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“I don’t need help!”
Keith stared at Lance, incredulously. One eyebrow quirked up while the other furrowed. He gestured towards the stalks of corn surrounding them.
“Sure, you don’t. You totally know the way out and we’re totally not stuck here.”
They had been trying to escape this corn maze for hours, to no avail.
Lance gasped, eyes narrowing in offense. “I’m not the one who ran ahead since ‘I can do it all on my own’!”
Keith’s staring turned into glaring, his narrowing as he stalked towards Lance. The purple looked like fire in his eyes. His gesturing widened and sharpened as if he was reaching out to attack Lance. “Yeah, you are. You literally said, ‘Race ya Keith-y boy! I bet I can make it through sooner!”
The corn stalks shivered, leaning back from the rising conflict even though they were the root cause of all this.
“But- but whatever. At least I haven’t been leading us in circles,” Lance retorted, arms crossed. He glanced away from Keith.
Keith’s glaring intensified if that was even possible.
“Okay, okay fine. I admit that I led us wrong a few times but don’t act like you haven’t either.”
Keith quickly turned his gaze to the floor, noticing all the little bugs and brown-orange leaves, then grumbled “True” and kept walking.
Each step crunched with dead leaves and plant material. The corn stalks made it impossible to see through, only golden-green leaves and branches visible.
“Hey wait up!” Crunch, crunch, crunch, and Lance was right beside Keith. He panted, each exhale loud and hot. “So, left or right?”
They had reached a wall with passages sending them either left or right. Both tracks seemed identical, both shadowed and worn, looming with potential failures and the footsteps of other lost souls.
Keith shrugged. “I’m thinking left,” he said as he started walking, arms stuck in the pockets of his red hoodie.
“Mullet wait! Can’t you call Shiro or someone? My phone died like back when we first ran into each other.”
Keith stopped and turned to Lance. “I already tried. There’s no service out here. Couldn’t Google Map my way out either.”
“Guess we’re stuck trying then.”
Lance followed Keith left and the two reached a comfortable pace. Crunch crunch crunch.
When they started the maze, the sun was blazing in the sky and Lance was glad for his blue t-shirt and shorts. Now he could barely see and cold nipped his arms, the exercise not being enough to keep warm.
Wordlessly, the two marched on. Lance shivering and Keith using his phone for light.
“Hey, Lance?”
“Yeah?”
“I really have no idea where we are.”
“Same.”
Lance groaned in frustration, long legs tired from walking and plopped to the ground, leaves flying up around him. “This is pointless. We’re never going to make it back,” he moaned.
Keith considered walking on. Instead, he shrugged off his hoodie, revealing a plain black t-shirt, and handed it to Lance.
“I could try to cut it all down with my knife.”
Now it was Lance’s turn to stare. “You brought your knife?”
Keith furrowed his eyebrows, his nose scrunching in confusion. “I bring it everywhere.”
Lance huffed out a laugh and pulled on the sweatshirt. “What a Boy Scout. Always prepared.”
“I couldn’t have joined the Boy Scouts. My parents are dead.” Keith tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn’t help his mouth twitching into a small grin and his eyes glinted with mirth.
“Stop making me laugh at your dead parents! It always feels so wrong!” Lance said while smiling anyways.
Keith’s grin widened even as Lance pulled him down onto the dirt path. The dirt was even colder than the air but it was nice to sit again, after hours of walking around the maze.
The stars glittered above them and the stalks swayed with the small winds. Keith could barely make out the ants marching over his combat boots as Lance settled himself, resting his head on Keith’s lap.
“I bet I can name more stars than you,” Lance challenged.
Keith smiled fondly at him, “I’m sure you could. You know I dropped out before astronomy was taught.”
“Oh come on space cadet. I thought you were the star pupil when you were in class,” Lance teased, remembering their times at Garrison University.
“Well you were always there, neck and neck,” Keith retorted softly.
“Ha! You do remember me!” Lance exclaimed as he got up.
Keith sighed, already missing the contact with Lance. “Just as well as you remember our bonding moment.”
Lance turned as red as the hoodie he wore, the blush coloring his cheeks and the tips of his ears. “You know I had a concussion right after! Stop bringing it up!” he sputtered as he reached out the help Keith up.
“Fine, fine,” Keith muttered, taking Lance’s hand. “Now I think we should keep going down this path. I feel like we haven’t explored down there yet.”
“Lead the way samurai. But I call choosing the next turn.”
The two walked down, still holding hands with Lance, spirits raised higher than before, chattering about the new TV show he started watching, Voltron Defenders.
“And they go to space flying lion mechas!”
“That is so not aerodynamic.”
“Who cares?”
“There’s also these two rivals but they actually really like each other. They’re like space ranger partners.”
“I still don’t get the lions.”
Before long, they had exited the corn maze, arms linked, and stepping in time with each other.
“Guess we do make a good team,” said Lance, as he gazed into Keith’s eyes.
“Guess we really do,” Keith replied.
“Keith and Lance! Guys we’ve been waiting hours for you!” Pidge shouted, breaking the moment between the two. “Hunk, Shiro, Allura! They just made it out!”
The others quickly ran towards them, Hunk carrying two cups of hot apple cider. He gave them to the couple as he asked, “Wow what took you so long?”
Keith and Lance blushed.
Shiro noticed, “Ohh so you were up to –“
“No way” “No!”
“I was just going to say rival things,” Shiro teased.
“Well, I’m glad you both made it out. It’s such a shame that you both missed the majority of my first fall carnival. It is so strange here in America!” Allura said, quickly changing the subject while winking at the two.
Shiro sighed then spoke again. “Anyways it’s time to go. I know you guys have the early shifts at Altea tomorrow.”
The group grumbled and followed Shiro to his car.
Keith and Lance walked slowly with them, shortly falling a few paces behind.
“Space ranger partners?” Lance asked.
“Space ranger partners,” Keith confirmed.