Happy New Year, Shad!!!
How NOT to date your soulmate (a 6 step instruction manual) - by Lance McClain
1. Refuse to acknowledge their soulmark when you recognise it
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s this one. Doesn’t look that bad from here.” Lance took in the door before him with a sceptical expression. “I hope it’s not a giant wreck on the inside. I heard these rooms can be a real terror sometimes.”
He turns to Hunk, who is examining the practically useless map, printed on low ink with entire hallways missing.
“I think I’m not far off.” Hunk squinted at the map. Turning it upside down, he quirked his head to one side. “Either that or I’m really far off.”
Lance let go of his suitcase and leaned dramatically against the wall. Grabbing the handle for balance, he swung one leg behind him.
“They may take you away from me,” his grandiose tone rang out in the empty hall and he closed his eyes, balling his hand into a fist for added effect. “but they can never extinguish the flames of our love that blossoms as bea-”
“He’s just across the hall, drama queen.”
Lance froze mid-speech to look at the intruding stranger. His initial startling thought vanished as he took in the offending creature leaning in to look at Hunk’s map. The dark-clad boy pointed at something on the paper, drawing Lance’s eyes from his horrendous outfit to the arguably worse fingerless gloves.
“That’s not a D, it’s half of a B, so this right here is your door. Right across from your friend… And me.” He seemed to be looking everywhere but Lance, while Lance found his eyes glued to the boy, taking in every detail from the slightly outdated hairdo to the impossibly purple eyes.
"Thanks, man.” Hunk nodded, and folded up the map. “I would’ve gone in circles without you. I’m Hunk, by the way, and this is Lance. Freshmen, aerospace engineering.”
The boy shoved his hands into his pockets, shrugging it off.
“No problem, man.” He finally turned to the uncharacteristically quiet Lance. “I’m Keith, first year pilot. I guess I’m your s- roommate.” He quickly straightened to cover for his slip up, but lucky for him, neither of his new neighbours seemed to notice.
Lance arranged his limbs into a normal position slowly, unlike his brain which panicked at an honestly impressive speed.
His voice was almost a squeak as he forced out:
“Yeah. Roommates. Greaaaat.”
/…/
2. Make them your rival - soulmates dig rivals
“No, I have the harder classes, okay? Aaand my professors are total jerks! You should see this Iversen dude. Total. Jerkface.” The tip of Lance’s pencil snapped as he ran it into his notebook as if it were Iverson himself.
Keith glanced at his lanky roommate, spread across the bed with his homework all around. He’s tossed him a sharpener with a scoff.
“I’m in Iverson’s class too, you dimwit. We sit together.” He noticed Lance making a face at the insult. “And I didn’t say my classes are harder, I said you can’t compare apples and oranges. I’ve got a lot more practical classes as a pilot.”
He frowned at his own papers, not mentioning that when it came to theory, Lance did have a better understanding.
“Aha!” Lance pointed the sharpened pencil at Keith. “So you’re saying I wouldn’t be as good of a pilot as you are, huh, hotshot?”
Keith took a steading breath, trying to get back to his assigned work for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day.
“No.” He started slowly, but he was never a patient person. “What I’m saying is maybe you’d catch up if you shut up and actually worked!”
He stared Lance down, the flare of anger starting to make place for the thought that maybe he overdid it this time.
Until Lance shucked the sharpener straight at his head, jumped off the bed and tore down the hall.
Keith sat immobile for a second before bolting straight after the fading screams.
“Worth iiiiit!”
/…/
3. Unwittingly pull them into your group of friends (but pretend it didn’t happen)
“Why don’t you get Keith to help you out with that, dude? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
That much was evident even to Lance, as Hunk’s eyes stayed glued to the machine on his desk.
“What? Na-uh, this isn’t something Keith would understand.” Lance made himself at home in Hunk’s bed. “I need a real friend to help me out, not make fun of me.“
Hunk paused his work and turned around in his swivel chair to give his friend a disapproving look.
“Keith wouldn’t make fun of you, Lance. He’s not like that, he’s just a bit-” he wiggled his fingers in the air for emphasis “-emotionally constipated sometimes. But he’s your friend. And all of ours now as well. He cares about you.”
Lance rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “As if. Keith ‘Lone wolf’ Kogane.”
Hunk shook his head lightly, getting back to his work.
“Not for a while now, Lance. And mostly thanks to you.” He leaned in to closer examine a couple of wires, thinking out loud. “I guess soulmates do bring out the best in each other.” He smiled at the blinking lights in front of him.
Lance shot up on the bed, eyes wide.
“What? What do you mean soulmate?”
“Lance.” Hunk shot him a look. “I was there when you two met. I heard the damn line you’ve been nagging on about 4 years. ‘He’s just across the hall, drama queen.’ It was almost as exciting as when I met Shay.
Lance folded his shoulders in, sagging against the wall.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t catch that. Keith sure as hell didn’t seem to.” He rolled up the hem of his jeans and rubbed at the inked words on his ankle. He pursed his lips into a pout. “Why him?”
They let the silence stretch for a while before Hunk said: “You two are good for each other. Just give it some time.” He reached over and squeezed Lance’s shoulder.
Sensing his friend needed some time to think and a distraction, he let his lips turn into a grin. “Wanna see what I’m working on for Shay?”
Lance felt the corners of his mouth quirking up as well, picking up on Hunk’s enthusiasm. “What?”
“It’s a communication device. I made a pair. The LEDs blink a message in Morse code from me to her, or otherwise.”
“Hunk it’s the 21st century… Just text!”
/…/
4. Always be there for them (but tell yourself you’re not best friends)
Lance was telling himself that he didn’t miss Keith while back home for Christmas and that speeding up his pace as he neared the room was most definitely just a coincidence. Still, he couldn’t fight the grin as he practically knocked down the door to get in.
“Keith! My man!” His smile faltered as he took the sight of his roommate in.
“Keith?” He approached more cautiously. “Everything okay, man?”
Keith’s clipped “Yea” and the tension in his shoulders were far from reassuring.
“Are you alright? Did something happen?” Lance closed in on Keith trying to catch his gaze, was trained firmly on his fidgeting hands.
“Nope.” Another brief response.
“Did someone get hurt? Is Shiro okay?”
Lance sat down next to Keith, abandoning his bags in the middle of the floor.
Keith let out a loud breath, closing his eyes for a second.
“Yeah, he’s great. Better than ever actually.”
Lance waited patiently, thinking it better not to push more.
“He brought back his soulmate.” Keith’s eyes fluttered briefly to Lance, who kept his face carefully neutral.
“She’s perfect in every way. Perfect for him.” His voice broke.
Another brief stretch of silence later, he finished.
“And she hates me.”
/…/
5. Scream about your feelings, then make out - 100% success rate
“So why didn’t you say something if you knew?!”
Lance knew Keith long enough to recognise the hurt behind his loud words, but his own pain stopped him from calming down. Instead, it only fuelled anger in response, and he let his own voice rise in volume.
“Why didn’t you?! There’s two soulmates in a pair, if I recall properly!” He got in Keith face.
Keith faltered for a second.
“Well, I-”. He backed down a bit of red stain in his cheeks. “I didn’t know how to bring it up, okay? I’m not the best at feelings, if you haven’t noticed.” He crossed his arms over his chest and awkwardly shrugged. “You remember how long it took me to talk to Allura and sort everything out.” He looked to the side almost mumbling. “And that was mostly thanks to you…”
“Keith…”
Lance closed the distance once again, with different intent this time. He appeared to change his mind inches away from Keith’s face and instead spoke again, but maintained the closeness.
“I’m sorry. I should have said something. I knew it right away. I was just scared. Because you never said anything, I thought you didn’t like having me as your soulmate.”
Keith went completely red, but nonetheless, staring at Lance with determination, he said,
“I’d be an idiot not to want you.”
/…/
A nagging thought had pulled Lance out of bed earlier than usual, and morning light found him scribbling away in his diary with a soft smile glued to his face. He felt warm with the realization that his life had become even better than his dreams. As he laid out the words on the page, he recounted the memories.
As he wrote out number 6, he heard stirring behind him.
“Lance…” Keith pried apart his eyelids. “Come back to bed, I’m freezing.”
Lance smiled, dotting his last words and closing the diary.
“Coming, babe.”
6. Don’t. Ever. Let him go.
I had so much fun writing this for @voltron-ss, I hope you enjoy it just as much, @shadowqueen24! Happy New Year! <3 <3 <3
