Chapter One: New Beginnings

The sun warmed Keith's face as he looked around the grassy area mere feet from the place he was going to be staying. He was about to give up on waiting when a small hand grabbed his black sweater and tugged to capture his lost attention.

"Pidge?" Keith questioned his eyes as he looked at the one whom he would be sharing a dorm room with for the next year or so. The picture he had seen looked fairly feminine but now they had a baggy green hoodie hid their slight frame.

"Yeah, you must be," they looked to a crinkled sheet in their hands, "Keith?"

"Yes! I'm glad to meet you, also please do not feel the need to be my friend because of my brother," Keith ruffled his black hair that he needed to cut but didn't want to so soon. Maybe another month with the mullet that had formed from the year of scissors in his host family abroad.

Pidge smiled at the thought of Keith's kind brother, Shiro, "If you are anything like him, we will have no problem. I'm just glad we traded families for that semester, it was great to see Kyoto! It was also really nice to meet the people there."

"I've been traveling for the past year trading families, so they've become accustomed to the new faces. Shiro loved the company too, it gets lonely there when he is by himself," Keith smiled soft at the shorter person with short cropped brown hair framing their face. Pidge pushes up their glasses with one pointer finger as they clutched a thick laptop to their loose cloth covered self. Keith, feeling awkward, held open the university dorm-B's door for the other kid around his age. Pidge grinned and went through the open glass door with an optimistic view of this year that was to come.

Halfway across campus, Lance was grabbing coffee with his best buddy and roommate, Hunk.

"Ya know," Hunk stretches the two words into a sentence all on their own.

"No, no, no, a hundred times, no," Lance whines.

"You didn't even hear what I was," Lance cut Hunk off with an aspirated sigh.

"Hunk, I am going to study now but I'm going to that party later," Lance states as he adjusts his books so his sleek new laptop was perfectly balanced against his chest.

"Fine," Hunk huffs but smiles as he sips his hot cocoa frappuccino with extra foam and mini marshmallows.

"If you really want to talk about something, that girl, Shay; I think she likes you. They wouldn't give me marshmallows in the rainbow Frappuccino I bought, even if I begged!" Lance wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at his blushing burly friend.

Hunk, flustered, tried to make excuses but stays quiet for the rest of the walk back to dorm-B floor 3.

Lance strolls leisurely making small talk with his friend. Once the door was in sight he made a grab for his ID card.

"You know," Lance smiles, "There's a gym here that's looking for a teacher for the silk dancing thing I did in high school."

"That thing you did that won the school's talent show?" Hunk questions as he takes a break from trying to fish a spare marshmallow stuck in the foamy, sticky mess on the bottom of his cup.

"Yeah! I think it'd be a great idea, extra money and something to keep my head on my shoulders."

Hunk nods along but tries to get the marshmallow again causing a large slurping sound to block the sounds of busy cars on the street and the chatter of passing students.

Lance sighs and unlocks the door barely holding it open for his friend.

"Thanks," Hunk remarks sarcastically at his friend.

"Yeah, yeah," Lance rolls his eyes opening the door to the thin staircase that barely could fit two small people side by side together but Lance knew that'd he'd have to move sideways if he'd want to try to fit their hips next to each other. Hunk had a larger build and Lance had been praised for his larger waist by his mother. She had always wanted a girl, she had told Lance he'd be a pretty girl but Lance couldn't see it.

"Hunk, random question, what do you think I'd look like as a girl?"

Hunk thought in silence as they climb the stairs. He pondered the thought as though it was the Russian literature class he had taken (Hunk did not pass that class). He shrugged, "I dunno."

"That should be my next personal assignment," Lance decides disappearing through the third floor door. Hunk hurried to the door and rushed through almost knocking a person down.

"Oh, oh no!" They cried clutching the laptop to their chest, "Please please please," the computer loading screen lit up and Pidge sighed relieved.

"Oh gosh! You okay?" Hunk was shocked such a small person had to be a girl but everything else screamed a boy.

"Yeah we're fine."

"We?" Hunk questioned.

"Rover and me," Pidge smiles patting the thick laptop in their hands. Hunk nodded trying to look genuine but all he was was genuinely confused.

"I'm glad you're both fine…" he stretched the words nervously.

"Yeah, yeah, I gotta get my baby on the charger. Bye," with that Pidge ran off leaving Hunk confused in an empty hallway full of doorways with little signs with names written across them. He wondered which way he should go just as Lance called from around the corner.

"Come on Hunk! You're so slow," he complained jokingly.

Hunk followed the voice to room 1984, which had little paper flamingos with their names in thick but flowery writing. It looked like lazy cursive to Hunk, but he liked it all the same. Lance didn't care much about the handwriting or the flamingos and whipped open their door.

The dorm had enough room to have two beds, two desks and a small amount of walking room.

"Home sweet home," Lance smiled and Hunk looked defeated as he mumbled to himself about where he would put his crépe maker, popcorn maker and mini fridge for ingredients.

Lance happily flopped onto the mattress excited for the freedom of the college life. Hunk did not share the same thought but was excited to be away from his family for the year long course of Food prep and Baking 101. Lance's uncle, weird old man who is obsessed with mustaches, had offered Hunk a job once he finished a few college courses on the areas he needed to touch upon.

They sat in silence for awhile, well, aside for Lance slurping at his foamy drink making strange faces into the cup trying to get the last bit out. He gave up after a few minutes and threw the cup away in a small bin in between the desks.

"Welp," Lance decided, "I'm going to go test out these showers."

"What happened to studying?" Hunk looked at Lance with a wistful look.

"Studying the hottest girls on campus, duh," Lance grinned with dangerous curiosity that danced behind his chocolate colored eyes.

"Or boys," Hunk said with a grin and Lance's face flushed.

"No," he said with grinding teeth, "No one can know."

"But last year you said," Lance cut him off.

"My … let's say cousin to save confusion, Pidge, is going to our school too. Pidge was banned from my house for all holidays for being non binary. My dad really doesn't like people who don't follow 'natural order'. That includes bisexuallity, do you understand now?" Lance looked broken but he stood up tall while he grabbed his towel and shower bag then made his way to the door before Hunk could respond.

Off he fled down a hall then another before disappearing in the door marked "Male Showers". He rushed in not paying attention and bumped into the person in front of him.

"Watch it pretty boy!"

"What did you say, mullet?" Lance snarled.