Watching You, While You're Watching Us (Shklance)

Oh, It Could

"Hunk! Pidge!" Lance excitedly huffed out as he jogged down the sidewalk.

"There you are," Hunk said as Lance came in for a side hug.

"Yeah, sorry, I had to talk with a professor. Essay editing," Lance let out a sigh from deep in his soul—the kind that only essays could draw out from him.

"It's fine, we're about on time, and it usually takes the others a few more minutes to get there," Pidge explained while they started their walk towards the campus library.

"Thanks again for inviting me to this study group, it sounds nice, and heaven knows I could use the help," Lance chuckled, half to cover the uncertainty in his tone.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry we didn't think of it earlier. Next time we gotta keep track of if our friend groups overlap," Hunk smiled reassuringly at Lance, not missing Lance's hesitation.

Lance and Hunk had been friends from childhood, but it wasn't until recently that they discovered that they both knew Pidge. Hunk had met them in a robotics course where they were paired together for a project and hit it off. Lance had an unbearably boring class with them that he had tried to make better with his personality Only Pidge seemed to take note of the breaks he made in the arduous atmosphere, and they figured it wouldn't hurt to introduce themselves. Lance upon first meeting had offered to buy them coffee. Pidge was sold. When they finally figured this overlap out, Hunk and Pidge thought it would be a good idea to introduce Lance to their study group. It had a few other like-minded students from across a number of studies and plenty of room for one more. And a personality like Lance's always helped keep moral high and people sane.

They entered through the library's heavy double glass doors and followed Pidge to the space where her brother (also a fellow member of the study group) had texted that they had booked for the day's session. As they rounded a row of shelves separating the next space from the rest of the main floor, they came upon two students sitting at a large studying table.

"Hey guys," Hunk greeted they all grabbed seats.

"Hello Hunk, Pidge... and our new friend?" spoke a tan-skinned woman with silky white hair, that was currently thrown into a messybun held together with a pencil, that leveled a friendly gaze and soft smile at Lance.

"I'm Lance McClain, a third-year in marine biology. It's nice to meet you!" He settled into the seat between her and Hunk, introducing himself all the while. He flashed a smile of his own back to Allura She was quite the beauty and Lance had to keep himself from glancing over too many times in the span of a minute.

"Nice to meet you, Lance. I am Allura Altea, a fourth-year in environmental science. This is Katie's brother, Matthew. He'll be more conscious of us here soon. He's got exams for both his majors coming up," she gently explained.

"He double majored?" Lance glanced at the boy, whose hair could just barely be seen above a thick book held up, with sympathetic amazement.

"You know, I'm surprised you didn't double Pidge, you already came here a year early," Hunk spoke up again.

"Yeah, but I've seen what double majors demand," they quickly jabbed a thumb in the direction of their obviously exhausted brother's face, "...and I'm perfectly fine with an advanced degree in my field."

The others couldn't help but laugh at Pidge's explanation as they started to settle their various studying materials onto the table and fall into their own assignments.

Lance noticed that there were a few chairs left at the table and wondered if anyone else was joining them. The group seemed really friendly Lance was glad he had accepted to Hunk and Pidge's invitation to join.