out on impulse before the boy quickly stops himself. "Keith can cuddle you." He offers, grinning at his brother, "Right?"

"Aren't we supposed to be looking for ghosts!?" Lance exclaims, awkwardly, "Get the EVP out and let's try to communicate."

"I'm not bringing you again," Keith huffs, "You two are too weird."

Lance gets out the EVP and holds it near the machine, "You talk first, Keith, I'm kinda nervous."

"Because of the ghosts or the two losers cuddling up to each other?" Keith asks but comes up before he can answer, "If the guy who got his guts spun up into the rafter is here-"

"KEITH!" Lance and Matt yell, going ignored.

"Come on out and talk to us." He finishes and everyone goes silent, waiting to hopefully hear something or have the EVP pick up on a sound.

Nothing happens.

"I didn't like iiit," Pidge mutters in her best old man voice, "It wasn't fuunnnnn." She adds, making Keith burst out laughing, wrapping an arm around his stomach as the other one falls on Lance's shoulder to brace himself.

"You two are assholes ." Lance grumbles, or tries to, but he has a huge smile on his face as he watches Keith and his voice is far too light to come off as even annoyed.

"You two really know how to set the mood." Hunk jokes from behind the camera.

"Alright, alright, come on." Lance chuckles, grabbing the hand on his shoulder and pulling Keith away from the machine, "We're gonna be serious this time."

"Ugh, so boring." Keith mutters, his eyes now glued to where Lance is now holding his wrist.

They all go to another end of the warehouse, standing in front of new machinery. Hunk and Pidge each go on seperate sides of Keith and Lance as Shiro works his way behind the two, Matt still under his arm.

"Sorry for my rude friends back there, but if there are any ghosts in here, please show us a sign...or make a noise of some kind?" Lance calls before the room goes silent. As the seconds pass, Shiro can see his body growing more and more tense and he wants nothing more than to force his stupid brother to comfort the kid in some way.

Still, though. Can't have too much sympathy for the kid who is literally running the show.

After a solid minute passes he notices Lance inch closer to Keith, who seems to notice and goes to do something when a loud sound comes from the far left of the room.

" Shit. " Lance hisses under his breath, nerves going into overdrive, "Is...is someone there?" He turns to look at Keith, fear in his eyes, "Should….should we go see what it is?"

"Yeah," Keith replies calmly, "Maybe it's a snake."

Lance narrows his eyes, "A snake ?"

"Sure, a little snake wrapped around an ax, with a cute little hat on. You know, just working in the warehouse."

Lance shakes his head, visibly calming down some, "You heard that though, right? I wasn't imagining it?"

"I hear metal on metal." Keith offers, "I don't want to, you know, outright shoot you down, but…"

"That's what you're doing?" Lance suggests and Keith nods.

"That's what I'm doing."

The group look around the spot where they heard the noise come from and see nothing, from the set up of dust on the objects it doesn't even look like anything just fell over to cause the noise either. Shiro thinks about pointing this out, but he decides not to.

Ghost hunting is their thing. They need to figure out how to find evidence theirselves.

Also Matt is still kinda tense beside him and he doesn't wanna scare him more.

But, you know, mostly the first thing.

"Welp, onto the next location." Pidge announces, gesturing for Keith and Lance to lead the way.

"So another hot spot is the two-story Assay building, which was used to make bars of gold and silver." Lance explains as they head to a crumbling brick building with the words 'Assay Office' on the wooden door, "Back in the day, this building had a vault where these bars were kept safe. It's said the whole city was lawless and ran rampant with crime."

Keith laughs a little, "I love it, that good old gold thieving crime. Literally the best."

"Fun fact, the city, being lawless, was mostly run by vigilante justice. So people were just running around fucking shit up, stabbing each other."

"How very 'Old West' of them. I'm a big fan."

Lance rolls his eyes, "Oh yeah? It would have had everything you wanted, then. Lots of action, dancin', gold and smoochin' going on."

"D...dancing?"

"Yup. Dancing, smooching, gold and action. In droves. It's all they did."

"Lordy!" Keith teases and Lance shakes his head.

"It sounds like your kinda town," Shiro says to Matt, "Except for the action part."

"That's fair, I'm all about them dances and smoochin'." Matt grins, "Bring me some gold! Bring me some smooches!"

"I'll bring you some smooches," Shiro mutters, leaning in until Keith and Pidge clear their throats.

Loudly.

It actually sounds like it probably hurt.

" Anyways !" Pidge begins, "Lance, the assay!"

"R-right," Lance blushes a little, "They say that the assay was frequently under attack by people out to steal the gold and silver, and while there's no real evidence of it, one could pretty safely assume that there were some deaths from this." He explains, leading the way with Keith into the old building.

Shiro's not a fan of this whole 'brother and Pidge going into old abandoned buildings' schtick. Not that he has much of a choice, though.

"People who visit here have reported things like rocks being thrown and dust falling from the ceiling as if someone is walking above, and someone even captured an EVP of a voice saying 'Get Out'." Lance says as Keith looks around.

"Oh hey, look, there's a huge rat." Keith points out and Lance looks over.

"Jesus christ that's a big ass rat."

"Look at the little guy go! At least we get to see one alive this time."

"Yaaaay." Lance deadpans before walking ahead, "Man this place is pretty intense." He shines his light on an old kiln, probably used to for the gold and silver bars, "This is where the magic happened, baby."

Keith goes to say something when they all hear a strange loud noise. "Oh boy." He mumbles when Lance tenses up.

"Did you hear that? Something just whispered!"

"That-no. Lance, just no."

"And why not?"

"People, nor your little 'ghosts' make that sound."

Lance crosses his arms, "The hell they don't."

"So you think, whatever powers may be, were like 'it's not your time yet, I want you to go back to earth and tell them.." Keith makes a small choking noise and Pidge laughs.

"Is there anybody in here with us right now?" Lance asks, pointedly ignoring them.

"Other than the rat," Keith adds, 'helpfully'.

"Other than the rat." Lance sighs and makes them all stay quiet for a while. Nothing happens this time, though, so they head off to the next place, "Alright, let's head to the storage room I guess." They walk to it and notice a sign above stating this is the location of the vault.

"Ohh, think there might be some left overs?" Matt asks, grinning at Lance, who grins back.

"I doubt it." Shiro says, making their faces drop.

"You're no fun." Lance pouts and Matt nods.

"He's all muscles and reality checks."

"Jeez, at least your half of the brother set has muscles. Ours looks like a twink."

Keith gasps, "I do not ! Besides, I have muscles! I could bench press you, no problem!"

Lance smirks at him, "Oh yeah? Prove it ."

"No problem!" Keith moves closer until Shiro grabs the collar of his shirt.

"Easy, boy. Did you forget we're here for ghosts? Not...whatever this is."

"Right, right." Keith grumbles, grabbing Lance's shoulders and pushing him inside, "Let's get going."

Lance immediately heads off into a side room alone before quickly turning and heading back. "Ok, no, I don't like that room."

"Why not?" Matt asks and Keith smirks.

"Of course you realize we have to start in that room now, right?"

Lance goes to tell him off, but instead settles for a suffering groan, " I know ." He follows Keith back into the room, moving over some so everyone else can enter as well. "Is there...anyone in here? I know I feel like someone is in here…"

"Aw, there's another rat in here." Pidge calls this time, practically cooing at the creature.

"Dead?" Hunk asks and Pidge raises a brow.

"Why...would I coo at a dead animal? Nah, man, he's running around under that pile of wood." She gestures and he laughs a little.

"Fair point."

"So this is the main office of the building," Lance begins, pointing his camera around, "Pidge, Hunk, Shiro and Matt have just set up a bunch of stuff. We have a motion detector hanging out right on that table there, along with some cameras, and our gopros, all set up to catch it go off."

"If it goes off I'm gonna lose my mind." Hunk mumbles, moving closer to Pidge.

"If you're here, once again, step near this table. The one with the little white box on it." Lance calls and Shiro feels Matt curl a little more into him.

They stand there, once again in silence for what feels like an eternity, before Lance lets out a dejected sigh.

"I'm not gonna gloat here," Keith says, "Because, honestly, at a certain point I just feel bad for you."

"Keith, I swear- "

"What about trying to call out to them sounding like cowboys?" Pidge suggests, trying hard to look serious,"Maybe it'll make them more comfortable if you sound like them?"

Keith gives her a brutal look that Shiro would scold him for, but this time he's gonna let it slide because damn Pidge.

Lance looks like he loves the idea, "Yes! Keith! Can you do a southern accent?"

"...Maybe….?"

"Let's do this!" Lance clears his throat and does his best cowboy impression, "Howdy, y'all," Shiro watches Keith physically cringe, "We left some gold out for ya, if'n ya want it."

"That is so offensive, I cannot even…" Keith grumbles under his breath before sighing and joining it, "Unless yer too scared."

"I guess that's all you are. Buncha yellow bellies." Lance sighs.

"I stole yer gold, and yer wife!" Pidge calls from her spot across the room, making Keith and Lance burst out laughing.

"P-Pidge, don't get them mad at us !" Hunk exclaims, looking torn between moving away or closer to her.

"Welp, this place is a dud. Shocker ." Keith announces, "Let's grab out shit and go to the next spot."

Matt looks over to Lance excitedly as he picks up a camera on a trifold in the corner of the room, "Oooo, what's next?"

Lance smiles back, equally excited, "The hanging tree !"

" Fucking. Awesome." Matt practically bounces over to him, "Let's get going!"

Shiro looks at the two and sighs, "He's so cute when he's excited." He whispers to himself, scooping two tri-folds into one arm and their cameras into his hands.

"You guys are disgusting." Keith grumbles, carrying one out himself.

" Agreed ." Pidge groans, following behind them.

"Psh, you two are just jealous." Shiro teases and both of their left eyes twitch in unison. (It's amazing, really.)

"Literally no." They say, again, in unison, and Shiro briefly wonders if aliens are real and perhaps his and Matt's baby siblings have been replaced.

Nah.

Aliens would probably be less weird.

A/N: Every time I do a chapter with one of the haunted places I rewatch the Buzzfeed Unsolved episode and get reminded just how much I love this show oml. I'm so happy people are checking it out and falling in love with it bc of this story.

I'm gonna level with you guys. With all of my stories, no matter which of the three klance ones you read, there will be long gaps sometimes in updates and I apologize, I'm not dropping the stories, I just go through depressive episodes that last...a while. I'm gonna be getting help for it, and hopefully it'll stop, but most likely it won't. Anyways, I want to thank everyone who sticks around in spite of the long ass breaks I sometimes take. I will not be dropping any of them, I will always come back, it will just sometimes take a while.
So, again, thank you so much to everyone who sticks around.