Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lance found it hard to sit still. He was always bouncing around in his seat, kicking his feet, or tapping his fingers. It drove his other teachers crazy, but this year, Miss. Lana had given him a really neat cube to play with that did different things on each side. He could fiddle with that as long as he wasn’t bothering any of the other students.

He was quite happy with that, though he still did move around some. At least his teacher wasn’t yelling at him.

Every once and a while though, there would be a topic that would instantly grab his attention. Soulmates were absolutely one of the things that always got his attention. His Mamá had told him all about soulmates and just how important they were. That’s what Miss. Lana was currently talking about.

Everyone was born with a black mark on their wrist called a soulmark. It was usually intricate lines that formed some kind of shape. Lance was very fond of his, finding that it almost looked like a seashell, and he really liked collecting those. The best part about them was the fact that there was another person somewhere in the world that had the exact same mark on their opposite wrist. Lance’s was on his right arm, meaning that the matching one would be on someone’s left arm. That someone was his soulmate.

A soulmate was a person that was made for you, and you were made for them. They completed you, filled your life with everything good.

Even at the tender age of six, Lance wanted to meet his soulmate. It was clearly the most important thing that could happen in someone’s life. His Mamá and Papá were soulmates and they were the best people ever! His oldest brother, Marcus, had recently met his soulmate, and she was amazing. Lance really liked Evelyn a lot. She was so nice and really made his brother better. That’s what soulmates were all about.

When Miss. Lana was done talking, she gave them the chance to talk one at a time. Lance was almost vibrating with excitement for his turn. He was actually bouncing on his chair a bit when she called on him.

“I’m going to have the best soulmate ever!” Lance exclaimed happily. “And I’m going to be the best ever! I’m going to keep looking for them cause they’re the most important thing ever!”

Miss. Lana laughed happily. “It’s good to be so happy about meeting them, Lance. Just keep in mind that it can take a long time to find your soulmate, so don’t get discouraged.”

He stared at her as if she had lost her mind. “Soulmates at the most important thing ever. It’s important that we find them!”

She smiled. “Yeah, it really is.”  She turned to the boy sitting beside Lance to talk to him.

Lance couldn’t wait to get home to talk to his parents about this. He’s walk in the door, put away his books for later, play with his family and have an awesome supper, maybe do a bit of homework before bed (after watching Lion Defenders, of course). Maybe his family would help him figure out a way to find his soulmate fast.

He couldn’t wait to meet them.

…

Keith set ups backpack down on the kitchen table, tugging out his books to work on the homework sheets he had been given. He dug out his pencil case, making sure that he had a pencil with an eraser on it before sharpening it. 

He swung his feet back and forth, working through his math. This stuff wasn’t that hard, and his dad always said that if he got everything done early there’d be more time for them to go outside and explore in the woods.

“What did you learn today at school?” his father asked him from where he was cooking something. It looked like he was making some kind of stirfry again. Keith had been hoping maybe for gyudon. He did love it a lot. Maybe tomorrow.

 “We talked about soulmates,” Keith said after a moment, trying to pick out one thing. He used to just say ‘nothing’, but his father always prompted him again and again until he finally came up with something.

“You don’t sound very happy about that.”

Keith bit his lip, pausing in his homework for a moment before he kept going. He was going to crush these math problems if it was the last thing he did. “I…a lot of people weren’t nice to me. I—I’m sorry. I said that you and mom weren’t soulmates.” He stopped writing. “I didn’t mean to. It just came out. This guy in my class, Ben, he said that it was why I’m a freak.”

There was silence for a moment, prompting Keith to look up to see his father taking the frying pan off of the hot burner. He looked directly at Keith and sternly said, “You are not a freak. Not at all. Don’t listen to kids that say that. Ignore them, because they’re not worth your time. Your mom and I loved one another, and we love you.”

The little boy snorted and shook his head. “Mom’s gone.” He hated that. He couldn’t really remember his mom. He knew her name was Krolia, and that she had left him an awesome knife that he was allowed to have when he got older, but he didn’t actually remember her.

“Yes,” his father agreed, turning to finish their dinner, “but it’s not because of you. There were other important things that she had to do.”

What could be more important than them? A sudden horrible thought hit him. “…Is she looking for her soulmate?” Is that why she had left them? Because they weren’t right for her? Because they were wrong?

“No, that’s not why she left,” his father shook his head. He got a couple plates, scooping the vegetables and meat onto them. “She may find them, but that doesn’t change how she feels about you.”

Keith thought about that for a moment. “Well, do you want to go find yours?”

“And leave you here alone? Absolutely not!” He looked up with alarm as his father started coughing. His indigo eyes went wide when the man pulled his hand away from his face, seeing some red there.

“You hurt yourself! There’s blood!”

“Bit my cheeks really bad. Don’t worry about it, Buddy.” He picked up Keith’s homework, scooting it out of the way for now. He set their food on the table before grabbing drinks. Water for him and lactose-free milk for Keith. “How about we eat and then I’ll help you finish your homework, okay?”

Keith eyed him warily, but the smell of food drew him in. He nodded his head and grabbed his fork, but then paused. “Hey, Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“Soulmates are stupid and I don’t need one. I’ve got you and I’m glad!” He beamed at his father proudly.

Keith was only young. He didn’t see the way his father smiled sadly at him. He didn’t know about the doctors’ appointments and the ‘there’s nothing we can do’ statements. What he knew was that, soulmate or not, his dad was amazing and would always be there for him.

“Yeah, Buddy. I’m glad I have you too.”

Chapter Text

 “Keith!”

“Huh?” He jerked awake, staring up at the amused, dark grey eyes hovering above him. He recoiled slightly, his arms flailing out. He would have hit the man above him, but his reflexes were too good. “Shiro!”

Shiro chuckled, his grin reaching his eyes as Keith sat up. “Sorry. I’ve been trying to wake you up for hours now. We’re going to be late!”

Keith’s eyes instantly went over to the blue LED numbers that flashed at him from the clock on his bedside table. He raised an eyebrow and said, “You’re a filthy liar. My alarm didn’t even go off yet!” He groaned and flopped back onto his bed, rolling over in the covers. “Why did I think rooming with you would be a good thing?”

“Because you’re a loving little brother who wants to help his cripple of an older brother?”

Oh son of a—was he really doing this?

“Takashi,” Keith groaned, finally pulling himself up. He glared heatedly at him with his indigo eyes. “You’re not a cripple!” Also, Shiro wasn’t his brother at all. He was actually his uncle.

Shiro and Keith’s father, Ryou had a very large age-gap in between. Shiro was much closer to Keith’s age, and, unfortunately, was unable to care for Keith after Ryou passed away.

Ryou and Shiro had never been close. Actually, Keith hadn’t known he had an uncle until he was already a teenager. Instead, when his father died, Keith was tossed into the foster system until Shiro decided to do some digging on his family history, specifically about the brother that left the family. It was through this research that he had stumbled upon the existence of one Akira Keith Shirogane. His grandparents had been horrified to find out that he was in the foster system, that he had been moved around many times due to bad homes and being a ‘problem child’. It was just before he was thirteen that they took him in.

As far as Keith was concerned, Shiro and his parents had saved him. The end result was that the two boys saw one another as brothers before anything else. Keith adored his Sofu and Sobo, the only ones that referred to him as Akira before anyone else. Everyone else called him Keith and he honestly preferred it that way.

“I mean, technically…” Shiro broke Keith out of his thoughts as he motioned to his arm, or rather the space where there used to be an arm.

Keith huffed angrily, and kicked off the blue blankets on his bed. He stretched out as he got up, yawning, wincing a bit from the sound of his back cracking.

Shiro chuckled and stood at his full height – which was quite a bit taller than Keith. It made him glower a little bit, because he knew his father hadn’t been that tall, and it was no fair that he had to get stuck with the shorter family genes. From the medical records he scrapped up, Keith knew that his mother was tall as shit, so the fact that he was around 5’8’’ (which wasn’t too bad all things considered) was solely blamed on his father, and in turn, he got his height from his mother. So, thank you, Sobo.

“Please tell me you didn’t try to cook breakfast,” Keith groaned as he followed his brother out of his room in their small apartment. “It’s too early to put out a fire like last time, or clean up a mess like the time before that.”

“I thought about it, but why do that when I can get my sweet baby brother to help me out?”

Keith was already getting the coffeemaker ready, his eyes staring out the window in a dazed way. “I wonder if it’s too late to run away and distance myself from this family.”

“You can’t do that. I’m counting on half your rent money when you get a job.”

Keith wisely chose to ignore this. He moved over to the fridge, frowning a little bit as he looked at the meager offerings inside, taking out the cream. “We need to go grocery shopping.”

“There’s Nutella.”

“We can’t eat Nutella for breakfast. Sobo will know. I don’t know how, but she will and she’ll teleport down here and give us the look. I don’t want to get the look.” Honestly how did Keith have it more together than his uncle? Shiro was supposed to be the mature older one that kept him in line, but honestly he felt like he needed to save his brother-figure from himself. Just yesterday he caught him eating all the marshmallows out of the last of the Lucky Charms.

Sure, Keith lived off of only ramen noodles for two weeks straight once but at least it wasn’t Nutella and marshmallows. 

“And people think that you’re quiet and serious,” Shiro noted, almost in wonder. He was trying to avoid thinking about his mother appearing in front of them because he could already see the look. He didn’t want that either. The best way to avoid that was thinking about how his younger brother could be so quiet and inadvertently hostile with strangers, and so ridiculous with the people that he knew well. It was like breaking through a particularly solid coconut.

Keith shot him a withering look. Shiro ignored him, opening the drawers and going through them, first pulling out a piece of paper, and a pencil. “Anyway, you’re right. I’ll get started in a grocery list and we can go later.”

Keith hummed in agreement as he pulled two mugs out of the cupboard. He filled one with coffee, adding in just a little bit of sugar and cream to it before moving it in front of Shiro. He then took the second cup and mixed a much larger quantity of cream and milk

He filled both of them with coffee, adding in just a little bit of sugar and creamer to one and moving it in front of Shiro. He then mixed together an obscene amount of cream and sugar into the second mug, pouring the coffee in on top of it.

“Does that even have any caffeine in it?” Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow as he drank his.

“Don’t judge me,” Keith muttered. He had a ridiculous sweet-tooth and gravitated to almost any drink that had more sugar than coffee in it. He was so glad that he had an abundance of pills to help with his lactose intolerence, but even if he didn't, he would have suffered for this coffee anyway. “So what are we doing today?

“We’re checking out the rehabilitation center first,” Shiro explained. “Since I’m scheduled to get a prosthetic soon, the physical therapist wants to meet me before the surgery to go over a few things. I’m also meeting the prosthetist that is making my arm, since it’s going to be a prototype and he wants to go over a few things. It’ll probably be pretty boring, so are you sure you want to come?”

Getting a prototype arm was something Shiro really did want to do. He felt like he was contributing something to society.

“Shiro,” Keith said firmly. “We agreed to this. You moved out here for the rehabilitation center and to be closer to the prosthetist, and I left the dorms to move in with you so that I could be there for you. So of course I’m coming.” His eyes flickered to his brother’s arm, nausea building up inside of him.

He hated to think about his generally sweet and dorky older brother laying out in the scorching sun and sand, bleeding out after an IED exploded. He heard his brother get lost in nightmares, and hated to think about it. Now that he thought about it, they’d probably have to find a therapist or a counsellor for Shiro to see about that. 

There was nowhere that could truly help in that type of recovery back home in the small town they grew up in. There wasn’t much of anything there, honestly. It was why Keith had left to go to university in the first place, and now Shiro decided to come too because there was an excellent rehabilitation center.

Instead of having his grandparents pack-up and move, losing the shop that their family had owned for years, Keith offered to move in with Shiro as opposed to going into dorms again. It really wasn’t a hard decision anyway; he had hated being in dorms anyway. 

Keith had always been ambitious when it came to things that he was interested in, or when competition was involved. It was why he always had high grades, and why he had been able to go to a university with a full ride. The scholarship didn’t cover living outside of dorms though, so that meant looking for a job. It was something that he’d have to do later that day.

Shiro had apparently got up very early that morning, eager (and probably nervous) for his first time meeting the physical therapist that he would be working with. That left the bathroom open for Keith to shower without having to fight over it (Shiro would absolutely sit on him with all of his dead bodyweight on top of him, he’d done it before).

The younger of the two yawned loudly as he walked into the bathroom, regarding himself quickly in the mirror. Sickly pale skin without actually being sick, dark, greasy hair that was getting too long, weird eyes that were pretty much purple. He was a walking disaster.

Keith took a quick shower, eager to actually get out of the house. Though not an extremely social person, he hated being cooped up for long periods of time unless he had something that was actively catching his interest. When he did find something, he could become almost hyper-fixated on it.

Shiro once said that he’d probably be happy living in a cabin in the woods or the desert or something like that, chasing down different kinds of mysteries. Keith kind of agreed with him, even if he was currently living a busy city. That type of life, with regular visits to a small town, might not be bad.

“You got your resumes?” Shiro asked Keith. Here came the mother-henning he tended to do. Why would Keith bring his resume now? He was going to go out later on his own. “I know most places hire online, but it’s always good to look in the small places. That means not looking like a thug.”

Keith looked down at his red t-shirt and black jeans and raised an eyebrow at Shiro. He thought he looked pretty average. Okay, maybe he wore his jeans a little tighter, but they were way more comfortable than baggy jeans. Nothing about him implied thug from his point of view. 

Well, maybe there was one thing. “I’m not taking my gloves off.” He touched his fingerless gloves that conveniently hid both of his wrists from view. It was nobody’s business what lines marked his skin, and he didn’t want anyone seeing it. Shiro knew that.

“I think it’s the hair,” Shiro joked instead.

He huffed. This again. “Keep going on about my hair. Do it. If it bothers you that much, I’ll go straight to my room, grab my knife, and cut it off.” It really was getting too long even for him and he had been planning on cutting it anyway, but Shiro had been poking him about it a lot lately. He was just jealous, because his hair had only just started growing out from that short, military-buzzed haircut.

Shiro snorted. “You wouldn’t.”

Keith stopped. He stared at his older brother and retreated back to his room. He ignored Shiro’s inquiry about what he was doing, instead looking for the ornate knife that had apparently belonged to his birth mother. It was some kind of valuable family heirloom that had somehow made it with him through the foster care system. Albeit, he usually had it hidden. His grandparents had taken it once he went with them, and gave it back to him when he turned 18. He had no idea where it came from or what the symbols on it meant, but Keith loved it all the same.

He walked back out into the living room, knife in hand, and held his hair in his hand.

Shiro raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Okay drama queen, put it away and let’s go.”

Drama queen? Keith made eye contact with Shiro, holding his gaze as he brought his knife up towards his too-long hair.

“Keith!”

…

It was a nice, early September day. The city had recently become bustling with college students coming to the on-campus dorms of the Garrison, as well as the vast amount of apartments that were there. Though a big city, where they lived was largely based around the fact that there were two universities, a fairly big college, and a few small technical schools. It meant that there were a lot of college kids around for most of the year.

Keith liked the fact that he had his own apartment (with his brother), since he didn’t have to deal with the mess of moving into dorms. They were all moved in, and that meant that he could focus on finding a job before the other poor university kids came scrambling for them.

Well, maybe after he fixed his hair.

“I still can’t believe you did that,” Shiro said, staring at Keith’s hair as if it was a murder victim. Where he had been down around his shoulder blades, it now hovered over his shoulders, flipping out in odd directions due to the brutal way he cut it. Keith thought it actually looked pretty good all things considered. Shiro was mortified.

“You called my bluff,” Keith replied. His eyes glanced at the sign with the speed limit on it, and then quickly looked at the speedometer. He was going a little fast. Only fifteen kilometers over.

He was lucky that Shiro was so distracted and put-off about his hair, or his older brother might have lost it at him for ‘man-handling his baby’. Shiro had bought this shitty van in his senior year of high school, but he loved it to no end. It was a piece of junk that he had owned for 10 years, but if trying to fix it up made his brother happy, who was Keith to judge?

Keith swore that the crappy van was Shiro’s soulmate. The thought made Keith a little bit guilty.

The point was that if Shiro saw how fast he was going, he would have definitely yelled at him.

The building that they were going to was a small brick one that looked like the structure had seen better days, but the owners still cared about it enough to keep the windows polished, the signs bright and new, and to have nice flowers and plants.

There weren’t many cars there, but it was pretty early in the morning. Shiro breathed in deeply, before nodding towards his brother. “Let’s go.”

Keith followed behind him, making sure to lock the van’s doors. They walked into the building, which looked like any other reception desk that Keith had ever seen.

There was an elderly lady sitting at the desk, looking up at them through her glasses with a smile. “Good morning! You must be Takaishi Shirogane!”

“I am,” Shiro agreed with a nod. “It’s nice to meet you Miss…?” He trailed off, letting the question hang in the air. Keith looked around and saw a name plate that said Sarita Khatri.

“You may call me Sarita,” the woman said happily. “My son is the head therapist here, and the one you’ll be working with.” Her eyes turned towards Keith. “And who might you be?”

Shiro threw his left arm around Keith’s shoulders before he could shy away and smiled charmingly. “This is my little bro, Keith. He’s going to be my rehab buddy.”

“How sweet of you,” Sarita gushed. “It’s lovely to see siblings supporting one another, though so rare. You’re the second pair that we’ve gotten in the past few weeks!”

Normally Keith found people this enthusiastic and outgoing rather cumbersome to deal with, but he found that he kind of liked this elderly, yet regal woman with her dark skin and silver hair that still held streaks of black from her youth. Though that might have been because, outside of a quick glance at Shiro’s arm, she didn’t draw attention to it, nor did she make a big deal out of it. She was probably used to seeing injuries like that though.

Realizing that he should probably say something, Keith grunted out, “Nice to meet you.” Wow, that sounded really bad out loud.

Shiro snickered, all of his nervousness apparently melting away at the opportunity to embarrass his brother. “Sorry about him. He only had one cup of coffee and needs about three to function in the morning.”

“That’s you and your black sludge, Takaishi,” Keith replied, narrowing his eyes. Shiro and Sarita both laughed.

“Sorry, sorry!” A man practically flew out of the room behind the woman, looking rather winded. He straightened himself out, taking on a professional air. Keith wasn’t sure what he was expecting, maybe someone in scrubs and a lab coat, but this man had on a comfortably navy t-shirt, and loose khaki pants. “I apologize for coming late. You’re my first meeting of the day, and I lost track of time. Terrible unprofessional of me.”

“It’s alright,” Shiro assured him. “Takaishi Shirogane, and this is my younger brother, Keith.”

“I am Anik Khatri, and hopefully I will be working with you as your physical therapist,” the man smiled at him. “I like to meet potential clients myself first, so that I can show them all we have to offer. Would you like to start with a tour first?”

“That’d be great!”

Keith followed Shiro and Anik around, taking note of how nice the facility actually was. He was expecting something very clinical and sterile, but it reminded him more of a gym than anything else. He still wouldn’t have been comfortable in a place like this, but Shiro seemed to be growing more comfortable and talkative the more they walked around. That was good. That was really all that mattered.

Shiro deserved some peace in his life. He had been so nervous about coming to the rehabilitation center, and that was nothing compared to how jittery he got when he thought about his surgery to get his prosthetic that was coming up later this week.

Keith was hoping to get resumes out, and maybe even get a call back, before then. It would put Shiro’s mind at ease a bit. His older brother was really worried about money, even if he got some Vetern’s Benefits for being Honorably Discharged. Their parents had insisted that they not worry too much about it, but both Keith and Shiro knew that finances would be tight.

So it was good to see Shiro smiling and relaxing. It was a nice enough place. Keith stood by the window, arms crossed, eyes focused on his brother talking and laughing.

Soon, he found himself back in the driver’s seat, heading down to a lab of sorts where the person that was actually building Shiro this prototype arm was working. Honestly, Keith was a little skeptical about the entire thing, but if it was what Shiro wanted to do, who was he to stop him?

“Are we sure this is the place?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow. The place looked a little bit run-down. He kind of wanted to back-up the junk-mobile and get out of there.

“Looks like it.” Shiro kicked open the door, and Keith groaned. This screamed bad idea. “Come on, don’t judge the place. Some people just starting out need to start in places like this.”

Keith grumbled about that, but turned off the car and followed his brother, making sure to lock the doors. It wasn’t that he thought someone was going to steal the van, because why would they? He just didn’t want anyone to sneak inside and hide behind the seats to murder them.

He really needed to stop watching those Top Ten Creepy videos online.

Shiro pushed open the door to the tiny shop and instantly they were surrounded by limbs. The fact that they were robotic didn’t make it any less creepy.

“Anyone here?” Shiro called out.

There was a bang from out back and then a young man that couldn’t have been any older than Shiro came stumbling out of the room. His eyes went wide and he said, “Oh, hey there! You must be Takaishi Shirogane, right?”

“That’d be me, though everyone calls me Shiro,” Shiro said with a nod of his head. “And you’re…Matthew Holt?”

“That’d me! You can call me Matt!” The man fixed his messed up hair. “Sorry about that. I was out back working on a few things and lost track of time.” He suddenly looked embarrassed. “And, uh, sorry about asking you to meet me here. Normally I take the prosthetics to the hospital or rehab center but booking things has been really tight lately. I don’t normally show people where the magic happens, cause it looks a little…messy.”

“We noticed,” Keith toned in dryly. He grimaced as Shiro back-handed him. “Ow! Takaishi!”

“Akira,” Shiro growled back. He looked at Matt. “Ignore my brother, he’s a shithead.”

“Ah. I have one of those too, but of the female variety,” Matt said with a chuckle. “I hope you don’t mind, but she’s here too. She’s a robotics student and has been shadowing me.”

“That’s fine,” Shiro said with a nod. “I brought mine, so you bringing yours is fine.”

Matt snorted at that and said, “Right, well, you can come over to my office and I’ll show you your new arm! Uh…Pidge! Can you show them to my office, please?”

“Sure thing!” A young woman that looked startlingly like Matt appeared out of the back room. She nodded at them and said, “This way!”

They both followed her into a cramped little office that had two chairs in front of a desk, one comfy looking one behind it, and another plastic one beside that. Though the office wasn’t exactly impressive yet, the diplomas and certificates that were there definitely were.

The girl sat down and focused on Keith instead of Shiro. “Did this guy just call you Akira?”

Keith blinked with surprise, feeling Shiro’s eyes on him. “Yeah?”

“Huh, I thought your name was Keith.”

What the hell? “It is. I mean, only my grandparents call me Akira.” He narrowed is eyes. “Do I know you?”

She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Ah, I understand. My name’s actually Katie, but everyone calls me Pidge. Anyway, yeah, I’ve seen you around campus. Also my friend pointed you out, because he rants about you all the time.”

Shiro snorted a bit and Keith opened his mouth to ask her what the hell she was talking about when Matt came back into the room. They both looked up as he shifted around the cramped room until he was behind the desk. He gently set the prosthetic on the desk, and slowly unwrapped it. “Here is it.”

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Pidge breathed out, staring at it with starry eyes. “I love robotics.”

Shiro leaned forward to look at it, but Keith stopped paying attention to that, instead turning his attention entirely to Pidge. He lowered his voice a bit and asked, “Why was your friend ranting about me?”

“Oh, Lance was just being Lance. You know, your rival.”

“Who?” Keith asked, brows furrowing. “Are you sure you have the right person?”

“Very sure. I mean, it took me a minute, I’m pretty sure your hair used to be longer, but it’s definitely you. I imagine Keith Shirogane isn’t exactly a common name.” Shiro, though paying attention to Matt, snorted at the hair thing, and Keith glared at him. Pidge cleared her throat, bringing his attention back to her as she said, “Lance McClain?”

He blinked. “I have no idea who that is.”

Her eyes lit up like she had just discovered the meaning of life. “Oh my god this is fantastic. Well, apparently, you were in most of the same classes with my friend Lance. He’s been trying to beat your marks since first year since you’re at the top of your class apparently!”

That did not ring a bell at all. The thing was, Keith didn’t pay attention to anyone’s name in class. It was lucky that he knew the teachers’ names honestly. He narrowed his eyes and asked, “What’s his major?”

“Marine biology, though he minors in astronomy.”

Okay, that was a little believable then. “Oh, yeah. He must be in my astronomy classes with me. I never pay attention to people’s names.”

“So you’re an astronomy major? Doing astrophychics?”

“Nah, not my thing.” Keith shook his head. “I’m double majoring in astronomy and archeology. Archaeoastronomy.”

She stared at him. “I need to know what that is immediately.” Pidge sounded so genuinely curious that it was honestly amusing. Most people, when they heard his interests, just rolled their eyes and told him to do something practical.

He was about to explain it, when what Matt was telling Shiro instantly drew him back to their discussion.

“…So your soulmark would have been on your right wrist since it’s not on the left, correct? We can have it etched into the prosthetic.”

Keith tensed up, hand switching a bit with the temptation to reach out to his brother to comfort him.

“Oh…that’s…” Shiro coughed awkwardly before shaking his head. “It’s okay.”

Matt’s eyebrows rose, and he looked genuinely surprised. “Really? It’s something that everyone else I’ve made an arm for dreads. It’s why Pidge suggested etching them on.”

“I can understand why,” Shiro agreed. “It’s just… I don’t have a picture of it, and they have to be exact.”

That was very true. Soulmarks were super specific to the point where sometimes it looked like peoples’ marks were the same, but they didn’t react to the other person because they were actually just a little different.

Of course Shiro’s soulmark had been on his right wrist, the one that he lost, so that meant that he no longer had his soulmark. In theory, his soulmate’s mark would still react to his, but memories weren’t perfect and the world was big. Without a reference to go by, the odds of Shiro meeting his soulmate now were slim to none.

“You—you didn’t take a picture of it?” Matt asked, sounding genuinely startled.

Keith straightened his shoulders. He could answer this one for his brother. “In Japanese culture it’s considered bad luck to take pictures, video, and things like that of your soulmark. They say that if you do, it captures some of the bond in the photo, so there isn’t enough left to go to your child and they’ll end up markless.”

He personally thought the belief was ridiculous, but he could absolutely appreciate the fact that many people did believe that. One didn’t study archeology and not develop an appreciation of different cultures.

“What kind of Mickey Mouse BS is that? That’s as dumb as saying that two people who aren’t soulmates having a kid will leave them markless. There’s no correlation at all!”

Then there were people like that. Keith stared at her and dryly said, “Not everyone can be white.”

Her mouth fell open and she flushed violently. “Okay, I’m a jerk and that’s entirely fair. I apologize.” She looked genuinely horrified with what she had said. Sure, Keith agreed with her, probably would have blurted that out himself at one point, but there were better ways to say it.

Shiro suddenly put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s alright, Pidge. Cultural differences are sometimes strange from outside points of view. I get it. But this whole thing, with not being able to put it on the prosthetic? It’s fine.” He let go of Keith’s arm and motioned to it. “I guess it’s entirely up to my soulmate to find me, if it’s at all possible. If they don’t, then they don’t.” He shrugged.

Though Keith didn’t put much stock into soulmates in general, the thought of Shiro not being able to find his because he lost his arm made him sick to his stomach.

Shiro didn’t deserve this at all.

Chapter Text

Lance raised his phone in front of him, staring at the image on the sleek screen. A slight frown marred his lips as he twisted his wrist a little bit so that the name written on his coffee cup was clearly seen, along with the black lines on his wrist. Deciding that everything looked perfect, a large smile spread across his face, and he pressed his finger against the phone to take the picture.

He quickly set his drink down and pulled the phone closer to him to inspect that everything was okay and to put an appropriate caption with it. Honestly, most of his selfies were golden, and he had the perfect list of hashtags to add to it.

“Ugh, is he at it again?” Pidge’s voice broke through the tranquil setting. “It’s too early to be an insta-ho.”

“Always,” Hunk answered, and Lance felt a slight stab of betrayal, because come on, Hunk was his best bro for life. Best bros don’t slander one another like that. Even if the statement was true, and even if they teased one another horrible. Okay, no, Lance should have seen the betrayal coming.

He would have been more dramatic about it, but he was busy, and decided to ignore both of his friends for now, though he did listen to the rest of their conversation.

“I thought you were shadowing your brother again today.”

“No. Today’s the first day of fall classes, and he’s busy. Though I did get to meet one of his clients recently, and that was a wild ride,” Pidge said as she sat down with them, pulling her laptop out and sipping on her own drink.

“Excuse you, it’s never too early share all this,” Lance motioned towards himself as the picture finally uploaded. He cast his gaze towards his younger friend. “Let me guess, you’re drinking that nasty sludge that’s as black as your soul?”

Pidge rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t want early onset diabetes like some people.”

“Says the person who drank an entire pack of mini-pop cans in one go.”

“Listen, I had an important project due that time and it was all I had!” Pidge waved her hands around. “Go back to sexting or whatever you were doing.”

“I would never!” Lance stared at her, utterly scandalized.

“I thought you were going to meet up with that girl that thought you soulmarks might match?” Hunk broke in, brown eyes focusing on Lance’s always-exposed wrist. He rarely ever wore gloves in winter just in case, since soulmarks only changed from skin-on-skin contact and the Cuban boy was always on the lookout for that.

“I looked at it closer, and they didn’t match,” Lance said with a shake of his head. He sighed dramatically. “It’s too bad, she was really hot. I didn’t want to lead on someone who wasn’t my soulmate though. I’m not that kind of jerk.” He sighed again and slumped down. “You’re so lucky to met Shay already.”

A soft smile appeared on Hunk’s face as he stared down at his own mark. Unlike Lance’s, his was coloured in with various shades of yellow and green. The colours that filled in a soulmark were supposed to represent the two soulmates somehow. There were lots of different theories about why certain colours were chosen, from genetic makeup to personal auras. It was insane.

Hunk knew how lucky he was to have met his soulmate so easily. He had first seen Shay when she came with her brother into his Tinā’s auto-repair shop, and then later bumped into her when she came into his other Tinā’s restaurant. It was one of those clichéd soulmate stories that were told over and over again.

It was the type of meeting that Lance so desperately wanted to have. He knew that he was the least impressive one in his family, so couldn’t he have his fairytale romance?

“I know it’s frustrating,” Hunk said with a nod of his head, “but you should be careful with that. I’ve heard of people who kidnap people sometimes and then ransom them to their soulmates if they can find them.”

“Well, I am beautiful enough to warrant a pretty high ransom,” Lance said. He sounded arrogant, but in reality, Lance worked hard on his appearance. There was nothing wrong with wanting to look good, and he put the effort in with skincare, eating as healthy as he could as a poor university student, and exercise. “I’ll find them yet.”

“I thought we were here to chill for a bit before our first classes, not gush about soulmate crap,” Pidge said, practically bouncing on her seat. Lance wondered how many shots of espresso she had in her drink. “What do you guys have first?”

“I only have a geology class today. Looked at the syllabus online, and it looks like it’ll be interesting,” Hunk said, taking a drink of his hot chocolate. Coffee just wasn’t for him. He could use it as an ingredient in things, but he didn’t like drinking it.

“Lucky,” Lance said with a sigh. “I have three classes today. Astronomy, a bio class on animal behaviors, and a zoology class. I am going to die.”

Pidge perked up. “I forgot! I need to look up what archaeoastronomy is!”

Both young men blinked at her. “What now?” Hunk asked.

She ignored them, typing rapidly on her computer. Waiting a minute for the café’s wifi to take her where she wanted to go, her eyes darted across the screen at the information that Google gave her. “Okay, so it’s the study of how people in the past used their versions of astronomy, how they understood them, and the roles it played in their cultures. That’s actually super cool.”

“Thinking of getting out of robotics, are we?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No I—“ Pidge immediately cut herself off and stared at Lance with wide eyes. An almost wicked grin appeared on her face, and it made him so nervous that he had to suppress a shudder.

Pidge was an amazing person that loved her friends and family, and would do anything for them, but she was also a pure force of nature that should be respected and feared for her might. “So, I was shadowing Matt, right? And I got to meet a client. Anyway, this guy was a young vet who lost his arm overseas, and Matt’s making him a bad-ass prosthetic. It’s a prototype and this guy is testing it out, it’s super cool. Anyway, someone came along with this guy. Guess who it was?”

Lance instantly perked up. “Your soulmate?” As much as he longed to meet his own, he would always be excited for his friends when they met theirs.

Hunk actually face-palmed, though he had no idea why. Pidge stared at him as if he was the strangest thing she had ever seen and slowly said, “Lance?”

“Yeah?” What had he done wrong?

She pulled up her sleeve and took off the band she wore around her wrist. “You know I was born with a grey soulmark.”

If the floor could open up and swallow him, that’d be great. Please and thank you, universe? Lance instantly felt ashamed, because yes, he had known that Pidge had a greyed out mark. It was early and he hadn’t been thinking. She had always been pretty forward about it, but she also had a very accepting family, so why shouldn’t she be?

Unless a pair of soulmates died together, it was inevitable that one of them would one day have a greyed out soulmark. That was where the lines faded from their naturally intense black shades to dull grey. It happened when a person’s soulmate died because the bond was gone.

Being born with a grey soulmark was rare. It meant that the person in question had a soulmate planned for them, but they had died even before that person was born. It was likely that Pidge’s soulmate had been an infant or young child that passed away while she was still in the womb. Lance didn’t know what would be worse, being born with a grey mark, without a mark at all (though that was just an urban legend so there was that), or never finding your soulmate. It happened sometimes.

“Right,” he squeaked out. “Sorry. Continue.”

Pidge forgave him easily and continued on with her story. “I met one Mr. Keith Shirogane there.”

Lance instantly straightened up, eyes narrowing. His pulse picked up slightly, because he knew that name very well. It instantly conjured images of pale skin, black hair that was far too long, and dark eyes that never looked his way. “You met the demon himself? How snarky was he? Did he ignore you and treat you like dirt? I’ll fight him.”

“Chill,” Hunk said, staring at Pidge curiously even as he spoke to Lance. He had heard enough of Lance’s rants about Keith over the past two years, though he had never actually met the guy himself. Lance didn’t paint a very nice picture.

“Actually he was pretty nice once I got him talking. A little awkward. A lot confused.” Her eyes met Lance’s, and she looked terribly amused. “He has no fucking clue who you are.”

Everything seemed to go silent for Lance (even though they were sitting in a busy café the first morning of classes). Slowly, her words processed in his mind. “But we’re rivals!” He couldn’t help but be offended. What the hell? He didn’t even care that a few people looked over at him before going on with their own business.

She snorted, leaning forward slightly. “Apparently you forgot to tell him. I said your name a few times and he looked so blank it was actually funny.” She seemed positively tickled by the memory.

“Wait, wait,” Hunk said, flailing his hand around, brown eyes wide. “Are you telling me that the rival Lance has been ranting about since first year has no idea he exists at all?”

“I dunno about that,” Pidge said with a shrug, still smiling. “He might know him by sight, but not by name.”

Hunk couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “That’s hilarious.”

“No it’s not!” Lance squawked, slumping down onto the table. “This is unbelievable! What the hell?” They were rivals, always pushing for the top marks in their introductory classes that they had together. Whenever Lance thought that he had won, Keith would swoop in with better marks and that stupid smug grin on his face and his stupid ability to do everything effortlessly while Lance worked his ass off. “This is bull!”

Hunk sent him a dry look that Lance knew meant he was coming for blood. Hunk may have been his best friend, but he wasn’t shy to rip him a new one as long as it wasn’t a touchy subject. He braced himself as his best friend said, “Maybe if you put half as much effort into this rivalry as you did to going on about your soulmate he might notice.”

Oh, ow. Hunk knew when and how to come for his soul. “Listen! University is super important and I do work hard and you know it, but like, your soulmate is even more important. They’re everything! And I’m going to find her! Or him! Either’s fine!” Lance slapped his hand on the table, and somehow that was enough to send his drink spiraling down onto his lap.

Pidge burst into laughter, and Hunk snickered as he went to get more napkins. At least one of his friends was helpful. Lance groaned and put his head in his hands.

It was supposed to be a good first day of classes. What had he done to deserve this? Stupid Keith, it was all his fault.

…

When Lance stumbled into his classroom for his first astronomy class of the year, coffee in hand and nearly late (it made him cringe a bit to think that he was almost one of those people), his first thought was that his rival, Keith Shirogane, hadn’t taken the class. That had to be it, because Keith was never late.

That didn’t make sense though, because he knew via Pidge that he was majoring in astronomy (and archeology, because of course the show-off was going for a double major), and this class was a requirement for it. Maybe it got in the way of one of his other courses and he wasn’t taking it this semester?

That didn’t sit right to Lance. They were rivals, and suddenly their classes were branching off much more than the first two years of their university programs did. They couldn’t suddenly not be rivals, despite what Mr. Know-it-all thought.

The class itself wasn’t a huge one, but it was decent sized. This university was very well regarded for its sciences, and nearly every person that went into space started here. Even Lance’s hero, Takaishi Shirogane, went here once. Though he chose to serve his country instead of getting the chance to go into space. Lance never quite understood why.

It was also a point of jealousy for Lance that Keith shared a surname with him. That was honestly the first thing that Lance noticed about his classmate. Then the pale skin, the too-long black hair, the dark clothes.

Wait.

There was indeed a young man with dark clothes and pale skin sitting in the corner of the classroom, notebook and pen already pulled out. Well, his t-shirt was red, and it definitely looked nice on him, but the rest of his clothes were dark. That wasn’t what put Lance off though. The once too-long hair was much shorter than Lance remembered. It looked like it had been roughly cut, but oddly enough, it seemed to frame his face almost perfectly? What the hell? How dare this person make what looked like a mullet look good? What the hell?

That person had to be Keith. Who else showed up in clothes like that and wrote their notes in a notebook these days? (Okay, a lot of people, but Keith was still different.) Didn’t he know he could get twice the amount of notes if he used a laptop? Sure, if a person didn’t have one, Lance could understand that, but he knew that Keith had one, he could see it sticking out of his bag!

Lance wanted to pay attention, he really did. He loved astronomy to the point where he thought about one-day becoming an astronaut, but ended up changing his mind to become a marine biologist. He could still explore an unknown world; it was just much closer to home. The thing was, he was already set up to fail that day. Keith apparently had no clue who he was. Keith had gotten his hair cut into a mullet, and for some reason it looked good. What the ever living hell? This was unacceptable.

Maybe Lance knew that a part of him was compensating because he thought Keith was hot. That part of himself, the part that screamed ‘hey I’m actually not straight’  was a part of himself that he had only really discovered when he came to university, but he was trying to embrace it as best as he could. He had grown up in a loving, yet conservative family. His parents weren’t the type to kick him out, but they didn’t really understand, and that meant that Lance himself didn’t really understand.

He just knew that he could appreciate good-looking guys as much as he could appreciate good-looking girls, he was just more apt to flirt with the girls and check their soulmarks. He wouldn’t be disappointed at all if his soulmate turned out to be a man though.

The revelation that his soulmate could easily be a man was something that had only occurred to him more recently. That was fine. What wasn’t fine was the revelation that his soulmate could have been a guy that he had met in the past, and he had overlooked him. Marks only changed from physical, skin-on-skin interactions after all.

That nearly sent him into a crisis like he had never experienced before. His soulmate was everything to him.

Lance nervously glanced over at Keith again. He wasn’t even paying attention to the Professor going over the syllabus and the assignments for the year. Sure, Lance wasn’t either, but it still irked him in the wrong way. Keith took notes in his notebook, yeah, but he rarely ever seemed to pay attention at the same time, and he never participated. It was annoying.

 The professor dismissed the class early, but that came as no surprise to anyone. It’s usually how it worked during the first classes. Lance found himself packing up his stuff and moving towards the black-haired man before he even really processed what he was doing.

Keith glanced up at him, both confused and curious about his sudden approach. There was absolutely no hostility on his face, though he did look slightly wary when he took in how tense Lance was.

It wasn’t Lance’s fault though. He could appreciate a beautiful person, and up close, Keith Shirogane was absolutely a beautiful person. He had to be wearing contacts over like grey eyes or something, because there was no way they could naturally be that bluish-purplish colour (indigo, he later realized, what the name he was looking for).

“Hi?” Keith said, voice raising with confusion.

“The name’s Lance!” Oh, maybe he should have said hi first. Well then.

Keith blinked, brow furrowing slightly before he said, “La…oh. Oh you’re the one that girl, Pidge, told me about! I do know you!” He looked at him almost sheepishly and it should not look that cute, Lance was trying to be annoyed right now.

“Since when do you have a mullet?”

Keith’s hand rose up, brushing against his hair. The sheepish expression vanished, instantly becoming defensive. Instead of answering, he crossed his arms in front of him and demanded, “Since when are we rivals?”

“Okay, rude,” Lance said, ignoring the fact that he too had been incredibly rude. It was fine when he did it, right? “Since first year! Lance and Keith, neck-in-neck! Does it ring a bell?”

“Not at all.” Keith glanced at his phone and then tucked it back into his pocket, throwing his bag over her shoulder and making his way towards the exit.

“Woah, wait a second!” Lance hurried after him. “You can’t just walk away.”

“I have another class. If you want something, walk and talk,” Keith said curtly, walking down the hall swiftly. Apparently he had places to be.

Lance kept up with him easily. They were close to the same height, though Lance was just a little bit taller. “Okay, so, we’ve been in a lot of same classes since first year! Even small tutorial groups! How can you not know my name?

If Lance didn’t know any better, he would have sworn that he saw a little bit of guilt there. The thing was, he knew Keith Shirogane. He was arrogant and looked down on people. He didn’t feel guilty about things like this.

“Look,” Keith said his eyes turned towards the ground as if making sure that he wasn’t about to trip over anything, “it’s nothing against you personally. I just go to my classes, do the work, and bail out. The professors are lucky I know their names. It has nothing to do with you. I do recognize you though.”

“Well, I mean, my face is pretty amazing and hard to forget,” Lance said with an air of carelessness.

“Right,” Keith said with a roll of his eyes. “Look, I need to get to my archeology class, alright?”

“What kind of archeology is it?” Lance asked curiously. He had honestly expected Keith to do something like astrophysics, or something similar to that, not archeology. What Pidge described earlier actually seemed interesting though.

Keith was completely taken aback by the shift in conversation, going from borderline hostile to completely curious. He faltered for a minute, as if not sure how to handle the sudden switch in dynamics. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “It’s actually a cultural class that has a focus on the history and archeological findings based around soulmates and soulmarks.”

“Holy shit, that sounds wicked cool!” Lance’s eyes went wide. “Dude, you should totally tell me about that later cause that sounds, like, right up my ally! I’ll give you my number and you can tell me all about it!”

Keith stopped and stared at Lance with a raised eyebrow. “What?” He looked so lost and a little bit overwhelmed. It was like he didn’t know how to interact with people. To be fair, Lance had jumped down his throat, insulted him, then became curious, and now was genuinely excited. Nah, Keith just needed to keep up.

“I mean, come on, you get to study soulmates? That’s amazing!” Lance positively gushed. “I know history says soulmates are as old as humanity itself, but it’d still be awesome to actually study. Nothing like that is in my biology courses.” He sighed happily.

“Oh,” Keith suddenly looked unimpressed. “You’re one of those ones.”

Lance blinked, brought out of his thoughts, his good mood dissipating. His eyebrows pinched slightly. “Excuse me?”

Making his way to the building that must house the classroom he needed to be in, Keith said, “One of those ones who thinks that your soulmate is the most important thing ever and that they’re magically going to fix any problems you might have.”

There was absolutely no mistaking his tone of voice. The judgment was absolutely there, the skepticism obvious.

Lance had a class to get to himself, but he also had a point to prove. “Dude. Soulmates are important!” He threw his arm in front of Keith, showing off his soulmark. “We’re not whole without them! It’s why these aren’t coloured in at birth! We’re missing a part of ourselves.”

Keith stopped and stared at the mark. There was an odd expression on his face as he studied the lines, before side-stepping around Lance. “I don’t need a soulmate. I don’t need anyone to make my life ‘fulfilling’ or anything, especially not someone that some cosmic force decided that I needed to be with. It’s stupid.”

Lance glowered at him. “Wow your soulmate is probably lucky you think that way. Probably better off without you.”

The other boy froze, glancing over his shoulder at Lance with a heated glare before storming away. This time Lance didn’t follow him. Instead, he just stood there and fumed.

People like Keith were exactly why Lance was so eager to meet his soulmate. There was someone out there made perfectly for him, so he didn’t have to deal with wading through the waters of confusion and uncertainty for a pretty face with a bad attitude.

Lance turned around to storm away, heading towards the area that he needed to be in soon. Forget Keith and his bad attitude. There were much more important things to think about.

Chapter Text

Keith liked to think that he was a logical person. Okay, yes, he tended to lash out at things that bothered him rather intensely, and Shiro said that he was just an emotional person in general, but he still thought he could piece together things with ease and come to logical conclusions. His instincts were pretty on-point.

That being said, Keith knew what he was feeling was illogical, but hell if he didn’t feel it. He hadn’t been able to really focus or enjoy any of his other classes, mind going over the conversation that he had with Lance.

He felt a little bad. He shouldn’t have been so judgemental over Lance’s apparent interest in soulmates. He just got so frustrated about the whole thing, and it only got worse with the more he learned about the past. People could have their own opinions, he knew that, it was just the way the whole situation was handled that bothered him in the end. Maybe he let his temper get to him, but Lance didn’t have to turn around to be as much of an asshole as he had been.

Keith flopped dramatically onto the couch, staying face-down on a pillow.

“Are you okay?” Shiro asked. He had been sitting on their beat-up chair, balancing a bowl of chocolate covered ice cream on his lap while eating it. He was using his foot to flip through channels. People could say what they want about Shiro, but no one could deny how adaptable he was. “Classes couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Classes were fine, but…” Keith trailed off and rolled over to stare at the older man. “So, you remember me telling you something about a really cute guy in my classes?”

“Something? Keith, if I saw him I’d probably know him on sight. You’ve been going on about him for two years. Years. Not months. Not days. Not weeks. Years. You basically verbally  wrote poems about him.”

“I did not!” Keith’s ears turned red as he fumed, his voice rising in pitch.

When Lance had come up to him, he had been more than shocked, because this was the person he had a crush on since he saw him first year.

Keith could still remember feeling panicked about getting lost on his first day of classes ever, because of course he had. Looking at the campus map offered online, he had looked up when another student tripped and stumbled before catching himself. He had smiled brightly at everyone around him.

The thing about Keith was that he was very weak to handsome boys. He couldn’t even hide the fact that he was checking someone out when he was doing it. Shiro loved to call him out on it when he caught him staring at men.

Keith knew he had a type. He liked men that were taller than him. It didn’t have to be much, just taller in general. He was also a sucker for a really nice smile.

Low and behold, along with expressive blue eyes, clear brown skin, and soft-looking brown hair, this guy had it all. Keith had subconsciously ended up drifting in the same direction as the boy like some kind of loser stalker. Luckily for him, it happened that they were going to the same place.

The classes they shared together were big in their first two years, and Keith didn’t really talk to people, so while Keith definitely knew him on sight, he had no clue what his name was.

It was almost ironic that Lance had apparently seen him as a rival for just as long. Hey, at least he had noticed him somehow?

“Yes, you did.” Shiro interrupted Keith’s musings. “Finally talk to him?””

“Yeah.”

Shiro froze before setting his ice cream on the coffee table and shifting so that Keith had his entire attention. “Really? After two years you finally talked to him?”

“Well, no,” Keith admitted. “He talked to me.”

“That’s a great thing!” God, Shiro was such an optimist that it was almost painful sometimes.

Keith shook his head. “Not really. Remember Matt Holt’s sister, Pidge? She told me about this apparent rival I had that I don’t know?”

“No,” Shiro breathed out, eyes going wide.

“Yeah,” Keith replied with a nod, cheeks burning. They really needed to stop that. “Turns out the hot guy I was too shy to talk to is the same guy that saw me as a rival. Then he followed me around to talk, and I…don’t know how to act around him? Like, one minute he seems to hate me and the next minute he’s friendly? I don’t get it. Then, of course, I told him I was in a class where we’re focusing on soulmarks and soulmates and he started gushing about them.”

“Ah, I get it.” Shiro, of all people, very well knew Keith’s outlook on the concept of soulmates. It actually helped a little bit with his acceptance of his own situation. Finding soulmates could be difficult, and the odds of him ever finding his plummeted since he no longer had one to prove what his looked like. He’d have to get lucky enough to happen to be in the same place as his soulmate and to have an excuse to touch them.

Not very likely. Keith didn’t think that made Shiro broken though, and that was very encouraging.

The only downside, of course, was how passionate Keith could get about the things that interested him.

“You fought with him, didn’t you?”

Keith looked away, his right hand moving so that he was holding his left wrist. “He showed me his soulmark. Ranted about how important soulmates were.”

“Keith…” Shiro didn’t quite know how to approach this. The altercation had clearly bothered him more than any other ones, and he had a pretty good idea about why.

“I’m fine, Shiro,” Keith grumbled with a shake of his head. “Turns out he’s a jerk obsessed with soulmates anyway. Not worth my time.” Shiro could probably hear the disappointment in his voice.

It wasn’t that Keith hated the concept of soulmates. He actually thought it was kind of awesome that there was a person out there in the world just for you. He hated how they were handled in modern days, revered above all else, even the bonds that were forged naturally between people.

When soulmates met they were complete strangers and basically had to love one another, or so it seemed. Someone would have to give up their life to be with the other if they lived far away. It didn’t matter if their personalities were opposites, or their personal beliefs were. Modern concept of soulmates basically said that you had to love them. It didn’t matter if your connections to their people were stronger.

Nothing else mattered. That’s what disgusted him. That was why he kept his wrists covered and would never show them to anyone. If someone was worth his time they’d both work on being together because they wanted to be, not because they felt like they had to be. He was kind of disappointed that Lance was one of those people that seemed to care a little too much about soulmates.

It wasn’t the first time that someone had disappointed him in this way, and he knew it probably wouldn’t be the last.

He took a deep breath and pushed himself off of the couch. There was no need to mourn or to be disappointed. He should have expected it, honestly. It was why he never actually pursued any crushes he developed. There was never a point if everyone just wanted to find the same marks on someone’s wrist?

He didn’t have homework yet, but he did have a list of assignments that he could get started on right away. Keith didn’t like being idle, and it was best to get working so that he wouldn’t feel pressured at the end of the semester.

Keith snatched the ice cream from Shiro, who grumbled at him and tried to snatch it back, but he was already in their little kitchen. “I’m gonna tell Soba you’re eating ice cream for supper.”

“I’ll tell her how you never sleep at night.”

“I won’t make you food again.” Despite this, Keith was still heading to the kitchen, wanting to make something semi-edible before he got to work. 

This is what life was about, doing what they could to survive while doing what they could to help others. It wasn’t about something as stupid as soulmates.

…

“What a jackass,” Lance said as he slammed his bag down on the counter. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea since his laptop was in there, but he was annoyed and he had a flair for dramatics.

Silently he peaked in his bag to make sure that his laptop looked okay. There were no dents, so that meant it was fine, right?

Hunk was sitting at the table, fingers tapping across the screen of his phone, no doubt texting Shay. Pidge was sprawled out on the floor fiddling with something that looked suspiciously like pieces of their toaster and Lance really didn’t want to have to go buy another one. (“What the hell, Pidge? You don’t even live here!”)

“Who?” Hunk asked after a few moments.

“Keith!” Lance burst out instantly, having been waiting for the acknowledgment. “I talked to him today and just…ugh! He really didn’t know who I was! I mean, he recognized me, but he didn’t know my name! What the hell? Then apparently he’s taking this super cool class involving soulmates but he just kept going on about how stupid they were, and he has like the biggest chip on his shoulder ever! Fuck! How the hell can someone think that soulmates are stupid and aren’t important?”

Pidge looked up at him slowly. “Lance, did you go on about how soulmates were the most important thing ever again, by any chance?”

“Well, I did mention that we weren’t whole without them coloured in,” Lance admitted. Talking to Pidge about these things always made him feel a little hypocritical, because he genuinely thought that she shouldn’t have to worry about her mark being greyed out, but he also thought that soulmates were important. It always made him confused. “And…I told him that his soulmate was lucky he didn’t care cause they were better off without him?”

“Lance,” Hunk said in that voice that screamed disappointment.

“Okay, yes, that was going too far,” Lance admitted. “I didn’t mean to, it just slipped out. He was being such a jerk and like dismissing me entirely! You know how I get.”

“You should apologize to him,” Pidge said.

Lance snorted. “I’m sorry, what? I said some shitty things but so did he. I’m not apologizing.”

“I told you I met him when he was with someone who lost his arm. His brother who lost his arm with his soulmark on it. They don’t have pictures of it for cultural reasons. The odds of him finding his soulmate are extremely low now. Basically impossible. Might be why. Just saying.”

Lance stared at her, a bit gob smacked by that. He could kind of understand where Keith’s aggression had come from in that case. He would have jumped to defend any of his siblings, or even Pidge, if something was wrong with their marks.

“Uhh…should you have told us that? That sounds like the biggest breech of client privacy ever.”

Pidge blinked. “Huh. Probably.” She looked over at Lance. “Guess what they say is true. Don’t meet your heroes.”

“You need to take a break away from whatever fumes you’re making over there,” Lance insisted, pointing at her. He took a seat at the table. “Keith isn’t my hero. Takaishi Shirogane is.”

“Takaishi Shirogane. Keith Shirogane,” Pidge said slowly.

“Yeah, I thought that was a wild coincidence, but like, just because they’re both Asian descent and have the same name doesn’t mean anything. Why would one have a Japanese name and the other an English name if they were related?”

“First off, I met Shiro. That’s what he calls himself. He was the one getting the arm. Keith was with him. Also apparently Keith is just a name he goes by, like me with Pidge. Shiro called him Akira. So yeah, they’re definitely related. Good job. Your hero is probably at home hearing all about Keith’s side of the story since you can’t handle your big gay crush on him.” Pidge rolled her eyes at him and went back to tinkering with the toaster.

“I don’t have a crush on Keith! He’s not my soulmate!” Lance shrieked, balling up a piece of paper and throwing it at her. “He’s my rival. You know this. But holy shit, he’s really related to Takaishi Shirogane? I’m so jealous. Ugh.”

“Didn’t you complain about him always wearing gloves? I think I remember that description as proof of how emo he is many times,” Hunk spoke up, standing and stretching out. He moved to the cupboard to find something to cook. It occurred to Lance that it might be why Pidge was there with them. She and Matt could go a few days without eating if left to their own devices.

“Yeah?”

“Well, what if he is your soulmate.”

Lance’s stomach dropped at the suggestion. He looked at his best friend with wide eyes, unable to respond as Pidge started laughing.

“Oh my god, that makes sense! You’ve always been so fixated on him, but I bet you’ve never touched him before!” She looked positively tickled by the thought.

“There is no way that’s possible,” Lance insisted, crossing his arms in front of him. “No way. We’ve been in the same place for two years! I must have made contact with him at some point, even just picking up an assignment or something. I would definitely know already.”

“You mean like he picked up your name?”

Ignoring that, he looked down at his soulmark, tracing the familiar pattern. He hated the fact that it was so empty with not a drop of colour in it. That was really all he wanted, to find his soulmate and have the mark be pleasantly shaded like Hunk’s was. Why was that so much to ask? Though he did have a preference towards women, Lance wasn’t opposed to it being a man, and Keith really was gorgeous.

Except, despite what Pidge said, Lance genuinely did not have a crush on Keith. He admittedly was a bit fascinated by him, about how he seemed to retain information and get high grades almost effortlessly. He was the type of person that Lance wanted to be in that regard. He was also genuinely curious about him. Lance too was a sucker for a good mystery, and the other man definitely fell into that category.

Keith kept his wrists covered by those gloves. It was possible that he had a greyed out mark like Pidge, but it wasn’t uncommon for people to keep them covered for privacy’s sake. Once upon a time, soulmarks were seen as intensely private and should only be shown to close family and friends. The marks warmed when touching your soulmate, so they’d feel it changing when they touched. Only then would they show it to one another.

Now it was becoming much more common for people to post picture online, using social media and networking to find their soulmates easier. Lance was one of those people. If Keith didn’t see much point in having a soulmate, him covering it up made a lot of sense.

He also couldn’t help but think about his arm suddenly not being there. The one identifier of who his soulmate was, gone forever. Sure, their mark would change when they touched, but it made things so much harder, nearly impossible. If that happened to anyone he knew, and someone else was even unintentionally implying that said family member wouldn’t be able to live their life to their fullest as is, Lance would have ripped into them.

He groaned. “I don’t think he’s my soulmate, but you know, you’re probably right and I do owe him an apology.” He put his face in his hands. “Ugh. Hunk! Kick me!”

“No can do, bud!” Hunk said from where he stood, cracking eggs over a frying pan. Breakfast for supper was entirely too awesome and Lance loved his best friend for life for making it. “I can give you a hug though!”

Hunk hugs were fantastic, but Lance also thought Hunk cooking was fantastic. “Raincheck. I’ll get it later after grumpy pants to no doubt tries to eviscerate me.”

Pidge snorted. “He’s not going to disembowel you. You’re just a drama queen. I think he just me be a bit…awkward? I was a bit curious, and did some sleuthing because I gotta know about the people my friends have crushes on—”

“I don’t have a crush on him!” Lance interrupted her. Seriously, why did no one listen to him outside of when he was embarrassing himself?

“—And also someone who wants a career specifically studying how cultures of the past used stars in their life and shit? That’s awesome. So yeah. He seems to be a loner. Has social media stuff. Doesn’t use it. Limited friends on it. In no clubs. So maybe he’s not as bad as you think he is. Maybe he just doesn’t know how to be around people.”

“That’s really sad,” Hunk said. “Lance.”

“No.”

“But Lance.”

“Hunk, no.” Lance knew that look. He knew it well. It was the look Hunk got on his face when he saw an abandoned puppy on the side of the road.  “We’re not adopting Keith Shirogane.”

“Maybe he just needs a friend and you know you could use an astronomy study buddy. You always get stressed out before exam time. Think about it!”

“Ugh, I’m going to apologize to him about what I said. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to be friends with him!” Lance rolled his eyes.

Something inside of him ache a little bit. He couldn’t imagine always being alone, but he could imagine that if he was, he might not know exactly how to interact with others. In fairness to Keith, it was a lot to take in with Lance suddenly in his face.

Lance looked back down at his soulmark. He genuinely didn’t have a crush on Keith, but maybe he had been hoping to reach out and gain some kind of friendship with the other man all along. Maybe they could put this misunderstanding, this rivalry behind. He didn’t like the thought of anyone being alone if he could help it.

So he would be the bigger person between the two of them. He would apologize and try to get along with him. Whatever happened after that would be up to Keith. Whether they were active rivals, downright antagonistic to one another, loose acquaintances or friends was going to be up to him.

…

Apparently the third year of university was much different than the first two. Where most of Lance’s teachers had eased them into assignments, these ones went full-steam ahead. By the second class they were already assigning them things.

Despite popular belief, Lance actually was a hard worker. Most people saw him as a flake, only in university for the parties and to say he was in university. That was far from true. He did take his grades seriously, he just did it in his own way. Okay, maybe he didn’t have the best organizational skills and put things off, but he did care. It was just hard to focus on certain things unless he did things his way.

Most professors took that as him being lazy, unfortunately. There was a particularly nasty one that had directly compared Lance to Keith, saying that the latter was a superior student, and it was no surprise that his marks were higher.

In retrospect, Lance was pretty sure he found where the sparks that started this rivalry came from.

Due to all of the work they were very quickly hit with, Lance didn’t have a chance to talk to Keith until the following Friday. Once class ended, Lance quickly moved in, much like he had during their first conversation.

Keith looked up at him, staring at him with those eyes and okay, yes, they were super attractive. They were also wary though. “What do you want?”

“Can’t I be in this space too, Mullet? Or does it belong to you?” Good job Lancey-Lance. Ten out of ten on that one.

Keith glared at him, throwing his bag on his shoulder and turning to walk away. Lance internally groaned and then said, “Wait! Hang on!” He was honestly a bit surprised that Keith stopped. “I didn’t mean that. I just…word vomit happens when I’m nervous.” Okay, Keith had fully turned to face him. That was good. “Look, a friend of mine told me that your brother lost his arm and…holy shit that must have been confidential information what the fuck Pidge? But, um, I wanted to apologize for going off at you about soulmates cause, like, I know not everyone is the same. You know? Like Pidge’s has been grey since she was born. Fuck, I shouldn’t have said that. But you know…she blabbed about your brother so I it balances things out? No it doesn’t I’m a dick. Anyway, yeah, I also shouldn’t have said that thing to you about your soulmate, especially since I don’t know you so, yeah, sorry.”

Keith stared at him for a moment before sighing and saying, “I shouldn’t have gone off at you.” He looked away from him. “I’m told I have a temper, and I’m not very good with people.”

Lance smiled. “Well, I mean, you’re doing okay now? So, like, friendly rivals again? Not just ignoring one another entirely?”

The expression on Keith’s face was something else. He looked like he didn’t know whether to be confused, amused, or exasperated. “We’re not rivals.” He suddenly looked almost embarrassed. “But I wouldn’t mind the friendly part.”

Oh, wow. Lance had not been expecting that at all. “Well, I mean, it’d be nice to have someone to study with for my astronomy classes. I don’t always get what’s going on during class. At least this teacher’s better than Iverson.”

Something flashed in Keith’s eyes, and it was like he became more alive. He nodded towards the door, actually signaling to Lance that he was leaving, which was an improvement over last time. They both walked out of the room and Keith said, “He was the worst teacher ever. A complete asshole. Always telling me that it didn’t matter how hard I studied if I was just going to be riding Shiro’s coattails. It took every bit of control I had not to deck him.”

“Really?” Lance burst out, because holy shit, this was new information entirely. “But Iverson loved you!”

“Are…we talking about the same douchebag professor?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow. “Tall, brown skin, one eye permanently closed, always looks like someone stole his favourite toy as a kid and he never got over it? Cause he hated me.”

“He always told me about how I’d never be as good as you!” What the hell was happening? This was the foundation of what their rivalry was based off of. How else would he have known Keith’s grades, or cared about them, if they hadn’t been pointed out to him? It was university, there were thousands of students there. Here he thought Keith was basically in cahoots with Iverson this whole time, the teacher’s pet.

“What an asshole,” Keith spat out, genuinely offended for him. “Seriously. Everyone learns differently and he sucks as a teacher anyway.” He looked at Lance, staring directly at him as if seeing him for the first time. His fire seemed to shimmer a bit, and he said, “Look, I’m just…I’m good at memorizing things I’m interested in, but it’s not for everyone right? I need to hear it from them once, and I write it down as they talk so it’s like I’ve…doing it twice, almost? Then I go through it and do my own annotations and stuff later and…” Keith trailed off, rather embarrassed. “If you want some help with astronomy, I can help you. Maybe my notes will make more sense?”

Lance’s eyes lit up. “So that’s why you always write things down instead of typing! I wondered.”

“Studies show that you memorize more when you write it over typing,” Keith said.

“Sure, sure.” Lance waved him off a bit. It may be true, but he’d stick to his computer thanks. He low-key used it to browse websites like Instagram, soulfinder, or markme to check out the soulmarks there. He could multitask, mostly. Some help with review would be great though, because Lance honestly loved astronomy and would hate to lose it as a minor if he didn’t get the right classes. “But yeah, studying would be awesome. My friends and I go to the café on campus quite a bit, we could go there! Or the library too if we can get one of the study rooms!”

“You’re…really excited to study,” Keith noted. It should be illegal to be that cute. It should be illegal to find him that cute in the first place.

“Well, I mean, as your rival you should want me at my best to give you a run for your money,” Lance explained seriously.

The ghost of a smile cross Keith’s lips, and he cocked an eyebrow up. “Really?”

“Absolutely! If no one is challenging you, how can you keep doing better?”

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Alright, I’ll bite. We can start having study sessions. Library might be better, but we can work it out later.”

“Right, you have a class to go to, and so do I,” Lance remembered suddenly, glancing at his phone. He was definitely going to be late. Oh well. Getting some closure on the angry rivalry he’d held onto for years now and opening a more friendly rivalry were just as important as making it to class on time. He held out his phone. “Put your number in and we’ll work something out.”

Keith shrugged and took the unlocked phone, quickly adding his number as a contact. “Actually, I don’t. Have another class that is. My other class is longer, so I only have it on Monday and Wednesday. I only have this one class Friday.”

“Smart little bugger,” Lance noted, taking back his phone. He sent a message to the number, watching as it appeared on Keith’s phone. At least he knew that it wasn’t a fake. “Well, I need to jet. I’m already late. Text you later, Mullet. Don’t worry, I won’t abuse this. I’ll just send you all the memes.”

“No,” Keith said sternly, but Lance was already hurrying away.

“Too late! Bye Rival” He waved over his shoulder, actually sprinting into a run. He honestly felt like he could leap over the building if he really tried, he felt that light.

It was really nice clearing the air and getting rid of all that negativity. He should have tried actually approaching Keith years ago.

He guessed that this was what it felt like to actually grow up.

Chapter Text

True to his word, Lance did indeed text Keith memes. It started with random ones at night when Lance no doubt had free time, but then progressed to getting them first thing in the morning because Lance wanted to ‘brighten up his emo day’ or something along those lines. He would never tell Lance how much it actually amused him. No, he would never give him that satisfaction.

Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure what he expected, but it wasn’t that.

Okay, he expected the other boy to be antagonistic towards him, to drag him into arguments and stupid fights. Despite what most people thought, Keith wasn’t one to actually start a fight. He liked to stay in his own lane. However, he wasn’t going to shy away from someone getting on his case. Keith didn’t start fights (“Shut up, Shiro.”) but he sure as hell figured out solutions to end them and wasn’t going to let someone walk over him.

Now wasn’t the time to think of that. Instead, he was heading to the history building to meet up with one of his professors there. Professor Smythe was an excitable man with the single most impressive moustache that Keith had ever seen.

He wasn’t exactly sure what this meeting was for, but he wasn’t too worried. Professor Smythe, who preferred to be called Coran by all his students, taught a few of his classes and seemed to have a working knowledge in nearly every topic. Literally. Keith once heard him talking about microbiology to one student only to switch to talking about ancient Chinese history with another. It was wild. He was approachable, and though a bit quirky, still one of Keith’s favourite professors.

Keith knocked on the open door to Coran’s office, causing the man to look up from whatever it was he was hovering over. A smile spread across his face. “Keith! Come, come. Have a seat!” He motioned towards the very comfortable chair in front of his desk, that Keith gladly sank into. He loved these chairs. “Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you here?”

“It crossed my mind,” Keith admitted, unable to stop himself from smiling.

Coran chuckled. “Yes, yes. I’m not sure you know this, but every year, most departments offer part-time jobs to the third and fourth year students that they feel can keep up with them and their studies. You’re a bright, motivated lad who is highly organized. I would like to offer you one of the positions in my department. It’s nothing tasking, it would essentially be organizing and cataloguing our assortment of historical documents. Of course, you’d be welcome to use them for research without having to book the time like other students do, and you’d be paid.”

“Really?” Keith perked up. He already knew from looking at his assignments that he’d need to visit the historical archives more than once, and they were a mess, plus it was always annoying to book the time to get there. He also needed to find a job to help Shiro with their apartment, and was really dreading doing customer service.

He had once been told that he had resting bitch-face and wasn’t exactly inviting to people. Keith agreed with that assessment.

“Of course, my boy!” Coran said jovially. He rifled through some paperwork on his desk. “You’d get to schedule your own hours, of course. However, you have to have ten documented hours of work a week. If something happens and you are unable to reach ten in one week, please let me know and we can work something out. Let’s see here…”

By the time they got the paperwork sorted, Keith honestly felt like skipping home. What a good way to start the weekend, honestly. He reconciled with Lance over their argument and got a potential study buddy, he had been offered a job that would make his research for his other classes easier, and it was a nice day in general.

He decided to treat himself to one of those over-priced, sugar-packed drinks at the café on campus (after double checking that he has his lactose pills with him). It wasn’t a bad little place, just not somewhere he’d regularly go because it was so crowded, and because he didn’t have the money to drink fancy drinks like this all the time

Keith didn’t see Lance sitting with his friends in the corner, though they certainly saw him. Lance couldn’t help but stare, because he had never seen Keith look so genuinely happy before. Pidge nudged him and Hunk patted his back.

After getting his chocolate, caramel, whipped cream abomination, Keith turned to leave, and happened to catch Lance’s eye. He paused for a moment, and nodded his head before heading out the door.

Yes, it had been a very good day overall.

…

“What was that about?” Pidge immediately asked Lance as Keith walked out of the door. “He nodded at you and didn’t look pissed.”

“I’ve never seen him look that happy before,” Lance said faintly, more than a little taken back. “Wow, he has a nice smile.”

“Oh my god,” she said with a laugh. “And you say I don’t have a crush.”

“I don’t,” Lance insisted, finally looking at her. “I can still think someone’s attractive and not, you know, like them that way. I mean, look at Hunk. His name is perfect for him, but that doesn’t mean I wanna jump him.”

“Aww thank you,” Hunk gushed. “I love you too, Buddy.” He leaned forward to look at Pidge. “I gotta agree with Lance here. I love Shay, but I absolutely notice when someone is good looking aesthetically. You have to agree on that, Pidge.”

She sighed, shoulders slumping. “Okay, yes, I can admit to having looked at people and thinking ‘wow that is one beautiful person’, but come on, this is the guy Lance has been obsessing over for two years.”

“Look, we agreed that we could get along, okay? Isn’t that good enough?” Lance asked, waving his hand in the air.

Hunk’s eyes started to sparkle. “You mean we get to adopt him?”

“Hunk, no.”

“Hunk, yes,” he insisted. “He’s so skinny. I need to feed him immediately.”

Pidge and Lance both laughed at him. “Mom-friend.”

“Hunk is absolutely the mom-friend,” Pidge agreed.

Hunk pouted at that, his cheeks puffing out, but then he smiled. “That’s fine. It just means I get to ground you two.”

“You can’t ground me!” Lance cried out, once again attracting attention to them briefly.

“Can’t I?” Hunk raised an eyebrow at him challengingly.

Lance slumped down in his chair a bit, pouting, because Hunk probably could say that he was grounded and to go to his room, and he’d probably do it.

Pidge smirked. “I, on the other hand, don’t live with you. Suckers.”

Hunk turned his stare to Pidge. He didn’t say a word, he just stared at her, and soon she was slumped down alongside Lance.

“This house is a fucking nightmare,” she mumbled, earning snorts from both of her friends.

“No swearing while you’re under my roof,” Hunk teased.

“I’m not under your roof!”

Lance straightened up as the two launched into a playful argument, his eyes turning back towards the door. A part of him almost wished that Keith would appear again, but that was ridiculous to think. He had never seen Keith smile like that before, and honestly, it was a good look on him. In an objective, friendly-rival way. Hey, his rival should be attractive, right? Otherwise what would be the point?

Wow, that was shallow even to him. Lance got off of that train of thought. He just hoped that he got to see that smile more often for now on.

…

Most people assumed that because Keith was generally pretty quiet, that he was shy and timid. Those people would be 100% wrong. If he had something to say or add to a conversation, he never hesitated, and he certainly wasn’t one to back down from any kind of debate once he got into it. Yes, he could be awkward, but no, he was not shy.

That being said, his stomach always felt like it was twisting into painful knots when he had to go to a new place for the first time. It was only ever the first time too. Keith would have thought that this reaction would have gone away considering how many times he had been moved between foster homes before his Shiro found him and grandparents took him in. But no, it persisted ever the same.

He had been in the archives before, but showing up there for his first day on the job made him feel almost ill. He couldn’t even eat that morning, despite Shiro trying to pile him up with food. Maybe that had to do with the fact that what Shiro offered him looked nothing like eggs (“How?”), but Keith couldn’t be sure.

His anxiety lifted a bit when he saw Coran waiting by the front desk. The man perked up when he saw Keith. “Right on time! Come along now, let’s you get acquainted with what you’re going to be doing!”

The best thing about this job, Keith decided, was that he had access to all of the archives all the time. These archives weren’t just for the university, they had information from all over the place. They were also a mess, and that’s where Keith came in. Though his room might argue, he could organize things really well when he actually wanted to.

It was simple work, but it actually kept him occupied, and he found a lot of cool things that he didn’t even know existed in the first hour alone. He was only going to stay there for a couple, which was fine since he made his own hours, but a part of him kind of wanted to stay longer.

He was just about ready to leave when he stumbled upon a giant book. It was covered with dust and tucked into the corner on the floor, of all places. Keith grunted and picked it up, brushing the cover as he set it on a table.

“Soulmate archive?” Keith muttered curiously. He flipped open the cover to see lists upon lists of soulmarks, and if that person found their soulmate or not. Lance probably would have salivated to find something like this, despite the fact that, as Keith flipped through the book, he realized that there were an overwhelming amount of greyed soulmarks listed.

Keith blinked. Why was he thinking of Lance McClain now of all times? Yes, they agreed to be study buddies, and maybe they could be friends, and Keith had a ridiculous crush on him based on the fact that he was unfairly good looking, but why now?

He looked down, grimacing when he realized that his right hand had automatically trailed to his left wrist like it always did. He roughly jerked his right arm away, staring at it like it had betrayed him.

“Stupid Lance,” Keith muttered under his breath, shoving the book to the side. It actually might be helpful in his research. “Stupid soulmates.”

He didn’t have time for this type of thing now. There was so much more he had to do.

…

The first time that Keith agreed to meet up with Lance was the weekend before their first test, and the other boy was stressed.

A small, maybe a little too judgmental part of Keith expected Lance to show up late and just kind of dick around. Needless to say, he was very surprised to find him already waiting in the library, two tall, sugary drinks in-hand.

“You got here early,” Keith noted, eyes glancing down at his hands. One eyebrow raised, and he said, “If you drink that much I think you’re heart’s going to explode.”

Lance laughed a bit at that. “This one’s for you. I saw you order it before.” He pushed the drink into Keith’s hands. “But yeah, I didn’t want to be late.” He shifted nervously. “I really need help for this test. I just don’t get why I don’t get this stuff now. I did fine last year!”

“Come on, let’s go up to the study room.” The library was close to the archives, so he found it easy to slip over after work to book rooms before anyone else could.

Lance followed him, eyes positively lighting up when they approached the room. He looked like he was about to cry when he said, “And you got the good room too with the comfy chairs!”

“Well, yeah. What? Do you think I like sitting on those old wooden chairs all day?” Keith asked.

“Well, I mean, you look like the type of person that would just deal with it.”

“Oh, I am. Doesn’t mean I don’t like it though.”

“So you like soft chairs and coffee with so much flavour that there’s barely any coffee in it. You’re really going against what I thought you’d like.” Lance eyed him suddenly. “Please tell me you like Fallout Boy or MCR?”

Keith blinked. “I mean, I like some songs by them? I don’t follow any specific artists. If I like the song, I like the song. If I don’t, then I don’t.” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t care what other people think.”

“Okay, now that makes sense.” He sat down at one of the chairs and made himself comfortable. “I personally am a big fan of like 2009. It was an iconic year for music.” He pulled out his books. “Alright, so speak planetary development to me.”

A surprised laugh escaped Keith. “Alright, well, we need to figure out what you know first.”

He was honestly impressed with how seriously Lance was taking his studies. He wanted to do well, but he just did things in a way that was completely different from Keith, who already had most of his assignments started in one form or another. He was actually in the editing stage for a bunch of his papers.

The two tackled the unit that they were doing the quiz on, and it quickly became obvious to Keith exactly what was going on. “You need smaller points. Not the big, complicated spiels the prof goes into.”

“Are you saying I’m dumb?” Lance asked slowly.

“What? No!” Keith flushed, genuinely not meaning it that way. “I mean that you memorized all the small bouts of data, and I mean all of it. I don’t know half of what you know. It’s good. It just means you need more concise information.”

“Well, I mean, I do have ADHD, that might have something to do with it,” Lance admitted, suddenly eyeing Keith cautiously.

In return, he just shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I’m no doctor. Maybe we could work on…I don’t know…making flashcards or something. Then we can both use them.”

“That might be an idea,” Lance agreed, shoulders relaxing. “Though I don’t know when I’d have the time to do that since we have to pass in like two assignments already for just this one class. Ridiculous.”

“I can do it,” Keith assured him. “I’ll get Shiro to help me, he won’t mind.” He waved his hand like it was no big deal that the Takaishi Shirogane was helping him with anyway. It was still wild to Lance that they were related.

“What about your essays?” Lance asked, genuine concern tinting his voice. Just because he wanted help didn’t mean that he wanted Keith’s grades to suffer. Firstly, he wasn’t that kind of dick. Secondly, he didn’t actually kind Keith that much and people didn’t do that to other people. His Mamá hadn’t raised him like that. Thirdly, he didn’t want Keith’s grades dropping being the reason he finally beat him.

“I’m done,” Keith assured him, looking up from his notes at Lance’s choking sound. “You good?”

“What the hell? How?” Lance asked, completely flabbergasted. “Can I read them?”

Keith’s shoulders tensed at the last question, eyeing him skeptically. “Uh…”

“Hey, look, I’m not stupid. Plagiarism gets you kicked out of the course. More than once gets you kicked out the university. I just find it helpful to see how other people tackle things, you know? Even if they’re long-winded and don’t get my attention. I’ll look up essays online sometimes to do the same thing.”

“Sorry,” Keith said quickly, not wanting Lance to think that he was insulting him or something. “I just…I tried to help someone before like that and they stole my essay.”

“What? You mean like passed yours in with their name on it?” Lance looked genuinely horrified by the prospect.

“Yeah. I was able to prove it was mine though. They got in shit for it.” Keith rubbed his right arm. That was still such a sore memory. He had been so stupid, instantly giving in to a handsome face that stared at him in a way that had his face flushing at the time. There was a reason he hadn’t bothered learning Lance’s name after that. “He wasn’t very happy with me though and made sure I knew it.”

Lance’s brows furrowed before his eyes went wide. “Holy crow! Was that in first year when you showed up with a cast on your arm?”

“Yeah that’s the time.” Keith nodded his head, not offering up any other information on it.

Lance’s stomach squirmed, eyes resting on Keith’s gloved wrists. One thing that always confused him was the fact that almost everyone had a soulmate, even those that ended up being less than stellar people. It was extremely rare for say a serial killer to harm their own soulmate, but it happened. There were terrible, violent people in the world that had marks that matched someone else, and it had always confused Lance a lot. It was really the only thing that made him wary at times.

He had to wonder if maybe something like that happened to Keith. Maybe that’s why he kept his mark covered. If an abusive person that hurt him was the one that coloured his tattoo, Lance couldn’t entirely blame him for wanting to hide it.

Instead of bringing up soulmates at all, Lance focused on here and now. “I will give you the Lance guarantee that I will never do that to you.” He held out his hand.

Keith eyed it warily, knowing that he could very easily be setting himself up to get hurt again. Shiro always said that he needed to try a little more with people, to reach back when they reached out to him like Lance was doing right now.

He started to reach out, promptly knocking the coffee Lance had bought him over.

They both leapt to their feet, grabbing napkins to try and clean up the mess before it stained something. “Sorry,” Keith blurted out.

“No worries. I had a buy-one-get-one coupon.” Lance shot him a teasing smile. “So, yeah, we’re good, right?”

“Yeah.” Keith met his gaze, something tugging inside of him when his eyes locked with Lance’s blue ones. They knelt on the floor, gazing at one another for such a long time that Keith could feel a new type of tension rising in the air. It took everything he had not to flush, and he quickly looked for a topic to break the silence, “Besides, I could take you in a fight.”

Good job, Keith. Ten out of ten.

Lance looked almost affronted. “Excuse? No you wouldn’t. Look at these babies.” He flexed and squeezed his bicep. “I’m a swimmer. I’ve got strong arms.”

“Maybe, but I train in martial arts,” Keith pointed out. “That guy just got the jump on me from behind before I could do anything.” That wasn’t entirely true. He had used sweet words to drag Keith in again. He was still so angry at himself for acting like that at the time, for being so hopeful and stupid.

“What a dick.” A part of Lance really wanted to find whoever had done that to Keith and fight him. He wasn’t really the type of person for physical altercations, but he could rip someone a new one verbally better than most. “Again, no worries here. Friends don’t do that to friends.”

“Friends?” Keith looked so perplexed by the word that it made something tug nastily inside of Lance. Had absolutely no one bothered to try and befriend him before? Genuinely befriend him? Keith wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought he was. He was just a bit guarded, and honestly, from what he had learned so far, he couldn’t really blame him.

Lance remembered Hunk and Pidge’s expressions after Pidge stalked Keith and came to the hypothesis that Keith spent a lot of time alone and didn’t really have many people in his life. It looked like Lance had just proven her theory.

He also knew some steps to take to try and fix it.

“Hey, so, are you cool with me bringing Hunk and Pidge next time? They’re not taking astronomy, but they’re huge nerds and would be a lot of help.”

“You…want me to study with your friends?” Keith asked cautiously.

“Yup!” Lance smiled at him warmly. “It’ll be great. You’ll love them! Well, I mean, you already met Pidge. But it’ll be fun and we’ll still get a lot done. Promise. If we don’t, you have full-rights to telling us to get lost. What do you say?”

Keith wet his lips nervously, and said, “Alright. You can bring them next time.”

Lance’s face lit up and he pumped his fist. “Thanks man! I promise, you won’t regret this!”

Both amused by Lance’s reaction, and a little bit nervous about the prospect of being around his friends, Keith really, really hoped that was true.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t until the 23^rd day of October that Keith officially met Lance’s friends, Hunk and Pidge. Technically he had already met Pidge, but apparently that didn’t count. Lance insisted that he really needed to meet her one-on-one and as Lance’s friend. That was apparently a huge distinction from meeting her one-on-one and as Matt’s younger sister for some reason. Keith was pretty sure that Lance was full of it.

Somehow over nearly two months he had gone from bitter rival, to friendly rival, to acquaintance, to a sort-of friend. Keith couldn’t remember the last time he had been a sort-of friend to anyone. It was strange to think about.

They had tried to schedule a time for all four of them to study together before, but all of their class schedule as well as the part-time jobs he and apparently Hunk had (he was a TA for one of the geology professors apparently).

It was a combination of things that had Keith walking up the stairs of Lance’s apartment building. Firstly, was the fact that it was midterm week, and he could use some reminders on astronomy since he had already suffered through archeology, history, and a geology class. Keith wasn’t a huge fan of geology, but it was important to know how to deal with certain rocks and minerals properly when excavating sites and was a highly recommended course.  Secondly, Keith actually hadn’t had the time to book one of the study rooms in the library so they couldn’t go there. Thirdly, Lance was feeling under the weather and insisted that they study at his place so that he wouldn’t get worse. Fourthly, Shiro was driving him up the wall.

He loved Shiro, he truly did. Shiro was the reason that his grandparents had found him in the mess that was the foster care system. He was the best uncle that Keith could have asked for, more a brother than uncle, hence why they referred to one another as brothers.

He was also kind of a dad too, and currently he was in full Dad Mode, driving Keith insane.

When the opportunity to leave the house presented itself, Keith bailed out without really thinking.

Now he nervously hovered in front of what he hoped was the right door. He really hoped this wasn’t some kind of prank or something. It wouldn’t have surprised him. Kids in high school did so much worse.

They were older though, so surely they were more mature than that? Lance liked to goof around but he wouldn’t do something cruel like that, right?

Taking a deep breath, Keith slowly raised his hand and knocked on the door. Instantly, he felt like running away, but stayed where he was with a passive face. He was never one to back down from a challenge, and this is exactly what that was.

The door opened, revealing a tall, broad young man with dark skin and short black hair. The first thing that Keith noticed was that he was really tall, the second was that he was really attractive, the third was that he most definitely was not Lance.

“Uh, sorry,” he said, unable to truly hide his awkwardness. “Must have gotten the wrong address.” He was going to murder Lance.

The man smiled at him and said, “Keith, right? You’re in the right place! I’m Hunk, Lances roommate and BFF. He’s trying to fix himself up so that he doesn’t look quite as dead. Come in!” Actually, not that he said that, Keith did remember seeing him with Lance at the on-campus café before. Now he was embarrassed about that.

“Is he here?” The girl from the prosthetic workshop popped out from around the corner, eyes staring at him with interest. She almost skipped towards them and stuck out her hand. “I hope you remember me. I’m Pidge. Nice to meet you again, Keith.”

“Uh, yeah.” Keith shook her hand. He then narrowed his eyes at her. “So, you’re the one that leaked confidential client information about my brother.”

Hunk started laughing and Pidge had the decency to look a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to. I was just so excited to tease Lance about the fact that I had talked to his rival that he had been talking about for years. Speaking of.” She took in a deep breath and started shouting so loudly that it genuinely startled Keith. “Lance! Keith’s here! The time for making yourself pretty is over!”

“I was not making myself pretty.” Lance appeared, a blanket around his shoulders, positively seething at his friends. “Hi Keith, thank you for coming over and risking contamination on this fine day to help me not die in astronomy.” He sneezed so strongly that he actually stumbled, grabbing onto the back of the couch.

“Are you okay?” Keith asked, narrowing his eyes at him.

“From classes to germs, everything is out to kill me,” Lance admitted. “Hope you drank orange juice today.”

“What?”

“It boosts the immune system,” Hunk spoke up.

As it happened, Keith ate a granola bar that day and nothing else, taking off before Shiro could try his annual ‘I’m going to cook us a real meal’ attempt. “I’ll be fine. I don’t get sick very often.” He suddenly eyed Lance. “That’s not a challenge.”

Lance jumped over the back of the couch and then patted on the cushion beside him. “C’mon, share the germs.”

Keith glared at him. “Where’re your books?”

Blinking, Lance groaned when he realized that he hadn’t brought what he needed to study out of his room. He slowly got up and stumbled to his room, hurrying back and nearly tripping over himself in the process. Pidge stayed in the room with them, making a comment or two on what they were studying if she knew something else.

Keith was more than a little glad that he always carried his lactaid with him, because when Hunk came in, he was carrying four giant mugs of the best smelling hot chocolate that Keith had ever come across.

It tasted even better. Keith looked directly at Hunk after putting down the mug and said, “I don’t know you, but I would marry you for this.”

Lance and Pidge both snorted as Hunk laughed loudly. “Thanks. I’m not sure how much my soulmate would like that though.”

“Shay’s a sweetie,” Pidge said, looking up from her computer. “She’d probably just laugh it all off and agree that everyone needs a Hunk in their life.”

“Everyone does get a ‘Hunk’ in their lives,” Lance said with a silly smile, but then that smile fell and he grimaced. “I mean, you know what I mean. And Keith doesn’t care about soulmates anyway, so watch out, Hunk.”

Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. This again. He shrugged a bit and said, “It’s more arbitrary than you think.” The more and more research he did, the more he was sure about this assessment. He also knew that it was much more likely to get a grey soulmark than to actually find them. That was something that people didn’t talk about much, a fact that was shrugged aside.

Everyone was entitled to their own opinion though, and he didn’t want to argue with Lance over this again. He just wanted to study and enjoy his amazing hot chocolate.

Instead of being offended, Lance actually looked curious. “What? How?”

He tapped the textbook open in front of him. “We need to focus on astronomy, not the research I’m doing for my other class.”

Pidge leaned forward, amber eyes wide. “You can’t just say that and not expand on it if you know something! We’re nerds! Even Lance here is a nerd!” Lance opened his mouth in protest. “Shut up, you totally are.” She looked back at Keith. “He thinks he’s cool.”

“I admit,” Hunk added, “I’m curious too.”

Keith shrunk down a bit with all three sets of eyes on him. Well, he might as well share what he was learning with someone, right? Otherwise what was the point? “From all the research I’ve done, soulmates are referenced back as far as our records go, with different names. The thing is, they were different. We don’t know when it changed, all records were lost in the dark ages.”

“The Library of Alexandria,” Pidge blurted out bitterly. “Screw Caesar, honestly.”

“We should get revenge on him,” Hunk added.

“March might be a good time for that,” Lance piped up.

Keith felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Someone should totally just stab Caesar.”

Lance almost exploded from a combination of coughing and laughter. His eyes were actually watering as he stared at him. “Holy shit! And you claim to hate all my memes!”

There was a long pause before Keith said, “They’re really lame, Lance.”

“You’re lame!” He burst out immediately. “Anyway, continue. How were soulmates different pre-Caesar?”

“They weren’t—never mind.” Keith shook his head. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out to look at the screen as he spoke. “From what I’ve found, across different cultures soulmarks used to appear after you met a soulmate.” He scowled at the phone and set it down on top of his book.

“Really?” Pidge asked, sounding oddly eager about that.

Lance, on the other hand, looked entirely unimpressed. “How is that helpful at all?”

His phone buzzed again, but he ignored it. “We still don’t know where soulmarks come from or how they really work, but back then, they used to attribute it to Gods, Goddesses, and things like that. The reason I’m researching this specifically is because most ‘marriages’ that happened took place concurrent to different celestial events, because they believed that’s where the soulmarks came from. It was like a signal that they had made the right choice.” He glared at his phone again. Seriously, Shiro couldn’t just leave him alone for a few hours?

“That’s wild really,” Hunk said, almost in awe as he leaned back onto the couch. “You might never know if you have the right person or not until you’re already committed to one another.” He seemed lost in thought, fingers tracing his coloured soulmark.

“Firstly, that’s stupid,” Lance said, brow furrowed. “Secondly, who keeps texting you?”

“No one,” Keith answered quickly. His mind rushed over topics to distract from his phone. “They could fade too. If the pair fell out of love or whatever. The marks would fade.”

Lance looked about ready to combust again from all of this. “That’s doesn’t…how does…so they weren’t soulmates at all?”

“If you look at it how we do today, yeah, they were. They still had the marks. I think they just understood it differently back then.”

Before Lance could get too riled up, Pidge broke into the conversation. “I kind of like that? It’s really neat. Too bad it wasn’t like that still.” Keith looked at her curiously, and without any hesitation, she pushed up her sleeve to show an intricate mark that reminded Keith of intertwining vines. What hit him next was that it was grey. “Maybe people wouldn’t be so judgmental over things like this. I’ve had it since birth.”

Well aware that she was staring at him with rather judgmental eyes herself, Keith felt something inside of him soften a bit. “It doesn’t matter, you know that, right?” He motioned to her mark.

“I do,” she agreed with a nod, seemingly pleased with his answer. Keith was about to add to it when his phone buzzed yet again.

Before he could grab the device, Lance snatched it up. “Who are you ignoring?”

“Lance!” It was too late, he had already seen the messages that were left on his lock screen.

“Shiro wants to know what you want for supper. You get to pick because—“ Lance abruptly cut himself off, and when he started talking again, it was in a very high pitched voice, “—it’s your birthday today? And you came here to study with me? And didn’t mention it?!”

“What?!” Pidge and Hunk said at the same time.

Keith groaned and snatched his phone back. “You weren’t supposed to see that. Ignore it. Shiro’s been driving me crazy all day.”

“But it’s your birthday! Why didn’t you say anything!” Lance cried out. “I made you come and study on your birthday.”

“…I could have had a cake ready…” Hunk whispered as if something had insulted him on a moral level, which Keith really didn’t get because they had just met. Who makes a cake for a stranger on their birthday?

“Hunk could have had a cake ready,” Pidge repeated, sounding absolutely devastated.

Completely lost, Keith looked back and forth between the two of them. “Umm…that’s okay? You didn’t know.” Not to mention they just met. He didn’t expect anything from anyone. Not even from his family. His grandparents had called him bright and early that day to talk to him, and also to apologize for not having a present for him. Honestly, Keith understood why. Money was tight right now and he’d rather it go towards Shiro’s upcoming surgery.

“Alright!” Lance said loudly, closing his book with a loud slap. “As the King of Birthdays, I demand that we do something immediately.”

“A self-appointed title,” Pidge assured Keith. She turned her attention back to the man in question. “I thought Keith was your rival? Also aren’t you sick?”

“Uh, yeah.” Lance stared at her like she had sprouted a second head. “What better way to one-up him?” He ignored the part about being sick even as he sneezed.

“By being friendly and having an impromptu birthday party?” She raised an eyebrow.

“No way he can beat that!”

“He is right here.” Keith pointed at himself. “You really don’t have to. I just came over to help study for out midterm.”

“Nope, that train has left the building. Next one is leaving for party town.”

“You’re sick,” Keith said almost weakly. He was getting the feeling that this was a losing battle, because both Hunk and Pidge seemed on board with this. It was strange, because no one had done anything like this before.

Something warm twisted inside of him at that thought.

“Can’t stop, won’t stop!”

Half an hour later, they were all packed into Hunk’s hilariously tiny car, a yellow bug, on their way to a laser tag arena, all thoughts of class and studying behind them. It almost left like Keith belonged with their little group, as odd as that was. It was the best birthday he’d had in a long time.

And if Keith agreed to get up really early to help Lance cram just before class, it had absolutely nothing to do with his rapidly beating heart.

…

Lance’s leg jumped up and down as he glared at his laptop. He couldn’t sit still no matter how hard he actually tried.

“I’m going to tape your leg to your chair to get you to stop,” Pidge threatened him as he accidentally knocked his leg into hers again.

He tried to still himself, he really did, especially since he was sure that Pidge did carry duct tape on her, but he couldn’t help it. He was nervous.

“Lance!”

“I can’t help it!” he burst out. “They haven’t uploaded our marks for our midterms yet and we were told they’d be up last night! What if something’s wrong? What if everyone but Keith failed?”

Keith looked up from his own laptop at the mention of his name, raising his eyebrow, lips tilting up into a slight smile. “You’re going to do fine.”

Throwing his hands up in the air dramatically, he loudly proclaimed, “Easy for you to say! You’re always fine!”

Pidge snickered, looking almost joyous. “Is he now?”

It took him a minute, but the implication finally hit Lance. His face burned as he said, “That’s not what I meant!”

He expected Pidge’s amusement. What he did not expect was for Keith to lean forward slightly, eyebrow arching up, a smirk spreading across his lips. “It’s not? So you think I’m ugly?”

Lance was internally screaming as his cheeks burned. How dare Keith tease him while looking so attractive. Wait, was he flirting with him? Lance absolutely did not know how to deal with that. Nope. Lance.exe has stopped working. Restart and try again.

“I’m texting Hunk and telling him that you’re bullying me,” Lance managed to say. “I never should have introduced you two.”

“Technically I spoke to him first,” Pidge said smugly. “I set you on the path to confronting him.” She looked up at Keith. “You’re welcome.”

Keith looked at her blankly. “He sends me a meme first thing every morning.”

“Keith!” Lance squeaked. He didn’t even text his Mamá every morning like that. That was supposed to be their thing between them. He texts Keith morning-memes, Keith complains about them, they have a good day.

“Aww,” Pidge cooed. “That’s so sweet.”

This was exactly why Lance didn’t want anyone else to know, but to be fair, he had never told Keith that, had he? He groaned and pulled out his phone, deciding to make his rounds on different websites.

He was barely paying attention as he scrolled through a variety of images showing soulmarks that were in the shapes of seashell. It was ridiculous how many there were, some only varying so slightly that it was hard to tell on camera. People had travelled around the world to meet up with others, only to find out that their marks didn’t match.

“Where’s Hunk anyway?” Keith asked.

“He’s on a date with Shay,” Pidge explained. “Have you met her yet?” Well, at least they were on a different topic now. Lance was going to wait a few more minutes before rejoining the conversation.

“His soulmate? No,” Keith answered.

A message popped up on Lance’s screen, and he clicked on it, reading with interest. Excitement started to bubble up in him as he took in what the sender had to say.

“She’s super nice! I think you’d like her!”

“Hey!” Lance burst out, interrupting whatever it was that Keith was about to say next. He shoved his phone into the man’s face and asked, “Does this mark look like mine? I think it does?”

Keith blinked, jerking his head back some. His indigo eyes shifted slightly, taking in all aspects of the image. “…It’s a really bad picture, but it might?” He sounded really reluctant.

Lance pulled his phone back to him. “She seems to think they’re the same. I guess I’ll have to see in real life, right?” He tapped the profile that went along with the picture and message. “Wow, this chic, Florona, is smoking hot. Yeah, I wouldn’t mind if our marks matched, if you know what I mean.” He winked at Keith.

Face twisting into a scowl, Keith shrugged his shoulders. “Uh…sure?” He pointedly looked at his laptop.

“What? She’s really hot! Look at her, man!” He turned his phone around so that Keith could see the selfie, clearly taken at the beach.

Keith glanced at the phone before looking at Lance with dull eyes. “I’m gay.”

Oh. Okay, that definitely explained some things. Lance wondered if gay people ever had marks that matched someone of the opposite sex? That would be awkward. Not deterred at all, he said, “Okay, but aesthetically speaking she’s hot right?” He didn’t know why he was pushing this so hard, trying to get a reaction out of Keith and not Pidge. He knew Pidge wouldn’t really have a reaction outside of annoyance, so maybe that was why?

“Leave him alone.” Lance was taken back but how aggressively Pidge spoke, her amber eyes narrowed at him.

Lance pulled his phone back to his chest and muttered, “Grumpy people.” Noting that Florona apparently lived nearby, he made plans to meet up and compare marks.

Keith rolled his eyes and looked at his computer screen again. “I get that you’re thinking with your dick and not your brain right now, but if you’re interested, the marks are up.” He closed his computer, roughly shoving it into his bag.

Lance watched as Keith left without another word, shoulders tense as he walked away.

“What just happened?” Lance asked, more than a little bit confused.

Pidge groaned and shook her head, looking back to her laptop.

…

Lance sat in the Starbucks, nervously looking at the door every time someone entered. He felt bad for sitting at a table without a drink yet, but it wasn’t that busy, and he was waiting for someone, so it was okay.

His stomach twisted anxiously. This was common when he was meeting someone to see if they were soulmates. He was normally so excited that he felt like he was going to burst at the seams and release a swarm of butterflies.

The thing is, it felt different at this time. In fact, he almost felt like he was going to be sick in a bad way. It was like he wanted to run, to go somewhere else. Like he didn’t want to be there.

That was stupid though. There was the potential that he was going to finally meet his soulmate, and all he wanted to do was head out and meet up with Keith.

His thoughts paused. Keith and this other friends, of course. Why would he want to hang out with Keith alone? Sure, he did like when his attention was on him and him alone, but that didn’t mean anything.

He thought about how Keith had been teasing him playfully, but then suddenly shut down as soon as Lance brought up Florona. He thought about Pidge’s expression afterwards.

“Oh,” he muttered as the context of the situation finally clicked in his head. “Oh!” His face burned as he realized what had happened, but there was no way, right? There was no way that Keith Shirogane actually—

The door opened, and Florona walked in, shaking a couple snowflakes out of her yellow jacket with green trim. She was even more captivating in person than she was in her picture. Her hair flowed down to her waist, and was dyed a bright pink, her eyes a brown so deep that they were almost black. Lance quickly got up, hands clenching nervously as he approached.

For the first time he could remember, he was actively hoping that their soulmarks didn’t match. It was a strange feeling, honestly.

He swallowed his nervous and said, “Hey. I’m Lance, and you’re beautiful.” He winked at her.

Florona laughed at him in genuine amusement. “Thank you. I’m Florona, most people call me Flo though.”

“Flo,” he repeated. “It’s nice. You want a drink?” He motioned towards the counter. “My treat.”

“Please, it’s freezing out,” she replied with a nod.

Waiting in line was awkward, neither quite sure what to say to one another. This was truly a strange situation for Lance, who always had something to say to try and impress. He was never one to just check to see if their soulmarks reacted to one another and leave if they didn’t. He at least wanted to make a good impression on the small date, because that’s what it was.

The drink that Florona ordered was full of whipped cream and flavours, and the first thing that Lance thought was that Keith would have loved it. He really needed to focus, because it wasn’t fair to think of someone else while being with her.

They sat at a table in the corner, and Florona pulled off her gloves. Her fingers nervously tapped at the table as she said, “So…”

Lance took off his own glove (Since when had he started wearing those anyway, he used to never wear them in winter, just in case?) and held out his hand. She reached out, grasping it, both staring at their soulmarks. For a few seconds, they held hands, but it was obvious that nothing was going to happen. There was no tell-tale warmth, no sudden splurge of colour.

Lance let go of her hand and twisted his arm over, looking at his mark compared to hers. Then he noticed the difference. The edges of her shell were just slightly more pointed than the ones on his. It was a subtle difference that wasn’t obvious on camera, but it was still there.

It was wild how some marks were so similar, but with so many people in the world, that wasn’t really surprising.

Normally, Lance was always let down and disappointed when it turned out this way. He wasn’t all that bothered this time though.

Florona, on the other hand, looked entirely put-out. Her shoulders slumped and she said, “Oh. I was really hoping that it was you.” She sighed. “I guess he’s right and it is the same as his.”

That caught him off guard. “Huh?”

Florona twisted her long hair through her fingers and bit her lip. She stared at him momentarily before saying, “There’s a man I know. Baku. And he’s insistent that his mark matches mine.”

“Then why look online for someone that has a mark similar to yours then?” Lance asked, completely confused about this turn of events. “Also, Baku sounds super familiar. Why do I know that name?”

“He owns the Baku Gardens,” she said glumly.

“Oh!” Lance perked up. He knew that place, he’d been there. It was a beautiful combination of a garden outside that people could travel through, and an aquarium that showcased underwater plants and tropical fish. Lance had gone there for his classes before. He’d never met the owner though. “A bit full of himself then? I mean, he named it after himself? That’d be like me calling a place I own Lance Gardens. But, I don’t get it? If he’s your soulmate, shouldn’t you be excited?”

Florona smiled at that, but it was a bittersweet, almost pitying smile. “I’ve known of him for quite some time. He’s older than me. Much older.” She paused. “He used to be married to my sister, Luxia.”

What the hell? “Your soulmate used to be married to your sister?” Lance had heard of people marrying those who weren’t their soulmates before, but this was wild. “He must have seen your mark before?”

“I’ve only actually met him recently, and I don’t just let people touch me,” she said seriously. “I met him at my sister’s funeral.”

The more she spoke, the worse vibes Lance got. Something was really wrong here. “I—I’m sorry. About your sister. But—I don’t mean to sound insensitive or anything, but isn’t your soulmate the best one to help you through it? It’s…weird…but wouldn’t that help you some?”

She sighed, reaching out and patting his hand. “You’re a sweet guy, Lance. I’m sorry for wasting your time.” She stood up, pushing her chair in. “I really hope that when you find your soulmate, things work out the way you want them to.” With that, she turned and left.

Lance watched her go, completely thrown by the whole altercation. He had no idea what just happened, but he didn’t like it at all.

Chapter Text

Keith stared at his pillow, playing with the string coming off of the corner. He felt so, so stupid for reacting like he had the last time he hung around with Lance and Pidge. He had answered their texts since then, but they hadn’t met up at all.

Honestly, he was hiding. He knew he was, though he’d deny it out loud. Keith was hiding because he hated what he was feeling. He hated how angry and how jealous he felt, watching Lance go on about meeting up with a woman whose mark might match his.

He didn’t have time for that. Not now. What was he expecting? For the guy who was obsessed with soulmates to like the person that he called a rival for the past two years who just became his friend a few months ago? Right.

His freshman year taught him about opening up to people. It just wasn’t worth it when all they wanted was their soulmate.

His phone was beeping, because somewhere along the lines, he had been added to a group chat with Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. After meeting them on his birthday, they had somehow managed to blend themselves into Keith’s life, sometimes stopping in at the archives just to talk to him, or sitting with him when no one else was around and they spotted him. It was kind of nice, honestly. They didn’t manage to blend themselves quiet as seamlessly as Lance had, but then again, he also didn’t have terribly gay feelings for either of them (even though Hunk was, in fact, quite a hunk).

He stayed up that night, his mind racing over so many things. He felt stupid about his own jealousy, but that didn’t make it go away. He also felt horrible for the vindictive feeling that washed over him when Lance informed them all via group chat that his meeting with Florona hadn’t gone very well. He had been oddly quiet about it, but they decided to leave him be.

Apparently Lance always acted sad after thinking he was going to meet his soulmate, and then not meeting them.

That wasn’t the actual reason he couldn’t sleep though. It was just what his mind went to in the seemingly endless night. Instead, it was worry about his brother.

His beeping phone was what startled him awake the morning of Shiro’s surgery, about a half an hour after he dozed off from sheer exhaustion. How Shiro could be so utterly calm and sleep soundly last night, Keith didn’t know. Then again, he had come to the conclusion long ago that Shiro was some kind of superhuman and was just keeping it on the down-low for so either some evil corporation or the government wouldn’t get him.

If people thought that Keith was impulsive and wild, it was nothing compared to sleep deprived Keith. That guy had an added dose of crazy to him. That was the Keith that his new friends were introduced to that morning.

Keith didn’t drink. He wasn’t going to judge anyone who did, but he personally didn’t like the feeling of not having control over his own actions. He didn’t get the appeal behind it. Shiro often said that him being super tired was basically what drunk Keith would be like.

He blinked at his phone, trying to concentrate. Everything was so blurry in the morning, and maybe he should get his vision checked, but he didn’t have time for that. He focused as the group chat open, not at all surprised to see that it was Pidge texting that early.

-Pidge’s University Survival Guide: Don’t-

Pidge: do you think my brother would mind if I broke into his workshop and borrowed some of his shit so I can make myself a kickass camera for hunting

Lance: WHY ARE YOU AWAKE SO EARLY?

Pidge: you’re assuming I sleep

Pidge: Rookie Mistake

Lance: y r u like this you don’t even hunt

Pidge: I go into the woods and search for things

Pidge: Ergo it’s hunting

Lance: bigfoot isn’t real

Pidge: excuse your mouth

Keith: Screw you bigfoot is real he’s my soulmate.

Pidge: fucking plot twist out of nowhere!!!!

Pidge: KEITH QUICK JERSEY DEVIL

Keith: Skeptical legend but like wtf there’s something in those woods.

Pidge: AGREED! NESSIE?

Keith: Eh.

Keith: Champ’s real though.

Hunk: What did I just wake up to? 

Pidge: ALIENS?

Keith: THEY EXIST AND THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS IT.

Pidge: AAAAAAAAAAAA

Hunk: Oh no

Lance: y keith

Pidge: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

Keith: My parents locked me in a closet and never let me out.

Pidge: …

Lance: ?!?!?!

Hunk: Are you okay?

Keith: I’m fine. I came out of the closet eventually.

Hunk: Lance screamed.

Hunk: Now he’s staring into space like he’s having war flashbacks or something.

(1) photo from Hunk

Lance: DELETE THAT

Pidge: it’s too late it’s online

Pidge: the internet takes and never gives back

Lance: Anyway

Pidge: r00d

Lance: who a y and what have y done to keith

Pidge: maybe he was abducted

Keith: wtf no

Pidge: suspect

Keith: But what if my mom was an alien and I’ve been half alien all along?

Keith: I don’t remember her.

Keith:  Maybe she’s super tall with like purple skin

Keith: And a rattail

Keith: the hairstyle not an actual tail

Hunk: That is oddly specific are you sure you’re alright?

Pidge: !!!!! OH! OMG! TODAY’S SHIRO’S SURGERY ISN’T IT? I FORGOT! MATT’S GOING TO BE THERE TO HELP INSTALL THE ARM

Keith: Yea

Hunk: How much sleep did you get?

Keith: No

They continued talking in the chat, but Keith’s attention turned towards the door when he heard a knock at the door. Keith blinked as he heard Shiro move through the apartment to open the door. There was talking, and then footsteps that stopped outside of his room, knocking rapidly echoing through the room. “Akira. Surely you are not sleeping.”

Keith jerked up as he heard his grandmother’s voice. She opened the door and peered in at him skeptically. “Sobo!” He had known that his grandparents were coming up for Shiro’s surgery, but he thought they were coming later! They must have left so early. “I didn’t…think you’d be here this early?”

“My lazy boy,” she said, coming into the room. She affectionately ran a hand through Keith’s messy hair. “Of course we did. It’s a big day for your brother, and we missed you as well. Now get ready. I’ll make breakfast.”

“I wasn’t going to eat anything,” Keith blurted out before flinching a bit, knowing he said the wrong thing. His grandmother looked horrified. “Shiro can’t, so I didn’t want to…tease him?”

She smiled at him. “You’re such a kind boy, Akira. He can have whatever he wants after, but you’re eating this morning. Now wash up. I taught you better than that.”

“Missed you too, Sobo,” Keith said, earning a laugh from the woman as she once again ruffled his hair and left the room. He could hear Shiro laughing with his father in the living room, and a warmth rushed through him. It was like a weight was lifted off of him, because he wasn’t alone today, not in this.

Keith grabbed his clothes and headed to the bathroom, knowing that a shower would be a good way to wake himself up more. He used colder water, hoping to wake himself up even more.

“Ah, there you are,” his grandfather said as he finally came out. “I was beginning to think that you slept in the shower.”

“I felt like it,” Keith admitted.  

Shiro looked up, eyes narrowing suspicious. He truly looked like his father. “Did you get any sleep?”

His first instinct was to lie, but he was honestly really, really bad at it when he was this tired. “Not really.” He shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal.

His grandfather tutted. “You need more sleep. You’re looking like a raccoon.”

Keith shook his head as Shiro laughed, and made his way into the kitchen where his grandmother had commandeered it like it had always belonged to her. He looked in the cupboards for coffee, knowing that he’d need something to keep him going through the rest of the day.

Already, Keith knew how this was going to work. Right now, he was in the stage where he was still very tired, but in about an hour or so he’d be wide awake, borderline hyper for several hours. Then he’d crash, and he’d crash hard. He really wanted to put that part off for as long as he could.

Immediately, his mind turned to Pidge. She’d probably know a thing or two he could use.

“How has your classes been so far?” Sobo asked him as she puttered around.

“Really good. I have some of the top marks from what I know.” Keith was always so thankful for how open-minded his grandparents actually were. For some reason, most people seemed to think that they were that stereotypical Japanese couple where all they cared about was hard work, grades, and tradition. That was far from the truth because those were, in fact, stereotypes. Keith adored his grandparents and the way they were open to learning and exploring the world while still keeping their own culture close to their hearts.

He’d been nervous when he told them what it was he wanted to study. They seemed to have a hard time understanding at first, but accepted it, even though it didn’t seem to be a field of study that lead to steady jobs and riches.

“My grandson will be a famous researcher and explorer,” his grandfather had settled on, sounding quite proud of this fact. It was honestly everything Keith wanted to be.

“Shiro says you made new friends this year,” Sobo continued. “That’s good. You’re alone far too often for your own good.”

“You know why, Sobo,” Keith said to her.

“Yes, but it doesn’t need to be that way,” she insisted. Her dark, knowing eyes looked up at him. For as much as Shiro looked like his father, he definitely had his mother’s eyes. “Are there any handsome boys?”

“Sobo!” Keith’s face turned bright red.

Coming out to his grandparents had been terribly nerve-wracking. Shiro kept assuring him that it would be okay, but he’d still been worried.

“You are a handsome boy, and you’ll find a beautiful girl to love someday,” Sobo had insisted one day. Naturally, Keith chose that moment to ask what they’d think if it wasn’t a girl, but a boy. Both of them had gone silent, before his grandmother said, “Then you’ll find a handsome boy to love.” His grandfather had nodded in agreement, and that was that.

The two were soulmates, and had known one-another almost all their lives, meeting when they were young children. As best friends and life partners, it was obvious that they meant a lot to one another. It definitely shocked Keith to learn that they had dated and loved other people in their lives.

“We came back to one another, but there’s no reason you have to,” his Sofu told him. “The only wrong way to go about love is forcing it on or from someone.”

That was something he always took to heart.

After eating the breakfast his grandmother made him, Keith looked nervously at the clock. It was almost time for them to go.

Luckily, his grandparents were driving, so he didn’t have to worry about the Deathmobile breaking down on the side of the road or something in the cold. Unluckily, this meant that he was in the back of a very small car with Shiro.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Shiro assured him as they were dropped off at the front door while the parents went to find a parking spot.

“I should be the one saying that to you,” Keith replied, his stomach squirming with nervousness. Shiro himself had gone over the procedure the night before, and would be knocked out the entire time. It would be painless, though the recovery would be a bitch. Matt would be in the room with Shiro the entire time, making sure that the doctors were attaching everything right. It would be fine.

“Maybe,” Shiro agreed, placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder. By the end of the day, he would have two of them again. “I just want you to know that I’m not going anywhere though.”

That’s really what it all came down to with him, wasn’t it? One parent walked away, the other torn away. Foster home after foster home didn’t want him, simply returning him or sending him to the next person.

Shiro sought him out though. Shiro had somehow found him in the hellhole that was the foster system with the worst family Keith had ever experienced. Shiro had brought his own parents too, in order to get Keith away from that horrible situation.

Shiro had also left him once before, and every time Keith looked at his arm, he was reminded that it had almost been a permanent separation once. Yes, Shiro was strong, the strongest person Keith knew, but anything could go wrong with surgery. People died from ridiculous things no one saw coming all the time.

“Don’t promise that,” he said slowly. “Everyone leaves eventually.” He rubbed his arm at the thought. That’s why it was so much easier to keep them away.

It was why he didn’t really know what to do when they kept pushing back, insisting on staying like Shiro did. Now like Lance, Pidge, and Hunk were doing.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Shiro insisted. He reached out and carefully grabbed Keith’s arm, squeezing it slightly. “And this…who cares about it? Mine got blown off!” He shook his head. “Look, there’s nothing wrong with you. Never has been.”

The younger of the two immediately crossed his arms, pressing the inside of his wrists against his shirt. Bitter laughter bubbled up and spilled out. “I’m supposed to be comforting you,” he repeated.

Shiro grinned at him. “Keeping my mind off of it helps me. Don’t worry about it!”

“Are you nervous?” Keith asked him.

His smile instantly fell, shoulders slumping slightly. “Terrified. But…” he looked down at the spot where his right arm had once been, “I’ll have an arm again. It’ll be worth it.” He looked up at him sharply, narrowing his eyes. “No videos when I’m waking up!”

“Now, now, Takaishi,” his mother said as she and his father came over to them. “I want to have the moment you wake up with your new arm forever.”

“I made room on my phone,” his father added, sounded delighted by the prospect of getting his son acting loopy.

Shiro groaned, and Keith laughed. He was still nervous for him, but felt a little bit better.

…

Lance didn’t like hospitals. The last time he had been in one was when his Grandpa Charles had passed away from pneumonia. He could still remember how devastated his Mamá had been. How devastated his Abuela had been. It made sense though. His grandparents were soulmates and had been together for decades, only for their time to be cut too short too soon.

He had been very young at the time, and didn’t exactly understand. He was old enough to get the concept of death, that his grandfather wasn’t coming home, but young enough to not get why. He had been genuinely angry with the man. The understanding came with time, and though he had been a child, Lance still felt bad about it.

In retrospect, watching his grandmother lose her soulmate absolutely added to Lance’s almost obsession with finding his soulmate. He wanted to find them early on so that they could spend as much time as possible together.

Eventually, unless they passed together, one of their marks would go grey, and Lance didn’t want that to happen for a long time.

Right now though, he wasn’t searching through websites or posting selfies with his soulmark on it. Just because he desperately wanted to find his soulmate didn’t mean that he was going to ignore his life as it was.

He wasn’t going to ignore the people that needed him now.

The hospital smelled far too sterile and clean, but getting the chance to see Keith curled up in a ball in one of the waiting room chairs made it worth it. He was leaning against the wall, still wearing his warm jacket, hat, scarf, and gloves. Lance couldn’t even deny how adorable he looked.

He had wheedled the details of where Shiro’s surgery was going to take place from Pidge after Keith had gone quiet in the group chat. He didn’t really have a plan of action here, he just really wanted to be there for his friend.

Because that’s what Keith really was, his friend. He could continue calling them rivals as much as he wanted, it didn’t change the fact that Lance always felt excited to see him. It didn’t change the fact that he wanted to be around him more than almost anyone else right now.

Maybe that’s what it had been all along.

 He walked over, setting the bottom of the coffee cup on top of his head. Keith instantly jerked awake, looking around wildly until his indigo eyes fell on Lance. He blinked tiredly, and it took everything that he had not to coo at him.

“Lance?” he muttered tiredly. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty,” Lance joked. “Brought you coffee.” He offered him the cup that he had sat on his head, still holding onto it. “Shiro going to be much longer?”

Keith fished out his phone and grimaced at the time. “Yeah. It’s a long surgery to get it right.”

Lance was about to ask another question when a feminine voice asked, “Akira, who is this young man? I thought you said there were no boyfriends.”

Keith’s cheeks flushed and Lance looked around curiously. A short, Asian woman with grey eyes and white hair sat across from them, beside a rather tall, strong-looking old man. He might have stark white hair, but he looked like he could take Lance any day, and was eyeing him as if he was contemplating doing just that. Lance hadn’t even noticed them sitting there.

“He’s not, Lance is my friend,” Keith said quickly, standing up. He stretched slightly before saying, “Lance, these are my grandparents, Katsuo and Hoshiko Shirogane. Sofu, Soba, this is my friend, Lance.”

These were the people that raised Keith. No wonder the man was looking like he was judging Lance. Not that Lance was a boyfriend or anything like that.

Still, he put a charming smile on his face and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Shirogane.”

“It’s nice to meet anyone who puts a smile on Akira’s face,” Mr. Shirogane answered.

For a split second, Lance was confused, before he remembered the tidbit that Keith was actually Keith’s middle name, and his first name was actually Akira. He smiled and said, “It’s what I do. I’m sorry, I would have brought you a drink if I knew you were here. Someone didn’t mention that you were coming.”

“Ah, so you thought Keith was here alone and came to join him,” Mrs. Shirogane said, eyes flashing in realization. “How nice.” She looked at Keith. “I like him.”

Keith flushed again, and Lance cleared his throat. “Um, so, want to go for a walk or something? Get your blood flowing while you drink the coffee?”

“Um,” Keith looked a little uncertain, like he didn’t want to leave the room, least the doctors burst in dramatically with news of Shiro.

“Go, we’ll call if something happens,” Mrs. Shirogane insisted.

“Alright,” Keith said. He said something to them in Japanese before heading out with Lance, glancing over his shoulder with worry.

“Hey, leaving for a little bit won’t hurt,” Lance assured him, placing a gloved hand on his arm. It was far too cold to be going outside without being bundled up. “You need to move too. And after, we’ll come back here and I’ll sit with you!”

“You…you don’t have to do that,” Keith said, staring at Lance with wide eyes. “My grandparents are here.”

He waved him off. “Maybe, but I want to be here with you. If you want me to be.”

Once again, Keith was staring at him, but Lance couldn’t quite place this look despite just how expressive it was. Everything about it was soft, from the look in his eyes to the small upward curve of his lips.

What he did know was that it did funny things to his insides. Why else would his stomach suddenly feel like it was twisting, and his heart decided to beat like he had been running a marathon? This was what he had felt when he was thinking of Keith while talking to Florona. What he felt when he realized that Keith probably had a crush on him but kept quiet about it. It was pretty obvious, once Lance thought about it.

He cleared his throat and nodded towards the door again. “So, walk?”

“Yeah.” Keith nodded, and the two of them headed towards the door. “Lance?”

“Hmm?” He glanced at him in acknowledgement, but he didn’t want to stare too long, or he might do something stupid and impulsive.

“Thank you.”

Lance felt his face burn at the genuine words. He nodded his head, not trusting himself to actually speak at the moment.

And if his gloved hand ended up reading out, fingers weaving together with Keith’s own gloved ones, it was only to comfort a friend and nothing else.

Chapter Text

Shiro’s surgery was more than successful. Matt had practically gushed about Shiro’s new arm to Keith and his grandparents. Sooner than he expected, than he hoped, his grandparents were driving back home, leaving him alone with Shiro again.

No one could deny that Shiro tried to be optimistic, but Keith could see the rehab already starting to wear on him a bit, learning to do everything over again with his arm. He also knew that it was painful, but this type of prosthetic even gave him a small sense of touch in the hand. Shiro kept insisting that it would be worth it.

Keith tried to be the rehab buddy he promised he’d be, but with the end of the semester looming over his head, he found himself practically living in the archives, doing research and working. He had access to everything he’d need from both there and the library, but he had more privacy here.

Pouring over his essay, Keith jumped when a book slammed down on the table beside him. He looked up, alarmed at first, but then a bit annoyed as he looked at Lance. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, you mentioned you were coming to work here for a bit earlier, but then you didn’t meet us for lunch, so I came to find you,” Lance said with a nod of his head. “Should have known that you’d be buried in the books. You’re almost as big a nerd as Pidge.”

Keith groaned. “I’m almost done this giant essay. It’s worth nearly my entire mark, and I’ve gone over drafts and stuff with Allura at the writing center, but it’s never good enough.”

“Jesus, you’re going to be a nightmare when you do your Master’s thesis,” Lance noted. Keith didn’t know how to reply to that, because on one hand, it was a clear insult, but on the other, Lance sounded so certain that he’d get into the Master’s program in the future that he couldn’t really be insulted. “You should come with me and get some food though. Then come back.”

“Five more minutes,” Keith said with another groan. “I don’t want to lose this train of thought.”

“Fine, fine.” Lance sat in another chair and started looking at the documents around them to keep himself entertained as Keith worked.

He ended up working for fifteen minutes instead of five, until he realized that Lance was oddly quiet. Looking up, he realized that the other man had found the old soulmate archive that Keith had found, along with a couple other volumes as well.

There was a frown on Lance’s face as he asked, “Why are there so many people listed who never found their soulmates? I thought most did.”

“I don’t know,” Keith admitted. It was something he was curious about too, but it also didn’t directly pertain to his research, and he didn’t have the time to dive into things out of curiosity, even though he desperately wanted to. “Maybe people just don’t want to advertise it? There’s a lot of needless shame behind grey marks, you know.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lance muttered, clearly disturbed by his discovery.

“Not much does when it comes to soulmates.”

Both Keith and Lance jumped, the latter yelping loudly as he spun around.

“Coran,” Keith gasped, his heart thundering in his chest. “You scared the shit out of us.”

The man chuckled at them a bit. “I apologize, Keith. It wasn’t my intention.” Her periwinkle eyes turned towards Lance. “I didn’t recall you booking time here, Lance.”

Lance’s cheeks burned a bit, and Keith glanced at him curiously, wondering how they knew one another. Lance shrugged and said, “Was coming to get my workaholic friend.” He motioned towards Keith. His face suddenly lit up curiously. “Say, Coran, did you know anything about this?” He motioned towards the massive books there.

“Yes, actually,” Coran said happily. “I did a study on soulmates myself before, and largely came to the conclusion that it’s difficult to quantify any of them, since circumstances are so different from person to person. We still have no idea how they work, and you imagine, it can be difficult to find soulmates if you’re on opposite sides of the world.”

“I guess,” Lance agreed. “It’s getting easier now because of the internet though. But I don’t get it. Everyone has a soulmate and that’s it, right? If you weren’t likely to find them, why does it happen with so many people?”

“The internet part is very true,” Coran conceded. “However, there is a much larger variety is soulmarks and soulmates than you believe. It’s a very confusing topic, and we all know that the powers that be don’t do confusing very well.”

Keith snorted at that.

Lance still looked confused, and that was probably what prompted Coran to pull his own sleeve up. His soulmark almost resembled a sword, made from yellows and oranges, but with grey lines. “My soulmate passed many years ago, and while my mark is normal, his was quite unique.”

“How?”

“It was only partially coloured when we met,” Coran explained. “The same orange to yellow, but only half way. The other half was blank until we met his other soulmate. From the middle it went from yellow to pink.”

That startled both of them. Keith had never heard this story before, had never actually known that was possible. Clearly he wasn’t doing the proper research.

“Wait, wait, let me get this straight,” Lance said, waving his hands in front of him. “So your soulmate was your soulmate but he also had another soulmate? But she wasn’t your soulmate?”

“Correct,” Coran answered wistfully, clearly remembering them with fondness.

“So, you guys were the definition of ‘this is my boyfriend, and this is my boyfriend’s girlfriend’?” Lance’s eyes were huge, like his mind was being blown to pieces. It probably was.

“Exactly.”

The brunet just stared at him, clearly unsure of what else to say.

Keith took pity on him. He shook his head and said, “Come on, I’m starving, and if we don’t go now Coran might cause your brain to literally blow up.” It didn’t seem to do much good, Lance still looked completely stunned.

“Oh dear,” Coran muttered. “I apologize. Would you like some help with him?”

“I got this,” Keith assured him. Coran nodded his head and left to do whatever it was he had intended on doing when he came to the archives. Keith grabbed Lance’s arm and dragged him out of the building, stopping when the cold air hit them. He thought about what it was that he wanted to eat, when he realized something. “I just realized, if I missed lunch but you’re coming with me, does that mean you skipped it?”

Lance snapped out of his stupor, his cheeks nearly glowing as he shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I was in a rush earlier anyway.” For some reason, Keith got the distinct feeling that he was lying about this, but decided not to call him out on it. He was getting used to being around other people at mealtimes now, and realized that he actually liked it quite a bit.

“Well, thanks,” Keith said as he looked around. “I have the Deathmobile. Is there anywhere specific you wanted to go?” He really didn’t want to get back on the topic of soulmates now, worried it might break Lance’s brain again.

That seemed to be the right question. Lance took a few steps forward, intending on answering, when he slipped. Keith reached out, grabbing onto his arms and keeping him instead. He looked up at him, and they stared at one another, only a few inches apart.

Keith had no idea how long they stood there, staring at one another, but unless he was imagining it, Lance had gotten even closer. Their noses were almost brushing one another’s.

Eyes suddenly going wide, Lance’s cheeks flushed and he coughed a bit, taking a step back. “Right. So. Food. Deathmobile. Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” Keith replied faintly, eyes darting down to his own wrist before he started following Lance. “Yeah, okay.”

  …

“This paper is quite interesting, and very well written, though you do tend to switch between the passive and the active quite frequently.”

Keith hummed in acknowledgement. His dark eyes looked over the giant paper before him, what he had been working so hard on over the entire semester. He was confident about his ability to put his ideas down on paper, but not so much on perfect grammar and wording, hence why he came to the student writing center.

This wasn’t his first time working with Allura. She was one year his senior, beautiful and hard working. He could honestly truly appreciate that, and would rather work with her than anyone else. She could be a little bit bossy, but she was good at what she did.

They were going over some of the changes she suggested to perfect his paper when a shadow loomed over them. Keith barely had time to look up before Lance was swooping down into the seat beside him, raising his eyebrows at Allura.

“Well, hello pretty lady. Please tell me your mark matches mine.”

“Really?” Keith deadpanned. Why did his like this doofus again?

Aside from glancing up when Lance appeared, Allura appeared entirely uninterested. She stayed focused on Keith’s paper and said, “I found my soulmate, thank you.”

Lance blinked, and slowly looked at Keith with wide eyes. Keith stared back, not quite sure what was going on. Allura looked up at them, apparently piecing together the situation quickly. She laughed and said, “No, not Keith. He’s back in England somewhere the last I heard. Or was he going somewhere else? I don’t quite remember. I haven’t emailed him in quite some time.”

“Uh…” Lance was definitely struggling for words. “Don’t you want to, you know, be with your soulmate?”

“Why would I?” She made another red mark on the paper. “Lotor’s brilliant, and I do like being around him, but honestly, I wouldn’t even call him a friend really. We only seem to click about certain topics. Usually what we’re studying.”

“But—but he’s your soulmate.” Lance sounded so scandalized that Keith actually snorted, grinning when his friend nudged him.

“So?” Allura pushed her silvery-white hair out of her bright blue eyes. “So? Some birthmark isn’t going to tell me what to do.” She looked at Lance with sudden interest. “Actually, Keith here has done some amazing research on evidence soulmates in past civilizations and how the people largely linked it to astronomy at the time. You should read it.”

“This is the monster you’ve been working on since September?” Lance asked, genuinely interest. “Heck yeah you should let me read it.”

Keith felt his cheeks burning a bit, and he looked down. “Maybe later. Don’t you have class in like…five minutes.”

“You know I only have two morning classes on Wednesday,” he replied.

Looking back up at him, Keith arched an eyebrow, trying to hide how amused he really was. “It’s Thursday.”

Lance blinked once, and then twice. He pulled out his phone, turned on the screen and looked at the date. Almost immediately he squawked loudly.  He grabbed his bag, shooting up from the table and rushing away while yelling over his shoulder. “Later Keith!”

He shook his head, a small smile appearing on his lips as he watched Lance run. Turning back, Keith was taken back but the look of sheer amusement on Allura’s face. “What?”

“If someone looked at me the way you looked at him, I would probably marry them.”

Heat exploded in his face. “What? I don’t—that’s just…what?”

Allura giggled at him. “There’s nothing wrong with that. He is quite attractive, just not my type.”

“I…yeah, he is.” Keith looked down. “But that doesn’t mean anything. So what if he’s good looking? That he’s the first person in years that acutally reached out and befriended me. He’s obsessed his finding his soulmate and…” He trailed off, hand resting against his covered wrist.

“You have different marks,” Allura said, nodding her head. “You know yourself why that shouldn’t really matter.” She motioned to his essay.

“It’s…it’s not that,” Keith admitted. He didn’t know why he was admitting this to Allura of all people, but maybe it was because they weren’t that close. “It’s not that at all. I’m just…I’m not ready.” It wasn’t fair, and Keith knew he should be upfront about what was going on. He couldn’t help it though.

Despite the marks on the wrists of everyone in the room, soulmates were just tales and illusions, nothing more.

…

“Hunk! I have a problem!” Lance threw himself dramatically onto the couch, landing face-down on one of their scratchy pillows. Seriously, they were broke university kids but they really should look into new pillows.

“No soulmark matches again?” Hunk asked from where he was trying to piece together some kind of machine. He kept prodding different rocks around him, looking at whatever results came up, and writing it down. Lance had no idea what was going on, but it didn’t matter right now.

“It’s not that. I saw Keith earlier, and he was talking to this amazing girl and I just—I did flirt with her, but I didn’t really want to? I just got nervous and did it? But I actually wanted to flirt with him?” Lance groaned and buried his face farther into the pillow. “How did this happen? How could this happen to me? I’ve made my mistakes. Got nowhere to run—“

“I’m cutting you off there, drama queen,” Hunk said sternly, despite the fact that he was still working. “We could see you falling for him a mile away. For what it’s worth, I think he’s into you too, so you could just, like, ask him out.”

Lance slowly looked up at that. He mulled Hunk’s words over in his head. “I’m not going to date him! What if I met my soulmate? This would be different from all the other ones! I couldn’t just ditch him like he was some kind of seat warmer! But I couldn’t not go with my soulmate either!”

Narrowing his deep brown eyes, Hunk stared at him. “And you’re sure he’s not your soulmate? I don’t remember ever seeing you guys actually touch.”

“Not skin to skin,” Lance admitted, though he had been tempted to try it. Keith wasn’t very receptive to physical touch though. “I just…what if it does change? What if our marks do match?”

“That’d be a good thing, right?” Hunk tilted his head slightly. “It’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but no. I mean, think about it, Keith’s seen my soulmark loads of times. He knows how important finding my soulmate is to me. If our marks match, it means that he’s known this whole time and kept it a secret.” Lance’s voice became soft as he twisted onto his side and curled up. “I just…I really like him, Hunk. I like him a lot. Sure, he can be a jerk at times, but, like, he’s not purposely spiteful. He doesn’t care about soulmates much, but that wouldn’t be…he wouldn’t—I just don’t know what I’d do. It’d hurt.” Lance was sure that Keith liked him too, or was at least physically attracted to him. It was something he could work with, but there was so much else up in the air that it made him anxious.

Hunk’s expression softened. “Okay, yeah. I can see why it’d be a bad thing too, but think about it, what if they do match? Yeah, there will be a lot of explanations and apologies, but no one ever said it was going to be easy, right?”

“That’s true, not everyone can be like you and Shay” Lance agreed. “I guess I just…need to try, right? Try and see.”

He could do this, he would just have to do it subtly. It wasn’t so weird to touch your friend, right? Well, it was cold out now, and they were always bundled up, so really the only place that he could actually touch Keith was on his face. He was cool with that, but it admittedly was really weird.

There was time to figure things out, but really, Lance felt like he needed a nap right now.

…

Lance wasn’t a huge fan of the cold, he grew up in Cuba for most of his life before his family came over to the States, and spent pretty much every summer there. He was a beach goer, a swimmer, perhaps even a mermaid in another life. Hell, his soulmark resembled a seashell, and he was studying marine biology. He was every bit a child of summer.

At the same time though, there was something about the crisp, chilled nights that led up to winter. Maybe it was because the sky got darker so much quicker, and was generally so much clearer, that it was easy to see the stars glowing above. It didn’t really matter, Lance just knew that he liked it.

It wasn’t even that late, but it was still dark as he walked with Keith across campus, heading towards the parking lot and the Deathmobile that Keith drove to school (Shiro’s baby, as Keith reminded him sarcastically). Deathmobile or not, it would be nice to get a lift back to his own apartment instead of waiting for the bus to come after that exam. They had different ones but at the same time, so naturally that meant suffering together.

They walked side by side, bags slung over their shoulders, steaming cups of hot chocolate in their hands.

“…So then Ronnie decided that she had enough and threw the entire bowl of punch on Luis’ head,” he said, finishing his story. He glanced sideways at his companion and said, “It’s too bad he didn’t get the punchline, right?”

Lance actually didn’t use puns all that much. Pickup lines and silly jokes? Absolutely. Puns? That was more of Hunk’s thing, and he drew the line there. There was only one reason that he’d use them.

Keith’s indigo eyes lit up, and he threw his head back and laughed. The sound sent warmth rushing through Lance. Keith laughed from his belly, nearly doubling over, dark hair falling into his eyes and sticking to the tears of laughter that were there. His cheeks were stained pink again his pale skin, illuminated by the dim lights on the campus and the moon above them.

It wasn’t that funny, but apparently Keith found the stupidest stories and jokes to be the funniest. One time, Hunk had put cake-pops over his eyes after Keith spat juice all over him, and it had nearly asphyxiated him from laughter.

A warm smile spread across Lance’s lips as he took in the scene, warm from both his drink and his rapidly beating heart. He was well aware that Keith was very handsome, but in that moment, he was absolutely beautiful too.

Lance wasn’t sure when he had moved, but the next thing he knew, he was standing very close to Keith. The other looked up at him as his laughter subsided, apparently not bothered by the nearness. “What?”

There it was. That look that Pidge told him about. Well, she had described it as ‘so sweet, like he’s looking at the most important thing in the world, it’s actually disgusting in a cute way’, but Lance could get what she was talking about. No one had ever looked at him like that before.

Keith blinked with surprise as Lance leaned in closer until their noises were nearly touching. It was kind of funny to think that a tiny tap of skin like that would change the soulmark on Lance’s skin, because he knew Keith had to be his soulmate. There was no other option. He wouldn’t feel this way if that wasn’t the case.

“Lance,” Keith muttered, his voice so quiet that it was barely ever a whisper. He didn’t say anything else, but there was something in his eyes now, like a little bit of guilt.

That was okay, he didn’t have to feel guilty any longer.

He closed the distance between them, pressing his smooth lips against Keith’s warm, chapped ones. There was a thump and a splash of liquid as Keith’s drink fell to the ground by their feet, his hands slowly rising up to rest on Lance’s shoulders as he kissed back. His own drink followed suite as he brought his hands up, one resting on Keith’s cheek, the other twisting into his hair.

Veronica, ever the romantic, once told him that kissing his soulmate would be like butterflies setting loose fireworks. Marco said that he would just know when everything was right. Luis said that the world felt like it stopped.

They were all absolutely right. Keith was so warm and tasted like hot chocolate. Lance swore that he could probably stay like that all night despite the freezing air.

Keith slowly drew away, Lance chasing after him slightly, but the other man stopped him with a gentle press of his hand against his chest. Keith didn’t move his hand, leaving it resting against Lance’s chest where he could probably feel his thundering heart, staring up at him with a faint blush spread across the bridge of his nose.

Then Lance saw it; that hesitance in those wonderful, indigo eyes. That wouldn’t do at all. He didn’t understand why Keith didn’t say anything, but that was okay. Everything was going to be fine now and he needed to make sure that Keith

He smiled broadly, gloved thumb brushing against his cheek. “It’s okay.”

An eyebrow ticked up. “Huh?”

Right, Keith usually understood things better when they were blunt on not completely vague. “I meant that I get it. Okay, no that’s a lie, I don’t, but that’s okay. It’s okay you knew and didn’t say anything. Yeah, it’s a bit annoying but that’s okay. I know it’s something we can work through. We’re soulmates after all.”

Keith’s eyes widened, and his breath hitched. “Lance…”

That didn’t sound happy at all. In fact, he looked almost horrified. Lance had no idea what was prompting this, but that was okay. He’d help in any way that he could. “What? What’s wrong?”

So slowly that it took Lance a second to realize Keith was moving at all, his hands rose up, one curling around Lance’s wrist so that he could still see the inside of it, the other tugging down his jacket to show the soulmark beneath.

The soulmark that looked like a beautiful seashell.

The soulmark that was still only solid black outlines against his skin without a drop of colour.

Almost immediately, Lance ripped his hand away from Keith, pulling his glove off and his sleeve down more. Blue eyes stared at the unchanged mark. “I don’t…what? That’s not possible.” He looked up, meeting Keith’s gaze. “I don’t understand.”

Keith slowly reached out to him. “Lance.”

“No.” Lance took a full step back from him. “I don’t get it.”

Keith’s eyes squeezed shut for a moment before opening again, wet with unshed tears. “Lance, I’m not your soulmate.”

Time seemed to stop, and Lance was positive that he had forgotten how to breathe. That was supposed to be a reflexive thing, but apparently his body thought that air was a waste when it could be freaking out right now.

“But you have to be!” He burst out. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before! I love you! You have to be my soulmate!”

Keith’s eyes went wide again, and he bit his lip. Slowly, he slipped the glove off of his right hand and reached out, holding Lance’s bare hand with his, fingers sliding down and brushing against his soulmark. Even with direct contact, nothing happened. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m not, but—“

Lance ripped his arm away again, feeling his own eyes burn. “I don’t get it.”

“I feel the same way about you!” Keith blurted out. “The exact same, so it doesn’t matter if we’re not sou—“

“Of course it matters!” Lance interrupted, feeling more than a bit hysterical at the moment. He couldn’t be here right now. He couldn’t. “I can’t—I don’t…” He stared backing away.

“Lance,” Keith said again, and this time the way he said his name, so sadly and desperately, ripped his heart into pieces.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out. “I’m so sorry.” He turned around and ran, the icy air burning his lungs as he hurried towards the bus stop.

He only looked over his shoulder once to see Keith bow his head, bangs blocking his eyes as he crossed his arms like he was hugging himself.

Lance couldn’t really remember getting on the bus or getting home. He all but ignored Hunk as he barreled into his room and slammed the door, throwing his clothes across the floor.

He stared at his soulmark, and for the first time, he absolutely hated it. The black lines on his wrist were suddenly the ugliest things that he had ever seen.

Almost desperately, he scrambled around the room until he found a sweatband that he hastily slapped over it, not wanting to see that stupid seashell ever again.

Chapter Text

Lance wasn’t quite sure how many times he had hit the snooze button the next morning, but it surely wasn’t enough. He didn’t even know when he managed to fall asleep the night before, but it was probably more along the lines of passing out due to exhaustion than legitimate sleep.

There was a knock on his door, and Hunk’s voice rang out. “Hey buddy, time to get up. I made breakfast.”

“Just leave me be,” Lance groaned, burying his face in his pillow.

There was a pause, and for a hopeful moment, he was sure that Hunk had left. Then he heard him say, “Can’t. You have your last exam today.”

Ah, that was true. Relationship drama or not, he couldn’t skip out on his exam. His Mamá would actually end his life.

With that in mind, he forced himself to get up. He was still wearing his clothes from yesterday, and chose to just swap his hoodie for a new one, running a hand through his hair to smooth it before stumbling out of the room, not bothering to take his normal shower.

Hunk took one look at him and grimaced. “Are you okay? What happened yesterday? I thought Keith was going to drive you home yesterday. Did you guys fight?”

Lance slumped down onto the table, glancing over at the clock. He had slept in pretty late, and didn’t really have that much time before his exam. Not looking at Hunk or touching the food that his roommate generously made for him, he mumbled, “He’s not my soulmate.”

It was quiet, but Hunk was still able to hear him. He frowned and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Lance nodded his head. “I—I kissed him…he kissed me. The mark didn’t change.”

“Oh Lance, I’m sorry,” Hunk said, reaching out and placing a hand on his back. “I’m so, so sorry. I know how much you liked him.”

“It’s so stupid, cause I’m pretty sure I love him, and it came out of nowhere, you know? Well, it didn’t, we’ve been friends for a while now, but you know what I mean! And it’s not fair! I know he feels the same way! He told me.” Lance looked up at him, tapping his fingers against the table. “Hunk…am I stupid for walking away? I love him. He loves me. We’re not soulmates. Was I wrong to run? He’s always saying they don’t matter, but I just…”

“I think that, if they didn’t matter, they wouldn’t exist,” Hunk said slowly after thinking. “You grew up wanting to meet your soulmate and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s also a good thing you didn’t want to start something serious with someone, only to end up meeting your soulmate.”

“But what if it’s like Allura and Lotor?” Hunk tilted his head, not knowing who either of them were. “They’re soulmates, but they’re just like…friends. You know? It makes me feel like an idiot, like I’ve been wrong.”

“Meeting Shay has made my world so much better,” Hunk said. “She helps me realize that I don’t have to be afraid, or freak out, but it’s okay if I am. She once told me that I make her feel braver, more motivated. It’s amazing.” He sighed wistfully. “Sure, maybe some people are born with grey marks and are fine with it, maybe even better off. You said Coran’s soulmate had another one. This Allura doesn’t care about hers but is friendly with him. Pidge’s Matt doesn’t care but if he meets them, he meets them. Keith doesn’t care at all, and is downright hostile sometimes. Why is you thinking they are important, and wanting to find your soulmate, any less valid?”

Lance stared at him, a smile slowly spreading across his lips. “Thank you, Hunk.”

It had been a while since someone told him that, and it was absolutely true. There was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting your soulmate. Nothing wrong at all.

Except Lance still felt a little sick about what he did. He knew Keith was a disaster that missed social cues and some things just hit him the wrong way for no apparent reason. He was better with more clinicial, factual explanations.

Lance had the urge to explain everything to Keith, but explain it properly. Hunk was right, his view wasn’t wrong, it was just yet another different one. He wanted to share that. He wanted Keith to actually listen to him.

Except, he also couldn’t ignore what he was feeling at the moment too. He had wanted his soulmate, had wanted to love them, but he fell in love with Keith too. How was that fair at all?

He could see Keith, tears in his eyes. He should have said something. He should have. It wasn’t fair. Keith knew they weren’t soulmates, knew what it meant to Lance. It wasn’t fair at all.

Neither was breaking someone’s heart. Keith hadn’t been the one to kiss him first. Hell, Lance knew that Keith had some kind of crush on him for a while. He hadn’t said anything. Maybe, just maybe, he had been respecting the fact that Lance cared about his soulmate.

This whole mess was so confusing. It wasn’t fair to either of them.

Lance replayed the scenario in his mind. He kissed Keith, he assumed they were soulmates, he argued when he realized they weren’t, saying that he loved him, listening as Keith said he loved him, and ran away. He definitely shouldn’t have run. On the other hand, Keith had tried to insist it was okay instead of trying to understand him.

“What do I do?” Lance asked Hunk, his voice soft. “I left him there. He was crying.”

Hunk took a deep breath. “Well, maybe you should apologize—“

Instantly, Lance was on the defensive. He straightened his back and snapped, “What was I supposed to do? I love him but he’s not my soulmate meaning that my soulmate is still out there somewhere so they’ll find me eventually. Then what? I told you I can’t do that to him even if he feels the same way about me! And what about his soulmate? Just because he doesn’t seem to care doesn’t mean that he won’t end up going off with them if he meets them.” He blinked his eyes rapidly, managing to keep his tears at bay.

Hunk blinked his eyes, waiting for Lance to calm down slightly. “May I finish now?”

“Yeah,” he replied almost sheepishly. “Sorry.” He wasn’t sorry for what he said, just how he said it. Hunk hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t deserve that.

“I think you should apologize for assuming things, and then ditching him when they didn’t go your way. Then I think you two should talk, because he owes you and apology too. Right? Just, talk. Isn’t your friendship alone worth that?”

Yes, Hunk was right about that. Lance didn’t want to lose Keith as a friend, and it wasn’t like he had fallen out of love with him over the past few hours. Those feelings stilled burned inside of him.

He was right though. They had to sit down and hash out everything. They had to actually listen to one another, especially if they meant what they said. Lance was so disappointed about all of this, not quite sure how everything became so messed up. It was like the universe itself was breaking his heart, and in turn, he had broken Keith’s. His points were still valid though. They both had soulmates out there and had to think about them too! Why was he even allowed to feel this way for someone who wasn’t his soulmate?

Coran was right, this entire this was far more complicated than the fairytales Lance listened to when he was younger.

…

Keith woke up at the same time he always did, going through the motions of his morning routine almost robotically. He didn’t let himself think, let the numbness overtake him. Shiro was half asleep as he stumbled into the room for his morning coffee. He tended to get up a little later now, exhausted from the therapy and the pain that came from his arm, though it was improving in leaps and bounds.

Shiro drank his coffee, staring at him with narrowed eyes. “You okay?”

Looking down, Keith sighed as he ran his fingers over his wrist. He squeezed his bare arm before grabbing his gloves and putting them on.

“I screwed up,” Keith mumbled to his pseudo-brother. “I screwed up so badly with Lance.”

“Did he say something?” Shiro asked, his voice suddenly defensive as he stared at Keith’s wrist. His grey eyes were narrowed, flesh hand squeezing his mug tightly.

“No!” Keith quickly shook his head, shoulders slumping a bit. He glanced at the clock, knowing he had to get going soon. His stomach lurched when he realized that Lance was going to be in this exam too. “No, it wasn’t his fault. He said everything I wanted to hear. He—he said that he cares about me a lot, the same way I care about him.” It didn’t feel right to tell Shiro that both of them had used the word ‘love’.

“But you don’t have his mark,” Shiro said, finishing the story without any prompting. Of course he knew that. He didn’t know Lance all too well, but he knew that the other young man took soulmates seriously.

“I was selfish,” Keith breathed out. “I was so selfish. For a minute, I thought that he’d look past his soulmark. How shitty is that of me? To expect him to just…abandon everything that’s important to him just because he’s learning there are more ways to look at it? What wrong with me?” He pressed the heels of his hands to his prickling eyes. “Those kids from when I was younger were right. I am broken. A normal person would do this. A normal person would listen and not be a little bitch about everything.”

“They weren’t right,” Shiro insisted, his voice stern. “They weren’t. There’s nothing wrong with you. Not a thing.”

“I don’t want to lose him, Shiro,” Keith choked out. “I…it’ll hurt for a while, but I don’t make friends easy and I don’t want to lose him.”

“I know it’s hard for you, but you should tell him. Sit down and talk to him about everything. Explain everything. Listen to him. God, you’re so stubborn, and sometimes it’s great, but sometimes it’s not. If you both listen to each other, I know you’ll be able to work something out, even if it’s just being friends.” Shiro paused. “Could you actually handle seeing him with his soulmate?”

“It would hurt a lot,” Keith repeated, “but…but if he’s happy, isn’t that a good thing? I think it is. Sobo says it’s okay to be selfish sometimes, and other people say you should fight for what you want, but wouldn’t that be wrong of me? To say ‘no be with me what you think is wrong’? Cause I really want to say that. But I know it’s wrong. Right?”

“It’s not easy.” Shiro place his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “It’s not. And I know it’ll be frustrating, but you have to try to hold your temper if you want to keep your friendship. Remember—“

“Patience yields focus,” Keith said at the same time he did. “I know. I—I’ll try. But, Shiro, what if he does think I’m broken? What if he agrees with everyone else?”

Lance had grown up in a family where everyone loved their soulmate without question, where finding your soulmate was one of the most important things you could do with your life.

That wasn’t how Keith grew up. He couldn’t remember his mother, maybe she was still alive out there somewhere. He knew for a fact that his parents weren’t soulmates, that his father hadn’t found his before he died.

He had unwittingly shared that at school once, and from that point on, kids started making fun with him, calling him a freak, calling him wrong or soulless, since two ‘broken’ souls had created him. Kids could be cruel, but only if they were taught to act that way by the adults in their lives. That was why he learned to not share that type of thing with people again.

A part of him wondered what Lance would think of that? Would he understand why Keith didn’t care about marks on wrists but the people that were with him then and there? Would he look at him with disgust? He didn’t know. What he did know was that it was easier if he just didn’t let anyone get close, because those who did almost always disappointed him.

Or maybe he disappointed them. That was a possibility too.

“Take the van,” Shiro insisted when Keith gathered his stuff. “It’s actually pretty cold out. Be careful, okay?”

Keith forced a smile onto his face and he knew had to look entirely took fake. “Yeah. I will be.” He turned, and his smile immediately fell.

…

Some people theorized that memories could be linked to specific rooms. It was why someone could leave a room to find something, and forget what they were looking for in another room, but remember what it was when they returned to the first one.

What seemed to have a plot of backing to it was the idea that students could remember details of a class if they were in the classroom as opposed to anywhere else.

Needless to say, that meant that their university booked the auditoriums for two weeks straight and lined up old wooden desks there for everyone to take their exams. They said it guaranteed no cheating since there were impartial Professors around, and more at that.

Keith, amongst many others, thought it was stupid. In fact, he always felt a little more anxious when doing exams this way. He found he forgot details that he would normally recall with ease, and being surrounded by so many people that were just as nervous as him didn’t help much.

Though the crowds did make it easier to stay out of Lance’s sight-line. Keith could see him, but knew he was hidden well enough to go unnoticed. Not that Lance looked like he was noticing much. Keith had never seen him look so horrible before. There were bags under his eyes, his hair seemed to be curling a little more, indicating that he probably hadn’t had a shower, and everything about his posture was dejected and closed off.

Keith felt something pinch inside of him. He had done that. This would have been so much easier if he felt relieved to see that Lance was just as down about what had happened as he was.

The thing was, Keith really did care about Lance and would never wish anything bad on them. He was also a coward though, and wasn’t sure he’d be able to do his exam if he actually made eye contact with him. He wished there was something he could do to take that look off of his face.

He stayed hidden until it was time for their exams. He made himself comfortable, glancing up when someone suddenly stopped near his desk, meeting dark blue. Keith felt his heart constricting, and Lance opened his mouth as if to say something, before turning around and sitting in the sea diagonal from him.

Lance got out the pencils and pens he needed, scratching at the sweatband on his wrist. Keith’s brow furrowed at that, because he wasn’t expecting Lance to cover up his mark like that. His mark was important to him, and despite Keith’s own misgivings over everything, he had kind of admired that.

Lance’s confidence, his dedication to finding his soulmate, was actually really amazing, even if it sucked for Keith personally. Now that he thought about it, the fact that Lance didn’t want to start a relationship with someone, because his soulmate was out there, was understandable.

It still sucked though.

He turned his attention back to his own exam, relieved to see that it was actually much easier than he had been anticipating. Keith was able to compartmentalize and focus on that, letting his knowledge of astronomy overtake his mind.

He finished his exam fairly early, before the time when he was even allowed to leave. It was a stupid rule, but he could kind of understand not wanting to make other students feel like they had to rush or to interrupt them too early.  So he went over everything to make sure that he hadn’t skipped any answers and that his essay questions didn’t have any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Eventually though, all he could do was sit and wait. It was maddening, because there was nothing he could do for the next twenty minutes but get lost in his own mind, and that wasn’t a place he really wanted to be right now.

Without meaning to, Keith found his eyes drifting towards Lance, taking in his obviously stressed, hunched over form. He was playing with his sweatband, and they both grimaced when it went flying across the room by accident. There were a few giggles in the auditorium, but luckily for Lance, no one had seen where it had come from. Or, at least, those who had didn’t rat him out, since it had been a genuine mistake.

Because he was paying attention, he was able to hear Lance’s sharp intake of breath. He looked up, instinctively checking him over for some kind of injury even though he hadn’t moved. He wasn’t even moving, just staring at his wrist.

Keith sighed, his eyes going down to Lance’s now visible soulmark, a bit of instinctual bitterness rising up in him. Whoever was at the other end of that bond had no idea just how amazing a person they had. He fell in love with someone else, but backed away because he was loyal to his soulmate. It was infuriatingly impressive and really sad too.

Then Keith saw exactly why Lance looked so horrified, his breath hitching.

The once solid black lines were a dull grey.

A couple other people had already gotten up to pass in their finished exams. Keith jumped up, leaving his own papers on his desk, something that caught the eye of one of the Professors nearby, judging from her scowl as she started making her way over.

“Lance,” Keith whispered. “Come on. Come on, we need to go.”

“It’s grey,” Lance whispered, his eyes going wide. “My soulmark’s grey.”

“What is going on here?” Professor Ryner asked angrily. “This is an exam.”

“His mark,” Keith answered, keeping his voice low so that the others around wouldn’t hear, because it was none of their business. “It turned grey.”

Instantly, her shoulders slumped slightly. She nodded her head and said, “Are you finished your exams?”

“I am,” Keith said, and looked down at Lance, who was still just staring at his soulmark. “Lance?”

“Huh? What? Exam? No, I’m not done. I can finish it, I can…”

“It’s alright,” Ryner assured him. She picked up both of their booklets. “I’ll make a note of what happened. It’s okay.” She nodded at Keith. “Take care of your friend.”

Keith nodded, and kept a hand on Lance’s arm as they walked out of the auditorium.

It was impressive how well Lance held it together, even as they got outside. Keith didn’t let him wander off on his own, leading him towards the parking lot where the Deathmobile was waiting. It was clear that it was taking absolutely everything Lance had in him to not completely lose it.

Keith urged him into the passenger seat of the van, closing the door behind him. By the time he got to the driver side door, Lance was breathing rapidly.

His first instinct was to reach out to hug him, but he didn’t. Instead, Keith said, “Lance, can you hear me?”

It took a moment, but there was a short nod.

“Okay. Do you want to talk? You can if you want. Or I can just take you home. It’s up to you.”

Though patience wasn’t Keith’s strongest suit, he realized in that moment that he would wait however long Lance needed. Finally, the other man shuddered and said, “Could—could I get a hug?” He sounded so frightened to ask, and given what had happened, Keith couldn’t blame him.

Though Keith was a little iffy with physical contact, he didn’t hesitate to reach out and wrap his arms around him. Lance shifted forward, his face buried in Keith’s shoulders as he broke. Keith could do nothing but hold him as he sobbed, his shoulders shaking.

“It’s supposed to hurt,” Lance muttered wildly. “It’s supposed to hurt when you lose them, but I didn’t know. I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t realize.”

“Do you want anything?” Keith asked. “A drink? Food? Or do you just want to go home?”

“Home,” Lance choked out as he moved away from him. “Please, Keith, take me home.”

He nodded his head, reaching over to buckle Lance up when he didn’t do it himself.

Keith didn’t know from personal experience, but he had heard that losing a soulmate was terrible. That it felt like a part of the surviving person had been ripped out of them. It was supposed to be a mental, emotional, and physical pain worse than any other.

Yet, he clearly hadn’t. In fact, he had been fine until he actually saw the mark. It didn’t make sense.

The drive to Lance’s apartment was completely silent. It was tense and uncomfortable, like the air was slowly seeping out of the van and they were both on the verge of losing their minds to oxygen deprivation.

It was both a blessing and a curse to see Hunk in the parking lot by his little yellow bug. At first, he looked confused as to why the Deathmobile was pulling up, even more-so about why Keith was driving Lance back. No doubt Lance had told him everything.

Then he looked concerned. Instantly, the large man squared his shoulders and sent Keith a harsh look when he got out of the van. “What did you do?”

Completely taken back by the uncharacteristic hostility, Keith physically stepped away from him. “I didn’t do anything. It’s…his mark greyed out.”

Hunk’s dark eyes snapped towards Lance as he stumbled out of the van, going to his rolled up sleeve. He inhaled sharply, then said, “Come on, Buddy, let’s get you inside.” He then looked towards Keith almost sheepishly. “Sorry. I just…well…thank you for bringing him back. You didn’t have to.” The ‘all things considered’ was silent, but still strongly felt.

“I…I just wanted him to be okay,” Keith admitted, shoulders slumping and his voice more emotional than he meant for it to be. Quickly, he scrambled back to his van, determined to get away from there. He didn’t know why he was so upset over this, it wasn’t like he had lost his soulmate.

In fact, it was selfish yet again to even think of himself. Lance’s soulmate was important to him. So, so important. Now they were gone.

He couldn’t stop his mind from going to the night before, when he had been lying in his bed, wishing that Lance didn’t have a soulmate. Wishing that it was him. Wasn’t this almost exactly what he wished for? Of all the times in his life to actually get something that he wished for, it had to be this.

By the time he was home, Keith was shaking so badly that he couldn’t get the key in the lock properly. Luckily, Shiro was home and heard him struggling, coming to open up the door.

“Keith?” Shiro asked, sounding more than a little alarmed. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He ignored the question, walking forward and collapsing into Shiro’s arms as the dams finally broke, and tears started to fall.

…

“Hey Buddy,” Hunk said quietly, peering into Lance’s room. “Are you okay?”

Lance sat on his bed with his legs crossed, holding his shark-shaped pillow close to his chest, face buried into it. He looked up as Hunk opened up the door, staring at his friend miserably. He sniffed a bit and said, “No.”

“Is it okay for me to come in?”

He hesitated before nodding his head. Hunk came into the room and wrapped his arms around Lance’s shoulders, holding him close. Lance allowed himself to sink into his friend’s warmth. “I guess I kind of deserve this, huh?”

“Why would you say that?” Hunk stared at him with wide, confused eyes.

Lance snorted loudly. “Please. I fall in love with Keith, I break his heart for my soulmate, then my soulmate dies later that night? And Keith is the one to notice and get me home okay? That’s some cosmic bullshit right there.” He laughed bitterly. “Fucking universe can’t let me be happy with any decision I make, can it?”

Hunk hesitated, rubbing his hand up and down his back. “I know it might be hard to believe, but it’s just a series of unfortunate coincidences. You definitely didn’t deserve this. No one does. I couldn’t imagine…” Hunk shuddered.

Staring down at the grey lines on his arm, Lance traced the shell that he had cursed the night before. It was strange, really. Lance had always heard that losing your soulmate, even before meeting them, was a painful experience unlike any other. Yet he didn’t notice this at all. Maybe that was the distress he had been feeling last night, and not his heartbreak over what happened with Keith? No, that didn’t sit right either. Maybe both things mingled together to rip his heart to shreds? He didn’t know.

“I want to go home,” Lance muttered. He was a grown man, yet he desperately wanted to go home to his Mamá. His siblings were going to torment him badly. How could they not? He had been so adamant about meeting his soulmate, more than any of them.

Oh god, his family was going to be so disappointed in him. Soulmates were important to all of them. They were going to be disgusted with him.

No, that wouldn’t happen. Yeah, they teased one another, and yes, his siblings absolutely had bullied him as the youngest in the past, but they would never rip him apart over something like this. They would understand. They would mourn with him and help him. The only teasing would be to try and brighten his day. He could deal with that.

“A few more days,” Hunk assured him. “A few more, and then you get to go home.”

Lance nodded his head. “You’re staying with Shay this year, right?” He needed to focus on something else right now. He had to. If he didn’t, he was going to break down again.

“Yeah.” Hunk’s face flushed. It would be the first year he didn’t go home. Instead, his mothers and sister were coming here and staying with Shay’s family. “I think we might go to the Holt Christmas Party too. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures.” He paused. “Hey, we could call Pidge to come over and play some video games.”

Pidge. She had been born with a grey soulmark. Did that mean she felt pain in the womb because of it? That was startling to think about. Lance thought back to all the times he had silently pitied her, and realized that karma was a terrible bitch all around. Pidge might be able to help him. She could relate in a way that Hunk couldn’t, after all.

They both jumped as Lance’s phone started ringing. He looked down, the word ‘Mamá’ flashing onto his screen.

Hunk scooted off of the bed. “I’m going to make something to eat. Game night tonight? Or want to wait until tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow might be better.” Thankfully, Hunk nodded and left the room without any question. He wanted tonight to sulk to himself. Lance hesitated before answering the phone, “Hola Mamá.”

“Lance? Qué pasa, mijo?”

Of course she picked up on his hesitation instantly. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he tugged his shark pillow closer to himself.

“Mamá. Io arruiné…”

He poured everything out to her. Learning more about different ways to look at soulmates. His feelings for Keith. Finding out that they weren’t soulmates. His soulmark turning grey and Keith of all people being the one to get him home safe. He was in tears by the end of it.

“Oh Mijo,” his mother said to him, her voice sweet and understanding even though there was no way she could understand what was going on with him. “It’ll be okay. You’re such a strong boy.”

“Please don’t tell the others about this, not about Keith at least. Please Mamá.”

“If your brothers or sister says anything bad to you about this I will most certainly be having words with them,” she assured him before muttering something in Spanish that he didn’t catch. It still sent an instinctual shiver up his spine. His Mamá was anything but abusive, but she certainly knew how to put the fear of God into her children (no one wanted her to get them up at 5:00 in the morning to help clean the house while listening to whatever annoying music she could find).

“I want to come home,” Lance admitted. “I want to come home and go to sleep in my bed and never come out. I never want to come back here.”

“You will do no such thing,” she said sternly. “Of course you’ll be here for the holidays soon, but you’ll be going back to school to finish your education that you worked so hard for.”

“Mamá…”

His mother continued to prattle on, but honestly, it helped Lance feel a little better. He no longer felt like sealing himself into his closet to perish. This was exactly what he needed, and he couldn’t wait to see her again to get a hug.

Chapter Text

When Lance heard a knock at the door, it genuinely startled him. Hunk was out with Shay, and Pidge was with her family, so he had no idea who could be visiting him. As friendly as he was, able to talk to almost anyone with ease, he really only had a few close, good friends. That was fine with him, except for on the days when it led to confusing knocks on the door.

He shoved aside his suitcase, packed for his flight home tomorrow, and approached the door.

A smart person might have checked through the peephole, but Lance simply unlocked the door and threw it open. He blinked with surprise when his eyes met familiar indigo ones, his entire body tensing. “Keith?”

Keith shifted slightly before saying, “Hey Lance. Um, are you…you know…busy?”

“I…I just finished packing. Heading home tomorrow,” he admitted, fiddling with the doorknob slightly. “Hunk’s not here. Did you need something?”

Keith reached over, rubbing his own arm almost nervously. “I was looking for you, not him. I was just wondering if you had a few minutes to talk?” He looked away before looking back. “I just…I…don’t want to leave things like they were for too long.”

Something inside of Lance melted. He had been trying to think of ways to reach out to Keith, but was honestly so nervous about it, not quite sure what to expect. It said a lot that the other man was the one reaching out to try and fix the friendship they had, or to at least get on the same playing field.

“Yeah, you wanna come in?” Lance stepped aside and motioned towards the apartment.

Keith didn’t move though, crossing his arms in front of him. “I was wondering if you actually wanted to come with me for a walk? I know it’s cold but…” He shrugged.

“Sure.” That was fair. Out in the open they were both on neutral ground. Lance moved around the apartment, getting on his warm clothes to go outside. When he had his sneakers on and jacket zipped, he forced a smile on his face and followed Keith out the door.

…

They walked side by side, keeping an awkward distance between them. Keith opened and closed his hands in his pockets, trying to find a way to get out what he wanted to say. He could have just texted, but this was something he had to do face-to-face. Being outside under the starry sky also seemed like a good idea.

Of course, he also hadn’t taken into account that he was miserable at this whole communication thing. It probably would have been a good idea to plan out what he was going to say first, write a script to at least get him started.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped again, staring at the ground with frustration. He groaned and came to a stop, sitting down on the cold bench at the edge of the path they were on. Lance stared at him for a moment before sitting quietly on the other end of the bench.

“You were right, you know.”

Keith looked up at Lance, brow pinching as confusion filtered through his eyes. He shifted a bit in his seat, not quite understanding. He had the distinctive feeling that it wasn’t about their astronomy class though. “About what?”

“Soulmates are stupid,” Lance said bluntly, his voice devoid of any true emotion. It was like looking a fairly realistic mask, but there was still something off about it. Something that was slight enough to not draw attention from anyone else, but that set Keith on edge.

Keith felt like he was holding a grenade without a pin, a split second away from it exploding and there was nothing he could do to stop it. “Lance.”

He was abruptly cut off as Lance started speaking, “I—I didn’t even know mine died. Like at all. They were just gone. Just like that! Dead! What the fuck?” He started waving his arms around as his voice rose in distress. “You think I would have felt that or something, right? But nope, just a grey soulmark to tell me they’re gone! I don’t know them! I don’t know how they died or where they died! Just that they’re gone! So yeah, this whole thing is stupid! I feel like I should be more devastated, but I didn’t know them! I have no clue who they were! God, why couldn’t it have been you? I wanted it to be you.” He laughed bitterly. “You were right. Everything you said. How stupid soulmates are. You were right.”

The older of the two felt his heart breaking for Lance. He didn’t understand what that was like, to have a black mark on your wrist and trying every day to find your soulmate, only to wake up one day with a grey one. He did know that he hadn’t handled the situation well at all though. “No, Lance. They’re not stupid. They’re not. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry for making you think that way. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think…I never do. I just rant and push what I think on other people and I don’t listen and I need to listen, I know.” He took a deep breath.

“The truth is, I’ve never found soulmates stupid. I just always said that I cared about the people already in my life and scoffed at people who did care about soulmates because I was…I was jealous.” God, he was disgusted with himself. “I’m sorry for saying that. For pushing you over and over again to go against something you cared about so much. For blowing up at you over nothing.”

“Jealous?” Lance repeated slowly. “Jealous? Over what? What do you have to be jealous over? You’re hot. You’re smart. Sure, you can be bitchy but hell knows if we all can’t. We all get pissy over things that are normal to others. It’s fine. Well, it’s not fine, but it happens. And like, what? You get jealous over soulmarks? At least you still have one! You still have someone out there waiting for you! I’m alone!” Lance tried so hard to keep the jealousy and anger out of his voice, because Keith hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he had been amazing, and that was even more infuriating.

Keith felt something twist in his chest. Lance was upset, he knew that, so he tried not to take his anger to heart no matter how hard it was. He had a temper, and he was fighting to keep it down with everything he had. His temper and putting up so many walls was what put him at his worst, and he needed to be better. Lance deserved better, even if it was just from a friend.

“…Lance…I don’t,” Keith said slowly, fingers fiddling with his gloves.

“You don’t what? Don’t care? I know you don’t care about soulmates, but come on, you still have one you should find them! It’s…it’s not fair, when you think about it. It’s not fair that my mark is grey and yours isn’t. It’s not fair.”

The thought of Keith having a black mark still, a mark that matched with someone else out there, made Lance feel nauseated. It really wasn’t fair that Keith, who could care less about soulmarks, still had one intact, while Lance, who did, had a grey one. Not only that, but he found himself jealous of the man that Keith would end up meeting. He could protest as much as he wanted, Lance knew that when they met, it would matter.

Honestly, a part of him realized that the thought of Keith with someone else was more upsetting than the thought that his own soulmate was dead. That was twisted. Though maybe it was because he knew Keith. He currently had feelings for him. He didn’t know the person that used to be on the other end of his bond, and he never would.  “I can’t…it doesn’t matter if my mark is grey and if I love you. You’re made for someone else too and you’re going to meet them and—“

 “No, Lance. I—I was made to be alone,” Keith interrupted with a shake of his head.

That made him pause in his tirade. “What? No one is.” Then he remembered back to Keith talking about the other guy that he had liked that had used him for grades, and then had physically hurt him when Keith hadn’t let that happen. He thought about Florona, and her wanting to find someone else.

“I mean, you don’t have to be with someone if they were hurting you. Is that why you keep your soulmark covered?” Is that why he wanted to be with someone else? That would make sense, considering how bitter he was towards soulmates where even a bit of positive talk about them could set him off.

“No, it’s not that,” Keith said, his voice oddly quiet. Unless Lance was seeing things, he looked almost scared.

“Then what?”

“I just…if I stopped and considered that soulmates were important…then what does that say about me?” His shoulders slumped and he sighed, pulling the gloves off of his hands. He kept his wrists face-down for a moment before turning them over.

The skin there was smooth and pale, and completely blank.

“What? But...is it on a different part of your body?” Lance had never heard of that before. Soulmarks were always on someone’s wrist unless they didn’t have one to begin with.

He inhaled sharply.

“I’ve never had a soulmark,” Keith admitted, his voice impossibly soft. “It was like I was given a death sentence at birth. I had to go to regular therapy sessions almost all my life, because doctors were worried I’d turn out to be some kind of sociopath. I was an infant, Lance. An infant, and they decided that I didn’t have a mark so I was broken and wrong. Everyone said it was because my parents weren’t soulmates. I let that slip once and god, it was hell.”

Keith pulled his arms back, hugging himself tightly as he looked into Lance’s shocked eyes. “So I decided that soulmates weren’t important. They couldn’t be. If they were then all those people were right, and I’m broken. I’m literally destined to be alone. I don’t belong with anyone. People questioned it at first, but people don’t question you as much if you’re ready to fight them, right? I—I’m sorry I did that with you. The first day we met. It was my fault. You were curious, I was an asshole. At least you know that there was once someone out there for you. That you were made to be a part of something bigger. Me? I was born alone, I’ll live alone, and I’ll die alone.” He looked back down, voice dropping back to a whisper. “It’s what I’m good at.”

Everything fell into place in Lance’s mind.

Keith was distant with people because he had a pretty bad life growing up, probably stemming from people seeing his blank wrists and thinking the worse instantly. Calling him broken, worthless. Reminding him that he’d never belong with anyone. Not just children. Probably adults, teachers, and doctors. The people that were supposed to keep him safe. Not to mention, people would have gotten on his case about his parents not being soulmates. He would have been seen as proof that his parents were wrong.

In a world of overwhelming voices, he would have had to learn to kick, fight, and scream to get others to listen to him. He would have stopped listening to them, causing him to stop listening to most others all together.

The worst part was, Lance himself probably would have seen Keith as freakish too. Not even just as a child, but at the very beginning of the year. He wouldn’t have allowed himself to see the amazing person that Keith actually was. The boy that challenged Lance and made him constantly want to better himself. The boy that laughed at Hunk’s terrible puns and got excited over the new cryptids that Pidge uncovered. The boy that cared for his brother so much and would do anything for his grandparents to help them.

The boy that Lance had fallen for so hard that he wouldn’t be able to get back up.

“I’m sorry,” Keith muttered again, breaking the silence as he shifted uncomfortably. “Lance, soulmates can be important if you want them to be. They can. There’s nothing wrong with that and I know that. I mean, how could there be anything wrong with believing that when it just…you were so hopeful and optimistic and happy, and so are Hunk and Shay, and my grandparents, and how you go on about your family. How can that be wrong? But how is it fair that Pidge never got a chance to meet hers? Does she have to be alone? What—what about me?”

A startled sound escaped Keith, only to be muffled by Lance’s lips on his own. His eyes fluttered slightly as warmth rushed through him and he leaned into Lance. He felt the other man’s hands grasp his own, fingers sliding up to his bare wrists and marking patterns on them.

That was when he snapped out of the haze his mind was in. He put his hands against Lance’s chest and pushed him away. He glared at him, trying desperately to stop the burning at the edge of his eyes. He felt sick and disappointed with himself. “I’m not some kind of backup or replacement!”

“What?” Lance’s eyes went wide.

“Don’t you think I know what people think of me?” Keith seethed as he stood up. “Back in first year, you think that guy—the one who broke my arm – the one who saw I didn’t have a mark – didn’t think ‘hey, if my soulmate dies or I don’t meet them I can go to you because you don’t have one’? That if I talk about it online anonymously, people start hitting on me because I’m someone they can mess around with because ‘no one will mind’ and things like that? You think I don’t know?”

Keith squeezed his eyes shut, unable to stop the tears from falling down his cheeks. This hurt so much more than any of those times. He thought he’d experience the worst that could happen, but this was so much worse. “You didn’t—you didn’t want me when your mark was black, and when you thought I had one.” He took a step back from Lance as the other man tried to step towards him. “Your soulmate is dead and you find out that I don’t have one and then kiss me? I’m not—I’m not something you can just…”

“No!” Lance burst out, reaching out and grabbing his hands again. “No. It’s not that. Please, listen to me, Keith. Listen.”

Keith took deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He had promised that he’d listen. He promised.

“ I—you know how I feel.” Lance looked down at their hands. “It’s not what I—you’re not some backup. You’re not.”

Except, he kind of was, wasn’t he? Lance couldn’t say for sure that he would have kissed Keith again if his mark wasn’t grey. No, that wasn’t true. Of course he would have. Keith was his first choice. Keith was the one he wanted his mark to match with more than anything else.

God, he was confused. This wasn’t fair on either of them. They needed time. They needed time to let everything sink in. To clear their minds. It was probably best

“I’m sorry,” Lance said to him suddenly. “I’m sorry for how I reacted. I just left you there, and here…I shouldn’t have kissed you even though I really did want to.” He reached a hand up, resting it against Keith’s cheek. “I care about you so much, it’s not even funny.”

He sniffed loudly as his eyes started to burn and water. He tugged Keith forward, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, burying his face in his hair.

Keith stood with his arms at his sides, his first instinct to push Lance away. Then he realized that maybe this was what they both needed. They both needed something, some kind of closure either on their feelings with one another, or on the things that they both believed in the past.

Slowly, his arms came up, wrapping around Lance’s waist, nuzzling his face into the fabric of his hood against his neck.

“We just need some time, right?” Lance muttered quietly. “Some time to be just Lance and just Keith with no feelings bothering us before we talk again, right?” Christmas break would be a great time for that.

“Yeah,” Keith breathed out. “Yeah, that sounds good.” It still hurt though. God, did it ever hurt. It hurt that he never had a soulmate. It hurt that he closed himself off to the point of being hostile and ignorant. It hurt that Lance lost his soulmate. It hurt that they hurt each other.

Keith didn’t know who started shaking and full-on sobbing first, but soon they were both blubbering mess on one another.

…

Lance stared out the window in the airport directly at the plane he was going to get on, wishing that they were already up in the sky, but unfortunately, he was standing in the airport while they got ice off of the wings, or something to that effect. It meant a longer wait before he had to get home, but at least he had time to charge his phone.

The device in question buzzed in his hand

Pidge > Lance

Pidge: I know there’s some serious shit going on in your life right now but holy shit did you see this?!?!?!?!?!

Pidge sent a link.

Pidge: didn’t you meet up with her????????

Lance’s brow furrowed, and he clicked the link to see what Pidge was going on about. Immediately, his eyes went wide at the headline.

Woman Killed By Soulmate.

His read through the article quickly, stomach dropping as he read about how millionaire Baku Merson killed his soulmate, a young woman named Florona. Bile rushed up Lance’s throat, and it took everything he had not to throw up.

This was exactly what she had been worried about when she met up with him, wasn’t it? He was her last ditch attempt to prove that she wasn’t soulmates with the man that had married her sister? The sister whose death was, in light of these events, suddenly being treated as suspicious.

Anger suddenly erupted out of him, and it took everything he had not to throw his phone. This was bullshit! He grew up thinking your soulmate made you better, your soulmate completed you and filled in all your gaps. Sure, you might not always get along but that was okay.

Lance knew now that it was okay that others saw soulmates differently. In fact, it actually made the world a little more interesting, if he thought about it.

It still disgusted him that there were people out there that would hurt their soulmates. That would abuse them, even kill them.

How is it that some monster like this got to have a soulmate, and someone as amazing as Keith was left with blank wrists and told that he was wrong and broken? How was it fair that he got to meet his soulmate when Lance never got the chance?

How could a soulmate do something so horrible to the person that was supposed to be half of who they were?

If anyone else saw Lance crying in the airport, no one questioned it.

…

“Did you pack everything?” Luis asked, raising an eyebrow at the mess that started at Lance’s suitcase and spread across the entire room. “How did you fit so much in there?”

“That’s my little secret, Louie,” Lance insisted, waving his finger in his face. “Now get out. Let me wallow.”  It was easy to try and put all the bad things behind him in the warmer air and the sun, even if it wasn’t as nice as in summer.

His brother didn’t leave though. Instead, he rummaged around a bit, moving Lance’s stuff. “Seriously, did you bring homework with you? Isn’t the semester over?” He scooted around him, snatching a crumpled paper off of the floor. Luis narrowed his eyes and then said, “This isn’t even yours! Who’s Keith?”

“Huh?” Lance whipped around, staring at the rumbled, multi-page paper in his hands, holding together precariously from a small staple in the corner. He snatched the papers away, blinking with surprise when he realized that it was the essay Keith was working on that was some kind of combination of soulmates, astronomy, and archeology. Allura had given him a copy after he seemed interested in it, but he never really got around to reading it. How it ended up in his bag, Lance had no idea. Just an example of how bad he was at packing (which was odd in and of itself because he kept his room pristine. “It’s my…friend’s. I wanted to read it.”

He rolled her dark eyes dramatically. “Of course you did.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s about soulmates, and that’s been your number one priority like, all your life.” Luis’ face suddenly shifted, eyes widening and lips parting in horror. “Oh! I didn’t—I mean…I’m sorry.” His eyes darted to the grey mark on his wrist back to his face.

Lance sighed, his arms slumping slightly. His mark wasn’t even the thing involving soulmates that was bothering him most right now. “Don’t worry about it.” He looked back down at the essay, deciding that he was bored anyway, so he might as well read it. He had been meaning too. So he flopped back onto his bed and held the paper in front of him.

“Really?” Luis asked skeptically. “You’re going to read a paper about soulmates?”

“Yeah.” Lance had to admit, he was curious about whatever it was that Keith had discovered. Knowing that he wasn’t quite as cynical as he appeared to be, and realizing that he had only ever rehashed information that he found rather than giving his own, real point of view that revealed his lack of mark. This would give him a better look into Keith’s thought process.

“Right, I’ll tell mom you’re in here being a nerd.” He nodded his head and left the room.

Lance rolled his eyes at him before making himself comfortable against his pillows again.

It actually was pretty interesting to read, even if Lance didn’t completely understand the archeological and cultural aspect of Keith’s research, and it was obvious that he had done a lot. Getting that part-time job at the archives probably helped him a lot.

It made Lance feel a little silly about being so jealous, thinking that Keith got high grades without trying. He worked his butt off, just in a different way.

“Oh,” he muttered in surprise, rereading a sentence again. “Keith mentioned this before about how soulmarks used to…change…” His eyes slid to his own wrist, and Lance stared at it. “No, that’s not possible. That doesn’t happen these days.” Prior to Keith talking about it, Lance had never heard of a soulmark changing outside of greying.

Then again, they did go grey when the person at the other end of the bond wasn’t there anymore. They also changed colour. So really, there was a precedence for marks changing even now, wasn’t there?

Hunk and Shay were everything that books said soulmates were and should be.

Pidge had been born with a grey mark, but she was fine.

Matt’s mark seemed normal, but he didn’t seem like he was in a huge rush to find his soulmate, perfectly happy with his life as is.

Allura knew her soulmate, but didn’t love him in a romantic sense – they were basically academic acquaintances.

Coran’s soulmate had passed away and his soulmate had two soulmates.

Shiro would probably never find his because he lost his arm and technically didn’t have a mark anymore.

Poor Florona had been murdered by her soulmate.

Keith was born without any marks at all.

Lance once had a mark, and he strongly believed that soulmates were important, and his went grey.

That book that was in the archives. Most of the marks had been grey, but nothing had said if they were married or not, if they were happy or not. Something didn’t sit right about that. There were so many grey marks, yet the death dates hadn’t matched up.

Lance stared at the mark he had memorized all his life. He had fallen in love with Keith, he had kissed him and confessed, and found out that Keith loved him in turn. Then that very night, his mark turned grey.

His breath hitched. What if the person with the matching mark didn’t die? What if it was the potential bond between them that did? What if this did happen more frequently than they realized? Not everyone posted greyed marks online (which was a more recent trend in and of itself), and if they were in different parts of the world no one would ever know.

What if his strong belief in soulmates, his strong belief that Keith should be his soulmate, ended up making them soulmates, just without the marks?

The thing was, a lot of people these days did post their marks online. There were specific websites for it. It wasn’t a creepy thing, it was more in tribute of their lost soulmate, or to try and get in contact with their soulmate’s family to find out more about who they were. Unlike websites where people were actively searching for their soulmates, these ones tended to be less cluttered.

“Okay, I can do this,” Lance muttered, opening several different websites to begin his search. Maybe he wasn’t the best at research, but he was amazing as sifting through websites that were crowded with people searching for their soulmates, even if he had never found his.

The biggest problem that he had faced was that shells were so common for soulmarks. At least it wasn’t snowflakes, those were ridiculous. Each set of soulmarks was unique to themselves, though the differences from another one could be very tiny. Lance had gotten his hopes up more than once because of that.

Now he was getting his hopes up again but for an entirely different reason. Weeks ago, he would have dreaded searching for a grey mark that matched his, but now he was praying that his theory was right.

He held his arm up, stopping to compare it every once and a while.

“Lance! Supper!” his mother called up to him.

“Later Mamá! I’m on a mission!” Maybe it was how cheerful his voice sounded for the first time since he came home, but she surprisingly left him alone.

He had been hoping that he’d get lucky on the first website, but there were a startlingly large amount of greyed soulmarks out there (like the book suggested), and those were just the ones that people posted online. There were others, like him or Pidge, that kept it to themselves.

Lance had spent almost an hour searching the description of his soulmark when another idea hit him, and he started searching based on dates. That was probably how most people connected this way.

He was starting to lose hope, starting to think that his insane idea was just that: insane. Then he saw it.

Muscles quivering, he held his arm up beside the image on the screen. The tan arm on the screen definitely belonged to a girl, and the soulmark was identical to his own, down to the fact that it was grey.

‘I never met you, Soulmate, but I hope you find peace in your next life’, her description read.

All his life, Lance had wanted to find the person whose soulmark matched his own. Now here it was, the mark identical to his. He could contact her, this website didn’t have her name listed, but there was a contact button. He could actually meet her.

Yet, not a single part of him felt the urge to reach out to her, to tell her that he was still alive. He felt relieved knowing that the person who had once been at the other end of his soulbond was still alive, but he didn’t feel that instinctual tug towards her.

She didn’t die. The bond itself did. A laugh escaped Lance’s lips that became almost hysterical. Tears fell down his cheeks, but they weren’t sad ones. They were relieved. He stopped laughing, a broad smile on his face as he flopped back down onto his bed, picking up Keith’s essay and smiling at it broadly, wanting to read through the rest for some kind of answers.

“Through all cultures, soulmates are highly revered and seen as something to aspire to,” Lance read, barely above a whisper. “They inspire people, create a feeling of family and belonging. L—“ He cut himself off and stared before starting again. “Lance was right. They should not be dismissed.”

He ignored the lines Allura made, pointing out that he needed to make this more objective and not bring Lance randomly into his essay. What mattered was that even before they had their blow out, Keith had been starting to see through his eyes a little bit. That did matter. Maybe that, the knowledge that the marks had been able to change once, their feelings for one another, along with Lance’s sureness of soulmates, is what mattered.

The universe had gotten it wrong with him. It had gotten it so, so wrong, because how could it know who was going to be perfect for who before they ever met? Maybe as babies with blank slates it was easy, but life changed people.

Well, no, that wasn’t entirely fair. It probably did get it right most of the time, but nothing was perfect and it was born to make mistakes sometimes. For the first time ever, Lance was relieved to think of himself as any type of mistake.

Things change, and what didn’t change with it were left behind. One thing was for sure, Lance was not going to be one of those things.

He had the sudden urge to text Keith, but decided that he’d still give him time and space, like they had said. It was only fair.

With his spirits lifted, Lance hopped out of bed and made his way downstairs for supper with his family.

Chapter Text

“Hi Hunk!” Lance called out to his roommate as he skidded towards him in the airport terminal. Hunk was a blessing, honestly, coming to get him when he didn’t have to. It was already fairly late, but Lance was so hyped up that it didn’t really matter.

Hunk smiled at him widely. “You seem better.”

“I figured some things out,” Lance admitted. He practically bounced on the spot, dragging his heavy luggage (he’d had to pay extra for it) behind him. “Hey, so, I have a favour to ask. An important one. About making a stop before heading home.”

“Well, Shay’s driving, so you’ll have to ask her, but I think she’d be cool with it,” Hunk answered. It was good that Shay was the one driving, because it stopped Lance from being crammed in the back of Hunk’s tiny bug with his suitcase.

“Great! I was hoping we could stop by Keith’s house.”

Hunk slowed to a stop and stared at Lance. He had known that Lance and Keith had a talk before Lance left, and some of the air seemed to be cleared, but he didn’t know why that would have put his friend in such a good mood.

“Is that a good idea?” he asked cautiously. “You literally just got back. We’re not even home yet. You’re dragging a suitcase with you.”

“I know, I know, but this can’t wait.” He looked in the driver’s side of Shay’s grey hatchback. “Hey Shay! Holy loops!”

Shay laughed, hand going up to the massive, golden earrings. “Hunk got them for me, aren’t they nice?”

“That’s one type of ring to put on it,” Lance replied teasingly, earning an embarrassed splutter from his friend as he helped him put his suitcase into the trunk. Climbing into the backseat, he looked at Shay and asked, “So, yeah, think you can at least slow down by Keith’s apartment? And take my suitcase with you? I’ll be in your debt forever! I’ll even tuck and roll.”

Shay raised an eyebrow at Hunk, who got into the passenger seat and shrugged at her. She looked back at Lance in the rear-view mirror and said, “Just tell me where to go.” Hunk must have caught her up to the situation.

Lance was a nervous wreck the whole way there, practically launching himself out of the car as it stopped at the appropriate building. He glanced around, not seeing the Deathmobile anywhere, but that didn’t mean anything. One of Shiro’s goals had been to be able to drive the wreck before the new year. Maybe he had done it. Or maybe they had gone to visit Mr and Mrs. Shirogane and weren’t there. It was still worth checking though. He knew where their windows for their apartment were, and the lights were on, so that was a good sign.

Lance had wanted to contact Keith throughout the entire break, but kept with their deal of giving one-another some space. Still, he was so excited about the conclusion that he had come to that he couldn’t wait until the next morning. God, he was nervous. There would be no magical, changing tattoos to let him know that he was right about this. Lance knew he was right about his mark turning grey due to the bond breaking. He was also pretty sure that it was because Keith was now technically his soulmate. There would be no way to completely confirm that though, they would just have to believe it.

He was really hoping that Keith would be open to the idea, especially since it stemmed from his own research.  

“You guys can go!” Lance called out to them before hurrying into the door and up the stairs.

He banged on the door, and hoped that Keith would be there and not Shiro. Well, Shiro could be there too, but he didn’t want to deal with only Shiro. He also desperately hoped that there was someone there at all, because he didn’t want to have to walk home in the cold, even if it wasn’t all that bad.

The universe finally seemed to be on his side. The door flew open, revealing a very annoyed Keith. The other man’s expression changed to one of pure confusion when he saw who it was who had been banging at the door. “Lance? Wha—“

Lance closed the distance between them, stepping close to Keith so that his hands were resting on his hips and their noses were brushing against one another. He was close enough to see the way Keith’s eyes widened just a fraction. He had forgotten their unique indigo colour – not a vibrant tone, more muted and grey, but definitely with a twist of blue and violet in them. Not like the dull grey on his arm.

Keith didn’t say anything for a moment, didn’t even seem to realize that he had placed his hands on Lance’s arms. The slightest shade of pink spread across the bridge of his nose, and it was honestly adorable.

“What are you doing?” Keith breathed out, no real heat or anger to his voice, only confusion. That could change to anger and flying fists in the blink of an eye if he didn’t play his cards right though.

“I kissed you,” Lance said clearly. “I kissed you and I told you I loved you.”

Keith wavered. “I remember. We sort of talked about this.”

“Right. Right. Humour me for a bit. You said you loved me. Did you mean that?”

“I did,” he admitted reluctantly. Bless Keith for being so honest and not hiding away or denying anything.

Lance nodded. “I kissed you. I told you I loved you. Then I found out we weren’t soulmates. Then a few hours later, my soulmark greyed out.”

Keith started to pull back some, but Lance kept his grip firm. He was not going to screw this up again. He wasn’t. Keith sighed. “I’m busy. What do you need?” It was definitely an excuse. Keith may seem stoic to most people, but he actually was very expressive once you knew what to look for. His tells were obvious, and he was obviously lying. He had probably been lying around watching Ancient Aliens or something again.

“On the night of the wedding ceremony, the couple would go to an alter and ask the stars for their blessing, and then they’d get a soulmark,” Lance said to him. “You wrote that in your essay. Well…I’m paraphrasing, but you wrote that. You also wrote about how they could change. How a couple could split up or realize that they were wrong the first time but that was okay. The mark would change because they changed. You found evidence of it in lots of cultures.”

“How did you get my essay?” Keith’s eyebrow quirked up. That was clearly the important thing here.

“Allura.” Lance waved his hand. “Doesn’t matter. The mark changed because they changed. Because they wanted it to change. Because the first one was wrong.” They stared at one another. “My mark was wrong. That’s why it turned grey.”

“What?”

“The book in the archives. All those grey marks. They didn’t turn grey because the person died. Well, maybe some did, but I’m willing to bet not all of them. They turned grey because the soulbond broke. Because they wanted it to break. Because they loved someone else but the soulmarks still mattered to them. It was harder to find out before though, because communication over long distances was difficult, right?” Lance held out his arm. “She’s still alive, the person who’s soulmark matched mine. I found it online. Her mark is grey too. It’s grey because the bond’s gone, because I wanted it gone, because I wanted it to be you and you wanted it to be me.”

Keith blinked slowly before reaching for Lance’s arm. He allowed him to push back the sleeve and stare at the mark that seemed even lighter than before. “I’ve…never heard of that happening before.”

“You wrote an entire essay on it. I read it.”

“I meant recently. I’ve never…”

“Maybe the universe gets it right most of the time, but it fucked things up here and tried to fix it with us because most people let it go, but we didn’t, because I was right, you are my soulmate. Maybe it’s because soulmates have always mattered to me. Maybe they wouldn’t change for people who don’t care about the marks not matching and stuff like Allura. I don’t know. I just know that I was right and we are soulmates.”

“Lance…”

“Here, I’ll show you!” Lance let go over him and stepped back, shivering slightly. Keith moved inside, motioning for him to come in, which, hey, Lance was not going to turn down. A warm apartment plus Keith? No way.

“You can stay for a bit, if you want,” Keith said almost shyly. It was definitely an up to the last time they had been together, crying and then going in opposite directions, both a little hurt and a lot confused.

Lance shrugged off his jacket and his boots, glancing around quickly before going back to fiddle with his phone. “Did you have a good Christmas?”

“Shiro and I went to see Sobo and Sofu. It was nice.” Keith looked at him uncertainly. “Lance, what is this reality about?”

“This.” He shoved his phone in Keith’s face, forcing the other man to look at the picture on it.

He blinked and said, “This is your soulmark…but this isn’t you…I…holy shit. You were right.” His eyes went wide

“I was right,” Lance agreed smugly.

“Lance, don’t you realize what this might mean? I mean, just soulmarks isn’t my area of study by a long shot but I—“ Keith turned, like he was about to go find a book to write down this observation, or find one to confirm that this could happen.

“Nope!” Lance leaned forward, putting his phone away. “Not doing that. Focus Keith. Focus. Don’t you get it? I already told you what it means.” Keith stared at him. “Okay. Need to back up a bit. Look. I’m sorry. I’m an asshole. I rejected you just because the mark on my arm didn’t match yours, then I found out you didn’t have a mark and immediately thought ‘oh hey things are fine then’ like the inconsiderate twat I am. I was trying to not lead you on, but I did it anyway and I screwed up. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for picking some black lines over you. I was right the first time, we are meant to be together, and whatever cosmic star-power decided otherwise can go fuck itself.”

“Lance…”

“Look!” He dramatically stumbled to the window and flipped his middle finger up. “Fuck you stars! Screw these marks and the burning fartballs in space. I don’t care about them. This…this is just a birthmark. It means nothing. You…you’re real. You’re here. You mean everything. You’re not made to be alone. You’re not. Things just got screwed up. You are my soulmate, and I’m yours.”

Keith suddenly closed the distance between them, tugging Lance by his jacket and rising the couple inches of height that separated them, practically smashing their lips together. It wasn’t the best kiss either of them had ever experienced, their noses smashed against one another, lips placed awkwardly, but that was okay.

They broke away from one another, and Lance pressed his forehead against Keith’s, one hand reaching up, gently running his knuckle across his cheek. He leaned forward, tilting his head slightly, pressing his lips against Keith’s again. This time was so much better. Keith was so warm, and he tasted like something spicy that he had no doubt been cooking earlier.

He groaned as Keith’s hands ran up, carding through his hair, nails scratching with just the right about of pressure to make him shudder. Lance’s hand ran along Keith’s waist, pressing against his lower back to bring him closer.

It was the same feeling as before. The same feeling that he was exactly where he was supposed to be. As they kissed one another again and again, Lance felt like melting on the spot. Everything was so warm that it actually smelled like it was burning.

Wait, no. That putrid smell was actually something burning.

Keith tore away from Lance as the smoke detector blared loudly. It was only then that they noticed the black smoke coming from the kitchen.

“Fuck!” Keith practically launched himself towards it, tearing open the oven to reveal a lump of pure black charcoal that had apparently been something edible at once. “Fucking shit. Shiro is never going to let me live this down.”

Lance was already moving to shut off the smoke detector and open the windows to air the place out. He turned around to look at Keith, trying not to smile at how adorable he looked with oven mitts on, pouting at whatever he had been trying to cook. “Want to go get something to eat? My treat?”

Keith opened his mouth to answer, and of course, at that moment, Shiro entered the apartment. The first thing he did was cough from the smoke, then he blinked with surprise to see Lance there, then he stared at Keith with the black heap in his arms. “What did you do?”

Dropping the pain and burned food into the sink, Keith tossed off the oven mitts and stared at Lance helplessly. “Yeah, yeah let’s do that. Right now.”

Shiro looked so confused about whatever he had stumbled across, that Lance couldn’t help but snort with surprise. He put his shoes and jacket back on, Keith doing the same.

“Keith…what?” Shiro asked, gaping at them.

“Bye Shiro.”

“But I thought you said—“

“Bye Shiro!” Keith looped his arm through Lance’s and dragged him out of the door, slamming it behind them.

Lance was silent until they were down by the Deathmobile, and once they were inside and the car started to warm up, he snorted and started laughing loudly.

“It’s not funny!” Keith’s cheeks burned bright. It was adorable.

“It’s hilarious!” Lance insisted, tears blurring his vision.

“No.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going back inside.” Despite the threat, Keith made no move to actually get out of the Deathmobile.

“Nope.” Lance leaned across the space between them to give him a gentle peck. Was kissing Keith always going to leave him feeling so warm and tingly? God, he hoped so. “No take backs.”

Keith stared at him before muttering something under his breath. He undid the seatbelt that he had just done up, moving across the console and straddling Lance’s lap so that they were face-to-face.

“Well, hello there,” Lance said, hands gripping Keith’s hips, not at all minding the invasion of his personal bubble. Keith could invade him whenever he wanted.

“No take backs,” Keith agreed, and tugged on Lance’s jacket to pull him forward. He went eagerly more than happy to meet him in a kiss again. It was worth it.

Every little drop of doubt, every little mistake and overreaction, they were all worth it for leading to this exact moment.

Even if that meant that Shiro was yelling at them ten minutes later for ‘defiling his baby’ (“We were just making out Shiro! I know what you’ve done in the back seat!”), it was still worth it.

…

Once every four years, the Shirogane household became lively with excitement, for it was a very important date. While most grown men could say that it was their 28^th birthday at one point of time in their lives, few grown men could say that they were celebrating their 7^th birthday.

That had been the year before. This year, they were celebrating on the first day of March (as they did for all the years when February 29^th didn’t exist), and instead of bringing Keith and Shiro home in the middle of the semester, his parents decided to come down and see them instead.

Keith stood in the kitchen, making sure that all of their dishes were spotless. He had been cleaning all day, swindling Lance into helping him make sure everything was ready for when his grandparents showed up for Shiro’s birthday.

He was both terribly excited to see his grandparents and celebrate Shiro’s 7 ¼ (as Keith kept pointing out) birthday, and dreadfully nervous for them to meet Lance again.

Keith thought Shiro’s delighted focus on that was stupid. “Sofu and Sobo have met Lance before.”

Shiro gave him a pointed look. “When he was your friend. Not when he was the guy that broke your heart and is now your boyfriend. It’s like meeting him all over again.”

Keith knew that his grandmother had liked Lance the first time that she met him, but this was different. He had been miserable over Christmas Break, and had confessed everything to his grandparents, who promptly decided that they didn’t, in fact, like Lance.

There might have been mentions about seeing if any distant family back home knew something about curses or something. Keith didn’t want to think on that too much. Japanese paranormal legends and folktales were generally terrifying. At least the ones he knew about.

They knew that Lance was his boyfriend now, but chose to be wary.

Not to mention, even if they had already met him once and had actively teased Keith about them being boyfriends at the time, this was truly the first time that he was introducing a significant other to his grandparents. This was a position he never thought he’d be in. As much as he had wished and hoped, he never truly believed he’d find someone that wanted to be with him.

He cast a glance over his shoulder at Lance, who was just finishing making their glasses actually sparkle. His boyfriend has some mad impressive cleaning skills, which made up for his mediocre cooking skills. That worked out fine, since when they ate together at one of their homes, it usually ended up with Keith cooking and Lance cleaning. It worked out well for them.

“I think that’s clean,” Keith assured his boyfriend, who twitched nervously.

Lance’s blue eyes looked from the glass, back towards him. “I just…are you sure I should be meeting them today? It’s Shiro’s day.”

Keith opened his mouth to reply, but the apartment was small, and Shiro was taking full-advantage of being the ‘birthday boy’ by sitting around and doing absolutely nothing. That meant that he could perfectly hear their conversation and answered instead. “Why wouldn’t I want entertainment with dinner?”

Keith shot a glare at him. “Damare.”

“Hidoi,” Shiro shot back. “Haha ni iundayo.”

With a dramatic sigh, he said, “Shizukani shite kudasai.”

“IIe,” Shiro replied.

Keith groaned and looked at the ceiling. Lance blinked, clearly having no clue what just happened, but pressed his chest against Keith’s back, thumbs looping through his belt loops as he rested his chin on his shoulder.

Twisting around so that they were facing one another, Keith stared up at Lance. His boyfriend knew that the good will he gained from showing up to be with Keith during Shiro’s surgery was gone. It was like starting over, though the starting point had moved ten kilometers farther away.

“Oh man,” Lance muttered nervously. “

 “I’m not going to understand anything tonight. What if I accidentally insult them? What if I can’t stomach the food? What if they tell you to break up with me?”

“Okay, firstly, just use English, they’re both fluent and don’t mind,” Keith assured him. “Secondly, you’ll love Soba’s cooking. She’s making Shiro’s favourites, and they’re all pretty popular and amazing things. Gyudon, hyoza, miso soup, taiyaki…trust me, I know how you eat. You’ll be fine.” Keith reached up, pressing his hand against Lance’s cheek. “And they don’t make choices for me. No one does. I’m not going anywhere. Even if they did try to keep us apart, I’d run away with you and get married so they couldn’t do anything.”

“Aww, babe,” Lance cooed, eyes flashing with genuine delight. “I’d run away with you too.” He sighed. “I’m just nervous.” Keith couldn’t blame him, he was actually nervous for this too.

“Hey, when I meet your family, it’s going to be the same thing, right? Expect Spanish and Cuban food, and a lot more people.” Keith shuddered a bit.

“I mean, my family loves you already, so you have that going for you. Yours kind of hates me right now. I get why, but still…”

Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s shoulders to hug him close, closing his eyes as he felt his arms going around his waist, face pressing into his shoulder.

They were so focused on one another that they didn’t notice a knock on the door or a chuckling Shiro heading towards it.

The sound of rapidly talking, and the clanking of bowls, pans, and presents snapped them out of their personal daze. Not letting go of one another, they both looked up as Keith’s grandparents walked into the room.

His grandmother saw them first, eyeing them a bit suspiciously. Then his grandfather walked into the room, gaze dipping to where Lance’s hand rested on Keith’s waist. “Hands in appropriate places.”

“Sofu!” Keith cried out, face burning at his grandfather’s words as he took a step back from Lance, leaving one hand on his arm.

“Hands in appropriate places,” he insisted again.

Lance’s hand not only moved from its spot, but it snapped back to his own side. His back straightened and he squeaked out, “Yes sir.”

Keith was sure that his face was on fire, and Shiro looked positively delighted by this already. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Lance. In fact, he was actually pretty supportive of their relationship once they got their act together. He was just acting like a typical older brother that loved to tease his younger one.

Also maybe his parents’ attitudes justified how skeptical he was of Lance for the first couple weeks. He didn’t mean much by it, he was just being a protective older brother.

“Here,” his grandmother insisted, shoving bowls into Keith’s hands. “Set this up on the table for me.” Without even waiting for him to leave, she looked at Lance. “So, you thought that you could break my grandson’s heart?”

“Sobo!” Keith cried out, mortified.

“Yes ma’am. I mean, no ma’am. I mean that was me, but I didn’t—I’m not…”

“Hmm, I thought I had good vibes from you the first time. Looks like I was wrong.” She looked at Keith. “Are you sure of him?”

Keith actually narrowed his eyes at her and spoke through gritted teeth. “Yes, Obaasan.”

She seemed taken back by the more formal term.

“Akira,” his grandfather said sternly.

Normally that would have been enough for Keith to back down, but not on this. “Don’t Akira me. Things were bad, we fixed it. I trust Lance. Can you just trust me and move on from this?” He didn’t want to pitch a childish fit, but he could feel one brewing in him. If they pushed too much, he might just explode and there was no way that could end well.

As if sensing his rising stress, Lance’s hand rested on Keith back, thumb moving back and forth gently. Keith closed his eyes, took a deep breath, counted backwards from ten, and then opened them again to look over his shoulder at his grandmother. “Sorry.”

She stared at them both curiously, her eyes glancing at Lance’s hand on his back before looking back to him. He could almost hear her thought process, because there wasn’t very much that could calm Keith down.

“You’re awfully skinny,” his grandmother suddenly noted while staring at Lance. “That’s good. Means that if you hurt him again he could beat you easily.”

Lance actually snorted and said, “Well, I have no plans of hurting him again, but if it ever happened by accident I think I’d let him.”

“I’m not going to beat him!” Keith looked horrified by this, causing Shiro to laugh.

Maybe it was Shiro’s laughter that prompting his grandparents to move on from their hostility, because today was about Shiro, not Keith, and certainly not Lance. The food was set out on the table, everyone sitting down (with Lance and Keith sharing a side of the table). In fact, Keith’s grandmother instantly zeroed in on her son and said, “Now, Takaishi. You’ve been enjoying yourself at this therapy center?”

“Yes,” he answered easily with a nod. “I’ve been going to a normal gym as well.”

“Good, good. Is there anyone there that has caught your eye?”

“Haha!” Shiro exclaimed, pink dusting the bridge of his nose along with his scar.

“Your mother is right, you’re not getting any younger. Doesn’t need to be a soulmate, just someone that you can look at and think that they are the light of your life,” Keith’s grandfather said, casting an adoring glance towards his wife, who giggled a bit, like a young woman that had been told ‘I love you’ for the first time.

“Your grandfather’s smooth,” Lance hissed at Keith, who shrugged in response.

“Oh look, there’s a lot of amazing food for my birthday. The birthday we’re here to eat for. So we should eat,” Shiro said quickly, piling stuff up on his plate.

Keith turned towards Lance, and started pointing out different things that Lance would probably like. For what it was worth, Lance was always willing to try new things, he was just nervous about biting into something that might really hit him the wrong way and insult Keith’s grandmother, who surely worked hard on all of this before driving down.

There was no need to worry though. Lance’s face positively lit up as he tasted the food. “This is the best Japanese food I’ve ever had.”

“Not the best food ever?” Keith’s grandmother prodded, grey eyes narrowing slightly.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Shirogane, but my Mamá and Abuela’s food has to come first,” Lance answered seriously.

“If you lied your grandmother would know,” Keith added, amusement rushing through him as Lance shuddered. He had met his family over skype before, grandmother included, and instantly the thought of disappointing her had motivated him a little bit, and he didn’t even actually know her.

“So, family’s important to you,” his grandmother said, though that slight hostility was suddenly gone. Instead, she just sounded interesting.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lance answered. “I’m the youngest of four and my Mamá has five siblings while my Papá has nine. I don’t even know how many cousins I have sometimes there always seems to be a new one, and I’ve got nieces and nephews too.”

That actually seemed to interest her. She hummed thoughtfully before looking at Shiro. “Are you sure there is no one you like at this gym? It would be nice if you found a partner. I would like more grandchildren.”

Shiro spluttered, and Keith started laughing. “There’s lots of time, Haha!” Shiro’s voice rose. “I’m still young.”

“Yes, but Akira is seven years younger.” She sighed. “At this rate, he’s going to be married and with children before you get a move on.”

Keith spluttered at that, both his face and Lance’s going red as they glanced at one another and looked away quickly. That actually was a topic that had randomly come up, so they knew what they saw in the future with one another. Getting married, adopting, and fostering was probably going to be in their futures, but there was a lot to think about now.

Though it was also a little encouraging. Keith knew his grandparents respected one another like non-other. If his grandmother was opening up a little bit more to Lance, his grandfather would likely follow. It could go the other way too sometimes, but it seemed like his grandmother was taking the lead this time.

Shiro also seemed flustered, but obviously for different reasons. Eager to find a new topic to talk about, he said, “Keith, didn’t you have something you wanted to talk to them about?”

Keith blinked, taken back by the eyes suddenly on him. His mouth opened with surprise before his brain kicked back into gear. “Right. So…instead of coming home for Spring Break like we planned, Lance’s mom wants me to go with him to Florida? If that’s okay? They’re paying for the ticket and everything.”

“My mom and Keith have spoken over skype,” Lance added. “I think she wants to adopt him.”

“Adoption is good,” Keith’s grandfather spoke up, staring at Keith pointedly, causing him to blush a bit. “You’re an adult, Akira. You don’t need our permission.”

“No,” Keith agreed. “I just… didn’t want you disappointed that I wasn’t coming home to see you with Shiro? Especially since that means he’ll be driving back alone.” That was honestly what had Keith the most nervous, but his brother insisted that he’d be fine and Keith so go have fun.

He also didn’t want to give his grandparents another reason to be angry with Lance.

“You will be happy there, yes?” his grandfather asked.

“Yes,” Keith answered without hesitation.

The man nodded his head, looking towards Lance. “You, boy. You will never hurt my grandson again, yes?”

Lance straightened his shoulders and stared at him seriously, not a fleck of his goofy attitude poking through. “I regretted it the moment I did it, and I’ll never do it again.”

Keith’s hand slid into his under the table, squeezing his hand.

The old man nodded his head. “Then no. There is no disappointment.” His grandmother nodded as well, and just like that, everything seemed to relax. They enjoyed the rest of the meal, focusing on Shiro again with cake and presents.

Something warm simmered inside of Keith. Never before had he been surrounded by so many people that he knew genuinely loved and cared for him. It absolutely made his day that they were willing to move forward together despite the strain for him. He silently vowed to make sure that Lance felt this way when they were with his family too.

Later, when they were helping clean up, his grandmother said, “When you’re in Florida, be safe.” Her eyes flickered from him to Lance, who started choking on nothing.

An eyebrow arced, and he said, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem? I can swim and it’s not even that warm there.”

His grandmother narrowed her eyes at him. A glance over his shoulder showed him Lance’s mortified expression. Keith was just confused. What had he said wrong?

“Keith,” Lance finally choked out when no one else said anything. “Sweetheart, baby, the stars in my sky…I don’t think that’s what she meant.”

His brain processed that much more slowly than it should have, and Keith was mortified at the conclusion it came to. “Soba!” His face turned bright red, and his grandmother cackled in delight at his reaction.

He slumped down slightly, feeling the warmth of Lance’s hand resting on his back (in an appropriate place, of course), and sighed.

All too soon, the sky was dark, and Lance needed to get going. He had spent the night there before, but given that Keith’s grandparents were staying, they both figured it was better for him to go home.

Keith walked him to the door, watching as he put on his shoes and coat.

“So,” Lance said as he made sure his boots were on tight. “Our families can never meet. They would become far too strong and we would never survive.”

Keith laughed loudly at that, stepping forward to hug him.

“Hands in appropriate places!” his grandfather called out, and Keith snickered when he felt Lance’s hands shoot from his waist to up higher on his back.

He took a step back and looked up at Lance, who stared at him so softly that it made his heart flutter. Lance smiled and said, “You still coming with me in the morning to meet up with Pidge and Hunk?”

“You bet!” Like he’d turn out an invitation to hang out with his new friend group. Honestly, it felt like he had known them all his entire life at this point. They all fit together so naturally.

“Love you,” Lance muttered, leaning show the slight distance between them and kissing him. It was warm, soft, and much more chaste than normal, but considering his grandparents were right there, probably watching, it was no doubt for the best.

“Love you too,” Keith replied when they moved away from one another. One last hug, and Lance swept out the door and into the cold night.

Keith leaned on the frame of the open door, lips ticking up into a smile. His eyes turned up to the clear, night sky, fingers tracing his bare wrist.

Chapter Text

Lance’s leg bounced nervously as he sat on the floor in the kitchen. He had originally been in the living room, on the old, worn out couch that really needed to be thrown out but it was cheap, okay?  The point was, the couch didn’t have a good view of the door at all. No, the best place to sit and watch the door was clearly on the old, linoleum floor.

He wondered if this floor used to be white? It wasn’t yellow or anything, but it was definitely off-white and kind of dirty. When was the last time they had actually mopped? Well, when was the last time he had actually mopped?

Oh no. The house was filthy, wasn’t it? Sure, he had made sure all the laundry and dishes were done. He had dusted and quickly swept earlier, and even started making supper, but he hadn’t mopped the floor. That was bad. It was going to ruin everything! Keith was going to break up with him, and he was going to be alone forever, pining for his soulmate.

This was probably why Shiro had insisted that he go and get Keith from the airport while Lance stay at the apartment that he and Keith now shared. Three months ago, Keith had gotten the chance to go over to Greece to study at several archeological digs, and he couldn’t wait for him to come home.

Lance could still remember how Keith had been slightly reluctant to go because of him, because he didn’t want to leave Lance for so long. It had made his heart flutter, because his partner hadn’t just jumped at the opportunity, he was thinking about the life that they were slowly building together.

Of course he ended up accepting, Lance thought he’d be stupid not too. They talked whenever they could, and god, did Lance ever miss Keith, but he was so, so proud of him.

Three months had honestly been three months too long though. Yes, Keith would probably go again in the future, maybe for even longer, but they could work something out, because hell if there wasn’t going to be a them in the future. Three months was enough to once again confirm to Lance that, yes, he had been absolutely right in figuring out that they actually were soulmates, marks be damned.

He perked up at the sound of keys in the door. He launched himself at the wooden barrier that separated it, throwing it opened to see those startled, indigo eyes that he loved and missed so much. Keith stood there, a bag over his shoulder, keys in hand, taken back by his sudden appearance.

Lance grabbed his arm and tugged him forward, meeting him half way with a kiss. Keith instantly melted into the embrace, one arm gripping his shoulder, the other going into his hair.

He was pretty sure he heard Shiro sigh with annoyance, but Keith’s brother simply brought in the rest of the bags from the hall, cast them one amused look, and then left, closing the door behind him.

Lance’s mind screamed that he needed to breathe, but you know, this would be an okay way to go. It’d be an awesome way, actually. Alas, Keith apparently didn’t agree, gently breaking the kiss, chuckling as Lance chased after him.

He focused on his boyfriend again, who was smiling at him with that broad, super happy smile that was oh so rare. Not that Keith wasn’t happy, no, Lance liked to think he was very happy, but his normal smiles were more soft and subdued. Not like this.

“I missed you,” Keith muttered, looking at him with those adoring eyes.

God, Lance never wanted to live without this man ever again. Yeah, work might take them far away sometimes, but that was okay, because they’d always come back to one another again and again. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “Marry me.”

Keith blinked at him, cheeks starting to flush. “What?”

Then Lance’s mind screeched to a halt as he realized what he had just done. He had just asked Keith to marry him. Holy shit. That was huge. He hadn’t planned that at all. No, if he had planned it, there would have been fireworks and acrobats (he had pictured it before). Okay, maybe there could have at least been a ring.

It wasn’t quite that spontaneous of a thought, he had been thinking about it for a while now. He hadn’t gone out to get a ring or anything yet though.

Despite the fact that he surprised both of them with his words, Lance didn’t want to take them back. He wanted to marry Keith, he really, really did. “I asked you to marry me.”

Keith burst into hearty, happy laughter. The rare laugh that came from the belly, and he had a hard time calming down or breathing. This wasn’t the type of laugh he used when he was making fun of someone. This only came from genuine humour and happiness.

Lance sincerely hoped that the thought of marrying him wasn’t funny for all the bad reasons that his mind was whispering Keith would say. Be gone bad thoughts, now wasn’t the time for you.

His stomach twisted as Keith stepped away, swinging his bag off of his back and digging through it. He turned away, setting it down on their shitty couch before turning around and holding out a black box with a smile on his face. “I guess you beat me to it.”

What? “What?” Lance choked out.

“You beat me to it,” Keith said as he opened the box, revealing a gleaming, gold with inlaid crystals.

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“No, you’re asking me to marry you, I just happen to actually have a ring.”

Lance burst into laughter, reaching out and dragging Keith into a tight hug. They kissed one another again, becoming lost in one another for the first time in months.

Though Lance made a mental note to go out the next day and buy Keith a ring.

…

Sometimes it surprised Keith how much his life had changed. For the longest time, it was just him, then it was him and Shiro’s family, and now he had a solid group of friends thanks to Lance. Hunk, who was so dependable and sweet, but also ready to drag a man if need be. Pidge who seemed almost like his opposite, always snarky and sassy, but really adored her friend and would do anything for them. Shiro watched out for them all, but was always ready to be goofy with them. Allura, who had surprised Keith when she started hanging out with them more (maybe that had something to do with the fact that she was always making eyes at Shiro though), and kept them all on track with plans and was always ready to bail them out.

Sure, there wasn’t a lot, but Keith adored them all the same.

All of them had been beyond excited to find out that he and Lance were engaged. Allura had immediately offered to help them with wedding planning, and honestly, she was more organized than the rest of them put together, so they took her up on it.

Keith was a little glad, because it meant that he could send Groomzilla Lance to her. Good god, he was almost going mad over details.

It didn’t help that everyone else seemed to be throwing in their opinions too.

“Shiro’s not getting married anytime soon,” Keith’s grandmother had said seriously. “So we must make this the best wedding ever.”

She grew up in Japan, and if there was one thing that Lance had learned, many Japanese people were willing to take out a loan to make the perfect wedding. That meant big. Keith would be fine with small, especially since he didn’t know people. They had compromised at smallish (Lance had a big family), but more extravagant than Keith would normally do on his own.

On Lance’s side, his family was trying to plan things too, from music, to food, to where it should happen.

They settled on a beautiful hotel in Florida, mostly because Lance had more family to try and travel so it should be closer to them, and also because it looked like the two of them might be moving there if Lance got the job at the Marine Life Rescue Center there.

“We are going to plan the most beautiful Cuban-Japanese-American wedding,” Allura had insisted to them. She was determined to pull it all together seamlessly.

It involved a lot of research, but they had just come from university, they were still good at research.

There would be a giant cake (made by Hunk himself), a champagne fountain, and an ice fountain to appease Keith’s grandmother for some grandeur. Not to mention they would be presenting flower to their parents. That was a nice little tradition he had found and showed Allura, who wrote it in almost immediately.

They’d both be wearing suits, though Lance joked endlessly about how he’d totally wear a super nice dress to appease his mother. At the end of the day though, he looked better in a suit.

“I’ll wear a white one!”

“You need to be a virgin to wear white,” his mother dismissed him, leaving him gaping as his siblings laughed at him.

It was an absolute adventure trying to working in bits and pieces from both of their cultures, but Allura was up to the task of keeping them on track. It impressed both sides of their families. It also led to many interesting revelations.

After that was a whirlwind of people trying to plan around them, coming up with a billion different ideas.

“Keith, holy shit. Brides in Japan sometimes change like five times? What the hell?”

“Good thing there’s no bride here,” Keith replied with a shrug. “Keeps the costs down.”

“I mean, I could change like five times,” Lance pointed out. “I rock a suit and a kimono.”

-

“Wait, this website says that there isn’t much dancing at Japanese weddings? Uh, no, we’re not doing that. We’re going the Cubano way. I need to show off my dance moves. I need to. The karaoke thing it talks about though? That, I can deal with.”

-

“Please tell me people don’t actually check the sheets after the wedding night for blood these days,” Keith asked randomly one day while looking up some other things. How he had found that, Lance didn’t know, and didn’t get the chance to ask. “I mean, there’s no bride here, or virgins for that matter, but like why the fuck is this a thing? If you’re doing it right she shouldn’t bleed. What the hell. Give them lube. That’s my gift to the next straight wedding I go to.”

“Keith!”

-

Of course, they ran into some rather amusing issues along the way as well.

“Who’s going to walk down the aisle?” Hunk asked them at one point. The two of them had just stared at one another.

“How about you both walk down?” Pidge suggested. “Keith family walks him first, then Lance’s family? Or vice versa.”

“Holy shit, Pidge,” Lance gaped at her. “That’s a great idea. I’m proud of you.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

-

“If Hunk’s my best man, and Shiro’s your best man, who does the opening speech?” Lance wondered one day.

Before Keith could answer, Allura looked up at both of them and sternly said, “Me.”

-

Keith added his two cents into planning, but largely left it to Lance. Honestly, this could happen out in a barn with them in old worn clothes for all he cared. It was the marrying part that he cared about. It wouldn’t hurt him to let everyone else have their fun though.

He did put his foot down though when glitter was suggested. They were not doing glitter.

Allura assured him that everything was going to be okay. She managed to make a menu with all kinds of food. Pidge was going to DJ for them, and had a perfect mix of music. Shiro somehow managed to get Cuban Cigars (which neither of them actually wanted but Lance’s dad was quick to swipe).

They decided not to do different sides of the isle for each groom, because Lance’s family was huge and Keith’s was small, so everyone just sat wherever they wanted.

He was surprised by how quickly time went by, but he wasn’t nervous about it at all. Not even when his grandfather was helping him fix his tie (Lance wanted them both to wear bowties, but that wasn’t Keith’s thing, so he wore a tie and Lance wore a bowtie).

He wasn’t nervous when his grandfather walked him down the aisle and then he watched Lance walk down to him. He wasn’t nervous during the vows, dancing or anything else.

Why would he be?

A few years ago, Keith was sure that he’d end up alone. He was sure that the fact that there were no marks on his wrist would end up defining him. It made him bitter, angry. Now here he was, laughing and dancing with his friends and family, with his husband, during their wedding reception.

How could he be nervous when this was the best thing that ever happened to him?

…

Lance leaned against the edge of the balcony, staring at the beach below. The sky was completely clear, lit up by the stars and the light of the moon.  It was so serene and peaceful, and honestly the best place to end up at the end of such a hectic day. It was funny to think that, somewhere in the bowels of the hotel, his family was still partying on.

He tugged at the blue bowtie at his neck, undoing the top buttons so that he could breathe in the warm air.

“What are you looking at?”

A smile spread across Lance’s lips, as he looked around at Keith. His hair was tied back, suit jacket and red tie already shrugged aside.

“Just wanted to check out the view. They really gave us the best room. Look.” He reached out, arm sliding across Keith’s broad shoulders and tugging him forward so that they were side by side. He pointed to the left. “Beach.” The right. “Awesome scenery.” In front of them. “Beautiful ocean under a starry sky.” He then looked back at Keith, taking in his indigo eyes and cheeks flushed from a bit of alcohol. “And the best view of all.” His hand slid down Keith’s arm, intertwining with his, fingers brushing over the new silver band that Lance had given him that day, his own matching one on his ring finger.

It was hard to believe that months of planning and headaches had actually worked out perfectly, and now here they were. They were actually married.  

Lance was brought out of his musings as Keith’s cheeks turned an even bright shade of red, his eyes fluttering slightly. “I see something better.”

Genuine confusion rushed through him as he glanced around. “Huh? Where?”

“I meant you, you dork,” Keith laughed and shook his head. “Why did I agree to marry you again?”

Lance spun around, slipping in front of him so that they were face to face. “You already put a ring on it! No take backs!” He slid one hand around Keith’s waist, the other pressing against his back. Lance tugged him forward, kissing him with every little bit of feeling he possibly could, going as far as to dip him slightly. Lance pulled back slightly, wiggling his eyebrows at him. “And do I ever have plans for you.”

Keith laughed and gently smacked his arm, his smile bright and happy. He stood up straight, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow. “Plans, huh?” He played with the untied fabric of Lance’s bowtie.

“Yup. Plans,” he agreed, arms looped around him, hands pressed against Keith’s lower back. “Short term and long term. Long term’s going pretty well. Graduated. Got a job. Married a hottie. Now we need to get a house, a dog, a cat, and we need to adopt two point five kids.”

“Two point five?” Keith repeated, amusement lacing through his voice.

“Well, we’ll get three and then let them duke it out to see who’s point five. May the odds be ever in their favour.”

Keith snorted and shook his head. “I think I like most of those plans. What about short term?”

Lance felt himself flush a little bit at his husband’s (he internally screamed every time he thought about that now, since Keith had told him off for externally screaming) flirtatious tone. He got his bearings back and smirked. “It involves you, me, and that awesome bed back there.” He nodded towards the large bed back in the room.

Much to his confusion, Keith looked almost thoughtful before saying, “Nah.” He poked Lance’s side where he knew he was ticklish in order to escape.

“Keith!” Lance squeaked loudly, chasing after him. Keith cackled loudly as Lance ended up tackling him to the bed. “You big jerk.”

Chuckling madly, Keith rolled over and looked up at him. “I love you, you know.” He shifted, hand running against the grey mark on Lance’s right arm.

Lance’s eyes lit up, and he suddenly scrambled off of Keith, yanking him off the bed and back towards the door.

“What the hell?” Keith asked as Lance pulled up the sleeve on his left arm.

Ignoring him and clasping their hands together, Lance held them up and looked towards the starry sky. “Hey stars! So apparently people used to get matching soulmarks a long time ago, so if you could do your stuff, that’d be awesome. Thanks!”

“Idiot.” Keith nudged his new husband with a smile. He closed the distance between them and kissed him briefly. “I’m not ashamed that I don’t have a mark. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. You’re all that matters.”

Warmth rushed through Lance at his words. “I know. I don’t care about my grey mark either. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The two met in another kiss, stumbling back inside of their hotel room. It didn’t matter if they had black marks, grey marks, no marks, or matching marks. What mattered was that they loved and cared for one another, and planned on loving one another every day for the rest of their lives.

They weren’t fated for one another. They weren’t fated to meet or love each other, to not only be a part of each other’s lives, but to become one of the most important parts of it. Maybe they weren’t written in the stars, but that was okay. That was a little overrated.

They were just going to have to write their own story instead.

Maybe something out there realized that. Maybe it had been prompted by Lance actually asking, but when they woke up in each other’s arms the next morning, Lance’s grey seashell was gone. Instead, on his right arm and Keith’s left arm, there were a matching series of stars that faded from red to purple to blue, solid black lines around them.