Chapter Text
~Lance~
Lance was furious. It took a lot to actually make the young man irate, but somehow Keith was able to tick him off every single time.
With a huff, Lance looked down at his loafers as he made his way down the hall to the Classics library. The soft bottoms on his shoes slipped a little with every step, just enough to throw off his gate. And gosh darn it wasn’t that little bit just enough to cause Lance to descend into full blown bitch mode.
Nothing was going right for Lance today, and the freaking floors were just the icing on the damned cake. First, Professor Smythe had announced the groupings for their final project, and while he lucked out getting Hunk in his group, he of course was also stuck with Mr Gorgeous Asshole Keith-I’m-Too-Cool-For-School. Pidge was also in the group, and while Lance didn’t know the guy all that well, he seemed cool and pretty smart in the classes they had shared before.
Next, when Lance had gone to greet the TA who would be overseeing their group, he hadn’t even been able to meet the guy! Nearly forty whole minutes Lance had stood outside his office door, leaned against the doorjamb nicely, just to say hi. Even after knocking loudly quite a few times, the TA wouldn’t even open the door.
Lance had tried jumping up just to peek a little bit through the window of the dude’s office, but he was only able to make out two vague shapes sitting at the desk. The guy was obviously in there, why couldn’t he open the door even just to say hi to Lance?
Lance was a fairly popular dude, and was generally well liked in the physics department. And while Lance had never heard of this TA that was supposed to be guiding their research this semester, he certainly thought that the TA would have heard of Lance, the hardworking up-and-coming under dog of New England astronomy! Lance was doing the guy a freaking favor by introducing himself before the entire group met: this way he could graciously allow the TA to get over his awe in private.
One foot slid out as Lance turned a corner, nearly sending Lance to his knees. With a curse Lance decided to just fuck it, and he kicked his shoes off.
“No good, freaking, moldy-ass Humanities…..” Lance grumbled as he snagged his shoes and walked to the closest bench. “Who even finds history interesting? Why are even these buildings so freaking ancient?”
Lance winced and tried to hold his head high as his bare feet slapped against the wood floors. Dio, was this worse than wearing the slip ons? Quite possibly.
In the distance Lance could hear a pair of heels clicking down the corridor towards him, and Lance shuffled to the bench quicker. Just as the woman turned the corner towards him, Lance slid onto the bench and relaxed back against the wall.
Neither said anything as she walked by, her attention kept by the sheaves of papers cradled in her arms. Sometimes Lance wondered if there was anything sexier than hearing a woman in heels, all powerful and sexy and meaning business. And damn, watching her walk away? Sometimes even better, especially if she was wearing tights with a visible back seam that made it look like her legs went on for days.
Catching his wandering eye just in time, Lance reached down to pull out his phone to appear busy. As she passed, Lance snuck up his eyes and woah mama, she was a looker alright. The usual academic fare, but worn with such an easy style that she looked like something out of a magazine.
Black kitten heels, sheer black tights, and a tasteful plaid skirt that hit just below her knees. An airy white shirt was tucked in, highlighting her killer curves. And Lance couldn’t even with her face. Bright blue eyes that darted across her papers: stunning white hair drawn up into a messy bun.
Lance was in love, he knew it this time. This girl, this wonderful angel emerging out of the dusty cobwebs of the Classics department, she was the one for him. At least for this semester.
As if Fate herself approved of Lance’s plans, a sudden gust of wind blew through one of the many open windows lining the hall. As her papers fluttered to the floor, Lance saw his chance like a beam of light from heaven: the unexpected event drawing the lady to a halt right in front of him! Lance grinned at her perplexed expression. A perfect moment for Lance to swoop in and—
“Oh, Allura, let me get those for you,” a rich voice spoke just to Lance’s left.
“No, no let me-” Lance bent forward off the bench to reach for a paper when a large hand reached it first. Lance’s eyes couldn’t help but trace up the rival man’s wrist, shapely arm, to —holy guacamole— a chest of epic proportions.
Lance froze, arm outstretched, as he got to the man’s face. What on earth had he done to deserve two such beautiful people crossing his path today? If the woman was an angel, then surely this man was a god. Strong chin, smiling lips, sparkling black eyes all topped off with a shock of white hair. Individually the attributes were a bit odd, but together this man pulled it off fantastically. Even the scar across his nose added to his beauty.
“Shiro? Oh my goodness, when did you get back? I am signed up for the P&A faculty email, but I didn’t get any word that you returned!” The woman —Allura, Lance’s mind supplied— ignored her mess in preference to giving the god a hug.
Lance shifted forward and began picking up her papers, ears perked towards their conversation.
“I know, I know, I should have told you right away. It was all rather sudden, I was asked to return to help translate.” The god kept an arm around Allura as he spoke, and he flashed those pearly whites of his to glorious effect.
Lance shuffled closer on his knees and reached for more papers.
“Oh, I see. I am still upset at you though! You know I had to learn from Matt that you were away getting fitted out; you really need to get better at this whole keeping friends updated thing.” As the god’s rich laughter rang out, a new pair of combat boots entered Lance’s line of sight and arms reached down to pluck papers off the floor.
Lance tucked his head down, and focused on grabbing the last few papers near him. The helping hands had already finished up in their area, and were walking back towards Allura and the God.
“Oh my! Keith too! It is so good to see you both together, it really has been far too long since we all got together.” The boots sidetracked over to Lance, and shapely hands reached out to tug away the papers he had collected. Frowning, Lance looked up to argue with the hands only to stare into the face of his arch nemesis.
Damnit, why was it always Keith? He got the front row seat, teachers barely called on him, and he always managed to skew the curve by being just a few points better than Lance in every course they shared. And now he seemed to know both Allura and the god! Lance glared at Keith, tugging the papers back towards himself.
With a growl —seriously, who does that? Lance chalked it up to Keith’s rude-ass attitude— Keith yanked the papers out of Lance’s grip. In the background Lance could hear Allura and the god chatting away, but his focus had shifted to the problem swaggering around in front of him.
Muttering angrily as he pushed off the floor, Lance could only watch in silence as Keith walked over to the reuniting pair, and handed over the papers. Sitting back down on the bench Lance fumed as the three turned towards each other with a familiar ease, and Allura reached out to pull Keith into a hug.
Lance was certain the day couldn’t get any worse, but here it was, right in front of him, practically erupting into flames as his girl-of-the-term was getting stolen away by a god and an asshole. The three began to walk away down the hall, and other than Allura tossing a wave over her shoulder in thanks, they ignored him completely. Tipping his head back, Lance jumped as he accidentally hit a pushpin in the wall.
Without thinking Lance reached down and threw one of his loafers against the opposite wall. The resulting soft whump sound was not nearly loud enough to cool Lance’s anger. Why did nothing ever go Lance’s way? That was the perfect opportunity for Lance to slide into Busty Blonde’s life, but nooooo the cosmos decided even that was to be stolen by Keith too.
Grinding his hands over his eyes and sighing, Lance pushed off the bench and tried to brush away his anger. The day was almost over: he just had to make it through this meeting and then he could go home. Just two more hours or so and he would be back in his and Hunk’s cozy apartment.
“Just two more hours,” Lance muttered as he crossed to where his shoe had landed. “Just two more, you can do this.”
Resigning himself to slipping and sliding all the way to the library, Lance looked down the hallway towards where the trio had headed. The god and Allura were turning down a side corridor, but Keith was still there, only a few yards ahead. Lance watched dumbstruck as Keith waved, held up his phone to snap a picture of Lance hopping around to pull on his shoe, and then had the gall to wave goodbye as he continued on his way.
What the hell….. Lance shouted again and threw his slipper down the hallway towards Keith. Once again the shoe failed him, and fell uselessly to the floor only a few feet ahead. Lance couldn’t help it: he slumped back the bench and had to sit for a few more minutes, muffling screams into his backpack.
———————————
“I mean, who does he think he is? Strutting around like he rules the school when everyone knows he is some socially-awkward dickhead with ass for brain!”
Hunk and Pidge continued pulling notebooks and pens out of their bags as Lance ranted.
“Walking around and charming ladies… I picked up those papers, I should have been the one who escorted the damsel back to her castle! What the frick, right?” Lance tipped back in his chair, flicking his pencil against the metal arm repeatedly.
“Well it seemed like they knew each other, Lance, it makes sense for Keith to help her,” Hunk tried to calm his friend but his words only riled Lance further.
“Why in the world would a guy like him know an angel like her? You didn’t see her Hunk, she was like an angel from heaven, or even yet, a angel for Victoria’s Secret! Legs for days, an ample chest, shapely ankles … trotting around in little heels, fuck guys, she was perfect!”
“That’s gross Lance,” Pidge butted in, “Allura is a person, not some sex doll for your enjoyment.”
“But you didn’t see her, Pidge,” Lance waved his hands in an hourglass shape. “Any guy would drool after that bombshell!”
“Really Lance,” Hunk frowned, “gross.”
“Aw come on you guys! We are all men here, we can appreciate a good female form every now and then!” Pidge held up a finger and tried to interrupt but Lance was on a roll. “Every term I set a goal cutie to have by the time finals come around. Seriously, like, hashtag Term Cutie. She is like a reward for getting through the semester! Allura will be a challenge, certainly, but my lord she will be worth it.”
Lance could see Pidge trying to speak again, but he was talking at the moment so Pidge would just have to shush for another minute.
“Hunk, you have to help me with the seduction. I could invite her over for supper, show off my —ahem, your— cooking skills and wham bam wouldn’t you know suddenly she is trying breakfast too if you know what I mean!” Lance waggled his eyebrows and nudged Pidge in the side. Pidge only frowned, and leaned away slightly. Well then.
“Shouldn’t we just focus for now on our project, Lance? That is what we are here for after all, not to hear your gross plans of bagging a girl.” Hunk tried to move Lance’s attention to his own notes, but seeing the project layout only made Lance angry again.
“About that! Where the hell is Keith and our TA? The asshole was in the hall with me just a few minutes ago, he should have been here by now. And our TA? Has anyone even met the guy?” Caught up in his rant Lance didn’t notice Hunk and Pidge look towards the door. “For all we know he is some idiot who just wants to look good on a resume.” Pidge smirked and stood up while Hunk sunk lower into his chair.
“He stood me up for nearly an hour, did I tell you that yet? What kind of teacher doesn’t have time for his best students anyway.” Frowning, Lance crossed his arms and tipped back in his chair to watch Pidge trot away from the table.
“Pidge, where the hell do you think-”
“Shiro!” Lance tipped further back to watch Pidge jump into the arms of someone just outside the doorway. Shiro? Why was that name familiar?
“Katie? I didn’t know you were studying here!” Why did that voice sound familiar.
“I know I know! I asked Matt not to tell you so it would be a surprise! I also may have asked Coran to put me in the same group as Keith so I could work with you too.”
“Pidge, you know you shouldn’t hassle Coran like that!” Lance’s jaw dropped as the god from earlier walked into the library, Pidge clinging like a limpet to his side. “He has a soft spot for you for sure, but while you are here you should at least try to pretend to follow the university rules.”
The god stepped up to the table and raised an eyebrow at Lance.
“I couldn’t help but overhearing you earlier, student, and I assure you that I am qualified. I did my undergrad in basic Astronomy and Celestial Mathematics at Williams, my MA in Astrophysical Sciences at Rochester, and am now working towards a PhD here at BU. While I have TA’d before, this is the first time I am steering a research project on my own, so it will be a learning curve for both you and I.” With a grin that melted Lance’s insides, the god reached out his hand for Lance to shake.
“Takashi Shirogane. My friends call me Shiro,” Lance’s chair landed back on four legs with a thump. “And you can too.”
“Hi there! My name’s Hunk… seriously! Hunk Garrett, nice to meet you.” Shiro smiled again as he stretched across the table to shake hands with Hunk. Gay panic began to spark through Lance’s mind as he watched Shiro’s shirt ride up as he bent forward.
“That idiot over there is Lance McClain,” as Pidge introduced him Shiro grinned at him again. Holy fuck maybe this day wasn’t so bad after all. “Don’t listen to anything that comes out of his mouth, I know I don’t!”
With an indignant squawk Lance sputtered as his flustered brain tried to come up with a clapback. “Yeah? Pidge? Well, well, you …. you….!”
Hunk, the good friend he was, saved Lance from his failing retort and turned the attention back to Shiro.
“Not to bombard you the second you meet our group, but could we actually get to what this assignment is? Professor Smythe was pretty vague in class about it, and we have already been waiting here for a while, we would love to just get going on it!”
Bless Hunk’s big heart, Lance thought. Wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, Lance blew a kiss to his savior.
“What about Keith though? Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer for him?” Lance rolled his eyes at Pidge’s question.
“If the asshole was going to show up by now,” Lance spoke louder when Pidge tried to gesture to stop talking. “He god damn would have. Let’s just get this show on the road.”
Pulling out his notebook and course outline, Lance focused back on Shiro. There. He had shown Shiro he was a conscientious, go-getting student. Lance returned Shiro’s wide smile at his remark: one point for Lance, heck yeah!
“Alright then. Heliophysics. We are going to be studying all aspects of the sun, our closest star,” Shiro began. Lance let his eyes wander over Shiro as the man kept explaining.
“This semester follows the total solar eclipses of August 21, 2017, whose totality crossed the U.S. from coast to coast, and the July 2, 2019, total solar eclipse that crossed Chile and Argentina.” Damn, Shiro probably lifted what, 175? 200? Lance drooled at the thought that Shiro could most certainly lift him.
“In addition to discussing our observations of these eclipses and what has been learned about the solar atmosphere from eclipse research, we will discuss the solar interior (including the Nobel-prize-winning solar neutrino experiment and helioseismology), the photosphere, the chromosphere, the corona, and the solar wind.” Lift him against walls, doors, bent over his desk, the list went on. Lance’s eyes glazed over as he imagined finally fulfilling his fantasy of fucking a teacher during school hours. And god, if Shiro’s muscles were that big, that suggested mighty fine things about the size of Shiro’s-
“Lance,” Shiro slapped a hand on the table in front of him, “please pay attention. This may just be our first meeting but it doesn’t mean we can’t be productive.” Lance vaguely nodded his head, and tried to focus but god those pecs made it so hard. Shiro wasn’t wearing a jacket, just a well fitted button up and a slim black tie. Lance shivered as he imagined watching Shiro loosening that tie, running a hand through his hair, and prowling forward to devour Lance whole.
“Furthermore, we will discuss the role of solar observations in confirming Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with the bending of light at the 1919, 1922, and 2017 total solar eclipses as well as gravitational redshift measurements in solar spectral lines, extending our discussion to the recent "chirp" of gravitational radiation reported from several colliding black holes and neutron stars observed with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.” Fuck yes, even Shiro’s voice was attractive. Talking about space and shit, holy fuck. Lance shifted in his seat as his pants grew tighter. Shiro sounded so commanding, but was also warm. There was hint of humor tugging at the lines of Shiro’s mouth, and Lance could only imagine the rough tones of Shiro’s voice when he was whispering dirty talk. Lance couldn’t help but close his eyes and let slip a small moan at the thought.
“Lance!” This time the hand landed on the arm of his chair and Lance nearly shot out of his seat in alarm. Shiro was leaning down towards him, and Lance gulped as he stared right at Shiro’s godly face.
“Seriously Lance, this is important! This is a team project, which means you will be partly responsible for the success of your peers and vice versa. To be honest this has been a pretty poor first impression of you, and I hope this trend will not continue through all our meetings.” Lance gulped and looked across to Hunk for help. Hunk merely shook his head and Lance could see Pidge mouthing “Gross.”
“I’m sorry, Shiro.” Lance moved his hands over his lap to stop their nervous tapping and to hide his little problem. “I don’t know why I am so distracted today…” Lance gave Shiro his best innocent eyes: they worked on most teachers. Lance did a victory dance in his mind when Shiro cracked a small grin and went back to his place at the table. Waiting until Shiro looked back down at his notes, Lance turned to leer at Pidge and Hunk. That’ll show them not to believe in the seductive powers of Lover-Boy Lance!
“Anyway,” Shiro started up again, “this assignment will make up 45% of your final grade for Heliophysics 412, and will primarily be a research project. While you can undertake practicals to help with your understanding of the eclipses, they will not be taken into account when calculating your final grade. At the end of term the four of you will present your research to the class, receive peer review, and then receive your grade.”
Lance nodded along with Hunk and Pidge, they would take a research project over a final exam any day! But something Shiro said irked him: the four of them. Keith wasn’t even here and it was Lance getting chewed over by the cute TA about bad first impressions!
“As it is, I am also your TA for a second reason. I am-” Lance couldn’t help but interrupt Shiro before the group could glide over what Shiro said.
“Whoa whoa whoa hold your horses there my friend! The four of us?” Once again Pidge reached out to shush Lance, and he wagged his hand away. “What the hell are we to do about Keith? He hasn’t even shown up yet! Talk about a bad first impression.”
Lance watched Shiro sigh, and fold his hands together on the table.
“If you had not interrupted me, you would know why Keith is late today.” Lance rolled his eyes, waiting to hear the next excuse for Keith’s loner behavior. “Keith has special learning conditions, and so he was prepped for the project privately just a short while ago. I sat with him myself for over an hour explaining it, and so he will be arriving in a bit once all this initial explanation to you all is done.”
Lance grew red in the face as all the anger from earlier in the day came rushing back. “Why the hell should Keith get special treatment? If he is such an idiot that he needs extra help, why the hell is he even in this school!?” Lance was furious. Again, it was all about Keith!
Lance watched as Shiro’s eyes grew pinched, and his mechanical hand clenched on the table. But damnit, Lance’s concerns were legitimate! Lance didn’t want to be stuck in a group with a loner asshole who couldn’t carry his own weight. Lance crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow as he waited for Shiro to speak.
Instead, it was Pidge who piped up. “Lance, you bonehead, Keith is deaf.”
The hell? Lance didn’t know how to answer.
“Yes, Lance, Katie is right,” Shiro added in. “As I never got around to explaining, Keith is hard of hearing, and I am here as your TA in particular because I can act as his ASL translator. While he has hearing aids, he prefers to communicate in sign, so I am here to speak on his behalf.” Lifting an eyebrow, Shiro waited for Lance’s next outburst. And Lance didn’t stop to think before he spoke.
“The fuck? How are we expected to present when one of us can’t even talk?” Hunk groaned and dropped his head into his hands at his idiot friend’s outburst. “Seriously you guys, he shouldn’t even be here. I bet that is why his grades are always so good: the teachers give him pity passes.”
Getting worked up, Lance continued on, waving his hands to punctuate. “I worked so damn hard to get here. So damn hard! You two know what my home life is like: I am the first to go to college! I am here nearly entirely on scholarship! And here comes Keith swanning in just because he is special. Give me a fucking break.”
Shiro roughly pushed back from the table and threw up his hands. “Fine. This meeting is getting cut short.” Pidge reached out to calm Shiro but the TA ignored his outstretched hand. Lance watched on in anger, belief in his arguments lending him strength to stay stubbornly in his chair, glaring.
Shiro rummaged through his shoulder bag and pulled out several booklets, and threw them onto the table. “Read through those before our meeting next week. It was nice meeting you Hunk, good bye Pidge.” Returning the snub, Lance refused to turn to watch as Shiro walked out of the room.
Silence rang through the room for a moment before Hunk groaned and Pidge began to angrily swear as he packed away his things.
“Seriously Lance,” Pidge grumbled, “are you that much of an ableist ass to not even give working with Keith a chance?” Pidge tugged one of the booklets closer and quickly flipped through it before tucking it away. “I hope that you can get over yourself soon, because when it comes to asking for a switch of members for this group, I will go to Professor Smythe and ask for you to be removed, not Keith.”
Lance kept his arms folded and stared straight ahead as Pidge left.
Slowly he swung his head to look at Hunk, who was not meeting Lance’s eyes.
“And? What do you think?”
Hunk fidgeted and stood up. “I think you crossed a line this time, Lance.” Hunk took the few steps around the table to place his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I love you man, but I will side with Pidge if push comes to shove about this.”
Lance tucked his head down: even his best friend was turning on him. All about fucking Keith, as fucking always! He ignored Hunk’s goodbye and promise to chat more at dinner, and glared angrily down at his lap.
What a freaking rollercoaster of a day. The highs were sky high and the lows were, like, Marianna’s Trench low. It seemed like every little thing was setting him off like a rocket, even more so than was usual for normal start of school stress. Even the quiet of the old library was beginning to wear him thin now that he wanted to scream and cry and kick and generally moan about the unfairness of life. It was just one of those days.
He knew that he really wasn’t being fair about Keith. Lance had a deaf cousin, and while it was always awkward trying to communicate with her, she wasn’t a bad person because of it. Lance knew he should have stopped talking because it was easy enough to see that Shiro was getting angrier and angrier, but it was like he was on autopilot and all his rage and frustration that had built up during the day spewed out in the form of utter ridiculous garbage that he didn’t even really mean. Lance corrected himself: he did hate Keith and his dillweedy ways, but not because he was deaf. Lance didn’t even freaking know Keith was deaf. But god, it is just like Lance to put one wrong foot in front of the other and dig his grave as quickly as he could.
Lance groaned and leaned down to slump over the table. That outburst probably cost him all his chances with Shiro. But why did Shiro even care so much to begin with? Shiro and Keith had probably only met today, it wasn’t like they had time to become friends or anything really.
Lance smushed his face deeper into his notebook, getting some pleasure out of the crinkling and tearing noises of the paper ripping away from the spiral binding.
Maybe if Keith wasn’t so freaking attractive and yet assholey Lance wouldn’t hate him so much. Keith had been his first Term Cutie last year when Lance had come to Boston. And Keith had ignored pretty much all his advances and then rubbed it in Lance’s face that he had better grades. Since then they had been bitter rivals, and it infuriated Lance because it seemed like Keith always edged Lance out to steal first place.
But enough about Keith, Lance thought. What about Shiro? Should he take up the challenge and pursue his new TA, or go after that hottie from the hallway? Alliya or something. Lance rolled his face back and forth. Alicia was drop-dead gorgeous, but Shiro was the more tempting catch.
Plus, and this thought had Lance shooting up straight in his chair again, if Lance bagged Shiro, he would finally be victorious over Keith. Not that they were in a relationship and probably wouldn’t ever be, Lance mused as he quickly shoved all his books back into his bag, but surely a hottie like Shiro would raise Lance above Keith.
Fuck yeah. A smirk grew on Lance’s face as he stalked towards the door. Shiro it is then.