Chapter Text
When Allura had offered to put up and decorate the mock Christmas tree she’d created for the paladins, she’d expected to end up doing it alone. None of the Paladins would volunteer, she was sure of it, so she’d assumed that there would be solitude. She’d assumed that she’d be able to relax, clear her head, let the events of late finally just flow away in the silence. It would be therapeutic. As princess, she found so few times to clear her head.
It turned out that the decoration would not be one of those times.
Just as she was dragging out the tree, she heard footsteps behind her, and then a voice. “Allura, do you need any help?” The particular voice almost made her faint on the spot. Shiro. One of the main reasons her mind had been so incredibly clouded lately. He took up far more of her mind than he really should have. She constantly thought about him, about the curve of his jaw, the glimmer in his eyes, the way his lips looked (and she would deny it vehemently, calling it unbecoming, but she thought of how they’d feel too).
“Oh! Shiro!” she gasped. Realizing how desperate and infatuated that sounded, she took a couple of deep breaths and gave herself a moment to calm down, hoping and praying that the red shade had faded from her face. “That would be nice, this box is very heavy.” Shiro grabbed the box, his hands brushing Allura’s, and her heart almost started to fibrillate. Butterflies were fluttering through her stomach, and she had so much excess energy that she now felt as if she could yank the mock Christmas tree box all the way to the foyer entirely by herself.
“Would you mind a little bit of help decorating?” he asked, smiling at Allura. After the moment it took for her to regain her powers of speech, she did respond.
“Of course not. It will make it feel more like a family.” Shiro nodded and smiled, looking deep into Allura’s eyes, and Allura tried not to spontaneously combust right at that moment. She tried to distract herself, but the first thing she noticed was Shiro’s muscles flexing as he pulled the tree box into place and that was of absolutely no help. Allura reprimanded herself for this infatuation; she was a rational, independent woman—why should she be so helplessly infatuated? But her feelings certainly left no room for denial, especially when Shiro did something like smile at her. That downward spiral of infatuation was something she was never getting out of, so she might as well just hold on and enjoy the ride.
Shiro opened up the tree box and pulled out the tree. It barely needed any assembly, so it took only about a second. The tree wasn’t a tree, but it was something and it was festive and when it was decorated it seemed like a reasonable place to put presents. Luckily, Allura thought, she could focus on the ornaments while Shiro fiddled around with the tree, and hopefully then it wouldn’t be as apparent that she was completely and utterly infatuated.
Allura grabbed one of the makeshift garlands and started to string it around the tree, gently draping it over the branches. After stepping away, she saw that it looked perfect, and opened up the box of homemade ornaments. She chose one quickly and stood on her tiptoes, moving to place it toward the top of the tree, looking around for the perfect place for it. After finding it, she reached further, placed it there, wobbled slightly, and suddenly Shiro’s arm was around her waist.
“You looked unsteady, princess,” he told her, but Allura barely heard him. His arm was encircling her waist and she was past the point of no return, Allura was turning about twenty different shades of red and pink and no one was stopping her. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweating, and she was looking anything but beautiful and suave like she wanted to. Shiro’s arm around her waist was too much for any woman, no matter how strong, and Allura was certainly no exception to that rule.
“Th…thank you,” Allura breathed, desperately trying and miserably failing to keep the faintness out of her voice. Luckily for her, the paladins aside from Hunk were incredibly oblivious, so Shiro utterly failed to notice her strange reaction and simply continued his previous task. It gave Allura room to step away, breathe, but she’d hardly caught her breath before Shiro had come over to her.
“You look quite nice today, princess,” he remarked casually as he took an armful of ornaments from the box, moving to put them on the tree. Allura stared after him, stunned. She knew it would be proper of her to reply, thank him at least, if not deflect the compliment and turn it back so he was complimented, but she couldn’t even process what had been said. All she could do was replay it in her mind, over and over, still completely stunned by what had happened. You look quite nice today. You look quite nice today. Over and over and over until it droned on in her head and she had to be snapped out of her reverie by Lance’s shout.
“Shiro, Keith is trying to kill me!” he screamed down the hallway. A thump followed, and Shiro whipped around.
“Sorry, princess, it seems like I should deal with this,” he told her, grimacing. Allura nodded, composure returning.
“Of course.” Shiro left, and Allura could only stare after him. You look quite nice today. She picked up a few ornaments and took them to the tree. You look quite nice today. And as she started to hang the ornaments, she slipped back into the tranquil atmosphere she’d been craving before.
However, this time, it seemed as though she couldn’t stop her cheeks from turning pink or her lips from turning up in a giddy, infatuated smile.