"Good morning, Paladins! Today we don't have a mission-well, I guess you could view it as a mission if you really wanted to-but there won't be any galra fighting today!" Coran explained excitedly, pulling up a map of a yellow planet in the observatory. Each Paladin listened intently, save for Pidge and Lance, who were still half-asleep, for they had stayed up all night playing video games.
"We're visiting a friendly planet called Fia. Coran and I would like to discuss some coalition arrangements with their ruler. Each of you could come with me if you'd like, but I'm sure the citizens would be much more excited to meet the great paladins of Voltron," Allura explained, stepping forward and turning to her teammates. This woke Lance up. He loved diplomatic missions like this; the culture, the environment, the fans...Lance particularly enjoyed the fans.
"I made sure to withdraw some Gak so all of you could buy something nice while we're there! Fia is known for its marketplace and amazing products!" Coran added, handing a small bag of coins to each wide-eyed paladin. Lance turned to leave with his newfound alien money, but was quickly interrupted by Allura.
"Oh! And one more thing! The Blade of Marmora will be coming as well. Only Kolivan is allowed to join the meeting, so I'd imagine the other Blade members will be wandering around the market as well. Or doing...whatever it is that the Blade do in their spare time. Anyways, go have fun!" The Altean Princess finished happily, trying to fix her hair a bit as she walked out the automatic doors.
Lance immediately piped up. "I'm gonna buy the coolest alien junk! I could get uh...maybe a dagger or something to keep in my pocket! Or a sweet new coat of paint for my armor. Or some random souvenir doodad that I don't know what it does!" The red paladin ranted as he followed his friends out the door, Pidge and Hunk laughing at his antics as they left. The door shut behind them and the team was off.
The marketplace was unlike anything Lance had ever seen. Pastel blue and pink lantern-like lights hung from the tops of shop roofs, painting the faces of each paladin with a colorful hue. The darkness of night had rolled in, but the market was hardly devoid of life. A wide variety of oddly-shaped alien folk bustled down the dirt path, browsing cheerily and engaging in peppy conversations.
Uncontrollably excited by all the things to see, Pidge and Hunk took off toward a seemingly technology-based sector of the market while Shiro drifted toward the food vendors and Allura and Coran headed toward the main castle at the center of town, leaving Lance to wander on his own. Not quite sure where to start, the red paladin placed his hands behind his head and drifted into the midst of the crowd.
The first booth he came across displayed a wide assortment of colorful stalk-like plants, and the alien running it tended to a bundle of them in the back, facing away from Lance. He ducked under the small shop's fabric canopy, vaguely interested in what the shopkeeper had to sell.
"Hello? Anyone home?" The paladin asked, admiring the products. The shopkeeper, a blue-and-red skinned young girl with long, droopy ears, turned to greet her customer, but upon seeing Lance both her bundle and her jaw dropped.
"Y-you're...oohhh my go-you're a paladin of Voltron!" she squealed. This caught the attention of a few other alien girls nearby, and before he knew it Lance was surrounded by adoring fans. It took several doboshes to escape the screams of joy and the suddenly-swarming crowd to slip away. He kept his hood up after that. As much as he adored the attention, he would never get a chance to look at any items with such a massive fan base trailing behind him.
None of the other booths caught Lance's attention, and he was prepared to just give up and go buy some food when he noticed a violet glow out of the corner of his eye, and then a red one. And a green one. And an orange one. Immediately intrigued, the red paladin approached a small, dark shop he hadn't noticed before, curious to discover the source. A vaguely audible gasp escaped his lips as he gazed at the rows and rows of knives hung up on the wall, each one glowing a different color seemingly on its own accord.
"I see my luminescent knives have caught your attention, my friend," spoke the shopkeeper with a low, soft voice, emerging from seemingly nowhere. Lance gave a frightened squeak upon seeing him at first, for he was immensely tall and his body was so thin that his arm was skinnier than the paladin's finger. Despite his spindly appearance and barf-orange skin tone, his face seemed kind and genuine. Lance quickly turned to a pink knife on the wall, eager to focus on something else.
"Yeah, they're really pretty...and... they remind me of someone..." The red paladin blurted, thinking of Keith and his admiration for knives and swords. At that moment, something clicked in his head. Allura had mentioned earlier that the Blade of Marmora would be at the market. Lance hadn't seen the previous red paladin in a very long time, and it must have been hard for Keith to leave his friends to join the Blade. Surely he was feeling lonely, and probably needed to be reminded that his friends still cared about him.
At that moment, another knife resting on a table grabbed Lance's attention. The blade pulsed a warm red, and painted black swirls decorated the tip. His eyes immediately lit up at the sight of it and suddenly everything fell into place.
Lance could see it now: the knife resting at Keith's hip, Keith pulling it out in the midst of battle and gasping as he remembered how amazing the weapon was, then smiling as he recalled Lance, his super-cool and caring friend who had given it to him, and then feeling a sudden sense of renewed power and strength as he cleanly sliced through enemies.
"Thinking of buying it for someone special? A crush, maybe?" the shopkeeper asked playfully, pulling Lance away from his thoughts. He turned scarlet, though the luminescent blade made it hardly noticeable.
"What? I-oh, no, he's not special-I mean, he is special, but he's not my-he's not-" The shopkeeper raised his hand up, requesting silence. He picked up the knife, gently placed it in a black velvet box, tied a crimson bow around it, and handed it to Lance with a sympathetic smile.
The red paladin stared longingly at the beautiful box, but took one look at the prices of the other knives and gave a sigh, pushing the box back at the shopkeeper.
"It's absolutely perfect but...I...can't afford this...I only have 50 Gak…" he stammered quietly, lowering his head. The shopkeeper stared blankly at the box for a few tics. He then looked at Lance's heartbroken expression and gave a sigh.
"Usually I sell these for 100 Gak, but...I'm willing to bring it down to 50 for you," he bargained, knowing it was a poor way to run a business but not particularly caring. He returned the box to Lance and gave him a smile, ushering him out of the tent. "Now, go! Hurry! Before I change my mind!"
The red paladin practically skipped out of the shop, cradling the gift gently in his hands. Now to find Keith… Though night had fully coated the Bazaar now, the pastel lanterns overhead guided Lance through the still-dense crowd.
It wasn't long before he recognized the familiar lavender glow of standard-regulation Blade outfits belonging to two Galrans slithering through the surge of alien patrons. His heart raced a bit when he spotted a third Blade member join the pair, several inches shorter than the other two. There was only one person in the Blade that was that small. Lance inhaled sharply and opened his mouth to shout.
"Keith!"