Lance got on the bus and saw Keith moving to sit at the very back. He frowned – that's what Keith did every time they had a trip to an away match. Lance wanted to know what his soulmate's story was, but they had only known each other for two months. Though they were romantic soulmates, Lance really didn't want to scare Keith off by prodding into his life so early in their friendship. He let Keith brood for the ride to the match, but on the way back he took matters into his own hands.

Keith got on the bus and made his way to the back like usual, but after he sat down Lance sank into the seat next to him and gave him a smile. Keith watched, confused, as Lance put one headphone in and leaned back, perfectly at ease with simply sitting next to Keith instead of chatting with other teammates closer to the front of the bus. He wasn't sure why Lance would sit in the back with him, but Keith supposed that it was Lance's choice and didn't say anything.

Neither of them did until Keith pulled out his phone to change the song playing and Lance saw his lock screen. Lance snorted, and Keith looked up at the noise. "What?"

"You like Beast King?" Lance asked, gesturing to the phone.

Keith looked down at his phone and shrugged. "My brother was really into it, so he got me into it," he explained.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, my sister tried to do that with me, but it didn't work. I enjoyed the episodes I watched, but I didn't get hooked. I'm more of a Star Wars guy."

Keith just smirked and unlocked his phone to reveal a Star Wars picture as his background. Lance gasped and grabbed the phone out of his hands, gaping at the picture – it was of Keith with a glowing red lightsaber and using the Force to levitate rocks all around him.

"Oh my goodness, this is beautiful. How did you make that costume? Or get those rocks to float like that?"

"I didn't, my brother's soulmate did. She's an artist – that's a drawing."

Lance couldn't believe it, he stared closer at the screen. Maybe if he looked really closely at Keith's face he could tell, but that could also have been distortion from the screen. "I don't believe you." Keith took his phone back and pulled up a picture – it was the background but this time Lance could see the edges of the paper.

"Huh," he replied. "Well she's amazing. And since I'm now holding your phone," he continued, with a smirk, "time to see what I'm saved as in your phone!"

Keith merely watched him poke around and Lance wondered at his lack of urgency. Had Keith really never had anyone mess with his contacts before? Well he was about to learn – Lance quickly moved to his contacts list. He heaved a sigh – everyone in here was saved as their names, how boring. Except for his brother who was – unimaginatively – 'Big Bro'. Well this was about to change.

Pidge became 'Gremlin Soulmate'. Big Bro turned into 'Space Soulmate'. Lance was, obviously, 'Best Soulmate Ever'. He did give himself a moment to enjoy the fact that, while Keith hadn't done anything special with the name, he had attached the picture of Lance's soul-tat to be the contact picture. He had considered taking a selfie, but decided to leave it as is.

When Lance gave Keith his phone back, Keith scrolled through to see what he had done. He immediately saw what Lance had done to his own name and feigned ignorance. "Why did you change Shiro's name?"

Lance smirked, but the smile dropped off his face when Keith pointed to the contact that said 'Best Soulmate Ever'. "That's not Shiro!" Lance replied indignantly.

Keith shrugged. "I mean, that's who I would assume it would be. Is that Pidge, then?"

Keith laughed when Lance threw his hands in the air and snatched back the phone, muttering to himself. He typed a few things and then handed the phone back again. Keith saw that Shiro was back to Big Bro, he assumed that 'Gremlin Soulmate' was supposed to be Pidge, and then he saw Lance's picture on a contact for 'The Tailor'.

"The Tailor?" he asked, looking at Lance.

"Yeah! For how I thread the needle," he said, winking at Keith.

Keith only looked back at him blankly. "You sew?"

Lance briefly wondered if his soulmate was real. "No – like slang. Shooting a ball through a tight gap in the defenders is like threading a needle."

And now Keith looked confused. "But you are a defender, Lance."

Lance less-briefly wondered if his soulmate was real. "It's… never mind."

Keith shrugged and returned to his music. Lance let him, celebrating his victory in his head. He had gotten Keith to talk, he joked even, and learned something about the guy. It was a good bus ride.

The next away trip, Lance brought a teammate back with him when he went to sit with Keith. "Hey Keith, did you know that Rax here also watched Beast King?"

Keith and Rax looked at each other like they had found a life raft and immediately launched into a conversation about the show. Lance understood that feeling – when you were really into something and you knew no one else who had even heard of it, finding another fan was like finding the Holy Grail.

Pretty soon, Lance noticed that Keith would join the rest of the team on the bus rather than sitting by himself the whole time. Lance couldn't help but be proud – he was glad that Keith was starting to feel more comfortable around the team.

Keith is pleasantly surprised to find that he had multiple friends on his team. It was a nice change from his previous teams. Once Lance had informed Rax that Keith watched Beast King, the forward had wasted no time before inviting Keith over to watch with him and his sister, Shay. The trio gathered at Rax's apartment on Sunday mornings to watch and eat breakfast together, and then Keith went to Lance and Hunk's dorm with Pidge on Friday evenings for game night. These weekly plans felt strange to Keith, and he texted Shiro to ask what he should do about them.

Big Bro: This is a good thing, Keith.
Big Bro: It's called having friends.
Lil Bro: I've never had those before, Shiro.
Big Bro: Yes yes, you've led a deprived life. Just go with it, kiddo. You'll be glad you did.

At the end of the year, Rax was getting ready to graduate and brought Keith and Shay along with him to a party. Neither of them were sure what to do with themselves, but Rax wanted them there to celebrate with him so they joined. They hung with Rax for a little bit, but then he found other friends that he wanted to celebrate with and told them to enjoy themselves. Once alone, Keith and Shay knew even less of what they should do with themselves.

About ten minutes later, a guy came up to Shay and stood too close as he asked if he could get her a drink. Keith saw how uncomfortable Shay looked, so he draped his soul-tat arm around her shoulders and gave the guy a bland smile. Thankfully he wasn't drunk enough that he couldn't take the hint and quickly disappeared back into the crowd.

"Thanks, Keith," Shay breathed once they were alone again.

Keith just smiled at her, leaving his arm so that they didn't have to have a repeat experience. "Hey, just be glad that soul-tats don't have to match like those books that you enjoy. That would make this much more difficult."

She laughed and agreed, and Keith looked at his phone to see the time. "Hey, do you think Rax would be offended if we left? I do a game night with some friends on Fridays, and I'm sure they'd be glad to have you join."

Shay agreed readily, so they sent Rax a text and walked back to the dorms. When they entered the room, Pidge was already there so Keith pulled Shay inside. "Hey guys, this is my friend Shay. Shay, this is Lance and Hunk and Pidge." Shay gave a sweet smile and waved at them all, and Lance scooted over to make space for her to sit between him and Pidge.

As the evening wore on, Keith let himself smile. If only his younger self could see him now – surrounded by friends and arm covered in a soul-tat. He turned out alright.