Rizavi: You know, if you’d just said I looked beautiful, I would’ve said “so do you”.

“Five more minutes.”

“We have drill.”

James: Statistically speaking, every American thinks about Abraham Lincoln at least once a day. And Nadia's American, so...

Listen…I live for these kinds of kisses. They’re so unnecessary, you know. But it’s great fan service so… who cares, am I right?

As always, read below the cut!

“That’s your idea of training? Laser tag?” James questioned, eyeing Lance with an incredulous look. Behind him, he could feel Nadia laughing against her hand.

“Yeah, man! It’ll totally help with your aim. Plus, the training here at the Garrison is getting boring,” Lance exclaimed proudly.

“What does this have to do with piloting the Lions? And Keith is okay with this?” James asked, still not believing that such a training method was allowed by the most emotionally constipated one of all of them.

Lance grinned, “Totally! We did training like this at the Castle before we blew it up. Trust me, this training will definitely be tough.”

James sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Alright, Lance, we’ll do it.”

Lance grinned triumphantly, “Yes! Alright, meet us at Training Deck 6 at 7 tonight. Bring your “A” game.”

James sighed, the rest of the team watching Lance curiously. “What kind of training do they even do? This is ridiculous. Isn’t this training too lenient for Paladins of Voltron?”

“The Paladins of Voltron surpass us in every aspect. Also, they are our superiors and our teachers. We shouldn’t doubt them,” Ina informed James as the group of four made their way through the halls.

“Yeah, hot stuff,” Rizavi mused, nudging James on the side, “Besides, you should let up a bit.”

James just crossed his arms and prepared for the worst.

Lance sprinted away from the MFE pilots with a mischievous grin on his face. When he gave the news to the team, they all grinned and Lance chuckled, “They have absolutely no idea what they’re getting themselves into.”

The MFE pilots are all at the meeting place, though there is no sign of the Paladins. James tapped on his shoulder, annoyance clearly etched on his face as he tapped his foot. Rizavi noticed this and chuckled, smacking James on the arm, “Would you cool it, Mr. Uptight? They’re only human.”

“One’s literally an alien, Rizavi, and Keith’s only half-human,” James pouted.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed and their surroundings morphed into the insides of a Galra ship. The MFE Pilots quickly tried to draw their weapons, surprised to find that they were all missing.

“Alright, let’s get this training on the road!” They all heard Lance’s voice cackle.

“What?” James questioned, surprised at the sudden changes.

“The rules are simple,” Allura’s voice echoed through the halls of the simulation, “If you’re hit by one of us, you’re out. If even one of you is hit by one of our beams, you’re all disqualified and we win.”

“Your goal,” Pidge’s voice began, “Is for you all to evacuate the prisoners. We’ll be patrolling the area at different sections. So be careful.”

“Also,” Hunk began, “You kinda really don’t want to be hit by these lasers. They paralyze your body until one of us cancel it with the antidote. Some of us are kind souls so chances are we’ll give it to you right after we shoot you.”

“But Keith is ruthless so don’t get hit by him,” Lance interrupted.

James glared at the ceiling and Rizavi spoke, “Hey, now, don’t you think that’s too harsh?”

“Well,” this time, it was Keith’s smug voice speaking through the speakers, “We wanted to show you how “lenient” our Paladin laser tag training can be.”

Rizavi paused and looked at James pointedly, “He got you-”

“Shut up, Rizavi.”

Rizavi only cackled and suddenly, replicas of the Paladin Bayards floated in front of them, the only one missing was the Black Bayard.

“This exercise is to test your teamwork and your compatibility,” Keith announced as they each grabbed a Bayard, “As potential Paladins, you need to learn how to work with each other and how to sync your movements to work efficiently. We learned this in the heat of battle. Now, it’s your turn. You have to learn to do this unconsciously and effortlessly. Learn to trust your teammates. We begin now.”

A loud buzzer sounded off and the MFE pilots prepped themselves

James, holding the red Bayard, scrunched his brow, “Since we’re not yet that good at defensive tactics, I think we should split off in teams of two. It’ll be too hard to broaden your focus to three other people. Rizavi, you’re with me. Kinkade, you’re with Leif.”

The other two and Kinkade and Leif branched off holding the yellow and green Bayards respectively.

Griffin then moved forward, drawing his gun to point up front and Rizavi turned around so they were back to back, both of them pointing their guns in the opposite directions.

“Why’d you choose me, hot stuff?” Rizavi’s teasing tone echoed off the walls.

“Because you’re second when it comes to sharpshooting and Leif’s the worst so she needed Kinkade’s sharpshooting skills to make up for it,” James answered cooly, his gun straight and aimed at the unknown in front of them.

“Is that all? Or is it for another reason?” Rizavi teased.

James froze over and he coughed away his flustered state, “Yes, that’s all Rizavi.”

Nadia chuckled, “Alright, hot stuff. Believe what you want,” Rizavi continued on with her teasing.

Suddenly, a form appeared in front of them and James immediately shot it down with three shots, two of them having missed its target.

“Did you get them?” Rizavi asked.

James peered over the gun’s scope, waiting for a sign of movement and he grinned when he heard nothing, “Yep!”

James closed in on the body and smirked, “Now let’s see which of you I got.”

When James reached it, however, it was a downed Galra sentry. James frowned and whispered, “What the- AH!”

In a second, the Galra sentry powered up and grabbed onto James. Rizavi acted fast and shot out its head, the Galra sentry immediately stopping and disintegrating into millions of holographic bits.

James panted and looked up at Rizavi, who tried to fight down a smug smile. Before she could say anything, James spat, “Not a word, Rizavi.”

Nadia, however, barked out a laugh, “I didn’t even say anything!”

“We forgot to mention that there are gonna be holographic Galra sentries around too. Sorry guys,” Pidge’s voice spoke through the speakers, though the amused tone in her voice didn’t sound too sorry.

“You won’t be disqualified if you’re hit, but their hits hurt like a bi-”

“-like a dog. They hurt like a dog. We gotta keep this training simulation PG, pigeon,” Lance interrupted.

“Whatever, Lance. Also, heads up, they’re only taken down by a hit to the head,” Pidge added before disappearing, her voice still echoing through the halls.

Rizavi lent Griffin a hand and picked him up off the ground. James dusted himself off, “Well, that’s nice to know.”

Nadia shook her head and aimed her gun forward, “Alright, let’s find these prisoners.”

James nodded, a small smile playing in his lips as he looked down on Nadia, “Right.”

The two picked up their pace, keeping a light jog as they guarded themselves and looked for the prison cells.

They finally did, after some time, but it was guarded by Hunk. Behind him were human prisoners moping and sulking in their cells. Some of them even begging to be taken back home.

Nadia and James kneeled and hid behind a wall, watching the situation with calculating eyes.

“Pidge, did you have to make these prisoners so realistic. I feel mean,” Hunk complained into his comms.

“I had to make them as realistic as possible. Keith told me,” Pidge responded, James and Rizavi hearing it from afar.

“It’s alright Hunk, they’re fake. Just stay focused on defense,” Keith ordered.

“No problems there, man,” Hunk assured.

Suddenly, there was a shift of movement on the opposite hall and Hunk immediately turned, shooting his blaster in its direction, the lasers hitting its head and the body immediately disintegrating.

Nadia and James released a breath of relief, their worries eased after realizing it was just a sentry and not Ina nor Kinkade.

“Hunk! Could you stop shooting at the sentries?!”

“Sorry, Pidge!”

James pondered for a bit and his eyes lit up. He turned towards Nadia and whispered, “I’ve got a plan. When I tell you go, you shoot at the control panels, got it?”

Nadia nodded and James got into position and began shooting at Hunk.

“AH! Okay, they’re here!” Hunk yelled into the comms, powering up his shield and defending himself.

“Alright. Nadia go!”

Nadia began and shot at all the control panels, each of them fizzling out before the doors slid open and a stampede of people shot out of their cells.

“Hunk!” Keith’s voice echoed through the halls, signaling that he was close.

Hunk, who was now free of James barrage of hits since he didn’t want to hurt the prisoners, laughed nervously, “Eh, sorry?”

“No time for that now,” James saw as Keith and the rest of the Paladins showed up from the opposite hall, “We need to find them before they lead the prisoners to the escape pods.”

Allura scrunched her brows, “Wait a tick…Did we all just come out of the same hallway?”

The team groaned and Keith yelled, “Lance I am never letting you assign positions again.”

Lance held his hands up, “Sorry man, I didn’t realize I left it unguarded!”

“I just bumped into Kinkade and Leif, so that means Griffin and Rizavi are in that direction,” Pidge added.

James and Nadia winced and immediately started shuffling with the people, hearing Keith’s distant orders, “Alright, then let’s search for them, team!”

Nadia leaned in and whispered in James’s ear, “Do you know where the escape pods are?”

James shook his head, “Not a clue. Let’s just go with the flow.”

Nadia snorted, “Well, that’s a first.”

James shushed her as they heard a whizz above them, watching silently as Allura scanned the prisoner’s heads from a floating pod as she sped by.

“This is a lot tougher than I thought,” James whispered.

This time, Nadia shushed him as she saw the people dip down in front of them. She pointed and James whispered and incredulous, “What?” Before it was their turn to dip down.

It was a quiznaking escalator. On a Galra ship.

It was a huge and tall escalator, probably a hundred feet tall, and it was slow.

Above them, they saw Lance perched on a ledge, his gun aimed at their general direction. Once the pair stood on one of the moving steps, Nadia turned James around to face her, his face now level with hers now that he was on the step under hers.

She cupped his cheeks and whispered, “Kiss me.”

James, ever the smol-bean, froze and stuttered, “W-What?”

Nadia looked into his eyes and licked her own, “Kisses makes people very uncomfortable.”

James looked down Nadia’s lips and, although he was still in quite a daze, nodded, “Yes, they do.”

Without warning, Nadia pulled James’s face towards hers with a powerful tug. James crashed on to her and wound his arms around her waist to balance them and to prevent them from falling on top of the prisoners.

Other than that, James lost all consciousness and let Nadia take the reins. She was dominant, making James melt into a puddle the second her tongue brushed his lips. She became more demanding, pulling him closer and running her hands through his hair, the incessant tugging on his hair making James almost lose his footing again.

And just how the kiss started unexpectedly, it ended unexpectedly. She pulled away, their lips smacking at the separation. And James, still in a daze, chased after her. Rizavi chuckled and pressed a finger against his lips to stop him, “Still uncomfortable?”

“I am yeah. Thanks for asking, though.”

The couple had no time to react before they were both shot in the shoulder and both fell to the ground. The escalator stopped and the prisoners disintegrated.

Above them, Lance was floating on top of a pod, an amused and slightly disgusted face peering down on them.

He swung his gun on his shoulder and asked, “Did you seriously think that I wouldn’t see you?”

I love these two. 🧡

⚠️⚠️⚠️Do not repost anywhere, edit, or use without my permission. Hate on this ship, or any other ship, will not be tolerated.⚠️⚠️⚠️