Chapter Text
•••
The whole deal with finding your soulmate is that you're supposed to see your own eyes in theirs. When you see your colour reflected back, the world stops. Your irises seem to spin. All that matters is the other person who has a part of you. You and your soulmate connect in a moment of true, loving bliss. You live happily ever after.
Unless you're visually impaired.
All the poor suckers with glasses can stare at their soulmate's eyes and have nothing happen at all. No magical bond. No touching, world-stopping moment.
The soulmate bond thing requires direct eye contact. Nothing in the way but air.
And why is that?
Because soulmates are bullshit.
If you ask most matched people, they'll look lovingly at their mate with their stupid matching eyes and say nonsensical things, like “What?? No, it's not just about seeing the eyes, you have to feel the connection."
Keith doesn't want to see the eyes or feel the connection.
Keith Kogane has seen dozens of 'Soulmates' in his life. Some seemed truly in love, absolutely perfect for one another. Others cried behind closed doors. Some fought in daylight. Keith had been pretty lucky with foster homes. Most had good people and good couples. The few that were different scared him.
He's only ten when he convinces his foster parents to let him join the National Organization Against Soulmates. By the time he's eleven, Keith has saved up for his first pair of coloured contacts.
•••
There are only two times when anyone will wear coloured contacts. Some oddballs wear them after they've mated for fashion reasons. Un-matched people who wear contacts are almost always part of the National Organization Against Soulmates (NOAS). Usually they wear bright look-at-me-I'm-a-rebel colours. Some people get quite creative about their contacts, but nobody wears blank lenses.
The only time a person's eyes are blank is if their Soulmate died before they met. It's not a fate that anyone, even members of the NOAS, would want to have.
•••
"Oooh, I'm Keith," Lance mocks, waving his hands around, "I don't show my eyes because I'm too scared that my Soulmate would make me cut my shitty haaaaair."
Keith and Lance are walking to Arus Park after school at Garrison Academy of Aerospace Technology. It's the beginning of the school year at the point when the summer gossip has just wound down and the who-matched-who gossip is just winding up. Keith has been at Garrison Academy for about 6 months after changing foster homes and moving right next to Lance, who has since become the bane of his existence.
Keith rolls his eyes. "Oh yeah, and I'm Lance, I never make eye contact with boys because I’m too scared I'll match with them."
Lance scoffs, shrugging his backpack higher on his shoulders. "Low blow, dude. I'm comfortable in my sexuality," he says with a smile.
"Uh huh, sure," Keith smirks, stepping hard on a leaf so it crunches under his foot.
"Says Mr. Never-Had-A-Girlfriend-But-Sometimes-Flirts-With-That-Senior-Kid," says Lance, hopping over sidewalk cracks.
"You mean Shiro?" Keith asks. "Gross, dude, I'm practically related to him."
Lance walks backwards in front of Keith, facing his friend. He's still trying to avoid the sidewalk cracks which seems to be a lot more difficult when going backwards. "Has Shiro seen your real eyes?," Lance asks, almost tripping over a stone, "You guys have lived together for months now. You can't always have your NOAS stuff on... right?"
"I take them off to sleep, and I sometimes change out my contacts, but they're pretty much always in. Shiro hasn't seen my eyes, and neither have his parents," Keith says, snickering at Lance's weak attempt at walking backwards.
He does this every day, you'd think he would get better at it.
Lance looks confused. "Aren't your foster parents soulmates? What's the point of hiding your eyes?"
Keith pulls on Lance, making him stumble. Lance moves so they're walking side by side again. "I don't know. To prove a point, I guess," Keith says while kicking a rock.
Lance smacks open the wrought iron gate outside Arus Park. It used to be the campus for Lance's elementary school, Arus Center For Gifted Children, but shut down when all the kids in the area started enrolling at Galra Elementary. Now it's just the park where Lance and his friends meet up after school. "Man, your soulmate is probably so excited to see you," Lance says, "She's all 'Oooh, I wonder who has these...',"He pauses, "Uh... wait, what colour are your eyes, Keith?"
"Dude. That's the whole point of the red lenses, dumbass." Keith rolls his eyes with a smile.
"Maybe your eyes are actually naturally red. Maybe you found your soulmate but she said, 'Eeeew, gross, what a gay loser!!' and left your sorry ass," says Lance, hopping down into the wood chips.
Keith scoffs, throwing his backpack at the foot of the park's swing set. "Red eyes aren't possible, idiot. I just don't want a soulmate. It's not worth it.”
Lance drops his bag next to Keith’s and hops on one swing. "Purple eyes aren't possible either, but I swear my soulmate has indigo in her irises."
"Indigo is a shade of blue." Keith hops on the swing next to him. "Your soulmate's eyes are blue."
"No, my eyes are blue. Her eyes are purple. Come on, I have like... an ocean in my blue eye. She has a galaxy in her eyes. I swear she has to be the most beautiful girl in the world. I can’t wait to meet her."
•••
That night, when Keith takes out his contacts, he stares at his reflection in the mirror for a minute. He gazes into an eye that holds an entire ocean. He feels like it's smiling at him. Laughing. Keith frowns, scanning his face, doing his best not to look in the other eye. The eye that holds a galaxy inside. The eye that a certain boy has waxed poetic about a million times. The eye that supposedly belongs to a beautiful girl with flowing hair and a stunning smile.
The eye that Lance can never see.
•••