Just Your Average College Life

Chapter 6

Friday, 18th October, 11am:

Until that point Lance had been having a relatively normal day. He'd woken up early for his astrophysics class at 8, eaten a deliciously cooked breakfast from Hunk (who's even better than normal cooking was thanks to his good mood that came with his new relationship with Shay). And had gone to class. He'd left at 10, had a nice stroll before his shift at Voltron Coffee and then gone to the café. Which is where he is now.

"Matt, no offense, but you look like death died and went to Hell's armpit's dumpster." Lance told the other man truthfully, surveying his exhausted demeanor and the large, tired bags under his eyes.

"Thanks." Matt replied gruffly, turning around at the counter to pour what looked to be at least his sixth cup of coffee- but knowing Coran and Allura they switched him to decaf after cup 3.

Really Lance was more worried about the lack of response, no joking reply, no happy laugh, not even an eye roll or a small pout. All Matt did was blink slowly and sip his coffee. Plus the guy looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep which was also pretty worrying.

"Why don't I take over your shifts for today and tomorrow? You're already off on Sunday and I think it would be good for you to have a few days off since you look so.... *Cough* Anyway, what do you say?" Offered the Cuban man, his tone as upbeat as possible when he was being faced with so much work.

"What?! No way, dude. You'd have to do double what you're down for, and I'm only tired cos I was an idiot who stayed up all night." Tried Matt, which might've worked better had he not interrupted himself 3 times with yawns.

"I'm going to help you out, you and Rolo covered my shifts last weekend so the least I can do is return the favour. Just go back to your apartment and get some rest, okay?" Lance managed to convince Matt (probably since Matt looked ready to pass out) and the tired man passed Lance his blue apron from behind the counter and stumbled towards the door.

As Matt got ready to go home for the weekend, Allura offered to walk him back to his apartment so he wouldn't collapse on the street as he went over there. Lance knew now he'd be working a lot, he also had some revision he should be doing too, but he owed Matt for last weekend and honestly he could do with the extra cash Allura would give him for working extra hours.

Friday, 12pm:

Allura still wasn't back from walking Matt home- she was probably either doting over him (she might pretend not to care but she was actually super worrying and protective) or her own exhaustion from overworking herself had finally caught up with her. Meanwhile Lance was forced to do all the customer service whilst Coran was in the back cooking and preparing drinks.

"Coffee, black." Called a loud but monotone voice sleepily as they walked through the doors of the Café, money for the coffee already in hand and his high tech prosthetic rubbing sleep from his beautiful eyes.

It was Takashi Shirogane, Lance could very vividly feel his heart ascend to the astral plane.

"S-sure.. Coming ri-right up, Sir" Lance cringed at the last part, averting his gaze from Shiro and trying to focus on preparing the football captain's coffee. Who calls their crush 'Sir'!?!

Without once meeting Shiro's eyes Lance managed to prepare the dark sludge some people managed to call coffee and ask for the money. Despite how awkward and embarrassed he felt, Lance had still managed to draw his signature smiley face on Shiro's cup (he had wanted to put his phone number on the bottom too but: one, Shiro might not look at the bottom of his cup and two, it was an inappropriate thing to do to someone you know has a soulmate).

"Thanks, keep the change, Lance." Said Shiro, possibly in a lighter tone than what he was using a minute ago, with a weak smile as he put $20 down on the counter. The older man then turned and left, not looking nearly as exhausted as Matt had been but still looking significantly tired.

Not only did Lance's stomach do a backflip at the extremely generous tip but also at Shiro's use of his name. His name. He knows his name. Though on second thought, Lance was wearing a nametag; he probably just read that. And yet there had been no pause before his name where Shiro had read his apron, and his gaze had never left his face so... Maybe he did know who Lance was?

Not that it mattered, Shiro was dating Keith. Someone who Lance also wanted to date. And the only reason Shiro knew his name was probably through Matt anyway.

Friday, 4pm:

Allura still hadn't returned, meaning she had definitely passed out along with Matt which Lance was fine with- the pair deserved some rest and Allura's time off last week had been spent with Lance.

"Hey, Lance." Called the cool voice of Rolo, he was in casual clothes and smelt fresh as a daisy. Lance made a mental note to ask where he managed to find deodorant strong enough to mask all the weed Rolo smoked. It was so good even Coran's bloodhound sense of smell hadn't managed to figure out that one of the employees was on drugs basically constantly outside of work.

Rolo's casual clothes consisted of denim and patchy jeans, and he was almost always sporting a small smile and an approachable demeanor- much unlike his sister. Maybe that's why Lance moved on from her to him... That had been a fun few weeks...

"Yo yo Rolo" chirped Lance from behind the counter, about to pass Rolo his lilac apron.

"Hey, would you mind covering my shifts this weekend? Or getting Matt to? There's this concert in Diabazol I'd really like to go to, plus there's a protest for animal welfare in the same town..." said Rolo, scratching the back of neck as he explained the situation to Lance, who was already deliberating over his response.

On one hand the extra money would be welcome, also he cared about animals and he did owe both Matt and Rolo. But on the other hand if he took over for Rolo that would mean he would be working for basically the entire weekend since the 3 of them's shifts covered the almost all of Voltron Coffee's open hours (4am-12am the next day). So from today until midnight on Monday, he would only have 2 four hour periods off and he'd probably be too hopped up on coffee and the need to study to get any sleep whatsoever. So he made his decision.

"Sure, I can cover your shifts! Allura's out so I'll deal with the rota, okay? Have fun in Diabazol!" Lance smiled happily, shoving the apron back into the cupboard and waving as Rolo walked out with a cheery wave of his own.

This would be fine.

Sunday, 11pm:

"I'm fine, Allura. I don't need to go back to my dorm" Lance lied impressively, easily waving off Allura's worries before walking into the break room to get yet another shot of espresso.

Unlike Matt, Lance was incredible at covering up just how little sleep he'd gotten. Every 5 hours he'd excuse himself to the bathroom for a few minutes to touch up the make-up that was plastered over the dark circles that were currently sitting underneath his eyes. He had, as predicted, gotten almost no rest in the last 2 days and Allura was starting to notice just how often he was at work. She'd probably missed it until now since throughout the last couple of days she'd been frequently leaving work to 'check up' on Matt, who insisted he'd been fine after a few hours of sleep.

Not that any of that mattered, Lance was almost done for the weekend and would be able to go collapse into his dorm in the next hour. It would be an empty dorm as on Friday, after class, Hunk and Shay had gone for a romantic weekend in Diabazol- probably to go to the same concert and protest Rolo had. They wouldn't be back until Tuesday morning so Lance would have the place to himself and could lounge about there all he wanted; after his 7am class tomorrow of course.

Maybe he'd get some sleep before then? Nah, that was unlikely with the amount of caffeine he'd consumed in the last few days- unlike Matt, Lance could protect his drinks from those co-workers who would force him onto decaf.

Now he just had to make it until he had time to sleep.

A/N
Double update! Very proud if I do say so myself, hope you're enjoying reading this! Next chapter should be... Fun...