Updated version January 21, 2015 (Australian EST)
Part of the Fearless Arc. Takes place somewhere inside Fearless Part Two. All fun and fluffy KA day of love hearts.
For more Valentine's Day stories from our KA fanfic writers, Please visit http-keithandallura-dot-wordpress-dot-com
Standard Disclaimer Clause : World Events Productions (WEP) owns Voltron and Voltron Force.
Keith and Allura's First Valentine's Day
Sitting on her bed, Allura called her cousin, Princess Romelle of planet Pollux. It was just after lunch and she had an hour till her next scheduled meeting. She'd meant to have a nap, but she'd decided to speak with her via video-call instead.
"Tomorrow's Valentine's Day," Romelle said, swooning.
"What's Valentine's Day?" Allura knotted her brow, looking perplexed.
"Don't your boys tell you anything?" Romelle retorted in feigned annoyance.
"Well, we've been… umm... busy… lately," Allura stuttered, her cheeks turning pink. For a moment, her eyes shifted to a dreamy haze. Realising her thoughts drifted elsewhere, she snapped back to the present.
"Oh, what's with that dreamy look? You can't hide anything from me, Allura Raimon. Any progress yet?" Romelle pressed her nose closer to the video screen and waggled her eyebrows.
"Umm… well… we're taking it slow, and there's been a… uh… significant improvement," Allura faltered, hesitating whether she would tell her cousin or not.
"Oh, give me delicious details, my dear." Romelle teased.
Allura replied wordlessly with an exaggerated wink and tapped the side of her nose with her finger. She tried to distract her cousin instead. "So, this Valentine's Day that you speak of, tell me more about it and let's see if I can come up something special…"
vvvvVvvvvVvvvv
The Voltcoms are amazing, and so handy. I really like this new device. Allura thought as she raised her left arm and marvelled at the black-with-blue-outline Voltcom. Designed not just to be a mere tactical device, the Voltron Force's special gauntlet was activated with the power of Voltron's Lions. Worn on the user's forearm, the Voltcom served as their link to the lions and more importantly, to each other. It could also generate weapons based on the user's specific capabilities.
After their initial hand-to-hand combat session to determine what weapons each Voltcom would provide, Allura was surprised that her Voltcom showed not just one, but three possible weapons: a bow with energy arrows (she apparently had excellent visual acuity that proved useful with long-range targets), an energy whip, and a personal cloaking field that bent light around her, rendering her invisible.
She was seated cross-legged in the middle of her bed as she began the first step in her plan. It was her first time to have a fiancé on this "Valentine's Day" and she wasted no time cutting lots of red and pink paper hearts in different sizes. Perfect. Simply perfect. She smiled to herself as she finished the last set of paper hearts.
vvvvVvvvvVvvvv
[The next day, 0400 HRS]
Like any dutiful soldier, the commander of the Voltron Force was an early riser. Keith padded quietly to his en-suite bathroom for a quick shower before his day began. Barely awake and bleary-eyed, he nonetheless knew exactly where the shower buttons were without needing to look. Pushing the "cold" button, he suddenly jumped when a large mass of pink and red dropped from the ceiling, surrounding his face.
What the hell?!
Instantly awake, he saw several tiny paper hearts dangling from strings, with one red folded paper heart hanging in their midst. Inside was a message in Allura's handwriting:
Why do I love you?
Let me count the ways:
1 / 5 : You're my best friend.
Keith simply shook his head and smiled. What was Allura up to today? And how in the seven hells did she manage to install this contraption? He knew it wasn't there last night.
He finished his shower managing not to get the hearts wet, then with a towel around his waist, left the bathroom and padded towards a nearby chest of drawers to get dressed. As he pulled the top drawer out, another blur of red and pink suddenly popped up from it, surprising him again. A set of pink hearts on slender springs bobbed side to side, with one red folded paper heart in the middle. With a lopsided grin, he opened the red paper heart and it read:
2 / 5 : You've always protected me.
Keith smiled again and shook his head. He wasn't sure if he liked being surprised this way, so early in the morning. However, Allura was not only his first girlfriend, but now she was also his fiancée and this was their first Valentine's Day together. Keith grabbed his new black pilot uniform and zipped it up. His thoughts lingered on the past few days, how things had been since they got back from their little R-and-R. Now they were back in the thick of things. He sat at the edge of his bed, pulling on his right boot, and felt something odd inside. Taking it off again, Keith reached in with his hand, and withdrew yet another red paper heart, which read:
3 / 5 : You're the most caring and thoughtful person I have ever met.
Keith was genuinely surprised this time. The commander's brilliant tactical mind did not see any of this coming, especially not from the princess who'd had a full schedule since they'd come back from R-and-R. His curiosity was now piqued as to how (and when) Allura had accomplished all this. Hadn't they been together last night after dinner, discussing her new online graduate course on intergalactic political science?
Coffee. Strong coffee.
He headed purposefully towards Castle Control, a man on a mission. Lion manoeuvres were in thirty minutes. He figured he had enough time to check the security footage, smiling to himself. He could finally figure out when Allura had snuck into his room.
Pidge was already in front of the holo-consoles, doing his morning routine checks.
"Morning, Pidge. Listen, can you bring up the security footage from the last twelve to twenty-four hours? I need the visual just outside my room and the rest of the corridor."
Pidge quickly accessed the footage. "Looking for anything in particular?"
"No, nothing specific." Keith quickly viewed the short video feed in time-lapse. No one had entered or exited his room, except for himself. Keith pondered as he watched the video clip a few more times. That doesn't make any sense. Quickly glancing at the time, Keith realised he still had fifteen minutes until their morning practise with their robot lions' latest manoeuvres. "Pidge, I'll take the spire elevator up to Black this morning. See you out there in a few minutes."
"Sure thing. I'm just wrapping up here," Pidge replied.
Keith took the long way to Black Lion via the glass tube elevator that went straight up to the spire. He was grateful that Hunk had set up a small lounge area in Black's hangar when they needed to chill out on this side of the castle. Hunk even added an automatic coffee machine.
Double shot of espresso. Keith thought. Normally it was just a single espresso shot. He selected the coffee setting he wanted, but the machine made a high-pitched buzz and nothing happened. Grumbling, Keith pulled out the coffee bean reservoir and found it empty except for a shiny red foil package stuffed inside.
What the hell? He took it out and ripped the foil open. Inside was another paper heart with a handwritten message:
4/5 : You're not even aware that you're
the hottest man in the galaxy (and you're all mine!)
Warmth crept from the back of his neck to the tips of his ears. Keith never considered himself good-looking. Vanity just wasn't in his character. He let out a deep sigh.
Where are those coffee beans?
Having finally gotten his much-needed caffeine hit, he was about to clamber up into Black when he realised the last "surprise" could be hidden in the cockpit. He felt the flush of anticipation despite himself. But as soon as he got inside, he found nothing. No note, no dangling pink hearts from the cockpit's ceiling, and no folded red paper heart either. Keith checked under the seat and controls and came up empty-handed.
Okay, princess…what are you up to?
Keith checked the time: it was 0455H. He launched Black out of the spire and into their training area. He brought up the on-screen visuals of his four team mates and promptly greeted them a good morning. He cleared his mind and snapped into commander mode. "Let's do this, team."
vvvvVvvvvVvvvv
Throughout the manoeuvrers, Keith kept an eye on Blue Lion and its pretty pilot. Blue was a bit sprightly this morning, like it had a spring in its paws, and its movements were swifter than usual. Blue's pilot, however, showed no indication of this enthusiasm. The princess looked very serious this morning.
When they finished their morning practise, Keith ordered his team to park their robot lions back to their respective dens.
"Hey, Keith, aren't we a bit distracted this morning?" Lance's leering grin filled his display screen.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Lance," Keith replied with his signature deadpan look.
"Really? Weren't you a bit off by... point-zero-three percent?" Lance teased.
Too early for this. Keith smirked at Lance.
"Anything on your mind, Keith? Zero specifics on the security footage bothering you?" Pidge asked.
They won't let this go, will they? Keith had to say something. "Hunk, we need more coffee beans at the Spire."
"There you go, team. Our commander didn't get enough coffee this morning." Hunk snapped his fingers.
Keith's eyes darted towards the Blue Lion pilot. She's so composed and relaxed today.
"Anything to add, Princess?" Keith asked, half expecting Allura to say something about the paper hearts. Her bond's been awfully quiet all morning, Keith mused.
"I can't think of anything, Commander, except I enjoyed today's practice session." Allura smiled sweetly.
:: Why are you blocking me out, Allura? ::
Allura didn't reply.
Back at Castle Control, they went over the diagnostics and stats from the morning's practice session. All seemed within reasonable error variances. Everyone else's error variance was between three to seven percent. Keith's was less than three percent. They had yet to get used to the Lions' new control systems and new capabilities. Each lion had been retrofitted with ergonomically designed state-of-the-art armour plating.
Everyone had an hour until the next scheduled training session, which was either in the sim or the gym. Sparring partners were usually randomly assigned by the computer. This helped keep everyone on their toes and be prepared for the day's martial arts class.
"Princess, may I speak with you for a moment please?" Keith held Allura's arm. Once they were alone in Castle Control, he asked quietly, "Why have you been blocking me all morning?"
"Now you know how I feel when you block me."Allura smirked.
"I got four out of five of your little surprises."
Allura's eyes suddenly lit up. Her bond shone brightly, enough to light up the cavernous control room. She squealed with delight and threw her arms around him.
"That was very sweet of you, Allura. Thank you." Keith said solemnly. Brushing his lips on hers, he wrapped his arms around her waist. He just couldn't believe that his princess had lavished so much attention on him. "So, where's the fifth red paper heart?" Keith couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.
"The great Commander Keith Kogane hasn't yet found the fifth red heart?" Allura asked, her eyes twinkled with mischief.
"Uh-oh, I sense trouble." Keith grinned.
"Do you really want to know where the fifth heart is?" Allura placed her hands on his hard chest and peered through her eyelashes.
"Do I really want to know where it is?" Keith swallowed hard.
Allura stepped out of Keith's embrace. She slowly placed her fingers at the collar of her new blue-and-black pilot uniform and grasped the zipper. Like some slow-motion cinematic reel, she very slowly pulled the zipper down, from her neck, to her sternum and halfway down her bosom—
Keith suddenly snapped out of his lascivious reverie and blurted out loud, "Princess! What are you doing? Not out here!"
Allura stopped. She then pulled out a small silver heart-shaped locket that hung from her neck on a silver chain. The fifth red paper heart was taped to the locket's cover. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. My commander has such a dirty, dirty mind." Allura laughed softly.
"You had me there, Allura." His empath bond felt woozy and close to fainting.
"Looks like you've been missing something since we got back from the islands."
"You're such a tease. You're not playing fair." Keith let out a defeated sigh.
"I just wanted to give you this." Allura took his hand and placed the locket in the centre of his palm. She tiptoed and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek, whispering softly, "Happy Valentine's Day. I'll see you later." Her voice was full of hope and promise.
And with that, the princess left him standing alone at Castle Control.
Keith stood stunned and speechless.
He opened the tiny heart-shaped locket slowly. One side held a picture of them together. The other side had a tiny button. When he pressed it, out came a series of holo-images taken at the beach. There were holding each other: she was wearing that beautiful summer floral dress. Her hair was wild and windswept. They were in each other's arms, laughing and giggling in youthful abandon. Their eyes were glowing with love and happiness simply because they were together.
Keith unfolded the red paper heart and read:
5/5 : I love you because you are you.
I will love you always, No Matter What.
Forever.
Happy Valentine's Day!