This was, inevitably and without a doubt, what some may call "fate". And Keith hates the word "fate". Misfortunes, birth, love, failures, partings in life. Why were people even born? If everything was already set in stone and laid out before them, what was the point? To be born into a beautiful rich home, or to grow up alone in poverty never knowing your parents. If that's all "fate", then the world was incredibly cruel. If that's how the world worked then the only thing certain was that some would never amount to anything.

You see, as far back as Keith could remember he had been followed by something he considered to be a curse. He could see the string of fate that bonded people together. He would come to learn a few things about this bond though, not everyone met their fated soulmate but the ones that did meet seemed to fall perfectly together.

Keith yawned as he walked along the sidewalk towards his new school. He had just transferred this year, deciding the commute by train to his old school was becoming too much of a hassle. Today was his first day, and the first day of the new year. He couldn't help but feel a little anxious, but he had a good poker face.

He watched as a young couple in front of him flirted shamelessly in front of him. He rolled his eyes, but a small glimmer of red caught his attention. He noticed the nearly invisible string tied delicately around the boy's index finger, but it wasn't connected to the girl he was hanging to, rather it was tied tightly around the finger of the girl that walked quietly beside them.

Keith clicked his tongue, he wanted to feel bad for the girlfriend, but it was a situation he had seen too many times to invest any emotion in. He glanced down at the red string attached to himself and for a moment wondered if he'd ever meet the person on the other end of it. At least he could hope it was a cute girl.

As he arrived at the school he looked around, it was bigger than he imagined, in fact it was more like a giant castle than anything. He took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. He pulled up his class schedule on his phone, realizing he had no idea where the building number even was for his first class. He was really regretting not taking a tour first before the year began.

At least the buildings seemed to be in alphabetical order for the most part, making it a little easier, the massive size of the school alone made him realize he was likely going to be late as he wandered through the indoor hall. Just as the thought crossed his mind he heard someone shout behind him.

"Shit, I'm going to be late!"

He turned around to see the source of the voice, he could hear footsteps running frantically nearby and before he could process anything a blur of green came flying around the corner and crashed directly into him. The force of the impact sent him falling backward, his phone was knocked from his hand as his eyes slammed shut. In some sort of cliché fashion, the person landed directly on top of him. He froze as he slowly opened his eyes realizing he was being completely straddled by a stranger. And a guy at that. Papers fluttered and fell around them as the strange guy on top of him rubbed at his own forehead.

"Um…" Keith wasn't entirely sure what to say, he felt his breath catch in his throat at the heat he felt from their bodies pressing together. As if it suddenly hit the brown-haired boy his eyes widened as he jumped up and quickly as he had hit him, his face flushing red with embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry!" He apologized, reaching a hand down to help Keith up.

"It's fine…" Keith glanced up at his hand, as he reached up to take it he suddenly froze. He would never forget that exact moment, the feelings that welled up in him as he saw that damned red string. It was tied to him. Not some drop dead beautiful girl in this huge new school, but this guy. With his messy brown hair, flustered face and obnoxious manners.

He couldn't accept his hand, he pulled back and pushed himself up, shaking his head. 'No, no, no, nope, nope, not happening, nope, this is not happening.'

The brown-haired boy pulled his hand back and awkwardly scratched the back of his head as if he'd been rejected entirely. Keith sighed as he glanced around, spotting his phone he walked over and picked it up to inspect it.

"Oh no, you dropped your phone?" The brown-haired boy walked over, immediately invading his personal bubble once more as he leaned over to look at it, nearly leaning against his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, if there's any damage I'll definitely pay for it, I swear!"

Keith once again shook his head, subconsciously leaning away from him. "It's fine, it doesn't look broken or anything." He glanced around, seeing the mess of papers strewn about, they must have belonged to the other boy, he guessed. He sighed before starting to pick them up, the other boy frantically jumped in and began helping.

"Thanks." He mumbled as Keith handed him his things. They both looked up as a bell in the distance signaled that they were already late for class.

"I'm sorry for making you late."

Keith couldn't help but almost want to smile at him, he did kind of look like a puppy that had been kicked. It was almost cute… if Keith hadn't already told himself he wanted nothing to do with this person, or his fate. "It's fine." He finally replied, watching the other's eyes light up a little.

"Uh, the name's Lance by the way."

"Keith." He replied bluntly.

"Keith." Lance repeated his name and smiled. "Nice to meet ya. I better run, my class is right here." He pointed down the hall at the door ahead of them.

Keith narrowed his eyes as he tucked his phone in his pocket. Well, it looked like they shared the same class too. He let out a slow, deep breath. This must be the power of that damned red string, he thought, this was going to be a very long year.

"Well would you look at that?" Keith said, trying his best to sound surprised, though he clearly was not amused. "Looks like we're going to the same room." He didn't return Lance's enthusiastic smile as he followed the taller boy to the room. Of course, everyone stared silently at them as they walked in late, which really didn't seem to bother Lance at all. After being quickly reprimanded by the teacher they both took their seats, and Keith was unfortunately stuck behind Lance.

Not that he really wanted to know what kind of person he was fated to be with, but curiosity certainly got the better of him as he found himself staring at the back of his green jacket. So far, his soulmate just seemed like a clumsy idiot, and quite the opposite of himself. And not that Keith was antisocial, but it did take him longer to bond to people, he noticed immediately that Lance was waving and smiling to everyone in the room. Passing childish notes to the larger guy on the right. Throwing a crumpled piece of paper at the small girl to their left. He seemed to be friends with everyone around him, watching him fidget around in his chair made Keith smile a little to himself.

Keith was completely exhausted after the events he went through that day. He was happy when school was finally over so he could just go home to peace and quiet.

"Oi Keith!" Of course things couldn't be that simple as he heard an already familiar voice shouting his name. He sighed for probably the hundredth time that day before turning around to face Lance as the taller boy ran after him.

"Didn't you learn anything from today about running like that?" He scolded him.

"Hm… not really." He shrugged as he caught up to him. "I actually just wanted to see if you wouldn't mind exchanging numbers with me."

If Keith had been drinking anything at that moment he would have surely spit it out in disbelief at how straightforward Lance was. Before he could answer Lance began to ramble.

"I mean, since we have the same classroom I figured we could study, and I know my friends would love to meet you. I've never seen you in any past years here so I don't know if you've ever gone to this school before. I mean, it's a big school. But you seem cool."

"Okay, okay." Keith cut him off. "I get it so, sure, I guess we could exchange phone numbers." Probably a bad idea, though not the worst he ever had. He had to admit, he kind of liked the expression Lance gave him in return, his smile was genuine and warm. They traded numbers and parted ways.

Keith made it home and covered his face with both hands, letting out a groan as he fell onto the couch. He glanced around the large, rather empty living room. He lived alone since his parents passed away when he was still little, but his family left him with enough money for a nice apartment. Normally he loved being alone, he lived for the silence. But his mind was drifting back to the loud, overzealous person he met that day. Suddenly, for possibly the first time in a long time, it made Keith feel a little lonely. He jumped as his phone buzzed in his pocket, pulling him from his thoughts.

Lance: It was nice meeting you, new friend!

Keith rolled onto his side, smiling to himself. Yea, he was definitely in too deep now.

Keith: You too.

Lance: Let's hang tomorrow after school? My friends all want to study at my place so I figure you could meet them.

Keith typed out 'no thanks' but stared at it for a while. Maybe it wouldn't hurt, he thought, clearly the guy is straighter than a pole anyway. And Keith had no interest in love, soulmates, guys, or any combination of those things. Besides, soulmates could definitely be friends, right? It wouldn't hurt to finally make some friends.

Keith: Sure.

Lance: Sweet!

Lance: Is there a spaceship nearby or is my heart taking off?

Keith snorted, he couldn't stop himself from laughing. He tossed his phone aside on the couch, deciding it was probably best to leave that one not replied to. He didn't want to admit it but he was actually looking forward to what the next day would bring. Though he was still absolutely convinced he could never fall for that guy, he determined his own fate, not some silly string.


Lance smirked with pure confidence in himself as he sent that last text while laying at home in his bed. While he was happy to make new friends he did not realize what consequences may follow.

You see, to him, there was this boy who just appeared out of the blue. Much to his surprise, he was the same kind of person as him, despite their obvious difference in personality. At first he did not realize it, but he would soon come to know that he was not a solitary existence in the world. He finally found someone to share his soul, the music in his ears, the scenery before his eyes. He could not see how hard this path would be if he chose it, how sad it could be. He could not see that he was about to be rejected by him, the only person who saw the same scenery.


Hello there!

Please excuse me if I made any errors, trying to edit and clean everything up!

Moving forward I hope I can keep the characters at least a bit canon in this non canon universe, and I promise i won't be too mean to Keith and Lance ^_^

Please review~