I shouldn't be starting a new multi-chapter fic but I really loved this idea and couldn't rest till I'd got the first chapter out at least.

Writing the Voltron characters is new to me so, if they're OOC, I'm sorry. ^^"

Also, this is a Codex Alera AU - it's a series of books by Jim Butcher. Basically, it's people in Ancient Roman times who discovered these things called furies which help them master the elements. There's windcrafting, firecrafting, earthcrafting, watercrafting, metalcrafting and woodcrafting. Their abilities will probably be brought up in the story but let me know if you have any questions.

Additionally, I'm using the Codex Alera map/place names and also their form of cursing. Just because.

Lance yawned and leaned back, letting his fingers dip into the water of the fountain. As always, it was a comfort to know that there was water nearby. With its presence, he could focus on it rather than the emotions swirling around him. Then again, most of the emotions at the moment were feelings of exhaustion and... hm, someone was regretting coming to the Academy. Probably one of the High Lord kids.

"Are you still tired?" Pidge demanded from beside him, frowning.

"Of course I am," Lance complained, squeezing his eyes shut tight in demonstration. "It's still too damned early in the crow-begotten morning."

"Shouldn't you be used to this by now?" Hunk asked from the ground. His head was laid back against the stone of the fountain and he smiled up at him, apparently amused.

"I may have been up late," Lance replied with a shrug of his shoulder.

"Doing what exactly?" asked Pidge, curiously. "You never handed in the assignment."

"Maybe I tried but fell asleep before I could figure it out."

"Nope," said Hunk. "You weren't even in the dormitory."

"Urgh, Hunk! Stop making me look bad!"

"Kinda hard for him to do that any more than you already do yourself," said Pidge offhandedly, going back to fiddling with her dagger.

"Pidge!" Lance cried, aghast.

Smirking, Pidge ran a finger along the flat of her blade before finally sticking it through her belt. Then she stretched her arms above her head, leaning back enough that her ponytail swung from side to side. "I take it you were drinking? And other activities thus related?"

"Yeah..." grumbled Lance, a little annoyed that he was apparently so predictable.

"And how much money did the earthcrafters make off of you this time?" Hunk innocently asked.

"Don't you guys have a class in, like, soon? We should all be going, right?" said Lance, quickly standing up. He'd rather not admit to how much he had spent and still not managed to find his way to someone's bed. The dancers had hardly had to use their crafting in order to entice money from him, probably due to his watercrafting being overwhelmed with the amount of lust permeating the building he had been in.

Hunk said something from the direction of his knees but he zoned out as his watercrafting senses picked up a spike of anger from at least three sources and... irritation from one other. He gazed around the courtyard and almost immediately spotted the problem. A young man his own age with long, stupid, black hair was surrounded by a trio of well-known bullies. Whilst the irritated man was lean and slight, the three bullies were bulky, betraying their natural earthcrafting abilities. And Lance knew that there was a chance the boy would be overcome if he wasn't careful. Lance watched his lips moving and the anger from the bullies grew, fuelling Lance's own irritation.

"Tsk. Don't look now but Keith is getting in over his head again," he told his friends, watching as a couple more guys, these ones leaner but probably just as dangerous, flocked to their friends.

"Again?" said Pidge, standing up as well.

"Should we help?" asked Hunk. "I mean, we could. But those guys look kinda... strong."

Lance spared Hunk a glance. "Hunk. You can literally lift whole wagons. I'm sure you could take all three of 'em with one hand tied behind your back."

"I mean, I couldn't..." said Hunk, nervously.

Anger flared once more and Lance looked back over to see one of the bigger lads clench his fists. "Oh, look. The idiot's decided to anger them even more."

"We're gonna have to help him," Pidge declared and started off without looking back at them.

Sighing, Lance muttered to Blue and gestured to the water in the fountain, lifting a sphere of it into the air. "He'd better thank us this time. Or this'll be the last time," he added, pointing a finger at Hunk.

He and Hunk followed Pidge over, watching her draw her dagger as she went. Lance grimaced. Hopefully, this wouldn't end as messily as the last time. They reached the group just as Keith was saying something, the rage within one of the men growing rapidly – so much so that Lance almost dropped the water he had transported across the courtyard.

"-her flirting with a watercrafter from her course."

"Oh, crows," murmured Lance, suddenly realising who the angry academ was. Trenson, the man who was courting a young woman Lance often flirted with. He happened to be very powerful, not just in earthcrafting but also in metal, fire and windcrafting, as depicted by the multiple beads on his lanyard. In short, he could probably kill Lance with one powerful blow.

Pidge and Hunk both sent Lance an exasperated look before leaping into action. Hunk summoned his fury, a grass lion made from yellow stone. He laid a hand on its forehead for a moment before he sent it through the ground, making it shake and throwing off everyone's balance apart from Pidge (who had been expecting it), Lance (who staggered but managed to stay upright) and Keith (who had evidently seen Hunk and reacted immediately). Meanwhile, Pidge used her metalcrafting to speed herself up and accurately slice at the men's trousers. Keith also chose the moment to act, darting forward with the aid of his windcrafting to plough into one of the bigger guys.

In a few seconds, two men were on the ground, two had their breeches around their ankles and were in the process of pulling them up – and one was aiming a punch at Pidge. Lance threw his ball of water at him, distracting him enough that Pidge darted under his reach and placed her blade at his sternum.

Everyone froze. The courtyard was silent save for Pidge and Keith's panting. For Lance, however, it was as if everyone was talking at the top of their voices. Behind him, all those that had witnessed the incident were equal parts worried and scared, probably wondering if the fight would end in death or a challenge to the juris macto or even involve them. Those who were friends with the bullies were annoyed, probably because this sort of thing had happened before (though usually with more injuries). The bullies themselves were furious at having been so humiliated. Pidge was nervous but determined while Hunk's nervousness nearly overwhelmed Lance as well. Keith meanwhile was... irritated. Impatient. What in furies' name was so important that he couldn't be a little more cautious?

After a few moments of silence, Lance cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should all back off, one step at a time? Then we can go about our business and you can..." He paused, looked Trenson up and down before nodding. "You can get to your..." Again, he paused, this time to waggle his eyebrows and wink. "Class," he finished with a grin, hoping he'd get the hint.

Trenson's eyes narrowed and then dropped to Lance's lanyard. Lance tried hard not to wince at the sudden spike of anger. Clearly, being a watercrafter around Trenson was not safe at the moment. He tried not to take a step back as Trenson's breathing grew heavy, pressing himself into Pidge's knife.

"We all have places to be," said Keith suddenly, stepping away from them. Once there was enough distance, he turned and began to walk around the group. "And there are maestros coming." With that, he stalked off as they all scrambled to get away from each other before any of them earned a demerit.

Lance and his friends didn't turn their back on the bigger men until they were halfway back to the fountain. "Speaking of class," said Pidge, her relief practically palpable, "we should be going."

"Yeah, I have to go meet Maestro Coran," said Lance. "I'll see you guys later, yeah?"

"Yeah," agreed Hunk, looking as if he wanted to sit down before his knees buckled. Lance clapped a hand to his shoulder in an effort to reassure him. Giving him a last encouraging smile, Lance headed off.

It took him a few steps to realise that he was only several feet behind Keith. He suppressed a growl and glared at the other academ, speeding up. As he did so, he tried to do as he'd been taught, willing Blue to keep everyone else's emotions at bay whilst he concentrated on Keith. And, as usual, he couldn't feel anything. It irritated him. Who didn't feel anything? Was he some kind of monster masquerading as an Aleran?

Of course, he knew there were people who could keep their emotions walled off from watercrafters. His younger siblings had managed it for a while. But, as Lance had grown, so had his abilities and he had quickly been able to overcome those walls. He usually had the opposite problem, feeling too much from everyone around him.

But not with Keith.

For some reason, Keith was closed off from him. He had no idea what he was thinking and thus couldn't do what he did best: gauging how to act around him. Lance didn't overtly change his personality too much for each person but he would know when it was a bad idea to flirt with them or when humour was needed to cheer them up. But when he had met Keith and introduced himself, he had been lost. That had exacerbated the feeling of being out of place in the Academy and... Okay, so maybe he had lashed out a couple of times and now they hated each other. But it was all Keith's fault. If he'd just open himself up a little...

Also, it wasn't fair that he had more than one furycrafting. Sure, Pidge and Hunk had two but their furycrafting totally complemented Lance's watercrafting. Keith had three. And one of them was fire.

Not to mention his mysteriousness. He was always disappearing somewhere for hours on end before popping up in class again. Lance was always relieved when he wasn't there and relieved when he turned up: he'd also broken several pencils after squeezing them too tight when either option happened. Everything about Keith made Lance... Well, it made him barely suppress his shaking from anger.

Reminding himself that he wasn't actually going to a lecture and so wouldn't need to think about Keith, Lance took a deep breath to calm himself. Smiling to himself, he sped up again and was soon level with Keith. The other academ glanced at him and narrowed his eyes. Lance only smirked back before lengthening his strides and beating Keith to the door. With a grin over his shoulder, he slipped inside and hurried off to find Coran.

He had barely gone halfway down one of the long corridors when he spotted his maestro coming towards him. The man was humming cheerfully, one finger curling around the end of his moustache. Lance wondered where he was going since they always had their lessons in the same room with the same pool of water in the middle. Since Coran hadn't noticed him, Lance bounded over and waved a hand in front of his face.

"Maestro Coran!" he exclaimed. "Where are you off to?"

"Oh, Lance!" Coran beamed at him. "Glad I caught you! We're going to be having a lesson in a different room today."

"Why?" Lance asked as he fell into step beside him.

"You expressed an interest in forming ice, didn't you?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, the easiest way to form ice is to use firecrafting. But you knew that, of course!" Coran chuckled to himself.

"Yeah..." said Lance, a little petulantly. Another thing to annoy him about Keith: not only did he have a cool power like fire, but he could also make ice with it.

"I thought it would be a good idea to have you present as a firecrafter formed ice. Then you would know what happens to the water and you could, perhaps replicate it. Since they have lessons at the other end of the building, I thought it wise to have our lesson closer to them to help them get to their next class in time." Coran stopped outside a door, turning to Lance with his hands clasped behind his back. "Well? Do you think you'll be up for it?"

Lance considered it. Fire, as everyone knew, disrupted the power of water furies and he was loathe to feel himself disconnected from Blue in the event something went wrong. But forming ice was something he desperately wanted to do – then, when he returned home to Learcoholt, he could make their pond freeze over so he could skate with his younger siblings. That would make them happy, would make up for leaving them behind to come to the Academy. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad...

"Sure!" he said, grinning at Coran.

"Then here we go!" Coran declared and opened the door.

The room within was much like the other room Lance was taught in. A large pool was in the centre, the water perfectly still, a few lily pads floating on the surface. Couches faced it, the rich green fabric the only colour in the otherwise bland room. Furylamps were attached to the walls but none of them were lit as the sun peeked in from windows high above, little squares set into the white wall far above their heads. It was a peaceful room.

Until Lance spotted Keith lounging on the couch closest to them.

"What's he doing here?!" Lance cried, throwing an arm out to point at him. Keith's response was to look around and, when he spotted Lance, sigh.

"He's the firecrafter I asked to help out. I've been assured he's one of the best firecrafting academs here," Coran explained, closing the door behind them and walking to the couch opposite Keith.

Huffing, Lance made his way to the couch beside Coran, keen to keep an eye on Keith. "Couldn't we just find someone else? I don't mind waiting..."

Coran looked between them, evidently confused. "You'll help us, won't you, Keith?" he asked.

"Sure. If I'm making him uncomfortable, though, I can go." He gave Lance a cursory glance, as if he wasn't worth his time.

Lance's eyes narrowed. "Oh, no. No, no, no. We're doing this." He was not letting Keith think he was backing out of this. Whatever this was.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Unless you're gonna back out?" Lance secretly hoped he would. Then they could look for someone he actually liked to help them out.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to let the maestro down," Keith replied, staring back at him.

"Hmph!"

"Well, now that that's sorted!" said Coran. He shifted forward so that he sat on the edge of the couch, his elbows on his knees. "Now, I suggest you reach out with your fury, Lance, get yourself acquainted with the water."

Giving Keith another irritated glance, Lance turned his gaze to the water. Lifting his hand in front of him, he summoned Blue to him. "Come on out, Blue," he murmured. She obeyed immediately, the shape of a female grass lion made of water forming in front of him. Silently, he asked her to let him feel the water, feel what was happening to it and she leapt into the pool, disappearing as soon as Lance could feel the lazy movement of the water from her disturbance.

"Keith, if you would," said Coran, quietly. Lance barely heard him, relaxing into the couch as he felt the calming water. It was as if he was surrounded by it, cradled within its healing properties.

Then something happened, the water seeming to slow, to still. Lance blinked and watched as ice spread across the pool. He was fascinated at the process, forgetting who was touching the frozen water at the other side of the pool. Staring at it, he wondered what would happen if it sped up. Without thinking, he tried to push the water into doing what he said.

Unfortunately, because of the firecrafting, the water wouldn't do as he said. He reached for Blue again and found her diminished, cowering in the corner not frozen. Worried, Lance tried to call her back before Keith's firecrafting could harm her. But, just as she tried to leave, the pool froze over completely and Lance felt himself cut off from Blue. A yell left him, unbidden and he slipped off the couch, scrabbling in his desperation to find Blue again.

Sharp words were exchanged between Keith and Coran and Lance spotted the ice melting again. Almost as soon as the far corner was released from its prison, Blue erupted from the water and bounded across the room to Lance. The lion-shaped fury was far smaller than usual and she curled up against Lance before disappearing. And, suddenly, he could sense emotions once again, feeling the worry around him.

"Lance, are you all right?" Coran asked, hovering beside him.

Nodding frantically, Lance clutched at his chest, breathing heavily. His gaze swept the room, noting the steam wafting through the air and Coran's quivering, orange-red moustache. Then his eyes landed on Keith who was watching him have a breakdown of sorts. Scowling, he reached back and used the couch to lever himself onto his feet.

"What..." he panted, "in furies' name... was that?!"

"Sorry," Keith mumbled, glancing away. "I thought you wanted the whole pool frozen-"

"You could have waited till Blue got out!"

"'Blue'?" asked Keith, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I named her when I was six!" Lance snapped.

That made Keith pause, his eyes widening. He almost smirked, knowing that Keith must be impressed by that. After all, not many people came into their furies at such a young age. He hadn't really understood what she was at the time but he'd named her Blue and it had stuck. Now, though, it was a little aggravating when people discovered what he had named her and reacted with mocking amusement – not that he would ever change a thing about her. He loved Blue with all his heart: the shock of having her ripped from him just moments ago had terrified him.

"Why didn't you call her back when I started freezing the pool, then?" Keith demanded. "If you're such a powerful watercrafter."

Almost growling, Lance took a step towards Keith, raising a hand. He watched Keith tense, clearly readying himself to fight back. However, Coran stood up and spread his hands in a placating gesture. "Now, now, boys. Let's all calm down."

Lance took a breath, willing to listen to his maestro. But his senses alerted him to the fact that he couldn't tell if Keith was actually calm or not. That familiar frustration welled within him and he shook his head. "No," he snapped. "I've had enough for today, Coran. I'm gonna go." He stomped towards the door.

"What a waste of time," he heard Keith mutter as he passed his couch.

Gritting his teeth, Lance kept himself from using the water in the pool to drench Keith where he sat. He reminded himself that Coran was already disappointed – there was no reason to make Coran hate him. So he stalked from the room, fists clenched, and told himself that he'd show Keith a thing or two the next time he confronted him.

A few days later and Lance hadn't seen Keith since the 'lesson'. He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or not. Trenson, however, had turned up at some point and warned Lance off his girlfriend. Along with every other male watercrafter. Lance thought it was hilarious that he hadn't bothered to warn off the girls when he knew for a fact that his precious girlfriend was often found in the beds of the earthcrafters down at the brothels.

Speaking of which, that part of the city was where he was currently heading with Pidge and Hunk in tow. He had convinced them that they needed to relax. Or, rather, he had whined until they agreed to go with them. Today was the day when there were no afternoon lessons and Lance was blessed with no morning lessons the next day. He could drink his fill and, hopefully, find himself in one of the earthcrafters' beds.

Hunk and Pidge were considerably less enthused by the idea and were still grumbling.

"We should be studying," Pidge told them as they headed towards the gate. "That's why we're here, isn't it?"

"The maestros aren't gonna like this," Hunk mumbled, pushing his fingers together restlessly. "And, I mean, if we're late back, we're gonna get demerits. Then they might just refuse to teach us and throw us out and then we'd all have to-"

Lance placed a calming hand on his arm. "Hunk. Calm down. Everything'll be fine, you'll see."

"If we're gonna do this," Pidge said, flipping her hair over her shoulder to get it out of her way, "we're going somewhere with class. Nowhere near those bordellos you always end up in."

"Hey!" Lance exclaimed, turning to frown at Pidge. But he was distracted when something caught his eye. Something black.

Looking up, his heart stopping for a moment, Lance found himself looking at Keith as he darted around the crowd. No-one else was paying him any attention, too focussed on their relaxation. All of them were swamped in happiness and laughter and Lance could feel all of their genuine emotions beyond them. Shutting them out (along with Hunk's reluctance and Pidge's resignation), Lance felt... nothing. He still couldn't sense Keith's emotions, not even from this distance when he would not be aware that Lance was trying to figure him out. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth.

"What's up?" Hunk asked, evidently concerned.

"Keith," Lance answered, clenching his fists.

His friends followed his gaze. "Huh," said Pidge. "I suppose now's your chance to 'show him'."

"It is!"

"You really gonna go over there?" said Hunk, incredulously.

"I am!"

"You're going to make a fool of yourself," Pidge warned him in a sing-song voice.

"I-" Lance began but broke off when he noticed the building Keith was approaching. It was an old, disused building and looked as though it needed fixing up. Above the door was a sign which read MAESTRO THACE – REMEDIAL FURYCRAFTING. Lance blinked as Keith headed straight for the door. When he paused in front of it, Lance knew – somehow – that he was about to check for people watching him. So he spun around and walked off, heading to the gate again but at an angle so he could get closer to the building.

"Wha-? Lance! What are you doing?!" Pidge called, hurrying to catch up. He could hear Hunk's footsteps as well and knew he'd successfully distracted them from Keith in time.

"Didn't you see where he was headed?" Lance said. "He went into the 'Remedial Furycrafting' place. Why would he need to go there? You've seen how many beads he has!" If anyone needed remedial lessons, Lance thought, it would be me, seeing as I can only watercraft. "So what's he doing in there?" he finished, stopping to turn to them, eyeing the closed door of the building and the distinct absence of Keith.

"Huh." Pidge stared at it, too, her eyes alight with curiosity. And excitement, Lance realised. "Are there even lessons held there?"

"Maybe he uses it for practise?" Hunk suggested with a shrug of his shoulder. "Or, like, maybe he's got a pet cat or something. Oh, oh! He's the... illegitimate son of someone, right? Maybe he lives there!"

Something complicated twisted Lance's heart and stomach at that thought. With it came a wave of determination, both from himself and Pidge. "There's only one way to find out," Lance said, grinning at Pidge when she grinned at him.

"Uh, he might be angry..." Hunk pointed out. But both Lance and Pidge ignored him, Lance pushing aside Hunk's anxiousness so it wouldn't stop him from bursting through the door.

And bursting through he did, throwing open the door as soon as they reached it. "Aha-!" he began but stopped when he realised that there was no surprised Keith within. Silence greeted them along with old, rickety chairs and desks and a wonky lectern. A massive piece of slate dominated the far wall with a little shelf filled with broken, tiny pieces of chalk. Everything had a layer of dust on it and it looked like nothing had been touched in years.

"What...?" said Pidge, moving inside.

Once Hunk had stepped inside as well, Lance closed the door behind them and gazed around. "I was sure he came in here," Lance mumbled, a little petulantly.

"Maybe he went past," Hunk said, relief clear on his face. "We didn't watch him come in here."

"True," said Pidge, absently, moving around the small room.

"Where else did he go? There are no other buildings and he wasn't around when we turned to look," said Lance, growing more and more confused. Where had the slive gone? How was he supposed to show him when he disappeared like that? "Did he fly off?"

"His windcrafting isn't that good, from what I hear," said Pidge. "But he definitely came in here."

"How'd you know that?" Lance moved over to where Pidge was eyeing the chalkboard.

"Look," she said, pointing. Both Lance and Hunk leaned forward, squinting at it. Then they straightened up with a soft 'ah' of understanding. There were areas on the board that had had dust rubbed off them. Pidge slapped her hand on it and a crack immediately appeared. "Hidden passageway!" she declared, excitedly.

"Uh..." said Hunk, staring at it. "Where d'ya think it goes?"

"Let's find out!" said Pidge and pushed against the board, grunting with the effort. It began to open – slowly – and Lance grimaced.

"C'mon, Hunk. Little help?" he said, turning to Hunk with a pleading expression.

Hunk sighed but, once Pidge had moved aside, he placed a hand flat on the hidden door. "We're gonna get in so much trouble," he mumbled. That seemed to be his final complaint on the matter, for he shoved the door and revealed a set of stone stairs leading down into the bowels of the earth.

"It must lead to the Deeps," said Lance. When he received incredulous glances from Pidge and Hunk, he shrugged. "I've heard about it from the... well, a few people. Lots of illicit activities go on down there. They say nobody knows where every path goes."

"So why would Keith...?" Pidge murmured, finger twirling her hair around as she thought.

"Let's find out," Lance said, grinning. Without a further word, he grabbed an abandoned furylamp and headed down the stairs. But he could tell that Pidge wanted to be cautious and Hunk was worried so he let his senses drift out so that, if they met anyone undesirable on their journey, he would know beforehand and they could hide. All he could sense as they descended, though, was the water that ran through the city and flowed into the sewers, deep below them.

Tension weighed down their shoulders. What would they find at the bottom? The silence was oppressive and Lance desperately wanted to say something. But he was feeling more nervous the longer it took to get anywhere. After all, if he couldn't sense Keith, would he be able to sense any of the other unsavoury characters around here?

They finally got to the bottom and found themselves in a corridor hewed into the rock itself. Lance glanced at his friends: Pidge shrugged; Hunk's eyes darted around despite not being able to see very far. Moving on, Lance was soon able to see that there was a crossroads of sorts ahead. Which path should they take? Which one had Keith taken?

He soon found out.

Just as they reached the adjoining corridors, there was movement and Lance jerked away as something came towards him. Whatever it was, it was fast and probably deadly. He grasped for something to defend himself with but he didn't carry a knife and there wasn't a vast source of water around. Before he could even think of taking the water from the air around them, another movement cut in front of him and two blades clashed just a hand's breadth from his heart.

Blinking once, his eyes focussed and he found Keith wielding a knife against Pidge's dagger. Keith and Pidge struggled for a moment before they broke away. Lance staggered back, still in shock, his heart hammering in his chest. He had almost been killed... By Keith.

"Keith-" Pidge began but the other academ had focussed his attention on what he seemingly deemed the greater threat and launched himself at her, his windcrafting ruffling her hair as he used his increased speed to fight her. Thankfully, Pidge was using her metalcrafting and was just as fast, keeping up with every swing.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," Hunk was mumbling beside Lance. "What do we do?"

"Defend ourselves!" Lance declared. He quickly dropped to his haunches and placed his hand flat on the ground. If he could only pull what water from under them, maybe he could use that against Keith.

"Right..." said Hunk. For a moment, he watched Pidge's fight. Then he slapped his hand to the rocky wall. Something rippled from him and moved down the wall, across the floor, towards the fight. Pidge seemed to sense him coming and, at the last moment, she leapt backwards. The ground beneath Keith shook before rocks, some pointed and deadly, erupted, surrounding Keith.

Meanwhile, Lance had finally gotten Blue to pull the water from deep below. It oozed up out of the cracks and Lance willed it towards Keith. Before the man could move from where he had been trapped, Lance thrust the water into the earth around him, pooling it there until the water turned the earth to mud. Keith gave a yelp of surprise as the mud sucked his boots in, pulling him further in. He struggled against it but the earth was cancelling out his wind fury's power and he could do little more than wobble and flail his arms. Pidge gave Hunk a look and Hunk willed away the deadly stones. As soon as he had, Pidge darted forwards, enough to bring her closer to Keith but far enough away to remain out of the range of the mud. She pointed her dagger at Keith's throat and everything stilled.

Slowly, Lance stood up and lifted the dropped furylamp. "What the crows, Keith?!" he exclaimed. "What was that?! You could've killed us!"

"What are you doing down here?" Pidge asked.

"And can we get out of the Deeps now?" Hunk added.

Keith frowned. Then he looked at each of them and his eyes widened in surprise, as if he hadn't properly seen them in his attack. "Wait, what are you three doing down here?"

"Ah, ah, ah," said Lance, wagging his finger, other hand on his hip. "We asked first."

Frowning, Keith shook his head and pressed his lips together. He gave one of his legs an experimental tug. "It's none of your business," he said.

"It is if you wanna get out of there," Lance told him, folding his arms. "C'mon, we're not gonna tell anyone."

"Not like most people listen to us, anyway," Pidge said.

"Coran listens to me," interjected Lance, proudly.

"That's 'cause he likes you," Hunk replied.

"I'm not telling you anything," Keith interrupted them. "Let me out."

Stalking towards him, Lance looked him up and down. "Fine," he said. Then he reached out and yanked the knife from Keith's grip before he could realise what was happening. Keith made a sound which was probably a protest but Lance didn't listen to him, eyes flickering to the intricate design of the hilt, barely visible in the dim light. "We'll let you out," he continued as Keith reached for him. "But you're going to take us to where you were going. Or else I'll hang onto this – understand?"

I'm not sure if the logistics with Lance and Keith and the pool would be possible since they didn't ever actually have a watercrafter fight a firecrafter in such a way in the books but I figured I could take a bit of creative licence with it.

And Keith would probably have fared better, I figure, if he hadn't been facing the other paladins, I'm sure.