Lance/Allura PSL for Kari! ♥

[liongoddess]

It was like floating in space. Allura would know, having been stranded among the stars for a spell.

She placed an affectionate hand on the leg of the Blue Lion, hesitant to leave it unattended while Lance introduced her to the mer-people of this aquatic planet. She knew it would be safe - Hunk and Lance's gallantry ensured a peaceful encounter after all - but the Lions were vital to the success of their mission, both this one and the grander scheme of protecting the universe.

She took a step away, hoisting herself off of the ocean floor and quickly finding buoyancy. Pulling her gaze away from the lion, she twisted her torso in hopes of the rest of her body following suit. Her suit helmet granted her a limited field of view, so she quickly scanned what she could in order to locate its pilot.

"Lance?" She could hear her voice in the helmet's monitoring speakers. She brow furrowed. "Lance, you better not have gone far!"

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[thetailor]

Lance had a feeling that the denizens of the depths of this planet would know he had arrived long before he and Allura managed to swim to their city, which was probably a good thing, since Lance wasn't entirely certain he remembered exactly where the city even was. Hey, they'd only been there once ever, and half the time he'd been under the influence of mind swishing! Submarine geography wasn't really his strong point.

Despite the grim circumstances, he was glad to be back here. It had been kind of exciting to discover a society of merpeople in the first place, but getting to help them escape from the clutches of the Baku Garden Sea Serpent Monster Thing had been awesome. He had wondered, though, how the merfolk were faring now that the garden was gone.

He grinned a little as Allura's voice broke the quiet, and turned to swim back toward her.

"Now why would I just swim away and leave such a lovely lady all alone at the bottom of the ocean?" he asked, one eyebrow arched slyly as he gave her his best debonair smile. A little part of him still hoped one day Allura might play along with this game, but for the most part he was fairly convinced his crush was in vain. Allura was a princess, after all. Not to mention she was about 10,000 years older than him, technically speaking.

But who wouldn't have a crush on someone like Allura? She was confident and beautiful and commanded a room in ways Lance couldn't even pretend to emulate. Sigh, she was so out of his league.

Well, that wasn't what mattered right now. Shiro was still missing, and they weren't giving up until they found him and brought him back to the team.

"C'mon, Princess," he said, waving a hand. "The city is this way. ... I think."

[liongoddess]

Allura pushed an annoyed sigh out through her nose, fogging up the glass of her helmet as she her eyes finally fell on the blue-suited Paladin. It was more a reflexive action than anything, used to rebuffing jovial flirtations, no matter how harmless. When she'd look back on the circumstance later (even less than a varga after), she'd admit to herself that she wasn't actually annoyed with the behavior, just not in the mood.

She did wonder if Lance would ever take his duties seriously, or if being a joker was his lot in life. Moreso, she wondered if Lance ever would take her seriously, or if her interactions with him would always be this song-and-dance of him flattering her, her ignoring him-slash-rebuffing him, let someone else actually handle the matter at hand, repeat.

Swimming toward him and stopping a healthy distance short of him, she gave him a chastising look. "Don't make me regret my decision to bring you down here instead of Hunk, Lance..." Though she knew this was the right choice. After all, Lance was 'the hero' of these people, plus...well, there's the whole equilibrium thing that might be a hurdle for Hunk...

"The beacon signal was logged to have been not far from here." Allura made a point to review the coordinates of the signal the Green Lion had used to locate Lance and Hunk the last time they were stranded here. "We should be noticing some sign of life in a dobash or two, otherwise we're going the wrong way."

[thetailor]

The irritated sigh was familiar by now, and it didn't really hurt his feelings anymore. This game had become comfortable, somehow: he postured, she ignored him, he flirted, she regarded him with measured disdain, rinse, repeat. He didn't begrudge it, didn't fault her for her reactions, but she'd never actually told him in as many words that she absolutely wasn't interested and to knock it off. So, as long as there was still that margin, he figured the flirting was still fair game.

He met her chiding with a reproachful look.

"Aw, come on, don't be like that," he said with exaggerated injury, and then made a face. "Did you really wanna be in Yellow's cockpit when Hunk inevitably lost his lunch on the way here?"

Right, keep it light, don't think too hard, don't let it bother you that she thinks you're just interchangeable with another paladin.

Lance squinted a little in the semidarkness of the deep water, shading his eyes with one hand like it might help him spot the column of light from the beacon, but they were apparently still too far away to see it. His face brightened a bit, though, when he saw movement in the shadows, which sharpened into a familiar shape.

"Plaxum!" he greeted cheerfully, lifting a hand to wave as the mermaid gracefully approached, her dark eyes alight.

"Lance! It is so good to see you!" she said, reaching out and clasping his hands in hers. "Queen Luxia said that your mercat had appeared near the planet, so I quickly volunteered to come and meet you. How have you been?"

Lance could feel his face grow hot at Plaxum's touch, and though he couldn't actually feel if her hands were soft or warm through the gloves of his suit, he imagined that they definitely were.

"I-I'm pretty good!" he said, smiling broadly. "Thanks for coming to meet us--I probably would have gotten lost trying to find the castle myself..." He gave a nervous chuckle and then cleared his throat and glanced at Allura. "Uh, this is my..." Friend? Commanding officer? Quiet love interest who thinks it's all a joke? "This is Allura," he said after a beat of quiet. "She's been training the other paladins and me. She's a princess! So I bet she and Queen Luxia will... probably have like royal stuff to talk about."

Oh, God, why did everything sound infinitely less lame in his head?

"An-anyway, we were hoping to see if you guys and your beacon could help us with something," he said then, and Plaxum tilted her head.

"Of course, Lance, we'll do whatever we can to help you and your princess," she said kindly, and Lance cringed inwardly. Allura was probably going to correct her that she wasn't his princess. Sometimes he really wished he was better at this diplomatic mission stuff. Lance made friends easily, and had plenty of charisma to go around, but he usually fell back on dorky jokes and funny faces to charm people, and that didn't go so well with the whole diplomacy angle.

[liongoddess]

Allura observed the exchange between Lance and Plaxum with mild interest. He hadn't mentioned that his primary contact was female.

She internally grimaced; did it matter? It really didn't. However, she felt awkward intruding in their reunion, but she mentally reminded herself that she was supposed to be here, that she was commanding this mission.

She swam forward, quickly regretting getting closer to the pair. Even through the glass Allura could see the color in Lance's cheeks. She would've groaned if she could--but she kept a professional front, crossing her arms and intruding into their space. It wasn't difficult--Alteans were a sturdier people than these svelte, lithe ocean species.

"Our suits' atmospheric systems are finite, if you could get us to wherever you meet with any emissaries--" Were they the first? Maybe they didn't have a place..."We have some matters of urgency to present to your Queen, as well as an interest in assisting your nation's development where we are able."

She casts Lance a perturbed glance. Focus, Lance. This wasn't meant to be a long stay.

[thetailor]

Lance leaned back a little as Allura pointedly invaded the space between him and Plaxum, and when she spoke sharply, he made a confused face. What was she being so huffy about? Yeah, the suits only had so much oxygen, but it was more than enough to get to the palace even at a leisurely pace.

Plaxum didn't seem bothered by Allura's terseness, and bowed neatly at the waist, giving Allura a smile.

"Of course," she said, making a beckoning gesture toward a pair of large seahorse-like creatures that had followed her. "Come, the palace is not far," she said. "Queen Luxia will be pleased to meet with you."

Lance made a flourished sweep of his arms, indicating for Allura to approach their mounts first, but straightened his back stiffly when she glowered at him. What was she so upset about? He knew it wasn't a social visit, but that didn't mean he was going to just ignore the friends he'd made here. Wasn't he even allowed to say hello before jumping right to business?

As much as he respected Allura, and despite the fact that he was definitely very attracted to her, sometimes he felt like he didn't understand her at all. He knew she was capable of smiling and having fun, knew she was a nice person under her no-nonsense exterior, but he wondered sometimes if she realized just how much those cold looks of hers could sting. Awkwardly clearing his throat, he floated up to the seahorse creature's back and took the reins, glancing at Allura and nodding his head for her to go first, to follow Plaxum, though he only met her eyes for an instant.

"After you, Princess," he said. "I'll bring up the rear. Just hold the reins, these guys know where to go."

[liongoddess]

Allura mounted the sea-creature's back, taking care not to yank the reins and avoided casting Lance another sideways look as they followed Plaxum to the palace.

It had been longer than she'd liked since her last diplomacy mission, and the things she'd been doing instead were nothing short of unpleasant. The battle with Zarkon had been exhausting, and with Shiro gone, she had even less time to perform the duties expected of her. Any rest she tried to catch in their down-time was instead held in the grip of anxiety and worry over their missing comrade.

So it made her more testy than she'd normally like. It wasn't Lance's fault - he was just the one there to receive the brunt of it. She was thankful for his resilience, even if now wasn't the time to convey it.

The palace came into view sooner than she'd expected, and she was surprised to see construction had amassed around the the spire that she assumed was the palace. Even so, the surroundings were lush, and warm luminescence that rose from the site welcomed them as they descended.

Silhouettes cut through the light, meeting them mid-way. Allura shaded her eyes, trying to gain a better view, and saw a graceful mer-person with elaborate head-dress approach, two much bulkier creatures donning weapons at her flank. This must be the queen.

"Welcome back, Interstellar Hero Lance, and well met." Queen Luxia extended her arms in welcome, and her eyes fell on Allura. "And welcome, Princess of Altea, to our humble, yet growing village. Thanks in no small part to your companion."

Queen Luxia couldn't be more doting if she tried, Allura noted. She quickly spoke up before they went off-track, "Queen Luxia, thank you for allowing us to interrupt what is clearly a busy time for your people." She gave a modest smile. "We wished to impart some materials in order to aid any research and additional construction you may be planning."

Allura looked back to Lance, a bright smile now on her face. This was her element; a diplomat, a peace-bringer. As long as she was doing was she was born to do, her spirits would stay high. "They're currently back on the Blue Lion, but--"

"I'm certain we could arrange a few of our advisor's assistants to fetch after them." Queen Luxia offered warmly. "Please, come in, come in--" She gestured the guards to take their steeds, guiding them inside the palace and into the receiving hall.

[thetailor]

Lance often considered his resilience one of his best qualities. Sure, maybe he had a bit of an inferiority complex and enough insecurities to crush a small car, but he rarely let it show, and even more rarely let it interfere with doing what needed to be done. So what if Allura thought he was a doofus? She was out of his league anyway; flirting with her had pretty much always been going out on a limb, so even if it still hurt a little when she inevitably shot him down--be it with words or with sharp looks--it wasn't as if he'd had his hopes up in the first place.

Besides, there were much more important things to worry about than his bruised ego. With Shiro missing, Zarkon was more of a threat than ever, and even though they all knew Keith was second in command, whether it was stated specifically or not, Lance didn't want to be a weak link when the team was weakened already. He was a goofball, sure, he owned that, but he was also a team player, and Lance would sooner have died than let his teammates down.

Okay but 'Interstellar Hero Lance', how cool was that? He glanced at Allura to see if she was impressed, but of course if she was she made no outward show of it. Lance had to admit that the village was looking pretty great, and it was a relief. He had worried that without the garden, the people would be at a loss, since it had become such a big part of their lives, but it was reassuring to see that maybe they were just as resilient as he was.

Allura glanced at him again, this time her face bright with a wide smile, and he couldn't help but give her one in return. She really was every bit the diplomat, and always seemed to shine brightest when she was bringing peace or aid to another society. It was one of her most laudable attributes, Lance thought. Mostly he just liked to see how happy it made her, though.

Before they followed the queen into the palace, they were approached by two other mermaids holding large spiral-shaped shells.

"Oh, these are cool," Lance spoke up, giving Allura a grin. "Watch this."

A bubble was formed around his head as the mermaid lifted the shell, and he pressed his hands through it to remove his helmet.

"Tadah~~" he said, tucking the helmet under his arm. "All the air you'll need, no problemo." He wasn't really sure what the science was, probably something something exchanging oxygen with oxygen from the water somehow or something whatever, maybe Hunk knew? He was good with technical stuff like that. All Lance knew was that it was awesome and super convenient. "You're gonna love the palace, Princess," he said then, swimming up alongside her as they headed into the entrance hall. "The dining hall is super fancy, and there's dancing and everything!"

[liongoddess]

Allura initially met the handmaidens with apprehension, not having been briefed on the items they offered them. She couldn't hide the relief on her face when Lance cut in, demonstrating the shell's oxygen bubble for her in clear view.

She gave the other handmaiden a nod of consent, the bubble circling around her head. She pulled off her helmet and handed it to the handmaiden. "How fascinating...I wonder what led to them developing these breathing apparatuses for other species." Their history was still a mystery to her--but if they were ready and waiting for Lance and Hunk, then these aquatic people must have encountered other species before.

She paused and took in the view of the palace entrance. There weren't any obvious signs of strife, but it seemed that the garden and serpent were more of a subversive threat.

Her observation was cut short by Lance joining at her side. Any tension that had built from the interaction with the advisor girl--Plaxum, wasn't it?--seemed to unravel once her attention fell back on the Paladin. Even if this place was new to her, she wasn't in it alone. Lance was here to serve as a buffer, and even if he didn't realize it, it was more for her sake than for the natives'.

"Dancing? How do they dance if their feet aren't touching anything?" On one hand, it sounded a great deal easier than the ballroom dancing she had to learn as a child, on the other hand, what kind of maneuvers was she expected to pull off in a buoyant state?

[thetailor]

"Well, okay, less our definition of dancing, I guess," Lance admitted. "But there was an octopus who really put on a very convincing dance number." Potential hypnotism notwithstanding.

Lance was mostly unaware of his apparent role as buffer--he knew that this was the princess' first time being here, but he figured she had chosen to bring him along because of what he'd done for these people, certainly not because she needed any reassurance. Even if Allura needed anything like that, why would she ask it from him of all people?

"When Hunk and I were here before, the food was really awesome, but... that was also because it was like evil food from the giant sea serpent that was brainwashing everyone," he said offhandedly, rubbing his chin, "so I can't actually tell you if the food here is good now. You know what I always wanted to know is: how do merpeople drink things? Like... actually drink? Unless the density of the beverage is different than the water around them, I don't see how it's even possible..."

Maybe he should ask.

[liongoddess]

"An octopus...right." Allura regarded Lance with mild bewilderment, but shuffled the confusion aside for now as she redirected her attention to the Queen. "The progress made in re-building your kingdom is quite impressive, Luxia. Especially considering how little time has transpired between now and the last time the Paladins were here."

"Oh, yes!" Queen Luxia brought her hands together in delight. "The beacon was just the start. With the help of our advisor council's experiments and the application of electricity, we can connect with other planets in a matter of time."

Allura's shoulders sagged with a bit of relief, but her voice carried apprehension. "But...not yet, then?"

"Oh, no, no..." Queen Luxia chuckled lightly. "One thing at a time. First we must ensure that our people are fed and cared for before reaching out to other nations."

"I...see." Allura didn't let her smile fall. Her hope in finding a way to locate Shiro here was poorly placed, then. "Well. Anything we can do to help." She looked to Lance, allowing a small flicker of disappointment to show on her face before going back into full-royal mode.

Well, they were also here to help. So they'd partake in their hospitality, see to it that the supplies were transferred over without incident and then...well, come up with a plan B.

[thetailor]

"... I guess you had to be there," Lance admitted. A dancing octopus did sound pretty bizarre out of context.

He could hear the disappointment in Allura's voice when the queen said the beacon hadn't been able to contact other planets yet. She was very good at hiding it--as any good diplomat should be--but he knew her well enough by now to know how to read her voice. Lance might have been a bit obtuse a lot of the time, but he cared deeply for his friends and paid more attention to them than most other things (like school). She glanced at him, and he met her expression with one of sympathy. They were all worried about Shiro, but he knew that Allura's respect for the Black Paladin knew no end. Maybe Allura should have brought Pidge instead; Pidge probably could have tweaked the beacon for their purposes no problem and found Shiro within a matter of hours. He wondered for a moment if the team would have been this adamant about finding him, if he'd been the one to go missing--

Okay, stop. This wasn't time for jealousy, not at all. Get it together, Lance, he told himself, shaking his head. Maybe he wasn't the leader of Team Voltron. Maybe he wasn't even the second choice. But he was still a part of this team, and it didn't work if any of them were missing. Just because he didn't have super amazing technical skills like Pidge didn't mean he couldn't do anything.

"Is there anything we can do to help, Your Majesty?" Lance asked, trying to shake off that cloud of self-pity before it got too big. "I mean, we have the supplies and stuff for you, of course, but since we're here anyway, if we can do something to make things go faster, all you gotta do is ask."