kokirane:

nerdynekoproxy said: AU WHERE KEITH IS A TEACHER AND SHIRO’S ADOPTED CHILD IS ONE OF KEITHS STUDENTS (probs Pidge)

On the first day of second grade, Shiro is nervous. He’s trying to make her a sandwich for lunch, but his hands keep shaking. Pidge finishes her bowl of cereal and quietly comes up behind him, wraps her arms around his leg.

“Don’t cry.” She mumbles. “I can just buy lunch at school.”

Shiro picks her up; his eyes look a little red, but he smiles as warmly as ever. “Hey there, pidgeon. Done with breakfast already?”

“Hey there.” She repeats, pokes his forehead. “I’m gonna be fine, Uncle Shiro. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m a big kid.”

“You are, aren’t you?” Shiro says. “So you don’t need me to carry you out to the car?”

“You can still do that,” Pidge immediately says, and he laughs.

---

They don’t see Hunk or Lance anywhere when they get to the school, but Pidge assures Shiro that she’ll be fine. Admittedly, she’s feeling a little nervous, but Shiro doesn’t need to know that. Looking around, she feels like she’s a little shorter than the other kids, a little scrawnier – already, her mind is beginning to whisper what if they don’t like her, but she tries to shake it off.

She’ll adapt. She always has.

It’s Shiro she’s more worried about. He thinks she doesn’t notice, but she does: he holds her hand a little tighter whenever he notices the other parents looking at his white hair, his prosthetic, his scar cutting across his nose. They whisper, like he can’t see or hear them just because he’s different.

Pidge squeezes Shiro’s hand. Shiro is her hero, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need protecting. If that’s what Pidge can do for him, just hold his hand, she will. Shiro’s been around since she was born, and now he’s all she has left. Twenty-five seems ancient to her, but Aunt Allura, during one of her visits, had said it was young in that sad, adult kind of voice. It didn’t really make sense at the time, but what Pidge does know is that Shiro’s doing his best, and that this is scary for him, and that she needs to make it okay.

“Hey,” she whispers, “We’re gonna do great.”

“Of course you are,” Shiro murmurs back.

“Both of us,” she stresses. Shiro crouches down, pulls her into a hug.

“I’m fine, baby,” he says. “I’m so excited to see my little pigeon fly. You’re going to learn so much.”

“Okay,” Pidge says, unconvinced. “Can we go for ice cream when you get me?”

“Mhm,” Shiro says. “Hunk and Lance can come too.”

“Yess!” 

---

Pidge’s homeroom teacher is a Mr. Keith Kogane, room 3A. It’s easy to spot: there are cute animal stickers on the door with each student’s name. PIDGE is printed on an owl, right next to a cat that says ROMELLE.

And then the door opens, and Mr. Kogane steps out.

She hears Shiro’s breath catch, and tries not to giggle. She’s pretty sure that they’re thinking the same thing: Mr. Kogane looks like a Disney prince. He has long-ish black hair and blue eyes like Prince Eric, but what Pidge finds the most interesting is that he has a scar, too, on his cheek.

“Uncle Shiro,” she whispers. “You match.”

Shiro can’t even speak, his face rapidly turning tomato-red. If Pidge is calculating right, she can extort an extra scoop of ice cream later if she teases him enough.

“H-hi, um, I’m Pidge’s guardian, Shiro,” Shiro says, gently putting Pidge forward. Mr. Kogane bends down to give her a nametag and a green marker.

“Welcome to 3A, Pidge.” Mr. Kogane sounds like a prince too, with the way he speaks quietly but warmly. It reminds her of Shiro. “Why don’t you go pick out a seat and I’ll talk to Shiro for a minute?”

“Sure.” She shuffles past, but picks the desk closest to the door so she can listen in.

“Is there anything I need to know? Any allergies or anything that might’ve been left out?” Mr. Kogane asks. 

“No allergies,” Shiro says, hesitates. “I know she’ll be a great student. There’s just something I want to bring up, if that’s okay.”

Pidge knows exactly what he’s about to say. She purses his lips, concentrates on drawing leaves around the PIDGE she’s written in block letters. If she focuses on lines and lines alone, she won’t have to think about the blood rushing in her ears.

“Shoot,” Mr. Kogane says.

“We moved classes last year because there was some, uh, bullying problems.” Shiro says. “I, uh, used to work with Pidge’s family, so when she lost them, I took her in, and there’s just been some – some unneeded cruelty. About me being an unfit guardian, and about her being ‘different’ or whatever. But she’s the best, really, and I don’t want her to have to deal with that again because of me.”

Shiro’s voice gets smaller and smaller as he explains. Pidge adds more leaves onto her name tag, bites her lip. She doesn’t remember her parents or brother much, even though she does miss them sometimes, but she knows Shiro thinks about them all the time. She knows the reason kids being stupid hurts him so much because he already thinks he’s doing a bad job. But it’s not true! 

“I can tell that she loves you,” Mr. Kogane says softly. “So I think you’re doing just fine. But I understand, I’ll keep an eye out. I want my classroom to be a safe space for everyone.”

“Thank you,” Shiro murmurs. Pidge can see his head hanging low; she jumps out of her seat, and runs to throw her arms around him.

She doesn’t need to say anything. He knows.

---

Mr. Kogane – who asks them to call him Keith – turns out to be kind of cool. He’s even younger than Shiro, just twenty-three, and spends some talking about some time talking about himself.

“I was in the foster home system for a while,” he says, and Pidge’s head jerks up in surprise. “And if there’s one thing I learned from that, it’s to be kind. That means so, so much. People are gonna be different from you, and that’s okay. Be kind. Learn from them. We’re all here to grow together.”

He’s pacing around the room as he talks, gesturing with his hands, but Pidge swears that he winks at her.

---

The end of the day comes before she even realizes it. It was fun, something she’s pretty excited to report to Shiro. None of the kids thought she was freaky or weird. Romelle likes computer games too, and they might play together sometime. She had lunch with Lance and Hunk, and they tell her about third grade, and that second grade is fun, especially with Keith. Lance says that he can be a little strict sometimes, but Hunk is over the moon about him. 

Pidge is optimistic.

When Shiro comes to pick her up, a giddy Hunk and Lance at his feet already, Pidge takes her time coming over. She wants him to talk to Keith first, calm down a little bit. Shiro’s turned into a tomato again – Keith’s put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder.

Uncle Shiro is hopeless, she thinks with a grin. But who wouldn’t be against Disney prince magic?