Chapter Text
His sophomore year had barely started for him, and already, Keith’s dreading it.
For a freshman, the start of your high school or even the start of your college life could feel super exciting if you didn’t know how stressful your life would become now. For Keith, it was the same thing. He had gotten his high school education when he was living with Shiro, and to be able to get out and go to a school everyday seemed so exciting. But he was dead wrong.
Freshmen year for him had been a bust; stuck with terrible professors, didn’t really know anybody there, and he was tired and stressed all the time. When tired, Keith liked his coffee, either completely black with no sweetener or with an energy drink mixed into it. However one of his professors didn’t want any food or drinks in their classroom, and Keith found that out the hard way when he arrived to his first class of the day. Keith had chosen to shut the bad parts of freshmen year of college out of his mind in order for him to go back, but the professor of his science course – Haggar? He thinks her name was? - was horrible. She’d give surprise tests and make the students in her course participate even if they showed no interest. Keith sometimes felt like he was being singled out because Haggar would choose him over most students in the class. And with him not being much of a people person and would rather learn from sitting at his desk rather than first hand, Keith felt like dropping out right there.
But he didn’t, and each day he came back home to Shiro and his girlfriend, Allura. Shiro would stroke his hair and tell him how proud he was. Allura would help him through the science class curriculum, too, and both Shiro and Allura would tell him that the college was still decent even if they have had their share of terrible professors too.
When Keith got his schedule for sophomore year, he had listed off his professors to Shiro and Allura, and they told him that things hard turned around for him somewhat and he should be able to have his coffee in class since he chose to take early morning courses. Though one name on the list made Shiro and Allura grimace, which made Keith blink and raise an eyebrow.
“Don’t say that name,” Shiro told him, more in a pleading tone.
“What? Professor Slav?” Keith repeated and Shiro had shuddered at the name this time. “I thought you guys said things turned around for me!”
“We said somewhat,” Allura had corrected, a hand going to Shiro’s back and rubbing small circles in it. She lets out a breath. “Shiro and I dealt with that professor for our physics course. You may not want to deal with Haggar again, but.. Professor S is just as bad.”
“He goes on about realities and quantum physics.” Shiro added in. “As well as numerous probabilities of succeeding or failing. He’d point out Allura and I a lot and tell us our probability of passing his course. He’d tell us we have the likelihood of a hundred and five percent to fail.”
“We proved him wrong, but.. still it’s a terrible memory that haunts us.”
Keith pales a little at the information he recalls getting from the two, and hopes that’s not the case for him. Who knows – things could end up a little different for him but he won’t get his hopes up.
He really shouldn’t keep his hopes up when his motorcycle had broken down midway through summer. Going to and from college his first year on it had taken a toll on poor Red, and as much as Keith took care of her, it seemed like she had gotten tuckered out after traveling far distances for a long period of time. Delivering food on her hadn’t been bad, because he never traveled far on her, but unfortunately Keith had to give it up when she broke down. And he really enjoyed that delivery job, especially since he just had to get payment or a signature, give the customer their food, and then he was able to leave. He barely had to talk to people during those times.
Plus, should he really keep his hopes up when he has to have a roommate while he stays at the dorms? According to Shiro, there was no possible way for him to room alone. Bad enough he has to stay at the dorm because of motorcycle troubles, but now he may have no choice in socializing when he’ll be living with a stranger.
Now he sits in Shiro’s van, with Red strapped to the back just for her to sit in the college parking lot. (Hey, he paid for the parking when he enrolled. He might as well use it.) Everything is either packed into the backseat or the trunk of the car, and Keith sits in the passenger seat, fiddling with the shoulder strap to his seat belt. Shiro’s a slow driver, and it makes Keith antsy. Shiro also prefers the air conditioning system in his van rather than keeping the window open, and Keith really misses the feeling of wind hitting his face when he speeds down the roads where there’s no speed limit. But with Shiro, he won’t get the feeling. He lets out a sigh as he sinks down into the passenger seat, turning from looking at the passenger side window to out the windshield, taking notice of the license plate in front of him (which honestly is a bunch of numbers and letters), then eventually turns to Shiro, who is more concentrated on driving than making conversation with Keith.
The radio is on though, but Shiro has the news station playing instead of actual music, and Keith’s not paying much attention to it. He won’t be going outside any, unless he’s running from the dorm buildings to class, or from class to the bookstore, where he decides that’s where he’ll be working from now on. If he can’t deliver food to get away from talking to people, he could at least get lost in the books.
“So,” Shiro finally speaks up after the long drive of silence. He reaches his hand over to turn the news down, and Keith finds relief in hearing Shiro’s voice instead of the monotone, boring voices from the news reports. “are you at least a little excited about living in the dorms?”
“Not really.” Keith shrugs, twisting the shoulder strap of his seat belt between his hands. “There really was no way for me to room alone?”
“No, there wasn’t,” Shiro responds as he shakes his head. “But it should be exciting to know your roommate is going to be a surprise!”
“How is that exciting? That’s more stressful than anything!”
“Well you don’t know who you’re stuck with until you’re there? It should be exciting to meet a new person.”
“Have you met me, Shiro?” Keith questions, raising an eyebrow as he narrows his eyes at the older man. He only gets silence in return. “Yeah, exactly my point.”
Keith folds his arms over his chest with a huff, head turning to glance out the window for the rest of the drive. Shiro side eyes him and lets out a little sigh, reaching for the volume knob to turn the news back up. The rest of the drive is rather quiet besides the sound of the news, which now Keith can’t help but listen to, hearing about the traffic reports and the weather for the rest of the week. He hears something about a storm coming sometime this week when he starts thinking about his college life for the rest of this year, and how he hopes his roommate doesn’t try to talk to him too much. But he supposes he’ll have to face the inevitable at some point and talk to his roommate. Otherwise he may have to face consequences with rumours if he keeps quiet and to himself the rest of the year.
Well, it’s nothing he’s not used to, at least. So even if that does happen, it’d be easy to ignore.
Shiro flicks on his turn signal to turn into the college, and once he does, he pulls straight to the dorms, parking on the side and turning his caution lights on. At this time, Keith can’t unbuckle his seat belt fast enough, needing to get out of the van to stretch his legs and breathe in fresh air. Shiro tries to stop him, but Keith pushes the passenger side door open and gets out of the van, breathing a sigh of relief when he’s able to stretch his body out. He leans back inside the van though, grabbing his tote bag a friend of his had sent him just because it fit him so well; a black bag with an alien head on it and the Ouija board and it says ‘we come in peace’. Keith loves it so much he uses it all the time. He’s going through the bag now, making sure he has what he needs in order to get his room key from the housing directory.
They can send him an e-mail about where his courses would be held. They can send him a packet telling him his rooming information. But now Keith has the unfortunate event of talking to a person so he could get his key for his dorm room.
“Go ahead and get your key, then figure out where your room is,” Shiro tells him as he watches Keith carefully. “When you found that out, come back and we’ll carry everything up.”
Keith nods and grabs his tote bag, taking in a deep breath before shutting the passenger side door. He walks into dorm building, waiting behind a few others at the desk to talk to housing. When it’s his turn, he already has information set when he’s asked his name and to show his ID. While the person at the front desk is checking his information, Keith glances at the name tag on the persons shirt. Ulaz. What kind of name was that? Unless it was a nickname this guy went by instead of his real name. Other than that, he had a weird haircut, his hair was white, and his eyebrows were big and bushy. When Ulaz turns back towards him, he’s handing him back his ID, as well as a student ID now with a lanyard already attached, and a small golden yellow envelope that lists his room number.
“You’ll be in room four-nineteen,” Ulaz says as Keith’s grabbing everything. “The dorms are co-ed; odd numbers are for the girls, and even numbers for the boys. They are allowed to be on the same floor together until 9PM. All students are expected to back on campus by 10PM. If there is a reason you need to be off campus for the full day, please come see me before you leave campus.”
Keith nods and mutters a thanks before he leaves. Ulaz seemed pleasant to speak to. Come to think of it, didn’t Shiro speak highly of the people in charge of housing before? Back when Keith had to go through them when he was enrolling for his second year of college? He can’t really remember it, so it just might be something he should mention to Shiro. Hm.
Keith takes the stairs rather than the elevator, wanting to keep himself from talking to people if he didn’t have to. Thankfully the stairs were less crowded than what he thought they would be, and he makes way up to the fourth floor. When he walks down the halls, he has to dodge big guys wrestling, footballs being thrown across the halls into other rooms – not to mention the loud yelling coming from some of the guys that makes a headache slowly forming. Other than that, he finds his room with ease, but when he gets there, he finds the door wide open. Glancing at the sign next to the door – just to make sure he had the right room – he steps into the doorway, seeing a guy on the floor with his back turned. Keith takes in a deep breath before knocking on the door frame.
Big mistake. Very big mistake. The guy turns his head, and Keith sees a smile, but as soon as the guy stands up, Keith feels his heart running a mile a minute. This guy was huge – he could probably bench press Shiro! Oh no, and now this guy is coming towards him-- This was a bad idea. College was a bad idea. Why did he have to go for a second year? He should have waited until Red was fixed so he didn’t have to deal with this! When the man is about a couple feet away from him, Keith swallows hard.
“I-- uh-- This is.. room four-nineteen.. right?” Keith’s stammering, and he swears his voice cracked somewhere in that question.
“You bet! I’m guessing you’re my roommate?” the guy asks and Keith nods slowly. “Nice to meet you. I’m Hunk.”
Oh god, he’s holding out his hand. He’s holding out his damn HAND. Keith stares at it for a moment before he stretches his arm out, hand shaking as his fingers clasp around Hunk’s hand. Oh man, he has such a strong, firm handshake too.
“K..keith,” Great, now he’s stammering over his own name. “Nice to meet you, too..”
There’s silence between them for a long while, even after they pull their hands away. Keith’s hand goes to the straps of his tote bag, eyes darting around the room. It’s.. bigger than he thought it would be. He thought college dorm rooms were a one room thing with two beds, two desks-- basically a very small room. But the Garrison seemed to be a decent college with large dorm rooms. From what Keith sees so far, there’s a couch and a large television with a coffee table in the middle of the two. On the couch is a couple of square pillows and what seems to be a fluffy blanket thrown over the back of the couch. Was the Garrison to thank for that or..?
“Sorry! I started decorating a little before you got here!” Oh. Maybe it was his roommates doing. Seems more probable. “My old roommate seemed to care for it? But if you don’t, I can switch things around! It just makes the room more brighter than how bland the Garrison makes it..”
“It’s fine..” Keith goes quiet again as he takes another glance around the room and he finds himself backing out of the doorway, stepping out into the hall. “Er, I’m gonna-- I’m going to get my things? I’ll be back.”
‘No I won’t,’ Keith thinks to himself as he turns around and practically bolts, looking like a bat out of hell as he runs down the hall. ‘I’m not rooming here. And I am NOT staying for sophomore year. I am SO telling Shiro to take me home..’
When he gets outside, he runs right up to Shiro’s van, seeing the other man standing outside of it. Keith sets his hands on the roof of the van, panting from running so fast. When he’s able to get his breathing back in check, he walks around the van, setting a hand on Shiro’s shoulder.
“Shiro, please, you need to take me back home.” Keith tells him. “I can’t-- I can’t do this. I just can’t!”
“Keith-- Keith. Breathe with me here.” Shiro’s hands go to Keith’s shoulders, and at the same time, he and Keith are breathing in and breathing out together. Keith calms down eventually, but he’s still in panic mode right now. He wants to go home. “This is a huge step for you, and I’m proud of you for wanting to do sophomore year instead of skipping it. When you told me you still wanted to go to college regardless of your motorcycle breaking down, I was so happy for you. This experience will be a good thing for you. Trust me on this.”
“How can you be so sure though, Shiro.”
“Well, I can’t be too sure, but I know someone who is starting off as a freshman here and would need you here,” Shiro says, removing his hands from Keith’s shoulders to rest at his own hips. “I was standing out here waiting for you when her parents came by to drop her off..”
“Who are you..” Shiro moves his head to gesture behind him, and Keith looks over Shiro’s shoulder to see a short brunette leaning against an old fashioned car and flipping through her phone. Then they make eye contact, Keith staring right into the round rims of her glasses. “I-- what-- Pidge?!”
“Keith!” Pidge stuffs her phone into her pocket and runs around Shiro to wrap her arms around Keith’s body. Once they pull back, they do some sort of handshake Shiro can’t follow; their secret handshake. “Holy shit man!”
“Language..” Shiro sighs, shaking his head. “Honestly, what would your parents say if they heard you curse like that..”
“It’s nothing to worry about because they’ll never know~” Pidge says with a grin before turning back to Keith. “Man, it feels like forever since I’ve seen you! We have to make plans when college isn’t killing us.”
“Plans as in sitting in our dorms watching illegally downloaded movies?”
“You bet your ass!”
Shiro lets out a breath relief as Keith and Pidge talk to one another. He’s glad that Keith would at least have one person here he could talk to. When Pidge’s parents come back out of the dorm building, they go straight to Pidge, talking to her about her room number and how everything is set for her to room with a sophomore and a boy, at that. Pidge’s father was a lawyer, and her mom was into medical sciences, and with that – plus Pidge’s grades – they were able to talk the Garrison into letting her room with her boyfriend. It still wasn’t easy, and it took a long time to get them to agree on it, but the exception was basically Pidge had to keep her grades up and if she had to have good behavior. If she fails in one of those things, she’s rooming with the girls. (Pidge had scoffed at that when her parents told her, because she knew she could handle both of things without a problem. It’s not as if she was a trouble maker to begin with, so the Garrison had nothing to worry about.) Shiro’s busy talking to Pidge’s parents until their conversation comes to an end when they glance over at Keith. Keith has met Pidge’s parents on several occasions, and he knows they were nice people. They were just very protective over their kids, even more so with Pidge when her brother had went away to the air force.
“Keith, it’s great to see you again,” Pidge’s father says as he reaches out a hand. Keith gulps but grabs his hand to shake it nervously. He’s still not used to handshakes if it wasn’t like the one he and Pidge had. “And it’s even greater to know you two will be at the same college together. I trust you’ll keep a good eye on her and her boyfriend? Make sure he’s treating her right?”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I’ll be in the dorm across the hall from her.” Keith tells him, hands going into the pockets of his jacket. He knows Pidge can take care of herself, but he and Shiro were basically the brothers she needed with Matt not here. “If she needs anything – food, comfort, an extra hand to hide a dead body--”
“Keith.”
“I’ll be there for her.” Keith finishes with a small smile, even if he can feel Shiro’s disapproving gaze from behind him. “You don’t have to worry.”
“That’s good to know.” Pidge’s mother says with a brighter smile then she turns to her only daughter. “Your father and I will help you carry up your things. We’ll send you money for your first month here to get food, but we trust you to get a job on campus in that time.”
“Of course, mom.”
Shiro went with Keith to drop off his things at his dorm, while Pidge’s parents did the same for her. Lucky for Pidge, her roommate didn’t show up yet so he doesn’t get to meet the parents before they leave Pidge alone with him. Luck also seemed to strike Keith, too, because when he and Shiro got to his dorm, Keith’s roommate was no where in sight. He was able to figure out what room was his though, and he and Shiro dropped his belongings off there. Shiro offered to help him unpack, but Keith turned that down. He’d do that later, to be alone with his thoughts when the time comes. (Which may be sooner rather than later, and it helps for him to be alone when he’s thinking so it’s fine if he waits to put things away.)
Shiro eventually leaves, after telling him again how proud he is of him. He also tells him to call if he needs anything, especially if he’s stressed, since he’s been there, done that, not to mention he’s been through hell at the Garrison before. Keith probably won’t call him if he needs something, since he knows how to calm himself down if he gets into panic mode, but having Shiro with him has helped him a lot over the years. Keith’s not sure he can get through this without him, but he’s going to try his damn well hardest to continue on making Shiro proud.
His phone chimes and when he looks at it, he grins when he sees Pidge’s name flash across his phone screen. The message tells him to come over since her parents are gone now, and Keith grabs his bag before going across the hall, closing the door to his dorm before going through the doorway to Pidge’s dorm. Pidge is already laying on the couch upside down, feet against the back of it, and her head tilts when she heard Keith walk in. Her grin is wide as she gestures Keith over to the couch. They position themselves so Keith could lay on the couch instead and Pidge can lay on top of him, their bodies fitting perfectly against each others. He pulls out his own phone, and even though they’re both paying more attention to their phones, they still hold a conversation with one another.
They’re in their own little world of phones, cryptids, and conspiracies, paying no attention to the loud noises coming from the other rooms or down the hall. But they do hear rushed footsteps, and they both glance at the open door, expecting to see some idiot running down the halls but that idiot stops at the open door, the widest smile on his face.
“Pidgeon! I’m so glad we’re roommates!” He drops all his things at the door and approaches the couch, having had paid no mind to the other person on there at first. But now as he got closer, he freezes at the coffee table, eyes wide when he finally notices the other man there. “Uh.. who the heck is this?”
“Oh, right. First time you two are meeting.” Pidge says and glances at her phone for a moment before locking it, setting it down on the coffee table. She gets off of Keith, stretching her arms a little but stays sitting on his stomach. “Lance, this is Keith. He’s my cryptid-conspiracy buddy. And Keith, this is Lance – my boyfriend. Or the guy that my parents told you to watch out for.”
Keith blinks, looking over at Lance, seeing that he’s more shocked to see another man with his girlfriend, but he’s sure that would turn to rage at some point. If he knew anything about boyfriends, it’s that they got jealous when they saw their girlfriend with another guy. Or, well.. that’s from movies anyway, and not from his own personal experiences. He didn’t even like girls, so he had nothing to worry about there. Plus.. he wasn’t really the jealous type. Slowly, Keith scoots upwards so he could lean against the arm of the couch instead of just laying there like the couch was his own. Well, he should at least try to make a good impression while try to stay calm doing so. There’s no need to be nervous, right? This guy didn’t seem threatening, even if Pidge’s parents said to watch out for him. Or something like that anyway.
“Uh-huh. ‘Best friends’,” Lance repeats, making air quotes. “Best friends canoodle like that? On a couch? With the door wide open for all to see?!”
“First off, we weren’t canoodling, Lance,” Pidge goes to correct him, clearly not amused by his overreaction to this. “It’s called cuddling – Platonic. Cuddling. We’ve been doing this before you and I got together. And please, you and Hunk cuddle all the time!”
“Hunk’s a big guy! He’s warm like the sun and soft like a teddy bear!” Lance points out. “But-- but-- this guy just can’t be comfortable to lay on!”
“For the record, I don’t like cuddling. Pidge and I are just comfortable with one another and as long as I don’t move, she doesn’t complain,” Keith chimes in, giving a little shrug. “Sometimes she falls asleep on me, too. I don’t know why, it just happens.”
“..Right.” Lance folds his arms over his chest, staring down at Keith. “Other than that, he has a mullet. A mullet, Pidge! Does anything good come out of a guy who doesn’t match his hairstyle with the right time period? I don’t think so!”
“My hairstyle has nothing to do with my personality, and it’s not a mullet.” Keith corrects him, narrowing his eyes at Lance. “If hairstyles told you about someones personality, yours would make me assume you’re a little bitch. Oh wait – that’s not an assumption, it’s true.”
“Why you--”
“Whoa! Hold on! What’s going on in here!”
Lance is interrupted by a voice the three of them seem to be familiar with, and when heads turn, Hunk stands in the doorway. They all blink, but Pidge and Lance shout out his name and run towards him, hugging him tight. Keith slowly sits up on the couch, elbow resting on the arm of the couch and cheek in the palm of his hand as he watch the three in the doorway. Keith decides to tune out what the trio is talking about in the doorway, but he’s staring right at them, and at some point, they all make eye contact with Keith, making him break out of his little daze. Was something said about him? Or were they talking to him? Please let it be the former. He can deal people talking about him, but it’s bad enough he didn’t make a good impression on this Lance guy. And he’s his best friends boyfriend. Super. Let’s not start talking to people now and make even more bad impressions.
“Hunk, this is my best friend, Keith,” Pidge introduces him, as if they hadn’t met already. “Lance was getting his sleep mask in a twist because he walked in on us cuddling on the couch.”
“We cuddle though, Lance,” Hunk says, glancing over at the other male. “Is that a bad thing if we do it? Should Pidge be jealous of us? Because I like cuddling! And I like hugs! I like all types of affection – you know me like the back of my hand, dude! I can’t stop my affection, that’s who I am!”
Oh. Oh god, that’s not good. He’s going to be rooming with a guy that likes affection? Hopefully he knows personal space, at least. Maybe Keith can escape before Hunk can get him to though, so he doesn’t have to be a victim of this guys affection. Which, he’s sure he’s great at hugs and all, but it takes a long while before someone is able to put a hand on Keith’s shoulder, let alone hug him.
“That’s what I was telling him!” Pidge says. “Lance, you’re just overreacting. Keith’s a good guy. A guy with a knife collection, but he’s a good guy.”
“..Wait, what?” Hunk pales, eyes widening as he looks at Keith. “Is that true? Please tell me it’s not. I room with this guy, Pidge! Oh god, you didn’t bring them with you to college, did you?”
Uh, should he play along here? Maybe he should. That always makes a good impression, right? Jokes?
“Pidge, you weren’t supposed to say anything! Darn, and I just got a new knife. I needed a new body to test it out on.” Keith can see the panic in Hunk’s eyes, so he decides to leave the joking at that. “Kidding. I don’t have a knife collection. Just a few blades I picked up from yard sales and the one I’ve had since I was a kid. But none of those are with me.”
“You still have knives!” Lance points out. “That’s it. I knew people with mullets were dangerous. Hunk, I suggest we go to housing and get you a new roommate because this guy is a criminal.”
“I wouldn’t use my knives for killing. They could be worth a lot of money someday,” Keith says, standing up from the couch and sticking his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He can tell when he’s not welcome anymore, and he believes it’s time for him to leave. “Though if I wanted to kill somebody, I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
He slowly steps toward Lance. “It’d come” Step. “when you least” Step. “expect it.”
Then he pinches Lance’s arm and Lance screams. Pidge laughs and Hunk is left frozen at the door from that whole experience. Keith had managed to slip past and out into the hallway, turning to glance at the trio. He says his good byes to Pidge, apologizes to Hunk, but then tells Lance to sleep with an eye open. If Lance wanted to say certain things about him, he’s going to play along. But once he’s past the door to room four-nineteen, he rests his back against the door. His heart starts pounding, nervous about if he said the wrong thing or if his joking around went too far. He’ll ask Pidge about it later, if the thoughts are still eating at him, but for now, he’ll go to his room to unpack. That will take his mind off of things.
He walks to his room, turning on the dim lighting they have, but it’s something that he’s going to have to deal with. Unless he wanted to open up the curtains for natural sunlight, but he’s fine with the dim lighting for now. It’s not like he has much to unpack anyway, unless Shiro had snuck something in. Otherwise he shouldn’t have any surprises.
And lo and behold, there was a surprise. An extra box, actually. When he opens it, he’s greeted with bubble wrap, and when he unwraps the items, he knows it’s Shiro’s doing. He doesn’t remember packing these items, but it’s too late to complain to Shiro about what he packed in surprise now. He sighs and picks up the first item that had been laying on top. It was a small, framed picture, one that he can set on his desk or the nightstand in his room. It was of him, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge, the summer before Keith’s freshmen year at college, where the four of them had went to an amusement park. He remembers that day where Keith and Pidge ran off to play in the arcade than be outside, since Pidge wasn’t much of an outside person. (Besides, unfortunate for Pidge, she was too short for most of the rides, and Keith would rather stick with her than have her feel left out.)
That was a fun summer. He hopes he can make more amazing memories with Pidge even if they were at college.
Next there was a small desk fan, as well as a desk lamp, which the latter was definitely needed considering the dim lighting. He gets up from his spot on the floor to go to the small desk in his room, setting the lamp in the top right hand corner on his desk, plugging it in and clicking the switch. He’s thankful that Shiro sent the lamp with a bulb already in there, and the lamp was so bright, too. This was going to help when Keith stayed up odd hours of the night studying or sketching. He hooks up the desk fan next, setting it in front of the lamp and pointing it towards his bed, turning that on so cool air could go around his room while he was still unpacking.
Keith raises his arms above his head, stretching out from all the work he has done so far. He still has a little bit more to unpack, but he thinks now would be a good time to make something to eat. He and Shiro had went grocery shopping a couple days ago, right before they packed the van with his things. Although Shiro didn’t care much of Keith’s diet of coffee, red bull, and ramen, he gave in and bought those three things for him, but he got boxed pasta, as well, and a case of water, to make sure Keith stayed hydrated.
Now that Keith thinks about it, he could really go for some macaroni and cheese right now. He remembers Shiro grabbing the three-minute mac and cheese cups instead of the boxed, since that would be a quick snack. (Right. Snack. More like a quick meal for Keith.) Keith digs through the grocery bags in his bedroom, finding his dinner for the night and the box of cheap silverware Shiro bought him along with.. everything else. Honestly, Keith owes Shiro so much. He really hopes he can pay him back after all the years he’s been taking care of him. And there’s still a long way to go until he could pay him back for all he has done..
Keith takes in a breath and goes to leave his bedroom with the microwavable mac and cheese in hand, his free hand opening his bedroom door. As soon as he does, he’s stopped by another man standing in front of door, and when he looks up, his eyes meet with his roommates. Keith gets startled for a moment, and actually, so does Hunk, both of them stepping back while staring at each other wide eyes. There’s silence between the both of them for a moment, then Hunk’s eyes go to what’s in Keith’s hand, eyebrows raising.
“Is that what you’re eating tonight?” Hunk questions and Keith stares down at the mac and cheese cup, nodding. “Dude, Lance, Pidge, and I are all ordering pizza and bread sticks for dinner? You’re welcome to join us.”
Well.. pizza and bread sticks did sound better than a single serving of mac and cheese but.. just thinking about how Lance would complain about him during the whole time made him think that he wouldn’t be welcome to join them at all. And now Keith’s thinking Hunk’s inviting him just to be nice, especially since he’s Pidge’s friend and all. He would give in and take the offer, to at least try to make new friends like Shiro expected him to but..
“I’ll pass,” Keith says, heart breaking when he sees the look of disappointment in Hunk’s eyes. “Er, I’m probably just going to eat and head straight to bed? Nothing on you guys it’s just.. been a long day and I signed up for 8AM courses.”
“You’re not human if you can get through an 8AM course,” Hunk declares and that makes Keith snort. “But.. okay. I’ll save some pizza for you though if you want leftovers.”
Hunk leaves soon after that, and Keith waits a little bit before he walks to the kitchen, swearing under his breath. He should have taken that offer. Should have given Hunk a chance and join the three. But his first impression on Lance had turned out horrible, and he feels like he wouldn’t live that down. Even if Lance lets it slide, Keith’s going to be thinking about today for decades to come. (Honestly, it’ll probably keep him awake at night, too.)
Keith lets out a huff as he fills the plastic cup of hard macaroni to the fill line and pops it into the microwave. He leans against the counter while he watches it cook, fiddling with the paper bag of powdered cheese. Arms folded over his chest, and with him alone with his thoughts, all he can think about is how terrible his first impressions were when he met Hunk and Lance. Heck, because he turned Hunk down now, would he ever invite him to hang out with the three of them again? Probably not.
“Stupid Keith,” he mutters to himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
The microwave beeps as he grumbles to himself, and Keith stirs in the powdered cheese before heading to his room, setting his dinner down on his desk so he could rip open his case of water to get a bottle. His tote bag had been on the ground all this time, right next to his desk, so he reaches over, digging through it to take out his sketchbook and his case of pencils, setting them up so he could start drawing. It always seemed to calm him down when he got down on himself; the sound of graphite lightly running across the paper, the feeling of the sketchbooks paper texture, and just how quiet the room became when he was focused on his drawing. He normally draws whatever came to mind, and some pictures go unfinished because Shiro would pull him out of his own little world and he could never come back to it because he lost the motivation for it.
Or Keith would lose track of time and pull himself out of his daze when he realizes how dark it has gotten. Just like now, when he’s been sitting at his desk all this time, not realizing how much time had went by before he finishes the drawing. His dinner is half finished, and he went through two bottles of water during his drawing process, and without realizing it, he had sketched out a UFO with some trees down below it. He glances at his phone, reading that the time was almost 9PM, when it was nearly 6PM when he started drawing. Huh. Weird.
He gets up from his desk, stretching his legs, and walks out of his bedroom to throw away his empty bottles and his half eaten dinner. After that, it’s back to his bedroom to get everything together for his classes tomorrow. Messenger bag hanging over his desk chair. The stars on it are fading, from how long he’s been using it, but if it’s not breaking, then he has no reason to get a new one.
Changing his clothes doesn’t take long; he just switches out of his basic t-shirt and skinny jeans to a tank top and plain pajama pants. His phone charger is set up by his bed, phone plugged in and sitting on top of the nightstand. He has an alarm set already, to get up possibly way too early in the morning, but Keith’s not one to get a lot of sleep anyway. He’s more awake and focused when he doesn’t get a lot of sleep, but the coffee does help.
Tomorrow.. he’s dreading tomorrow a little. Shiro and Allura may say his professors didn’t seem bad – with Professor Slav being exempted from that – but things could have changed since they went here. Laying on the bed, he tosses and turns, unable to get comfortable. His bed creaks with every movement, the sheets scratching at his skin, and the room being too hot to sleep with a blanket, even with his desk fan on and pointing towards his bed. He’ll have to get a new sheet set for this bed, but for now, he’ll deal with it as long as he has to before he can buy new sheets himself and not ask Shiro this time around.
He can do things himself. He can get through his second year of college. He got through his first year just fine and that had been a mess. Keith takes in a breath through his nose, letting it out through his mouth, and feels himself calming down, even if it’s just a little.