Keith came out of the bathroom, changed in his grey sweatpants and red t-shirt to find Allura bent over, holding her head as she sat with a plate of gingerbread cookies on the bed.
"Allura! He exclaims and goes over to her.
He knelt down by her knees and tried to look at her face.
"Keith?" She asks hoarsely and frowns.
Her marks were glowing and there were little sparkles of quintessence coming off of them. She reaches out and touches his scar.
"Where did this come from?" She asks.
His eyes widen in fear and his heart races.
"Allura? Don't you remember?" He asks.
"No. And where are we? This doesn't look like the castle? And what happened to your hair?" She asks and brushes his bangs with her fingers. "I mean I always thought it was a little ridiculous but this is just-"
"Hey." Keith says in an offended tone.
Suddenly she sat up straight and the sparkles started flowing back into her marks. Once they were all in she closed her eyes and they glowed brightly then went back to their pink color. She opened her eyes. They were normal.
"Keith?" Allura asks. "What happened? I think I blacked out for a second."
"You lost your memory." Keith says and Allura's eyes widen. "You forgot where my scar came from and you thought I looked different, like you only remembered what I looked like from back on the Castle ship."
"That would explain it..." Allura says and touches her marking.
"Explain what?" Keith asks.
"It's both good and bad." Allura says and smiles. "The good thing is that if my quintessence is being re-attracted to my body and not away from it, then that's a guarantee that I'm here to stay. I'll live."
Tears of happiness roll down Keith's cheeks and he and Allura hug each other tightly.
"Oh thank God." Keith says and buries his face in her hair. "I was so worried I was gonna lose you again." He says and pulls back from her and cups her face.
"You won't." She says.
Then her smile slowly fades and her gaze travels downward.
"Unless...the bad." She starts. "I'm extremely glad we chose not to tell the others of my return. That little spell returned some of my knowledge of alchemy that I learned from Oriande."
She looks into his eyes.
"Out of all of the paladins and our friends aside from you, the two people I'm closest to, Coran and Lance, cannot know I'm alive, or else I could die." Allura says.
"Why?" Keith asks.
"Because I had a quintessence link with both of them." Allura explains. "My quintessence is the same as my father's. Quintessence signatures are genetic. You get a mix of both from your parents. My father's quintessence is what kept Coran, the mice and I alive in the pods for 10,000 years in the castle. In that time, our signatures formed a link. My quintessence is currently unstable. It's flowing in and out of me and I can't control the fluctuation. It's like a magnet. It's attracted to me so it will stay in my body or relatively close but if Coran gets within a certain range-"
"He'll suck the quintessence right out of you." Keith finishes, figuring it out.
Allura nodded.
"And you'll die?" He asks.
She nodded.
"Most likely." She says. "The mice aren't large enough or powerful enough to kill me that way but it would be painful and inconvenient, so I should avoid them for the time being as well."
Keith nodded in agreement.
"And since you gave Lance those markings..." Keith says.
Allura bites her bottom lip and her eyes water.
"The same thing that would happen with Coran would happen if you got near him too." Keith says and a tear rolls down his cheek.
She gives him a small smile.
"So I'm alive. But being near the people I love will kill me." She says and sniffles.
Keith hugged her as she sobbed into his chest. His heart ached for her. She was alive again, but at what cost?
"Allura I'm so sorry." He says. "I wish there was something I could do."
"Actually, you already are." She says and pulls back and smiles at him.
"I am?" He asks, confused.
She smiles and nods but he still doesn't get the message.
"By letting you stay here with me?" He asks.
"You're getting warmer." Allura says then sighs. "I guess it was silly of me to expect you to know this since you don't have the same knowledge as me but you have a special power!"
"I do?" Keith asks.
"Yes. You mentioned you could sense the Blue Lion, and that you tracked it to try to find me?" Allura inquires.
"Yeah but I just thought that was because I was a paladin." Keith says.
"No. If that was the case the others would have been able to track Blue." Allura says. "But you're special, you have a power that is somehow opposite but also compatible with mine. So as my quintessence is threatening to escape my body and tear it apart, the force from your aura is holding it together and keeping me from dying."
"Whoa." Keith says and looks at his hands.
"Oddly enough I sensed something similar but different in Lotor. I think that's why I was attracted to him..." She theorizes and Keith blushes. "But the difference with you is that my quintessence is somehow both attracted and stabilized by yours."
"So there must be something more behind my sensitivity then just sensing Lions and battling druids." Keith says. "It's like we're somehow connected, like I was meant to be here for you when you came back..."
"Exactly!" Allura exclaims excitedly. "You are more powerful than you think. So it may take some time but if I stay here with you, I should fully regain my capabilities and get back to normal so I can be with Coran, Lance and my mice again!"
"Sounds like a plan." Keith says and they hug again.
"And thankfully out of everyone on the team, you're the one who's best at keeping huge secrets like this. The rest, aside from Shiro wouldn't be able to keep my return a secret from Lance or Coran for as long as I'll need to recover." Allura explains. "I really did hit the jackpot by ending up here with you didn't I?"
"Allura...it's me. The loner who's only into mullets, knives and space wolves and is living in half a house." He says and gestures to the hole in the ceiling that was covered by a tarp at the top of the stairs.
"I wouldn't say you're that lucky." Keith stresses.
Allura laughed again.
"Oh Keith don't talk yourself down. This is a cozy little home and you're a dear friend." She says. "And without you I wouldn't be alive."
"Well there's that small little factor I guess." He says and smiles. "And I guess I do have some luck too since I'm the only one that gets to know you're alive for awhile."
"Yes you are." Allura smiles.
But she was lying. Because she met a toddler today. And toddlers love to talk...
—
"I made a new friend today!" Adam says.
Shiro, Curtis and little Adam had just gotten home from Curtis's parents house. Shiro had asked his son to tell him about the fun things he did today.
"Oh really?" Curtis asks and kneels down beside his son. "Who's your new friend?"
"Uncle Keef's secret girlfriend." Adam said casually.
Curtis and Shiro's eyes widened and they stared blushing.
"His secret what?" Shiro asks.
"His girlfriend." Adam says. "She was hiding in the pantry. She was really pretty! But she told me not to tell anyone about her so I won't say more than that."
"Uh...wow okay. Was she nice?" Shiro asks.
"Yeah!" Adam says. "But she was funny too! Wearing Uncle Keef's pajamas!" He says and laughs.
Curtis covered his mouth and waved his hand up and down as he silently screamed. Shiro just stared off into space until his jaw dropped and then he covered his mouth.
"Ooo daddy's show is on TV now!" Adam says and runs to the living room to watch Voltron.
"Holy shit!" Shiro whisper shouts once Adam was out of earshot. "Keith has a girlfriend!"
"Shiro it's more than that!" Curtis emphasized. "Keith fucked someone!"
"You think they did?" Shiro asks.
"Adam said she was wearing his clothes! That means he's seen definitely seen her without them. He also had her hiding in the pantry when we came over, meaning he's probably embarrassed for us see her and ask questions, and if I know anything about couples and sex, that means they fucked!" Curtis says and Shiro covers his mouth to muffle a scream of surprise and Curtis holds his husband's shoulders to keep him from falling over in shock.
"Holy shit Keith got laid!" Shiro whisper shouts. "And it's Keith so he must be madly in love with her if they slept together, Keith does not take romance lightly."
"If he's so serious about her then why wouldn't he want us to meet her?" Curtis asks.
"I don't know." Shiro says. "But we definitely need to find out. We've gotta know who this girl is."
"Already on it." Curtis says and pulls out his phone. "I'm contacting all the people at the Garrison I know who love to gossip, someone's gotta know something. Wait a minute...oh my God, how could I have been so dumb!"
"What? What did you do?" Shiro asks.
"I completely forgot! It's so obvious! The only reason why Keith wouldn't want us to know he's in a relationship is because he'd be embarrassed, and he'd be embarrassed because that person is someone we know that we might not approve of, or someone we know might not like! Whoever he's dating would cause huge drama if we found out who it was!" Curtis says.
Shiro passionately kissed his husband.
"I married a genius." Shiro praises him.
"And I married the most perfect man in the world." Curtis says and they kiss again.
"Okay so this narrows down the list to girls that we know, and Keith knows well enough to want to sleep with that someone would be mad if they found out." Shiro says. "God I never thought I'd say that." He chuckles. "There's Acxa and Romelle but dating either of them wouldn't really cause a stir or give reason for him to hide it because they're both single and no one's really that protective over them-"
Curtis gasped.
"Wait, protective!" He exclaimed. "I know who it is!"
"Who is it?" Shiro asks eagerly.
Curtis smirked and leaned in to whisper in his husband's ear.
"I think Lance would be none to pleased to know that Keith slept with his sister Veronica."
—
"You couldn't let me have just one cookie?" Keith asks her.
Allura looked at him guiltily as she slowly crunched the gingerbread cookie and held the last one in her hand.
Suddenly Kosmo appeared in the kitchen and ate the cookie right out of her hand.
"That filthy mutt!" Allura exclaims and frowns at Kosmo.
Then she pulled her knees into her chest and rested her chin on them and pouted.
"Kosmo." Keith says sternly. "That was rude."
Kosmo whined and rested his head on his paws with his ears down.
"Don't give me that look, now tell Allura you're sorry." Keith insists.
The large wolf padded over to her and gave her a huge lick on her cheek which made her squeal in disgust and furiously wipe her cheek with her shirt.
"Ew! Ew! Ew!" She exclaims and shudders. "Don't you dare ever do that again!" She threatens the wolf.
"Allura that just means he likes you." Keith laughs.
"Well I think if he did like me he'd keep his slobber to himself." Allura huffs and cleans the last of the saliva from her cheek. "I'm starting to feel a bit tired. Perhaps now is a good time to go to bed?"
"I agree." Keith says and smiles.
He pulls back the covers for Allura to get under them.
"You can take the bed." Keith says. "I washed the sheets so it's nice and clean."
"Thank you." Allura says. "You didn't have to go to all of this trouble for me though. I'd be perfectly fine with sleeping on the couch."
"Nonsense." Keith says and pulls back the covers for her. "You're a princess and you've just been resurrected. You need to be well rested. I insist you take the bed."
"Alright then." Allura chuckled and carefully climbed under the covers. "If you insist but where will you sleep?"
"I'll take the couch." Keith says and yawns and stretches.
Allura looked at the worn thatched couch and frowned. The cushions looked like they had been flattened from Keith's weight and from what she recalled, he didn't even fully fit on it. His legs dangled off of the side. Guilt bubbled up in her chest as she thought about her poor friend losing sleep because she was in his bed.
"No Keith, I shouldn't be taking your bed." Allura insists.
"It's not as uncomfortable as it looks." Keith says. "Besides I've slept in worse."
"I know but still..." Allura says and pouts. "The bed is big enough for two..." She thinks out loud.
"Uh...are you saying that you want me to share the bed with you?" Keith blushes and points to it.
"Oh Ancients no! That would be extremely inappropriate..." Allura says and runs her hands through her hair and blushes.
Keith scratched the back of his neck and looked away from her as well.
"Yeah...definitely." He agrees.
Allura looked at the couch and then a new idea struck her.
"Unless we made a barrier on the bed!" She exclaims cheerfully.
"You want me to build a wall on the bed?" Keith asks with an arched eyebrow.
She frowns and sticks out her bottom lip in annoyance of his denseness.
"No silly!" She exclaims. "I want you to use the pillows and couch cushions to make a divider between us so we can both appropriately share the bed that is perfectly sized for two people. We both have our privacy and can sleep comfortably."
"Sounds wonderful." Keith says and smiles. "And kind of brilliant. You sure you're not lying about your mind being foggy?"
He smirked when she hit him with the pillow. He chuckled and tossed it back to her.
He set up the barrier between them and then climbed into bed on the right side, and Allura took the left.
Kosmo yawned and turned in a circle before settling down in a big heap of fur on the floor at the foot of the bed.
"Goodnight Allura." Keith says.
"Goodnight Keith." She replies.
—
Pidge yawned and rested her hand on her cheek as she sat in the kitchen with Chip and tried to find the anomaly frequency on his hard drive.
"Is it this one?" Chip asks excitedly.
Pidge looked at the picture of lines on a projection screen from his chest.
"No..." She says.
"Oh..." Chip says and looks down. "Wait! Let me try this one?"
"No..." Pidge said sleepily.
Chip brought up another projection screen then noticed his creator's eyes closing and her cheek slipped from her hand and landed on the table with a soft thud and she began snoring.
"Uh...Pidge?" Chip asks. "Commander?"
He reaches forward to poke her awake but another hand covers his, stopping him.
"Lance?" Chip asks.
"Shh..." Lance whispers and smiles at Pidge.
"She's been searching for the source of Allura's anomaly with you for hours. She needs rest." Lance tells him and walks closer to his sleeping friend.
"But I have strict orders from Pidge to not stop this search until I have successfully found the location of the source of Allura's anomaly." Chip counters.
"Yeah, well I'm writing an override." Lance says.
He delicately scoops Pidge up in his arms, carrying her bridal style. He could hear his heart beating faster when she snuggled her head against his shoulder and he couldn't help but think how peaceful and beautiful she looked when she was asleep.
After staring for a minute he finally moved his feet and began the trek to bring her upstairs. The floorboards creaked under his weight, so he tried to step lightly and slowly to avoid waking Pidge, and also because a small part of him wanted to make this last for as long as possible. He liked holding her in his arms. How small she was in comparison to him had always amused him but now there was something almost attractive to him about their size difference. In fact, there were a lot of things about Pidge he found attractive. How had he never noticed-
Veronica cleared her throat at the top of the stairs and made Lance nearly drop Pidge.
"Veronica." He hissed at her through gritted teeth. "You scared the quiznack out of me!"
"First of all, I don't think you're using that word correctly." Veronica says and Lance growls.
"Secondly, and more importantly, does the fact that you're carrying Pidge like this mean that you've finally confessed your feelings for her?" Veronica asks.
If Lance hadn't been holding Pidge, he would have exploded at his sister. But the way she was snoring into his shoulder was so cute...he wanted her to stay asleep. So he opted for a softer response, although his tomato-red and frowning face conveyed otherwise.
"Have you finally told Acxa you're into her?" He retorts and she blushes. "I mean you guys are practically a thing already with her coming over here all the time. I thought you were already official but I asked mom today and she said you're still claiming to be single-"
"Well gee Lance. Look who's talking, considering you've got a girl coming over here all the time too, and now you're cradling her in your arms right in front of me. A little hypocritical don't you think?" Veronica retorts and puts her hands on her hips.
"What are you talking about?" He whispers.
"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" She asks. "Look at how you're holding her. You're cradling her like she's an injured bird. She's clearly precious to you."
"Of course she is." Lance argues. "She's my best friend."
"People don't hold their 'friends' like that Lance." Veronica says. "And it's not just this. You've been talking and thinking about her a lot lately. And whenever you do, your eyes light up and you seem so much happier than usual. Lance, I know you know what this means-"
"I know." Lance admits. "But I can't let it mean that right now...there's a good chance Allura's been revived somehow. And she loves me and I love her. If Pidge and I find her alive, which I think we will, then I'm gonna be with Allura. So I can't be in love with Katie right now." He says and looks at her with a look of sadness and longing on his face.
"I understand." Veronica says softly and smiles at him. "Just be careful with her." She says and looks at Pidge.
"Believe me, hurting her is the last thing I'd ever want to do." Lance says and walks past Veronica.
He yawns and blinks a few times himself, adjusting his hold on Pidge as he walked into a room and carried her to the bed. He grunted as he freed one of his arms, supporting her full weight with the other to pull back the covers and then he laid her down onto the mattress.
He took off her shoes and then blushed as he gently touched the bridge of her nose to remove her glasses. Her nose scrunched up like a little bunny and Lance couldn't help but giggle from how cute that looked. He set the glasses down on the bedside table and then tucked her in. She smiled and turned on her side, short tawny hair covering her cheek and Lance took a moment to sit down on her bedside and just think about how those tiny little freckles he never noticed before on her face looked like the stars in the sky. And before he knew it, he started to drift off too. Falling over and laying on her side as she slept.
—
"Hoo! Hoo!" A noise was heard from outside.
Allura sat straight up in bed, eyes wide with fear.
"Who?" She whispers back. "Who's there?"
"Hoo! Hoo!"
She gasped and held the blanket up by her chest. She quickly looked over the pillow barrier to see if Keith was awake. To her despair, he was sound asleep.
"Keith!" She whispers.
Nothing.
"Keith!" She tried again, a tad louder.
He shifted in his sleep a bit but then settled down again.
Allura bit her lip. She couldn't risk raising her voice any higher and alerting the intruder that she knew of their presence. So she opted to push on Keith with the cushion that separated her side of the bed from his.
He only frowned and groaned, squirming away from the pillow wall as Allura heard the noise again and shrieked softly in fear.
That was it! She needed to wake him up now! Throwing caution to the wind, she tossed one of the cushions separating them aside and grabbed his bicep and shoulder, not even caring how firm it felt under her hand, although that was a lovely little fact that her hormonal, quintessence scrambled mind stored for later, and she began to shake him.
"Keith! Keith!" She whispered.
Finally he turned to lay on his back, groaning softly in his sleep. His eyes squeezed shut tighter before he opened them to look at Allura.
"'Lura what's up?" He rasps sleepily.
"Oh, his morning voice is so se- Cut it out brain!" Allura mentally scolded herself. Ancients, no one told her the beginning of the fertile stage would be this annoying and distracting in Altean health class. There were much more important matters to deal with right now.
"I think there's some deranged person outside." Allura whispers to him.
Keith's eyes opened wide and he sat straight up in bed, on high alert.
"You sure?" He asks her.
She nods and he reaches over to the bedside table and her eyes widen when she sees him grab his knife. He looked at it then looked out the window, trying to see if there was any movement through the curtain. He looked down at Kosmo who was asleep on the floor. He brought two fingers into his mouth and whistled softly.
The wolf's head instantly picked up and he looked at his master for his next command. Keith nodded his head towards the door then frowned at him.
Kosmo snarled and stood up to his full height, making Allura gasp in fear and scramble back closer to the pillows. Then he teleported outside and continued to growl.
"Don't worry." Keith whispers to her. "Whichever one of those filthy squatters is out there'll get scared off by Kosmo. It works most of the time."
"Filthy squatters? Most of the time?" Allura asks.
Keith bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at his knife and then up at Allura. He scooted a bit closer to her on the bed.
"This little settlement has kind of been a family home for generations." Keith explains. "But we're not the only ones who know about it. My dad had a lot of friends. Most of them were good but some of them...were involved in some pretty shady stuff. And a little place like this, completely off the grid, out in the middle of nowhere. Perfect place for a criminal to hide out."
"Is someone going to attack us?" Allura asks.
"Not us." Keith says and holds up his knife. "Me. That bastard's not even gonna have a chance to lay eyes on you before my knife's in him."
A shiver ran down her spine from how serious Keith sounded.
"Get behind me." Keith ordered, realizing she was on the side of the bed closest to the entrances.
Allura quickly scurried behind him and he moved to her side and held up his knife in defense.
"You know you're in no condition to fight right now." Keith reminds her.
She nods in agreement.
"So until you're fully recovered just let me protect you okay?" He pleads to her and takes her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.
She nods in agreement.
"Now did you see this guy?" Keith asks.
"No I heard him." Allura said. "He kept asking 'Who?'"
Keith tilted his head in confusion and looked back at her.
"Who?"
"Hoo! Hoo!"
"There it is again!" Allura jumps.
Keith sighed and lowered his knife and his head slumped forward and his long hair fanned in front of his face, hiding his smile from Allura.
"Keith?" She asks.
"Allura..." He says and looks up at her. "That's not a person. That's an animal. A nocturnal bird called an owl."
Allura felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment and she rubbed her arms self-consciously. She winced and frowned when she heard Keith snort.
"It's not funny!" She scolds him.
"It's a little funny." He tells her and flashes her that beautiful grin of his and she couldn't help but smile back.
A chirping noise was heard outside and she yelped and hugged a pillow.
"Is that some sort of alarm?" She exclaims.
"Close." Keith says. "It's a cricket."
She gave him a deadpan look and he smirked. The next noise was a coyote howl.
"Okay now that one sounded dangerous." Allura says.
"And you'd be correct." Keith says. "That's a coyote howl. Coyotes are predators but they won't bother you if you don't bother them."
Kosmo howls loudly in response to the coyotes. Due to his large size, the sound is a bit too loud, making Keith and Allura cover their ears.
"Shut up Kosmo!" Keith calls out to him. "Charlene's not into you like that!"
"Charlene?" Allura asks.
"Some coyote he's got a major crush on. He won't stop howling about her." Keith says.
"Awwww..." Allura says.
Keith arches an eyebrow as he got back under the covers.
"I thought you hated Kosmo?" Keith asks. "I wouldn't say I hate him." Allura says.
"I'm not overly fond of his scent and his hair but those two things aside I rather like his personality and demeanor. They make for a good companion. Like you." She teases and Keith frowns and sniffs himself.
"You saying you don't like my hair?" Keith asks and sits up. "Is it too long?" He pulls a strand out.
"Oh Keith, darling the length is not the issue. It's your bangs. They look like they were cut by an Altean toddler and-"
"Wait what did you just call me?" Keith asks her.
She frowns in confusion.
"What do you mean? I said your name. Keith." Allura says.
"Yeah. Keith, darling." He reminds her.
Her cheeks redden.
"Oh Keith, dar-I mean-" She stutters and he quickly gets off of the bed.
Her heart races in fear that she gave him the wrong impression.
"Keith it's nothing. I call the mice my darlings all the time, and my mind is so scrambled the word must have slipped-" She quickly explains.
"I don't think it did." Keith says and looks at her seriously.
She gulped then looked down at the pad of paper in his hand.
"The night you came back to life you were mumbling random words in your sleep. I wrote them all down in order." He explains and climbs back on the bed next to her and shows her the paper. "The first thing you said after you stopped glowing was 'Keith'. After that,"
"Darling." She finishes for him.
They both look at each other.
"And you just called me 'Keith, darling.'" Keith emphasizes.
"The same order as last night." Allura says. "Do you think there's some sort of connection?"
"I don't know maybe it's some sort of memory code, connected to how you were revived?" Keith suggests.
"Perhaps." Allura suggests. "But my mind is still a bit foggy on the subject of alchemy since I'm without my powers so I can't say for sure."
She looks at the other words and their order.
"Keith, darling, Altea, peace, daughter, rift, destruction, K-" She stops reading the words out loud and frowns.
"Yeah that one really stands out. The others are just regular words but this one's a name." Keith says.
"A name?" Allura asks.
"Yeah." Keith affirms. "Who's Keira?"
—
A/N: Dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNNN! I've introduced SO MUCH COOL DRAMA IN THIS CHAPTER I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF! Please comment if you want more! I promise you won't be disappointed with what I have in store, but you'll only get more if you comment what you liked about this chapter! ;)
