Chapter Text
He didn’t really think this through.
Lance realized that, now. Of course, now he was about two-thousand gack poorer. But while strolling through the quiet, cluttered aisles of an old, space antique store, a certain display case caught his eye. He was there with Coran, looking for some Altean relic that was apparently supposed to help with boosting the lions’ charge. This was the fifth place they’d stopped in the past three vargas, with no luck yet. Lance had strolled along behind Coran, only half listening to his ramblings about the origin of the unfamiliar tech, when he’d seen it.
It was a jewelry display.
Immediately, the glittering jewels reminded him of Allura. Lance never forgot the gleam in her eyes when he’d offered her something sparkly; she’d just...lit up in a way that made his insides sing. He looked out for anything sparkly he could get his hands on since, hoping to see her light up like that again. So of course, seeing the jewelry case had him grinding to a halt to stare.
A lot of the pieces were unfamiliar and downright outlandish. He couldn’t even begin to ascertain the practical uses for most of the bizarre trinkets. Chains, and gems, and oblong, twisted pieces of unknown precious metals decorated the case. The jewels glittered with varying hues and intensities, and it was enough to make him feel slightly dizzy. Lance stepped closer as though entranced, his feet seemingly moving on their own accord. It was then that he saw it.
A ring.
It was golden, with inlaid stones all around. In the middle sat a well cut pink gemstone, shaped like a heart. Lance knew instantly that he had to get that ring. He whirled around and all but sprinted through the cluttered aisles, in search of an employee.
The shop was a chaotic mess, for better lack of a term. Random, alien objects were stacked on shelves and atop each other, collecting dust and what looked to be cobwebs. Of course, given the lack of earthen spiders, Lance couldn’t have been too sure. Perhaps there were spider-like creepy-crawlies in space. Either way, maneuvering around the various knick-knacks and decorative things was a task in itself. He somehow managed to blunder his way through the mess and found the front counter, where a bipedal alien sat polishing what looked to be a bowl.
“Hello,” Lance chirped. The alien blinked down at him, their four eyes narrowing inquisitively. He wasn’t sure which species this one was; as far as Lance could remember, they hadn’t encountered this alien’s kind before.
“What do you want?” Their voice was garbled and nearly indecipherable. It took Lance a good minute to process what had been said. He grinned, nervous, and gestured to the general direction of the jewelry case.
“There’s a ring I’m interested in purchasing...how much is it?”
Lance couldn’t tell if the clerk was frowning or not. Their face was strange looking; weird barbels covered where he’d imagine a mouth would be. Despite this, they skewered him with a rather scathing look and rose slowly. “You have money, yes?”
He gulped. Hands in his pockets, Lance fingered the fancy glass card, loaded with an unknown number of gack. It was originally a gift Lotor had given all the paladins; money to spend in the galran empire. A peace offering, supposedly. He hadn’t cared to use it then, but now with the ring on his mind, he hoped that the money was still there. “Y-yeah, of course.”
The clerk rose slowly and lumbered towards the display case without another word. Lance sucked in a breath and followed behind, trying not to stare at their strange, tentacled feet. They arrived at the case before Lance, and were already pulling the ring out and onto the glass counter. Lance gawked, admiring how the jewels glittered in the light.
Allura was going to love this.
“Two-thousand gack,” the alien said. Lance didn’t even think twice before throwing his empire-issued card onto the counter. The clerk blinked all four eyes lazily and grabbed it with their too-big hands, shuffling to a recess in the wall. Lance heard a few clicks and a beep, and within seconds the card was being pressed back into his open palm, along with a velvety ring box.
“Thank you,” they garbled, before shuffling away. Lance was left staring at the box in a daze. Did he really just buy this? It certainly seemed that way. A dull thread of excitement laced through him, and he pocketed his new prize with a grin.
“Oh, Lance, there you are!” Coran emerged from around a corner, laden with an armload of odds and ends. “Would you mind helping me carry these?”
He patted his pocket on instinct, satisfied that the present was tucked securely there, before swiping the top half of Coran’s armload with a chuckle. “Dude, Coran, do we really need all of this?”
Coran scoffed. “Yes, of course!” He launched into a lengthy explanation, which Lance promptly tuned most of out.
~#~#~#~
Lance had no idea what he was doing.
Back at camp, reality seemed to settle over him and what exactly he had done. He had bought a ring. A ring . As much as Lance tried to convince himself that it didn’t matter-Allura came from a completely different planet after all, her culture had to have different traditions in that respect-he couldn’t help the panic brewing inside of him. He paced beside Red, fiddling with the box as he pondered how to proceed.
Could he really just give it to her, and omit the earthly implications?
“Lance?”
He yelped, nearly falling to the ground as he twisted around. When his gaze landed on Allura, he sagged with relief, scowling despite her amusement. “You scared the dickens out of me!” he grumbled.
Allura clapped a hand over her mouth, clearly trying to suppress a giggle. “I apologize,” she said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” Her gaze drifted to his hands, and her brows raised. “What is that you’re holding?”
Lance felt his face grow hot. He dropped his gaze, feeling suddenly shy. “Oh, uh...it’s a present.”
“Oh. For who?”
Instead of answering, Lance jerked his hand out and offered her the box. Allura took it, her eyes bright with curiosity. He swallowed, his chest tight. Nerves spiked his veins and he felt jittery. What if he was wrong, and she hated it? What if she thought it was something it wasn’t?
What if, what if?
He watched, terrified, as Allura opened the box. “I, uh, found that while Coran was looking for that...thing, and I thought you’d like it…” Lance trailed off. Allura’s eyes went wide as she peered inside, an awed look caressing her features.
“Lance...this is beautiful.” She met his gaze, her eyes shining. “How in the stars did you manage to afford this?”
He shrugged, bashful. Allura stared at the box, a mixture of emotions swirling in those starry eyes of hers. For possibly the millionth time, Lance was struck with just how beautiful she was. In the low light, her cheek marks glowed against her russet colored skin. He could see the refractions of the jewels dimpling her cheeks and curved lips, and Lance felt his heart skip a beat.
“I can’t possibly accept this,” Allura said. She cradled the box close, her expression mournful. Almost regretfully, she tried to give it back, but Lance refused, shaking his head wildly.
“No, no, it’s okay! It’s just a ring. I just thought that well, you always liked sparkly things and...it’s nothing, really!”
Allura frowned, but a frantic shout from the middle of camp interrupted them, and the subject dropped. The two of them dashed back to their friends, bayards already in hand. They skidded to a halt in the middle of their camp, both pausing to take in the scene. Coran was splayed out on the ground near some...contraption, looking rather dazed. Pidge and Hunk kneeled on either side of him, muttering to each other. Everyone else looked rather unharmed, just sharing baffled stares.
“You guys okay?” Lance asked. “We heard a yell.”
Pidge huffed, adjusting her glasses. “Yeah, we’re fine. Coran just electrocuted himself a bit, but he’s okay.”
The Altean in question raised his arm to give them all a thumbs up, before sitting up with a groan. Allura released her bayard with a flash and hurried to his side, helping him stand. Lance followed suit, eyeing their project with idle curiosity. “Is that the thing to charge the lions, or whatever?”
“Yeah,” Hunk said, “we almost have it figured out. Almost.”
Lance nodded. He reached forward with his foot and nudged it, ignoring Hunk’s pointed glare. It was a strange looking thing. Wires looped and twisted all around a series of metallic plates, connecting them to some massive chunk of crystal. Lance thought he recognized a bit of solar panel, too, but he wasn’t sure. How exactly this was supposed to work was anyone’s guess. It didn’t particularly matter to him, anyway; that wasn’t his department.
“I’m fine, Allura, really.” Coran stood, looking wobbly. He gently shrugged Allura off and squared his shoulders. “Well, come on, then, let’s give it another go.”
“Actually, we should probably pack it in, for now,” Keith said. He stood from across the campfire, stretching. “We’ve got a lot of space to cover. We should get some rest.”
This was true. By Coran’s and Pidge’s estimates, it would take...a few years to cross the amount of space they needed to cross. Lance didn’t want to think about it. No one did, really. Instead, there was a chorus of murmured agreements as everyone stood and began meandering back to the lions.
Lance’s gaze instinctively sought out Allura’s, and he was met with the swirling galaxies hidden within those iridescent eyes. His heart thudded in his chest. She smiled, and Lance saw the box still cradled in her hands. The sight made him feel warm inside, and he drifted back to Red as though in a dream.
~#~#~#~
Allura hated sitting.
They had done so much sitting since they began their journey to Earth. Sitting, sitting, and more sitting. After all, she couldn’t very well take her attention off her lion. Blue could pilot on auto for awhile, but she preferred to fly with her paladin present and focused. So Allura sat. And sat, and sat, and sat . Her muscles were sore and cramped from sitting for so long, and she was certain she had so many knots and kinks in various places.
She watched stars whiz by and sighed. Romelle was flying with her at the moment, and she and the mice had gone to sleep a few vargas ago. Which left Allura swathed in silence. She drummed her fingers on the controls idly, her gaze meandering about the cockpit. All the various screens and dials and knobs glowed a gentle blue, showcasing Blue’s energy levels, they’re estimated coordinates, speed, among other things. There wasn’t much exciting about the blinking lights, and Allura’s gaze wandered elsewhere.
At the edge of her vision sat a few of her trunks of belongings she’d managed to snag from the castle. A change of clothes, her nightgown, and a few other personal belongings near and dear to her. Atop the top trunk, sat the little velvet box containing the ring Lance had purchased for her. She reached for it, the velvet soft to the touch.
Even in the low light, the ring sparkled. The blue hue, combined with the pink gem, created speckles of purple light dappling the ceiling. She tipped and turned the box, watching how the purple dapples swirled about the cockpit. A smile warmed her lips. Oh, how she loved sparkles. Allura wasn’t quite sure why she loved sparkly things. There was just something so...fascinating in how light refracted just so, creating a dazzling display on both the object and the things around it. She held the box up close, examining the ring nestled inside.
The velvet box was black, with a cushion matching the pink, heart-shaped gemstone that decorated the ring. The ring itself glittered and shimmered, the many little stones helping catch the light and make the golden band seem to glow. In short, the ring was breathtakingly beautiful.
Allura pulled the ring out of the safety of its cushion. The band was slender, much more so than she’d initially thought. It maintained a sense of grace, that way. A thicker band, she supposed, would have been too much.
She contemplated putting it on. Which hand did one wear rings like this? Allura wasn’t sure; rings weren’t a common accessory on Altea. People preferred earrings, for everyday use. For courtship, betrothal necklaces were the norm. Rings, however, were not something Allura remembered seeing much of. A few nobles, perhaps, had donned rings. But they were never quite this sparkly.
The question still remained. Which hand? Allura tilted her head, thinking. She used her right hand the most, so perhaps not that one. Otherwise, she’d risk knocking a gemstone out, and the thought made Allura’s heart squeeze.
Left hand it was, then.
Allura glanced at her hand, and with a shrug, slipped the ring onto the finger next to her pinky. Despite her suit, it fit perfectly, as thought it was meant to sit there. Her smile grew, and she felt content.
“What is that?”
Allura yelped, jumping in her seat. She twisted to see Romelle peering over her shoulder, her gaze latched onto the ring on Allura’s finger. Allura held a hand to her chest, trying to breathe. “I-it’s a ring,” she stammered. Romelle raised a brow, leaning so far over the pilot’s chair that Allura feared she’d tumble to the floor.
“Where did you get it?” Romelle asked. “I didn’t see that when I went through your luggage.”
Her jaw dropped, and Allura gawked at the fair-haired Altean. “You went through my-why would you do that?” she snapped.
Romelle shrugged, bashful. “I was curious.”
A thousand thoughts flew through her mind, many of them unpleasant. Allura forced herself to take a breath and clear her mind, lest she do something regrettable. She supposed she should have figured Romelle would do that; she had an insatiable sense of curiosity, after all. She distinctly remembered Lance whining about Romelle's never ending questions, coupled with her running all about Red's cockpit, pushing buttons and pulling levers. She'd calmed a bit since then, but Romelle's questions were always forthcoming.
“This,” Allura said after a moment, “is a ring. Lance got it for me.”
Romelle’s brows furrowed as she scrutinized the ring, her blonde pigtail tickling Allura’s cheek. “It’s very sparkly,” she commented. Allura smiled.
“It is.”
Romelle turned to her, then, her features warming into a devious grin. “He certainly seems to favor you, y’know.” She draped herself dramatically around the pilot’s chair, her hair spilling onto Allura’s shoulder. “It was all he talked about when I rode with him.”
Allura’s face heated immediately, and she blinked. “What do you mean?”
A peal of laughter rang out through the cockpit. “You, of course!” Romelle snorted, bemused. “When I asked about you, he wouldn’t shut up! He went on, and on, and on. I feel like I know so much about you now.”
Her heart skittered in her chest. The mice’s revelation arose in her mind, and not for the first time she felt warm. “Did he, now?” she said absently.
Romelle bobbed her head. “Mm-hmm! He went on for at least a whole Varga.” She launched into a detailed explanation of everything Lance babbled to her, and Allura listened, a sense of contentment welling up within her.
It was strange. When she first learned of Lance’s affections, she didn’t know how to feel. Everything was a confused mess; she’d been swept off her feet with handsome words and big titles and lucious hair. She thought that perhaps, she’d finally get that romance she once dreamed of, long ago. And yet…
That night, Allura had hardly slept. She dreamed of Lance. She dreamed of his wild, crazy, outlandish flirtations, but this time, she saw the little snippets she’d previously missed. Those long, tender glances from afar, that had her mind spinning. The thought of hurting Lance pained her more than anything. How could she let him down easy, and not break his heart? Allura didn’t know. But then, everything imploded, and Lotor betrayed them all.
And now, they were here, out in the middle of space, missing a castle and heading for Earth. Now, Lotor’s betrayal felt eons away, and Lance and his affections made her feel warm.
~#~#~#~
They didn’t stop for a few quintents. Time was suspended in a blur of galaxies; Allura only knew how long they’d been flying due to the counter on her screen. Between the moment their alarms sounded to get up and when they all shuffled to their bunks for a rest, the time seemed sluggish. Allura couldn’t distinguish between what happened when; they did drills, talked strategies, talked, played stupid road trip games that Allura swore Lance was cheating on. She couldn’t distinguish the passing quintents any more than she could distinguish the differing galaxies. Sure, Coran named them off, and sure, the time changed on her clock, but it felt meaningless to Allura.
So when the lions’ precious energy was low, and Keith finally announced that they should take a short pitstop, relief swathed her like a blanket.
They stopped on a moon to a nearby planet; it was easiest to avoid detection, that way. With the Galran empire splintered into volatile fractions, going to unfamiliar planets in their crippled state was dangerous. What little power their lions could accumulate in their brief stops needed to be saved for their journey, as well as any emergencies. Avoiding conflict as much as possible was key.
“Ugh.” Allura stretched, relishing in the ability to stand on her tippy-toes with her hands outstretched above her. Blue crouched behind her, their bond already thrumming with more energy. The sensation brought a smile to her lips. She continued to stretch with a renewed vigor, feeling content.
“Allura!” Romelle’s chipper tone cut into the silence. “Whatcha doing?”
“Stretching. I feel like a stiff board from sitting so much.”
She hummed, tilting her head. “Yes, it’s rather nice being able to move about more.” Romelle watched Allura for a moment before beginning to copy her movements. “Oh, this is nice!” she chirped. At this, Allura grinned. She lead the way through the next few stretches, her muscles feeling loose and limber. Romelle’s eccentric poses only helped to lighten the mood, making Allura giggle.
They powered on for another few dobashes, before stopping to wander towards the middle of camp.
Typically, whenever they made stops, the five of them would park their lions in a semicircle, allowing for some protection. Coran usually set up a fire in the middle, where Hunk often made a variety of what he coined ‘campfire dinners’. Sometimes Keith and Shiro would recon the area they stopped on, sometimes not. Often, they splintered into groups to spar, as Keith felt it was good to keep in tip top fighting condition, just in case.
Allura plopped down onto a box beside Pidge, breathing a sigh. The fire was already roaring, and Coran and Hunk were tinkering about, prepping some meal or another. Romelle skipped to Coran’s side, no doubt attempting to sneak a bite or two of whatever they were cooking.
“Just another year and three hundred and sixty days,” Pidge muttered. Allura hummed, tucking her chin onto her hands.
“Where’s Lance?”
Pidge shrugged, gesturing listlessly. “With Keith and Shiro. They wanted to train, or something.” She shifted, sighing heavily. “I just want to eat, and sleep.”
Allura couldn’t agree more. She sighed, her eyelids already feeling heavy. “I feel as though I could run a marathon, or sleep for another decapheeb.” It was strange, really, how tired she was, despite sitting so much. Typically, flying was both physically and mentally demanding; performing twists and turns and flips and tearing ships with Blue’s metal jaws took a lot out of her. Not to mention dodging enemy fire and forming Voltron over and over again left her limbs shaking and so exhausted she felt dead on her feet. Allura supposed that this time, it was more that flying through endless space was emotionally taxing, sucking out their energy that way.
“Yeah,” Pidge said, “except I’m really bad at running.” She turned to Allura, mouth open to say more, only to seemingly freeze in place. Allura’s brows furrowed as the silence expanded, ticks giving way into a full dobash. Pidge’s expression morphed from confusion into shock, and she leaned so far forward she nearly fell onto her face. “Allura…” she said, faintly, “what is that?”
Allura frowned. “What is what?”
“That! On your finger!” She pointed, almost frantic. Allura raised a brow and looked at her hands. At first, she thought Pidge had gone mad, but the distinct gleam caught her gaze, and Allura blinked down at her ring.
“Oh, this?” She held up her left hand, wiggling the ring finger. Pidge nodded so hard, her glasses nearly fell off. Allura stifled a laugh and shrugged. “It’s a ring. Lance got it for me.”
Pidge gaped at her. “Lance...got you a ring. That you’re wearing. On that finger.”
She pursed her lips, baffled. “...yes, that’s correct. Is there...something wrong?” Her bafflement grew as Pidge seemed to glitch . She watched the younger girl stare off into space, slack jawed. It was slightly unnerving, and Allura feared she’d done something egregiously wrong. She scooted closer, daring to poke Pidge on the shoulder. “Pidge?”
Life resumed within Pidge, and she shook herself. She snatched Allura’s hand, twisting it this way and that as she inspected the ring. “You do know what this means, right?”
Allura shook her head, utterly confused. “No, I can’t say that I do.”
She looked up, her glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose in a way that Allura would normally find comical. This time, however, it lent to the serious expression etched into her features. “This is an engagement ring. A-kay-a the ring used in marriage proposals.”
Allura blinked. She pried her hand free with delicacy, her gaze locked on the ring. An engagement ring, as Pidge said. An Earthly tradition, no doubt. A slew of emotions reared within her, not one decipherable from the next. “Oh,” she said. Pidge nodded sagely.
“Yeah. By wearing this ring, you’re saying that you and Lance are engaged .”