Chapter Text
“As highly respected as President Kennedy is, most if not all historians can agree that the Bay of Pigs was his-” Shiro was cut off by the vociferous sounds of the bell, signalling the end of class. “We will be continuing this discussion next class so don’t get too excited! Also, remember your essays are due next class too. Anything late will only be earning half credit!”
Once the students filtered out Shiro made his way towards the teachers lounge, feeling more and more excited for his lunch period the closer he got. He loved his job and the students weren’t bad at all, even more so if he compared them to some of the other schools he had seen.
It was just an increasingly long day and he would love nothing more then to settle down in his apartment, maybe even head to the gym.
Rubbing at the bridge of his nose he entered the break room, and looked through the fridge, smiling when he saw his Jetsons lunch box was still there and untouched.
As much as he respected his coworkers some of them were absolute trouble makers, especially Lance Mcclain. Lance was great at his job. He loved teaching physical education, but was incapable of acting professional.
Day after day numerous staff and faculty members were subjected to his “harmless jokes”. It seemed like his personal favorite victim was one Keith Kogane. Most of the jokes went over the poor math teachers head.
The students all swore that the only thing Mr. Kogane understood were cold hard facts, numbers, and figures. Metaphors and similes seemed to fly over his head, leaving him needlessly confused and sometimes even grumpy.
Shiro grabbed his lunch box and made his way over to the table and sat down.
“You’re acting like you haven’t eaten in weeks.”
He looked up to see Allura Alfor, one of the English teachers, staring down at him, a playful smirk dancing across her features.
“Allura.” He greeted, putting down the bag of carrots he was currently munching on.
“Takashi.” Allura greeted right back, easing herself down in the seat across from him.
“Stop calling me that.”
“Why it’s your name, isn’t it?”
Shiro sighed and rubbed at the bridge if his nose. “It’s a stupid one. That’s exactly why nobody even bothers to use it anymore.”
Allura grabbed one of the carrots from out of the bag and took a bite. “Well I like it; I’m sure it’s got some profound meaning behind it.”
“My parents are Japanese and decided to name their son one of the most common names in the country?”
“I mean an actual meaning! Every name has one, even ‘stereotype Japanese ones’. So what’s yours?”
“It all depends on the kanji used to write it and- Wait, this doesn’t matter. Nobody calls me by that, but you and my family. To everyone else I’m just Mr. Shirogane, Shiro .”
Allura grabbed more food out of his lunchbox and grinned. “Whatever helps you sleep at night Takashi…”
“Why do you always insist on grabbing my lunch?” Shiro asked, frowning as she bit into yet another carrot.
“Because I’m pregnant, and nobody is going to deny food from a soon to be mom.”
There was a point there, Shiro could give her credit where it was due. Allura was on her fifth month of her pregnancy and had the sizable bump hiding under her sweater to prove it. Even if Shiro wanted to deny her food (which let’s face it he never would), he couldn’t.
“Besides your lunch is always ten times better than mine.” She continued, placing the palm of her hand on her stomach as if to guilt trip him. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll give you half of my sandwich in exchange for half of your noodles.”
Shiro gaped at her in disbelief. “Are you seriously trying to swap a PB&J… with the guy who is allergic to nuts?”
“It was worth a shot.”
There was a pause before Shiro, slid over his container of noodles to her. Allura gave a small and thankful grin before handing over a bag of chips from one of the many vending machines in the building.
“You’re lucky we’re friends.”
“I am forever in your gratitude.” Allura grinned and took a bite from the container, letting out a happy sort of hum.
When she finished chewing she looked over towards Shiro who had moved on from the carrots and onto some celery.
“Speaking of being in your gratitude,” She paused and bit at the bottom of her lip, trying to think over her next words.
“Hey is everything okay? This isn’t about the whole lunch, is it? Because you know that you can always have some of mi-”
“I have a rather large and odd request.” Allura blurted out, eyes looking big and imploring. “Now you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, it won’t bother me at all.”
He furrowed his eyebrows and tried to get a read on her face. It wasn’t like Allura to get this nervous over something, especially around him. “What’s going on?”
Allura took in a deep breath before folding her hands carefully over the table and speaking. “I had an appointment with my doctor a two weeks ago, the five month checkup.”
Shiro nodded; he was well aware of the appointment. Afterall, he was the one to substitute her class while she ducked out an hour early for it.
“She recommended a birthing class to help with the stress and to get me more prepared for this whole ordeal.” She gestured down to her stomach and sighed. “When I got to the class every mother had a partner with the, but me. I could just feeling them all staring at me… So when the instructor asked if I had somebody coming-”
Tears started falling from her eyes as she sniffled into her other hand.
Shiro leaned across the small table and placed a hand on her shoulder rubbing soothing circles with his thumb. “Hey this isn’t your fault? This is all on that sleazeball who got you into this mess in the first place.”
“I just felt so dirty and useless. I couldn’t just say no, not when they were all expecting the opposite!”
“So you told them yes.” Shiro finished, removing his hand from her shoulder to rub at the bridge of his nose.
“I panicked and said that my husband had a doctors appointment and-” She whispered this part, not daring to say it outloud. “That he’d be there next time. He just needed to get his prosthetic check out.”
Shiro remained quiet as he processed everything she was saying. Allura wasn’t even dating anymore, let alone married and- Wait did she say prosthetic?
He looked down at his own metal arm, giving the fingers a few wiggles. Why would Allura say something as specific as that? Unless…
“You told them I was your husband?”
“A name was never mentioned. My fake husband just so happens to be a history teacher with a prosthetic arm…”
He understood why she did what she did, what with societal pressures that branched back for centuries a lot of women in her position would have done the same. There was that ever looming stereotype that a female automatically needed a male counterpart, it was something society was facing every since the founding fathers and probably would be facing for years to come.
“They think I’m your husband? God, you need me to pretend to be your husband?!”
“Please Shiro. You know that I normally would never ask something this big of you, but you’re my best friend and I have nowhere else to turn.”
Shiro glanced up at the clock, both of them would have to be heading back to their rooms soon and Allura couldn't go back in this state. He sighed and nodded his head, looking up.
“What time is the class?”
“You’ll go?!” This had her jumping straight out of her seat, going around the table to throw her arms around him. “Thank you so much Takashi! I owe you big time! I mean it!”
“I’m not just gonna let you go through this alone. You said it yourself, you’re my closest friend.” Shiro gave a small smile. “So what times the class?”
“Fridays at 4:00!” Allura began picking up her own lunch, getting ready to head back to work.
Shiro looked down at the food in front of him, suddenly not feeling that up to finishing everything.
It was just once a week, he could do this. It was a class designed for pregnant women, how hard could it be?