Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Character Playlist Guide:

      ♫- Lance -♫

      ♫- Keith -♫

      ♫- Pidge -♫

      ♫- Hunk -♫

      ♫- Shiro -♫ 

      ♫- Allura -♫ 

A blue convertible Jeep rolled into the parking lot of ALTEA (Art and Liberal Teachings East Academy). This public institution was made for the purpose of molding young minds and creating scholars; at least, that was what it said on the brochure. The Jeep was blasting Roar by Katy Perry at full volume as a tan Cuban boy with short brown hair and sunglasses bobbed his head to the beat. He had the whole quad's attention at this point, but attention was nothing new to him; in fact, he was hoping all eyes would be on him. The new student stepped out of his car and stretched out his arms, announcing to everyone within earshot that he… was none other than Lance Charles McClain. 

---

"What a douche" exclaimed one of the students in the quad next to the parking lot.

"Keith, what did we talk about?" an older student was accompanying this particular first year to help him through the registration and move-in process. 

"Yeah yeah, I know. Try to be nice, try to make friends. But come on, Shiro, I'm definitely not gonna be friends with that guy, so why should the first rule apply?" The boy's mentor put his hand over his face to show his disappointment. 

---

Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, another car was pulling in behind the blue one. This car contained one first-year student and one graduate who was still using research facilities to conduct experiments. 

"Are you ready for your first day of college?" asked the older of the two. "I can't believe my little sister is growing up right in front of me."

"Yeah, I'm super excited!" The younger sibling was fidgeting with a bunch of papers necessary for the first day of starting college. 

"Hey, is that your class schedule?" 

"Uh-" before any more thought could go into the situation, the older brother had yoinked the schedule out of the hands of the newer student.

"Wow, Pidge, you're almost taking 20 credits. Are you sure you can't drop any classes? I know Math and physics are required for first-year engineers but do you really need 2 coding classes AND the engineering 101 class?" 

"Yes, Matt, if I want to get ahead and graduate as soon as possible, I need to get as much credit out of the way as I can." 

"Ok, but what about this gender studies class? I know that's not required." 

"Would you give me back my schedule? I need it before I go find my dorm." Pidge took the paperback and began opening the car door to leave. 

"Ok, but Kattie, look at me. You don't have to rush college. You can have fun with it if you want," with that jewel of wisdom, the siblings parted ways to start their college experiences. 

---

On the other end of the campus, where one of the boy's dorms was, a crowd of new students was being led through the building, shown around, and introduced to their roommates. A tall, heavily built student stood at his new dorm, looking at the sign on the door. It read 'Tsuyoshi Garrett and Asher Hunt,' the student found and took a pen out of his pocket to fix the sign. He crossed out Tsuyoshi and wrote his preferred nickname above it, 'Hunk.' He then went inside to find that his roommate wasn't there yet. He was early, but he hoped to meet this Asher before going to the quad to check out the club fair. Hunk settled for leaving a note introducing himself and informing him that he would be back after dinner. 

Hunk went to the quad where he met up with his good friend from high school, Lance. "Lance, Hey." He ran up to his friend, who was pulling a suitcase across the quad. 

"Hunk!" Lance threw himself into Hunk's arms to hug him. "Can you believe we're starting our college journey together here?" Lance wrapped an arm around his friend's head and gestured to the whole campus that was laid out in front of them. 

"Yeah, it's gonna be a blast." 

"Hey, let's head to the club fair after I get my room set up. I at least wanna go ahead and put up my posters and lights."

"Ok, I'll meet you at the coffee shop over there. I'm gonna go scope out where my classes are." 

"It's a date," Lance said with a wink.

---

"Alright, Keith, this is where your dorm building is." 

"Come on, Shiro, I can do this stuff later. Can't I just spend the day with you?" The first-year student protested. 

"No, you have to go meet your roommate, get unpacked, and sign up for at least ONE club at the club fair before I spend any more time with you today." 

"Fine." Keith grumpily walked into the dorm building and looked for the room that was listed on his paperwork.  

He could hear pop music faintly playing once he got to the right hall. 'Great,' he thought, 'I'm gonna be on a floor with someone who blares their music super loud.' The further down the hall Keith got, the more he started to get scared. The music got louder and louder, and judging by the distance, it was close to where his room was supposed to be. 'It can't be' once he got to the door, he was faced with the truth. Sure enough, the sign with his name on it also shared the name of one Lance McClain. 

"This can't be happening," he said to himself, pulling out the key he had been issued. Sure enough, he opened the door to see the guy from the quad putting up posters above the bed he had already claimed. 

"Oh, hey, roomie," Lance said, turning down the music to greet Keith. "I'm Lance. I already chose this bed. I hope that's alright. If not, I can always move my stuff." Keith stared at him in awe, wondering if Shiro had somehow willed this situation into existence. 

"No, this side of the room will be fine. I'm Keith, by the way." having an extroverted roommate was the last thing Keith wanted out of his college experience. In fact, the only thing he did want was a degree in astrophysics so that he could go to graduate school and get the master's degree required to work as a pilot for NASA. 

"Wait, now I know where I know you from. I'd recognize that mullet anywhere. You went to Garrison High but then left when we were freshmen. What was that about?" Keith was taken aback by Lance's forwardness, but he was more surprised that he remembered him. He only went to the school for one semester, and for that semester, he didn't remember talking to anyone. 

"How- How do you remember me?" 

"What do you mean?! we were in two classes with each other!" Lance's mood changed instantly at Keith's inquiry. 

"Oh, sorry," Keith said in a monotone voice. 

---

While this meeting of roommates was going on in the boys' dorms, the girls' dorms had their own first greetings. A bright young student was setting up her dorm and awaiting her new roommate's arrival when a student with messy short hair and glasses and a backpack bigger than them appeared in the doorway. 

"Oh, hi, you must be Katie's brother. I heard she had a brother who was a grad student here." said the girl as she put down the fairy lights she had been previously untangling to extend her hand. "I'm Samantha Hazel." 

"I- uh… I am Katie, your roommate. B-But, most people just call me Pidge." they looked down in embarrassment in hopes that their new roommate wouldn't be overly judgmental about their non-feminine looks and mannerisms. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to mistake you for a guy, you look plenty feminine." although these words were meant to be a reassurance, Pidge seemed to be more hurt by the correction than the initial mistake. 

"Yeah," they said nervously. "Anyways, I was going to head to the club fair in a few minutes to sign up for some clubs, but we should go ahead and exchange numbers in case of an emergency. I'm letting you know now most of my time will be spent in the library so you'll have the room to yourself for most of the day should you need it. I'll pretty much just be here when I need to sleep." Pidge was nervous at the thought of sharing a room with a girl. Pidge hadn't told anyone yet, not even their brother… but ever since their Junior year of high school, they had been having trouble thinking of themselves as a girl. Even going as far as to use exclusively gender-neutral pronouns when referring to themself in their own head. 

"Oh well, maybe I could go to the club fair with you. I was hoping we would be able to get to know each other since we're gonna be roommates for a year." Samantha said hopefully. 

"Oh, ok," Pidge said, wishing they had just made up a different excuse. 

---

While shenanigans were taking place in the dorms and in the quad, the club fair was in full swing. Most of the clubs had long lists of returning members and new students who had signed up with excitement for the new school year, but there was one club with only two members struggling to find new recruits. 

"Shiro, at this rate, we won't have any new members, and the school will stop sponsoring our club." A student with long white hair, dark skin, and an almost British accent flopped down dramatically on a folding chair behind her club's booth. "As president and vice president of the astronomy club, it's our job to make sure we have at least 5 new members. 

Shiro, the vice president, took the blank sign-up sheet out of his colleague's hands. "Allura, you worry too much. All of the cool astronomy kids are just fashionably late to the club fair. Duh." Shiro had a knack for cheering people up; he was a natural-born leader. "I know at least one freshman who's BOUND to sign up for our club, and other than him, I'm sure we'll get way more than 5 people." 

"Coran said 5 members other than us had to be on the roster for him to even consider being our club advisor for another year. I can't believe 10 of our club's founding members graduated all at once." 

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they started the club as freshmen so that they could all have a club to hang out with each other." 

"I just hope we can get enough members. I was really looking forward to having this club around this December." 

"We will, I promise." Shiro gave a big reassuring smile to Allura. "I have a feeling it'll all work out." 

Chapter Text

Character Playlist Guide:

      ♫- Lance -♫

      ♫- Keith -♫

      ♫- Pidge -♫

      ♫- Hunk -♫

      ♫- Shiro -♫ 

      ♫- Allura -♫ 

Shiro walked up to the astronomy club room with a dozen donuts for the new members. He stopped at the door to see the names on the sheet. Only two people came up to the booth at the club fair, so they hoped to get more people to sign up if they taped it to the room's door. Only 4 names were written down: Pidge Hold, Keith K, Lance McClain, and Hunk Garrett. Shiro tried to think of what he could do. Allura would be crushed if she found out that they didn't reach the number they needed and what was worse was that Coran might have the club disbanded. Shiro pulled a pen out of his pocket, It was red and fading, but the writing was still legible. He looked around to make sure no one would see him and then wrote one more name on the sign-up sheet: Adam W. Shiro shoved the pen back in his pocket and went inside casually. 

"Prince Shiro, welcome back to the castle." A plucky young professor with bright orange hair greeted Shiro at the door. 

"Why do you insist on calling the dusty astronomy classroom a 'castle'? It doesn't even have an observatory dome, so it really is identical to every other classroom in this building." 

"But it's a magical place. Speaking of, do we have enough sign-ups to have a magical club this year?" 

"Yeah, we got exactly 5 members. Although I know one of the guys who signed up, and he might not be able to come to this first meeting, but he'll definitely show up later on." 

"Wonderful, well this year will be so much fun." 

Right then, Allura entered the room sign-up sheet in hand. "Shiro, we did it. We got exactly 5 members. Were not at risk of getting disbanded." 

Coran interrupted Allura's happy moment, "Oh no, you're definitely at risk of getting disbanded." 

"What?" the two club leaders said in unison. 

"Yeah, 5 members was just the minimum for me to keep being your club advisor. You would need 10 members, including yourselves, for the school to keep funding the club." Coran's words struck Allura like daggers. "But since you've met my requirement, I'll do everything in my power to make sure all 7 of you get to have an astronomically fantastic year." Coran walked back to his desk to grade papers while the three waited for the new members to arrive. Shiro was torn about whether or not to tell Allura about how he wrote in Adam's name and that he wasn't really a member, but then he thought maybe he would be able to convince Adam to show up for a few meetings. Just enough to prove that he was a member. 

The first person to show up unusually early was Pidge; they pretty much walked straight there without stopping after their last class. They went to the back of the room and started working on a code project they had created for fun, but they were interrupted by Shiro. "Hey, you're Pidge Holt, right? Any relation to Matt Holt?" 

"You know my brother?" 

"Yeah, he was in a few of my classes before he graduated early. Is he why you decided to join the club? He once told me about how his little sister was so interested in the stars." 

The realization that Shiro already had predetermined knowledge about Pidge being a girl made them want to end the conversation there, "yeah, that's why." they decided not to go into detail about the star tracking program they were working on. Just then, another student walked in to save Pidge from the conversation. It was Keith. 

"Alright, Shiro, I joined a club. Now, will you stop giving me the silent treatment?" 

"That depends," Shiro said slyly, "once everyone else gets here, you're going to have to say why you joined, and it better not just be because of me. In the meantime, why don't you talk to Pidge here." 

Keith looked at Pidge awkwardly, "Hi." Pidge just waved back wordlessly. 

One minute before the meeting's official start time, Lance and Hunk walked through the door, and Keith was immediately mortified. "Hey, roomie," Lance said when he saw that Keith was there. 

"What are you doing here?" Keith hoped that his experience in this club would be a peaceful one away from the campus's extroverts. 

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? I thought you were too aloof to join a club." 

"Alright! That's enough," Shiro interrupted to de-escalate the situation. "It's about time to start this meeting. I am Shiro, vice president of the Astronomy Club, and I would like to introduce you all to Allura, the president." 

"Or Princess if you will," Coran said jokingly. 

Allura gave a polite laugh before addressing the 4 new first-year students. "I would like to welcome all of you and thank you for joining. We have a lot of fun activities and special surprises planned for this year that we will begin going over shortly, but first, are there any questions." 

"I have a question," Lance said, smirking. "Are you single?" Allura just looked at him with a disappointed expression. 

Shiro again tried to interrupt, "Why don't we go around and have everyone share your name and why you joined the club. Then we can go over the schedule for the semester." 

"Well, my name is lance," he said, taking it upon himself to go first, "and I joined so that I could observe only the most beautiful of stars, but I didn't realize their beauty would be challenged." He finished his sentiment with a wink in Allura's direction. 

"So that's Lance, and he's here to meet girls. Cool," Pidge said, condescending. "Well, my name is Pidge, and I'm here to actually learn about astronomy since I don't have enough time in my schedule to take any astronomy classes until sophomore year." 

"Who put a stick up his ass," Lance said to Hunk, elbowing him in the arm. Pidge just glared at them both. 

"Well anyway, my name is Hunk, and I joined partly because I've always been interested in space and partly because Lance and I agreed to join a club together, and this seemed like the best option." Hunk gave a warm smile to conclude his turn. 

"Alright, Keith," Shiro turned to Keith, fully expecting him to have no acceptable answer to this question, "it's your turn. Why did you join the astronomy club?" 

"Uh- I joined… because I like... stars." Keith's awkward answer made for a very anti-climactic conclusion to the first group activity, and Lance was more than willing to point that out. 

"BORING! Shiro, now you have to tell us why you joined to even out the dullness." 

Shiro laughed and decided to humor Lance and go along with his antics this time. "Well, I joined last year because I've always been interested in space travel and celestial navigation. My life goal is to be a pioneer in the field of astronautics, so I've taken plenty of astronomy courses, but the astronomy club gives me a chance to learn for fun rather than for a grade." 

"That was beautiful, Shiro," Hunk said with his eyes glistening. "Truly, I've been moved to tears." 

"Perhaps that can be the finale to this exercise, and I can start going over the activities for this semester." Allura pulled up a PowerPoint and began to go over it. 

--- 

As the meeting ended and the first-year students left, Shiro stayed behind with the club's other leader. "Hey Allura, I noticed you didn't talk about December on the PowerPoint." 

"You heard what Coran said. It's going to be hard to take that trip without school funding, and I didn't want to get the hopes of the first years up in case it doesn't happen."

"Don't be discouraged, we'll make sure it happens even if we have to do it out of pocket, it's a can't miss opportunity." 

"Maybe we can convince Coran to help us get through to the school when that 5th member starts showing up. Do you know him?"

"Who, Adam?"

"Is that what it says on the sign-up sheet? I can hardly make out his penmanship." 

"Yeah, I know him. I mean, I kind of know him. He's in a few of my classes, that's why I know him." Shiro started to get nervous and defensive, and Allura definitely noticed. 

"Relax, I just want you to give him a copy of this packet. You know the one we gave everyone else?"

"Oh yeah." 

"Before we go, do you have a pen? I want to write a note to myself so that I remember to schedule a meeting with someone from the office that handles student affairs." Shiro pulled out the pen that was in his pocket and handed it to Allura. "You should really throw away this pen, it's barely legible." Allura closed the pen cap and then suddenly connected the dots. "Is this the same pen used by the mysterious 5th member on the sign-up sheet?! Shiro, you have 3 seconds to tell me what you did." 

"I didn't do anything." Shiro sighed in defeat, deciding now that he had no choice but to tell Allura what he did. "I may have written in Adam's name this morning."

"You WHAT?!"

"It's not like he's a fake person. He really is a guy from my classes. I just need to talk to him and convince him to join the club."

"Are you telling me we didn't even meet Coran's 5 people minimum for club activity?" 

"Look, I promise I'll talk to Adam first thing tomorrow morning. You don't have to worry." Shiro was mostly giving that direction to himself; he was anxious about what Adam would say.

---

Lance returned to his dorm at 12 am right on the dot, to meet the weeknight curfew that the RA set for the first week of school. Keith was just drifting off when he was woken up by the door opening, so he wasn't too happy about his roommate's arrival. 

"Sorry, Keith," Lance whispered as he took his shoes off in the dark. Keith just turned to face the wall away from Lance and pulled the blanket over his head. Lance did his nightly routine as quietly as possible before getting in the bed. The dorm room was small, but it had a bathroom attached to it connected to a second room. Neither of the boys had met the two people in the room next door, but Lance was sure that they would all be acquainted in due time. 

Keith was fully asleep when Lance finally settled in for the night, but he wasn't ready to lay alone with his thoughts just yet, so he put in his earbuds and started listening to the One Direction album 'Up All Night' to fall asleep. He was aware of the irony, but the album had a history of always helping him fall asleep. When Lance was a kid, it was the first album that he had bought on CD, and he would play it at night on his older sister's CD player. Listening to it now made him feel like he was at home. 

---

Hunk also returned to his dorm at 12 because he had been hanging out with Lance. His roommate Asher was in the shower. They had met, but both were usually out during the day, so they hadn't really become close. They were both friendly towards each other, but similar to Hunk, Asher also had his high school friends at the same college. Asher came out of the bathroom with his pajamas on and his hair tied up. He had dreadlocks that went down to his shoulders, but he always slept with it in a bun on top of his head. 

When Hunk finished his turn in the bathroom, Asher was already asleep, so Hunk decided to stay up and work on his engineering homework rather than try to go to sleep. For the past few nights, he would get homesick when he tried to go to sleep, so he started saving his homework for late at night and working on it until he got too tired to keep his eyes open. He would finish the rest in the morning. 

---

On the other end of campus, Pidge returned to their dorm at 12 as well but not because they were hanging out with anyone. No Pidge was sitting in the library working on the star tracking program all the way up until the library closed. Samantha was on the phone when Pidge got in the room. 

She pulled the phone off of her ear when she saw Pidge. "Oh hey, were you about to go to sleep?"

"Uh, no, probably not any time soon." 

"Ok, do you mind if I stay on the phone then?" 

"No, you're fine." It hadn't been a spoken rule, but the two of them usually turned the lights off and kept it down after 12. Pidge wasn't used to sharing a room with someone, so being mindful that someone else might be trying to sleep was a new concept. In one of their few interactions, Pidge found out that Samantha had a little sister who she shared a room with, so she was used to the late-night quiet time etiquette. 

Samantha stayed on the phone until 1:04 am before getting off and going to sleep. Pidge, however, was still working on programs while watching cartoons on a split-screen tab.

Chapter Text

Character Playlist Guide:

      ♫- Lance -♫

      ♫- Keith -♫

      ♫- Pidge -♫

      ♫- Hunk -♫

      ♫- Shiro -♫ 

      ♫- Allura -♫ 

After a strict morning routine, Hunk headed out for a 9 am class. This class only met once a week, so it was the first time this class was held this semester. Hunk walked into the classroom early to see a familiar face already there. 

"Oh. Hey little dude." Pidge sat on the other end of his greeting, unresponsive because of the headphones and hyperfocus. Hunk sat down next to them and started looking over the program. "You forgot a semicolon." Hunk pointed at the line in question, and Pidge jumped, startled from his finger entering their line of vision. 

"STOP LOOKING AT MY SCREEN!" Pidge yelled, closing the computer really hard. 

"Sorry, man, I just wanted to see what you were working on. Speaking of, I LOVE the stickers you have next to your trackpad." Pidge opened the laptop slightly to look at the stickers. There were two. One was a nonbinary flag, and the other was an anime character. They looked back at Hunk accusingly. 

"Which sticker?" 

"The one of Kaidou, I love Saiki K. Why what's the other one?" Hunk started reaching for the laptop, but Pidge smacked his hand. "Oww." 

"Stop touching my stuff, and stop looking at it; why did you sit next to me? Why are you even in this class." 

"Noted, I'll try not to, because you seem cool, and because…." Hunk was counting the answers on his fingers to make sure he covered everything Pidge had just said. "I made a discovery about my sexuality semi-recently, and I've been learning all I can about the LGBTQIA+ community as I can ever since. This class seemed like a good way to learn more." Pidge was taken aback. Pidge had never met anyone in real life who was willing to be about their sexuality and stuff like that. 

"So then… what IS your sexuality?" Pidge instantly regretted asking and went red-faced. "I mean only if you're ok answering, you don't have to answer, actually don't answer." 

Hunk laughed a friendly laugh and answered the question anyway. "I'm Pansexual." 

---

"I can't deal with him, Shiro," Keith complained. "He's too… annoying."

"What exactly about him is annoying," Shiro asked.

"I don't know… everything. His face, his hair, his extroverted nature." 

"sounds like you like him." 

"LIES!" Keith retorted. 

"I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But you know that's how you used to talk about me, and look, now I can't get you to leave me alone." 

"That's different. You're my brother."

"But I wasn't always." Shiro's words stung, and Keith looked down in remorse. "Just give him a chance." 

---

"Pidge, wait up." Hunk ran to catch up with Pidge as they speed-walked out of the classroom. Pidge stopped halfway down the hallways and waited for Hunk to catch up. "You're fast for such a little dude." he stopped to catch his breath. "You're in my Engineering 101 lecture, aren't you." 

"I think so," Pidge answered. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you worked on this week's assignment. I've been struggling with it, and I really need someone's help." 

"I guess I can help you. I already finished the assignments for this week and next week." Pidge wasn't one to brag, but the complex physics needed to solve the problems on the homework came easy to them. 

"Wow, I knew you would be the right person to ask."

"Yeah yeah, meet me in the library in the evening. We can work there." With that, Pidge went ahead and started walking away. 

"Thanks, man. See you then." 

--- 

That afternoon Keith returned to his dorm to find Lance there. For the past week, lance always seemed to be out during the mid-afternoon, so this was the first time Keith was coming back to find him there. 

"Afternoon, roomie," Lance said cheerily from his desk. He was drawing in his sketchbook and listening to music from a speaker that sat next to him. It was playing Hey, Soul Sister by Train this time. 

"Hey…"

"HEY, would you ever consider posing for a drawing?" Lance held up his sketchbook and pencil. "I've got  an assignment for my art class to draw some anatomy sketches, but it's impossible without a reference, and the wooden doll isn't that versatile." 

"Why would you want me to do it." Keith blushed at the thought. 

"Why not. I just think you're terrible posture would make for an interesting composition." 

"Yeah, I don't think so." 

"Fine. So hey, Hunk is gonna be cooped up studying for the next week. What do you say you and I go hang out together for a bit." Keith thought back to Shiro's words about giving lance a chance and decided to make one very out of character decision.

"Yeah, ok."

---

"What do you say, Adam? It's for a good cause." Shiro said as he walked into the kitchen of the off-campus apartment, where he spent most of his time. He still lived on campus, but one 15 minute walk south would land him at the house of someone very close to him. A short mixed-race man with light brown hair and thin glasses turned from the stove to give Shiro a scornful look. 

"You know im busy with lacrosse this season." He said, sounding disappointed that Shiro even needs to ask him to join. "If no one's interested in the astronomy club, I'm sure there are plenty of clubs you could join in its place. Besides, this trip you're describing doesn't sound like the best idea for someone in your condition." 

"This isn't just about me. Allura was really looking forward to that trip too, and the four freshmen we have… I just know they're all gonna form unbreakable bonds with each other." 

"Don't let your idealism get in the way of the reality of your situation." 

"Please consider it." Shiro pressed his palms together to beg Adam to agree to join the astronomy club. 

"Why does it have to be me? You have other people you can ask who arent as busy as me." 

"Yeah, well…" 

"I know that look. What did you do?" 

"Ok, so I kind of already wrote your name on the sign-up sheet for the club."

"When were you going to tell me this." 

"After you agreed to join." Shiro gave an innocent smile to try to ease the tension. Adam just gave an audible sigh.

"Fine," he said exasperatedly. "I'll check my schedule and consider it. BUT THAT-"

"YES" Shiro threw his arms around an unsuspecting Adam without letting him finish. 

"That doesn't mean I will. It just means ill think about it." 

"Thanks, babe." Shiro pressed his lips against Adam's, pulling him into the kiss. "I have to get back to campus, but I'll see you tomorrow. 

---

That evening in the library study room, two engineering majors were working away at their homework together. 

"Come on, Hunk, this is the easy problem," Pidge said, leaning over the table trying to guide Hunk through the equations. "You just have to use coulomb's law."

"Math was never my strong suit." Hunk protested

"Then why did you chose to major in engineering." Pidge realized the potential rudeness of that statement a little bit too late. They came from a family of engineers who were good at math, so the concept of an engineer that didn't like math was foreign to them. 

"Hey, math isn't the only part of engineering. I prefer to just build or code or operate complex machinery." Hunk started daydreaming about his high school robotics club, where he frequently won awards recognizing his talent.

"I guess that makes sense." just then, Asher walked up and opened the study room door. 

"Sorry to interrupt. Can I have your room key?" He asked Hunk. "I left mine in the room, and I can leave the door unlocked for you." 

"Yeah, sure, hang on." Hunk reached into his bag to look for it.

"Hey," he said to Pidge while waiting. Pidge just waved back wordlessly. 

"Oh, this is Pidge he's helping me with homework. Pidge, this is Asher, my roommate." he gestured to Asher while holding out his room key, which Asher took. Pidge blushed at Hunk's casual use of he/him pronouns. Even though it didn't necessarily feel correct, it felt refreshing not to be referred to as a girl. 

"Nice to meet you," and just as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared again. Now there exists a second person on the campus who only knows me as a boy, Pidge thought to themself. 

"Was that a Persona 4 keychain?" Pidge asked, eyes wide and sparkling.

"Oh my gosh, You play?"

"Yeah, I love that game."

After some more hours of homework, studying, and talking about random nerdy stuff, Pidge finally decided to call it quits. "What do you say we stop for the night and pick back up tomorrow, it's getting late, and my dorm still has a curfew." Pidge finished packing up and threw their bag over their shoulders. 

"Oh yeah, so does mine. What dorm are you in?" 

"Green Hall..." In that instant, Pidge realized the implications of what they had just said. They had gotten so caught up in potentially trying to make a friend in Hunk that they forgot that he didn't know they were a "girl." 

"Wait so…"

"UH HAHA YEAH, I SHOULD PROBABLY LEAVE NOW" Pidge booked it out of the library and back to the dorm. 

The next day during the Engineering 101 morning lecture, Hunk looked for Pidge and found them in the very, very back row with their head stuck in their computer. 

"Hey, little… one. Uh…" Hunk stuttered, not really knowing what to say. But Pidge knew exactly what was coming. This had actually happened once before. When Pidge first cut their hair in high school. 

It was Sophomore year, and Pidge was sitting outside waiting for Matt to pick them up. They were playing Fire Emblem on a DS when a girl from their grade who they had never actually talked to came up and started a conversation about the game. They told the girl their name was Pidge and thought nothing else of it. They hung out a few more times to talk about Fire Emblem until she saw Pidge walking out of the girls' bathroom. 

"Wait, you're a girl?" she said in shock. 

The not-out Pidge Holt simply responded with "yeah?" confused because they thought that the girl already knew. 

"Why do you look like that then?" she asked as if Pidge'sPidge's appearance was something to be embarrassed about. 

"You mean my hair? I don't know. I just like it like this." After that interaction, the two stopped talking regularly. Pidge was certain the same thing was going to happen with Hunk. In fact, they already started planning to quit the astronomy club. Surely there was another way to learn about astrological charts for the star tracking program. 

"I already kn-" Pidge started.

"So, what are your pronouns?" Hunk asked almost in unison. 

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I just… realized that I never asked." Hunk admitted. "It wasn't until yesterday I realized that you were… anyways. I just want to be sure." 

"What do you mean, my pronouns?"

"Well, I kind of assumed you were a really short cis guy" Hunk blushed at his own presumptions. 

"Cis?" Pidge cocked their head to the side in confusion.

"Yeah, you know… do you not know?" Hunk was sure that Pidge was trans in some way, given that they didn't correct him for so long despite being apparently afab (assigned female at birth). Pidge shook their head in response, unsure of some of the terms Hunk was using. 

"Well, how during our next homework/study session, I teach you some things too." Hunk gave his signature warm smile, and for the first time, Pidge felt truly accepted for who they were. Of course, they knew they were nonbinary by definition, but they had never interacted with another member of the LGBT community, so this was all new for them.