Author's note - revised 4/16/14 for better flow and formatting.
Disclaimer - WEP owns everything except the voices in my head.
It had happened again. Keith saved her from Lotor by risking his life for hers. This time was different though, the injury he sustained was severe. She had to call for help in order to get him back to the castle. Allura closes her eyes and the scene plays out before her again…
The witch Haggar's blue cat has her cornered in the forest as she flees back to the castle while Keith holds off Lotor. Just as the cat is about to strike with teeth and claws, laser blasts chase it from the small clearing. Looking up in relief, Allura's expression changes almost immediately to one of panic. It's Keith, but he's hurt; his tunic sliced from left shoulder to his waist on the opposite side. His face is pale, his torn shirt bloody. He starts to make his way to her, but his strength finally gives out and he begins to fall. Acting on instinct, Allura drops to her knees and manages to keep her captain and protector from hitting the ground. She cradles his head to her chest and begins to cry. His face is pale and his breathing ragged. She needs to get him back to the castle. She reaches for the communicator at his belt and calls for help…
The doctors work on him for what seems like hours, days, eternity. She feels lost and alone, her brain incapable of forming coherent thoughts. Sitting with the rest of the team in the sterile waiting room, she can't bring herself to join in on their half-hearted conversation. The princess can do nothing but stare blankly and jump every time a door opens.
Hunk paces looking for something to hit, something to vent his anger on, but the room offers nothing to absorb the energy of the large man. "I just wish they'd tell us something already! What could be taking so long?" he demands of the room at large as he falls into a nearby chair.
On the other side of the utilitarian room, Lance sits on an uncomfortable plastic chair, his eyes on Allura. "Princess, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's probably in there telling the doctors how to stitch him up. You know how reluctant he is to let anyone else do something for him." Lance gets up and strides over to Allura's side. When she doesn't even acknowledge his approach, he sits down beside her and gently reaches his hand around her shoulders. Finally, she realizes that he is there and any remaining composure she has melts away. Her head falls to his shoulder and the tears that she has been battling to keep in stream from her eyes. He reaches up to stroke her blonde hair in an attempt to comfort his worried friend.
"Lance, this is all my fault… He wouldn't have been there if not for me… He was always there to protect me… What will I do without him?" She looks up at him and her bright blue eyes are dimmed with sorrow, shiny with tears. Sniffling, she wipes the back of her hand across her nose and stares at the floor again.
Lance looks at her and feels his heart break for his friend. "Allura, don't say things like that. He'll be fine. Keith's a fighter. You know that. Trust me when I tell you, he would never leave you unprotected… You know how seriously he takes that responsibility. Remember the time I offered to serve as your guard on that trip into the village?" he says with a smirk.
She lets out a reluctant giggle at the memory. "Yeah, you'd have thought I told him that I was taking Lotor as my escort… He really doesn't delegate well, does he?"
"That control freak? Heh, no… His sense of responsibility and duty are too deeply ingrained for him to totally trust anyone else with the things he is most concerned about."
Something in his tone makes her look up at him sharply. What could he mean by that? Could Keith have feelings for her other than friendship, duty, and responsibility? Could he feel for her the way she was just beginning to realize that she felt for him? The way she'd felt for quite some time if she were truly honest with herself. "Lance, do you know something that you're not telling me?"
"Who me? No, I don't *know* anything per se, but I know Keith." Under his breath he adds "maybe better than he does…" Lance gives her a comforting squeeze and then looks up as the doctor comes through the door leading to the patient wing. "So doc, what's the good news? Are you ready to release Keith so he can give orders to us instead of to you and your staff?"
"Keith's injuries were quite severe. There was a lot of damage that we had to repair… We've done what we can for now. However he hasn't regained consciousness, so he's not completely out of the woods yet. You can go and see him if you'd like…" The doctor motions towards the door he'd come through and steps aside to avoid the stampede as the rest of the Voltron force rushes to their fallen leader's bedside, lead by a streak of pink and gold.
One by one, they enter his room taking up positions around his bed. Allura races straight to the chair by his right shoulder. Her eyes fill with tears again as she takes in his prone form. His breathing is shallow; his forehead is beaded with sweat. She notices a small bowl of water and a washcloth on the bedside table. Removing the washcloth from the bowl she twists out the excess water, folding the cloth neatly and placing it on his forehead. Tenderly, she strokes his cheek and traces the line of his jaw. Letting her hand fall from his face, she reaches down and holds his right hand between both of hers, just staring at his fingers. She sits like that for hours, unmoving except to occasionally remoisten and replace the washcloth on his forehead.
The room remains silent except for the sounds of breathing, medical machinery, and Allura's sniffling sobs. "It's getting late. You all should be getting some rest too. Exhausting yourselves will not help him heal. Lance, Pidge, Hunk you're asleep with your eyes open. Go to bed now, Doctor's orders." One by one the boys stand and slowly begin to make their way to their own quarters in a trancelike state. "Princess, that goes for you too…" The doctor says to her quietly.
"No… I won't leave him," she responds, tearing her gaze from Keith and facing the doctor. "I owe him that much and so much more…"
"I'll have a cot brought in for you. At least *try* to get some sleep…" The doctor leaves and silently signals to the orderly waiting with a cot just outside the door. Wheeling it in, he leaves it on the far side of the room, her reply to the doctor coming as no surprise to anyone.
Allura knows that she won't make use of the bed and only agrees so that they will leave. How can she be expected to sleep when every time she closes her eyes all she can see is Keith collapsing into her arms? Once again, the tears begin to flood her eyes and stream down her face. She always knew that she cared for him, but until she saw him so helpless she didn't realize how deeply those feelings ran. She always assumed he would be there for her. Her friend, savior, leader, teacher… But now she can't escape the thought that she wants more… She wants… no… *needs* him to come back to her.
Her eyes open to find herself in an unfamiliar room. She is in an awkward position – seated on a chair with her head down on something in front of her. She starts to sit up only to find that her body is stiff and her head feels like it was stuffed with straw from crying. Her surroundings come into focus and with it the events of the prior day come flooding back. It had happened after all. She had hoped it was just a bad dream. When had she fallen asleep? *How* had she fallen asleep? Taking in the rest of the room, she sees that someone has been in and left her a breakfast tray. On it she finds a note:
"I figured you wouldn't make it to the dining room, but you still need to eat Princess. I'll keep Hunk and Pidge busy today so you can stay with Keith and no one will bother you. Since I doubt you'll join us for lunch either, I'll be back with another tray later. – Lance"
A small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth as she reads the note and she is touched by her friend's thoughtfulness. She nibbles on a slice of toast and then returns to her vigil by Keith's bedside. "Keith, please come back to me," she whispers softly. "I need you. Please don't leave me…" She continues to murmur to him as the tears slide down her face. She sits next to him on the bed and leans down to stroke his hair. A smile crosses her face as she tries to push the thick black locks from his face only to have them spring right back into place. When a single tear falls from her chin to land on his cheek, she gently wipes it away. Without thinking, she acts upon an impulse that she suddenly has. Slowly and tenderly, she bends further down and places the gentlest of kisses on his lips. Unable to help herself she lets her lips linger on his. When she finally sits back up, she thinks she sees the hint of a smile turn up the corners of his mouth. Turning at a noise in the hallway, she looks back only to decide that she was imagining things.
The next few hours pass uneventfully with the princess sitting watch over her protector. Occasionally a member of the medical staff comes in, reads the monitors around his bedside, updates his chart, and leaves. By midmorning the doctor tries again to shoo her from the room. He reminds her that there is no telling how long it will take Keith to come around after the trauma his body has gone through and that rest really is the best thing for him right now. But there is no convincing her to leave his side. She has always known that he cared for her and hid the depth of those feelings, or at least thought he did. Now she wonders if those feelings are even more than she realized. She is startled from her reverie by the sound of a throat clearing in the doorway. She turns to find Lance standing there with a tray piled high with food.
"Nanny figured you wouldn't have touched your breakfast and told me I wasn't allowed back until you'd eaten lunch if I valued my life. Since I plan to live through the day, you're going to have to eat or be force fed…" he chuckles as he places the tray on Keith's bedside table. "So princess, which is it going to be?" His eyes dance as he picks up a fork threateningly.
She chuckles and smiles in return as she picks up a piece of fruit from the tray. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? I am perfectly capable of feeding myself, Lance."
"Good," he replies, thinking about how relieved he is to see her smile again. "You really should take a break, Allura. I can sit with him while you go take a nap or something."
"No. I am going to be the first person he sees when he wakes up. If not he'll worry that he failed to keep me safe," she teases.
They both chuckle and help themselves to the feast he brought in. The rest of the day passes quietly as the other members of the team take turns sitting with the princess as she watches over Keith. They all try to engage her in small talk about past adventures and misadventures with their commander. She participates but won't give in to any attempts to get her to take a break from her vigil.
The next morning she awakens with her head slumped on the side of his bed once again. As she sits up and starts to stretch out her stiffness, she finds that someone had draped a blanket across her shoulders during the night. A small smile crosses her face at the kind gesture, knowing that Lance was likely behind it. She is silently thankful for his friendship, appreciative of his brotherly attention and the comfort it brings her.
She settles back into her chair as another day of waiting begins. After the third day, she notices that the doctor seems less pleased with the readings on the medical monitors. Worried, she confronts him. "Doctor, he *is* getting better right? He should be waking up anytime now right? Doctor?"
He looks away from her and sighs. Turning back, he looks her in the eyes before giving her the latest update. "He's mainly unchanged. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we were really hoping for some improvement by now. If he doesn't start to show signs of regaining consciousness soon, we're going to have to look into other treatment options. This coma is lasting longer than I like."
After the doctor leaves, Allura resumes her seat at his bedside again. She holds his hand in both of hers and brings it to her lips. "Keith, *please* come back to me. I need you to wake up already. We all miss you… *I* miss you…" she whispers into his fingers. She places a gentle kiss on the back of his hand, then rises from the chair and sits next to him on the bed. Once again she attempts to move his stubborn tresses from his forehead before giving up and holding them aside so she can place a kiss there as well. Slowly she moves down his face trailing a line of tiny kisses down the bridge of his nose until she gets to his lips. She softly cradles his cheek in her hand and bends down to tenderly kiss his mouth. She almost jumps up guiltily when she feels movement from him before realizing that he is trying to kiss her back.
She pulls back an inch or so and whispers to him. "That's it… Wake up sleepy head." She leans in again and picks up where she left off. This time she is sure she feels return pressure from his lips. Allura decides to see just how responsive he is as she gently tries to part his lips with hers. She feels him relax his jaw and move into the kiss. She nearly shouts for joy when she feels his arm reach up and touch her gently. Reluctantly she breaks the kiss and sits back up. Her eyes open and she looks to his face in time to see his eyes flutter open and try to focus on hers. In that moment, as his onyx orbs lock onto her azure ones, she knows that nothing will be the same again and that she can't be happier.