Chapter Text
It’s not like Keith disliked his job. No, Echoes was a solid place to work, just a little used bookshop tucked in what was technically the basement level of a building. It sat underneath some mediocre coffee place and next to a beauty supply store. It was just the fact that the shelves he was currently stocking were also the support beams for said coffee place. He had to fight hard to ignore the thought of what would happen if a shelf broke, breaking the beam and collapsing the roof above them inwards. That would be… messy.
So, he listened in on the chatter of his coworkers behind him, keeping one of his earbuds in at the same time, using both as means to distract himself. He mostly stayed absorbed in whatever song was playing but occasionally chimed in on the conversation when he either felt the need to or when he was called to be the deciding opinion for something important and/or stupid.
What Matt was getting his attention for was decidedly something stupid. “Keith, weigh in over here,” He was sitting on the counter, looking towards where Keith was kneeling in front of the YA novel section, “Who’d really win in a fight, Godzilla or Mothman?” Such burning questions were always what came up just before they were about to close up for the night.
“Oh, c’mon!” Hunk protested from the back storeroom before Keith even opened his mouth, “He’s got a bias! You know he’ll pick Mothman! He always picks Mothman!” Hunk had taken organizing the pre-orders back there over shelving duty. Keith didn’t blame him; Hunk was just as big of an overthinker as Keith was.
Keith didn’t even turn around, hiding a small smirk as he flatly responded, “Godzilla. No contest.”
Matt gave a dramatic inhale as he hopped off the counter, and Hunk made a surprised but happy noise that indicated he had absolutely lit up at Keith’s response.
Immediately, Keith could take a solid guess of who was betting on who here.
“How could you! I was going off of your cryptid bias!” Matt‘s huff confirmed Keith’s suspicions, feigning betrayal- Actually, that could’ve been real betrayal tinting his voice? Either way, Keith just shook his head and chuckled to himself. He would’ve started his explanation on how it was obvious Godzilla would win, Mothman would actually be proportionally moth-sized next to Godzilla, he could totally just swipe him out of the air, duh, but got cut off by the bell above the shop's door ringing. At the same time, he heard Matt drop something and curse quietly, bending over to pick whatever it was up as someone entered the shop. Keith couldn’t actually see the door from behind his shelf, but he could tell it was just one person from the footsteps. Matt already had his customer service voice on, slightly muffled from being under the counter an all, “Welcome to Echoes! Let us know if there’s anything we can help you with!” Matt finally found whatever he had dropped and popped back up, finally seeing whoever it was, “Oh, it’s just you. Hey, dude.”
‘Dude’ responded with a laugh, “Yeah, just me.” Keith didn’t recognize the voice, but stayed quiet, deciding to put in his other earbud hastily. The lyrics to came through clearer, and he fixated on the shelves in front of him, blocking out whatever conversation was starting between Matt and this stranger. ‘ I'm weak, and what's wrong with that?/Boy, oh boy I love it when I fall for that… ’ Keith was a bit peeved that he couldn’t’ve gotten one of his more well-liked songs playing, but he didn’t have a free hand to shuffle with and just had to focus through it. ‘ Weak ’ would work.
Keith always stayed quiet and tried not to listen whenever someone he didn’t know came in the shop. He didn’t want to eavesdrop and speak without really thinking and risk having something that was meant casually end up being… y’know, the words. Keith had a big fear of his words for someone being boring, confusing, or accidentally rude. He’d rather they ended up being romantic, intelligent, unique, profound even… Of course, there was no way to guarantee any of that. You never knew if whatever was coming out of your mouth would somehow be the words imprinted on your soulmates skin. You just had to hope they weren’t awful.
Keith hated that, to say the least. He hated waiting and aching to know when and where he’d finally hear his soulmate’s words, and at the same time wondering what phrase exactly he’d eventually say that were imprinted on whoever he’d be destined to be with forever. The only thing he was thankful for was the sole, unspoken promise that the words would stand out. No one had ever just gotten ‘Thanks!’ or “Excuse me.’ No, the words were always something that caught your attention in some way, something you couldn’t ignore. That was also part of Keith refusing to listen in, because he thought that maybe he could put off physically hearing the words until he was someplace a little more intimate and a little less right in front of his coworkers. He hoped that would work out that way at least. Would be a literal crying shame if it didn’t. Keith really had to fight off obsessing over the thought of somehow actually having ignored his words by not listening hard enough and thus sabotaging himself forever. That was truly too much to bear.
Maybe thankfully, he was jarred out of the thought by someone bumping into him. They must’ve not noticed him kneeling there, and Keith managed to actually dislodge his earbuds when he fell to his side. The fall didn’t hurt at all, just caught him off guard. “Oh, shit, sorry!” A voice above him exclaimed, and Keith looked up to see that unknown customer standing over him, looking embarrassed and offering a hand up.
The first thought that came to mind when Keith looked at him was an extremely stunned, drawn out, ‘Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .’ With his brown hair fairly tousled and the button up he was wearing a bit rumpled, this guy still managed to look great, to say the least. Hell, to say this customer was exactly his type would be an understatement for sure, and Keith was actually almost disappointed that the words right above his right hip bone weren’t in fact ‘ oh, shit, sorry. ’ Sure, it’d have at best confused him and at worst irritated him his whole life to have those on him, but for this guy? Probably worth it.
Keith was too caught up in that possibility to take the hand, blinking up at him and finally sputtering out, “Uh, ‘s fine.” He righted himself, choosing to go back to shelving book especially hard to hide his rising blush. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the stranger scowl a little but finally shrugging, turning back towards Matt. At some point when he wasn’t tuned in, Hunk must’ve come out from the back, as he could hear him more clearly now than before. He was chuckling, “Gee, Lance, you sure this is your book order? Doesn’t seem like your style.”
Keith had almost put his earbuds back in but just decided to forget about them. He was still stuck in his thoughts, stuck thinking about the possibility that maybe he thought too much. It didn't stop his work, and he didn’t really need any other distractions besides their voices and the steady motion of putting everything in its place, he’d be out of here in a bit anyway.
Lance- whoever this guy was, he must’ve been popular, as Hunk sounded familiar with him too- sounded sheepish, but the words he spoke shook Keith to his core, “I wish I could say I wasn’t buying them for myself, trust me.”
It was said casually. In a joking way, even. Apparently spoken about some unseen pre-order that Hunk was obviously making fun of this Lance guy for. He probably hadn’t exactly been turning the sentence over and over again in his head for years. It was just what came to him right then and there. It wasn’t much.
But those 13 words were the ones written in clear, bold letters against Keith’s skin. Those words had been on him since he turned 13. He’d looked at them in reverse in the mirror nearly every day for the past 7 years with varying degree of intrigue, always wondering what exactly his soulmate was so ashamed to be buying. Hell, part of why he wanted his words to be profound was so that his soulmate would get the better end of the deal, and only Keith would’ve had something confusing this whole time. He assumed it’d be worth it, he’d seen it as a gift he could give his soulmate before ever even knowing them.
The shock made Keith freeze. Part of him knew this was his shot. He could chime in with whatever he wanted right now, and that would be guaranteed to be on Lance’s skin somewhere, guaranteed to have been there since he was 13 too. Keith could guarantee that his words really were profound after all. He could guarantee Lance had something worth waiting for on him.
But right now, all intelligence had left him. He was as useful as a lovestruck brick cemented in front of this damn bookshelf. He didn’t even finish putting away whatever volume he was holding, stuck mid-action like a lagged animation. Keith prayed to whatever cosmic forces necessary that Lance wouldn’t notice him. He prayed to melt into the ground. He prayed to have his mouth sealed shut so he could guarantee that no idiocracy would tumble out of his lips the minute Lance asked what was wrong. On his grave, Keith did not need the words on Lance to end up actually being, ‘ UhhhhhHHHHH YOU’RE HOT AND I'M SORRY BUT YOU’RE KINDA SORT OF MY SOULMATE I THINK? ’ Ohoho, no, no, no, that would be a type of shame he could not bear. He’d stay silent until Lance walked out. Any minute now. He could barely hear whatever him and Hunk were still talking about over the blood suddenly pounding in his ears.
At some point, Keith must’ve started holding his breath, because he realized he was getting lightheaded. It only made the pounding worse, and he was just barely saved by the faint sound of Lance saying goodbye to Hunk and finally exhaled when the bell signaled his departure from the shop. Immediately, Keith fell from the kneel straight onto his ass. Then he fell back so he was flat against the floor. It was a less than flattering move, sure, but it felt extremely right for the situation. He’d never felt such silence in his body like he was feeling right now. Right now, Keith couldn’t manage to care about any thoughts of the shelve-beams breaking or of floods of customers coming in and trampling him or of the world ending. Right now, he needed to splay out as much as possible and stare at the ceiling like it held the secret to life itself.
After a heavy moment of silence Hunk awkwardly croaked, “Keith, buddy, you good?” Matt was squinting at him concernedly, asking the same question.
Wordlessly, Keith lifted the right corner of his shirt just enough to expose the letters permanently placed there. He’d never risked showing anyone before, never spoken to anyone he even slightly considered might be his soulmate before they spoke to him first. Keith needed the security that the words would come naturally. Now he swore that area suddenly felt so much warmer since he heard Lance say it all.
Hunk walked over, leaning down to read it, and his eyes widened as he sucked in a breath, “Oh- Oh my god. Is that- Did he actually say that? That was this?”
Making his way over as well, Matt took his own look and whistled, “He sure did.” Matt poked at the spot without much thought, frowning.
Keith nodded numbly in confirmation, and he wasn’t sure if numb was much of a feeling at all. Of course, it was usually considered the absolute absence of feeling, but being there at all meant it was definitely something . He felt like it was a filler for all the things he could be feeling right now, but somehow didn’t know how to feel. He couldn’t settle on scared, excited, relieved, grateful, or nauseous- Okay, the nausea was for sure. He’d never actually felt butterflies like this and was pretty sure this was some new species of ultra-anxiety triggered symbolic-insect. All he knew was he needed to go home. He needed to go home badly. His whole body screamed for home and bed and covers, pulled tight around him to help him process this. He shuddered his way to sitting up, Matt helping him on his way. Keith paused as Hunk spoke, “Lance couldn’t’ve gotten fair, we can still catch up to him and tell him!”
“We will do none of that!” Keith finally snapped, “That is not my priority right now, Hunk!”
“Hey man, cool it, what’s the issue with it?” Matt spoke up for Hunk, “Here’s your opportunity, that’s your guy! He deserves to know, to hear you too.”
“Not like this!” Keith practically hissed, shrugging Matts hands off him, “Holy shit, in no way like this. Not right now, I- I need time, I need to figure out what to say.”
Hunk had sat down himself, leaning towards Keith, “You don’t need to think, just say what comes naturally to you. That’s what I did.”
Keith made a face at him, “You said Shay’s words before she said yours, you weren’t reacting to her or anything. And yours were actually kind of nice even, you poetic bastard!”
After a moment of opening and closing his mouth, Hunk stopped searching for a response and just kind of shrugged. He couldn’t deny that he was proud of the fact Shay had something nice on her and loved what he did too. If they were any sweeter, they'd have cavities. Matt had a fast reply though, raising a brow at Keith, “Hey, I said mine in response to your own brother, and it really wasn’t that bad.”
“You’re not- You’re not me, Matt. You’re in no way this much of a mess,” He made a general gesture to the entirety of himself, “I’ll fuck it up, I know it, I’ll say something so dumb that Lance won’t be happy to hear me, he’ll just be happy to cuss out the guy who gave him the stupidest words in the world to have on you your whole life.”
“Oh, I’ve seen people with things worse than you could imagine,” Matt laughed, rocking back on his heels, “And no matter how bad, they always end up being okay with it once they finally have their soulmate. It doesn’t matter that much when you get that big of a gift in the end.”
Keith’s chin jutted out a bit as he scowled, pouting nearly. He couldn’t think of a witty retort and finally said in what was definitely an irrational response, “Well, mine’ll be the worst for forever and ever. They’ll write books about how bad it was.”
Hunk and Matt both gave him the same frustrated look before glancing towards each other, Hunk breaking first, “Fine, then what do you want to do?”
“I…” Keith bit his lip before quickly getting up, “I’m gonna think about what I want to do on my way home. I think this is a solid excuse to clock out early.” He didn’t say that as a suggestion, but a firm statement. After grabbing his coat out of the back room he headed to the exit, only stopping when Matt grabbed his arm.
Matt had a surprisingly gentle expression, eyebrows knit together with a soft smile, “Keith… You know we’re here if you need anything, right?”
“Yeah,” Hunk added, “We’re not just co-workers, man, we’re your friends.”
Keith couldn’t help his voice cracking a little, “What I need is for Lance not to know. Please, if you’re my friends, don’t let him know. Just respect that until I know what I really want, alright?”
Again, Matt and Hunk exchanged another look before both agreeing, giving Keith just a bit of relief. With that, he headed outside, shrugging on his coat to fight the autumn chill that gnawed through his thin flannel. The whole walk home, all he could hope was that maybe Shiro could give him some sort of brotherly advice on how to not totally destroy this one.