The distant noise from their friends' good-natured horseplay faded away, leaving only the whooshing sounds of their breathing; rapid exhalations of vapor which intermingled, swirled and then billowed away in the frosty air.

The Captain's thumbs continued to tenderly stroke the cheekbones of the enchanting, heart- shaped face encircled by gray fur as he solemnly studied the upturned, rosy hued features of the Princess of Arus. Allura's lovely eyes were now closed in supplication, while she presented him with the luscious gift of her lips. Crystalline bits of ice were still clinging to her eyebrows and long lashes, her nose was a bright cherry red, and a violet-tinged blotch could be seen on the cheek that had taken the brunt of the snowball's impact, but yet he could not remember a time that she had looked more beautiful. After the briefest of hesitations, Keith swiftly lowered his head to take a taste of what was offered. His eyes closed as he savored the sensation of yielding, feminine softness.

When Allura felt the initial caress of his warm lips upon hers she started to shiver uncontrollably, though the sensations she was feeling right now were as far removed from cold as one could get. In her mind, she had already pushed aside the soreness of her chafed cheeks and the dull throb behind her eyes that were unfortunate side effects of the errant slush ball, but in next to no time, the warmth that flowed from his mouth to hers was taking away the discomfort completely, allowing her to concentrate on the enthralling feel of his kiss.

His lips were firm, but giving, as they slid gently across hers, coaxing a quivering response that she was powerless to control. Allura felt herself straining toward him, and her mitten covered hands lifted to rest of the solid wall of his chest. As she did so, she felt his mouth nudge hers, as if asking for something; her lips instinctively parted and she felt the exquisite touch of his tongue as it glided into her mouth for a few, but all too brief, moments. It slowly retreated, as if unsure how to proceed, so she sent her own tongue forward to welcome it, and the two appendages met, and started to greet each other with increasing eagerness. A new kind of sensation that was both pleasurable and immensely frustrating was now centering itself in the pit of her stomach. Her heartfelt sigh of bliss stretched between them, as her lips opened even more.

Keith groaned silently, and fought the impulse to deepen the kiss, though everything within him was clamoring wildly for what she was requesting. He briefly marveled at how accomplished the innocent Princess was at kissing; within the first few moments of tongue play she was responding to his kiss with increasing confidence and unexpected sensuality. Her silky lips were amazingly facile, and the shy, tender touch of her tongue tip against his was making his loins ache, but he knew he could maintain some measure of control as long as he kept his hands on her face, and away from the rest of her body. Thus reassured, he gave himself up to the captivating experience of a Princess' kiss.

Many yards away, Hunk took a break in his snowball production, straightened, and looked around for the Captain and the Princess, who seemed to be taking a very long time to join the party. He located their position just in time to see his leader's face disappear inside the Princess' hood and remain there.

~Oh ho, now here is an interesting development,~ He thought, happily. In his humble opinion, it wasn't healthy to keep things like love bottled up for too long. It tended to make one bitter, so it was about time that Keith did something about his feelings for the Princess, instead of suppressing them or taking them out on the hapless Prince of Doom.

Having completely forgotten about his mission, Hunk looked on in silent approval as the kiss between his commander and Allura went on and on. So engrossed was he in the spectacle, that he didn't even react when the icy-hard missile struck him. It rebounded off the brawny man's back with a loud whump, but still didn't have enough impact to divert his attention from something so much more important.

"Heads up there, Big Guy, there's a war going on here!" Lance hollered.

"I prefer love," Hunk mumbled, still not turning around.

"Yeah, c'mon, I need a little back up!' Pidge whined. "My ammo is all but gone!"

"Sorry guys, I just wanted to take a little break," Hunk replied with a sigh, finally tearing himself away from the delightful sight he alone had witnessed.

He decided not to point out what was transpiring to the others. Keith and Allura deserved some privacy, and he knew from first hand experience that, although Pidge and Lance had hearts of gold, they could be merciless teases. ~Merry Christmas, Chief!~ He thought wryly, and launched into action.

The Big Man flew into battle, carefully aiming his throws so that his companions were kept facing away from the embracing couple in the distance.

After a few blissful minutes, Keith reluctantly lifted his head and gently drew away from the Princess. She opened her eyes, and the wordless protest her gaze contained made him smile warmly at her. His hands moved to rest on the tops of her shoulders, then curled around them, as if hesitant to lose contact with her body.

Allura looked up into his darkly handsome features, scarcely able to comprehend that a moment ago their mouths had been joined. She ached to run a hand through the silky hair falling over his ski band, and yearned to feel the hardness of his arms wrapped gently around her. She mutely stared at him, acutely aware of her heart pounding painfully in her chest, and her rubbery feeling legs. Her pulse increased even more when his sable eyes grew dark, but disappointment came crashing in when he still shook his head in denial.

"As much as I would like to continue this, Princess, I think we have some people waiting for us." He reminded her softly, obvious regret underlying his words.

"Oh." A wealth of feeling was carried in that word. Allura knew he was right, yet here she was thinking she didn't ever want them to leave this special spot. Who knew if he would ever kiss her again? This could be it for her and the Captain, after they stepped out of their wintry cocoon into the real world. She hated the idea of that with a passion, but also knew it was much too soon for her to express it.

"Thank you for wiping my face," she blurted instead, and then winced. ~Nice going Allura, what a memorable thing to say after a kiss like that!~

He grinned at her consternation. ~She's so cute when she's flustered.~ "You're welcome."

The double meaning of what she said struck her and she started to chuckle.

So did he.

She looked at him with mirth sparkling in her eyes. "Not bad, Captain, and you didn't even need mistletoe to catch me."

"I know. A giant slush ball is much more effective." He teased, affectionately brushing the last remnants of ice off her hood.

She arched a flirtatious eyebrow. "So, if you get hit with a snowball, does it mean I can, um, wipe your face off?" She batted her eyelashes, and then grinned at the visible astonishment was he showing in response to her teasing. To his credit, however, the Captain recovered almost immediately.

"Of course you can- if I get hit." He drawled. "That's a big 'if', by the way."

"Really?" She giggled. "We'll see. I am sure Hunk, Lance and Pidge will be more than willing to answer that challenge."

"Willing...but not able!" Keith retorted. "Bet I can go the next quarter hour without so much as a flake on me."

"You're on!" She laughed.

By mutual consent, they ran to join up with the others.

A cease-fire was called so that territories could be established. The Princess graciously declined her bit of real estate, prudently opting to be a spectator rather than a player. As their cries of protest, she teasingly informed her teammates that she had already paid her dues for the day. She shot a meaningful glance at Lance and he blushed.

"She's right, besides, it gives us a chance to show Princess what an Academy style snowball fight is really like!" Her friend said hastily, wanting to forget all about that little faux paux.

~Little does he know that that snowball he decked me with was the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time!~ Allura smiled to herself.

To her subsequent frustration and amusement, as the battle raged on for the next fifteen minutes, no one seemed to be able to hit the elusive Keith, who moved like black lightning among the trees and behind drifts. No one could catch him; no one could even get near him! A stymied Lance, Pidge and Hunk quickly decided to form an alliance against their commander.

~Get him- GET HIM!~ Allura yelled silently, as she watched Pidge creep daringly close to his fearless leader.

She groaned aloud, as Keith's quick reflexes foiled the covert attack. Pidge now lay buried in a snowdrift, bemused and laughing.

Hunk and Lance were puffing, panting, and muttering curses under their breath as the Black Lion pilot continued to thwart them.

As for the Captain, he shot triumphant looks at the Princess each time he successfully dodged an especially heavy barrage of snowy ammunition, and continued to get in deadly accurate strikes of his own. He didn't even seem to be tiring, was the man superhuman? Did Keith want to avoid her kiss that much? How annoying!

As if sensing the Princess' perturbed thoughts, his amused gaze met hers once again. He winked and held his hands up, as if to say, 'what can I say? I'm just too good!'

Exasperated beyond belief, Allura rudely stuck her tongue out at him, which made Keith laugh silently. He then barely dodged a sneak attack from Lance, who had accurately sensed his leader was rather distracted at the moment. It was by far the closest anyone had come to pelting the invincible Captain. Allura giggled merrily at the near miss and applauded enthusiastically, as Lance sent a mocking bow in her direction. From then on, the Captain stopped grandstanding, and tended to the business of winning their bet, which he did, quite handily.

"The guy's like a greased pig at the county fair," Hunk groaned, collapsing to his knees to get his breath.

"Aw, he's just a show-off," Lance scoffed, as he lobbed another snowball at his grinning friend.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking about giving up," Pidge gasped.

Mercifully, time had expired, and Keith reminded the team that they still had some serious sledding ahead of them. He knew it was the only thing he could say that would stop an all-out illegal assault on his person, and it worked like a charm.

"Yeah, we'd better get hopping, not much of the daylight left." Pidge panted.

His friends agreed, and as they gathered up discarded hats and gloves, Keith sidled up to Allura.

"Better luck next time," he murmured in a smug undertone, which nettled her.

She fixed him with an innocent stare. "Why, what do you mean, Captain? I believe you're the one who's lost out." Giving him a deliberate wink, she walked away to assist her teammates.

Keith stood stock still, a comically thunderstruck look upon his face. Gads, she was right, why had he tried so hard to win? He had just cheated himself out of an extremely pleasurable experience, to put it mildly. He mentally pummeled himself for his stupid male pride. Dang it, sometimes the cost of winning was just way too high.

"Captain Keith, are you going to come along with us, or stand there and freeze?" The Princess' mocking voice penetrated his self- recriminations. His reply was to trot after his team as they turned and headed for the hills, his regretful gaze fixed on the figure in the purple parka that now led the group, with a triumphant march to her step.

Five minutes later, Lance caught up to Allura.

"Hey Princess, that looks like a good one!" He pointed to a sizable snow covered mound to their immediate right.

"It is, but it's not nearly challenging enough for the big, tough Space Explorers!" She replied, smiling wickedly at him.

"I dunno, it looks pretty high to me," Hunk chimed in as he drew alongside his friends. "It's bigger than any hill I've ever been on."

Pidge spoke up, with a sly grin. "What about 'The Blender Bender'? You both went on that."

Hunk and Lance both paled at the mention of the Space Academy campus landmark.

"Don't remind me little buddy; that thing made me lose my lunch." The Yellow Lion pilot shook his head at the memory.

"I think you lost three or four lunches, if memory serves," Lance cackled.

"Ick!" Allura said, wrinkling her nose. She stopped walking, and gave her large teammate a dubious look. "If that's the case, maybe we should settle for Powder Puff Bluff."

"Powder Puff Bluff? Are you kidding me?" Pidge snorted. "C'mon guys, we can do better than that!"

Keith walked up at that point. "I'm with Pidge, I think we need to see the famous hill where Princess Allura made her sledding debut." He openly grinned at her, and she smiled back, somewhat secretively.

The rest of the men agreed, each privately thinking, if the Princess could take it, how bad could the thing really be?

The answer was apparent the minute they rounded the bend and came out of the small forest behind the castle.

It wasn't bad at all, no sir. That term didn't come close to describing what they were seeing.

It was...horrific.

They now stood at the midpoint of the gateway to a slider's nightmare. The land dropped away from the castle base at almost a ninety-degree angle to the frozen moat below. Here and there, huge moguls dotted the path they would take, some of them taller than Pidge.

"Hanna Banana!" Hunk breathed.

"Good Lord, it's..." Lance's voice trailed off.

"You went down this hill?" Keith asked Allura, in an incredulous tone.

"Yes." She said, proudly.

"And you survived? Amazing! " He almost whispered, gawking at the terrifying angle of the landscape once more.

Pidge was ecstatic. "This thing is higher and steeper than the good old 'Blender'." He chortled. "Lemme at it!" He pulled out a flat, fiberglass tray.

"Pidge, that's one of Nanny's serving trays! You aren't thinking of-"The Princess shook her head in denial. "No, I forbid it. It's too dangerous."

"I have to, Princess. It's a matter of tradition and honor." The youth informed her soberly. "Back at the Academy I was the only one to conquer 'The Blender Bender' without puking or breaking a bone."

"An impressive achievement, to be sure," Lance mumbled sarcastically, secretly envious of the feat, since he had tried and failed several times to duplicate it.

Pidge continued, ignoring his smart aleck friend. "I have a reputation to uphold, I hope you understand." He looked beseechingly at the woman who could make or break his day with one word.

Allura wavered.

"Plllleeeeaaassseee?" Pidge's large, hazel eyes had never looked so appealing.

"Okay, but please be careful. Green Lion needs her pilot in one piece." The Princess told him. She expected the boy to let out a jubilant yell, but to her surprise, he just thanked her calmly and turned to start his trek up the hill.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Hunk patted her arm and spoke with more assurance than he actually felt. "My buddy knows what he's doing."

"I hope so Hunk," Allura replied softly as her worried gaze followed the green jacketed figure as it made its way up the incline. "I really hope so."

To be continued...:)