when i first heard about voltron and saw the characters, i was sure keith was going to be my favorite. a grumpy dark-haired anime boy? i collect those. but keith turned out to be so much more than just the stereotypical “anger issues” and I’m forever grateful to the creators for taking the care they did with his character. he’s emotional. he’s kind. he’s cautious but learns trust. he’s passionate. he has a calm confidence. he has a strong sense of justice.
he’s got a dry sense of humor.
he’s selfless. he’s just so pure. thank you to the universe for this funky little galra baby. i’ll love him forever.
Okay, it’s been a roller coaster of a week for the Sheith community as we dealt with the “leaks”, so I’m going to toss something out here to help make it better. Sorry I can’t share a complete chapter of “Skydancer” or “The Quintessential Bond” or “The Icarists” yet, but I promise, I’m trying to peck away at those with what tiny bit of time I have.
This is a story that should probably end up around four chapters. I started it in June, stress-writing during the runup to Season 6. Current chapter is rated T for a couple of swear words but will probably stray into M territory in Chapter 3. Title is tentative but this has been thoroughly beta’ed by the wonderful @latart. I guess I’ll try and get it on AO3 in the next few days.
Give Me a Sign
Chapter 1 - Graduation
Shiro felt the satin at his shoulders slide to one side yet again and growled in frustration. As he reached to try and straighten it for the umpteenth time, Matt laughed and batted his hand away.
“Here, let me.” Shiro stood still as Matt unzipped the robe a little and looped the hood under his necktie. “Step one, check. Now, step two. Pidge! Need a safety pin!”
A tiny woman, with hair the exact same honey-brown as Matt, eeled through the growing crowd of faculty and reached into the pocket created by her elongated sleeve. She produced a pack of safety pins and stepped into Shiro’s personal space after removing one and thrusting the pack into Matt’s hand.
“Hold still. And don’t forget it’s in here after the ceremony or you’ll rip both your hood and your tie.”
Shiro’s eyebrows rose and he replied dryly, “Yes, ma’am.” He stayed still as her fingers worked quickly at his throat, pinning the hood dead center underneath his tie. Then she pushed at him to turn around. Matt grinned as she adjusted the hang of his hood, turning the point out to show both colors against the black.
Matt returned the safety pins. “Pidge, meet Takashi Shirogane, our new physics teacher. Shiro, this is Katie Holt, comp sciences department chair and my sister.”
Shiro brightened and held out a hand. “Nice to finally meet you. Matt’s mentioned you a few times. Have I seen you at the faculty meetings?”
She shook hands, not seeming to notice the glove covering his prosthesis, and nodded. “Yeah, probably. Nice to meet you, too. Matt told me about your boot camp reviews for the AP exams. If you’ve got some kind of outline that can be adapted to other subjects, I’d love to see it.”
Shiro nodded. “Yeah, I modified it from something the AP Stats teacher did at my previous school.”
“Excellent!” She shot him two thumbs-up and was about to go on, but a cry of “Pidge! Got your safety pins?” from the other side of the crowd made her roll her eyes before taking off.
Shiro chuckled and Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “I swear, you’ll eventually meet everyone here.”
“Really? Because every time I turn around, it looks like you’ve added another dozen faces.”
Matt shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a big faculty, but it’s a big school. We’ve been above two thousand students for five years now.”
Shiro shook his head. His last school, before the accident and prolonged recovery, had been in a smaller town and had a total of about five hundred kids. The graduating class alone here at Glenn High was bigger than that. But being able to step into a job as soon as the doctors cleared him—in the fourth quarter, no less—had been a godsend.
