Work Text:
Nervousness took over Lance’s body as he stood outside the haunted house waiting for his date to show up. It wasn’t the date that was making him nervous though, he’d been on plenty of those. It was the thought of having to walk through the haunted house that had his knees shaking.
This new app that he’d downloaded was kind of interesting. You put in your name and some ideas for dates and you match with someone who has similar taste. He couldn’t think of more ideas other than dinner or movies, so he found a list of things on google and copy-pasted. Looking back, that may not have been the best idea.
Just as he checked his phone, a boy with a mullet approached him. “Are you Lance?”
Lance smiled. “Yeah, are you Keith?”
Keith sighed in relief. “Oh thank god, major flaw of this app, no pictures.” He stuck out his hand. “Yeah, I’m Keith, nice to meet you.”
Lance shook his hand with a smile. “Yeah, I was wondering how that was going to work.” He chuckled lightly.
“So, you ready to go in?”
No, no he was not ready to go in. In fact, he wanted to go home right now. “Uh…”
“Is something wrong?” Keith dropped his head. “Is it me?”
“No, no, it has nothing to do with you, I just…” He sighed. “I may have put haunted houses for my date ideas on accident.”
Keith looked up with his brows furrowed. “What do you mean you put it on there by accident?”
“Well, I couldn’t think of anything so I just copy-pasted a google site.” Lance fully expected Keith to leave at this point.
Keith, however, did not leave. Instead, he smirked. “So you’re chickening out.”
“WHAT, no I’m… I’m not chickening out, I just, I wasn’t prepared that’s all.” Dammit, now he has to go through the haunted house. There was no way he was going to let this guy call him a chicken.
“So… you ready to go in then or what?”
“Yep, let’s go.”
——
After waiting in line which felt like forever, it was finally their turn to go through. As much as he’d hated waiting in line it was a good way to get to know a little about each other before going through.
He learned that Keith has a dog named Kosmo and lives in a small house just outside city limits. He also learned that Keith works for a car shop during the day but works a different job later. He didn’t specify what that job was though.
Lance mainly just talked about his family the whole time, he had a big enough one.
“Two,” Keith said, handing the person in the clown mask their tickets.
“Right through that door, have fun you two.” Why did they have to say it like that?
Lance was instantly regretting letting his ego make the decisions for him. If only he’d admitted to being a chicken, then he wouldn’t be shaking with fear as he tried to stay as close to Keith as he could without actually touching him.
It was dark, Lance couldn’t see anything. How were they supposed to know if they were going the right way?
Light peered through from around the corner and Lance’s heart started beating out of his chest. They rounded the corner and someone jumped out of a little nook in the wall. Lance lost all control of his body as the scream emanated from him. At some point, he’d grabbed on to Keith’s arm who was practically unaffected by the demon in the wall.
He pulled Lance along to the hallway before asking him, “Are you okay?”
Lance straightened up and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, fine, that didn’t scare me at all.”
Keith giggled. “I can tell.” He squeezed Lance’s hand still wrapped around his bicep.
Pulling his hand away, Lance tried to pretend it was never there in the first place. “I just couldn’t see where we were going, that’s all.”
“Sure. Well, just know if you need to, you can hold my hand, it’s here for you.” He waved his hand in the air, which Lance could barely see because of how dark it was.
Lance rolled his eyes and they continued on. Coming around the corner to a room full of doors. The sign said, “find your escape, but watch for wrong doors”. ‘Great’ Lance thought.
Keith walked up to the first door and opened it. It was empty which was a relief to Lance. Keith reached for another door, but before he could open it, the door flew open and a girl covered in fake blood popped out.
Lance just about jumped into Keith’s arms at this point, screaming at the top of his lungs. He felt arms wrap around his waist and pull him in. He almost screamed again until he remembered the actors can’t touch you so it had to be Keith. He wanted to fight it and make excuses, but his excuses were dust in the wind with that last scare.
Sticking close to Keith was Lance’s safest bet, so when Keith found the right door, Lance grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull him along. He wanted to be as close to him as he could get, he seemed to feel safer when he was with Keith.
The thought of having to be tough going through the haunted house was still in the back of Lance’s mind, but the way Keith was taking care of him was so damn cute. He’d pull him close when they would enter a room. In one of the hallways, a girl creepily crawled after them and Keith pulled Lance to the front to protect him.
Once they made it through the exit, Lance sighed a big sigh of relief. He made it through the haunted house and didn’t die. Although with the way he was acting through it, he might die of embarrassment.
“I… uh-”
Before Lance could say anything Keith interrupted him. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to do that.”
“What?” Lance was thoroughly confused.
“I feel bad because you didn’t seem to be enjoying it.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t enjoying it...” Keith looked down at the ground. “But, the way you took care of me in there made me feel a lot better.” He placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I’d do it again as long as I went through with you.”
Looking up from the ground, Keith gave a faint smile. “I still feel bad and I kinda want to make it up to you.”
“Make it up to me?”
“Yeah, like take you somewhere you want to go.”
Lance thought for a minute. “Well, I am kind of hungry.”
Keith’s face lit up. “Can I take you to dinner then?”
Lance smiled back. “I thought you would never ask.”