Kidge week prompt 1: Shield and Sword

Title: Left and Right

Keith groaned as he rubbed his tender shoulder, making his way back to his room. Evidently, choosing to fight two gladiators at once wasn't a good idea. He figured he could get the practice in, learning how to win in a 2 on 1 fight. Evidently, he'd overestimated himself, and ended up having to end the training sequence automatically rather than defeating the gladiators

"Stupid robots," he mumbled. They had been smarter than he'd given them credit for.

"Hey, I, for one, think robots are pretty great," a deep but slightly feminine voice called from behind him. Keith turned around, spotting Pidge leaning against the wall.

"You heard me talking to myself…again."

"Please, I talk to myself way more. I find that I'm a great conversationalist."

"Somehow, I feel like you're a little biased on the matter."

Pidge shrugged, approaching Keith. "What did you do to your shoulder?"

"Tried to fight two gladiators. I, uh…"

"Got your butt kicked?"

"Hey, it's not even that bad. I'll be fine, and I can learn from my mistakes."

Pidge ran her hand along Keith's shoulder, missing the way his cheeks dusted with pink. "Take your shirt off," she demanded.

"What?!"

"I'm trying to get a better look at your shoulder, idiot. Take it off."

Reluctantly, Keith tossed his jacket to the floor and peeled his sweaty shirt off of his body. Pidge held her nose. "Please tell me you were on your way to shower…"

"I would be cleaning up now if I hadn't been stopped by a nosy Pidgeon."

Pidge kicked the back of his knee, causing him to drop to the floor, where she was at a better angle to examine his shoulder.

"What was that for?"

"I'm short. Also, I felt like it. You did call me nosy, after all."

Pidge ran her fingers gently over the welt that was forming on his shoulder. He'd just barely gotten the injury, and it was already swelling up. She knew it'd turn some nice colors later, and probably cause Keith quite a bit of pain over the next few days, but it was just a bruise regardless.

"Well, you're definitely gonna have a hard time sleeping for the next week. It doesn't look too bad yet, but trust me when I say it'll look like a unicorn threw up on you later."

"A unicorn? Seriously? What, you watch My Little Pony or something?"

Pidge smacked his head. "Yes. Insult me for it again, and I'll start poking the bruise. Besides, I'm pretty sure you'd be a Brony if you gave the show a chance."

Keith didn't say anything as he stood up, picking up the discarded clothes. "Whatever. Just let me go shower. My pride's already been hurt enough, I don't need you making it worse."

Pidge watched his retreating back, realizing she'd pushed him a little too far. She'd forgotten how sensitive he can be when he loses, even if it's just a training simulation.

"Wait," she called. Keith stopped. "What if…what if I helped you learn how to beat the gladiators?"

Keith turned around with a smirk on his face. "You? Help me beat the gladiators?"

"Did you forget who upgraded them? I'm the one who did their programming. I made them able to learn based on each paladin's fighting style. And I know how to find a flaw in any program, even the ones I made myself."

Keith sighed. "Tomorrow. Training deck. Five a.m. sharp. Don't be late."

Pidge gaped at him. "Five? Seriously? That's way too early…"

"You wanted to help, right? Well, you'll have to get on my schedule."

Pidge threw the alarm clock across the room. 4:30 was way too early for anybody to be awake, much less a night-owl tech genius. She could have gone to bed earlier than usual, but that required too much work. In the end, she'd only gotten a couple hours of sleep.

Unfortunately, she was smart and had designed the alarm clock specifically for herself. When she threw it, it only blared louder. She pulled her pillow over her head, groaning. "If I collapse during training, it's Keith's fault."

She wiggled out of her blanket cocoon and shut off the alarm. The lights turned on at the motion, and Pidge squinted, groping almost blindly for Matt's glasses. She gave up and just got dressed before sliding into the hallway, only to be greeted with darkness once more.

Pidge rubbed her eyes, noting how strange it felt to not be wearing glasses. Sure, the lenses were fake (Matt had replaced them right after he got his eyes fixed, so when he gave them to Pidge, they wouldn't hurt her eyes), but they at least felt natural.

It took her a while to reach the training deck after she left the bathroom. Keith was already there, wide awake and already in his armor. "'bout time you got here, slacker. Suit up and meet me inside."

Pidge glared up at Keith, grinning when she got a terrified expression out of him.

The Castle of Lions had been designed with the paladins in mind, or at least modified to be that way. The armor the paladins wore was able to move through various ducts throughout the ship so as to be available in various locations, such as the hangars, the armory, and the training deck. Pidge summoned the green armor, waited a few seconds for it to reach her, and pulled on the various different pieces. She ran out to the main training area, where Keith was waiting for her, Bayard drawn.

"Shall we get started?"

Pidge dropped to the ground breathing heavily. She wasn't used to so much physical activity, and so far they'd only been working with one gladiator. Keith reached out a hand to her, helping her back to her feet.

"Jeez, you're so tiny. I could lift you with one arm." Next thing Keith knew, he was on the ground, his body feeling weird from the electrical shock Pidge had given him.

"Don't call me tiny."

"Why don't you use that on the gladiators? Or on any sentries, for that matter?"

Pidge looked down at her Bayard. "See, with robots, the electricity has a chance of doing absolutely nothing, even powering them up more. Sure, there's a chance I could short-circuit them, but for the most part that's a risk I don't want to take, so I only use the electricity setting on living things."

Keith paused for a moment, then grinned. "I think I have an idea."

Pidge lit up with excitement. "You know, I do too."

"Ready?" Keith asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Ready," Pidge responded.

"Activate double gladiator."

Two gladiators rose out of the ground, one in front of Keith and one in front of Pidge. They stood back to back, slowly circling each other. They'd talked about their strategy, and they had both agreed it would be best to let the gladiators strike first.

"Shield!" Keith yelled, and Pidge jumped in front of him, shields on both arms, blocking the attack from the gladiator.

"Sword!" Pidge called, and they switched again, Pidge blocking an attack from the second while Keith took care of the first.

Back and forth they went, switching from defense to offense. Pidge kept both shields activated, occasionally having to block two strikes at once while Keith ducked down and struck from below. Finally, one of the gladiators went down, and it was only a matter of moments before the second one followed. The training sequence ended and the two paladins lay on their backs, breathing heavily.

"The arms of Voltron. I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner," Keith said through deep breaths.

Pidge sat up, taking off her helmet and tossing it across the room, her sweat-drenched hair matted to her head. Her cheeks were flushed. She reached into her pocket for Matt's glasses but remembered that she'd left them behind. "You just…needed…my help…"

"You were just waiting for me to figure it out, weren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday you said you had an idea. But today we started from scratch. Were you just waiting for me to figure it out?"

Pidge smirked. "Sort of. I figured it would take two people to fight two gladiators, and that we'd have to come up with something…unusual in order to beat them. I didn't have the fine details down until you did."

Keith tossed his own helmet away, and Pidge was glad her cheeks were already flushed because somehow, the sweat made him look even more handsome than he normally was.

Yes, she admitted it, she found Keith to be quite attractive.

And their current situation certainly wasn't helping.

Keith turned and his eyes locked on Pidge's. For a moment, neither said anything.

And as their lips met, the training deck, the castle, Voltron, all of it melted away. It was just them. Two halves of the same whole. Yin and Yang. Sword and shield. Green and red. Left and right.