Fruit of Possibilities

Chapter One

A swish of the doors sounded and without having to look up, the team knew Allura and Coran had walked in. The entirety of the team sat in the common area where they found themselves all doing their own thing. Pidge was typing away on her laptop, Hunk was tinkering with a machine, Shiro was stressfully looking over a stack of files, Keith was sharpening his knives, and Lance was working on making face creams specially curated for each member of the team; some members desperately needing it more than others.

“Look alive, Paladins!” Coran’s voice shouted out as he and Allura made their way closer to where the team was situated.

The team looked up from their respective tasks to see Coran making jazz hands to his left where presumably Allura stood, though nobody could quite see her face, seeing as it was hidden under a mountain of what the paladins assumed to be a fruit basket. “The leaders of Cormisix, that we signed an alliance with has sent over a gift!” Allura set down said basket on a nearby seat, and it did indeed go down with a soft thump.

“And they have assured us that everything in the basket should be safe for human consumption!” Coran grinned eagerly, grabbing what looked like a small, pink....eggplant?

“Should be? ” Keith muttered under his breath, eyeing the basket of weird-looking fruit. Shiro and Lance were the only ones to hear his comment. The former playfully rolling his eyes and the latter snorting.

Pidge gave the basket a once over and went back to her laptop in disinterest. She had never been much for fruit back on Earth, so why should she start bothering with it now? Though if Hunk, Lance, or Shiro were to have heard her say anything along those lines out loud, their mom friend instincts would go into autopilot, and would forcibly shove down as many goods into her mouth.

Hunk, however, seemed to be the only other eager person besides Coran. His eyes twinkled slightly, no doubt already thinking up of new meals he can make for the team, knowing good and well that that everybody needed a break from the food goo they usually had. 

“Hey, buddy…” Hunk starts, turning his attention to Lance, an excited smile wide on his face

Lance smiled back just as widely to his friend, tilting his head slightly, already knowing what Hunk was going to say “Will I be your taste-tester?” Lance asked for Hunk, and hummed for a few seconds in fake contemplation as Hunk looked at him in anticipation “Of course I will! I love being your taste-tester!”

Pidge snorted loudly “More like a guinea pig.” She smirked and continued away on her laptop, prompting Lance to throw a plastic lid from his face cream container. He landed a soft hit at the side of her head, earning an annoyed glare from the girl.

“Or a Poison tester.” Keith also decidedly threw in his teasing comment. Lance glared in his direction, but sadly had nothing to throw at the boy.

Instead, Lance turned to Pidge, who was thankfully paying attention. Lance quirked a brow at her, looking down at the lid she now had, and motioned his head toward Keith. A knowing smile grew on both of their faces. Keith’s face, however, quickly turned into a frown as he saw this exchange happen.

“Pidge…” Keith’s voice came out cautiously, keeping a steady eye on the girl. Keith’s eyes widened, his hand up in surrender, though it seemed to be too late as she readied her arm in a throwing position, lid firm in her hands. “Wait wait, don’t, I-” A thud sounded. “Ow.”

Lance and Pidge fell into a fit of giggles. Allura and Hunk held back their laughter, though they couldn’t quite hold back their amused smiles. Coran ignored the group and was looking over the basket of fruit. Shiro tried to give Pidge and Lance a look of disapproval, but neither took it very seriously considering he too was having difficulty hiding away a small smile.