Title: Just Friends
Author: KawaiiChica
E-mail: KawaiiChica@fangirl.org
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Summary: Allura and Lance are getting quite chummy, why does it bother Keith so much?
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be. Want my own Lance but its not happening.
***********
Lance couldn't help but chuckle as Allura covered her yawn carefully, trying to hide the sleepiness in her eyes. [Poor thing's gotta be exhausted, she's had almost no sleep this week.]
Wondering about that, Lance realized he'd never asked for her reason for their late night chats. She'd been walking down the hallway to her room one night when he'd come out of his to get a glass of water from the kitchen. They'd both been pleasantly surprised to find the other awake and she went downstairs with him to talk- thus their chats had begun.
The guys had known she'd been through a lot, of course they knew that, but in his talks with her, he'd learned things she hadn't even told Nanny and Koran. Things from the times she'd left the castle on visits and royal trips.
Telling about her vacations with her father, Allura's eyes sparkled happily. Visits to her grandfather on her mother's side were apparently very unpleasant for her and
she preferred not to talk about him at all.
Her other grandfather had died a few years earlier, but he'd been very close to her. She told him about his best friend's grandson- Theodore- who'd been her best friend in childhood. He had his own kingdom now, the crowned prince of Gael.
[She's tired though, I love our little soul-bearing sessions but they've got to stop- just look at her.]
Often, Allura would convince him to help her with her fighting skills. Creeping into the gym, they would practice hand to hand combat, he taught her self-defence and she
taught him yoga.
Watching her now, Lance noticed the make-up she'd worn to cover up the circles under her eyes. She sat straight as ever, except it was apparent she was struggling not to stoop or fall over in her chair. She stifled another yawn and glanced around the conference table, her eyes meeting his for a second before turning back to Keith who was explaining about some of the building to be done.
"But what now? Are we staying on Arus or being sent somewhere else?" Hunk asked.
"I'm not sure, Galaxy Garrison has yet to reach us and tell us what's next. For now we just keep with the building and helping here on Arus." Keith said.
"The people are very glad that you are all here for a bit longer at least." Allura smiled.
"Glad to be here princess, but I'm sure you'd like..." Lance started to speak only to be interrupted by Allura.
"Oh no! Don't start on that one again Lance, we already agreed not to go into that anymore!" Allura stood as she noticed the time.
"I'm sorry if you will excuse me, I promised to go into town today and help out a friend of mine." She gathered her papers and exited.
Pidge turned to Lance, "What was that about?"
Lance was standing to go also, "What was what about?"
"That remark the princess made, not to start that one again, what one?" Pidge stood.
Shrugging, Lance chuckled at Allura's expression when telling him not to start. It was a discussion they'd had many times and agreed to disagree on.
"So what are our plans for the rest of the day?" Hunk asked Keith as they all headed down to the control room.
"I had planned on having us train for a while but with the Princess gone that wouldn't be of any use." Keith shrugged.
Lance, however, lost his cheeriness and turned cool eyes to his friend. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The guys stopped at the bottom of the main stairwell and looked at Lance, who stood above them with an angry frown.
Keith shrugged, "Allura's the main reason we do those training exercises at all. Sure, its good for us to practice and stuff but she's the one who needs the practice most."
Lance was apparently displeased by his answer and stepped down towards Keith. "With all due respect, commander, that's a load of bull and you know it."
"Is it?" Keith asked, confused at Lance's anger but not liking the way he enunciated the term 'commander'
"Damned right it is!" Lance burst out, "You know she's working hard to catch up to us and she's gotten a whole lot better since she first joined."
Keith nodded, "I'll admit that, but we haven't practiced with her since the Doom Kingdom fell."
"So what Keith? you have to admit even last time we practiced, she didn't miss a single command you gave her. She kept the lion locked in formation, hit every target, and carried out every order perfectly." Lance gave him a -go ahead and TRY to deny it- look.
"He's right about that Keith, Allura's been better and better during every practice session we've had." Hunk agreed.
"Yep, I think she's been working on her own in the simulator or something." Pidge added.
"She has, she's been working in the simulator, working out in the gym, she's working herself hard to meet up with our skills." Lance told continued, "Despite all the meetings she's had with the nobles on the re-construction, her studies, and all her time spent out with the people in town and her trips to those in need who can't come for help. She's been working on her fighting skills too."
"How would you know?" Keith asked
Lance smirked, "I've been there, worked with her, trained her... talked."
"You've been training the princess?" Pidge stared
"Sure, she was glad for the help." Lance was interrupted as Allura came down towards them at the bottom of the steps.
"Who was glad for the help?" she asked curiously, wearing a long black cloak covering her clothes, she stepped down beside Lance, who grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"I was telling the guys about our training sessions," moving his hand forward, he pulled the button that held her cloak closed quickly before she could stop him and pulled the cloak off.
"Hey!" Allura squeaked and lunged at him.
"Oh no, you should have known you couldn't get off that easily, now stand still while I make sure you're decent." Lance held the cloak away from her and looked over her outfit. Allura huffed and stood straight, glaring into his laughing eyes, both forgetting about the others momentarily.
Pidge brought them back with a "Holy cow!"
Allura glanced at them and noticed their wide eyed looks. Giggling she took held the edge of her skirt and turned to show off her outfit completely,
"You like?"
All three nodded, still in shock over her state of dress or undress in this case.
Lance shook his head teasingly at her as he looked her over. [Damn she looks good]
Staring at the princess before him, Keith struggled to keep from drooling.
Allura wore a light blue skirt that fell to mid-thigh, and a white spagetti strap tank top that clung like a second skin, accentuating her lush curves in all the right places. On her bare arms she wore a watch and a simple silver bracelet on the opposite wrist. Her waist-long hair hung behind her, held back by a thin silver headband. On her feet was a pair of simple light blue pumps.
Glancing up and around them, Allura sighed and turned back to Lance, who still held her cloak. "So do you want to give me that back before I get in trouble with Nanny?"
"I'm not so sure, where are you going?" Lance asked
Allura rolled her eyes and put out her hand, "I told you I'm going into town to help out a friend."
"Wearing that?" he replied skeptically.,"and which friend?"
She looked down at herself, "What's wrong with it? Its a lot more practical than my princess dresses because I don't have all those skirts to get in the way."
"Yeah, well getting rid of all those skirts does not mean you should get rid of all skirts, that thing you're wearing is way too short Allie." Lance heard Nanny's voice coming from the kitchens and hurried to put her cloak around her again.
He finally noticed she'd pinned one of her petticoats onto the cloak to make it look like she was wearing one of her large dresses.
"Sneaky little imp" he shook his head at her as he closed the button.
"Taught by the best" she replied sweetly.
Neither noticed the familiarity between them, which the others watched silently.
Allura smiled as he called her an imp and teased him right back. She hadn't minded his reproaching her on her skirt, she acted like he'd done it before- this was like second nature to both of them.
[When did they get so close?] Keith wondered, watching as Lance ordered her to wait there for him while he ran up to change.
"But I wanted to get going already" Allura actually whined and pouted, batting her lashes at him.
Lance chucked her beneath her chin and winked, "If you wait I'll take you on..."
Her face suddenly lit up, "You finished it?!"
Lance nodded, "Paint finished drying this morning."
"Ok!" Allura pushed him up a few more steps, "Hurry up already I wanna go for that ride!"
Laughing, Lance headed upstairs to change out of his dirty clothes. He'd been working on his bike in the garage before the meeting and just thrown a jacket over his dirty shirt to make himself presentable.
Allura turned with her glowing smile to the guys. "So what was he telling you about our sessions?"
"Not much, just that you had been working really hard to improve your fighting skills on the simulator and in the gym." Hunk replied.
Allura giggled, "Yeah that's true, he's been helping me get tougher, amongst other things." she whispered the last part more for herself.
"So when did you two get so buddy-buddy?" Pidge cut to the chase.
"Umm... well I guess over these past... 3 or 4 months? I'm surprised you guys didn't notice before." Allura stepped down and sat on the bottom step, wrapping her arms around her knees through the petticoats.
Pidge and Hunk came over to sit beside her on either side. "So you guys seem pretty close now."
Allura nodded, "I suppose we are, we've been talking a lot lately and we've come to understand one another well. He's probably my best friend."
"Why Lance?" Keith blurted out
The three on the steps looked up at him questioningly, Allura shrugged, "Because he's the one who's been able to see past my title of princess to just me- Allura."
Keith frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Allura sighed, smoothing out some wrinkles in the cloak. "Its just that Lance has never cared that I'm a princess. He only uses that title with me when necessary, he's always called me Allura when relaxed and hanging out, even that time we went swimming and my bathing suit top came off, he teased me for days."
She smiled at the memory, and looked up and at each of the guys. "He gets me, not the princess me but the girl or the woman, whichever. He doesn't care about my title or let that get in the way of our friendship... I don't like being 'Princess Allura' or
'Your Majesty' or even just 'Princess' and he understands that."
She leaned back with her elbows on the step behind her, "Sometimes he'll be a jerk and remind me of my place, but not ussually. Plus he's the only one to make an effort to be friendly. Even when I tried to join one of you in your favorite activities, things were awkward because you all kept calling me 'Princess' and worrying about being polite around me."
Nanny appeared just then, flustered as always and bustled up to Allura. "What are you doing sitting on the steps like that princess? You know better, royalty should not touch the floor!"
"Yes Nanny" Allura stood and dusted off her cloak.
"Are you going somewhere?" Nanny asked.
"Yes, I told you I had promised to go into town and help out Maru with Padme." Allura reminded her.
"Well don't come home too late and take one of the members of the force with you for protection." Nanny straightened out her headband and hurried out into another hallway, off to clean something else or assign some more work to the maids.
"Ready to go?" Lance asked as he came down quickly.
Wearing dark blue jeans, a black t-shirt that showed off his well-toned upper body and his favorite jacket on top, he grinned his trademark grin and stepped up beside Allura, placing a hand at the small of her back like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Yep all set" Allura tugged at his jacket a little to see his shirt. "You know, I'm gonna get those evil glares from the girls again if you go like this."
"Like I won't get nearly beaten to a pulp just for standing near you?" Lance smirked, "At least I can flirt with the girls."
Allura frowned and elbowed him in the side, "That was uncalled for! I know well enough I'm not really 'just a girl' Lance! I don't need reminding that I can't flirt back!"
Turning and heading towards the garage he'd been keeping his motorcylce, Allura smiled at the guys as she passed by them. "See you later guys!"
Lance followed, "See ya." Catching up to her quickly, he was apologizing as they rounded the corner and dissapeared from the other's view.
They stood silently for a moment, each caught up in their thoughts. Pidge was the one to break the silence.
"You know, she's right about that. Lance is the only one of us who's really seen past her place as the Princess. I've always kind of thought of her as this porcelain doll we might break."
"Me too, I found it weird to be in a kitchen cooking with royalty. I guess I forget she's a person too." Hunk sighed.
Keith stayed silent, not noticing the looks he was getting from the guys.
***********
K- that's it for now. I'd really like some more reviews
~bats her eyes~
Please?! Review! :D
~ K.C. ~
Author: KawaiiChica
E-mail: KawaiiChica@fangirl.org
Rating: PG-13 (for now)
Summary: Allura and Lance are getting quite chummy, why does it bother Keith so much?
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be. Want my own Lance but its not happening.
***********
Lance couldn't help but chuckle as Allura covered her yawn carefully, trying to hide the sleepiness in her eyes. [Poor thing's gotta be exhausted, she's had almost no sleep this week.]
Wondering about that, Lance realized he'd never asked for her reason for their late night chats. She'd been walking down the hallway to her room one night when he'd come out of his to get a glass of water from the kitchen. They'd both been pleasantly surprised to find the other awake and she went downstairs with him to talk- thus their chats had begun.
The guys had known she'd been through a lot, of course they knew that, but in his talks with her, he'd learned things she hadn't even told Nanny and Koran. Things from the times she'd left the castle on visits and royal trips.
Telling about her vacations with her father, Allura's eyes sparkled happily. Visits to her grandfather on her mother's side were apparently very unpleasant for her and
she preferred not to talk about him at all.
Her other grandfather had died a few years earlier, but he'd been very close to her. She told him about his best friend's grandson- Theodore- who'd been her best friend in childhood. He had his own kingdom now, the crowned prince of Gael.
[She's tired though, I love our little soul-bearing sessions but they've got to stop- just look at her.]
Often, Allura would convince him to help her with her fighting skills. Creeping into the gym, they would practice hand to hand combat, he taught her self-defence and she
taught him yoga.
Watching her now, Lance noticed the make-up she'd worn to cover up the circles under her eyes. She sat straight as ever, except it was apparent she was struggling not to stoop or fall over in her chair. She stifled another yawn and glanced around the conference table, her eyes meeting his for a second before turning back to Keith who was explaining about some of the building to be done.
"But what now? Are we staying on Arus or being sent somewhere else?" Hunk asked.
"I'm not sure, Galaxy Garrison has yet to reach us and tell us what's next. For now we just keep with the building and helping here on Arus." Keith said.
"The people are very glad that you are all here for a bit longer at least." Allura smiled.
"Glad to be here princess, but I'm sure you'd like..." Lance started to speak only to be interrupted by Allura.
"Oh no! Don't start on that one again Lance, we already agreed not to go into that anymore!" Allura stood as she noticed the time.
"I'm sorry if you will excuse me, I promised to go into town today and help out a friend of mine." She gathered her papers and exited.
Pidge turned to Lance, "What was that about?"
Lance was standing to go also, "What was what about?"
"That remark the princess made, not to start that one again, what one?" Pidge stood.
Shrugging, Lance chuckled at Allura's expression when telling him not to start. It was a discussion they'd had many times and agreed to disagree on.
"So what are our plans for the rest of the day?" Hunk asked Keith as they all headed down to the control room.
"I had planned on having us train for a while but with the Princess gone that wouldn't be of any use." Keith shrugged.
Lance, however, lost his cheeriness and turned cool eyes to his friend. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The guys stopped at the bottom of the main stairwell and looked at Lance, who stood above them with an angry frown.
Keith shrugged, "Allura's the main reason we do those training exercises at all. Sure, its good for us to practice and stuff but she's the one who needs the practice most."
Lance was apparently displeased by his answer and stepped down towards Keith. "With all due respect, commander, that's a load of bull and you know it."
"Is it?" Keith asked, confused at Lance's anger but not liking the way he enunciated the term 'commander'
"Damned right it is!" Lance burst out, "You know she's working hard to catch up to us and she's gotten a whole lot better since she first joined."
Keith nodded, "I'll admit that, but we haven't practiced with her since the Doom Kingdom fell."
"So what Keith? you have to admit even last time we practiced, she didn't miss a single command you gave her. She kept the lion locked in formation, hit every target, and carried out every order perfectly." Lance gave him a -go ahead and TRY to deny it- look.
"He's right about that Keith, Allura's been better and better during every practice session we've had." Hunk agreed.
"Yep, I think she's been working on her own in the simulator or something." Pidge added.
"She has, she's been working in the simulator, working out in the gym, she's working herself hard to meet up with our skills." Lance told continued, "Despite all the meetings she's had with the nobles on the re-construction, her studies, and all her time spent out with the people in town and her trips to those in need who can't come for help. She's been working on her fighting skills too."
"How would you know?" Keith asked
Lance smirked, "I've been there, worked with her, trained her... talked."
"You've been training the princess?" Pidge stared
"Sure, she was glad for the help." Lance was interrupted as Allura came down towards them at the bottom of the steps.
"Who was glad for the help?" she asked curiously, wearing a long black cloak covering her clothes, she stepped down beside Lance, who grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"I was telling the guys about our training sessions," moving his hand forward, he pulled the button that held her cloak closed quickly before she could stop him and pulled the cloak off.
"Hey!" Allura squeaked and lunged at him.
"Oh no, you should have known you couldn't get off that easily, now stand still while I make sure you're decent." Lance held the cloak away from her and looked over her outfit. Allura huffed and stood straight, glaring into his laughing eyes, both forgetting about the others momentarily.
Pidge brought them back with a "Holy cow!"
Allura glanced at them and noticed their wide eyed looks. Giggling she took held the edge of her skirt and turned to show off her outfit completely,
"You like?"
All three nodded, still in shock over her state of dress or undress in this case.
Lance shook his head teasingly at her as he looked her over. [Damn she looks good]
Staring at the princess before him, Keith struggled to keep from drooling.
Allura wore a light blue skirt that fell to mid-thigh, and a white spagetti strap tank top that clung like a second skin, accentuating her lush curves in all the right places. On her bare arms she wore a watch and a simple silver bracelet on the opposite wrist. Her waist-long hair hung behind her, held back by a thin silver headband. On her feet was a pair of simple light blue pumps.
Glancing up and around them, Allura sighed and turned back to Lance, who still held her cloak. "So do you want to give me that back before I get in trouble with Nanny?"
"I'm not so sure, where are you going?" Lance asked
Allura rolled her eyes and put out her hand, "I told you I'm going into town to help out a friend."
"Wearing that?" he replied skeptically.,"and which friend?"
She looked down at herself, "What's wrong with it? Its a lot more practical than my princess dresses because I don't have all those skirts to get in the way."
"Yeah, well getting rid of all those skirts does not mean you should get rid of all skirts, that thing you're wearing is way too short Allie." Lance heard Nanny's voice coming from the kitchens and hurried to put her cloak around her again.
He finally noticed she'd pinned one of her petticoats onto the cloak to make it look like she was wearing one of her large dresses.
"Sneaky little imp" he shook his head at her as he closed the button.
"Taught by the best" she replied sweetly.
Neither noticed the familiarity between them, which the others watched silently.
Allura smiled as he called her an imp and teased him right back. She hadn't minded his reproaching her on her skirt, she acted like he'd done it before- this was like second nature to both of them.
[When did they get so close?] Keith wondered, watching as Lance ordered her to wait there for him while he ran up to change.
"But I wanted to get going already" Allura actually whined and pouted, batting her lashes at him.
Lance chucked her beneath her chin and winked, "If you wait I'll take you on..."
Her face suddenly lit up, "You finished it?!"
Lance nodded, "Paint finished drying this morning."
"Ok!" Allura pushed him up a few more steps, "Hurry up already I wanna go for that ride!"
Laughing, Lance headed upstairs to change out of his dirty clothes. He'd been working on his bike in the garage before the meeting and just thrown a jacket over his dirty shirt to make himself presentable.
Allura turned with her glowing smile to the guys. "So what was he telling you about our sessions?"
"Not much, just that you had been working really hard to improve your fighting skills on the simulator and in the gym." Hunk replied.
Allura giggled, "Yeah that's true, he's been helping me get tougher, amongst other things." she whispered the last part more for herself.
"So when did you two get so buddy-buddy?" Pidge cut to the chase.
"Umm... well I guess over these past... 3 or 4 months? I'm surprised you guys didn't notice before." Allura stepped down and sat on the bottom step, wrapping her arms around her knees through the petticoats.
Pidge and Hunk came over to sit beside her on either side. "So you guys seem pretty close now."
Allura nodded, "I suppose we are, we've been talking a lot lately and we've come to understand one another well. He's probably my best friend."
"Why Lance?" Keith blurted out
The three on the steps looked up at him questioningly, Allura shrugged, "Because he's the one who's been able to see past my title of princess to just me- Allura."
Keith frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Allura sighed, smoothing out some wrinkles in the cloak. "Its just that Lance has never cared that I'm a princess. He only uses that title with me when necessary, he's always called me Allura when relaxed and hanging out, even that time we went swimming and my bathing suit top came off, he teased me for days."
She smiled at the memory, and looked up and at each of the guys. "He gets me, not the princess me but the girl or the woman, whichever. He doesn't care about my title or let that get in the way of our friendship... I don't like being 'Princess Allura' or
'Your Majesty' or even just 'Princess' and he understands that."
She leaned back with her elbows on the step behind her, "Sometimes he'll be a jerk and remind me of my place, but not ussually. Plus he's the only one to make an effort to be friendly. Even when I tried to join one of you in your favorite activities, things were awkward because you all kept calling me 'Princess' and worrying about being polite around me."
Nanny appeared just then, flustered as always and bustled up to Allura. "What are you doing sitting on the steps like that princess? You know better, royalty should not touch the floor!"
"Yes Nanny" Allura stood and dusted off her cloak.
"Are you going somewhere?" Nanny asked.
"Yes, I told you I had promised to go into town and help out Maru with Padme." Allura reminded her.
"Well don't come home too late and take one of the members of the force with you for protection." Nanny straightened out her headband and hurried out into another hallway, off to clean something else or assign some more work to the maids.
"Ready to go?" Lance asked as he came down quickly.
Wearing dark blue jeans, a black t-shirt that showed off his well-toned upper body and his favorite jacket on top, he grinned his trademark grin and stepped up beside Allura, placing a hand at the small of her back like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Yep all set" Allura tugged at his jacket a little to see his shirt. "You know, I'm gonna get those evil glares from the girls again if you go like this."
"Like I won't get nearly beaten to a pulp just for standing near you?" Lance smirked, "At least I can flirt with the girls."
Allura frowned and elbowed him in the side, "That was uncalled for! I know well enough I'm not really 'just a girl' Lance! I don't need reminding that I can't flirt back!"
Turning and heading towards the garage he'd been keeping his motorcylce, Allura smiled at the guys as she passed by them. "See you later guys!"
Lance followed, "See ya." Catching up to her quickly, he was apologizing as they rounded the corner and dissapeared from the other's view.
They stood silently for a moment, each caught up in their thoughts. Pidge was the one to break the silence.
"You know, she's right about that. Lance is the only one of us who's really seen past her place as the Princess. I've always kind of thought of her as this porcelain doll we might break."
"Me too, I found it weird to be in a kitchen cooking with royalty. I guess I forget she's a person too." Hunk sighed.
Keith stayed silent, not noticing the looks he was getting from the guys.
***********
K- that's it for now. I'd really like some more reviews
~bats her eyes~
Please?! Review! :D
~ K.C. ~