AN: This follows after Sell Me Your Nightmares, I'll Trade Them for Dreams, but should be readable as a stand-alone story.

"Um, Princess?"

Lance's voice was unusually diffident. But then, he'd become very cautious around her lately, Allura wasn't sure exactly why. Partially to do with his breakdown a couple of weeks ago, certainly; before then he'd been much more brash, almost crude, and definitely unskilled in his attempts to woo. But even now, Allura wasn't sure how much of that had been an act, covering up the real Lance, whom she was learning was actually rather sweet and insecure.

Certainly he had been genuinely attracted to her, at least in the beginning before he began to see her as an untouchable authority figure. His come-ons had been so absolutely ridiculous, though, that surely even he never expected them to work. The way things were between them now wasn't quite what she wanted, either, but at least it was better than unwanted romantic advances.

She turned to face him with a smile, bringing out the diplomat, as she had chosen to do lately with this half-broken, still healing version of her blue paladin. He didn't know quite how to act with her, and she didn't know quite how to respond, so she smoothed the way with all the social grace she could muster. "Yes, Lance? Can I help you with something?"

He shuffled his feet and looked down at the burden in his hands, cheeks flushing, then looked up at her. "Could I...could I ask a favor?"

Allura glanced at the thing in his hands, unable to contain her curiosity. It was a woven basket, one she recognized as the craftsmanship of a planet they'd liberated recently. Lance had been taken with the market there and had done some bartering, and apparently he'd come away with some items. Allura didn't look long enough to see what was inside the basket, but she had an impression of various tools and small objects, and something colorful.

"Of course, Lance. What would you like me to do?" Allura folded her hands in front of her, still with that diplomatic smile she had learned as an adolescent at her father's side in various council meetings and interplanetary missions. Warm but not too warm, lovely, gracious, giving much but promising nothing.

He fidgeted even harder. "You don't have to say yes. You can tell me to go away if it's too personal, or if you don't, you know, trust me with it, or anything like that, but just... Blue keeps telling me that I should, like, talk about this stuff instead of just brooding on it, and do something about it to somehow, I don't know, make the Castle of Lions feel more like home instead of always just being sad that I don't have my old home anymore, so this... It's kind of silly and stupid, but if you'd be willing to let me, I'd really appreciate it, but you don't have to! You can say no..."

"Lance." Allura couldn't take it anymore. She unfolded her hands, releasing the semi-professional barrier between them, and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the touch, then looked up her, lips pressed together, eyes wide, face red. "What is it? You can ask me anything. I can't guarantee I'll agree to whatever it is you want from me, but I'll listen to anything you ask of me."

He stared at her for a moment, his breath caught in his throat. He raised the basket in his hands as if that would explain his intent. "Would you...would you let me braid your hair?"

She raised her eyebrows, then looked into the basket more carefully than before. There were various hair-tending implements inside, some she recognized as Altean and some she did not, as well as a few ties and some spools of colorful thread or string, and a few other things she couldn't guess the use of. "Ah. Have you been gathering these supplies for a while?"

He nodded. "Um. Yeah. A little. Coran showed me where the old storage rooms are, and I've been going through them, and at the market I saw the..." He gestured helplessly down at the basket. She had no idea which item or items he was referring to. "Anyway. Um. Could I? I mean. I don't know if Alteans even like braids or, if you have any preference, or... I've only ever seen you with two hairstyles, that up-do, and the down-do, and uh. They're both really pretty, of course! They look great on you, you always look great, but if you'd, you know. If you'd trust me with something like that, just for a little while, I could maybe...try?"

She blinked at him. Why was he so nervous about such a simple request? His anxiety seemed far greater than the situation warranted.

He opened his mouth, probably to protest once more that she could refuse, but Allura smiled and squeezed his shoulder, and he stopped. "Of course, Lance, if it would mean that much to you. I don't mind. Could I ask why this is so important, though?"

Lance started to speak, then paused. "Yeah, I, I'd like to tell you, but... Could I do it while I work on your hair?"

"Certainly. Would you like to go to the lounge?"

He nodded, relieved, and she led the way. The blanket fort had finally been dismantled several days ago (though a new, semi-permanent one had been constructed in Shiro's room where his bed used to be), so the sofas were free. No one was there now, the group having broken up after the usual post-dinner socializing. Allura had been on her way to the control deck to analyze data when Lance caught her. It wouldn't hurt her to take an hour off from her constant fretting, truly.

The lounge still had a sizable number of pillows and blankets that had originally been taken from some old storage rooms and never returned there. Now, Lance hustled ahead of Allura and set his basket down on a sofa, then arranged something like a nest on the floor in front of his chosen spot, sturdy pillows forming a backrest against the base of the sofa. He smiled nervously at Allura and gestured at his handiwork. "If you, uh, don't mind. You could sit here, and I'll sit behind you?"

Allura nodded. She reached up to undo her few hair ties as she settled herself in the designated spot. Lance sat cross-legged on the sofa behind and above her, huffing out a sound of satisfaction as he watched her hair expand without the ties. Allura tried to relax, waiting for his hands to reach into her hair, but he seemed to be holding off for a moment.

"I'm gonna start by brushing it out, okay?"

"Certainly." Allura leaned back into the pillow, feeling the warmth of his knees against her shoulders. Despite herself, she did feel a touch of nervousness at the idea of someone else handling her hair. It had been a long, long time since she'd had an attendant or a hairdresser. Even as a child, she hadn't liked submitting to any kind of extensive grooming. As soon as she was old enough, she preferred to do it herself, with a minimum amount of fuss.

Lance started hesitantly, just hefting the weight of her hair in his hands, lifting it to make sure it wasn't caught behind her shoulders. "Wow," he said softly. "It always looked super, super soft and poofy, but I had no idea..."

Allura smiled. "I believe it's a rather average texture, for Altean hair."

"Mm, 'kay. This is definitely finer than most human hair, but then, my sister Rosa had super-fine hair as a baby, too. This is kinda like that, but, like, way more of it." Lance seemed to relax when he spoke about his family. He almost always did. Allura smiled and listened.

She felt the pressure against her scalp as he began with the brush. He was gentle but firm, and it didn't hurt at all. Allura's shoulders loosened, and she nestled further against the pillow at her back.

"So, um. Is that okay? I haven't brushed anyone's hair for a while..."

"It's fine, Lance. Keep going."

"Okay. So. Yeah. I'll tell you why I wanted to braid your hair, then." Lance drew a deep breath, then kept going. "I mentioned my sister Mariposa."

"I remember. She's one of your older siblings who stopped those cruel children from tormenting you." Allura's hand clenched into a fist at memory. It still disturbed her deeply to picture a small Lance being treated the way he had been treated as a child. Even if it had only been for a few weeks, and his big brothers and sisters had put an end to it, it still shouldn't have happened at all.

Lance hummed. "Yep, that's her. Well, Mariposa got married a while ago. About a month, month and a half. I don't know what Altean weddings are like, or even if marriage is a thing in your culture, but where I come from, it's a really big deal."

"The joining of two lives for the purpose of declaring love publicly and raising future children is, ahem, a big deal on Altea, yes. I imagine the ceremony might be a bit different, though."

"Probably." Lance sighed. "Part of the ceremony in my culture is having attendants for the, you know, the folks getting hitched. For a bride, they're called bridesmaids. There's a lot of fuss about having pretty dresses and flowers and makeup and...and nice hair-dos."

Allura smiled, not a little sadly. She was beginning to understand. "Were you going to have a role that day? For the very important ceremony for your sister?"

"Yeah." Lance's voice was sad, but not overly so. He was a bit distracted. "I was gonna help with the bridesmaids' hair. There's this thing I've gotten good at..."

Lance had finished brushing out her hair and was now working with a small section on the right side of her head, above her ear. He was holding her hair very gently in both hands, parting it into sections, then stopping and starting over. He seemed to be very particular about the process.

"You would braid your sisters' hair?" Allura asked. "All of them?"

Lance chuckled. He finally seemed satisfied with his partitioning. Allura felt a tug on her scalp as he pulled the hair tight and started to twine the sections in and out. Even without being able to see it, she could tell that this was a very small, fine braid. "Rosa and Sophia liked it the best. They're the littlest girls in my family, and they really love being pretty, like Mariposa. Mariposa is the prettiest. Well, all of my sisters are pretty. Beautiful. But in different ways."

"Tell me about them."

"Okay." Lance finished the tiny braid and rummaged about in his basket, then tied it off. He began to section off another portion of hair. "Right, so, Laura and Mariposa are the oldest. They're a couple years apart, and they get along great, but man, they are very different from each other. Mariposa has always loved makeup and clothes and doing her hair in different styles and trying things to find out what looks the best. Laura is... Laura is a nerd, okay. And we all love her just the way she is, but, yeah. She does not care about her looks. She likes to play piano and read and play roleplaying games with her nerd friends, and that's about it. Mariposa was always trying to get her to go shopping and try on clothes, and she kept pestering her to let her give her a makeover, and Laura was just. No. All the time. Very different girls. But they're both super strong and can punch really hard."

Allura laughed softly, listening to the love and amusement in Lance's voice. He was relaxing more and more as he talked, and so was she. "Did you ever braid Laura's hair?"

"Oh, sure. When we were having sibling movie nights in the den, right, I would just go from one sister to the other. Mariposa was always...um. Very particular about her hair. I had to swear not to do anything that couldn't be undone in an instant if she didn't like it. And I thought you might be the same way, but you're very chill about your hair, turns out. Laura was, too. She'd let me do whatever. I think she liked having her hair played with, just wasn't comfortable with Mariposa messing with her look. Ninety percent of the time Laura just puts her hair in a ponytail or tied it in a knot at the back of her neck, so braids were kind of a special occasion for her, I guess. She didn't want to take the time to do them herself, but she liked it when I did it."

Allura could feel several small braids now on the right side of her head. Lance paused for a moment to inspect his work, then rummaged in the basket again. He lifted all of the braids together and started weaving them into her loose hair with something from the basket. His movements were becoming more confident as he continued to do work, and his voice was strong and steady, too. He sounded almost like his old self, but warmer and more gentle. Allura liked this side of him a great deal.

"Stacy is the next girl, four years younger than me. Last time I was home she was in that awkward stage, I don't know if Alteans experience it, but yeah. We call it junior high, and it's horrible. Just the worst. Every human I've ever talked to about it says that junior high was the worst time in their lives. Stacy's a little, you know, what they call chubby. In a really cute and pretty way, but she felt awkward about it. So when I braided her hair, I always made sure to tell her how nice she looked and how I was just adding decoration to something that was already fantastically beautiful." Lance sighed. "Her hair is this really soft, shiny blond color, more yellow than yours, but... I loved braiding it. I hope she remembers what I said."

Allura smiled sadly. She could hear the longing in his voice. How very much he wanted to go home, to see Stacy again and make sure she knew that she was beautiful. "I'm sure she remembers," she told him solemnly. "No one could forget something like that. Such words, such kindnesses... They echo."

"I hope so." Lance was working on the left side now. He seemed too busy to let himself dwell on sad thoughts. "So yeah, the last two, that's Sophia and Rosa. They're only about a year apart, the closest in age besides me and Jordan. Don't know how many times they've been mistaken for twins, even though they don't look that much alike. And they are just, like, totally in love with Mariposa. They want to be her when they grow up in the worst way. Not that I blame them. Everyone's a little in love with Mariposa. I'm a little bit in love with Mariposa. If you met her, you would be too."

Allura chuckled. "Lance, did you flirt with your sisters?" Somehow she wasn't surprised.

"A little? All in good fun. I told them they were beautiful and that if anyone hurt them they should tell me so I could punch them, and also if they couldn't find anyone to marry they should totally ask me because I would treat them right. Is that flirting?"

"Yes, Lance. I believe that counts as flirting."

"Awkward." Lance's voice was light-hearted and unbothered. "But same offer goes for you, by the way. If anyone hurts you, I'll punch them. And if you end up lonely, I'll totally marry you. In a completely platonic and respectful way, of course, same as I would for my sisters back home."

Allura grinned. She felt completely relaxed now. "Tell me more about Rosa and Sophia."

"Right, yeah. Little Mariposa clones, or they wanted to be. Lucky for Mariposa, I guess. She finally got sisters who really, really want to go shopping with her. Like, all the time. So yeah, they love having their hair braided. Whenever I got to go home, they would grab me at the door and drag me off to do their hair as soon as they could."

Lance laughed, bright and happy with the memories. "Didn't matter how tired I was or how I told them my fingers hurt and I just wanted to rest. Little monsters, they were. And they were rambunctious little tots, too, so the braids never lasted long. I had to do them a lot. So yeah. I got good at it."

"You could have refused," Allura said. It was silly, but she really didn't like the thought of Lance being in pain, even with something as minor as his fingers aching from doing his little sisters' hair.

"I could have, I guess." Lance chuckled softly. "I tried. They always talked me into it, though. Really persuasive little goobers. You would like them. Man, if we could bottle the force of their personalities and weaponize it against the Galra, the war would be over tomorrow."

Allura laughed with him.

Lance finished up with the left side of her head and made a triumphant little noise. "You wanna see?"

"Yes, please." She turned sideways in her nest to look at him. He reached into his basket and came up with a mirror, then angled it so she could see what he'd done. She turned her head and looked out of the corner of her eye into the mirror.

Three or four tiny braids above her ear were woven together and into her loose hair in an intricate and beautiful arrangement, shot through with pieces of blue and pink...string? Allura raised her eyebrow and pointed at them with one finger, and Lance shrugged. "That's what I found at the market. It's almost exactly the thickness of embroidery floss, which is one thing I couldn't find on the ship. Guess maybe Altea didn't have a tradition of embroidery? Or maybe I haven't found the right storage room yet. Anyway, I mostly bought it for making friendship bracelets, but I hope you like the colors in your hair, too."

He shifted nervously, and Allura smiled. "It's lovely, Lance. You do very fine work. All of the braids are perfectly even, and the style feels very secure. I can tell you're an expert at this."

He blushed deeply and handed her the mirror so she could inspect the other side of her head, as well. It was perfectly symmetrical, as far as she could tell. "I...I'm glad you like it. Or...do you? I can take it out, if you don't..."

"I like it." Allura gave the mirror back and stood up, turning to give him a proper smile. "It's beautiful. I admit I don't often take the time to dress my hair properly. If we're ever required to attend a diplomatic function where more than practicalities are called for, can I rely on you again?"

Lance beamed, clear and unabashed. "Oh, yeah, absolutely. You...you really like it that much?"

"I do." Allura took a step back, then bowed to him deeply at the waist, the way she'd seen Shiro do when he was formally greeting a planetary leader. It was a human gesture rather than Altean, so perhaps it would make more sense to Lance. She straightened, continuing to smile. "My compliments to the artist."

To her astonishment and delight, Lance giggled, raising his hands to cover his blushing cheeks. "Oh, man, you don't have to go that far." He lowered his hands, still beaming. "But maybe you could convince Pidge to let me try it on her hair? I swear she hisses at me whenever I even suggest it. Show her I wasn't joking? Hunk will let me braid his hair anyway, I'll do his later, but Pidge is a challenge."

"Of course. I'll show her your handiwork. Have you thought about asking Keith?"

Lance paused, head tilting. "Hmm. A mullet is kinda short in the front, so I didn't think about him, but I guess I could braid the back. It could only be an improvement." He sat straight and nodded decisively. "I'll ask him. Keith does basically anything I want him to right now. That'll probably change eventually, so I should take advantage while I can."

Allura laughed. "When Shiro and Coran see how lovely my hair is, they'll be sorry that theirs is too short."

Lance grinned. He popped to his feet with the basket in his hands. "I'm gonna go find Hunk now."

They exited the lounge together. In the hallway, Lance turned toward her, his feet shuffling nervously. "Were you...were you serious about letting me do this again?"

She smiled as steadily and reassuringly as she could. "Absolutely. Whenever you like. Whether you'd like to braid my hair, or just talk about your siblings, or both. I'll be happy to trust myself to your hands again. But it's not me doing you a favor, Lance. You're doing one for me."

Lance's smile was a brilliant thing. "Awesome. Thanks!" He turned on his heel and dashed off, and Allura watched him go, smiling.

Lance was still rediscovering who he was, and the rest of them were coming right along with him for the journey. Allura felt privileged that she'd been able to join him for this particular portion of it. This Lance, the boy who braided hair with such gentle ease and talked about his siblings with boundless joy...he was an absolute darling, and she truly was looking forward to spending more time with him.

She turned and moved toward her original destination, the control deck. "Thank you, blue lion," she murmured, knowing full well that the lion would not be able to hear her from so far away. "I had my doubts, but it turns out that you knew better than I who the new paladins should be. Your pilot is a wonder. You chose exceedingly well."

And surely it was her imagination, but she thought she heard Blue's low growl of pleasure and approval from decks away.

AN: If the title seems too obtuse, I apologize. It's because Allura is the head of the Voltron team as much as Shiro is the head of the Voltron itself, while I see Lance as sort of the heart (when he suffers, they all suffer). And in this story, it's his hand that connects them.