#sheithor

“Any longer and you may very well burn a hole through him.”

Shiro jumped in his seat, startled. His pencil dropped, rolling off the long desks that filled the lecture hall they were in.

He picked it up, trying not to look guilty. It was useless trying to pretend he hadn’t been loooking, after all. “That’s physically impossible.”

“I won’t presume to doubt your skills,” Lotor drawled. He was balancing his own pen between elegant fingers, his notes neat and precise, but sparse. Very little wandered out of Lotor’s mind after he absorbed it.

Most people preferred to borrow their notes off Shiro, instead.

Lately, though, Shiro’s notes had been a mess. At least, in this one particular subject.

He and Lotor had taken History of Astronautics as a free elective because Dr. Holt was teaching it. The man was a great lecturer and it was easy to pick up even the most boring details.

No, the problem hadn’t been Dr.Holt’s sharp, witty lectures.

It had been the students- or student- in them. Shiro self-consciously jotted a note down, then looked back up at the front row. Keith Kogane- a name he’d gotten from roll call.

He was usually alert and awake in class- no notes, but he always answered promptly and well whenever Dr.Holt called on him. Today, he was slouched over into himself, the tufts of his feathery dark hair poking out of the high-collared red jacket he usually wore.

Was his skin paler than usual?

“I never thought I’d see the day you’d be so gone over a pretty face,” Lotor mused. “Not that the whole package isn’t appealing.”

“He’s not-- that isn’t-- just, shut up, alright?” Shiro groused, flustered.

“Ah, of course, you love him for his sparkling wit and a tendency to save small animals,” Lotor said sardonically.

“We talked. Once,” Shiro said helplessly. But this was how Lotor usually was with any of Shiro’s rare crushes. And he’d seen every one since they’d met when they were ten at their parents’ behest- whether Shiro had wanted commentary or not.

“And everything else fits your type to a T. Really, it’s almost as though he were made for you,” Lotor agreed, surprising Shiro a bit.

Keith twitched, and some part of Shiro tensed, as though Keith had heard them.

But of course he didn’t, he was rows away and Lotor’s voice, while insufferably smug most days, wasn’t particularly loud.