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“I’m not doing hand to hand again today.” Lance shook his head, crossing his arms as Keith scowled at him.
“Even Pidge can throw a better punch than you, and they’re barely five feet tall.” Keith said sharply.
“Pidge has a fucking brass knuckle grapple taser for a bayard.” Lance pointed out. “That shit’s made for hitting people with. I’ve got a gun. Guns are not for hitting people with.”
“You still need to know how to defend yourself in any situation.” Keith insisted.
“Oh, in any situation?” Lance challenged, an idea forming in his head.
“Yes, any situation. Including when you don’t have your bayard with you.”
“So then you should be prepared for any situation too, right?” Lance grinned.
“I am.” Keith scowled, glaring at Lance. “Even when I don’t have my bayard, I’ve got my luxite blade.”
“Okay, one, I cannot believe you just said Luxite Blade out loud.” Lance sniggered. “And two, what if you’re captured and stripped of weapons? Shiro and Allura are the only ones who can go hand to hand with one of those robots.”
“I’d trip one and take its gun.” Keith rolled his eyes, and Lance smiled wider.
“But do you know how to aim?”
“There’s literally nothing simpler.” Keith said flatly. “It’s just point and shoot.”
Lance scoffed. “Please. FPS was the only type of game I could ever beat Fernanda at, and it still took me a week or two to get the hang of firing a real gun. Or, well, a space gun.” he shrugged. “What I mean is, you’re probably a crap shot. If I have to be good at hand to hand in case I’m captured, you have to be good with a gun for the same reason.”
Keith opened his mouth, then closed it and frowned. “Okay, get me a practice gun and I’ll prove I know what I’m doing.”
Lance chuckled, and turned towards the wall with the wrist strap mounted little operation panels hanging on it. A minute later he had a training gun in hand and Keith was play-sighting down the barrel of his. “Alright. Watch this.” Lance grinned, activating the level three target practice. Discs started flying, and he exhaled as he pulled the trigger. Aim, pull, repeat. Aim, pull, repeat. It took a few minutes for the simulation to end, the operation panel on his arm beeping and flashing red to grab his attention. Not a new high score, but not a bad one either.
“Your turn.” he said brightly, spinning his practice gun to rest on his shoulder. “I can always turn down the level, if you think it’s too hard for you.”
“Please.” Keith scoffed, stepping up to where Lance had been standing and- huh, holding the gun almost properly. “Just start the program.”
“Okay.” Lance shrugged, and changed the ‘user’ option to the little red cat head emoji Pidge had whipped up. Keith lasted all of ten seconds before his miss count passed the limit, and Lance fought down a grin.
“How many did I hit?” Keith asked, looking over at him.
“Two.” Lance smirked, unable to help himself. He held up the operation panel, and Keith’s expression soured.
“Run it again, I’ll do better this time.”
“No problem. Want it on a lower level?”
“No.” Keith snapped, shoulders tense as he turned back to the temporary range. His second round didn’t go much better. Nor his third, or fourth, and after the fifth Lance sighed.
“See, this was funny the first few times but now it’s just kinda sad.”
“Shut up.” Keith snapped, every line of his body screaming frustration. “Run it again.”
“No.” Lance shook his head. “I’m bringing it down to level zero, and you’re going to let me teach you how to fire a goddamn gun.”
“I can-”
“You can’t.” Lance said sharply, slicing his hand horizontally across the air in front of his chest. “It’s like when Allura threw us at that stupidly op gladiator on our first day. We couldn’t do that then, and you can’t do this now. So shut up and let me help you, Mullet.”
Keith glowered, but didn’t complain as Lance changed the program to one with stationary targets and came up behind him. “Okay, now you have to promise not to elbow me in the face.” Lance said as he found a position that would let him guide Keith’s posture without getting hair in his face. “I don’t wanna lose a tooth.”
“I promise I’ll aim for your throat instead.” Keith said drily.
“So comforting.” Lance rolled his eyes. “Okay, first off, you need to fix your stance. You’re ambidextrous but favour your left, right?”
“Yeah.” Keith nodded. “How’d you know?”
“You usually summon your bayard with your left hand, but I’ve seen you swap it to your right going up against the gladiator.” Lance shrugged, nudging Keith’s right foot forward. “You want your feet about shoulder width apart, but with enough spread to keep you balanced front to back.” he placed his right hand on Keith’s shoulder, and the left on his left elbow. “Now put your right side towards the target. Keep that arm straight out, supporting the barrel, but bend your left.” he pushed Keith’s shoulder forward, and pulled gently down on his elbow.
“How do you know this shit?” Keith frowned, turning his head to look at Lance when he stepped away to check Keith’s posture.
Lance shrugged. “My sis Fernanda and I would go hang out at the arcade all the time. I got tired of her kicking my ass at everything, so I looked up how you actually stand with a gun and practiced with Isidora’s old airsoft until I could beat her at those games.” he looked Keith up and down quickly, and gave a thumbs up. “Looks good. Now just keep the stock to your shoulder and move your head to sight down the barrel.”
“Start the program.” Keith said quietly after a few seconds, and Lance grinned as he did. Keith’s first shot winged the target in the 0-points border, and he grimaced. The rest hit in the outer trio of rings, and Lance stepped in behind Keith.
“Breathe.” he said firmly as he mimicked Keith’s position, placing his hands over Keith’s. “You’re tensing up.”
Keith took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. “Patience yields focus.” he said softly, and Lance grinned.
“Good. Now, when you take this next shot, exhale as you pull the trigger.” he inhaled with Keith, and when he exhaled Keith followed suit, firing as he did. The bolt struck squarely in the dark stripe which was 4-6 points, and Keith grinned.
“See?” Lance smiled, stepping back again and checking his wrist screen. Six points. Not bad for a newbie. “Now get to five melphit-eyes in a row, and we can talk about getting you on those moving targets.”
“Melphit eyes?” Keith said skeptically, looking at Lance with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s what Coran called ‘em.” Lance shrugged. He’d gotten ten in a row on the program’s farthest setting within his first training session, which Coran had found pretty impressive but honestly wasn’t worth bragging about when you were firing off energy blasts instead of physical bullets. “Now c’mon, Mullet. Match me on this program and we’ll talk about my hand to hand skills.”
“Just you watch.” Keith’s grin sharpened. “I’ll blow your scores out of the water.”
Lance chuckled and looked down at his wrist screen, flicking over to the high scores. Points-wise he was tied with the Paladins of old on the stationary programs, but he had a good few seconds on them in time in every round. Keith wasn’t beating him at this any time soon.