#and was working with my parents’ dinky scanner

[fuhosh-i]

scans from the HELL DOGS - IN THE HOUSE OF BAMBOO (2023) booklet

[melodramatic3rdwheel]

One Awful Voltron Library AU

Chapter One: In Which Everything Is Just Set Up

“I honestly don’t get why we have to do this,” Keith crossed his arms and sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair directly across from Shiro. “I already spend all of my free time here and you said that you would just give me the job if it would make me shut up about not having any cash.”

Shiro gave an annoyed sigh, having answered this question a thousand times before. “It’s a formality, Keith, just like it has been for the last hundred times you asked.”

“Can we get on with this ‘formality’ then?”

They made their way through the routine questions of any basic part-time job interview. Most of Keith’s answers were sarcastic. He was sure he would get the job, he was the only candidate and his brother was the one hiring him.

Shiro was the manager of the Altea Library, he made all the decisions on who got hired and who didn’t. Since everyone that worked there was all the original staff like Shiro, and they just now decided they needed another shelver, Shiro made the kind decision to extend a job offer to Keith. Shiro was so sick of Keith’s whining about not having any money that he did something he rarely ever did, he gave Keith a free pass. Sure it was a cruddy job at a dinky library full of dusty old books, but it got Keith glorious, glorious minimum wage. It also got Shiro the notion of Keith not borrowing money every time he wanted a soda and never paying him back. Keith owed Shiro almost two hundred dollars, so really, it got Shiro minimum wage.

“Well congratulations, Keith, you got the job, welcome to the team.” Shiro extended his arm for a handshake, still playing at this actually being legit in anyway.

“What a surprise.” Keith took his hand and shook it. He was grateful, so he humored Shiro. “When do I start?”

“Now, obviously”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lance and Hunk leaned over Pidge’s shoulders and peered at her monitor, which was tapped into the security feed of Shiro’s office. The security cameras were almost never used for anything other than Pidge nosing around in other people's’ business, and even less often were the ones in Shiro’s office used, especially if Allura was there.

“That’s him! I’m sure of it!” Lance pointed at the screen, the tip of his finger just barely touching it. He really didn’t have to point Hunk and Pidge knew who he was talking about.

“Fingers. Off. The. Fucking. Screen.” Pidge smacked his hand away.

“Yeah, sorry.” Now normally Lance would have put his entire hand on the screen, but rule number one of working at the library was don’t fuck with Pidge. Nobody spoke of the last guy who broke rule number one.

“Are you sure Lance? The video’s pretty grainy. They don’t really look related anyway.” Hunk said. They all knew that Shiro’s brother would be interviewed that day. They didn’t know that he was going to get the job no matter what.

“I’d recognize that mullet anywhere.” Shiro and Keith went through the interview.

“That Keith guy seems really disinterested in this. There’s no way he’s getting the job.” Hunk said, now sitting on the floor. He was the only one watching the video feed at this point. Pidge was doing some homework and Lance was painting his nails a nice turquoise blue.

“No way, seriously?”

“What’s up bro?” Lance asked, not even looking up.

“He got the job. And they’re leaving the office right now, so you should probably get to the counter.”

“Ah shit.” Lance got up and didn’t even bother to close the nail polish bottle.

“You’re gonna stink up my room with this shit!” Pidge yelled. She closed her math book and got up. “Nepotism at its finest, Hunk. Now get out.” Hunk grabbed the nail polish Lance abandoned and left Pidge’s office.

“So, looking forward to having a new shelving buddy since I upgraded to Master of All Things that Need Fixing?” Hunk gently placed the nail polish next to Lance and leaned on the counter.

“Was until I found out who it was going to be.”

“It can’t be that bad. I mean-”

“And this is the Main Floor.” Shiro walked in, Keith in tow.

“I know where all this stuff is already.” Keith grumbled.

“I know, I was just looking forward to the tour. But…. you don’t know your co-workers!” Shiro turned to Lance’s counter and led Keith over. “Keith, this is Hunk, he’s the maintenance guy.”

“Hey Keith, nice to meet you. And I prefer Master of All Things that Need Fixing, thanks.”

“In that back room is Pidge, you’ll meet her eventually. Probably.”

“HI OR WHATEVER” Pidge yelled from the other room.

“And this is Lance, he’ll tell you what to do. You know, if he would stop painting his nails when he’s supposed to be watching the counter and thinks I won’t notice. That’s a nice color by the way.”

“No one was here. And we’ve already met.”

“We have?” Keith looked Lance up and down, then focused on his face. “When?”

Lance stood up straighter and hopped over the counter. “Uh, we were rivals all through Freshman year? We were competing for top of the class? Lance and Keith? Keith and Lance?”

Keith gave Lance a blank stare. He had no idea what Lance was talking about.

Shiro broke the silence after a few seconds, “Well, I have paperwork to do, Lance, show Keith what he’ll have to do.” He then turned on his heel and left back down into the basement where his office was.

“Didn’t realize Allura had her name changed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lance was miffed that Keith didn’t remember him. HIM. Lance thought they had a mutual understanding of their rivalry, but apparently not. Apparently Keith was oblivious to not only their rivalry, but Lance’s existence.

“So are you going to tell me what to do or…?” Keith trailed off expecting Lance to do something. His glowering was starting to get awkward.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go.” Lance’s words were short. He already didn’t like the idea of working with Keith, but now it was worse. He walked three paces ahead of Keith, eager to be done. “So you shelve books when you get here, then one of us will man the counter while the other continues to keep everything orderly. You can do the counter. I hate standing around with nothing to do. You already know the layout of this place, so I’m not going to show you around. Any questions?”

“Yeah, mainly, how do you work anything?” Keith was getting annoyed. He didn’t know who the guy was. He sort of recognized him from his math class in Freshman year? He certainly didn’t remember ever talking to him. But this guy was getting all mad, taking it personally. “And also why do you hate me?”

Lance walked back to the counter, Keith in tow. “This is the scanner, you scan books with it.” He quickly demonstrated how to use it for checking out and returning books. “This is the computer, when you scan a card, the person’s file will come up, you’ll see if they owe anything. If they owe more than two dollars in late fees, they can’t check out a new book. That’s really all you need to know. If you have any computer questions, talk to Pidge, she’s our IT girl. If you find anything broken, tell Hunk. Here’s some books to shelve. Bye.”

“Uh, how are any of these books organized?”

Lance smacked his palms on the counter. “God damn it, can’t you do anything by yourself?” Lance grabbed the books and stormed off, leaving Keith. He stopped abruptly and turned. “Well come on, you need to learn how to do your job.”

Lance continued to harbor his grudge all afternoon. He was angry leaving work. He was angry getting on the bus. He was angry all evening when he was babysitting his little siblings while his parents worked their hides off to feed them. He was angry getting into bed that night. Why did it bother him so much that one asshole he never talked to didn’t remember him? He thought for sure that Keith would. He wanted Keith to remember him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith was confused. A little annoyed that his new co-worker hated him for not remembering a rivalry they didn’t have, but mostly confused.

On the ride home from the library Keith asked, “Shiro, does Lance normally hate everyone?”

“No. He’s usually pretty chill. Why?”

“He sure did seem to hate me. And I don’t even know why! He acted like he knew me. I’ve never even spoken to him before today!” Keith was getting more angry by the second. He wanted to enjoy this job, or at least not hate it. Now this idiot Lance was ruining any chance of that happening.

“Maybe you just forgot? You don’t really pay a lot of attention to other people unless they’re talking right to you.”

“Yeah I guess. Thanks for hooking me up with the job, by the way.”

“No problem, anything for my little brother.”

The rest of the ride was quiet. Keith tried to remember Freshman year. He remembered seeing Lance around school every now and then, but he saw so many faces in a day that he didn’t register. Keith spent the rest of the night thinking about it.

Then it hit him. That annoying kid in Geometry. The one who always was staring at that girl, Nyma, was it? He was always saying something about grades or being the best or whatever. Keith still didn’t remember talking to him ever. But he didn’t really talk to anyone in ninth grade, especially a kid like Lance, annoying, loud, class clown Lance McClain.