I do not own Voltron or anything even remotely associated with it. Heaven knows if I did, I would still have the toys.

Cabbages and Kings

Brows drawn together, Keith glanced from the stack of manuals on the desk to the screen in front of him, frowning unconsciously. Scrolling down, he read over a line for possibly the fiftieth time and found his frown growing even deeper. Without taking his eyes from the screen, he rifled through the stack of manuals and pulled out the third one. Flipping through its pages with a familiarity that sickened him, he found what he was looking for and began to read. Typical Lance. Anyone who didn't know him wouldn't be able to read through his lofty language. It was a good thing Coran had requisitioned a general manual that briefly highlighted all five lions or there would be mass confusion regarding the flight of the Red when the original Voltron Force was replaced. Even now that it was staring him in the face, Keith couldn't quite believe that his time on Arus was coming to an end. Five years had passed here, five long and not entirely unpleasant years, if one forgot the constant risk to one's life, and now that it was ending, he found himself feeling strangely listless. What the others felt, he wasn't certain. Lance seemed to be somewhat eager for a fresh start, Hunk sad but willing to leave and Pidge...Pidge still had his whole life ahead of him, being only seventeen. In a way Keith envied him that. For Pidge at least, nothing was decided. His stint with Voltron could remain just that; something he did in his youth. It wasn't likely it would be the shining point of his career. Rationally Keith knew that the same was true for himself, he was only twenty-five, but even the Captain of the Voltron Force was prone to the same impressions of the average twenty-five year old. He felt old. As for Allura...he hadn't a clue what she was feeling about their imminent departure. Since their defeat of Lotor, he had hardly even seen the Princess, much less spoken to her. She was no longer allowed to take her dinner with the team, nor did she frequent the lounge that was their favorite hang-out. According to the maids(this, naturally, was heard from Lance)she was locked up in etiquette sessions with Nanny from early morning to late evenings. It was time to civilize the Princess, apparently, and find her a husband as quickly as possible. For her Voltron really would be something she had only done in her youth, or rather, a passing whim that Coran and Nanny had allowed simply because they had no choice. She would forget them as easily as any other childhood occupation.

Realizing he had been staring at the same page for nearly five minutes, Keith gave himself a shake and swore under his breath. He was never going to finish if he continued to wax nostalgic about something that hadn't even ended yet. A part of it was over, though, as much as it pained him to admit it. Frowning once more, he added a footnote explaining Lance's colorful terms to the general manual and continued scrolling through. He was grateful he and Coran had come up with the idea to write manuals for the Lions over a year ago, otherwise his task would have been all the more daunting. It had taken most of the year to convince Lance to write it, but eventually the Red's pilot had complied and it hadn't taken long for the others to finish theirs. For Keith it had been a painstaking undertaking. No matter how he tried, there were just some things about the Black that couldn't be conveyed on paper. Once, in an unguarded moment, Lance had said something of the same to him but when Keith tried to question him further, Lance shrugged it off as "mumbo jumbo" and refused to answer. Privately Coran had told him his manual was the best of the bunch, but Keith couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. What he suspected to be true about the Lions, however, was something he knew he couldn't put in print, much less the Black's manual. It was a theory he had shared with only one person and though it hadn't been shot down, it was something he meant to keep between them.

Sighing, Keith set Lance's manual aside and moved on to the section devoted to the Yellow Lion. Hunk's writing style, while gruff at times, like the big guy himself, was the most direct out of all of them. Even scanning over it, Keith couldn't help but smile. Hunk would be the best teacher by far, he imagined, when training began tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow twenty-five hopeful young men would enter the palace for the first time, dreaming of flying the five Lions of Voltron. Keith wasn't certain if they would find five suitable candidates among them, but Coran and Galaxy Garrison were hopeful. This time they were all native Arusians; it had been decided among all of them that there was no one better to defend Arus than its own residents. Training was estimated to take from six to eight weeks and then, after the final tests, the Voltron Force would be re-assigned and a new generation of pilots would take over. For whatever reason, it had been decided that no pilot would fly a Lion for longer than five years. Perhaps it was due to it being the time the original Force would spend flying them when all was said and done, or perhaps not. But Keith believed, as did the others, that it was better that several people have the knowledge of how to fly the Lions. Too many times they had been at a disadvantage due to the loss of one of their numbers, it was the sole reason Allura had ever been able to fly, and if they could prevent it, they would. This way, one of the former members could be recalled in an emergency and Voltron would still be active. More than anything Keith wished they would never have any reason to recall him. When he left, he wanted it to be for good.

Unexpectedly the door behind him opened and Keith started, uncharacteristically startled by the sound that should have been familiar. Turning, he received a second shock to find that his visitor was none other than Allura, garbed in a gown he couldn't remember seeing before. While still pink, it was not cut in the traditional "princess" fashion and could only be one of the many "courting" dresses commissioned by Nanny(this information once again provided by Lance via the maids)as it was flowing and filmy and clung in areas normally her gowns failed to emphasize. Not that he'd noticed. He had little time to reflect on her wardrobe changes, however, as Allura locked the door behind her with an unusual vehemence and cried,

"Dress fittings! Place settings! Dinner enactments! How anyone can stand it, I can't fathom! Does she really think I've been raised in a barn? No, just on a spaceship and heaven knows, one can't learn manners on a spaceship. When have I ever not shown proper etiquette when it really matters? If it wouldn't be unladylike, I'd strangle her."

"Nanny?"

"Oh, is there anyone else in this wretched castle who thinks they can order me around?"

"Coran."

"Coran doesn't order, he just politely suggests. Besides, he's not a tyrant. Is it possible for me to force her to go on an extended vacation?"

Leaning back against the door, Allura took a deep breath, but the frustration didn't leave her eyes and Keith turned away from the monitor as he replied,

"You could try, but she wouldn't listen to you any more than you listen to her. You could try comprimising..."

"That woman is beyond comprimise. All she can think of is making me into the perfect princess so I can catch the perfect prince. How are the Lion manuals coming?"

Unprepared for her abrupt change in subject, Keith took several moments to reply, the words completely flying out of his head as she left the door to peer over his shoulder at the screen. A lock of golden hair fell over her shoulder as she did and he found himself staring at it rather than the screen as she skimmed over the words.

"I love the way Hunk phrases things. It's just like he's talking to you. Coran did say I could attend some of the training sessions."

"What?"

He was still staring at her hair.

"For the Blue I can't teach them myself, but he said I could choose the one I liked. 'I am allowed to observe at a respectful distance over lunch'. Provided he meets with your approval, of course, since you have the final word. Why they all have to be men, I don't understand."

"It's the way it was intended to be."

"Wasn't I every bit as good as Sven?"

"When you weren't a liability, yes."

"A liability?"

She turned to look at him then, some of the frustration gone from her eyes, but what remained was tinged with some other emotion he didn't recognize. Nodding, Keith looked away from her for a moment, before forcing a casualness he didn't feel into his voice as he said,

"Would Lotor have fallen in love with Sven?"

"Oh. I suppose not. That was a one time thing. I doubt it would ever happen again."

She resumed her perusal of the manual, her concentration a little too intense to be entirely genuine.

"I don't think we can take the chance."

"Hmm. Didn't Pidge promise he wouldn't be wordy?"

"For him that is simple."

"I don't understand a word of it."

"Neither do I."

She looked at him again and smiled, scrolling further down, a slight crease to her brow. For several moments Keith simply watched her as she read the Lions' general manual. Fleetingly the thought crossed his mind that this was probably one of the last times, if not the last, that he would be able to spend time with her like this. The locked door, along with her flustered appearance, was enough to tell him that she wasn't supposed to be here, much less with him. He hated these thoughts whenever he had them(unfortunately it was often)but no matter how he tried to banish them, they always returned. He could only live in denial for so long.

"They want me to begin courting tomorrow."

She said it so softly for a moment he thought he'd misheard her. Eyes suddenly downcast, Allura stopped pretending to be interested in the manual and added, "If all goes well, they want me to marry in two months time...or whenever there's a new Voltron Force. I have my first meeting with Prince Caleb tomorrow at one. We're only allowed to talk for half an hour and then I have conversations scheduled with five other princes that will take up most of the afternoon. The next day I'll do the same with seven more and on the last day there'll be eight. This continues for another week and then I'm supposed to narrow it down to fifteen, then ten, and so on until I make my decision. Once I've made it, they'll arrange for him to come here for a time to see if we're compatible face to face and then...then I'll be married."

"Congratulations."

"'Congratulations?'"

She nearly shrieked it and her gaze flew to him at last. Maddeningly calm, Keith was simply looking at her, his face as expressionless as she had ever seen it.

"Since it's likely I won't be present at your wedding, I'd like to say it. It's not surprising they're waiting until we've all been shipped off. We're not the sort princes usually mingle with."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"What do you want me to say?"

She had no answer for him and she turned away, suddenly afraid to look at him for fear of what she might reveal. The moment her back was facing him, Keith let the mask on his features slip and for a brief instant, his face was contorted by an incomparable agony. Almost instantly he regained control of himself and his face was once more impassive. Behind his eyes, however, the agony remained.

"I don't want to be married," Allura finally whispered, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. Staring at them, Keith forced himself to swallow over the lump rising in his throat and said in his best Captain tone,

"Princess, you know it's your duty to marry and ensure the royal succession..."

"I know all that, Keith, you don't have to remind me. My first duty is to Arus and I will keep it, no matter what the cost. But I don't want to marry."

"Some part of you must want to."

"Part of me does...I've dreamed of my wedding day, just like every other girl. It's just...I never dreamed it would be like this. Princes on parade before me, Coran and Nanny breathing down my neck to produce an heir...I wanted love to have something to do with it. Was that wrong?"

"As a woman, no. As a princess...yes. You might still find what you're looking for, Princess, if you're open to it."

"No. I won't love the man I marry. I may come to care for him and I don't doubt we'll be closer than siblings, but I won't love him."

Her chin raised in the familiar manner but there was a seriousness to her words that unnerved him. She was too young to have decided such things. Too young and too beautiful to spend her life wishing for something that could never be. Even if he said it to her, she wouldn't listen. Her mind was made up and he knew better than anyone that there was no changing it if she didn't want to.

"Keith?"

Allura waited until he was looking at her steadily, a sudden timidity to her manner.

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

If he was disappointed, he didn't let it show and she took a deep breath before saying,

"I left Nanny because I couldn't stand it and because...just for a moment, I wanted to be the girl who could rage at the unfairness of it all without understanding that she was a Princess and it was her duty to her planet to wed a prince, whether or not she loved him. You understand that, too, and you understand why I...I need to be that girl. Just for now and then she'll vanish. It is unfair, even if I am a princess and even if I do understand what's required of me. It's just unfair..."

She trailed off, unable to express the emotion that was overwhelming her and Keith didn't recognize his own voice as he said,

"It is unfair."

Allura's eyes widened and in the space of a moment, filled with tears and before either of them was aware of it, she was sobbing as if her heart was breaking. Perhaps it was. Through her tears, Keith could make out the repeated phrase, "I don't want to," followed by "it's not fair," and he began to suspect his own heart was breaking at the sight of her. He understood that she needed this and that he was the only one she would allow herself to break down in front of but if were to happen upon Coran this very moment, he would say some things that the older man would never forgive him for. He couldn't decide if it would have been worse not to know the reason for her tears, or if it was more horrible knowing why she cried. She cried for herself, she cried for Arus, she cried for every woman who ever had to marry someone she didn't love, and she cried for him because his loss was hers, though neither of them had spoken of it. He lasted perhaps a minute longer before he rose from his chair and took her into his arms. From Allura there was no protest–he hadn't expected one–and he thought only of the countless lines he had crossed before dismissing it as unimportant. Still sobbing steadily, Allura's fists, still clenched, were crossed in front of her, the mindless fury within them making itself felt even to Keith as he held her. Without his knowledge of it, his fingers became entwined in the strands of the hair that had fascinated him earlier and he drew her closer. There was no changing this. Closing his eyes against the spasm of pain that flickered through him, Keith tried to think of nothing, to empty his mind as if he was going into battle. He was no match for memory however and the image rose, against his will, of a night several weeks past where he had tried to run from his own demons and she came to comfort him...

All at once he realized she had stopped crying and was now sniffing in a decidedly unladylike manner. Smiling in spite of himself, Keith kept his eyes closed in a desperate attempt to prolong the moment even as her fists slowly unclenched against his chest. The tension in her had drained away and now she was limp, almost empty as she stayed in his arms, scarcely seeming even to breathe.

"Allura," Keith murmured, sending alarm simultaneously coursing through both of them. He seldom called her by name, never in front of others, and even when they were alone, the ever familiar "Princess" crossed his lips more often than not. He hadn't meant to do so now, but with every passing second it seemed he was less in control of himself and all that was in Keith rebelled against it even as he knew he wouldn't win. Hesitatingly one of the hands that had previously rested against his chest found its way up to his jaw and he opened his eyes to the sight of her tear streaked cheeks, a soft smile on her lips. He couldn't return it, even though he wanted to–that much of himself was winning–and her brows arched before her hand fell to his shoulder and found his hair. Vainly Keith struggled to form words and found he couldn't. He had said them all before, that it couldn't happen, that if it was up to him, it never would have the chance to and yet here he stood, unable to make himself release her and dooming the two of them further with every passing second. As for Allura, her fingers continued to idly play with his hair and though his mind was clamoring for him not to, Keith gave into the temptation to meet her gaze. Her expression was somewhat amused, as if she knew of his inner struggle and found it charming but within her eyes was a light he recognized all to well and he heard, almost as if she had spoken it, her plea for him to stop fighting it. A spasm passed through him and he gave in, his hold on her tightening with a sudden fierceness and her fingers ceased their idle movements as he bent his head towards hers...

"Why oh why is this door locked? Those manuals aren't that interesting. Keith, old buddy, if you've been holding out on me...how do I do that damned override again?"

Instantly the pair sprang apart at the sound of Lance's voice, the guilty flush that overcame both of their features vanishing by the time Voltron's second in command remembered how to unlock the door. Hands thrust in his pockets, Lance walked in on a scene that was nothing out of the ordinary: Keith was once again seated in front of the monitor while Allura flipped through the Blue Lion's manual several feet away. Taking in the two of them for a second, Lance opened his mouth to say something and then swallowed it back, accurately deducing the reason for Keith's tightly drawn brows and Allura's too innocent expression.

"Princess. I didn't know you were still alive. You're looking well,"Lance said with a mocking bow, his eyes ever alight with mischief. Allura deigned to throw him a glance before returning her attention to her manual.

"I didn't think you missed me among your many admirers."

"Can I help it if I'm irresistible?"

"Yes," Keith and Allura said together. Their gazes met and then dropped and for possibly the first time in his life, Lance didn't have a ready comment. Looking from one to the other, Lance assumed as casual an air as he could manage and loftily put his hands behind his head.

"Believe it or not, I am here on official business. Coran wants to talk to all of us about tomorrow in the control room. I was elected to fetch you and I knew you'd be here, poring through those boring manuals as if they had the answer to life itself. I'm telling you, Keith, in ten years, no one's going to read them. They're just going to teach them to fly and not care about all this other hocus pocus you find so necessary."

"'Hocus pocus?'"

"Don't try to be cute, you're doomed to fail. The meeting is in ten minutes so if I were you, I'd finish what I'd started and make my way to the control room like a good Captain before anyone gets suspicious."

"Suspicious of what?"

The glare Keith directed at him would have moved stone but Lance didn't quail. In fact, his features remained maddeningly the same and he threw Keith his infamous grin as he said,

"Nothing, nothing. Five minutes, Keith, and then I'll have to send out a search party. Are you coming?"

Looking up from her manual, Allura stubbornly avoided Keith's eye and shook her head.

"My punishment for leaving will be missing the meeting. I don't care to hear about training I can't have any say in anyway."

Striding over to where Keith sat, she returned her manual to the stack with the barest trace of defiance. Both men flinched slightly before Lance turned towards the door.

"It's a shame, Princess, really it is. But there's no going against them, is there? Five minutes, Keith."

Throwing Keith a look over his shoulder, Lance's expression became suddenly fierce and Keith blandly returned it until Lance vanished behind the closing door. Saving before shutting down the monitor, Keith rearranged the stack of manuals so it was neat once more and moved towards the door. Allura remained where she was, a series of emotions flickering across her face before she softly said his name. Shoulders stiffening, Keith paused in front of the door, fighting both the impulse to stay and the impulse to flee and foolishly giving in to the former.

"Can I ask you another favor?" Allura said finally, her hands clasped in front of her.

"I'm not sure I did so well with the last one, Princess."

"It won't be easy for you...and it won't be for me either but...in two months I'll be married. You'll be at Galaxy Garrison, off on some mission and in all likelihood we'll never see each other again. Even if it was only for six weeks, or four, or ten, wouldn't it be better to know than to always wonder?"

"Princess, even if we...it would involve..."

"I know what it would involve. And I know it's probably the hardest thing I've ever asked of you...I wasn't even sure if I was going to."

She dropped his gaze then, engaged in her own private struggle while Keith tried to form words and still found it something he was completely incapable of. Raising her head, Allura took several steps towards him, her features smooth but with an intensity that was rather like her focus when going into battle, yet different. Stopping a few feet away from him, Allura tried to smile reassuringly and said,

"Don't say no yet, Keith. Think about it. Promise me you'll at least think about it before you give me your answer."

"I'll think about it."

The words left his mouth before he could stop them and if he had been fifteen years younger, he would have clapped his hand over it in horror. He was beginning to think he didn't even know himself anymore. A smile threatened to find Allura's lips but it remained hidden even as her eyes glistened with the promise of fresh tears.

"Thank you," she whispered, her smile escaping as she crossed the remaining distance between them and looked up at him for a moment. She couldn't remember when she had ever seen Keith so flabbergasted or so at war with himself. Out of everyone who knew him, Lance was possibly the only other person who understood the sacrifice she was asking him to make and part of her hated herself for daring to ask it of him, but it was worth the chance. Even now, though he looked somewhat dazed and confused, his mind was already turning over the idea and weighing the consequences. He might say yes.

"Think about it, Keith," she repeated, her voice scarcely above a whisper. Coming back to himself, Keith didn't even have time to form a reply as she slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him fleetingly. For an instant she pressed herself against him and then she was gone in a trail of flowing pink fabric, the feel of her firmly imprinted in his memory. Think about it, she said, as if it were something he would have to force himself to do. Think about it. He couldn't think about it, he couldn't allow himself the indulgence of even imagining what could happen if he did as she asked. And yet he was thinking about it. Hard. Zarkon destroy him, what if he did say yes?