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Her hand glides over the petals before it settles, fingers gently combing through the prickly stems of blood red flowers as they flicker for the briefest of moments. She glances down wistfully, harboring a defiant urge to pluck the absurdly curve-edged petals from their stem, only to feel a rush of disappointment when she presses her fingers together and comes into contact with nothing. They’re real, but not enough, vanishing instantly once detached from their source. In protest, she wrinkles and pulls at the edge of her nightgown. Allura doesn’t know why she finds herself here again, surrounded by simulated alien flora and programmed dusk. She can feel the timed breeze knot in her hair. Time always passes too slowly at night when she is alone.
Allura closes her eyes and breathes in the imagined scents of pointed juniberries, hoping the memories can lull her to sleep in the middle of this forged field of horridly beautiful Earth flowers. She throws out her swallowed compromises, discards the diplomatic face, and waits for the exhaustion to consume her.
He finds her there. When he sees her powdered snow hair and pale blue gown embraced in a sea of brilliant red, Keith smiles before he can catch himself. Like his memories of vast desert canyons and the melodic sound of crickets at night, a fire inside him burns and he wants to remember this moment, this space, forever. She’s so beautiful. She’s mine. He bites his lip until it nearly bleeds, his heart aching.
“Allura,” he breathes at the same time she does.
Her eyes fly open and she turns to him in surprise. She gasps at the sight of him, taking in the pressed black Galran cape he wears now, the stiff burgundy-accented collar, his dark violet eyes, and his presence.
“Keith,” she laughs in disbelief, “You’re here.”
“I’m here,” he responds, a small, knowing smile emerging on his face.
In her fluster, Allura rushes to get up, her hand unwittingly reaching up to fix her undone hair to no real effect, but Keith motions her to stay and walks over to her instead. Once he is close enough, Allura leaps and throws her arms around him as he catches her easily around her waist, their suppressed longing finally seeping out of their bones. She buries her head in his neck, closing her eyes and breathing him in.
“I thought you were coming in the morning,” she mutters, her lips grazing over his skin and sending fervid chills down his spine. His grip on her waist tightens.
“The last negotiations ended early. I wanted to surprise you.”
Gently, Keith raises his hand and strokes her hair, pushing back loose strands absentmindedly behind her ear. Allura smiles softly, indulging in the familiar touch before she releases him from her hold at last, his fingers still woven into her silver tresses.
“What a lovely surprise,” she says quietly, pausing for a craving moment, “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
He lets go of her waist, and with his freed hand, he curls around her neck and pulls Allura into him as his lips fall onto hers with starving devotion. She sighs happily and slides her hands under his cape, eagerly deepening the kiss and memorizing the scorching roughness of his touch and addicting sweetness of his taste. Allura pushes him down slowly, breaking for a fleeting moment, tilting her head, kissing him again, while Keith’s hand disentangles from her hair and traces down to the small of her back, holding her desperately close as they sink into the flowers.
Finally and breathlessly, they part, and when Allura looks down, she savors Keith’s flushed cheeks and the burning intensity in his eyes, undoubtedly matching her own. He runs a hand down her side and she comes to him, lying down and resting her head on his collarbone. She glances up and studies his face, tenderly brushing his hair away from his line of vision. Warmly, he wraps his arm around her in tacit gratitude. In the comfort of his embrace, Allura closes her eyes.
“Will you tell me what you were doing here instead of sleeping?” he asks after a while, unassumingly and idly playing with the outer locks of her hair again.
“I couldn’t sleep. I thought I’d come here like we used to whenever we had things on our mind,” she admits, feeling a wave of tiredness wash over her.
“Is it the labor strikes? I heard from Kolivan that riots were starting on some of the planets.”
She nods silently, curling and reaching for his hand so he meets her halfway. Keith slides his fingers into hers and pulls them to his chest.
“Lotor thinks the workers are weak, that their leaders will persuade them to give up, so he says we shouldn’t interfere. I’ve seen their working conditions. They’re right to be angry. They’ve become wary of the lack of action coming from the Coalition, and it’s troubling.”
Keith frowns. Slowly he sits up and draws a knee, leaving a comfortable space for Allura to settle her head in his lap before finding her hand again.
“You want to help them,” he finishes for her.
Allura looks up at him, and all Keith can see is the despondent conflict in her heart glazing over her affirming eyes. He only understands too well the loneliness of idealistic conviction, the stubbornness and self-doubt that resounds within her. He wants to drown them away with his love and tell her all the ways she amazes him, but he’s still so afraid of stumbling over words and keeps them to himself instead. He squeezes her hand.
“I’ve called for a meeting with Coalition representatives, but without Lotor’s active support, I’m afraid we won’t get anywhere.”
“Can’t negotiate if you’re nodding off in front of high-profile leaders of the universe.”
He lets go of her, leaning back just slightly with his arms for balance. Almost immediately, he misses the intimate warmth. Allura follows wordlessly, shifting without thinking to her side and turning into him. Then she looks away, fixating on the loosened black metallic strap of his boot.
“I know,” she sighs in resignation, turning back to him. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s easy to fall asleep with you.”
“Gee, thanks,” he answers, sarcasm dripping from his conservative response, but his eyes soften and a quiet smile escapes him. He glances at her with this smile – her favorite smile – before looking away, and as if time freezes, Allura falls in love with Keith all over again.
She giggles with a lightness she hasn’t felt since before the war.
“You know what I mean.” She sits up, rolling over onto her knees and straddling his extended leg. He comes back to her. “I love you, Keith.”
Allura leans into him, carefully, gracefully, and her hand finding his. When her lips brush against his, she closes her eyes and hears him in a low voice.
“I love you too.”
He kisses her deeply under the rosegold gradient glow of artificial sunset and wraps his hand around her neck, pushing forward as she tugs at his collar and pulls him back down with her. Allura’s hands run up from his collarbone and into his unkempt hair, wanting him closer. He pins her down with his lower leg on her sweeping gown.
“If you’re having trouble sleeping, I could think of a few ways to wear you out,” he whispers in her ear once they part. Allura inhales sharply, cheeks flushing dark red, and her heart races wildly at the smirk she knows is on his face.
“Not here,” she hisses, smacking him lightly on the shoulder, then biting her lower lip after a moment. She blushes harder when she sees him studying her reaction from the corner of her eye.
Keith can’t contain himself and laughs, falling over onto his back and next to her. Allura punches him hard enough in the stomach to hurt, and he quickly catches her fist with both of his hands as he grimaces.
“Yeah, I deserved that,” he admits after he collects himself. He lets go of her hand and extends an arm behind his head to rest as a pillow. Allura narrows her eyes at him and nudges his leg with her left foot. Keith opens his arm to her and she edges herself into his embrace, entangling their legs and slipping her hand just under his shirt. Gently, she rests her head on his chest, and casually he brushes her hair to the side, closing his arm around her slender waist and keeping her close.
“For the record, I was going to suggest we spar. What did you think I was going to say?”
“You’re terrible at jokes.”
Keith cracks an amused grin.
“You still like me.”
“I do,” Allura says, emphasizing her last word and cutting his amusement off cold in its tracks, and suddenly Keith is very incredibly aware of her cool touch against his skin snaking slowly across his waist and excruciatingly up his chest. He swallows and locks his arm around her to prevent her from moving so freely.
“Why roses?” Keith nearly chokes, trying so hard to distract himself.
“I know right?” she replies evenly, eyes closed and feigning ignorance, “They’re atrocious.”
“What?” he asks once her hand stops and he’s able to process her remark. Surprised, he loosens his hold on her and she inches closer to him.
“They’ve got a weird petal shape, sort of curved and malicious. And they’ve got all these little thorns on the stem so no one can go near them without getting hurt unless they’re careful. They disappear if you pick them out of the ground…”
“Only because Pidge designed them that way. The disappearing part, I mean,” he interjects, feeling surprisingly defensive about the Earthly plant.
“…They’re not the least bit romantic,” Allura continues, making no indication as to whether or not she heard him. She sighs softly, almost inaudibly, but Keith hears her and starts to lightly stroke her back.
“Why not just ask Pidge to replace them with juniberries or something the next time she visits?”
For a while, Allura is silent, and Keith can feel the increasingly lethargic and steady rise and fall of her chest. He looks up at the ceiling, cloaked behind fantastically dimmed lights, then back down at the mess of silver moonlight hair draped over him. He wonders if she has fallen asleep, but then she shifts and hides her head in his neck. As discreetly as he can without sudden movements, he extends his arm from behind his head and drapes it across her shoulders.
“I wouldn’t trade them for the world,” she says finally, her voice low and quiet. “They remind me of you.”
Keith stops. His eyes widen, words inexplicably caught in his throat, and then he forgets how to breathe. He lifts his forearm and covers his eyes, the soft fabric of his sleeve patting the starry mist that blurs his vision so wonderfully. His smile radiates like a faraway sun when he is sure she won’t see.
“Hey, Allura,” he says.
“Hm?” she replies, holding just barely on as sleep starts to consume her.
“I’ll take you to Earth one day. Show you real roses in fields that stretch farther than you can see.”
“…Can we take the hoverbike?”
“If you have to ask, you don’t know me at all.”
Keith feels her smile and his heart soars.
“Okay.”