Hello again! I am so glad that you are all enjoying this! Thank you to all who continue to read/follow/review...and special thanks to my fantabulous editor and partner in crime KathDMD ;-) last part after 'xxxxxx' brought to you by KathDMD xoxoxo

KathDMD: Hmmmmmm...I wonder? LOL

Cubbie and Chris: Uhhh...well...*clears throat* Let's just say...it will be ...fun :-)

JustLucky05: Yes...I can assure you, Keith is not going to let Allura off too easy *wink* promise...this will be fun...

Smithy: There will be a bit of Jeff and Lisa coming soon...promise ;-)

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from Voltron or its characters...OCs (with exception of Italo and a few of KathDMD's OCs) are mine!


"Spring Break: Give Me Novocaine"

Chapter 12

Pidge and Hunk were still working on upgrades to the Lions, so Keith, Lance, and Sven had moved their little gathering to the rec room. Keith sat back in one of the over-stuffed chairs and ran a hand through his hair, preparing himself for the inquisition.

"Explain yourself, Kogane - before I permanently drop you from 'best friend' status." Lance huffed, while Sven sat with a blank look on his face.

"I don't know what you want from me, Lance."

Lance glanced at Sven while he pointed his thumb at Keith. "Can you believe this guy?" he snarled before turning his gaze back to Keith. "Now, Captain Dumbass, I want to know why, exactly, you found it necessary to keep this little suspicion of yours a secret - especially since you knew how pissed off I was about you flirting with Dylan!"

"Seriously?" Keith retorted. "You've suddenly become so self-righteous that it bothered you that I was flirting with someone? Hmpf! That's rich."

Lance narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Screw you, Keith! I know who I am, it's you that I don't know!"

Keith dropped his gaze momentarily.

"Hell, Keith, since when do you play these kind of mind games? Yeah, I flirt like hell, but I certainly don't lead the girls on, and I'm always ready to follow through. What about you?"

"I'm not playing games, Lance. I would never do anything to hurt Allura." He looked Lance straight in the eye.

"Oh, really? So, you don't think it bothers her in the least bit to see you flirting with 'Dylan' the way you are? Man, you know how she feels about you!"

"And what the hell would you know about it?"

"In case you didn't notice, oh infallible one, Allura and I have always been close. I'm the only one who's always treated her like 'one of the guys'. She trusts me and she's confided in me a lot over the last couple of years. So yeah, I know how she feels - how she's felt for a long time - certainly way before you figured it out."

"That's not saying much, Lance. We all figured it out before he did. Brilliant military strategist, but oblivious as shit in the women department," Sven added with a smirk.

Keith glared at them both. He then looked at Lance and began to answer the many questions now on the table. "First of all, I am not flirting with 'Dylan'. I am flirting with Allura, and if she's bothered by it, she sure as hell hasn't shown it, 'cuz she's been laying it on pretty thick…I guess I should thank you for her mastering the skill of innuendoes." He nodded his head towards Lance.

Sven cracked up at the jab.

"Besides," Keith continued, "I'm sure she knows."

Lance shot him a look. "Knows what, exactly?"

"That I know she's Dylan."

"You're really that confident that she knows that you know? Yeah…not!" Lance snickered.

Keith threw him a look. "I'm sure that she knows that I know!"

Sven grinned. "This is starting to sound ridiculous. I'm getting rid of the both of you and finding new friends."

Keith laughed. "Good luck with that, Thor."

Sven punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Ow! Anyway, If she doesn't by now, I can assure you she'll figure it out soon. After all, like you said, I am behaving way out of character. The Princess would have expected me to confront her, at least in private. Under normal circumstances, she'd be right, I would have." He smiled as he rubbed his shoulder.

"What makes these circumstances so different?" Sven asked.

Keith sat back in his chair again. He closed his eyes as though gathering his thoughts. When he opened them, he leaned forward a bit, resting his forearms on his knees and interlocking his fingers. He looked up at his friends, who were now looking at him as though he'd lost his mind. "Privacy really goes out the window with you two, doesn't it?"

"And we wouldn't have it any other way," Lance quipped.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Things changed after the last time we rescued Allura." He hated talking about his personal life, and his two best friends knew it. "After we took off, I put Black on auto so I could tend to the Princess. That's when I saw what that bastard did to her." He looked down, his jaw twitching at the memory. "He had roughed her up good. But she just sucked it all in like it was nothing, even joked about doing some damage to him as well - that is, before I got ahold of him. I saw it, though. In her eyes, I saw the hurt, the fear, and the relief that she was now safe and away from him. He had come too close this time. She didn't say it but I saw it in her eyes, and it killed me." He paused as he recounted the story. "I couldn't take it. I wanted to make it all go away. I wanted her to know that I would always come for her, that I would protect her, and that I would do anything and everything I could to make sure that she didn't suffer. I was overwhelmed, and I don't know why, but I told her that I...loved her." He exhaled heavily. "And then I kissed her."

His friends were enthralled by this new information. "What did she do?" Sven asked.

"She kissed me back. And she told me she loved me too, that she always has."

"So then what's the big deal?" Lance shot out. "Why aren't you two together?"

Sven answered before Keith could. "Pfftt, that's easy. He went all honor- and duty-bound 'Commander' on her, for sure." He crossed his arms in front of him again.

"You dumbass! What the hell did you do?" Lance snarled.

"My job, you jerk!" Keith hissed.

"Your job? You love her and she loves you! Dude, seriously, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, MAN?" By now, Lance was ranting like a maniac.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Her safety comes first, Lance! I need to be able to keep my mind clear in order to protect her. We are in the middle of a war, and there's too much is at stake right now. Did you ever think about what might happen if Lotor found out? What he would do to her? How he would use it?" He stood up and leaned against the window, defeated.

"God knows he already hates you. This would be the icing on the cake. He would make it his personal mission to see you dead," Sven replied bluntly.

"I don't care what he does to me! I just don't want him to hurt her, and he would definitely use her to get to me. I love her. If something were to happen to her because of me, I would never be able to live with myself." His voice was thick with angst as he stared out the window once more.

"So that's it? You just put aside your feelings? Put a pin in what is the best thing that has ever happened to you on a 'what if'? You're crazy! Shit, if Allura felt that way about me, I would do anything to be with her - fuck Lotor!" Lance hollered.

Keith turned his gaze at him. He was about to speak when Lance continued, "You guys could keep it a secret until things cool down. Lotor would never know. Hell, I could even help you guys out. Your way is just pure stupidity and I can bet Allura agrees with ME!" The Red Lion pilot pointed at himself animatedly.

Keith stared at him blankly.

Sven chuckled. "Judging from the look on his, face I would take it as a 'yes', Lance."

"You were right, Sven - the guy's oblivious. No, actually, he's beyond oblivious. He's in his own 'Keith-iverse' where nothing makes sense to the rest of us." Lance threw his hands up in the air before looking at Keith again. "How can you do it, man? How can you just not be with her?"

"I can't," Keith sighed as his friends looked at him. "I thought I could, but after she left, I found myself constantly replaying what happened between us - all the things that were said. All I want to do is be with her, hold her, never let her go. I kept telling myself that giving in would cloud my judgment. She was right - I was kidding myself. I would worry about her just the same, regardless. Of course, there's the whole 'princess' issue to consider." He looked morose.

"Oh come on, you're not afraid of Coran and Nanny, are you?" Lance teased. "Hell would freeze over before Allura would allow them to come between you."

"It's not that, Lance. It's not acceptance that I'm worried about - I know that neither Coran nor the citizens of Arus would have an issue with it. I just don't want to deal with them, or all the pomp and circumstance right now. You know how popular the Princess is as far as news and media is concerned, and you know damn well how private I am. Shit, they would never leave us alone." He shook his head sadly. "Bottom line, it would be a long time before we could just be 'normal', you know, just two people having fun, flirting, dating, and getting to know each other on a deeper level...but we couldn't have that."

Sven understood immediately. "But you could have that with 'Dylan'. After all, she's just a pilot like you."

Keith let out a somewhat relieved sigh. "Yes. Yes, I can," he agreed, feeling a bit self-conscious...but not enough to hide the wicked little grin that was beginning to form.

Lance shrugged in understanding, but still had some unanswered questions. "You know, I can buy that. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense, however, is why you couldn't tell us about Dylan and Allura being one and the same."

"Gee, Lance, how dare I want to enjoy this for myself, at least for a little while." Keith crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. "Besides, I still can't believe that you, the person who claims to be her closest friend and confidante, didn't realize it on your own."

Lance shot him a dirty look, which quickly morphed into a sly grin. "I don't know, I guess it was watching her prance around with those killer abs glaring at me, or maybe the sexy tramp stamp threw me off. Forgive me, Commander Strangelove, but I certainly had no interest in looking at her eyes."

Sven came up behind him and whacked him upside the head.

"Hey! What the hell!" Lance flinched.

"Shut up, Lance!" Keith warned.

"Hey, you started it! We're not all in love with her, you know. Do we now think she's one of the hottest babes we've ever seen? Absolutely! I mean, we all knew she was beautiful, but damn! Who knew the Princess was hiding that hot body under all those skirts? You lucky bastard!" Lance slapped Keith on the back in a congratulatory way.

Keith glared at him. "I will kill you, you know. I don't need a weapon. And I won't even leave a mark," he growled in his infamous monotone.

"Oh, I am fully aware of your Jedi-like qualities, oh wise one."

Sven laughed at the exchange before changing the subject. "So, Keith, what happens now? Where do you go from this point?"

Keith flopped back down into the chair and sighed. "Honestly? I don't know. I have to say, I'm a bit disturbed by the fact that she hasn't yet hinted that she realizes that I know what's going on."

"Why's that?" Lance asked.

"I told her that I love her, Lance. She knows that my feelings won't ever change, but…" He cringed. "Does she really think that I'm the type of guy that would just go around, well, being like, I don't know, like YOU?"

"Keith, she's trying to keep her cover going. Besides, she probably feels like you - wanting to enjoy this side of you, having this 'relationship' with that you otherwise wouldn't be able to have," Sven offered. "In all honesty, I think that the only reason she hasn't lost it is because she's too busy having fun with you to realize that you are, in essence, two-timing her. Either that, or she's enjoying it as much as she can now, so she can hit you over the head with it later - that's what Romelle would do." Sven finished with a shrug and a wink.

"That's great, Sven. I feel so much better after that insightful explanation," Keith cracked sarcastically.

Lance laughed as Sven added, "Any time, broder, any time!" and patted Keith's back.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So what are you gonna wear on Saturday?" Geni, who had busted into Allura's room and plopped herself onto the bed, stared at her roommate as she went through the items in her closet. "Girl, you have got to put on something hot! Do you know how hard it is to get reservations there? Italo must've pulled some serious strings." She sighed. "Man, I wish Cliff had enough connections to get us a reservation there."

With a nervous exhale, Allura stepped away from her closet and shut the door. "I don't know, Gen. I'm having second thoughts."

"Um, hello! This is Acquerello we're talking about here, not Jimmy's Shake Shack! What's to have second thoughts about?"

"Oh, nothing. I just feel like I'm leading him on, that's all." Allura sat down on the bed next to Geni and laid back, closing her eyes in frustration. "I like Italo, Geni, I really do. But I don't love him, and I'm never going to love him. I love Keith, remember?"

"Yeah. You're in love with my dumbass brother." Geni sat up on the bed and stared Allura down. "Let's not forget here, Lura-lu, that your darling has been flirting with Dylan for quite some time now. I say, it's not like you're shamelessly flirting with Italo in front of Keith's face. Who's a nice dinner gonna hurt?"

The princess gritted her teeth. "Italo, Gen. That's who it's gonna hurt."

"Oh." Geni's face fell. "You think he really likes you that much? Huh." She shrugged. "I figured that it was just an ego boost on his part - you know, being seen by everyone and his commander with the hot Dylan on his arm."

"No, it's more than that. I think that he genuinely likes me. And I will never feel for him what I feel for Keith. I'll never feel about Italo the way he feels about me."

"Ooh, tough one." Geni chewed on a hangnail for a moment. "But still, Keith's been horrible to you. Bossing you around, taking the Blue Lion away from you, flirting with 'Dylan'...you know, I think you should still go to Acquerello with Italo. It'd give Kogane something to think about."

"I don't know, Gen."

"Aw, don't be such a wuss. Go on the date. Let me know how the food is." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, you'll be on the date with Italo. He's not like Liam - he won't try to get into your panties afterwards."

"No, he won't."

"Go. Back to your closet." Geni waved Allura off. "Pick out something hot. I mean, geez, you're going to Acquerello! I promise that Cliff and I will make good use of the apartment while you're there."

Allura made a face. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that."

Geni laughed. "Oh, just go pick out a dress already, would you?"

"Ugh. Fine." With a pout, Allura stood up and stepped back towards her closet, throwing open the doors once again in an attempt to find the perfect outfit for her Saturday night date. She needed something that would look good, but not too good. She didn't want to give Italo the wrong idea. But if Keith somehow got the wrong idea...well, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, after all.