~~~~37~~~~

What the he just done?

Stared at where the ship at just vanished, the lava had smoothed over. He should have tore out the radio. Torn it out, worked on it, made it workable and worked on climbing out of this mountain and getting back out into the open. That way he could be found by Wade and the Alliance out in the cold. He'd never have to mention the volcano, or the rocks underneath the snow cap of the mountain.

Except to Zora. Then she'd get the intel to Xan. Job well done. He'd probably been imaging Alfor. Hallucinations due to his concussion or something. Some sort of comfort, a way to feel closer to Allura.

Chuckling filled his head. I am real Lance. You did the right thing.

Lance sat down against a rock, and shook his head. "King Alfor," he spoke toward the lava, "look, I believe in you, mostly because it'd be stupid not too. But I mean you're dead. And I can't pretend to even understand how you stick around, or how you know things. But why exactly did you have me push the ship in lava? What's melting it going to accomplish. I need to get back to Allura."

Allura is safe. She is with Keith.

Lance felt jolted, he was suddenly more awake. "What? How? How is she with...that was what they were up too. They kidnapped Allura? For what? The stones?"

Yes, but it will do them no good.

"Great, just great. So, what they'll let Allura rot out there with a supposed bad guy I suppose...no that'd be political suicide for Wade, right?" Lance stood up and started to pace. "I can't just stay down here, I've got to get out of here."

Be patient. Lance. It will all work out. Pick up some stones.

Lance rolled his eyes. Of course he was surrounded by the raw stones, it was a no-brainer. It still didn't answer how he was going to get out of this situation and how he was going to be any help to anybody. He squatted down and gathered about dozen raw falling stones. He liked the weight, warmth and feel of the roughness of them against his palms. He pushed them into his uniforms pockets.

"So, uh, how much longer to I wait, while Allura whiles away the time with Keith?" Lance muttered, staring down at the lava pool.

She needs this time with him. As he with her. But soon the three of you will stand together.

~~~~.~~~~

Allura stood alone. She'd done her part, she'd said her lines, played the kidnap victim in civil war, placing Wade on the spot and Prince Seth too. Now all they could do was wait and see what happened after the video went out. Keith was using his computer and their new found key codes into the Castle to pipe it and put it on every single person who was in possession of a computer. With Pidge's help via encrypted video communication. It was so they knew Wade couldn't hide the ransom from Alliance members in the Castle.

It was a good plan. Allura was impressed, it was bold, smart, it was Keith. What she wanted to know now was how the search for Lance was going, had they found him yet? She'd asked for an update over an hour ago, what was keeping Keith at his computer on the inside of the tent.

Allura hugged her jacket closer to her, thanking Zora in her head, for making it possible for her to have it with her. She stared toward the south, wishing she could see out of the forest, see where Lance had crashed. Maybe if she could see where the crash had happened, she could sense if he was okay.

She heard footsteps behind her, but she knew they weren't Keith's. A throat cleared behind her and she glanced out of her periphery. "Yes, Prince Xan?"

"He and Pidge are having a few issues, Pidge thinks it's the upcoming ice storm."

Allura shrugged.

"They are still searching, they think he went down on the closest peak, Mount Shios, but they aren't detecting the ship at all. It could have fallen under the ice and snow, into the caverns, but they have to search for that by foot, and climbing the mountain takes time."

Allura nodded, she didn't have her voice again, fear was gripping her. If he was gone...no, he couldn't be, he wasn't, she hadn't come here to lose him, she'd come her to find him. Find her heart's desire, that is what her father had said.

"It's going to start soon. The ice storm, you might want to..." Xan said.

Allura shook her head.

Xan nodded. "Well, come in soon, Princess Allura."

Allura prayed, to her father, to the Arusian Gods, to whoever would listen to her. She talked directly to Lance in her head, reminding him of his promise to come back to her. He promised and he'd never gone back on any of his promises to her and he better not be starting now, she thought. They had to find him, he had to be okay. Next time she saw Wade, she was punching him in his big smug nose, she thought. Playing nice to him or not as a cover story, he'd endangered her boyfriend's life, knowingly. If he wanted to use Lance because of his pilot skills, he should damn well listen to him when he told him a ship wasn't flyable, Allura thought.

Ice started to fall from the sky, tiny sharp little chips of it, she barely felt it against her cheeks. Please let him not be too cold, she prayed. Footsteps were behind her again, this time she knew they belonged to Keith.

"It's out. Did Xan update you on the search."

"Yes," she whispered.

"Allura, you should come inside."

"He's out there."

"He wouldn't want you out here too," Keith said.

"How would you know, what Lance wants," Allura muttered.

"Because I wouldn't want you here," Keith said.

Allura turned and looked at him. "He'd let me search for you."

Keith shook his head. "I know and he'd be wrong. It'd be a crazy risk, to kidnap you to help Xan, then let you go off looking for him like you aren't a captive."

Allura shrugged. "I don't really care about right or wrong right now, Keith. Not everything can be put into one or two categories," she said, then she walked into the tent.

Keith followed her.

Allura sat down by the heater, on the stool. Keith sat down next to her.

"Allura?"

"What?" she whispered, staring at the heater.

"I can't let you go off looking for him."

"We already established that. I'm assuming that's why you haven't returned my voltcom."

Keith nodded. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I had to knock you out."

"I'm not sorry I punched you."

"Okay, then..." Keith said trailing off.

"Lance, he kept telling me you'd hate him."

"I do."

Allura shook her head and then turned to look at him. Keith met her eyes head on. "Why?"

"Why?" Keith snapped. "Why wouldn't I, Allura. He took you, he's touched you. He knew how I felt about you, how we felt...He knew everything. And he still stepped between that...it's betrayal."

Allura stared, her mouth fell open and then she closed it and looked away. "I used to talk to him about you all the time. How wonderful I thought you were. Brave, noble, and heroic. And how annoying you were too, stubborn, too quiet, to closed off. You hardly ever talked to me, I'd try and try to get you to open up, to tell me anything. Anytime you shared something personal with me, it felt like a victory. He'd tell me how you just don't trust people that easily, he'd tell me how you never have. It's just not who you are, how your a private person, and never really talk about the things that matter. He tell me that half the things you two talk about were in some sort of weird guy code you two formed during your time at the academy. But Lance, I mean Lance he can be an open book, except when he's not. But once you get him going on the things he keeps inside he doesn't stop...I know there are things he still hasn't told me. But I know he will and when he does he won't hold back." Allura stopped. "He's out there alone, and we're here. We're his family, Keith. We are all he has and we are here sitting in front of a heater. When he's where, on a mountain in the snow!"

"Allura," Keith reached out and grabbed her arm as she started to stand up, she sat back down and looked at his hand on her arm.

Allura looked at his hand, she felt the heat of it on her arm and she remembered how a moment like this used to light something up inside of her. She smiled at the memory and she hated him for stopping her from running off. "I feel useless."

"He's being looked for."

"By Wade," she spat.

"And good Alliance soldiers."

Allura sighed and then studied Keith for a long time and went back to their prior subject.

"He didn't betray you alone you know. I'm the one who told you I love you, I'm the one who told you wanted something from you, and I'm the one who invited him into my bed," she explained.

Keith let go of her like he'd been burned. "Allura. No. Come on," he looked away.

"What?" Allura asked. "What, your perfect little proper princess can't want a man? Can't be a woman with needs and wants, can't be someone who craves being touched and being treated like a woman more than a symbol for her people? I made the first moves, Keith. I keep looking back at everything and it was me. He walked up to me on the Academy Space Station and he hugged me and he was favoring his side...and the worry that stabbed at me was shocking in its weight. Then I couldn't stop touching him, worrying about him, wanting to be near him. And he, picked up on it and he felt the change too. The charge, and we tried to ignore it, but... It was stupid too. We're adults, we're friends, we care about each other. So we stopped ignoring it, Keith. I'm glad we did, I will never regret it. It's the best choice I ever made," Allura wiped her eyes, and looked away from Keith. "I'm terrified I'll never get to tell him," she whispered.

Keith swallowed. "You're in love with him."

"Yes," Allura said.

Keith stood up and started pacing. "And I'm not supposed to hate him?"

"You never told me you loved me back, you never made a move, you always kept me at arms length. You took off without a goodbye."

"He. Was. In. Your. Room." Keith spat out.

Allura's eyes widened.

"I was going to say goodbye, tell you why it had to me to go underground and not him. Why this is my responsibility. But he was in your room and you were begging him to stay. I mean I knew you two were close back then, but that he was in your room, grabbing you... I just had never notice before then, how casual he was with you. I was going to ask you to step outside and walk with me," Keith laughed. "But, I had to take off, I couldn't wait for him to leave. He'd leave."

"You were going to say goodbye, were you going to say anything else?" Allura asked.

"The wrong thing, the stupid thing, I suppose it doesn't matter now that I want to say the right thing."

Allura stood up and walked over to him and took his hand. "Keith what was it you were going to say?"

"That I did have feelings for you too, of course I did, but that I was pilot not a prince, and that you owed Arus a true King. We had to stay apart."

Allura didn't know how to react to him, it didn't surprise her at all when she thought about it, all the avoiding he'd been doing, how he always stared but never touched. How just kept her at arms length, how irritating and annoying it all was and how she'd reached the point she had to know if she had a shot or move on. She nodded. "And now, now what do you want to say?"

"That I'm a moron, that was wrong, that I love you, I always have and I want you, I love you Allura," Keith said and stepped into her body space and reached out to touch her face.

Allura flinched, she stepped back and shook her head. "Too late," she whispered and she felt sad, sadder than she could explain about it all because it was Keith she was looking at. She loved him, she always would, he was her first love, her first crush, he was Keith, he was her hero. "I love, I do, your my Keith. But... I'm in love with Lance," she said and she reached out and touched his face. "I'm sorry."

Keith let her touch his face, for a brief moment but on the apology he turned away. "I'm going for a walk."

She let him go.

She sat back down at the heater and hugged herself, and started to pray again for Lance's safety.