Chapter Text
Matt met Shiro when he was nine.
Unlike most kids, he had gotten into the Garrison program a few years early...Mainly due to the fact he had finished elementary school early after skipping a few grades and had nothing better to do than apply. Also, his dad made him and had some pull there so...Yeah. He wouldn't officially be enrolled in the program until he was older and passed all the right exams so he was pretty much just auditing classes for the next couple years.
It wasn't like he was baby compared to the all the eleven-year-olds out there, but that didn't mean the older kids wanted to talk to him. So really, Matt needed an ally. Someone to force other people to like him. Someone...Tall. Strong. Intimidating. Someone who would set them straight. Someone-
"No...No Takashi. I...Why do you keep saying Tiki-she? That sounds nothing like my name. Ta...Okay, why don't you just call me Shiro?"
Him. He was the one.
The boy didn't look particularly big or strong, but Matt knew his name which is more than he had on anyone else in this room.
"Hi Shiro!" He called, bouncing over to where the boy had given up on trying to teach the girl he was talking to his name. The boy stared at him, looking around to ensure that Matt was speaking to him before looking back at him.
"Uh...Hi." He blinked "Do we know each other?"
"Yeah! We're best friends." Matt told him and sat down in the empty chair "My name is Matt, remember?"
"Oh...Um, yeah! Of course!" Shiro said and Matt beamed at him. Perfect. This boy would work out splendidly. "We met at the...Thing."
"Yeah!" Matt encouraged him "With the people!"
"And the stuff!"
"Oh, I'm so happy you remember!" Matt said and shook his head "It would have sucked if you'd forgotten..." He smiled and clapped his hands together. "See you at lunch!" He called and nodded to himself. A friend had been made. Mission accomplished.
Shiro was a good friend. Matt had expected him to be pretty average considering he had just picked him at random, but maybe fate was on his side. The boy never made fun of him for his age, always covered for him when he was late, and never tried to flirt with the same girls Matt tried to flirt with.
"You're nine," Shiro informed him one day "Maybe you shouldn't have a girlfriend."
Ugh. Traitor.
"Well you're eleven. Maybe you should have a girlfriend!" He shot back and watched as his friend wrinkled his nose a little.
"I don't know... I mean. Girls are pretty!" He said and Matt sighed in agreement, thinking of the pretty girl in their class with the dark eyes...What was her name? Elena? "But I don't want to kiss them." Shiro said with a shake of his head "I might hurt them or something."
"Then kiss them gently." Matt suggested and Shiro made another face.
"I'm going to wait until I'm an adult to kiss anybody." He said and Matt rolled his eyes. He had made friends with a dork. He supposed it could have been worse...He could have become friends with a horrible womanizer who stole all of his potential girlfriends. Truly, a crisis for someone his age. Granted, he had promised his mom that he wouldn't like girls until he was sixteen, but his mom wasn't here and Matt knew for a fact that all the cool kids on TV had girlfriends. He went and sat down next to Shiro.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll have plenty of people to kiss when you're older." He reassured his friend and Shiro shrugged, pulling his knees to his chest thoughtfully.
"Kissing sounds weird."
Well...Shiro had other redeeming qualities. Matt's coolness would surely protect Shiro for getting picked on. Now. All Matt had to do was meet a girl...
As it turned, Shiro ended up in a relationship before Matt did. Traitor. Only...It didn't quite go as either of them expected.
"I have a boyfriend." Shiro announced as he walked into their shared room. After some begging on Matt's part, Sam had agreed to rearrange their rooming situation so they could live together. Matt tilted his head to the side. Despite the news, his friend didn't look...Happy with the outcome. Matt sat up.
"You can do that?" He demanded and Shiro sat in the middle of their floor.
"I guess so," He shrugged and held up a flower "Jaden Grasso gave me this and said that he loved me during class today!" Shiro wailed and laid in the middle of the floor. "I'm a kid. I don't know about love." He whispered. Matt peered over at him.
"You better learn."
"Matt!" He whined and rolled over "You know about it right? You talk about girls a lot. Do you think it can be the same with boys?" He asked and Matt shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe he meant he loved you in the non-girl way." He suggested and Shiro nodded at that, brows furrowing together.
"So...It's an American thing..." He murmured. Matt wasn't sure what he meant by that. He knew that Shiro was from Japan, but as far as he knew - Japan was the same as America, right? It was just a different place. Shrugging, he went back to his magazine. He needed to figure out how to look cool. According to the kids in class that weren't Shiro...He needed some help.
"Do you think I look like this guy?" He asked, holding up a photo of a guy posing by the beach in a bathing suit. Shiro shook his head. Huh. "How about this one?" He asked and turned the page to where a guy was putting on some sort of coat while looking dramatically off camera.
"I'm...Not sure. Look that way." Shiro instructed and Matt tried to mimic the pose "No...Move more this way." He said and centered Matt on his bed "You also need a coat." He nodded and dashed to their closet, pulling out one of their more formal outfits "Here, try this!" He said and Matt tried to replicate the man in the photo. "No...You have to do it like this." Shiro told him and took the coat from him to also mimic the man.
"No fair!" Matt moaned "You look just like him except not as muscle-ish." He grumbled. Shiro beamed. "Try this one," Matt told him, a bit begrudgingly and turned the page to the next one. Shiro stared at it for a moment before posing again. "Ugh. It's perfect. I hate you."
"Why do you need to look like that?" Shiro asked, jumping up at the end of Matt's bed. "Are you going to be in a magazine too?"
"No," Matt sighed "But that's a good idea! I need a good picture for the yearbook!" He said "They're going to take our pictures soon and I need to be ready." He said, pounding his fist into his hand "People are going to look at this forever!" He grumbled "I need to practice looking perfect."
"Oh...Okay. I can take your picture." Shiro shrugged "So that you can practice."
"...You are the single most important person in my life."
"That's what Jaden told me too."
"So...Um...I was, uh....Thinking..." Matt said and damnit this was not going how he planned it. He was ten now! He should be able to pull himself together and spit this out "I...Got you a flower!" He said and thrust the pink perennial in front of him. Elena gasped, eyes wide as she saw the flower.
"Thank you!" She said and smiled at him. Yes! Yes! Matt did it! He basically had a girlfriend now. He couldn't wait to tell Shiro-
"But I'm in love with Andrew..." Elena told him, expression going dreamy.
His life was over.
There was only one thing to do in such a situation...
"Hello?"
"Pidge, I miss you," He whined into the phone "Why can't you be smart enough to skip some grades and come here too?" He asked and he heard his sister growl on the other end of the phone.
"I am too smart enough!" She yelled "And I miss you too, jerk! When are you coming to visit? Mom misses you too and I bet you're just doing easy classes anyways." She sniffed and Matt smiled. In the grand scheme of things he supposed he didn't need Elena to love him. He had his sister and it was much more impressive to have her love anyways.
"Hey...Shiro?"
"Matt is it three in the morning, please go to sleep."
"Okay, but I've been thinking...I know how I want to die."
"What?!" Shiro demanded and rolled over so he could peer down at Matt from the top bunk "You're not going to die within the next hundred years, idiot. Now let me sleep." He said and slammed back down on his mattress. Matt waited a few seconds before sleeping again.
"So what I'm thinking is that I got missing for a year. Everyone assumes I'm dead, right? The only clue to my disappearance is you. You are the last person who saw me alive."
"Because I'm the murderer?" Shiro asked tiredly "That sounds right..."
"No. You're distraught over my apparent death. Anyways, the last thing I tell you is to 'follow the trail of hearts' which is the only lead anyone has because somewhere in Florida there's literal hearts in the street-"
"I don't understand your mind and I don't want to. Let me sleep."
"So a year passes by with nothing - and then - BAM! I'm found alive in Utah. Police swarm around me and realize I'm badly wounded. Bullet holes are in my chest and I have minutes left to live. You fly in on a chopper and rush to my side...'Matt...Matt who did this to you?' you say and I gasp my final breaths in your arms, unable to give an answer. The only thing I get out is 'Tell...Miranda...She was right...' and then I die. Bam. Who is Miranda? We don't know. You make a statue in my honor with the message inscribed in a plague. Someone mysteriously leaves flowers there every year on my birthday." He said, ending it with a whisper.
"Wow...That was...."
"Good, huh?"
"Incredibly unnecessary."
"It's like you don't care about my death, sometimes!"
"I think I like dick..."
"Like...You're own?" Matt said, rolling over. Shiro was fourteen now, meaning he had grown a little bit so he was literally twice the size of Matt. Still, he looked small at this announcement. "I think I do too...I'm not sure why...."
"No. Like...Boys." Shiro informed him "Like remember when Jaden was my boyfriend? I think he liked me how boys like girls and I think I liked him like that." He explained and Matt tilted his head. Oh. He knew people like that. "It's called gay. I took a quiz online...It said I was...questioning."
"You took a quiz online to see if you were gay?"
"Yeah."
"If you took a quiz then I think you have your answer." Matt told him and Shiro froze, looking absolutely shocked at this revelation. "Can we go back to talking about my dick? Because I'm a little confused in some areas-"
Matt was in a situation.
Well...He suppose he technically wasn't in the situation, but that was the sucky part of it. How was he supposed to fix things he wasn't involved in? Sighing, he collapsed in one of the nice chairs of the library and tapped a pencil to his lips as he looked at the books that surrounded him. Personally, he had never had any trouble making friends. He had discovered (as proven with Shiro) it was really quite easy to trick people into it.
But maybe...He should look more into the traditional side of things.
"Looking to replace me?" Shiro asked as he sat down, eyes warily glancing at all the friendship books that sprawled over the desk and floor. "You could have used a more subtle hint." He told him lightly and Matt scoffed, sighing as he tossed one of the books to the side.
"My sister is sad," He admitted, tucking a foot under his leg "None of the kids at school like her...She's probably too smart for them." He added with a shake of his head. That was one part of the situation he understood. It could be frustrating to be bursting at the seams to talk about nuclear calculations and engineering software only for nobody else to care or even know what you're saying. "I'm trying to see if I can find something helpful for her." He explained and Shiro's eyes softened at that.
"Need any help?" He asked and Matt smiled before sliding two books for him.
"Sure! Go to the table of contents and find out if it says how to deal with insults or teasing. Then find good conversation starters - I get the feeling she isn't trying to talk about boys or parties with them." He said fondly and Shiro nodded solemnly as he flipped open the first book with pure determination.
"At least your sister has one friend." Shiro told him and Matt paused in writing something down to stare at his friend blankly.
"She does? Who? How do you know?" He demanded "You've talked to her?"
"I meant you, Matt."
"Gross. Pidge is too lame to be my friend."
"Adam hates me."
"Yep."
"He hates me."
"That is the general consensus, yeah."
"Oh my God...He hates me."
"So do I right now," Matt groaned "The real tragedy here is that I failed a quiz. Me? Me? I'm smart. Hell, I am arguably the smartest. In the world."
"I can't believe I told him I was a better pilot! What idiot does that?"
"I think Mr. Otto is working against me somehow...He must not like people of superior intellect..."
"I meet a cute boy and I fuck it up. Great. Great going, Takashi!"
"Has nobody told him I'm the smartest one here? What's this all about? I can file a lawsuit for this. I have rights!"
"I can't apologize to him...I know you said I should, but...No? No!"
"What do you think I should do? Is it possible I'm wrong...? No. You're right, that's silly to think..."
"I'm fifteen! I'm an adult, basically. I can...I can tell him I'm sorry and then maybe we can hold hands."
"I should just confront him. Tell him how I feel. Stick it to the man!"
"You're right...I shouldn't expect anything. If he could just stop hating me I would be happy. Hold handing it a little too PG-13 anyways."
"Thanks, Shiro. You give good advice."
"No problem - you're a great listener."
"I'm Adam."
"I know," Matt said, looking him up and down "I hear you don't hate Shiro anymore." He said and Adam shrugged. He was pretty small for his age - closer to Matt's size than Shiro's with light brown hair and dark eyes. On the front of his uniform was a pair of glasses that Matt knew he used solely for reading since 'glasses were for dorks' to which Matt wholly agreed with...That's why he got rid of his.
"You're Matt, right?" Adam prompted and he nodded, trying to gauge exactly how he felt about this kid. Sure, Shiro liked him - that was clear... But Shiro also had the judgement of an oblivious sea lion. Matt was usually the one to decide exactly how evil people were. "Want an Oreo?" Adam asked and from out of his pocket appeared packaged of cookies. Matt stared.
"Can I have two?"
"One and a half."
"What if I tell you that I have milk in my door room?"
"Then you can have three." Adam told him and Matt offered his hand in solidarity. Adam took it with a nod.
"Can I have an Oreo?" Shiro asked, from where he had been watching the two with an air of exasperation. Matt and Adam looked at one another.
"No." They said in unison.
"So...Let me get this straight... Shiro was an adorable child who didn't realize he was gay despite having a boyfriend?" Lance reiterated and threw up his hands "Well, damn Matt! We could have guessed that ourselves! We are looking for solid blackmail material here!" He said and Keith nodded next to him. "Our lives depend on it."
"Hey, now." Matt frowned "I'm just getting warmed up. I agreed to help you take the Shirogane-Frasiers down and I will. Would I ever steer you wrong?" He asked and Keith and Lance exchanged wary looks before shrugging "I - guys, come on." He whined "No! We're allies now. Bros. A team..." He said and held up a finger "Did I mention that Adam met Shiro's boyfriend?" He asked and Lance narrowed his eyes.
"Shiro told us that Adam didn't realize he was gay until after they started dating." He frowned and Matt smiled at him.
"Yeah...That's the best part," Matt told him "Adam was so confused on why Shiro was introducing him to this random guy. And I haven't told you about Shiro's emo phase." He added and that got Keith's attention.
"Shiro had an emo phase?"
"He wasn't always a pro with the eyeliner...He also had some really cringy poetry."
"Why didn't you lead with that!" Keith yelled "That's the shit we need!" He said and Matt pouted.
"You didn't want to hear about me being a good brother?"
"Nah, that was cute. You can tell us more of that too." Lance said "Hey, want to grab some food while you give us the intel? I'm hungry." He said, sitting up "Also, have I told you all the nonsense Pidge did when we were in space? We once got separated on a mission and she built replicas of us out of trash." He said and Matt rose an eyebrow "She also had this pet robot named Rover."
"Rover? Ugh. Terrible naming skills."
"I know, right?"
"Why do I feel like the third wheel right now?" Keith sighed as he got up to follow them.