Chapter Text
Fall in Love!
The words laughed down at Keith, big, gaudy orange letters on a white banner, spanning over the entry to their dorms.
“Who even comes up with crap like this?” Keith muttered, rolling his eyes and sighing, like doing so would actually tear the banner down.
Shiro, who held the door for him with one hand while balancing his coffee cup in the other, snickered. “I think it’s charming,” his best friend said against the rim of his way too expensive, way too sweet excuse of a coffee. It was the third one this week and Keith was sure he would hear Shiro complain about being broke by the end of next week.
“I mean, look! They even put up small pumpkins everywhere.” Shiro beamed and it was addictive. At least kind of, Keith thought, when it was hard not to smile at how excited Shiro looked. Six foot four and full of muscles – and still the softest child when it came to pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween parties. He definitely looked right out of a ‘1st day of fall starter kit for hipsters’ Pinterest post, with his big fluffy scarf in mustard yellow that could easily fit around two people, his dark-red beanie that was tactically placed so his white tuft of hair would peek out just right, and the hiking boots that had definitely never seen a single hike – Shiro was more of a man for indoor gyms and long morning jogs that left him sweaty and shirtless right when Keith would wake up and…
...and Keith had to brace himself not to run into the next door while thinking of a semi-naked Shiro. He might have been harboring that stupid crush of his for a bit too long.
“Yeah, but that’s the problem.” Keith shoved all thoughts of Shiro in any state of dress aside while they both made their way down the hallway to their shared room.
Even though they had started off freshman year as strangers forced to share a dorm, their first year at college had made them fight a lot of things together: navigating the unknown terrain of campus together, Shiro’s first break-up, bad hangovers, worse drinking habits, a dubious frat-party they would rather not talk about ever again, and a nerve-wracking week of finals. And after one year of college, Keith could call someone a best friend for the first time in his life.
“I’ve already nearly slipped on fake leaves somebody decided to scatter in the hallway this morning alone.” While Shiro held the door to their dorm room, Keith groaned. He’d rather not remember the embarrassment of tripping down the staircase.
His groan only got louder when he noticed the smug grin on Shiro’s face. And Keith had no time to mutter “Don’t you dare” before Shiro decided to seize the opportunity: “Seems like someone didn’t know where to leave their leaves.”
“Urgh, you’re the worst. How long have you been waiting to make that joke?” Keith would never be able to tell Shiro that he secretly loved his lame dad jokes. Shiro would never let him live that down.
“Waited the whole day for the right time to just fall into my arms.” Shiro shrugged, sitting down on his bed, the grin still on his lips betraying full well that he was very aware of the second bad pun that had just left his mouth.
“Shiro,” Keith could only sigh in despair, burying his face in his hands. Before he could scold him for the terrible jokes, he was interrupted by a knock on their door and the familiar mop of brown hair and the wiry limbs of Lance, their neighbor from across the hallway, appeared.
“Did someone say leaves?” Lance asked, poking his head into their room. He was standing in the middle room seconds later, before Keith could so much ask him if he had ever heard of something called privacy. The answer would’ve been no, anyway – Lance was the nosiest guy he had ever met.
“We were just talking about this year’s theme for the autumn charity fundraiser.” Keith let himself fall onto his bed with a deep groan while biting off the next remark on his tongue. He had nothing against Lance per se; he was a good guy even though he was chatty as hell, but it had been a long day, and he seriously did not want to discuss different kinds of pumpkin spice recipes right now.
“Ooooh, I love the theme.”
Keith was sure there was a swoon in his voice.
“I hate it. Seriously, what is the thing with fall? It’s dark, it’s cold, and it’s so wet you slip on leaves everywhere.” He might have exaggerated a bit, as far as he was concerned, there wasn’t much to like about fall.
At least that’s what he thought before he found himself sitting on his bed only two seconds later, with Lance’s arm awkwardly draped around his back to pull him in, Lance’s hand patting his shoulders in a weird kind of soothing gesture.
“Keith. My friend. My buddy. Emokid of my life. Let me help you! Chicks LOVE fall! Pumpkin spice latte dates? Putting pumpkins everywhere, wearing cozy sweaters and listening to the same indie playlist for the whole day long? Have you even checked Pinterest lately?”
“And why would I, Lance?” Picking up girls had never been on the list of his favorite free-time activities. Picking up anyone at all had basically been erased from his plate the second he realized he was head over heels for Shiro – a fact that might or might not mix well with the fact that they spent most of their free time together and had seen each other naked after showering more often than Keith could count.
“I tell you, it’s m-a-g-i-c. Here, I still have to invite Allura to a pumpkin patch date.” With a flick of his wrist, Lance pulled out his phone to text Allura, a junior he had been crushing on too hard for his whole freshman year, and who had just recently decided it was better to date Lance than to keep trying to reject him. They both seemed kind of happy, so Keith tried not to judge. Whatever floated their boat.
“What would you do on a pumpkin patch except picking pumpkins?” He was sure to aim well when he threw his pillow at Shiro for chuckling.
“It’s all about romance. Think about the atmosphere!” Lance exclaimed with a dramatic gesture.
Still, his words made no sense to Keith. “I can imagine more romantic things than getting muddy together.”
Was it possible to roll his eyes too hard?
“Keith, don’t you have a single fibre of romance in your bones?” Seeing Lance like this, fingers pinched together at the bridge of his nose as if he was really, deeply concerned, was some special brand of hilarious only Lance could come up with. But before Keith could comment on the non-existent romance of gardening, Lance waved a hand at Shiro.
“See Shiro here,” he announced. “Two days into autumn and he already has a list of things he wants to do.”
“Hey,” Shiro yelled and Keith was pretty sure he just imagined the red shimmer on Shiro’s nose.
“Don’t try to fool me, I’ve found your list!” Lance pointed a finger at Shiro, sending a squinting glare with it.
“It’s more a list of some possibilities…” Shiro mumbled, scratching his face before carefully placing his beanie on his desk where it snuggled close to his coffee cup.
It didn’t help Keith to see the appeal at all. “I just don’t get why two people should suddenly realize they are compatible simply because they start wearing bigger sweaters and drink liquid sugar?”
Shiro snickered, earning him a death glare from Lance, “Don’t stab me in the back, Shiro! You gotta support me here, I’m your best friend!” Lance struck another melodramatic pose. Keith could see why Lance was taking drama courses. If there is one thing Lance was good at, it was overdramatizing everything.
Shiro started, “Actually Keith is, but–”
“That’s not the point here.” Lance interrupted him, looking close to clawing his eyes out.
Keith could feel Shiro’s eyes land on him, his expression underlined by soft words. “In my defense, autumn is pretty special. You should try to see the appeal, Keith.”
And it did sound reasonable, the way Shiro presented it. Then again, Shiro could also make snail races sound reasonable to Keith, with the dark tenor of his voice and his gentle eyes... but that really wasn’t the point here.
Luckily for him, Lance ruined the moment. “Yes Keith, see the appeal! Tie your hair in a messy bun, trade your lumpy leather jackets for big woolen scarf and hiking boots, and drink that pumpkin spice latte!”
“Excuse me, I actually like that jacket.” He tried glaring back at Lance, who, unfortunately, seemed to be immune to his anger by now.
Completely ignoring any kind of protest from Keith, Lance’s eyes suddenly lit up – and Keith knew that was never a good thing.
“I’ve got it!”
Yeah, really, Keith reminded himself, never a good thing.
“Let’s make a deal! Shiro takes you to all those cozy autumn things he plans on doing anyway--“ Lance waved at Shiro, whose loud protesting “Hey!” got completely lost in Lance babbling on.
“--and if you still don’t like fall by the end of October, I’ll do your homework until the end of the semester.” The beam on Lance’s face was telling of how sure he was about winning this bet. Keith couldn’t wait to crush him.
“And if you win?” Keith had to admit that he was indeed intrigued. Not having to do any course work sounded nice. Plus Keith loved a good challenge.
“Then you have to buy me an extra big Christmas gift.” Oh well, now he definitely had to win.
“Deal?” Lance’s grin shone so brightly it could easily light a thousand candles, and he thrust his hand out for Keith to shake on it.
Keith took the proffered hand smugly, never shy of an easy competition.
Winning against Lance was always a pleasure. How hard would it be to spend 30 days not liking a season?
“Deal.”
**
“So, what’s on the list?”
It wasn’t until hours after Lance had left them and both roommates were sitting on their beds, Keith buried in his course work and Shiro buried in a book, that their conversation wandered back to that ominous List Lance had mentioned. Keith was not quite sure if it was from boredom or interest, but he had just spent the last ten minutes reading and highlighting the same three sentences and he might as well give up for the day.
“Um, here.” Shiro handed him a list full of checkboxes, scribbled down in his familiar neat red letters on white paper, with small drawings of leaves and bats and pumpkins. Keith felt something warm fill his chest looking at the doodled, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t from the tea Shiro had brewed for him ten minutes earlier.
The list was not as long as he had feared it would be, to his relief, containing only five or six prompts. Some of them sounded easy, like wearing oversized sweaters and spending rainy days inside. Other items on the list made Keith falter.
“Apple Picking? As in a date?” Keith's brows rose and he fought to keep his face neutral.
Having a crush on your roommate was one thing, having to go on play-dates with him was a completely different.
"Oh," Shiro said, rushing, “You know, we don’t really have to do all this. It’s more like… the first Pinterest Autumn To Do List I found?”
Seeing Shiro blush and stutter was definitely something new, though altogether charming. Even if he didn’t like fall that much, Keith loved how Shiro would flourish at the mention of pumpkin soup and hot cocoa. At least he would get to make Shiro happy by accompanying him. And if some of the prompts made them spend more time together, that was all the better.
He wouldn't be alone in conquering the list, and he'd be doing it all with his best friend-slash-crush. What's the worst that could happen?
A lot.
As in, having said secret crush deepen and potentially be let out accidentally, effectively ruining their friendship if Shiro didn't feel the same way.
Keith frowned, then stopped Shiro midway through his backtracking. “No, this sounds like fun. I’m from Texas, remember? I’ve never been apple picking”, he said, shaking his head, not sure if he was trying to calm himself or Shiro. He took a breath, forcing himself to push the words out casually, "So yeah, it’s a date.”
Shiro beamed, and Keith managed a cautious smile in return, though both his heart and brain were ringing alarm bells.
Maybe, this challenge with Lance was going to be harder than he thought.
****