"-and then Hunk did a perfect dive into the floor, would have gotten him the gold medal at the Olympics-"

"What are the Ol-imp-icks?"

"Oh, sorry, man, it's a human thing, they have all sorts of competitions, diving is one of them."

"Ah, I see."

"Yeah, so that left me and Keith and Shiro, but I accidentally dodged," Lance rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't expect them to drop to the floor like they did."

"I was not much better my first time in that training simulation," Alfor said kindly. "In fact, I daresay you did much better than I."

"Yeah, okay, but you were probably like five," Lance said.

"I was nineteen deca-phoebs old," said Alfor amusedly. "I was not a warrior in my youth."

Lance wasn't entirely sure why he'd snuck back into the AI room that night, besides that he'd enjoyed talking to Alfor. He'd given the Altean king a play-by-play of what they had done that day, eager for advice and just someone to talk to. The man was actually really cool- much easier to talk to than his daughter. Alfor seemed glad enough to have someone to talk to as well.

"Well," said Lance brightly, continuing his story, "Shiro was the last out, and then we found out he's a leap year baby, which means he's only had six birthdays-"

"Fascinating," said Alfor. "We did not have such a thing on Altea."

"Yeah, well, then we had to do this maze that zapped me every time I ran into a wall, so, like, a lot, because Keith is lousy at giving directions," said Lance.

Alfor chuckled almost sheepishly. "It was not originally meant to zap you, as you say, but it does add a good incentive, if you think about it."

"It was funny watching the others do it," Lance conceded. "Then we did some sort of mind-joining thingy, but Pidge couldn't quit thinking of his girlfriend. I- I think I might have alarmed Coran, though, because I think I briefly remembered fire alarms from my youth, and it may have reminded him of- well- you know-"

Alfor nodded. "I cannot say. Coran will not let it get to him, though, you needn't worry."

Lance shrugged. "Yeah, well, I felt bad. Anyway, then we faced the Gladiator-"

Alfor actually winced. Lance figured that meant he wasn't the only one that had had trouble with the robot- it was actually comforting to think this legendary King Alfor (who, up close and in person, didn't seem so legendary) could have gotten his butt kicked as bad as they had.

"And how did that go?" he asked warily.

"Miserably," Lance admitted. "Allura said it was set at a level fit for an Altean kid- some level like four or five, I think we should have started at one, but, you know Allura. She wants us to be ready to fight."

"Don't be discouraged," said Alfor. "At your age, I certainly hadn't made it past level five. As I said, I was not a warrior in my youth. Allura- she got her skill from her mother I daresay."

Lance laughed. "Papa says that about my siblings all the time, that they got their violence from Mama."

"Not you?" said Alfor curiously.

"Oh, well, I'm adopted," Lance admitted, kind of awkwardly. Did Alteans even have such thing as adoption? Would Alfor find that totally weird? "So, no, not me."

Alfor nodded grimly. "Then I am sorry about your birth parents, child."

Okay, so they did understand the concept of adoption.

Lance shrugged and shook his head. "I never really knew them. We assumed they died when I was really little. Mama and Papa raised me like their own."

They were both silent a moment. Lance glanced around at the recreation of what might have been Altea, back in the day, with beautiful pink flowers all around. It was peaceful, and nice, and Lance felt he may have liked the place a lot. It almost reminded him of home, even if the flowers didn't look quite like any Earth plants he'd seen and the sky was the wrong shade of blue.

"Hey, uh, Alfor?" Lance said hesitantly. The man raised an eyebrow, inclining his head for Lance to continue. "Were you- were you ever a paladin?"

Alfor looked mildly surprised at the question. "Yes, I was. The red paladin, in fact. But my team and I had been working together long before any of us had any notion of Voltron. And believe me, even then forming Voltron after our first fight took time. I- had a dispute. With the black paladin. It made things difficult for a time. We eventually made amends."

Lance blinked at him. "Coran said you were reckless and almost never knew what you were doing. I mean, he said that about the red paladin, but that was you. And Allura kind of implied you were temperamental."

Alfor scowled good-naturedly. "Yes, Coran would say that about me."

Then he paused.

"Temperamental?" he said in disbelief.

Lance chuckled. "Well, I mean, she was describing the traits of the Red Lion, but…"

"She is her mother's daughter," Alfor grumbled.

Lance laughed again and leaned back on his hands. "I really hope we can live up to you guys' legacy. So far-"

"You are a newly formed team," said Alfor. "It will take time for you to learn to trust each other as I trusted my teammates. Very rarely does a team work perfectly together from the start, or even to the end."

"Yeah," said Lance after a moment. "We'll just have to figure it out as we go."

"You will, in time," Alfor assured him.

"Well, according to Allura, we don't have time," Lance said mulishly.

Alfor sighed and shook his head. "Perhaps I will need to speak to my daughter. You are children- she is a child- none of you should be pushed this hard."

"Hey, I'm seventeen!" Lance protested.

"And when I was seventeen, I was a fairly inexperienced alchemist wreaking havoc with my closest friend Coran," Alfor said, lips twitching into a teasing smile. "I certainly wasn't preparing for war. I will talk to her."

Lance leaned forward curiously. "Tell me more about this havoc."

Alfor laughed. "Perhaps I should start with the time on the Unilu Swap Moon. That is certainly an exciting tale."

By the time Lance to back to his room, it was too late to get the amount of sleep he actually wanted. He didn't regret staying up and talking to Alfor; they had spent most of the night sharing stories. Lance figured when he got the chance he would try to ask Coran for some stories too. He and Alfor seemed to have had a very exciting youth.

The next morning came way too early- again- and started with more training. Lance, for one, was already super sick of training, even if he loved spending time with Blue. The others couldn't seem to appreciate their style. He bet that if his siblings saw the super cool kick he'd done out there, they would have loved it. But, no, Keith said it ruined their balance.

For the record, it so totally wasn't Lance's fault they fell like they did.

"Hello, paladins!" greeted Coran jovially, walking into the room. "How was the Voltron workout?"

"We're getting it," said Shiro sheepishly. "What about you and Allura? Have you finished up with the castle so we can leave? We're sitting ducks out here on Arus."

Coran blinked at him. "Just about. Well, to get your minds off the ducks you're sitting on, I made you an authentic ancient paladin lunch!"

Yeah, Lance really needed to teach him and Alfor (and maybe Allura, if he could convince Allura) Earth slang.

Coran whipped out several plates and put them on the table. Lance peered at it, nose crinkled up. It didn't even look edible- in fact, it looked kind of like it might still be alive.

"Old red paladin's favourite!" Coran chirped.

Lance made a face.

"Alfor actually ate that?" he muttered in mildly disgusted shock. Coran didn't appear to hear him.

"Come on, Coran, I was just getting used to the food goo," Hunk complained good-naturedly. He leaned forward and sniffed at the so-called paladin lunch. "It smells disgusting."

"That's how you know it's good for you," Coran said matter-of-factly.

Hunk gave a sigh and shook his head. "Ah, Coran, we're on a planet full of fresh herbs, spices, whatever this thing might be- I think it's some sort of tuber, may function kinda like a potato, we shall see- if you'll excuse me, I will head to the kitchen and make some proper food."

Coran blinked after him, then called, "You don't know what you're missing!"

"Where's Pidge?" asked Shiro, glancing around worriedly.

"Probably checking on those prisoners," said Coran. "They'll be waking soon- now! Why don't you try some paladin lunch? Open wide, here comes the food lion-"

Shiro leaned away as if he was going to go under a limbo stick as Coran brandished the spoon at him. "No- just- no."

He quickly dodged out of the room. Coran looked kind of disappointed.

"Coran, my man, I'll try it," said Lance bravely. If Alfor liked it, it couldn't be too bad. When in Rome and all that. He scooped up a large spoonful and made a show of eating it.

Alfor, he decided, had terrible, terrible taste in food.

"S'really good," Lance managed through his mouthful. He forced it down and gave Coran a queasy smile. "Real- real filling, actually, I'll just- kinda thirsty now, okay, thanks, bye!"

"Glad you liked it Lance!" Coran exclaimed and Lance ran from the room.

Yeah, after that, he definitely needed some water.

Hunk dragged him shortly after he ran off, proclaiming himself a culinary genius in a most Hunk-like way that he only would around Lance, and only jokingly at that. Lance knew his friend well enough to know that whatever he cooked up had to be good, so he followed him back to the table to see the most gorgeous array of alien food he'd ever seen in his life.

"Ah, bon appetit," Hunk said smugly as Lance and Keith dug in.

"Oh, they like the paladin lunch?" said Allura, sounding both delighted and highly doubtful at the same time.

"Lance did," Coran said mulishly. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I have finally gotten the last nebulon booster running!" Allura said excitedly. "We should be able to leave Arus tomorrow and finally take the fight to Zarkon."

Coran smiled kind of sadly and rested a hand on her shoulder. He looked ready to say something when the alarms on the castle shot off- not quite as violently as Lance remembered, but still surprising.

Wait.

The fire, Lance was remembering the fire- in some human building, on Earth.

The castle was getting to his head if it was tricking him into believing he was remembering its alarms instead of an Earth-style smoke alarm.

Allura's brow furrowed, and she turned to a dashboard and typed in several commands. A holographic screen popped out, showing a tiny alien approaching the castle.

"Aw, it's so cute," said Hunk before he could stop himself.

"What the hell is that?" said Keith.

Lance gave him an offended gasp. "Keith! Language!"

Keith gave him an utterly confused look.

"It may be a local Arusian," said Allura slowly. "He is approaching the castle."

"Aww," Hunk cooed again with the same starry-eyed grin he got when he saw Lance's nephew and niece.

"Maybe I could knit him a sweater," Lance mused, because the guy was pretty cute, and Ricky and Celia loved the little sweaters he made them. "He doesn't look dangerous at all."

"You never know," said Keith grimly.

"Alteans believe in peace first," said Allura. "We must go welcome them."

"So cute," murmured Hunk.

"I won't take any chances," said Keith, hand going to his bayard.

"Lighten up, Keith," Lance said. "He's half your size. If does end up a threat, you can take him out, no problem, but at least give the little guy the benefit of the doubt."

Keith scowled at him. "He could be a spy for the Galra. We're in a war, now, Lance. We can't afford the benefit of the doubt."

He stalked out of the room after Allura. Hunk patted Lance's shoulder.

"Dude needs a chill pill," he decided, lips twitching into a grin.

Lance laughed. "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

Nevertheless, he couldn't help worrying that Keith could be right.

A/N: Hey guys! More Alfor and Lance bonding in this chapter, which was fun! Poor Coran- no one likes his paladin lunch. Maybe he should take cooking lessons from Hunk. XDD

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! I'm so super sorry for the long wait - life happened, college happened, etcetera. BUT you have like four more chapters coming at you pretty rapid fire, so hopefully that helps. Love you guys! 3