This story was written on August 15, 2000, originally to please my sister, but it ended up being a pretty good story. Um...disclaimer, maybe...? I don't own Voltron (pity) or the characters thereof (double pity). Oh well. They're all crazy, anyway.

Rootbeer, Anyone?
By Maelstra

One day, Keith was working very hard to complete his tower of butter cookies. It rested on the table, and it was getting almost higher than he could reach.

The door burst open with a whoosh! "Keiyth!" Sven shouted.

"Aaaah!" Keith shouted as he knocked his masterpiece down mostly on his head. He looked distinctly upset, then calmed down and thought a moment. "Wait a minute, Sven. Where did you come from?"

"I jiust goht here. We haf en emergencie on planete Pollux."

"Oh. I suppose that means you need the Voltron Force to...!"

"You called?" Hunk said as he poked his head in. Then, he saw the table. "Oooh! Cookies! Can I have some?"

Keith nodded sadly, remembering his nearly-great tower, and Hunk charged over and began stuffing them in his mouth as fast as possible.

Pidge came in. "Aw, Hunk, leave some for me! I'm hungry!"

Keith gave Pidge a very strange look. Pidge just shrugged and said, "Hey, you knew I'd turn into a teenager someday." He went over and started eating the cookies almost as fast as Hunk was. Keith looked distinctly disturbed, but said nothing else.

Nanny walked in. "Ayiiiiiih!" she screamed. "Cookies! Cookies everywhere! COOKIES ON MY CLEAN FLOOR!!!! KEEEEEIIIIIITH!!!!!"

Keith, trying to hide behind Hunk, answered, "Yes, Nanny?"

"How many times have I told you not to make cookie towers in the kitchen!!!"

"Um...A lot?"

"Aah! Space Explorers! You're all slobs!" She threw her arms up in the air, and glared at the cookie-gobblers as well.

Lance strolled in, his clothes immaculate, his hair neatly combed. "Hello, all. What's going on here?"

"Except for Lance," Nanny amended. She went to the closet and got a broom, and shoved it at Keith. "Clean up your mess!" she roared as she left the room. "Oh, and have a nice day," she said to Lance sweetly.

Hunk and Pidge, having cleared the table of cookies, were carefully picking up the ones that had landed on other cookies, not on the floor. They fought over the last one, but Pidge prevailed, ran to the other side of the room, and gulped it. "Ha ha!" he mumbled, his mouth full of crumbs.

"Awh," Hunk moaned. He headed to the refrigerator. Keith finally moved in and began sweeping up the mess. A lot of it was crumbs, since the starving duo had trampled a lot of cookies during their rampage.

Lance retreated from the kitchen, mumbling something about not wanting to get dusty.

This whole time, Sven had sat unnoticed in the corner, chugging the rootbeer. At that moment, Allura came in. "Sven! Don't do that! You know rootbeer makes you uncontrollably hyper!"

Sven giggled. "Nahnseanse, Allur...allur...Allurialia!!! Hee hee hee!" He took another big swig. "Wahnt sahme? Ih've gaht laaaahhhts moare!"

Allura rolled her eyes. Then, she thought for a moment, and looked back at Sven (who was now standing on one foot on a chair, trying to balance his glass on his head). "What are you doing here anyway, Sven?"

"Oeh." He sighed exaggeratedly. "Myh dair lahve, Rohmaelle, haz eh prahblem. Et ihs...ihs...Ih foargaht."

Allura hit her head with her hand, and resisted the urge to bang her head on the wall.

Keith piped up, "It sounds like the Voltron Force...!"

Koran poked his head in the door. "Yes," he said grimly. "It does sound like the Voltron Force in here. Will you try to keep it down? I have a headache." Koran briskly left.

"Yes, it is loud in here," Allura agreed. "Hunk, stop slurping so loud!"

Hunk looked up guiltily from the noodles he was slucking up. "Sthorrie," he mumbled.

"And, Pidge!" Allura turned. "It really isn't necessary to pop the potato chip bags to open them!"

He looked at Allura with his best innocent-little-kid face. She gave him her best I-don't- care-how-innocent-you-look face. He sighed in defeat.

"Wait!" Lance burst in. "Didn't Sven say there's a problem on Pollux?"

"How would you know?" Keith said, still sweeping (no wonder it takes Voltron so long to beat the robeasts). "You weren't in here."

"Well, I overheard..."

"You were eavesdropping! Lance, how could you...!"

"He has a point," Allura said, ignoring Keith. "Since Sven can't remember what the problem is, shouldn't we go to Pollux and find out?"

"Why can't we just call Pollux and ask Romelle?"

"Because I'm the princess, I said so, and I haven't flown my lion for a whole week. Besides, Koran has a headache, so he can't come tell me I can't go."

"Go where?" Koran asked, sticking his head back in. "And you're all still too loud."

"Oh, nowhere, Koran," Lance said. "Except out of the kitchen so we can't bother you."

"Oh. Well, then, go right ahead." He left again.

Lance looked at Allura and smiled. "You heard what he said. "Go right ahead"."

"That's not what he..."

"Quiet, Keith," Allura said. "We know he means for us to help out Romelle. Right, Lance?"

"Absolutely."

"You see? So let's go."

So, the whole gang tromped out. Hunk had finished the noodles, and had a mostly empty bag of salad in his hand. Pidge had found some brownies, and carried the mostly empty pan with him. Unfortunately, they were chocolate brownies, so Pidge was hyper, too. Allura tried to take the brownies away, but Pidge wouldn't (and couldn't) hold still, so she just took the bottle of rootbeer away from Sven, and finished the last cup or so herself. Sven looked heartbroken when she tossed the empty bottle in the sink, and left the room contritely.

The Voltron Force landed on Pollux. Sven had ridden with Keith, as Allura refused to have the hyper Scandinavian riding with her. The trip over had been bad enough with Pidge doing loops and flips with his lion the whole way. Finally, they all arrived on the surface. Keith and Sven were the last ones out. At last the hatch opened, and Keith jumped out. He started running as soon as he hit the ground, and hid behind Allura. Sven hopped out, laughing, "Coume, ohn, Keiyth. One mohre tiiime! One houndred bohttles af rootbeir ohn tha wahll, one houndred bohttles af rootbeir!"

Hunk now had a bag of bananas. Pidge saw the fruit, and ran over, begging, "Please can I have one, Hunk! I'm starving!"

Lance looked around, and shouted, "Hey, there's Princess Romelle!"

Romelle hurried toward them, waving. "Hello!" she shouted.

"What's the problem, Romelle?" Allura asked.

"Problem?" She looked confused.

Allura looked confused, too. "Sven told us you had a problem."

"Ih dihd?"

Allura glared at him. "Yes, you did. That's why you said you came to Arus to see us."

"Oh!" Romelle smiled. "He wanted to ask if he could borrow some rootbeer from you. You see, we're all out..."

Allura looked alarmed. She looked again at Sven, who just smiled and shrugged.

"We were planning on serving it at the next Arus-Pollux ball," Romelle continued.

"No! Absolutely no! No no no!" Allura grabbed Hunk with one arm and Keith with the other. "Let's go!"

Romelle looked rather confused as the Voltron Force abruptly left. "What's gotten into them?"

"Ih dohn't knoahw. Wouhld yu lahke to sing eh sohng? Keiyth dihdn't seihm to lahke et vehry muhch..."