“Have you forgiven me yet?” Allura inquired of Keith as he held out his hand in a silent invitation to dance. She put her hand in his and allowed him to lead her unto the dance floor.
“I’m still thinking about it,” Keith admitted, moving her to the rhythm of the music. He met her eyes with a rueful smile. “You really scared us. What if something had happened to you? Do you have any idea what that would have done to me?”
She stiffened in his arms, her nose lifting. “As I’ve told you repeatedly, it’s not in your job description to be my keeper,” she said coolly, moving slightly away from him. “Anything that happened to me would be my responsibility. I can take care of myself – you’ve trained me to be the best, you ought to know that.”
Keith sighed. “You are exasperating, did you know that?” he said, as he moved her into a spin that she reluctantly did. “I shouldn’t even say this, but I… I want you to understand that my misgivings about fielding you had nothing to do with what you can do as a pilot. You’re helluva fighter, Allura. And it was also not about being responsible for you, although I feel that, too,” he explained, his face pinched. This confession was obviously being dragged out of him.
“What was it about then?” Her challenging blue gaze was raised up to his dark ones and she had to bite back a smile at the expression on his face – like someone who had just drunk a tub of vinegar.
“It was about… dammit, Allura, I didn’t want... I thought I had lost you, all right?” he burst out, an expression of despair on his face. "I don't want to feel that way ever again, do you understand me? I didn’t want to say this, but this afternoon, when I thought that you… I know I shouldn’t allow myself to feel this way when I make decisions about you because it has nothing to do with me as your commanding officer but –“
“Keith.” She stopped his tirade by bringing her finger against his lips, taking his clasped hand with hers. She smiled into his eyes, her own sapphire ones glowing at his reluctant admission. It suffused her with a warmth that radiated from her heart to every inch of her being. “For once, stop being so anal and just dance with me.” So saying, she dropped her finger from his lips and lay her cheek against his broad chest as she’d been longing to do. She smiled to herself as she felt him relax against her and urge her just a little bit closer to him.
Allura knew that part of the reason he felt so free to express his feelings was because there was no hawk-eyed Coran or autocratic Nanny looking over their shoulders and watching their behavior, and that they had a long way to go. There were still so many shoulds and should nots on both their sides that they had to leap over...
But as she moved closer into his strong embrace as they moved to the
sweet music, she knew that this was a very promising beginning.
Zachary and Katherine, hand in hand in the sidelines, watched their tall son dance with his golden-haired princess with proud smiles on their faces.
“Who’d have thought our girl-hating ‘little man’ would actually lose his heart to a princess?” Zach murmured, smiling down at Kat as he pressed a kiss on her forehead. “I always thought he’d go for a tomboyish hellion – like his mother.” Then he let out a small chuckle. “Then again, Allura does remind me of you. Especially when she’s being pigheaded.”
Kat elbowed him. “I am not pigheaded!” she exclaimed in counterpoint to Zachary’s laughter. “She loves him, too, you know,” Kat said as she noted Allura’s glowing eyes looking up to Keith’s. “And what’s not to love? Keith has grown up to become such an exceptional man. I’m just sorry that we missed so much of his life as he grew up.”
“I know. But we’ll be here for the rest of it, and that’s what counts.”
“A princess.” Her green gaze clouded worriedly as she looked up at Zach, then back at her son and the beautiful woman he danced with. “Oh, Zach, what if … “
Zach silenced her with well placed a kiss on her lips. “Katherine – stop being so anal, alright? They’ll be fine,” he admonished softly. “You were that way with us all those years – and yet look where we are now. Things have a way of working out for the best.”
Kat sighed then nodded, leaning against her husband contentedly as she continued to watch the younger couple as they made their way around the dance floor. She looked up at her husband with a smile. “Despite everything, Zach, we did good by him, didn’t we?”
Zach took her in his arms and swirled her into the dance, a tender expression in his eyes as he gave his son one last glance. “That we did, my Kat,” he murmured, pressing a kiss into her hair. “That we did.”