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“Wait! Wait, I’ve got another one. ‘Hey baby, are you an astronaut? Because that bod is out of this world’.”
Lance flashed his friends a smug grin, waiting for them to declare him the utter genius that he was.
“That was the worst one yet,” said Pidge, not even looking up from her phone.
“Hmm,” Hunk said, thoughtfully tapping at his chin. “I dunno, man. There are plenty of astronauts on Earth. You can’t just assume people will know you’re talking about the ones up in space. I mean, wouldn’t ‘hey baby, are you an alien’ make more sense? Though actually…there might be aliens on Earth too, so…”
Lance groaned and rolled his eyes as Hunk continued to ramble to himself. Ever since the three of them sat down in the mall's food court Lance had spouted off a ton of awesome pick-up lines, but neither Pidge nor Hunk had approved of a single one yet. His brilliant wit and irresistible charm were entirely wasted on his friends.
“Geez Hunk, maybe I should just be like, ‘Hi, I’m Lance. Are you single and interested in men? Because if so, I’d like to take you on a date some time’.”
“I’m game,” came an unfamiliar male voice from behind him.
Lance whipped around, prepared to tell whoever was mocking him to fuck right off, but he immediately abandoned that idea when he saw who’d spoken.
It was him. Takashi Shirogane – or Shiro, as he liked to be called – Keith’s stupidly hot best friend that Lance had been Facebook-stalking for like two years. Lance had never had a chance to actually meet him in person due to the fact he’d been deployed overseas for a while. He’d bugged Keith about introducing them once Shiro returned, but figured he’d have at least a couple more years to buff up and get cool before their destined first meeting.
But fate was a cruel mistress, apparently. Here he was face-to-face with Shiro way ahead of schedule, still scrawny, still lame, and wearing a t-shirt with a cat sitting on a slice of pizza in space.
The absolute demon that had allowed this to happen was standing at Shiro’s side.
“What are you doing here?” Lance snapped at Keith.
“Uh, I work here?” Keith said. “My shift just ended.”
Oh, right. He was even still wearing his Hot Topic name badge. Lance’s brain wasn’t exactly working all that great at the moment.
“Anyways,” said Keith. “This is Shiro. I wanted you guys to meet him while he was back in town for a while.”
Shiro smiled and raised his hand in a little wave. The arm was a prosthetic, Lance noted, but it didn’t detract from Shiro’s handsomeness or the aura of strength surrounding him at all.
“You must be…Hunk?” Shiro said, pointing to Hunk. He snapped his fingers in triumph when Hunk gave a nod, then pointed to Pidge. “And you’re Katie, right?”
“Call me Pidge.”
“Pidge, gotcha. Then you must be Lance. Keith’s told me so much about you.”
Lance cut Keith a nasty glare, but snapped out of his vengeful mood just a few seconds later when Shiro barked out a laugh.
“Don’t worry, he had only good things to say.”
“Don’t lie,” Keith muttered, but he didn’t argue any further as he and Shiro took a seat at the table.
Shiro sat across from Lance. He smiled when he noticed Lance staring at him, and Lance quickly averted his gaze, his face flushing red at being caught.
“I like your shirt,” Shiro said.
“Oh, uh, thanks! It’s kinda stupid, I know…”
“No, Shiro honestly loves that kind of shit,” Keith grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Show Lance that dumbass shirt you bought earlier.”
Shiro pulled out a Hot Topic bag and retrieved a white shirt from within. On the front were several kittens and a puppy in cowboy hats with the text “Wot in awwwenation” written beneath them.
“Oh my god, that is amazing,” Lance declared.
“Ugh. I knew you two would get along,” Keith muttered.
Lance found himself chatting with Shiro like an old friend after that. It turned out that Shiro liked a lot of the same things he liked, like memes and action movies, and Lance got so excited about that he forgot to keep his more embarrassing interests to himself. He cringed the minute “mecha anime” left his mouth, thinking surely that would forever seal him as a huge nerd in Shiro’s eyes, but instead Shiro lit up and began gushing about Gundam Wing.
It was so easy to talk to Shiro. Every other word out of his mouth had Lance laughing like an idiot, and Shiro seemed just as amused by the things he said. Lance was so utterly engrossed with their conversation he didn’t even realize how much time they’d spent talking.
“Shiro! Hey, Shiro, we gotta get going!”
Lance looked over to Keith and scowled.
“Come on man, we’re still talking!”
“Lance, we need to leave too. The mall’s closing in ten minutes,” said Pidge.
“Huh?”
Lance took out his cell phone and looked at the time.
“Wha–no way, it was like seven o’clock five minutes ago!”
“You guys have been nerding out nonstop for two hours,” Keith said. He gave Shiro a disapproving grimace, but Shiro just grinned and shrugged in response.
Had it really been two hours?! Had Lance actually talked with such an amazing, gorgeous guy for two straight hours and not completely humiliated himself in the process?
Keith, Pidge, and Hunk gathered their things and started to head for the door. Lance was about to follow when Shiro reached out and gently grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Hey. It was great getting to meet you, Lance.”
“You…you too!” Lance said, blushing. He felt shy again now that he wasn’t totally distracted with talking his head off.
“You mind if I get your number?”
“I uh– yeah, yeah! Here lemme text you real quick.”
Shiro gave him his number and patiently waited for Lance to text him. Lance’s fingers shook as he swiped out a brief message, and he missed the ‘send’ icon several times before he finally managed to hit it.
“Got it,” Shiro said, lifting his phone when it buzzed. He glanced at Lance’s message and smiled before tucking his phone back in his jacket. “Hey, so I know you were just joking around earlier, but are you actually looking for someone to date at the moment?”
Lance winced. He’d all but forgotten he’d been in the middle of saying the worst pick-up line ever conceived when Shiro first approached them earlier.
“Yeah, sorta…”
“So…are you single and interested in men? Because I’d like to take you on a date some time if you are.”
On one hand, Lance wanted to crawl under the table and die. Not only did Shiro remember the awful pick-up line, he’d just repeated it nearly word-for-word.
On the other hand, holy shit.
“I! I um! Yes, I…yeah, that’s – yes.” Lance clamped his mouth shut, fearing what nonsense would come out if he kept talking.
“Great! I’ll give you a text tomorrow and we can figure something out.”
They were both sporting flushed faces and nervous smiles as they finally followed after their friends. Lance couldn’t believe Shiro was blushing – not nearly as much as he was, but damn if it didn’t do things to him knowing he was the cause of that pretty pink color in his cheeks.
Keith had his arms crossed and a knowing look on his face when they came out together. Beside him Pidge was smirking like a devil, and Hunk wore the same soft expression he got whenever he looked at kittens.
“Bye guys. Hope to see you again soon,” Shiro said as he and Keith headed off. Lance raised his hand in farewell, not lowering it until the pair disappeared out of sight.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it,” Pidge said as soon as they were gone. “Lance actually got a date.”
“I’m so happy for you, buddy!” Hunk exclaimed, tugging Lance into a bear hug and squeezing the life from him before he plopped him back down. “I guess your pick-up lines are pretty good after all!”
Lance decided it was best not to argue with him on that one.
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