Voltron: The Paladin of Light

{Chapter 6 - Return of the Gladiator}

Cori was on the bridge, watching the paladins training with Voltron. The repairs to the castle were almost done by now, so there was next to nothing for her to do, other than watch the paladins make fools of themselves, help Coran clean the teleduv, or watch anime in Pidge's room. Some of those options were more tantalizing than others.

She felt somebody poke her in the arm, and she whipped around arms ready to attack- oh it was just Coran.

He smiled and handed her a cup of some kind of liquid, then walked over to Allura to deliver a plate of goo.

Cori put the cup to her lips and hesitantly took a sip, and IMMEDIATELY recoiled at the taste. What in the world was this supposed to be, some ancient Altean wine?

"Coran..." she said with a dangerous edge to her voice. "What in the quiznack is this? Are you trying to poison me?"

"Oh! That's nunvil! Brightens your smile and your mood!" the glorious mustached man said happily.

"So... it's basically drugs," Cori concluded."Drugs mess with your cognitive functions. Are you even okay?"

Honestly, if Coran was constantly drinking substance, it would explain a lot about his behavior...

He just started laughing.

"It's not substance. Truth is, it's my grand-papie's altean juniberry juice. It tastes foul at first, but over time you see how sweet it is." he said wistfully.

Cori wasn't convinced.

"Well uh- I'm not really into... flower juice," she said dubiously.

Coran just shrugged and took her cup, then dipped his fingers into it, and... sprinkled the drops on his mustache?

The hair grew slightly, giving a more bushy look to it.

He was going to make her drink hair tonic? No, thank you.

She glanced back at the paladins who were currently practicing their skills.

They were attacking the downed galra cruiser, sort of using it as target practice.

Voltron suddenly jumped forward and the blue lion lunged for a kick, which made contact and sent the wreck flying.

However, then the paladins lost balance, and they tumbled backward onto the ground.

LANCE: "hunk!!" the blue paladin complained. "You were supposed to keep balance!

CORI: "He wouldn't have to if you didn't pull stupid stunts..."

Somebody tapped her on the shoulder and she looked behind her to see Coran.

"What do you want?" she deadpanned.

"I need your help whipping up an authentic ancient paladin lunch!" he said cheekily.

Cori sighed deeply, but got up to follow the middle-aged man to the kitchen.

"I just need to warn you... the last time I made any food, it was ramen from a store-bought package, and I somehow put motor oil in instead of water. Don't ask me where the oil came from."

"Earthlings still primarily use fossil fuels? I figured your civilization was primitive, but..."

"Alright, enough. Let's just get to the kitchen already." she snapped.

Coran shrugged and led the way out of the bridge to the sixth door on the right down the hall, which opened up into a surprisingly similar pantry setup to Earth.

She opened up a cabinet under what looked like the sink, and her eyes were met with boxes of goo mix. Interesting.

Coran walked over to the far wall from the door and pressed on a panel, and a section of the wall opened up to reveal a freezer.