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“Hey, Allura?” Lance pushed himself up off the floor, looking over his shoulder to where the alien princess was standing at a holographic control panel.
“Yes?”
“Can I have some water?”
Allura frowned. “We’re not even halfway done.”
Hunk, still sparring with his own robot opponent, grinned. “Give it to him, Allura!”
“Fine, but no more than ten ticks of water.” she relented, tossing Lance one of the capri-sun water pouches. It hit the ground empty, and Allura’s eyes widened as Lance bent the water into a ball between his hands. It felt different from the tap water back home, or the bottled water, and way different from the ocean but nothing could compare to the ocean.
“How are you doing that?” Allura asked, and Lance grinned as he spun the water into a mobius loop. The motions were familiar, calming. He’d missed bending, and this water felt weird but it was still water, it still bent as he willed it. There was no moon to dictate its flow, but Lance could feel it pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
“What, bending?” he shifted, and flicked the water out in a whip towards the new robot which had just dropped. The iced tip rang against the metal, and the robot fell down with a significant dent in its chestplate. “Mamá taught me.” he pulled the whip back, and spun with its momentum to turn it into a frozen blade and cut the head off of the robot as it got back to its feet. He should’ve used bending on these things from the start, it was so much easier than trying to fight with his fists and a shield.
“Hey, this is hand to hand, cargo pilot!” Keith called from across the room, taking off his robot’s second arm.
“Yeah, bending is cheating!” Pidge huffed, standing over their visibly electrocuted foe.
“Oh, just because you can’t, I can’t either?” Lance fired back, condensing the water blade back into a ball. He’d missed having water between his hands, but having it only made him miss the ocean that much more keenly.
“What do you mean, Pidge can’t- bend?” Allura was still frowning, looking very confused. She tapped the Stop button, and the robots fell motionless where they stood. Well, Hunk’s and Shiro’s did, the rest of them didn’t have one in front of them.
“I just can’t, okay?” Pidge huffed, crossing their arms. “My family are all airbenders, and I can’t bend.”
“Airbenders?” Allura practically had question marks dancing over her head.
“You mean, alteans don’t have bending?” Hunk asked, walking up next to Lance.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Allura shook her head.
“I can explain it, but it’s easier to show you.” Pidge said, resting an elbow on the princess’s shoulder.
“Show?” Shiro asked, looking distinctly disapproving.
“Keith’s a firebender, right?” Pidge grinned, and Lance did as well.
“Oh, hell yes!” he spun to face Keith, and flung a blob of water at his face. It splatted right on target, and Keith’s hair immediately began to steam. “Rematch, you and me!”
“Bring it on.” Keith growled, falling into stance and holstering his bayard. Flames shot out of his fists like tiny daggers, and then they were sparring. Half of Lance’s water evaporated in the first ten seconds, Keith blasting his ice wall with some of the hottest flames he’d ever faced, and he lashed out at Keith’s feet with the remainder. Whip around the ankles, ice on the floor, and the firebender was on his back.
“Refill!” Hunk yelled, and Lance pulled the airborne water out of its pouch into his ball.
“Thanks!” he called as Keith spun to his feet, backing up to avoid the ring of fire his teammate was generating. Keith was good. His forms were loose, but not sloppy like Hunk got when he tried to rush. And his fire was hot, tongues of white-gold licking around his hands.
“Mind your footing.” Keith grinned, and Lance yelped as he was backed onto a patch of heated floor.
“You asshole!” he shouted, diving out of the way of a blast of fire at his head and turning the ball of warm water into a sheet of frigid almost-ice to land on. It quickly warmed back up, and he flung a slice at Keith as he rolled out of the way of a cracking fire whip. A whip. Of fire. “Are you copying me?” he asked, half aiming to taunt and half actually curious.
Keith just grinned and wrapped a tongue of red flame around Lance’s ankle, making him jump and lose his balance. “You tell me.”
Lance spluttered, wiping water out of his eyes and bending the splattered remains of his water supply into a protective bubble shield. He had to be smart about this, like Mami kept saying. Dousing Keith should be enough to declare this fight over. But, somehow, he didn’t want to. Keith was smiling, joy shining through his flames as he circled Lance’s shield, and Lance... didn’t want to stop that. The smiling, not the circling. He’d rather Keith stay still so he could get a good clean shot in. Not to hurt, just to make it look like he was going down fighting. He couldn’t just concede, after all. He still had his reputation to think of.
Keith slowed, and in one smooth motion Lance flung his entire shield at his fellow Paladin. Keith blasted a hole in the thin sheet of water, and Lance dropped flat on his back to avoid it. The flight suit had kept him from getting burnt so far, though the heat was far from comfortable, but he didn’t want his face getting singed. Or his hair. It was bad enough being stuck out in space without any of his toiletries, but he wasn’t going to let any of the people on this castle-ship near his hair with a pair of space-scissors. Forming Voltron was one thing, letting them cut his hair was entirely another.
The fireball passed cleanly over him, and a second later Keith’s foot was on his chest with a little blade of fire pointed at his collarbone. “Yield?” he asked, smiling and breathing heavily.
“I yield.” Lance chuckled, lifting his hands and dropping them palms-up next to his head. The flame vanished, and Keith offered a hand to help him up. Lance accepted it, and a thrill ran through him from the point of contact. He was so screwed. And besides that, Fernanda would never let him live it down if he dated a firebender.