Perfection

Lotor smiled wickedly as light glowed out of a familiar window in the Castle of Lions. Night flanked the planet Arus, stars glittering overhead as the embers of the day's war cooled upon their battlefield. His personal cruiser skirted across the terrain for the second time in one solar cycle, eyeing the deep gouges in the soil and the metallic remains of Haggar's robeast, still smoking.

His eyes slid back to the castle, eyeing the room he marked as the Princess'. He grinned, feeling the familiar heat of conquest thrum in his chest. The rest of the fortress seemed to be quieting down; only a handful of other windows were illuminated.

Uniquely, the castle was not the objective of his current mission, but a stop by to check on Allura wouldn't be terrible – after all, it was only proper to spare a greeting when in the vicinity.

He laughed darkly as his cruiser arced in the air, diving away from the Arusian pillar of strength on the skyline. Deftly, he dipped between the trees.

"Sire, your father is ill," Haggar said.

"Again?" Lotor glanced to her irritably as he removed his helm. He'd barely had a moment to breathe since his return from the staggering defeat on Arus. He set the war ornament aside and ran his fingers through his hair. "Don't tell me he needs those damned berries again," he growled. Though the prospect of returning to Arus wasn't wholly unappealing.

"No," she admitted. When Lotor's jaw tensed, she continued. "But the remedy does come from Arus," she hedged as the prince turned away, uninterested. He stilled, glancing back to the witch curiously.

"Go on," he encouraged.

Lotor cursed as the trees grew thicker the closer he flew to the area Haggar had indicated. Unable to bring the ship through the dense forest, he landed nearby and stepped out, looking around the landscape.

"Witch, your directions are terrible," he grumbled as he began making his way on foot. He had little idea what he was looking for and was unhelpfully informed that he would know it when he saw it.

Haggar had gone on to explain that hidden deep within the forest on Arus, a cave housed an enchanted spring - according to some legend she had found. The water never grew cold and was imbued with healing powers. He hedged that he was going the correct direction as the foliage grew thicker and the terrain more difficult to navigate – a spring of rejuvenation seemed like a secret the mystical planet would guard naturally, if it did indeed exist.

He paused to catch his breath, glancing around the forest landscape, finding himself marginally impressed by how utterly wild Allura's planet was. Nearly as wild as she, he thought with a fanged smirk. The prospect of passing by her again refueled his energy and he began picking his way among the heavy, ancient roots of ageless trees.

This would be far easier with a robeast, he mused darkly. His thoughts stalled as he came upon an entrance to a cave. His eyes flashed around the small clearing. A nondescript hill, fully hidden beneath the rich, leafy canopy of trees sat innocently in the middle of the glade.

As benign as it looked – it was completely out of place for the region. No other mountainous terrain was nearby, and as Lotor cautiously approached the small opening, he noticed a worn path leading down into the earth, a warm, soft glow providing just enough light to see the ground.

He had to credit the witch in one regard – she hadn't been wrong about knowing it at first sight.

Carefully he ducked his tall frame through the short opening silently picked his way down the earthen path.

Lotor pivoted around a hairpin turn in his descent and the sound of bubbling water met his ears. The air became more humid and as he descended further, the scent of water lilies bloomed.

Hellish demons below, could it actually exist?

As the tunnel opened into a cavernous space, he froze.

It wasn't the seemingly-magical sconces glittering on the cave walls, the stalagmites of crystal rising from the ground or the eternally-hot water flowing down a waterfall into a basin that caught his breath. The underground flowers blooming magically without sunlight didn't merit his attention as he strode into the hazy, steam-filled paradise.

"Allura."

Eyes the shade of ice and wide as the ocean itself snapped to his without warning, her skin turning a deathly shade of pale. He approached her slowly, regarding as the princess deftly drew her knees to her chest and pulled her hair over her shoulders, scrabbling for some shred of decency.

Lazily, Lotor eased himself into a seated position on one bank of the sunken basin, eyeing her petrified form plastered to the far side.

"What… how… are you here?" Her bottom lip trembled as she released a shaky whisper. He tilted his head to the side, studying her form curled in the waters, bare as far as he could tell of any scrap of clothing.

This is certainly unexpected.

He reveled in what he could see of her – the steam and murkiness of the water obscured his view to a degree, but what was visible was enrapturing. Lotor's gaze skirted from the curve of her shoulder to the plume of hair to her face.

He frowned.

"You look terrified," he commented.

He watched as Allura's lips parted as if she meant to say something but no words came from them. Her wide eyes swiveled around the room before fixing on something near him. He followed her gaze and grinned when he saw what appeared to be a towel and a robe.

"Oh, did you want these? By all means, my sweet, come and get them." He patted the ground next to where he was sitting, delighting as her skin flushed from ghostly to crimson.

"Lotor, I'm… I…"

He laughed darkly as she struggled to find her voice.

"What is it, darling? You've never been so tongue-tied with me before."

"I'm indecent," she hissed out between her teeth, the surprise in her eyes melting into blue fire.

"I can tell," he nodded in her direction, evoking a gasp from her as she wrapped her arms around the knees at her chest, trying desperately to curl in on herself.

"You're an uncouth-"

"Yes."

"-ruthless-"

"Also true."

"-despicable scoundrel!" She finished in a huff, her anger causing her chest to gasp for air, throwing her clavicle into stark contrast. His eyes slowly trailed back up her throat, pausing in her lips as she inhaled sharply.

A moment of silence fell between them, punctuated only by the bubbling sounds from the waterfall.

"Why are you here," he asked, his voice softer than he expected it to be. The query left his lips before he realized he had even thought it in the first place.

"I…" She blinked, trailing off. Lotor watched, enraptured, as her shoulders hunched forward slightly, drawing into a more defensive position. Every curve of her muscle, every raised bone, every flexed tendon stood out in elegant, sharp relief courtesy the strange, fiery lights flickering in the room.

"Allura," he murmured her name again, stunned when her frigid eyes flashed to him.

"Why are you here," she snapped in return. "How did you even find this place to begin with?"

"Haggar, of course," he grinned, falling back into their usual banter with the return of her temper.

"Yes, well, you can leave now, thank you," she muttered nodding to the exit, her hand curling around her shoulder protectively.

He grinned evilly at her and slowly rose to his feet. He marked the surprise on her face as if she never thought he would listen to her. Pity for her, he wasn't.

"What are you doing?!" Her voice thundered off the walls as he unlatched the belt around his waist, dropping it neatly to the earth near her towel.

"Why, I've decided to join you, darling."

"Don't you dare." Her voice was a lethal whisper, and he couldn't help the dark laugh that bubbled from his chest. Her fury was rich and he thrivedon her challenge. A woman to match his own – he found her utterly decadent.

"Lotor!" Her voice wavered slightly as he tugged the tunic off over his head and tossed it aside. A low murmur of what he could only presume was an undignified strain of curses echoed from her as she pressed her hands over her eyes.

He kicked off his boots and with little effort, the leggings followed swiftly after. He hesitated before stepping into the basin, curious if she would peek his way.

She did not.

He watched as her hair bobbed slightly when the water level rose marginally, his weight settling into the basin. Even as he reclined back, she still did not part her fingers.

"How long are you going to stay like that?" He chuckled.

"As long as you remain undressed," she muttered back.

He lounged lazily, propping his arms up out to the sides, his fingertips brushing against the fabric of her garments absentmindedly. The water was hot and churning around them, constantly flowing courtesy the falls.

"Then I believe we will be here a very long time," he murmured, watching her carefully.

"You cannot keep me here!" She snapped, dropping her hands back into the water to glare at him. Her naturally narrowed eyes popped wide – was that a hint of a blush on her cheeks? – as she looked to him.

"I'm not stopping you from leaving," Lotor laughed, grinning lethally at her. "By all means, if you want to step out of the water, I encourage it."

"You vile, wretched man," she hissed in response, the pink on her cheeks deepening when his grin only widened.

"You flatter me, my dear. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were starting to warm to my affections!"

Lotor's gloating chilled at the pained expression she tossed him across the water. Her face was taut with hurt and tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

"Why do you hate me so?" Her whispered words iced his chest in a way that he was unprepared for.

"Hate you?" He stared at her incredulously.

"You hurt the people I care about, you've stalked me here – I have no weapon, I have no lion, I have no clothes," she trailed off, shaking her head. "It's like you know precisely what scares me the most, as if you can read my mind."

The heavy silence settled between them and Lotor found himself growling under his breath. Her temper fueled his, her fury matched his own. When she grew quiet, he found himself aggravatingly deflated.

"Why are you here, Allura?" He lowered his voice in both volume and frequency, watching her closely. Her eyes flickered his way before glancing back down to the water demurely. She shifted.

"To bathe," she murmured after a moment of thoughtfulness.

"There's more to it than that, isn't there?" He verbally nudged her gently.

His eyes narrowed when her frame squirmed uncomfortably, as if she were warring with herself on what to say.

"I came here… to… to heal," she whispered after a moment. Lotor's brow furrowed sharply. That was certainly not the answer he expected.

"Are your injuries so severe that your infirmary cannot treat you?" His eyes widened as his pulse quickened, his eyes quickly skimming what he could see of her flesh for any marring. He had always been so careful with the Blue Lion – markedly many times he had lost had been because of a decision not to press her too sharply when he had the chance.

"No, they are… average. Scrapes, cuts, bruises. Nothing severe," she admitted, shifting her weight to raise her shoulder out of the water fully, exposing a moderate bruise cycling through the stages of accelerated healing.

"Then why come all the way out here? Why alone?"

Allura's fingertips trailed on top of the water absentmindedly as her form fell back beneath the murky surface and she shrugged.

Seconds bled into moments, and Lotor allowed the question to hang in the air. Her eyes never rose to meet him, and he found her docile nature unnatural and unnerving. Finally, she answered.

"Because I cannot ever let anyone know that the injuries exist at all."

He blinked.

"I don't understand," he said flatly, feeling blindsided by her explanation.

"It's not fair," she murmured, tucking her chin against her knees, curling tighter into herself. "The boys get to come back and talk about the close calls… what they could have done differently. They compare injuries and laugh about it. It's as if it's… a sport or a game."

"And you…" he urged her to continue. Celebrating victory by admiring the injuries was fairly common practice among Drules. He could appreciate the tradition, but what he couldn't understand was her reticence.

"Do you honestly think Keith would allow me to keep flying if he knew I got hurt?" She snapped, her eyes flashing to his angrily. "No. The answer is no, he wouldn't. No one in that castle would allow it," she supplied when he remained silent, a thread of bitterness lacing her tone. "So while they get to relax and laugh… I feign exhaustion and retire to my room. And then I come here. The boys believe I'm resting, too fragile to celebrate with them – when in reality, I'm here healing wounds rapidly so that they never know they existed." She frowned, glaring at the water.

"Why-"

"Because I must, at all costs, preserve the illusion that I am never harmed in any way. If a strand of hair is out of place, people grow worried. …I suppose I should be grateful for the amount of care and concern my friends give, but… Lotor," she turned to look at him again, a weariness in her eyes he had not seen before.

His throat tightened and he remained silent.

"Forced perpetual perfection is so exhausting." She shook her head once and sighed. "So no, in answer to your question, I cannot even use my own facilities to treat my injuries because then they would know they existed, and I would lose the one thing I crave most – freedom. It happened once where it was bad enough they knew, and they nearly kept me from Blue Lion for it. I cannot risk that again."

"Allura," he moved before he even considered it.

"Don't!" Her shrill noise of panic coupled by the quick recoil stilled him as he came to sit near her.

"I just want to look at your shoulder," he murmured, his eyes taking in the tightly defensive position she had flinched into. She eyed him with the wariness of a cornered wild animal, and Lotor respected that he was one wrong move away from getting swiped, as she was prone to do. He predicted the reason she hadn't yet was due to the fact her hands were tightly coiled around her chest.

He reached to touch her, moving slowly. The soft, guttural noise she made when his bare skin touched her shoulder ignited a fire in his abdomen, taking him by surprise. She weakly acquiesced as her skin flushed crimson, letting his fingertips trail down to the nearly-vanished bruise.

Her eyes were fixated sharply on something in the distance, Allura's entire body rigid, unable to look to him. His digits glided up to her collarbone, deftly tracing along the contours. In response, the prideful princess drew in a ragged breath.

"You can stop that now," she whispered uneasily.

"Would you like me to," he leaned in close as his voice dropped to a whisper, drawing his touch up the delicate arch of her throat and through her hair.

"Yes…" Her whispered word trembled with uncertainty and a shiver vibrated down her spine. Frustrated by her crumbling will, she turned to face him sharply, bringing her face nose to nose with his. Her eyes widened as if surprised by his proximity.

"What are you doing here…"

"I heard a rumor this place existed. I needed some of the water," he supplied carefully, never taking his eyes off her. "You know," he murmured, reaching up to hook his finger under her chin. "You'd never need to hide a battle wound from me." He watched intently as her pupils dilated slightly. She swallowed tensely, but allowed him the liberties her took. "In my culture, females fight just as the males do… we make no secrets of the results of our campaigns."

She pulled back weakly and he, once more, found himself allowing it. Her eyes were wary and guarded as she studied him openly. He only smiled at her, leaning back against the basin side to watch her scoot further from him dubiously.

Allura shook her head once, coming to sit in the water near where the clothing rested, Lotor unabashedly occupying the spot she had been in before.

"I need to go back. If they realize I'm not in my room…"

He stretched his arms out on either side of him, draping his palms against the back as he lounged and just shrugged, gesturing across the way to the garments easily within her reach.

"I'm not stopping you," he grinned wider, delighted with how she looked between the towel and him. He could easily see her rapidly calculating how to get the towel around her body before standing up without getting it wet.

Realizing the impossibility of it, she fixed him with a pouting gaze.

"Lotor," she exhaled, frustrated. He studied her a moment longer and shook his head, laughing at her naivety. Slowly, he turned his back to her. Before he even finished settling into place, a splash sounded, followed by the whip of fabric. He listened until the rustling stopped and turned back to face her.

Her eyes were honed sharply on him as she stepped into a pair of white flats.

Lotor drank in her frame from her flushed features to the towel she fluffed through wet hair. A simple white robe was tied around her body tightly, floor length and modest.

"You are perfection," he murmured, snapping his gaze back to her eyes just in time to see them widen in shock, her cheeks coloring brightly.

"I try. I have to present it so-"

"No, Allura," he cut her off dismissively, his voice low as he chose his words carefully, measuring her reaction. "It is not something that you do, it is something that you simply are. Wounds and ruffles do not change that."

Her hands stilled in the action of attending her hair as she stared at him in surprise.

"I'm leaving," she announced after several heated moments of silence passed between them. Lotor said nothing as she waited for a rebuttal. At his silence, she turned and made her way to the narrow passage leading back to the glade, pausing once to glance over her shoulder at him.

He flashed her a fanged smirk, delighting in the flush that colored her face before she scurried out of the cave. He laughed softly, continuing to lounge in the hot springs.

A wicked thought struck him and settled evilly in his chest. Allura had mentioned her self-healing practice was routine after every battle.

His grin widened.

Perhaps losing to Voltron wasn't such a terrible option, after all.

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