An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Pairing/Characters: Sheith; Shiro, Keith, Pidge, minor appearances from other Voltron paladins Rating: T; internalized homophobia, racism, stereotypes, use of two slurs in a flashback, referenced child abuse, very mild sexual references Notes: written for the @sheith-prompt-bang, and my artist is @lunataylors, check fic for major notes Summary: There is one thing that Shiro dreads as a foreign exchange student: having absolutely no knowledge of being able to understand English. He knows that without it, he can never hope to be self-reliant, stuck in a land that he can't understand and unable to get around. Instead, Shiro sends out a call for help on a flyer: teach me English and I will teach you Japanese.
That call is answered by Keith, who is also looking for help.
“I don’t want him to feel like he has to learn English and that we’re not gonna do anything for him.”
Keith’s ambling around the kitchen area of his dorm, a communal one, unfortunately, his phone wedged between his shoulder and ear.
“I feel like it would be rude if he were the only one who had to change himself in order to fit in here, and I just don’t want him to think that he has to conform. That’s, like, prime entitled American. We’re his hosts, it’s only courtesy that we try to learn his culture instead of only him learning ours.”
Keith stops, checking on the simmering meat. “So, what you’re saying, is that you want me to possibly teach you?”
“Keith, you’re one of my best friends,” she starts, taking on that same tone she uses when she’s trying to placate him and butter him up in order to slowly slide him toward agreeing with what she wants to happen. “We’ve known each other for so long, we’ve been through so much together, I would never use you like that—”
“Japanese isn’t hard if you put your mind to it.”
“Oh, thank god, I was really scared there—”
“That’s going to be thirty dollars for the first week.”