"This is a horrible, horrible idea."

"Shut up, Lance."

"We're all going to go to jail!"

"Stop saying that, Lance!"

"Do you know what happens in jail!?"

"You're scaring Hunk."

"He should be scared! We should all be scared. This is terrorism!"

"It's not terrorism...I think."

"Pidge!"

"Everyone stop!" Keith yelled. Three pairs of eyes turned to look at him. Pidge stopped furiously typing on her laptop. Hunk stopped tinkering with his device. Even Lance stopped pacing back and forth across the room. Keith ran his hands through his hair. They all waited for him to figure out what he wanted to say. "I didn't ask any of you to do this for me."

"Keith," Pidge started.

"We've been over this Mullet," Lance continued.

"We're going to help you whether you want us to or not." Hunk finished.

Keith looked between all of them for a long moment. They had been planning this since August 5th. It had been the day that Lance had "found" his soulmate. Keith could remember the day perfectly. The four of them were at the local amusement park. Lance had been badgering them since January 1st about this day. Lance's usual high energy had reached monumental levels on the weeks leading up to his souldate. At one point, Pidge had to literally hold Keith back from punching him. But like supportive friends, Pidge, Hunk, and Keith had gone with him to the amusement park on a Wednesday. Lance refused to go to any other rides and simply sat in front of the ferris wheel. As the hours ticked by, the three of them tried their best to keep Lance from passing into hysterics. As the time grew closer and closer, Lance looked around desperately at the sparse crowd that had assembled at 2 pm on a weekday. When the clock turned 2:20 pm, Keith turned to Pidge and they both silently got up to give Lance some space. Neither of them found it all that odd when Hunk decided to stay. As 2:28 pm came nearer and nearer, Keith saw from afar as Lance said something to Hunk. Hunk then gave him an incredulous look. He then proceeded to go on a huge spiel that Keith could not decipher from his distance. Keith could only assume he was encouraging Lance that everything would be fine. He was so absorbed in looking at Hunk and his exaggerated hand movements, that it came as a surprise when Pidge announced that it was 2:28 pm. Keith glanced around them, but no one else was there. He looked back at Lance, expecting him to be disappointed, but instead found a look of pure joy and astonishment on his face. The next thing he knew Lance had thrown his arms around Hunk, screaming something about why the hell he hadn't told him sooner.

After the two had finally had their emotional talk, they explained everything to him and Pidge. Apparently, Hunk's souldate had been when he met Lance when they were kids. Since he was so young, Hunk hadn't even realized what had happened. Then, a year ago, Hunk had finally realized that he was in love with Lance. And then, four months ago, Hunk's mom had finally put the pieces together. Hunk refused to believe it at first; it was all just wishful thinking. Until his mom had unearthed photographic evidence of Hunk and Lance's first meeting. None of them had ever heard about soulmate not sharing exact meeting times as each other. But the whole business of souldates was so mystical and unexplainable that everyone decided anything could happen.

Keith and Pidge had offered to leave them on their own for the rest of the day but Hunk and Lance wouldn't hear of it. So the four of them had spent the rest of the day at the park and Keith had locked away his self-pity in a thick vault where it joined his abandonment issues and inability to be completely honest with his emotions. Keith did a very good job of it. The fact that Lance and Hunk were both so elated with each other made things easier for Keith. It wasn't until the end of the day when Lance abruptly turned to him with a serious and determined look on his face that he let himself dwell on his own souldate. "We're going to help you find your soulmate," he'd said. And that was how they ended up in this mess.

"Isn't there something to the whole thing of just letting fate do its thing?" Keith asked, a desperate last-ditch effort.

"Since when do you believe in fate?" Lance asked.

"Random times and locations appear on people's body on the first day of the year they will meet their soulmate. How can I not believe in fate?" Keith deadpanned.

"You know what I mean," Lance rebutted.

"Since when are you alright with letting life happen rather than taking it into your own hands and making it happen," Pidge spoke up.

"Exactly!" Lance agreed.

Keith glared at Lance before looking back at Hunk and Pidge who were back to working on their projects. "So I have no say in the matter?" Keith asked, already knowing the answer.

"None at all," Lance replied. "In fact, you should really get some sleep. It won't do to meet your soulmate with bags under your eyes. I already have so much work to do tomorrow as it is."

"I'm fine," Keith said, not taking Lance's bait. "I should be helping you guys with the preparations."

"We don't need your help," Pidge replied.

"And no offense, Keith, but there's really not much you could help us with anyway," Hunk told him gently. Keith let out a sigh, knowing Hunk had a point. But he also knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep much tonight.

A knock on the door drew everyone's attention away from their own thoughts. Lance, the one with the most energy, raced to see who was at the door. It was Matt.

"Hey, everyone," Matt greeted them as he entered the room. Matt was one of the main reasons why they were even here to begin with. If they hadn't been able to convince Matt to come with them on their trip, there was no way Pidge would've been able to convince her parents to spend New Year's in New York City with three young adults. Keith almost felt bad about lying to Matt about why exactly they were here, but Pidge said Matt had just enough morals to try and stop them from executing the plan.

"So, you guys still set with your big plans for tomorrow?"

"Yup, we're touring New York and then celebrating New Year's at Time Square," Pidge replied. They didn't even spare a glance at their brother, but that wasn't an oddity for them.

"Alright, well, you all have my cell number. Make sure you have enough money on you. And please don't talk to random strangers."

Keith had to admit, Matt was a pretty cool brother all in all. He was completely ignoring the rule that he was not to let Pidge out of his sight.

"Don't worry, we'll take good care of Pidge," Lance promised.

"I know," Matt said. "What are you two working on?"

"School work," Pidge and Hunk answered in unison.

"Riiiight," Matt replied, unconvinced. "Well, I'll be spending the day with my friend. I want you all to meet us at the designated location at 12:30. My friend warned me that it can get a bit hectic right after the countdown so I'd rather you not stay in Times Square after the fact."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Pidge replied.

"Good, don't stay up too late," Matt said. "See you next year!"

There was a chorus of goodbyes as Matt left to go to his and Pidge's hotel room.

"Do you feel at all guilty lying to him?" Hunk asked Pidge.

Pidge paused typing for a few seconds. "It's for a good cause."

"Yeah, that'll totally convince the jury to not convict us," Lance replied sarcastically. Lance then turned to him. "Well, if you're refusing to get some sleep, let's go down to the gym," Lance suggested. He jumped out of his seat and was already moving towards their bags. Keith supposed it couldn't hurt. Punching something seemed a good a way as any to get over his nerves. Maybe he'd exhaust himself enough to fall asleep once they got back to the room.

"Keith, you should really eat something," Hunk encouraged. Keith grunted as a response. He had his head laying down on the table in the restaurant they were at.

"You didn't sleep at all last night, did you?" Pidge asked between mouthfuls.

Another grunt in response.

"At least drink your coffee," Hunk insisted. "That'll wake you up enough so you can eat something."

Keith lifted his head up from the table to look at Hunk as he said, "If I put anything in my stomach, I'm going to be puking it out in under a minute." Once that was said, he promptly let his head fall back on the table with a thud. After a beat, Keith let out a small "ow."

"Jeez, you're worse than Lance," Pidge commented.

"Hey! I wasn't that bad," Lance defended himself.

"Well, you wouldn't shut up. You were a nervous ball of energy that would have exploded at any moment. Keith still has one up on you since he hasn't vomited yet. Keep it up, Keith. I'm rooting for you." Lance made an offended noise.

"He can't go the rest of the day without eating!" Hunk exclaimed.

Though he'd never admit it, their familiar bickering helped to calm some of his nerves. After a few more minutes of resting his head on the table and listening to their conversation, Keith finally sat up and started munching on some toast. He was encouraged when the turmoil in his stomach didn't seem to put him on a bee-line to the restroom. Keith glanced over at the clock. It was barely 11:30 am. This was going to be a long day.

After Pidge and Hunk had reassured him repeatedly that everything was as ready as it could be for tonight, Keith let himself be dragged around New York City. They'd saved up to make this trip for months. Keith couldn't begrudge them wanting to see as much of New York as possible while they were here. Keith enjoyed himself too, or as much as he could while having his souldate loom over him like a cloud. Pidge had researched extensively everywhere they would go and at what time, where they would eat, and the easiest route to make it to Times Square at around 9 pm.

Even Keith couldn't help but stop and be amazed when they arrived later that night. The amount of people that were packed into that tiny area was astounding. He looked up at all the screens that were lining the buildings facades. Keith mindless reached for the spot on his left forearm. Last New Year's Day, at the random party Hunk and Lance had dragged them to, after everyone had exchanged the congratulatory New Year hug, Keith had subtly looked down at his arms and hands. And it had been there. After so many years of wondering when his souldate would appear, there it was. Lance's scream of excitement had brought his attention back to his friends. All of them were so focused on Lance that it was a few minutes before Pidge turned to him and asked if he'd gotten his. Hunk and Lance had instantly turned to him when he said yes.

"Well!? What does it say?" Lance had asked.

Keith looked back down to his forearm, reading the words in their entirety for the first time. "My time says 11:59, New Year's Eve, Time Square." It wasn't until he said it out loud that he realized what that entailed and his racing heart seemed to come to a sudden stop. "Fuck."

With the full realization that it would be impossible to find the one person he was meant to be with in such a massive crowd hitting him full force, Keith hadn't been able to contain the bitter laugh nor the tears that sprang to his eyes. He'd run then, not wanting the others to see him like that. He ran out of the apartment and into the street. He ran until he was in the middle of nowhere and he couldn't tell if he was just breathing heavily from the physical exertion or from the pit of despair that was growing in his stomach. Keith punched whatever it was that he was leaning on.

Fuck!

He'd let himself slide down to the floor and cry. Hadn't the universe fucked him up enough? He was the son of two non-soulmates. They'd left him when he was three or four. He'd been stuck in the system his whole life. Never getting the horribly abusive parents, but never lucky enough to find a permanent home. Not being able to afford going to that amazing school that had magically accepted him. Not being able to join the air force because of his stupid nearsightedness. Everything in his life always seemed to come with a set back. After years of telling himself he didn't believe in soulmates, that he could survive without them, that maybe he was one of those people who didn't get a soulmate in this lifetime, he'd been happy when he'd seen his souldate. So damn happy he hadn't even read it properly before becoming hopeful. He'd thought, for a few minutes he'd thought, finally, I won't be alone anymore.

"Let's go get souvenirs!"

"Keith?" Pidge asked, turning to look at him.

Keith blinked a few times, coming out of his memories. "Sorry, what?"

"Lance wants to go buy souvenirs," Pidge explained, pointing over to where Lance must have gone off to.

"Right, sure," Keith said. He started walking with Pidge.

"You alright?"

Keith glanced over at them. They were more concerned than they let on. "I'm fine," Keith said. Pidge let out a derisive snort. "Alright, I'm just distracted."

"That's understandable."

"I just…" Keith hadn't let himself think this. It had always been there, in the back of his mind. He could never manage to shut up his insecurities completely, just enough to ignore them. But ever since they started planning this night...it had been there, that nagging thought. "What if...what if they aren't even here?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if-what if they were like me? What if they saw the souldate, knew it was impossible to meet one specific person here and just didn't bother coming?" What if they didn't think I was worth the trouble?

"They'll be here," Pidge reassured him. "Either way, could you really go on with the rest of your life without knowing?"

"I guess not," Keith conceded. They'd finally caught up with Lance and Hunk. Lance seemed to be buying the entirety of the booth. Keith glanced down at Pidge. "You really don't care about your souldate?"

Pidge seemed to take a moment before responding. "Not really," Pidge replied. "I know everyone says that your soulmate will love you for who you truly are and all that crap, but we both know that's not always the case. Sometimes you end up hating your soulmate. I mean, sure, my soulmate may just be a best friend or something. But hey, I'm a nonbinary ace nerd. I think the cards are stacked against me on this." Keith nodded in understanding. He'd known Pidge when they still went by Katie. He'd been with them through all the revelations and coming outs. Another scary thought to plague his mind. What if, miracles of all miracles, he found his soulmate and it wasn't even worth it?

"Besides," Pidge continued, "who really needs a soulmate when I already have to deal with your three idiots?"

"And Matt," Keith added.

"Yeah! See, I have my hands full committing felonies with you guys. No need to add more into the mix. Lance, seriously, stop buying things!" Pidge pleaded. They went over to try and get Lance to leave the booth with extravagant hats and signs and other useless trinkets.

"But we need mementos of this amazing day!" Lance complained.

Keith let Hunk and Pidge take care of Lance. He didn't have the energy to deal with much more today. Keith eyed the shops around him; someone around here had to be selling coffee. His search was interrupted when someone bumped into him from behind. He turned around, an apology on his tongue when the other person beat him to it.

"Sorry, sorry," she said. "It is impossible to get through here without bumping into people. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Keith replied.

"Great," she replied. "Excuse me. Oh, and I hope you have a great new year." She was already turning away from him before he had a chance to respond. "Now where are Shiro and Coran?" That was the last thing Keith heard before she was swallowed up by the crowd.

"Keith!" He turned back to his friends. "Let's go find something to snack on," Hunk said. Keith nodded as he walked over to the group.

They managed to find a food stand with a reasonable enough wait time. They wandered around Times Square as they ate their pastries and drank their warm drinks. Pidge made sure to reply to all of Matt's texts so that he wouldn't get worried and suggest they meet up earlier. Hunk and Lance had been taking selfies and documenting the entire experience on social media. They seemed to be having the most perfect first New Year's Eve any couple could hope for. For his part, Keith had been alternating between being hyper aware of his environment and being immersed in his own little world. Currently, he was very much aware of how cold it was. Even surrounding by hundreds of people, the cold managed to seep through his jacket and layers and bite at his bones.

Before he even realized it, the group was moving towards their target. He looked down at his watch: 11:20 pm. Times Square was fully packed at this point. It was hard to go through the crowd without losing each other. Eventually Hunk lead the group and the others formed a line behind him. Keith knew the general outline of the plan, but Pidge and Hunk had done all of the detailed planning. They were going to do all the work while Keith and Lance tried and kept an eye out for...well, at this point, Keith was ready for SWAT to suddenly ambush them.

Instead of a dark alleyway, Hunk lead them to one of the open cafes on the outskirts of the square. There was no way all of them would get in. Pidge turned to him and Lance. "You two stay out here. Hunk and I will take care of everything else." Keith and Lance nodded. They didn't really have a choice in the matter. And Keith was sure that he lost his ability to speak thirty minutes ago. Pidge suddenly turned back around and looked him right in the eye. "Good luck," they said. Keith was grateful for the encouragement. Then they turned to Lance. "Don't do anything to make him punch you." And with that, Hunk and Pidge fought their way into the cafe.

Keith and Lance wordlessly walked towards the window of the cafe. They could barely make out the top of Hunk's head over the crowd of people. Keith looked back towards the square. The noise and people were making him uncomfortable but oh well. This was where he was supposed to be. He looked down at his watch: 11:35 pm.

Lance turned away from the cafe and looked out to the crowd. "So," Lance began, "Big day." No shit. "I remember my souldate. Well, you saw what a mess I was."

"This is never gonna work," Keith said, before he could bite his tongue.

Lance shrugged. "It might not," he admitted. "I mean if anyone could do it, it would be those two but...yeah, you were fucked with this souldate." Keith couldn't agree more with him. "But...you know, I was thinking all of those things too. What if they don't show up? What if they aren't what I expected? What if I'm not what they expected? What if I never meet them?"

"Okay, get out of my head, Lance," Keith grumbled.

"I'm just saying, I was freaking out too. And then I turned to Hunk and I told him this. Well, that what if my soulmate doesn't want me. And he just looked so baffled. As if I'd asked him why people eat. Then he just started saying how anyone would be lucky to be my soulmate. That I was amazing and funny and a great friend. That I had always been there for him and helped him with his own insecurities. That I was the one always giving him the best days of his life. That I was going to make my soulmate so happy." Lance paused, looking off into space with a stupidly big grin on his face. He looked so damn happy that it made something inside of Keith ache. Hell, it made everything inside of Keith ache. "And then it just hit me," Lance continued. "It didn't really matter what happened when my soulmate showed up. Good or bad, I'd have you all to help me through it or help me celebrate. As long as I had Hunk there beside me, I could handle anything. And then, it happened so damn quickly...I almost didn't notice. Everything suddenly seemed so perfect and in place and right. And I knew it was Hunk."

Lance finally looked away from the crowd to look at Keith. Keith wasn't sure what his facial expression was at the moment but he imagined it wasn't nice. Lance blushed and laughed a little. "I guess you'll know what I'm talking about in a little bit," Lance said.

God, he hoped he would.

Keith looked back down at his watch: 11:44 pm.

The cafe was slowly emptying out, everyone trying to get a spot in the square for the big countdown. "Looks like they're hard at work." Keith turned around to look inside the cafe. Pidge was furiously tapping at their computer. Hunk was bent over whatever he had been building these last few months. Suddenly both Hunk and Pidge raised their hands in victory. "They did it!" Lance both stated and asked.

At the same moment, Lance and him turned back around to look at the square. Oh yeah...they'd done it.

Instead of the myriad of ADs on the screens, there was one common message that read on all of them: "Souldate" in big bold letters with an even bigger arrow under it. All the arrows were pointing back towards where Keith and Lance were standing. He would never underestimate Pidge or Hunk again. Collectively, the crowd in Times Square followed the arrows until they were all staring at the cafe. The messages lasted another thirty seconds before the screens went black. Before he knew it, the ADs were once again promptly displayed on the screens.

Hunk and Pidge scrambled out of the cafe. Hunk quickly placed his device on the floor and then smashed it with his foot. "This was just to help amplify Pidge's signal. We hopefully won't need this again any time soon," Hunk said, as he threw the ruined device away.

"We couldn't keep it up for long unless we wanted them to be able to trace us but yeah, we did it." Pidge was almost jumping up and down in their excitement.

"Now we just wait," Lance said. They all turned to Keith with hopeful smiles on their faces. Keith managed to move his face in what he hoped was a smile but was probably closer to a grimace. He checked his watch again: 11:53 pm. God, he was going to throw up. His heart was hammering in his ears. He could feel his pulse all over his chest. His eyes kept scanning the crowd, looking for anyone that was making their way towards the cafe. There was a small opening that separated the crowd from the entrance to the cafe. It would be obvious if someone were to break through.

His eye caught movement on one side of the crowd. Keith turned to look. A young man had stepped away from the crowd, a frantic look in his eyes. As he scanned the people there, they suddenly settled on Keith and held his gaze. They were a pair of deep blue eyes that Keith thought looked beautiful. And he felt nothing. The earth didn't move under his feet. A calm didn't settle over him. He felt nothing. And as soon as it had happened, the man's eyes moved away from Keith, still searching.

That wasn't his soulmate. That's all it was. The man started walking around the length of the cafe, looking around. Others in the crowd had caught on and were turning to look at him openly. Then, a woman broke out from the crowd just as suddenly as he had. She looked around and instantly focused on the man. They both stood frozen, staring at each other before they closed the distance between them and hugged. Applause from the crowd erupted. Keith couldn't control the glare he sent their way.

"Well, at least this helped someone," Lance mumbled. "Ow." Pidge had probably elbowed him for his insensitive comment.

Keith was just trying to breath. It still wasn't time yet. He still had who knows how many minutes before he met his soulmate. It was fine. Logically, it made sense that other people would find their soulmates tonight. That was fine. It wasn't the lottery. He'd find his person. Right?

The overwhelming sense of despair that Keith had felt three times before in his life was about to consume him before someone else broke through the crowd.

"Pidge!"

Oh, it was Matt.

"What did you do?" Matt asked, glaring at all of them in turn. There was a small group right behind him that seemed thoroughly confused. "Please, please tell me that you did not just hack into Times Square on New Year's Eve!"

"Then I won't-"

"Oh my god! Pidge!" Matt seemed to be losing his shit. And Keith couldn't blame him, he was just beyond caring. Out of the corner of his eye, he say all the screens turn to the minute countdown.

This was it.

And it was.

From right behind Matt, a figure stepped closer to their group and locked eyes with Keith.

Lance had been wrong.

It wasn't a slight, almost unnoticeable change.

It was an eruption.

It was an eruption of emotion and sensations and happiness that overwhelmed Keith. There he was. The person he'd been looking for. Keith thought he would faint from all of it, yet his feet carried him forward, desperately trying to close the distance between him and this amazing man in front of him. Keith's eyes were trying to absorb every detail of him and maintain eye contact at the same time. Tall, muscular, breathtaking black eyes that popped with winged eyeliner, shocking white bangs, a scar across the bridge of his nose, everything perfect.

Before he knew it, Keith was standing right in front of his soulmate. God, how could someone's smile make him melt like that. "Hi." Oh this man was going to kill him with just one word. His voice! Could this man be anymore perfect? Probably not.

"H-hi," Keith replied. And of course his voice had to crack. Though the man's smile just grew so Keith couldn't dwell on any bad emotions for long.

The sound of the countdown starting brought them back down. The man tentatively reached out to grab Keith's hand. Keith reached out with his other hand. His gloved hand wrapped around cold steel and felt his soulmate stiffen the tiniest bit. Ah, a prosthetic. Okay. He tightened his grip on his soulmate's hands. That seemed to be the reassurance his soulmate needed to continue smiling down at him with unbridled joy.

"Six, five, four," his soulmate began to countdown. His eyes were shimmering with a question that Keith was more than ready to answer. "Three, two, one." Keith reached up on his tiptoes to meet his soulmate halfway.

It was short and sweet and unbelievably amazing. Keith couldn't wait to share more kisses like that like an everyday habit for the rest of his life. They drew away from each other by just a few inches.

"Happy New Year," his soulmate said.

Keith didn't think he could smile much larger if he tried.

"Happy New Year."