Thank you everyone that has taken the time to read, favorite, follow, and review Laser-Tag Love. I am very grateful and glad that you are enjoying it. I love you all.

I welcome all constructive criticism.

Here is chapter eighteen. I hope that you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of the characters from it. Skip Beat is the property of Yoshiki Nakamura.

Everyone's Game

The four players walked on to the playing field. Ren and Sebastian both had rather serious looks on their faces, Kyoko was glowing with excitement, and Maria was smirking.

Kyoko leaned over to Ren and whispered, "Which way should we go?"

Ren looked to where Sebastian and Maria were but didn't see them. 'Wow. They didn't loos anytime disappearing.' He grabbed Kyoko's and started leading her away while answering her in a whisper. "I don't suppose it matter which way we go. Sebastian and Maria have already disappeared.

"What!?" Kyoko said in a high pitched whisper. She turned her head and saw that Ren was right. "How do they do that? They're there one second and gone the next without a trace."

Ren shook his head. "I have no idea. Sebastian has always been that way. I guess Maria is picking it up from him. I have a feeling that will give them a nice advantage during this game."

Kyoko nodded in agreement. "I'm starting feel less excited and more nervous. If we can't hear them it will be almost impossible to shoot them at all."

"I know but we have to give it our best. Besides this will be good practice for Boss' laser-tag game."

As they talked they climbed some stairs up to the second level and found a place to set up their base of operations.

"So what kind of strategy should we have?" Kyoko asked Ren.

"With this type of game you can't have much a strategy. One option is for one of us to find a very good hiding spot and shoot Sebastian or Maria if they pass, while the other one moves from hiding spot to hiding spot trying to find and shoot Sebastian and Maria. The other option is for both of to move from hiding spot to hiding spot to try to find and shoot Sebastian and Maria, either together or separately. That's basically all we can do."

"I see your point neither of those is much of a strategy but they're the only things we can do." Kyoko thought about which one might be best.

As soon as they entered the playing field Sebastian and Maria looked at each other and as one moved silently to the right without being noticed. They made their way up to the second floor and positioned themselves in a nook near the top of the stairs they climbed up.

Maria looked around and saw a small ledge about 8 feet off the ground with a rope hanging from it. 'Perfect.' She walked over to it and shimmied up the rope onto the ledge. She turned around and started pulling the rope up onto the ledge with her.

Sebastian watched as she walked up and got up on the ledge. 'She has found a good spot. If she lays down Ren and Kyoko won't be able see her and with the rope hidden they won't think to look up there. Even if they did there is no way they could. Well Ren might be able to pull himself up there. However I have a feeling that I could distract him easily if that should happen.' He caught Maria's eye after she was done pulling up the rope and nodded his approval.

She grinned mischievously. "I'm going to stay here for this round and snipe them. I have a pretty good view of the area from up here." Her voice was quiet but full of anticipation.

Sebastian's expression was stoic but his eyes were smiling. 'Interesting. She might be feeling better already with just the aspect of playing against Ren and Kyoko. I really should be used to Lory's crazy plans working. No matter what they always seem to achieve the predicted results. Sometimes before anything happens. It would be fascinating to know how he does it.' In a whisper he replied, "I will be back every few minutes to check on you."

Maria nodded and with that Sebastian silently vanished.

'I wish I could do that. How is he always so quiet? I wonder if he would teach me. It would be so cool to be able to sneak up on people the way Sebastian does.' As Maria was thinking this she put on her mask and got into position. 'No one would ever be able to find me. Well Sebastian might be able to. But then he has always been the best at finding me when I was hiding.

'Just like last week when I ran into that room to cry. He must have followed me. He didn't say anything. He just held me, as though he knew that I didn't want anyone to say anything to me.' Maria shook her head. 'This is not the time to be thinking about that. I should be thinking about the game and focusing on watching for Ren-sama and Onee-san.' Maria grinned. 'They'll never hit me.'

Just then the air horn sounded. The game had officially begun.

"Bring it on." Maria said in a confident whisper.

Sebastian put on his mask as he walked away. He came to short wall that was around an opening showing the ground floor of the field. He looked around and found a hiding place nearby. 'This will be good for a few minutes and then I'll go find a another place.' He hid quickly and let his thoughts drift back to what they were before he left Maria. 'She really has gotten stronger over the months that she has known Kyoko. She already seems better. A little bit at any rate and the game hasn't even started. I wonder how she will be when the game is over. How much will it help her?

'If nothing else it should help her to release some of the negative emotions she's been feeling. At least it'll help her in ways that her voodoo hasn't. Well I hope it will. I wonder how Lory would have reacted if I told him about that. It's probably best that I didn't. He knows that she believes in voodoo but I doubt he would have taken it well if he knew that Maria was trying to lightly curse Ren and Kyoko. I'm glad that she only tried that twice before stopping because of guilt.'

Sebastian sighed and stopped that train of thought. 'The horn should be sounding any second now.' He cocked his gun and just as he did so the horn went off.

"We're going to be Cain and Setsu during the laser-tag game right?" Kyoko asked Ren.

"Yes."

"And this is practice for the laser-tag game." Kyoko said to herself. "I think that we should stick together. Setsu hates being away from her brother. And we'll be together all the time during laser-tag so we should probably practice that way now."

Ren smiled and pulled Kyoko to him. "I think you're right. We can stay here for a little bit when the game starts and then move to a new location." He took Kyoko's mask out of her hands and helped her put it on after giving her a quick kiss. He then put his mask on and they waited for the horn to blow.

They only had to wait about a minute.

Half an hour later the air horn went off again signaling the end of the first round. Maria immediately let the rope down and and climbed down it to the floor where she met Sebastian. She took off her mask to reveal her face split in a wide grin. "I got Ren-sama and Onee-san so many times. And they never got me or figured out where I was. We won!"

Sebastian didn't say anything but smiled at her with his eyes as she took his hand. He had gotten hit a few times but not very often. 'I feel sorry for Ren and Kyoko. I could have let them get me more often but Maria needed this win. I can already tell that she happier than she has been for the past week.'

Sebastian and Maria made their way to the glass doors to exit the field and walked through them. Ren and Kyoko followed a few seconds later.

When the air horn blew a second time after half and hour Kyoko sank down to the floor. She pulled her mask off panting. She had been hit at least twenty times. The thick clothing and protective gear kept her from getting welts but she knew that she was going to be a bit sore that evening.

Ren pulled off his mask as well and looked at her sympathetically. "Are you okay?" He asked in a gentle voice. He had been hit about five more times than Kyoko. It had been a long time since he had last played paintball but he was used to it.

Kyoko looked up at him and smiled. "I'm okay just a little tired. I have a feeling that I'm going to be sore tonight."

"You will be a little, a long hot shower after we're done will help and some ibuprofen." Ren held out his hand to Kyoko and helped her up.

"This was fun but I never saw Maria. I saw Sebastian a couple times and I'm sure that Maria shot us a lot. But I never saw her."

They started walking towards a set of stairs as Ren replied. "I didn't see her either. She must of stayed in one spot while Sebastian moved around. I can't think of where that spot might have been though."

"I can't either. Do you think that she'll go to that same spot again during the next round?"

"I doubt it. If she keeps going there it's more likely that we'll find her."

"That's understandable." Said Kyoko as she and Ren walked through the glass doors about half a minute after Sebastian and Maria.

The same worker who had helped them get their guns was waiting just inside with bottles of water for them. Everyone said thank you as they took their water bottles and had long cold drinks.

"Did you all enjoy the first round?" He asked with a bright smile.

Maria smiled back and nodded enthusiastically.

"It was fun but I feel really tired." Kyoko replied with a small smile.

The employee nodded in understanding. "That's because the adrenaline rush you were having is gone. Almost everyone feels tired after they have had a adrenaline rush. Might I suggest that you take a ten minute break before doing another round."

"I think that is a good idea." Said Ren looking around to see Kyoko, Sebastian, and Maria nodding.

"Alright. Please make yourselves comfortable and let me know if you need anything."

There were some comfortable benches around the area near the doors leading to the field. Sebastian, Ren, and Kyoko sat down. Maria set her mask on the bench next to Sebastian and went for a walk around the building.

Sebastian watched her out of the corner of his eye. 'She must have a lot of energy. She hardly moved during the whole round.'

Ren and Kyoko also watched Maria from the bench they were sitting on together. "She is still so quiet." Kyoko whispered in Ren's ear.

"I know."

"I'm really worried. Why isn't she talking to us like she used to? It's as though she doesn't like us any more."

Ren held Kyoko's hand. "I don't know," he sighed. "I'll try talking to her today after we're all done with paintball. Maybe I can get her to talk with me."

"Okay," Kyoko replied as she gave Ren's hand a squeeze.

Just then Maria came back sat down next to Sebastian.

Hi everyone! Just a heads up for chapter nineteen, I will do my best to get it posted on time but I can't make any guaranties. I'm going to a Comic Con in a couple weeks and so it's crunch time to complete costumes. Please don't hate me if chapter nineteen is late.