Hi all,

I just read the new rules about not posting lyrics, and so I am clearing up some of my fics and removing the song lyrics. The title of this chapter and the some Keith refers to is "For You Blue" by the Beatles. Very sweet lyrics, check it out.

Enjoy,

Failte

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Keith raced into Castle Control, pushing all worries of Allura to the back of his mind. She was safe now, in the castle with Kadmus and Koran. "What is it?"

Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Sven were already there when he and Koran entered Castle Control.

"Guess," Lance said wryly.

Keith nodded curtly, "Sven, can you help us out? Allura needs to rest now."

"No problem, Keit."

"Alright, to your Lions."

Allura paced her room, hearing the sounds of the Lions taking off and feeling even angrier.

"He is only looking out for your best interests," Kamdus said quietly.

"Yes, well, maybe I am sick of being looked after," she told him, storming from her room. Later she would feel bad and apologize to the wizard for her rudeness, but as it was she was too irritated to care. At a loss as to what else to do, she entered Castle Control to watch the fight.

Voltron had things well under control. It was yet another robeast who had managed to knock down a few trees and had left a large footprint in what was going to be the park just outside of Alforia. The two giant robots were locked together in hand-to-hand combat. Allura watched the monitors as Keith called out commands and directed his men. She longed to be out there, in the midst of the battle and gritted her teeth at the memory of Keith forbidding her. What right did have to forbid her? Okay, so he was the commander of the Voltron Force, but she outranked him as the ruling monarch. She felt fine, but he didn't believe her, instead he patted her on the head and sent her on her was as though she was a small child.

"Princess?" Koran stood beside her.

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

She took in a sharp breath to prevent herself from saying something to her advisor that she would regret later. Instead, she watched as Voltron formed the Blazing Sword and brought it down on the evil beast, destroying it. After the Lions separated and returned to their hideouts, Allura turned to the man next to her, "I am going to be in my study, I want a complete report of all damages as soon as you have it."

He looked at her skeptically, but wisely chose not to argue, "Yes, your highness."

Keith and the others entered Castle Control just as the door slid shut behind the Princess.

"Was that Allura?" Keith asked.

Koran nodded.

"What is she doing up?"

Taking pity on the young commander, Koran turned to him, "She's upset."

"What?"

"She's upset."

"I couldn't let her fly after what just happened."

"I know and I agree."

"Where is she?"

"She went to her study."

Keith nodded, he had hoped to speak to Kadmus and was debating who he wanted to speak to, thinking that an angry girlfriend should probably be appeased first. "When will the damage report be ready?"

Koran looked down at the monitor, "Ten minutes for the preliminary."

The commander nodded, "I'll take it to her when I come back."

"Yes, Captain."

Keith walked swiftly across the room, hoping to speak quickly with Kadmus. He found the old wizard in the hallway outside Allura's room. "Kadmus."

"Captain. I take things went well out there?"

"Yes, they did. But I'm more worried about what's going on in here."

Kadmus nodded, "The Princess will be fine, Captain. I am planning to stay a couple of more days to make sure, but it was a simple extraction of a curse, she will be fine."

Keith nodded, still not totally convinced, "There won't be any linger effects?"

"Only if I didn't do my job properly."

Keith was not about to accuse Kadmus of shoddy work, "Should she be resting?"

"The Princess is the only one who really knows what is going on within her body and we have to listen to what she says."

"But she is so stubborn, she doesn't always listen to her body," Keith muttered.

Kadmus chuckled, "You need to trust the Princess' decisions."

"Thank you, Kadmus, once again for your help. And I really appreciate the fact that you're staying."

"Anything for Princess Allura."

Keith nodded, "I have to take the damage report to her, please let me know if there is anything you need or if there is anything I can do for you."

The old wizard smiled kindly, "I will, Captain, thank you."

With another quick nod to Kadmus, Keith turned to return to Castle Control. He knew Allura was upset because she couldn't fly, but that was just something she was going to have accept. He was the commander of the Force and when they were in battle, he was in charge. And that meant making difficult and, sometimes, unpopular decisions. She had to know that, as the ruler of Arus she had been forced to do the same.

"Is the report ready?" Keith asked, entering Castle Control.

"Another moment, Captain," Koran told him.

While he waited, Keith scanned the room. Hunk and Sven were helping Koran with the damage report while Lance and Pidge were no where to be seen.

"It doesn't appear to be as bad as it looked," Koran said, handing him a printout.

Keith skimmed it, a few trees had been knocked down and there were some damage done to the ground. But no buildings had been hit and there were no casualties.

"I'll take this to Allura."

The older man nodded, "That's fine, Captain. Good luck."

Keith looked up, surprised, "Good luck?"

Koran nodded, "You'll need it."

Feeling rather apprehensive, Keith left Castle Control and walked quickly down the hall. He was beginning to feel more than a little annoyed. She was behaving like a child. How could they work together if she was going to throw a temper tantrum every time he had to do something she didn't like? She had to understand why he did it.

Stopping outside her door, he took a deep breath to calm himself. Nothing good would come of this if he walked in there angry.

"Who is it?" She called when he knocked.

"It's me, Allura, I have the preliminary damage report."

"Come in."

He couldn't help but notice how clipped her tone was.

She was sitting behind her desk, bent over a report, her hair tied back in a hasty ponytail and her forehead furrowed in concentration. Whatever irritation he had been feeling melted away when he saw her. He felt the urge to rub his thumb between her eyebrows and smooth the line of concentration that appeared there. Allura was under a lot of pressure, sometimes it was going to be too much for her, he had to understand that.

"Hey."

She looked up at the sound of his greeting. "Keith."

"I have the preliminary report, it isn't as bad as it looked. It will just take some time to clean it up."

Allura held her hand out for the printout and scanned it, letting out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad no one was hurt."

"We were lucky."

She nodded, setting the paper down in front of her and crossing her hands over it, she looked up at him. "Yes, we were."

Keith sighed and leaned on the side of her desk, "Allura, I don't want you to push yourself, you can take the day to rest."

"I don't need to rest, Keith, I am fine, I swear it. Why don't you believe me?"

"I do."

"Keith, I have been doing this for years," she stood and stepped in front of him. "I have ruled this planet and fought Doom. I am not helpless."

"I know…"

"No, you don't. I understand and appreciate the fact that you and the rest of the Force have taken on the job of my protection, but you can't keep me in a cage."

"We're not…"

"I am not going to break, Keith. If we're going to make this work, I need you to see me as a partner, not someone you need to protect and shield." Her voice rose angrily. "Do you have any idea how frustrating this is for me? I need you to treat me like you treat everyone else."

"But you aren't like everyone else," he exploded. "I need you to understand where I am coming from. You are not like everyone else. You are the ruler of the planet and you have an evil man after you. You are the last in your lineage and if anything happened to you, what would happen to Arus? And you are…you are the woman I love."

She sighed deeply and took a step closer to him, "I understand, Keith, I do. But I can't let you keep me under lock and key. I have a planet to run and protect and I will do what needs to be done. If you want our relationship to work, I need your support."

"I do support you, Allura, but I also need your cooperation."

"Why do I feel like we're butting heads on this?"

"Because we are."

She nodded her head sadly before turning and walking to the window behind her desk. Before they had put Keith's study in the room across the hall, Allura had had her desk turned so it faced the door, claiming the view was distracting. The two of them worked quite often with their doors open and she often found the view across the hall even more distracting.

The lake and the woods were visible from this window. She could see a few of the fallen trees and one of the giant indentations made by the foot of the robeast. A couple of days earlier they had cleaned up the crushed rose bushes that had been destroyed in the last attack, it had broken her heart a little to see them.

"Allura."

He had moved so he was standing right behind her.

"Keith, you need to be able to separate your feelings. When it comes to defending my planet, I am not your girlfriend, I am a member of the Voltron Force," she said, not turning from the window.

"I like to think I do that."

She turned and looked up at him, "Why wouldn't you let me fly today?"

"Well, because Kadmus said you needed rest."

"He said I might need rest. And why would you listen to him over me?"

Keith shrugged uncomfortably, "You looked so pale and…"

"But I told you I was fine."

He raised his gaze over her head and looked out over the lake.

"Keith," she reached up and cupped his face, forcing him to look down at her. "I am not as fragile as you seem to think I am."

"You're the strongest woman I know," he whispered.

"Then I need you to start treating me like that."

He looked down at her. She was so small and delicate, he couldn't help but worry about her. He wanted to take her away, to remove all the stresses and battles, hide her away, keep her safe. But he knew she would never stand for that. And he would never want her to change who she was. It was her strength, her independence and her spirit that he had first fallen in love with.

"Keith, I don't want to fight you on this, I can't fight you on this."

"I don't want to fight you, either."

"So what are we going to do?"

He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers, "I'm sorry for not believing you."

"I know you are, Keith, but will you remember this for next time."

"I will," he promised, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. "If I don't, you have my permission to smack me."

She chuckled and returned his hug.

"But I also want you to understand that if I am a little overprotective of you, it's because I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to you."

Allura tilted her head back to look up at him, "I know how you feel because I feel the same way. Maybe I want to be over protective of you."

He raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Maybe I want to shield you sometime or stop you from entering a battle."

"So you want to emasculate me?"

She smiled, "I could never do that, you are the sexist, manly man I've ever known."

"Manly man?"

"Yup, manly man," Allura laid her head on his chest. "Did we just have our first fight?"

He rested his chin on her head, "No, we used to fight all the time."

"Before we started dating."

"All that pent up sexual tension."

Allura felt the heat rise to her face.

Keith smiled at her awkward silence, "I'm not going to ask you how you feel now or if you want to rest…"

"Thank you."

"But I did want to tell you that Kadmus is going to stay for a couple of days, just to make sure everything is alright."

"Good."

"Can I ask you something, not as an over protective, smothering dolt, but out of curiosity?"

Allura looked up at him and smiled, "Of course."

"How do you know she's gone?"

"I just do. I don't really know how to explain it. I guess I didn't realize she was there until she was gone."

"Well, I'm glad you're back to normal," he admitted, tugging the tie from her hair and watching it fall around her shoulders.

"So am I."

With a slight smile on his lips, Keith lowered his head, but stopped when his lips were just a breath away from hers, "I love you."

She grinned, "Love you too, you big, sexy, manly man."

His laughter made it hard from him to complete the kiss so he moved to rest his forehead on her shoulder, "Where did you learn that?"

"I guess you guys have been a bad influence on me," she said, kissing his temple.

Keith groaned when a knock on the door interrupted their moment. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Cap," Lance called back.

He reluctantly let her go and crossed the room to open the door, "This better be good, Lieutenant."

Lance held out a two page printout, "The full damage report." He held out his other hand, "And the song you asked for."

Keith took the music disc, confused, "What song?"

"You came to me a while ago and asked me to find the song with the line in it 'Because you're sweet and lovely girl, I love you'? It took me a while, but I found it."

Recognition dawned on him, "Ah, thanks Lance, I appreciate it."

Lance lowered his voice so Allura couldn't hear him, "Good choice, man, maybe next time Sven catches you sneaking out of the Princess' room early in the morning, it will look like what it looks like and something might have happened."

"Thank you, Lance," Keith growled. "And tell Sven that he had better learn to keep his mouth shut or I will make sure he's kicked off the planet."

Lance laughed as the door was shut in his face.

"What is it?" Allura asked, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"Full damage report," Keith dropped it on her desk. "And a little something for you."

"For me?"

"Yes," Keith walked over to the small stereo on the bookshelf and slipped the disc in. "Remember our first date…"

"How could I forget?"

"And I told you about a song…"

"Yes."

"Lance found the song."

"Oh, play it, I want to hear it."

Keith pushed play and the quick sound of a bluesy guitar filled the room, followed soon after by sweet lyrics. Allura smiled as the meaning of the words sunk in.

"You thought of those words when you were with me?" She whispered.

"Yeah, that about sums it all up, girl," Keith told her.

"Okay," she ran over and threw her arms around his neck. "I take back everything mean I said or thought, you can be as over protective as you want."

He laughed, "Don't worry, I won't hold you to that."

"How is it that even your fights end really romantically?" Darcy sighed.

"Hey, our fights end romantically," Lance said.

Hunk snorted, "Your fights end hot and sweaty."

Paton smacked his arm, "Hunk, stop it."

"Oh, we've had our share of fights," Allura grinned. "It adds a little spice to our relationship."

"But I take it things were better after that?" Becca asked.

Keith nodded, "I kept in mind what Allura had said and she was right, we were all being too over protective. But you can't really blame us, I mean, Lotor was after her, we were at war."

"But we trained her well," Lance said proudly. "She could kick the ass of anyone who tried anything with her."

"That's right, swear again and I'll prove it on you," she warned.

"So does this lead to Keith's proposal?" Paton asked.

"Well, first, Allura had to meet the family," Keith explained. "Things began to lighten up a bit, our battles were fewer and far between. So we invited my mother, my brother and his wife, and my sister to visit…