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Takashi looked down at his phone, squinting for a moment at the picture on the screen before looking back up at the room number on the door. Yeah, this was the right place. He opened the door, and was further reassured by the sight of a bunch of other students. “Hi, Siegel.” he greeted the club president as he scrawled his name on the attendance sheet.
“Shirogane.” she nodded as he walked over, dropping his bag in an empty seat along the way. “Change your mind about being an officer yet?”
“We haven’t even voted for officers this year.” he pointed out. “If they want me to be an officer, they’ll pick me.”
“You and your obsession with honesty.” Siegel scoffed, rolling her eyes.
“Nepotism is wrong on any level.” Takashi chided, giving her a playful poke in the side. “Don’t worry, I’ll probably end up your VP this year and next.”
“God, I hope so.” Siegel sighed, glancing up at the clock. “Alright, can you do that whistle thing?”
Takashi grinned, and turned to the chattering club members before sticking two fingers in his mouth and blowing hard. The chatter stopped pretty quick, and Siegel stepped up in front of him. “Hello!” she said cheerfully. “Welcome to this year’s first Sci-Fi/Fantasy Club meeting. First things first, has everyone signed in?” she gestured towards the back of the room, and a few people slipped off of whatever they were sitting on to go add their names to the list.
“Alright.” she continued once everyone was back where they’d been. “My name is Nikolina Siegel, but you can call me Nikki; I’m the club president this year. Since this club’s final meeting last year got cancelled, our first order of business is to elect the rest of the officers.”
Takashi grabbed a dry erase marker from the tray at the bottom of the board, and started writing out positions and applicant names as Siegel explained how voting would work, and that only members who had been part of the club last year could vote.
“So, you’re Shirogane?”
Takashi looked up from his tablet, where he’d been tiling the Starfleet insignia all over his class schedule, and saw an unfamiliar boy perched on the counter across the aisle from him. “Oh, you don’t have to-”
“Sorry, right.” the boy chuckled, pushing his Potter-esque glasses back up his nose. He was pretty cute, even with that definitely not regulation mess of a haircut. “You’re Takashi though, right?”
Takashi opened his mouth, closed it, nodded. “Um, I gotta- bathroom.” he said quickly, standing and leaving the room as quickly as he could without running. He didn’t slow down until he reached the nearest bathroom, and then he shut himself in a stall and sank down on the toilet seat to hang his head in his hands. Fuck, his heart was racing. It had been ages since he had a crush this bad, let alone this fast.
“Shiro?” De La Cruz called a minute later, footsteps echoing slightly off the tiled walls.
“In here.” he said weakly.
“You won VP, Nikki wanted to make sure you knew.”
“Oh, that’s- that’s cool.” Takashi drew a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.
“You okay, man?” De La Cruz leaned up against the door-jam, Takashi could see his shadow on the floor just outside the stall. “You freaking booked it out of there.”
“Yeah, just- kinda over-reacted.” Shiro chuckled helplessly.
“To what?” De La Cruz asked.
“Cute new guy.” Takashi admitted. For a second there was silence, then his friend snorted.
“Oh my God.”
“Hey, it’s better than how you acted when you met Siegal the first time.” he huffed.
“I won’t deny that, I was a total tool two years ago, but Takashi fuckin Shirogane just ditched a club meeting to hide in the bathroom because a cute boy talked to him?” De La Cruz laughed, and Takashi kicked the stall door. “Come on, man, you gotta admit that’s hilarious.”
“I have to be at every single club meeting with him!” Takashi cried, and De La Cruz laughed harder.
“You are hopeless.” he cackled. “Takashi Shirogane, officially too fuckin gay to function.”
“You are the worst friend ever.” Takashi moaned, dropping his head into his hands.
“I am the best friend.” De La Cruz protested, pushing off the stall and planting himself in front of it. “Now get out of there and let’s get back there for your coronation.”
“Coronations are for monarchs.” Takashi pointed out, standing and habitually straightening his uniform. “Vice Presidents don’t even get an inauguration.”
“Well, obviously nobody told Nikki that.” De La Cruz said with a wide grin as Takashi opened the stall door. “She’s got paper crowns ready for you and the other officers once she finishes counting the votes.”
“I’m not wearing a crown.” Takashi said flatly as he followed his friend out of the bathroom.
“You can probably opt out after today, but come on, humour her.” De La Cruz cajoled.
“Fine.” Shiro rolled his eyes.
The ‘coronation’ was a quick little thing, just Siegal dropping little marker-decorated paper crowns on their heads, and then Lis pulled out two fucking trays of brownies, a plate of cookies, and four litres of soda from under the teacher’s desk and the room turned to chaos as everyone tried to get a piece. Takashi grabbed a brownie, and went to lean against the counter near his bag.
“Surveying your kingdom?” the boy with Potter glasses asked, walking up to him with a drink in each hand and a pair of cookies pinned precariously between his fingers.
“Even if it were a kingdom, it wouldn’t be mine.” Takashi chuckled. “Siegal would be queen, and De La Cruz would be prince. I would be, like, an advisor or something.”
“De La-” the boy frowned, and Takashi forcibly pulled his mind away from thoughts of how much nicer he looked when he smiled. That way laid madness; stuttering, blushing, too-gay-to-function madness. “Oh, you mean Moz.”
“Yeah.” Takashi nodded.
“Oh, I grabbed you a drink.” the boy held out one of the cups towards Takashi, and he stared blankly for a moment. This kid he didn’t even know, who was probably a first-year student, had bothered to pour him a drink and bring it over to him. Wanted to talk to him.
“Thanks.” he said dumbly, taking the cup and drinking from it before setting it down on the counter next to him.
“So.” the boy set his cookies down on the counter, then his drink, and boosted himself up to sit a casual distance from Takashi. “Couldn’t help but notice the Starfleet insignias on your tablet. What’s your series?”
“TOS.” Takashi said quickly, then nearly bit his tongue. god, he’d probably sounded like an overeager dumbass just there. “What’s yours?”
“Enterprise.” the boy grinned, a quick flash of teeth before he took a sip of his soda. “Though I may be a bit biased because our first dog was named Porthos.”
“Speaking of names, I don’t think I got yours yet.” Takashi said, and the boy blinked owlishly at him.
“I’m Matt.” he said with another smile.
“No family name?” Takashi asked, and Matt shook his head.
“None I’m going to tell.”
“You do realize I’m an officer, I could just look at the member list.” Takashi pointed out.
“But you wouldn’t.” Matt smirked. “You’re too Hufflepuff for that.”
“I- what?” Takashi blinked.
“Your bag has a yellow-backed Prefect pin on it.” Matt inclined his head towards Takashi’s bag, which had a few pins one of his friends had bought him for Christmas. “And why would you have a yellow one if you weren’t a Hufflepuff?”
“That’s- yeah, I did get sorted into Hufflepuff by the official quiz.” Takashi admitted with a chuckle. Fuck, this boy was cute, nerdy, and brilliant.
“Y’know, it really is a shame people shit on Hufflepuff so much.” Matt mused, biting off half his first cookie and chewing thoughtfully. “Newt Scamander was a Hufflepuff, and he’s cool even if his movies were kinda trash. So’s Spock, and he’s just awesome.”
“What?” Takashi frowned at Matt. “No way, Spock’s a Ravenclaw or Slytherin, depending on if you’re going by TOS or AOS.”
“Okay, first off, the reboots barely count.” Matt said with a roll of his eyes. “They’re just movies, and the TOS movies were supplemental to the show. And secondly, fuck you, your house is what you value not what you are. Sure Spock is brilliant, but if he valued knowledge and learning, or even cunning and ambition, he would’ve gone into the Vulcan Science Academy instead of Starfleet.”
“The Vulcan Science Academy was strict and old-fashioned, though.” Takashi argued. “And as a half-Vulcan, they wouldn’t’ve let him gain the highest levels of prestige. Which, even if they had, would’ve only gotten him respect from Vulcans. In Starfleet he got to see more of the universe, and by extension learn more than he would’ve from the VSA. It also didn’t give him any kind of glass ceiling, he could get all the way up to Fleet Admiral.”
“But even in the mirrorverse he didn’t want to advance past First Officer.” Matt argued back. “No matter the universe, he’s loyal to Kirk.”
“You just said that house isn’t what you are it’s what you value.” Takashi pointed out.
“Oh, shut up.” Matt gave him a shove, and jammed the rest of his first cookie into his mouth.
Takashi hid a smile behind a sip of soda. This club had always been fun, but this year was already shaping up to be the best yet.