Hopefully after my final exams I can catch up on sleep and on ALL my fanfics. In the meantime, a oneshot for your entertainment!

Day 15: magic/secrets. Allura has a secret she's been hiding from Shiro and finally decides to reveal it to him. Turns out Altean girls don't get periods...

Enjoy!

Shiro opened the door to the observation room. Quickly scanning his surrounding, he found the princess sitting near the giant window and looking out into the universe. Her short hair puffed up like an afro, her serene face glowing under the starlight.

If he had a camera, this would be the scene he would picture, enlarge and hang in his room.

Sensing someone's presence in the room, Allura turned her gaze away from the stars to see the intruder. A smile grew on her face when her eyes locked onto those of the black Paladin. "How long have you been there?" She asks while getting up. "In all honesty, I don't know," Shiro replied, "I got distracted by the view."

"Are you talking about the stars or me?" Allura asked teasingly while making her way towards him. "What do you think?" He responded. She chuckled and got on her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him into a kiss. "Princess, why did you want to meet me here exactly?"

"Can't we at least enjoy the moment?" She whispered.

"Allura..." he insisted.

She sighed, letting her hands slide to his chest. The Paladins started to notice her strange behavior a while ago. She spent days without sleeping, ate three times her normal plate and her hair was falling off in chunks and was now shorter than Pidge's. None of Lance's products seemed to help her regain her beautiful long hair but instead, to her greatest delight, made her natural curl pattern stand out even more. The princess claimed it was normal at her age, that some Alteans go through these physical changes and even compared it to an earth woman's menstrual cycles.

But it was more than that.

"Shiro, I have a confession to make. I don't know how you will receive it but I had to tell someone." She shook her head. "This is kind of embarrassing..."

"Allura," Shiro said in a sweet voice, "we've been through everything the universe threw our way together and we're still here. If you think this might me an obstacle for us in any way, we'll get through it together, okay?" She nodded, thankful for the support he was showing. Taking a deep breath, she spoke. "My recent eating habits and hair loss isn't caused by... Altean periods..." She paused, looking into Shiro's eyes. He nodded, showing her that he understood what she just said and that he gave her his undivided attention. "On Altea, stories are told about royal children with acute magical abilities that go through a phase called Shanila. According to these stories, their magic is intensified when certain astral figures align around once every three months." She unwrapped herself from Shiro's embrace and placed herself in the middle of the room.

Allura closed her eyes. At first, nothing happen. Then she started to float and her whole body was engulfed in a soft blue light. Her hair started to grow back, twice as long as it's regular length, blue and purple crystal-like wings emerged from her back and other crystals floated around her body. Her clothing changed, becoming a pink, blue and white flowing dress that ended above her knees and her hand and feet were covered in blue vines and pink juneberry flowers.

If Shiro thought that her eyes were the bluest he has ever seen, he was quickly corrected that night.

"This is Shanila," she said in a voice only meant for an angel. "I found out a while ago that the ancient Altean tales were telling the truth. Unfortunately, there is very little knowledge about how to use this magic but with enough practice, I know I will be able to activate it at will." Shiro stared at the princess, completely in awe. How could she be embarrassed about all this? "So what are you currently able to do?" He asked.

"Give me your arm and I will show you," Allura said. When she saw him reaching out with his human arm, she smiled. "No Shiro, your other arm." He hesitated at first but decided to trust her. Princess Allura grabbed his hand and the blue quintessence traveled through his arm. It activated on its own, the purple light seemed to be fighting with the blue light and finally, His arm shined a beautiful hue of pure quintessence blue. She slowly let her feet touch the ground and her divine appearance disappeared just as fast as it came. Shiro caught her just as she was falling from exhaustion.

Slowly, she regained her composure. "Shiro?" She asked. He didn't answer, his arms still wrapped around her, his mind still trying to wrap itself around what he just witnessed.

"So... this is a...rare Altean thing," he said.

"Yes."

"Shanila... once every three months?"

"Yes."

"And you transform into a goddess... okay." Allura laughed. "Not a goddess," she corrected him, "Shanila."

"A Shanila goddess yes, alright," he replied jokingly, "but you can't fully control your powers yet so you practice in secret until... until when exactly?"

"Until I can summon my Shanila at will. Regardless of astral alignments. Maybe...Maybe use it in our fight to defeat Zarkon."

He nodded. "So... why are you embarrassed about all this?"

She looked away. "Because I hid the truth from everyone, I was afraid of how you would react, and using so much energy does make me vulnerable which I'm not particularly fond of."

"I'm in love with an alien princess who is learning to control her mythical magical powers. Okay, I think I can handle it," he said with a grin. Allura laughed at his summary of the situation. He wasn't wrong but his wording made the whole ordeal hilarious.

"And I'm in love with an alien human who also happens to be the Paladin of the black lion and now has an arm that glows blue instead of purple."

Shiro did a double take when he understood what she just said. "What?" He whispered while looking at his Galra arm. He activated it only to find out that the princess was right: the arm emitted a bright blue light, much brighter than the purple he had gotten used to.

"How are we going to explain this to the team tomorrow?" Shiro asked while turning his arm off. "We'll say I was practicing my magic and it worked, no need to go into details," Allura answered. Shiro looked at the princess, her face was as serene as ever. He wrapped her in his arms. "Thank you for trusting me," he said in her ears. "Thank you for being a trustworthy person," She replied.

They stayed in the observation room a little longer, watching the stars float by and exchanging kisses every now and then. Sleep finally catching up to her after almost a week, Allura fell asleep in Shiro's arms and he carried her back to their bed.

Shanila is not an original concept: it actually cones from a Netflix series called LoliRock. You can look it up on YouTube to get an idea of how powerful Allura can become.

Let me know what you think!