Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What do you mean you’re moving?” Shiro looked up to Alfor with dread.

Alfor continued watching two of his servants as they packed the clothes in his wardrobe. He moved forward quickly as one of them dropped one of his fur coats, “Careful with that!” He moved into the other room to survey the other servants packing up other parts of the room, ultimately ignoring Shiro. He let out a frustrated breath and left to find Matt and Allura. The three story mansion had been home to Shiro and his boyfriend for a little over a year now. It had honestly been perfect, but it looked like that was coming to a close.

“What?!” Shiro rolled his eyes and followed the sound of his boyfriend’s over-dramatic cries. He found Matt in the room they had been sharing with one hand clutching his heart and the other holding his head.

Allura was standing near the door rubbing her eyes in annoyance, “I had nothing to do with the decision Matthew. I really am sorry, but can you stop with the dramatics.” Shiro noticed her british accent had become a lot stronger after being back in her home country for the summer.

Matt looked at her with a glare. He pointed a finger at her angrily, “You know I hate it when people call me Matthew,” he began raising his voice, “And I am NOT-”

“Matt! Sweet pea, calm down.” Shiro gave a quick pat to Allura’s shoulder as he moved past her to his boyfriend.

Matt looked up to him in surprise, “I don’t want to calm down! This is terrible!”

He smiled and kissed Matt’s forehead, which he had easy access to given how much taller he was, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Shiro moved some of Matt’s hair behind his ear and fixed his glasses.

Matt groaned a little over how cute and right Shiro was, “This sucks though. I like living here.” Shiro pulled him into a hug and looked over to Allura. They all three had been living in the house for the past two years through their senior and beginning year of graduate school at Altea University. That’s also where Matt and Shiro had met Allura during their first year. Shiro and Allura had shared a class. He had already known Matt from high school. They had started dating their second year at the University, much to Allura’s delight.

She only offered him a sad smile, “I truly apologize. It was all such a fast process. One minute we’re with family enjoying our vacation, the next thing I know Father is ordering movers to the house.”

Shiro let Matt out of the hug, but still held onto his waist, “What exactly happened? Your father didn’t give me much of an explanation.”

Allura sighed looking at her two friends faces, “My grandfather is officially retiring. He’s talked about it many times before, but this time he was serious. While we were on vacation he signed over the company to my father. Main headquarters are in Britain, so he’s decided to move there permanently. He’s already sold the house.”

“The house we’re currently living in. The house we’d thought we’d have for the school year, meaning we didn’t look for other places to live,” Shiro explained to her.

“There are plenty of places to live in the city,” she watched as Matt moved to sit on the bed.

“None in our price range,” Matt retorted. “And we don’t have a car, so we’d need to live near campus, but nothing is going to be open two weeks before school starts.”

“We also already passed the deadline for graduate housing so that’s not an option either,” Shiro thought out loud.

Allura began biting her thumbnail as she thought, one of her nervous habits, “There has to be something…” All of them sat in silence, none of them having any ideas of how to solve their predicament.

Matt looked to Allura with confusion, “Wait, where are you staying?”

Allura tucked a lock of her white hair behind her head with a guilty look on her face, “With my Uncle Coran, and before you ask he lives in a two bedroom apartment so there’s not gonna be room for all of us.”

Matt groaned loudly, falling back onto the bed, “God dammit! What are we going to do? I am not moving back in with my parents, especially since Katie isn’t there. Imagine how sad that would be! My little sister having more independence than me,” He dragged his hands down his face.

Shiro sat next to his boyfriend putting a comforting hand on his knee, “We’ll think of something, don’t worry. And I don’t think my parents would even let me move back in. They’ve been counting down the days until Keith leaves.” He thought of his adopted brother, who was also moving out for his first year of college.

Allura gasped loudly, moving her hand out of her mouth to smack her head, “Oh my goodness! I can’t believe I forgot.”

Matt sat up with wide eyes, “What? What did you forget?”

She motioned for them to follow her as she walked quickly out of the room. Shiro and Matt exchanged a confused look as they got off the bed to follow her. She was already turning the corner as they were leaving the bedroom, causing them to pick up their pace to follow her. They went down the stairs to the first floor trying their best to see where she was going. She stopped in front of the door where her Uncle Coran usually stayed and knocked. Shiro and Matt barely made it to the door when Coran quickly opened it and smiled at the three of them.

“Hello hello! What can I do for my favorite people?” Coran had been nothing but kind to Shiro and Matt while they lived here. Shiro even began looking up to him as a mentor, especially with all the help Coran gave him at school. Coran was a dean at the school, so it was easy to find him on campus.

“Uncle Coran!” Allura brought her hands together in front of her, already putting on her ‘I need a favor’ face, “It seems that your favorite people are in need of some assistance.”

Coran raised a single eyebrow looking down at her, “Is that so? What kind of assistance exactly?”

She batted her eyes at him sweetly, “Do you still have those spots open for the mentoring program?” Matt and Shiro looked at each other.

Shiro spoke up first, “What mentoring program?”

Coran moved to the side allowing them to come into his room. They all came in and sat in the chairs around his desk. Allura sat on one of the plastic crates that were being used to pack his belongings as Coran sat behind his mostly empty desk, starting up his computer as he started to explain, “My Graduate Guidance Program. It’s my baby, one of my first major programs as a member of the University. Basically, graduate students are invited to stay in the dorms with incoming Freshman and act as a mentor in their first year. Since we know you’d probably not want to live in the dorms anymore, we offered the rooms for free.”

That grabbed Shiro’s attention, “That actually sounds…”

“Perfect!” Matt smiled at Coran, “Please tell me there are spots open.”

Coran clicked on something on his computer that caused him to flinch slightly, “Sorry lads, it seems all of the freshmen that signed up already have mentors.” Matt let out a loud groan, but stopped when Coran held up his finger, “However, it seems we do have two remaining open spots for freshmen. Do you happen to know any incoming freshmen?”

Shiro smiled, “Yes actually we do.”

Coran’s face lit up, “Excellent! If you give me their names and student ID’s I can put them in right now.”

“Um… can I room with a girl if it’s my sister?” Matt asked Coran.

Coran’s eyebrow shot up as he thought about it, “Well… I’m sure I can make an exception.” He smiled as Matt fist bumped the air. Shiro and Matt pulled their phones out at the same time, calling their respective siblings. Shiro’s foot bounced as he waited for Keith to answer his phone.

He heard as Keith fumbled with his phone, “What do you want?”

“Hello to you, too, brother,” Shiro smiled, happy to hear his brother after being gone for so long. Keith had gotten into some trouble while Shiro was away at school, but with a little guidance from him and his parents, they were able to get him to stay on track and convince him to go to college.

“You only call when you want something from me. Other than that we just text, so what do you want?” Shiro could hear his brother laying down on his bed back at his parents house.

“What’s your student ID number?”

“Why?” Keith sounded surprised at the question.

“Because Alfor’s moving and now I need a place to stay so you’re gonna move into a dorm with me.”

“What? No, I applied for a single dorm.”

“Well, we can’t always get what we want. Please Keith, if I don’t stay with you I will literally be homeless. Also, who applies for a single dorm? You need to learn how to make friends Keith.” Allura giggled at Shiro’s statement.

“Well, I’m not gonna make friends living with you.”

“Keith, did you miss the homeless part?” Shiro could hear him making frustrated noises as he thought the situation over.

It was silent for a little bit longer before he let out a breath. “Fine! I guess I don’t have an option,” Keith read off his student ID not sounding too happy.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you Keith! We’re going to have a great year.”

“I doubt-” Shiro hung up the phone to avoid any more of Keith’s complaints. He read the number happily to Coran. He looked to Matt as he hung up the phone, “Did you get Katie to do it?”

“No, she has to be in specific dorms for the science program she’s in, but her friend Lance doesn’t have anyone to room with. She swears he’s cool, so I guess I have to trust it.” He read the student ID to Coran.

“And, uh, Lance’s last name?” Coran asked.

Matt read the text Katie had just sent him, “Um… McClain.”

Shiro looked up, “Wait, Lance McClain? Goes to Garrison High with Katie?” Matt nodded his head. “Oh my gosh, that’s the dude that Keith was competing against for that scholarship.”

Matt slowly remembered, “Oh yeah. The one he was super hung up on?”

Shiro nodded. He tried to put on his Keith impression, moving his some of the white hair from the top of his head in front of his eyes to imitate Keith’s bangs, “Stupid Lance. Stupid beautiful Lance, with his gorgeous ocean blue eyes and really soft looking hair.”

Matt laughed, “Did he really say that?”

“I have the texts to prove it.”

“Alright, we’re all set up. You are both in Voltron Hall. Matt has floor 4 room 6. Shiro has floor 6 room 7.” Coran started pulling papers out of his desk as he went on, “The dorm is Coed, so there will be random checks ensuring that people are sticking to their floors. Here’s all that you are responsible for as mentor’s.” He handed the papers to Shiro and Matt, “Move in date is August 25th, but I do have access to the keys. I could let you move in early since Alfor is planning on being gone by tomorrow.”

Shiro smiled and stood up to shake Coran’s hand, “Yes, please. Thank you so much. You really saved us.”

Matt copied Shiro and shook Coran’s hand as well, “Honestly. You’re our hero.”

Coran laughed, “No problem my boys. Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll have the dorm keys for you by the end of the night.”

Matt and Shiro kept thanking Coran as they followed Allura out of the room. Coran closed the door behind them as they left. Shiro hugged Allura and Matt, picking them both up and doing a quick twirl with them in his arms. He put them down and laughed, “We’re not homeless!”

Matt laughed, “Yeah, but we are living with our younger siblings in our old dorm.”

Shiro brought Matt close to him wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist, “Too bad we’re not sharing like freshman year.”

Matt looked up flirtatiously, putting his hands on Shiro’s chest, “Oh you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“And I’d like to no longer be part of this conversation,” Allura interjected.

Shiro moved away from Matt, but still held him as always, “I guess we gotta start packing.”

“We are moving from a mansion to a freshman dorm. If this isn’t the saddest moment of my life…” Matt complained as they walked towards the stairs.

“I don’t know,” Shiro shrugged his shoulders, “I feel like this is gonna be a fun year. For everyone.”

Chapter Text

Lance looked down his checklist, thinking through all of the things in his two boxes and two suitcases. He was pretty sure he had everything, but hated being under prepared. He brought his backpack up to his lap and started to unzip it to make sure he had his school supplies.

“Dude, that has to be the 100th time you’ve checked through your backpack and list,” Hunk laughed as he switched lanes, still keeping his eyes on the road. They were in Hunk’s famous bright yellow truck that was currently filled to the brim with Lance, Pidge, and Hunk’s stuff for their dorms. Hunk’s parents were following behind them to drive the truck back to the house where it would stay for the semester. Hunk had opted out of buying parking, so he wasn’t able to keep his car.

Lance smiled while still looking through his backpack, “Sorry I want to be prepared.”

Pidge snorted from the back seat, “Prepared was checking when we were packing, now it’s just tedious.”

Hunk gave him a quick glance, “‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’ Albert Einstein my man.” His words caused Lance and Pidge to groan.

“For the last time, Hunk, Einstein didn’t say that.” Pidge leaned forward to punch his shoulder.

“Ow!” Hunk rubbed his shoulder, “I’m pretty sure he said that.”

“And I’m pretty sure your mom tagged you in some weird adult meme on facebook and that was enough to convince you, loser,” Lance said while finishing looking through his backpack and checklist. He zipped it up and threw it back down to his feet. He grabbed his phone from the cup holder near the radio to change the song.

“Something other than Lady Gaga please Lance,” Pidge pleaded. “I’m a little Gaga’d out.”

Lance sorted through the music on his phone, “You know what just for that Pidge, I am only playing Gaga for the remaining twenty minutes of this trip.”

“Don’t be a dick Lance!” They screamed over the blankets that were piled in their lap.

Lance turned up the volume as Perfect Illusion starting playing on the truck’s speakers, “No such thing as too much Gaga!” Hunk laughed and started singing the song along with Lance. Lance knew Hunk didn’t have too much love for his music, but he would smile and sing along anyways because he knew Lance loved it. That’s why Lance loved him with all his heart.

They went through the great hits of Gaga up until they drove up to the parking garage across from their dorm. There was plenty of people moving in and out of the dorm, even though it was eight o’clock in the morning. It was to be expected during freshman moving day. All incoming freshman got to move in a day early in order to get a feel for their dorm before the entire campus moved back in.

Lance hopped out of the truck first, excitement bubbling in his chest. He had literally been counting down the minutes up to this moment, they day that the next part of his life began. Pidge came up next to him looking around at the brick buildings. He grabbed his backpack out of the truck and put it on his shoulders. Hunk had walked over to where his parents parked a little ways down.

Lance looked down at his short friend. He put his arm around their shoulder, “Well Pidge, what do you think?” He waved his free arm in front of them, gesturing to the campus that filled his heart with hope.

“You really think this place is as LGBT friendly as the website says?” He looked down at Pidge, surprised with the question.

“Trust me, I wouldn’t have applied if it wasn’t. When me and Hunk came last summer, it was honestly the most comfortable I have ever been to admit I was bi. I promise.” Pidge shrugged, looking down with doubt on their face. Lance sighed, “Are you worried if the campus is going to be accepting of your gender, or your brother?”

Pidge stayed silent. Lance grabbed their shoulders and turned his friend to face him, “Look, I’ve never met your brother, so I can’t speak on his behalf, but I am sure from the stories you’ve told me that he loves you. He’ll accept you for you no matter what, and if he doesn’t I’ll make his life a living hell everyday. I’ll hide all his shirts and… I don’t know hide a snake in his bed.”

Pidge let out a snort, “Yeah Lance, that’s how you combat transphobia. Petty pranks.”

Lance pulled them in for a tight hug, doing his best to squeeze the air out of their lungs, “There’s my sarcastic little Pidgeon.”

Pidge wiggled their way out of Lance’s arms, gasping at the lack of air, “You know I hate that nickname.”

Lance ruffled their hair, “You know I’m not giving up on it that easily.”

Hunk came up behind them, “Hey guys. So my parents are thinking we unload Pidge’s and my stuff first since we’re in the same dorm and then we can get Lance’s after. Cool?”

“Actually,” Lance said, “I was thinking of heading to my dorm right now. Matt has already been there for about two weeks so it’s already open and mostly set up. I just have my suitcases and backpack, I’m pretty sure I can manage on my own.”

Hunk frowned, “You sure buddy? It won’t take long to get our stuff down and to the dorm.”

Lance patted his shoulder, “Yeah it’ll be okay. I just… I’m really excited to see my dorm.”

Hunk gave him a knowing look, “Alright I guess I’ll let you go, but we gotta meet up for dinner. Our first dinner as college kids on campus.”

Hunk raised his hand for a high five and Lance happily obliged, “Oh, no doubt my dude. You can’t keep me from my Pidgeon and Hunkman that long.”

Pidge snorted, “Okay I’ll take Pidgeon over ‘Hunkman’.”

Hunk slapped Lance’s shoulder lightly, “Yeah dude that was awful.”

Lance acted hurt, clutching his heart dramatically, “How dare you? I’ll have you know any nickname I give is automatically the best nickname you can receive.”

Pidge went to the back of the truck and started taking out suitcases, “Yeah, you and Matt are gonna get along just fine.”

Lance laughed and followed Hunk to the back of the truck, pulling out his two suitcases. He paused to pull up the campus map before following the group to Pidge and Hunk’s dorm, Arusia Hall. He waved them goodbye for now and started walking towards Voltron Hall, which happened to be pretty close Arusia. Lance crossed the street and took a left and saw a big white building with light blue letters spelling out ‘Voltron Hall’. He couldn’t calm the excitement in his heart. A smile spread across his face as he picked up his pace.

He was so close to the doors when a sudden solid force hit him on the left side. He fell to ground, his bags falling in different directions around him. He grabbed his elbow which had taken to the worst out of the fall. He looked up to see someone else trying to pull themselves together, their bags also spread out around them.

Lance panicked slightly, standing up and reaching for the other person’s bags, “I’m so sorry. I must’ve been too excited I wasn’t even looking.” He laughed and looked at the person in front of him. His smile slowly faded as he realized who it was.

Keith finally stood dusting off his shirt, a small smile on his face. He was still looking down as he spoke, “No, no. It was me. I should really look up when I’m walk… ing…” He slowed as he finally looked up and locked eyes with Lance, his smile also falling.

Lance pointed at him, “You!”

Keith just stood there, “Me?”

Lance shoved the bag he had picked up into Keith’s arms, “Yeah you, what are you doing here?”

“Uh… this is my dorm.”

Lance groaned, “This is my dorm too! Are we really going to share dorms?”

“Guess so.”

“Of course!” Lance threw his arms up in frustration, “Finally my chance to escape high school, and my rival is in the same dorm as me.”

“Um… rival?”

Lance bent down to pick up his own bags, “Let me guess, you’re an Aerospace engineering major too?”

“How’d you know?”

Lance looked up in disbelief, “Are you serious?! I was joking! God, first you take my scholarship and now my major!”

Keith slung a bag around his shoulder, “Geez, I was joking. I haven’t decided my major yet.”

Lance glared with both of his suitcases in hand, “Yeah, well stay away from Aerospace engineering.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I don’t know, it sounds appealing.” Lance gave him one final glare before walking towards the doors. A table was set up inside the lobby with two student representatives behind it. They asked for their school ID’s. Lance did his best to try and forget that Keith was going to be living in the same dorm as him, which proved difficult considering he was standing right next to him.

As he waited, he looked around the lobby, the excitement in his heart starting to grow again. He looked up and down to his left and accidentally made eye contact with Keith. Keith looked away fast. Lance made a face, but then he noticed a slight blush on Keith’s cheeks. He looked back at the people at the table, feeling a small blush come onto his cheeks as well. He stayed looking at the table, even when he could’ve sworn he saw Keith look back up at him from the corner of his eye.

“Alright, Lance you are in room 6 on the 4th floor. And… Keith you are in room 7 on the 6th floor.”

“Thank God,” Lance whispered under his breath, but apparently not quietly enough earning him a glare from Keith. Lance grabbed his key fast and headed for the elevator. Keith stayed behind a little longer, hoping to avoid any future conflict with the Cuban boy.

Lance entered the elevator and turned to see Keith heading for the stairs. He noticed him already struggling to carry all his bags while trying to open the door for the stairs. He rolled his eyes and held the door for the elevator, “Hurry up, I’m not going to hold the door forever.”

Keith looked back, “Oh… I didn’t think you’d want to share an elevator ride with your ‘rival’.” He did air quotes around the word rival, putting extra emphasis on it in order to show his thoughts on the ridiculousness of the title.

Lance moved his hand out of the way of the elevator door, shrugging his shoulders, “Fine go up six flight of stairs.” Lance looked away as the doors closed, but could very much hear bags rustling as Keith hurried to catch the door. He jumped slightly as Keith’s hand gripped around on the nearly closed door. He noticed black, fingerless biker gloves on Keith’s hand causing him to roll his eyes again. Keith pushed the door open all the way and made his way beside Lance.

It was silent while the door closed until Keith sighed, “Look, how about you just stick to your floor and I’ll stick to mine and we’ll be very far away.”

Lance crossed his arms and huffed, “Fine by me.” Silence again fell over the elevator as it crawled up and stopped at the fourth floor. Lance quickly grabbed his bags and moved out of the open doors, resisting the urge to look back at his rival.

He thought back to last year, to his small town a couple hours away from the town he was now going to live in. He thought about his big family in their house that was too small for that many people and taking care of his younger nieces and nephews. Lance was the second in his family to go to college, only because he his sister beat him to it just for being older. She had gone to this exact college and was now in her second year of graduate school in New York City, working to become a lawyer.

That’s how he had found this place though, visiting his sister a year and a half ago to watch her graduate. He had fallen in love with place as soon as he had seen the massive trees lining the sidewalk, the posters for new clubs, the old brick buildings filled with students getting an education not because they had to, but because they wanted to. He applied the second applications opened at the beginning of his senior year.

College, however, costs lots… and lots… and lots… of money. Lance did his best to apply for as many scholarships as possible, knowing his family wouldn’t be able to support him fully. He had hoped to be as good as his sister and pay purely with financial aid. Suddenly, one of the biggest scholarships of the year was announced, it would have completely paid for his dorm, meal plan, and books. It was perfect. He immediately started working on his essay.

It was Pidge that tipped him off that Keith was his biggest competition for the scholarship after hacking into the school’s files, a skill that still amazed and baffled Lance to this day. He had known of Keith before that, but he had never become close with the boy. Keith was an outsider, and not because no one liked him. Girls were always trying to be the one that opened him up and changed him, but he never let one get past the first sentence of an introduction. Lance denies it even to himself, but in the back deepest part of his mind he sometimes thinks about how Keith may have been his bisexual awakening.

All fond thoughts of him were shattered though as one essay led up to the decision of who would be receiving the scholarship. Lance put all of his efforts into one of the best pieces of writing he had ever produced. An essay on how one visit to the college campus of his dreams set the path for the rest of his life. He planned on printing it out and framing it, but he ended up deleting it when he found out Keith had won.

It had shattered his mother, she had lost all hope of him going to college. His heart had broken over the image of his mother crying at the thought of him losing his dream. Lance hated Keith ever since.

He still was attending college, though. After some more searching for more scholarships and eventual loan applications, he was here. Standing right in front of room 6 on the 4th floor, a smile spread across his face that he was sure could never go away.

He put down his bags and grabbed his new key out of the envelope. Lance had barely put the key in the slot when the door flew open, revealing a slightly more masculine but still pretty similar looking Pidge. He laughed a little at the realization of Pidge’s haircut inspiration.

Matt laughed in the doorway, smiling and bouncing slightly from excitement. He opened his arms, “You must be Lance! Katie has told me a lot about you.”

Lance gave him a confused look, “Uh… Katie?”

Matt laughed a little, but still quirked his eyebrow slightly, “Yeah… my sister?”

Lance made a face of realization, forgetting Pidge’s birth name, “Right! Right sorry. Uh… we uh… we call her Kate. Forgot their, um her name was Katie.”

Matt smiled, with his eyebrow still surprisingly high, “Never heard that one before.” He stepped aside motioning for Lance to walk in. Lance followed his hand as Matt continued talking, “Yeah, she said mainly good things. Also something about you being a failed casanova, but that doesn’t phase me. Welcome my dude!”

Lance laughed, “Yeah that sounds like something they would say.”

“Who?”

“What?”

“Who’s they?”

“Oh! Uh Pid-Kate-Katie and uh Hunk.” Lance turned to put his bags on his bed and let out a sigh. Hopefully Pidge came out to him soon because this was already exhausting.

“Oh yeah cool. I’ve heard of Hunk, too. How was your trip up here?”

Lance sat on his bed looking around the room, admiring the Star Wars, Overwatch, and Fallout posters around Matt’s side of the room, “It was lots of fun. Joking around with my bros. Up until I literally ran into my rival outside the dorm. He’s actually living in the dorm, too. I’m hoping we never see each other again.”

Matt laughed and sat at his desk, “A rival already? I like your style.”

“Ha, yeah no he’s from high school. Some emo outsider named Keith. It’s kind of a long story.”

Matt’s eyes widened a little, a sly smirk on his face, “Keith you say?”

“Uh… yeah?”

Matt crossed his arms, “Sounds emo to me. Let me guess, long black hair with the bangs in his face?”

“Yeah! Except it’s even worse. He has a mullet.”

“A mullet! The motherfucking audacity!”

Lance laughed, “That’s what I’m saying!” They laughed together, and Lance’s chest felt warm with excitement at the promise of the year. “I feel like this is going to be a good year.”

Matt gave him another sly smile, “My boyfriend said the same exact thing.”

Chapter Text

Keith laid back against the wall of the elevator and let out the breath he had been holding. Of all things that could have happened today, that had to have been the worst possible outcome. It’s not that Lance was a bully or anything, Keith never really had any bullies. He just felt really guilty every time he saw him, and Lance calling him his rival and giving him the evil eye wasn’t helping.

Keith wasn’t the type of person that enjoyed high school. He hated it. He hated the fake kids, the fake teachers, the… well he mainly just hated the people. He went through high school because he had to, and he hated every moment of it. He almost dropped out his junior year.

He was lonely without his adoptive brother Shiro and felt that he was in a dead end with his life. He ended up buying a bus ticket to Houston, Texas, where his biological dad was. He never knew his biological mother, and he had never asked about her. He had made a plan to move there, live with his dad for a little while, even though his drug addiction hadn’t seemed to get any better in the six years of Keith’s absence. It was only a stop for him to figure out his next step. Anything to get away from high school and his nowhere life.

His adoptive parents found out (because Keith was an idiot and used his dad’s credit card and forgot that the purchase would show up on his bank statement, but that doesn’t matter right now), and they ended up calling Shiro back for the weekend. Shiro was the only person that ever actually got to know Keith in his entire 18 years on this planet. Sure his parents knew a little, but Shiro understood him, stuck by him, and convinced him to finish high school and go to college.

When Keith commits to something, he gives it everything that he has inside him. His parents offered to help pay for college, but he decided he wanted to do it on his own. That’s what made it hurt even more when he saw Lance’s face the day after the confirmation of who would be getting the scholarship. Keith didn’t even need the money, he had other ways to pay.

Keith’s petty bitterness ended up getting in the way of any friendship he could have had with Lance. Especially now since Lance decided to call him his ‘rival’. They were in college now, Keith wanted to leave that childish act behind. He scoffed to himself with anger flaring up in his heart at the look on Lance’s face when they had ran into each other outside the dorm.

Keith whispered to himself, “What an idiot…” Maybe Keith was okay that Lance wanted to be his rival. Sure Lance was probably the nicest guy to him and everyone before the whole scholarship thing, and sure his laugh could brighten Keith and really everyone’s day. And yeah sure Lance might have been the only thing Keith would see through the walls of girls trying to get him to be the plot of their own high school teen drama movie. But it didn’t matter because Lance was a childish moron who wanted to call himself his rival.

He walked out of the opened elevator doors with his bags and down the hall, following the numbers to room 7. His parents offered to come help him move, but he denied, again wanting to do the whole process on his own.

Keith stopped outside of the room and grabbed his key out of the envelope he was given at check in. He opened up the door and couldn’t stop the big smile on his face at the sight of his brother, who was reading a book casually on his bed. Shiro looked up and a similar smile grew on his face as well. Keith dropped his bags and ran to meet Shiro halfway in big embrace. They laughed as they hugged. It had only been a couple of months since they had seen each other, but it had been too long for Keith. He missed his brother.

He didn’t know why, especially when Shiro shifted him fast into a headlock and started ruffling his long black hair, “Ahhh, how’s my little brother?”

Keith pushed back against his brother in an effort to get out of his current position, but Shiro was a lot stronger than him. You wouldn’t guess from his usual professional aura, but Shiro was the typical kind of rude but still nice older brother. He finally let go of Keith, who stumbled back in huff, crossing his arms in annoyance, “Terrible.”

Shiro slapped his arm, “Aw, come on. I know you missed me.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but still had a smile on his face, “Yeah, yeah. Besides it wasn’t you.”

Shiro helped Keith with his bags that were abandoned at the door and moved them to his empty bed, “Keith, school hasn’t even started yet. Please tell me you haven’t punched anyone.”

Keith snorted, “Not yet, but I’m sure it won’t take long for Lance to make that happen.”

Shiro stopped and looked, “You saw Lance?”

“Yeah, turns out he’s in the same dorm. I mean how fucking convenient. Honestly, I’m just hoping I never have to see him again.” Shiro let out a loud laugh, surprising Keith. “What?”

Shiro trailed off in his laughter, taking out some of Keith’s clothes to put into drawers, “Nothing, nothing. I mean isn’t this a good thing? To be sharing a dorm with your crush? I mean, it worked out pretty well for me and Matt.”

Keith punched his arm and took the clothes out of his hand, choosing another drawer to put them in just to be petty, “He’s not my crush, asshole.”

Shiro gave him an unconvinced look, “I don’t know. I still have the texts where you just had to go on and on… and on… and on about his eyes even though it was 2 in the morning.”

Keith did his best to hide his blush, but it wasn’t working considering the laugh that came out of Shiro, “Well you can delete those. It’s not like anything is going to happen, especially considering he won’t stop calling me his rival.”

“Rival, huh?”

“Yeah…”

“Kinda kinky if you think about it.”

Keith started grabbing his bags, “Nope. No, fuck you. I’m moving back in with mom and dad.”

Shiro laughed and hopped onto his elevated bed, “Aw come one, you’re excited to share a room with me.”

“Not if you’re going to keep making jokes about Lance.”

Shiro held up his hands, a grin still on his face, “Alright, alright, I’ll quit it with the jokes.”

Keith finally settled his bags on the ground, “Good. I don’t want to think about his stupid face anymore.”

“A face that you loooooove.” Shiro cooed at Keith who gave him one more annoyed look before scooping some more clothes to unpack. Shiro continued laughing as he hopped off his bed to his desk and grabbed some papers out of the top drawer. “So Keith,” Shiro looked up from the papers with a smile, “How was move in?”

Keith offered a confused look, “Uh… okay, I-”

Shiro cut him off, “I remember my freshman move in day…”

Keith groaned, “Are you really going to start talking about ‘the good ole days’?”

Shiro nodded and showed him the papers, “Yup, it’s part of the guidance program. I need to help guide you through move in day with some memories from my move in. Give you the do’s and don’t’s and all that.”

“Are we actually doing that? ‘Cause I totally didn’t fill out that ‘About Me’ form.”

“Yeah, we’re actually doing this. Mainly because I’m excited to be your mentor, but also because I am living here without paying anything so I should probably listen to the rules.”

“Shiro, I did this because I didn’t want you to be homeless, not because I need a mentor.”

“Keith, it took an intense, deep midnight conversation to convince you to even come to college, and I happened to put you in a situation where I get to be your mentor and help guide you. College can be rough, especially in the first year. I think it’s a good thing to have me here.”

Keith hated when Shiro got serious with him, because it usually meant he was right, “Look, I’m glad you’re here to. I will probably need you, but I definitely won’t need you to hold my hand the whole way. You’re the one that promised me independence and a chance to make my own decisions in college. Don’t be the one to take it away too.”

Shiro smiled, looking proudly at him, “Deal.” Keith smiled back at him, content with their conversation. Shiro continued down the next steps on the paper, “Now tell me how prepared you think you are to live in the dorm.”

Keith groaned, “Um… I don’t know. Very?”

“Was that a question or an answer?”

“I don’t know, mentor, you tell me.”

“Well let’s see… did you bring soap?” Keith opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he realized the answer. “Keith, you didn’t bring soap?!”

“Well I figured you would have it!”

“You really wanna talk about independence and then not bring your own damn soap?” Keith rolled his eyes and moved to his bags to take out his socks in order to avoid responding. “You know what, it’s fine we can add it to today’s priority list.”

“Today’s”

“Yeah, we need a daily, weekly, and monthly priority list.”

“Motherfu… Do we really have to do this, Shiro?”

“Yes, Keith. It’s important. Everyone else in the dorm is doing the same thing, so just buckle in.”

~~~~~~

“He was a coward, dude.”

“No! He knew that he was going to have to help train Luke!” Lance was sitting on his bed yelling back to Matt who was hanging upside-down from his own bed, arms holding him up from the floor with his knees bent around the top keeping him from falling off completely. How they got into this situation didn’t really matter, because Lance was having the time of his life.

“If the dude was really as good as he said he was, which he was we all know he was, he could’ve totally taken down Darth. He was scared, though, and he knew it so he ran.”

“He couldn’t even beat the Emperor.”

“Which was bullshit.”

“Utter bullshit just to move the plot along, but still. He was weak in the body, not the mind dude.”

“When it comes to being a jedi, your body is only as strong as your mind. Look, Yoda knew that since he was scared he couldn’t win against Darth. So he did the next best thing and hid. Yeah he probably later thought of the idea of training Luke. Honestly Obi Wan probably thought of it, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that the dude is a coward.”

Lance was at a loss of words, taking in every word that had come out of Matt’s mouth, “Well fuck.”

Matt smirked at him, “I know right.”

“You’re ruining Star Wars for me, dude.”

“No, no, no, you got it all wrong,” Matt pushed his legs off the bed and did a clumsy sort of summer salt until he was sitting on the floor facing Lance, “I’m enhancing your view. You see, it shows that fear is everyone’s weakness even a Jedi’s. Fear is not something we can hide from, but something we must learn to handle responsibly. Instead of Yoda facing his fear head on and losing, he handled it responsibly and it ended up working out in the end.”

“Woah…” Was all Lance could manage.

Matt smiled, nodding his head and pointing a finger into his forehead, “Lesson number 1 from your mentor, my guy.”

Lance laughed, “Oh yeah, aren’t we supposed to be filling stuff out and talking about the first day. Something about a priority list. I filled out my ‘About Me’ page.”

Lance moved to get it out of his bag, but Matt waved him off, “Eh, it’s fine. It’s not like anyone in the dorm is actually doing that shit. And I’ll just follow you on twitter, make it easy for us to really get to know each other.”

Lance nodded, “Yeah, okay. Sounds good. Mine is @LanceyLance, both L’s are capitalized.” Matt giggled a little at the name as he typed on his phone. Lance’s phone buzzed and he looked down to see a twitter notification saying @Mattattack has followed him, “Mattattack. Nice.”

“I’m literally the best at nicknames.”

Lance crumbled up his ‘About Me’ page, deeming it useless, “Uh, actually that’s impossible because I am the best at nicknames.”

Matt scoffed, “Yeah right. You call yourself Lancey Lance.”

“Oh yeah,” Lance threw the paper ball precisely at Matt’s forehead, “what would the whack attack call me?”

Matt yelped when the paper hit the middle of his head, right above his eyes. He rubbed his forehead, “It’s Mattattack loser. And how about sharpshooter for that amazing and unnecessary shot?”

“I… well actually that is pretty cool. I’m also the best at shooter games on my PS4 back home.”

Matt smiled smugly, “Told ya.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at him, but still ended up laughing. “Man, this is turning out to be, like, the best possible scenario, except for the part where I ran into Keith.”

Matt got up off the floor with a laugh, “That’s five.”

“Five what?”

“Five times you brought up Keith.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “Whatever, it’s just cause he bugs me so much.”

“I don’t know, kind of sounds like you have a crush on him.”

Lance scoffed as loud as he could, “What?! Yeah right. That guy is one of the reasons I’m already in debt!”

“Dude, it’s college everyone is in debt. I’m in debt.”

“Yeah, well I almost wasn’t.”

Matt walked toward the sink in the room and started pouring himself a glass of water, “What’d the guy do? Stab you?”

“Basically. He took away one of the biggest scholarships the school offers. I lost it to him.”

“What? Did he like sabotage your chances?” Matt turned to face Lance and take a drink of water.

“No…”

“So the guy fairly won a scholarship you both had equal chances of winning and now he’s your rival?” Lance was silent as Matt took another swig of water. “Well, Lance it seems I simply didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?”

“That you were such a petty bitch.”

“Am not! Don’t forget the mullet, that’s another good reason to not like him.”

Matt laughed and moved to get something out of the indent in the wall that was now their closet. Lance had already put away most of his clothes. He kept his warmer clothes in his suitcase in order to save space, since it was still pretty warm outside.

Lance heard vibrating and looked to his phone to see no notifications. He looked around the room and saw Matt’s phone flashing from his bed. “Uh, Matt. ‘My Dwayne, My Johnson’ sent a text.” Matt walked over to his bed to look at his phone. Lance shot him a confused look, “Who’s ‘My Dwayne, My Johnson’?”

“My boyfriend.”

“.... Why is his name ‘My Dwayne, My Johnson’?”

Matt smiled at him, “Cause he’s my rock.”

Lance smiled back, “Aww, freaking goals.”

“Also ‘cause he’s buff as shit. Can and has bench pressed me before.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah… it looks like he and K… uh his freshman are going to get breakfast. You wanna join him?” Matt grinned at him. Lance thought it looked suspicious.

Lance’s phone started buzzing and he looked at the group chat between him, Hunk, and Pidge.

I Imagine Death So Much It Feels More Like A Memeory Squad

Gremlin2.0 : Yo me and Hunk are gonna go look for our classes. Bring my loser brother.

Lance laughed, “Actually I think I’m supposed to drag you with me so we can go look for our classes.”

“Says who?”

“Says your sibling.”

“Ah shit, I almost forgot about Katie. Tell her to meet us over here. I gotta get dressed.”

Lance sent the text and got off his bed, continuing to unpack his belongings. Matt went to his closet and text Shiro.

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Sorry no-go gotta hang out with my sister

From My Dwayne, My Johnson : Alright fine but we have to get them together Maybe for dinner

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Aw holy shit thatd be so cute We are da best match makers

From My Dwayne, My Johnson : I don’t know Keith is still pretty salty bout the whole rival thing….

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Lmao I wouldnt worry too hard Lance has got it bad too

Matt jumped when Lance shouted to him, “Yo! Are you going to change? They’re almost here.”

“Whatever mom.”

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Lion’s Den for dinner babe Let’s get this romcom going <3 Love ya!!

Chapter Text

Lance knew this campus was where his life was going to begin. Walking down the sidewalk, he could feel how his life was going to change and become what it was meant to be. He loved everything about it, and being there with his best friends made it that much better.

Hunk had planned on coming here because he had wanted to stay close to his family, but it took some convincing to get Pidge. The Diversity In Science program offered at the University ended up drawing them to the school, especially when the trio discovered they could room with Hunk. It unfortunately left Lance without a roommate.

However, Lance couldn’t have been more excited about how things were turning out. Matt turned out to be an amazing guy, and they had the same sense of humor and personality. Hanging out with the three of them on campus was the perfect start to the school year. Except for Keith being there, but he can ignore that.

The group ended up deciding to go through each of their schedules individually, so they could know the best path to take. Also, so the other two could know where the third person was at any given time. Matt turned out to be a lot of help, too, showing which buildings they could cut through to get somewhere faster and which sidewalks are way too crowded to even try. He ended up being the most helpful to Lance since they shared the same major.

They finished up with Lance since Matt wanted to show him a few extra spots where he could find quiet places to study and professor’s offices that he should probably get to know. After some more traveling and goofing off around campus, the sun had begun to set.

“Damn, already? We must have skipped lunch.” Lance looked around at the darkening campus, taking his phone out to take some pictures of the beautiful campus.

Matt laughed, “Yeah, get used to that. I don’t think I can even remember the last time I ate.”

Pidge smacked the back of his head, eliciting a loud Ow from their brother, “You idiot. How did you survive four years without me?”

“Honestly, Shiro. He replaced you as like 90% of my impulse control.”

“What was the other 10%?” Hunk chimed in.

“Still Katie, probably.”

Lance could see Pidge’s face lose a little light every time Matt would call them Katie or use she/her pronouns. He could tell they were getting a little exhausted. They made eye contact briefly as the group moved forward, and Lance tried his best to give them a subtle sympathetic look. They just smiled and looked towards their brother, “So, what’s next on the agenda? Are we done with the Lance show now?”

Lance smiled, “We are never done with the Lance show.”

Matt snorted, “I was thinking dinner. There’s this great bar called the Lion’s den. Amazing food, and pretty entertaining place.”

Pidge gave him an annoyed look, “Matt, none of us are 21.”

“It’s an 18 and up bar.”

“Hey ya donut, I’m 16.” Pidge was the youngest of the group, having skipped a year for their insane intelligence.

“Hey ya fart, I know the guy that owns it. I can get you in no problem.”

Lance had a sudden thought, “Oh hey, can I invite Nyma? I haven’t seen her all day.”

“Uh, yeah sure. Who’s Nyma?”

“My girlfriend.”

Matt stopped in his tracks, effectively stopping the whole group since he was leading. He looked back to Lance with shock written all over his face, “You… you have a girlfriend?”

Lance chuckled nervously, “Uh… yeah? Don’t act so surprised.”

“No, no, I just thought you were gay.”

“Bi actually. Is that… okay?”

“Yeah, no. I don’t care, sexuality and gender don’t exist. Live your life.” He turned abruptly and walked at a slightly faster pace ahead of the group, pulling out his phone.

Lance allowed him to gain distance and grabbed Pidge by the arm to slow them down, “Did you hear that? He basically invited you to come out.”

Pidge slowed down a lot more and whispered harshly, “Butt out, Lance. I’ll do it eventually.”

Lance stopped them completely, “Pidge, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pressure you, and I know this isn’t my place but I can literally see how it affects you. You know you’ll be happier, no matter what happens.”

Pidge hesitated in their response. They ended up just turning and catching up with the other two. Lance sighed and jogged slightly to catch up. He noticed Matt still considerably in front of the group on his phone. Lance figured he was just getting directions.

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Idk I think we can still pull this off

From My Dwayne, My Johnson : Sweet pea im not breaking up a relationship

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Not even for your brother????

From My Dwayne, My Johnson : ….. Dont do this to me….

To My Dwayne, My Johnson : Still bring Keith to dinner we’ll see what happens i’ll get the deets on this bitch from Katie

From My Dwayne, My Johnson : Please don’t call her a bitch we don’t even know her

~~~~~~

“Oh yeah, she’s a major bitch.” Pidge told their brother.

Lance had gone to the bathroom with Hunk, leaving the siblings alone to gossip. They had made it to Lion’s Den and were given a table in the furthest section of the establishment. Upstairs was a restaurant/chill bar vibe, but downstairs was where it got interesting. The basement of Lion’s Den turned out to be a gay club that Matt and Shiro frequented often. The owner, Blaytz, had become very fond of them and would give them discounts often in both areas of the place.

They had been there for about 30 minutes waiting for Shiro to get there before they ordered (because he didn’t want his food to get cold). Matt was still the only one that knew Keith was coming as well. He probed on, “Tell me more.”

“She is kind of a jerk to Lance. Always pressuring him into doing things and he always does it ‘cause he wants to impress her. She was the head cheerleader at our high school, and Lance thought it was a miracle they were even dating so he’s always doing what she says. She doesn’t even acknowledge us half the time. Just ‘Lance do this, Lance get me this, Lance I’m cold, blah blah blaah’.” Pidge used a high-pitched annoying voice to imitate Nyma.

Matt laughed at their impression, “Okay so it’s not a good relationship?”

Pidge’s phone vibrated and they looked down to see a text from Lance.

From Put The Coolest Dude Wait No That’s Lame : Now would be a perfect time…

Pidge sighed from the text. Matt poked their side, “Katie, what do you think?”

“Uh yeah they shouldn’t be together but look-”

Matt cut them off, “That’s good, that’s good.”

Pidge lost their train of thought, smelling a plot, “Wait…. What are you planning?”

Matt gave them a mischievous smile, “You’ll see my young Katie.”

As much as Pidge wanted to look further into his statement, they felt another jab into their heart at the mention of their birth name. Pidge decided it was time. Matt was an amazing brother, and they hoped with all their heart they would understand, “Look Matt, I need to tell you something.”

Matt raised an eyebrow, “Wow you really didn’t ask about my evil plot? What happened to the Katie I-”

“My name’s not Katie. Not… not anymore at least.” Pidge could see the shock on his face and tried their best to swallow down their fear. Going off of Matt’s silence, they continued, “I… well I didn’t know how to tell you and I wanted to tell you in person and honestly I was really nervous, but… I’m here now and I’m telling you now because it’s who I am and I don’t want to be in the closet anymore.” Matt grabbed their hand to try and comfort them. Pidge took a shaky breath, “I’m… I’m gender neutral. And my name is Pidge, not Katie. And that’s who I am and I don’t care what you think.”

Pidge wouldn’t face him, but the silence was slowly taking away pieces of their heart. Matt was searching their face, “Kat… Pidge, did you really think I wouldn’t support you?”

Pidge looked up to him with surprise, seeing genuine hurt in his eyes, “No, no it wasn’t that. I just… I don’t know. Sometimes people don’t understand and I-”

“Your gender is real and valid. No one’s opinion should stop you from believing that. Even mine. I happen to love you with all my heart, and you are now and forever Pidge in my eyes. Truly.”

Pidge felt tears in their eyes, but didn’t let them fall. They just punched their brother’s arm awkwardly, “Nerd…” Matt laughed and pulled them in for a hug. Pidge laughed, “You’re gonna break my glasses, loser.”

“Don’t you mean my glasses. You totally stole my old look.”

“Whatever,” Pidge smiled, knowing fully they stole his look.

Lance and Hunk walked up laughing about a joke they had made before. Lance looked to Pidge, who gave him a quick nod and smile. He felt relief and happiness in his heart, knowing that everything was going to be okay for Pidge. Lance felt his phone buzz and looked down, “Oh I’ll be right back. Nyma’s here.”

Pidge and Hunk both let out a sarcastic, “Greeeaaaaaaaat.” Lance was already gone before he could hear them. Just as Lance walked left, Shiro and Keith came up to the table from the right side of the restaurant.

Hunk looked up in surprise, “Keith?”

Keith slowed his pace as he saw the ensemble, “Hunk? Oh fuck, is Lance here?”

It took Pidge a moment before everything clicked. They punched Matt in the arm, “Oh, you dick.”

Matt yelped and rubbed his arm, “Ow! Oh don’t act like it wouldn’t be great.”

Keith watched in confusion, “What’s going on?”

Shiro interrupted, “Keith, this is my boyfriend, Matt.”

Keith smiled slightly, “Hi. Hunk, is Lance here?”

Hunk grimaced, “Yeah he’s outside getting Nyma.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “God, Nyma and Lance? Maybe I should just go.”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Come on, just stay a little. Please?” Keith rolled his eyes, but stayed put, already having a terrible time but not willing to say no to his brother.

Lance walked through the tables and outside the door scanning the sidewalk for his girlfriend. He found her waiting at the edge of the building, smiling at her phone. He tiptoed over to her, trying to be as quiet as possible. She still hadn’t seen him when he was right beside her. “Boo!” He poked her sides, causing her to jump and scream a little. He started laughing, but stopped when she hit his arm.

“Lance, you ass. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” Her face was completely serious, genuinely upset.

Lance panicked at her expression, “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think. It was my fault, I’m sorry.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed some of her blonde hair behind her ear, “Yeah I know it was your fault.”

He tried to put on his best ‘forgive me’ expression, something he had mastered in the relationship, “Hey, come on. The gangs waiting. Let’s head inside.”

“Wait, in there?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool inside.”

“Lance, I don’t want to go to a gay bar.”

“Why? I mean, it’s fine. The place is really cool.”

She sighed in frustration, “Lance, you’re not listening.”

“What-”

“I think we should break up.”

Lance took a step back, “What?”

“Look, I didn’t want to do it like this. It’s just… we’re so different. And I honestly just got with you ‘cause Rolo broke my heart, but… but he wants me back and I honestly think it can work out.”

Lance took another step back, “Wait… what?!”

“It’s over, Lance. I’m sorry. I hope we can still be friends.” She walked over and kissed him on the cheek, before walking away into the night.

Lance stood there, thoroughly confused. The silence of the night filled his ears. He processed what had just happened. Not only did Nyma just break up with him three days before school started, she left him for Rolo. Piece of shit Rolo who would make fun of his accent and treat her like shit. “What the fuck?!”

He pulled out his phone and dialed Nyma’s number, acting on anger and impulse. It rang a few times before she answered, “Um… hello?”

“What the fuck?!”

“Lance?”

“Yes it’s Lance! You just broke up a 6 month relationship and then walked away? And you’re only explanation is that Rolo wants you back?”

“Well, I also told you that we’re very different people.”

Lance heard another voice on the other line, “Hey babe, who’s that?”

An intense anger boiled in Lance’s stomach, one he had never felt before, “Is that fucking Rolo?”

“Look, I tried to be civil-”

“Civil? This is the least civil you could possibly be right now! You literally just broke up with me. Like three minutes ago! And you are already with another guy! Three minutes after you broke up with me! Also Rolo is a piece of shit and you know that!”

“Hang up the phone, that loser’s not worth it.”

“Oh piss off, Rolo!” Lance yelled into the phone.

“Lance, I gotta go. I’ll see ya around.” Nyma hung up before Lance could say anything else.

He stood on the street in silence for another minute, staring down the sidewalk Nyma had just left down. “What the fuck…” He turned feeling a mixture of hurt, betrayal, and some of the strongest anger he’s ever felt in his life. Nyma left Lance for Rolo. What kind of high school bull shit is this?

He walked back into the bar, flashing his ID fast and continuing down through the tables. His anger built with every step. He couldn’t figure out whether he wanted to be sad or punch something.

He heard Hunk’s voice, “Hey buddy, where’s Nyma?”

He looked around the table and saw someone new, a large guy sitting next to Matt with a scar on his nose and a white tuft of hair on top of his head. Based on his arm around Matt’s waist and very large muscular build Matt could talk about for hours, he assumed it was Matt’s boyfriend. He sat down with huff and looked to his best friend, “She just broke up with me.”

Matt choked on his drink and Pidge did their best to put on a sympathetic voice, “Oh wow, I’m so sorry.”

“I know you hated her, you can cut the crap. Rolo wanted her back, I guess.”

Matt’s choking died down, “Wait, wait, wait, this chick broke up with you and told you that she left you for another guy? Damn.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want to talk about it. I actually might call it in for the night. That kind of took a lot out of me.”

Hunk patted his shoulder, “I wouldn’t judge ya buddy. Want me to walk you back? You can chill in my room for a little bit.”

“That actually sounds perfect. Sorry guys.”

Pidge smiled apologetically, “Yeah no prob-”

“No! Come on, it’s your first night on campus. You gotta live it up! Stay out.” Matt interrupted.

Pidge punched his shoulder, “Butt out. Let the poor guy go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Lance and Hunk said their goodbyes and walked back out of the bar.

Pidge took another swing at their brother’s shoulder. Matt rubbed it with an annoyed look, “Will you stop that?”

“Will you stop trying to hook up my friend and his mortal enemy?”

Shiro looked at Matt, “You told Katie?”

“No, she-they figured it out. It’s Pidge, by the way. Pidge is gender neutral.”

“Oh. Sorry I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine, Matt kind of just figured out. Back to the other thing, why are you guys trying to hook up Lance and Keith?”

“‘Cause they’re in love with each other,” Matt said like it was a well-known fact.

Pidge rolled their eyes, “Yeah, everyone knows that.”

“Really?” Shiro and Matt said at the same time.

“They’re so obvious it hurts, but after the whole scholarship thing Lance won’t give the dude the time of day. It really hurt him.”

Matt smiled smugly, “Well that’s where I come in.”

Pidge was about to retort, but stopped when they saw Keith approaching from the bathroom. Keith sat in his chair next to Shiro and pointed to the empty seat next to Pidge, “Where’s Hunk?”

Pidge spoke up, “He left with Lance.”

Keith let out a sigh of relief, “Thank god.”

Matt laughed, “They left ‘cause Lance just got dumped. Nyma left him for some dude named Rolo.”

Keith looked around in surprise, “Wait, seriously?” Pidge nodded. “Well, fuck. Now I feel bad for the guy.”

Shiro slapped his arm, “Cheer up! Now the guy’s single.”

Keith blushed furiously, “Fuck off!”

Pidge did their best to hide their smile, “I wouldn’t worry too much about Lance. Nyma was a bitch anyways.”

Keith smiled, “Yeah, you can say that again.”

Pidge laughed and looked down at their phone, suddenly letting out a loud gasp, “Holy shit! I forgot it’s Friday.”

“What’s so special about Friday?” Shiro said.

“Buzzfeed Unsolved came out with a new episode.”

Keith widened his eyes, “Wait, you watch Buzzfeed Unsolved?”

“Are you kidding? I freaking live for Buzzfeed Unsolved! I was a total cryptid before, but this is like the only thing I still watch on YouTube.”

“Holy shit, what did they do today?” Keith got up from his seat and moved to sit next to Pidge, looking down at their phone.

Shiro laughed at Keith’s excitement. His phone buzzed and he grabbed it out of his pocket.

From Sweet Pea <3 : At least we got Keith a friend

Shiro giggled and poked at Matt’s side, causing him to jump slightly. He pushed Shiro’s shoulder with a smile and leaned into him, watching with a smile as their cryptid siblings bonded over unsolved murder cases.

Chapter Text

The group headed back to their dorms, dropping off Pidge first. Pidge and Keith had exchanged numbers and had made a plan to marathon Buzzfeed Unsolved and X-Files. They had an extensive argument over who would win in a fight between bigfoot and mothman which Matt found amazing. He honestly hadn’t seen his sibling this social, and by the look on Shiro’s face he was in the same situation.

They all laughed together while heading back to Voltron Hall. Shiro pushed Keith’s shoulder, “Look at that Keith, you made a friend.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Keith tried to brush it off, but he still smiled.

They entered the dorm one at a time, given the protocol because of how late it was. They had ended up staying at Lion’s Den late into the night. Shiro checked his phone to see that it was currently 12:34 AM. Once everyone was inside, they headed towards the elevator.

Matt pressed the button for floor 6. “Aren’t you on the 4th floor?” Keith questioned.

“Oh yeah. I forgot. I’ve been sleeping in Shiro’s dorm.”

Keith made a face, “Gross. Tell me you didn’t have sex on my bed.”

Matt smiled, “Well-”

“No, we didn’t. Matt stop being gross,” Shiro interjected. Matt laughed and brought Shiro in for a close hug.

The elevator doors opened and Matt walked out with them, “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t walk my love to his door?”

Shiro smiled, “A terrible one.”

“Exactly. I gotta make sure no one tries to hurt you. These streets are tough at night.”

Keith snorted, “Yeah, like you can take anyone down.”

“I’ll have you know I watched all of Shiro’s judo practices last year.”

Keith just laughed and pulled out his key for the dorm. He unlocked it and looked back to see Shiro and Matt in a close embrace. Their foreheads touching with Matt’s arms over Shiro’s shoulders and Shiro’s arms around Matt’s waist. Keith rolled his eyes, “If I have to deal with this all year, I’m dropping out.”

Shiro looked up at him, “All you gotta do is close the door.” Keith did just that, giving Shiro an annoyed look. Shiro moved his head back to touch Matt’s.

Matt whined, “I don’t want to be alone tonight, I’ll miss you.”

Shiro smiled, “I’ll miss you too sweet pea.”

“Can’t I just stay here tonight?”

“I’m pretty sure Keith will kill me.”

“Fine, you can come down to my dorm.”

“Sweet pea, Lance just got dumped. I’m not going to shove our relationship in his face all night.”

“I won’t mind.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and kissed Matt’s forehead, still smiling. “I’ll mind. Besides, we have to fill out the end of the first day paperwork.”

Matt laughed lightly, “Yeah, like anyone’s even doing that.”

Shiro pushed Matt back slightly, looking down at him, “I’m doing it. Everyone’s doing it.”

“Why? It’s not like it actually helps.”

“Because if it doesn’t get completed, we risk getting kicked out of the program.”

Matt’s eyes widened, “Wait seriously?”

“Yes! Matt, did you even read the mentor packet?”

“No! I thought it was just formalities.”

“Oh my god,” Shiro rubbed his eyes.

Matt gave Shiro a quick kiss, “Okay, well I gotta go do some stuff. I love you!” He raced down the hall to elevator. Pressing the down button multiple times hoping the elevator doors would open faster. He heard Shiro yell good night as the doors opened. He rushed inside and began hitting the 4th floor button in the same manner. The doors opened and he ran down the the hall to his door, fumbling with the key while trying to open the door as fast as possible.

The lights were off and he could see Lance fast asleep. He turned on the lights and started shaking Lance’s sleeping body, “Wake up, wake up!”

Lance jolted awake, looking genuinely frightened, “What the hell, Matt?!”

Matt sorted through the papers in his desk, “I was wrong! I was very, very wrong. We absolutely do need to fill out those papers. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Lance grabbed his head, still half asleep, “Why do I have the feeling this is going to happen a lot?”

Matt threw some of the papers at Lance, “‘Cause it probably is. Now help me fill this out, we got shit to do.” He threw a pen at Lance, who was able to catch it. Lance laughed a little at how ridiculous this all was. He felt like he should be annoyed, but he just smiled and started writing down how great move in day was.

~~~~~~

Lance scanned his card and waited as the doors unlocked to his dorm. It was around nine at night and he had just finished up his last class of the day. Last class of the week, actually. He pulled out his phone and opened up snapchat. He waited for the elevator and took a quick picture, smiling and throwing up a peace sign. He captioned it ‘Officially done with the first week!!’ The elevator doors opened and he stepped inside, pressing the 4th floor button.

He started looking through some snapchat stories when a hand slammed around the elevator door, causing him to let out a little scream. The gloved hand pushed open the door to reveal a sweaty, panting Keith wearing a tight tank top and basketball shorts with a gym bag. Lance gave him annoyed look, trying to ignore his blush, “Can’t you ever just wait for the elevator?”

Keith walked into the elevator and silently pushed the button for floor 6. Neither of them talked, so Lance just looked back to his phone. Lance jumped a little as Keith broke the silence, “Why are you out so late?”

Lance spoke up, surprised Keith said anything, “I… I have a night class. Sign language.”

Keith still wasn’t looking at him, looking down at his hands, “Why a class so late?”

Lance shrugged, “I don’t know, that’s just how my advisor set it up. Why are you all hot and sweaty?”

Keith looked up at him, “Wh-What?”

“I mean, like, why are you out so late?”

“I… I was out.”

“... Doing?”

The elevator door opened and Lance almost forgot to step out on his floor as he waited for Keith to respond. He turned and made eye contact with Keith. Keith finally spoke up as the doors started closing, “Judo practice.”

The doors closed and Lance stood staring at the closed doors. He turned and started walking down the hallway, thinking about how he now knew Keith had judo practice at night.

He walked up to the door of his dorm room and heard loud screaming coming from inside. He unlocked the door and found Matt, Pidge, and Shiro all crowded around a TV with Super Mario Kart on it. Hunk was on his bed and he smiled over to Lance, “Hey bro, I brought cookies.”

Lance smiled, “Oh yes! Friends and Hunky Monkey’s cookies.”

Hunk laughed, “Hunky Monkey. I like that.”

“I came up with it! Don’t give him credit,” Matt yelled back with his eyes still glued to the TV.

“Whatever, I’ll still come up with a better one.” Lance sat down next to his friend and grabbed some cookies. He hummed with delight, eating one in three bites causing Hunk to laugh.

Lance poked Hunk’s shoulder, “Why aren’t you playing?” He began eating another cookie.

“Matt only has two controllers, and Pidge brought theirs from home. I’m up next. You can go before me if you want.”

“Nah, I have to do some homework.”

“Lame!” Both Matt and Pidge said at the same time.

“I know right! It’s not like we’re in college and have responsibilities,” Lance said to the siblings with heavy sarcasm.

Shiro chimed in, “Good for you, Lance. You don’t want to get behind in the- FOR FUCKS SAKE MATT BACK OFF!”

“I never settle for anything less than first! Nothing personal sweetheart!”

Pidge groaned, “How are you guys so good at this?”

“This is literally all we do with our free time. That and sexy time,” Matt said.

“Ew! Don’t be gross!” Pidge punched his arm, still looking at the TV.

The TV flashed as Shiro crossed the finish line, with Matt close behind him. Matt screamed out, throwing down his controller as Pidge barely crossed the finish line with a huff. Shiro brought Matt in for a hug, laughing, “Aw, come on sweet pea. It’s nothing personal.”

Matt groaned, wrapping his arms around Shiro’s waist. “Traitor,” He grumbled. Shiro giggled and gave him a small kiss.

Pidge made a gagging noise, “Hunk, you’re up.”

Hunk jumped of the bed next to Lance where he was helping Lance through his sign language homework. Pidge handed him the controller and took his spot next to Lance on the bed. Pidge leaned over and looked at the book in Lance’s lap, “Why are you taking sign language?”

“I need a foreign language.”

“Lance, you are literally fluent in spanish.”

“Yeah, I know, but now I can be fluent in a third language.”

“Why take extra classes though? You can just save money.”

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to learn it.”

Pidge leaned against the wall, “I don’t know. For all that mess you caused with Keith over that scholarship, you would think you’d be more strict with money.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “You sound like your brother.”

“They sound like literally anyone because it’s the truth,” Matt yelled back to them.

“I just wanted to learn another language. Back off.” Lance looked down to his book and spoke to Pidge, “Besides when did you start defending Keith?”

“Since he came over to binge watch X-Files with me.”

Lance looked up to them with wide eyes, “You hung out with him?!”

Pidge shrugged, “He’s a cool guy. And he has the exact same taste in music as me. We might actually go downtown for a concert next month.”

“I can’t believe you befriended my rival!”

“What? I mean you’re in college now, do you really want to keep your high school rival? I remember junior year when you wanted to be his friend.”

“Well… well that was before.”

“And now it’s after. The guy’s cool.”

Shiro spoke up, “Hey, me, Matt, and Keith were gonna go to Allura’s tomorrow. You guys should come.”

“I’m down,” Pidge said.

“I’ll go if Lance goes,” Hunk said with his eyes glued to the TV.

“Dammit, now I have to go,” Lance crossed his arms.

“You’ll have fun. We’re gonna get drunk and have a dance party in our PJs,” Matt said.

Lance giggled, “That does sound fun. We can wear our lion onesies!”

“Oh yes, I have been dying to break those out since our last sleepover,” Hunk said.

Matt laughed, “You guys have lion onesies? Freaking goals.”

“Yeah, they came in a pack of five, and different colors!”

“What colors?” Shiro asked.

“I’ve got blue because of my eyes, Hunk has yellow because of his truck, and Pidge has green because that was the smallest one.” Lance smiled proudly.

“I wanted black, but no. It was the biggest one. Why were they even in different sizes anyways?” Pidge grumbled.

“What’s the other color?” Matt asked.

“Red,” Lance said.

“Shiro can have black and I can have red!” Matt said.

Lance laughed, “Maybe. The black one is pretty big, it'll probably fit Shiro. I’ll bring them tomorrow.”

Pidge smiled, “You actually brought them?”

“Of course! College is the perfect place-”

Lance was cut off by Matt, “WHAT THE SHIT?! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!”

Hunk laughed as he set down his controller, the TV screen showing his character in first place, “Oh yeah by the way, I’m amazing at this game.”

“No one beats Hunk,” Lance smiled.

“I just lost to a freshman… How?” Matt stared at the screen in disbelief, his character in last place.

“Eh, I got second, I’m good. Nice playing, Hunk.” Shiro gave him a high-five.

Hunk shrugged, “Don’t worry, Matt, you’ll get used to it.”

Matt fell back onto the floor, “This is my lowest point in life.”

Pidge groaned, “Now you sound like Lance. Come on, Hunk. I’m ready for bed.”

“I’m actually cool with that. It’s pretty late.” Hunk got up off the floor, stepping over Matt and Shiro who had laid down next to him.

“But I didn’t even get to hang out with you guys,” Lance whined.

“We’ll hang out tomorrow, buddy.” Hunk pulled him off of the bed into a hug.

“Yeah, but Keith will be there,” Lance whined into his shoulder.

“Oh get over it, Lance. I’m sure you’ll like him.” Pidge said from the door, “I’ll see you losers tomorrow.”

“We’ll come by your dorm tomorrow at like 8,” Shiro called from the floor.

“See you guys,” Hunk waved and walked out the door.

“I’m gonna start getting ready for bed,” Lance said to the lump on the floor.

Shiro looked up to him, “Do you want me to leave?”

Lance waved him off, “Nah, it’s cool.”

“Yeah, he takes six hours to get ready for bed anyways. He takes another 24 hours to get ready in the morning,” Matt said into Shiro’s shoulder.

“Not going to apologize for taking care of myself,” Lance called from the sink where he started washing his face.

“I should actually go see Keith.” Shiro said to Matt, kissing him softly.

“But I’m comfy…” Matt whined.

“Good night, sweet pea.” Shiro gave him another kiss, before getting up off the floor. He walked past Lance and patted his back, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please try not to insult my brother too much to his face.”

Lance cringed, “I forget he’s your brother. Sorry… night.”

Shiro laughed, “It’s okay, but maybe try to be nicer to him. Night, Lance.” He walked out of the door.

Matt spoke up from the floor where he was currently face down, “Hey remember when you insulted my boyfriend’s brother multiple times to his face.”

Lance looked away, his face red with embarrassment, “Shut up.” He put a headband on to hold back his hair as he started applying cream to his face. He thought to himself. Why was he so mean to Keith? Maybe he should just get over it. The image of his mom crying came into his mind again. Then the image of Keith looking at him from the elevator telling him he was at judo practice. Keith looking at him and his smile fading when they first bumped into each other. Keith saying bye and leaving when he saw Lance with Matt who wanted to eat lunch with his boyfriend.

Lance cringed. He always tried to be the best person he could be. He liked when people got happy when they saw him, he liked when people trusted him and would speak kindly of him. He didn’t really know why. Why’d he have to be mean to Keith? He was trying to go to college like the rest of them. Lance looked at himself in the mirror. He was definitely going to be nice to Keith tomorrow. He again saw his mom crying in the living room, trying to do so quietly to not wake up his siblings… maybe not nice, but not as rude as he had been.

Suddenly Matt gasped throwing his head up and looking at Lance, “Fuck we gotta fill out paperwork.”

“How much of that do we have?” Lance groaned.

“Too much, but neither of us have money so we should probably fill some of it out. Coran’s picking it up tomorrow.”

“Who’s Coran?”

“Allura’s uncle.”

“Why are we giving the papers to Allura’s uncle?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow, hurry up so you can fill out the papers.”

Lance wiped his face with a towel, “Don’t you mean so we can fill them out?”

Matt groaned from the floor, “I guess…”

Chapter Text

“I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just picked us up,” Matt grumbled from the floor where Shiro was sitting behind him with his legs on either side of him and arms around his waist.

“Because you wouldn’t have all fit into the car,” Allura said from the doorway, tossing her keys on the table beside the door.

Matt grumbled, crossing his arms over Shiro’s, “You picked up Keith…”

“I was downtown, you were less than a mile away,” Keith said while walking through the door.

“How often do you go to judo anyways?” Matt yelled to him.

“I didn’t know you had judo today,” Shiro said.

“I didn’t,” Keith said walking into the living room.

“Oh! Did you have that creative writing class today?” Pidge said from the couch, a bowl of chips balancing on their stomach.

“Yeah, it was actually pretty cool.” Keith smiled and cocked an eyebrow at Pidge, “Is that… is that a green lion onesie?”

“You fucking know it bro.”

Shiro moved his arms and threw a hood over his head, “I got the black one!”

Keith laughed, “How drunk are you guys?”

Matt held up a half empty bottle of something pink Keith guessed was alcohol, “Not drunk enough.”

Allura laughed, “I guess we have to catch up.” She handed Keith a bottle similar to Matt’s.

He looked at it in his hand, “What is it?”

“Delicious!” Matt yelled. Keith assumed there would be a lot of yelling from Matt tonight.

“My family makes alcohol. It’s a new type of beer that’s going to hit the shelves soon. I always have an excessive amount of alcohol from the family business, so expect to drink here until you’re 21. And probably after that too,” Allura smiled.

Keith laughed a little, “Do you have a bottle opener?”

Allura pointed behind her, “In the kitchen, should be on the counter.” Allura turned towards the living room as Keith walked into the kitchen. She grabbed something off the floor and held it up, “What is this?”

Matt looked at her, “Oh fuck, I forgot about the plan.”

She looked down at Matt, a worried look on her face, “What plan?”

Matt ignored her, “Hey! Hey, uh, hey Keith!”

Keith walked out of the kitchen, “Why are you yelling?”

He pointed at Allura with a sly smile, “We got something for ya.”

Keith looked at the red lion onesie in Allura’s hand, “Why in the world would I wear that?”

“Cause you’re part of the squad buddy,” Pidge smiled before taking another swing of the pink beer.

“Come on, Keith,” Shiro encouraged.

Keith took the onesie into his hand, “I’m only doing this because I’m planning on getting drunk.” They all cheered as Keith put the onesie on over his black skinny jeans. He took off his flannel leaving him in his black tank top. He took a drink of the beer, noticing it tasted nothing like beer, but he could already feel the alcohol working, his body feeling something he could only describe as tingly. “What is in this? I think I’m already getting drunk.”

“Lightweight!” Matt yelled.

Allura pushed up Pidge’s legs and sat beneath them, “It’s the company specialty. Get drunk fast without having to drink gasoline. Business has actually been going very well with father in Britain.”

Keith took another, longer drink, “Wait, wait, wait. Why isn’t Matt or Allura wearing one?”

Pidge spoke up, “Wearing what?”

“A onesie?” Keith took an even longer drink.

“Slow down, you’re going to get too drunk.” Shiro scolded him.

“Don’t be a dad, I gotta catch up. Matt, where’s your onesie?”

Matt shrugged, “There was only five. That one… didn’t fit.”

Keith stopped mid drink, “Wait… who has the other two?”

A crash came from the other side of the living room where the hallway was. Keith looked at the laughing lumps of blue and yellow on the floor. His heart dropped when he noticed who the blue lump was, and he took another drink, surprising himself with the fact he had finished the bottle.

Lance spoke between laughs, “We found the cups!” He looked up to see Keith. His laughing came to a stop as he saw the red lion onesie up to his waist, and a tight black tank top that made him blush covered the rest of him.

“Keith, does the face match… match the onesie? Wait, did that make sense?” Matt looked to Shiro.

“You’re blushing, is what my idiot brother is going for,” Pidge said. Allura giggled beside her.

Keith put the rest of the onesie on, including the hood to hide his red face. “I need another drink,” He mumbled to no one in particular, walking over to a little fridge by the table where he saw Allura grab the drink from earlier.

Lance stood up fast and handed the red solo cups to Hunk, who was still drunkenly laughing on the floor. He cleared his throat and walked over to the fridge as well. He smiled, “Nice tail.”

Keith nearly dropped the bottle he had just grabbed, “Wh-what?”

Lance went to reach behind Keith, but he moved out of the way. Lance just laughed and reached behind himself instead. “It’s okay dude,” he pulled a blue tail around himself to show Keith, “we all have one.” Keith blushed and reached around him, feeling a similar tail. Lance continued, “I thought Matt was going to wear red.” Keith just shrugged and walked silently to the kitchen to grab the bottle opener. Lance stared at the empty space a little bit. He just grabbed a bottle for himself and followed Keith.

He held out his bottle, “Mind helping me out?”

The lid popped off of Keith’s bottle. Keith looked to him surprised he had actually followed him. He stood there for a little bit before grabbing Lance’s bottle. Lance smiled, which took Keith’s breath away, but only a little bit. “Thanks man.”

Keith let the alcohol get to him and he spoke up, “Why are you being nice to me? I thought we were rivals.”

Lance looked at him, “Do you want to be rivals? Because I can easily switch back.”

“Why would I want you to be an ass to me?”

“I wasn’t that mean… was I?”

Keith could see the hurt on Lance’s face, and he felt kinda bad, but he instead just kept talking, “You cast me out over a stupid fucking scholarship. You were mad I hung out with Pidge. Hell, you’re still probably mad.”

He could see Lance’s chest puff up slightly as he spoke, “Well one of my best friends hung out with my rival, why wouldn’t I be pissed? And it’s not a ‘stupid fucking scholarship.’ Not to me anyways, the kid that deserved it.”

Keith could feel his anger getting the best of him as he crossed his arms in annoyance, “Pfft, please I won that scholarship fairly. Why don’t you get pissed at you’re writing teacher for not teaching you well enough to write.”

“We had the same writing teacher, we were in the same english class you dick!”

“Oh, I guess I didn’t notice you because I was actually paying attention so that I could win scholarships.” Keith had no idea why he had just said that, he totally knew that he had shared a class with Lance.

“Oh fuck you, don’t act like you didn’t know we shared a class! We would literally compete for higher grades.”

“I wasn’t competing, I was just getting them. But yeah, I think I remember you now. You were the kid always flocking after girls like Nyma and writing pretty average essays.”

Lance was fuming. He was never listening to Pidge again because he was obviously very right about who Keith was. “Whatever, asshole. I regret ever thinking that we could actually be friends. You’re obviously exactly who I thought you were!”

For some reason that struck a chord with Keith. He wanted to take it all back, but instead he kept going, “Yeah, I guess I am! I guess I’m exactly what everyone thinks of me and nothing else!”

Lance wasn’t expecting that answer. He went silent for a little bit thinking of what Keith said. Keith had expected a fast response, but instead he received a small look from Lance that made him think about what he said. He blushed and moved past Lance, taking a long drink from his bottle. Lance stood there before muttering to himself, “Whatever…”

He walked into the group sitting awkwardly, trying to act like they hadn’t just heard the exchange in the kitchen. Lance clapped his hands together, scaring Pidge slightly, and smiled, “Alright, Hunky Monkey! Let’s set up this beer pong.”

“Oh, beer pong! I’m down,” Pidge sat up excitedly.

“Cool, we’ll do teams. Me and Hunk versus Pidge and our lovely host,” Lance smiled at Allura, winking when she made eye contact with him. Even though she kind of groaned, he continued to show her one of his best smiles.

Keith rolled his eyes from his spot sitting next to Shiro and Matt and mumbled loud enough for Lance to hear, “Classic…”

Without looking Lance flipped him off and spoke to Allura, “What do you say, beautiful? You in?”

“I would love to play, but my name is Allura,” She said politely.

“You got it, Princess Allura,” Lance replied.

“God, shut up, Lance,” Pidge got off the couch and walked over to the table where Hunk had already started setting up for the game.

“Honestly…” Keith again spoke up.

“Yes, do shut up. I am going to have to decline your advances. It’s not your fault, you are just simply too young. But I do like princess…” Allura smiled, putting a finger on her chin.

Matt stood up fast, bowing in Allura’s direction, “Princess Allura of Altea! The five lions of Voltron and I, their humble guardian, bow down to you!” Allura blushed with a smile and everyone laughed and did a similar bow, except for Keith who Shiro noticed was starting to retreat into himself.

Shiro pushed him slightly to get his attention and whispered, “You okay?”

Keith pulled the hood over his head tighter, mad that he was wearing the stupid onesie anyways and a little embarrassed Shiro could tell he was getting moody, “Whatever…”

Shiro sighed and stood up. He motioned for Keith to stand and follow. At first, Keith tried his best to ignore him, but Shiro dragged him up and forced him to follow him into the hallway. Keith cursed how strong Shiro was in his mind. Shiro pulled him into the bathroom and closed the door. He sat Keith down on the toilet and looked at him, “What’s wrong?”

With anyone else, Keith would have told them to fuck off and mind their own business, but it was Shiro so he started talking, “I’m such an idiot! Why did I say those stupid ass things to him? He freaking admitted he wanted to be friends and I blew it.”

Shiro sighed. He didn’t even know why he bothered asking, he knew what was wrong. He continued anyways, “It was probably the alcohol. Lance has been drinking for a while and you drank that first bottle way too fast.” Keith scoffed and began taking another large drink from the bottle he was currently holding. Shiro grabbed it out of his hand before he could finish it off, “Do you know how alcohol works? You drinking isn’t going to help you with Lance.”

“Yeah, but it’ll help me forget he exists,” Keith grumbled.

“What do you want from Lance? Do you want to forget him, be his friend, or date him? Because I can’t help you with all three.”

“What should I do?”

“Make a decision. I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can tell you whining about how he’s mean to you and then blowing up on him when he’s nice isn’t going to fix it.”

“I didn’t want to blow up on him! I don’t know why I did.”

“‘Cause you’re a hot head, Keith. You get worked up and charge in with fists instead of seeing what the situation is.”

Keith sat back and crossed his arms, “I guess I am what everyone thinks of me…”

“No, you’d just rather show everyone that you’re a hot head instead of actually letting them get to know you. You start with the worst so you don't have to deal with it if they don't like you're best.” Keith sat in silence, letting Shiro know that he was right, but still angry he was right. “You’re a great kid, Keith, and Lance would love to get to know the real you.”

“How do you know?” Keith mumbled.

“Because Lance wants to get to know everybody. And because once he gets over this whole rival thing I’m sure he’ll realize he has a crush on you too.”

Keith sat up, “I don’t-”

Shiro cut him off, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Just be patient, and work slowly. Patient yields focus.”

Keith laughed a little, “You still say that?”

Shiro shrugged, “It still works.”

Keith was quiet. He looked down to his hands, thinking of all the things that Shiro had said. Maybe he could let people get to know him. He had done it pretty well with Pidge, and if Pidge liked Lance then he was sure he could somehow get along with him. He definitely needed to apologize first. He looked up to Shiro who was standing in front of him, waiting for him to show he was good. He opened his arms as a signal.

Shiro laughed and gave him a hug, squeezing slightly as reassurance. “You got this, Keith,” He said into Keith’s shoulder.

“Patience yields focus,” Keith said back.

Shiro smiled, “You know it.” He moved away from Keith and brought him up so he was standing, “Wanna play some beer pong?”

Keith shrugged, “Sure. I’ve never played.”

“Well I guess you can start by watching the master,” Shiro smiled smugly. Keith rolled his eyes with a smile and walked out the bathroom, praying no one would notice that they had been gone for so long.

Thankfully for Keith, everyone was highly invested into the beer pong game. Lance and Hunk’s side seemed to have lost four cups while Pidge and Allura had lost two. He saw Lance carefully throw a ball and it ended up landing perfectly into the cup on the other side, causing Pidge and Allura to groan.

Matt looked excitedly to Shiro, “Babe, you gotta see this! The sharpshooters are killing it!”

Shiro walked behind Matt and wrapped his arms around his waist, “It looks like they're losing.”

Pidge grabbed the cup with the ball in it, “Him and Hunk already won a game. Those are the most cups we’ve gotten in two games.” They threw the cup back and tried to finish it as quickly as possible.

Shiro looked to Lance surprised, “I was in the bathroom like five minutes tops.”

Lance shrugged, “More like seven. What can I say? Me and Hunk are the dream team.” He high fived Hunk and turned to grab a bottle from the fridge.

“We’re playing a drinking game. Why are you getting another drink?” Pidge complained to him as he walked into the kitchen to grab the bottle opener.

“Well you guys are sucking so much while me and Hunk are killing the game I have to catch up.” Lance opened his bottle and walked back to the table to give Hunk another high five.

Allura rolled her eyes, “Does anyone else want to play? I’m obviously not good enough for this.”

“I’ll play.” Everyone looked to Keith a little surprised that he had actually volunteered. Matt quietly laughed at how little work he actually had to do. Keith shrugged his shoulders, “I’ve never played.”

Lance scoffed, “Yeah, well I wouldn’t suggest playing against the dream team here on the first try.”

“Have at it, Keith. I’m getting a little tired of this beer, so if anyone wants wine, let me know.” Allura handed Keith a ping pong ball and walked into the kitchen.

“What kind?” Shiro called to her.

“Something my father is going to release soon. They haven’t figured out a name,” She responded.

“Color?” Matt asked next.

“Red.”

Mat and Shiro both “Oooed” in response and walked into the kitchen after her.

Lance glared at Keith across the table as Pidge explained to him the rules. Hunk poked his side and turned around motioning for Lance to crouch with him. “Hey, maybe give the guy a break,” Hunk whispered.

Lance nearly choked on his drink. “Are you serious? You too? Did you not hear what he said to me in the kitchen? Why would I be nice to him?” Lance whispered back.

“Because you’re a nice guy. And you literally spent an hour today talking about how you wanted to be his friend.”

“Yeah that was before I found out he was a dick,” Lance took a drink with an angry pout on his face.

“Lance you could make friends with literally anyone in this world. I’m sure you could make friends with a dick.”

“Why are you defending him?”

“‘Cause Pidge really likes hanging out with the guy. You know how hard it was to get Pidge to even open up to us, and this guy has done it in a week.”

“You saying he’s better friends than me?”

Hunk let out a frustrated sigh, “No, dude. I’m saying I like seeing Pidge have friends.”

“Well, they can make better friends,” Lance knew he was being difficult, but he was still running off of the fumes of his anger from his talk with Keith in the kitchen.

Hunk was about to respond, but was cut off by Pidge, “Hey losers, you ready to fucking go or what?”

Lance turned around with a smile, getting into the competitive spirit, “Just over here strategizing. I honestly don’t know why we are though, this game should go by faster than the first one.”

“Bite me, Lance.” Pidge retorted, also letting their competitive side show.

Hunk rolled his eyes, and began reorganizing the cups for the new game. “Come on guys, play nice. I want a nice clean match.”

“Are you the ref?” Keith tried joking.

“Oh no, I’m on the other team with Lance,” Hunk explained.

“Yeah, I… nevermind let’s play,” Keith said to move past his failed joke.

Pidge patted his shoulder, “I gotcha buddy. It was funny.”

“I’ll let the beginner go first,” Lance took a drink while waving for Keith to hurry up and go.

Keith rolled his eyes and took a wild shot without aiming to try and piss Lance off. The ball bounced onto the table and landed perfectly in the middle cup. Pidge let out a loud, surprised laugh, “Fuck yes, Keith!”

Lance looked surprised for a moment, but quickly hid it, “Eh, it was okay. Probably just beginners luck.”

“Aw man, I don’t know if I can handle it if he’s good. I’m pretty drunk and I know I’ll throw up if I drink more,” Hunk said rubbing his belly.

Lance took the cup off the table, “You know what Hunk, I’ll take all the drinking from here. I’m sure they won’t get very far anyways.” He drank it down as fast as he could and threw the cup to the side.

Keith was nothing if not competitive, and as he looked at Lance in that moment and had two thoughts: that was kind of hot, and he was going to kick Lance’s ass at a drinking game he had never played.

Chapter Text

Matt watched with a smile on his face at how intense a beer pong game between freshman barely into their first week of college had become. Hunk and Pidge had tapped out a while ago. The game was between Lance and Keith, and it was obviously about more than beer pong at this point.

Keith had stopped drinking after their second game, but Lance kept at it. Both had won two games and this was their final game (because Allura said so) in order to determine the ultimate champion of beer pong (in Lance’s words). Lance still had four cups, but Keith was down to just one on his side.

Lance grabbed the ball off of the floor and stood up too fast, almost toppling over before Hunk caught him. He looked at Keith, “Th-the only reason I haven’ win… won yet is ‘cause I’m pretty wasted.”

Keith crossed his arms, upset he was losing, “Whatever, you said that the last game when I won.”

“Didya forget the two other times I won?”

“Did you forget that you can suck my hairy-”

“Lance, can you just finish the game?” Shiro cut Keith off from his position on the couch where him, Pidge, and Allura had put a movie on.

“Aw, come on honey, let the boys have some fun,” Matt said to him.

“They’ve been playing for three hours. They’ve had their fun,” Pidge grumbled from the couch.

“We haven’t even started dancing yet,” Allura complained.

“I don’t know if I feel like dancing. I got drunker then I thought I would,” Hunk rubbed his stomach in concern.

Lance immediately went to his friend’s side, “You gonna be okay, buddy?”

“I should be asking you. You’ve had a lot more than me,” Hunk said to Lance.

Lance waved him off, “Eehh, I’ll be fine. I’ve had waaaay worse. You ‘member us sneaking out at night to,” Lance threw himself in a circle and faced Hunk with his hands open in front of him, “hit da town?”

Hunk laughed, “While that is true, you are still pretty hammered my friend.”

Lance put a hand on his shoulder, “Wha ‘bout this? I win the game, me and you head home.”

“You gotta win the game first,” Keith said from his side of the table.

Lance casually flipped him off while still looking at Hunk. Hunk looked unconvinced, “Are you sure? You really wanted to dance.”

“Yeah, but I also don’ wanna pick your puke up off the floor.”

Keith chimed in again, “How do you pick puke up? It’s a liquid.”

Lance faced him in frustration, “Dude, you suck at shit talking.”

“I never had to learn ‘cause I beat everyone at everything,” Keith retorted.

Lance smiled smugly, “Yeah, well with me around, you might want to learn.” Lance casually threw the ball while still looking Keith dead in the eye. Keith wanted to follow the ball’s path, but he ended up staring directly into Lance’s blue eyes. Keith had always loved the color blue, and he thought about the lake he visited once with Shiro one summer, just for a second. Then, he heard the sound of the ball hitting liquid. He widened his eyes and looked down into the one cup left standing that had the bottom filled with pink beer and a single ping pong ball.

“Holy shit! That was the best shot I’ve ever seen in my life!” Matt screamed with his hands on his head in pure shock.

Hunk gapped at the cup, “No… fucking… way…”

Shiro laughed while walking up to Matt, “Damn. And from a freshman, too.”

Pidge looked away from the TV screen, “I didn’t see it, do it again.”

Keith looked to Allura next who was sitting on the floor laughing too hard to say anything. He then looked back to Lance, who had just finished doing some sort of victory dance. Keith’s mouth was hanging open as he looked at him. Lance shrugged and started to drunkenly giggle before laughing so hard that he fell backwards onto the floor.

Hunk lifted him up, “Alright, maybe we should head back.”

“Awe, are you sure? I was just about to put on the music,” Allura said from the floor.

“Yeah, I’m not feeling too good and Lance,” He looked at Lance in his arms who was still laughing but starting to slump over, “Lance is about a good 10 minutes away from passing out.”

“I’ll go with you guys,” Shiro said.

“Wait, why?” Matt held onto his arm.

Shiro smiled, “Because it’s midnight and I want them to be safe. And I don’t want Hunk to drag Lance all the way back alone.”

“But I still wanted to dance,” Matt frowned.

“Yeah, me too” Pidge said from behind them.

“I can’t protect me and Pidge by myself when we walk home,” Matt said to him.

“Hunk is still going to need a key to get in since you told Lance he didn’t need his because you had yours,” Shiro said to Matt who just huffed.

“I can go with them,” Keith said before thinking.

Shiro looked to Keith surprised, “Uh… are you sure?”

Keith shrugged, “Yeah, I’m ready to go to bed anyways.”

“‘Cause you lost so bad ya luh-loser!” Lance’s shouts were muffled since his face was buried in Hunk’s shoulder.

Matt pulled Shiro’s face to look at him, “I think this is a good idea.” He winked to him not-so subtly since he was pretty drunk.

Shiro sighed, “I don’t know. It’s still three freshman walking by themselves.”

“It’ll be fine, Shiro,” Keith waved him off and started grabbing his bag from beside the door.

“Yeah, see. Fine,” Matt encouraged.

“Can we start dancing?” Pidge yelled.

“Thank god! I was waiting for someone to say it,” Allura stood up and went over to her speaker.

Matt jumped excitedly and went over to the living room area where the dancing was going to take place. Shiro looked seriously to Keith, “Are you sure you know the way back? Do you need me to pull up a map? Make sure to bring some water to drink on the way. Do you know what to do if Lance starts throwing up? You need to-”

Keith cut him off by putting a hand on his shoulder, “Shiro, it’s okay.”

Shiro still looked concerned, “Fine. Just be safe.”

Music started playing throughout the apartment and Pidge and Allura laughed together as they started throwing their limbs around in an attempt to dance. Matt had started dabbing to the beat of the bass repeatedly. Shiro looked back and laughed. He gave Keith a quick hug and goodnight before going over to join his boyfriend.

Lance mumbled as Hunk tied his shoes over his onesie, “Illove this song…”

“I know buddy. Give me your phone and headphones so you can listen to it while we walk,” Hunk held his hand out for him.

Lance gasped with a smile and stuck his hand dramatically into his lion onesie to reach into his basketball shorts and grab his phone. He took it out, and then frowned with a really sad look, “I didn’ bring my headphones…”

He looked like he was about to cry, and Keith did not want to deal with that. He opened the small pocket of his bag and stepped forward, “Here, you can have mine.” He handed his headphones to Hunk to plug in to Lance’s phone.

Hunk smiled, “See buddy, everything is okay.”

Lance laughed and clapped his hands, “Yay! I still beat you though.” He pointed to Keith, swaying a little bit.

Keith crossed his arms, but still smiled at how stupid Lance was being, “Whatever, it was rigged anyways.”

Lance gasped and stood up, “Was not! Did yoou see that shot?”

“Lance, put the headphones in,” Hunk said.

Lance turned around fast, “Okay!”

Keith laughed and looked to Hunk, “You ready?”

Hunk sighed, “Just about. Let me grab some water bottles though. I know we’ll need them.”

Hunk walked into the kitchen for the water bottles. Lance started waving and shouted to the dancing group, “Bye, everyone! Goodnight!”

Everyone waved and continued dancing. Keith looked at them, and felt happy. Other than the bump with Lance, this had been a pretty enjoyable night. Hunk handed him four water bottles to put in is bag. “Two for me, I’m going to need them,” He explained.

Keith looked to Lance who was swaying and snapping to his own music, “You sure we don’t need two for him? He’s probably blacked out at this point.”

Hunk waved him off, “Nah, he’s just a happy drunk. And he’s been drinking a lot of water throughout the night too.”

Keith thought for a second, “Huh, I don’t think I’ve had any water.”

Hunk looked at him before sighing, “I’ll get you another one.” Keith shrugged and waited. He opened the bottle when Hunk gave it to him and took a long swing. Hunk shook his head, “Now I’m ready.” They walked towards the door and all said goodbye again before leaving.

The four continued dancing. Matt grabbed both of Shiro’s hands and began moving them back and forth between them. Shiro laughed and sung the song loudly to Matt. He had Matt do a little twirl and brought him close. Matt giggled and put his hands on Shiro’s chest, “When was the last time we danced together?”

Shiro sighed, “Too long.”

“I propose an amendment to this relationship!”

“We have a constitution?”

“Duh. I move we go dancing at leeeeeast… twice a month. At the Lion’s Den!”

Shiro laughed happily, “I second that motion.”

“Yay!” Matt began dancing wildly, and Shiro watched with a smile. Shiro looked at the man in front of him, dancing stupidly and not caring at all. Matt had always been like that, even in high school where everyone was ready to judge. Shiro was pretty silly in class, but Matt would always have the better jokes. Shiro loved that about him. He loved that they were each good at things, but together they were unstoppable. He had decided a while ago, but he refreshed the thought in his mind. He was never going to stop loving the boy rapidly dabbing in front of him.

“So Pidge,” Allura said a little out of breath to them, “Why the name Pidge? Is it okay if I ask that?”

Pidge shrugged while still dancing, “I mean I guess. If I’m being completely honest, my dad and Matt used to call me that when I was little. I don’t really remember how it started, but it kind of just… fit. Especially after I cut my hair.”

Allura smiled, “That’s so sweet. Does… does your father know about your gender?”

Pidge’s steps slowed, “No… I don’t even know how I’m going to tell him. He just thought I started calling myself that because I missed Matt. I have no idea how he’s going to react…”

Allura looked at them almost sadly, still trying to keep up a happy dance, “You know, me and you have more in common than you might think.” Pidge looked to her confused. Allura continued, “I’m actually asexual. I haven’t come out to my father yet. He’s been trying to set me up with someone and I feel as if I should tell him before he gets any ideas about guys… I just don’t know how to tell him.”

Pidge was surprised at what she had said, “Oh, well is the guy cool with you being asexual?”

“Well, yes. But he’s also completely awful,” Allura said to them with a disgusted look.

Pidge laughed, “Who is this guy?”

“He’s the son of a competing brewery in Britain. He’s hoping if we get together then it’ll be easier to try and befriend the company.”

“Ew, like an arranged marriage?”

“Not exactly. He doesn’t really expect us to get married, just be nice. I can’t even do that, the man never stops talking. I also kind of think he’s gay.”

Pidge snorted a little, “Probably. What’s his name?”

Allura looked around a little before leaning in, “Lotor.”

Matt gasped loudly. Shiro looked in shock to Allura, “Your dad is trying to get you to hook up with Lotor. Please, for the love of god, never do that!”

Allura laughed, “You know I wouldn’t.” She leaned towards Pidge, “I told you he was terrible.” Pidge shook their head with a smile and started dancing to the song again. Everyone else joined in as the front door opened. Pidge looked to confusion at the moustached man walking through the door with what looked like mail in his hand.

“Uncle Coran!” Allura shouted with a smile, “Would you like to join us?”

Coran looked at the happily, “I would never pass up an opportunity! Say, wasn’t there going to be more people?”

“Yeah, three of them already left. Couldn’t hang with the cool kids,” Matt said while quickly throwing his arms in and out.

“Awe, did Lance leave? I was looking forward to seeing him again,” Coran said while dropping his keys and mail into their designated places.

Pidge scrunched their nose, “Why’d you wanna see Lance?”

“Oh, I adore that boy. He was quite the hoot when I was grabbing his and Matthew’s papers today.”

“Yeah, and he totally saved you from that weird stray cat that always hangs out by the dorms,” Matt added, doing his best to ignore Coran calling him Matthew.

“Rover?” Pidge chimed in, “Rover wouldn’t hurt anyone!”

“Oh my god, tell me you didn’t name the stupid cat,” Matt groaned. “It totally tried to attack Coran.”

“It’s true! Thing came straight at me. I would’ve been able to maneuver it, but it caught me by surprise from behind. Luckily Lance got me out of the way before it could do any damage. That things always trying to get me,” Coran explained.

“Well, where were you?” Pidge asked.

“Over by the Gorden statue. I was trying to show the boy my favorite oak tree,” Coran said.

“That explains it. He was just protecting his family. That’s where the mom and the babies are. I haven’t named them yet ‘cause I haven’t seen much of them. Rover only let me see them for a second,” Pidge told him.

“Pidge, you’ve been here like a week. How did you already befriend a stray cat family?” Matt sighed.

“‘Cause I love cats and you know that. I’m trying to get Lance’s family to take them in. Hopefully they come and get them before anything happens to them.”

“And hopefully soon. I miss eating my lunch by my favorite oak tree,” Coran said sadly.

“Well, come on Uncle Coran. Dance with us!” Allura said happily.

“Oh, you kids want to see some dancing. I’ll show you some good moves Alfor and I came up with back in the day. Nothing can beat it!” Coran began doing an elaborate step move while moving his arms that honestly impressed Pidge. Shiro laughed while Matt tried to match his movement.

Pidge hadn’t expected to bond with any of Shiro’s friends, but they’d be lying if they said they weren’t having an amazing time.