Black lion streaked low across the sky, homing in on Blue lion's radar blip. Keith tried the comm several times, but no one occupied the downed lion or...couldn't respond. His mind was racing faster than the Black was flying. What happened? Was the princess hurt? Who started what? These were just a few of the multitude of questions plaguing his mind. Flying blindly, eyes fixed on the instrument panel, Keith barely avoided a mid-air collision with the occupied pilot in the Aurora 1.

Alexis' mind too, seemed elsewhere than on her flying. Her heart torn by the realization that another had taken up where she'd left off years ago. She screamed in surprise as her reflexes dove her plane downward. Luckily Keith's reflexes pulled his lion upward. After catching up to his beating heart which had nearly stopped, he switched comm frequencies and expertly found the Aurora leader's.

"Alex! You all right?!"

"Depends on where, but physically, yes. I'm fine."

Keith was puzzled by her phrasing, but shrugged it off for the time being.

"Go to your princess, Captain. She and her ship are fine...just go..." she trailed, tears forming in her eyes.
Before Keith could argue otherwise, she initiated her fighter's afterburners and was gone. Keith was extremely bothered by her sudden coldness to him, but kept onward. The princess was his primary concern at the moment.

Allura, busy dusting herself off and "hmphing" to the air, was pacing the ground, trying to calm her riled up self. The victory was there in the fact that she proved her courage and honor, but was still uncertain in regards to one Voltron commander. While she had no true hold on Keith, neither did Alexis. She wasn't exactly sure what had just occurred. Why did she do what she did? Was it jealousy? Competition? Possessiveness? She'd never really experienced such feelings before. Before she could wonder further, the hum of another lion's engines peeked her interest. She looked skyward and saw Black lion on a slow, scan approach to her position, evidently 'gauging the situation.'
"How typical of Keith." she thought as she felt anger well up inside herself. She was utterly confused. One minute she's upset with him, the next fighting FOR him, and now angry at him again. She began to grow angry at herself and cursed herself for being upset, over what--one dashing young pilot who was more dedicated to duty than anything else.

She ignored Black lion's 'perfect' landing and went about the surface scan of her own lion. Keith leaped out of his and was about to run over to her, but hesitated. Something felt wrong in the air. At least she seemed fine.

"Princess, is everything okay?"

Allura stopped her scan and glanced over at him with her piercing, angered blue eyes. It sent shivers down his spine. {"Okay, she's definitely fine."} Keith thought to himself, noting her 'royal attitude' as he termed it.
"Princess, is there any damage to Blue lion?" he asked through the awkward silence and braced for some sort of slam by the fuming ruler.

She wanted to yell, but when she turned to look at him, she noticed those large, dark eyes of his and the expression of a little boy bracing for a reprimand for doing something bad. He looked so adorable like that! She felt like melting. A small grin formed on her face.

Now Keith was completely confused. A smile? Not mad? Happy but mad? What about his question about the lion? It was a simple, neutral business-like question, wasn't it? He wasn't sure about anything. Nervously, he stepped forward, towards her. He locked his eyes with hers, searching for any giveaway to her feelings in those seas of blue.
Her curiousity peaked as she wondered what the heck he was up to. She stood her ground and waited.
He slowly inched ever closer, his eyes fully on hers, intent on trying to reach her soul. What he should've been doing was watching his footing. A large tree root lay directly in his present path. And sure enough, he tripped over it.
Allura reacted quickly. She darted over and used her body to help him regain his balance. Just before they got themselves 'under control,' they backed into the root again and fell over backwards. Keith broke Allura's fall, her face buried in his chest.

"Princess, you okay?" he asked worriedly as he thought he heard her crying. He freed a hand to raise her chin and see her face. She wasn't crying--she was giggling!

"Princess???"

All anger forgotten, she couldn't believe her good fortune. Her giggling subsided and she replaced it with, to Keith anyway, a look of seduction.

"Uh, Princess? You know you can get off me anytime now." he mentioned while trying to repress the grin forming on his own face. "Allura, what the heck is so AMUSING?"

She looked him over with hungry eyes, seemingly seeing through him.
Unsure of her intent and getting nervous by the minute, he began to squirm. He wanted out of this situation and fast. "Allura, please, can you get off me now."

She gave him a devillish smirk and leaned forward.
"And what if I don't want to?" she whispered into his ear.

"Allura, we mustn't...I...mustn't..." he stammered as he tried to free himself, but Allura's weight on his center of gravity, prevented it. He had to resort to his combat training once again. As gently as possible, he flipped her off and she landed with a thud behind him. He then got up and apologized as he walked over to her.
"I'm really sorry about that, but I warned you. I don't like to be pinned. It makes me edgy." he said as he offered her his hand to help her up. She refused it and sat there with her nose high and eyes closed in 'royal pout mode.'
"You have no interest in me do you?! All you want is another duty bound, flight happy pilot like Alexis, don't you!" she spat.

"Allura we've been through this before." he said with a heavy sigh and prepared to lecture her through it for the thousandth time. And every time, the topic came up, it tore his heart to shreds. He despised the reality check it always gave him. She was a princess. He was only a pilot.
She did not, however, provoke the speech this time. She quietly got to her feet on her own, avoided eye contact with him, and went back to scanning her lion for damage. Keith, completley dumbfounded, could only stare.

Keith felt awkward and uncomfortable again. His heart was nearly beating out of his chest for what he was about to do, but he couldn't take it any longer. Suddenly fear of banishment, ethic, protocol, regulations, and right or wrong no longer mattered. He approached her quietly from behind and locked her in a giant hug. "I love you, Allura, princess of Arus. I always have and I always will." he whispered into her ear with so much emotion and sincerity that it left her frozen and speechless. Uncertain of her response, he let go and gave some distance. She turned to face him, locking eyes and searching for the true meaning to what he had said. His words seemed to be genuine. Her heart skipped a beat and she suddenly felt like a giddy little girl, wanting to run and dance about, but she maintained her composure, not moving, not revealing how much the words he had spoken had affected her.

He hesitated for a moment, his expressionless mask trying to fall back into place, but for once, he fought it.
He then took a deep breath.
"Prin...err, Allura...if there's a way...if there's a chance...no matter how slim or off in the distance it may be..." he said slowly as he grabbed her hands in his own and went down onto one knee.
"I know you're a princess and all and I have no planet or status to offer you, but...if there's the remotest chance for us... could you...would you marry me?"

tbc...