Archive of Our Own

Keith knew he shouldn't have gone out today.

Only a few short hours before his life became a perpetual trainwreck, Keith had awoken on his couch, blanket balled up at his feet and arm slung over his eyes. It was hot, which was normal for the desert, but his AC unit was broken so it had been extra hot that morning.

Keith shouldn't have been sleeping so late anyway, but he'd stayed up far too late into the cooler night air, taking advantage of the drop in temperature to get some work done. He'd worked until dawn, then collapsed, not even making it to his bed, another often enough occurrence.

What he'd forgotten to account for, though, was how impossible it was to sleep in the desert heat.

“Today is going to be a long day,” he grumbled to himself, then hoisted his body up into a sitting position. He'd already discarded most of his clothing while trying to sleep, left in his boxers, but it was still too hot.

He gathered his clothes from the floor and worked to get them back on. The dark jeans and t-shirt would only absorb more heat, but at least the pants would protect from sunburn, like his jacket would too once he'd donned it. It was dangerous to go unprotected in the desert.

The same went for his hoverbike, which was what he would be taking out that day. He kept it covered to keep out sand and dust and the hot, dry sun. There was no way he was going to sit around the shack that day, as hot as it was, so he'd go do some investigating in the caves.

So, Keith packed a few supplies while he ate a granola bar for breakfast. Food, extra water, a thermal blanket (just in case he ended up out past nightfall), and a spare notebook–probably filled sparsely and at random–so he could jot down notes or ideas while he was there.

Once he was finished, he slung the pack over his shoulder. Keith didn't even spare a backward glance as he headed out the door. Good riddance, shack; see you when it's cooler .

-/-

Lance was on the trip of his life, the expression quite literal in this case. This was The trip. The Trip . The journey, quest, voyage. Whatever you called it, it was Lance’s time to find his soulmate.

He'd been gone from home for three months by then and, as much as he missed his family on the trip, and as long of a journey as it may have been, Lance was still brimming with excitement.

Any moment he could meet them. Turning around any corner, greeting anyone on the street, ordering something at a restaurant or checking into a motel; in any of these places, these situations, he could find his soulmate.

It had started when Lance submitted a paper for a conference, which had his university sending him all the way to New York for a weekend. He hadn't known it at the time, despite often thinking on the trip “Wow, I really like travel. Can't wait until I can travel for my soulmate.” Lance had had no idea, really, that it was about to happen.

Then, his flight had been delayed and he'd been offered another one, one that hadn't made a lick of sense.

Instead of going back to Cuba, they had offered a flight to Louisiana .

Initially, Lance had been confused. How did that make any sense? He wasn't trying to get anywhere near Louisiana. Sure, it was closer , but it certainly wasn't a flight he'd recommend for his travels.

Then, the woman at the desk had given him this look , this knowing grin.

“It sounds wonky, but our system seems to think it's a good idea,” she said and gestured to the screen. She threw her hands up in a helpless gesture and then it finally clicked with Lance.

Fate. He was being set up for his soulmate journey.

In the back of his head, he had been wondering how often airline help desks had to deal with this and considered maybe trying the job out. Delivering this kind of news to people had to have been a great experience.

At the forefront of his mind, Lance was immediately agreeing to the flight, no hesitation, no delay.

From there, Lance had visited at least six states, two of them repeats, and been directed in more directions and in so many ways that he wasn't able to keep track. At the end of the second week, he'd decided to start keeping a journal to remember and jotted down the events prior to those two weeks, keeping his memories as intact as possible.

This was something he'd never want to forget.

It was in Arizona when things started to slow down and Lance was on his toes because of it. He would scan the face of every person he passed, mostly looking for other travelers because, come on, he couldn't have been traveling like this only for his soulmate to be sitting idle somewhere.

Most soulmates that had these longer journeys met somewhere along their routes, not necessarily halfway, but enough that it was truly travel. The world drew them together; it was only natural that far apart soulmates would be attracted further toward their other half’s home.

Lance received another request from someone, a local in a town he'd been led to by unknown forces and some mail that had to be returned to sender, for an errand. Errands had become a constant in his travels and he never turned one down, even if the task wasn't truly part of his journey. He wouldn't know until it was completed and he couldn't take the risk of refusing. Lance always had to be moving and, if he moved away, then he knew he would be led back eventually.

While errands were pretty routine for him though, this particular one was kind of… odd.

He'd been asked to deliver a knife to someone in the middle of the desert led by a large dog that Lance wasn't 100% convinced was not a wolf .

“Wolfie knows where to find his master, just follow 'im,” the guy had said and Lance had looked down at the dog and gulped. Did he really have to take every task people asked of him?

People must really like suckers like me who’re looking for their soulmate.

With a sigh, Lance held the wrapped knife against his chest and clutched the strap of his backpack with the other hand. Talking to the wolf–most definitely a wolf–he said, “Alright Wolfie, take me to him.”

Happily enough, Wolfie complied.

-/-

Keith breathed a sigh of relief when he entered the cave’s cool interior, having parked his bike outside and already tied his jacket around his waist. He was currently in the process of knotting his hair back, which would probably make it a huge mess later on, but Keith had stopped caring about stuff like that a long time ago. No people, no mirrors, no problem.

Looking around the cave, Keith wondered if he should have taken the day to try figuring out how to fix the AC unit instead. Yesterday evening, when it had originally busted, Keith had thought about doing it then, but, through a bout of procrastination, interest in a new lead in his investigations, and an assurance to himself that it wouldn't make it that hot, he had neglected the thing. Now, he was regretting that, but also procrastinating all over again.

“I'll look at it tonight,” he assured himself, voice echoing a little off the cave walls. “Then it'll be cool and I can think straight.”

If Wolfie was there, he'd probably give Keith some sort of side-eye about his usage of ‘straight’. Because Wolfie was immature like that.

But Wolfie was in town now, probably begging for scraps since the food Keith gave him was shit or something. He didn't really know; the thoughts of that wolf eluded him.

Wolfie would come back, though, so Keith didn't worry about him. Wolfie always came back.

Keith dropped his backpack on the floor and basked in the cool cave air, looking about to find a good starting point. He had scrutinized the markings on these walls in detail, for hours and hours of his life. It felt like he'd looked at every little part of this cave, and the others like it, trying to figure them out, but it wouldn't hurt to check again. He had fresh eyes and an interest in staying within this cave for as long as the desert sun was out.

When he'd first found the markings, he'd sometimes spend the night in the caves with them, thermal blankets and portable heater with him. He had been a bit obsessive at the time, as he usually got when he had something to invest his time into in this uneventful desert. Now, Keith hoped he could look around without that excitement.

Keith decided on his best course of action, starting from the lip of the cave and moving inward, and set to work. He scrutinized each section, each carving, jotting things down into his journal and moving on. About halfway through, Keith took a break and went to go rummage around his bag for something to eat.

That was when he began to hear something unusual.

“Oh my God, how much farther?” a whiny sounding voice reached him. It was distant, and it didn't bounce strongly against the cave walls, so Keith knew whoever it was wasn't inside. But they were getting closer.

Keith stood, eyeing the opening until something darted through. Keith could only draw in a breath of surprise before the blur of grey-blue fur tackled him to the ground.

“Wolfie!” Keith exclaimed as he looked up at the wolf’s expectant face. Keith smiled and scruffed his head before sitting up and pushing the wolf off. That was when he noticed someone else there too, standing half in the sun at the entrance to the cave.

Keith drew in another breath of surprise and froze.

“So, I guess we found ya,” the guy said and stepped in, good-natured smile curving against his cheek. Keith couldn't speak for a moment because… wow. He could look at this guy all day.

His smile was so natural, and it showed unabashedly and bright, lighting up his eyes which Keith really wished he could see the color of and cursed the distance and the poor cave lighting. He could see the guy’s hair though, brown and windswept from the weather outside. Probably sandy too. He had dark, tan skin, and looked to be quite flushed from the sweat and heat. Despite looking bright and open, Keith could see the curve of shoulders and the lines in his face that suggested tiredness from the journey and the strength-sapping heat.

“What's up? I'm Lance,” the guy said and gave a short wave, since they were way too far away to give a handshake. Keith shook himself from his thoughts and nodded, mirroring the guy’s–Lance’s–wave.

“Um, Keith?” he said in a way that sounded a lot more like a question. As much as the sights pleased him, Keith couldn't think as to any reason the guy might have been there. Keith looked at Wolfie with a confused look, but the wolf had decided to go sniff around somewhere else, leaving the two to awkwardly interact by themselves.

Lance looked around, taking in the cave for a moment before saying, “Cool place.”

Keith's eyebrows furrowed. “I don't live here.”

“Ah,” Lance said, his face transforming into understanding, but words cutting off there. Keith waited in silence, unsure if he should say something or not, until the guy spoke up again. “Anyway, here,” he said and stepped forward to hold something out to him. Keith grasped it and some of the cloth fell away, revealing something he hadn't seen in… a really long time.

Keith gasped. “Where did you get this?” he asked and his head snapped up to demand answers, eyes searching and insistent. The guy looked taken aback and he held up his hands in defense.

“I don't know!” he said. “Some guy in town gave it to me!”

“Shit,” Keith swore and looked down at the knife again. Shitshitshit .

Keith had been trying to find this for so long and, now, the fact that it had made its way back to him could only mean one thing.

Shiro.

-/-

Listen, Lance liked the heat, he liked the sun and the sand, but he was not a desert sort of guy. He was most definitely a beach sort of guy.

Which made trekking across the Sonoran Desert, trying to keep up with the pace of a wolf that never seemed to grow tired, a humbling experience in terms of his exercise regime. When they'd finally arrived, Lance was almost relieved. Almost. Because “arrived” meant they had found some creepy cave tucked away in the canyons and Lance was now afraid he was there to deliver a knife to some crazed cave-dwelling man.

When he saw the guy who actually awaited him, Lance’s tongue might have tied a bit as he watched the wolf tackle the guy. The guy smiled, which cracked his face in a way that suggested he did not do it often enough, but was no less beautiful, and scruffed Wolfie’s head while still pinned to the cave floor.

His dark hair was falling out of the knot it had been twisted into, across the floor and over his face. He had a smudge on his cheek from the rough desert dirt, over his pale, though slightly red from burn, skin. When he sat up, pushing Wolfie off of him, he turned to Lance and froze, comfortable disposition melting into something more rigid.

Looking at him straight-on, Lance felt swept up in those dark eyes.

Then, he snapped out of it. Lance stepped up, greeting smile on his face, as he said, “So, I guess we found ya.”

Things got awkward, then they got intense as Lance handed over the reason for his errand. Once the guy saw the knife, he was completely on edge and so, there they were. The guy, Keith, as it was, had asked him all sorts of questions about it: where he had gotten it, who had given it to him, how he'd known to come here or to follow Wolfie. Lance, apparently, did not have very acceptable answers.

“He just told you to follow Wolfie? Wolfie never lets anyone come back with him. And who would know where he comes back to? I don't go in town other than grabbing groceries. I definitely don't talk enough to them for them to figure that out.”

“Uh, sorry?” Lance said uncertainly, but Keith turned around and started pacing.

“I need to get back to the shack,” he mumbled and walked over to a bag Lance hadn't noticed, slouched on the floor. Keith stuffed the cloth-bound knife into it and zipped it up, slinging it over his back. Wolfie appeared, as if obeying some silent call, and the guy started heading for the lip of the cave where Lance dwelled a step inside.

Lance watched him pass right by without a glance, Wolfie on his heel, who spared one instead. Lance blinked at the now empty spot before turning suddenly and jogging after.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“Back to where I do live,” Keith replied.

“You can't do that!” Lance exclaimed and Keith paused, a confused look on his face. Quickly, Lance explained. “You gotta tell me where to go next or- or-”

“Why would I do that?” Keith asked, brows furrowing again as he regarded Lance. Lance blushed, though unsure why.

“I'm on my soulmate journey!” he answered, the opportunity to talk about it making him excited. “The signs pointed me here, but now I need to wait for another one to see where I go next!”

Keith paused, as if taking this in. He narrowed his eyes at Lance, then turned away. Lance's heart dropped.

“Fine,” he said and Lance perked up. “You can stay at my place, but don't get in my way.”

Lance jumped in his excitement and continued to follow after, a new spring in his step. He chuckled at the guy’s words and decided to tease, “Aren't you grumpy.”

Head down as he led Lance to his hoverbike, Lance didn't quite hear what Keith mumbled under his breath, but decided to just leave it, grateful that he now not only had a place to stay, but also a possible new direction in finding his soulmate.

It was like the universe was telling him to go with Keith.

Maybe Keith could be the key to the next part of his soulmate adventure.

-/-

“Universe, why are you like this?” Keith mumbled as he walked away from Lance, the guy’s words and weird optimism stuck in his head.

At first, Keith had thought Lance was there as another push from fate. Keith had been getting so many of them lately, be it free airline tickets or strangers offering him rides into town. Keith had thought Lance might be another stranger, trying to lead him off and onto his destined track.

Now, something felt off about the whole thing. Something itched beneath his collar and Keith feared what it might have been.

Lance was on his soulmate journey and it had led him there, to the desolate canyons of Arizona. He wasn't the first soulmate traveler Keith had ever crossed; a lot of the strangers he crossed this far out were actually on theirs too, but there was something about this one. How he'd ended up there, not by a chance of crossing through but on a mission to return Keith's knife. How Wolfie had trusted him right off the bat. And, of course, the fact that he would now be staying with Keith in the shack instead of going on his merry way.

But, it couldn't have been true. Keith was supposed to travel somewhere to find his soulmate; they weren't supposed to come to him.

Though, technically, Keith had traveled to the caves that day and soulmate journeys never actually had to be long. But all those other signs couldn't have been for nothing! His soulmate was somewhere far away, going by the destinations of those travel tickets.

Maybe, Keith could find something for this guy to do for him, create some sign of his own and get the guy out of his life and back on his soulmate journey. Surely if Keith had some errand to hand off, fate could count it, right? Keith didn't feel like waiting around for Lance’s next sign. How long might that take?

Way too long, going by the way Keith's chest constricted when Lance wove his arms around it on the back of the hoverbike. Way way too long.

Keith may have gone a little faster than normal on the way back, which was really saying something. Keith had a tendency to go very fast.

Once they got to his shack, Keith practically sprang off and ran inside, leaving Lance to trail confusedly after. Keith wanted to get away, but there was also something else he was after, something that had been bothering him the whole way over.

He ran up to his corkboard and looked over it, grabbing slips of paper and jotting things down to stick up in the appropriate places. Keith saw Lance enter the house from his periphery, the two of them alone for now until Wolfie caught up on foot (the wolf hated the hoverbike), but Keith ignored him, hyperfocused on the task before him.

When Keith went to retrieve the knife from his bag, he glanced at Lance, standing awkwardly in the threshold. At the same time, the heat from the house hit him.

Shit, he still had to fix that damn AC.

“Make yourself at home,” Keith said before going back to his board. He'd deal with… everything after this.

It may have been minutes or it may have been hours later, but, finally, Keith moved away from the corkboard. He sighed and collapsed down on the couch, the other side in which Lance had made himself comfortable.

Okay, so it had definitely been more than minutes.

“Sorry about that,” he said, motioning to the board. “Had to get it done while the ideas were fresh.” Along with information about the knife, Keith had gone over his new notes from the cave. There hadn't been any real info about the markings today, but reviewing it all kept him up to speed.

“What even is that?” Lance asked. “Are you hunting aliens or something? Communists?”

Keith snorted. “Am I hunting communists?”

“Yeah, like in 'A Beautiful Mind’,” Lance said but Keith remained silent, unsure what the hell the guy was talking about. “'A Beautiful Mind’? You've never seen it?”

“Is it a movie?” Keith asked and Lance's jaw dropped.

“Alright, you're giving me a place to stay, so I won't say anything about that,” Lance decided and Keith raised an eyebrow. He shrugged.

“Okay.”

Then, things were quiet between them, a bit awkward again. Keith was so used to awkward, you would think it'd get better somehow. It never did.

“So, I've only got the one bed, but I have the couch too,” Keith said and Lance nodded.

“Yeah, I can sleep on the couch. No problem,” he said and Keith nodded too. “Does someone usually sleep here?”

Keith’s cheeks colored a bit and he looked away. “Sometimes I do,” he admitted. “But I have a bed, so don't worry about it.”

“Alright, I won't,” Lance said and they fell silent.

Then, Keith stood from the couch. “I'll go see what we can do for dinner,” he said and Lance stood too.

“Can I help?”

Keith wasn't sure how to respond. Was it offensive to let his guest help or would it be offensive to decline?

So he just shrugged and went off to the kitchen, leaving it up to Lance. Lance followed.

As Keith riffled through the cupboards, he remembered something. “Sorry it's so hot. The air conditioning broke yesterday and I haven't gotten the chance to look at it.”

“Ah, I thought you just lived like this,” Lance said and Keith poked his head out from behind the cupboard door to roll his eyes at him.

“No one can live like this,” he said then went back to taking stock. Hm, he could use more canned beans.

Then, he stopped, an idea forming.

He could always send Lance out tomorrow to get some. He'd have to come back to give it to him, but Lance could very well find his next clue in town while he was away. There were only so many signs the universe can give in the middle of the desert; Keith should know.

And it wasn't even like Keith was trying to cheat fate either. He did need beans. This way, he was following the rules and getting rid of Lance all at once.

Perfect.

Keith grabbed his last can of beans to cook up and shut the cupboard door, already deciding to use the simple plan tomorrow. For now, he would have to deal with a guest for the night.

-/-

The beans were nothing like his Mama’s but Lance was starving, so he ate every last bite all the same. Plus, he had manners , so of course he wouldn't turn down the hospitality.

About halfway through the meal, the two of them eating over Keith’s ingenious coffee table that was just a board on a couple stacks of books, Lance noticed that Keith was beginning to yawn. When he noticed that, he began to take in the guy’s appearance more–at least, more than getting distracted by his hair and eyes like he’d already been throughout the day. What Lance noticed was a very very tired man.

So, after dinner, Lance decided to do the dishes.

“But-” Keith had started, but Lance had shaken his head and disappeared into the kitchen, giving the other no room to argue.

It wasn't a hard task, just the two bowls, spoons, and the pot the beans had been cooked in. When Lance had gotten back, though, he couldn't find Keith. Maybe the guy had gone to bed early.

Then, Lance saw movement in the corner and found him. Keith was looking over the box sticking out the window, the broken AC.

“Dude,” Lance said and, though he barely knew the guy, he had no trouble giving it to him straight. “It's way too late to be messing with that thing.”

“It's better to do it while it's cool,” Keith responded and Lance rolled his eyes. He could tell already this guy was going to be a handful.

“And while fully rested too. Go to sleep, man,” Lance said. Keith looked up to scrutinize him. “Besides, I'm going to bed and I don't want to hear you working on that all night.”

Keith looked amused at that. “I give you a place to sleep and you complain about it?” he asked, but he was already getting up. “Fine, I'll do it tomorrow.” Keith passed him by and Lance smiled, satisfied.

“Night night!” he sang and, without further comment, Keith shut the door to the other room.

To be honest, Lance felt like he'd wiggled out of a whole other can of worms with that one. Keith seemed more tired than anything but, remembering his demanding questions earlier in the cave, Lance figured the guy could be a lot pushier, more stubborn. Still, Lance shrugged. For now, he had won, and he was ready to sink into the couch and succumb to his own dreams, skin relieved by the cooler temperatures of the night and mind winding down in the solitude of an unfamiliar living room.

Sleep was peaceful. Waking up, though...

It was with a sticky, uncomfortably hot feeling that Lance woke up the next morning and he was beginning to regret not letting Keith fix that AC. He sat up with a disgruntled groan, rubbing at his eyes and stretching, hands high in the air. When he looked around, he took in the dully lit walls of the room, where the sheets that were pinned over the windows let in minimal light.

Not long after breakfast, two pieces of toast with some sort of preserve spread over the top, Keith asked Lance to go into town.

“You're looking to find a sign, right?” Keith asked. “And I need beans.”

Lance agreed readily, lifting his hand from where he’d been petting Wolfie, who laid beside his chair. Lance was always up to things if it meant getting closer to his soulmate. If he stayed in motion, stayed on the move, he would get somewhere. Staying in place wouldn't help.

That day, though,was short and uneventful. Lance came back from town. He had beans but no other leads for his journey.

Keith still hadn’t fixed the AC.

“I was busy,” he’d said and they left it at that.

The next day, Keith had another errand for him.

“I'm fixing up a bike from town for someone,” he explained. “I need you to go get it.”

And Lance did, staying in town to chat up some people and get to know the woman who’s hoverbike he was retrieving for Keith.

Not a single person had anything useful for Lance’s journey.

Lance had come back to the shack, feeling confused. There was always something , always. Sometimes they were false leads, sometimes they would come after a couple days, giving him a short gap in the, rather long, journey, but Lance always had something .

At this point, it had only been two days. Lance would just have to be patient.

The next day, the AC wasn't fixed, but the woman’s bike was. Lance took it back to town for Keith and the woman gave him the payment, which brought him, again, back to that desert shack that evening.

Still no leads.

On the fourth day, Lance had become convinced Keith had something to do with it.

He probably doesn't even know it, but he has something that'll help me. I keep getting led back to this shack; there's something here that I need to do!

That evening, as he was beginning to feel that familiar relief of the desert night, Lance had an idea.

“The AC!” he exclaimed and Keith looked up from his board, where he always seemed to be standing.

“I'll do it tomorrow,” he said, before turning back. Lance shook his head.

“No, maybe I'm supposed to do it,” he said, the revelation bubbling up like a fizzy soda in his stomach.

Keith turned again to raise an eyebrow. “Do you even know how to fix an AC?”

The question set a frown to Lance’s lips.

He blinked, chewing on one lip. “Well, no…”

“Alright, don't touch the AC, Lance,” Keith said in warning and Lance pouted.

“Teach me then!” he suggested.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because this is part of my soulmate journey , Keith! If I never learn to fix this AC, maybe I won't ever find my soulmate!”

“That sounds like the stupidest thing I've ever heard.”

“Nothing’s supposed to make sense in a soulmate journey. That's the excitement of it!” Lance exclaimed. “I'm supposed to be here and that AC could be why!”

“That AC is not why,” Keith said plainly and Lance pouted again.

“And how would you know?” he challenged. At this, Keith stilled.

That shows him, Lance thought smuggly, only to stop short.

“You know what?” Keith said suddenly, spinning on his heel to face Lance and mood shifting in a 180 the likes of said spin. “I'll teach you how to fix it.”

“Yay!” Lance jumped up, arms in the air. He couldn’t quite believe it, but he wouldn’t look this gift horse in the mouth. Better to agree as quickly as possible so there were no take-backs. At the rapid reply, though, Keith frowned.

“But!” he said, lifting a finger. Lance paused, suspicious. “You have to stop talking about this journey so much. It’s all you’ve talked about since you’ve been here. If you're right, then you won't have to stop talking about it for long and I can get some peace of mind for a while.”

“Deal,” Lance said and Keith looked taken aback by Lance’s readiness. Lance stuck out his hand to show he was serious. He felt confident about this gamble. This AC unit, it felt like an important prop in some story he would have had to read in high school. It symbolized something or carried the plot in some way. Lance was convinced of it.

So, Keith, eyeing Lance as he did so, shook his hand and sealed the deal.

Lance ignored the sudden pulse of electricity that had run up his arm at Keith's touch.

-/-

Everytime Lance came back from one of his errands with no other universal sign, the more sure Keith became in his assumption that Lance had found his soulmate unawares.

And that that soulmate was him. Keith. Who had been avoiding meeting his soulmate since his own first universal sign months ago. But, like Keith had told that first airline ticket he’d come to acquire–because his first sign had been a very obvious one, as the universe really knew what kind of person it was dealing with–Keith didn’t have time for a soulmate.

All his life, soulmates hadn’t really appealed to Keith. He didn’t see how he could suddenly meet someone and be destined to spend their lives together. Keith wasn’t good with people he saw on a daily basis; why would he be any better with someone like a soulmate?

Recently, though, the soulmate business had to take a backburner for other reasons. Shiro, his best friend, almost like a brother to him really, was missing, and it was up to Keith to find him. No one else was going to give the case the time of day.

Most people thought Shiro was dead.

Keith wouldn’t give up so easily. After all, Shiro had never given up on him . Keith worked on the case every moment he could in between doing odd jobs for money out in town - which he had been more and more reluctant to do these days with his soulmate journey nipping on his heels - and basic necessities of life, like eating and sleeping. Now that his soulmate had come knocking at his door, though, maybe he would start picking up more jobs. It wasn't like he could avoid him any longer, and he would need the money for food, especially if there was another mouth to feed around.

The point was, Keith didn’t do much other than what he had to and what he could to figure out where Shiro was. With Keith’s knife somehow back to him, he knew there had to be more to Shiro’s own soulmate journey than the cops had told him.

With the AC broken, though, and his promise to Lance that he’d teach him to fix it, Keith put off his usual things for the next day, the fifth day Lance would have been there, and fulfilled that promise. The sooner the AC was fixed and Lance was out of there, on the off-chance that he really was passing through on his journey, the better.

Sitting in the scorching heat, the one thing he hadn’t wanted to do while fixing the damn thing, Keith opened the unit, which he had already hefted down from the window to the floor, and started showing Lance the different parts.

“I’m better with vehicles, but a lot of machines work in the same way,” Keith explained and Lance frowned.

“I don’t think comparing a hoverbike to an AC unit makes sense…”

Keith shook his head. “Shut up; I know how to fix this too.”

“The unit, and my education, are in your hands,” Lance said and Keith snorted, bumping their shoulders. Then, he went back to explaining some of the common fixes on the thing he’s had to do in the past.

Only a few hours later they were done, AC kicked on, in the window, and working. Lance cheered as cold air bombarded him from where he stood, face only inches away.from the cool blast.

“This is sooo nice,” Lance sighed, his voice coming out warbled like when one spoke into a fan. Keith had collapsed on the couch, tired from the work and heat, and feeling better now that things were cooling down. Lance came over and sat on the other end of the couch, basking in it like Keith, and they sat there in mutually satisfied glory.

For a few minutes, Keith let himself relax like that. It was an odd, but pleasant feeling to share in a silent, not awkward moment with someone. But Keith also hadn’t done any real work that day and it was beginning to grate on him.

So he got up and walked to his board, taking it in shallowly before he picked somewhere to focus.

“Duuuude,” Lance said from behind him and Keith hummed in response. “Would it kill you to relax? We just fixed the AC. That’s enough work for one day; don’t ya think?”

Keith shook his head. “Need to look at this.”

Lance groaned, but didn’t say anything else. Keith continued to look through his notes.

As focused as he was, Keith didn’t even notice hours had gone by, the night had come, the AC turned off, and the smell of something delicious now came from the kitchen. It was only when Lance put a hand down on his shoulder did he look up.

“I’m pulling you away now,” Lance said and he spun Keith around to take his other shoulder. “No more work. Time for food.” He began to lead Keith away, a scowl on Keith’s face all the while, by pulling him and walking backwards toward the kitchen. Keith’s scowl eased up when he finally smelled the food.

“You made dinner?” he asked and Lance smiled, nodding empathically.

“I am a man of many talents,” he boasted.

“Cooking, fixing ACs, yeah, I guess you are,” Keith teased and Lance turned a shade of pink. He let go of Keith’s shoulders and made the rest of the way to the table by himself. This gave Keith time to look at the plates, the cups and forks, all set deliberately. He sent a puzzled look to Lance.

Lance shrugged. “I wanted to thank you for teaching me about the AC. And, you know, letting me crash here for so long,” he said. Keith sat down, slightly shocked. “There wasn’t a lot to work with, especially in the fresh food department, but I managed to cook up a bit of pasta. Not too fancy.”

Keith looked up at him and he saw that Lance was almost… nervous? What would Lance have to be nervous about? He couldn’t be embarrassed over his cooking, could he? Or maybe it was the fact that he had cooked for Keith ?

When his mind put it that way, Keith was inclined to feel embarrassed too. Embarrassed and slightly hopeful.

“Thank you, Lance,” Keith said and he put it as earnestly as he could, because he really was thankful. This was the nicest thing anyone had done for him in a very long time, though he only had himself to blame since he pretty much avoided people as a lifestyle.

At this, Lance smiled - small, grateful, but still a bit embarrassed. Keith picked up his fork and tried a bite, face lighting up at the taste. He had almost forgotten what good food tasted like.

“It’s good,” Keith said, the statement simple, but Keith had his own levels of embarrassment too and it was all he could do not to shovel the entire thing down in one bite. When he looked back up, he saw that Lance’s face had lit up, grin wider now.

“Thanks!” he said and took a bite of his own, still smiling around his fork, and, okay, Keith shouldn’t be staring at the guy’s lips.

After that, they ate in relative silence. They both took the time to enjoy their meals but, once they had finished, Keith noticed Lance was still being particularly quiet. Keith frowned, wondering why, then voiced his question.

“Oh,” Lance said, looking surprised and sheepish. “Well, we made an agreement, you know? You teach me how to fix the AC and I wouldn’t talk about… you know . But that’s all I can think about right now, so I guess I’m just quiet.”

“Oh,” Keith said, repeating Lance’s surprise. He tapped the table and looked down at his plate. “I mean, uh, that doesn’t have to start now ,” Keith said, surprising himself even with the concession. He cleared his throat. “I mean, I didn’t mean for you to stop talking about it entirely and you can always start easing up on it tomorrow if you have a lot to say now…”

Ugh. Stupid, Kogane. Stupid.

“Oh,” Lance said. Again . “Okay.”

There was a silence between them then and Keith finally looked up, over this awkward bullshit. Usually he would just deal with it, but, over the few short days he’d known him, Keith had learned to hurdle it when dealing with Lance. Talking with Lance was different.

Because he’s your soulmate , his mind whispered, but he pushed it back. I don’t know that for sure.

“So, did you have something you wanted to say?” Keith asked and Lance floundered.

“Um, yeah, um,” he said and Keith tilted his head, listening. Lance pursed his lips, then let out a breath. “Do you think fixing the AC was stupid?”

“Not really,” Keith answered. “I like not being hot all the time.”

Lance shook his head. “No, I mean, yeah, it’s good it’s fixed, but I thought it was something for my journey, but how would that even happen? I thought, since it’d been broken since I’d been here, that maybe I was supposed to learn something from it, you know?”

“Well, I don’t think an AC unit can tell you where to go…” Keith said, not understanding. Lance was patient though, shaking his head and explaining further.

“Like, what if someone in town needed their AC fixed? Or… I don’t know, something else that connected with it somehow?”

“Oh,” Keith said, and there was that dang word again. He nodded his head. “I think I get it now.”

“Yeah, but it’s kind of far-fetched, don’t you think?” Lance said, deflating a bit into his chair.

Keith considered it, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I mean, only you know how to follow your soulmate journey. Whatever you think might work, could very well.”

“But that’s just the thing!” Lance exclaimed, sitting up. “My soulmate journey until now was so different. There was no waiting around for this long or weird guessing. It was follow a path and either get it right or wrong. Backwards or forwards. I didn’t have to be right, but I had to be moving.”

“And you aren’t moving anymore,” Keith said, to which Lance nodded to, slumping again. Keith’s mind sang to him about soulmates and the guy sitting in front of him, but Keith just shook his head. “Maybe this is a new challenge. These journeys are supposed to challenge you, right? The universe thinks you need this for some reason.”

“What I need,” Lance mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest, “Is to find my soulmate.”

Keith gave a big, long sigh. He stood from his chair, collecting the plates. “Then I don’t know what to tell you, man.” Keith went over to the sink and started washing the dishes. He heard Lance’s chair against the floor, then Lance was next to him.

“Sorry, man. I know you’re just trying to help,” he said and Keith’s mouth lifted at one end without his permission. “Thanks.” Then, Lance reached for a cloth to dry and Keith shook his head.

“You cooked. I do the dishes.”

“We always share dishes; don’t be mean,” Lance said and his voice started to pick up again, teasing and much too happy over the fact. Keith rolled his eyes.

“ I’m being mean,” Keith mumbled and Lance squaked.

“I heard that!” he said and splashed Keith with dishwater.

By the time they were done, their clothes were a lot wetter than any of the dishes.

-/-

The next day, Lance could not stop his nerves from bouncing around his skull, so, naturally, he bounced around the shack all day. His legs jiggled when he sat. He paced, back and forth and back and forth, sometimes forgetting where he was and bumping into Keith, who stood, once again, at his string board. He was so jittery that he had to wiggle his arms more than once in an attempt to get all the excess energy out.

He was waiting. Waiting for a sign.

But, when evening came and Keith walked over to the AC to turn it off, Lance watched in disappointment, viewing the act as a conclusion of some sort. The sun had set on his hopes and his soulmate journey remained at a standstill.

Lance then proceeded to mope for the rest of the evening. He helped with dinner and dishes, but for the rest of the night he remained on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Keith was at his board again when Lance spoke up, eyes still glued above him.

“Maybe I’m meant to stay here,” he said and Keith turned around in his periphery.

“What do you mean?” Keith asked and he sounded nervous. Lance looked down and saw Keith biting his lip, giving him a hard look. Lance sat up and nodded, letting this new idea take its course, giving him hope.

“Maybe,” he said, “Maybe my soulmate is on their way here and I’m supposed to wait for them!”

Keith blinked at him and the room held still for a moment. It was as if the quiet desert had invaded the shack and struck them both silent. Then, Keith turned back around with a short, “Christ,” and went back to his obsessive board scrutinizing.

Lance, satisfied with his new conclusion, laid back and relaxed more than he had all day.

-/-

Out in the desert sun, Lance played with Wolfie, throwing the wolf a stick and - get this - the wolf retrieving it for him. Keith wanted to feel bitter over that - Wolfie never got the stick for him - but, instead, he just remained fascinated, staring out the window instead of at his board, like he should have been.

Keith turned away, pacing back to his string board. The sight was becoming a sore one lately. Keith just couldn’t focus on it like he used to. He used to be able to look at it for hours, without a smidge of improvement, and not feel frustrated in the least. Sure, it was dissuading at times, but Keith knew with a bit more contemplation then things would get back on track. He’d find something.

Now, though, Keith couldn’t seem to convince himself it was going to move along at all, and that maybe stressed him out. If he couldn’t figure things out, where would that leave Shiro? What if his friend was on a time crunch for survival?

What if, after all this, Shiro was already… beyond saving? What if Keith was already too late and he wasn’t any the wiser? He would continue piling his evidence, stringing things together, but Shiro wouldn’t even be out there at all, wouldn’t be waiting at the end of where all the stupid strings connected.

Then, Keith would move to the window to forget his stress and the circling thoughts that did him no good, and he would contemplate going out there with them. If Keith could take a break, maybe he could come back with fresh eyes?

Keith was at the window again and he couldn’t even remember his feet taking him there. Lance had spotted him and was waving, stick in hand. Keith waved shortly back, then ducked.

This was useless.

Keith gathered his things and walked out the door, where Lance jogged up to him, Wolfie in tow. Keith made for his hoverbike without a word.

“Where ya going?” Lance asked.

“The caves,” Keith answered and pulled on his jacket. He stored his bag in the hoverbike’s compartment.

“Awesome! Can I come?” Lance asked and Keith paused. He hadn’t even considered that Lance might want to come too.

“Sure,” he answered, but his mind was asking him You couldn’t focus here with him; how will you focus in the caves?

But Keith shook his head watching Lance bolt inside after a, “Wait. Let me get my stuff!”

On the hoverbike, Keith tried not to think about Lance’s arms around his midsection again. When they got to the cave, Lance ooo’ed and ah’ed at the walls he hadn’t gotten to take in last time they’d been there.

“Y’know,” Lance said, walking along as he looked at the walls, “You’ve never really told me what all of this research is for.”

“I haven’t,” Keith agreed and pulled out his notebook.

“So tell!” Lance laughed, spinning his way and Keith tilted his head at him.

“Well, the caves are a bit different than my string board. I add them to the board, but they don’t really connect to everything else,” Keith explained.

“So why have them? Do you think they’re supposed to connect?” Lance asked and Keith shrugged.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. It’s just this feeling I have.”

“So what’s it supposed to connect to?” Lance went to sit on one of the rocks, climbing up a bit since it was too tall for a normal chair. Keith shifted where he stood and watched.

“I’m trying to find my friend. He went missing,” Keith explained and Lance went silent, staring wide-eyed from his new perch. “He was on his soulmate journey then I lost contact with him. The cops from the area he was last in found nothing.”

“Wow, dude. I’m, uh, sorry,” Lance said, voice coming out more sympathetic than the awkward words implied. Keith shook his head.

“They’re wrong what they say about it. I’m going to find him.”

“Wrong about what?” Lance asked and Keith pursed his lips. He wasn’t sure what Lance would say… would he tell him what all the others had?

“They said he’s probably dead. People don’t just go missing,” Keith said, voice low and eyes trained on a wall across the room. He didn’t want to see Lance’s face. He didn’t want the sympathy of someone who probably believed the words of the police, who hadn’t investigated the case enough to know the truth.

“But… people do just going missing. Sometimes,” Lance said. Keith sucked in a breath and turned toward his companion.

“You… believe me?” he asked and Lance bobbed his head side-to-side, as if considering.

“Probably,” he conceded. “You seem reasonable enough. I’d like to know more about the case though. Maybe a new set of eyes will help?”

Without really thinking about it, Keith found himself nodding, mind still swimming. “Sure,” he said while his thoughts chanted someone believes me. Lance believes me.

Lance smiled and it was one of those bright smiles. Keith’s heart melted a little bit. “Awesome,” Lance said.

Keith maybe stood there, stuck in this weird soulmate infatuation, for longer than he would have liked to admit. Then, he pulled himself together, telling his heart to stop being such a pushover.

“Why don’t we start with the caves then?” Keith suggested and turned to the first wall around him. He lifted his notebook and pretended to survey it while his pulse calmed down. Lance bounced down from his rock and came to stand next to him. Right next to him.

“What do I do?” he asked, his breath practically tickling Keith’s skin. Keith almost combusted for a moment.

“Go over to a wall and stare at it,” Keith ground out and Lance paused before laughing.

“Wow, I’d say you were insulting me, but that’s what we’re actually doing, isn’t it?”

When Lance moved away, going to pick out his own section of wall, Keith was able to regulate his breathing again, which also gave him enough time to think Well, that was new .

Keith had never reacted to another person that strongly before. None of his past crushes had even compared. It made Keith wonder, was this because Lance was his soulmate or because his soulmate was Lance ?

Universe, what are you trying to do to me?

Lance had been staying at the shack for a while now, with no sign from the universe to leave. Keith had tried - oh, he’d tried - to consider anything else. Lance was convinced that, because he hadn’t received any signs, that he was at the end of his journey and just had to wait for his soulmate to come to theirs. His soulmate would meet him there. Lance was sure of it.

But, Keith, he wasn’t so sure. Hadn’t been sure almost the entire time Lance had been staying with him. Because Keith was supposed to go months ago to find his own soulmate and now he had Lance there, on his own soulmate journey, no signs to leave, and someone Keith felt drawn to, in a way that could not  be normal.

Keith almost… wanted to believe it now. But the thought hadn’t even seemed to cross Lance’s mind. Was it so absurd an idea? Could Lance not even fathom the suggestion that Keith could be his soulmate?

Keith almost liked the idea of being Lance’s soulmate, but not when Lance couldn’t the same.

“How often do you do this again?” Lance asked, shaking Keith from his thoughts. He looked over to where the other was sitting in front of a wall, examining it with a centimeter of space between his nose and the cave’s surface.

Keith laughed and shook his head.

Maybe they weren’t meant to be soulmates. Maybe they were. But, what they had now, that was pretty good too.

-/-

Lance was picking up around the living room - because Keith is a mess and the living room is where he sleeps, thank you very much - when he finds them. It’s in a stack of papers, assorted torn notebook pages and old mail (which Lance isn’t sure how?? because there is definitely no mail service in the middle of the desert) and, shuffled in with it all, are plane tickets.

WINNER! some of them read. Free Vacation to Lush Beaches and Paradise! says another. There were at least ten of them in there.

“What the hell?” Lance said. These were so obviously signs from the universe and they had Keith’s name marked on them. Why hadn’t Keith used them?

They were dated back for months.

There was one to Florida and another to a beach in Louisiana. And then….. The rest was for a very familiar beach. The picture showed white sands and beautiful, crystal blue water. Varadero Beach.

Keith was getting airplane tickets, universal signs, to go to Cuba.

“ I’m from Cuba,” Lance murmured to himself, stricken, before he heard something behind him.

“Are you going through my stuff, Lance?” Keith asked, a teasing sort of annoyance in his voice. Lance shoved the tickets away and shuffled the papers into a neat stack.

“Cleaning, if you know what that even is, Kogane,” Lance said and Keith dropped onto the couch.

“Hmm, maybe,” Keith hummed and shrugged, propping his head on the back and looking up at him upside down. Lance swallowed, trying to shake the thought of those tickets out of his head.

“Maybe you should invest in learning,” he said and placed the stack of papers down. He stepped away, tearing his gaze from them.

“Perhaps one day,” Keith mused, not sounding at all as if he were contemplating it. Lance came to sit next to him.

“How’s the research going?” he asked and Keith eyed the board across the room. He hummed in response, which Lance took to mean dissatisfied. “That bad? How about a break?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Keith asked and Lance shook his head.

“Doesn’t count. You need distance from that thing,” he said, shooting his eyes across to the board, “And to get your mind off of it.”

“Don’t feel like going to the caves today,” Keith complained and Lance scoffed.

“ That is not a break either. Man, you’re really bad at this.”

At this, Keith sat up, shooting him a look. “Bad at what?” he asked, taking it as a challenge. Lance was okay with that; he could roll with a challenge.

“Relaxing, taking a break. I’m way better at it,” Lance said and Keith rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I bet you’re better,” he said, sitting back and laying against the couch again. Lance grasped for straws.

“I bet you can’t even at all,” Lance said and Keith opened one eye.

“Can’t what?”

Lance sighed. It was like drawing a horse to water. “ Relax .” When Keith tried to protest again, Lance cut him off. “I mean for real. Like, having fun, not just resting.”

“And I’m sure you have some way I can prove myself with this?” Keith asked, reading Lance’s challenge easily. That was fine with Lance. Keith can know what he’s up to, can see the bait laid bare and know it for what it was, as long as he still took it.

“I do.”

Which was precisely how they ended up at the top of a steep canyon with two large sheets of metal Keith had been keeping in the carport next to the shack and a horrible determination to one-up each other. Lance’s idea was stupid. Very very stupid. But the canyon wasn’t deadly, so sledding down it would be fine… probably.

“We’re going to die going down this thing,” Keith said and Lance put on a smirk.

“Gonna back down, scaredy cat?”

But Keith just shook his head, eyes straight ahead as if he’d already accepted his fate. “Just saying.”

“Death here we come then,” Lance laughed and he could feel Keith’s eyes on him. He probably thought he was stupid - which, okay, he’d already said his idea was stupid, but, um, rude .

“So, is it first one down or, like, chicken?” Keith asked and Lance shrugged.

“Rules schmules. Let’s go!” then, Lance threw down his metal and stood facing Keith, daring him to back down.

Keith would never back down - Lance knew this - but it was fun teasing him. He got this ridiculous look in his eye, a mixture of determination and indignation, that Lance loved to see. He dropped his own makeshift sled and met Keith eye-to-eye.

For a beat, Lance’s mind raced back to those tickets in the shack and his heart missed a beat. Huh, weird...

Then, Keith was hopping onto his sled and taking off. Lance yelled and jumped on his own, forgetting to think of his near death and determined to beat Keith down.

It wasn’t until about halfway down that Lance began to think I’m so stupid. We’re gonna die. Why am I so stupid?

When they reached the bottom, Lance rolled off his sled, canyon dirt caking and dusting his clothes until the were red. Lance tried to blink it away, but then the dust got into his eyes and he had to close them for a while. He and Keith had landed pretty far away from each other but, going by the sounds of stomping feet, Keith was already racing towards him.

“That was so stupid,” Keith said once he got near. Lance opened his eyes, tears forming in them from the dust, and shook his head to dispel them.

“You said ‘awesome’ wrong, my friend,” Lance said, like he hadn’t been thinking the exact same thing.

“Well, I still beat you,” Keith said and, though Lance had wanted to be the first to the bottom, he still would contest if there had even been a race at all.

“I told you there weren’t any rules, Keith,” he said, trying to sound patronizing. Keith scoffed and Lance laughed. “You don’t have to turn everything into a contest.”

“ Me ?” Keith asked, indignant again and Lance had to stare. “ I turn everything into a contest?”

“Precisely what I said. Thank you for agreeing with me,” Lance nodded, then, what he had definitely not been expecting, he was tackled. “Agh, Keith!”

Pinning Lance down in a matter of seconds, Keith sat atop and smirked down at him, crossing his arms over his chest. “What was that you were saying?”

“You have three seconds before I flip you,” Lance warned, narrowing his eyes. Keith’s smile only seemed to grow brighter.

“I’d like to see you try,” he challenged.

It wasn’t long until they were both covered in the dusty red dirt of the desert, and Lance would have mourned his hair and skin if he wasn’t celebrating Keith’s smile and laugh. When they got up, Keith went to retrieve his metal sheet sled and Lance found himself watching after, a goofy grin on his face. When he realized this, he snapped his mouth closed and looked away, biting his lip.

Keith was getting universal signs too. He could find his soulmate any day and something inside Lance didn’t like the thought of that very much.

But there was also something else nagging at him. Varadero Beach. Cuba. So many of Keith’s tickets had invited him to Cuba, around where Lance lived . What if- What if…

“So, did I prove myself?” Keith’s voice suddenly interrupted and Lance could have jumped a mile.

“What?” he asked, voice higher than normal as he tried to slow down his heart.

Keith eyed him for a moment before apparently letting it go. “Your challenge. Did I prove I can have fun?”

“Um, yeah,” Lance answered, swallowing and nodding his head. He picked up his own sled and hefted it into an uncomfortable grip under his arm, because there was no real way to hold onto these things. “You got me. You can definitely do fun.”

Keith gave a satisfied nod, then started to walk. “Good,” he said, smile playing at his lips.

“Good,” Lance repeated, voice in a weird out-of-breath tone. Lance followed Keith back to the shack and tried to remember what normal felt like.

Because, right now, he was far from it.

-/-

Keith had decided to take Lance up on more than one challenge that week and cleaned the living room. He pushed boxes onto shelves instead of leaving them around after going through them and never putting them away. He dusted with an old, but clean, cloth, and opened the windows so the sheer amount of it wouldn’t suffocate the room. He even went through the messes he’d made on the few tables around the place, most of papers he probably didn’t even need anymore.

Lance looked pretty surprised to see him doing so when he got back inside from playing with Wolfie a bit, something Keith had actually joined in on once or twice now when he fried out of string board inspecting. Nevertheless, Lance had joined in, taking another cloth and using it to dust on the other side of the room, while Keith went through the mess on a table in the corner.

“Junk, junk, junk,” Keith called off roll for the many papers he riffled through, moving most of them to the trash pile. He paused dead in his tracks when he came across some mail from the last few months.

WINNER!

Keith wrinkled his nose and threw them one by one into the trash pile. When he looked up, he saw Lance watching. For some reason, Keith felt compelled to explain.

“Airline tickets. Probably scams,” he said, then went back to his mess, feeling nervous about the small admission. Lance didn’t say anything to that, but Keith knew he wasn’t stupid. He could put two and two together. In his desperation, Keith snatched at anything to shift the conversation. “Lance, what's it like where you're from?”

It was possible that Keith had asked the wrong question because, to that, Lance sucked in a breath and snapped his head up. He looked wide-eyed and Keith was nervous he'd crossed a line.

“Sorry, I was just wondering since you've been gone for so long,” Keith explained quickly. “I don't even know how long your soulmate journey’s been, really. Or where you're from.”

Lance nodded and ducked his head, dusting a shelf. “Oh, right,” he said, laughing in a weirdly nervous sort of way. “Well, to start out, I've been gone three, going on four, months.”

“What?” Keith practically spat and was grateful he hadn't been drinking anything. “Seriously?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. It's been quite a journey. You see, I'm from Cuba.”

“That's a long way to go,” Keith said, disbelief still present in his voice. Lance shrugged.

“I've read plenty of stories where the characters travel longer for their soulmates. There was one journey that took three years,” Lance pointed out.

“Those are stories,” Keith argued and Lance shrugged again.

“I'm sure it's happened to someone out there,” Lance said. “Anyway, yeah, I've been gone for a while, but I make sure to keep my family up to date when I can.”

“So you miss them?” Keith asked, perhaps more interested in this detail than he should have. He hadn't had a lot to miss in his life. Currently, that list comprised of Shiro, his dad, and an absent mother, which he still couldn't decide if that was a valid thing to miss when he didn't even remember her.

“I miss them a ton,” Lance said, moving on to another shelf. “But, once this is all over, I'll take my soulmate back with me and introduce them. My family’s sure to love them.”

At this, Keith's heart stuck in his throat. Go to Cuba ? Leave his shack?

But, what about Wolfie? He can't very well go on a plane. What about Shiro? What about the caves?

And meet Lance’s family? Could he do that?

“What are they like?” Keith found himself asking.

“Great. For the most part, at least. My big sister is a know-it-all and my nieces and nephews can be little shits, but I love them more than you can imagine,” Lance said and Keith would probably have to agree. He couldn't remember a family of his own like that.

“That's…” Keith said, looking for a suitable word. “Nice.” It wasn't much, maybe sort of lame, but it was the most truthful word he could have said. It all sounded so nice, so wonderful, ideal, pleasant. Nice.

“It is,” Lance agreed. “I hope my soulmate will think so too.”

With that, Keith sighed and went back to his papers, throwing more and more into the trash pile. The day carried on quietly, the two of them comfortable in their companionable silence. When the sun began to dip, Keith got up from his, rather large, stacks of trash and turned the AC off. Then, he turned to Lance, who had been shoving these stacks into black trash bags.

“Want to see something?” Keith asked and Lance looked up.

“Now?” he asked in surprise and Keith nodded. He walked over, took the bag from Lance’s hand, and placed it on the floor, making sure to let go of the hand afterward despite the temptation to hold on.

Then, he turned toward the door and walked out, counting on Lance to follow. Which he did.

When Keith got the ladder, Lance finally spoke up. “Woah, woah. What are we doing?”

“Getting on the roof,” Keith explained, setting the ladder against the side of the shack and checking its sturdiness.

“You know what? Sure, why not,” Lance said and Keith rolled his eyes. At least he wouldn’t have to argue with Lance and miss it. Once Keith had the ladder all set, he motioned to it.

“You go on up. I gotta get something,” he said, then went inside to grab what he needed. When he came back out, it looked like Lance had already made himself at home on the roof. Keith climbed, keeping the thermal blankets slung over his shoulder.

“Blankets?” Lance asked once Keith was up. “How long are we planning on being up here?”

“It’s already getting cold. If you don’t want one then don’t use one,” Keith said and placed the blankets on the slanted roof, making sure they wouldn’t slide off before sitting down next to Lance. From there, they faced the sun, exactly where Keith had wanted to be. “Good, the sun isn’t down yet.”

“Wait,” Lance said, his voice mirthful. “We came up here to watch the sun set?”

“Yeah...” Keith answered but, at Lance’s tone, he was starting to second guess that particular decision.

“Aw, Keith!” Lance suddenly exclaimed, placing a hand over his heart and leaning backwards in faux faint. “How romantic! Is this a date ?”

“Shut up, Lance,” Keith said, throwing away the words like they meant nothing. Inside, though, he felt like he was treading a very thin line as he spoke.

But Lance wasn’t done with his dramatics. “You could have just asked, you poor romantic fool. I’m always a sap for climbing on dangerous looking roofs to gaze lovingly into a sunset together as frigid temperatures descend the murky desert air.”

“Where’d you get those lines?” Keith teased, becoming more comfortable now over the constant underlying panic that Lance wasn’t joking. He was. Joking, that is.

“Eh, probably one of my mom’s romance novels,” Lance shrugged and Keith snorted.

“Seriously?”

“Hey, they can be interesting,” Lance defended himself and Keith sensed no shame. If anything, it only made Keith fonder of the boy, but that didn’t stop him from teasing Lance for the next twenty minutes over it.

Before they knew it, the desert sky was painted in oranges and pinks and purples, mixed in broad strokes and swirls that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Behind them, the sky became bluer and darker while the canyons in front of them were colored brighter, more vibrant, until it slowly washed out and became one constant night sky.

Keith, so distracted by the view, hadn’t noticed how quiet it had become between the two and looked over at Lance. He was surprised to find the other’s eyes already on him, which widened when Keith looked over. Lance looked back to the sky quickly and Keith looked too. The view really was beautiful out in the desert. He had been there long enough for it to become fairly normal to him, but sometimes he would look up and remember.

He’d remember how truly remarkable it all was. How vast the universe was, how beautiful the stars, looking down at them all and blinking lazily, were. They stretched endlessly out there, only canyons to obstruct the view. No tall skyscrapers or light pollution, no bright lights to take away any of it.

Keith laid back, letting his back hit the roof and his vision fill completely with the sky directly above. Lance did the same beside him and they laid there, perfectly still, for who knew how long. It could have been years they remained there and Keith wouldn’t have minded. He would have cherished every second, under the stars next to his soulmate, next to Lance.

A shiver beside him brought Keith back to the present and he remembered how chilly desert nights were. He sat up, looking around for the blankets, and handed one to Lance, draping one over himself as well. He was a lot closer to Lance once he’d laid back down, but didn’t fix it, excusing it in his head as preserving the warmth between them.

Lance’s breathing started to slow and Keith debated stirring him so they could go inside. Before he could, though, Lance’s sleepy voice filled the fragile air between them.

“You know,” he said, voice slow, not quite slurred yet. “It would be really funny if you were my soulmate.”

Keith’s chest constricted, but he stayed as still as he could, arm pressed to Lance’s and very very much aware of it now. “Wha- why do you say that?” he asked, voice shaky. He hoped Lance wouldn’t notice, or maybe attribute it to the cold air.

“I’ve been here almost a full month without realizing it,” Lance said and Keith chewed on his lip, turning his head to watch Lance’s profile.

“Would it be a bad thing?” Keith asked. “If I was your soulmate?”

It took longer for Lance to answer this one, and Keith watched as his eyelashes fluttered, head bobbing. “Nah…” he mumbled, finally giving up the fight against his falling eyelids. “It would… be neat…” he said, then, finally, he was asleep and Keith let out the longest breath. He wasn’t sure if it was from happiness or relief.

Keith stayed up for a long while after that, resigned to the fact that they would be sleeping on the roof for the night. It wouldn’t have been his first time falling asleep up there. Often, he used to come up there to clear his head, unable to sleep as too many thoughts fought in his head, wondering if he was too late, afraid of never solving the puzzle of his string board, of letting the only person left in his life down. It washis first time up there with someone else though. And… Keith actually enjoyed it. It was a lot less lonely, the world a lot less overwhelming in its vastness and instead awe-inspiring and magnificent.

This time, laying up there, Keith’s thoughts didn’t scare him. Because Lance had said being his soulmate would be neat .

McClain, of all adjectives… Keith thought to himself and a giddy smile rose to his lips unbidden.

Maybe… if Keith told Lance… maybe, now that the idea was in Lance’s head, maybe, now that Keith knew Lance wouldn’t be completely against the idea…

I should tell him , Keith decided and, with that note, he turned over, tucked the blankets further around them both, and decided to sleep himself.

Tomorrow, he would do it.

-/-

Lance had only woken once throughout the night, a chill passing through his bones and sending a shiver strong enough to wake him. When he noticed he was still on the roof, fear spiked up and he looked around, only to notice a warm weight beside him.

Keith .

Lance smiled at the other, curled up next to him. He looked so pleasant while asleep; had Lance ever seen the guy so unguarded?

It was odd. Lance had been there for almost a month and he didn’t think he’d ever seen Keith sleep. Which wasn’t particularly weird , as Keith slept in his room. It just struck Lance as odd and reminded him of all the time Keith spent in front of that board in the living room. Lance was convinced that, one of these days, Keith would waste away in front of it.

Looking at Keith laying next to him, Lance spotted a strand of his dark hair, perfectly crossing his face where it fell from behind his ear. Lance had a sudden urge to pushed it away and didn’t stop his hand as it did so, brushing ever so lightly against the other’s skin and curling the strand around Keith’s ear. Lance didn’t realize how long he held it there, almost entranced for a moment at the way he held the side of Keith’s face and how close together they were.

When he did, Lance dropped his hand immediately, leaning away.

What was he doing? Lance had a soulmate! Who could be there at any time!

Unless he’s already here , his brain unhelpfully reminded him. Lance shook his head. Those tickets aren’t- they don’t- they don’t have to mean-

Lance refused to think of it because, if it were true, he would have been with his soulmate this entire time, ever since he’d first met Keith in that cave. He would have spent a month there with the guy right beside him, none the wiser.

And how would that even work anyway? Would he have to tell Keith, like Surprise! ? Did Keith even want a soulmate?

He had thrown away those tickets. He had dismissed universal signs as skams. Lance would never forget that look on Keith’s face when he had come across them as he sorted through that one stack, nose scrunching, like he’d found a dead rat instead of a free vacation and a pathway to the one thing people waited their entire lives for.

If Keith didn’t want his soulmate… and he was Lance’s soulmate… where would that leave Lance?

As many times as Lance had caught himself thinking how funny Keith was in his own ridiculous way, how beautiful Keith looked in that sunset, how easy it was to tease him or to sit in simple silence with him, could Lance handle Keith being his soulmate when he could very well be turned away as soon as the notion was suggested?

Why did Keith not want a soulmate in the first place?

No, Keith couldn’t be his soulmate. Lance refused. Because if he was… if he was…

Lance would end up alone.

Lance fell into an uneasy sleep after that, probably not a good thing up on a slanted roof, but, somewhere throughout the night, he calmed down. He wasn’t sure why, but it might have had to do with the presence there on the roof with him.

The next morning, Lance and Keith stirred around the same time, thermal blankets kicked to the side as the heat creeped back in. Lance chuckled when Keith’s blanket fell right off the roof and Keith, with floofy bed head and sleepy eyes, shot up, blinking around like he had forgotten just where they were.

Not long after, they decided to get down and go inside, not in the mood for the heat and in definite need of coffee–even the disgusting instant stuff Keith kept around. Keith passed right through the living room into the kitchen and Lance turned on the AC. The damn thing had become more habit than anything these days. If they forgot it, then they’d be in for a very hot day or cold night. After that, Lance followed Keith into the kitchen, where the other seemed a lot more awake by the minute.

Lance sat at the kitchen table, the only real table in the shack, might he add. When Keith brought over the two mugs, Lance accepted his gratefully and blew on it as Keith sat across from him. He stared into his cup for a while and Lance furrowed his eyebrows in puzzlement.

“What’s up?” he asked and Keith’s head popped up. His eyes looked troubled.

“Um, nothing,” he said and Lance nodded, not quite believing it, but letting Keith have his time. Apparently, it didn’t take much of it. “I was just thinking about what we talked about last night.”

Lance froze. What had they talked about last night? Was it important? Shit, this wasn’t good-

“What did we talk about last night?” he asked and, just then, it came back to him just what Keith must have been referring to.

It would be really funny if you were my soulmate.

Oh shit shit shit. Had he really said that? What did Keith want to say about it? Was he about to confirm Lance’s suspicions? Tell him thanks but no thanks; he didn’t want a soulmate? No, Lance couldn’t hear that. Not when he didn’t want to leave yet; not when he didn’t want Keith out of his life.

And, at that moment, Lance realized. He didn’t care about his soulmate turning him away and he didn’t care if his soulmate was Keith or someone entirely different. Lance just didn’t want to have Keith cut out of his life, no matter what he was to him.

If Keith was truly his soulmate, he would keep that secret to his grave, if only he were able to stay there, next to him, forever.

“You don’t remember-” Keith asked, looking suddenly a lot more nervous and Lance quickly replied-

“No. Nothing, sorry.”

“Oh,” Keith said and they both sat very still for a moment. Then, “If you’d excuse me,” Keith said, standing from his spot and going to pour the rest of his coffee down the drain, “I’ve gotta go do a thing - hunt a rabbit - right now-” With each word, Keith was retreating out of the kitchen and Lance stood too, trying to protest.

“But there are no rabbi- and there he goes,” he said to the empty door. He sighed, shoulders sagging and looked to the floor where Wolfie was watching with curious eyes. “Did I fuck that up?”

Wolfie just blinked and stood, walking over and butting his head lightly against Lance’s leg before following Keith out. Lance collapsed back in his chair and put his head in his hands.

“I totally fucked that up.”

-/-

“I totally fucked that up, Wolfie,” Keith grumbled, knowing his wolf was at his heels as he paced further into the desert. He needed a moment alone - or, at least, a moment without Lance and a moment away from his fuck up.

“He doesn’t remember, okay,” Keith muttered, not ceasing his pace. Wolfie scampered along after him as he ranted. “Of course he wouldn’t; he was nearly asleep! Half of what he was saying could have been delirium. Neat . Who would call their soulmate that? And, even if he did think that, that doesn’t mean he’d actually want that. He’d be okay with it, but me ? As his soulmate ?”

Suddenly, Keith whipped around and Wolfie stopped, looking up at him in surprise. Then, Keith sat in the dirt, landing perfectly and suddenly enough that his butt hurt. Wolfie walked over and laid down next to him, putting his head in Keith’s lap. Keith started to pet him absent-mindedly.

“What do I do, Wolfie?” he sighed and looked out at the clear desert sky. The blue reminded him of Lance for some reason, though his eyes were a much darker shade of the color. “I- I don’t want a soulmate. I never have. But now…”

Keith trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say. It felt like the words were on the tip of his tongue, the great truth behind this all, but he couldn’t decipher them. His brain wouldn’t comprehend.

Wolfie nuzzled at his hand and Keith let out a long sigh.

“I just don’t know anymore…”

Keith and Wolfie stayed out for a while longer, but, eventually, the desert sun, at its peak in the sky, became too much and they had to go back in. By that time, though, Keith felt better. Still confused, but better.

When he stepped inside, Lance jolted up from the couch.

“There you are!”

“Hey, Lance,” Keith greeted, quite unenthusiastically. He walked right past into the kitchen, stomach growling. He still hadn’t eaten anything all day and the few sips of coffee were roiling in his gut.

“Where’s your rabbit?” Lance teased, following after and Keith wanted to go back and punch past him in the face.

Instead, he settled on taking it out on Lance. “Shut up, Lance,” he said, in that same bored tone, pulling out a loaf of bread Lance had gotten from town. It was kind of nice having fresher foods these days.

“Alright, but, man, why’d you run off so suddenly like that? Was it about whatever we talked about last night? You could always tell me about it if it’s so important.”

“It’s not important; don’t worry about it,” Keith grumbled and his stomach grumbled louder. He pulled out the jar of peanut butter from the pantry.

At this, Lance seemed to pause, weighing his words. Keith wished he wouldn’t do that, wished Lance would just throw away his words as some meaningless background noise like most did. Why did Lance have to analyze things? Ask himself if Keith really meant all that was behind his words? Keith had never been good at hiding things, but most people didn’t bother to care.

Why couldn’t Lance be like the rest?

“Okay,” Lance finally replied and things clicked into place. Lance stepped back, didn’t push, not just because Keith didn’t want to talk about it, but because he needed to not. Because Keith couldn’t be pushed farther than this right now. Because, somehow, Lance knew that now was not the time for pushing and prodding. Because Lance wanted to help and he recognized the best way he could do so right then was to back away.

Lance couldn’t be like the rest and take it all at face value. Because that just wasn’t who Lance was. He listened; he cared; he was one of the few Keith had met that did so. He was…

Keith’s…

Soulmate.

And, like that, the full meaning hit Keith in the forehead, leaving him reeling. He had to step back for a moment, still facing the counter (and glad it wasn’t the other way, where he could actually see Lance), and latch his thoughts onto this new realization.

Because Lance was really, truly, Keith’s soulmate. And Keith…

“Lance, do you remember those plane tickets I never used?”

“Yeah?” Lance asked, unsure. Keith didn’t let it hinder him. He went on.

“I know they were universal signs and I knew I was supposed to go on my soulmate journey, but I never did. I never took any of the really obvious signs the universe threw in my face because I wanted to choose to like someone myself.”

“Oh,” Lance said, still sounding like he was measuring his words carefully. “That’s- sort of cool, I guess.”

Keith chuckled, not necessarily humorlessly, but in such a way that suggested the humor was all directed at him. Keith was the joke here and he could accept that. “Kind of,” he conceded and turned around to face Lance. “Then, when I got my first sign a few months ago I knew I really couldn’t follow it. I had too much to do here. I had Wolfie and I couldn’t abandon Shiro. And, yeah, I still was reluctant because, all my life I had turned my nose up at the whole soulmate business. Why would I travel across the world for someone I hadn’t even met yet? It didn’t make sense.”

“But, here’s the thing,” Keith continued. “I figured out it’s sort of useless to say no to the universe, you know? There are plenty of soulmates who don’t work out, but who’s to say mine won’t? If anything, I’m the one guaranteeing it won’t if I never even try.”

“I have a say in if I have a soulmate, whether I let them in or even give them a chance. The world doesn’t take away our choices. But, I think, I sort of am. What sort of choice am I giving myself if I decide to never even try?” Keith breathed, his long rant leaving him short on air. He slowed down, ducking his head and thumbing at his fingers, rubbing them together in that old tick of his. “And… I also realized I might not mind spending the rest of my life with them.”

After this, Keith sucked in air, not this time because he was short of it, but in anticipation. He held it in for one… two… three…

“Does this mean you’re going to leave?” a morose voice reached his ears and Keith paused for three more of those precious seconds, keeping his breaths captive and his mind speeding to catch up. He stared at the floor until his head slowly came up, brow furrowed, eyes disbelieving.

Lance had the saddest face on Keith had ever seen, a better puppy look than Wolfie could ever pull off. Keith swallowed, head still spinning, before putting his metaphorical foot down.

He considered rushing back out into the desert, mid-afternoon sun or not, and screaming until his lungs gave out. Then, carefully, jaw clenching just slightly, Keith shook his head. “No, with this torture, I think I’m already living in hell.”

Keith turned back to the counter and abruptly smashed his peanut butter sandwich together.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance asked, but Keith had ripped a chunk of sandwich and was already chewing as he stalked past, leaving the kitchen before he could say anything he would really regret.

He didn’t answer, using his full mouth as a flimsy excuse.

-/-

Okay, so Lance could safely say he had no clue what any of that was about. He may have lied about not remembering last night, but what the hell? What was Keith even on about? First he was being all open about his soulmate and, okay, Lance could see where that maybe connected to last night’s talk but then he just shut up and left like Lance hadn’t asked a very valid question?

Maybe he thought Lance hadn’t been listening? He had to stay for Wolfie and for Shiro, but he had also been talking about giving his soulmate a chance. Why was it so wrong for Lance to ask if he was going to go after them?

Still, after that talk a new hope burned away in Lance’s bones.

If Keith was his soulmate, maybe he wasn’t as reluctant as Lance had thought with the whole business. But that was still considering Keith was his soulmate at all.

Lance couldn’t help feeling a little bit… special because Keith had confided in him. There weren’t many people out in the middle of the desert to confide in, but Lance didn’t think that made him an only resort option. This whole solitude thing had just made Keith more closed off, used to not talking about his problems, except to maybe the desert air, a passing lizard, or Wolfie. Lance had been out there with Keith for a while and he prided himself on actually knowing the guy just a little bit.

It was easy to confide in something that didn’t answer back. Lance knew that Keith would rather cough up a lung than willingly put his baggage on another living person.

Which was… much the same for Lance, actually. He didn’t talk about his problems; he didn’t act like he had problems at all. But he figured these were for very different reasons. Keith hadn’t had anyone to talk to for… a long time. Lance may not know Keith’s life story, but he could tell that much. Lance, on the other hand, was reluctant to let anyone deal with him when he could very well deal with his shit on his own. He didn’t want other people to carry him, see through him, for him to be a burden.

He and Keith were very similar in very different ways and that was why they got along as easily as they butted heads. That was why he felt comfortable with Keith, just as much as the guy got under his skin. Because Keith understood him, maybe a bit too well at times.

Lance had been there for almost a month, just a few short weeks, and, already, he couldn’t imagine things without him. It was strange, but they worked together well. Lance almost didn’t want to leave when - if- his next universal sign came.

It was a few days later and the two were sitting on one of the canyons, looking out into the afternoon after a hike that Lance had insisted to get Keith away from his board. The wind whipped against their faces from how high up they were, but the two had no quarrels about dangling their feet over the edge into open air.

Looking out, Lance let his thoughts wander and wander they did - wandered right next to him to the sweaty, panty guy baking in the sun, whose feet dangled next to and knocked against Lance’s.

Keith’s hair was up, loose strands coming out around his face and plastered to the back of his exposed neck. Lance had tried to argue against it, but Keith had decided to wear a loose tank top for the hike, which would lead to severe sunburn, but whatever. Lance, on the other hand, had given up on covering his own arms not even halfway into the hike, opting to tie his jacket around his waist. At least his t-shirt covered his shoulders, though.

Despite the contrast between them, Keith wide awake in the bright hot sun versus asleep under the cool moon and stars, Lance remembered their night on the roof. He had tucked Keith’s hair back and never wanted to take his hand away. The urge to do the same now kicked in just as quickly as Lance reminded himself no .

Lance’s fingers tingled and he shifted until he sat on them. No , he warned again.

Keith had said he’d like to give his soulmate a chance, but, if Lance wasn’t his soulmate, then they would have to go their separate ways. If Keith wasn’t his soulmate, could Lance be with anyone else the way he fit with Keith?

“Hey, Keith?” he asked and Keith looked over. Lance swung his legs once, letting his body sway in thought. “Do you think my soulmate will like me?”

There was a pause and there was that air again, that tenseness Keith got when they talked about things like this. Then, “Yeah, no doubt.”

Lance looked up and frowned. “But how can you know that?”

“They’re your soulmate,” Keith shrugged. “I think it’s in the job.”

“What about your whole ‘I don’t want a soulmate’ thing, because ‘I want to like them myself’?”

“Well, maybe not at first they won’t like you,” Keith said with a small laugh and turned to look back outward. “But the universe puts you with each other for a reason. With the work, you guys will end up great together.”

“Yeah, ‘with the work,’ but what if I do something wrong?” Lance asked and he pulled his legs up, folding them beneath him in a pretzel shape. He waggled one of his legs, hands resting on both his knees.

“Then I guess you’ll have to work harder. From what I can tell, soulmates are just like any other relationship, but more destined, I guess.” Keith shrugged, looking to have reached his level of elaboration on that, but Lance was nodding now, catching on. Somehow, he just got what Keith said sometimes, even if it was vague as hell.

“I guess it’s like our best friends. There’s give and take, smooth sailing and high waters, and, when things get rough, there’s not necessarily an easy way out, but you know it’s worth it to try.”

“Wow,” Keith said, looking at him with pleasant surprise. “Uh, yeah.”

Lance beamed. “My best friend’s name is Hunk. We’ve always said we’re like platonic soulmates. When we argue, it’s not always easy forgiveness, but I would do anything to make it better between us. Because I don’t know where I’d be without him.”

Keith nodded, edges going soft as he gave him a small smile. They went quiet for a second and Lance felt gratitude rise in his stomach, causing him to go warm in a much more pleasant way than the sun was making him.

He realized that, not only had he been able to figure out what Keith was trying to tell him with that all, but that Keith had known exactly what he needed to hear to figure it out. Keith had been able to reassure him about his soulmate, about the uncertain future to come, in his own, Keith-like way.

“Thanks, Keith,” Lance said and Keith looked surprised all over. Then, his cheeks colored in, even past his flush from the heat and slight sunburn, and Lance felt himself falling, falling, like he had taken a wrong step and was now tumbling down this canyon.

“No problem,” Keith said, sounding a bit breathy when he spoke.

“Hey, Keith?” Lance asked then and his head was cloudy and his heart was in some far off region where he couldn’t see.

Keith hummed in acknowledgement.

“I’m starting to worry a bit about this all,” he said and Keith’s eyes found his, filling with his own layer of concern. “I think I might start liking you, but I’m supposed to be waiting for someone else…”

Screw that someone else , his brain said, still dreamy. Keith is here.

Keith’s eyes blew up as he froze. He said nothing and, through those moments, Lance’s brain hurtled back down to earth, rattling in his skull as it took its rightful place. The conversation caught up to him and Lance nearly jumped up and ran. Instead, he ran his fingers through his hair and laughed.

“You’re gonna make me fall for you, Kogane. That’s not really fair to my soulmate, don’t you think?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Keith mumbled and shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose like he was getting a migraine. Lance hoped he wasn’t. “Lance, I think-”

But, whatever it was, Lance hadn’t heard the whole thing, watching as Keith’s lips moved wordlessly in the loud roar of a sudden gust of wind.

“Um, what was that?” Lance asked, speaking louder and cupping his ear as if that could get better reception. “The wind was kinda loud!”

There was a lot more that Keith said that Lance didn’t quite hear, but he saw his mouth moving and lips tight. It wasn’t until the tail end that he finally heard something, the wind calming down.

“If there was anyone else in this desert but you, me, and my wolf, they would be dead, Lance. Dead. Because you would be killing them.”

Then, Keith got up and left, leaving Lance feeling like he’d fucked up again, but no idea how.

Nevertheless, Lance sprung up to chase after him, yelling, “I don’t think that’s what you said, mullet!”

-/-

Lance was in town getting groceries, a task that had become his duty because Keith didn’t like going into town and Lance didn’t like the groceries he got anyway. In reality, Keith would have lived off the few cans of food left in the shack for another week or two, but Lance didn’t tolerate that kind of thing, apparently. Not healthy, he’d told Keith, or something.

Since Lance was in town, however, Keith was left alone in the shack, with the silence and the space and some good downtime for himself. He had thought it might be relaxing, but it was shortly after Lance had left that he realized.

It was too quiet. It was too spacious. Already, Keith had too much time to himself.

It didn’t help that Wolfie had gone with Lance too, leaving him absolutely and completely alone. Where it wouldn’t have bothered Keith just a month and some before, it was a shock how unsettled it made him feel now. He missed Lance’s teasing and his voice. Keith missed the quiet noises of him shuffling about or humming. He missed Lance’s presence in the room, in the shack, in his little bubble of the world like machines miss oil in their gears. The machine could function without it, sure, but maybe not as well, maybe not as smoothly, maybe for not as long.

Keith tried to distract himself with his board, but in vain. He tried to work on his hoverbike, but, even as long as it had been since he’d done so, it too did not monopolize him like he’d wanted. He even tried cleaning, but gave up soon after. Not only was the shack still pretty organized after the last clean, but it still wasn’t something that appealed to him, no matter how desperately he wished to keep busy.

So he laid on the couch and stared at the ceiling for a bit. Always a great occupation of time.

It didn’t take him long to notice the smell of the couch. It smelled like the guy who’d been sleeping on it for over a month. It smelled like Lance.

Keith was up in record time, pacing back and forth and back and forth across the living room. Away from the smell, from his thoughts imploring him to race of with them towards the man in town. He paced and paced until his mind became one big haze of static and blank thought.

What was up with him? Could he not just sit still for half a minute?

“Come on, Wolfie! Best not keep Keith waiting,” a voice filtered in from outside and Keith threw his hands up in a sudden panic, and raced across the room, landing right in front of his board as the door swung open. “We’re back!”

Keith grunted, begging his heart rate to slow as he pretended to study the board. He hoped Lance would chalk down his short reply to focus instead of the fact that, if he would have spoken, Keith was sure his voice would have shaken from the sudden adrenaline that had coursed through his veins. He stared at one of the photos, pinned to the board, in the hopes that he could slowly control his breathing. It was difficult to focus, though, and he didn’t know quite what he was looking at. His eyes may have been on the picture, but his brain was definitely not.

“I got some apples ‘cause we need fruit in our diets. Don’t know how you’ve survived out here,” Lance went on, walking toward the kitchen with the bags. Wolfie followed after, two bags dangling from his jaws. Keith walked toward the kitchen and stopped in the doorway, watching Lance unpack things on the table.

“Canned pineapple,” Keith said by ways of his own defence, but Lance wrinkled his nose.

“Um, no.”

Keith shrugged and walked up to the table, the buzzing in his head already gone now that he had the noise of someone else, the presence of someone else. Another person was all he’d needed...

Oh, who was he kidding? It was because Lance was back.

He picked up a can from the table and turned it over in his hands. “Enchilada sauce?”

“Yep. I'm done with all the instant stuff you have around here. Look, I love ravioli as much as the next guy, but I might not eat it ever again at the rate we have it out here.”

Keith put the can down and continued to go through the items, humming as Lance moved on easily, going on to tell him some story about a guy at the store with bad breath.

“I mean, I couldn't point it out. And the guy was too nice for me to duck out of the conversation or lean away. Really. He was telling me about his granddaughter who just turned twelve and you should have seen the look on his face! So proud! But, dios mio , he reeked!”

Keith chuckled under his breath as he came to a large manila envelope, which looked out of place among the other assorted items. He picked it up and arched an eyebrow at Lance in puzzlement.

“Oh!” Lance said, finally noticing. “That's your mail, which is weird 'cause what sort of mail do you even get? You're out in the desert-”

As Lance continued to ramble on Keith zoned it out, scowling down at the envelope. He rarely got mail. It wasn't like businesses and scammers wanted to waste postage on some loner out in the desert, nor did he have any close friends or family who would want to send him anything. There wasn't much record of him living out there at all, actually.

Yet, sometimes things showed up for him down at the town’s post office. They kept it all for him, put aside in one of these envelopes, probably out of pity for the poor guy out on his own. Or maybe because they knew what this mail meant.

Because in the past few months he had gotten more mail than he had his entire life. But… Lance was there now. This wouldn’t be- couldn’t be-

Hastily, Keith pulled out one free voucher for a plane ticket, advertised in big yellow letters with what appeared to be bulbs in them, like they were lit up for the town to see.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas!

His heart dropped, eyes practically shaking as they raked over the brightly lit town and bold letters adorning the cardstock paper. Why did he have this? What kind of sick joke was the universe playing on him? Why now ?

There was a lump in his throat and he tried desperately to swallow it down.

But he had been so sure, so certain. Lance had been here for over a month . It had to have been Lance. Keith had finally accepted having a soulmate; he had finally decided to give it a shot, to not run away.

He had finally started to fall in love with Lance.

The realization was jarring and Keith physically recoiled from it, from the voucher in his hand and the harsh words that promised fun and hell on Earth.

He was in love with Lance.

But Lance wasn't his soulmate.

And it was what Keith had always wanted. To fall in love with someone, not because they were destined to be together, not because they were pushed together by some unseeable force, but because he likedthem . Because he fell in love with their quirks and the way they talked and how they believed and the bigs things and the little things and the spaces in between.

He had fallen in love with Lance not because he had thought they were soulmates, but because he was Lance . But Keith had forgotten to account for one tiny detail in all these years.

Most people did not want someone who was not their soulmate.

And, after being with Lance for so long, Keith knew he was just as infatuated with the idea as the rest. Lance had traveled for months, across the country, to find his soulmate. He'd been homesick and insecure and uncertain, but he had done it all. Done it all for a person he didn't even know yet.

A person that wasn't Keith.

Lance would never be in love with Keith. He would never even like him in that way. He wouldn't stay for Keith.

“Are you gonna go?” Lance's voice suddenly snapped him to attention and Keith practically slammed the voucher on the table.

“No,” he answered immediately. Because, if he knew anything right now, he knew this. He would not be the one to leave Lance. He would not go to his soulmate, not when he'd already fallen in love with someone else.

He had never wanted a soulmate but, now that there was Lance, he’d never wanted the person less. Now that Keith knew, he realized how long the feeling had been with him, and how familiar, natural, wonderful it really felt to be in love. The weight in his chest was one he couldn’t ever imagine losing; he would never fall out of love with Lance McClain.

One day, the universe would find Lance again, out in this lonely desert shack, and steer him away, sweep him off his feet to his soulmate who he would fall in love with and spend eternity. But, for now, Keith had him here. He had Lance with him in their little pocket of the world where the signs could not find them and they could hide away under the stars and in each others’ laughter.

As selfish as it was, Keith would hold onto the time he had left there with Lance for as long as he could. Lance’s soulmate would get him for the rest of their lives; why shouldn’t Keith get to have just a little bit longer?

Keith would stay there, in his desert shack, with Lance, and with Wolfie, and his string board and the bright stars and desert heat and mysterious caves. Until Lance left. Until his board became nothing more than a dream and the only shred of his fragile sanity left. He would stay in the hopes of figuring out the secrets of the caves, of finding Shiro, and in a desperate delusion that, perhaps, Lance would one day return to him.

He will never come back once he leaves, his, rather unhelpful, mind reminded. Just like everyone else. He will have someone else, someone better.

“No…” Keith repeated dully, voice no more than a whisper as he continued to eye the voucher, pressed to the round kitchen table under his spread hand.

And, to this, Lance didn't reply. He gave him the grace of remaining silent and letting Keith deal with this on his own.

So Keith turned around and left the kitchen, retreating to his own bedroom where he could be alone. Because he would have to get used to that again, wouldn't he?

Earlier that day, Keith couldn't stand the thought of being alone, but now, now he felt like there really was no other choice.

Because that was where he would always end up being.

-/-

So Keith's… not my soulmate.

The thought struck Lance harder than he thought it might. In fact, looking down at the Vegas ticket Keith had left on the table, Lance couldn't seem to think of anything else for at least ten minutes.

Keith's not my soulmate.

Keith's not my soulmate.

Keith's not my soulmate.

It didn't seem to process any easier.

Lance had known this might be a possibility, but, now that it had been confirmed to him, he didn't quite know what to do with it. Not sure why, he reached over and picked up the voucher. He looked it over, running a thumb over its glossy surface and took in the picture of the bright city lights, the colorful signs and hotels and casinos. The sight was familiar to him, but only just. He had stopped by Vegas during this journey, but been swept away almost as soon as he'd gotten there.

His next stop had been Arizona, and, not long after, to the little town where he'd gotten these groceries, where he'd initially been given the knife to deliver to Keith.

And, from there, another thought occurred to Lance, one that he latched onto, pulling himself out of the loop of Keith’s not my soulmate that he’d been in for the past ten minutes. He grabbed desperately on, grappling with things as they fell into place.

Because Keith’s ticket led him to the very spot Lance had been before this. And… and…

Suddenly, it all made sense. The cosmos aligned. Lance slipped into perfect understanding, as if reaching Nirvana, or having heaven’s light shine down upon him. Divine conclusion brightened his mind, setting the universe into balance, into place. Lance understood now, why he must have been there, why Keith had received this ticket, why he had been here, in one place, for so long without any more universal signs to take him away.

Lance ran into the next room, feet spurred in his excitement. He looked around before figuring out Keith was not in there, surprising only at first, as the excitement gave way to a better understanding. He had been in the kitchen for a solid fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. Keith could have been anywhere. “Damn it,” Lance cursed and made for the front door. He hoped Keith hadn't gone too far.

But then, he paused, stopped with his hand over the doorknob. He looked to his left and, yeah, Keith's bedroom door was closed. It was usually ajar, a small gap where Keith had been too lazy to close it all the way, but aversive enough to loud noises not to slam it.

Lance silently stepped forward and knocked. It was quiet at first, which poked at Lance’s doubt, but he knocked again.

A brief moment passed before the door was yanked open. “Yeah?” Keith asked, looking a bit annoyed.

Lance held up the voucher, the words he’d been dying to say bubbling up with his excitement once again. “This isn’t your universal sign, Keith,” he explained, eyes lit and an adrenalized smirk in place. “It’s mine.”

Keith stood still for a second, blinked, then said, “What?”

“It all makes sense now!” Lance exclaimed, waving his hand and the voucher in it. “I was in Vegas before this! That must be why I’ve been stuck here for so long; I’ve gone off course! I was meant to stay in Vegas all along, but I followed a false lead - a few, actually - and ended up here!”

“So…” Keith said, looking like he was trying to catch up. Lance smiled and explained.

“ So , this means my soulmate’s in Las Vegas!”

At this, Keith's eyes bulged. “Y-your soulmate-”

“Is there, I tell you! They have to be!” Lance eagerly explained, practically jumping from his excitement.

“And you're going to leave,” Keith said. That stopped Lance dead in his tracks.

“What?” he asked, taken off guard. Keith merely shrugged.

“You're going to go to Las Vegas to find them, aren't you?” he said. “You were never supposed to be here in the first place.”

Never supposed to be here in the first place… That didn’t sit right with Lane and, suddenly, he had an awful taste in his mouth.

“I- I guess…” Lance said, unsure now, his excitement plummeting as the words sunk in. Suddenly, everything was catching up a lot quicker.

“Then you should go,” Keith nodded, jaw squaring. “You have to go. You've been waiting for this.”

“I have…” Lance agreed, but, for once, the idea wasn’t as exciting as it once had been. His brain felt all tangled. Why are things so complicated all of a sudden?

Keith nodded again, sharply, and it felt like the world was speeding up without him, spinning out of control. “Great,” he said, as if it was all settled then. But-

But Lance didn't want to leave, he realized, only for his thoughts to accelerate faster . He wanted to stay here. Faster. With Wolfie. Faster. With Keith.

Soulmate or not, Keith was- Keith was-

“You better get packed,” Keith said and reached out for his door. “I can drive you to town later.”

Then, the door was closed in his face and Lance was left stunned, in the hallway. The shack was silent around him, but the inside of his head was speeding along the Autobahn.

He looked down at the voucher, much less excited than before, and wondered. His soulmate was in Las Vegas. Lance was this close to finding them, after months, after this cross-country trip, after everyday of homesickness for Cuba and his family. But he still… didn’t want… to go.

I don’t want to leave him.

Lance turned around and made his way back to the living room, sitting down carefully on the couch, all the while still staring vacantly at the paper in his hand.

His whole life he had been looking forward to this, to finding his soulmate, falling happily in love and spending the rest of their lives together because they wouldn’t be able to see a future without the other in it. As a kid, he’d dreamed of them falling immediately and hopelessly in love but, as he’d grown, he’d seen the appeal in falling slower, but no less drastically. He’d envisioned someone he’d fit perfectly with, who he could introduce to his family and their two families could become one big happy one, because, of course, his soulmate’s family would have to love his. The inlaw stereotype just wouldn’t fly.

Lance had dreamed he’d find someone beautiful, inside and out, because he could be the only one in the world, but Lance would find them beautiful; he just knew it. They’d be funny and charming in whatever unexpected ways Lance was sure to find as they got to know each other and would only make him fall more hopelessly. They’d be intelligent, in whatever way that entailed: studious, or witty, or a quick thinker, or maybe a smartass.

Most of all, though, Lance had hoped his soulmate would be someone who brought out the best in him; who made him want to do better, be better. They would make him feel everything, simply by standing beside him, easily, naturally, unbridled. Lance’s mask would crumple because he would trust them completely, and he would do the same with them. They would understand each other and away would come everything they held back in fear, in trepidation, coming out like a sudden avalanche and a steady river stream all at once.

Lance had wanted that every day since his mother had first described to him what a soulmate journey was like, how she had taken a bus for the next couple of towns until she found his father and she had never been happier in her life. Lance had wanted it since reading countless soulmate romance and adventure stories, and since his friend, Hunk, had gone on his own and introduced Lance to his girlfriend, Shay. He had wanted what he saw in everyone’s soulmate relationships, that beautiful, destined bond with another.

And now was Lance's time to have that, to finally find and grab ahold of it for himself. His soulmate was in his reach; he just had to take that step, follow the universe, and the universe would reveal all.

Keith didn't want a soulmate, despite his previous words to the contrary. Lance had seen his face when Keith had seen that voucher, seen the revulsion, the way his nose had scrunched and eyes narrowed. Maybe, one day, Keith would truly want his soulmate, though, and Lance couldn't get in the way of that.

Keith had said he'd changed his mind about soulmates. Keith wanted to want his soulmate, and, eventually, he'd be able to follow after them. Once Keith was ready, he’d go on his own journey. But Lance wasn't the soulmate at the end of that journey. And he never would be.

Perhaps, now was the time for them to part.

Lance felt a weight on his knee suddenly and jumped, looking down to find Wolfie resting his head there. Lance smiled apologetically and pet the wolf on the head, soothing him back down so Wolfie rested again and looked up with those wide eyes.

“I'll miss you guys,” Lance said softly and sighed, scratching behind the wolf’s ear. Wolfie seemed to sense his melancholy and shifted closer. Lance stood, though, and began to pack.

The sooner he was ready, the faster he could pull this band-aid off. Besides, he'd burdened that desert shack long enough.

“All ready?” Keith asked later that evening, entering the living room with a carefully neutral expression. Lance shot back a brand of his own, a bit more upbeat in the expression, though, instead of Keith’s uncaring. The uncaring demeanor kind of hurt, despite knowing Keith well enough by then to know it was nothing more than a cover.

“Yep!” Lance chirped, picking himself off the couch and patting Wolfie’s head one last time. He had spent the past few hours saying goodbye to the boy.

The drive to town was relatively quiet, but Lance spent the time enjoying the winds and his arms around Keith. Being so close to the other had always been so pleasant. Lance would miss it.

The drive was also way too short.

Having stopped at the edges of town, they were silent for a few reluctant moments, then Lance peeled his arms away and started to get off the back of the bike. Keith looked up.

“How are you going to get there?” he asked.

“I'm sure I can find a ride out of town,” Lance said, nodding toward the town in general. “Thanks for letting me stay all this time.”

“No problem,” Keith said and shrugged. There was a pregnant pause. They both knew what was next and neither wished to move forward.

“Maybe if I'm ever around…” Lance said, but coughed as he trailed off, not really sure if the implication was alright. Maybe Keith wouldn’t-

“Yeah, come visit,” Keith said, nodding while looking away. It didn't sound like a lie, but it didn't look like the whole truth either. But, Lance guessed, there were far too many unspoken words from the both of them anyway.

“I will,” Lance said with such certainty that he had to look away too. He shifted from foot to foot. “Well,” he said, deciding, “I guess I'll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Keith said and Lance breathed in, held it, then nodded and started to turn away. “Wait.”

Lance immediately stopped.

He turned back, raising a single inquisitive brow. Keith scratched the back of his neck.

“I…” he said and Lance waited patiently, knowing Keith far too well by this point to know he had to be patient as the other unscrambled emotions into words. “I had fun. While you stayed here.”

At this, Lance smiled. A soft, genuine one. He responded in kind. “Me too, Keith.” The name rolled off his tongue and he wondered when he'd get to address its owner with it again. He kept the memory of it tucked safely away somewhere special just in case, along with this whole exchange, along with every moment he'd had there, every bit of Keith.

He filed away Keith's smile to his response right next to it and filled his head with it. A warm feeling filled his core at the thought, swirling through his entire body and spinning his head into a small tizzy.

“Bye, Lance,” Keith said and his mind snapped back. His world splintered.

“Bye, Keith,” he said in return and Keith kicked on his hoverbike, sending one last look at Lance before the bike lifted and sped off into the desert, back the way it had come. Lance watched it, feeling something in him grow distant, stretching farther and farther apart from him as Keith disappeared into the distance.

Keith was taking a part of Lance with him.

Maybe Lance had gone off course from his soulmate journey. Maybe he’d never supposed to be there and never supposed to have met Keith. Maybe the universe decided a bunch of things that don't go as planned.

But maybe the universe was wrong.

Lance had waited his life for this one special person, to meet the one person he was destined for, but maybe Keith was right. Maybe it didn't matter who you were destined for as much as it did who you chose for yourself.

That part of Lance that was growing farther away was attached to Keith, there as much out of Lance's control as it was by choice, something he had given willingly. This warmth, the way he held onto every precious memory of Keith, wanted to be near him, make him smile, be the one to hear the thoughts he kept so entangled in his mind, it all sang a song that Lance wasn't quite familiar with - at least, not in this way.

It was love.

“Fuck,” was Lance's immediate reaction. Frustration welled into him as much as awe. He…

He loved Keith.

Shit .

When he had met Keith, somewhere along the way, all those feelings he had wanted to save for his soulmate, all the stories he’d wanted to tell them or memories to collect, had, somehow, fallen to Keith. Lance had given it all unknowingly, but all too willingly, to Keith.

Keith made him feel like no one else in the world did. He made him laugh, he helped him in just the right way - that odd Keith-way that probably wouldn’t be of help to anyone but Lance because, somehow, Lance understood perfectly. Keith brought out the best of him and, yeah, even the worst too. Lance hadn’t expected that, but it became a part of who they were, ingrained in the relationship they had carved around each other.

Keith made him feel things so easily, so unhindered and unapologetically, and it was like an avalanche and river stream at once. So simple and complex, so harsh and soft, so disorienting and straightforward. Keith made him feel, made him live. Lance felt alive in a way he never had when he was with Keith.

Lance didn’t want to leave anymore. Screw finding his soulmate; they weren’t Keith.

And, as much as that thought scared the shit out of him, Lance felt it as easily as anything when he was around Keith, as clear as the desert sky.

He'd wanted his soulmate all his life, but maybe it was time for a change.

Lance took a step out into the desert, drawn to the unseeable shack in the distance, then stopped.

He pulled out the voucher, folded neatly and slipped into his pocket for safe-keeping. The dreams he'd carried for all of his life resided in that ticket, his plans for the future, now unsure.

Now, it was a choice, when, before, it had been simple fact, and Lance's heart was pulling him away from it.

If he followed Keith now, who was to say the universe would give him another chance?

Placing it close to his chest, feeling his heart thumping steadily beneath, Lance closed his eyes and felt his world conflicted.

The choice was up to him…

-/-

Keith returned to the shack and immediately left. It was too quiet, too spacious, too empty. He hoped he would get used to it again soon because, now, it felt like a fresh wound, open to the harsh winds and stinging air.

Perhaps a little time away would give it the first-aid it needed. Some rehabilitation. Looking around the caves for a while might fill up that space left within him with routine and business. Just until he remembered what working alone, living alone, being alone, felt like.

It was almost soothing to surround himself in the cool cave, a vague blueish presence around him, which got stronger day by day, and the marks on the wall. He laid down on the dirt and put his arms behind his head, observing leisurely instead of examining closely today. At a distance, the markings took on a vast map of lines and intricate curls that Keith could let his eyes follow for hours.

Keith lost himself, becoming merely a pair of eyes while his body lay limp and useless on the floor. His mind wondered, taken from thought to thought as his gaze steered a route across the walls and ceiling.

Eventually, he felt his conscious drift to unconscious, in the limbo state between where eyelids drooped and breathing evened and pulse created a soft drumbeat like a lullaby. He let himself go, unsure what sleep would bring but too tired, a weight on his mind dragging down his bones, to care. The floor wasn't even that uncomfortable but, then again, he hadn't felt a physical thing in a while now.

Keith might have gotten some sleep, but he couldn't be sure how much before something wet dragged across his face and hot air breathed into it. He jolted awake, blinking with a rapid breath at a figure hanging over him.

“Wolfie?” he croaked and the wolf’s panting ceased in response to his name. Keith threw an arm over his face. “Couldn't you have let me sleep a little longer?” he asked, voice a little muffled, which he would most definitely blame on how pathetic he sounded.

To his surprise, he felt a weight rest next to him, Wolfie laying down and resting his head to Keith's chest. Keith peeked out from behind his arm to see the wolf watching him, and Wolfie’s tail thumped when he noticed the attention.

Keith let out a small chuckle and patted the top of his wolf’s head. “Maybe I don't want to be alone right now,” Keith told him. People could be hard to read, but Wolfie was easy. People couldn't handle Keith, but Wolfie understood. Everyone else could leave, but Wolfie would stay. “Thanks for being here,” Keith said softly.

But, then, something odd happened. Keith began to hear something, a something quite unusual for the usually quiet desert and the practically always silent cave. Normally, Keith could hear the occasional wind that echoed through the cave and chilled his bones, that tossed up the sand outside and batted against the outside walls, but this sounded like none of those things.

It sounded like… shuffling? No, not shuffling. This was too rhythmic, too insistent and thudding, as much as the dirt and sand would let it. It was steady, and it was growing closer.

Keith sat up, pushing Wolfie to the side, where the wolf remained, looking at the cave’s entrance now too and tail wagging. Keith's brow furrowed when he saw this, confused, and looked back toward the sound. Was that… footsteps?

It didn't take long for Keith to confirm his suspicions because, right then, he, the only one Keith would possibly hope to expect, barreled through, gasping, “Wolfie?”

Their eyes connected immediately and Keith’s heart stopped. Lance grinned.

“Lance?” Keith asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Following Wolfie, you know?” he answered, strolling in easily. “Lost him for a bit back there, but we were close by and I figured he'd have gone here.”

“Why the heck were you following Wolfie? Shouldn't you be on your way to an airport somewhere?” Keith asked, voice incredulous, and braced himself. For what, he wasn't sure, but his heart was dangerously close to hope which he knew was a terrible idea. Lance probably just left something.

He came back to pick something up, then he’d be on his way. Something he left in the caves, maybe? Or Keith had on him? Why else would Lance be there… There was no other reason.

At least, Keith dared not hope there could be another.

“Oh,” Lance said and he shifted, looking sheepish. He dragged a foot against the dirt, painting a big arc on the floor before saying the words that rocked Keith’s world. “Well, um, I'm not going.”

“You're,” Keith said, word parroted but taking a moment to really register in his brain, creaking and moving along slowly like an old machine. “You're not going.”

“Yeah, I couldn't,” Lance said, still unable to meet his eyes. Keith continued to frown, confused.

“Why not?” he asked and stood from the ground. He tried to meet Lance's gaze, searching for answers, when Lance's eyes suddenly lifted, as if magnetized.

“Haha,” Lance said rathered than laughed, voice tinged in nerves. “That's a little complicated…”

Keith furrowed his brows, stepping closer. Lance tracked the movement, his chest visibly inflating like a balloon, like he was holding in a gust of wind. Lance stepped closer as well and it looked like he hadn't even thought about it, as if his legs were following his will and his thoughts were not connected to the whole. Keith’s thoughts, on the other hand, were confused, but his feelings were far easier to discern than ever.

“I don't understand,” Keith said. Normally, he would shy away from making such a bold admission, embarrassed at how frequently he really could not catch on to those around him, but here, now, with Lance , connecting his feelings to thoughts to words was easier than breathing.

“I couldn't go,” Lance explained. And he was patient. And Keith was grateful. “I couldn’t go without telling you something super ultra important.” And, the way he said it, the way his voice was a mixture of mirth and excitement and embarrassment, held Keith in place, frozen as he looked into the serious, determined eyes of the man across from him.

Lance took another step forward, holding himself higher and looking to be gathering his confidence. Keith followed the example, more in anticipation than anything.

“More important than chasing a soulmate?” Keith joked but, to this, there was no laughter. Lance looked at him seriously, almost gravely, and took another step. His eyes held Keith in place as they eventually came almost chest to chest.

“Yes,” Lance breathed out and Keith's heart pounded.

“Oh,” he said, voice small in the tiny space between them. He swallowed hard, the tips of his fingers buzzing in a million different anxious emotions.

There was a pause then, loaded and tense. Keith didn't know what to say, what to do other than wait, so he kept his mouth shut and watched Lance look back at him.

Something touched his arm and Keith looked down. Lance's hand had just brushed his and he felt a thrill go up it, the buzzing increasing tenfold. Then, Lance's hand sort of… rested on the back of his and stayed. Keith looked up to find Lance still watching him.

“I like you,” Lance said. “I really, really like you. More than anyone before, more than I ever could again, I think.”

Keith’s heart pounded.

“It's like you said; why should the universe get to choose?”

Keith couldn't breathe.

“I want that choice, and, besides, I think my heart’s already chosen for me.”

He was left staring at Lance with wide eyes, stock still and uncertain and too much all at once and too little to hold on to. Then, ever so gently, he burst into laughter.

“That is the cheesiest shit I've ever heard!” he practically cried, wiping a stray tear and watching red flush Lance's neck relentlessly, but he couldn’t stop. He laughed and laughed until he was gasping and crying and holding his sides, wheezing out more of an explanation so he wouldn’t come across as a complete asshole to Lance’s declaration, but definitely failing. “And also counterproductive!” he tried to get out. “You want the choice but you’ve given it away?”

If possible, Lance blushed even harder, stuttering for a decent response. “Listen here!” he protested, trying to sound indignant, but Keith couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m trying to be honest here and you’re laughing! That is so rude, Keith!”

“I know, I know,” Keith said, trying to tamp down on the fit, to no avail, “But-” and he broke into giggles once more.

To that, Lance started to chuckle too, slow and head-shaking in disbelief, but growing until they were both gasping for air, tears streaming down their faces. Lance balanced himself by putting a hand to Keith’s shoulder and Keith, bent at the waist, rested his head for support on Lance’s own shoulder.

When they quieted down, they stood there for a moment, still and practically in each other’s arms. Then, Keith pulled away just far enough to see Lance’s face, which melted from content to anxious, probably given Keith’s seriousness. Before Lance could stutter out anything else, desperate in that need of his to fill tense silences, Keith spoke.

“I like you too,” he said and Lance’s mouth clamped shut. “I really, really do.”

And, a little bit more too , Keith thought. But we can wait on the bigger L words for later.

But, suddenly, with one L word battering about in his skull and another echoing from the cave walls, Keith was made aware of just how little room there was between them. He was close enough to drown in the oceans of Lance’s eyes, to spot a scar that bordered his hairline, to catch the twitch of Lance’s lips as Keith’s words started to register, the precious moment where Lance broke into a full on smile, dazzling from across an acre, much less the centimeters between them.

Keith had always been rather impulsive, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to any present when he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Lance’s.

Surprise or not, Keith was not ready. But, no, he did not regret it, thanks for asking. In fact, it was over much too soon, the soft feel and the closeness and the slight hint of dirt on Lance’s lips from the rouge winds pulling away. It should have been disgusting, the taste of desert in his mouth.

It was perfect.

“I know you’re not my soulmate,” Lance said, gasping now that their kiss was over, still so close. “But I don’t want to leave. I want to be with you.”

“Well,” Keith said, a little breathless himself but smirking all the same, “I don’t want you to leave, so I think we can arrange something.”

And, there again, was that dazzling smile of Lance’s. “Guess I won’t need this then,” he said and ruffled around in his pocket, only to come up with the airline ticket voucher. He shoved it at Keith, who looked on in amusement before his smile slowly slipped off.

“But, are you sure, Lance?” he asked, looking down at the paper in his hands. “This is your soulmate you’re talking about.”

“This coming from you,” Lance pointed out, to which Keith gave a crooked smile. Lance took his hand, smiling softly, eyes turning from their warm merriment to a cool sincere. “I don’t think I’ve been more certain of anything in my life, Keith.”

Keith nodded shortly, taking one last look down at the voucher, then deciding he’d had enough of it and stuffing it in his own pocket.

“We should get back before it gets dark,” Keith said, noting the light filtering through the cave, less and less as they stood there. Keith must have been there for a while before Lance showed up, especially going by the fact that Lance must have walked all the way there. Lance nodded and they turned toward the cave’s entrance when Keith’s mind comes speeding up to him.

Wait…

Keith fumbles to pull out the voucher from his pocket, turning it over frantically to see what his eyes missed the many times before. What they had almost missed again a minute before.

“It’s expired,” he said and he looked up to find Lance standing at the cave’s entrance, eyes confused. A giddy excitement fueled him and Keith’s mind raced ahead.

Every trip into town had had Lance coming back; a new errand from someone, a return errand for Keith, because Wolfie had followed and Lance had taken to bringing him back.

Every time. Every time, Lance had come back.

Even this stupid voucher… it had been prepared to bring him back. Back to Keith.

“It’s me,” he said and Lance’s confusion grew tenfold.

Lance tilted his head. “Come again?”

“Lance, it’s me!” Keith exclaimed, racing forward to shove the voucher in his face. “I’m your soulmate!”

“Wha-?” Lance asked, eyes glued to the paper in his face. Then, they cleared and, somehow, he seemed to come to an understanding. “You said… it’s expired.”

“Yup.”

“So… I really… wouldn’t have been able to leave,” Lance said, piecing things together.

“Hmhmn,” Keith hummed, nodding his head maybe a bit too enthusiastically.

“So… you are…”

“Your soulmate, Lance,” Keith said and, finally, those words were out, they were spoken, and they were, most of all, true.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Keith asked, his stomach suddenly roiling. Was that disappointment? What did ‘oh’ mean?

Then, Lance cracked a grin. “That wasn’t very romantic of you, Kogane.”

“...what.”

Lance’s grin only grew wider. “I mean, I thought from time to time it might be a possibility, but, really . Screaming it in my face?”

It was then that Keith caught up, realizing he was being made fun of, and his mouth fell open.

“Couldn’t have said it a bit softer?” Lance continued. “Maybe when we were out in the sunset, playing with Wolfie?”

“ You just told me you liked me in a danky cave!” Keith protested. “You started this!”

“Hmm…” Lance said, tapping his chin as if in thought. “I don’t recall…”

Keith groaned, putting his face in his hands to try to hide his smile. “Is it too late to ask for another soulmate?”

Lance laughed at his plight and threw his arms around him, lifting him off the ground. Keith’s eyes widened and he picked his head up to protest when Lance no sooner put him down to whisper in his ear.

“I wouldn't want anyone else.”

Keith looked up to find Lance's eyes on him.

“Good,” Keith said and kissed him, the voucher falling to the floor and out of his hands.

And, Keith knew, he would never feel the way Lance made him feel for anyone else. Soulmate or not, they were always meant to be together.