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“I want to kiss you…”
He stated the fact like it was an apology. Not kiss me, a command. Or may I kiss you, a request. Keith confessed the desire like he admitted to most things. Abruptly and sincerely. With guilt lacing through his words and cracking his voice.
Crimson light framed his face, and the cut of his jaw glowed in fluorescent blue. Oranges and fiery yellows glittered off the rain shimmered cobblestone. The alley walls gleamed in varied neon luminescences dispersed across the boulevard. A mop of thick raven hair shadowed his eyes.
Anyone with half a will to live would run away from him. But Allura only stepped closer. And one click of her heels sent Keith almost retreating two steps back.
Almost.
Allura was surprised he looked so frightened, like a shaken alley cat in her presence, but not thrown off track. One step and she was in his space, gripping the edge of his jacket without mercy.
Keith was armed and she knew it. And with one tug of her hand, she shook the dagger loaded cloth out from where it had been tucked inside his jacket.
✧
“I just can’t believe … I’m alive,” Keith told her, his voice barely above a whisper as it crackled from his throat. Allura looked back at him through the blood stained artificial light. Her eyes lit up in sparkling violet and blue hues.
✧
“Allura!”
Allura halted. Her fingers curled tightly around the railing’s end.
Keith’s boots pounded against the empty ballroom floor, echoing off the high ceilings, as he ran to her.
She stopped. Only a step away from ascending the staircase.
Keith stopped as well, not far from where she stood, and he tried to catch a glimpse of the Princess’s face. “Allura… Look. I know you’re upset with me…” His voice broke and trailed off. Like he was begging her to listen.
He didn’t have to.
Allura barely turned her head. “I’m not upset. It’s nothing.” Her voice was faint.
Keith frowned. “I mean… I haven’t known you very long. But something tells me that isn’t true, Allura—”
“You’re right,” Allura cut him off. “You have not known me for very long.”
She looked at him fully. And when he met her stare, her eyes lingered. Chilling. Ice blue and lavender and rose. Speckled in a sadness that seemed to bleed from her tear ducts, weigh on the soft lines of her face, and trail down the curve of her neck.
Allura turned away from him again.
She took a bit of her skirt in between daintily clenched fingers, as if to prepare herself for a lengthy ascend up the stairs.
But despite himself, despite his fear of repelling her even more, Keith caught up to her in one stride and gently touched her wrist.
“You’re right.” His fingers barely ghosted her. “But I would like to,” he told her. His voice as achingly sincere as always. “And I mean, I… I thought you maybe felt the same.”
His touch burned Allura’s skin.
A gentle brush of fire.
And he must have felt the spark, because he pulled back his hand as soon as Allura turned back around to look at him.
Allura couldn’t keep her feigned composure. She wanted to melt into his arms and scold him for leaving her again. For nearly leaving this reality for good. But her eyes only softened as they looked into his.
She couldn’t do this anymore. Not if he had no intent of staying.
“However long we know each other… isn’t really up to me, Keith. Now is it?”
✧
And Keith wondered if Allura looked for him in large crowds, as his eyes caught sight of her billowing platinum hair — glittering like threads of silken starlight in the sun as he trekked along the campus.
Allura stood by the water fountains, laughing. And rocking slightly on her feet. She was talking to someone — a dude someone, Keith knew they shared a class but couldn’t remember his name — and munching on some sort of protein or candy bar.
✧
“Oh! Um, hello? Is this rink still open?”
Keith sighed, and swiveled around on his skates, nodding the hair out of his eyes. “Sorry. We’re about to—”
The stranger was young. Pretty dark brown skin, billowing platinum curls, and eyes so crystalline Keith could see them shimmer from across the rink. Or maybe it was the stranger’s ridiculously fancy outfit, consisting of a tiny pastel pink dress dappled all the way from its sleeves to its skirt in sequins glittering so obnoxiously bright Keith skid to a halt on his skates.
“—close,” he finished, his voice trailing off a bit.
The stranger slumped a bit, disappointed, and frowned. A tuft of silver hair fell in their face. They blew it away, puffing out their cheeks.
✧
The berry punch had stained Allura’s tongue such a bright shade of blue, Keith could tell she’d been drinking from all the way across the ballroom. He felt something inside him pang… realizing Allura had already been looking his way. And he smiled faintly.
They were in sync. Sparing glances at each other at the same time. Keith stuck his own tongue right back out at Allura, winking an eye at her for emphasis. There was a soft rush of reassurance in his chest when Allura smiled too, squinted at him, and then flipped her hair over her small shoulders, and turned to face a young Olkarion representative that had approached her. She slipped back into friendly small talk and political chatter. Like the true diplomat she was trying so hard to be.
✧
His eyes fell to her bare shoulders and the long shimmering hair falling over them.
Allura was stunning.
She always was.
But tonight, she was especially relentless with her beauty.
She was scented like wild flowers and crisp rushing waterfalls. Her hair glittered silver. Her eyes lit up the room.
Keith’s hand rested hesitantly on the small of her back, where the fabric was cut out to reveal her skin, hot and silk-like to the touch.
It was almost alarming how soft her skin was. Keith tried not to think about it. Or her tiny hand resting in the palm of his own, that made it all the worse. Her strapless rosey ballgown. Her deep brown skin shimmering in the warm ballroom light.
She was too serene. Too pretty. To fragrant to be real.
Allura looked up at Keith suddenly. Expectantly. And he realized he’d been ridiculously silent since leading her onto the dance floor.
He furrowed his brows.
Say something you idiot.
“You look very handsome,” Allura blurted out, before Keith could even muster up what to say to her.
Allura shyly lowered her lashes when he looked at her in faint surprise. And her thin fingers curled up a bit in his hand. “That is… I mean… You look like a proper gentleman.”
“Thanks,” Keith managed. “You too. Uh… not handsome. Or like a gentleman. I mean… You look nice too. Better in fact. Than I do, that is.”
Allura looked up at him again. Calming him with the clearly amused twinkle in her eyes. She laughed. “Thank you.”
She was so adorable.
And Keith felt himself ease up. Finally.
The ice was broken.
Why in the world was he acting so nervous?
Keith tried to keep up with the couples swaying around the room.
He couldn’t dance. He didn’t like his formal attire. And he was terrible at parties. But none of that mattered really.
Because he was with Allura.
And he always felt like he belonged right where he was, whenever that place was beside her.
✧
“You may hold me a little closer than that…” Allura instructed after a drop of silence, gently guiding his hand. “It is more customary this way. On Altea.”
“Oh, is that how they did it on Altea?” Keith asked.
“Yes. I am from Altea, and I should know.”
“Well, who am I to argue with the expert?”
Keith pulled Allura even closer, so that her body was right up against his.
✧
Falling for Allura gave the universe a strange glow. As if every mystery among the stars had gotten tangled up in her hair.
She’d told Keith once that she believed it had been their destiny to cross paths. And he believed her.
There was just no other explanation for how in the world someone like him could end up here.
With someone like her.
Right now.