JUST ONE KISS
A Voltron Defender of the Universe Fan Fic by Cbear (aka Smartybear2)
RATING: K+
DETAILS: KA, Fluff, One-shot
SUMMARY: A practical joke gets out of hand, with interesting consequences.
A/N: First published on the KAEX mailing list... I thought I'd share it here, too. :)
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"Do you really think this is going to work?"
"Of course it is, Pidge. Trust me. This is going to be one of the best practical jokes anyone has pulled over Keith in a long time."
"I don't know, Lance - I really don't want to have an extra lap during morning training. We already have to do fifty around the castle courtyard."
Lance glared at his young co-conspirator. "Are you with me or not?"
"I am - it's just that..."
"Well, then let's do it!"
"Extra lion practice? I don't remember Keith saying anything to me about lion practice, Lance."
"He's waiting for you at Castle Control, actually. I think he was worried about your fall recovery during our last battle and wants to work on them with you this afternoon."
Allura frowned. "I thought I did a great fall recovery last battle." The princess' scowl darkened as she began to recall the incident. "As a matter of fact, I think I was the one who managed to save his Lion from major damage."
Lance shrugged innocently, holding his hands in front of him. "Don't hurt me, princess, I'm not the one who's calling for lion practice. Who knows what runs through our mighty leader's mind?"
"Who knows indeed," Allura muttered angrily under her breath. "Well, I guess there's nothing for it but to go on practicing, is there?"
"Unfortunately," Lance agreed with an emphatic nod. "He may be waiting for you at Castle Control now."
Allura sighed in resignation. "I'll be on my way, then."
"See you at dinner, Allura."
"Alright."
As Allura walked away, Lance watched her go with the grin of a cat that had just gotten into the cream.
"You really have to go and see it, Keith. The response time in Blue Lion is at a level that is really worrying me."
"Have you figured out how to correct it, Pidge?"
"Nope. That's why I want you to have a look at it before we go up again. You might be able to figure it out."
Keith shot Pidge a derisive look. "Pidge, if YOU can't figure out the cause of a technical problem, chances are I won't be able to," he said dryly.
Pidge shrugged. "Maybe you'll think of running a test I haven't thought of. I just think you should take a look."
Keith sighed in resignation. If the Blue Lion really was lagging in response to the command controls, he really should have a look at it. It wouldn't do to put Allura in danger. There went another free afternoon!
"Okay, Pidge, I'll get to it right now, since I have an afternoon free. If anyone looks for me, tell them I'll be in the Blue Lion, okay?"
"Aye aye, Skipper," Pidge replied, giving Keith a jaunty salute. He watched Keith shoot down the number four chute with a relieved grin. Now if Lance had done his part, they were going to be just fine.
"Keith?" Allura called out tentatively into the empty vastness Castle Control. She grit her teeth. If Lance were playing some sort of joke on her, she was going to have his head. "Keith, I'm ready for Lion practice. Lance told me you'd be here."
No response. That was strange. Keith was usually the first one to every Lion practice he called. Where was he? After biting her lip thoughtfully, she noticed that the portals leading to the Lions were up.
Ah. Maybe he had gone to give the Black a few spins before got there. With a mischievous grin, she decided against contacting him on the telecom to let him know she was going up. It would serve him right to get a nasty surprise attack... slow battle responses indeed!
Setting her jaw in determination, she shot down the number 4 chute.
In the dark shadows of the Castle Control's main portals, Pidge and Lance exchanged a high five. Keith was going to be in for quite a surprise.
Keith was just crawling backwards out of the space under Blue Lion's control console when the pilot's chair suddenly descended. Startled by the sound, he managed to turn himself around... just in time to meet a pair of stunned blue eyes rising from the ship floor.
"Keith!"
"Princess!"
"What are you doing here?" they asked together.
Keith, who couldn't scramble out of the cramped space fast enough, found himself in the most awkward of positions - eye level with Allura's flat stomach. Making the most of his cramped quarters, he crawled back into the space under the console to give the two of them a more comfortable distance... under the circumstances. He knew Allura would probably think nothing of it, but there was something suggestive about pushing himself up from the floor from this position facing her. The thought made his face and the back of his neck warm, and he was almost thankful for the musty darkness under the console that hid his embarrassed flush from her gaze.
"Lance told me that you'd called a Lion practice," Allura said, a tad breathlessly. The flush on her face told Keith she was also feeling highly embarrassed by this whole situation. "I thought you'd gone up ahead of me, and I was going to attack you by surprise..." She trailed off awkwardly. She knew should stand to give Keith room to get out of the space in front of her, but if she did so, she might end up kicking him deeper into the hole because her legs were practically wedged against her seat and the back of his thighs.
"I didn't call any Lion practice," Keith responded, his voice muffled by the echoing of his voice under the console. It was going to be a feat to get out of this tight spot... and he was going to have the head of the man responsible for this. "Pidge told me that there was something wrong with the Blue's response time, and made me have a look."
Allura frowned, trying in vain to get her pinned leg up to give him more room. "There's nothing wrong with the Blue's response time." She paused. "I think that we've both been had."
"Apparently." A meaningful pause passed before he added, "I'm going to kill them."
"Not if I get to them first," Allura said firmly.
Another awkward pause ensued as Allura watched Keith painfully struggle to crawl out backwards. After a few moments, she heard him sigh.
"Princess, I think you better initiate a reverse sequence and go back to Castle Control first," Keith instructed. "I can't seem to find an easy way out of this mess."
"Yes," she agreed hastily, leaning forward to pull the disengage lever. "I think I better do that."
To Keith's immense relief, he heard the distintive sound of the Blue Lion's chair descending and felt the press of the Princess' legs behind him ease. He backed out quickly, assuming that the floor of the cockpit had already ascended to replace Allura's chair as she went up the transport chute.
Instead, he found himself promptly deposited on a startled Allura's lap, staring into her shocked blue eyes.
"What the -"
Alarms began to clang loudly inside the small space around them. "Emergency - malfunction in power sectors 32 and 27. Repeat, malfunction in sectors 32 and 27."
The sectors powering the Lion chutes. Great. Just great. Keith let out a sigh. Murphy's law... what could go wrong will go wrong...
"Keith, aren't those the sectors powering the chutes?"
"In a word, Princess - yes." He hauled himself off Allura's lap and sat on the ledge made by her partially descended chair. "Looks like we're going to be stuck here for some time." He scowled. "They really did us good."
Allura met his irate eyes, her flashing with growing devilment. "But while we're here - shouldn't we plan to do them one better?"
He grinned back, catching the spirit of her mood. "Definitely, princess. Most definitely!"
"Emergency - failure in sectors 32 and 27."
Lance and Pidge ran back into Castle Control as soon as they heard the message. Coran was already there working on the huge control panel.
"Is it going to be okay?" Pidge asked worriedly, running to assist the minister.
Coran nodded distractedly. "It'll be an hour before I can divert power to chutes," he said. "But it's nothing serious, just a minor fuse burnout."
Lance and Pidge exchanged a relieved grin. This was not part of the plan - but perhaps it could even work to their advantage.
"An hour or little over an hour, Keith, and I'll be able to channel some power to the chutes," Coran said. He scratched his head in puzzlement. "This is most strange. The power source for the chutes has never quite malfunctioned in this way before. They appear to have been overloaded."
Keith gave the minister a strained grin. "I can imagine," he commented dryly. "I suppose it's because Allura tried to key in a reverse sequence before the power source had recovered from propelling her into the Blue."
"Probably," Coran said distractedly, punching keys and pulling levers left and right. Belatedly realizing he was expressing a lack of concern in the light of the situation, he peered into the monitor. The power malfunction had also affected the cockpit lights, so it was tough to make out the Princess' and captain's faces. "Princess, are you comfortable in there? I'll try to get you out as soon as I can."
"It's okay, Coran, take your time," Allura said dryly, leaning back on her arms. "I'm... er... comfortable enough in here."
Well, comfortable was not the word she was looking for, but for Coran, she supposed that would do. She had already pulled herself up from her seat and was sitting across the hole it made from Keith. Because of the cramped space, their legs grazed each other's - and it made her stomach flutter in a way that was not exactly comfortable, but was not exactly unwelcome either.
From the frayed look of Keith's grin as he spoke to Coran in the monitor, he just looked... uncomfortable, period.
"All right, Coran, we'll sign off and leave you to work now," Keith said with a tired sigh. "Let us know when you have the problem taken care of."
"All right, captain."
The monitor flickered a moment then went out, plunging the cockpit into an even deeper darkness. Allura frowned in irritation as she heard Keith sigh yet again.
"You could at least pretend that it's not such a torture for you to be stuck here with me," she commented petulantly without really thinking things through. "After all, we still have sixty minutes to go down here."
Keith started at her words, and he peered at her face in the dark. She didn't know it, but she had hit on the perfect word when she used "torture." In this confined space, with her legs brushing his, it was getting hard to ignore his awareness of her... not that he had ever had much success in that department in the past. Her sweet, sunshine scent filled the cockpit, and, to be honest, he was already feeling a little bit giddy - after only about 15 minutes of being confined in here with her. Her brow was wrinkled with a frown, and her soft, moist full lips were stuck out in a belligerent pout. All he really had to do was lean forward and he could...
He shook his head, irritated by his undisciplined thoughts. This was ALLURA, for goodness' sake.
And that was the crux of the problem.
It was Allura. He hated to admit it to himself, but his thoughts and his feelings towards the princess had been anything but disciplined for quite some time now. He was treading the path of fools, he knew, but it wasn't like he didn't try to do something about it.
In the warm darkness of the cockpit, it was getting harder to keep track of the reason WHY he was trying to do something about it.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, Allura could make out the intent look in his eyes. She wonder if he could read in her eyes exactly what she had in mind. And right now, what she really wanted was for him to lean over and...
"I'm sorry."
Allura almost jumped at the sound of Keith's gruff words. "What?" she asked, blinking her eyes to in a vain attempt to clear her eyes of the image she had been playing in her mind for the last few seconds.
"I'm sorry if I made you think that I... that is... that this situation is... well, unwelcome to me."
"It isn't... unwelcome to you to be here with me?"
Keith heard the words and wanted to hit himself. That didn't quite come out right, but he couldn't soothe her ruffled feathers and not blow his cover somewhat. He took a deep breath and was rewarded with a whiff of her unique scent. He closed his eyes and stifled a groan. Lance and Pidge had done him real good, all right.
It was going to be a long hour.
"I heard Coran say that Keith and the Princess were going to be stuck in the Blue Lion for another hour," Pidge told Lance with a worried frown. "Lance, you do realize that Keith is going to hang us by our big toes when he – why are you laughing? Didn't you hear what I just said?"
"Another hour?" Lance choked out. "This priceless!" He clutched at his stomach as he continued to shake with hilarity. "This is working out better than I planned!"
"Pidge is right, you know," Hunk said, watching his two guilty teammates with a reproachful expression on his face. "You are both going to get it when Keith and the Princess get out of that Lion."
"Believe me, Hunk, it's going to be worth it," Lance promised. "Just give those two an hour alone, and things are finally going to happen around here, you'll see."
Things were definitely NOT happening inside the darkened cockpit of the Blue Lion – but only because the two people inside it were both trying their best not to let them happen. Unfortunately, both of them were failing miserably at the task.
Although they had started out their hour planning all sorts of physical punishments for their mischievous teammates, and the conversation had naturally moved to other topics, the enforced closeness was beginning to take its toll on the two of them. Conversations were beginning to trail off into nothingness as the tension in the small cockpit escalated with every passing minute they spent together inside it. It was hard not to be aware of someone in such close quarters… especially if that someone was a person whom you were so sharply aware of even under the best of circumstances.
For Allura who was often aware of Keith's presence even when he was meters away from her in a crowded ballroom, having him this close for this long was almost enough to overwhelm her. Only her unyielding pride and her sense of sheer self-preservation was preventing her from throwing caution to the winds and giving in to her compulsion to test what it really was that was being left unsaid between them.
Keith, for his part, was grasping at straws to keep things as normal between them as possible, even when his own awareness of her was escalating to the point where it was almost a physical pain. They had been good friends for a while, and they had always been comfortable in each other's company, even if they were left alone. It wasn't her fault that his attraction for her was throwing a monkey wrench into all his noble intentions.
"Attraction."
Keith's head whipped up at hearing his thoughts being said aloud and met Allura's startled eyes. "Pardon?"
She was flushed with embarrassment. "Ah… I said A FRACTION… um… I was just thinking that our predicament has just earned… a fraction more physical punishment for our wonderful teammates who are responsible for it."
Keith gazed at her suspiciously, but he wasn't about to pry into her slip when he was so close to making the same slip himself. "You have that right. Pidge and Lance won't be able to stand straight for a week when I'm through with them," he muttered.
Allura was relieved that he had accepted her flimsy cover up without much of a fight. She couldn't believe she had actually said what she said! It would be just her luck to she blurt out exactly what she was thinking at this very moment – and that would be even more of a disaster. Because at the moment, her very active imagination was wondering what it would be like if he kissed her, and it refused to let the image go away no matter how hard she tried to make it.
"Princess… we can't just sit here in the dark in silence for a whore hour," Keith said wryly, running a hand through his hair, a gesture of certain agitation.
"No, we can't," Allura agreed, but she couldn't think of anything to talk about when all she wanted to do had nothing to do with talking at all.
Silence fell between them again, as that attempt at conversation once more fell flat.
Keith was, unknowingly, echoing Allura's thoughts… and he was getting tired of fighting the impulse. What would it hurt? IT WOULD HURT PLENTY, his conscience sternly warned him. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
"I'm trying," he muttered irritably to himself, unaware he was speaking aloud.
"You're trying to what?" Allura asked puzzled.
Trying to keep his sanity. "Trying to think of something we can do while we're waiting for the lights to come on," he said with a wry smile. "Any ideas?"
Oh, she had plenty of ideas… just not ones that they could act on. "Well… I've always been curious about what your life on Terra used to be like. Maybe you could tell me about that," she said uncertainly.
"What do you want to know about?" Keith asked, figuring that whatever she had on her mind was certainly much better than what he had in his. At this point, he was willing to try anything to keep himself from giving in to the dictates of his libido.
"Kissing."
"PARDON?"
Allura's eyes were wide with alarm. "Fishing! I said FISHING!" God, she groaned to herself, she had a one-track mind! "I wanted to know where you guys went fishing." One more slip like that and it would take a miracle to salvage this situation. All she could hope for was one of two things – one, that Coran manage to get them out of here before she irrevocably embarrassed herself, or two, that Keith hadn't cleaned out his ears this morning.
"You want to know where we went fishing?" Keith asked, peering at her in the darkness. He could have sworn he heard her say "kissing."
"Yes, of course!" Allura said brightly, inching away from temptation as far as she could without being obvious. But given the limited space in the cockpit, it wasn't very far. "I've always had a fascination for fishing."
Keith cleared his throat. "But, Princess… you hate fishing. You told us that you can't stand the idea of us hurting the worms."
Allura stared at him, suddenly experiencing a vivid memory of the day she had said it – when they first invited her to a day of fishing on the lake. "Uh… I did?"
Keith nodded in confirmation, watching Allura's flustered expression with mounting confusion and alarm. Could it be that she was beginning to pick up on his tension? It was the only explanation he could think of for her nervous behavior. He cleared his throat again. "Um... Princess, do you still want me to tell you about fishing?"
She paused for a heartbeat before she replied in a soft voice, "No, not really."
There went that possible solution. "I guess it's only fair for me to ask you something now," Keith said, wracking his intoxicated mind for a question that had absolutely nothing to do with what he wanted to do. After long, long moments of dead air, he gave up. "Unfortunately, I can't think of anything I want to ask you about right now. Can you think of anything I could ask you?"
You could ask me if I want to kiss you, she thought dreamily. And the answer would be yes, yes, yes... "Yes."
"Well… what is it?"
"Huh? What is what?" Allura asked, shaken out of her fugue by the forced cheer of Keith's voice. He sounded nervous. Maybe he was beginning to pick up on her tension. It was the only explanation she could think of for his nervous behavior.
"What was the question you thought of for me to ask you?"
"Um… er… maybe you could ask me if… uh… if I'd be happy to… uh… marry a prince?" she hastily improvised, then upon reflection realizing what a trap she had laid for herself in her haste to cover her tracks. Talk about digging a deeper grave for herself.
Keith stared at her. "Are you sure you really want me to ask you that?"
"No," she said miserably.
"No, you wouldn't want me to ask you that?" he prodded gently.
Allura figured that since there was no way for her to make things better than they were, she might as well not compound her predicament by being caught in a lie. "No, I don't think I would be happy marrying a prince," she confessed.
"Why not?" he asked, watching her suddenly pensive expression and being drawn even more inexorably towards it, towards her.
She laughed, but it was a laugh tinged with a touch of bitterness. "Be honest with me… in your experience in intergalactic warfare, have you ever met a royal that you actually liked?"
"Well… yes." She was sitting right before him. He grinned. "You're royal and I like you fine."
"I don't count, of course," she said with an exasperated wave of her hand, warming to her topic. "I was talking about Princes. And please don't say Bandor – he doesn't count either. He's too young."
"Too young for what?"
"Too young to display the traits that most of the Princes who have come for my hand have displayed – arrogance without basis, indolence, and an overblown ego."
He had to laugh at her assessment of her suitors – because much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with her. Of course his unflattering assessment of her royal suitors was also grounded by the fact that he was hopelessly jealous of their being allowed to court the woman he… well, at the very least, liked a lot.
Sure, I LIKE HER A LOT, he repeated to himself in disgust, tuning out her beginning tirade. What an insipid way to describe the intense gamut of emotions that just being around her made him feel. It wasn't just her extraordinary beauty that stirred him – any normal, red-blooded male would be stirred by that – it was everything else about her.
It was her ready laughter in the face of adversity; it was her undaunted optimism in the face of seeming hopelessness; it was the endless generosity of her scarred yet compassionate heart; it was her sheer courage and the unbending strength of her spirit. And more than that, so much more that he found himself unable to articulate because it came from so deep within him, in shadows of his soul that he tried so hard not to look into.
I'm in love with her, he suddenly realized, his heart constricting with emotion as he watched her. Foolish as it was to do so, he had lost his heart to the lovely woman in front of him, a woman he now knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with… except that she was a princess who was also hopelessly out of reach.
"Keith, are you still listening to me?" Allura's irate voice penetrated his epiphany, and he met her confused blue gaze. "For a moment there, you seemed a million miles away."
Not a million miles away – just looking deep within himself to find the secrets of his heart.
"Maybe you just haven't found the right prince yet," he said absently, wishing bitterly that she was right and that all princes were as spoiled as she typecast them to be. "It's too early to give up." That way he would stand a chance with her. But he wasn't foolish enough to believe that there was no royal prince out there who matched her courage and her inherent nobility. It was impossible.
Allura gazed at Keith incredulously. If he was out there, that prince whom Nanny and Coran were so bent on her marrying, how could she not have found him by now? She was not looking for much in the man she wished to spend the rest of her life with. She wanted a man with strength of character, a fiercely loyal and courageous warrior who also had the infinite capacity for kindness and gentleness. She wanted someone who would be her partner, her lover, her mentor, and her best friend, a noble man who was not arrogant without reason, a man with the ability to laugh at himself and laugh at life.
A man just like Keith.
The reason she couldn't manage to find herself prince was because the prince that she wanted was right here.
At the sudden insight into her true feelings for the man in front of her, she visibly started, darting a searching gaze into his eyes and wondering if by some chance he could read her mind right now. It had happened before… there had always been this odd connection between the two of them – and maybe this was the reason why.
Keith was caught completely off-guard by the sudden spark of electricity that seemed to jump between them as he met her midnight blue gaze. Almost against his will, he reached out to cup her cheek, gently brushing his thumb across the arch. He watched her flush with confusion and something more, and he realized that he wasn't alone in feeling the way he did. Whether she knew it or not, she wanted him, too.
"What… what are you thinking?" she asked, her voice soft and husky. She was afraid he could see her heart in her eyes, but much as she wanted to hide it from him, she couldn't seem to turn away. She saw his gaze drop fleetingly to her lips, and they felt suddenly dry and she had to suppress the urge to lick them.
"What I'm thinking right now is definitely not a good idea," he answered, even as he slowly tipped his head towards hers.
She smiled. "What if you tell me first and let me be the one to decide –"
But he didn't let her finish before he finally slanted his mouth over hers. The moment their lips met, they were both lost. A potent combination of hunger and sweetness, the kiss they shared made their pulses pound and the blood rush loudly in their ears. But finally the kiss had to end as they both came up for air.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Keith admitted hoarsely, breathing heavily.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted you to," Allura admitted breathlessly. She smiled. "I never knew it was true that you could hear bells when you kissed." She could still hear them… those bells.
BELLS.
Allura's words dissolved the passionate haze that engulfed them, and they were suddenly aware that the comforting darkness of the cockpit was gone. They'd heard bells, all right. Bells signaling the return of the Blue Lion's power.
The sound of clearing throats the direction of the telecom drew their attention – where they found Lance and Pidge grinning at them like loons, holding out thumbs-up signs.
At the sight of her teammates, Allura groaned and buried her burning face in her hands in embarrassment.
"The two of you have some major explaining to do," Keith fiercely glowered at both of them, but the flush tingeing his cheeks made him less menacing.
And maybe that was why the two incorrigible pilots in Castle Control ignored him and shared a high-five instead.
"You should be thanking us, not punishing us," Lance grumbled, barely able to stifle a groan when Keith added another ten-pound tome to the three already on Lance's back as he did his push-ups. "The way I figured it, the two of you were planning on ignoring those sparks flashing between the two if I didn't do anything about it."
"You notice, Keith, that Lance said that it was his idea," Pidge put in, trying to exonerate himself from the blame. Because of his smaller stature, Keith had only loaded two of the thick books on his back. "I was just a lackey."
"Traitor," puffed Lance, shooting the younger boy beside him a glare before turning his imploring gaze towards his tormentor. "Come on, Keith, where's your sense of humor?"
It wasn't even bright outside yet, but Keith had been ruthless when he pulled these two monsters who had wreaked havoc on his life out of bed. It was two hours earlier than the team's usual training session, and Keith meant to make every extra minute count for them.
Keith scowled down at the two of them without any mercy. "I have seen many funny stunts in my life, my friend, but that one you pulled on me and Allura yesterday was NOT funny at all," he grated angrily. He ran a hand through his unruly hair in obvious distress. "Didn't it ever occur to you, Lance, that we could have been deliberately ignoring those sparks you SAY have been flashing between us because we wanted to?"
"I'm no expert, but even I could see that that kiss wasn't something born out of something you wanted to ignore," Pidge observed candidly, earning a pointed glance at the heavy tomes from Keith.
"Out of the mouth of babes," Lance muttered darkly.
"And your watching THAT is ANOTHER reason why you're both up bright and early this morning," Keith said, his voice dripping icicles. "You happened to embarrassed the Princess."
"Hey, we weren't the ones with the bad sense to kiss her in the Lion cockpit with the telecomm on," Lance pointed out baldly.
"That kiss was a mistake in more ways than one," Keith sighed morosely, shaking his head at his own stupidity.
"Or maybe it was the first right thing to happen between you in long time," Lance pointed out as reasonably as he could, still puffing with the effort it took to complete one more push up. At least Keith wasn't riding his shoulders the way those guys in charge of physical punishment had been back at the Academy. "Face it, attraction like that isn't going to go away without a fight – and you've been fighting a long time."
"So what are you saying, that I should adopt the stance – 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?'" Keith asked, his tone wry as he shook his head. "It's not that simple for me and Allura and you know it."
"It's not my place to know anything," Lance puffed. "But as your best friend, I have to point out that as always you are trying to make a relatively simple personal situation more complicated by your endless pondering." He gave a disgusted snort. "You've always been a man of action, Keith – except when it came to your love life. Don't you think that it's about time you finally carried that dynamic personality off the battlefield with you?"
"Cheddar says the Princess really likes you," Pidge put in helpfully, pausing in his push-ups to argue his case. "That's the only reason I had for agreeing to help Lance with his scheming. I just wanted to make her happy. Oh, and you, too, Keith."
"Gee, thanks," Keith said, his tone even drier than before. "We're both so happy that we haven't even spoken since the moment Coran fixed the Blue Lion and got us out."
To say that things between himself and Allura had become monumentally awkward after that kiss was an understatement. Keith was all for trying to pretend that it had never happened, but Allura's inexperience didn't allow for that kind of treatment. She would be hurt by that, and it was that fear of what he would say that had probably caused her to run away as soon as they were out of the Lion and avoid him the rest of the day yesterday.
Damn, how could one little kiss change everything?
Okay, so it was not a LITTLE kiss – it was a lot more than that. It was lust, yes… but it was also caring and tenderness and… love, at least on his part. If Allura had not been Allura, and they were free to do as they pleased, well… On the other hand, if Coran, instead of Lance and Pidge, had seen it happen, Keith had no doubt that he and Allura would be in more trouble than he would care to imagine. And if Keith even considered having a repeat of the incident away from prying eyes, if he even considered trying to get Allura into a relationship that went beyond friendship – who knew what kind of trouble HE would be in? He didn't even want to think about it.
But in the hours between then and now, it was all he could seem to think about. At this point, he may have kissed her, but he still called the shots on how they would proceed from here. The moment he admitted to her that he was in love with her would be the point of no return, and he wasn't sure if at this point he should risk it.
"I still think you're making this too complicated for your own good – or for Allura's," Lance said sagely as he lay flat on the ground, breaking into Keith's thoughts and taking advantage of his sudden reflective mood to take a break from punishment. Pidge had seen this and followed his older teammate's example.
"Something like what happened yesterday should have changed things for the better for you… and since you're the more experienced one in these matters, you're the one who has to smooth things over if you want things to be as before," Lance concluded.
"For once, Lance, you're more right than you are wrong," Keith said thoughtfully after a pause. But then, the question really was – did he really want things to be the way they were before he kissed her?
Keith glanced down at both of his friends and raised a supercilious eyebrow. "But you both forget that I wouldn't even be in this predicament if the both of you hadn't decided to take matters into your hands. Now push. You both have another hundred to go."
Pidge and Lance both groaned in protest, but accepted their sentence as their due. After all, they HAD meddled. Besides, Lance reflected, as he continued his push-ups, if that reflective expression on Keith's face was any indication, the stunt he and Pidge had pulled just might be worth it and more.
The Arussian landscape revealed by the Observation Deck windows had never been more beautiful, bathed silver by the full moon outside. Even the room was brightened by the moonlight as it streamed through the transparent glass.
The heartbreaking beauty of the vista before her was lost on the Princess, who was staring at the windows sightlessly, lost in her thoughts.
It was just one kiss, she admonished herself, feeling herself flush at the memory. Why should everything change between us because of just one kiss?
She knew she should be cool, sophisticated, and act as if nothing had happened. After all, she was sure that Keith had had his fair share of casual kisses and more back on Terra, if Lance's stories on typical man-woman relationships were to be believed. She was probably the only one who was blowing this whole situation out of proportion. What was in one kiss that prevented their friendship to go on just as before?
Because you don't want to go on as you were before, some devil in her mind with her voice accused. You WANT things to change. You're in love with him.
She couldn't dismiss it as a causal kiss, because to her it had meant so much more than that.
Does he know? Could he tell with just one kiss?
If he did, it might change things between them forever. Allura sighed and laid her forehead against the glass. She may have wanted things to change, but it didn't mean that the feeling was mutual. And if she were to be honest with herself, she was willing to make the effort to pretend that yesterday hadn't happened if it meant having their easy companionship back again. She missed him so much already.
"Princess. I was hoping I'd find you here."
At his voice, Allura whirled around to face the man who had filled her thoughts for a longer time than she dared to admit, her heart picking up its pace. There he was standing in the moonlight, smiling at her, his dark eyes partly hidden in the shadows.
She smiled back at him, but couldn't quite meet his eyes. "Keith, hello," she said, looking everywhere but him, afraid that if she did look at him, he'd see her heart in her eyes.
"I've been meaning to talk to you."
Keith took a step forward, and she would have stepped back, only her back was already pressing against the glass windows. She wasn't ready for this, she wasn't ready to hear him tell her that there was no need for things to change between them, that is was just one casual kiss, and what was one kiss between friends.
"It's a lovely night, isn't it?" she babbled nervously to fill in the silence. She watched warily as he continued to come nearer, his eyes gleaming with amusement… and purpose. Unable to hold his gaze, she turned back towards the window. "The full moon is lovely, everything is silver and white. It hasn't been this clear since… since…"
Her voice trailed off when she felt his hands on her shoulders, gently turning her towards him, refusing to let her hide.
"Princess, I… about yesterday… I –"
"Keith, you don't have to apologize," Allura interrupted him hastily, still refusing to look at him. "Really, you don't have to. It just happened and what's just one kiss…" She paused when one of his hands cupped her chin and forced her gaze to meet his as she continued. "What's just one kiss between friends?"
"One kiss between friends," Keith echoed. He looked into her eyes for long moments, dark eyes intent. "Yes, Princess, we are friends, aren't we?" he said, a rueful smile on his face. "And the sensible thing for us to do would be to forget yesterday ever happened."
His words cut her to the quick, but she tried to hide her pain with a brave smile. "I… I suppose that's true," she agreed, gently removing his hand from her face and turning away from him. "We should forget anything ever happened and go back to the way things were…"
"Except that I don't want to."
"What?" Allura's startled blue eyes shot back to his, and she was stunned to see an emotion in them both somber and tender. "What did you say?"
"I don't want to forget yesterday happened… anymore than I want to deny that it's something I've wanted to happen for a long time," he said softly, tracing the curve of her cheek and smiling into her eyes. "I'm done trying to hide what I feel for you – even if I don't know where these feelings will bring me… bring us."
"Keith, I…" Allura began, so overwhelmed she could barely form a thought. Keith saved her, silencing her with a finger placed on her soft lips.
"It could never be just one kiss between friends because… I love you, Allura. I tried to fight it for so long… and I couldn't. I love you."
He dropped his hands from her face and stepped away, giving her space and time to adjust to his revelation. But at his words, a universe of warmth bloomed inside Allura, and her heart was in the smile she gave him before she impulsively hurled herself into her waiting arms and embraced him in response.
"I was so afraid," she whispered against his chest, so softly he almost couldn't hear her words.
"Of what?" he asked, stroking her silky hair, shining gold in the silver moonlight. She was his heartache, but now she was his miracle, standing in his arms.
"That you didn't feel the same way." After a pause, she added shyly, "I love you, Keith. I think I always have."
At her words, his arms tightened around her and she felt a kiss on top of her head. For the longest time they stood that way, holding each other, making sure this was real. They both had no idea where this would lead come tomorrow, but tonight they knew they loved each other – and that was enough for now.
"Princess?"
On hearing the husky note in his voice, Allura tipped her face towards him curiously. Her eyes were the color of midnight and her heart was in them. He wanted to fall into them forever.
"Let's not waste the moonlight," he said softly, cupping her face in his hands tenderly. In a heartbeat, his lips were on hers, molding themselves on her pliant ones, coaxing them to part and to cling to his. Her arms moved of their own volition around his neck, her fingers tangling in the soft, silky black hair at his collar.
In the silver moonlight, their two silhouettes blended into one.
From the doorway of the Observation Deck, Pidge and Lance held back their whoops of triumph just long enough for the doors to slide shut. Unable to resist seeing the results of their matchmaking, on a hunch, they took a peek into the Observation Deck in time to see the oblivious couple share a second, longer kiss. Grinning broadly at each other, the two friends exchanged one high-five, then another.
"I told you it would work!" Lance congratulated himself smugly. "I am the man!"
"So you did and so you are!" Pidge said. "But you never would have been able to pull it off without me!"
"Put what off?"
Stunned speechless, the two culprits turned to face Coran's curious stare. They watched warily as he moved his wise gaze from one face to another then the closed Observation Deck's doors behind them. Pidge and Lance stood their ground, determined to protect the product of their handiwork at all costs.
"Pidge and I were just talking about this project he just helped me with," Lance said, casually inserting his hands into his pockets. "I couldn't have done it without him."
Pidge nodded vigorously, a false smile pasted on his face, not quite able to manage Lance's nonchalance.
Coran studied them for another long moment. "Perhaps then, you should be thanking me for my help as well," the minister said thoughtfully, earning a suspicious glance from the two younger men.
"Oh?" Lance asked, scratching his head, genuinely bewildered. "Why is that?"
Coran waited a beat before replying.
"You didn't really believe it would take an entire hour for me to restore power to the lion chutes, did you?"
At seeing the look of stupefied disbelief on Pidge and Lance's faces, the Chief Minister let out a quiet chuckle and walked away, congratulating himself for a job well done.
- the end -