Shiro~

Finally.

It was finally his first day at school.

Shiro couldn't wait to see what the Garrison looked like from the inside.

His sofu had told him that he had to report on every minute detail and couldn't leave anything out.

"Sofu," he had complained, flopping onto his lap and looking up at him with glittering eyes, "I can't report on everything. That would just be too much! Plus," he dropped his voice to a whisper and cupped a hand to his mouth, "There may be secret missions."

Sofu had ruffled his hair with a smirk. "Alright, Takashi. Whatever you say. I just can't believe that you won't be living with me anymore."

Shiro smiled, "It will be okay, Sofu. I'll come to visit a lot."

In truth, Shiro knew that his grandfather was relieved that he was leaving. Not because he disliked Shiro! Not at all. Sofu loved Shiro with all of his heart.

Shiro just knew that… money was tight. And Sofu was getting older and older and soon wouldn't be able to work very well.

So when he had heard about the Garrison dorms, he had been ecstatic.

Plus, this way, he would get to meet new people and try new things. And he would get to fly. And maybe, just maybe, he would get to go up into space.

The first thing he would do would be to find his dorm room and unpack the few things he had. And maybe he would get to meet his roommate.

He wondered what his roommate would be like. Would he be some weirdo? Would he be super chill with everything? Would he be the kind of person to go to parties all of the time and be getting drunk at fifteen? Would he be the one so reserved that he got 10 hours of sleep every night or something?

Shiro shook his head. There was no point in ruffling his mind with negative ideas. It would be best to try to just go in with an open mind. Maybe he would make a new friend right away.

He scanned the list of dorm rooms and spotted his name. His room was A306.

Shiro bit his lip nervously as he headed up to the third floor and down the A wing. Before he knew it, he was outside of the dormroom. Shiro paused, collecting himself, inhaling deeply, before he grabbed the handle and turned it open.

Inside, he expected to see half of the room occupied by things on the wall and clothes from a suitcase. Or maybe multiple suitcases. He expected to see someone sitting at the desk or on the bed, typing away at a computer and waving awkwardly to him as he walked in.

He saw none of that.

Instead, the room was empty. Barren. He had apparently beaten his roommate to arriving.

Awkwardly, Shiro closed the door behind him with a soft click and set his bag down on one of the beds. He chose the bed that was closer to the door and had a dresser at the foot and a side table by the head. There were two desks across the room that were side by side.

Frowning slightly, Shiro decided to move his desk to be closer to his bed. There was just enough room, if he got rid of the side table, for the desk to fit.

He knew that he should unpack. It would be easier to just get everything out of his bag and lay it out. But that would make everything… permanent. A weight dropped in his chest. He almost didn't want to think about it.

At that moment, the door opened, halting him from having to think about it anymore.

He watched tentatively as noise erupted into the room. An older woman carrying two bags under her arms walked in first, in the middle of a conversation with the man behind her. She had slightly darker skin, brown hair dyed blonde at the tips and swirled up into a bun. She was on the larger size of average and rather tall, and for Shiro, that was saying something.

The man behind her was a little shorter with short dark hair and the same darker skin tone. He wore circular glasses on the tip of his nose that reminded Shiro of spectacles. He was only carrying one bag with him but he still looked tired. He was a much thinner, wiry man who looked a little disheveled.

Finally, behind them, a boy who looked about Shiro's age came in, lugging a suitcase behind him. He had wavy light brown hair, square glasses, the same kind of skin tone as his parents, and he was sort of short compared to his parents. The thing that Shiro noticed the most about the boy was the fact that he was wearing a white button up and a purple tie with some nice black pants and plain tennis shoes.

His parents looked around the room and the mother's eyes fell on Shiro.

She broke into a wide grin, dropped the bags she was holding and rushed over to Shiro.

"Well, would you look at that, Pumpkin! Your roommate's already here!"

Shiro blushed at the sudden attention, not knowing what to do. The woman grabbed his hand in both of hers and shook it excitedly. "Nice to meet you, I'm Mrs. White. And this is my son here," she let go of his hand to grab the boy by the arm. He had been standing still, ducking his head and avoiding Shiro's eye.

The boy looked at Shiro and quietly said, "Hi. I'm… I'm Adam. What's your name?"

Shiro gulped. He remembered how he and Sofu had talked about using a different name. An easier name. Most people wouldn't want to learn Takashi. Plus, although Shiro didn't care about it too much, he rather didn't want random people calling him by his first name. "Um… Takashi Shirogane. But please, call me Shiro."

He smiled weakly at the boy-Adam. This was the person he would be spending at least the next year with. He had to be nice and hope that they got along.

Adam smiled back at him and took his hand to shake it gently. "Nice to meet you," he said, his voice soft and calming.

"Would you like us to help you unpack?" Mrs. White asked Adam. Mr. White was hovering awkwardly behind, fiddling with the zipper on one of the suitcases.

Adam glanced between his parents and then at Shiro. "No… I think I'd just like to do it."

"Alright then, Pumpkin," Mrs. White said, leaning down to kiss the top of his head.

Shiro felt a soft pang of sadness. He missed Sofu and he… he couldn't remember a time when his mom had kissed his head. But… he had decided a long time ago that he was okay with that.

Mr. White stepped up to his son and gave him a one armed hug. He whispered something into Adam's ear. Something that made Adam smile and roll his eyes. "I'll be fine, Dad. Don't worry. I'll call, et cetera, et cetera." He walked them towards the door, smiling but clearly ready for them to leave.

"Okay," his mom said, "Have a good time, Pumpkin. We love you. And it was nice meeting you… uh…"

"Shiro," Shiro supplied for her.

"It was nice meeting you, Shiro," she smiled and walked out the door with Mr. White close behind her. "Call us if you need anything, Adam. We love you!"

"Love you, too," Adam said closing the door on his parents while waving to them down the hallway.

As soon as the door clicked shut, there was a breath of silence.

"Phew," Adam sighed, lowering his head and closing his eyes. "I'm glad they're gone."

He stood up and walked over towards the other bed, the one across the room from Shiro's, and leaned against his bed, his hands behind him on the mattress and his legs crossed on the ground.

Shiro remained quiet. He didn't know what to say. Would it be a good thing to ask questions? Should they try to bond? Or would Adam rather him stay quiet?

"Did your parents just leave?" Adam asked softly. "I felt like I couldn't get mine out fast enough."

Shiro shifted awkwardly. His voice didn't seem to work. Should he tell the truth? Shake his head?

Adam waited, his dark eyes looking at Shiro, sizing him up. Shiro lifted his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat. "Um, yeah. They… they aren't much for goodbyes."

Adam nodded, accepting Shiro's lie.

There was another beat of silence. Shiro knew that he should say something. He knew that he should ask Adam something or try to further their conversation. But no words would escape his stupid dead mouth.

"Um, so… Takashi…" Adam said quietly. "That's an interesting name."

It felt weird to hear anyone other than Sofu calling him Takashi, though, Shiro had to admit that he was rather impressed that Adam remembered. "Just… just call me Shiro."

Adam nodded again. "Alright, Shiro. Still an interesting name."

Shiro took a deep breath. This was his chance. He just had to speak. "Um… it's… I'm japanese."

"Cool, cool," Adam replied. "I'm Brazilian, if you were wondering. Does… does you name mean anything?"

Shiro smiled, "Interestingly, Shirogane means 'white metal.'"

Adam laughed. His laugh was soft and reserved but still loud and joyful, "Ha! Both of our last names are White. That's fantastic."

The tension seemed to dissolve between them. Shiro smiled and chuckled to himself too, bowing his head.

"Yeah, that's pretty ironic."

Adam stood up, still smiling. "I should probably unpack." He gestured to the bags on the ground. "So… I'll take this half and you take that half?"

"Um, sure," Shiro said, trying to add enthusiasm into his voice instead of uncertainty.

Adam swallowed and walked over to the first bag, picking it up onto the bed and opening it.

Shiro jolted himself off of the mattress and onto the ground. He figured that he should unpack too. Maybe if he unpacked slowly enough then Adam wouldn't notice how few of things he had comparatively.

"Only one bag?" Adam asked, sounding curious instead of judgemental.

"Yeah…" Shiro sighed, fumbling for a good lie.

"That's nice. Then you don't have to worry about everything and can just start over. I swear, my mom packed most of this. I don't even know what's in here."

"Sure, I suppose," Shiro shrugged. He began unpacking his few possessions into a the dresser. The only things he had that weren't clothes was a single journal, a pack of pencils, a comp book for school, a blanket, and his phone. He looked shyly at Adam as he laid the blanket on the mattress, hoping he wouldn't notice the missing pillow. Shiro knew that he could ask Sofu for one the next time he came to visit. That would only be a week or two at most.

Shiro sat down to watch Adam unpack. He pulled out plenty of clothes to go into the dresser, a lamp on the desk, school books and pens and pencils. He even pulled out a plastic bag full of pictures that he began to pin up by his bed.

Shiro felt kind of weird to not have that many things, but at the same time, like Adam had said, he got to have a new start. He was excited to be able to start fresh.

And then Adam glanced over at Shiro's barren corner. "What? Shiro… do you not have a pillow?"

Shiro blushed, looking down at his hands, "I… uh, forgot. But I'll get Sofu to bring one later. Don't… worry."

Adam raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed over his chest. Once again, he was leaning against the mattress with his legs crossed.

Instead of saying anything about the pillow, he gestured to the empty mattress with the bundle of sheets tossed on top of it. "Would you help me?"

It took a moment for Shiro to respond and then he stood up and grabbed one end of the sheets Adam was holding and moved towards Adam's mattress.

Together, they fought with the sheets, climbing on the mattress and pulling them every which way. At one point, Shiro got his arm caught between the wall and the Mattress. "Adam! Adam! I'm stuck! Gah!"

Adam had stepped back while Shiro struggled, he was laughing softly, into his hand. Shiro watched as he raised up his phone to his eye. "Adam," Shiro warned, "Don't you dare take a picture."

He took a picture.

After they had removed Shiro from the wall, they managed to pull the sheets down and across the mattress until the ends were tucked under the bottom and the sheet was finally attached.

"Finally," Shiro sighed, breathing heavily. Adam had his hands over his head in a stretch as he took deep breaths.

"I swear, my mom doesn't make it look that hard but, geez, that was hard," Adam murmured between breaths of air. He glanced at Shiro. "Time to do yours?"

Shyly, he shook his head, "No… I just brought a blanket. I didn't want to deal with all of that," he gestured towards Adam's now sheet covered mattress.

"You didn't bring a pillow did you," Adam said. It wasn't a question.

Suddenly Shiro was struck in the face by a large white pillow. It fell to the floor with a dull plump as Shiro took a surprised step backwards.

"You were supposed to catch that," Adam told him.

Shiro bit his lip, bending down to pick up the pillow. He didn't know what to say. Was this for him to use? Was Adam giving him his pillow? "I… can't possibly—"

"Shiro, I have three. Take one."

So Shiro took the pillow and placed it on the bed.

Adam nodded in satisfaction.

Shiro paused, "Um… should we go see what our schedules are?"

"Sure," Adam agreed.

"What are you aiming for?" Shiro asked as he walked towards the door, making sure to grab his room key along the way.

"Pilot," Adam answered simply. "I want to fly the ships, be in complete control, and just be able to just fly though the sky. Or the stars. How about you?"

"Same," Shiro smiled. "I want to be able to lead a mission out of earth. Maybe we'll even get to go to a new planet."

"And find alien life?" Adam scoffed sceptically.

"I don't know. Maybe." Shiro had always thought it would be so cool to find alien life. But he also was afraid that humans would come in and dominate everything. Or that said alien life would be hostile and would destroy earth in a heartbeat.

"Well, you can go find some aliens," Adam told Shiro. "I want to be one of the best pilots though. I want to be the one that everyone wants to hire because I'm such a good pilot."

"That's quite the goal." Shiro just wanted to be a pilot enough that he could make it. He just wanted to be in that group that was good enough to be a pilot.

The pair of them rounded a corner to find a line of students about their age all waiting in line and crowding around papers pinned up to the walls.

"I'm guessing that you have to stand in line," Shiro said slowly.

Adam nodded. He wasn't smiling anymore but neither was he frowning. He looked reluctant, though, as though he didn't want to deal with such a large crowd of people. Shiro agreed with him on that front.

They stood in line, watching all of the people around them. It was too loud to talk but some students were still trying to talk over the din of noise while also not being overheard by passersby.

It was strange and yet sort of beautiful to watch the mass of teenagers awkwardly congregated together.

When Shiro got up to the desk, a man with a nice smile, greying hair, and spectacles greeted him. "Hiya! I'm Sam Holt. I'll be your engineering teacher here at the Garrison. What might your name be?"

"Um… Shirogane."

"Shi...ro...ga...ne…" Mr. Holt said as he flipped through papers until he found Shiro's. Briefly he glanced at it. "Taka...shi… Takashi. Nice name," he handed to papers to Shiro.

"Just call me Shiro, please, Mr. Holt." Shiro sighed.

"Alright," he replied, "And how about you call me Sam? I know formalities and whatnot but Mr. Holt just makes me feel so old." He ran a hand through his hair and pinched a strand by the side of his head, "Though," he laughed, "I suppose I am."

Shiro nodded like an idiot and then his eyes widened in realization. "Oh, Mr. H— Sam! I'm sorry! I just—"

"Oh don't worry about it, Shiro. Even my kids call me old. Did you know that my son is going to be in some of your classes?"

"Is-"

"Don't take that as some sort of threat, though, it could be if the situation called for it," he said in what Shiro hoped was a joking manner, "No, I just mean that I want to understand what you kids will be going through and I want to make you enjoy flying. Not be stuck doing homework 24/7."

Shiro smiled, "T-thank you, Sir— Sam."

"My pleasure," Sam said, saluting Shiro as he walked back a couple steps. He watched Adam get his schedule patiently. Once Adam joined him, he glanced down at his schedule to see what classes he would have.

Not much was written there. There would be three classes a day with alternating days.

On the first day, he had Engineering with Holt, S., Mathematics with Montegomery, L., and Computer programing with Dos Santos, J.

The second day, he started out with Flight Training with Iverson, M., Combat with Sanda, A., and finally History with Hendrick, T.

After comparing with Adam, he found that they were in all of the same classes.

"Oh, that's cool," Adam commented quietly. "At least I'll know someone in my classes."

"Yeah!" Shiro agreed. He was glad that he and Adam would get to hand out more.

"Well, yeah," a girl behind them, who had long black hair and rounded glasses, said. "All of us are in the same class. You're paired with your roommate and the teachers just go to teach one lesson per day so there's only two classes technically."

Shiro nodded. "Oh, that's… interesting."

"So, what are your names?" the girl asked, pushing the glasses up her nose. "I'm Lilli."

"Adam," Adam said softly, shaking her hand.

"Shiro."

Lilli nodded. "Alright. Well, I'll be seeing you." she turned around, he black hair flaring out behind her, and turned to leave.

"That… was odd," Adam commented to Shiro. Shiro nodded, his eyes wide.

They started heading back to their dorm room, deciding that they didn't feel like being social with the other students.

Shiro was glad to have Adam. He could tell that they would be good friends. They already had so much in common.

And hopefully Adam felt the same way. Then, they could sit by each other and have someone to be partnered with during group projects. Though Shiro wanted to branch out and meet new people, with so much new around him, it would be nice to have someone of familiarity.

It would be nice to start off with a friend.

Note: I'm challenging myself to update this once a week or so. This will be a SLOWBURN as it goes through multiple years of Shiro's life. It will also be a little while before Shiro starts to feel any romantic attraction towards Adam. :) Comments and favorites are very appreciated!