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It was rare Allura could be taken by surprise, even rarer that she get taken so thoroughly by surprise, but here she was swearing under her breath and trying desperately to get to her feet without aggravating the tender flesh of her ruined palms or putting too much weight on her massively skinned knee. Usually Keith didn’t have much opinion on where their group went to hang out, but it was a rare opportunity to go to a concert for his favorite band. Allura rarely found herself in the punk scene, raised to rub elbows with scientists and investors as she was, but her father had encouraged her to go and experience it, citing his days astride his behemoth of a motorcycle and nights nearly going deaf from the guitars screaming with his friends during university.
And the night had been good, splendid even, until she got bodychecked by an overenthusiastic punk on her way out of the crowd.
Naturally, she ate shit.
“Are you alright?” a voice above her asked.
She looked from the black boots that were before her, following them up to some dark wash jeans cinched with a gray and orange belt around slim hips. Hips and legs that flexed as the owner crouched down. In the brilliant white lights of the concert and the dark of shadows, it was hard to get a good look at him, but the cut of light across his cheekbones and brow promised an attractive face in proper lighting. Brilliant white hair slipped over his shoulder as he offered her his hand, and his eyes blazed blue when the crowd parted just so.
She nodded and with a wince, pushed off her bad knee, taking his hand even as the gravel from the asphalt dug into the raw skin. He hauled her up with ease and she hissed at the pressure on her hands and her leg flexing, but was otherwise steady on her feet. In her crop top and black skinny jeans, she was dressed for the throng behind them, but now away from the crowd she could feel the coming chill across exposed skin.
Now upright, she pulled her hands away, gingerly curling her fingers as she examined her palms. The skin was raw and hot, and on the meat of one hand… it looked like she’d landed in glitter or something. Her hand glinted in the night and she swore under her breath.
“I think I’ve got glass in my hands,” she said, looking at her palms more closely. “My knee, too, probably. Is there a medic tent nearby?”
“Allow me,” the stranger murmured, and when she didn’t protest, he took her hands in his, long fingers gentle as he examined her battered skin. He stepped to the side to allow the streetlight to fall on her hands and the glow remained, shining specks amidst reddened brown skin.
He turned her hand this way and that, but said nothing and Allura watched a furrow grow between his white brows, an unruly lock of hair hanging free before his face as though to distract her from the glow of his eyes.
“I do not see any glass,” he said, and the pair of them looked down at the ground, only to see plain asphalt. Not a shimmer or shard of glass to be seen on the dry pavement that sucked in light like the black holes her uncle Blaytz studied.
The stranger knelt down, looking up at Allura with an inquisitive expression, one hand extended toward her scraped leg. “May I?”
“Go ahead,” she said, leaning back onto her good leg and exposing the scrape as her knee poked through the brand new hole.
From this angle, there was a more intense glow that shone on his hand, and her brows knitted together in concern. What could she have fallen into that would glow of all things?
Curious, she leaned over, trying to examine the scrape as the stranger carefully cupped her calf, looking between her face and her wound. When their eyes met, she watched as an expression of wonder crossed his face, the blue of his eyes far more intense than it should be in the darkness that bathed them.
“You’re…” he breathed.
“I’m…” she replied, raising her brows at him as she glanced back at her leg. “Glowing, it seems.” She bit her lip, wondering if she was going to get poisoned from whatever raver left a glowstick on the ground. “This cannot be good for my health.”
Her matter-of-fact statement startled him into standing once more, relinquishing her calf to the chill of the night, and she shivered a bit. “On the contrary, you’ll be fine. Though the medic will think you’re a bit of a mystery,” he replied, an odd little smile tugging his lips up in a way that had Allura narrowing her eyes at him.
“A mystery?” she asked, deadpan.
“Well,” he began, “not so much a mystery to me, stella, I require no further explanation than what stands before me.” He seemed rather pleased with himself, given the circumstances.
His nickname made her purse her lips in indignation and step back. “‘Stella’? You’re just assigning names now?”
His smile turned amused as he watched her, like he was in on a joke at her expense. “Not in the slightest, I apologize for the impression. ‘Stella’ is the word for ‘star’ in Latin, but if you’ve a name you prefer to be called…” he trailed off, clearly waiting.
She watched him for a few seconds before saying, “Allura.” The flush on her cheeks was most definitely not from forgetting basic Latin that her father had taught her when she was a child, nope. Admittedly she wasn’t anticipating someone using Latin in a conversation here of all places. Still, Allura wasn’t fond of strange men giving nicknames to her. “And what, exactly, is your name?”
He canted his head to the side as he studied her posture, and then after a moment spoke once more. “You may call me Lotor,” he replied, eyes flashing brightly before fading to their still-too-bright glow.
“Lotor, hm?” Allura asked as she crossed her arms. Her hands stung slightly, but the night air was cooler than she liked and she would’ve killed to steal Keith’s jacket, or Lance’s for that matter. The others dressed more practically for these events but she forgot hers, naturally.
“Indeed.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket and suddenly Allura envied him as he leaned in, that damned forelock swaying in the light wind. “It’s been some time since I was out and about, but I’m fond of the name, or at least fonder of it than others. So, Allura, may I ask what brings a star such as yourself to this venue?”
Fond of the name, she thought to herself with a huff as she leaned back a step. “I’m here with friends,” she said. “And you?”
He smirked, shifting his stance as he took a few steps to her right. “The very same, though my company is a bit more… earthly than usual.”
She shifted in time to him, her shoe scraping the asphalt with a noisy protest as she began a slow pivot, watching him prowl around her with sharp blue eyes. “Oh? Do you think yourself above these friends, then?”
“In a sense, but then when it comes to those like us, we certainly cannot help how we shine,” he replied, his voice soft in her ear even in the din of the crowd behind them. “Do you not agree, Allura?”
She turned sharply on her heel to glare at him, but he was already continuing his circuit around her and she had no choice but to turn the other way to meet his eyes. “You call me a mystery when you’re perfectly cryptic yourself, Lotor .”
He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “I simply admit that I’ll only be here for a short time before I must return home, and that it shall be a short eternity before I return. Tell me, what do you think of this life? Is it comparable to those before?” At his question, he looked to her again, that smile practically taunting her.
Think of this life? What was he on about? She watched him for a moment as he came closer, leaning in to take her hands once more before she yanked them free. “I don’t exactly have anything to compare it to,” she snapped, but she didn’t back away again, much to his visible delight.
“Ah, forgive me, little star,” he said. “But surely even an existence as incomparable as this would be worthy of note from one such as yourself?”
She watched him, the look on his face betraying nothing but genuine delight. “It’s… fine, I suppose. As I said, I’m here with friends, and it was quite fun until I fell.”
At that, his expression sobered and he nodded. “The fall always hurts,” he murmured. He looked out at the crowd, and from this angle Allura could see the sharp planes of his face, handsome in the darkness, like he was carved from it and she wanted so badly for a moment to brush her fingers along his cheek. “But what you find when you land is… exquisite. Unlike anything else out there.”
She followed his gaze to watch the crowd, take in the sound of the band playing, and found herself nodding with him. There was always something about concerts that just seemed… ethereal. They were so viscerally present with the thump of the bass in your chest and the press of bodies around you, but so ephemeral all the same, because come morning, all this would be gone. “Indeed. It’s beautiful.”
He hummed and turned his gaze skyward. “Very, but nothing quite like home.”
“Your home?” she asked. She honestly couldn’t imagine anyone traveling further than a few hours to see a band on tour, but maybe he was a diehard fan.
He looked back down at her, a surprised expression on his face. “You don’t think of home?”
She shrugged. “It’s home, I’ll be back soon, provided my group doesn’t leave me behind with a rather philosophical stranger,” she continued, a smirk on her face. Cryptic or not, she had to admit, he seemed an interesting sort. And the others were still very much in the thick of the crowd, there was no point in trying to find them until the set was done. She’d just text them that she was at the medic tent when the band finished.
He matched it in kind and the flash of teeth in the light made a part of her shiver with… something. “‘Philosophical’, hm? I rather think I’m nostalgic, homesick even. I would have thought you would be, too, though you’ve always been the adventurous sort,” he said, coming closer.
She snickered, “You’ve got me. I’ll never say no to a road trip, or a shopping spree for that matter.” Her eyes flicked to his mouth again but she dragged them back to his eyes. “I like sparkly things.”
At those words, his smile broadened. “I would imagine so, little star. Stars cannot help but love that which makes them shine.”
That made her snort. She cocked her hip as she took his expression in, an eyebrow raising. “You keep calling me a star, am I to take you for an astronomer? Because I’ve heard every line imaginable on the subject if that’s your attempt at flirting.”
His expression morphed into one of surprise. “No, simply one who recognizes the brilliance of the sky when she stands before him,” he said, his brow furrowing in confusion. “Why?”
She shook her head and sighed, glancing away from him in search of anyone who might know where the medic tent was, or something, anything, to get her away from this ridiculous flirt if this was how he was going to go about it. “My father’s an astronomer, as am I, and while I don’t know how you would know that, it means I’ve heard every possible attempt to use the subject as a pick-up line. I must admit, you’ve at least not used some truly heinous puns for it, or terribly outdated facts. Or non-facts, even.”
If she’d been looking at him, she would have caught the way his face shifted between surprise and frustration as she rambled. It was only when she looked back at him, her search fruitless, that she caught his expression and it made her jump slightly.
“Lotor?” she asked, her voice managing to sound utterly unimpressed despite the rather startling look on his face.
"You don’t know what you are, do you?" he asked, as his frustrated look melted away to near-awe once again.
She watched him with suspicion as he drew near again, this time coming far closer than he had when he’d examined her leg. Her arm brushed the zipper teeth of his jacket, a thin line of cold metal against prickled flesh. Haloed by the yellow glow of the street light, she watched as his eyes shifted and shone with unnatural light.
“I am Allura,” she snapped. “And I do not know what game you are playing, but I will not be intimidated by a stranger.”
The blue fire in his eyes surged and she swore she could hear the crackle of flame before he tilted his head in curiosity. They continued to glow, and her cheeks warmed, whether from indignation or his proximity she couldn’t tell.
“So you are,” he murmured. His eyes drifted along her face, lazily searching for secrets she didn’t have. “So you are...”
They stared each other down for a moment longer before he stepped back, conceding in their little... whatever that was, and she let out a breath.
“I shall see you again, little star. I’m curious if your answer will change between now and then,” he said with a smirk. He gave her a light bow, one hand across his waist and the other out, the light throwing shadows on lean muscle and some thick metal bracelets and rings. “Perhaps this will be the time you break me instead.”
He draped his black leather jacket over her shoulders right as a wickedly cold breeze kicked up, sending white hair into her eyes. When she managed to rein in her curls again, she was alone, shrouded in black leather that smelled like a storm and with a skinned knee that glowed with magic.
She looked around, wondering where he could have run off to, but there was no head of white hair to be found anywhere. Well, if he was going to simply leave his jacket behind, she may as well benefit from the warmth. She slipped her arms through the sleeves, paying no mind to how it hung off her frame and past her fingers in favor of the delicious warmth of his body that clung to it, and decided to put all this talk of stars and lives and Lotor behind her. It was time to go see that medic, and maybe they’d be able to explain why her blood glowed. Clearly Lotor knew, but didn’t divulge why, and she wasn’t going to hunt down a perfect stranger for answers to questions that probably were best reserved for a nurse of some sort.
Thankfully, she found a pair of punks sporting colorful mohawks who knew the way to the medic tent, and she texted Pidge to let her know where she’d be waiting when the band finished performing. The pain in her knee had settled into a hot throb, and certainly not the fun kind. She looked down once more and she still was glowing, which was just so fucking odd she couldn’t even be distracted by the fact that that stranger was probably the single most attractive man she’d seen, and that for all his baffling attempts at flirting, she wasn’t sure she’d mind seeing him again.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and resolved to wait until she got to the medic to ask about what the hell was up with her glowing blue knee.
As she approached the ring of floodlights where a large medic tent was stationed, she spotted one of the nurses and waved. The nurse stopped and waited for her to come up, so Allura did her best to hurry despite the jolt of pain every time she took a step.
“Hello, I’ve scraped my knee quite badly, I was hoping you’d have a bandage?” Allura asked. “And honestly, I’m not sure what all I got in it, I’m a little worried there may be glass or something, because it was glow--” she cut herself off as she extended her leg, only to look down and see a perfectly normal, red-blooded scrape across her knee. In the harsh white light she could even see the blood staining the shredded denim edge.
The medic only raised one eyebrow, which Allura would have to count as a success given how she was just talking about her knee glowing. “Sure thing. We get tons of scraped knees and elbows, sit tight over there and I’ll get something to clean you up,” she said, pointing to one of the cheap plastic chairs in the tent. There were a couple cots toward the back, only one of which was occupied.
Allura nodded and sat down, then fiddled with her jeans to examine the scrape properly for the first time. It really didn’t look at all out of the ordinary now. The blood was a normal color, and she didn’t see even a hint of a glow. If anything, it looked like there were a couple small pieces of gravel, as well as the beginnings of a proper scab, but no glass and no light came from her injury. A quick examination of her hands yielded the same result, though the skin looked a little more normal than it had earlier. They were still tender, though.
“So how’d you fall down?” the medic asked as she plopped into the chair opposite of Allura. “Trip or something?”
Allura watched her tear open an alcohol wipe and shook her head. “No, someone was dancing and bumped into me when I wasn’t expecting it, so I went down hard.”
The medic sighed and gently began dabbing at the scrape, making Allura hiss at the sting. Without looking up, she replied, “Happens all the time, this doesn’t look too bad, though. I don’t see any glass, but better to be safe than sorry and make sure it’s all clean before we put anything on it.”
While she cleaned and checked Allura’s knee, Allura carefully reached for another alcohol wipe and asked, “May I?”
She ignored how those words were echoed to her only moments prior.
The medic looked up, and upon seeing the raw palms, nodded before resuming her work. She grabbed a tube of antibiotic ointment and slathered some onto a large bandaid. “Your knee looks okay, I didn’t see anything unusual. Take some ibuprofen before you go to bed, it’ll ache in the morning.”
Allura nodded as she wiped her hands with the alcohol wipe, the sting muted compared to the earlier bite in her knee, now covered by a pale beige bandaid. “Thank you, it feels a lot better already.”
“No problem, hon,” the medic said easily, tossing their trash into a can and peeling off the latex gloves. “That’s why we’re here. You came with friends?” she asked, and when Allura nodded, she continued, “Feel free to stay here until they come by if you want. The show’ll be over soon enough.”
With that, the medic went to go check on the person in the cot, leaving Allura to mull over her thoughts as she listened to the music from the front of the tent. Checking the time, Pidge had replied with a thumbs-up emoji, but it still would be a while before they could escape the crowd.
Lotor certainly was a gentleman in helping her up, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her. She certainly didn’t know him, she would have remembered someone so striking, but if he knew her, that meant they likely had met at a work function or something, which then circled back to how surely she would have remembered him. And then there was that business with calling her “little star”. Absolutely baffling. What was the point there? Her knee surely wasn’t actually glowing, it probably had simply been because of the refraction of the light.
Except blood, with its red color, would only reflect red light, not blue, and nowhere near at the intensity to light up Lotor’s hands in the shadow as they were. Light emission was simply not possible, or at least not light within a spectrum visible to the human eye. There simply was no explanation for it other than she was quite possibly having a contact high of some sort and didn’t realize it until now.
Yes, that seemed most likely.
A contact high.
At least the smell on Lotor’s jacket chased away the smell of antiseptic and the faint wafts of weed.
It was soothing, all things considered. Soothing and warm, which made watching the faint glow of stars far above her an appealing pastime. With all the ambient light, it was nearly impossible to make out many constellations, but a few stars managed to not be overpowered by the floodlights and she smiled.
Home may be where she laid her head and chatted with her father, but the two of them considered the stars a second home of sorts. The history of human cultures, mapped and studied and loved from afar, and the keepers of the secrets of the universe’s origin. Her father always liked to tell students to not knock the stars, that they came from them, and that someday every person on Earth would return to them. So why not familiarize yourself with the home you once had?
Maybe that was what Lotor meant, if he insisted on her being a star, too.
After all, what was a star but a collection of atoms, constantly in fusion and creating matter?
And what was a person but a collection of atoms, borne from that fusion?
The thought always comforted her as a child, being able to look up at the night sky and feel a kindred. Unlike cities and monuments, stars never fell. They blazed on brightly for longer than the earth would exist in entirety. She could trust they would be there when she opened her eyes next, and map their journey across the sky, as steady as a metronome.
Nothing could break a star, surely.
Her mind flashed to blue eyes and white hair and teeth.
Allura didn’t want to put any stock into his words, but admittedly, the whole conversation intrigued her. Part of it was as though he were attempting to resume a conversation, as though she could remember it.
And then that comment about breaking him instead…
“Allura!” a voice--Lance--broke through her thoughts.
She startled and looked in the direction of his voice, and saw him waving at her. Keith, Hunk, and Pidge were all in tow, and Allura hadn’t even realized the band finished. She waved back and jogged toward them, meeting them in the middle. “Hey, I apologize for leaving, but…” she trailed off and gestured to the blown-out knee of her jeans with a mildly embarrassed laugh.
“Ouch, took a dive?” Hunk asked.
“Well at least now you have actually distressed jeans,” Pidge said with a smirk, prompting Allura to scoff and shake her head.
“I’ll have you know I have plenty of distressed jeans,” she replied.
“Yeah, Pidge, leave the lady alone,” Lance teased, ruffling Pidge’s hair and receiving a pointy elbow into his side.
Keith sidestepped away from the two of them before nodding to Allura. “Glad you’re okay,” he said. “New jacket?”
She blinked and looked down, then tugged it more snugly around herself. “Ah, yes. A gentleman helped me up, he saw me fall and then gave this to me to keep warm, but I don’t know where he went.”
Keith snorted lightly and shrugged. “Yours now.”
“I suppose so.” She looked at the rest of their group. “Are we ready to head out? We can grab something to eat on our way back.”
Hunk nodded and the others assented, so Allura fished for her keys from her pocket. A late night trip to a diner was always a good idea. “Excellent, let’s go. Lance, you want to drive?”
His eyes lit up at the prospect and she tossed him the keys. “It’s been forever since I’ve driven Blue.”
She snorted in amusement and then looped an arm with Hunk’s. “Well, I hate to stand in the way of true love,” she teased, earning a pout from Lance and a laugh from the others.
They made their way out to the parking lot, now congested with attendees and cars, and between the light conversation and the darkness beyond, Allura was able to push thoughts of a certain stranger out of her head until they hit the highway, where she caught sight of a brilliant blue meteor arcing across the sky parallel to the car.
She thought of the handsome stranger who’d given her his jacket.
Lotor.
What is a star, but a type of immortality?
A man tucked white hair behind his ear as he watched red tail lights pull away, thinking of the pretty pink blush below blue eyes.
Allura.
But what is immortality if she does not remember it?