Chapter Fourteen

Lance got to hand to hand combat before Keith and Allura. Pidge and Hunk were stretching out on the mat, waiting. Lance sat down, trying to get Quiana's freaked out scream to stop banging around in his head. When he told her that he had to change their plans she'd been open about it until he said, they'd be double dating with Commander Kogane and Princess Allura. He'd never been on the phone with someone who'd reached that decibel before, he was worried he may never hear out of his right ear correctly ever again. He fiddled with it and shook his head, Lara had shouted and freaked herself, but she hadn't literally screamed about meeting Allura. It was just Allura anyway, Princess or not, she was someone highly approachable.

Which is what he'd told Quiana about million times once she calmed down enough to be understandable and kept saying, she didn't know if she could date the princess. Which is what she kept saying, she was going to date the princess. Lance shook his head, she'd calmed down eventually though, and agreed to meet him at the Castle's kitchen door at seven o'clock.

"Where are the Princess and Keith?" Pidge asked.

Hunk stretched his hands over his head, after attempting to touch his toes, he never could seem to get the stretch he needed to do it. "Keith's usually already here by now?"

"They'll get here," Lance said, smiling a bit. He was happy for them, especially Allura because he knew how much it meant to her. You didn't watch someone face down an opposite future without batting eyelash and not understand how important her choice was to her.

"Whatcha smiling about, bad enough the Princess is walking around smiling all the time today. She's kinda starting to creep me out," Hunk said.

Pidge punched him in the arm. "I think she's pretty when she smiles, she's happy about something."

"What you growing two inches." Hunk laughed.

Lance sighed. "He grew more than two inches, Hunk, look at his ankles, his gi is way too short on him. We need to get you new clothes, kid."

The three of them looked at Pidges' ankles, and saw the five inches he'd grown in the past few months that no one had really noticed because it'd been going on under their noses. Lance didn't know how they'd missed it, it really shouldn't have taken him and Allura being gone to notice. He felt guilty about it, so he decided not to dwell on it all.

"Here comes Allura," Pidge said.

"Smiling," Hunk said.

"She's happy," Pidge said and punched Hunk in the arm again.

Lance winked at her when she got closed enough to see him and she blushed a deep deep pink. Then she noticed Pidge's gi and she sighed. "Oh my, we really do need to get you new clothes, Pidge. Maybe tomorrow we can go into town and do some shopping."

Pidge grinned. "That'd be great."

Allura gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned to Lance and beamed at him some more about Keith. He finally grabbed her by the waist, which made her shriek and moved her to a spot. "Just don't move," he said. Then he dropped down to his back and laid there.

"What are you doing?" she said.

"You're beaming so hard, I thought maybe I could get a tan."

"Oh!" She kicked his foot.

Hunk and Pidge stared at them, too shocked by Lance manhandling the princess to say anything else. She'd shrieked, but she hadn't said don't touch me, or put me down, and then she had stood where he put her. They exchanged glances, more than once as they tried to figure it out.

"Okay, everyone," Keith finally arrived. "Sorry, I'm late. I had something really important to take care of and it took up some time before could I get back to my quarters to change."

Lance standing back up, noticed that of course Keith looked at Allura the whole time, shyly smiling before he forced himself to go into instruction mode for their hand to hand. He and Allura both exchanged a quick glance, both worried about how they were going to do with this, because like with the lions, they had kept up with their hand to hand training as well. Lance had also noticed like with the lions, Allura did better if she wasn't trying to be perfect to please Keith. That was what held her back the most, he thought.

"Okay yesterday we left off with Lance and Allura, I want to keep working on that. Go back to your stances."

Lance and Allura looked at each other, both of them pleading with the other to remember something, anything about what it was they were doing 'yesterday.' Lance had always prided himself on having a good memory, he remembered important facts about people, important events, funny stories, apparently the only vital event that happened yesterday was him and Allura going to the future and then coming back several minutes later with no one noticing. And yeah, he remembered that, he remembered waking up, and going into the light, and everything that happened after that. The day before he fell asleep in his bed with Lara, not so much. He glanced at Allura and she wasn't doing much better.

"Guys? We don't have all day?" Keith said, looking at them both like they'd grown two heads. Not for the first time today, either, Lance thought.

"I don't think they remember," Pidge said. "They look like people who have no idea what you are talking about. Lance looked like this morning when Lara mentioned the booby woman."

Hunk bust out laughing. "The booby woman?"

"I don't remember her name? I just remember a lot of talk about boobs. What, I'm fifteen?"

Keith held up a hand. "Do you two remember what we were going over yesterday?"

Allura shook her head and went to open her mouth but nothing came out. Keith walked over to her and took her hand in both of his. "Allura, look at me."

She looked up at him.

"Do you remember what we did yesterday during hand to hand combat training?"

Lance stood watching, his mind reeling, he was a master of getting himself out of tight spots. He had to be, he put himself into tight spots all the time, but he couldn't come up with anything at all. Nothing and Allura was looking at him again, sideways, but he saw those big eyes looking at him and he looked back at her feeling helpless. Keith looked over at him too and let out a frustrated growl of sorts.

"Stop looking at Lance at just tell me, Allura. Do you remember or not."

"I don't," she whispered.

"Do you remember yesterday's lion practice?" Keith asked.

Allura sighed and shook her head.

Keith then stared at Lance. "You. You don't remember either, do you? It's not just the girl from the bar, it's the practices, it's yesterday. Neither one of you remember yesterday."

"It's hazy," Lance said.

"Hazy or not there at all."

"Hazy," Lance said.

"Well, yeah that is true," Allura said. "It's hazy."

Hunk and Pidge both stepped up so they were standing next to Keith. "What do you think it means, Chief?" Hunk said.

"I don't know, I don't like it. You two are going to the medical bay, with me, now," Keith barked, he grabbed Allura's hand and started walking.

"Now he's all Princess grabby too," Pidge remarked.

Lance laughed but it was on the nervous side, this wasn't going to be good. Allura looked back at him and he tried to look reassuring and mouthed stick with the plan. But he didn't feel all that reassured at all because there wasn't going to be any explanation whatsoever for their arbitrary memory loss.

~~.~~

Keith paced the small examination room, where Allura sat her legs curled under her on the exam table watching him. Her eyes following from one end of the small room to the other. She was half smiling and half looked like she wanted to cry. Keith felt like a troll for putting sadness there but something had been nagging at him all day and now he knew. Neither Lance or Allura had been acting quite right because they didn't remember a whole day. A whole day, there had to be a reason, something had to be wrong. Haggar, maybe, she had some reason for making them forget something and it would come back wreck havoc on Arus. Keith couldn't allow that, he couldn't allow Allura - he couldn't allow Arus to be hurt by Doom, or that witch again.

"Where is Lance?" Allura asked, not for the first time. She kept asking, it was like she thought if she asked enough times he would finally answer her. Why did it matter where Lance was? He was in another exam room, Keith had ordered Hunk and Pidge to stay with him. He would stay with Allura. It was simple and it made sense.

"Why?" He finally asked. "Does it matter?"

Allura's eyes widened, then she got that look on her face she got when she was mad at him. Her chin poked out, her eyes narrowed and her voice got very regal as she spoke. "Because giving that we both seem to have the same thing happening to us, I would like to know what he is thinking. Is that so surprising!"

Keith stopped pacing and looked at her. "No. But no."

"What?"

"I think you and Lance did enough talking today. You two not remembering anything and keeping it a secret."

Allura sighed. "It wasn't like we forgot anything important."

"Training isn't important?"

"According to you I did better today than I did yesterday. Maybe yesterday was the problem and not today," Allura said.

Keith shook his head. "That makes no sense at all. Yesterday you remembered the day before, perfectly fine. No, something is wrong now."

"How was hand to hand yesterday?"

"Awful."

"Well, if you'd held it today it would've gone better. So, I think maybe the problem was yesterday. Maybe Lance and I had some 24 hour cold or something it threw us off yesterday, so it is foggy to us today. And today we are in better shape and better fighting condition."

"You sound just like him," Keith muttered, staring at her.

"I do?" she said her eyes widening.

"Yeah, you're talking out of your..." Keith couldn't say it out loud to her.

"Out of my what?"

"Out of your...your..."

"What?"

"You're sitting on it."

"Oh!" Allura stared at him and then she glared at him. "I am not talking out of my butt. Besides yesterday being hazy, I feel fine today, better than fine today. I feel great today and I would think you would too," she crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him.

Keith groaned and walked over and sat down next her on the table. "I am happy, I'm more than happy. I'm still a bit in shock. But I'm worried too, I want to make sure you are okay. I want to make sure Haggar didn't zap you with something and maybe Lance got in the way. If both of you are fuzzy about yesterday, something like that could've happened. We have to protect Arus."

"Of course we have to protect Arus. But if Haggar had done something she would've done something by now wouldn't she. Zarkon, Lotor and her aren't known for their patience."

Keith nodded but took her hand and squeezed. "I have to be sure."

The door opened and Dr. Gorma walked in. "Okay, what is the trouble, the nurse said something about Princess Allura and Lieutenant McClain both having trouble remembering yesterday?"

"Yes, sir," Keith said, quickly dropping Allura's hand and standing.

Dr. Gorma stood in front of Allura. "Princess if you will look into the light," he asked holding up a penlight to her eyes. "Okay, and say 'AH"," he said, and Allura did as he asked. Then he checked her ears and felt her throat. "Any headaches, any weird feelings, tingling sensations?"

"No," Allura said.

"Exactly what happens when you think about yesterday?"

"Uh," Allura opened her mouth, then closed a few times. "Well, honestly, it's like I'm trying to remember a day three weeks ago."

"Hmmm," Dr. Gorma said. "Interesting," he made a note. "Okay, I'm going to try something," he said and he pulled out a vial with a few pills in it.

Allura looked at it. "What is that?"

"It unlocks the memory, it's a very low dosage. It's had some luck on traumatic amnesia patients. I can't say why you have this random block, some sort of random virus, you had a bad day. But is strange. Now how this works, so you don't just get random memories from when you were four, is you think about the day you want to remember. Whatever you do remember from it. What do you remember from yesterday?"

"Reading in bed, before I went to sleep. An old book of Fairy Tales, Keith gave it to me, Grimm's Fairy Tales," Allura said, smiling and looking at Keith.

Keith felt face go warm and he fought not to turn away out of shyness and habit, he was allowed to look now, for a little bit anyway. Dr. Gorma would take it as worry for his teammate and the Princess.

"Okay, good, think about that, and wanting to know everything that came before that," Dr. Gorma handed her the pill.

Allura took it.

"It's chewable, tastes like bubblegum."

Allura laughed and put it in her mouth. "Oh, it does," she said.

"It should work right away if it will, in the next few minutes."

Keith found himself staring at Allura, watching her eyes. She looked focused on the wall behind Dr. Gorma's head but he had a feeling she was thinking about yesterday. Suddenly she went, "Oh!" and grabbed her head. Dr. Gorma pulled two more pills out of another bottle. "Yes, the headache is an unfortunate side effect. Do you remember?"

"Oh my god, I really did almost crash five times. I am such a chicken," Allura said. "And what a mess hand to hand was. I can do so much better, Keith, I can. I promise," she said looking up at him.

Keith smiled. "Do you remember anything else, anything that might explain why this happen?"

Allura shook her head. "No, sorry," she said.

Keith stared at her, she smiled back. He couldn't help but smile with her. She must really not have had anything bad happen to her. "I guess you should do the same with Lance, Gorma," Keith said.

"I will, go do that now."

"I want to go with you," Allura said hopping down from the table.

"Allura?" Keith said.

"I want him to know it's fine," she said.

Keith nodded. "Doctor, why do you think this happened to them?"

"I really am stumped. Sometimes flukey things just happen, Commander. Even us doctors can't solve them all."

Keith didn't like it, but he couldn't do much about, so he decided to just accept it. At least he knew Allura was fine, she was safe, no one had messed with her mind at all. Maybe she was right, they should see how it went with Lance, Keith should cover all their bases.

~~.~~

Allura walked into the examination room after Dr. Gorma, Lance saw her and gave her a questioning look. She nodded at him and mouthed. "Go with the semi-truth," since both Pidge and Hunk had their noses in an anatomy book and weren't paying attention.

"Okay, Lance, let's see if your symptoms match the Princess, as in as you have no symptoms at all," Dr. Gorma said as he quickly checked his eyes, ears, and throat. Lance saying 'AH' on cue thanks to years of medical check ups thanks to the Garrison. "Yep, no symptoms. Now, tell me when you try to remember yesterday what is it like?"

Allura nodded.

"It's hard to explain, it's like if someone asked me to tell what I did Tuesday last month," Lance said. "Now if Tuesday last month there was a Robeast attack, I could tell you. But if that didn't happen, I've got nothing."

Allura could feel Keith, she looked back and he was standing behind her. She smiled at him and then heard Dr. Gorma explaining the pill to Lance. Then she added. "It gives you a headache, he doesn't mention that part until you have it."

Lance laughed.

"So. Lance," Dr. Gorma said. "Yesterday what is it you do remember?"

"Uh, the only clear memory is being with Lara in my bedroom laughing, he said.

Allura smiled but she kept getting this weird nagging feeling whenever Lance brought up Lara. Like he was going to get hurt, or Lara wasn't good enough, or wasn't right for him. She didn't know what it was, she'd been kind of in awe of Lara. She wish she had the boldness to say no to the Arusian traditions that she herself felt were too old fashioned for today.

"Okay, think of that moment, then the want to remember both before and after it, and as you chew and swallow this pill. And I'll give you aspirin once the headache hits."

Lance nodded, he started chewing and Allura watched him focus on his hands and she wondered if she'd looked that faraway as she tried to focus on hazy details of such a far away day. Then suddenly Lance jumped in his skin, "Ow, ow, the headache, Allura you could have said it was stabbing."

"Oh, sorry, yeah it's stabbing," she said, laughing.

"Man, you sucked at flying yesterday," he said, and he winked at her.

She stuck her tongue at him.

"Did you remember the boobs?" Pidge asked.

Everybody laughed.

Lance got up off the table and ruffled Pidge's hair. "Yes, I remembered the boobs."