Written for Pidge Ship Week, Day 6: Intimacy.

Keith is inexplicably, possibly temporarily, in a more Galra-like shape (complete with claws, tail, and purple fluff) in this story. How it happened is outside the scope of this, which already grew longer than intended.

Also . . . has seriously no one else written this 'ship?

"Ugh." Pidge flopped over on her back, arms splaying wide. "How do you still have energy to do that?" she asked, tipping her head backwards off the edge of the bed. It hadn't been dangerous, exactly, but hauling things hurriedly out of the Galra base they'd cleared out today had been . . . exhausting.

Keith tipped his head, one ear angling towards her. "This isn't exactly strenuous." he pointed out, lips curling, and let Allura's hair slide through his fingers, his claws dividing the strands easily, before turning back to her and bringing the brush up again. "Also I think I spend a little more time running around and lifting things than you do generally. I don't feel too bad."

"Mm." Allura agreed, bowing her head, and Keith hissed softly and tugged at the lock of hair her movement had almost pulled free of his light hold. She laughed and resettled herself neatly in the low-backed chair, tipping her head towards him. "I am tired, but not too badly myself either."

She lifted her chin in what might have been an imperious-looking gesture if her eyes hadn't been half-closed with pleasure and her back curved in a relaxed, almost languid pose. Keith combed his fingers through the hair over her temple, dragging the brush down the length of Allura's hair, smoothing the cloud it fluffed into naturally. Pidge smiled, watching them.

Keith looked more relaxed now too. He usually did after they were back on the Castle together, and things were quiet, and more quickly if he was allowed time to fuss over Pidge or Allura - though it wasn't usually so obvious just from watching him as it had become in the past few weeks. Pidge was getting used to reading the slant of his ears and the curl of his tail, the way his fur bristled or poofed sometimes. A part of her missed the way he had been before, but if they couldn't figure out - couldn't undo - this transformation, then as long as he was content with himself. . .

Keith put the brush down finally - Pidge suspected Allura's hair had been free of tangles quite some time ago, if there had even been many to begin with; Pidge was fairly convinced her hair was magical - and ran his fingers through the fluffy mass, pulling it all back, save for the pair of curls framing Allura's face. She hummed softly, and Keith hummed back, lower . . . almost a purr, as he began to twine her hair into a thick, four-strand braid.

When he tied off the end, he let it go with a light toss and rose, heading towards the bed. Pidge grinned, stretching out a hand to him. Keith clasped it and slid down beside her, stretching out with a low moan. Pidge sat up, stifling a groan at the pull of tired muscles, and rolled over onto Keith.

He let out a huff as Pidge's weight came to rest on him but didn't protest, and Pidge folded her arms across his chest, leaning on them. Keith made a face at her, making no move to do anything else, and it faded into a slight smile as Pidge wriggled, getting comfortable on top of him.

Allura swept her hand up Pidge's back, startling her, then nuzzled a kiss into the crook of her neck. Pidge laughed, tipping her head and catching Allura's gaze out of the corner of her eye. Allura leaned closer, stealing a kiss and then pulling Pidge off Keith and into her arms. They overbalanced, and Pidge laughed as they toppled down onto the bed, and nearly continuing until they slid straight off into the floor. Allura caught the raised edge of the bed's frame with one hand, laughing, and shoved against it to push them back towards the centre of the bed.

Pidge kissed her, wrapping one of the springy curls framing her lover's face around her fingers, fingertips brushing Allura's cheek. She smiled almost against Pidge's mouth, then kissed her again, humming softly.

Pidge paused in the doorway for a moment, then proceeded inside and set down the wiped shell of a drone she'd picked up yesterday in the corner of the bedroom where 'Pidge's tech stuff' accumulated. She looked at Allura - what she could see of Allura, sticking out of a cupboard - closet? - she hadn't actually known was there.

"What are you even doing?" Pidge asked, and Allura jumped, yelped, and there was a thump and a clattering sound. Pidge winced. Something rolled down her back and bounced onto the floor.

"Oh! Pidge! One moment, darling!" Allura called, slightly muffled, and raised one hand above her head. Pidge could really only see her clearly from the hips down, then parts of her hair and back, and one shoulder. She extricated herself from the closet after a few more moments - looking slightly rumpled - and smiled brightly at Pidge. "Yes, sorry." She smoothed a hand over her skirt. "I was just looking for this."

Pidge cocked her head, coming a little closer and looking at the bristle brush in Allura's hand. "Why for that?" she asked. The thick bundles of bristles were rather different from the pin style bristles on Allura's usual brush. In fact it looked similar to the boar bristle brush Pidge's mother had bought for her once, which had been awful. She shuddered, remembering the nasty tangles and the static it had left her with. "Doesn't that kind just make your hair frizz and tangle?"

"Ah, mine . . . yes, it can." Allura said wryly, wrinkling her nose. "I imagine it would not suit your hair, either." Pidge shook her head emphatically. "However, for very short and thick hair. . ."

Pidge frowned slightly, confused.

"One might say, fur." Allura added with an almost sly smile - she wasn't very good at sly, though it was amusing on her face - and then Pidge realised what she was getting at and let out a soft oh.

"Keith doesn't really need brushing, though, does he?" Pidge asked, humming thoughtfully. He hadn't seemed to, although he was awfully fluffy and rumpled after a bath and it was kind of ridiculous - and cute, Pidge thought, weirdly so.

"Need perhaps not," Allura said, tapping one fingertip against the brush, "but he might enjoy it. If you and I were to brush him."

Pidge nodded, but tipped her head to one side, thinking about Keith - and his soft, thick fur. "Like petting a," she paused, "well, pet?" she asked as Allura crossed the room towards her.

"Ah," Allura frowned at her, "perhaps more like a cross between having one's hair brushed," she ran her fingers affectionately through Pidge's hair, "and a massage. Keith is not a common animal, pet or no. It had not occurred to me to make such a connection. Keith is Keith." She met Pidge's eyes, still frowning.

"Uh." Pidge cleared her throat uncomfortably. "The only things with fur on Earth are . . . common animals. Nothing sentient. Of course Keith is still Keith, no matter what he looks like - but until we came out here, there was nothing sentient that had- that looked- You know?" she asked helplessly.

"I admit that had not occurred to me." Allura sighed, twisting the handle of the brush between her fingers. "I had already suspected Keith might be somewhat . . . difficult to convince," she looked at the brush, "but I had not considered the . . . cultural differences between the two of you and myself might mean it shall be even more so than I anticipated."

"Well. . ." Pidge wavered. "Keith might not have the same reactions I do to things," wasn't that the truth, she thought, "and I mean," she paused, "it's not that it's a bad thing. Petting. If you think about it." She shrugged apologetically, and Allura favoured her with a gentle smile. "If he'll let you play with his hair, he'll probably let you, uh, brush him." Pidge said awkwardly. "At least, now he's over that. . ." She waved a hand, thinking of the way Keith had tried to pull away from them - from everyone, but especially Pidge and Allura, from the bed they all shared - when he'd first . . . transformed.

". . .yes." Allura said thoughtfully. "He can quite difficult about accepting affection solely offered to him." Pidge snorted. "That was, indeed, part of the reason I had thought this might. . ." She met Pidge's eyes hopefully.

Pidge nodded understanding. "Hey, sounds good to me. It's at least worth a shot." she said easily. "And you know, it's not like I object to the idea of, uh, brushing, or doing something for Keith. I just wouldn't have thought-" Pidge stopped herself. "Of it." she added quickly.

Allura relaxed a little and Pidge grinned at her. "Hey," Pidge tapped her arm, then gestured back to the closet, "why didn't I even know there was a door there?" she asked.

Allura blinked, then laughed. "I did not realise you did not know. There are several storage spaces around the room, as you do know."

"Maybe you should have showed us all of them when we moved in." Pidge teased wryly, quietly grateful that most of the doors on the Castle were slightly more obvious. She thought. Surely there weren't many more seemingly-invisible doors. ". . .are there invisible cupboards in the bunks you put us in when we first got here?"

Allura nearly stumbled. "You don't know?" she asked, looking shocked.

Pidge rubbed her face with one hand. "I can't speak for the others," though she probably could; honestly, if Pidge hadn't found them, the chances that any of the others had were very slim, "but I didn't exactly go looking in the seamless walls for invisible doors, Snow White." she said wryly.

"Oh- Oh dear." Allura said, looking a little concerned. "Yes, there are . . . closets, in each, and a desk and study area that folds out from a similar 'door', aside from the door to the small washroom. Not as luxurious as the shared ones, of course, but. . ."

Pidge just stared at her. "You- You should maybe have told us about those. Should. Still. The others, I mean, the ones who didn't move into royal quarters." she said lightly. "And you should show me all the doors in here. Right now. Please." She grinned with anticipation. "Is there a way to find them if you don't know where they are? Are they all easy to open or are there passcodes or locks?"

Allura laughed, putting the brush down on the bed and moving towards one wall, and Pidge trailed after her, continuing to pelt her with questions about the way the hidden doors worked.

Pidge snuggled into Allura's arms, coiling a lock of silky around her fingers. Allura giggled as it pulled slightly, her own fingertips trailing up and down Pidge's belly and chest. She hummed, tipping her head back onto her lover's slender shoulder.

"Are you falling asleep?" Allura asked, and Pidge laughed, opening her eyes.

"No, just thinking out a problem I came across in my project today." Pidge said, grinning. "It was a pretty quiet day for me, except for that glitch. It's kind of frustrating. I'm not too tired yet though."

Allura made a soft sound of acknowledgement.

"What's up?" Pidge asked lazily, shifting and sliding her head sideways off Allura's shoulder to look up at her.

Allura smiled and tapped her forehead lightly with two fingers, and Pidge wrinkled her nose at her lover. "I was considering whether this evening might be a good time to broach the idea of, ah." She gestured, and Pidge leaned up enough to follow the movement, finding Allura looking at the thickly-bristled brush now lying out on the sideboard.

"Sure. Although I think his day was a little more stressful than mine." Pidge said thoughtfully.

"Yes, the delegation was rather tiresome." Allura admitted with a sigh. Keith and Hunk had gone down with Allura to the planet they were currently lingering near to meet with some of their governing body. Or Allura had been meeting with them; Pidge still wasn't sure if the others had been intended to be more a demonstration - look! Paladins of Voltron! - or bodyguards or actually expected to talk with the politicians.

"If you're saying so," Pidge observed, "it must have been-"

The door opened and Keith stepped in, glancing around the room and then smiling at them. Pidge grinned back, stayed where she was for a moment, then leaned up out of Allura's arms, pushing her lover's hair away from where it had wrapped around her arm while they were lying together.

"Hey. Long day?" Pidge asked, as Allura slid gracefully past her and rose.

Keith shrugged, taking off his jacket and, after a pause, his belt and the knife that was bound to it. He left them both where he could get to them easily on his way to the door if necessary, but it had been hard enough coaxing him to stop trying to wear the knife to bed, or keep it in bed. "Political things. Allura's thing, not mine. A bunch of people who have no idea what it means to be fighting a war and not just hiding." he said dismissively.

"That sums it up nicely." Allura said with a sigh. "Among other issues. Shiro might have been helpful in this case, but I. . ."

Well, he might have been the best at the particular kind of persuasive speech best suited to those with that view, but none of them wanted to press Shiro too hard, right now. He was still . . . fragile, after his last encounter with the Galra - the Druids. He could still fly, as in synch with Black as ever, and with Keith as his back-up, he could lead Voltron easily, but not one of them was willing to push him into any uncertain situations.

"Yeah. Well, sucks to be you," Pidge said brightly, deflecting that potentially distressing topic, "I spent all day arguing with circuits in my lab."

"The very idea fills me with terror." Keith shot back dryly, and Pidge made a shocked face at him. Keith laughed, and Pidge let the expression drop, grinning.

"There is something I wished to ask you, Keith." Allura said, more seriously, and then both looked at her. Keith nodded, raising his eyebrows. "Will you let me - let us - try something with you, dearest?" Allura asked, and Keith eyed her, and then Pidge, with an almost wary look.

"That's worryingly nonspecific." Keith observed, though a quick glance at his lazily waving tail backed up the softness of his expression - he might be hesitant but he was still relaxed and easy, no matter what he thought Allura might be suggesting. Pidge knew it was only because he trusted them so much. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing except take off your shirt - and maybe the rest of your clothes," Pidge said, contemplating the logistics, "and come to the bed and let us do something to you."

"That sounds both also pretty nonspecific and like something I do frequently." Keith said with a wry twist of his lips, narrowing his eyes slightly as he met Pidge's gaze.

"Don't you trust us?" Pidge teased, grinning.

"That depends." Keith said, but he was already stripping off his shirt. "What are you planning, anyway?" he asked from inside the muffling of his shirt. "I don't usually get, ah, forewarning."

"Do you need warning?" Pidge asked, hopping off the bed. "It's just us." she added, sliding her hands over Keith's hips as he tossed his shirt aside.

"Perhaps not. But 'just you'," Keith glanced at Allura and then back to Pidge, then leaned down close to her, "the pair of you, is hardly unthreatening."

Allura laughed and Pidge narrowed her eyes at him, then grinned. Keith let them shoo him towards the bed, obliging their prompting to strip out of his jeans along the way. He only laughed, though, as Pidge tried to trip him to get him to fall into bed. She huffed, her smile still peeking through the frustrated expression she directed at her lover. Keith let himself fall backwards anyway, a moment later, lounging on the bed.

Pidge climbed up next to him, catching hold of his tail when it twitched near her knees. Keith tugged at her grip, his tail flexing, but when it didn't slide free with that easy pull he let her keep hold of it, stretching out with a sigh and letting his eyes fall halfway closed. Allura slid onto the bed behind Pidge, trailing a hand over her back as she moved around Pidge to sit by Keith's shoulders.

"You know," Pidge said, leaning over Keith and waving the end of his tail just below her own chin, "as much as you might glare and huff, this kind of gives you away now."

Keith's mouth twisted, and Pidge let go of his tail and stroked his cheek. "It's not a bad thing; it's not like you're exactly hard to read anyway, babe. Not for us, anyway."

"It is nothing like so obvious a display in situations when you are on alert, either." Allura said reassuringly. "In battle, or like today - you kept still even when I knew you were . . . upset." Allura looked displeased for a moment before the expression smoothed away.

Keith bared his fangs, making a low grumbling noise and turning onto his side, curling into Pidge. She startled, but smoothed one hand over his shoulders and down his back, following the lines of his soft fur.

"It is not unsuited to you, really, dearest." Allura told him, and Keith huffed. "Mm, you know, your ears are much prettier like this, too." she continued playfully, pinching at the point of one oversized, feline ear and tugging it lightly. Keith flicked his ears, the tip of his tail twitching along Pidge's thigh.

She giggled at the ticklish point of contact, but- "Hey!" Pidge protested, pouting and covering one of her ears - her perfectly normal human ears - with one hand. Allura giggled, running her fingers through Keith's shaggy hair as he laughed too, relaxing a little more again, his eyes warm.

They were still the same, a deep and stormy grey-blue.

Pidge smiled and traced a line down from his temple and along his cheekbone. Allura slid a hand up his back and scratching lightly at the nape of his neck, and Keith arched, looking startled, then letting out a soft not-quite-uncertain sound.

Allura smoothed down the fur she'd ruffled up backwards, then settled more comfortably and reached for the brush she must have grabbed off her vanity. Pidge ran her fingers through Keith's hair, slightly more familiar territory, as Allura brought the brush up and ran it through Keith's fur, down his spine.

He startled, eyes wide, and Pidge ducked out of the way as he all but lunged upright and twisted to look over his own shoulder. Allura smiled hopefully and held up the brush, running her fingers over the bristles lightly.

Keith's ears twisted, flicking.

"I thought. . ." Allura trailed off hesitantly, and Pidge eyed them both, then leaned closer and reached over Keith's shoulder to take the brush from her. Pidge hesitated, then smoothed her hand over Keith's bicep, following it with a stroke of the brush, experimentally light since she didn't want to scratch under his fur.

"You like to fuss over us." Pidge commented, trying another stroke, this time following the slope of his shoulder.

"I don't fuss." Keith said, a little of the tension seeping out of his shoulders. He twitched a little under the brush as Pidge stroked it down his chest. "That feels weird."

Allura frowned. "Oh! Ah. . ."

"Good weird or bad weird?" Pidge asked, and Allura raised an eyebrow. "Human vocabulary is fluid." she told her lover, and Allura huffed, rolling her eyes. Pidge laughed, and Keith hummed, rolling his shoulders.

"Not . . . sure." Keith said, though his eyes ticked down to the brush, and his tail lashed.

Pidge smiled slightly, passing the brush back to Allura and running her hands over his chest instead, ruffling crossways to the grain of his fur. Keith sighed, and Allura gently brushed the slightly thicker line of fur down his spine as he leaned into Pidge again.

"Does it bother you," Pidge asked softly, digging her fingers into the fur that tufted along his jaw, "when we touch you like this?" She tugged at the fur between her fingers gently, meeting her lover's eyes.

One of Keith's ears folded backwards as he looked away, and Allura stopped brushing and curled against Keith's back, kissing his shoulder lightly. "We love you for who you are, which does not change." she said quietly, and Pidge frowned at the dubious look on Keith's face at the words.

"You had better believe me." Pidge said, prodding him sharply, and Keith huffed, jerking backwards only to be stopped by the solid brace of Allura at his back. Pidge snorted, and leaned up, kissing him firmly. "You seem fine except sometimes when we're alone. Are you putting on in front of everyone else," she gave him a look that she hoped clearly stated that she didn't believe that at all, "or are you thinking something dumb?"

Keith's eyes widened, and then his expression softened as he gave a low laugh. "I suppose I can't argue with you, mm?"

Pidge sniffed. "No." she told him, relieved that Keith was mostly pretty straightforward once he could be coaxed to speak at all.

"That aside," Allura said, nuzzling Keith's throat and sliding a hand over his ribs, "if you do not like the feeling of being brushed. . . It had simply been an idea that you might."

"No, it- it feels good." Keith admitted, coughing quietly, his ears tilting outwards, almost flat, and the very tip of his tail flicking. Pidge smiled, threading her arms around Allura's and hugging him tightly.

Pidge felt the now-familiar sensation of Keith's clawed fingers running through her hair and pressed just a little bit closer. He stroked down her back before she pulled away, kneeling, and tugged at him by the shoulders, encouraging him to lie down.

Keith nuzzled against her nose, and Pidge struggled to keep from giggling at the slightly tickly feel of his fur against her cheek, not quite like her own hair. A gentle nudge from her hands, smoothing down his chest - firm muscle under the soft, fluffy fur - and Keith lay back under the caress. Pidge's first impulse was to lie down beside him, but she didn't, stroking across his collarbone to his shoulder and down his arm instead.

As Allura put the brush to good use, her free hand trailing alongside it, Pidge explored the way his fur smoothed down and stuck up, where it was thicker, the way it followed the lines of his body. Pidge hadn't really done it before, but Keith had never seemed like he would really . . . welcome it before.

Pidge wondered if that had changed, or if she had been too wary before. Keith looked content enough, with occasional happy murmurs and trailing his fingers over Pidge or Allura in return from time to time. When he ran his knuckles up under Pidge's shirt, along her ribs, her breath caught. She leaned down and kissed him softly, and he hummed against her mouth. Keith tugged at her shirt, and Allura murmured a suggestion.

Pidge laughed and sat back, pulling her shirt off, then wriggling out of her shorts and shoving them off into the floor as well. Keith's smoothed along her bare thigh, and Pidge startled, nearly leaning down on his arm before she righted herself.

Keith laughed, then let out a soft moan that thrummed in his throat as Allura kneaded at one of his shoulders. She pushed him gently into rolling over, and Keith complied, with a lazy protest, to let her get at his back.

Keith sighed as he settled there on his belly. Pidge curled her fingers, stroking along where his fur thickened. Allura offered the brush, changing to slow passes of her elegant hands over his back and shoulders as Pidge tried to get the hand of the brush herself.

There was certainly no complaint forthcoming from Keith as he wriggled a little, arching into their hands, his tail curling up a bit and then stretching out again. His moans were coming a little more frequently now, but he'd gone quieter. He was all but purring. Or . . . perhaps he was purring. Pidge made a note to ask - to ask Allura - maybe, later, if that was . . . something Keith's Galra blood could have changed about him.

Keith's fur was going sleeker and glossier under their attention Pidge noticed with faint surprise. And Keith. . .

"He's like . . . a purple puddle." Pidge observed as she put aside the brush, kind of amused, but mostly feeling warm and fond. She smoothed a hand down Keith's back and he definitely purred, his spine arching lazily into her touch and his tail flicking languidly, though he didn't open his eyes. "Keith puddle." she added lightly, experimentally scritching one of the places his fur was thicker, over his ribs.

He shifted, making a low sound in his throat, and Pidge took her hand back.

"Yes." Allura chuckled warmly, brushing her fingers over Keith's temple, then bending to press a kiss to his hair. Keith's left ear flicked, the tip brushing against Allura's chin as she straightened again. She smiled, lightly kneading his shoulder with one hand. "It's . . . comforting. Family bonding." she said softly, lifting her hand to rub her thumb behind his ear. "Mate bonding."

"How did you know he'd react like this?" Pidge asked, because Allura had definitely known something, rustling up that hairbrush unlike any of them usually used and coaxing them both into trying it out.

"Ah, well. I didn't know it would be like this," Allura demurred, "but I . . . suspected it would make him happy." She looked up at Pidge. "We weren't always at war with the Galra." she said softly. "When I was a child Zarkon and my father were . . . the best of friends. Galra guests, and friends, were common in the Castle. When I was younger there were even a pair of twins my age staying here who looked a little like Keith," she paused, lips quirking, "bigger, of course."

Pidge wrinkled her nose. "Of course." Keith was bigger than her, but almost everyone was - and he was positively tiny, compared to every full-blooded Galra they had seen.

"In any case, I had not thought of it until Keith was brushing my hair yesterday. He was . . . content." Allura said with a smile, fingering Keith's own hair, almost as thick as her own. "Not that I do not enjoy it as well, but it recalled what I know of Galra instincts to me."

"Keith has always brushed your hair." Pidge pointed out, blinking, her brows drawing together. Keith brushed her hair, too, though it both took less time - there was a lot less of it than Allura's silky, fluffy cloud hair - and was more difficult - Pidge's hair tangled fierce as anything, unlike both of her lovers'. He had slipped comfortably into doing it for both of them, from time to time, as soon as they were all three comfortable together and he was in a position to do so. "That's not new."

"Keith has also always been Galra," Allura said gently, smiling, "though it is newly more obvious of late."

"Oh, right." Pidge didn't exactly forget that, but, well, Keith was Keith, more than anything else, in her head. And he hardly looked Galra - at least, he hadn't before. She winced at her own thoughts. "And because of that you thought. . ."

"I had thought - hoped - since I had observed some . . . similar behaviours," Allura stroked the back of Keith's shoulder again, "that he might have the same reaction as a Galra would. But I thought even if he did not it might at least be," she paused, "enjoyable."

"I'd say it is at least that." Pidge agreed with a soft laugh. "I think he fell asleep and he still looks. . ." she trailed off, looking down at their lover.

"Yes." Allura rested a hand on his back. She smiled, looking rather content herself.

"And you were right before," Pidge said, trailing one finger up along Keith's ear, up over the point, and down the other side and into his hair, "Keith doesn't usually accept much for- for himself. Even from us. I don't think he does it on purpose, but. . ."

"Hopefully things like this will help that to change." Allura said softly. "I don't know if the lack has been bothering him instinctively, somewhere, even if he didn't know what it was, but if it makes him happy. . ."

"Even if it doesn't change anything," Pidge said with a shrug, stretching out on her side and stroking one hand down Keith's back again, "if he likes it, like . . . having your hair brushed," she said playfully, "that's . . . good."

"And what about you?" Allura asked, linking their fingers between Keith's shoulder blades. "I mean, you allow it, but you don't seem to enjoy having your hair brushed the same way I do." she said lightly, tipping her head.

"Ah, well. . ." Pidge stopped, not really sure. "I just . . . like being with you. Both of you." She cuddled a little closer to Keith, and he made a low rumbling sound that was quite clearly contented, tipping his head. His tail was lying across one of Allura's long legs, now, Pidge saw, and stifled a laugh. Keith's fur was warm and soft against her bare skin, and she shifted to get comfortable, tucking her free arm under her head.

Allura squeezed her hand, settling down on Keith's other side with a yawn. "We should perhaps get ready for sleep properly." she said, but she didn't seem terribly inclined to move either, rubbing her thumb lazily up and down Pidge's hand.

"Mm. Later." Pidge said vaguely. She was relaxed and sleepy too, and comfortable, and Keith was warm, his occasional soft purring sounds soothing.