"There's breakfast here, if you'd like to have something to eat or to drink," Allura gestured towards the small breakfast table set up in a patch of warm sunlight by the window. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "I'm not sure, but I think that Nanny wants to fatten me up."
Keith's lips twitched with amusement even as he nodded assent. "I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with her, Princess. You really do need to eat some more. You look as light as a feather — like a strong gust of wind could blow you away."
The loud sound of his stomach rumbling interrupted his words and brought a sheepish grin to his face. "But then again, who am I to talk? Nanny tells me that I should gain weight as well." He quirked a mischievous eyebrow at his wife before beginning to examine the selection of food that Nanny had sent up.
As usual, the Princess' former governess had overestimated their appetites. She had laid out so many chafing dishes and serving platters that Keith began to worry that the table might collapse under their weight.
Keith began to serve himself, placing a waffle, some butter and a few slices of bacon onto his plate while he idly wondered what the strange expression on his wife's face was. The strangled sound of frustration that she made gave him a clue.
The first thing he noticed as he turned around was the temper that lightened the color of Allura's eyes. "I have a name, you know. It's Allura, remember? My parents put a lot of thought into choosing it so I'd rather that you used it," she snapped out peevishly.
"Sorry, ALLURA," Keith said, inclining his head in apology as he placed special emphasis on her name. "I guess Princess just slipped out by force of habit. I'd only called you that for four years, you know."
"I know you think that I'm over-reacting," Allura replied, her voice turning serious, "but I really do mind being you calling me by my title. It seems so... formal. When we're alone like this, I don't want to be the Princess Royal of Arus or a Daughter of Cador. I'm just your wife, Allura Blackwell."
"Got it, sunshine." Keith agreed huskily, heartened by how easily and naturally which Allura identified herself as his wife. Not knowing what else to say, he reached out and ruffled her curls with an affectionate hand.
Wrinkling her nose with dismay, Allura laughed and batted his hand away. With her hair rumpled and her eyes sparkling with delight, she looked like an adorable urchin and with very little effort, Keith could picture how a daughter of theirs would look like.
The sudden pain on Allura's face sent him crashing back to reality. The pain in Allura's shoulder was normally a dull ache that she could ignore, but when she overextended herself, the ache turned into a sharp knifing pain.
Biting back the curse that sprang to his lips, Keith wiped away the sweat that beaded on Allura's face with a towel he found near the bed. Over the last few days, he had learned — much to his dismay — that at times like this, there was nothing he could do for Allura but offer what comfort he could.
"Don't push yourself," he scolded gently when the spasm was over, hating how pale and drained she looked. "You're not in tip-top condition, and no one expects you to be, considering everything that had happened to you."
"That's what everyone says," Allura grumbled as she closed her eyes and wearily slumped back against her pillows. "But people tell me bits and pieces and no one tells me why I'm here and how I got hurt."
"I'm not surprised," Keith muttered, feeling rage and guilt clog his throat once again. "I thought that the Intelligence guys over at Garrison Command kept their cards close to their chest, but I swear, Nanny and Coran could give them lessons."
"You know how overprotective they are... It drives me insane at times." Opening her eyes briefly, Allura managed a wan smile. "If you wouldn't mind though, I'd really like to hear that story... I want to know why I'm in this condition and how I got hurt so badly."
Taking hold of Allura's arm, Keith stroked it gently, his thumb lingering over the fiery red mark revealed by the sheer sleeves of her nightgown. "This marked you as the Phoenix, the one who would bring about the downfall of Haggar," he said huskily, forcing the words past the lump that had lodged in his throat.
Getting to his feet, he began to pace the room. "Our guess is that Haggar saw your birthmark on the video-feed of the press conference at Space Marshall Graham's reception and panicked. "
"We suspect that the witch had her own agenda," Keith continued grimly. "Your Aunt Orla thinks that Haggar exhausted her magic making ro-beasts for Zarkon and needed to find another source of power. You."
"By using you, she was able to hit two birds with one stone. She got the power she needed and she controlled the Phoenix, the only person in the entire universe she feared."
He thought about what he had said for a moment before correcting himself. "But it wouldn't be exactly accurate if I told you that she controlled you. If you want to be technical about it, Haggar possessed your body and became you."
Keith's smile was a humorless quirk of his lips. "Haggar and I fought. To stop her, I was forced to slay you... and ding, dong, the wicked witch was dead." He sighed heavily, "It was the most difficult thing I have ever done."
Finishing his narrative, Keith gazed down at Allura. He fully expected her to banish him from Arus now that she knew what he had done and he wanted to memorize her face so that he would have it forever in the empty years that lay ahead of him.
Allura stared down at the snowy white linens on her bed with unseeing eyes. Her heart leapt with an unsteady rhythm as a staccato collage of images inundated her. Each one of them a memory that she had forgotten...
... An obscenely beautiful opalescent shadow over the ruins of a village...The trembling of the air that heralded the arrival of the five lions...A pale pink dawn on a hilltop overlooking the castle...A black stallion galloping rider-less through a stone rain...The sound of Haggar's laughter as the witch taunted Keith...The sadness on Keith's face as he parried Haggar's attack with his sword...The gentleness with which he cradled her in his arms...The raspy sound of his whisper as he willed her to live.
She came back to herself with a shocked gasp and stared up at her husband with wide eyes. "Oh, Keith," she whispered, torn between tenderness and disbelief. "I'm so sorry... I wish you didn't have to go through what you did... that all this had never happened."
Tears trickled down her cheers unchecked and she bit her lip to stop it from quivering. "It wasn't your fault," she murmured, holding out a hand in invitation, wanting to sooth and comfort. "I know you didn't want to hurt me."
Keith's expression altered and for a moment, Allura thought he would take her hand but he stood still, resolutely keeping the distance between them. Her natural empathy came into play, filling her heart with compassion for the proud tortured man who was her husband.
Praying for wisdom, Allura chose her words carefully, painfully aware of how she was negotiating the most important settlement in her life. "I am grateful for what you did. It was difficult, but necessary. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am right now — at home, surrounded by people who mean most to me."
"You sound like Nanny," Keith murmured, shoving his hands into his pockets. "That's almost exactly what she told me. She said that what happened was destined to be and that we've done what we were meant to do."
Allura shifted into a more comfortable position. "I'm sorry," she apologized once again. "I know you always believe that you can control your own destiny, but sometimes, destiny drives a different hand. You must remember that Cadorians believe that our lives have been shaped by the gods."
"And I should go with the flow, right?" Keith asked. A wry smile erased the stark lines on his face and lightened his harsh expression as he sat on the edge of her bed with his hip grazing hers. "Your aunt told me that I would have to learn how to do that," he said, thinking back to the day he met Orla at Queen Juliana's grave."
"She was right about a lot of things, you know..." Unable to find the words to express how he felt, he shrugged helplessly, the simple gesture conveying the depth of his inner turmoil. "Before I met you, I was perfectly content with my life. I was a soldier, and a pretty damned good one. For better or worse, I did what I was trained to do and I made a difference, but in the process, I discovered what a bland place the world could be."
Keith gathered his courage before admitting huskily. "Arus changed my life, Allura. Being here... Being with you made me believe in fairy-tales and in happily-ever-afters. You gave me your home to me, Allura, but it wasn't a real one without you..."
"I thought that I had lost you," he muttered, his eyes bleak. "And I don't ever want to get that close to losing anything so precious to me again. From now on, I know I need to hold close everything that is dear to me so I'm going to hold you to your promise. Your eternal love and obedience, wasn't that the deal?"
"You've always had my love," Allura whispered. Her shaky laugh caused the tears simmering in her eyes to trickle down her cheeks. "But I think that we'll have to renegotiate the obedience clause. As you may have noticed, I'm not very good at it."
Happiness spread through Keith until it was so intense he began to ache from it. Unable to keep from touching his wife, he slid his hands down her arms. His long fingers slid over her palm and twined with hers, closing tightly.
Keith closed his eyes and swallowed, overwhelmed by the simple pleasure of holding his wife. He wanted to tell Allura how he felt, to explain to her that he had had never known that that there were feelings like this, but all he could manage to say was a simple "I love you."
The answering emotion that danced in Allura's eyes humbled him. Lowering his head, Keith reverently touched his lips to hers in a tender kiss tempered by protective concern. "You've got to get well soon, Princess Mine," he murmured when he at last managed to draw away. "It's time we made our home together. God knows we've waited long enough."