#adeerli

Allura arrived at the castle’s kitchen unsure of what to expect. She’d received an invitation delivered by the mice, but there was no indication of who had sent it. Her first thought was Pidge, but no, she was busy spending time with her brother. Considering the location, her second thought was Hunk, but he was busy helping Coran repair some of the communication lines at the helm. Shiro, meanwhile, had requested use of the training room for the whole morning. That only left…

“Princess! You made it!”

Lance’s voice called across the kitchen before Allura had even made it through the door. The mice scrambled around her feet and climbed up onto the counter, already beginning to inspect the ingredients that were laid out. Allura looked first at lance, and then at the array of items he’d gathered.

“…Lance? What’s going on? Do you require my assistance with something?”

“I will need your assistance-” Lance began, grinning and holding up one of the cups, “-drinking the milkshakes that we’re gonna make!”

Allura was ready to turn around and leave immediately, but the sight of one of the mice climbing over the top of the open blender while the others played with the buttons distracted her. She swooped in and plucked the wandering mouse off the top of the blender before the other could find the “on” button and send the blades spinning. “I-I…” she began, re-placing the lid, “…have no interest in milkshakes, thank you. We’ve been through this already, and nothing you’ve said thus far has convinced me-”

“Hear me out this time!” Lance interrupted, scooping up the other three mice and letting them climb onto his shoulder. “The reason I asked you to help me is so that you could see how it’s made. If you don’t want to drink Kaltenecker’s milk, we’ll just have to make it out of something else. And Hunk showed me-”

Lance stopped to pick up the large sack that was sitting beside the counter. It was obviously heavier than he’d expected, the way he struggled and heaved, finally shoving it onto the countertop and stopping to catch his breath.

“-th-this… ugh…”

Allura stepped forward and untied the top of the bag. She peered inside, almost afraid of what she’d find, but her eyes lit up as she caught sight of the familiar contents.

“Talaxian drupe nuts! Where did you get these?”

“They were given to us as a gift when we rescued the Medachi people from the Galra,” Lance replied. “Hunk said that they’re similar to nuts we have back on Earth. When people on Earth can’t drink cow’s milk, they go for a substitute like coconut milk or soy milk, or…” His voice began to trail off, and he shook his head. “Anyway, I thought that if we found another way to make milk, you and Coran could enjoy milkshakes again. Hunk left me with a recipe. How about it? Do you wanna try?”

Allura looked back and forth between the nuts and Lance for a few seconds, not sure what to focus on. “Lance, you… you didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

“What trouble? We already had the nuts on hand. Plus, one of my little sisters was lactose intolerant. I know how tough it is to watch people enjoy things like milkshakes and ice cream while you get left out. I want to do this for you.”

The sincerity of his words took Allura by surprise. She allowed herself to smile, feeling her cheeks heat up a little. “…thank you, Lance. Perhaps I will try this new type of milk. I’m curious to see how you can transform those nuts into a drink, after all.”

Lance broke into a big smile and started rolling up his sleeves. “Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s get started! You measure out two cups of water, and I’ll-”

“Cups?”

“Er… I think that would be about thirty Altean nonons. Just go with that.” Lance waved one hand as he fumbled through the cabinets. “Hunk left some nuts to soak overnight for me, so I’ll get those.”

Allura frowned and looked down at the dry bag of nuts, still having trouble imagining them as a drink. Still, she measured out the correct amount of water and set it aside. Lance returned with a bowl of nuts and started pouring them into the blender. They looked far different from the ones in the bag, having been shelled and soaked long enough that the brown outer film was starting to break away. Lance made a motion to the cup of water, and Allura nodded, pouring it in over the top of the nuts.

“Now we need to blend this together, and-” Lance started, and the mice responded by dashing across the counter to the base of the blender. The big one examined the set of buttons, his eyes lighting up as he saw the big, red one. He punched it and the blender whirred to life- sending water and soggy bits of drupe nuts flying around the kitchen. Allura gasped and Lance let out a shriek before reaching fo the machine, coughing “-t-turn it off, turn it off!”

Another mouse found its way to the buttons and hit the power button again. The noise stopped and the room calmed down enough that they could observe the mess it had made.

The weight of the nuts had kept most of the large parts in the bottom of the blender. However, tiny bits of Talaxian drupe nuts had flown as far as the water had, landing all over the counter, the floor, the wall… and, of course, the two cooks.

All of the mice came forward, bowing apologetically. “They say they’re very sorry,” Allura translated. “They’ll wait for all the instructions next time before pressing any buttons.”

Lance laughed and reached his hand down so that the mice could scurry up his arm. “Don’t worry about it, little buddies. Who among us can resist a big, fancy array of buttons when it’s right in front of us?”

The mice squeaked happily in response, settling on his shoulder. Allura put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile as she watched them, but Lance was perceptive, and she knew she couldn’t keep her expression from him. He looked over at her and his expression changed as though he’d noticed something odd. She removed her hand to ask him what was wrong, but before she could get a word out, he’d stepped closer and reached a hand out toward her.

“Lance?”

“Sorry, you’ve got a little-” Lance began, but cut off as he pulled a little piece of drupe nut out of her hair and held it up for her to see. “-there.”

“Oh! Thank you.” Allura’s smile returned, and she herself noticed how many pieces had lodged themselves in Lance’s hair. Surely she hadn’t gotten off so easily. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, I don’t see anymore. Why?”

“Just because you have so many…” Allura began and let her voice trail off as she decided to return the favor instead. She closed the gap between them and started picking pieces of the chopped nuts out of Lance’s hair one by one. Once finished, she ran her free hand through his hair to make sure there was nothing she’d missed. It was strange; while human hair looked similar to that of Alteans, the texture was completely different. Human hair was so much smoother and softer, the strands flowing individually rather than together. Lance’s hair always shined brighter than the other paladins’, and while Allura chalked it up the genetic variation, a comment from Pidge about Lance’s “beauty routine” made her wonder just how much effort he put into caring for it… Caught up in her thoughts, she forgot about her surroundings until she heard a hoarse squeaking sound and stepped back. “Was that one of the mice?”

Lance’s face had turned a bright shade of red, and he stammered his answer. “Y-yeah, sorry. The mice.”

A couple of the mice snickered to themselves, but if they had any disagreements, they didn’t voice them to Allura.

“H-here. We didn’t lose too many of the nuts, so we can replace the water and start over.” Lance got back to work with the ingredients immediately, not looking at Allura at all. She wondered if maybe she’d offended him by touching his precious hair and began to apologize.

“I’m sorry if I messed up your hair. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble to your, uh, beauty routine.”

“My what?” Lance looked up, the red in his cheeks disappearing. “Who calls it that? Have you been talking to Pidge again? Tell her that my personal hygiene is perfectly normal and that she’s the slob who can’t be bothered to take a shower more than once a week-!” He cut himself off and shook his head. “I mean, don’t worry about it. You didn’t mess up my hair. I was just surprised that you touched me, is all. It was… kinda nice.”

Allura let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. Please do tell me if I overstep my boundaries.”

“With you, Princess? I have no boundaries.” Lance grinned at her and winked, though when she didn’t respond, he blushed again and started to stammer. “Er, I mean… yes, I will. You do the same, okay? And, uh, while I’m working with the blender, why don’t you and the mice go get the cheesecloth that Hunk keeps in the corner cabinet. We’ll use it to strain the mixture once it’s blended.”

At the word “cheese,” the mice perked up and dashed down Lance’s arm and onto the counter. Allura followed them, but she stopped momentarily and turned back to Lance to get one more comment in before he started up the blender.

“Thank you again for all this. It means a lot that you’d go to all this trouble just for me to have milkshakes again.”

“Well, it’s not a milkshake yet. We’ve still got some work to do. But… of course, Princess. You know I’d do anything for you.”

The last part sounded like one of those grandiose promises that he would’ve made in one of his “charming” monologues that so annoyed her. But this time he’d said it so casually and matter-of-factly that… well, Allura couldn’t help but believe him.