Story bits

Hunk sighed. This was going to be tough to explain. "Okay, Keith, buddy. You know how everyone has soulmate strings?"
"Uh, yeah. Everyone does."
"Good. And you know how some people can see the strings?"
"Yeah...?"
"Well, I can see people's string. And.. I've seen who yours connects to."
Keith's eyes widen. "Wha- really? Well who is it?" he asks excitedly. "Are you sure you want me to tell you? You don't want to find out yourself?" "Hunk, pleaseeee. Tell me!"
"Ok. Well, um, it's Griffin." He blurts. "It's James Griffin, from the Garrison."

Keith's face falls. "James? It's James?" He asks quietly, and Hunk nods. "Yeah. Is that a bad thing?" Keith is silent, wringing his hands together. "Keith? You good?" Keith inhaled deeply, before letting out a shaky breath. "Yeah. I- fuck. I should've known. We should've figured it out. Three fucking years and we didn't figure it out? How? James is one of the smartest people- but he can be so oblivious- how didn't I notice? We were- or was hat just in- no, we were- but all the- but he never showed any interest- maybe he did- did he no, he would've told me. Wouldn't he? Yeah, he- but he was kinda- James wouldn't- god I feel so stupid, I should've no wonder I missed him so much, we- we're soulmates. Of course. Of course we are, we've always been more- have we?" Keith mumbled, beginning to pace.
"Um, Keith? Keith? Keith!" Hunk snapped. Keith jumped a bit, snapping his head towards him. "What?" "Are you happy or mad that Griffin's your soulmate?" "Um, yes?" Keith said. Then he sighed and sunk down onto the edge of his bed. "I don't know. I mean, we should've know, we- but he was- and I was-" "Keith." Hunk said calmly, sitting and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Complete sentences. You keep cutting yourself off, and I can't make sense of what you're saying."
Keith nodded, running a hand through his hair. "Ok. Um, well, James. We've known each other forever. We haven't always been on the best terms, we weren't always best friends, but we were always more than just friends, you know?"

Hunk nodded, even though he was a bit confused.

"And after I decked him, he apologized, and Adam decided it'd be a good idea to make us roommates. So we were roommates for three years."
"Whoa." Hunk said.
"Right? Anyway, we ended up hanging out a lot, and we got pretty close. And we shared a fucking room for three years! We studied together, walked to class together, ate lunch together, I- if I wasn't with Shiro, I was with him! And all the time, these girls, and a few guys too, would ask him out, and he'd always be all "thanks, but I'm not interested" even though some of them were admittedly very pretty, and I just assumed he wasn't interested in a relationship. And a few people asked me out, and I said no because they were all idiots. When there was that one dance, we went together as friends, even though a bunch of people asked him, and a bunch of people actually wanted to hang out with us, but we were always like "nah, we're good, thanks" cause we didn't really like each other. But now, looking back-" Keith's voice went up an octave with every word he spoke next. "it might've been because we had crushes on each other?"
Hunk gasped, and opened his mouth to say something, but Keith threw his hands up. "But you can't tell anyone! And there's even more! We- we promised that we'd always be there for each other, but when I got kicked out, I didn't even say goodbye! He had to wait weeks until there was a day off to come out to my house and see me, and we barley even talked. We just- we hugged, and I really didn't want to let go but he had to go back and I promised that I'd keep in touch with him, and we did, and he helped me break into the tent thing around Shiro's pod and he was calling and texting me the entire time after we got him out and I didn't respond! And then when we found the cave I almost called him but I didn't because the Garrison was on lockdown and if he tried to leave he'd get in trouble and I didn't want him to get in trouble but then we were in space and I missed him and fuck I left him and now if we get back he might not even want to see me and he's going to be so mad at me and FUCK how didn't we know we were soulmates?" Keith finished, throwing his hands in the air.

"Wow. That was- a lot." Keith nodded. "Yeah! But now I know he's my soulmate! Now I feel even worse about leaving him!" He buried his head in his hands. "I'm a terrible person." "No, you're not." Hunk assures. "We didn't know about the lion, and we certainly didn't know that we were going to be sent into space."
"But I left him. And now we've all be announced missing. If that. The Garrison might be saying we're dead! I mean, they said Shiro and the Holt were dead, and they're obviously not. They're probably saying we're all dead!"
"Oh crap, you're right. They probably are." Hunk says, eyes widening. "Our families must think we're dead. Everyone we know thinks we're dead."

The two fell silent as the realization sunk in. "How about this?" Keith starts. "We promise, all of us, to keep each other safe, and get everyone to Earth safely, them, with just us, you promise to help me tell James, and I promise to help you with Shay and all the repairs to the Castle and lions?" Hunk smiled. "I like the sound of that?"
"Promise?" Keith said, sticking a hand out. "Promise." Hunk said, shaking his hand.

The team made the promise, and kept it.

Soon, they were flying in a Galran ship, crashing down onto Earth.

"Platt city." Pidge said, staring out from the ridge. "Me and my mom used to come here to visit Matt and my dad."

"Now look at it. It's all rubble." Lance added. "Sendak destroyed... everything."

Shiro steeled his jaw. "We'll rebuild it, right after we defeat Sendak." he looked down and started going down the ridge. "Come on. We have to get back to the Garrison."

"Look at this place." Pidge said, head on the swivel. "I've never seen Platt look so.. empty. Normally there's thousands of people here." Allura knelt and picked up an abandoned teddy bear. "I've never seen destruction like this. Not even in the images of the last moments of Altea or Daibazzaal. The thought that someone could purposely do this is horrifying."

"I'm going to kill Sendak." Shiro growled. "With my bare hands. It's bad enough that he has to make us and the people of the universe suffer, but our entire planet just because seven of us fought him?"

"Then let's hurry and get back to the Garrison." Keith says, forging ahead. "The sooner we're there, the sooner we can come up with a plan to defeat Sendak."

To everyone but Hunk, this just seemed like determination. Keith trying to be a good leader, pushing onwards, staying strong. But Hunk knows he's really trying to get back to the Garrison and see James.

They were trudging through the city when Pidge's sensors picked up on Galra activity. Next thing they know, they're being attacked by drones and sentries. Lance and Hunk are whipping out their guns to shoot them down, a Garrison-issue rover crashes two of the sentries into a building wall, and another runs one over. Two people come out of the rovers, and they proceed to shoot down the drones.

"I had it!" Keith snaps. "Those drones send out distress signals when they're attacked. Our weapons neutralize those signals. So unless you wanna deal with a swarm of those things, let us handle it. Now let’s get out of here before more show up." The on with the longer gun snaps, looking at Keith.

The paladin stiffens, eyes widening with recognition. Hunk sees his string glow a bit. 'So that's Griffin.' He thinks.

They pile into the rovers, him, Keith, Romelle, Pidge, and Kosmo in Griffin's, Shiro, Lance, Allura and Coran in the others, Rizavi. They rode in silence for a while before Romelle started talking. "So, is Earth always this... dreary?" "No. But when we've been under attack from a group of evil space furies and their robots for three years, things change." Rizavi said dryly over comms. "Three years?" Pidge asked.

"You've been gone for a little less than four years. Commander Holt got back about three and a half years ago, gave us the news. That you were alive, relatively safe, and that we should expect an invasion. It happened, and when we were finally able to get a message out to Officer Holt, he said that you were missing. People were a mess for a while, but we had to get back to fighting. Now, you're back." Griffin said.

Hunk saw Keith tense up a bit whenever he said 'gone', 'missing' and mentioned that people were a mess, but said nothing about it. "Are the skys naturally gray here? Or is that just smoke and fog?" Allura asked. "Normally the sky is blue this time of day." Shiro informs her.

"The dessert out by the Garrison is still pretty clear. It's one of the few places on Earth that hasn't been hurt by the war. The cliffs give you a pretty good view." Griffin says, and Rizavi chuckles. "All the things this guy could sneak out to, and he chooses a cliff in the dessert." "ETA to the base is approximately 7 minutes." Rizavi chuckled again. "Wanna see if we can make it 4?"

Without another word, Griffin gunned the engine, and they shot off. They all yelped, and Keith reached out and grabbed Griffin's forearm.

A hole appeared in the orange dome surrounding the Garrison, and the rovers sped through. The second they parked, Pidge jumped out and into her mother's arms. Mr. and Mrs. Holt engulfed her in a hug, Bae-Bae barking excitedly around them. Lance stepped out and was almost immediately got pulled into a giant McClain family hug. But Hunk's family wasn't there. "Don't worry. We'll get your family." Shiro assured. Hunk nodded solemly, looking at the people around them.

He saw James leaning against a rover, looking at Keith. Keith turned around, stiffening when he saw James. James stood up and pulled off his helmet, making direct eye contact. The string glowed again, and Keith's jaw almost dropped.

KK

Fuck. James got hotter. He'd bulked up, and I could see the muscle, even under his uniform. And his eyes, god his eyes. I mean, I'd noticed them during our Garrison days, but now? They were breathtaking. Even in the dim light I could see the fire in them, mixed with something else. Even though we only held eye contact for a few seconds, it felt like hours. He walked away, and I couldn't help but stare after him.

I glanced at Hunk, who nodded in the direction he'd gone, giving me a "go after him" look. I walked out of the hangar, starting to run once I got out. I ran through the halls, trying to find him. But I couldn't. I almost ran straight into Shiro, who chuckled and stopped me. "Whoa there. You good?" "Yeah, I was just-I was looking for someone." "Well you'll have to find them later. Command needs us in a meeting. We're supposed to go over the situation on Earth and help them figure out a plan."

I started to protest, but Shiro silenced me. "Ah-ah-ah, you can find them later. Come on."

I didn't get a chance to talk to James until almost two weeks after that. I cornered him in the hangar, by his ship. "James! Hey." I said jogging over to him. "Keith? What are you doing here?" He asked, looking from his tablet to me. "I was looking for you." I said somewhat breathlessly. "O-oh. Wait, why?"

"Um, because I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

I sighed, and blurted out the first thing I thought of. "Are you mad at me?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

"Well, it just seems like you've been avoiding me, and even I'm having trouble figuring out what all our long stares and periods of intense eye contact. And I know we were close and all before I left but after that things were rocky and then I disappeared and then Hunk said that you're my soulmate and I just felt worse about leaving you because you hate being alone and we promised to be there for each other and I just left and then I realized maybe I definitely had a huge crush on you and you were cute then and you look even better now but I thought you'd be mad because I just left and-why are you looking at me like that?"

James's mouth was open, eyes blown wide with shock. "Wait, you-you had- /have/ a crush on me? You like me?"

Keith's eyes widened. "Fuck. I did say that, didn't I?" James nodded. "Dammit. I really shouldn't have done that. I mean, I was gonna come up with a whole plan to tell you, and maybe ask you out on a date, but after the war when it was a possibility and-"

He was cut off by a pair of soft lips against his. James was holding onto his collar, and he felt his eyes flutter closed. He tentatively placed his hands on James's hips, pulling him closer. They pulled apart slowly. James met his eyes for a second before blushing and looking down, moving his hands to rest on Keith's chest. "I uh- I like you too." He said quietly. "What was that? Didn't quite hear you." Keith teased. "Shut up." James mumbled, pulling him in again. Keith backed him against his ship while turning his head to deepen the kiss.

When his tongue prodded at James's lips, he opened them, whimpering into the kiss. They broke apart from breath, panting heavily. "Wanna take this somewhere else?" Keith asked with a smirk. "Fuck yes." James said, pulling him in again.

______________

Hunk was walking down the halls, trying to find the kitchen. He'd gotten turned around somewhere, and been lost for a while. He heard a groan