Happy Birthday Harmony and Melody!
4. Nönö and Lun
Prince Chandler of Nönö stood six feet six, had long flowing blonde hair, deep dark blue eyes, dimples and a rock hard body. He also couldn't stop talking about himself. How good he was at swordsmanship, how great he was at archery, how proud his father was at his political instinct. How he already performed many of the duties of the King in the staid of his father. But mostly how many of the high born woman of his own planet and others of the most well to do planets of the galaxy all lusted after him for both his body and his power.
He reminded Allura of a Lotor without the bloodlust. At least she didn't think he had any urges to kill, maim and rape. Though his touch made her shudder, and she spent her morning walk with him, dodging his touch and tactfully removing his hands off her body. She wanted to throw him to the ground a time or two. He'd touched her where all she would have to do is grab his arm and twist a bit this or that way. He wasn't that much taller than Hunk, and he was that much heavier than Lance. It'd be easy, but wouldn't become a Princess.
All she knew was she would not ever be the Queen of Nönö, as well as of Arus. Never. Ever. Coran and Nanny would be told so, loudly for hours if need be. She couldn't believe this had become her life after her eighteenth birthday. Her plans had been so specific and now they were so different. And she was now as angry with Coran and Nanny as she was with Keith...for inviting these two Princes into her home, at the peak of her heartbreak, to be in her face at all times. She wanted quiet. She wanted to walk alone in her garden, not with this disagreeable fool. She wanted to listen to her own voice in her head, not Prince Chandler's grating voice, which was not at all sexy or deep, as he claimed it was. She was pretty sure the women who told him that had been lying in order to be near a Prince... She was pretty sure Pidge had a deeper voice. She wanted him to shut up. Prince Chandler never let the conversation lull for more than two seconds, and he had yet to ask her one question. About herself, about Arus, about anything that didn't have to do with himself.
Thankfully their tour of the gardens was over, she was coming up on where Coran stood with King Vivo of Nönö and his young daughter, fifteen year old Princess Viola. She was angry at her advisor, the man who had raised her all these years but he was a sight for sore eyes. Hurrying her step, she walked a bit ahead of Chandler, who called out behind her. "Wait, Princess Allura, let me hold your arm."
Tradition meant that they were to have walked with her arm linked through his arm, the two chaperones, a guard from Nönö and a guard from Arus, three feet behind them. She turned, up a hill now she could see the guards trailing behind. She sighed and shook her head when she realized it was Pidge and Hunk. They saw her looking and Hunk shrugged. She shrugged back and hoped she looked apologetic as well. She was more angry now, where was the Nonian guard, why were her friends chaperoning her on a walk. They better things to be doing with their mornings.
"Coran," she muttered under her breath, angrily, speeding up her steps more, more angry than ever. It wasn't enough they'd pushed this onto her while she was in the midst of a broken heart. He and Nanny hadn't let her even begin to heal. It was bad enough she'd been bored out of her mind all morning with Prince Chandler not to mention wanting to do bodily harm to him. But her friends had been the chaperones, when it wasn't even traditional... She, Keith and Lance had all gotten lectures about how it was traditional for a Princess of Arus to choose a few long term Princes or Lords to be court her for the next four years, until she was ready to choose her Prince upon becoming Queen. Long, shouted by Nanny speeches and longer, calmly said speeches by Coran.
Lance had walked in the middle of Coran's longer speech.
Keith had left after Nanny yelled at him for not saying yes to Allura's proposal - he could have had a man on the side. Allura had wanted to be sick, and screamed she felt chattel. Which made Nanny cry and Coran had at least had the decency to look upset with himself. But it was too late, she was stuck with Prince Chandler and Prince Holder for two weeks. It didn't mean that Pidge and Hunk, or for that matter Lance and Keith were going to have to play chaperone. It was ridiculous, they were the Voltron Force. Not her babysitters.
She got the stairs that she had to climb, they took her to the left away from the group in front of the Castle waiting for them to join them, for about a minute, less if she kept up this speed. Allura tried not to laugh, as she heard Chandler puffing behind her yelling for her to slow down, she ducked her head down, picked up her skirt higher and started up the steps, taking the curve of them at fairly high speed. Which meant she didn't see Lance coming down the stairs until it was too late. She didn't have time to stop herself from barreling into him, she saw him see her, smile, start to say hello and then she saw him frown, hold up his hands. She cringed as the collision happened, waited for them to hit the hard stone steps, but instead all that happened was she lifted off the air, spun around, everything felt wobbly and unsteady and she was looking at Lance's face, as he stumbled back up a few steps and then down about six, and somehow managed to hold her and not fall.
He then met her eyes, she met his, and they both smiled and were about to start laughing hysterically when Chandler caught up to him. "Unhand her this instant," he yelled and pulled out his sword.
Maybe she was wrong about the bloodlust, she thought as Lance put her feet down on the rock. She was standing above him by a step, she still wasn't anywhere near Lance's height. He was six foot one, at least that was what his paperwork said. Keith was five-eight, according to the same paper. They both looked like midgets near Lotor yet they faced up to him like men twice his size... She never once gave Lance his due credit for all the times he fought with Lotor, never like she had with Keith. Or, Pidge, the shortest of them all, he was pushing five feet he wouldn't be much taller, he'd probably stay shorter than her she thought. He'd rush up against Lotor on his own without thought all for her, always with a whole lot of bravery. Hunk too.
It was all so much clearer, as much as it all hurt, things were so much clearer how much she romanticized everything Keith did. Every hand held, every look, every glance. She felt tears start prick at her eyes, it stung and she blinked them away. Then she saw the sword Chandler was holding, and pointing at Lance's chest. What the hell was she doing, thinking about Keith and her broken heart now?
"Chandler put that way, we almost had a bad collision, we're lucky we didn't fall. Lance is a dear friend, and my teammate. I will not have you drawing your weapon at him."
"You are the Princess, he should be nothing to you. If we court, I would take over your duties. He would be...my teammate," Prince Chandler said with a sneer.
"You're a pilot?" Lance said and Allura heard laughter in his voice loud and clear, but also something darker underlying it, it caused the hair on the back of her neck to raise up. She felt uneasy and prayed to the Arusian Godess she could diffuse this situation quickly.
"Not yet, but how hard can it be? I excel at all I try to do."
"I don't think Blue Lion would take to you," Lance said.
Prince Chandler laughed. "What nonsense is that?"
"The Lions are sentient," Allura explained. "Blue Lion would have to approve you."
"I am sure she would, all women love me, even mechanical ones I am sure," Prince Chandler laughed, as he always pulled away his sword and sheathed it.
Lance seemed tense between her and the Prince, Allura felt waves of emotion rolling off of him that she couldn't quite place. Anger seemed the only way to explain it, but there was more to it, she reached out feeling something darker and underlying pulsing between the two men. She didn't like. "We should go meet Coran and King Vivo," she said.
"I'll walk back with you," Lance said.
"There is no need of that," Prince Chandler said.
"It's only polite," Lance said and Allura could hear him gritting his teeth but then he smiled, a sincere smile. "Hey guys, we were about to start walking again, we had a little collision. Allura and I almost tumbled down the stairs. Who knows how much damage we might have inadverantly don't to good Prince Chandler here," Lance smacked Prince Chandler in what looked like a friendly gesture smack in the middle of his chest.
Allura felt like the air was thick tension and she just wanted to get them on more neutral ground. "Pidge, Hunk, I'm so sorry," she said, looking at them. "Why on earth are you two chaperoning?"
"We volunteered, Princess," Hunk said, "Don't apologize. The team had a talk, we decided we should be watching out for you right now..."
"What do you mean, inadvernately hurt me?" Prince Chandler suddenly asked. Glaring at Lance.
"Right now?" Allura echoed, Hunk's words as she stepped between Lance and Prince Chandler. "Please, let's get going, they must be wondering why we are late."
"Our chaperones are here, you were walking down, Lieutenant, why don't you continue on your way," Prince Chandler said to Lance, as he watched Lance give Allura his left elbow, so she was linked between the two of them.
"I was coming down to get you and the Princess. Coran wants to get going into the village, the tour of Aan he promised your father last night. Prince Holder should be waiting with the group, along with Nanny and Keith when we get up there. Pidge, Hunk, Keith wants you on Castle defenses."
Prince Chandler grumbled. "Of course, of course, I guess our time alone for the day is over, Princess..." he said. "I am sorry to see it end, as I am sure you are too."
Allura struggled for words, "I am sure we'll once again have time for you regale me with your tales, Prince Chandler," she said and added silently and bore me to death with it as well.
Lance ducked his head down and whispered into her ear. "What Hunk meant about right now was that with how you must be feeling, we didn't want you alone with stupid princes without real back up, so you get us. Keith promises to keep his distance."
"You allow these common men such liberties, Princess, this would never be allowed at the Castle of Nöns on Nönö."
How he could speak of people who were right next to him as if they weren't there, Allura bit back the urge to tell him off. It wasn't proper decorum but she wanted too tell him his manners were dreadful and he was behaving like cretin and not a man. "These men are not commoners in Arusian eyes. They are the Saviors of Arus, they gave us back our greatest form of defense in Voltron. They've helped me to able to protect my people and help rebuild my planet. Someday Arus will be thriving again and it will be because of Lance, Pidge and Hunk, as well as Keith and their friend Sven who now lives on Arus' sister planet Pollux."
"Ah yes, the commoner Princess Romelle is taking as her Prince-Consort. Such gossip, there are those not looking too highly on such a match..."
"And those who are," Pidge said.
"What would you know about it?" Prince Chandler said.
"King Bandor is a friend, we correspond often and I know quite a bit about what his allies and his enemies think of things. A lot of his greatest supporters feel Sven is an asset to Polluxian safety."
"As they should," Lance said with a knowing grin. "Sven's fierce, he'd take on a whole battlement on his own to protect Pollux."
"He'd win too," Hunk added.
Prince Chandler looked speechless, Allura felt her first real smile of the day grow on her face as they stepped up the last steps and walked towards the group awaiting them to walk into the main village of Aan for the tour. She caught sight of Keith, her heart sped up and she felt heat in her cheeks, she ducked her head. Though she lost her smile, Allura fought to keep the feeling of lightness her friends had managed to form in her heart. She wouldn't let her broken heart ruin everything, until she learned to live with it. She couldn't imagine it healing, all she could do was learn to live with it broken and the hope she could look at Keith someday without feeling burned.
~~.~~
Prince Holder was quiet, gentlemanly, and asked her question about Arus, about herself, and about her people. As they walked through Aan he asked about the architecture, the groups of people he noticed that stood out among the others. He had spotted the plain clothes guards Keith always had on duty in the village streets, keeping an out for both petty crime and Drule infiltration in case of Lotor trying something from within her one burgeoning city. He had also spotted the group of Arusian Faithful, the ones of the Church, who walked through the village offering help and peace for all who needed or wanted it. He was impressed on how they not push their views or the issue when they were turned down, Allura was surprised to find out on his plaent there were some with religious views who tried to tell others they were wrong for not believing.
"Either you are of the Faithful or you aren't, no one forces you to attend the Church, but we all of Arus, it binds us together the planet. All people will help anyone anywhere, but those who want to feel closer to something...the Goddess as some call her, a God as others say, or just a guiding force as I have heard others. They have the Church and people to talk to there. We have no actual priests, or scheduled services, everything happens on its own time because it's truly about the individual's faith. However we will come together when needed..." as she spoke the words Coran stopped them in front of the orphanage. "Like here. Everyone pitched in to build it, we did all we could place every child five and under into a family, mostly we succeeded. No siblings were separated, but unfortunately being a planet that is the battleground there are always children losing parents..."
"Parents must lose children too..." Prince Holder said.
"Yes, yes, but they need time to grieve before the will come here, if they can," Allura said.
Holder nodded and stepped forward a bit to listen to Coran's speech about the building of the orphanage, being by the men and women of the village as well as the Voltron Force, and Allura herself. Allura took that moment to study him a bit more, he was around Lance's height she estimated, maybe a little shorter, he was even thinner than Lance but it was probably because he lacked the muscle tone she surmised. He had dark hair, and dark eyes, a nice face, and he was the nicest prince she'd ever met.
She didn't want to make the decision she was thinking of making, something about even thinking about telling Coran, maybe on Prince Holder, made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin and her arms wrapped around her chest. But Coran and Nanny weren't trying to find her Prince because they wanted to marry her off for fun, they didn't want to marry her off at all, not really, she knew this. Arusian tradition was it was ruled by a King and a Queen, Arus was a planet that had been decimated in the war it was in, Arus needed strong allies and Prince Holder's planet of Lun was good solid planet. Lun was technologically advanced, as well had had a good argiculture import/export within the Denubian. It was a politically sound decision, better even than Nönö, thank the Goddess, Prince Chandler's planet needed Arus more than Arus needed it. Holder was nice, handsome, and he didn't make her skin crawl, she could... maybe grow to like him...
She wouldn't think further than that she decided as the uncomfortable, unwanted feeling grew inside of her but she would have to tell Coran that she would consider maybe allowing more visits from Prince Holder in the future. It was enough for now she thought as her attention was drawn to a few kids laughing and she turned to see Lance taking off his jacket, and talking a mile a minute at Keith. Keith looked serious, in fact too serious, she felt burned as she easily read Keith's mood - how could she had known him so well and missed something so obvious. She was a fool, embarrassment flooded her and she felt her cheeks heat but she made herself watch the scene. Keith was going to give in any moment now and play with Lance and kids.
Lance was already walking backward, with a ball in his hand, one kid with him while the other kid ran out to the opposite end of the field next to the orphanage. Lance yelled. "Really going to let the teams be so uneven, Keith... Come on!" Lance shouted.
"We are on duty."
"The douche went inside, the nice guy and Allura are watching us... it's safe for a good twenty minutes while Nanny introduces the rest of them to each orphan dumb enough to stay inside. Let's reward these two smart ones... and play ball!"
Allura laughed, then she heard Princess Viola who she hadn't noticed had come back from being inside and step beside her say. "Oh, wow his arms, he's so hot..." Allura looked down at the younger princess and saw her licking her lips as she stared unabashedly at Lance.
"Fine, fine, but only for ten minutes or Coran comes out, whichever comes first," Keith said walking out to join the other boy, pulling his shirt over his head, so he two was only in a t-shirt. Allura had to look away, so she put her eyes firmly back on Lance.
"Ooh, look at them flex," Princess Viola whispered, grabbing Allura's arm. "His bicep, his forearm, the wrist... I'm so glad he's on the side closet to us."
Allura forced a smile, there was something about Viola's enthusiasm that was unsettling to Allura, it was so open, so real and sincere, it was innocent and sweet. It hurt Allura to remember she would never have that again, ever, she'd lost it forever, when Keith had not only turned her down but shattered any chance. Allura put her eyes on Lance's arms, though, just in time to watch him let go of the ball and see his muscles go from completely taut to relaxed for a brief moment. It was a rather pleasing sight, blushing, she'd always found Lance really handsome had had turn away blushing from peeking at him more than once, but that had been before she'd forgotten about all other men in favor of Keith.
"Does he like younger women?" Princess Viola asked her.
"Uh?" Allura stared down at the fifteen year old girl, searching for a polite way to tell her that no Lance didn't date fifteen year old girls. Pidge was more age appropriate for Viola but Allura wouldn't dare say that, it wouldn't do any good anyway. "I think he might have a girlfriend," Allura heard herself lie and she felt horrible but who was she to break this young girls heart.
I didn't want to hurt you, Keith's voice came back into her head. Allura shook it away. "Excuse me," she said and walked back over to where Holder was standing watching the game. She was about to tell him if he wished, he could join them, when she heard him say under his breath, possibly not meant to be said out loud...
"How does the Princess concentrate with so much sexiness around her on a daily basis, they are both such fine specimens of men..." Holder whispered and then he licked his lips as Lance made a dive for he ball, his dark eyes right on Lance's butt.
No, no, no, no! Allura's mind heard the words, replayed them, looked between Holder and Lance, then Holder and Keith for a the next minute watching how he watched them and put everything together in her mind. Gay, gay, gay, she thought. Gay!.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME!" She shouted, making Holder jump because it was right in his right ear. Lance let the ball hit him the chest as he turned toward her and Keith started walked toward her, his eyes right on her. She felt Keith more than saw him and she spun toward him, finger pointing outward and shouted. "No, don't you dare come near me," she shouted before she turned and ran away.
"Allura!" Lance's voice shouted and she heard his footseps behind her. She kept running for a few seconds longer than she stopped short, at an alley between two buildings she didn't recognized. She'd never been this far into Aan she realized, suddenly, and Lance was right there suddenly right in front of her. He looked down at her and tipped her tear covered face upward. "Hey, what happened?"
"I liked him. I don't love him of course, but he was nice and he wasn't slimy and he was smart. I liked him and he was drooling over you and Keith... What's wrong with me, Lance?"