Allura had her attention focused on the holoscreen in front of her, the ship they had been working on lying peacefully in the background. It was late and she had worked for the whole day, but she had just figured out some equations that had been bothering her the last few days so her tiredness went after her excitation. "A few more doboshes" she was telling herself.

Suddenly, she felt Lotor, right besides her, leaning to her and gently gripping her hips in his hand. He drew her closer to him and she giggled.

"Hi there, princess" he said softly while hovering over her neck with his mouth, "It's late, you know. I'd appreciate if you wouldn't work yourself to death."

He put a ghost kiss on her cheek and she turned crimson red. She tried to push him away but she wasn't really convincing - they both knew it.

"I'm almost done" she said as an excuse "we're almost there."

Lotor looked up at the ship with a confident smile then looked back at her and it was so obvious that he had never looked at anything or anyone the way he was looking at her right now.

"Allura."

She bit her lower lip and stared at the floor. Whenever he used her name, it was because he was going to say something so sweet, so meaningful that it would make her want to be in his arms forever.

"Allura."

With extreme gentleness, he took her chin in his thin fingers and lifted it to him so that she couldn't but look at him in the eyes.

"What you've done, it's amazing. I mean it. Don't tire you out please. We need you." He waited for a second before adding: "I need you."

She tried to play it casual.

"I'm not tiring myself out. I'm just excited, that's all."

He laughed - his laugh was so bright, it sounded like the cute fountains she used to listen to in their garden, back when Altea was still a planet (and a people).

"Aren't we all?" asked the half-Galra prince. "Still, let not rush it. I appreciate this time we're spending together."

"Me too!" she quickly replied. She leaned closer against him. "But I want it to be finished so bad. I'm impatient for us to manoeuvre it. Together."

While still smiling - but his smile felt sadder? - Lotor delicately pushed her away.

"Yes. You are. But you know that won't happen."

"Why? Why's that, Lotor?"

He slowly put out a dark purple knife from his belt.

"Because you know we didn't."

Allura felt a huge sense of danger flooding into her veins. But she couldn't move. She was like hypnotized. Or maybe she just didn't want to. Memories were getting back to the surface. She shook her head.

"No, no... Please, we can make this work."

Lotor pressed his lips together.

"No, we can't" he said dryly.

And then, with no more brutality than when he had embraced her, he plunged his knife in her stomach. Allura gasped. They stared at each other and she could tell, she was sure he looked only sorry.

"Allura! Allura!"

She woke up suddenly and for a second, she didn't know where she was or what was happening but she pressed her hand on her stomach, right where she had dreamt Lotor had plunged his knife. Of course, there was no blood - nor pain.

"Allura! Are you okay?"

She blinked a few times before rising her eyes to meet up with Lance's. She considered her environment and saw that he was bended over her bed, holding firmly her hand. The room was dark. It was the middle of the night, in the hospital the five paladins were while recovering from their final battle with Sendak.

Earth. Allura breathed out. Her memory had completely come back to her now. What happened was just a dream - a real bad one but a dream nonetheless.

"Yes... Yes, I'm fine, thank you, Lance."

The boy looked away for a second, embarrassed. Then he let out her hand and sat onto her couch. For a moment, he fiddled with his pants. Finally, he spoke again, without looking at her.

"You were screaming. I though-"

She put her hand on his shoulder and mildly smiled.

"You did the right thing. Thank you, Lance."

He nodded before raising his head in her direction. He attempted to smile in his flirtatious way - he was obviously trying to make her feel better but since he couldn't find what to say, he ended up asking softly:

"So... you want to talk about it?"

Allura's smiled vanished and she looked down, frowning. It's not that she didn't want to share her nightmares with Lance - they had gotten so close lately, she felt like she could trust him with that - she just couldn't find the words either.

"I- I dreamt about Lotor."

Lance immediately looked sad. He took her hand and squeezed it lightly. Allura tried to keep going but words decidedly wouldn't come out and she shook her head, unable to speak.

"You really loved him, didn't you?" asked Lance as softly as before.

She nodded. Her hand slipped out of his and she curled up.

"I think so. He was so nice and caring and- and I thought the feeling was mutual." Tears of rage and sorrow started flowing. "But he just wanted to use me before betraying us all. I feel so bad. This is all my fault!"

"Hey! Allura! Allura, please!"

She looked up at the Paladin who was bending over her again.

"This is not your fault" said Lance while insisting on every word so she knew he meant them all. "He played on your feelings and- heck! He played on everyone's feelings! We all believed in his lies about peace and shit! Besides, falling in love is never someone's fault. It just sucks because he didn't deserve you and he hurt you."

Allura wiped out her tears and sat up.

"Thank you Lance" she said for the third time. "You really know what to say."

He shrugged and gave her his charming smile - though his eyes were sad.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

They stood silent for a few more minutes before Lance sighed and rose to his feet and, having asked if she was going to be okay or if she didn't need anything else, started to walk to the door. Before he crossed the threshold, however, Allura called him back.

"Why were you up?" she asked him. She frowned. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

The Cuban boy smiled wildly at her.

"No, no, don't worry! I, er, couldn't sleep either so I went out for a walk. Though it may help."

She nodded.

"I see. Then, good night, Lance."

His smile softened.

"Good night princess."

The corridors were dark - and cold. Actually, they weren't that cold, because despite the lack of energy needed to have the heaters working all the time (with all the reconstruction and stuff, it was to be expected that they'd have to make sacrifices, especially when none of the Paladins were in mortal danger), the weather was still fine and they could nearly walk bare foot. So, it was more like an internal feeling of cold.

Lance went back to his own bedroom. He hesitated to turn on the lights but decided that he better not if he was going to try having some sleep. He crawled in his bed and drew the sheet up to his chin.

He stared at the ceiling.

"Geez!" he exclaimed while pressing his palms on his eyes "why am I like this?"

He turned over and tried to get to sleep. But all he could think about was Allura - and Lotor (eurk). When these two had started growing closer to each other, he had wondered if what he felt about Allura was really love. Then Lotor betrayed them and now, he couldn't help but feel like he had a second chance. That was silly, though. Allura had never been in love with him and now with her heart broken, she was definitively not looking for another boyfriend.

Plus, he hadn't sorted the question out, yet: was he in love with Allura? When he thought about her, he felt a huge burst of affection towards her but so did he with the rest of the team.

So, to put it in a nutshell.

Why was he crying?