Notes: I feel like this isn't very Christmasy, despite being a Christmas fic. Hopefully it will get more Christmasy. Sorry.

Chapter Five

"Uh, it's my tattoo," he said and turned around. Granger looked hurt more than angry which was worse. Keith felt ashamed. "I should've told you," Keith said.

Granger leaned forward, turned off the water and naked walked out and straight to his duffle back, which he'd left on the foot of Keith's bed.

"Granger," Keith said, as he grabbed a towel to wrap around his waist, followed him into his room.

Granger hopped into a pair of black jeans, ran his hands through his mostly dry hair, he never had made it under the spray. He looked up at Keith, the unreadable expression Keith had seen a million times back at Granger's bar. The once Granger had when he was dealing with dangerous men and women, the types Granger said had hair triggers. The ones who might shoot you, or offer to buy you a whiskey depending on the right word, the right twitch of your upper lip. He was looking at Keith like he was a bomb that might go off and Keith didn't like it at all.

"I should have told you," he repeated.

"So when I babbling out there about Lance maybe being some homophobic asshole, the idea of saying, 'Hell, no, Granger, he's as gay as us, in fact his name is tattooed on my ass?' never occurred to you?"

"No."

"No?" Granger said sounding more shocked than angry.

"We don't, we didn't...we barely have - had time - for that shower we were going to take together. Letting you know about me and Lance, it's a long conversation," Keith admitted, running a hand through his soaked hair; he'd been under the spray.

"That's quite a tattoo, I mean what I saw of it, I don't remember much really. Just Lance in black capital letters and the word mine I think, it was weird lettering, but there was more to it wasn't there?"

Keith shook his head. "It's got some symbols, things..."

"Important relationship things?"

Keith shrugged. "They were important to us, don't know if they were relationship things."

"He has one too doesn't he?"

Keith nodded.

"Fuck, please tell me it wasn't the one that I saw peaking out of his jeans earlier..."

Keith stayed silent but he was sure something in his face, expression or body language would give away the answer. Granger sat down on the bed and put his hands in his head. "Keith? You were going to tell me?"

"Tonight, yes."

"So, when I mentioned the shower and you agreed..."

"I kind of, well not forgot, but forgot... I was thinking showering together was quick way for us to..." Keith trailed off but he was looking Granger in the eyes. He didn't know what to say, or rather how to say what was needed to be said. He wasn't good at this, he never had been, Lance hadn't expected words that often though. It'd been him who wanted words, it was hypocritical of him he thought now staring at Granger.

"To reconnect the way both been wanting too since we saw each other in that control room?" Granger said with a half smile, but it wasn't his whole smile. "At least I hope we both wanted it?"

Keith nodded. "I want you."

"How long?"

"For a long time now."

"No, Keith. How long were you with Lance, but more important how long haven't you been with him?"

Keith struggled with a way to deflect the question, he didn't want to answer. Giving Granger those facts, they were the part of the longer conversation they didn't really have time for. That Keith wished they didn't need to have at all. "It's... a long conversation, Granger."

"Maybe I can shorten it up for now. When did you two first get together? Here on Arus, when you first got here? I remember you mentioning him and you knowing eachother at teh Academy? SO there or here?"

Worse and worse, Keith thought. "Uh, we've been friends since the sixth grade."

Granger opened and shut his mouth a few times, that expression for the hair trigger people coming back into play and Keith felt his spine go more rigid in defense of it.

"I realize this is a lot to take in," Keith said.

"When did you break up?"

Complicated question was Keith's instinctive answer because there was no real point. No set date, no set hour, or argument, neither one of said we're done, we're finished. Unless Keith counted what he'd said earlier today in the downstairs gym, and the idea of that being the real end felt like a punch in Keith's gut. It'd be harsh, cruel and wrong. No, no, no, he shook his head and wished he wasn't standing in his bedroom, naked with Granger suddenly.

"Keith?"

"What?" he said, his head spinning at the idea that no one had said the words out loud until him, today and it was unsettling.

"Answer me please?"

"I can't."

"What?"

"Granger, we were fighting, we were barely talking, then there was battle after battle after battle... and it came about fighting Doom, Defending the Universe. Taking down Zarkon and Lotor. And we made a truce, for the team, for Voltron. Then we won, and the lions were sabotage and I went off to find Black and Lance went undercover with the Academy."

"And."

"And," Keith's head was starting to hurt, he still felt sick to his stomach about the idea of the possible official break up being now, now today - then what the hell was he doing? He couldn't move on that quickly? Even if wasn't that quickly but he and Lance were... He was thinking to much wasn't he? There was laugh in his head telling him yeah you bastard you're thinking to much and sounded like Lance. Keith started to move toward the bed, to sit down, thinking also maybe if he was closer to Granger he could get some sort of grounding in the present. When the chime on Keith's door rang through the room.

Granger threw up his hands. "We'll talk later."

Keith tightened the towel around his waist and instead of going to his bed, walked to the door. , amazed he could walk straight he felt so spun. "Who is it?" he asked through the intercom, hoping he didn't have to go back and get his robe.

"It's Pidge."

Keith slid open the door. Pidge didn't blinke an eye about Keith's appearance. "Bandor's arrived, he's got news about Sven and Romelle, Allura thought all five of us should hear it before dinner?"

Keith nodded. "Give me ten minutes."

"Sorry, if I interrupted..."

Keith shook his head. "No, no, Sven and Romelle are more important, ten minutes."

"I hate to ask, but when I went by Lance's room he was in his shower, so..."

Keith nodded. "I'll get him."

Pidge nodded.

~~.~~

Interlude: Tattoo Me Part One

"You done yet," Lance said.

"Not yet, hold on."

"It doesn't have to be perfect," Lance said.

"It's going to be on your body, right over your... your..."

"Cock," Lance said, laughing. "I love that you can suck it, and when I'm fucking you yell things like Fuck my ass harder Lance, fuck me hard with that cock, but in regular conversation even with me you still stutter."

"Shut up," Keith said, ignoring the heat on his cheeks and in his groin from Lance's vocabulary choices and the visuals it evoked. He knew if he turned his head and looked at Lance it would only get worse. Lance had started sitting on the edge of Keith's bed, but Keith knew him, he'd leaned back and now he was probably all the way lain back, hands under his head, legs wide open. The fact he was only wearing his boxers was the factor that made the picture a temptation Keith couldn't afford to turn and look at.

"Come on, man, I finished yours, I wanna show you."

"Just be patient, for once in your life," Keith shouted. He went back to the paper he was working on the final drawing of what would be Lance's tattoo, blushing when he thought of where it was going to go and blushing more when he thought about where his would be. "How did you talk me into this?"

"I didn't talk you into anything, Baby. I asked, you said, that'd be hot, and we found the best tattooist on Arus, who agreed to an after hours appointment. But I have to bring him the drawings to do whatever he has to do with... so he can put them onto us, so will you hurry it up!"

"It will be hot," Keith said.

"Hell yeah, and see my cock wasn't in your ass that time and you agreed right away again."

Keith groaned and then laughed. "Why the hell do I love you again?"

"I make life interesting."

"Yeah, you do," Keith agreed. "Damn, guess I'm stuck with you and getting your name on my ass. I'm done," he turned around and licked his lips. Lance looked as lickable as he'd been expecting.

Lance sat up, holding a piece of rolled up paper in his and hands. Before Keith could even blink though, Lance was on his knees in front of Keith, his empty hand on Keith's thigh and holding out the paper. "Switch?"

Keith nodded, nervous as hell. What if Lance hated it? What if he hated Lance's drawing? Oh, no, what if he hated what was on Lance's paper and how would he tell him. He hated disappointing Lance, making those bright brown eyes darken with sadness. Lance's face was made for smiling, and it if he took it away...there was a sharp stinging slap on his thigh.

"Stop it, you're using your brain again. Stop that. Switch."

Keith nodded and handed Lance the paper quickly and snatched up Lance's.

It was perfect. He'd been an idiot to think it'd be anything else though. Lance's name was bold and big, Lance had a note in the margin to make sure it was in clean bold lines, and all capitals. To the diagonal left of the L were Superior Class Pilot Wings, Lance's pilot's Wings, showing he was one of the best of the best. The best, really. Keith swallowed, horizontal to it, diagonally to the right of the E in Lance was book with a red cover. Keith recognized it for what it was, it'd been the journal Keith had kept when he was fifteen, where he'd spilled all his secrets. Being gay, having a crush on his best friend. Some asshole that school had found it and passed it around... Lance found out and beaten him to pulp, then returned the journal unread. Keith had torn out an entry about how he liked boys and shoved it Lance's chest, needing him to know that if the whole school knew. He'd always wondered if Lance had heard or knew he liked him after that but never had asked. Lance had told him he already knew, and told him he felt the same way too - about boys.

Kissing came later.

Vertically below the book and diagonally to the right and down from the E in Lance's messy handwriting scrawled diagonally upward was the word "Mine", with a note from Lance. (ITALIC) Keep this in my handwriting. Keith blushed but smiled, bit his lower lip and then laughed when he saw that vertically under the pilot wings, was Voltron's Blazing Sword. But it was perfect, totally perfect and them. It was them. He hoped Lance thought he'd done as good as job, he looked up from the paper, his heart felt like it was in his ears it was beating so loudly.

Lance was looking right at him, eyes full of tears, Keith blinked and realized his were too. "It's perfect," they said in unison.

~~.~~

Lance grabbed a towel the minute his turned off the water. The last thing he wanted to see when he stepped out of the shower was his fucking tattoo. He hadn't been paying it much mind of late, it was a part of him, felt like it always had been from the moment it'd been inked on. It was history and it was Keith. It wasn't like it hadn't always been there, under his skin anyway. Didn't matter he'd spent the first ten years or so of his life not knowing the name Keith Kogane, the second the quiet kid, who liked to read but who could knock anyone who tried to bully him over it onto their ass, they'd been joined at the hip.

They'd fought a lot, but how couldn't they were so different, but it worked. Keith knew how to get Lance to see when and how to be quiet and Lance knew when to tell the guy to not think himself into a headache.

Right now though in the present the last thing Lance wanted to see was the damn tattoo, not when Keith was probably getting fucked by someone else. Moving on, Keith had said. He'd made a choice, he'd said and it wasn't Lance. Fuck, Keith, Lance thought, then wryly and bitterly laughed at himself since that was exactly what he wanted to do.

He walked over to his desk, towel still on, opened his laptop and accessed his Den Files, typed in a few codes, passwords and within seconds he had Ilya Granger's file up on his screen. He read it over, the intel was in depth. They hadn't vetted anyone without turning over every stone, making sure Keith knew what he needed to know about the people he had to deal with to get the job he was doing done. Lance had thought it should've been him but Keith had insisted, it was Black that was gone, his Lion and Lance couldn't argue with the Lion connection. He knew he would never have let anyone else search for Red. Much like Allura had gone off in horrible winter-blizzard-cold-freeze-to-death conditions to find Blue.

He had wanted to argue though, because he'd wanted Keith safe. Maybe he should have mentioned that last part to Keith, but they weren't talking about them then, they weren't talking about them until now. Why the hell had Keith brought another guy into the mix, what a stupid ass way to bring the topic back up.

Lance closed the file. It wasn't anything he hadn't already remembered. There wasn't anything he could yell at Keith and go, "Did he tell you he murdered a bar patron?" Because the guy never had. Damn it. Lance leaned back in his chair and really wished that Bandor hadn't picked now to resurface, but he figured it was all about the baby. He hoped Bandor had news on Romelle, and especially on Sven. It was his Christmas wish, it was all he could think about really. Was getting Sven off of that godforsaken planet that was becoming more and more godforsaken everyday from what Pidge's reports were saying about it's instability. Sven wasn't safe, and they'd left him there. He was alone, he was infected and the infection made him crazy - that wasn't a good combination. He kept nagging, and asking Pidge how the studies were going on the Haggarium, how he and Vince were doing. He'd listened to Vince yammer before he left for over an hour about their progress, trying to follow what the kid was saying. He hoped Pidge would figure something out if not for Christmas at least before the New Year. At least maybe then Sven could be with his son. He hoped Bandor had news on Romelle. It'd be nice if some couple got a happily ever after.

"Fuck me, didn't know I was such a sap?" Lance muttered to himself. Shaking his head he stood up and turned on his radio. Christmas music piped out, he smiled. He might as well go with the theme, he thought. But it was time to stop thinking so much, or might turn into Keith or something. He sighed and wondered if he'd managed any type of record. He looked at the time. "Nope, not even a full three minutes before you were thinking about how much you love the Fearless Leader. Fearless my ass, he's got some fears all right, never did tell you anything he was thinking about you and him. Not that you asked, maybe if you asked?" Lance sighed. "I'm talking to myself, this is great..." He headed for his kitchenette, he needed beer. He'd get a beer, he drink it, then he'd get dressed and find Allura. Then he'd bug her for the whole night to distract himself from not staring at Keith and Granger, or punching walls with is fist, or the way he was feeling. Though that was more Hunk's territory, though the big guy had learned to temper his temper a few years back, he was much more mellow now. Took it out on metal now, instead of his own fists even. Lance looked at his knuckles, parts of them were raw pink, from the skin being torn away and it'd stung like hell in the shower. Yet he didn't regret it, he'd probably be back at that punching bag soon.

They'd never dealt with anything and Lance had wanted to but he'd been afraid of what Keith would do or say. And now...this? Lance was pissed, he opened the beer, told himself he had to calm down before he went to the dinner because he just had too. He couldn't make scene, not with Bandor visiting. He gulped down the beer and his door chimed. Lance glowered, he still had time to get ready. He needed some fucking time to himself, damn it. He stalked over to the door, hoping for Nanny, Coran, or some poor unsuspecting guard, or maid, because he was answering as is, and his towel was slipping.

He hit the button, the door slid open. Keith stood there, looking annoying hot in a white shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, with a black jacket and black dress pants. Lance couldn't help run his gaze up and down Keith's body. As he was doing this, the towel fell to the floor. When Lance finished his once over of Keith he arched his brows and said, "Forget something you need?"