Work Text:
It ran out.
Her soap finally ran out.
Allura always knew this day would come. Being the princess of a lost planet at war with an evil galactic empire meant that she didn't have the time to keep track of her toiletries often. The "lost planet" part meant that she couldn't restock properly anyways. Not unless the space mall sells 10 000 year old altean shampoo.
She looked over at the Castle replacement Coran gave her and frowned. It wasn't like it didn't do its job. She has just been using the same brand for so long, it has a nostalgic connotations. Using it had reminded her of home. Sometimes, if she'd tried hard enough, she could pretend that she was back on Altea, and her mom would call her out of the shower at any moment.
Plus, despite being an efficient surfactant, the castle standard didn't exactly leave behind a pleasant scent. Or any scent actually. Which meant that any 'natural smell' her body produces would be readily available for nearby olfactory senses to pick up. Not an ideal situation when you're spending half of your day in a confined metal cat, and the other half physically fighting in tight armor.
Allura relented and stepped into the shower. There was no way around this. The Galra was not going to wait for her to smell like flowers and berries before attacking.
She'll just have to avoid close contact for now. Until Coran can help her find a suitable replacement shampoo.
______
"Keith is back!" Pidge shouted from behind.
Allura jumped from where she stood looking over the Map of recent Galra sightings, and looked up at a sheepish green paladin.
"Sorry." Pidge didn't sound too sorry. "C'mon let's go!"
Allura sighed and closed her work. She can't really blame her though. Ever since Naxzela Keith had been pulled into more and more missions until his mere appearance at the castle had been something to celebrate. She is still unsure whether this is intentional distance on Keith's part or that the Blades are stretched a lot more thin than they let on.
Seeing Keith's unmasked face in the Lion's hangar was a bigger relief than she had expected. The smile he had on when he saw her along with his outstretched arms meant that Allura didn't think twice before running right in for a hug. She had missed her friend a lot more than she realized.
"Hi?" Keith chuckled.
"Hi." Allura smiled
Neither made the move to back away so they stayed in that comfortable embrace for a while. Until Keith started to inched his face towards Allura's hair, and she instantly remembered what happened this morning.
"Ah, sorry!" She pushed back against him. "I.... uh... am trying something new with my shampoo. Uh.. it might not be..." She blushed.
"Oh I wasn't going to-" Keith waved his hands in alarm. "I mean. You don't have to worry about..." He trailed of.
They stood their with warm reds high on their face, staring at each other in embarrassment.
"Uh...I ran out of soap..." Allura laughed nervously. "Might not smell my best right now... You know with the whole sweaty training and stuff." That was kinda dumb. Allura smacked herself internally.
"Uhhh... I mean" Keith coughed "It's not that bad."
He averted his gaze guiltily.
"You...smell...kinda nice..." He whispered, barely audible even to Allura.
With that he nodded once and went on his way to great the rest of the Paladins. Leaving Allura to nurse a face that felt hot enough to rival a star.