Tickled Pink

In response to my KAEX Challenge of Pick a Color: Pick a color! Whatever color you pick must figure prominently in the story and if it is in the title, even better! Story can be one-shot or multi-chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron or any of its characters.

Rating/Setting: Rating is T. Setting is DotU.

Author's Note: This story may bear a strong resemblance to my "What Could Go Thong?" story, but not only is the underwear different, the outcome is as well. I'm not sure why I have such a fascination with men's underwear turning up in Allura's laundry. :-D

The Crown Princess of Arus had had enough. Enough of a certain Lance McClain's joking and teasing.

Allura had just finished getting into her gown and was straightening her circlet when she noticed the basket of fresh laundry in her dressing room. Having done most things for herself while living in the caves beneath the castle after Doom's attack, she wasn't one to make the staff of the castle do everything for her. Nanny would like for them to, but not Allura.

She actually enjoyed doing things around the castle, things that if Nanny knew, she would not approve of. Things like sweeping, weeding, mending, and yes… laundry. It only took a few minutes to put most of the items away. She was just putting a few of her undergarments in the drawer when she noticed a pink article of clothing. Her eyes narrowed. While she was forced to wear this monstrosity of dress until some new ones could be made, she didn't have to like it or the color. In fact, she hated it. It had been one of her mother's that had survived the battle and ironically enough, it had survived because Queen Eleanor hated it and had it sent to the lower levels of the castle for storage. She had jokingly told her young daughter that maybe some future queen or princess would like it, but she certainly didn't.

Allura loved having the few items that she had of her mother's, but this wasn't one of them.

For the last month, Lance had been joking with her about her love of pink. It had started when Nanny brought out the fabric samples for the new dresses and they were all in shades of pink. Allura had told Nanny that she would have to get some more samples because the pink ones were unacceptable. Nanny had frowned and shook her head but said she would get the samples, but it would take a week or two. When the samples came in, Allura delighted in picking out shades of blue, purple, green, and even red.

However, once Lance had seen those initial samples he had gone on and on about seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. She still needed to look that one up. He talked about her being in the pink of health, pretty in pink, tickled pink, and something about a pink slip. She couldn't understand the last one as her slip was white. Obviously, Lance had been digging up some archaic Earth idioms for pink and had targeted her with them. The comments were getting on her last nerve, but this… this was too much.

She looked at the pink cotton fabric in her lingerie drawer. She had managed to avoid pink with her undergarments and yet there was something pink in the drawer. Her face colored the hated shade of pink as she wondered if he had dared to purchase panties for her. Allura could feel the heat in her cheeks. She was certain that the roses on her cheeks were now red and not pink.

In an effort to get rid of the offending color on her face, she reached over and snatched the offending article out of her drawer. The color stayed in her cheeks as she held up a pair of pink men's boxer briefs. What did Lance think he was doing? This was ridiculous. Allura's brow furrowed as she tried in vain to think of why he would go to the trouble of putting a pair of pink men's underwear in her things. Unable to come up with a suitable answer herself, she rolled up the underwear and put them in a pocket of the offensive dress she was wearing. Truly, it was about the only good thing about the dress. It was incredibly easy to hide almost anything in large billowing skirts.

It was early morning and they didn't have practice today until the afternoon. Since Lance loved to sleep in, she headed to his room to get answers. When she arrived, she tapped her foot on the floor as she heard him slowly get up to answer the chime that she was repeatedly pushing.

"All right, already! What's got your panties in-" Lance's eyes opened wide and his face colored as he saw not Hunk or PIdge, but the princess at his door. "Oh… Um… I didn't mean-"

Pulling the pink boxer briefs out of her pocket, she held them directly in front of Lance's face and asked. "Just what did you mean by putting these in with my lingerie? Hmmm? Should I show them to Nanny and tell her where they came from?"

For a moment Lance was stunned speechless and then a grin spread across his face. A grin that Allura couldn't see because of the boxers in front of her face. Reaching out, he grabbed the leg of the boxers and pulled them and her hands down so that he could see her face. He was still smiling as he said, "I think they're Keith's. I wear briefs, you know. Well, maybe you don't. But it doesn't matter, Keith wears that style and they look to be about his size. So… perhaps you should ask him how they got into your lingerie." He snickered at the last comment. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep." With that he turned and closed the door. As he headed back to his bed, he couldn't wait to ask Keith about the boxers. He had planned for it just to be a tease for Keith when he had done his laundry and created the pink briefs. Having a pair end up in Allura's room was just icing on the cake. A nice pink frosted cake.

It was Allura's turn to stand speechless. She had been so certain. Once again, the offensive color was on her cheeks. Dreadful man, she thought, as she stomped her foot. There would be no way that Lance would let it go. He would say something to Keith about it. She would just throw out the boxers if Lance would keep quiet. But he wouldn't. So she sighed as she rolled them up and went to Keith's room. Maybe he'd still be in there as it was still early.

Ringing the chime to Keith's room, she waited patiently. It did nothing to reduce the color in her face. The fact that she had a crush on the handsome commander didn't help anything. How embarrassing to ask him if a pair of pink boxers were his. Maybe she should just walk away and deny everything if Lance brought it up. She had just decided that was the way to go when the door to Keith's room opened.

Keith looked with surprise at Allura. "Princess, is something wrong?" It was highly unusual for Allura to come to his room.

"Um." Her face turned a brighter shade of red as she stammered, "Um… well… you see…."

Keith reached out and laid a hand on her arm. "It's okay, Princess. What is it?" He was worried that she was so nervous. It didn't help that he had a crush on her. One that his second in command enjoyed teasing him about.

"I don't know how to say this." Allura looked down and then began speaking quickly as she stared at Keith's white boots. "I just found these in my dressing room today. And they're not mine. Well, obviously they're not mine and they're not Lance's either. Anyway, he said he thought they might be yours."

"Wait, wait. What are you talking about, Allura? What isn't yours? What did you find?" Keith was truly perplexed.

Allura gripped the underwear tightly in her pocket as she looked up at Keith. "It's just that Lance has been teasing me unmercifully about this dress and the color pink. I thought he had put these in my room as a joke." She pulled the article of clothing out and held it in front of her.

Keeping his face devoid of reaction, Keith replied, "I see." Looking from the boxers to Allura he said, "And Lance told you they might be mine."

Allura dropped her hands and turned away, "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Commander. Obviously they're not yours. I'm so embarrassed." She went to leave when he reached out again to take her arm.

"Just give them to me. I'll take care of them." Keith said softly. "There's no reason to be embarrassed. And don't worry, I'll speak to Lance. He won't be teasing you anymore unless he wants the early morning shift for a week." He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it anymore."

Looking into the dark pools of his eyes, Allura smiled at him like a love-sick teenager. At least she didn't have to worry about blushing, as she had been doing that all morning. "Thank you, Keith," she said as she turned away. He said he'd handle it and she knew he would. As she neared her room, the thought crossed her mind that Keith hadn't actually said that the boxers weren't his… and if they weren't his, then whose were they?

Once Allura walked away, Keith let the door close. He looked at the pink boxers in his hand and threw back his head and groaned. Gathering himself, he walked over to his dresser and opened a drawer. Inside were about five more pairs of pink boxer briefs. Two weeks ago Lance said he'd do him a favor and do his laundry. At the time it seemed like a good idea. However, when he got his white boxer briefs back they were no longer white. Lance had washed all of his laundry together - his white boxers and his red flight suits. He dropped the boxers into the drawer. It now dawned on Keith that Lance may have done it on purpose. Since he had been teasing Allura for a month and the laundry incident was two weeks ago… Lance could have put the boxers in Allura's room. Had he set this all up knowing that Allura would call him out on it? If he had, then he got to irritate the princess AND his best friend at the same time while appearing innocent.

Keith smiled as he went to his computer and brought up the upcoming month's duty roster. As he rearranged some of the assignments, he glanced over to his laundry hamper. Seeing that he had several flight suits that needed to be laundered, a thought came to him. "Hmmm, I think I'll just help Lance with his laundry once he goes down for breakfast." Going back over to his bed, he lay on top of the covers and put his arms behind his head. Envisioning a basket full of pink briefs for Lance once he had finished the laundry, he smiled as he said to himself, "We'll see who's tickled pink."