Notes: Hey everyone. Okay, so this isn't the last chapter either... Not sure when that will be, I suck at knowing but it shouldn't take too much longer. Anyway more Christmasy Cheery and the magic of Autumnal Moon Equinoxes whatever those are ;-).

Chapter Nine

Keith paced the control room, trying focus on being in something comfortable for once, instead of his tight fitting uniform, or the tight fitting dress pants he'd worn last night. The problem was comfortable jeans and a comfortable blue henley shirt were great only if you were feeling comfortable in your own skin.

Keith was anything but comfortable in his own skin. He kept crossing his arms over his chest, he felt a sharp pain from tense muscles in his left shoulder and the base of his neck was killing him and sending pain upward into his skull. He kept walking, trying to uncross his arms, trying to losing up.

Meditation was no use, he couldn't keep his mind off what he'd done to Granger, and that guilt wasn't at all what he felt when it came to Lance. Granger's question of when they'd broken up kept echoing in his head, and how he couldn't answer it because he couldn't even process the idea of them... over.

The fight in the dining room after Bandor had hit Granger. Keith should've been angry about Granger being punched, but instead he'd been angry at the idea he and Lance had such a secure promise to one another as marriage. It didn't matter to him what peasants of Arus might do, or kids around Pidge age in the capital city, who rather get a tattoo than pledge to a higher power their love, honor and fidelity to someone until the soul leaves their body.

He'd never liked it when people called them practically married and to think that they would have gone into a marriage, or call their relationship a marraige without actual intention to do so - It angered Keith. When he'd thought about it, he'd always thought everything that mattered in becoming a married couple with Lance. He'd always thought Lance would propose, never thought about doing it himself. They never talked about it like he'd yelled that night at everyone, including Lance. It'd never come up, had he'd been blaming Lance for not getting he was supposed to be the one to bring it up?

He could have done it himself. He'd been thinking about, thinking about mentioning the idea to gauge Lance's reaction when everything had started to fall apart. First distance because of work and obligation, then more distance from Lance who wasn't about to tell him what was going. Keith hated that understood now, so long after the fact Lance had been hurt about Keith putting work first, putting Allura first. But how did he take back all the stupidity now?

Especially when he laid more on top it, and Lance was not helping. Allura telling him that Lance had gone to his door countless time but never came in. Lance who never ran away from a problem he wanted to solve. Lance who fight all night to get the argument over with so it would over and done with; unless Keith wouldn't let him. Keith always regretting walking away from those fights, making them last longer. Lance hadn't barged in, to fix things, made it feel loud and clear he hadn't felt like it was worth the effort. Only it didn't match up to how angry he'd been from the start about Granger, to his words and actions since Granger arrived.

It didn't match up to how he'd kissed Keith back when Keith had kissed him; Keith turned, heat flaming his cheeks. He didn't know how his mind had remained in denial after that moment. He'd wanted to devour Lance the second he laid eyes on him by the lake, let alone naked and willing in his doorway. It'd been frustrating, it'd pissed him off and it'd felt so right. One sentence about someone who could be a threat and he'd been jealous... Allura. Allura was probably the only real threat in the universe to him and Lance. Lance preferred men, but now and again a woman captured his eye and Allura was just the right kind. Beautiful, smart, and strong. Keith frowned, had that been what Lance had been worried about way back when, with all the escorting? No? He shook his head, as he turned again in the circle he was pacing, but it was there now, in his head, having him wondering.

And Allura and Lance were late.

"Keith, you're giving me vertigo," Coran said.

Keith sighed and stopped. "Where are they?"

"I'm sure she's just waiting for him to finish his shower," Pidge said.

"He did really one, he smelled like fuel, dirt and sweat."

Keith hoped he didn't groan out loud, Lance always turned him on after a bike ride, granted he was usually just as sweaty, oily and dirty himself. He ran a hand through his hair, ended up on the skin on the back of his neck. He had to grow his hair out, he thought idly, but he squeezed the muscles where his neck and shoulder met to try to help them relax. It didn't do much good.

"We'll give them a few minutes than go on ahead, they can meet us there," Coran said.

"What!" Larmina yelled. "If I'm late you all stay, arms crossed, grimacing when I arrive and give me a lecture. Why do they get to be late? Lance stayed out all night, not answering his voltcom! Why doesn't he get a lecture!'

Keith sighed. "Because if there been an attack he would have answered, so we could get him to bring him to his lion."

"You weren't even there. You were ignoring you voltcom too, until they found you doing Tai Chi, no one knew where you were either. I don't get, because they broke up however many years ago..."

"WE. DIDN'T. BREAK. UP!" Keith shouted, then realized what he'd done when Larmina's eyes went huge on him, then narrowed and she looked ready to punch him. Which was just not an option, he narrowed his own eyes right back at her. She stepped back.

"Okay, I'm done trying to point out how much adults get away with now," Larmina said.

Hunk laughed, put his hands on her shoulders. "Come on, Larmina, let me be the first to buy you a Lion Sized Turkey leg, we just have to decide. Fried, or grilled..."

Coran shook his head at Keith, Keith could feel the disappointment Coran felt about his current actions waving off the older gentleman, Keith looked away. Pidge walked up him, handed him a box. "Here, this is a box of Christmas Cookies my brother sent me from Balto. He made them, they're shaped like ninja stars. Pretty good, eat one, remember the time of year it is,. and I don't know take deep breaths..." Pidge sighed. "I'm out of bad advice, but I'm glad you have figured out that you two didn't break up."

Keith took the box and found himself alone. He opened the box, Little Star of Bethelham, started to play and he found himself staring at sparkling bright ninja star cookies, and had to laugh at Chip's warped sense of humor.

~~.~~

"Lance? How long had you've had this ring?" Allura asked for a second time, holding the ring out to him in the palm of her hand.

"Long enough," Lance muttered, bending down and grabbing the box, he was about to take back the ring, when Allura palmed it, and grabbed the box with her other hand.

"Wedding bands too," She said, her voice pitching up, her eyes wide as she peered at the bands. She then took the ring and put it back in its slot in front of the two other rings. "This is Lyran silver... What is the stone in the ring?"

"It's nothing really, just Lyran granite."

"This is Lyran granite?" Allura said, taking the ring back out. She peered at it again. "It reminds me of Earth Onyx, only it has the red in it. I love how the red just darts across the black almost perfectly in the middle. It's..."

"Red lion against space."

Allura looked up. "I was beautiful. You've thought this out."

"No. I didn't," Lance muttered.

"The red in the granite, it's the magnetized part of Lryan rock?"

"Yeah. It's why all their metals have that pink hue," he said.

"When did you..."

"Does it matter, Allura," Lance said, walking to his closet. "I bought them, I engraved the damn ring that screamed Keith and me and I never proposed. Couldn't figure out a time between the being accused of cheating on him with Farla, other stupid arguments and then well you know what happened. Hell, we even forgot to really break up, we couldn't be bothered with each other enough...

Allura startled him then by grabbing him and hugging him. She squeezed her arms around him and then whacked him upside the back of his head before she stepped out of the embrace. "You two couldn't be bothered to break up because you didn't want to break up. You love each other. Passionately. And you are both the most stubborn, prideful and sometimes the most insecure men I've ever met! What you need to do, is make up with him. Bring the ring with you, it'd be a great conversation starter."

Lance stared at her, sometimes she said the most ridiculous things. "Right, Allura. Because after never talking about it and arguing the past two days all it will take is a proposal to make things all sparkles and moonbeams."

"Well, why do you think it has to be so complicated. Tie some mistletoe somewhere and kiss him into submission, then talk to him. I don't know! But do something!"

Lance started laughing, and shook his head. "First time I ever kissed him was under mistletoe. I had this whole plan. I tied it up on the door to my bedroom. Went to sneak some champagne from my parents, was going to get us kind of drunk, drag him up there and do it. I was too nervous to implement it sober."

Allura laughed. "So what happened, you were so drunk you missed his mouth."

"Please, slaphappy drunk I'm still smooth. No, I was sober. He went looking for me while I was on the hunt for the champagne. It was way harder to nab than I thought. Found him sitting under the damn mistletoe. No finagling necessary. So, I sat down next to him and kissed him. I barely remember it, the second kiss was way better, you know by the fourth kiss we..."

"Mistletoe and doorways can be arranged," Allura said, cutting him off with a blush but also with a devious grin.

"Allura it's still not that simple..." Lance said shaking his head.

"Then what is it?"

Lance sighed. "It's. Him and me. We screwed things up, I don't even know how to fix them. It's that he brought that guy here...Granger. And I think he knew it would blow up in his face on some level, but trust me he was denial until it happened. Keith's denial can run deep. It's that we haven't talked about us for years." He stopped talking and looked at her, the real reason threatening to make him cry, he could the tears prickling against the skin at the edges of his eyes. He ducked his head, turned away from Allura's damn empathetic face and blurted it out finally.

"It's that the damn jeweler from Lyra sent me an email about the rings arriving in the next postage supply run from Lyra to Arus. I read it, I was thrilled, I was thinking about how the hell do it, how I had stop acting like an ass. First thing was to come clean about Farla, like I should've earlier... But. He walked in the room and accused me of cheating on him right as I closed the computer after reading it. I see those rings, especially that ring." He pointed at the one Allura held between them in her right hand. "I think about how I was way to fucking late."

"But, you've kept it."

Lance ran his hands through his hair, looking at the ring, held between Allura's right index and thumb. "I don't know, why. I just shoved it in with stuff that matters, you know. I've looked at the box a time or two. Never opened it though. Could remember the ring perfectly though. It felt like it belonged to me, to give to Keith the second I saw it in the store. The granite is such a deep black like some of his damn moods, if he lets them get there. Or, you know how serious he can get, all caught up in work, in what's going on at the moment and what has to be done. Then there it is, that red streak, marring it all up."

"It takes it from merely pretty to exquisite," Allura said.

"Yeah, whatever..." Lance muttered. "It was us. It worked. Or, I thought it worked and I knew it was the right ring. At least I thought it did. I ended up buying it and the wedding bands that day."

"Why were you at Lyran jeweler?" Allura asked.

"I was helping Farla."

"With?" she pressed, getting to the point of her questions.

Lance laughed, feeling chagrinned. "Yeah, I never told anyone what I was helping Farla with, huh?"

"I'm sure it was important, I could tell at the time you were taking it seriously.."

"I was helping her get through the red tape. To marry a Garrison solider. This great girl stationed on Lyra. Farla asked me for help; first time anyone ever came to me for help on something so important. First time I realized I could use being part of the Voltron Force to help out someone too...My mom used her rank in the Air Force all the time do favors for people. I've seen you and Keith do it. Never even occurred to me I could do that too. At first I just wasn't telling because Farla asked to keep it quiet, and I didn't want to jinx it. Plus, I wanted to do it on my own, if I told Keith he'd keep butting in. He's so fucking bossy."

Allura laughed.

Lance rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know you, know. Then I was miffed at him, and it was bugging him I had a secret, that I was taking calls from the Garrison on something. Was on the computer. I can't remember when I mentioned it was about Farla. Probably right before I went to Lyra to deliver the final paperwork. That was when Farla dragged me to the jeweler, to help her pick out the bracelet for Lydia - they do bracelets on Lyra rather than rings."

"Then Keith got it into his head you were having an affair with Farla," Allura sighed. "I wish he'd talked to me. I would have talked some sense to him."

Lance shrugged. "He probably wouldn't have listened. Don't know why, he's always been jealous, possessive. And you know, I might've been singing Farla's praises a bit. I was mad at him for being so busy, for always being with you..." Lance trailed off. "I was jealous, myself."

Allura shook her head. "Of me?"

Lance shrugged. "You are the only woman in the universe, I could be jealous of Allura."

Blushing, Allura shook her head, again. "As if you two have eyes for anyone else... He never looked at Granger when you were in the room. He was so wrong to invite him here, I hope he didn't hurt that man too much."

"Just another Kogane broken heart..." Lance laughed, looking at the ring and feeling sick to his stomach. "Never thought I'd be one of them, thought I was the lucky one."

"You are," Allura said. "Why did you have the rings out?"

"Was thinking about melting them in the volcano."

"Lance!"

He sighed and plucked the ring from between Allura's fingers. "I never would've. They'll go back in the closet."

"Talk..."

"Allura, what good will it do?" Lance felt the bitterness rise up again, his anger had been calming but Allura's insistence they needed to just talk was driving him crazy. He sighed, put the ring in the box and shoved it back up into his closet and then started to loudly look through his jeans. He didn't see one pair but pretended to be choosing between them.

"You're angry, he's angry, but you both have to get past it."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Allura, he invited another man here, you heard him after the explanation for why Bandor thought we were, what did he call it Bonded... He thought it was asinine."

"He was angry it wasn't true, if you ask me," Allura said.

Lance stared at her. "What?"

"It's what it looked like to me, and I know him pretty well Lance. He barely flinched when Bandor hit Granger. I expected him to be angrier about it but he didn't get angry until you told Bandor that you and Keith weren't together. Then he got more angry as we discussed the marriage laws... It was you, he yelled at. It was you two who had... I don't know what to call it."

"It was a fight."

"About how much you loved him? About how he didn't break up with you? Those aren't fighting words," Allura said with a smile.

Lance frowned. "Can I just go take my shower?" he asked her. The more she brought up that fight the more confused he got about it. What were they fighting about? What were they avoiding? He sighed.

"Oh, Goddess," Allura looked at her watch. "We're so late, Coran must've left without us. Larmina, is never going to let me hear the end of being late..." she sighed.

Lance laughed. "Tell, Larmina, adults are just unfair."

Allura nodded. "Sometimes, even to themselves."

~~.~~

Keith jumped up from the floor when Allura came into the room shouting.

He'd been sitting, wondering why it was him waiting for Allura and Lance. He was dreading seeing Lance, he was nibbling his third ninja star Christmas Cookie and contemplating just heading off to the festival when Allura ran into the room, tears running down her face.

"Keith, Keith, it's awful, quick, hurry up!"

"What, what is it?"

"I don't know what happened, I don't know what he was thinking...there is blood everywhere!" she screamed, running ahead of him.

Blood. Him. Lance? Keith over took her one stride and grabbed her. "What happened, tell me..."

"There isn't anytime, we have to hurry up, they said to get you..."

"They said to get me?"

"Yes, we have too," Allura gasped for air.

Keith ran ahead of her this time towards Lance's room, his heart in his ears, blood, Allura crying, someone telling her to hurry and get him. He didn't know what to think but he was envisioning nothing but pain and darkness forever... He slammed the code into the door, ran into the room and stopped still.

Everything was pristine. He could hear the shower running through the open bedroom door. He turned to the door in time to see Allura looking at him, with an apologetic smile. "Forgive me, but there was no other way to get you in the door," she said and she closed the door.

Keith blinked, he ran toward the door but it was too late he heard her via the intercom, because she wanted him to hear her.

"Code: Allura De Arus, Princess, Access 32987-7651. Keep door locked until further request of Allura De Arus, Princess, Access 32987-7651. I will not let you two out until you talk."

"What if their is an attack, Allura! This is unsafe!"

"I don't care. And of course if my planet is jeopardy I'll let you two idiots out. But until that is the case, get used to be in that room. You two are in love, you need to figure it out and make up and make out already. Lance already knows what I think, though seeing you and being locked in the room will be a surprise. I'm going to the festival."

Keith hit buttons though he knew it was no use, he opened the intercom and shouted after Allura. She was going to the festival, she'd locked him and Lance in Lance's room - in what used to be their room. He'd been trapped before, in cages, locked up - even on purpose once - but this...

He didn't know how to face Lance. He didn't know how to handle the mess he'd made out of things and he wasn't about to let Lance off the hook for his side of the problem. He'd made mistakes, he'd pushed Keith way and he hadn't done a thing on Keith's return to get Keith back. Instead he'd argued about who got to be in charge.

No. Keith never had felt trapped quite like this before, he also made a mental note that Allura was much more devious than he ever gave her credit for. His voltcom pinged and he hit the button. It was Pidge and Hunk faces, they were trying not to laugh in his face.

They ended up just pointed and nodding.

Keith groaned, they'd be no help then, they liked Allura's trap. "Great, thanks guys," he muttered and he shut down the communication.