Archive of Our Own ^beta

It hadn’t even been a week since the whole killer ghost incident when they were thrown back into the supernatural again. Much to both Lance’s and Hunk’s unhappiness because listen, one could only handle so much spooky stuff happening around them before they needed a good months off from it.

They were all at Lance’s house, and by all that meant Lance, Keith, Pidge and Hunk, all four studying together for a major calculus test that their teacher had sprung on them that day.

“Ugh,” Lance said as he threw himself dramatically back against the sofa, “I can’t believe Ms. McGrillis would do this to us!”

“Oh I can believe it,” Hunk said as he flipped through the textbook, writing down random notes as he read along. “I knew she would be one of those teachers when she gave us a quiz on the first day of school to assess what we remembered from pre-calc.”

“Oh come on guys, it’s not that bad,” Pidge said, she had whizzed through the study guide a long time ago and was currently playing some game on her phone. Only looking up occasionally to help one of them out if they started complaining loud enough. “It’s everything we’ve already learned so far this year. It’s pretty much the term one test.”

“Still,” Lance said as he slipped from off the couch and into Hunk’s lap for added effect. Hunk paid him no attention, just moved his paper so it wasn’t connecting with Lance’s face. “A little more of a warning would’ve been nice.”

All three of his friends shrugged at him. “It could’ve been worse,” Keith offered, looking up from his calculations for the first time that night. He was chewing on the end of his pen and gosh did he look cute-no Lance, focus. There’s a test to study for.

“It could’ve been like AP English last year where Ms. Payne gave us a pop quiz about once a week.”

Keith did have a point there.

“But still, it’s the principle of the matter. I have to complain about this,” Lance said, throwing his arm against his forehead for added effected. When he heard Keith chuckle he felt a grin split across his face.

“Whatever helps you study derivatives,” Keith said with one last chuckle before looking back down at his paper. Speaking of derivatives….

Lance rolled off of Hunk’s lap and made his way over to Keith who was sitting on the floor by the coffee table. “Speaking of derivatives,” Lance said as he threw his arm across Keith’s shoulders, not needing to say anything else before Keith let out a sigh.

“What do you need help with Lance?”

“Everything.”

“How is it that the one piece of math you’re bad at is the only one I’m actually okay in?” Keith said as he shook his head and took the paper in Lance’s hand.

“Must be some kind of fate,” Lance said with a flutter of his lashes-wait, had he just flirted with Keith?

“Uh huh, maybe,” Keith said as he looked over Lance’s work. “Could you maybe be terrible with the concept of calculus than? For me?”

“It is tempting if it’s for you but no I’m afraid not,” Lance said with a shake of his head doing his best not to show that he was kinda losing his cool on the inside over this subtle flirting with Keith.

Pidge snorted from behind them, never mind he wasn’t as subtle as he thought.

“Okay so you see you have to,” Keith said as he trailed off on his explanation writing down the steps as he went along and even helping Lance with a problem or two before Lance felt like he could actually do a problem without crying.

“Now that I finally know what the heck derivatives I think I should reward myself,” Lance said as he pulled out his phone and clicked on Instagram.

“Lance, are you sure this is a good study habit?” Keith asked.

“I’ve kept this 4.0 grade point average for how many years? I think I know how to study bud,” Lance said as his insta feed finally loaded. He saw a few pictures that his siblings had posted, one of the twins and another of his sister Alison, there was even a blurry one of him flopping onto Hunk’s lap that Pidge must have posted. It was all fine and dandy until he scrolled down a little further.

There were a few grainy and blurry pictures, most of which were captioned with question marks and locations but nothing could even be discerned from them. Lance simply shook his head at the horrible photography skills. Further down though, one picture crossed his eye.

The caption read, LOL Halloween was last week dummy, with a picture clearly of a zombie. Lance was about to turn to Hunk and make a joke about how someone must’ve labeled their calendar wrong when he realized there was something…off with the picture.

The skin was deathly pale and smudged with dirt, but the thing is it didn’t look like make-up. The dirt was legit, even the stuff clumped in the zombie’s long hair. Plus, the decomposing flesh and gaping wounds on the zombie looked a little too real. And oh god were those actual brains sticking out of the skull?! Lance had to hold back a gag as he turned to Keith and just shoved his phone into his hands. If Lance was getting nauseous looking at it then Hunk would most definitely feel sick if he looked at that picture.
“Lance what the heck?” Keith said as his brow pinched up in confusion.

“Just look at the picture dude, it’s just,-it’s gross,” Lance said, shaking his head as Pidge catapulted off the couch to get a good look too.

“Ooooh, cool costume,” Pidge said while Keith grimaced, at least he was grossed out too.

“No Pidge, take a closer look,” Keith muttered as he shoved the phone into Pidge’s hands before turning back to Lance. “You don’t think-“

“Holy moly is that a legit zombie?!” Pidge yelled, cutting Keith off and startling Hunk.

“What are you guys looking at?” Hunk asked with a sigh as the other three heads turned to look at him.

“I don’t think you wanna look at this big guy,” Lance said at the exact moment that Pidge shoved the phone screen into Hunk’s face.

“We got a zombie on our hands,” was all Pidge said before Hunk’s face screwed up and he shoved the phone away.

“Ewwwwww,” Hunk said as he shoved his head into his hands. “Why did you have to show that to me?”

Pidge shrugged. “I wanted you to be prepared for when we see it later.”

“What do you mean see it later?” Hunk squeaked out as he moved a single finger away from one eye to peek out.

“Uuuuh, we’re obviously going to do something about it right?”

“Ummm, why would we?” Lance asked, leaning back onto his hands as he looked over at his homework. It was a school night for goodness sakes; they couldn’t be out trying to hunt down a zombie!

“Am I the only one that remembered what Allura said last week?” Pidge asked, crossing her arms.

“Oh shit,” Keith muttered.

“Hey, language,” Lance said, elbowing his arm.

“Allura did say something about the possibility of a zombie,” Keith muttered as he rubbed at his chin. Oh no he was plotting.

“You mean with the whole like, exorcism of Hunk’s house?” Lance asked as he noticed Hunk shiver at the mention of the whole ordeal. Lance didn’t blame him; he knew Hunk was still a little shaken up by the whole thing. He had only recently stopped having nightmares of the whole ordeal.

“Yeah, what else would I be talking about?” Pidge asked as Keith pulled out his phone.

“Are you going to call Allura?” Lance as he leaned over so he could see the screen of Keith’s phone. Aww he had a picture of the two of them saved as his lock screen, how cute. Wait no Lance now was not the time to be thinking about how cute your crush is. There was a potential brain eating zombie on the loose.

“I-I’m not sure,” Keith said he moved his phone from hand to hand. “I mean, I should at least let her know that there’s a potential zombie on the loose-“

“Should we check my house for any possible zombie evidence?” Hunk asked, surprising everyone that he was actually suggesting that they go searching for evidence of the creepy paranormal.

“That’s…a great idea Hunk,” Keith said as he stood up from his spot on the floor. “Let’s go investigate to see if this has anything to do with the wraith. If it is we’ll tell Allura and if it’s not, well, we’ll go from there.”

“Wait are we seriously about to go out and try and find a zombie?” Lance asked, though it seemed like no was listening as his friends were all standing up and heading to the door. “Okay apparently we are going zombie hunting.”

“Well yeah,” Keith said as he turned back and watched Lance stand up, “You do know that’s kinda what Pidge and I are all about.”

“Yeah but Hunk isn’t.”

“Hunk just wants to make sure there haven’t been any zombies popping up from his moms’ rose garden,” Hunk said as he tugged on a sweatshirt and threw Lance’s to him, almost hitting him in the head.

“Hey,” Lance said after he barely managed to stop the sweatshirt from making contact with his face.

“Sorry, but it’s cold outside. Wouldn’t want you getting sick while we’re out looking for zombies,” Hunk said with a shrug as Keith and Pidge nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance muttered as he pulled on the sweatshirt. The four were about to walk out the door when his mama swept into the room.

“There you four are, I was just about to ask you if you all wanted something to eat-are you all going somewhere?”

“Oh, uh, yes,” Lance said, leaning against the wall and hoping he could come up with a believable lie in the next few seconds.

“Uh huh, and where is it that you’re going to?”

“Hunk’s,” Lance said, hoping that be enough of an explanation for his mama, plus it was technically true.

Hunk must’ve sensed his mama’s suspicion of his odd behavior earlier and swooped in to save the day. “My mom is trying out a new recipe and she wanted some taste testers that weren’t my tina.”

“Oh is that so,” his mama said her suspicion gone now since she trusted that Hunk would never lie to her. Sometimes Lance wondered if he should tell her that while the boy couldn’t keep a secret he could come up with a good lie right on the spot. “Tell the both of them I said hi then.”

“Okay, bye Mrs. McClain, thanks for having us over,” Hunk said, waving after her as Keith and Pidge just gave her a simple thanks.

“Be home by ten Lance! It’s a school night!” his mama called after him as they all piled into Hunk’s care.

“Okay mama,” Lance said before he closed the car door.

“Okay then,” Keith said, as he practically leaned himself forward into the front seat. “Let’s go zombie hunting.”

/////

The second Hunk had parked his car both Keith and Pidge had jumped out of the car and headed off to go look for any signs of a zombie around Hunk’s house.

“Hey buddy,” Lance said as he put his hand on Hunk’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to this?”

“I mean, I guess I am,” Hunk said with a shrug as he watched Pidge and Keith run around the yard looking for who knows what. A grave maybe? “Yeah the whole wraith thing really freaked me out but I’ve been doing better now that I know that it’s not going to just appear at the foot of the bed and try and kill me. I trust that Allura was able to get rid of it.”

Lance was about to make a comment about how Hunk didn’t look like he was getting any sleep when Pidge yelled over at them.

“Hey guys, I think I found something in the roses!”

And oh boy did Pidge find something in the roses. There was a bunch of recently dug up dirt and a large hole that didn’t look like it was made from some pesky burrowing animal.

“Do-do you think that this is where the zombie crawled out from?” Hunk asked as Keith crouched down to take a closer look.

“Probably,” Keith muttered as he pulled something up and held it up to them, it looked like a pouch of some sort.

“What the heck is that?” Pidge asked as Keith opened up the pouch and looked inside at the contents only to grimace.

“What’s inside?” Lance asked as he tried to lean over and see only for Keith to close it up.

“I think Allura needs to see this,” he muttered as he shoved the pouch in his pocket. Lance frowned at Keith’s decision to not show them what was inside of the pouch, what the heck could be inside of it?

“So we’re heading to Allura?” Pidge asked as she stood back up and brushed the dirt off her pants. “Cool, I like that shop.”

“Maybe we should go inside and ask one of Hunk’s moms if they noticed this,” Keith said before Hunk nodded.

“I’m sure they’ve been keeping an eye on the garden so it wouldn’t hurt to ask them about it,” Hunk said before they headed inside.

“Oh my, what are you guys doing here? I though Hunk said you were all going to be at Lance’s house studying,” Hunk’s mom said once she had noticed them walk into the kitchen.

“Uh we were but then Hunk remembered that he left his textbook in his room so we came back to get it,” Pidge said, easily supplying a lie.

“All four of you needed to come get Hunk’s textbook?” Hunk’s mom asked with a chuckle but she didn’t push any further.

“Well, I’m going to go get my, uh, textbook,” Hunk said, pointing to the stairs before running up them to go find a textbook that wasn’t really there but still sitting at Lance’s house.

“So, uh, Mrs. Garret,” Lance said, leaning on the counter and watching as she mixed something together, it was kinda hard to figure out what exactly was in the bowl. “How’s the rose garden doing? We, uh, noticed come holes in it.”

“Oh yes I know,” she said with a huff as she added some seasoning into the bowl, “We figured it must’ve been some pesky rabbits or moles trying to make their homes in the garden. I noticed it the day after Halloween.”

“Oh, really, those are some, errr, big bunnies then,” Lance offered as Hunk came down the stairs again with no textbook.

“Oh man I must’ve left my textbook at school how silly of me,” Hunk said with a shrug. “Oh well, guess we better head back and study before it gets too late.”

“Have you four eaten yet? Do want a snack before you go?”

“No thanks Mrs. Garret, we’re fine,” Keith said before turning tail and walking out of the house. Lance waved goodbye before following Keith outside.

“So,” Lance said as they all got back into the car, “What’s the plan?”

“I guess-” Keith said with a sigh and a shrug, “I guess we’re heading to Allura’s.”

/////

As they walked into Coran’s Whosits and Watchamacallits Lance was hit by the overwhelming smell of pine. He swears, every time he walks into this place it smells different. He found the source of the smell quickly though, a whole row of shelves were lined with pinecones and branches from pine trees. There also seemed to be some jars filled with some questionable liquids but he didn’t get much of a chance to snoop.

“Hey Allura? Coran?” Keith called out as they stopped at the counter.

“Ah Keith, I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon,” came Coran’s voice from somewhere. There was a loud thump and an audible whine before Coran popped up from behind the counter, rubbing his head. “What are you four in need of? Going hunting for some gremlins, oh, or are you having a problem with those pesky gnomes again?”

Gnomes? And that question implied that Keith had been here once before with a gnome problem, how much had Keith not been telling them? Lance had always figured that Keith just stumbled across this store one day by accident and was only coming in to try and get stuff to go hunting for his cryptids.

“Neither I’m afraid,” Keith said as he pulled out the pouch and deposited it on the counter. “I think Allura might want to hear what we have to say.”

“I heard my name,” Allura said, poofing next to Coran from out of thin air, scaring the living daylights out of Lance. “Hello everyone. How is everything?”

“Uhh, not too good,” Keith said with a shrug. “That’s why we’re here.”

“We think there’s a zombie,” Lance blurted out as both Coran’s and Allura’s eyes came to rest on him.

“Oh,” Coran said as he turned around and began to run his finger down his row of books, probably looking for one on zombies.

“Oh no, I was hoping this wouldn’t happen,” Allura said as she shook her head before turning to Hunk. “I’m so sorry Hunk.”

“No, you don’t need to apologize,” Hunk said, offering Allura small smile as Coran pulled out one of the journals.

“Ahhh, here we go, the undead,” he said as he flipped open the book. “Now there’s different ways for a zombie to come to be but the main two are through a body being resurrected or through the use of magic, well both use magic but only one has a specific body-“

“So which one are we dealing with here?” Pidge asked, pushing herself closer to the counter.

“Well the only one that could’ve happened due to the incantation I used would have to be the one where I brought a body back to life-“

“Wait, so are you saying there was a body under the roses?!” Hunk cried as his eyes went wide. “Uh uh, there’s no way my moms are murderers-”

“Wait, there’s something else,” Keith said, cutting Hunk off before he could work himself up to much at the thought that there might’ve been a dead body in his yard. “I found a weird pouch in the dirt.”

Keith slid the pouch a little further onto the counter and Allura picked it up, eyeing it warily.

“Do you think this could be a-“ Allura began before Coran reached out and took the bag.

“This is not good,” he muttered as he turned over in his hand. What the heck was going on? What was in that stupid little pouch? “I can sense a dark aura around the contents, this was made with the intention to harm.”

“What’s inside the darn thing?” Pidge said, and Lance was glad that finally someone besides him wanted to know what was in the stupid thing.

Coran glanced between them and the pouch before letting out a sigh and opening it. “Well, it would appear that there is a human tooth in here, a lock of hair, what I believe to be a finger, something that appears to be black wax and some willow leaves.”

Lance felt his stomach churn at merely hearing what had been stuffed inside that pouch, no wonder Keith hadn’t showed them. Lance couldn’t help glance over at Keith who was staring hard at the ground. That had to have freaked him out. Lance bumped his hand against Keith’s, trying to get his attention.

When Keith looked up at him Lance mouthed at him, asking if he was okay. Keith shrugged but a weak smile crossed his face as Lance linked his pinky with Keith. The boy had faced about as a much terror, if not more than Hunk had, from that wraith. He had never really talked to Lance about the whole incident but the dark circles under his eyes had grown more noticeable.

“This is a nasty curse,” Coran said as he shook his head and closed up the bag. “I’m going to have to burn it with birch to get rid of all this darkness.”

“So what exactly does this mean?” Hunk asked, he looked a little squeamish too. “That thing had been buried in my moms’ rose garden. I don’t think they were the ones who did it.”

“Yes, I’m afraid that it may have some more…scarier implications now that we know this wasn’t a spell gone wrong,” Coran said as he clasped his hands together. “This was either deliberately placed in your yard or someone just randomly decided to place it there.”

Hunk was about ready to open his mouth and ask about twenty new questions when Allura cut him off.

“However, I don’t think you have to worry about it being placed in your garden maliciously, if it had been the zombie most likely would’ve come after you or your parents.” Oh no Hunk had paled at that but at least he didn’t need to worry about the idea that someone might be after his parents.

“I’m guessing a witch wanted to cause some mischief and just chose your garden since it had recently been dug up, easy to hide something in,” Allura said as she reached over the counter and patted Hunk on the shoulder. “But since we know it was created through…the method it was, we can easily stop it before it can do any harm.”

“Like eat your brains kind of harm?” Lance asked as Coran began to list off different items to Allura.

“No not exactly. Coran they’re not going to need any of that I’m going with them so I can perform the spell firsthand and make sure it’s dead,” Allura said as she covered Coran’s mouth. “While they do attack humans it’s most likely hiding out in a cemetery gaining power and creating more zombies. The zombie that you may have seen tonight might have only been one of many.”

“That’s, uh, that’s not good,” Lance said as Allura hopped over the counter.

“Yes I suppose not, but at least we know where to head to once we leave,” Allura said as she walked down one of the aisles of the shop. “Do any of you have some kind of weapon to use against the zombies?”

“Uh, I have a bat at my house,” Keith offered. “Actually two bats if I include my brother’s.”

“Good, we’re going to need to stop by and pick them up,” Allura said as she reappeared with a bat with nails sticking out of it and a metal pipe. “Sorry about the small selection. Coran only has one zombie hunting bat and he still hasn’t fixed the hot water heater.”

“I’ve been traveling,” Coran said. “Besides, you’re able to heat up the water yourself.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to use up my magic on that kind of task, which can easily be done with machines,” Allura countered as Pidge took the bat and Hunk took the pipe.

“I swear, I never thought raising a teenager would be this difficult,” Coran muttered as he disappeared into the back, to fix the hot water heater Lance presumed. “Stay safe Allura, and don’t stay out to late.”

“Okay Coran,” Allura called back before turning back to them. “Now then, who’s ready to bust in some zombie heads?”

Lance didn’t really have an answer to that question but he figured he didn’t have too many options. “Yeah?”

Hunk sent him a worried look as he glanced up from the pipe in his hand. Lance could only shrug in response; there weren’t too many options in this situation.

“Now then, let’s go to Keith’s house to get the rest of the weapons,” Allura said as she clapped her hands together and walked outside with the four of them trailing after her like ducklings. Lance had no idea how she seemed so upbeat about beating up zombies, but hey, maybe she didn’t get out of the shop too often.

//////

When they got to Keith’s house, Hunk hadn’t even parked the car when Keith jumped out and ran around the back of his house to grab the bats. He came running back around a few seconds later with both of them clutched to his chest.

After he had jumped back I the car and threw them in the back he said, “I think my parents almost saw me.”

“I think by now they’re used to your weirdness,” Lance teased as Keith rolled his eyes at him and made a swipe for him but missed.

“Rude,” Keith huffed as he sat back in his seat, apparently giving up his attempts to get to Lance.

“Awww don’t be grumpy Keith, we’ve also gotten used to your weirdness.” Lane should’ve known what he was going to get in response but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

“Yeah, same for you too,” Keith said with a smirk as Lance made a noise that Pidge claimed sounded like a dying duck and Allura countered with she thought is sounded more like the mating call of a selkie.

Before Lance could make any sort of comeback Keith’s phone started ringing. “Hold your comment for just a minute,” Keith said as he held one finger up to Lance as he took out his phone. The look on his face when he read the caller ID gave away that it was Shiro who was calling.

“Hey Shiro, what’s up?” Ha, Lance was right, and Pidge had laughed at him when he told her he knew what almost all of Keith’s facial expressions were. Though Pidge did make a joke about how he did stare at Keith a lot, which was a total lie. He just spent a lot of time talking to Keith and learning about his comfort zones.

“Wait, what?” That didn’t sound too good, did Shiro get lost on his campus again?

“No, no, I’m just…surprised. Yeah, yeah, okay cool, at eight? Okay,” Keith said as he caught Lance’s eye. He looked a little worried. “Oh me I’m just, uh, out with my friends you know. Nothing crazy. Uh huh, okay. Bye, see you in a bit. Okay bye.”

Keith finally hung up the phone before looking at Lance with wide eyes. “Shit.”

“Woah, watch the language,” Hunk said as he stopped at the red light.

“Hunk you literally said, and I quote, eff the police when you left school today because you didn’t fully stop at a stop sign,” Keith said, crossing his arms while Lance laughed at the memory. It was always funny when normal by-the book Hunk didn’t follow the rules to the tee.

“He kinda has a point,” Pidge pointed out before popped her head up to the front seat. “Now turn left up on maple. There’s an old as heck cemetery up there, in fact I think it’s the first one the town created. Also quick suggestion, stop making me the navigator and then putting me in the backseat.”

“We’ve talked about this Pidge, you can’t be trusted in the front seat,” Hunk said with a sigh as he turned on his turn signal.

“You try and hotwire a car once and they never forgive you,” Pidge said with a huff as she moved back to the backseat.

“Okay, okay, back up, what was the cause of the cursing?” Lance asked, turning himself in his seat to look back at Keith.

“Shiro’s coming home tonight,” Keith said with a shrug. “And he was all like, I can’t wait to hang out and catch up with mom, dad and you. And then he was like, oh yeah I called mom and she said that she and dad saw you ninja running around the backyard just wanted to make sure you’re not going out Bigfoot hunting again, hahahaha.”

“I don’t see the problem,” Allura said, which is understandable since she’s never met Shiro. Shiro most definitely said something embarrassing after that or reminded Keith of a plan of some sorts, or both.

“No it’s just that he…reminded me how I promised him that I would binge watch this show on Netflix with him this weekend and he was talking about how we could get a head start now that he’s gonna be home earlier than he thought. So now my brother thinks I’m just hanging out with my friends and that I’m going to be heading home in a few minutes instead of fighting zombies in a cemetery.”

That-that certainly could present a slight problem if Keith got a call in the middle of beating up a zombie.

“Text him that we’re, uh, in the movies,” Lance offered.

“Why would I have answered his call if I had been in the movies?” Keith pointed out.

“True, okay um, text him that you’re just having such a good time with us that you wanna hang out a little bit longer,” Hunk said as he slowed down by the first cemetery. “See any zombies?”

“There are no traces of them, we’d see more fresh dirt and such, and probably some movement,” Allura said as she stared out the window. “I think we should check the next one.”

“Okay then, head straight and hang a left onto Glenview,” Pidge said, scrolling through her phone. “The next one’s only about two blocks away.”

“Anyway, Keith back to your whole issue, just text Shiro and tell him pretty much what Hunk just said. It’s not like he won’t understand, and plus, doesn’t he complain that you don’t leave the house enough?” Lance said as he watched Keith shrug back at him, though he had started typing something out on his phone.

“Yeah I know it’s just-” Keith said before pausing and letting out a sigh and sending the text to Shiro, “He doesn’t get to come home that often, I was hoping to spend as much time as I could with him.”

“The holiday season is coming up,” Pidge pointed out but Keith waved his hand at her.

“He’s not coming home for thanksgiving break this year, that’s why he’s stopping by this weekend. He offered to cover another student’s shifts who wanted to go home. And he’s only going to be home for four days during winter break since he volunteered for the rest of it.”

“Man, Shiro sure is loading his schedule up,” Hunk said as he turned down onto Glenview.

“And he wonders why he’s so stressed out,” Keith said with a huff before his phone buzzed. “Shiro says hi by the way.”

“Did he say anything about not going out cryptid hunting tonight?” Lance asked since Shiro had seemed to enjoy teasing Keith for his hobby of going out to the woods in the dark of the night and trying to find the unknown.

“Oh be quiet,” Keith said, though the smile that crossed his face betrayed his pretend annoyance.

“You know you love it when I talk.”

“Yeah maybe, but I think you enjoy hearing your voice more than the rest of us.”

Lance gasped and placed his hand over his beating heart because did Keith just kinda admit to like hearing him talk? Wait now was not the time Lance. “Rude.”

“Okay, cemetery number two,” Hunk said as he slowed down in front of the gates.

Allura stayed silent for a few seconds and Lance was beginning to think they were going to have to drive to the outskirts of town when she suddenly cried out, “Wait, I think I saw something.”

“What, like a zombie?” Hunk said as he hit the brakes and parked the car on the curb.

“I saw some kind of movement,” Allura said as she leaned into the front seat and tried to look at something past Hunk. “Oh there,” she said, shooting her arm out dangerously close to Hunk’s face and pointing at something towards the back of the cemetery. “There’s fresh dirt.”

Allura fell back into the backseat. “Okay then team, let’s talk game plan. I’m going to need time to charge up for this spell since it’s kind of a strong one. So I’m going to need you guys to take down any zombies. Pretty much the point of this spell is to find the original zombie and destroy it. The zombies that it has created are feeding off it’s magic, so once the original zombie is gone then the rest will disappear as well.”

“So we’re pretty much going around and hitting some zombies’ heads in while you charge up?” Pidge up as she reached into the back of the car and pulled out the nail bat. Lance wasn’t sure if he was a little off put with how excited she seemed to be about using that bat.

“Yes, pretty much,” Allura said as she opened the door. “Now then, let’s go bash in some zombie brains!” Okay maybe Lance was the odd one out for not being more excited about this; at least he had Hunk on his side.

Lance opened the door and got out of the car, his eyes lingering on the gate as he half expected a zombie to just appear out of nowhere running for them. He felt something nudge his shoulder and he about jumped out of his skin as he whirled to the side to make sure it wasn’t a rotting corpse.

“Woah, you okay?” Keith asked as he held out the other bat to him. “You’re a little jumpy.”

“We’re about to head into a potentially zombie infested cemetery, those are two bad things combined together.”

“You do have a point,” Keith said with a chuckle as Lance took the offered bat. “But hey, if you got my back I got yours.”

“I’ll do my best, but you know, I gotta make sure Pidge is okay too.”

“What about Hunk?”

“Listen, Hunk is about to go in here guns a blazing and literally do half of the bashing in zombies work for us all while relieving his stress,” Lance said as he placed a hand on Keith’s shoulders. “I don’t think we need to worry about Hunk too much.”

“Hmmm,” Keith said as he looked over at Hunk who had just locked up the car and was tossing the metal pipe from hand to hand all while mumbling to himself.

“Pretty tough metal, but it might bend if I but too much continuous pressure on it.”

“Is-is he analyzing his metal pipe?” Keith asked in disbelief as they walked towards the gate like the others.

“Yeah, probably to combat the fact that he’s about to walk into a place crawling with zombies,” Lance said as their rag-tag group of five came to a stop at the gates.

“Okay guys,” Lance said with a huff as he tightened his grip on the bat. “You all ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Hunk said as he took a practicing swing of his pipe.

“I’m ready to start battering up,” Pidge said as rested her bat on her shoulder. All she needed to do was blow on some bubblegum to complete the whole look she had going.

“Rock and roll buckaroo,” Keith whispered next to him. Oh he could not go into this trying not to laugh. Keith knows he can’t help but laugh when he uses “southern lingo.”

“I’ve been ready for the past five minutes,” Allura added and okay yeah now was not the time to laugh and Keith’s bad timing choice for one his jokes.

“Kay then, let’s go,” Lance said, raising his bat up and taking a step into the cemetery, Keith practically pressed to his side as they moved their way forward.

The cemetery was downright creepy, like something right out of a horror movie. While the gravestones in the front were in a decent condition, as they moved further to the back the gravestones slowly began to degrade and crumble. The words on them practically unreadable and a few of them seemed to be almost completely crumbled away. A few had even been spray painted on.

“No respect for the dead,” Allura mumbled. “No wonder humans would want to come back to life as zombies.”

Okay, Lance almost had to chuckle at that comment when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He tightened his grip even more on the bat and turned to the right of him to check everything out.

A thick fog had settled and made the place even more unnerving, making the headstones and bushes looking like a potential danger when they appeared in the corner of your vision. Hopefully that’s all it was.

“Did you see something?” Keith whispered, leaning forward to check around Lance in case there was something there.

“No, I think I’m just a bit on edge and saw a bush or something in the corner of my eye,” Lance said as he let out a breath and loosened his grip ever so slightly on the bat.

They slowly inched along and they had to be almost to the back of the cemetery and they still hadn’t stumbled onto a zombie. Maybe they had just stopped at the wrong cemetery. However, the universe seemed to love proving Lance wrong.

“Hold up,” Allura said, sticking her arm out, her face scrunched up. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Pidge asked as Lance strained forward trying to hear something. It took a few seconds, and for Pidge to stop talking, for him to hear it. It sounded like gurgling sound, and kinda sounded like Pidge did when she got a really bad cold last year. Then he heard groaning and the sound of something being dragged along the ground. He had no doubt in his mind they had found the zombies’ hideout.

“Oh crap, we’re almost right on top of them,” Lance muttered as he squeezed the bat, hoping that it would act like a really hard stress ball to take his mind off the fact that he was about to enter into a scene straight out of an apocalypse movie.

“Okay, we’ll hang back a bit. I’ll start charging up for the spell and you four watch my back. If we’re lucky we might not even need to fight any zombies,” Allura said as she held her arms out and turned her palms up so they were facing the sky.

Lance was hopeful that they wouldn’t have to fight any zombies. However he was quickly proven wrong and that they would indeed need to take down a few zombies as a few figures began to walk towards them in the fog.

“Here they come,” Keith muttered from beside him. All four of them tensed as they waited for the first zombie to emerge from the fog, the only sounds that were heard were the groaning of the zombies and Allura’s whispered chants.

The first zombie emerged closest to Hunk. Half of it’s face was rotted away and it’s clothes hung on it like rags.

“Hunk, you’re left,” Keith yelled as another appeared right in front of him and Lance.

Lance had already pulled his bat back ready to swing so the minute he had seen the zombie emerge he ran forward and swung right for it’s head. Lance did his best to ignore the sickly crunching noise that was made when the bat made contact with the zombie’s head. It fell to the ground with a thump and a soft groan.

Lance could hear his friends doing the same, going after zombies, thuds and crunching noises echoed through the night. When he saw the zombie stir again he hit it again for good measure before looking around to check on his friends.

Hunk seemed to be doing fine, he seemed to have already taken down three zombies in comparison to Lance’s one and was currently taking aim at another one dragging it’s way towards them.

Lance heard a grumble from behind him and whirled around to see a zombie coming his way. He was swinging his bat backwards when Keith came out of nowhere and swung his bat down onto the zombies head. It fell to the ground with a gurgle and Keith turned to him and gave him a thumbs up.

“Told you I’d have your back, now watch mine. I just saw a whole hoard of zombies and I’m going for it,” Keith said before darting off into the fog.

Lance groaned but followed after Keith, the boy really shouldn’t be left alone. Sure enough Keith had been right about there being a hoard, except Lance hadn’t expected the hoard to be all of the zombies in the entire cemetery.

“Hey Hunk, Pidge, we’re going to need some back-up!” Lance yelled as a zombie began to make it’s way towards him, reaching an arm out like it was trying to reach out and grab him. Lance didn’t take anytime winding up his bat and hitting it right on the side of the head, sending it down on the ground. He didn’t have time to check on it before two were making their way towards him, no doubt attracted by the sound.

This was the time that Hunk and Pidge emerged from the fog, their weapons above their heads as they ran towards the two zombies, knocking the two of them over the head in an almost synchronized movement.

“Thanks guys,” Lance called out to them before heading closer to the hoard. He could see Keith off to the side, knocking down one zombie after another. He did notice that one on the ground was still moving and reaching out for Keith’s ankle-

He was over there in a second, smashing his bat down onto the zombie’s head, ignoring the squelching sound that came from the zombie, that was a new sound.

“Thanks,” Keith said, sparing Lance a quick glance before going back to hitting the zombies.

Lance turned around to go his own way when he came to face a line of zombies heading his way. Well it looked like it was about to be him and Keith, back to back.

Lance swung his bat back and hit the closest zombie, sending it down the ground before moving on to the next one. It all became a blur and it got to the point that he had no idea if he had hit that zombie before or if he could even see an end to them. How much time had the first zombie had on its hands to create all of these?

At some point he heard the sound of bending metal and Hunk cursing a few feet over. He spared a glace over at his friend and almost started choking when he saw that Hunk had somehow managed to bend his metal pole in half.

“Hunk what the heck did you do?” Lance called out as he smashed his bat into the side of another zombie’s head.

“I hit the last zombie too hard,” Hunk said with a whine, thought based on the metal clang Lance heard he could figure that Hunk was still using the pipe. “I didn’t account for the speed and the velocity of the pipe.”

“Well just hold on buddy, Allura should be ready soon,” Lance said, and honestly he really hoped his words were true because his arms were getting tried from swinging the bat back and forth and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep bashing these zombies’ heads in without getting nightmares for months.

“Guys, I need some back-up!” Pidge yelled as Lance hit what felt like the fiftieth zombie of the night, though in reality it was more like the fifteenth.

Lance turned to look for her and felt his stomach drop when he saw that she was being surrounded. Lance turned to say something to Keith only to see the other boy jumping over a gravestone and running towards Pidge. Well it looked like Pidge was about to get help from all three of them.

Lance followed after Keith (though he did forgo hopping over the gravestone), raising his bat up and swinging it down onto one of the zombies surrounding Pidge.

“Thanks guys,” Pidge called out before bringing her bat down onto one zombie right between it’s eyes and then swinging it back and hitting it again in the side of the head. Yeouch, Pidge definitely took no prisoners.

“I now definitely don’t regret those three horrible years of t-ball,” Pidge yelled as she brought her bat down on another zombie.

As Lance beat down another zombie he couldn’t help but think how crazy it was that they hadn’t hit the original zombie left considering how many zombies were laying, or crawling, on the ground.

Speaking of the ones crawling around Lance caught one inching it’s way towards Keith again and brought his bat down on it’s neck, the cracking sound making him grimace. How the heck were these darn things still crawling around?

Lance felt cold fingers encircle around his ankle before he was tugged to the ground. He let out a yelp as he hit the hard ground, almost losing his grip on the bat.

Before he even needed to turn around and beat the zombie off of him Hunk had whacked the zombie off.

“Lance, are you okay?” Hunk asked as he offered Lance his hand.

“Yeah, thanks for the save buddy,” Lance said as Hunk tugged him up from the ground. “But now would be a great time for Allura to cast her spell or whatever.”

All of a sudden all the fog that had once covered the cemetery was gone, like it had just been blown away by some non-existent wind. Lance turned to look for Allura and saw her standing clearly a few feet away from them, and it looked like she had started her spell.

Unlike the last time he had seen her cast a spell, she wasn’t saying a chant, or any words to be exact. She was standing in the same position they had left her, her eyes closed as she slowly began to lift both arms into the sky.

The zombies seemed to forget the four of them and seemed intent on getting to her now. Was the original zombie able to sense that it was in danger?

Lance began to hit back the zombies closest to him as his friends followed in suit. They couldn’t risk the zombies reaching Allura before she finished her spell.

Lance spared a glance back at her and felt his eyes grow wide as he saw swirls of white light swirl up around Allura’s arms and her face, as if the magic she was using was growing throughout her body. He couldn’t help but feel frozen in awe. Though when you have zombies running around you don’t have much time to see some girl do some crazy magic stuff, so back to holding off the hoard of zombies was what he did.

A few seconds later the same swirling white light began to spread across the ground and under Lance’s feet, though this time it seemed to be creating a pattern this time. He looked back at Allura and now between her hands there was a bright ball of light that was blinding to look at. Allura’s hair was floating out behind her and when she opened her eyes it just showed white light.

Lance averted his eyes, all of the light blinding him, and luckily the zombies too. He didn’t see the spell when it went off but he did hear it, a loud whoosh of air followed by the groans of all the zombies. By the time Lance was cracking his eyes open all of the zombies had disappeared, with only all the holes proving their existence.

Lance looked over at Allura who looked to be back to normal with no more glowy lights or tattoos; she was rubbing her temples though.

“Are you okay?” Hunk asked as the four of them walked over to her. Lance noticed that Hunk had seemed to have abandoned his pipe.

“Yes, yes,” Allura said, waving her one hand at them. “I’m just a little drained that’s all, I had to use a very old spell that takes up a lot of magical power to complete. I’ll be fine after I have something to eat and a good night’s rest.”

“Well, I think I know where you can get something to eat,” Hunk said with a smile.

/////

They all ended up throwing the bats into the back of Hunk’s car and piling in. The drive to the diner was pretty silent, Lance knows he spent most of it coming to terms with the fact that he had just been in a potential life threating situation and hadn’t thought anything of it when he had agreed to help out. He wasn’t sure how everyone else was feeling but he felt that they felt the same. Expect for maybe Allura, she seemed pretty chill just sitting in the backseat practically bouncing out of her seat after Lance had mentioned ordering himself a milkshake. Apparently Allura had never had one before and was now set on trying one, claiming that it sounded “absolutely divine.”

When they pulled up at the diner Lance had never been happier than now to see the greasy place. They walked inside and were seated at a booth by Hunk’s co-worker, a nice waitress named Lillian.

“Here’s the menus kids,” she said as she placed a stack of menus on the table. “Do you know what’cha want to drink?”

“Just a lemonade for me please, Lilly,” Hunk said with a nod as he picked up a menu even though he always ordered the same thing and already knew the menu by heart.

“Coffee for me,” Pidge said, ignoring both the looks Hunk and Lance sent her. It was almost nine, now was not the time for coffee. “What, don’t you two give me those looks. I had to miss critical studying and homework time for this whole escapade. I’m going to need some energy.”

“Okay,” Hunk said as he rolled his eyes. “Just don’t be texting me at one in the morning.”

“I’ll take a vanilla milkshake please,” Lance said, grabbing the menu to decide what item he was going to try tonight. He never did get to have dinner and he could practically hear his stomach throwing a fit.

“Chocolate milkshake for me,” Keith said before looking over Lance’s shoulder at the menu. For some reason Keith always claimed that since he always ordered the same thing why would he need to look at a menu, but this didn’t seem to stop him from looking over Lance’s shoulder when he was too lazy to just get his own menu.

Allura had already grabbed a menu to look through the selection of milkshakes no doubt. “And a strawberry milkshake for me please.”

“Okay, I’ll be back with your drinks in a minute,” Lillian said before heading back to the kitchen.

“Okay so, like, not to ruin the mood but I think I might be a little scarred by what we did tonight,” Pidge said as she unwrapped her silverware and began shredding the napkin up. She was either stressed out or anxious, or most likely a mixture of both. “Like it’s not exactly normal to go around bashing in zombies’ heads and not being somewhat affected by it.”

“Uh yeah, I’m kinda feeling the same,” Hunk said as he sunk into the booth. “I kinda went in hyping myself up and just using as a way to destress and get some anger out you know, but now as I sit here and think back on everything we did tonight it slowly sinks in that I was probably killing human shaped things,” Hunk said throwing his hands up into the air before letting them fall to his sides. “And it’s kinda messing me up.”

“Heh, yeah, not even a week after dealing with a murderous spirit we go into another possibly deadly situation,” Keith said with a sad chuckle. “This all started because I wanted to hunt Bigfoot and aliens.”

“Well then, I say next time we do one of our weird supernatural adventures we look for aliens then,” Lance said as he let his head fall onto Keith’s shoulder, smiling when Keith didn’t grumble at him to get off.

“I can’t believe your agreeing to go alien hunting with me,” Keith said, looking over at Lance who only hummed at him.

“I’ve kinda been accepting that we’ve become some sort of supernatural group,” Lance mumbled.

“I mean, we’ve had three encounters with the unnatural aspects of this world,” Hunk said with a shrug before his eyes lit up. “What if we become a group and try to help people in town fix their supernatural problems?”

“That’s what my uncle and I are for,” Allura said, leaning forward on the table. “We wouldn’t want competition.”

“Would it really be competition if we went to you for help and supplies?” Pidge asked. “I mean, I can assume you don’t get too many normal humans as customers. We’re the possible outlet into expanding your business.”

“You-you do have a point,” Allura said, tapping her chin. “I’d have to talk to Coran about employing four teenagers.”

“You’re a teenager,” Keith pointed out.

“Yes, but I’m also a magical being-“

“Speaking of that what exactly are you-if you don’t mind me asking of course,” Lance asked, glad to finally be able to possibly get this nagging question off his chest.

“Oh of course I’m-“

“Here’s your drinks,” Lillian said, coming out of nowhere with their drinks. Setting all of them down on the table along with five straws, she pulled out a notepad and a pen from her apron. “Are y’all ready to order?”

“Oh um, yeah,” Lance said, not even bothering to move from Keith’s shoulder as he ordered, an order of cheesy bacon fries and a BLT. Keith and Hunk both ordered their usuals, and Pidge just got an order of fries. Allura was the surprising one when she ordered a chicken tender basket, a burger and a slice of pie.

“What I’m really hungry after using up all that energy,” she said as she handed Lillian her menu.

Once Lillian had left Lance reminded her of his questions. “So again, what type of magical being are you exactly?”

“Oh I’m a mage,” Allura said before taking a log sip from her milkshake. “Ooh, I must say this is delicious. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this.”

“Oh yeah, milkshakes are the best,” Hunk said, apparently he wasn’t at all effected by the reveal.

“Wait, wait, hold up,” Pidge said, holding one hand out while the other rested on her forehead. “You’re a mage? The only things I know about mages are from World of Warcraft.”

“Well I don’t know what that is but I can tell you that mages are magical beings that channel their magical form within. Instead of using the world around us to draw energy from we use, I suppose, a set amount that we are born with. Sometimes, through intense training, a mage can increase their magic supply, but normally it stays the same from birth.”

“So like, you could be born with an almost no magic power or a crazy amount?” Pidge asked, well Lance looked at it as not having to ask all the questions he had himself.

“Yes, exactly,” Allura said with a nod. “We draw our magic from within so we use our hands to channel and release our magic. Some mages specialize in one area of magic while some dabble in many. I myself am very good with energies and light, but I’m also decent in some other fields as well.”

“So that spell you did back there was?” Lance asked though he felt he had a good idea what kind it was.

“Oh it was an old light spell.” Allura took another sip from her milkshake. “And the one I used on Hunk’s house was a cleansing spell which is a subcategory in energy magic.”

“Well since we’re doing a bit of questioning I have something I want to ask you Allura,” Lance said, swirling his stray in his milkshake. “How did you and Keith even meet?”

“Hmmm, you mean he never told you?” Allura asked, her brow pinched in confusion before she turned and looked at Keith who was currently staring down into his milkshake like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

“Well I accidentally ran into Keith one time when he was searching through a corn field for aliens,” Allura said as Lance heard Keith groan from besides him. Lance nudged him in the side but couldn’t help but smile, this was going to be an interesting story.

“It was a full moon and the field was known for having certain ingredients that are important for many Wiccan rituals and potions, so I want out to go collect them since Coran was off in Arizona for the weekend.”

“What was he looking for in Arizona?” Pidge asked.

“He said something about some kind of rabbit or something-“ Allura said, waving her hand around before Hunk cut her off.

“A jackalope?”

“Oh yes, that’s what it was,” Allura said pointing her finger at Hunk. “He wanted to study them and see if their antlers had any particular medicinal purpose.”

“Well what did he learn?” Pidge asked.

“Not much,” Allura said with a shrug. “They only lose their antlers once a year and he didn’t come at the right time. So it was kinda useless.”

“But anyway, I was going around the edge of the field looking for moonstones and lovegrass when I saw this weird kid running through the field waving these shiny things around-“

“Oh my god Keith, please don’t tell me you were carrying around frying pans or something like that,” Lance said while trying to hide his laughter, turning to Keith who looked like he wanted to be absorbed by his seat.

“I wasn’t,” Keith muttered. “But I was trying to get abducted so-“

“Nope, no need to say anything else,” Lance said holding up his hand. Maybe Lance should’ve joined Keith on his cryptid hunts sooner.

“So I go up and ask him what he’s doing and he tells me he’s trying to get himself abducted by aliens-“

“Wait until what you hear what she said to me,” Lance heard Keith huff.

“And I tell him, well there’s no way you’re going to get abducted by aliens tonight, it was a full moon and had too much of a chill in the air. Plus based off the recent star movements there were no signs of alien life traveling nearby.”

“So wait, are you telling us that-that aliens are real?” Hunk asked, putting his hands together and resting them on the table.

“Well of course, did you really think we’re alone in the universe?” Allura asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Uh, I guess not.”

“Well after I told him that Keith became very interested in how I knew that so I invited him to come down and visit the shop,” Allura said before clapping her hands together. “And the rest is history.”

“Not that we really know the rest,” Lance muttered, but he could settle with knowing the story of how they met. For all Lance knew, Keith could’ve just went down to the shop saw that it had all kinds of knowledge for his little hunts and went in to get info and supplies. Still, it hurt Lance a little that Keith had never told them about Allura after he had seemed to know her for a while.

“Hmm, what was that Lance?”

Crap had she heard him? “Just that it’s such a crazy story.”

“Oh it is,” Allura said with a nod. “But after getting to know Keith I think it must be relatively normal. He only ever came in to ask about the journals and get updates on whether or not he could get abducted by aliens yet.”

“Allura please,” Keith groaned. “Spare me.”

“From what? I thought your friends already knew about your love of aliens?”

“Oh don’t worry, we do,” Pidge said with a smirk as she took a sip of her drink.

Lillian came with their food, saving Keith from any more embarrassment and they all quickly dug in. Allura definitely needed all the food she ordered considering that she was through her burger before Lance had even finished half of his fries, though Keith had been stealing about the same amount that Lance was eating. When he caught Keith with a handful of his fries Keith only shrugged at him before shoving them in his mouth. He was lucky he was cute.

About halfway through their meal Keith got a text from Shiro asking him where he was so he could come pick him up since apparently it was getting close to his curfew.

“Honestly, for all the complaining my parents do about me never leaving the house they sure do set an early curfew.”

“Maybe Shiro just really wants to see you so he made up a lie,” Hunk offered between bites of his food.

By the time Shiro had shown up at the diner they had all finished their food. Lance walked out with Keith as Hunk hung behind to talk to Lillian about his hours next week.

He waved at Shiro when he saw him sitting in the car before turning to Keith. “Stay safe tonight mullet, wouldn’t want you getting eaten by zombies.”

“Hardy, har, har, very funny Lance,” Keith said, though he didn’t hide his small smile. “Same to you.”

Lance was about to turn around and go check on Hunk when Keith suddenly grabbed his arm.

“Hey um,” Keith said, rubbing the back of his neck with his face a bright red color. Was he really cold out here or something? “Would you want to go out with me on Friday to go see a movie and maybe get a milkshake after?”

Was that even a question? Wait, was this Keith asking him out on a date?! No-no way, he hadn’t specified that it was a date. “Y-yeah, of course. What about Hunk and Pidge?”

“Well, they do have engineering club on Friday so…” Keith said as he toed at the ground. Gosh he was too cute, and once again Lance’s brain automatically went back to the possibility of a date since their friends wouldn’t be there.

“Cool, cool, that’s cool,” Lance said, trying to keep his cool. Friends hung out all the time, he and Pidge hung out together sometimes just the two of them. Though he didn’t have a crush on Pidge….

“Great,” Keith said with that 100 watt smile of his. “I’ll wait for you by your locker after school.”

“Don’t you always?” Lance couldn’t help but tease, he needed to get his brain off the possibility that this was a date. Keith hadn’t specified and he didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

“Cool, I’ll see you then,” Keith said, turning and heading towards Shiro’s car before turning around and waving back at him.

Lance waved back and watched as Keith hopped in the car and drove off with Shiro. He was not going to get his hopes up.

“Hey buddy, let’s head home,” Hunk said, coming out of nowhere and slapping him on the back.

“Heh, yeah I’m sooo tired!”

“Speak for yourself,” Pidge said as she took Hunk’s keys and opened the car, throwing herself in the backseat and laying across all three seats. “I still have homework to do.”

“You should’ve done it during our study session instead of playing on your phone,” Hunk said as he took his keys back and started the car.

“Okay mom,” Pidge mumbled as Lance climbed into the passenger’s seat. So he might not be going on a date with Keith but at least he was going to spend time with him, and that’s what matters. Right?

He considered mentioning it to Hunk and Pidge but decided to wait. Maybe Keith would come up to him tomorrow and clarify if this was a date or not.

/////

“Hello Allura, how was everything?” Coran asked once she poofed into their apartment above the shop.

“It went fine Coran,” Allura said as she laid herself down across the couch. “It was fun.”

“You had fun fighting zombies?”

“That wasn’t too fun but we went out and ate afterwards. Have you ever had a milkshake before? They’re just amazing.”

“I believe I’ve heard of the drink.”

“Yeah, but it felt like I was a normal teenager for a bit, with friends and everything,” Allura said as she sat herself up. “I hope I can be friends with them.”

“I’m sure you’ve made quite the impression on them,” Coran said as he played with one of his basil plants. It had been wilting for the past few days and the normal actions (extra water and more sunlight) just weren’t working. “Oh, while I’m thinking of Keith I was checking the stars tonight when I noticed some movement near the opening of the Milky Way. I think we might be having some extraterrestrial life forms visiting soon.”

“I’ll have to keep my eye on that and let Keith know of any developments. I’m sure it would make his day to finally meet the very beings he started visiting out shop for.”