Why Pink

When Keith looked in the mirror the next morning he wanted to strangle someone. There, in his reflection, was not his usual black hair. No, instead it was a brilliant pink colour. And to top it off, he had an important interview today. With a good company. That had appearance standards. Meaning not pink fucking hair. It had looked nothing like this when he went to bed that night, but now here he was looking in the mirror to see this disaster. His roommate, upon hearing his affronted scream, ran in to see what was the matter. And promptly fell into a laughing fit, doubling over and everything, yet still somehow taking a flawless picture of him.

"Again?" Pidge asked, between fits of laughter. "Wasn't it red last time?"

"I swear I'll kill him." Keith growled.

"Yeah, whenever you find him." Pidge snickered. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure he's miffed that you keep dying it back on him."

"Good. It had better." Keith bit out. "Damnit, and I have an interview in an hour."

"Well, you could always call in and tell them that you're yet-to-have-met soulmate decided to dye his hair again and they might just let it slide." Pidge said.

"Yeah, right, because that would go over well." Keith groaned. "They would probably just assume I was making it up for convenience."

"Even though it's a well-known fact that whenever a soulmate dyes their hair, their partner's is too?" Pidge chuckled. "But yeah, I guess that company is pretty up-tight like that. Guess we better hurry and pull out that dye. Don't worry, I'll help you out. It should be fine."

"...Thanks, Pidge." Keith sighed.

"Sure, don't mention it." Pidge said.

Then they got to work on fixing up his hair and Pidge saw him off with a wave. Promptly posting the image of him on her Instagram after with the tag "Look what Keith's soulmate has done to him today XDD And he has an interview too. Thankfully we managed to save him." Which Keith was alerted to via his phone. He groaned and sent her a quick message calling her a traitor, even though he expected it, from the bus terminal he was waiting at.

There was some time until his phone went off again, but he was forced to ignore it for the time being as he was arriving at his stop and had to hurry off to his interview. Once it was over, thankfully going over well he thought, he pulled out his phone to see her message. And stared. Reread the message several times before the words set in.

I THINK I FOUND YOUR SOULMATE! OMG THIS IS AWESOME! HAHAHAHA!

Keith just... stared. And continued staring. He was still having trouble processing that. He didn't even know how to respond. He knew he should be furious still, because of his hair, but all he felt was a nervous flutter in his chest as he stared at the "found your soulmate" part.

What?

Was his elegant response.

Lol Apparently it might be one of my robotics buddy's friends. He told me he dyed it the other night for a rave of all things. But it was black when he woke up this morning. He WAS pretty upset about it~ But now he's freaking out over you since Hunk—that's my robotics friend—told him about it. He's here right now if you want to meet ;D

Another message came before Keith could reply.

lolol he keeps trying to read our conversation, it's actually kind of cute?

Keith just stood in the middle of the building's reception area steaming out the ears for a good long minute before responding.

I... What?

He was sure the message just had Pidge laughing on the other end but he seriously had no idea what to say.

Don't short circuit over there Keith. Now are you going to come meet him or not? I'm getting sick of this guy asking me every five seconds.

Yeah... I'll be there. Where are you?

After being told she was still at her college, he took the bus that would send him that way. On his way there he got another message from Pidge.

You must be done your interview now right? He wants to dye his hair again to be sure—don't worry, it's nothing extravagant this time. Brown. He's been waiting impatiently since I told him you were in an interview.

Yeah, that's fine.

It took a while to kick in, so he was almost at the college when he realized it had changed. Thanks to the staring from the other passengers on the bus. He'd already gotten a message from Pidge to let her know as soon as it happened. They were pretty convinced of this already, but Keith knew the odds of someone dying their hair pink and then having it turn black was a very unlikely coincidence so it made sense. A part of him was clinging to that unlikeliness since it was the only thing keeping his nerves in check. Now his stomach was in uncontrollable knots, but he still shot her a message confirming everything.

His nerves doomed to be on high alert the whole time, he laughed a little to himself. This was his soulmate, there was nothing to be worried about. He hadn't even met the guy and he was already worrying about what he thought of him. It was crazy. Yet as he walked the familiar path to Pidge's college, he could only shove his hands into his pockets tensely to stop himself from wringing them the entire time. As the college came into view and his nerves shot through the roof, his phone pinged again. He nervously pulled it from his pocket to see what it said. It was Pidge telling him they'd found an unused lecture hall they could talk privately in, which gave Keith some comfort knowing this wouldn't be happening in front of a bunch of strangers, and that she'd be waiting in their usual place for him.

Heading to the typical place Pidge liked to spend her free time, they met up in no time. She took one look at his sorry state and burst into laughter. Keith scowled and looked away. Waited a minute for her to calm down.

"Sorry, I've just never seen you look so nervous." Pidge said, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye.

"Can we just go?" Keith muttered.

"Sure thing~ Just follow me." Pidge grinned, taking the lead and Keith trudging after her.

After a few minutes of cutting corners and climbing a set of stairs they arrived at their destination. Pidge waved at a bulky guy in yellow and darted over to him. She was laughing and yelling about how Lance must be losing his mind in there all alone. That meant the man waiting outside of the room was Hunk, but the only thing that Keith truly registered from all that was his soulmate's name was Lance. It was a strange name for sure, not that Hunk or Pidge were any better, but that had yet to even cross the well-dressed man's mind.

Keith wasn't introduced to Hunk, nor were any pleasantries exchanged, he was just shoved inside by the two of them. He slowly raised his head to find bright blues staring at him widely. Much as he probably was. He was a nice tan and a bit taller than him. He wore comfortable clothes, the green jacket sticking out the most. Neither of them said anything for a while as they took the other in, but Lance was the first to break the ice.

"Tell me you don't always go out dressed in a suit." Lance said lightheartedly, cracking a warm smile.

"What? No. Of course... not." Keith said, realizing too late he was taking the question too seriously. "Sorry..."

"Don't worry about it." Lance grinned, then scratched his cheek. "Sooo... Keith, right?"

"Yeah. And you're... Lance." Keith said awkwardly.

"Yup! So, um... Man, I don't know what to do." Lance laughed, sounding a bit nervous. "Should we hug or something?"

"What? I, uh..." Keith didn't know how to respond and he knew his face was getting red from it.

He was gratified to see Lance's cheeks darkening too. Despite not getting much of an answer, Lance still came closer. Though he stopped short of actually invading Keith's personal space. To be honest, he was a bit disappointed about it.

"So, is it okay? Baby~" Lance smirked and winked.

Keith's face just burst into flames and he was incapable of responding. Lance managed to uphold that confident smile for another ten seconds maybe until his face was equally red and he had it in his hands.

"I'm sorry. That was embarrassing." Lance groaned.

"No. It's... It's fine." Keith struggled out.

He didn't really mind the pet name, but it would definitely take some getting used to. Lance then started rocking on his feet, seemingly more accepting of his embarrassment. Though he didn't say anything or make eye contact for another couple minutes.

"So... Is it okay?" Lance asked.

"...What?" Keith asked, honestly confused.

"Ya know... hugging?" Lance asked. "I mean, I know we totally just met and all but—"

"Yes. It's okay." Keith blurted before he even processed the words.

Lance looked up at him and grinned. In the next second he was being engulfed in a huge hug. Even though he knew it was coming, he couldn't help the initial surprise. At first, Keith just wrapped his arms loosely around his soulmate's waist. Lance's arms were strong and sure though, squeezing him warmly and he sank into that. He allowed himself to tighten his hold on the other man. He swore he heard a quiet yet smug "heh" in response, but chose to ignore that. It felt weird to just stay like this, but he figured it was fine since Lance seemed so comfortable with it.

"Um, so, this seems like a stupid question but," Lance said, "I guess we're boyfriends now?"

Keith only dropped his head to Lance's shoulder and said nothing. That hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Eh, Keith? You okay?" Lance asked.

When he continued to get no response, he tried to gently pry Keith off him. Enough to see his face anyway. Though Keith just saw it as their hug ending and stepped back. Lance pouted for a second, but upon seeing how red the other was just found himself grinning.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Lance exclaimed.

Keith just groaned. Loudly. And his soulmate laughed. A lot. Apparently feeling more comfortable with the title in place, Lance grabbed the other's wrists lightly and tugged him back in for another hug. Keith went along with it willingly. His soulmate, as he was quickly learning, was just one huge bundle of energy. Already listing things off they could do. Getting coffee. Going to the movies. The arcade. He just kept naming things off excitedly into his ear. Which had a warm feeling settling in his gut.

Jump forward several months, and now it was normal to see them being all couply with each other all the time. At first, they were a bit awkward and embarrassed. Especially Keith. Especially in public. But now they hardly noticed, snatching the other's hand or sneaking an arm around the waist. They usually found themselves at Lance's apartment. Mainly because Pidge liked to tease them and would complain about them getting a room even when they were just cuddling on the couch watching something. Lance's roommate, Hunk, was a lot more hospitable. They did sometimes get carried away though, which was always a bit awkward.

"Oh, is that The Proposal I see?!" Hunk yelled as he came out to the living room.

"Yeah, you wanna watch with us?" Lance laughed.

Keith and him were sprawled over the couch together, Lance combing his fingers through the other's hair. The raven was basically an immovable object like this. Hunk only nodded vigorously before hunkering down on the floor in front of them. The first few times this happened, Lance had protested they could move, but that turned out not to be the case whenever Keith was in one of these moods. Hunk didn't mind sitting on the floor though, so this worked out fine.

"You guys are so cute together." Hunk said.

"I know~" Lance said cockily.

They talked a lot through the movie, mainly because they'd both seen in and Keith wasn't that interested in it. Besides which, he knew Lance would rewatch it over and over with him until he got the full experience. It should have been exhausting, but he found he didn't mind most of the time. He figured he must be pretty pathetic to find his company that enjoyable, Pidge certainly thought so, but he didn't care. Either way, as far as the movie went, the two only quieted during the parts they really cared about. They watched the movie a lot, it turned out. It was one of their favourites.

"Oh, remember that one time you dyed your hair a rainbow? For pride?" Hunk asked.

"Oh yeah! That was great!" Lance exclaimed at the same time Keith groaned.

They both peered at the man questioningly and Keith shot a glare up at him.

"Do you know how irritating it was to go into work with that? Then I had classes after and couldn't dye it back until the next day!" Keith exclaimed.

"Good. You would have ruined my fun otherwise." Lance grinned. "Though that does explain why it lasted the whole day. I wondered about that."

"Yeah, well you try running cashier where every homophobe is glaring death at you all day and causing you trouble just because of my fucking hair and tell me that was worth it." Keith growled.

"Oh, seriously? Okay, sorry about that." Lance said.

"Yeah, that must have sucked." Hunk nodded in agreement.

"It was a real pain. Some of them remembered me afterward too, I swear." Keith complained.

"I'm really, really sorry." Lance said.

Keith grumbled but didn't comment. Lance pouted, but he and Hunk quickly moved on to different topics. Although, during next pride, when Lance pestered Keith until he caved to take the weekend off, he managed to convince him to let him dye it again. They had fun, and of course got their own room so as not to bother the other two. Apparently, they were too loud at night though so that didn't work out as planned. It wouldn't have been quite as mortifying if Pidge hadn't teased them the rest of the weekend about it. Lance had to give Hunk the puppy eyes so he'd get Pidge off their backs for a while.

All in all, Lance dying his hair pink had been the best decision in his life. And he shamelessly flaunted it whenever he got the opportunity. Keith was embarrassed to realize later on that Lance dyed his hair like a madman all the time, and in every colour under the sun, in an effort to meet his soulmate. Lance even showed him his Instagram, where he posted every one in case his soulmate happened to follow him. As he claimed, he was "proactive in his love life". It had been really sweet, and honestly Keith was just ashamed it never occurred to him. It also explained why Lance seemingly lost all interest in dying his hair after meeting him. Keith had truthfully just assumed he understood he couldn't go into work with neon coloured hair.

Now they were happily living together in their own apartment. They'd basically swapped roommates a couple years down the road. It worked well for everyone. Keith had been really excited when it happened of course, but it was nothing compared to Lance who was practically bouncing off the walls. He couldn't stop talking about it, and how they would set up the place. He had called home almost immediately after it was decided in his excitement. Keith got to listen to the entirety of his family scream in glee for them. It was really cute.

It was a new chapter for them. And they were really looking forward to seeing how it played out. They butted heads sometimes, but it always worked itself out. And they were happy as could be. Just with a little pressure from Lance's family to get married and adopt some kids. They knew they would cross that bridge at some point, just not today. For now, they were content to just enjoy themselves where they were. But their future was bright, and they couldn't be more excited for it.

The end.