𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 , keith kogane

III • ( front yard. )

❝ if anything came out of it, it was the grass. ❞

Keith didn't expect to fall so hard.

He wasn't head over heels for Jasper yet, but he found himself becoming fond as he watched and protected over his soulmates unconscious body, chasing off any intruders who decided that they could do whatever with the sleeping man.

Keith only moved when the sun was beginning to rise behind the house and the partygoers had fled, besides Abby Aballona who was already cleaning the inside of the premises. She had come out a few hours ago, when the party was just winding down, and given Keith a few essential supplies. Apparently Jasper was a lightweight, and had drunken much more one bottle.

Keith didn't move to protect Jasper's eyes from the fresh sunlight. Instead, he looked around the yard and at the few bushes that surrounded the house. They held a new life to them that he still hadn't gotten used to, and had only the boy below him to thank.

A grunt sounded from besides where Keith sat, and he glanced over to find Jasper blinking the fogginess out of his newly awakened eyes. His dark brown hair was a mess, the neat quiff that he had when his soulmate had met him now a wet mop against his forehead.

"I'm such an idiot, dude," Jasper mumbled as he ran his hands over his face.

"Here," Keith caught his attention, reaching into his pocket and pulling out what Abby had gifted him. He could tell that Jasper's head was pounding, and the two white pills in his pale hands might help to remedy the situation a bit.

Jasper looked up, taking the Tylenol with a sigh of relief. His hand brushed against Keith's as he accepted the water bottle too, but paid no mind to it as if it had happened a million times before. They sat in silence for a moment as the older one gulped down the medicine. Keith's eyes caught the black words on Jasper's right wrist, and he finally spoke up.

"You know, one of my friends is the Green Paladin of Voltron. I could never see her color, it was always just gray. I would call her the Gray Paladin in order to tease her," he trailed off, looking back to the grass he sat on. "Anyways, thanks, I guess. Green is a really great color. It suits you."

Jasper chuckled, finally sitting up and stretching his spine. Their knees scraped against one another, but neither made any move to create a gap.

"Your eyes remind me of the night sky," the Hispanic observed. "That's all I can see when I look at blueberries."

A deep smile covered Keith's face, one that was more common than compared to previous years, but one that made his irises sparkle all the same. It fell as a thought sprang to his mind, and he turned to picking the green grass out of the earth. "Look, Jasper, what you said last night—"

"I hate that I remember that," he sighed immediately. "I'm sorry, it was out of line. Your line and mine. I have no intentions to move this relationship at the speed of light. Sorry."

Keith felt a wisp of disappointment bubble in his ribcage, the past six hours twisting his mind around and distorting his views slightly. Silence could the worst and best for people. "Can I ask why?"

Jasper frowned, the bags under his eyes darkening at the malevolent thoughts that swarmed in. He pulled his knee away from Keith's, opting to rest it against his chest instead. His voice became choppy, his forest eyes becoming a swamp.

"I suppose I can tell my soulmate, huh?"

"In exchange for your trust, I'll tell you all about my outer space heritage," Keith tried to joke, but it rolled off the other man without so much as a blink. Finally he exhaled, reaching out to gently grab Jasper's bicep. "I'm listening."

"I'm scared," Jasper hissed, no hints of hesitation present. "This soulmate system it... it's amazing, don't get me wrong. Mother Nature is splendid, but at the same time all of this is so flawed."

Keith's eyes widened a bit, watching intently for his soulmate's next moves. "What do you mean?"

"I... My family has this curse. I don't know why the fuck everyone else is met with happy endings except the Juarez family. Every soulmate pair is met with tragedy, whether platonic or romantic. My great-grandparents got separated at the border and never met again, my grandparents both died in some freak accident, my mom is in a wheelchair the rest of her life and my dad... my dad is dead too. My sister and her platonic soulmate both got shot in a robbery– dude, the list goes on and on.

"The only reason Abby is still here and perfectly healthy is because she's stubborn. And now that you're here that's another person to get attached, and that's another soulmate to loose in the Juarez family tree."

Keith didn't want to absorb anything that Jasper had just said, but he did anyways for the sake of the distraught man before him. He thought carefully, before intertwining his fingers with Jasper's in a comforting manner and moving the conversation along.

"I thought that was just me," Keith admitted. He tried to put on a nice grin, and it seemed to work as Jasper blinked the tears away. "My dad had the soulmark but my mom didn't, because she's not human. They were still soulmates. Romantic. Then my mom left when I was a baby and my dad died in a fire when I was, like, 8 or something. My older brother, my platonic soulmate, he's gone through so much. And I guess I have too.

"The 'ganes have been met with tragedy too, so maybe our misfortune will cancel out. Two negatives equal a positive, right?"

It was a ridiculous claim, anyone could see that. It was one made out of false hope and desperate consolation, but it was one that Jasper cemented his faith on from that day forward.

He giggled softly, squeezing Keith's hand in gratitude. "Right. Maybe this can work."

"Still slow, though," Keith reminded. "We can keep the hands."

Jasper blushed, nodding in agreement. He looked around his yard, huffing at the excessive amounts of litter that rested along the premises. "These hands better get to working, I don't need my landlord beating me up."

The two stood to their feet, Keith's hold on Jasper's hand only solidifying farther.

"I'll stay and help, as long as it takes."

•
fellas is it gay to spill your life story to your soulmate while holding their hand the whole time 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠