Reunion

Wow, this is getting awkward, Allura thought to herself as the silence stretched on in the garden, which itself apparently was constructed as a memorial to her (adding yet another layer to the awkwardness of this situation.) She had been disoriented when she first arrived here (wherever here is) she had been disoriented due to how she had tumbled out of the portal, so it took her a bit to get her bearings enough to dislodge herself from the hedge she'd rolled into. When she managed it, however, she'd spotted Lance bringing one of her favorite flowers to the statue towering over this garden. She'd wanted to go to him right away, but the sight of the giant statue of herself had rooted her to the spot. Apparently Julian had been correct about her not returning to exactly when she had left this universe, as this statue would have needed at least a deca-phoeb or more to be constructed even with the most advanced means Altea could have provided before it was destroyed. So it was here, partially hidden by the greenery she'd landed in, where she heard Lance tell "her" about what was going on with their friends since they'd parted ways back at the core of all creation. Though it made her sad to think of what she'd missed with her not being here, it also made her happy to know her friends were doing well regardless.

She felt bad when she heard that Lance was apparently not moving on from her death, though, so much so that it helped her to find her tongue again. Lance didn't react right away as it seemed that he heard "her" respond during these talks, but when he realized it wasn't just in his head he turned and stared at her in shock, and he's been like that since. "Um, Lance? Can you please say something?" Allura uncomfortably asked him, beginning to severely wonder if this universe had a place for her anymore, if she shouldn't have stayed and finished the job with Honerva after all.

"Hunk will have dinner ready in five Doboshes," Lance suddenly blurts out. "Huh?" Allura said in confusion as Lance berated himself underneath his breath before saying aloud, "Uh, what I actually meant to say was...well..."

"Ah, I thought I'd find you out here," Allura heard Keith say from off in the distance, sounding like he was coming from the same direction that Lance himself had entered the garden earlier, "Look, I'm sorry that I had brought up you dating again, but honestly I'm worried for you buddy. And honestly I do believe that Allura would want you to be happy again..." Keith trailed off when he entered the garden and caught sight of Allura, who wanted to tell Keith that he was right and had nothing to apologize for but found herself only able to wave and smile slightly. Keith tried to return it, but apparently the shock made him forget that he was holding a Bultagail in that hand and he wound up spilling it.

"You see her too?" Lance asked Keith, still looking dumbfounded. Keith nodded as he reached into the pocket of his trousers, pulling out a communicator and saying into it, "Shiro? Hunk? Pidge? Corran, could you please all come out to the garden?" Apparently the others heard tension or something in Keith's voice as they came rushing in less then a dibosh later, along with Acxa and a man Shiro's age Allura guessed was Curtis, and Siro and Curtis had their blasters drawn and Acxa had her blade in hand (Hunk was holding a ladle like a sword). Like Keith they all skidded to a halt, their weapons sinking to their sides, when they spotted Allura giving them a small wave as she said, "Hi, everyone." For a couple of ticks that seemed to her to be longer than a movement nobody moved or said anything. Then Acxa, who was apparently the first to recover, cleared her throat and gave a small smile as she said, "Hello, Princess Allura. Welcome back."

"Thanks," Allura responded with her own smile. Then, like a dam breaking away, Corran exploded, "PRINCESS!" who sobbed as he ran over and wrapped Allura in a bone-crushing hug, followed shortly by Pidge who coated the front of Allura's uniform with her own tears. Before she knew it Allura found herself by most of the rest of them, all of whom seemed to want to touch some part of her: Hunk lifted her off her feet with his hug, Keith laid a comradely hand on her shoulder while Shiro rubbed her head with his human one, and the mice (whom Allura hadn't notice enter until now) were engaged in a group hug around her ankle. Only a few were not active participants in the love-fest, as Curtis and Acxa stood a respectful distance away and gave her warm smiles. The most confusing reaction, however, was Lance's: he still was rooted where he had been, his mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out, a whirlwind of conflicting emotions crossing his face. When Lance hadn't come and welcome her like the others it felt like her heart had been tossed in one of the human's blenders, so she had some difficulty sorting out and concentrating on the multitude of questions everyone was bombarding her with:

"How did you survive? How did you get back?"

"It was the Blue Lion, wasn't it? I had a feeling back when I saw the your Lion take off with the others..."

"I thought I saw a strange anomaly when I was helping Shiro perform a diagnostic of the teleporter, but it was too small to be a wormhole and the energy reading didn't match those of the LRPT..."

"Everyone please, just calm down and let her breathe, okay?" Shiro called out to the others, "I'm sure that you all have a million questions for Allura, I have more than a few myself, but I think that it'll be easier for everyone to save them for when we all catch up around dinner."

"Oh no!" Hunk exclaimed in alarm, "My roast nebrie!" Hunk then raced off towards a building that closely resembled her old castle as Shiro chuckled and said, "Why don't we all go back inside now, then?" When the others murmured their assent Shiro and Curtis led them out of the garden. Allura looked back at Lance, who gave her a halting smile but seemed otherwise unable to meet her gaze for long and made no move to approach her, then with a sigh and a heavy heart she followed the others into the castle, Lance trailing along behind her.

"You're kidding me!" Keith exclaimed in surprise, almost choking on his dinner in the process, "A boat, an actual boat? No Teludav drive, no impulse reactor: just a wheel, sails and rudder?"

"From what you described it sounds like a modified version of a Viking fishing boat from Earth's ancient past," Pidge said in a thoughtful voice, "But I have no ideas how one would be able to move though space like that, unless this Julian character stole his from the Asgardian gods of myth."

"And then there's that bit how his 'time-remnant' took your place while he himself brought you here now," Hunk added while he served Allura a second helping and Shay refreshed her drink, "I get how the different realities kinda meet there, but the idea that that space can also be used to travel through time..."

"Actually that likelihood had occurred to me before," Shiro told them all, drawing their attention to him.

"What do you mean, Commander?" Acxa asked him.

"Actually it's just 'Shiro' now," Shiro corrected her, "You'll be officially joining our extended family soon enough, so you might as well get used to it." When Acxa nodded her acknowledgment and acceptance Shiro continued, "Well you all recall when we followed Honerva to that reality where Zarkon and Lotor were both still alive? Well it seemed strange to me that Lotor would be that young if that was the same moment in time as the one we left in our own. What I think happened was that Honerva used the rift to travel back to a point where that reality's version of her was no longer around but Lotor himself was still young enough to be raised properly, giving her another chance at motherhood that she was robbed of in this universe."

"Makes sense," Allura commented as she thought to herself, It also explains why I arrived a few deca-phoebs after we chased Honerva into the rift while the others got back at practically the same tick. "And you said that this is Altea?" Allura asked them, hardly daring to believe it.

"Well Corran and the other Altean survivors seem convinced that it is," Keith answered her as he reached over and gripped Acxa's hand, the two smiling at each other, "the rest of us only knew it as a planet that hadn't been there before."

"But how is it here?" Allura asked them, "Altea was destroyed by Zarkon and the Galra nearly 10,000 deca-phoebs ago."

"Until now we thought we thought it was you who did it," Hunk said as he and Shay took their places at the table, "A final gift to your people that you were leaving behind."

Allura shook her head as she answered, "It might have occurred to me to do so, but I had barely begun the process of converting the Quintessence of Honerva's vessel when Julian abruptly took my place."

"Maybe this Julian brought it back, knowing that you would do so yourself had you remained," Shay offered.

"But how would he have known?' Allura asked in return, "I'd never met him before then."

"Who knows? How did he know how to navigate the rift to bring you back here?" Curtis responded, "From what Shiro tells me it's difficult enough when you have something to guide yourself towards, like Honerva's ship, and the rift was in bad shape until you were nearly here, correct?"

At that Allura thought to remind them of the stone Corran was analyzing for her, the one Julian had handed to her so that he use it to divine where he needed to bring her back to. As she did so, however, Allura remembered that Julian had done so because of the shape the rift, which he called the Eternal Sea, made it difficult for him to navigate it without her feeling for Lance to serve as a guide. Did that mean that he might possibly could have had a way to know about her and Altea? SHe supposed that it could be so, he did refer to her as 'Yout Highness' after all, "To be honest, I prefer to think that Honerva was the one who brought back Altea. She herself was Altean, after all, and though she may have been initially obsessed with getting her family back I do believe that she does care for our people. In fact I feel that, if she had retained her memory after her "death" and revival, that she wouldn't have went along with the plan to destroy Altea in revenge for my father's destroying Daibazaal in an effort to destroy the rift and prevent the dark creatures coming from it from spreading to the rest of the universe."

"Perhaps, who knows?" Shiro told her, "Whether or not it's true, however, I think we should keep this theory between us for now. You may have come to know her as the caring Honerva, but most of the rest of the universe only knew her as the witch Haggar who helped Zarkon terrorize and destroy entire civilizations. Even the surviving Alteans, who only knew her by the name Honerva, even they only see her as someone who lied to and used them to her own ends, who didn't care if they lived or died fighting us so long as she got what she wanted. Things are going to be chaotic enough once word gets around that you're back, but if people find out Honerva might be the one who restored Altea it might undo all the goodwill we built up and the good we've done till now, especially since none of the other worlds she helped Zarkon destroy were brought back with it."

"I see," Allura conceded. She didn't like it, felt that everyone should get to know the good and kind Altean had brought out of Honerva in the end, that she should be remembered for her noble sacrifice rather than the mistakes she made in her grief or the actions she undertook when she had amnesia and didn't know herself, but she could see how those who suffered during the 10,000 deca-phoebs they served at the head of the Galra Empire wouldn't accept it just yet or take it well. Allura consoled herself with the knowledge that she and her friends knew the truth, that Honerva would be remembered by them that way if no one else, and that she would reveal the truth one day. "Speaking of developments while I was gone," Allura said after taking a cleansing breath, "congratulations on your marriage, Shiro. I'm glad that you were able to find someone to make you happy."

"Thank you," Shiro said as he reached over and gripped Adam's hand, giving it a quick squeeze, "I didn't think that I could find someone who could make me happy like when I was with Adam, but I find myself lucky enough to be wrong."

"I also heard that you retired from the military, but are still doing work for the coalition," Allura added with a smile and a quirked eyebrow.

"Got that right!" Curtis said with a light and playful punch on Shiro's human shoulder, "I'm glad that this guy finally decided to leave the fighting to the young ones, not that there's much of that going on these days, but I guess it's true what they say: You can take a man out of the service, but you can't take the service out of the man."

Allura nodded in understanding, knowing full well the compulsion of duty, then she turned her attention to Pidge as she said, "I also heard that you have yourself a girlfriend these days, I'm incredibly happy for you."

This causes Pidge to do a spit-take, her milky drink pouring out of her mouth and nose, and she coughed and gagged for half a dibosh before she was able to croak out, "Where did you hear that from!?" Nobody said anything, but the way Lance rubbed the back of his neck was a dead giveaway, and the dishes rattled as Pidge smacked the table with both hands and exploded, "Lance!? Quiznak, I'm so going to KILL YOU!"

As Lance sputtered and held his hands up defensively, Allura told Pidge in a soothing tone, "Lance didn't tell me, per se. I merely happened to overhear him while he was talking to 'me', that is to my statue in the garden."

"Where's a giant Weblum to swallow me whole when I need one," Pidge said as she sank back into her seat, hiding her face in her hands.

"There's nothing to be ashamed about," Allura told her comfortingly, "I feel it's rather sweet."

"Allura's right. all of us here are engaged in different types of relationships, and with different races as well," Shiro assured her, "Not one of us would judge you."

"You don't understand, I don't think of Lehla like that (at least I don't think I do,)" Pidge insisted, "I just enjoy hanging out with her that's all. We have fun shopping together, we like the same videogames and she even introduced me to some great new ones, I the way her perfume smells..."

"Her perfume?" Allura asked her.

"Yeah, it reminds me of Okarion," Pidge told her in a sweet yet melancholy voice, "the way it was before Honerva's robeasts ravaged it. I find it rather soothing."

"And does she wear this perfume all the time?" Keith asked her, to which Pidge shook her head and said, "I noticed a couple of times when I picked her up from school that she doesn't wear it there, apparently it's against their rules, but she'll have us stop by a bathroom soon afterwards and when she comes out of it she'll be wearing it then."

"Well you might not possibly feel that way about her, but it seems she feels that way about you," Keith told her.

"Really?" Pidge asked Keith, to which he nodded and said, "A perfume like that can't be too easy to get ahold of, and would be too expensive to wear everyday to control body odor. It's been my experience that a girl doesn't wear a perfume like that just fora casual 'hanging out with friends' night."

"Your 'experience', huh?" Acxa asked Keith in a tone that sounded as though it might have been angry, but the twinkle in her eyes and her quirked eyebrow told Allura that she was only teasing him.

"Well what I meant was that I had a few fellow cadets wear perfume around me," Keath hastily clarified, "Some of them might make up an excuse for being there, like needing help to study or feeling bad about a punishment I was given and wanting to do something to help, but it wasn't long before they made their true intentions known. Needless to say these instances became less and less common once I made it clear that I wasn't interested."

"You weren't," Acxa asked, a small yet real smile appearing on her face. Keith returned her smile with one of his own as he replied, "Not in anyone from Earth, nor in most of anyone we encountered since the Blue Lion carried Shiro and the rest of us towards our destinies."

"Nice save," Acxa said, her smile becoming bigger as Keith shook his head and drew her head closer until it was touching his as he said, "It's the truth. There was nobody special in my life until I met you, and I couldn't imagine my life going forward without you: the day you accepted my proposal was perhaps the happiest I can recall."

At this Acxa sighed and made a happy sound deep in her throat, and they remained in that position for a moment that to Allura seemed to stretch forever but in fact only lasted a couple of ticks. While she'd seen Keith smile a couple of times before, never before had she seen him look so...content. Even stranger was Acxa's reaction: whether she was their enemy or their ally, Acxa never showed any side other than her warrior aspect, but now she was here looking very much like a woman. It was rather weird to see her like this, but in a nice way.

While Allura was contemplating this, Keith and Acxa resumed their normal seated positions and Keith returned his focus on Pidge as he said, "The point is that it seems that Lehla does indeed care for you, and quite likely as more than a friend. If you do not fell the same way you should tell her, and the sooner the better. It'll only hurt her more, and lessen your chances of continuing your close friendship, the longer you let her believe she has a chance to take it further."

"But...I don't know how I feel," Pidge insisted, and Allura could see the conflict behind her eyes.

"That's fine too," Allura assured her, "Don't forget that my people are shapeshifters, able to change genders as easily as species. As such we tend to develop our gender identities at an early age, though with enough effort we are capable of changing it when we want or need to."

"Really?" Pidge asked her. Allura nodded as she said, "You remember when I went with Shiro to infiltrate the Galran transport hub? I had changed myself into a male Galran soldier."

"I thought that was just a disguise," Shiro admitted, remembering the somewhat disastrous mission they engaged in so long ago back when he was a paladin.

"It was and it wasn't." Allura clarified. "Externally I was a male Galra, but internally I was still female, still myself. With a great deal more effort, however, I could have made myself truly male, even made my reproductive organs compatible with Galran physiology. Unfortunately it would have been rather difficult to come back from that level of change, to say the least, and the effort wouldn't have been worth it as I would not likely have fooled the station's biometrics: We'd only make that sort of change if we found someone we'd want to make it for."

Allura thought she saw Lance react to that, but before she could get a good read on his expression he'd returned his attention to his meal. It occurred to Allura that he hadn't said more than a handful of words or even gave her more than a passing glance or two when she wasn't looking since the dinner began, and she tried to ignore the slight ache her heart felt at that as she turned back towards Pidge as she said, "Anyway I understand that things can be more complicated for species like yours, which doesn't have that advantage, but the heart still wants what the heart wants. My people understand how important finding what that is in growing into your own person and how nobody can make that decision for you or tell you when you should make it. Still, Keith does have a point: you should make clear with Lehla how you feel about her, even the answer you have to give her is 'I don't know right now'."

"I suppose so," Pidge conceded, looking rather nervous and uneasy at the prospect.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that it will be fine," Allura assured her, "If this Lehla of yours does indeed care for you as much as I've been given the impression of, then she will be willing to give you the time you need to figure it out. You're both young, after all. If I can ask one thing, though: I'd really like to meet Lehla here soon."

"Yeah," Pidge said almost under her breath, then with more confidence she said aloud, "Yeah, I think that she'd like that! Now that the LRPT is working I can bring her to meet you here tomorrow, once we clear it with her parents of course."

"Ugh," Hunk commented, "Pidge, you've GOT to come up with a better name for that thing!"

This gets most of the others, including Allura, to start laughing, though she noticed that Lance didn't join in as stood and wiped his mouth and said, "Thanks for dinner, Hunk. I'm going to step out for some air." Then, without looking at her, Lance walked out the door into the hall. Feeling her heart sinking as he disappeared around the corner, Allura hesitated for a moment before she announced, "Yeah, thanks Hunk, it was great. I'm going out too." Allura started to head for the door when she heard Pidge call out, "Wait, Allura. Just give me a moment to clean up and..." Allura turned back in time to see Pidge start to stand before Keith gently laid a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back into her seat as he said, "No, Pidge. They need this moment to themselves."

"Thanks," Allura silently mouthed, then she turned back and went out the door.

It only took a moment of searching, but Allura soon found him standing once more before her statue. He wasn't saying anything this time however, and that silence was heavier and more painful than anything Allura could ever remember feeling. "Ah, here you are," Allura said softly, trying to keep her voice light and cheery. When Lance didn't turn around or react in any way Allura cleared her throat and continued, "About what I revealed in there, you should know that there's nothing to be weird about. After all, this is the form I've chosen as 'me'. You don't have to worry about..."

"Why?" Lance said without turning around in a voice so low she almost missed it. she was caught off guard by the unexpected question, so it was a moment before she could find her voice and say, "Why? Because I love you! I mean this was who I was when we first met, not to mention when we first decided..."

"No, why?" Lance interrupted, and Allura felt her heart lurch as he tured towards her and she saw the depth of the pain in his eyes, "Why did you leave us like that?"

"But, you know that I had to do it," Allura told him, her heart aching as she relived the moment in her mind, "It was the only way to fix everything, and to ensure that our own universe would go on and wouldn't collapse to the strain of the devastation wrought on the rest of existence."

"I know that. I know that you needed to help Honerva do that conversion of the Quintessence powering her vessel," Lance told her, "But that doesn't mean that you had to leave. We stuck with you up to that point, we would gladly have accompanied you to the end."

"But...there's nothing that you could have done," Allura told him.

"I DON'T CARE!" Lance exploded, and Allura flinched back, "Even if I was reduced to grabbing a pair of Froobles and using them as pom-poms, cheering you on, I would still have went with you, we all would have."

"But...but..." Allura wanted to tell him I wanted you to live but the words stuck in her throat.

"I know that I'm not being fair here," Lance said softly, "I know that, and if our positions were reversed back then I might have done the same as you, but now...?" Lance sighed as he continued, "It might have been only a few doboshes for you, but for me it's been almost five deca-phoebs. The first couple of deca-phoebs I could not even bring myself to believe that you were really gone: I'd be certain I spotted you in a crowd or expect to see you behind me if I turned around. Even when the Blue Lion took off on its own, the other Lions following right behind, I was certain that it would be back soon after with you in the cockpit. And I was telling the truth when I said that the time I spent with my students was fulfilling, but when they all went home for the day I would be alone again. Talking to you...to your statue actually...it helped a bit, but I would not put anyone though that kind of pain, not even Zarkon. Come to think of it he DID go through something similar, with his wife having lost her memories after she overdosed on quintessence: that might be worse in a way, staring quintant after quintant for thousands of deca-phoebs at a stranger wearing the face of someone you loved, so it's no wonder that he turned into such an evil dictator."

"Oh, Lance," Allura wanted to tell him just how sorry she was for the pain she'd caused him, but any words she came up seemed woefully inadequate.

"I know that the end comes to us all in our own time, that we can't do anything to stop it," Lance said as he took her hand in both of his, "but given the choice I'd rather face the end by your side, laughing in the face of whatever was coming to kill us, than to go through a single day without you in it because I wasn't there."

That statement reminded Allura of when Julian informed her of the difficulty he had in returning her to the same point of time she had left her universe, how the thought that she might be getting back to a place Lance would no longer be and how that thought had practically rooted her to the spot: it was no wonder Julian felt he needed to literally give her a push. "I know what you mean," Allura admitted, "I don't think that I could have come back if you weren't here."

"You mean that?" Lance asked her.

"Of course...!" Allura started to respond, but her breath froze in her chest as Lance sunk down to one knee, her hand still clasped between his. She didn't even know what to do or think, her mind going completely blank as Lance continued, "After our first and, thus far, only official date I decided to do some research on how one would traditionally do this, as I wanted to avoid accidentally offending you or anything. Thankfully it was very much like our own traditions and not anything like the odd things Coran had taught me in preparation for that first date: sometimes I wonder if he suffered brain damage as a result of something going wrong during your extra-long cryo-sleep. I had seen this going differently in my head, though: a romantic dinner, some gently falling snow. I don't even have any rings or anything yet, largely because I had stopped believing that this would ever happen, that I came to accept that you were truly gone. Part of me is still half expecting me to wake up any moment now, to reveal this to be a lying dream. I meant what I said, though, about wanting to stick by your side no matter what happens, so..."

"Yes," Allura said soft as a whisper, her voice cracking as her vision blurred with the tears filling it.

"Huh?" Lance said, looking confused at the unexpected interruption.

"Yes, I will!" Allura said a bit louder, the tears now streaming down her face.

"What? But..." Lance stammered, still looking rather befuddled, "...but I hadn't even got around to the question yet..." Whatever Lance was going to say was cut off as Allura pulled him to his feet and silenced him with a kiss. When they broke apart Lance was looking rather dazed as Allura, beaming happily, said in a clear voice, "Lance de los Reyes of planet Earth, you are my heart, my home, and my safe haven, and I will be yours now and forevermore. Yes, Lance, I will marry you!"

Lance seemed to shake himself from his daze, but words seemed to come not so easily to him as he said, "Uh...yeah...that..." Then he gave up the attempt and instead leaned in for another kiss. As it went on Allura melted into him and felt all the tension from the years of fighting fall from her shoulders: in Allura's mind the outside world ceased to exist, the only thing that was real in this moment was this man in her arms. When the kiss finally ended Allura found herself short of breath, her heart still racing, and she saw that Lance was similarly affected. Once her breathing and heart-rate settled into a more stable pattern, Allura found herself blushing furiously as she said, "So, I suppose we should tell the others."

"Of course," Lance agreed, "though we might want to wait a day or two at least to do so."

"Yeah, you're right," Allura noted, her blush deepening in embarrassment at how she had let herself forget briefly in the excitement, "We don't want to intrude on Keith and Acxa's special day. We'll also have to carefully choose when to have the wedding so that it won't overshadow theirs."

As Lance nodded his agreement, Allura heard Keith say, "Then again, why wait?"

Allura and Lance both yelp in startlement, then they looked and saw Keith and his cosmic wolf Cosmo standing a short distance away, a lopsided smile on his face. Feeling like her face couldn't get any redder without changing to another form, Allura stammered out, "K-K-K-Keith! How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough," Keith said simply as he scratched Cosmo behind the ears, who growled softly in contentment.

"Twice in one day, are you stalking me, Keith?" Lance asked indignantly, "Are the others hiding in the bushes back there?"

Keith chuckled and said soothingly, "Relax bud, I asked the others to stay at the castle, to give you guys a moment to yourselves. The only reason I came out here was because Coran sent me."

"Oh?" Allura said, sobering up and turning her full attention to Keith as she asked, "And was this about...?"

"That stone you brought? Yeah," Keith confirmed, "Coran has finished his initial analysis and confirmed that it doesn't match any known material in this universe, though he hasn't ruled out that it could be an as-of-yet undiscovered element that does exist here. Apparently it shares some similar properties to scaultrite and is especially sensitive to the bio-electricity of sentient beings, reacting to their emotional state. He's not certain how they're able to tell how near or far away the person holding it is from "the one who holds a special place in their heart" as you put it, but he theorizes that it has some sort of connection to the positive form of quintessence. I don't think that I've seen Coran this enthused about a project in many deca-phoebs, as he insisted that I bring you this news while he conducts a few more experiments."

"I see," Allura said thoughtfully, "And about my other request?"

"Yeah, about that: Corran told me to ask you if you wouldn't mind that he made a small alteration to what you asked him to do," Keith informed her as he held out a small box, which Allura looked at curiously before taking it from him. When Allura had handed Coran the stone for him to analyze, she had asked him if he could fashion it into a pair of pendants when he was done with it, but the box she took from Keith was too small to hold even one pendant (let alone one that held a stone even one-third the size of the one she handed Coran.) When she opened the box and saw what was inside, however, Allura gasped and asked, "Are those...?"

Lance looked himself, then chuckled as he said, "Why that old soolian, he doesn't miss a thing, does he?"

"Not that I've seen, no," Keith agreed with his own smile, but Allura couldn't tear her eyes away from the box in her hand, which contained what was unmistakably a pair of engagement rings. Beautifully crafted, each pair had set in it what at first might be mistaken as a precious gemstone if they failed to notice that it was glowing from within.

"Coran had already confirmed with the sample he'd taken that the size doesn't affect its effectiveness," Keith explained to her, "so after he fashioned those for you guys he took what was left of the stone, minus his sample, and made it into a few more pairs: one for Acxa and myself, one for Hunk and Shay, and one for Pidge and whomever she eventually decides to make her life-partner. Coran even used it to replace the main gemstones of Shiro's and Curtis' bands, with their blessing of course. I had given Acxa's hers on the way here," Keith added while showing off the ring on his own hand, which she noticed was a subtly different design than the ones she held and wasn't glowing as brightly, likely due to Acxa waiting some distance away back in the castle, "and Coran was planning on sending the ones he made for Pidge to her parents, though last I heard she was trying to convince him to instead hold onto them himself for when she was ready for them. Personally I think that she's afraid that her parents might end up hiding them from her."

Allura felt that Pidge's reaction was somewhat understandable, considering how after Voltron had driven the Galra from Earth her parents (more specifically her mom) had grounded Pidge until the Atlas launched to take the fight back to the Galra: she probably felt that they wanted to keep her their little girl forever. On the other hand, Allura sympathized with why Pidge's parents grounded her. Besides enrolling in the Galaxy Garrison under a false name (her real name being Katie Holt), Pidge had taken off into space for years with the others (though part of that was due to the time-distortion of the castle-ship's collapsing core and the long trip back due to their inability to generate wormholes anymore.) Also Allura had got the impression that Pidge's (Katie's) mother wasn't too crazy about her new, shorter hairstyle.

"They're beautiful," Allura commented as she stroked the stone set in one of the rings with her finger, which grew noticeably brighter at her touch.

"Yeah, beautiful," Allura heard Lance agree, and she noticed that he was looking not at the rings but rather at her, causing her to blush again as Lance turned his attention back to Keith and asked, "Say, what was that you were saying earlier? Something about 'not waiting'?"

"Well, for starters, the announcement of your engagement wouldn't do anything to put a damper on ours," Keith explained, "Honestly, all of us are beyond overjoyed at your return, Acxa included: your telling them of your engagement would simply be the icing on that cake. As for the wedding itself, I do believe that the best option would be if you guys got married the same day as Acxa and myself in the same ceremony, a double wedding."

"Really? Why's that?" Allura asked him.

"The fact is that the news of your return is going to be huge in of itself," Keith told her, "and even assuming that a holo-paparazzi wasn't hiding in the bushes during your proposal they will catch wind of it soon enough."

"Say what!?" Lance exclaimed as he began scanning the bushes around them, likely looking for the glint of a holo-camera.

"Easy, Lance. The security system Pidge installed hadn't picked up anyone," Keith assured him, "and even if they managed to sneak past that Cosmo would have sniffed them out and dragged them out here by the scruff of their necks."

"Oh," Lance said as he returned to Allura's side.

"The point I was trying to make is that the news of your return is going to be so big that all the allied worlds will be talking about it for deca-phoebs to come, to say nothing of your engagement," Keith told them, "I doubt that you could schedule your wedding far enough out that it wouldn't overshadow ours, and even if you found a date that worked you would likely be too old to enjoy it much. The reverse would most certainly hold true for us if you were to hold yours early and we delayed ours. If they were held together at the same time, however, then there wold be no overshadowing as it would be the same ceremony. in fact the hype would likely be greater for all of us as the media would likely see it as a unification of three of the allied powers, namely Earth, Altea and the Blade of Marmora, that had played a major part in ending Zarkon's tyrannical reign."

"And you guys are okay with that?" Lance asked him.

"Yeah. Acxa isn't really one to let the opinion of others affect her, and the most important thing to the two of us is that joining of our lives together," Keith assured them, "Besides, this could really help us out."

"How so?" Allura asked him.

"Well, you're going to have to find a wedding dress obviously, and I am hoping you can help Acxa find one for herself," Keith told her.

"She hasn't picked one out yet?" Lance asked, to which Keith shook his head and said, "Pidge was trying to help, but I think that she's out of her element after having been pretending to be a boy for so long, and Acxa has turned down all the sugestions for reasons such as 'my legs would get tangled up in the skirt if I tried to kick in this' or 'this would provide me plenty of room to hide my blade, but I wouldn't be able to draw it easily.' I don't think that she really gets the point of a wedding dress, but that's not too surprising considering the closest thing she had to a family was Prince Lotor and his hand-picked squad. I'm sure that you can find something great, Allura, and you really would be helping us out a lot."

After glancing at Lance, who gave a subtle nod, Allura smiled and said, "I would be honored."

"Thank you," Keith told her, "Well I should head back and tell everyone you guys are okay so they stop worrying, though I'll leave breaking the big news to you."

"Thanks. We'll see you inside in a bit," Lance said as he and Keith clasped each other's right forearm and patted the other's back with their left in what Allura heard on Earth was known as a man-hug before Keith and Cosmo headed back towards the castle. Once they were out of sight Lance turned back towards Allura, smiling as he said, "Well, now that we have these we can do this right." Allura felt her heart beating too fast to speak, so instead she smiled and nodded as he took one of the bands and placed it on her ring finger, then she took the other and did the same with him. As they were slid in place the combined radiance from the two stones banished the shadows from this space and made the statue towering above them seem as if it were glowing. They then clasped hands and gazed deeply into each other's eyes as Lance said, "I love you, Allura, with my entire heart and soul."

"And I love you, Lance de los Reyes, for all time," Allura told him in return, then they embraced in a hug that, in its own way, was more full of passion than their kisses earlier. As they did their rings grew so bright that she found that she found it difficult to look at directly. Allura didn't mind, though, as it merely served as a confirmation to what her heart knew to be true. I'm home, Allura thought to herself in silent thanks, Honerva, Julian, thank you for everything. Then Lance and Allura walked hand in hand to rejoin their family inside the castle.