Anonymous prompted: okay for voltron... hunk and keith bonding? maybe inspired by that moment where hunk was like "what if it was me who was captured?" and the 2 of them talking it out

Thanks to frostystuffs, ephemeraltea, Rogu3p1rate26, requirings, and secretlystephaniebrown for the support on ffnet, AO3, and tumblr!

Voltron: Legendary Defender and related characters © Dreamworks
story © RenaRoo

A Simple Game
Chapter Three: Cheater Cheater

The training involved with being a paladin had been a little more than Hunk had originally bargained for.

Though, in truth, he knew none of them had really bargained anything for the twists of fate that had brought them not only together, but then and there. There was simply an astounding amount of pressure and curious expectation placed upon them without warning.

Fate was kind of unfortunate that way.

Still, there were things Hunk found himself appreciating, not the least of which was the availability of resources and luxury. He missed home, he missed the feeling of pride and accomplishment he got from working his way into the academy. But he didn't miss the limitations that those things had.

Like a scheduled meal times and the inflexibility afforded to them with regards to it.

And the fact that he had been forced to leave at least half of his game collection at his parents' home when he entered the academy to begin with. Something that might have been solved if current Earth tech had been anywhere near as compact and full of possibility as the ancient Altean tech given to children.

Having gotten a snack worthy of a late night gaming session, Hunk carried it back with him to the makeshift gaming room Allura had set aside for them where the gaming orb was to be left. Much to both Pidge and Hunk's complaining that they couldn't steal it away in their rooms for just such late night gaming.

What he wasn't expecting was to open the door and see a game screen lit and vibrating to the sounds of the fighting game programming.

Nor did he expect to see Keith on his knees at one of the mats, swatting away at the screen with frightening speed.

"Wha– Keith?" Hunk called out in his confusion. "Since when were you interested in GameOrb?"

Keith's brows knotted together as he looked at Hunk curiously. "GameOrb?"

"Yeah," Hunk gave a half shrug. "Allura has a fancy Atlean name for it, but I can't really pronounce it. I don't think I've ever even pronounced it the same way twice, actually. So I've started calling it the GameOrb. Shiro and Lance started calling it that, too. Only ones who don't are Allura and Pidge. But they just like to be fancy, I think."

Halfway through the explanation, Keith's eyes began to glaze over. The same way they did when Hunk was elaborating on some excitement he found working on the engines of the various pods or scouting ships.

For as much as Keith seemed a natural ace pilot, maintenance and field care didn't quite pique his interests the way they did for Hunk or Pidge.

By the end of Hunk's diatribe, Keith was back to facing his screen of the fighting game and taking up another battle.

Hunk grew quiet, watching Keith fighting with a fairly impressive degree of skill. He seemed almost on the same level that Lance and Hunk were with the GameOrb at that point.

"Whoa," Hunk said as he leaned over Keith's shoulder. "You're pretty good at that. Hey! How're you that good without practicing? It took Lance forever to figure out the motion controls for this. And I don't think I've ever seen you playing with us once."

The pilot gave him a look before finishing his match in record time. "Guess I'm just that good," Keith decided.

"Hmm," Hunk said, raising a brown. "Maybe. Maybe. Or you've been practicing a ton all by yourself when you think everyone else is resting so that you can try to show us up after you start to show up during daylight hours. Huh? Thatcouldn't be it, right?"

At the very mention of the plot, Keith froze up, costing himself the current match. His eye twitched. "My score."

"Dude," Hunk said, squinting at the red paladin. "You were totally going to hustle us!"

"No," Keith defended before glancing back to the screen. He seemed to contemplate for a moment before glancing back. "Okay maybe a little."

Hunk stared at him for a moment before letting out a laugh and clapping Keith on the back. It wasn't too hard, but it was apparently unexpected enough that Keith his head through the projected screen before him.

By the time Keith was settled back on his knees, Hunk had walked around the GameOrb and taken a seat across from Keith. The device responded by almost immediately projecting a second screen.

Keith leaned to the side, raising a brow as he got a better look at Hunk. "What are you doing?"

"You know, I don't think you and I ever saw each other much at the academy," Hunk informed him, clicking around the GameOrb screen with practiced familiarity. "I think our classes were way too different. You know. Before you dropped out and stuff. I mostly heard about you through Lance."

"Oh," Keith replied uncomfortably.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you know by now that the longer you're around Lance the more you take for a grain of salt," Hunk laughed. "It is kind of a shame, though. It seems like all of us had all this opportunity before to get know each other before getting on this whacky adventure in space with robotic lions and evil empires and junk. And yet we didn't even really know each other's names until we were flying through wormholes."

"I guess you're right," Keith responded, still reserved. His brows knit together as he settled back in his spot and looked to his screen.

After a moment, though, Keith couldn't take anymore and he all but laid on his side to get a clear view of Hunk from around the GameOrb. "No really, though. What are you doing?"

"Setting up a match," Hunk said.

"Between us?" Keith asked. "Why?"

"So we can both play at the same time?" Hunk replied, raising a brow of his own. "You can do that with these. You'd know if you played with us more. Speaking of which, you want this match to be co-op or do you want it to be versus? I'm thinking versus."

With a stubborn pout on his lips, Keith crossed his arms. "Did you miss the part where I was playing alone?"

"Yeah, yeah, you're trying to get better than everyone else while no one's around so you can look like the effortless cool guy when you finally join in," Hunk said with a wave of his hand. "But you missed the part where Allura made the rule that GameOrby has to stay in here and be shared by all of us. Believe me, that's the only reason it's not in my room right now. So. If you wanna play the GameOrb right now, you have to share."

Keith hummed a bit before looking off. "I'm kind of the loner. It's not really my style to–"

As the sound of the game starting interrupted him, Keith nearly fell back from his knees. His eyes widened. "Hey! You started without me! That's not fair!"

"You were taking too long to answer," Hunk replied as he typed away at the screen.

Seeing that Hunk wasn't about to let up, Keith got back into position and immediately began fighting back with all that he was worth. He grew a confident smirk the further he went, which Hunk supposed was worth going easy on him the first round.

"Want some of this food I nabbed from the kitchen?" Hunk asked as their match carried on.

"I don't know, what's it called?" Keith asked, eyes never breaking from the screen.

"It has names?" Hunk asked.

They snickered at the exchange a bit. Low at first, barely gritting through their teeth, but the laughs became more genuine as Hunk opened up and let out a full bellow.

Their laughter was probably loud enough to reach all of the others, and if it wasn't the yelling and name calling as their match carried from two out of three to three out of five to five out of seven certainly would have. But no one came and interrupted them.

They had the full night to finish off the junk food and their match.