Chapter Text
"..Let's make a bet!"
Lance adjusted his headset and started up the screen in front of him. It buffered for a second, but he chalked that off to the lion waking up. He tapped on a tab and opened up the call that everyone was in. He joined just in time to hear Pidge. Prior to joining, he had been the last one to get to his lion. He leaned forward in his seat, tapping away at some buttons.
"What's happening?" Lance asked in a confused yet smug tone. His eyes zoomed around the screen. He'd gotten good at this tech stuff since they left earth. He got opened the vault above his lion, waiting for it to open so he could leave.He leaned back, cranking up the volume of his headset.
"Pidge here," Keith said in an annoyed groan. He rolled his eyes, also leaning back. Keith gripped the controls as they zoomed out. "Is making us a bet."
"Awesome! What is it? Bet i'll win."
Pidge grinned, she'd been prepared for this. She absolutely had no chance of losing this bet, based on the plan she and Shrio had come up with for this mission. It was a rather simple mission. They had made a promise to the leader of Zinfriene. The planet was mainly doing well, but there was a small galra base that had to be cleared. They had already visited once, and had gotten rid of all the galra and all the possibilities of being tracked. The only thing that was left was a bunch of those weird robot things. This was just a small trip back to get rid of them. Pidge had discussed with Shiro the most populated areas before they left for this mission. She was going to go straight to them, too.
"Well, it's an easy bet," Pidge started, her voice smug. She leaned back in her chair, radiating confidence. She pushed her microphone closer to her mouth, crossing her feet over each other. "It's about this mission. Whoever clears the most androids, wins!"
Hunk raised his eyebrows. "And.. how will we know who gets the most kills?" He curiously asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"Simple! We record with out helmets." Pidge really had thought this through.
"I mean, I'm down!"
"Sure."
"Yeah! Let's do this."
"Wait."
Everyone quieted down a little bit when Shiro spoke up. Shiro sat straight, lion already in the air. He adjusted his helmet, shaking his head at the other paladins jumping so fast to agree to the bet without even thinking about the terms.
"What's the punishment?" Shiro's question made everyone pause. Oh yeah. That was a thing.
"Well.. I've been thinking.." Pidge had an unholy amount of smug and confidence in her voice. "Since some of you.. Lance .. have been treating me like a, well, a child because I'm 16.."
Lance audibly sputtered. He straightened himself into a position where he could cross his arms. He fussed, getting ready to make a very loud protest to the fact he was singled out, because he 100 percent did not agree that he was the only one babying her. He had been, obviously, but so was everyone else! It wasn't his problem that she was younger than him by like.. a year. He opened his mouth, eyes scrunched when Hunk shushed him.
"I think the person who loses should be treated like a child. Preferably a toddler, for like, a month. Full package, full treatment. Just pure.. embarrassment." Pidge cackled evilly.
"Totally! I'll be happy to baby one of you losers!" Lance loudly laughed. He would totally kill to see Keith in a baby crib, or even with a pacifier again. That'd be such good blackmail.
"I suppose it'd be nice to treat Lance like the way he acts." Hunk chuckled, feeling Lance's gasp spiritually.
"No way! Keith is totally going down this time!" Lance yelled, lion finally leaving base. He caught up with them in a second.
"Normally I'd be voting for Lance to lose," Keith smirked, leaning back in his chair once again. "But.. I'd like to see if Takashi is actually a six year old."
"So.. is everyone agreeing to this?"
Everyone shouted words of agreement. Everyone except Shiro.
"Yo, boss." Hunk asked lightly. "Are you okay with this?"
"You're all going down." came Shiro's simple reply. Before anyone could say anything, the black lion boosted forward, Leaving them all in space dust.
Lance shrieked, slamming his gas too. There was no way he'd lose this. He boosted forward, watching as the others behind him struggled to catch up, He was driving the blue lion this time. Even though his default was red now, Allura volunteered to stay back today. Blue happily agreed and Red was happy to have Keith.
"Shiro! You cheater!" Pidge laughed. This would be easy.
Keith pumped forward as well. This would be fun.
Hunk sighed. He was excited, don't get him wrong. But he was also somewhat worried about losing. He'd have to try harder this time.
H..hah..
Lance puffed, sinking into his pilot chair. He caught his breath, sprawling out. That was a lot more androids than he thought there'd be.
They all arrived, and split up right away. The place had soo many androids. It wasn't even funny. Well.. it kind of was. Everyone had quite a bit of fun. In the end they cleared it out. But that was a lot of fun.
Lance had run straight into the front door, quickly finding a higher position while Keith ran head on. Lance sniped from a small area that was higher up. Pidge and Shiro disappeared while Hunk was somewhere near by.
Lance lined up a good shot, watching where Keith ran. Keith dove in for a kill, and Lance sniped the kill right away. Ha, get wrecked, Keith.
"Lance!" Keith roared angrily. Glaring back at the idiot who grinned at him. Lance wasn't taking this seriously. Oh well, He'd pay later on.
Lance shot some more, only to feel a shove from behind. He fell forward, alerting all the bots around him that he was there.
"Sorry!" Hunk yelled, voice full of nervousness and compassion. Hunk had been running from 20-something robots, which now were after Lance.
"Aaahh! Hunk!" Lance shrieked, now running. Hunk had vanished somewhere, taking advantage of no longer being chased. Lance cussed to himself, he couldn't get away from them. This was a serious waste of time. He turned some corners, hearing Keith behind him taking out some of these damn androids. Lance turned around and shot the remaining two. Keith was about to say something when they were interrupted.
"Paladins. Back to your lions. This place is officially cleared."
Lance gasped loudly. Shit. He'd only gotten like.. 18 kills! That was no where near enough. He'd wasted too much time messing around and being chased. Lance's hands grabbed his face, pulling. He groaned loudly and Keith snickered. Hunk caught up to him, patting him on the back.
"Sorry about handing you the crowd, I didn't really mean to at first." Hunk laughed shyly. He didn't feel that bad.
"Guys! I may have accidentally set off a bomb? We need to go, like, now!" Pidge called, sprinting ahead of them. Everyone groaned for a second before running out as well.
They watched from their lions as the place self destructed.
"So, what's the score?" Keith asked, leaning against the desk where Pidge and Hunk had sat for the past hour. He folded his arms, They've reviewed every clip at least two times now.
"Well, I'm proud to say it's not me." Pidge smugly smiled, falling back onto the chair she'd been sat on. She winced for a second, her butt was sore. She hadn't stood since they got back like three hours ago.
"Okay, I'll read out the scores." Hunk held up a list they'd written. He cleared his throat, making this seem as dramatic as possible.
Shiro and Lance wandered over, now interested. Shiro stood by Keith while trying to look somewhat uninterested, while Lance sprinted up to the seat, standing on the balls of his feet. He was dreading this, but was also excited. Hunk probably got less. But Hunk wouldn't be acting so confident right now if he lost.. Pidge, maybe? No. She already said she wasn't last. He saw Keith do a pretty fair amount of damage, but he was a possibility. Maybe even Shiro did bad?
"So, most kills is surprisingly Pidge! Good job, Pidge. A whole 110 kills." Pidge smiled, smug was radiating off of her like the sun. Lance shifted onto his other foot.
"Next, Shiro with a whopping 90 kills. Nice, dude." Hunk was sure making this exciting and painfully long. Shiro nodded, smiling. He was awfully confident right now, wasn't he? Lance wanted to groan. Guess he'd settle for fourth.
"Third is Keith with 60 kills." Keith straightened up, smirking.
"And I'm fourth leaving last place to.. Lance."
Lance's heart dropped.
Lance groaned loudly, slamming his face onto the chair he was resting his arms on. Damnit. How'd he manage to lose this one? Especially after a bet like this!
"So, Loverboy Lance, hows it feel being the new youngest?" Pidge had a shit-eating grin on her face as she stalked over to where Lance was suffering loudly. She pat his head, crossing her arms while sticking out her hips. This was going to be so. fun.
"Shut up, Pidge. You're still 16." Lance lifted his head to glare at her. She had an offended look on her face for a second and opened her mouth to yell at Lance.
"Actually, Lance," Keith spoke up, a smug look on his face too. Why did everyone look so damn smug! "You're only a couple months older than her."
Lance's head moved quickly to glare at Keith now.
"You aren't helping, idiot." Lance muttered.
"So, when can we start this? I'd kill to see Lance in some little kid get-up." Hunk spoke, now excited. Lance glared at him now, as well. Hunk looked at him apologetically but cmon, this would be great.
"Lance, go have a break in your room. We'll set everything up." Shiro commanded him.
"Awh! C'mon Shrio! I can-"
"Lance."
"W-"
"Lance." Shiro repeated himself. Looking directly into lance's eyes.
Lance opened his mouth to protest again, but Shiro's stern look shut him right up.
Lance turned away, dragging his feet as he started towards his room. The second he turned away, everyone, even Keith, started talking about ideas on how to humiliate Lance. This was stupid. He should've never agreed to this. His ears caught when Shiro mentioned he already alerted Allura and Coran. Shit. He'd have to embarrass himself in front of Allura, Lance's crush. Well, it wasn't a huge crush anymore, but still! This was too much! Lance kept mumbling to himself as he stalked towards his room. Dinner was going to be fun.
He smashed the button to his room and grumbled as we walked in. Once he heard the door close behind him, he collapsed onto his bed.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.