Hi everybody, another chapter for Dangerous Enemy is ready. Hope you like it. Happy reading.
Acceptance
Keith lay on his back on his bed. He and Allura had both been checked by Dr Gorma before being allowed to rest. Thankfully there hadn't been any signs of drugs in their systems. Merla had clearly only worried about them being able to flee as long as she didn't control them. And had he not acted as if he was controlled, she probably would have got away with her actions. She had told Allura that she also had drugs to make people comply to her wishes, and he didn't doubt that. It was what the rumours said about the practices of the Drule rulers. The revelation of him being from a royal line that was otherwise wiped out had been taken in with huge surprise by Coran and Nanny. But so far, they didn't say anything about it. Allura had given them the results of the DNA test.
He actually didn't know what to do about this news. He didn't feel any different than before. And honestly, the royal line of Fanos sounded like a bunch of jerks. As far as he knew, he had grown up with his parents ever since he was born. There were all kinds of documents for his birth and everything. Was all of that a lie? He couldn't ask his parents anymore, as they were dead, but he had asked Coran to run an independent check to see if the information that Merla had found was actually accurate.
The one thing he had done, once he was cleared by Dr Gorma, was taking a long, hot shower. He wanted to wash the feeling of Merla's hands on his body off as soon as possible. Now he understood how Allura always felt after Lotor went after her. He felt dirty alone by thinking of Merla's actions. And he didn't know how Allura saw him now. She had to watch how he seemingly gave into a woman that evil. While he had done the right thing from a tactical point of view, that didn't help his feelings. The woman he wanted to kiss was Allura, but now he felt he didn't really deserve that anymore. He knew it was totally illogical, but feelings rarely were logical.
He ran a frustrated hand through his wet hair. What should he do?
Allura lay on her bed, after Nanny had made totally sure that she hadn't been harmed in any way and was warmed up after a wonderful bath. But her thoughts had been in turmoil. She knew how Keith had to feel right now. She went through that every time Lotor got her after all. And, contrary to what the Prince of Doom had managed to do so far, Merla had gone farther with Keith. And she hadn't been able to help him at all. Keith had always come to her rescue, but when he needed her help, she had been useless. He had again needed to save the day, even after being violated like that by the Drule queen.
She was quite sure that Keith would feel unclean, unworthy, helpless. That was what she always felt. And that didn't really suit the proud man. Making a snap decision she got up from her bed. While she might not have been able to help him while they were captives on the ship much, she could help him now, like he had done for her in the past. And perhaps she could get some order into her feelings. The revelation that Keith was a prince, even without a planet to rule, as his had been devastated by Doom before he could even walk and talk, opened a whole lot of new possibilities. She knew what her heart wanted. It had wanted Keith for ages by now. But she had not acted, not wanting to one day go through the pain of having to give him up for her duty to her people. That would have hurt much worse than never being able to be with him in that way.
No matter what, she would now be there for Keith. She quickly slipped on her morning robe and sneaked out of the room, making sure that Nanny wasn't there. She didn't want to deal with a speech about proper behaviour for a princess right now.
Keith barely noticed when his room's door was opened. Still, his body tensed in reflex.
"Keith, are you awake?" He heard a whispered question of the one person he would always recognise.
"Princess?" He whispered back.
"Just Allura," She countered, making him smile a little.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I couldn't sleep," She answered, "And I wanted to see how you are doing, so I sneaked out without Nanny noticing."
Keith couldn't help but chuckle.
"She better doesn't find it out then," He commented.
"No, I'd be grounded for weeks, but I don't care actually," She stated.
"Are you alright?" He asked concerned.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" She asked, "You were much more targeted than me this time around."
Keith sighed. She was right with her statement, not that he liked admitting it.
"I'm dealing," Keith said.
"Want to talk about it with me? I definitely understand what you're going through," She offered.
"Yes, you are probably the one to understand best how it feels," Keith admitted, not having the state of mind to keep things bottled up.
"I don't blame you for anything you did. You got us out of there," She firmly repeated her earlier statement.
"I still feel dirty, Allura. I hate that I went along with her kissing me. That I didn't put up visible resistance to her touches. I felt horrible when she did those things to my body. And I couldn't retreat into my mind, like I would normally have done in that situation, as I needed to think clearly to find a way out of the situation before she could go farther than she already did. And showering didn't really help," He groaned.
"It never does. Whenever Lotor looks at me as if I'm just a price he can win, a conquest, I want to shut myself away and scrub the dirtiness that his looks give me off. I have nightmares about possible things he could do to me. The information that we got over time, especially from how he keeps female prisoners as harem girls for his sick pleasure terrifies me," She admitted.
Keith sat up and held out his hand to her. She quickly went over to him and let him draw her into a firm embrace. He felt wonderful, holding the woman he loved so much in his arms, even if the reason was one he would have wanted to spare her. But he knew she needed to talk about it with somebody, just like he needed to talk, but few would understand him.
"I just want to be free again," Allura told him, "To have peace on Arus. And to be allowed to be with you. You are the only man I ever felt this safe with."
Keith's heart did a little jump. He wanted that as well.
"I have wanted it for a long time, Allura," Keith finally admitted, "But I didn't believe it could be possible. Not to mention that with Lotor's obsession with you, it would have painted huge targets onto both of our backs, should he ever have found out what I felt. And until Merla did that test, well, I wouldn't have been allowed to love you. You would have been forced to marry a prince."
Allura looked deeply into his eyes and he knew he was totally lost.
"I love you, Keith. And that obstacle doesn't exist anymore. In some way, I have to thank Merla. Even if I still want to wring her neck and shoot her with Blue Lion," She stated.
"Would definitely be worth watching how you shoot her," Keith chuckled, "I love you too."
He leaned forward to finally get the kiss he wanted to have for so long and was somewhat surprised when Allura took the initiative and pulled him towards her before he could reach her. He met her lips in a soft, but passionate kiss. One that was so much better than the one Merla forced him into. Merla's kiss had felt as if he was kissing an icy statue, Allura's kiss felt warm and it ignited a fire in him, which until then had only been allowed to be a soft glow. Right then he decided that he wouldn't hold back anymore. While he didn't believe that being born royal made anybody a better person, he had been lucky enough to be given a gift that allowed him to be together with the woman he loved. And even Nanny couldn't do anything about it anymore.
He pulled Allura tightly against himself and she ended sitting in his lap to have better access to him. Her hands were wandering, wanting to make him forget all those touches from Merla, the ones he felt dirty about. Wanting to purge the taint he felt she had left on him, the taint she always felt Lotor left on her. And it felt wonderful how he reciprocated with his own touches, his kisses that travelled from her lips to her neck, making her moan in pleasure.
They didn't really know how much time passed while they were giving into their desires. When they finally took a moment to breathe, Keith was shirtless and both had very much swollen lips.
"We need to stop," Keith told her, "This is too fast, no matter how much I want to continue."
"I just want you, Keith. I waited for so long," Allura told him.
"Me too. And we will have the time to finally do what our hearts tell us. But I won't risk ruining your reputation because I couldn't control myself. We have the chance to make this into a wonderful future for us, but for it to work, I need to appear as if I follow all those pesky rules Nanny and Coran like to go on about," Keith told her.
"Yes. They would give us trouble if they thought we didn't behave properly. It's just so hard," Allura sighed, "But I don't want to give you up and with that test giving you a legitimate claim, we can convince them that it will be for the good of Arus. I already know that you are the only one that's right for me." She smiled at him tenderly.
"I feel the same for you. You complete me in a way I never felt before, Allura. We can still sneak some private time in, like tonight. But until I have managed to officially solidify my position, we have to put on a show in public. What happens in private just concerns us," Keith stated, "And we need to make sure that any retaliation from Lotor doesn't cost the people. He will rage, once we go public."
"That's true. Stupid obsessed bastard," Allura growled.
They stayed together for some more time, talking, kissing and making plans. No matter what, they would fight for their love.
Merla sat opposite of King Zarkon, telling him how the plan had failed.
"So again Commander Keith thwarted a good plan," Zarkon commented.
"Indeed. And I was working the Princess up into being easier to control quite well. He definitely is her weak point. I don't have that much use for him, even if I could prove my theory about him being from one of those old lines with power. Fanos just had a connection with the body. Meaning, they could drive themselves way further than normal humans, should they decide to train their bodies properly. A useful trait, but it doesn't put them above a similarly trained Drule. It just brings them much closer than normal humans would get. It certainly explains how he can match Prince Lotor in combat," Merla pointed out.
"Certainly true. So, how would you suggest we proceed, after the first attempt didn't work out?" Zarkon asked.
"The attacks need to be layered and come from different, unexpected directions. Trickery will work well, as does psychologic warfare. Any kind of plan will need to specifically target Keith primarily. He needs to be distracted enough so that we have a shot at preventing that Voltron can be formed. We should also include shots at taking out one of the other pilots from time to time, simply to not become predictable. But he needs to be kept too busy to really see the final plan in the end. It would work best if we could hit him unexpectedly with one of Haggar's spells to weaken him. I liked the idea with the death-like sleep, but the target was the wrong one. It was easy to suspect foul play, as they could deduct easily that Prince Lotor wouldn't want Princess Allura dead," Merla reminded Zarkon.
"Yes, a curse that took the Commander into a world of nightmares would be a nice touch," Zarkon grinned evilly, "I will talk to the witch to see what she can come up with."
Merla nodded and they continued planning the demise of the Voltron Force, but especially the Commander.
Allura and Keith sat opposite Nanny and Coran. They had asked the two older ones for a meeting to discuss some things. It had by now been two months since the event with Merla and their relationship had grown and they were getting pretty frustrated at keeping things secret. Not to mention that they were by now sure that they wouldn't ever look at anybody else for a partner. They wanted to openly show their relationship, but that would only be possible under certain circumstances. Thus, they had decided to just openly bring the topic up. Meeting in secret and having time for themselves wasn't that easy and they honestly weren't ashamed of being together. Coran seemed somewhat resigned and Nanny suspicious.
"Alright, I guess we just have to come directly to the point, anything else is just beating around the bush. What exactly would we have to do to not have anybody protest a relationship between me and Keith?" Allura asked.
"I knew that this was coming," Coran sighed, "Ever since you brought those printouts of the DNA test back, Princess."
"I guess I'm not surprised. How long has this been going on?" Nanny asked.
"We only got together the day we escaped from Merla," Keith admitted, "But I have loved Princess Allura much longer."
"The same is true for me," Allura added, "I fell for Keith shortly after he and the team arrived here on Arus."
"At least you didn't do anything that could have tarnished her reputation in public. We will have to work this very carefully," Coran said, "You didn't go too far, did you?"
His stern look made the two younger ones shake their heads.
"Nothing beyond kissing," Allura admitted, blushing prettily.
"That's something at least," Nanny commented, "Well, the normal rules for courtship between royals will have to be amended, given that you aren't really trained in them, Commander. While we can now point out that you are of royal heritage, thanks to that DNA test, which will shut up the busybodies among the nobles that simply can't stop themselves from putting their noses where they don't belong, many will still grouch about it, as they will have had hopes of getting the Princess to marry one of their sons around her age. We have to be careful that they don't play up the fact that you aren't a legitimate son of Princess Hecate though. But as nobody knows much about the circumstances, that should be possible. I'm actually very glad that this happened. Now I don't have to worry anymore that the prince she would have to marry would just treat her like a prize or an obligation to his line."
Allura and Keith stared at Nanny in disbelief.
"What? I'm a woman that has eyes. I have known that you two were getting closer all the time. It was a main reason for my frustrations. I had to maintain propriety to protect the royal house of Arus, no matter what my personal opinions were. I may act strict, as I have to make sure that everything is proper, but in that regard, you two behaved much better than I ever expected you to be capable of. I want what's best for you Allura. I raised you since you were a baby. I wished that you could fall in love with a nice prince, but especially I wanted you to find love after the horrible events that took your parents from you. You deserved it so much.
"But I also got a good impression of the princes that vied for your hand. None of them ever showed that he was interested in you as a person. And that would have destroyed you. And Keith has more than proven that he would do anything to keep you safe and happy," Nanny pointed out, "The main problem was that it couldn't be, as there are ways that those busybodies could have used to get rid of him, should you have acted on your feelings carelessly. There have been cases of false accusations of treason in the past, when one noble or the other decided to make a play for power in concerns of the royal family. You aren't by far the first royal to fall in love with a supposed commoner."
"Thank you, Nanny," Allura exclaimed and went over to hug the older woman, which she returned.
"I'm really happy for you, Princess," Nanny repeated her earlier words.
Allura sat back down next to Keith, taking his hand, the two exchanging a happy smile. Nanny and Coran could only thank the stars that the now very obviously shown love between them would have a chance to be allowed.
"Well, back to your initial question. You will have to slowly get the public used to you being a couple. That shouldn't be too difficult. Just some of the normal outings that the Princess goes to will have to be done in your company, Keith, with a proper PR strategy. Thankfully, it won't be very hard, as the members of the Voltron Force have already managed to win the hearts of the people of Arus. The one problem I can see is Prince Lotor having a temper tantrum if you showed your relationship too openly," Coran stated.
"That's true. But perhaps we can just leave the obvious parts of them being together for inside the castle. We can let the staff know that Keith and Princess Allura have entered an official and sanctioned courtship. They will also be told that the two won't be too open about it in public, simply for security reasons, and they all know that Prince Lotor is a constant problem already," Nanny pointed out, "Rumours have ways to spread and as long as we act as if this was all perfectly okay and normal, the people would follow our example. As long as nobody openly challenges it, we can get away with a lot of things. Of course, Keith will need to catch up on some important things, like the planetary history and the laws of the planet."
"I'm actually fully up to date on the laws, Nanny," Keith told them, which made Nanny look at him in surprise, "I have the habit to always want to know with which laws I'm dealing, next to the general ones set by the Galactic Alliance. It's simply best to not be surprised by something if you are on long-term assignments. While you normally get some leeway if you get in conflict with some uncommon laws, as long as you follow the general GA ones, as the commander of the team, I felt it was my duty to not get into situations like that."
"That's a great start," Coran stated happily, "How about the history?"
"Only some parts and more the recent events, as I wanted to know how Zarkon could manage to overrun the planet like he did before Voltron returned," Keith answered.
"I can help you with that," Allura offered.
"I'll gladly take you up on that," Keith smiled at her.
"It would probably be a good idea to just let you join the lessons the Princess has on her royal duties. Now to things that you need to adhere to, if you want this to be fully above reproach, even if it might be embarrassing to talk about them. No sex before you are engaged and the official engagement has been announced. That's really important," Coran told them, making them both blush heavily.
"Coran is right. No suitor would be allowed to bed the princess before that time. Normally, waiting until the wedding night would be better, but that point in time has to absolutely be kept. And there can't be any pregnancy before you are married," Nanny pointed out.
"I don't feel ready for children yet anyway, Nanny. Not with how the planet isn't free of the attacks of Doom yet," Allura brought out after a while.
"Still, once you are married, people will expect you to give the planet an heir. And that also means that, once you are pregnant, you will have to look into a replacement pilot for the Blue Lion. Keith can probably get away with flying Black Lion for a while longer, but he also needs to train a substitute for the times he's busy with royal duties. If you go through with this, which I actually don't doubt in the least, he will rule Arus at your side as king, as soon as you two are married. And that includes travelling to meet other planetary rulers," Coran explained, "You won't always be able to get out of meetings in case of attacks, and you could also be too far away."
"You're right, I need to take that into consideration, Coran," Keith agreed, "I think I can train Lance up to be my substitute in case I can't pilot Black Lion. But in case both Allura and I can't fly with the Voltron Force, we would need two more pilots to have the Voltron Force fully ready for duty. After all, while Sven can occasionally come and help out, he now lives on Pollux with Princess Romelle."
"The question is where will we get the pilots?" Allura asked.
"The easiest way would be asking the Alliance for backup. When we were put together as a team, there were also other candidates that just didn't make the cut. It would be good if the replacements were also good at areas that we don't cover fully right now. I need to inform my superiors as well about the change in my relationship to Allura. There are certain rules of the military that I need to take into consideration," Keith told them.
"I could imagine that it would be problematic if you got into a relationship with a subordinate or a person you are meant to protect," Nanny mentioned.
"Thankfully those rules aren't overly strict, as long as you don't do anything to hurt your own reputation or the one of the person you get involved with. Officers have to keep to a certain code of conduct in public, but as long as you don't get into things like being caught causing bar brawls or sleeping around without restraint, you can have normal relationships, as long as your duties don't suffer. With the different species that make up the Alliance, some older, stricter rules were done away with and a lowest common denominator was found that all planets could live with for the military. I know for a fact that a friend of mine, Jeff, who commands the air team of the vehicle Voltron unit, is in a relationship with a woman on his team," Keith stated.
"Isn't that the team with Pidge's twin brother?" Allura asked and Keith nodded.
"What would you need to do to still fulfil your obligations as an officer to the Alliance?" Nanny asked.
"Well, firstly I need to ask for a permanent transfer to Arus, which won't be a problem at all. The Alliance will ask that we set up a proper base with presence of more Alliance personnel, but that will only be to the advantage of Arus and would have happened sometime in the future anyway, once the constant danger of the base becoming a target was lower. I guess we might also be asked if we would take on some refugees from other planets that were attacked by Zarkon," Keith pondered.
"That wouldn't be a problem at all, once we have had more success and time for the rebuilding of the planet. There are many areas where refugees could settle down," Allura nodded.
"Then, once our wedding is close, they will turn my status as commander of the team over to Lance, simply to make sure that my new priorities to the planet don't interfere with my military duties. But, as the lions belong to Planet Arus, I can still be the official commander of the Voltron Force in battle situations. It will just be the shift of my rank of commander for daily needs of the team going to Lance, as he is the next higher ranked officer," Keith explained.
"So, kind of how the Princess is treated right now. Officially she can order you to do things, but she accepts that you are in charge of the team normally," Coran nodded along.
Allura was higher ranked in the chain of command than Keith, being the Princess of Planet Arus, outside of flying the lions. For that they had an agreement that Keith, having the greater experience, not to mention the full training of the academy, was the one in charge.
"Do you have any kind of plans for a schedule how long you can wait until you can't control yourselves anymore?" Nanny asked bluntly, making both blush again.
"It's really hard," Allura finally admitted, "I want him so much."
Keith could only nod.
"So, we better compress any kind of needed training as much as possible and accept some holes in Keith's knowledge in non-essential areas, which can be filled afterwards. And there aren't really rules how long an engagement can last. We just need to give other parties that need to be informed enough time to get their own changes filed and precautions taken. I think we can, if you put in a lot of work on at least catching up onto the most basic parts of diplomacy and history, have the official announcement in one month," Coran calculated.
"Not optimal, but better than much longer," Keith sighed in resignation.
"Why is there that rule anyway?" Allura grouched, "I mean, why should others care about that aspect of our relationship? It should only concern us. And even more as we are serious about it and want to legalise everything."
"It's just the way it is. Be happy that the most serious obstacle got cleared after Merla did that test. While it may have been for her own goals, it at least allowed you to get this far without having to jump through ridiculously many hoops to at least have a chance to marry," Nanny pointed out.
"Not that we need to do it anymore, but what kind of hoops?" Keith asked, "I mean, I only hesitated as long as I did because I thought that I didn't have any chance at all to ever be allowed to love her and that I would be forced to give her up, should we be together and she have to marry for political reasons."
"There is one way for the Princess or Prince of Arus to marry a non-royal that was set down in our laws ages ago, but which most nobles don't like. It's one of the really obscure laws and has only been used once, and that was about three hundred years ago. A non-noble suitor for the royal heir of Arus can be accepted if one of two conditions are met. The first is official permission of the ruling king or queen of the planet. Should the king or queen deem the suitor worthy, he or she can grant an exception to the law, which is mainly done by giving the suitor a noble title, getting around the problem fully.
"The second one comes into play if there isn't a king or queen. The suitor can be accepted if he or she proves beyond any doubt that he or she is worthy of the position. It involves a set of five tests, which are incredibly difficult to pass. And the suitor has to pass them all to be accepted. While it would have been easy for you to pass the first two, the other three would have needed years of preparation probably," Coran stated, "The tests are of courage, dedication to the planet and its people, knowledge of traditions, laws and history, impeccable diplomatic abilities and lastly, the suitor has to win the approval of the clear majority of the population."
"Well, Keith would probably have easily passed the tests of courage and dedication to the planet and its people. The approval of the majority of the people would have come with time, no doubt about that. His approval ratings in general are already good and with some more work, the people would have easily supported him becoming their new king to marry their princess," Nanny continued, "But the traditions, laws and history as well as the diplomacy tests would have demanded that he passed them with at least ninety percent correct answers and with the sheer amount of facts included, well, even I don't know if I could pass either one, and I was trained in these areas to teach the children of the royal family. And those tests are set up by the nobles, meaning they could very well hide traps and obstacles in there, if they truly want to prevent a marriage, which is why it so far was only done once."
Keith and Allura nodded, glad that Keith wouldn't have to go that way, even if both also knew that he wouldn't have hesitated to try, had he just known about it.