The cliffs rise like jagged teeth around you, shielding your lion from view. The wind carries the faint tang of metal from Lotor’s ship, sleek and silent against the fading sky. He’s waiting, as he always is, standing tall but with an ease that seems to exist only here, in this place between worlds.

“You’re late,” he says, but the tease is light, without bite.

You arch a brow, brushing dust from your armor as you approach. “You’re lucky I came at all. My team would have noticed if I slipped away any longer.”

His lips twitch into a faint smirk, though there’s something vulnerable in his gaze. “And yet, you still risk it.”

You pause a few paces away, close enough to see the way the dying sunlight glints in his silver hair, far enough that the distance feels deliberate. “I shouldn’t.”

“No,” he agrees softly, stepping closer, his presence magnetic. “You shouldn’t.”

The silence stretches between you, thick and dangerous. This is always how it starts—an unspoken question neither of you want to answer. Why are you here? Why do you keep coming back? The truth is simple and terrifying: because you can’t stay away.

Lotor lowers his voice, his tone losing its usual confidence. “When I stand before the empire, I am their prince. When I face your team, I am their enemy. But here…” He hesitates, searching your eyes as if afraid of what he’ll find. “…here, I am simply myself. And I think… I only want to be that person with you.”

Your breath catches, because it’s the closest either of you have come to admitting the truth. That this is more than curiosity. More than instinct. It’s something neither of you can name, but it pulls you back here, again and again.

“I should tell Allura,” you whisper, half to yourself. “I should tell my team what I’ve been doing.”

“And what would they say?” Lotor’s voice sharpens, though not unkindly. “That you’ve betrayed them? That by meeting me, you’ve sided with the Galra? They would never understand what this is.”

“And do you?” you ask, eyes narrowing, though your voice shakes.

He doesn’t hesitate. “I don’t need to understand it. I just know I can’t let it go.”