A/N - Thanks to everyone here and on KAEX for encouraging me to continue and answering all my crazy questions. Special mention to Paulina Ann for sharing my childhood crush, Flora for her gorgeous artwork, Cubbie for all the KA love, and everyone else who has been there to support me in my adventure into fanfic writing!
Disclaimer - WEP owns everything except the voices in my head...
Lance leaves the medical wing with a bounce in his step. Keith was finally awake again and things could start getting back to normal. Well not *quite* back to normal. Things certainly were going to be different between Keith and Allura from now on. If anyone doubted that there were buried feeling between the captain and the princess, their recent trips to the hospital wing took care of that. Even Nanny and Coran had to have some clue about the way that those two feel about each other now. As happy as he was for his friends, Lance didn't envy them the confrontation they were due to have over this.
This wasn't the time to dwell on the challenges facing his best friends though. He needs to let everyone know that Keith had finally woken up. He makes his way to Castle Control and finds Coran manning the desk. "Hey Coran, can you call Pidge and Hunk in here please? I have some great news!"
"Of course, Lance. I'll summon them right now." Turning back to the console, Coran presses a few buttons and waits for an answer from the other members of the Voltron Force. Within seconds there is an answering tone through the com unit. Before Coran can react, Lance reaches past him to press a button and practically yells into the unit. "Guys, c'mon down to Castle Control. I need to talk to ya both right away!" He disconnects without waiting for a response.
Waiting for Hunk and Pidge to arrive feels like five of the longest minutes in Lance's life. He can't stand still and bounces on the balls of his feet. He tries to put a serious look on his face but fails miserably. At last his two teammates finally arrive to find a grinning Lance practically dancing in place next to Coran.
"Lance, what's up? Is everything ok?" Hunk looks at his friend with concern and confusion evident on his face.
Pidge tilts his head to the side, studying Lance's antics. "Hunk, I think the pressure of taking over for Keith has finally caused him to snap."
Lance can't take it anymore and his smile now takes over his whole face. "Funny, Pidge. No, I haven't snapped. As a matter of fact, I think I've done a great job of filling in for the captain so far. And I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping the princess sane too." He sticks his tongue out at the others and crosses his arms on his chest. "Just for that I may decide not tell you my news after all." He pouts, lifts his face to the ceiling, and turns on his heel as if to leave the room insulted.
"OK, OK… I take it back. You've been an inspiration to us all." Pidge deadpans as he rolls his eyes at Lance's back. "Now spill it before you burst, Lance." Pidge manages to get a contrite look on his face before the Red Lion pilot turns around again, but is visibly dying to find out what has Lance so worked up.
"Oh, alright." Lance's smile is back and his eyes are dancing. "Keith's woken up." He says it so matter-of-factly that it takes a minute to register in the faces of Hunk, Pidge, and Coran.
They all start speaking at once, causing Lance to whistle loudly in an attempt to restore the peace. "If you all talk at the same time, I can't understand a word of it. One at a time, if you please…" Lance smirks as they all stand before him in silence. "Or better yet, I'll just tell you what I know. I went to bring Allura her lunch tray. When I walked in he was awake and talking with the princess. He was in a lot of pain though, so Doc Gorma gave him some pain killers. When I left Allura was feeding him some fruit for lunch and then the meds were going to let him sleep some more. That's really all I know so far…"
"Sleep some more? He's been out cold for three days! How tired can he be?" Hunk looks bewildered at the concept.
"Hunk, sleep is part of the body's healing mechanism. I'm sure if sleeping again was bad, the doctor wouldn't have given him the medication." Coran points out to Hunk.
Pidge makes a face and blurts out, "Race ya to Keith's room!" before he takes off running down the hallway.
"Hey, wait for us!" Lance and Hunk yell and immediately give chase.
"Gentlemen! A little decorum please!" Coran calls after them, his voice trailing off as he realizes that he's speaking to an empty room. He sighs, shakes his head and starts off down another hallway to share the happy news with Nanny.
Meanwhile, Allura is sitting on the side of Keith's bed holding his hand in her lap and watching him sleep when the rest of the team comes charging into the room. She looks over at the commotion, puts a finger to her lips, and utters a quiet "Shhhh…" to the over exuberant trio. "He just fell asleep. Keep the noise down." She turns back to the slumbering captain, an expression of contentment on her face.
"Aw, he finally wakes up after three days and we missed it." Pidge flops into a chair with a pout.
"I'm sure he'll wake up again soon, lil buddy!" Hunk puts his hand on the younger man's shoulder sympathetically.
Lance stands leaning against the wall, hands in his jacket pockets, watching the princess as she occasionally reaches up to touch Keith's face gently. He looks over at the tray on the bedside table and narrowing his eyes, does a quick mental inventory. "Princess, did you eat anything? I don't think there is enough missing from that tray to have fed both of you." He pushes himself off the wall and saunters over to the tray.
Allura, lost in her contemplation of Keith, starts when Lance pokes her with a fork. "Huh, wha? Lance!" She looks at him with a scowl.
"You know the rules missy! You eat or I force feed you. There isn't enough missing from this tray for both of you to have eaten." He raises his eyebrow. "C'mon, Allura, he's fine. He woke up and you got to be the first person he saw. How about taking a break now? Go take a nap while he sleeps. I promise we'll wake you when he does. But you need to eat and rest too."
She sighs and looks back at Keith's sleeping face. "I don't wanna leave him." She reaches out to stroke his cheek again.
"Coran knows he's awake now. I'm sure he's on his way here, and he probably stopped to get Nanny too. Do you want to be here sitting on Keith's bed and touching his face with that look on yours when they get here? Think about it, do you really want to have this conversation with them here and now while Keith's sleeping and can't help you?" He looks her in the eye, his expression serious.
She heaves a resigned sigh as the truth in his words registers. "You're right Lance. I don't want to have that conversation with them when he can't be part of it. You promise that you'll let me know the second his eyes open?"
"Promise. Now, do you want to eat some of this or do you want to hit the dining room?"
She giggles and points to the tray. "I'll have what's already here."
"Alright. Next question. Can you feed yourself or do you need me to help you?" He raises his eyebrow at her.
"What would you do if I actually asked you to feed me?" There is a mischievous glint in her eyes as she answers him.
"I'd pull up a chair and feed you. Though I'd have to guess it wouldn't be as much fun for me as feeding Keith was for you." He snickers back at her.
She turns bright red and reaches for the fork in his hand. "Give me that." He chuckles as he passes her the fork and holds the tray out for her. After eating enough to satisfy Lance, she puts the fork down on the tray.
"Now Princess, time for you to get some rest. Want me to walk you to your room?" He stands up still holding the tray. "I have to go drop this off anyway." He holds his free hand out to her and helps her off the bed. He clears his throat and nods at her other hand which is still clasping Keith's. He leans in to whisper in her ear, "You're going to have to let go of his hand, Your Highness…"
She looks down and letting go of Keith's hand, watches it drop back to the bed. Leaning down she whispers in his ear, "Sleep well, I'll be back as soon as you wake up. I promise." She kisses his cheek as she stands back up. "Ok, Lance, let's go."
Giving up on their own conversation as Lance approaches the princess, Pidge and Hunk watch the whole scene play out before them. Once Lance leads Allura out of the room, they look at each other in shock.
"I knew they liked each other, but I never thought they'd finally do something about it…" Hunk shakes his head in disbelief.
"You know how he reacts every time she gets hurt or in trouble. He's never kept his concern for her hidden all that well. And well, if there were any doubts about her feelings, I'm pretty sure her recent refusal to leave his side erased those." Pidge shrugs wistfully. "I guess the only time I'll get to kiss her is when I kiss the bride." He giggles softly.
"They do make a cute couple…" Hunk trails off when he hears a sound in the hallway indicating the approach of Nanny and Coran.
As they walk into the room, Hunk and Pidge stand up to face them. "Hi Nanny. Hi Coran. Keith's still sleeping. We're waiting for him to wake up again. Lance finally convinced the Princess to go to her room for a nap." Pidge quickly brought them up to date.
"About time my baby started taking care of herself again. I know she is grateful that the captain saved her, but I don't know why she had to stay cooped up in here for so long." Nanny twists her apron up in her hands and sits down heavily in the chair that Pidge had been sitting in moments earlier.
"Now Nanny, we discussed this on the way here. This isn't the time or place for that conversation. Right now we are here to visit Keith and see what we can do to speed his recovery. Remember, he was willing to give his life to keep the Princess from harm." Coran sinks into one of the vacant chairs near the bed.
A short while later Lance rejoins the group. "Nanny you will be pleased to know that Allura has been fed and is napping in her room. Though I did promise to wake her up when Keith gets up again."
They make quiet small talk for a while as Keith sleeps. An hour or so later, the captain starts to move around and make small groaning sounds. This goes on for a minute or two before his eyes flutter open and he looks around the room searchingly.
"I'll go get her." Lance gets to his feet and slips out of the room to retrieve the princess. Just before he leaves, he turns back to Keith and gives him a quick wink.
Keith smiles and relaxes back against the pillows. "Hey guys. Didja miss me?" He grins and tries not to laugh.
"Did we ever Skipper! Lance has been doing his best to cover for you, but well, it's just not the same withoutcha!" Pidge's smile reaches from ear to ear.
"Yeah Cap, it's not the same without ya! We've all been worried, especially the Princess."
Smiling back at Hunk, Keith reassures the big man. "So I've heard."
"Thank you for keeping Allura safe, Keith. Arus is once again in your debt, young man. How are you feeling?"
"Stiff, sore, tired… but mostly incredibly lucky, Coran..." A chuckle tries to escape the captain's lips, but he bites it back in an effort to ward off the pain it would cause.
"But what was she doing out there in the first place? The woods in the middle of the night is no place for a princess! She should have been safe in her bed!"
"Nanny, enough. It's not Keith's fault I was out there. Instead you should be thankful that he was able to save me. Keith, you never did tell me what you were doing watching out the window in the middle of the night anyway."
"Well, Princess, I couldn't sleep. I was still trying to figure out what caused the malfunction in Black that resulted in your accident. Pidge, did you ever figure out what happened there?"
"Hunk and I think it was a loose wire in the control panel. It must have started coming undone during one of our last battles and was just slowly getting worse. That's why it didn't cause you any problems earlier that day. We've replaced it and now just need to test it out."
"Good job. As soon as I get outta here, I'll put Black through his paces and see how he handles."
"Maybe I should do that while you're recuperating Keith." Allura smiles at him from the doorway where she stands with Lance. She starts to walk to the bed when Lance's hand on her shoulder stops her. He steps up behind her and whispers, "Nanny and Coran…" and then strides past her to go take her seat on the side of Keith's bed before she can.
"You gave us all a good scare there Fearless Leader. How about turning down your flair for the dramatic a bit? Saving the princess and getting wounded is one thing, but can you try to keep the injuries from being so life threatening?" Everyone starts laughing and Keith can't keep himself from joining them. As his chuckle quickly turns to a groan, Allura rushes to his side and takes his hand.
Hunk slips out and grabs Doctor Gorma to attend to Keith's discomfort. When he enters the room and sees the crowd in there, his first action is to order everyone out. After satisfying himself that his patient hasn't done any further harm to himself, he administers some more pain medication and orders Keith to go back to sleep.
He leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Turning to the crowd in the hallway, Doctor Gorma addresses them all. "You're going to have to take turns visiting him. No more than two at a time for a while. He's getting overtaxed and that's going to delay his recovery."
They all mumble apologies and promise to be more circumspect in their visitation schedule.
"It's ok. I know you were all just so excited to see him awake again. But he needs to rest now so that his body can heal itself. I gave him a sedative with his pain medications this time because I want him to sleep for a while. Visiting hours can resume in four hours. Only medically necessary personnel are allowed in until then. Got it?" He pins them each individually with his stare, saving Allura for last. "And as for you, Princess. I want you to sleep for the next four hours too. Do I need to give you a sedative as well or can you handle it on your own? You need a break from watching over him. I know you took a nap after lunch, but it wasn't enough to make up for all the sleep you've missed so far." He doesn't mention that the sleep she has been getting was done slumped over Keith's bed.
"Yes doctor," she answers contritely, thankful that he didn't say anything about her recent sleeping arrangements in front of Nanny and Coran. She knows that conversation is coming and that she won't be able to prevent it for long, but she needs a little more time for Keith to heal enough to be included.
"C'mon Princess, I'll walk you to your room." Lance offers his elbow to Allura. She smiles and grabs on. They walk off down the hallway. When he is sure they are out of earshot of the rest of the group, he leans over and says quietly to her, "It'll be ok. You know how quickly he heals. You'll be able to get everything out in the open soon. We all love you both and want to see you together and happy. Just let me know if there's anything Hunk, Pidge, or I can do for you guys in the meantime, OK?" They arrive at her door as he finishes and he keys it open for her.
Allura turns and hugs Lance, whispering a quick "Thank you" into his ear. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and then turns and walks into her room.
"Princess?"
"Yes Lance?" She turns to face him.
"Need help getting ready for bed?" He laughs and ducks the pillow that comes flying out of her room. "Sleep well, Allura." He says softly as he picks up the pillow and takes it to the hospital wing to give to Keith.