Pidge had no idea how Lance had convinced her to do this. Well, that was a lie. All it took was a simple "what? Are you too scared?" to send her over the rails.

"Scared?! As if! I just don't want to waste my time playing childish games with you."

"Aww so you are scared! How cute!"

"I said I'm not scared! Fine, I'll play, but you'll be the one who's scared!"

"Yay! Thank you Pidgeon!"

"Don't call me that, asshole!"

And that unfortunate conversation is what landed Pidge in this unfortunate situation.

"Okay, so do you mind explaining what we're doing here?" She asked, not bothering to keep the irritation out of her voice.

They were in Lance's flat, sitting on the floor of his bedroom. It was summer holidays and Pidge had agreed to stay at Lance's for the next couple of weeks due to her parents and brother being away on work and Lance wanting her to join in on this.... game of his.

"Well, the game we're playing is called The Hosting Game, and basically you host a little party for some nice ghost friends." The boy began to explain, ignoring Pidge's groans of complaint. "You choose one room to be the hosting room and you have to do a few things - like writing an invitation saying what time it begins and what time it ends. Then you have to turn off all the lights in the house, starting from the furthest room from the hosting room, and say 'We'll be ready soon'."

He looked over at his shorter friend, taking in how uncomfortable she looked already. Pidge had never been one for horror related things, yet despite that, she was very brave and loved the feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins; so Lance thought that maybe, maybe this wouldn't be too much. Maybe they could both enjoy the rush of this game. I mean, it's not like demons and ghosts actually existed right?

"Uh.. If you're that uncomfortable with it then we don't have to do it."

"No! I already told you I'm not scared! I'm not backing down now, idiot."

Lance chuckled lightly. "Okay good because I think this could be fun. Anyways, we have to light three matches, each representing a ghost. If it lights, the ghost is nice, if it doesn't light, it's not nice. If the third match doesn't light, that means all three are bad." He explained. "And then we basically just walk around for an hour, and you're not allowed to turn around or look behind you because... I don't know. Shit could happen."

Pidge nodded in confirmation. "Okay, Let's get this started then. I wonder if anything will really happen?" She inquired, grinning in excitement, pushing any lingering fear to the back of her mind.

"Okay. Are you ready mi amor?" Lance teased gently. Using couple-like nicknames casually was something he did quite often. Pidge didn't like it, it made her...flustered. Lance placed a piece of paper on his bed in the middle of his now pitch black bedroom. The words : 'you're invited! A gathering hosted by Lance McClain takes place from 1am to 2am. Bring your friends!' were written on the paper in handwriting that was surprisingly delicate coming from him.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Pidge replied. "All appliances and things that make noise or light have been turned off or unplugged right?"

"Yes."

"And you have your watch's alarm set to 2am?"

"Yes."

"Then I guess we begin."

"Yeah."

The two teens stood in the doorway of the taller's room, the hosting room. They looked at each other in silent understanding and called out "I'm ready! Come in!" In perfect synchronization.

"Okay now to see if our guests will try to kill us or not." Lance said, pulling out a box of matches. Pidge shivered.

"Well let's hope for the best then." the small girl muttered. She snatched the matchbox from Lance's hands.

"Someone's eager to get my flat haunted." the Cuban boy joked.

Pidge just glared as she took out a match and swiped it against the side of the box. She let out a sigh of relief when her eyes saw the fire burning.

"I heard that. No need to be scared Katie." Lance reassured his friend jokingly as he leaned over to blow out the match in the girl's hand before gently taking the box back from her.

"Don't call me that." Pidge mumbled, a small blush crossing her cheeks.

Lance's voice - more serious than usual - cut through the shorter teen's embarrassment. "Looks like we have an unwanted guest."

Pidge looked at her partner curiously. The match he held was smoking, but it wasn't burning.

"O-okay." The girl's voice shook slightly. "Do the last one."

Lance nodded and lit the third match. It burned just as brightly. "Now everybody's here! Thank you for coming!" he chimed.

"You're way too excited about this." Pidge pointed out bluntly.

Lance chuckled lightly in response. "Alright. Let's get going then." He said before they both stood up.

Pidge grabbed the boy's hand.

"Scared already?" Lance teased with a smirk, yet despite his feigned annoyance he didn't pull away. If anything he gripped her hand tighter.

"I'm not scared. I'm just doing this to make sure you don't look back." Pidge responded calmly; although Lance swore he felt her hand shake.

"That's right. We can't look back from now on." Lance replied.

And so they began to walk. They decided to go the kitchen first, as Pidge insisted on bringing salt along with them. "Just in case." she had said.

Lance took upon himself to blow softly on Pidge's neck whilst she was distracted by searching through the cupboards for salt, causing her to jump in surprise.

"Asshole!" she shouted.

Lance just laughed. "Are you scared yet babe?"

"No! But I'd prefer it if you quit it! It's not like this stuff is real or anything anyway." Pidge retorted coldly.

"Really now. Well, let's keep moving. We're not meant to stop." Lance said, feeling a cold hand grab hold of his as they walked towards the kitchen's exit. It let go as when they made it to the doorway. He looked at the girl beside him as they entered the living room. "Why'd you let go?"

Pidge returned his look with an expression of confusion. "Huh?"

"My hand. Why'd you let go?"

"What do you mean? Back at the kitchen? I was looking for the salt-"

"No, just now."

"The hell? I haven't touched you since back then."

"What? Come on Pidge. I'm meant to be the one playing the jokes here, not you."

"You idiot, I'm not kidding. You better not be fucking around."

"...let's just keep moving."

"Lance, I swear to fucking-" Pidge stopped mid sentence. Her eyes widened as the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she swore she could hear a quiet laugh in her ear.

"What's up?"

"The fucking sky- what do you mean 'what's up'? You didn't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"..Nevermind. It was probably just the wind."

Lance's eyes widened in unjustified admiration as he clasped Pidge's hand in his. "Don't tell me, you're getting scared?"

"No of course not! Shut up!"

And so they continued on into the dining room, hands clasped together even tighter than before.

"How long have we been walking around for?" Pidge asked after a few minutes. They were in the living room now.

Lance looked down at his wristwatch and frowned. "It's too dark to tell. Do you happen to have a torch with you?"

"Fuck no, you're the one meant to be organizing this." the girl groaned. "Come on, do you have one in your room?"

"I think so. Do you wanna get it?"

"Yeah..." Pidge trailed off. She pressed a finger to her lips and both teens promptly went silent. There were no sounds apart from their breathing... And static. Their eyes widened at the sound, only now noticing how the room seemed slightly lighter, but still - annoying yet terrifying as it was - not light enough to read the time. "Lance? Y-you disconnected the television right?"

"Yeah... Yeah I did!" Lance exclaimed, his voice cracking. Pidge just stared at him before letting go of his hand and beginning to walk backwards slowly. "Pidge-"

"Shut up don't move. Don't look at me. That would involve turning around."

"Don't fall over or anything shortstack."

"I won't." Pidge replied, ignoring the insult. She continued walking backwards until she could see the television. Sure enough, it was on and static was flashing across the screen. The younger teen inhaled sharply and walked - well, it was almost a run but she would never admit it - out of the room, grabbing Lance's hand and dragging him along.

They made it to the other side of the flat and slid down the wall, panting. "It- it was the tv wasn't it?"

Pidge nodded. "Yeah. Yeah it was. Holy shit."

"Are you scared now sweetheart?"

"Fuck off I'm just surprised. There's literally so much adrenaline right now."

"You talk about it like a drug addict."

"Shut the fuck up."

They were silent for a minute, catching their breath.

"What about you?"

"What?"

"Are you scared yet?"

"You wound me. But no, I'm not scared."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Even after after all this time?"

"Always."

"Always? We'll see about that."

Their conversation was cut short when the phone from the room beside them started ringing.

"Pidge are you kidding me?! Did you set that up?! It's not funny!" Lance accused, an ironic bit of fear slipping into his voice.

"It wasn't me I swear to God. We need to move." Pidge's voice shook. She stood up and pulled Lance up with him. "What do we do?" he asked, receiving no answer. They were running again, though they didn't know where to. A large bang sounded from behind them and they both screamed.

There was no: "Are you scared, babe?" this time.

Lance squeezed Pidge's hand as hard as he possibly could and started moving forward again. He was stopped in his tracks when he realised Pidge wasn't moving from her spot, and he spun around to look at her in surprise when he felt and heard the girl drop to her knees. Pidge was shaking. A bullet of guilt was sent through his chest.

"My legs... they just gave out?" The small girl mumbled, confused.

"It's probably because you're scared."

"I'm not scared."

"You're shaking."

"So are you."

Only then did Lance look down at his hand - the one that wasn't holding Pidge's - and realize he was indeed shaking just as much as she was.

Of course, it didn't help when he looked up from her face - stricken with a mix of terror and confusion - and saw the shadowy figure with what looked like dark red eyes moving towards them slowly. Lance was frozen in place, his face an expression of horror.

"Lance...?"

"Don't move..." The...thing, whatever it was, was standing right behind Pidge now; staring at Lance from over the other's shoulder. Pidge looked up at him in confusion mixed with fear.

"Lance? Stop it. It's not funny." she said before realization finally settled in. "Idiot! You turned around!!"

The figure moved past Pidge faster than Lance could react. A sudden cold washed over him, followed by a burning sensation running through his veins as the figure disappeared from his vision. He fell backwards, feeling the impact of his body hitting the floor but for some reason, he was unable to do anything to stop it. It was like he was hearing and seeing things through a tunnel. There was the strange feeling of something pressing against his chest, making it hard to breathe. Yet what scared him the most was that he had absolutely no control over his body.

Pidge stared in shock as she watched her friend fall to the ground.

"Lance?"

No response.

"Lance! Hey! Get up! Come on idiot!" The teen tried to stand and move to the brunet's side but her legs were shaking too much to comply. "Babe!"

Still no response. Great. The first time she called him by a pet name and he couldn't even hear it.

"sCaReD bAbE~?"

Pidge snapped out of her panicked daze and looked up to see Lance, now towering above her, a trail of blood dripping from his mouth and running down his chin.

"Lance? Are you alri-"

"ArE yOu ScArEd~?"

Pidge inched backwards. Lance's voice sounded almost echo-y, like there were multiple, deeper voices layered on top of each other.

"sCaReD? ArE yOu ScArEd SwEeThEaRt?" the Lance that Pidge was convinced wasn't really Lance repeated over and over.

Pidge had backed herself into a corner. She flinched as the-Lance-that-wasn't-really-Lance reached down and caressed her face gently before moving his tanned hand down to the girl's neck, threatening to cut off her air source any second.

"ScArEd~?"

Despite being a confident, headstrong female in her mid-teens, a tear threatened to ruin her composure. She steadied herself before responding with the same words she'd used so many times before.

"No, I'm not scared."

Yet she was scared beyond measure.

She looked into the brunet's eyes once more, searching for any sign of recognition. Finding none, she shoved Lance-that-wasn't-really-Lance away as hard as she could before sprinting - as fast as is humanly possible when the only reason you can actually stand is because of adrenaline - towards Lance's room. The house was shaking, the phone was ringing, things were falling to the ground and she could hear Lance-that-wasn't-really-Lance's slow footsteps and creepy whispers following behind her.

When she reached the bedroom she immediately turned on the light and crouched down in the corner furthest away from the doorway. Staying as far away from Lance-that-wasn't-really-Lance as possible. Her breathing accelerated as brunet drew closer. The house shook harder than ever.

"ArE yoU ScArEd BaBe~?"

"Thank you for coming goodbye!!!" Pidge screamed and squeezed her eyes shut, covering her head with her arms.

And then there was silence.

Hazel eyes looked up slowly. Lance stared at her in shock before dropping to his knees.

"Lance!"

The brunet met her eyes again and Pidge had a mini heart attack. Her breathing quickened rapidly. What if it wasn't over? What if saying those words didn't end the game? What if-

"Katie?"

The shorter teen was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Lance had crouched down in front of her.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have insisted we play this game." Lance said. "Were you scared?"

Pidge spoke once she'd leveled out her breathing. "Of course not." she let her head drop onto Lance's shoulder. "Shit, what even happened?"

"I don't know. I had no control over anything I did, but I could see and hear everything." Lance replied.

Pidge nodded and checked the taller for injuries before settling down and relaxing against the other again. They sat side by side with their backs against the wall.

"So I did hear you say something that made me really happy!"

"Really? I was literally just screaming the whole time, idiot."

"Well yes, but you called me a nickname."

"What? Okay I know I insult you a lot but it's not like I never use-"

"No, babe, specifically."

"Oh. Uh, yeah."

"Say it again."

"What?! No way that's too embarrassing!"

"It wasn't back then."

"Priorities."

"Say it Pidgeon~"

"But-"

"Please!"

Pidge couldn't resist the puppy eyes she was stared at with. An annoying blush slowly crossed over her cheeks.

"B-babe."

Lance laughed. A genuine, happy laugh.

"It sounds nice coming from you." He leaned his head back. "Makes me not hate it as much." He added quietly.

"You hate that name?"

"That's a story for another time."

Pidge looked at her hands, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"...I like it."

Lance smiled.

They sat there for a bit, no words were exchanged, but there was no need for them. Just comfortable silence.

Lance broke the quiet first. "Well, it's over now. We should talk more in the.." He trailed off. Pidge had fallen asleep, head leaning on his shoulder. The brunet smiled. "..morning."

He scooped the smaller teen up and placed her on the bed, lying down beside her before pulling the blankets over both of them. Lance sighed, running his hands through Pidge's hair.

"So you were scared."