Chapter Text
In hindsight, it was all Pidge’s fault.
“You’d think it’d be easier to wrangle kittens,” Coran muttered. Allura sighed in exasperation. This isn’t exactly what she’d had in mind for this morning.
“Why must you attack me with words?” Lance sighed dramatically, throwing his arm over his eyes.
Keith raised one of his eyebrows. “You want me to use rocks?” He retorted.
Lance huffed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, well, two can play at that game.”
Once again, Allura sighed. She glanced over at Shiro, who was watching the scene unfold in what looked like slight amusement. She frowned. What kind of captain stood by and watched in amusement as his cadets fought? “Can’t you stop this?” She asked, annoyance creeping into her voice as she waved at the cadets.
“Yo Mama so ugly,” Lance declared, “even the trash man wouldn’t pick her up.”
Keith scoffed in indignation, looking like he was about to say something in retort, but Shiro cut them off. “That’s enough,” He said sternly, then looked back over at Allura. “I’m assuming you called us all here for training, right?”
Allura nodded. “Correct,” She said, looking back at the cadets. “And I need all of you to cooperate.”
“Today,” She continued, “we’re going to work on team-building. The stronger your bonds are with each other, the stronger they’ll be with your Lions, and the stronger you’ll all be as Voltron.”
She stepped forward, walking down the steps into the arena. “Firstly, you all must team up. Pidge, Hunk, you’ll be partners. And Keith and Lance - ”
“No!” Lance practically shouted in horror. “I am not working with him .”
Keith glared at him. “Like I wanna work with you ,” He snapped.
“You will work with each other,” Allura said sharply, “unless, of course, you’re okay with witnessing the total destruction of the universe.”
A brief silence fell over the group. “Well,” Hunk said finally, “it’s hard to argue with that, guys.”
Keith and Lance grumbled in compliance. Allura nodded. “Good. Now, the objective of this exercise is one partner has to protect the other from the opposing team. This will be good in the future in case one of you is injured.”
“Lance, you’ll be protecting Keith. Pidge, you’ll be protecting Hunk,” She said, and held up two coils of rope. “Here, take this rope and tie your hands behind your back. We’ll also be changing things up a bit today. Rather than fighting gladiators, you’ll be fighting each other.”
“Wait - ” Lance started.
“ - what?” Hunk finished.
“We’re fighting each other,” Pidge said pointedly. “Weren’t you two listening?”
“Hold on,” Lance protested, “why doesn’t Shiro have to do this?”
“I was actually wondering the same thing, Allura,” Shiro interjected.
“You are the most experience out of all of the Paladins,” Allura pointed out, “and I highly doubt you’ll have trouble of bonding with any of the others.”
“She’s not wrong there,” Pidge muttered.
“Begin,” Allura said.
Lance sputtered as Pidge shot their bayard at him. His shield shot up last minute as Pidge’s projectile slammed into him, making him stumble back - right into Keith.
Keith, imbalanced because his hands were tied behind his back, nearly fell. “Watch it,” He snapped. “You’re supposed to be protecting me, not taking me out yourself.”
Lance narrowed his eyes. “At least I actually graduated from the Academy,” He shot back.
Keith scoffed, looking up at the ceiling. “Last I checked, you haven’t actually graduated. In fact, you ran away.”
“Hey, you still got kicked out,” Lance snapped. “Not me.”
In midst of their argument, Lance had absentmindedly dropped his shield to his side, now facing Keith. Keith was about to say something when Pidge’s bayard slammed into Lance’s back. He was sent flying into the other teen, sending both of them sprawling. Keith lost his balance, tumbling to the ground, Lance landing right on top of him.
Lance barely had time to process what had happened before his lips collided with Keith’s.