"Lotor."

Lotor jumped, Allura's sudden presence in his mind startling him into bumping his head on the underside of the trans-reality gate's console, which he'd been wiring for a test run later that quintant.

"Ow," he hissed, rubbing his head where he'd hit it. Then alarm set in. "What is it? What's wrong? What do you need?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong. I just had a question."

"Yes?" he prompted.

"I'm attuning the castle's particle barrier to the proper frequency to repel ion blasts from the Thesleh-class battle cruisers. Pidge said it should be 543 terahertz, but I could have sworn I remember it being 656."

Had she been in the room with him, he'd have stared at her incredulously. As it was, he was staring at the wall incredulously.

"You mind-called me to ask about a terahertz setting for your particle barrier?"

"Do you not know?" The color of her tone in his mind had turned tentative. "Because I can look it up. I just thought you'd know it straight off."

Unbelievable.

"It's 543 terahertz," he said.

"Quiznak. Now I owe Pidge a bottle of Kelfar spirits."

"Is that all?" he asked pointedly.

"For now," she responded, and he didn't hear from her for the rest of the quintant.

o~o~o~o~o

"Lotor."

Lotor sighed. "Yes, Allura?"

Zethrid arched an eyebrow at him. "Um, I'm Zethrid. Your general, remember? Not a paladin of Voltron."

Lotor gave her a flat look and walked away from the helm to avoid distraction.

"Ohhh, mind-call thingey," Zethrid said, nodding as he left. "Got it."

"Are you busy?"

Lotor pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, as a matter of fact."

"With what?"

"Treason, obviously. Can I help you with something?"

"Oh, no. I just wanted to see how things were going," she finished awkwardly. She sounded sheepish, and somehow he got the impression she was wincing. "With you, I mean. Like, maybe if you needed my help. For something."

"Did you have anything particular in mind?"

"No, no. Just checking in."

"Well, nothing has really changed since yesterday."

"All right. I just had a little extra time, so I thought I'd ask."

"I appreciate that."

"You do? Oh. That's-that's good."

"Is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment, no."

"Then goodbye, Allura."

"Goodbye."

o~o~o~o~o

"Lotor, can you hear me?"

Lotor looked up from the tablet on quantum entanglement theory that Slav had recommended he read.

"Yes, but you sound very faint."

"I'm testing the distance we can communicate over. We are in the Orien quadrant."

"That's pretty far," Lotor said, impressed. "What are you doing all the way out there?"

"Visiting Earth. The paladins are observing a holiday with their families called, er, Thanks…offering, I think. It has to do with burning a bird on some kind of sacrificial altar to thank their gods for a plentiful harvest. That's what Lance said. Pidge said it has to do with arguing with family members over politics."

"Earthlings seem fairly barbaric at times," Lotor said, giving up on reading and setting the tablet down on the shelf next to his cot.

"You don't know the half of it. Anyway, I'm in the castle alone, so I figured I'd test our range."

"Why are you in the castle alone?" he asked, feeling uncomfortable. He knew she could more than take care of herself, but that didn't stop him from worrying that she had no one to watch her back.

"Lance invited Coran to attend the festivities at his house, and Coran would never pass up the opportunity to experience a new culture, especially—"

"Were you not invited as well?" Lotor would have to have yet another discussion with the black paladin, this time about manners, if they stupidly—

"They all invited me, but…" She trailed off, and though the connection was less substantial than usual, he could feel the sorrow in her voice.

"But you decided not to go, because…"

"Because I was afraid that seeing them with their families…"

"Would make you lonely for yours."

She didn't confirm it, but he could feel that he'd guessed correctly.

"Besides," she said after a tick. "Earth food is odd."

He smiled. "Well, what other experiments should we try through our connection? We should make the most of your remote location."

"There is something I've been wanting to try," she said, her tone changing from wistful to animated.

"What do I need to do?"

"I'm not sure. Close your eyes maybe? I want to try showing you something that I'm seeing. Like…a video feed."

"All right," he said, obediently closing his eyes. While he waited for something to happen, he asked, "How did this connection come to be anyway? We've never talked about why we can speak to each other's minds, or how you knew that we would be able to."

"We were caught in the net, and we needed help. I had already been wondering if you and I might be able to communicate mind to mind, because I had a vague memory of you saying something to me without speaking when I was delirious on Sala. And I had heard stories of ancient Altean mystics who could speak mind to mind. I told myself it could easily be the delirium, that I had imagined you speaking to me that way. I was working up my nerve to test it, but then we were captured, and I needed you, so I reached out."

"And I answered."

"And you saved us."

"Do you have to speak aloud when you speak to my mind?"

"No, do you?"

"I don't know. I have been. The idea of formulating complete sentences in my mind is strange."

"Try it."

Lotor hesitated, and something of his reservation must have leaked through the connection.

"Why are you… Oh. Are you afraid I'll be able to read your thoughts?"

"Didn't you just now read my thoughts?" he said sardonically.

"No, I felt your emotion about something we were specifically talking about. I know you feel mine, too. But are you…hiding things from me?"

"I am not hiding anything specifically, but my life is secrets. I never tell anyone everything."

"I swear to you that I cannot hear anything you do not choose to disclose. But…if it bothers you, I can stop."

Lotor's eyes flew open. "I didn't say that. I was more concerned about myself, that if I stopped speaking aloud, the boundaries in my own head would blur, and I would send you thoughts without meaning to."

"Oh, I see. Well, it is up to you, of course, how you communicate through our connection, but for my part, I don't mind if stray thoughts come through. I am interested in any thoughts you choose to share, and obviously, I share everything."

"Why don't we save testing silent communication for another time?"

"All right. I would still like to try sending images. Are your eyes closed?"

Lotor again closed his eyes. "Yes, you may proceed."

At first he saw nothing, but after a dobosh or two, the haziest ghost of an image appeared in his mind.

"Is it mice? Performing some kind of acrobatic routine?"

"Yes!" Allura crowed, delighted. He'd never heard her voice so happy before. His whole being warmed under it. "Aren't they adorable? And talented. I just had to share it with you."

"I'm glad you did, Allura."

o~o~o~o~o

"Want to try another experiment?"

The request came a few quintants after their Thanksoffering test. Lotor had just finished a sparring session with Acxa and had yet to bathe, but he had nowhere else to be at the moment, so he toweled off on his way back to his chamber.

"All right," he sent back. "What is it?"

"I'd like to try and project my own vision to where you are."

"Meaning…?"

"I want to see you. And, er, your surroundings. I figured that it might be helpful during a mission if we could see each other's location," she finished in a rush.

"You want to be able to spy on me, you mean," he said, smiling.

"No! You know I would never dream of—"

"Allura, I was teasing you. I trust you."

"Oh, um, thanks," she said, her voice sounding breathy. And much more clear, actually. They must have returned from Earth.

"All right. What do you need me to do?"

"I'm not sure. Try thinking about your surroundings. Look around you."

He obliged, taking in the paltry few possessions he kept in his chamber at the Daibazaal base.

"Hmm, that's just sending me images through your eyes. Maybe try thinking the reverse."

"What do you mean, the 'reverse?'"

"Think of me. Of bringing me to you."

And with just those words, his core body temperature suddenly spiked, and he could think of nothing else beyond bringing her to him, to his chamber, that very moment.

"It worked. I can see you. Are you…not wearing a shirt?"

"I was sparring with Acxa," he explained.

"Oh," she said faintly enough that he wondered if the connection were weakening.

"I can't see you," he said, his entire being clamoring that he needed to do so, that it had been too long, that he couldn't go another quintant without it.

"Hold on…let me…"

And then she was there in the room with him. Grainy and ephemeral, but there, drinking in his appearance as greedily as he was drinking in hers. He itched to touch her, but he knew he dare not or risk sending her tenuous apparition back into the ether of his mind.

She was wearing a dress. He had never seen her in a dress before. It looked strange on her, but also beautiful beyond all comprehension. Her hair was far longer than he'd remembered and curly. He longed to touch it again, run it through his fingers like he had in the shuttle bay when she'd defied her friends and set him free.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

But instead of responding with words, he projected what he was feeling, holding nothing back. If she wanted to know him, she should know this, too.

A tremor shook her and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, he wasn't sure what he'd see, acceptance or censure. But he certainly wasn't expecting the tsunami of her emotion crashing into him, ice where his was fire but just as intense. She wanted to touch him equally as desperately, if not more so.

"Lotor," she said.

The sound of her saying his name tore through him. He reached out instinctively to pull her to him at the same time as she reached out to do the same. But the second their hands touched, her body evaporated into nothing.

The next thing he heard was her swearing vociferously through their link.

He laughed.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing," she said, acidly.

"I find every single thing about you irresistible," he said. "But now, I really must shower. Until our next experiment, Princess." He said the last word like a caress.

o~o~o~o~o

"Are you awake?"

Lotor came to awareness instantly, ready for battle. "What is it? Where are you?"

"I can't sleep, and I'm bored."

Lotor rubbed his face, tiredness settling in as he leaned back against the wall. "Allura. What time is it?"

"A few vargas before dawn."

"You should go back to sleep. I should go back to sleep. We should both be asleep right now."

"Didn't you tell me on Sala that you could go several quintants without sleep?"

"Yes, but it is not preferable."

"Well, I have a question, and you are not allowed to return to sleep until I receive a satisfactory answer."

Lotor yawned, far too accustomed to her inquisitiveness by now to be much alarmed. "What is it?"

"I have examined this juniberry flower you gave me for my birthday every way I can think of. I even gave it to Pidge to run a battery of tests on it, but neither of us could find anything."

"Were you expecting to?"

"Well, is there a message incorporated into it somehow? Is there a meaning I should be aware of?"

"Allura—"

"I feel badly asking, that if I were truly worthy of it, I would have been able to figure it out on my own."

"Allura—"

"If you could just give me a hint, then I'm sure I could discover the rest—"

"Allura! There is no hidden message or meaning that you're missing. I made it for you, because I thought you would like it. Some things are simply gifts. Remember? You taught me that. On Sala."

She didn't answer. Her silence seemed pensive, thoughtful.

"Was that answer satisfactory enough?"

"Yes. It's just, I have another question."

"Ask."

She hesitated, which was so unlike her that Lotor wondered if something was wrong.

"Do you have any lovers?" she said finally.

He nearly fell off his cot in surprise, though she had asked him this question once before. And after their most recent experiment, he should have expected the topic to come up again.

"I do not," he said. "My mission comes first. Always. It does not leave room for relationships."

"But what of non-relationship trysts? Lance calls them 'one-night stands' for some reason."

Lotor sighed. It wasn't an easy thing to talk about with her. He may not have cared what she thought of him when they first met, but he cared very much now.

"I have had them in the past. Not many, certainly not recently."

"Why not?"

"Because…I prefer a challenge. Or rather, something meaningful. Or maybe both. I don't know, to be honest, because I've never had a moment to think about it."

"Really. In ten thousand years you've never had even one moment to think about it."

The sarcasm dripping from her response delighted him.

"Fair point. I'll alter my answer to: I have never had a reason to think about it."

"And now?"

Lotor could easily have hidden behind his mission. He could even have hidden behind the question itself, saying that he would consider it simply because it had been asked. But he knew what she meant, and he wouldn't cheapen their obvious feelings for each other by avoiding answering it.

"Now, I have a reason to think about it."

Her response was silence again, but this time he felt acceptance and resolution from it rather than pensive unease.

"I have one more question."

"I will do my best to answer."

"I always initiate our telepathic discussions. Why do you never reach out to me?"

Lotor sat still for a full dobosh, marveling for the millionth time that the princess wanted to talk to him at all, let alone afford him the freedom to initiate contact. His father had killed hers, had destroyed her world, had turned the entire universe upside-down to shake as much quintessence out of it as he could. And Lotor had assisted in that effort for most of his life. Why would she ever want him to reach out for her?

"Honestly, Allura, I just couldn't imagine why you would want to hear from me."

"Well, I do. I want to hear from you. All right?"

"All right."

o~o~o~o~o

"Allura?"

"Yes, Lotor?"

"Are you awake?"