Chapter Three

Larmina eyes grew round when Lance walked into Allura's office, her expression locked on Lance's knuckles. "Whoa, gnarly, what happened, what did I miss?"

"Nothing," both Allura and Lance said, but Lance felt Allura's disapproving gaze on the side of his face, as he kept eye contact with Larmina. "This is a do what I say moment, Larmina."

Larmina rolled her eyes. "Aren't they all with you. You can break the rules, Auntie Allura can break the rules, even Keith. But me or Daniel, OH NO, never..." she stood up. "Are you done telling me boring Castle stuff?"

Allura sighed. "We're done... For today, Larmina."

"Of course, of course," Larmina said. "I'm going to go see if Hunk wants to jam."

"Don't bothering him if he's working, just because school is on break for the Autumnal Moon festival and the boys got their Christmas holiday off..." Allura yelled after the fleeing Larmina with another sigh.

Lance shrugged. "Sorry."

Allura walked over and grabbed one of his hands, wincing at the damage he'd inflicted on himself. "I feel responsible," she muttered.

"For Larmina? Well, you kind of are..."

Allura huffed. "Not her. Well, yes her, but not what I meant. I meant about this, you, messing up your hands because you and Keith haven't talked once since he got back. It's been month and the two of you haven't had one conversation about the two of you have you?"

"Well, we have now, kind of..." Lance muttered, flashing back to what hadn't been much of a conversation. It'd been, he didn't know what a fight that he'd oddly decided to diffuse, and he still didn't know why, not really. Maybe it was he didn't want to shout with Keith, not about them he wanted to figure out why they'd let it all slip away because every time Lance tried to suss it out, all he came up with was he hadn't wanted to let them disappear. Had Keith?

He thought about Keith shoving Lance away before Lance could kiss him, it'd have been more than a kiss though; it always was with them from the first kiss onward. It always been started as once thing and led to two things, they tumbled like stones down a hill like that at top speed him and Keith. Their breakup sure had been fast, he hadn't even realized they'd broken up until Keith was a fugitive and he teaching cadets. It all felt backward, like Keith walking away from in that gym telling him he'd chosen Granger.

Allura raised an eyebrow.

"It was more like we almost made out but he...swore before anything happened. I don't know. I... I was letting him off the hook, I don't even know why because I'm pissed as hell. What do you mean responsible?"

Allura looked up from where she was examining his hand, she let his hand go. "Did you go to medtech?"

"No," Lance said with an eye roll. "It's scrapped skin."

She sighed.

"It's fine."

"No, it's not. He was beating up SimuLotor a few nights ago, he said he was still feeling unsettled and I know how hard he's been working himself; well he's Keith. And I knew you two were still avoiding anything about the two of you. I pushed him to do something for himself. I wasn't expected him to invite someone else to the Castle. I meant for him to go after you."

Lance laughed, he grabbed Allura's face and kissed her forehead. "That would take more than one conversation. Probably torture, and even then I think he'd rather die..." he trailed feeling another rise of anger and unwanted bitterness about it all. He sucked at relationships, he sucked at talking about things but he'd been better at it than Keith. But not good enough to keep him.

"Lance," Allura said. "You two were..."

"What?"

"You two were Keith and Lance," she said. "I had a crush on the two of you. It was a crush on love." She rolled her eyes, blushed and then sighed. "Haven't met a soul yet who makes me feel like the way you two STILL look at each other. You two are just great at making sure the other one never sees it."

"Then why is he in his room right now with that, that...directionally challenged pilot school washout!" Lance shouted.

Allura shrugged.

"I need a distraction, Allura. What do you need done around here for the festival, for Christmas...anything?"

"They need help by the lake, building the booths for the Harvest Night, it falls exactly on your Christmas this year... so I'm adding some fake snow and flown in Pine trees... to corny?" Allura asked.

Lance laughed. "It's Christmas, it works," he said.

Allura grinned. "They do need more hands with the building, you know how every year there is another Ale booth, or yet another merchant trying to sell their own handmade moon jewels, and of course Voltron Force merchandise, not mention the christmas stuff everyone in town does for you guys."

"I can build, I'll go down there now," he turned around.

"Lance?" Allura called out after him.

"Yeah?"

"Try not to nail yourself to anything, please."

Lance laughed. "I'm not a matyr, babe."

~~.~~

Keith went straight to his office from the gym, sat down and stared at his desk. His desk was clear, however because he'd left the computer tablet with the security plans concerning the upcoming festivities for the Autumnal Harvest in the control room. Keith straightened his spine, closed his eyes and focused on his breathing and clearing his mind. He told himself it was impossible for the scent of Lance, no matter how heightened it'd been from sweat, to remain in his nose. The leather, the woods, the smoke that had become a part of him after he became Red Lion's pilot. It was home fire smoke, it reminded Keith of fires on cold nights when his family went to Aspen in the winter to ski, Lance always with them complaining about the cold and sneaking into Keith's bed for warmth, even before they were touching each other every chance they got.

Keith sighed, he wasn't clearing his head, he was remembering winters at home and Lance wrapped around him like another blanket, snoring into the back of his neck, drooling into his hair - and he didn't care. He didn't care because whenever Lance wasn't there it felt empty, too cold, beds were always too big, even when they were too small.

He'd figured it out, before they even taken down Lotor, let alone the mess with Wade, the hunt for Black that he'd accused Lance of cheating with no real proof, just fear that he was finally losing the best thing that had happened to him. It was always the fear, that someone would come up and take Lance away. People were drawn to him, women, men, children, dogs, Keith had seen it his entire life. Lance spoke, laughed, joked and cajoled and people followed him, listened and they liked him, loved him, had crushes on him. People listened when Keith gave orders but it was respect for his command, his intelligence, his bravery that led to it - it'd never been about liking him. Wanting to be around him. People wanted to be around Lance.

Lance told him that last one was bullshit, that Keith drew people to them and kept them hook on with mystery. By being the quintessential tall, dark, mysterious stranger - though kind of on the average height side. Little did they know he was just a shy, idealist, dork on the inside but when they did, they'd stick around anyway - no one could hate anyone so earnest.

Yes he'd thought Lance had been cheating, with the secret communications, the refusing to tell him why he was talking to Farla so often, and why he had to go Lyra and then finally to Earth to help her out. He'd overreacted but there had been other things, they'd been fighting about stupid things and not making up as quickly as they usually did. Keith had more of a work load than Lance, and he never felt like Lance respected it - not that he ever asked Lance to give him a break, or some help?

They'd argued for months when Keith came back of which one of them was in charge. They were both Commanders, they'd both led the team and Lance didn't want to give things up. Keith also had admit when he walked into his office, which Lance had been using whenever he could get away from the Academy, that Lance had come up with a good system for the paperwork that running a team - even one under the radar as he, Pidge and Hunk had been during Keith's time away. Lance had put Pidge in charge of computer issues, Hunk in charge of mechanical, everything needing only a quick perusal by him and signature.

It was simple, really, only when Keith tried to keep it he found himself, going down to the garages and looking at the boxes and pissing off Hunk. As he eyed the equipment, counted things himself and Lance of all people was breaking up fights about how Keith didn't trust Hunk to run his own garage right?

The same thing happened with Pidge, with the computer systems, though not with spare parts, or anything. With if he was running all the correct system diagnostics in the right order, and as often as needed, did he have a more specific list detailing it all. Pidge had almost smart starred his head off and once again it'd been Lance called in to diffuse the situation.

Lance had sat him down, paced for awhile and told him to cut it out. They didn't need micromanaging. They'd gotten on without him for five years, they knew what they were doing, the system worked, Keith didn't need to babysit them anymore or protect them from beaucratic bull. They worked best as team, Lance had pulled out the Allura quote, then said he was quoting Allura and that was why he'd stepped back and let Keith take over again because she was right, he was their leader.

Which left Lance second in command, but with a group of people who listened to him as easily as they did their leader, something which Keith was still getting used too. It also put Lance firmly in charge of the cadets. Which really Keith didn't mind turning over, even though he was sticking his fingers into that all the time too. Making sure they were learning what they needed to know, and that Lance was teaching them by the book tactics and not only his own way of doing things. Lance had never flown a manuever by the book in his life.

Lance.

Lance.

Lance.

Keith ran his hands over his face, touched his lips and felt like he'd allowed Lance to kiss him when he hadn't. He hadn't at all, Lance had gotten under his skin though - It'd been why he hadn't planned on talking about them. Ever. He'd planned on letting Lance know about Granger coming and that it was romantic but he'd been planning on sliding it in between the security brief about the festival and finding out if Vince and Daniel got off to Earth okay...

Rude but needed.

They'd talked about them, and he'd had his hands on Lance's hip, digging into fingers in against the lean muscle, wanting to let Lance lean down and take him. If he'd let Lance kiss him they'd still be down there, Keith flat on his back, Lance over him on the gym floor and who knows what kind of state of undress...

No.

He can't go down that road again because maybe Lance didn't cheat, and maybe Keith screwed that up but they, they'd imploded, or exploded, they'd ridden the wave as long, as fast and as crazily as they could and it crashed out from under them and they were done. Done. And it left Keith breathless and empty and he wasn't risking that again.

Granger, Granger had put a lot cards on the table, said things Lance would never say, committed to things that Lance would scoff at - Keith hadn't given Granger much reason to even risk his heart like that, to say anything of the sort but he'd laid it out one night for Keith when Keith had been pushing him away hard and fast. He didn't think then he could do it then, on the run, dodging Wade's goons, looking for any clues on where Wade had Black and what else he may be up too. give himself something that would nice, committed, and a bit fun ... but he was home now.

Lance hadn't been far off about that... Keith had invited the guy to his home to meet the family. It hadn't started out all that great, Lance had another point about explaining the tattoo but he'd figure that out when they got there - he wasn't quite ready for that yet. He had to go see Granger first, give him a tour of the Castle, find Pidge and Hunk and introduce them. It was time to go do that, Keith thought standing up when the chime on his office door rang.

"Yes," he said, walking toward the door since he was planning to leave. The door opened and Granger stood there, lazy smile on his face. "Hey, I asked around someone said I should look here... uh, you deal with that business?"

Granger wasn't patient, which said a lot that he'd waited for him, Keith thought and he felt a wave of bashfulness attack him. He nodded, motioned with his hands they'd be leaving the office and stepped out. "Did you get your bag in my room, all right?"

"Yeah, nice room. It's almost as big as my bar."

Keith shook his head. "That's an exaggeration, though Allura did upgrade our rooms from where we used to sleep. Or rooms used to be smaller than her bathroom," he laughed.

"Well a living area, bedroom and that swanky bathroom, I've seen smaller apartments."

Keith frowned, he had too, he made sure to try not forgot how lucky he was especially after five years of his own constant roof over his head being a fractal. "I've been lucky to be here, to be back here."

"I'm glad you got back here, the Galaxy is really. Celebration in the bar was epic, there was even three different bar fights, all about the new centers for Voltron? What is that? I don't think anyone really gets it out there. So like all the lions now can be the body... different configurations?"

"Different powers, elemental strengths..." Keith sighed. "We're still figuring it out, some people out there may have better theories than we do. It's a learning experience everyday in this Castle sometimes."

Granger grinned. "I hope to learn many things before I have to leave back for the bar... never closed for Christmas before... but I'm sure it will be worth it," he moved in front of Keith and then crowded him against the wall of the empty hallway they were in. "I don't know about the hair," he said, running his hands through Keith's shorter do.

Keith closed his eyes to the touch and the feel of being pressed between a wall and a handsome man - it wasn't something he could explain or pinpoint, but it caused a thrill to roll up his spine and then trickle down it again as heat. "I don't really like it either but I was told the mullet had to go."

Granger shrugged. "I liked it, added to your mystery. Here was this intelligent, sharp, articulate man who had a mullet... Never seen one on someone who wasn't into mullet rock."

"I like mullet rock," Keith said.

"Can't see it," Granger said. "And there wasn't one rock and roll CD in your collection."

Right, they'd all been Lance's, Keith thought and he swallowed. "Well, I do like it, some."

"Heh," Granger said. "Good thing I brought some of mine then," Granger let his hand fall onto the back of Keith's neck and was about to go in for a kiss when he heard.

"Ach, you have a private room for a reason Commander," Nanny said, walking towards them with Sven's son on her hip. "This is not the place for that kind of behavior. Who is this ruffian, who else have you vagabonds brought into King Alfor's Castle."

Keith had to smile, he'd learned the hard way a long time ago that Nanny's way of letting them know she cared was to well - be Nanny. He gently, shoved Granger out of his space and he walked forward and gave Nanny a slight bow in greeting. Then he let little Sven Junior as they'd all been calling him - since Sven had never told them his name grab his index finger.

"Ilya Granger, this is Nanny. Nanny, Ilya Granger."

Granger walked forward and winked, Keith inwardly sighed. Nanny made a hmmph noise in her throat, shook her head. "Your private room, Commander."

"Yes, ma'am," Keith said.

Granger laughed, walked over and slung an arm around Keith's shoulder. "Please tell me we are walking towards your quarters, I got all turned around looking for you."

"Not exactly. I wanted you to meet Pidge and Hunk."

Granger nodded. "Yeah, yeah, that's good too. I just..." he gave Keith a long look. "It's been a long time, Keith," he said, tightening the arm around Keith's shoulder.

Keith nodded because he was at a loss for words, he hated it when he didn't know what to say but it happened to him a lot in situation likes this. He nodded a second time, and then made sure Nanny had turned the corner at the end of the hallway, grabbed Granger by the waist and pushed him into the wall, and kissed him without any preamble.

Granger didn't protest, he gripped onto Keith tightly, leaning in but he let Keith control the kiss, didn't even attempt to take away the control and Keith sighed into the kiss, feeling a lot nerves that gone ragged start to fly away. This was good, this was what he needed, something he'd needed and could have without much fuss. Granger was both familiar and new. Someone he knew he could trust with his life, with political secrets, with a needle and thread when he was bleeding. And someone he liked being around, who was easy on the eyes and good with his hands, and his mouth, and in bed.

They hadn't really done the things that to Keith meant love making, meant forever, meant me and you together - but Keith wanted to try with Granger, because of what Granger was willing to give.

He pulled back from the kiss, licked his lips and laughed. "How do you always taste like beer?"

"It's in my veins at this point," Granger laughed. "You, you... Keith, maybe this should wait until your room too but, uh, I have to be sure."

"What?"

"This invite, this Castle, these people. They're your family, are you finally telling me you're willing to try for us. To be with me, with me and not just use me as a place to lie low, to meet contacts and the occasional piece of ass?"

The guilt slapped him, his behavior at times with Granger had been callous and not knowing that Granger had been falling for him wasn't an excuse for behaving like an ass. He shook his head at the memory, the guilt and in answer. "I had a talk with Allura, she told me it was okay to give myself something I want, and I thought about what I wanted and what I could have. I called you, I kept thinking about what you said to me last time I was at your place. You were right about a lot things. I do run from letting people in, from being close."

"So, letting me in."

"Yeah," Keith said.

"Good. So the other people you've let in, your family. Who is the one that's going to be the hardest to win approval of... cause I want all their blessings, man. It's just better to get along with the family. Is it going to be the Princess, or that Lance guy?"

Lance. Lance with his bloody knuckles, lips parted, eyes hooded, breathing hitched because he'd been about to kiss Keith, the image flooded Keith's mind so fast and so quick Keith barely knew what hit him. Keith swallowed, over a sudden lump in his throat and guilt about the fact he'd never told Granger about him and Lance. He'd never told him because he'd tried to not think about it, ever.

Ever.

Until today.

Somehow he hadn't realized bring Granger here would bring up him and Lance. For a leader, for a Commander it was appallingly short-shortsighted.

"Granger about..."

Larmina came tearing down the hallway, saw them activated her voltcom weapon to use between the two walls to slow her fast pace and came to a halt inches away from them. "Hello."

Keith gave her a long stare.

"Nanny is here, I don't want her cornering me about not wearing a dress, not having my hair down and not being a proper princess... I'm heading out to the lake to help with the building."

Keith nodded.

"But first... Hello," Larmina grinned at Granger.

Keith sighed. "Lady Larmina, this is Ilya Granger."

"I thought he'd be old, and weird looking and talk like Sven. Do you talk like Sven?"

"I don't have an accent if that's what you mean. I'm from America like Keith," he said.

"Huh," Larmina then looked between him and Keith. "Really?" she said.

Keith stared at her. "Go help with the building, Larmina."

"Fine but you know what?"

"I don't know what and I don't want to know what?"

Larmina smirked and brought up a type pad on her voltcom, two seconds later, after she disappeared around the corner Keith's voltcom beeped.

"That thing gets texts?"

"Pidge designed them to do about everything they could possibly do," Keith said.

"Aren't you going to read it?"

"No," Keith said. "Come on, let's introduce you to Pidge and Hunk, I'm sure they're in the maintenance bay working on Black Lion. This way," he said, leading Granger down the hall a bit further than where Larmina went. When Granger was busy checking out an old painting of a creepy old King, Keith glanced at Larmina's text message.

(bold) Lance is way hotter. WAY.

Keith deleted the message and hoped that Pidge and Hunk would be open minded about Granger, he had a feeling Allura and Larmina weren't going to be easy on Granger at all. But they both were close to Lance, closer to him than they were to Keith - well Larmina, anyway. Allura he knew loved them both but she used to dreamily ask them question about their love like they were from a fairytale. He wondered if she still had them on some crazy pedestal? No, how they'd shattered apart had to have even ended Allura's view of their relationship.

He pushed the button to open the door the mechanics bay and swore the bass from the techno beat of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer moved his hair. Granger walked in and head moving to the beat and yelled. "This sounds like D.J. Prong!"

Keith shrugged, he couldn't tell one techno beat from another, though he could tell it was Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and getting louder as they made it closer to where Hunk and Pidge were bent over the computer looking at Black Lion design schematics. Keith waved his hands through the holographic image to get their attention, then shouted. "Turn it down!"

"Sorry, my bad, Keith," Hunk said. "D.J. Prong just released their first Christmas single, doing one everyday until Christmas, plus some special Kwanza, Chanukah and what did you say it was Pidge?"

"Baltan Binary Code Discovery Day. It's a very important landmark in Baltan history. It's been celebrated for more years than I think I could accurately calculate it and D.J. Prong has added it to his list of Holidays he's celebrating. He has a specific song for almost every planet, he does this every month. It's a thing, December, seems to be busy month for holidays however..." Pidge trailed off. "Uh, hello?"

"Hi," Granger waved.

Keith took a breathe, this was it, this was the first time he could introduce Granger, the way he wanted to introduce Granger. "Hunk, Pidge, this is um, this someone I met while I was hunting... Black," he looked up at his Lion, magnifienct and beautiful looming above them. "Uh, he really helped out a lot, without a lot of his intel and insight I might not have found her when I did."

Hunk and Pidge exchanged glances. "I thought that was Manset," Hunk said.

Keith sighed. "He introduced me to Manset."

"You're the Russian Mobsters?" Pidge said.

"Wow, everyone around here has some imagination," Granger said.

"I thought he was some sort of ballet dancer, or Ice Skater," Hunk said.

Keith and Pidge both looked at Hunk.

Hunk broke out in a smile. "Nah, I got nothing, but that was classic. Gotcha."

"Uh, anyway, I invited him to spend Christmas, here, with me," Keith said before Hunk started to talk about food, or Pidge started to make noise about getting back to work.

Hunk and Pidge both then turned towards Granger, Keith held his breath. Hunk then stepped forward, held out his hand. Keith breathed a sigh of relief as Granger shook hands with the two of them and Hunk started to ask him what he liked to eat for Christmas.

"I just like to make sure everyone gets their favorite holiday food. We have the Autumnal Arus traditions of course, which are great. Then I make my mom's holiday sweet potato casserole. Pidge, loves Christmas, even though he's not from Earth. But he was at the Academy as a kid and fell in love with the tradition."

"Trees with lights, presents under them... what wasn't to like," Pidge said with a shrug. "What he's leading to do is I have thing for christmas cookies. So be ready for CHristmas cookies. They should show up tomorrow and never stop... until sometime after New Years. Will you still be here?"

"Uh, yeah, I think?" Granger glanced at Keith.

Keith nodded. "I hope."

Hunk and Pidge nodded.

Granger was looking up at Black. "So that's her, huh?"

Keith nodded. "Want to go up?"

Granger shook his head, then nodded. "Uh, yeah, wow, no. Really?" he looked at Keith.

"Sure," Keith said, trying not laugh. "Let me just let whoever is in the control room know we're going up," he walked off a bit before activating his voltcom but was stopped before he could by a meaty hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, Hunk?"

Hunk gave him a small smile, he shrugged. "Uh, um, I was just wondering what the.. um, well does... oh man this sounded easier in my head..."

"What the big guy is trying to say," Pidge said, coming into view. "Is does Granger know about Lance, does Lance know about Granger and uh how tense is the situation going to be?"

"No, yes and tense Granger kind of told Lance himself..." Keith trailed off.

Pidge and Hunk exchanged a look. Hunk scratched his head. "Huh?"

"Granger ran into Lance first, he asked Lance if he'd read my invite right..." Keith threw up his hands.

Pidge frowned. "Uh, Keith..."

"Yeah."

"Have you and Lance ever uh made peace with whatever happened?"

"Does it matter? It's been over for years."

Hunk scratched his head again. "Well, yeah, but... it's not like it was fling or something, you two were practically..."

Keith held up his hand, he didn't want to hear it, he didn't want to ever hear that phrase again... Ever. "No. No. It's over, it's over and I'm moving on. It's about time, don't you think, he's a good guy, okay?"

Pidge and Hunk both nodded. "Okay."

"Okay."

"I'll go up to control," Hunk said. "I think it's just some guard sitting in there, Allura had to take a meeting and she said Lance went out to help with building." He walked off toward the elevator that would take him straight up into the control room.

"Thanks Hunk," Keith said.

"Have fun showing off your lion," Pidge said with an eye roll and a grin, then he hit a button and Stereolactic burst onto the speakers again, this time with a techno version of Deck The Halls. The song was bugging Keith but he couldn't place it, so to avoid that he yelled at Pidge, "I thought Hunk said they'd only released one song so far!" He yelled.

"That song is from last year, this is Hunk's Ipod Christmas Mix!"

Keith gave Pidge a shake of the head, deciding he had to get away from the music he walked over to where Granger was staring up at Black Lion. The music was quieter where they were so at least they didn't have to shout to talk, but Keith could hear the techno fa la las and it was grating on his nerves. Maybe he just really hated techno music?

"Hey?" he said to Granger.

"You really fly that?"

Keith nodded, it hit him sometimes too. The fact that he flew such a noble looking ship, a piece of mecha that was more than machine that was truly a lion in many ways. The leader of a pride, allowing him to fly him and lead his own team. "It's a responsibility," he said.

"It's awesome, and I bet it's blast," Granger said.

Keith nodded, hit a button his voltcom and the platform they were on started to rise up, until it stopped in front of Black's jaws. "Come on," Keith said.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la," Granger sang out, then hit his leg with his hands in rhythm to the techno beat. "This is going to be a great Christmas, he grinned.

Keith nodded, but he felt as his stomach lining had turned to lead, his mind flashing back in time, telling him why it really was Deck the Halls grated on his nerves in the present.

(ITalic)

San Francisco, The McClain Residence

(Italic)

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Tis the season to be jolly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Keith ducked through the crowd of people, the McClain's seemed to know everyone, or they'd just invited every body to their Christmas body, and Rhoda McClain had them all singing Deck the Halls, horribly in her living room. Keith had lost sight of Lance somehow and he needed some breathing room and to get away from the off key butchering of the song. He walked upstairs, which were out of bounds for the party, but he wasn't really just a party guest and he went all the way to the top of the third floor, which really led to just a door, to the small room that was Lance's bedroom. It was open but it was dark inside. No Lance.

Keith sat down in the threshold, if he waited long enough, Lance would find him. Always did. Less than five minutes, Lance came galloping up the stairs, holding a bottle of champagne. He stopped short when he saw Keith. Got a weird look on his face, sat down abruptly and a bit too close to Keith and said, "Hey," in a whisper.

"Why are you whisp..." was all Keith managed to say because then Lance was kissing him.

Which he'd been thinking about for the last six months, almost non-stop, but would never have done, not on his life but suddenly he had Lance's tongue down his throat. Lance pulled back and looked kind of pale and clammy.

"Uh," Keith said.

"Mistletoe," Lance said pointing up.

Keith looked up and sure enough hanging on Lance's doorframe right over Keith's head was a sprig of mistletoe. Keith frowned. "Why is there..."

"I wanted an excuse, I thought I'd have to plot a way to get you under it though..." Lance trailed off with a nervous laugh. "And be drunk...really drunk," he waved the full bottle of champagne and laughed.

"Oh."

Lance bounced his legs up and down, and Keith could still hear the bad rendition of Deck the Halls as the singers got louder and louder with each repeat of the chorus.

"Keith?" Lance said with a slight break in his voice.

"Yeah."

"Again?"

"Yeah," Keith smiled.

He'd really liked Deck the Halls a lot after that.