YO YO YO!!

So it's here! The new Klance book, an alternative Among Others, to say
ヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ I'm so excited to share this story with you😊

Quite different from my two others as it's both written in third person and in past tense, and I'm also going to try and not be so dramatic in this book, like I was with my first 2 other books. Of course I will have dramatic scenes here, but I'm not going to be dramatic in like every paragraph in every chapter, like I always am 😬

ANYWHO, I just really missed Voltron and how it used to be, so then this book happened. It is set in the first two seasons, because we all need some nostalgia
*cries in bonding moment™*
But of course I will slink in information we gathered in the other seasons.

So, as always, I want to say thank you for choosing this book and I wish you will enjoy reading it❤️

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There is various things Keith hates - just look at his attitude almost everyday -, but most of those things doesn't bother him every single microsecond of his life. He could make up a whole list of them, and Lance would top that list.

He hates social interactions and someone defying him. He hates people chewing food loudly and he hates getting his past brought up, but the hatred towards those things is nothing in comparison to when Lance opens his mouth, spitting nothing but bullcrap up his face whenever they're in the same room. Keith couldn't really count how many times Lance has made him want to rip his ears off, but he knew it's many enough to be highly concerning.

"Lance!" the red paladin roared, quickly activating the shield in front of him as the druids kept firing shot after shot at him. Thumps and groans could be heard behind him, as the other paladins tried their best to defend themselves from the encumbrance. "I said keep left! You literally did the complete opposite of what I told you to do!"

Keith's voice hurt, probably because of the previous fights him and Lance had just yesterday. What he wouldn't do for a cup of warm tee. But up here in space, it's either deal with the ache or warming up a cup of Nunvil, and Keith would rather lose his voice completely than drink any of that. If he thought about the liquor long enough he could still feel it's odious taste on his tongue.

"Keep left? And be near you? Never!" Lance made a poor endeavor to shoot down one of the druids but he missed with too many inches. He tried to cover it up with another shot but the blast flew further away than the first one. Clearing his throat unobtrusively he shouted, "Besides, why would I be taking orders from you? You're not my leader, and your instructions sucks, just as much as you do!" He groaned as he got shot in the back.

"Stop being ridiculous and just listen to whatever order you get!" Keith rolled to the side, but immediately regretted that action as Shiro got a blast in the back. He stumbled forward and then threw an admonishing look at the red paladin.

"Keith", he firmly said. "Stay in the same position. You need to protect your teammates. This isn't a solo game."

Lance turned his head to the conversation, shit-eating grin on his face. "Ha! Take that, mister listen to whatever orders you get!" He screeched as the drone hit him in the stomach, sending him tumbling to the floor. The blue paladin didn't make an attempt to stand back up.

The glorious sight of a defeated Lance was distracting enough for Keith to miss the drone just beside him that shot a hard blast to his side, pushing him down, landing on top of the laying paladin on the floor. Lance groaned and Keith puffed at the impact.

Both boys laid completely still, chest rising and sinking fast from the hard training, and they laid long enough for the rest of the team to mess up without them, and for Allura to send the opponents away, clearly thwarted.

When the boys on the floor finally caught their breaths and realized what position they were in - with half of Keith's body laying on top of Lance's - they were fast to scramble up to their feet, throwing resentful looks to one another. Both boys were growling.

Lance was the first to break the killing-staring session, taking off his helmet and shaking out his sweaty, brown hair. "Man, that was intense. Would have worked so much better if Keith was out of the picture." As he started making his way to the exit, a hand stopped him. He looked down and saw Shiro's arm on his shoulder, preventing him from taking any step further. Keith tried to slink past the two boys but the look he received from the black paladin made him halt. That look couldn't be anything else than pure discontent.

"You two", Shiro grumbled. "Are staying right here."

"Huh?!" Lance exclaimed, backing away from Shiro and staring at him like he just pulled out a unicorn out his ass. "Whatcha mean?"

"Shiro..." Keith snarled, not needing to say anything else. He definitely didn't like where this was going - the only thing he could think of after a hard failed training session was a cold shower, cold enough to make his teeth rattle. Upon hearing the tone in Shiro's voice he assumed that the only thing coming out of this would be highly aggravating.

"Your ridiculous behavior won't be tolerated anymore", Shiro started, letting go of Lance for a moment, trusting he wouldn't depart. "Especially not as paladins of Voltron. You two are the only ones not willing to work as a team and strengthen our bond. The rest of the team has been needing to put up with your demeanor for too long. It has to come to an end now." He held something fierce in his gaze, that could make anyone falter. His voice invited severity without really demanding it. But Lance was determined to speak his thoughts, finding this whole situation too absurd to notice the anger Shiro was radiation with just his eyes.

"We all know Keith is the only problem here", Lance utter loudly, pointing a long, slim finger at said boy. Keith stared at him like he wished he could order lighting to struck down on him and burn him to ashes. "If Keith could just vanish, the team would work perfectly fine!"

"If you kept your annoying mouth shut you would save so many life's in this universe", the red paladin retorted, clenching his fists at his side, to prevent himself from punching Lance. Shiro didn't doubt that he could attack any second, so he quickly spoke again.

"You start your bonding exercise today, and we expect you to at least tolerate each other in a few days. You don't need to become best friends, just start off as being able to be in the same room without starting a fight. The universe is in stake, so we can't afford any unnecessary conditions." He crossed his arms afterwards, as if to strengthen the message in his words.

"Bonding exercise?!" both boys yelled. Keith emitted a loud sigh. Maybe it was best if one of the druids could just shoot him dead. But he knew that Shiro would go all the way down to hell and revive him just for this dumb activity.

"Yes", the muscular man said, turning around and looking up at the tower. As the two other boys followed his gaze they saw the contour of another person standing. "Coran will help you with the first exercise."

"What, he's going to make us hold hands like some middle year schoolers?" scoffed Lance as he mimicked Shiro's posture. But his voice held some uncertainty, afraid that Coran would actually make them do just that.

"Em, not really", said man's voice came through the hidden speakers above. "More like a cogitation battle, being able to link your right thoughts together to defeat given obstacle. Just like that exercise where all of you needed to think of forming Voltron, only this time it's a duo activity and you're not actually forming Voltron. Now we'll start with something fairly easy."

Both boys were already losing hope in this whole bonding exercise thing, and their expectation wasn't even strong to begin with. Lance whined.

"Why does even such a thing exist in the first place?"

Shiro was impatiently waiting for his cue to leave, but tried not to show it. Keith just crossed his arms and pouted, forcing himself to come in terms with the situation. He could fulfill this stupid exercise but he didn't actually need to like it.

Coran snickered as if looking back at a certain memory. "Oh boy, there were times where the old paladins couldn't put up with each other for a bit. They would always bicker and quarrel and eventually king Alfor came with the idea of this exercise you will be doing just now."

It got quiet for a moment, making all three boys look at each other with obvious wonder. But after some seconds, Coran appeared down in the training deck, two headsets in his hands. Keith and Lance sighed, both annoyed that the advisor would actually pull this plan through.

When Coran walked up to them, he handed them the devises. Both boys took them hesitantly and then put it over their heads. "Perfect. Now gather up in the middle and we can begin."

Shiro saw this as his opportunity to leave, so he gave the two paladins a final look, raising his eyebrow intently. "Behave now. Don't waste your time, and actually try to be productive. We'll meet over dinner."

Shiro exited the room, glad that he could finally wash off the sweat on his body that wasn't even earned completely right. The team failed this exercise, after all.

Coran followed the black paladin to go back up to the tower, whilst Keith and Lance positioned themselves on the floor, keeping a fair distance between them. They made sure to glare at each other until Coran spoke again.

"Alright, let's start off with closing your eyes." He waited for the paladins to do so before continuing. "Good. Try now to clear your minds from any essential thoughts. Your minds should be completely blank." Coran pressed some buttons, and the next second, a hologram of several Galra ships appeared in between the boys, firing shots that faded away when reaching a longer distance. Keith and Lance gasped when they got the same pictured placed into their heads, but they kept their eyes closed, not wanting to mess anything up to get this whole thing over with.

"I reprogrammed the hologram just a little bit", Coran explained. "To fit your current situation more. This exercise was made at a time where the Galras weren't bad."

"What are we supposed to do?" Lance asked, squirming uncomfortably at the fact that the only thing he could think off were the picture of Galra spaceships firing out into open space, having to share the exact same thought with his rival. He desperately wanted to take off the headset.

"Here's where the fun part comes!" Coran said. "You need to think of your lions, and together you need to defeat these spaceships. You see, this is specially set for teamwork purposes. If you try to take down the Galras all alone you will fail in an instant. You need to defeat them together, structure a plan quickly before too much time has passed. Start off with thinking of your lions. "

Both boys did just that, trying to see past all the chaos in their heads and summon a picture of their lions. Keith didn't find any difficulties in doing so, since all he wanted was to finish all of this and get dismissed as soon as possible. As for Lance, he had more of a complication when it came to that task. The picture of his lion always flicked, seemingly wanting to fade away in his head and be replaced with something else. The blue paladin shut his eyes harder and focused on moving his lion forward, dodging the purple blasts as good he could. The exertion sent a throbbing headache and made the hologram of his lion to flicker again.

"Perfect!" Coran exclaim. "Now, come up with a plan, communicate. This is all about synergy, concentration and arrangement. If you take away one of those things, this won't work."

"Okay", Keith mumbled, quickly trying to come up with a plan in his head and create actions that wouldn't mean a straight dead for the two of them. "Okay, I think I got something. Lance, move your lion over here, and shoot at them with all you've got. You just focus on keeping me safe."

Keith started to send Red forward, hoping that Lance would listen to him and do as told - who knew how dangerous those purple blasts could be - but immediately, a chock shook his head as his lion got hit. Keith's eyes flew open and to his despair saw that the hologram of Lance's lion was now replaced by a picture of Allura, quivering in the slightest, as if he tried to chase away the image and get back to the exercise but did it half-heartedly. Keith scowled.

"Lance! Stop thinking of Allura and focus!"

Lance peeked his one eye open but the image didn't change. "I can't help that she is way more fun to think of than this! Besides, your voice bored me to death."

"Say that in an actual battle and you will actually meet your death", Keith snarled, closing his eyes to focus on moving his lion away from the Galra ships. "Now concentrate!"

Lance rolled his eyes but closed them again, doing anything in his power to bring the image of Blue back. Once he did, he moved it to where Keith had first told him to, ordering the lion to shoot. The red paladin could now continue with his plan. Coran just watched down attentively from the tower, not needing to say much more.

"Good, keep on defending", Keith mumbled, flying to the opposite side of where he first started. He turned around and was just about to shoot, but got interrupted by a blast again, harder than the first. It send his lion flying backwards, through the endless abyss of space, not seeming to be able to stop. He tried to gain control over Red again, but another blast made it impossible for him. He opened his eyes again and once again was he met with the soft smile from Allura. It sent his pulse higher up and he could swear that his blood was boiling.

When his lion seemed to loose all control inside his head, he snapped, taking off the headset and smashing it down to the floor. "I'm done with this! Lance doesn't even bother, so why should I?" Standing up and forgoing any obedience, he stormed out of the training deck, taking long and angry steps. Lance opened his eyes, watching his rivals back disappear. Coran quietly turned off the exercise and the hologram vanished in an instant, leaving a silence and stillness after it. Lance blinked in bewilderment, not sure what to do.

Keith was stomping out, but only reached the corridor when someone in front of him stopped him in his track. He looked up and was met with Allura's irked face, a facial expression so different from the one in Lance's head. She lured at him.

"Where do you think you're going? Go back to the training deck right now! It hasn't even been ten dobashes since you started this exercise!" Her brows was furrowed, and she spoke so vehemently that the light around her caught drops of spit flying out her mouth. "I will not tolerate any of you to behave childishly ever again!"

Keith stifled a sigh, knowing better than to go against Allura's demands, especially when she looked as angry as she did in this moment.

He looked down at his feet. "Yes, princess."

⟴ ⛢ ⟴

"I think I know what the problem is here", Allura spoke to the two paladins in front of her, her advisor at her side. She had a tense posture that couldn't be anything else than pure animosity and exhaustion. The shadows on her face was even more evident in this kind of light. "You know nothing about each other, and that's why it's so easy for you to hate each other. You know nothing about each other's intentions."

Lance scoffed. "I don't need to get to know Keith to know that he's a douche and a complete jackass." He digged his eyes into his rivals eyes, fire in his gaze. "And to know that Iverson was completely mistaken to call him the best pilot."

Keith seethed with fury - oh, how he wanted to crush Lance's head with just his pinky finger. The offer was very tempting, and he could feel his hands tingle at his sides.

"Stop it, now!" Allura snapped and both boys whipped their head towards her again. She scowled at them. "I think I know what bonding exercise you need. This one you did today is apparently too advanced for your relationship."

"What exercise may that be, princess?" Coran asked, clearly curious as to what Allura had planned.

The princess pierced the two boys with a sharp look. "You two will do an activity we Alteans always did when we needed to get along with someone. It's called Query Quest."

Coran's face lit up with realization, but the two paladins faces remained confused. Query Quest? What kind of activity was that? By hearing the name of it, it couldn't be something fun to do.

Lance asked: "And what exactly is that, princess? Don't get me wrong, I just love your way of thinking and every idea you come with is just amazing..." He winked at her and everyone rolled their eyes. "But care to explain that fascinating thought of yours?"

"Query Quest is all about asking questions to get to know each other. You take turns in asking certain questions and it's your duty to have collected as much information about the other person at the end of the day. You get one varga to do so. For the upcoming weeks, I will ask you two everyday what you found out about the other. If it's below five things, you will receive a punishment." She saw that both boys wanted to interject but she quickly added: "Ten doboshes will be taken away from your sleep as punishment."

Lance blinked in bewilderment. "Oh... Okay... So Query Quest is kind of like... A very serious round of Twenty Questions..."

"And also..." Allura pointed at the paladins hands. "It involves hand holding. Throughout the whole round you're playing."

"WHAT?!" Both boys exclaimed.

For Keith, all of this had already lost its point, and the remaining sweat on his body was annoying him. He wanted to rip his armor apart, shred it into small pieces, jump into the shower and let the water wash away any anger he had inside him. It was enough annoyance for one day.

"Okay, you know I said that your thoughts were amazing?" Lance shrieked, his hight-pitched voice making Keith's ear twinge. "Well, I will have to rethink about that now. You must be crazy if you think that I will hold hands with... him!" He spat out the last word like it was burning his tongue to ashes.

"Princess", Keith growled quietly. "This won't happen again. We can promise you that we will behave from now on..."

"Yeah!" Lance shot in, and Keith could sense that he would mess this up for the both of them. "I can promise that Keith will behave from now on."

Said boy was on the verge of screaming.

Allura looked unamused. She raised her eyebrow. "There will be no persuasion. I have already made up my mind. Take a shower, eat a quick snack, and meet me in the lounge room."

She turned around and left the training deck, Coran following tight behind.

The paladins remained in there, reflecting over what would be their exercise for the forthcoming days.

Quest Query would be the death of  both of them.

⟴ ⛢ ⟴

So... Yeah. That was the first chapter. I will try to match every character's personality as best as I can, throughout the whole book, since I often tend to slip from that along the way. I want to make it as accurate as I possibly can!

Hope to see you in upcoming chapters!