Keith was livid, but Shiro didn't seem to notice.

There was only one way for him to get his way. Act out.

He banged the plates a little too hard. He stomped around their beach villa a little too loud. He even sighed dramatically, and noisily, every time Shiro came too close.

Shiro lasted longer than Keith expected, a full half an hour before he finally reached out and snatched Keith's arm and spun him around.

"Keith, why are you acting this way?"

Keith's jaw dropped open incredulously, and then his eyes narrowed as he stared up into Shiro's almond shaped eyes. He saw worry there, concern… and Keith scowled.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE LEAVING!" he yelled. He yanked his arm out of Shiro's grip, and skittered back, fully expecting Shiro to come after him and secretly thrilled when he did.

"You know why I'm leaving," Shiro sighed, going after Keith and pulling him closer, ignoring the way Keith squirmed and kicked and struggled in his arms. Shiro was twice the size of Keith and then some but it didn't stop him from thrashing about.

"It's so stupid! Why do they want you? Why does it have to be you? Why can't someone else go?"

"Keith." Shiro ignored the smaller man's flailing limbs and hauled him into his arms none too gently. He walked them both over to the bed where he collapsed with Keith nestled in his lap. The gauzy material of the mosquito nets brushed Keith's back and he shivered. "We've talked about this. You know why. I do this job and we'll be set up for good. I'll own the surf shop outright, you won't have to pander to tourists anymore. We'll have everything we need."

Keith's hands tightened into painful claws on Shiro's shoulders. "But it's a whole month. I… I can't be without you that long. Why can't I go too? I'm good with tech, I've been trained, I can fight-"

"Someone needs to stay here to look after the shack and the shop."

Keith was silent, chewing on his lip angrily. Shiro watched as his lips turned red and swollen with his thick brows snapped together. He wanted those lips red and swollen, but not from Keith's own doing. He latched onto a handful of Keith's dark hair and forced Keith's head back. "Baby, look at me."

But Keith was stubborn, his chin jutting out and his face turned away. He couldn't seem to hold down the rising resentment, fear and anger. He shoved roughly at Shiro's shoulder and glared, yanking his head away from Shiro's grip and ignoring the sharp prick of pain as strands came loose. "If you wanted to get away from me, all you had to say was that, you don't have to make shit up-"

Shiro growled. "It's not like that."

"Yeah? How the fuck is it then? You gonna go find someone else to keep you warm on your mission? Are you even gonna want me here when you get back? Maybe you'll want to move some new-"

"Keith, STOP."

Shiro's voice was low and calm but commanding. Keith's scattered and hyper consciousness followed it like a thread. The turmoil inside him settled ever so slightly but then it flared again, Keith furious not just at Shiro, but also himself for giving up so easily.

"And what if you don't come back at all, huh? WHAT THEN?"

When tears flooded Keith's eyes, Shiro realised he was sick of talking, of trying to reason with the hellcat that was his lover. He knew that the best way to hush Keith up was to distract him with something else.

Shiro moved quickly, catching both of them by surprise. He trapped Keith's mouth under his and held his head securely in his wide palms even as Keith continued to trash in his lap. He could feel the push and pull of Keith's wild emotions – the stubborn urge to fight, the desperate need to surrender. He tried to slide one of his hands down, wrapping his arm around the smaller man's waist in a further effort to steady him.

But under Shiro, Keith pushed and pulled, wanting desperately to respond to Shiro and melt into him, but also determined to punish the both of them by pulling away and depriving them both of a sweet oblivion. One of his hands thumped heavily on Shiro's shoulder in a final violent effort and Shiro yanked his head away, one hand still tangled in Keith's hair.

"You think you can kiss me and make it all go away?" Keith demanded then, his eyes full of a purple fire that bordered on murderous.

Shiro had seen that same glint many a time. Intimidating to others, little spitfire that he was, but Shiro was immune. He leaned in and stole another kiss, smiling against his lips when Keith whined under his breath and sank into the kiss, his surrender turning his limbs boneless.

Keith was helpless under Shiro's mouth. The second kiss broke through his haze of misplaced anger and spite. Instead, the kiss was more like he was used to. More like the balm that soothed everything and calmed his heart. It was his reason for life, his sustenance, his safe place, and nothing terrified him more in the galaxy than losing it. The anger faded, leaving behind only a sharp desperation.

"Don't go," he whimpered when they finally came up for air. He gripped Shiro's neck tightly and shuddered against him, relishing the warmth when Shiro wrapped his arms around him and cradled him close enough that the heat of their joined skin began to burn.

"I have to."

Keith's response was to whimper again, but then he was rubbing himself over Shiro's lap, pressing his chest against Shiro's chest, his lips sucking greedily on the side of his neck and then the passion ignited without any effort at all.

"Need you," Keith mumbled, plucking at Shiro's shirt and rubbing the rapidly hardening flesh at his groin against the solid muscles of Shiro's abdomen. "Please, Shiro. Need you…"

"You've got me, baby. Tell me what you want."

Keith didn't answer straight away, lost as he was in getting them both as naked as quickly as possible. He even heard something tear but he didn't care, not satisfied until they were both stripped and halfway to being sweaty. He grabbed one of Shiro's hands and placed it between them, forcing those long, heavy fingers around his straining cock. He moaned and threw his head back, bucking up into Shiro's grip as he ground himself into Shiro's lap.

"Oh god," Shiro muttered as Keith thrashed on his thighs. He had to reach his other arm around behind him, placing it on the small of Keith's back to stop him from toppling backwards onto the floor. A few more bucks and his arms trembled, his own cock suddenly rock hard and burning. He muttered again, and Keith moaned, then he pushed up off the bed, releasing Keith's cock to wrap the smaller man's legs tightly around his waist. Keith clung to him for dear life, still bucking and moaning and clawing at Shiro to be closer, ever closer. Shiro didn't waste any time spinning them around then falling to the bed, Keith trapped between him and the mattress.

"Shiro," Keith whined. He tried to buck again, to grind, to find any kind of friction but Shiro held him down too tightly. He tried again and then he hissed in displeasure, sinking his teeth into the soft skin of Shiro's shoulder.

Shiro drew in a sharp breath at the twinge of pain from Keith's teeth. Keith was wild tonight. Dangerous. He was reaching for something he wasn't sure if he could find. Shiro knew what would come next. Or so he thought.

"Fuck me," Keith muttered, eyes shut, breath heaving. His head thrashed from side to side as Shiro held him pinned. "Please," he begged. "Fuck me. Make it hurt."

The last words made Shiro jerk back, and Keith's eyes opened slowly. He gulped in deep breaths as he stared up at Shiro, chewing his lips anxiously once again. This time, Shiro saw a slight smear of blood and leaned down to lick the red smudge from the side of his mouth. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Please," Keith was out right begging then. "Please. Make it hurt, I want to hurt. I want to feel you on me after you're gone. I want the bruises and the marks and-"

Shiro stared down at him, half aroused, half horrified. Keith was no stranger to pain, he had the highest threshold of anyone he knew, including himself. They often got rough, not from anything other than a desperate need to be joined in whatever way they could. But Keith had never asked him for outright pain before.

Keith saw the hesitation in his lover's eyes and he tried to twist and another whimper escaped. "Please, please, please, I need to have something to remember you by. When you're gone."

Shiro was surprised at his own voice when he finally answered. His dick stirred, having sagged under Keith's first request but now the idea seemed to make him ache and grow hard again. He tried to breathe through his nose to calm himself, but it was impossible with the way Keith thrashed under him. Already he was begging for Shiro to push inside him. He didn't even care about the lube – "Fuck me dry, I don't care, just fuck me!" and Shiro was lost.

Without giving it a second thought, Shiro had Keith flipped onto his stomach, his arms pinned behind his back, held securely in one of Shiro's big calloused hands while his other delved between the smaller man's ass cheeks.

Keith bucked, raising his hips off the bed and trying to spread his thighs. The curve of Keith's ass caught the light, teasing Shiro as much as Keith's mumbled begging. It got Shiro's blood racing through his veins and before he knew it, he was spitting harshly on his fingers and shoving them deep inside Keith's body.

"That what you want, baby?" he muttered, almost angrily. He felt Keith clench around him, the heat of his passage pulling his fingers deeper.

"Yeesssss." Keith's moan was almost a yelp of sheer pleasure and then Shiro heard him whimper again. He knew it must have had to hurt him a bit, but Keith seemed oblivious. He only pushed back harder onto Shiro, burying Shiro's fingers in his ass and then he began to buck, searching for that spot that would make him sing and shudder and free fall into stardust.

There was something incredible about watching Keith fuck himself on Shiro's fingers with total abandon. He moaned so loudly and thrashed so hard Shiro was forced to release him and Keith's hands dove straight under him to cling to his own cock and pump furiously. "More, more" Keith cried, his face half buried in the sheets. He called out Shiro's name again.

Shiro leaned forward, snatching Keith's arms back and repining them against his back. "Tsk, tsk, baby," he said softly against Keith's ear. Keith's hair was dark against the sheets, the pale glow of his skin standing out in glorious relief. He was beautiful, muscles honed from a life on the beach and in the water. He had taken to life on the coast like a duck to water and Shiro was fiercely proud of him. Without thinking, Shiro leaned down and pressed a kiss to Keith's shoulder that turned suddenly into a sharp bite. Keith's moan of approval was all he needed and then he was pulling his fingers away only to replace them with his cock, pushing into Keith's body with only a few stray strands of spit to ease the passage. A long, low moan tumbled from Keith's lips and Shiro paused in his entry. He wasn't a small man, and Keith struggled to take him at the best of times. He almost questioned the wisdom of taking Keith this way but once again, Keith couldn't wait. He was pushing back, whimpering and crying and squirming until he had worked Shiro's cock inside him as deeply as possible. Shiro had to struggle to stop himself from coming right there and then.

"Fuck me," Keith gasped it out like a mantra. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"

Shiro drew back slowly, and then slammed in, amazed at the sounds of pleasure and pain that Keith was unleashing under him. He brushed his lips over Keith's neck, the tenderness of the movement in direct contrast to the violence of his thrusts. Keith whined under him, pushing himself up onto his elbows and leaning back, as though trying to get even closer again. Shiro curled an arm around his waist and pulled him close, forcing his back to Shiro's chest and tilting his chin sideways so that he could steal a kiss as he thrust. Keith was virtually nonsensical in his arms, dazed like a ragdoll yet still demanding more, more, MORE!

"So good," Shiro heard himself say. The slow drag of his cock out of Keith's body sent his body into over drive. His balls tightened and he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge, but he wasn't ready to fall yet. Not without Keith. Not without him.

He changed the angle of his hips ever so slightly, pleased he was able to claim back more control as each one of his hard, thrusts weakened Keith more are more. The fire that had made Keith want to strike out was starting to fade, replaced with a burn of an entirely different kind. His loud moans and fierce begging had become more subdued. Shiro knew Keith had slipped into his body, aware of nothing but Shiro possessing him. His thrusts were still hard, but his embrace was tender. The words whispered against Keith's neck were rarely spoken, taken from the deepest recesses of his soul. He couldn't even be sure Keith heard them, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the search for the elusive release. For both of them. Together.

He felt it when Keith was close. His own body responded eagerly, the gates opened and the pleasure rushed through. Moments later he was gripping Keith's hips and forcing the younger man down onto his cock, letting out guttural sounds as he pumped violently into Keith's body.

Not to be left behind, Keith felt the first flood of heat inside him then he was pumping his own release into the sheets, his entire body shaking and shuddering and tears streaming down his face. Shiro didn't know what to make of that, he just held Keith close, stroking his hair and nuzzling his neck until the shudders stopped and when finally they did, he bundled Keith into his arms and carried him into the villa's small bathroom. He placed Keith gently to his feet and his eyes blinked and his knees wobbled as he leaned against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked, his voice hoarse from his earlier cries and his eyelids drooping. His voice began to collect the faint tint of a whine as he slumped. "Can't we stay in bed?"

"You're going to be sore," Shiro said quietly, rapidly filling the tub with warm water. Once it was deep enough, he helped Keith into it, holding him securely as he sank down. Shiro didn't miss the hiss that escaped the other man as the warm water made contact with all the bruised and rubbed raw flesh. Keith's skin looked like patchwork, some areas already turning dark or red. Shiro was inwardly disturbed at the mottled skin.

Keith sighed deeply, sleepily, his lips curved into a slight smile as he sagged against the side of the tub. Shiro saw his smile grow wider as Shiro ran his fingers over Keith's cheek, brushing over the sharp plane of his jaw.

"You will be sore for days."

"Good," Keith muttered with eyes closed. "That's what I wanted."

"Keith… Don't… don't ask me to do that again."

Keith's eyes opened then and he looked directly at Shiro. They reflected calm, so different from the fire of fury that had shone in them earlier. "If you don't go away again, I won't have to. I wanted to be able to feel you on me… for days. I want that pain, I want these bruises. Every one of these-" he touched his chest, his arms. "-is a mark of how much you love me. I need them while you're gone."

Shiro looked troubled, his eyes following the path Keith's hands took over his body. His throat was tight. "If anyone sees them, they will think I beat you."

Keith snorted and dropped his hand. A splash of water washed onto the chipped tiles of the floor at the movement. "It's no one's business anyway and if they think that then fuck them. We know the truth."

For the first time, Shiro began to doubt himself. He began to doubt the wisdom of his plan, the need to take on one last job, the need to secure a future for himself and for the man he loved and swore to stand by. But as he studied Keith sighing contentedly in the warm water, limbs boneless as he soaked away the pain, he knew Keith would be alright. He didn't understand Keith's need for the marks or the bruises but he could accept it. He could accept anything Keith wanted, as long as he continued to turn those dark violet orbs on him, shining with adoration for the rest of his life.

"I like it when you look at me like that," Keith mumbled quietly. The excitement of earlier and the soothing calm of the water was making him sleepy. "You make me feel like you would move mountains for me."

"I would move mountains for you," Shiro confessed, his voice hoarse with emotion. He leaned down, breathing in the unique scent of Keith's hair and swiping his lips over Keith's forehead.

"I know," Keith answered, still under Shiro's touch. "But it doesn't mean I like you doing it alone. Without me."

Shiro didn't answer. There wasn't much he could say anyway. They both knew the deal.

"Take me to bed. This water is getting cold."

Shiro chuckled and backed away when Keith climbed to his feet and shook himself off, spraying droplets of water around the room. He held up a towel and draped it over Keith's shoulders, effortlessly sweeping him up into his arms and carrying him to the bed for the second time that night.

"You'll be careful, right?" Keith muttered against his shoulder as he laid them down.

"Yes."

"And you'll call me every chance you get?"

"Of course."

"And not a moment longer away than you have to be?"

"I'll be back before you know it, Keith."

"Promise?"

"I promise."