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"I need a ride to the gym," said a voice from somewhere near Shiro's ear. The sound had to travel through the sheet and two blankets that he was burrowed under, but it was unmistakably his little sister's.
Shiro wasn't sure how she'd gotten into his room, why she'd decided he was the best available option despite the closed blinds and the fact that he was a blanket-covered lump on the bed, or what terrible god had given Matt the idea that all three of them should share an apartment for their first year of college. He groaned in response, hoping that Pidge would take it as a sign that he was dead and had completed the transition into a zombie. One that couldn't drive.
Pidge's long pointer finger poked him once in the side, and then again for good measure.
"Take a bus," Shiro muttered, still not poking his head out from under the covers. "I've been murdered by my courseload."
"I missed mine and I'll be late if I don't leave right now. And Matt's gone, sucking up to the professors or whatever he does in his free time."
An agonized sound found its way out of Shiro's throat.
"Come onnnn," Pidge said. "Also you should go to the class with me. I mean you'll be there anyway."
Finally, Shiro managed to poke his head out from under the covers. "What's this about?"
"I can't just go alone," Pidge said, scowling at him. "Gyms are weird and I've never really tried going to one and I'll be really bored."
"Bored, huh," Shiro replied. He ruffled her hair, unable to resist the gesture. Even at sixteen Pidge was a good two heads shorter than him. She hated it, and told him he'd obviously stolen all the height genes in their family, because Matt was a shortie too, and it amused Shiro too much to ever let it go. Pidge quickly ducked out of his hand, but at least the expression that had crossed her face when she'd been talking had disappeared. It hadn't been one that pointed to boredom. Rather, it had been nervousness, and if Shiro was going to be the only guy and the worst student, then so be it.
"You could wear some yoga pants—"
"How about some workout shorts." There were lengths he wouldn't go to even for his baby sister. Although, "I'll even wear the somewhat new ones instead of the ratty old ones."
Pidge made a face, but, "Deal."
Five minutes later, they were off. The gym was only a ten minute's ride, and a familiar one at that. While while Shiro wasn't a gym rat, he could probably be called a gym enthusiast. (A weirdo, according to Pidge.) As they drove, Pidge had the gym's website open on her tablet.
"It says the instructor's someone named Allura."
"Are you googling her?" Actually, Shiro wasn't sure why he was asking. Of course she was.
"Aw, she owns a bakery with some dude named Coran! Those muffins look really good. We should go there instead, it's only a couple minutes back towards the apartment."
"We're going to yoga, where you'll be a badass and I won't be able to do a single pose."
"Ugh." Pidge poked at her tablet. "Thanks."
"It's why I'm your favorite brother."
"You're my third favorite, tied with Matt. Green and Black are my favorites."
Shiro nodded sagely. If he was going to lose to anyone, he didn't mind losing to their cats.
After arriving at the gym, he almost took his usual route to the weights section on autopilot, but instead entered the yoga room. Grabbing a couple towels and mats, they settled in.
"Back of the room?" Shiro asked. It was Pidge's usual preference. She said it made people-watching funnier.
Pidge sighed. "Nah. If I'm doing this, I guess I'll do it right."
"I'll be here the entire time, no matter how much suffering I'm put through," Shiro promised.
He wondered if he needed to do any warm-ups before yoga. It seemed like the thing to do, though his usual routine didn't really seem to fit with the relaxed atmosphere of the room. It was starting to fill with people. At some point, someone had turned the music on. It was soft and calming and probably not elevator music, though it sounded like it to his ear. Uncultured ear, his friend Keith would say, since Shiro mostly thought Keith's band's music sounded like Black and Green's screeching.
Shiro recognized the instructor as soon as she walked into the room. He'd seen her around occasionally at the gym, though he hadn't realized she was a trainer.
Stretching out her mat and turning to face them, Allura said, "Hello everyone, I'm Allura. Is anyone here new to the gym's yoga classes? I know some of you might be visiting from a different instructor's time slot, but are there any newbies?"
Shiro assumed the expression of someone who went to yoga regularly and was just dropping into this particular class because of scheduling conflicts with another one.
"He's new," Pidge said, pointing her thumb at Shiro and grinning evilly. "He's very shy about it, though."
"Don't worry, we always have a lot of beginners. You'll feel right at home."
"Uh, I'm Shiro, I'm here with my sister Pidge, who's a yoga genius." Pidge's squack was ridiculous, but their mats were too far apart for her to elbow him. "We're both freshmen now at Voltron College, though I took the long way around and did a tour in the army first." It was probably a little weird that they were all starting at the same time despite all being different ages, but hell, there were weirder things on earth. Pidge was the smart one; she'd finished high school at fifteen and was starting college early. Matt was eighteen and the picture of a traditional student, down to his Voltron College sweatshirts. And Shiro had gone into the service like their mom, then joined the reserves while he got his degree.
"It's good to have you here. What about you, Pidge?"
"I'm Pidge. I mean technically my name is Katie but that's such a boring name, so I don't go by it. I've been interested in yoga for a while, so I finally decided to try it out. So I'm here."
"Welcome, both of you." There was even some clapping from somewhere behind him.
Over on the car ride, Shiro had been pretty sure he was too bulky for anything he'd be asked to do, but as the session got started, it wasn't bad. Some things he didn't have the reach for, but other exercises just resembled really weird warm-up exercises done at a slow pace.
And Pidge was enjoying herself; she had an intense look as she tried to contort her body into various shapes, one that he mostly saw when she was coding. She made some mistakes, and wasn't nearly as limber as the instructor, but she wasn't bad at all. (Also, Shiro was pretty sure the instructor was half eel. Hot like burning, with a great smile, but very definitely half eel.)
Halfway through the class, in the downward facing dog position, Shiro glanced to the side and saw through the large window to the side of the yoga room that faced the rest of the gym. He felt all the blood rush to his ears when he realized Keith was leaning against a weights rack and looking in his direction. When Keith noticed Shiro looking back, he raised an eyebrow as if to say, really?
It's not what it looks like, Shiro wanted to say, but his eyebrows weren't as expressive as Keith's. And, well, it wasn't like his friend could really judge him that much. Keith was into running. Running five miles a day for fun instead of because your drill sergeant was telling you was insanity, in Shiro's opinion. He took the high road and decided to ignore him, after discreetly flipping him off.
An hour later, Shiro was sore in weird places and felt a little objectified by all the women he'd caught staring at his ass, but overall, he felt pretty good about the whole thing. It wasn't in the top five of his preferred ways to exercise, but it wasn't hell on earth.
"You good?" Shiro asked, turning to his sister as the class wound down and people started to leave. "I'm into your sudden interest in fitness, but I wish you'd let me show you around the weights."
"The only things I'm interested in lifting are computers," Pidge replied. "And, yeah. I think I'm gonna go again." She peered over at him. "So what can I bribe you with for you to come with me regularly?"
Shiro picked up both their mats and rubbed his chin in a vaguely villainesque fashion. "I don't really want your firstborn, so I guess it will have to be your eternal soul…"
"I hate you," Pidge groaned, rolling her eyes.
But as they left the gym, Shiro glanced over at the yoga times schedule, because he knew he was going to give in. He could even probably manage to rope Matt into joining them.