Chapter Text
“Nope… no… that one’s still another shooting star.” A young boy sighed as he laid in the tall grass under the night sky. His surroundings, barely illuminated by the porch lights of his home, swayed gently as if the plant life agreed with his dissatisfaction.
“What about you, Kuro?” he said, lifting his stuffed black lion towards the sky. The well-loved toy was turned towards the moon, “Do you see them yet?”
Tonight was a very important night for him. His parents didn’t quite understand, but the nine-year-old chalked that up to the fact that they weren’t that interested in the fine details of what the astronauts’ mission actually entailed. It was so important and ingrained deep in his heart that he nearly combusted like rocket fuel after dinner when his mother asked him to do the dishes before he got to go outside. He’s pretty sure he made a new world record for being the fastest dishwasher. It was worth it: he was watching that shuttle launch!
He heard his mother call for him from the porch. He was going to miss the launch if he didn’t get inside; she claimed the only way he’d see it would be if he watched it on the television. He yelled back that he was fine, with a bright smile and a wave, and already had the best seat in the world. After she shook her head and disappeared back into the home, he laid down only to see another star make a break towards the horizon.
As his eyes readjusted to the dark sheet in front of him, he caught a glimpse of it. Finally! He scrambled to his feet and lifted Kuro above his head so the lion could see it too, obviously. A faint silver light trailed quickly towards the moon. It could have been mistaken for a shooting star if it’s trajectory wasn’t aimed towards the sky and not away from it. It blinked out of existence for a second- he’s certain he didn’t imagine it- before the shuttle continued the preplanned course to take its precious cargo to the stars. His breath froze. He nearly dropped his poor toy in his excitement.
“Sam Holt winked at me,” he breathed in complete astonishment, “Samuel Holt winked at me!” Takashi Shirogane fell back down to the earth, leaving his head up in the stars. “I’m going up there, one day,” he promised to no one in particular, “I’m going up.”
******************
“I’m not going up.” the young man sighs as he tosses his helmet down to his waiting companion. Shiro had spent his life up to this point living and breathing everything NASA, painstakingly climbed to the number one spot of his flight class, hell- he even accidently became best friends with Sam Holt’s son (He’ll never admit to this, but he lowkey had a heart attack when Matt invited him to a sleepover one weekend and the very man whose academic journals Shiro had poured countless hours studying opened the door). Even with all the dedication in the world, its Commander Sendak who is chosen to pilot the main engine test of the new Kerberos shuttle. Shiro isn’t bitter, no, not at all.
Alright, maybe just a tiny little bit bitter.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Matt deadpans as Shiro slides down from the cockpit as powerful jet engines roar overhead.
“I’m not. He’s just so… rude?” Shiro opts for, at a loss for words in his disappointment. Matt snorts and shoots him a look that says ‘Sure, that’s totally what you meant’.
“Well, I suppose we can just add that to the list of why you’re my best friend and not Sendak,” Matt says as he starts walking. He hands Shiro back his helmet, “You know what that means right?”
“I thought you weren’t serious about that.”
“Nope. Too late now, no take-backs.”
Shiro stops and waits for his friend to put the final nail in his unintentionally self-ordered coffin. Other pilots and repair crews move around the pair as if the duo is a rock in the middle of a river.
“You get to spend the summer with me as a counselor at the Galaxy Garrison camp!”
And the coffin is complete. Don’t get him wrong, Shiro considers himself great with kids. He’d done his fair share of babysitting. The Galaxy Garrison was one of the most prestigious science camps in the country for the best and brightest, giving future pilots and scientists a taste of what it was like to do his job. However, after today, everything seems black and grey and disappointing when the one thing he’d wanted most was dangled just out of reach.
“If it makes you feel any better, you and I are on the same shift. However, I also looked at the attendance rosters and lo and behold, Pidge is off my hands and into yours. So good luck with that.” Matt rambles on and pats his taller friend’s shoulder jokingly. Pidge Holt. Pidge Holt could at least be reasoned with. The smallest, sassiest, spitfire of the Holt geniuses would probably be his saving grace this summer as he tried to herd up to five uber-smart adrenaline-driven teenagers. He would be flying up to 80% blind and wow, Shiro did not like those odds.
Shiro nods his head in defeat and answers Matt’s snark in kind, “Yeah. Alright, fine. What can possibly go wrong?”
*************
Everything. Everything can always go wrong and did go wrong and looking back on it now, Shiro doesn’t even know why his naive past-self even dared to challenge Murphy’s law. He and Matt could both agree that the counselor's uniform was an eyesore: khaki slacks with the most god-awful neon orange polo shirt that had the camp logo on the left side. The food could have been worse, though. No, the sinking feeling of doom came from the kids he saw lining up for their badges. He saw one boy tear through the parking lot on a red fast-looking motorcycle, multiple kids with clear apprehension or disinterest written on their faces. Those were probably the ones that were sent by their parents. He felt bad for the kids that were obviously this far away from home for this long.
Coran, the camp leader, called for one last team meeting with the counselors. He was a bright man, much older than Shiro and Matt in age, but always ready to teach in his… eccentric ways. Within minutes, the meeting finished and Coran began shooing all of his underlings towards the check-in table to collect their campers. At least, Shiro was heading that way until he was pulled back by the collar and had his clipboard pulled from his hands.
“Shiro, if I could ask you a favor,” the older man said as he flipped through the campers’ profiles, “Please do keep an eye on this one for me.”
Coran turned the board back to the younger man, tapping his pen against the headshot of a young lady. Allura Cassesso, 17, from New York-
Shiro looked up to the other as if to ask ‘why?’ and took back his papers.
“I’m her godfather,” the older man says with pride as he begins pulling at his moustache, and Shiro halfway expects him to pull out his wallet with a load of pictures before Coran’s voice becomes somber, “My dear Allura has been home schooled up to this point. She’s a very nice girl, I assure you but-”
“You’re worried about whether or not she’ll have fun.” “She’s not one for science, I’m afraid. She adores history, which also happens to be rolled into the summer program-”
“She’ll love it,” Shiro says, “I’m certain of it. If it makes you feel better, I’ll keep you posted.”
Coran beams at the offer, “Thank you, my boy. Now, off! Away with you now, adventure awaits for Team Leo!” and Shiro is shooed towards the rest of the counselors.
He sees Pidge waiting next to their brother, and they begin running towards him with their oversize backpack in tow. The 14-year-old jumps up on him and he welcomes the hug. He didn’t know when the Holts started feeling like family but Pidge treated Shiro just like they did Matt. He ruffled their short honey-colored hair as they pulled away and were set down on the ground. “All set then, I assume?” Shiro laughs, poking at his youngest camper’s bag. Matt brings over his sibling’s suitcase that had been abandoned at his side.
“You know it!”
“Mom texted me to tell you that the kid tried to pack everything but the kitchen sink in here.”
“Pidge, Rover’s not in there is he?” Shiro eyes the bag, waiting for a bark from the Holt family dog. The kid loves the animal to death so really, he wouldn’t put it past them to try. Pidge, of course, rolls their eyes and kicks at Matt’s shin in retaliation. The older brother pushes them back towards Shiro and tells the two of them to not burn down the Habitat building.
“Okay, so they handed me this badge and I assume that I just pin it on my clothes?” Pidge said as they attached a hanging clip to the bottom of their robotics club sweatshirt. Their’s was printed on the same gunmetal grey background, but had a green lion logo as opposed to Shiro’s own black one. He nodded as he flipped to the teen’s paperwork. Paperclipped to it was a grey wristband with their name, habitat room number, and a barcode.
“I’m supposed to give you this.” He said, and wrapped it around their thin wrist and clasped the button. Pidge’s hazel eyes skimmed the information on the band.
“You’re totally low-jacking me.”
“No, more like making sure you can actually get breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But if you’d like to take that off and try and convince the cafeteria you are a camper, you’re welcome to try.”
Before Pidge could shoot back a snarky reply, they collected another member of their team. Shiro recognized her as the girl Coran had pointed out to him, Allura, and the 17-year-old looked as if she was ready to take on the world armed with her duffel bag, museum brochure, and pink lion badge. When she stuck out her hand and introduced herself with her head held high and the confidence of a thousand suns, any doubts about Allura being left out were chased from Shiro’s mind. He went over her paperwork and got her set up with her wristband, and she began chatting away effortlessly with Pidge.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Coran look over at him. Shiro shot him a thumbs up and a smile, and all tension dropped from the old man’s face to a bright smile.
“So you’re from New York? Like in the city or do you live upstate?” Pidge asked.
“In the city with my father. It’s closer to his office and I think there’s definitely more to do.” the older girl told, “What about you?”
“Oh, my family actually lives on base a few miles down the road from here. My brother, Matt- the guy over there under the Team Libra sign-” they pointed, “He’s an engineer. My dad is one of the flight commanders, and then Shiro’s a pilot, too.”
“You are!? Holy crow!” a new voice exploded behind the three. Pidge and Allura leaned around Shiro to see not one, but three additional campers. The counselor smiled and greeted them. Lance McClain, the vibrant voice from before (Shiro noted that he and the tired-looking boy beside him, Keith Kogane were also seventeen) practically vibrated in place.
“He just said that.” Keith said.
“‘They’. I prefer ‘they/them’ pronouns, please.” Pidge stated firmly.
“They just said that.” he corrected immediately. Lance turned to glare at Keith, looking like he was about to snap, before a larger boy stepped between them.
“Okay, alright, let’s not start anything please because we still have the whole summer ahead of us so can we maybe not make ourselves miserable before we even know each other’s names?” he begged. Hunk Garrett, the oldest of the five kids, had apparently just elected himself as team moderator, bless his heart. Lance and Keith looked back at each other. Then at Shiro, who nodded.
“Hunk’s right, you two. Get it together, cadets.”
He handed Keith his wristband as the boy picked up is overstuffed and ratty backpack over his red flannel, his red lion badge attached to the zipper. Hunk was given his as well, a yellow badge hanging from a pocket on his vest. Shiro had to take a second look at Lance’s, before he handed the bracelet over. The man double-checked his paperwork.
“Have you got your medication with you?” Shiro asked, handing over the wristband to the blue badge holder. Lance nodded, and pulled his suitcase around to pull out a plastic bag. Contained in it was a little pharmacy bottle for his ADHD medication. Shiro smiled and tapped the bottle.
“Alright, hang on to that for a couple of minutes,” he said before turning to take a quick headcount and thank god no one had wandered off, “We’ll get that dropped off in the First Aid office before going over to the Hab and getting you guys settled in. You take it in the morning, right? Okay, we’ll add that quick stop into the schedule.”
Shiro held the baggie for a few moments so Lance could adjust his band and snap the button closed.
“We’ve established pronouns for you,” the counselor pointed to Pidge, “And you all have been told the Hab rooms are assigned by biology. Before we go, is there any other preferences anyone has?”
Lance slid next to Allura, nudged her shoulder and winked, “Well, I would prefer to have your number in my phone.”
“No.” she said sweetly, and patted his shoulder.
“That’s fair.”
Shiro rolled his eyes, and started herding the five out the door of the main building towards the camp First Aid and Habitat dormitory. He looked back for Matt one last time, who waved and gave him a thumbs up.
‘You’re doing great!’ the older Holt mouthed with a smile.