Hi all,

Well, thanks to yet another snow storm I was stuck at home this evening and had to give up my plans.  So rather than sulk, I wrote this chapter.

Thank you so much for your reviews, I am glad that you guys are seeing the humor in this story.  There is nothing worse than when you try to be funny and no one gets it :-)

A little warning, this chapter gets a little risqué….reader beware…

Enjoy,

Failte

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{{  Paton wrapped her arms around her swollen stomach, laughing.  Unable to contain herself, she stood and shuffled to the bathroom, still laughing.

"I cannot believe Nanny and Koran did that!"  Becca said, howling with laughter.

"Oh they did," Keith assured her.  "I was never so embarrassed, no, mortified, in my life."

"I was just angry," Allura said.  "They thought they had the right to interfere in the most personal aspect of my life."

"So Nanny was angry with Allura and me and Allura was angry with Koran and Nanny and Koran and I were both stuck in the middle," Keith said.  "There is one thing you learn rather quickly about my beautiful wife, when you tell her she can't do something, she doesn't take that as advice, she sees it as a challenge."

"Oh come on, Keith, we couldn't just allow Nanny to dictate our relationship," she pointed out.

"So what did you do?"  Becca asked.

"We tried to continue our relationship as we had before," Allura explained.  "We wanted to marry, but we had to wait for the right time.  We were in the middle of a war, we were rebuilding, and there was a lot Keith needed to learn about becoming a Prince Consort." 

"Yeah, I had no idea that marrying Allura would pile so much more work onto my already full plate," Keith sighed dramatically.  "Now I was not only the Commander of the Voltron Force and leader of the Arusian military, I now had to assist Allura in state affairs and make appearances with her and…"

"Oh quit your bitching," Lance interrupted.  "Being the workaholic you are, you thrived on the added responsibilities."

"How old were you?"  Becca asked.

"Um, I was eighteen and Keith was twenty-two," Allura told her.

"You were still so young."

"Not really, according to history, most Arusian Queens were married and either had a baby or were pregnant before they're nineteen."

Paton waddled back into the room and settled back into her seat, "Did I miss anything?"

"No, we were just about to discuss the ways Allura challenged Nanny," Hunk told her.

Allura shook her head, "No, Nanny made it hard for us to have any time alone or to further our relationship.  After Keith's family returned to Terra, we tried to have some kind of a normal relationship…}}

Keith pushed the pasta around on his plate, making designs in the sauce.  His family had returned to Terra a couple of weeks before, Lotor had attacked two days earlier, Pidge had sprained his ankle in the battle, and to make matter worse, Nanny was making it impossible for him and Allura to have any time alone together.  They were reduced to a stolen kiss in the hallway or a subtle brush of the hand at the dinner table.  When they were able grab some time alone, they were always interrupted by Nanny after ten or fifteen minutes. 

They had tried at least five times to have a date of some kind, only to be told that Nanny had to come along as a chaperone.  They tried to watch a movie in the rec room and Nanny appeared, her knitting in hand, turned on the lights and settled onto the couch with them.  Another evening they tried to sneak out for a walk around the lake and made it halfway around when Nanny jogged over, red faced and out of breath.  She had stayed within three feet of them the entire time.  If she caught them sharing a kiss that lasted longer than a peck, she would appear at their side and clear her throat until they broke apart.

Keith felt a foot tap against the side of his and he automatically moved his foot out of the way.  The foot pressed on top of his more insistently.  He looked up and saw Allura sitting beside him at the head of the table, she was taking a sip from her glass and winked at him over the rim.  With a slight smile, Keith went back to playing with his food while rubbing his foot along the side of hers.

"Why do I get the feeling there is more going on here than we can see," Lance mumbled, having witnessed the wink and smile that was just exchanged.

Hunk looked up from his plate, "What are you talking about?"

"Keith and Allura."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Keith murmured as Allura ran her foot up the back of his leg.

"Leave 'em alone, Lance," Hunk said.

"Ach, Princess, sit up," Nanny swept into the room to see Allura slouching in her seat as she and Keith continued their game.  "Finish up your dinner, we have a dress fitting."

Allura looked up, surprised, "What?  No, it's late."

"Don't talk to me like that, young lady, we have an appointment with Hilla, eat up."

Allura looked pleadingly at Keith.

"Sorry, Nanny, but we have a meeting after dinner," he said.


Nanny put her hands on her hips, "Oh you do, do you?"

"Yes, uh, we had some problems in the battle the other day and we're all meeting to go over a few tactics."

"Oh come on, Keith," Lance whined.  "I thought we had the evening off."

Keith glared at him, "You thought wrong, Lieutenant."

"Fine," Nanny huffed.  "But as soon as you're done, you come and find me, Princess."

"I will," Allura sighed.  She slipped her hand under the table and squeezed Keith's knee.

"Hands where I can see them, young lady," the older woman demanded.

Blushing slightly, Allura set both hands on the table.  Nanny nodded and marched from the room.

"This is getting ridiculous," Keith muttered.

"What is this meeting really about?"  Pidge asked.

"There is no meeting," Keith sighed.  "We just want some time alone, but Nanny is making that really hard."

Lance raised his eyebrows, "So what do we do?"

"Disappear.  Allura and I are going to sneak away for a little while.  Don't let Nanny catch you wandering the halls, we need her to think we're having a meeting."

"For how long?"

Keith looked at Allura, she shrugged.  "An hour and a half, two hours?  If any of you see Nanny, contact me on my communicator."

Lance finished sopping up the last of the sauce with a piece of bread and popped it into his mouth.  "Shall we convene in the rec room in two hours?"

Keith nodded, "Thanks guys."

"We got your back, Cap," Hunk grinned.

Keith looked at Allura and she smiled back.  That was all he needed, jumping to his feet and grabbing her hand, Keith called to his men, "Unless it's a Nanny-Alert, I don't want to hear from any of you."

Lance watched as the door slid shut behind their Commander and the Princess, "When did we go from the most powerful force in the Universe to Nanny-Alert?"

"It's the least we can do, they're our friends and they have been through so much to be together."  Hunk said good-naturedly.

"Yeah," Lance sighed.  "Want to go to my room?  We can hide out there and watch a movie."

"Star Wars?"  Pidge asked.

"What else?"

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Keith checked around the corner before pulling Allura into the Observation Deck and closing and locking the door behind them.  Allura wound her arms around his neck and pulled him down into a gentle kiss.

"Hi," she whispered when he lifted his head.

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist, "Hi."

"I've missed you."

Keith lowered his head to nuzzle and kiss her throat, "Me too, Angel."

"I know she means well, but…oh, Keith…mm…but…(gasp)…uh…what was I saying?"

With a chuckle, he led her over to one of the overstuffed chairs in front of the windows and sat, pulling her onto his lap.  "Talk to me, Allura.  How're you doing?"

"I'm fine, much better now that I'm here with you," she told him, wrapping an arm his neck and running her other hand through his hair.  "What about you?"

"Good.  Have you heard back from the Garrison about them sending men to help with the rebuilding?"

"No, but I just sent my response four days ago, it'll be a while before I hear anything."

"Mm," he said, noncommittally, toying with the pearl drop earring she wore.

"Keith?"

"Hm?  Oh, well I was thinking about their proposal.  Maybe we can negotiate with them about Voltron.  Not give them full control over him, but working with them.  With the help of the Garrison, we can really modernize Arus."

She nodded, "Koran and I have been discussing this.  They cannot have full control of Voltron, but we can offer them assistance, as needed, in the local area, as long as Arus is not in danger.  But, that would mean more work for all of us and they would most likely lower their end of bargain as well."

"Any help they can give us to rebuild and modernize Arus, will be a huge help," Keith pointed out.  "We can better equip the planet to fight."

"Yes and I would like to be able to update the University.  Education is definitely something I want to build up on Arus.  We want to have good schools for our children to attend."

"True, and I would like to see about working on the roadways and bringing cars and other forms of transportation to the planet.  We can't keep using the Lions to travel any distance further than we want to take the horses."

"We have a lot of work to do."

"Yeah, but we can do it.  You are an amazing ruler and I will help you in any way I can, so will the other guys."

"I know," Allura traced her finger down his cheek.  "What do you say we talk about this tomorrow, you can sit in on the meeting with Koran and me since we'll be discussing Voltron."

"Do you have something else in mind?"  He asked playfully, rubbing his hands over her back.

"Well, I was thinking that you did not steal us a couple of hours of alone time so we can talk about Voltron and Garrison policy."

Keith shrugged, "Well, you're wrong.  So, if you agree to this bargain…"

Allura silenced him with a kiss, fisting her hands in his hair.  Keith felt her shiver when he raced his fingers lightly up and down her back, nibbling on her lower lip before moving his mouth lower.  She let her head drop back as he kissed, nibbled, and sucked on her throat.  He smiled when she groaned as he blew gently on the spot he had just lifted his mouth from.  It was his turn to moan against her neck as she raked her nails over his back, feeling his muscles tense under the t-shirt he wore.

Keith kissed his way back up to capture her lips.  She pulled his shirt from his pants and slipped her hands up to feel his skin beneath her fingers, to feel him tremble and tense under her touch.  It amazed and excited her to know she had that effect on him.  They broke contact just long enough for her to pull his shirt over his head before wrapping themselves around each other again.

"We have to stop," Keith panted a few moments later.

"Why?"  She breathed, running her hands over his chest.

"Because if we don't, I won't be able to stop," he admitted quietly.

Allura looked down in surprise to see her blouse almost completely unbuttoned, "When did that happen?"

He shrugged, enjoying the view of her pale skin encased in a light blue bra, "Not sure."

"But you're not complaining," she smirked.

"Hell no."


With a smile, Allura slid her arms around him and leaned against him, trailing kisses up his shoulder, over his throat and to his lips.  She deepened the kiss when she heard a noise halfway between a groan and a whimper escape him.

"Please," he pleaded softly.  "We have to stop."

"Why?" She whispered.

"Because," Keith cleared his throat.  "If we don't, your virtue will be in grave danger."

"Maybe…maybe that's alright."

He took her face in his hands and forced her to look at him, "Allura."

"I love you, Keith."

"I love you too, Baby, but I don't think you…"

"I want to do this, Keith," she said shyly.  "I love you so much and I want to get as close to you as I can."

He kissed her gently, "If this is what you want."

"Do you want to?"

"More than you will ever know," he admitted huskily.

Allura shifted on his lap, feeling his excitement against her leg, "Well, maybe I do."

With a smile, Keith captured her lips again while unbuttoning the last three buttons of her blouse.  Allura felt the cool air hit her heated skin as he slid it from her shoulders.  His warm, callused hands skimmed over her shoulders and down her arms then around her back. 

It took every ounce of self-control Keith had to not throw her on the ground and take her.  The intensity of his feelings were overwhelming, love, need, lust.  It was almost too much.  She had shifted so she was straddling his lap, facing him, and they were pressed together, trying to get even closer.  He slipped his arms around her and to the clasp of her bra.  Allura gasped quietly and broke their kiss to move her mouth to his ear and press her body closer to his.  Keith was just about to remove the barrier when a loud insistent knock on the door had him dropping his hands.

"Princess!  Are you in there?"

Allura let out a little cry and buried her face in the crook of Keith's throat at the sound of Nanny's voice.

"No, not now," Keith mumbled, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

"Princess!"

Allura lifted her head to look at him, "How did she find us?"

"I don't know, but we better not let her find us like this."

"If we're quiet maybe she'll go away."

"I've never known Nanny to give up."

"I just want to be alone with you."

"Princess!"  Nanny knocked again.  "I can see that the door is locked, don't make me get a guard to break in!"

Keith swore, "I'm going to kill Lance.  The Nanny-Alert failed."

Allura smiled softly and gave him a quick kiss.  "I'm coming, Nanny!"

Keith muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "Wish I was."

Allura smacked him lightly and stood, picking her blouse up off the arm of the chair and pulling it on.  "Come on, get your shirt on," she whispered.

Keith picked up his shirt and tugged it on, not realizing it was backwards.  He slouched in the chair and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Keith," Allura hissed from the door.

"I, uh, I can't get up right now, Allura."

Her mouth fell open when realization dawned on her.  Trying not to laugh, she unlocked the door and turned to face a livid Nanny.

{{  "Hey!"  Lance interrupted.  "Now tell them why Nanny-Alert didn't work!  It wasn't my fault."

Keith nodded, "Alright, alright.  He did try and contact us.  Nanny had decided that since we were in a meeting that was a good time to put clean towels in our bathrooms.  So she comes to Lance's room and finds them in there.  He tried to contact me, but, well, it didn't work."

"And why didn't it work?"  Lance prompted.

Keith's cheeks reddened.  "It didn't work because in the midst of our, uh, date, my communicator was accidentally shut off."

Lance grinned, "Gee, Cap, how did that happen?"

Allura sighed loudly, "It fell out of his pocket in the chair and we rolled over it in a moment of passion.  Is that the answer you were looking for, Lance?"

"Yeah, that'll do."

Keith scowled at his second in command.

"Any way," Allura said loudly.  "The day after that, um, unfortunate interruption Keith received a letter in the mail…}}

Keith looked up from his desk and glanced across the hall.  Allura had the door to her study open and was bent over her desk, finishing some correspondence to the Garrison concerning the soldiers they were sending to help with the planet rebuilding.  He had offered to help, but she had told him that she needed to do it herself, she needed to be able to perform her duties without Koran or him doing things for her.

She had her hair pulled back in a bun and had her head down, her pen moving quickly over the paper as she made corrections to the copy she had just printed out.  After scratching out a line and rewriting it, she put the end of the pen in her mouth and gnawed on it as she scanned the rest of the page.

Keith grinned when he noticed she was wearing a gown with a high neck.  He knew she was trying to hide the sweet bruise he had tenderly marked on her sensitive neck the night before.  After giving it some thought, he was glad Nanny had interrupted them.  As much as he wanted to make love with Allura, he knew that being crammed in one of the chairs on the Observation Deck was not the best place.  He wanted her first time to be special, romantic.  Not rushed and uncomfortable.  God, how he loved her.  Just watching her now, he was filled with the urge to touch her.

As if she sensed him watching her, Allura raised her gaze and met his.  She smiled and blew him a kiss.  He winked back at her.  She looked down and went back to her work.  If he could, Keith would marry her that night, but Nanny and Koran had stepped in.  Keith needed to start taking etiquette lessons with Nanny and lessons on Arus and its history with Koran before he could become Prince Consort.

Giving in to his urge, Keith stood and walked to his doorway.  He looked both ways and saw the hallway deserted so he crossed it in two strides and entered Allura's office, shutting and locking the door behind him.

She didn't even look up, "Hi, Keith."

"Hey there, Beautiful."

"What's up?"

"I don't know," he leaned against the corner of her desk.  "I was sitting at my desk, going over the next week's schedule when I looked up and saw the most beautiful creature I've ever seen in my life."

She rolled her eyes and looked up at him, "I have to finish here."

"Let me help, we'll finish it quickly and then we'll sneak off somewhere before dinner."

"Nanny will find us."

"Pessimist."

"Honey, I really have to get this done," she said regretfully.

"Okay," he walked around behind her.  "I won't stop you."

Easier said than done, she thought.  Allura was acutely aware of how close he was and she couldn't fight the chill that raced down her spine as he ran his finger down the back of her neck and pulled aside the collar to expose the mark he had left there.

"I had a heck of a time hiding that from Nanny," she said softly.

"Don't hide it."

"I don't want to have to explain that."

"It just lets everyone know you're mine."

"So you're marking your territory?"  She asked wryly.

"I don't think of it in such a crass way," he whispered, lowering his head to kiss the other side of her neck.  "I can give you a matching one on this side, for symmetry."

"Symmetry?"  She laughed and tilted her head back to look at him.  "Let me get my work done, Keith, and maybe we can squeeze a walk in before dinner."

"Fine," he sighed dramatically.  "But next time you want to make out, I might not be in the mood."

Allura snorted, "Yeah, right."

Keith opened the door and almost ran into Nanny who had raised her hand to knock.  The older woman scowled when she saw him.

"Nanny," Keith bowed slightly and stepped aside to allow her to enter.


"I guess it's a good thing you're here, Captain, I have mail for you," Nanny held a couple of envelopes out to him before crossing to lay a pile of correspondence on Allura's desk.

The Princess looked at the pile and sighed.  She knew most of the letters were pleas for assistance, most of which she couldn't give. 

"Did I interrupt something?"

Allura looked up at Nanny, "What?  No, I'm just finishing up my letter to the Garrison."

"With distractions?"

Allura rolled her eyes and shifted her gaze to Keith.  He was standing rigidly staring at an envelope he clutched in his hand, two other envelopes had fallen to the floor.  "Keith?  What is it?"

He stared at the envelope a moment longer before looking up at her, his face pale and his eyes wide.

A cold feeling of dread washed over her as she stood and pushed past Nanny to go to him, "What is it?"

Swallowing hard, he held it up for her to see.  The return address was that of the Garrison's main office.  His transfer.  The envelope was thick, which was not a good sign, but it was also a standard size.  Most transfers and changes of orders were sent in big manila envelopes.

"What is it?"  Nanny asked, watching the two of them stand silently.

"Can you leave us, please," Allura asked quietly, a nervous tremble in her voice.

Nanny wisely nodded and left the room quietly.

Allura reached over and punched in the code to shut and lock the door, "Well?"

"Well," he repeated.

"Open it."

Taking a deep breath, Keith slowly turned the envelope in his hand and slipped his finger under the flap, tearing it open.  His hands shook slightly as he pulled the papers out and skimmed them.

"What does it say?"  Allura asked.

"It, uh, it says they received my requests and after much consideration it was decided that I was needed too much on Arus."

Allura let out a long breath of relief.

"It would be a mistake to break up the team when we have proven to be so strong together," he continued.  "And the correspondence they received from the castle showed how important I am as the Commander of the Voltron Force and how respected I am by the Arusian governing body."

Allura threw her arms around his neck, "You're staying!"  And pressed her lips to his in an excited kiss.

"You wrote to them on my behalf?"  Keith asked when they broke apart.

"What?"

"It says they received a letter from the governing body of Arus, asking that the Garrison turn down my request for a transfer because I was needed here."

"No, I didn't."

Keith released her to flip through the other pages in the envelope.  There were copies of his requests and a copy of the letter that had been sent by…

"Koran," he said, surprised.  "Koran wrote to them."

"He did?"  Allura stood beside him read the letter.

Koran had indeed written to the Garrison explaining to them how important Keith was and how talented he had shown himself to be in battle and protecting Arus.  He went on to say it would be a huge mistake on the part of the Garrison for them to transfer Keith from this quadrant.

"We are going to have to thank him," Keith said, handing the letter to Allura.

"I think this means he really does accept us now."

"Hm," Keith grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.  "Maybe we can get him to help us with Nanny."

"The Koran Defense?"  She giggled, wrapping her arms around him.

He dropped a kiss on her forehead, "This is a good sign, Angel, everything is going to work out."