The apartment was quiet. Keith was awake but not getting up, just letting his head sink further into the pillow. Shiro was already gone. Probably at the gym. Keith meant to go with him, but Shiro's tendency to be awake by 6 and gone by 6:30 in the morning really hindered Keith's ability to go with him. Keith wasn't exactly a morning person. He buried himself in the blankets, procrastinating on the simple act of getting out of bed. The world was nice in the morning. The quiet was peaceful, and Keith let himself enjoy it for as long as possible, ignoring a small dull pain in his upper back. Kind of a soft tingling feeling. It was probably nothing; he'd probably just slept on it weird or something. Eventually, he heard the front door creak open. Shiro was back. Well, that laziness had gone on long enough. Time to get up. He rolled off his mattress and pulled his sweats on before making his way out to the living room, blithely unaware of how bad his bedhead was.
"Well, well, look who's up," Shiro said, a little smile on his face. Looked like he went to the grocery store after his work out.
"Oh, come on, it's only 9."
"Yeah, I left over 2 hours ago." Keith grumbled at his friend. "Here, catch," Shiro said, tossing a bag of coffee beans at Keith. "Looks like you could use it. And put a shirt on."

"Okay, dad," Keith teased, without actually doing what Shiro said. Instead he put the coffee beans in the grinder and started making a fresh pot. Shiro was right; he needed it.

"Um, Keith?"
"What?"

"Did you get a tattoo you didn't tell me about?" Keith's eyes went wide.

"On purpose? No."

"Well… you have some very interesting ink on your shoulder blade." Keith froze in place. So that was why his back felt odd. His tattoo had finally appeared. Nobody knew why this started happening, or how it happened, but it had become a widely accepted fact of the world that everyone would get a tattoo of the first words their soulmate would say to them. Loads of people already had them, appearing at random points in high school and the two years Keith spent at the Garrison Private University before he all but dropped out, but Keith had already accepted that he wasn't going to get one. There was no way he had a soulmate. Shiro got his tattoo within months of Keith meeting him. It wasn't a lot to go off of, but Shiro had met Allura before too long.

"What's it say?" Keith finally managed to ask. Shiro moved closer, squinting a bit.

"Hey, your coworker is really cute. Think you could get me a phone number?" Shiro covered a laugh. "Wow."

"Great. So I'm going to meet my soulmate because she's hitting on someone else?"

"Apparently."

"I'd almost rather not have one. Was actually kind of getting used to the idea."

"So pessimistic." Keith scowled at Shiro.

"Don't you have to go to work or something?" Keith snipped. Shiro didn't say anything and Keith let out a bit of a sigh. "Whatever. I have to get to that stupid writing class you made me sign up for."

"I didn't make you do anything," Shiro said.

"Repeatedly suggesting… making me do it… same difference."

"Look, all I said was that the Garrison wouldn't let you come back at all if you were taking 0 units and you might change your mind about dropping out." Keith brushed it off and headed towards the shower. The main thing on his mind was the tattoo. It was just so… it was something he'd never anticipated. He'd struggled with the idea of not having a soulmate in the past, but had become oddly comfortable with it. Romance was like… a foreign concept to him. He'd never dated, never had someone so much as show interest in him. Why would people bother? If they were destined to find someone special and were able to figure that out based on the tattoos, why date someone only to know it would end? Keith waited years for his to appear, and had given up hope, and given up really caring about it, until that morning.

"Coworker's cute… pfft," he mumbled bitterly to himself. So it would be some girl asking about Rolo, probably. Joke was on them. Rolo already had a girlfriend.

Lance was going about his morning routine like any other day, but it wasn't any other day. It was the first day of the semester, it was his first semester living outside the dorms, and MAN he was gonna impress the ladies. Maybe some gentlemen, too. Never knew what life was going to throw at you. But then… he caught a glimpse of it in the mirror first, then looked down at his own arm. There were words there, scrawled in red ink. Lance couldn't help but scream.

"What! What is it!" Hunk appeared in the hallway, waving a frying pan around like a weapon.

"I got my… uh…look!" Lance exclaimed, waving his arm in Hunk's face.

"Oh man, you got one! What's it say?"

Lance looked at his arm again. "It says… 'I don't hate you, idiot!' Huh."

"Wow, um. That's weird."

Lance glanced up at Hunk. He got his tattoo a couple months ago, but hadn't met his soulmate yet. "Yeah. Weird."

"Well come on, I made breakfast."

"Do we have time for breakfast? Class starts at 10."

"Lance, there is always time for breakfast."

Keith walked into Room 2159, suddenly feeling a bit insecure. He didn't recognize anyone in the room and the professor was standing expectantly at the front of the room, his name scrawled on the board. Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe.

"Hello!" he beamed at Keith. Keith gave a small wave. "And your name would be…?"

"Oh. Um. Keith Kogane?"

"Ah ha! There you are!"

"Cool, nice to meet you, Professor Smythe."

"Ohh, please, call me Coran." Keith wasn't sure how to respond to that. Coran marked something off a list. Keith thought it was probably an attendance sheet and slumped into a nearby desk. A moment later, a smaller kid walked in, was just as excitedly greeted by Coran, and turned around, meeting Keith's eye.

"Oh, hey. Keith, right?"

"Yeah, you're Matt's sister, right? Pidge?" Keith asked. She nodded. "You're in college already?"

"Yeah, it's kind of weird," she said as she took the seat next to Keith.

"Well I'm glad to see a somewhat familiar face," Keith muttered. They didn't know each other very well, but she was Shiro's best friend's sister, and Keith had known Shiro for ages, so their paths had crossed before. The boy on her other side snorted and she turned towards him.

"Lance? Hunk?!"

"'sup? What're you doing here? Thought you couldn't get into the Garrison."

"Long story."

Keith sank in his seat, letting Pidge catch up with her old friends.

Lance and Hunk walked out of their creative writing class alongside Pidge, who bade goodbye to her friend (Keith? Lance thought that was the name he heard.)

"Soooo," Pidge said, "Coran is… interesting."

"You know who he reminds me of?" Lance said. "He reminds me of Nigel Thornberry." Pidge's expression blanked.

"Oh my God, you're right. Do you guys have class right now? I was going to grab some lunch."
"Lunch is good!" Hunk said. "Wait, no. I have Intro to Thermal-Fluid Sciences."

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "That sounds intense, what's your major again?"

"Mechanical engineering," Hunk answered with a smile. "What's yours?"

"Well I'm a Freshman so I'm technically undeclared but I'm thinking about going into computer programming."
"Nice, nice. I'm in physics, myself," Lance added. "So you live on campus?"

"Yeah but I try not to spend too much time in my dorm." Pidge's eyes narrowed, glancing at the tattoo on Lance's arms, half-covered by his shirt sleeve. "You got your tattoo? Or is that a regular one?"

"What?"

"Yeah, he got it this morning! Freaked him out a lot," Hunk explained.

"Hunk!"
"What's it say?"
"'I don't hate you, idiot!'" Hunk laughed as he said it, and Pidge laughed too, while Lance managed a smile. Hunk's tendency to cross personal boundaries was a little frustrating. Lance wasn't trying to keep it a secret but he'd rather have brought it up himself. Especially since it wasn't what he was expecting his tattoo to be.

"Guess that means you have to stop hitting on every girl you see," Pidge said, smirking at him.

"I don't flirt with every girl I see. I never flirted with you, did I?"

"That's because you thought she was a boy for the first two years we were friends."

"Yeah… thanks, Hunk," Lance muttered.

"Anyway, looks like everyone has their tattoos now," Pidge said. "Except for me."

"You're just a bab," Lance teased, patting Pidge's head. "You don't need to worry about adult things like soulmates."

Pidge swatted his hand away and pushed her glasses up. Those things were way too big for her face. "'kay, first of all, I'm 18, I'm hardly a 'bab', and second of all, I probably haven't gotten one because I'm ace-aro?"

"What?! Why don't you ever tell me anything?" Lance said, incredulously. "Also, what exactly does that mean?"

Pidge let out a very long sigh. "I didn't even tell Matt; you don't get to act all offended. And it means I don't experience sexual attraction or romantic attraction, so the whole dating and soulmate thing? I just don't really understand it at all."

"Hmm…" Lance hummed. "Well there's such a thing as platonic soulmates!"

"Lance, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"You don't think so?"

"PIDGE SAID FUCK," Hunk exclaimed. Pidge and Lance just turned to him slowly. "Wha—what? That's just weird to me? Okay, okay, it's just like, I've known you for years, I never expect that from you."

"We're in college, Hunk!" Pidge shouted at him.
"Okay, I know, I'm gonna go to class now. Bye, guys." Hunk darted into the science building. Pidge turned back to Lance.

"How do you deal with him sometimes?"

Lance shrugged. "Eh. He's my best friend."

Keith went straight from class to work, savoring the moments he was on his motorcycle. He loved that thing. It was built from parts he'd salvaged and assembled it himself. It still needed some work, but it was safe enough to ride. He reveled in the rush of adrenaline it gave him, his jacket rippling in the wind, his hands gripping the handlebars as he zipped through traffic. Beezer's Auto Shop wasn't far from the Garrison. Keith parked his bike around the back and walked in the employee's entrance, changing into his coveralls. Nyma walked in the back door as he finished zipping up.

"Hey Keith," she said, a grin on her face.

"Hey Nyma."

"Got some new ink?"

"Oh, you saw that? Yeah, it came in this morning."

Nyma draped her arms around Keith's shoulders from behind. Nyma was always really touchy and kind of flirty. If she weren't already taken, Keith would have thought about pursuing something with her, if only to experience what a relationship was actually like. Oh, and now that he knew he had a soulmate. Plus Rolo would probably kick his ass if he ever reciprocated any of Nyma's advances. "Oh? What's it say?" Keith felt his face flush. He didn't want to tell her it was going to be someone coming in and eyeing Rolo up, and he was getting really uncomfortable with her hanging herself on him. He stood up abruptly from the bench, and Nyma let go of him.

"Uh. It's nothing. I need to clock in," Keith said, peeling his eyes away. She was beautiful, that much was for sure. Rolo seemed to notice where Keith's eyes were, and he didn't seem happy about it.

"Hey, you should watch where you're lookin'."

"Hey, you should let your girlfriend know she shouldn't be flirting with other guys." Rolo didn't seem to have a response to that. Keith couldn't help but wonder if they even were soulmates. They didn't act like a couple that was "in love", Nyma didn't seem that dedicated to Rolo, Rolo acted like a jealous asshole…Keith couldn't stop thinking about his own tattoo. They were supposed to appear on the first place your soulmate touched you. The shoulder blade seemed unusual. It was usually hands or arms. Shiro's was on his chest. Keith remembered a girl a couple years ago talking very loudly to a friend about how her tattoo appeared on her butt cheek. Soulmates playing grab-ass, apparently. But the shoulder? And he couldn't stop dwelling over the words it actually said. That he would meet this mystery girl because they were interested in someone else. What a joke of fate.