Allura, in her robe and nightgown, paced up and down her room, unable to sit still longer than a dobosh or two. There was still so much she didn’t understand about her abilities as a so-called “sacred” Altean, but at least she had help. Still, no one could have prepared her for This.
It had been three quintants now and she hadn’t had a surge since the training deck. She wasn’t even sure if she should count that as a surge, honestly. It hadn’t felt quite the same. And, of course, nothing had been the same afterwards, after Shiro had told her he loved her.
	She had options. She had to remember that. She had a number of options. But there was one that stuck out, that her mind and heart kept returning to.
	I’m trying to save an entire universe here! 
	It felt selfish to be thinking so much about herself when she had larger problems to deal with. But it wasn’t just her, it was also Shiro, the Black Paladin of Voltron. He’d been so helpful, so compassionate, so… so many things, she couldn’t come up with all the adjectives.
	He was in love with me the whole time. Even before I asked him to… help me. She wasn’t good at asking for assistance under normal circumstances, let alone for something like this.
	It was his understanding and helpful nature that she had relied on going into this. That he was a leader, as she was. That he would understand that sometimes a situation required unorthodox solutions. But trying to convince herself that these were the only reasons she’d asked Shiro for his help in this matter had been foolish, had made things more awkward between them, and had likely hurt him. 
	She reminded herself that she could handle this, took a steadying breath, and sent a private request for Shiro to join her in her room. 

	She met Shiro at the door. He smiled as he walked in; he was in his pajamas, as it was nearly bedtime. “Yes, Princess?” he asked as the doors closed behind him.
	She set the privacy lock and returned his smile, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she felt. “First of all, I know I’ve said it before, but thank you for all your help this movement.” She clasped her hands in front of her in an attempt to keep herself (and her voice) steady. He opened his mouth to reply but she pressed on. “I don’t know that I’ll ever have all the words to properly express the depth of my gratitude or how profoundly sorry I am for what I’ve put you through in all of this.”
	“Allura, you didn’t…”
	“I did,” she insisted. “The person you loved came to you and asked you to have cold, impersonal, passionless sex with her because of her own needs. She… I told you to pretend this wasn’t us, demanded that things not be romantic.” She dropped her head, unable to hold his gaze any longer under the weight of her guilt. “That was horrible enough, but you still agreed to it. And then I just muddied things terribly. I confused you, I hurt you… I did use you, even if you consented to it.”
	“You’ve already apologized for all of that,” Shiro told her. “And I accepted your apology.”
	“Looking back over the last movement through the lens of you loving me casts everything in a different light though,” she told him. “You did so much for me, and I owe you all the honesty I’ve been denying you thus far.”
	She risked a look up at him and he was studying her quietly. “Should we be sitting down for this?” he asked.
	“Perhaps?” She turned and almost led him to the bed – the natural place to sit in the room – then thought better of it and went to the bench in front of her vanity. It would be close quarters but they’d both fit. She was feeling a little uncomfor-… warm and it wasn’t like she had to be modest around Shiro of all people, so she pulled her robe off and draped it on the vanity before she sat down. He joined her there and watched her expectantly.
“I know I’ve said some of this before, but it’s all been in the throes of passion, so I want to make sure that things are clear between us.” She faltered a moment, then had to look at her hands to get out what she had to say.
	“I asked you to help me because you’re helpful and understanding, but also because you’ve been such a support for me and because you are…” She swallowed. Why is this so difficult? “Because I was very attracted to you. I knew that much then, but I wasn’t letting myself think of it. I was trying to keep things impersonal because I thought that would make them less awkward and instead it made them more awkward, and…” You’re babbling. Stop that. She cleared her throat.
	“I understand. It was an awkward situation all around,” Shiro told her. “I just would have appreciated honesty from the outset.”
	“I know that now. I’m sorry. But I thought that… that romantic entanglements would be a selfish distraction. We’re meant to be fighting a war, and one that won’t be soon ended. When so many people are suffering, how can I not spend every waking moment trying to help them?”
“Love isn’t always convenient,” he said ruefully. Then he hastened to add, “Not that… I mean, I love you, but you haven’t said…”
She interrupted him. “I do.”
“What was that?” he asked quietly.
	She cleared her throat again and made herself lift her head to look him in the eye. He deserved it. “I do love you.”
	He blinked. “You know you don’t have to say that because you feel guilty or…”
	“No, no, I know that. You deserve the truth, and that’s what it is. The thought of being without you… I don’t know what I’d do, Shiro. And not just because you’re the Black Paladin. I know I would be able to go on, because I have a mission to accomplish, but it would be so much more difficult without you beside me, and I don’t ever want to know what that’s like. 
	“You make me smile, even laugh a little. Just being around you steadies me, helps me focus, and I don’t just mean you helping me burn off quintessence. It’s been true a long time. I think this whole quintessence thing just made me realize how much I really do need you. And, for once, I’m not saying that to mean, well…” She blushed as her eyes darted towards her bed briefly.
	When she looked back to him, he was blushing as well, and smiling such a wide, happy smile that she thought her heart would burst from sheer joy. “You love me,” he repeated, sounding awe-struck.
	She nodded. “I love you, Shiro.”
	“My name is Takashi.” That confused her, but he quickly clarified. “‘Shiro’ is a nickname. My full name is actually Takashi Shirogane.”
	“Oh, I see! Which would you prefer I use?”
	He shrugged. “Shiro’s fine most of the time, but, maybe, when we’re alone, you… you could use ‘Takashi’?” He sounded hesitant, almost shy.
	She smiled reassuringly and leaned in towards him. “Of course, Takashi,” she said, just before she kissed him.
	He wrapped her up in his arms. They were back in the eye of the storm again, but it wasn’t quintessence energy swirling around her now. She was calm and energized at the same time, safe and warm and so happy she wanted to explode. And when he pulled away to gaze into her eyes, she felt the same: no collapsing energies, just a pure contentment and a radiant joy.
	“It might take me a bit to get used to,” she warned him with a smile.
	“I understand.” He brushed his fingers – the metal ones – over her cheek before he combed the hand into her hair and brought her back to his lips once more. And, this time, he was the one to tighten his grip, to deepen the kiss. He pulled her onto his lap, and she could already feel him starting to …react.
	She smiled at him when she had use of her lips again. “You know, I only called you here to give you your answer, to explain myself, to thank you and apologize to you again. But…” She bit her lip and cast another look over at her bed.
	He picked her up as he rose from the vanity’s bench and she gasped before laughing. He carried her to her bed, bending to lay her down carefully atop the covers. She pulled him down with her though, and he gladly joined her, kissing her again.
	Despite the hardening length in his pants, he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. She enjoyed kissing him, taking the time to feel their bodies pressed together and to savor the sensations of being with this wonderful man she’d come to love.
	He kissed along her cheek to one of her ears, and she giggled. “Sh- …Takashi,” she corrected herself. He nipped at an earlobe and she shivered pleasantly. She slid her hands up under his pajama shirt to pet his skin as her breathing hitched. 
	He stopped and she was about to protest but then he sat up and pulled his top off over his head, casting it to the floor. I have absolutely no objections now. She smiled encouragingly at him. The scars still angered her, these reminders of his suffering at the hands of the Galra Empire, but dear gods he was gorgeous. She welcomed him back into her arms for another passionate kiss and let her hands have full rein to explore his exposed chest and back.
	Her hand found a recent set of scabs along one shoulder and she was about to ask what happened when she remembered how tightly she’d clung to him in the shower. She broke away to apologize and he whispered reassurances against her skin before ducking his head to lap at her throat.
	His right hand slid lightly over her body, from her thigh, along her side, up to her chest. She noticed he hesitated there, and she arched her body enough to raise her breast to his palm. “You can touch me anywhere,” she told him, “with any hand.” 
	His hand settled, still a bit uncertainly, and didn’t move.
	“Takashi,” she said, “look at me.”
	He rose his head from her neck to do as she had asked. 
	She smiled. “I love you. I love every part of you.” She caressed his face. “I hate what the Galra did to you, but you are still the man I love.” She pressed both hands to his right hand on her breast. “I love you. I trust you. You are not a weapon. You bring hope to the universe, and to me. And I want you even more now than I did when I first asked you to come here to ‘help’ me.”
	He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again. His fingers caressed her and she writhed to get them to just the right parts of her. His pressing her nightgown against her skin was a nice, but somewhat dull, sensation. She wanted to feel him with no barriers between them. 
	“Help me get this off,” she all but demanded as soon as her mouth was free.
	He instantly pulled his hand away from her breast – so fast she might’ve worried she’d offended him – but then it went to her knee to start sliding her nightgown up along her leg. She smiled at him encouragingly, the soft fabric slipping over her skin.
	He got up so he could use both hands for the task. As he bunched the nightgown up, she reached down to hook her fingers in her panties and slide them towards him. He took over pulling them off and she raised her hips to help him. Once her panties were gone and her nightgown was up to her waist, he offered his hands to her, and she smiled as she took hold and let him pull her so she was sitting up. He met her with another kiss before pulling the nightgown up. She raised her arms as it went over her head. He tossed it aside with his shirt and her underwear on the floor. He kissed her again as he pressed her back down to the bed; she wrapped her arms around him to pull him as close to her as she could.
	His skin against hers was so wonderful, textured, and warm. He began kissing his way down from her mouth, each press of his lips robbing her of more breath. His hand – his left this time – was on her knee and slowly sliding up her thigh again, without the nightgown this time. 
	“I love being able to touch you,” he breathed against her skin.
	“I love you touching me,” she informed him, “and being able to touch you in return.”
	“I still feel a little… unworthy,” he admitted. “Like I shouldn’t be touching you at all.”
	“Because you’re a weapon or because I’m a princess?”
	“Little of both.” Not that it seemed to be stopping him from petting her outer thigh or kissing his way down towards a breast.
	“You’re not a weapon,” she reiterated. She reached out to lift his chin so she could look him in the eye. “And I’m your princess, remember?”
	His smile came back. “My princess.”
	“My paladin. My Takashi.”
	He swooped back up to kiss her hard, and she held his face there between her hands. They were both breathing heavily when they stopped and he resumed kissing his way down her body.
	“If you’re going to react that way every time I say your true name, I may never stop,” she warned him.
	He chuckled. “I don’t know about every time. I mean, I’d hate to be predictable.”
	“I predict I’m going to have a very, very good time tonight.”
	“Okay, I can handle being that kind of predictable.” He lapped at her nipple and she sucked in a breath. “I can’t tell if that’s good or not.”
	“It’s good,” she confirmed for him, and he began experimenting with his tongue and his lips and even his teeth a little. Meanwhile, he was still petting her thigh with his left hand, flesh rough and warm on her skin. 
	He switched breasts and hands, shifting his weight to his left side so the fingertips on his right hand could trace little whorls and spirals on her inner thigh. She giggled when she wasn’t gasping. “Is doodling on my leg one of your fantasies?” she asked in amusement.
	“Maybe,” he commented. “Touching you is definitely one of them.” He slid back up to kiss her cheek and speak quietly against her ear. “Hearing you say my name is another.”
	“Say it or moan it?” she asked slyly.
	“Both,” he admitted immediately. He was back to nibbling on her earlobe and tracing the shell of her ear with his tongue. “I’ve had a lot of sexual fantasies of you, but I’ve had just as many that don’t involve sex at all.” His right hand was gliding softly along her thigh.
	“I’m a bit more interested in the former at the moment,” she told him, “but do fill me in on the rest later.”
	He chuckled and moved down to her neck again as his fingers slid almost hesitantly between her folds. She sucked in a breath. “Why are you teasing me?” she pouted.
	“Teasing you? What makes you say that?”
	“Because you can’t act like you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for down there,” she accused, “especially after that time in the kitchen.”
	He laughed a little before purring at her, “And you tasted wonderful, by the way.”
	“Takashi!” She couldn’t help blushing.
	He resumed kissing, sucking, and biting her neck lightly. Her breathing stuttered. He stopped pretending he didn’t know what he was doing and started to rub gently against her clit with his thumb. She moaned and shifted against his hand, trying to get the warm metal just where she wanted it. And then, still thumbing her most sensitive spot, he slid two fingers into her. She arched a little and hummed her approval.
	He sucked on her skin and chased her pulse with his tongue while he fingered her. She rocked her hips forward. “You like that, hm?” he asked.
	“Gods, yes.”
	He lifted his head so he could look her in the eye. “Should I make you come like this?”
	On one hand, this felt so good she never wanted it to stop. On the other, she knew from experience how his cock would feel inside her and that was light years beyond good… She bit her lip in indecision.
	He groaned. “Don’t do that.”
	“Do what?” she asked in genuine confusion.
	“You look so sexy when you bite your lip like that.”
	She grinned at him. “I’ll remember that.”
	He bent to kiss her, but pulled his hand away as he did so. She whimpered petulantly against his lips. He turned away to look at his right hand, held up for examination. “You are really wet.” 
“Your fault,” she pouted.
He rubbed his thumb against his two forefingers and then looked back to her. “You didn’t answer my question though.”
She tsked. “Why do I have to decide?”
He laughed. “Are you seriously asking me that?!”
She pouted exaggeratedly at him. “I can’t choose. I make decisions all the time. YOU decide.”
“And I don’t make decisions all the time?”
She looped her arms around his neck and tugged him toward her more. “You make wonderful decisions, my paladin.”
“Flatterer,” he accused before kissing her. She deepened the kiss hungrily, and that seemed to make up his mind for him because his hand dipped back between her legs again, thumb once more on her clit, three fingers now inside her aching cunt. She moaned at the back of her throat, but he kept kissing her as his fingers beckoned her climax ever closer. 
He broke away so they could both breathe and she made no attempt to silence her pleasure. “I love seeing you like this for me,” he confessed breathlessly, still stroking inside her. “I… I have needed you to need me, Allura.”
“I do,” she declared, “I do need you... Takashi…”
He kissed her cheek as she came, gushing over his hand, back arching off her bed. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered against her ear, but she couldn’t respond yet, still coming down and regaining the air to speak.
He drew his hand out of her and waited for her to catch her breath. He rained soft kisses on her cheeks and then asked, “Do you have a towel?”
“Hm?” It took her a second to realize why he was asking. “Oh. My private bathroom is through there.” She gestured towards the door and he thanked her as he stood and headed towards it.
She laid there in her bed, basking in the afterglow, until he returned. He stopped at the edge of the bed to strip off his pajama pants before he rejoined her. She eyed his erection and regretfully informed him, “It… may be a bit before I can…”
“That’s fine,” he said immediately. “I’m just enjoying being here with you.” He was petting the skin on her arm. “Here, roll over. Let me help you.”
She snorted. “You’ve already helped me quite a bit.” But she did as he asked, rolling onto her stomach.
He brushed her hair out of his way, pressed a warm kiss between her shoulder blades, and then straddled her back. She was about to ask what he was doing when he started rubbing her shoulders. She groaned happily instead.
“You just came and you’re still tight,” he observed, before adding, “and DON’T say it.”
She was all innocence as she replied, “I was only going to point out that you aren’t inside me.”
“That’s what I was telling you not to say, and you know that.” She squeaked and jumped as one hand went from her shoulder to her ribs to tickle her briefly. “I meant your shoulder muscles. Now behave or I’ll stop.” He resumed massaging her.
“Mmm, fine, but only because this does feel nice.”
“I’m not too heavy, am I?”
“Not at all.” 
“Good.”
“Verrrrry good,” she purred. “Get my lower back.”
“Oh, someone got demanding all of a sudden.” But he obeyed.
“I’m not good at asking.”
“No, you’re not,” he agreed. “But you’ve got to learn that it’s okay to ask for help when you need it.” He stopped massaging to lean down and whisper, “I told you I’m yours for the asking, my princess.”
She shivered pleasantly, despite how warm she was. “I promise I’ll ask for you when I’m ready.”
He kissed her cheek and sat up again to resume kneading the tension from her muscles. At some point, it became less of a massage and more of Shiro – Takashi – just touching her, petting her skin, and occasionally bending to kiss it. She sighed happily and, after several long doboshes of savoring his hands on her, she rolled over onto her back. Well, she started to, and he got the idea and got off her so she could complete the motion.
He grinned at her expectantly; she smiled and pulled him down to her to kiss him. Her mind drifted back to the foolishness of her telling him, at the beginning of all of this, that this wasn’t romantic, that it wasn’t intimate, that it wasn’t about the two of them. It’s always been about you and me and us and this. 
She’d promised she’d ask him, so, regretfully, she ended the kiss. She couldn’t do it without blushing but she did manage to look him in the eye as she asked, “Will you make love to me now, Takashi?”
His whole face lit up and his smile was contagious. “I’d love to, Allura.” He kissed her again briefly before aligning himself with her.
“It’s strange,” she commented as he readied himself (and she played with his hair). “I feel… sort of giddy. Like this is our first time.”
“Well, it kind of is, in a way.” He looked back to her face.
“But, at the same time, I know exactly how good it feels to have you inside me,” she said. She was blushing anyway, so why not see if her embarrassment could be as infectious as his happiness? She slid her hands up over his shoulders. “I can remember so clearly how perfect your cock feels deep within me, and how I’ve never felt that way with anyone else in my life.”
He did blush. “Jeeze, Allura, do you always mix dirty talk with romantic phrasing like that?”
“You’ll have plenty of chances to find out,” she promised.
“I’m glad to hear it.” And that was when he finally pressed into her.
She bit her lip and he bit off an oath. He was going slow, and she closed her eyes to savor every hot, hard inch of him filling her. He didn’t have to adjust; he was familiar with her body by now. She wrapped her legs loosely around his waist.
“You are always so hot,” he gritted out between his teeth. 
“For you, yes.”
He groaned softly. “Not what I meant, but thank you.” He rewarded her with a quick kiss.
“Oh, you mean I’m attractive?” she asked with mock-innocence.
“You’re gorgeous, but that’s also not what I meant.”
She ran her hands down his back and sighed happily as he began slow, steady thrusts. It wasn’t hard to match and meet him, to fall into rhythm with his body. She couldn’t help moaning and, apparently, neither could he.
Experimentally, she deliberately moaned out, “Takashi,” instead of just ecstatic noise.
“FUCK,” he groaned, his next thrust a bit harder than the one before it had been.
She did it again and won the same reaction, though this time it was, “Allura,” instead of the Earth swear. 
“I love hearing you moan my name,” she told him. “And it seems you like hearing me moan yours.”
“YES.”
“I love everything about being with you.” She had to pause occasionally to get through it, but it had to be said. “The sights, sounds, tastes, and even smells of you. But nothing… aah!... nothing is as good as how you feel. Not just your cock, but your hands and your lips and just the feel of your body against mine… oh, Takashi, I could never not want this, not want you…”
“Allura. My princess.” His voice was ragged. “I love you so much. I need you so much.”
“You have me, my paladin, my love, Takashi.”
He reached his right hand back to caress her leg as he pumped into her, deep and hard. “You’re the most amazing… ah, fuck, Allura…”
“Come. Please, I’m so close, I… I want to feel you…” She couldn’t spare air for more words. Stop doing trajectory calculations, dammit.
“Say it. Say it again. Please,” he panted.
She summoned up as much breath as she could and moved her hands to his face. She held his head up and locked gazes with him. “I love you, Takashi.”
And he came with a loud groan. The heat and the sound and the knowledge that it was her love that had finally sent him over the edge tipped her over as well. His hands were tight on her, and she loved it, that feeling of security and desire at the edges of her otherwise pleasure-soaked senses.
She felt him withdraw and roll off her, but she was still getting her breath back. She opened her eyes – not entirely sure when she’d closed them – and rolled her head over to smile at him. “That was wonderful.”
He hummed in agreement. “Best yet.”
“Absolutely.” She stretched and yawned. “But don’t rest on your laurels. There’s always room for improvement, so we should keep practicing.”
He chuckled. “Yes, my princess.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Tomorrow night, then? I think, for now, we could both use the sleep.”
She frowned. “You’re not wrong, but… why not tomorrow morning?” She rolled onto her side to face him fully. “It’s a nice way to wake up, too.”
He blinked. “Allura, I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” 
“Because we’ll be found out if I do!”
“So?”
“So?!” He sat up and she had to do the same. “We will never hear the end of this from Coran and the guys if they catch us together.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Probably, but I rather think it’s inevitable.”
“Well, yes, but we can control the way they find out, which I think would be preferable to…”
“Shiro,” she said, reverting to his nickname as well as her more authoritative tone of voice, “have you forgotten something?”
His brow furrowed. “I guess I have, because I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’ve had sex in the training room showers, in the kitchen, on the bridge. All places with Castle security cams.”
“There are cameras in the showers?”
“They’re set to passive record and I’d have to ask for a specific reference time rather than getting a constant live feed, but yes. My Point is that if the others don’t already know about us, it won’t be hard for them to find out. Besides, I’ve seen the way Keith has been looking at you.”
He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, he knows something’s going on. I don’t think he knows what, exactly, but…”
“So then why not stay the night? Unless you have some other objection?” She smiled hopefully at him. “I want to know what it is to fall asleep in your arms and to wake up next to you. I don’t want to have to hide how much I love you.”
He exhaled in defeat and returned her smile. “I love you, too. And I’d love to stay.”
He started to lay back down until she pointed out that, “Being under the covers is probably a better idea.” 
He laughed at that and got up. He helped her get the rather messy cover off the bed. He dropped it in the laundry as she got a replacement bedspread put on. They returned to bed (under the covers this time!), and she snuggled up against him as he kissed her. 
“Good night, Allura.”
“Good night, Takashi.” She could feel herself drifting off. She was tired, but it wasn’t the bone-weary exhaustion that she’d required to fall asleep during the quintessence surges. She felt happy, safe, and warm. More importantly, she felt like whatever challenges she might face, she would no longer have to face them alone.