DISCLAIMER :

VOLTRON AND ITS ELEMENTS ARE OWNED BY WEP.

Mystery of the Christmas Star

Chapter Two

Allura groaned as she slowly came too. Compared to this horrid crash, her first rough ride in Blue Lion was one of her current smooth flights. At least she didn't feel hurt, but had God ignored her pleas to save Keith and not herself? Shifting her weight gave Allura her answer, as Keith pulled her carefully closer – he was alive and awake.

"Allura, are you alright? Please talk to me. Honey, please wake up. Don't leave me my only love." Keith was barely able to whisper through his frightened tears.

~ That's what he was trying to tell me before! Thank you Creator that he's with me still! Keith loves me! ~ Allura thought to herself, a smile of the purest happiness growing on her face. "I'd never leave you, Keith. I love you more. How long have I been out?"

"Almost two hours. Allie, I thought that I had lost you forever." Keith was quickly choked on his tears. He had never broken down before Allura, but she had come so close to death.

Allura immediately locked her lips to his in a passionate kiss; a kiss that he eagerly returned in kind. Both had longed for this sweet moment so that all thoughts of their predicament or propriety went out of the window fast. All that mattered was what they wanted that moment in time.

Keith eventually broke his lips from hers, earning a moan of disappointment from Allura. She hungrily snuggled into his arms deeper, answered by his hold on her tightening – pulling her closer to his chest. Though they were in the gravest of situations, it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

"Keith, how are we going to get out of this one? Not that I'm not enjoying this in part at the least."

Allura's words made the worried Captain chuckle in spite of the situation. "All that we can do is hope that the others will show up soon. We're over an hour past due, but they'll wait until Lance gets back – and that's not for a little over an hour from now. I just hope that the air lasts that long."

"Can't we dig out? Maybe the air is good enough to breath, and it won't be as cramped."

"Sorry Allie. We went through the crust at least a good fifteen or twenty feet – meaning that there is no digging ourselves out. Beside I'd might have risked that with one of the others, but not with you." Keith gently kissed that top of her head, but this enraged his loved.

Allura sat up in a huff, her eyes hard and lips pouting. "Why not with me? Because I'm a woman and the others are better than me because they're men?"

"Damn it, Allura Kimbal!  Don't you DARE think that crap! You are the woman I LOVE! The ONLY woman I ever want for my wife! That's why I refuse to risk you! I want to make you my wife! That was my Christmas gift to you this year; I was going to pick up your engagement ring today after we got home!" Keith closed eyes, fully expecting a polite reminder of his station and how she could never marry him.

Allura however held surprised tears in her hope-filled eyes. Could it be true – did he really mean it? "Keith, do you mean it? You're not just saying that because there's a chance that we won't make it this time? Please say that you're not just telling me what I want to hear just to make me happy one last time!"

Keith grasped her face in his hands and pulled in for the most intense kiss he had ever dreamed of giving her. He could see that he really did have a chance with this wonderful woman after all. Without contest or denial, Allura wrapped her arms around his neck – intensifying the lock on her lips he already had on her. Again he was the one to break the hold his love held on him.

Allura had tears of fear in her eyes now – fear that he had only been giving her that sweet hope as a last moment of joy. "Please answer me Keith."

"You know that I never lie to my Princess, and wouldn't only tell you something to make you feel good. I still believe that the others are going to rescue us. And I do love you. Even if it is early for Christmas presents, will you marry me my Princess and only love?" Keith smiled as Allura grinned and giggle through her tears.

"Yes, my Champion and dearest love! Yes, I WILL marry you! I love you so very much, Keith!" Allura began to excitedly kiss her fiancé's lips again and again.

After a few minutes of enjoying the fact that her now fiancé was holding her tight and softly rocking her in his own happiness to her 'yes', Allura looked up at Keith with worry in her eyes. Reality had settled in her mind, and she knew that time and air were both running out fast for them.

"How long can we survive in here Keith?"

Keith kissed her forehead - that had been on his mind too in their silence. "I set the air system to only blow in this section of the cockpit, and reduced the output level to one quarter. That should stretch it out to nearly ten ours – providing nothing in the environmental circuitry was damaged in the crash. Otherwise, there's no way to know until we run out of oxygen or fuel supply."

Again Allura lapsed into silence. Keith could easily pick up her uneasiness. "The others will be here soon. After all, Lance should be landing at the Castle in the next few minutes. Our being three hours over due, it's a sure bet that he'll be in Red Lion and lead the rest straight to us before he can haze Hunk and Pidge or make some taunting joke about the two of us."

"I believe you Keith. That means we should start making our plans. Like how do we break the news to Nanny and Koran." Allura chuckled, but Keith could see that she was forcing it. She wanted to get their minds off of the impending doom that was looming over their heads.

"I doubt that Koran will have a problem with our engagement. He has always known how much I love you, and have wanted to ask for your hand in marriage. With Nanny, I could ask her one simple question." Keith smiled at that thought, a smile that peaked Allura's curiosity.

"What question Keith?"

Opening his eyes, Keith brushed his fingers down the side of her cheek. "I'd ask her to give me one good reason why we can't get married – outside of my lack of any title. Doubtful that she will be able to think of a single one."

Allura laughed out loud, as she turned so that she could straddle his legs. "I think that you're right on that one. So, when are we going to tie that famous knot?"

"We could always wait for this day next year." Keith winced as his fiancée slapped his collarbones with both of her hands at once.

"Not even! Do you want to jinx our entire marriage? How about this year?"

Keith pulled her close to his chest, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. "That doesn't leave us a-lot of days to choose from. And there are the holiday parties that we're stuck with."

"So one of those parties becomes our wedding instead. Now which one? Not the days before or on Christmas. What's left?" Allura loved how Keith was already assuming his place as her Prince consort and future King.

He really was very much like her father was – strong, brave, constant, and oh so handsome. Keith had stolen her heart away with his arrival on Arus. His dashing smile, his strong and willful introduction of himself, the feel of his first kiss on her hand; Allura couldn't get this man out of her mind. When Sven had to push Keith into actions the young Captain should've called first only in her presence, she dared to hope that her Captain had some kind of feelings for her. Everyday since, her hope had grown to the point of fulfillment that his proposal brought.

"We have all of next week and then part of the following week. But, what day? Seven is a lucky number. Or maybe the ninth, as that was the day that the team and I first met you and Koran." In his eyes Allura could see that Keith's joy was overflowing.

But she had a very special day in her mind. One she had almost planned on since the day she decided without a doubt that she be wed to Keith and no other – only a month after he and the rest of the team became the permanent Lion Knights. "Why not on the fourteenth? It's a special number all its own."

"What is so special about that number, Allura? Seven times two maybe?" Keith really didn't have a clue as to what his lover was aiming at.

"The elevator shaft numbers, Keith! Yours is one and mine is four – fourteen. There are times that you are to be held above me, as that is what your new duties command. But, I never want you behind me, Keith. You are always my equal, forever."

Keith took a stand on this issue. Becoming the King that Allura had always seen in him before. "If I am to be your equal Allura, then you have to be mine as well. But, I'll give in on the date – just to please my future bride."

"Good. See we're already acting like a married couple! Too bad we're stuck in this planet. We could've sneaked a visit to Judge Armistice by now and been home without a soul knowing what really happened." Allura sat there and day dreamed.

Keith knew just where she was going with this one. "I highly doubt that he would refuse our request for him to marry us. Since everyone in the Universe seems to have seen this match coming from nearly day one."

"Nanny would have a fit when she found out! We might have waited for dinner to announce it to the others. And Lance would've owed Pidge some money – he thought that we'd never break with tradition and get married against Nanny's will," Allura giggled.

Keith kissed her lips as he saw what would've happened in his mind's eye. "Nanny would've ordered us to get an annulment. Maybe have forced you to choose the throne and me. I don't want that to happen Allie. If it comes down to you choosing one or the other …"

"I will choose to marry the man of my sweet dream – despite how hard life could get or the shame everyone thinks I would be giving myself! Only if you were to be shamed or court marshaled would I chose to reject you as my husband, Keith." Allura kissed him again.

"If you are willing to give up all that you are used to and have been raised to become – then I should at least do the same, my only love. If you have to choose between the throne and me and decide on me, then I'll risk my commission for you love. Even if that's what we face when we get home as it is.

Allura began to shed tears, "I love you Keith. And I'll stand behind every one of your decisions, so long as you stand behind mine."

"Then it's a deal." Keith kissed her and leaned back in the seat to make his fiancée more comfortable. Then they went on planning their wedding day, of course supposing that Nanny won't make Allura choose between Keith and the throne.

Allura decided that Romelle and their cousin, Victoria, were perfect for her maids of honor. Keith picked Sven and Lance as his best men – Allura commenting on how obvious that decision was for them both. Of course Koran was giving her away, while Hunk and Pidge would be Ushers.

The couple decided to choose two orphans each for their ring bearers and flower girls. Already it seemed that was going to be the toughest choice of all. How to choose only four out of the thousands of orphaned children on Arus.