A/N

Oh my gosh all of you lovely! I was not expecting to get such nice reviews, let alone so many of them! Reading all of them made me so happy and got me excited so I made this chapter extra long. I am really excited to share it with you guys this has been some one of my favorite scence from anystory to write!


Later that day all of Team Voltron were off in different parts of the castle attending to personal matters. The first planet they choose to liberate was far enough to have to spend half a day's worth of traveling to, but not far away enough to warrant opening a wormhole.

"End training sequence," Keith breathlessly said as he stood in the training deck standing over dozens of defeated training bots. He heard soft clapping coming from the doorway.

"Very impressive," Allura complemented him.

"How long has she been there?" Keith thought to himself.

"Are you done for the day?"

"No, I was probably going to keep at it for a while longer. There really isn't much else to do," Keith said awkwardly. Out of all his team members, Keith felt farthest from Allura. He would never admit it but the truth was he was much more comfortable around Lance than he was Allura, and that was saying something. "At least I know how to talk to that idiot. The only ones around here who know how to talk to her are Hunk, but that's because he's Hunk… And of course, Shiro but even he messes up with her a lot,".

A fear then hit Keith why was the Princess here? She had never sought out Kieth before. His mind flashbacked to earlier that morning, about Lance bringing up t up that he did not want to save Allura. She asked Shiro what he meant but never got an answer.

"She's here to confront me," Keith thought.

"So, if you're still training, do you want to spar together?" Allura offered

"I was wrong… She's here to kick my ass,"


"Lance I swear to space god if you touch my computer one more time," Pidge threatened the blue paladin for the fifth time as they sat at the kitchen table. Pidge had completely taken over half of the table as her own personal tec-lab. She was currently studying the paladin's hand weapons, trying to figure out how they were able to change in size.

"Oh come on I'm board!" Lance complained slumping in his chair so much he almost fell to the floor.

"Then you can come and help me," Shiro said as he walked into the room "I was looking for Pidge but it appears that he is actually being productive," he made a motion with his hand and began to walk out of the room. "You coming?"

Lance exchanged a glance with Pidge who didn't bother looking up from her work. Lance had already been scolded by Shiro once today and hoped he was not walking into a trap of some sort. The boy finally determined that if he was in trouble again it was better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

"Yeah I'm coming,"

The walked silently down the hall for a few minutes, Lance noted that they were going towards the lion hangers. Finally, Lance could not take it anymore, the silence, the waiting for Shiro to start scolding him again.

"Look, Shiro, I'm sorry,"

Shiro stopped walking then turned to face the teenager

"What?"

"Listen I know you want to talk to me in private so you can finish the lecture you started this morning. I know it's wrong to poke fun like that at Allura, that I should not flirt with her but I promise it's all in good fun. I never actually mean it… okay the first few times I did but now it's just for fun and -"

"You don't mean anything by it?" Shiro asked quietly his voice calm and steady, the complete opposite to Lance's panic.

"No, not anymore! I flirt with her because it's funny not because I am actually trying to woo her,"

"So… you don't have a thing for Allura?"

"No, I promise! I mean she's beautiful but even if you take away the 10,000 years of sleep she is still closer to your age than mine. Shiro, I never meant to disrespect Allura or the team it was just meant to be all in good fun and then you got so mad, dude I'm so-"

"Lance," Shiro's voice sharply cut off his words, holding up his hand signaling for the boy to stop. But Lance swore that there was a faint smile across Shiro's face now. That some part of his demeanor had lightened up "You are not in trouble because of that."

"I'm… not?"

"No, you're not," he laughed trying to remove some of the tension "If anything I'm the one who should be sorry I overreacted."

"Oh thank god,"

"However,"

"There it is"

Shiro rolled his eyes "However, I do need to talk to you about your behavior. While I did over react today, I stand by my sentiment that it needs to stop, your whole behavior as a team member needs to be checked,"

"Shiro what are you trying to say?"

He sighed, he was so proud of each and every member of his team that it pained him to give any bad news. But no one ever got better by only hearing what they did right.

"You need to start taking all of this more seriously," Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. "You're a great Lion warriors Lance, and a great pilot. But our last run in with Zarkon taught us that, as a team, we all need to get better if we want to have a chance of winning this fight. You have been such a powerful addition to this team but you don't take it seriously enough. You're flirting with Allura, our team leader, is just one example of that,"

"I promised I'll never do it again!" Lance protested starting to panic once more.

"It's not just that. When I walked into you were arguing with Kieth, which seems to be a daily occurrence. And then later in the meeting a full on fight almost broke out between you two. Not to mention bringing up what he said to Allura. That was not okay in the slightest. A petty action like that, trying to start fights, that can tear a team apart. And did you even stop to think how Allura may have been hurt by that? She asked me what you meant and what was I suppose to say to her? That one of her teammates was willing to abandon her? And that her other teammate would passively bring it up for his own gain?!"

"Yeah but Keith was also disrespecting Allura-"

Shiro held his hand up again "I know, I am going to talk to him. But Lance you need to make being a good team member a number one priority. You and Keith could be amazing together!"

Lance gave Shiro a surprised, almost embarrassed look.

"I mean as a team," Shiro said dryly. "You are both extremely capable talented cadets but you waste it with your fights. Lance, you are part of something bigger than yourself, don't throw that away,"

Lance was quite for a moment as he processed Shiro's words; finally he nodded looking the older Paladin in the eyes.

"You are right. I promise I'll start working harder for the team, I'll do good by the Lion Warrior name."

"I'm proud to hearing it," Shiro smiled

Lance relaxed, happy that the worst of their talk was now over.

"Now what was it you needed help with?"

"Honestly? Nothing, I was just trying to get you out of the kitchen so you would stop touching Pidges stuff,"

Lance's mouth hung open for a moment then turned into a smirk, impressed with his leader's trickery. He looked around and noticed that they were on the floor above the training deck facing the viewing window that allowed them to look down and see into the deck.

They walked over to the window to see who was below, the sight they found shocked both of them.

"Is that Allura and… Keith?!"

Shiro only nodded, the scene of Allura and Keith fighting had his full attention.

"Looks pretty evenly matched," Lanced commented as he watched Keith block all of Allura's punches and vice versa.

"She's holding back," Shiro said more to himself than to Lance. "She could be doing a lot more, why is she holding back?" He leaned in closer to the window to get a better look, his eyes fixed upon Allura.

This struck Lance as odd. Really odd.

"You know Shiro, you really did scare me this morning when you told me to stop flirting with Allura,"

Shiro only nodded, not listening to Lance at all.

"I mean you were so angry… almost as if you were-"

Lance was working it all out in his head. He looked at Shiro and noted that his eyes were locked on Allura, a warm smile was on his face. He remembered how Shiro smiled after Lance had insisted he did not have a thing for Allura.

It all clicked.

Lance smiled a smile that took up his whole face; his eyes grew wide as it all came together.

"Almost as if you were… Jealous."

"Damn," was his response. However he was not responding to Lance, but to Allura who had in one swift move tripped Kieth, flipped him over her shoulder, and had him pinned to the floor.


Keith thought very carefully about his response.

Out of all the time, Keith had spent in the training deck he had never actually seen Allura there training herself. But he knew better than to underestimate her strength, he remembered how she had taken down Lance when they first met her. Shiro had mentioned to him how we had taken to sparring with Allura, how she always managed to put up a good fight.

"She can't actually kill me, right?" He thought, "A princess would not kill one of her knights… even if she was under the impression that the knight was willing to let her remain in the hands of their enemy's…"

He swallowed knowing there was no getting out of it.

"Sure," was his response, and they began.

It was only hand-to-hand combat, which Keith was grateful for, but besides that they had not laid out the rules of what was and was not okay. Which made for a very dangerous match.

"How long do we go?" Kieth asked after about ten minutes of having all his hits be swiftly blocked by Allura.

"I think we will know when to stop," she said matter of factly.

They went on like that for what could have been hours. Neither of them had made much progress on defeating the other. Allura seemed to know exactly when to duck and stop Keith's advances.

"But at least she hasn't been able to get a hit on me either," Kieth thought "She's strong like Shiro said, but I guess when it comes to hand to hand we are equals,"

The two fighters moved about the room slowly changing their style of fighting from boxing to trying to strike the other down. Allura spoke.

"You didn't want to come rescue me from Zarkon,"

"There it is," He thought. "Honestly no, I didn't."

"Why?" Allura tried to swing her leg to trip Kieth but was too slow.

"Do you really want to have this conversation?" He grabbed hold of her arm behind her back. She pulled away within seconds.

"Yes,"

Kieth sighed, tired of the Princesses game "It's nothing against you Allura, but when you got captured the whole team was ready to go knocking on Zarkons door. Despite the fact that five hours earlier Shiro said we were in no position to attack Zarkon like that,".

He swung his hand almost hitting Allura managing only to brush her hair with his knuckles.

"It's not that you are not important to the team or anything but…" he ducked as Allura hit back "You are not one of the lion warriors, we can still form Voltron without you. Sure we would all miss you, and not having you pilot the castle would be a setback, but we could get over that… eventually. If one of us got killed or taken we could not form Voltron and that would be as good as giving up this war altogether. Or if Zarkon got even one of our Lions then there would not be a tomorrow for you or any of us. That's why I did not want us to come busting in after you, it was not worth the risk. We practically hand-delivered Voltron to Zarkon, that's what I wanted to prevent… nothing personal your majesty"

Allura smiled and when Keith's hand came up she moved but not quick enough to dodge.

"I got a hit in?" Kieth thought, "Maybe she really did just wanted to talk to me,"

Before he could think another thought Allura swiped her leg, much faster than she did the first time, knocking Kieth off balance, grabbed him using his own moment flipped him over her shoulder, knocking him flat on the floor pinning him down with her knees on his chest.

"You tricked me,"

Allura shrugged.

"You could have done that the entire time couldn't you? You could have got hits in the entire time, but you chose not to,"

"You want to know why?"

Kieth shook his head yes, desperate to figure out the enigma that Allura was.

"I can handle myself. I know how to bid my time and wait for the right moment to get the outcome I desire, not matter the situation,"

Kieth only looked up at her, not sure what she meant.

"I could have escaped myself from Zarkons prison. When I let myself over Shiro get captured it was not spurred of the moment; it was calculated. For the exact same reasons why you did not want to risk saving me,"

Kieth knit his brow trying to process her words.

"So what you are saying is?"

"You were right Kieth, every point you brought up was entirely correct. It was foolish of Shiro and the others to take on Zarkon like that just to save me. They should have listened to you I would have said the same thing,"

"You're not mad at me?"

"Not in the slightest," Allura got off of Kieth as she stood up she reached out her hand to help the red paladin off the floor. "I'm grateful that you are apart of the team. You were level headed when no one else was…" he voice grew a little quieter "Even when Shiro wasn't"

Kieth reached up and took Allura's hand allowing her to help pull him up. He still was not entirely comfortable around Allura, especially now that he knew that she was a master of trickery.

"Maybe we could be friends?" Kieth thought "Really weird friends who judo flip each other and agree to not save each other when kidnapped… it's a start."

He followed Allura as she walked out of training deck walking right next to her instead of fallowing in her stride.

"You know you shouldn't be upset with Shiro. He only acted rashly because he cares so much about you,"

Allura smiled but Kieth noted that it was not an entirely happy smile, there was some sadness to it.

"I know,"

Coran's voice came on over the intercom "If Princess Allura and the rest of the Paladins could return to the bridge we have reached our destination and well… there seems to be a minor problem."


"What do you mean they are not working?!" Allura exclaimed.

Everyone was on the bridge looking out of the windows at the medium sized green planet that they were planning on liberating.

"When the witch Hagar attacked our ship she seemed to of damaged all of the scanners including the one that scans planets and tells us who is down there,"

"So the only way to know who or what is down there is if we go down ourselves?" Shiro asked

"Right-tee-oh! Number one!"

Everyone looked at Coran.

"Remember I have you all ranked based on height!

"I think I can fix it," said Pidge who had taken off one of the castle panels and practically crawled inside. "But it may take a little while."

"We could still send someone down to check things out, no use in wasting time," Allura insisted.

"I don't see why not, as long as they are quick about it," Shiro shrugged "I would suggest Pidge since the green lion can cloak itself ,but he should stay here and fix the scanner,"

"So which one of us do you want to go?" Hunk asked anxiously hoping he would not have to do it.

"Kieth should his lion is the fastest" Shiro determined.

"Fine by me, I will be happy to have a chance to get out of the castle for a while,"

"You shouldn't go alone, could be dangerous, one of us should go with you," the black paladin said firmly.

"I'll go"

Everyone's heads turned.

The blue paladin had volunteered himself.


A/N I hope you liked that chapter I had so much fun writing it! And that's what this project is meant to be, Fun! Once again thanks to everyone who wrote a review they made me so happy! Reading them really motivates me to keep writing when I don't feel up to it.

-VF