Chapter Twenty-Five
"Let's go in through the garden," Lance said, veering off the path just before the Castle came into sight. "Get you straight to your room where you can wash off that make up and change."
Allura followed him, both of them running at a steady pace, his words telling Allura that like herself he was definitely thinking about ways of placating Keith, trying to manage the situation and explain everything away with making things worse. Allura didn't want Lance to take the blame for this, she'd asked him to bring her out there. The other problem was she didn't want Lance telling Keith where they'd been either, Keith would tell Coran, and she didn't want Coran knowing about her knowledge of things until she a better grasp of what was going underneath the surface of her planet. Centuries of hiding the problems of society? It made her ill to think about it, to hide people who were different, it was disgusting to her, it felt a step close to being like Zarkon who placed people in cells because he felt their species were below Drule.
Lance scaled the stone wall that led to the garden behind the Castle, and stayed on the top as she made her way, helping her over the edge to the top, then they both scaled their way down, jumping last two feet onto the ground. They were going to reach the steps to get inside soon and Allura needed to make sure Lance was on the same page as her. "Lance, stop?" she asked, stopping at the foot of the stairs. He was two steps up but he stopped and turned around.
"I don't want Keith to know where we went, he'll tell Coran, you know he'll tell Coran."
"I know, I wasn't going to tell him unless you did."
Allura smiled, she should have known, he knew her, he knew how she thought and he knew Keith as well as she did. She nodded and they both started running again. They entered the Castle, Lance slammed his back against a wall, she slammed her back against it next to him, she suppressed a giggle.
He glared at her.
"Sorry, it's just this is my own castle, not Doom."
Lance grinned but he held up a finger to shush her, as two guards walked by. "What's got Kogane so worked up, why are they getting ready to ride out on horses this late at night?"
"Night, it's morning, don't know they are being hush-hush and the orders state not to wake Coran."
"Whatever it is it doesn't want to face Kogane never seen him looking so pissed."
"I know, the furrow between his eyebrows, I didn't know it could get worse."
Lance and Allura exchanged glances, Allura gritted her teeth and promised to herself that she wasn't letting Lance take the brunt of this. Lance took a quick glance and saw the two guards turn a corner, then he and Allura started down the opposite hall toward Allura's bedroom.
Outside her door, Lance waited as she put in her code. "What are you going to do?"
"Find him," Lance said.
Allura held her finger over the last button she needed to push. "Are you crazy, no, you can't see him without me."
"Allura, no. Look just let me go to him, come up with something and take the brunt of it."
"No! I asked to come with you, this was about Arus, I'm not letting you take the blame, no matter what story you come up with, I'm not letting you take the blame. No."
"Allura, it's easier and less messy that way."
"And not true. No, I have my own free will and I'm tired of people protecting, and you've promised..."
Lance sighed. "Then what should I do then? Wait for you?"
They heard footsteps, Allura hit the last button, her door slide open, she grabbed Lance's arm and dragged him into her bedroom with her. "Yes," she said as her door slid shut afterwards. "I'll just wash my face off, then we'll find him together."
"Don't you want to change?"
"Sooner the better, don't you think?" Allura said as she walked to her bathroom.
"I guess," Lance said walking toward her bathroom behind her.
She opened the door and walked in, flicking on the light.
Lance looked in and whistled. "Seriously, that's bigger than my room."
"I know," Allura said looking ashamed. "It's ridiculously ornate."
~~.~~
"Chief!" Pidge exclaimed, just as Keith was about to tell them to head out to the stables and get on the horses he'd had the stable hands ready for them to take out and search for Lance and Allura.
"What?" Keith snapped, he'd given Lance an hour to get back with Allura, it'd been an hour and three minutes.
"Allura's bedroom code was just entered," Pidge said, pointing to a line on one of the many smaller screens on the control room console. "It was the entry code, less than one minute ago."
"Bring up the video outside her room, let's make sure it's not a maid, or something, or worse Nanny."
Hunk laughed. "If it was Nanny and Allura's not in there, we'd be hearing the screaming already."
Pidge chuckled.
"Pidge the video," Keith ordered again.
He ignored the loaded glance Pidge and Hunk shared as Pidge, finally, silently obeyed his order. They watched as Lance and Allura ran up to the doorway of Allura's room, as Allura punched in all but the last number of her her code. Then it appeared the two of them were having some sort of argument, then Allura punched in the last number, grabbed Lance and pulled him into her bedroom with her.
Keith stared at the feed and then started to count to ten. When he reached ten, he started to counting to ten again. "Stay here," he snapped at Hunk and Pidge.
"Chief," Hunk said. "It might be best we come with?"
"No," Keith said, looking Hunk in the eye. "No, it won't. Stand down everyone else however, have the the horses put back in their stalls."
"Okay," Hunk said, looking at Pidge.
Keith ignored their worried glances and stalked out of the control room toward Allura's bedroom. He was going to calmly ask them where they had been, he'd calmly listen to where they had gone, then he would calmly point out how stupid they'd been. Then he'd hit Lance.
Hard.
~~.~~
Allura pulled the knife out of her boot as she waited in her bedroom for Lance to use her bathroom, she felt better without so much make up on. She preferred the less is more approach, but looking less like herself and more like someone else had been fun. No one had even thought she was the princess, no one had looked at her like she was a princess. They'd all looked at her like she was a woman, a female, a girl. She was only used to that coming from Lance. It'd been novel, it'd been nice.
She moved the blade back and forth by twisted her wrist, she thought about the damage she knew how to inflict with it and was thankful she never had to put that knowledge into action. Allura placed the knife down on her bureau just as Lance came out of the bathroom, his eyes went to the knife. He walked over to her, stood behind her, lifted up the black top and pulled out the blaster, then reached over and put it down on her bureau.
"You have any here in your room?" he asked.
"No."
"Keep them here then," he said. "Just in case, isn't like Lotor has never gotten inside before."
Allura shuddered at the memory and she nodded. "Okay. Where should I keep them?"
"Somewhere Nanny and the maids won't find them."
Allura nodded. "I know where then, where I keep my diary," she said, picking them back up and walking toward her bed, where she moved the nightstand next to her bed away from the wall, and bent down. She felt Lance looming above her. "This is top secret," she said as she peeled back a section of the carpet that ran wall to wall in her room, and then pulled up a small rectangle of wood. She dropped the blaster and knife in, next a book and what she knew Lance would recognized as a prophecy scroll.
"What's with the scroll, Allura?"
"It's not a real one," Allura said. "Its...there is just this one prophecy I read that I can't get out of my head, I got some scroll paper from the archives in the castle, been trying to redo as much as I can by memory, hoping to get it out."
"It helping?"
"No," Allura admitted, standing back up and moving her nightstand into place. "But..."
Lance nodded. gave this look that said he got it and he took her hand in his, his thumb going into a little circle on the back of her hand for a minute to tell her he did understand. Then he changed the subject. "Ready?"
Allura took a deep breath. "Ready."
Holding hands they started to walk toward her bedroom door as it slid open and Keith walked inside, he stepped right up to him, standing straight, arms crossed against his chest, his dark eyes storm clouds, and he took them both in. A part of Allura said, let go of Lance's hand, Lance had the same voice because she felt him letting go of hers, but Allura didn't want to listen to hers. She gripped tighter, stopping Lance from letting go of hers.
Allura straightened her shoulders, she held her head high and she looked right at Keith. "Hi, we heard guards talking that you were all up in arms about something. It wasn't us being out of the Castle was it?" she asked with the all the innocence she could muster.
The silence that followed was awkward, very awkward. Allura held Keith's gaze, she was sure she'd never seen it so angry. At least not at her and she wasn't even sure if it was at her yet, or if he was going to try to put all the blame onto Lance. She wasn't going to let him, at least she was going to try not to let him. Allura held his gaze, she made herself wait Keith out. She'd put the question out there, she had to act like she was surprised by his knowledge she was out of the castle. She couldn't tell him a Seer told him he was pissed off at her and Lance.
The voice in her head that kept telling her to let go of Lance's hand was louder now, it was getting louder but she couldn't do it. A large part of her wanted too, understood even that it would be in her best interest too. That it would be kinder to Keith too and would make the whole situation less awkward and intense if she would just let go of Lance.
But she couldn't because Lance was her anchor here, he was her back up and he was the one who knew the truth and would back up her lies. He was the one who would really protect her by not letting her get off scott free in when she herself was just as complicit as he was in doing something that was secretive and wrong in a way.
She was keeping secrets from Keith, it hurt her, but she had no choice because he'd go against her wishes thinking she didn't know better - she had to make Keith understand she did know her own mind and what was best for her planet before she could trust him with her own plans. Because she could trust Keith to stand up with her against Coran.
Lance was all she had right now. She needed his strength, and right now her hand felt glued to his as she tried to siphoning it off of him. Keith's eyes had fallen to their hands and she felt guilty, she felt bad but it didn't mean anything near what he thought it did.
"Where exactly where you? Where's Lara? Drop her home before you headed back here?" Keith asked, finally, Allura thought.
"Lara, yeah, we dropped her home first," Lance said.
"Where did you three go? So late at night, before we have an early morning wake up call for obstacle courses and hand to hand evaluation by the Garrison?" Keith asked, pointedly.
"We went someplace important," Allura said, not wanting to lie, she just didn't want to tell him everything - not yet anyway.
"Important? Some place important, dressed, like-like Lara? I saw the video of you leaving Lance's room, Allura. You were painted up like some..."
"Keith finish that sentence and I'll clock you," Lance spat out.
Keith fixed Lance with a death glare Allura was sure she'd only seen him fix on Lotor and she felt cold inside.
"It is important, Keith!" she shouted a bit too loud, to try to break apart their glaring before it moved to something else and she squeezed Lance's fingers in hers a bit too tight to try to get her point across to him.
"She's right, Keith it was important."
"In the middle of night, with Lara?" Keith said again.
"Lara took us where we were going, she knew were it was, we didn't," Allura explained. "But beyond that, that is all I'm willing to say about it."
Keith stared at her, then at Lance. "If its so important why can't you tell me? I'm the commander, here."
"It's not about Voltron," Allura said.
Keith closed his eyes. "Then what the hell is it about?"
"Arus." Allura rolled her eyes. "My planet. It's about Arus, and it's important and I'm asking you to trust me."
"Trust you. You snuck out of the Castle tonight, without warning. With Lance and Lara, dressed like that, with too much make up on. It looked like the three of you went out to some late night rave or concert or something. You were out of the Castle, with no way of communicating with you in case there was an attack."
"Not true," Lance said, pulling a radio out of one of the pockets of his black cargo pants. "It's set on the emergency Castle radio wave, if there'd been an attack it would've started beeping. We would've been back A.S.A.P. I'm not an idiot, Keith."
"And what exactly is wrong with the way I'm dressed?" Allura snapped.
"What is wrong... Allura you are the Princess of Arus and that, that..."
"What, Keith? This outfit makes me look like a woman. Are Princess's not supposed to look like women?"
"Allura," Keith said, his voice going low and warning, his eyes flashing. "You snuck out. You two aren't even telling me where you went. It's something important about Arus. It sounds like a dumb lie. I know there was a rave and a concert tonight. Which one Lance, which one did you decide she needed to go too? For whatever warped reason in your damn head?"
Allura dropped Lance's hand then, because now she was pissed off. Now she was really pissed off. "Out. Keith, OUT OF MY ROOM, out, out, out, out, OUT!" she walked forward and started to bodily push him.
Keith was too shocked to fight her, he found himself at the door way before he could stop her from moving him, he grabbed her wrists. "Allura, stop it."
"No, you stop it. Do you really think that lowly of Lance? Or me, for that matter? That you think we would go out to some underground dance club rave - yes I know what they are! But, I've never been to one and I never will be. I certainly would never go to one the night before we have evaluations by the Garrisons. I told you where we went to tonight was for Arus, and it was important and if you don't trust me, or your second in command, I think it is you who really has a lot of thinking he should be doing. So get the HELL OUT OF MY BEDROOM!" She reached past him and hit a button and the doors slid open. Since Keith was staring at her gobsmacked, she managed to hit him one more time smack in the chest and send him stumbling back into the hallway.
Then she turned to Lance and burst out crying.
~~.~~
The doors slid closed. Keith with his face an expression somewhere between confused, pissed and downright confounded disappeared behind it and Lance braced himself for the inevitable end of Allura's righteous anger. It happened in less than a second, he was sure of it. She went from a woman who knew she was right, who wanted the man she wanted to simply trust her for a bit before she told everything to the unsure teenager in the time it took the doors to slide shut.
They slid shut fast, less than a second, Lance was sure, she was on the floor, in a heap, crying. The make up she hadn't managed to get off of her eyes, was streaking down her cheeks in a black mess and he sighed as he bent down to the floor. He grabbed her under her arms and lifted up. "Move with me," he said.
Her arms came up and wrapped around his neck and she moved to her feet with him easily and glommed onto him in a tight hug and sniffled into his shoulder mumbling something he couldn't make out with the crying and the fact her face was squished against him.
"What?" he said as he backed them up toward her bed.
"All he had to do was trust me. I thought he trusted me," she said, pulling back and looking up at Lance, her blue eyes full of the hurt she felt.
"He does," Lance said. "He's just pissed off and being stupid."
"He should trust you, too," Allura said.
"No one trusts me," Lance laughed, turning them around and pushing her onto the bed, then bending down to untie her boots.
"I do," Allura said looking down at him, all innocence and make up stained tears glistening on her face. Lance looked up at her and felt something break inside of him that he wasn't going to think about, or dwell on at all. He cleared his throat, even though it was clear, and looked down to concentrate on her boots.
"Why would he say that crap about a rave or a concert? I just, where would that idea even come from?"
"I have no idea," Lance said.
"I can't have him going to Coran, he'd think it'd be best and it just isn't and I need to understand and know more first. I mean, we're going to have to go back, but..."
"She said not now," Lance said, talking about the Seer. He'd seen Allura's face when she'd realized there were Seer's in that city, and she'd seen the pain, disgust and anger when she realized why they were hiding from the Arus population. The people had blamed them for Alfor's death and Arus's fall to Doom. He hated the cynical side of him that found a logic in that line of thinking.
"I have to think about that, I need to decide... We need to talk?"
"We will, later," Lance said pulling off her second boot. "You need to wash your face again," he said.
She wiped at one of her cheeks with her hand and looked at her fingers, she sighed. "Eye make up is a bitch," she muttered, standing up.
Lance laughed. "You've been hanging out with me and Lara too much."
Allura turned on the faucet in the bathroom but she looked at him and opened her mouth then closed it. He knew that motion, it was Allura's I want to say something about Lara motion.
"What?"
"She's dating that Jude guy, and you."
"And probably some one else," Lance said scratching his neck.
"Yet, you keep trying to get her to pick you. There has to be some other girl you know that would be, you know actually into the dating only you idea..."
Lance sighed. "Yeah but they aren't Lara."
Allura frowned and started to soap up her face.
Lance waited, glancing at the door a time or two, actually impressed Keith hadn't come back inside. He sat down on Allura's bed and wait for her come back out to finish out the conversations they were having. Make sure she was okay alone with all the fall out from their adventure. With what she learned, and with Keith's epic fail of a reaction as a boyfriend.
Allura came back out, sat down next to him and started to undo her braid. "Are you in love with her?"
No, Lance thought, but he could be he knew that, Lara was the type of girl he could fall in love with and she was the only other - no she was the only girl on Arus who fit that description. "I can be in love her, I just got to get her to agree to get that point with me, so it can happen."
Allura scrunched up her nose and continued to unbraid for awhile. "So sucking on her breasts and having sex, is a bargaining tool?" she asked him a sidelong glance with a smirk.
Lance rolled her eyes. "No that was Lara succeeding in distracting me from talking about us being more serious. Damn woman, using her breasts to distract me..."
Allura stilled and turned more fully toward him eyes wide. "She used sex to distract you from what she didn't want to talk about!"
Lance laughed and nodded. "Tried and true way women have been getting there way with men for centuries, on probably every planet where their are two sexes. Sometimes, sometimes, a man can do it to a woman - but you woman you have some odd strength of character that allows you to say no more often."
"Hmm," Allura said, her face going pensive as she went back to her hair.
Lance watched her face for a few minutes, knowing she processing that nugget of information and storing it. It would probably be used against Keith tomorrow at the soonest, Lance had to swallow the belly laugh that wanted to come out of him.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm done crying," she said, standing up and walking over to her bureau and then pulling her hair out of her pony tail, picking up her brush and bending over to brush her hair out from the back first.
Lance sat on the bed and told himself he really wasn't starring at her ass, her amazing round perfectly formed ass. Then she whipped back to standing straight, brushed her hair into tameness and turned around, and looked gorgeous. She grinned at him. "I'm mad, I'm hurt but no more crying, I'm too mad."
"You know you should be kind of easy on him, you aren't the normal girlfriend," Lance said.
"He isn't the normal boyfriend, but he should still trust me, trust you, trust us. We're both supposed to be his best friends."
"And we both lied to him tonight, then didn't tell him the whole story," Lance said.
Allura sighed. "And you know why? And I hate it but for Arus I have to keep Coran from knowing what I know, and until I know Keith will accept that I can make my own decisions on my planet..."
"I know."
"When will he stop seeing me as a little girl?"
"Trust me he doesn't see you as a little girl."
Allura rolled her eyes. "Fine as someone who needs coddling and protection, who can't think alone or for herself?"
"Keep showing him how well you do it, he'll start siding with you more than Coran. You've been great with the Garrison this week. Just keep it up."
Allura smiled. "Okay."
Lance looked at the time and sighed. "Okay it's going on 3 in the morning. We have to be up and ready for hand to hand at 6. Get some sleep, set your alarm for 5 am the latest, if you think you can handle it 4:30 is better?"
Allura nodded, then kissed his cheek. "Love you," she said.
Lance shook his head, got up and paused at the door to her room. They exchanged a look. Allura glanced over her shoulder from the wardrobe she was at and said. "If he's out there, just close the doors and stay here tonight."
Lance laughed. "Oh, that would go over well."
Allura shrugged.
Lance opened the doors, the hallway was empty. "Empty! See you, soon." He walked out, knowing it was just a brief reprieve and headed toward his room. Keith was in the hall, sitting on the floor next to Lance's door, when he saw Lance he sprung up to his feet.
Lance met his gaze, storm clouds, Keith was still beyond pissed of at him. Possibly Allura, but Keith would blame Lance for that anyway, Lance was sure. He knew Allura had to take her lumps for it too but Lance still knew no matter what he was going to take the brunt of it.
"Where the hell did you take her?"
"I can't tell you," Lance said.
"Screw that, Lance, where?"
Lance shook his head. "She's asked me to keep it quiet until she's made more than a few decisions on things, found out more information. And a few other important factors fall into place, Keith," Lance explain, thinking all the while that one of those factors was Keith himself. "So, no I can't."
"You two really went 'somewhere important' in the middle of the night?"
"Was really the best time to go," Lance said and he started to enter his code in.
"Why the hell was she dressed like that?"
"I thought she looked great."
"She didn't look like Allura?"
"Well, yeah it was way more make up than she's been wearing but the outfit totally her."
"What?"
Lance walked into his room, Keith right on his heels glaring at the clothes strewn everywhere. Lance looked at it all too and sighed. "Damn, let two girls bring clothes into your room," he muttered. He started to pick up stuff to put it all in one pile.
"Again, what with the Lara fashion?"
"I felt it was best if no one recognized me or Allura."
"Oh, that's why you look like crap."
"Thanks," Lance said, dropping all of Lara's clothes on the bottom of his closet and leaving Allura's pantsuit and the other pair of pants Lara said she could keep on his bureau.
"Tell me where you went, it's my job to protect Allura."
"Why?" Lance said.
"What?"
Lance sat down on his bed and started to untie his boots. "Really, Keith. I want to know why it's you're job to protect her. You asking as the head of the Voltron Force, or as he boyfriend. Because you acted fine as a Commander tonight. You were shit as a boyfriend."
Keith opened and closed his mouth.
Lance pulled off a boot.
Keith paced his room. "You didn't take her to a concert at all did you. Or a rave?"
"No, and where the hell you got that crazy idea is nuts to me."
"Lara mentioned them, last time she was here, that they were tonight and she was mad she couldn't go. Thought maybe she talked you into one, and you decided to educated Allura... in your quest to make her less naive and you knew I wouldn't go for it."
"I hate those rave things, Lara knows that. I needed her to guide me to the place we did go, which is why she missed them. As for the concert, Lara will have a chance to see her brother's band another time," Lance explained.
"You aren't going to tell me."
"No, I was asked not too say anything. Lips are sealed."
"Why the hell didn't she ask me to take her to this place?"
"For one she heard about it from me."
"Oh, well that figures."
"Two, I couldn't keep her from going with me."
"Yeah, you could."
Lance thought about it and decided he disagreed. "No. I couldn't not if I wanted to keep calling her my friend. Really I have no desire to lose that relationship."
"Lance, Coran doesn't want her making decisions about Arus alone, he wants her to discuss everything thoroughly with him. Whatever this is should be brought to him."
"You are so predictable," Lance muttered to himself as he took off his second boot.
"What?"
"Keith, talk to your girlfriend. She needs you to listen to her, how she feels, what she wants when it comes to ruling her people, taking care of her Planet. She doesn't agree with everything Coran thinks and does, you know?"
"She's young and she doesn't always see the bigger picture."
Lance sighed. "I don't know I think on some subjects, she might see the bigger picture better than he does. Talk with her sometime on these things, not at her."
Keith frowned. "I stay in commander mode too often don't I?"
"Yeah," Lance laughed.
"Damn it. I just... I want to keep her safe."
"She's safe, she wants you to see who she is past all the protection and Princess stuff."
"I do. She's amazing."
"Well, show it now and again."
Keith nodded. "Uh, since your up, I have these things for - well today I wanted to go over with you?"
"This is how we got caught isn't it, you were going to interrupt me and Lara in this bed, to go over what you want the team to look out for, what you think our strengths and weaknesses are...blah blah blah."
"Yes. What is so wrong with wanting everyone to be prepared?"
Lance sighed. "I wasn't going to sleep anyway, no use in it, I would only get enough to make me cranky about waking up."
Keith nodded. "I'll get the folder, oh and by the way, you're on probation until further notice, no leaving the Castle after hours for a month."
"Great. Thanks. I appreciate that."
"Be thankful I didn't hit you," Keith added with one more glare. "By the way, what's with the handholding, I don't like the handholding, stop touching her so much, I was thinking of getting my sword and chopping your hand off but then you'd be no use to me as a pilot. And that's really your best use." Keith sounded half teasing but Lance caught the left over anger, the jealousy and an odd bit of insecurity.
Lance knew he should act contrite, apologize for the lies and not being able to be straightforward, since he had not actually done that yet but instead what came out of his mouth was. "She wouldn't let go of me, talk to her."
Keith glared at him again before walked out, the threat of his return looming.
"Good one, Lance," Lance told himself, eyes rolling.
Tomorrow with the evaluations, Allura mad at Keith, and Keith calmer but still angry, confused and not really understanding the situation at all was going to be something that would not be defined by the word fun.