Hi!

I think this is my favorite chapter so far and I couldn't wait to post it. 

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I won't really be able to really update this coming week, but I will get back to it as soon as possible.


Enjoy,

Failte

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"How's Lance?"  Molly Collier asked as she rolled out the dough in front of her.

"He's feeling better, Dr. Gorma is in with him now.  He just doesn't want to lose the attention I've been showering on him," Darcy muttered, setting the dishes she had just brought from their room in the sink.

Molly chuckled, "He always loved to milk it whenever he was sick."


"Yeah well, you could've warned me of that before we got married."


"All men are like that, dear," Isabelle Whitaker, Keith's mother, told her.

Isabelle, Molly, Lucy, Nanny, Allura, Becca, Cady and Schuyler were packed into the kitchen a few days later baking Christmas cookies.  Well, Isabelle, Molly, Lucy, Becca, and Nanny were baking cookies.  Allura was attempting to bake and Cady stood on a chair wearing an apron and more flour than went into any of the cookies.  Schuyler sat in her highchair playing with a wooden spoon, a rubber spatula, and a plastic spaghetti strainer.

Darcy fell into the chair beside her daughter and snatched a cookie cooling on the rack.  "What is she playing with?"  She pointed to the little girl who was trying to brush her hair with the strainer.

"You young people all seem to think you need expensive toys for the children," Molly chided.  "All they need is something to bang and they're happy."

As if on cue, Schuyler started smacking the tray of her highchair with the wooden spoon.

"Yeah, that's not annoying," Darcy grumbled.

"Ah, does someone have a difficult husband?"  Becca teased.

"Bite me, Rebecca."

"Girls," Lucy said, warningly.  "Behave yourselves, its Christmas and Santa's watching."

"She started it," Darcy whined.

Becca stuck her tongue out at her.

Darcy threw a plastic cookie cutter at her.

"Keep it up and no one gets presents," Lucy said, brandishing a rolling pin.

"Pesents!"  Cady yelled, throwing a cookie cutter down on the table.

"Stop teaching my daughter bad habits," Allura scolded.

Schuyler let out a high-pitched squeal and threw the spoon on the floor as the door slid open.

"Oh look, the king has risen," Molly said.

Lance walked into the kitchen looking quite healthy, "Oh, it smells good in here."  He dropped a kiss on Darcy's head as he grabbed a cookie.  "And it's snowing out, Sky's first snow storm."  He kissed his daughter's forehead.  She giggled and clapped her hands.

"You look better," Darcy stood and brought a hand to his cheek, ignoring his eye roll.

"Of course he is, he was probably feeling fine a couple of days ago but he wanted to milk it for all he could get," Molly said, tilting her head to accept a kiss on the cheek from him.

He stuck out his lower lip, "That's not true, I've been sick."

"Lanz!"  Cady held her hands out to him and pursed her lips. 

"She's quite the flirt, isn't she?"  Isabelle commented.

"Yes she is," Allura said, putting a hand up to cover Lance's mouth before he got near her daughter.  "Are you sure you're all better?"

"Yes, Dr. Gorma just gave me a clean bill of health," Lance told her solemnly.  "But he did say Darcy still has to wait on me."

"How are you putting up with him?"  Allura asked Darcy, removing her hand.

"He doesn't realize that my waiting on him the last four days was his Christmas present."  Darcy explained.

"Pesent!"  Cady smacked her hands down on the dough in front of her.

"No, no, no," Lance spoke up.  "The last four days fall under your duties as a wife, it was in the vows.  You still have to get me a present."

"No where in the wedding vows did it mention waiting on a whiny, immature…" she was interrupted when her mother shoved a cookie in her mouth.

"Don't say anything you might regret later, dear," Lucy warned.

"Yeah," Lance said, sticking his finger in the cookie dough.


"Don't do it, Lance."  Darcy warned, smiling.


"What? It's part of the pre-Christmas fun, right Sky?"  He held his dough covered finger to her mouth and pushed a taste of raw cookie dough between her lips.

They all watched as her little, pink mouth moved and her face scrunched up in concentration, trying to decide if she liked it.  After a moment, she raised her eyebrows and looked up at her father, opening her mouth for more.

Lance laughed, "That's my girl!  She likes it."

The door slid open and Keith walked in, wearing his thick winter coat, snow in his hair and on his shoulders, his hands behind his back, "What a beautiful day!"  He took in the scene before him and smiled, "Allura, sweetie, are you really trying to bake?"

"Hey!"  She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.  "I'm doing a great job!"

Keith looked at his mother who stood behind Allura.  Isabelle shook her head and mouthed 'Don't touch her cookies.'

"I see you finally got your sorry butt out of bed," Keith turned to Lance.

"Back off, I was sick."  Lance sat on Darcy's lap, "Just ask my nurse."

"He was faking it," Darcy groaned under his weight.

Keith studied him a moment, "You do look a little feverish."

Lance stiffened.  "No!"

"Maybe you should cool down."

Faster than he had moved in days, Lance was on the other side of the table, holding Cady in front of him.  "Don't make me use her!"


Cady squealed with laughter and clapped, "Daddy!"

"Put her down, Lance," Keith grinned.

"Put it down."

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you lower your fever.  Now put Cady down."

Shaking her head, Isabelle took Cady from Lance while Becca pushed him toward the door.  Without a child or woman to use as a shield, Lance was vulnerable.  The snowball hit him squarely in the face.

"Not in my kitchen!"  Nanny roared.

"You're going down!"  Lance shouted.  "Come on," he ran around the table and grabbed Darcy's hand.  "We have a fight on our hands."

"Uh uh, you have a fight on your hands," she argued.

He held up her left hand, "When we got married, my fights became our fights."

"Nuh uh," she shook her head.

Lance looked at Keith.  They nodded to each other.

Darcy got to her feet, "Allura, run."


"What?"  Allura looked up, confused.


"Trust me, run."  Darcy edged toward the door.

Allura's eye widened as Keith stepped toward her.

With reflexes honed from years of military training, Lance and Keith each seized their wives and tossed them over their shoulders, ignoring their yells and swinging limbs.

"Watch the kids, will ya?"  Lance asked the grandmothers.  "We'll be back."

"Becca, you too."  Keith said.

"Me too what?"  Becca asked.

"You too in the snowball fight.  We need an even number for a fair fight."

"I don't think…"

"Don't make me send Pidge in after you."

"Go," Lucy shoved her daughter toward the door.  "Before you're dragged out by the hair."

"Don't let Schuyler have any more cookie dough!"  Darcy yelled to her mother as the blood rushed to her head and she struggled against Lance's grasp.

"Let her have all the cookie dough she wants!"  Lance corrected.

"Don't undermine me!"  Darcy smacked his backside.

"Lighten up, it's Christmas."

"Then you can clean it up when she throws up all the dough.  It's too rich for her."

"You've had four days of practice cleaning up after a sick person."

"Why you ungrateful…"  Darcy's words were cut off when the door slid shut behind them.

Lucy shook her head, "It's just like they're kids again."

"I don't think they ever grew up," Molly said.

"There are days I think they're just children playing make believe, pretending to be adults," Nanny said as she took a finished tray of cookies out of the oven.

Molly laughed, "That about sums it up!"

*****************************************************

"How's your pile coming, Allura?"  Darcy asked, packing a snowball.

"Uh, I have a few."

"You're spending too much time packing the snowballs, this is about quantity, not quality." Becca told her.

Allura loved winter.  Her first snowball fight had been just a few months after the guys had arrived on Arus.  Keith had been in Castle Control, going over a report with Allura and Koran when Lance had sneaked in, his hands behind his back.   Before Keith could react, Lance had dumped a huge handful of snow down the back of his flightsuit.  And so began Allura's education on proper snowball building and fight tactics.  Lance and Hunk spent the better part of twenty minutes showing her how to tightly pack a snowball and what types of snow were the best to use.  Thus starting the annual tradition of their snowball fight.

"They need to be packed tightly so they fly better," Allura explained.


The three women were crouched behind a huge fallen tree covered in snow, stockpiling snowballs while the boys were hidden in the trees a ways away.

"Can you see them?"  Becca whispered.

Darcy slowly lifted her head above the tree's trunk and whipped it back down as a snowball whizzed past her head.  "I saw that Lance!"  She yelled.

"All's fair in love and war, babe!"  He yelled back.

"I thought this was our fight against Keith!"

"He's still under my charge!"  Keith shouted.

"Abuse of power!"  Allura accused.  "And I outrank all of you!"

The girls heard Pidge say, "She's got you there."

A snowball flew toward their fortress, grazing Becca's head.

"Oh that's it!"  Becca stood, snowball in each hand.  "You're going down!"

Snowballs were whipped back and forth with surprising accuracy.  Pidge's glasses were knocked off twice, Lance was clocked in the temple, and Keith was hit repeatedly in the chest.  Allura covered her head with her arms as she bent over to grab more snow, Darcy was hit in the shoulder while Becca was hit in the stomach.  Scooping up some snowballs, Darcy took off running in the direction she thought Lance had gone, while Allura and Becca took off in opposite directions, both armed.

"I know that was you, Keith!"  Darcy yelled when she was winged.

"Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?"  He called back just as a snowball hit him in the leg.

Lance caught sight of Allura's pink coat in the white woods and hit her with two rapid fire shots in the back. 

She whirled around, but hit Pidge instead.

They had all entered the woods, dodging bare trees while trying to stay ahead of each other. 

Allura crept through the trees, listening for footsteps.  She kept rolling the snowball in her hands, packing it tighter.  The sound of a crunching snow behind her had her whirling around, but before she could fire off the snowball in her hand, she was tackled around the waist and rolled down a gentle slope.

"Gotcha," Keith grinned down at her, pinning her beneath him.

"How is this a fair fight?"  She laughed.

He looked down at her and felt his heart stop.  Her hair was down and spread out in a golden curtain against the snow, held back from her face by a thick pink headband that protected her ears from the cold.  Her cheeks were rosy and her mouth was open in laughter.

Allura saw the look on his face and her laughter died away, replaced with a flirtatious smile.

"You are so beautiful," he whispered.

"You're not so bad yourself," she whispered back, brushing the snow from his dark hair with her glove covered hand.

"I love you," he breathed against her lips as he leaned down to kiss her.

"Oh would you look at this!"  Lance declared.  "Consorting with the enemy."

Allura wrapped her arms around him, holding him against her.

Coming up for breath, Keith said, "This enemy has so much more to offer me than you do."

"I guess it's a good thing Lotor never tried to kiss you," Pidge quipped.

"He did," Keith rolled off his wife and sat up.  "But he slipped and kissed my ear. He was never very coordinated."

"Very funny," Allura sat up and shook some of the snow from her hair.

"Geez, so when do we expect baby number 4?"  Lance asked, offering Allura a hand.

"Uh, not just yet," Allura muttered.

Lance's head snapped forward as a snowball came in contact with the back of his head.

"Let her go," Darcy smiled, brandishing another snowball.

"And if I don't?"  He gripped Allura's arm.

Another snowball hit him in the back of the head.  Lance whirled around to see Becca behind him.


"You're surrounded," she told him.


"Yeah," Pidge packed a snowball.  "But if we have Allura captive, then we outnumber you guys."

Darcy stepped closer to Lance, tossing the snowball back and forth between her hands.  She ducked as the snowball Pidge threw sailed over her, missing her by centimeters.  "Don't make me fight dirty, Lance."

"Bring it on," he challenged, holding Allura in front of him like a shield.

Allura struggled in his grasp, "Let me go!  Keith, help me."

"Sorry," Keith shrugged.  "You're a prisoner of war."

"Oh, so this is war, huh?"  She stopped struggling.  "No more Miss Nice Girl."  Using the martial arts moves they had taught her, Lance ended up face down in the snow, his right arm twisted behind him.

"Alright! Alright!"  Lance yelled.  "I give up."

Allura let go of his arm and stepped back, watching him get to his feet, "Wuss."

Lance rubbed his shoulder, "Whatever happened to the sweet innocent Princess we first met when we got here?"

"You corrupted her," Allura stuck her tongue out at him.

"Poor baby," Darcy rubbed his shoulder.  "Come on, let's go see if we can find some hot chocolate."

Lance sniffled, looking for sympathy, and leaned heavily on her, "With marshmallows?"

"Yes, with marshmallows," she wrapped her arm around his waist.

"Real hot chocolate with milk or the powder and water kind?"

"You're a spoiled brat, you know that?"

"Only because you spoil me."

"Did I mention that since you lost, you guys are the ones getting the hot chocolate?"

"No, you didn't."

"Then I guess it'll be the powder and water kind."

Keith and Allura followed Lance and Darcy up to the castle, their arms around each other, talking in low tones.

Pidge took Becca's hand in his.  "You okay?"

"I'm great, a little cold, but great," she grinned at him, her lips a little blue.

He took his other hand and brushed snow from her hair, "You need to get warmed up."

She raised an eyebrow, "Oh?  What do you suggest?"

With a slight smile on his lips, Pidge cupped the back of her head and covered her lips with his.  His tongue slid over hers with velvety warmth, spreading heat through her body.  Becca brought her arms around him, feeling nothing but his thick coat.

"Pidge," she murmured.

"Hm?"  His mouth slid to her throat, getting a mouthful of wool scarf.

"Let's go inside…shed these coats…"  She found it hard to form a complete sentence when he found the spot below her ear and gently sucked.

He took her hand and pulled her along at a fast pace.  "We've been very well behaved the past five days, but this is killing me," he admitted as they trudged through the snow.  "I just want some time alone with you."

Becca felt a flush wash over her, "I'd like that too."

"With all the kids and baking going on, I think we can sneak away for an hour, at least."  He led her to a back door that crossed through the work room.  From there, they found their way into the hallway behind Castle Control and took back stairs up to his room.

As soon as the door closed behind them, they fought to remove coats, scarves, hats, and gloves.  Becca pulled his sweater over his head, causing his glasses to go askew.  She giggled and reached up to remove them, setting them on the bedside table.  Pidge sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her down beside him, attacking her throat with his mouth.  Becca tugged at his shirt, untucking it from his jeans while Pidge slid his hands slowly up under her sweatshirt.

Becca gasped when his cold hands stroked her warm back and she arched against him.  Pidge kissed his way back up to her lips, nibbling on her lower lip while he gently lowered her to the bed beneath him. 

He lifted his head and looked down at her.  "I love you," he whispered.  "It seems like ages since we've been alone."

"I've been waiting for you to come visit me in my room," she admitted, running her hands up his back.

"I wasn't going to just show up, I was waiting for an invitation."

She smiled at him, "Well then consider this your open invitation."

He returned her smile, "I'll have to take you up on that.  Maybe we can…" Pidge was interrupted by his communicator going off.  Groaning, he sat up and picked his glasses up off the table.  "Where's my communicator?"

"It's not on your belt?"  Becca sat up.

"No."  He stood and went to the pile of outer clothing they had dumped in a pile on the floor.  "Here it is," he found it under his coat.  "It must have come off when, well, you know."  He flipped it open, "Audric."

"Where are you Pidge?"  Lance asked.

"What's up?"

"You were part of the losing team too, Pidge, why aren't you in here helping us make hot chocolate?"

Becca sneaked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her cheek against his back.

"We, uh, we've found other ways to warm up," Pidge told him.

Lance turned away from the communicator and called to Keith, "He's fooling around with Becca while we're in here slaving over a hot stove."

Pidge squirmed as Becca slid her hands up under his shirt.

Keith snatched the communicator out of Lance's hand, "Get your butt in here, Lieutenant."

"Come on, Keith, we don't want any."

"What if I ordered you?"

"What if I disobeyed your order?"

"What if I told Mr. Barlow what you're up to?"

Pidge sighed deeply, "We'll be right there."

"Right where?"  Becca asked.

Pidge leaned down and picked up his discarded sweater, "I have go help Lance and Keith make hot chocolate."

"You have to?"

"Yeah, I'm part of the losing team so I have to help them," he pulled the sweater over his head.  "Come on, you get served along with the other two."

She sighed dramatically and held a hand out to him, "Well, if you have to wait on me, then so be it."