LRT!! #sheith
Shiro asks Keith to fake date him for a family event bc he's all bad boy looks and motorbikes, and a resting bitch face because his grandparents won't stop annoying him about getting back with Adam who was "so polite and responsible and he was a college professor"

Shiro wants to SCREAM bc Adam was nice but also he was controlling and overprotective and insecure about Shiro having a higher paying job in Altea Tech and they broke up because he tried to convince Shiro to quit and just let Adam fully take care of everything.

Keith is one of the two gorgeous people that found Shiro outside town, stuck in the middle of the road at night on his way home from his grandparents' house because his stupid car died on him.

Like, in top of Adam leaving the apartment they moved in together bc it was closer to Adam's job (but away from all of Shiro's family and friends) with a lease Shiro can't really get out of, Shiro spent the whole weekend at his grandparents' while letting Adam get

he had to deal with his grandparents telling him it wasn't a big deal, Adam only wanted to take care of him which in their eyes was good- they were worried after the accident that costed him his arm and saw no problem in Adam's views, and that Shiro was making a mistake

And that his twin brother was getting married soon and it only made Shiro's newly single status all the more glaring.
Also his phone died.
Also Adam decided to text him that he also took their pet hamster- which was the only good thing out of the whole situation

because Shiro was sure that thing hated him.
So now he's listening to Katy Perry on the radio and watching the light of day fade around him as night approached. He couldn't ask for help and was too far away to walk anywhere.
And a bike roars past him, fast.

It was the only sign of life he saw in hours and his heart flipped then sunk in the half second he saw it.

But minutes later the bike came back, slowly, purring loudly while the passenger kept slapping the back and the helmet of the person riding the bike.
It stopped at the side of the road, right before him.

The passenger approached him first, her skirt riding up a little with the movement as she hopped off the bike and ran toward his car.
She took her helmet off and a cascade of blonde hair fell around her delicate face.
A pink nail poked his window and she smiled at him

"You look like you need help."

It was a beautiful sunset and two beautiful people approached his unfortunate car, one of them a curvaceous blonde dressed fully in pink (including her leather jacket) while the other had raven hair and also dressed fully in black.
It was the boy the one Shiro couldn't take his

eyes from.
When he was close enough, Shiro saw him pout and raise both his hands in defense towards the blonde.
"I got nothing on me yanno?" His voice was rough but pleasant to listen to, "I can look at the car but I have no tools to fix it."

She rolled her eyes at him before just- oh she just opENED SHIRO'S DOOR HE DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS UNLOCKED

She poked her head into his car and asked sweetly if he's got a tool kit on him, and he does, he nods his head that he does and he may be a little terrified of her now as she goes to the trunk where he told her the kit was.

She gets him to sit on the bike with her as they watch the boy work on his car and honestly maybe it was because he was just too stressed, or maybe it was because she procured a small thermos with hot chocolate from a pink little backpack with rainbows stickers on it

But Shiro spilled his whole life dilema on her while they waited.
The boy sighed, and apparently he was listening too because he finally spoke again,
"No idea why you keep saying he's nice when he clearly sounds like a total prick"

The blonde girl tchd at his wording, but agreed. "My brother is a brute but he's not wrong- a lot of those things you said sounded like really serious red flags and I'm proud of you for getting out of that relationship."
Shiro may have choked up at that bc finally someone

on his side and also she lead his head to rest on her chest and it made him feel safer.
The boy turned to them, frowning at their closeness for full five seconds before getting a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean his hands.

"I know what's wrong, but I can't fix it before we run out of natural light. We're gonna have to take it to the garage" his nose wrinkles as he sniffs and points at her backpack with his chin. "Call Uncle a Antok to bring the truck."

**
Okay. Huh.
So he was led to the huge garage near his apparentment building, "The Marmora Famiglia". Huh. Okay.
So cute boy in black and resting bitch face is met with a team of giant older guys with resting bitch faces, all mechanics in that place now checking up his car.

In the meantime Romelle has managed to get info on where Shiro works, his cellphone number, the full name of his grandparents and twin brother and that his family has an old fat cat named Atlas. And also where he lives.
He has no idea how she did it.

"We live there too! About two floors down!" She grabs his arm and shakes him, "no wonder we never saw you- you live in the building's only suit. Almost a whole floor for you huh? "
Shiro smiles, a little self conscious. But she hugs his arm and sighs.
"Must be lonely."

Oh she has no idea. Shiro really got passively isolated from all his friends and family into a part of town he doesn't know really well and all because he was dumb in love.
When the boy approaches them again, he does so with two cups of coffee and a frown.

"You can't just cuddle him like that- you just met him, Romi" he tells her.
"I care him" she replies and takes a cup.
Shiro takes the other one, face warm and the boy talks again.
"Your car may need to stay over a few days," he shares a look with his sister before sighing,

"I can drive you home."
Well Shiro is not fond of the news about his car but he's not against riding a bike with the cute boy in black.
Cute girl in pink- Romi, nudges his side. "He lives in our building, I invited him over for dinner."
Shiro tenses and the boy's eyes widen.

"You did?"
She didn't.
"I did."

"I--" Shiro starts, "I don't want to intrude."
The beautiful boy in black stares at them both with surprise before there's a flash of pink by Shiro's side, a slap sound and then the boy is rubbing his arm and hissing.

"For the love of- fuck, fine" the boy turns to Shiro, face red, "please stay over for dinner, oh my God"

++
Without Adam putting a ban on friends and fun, Shiro has Allura and his others coworkers around more often- Fridays are for all his friends, Saturdays are for drinking a Lance's family bar, Sundays are cookouts at Hunk's house.
Shiro has company every day.

And sometimes it's dinner with Romi and Keith, but most of times it's just Keith.
Thing is, while Keith is a mechanic, Romi is a cam girl. And as supportive as the whole family is about it, Keith prefers not being home when she cams

Because of the noise. Which means afternoon snacks and dinner at Shiro's.
Shiro can't complain- Keith cooks almost as good as Hunk and Shiro gets well fed (and gets leftovers!), they watch movies and play videogames and sometimes they just talk.
Sometimes they get high.

Their friendship is so easy it feels like they've been hanging out for years instead of months, and Shiro may be a lil bit in love with the beautiful kind man with a resting bitch face that lies with him on the couch, one sat at each extreme of it and their legs tangled.

It's fun and domestic and Shiro loves his life.
Leaving Adam was the best decision ever.

Then, one night as Keith dozes off on his shoulder during a bad buddy cop movie, Ryouta calls him to apologize.

Their grandparents made him invite Adam to the wedding in a last attempt for reconciliation.
They hope the wedding may make him want to settle down.
Shiro freaks out, his mind going miles a minute trying to avoid his family mingling with his wonderful new life as a single man.

"Um um" Shiro tries to keep calm but Keith stirs beside him, blinks at him in slow confusion. "I don't want anything to do with Adam."
"I know, Im sorry" his brother tells him from the other line. "But they're the ones paying for the wedding and I had little say in it."

Shiro doesn't blame his brother for a second. He just knows how his family is. His grandparents want to see them all settled down as part of the checklist they raised the twins with. To die in peace, they say, which totally doesn't put any pressure on their grandkids or anything.

He looks at Keith in panic, who mouths at him "What's wrong?". Shiro is looking at those lips move, licking his own and thinking with any other body part than his brain when he asks his brother. "Do I still have my plus one?"

"what?" He hears on the other line.
He repeats the question, a little sober.
"I- yeah, yeah you do." Ryouta hums, thinking. "I mean, the invitation was already sent ages ago and sure back then your plus one was gonna be Adam but now he's got his own inv-- wait."
Shiro blinks.

"Wait. Wait. Wait wait wait." Ryouta lets out a surprised laugh. "Takashi, are you bringing someone- like, someone else?"
Shiro swallows, keeping eye contact with Keith, who's low-key starting to piece from what he can hear on the phone and Shiro's convo.

"Can I?" The question is sent to the air, both to Shiro's brother and his best friend before him.
Keith doesn't hestitate and nods.
Shiro's heart flips.
Ryouta laughs on the line.
"Yeah you fucking can, I'd love to see Adam's fucking face when he sees you with a new hottie"

Shiro laughs, "I don't think our grandparents are gonna be so happy either, Ryou."
"Love them, but serves them right" Ryouta says, "see you Kashi, can't wait to meet your new boo."
And hangs up.
Keith makes a face.
"You're not actually gonna call me 'boo', are you?"

Shiro laughs harder.

++
Mkay so this is how the Shirogane family do.
One tells a secret, they either tell or accidentally spill it near aunt Mei, and the entire family knows 2 hours later.
Uncle Seiji calls Shiro to tell him his grandpa wanted him to know that he is mad at him and won't call him.

Also that he should call his grandpa, but his grandpa won't answer because he is, again, mad at him.
(But Shiro still has to, to show that he cares about what his grandpa thinks.)
(This is a common occurrence.)

Grandma does call him, and honestly it is so much worse.
She goes on about how when the twins were kids there was no secrets between them and her, how baby Takashi would always talk about his crushes with her and now he IGNORES HER, HE DOESN'T TRUST HER ANYMORE, SHE FEELS DIZZY

WITH HEARTBREAK- damage control is reached when Shiro 1) tells her it's a recent relationship and he was nervous bc it was his first one after so many years with Adam and 2) agrees to come to a cookout before the wedding so Keith can be introduced to the family

Shiro doesn't know exactly which hole to put his head in when he apologizes to Keith about roping him into yet another family compromise.
Keith shrugs and asks the date to take the day off at the family workshop.
"You're way too chill about this."

Keith chuckles as he passes a joint, "you're not the only one with a big family" he explains, "Uncle Antok and my cousin Regris got into an argument once and didn't talk to each other for two years."

Shiro snorts, "they both work in the same place."
"I know."
"Why did they even fight?"
"No one knows! They don't remember either!"
Shiro cackles until his bladder warns him to watch it, and feels a little better about his family.

++
Shiro's just so lucky that the date of the cookout is set two Sundays later, and Keith does have the whole weekend off but it was because he already had something else scheduled for it.
Romelle has a con in a nearby town and he promised he'd come with her because

She needed him as photographer and bodyguard as she wanders around in her brand new sexy cosplay.
He CAN make it to the cookout, but late, and not with Shiro.

Shiro deals with gossip and looks of pity and aunt Minako's poisonous little whisper of "maybe he's lying" for two hours- but as his grandma pats his back and starts to mention that surprise, she invited Adam to the wedding, he hears the roar of a motorbike.

And remembers very very late that Keith and him didn't talk about. This.

His family falls into silence and slowly beging to tiptoe their way around the backyard to the front yard to see the newcomer. He can't stop them.
He can't stop his tip toeing old relatives.

Keith pulls up in his huge red bike, dressed fully in black from jacket to pants to gloves, and combat boots.
The back of his jacket says "Space Hellion", it--
It's not That Bad.
Then he takes off his helmet and shakes his hair and- yeah, he looks beautiful, his

Long black hair is loose and free and Keith brushes it with the fingers of one hand while the other holds the helmet close to his chest.
Shiro thinks that yes, Keith is his gorgeous "boyfriend" and Maybe they can pull this off.
Then Keith puts down his helmet and turns around.

And oh my god.
Oh my God no.
Keith's jacket is open and of all the metal band shirts Keith owns he had to bring That One. The one shirt Shiro himself can't even look at, when Keith wears it around his house.
Or can't help but stare in utter horror.
Like right now.

The loud gasp comes from Aunt Mei.
He doesn't have to look at his grandma to know she's probably raising a hand to her chest very slowly, in shock.
He hears a wheeze and he knows that's Ryouta, whose face is probably twisting into a manic smile because of course he'd

Find this hilarious. He's the asshole twin.
His grandpa is dead silent, like everyone else.
And Shiro drags his eyes to The Shirt because it's awful and everytime he sees it he hates it and still can't stop looking at it.

The front of the shirt gets bigger and more readable as Keith walks in closer.
At the top, says the name of the band, "Cannibal Corpse."
At the bottom, it says "Addicted to vaginal skin."

And in the middle there's a very graphic, very gorey art of a male zombie *eating* a female zombie out in the exact way every single fucking word in that shirt suggests.

Another wheeze from Ryouta kicks Shiro out of shock and he jogs towards his boyfriend.
"Baby!" He calls him, and sneaks one arm around Keith's waist, pulling him close.
He goes in for a kiss on the cheek, but Keith turns his face and pecks him on the lips, and Shiro's

brain short-circuits for a hot second and then more when Keith doesn't pull away and whispers against his lips, "there's a lot of old people here."
"Yeah" Shiro croaks, and tries not to think about how good this much contact between them feels.

"Huh" Keith says, and as his expression remains neutral when he pulls away, looks at the people staring at them, keeping eye contact with Aunt Mei as he slowly zips his jacket closed.

+
The entire family is crowding them. Both grandparents sit the furthest possible from the couple, though, and that stings a little.
Ryouta sits beside Shiro and keeps stealing glances at Keith, until his fiance finally slaps his arm and tells him to stop being rude.

"So Keith" Ryouta says, loudly, "where are you from?"
Shiro tenses, it's a baity question. But if he's being honest, anything could be a baity question.
Keith turns to Ryou.
"You asking me where I was born or for my family tree?"
Ryouta smiles.
Their grandparents are listening.

Shiro is going to have to apologize for a lot, he thinks, but Keith actually smiles and gives what seem a very practiced answer.
"Argentine from my mother's side" he pauses a little before adding the killer, "Japanese from my dad's."
That- gets him a few interested murmurs.

People get closer.

A very clueless auntie throws what could've been an even worse baity question if Shiro didn't know she was an airhead.
"Argentine?"
Keith hums, rubs his chin and smiles a little wider.

"Think Latino, then Italian" he says, "then put 'em in a bowl, and mix it with really, really good wine."
That earns him chuckles all around and Shiro's jaw almost drops.
Ryouta is grabbing his prosthetic arm hard enough the digital sensors in it register

the pressure.
When Shiro looks at him, Ryoura has an open mouthed smile and points with his chin a the other end of the table, where their grandpa is rubbing his nose discreetly and his mouth twitches in just an itty bitty little amusement.
No way.

When Shiro came up with the idea it was to show his family that he was over Adam.
Maybe scare them a little with Keith being a tiny bit of a bad boy (t-shirt was too much) and let them know of his new cool life style (it's not that cool).
He didn't expect--

He didn't expect approval.

"Do you speak Japanese?"
"Yessir"
Murmurs, nods.
"Italian?"
"Not fluently, no."
Hums.
"Spanish?"
"Very much so, yes."
Shiro nudges him on the shoulder. "You said you didn't speak Spanish."

Keith gives him a crooked smile. "I told your friend Lance I don't speak Spanish because he's annoying."
Shiro gasps and there's a little more laughter all around.

The cookout-- is a success. Keith takes off his gloves and pulls his sleeves up and helps spicing and cooking the meat with the uncles, helps the aunties with the dishes, and patiently charms his way around every single question any of Shiro's elderly relatives have for him.

Someone actually asks him if he knew how to tango, and Keith bumps his hip against Shiro's side before answering, "in more ways than one."
And Shiro feels his face go very very warm while and auntie lets out a scandalized laughs, pats Keith's arm and calls him a terror.

At some point he actually got to sit side by side with Shiro's grandpa, and they both nerded out about muscle cars from the 70s.
"You owned a Ford Shellby Mustang Cobra GT-500?" Keith wheezes, then recovers with a tease. "Mister Shirogane, that is a bad boy's car."

Holy Shit.
Shiro's grandpa laughs- actually *laughs* before nodding his head from side to side and shake a pointy finger in Keith's direction.
"Maybe, before meeting the missus" Grandpa admits with a one shoulder shrug, "I was a little bit of a bad boy."

Shiro is DYING. Ryouta is grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him hard while his mouth open in silent laugh screams because what the fuck. WHAT THE FUCK.

"Where did you get him?" There's tears on Ryouta's face from lauhing so hard. "Where did you get him? How did *you* get yourself a man like that?"
Shiro actually pouts because hey, he could get himself a Keith if he wanted. Kind of. Probably. He'd have to try.

"I'm so happy for you, big bro, I can't believe it." Ryouta hugs him really tight and he sounds genuine. "Please get him to my wedding."

+

The only downside was probably his grandma. She and Keith had only one interaction in the whole day, and it was after Keith answered a question about his job.
"A mechanic?" She didn't hide the disdain in her voice, and her eyes trained on Shiro and he knew exactly

what was being left unsaid.
'Your ex was a university professor.'
Keith's smile didn't waver when he answered, "proudly."
And they didn't talk again.

+
"I am so sorry" Shiro says as they walk the hallway to his apartment, "she's usually very sweet."
"Hey, she's valid" Keith shrugs, "I pretty much look like the kinda guy grandmas warn their baby Takashis about."

Shiro low-key hates how warm his face feels. "Keith."
"I'm sorry for the shirt by the way" Keith shrinks a little, "I didn't change when I came home and just rode to your grandparents' house- I went there still looking like Romi's scary boyfriend."

Shiro pauses at that, frowns. "Boyfriend?"
Keith snorts. "Ah yeah, jerks leave her alone easy when they think she's got a boyfriend- especially one who looks like he'd rip your throat out. It's gross, but what's matter is that she's safe."
Shiro nods and then pushes Keith a bit

"so I'm not the only one you play boyfriend for"

Keith pushes back, "she's my sister, gross." He begins to unzip his jacket and say "now I don't regret taking this shirt--"

Shiro hurries to close the jacket before he sees the nightmare underneath again and it haunts him.
It accidentally pull Keith closer to his chest, and their laughs stop.
Shiro swallows.

He looks at Keith's lips and licks his own, the action makes Keith zero on his mouth.
They could kiss. They could kiss right now.

When Shiro begins to lean down, Keith's phone buzzes on.
It's a specific ringtone, the Imperial March, set for only one person in the world and Keith pulls away and scrambles to pick up his phone.
"Mom" he says, then clears his throat and tries again, "hi Mom."

Shiro swallows thick and watches Keith lose his cool for the first time in the whole day.
"Yeah--uh yeah I texted you to let you know we got home but I had to leave after, sorry. Did you call Romi?" Keith's face goes increasingly red as he listens to the other line.

"No ma, he just invited me to his family cookout so I- yes, I know- mom I just got back, I can talk to him-- Right. Hold on." Keith sighs and presses his phone to his chest and looks up at Shiro. "My mom says I'm super rude because you invited me to meet your family

and I didn't invite you to meet mine and wants you to come over next week for lunch? We do big family lunches once a month."
Shiro blinks, then blushes and opens his mouth-
"Also I know I said 'invitation' but you actually have to say yes and yes only" Keith continues,

"if I don't get you there she's gonna drag me and then my grandmas' are gonna drag me and then all my female cousins are gonna drag me and Romelle too just because that's their mob mentality."
Shiro blinks, then snorts. "No wonder you didn't mind my grandma acting like that."

Keith kinda hops in his place, a little hurried. "Yeah yeah every single woman in my family scares the living shit out of me and that includes my toddler cousins" he laughs nervously, "your grandma is a pudding."
Shiro laughs, too. "Hey, you saved my ass, I return the favor."

The instant relief in Keith's face makes him laugh a little harder.
Keith holds his phone back to his ear and sighs, "he's coming over ma, he's super thankful that you invited him and offers to bring wine, just say the brand."
Shiro is doubling down and covers his mouth to

avoid laughing any louder.
"Yeah I'm- no wait I'm just gonna hang up and call you later- I am literally on a hallway-- alright" Keith's face is impossibly red as he exhales slowly through his nose and covers his eyes with a hand. "Hi, Grandma."

Keith mouths an "I'm sorry" at Shiro while he begins to walk backwards to the elevator, waving him goodbye.
Shiro waves back as he dries the tears from his eyes.
He unlocks the door and gets home while hearing Keith actually switch to a fast, melodic Spanish that sounds

way too different than what he's heard from Lance's conversation with his own family.
He smiles, closes the door behind him and immediately walks toward his couch to crash on. His face is warm, pressed to the cool pillow and he feels amazing.
Today was amazing.

++

Next Sunday rolls over and Shiro stumbles home absolutely wine drunk, holding bags with tons of tupperware full of food (he was told to return the tupperware with Keith later, otherwise he'll offend all the grandmas), and his face sore from smiling and laughing too hard.

They got way outside town to a big white wooden gate that lead to a chunk of green land that was too big to just be a house but too small to be a farm. There were about four houses built there and the shared backyard was huge enough to handle the immense amount of people

And tables and chairs and noise and several barbecue grills.

His warning came in the form of Keith jogging towards a big, muscular, older Japanese man.
"Hey Dad" he said, and hugged the man's middle and kissed his cheek.
Oh. Oh okay.
Romelle elbowed him and laughed, "oh yah, you're gonna have to get used to that."

If Shiro ever felt even a little touch starved after his break up with Adam, any feelings of that got massively obliterated by the amount of times he got his face kissed around today.
That definitely contributed to the soreness, too.

First was Keith's mom and the family's current matriarch, Krolia. She grabbed the box with bottles of wine that Shiro brought, esquinted her eyes at the brand, then nodded her approval.
Then she grabbed Shiro's face and kissed both his cheeks.
"You didn't have to" she said,

but she sounded very pleased and Keith sighed in relief beside Shiro.
The whole day was- loud, and there was so much food. And the laughter of all the drunk ladies in the family outweighed the band of cousins that tried to play music after lunch. Keith gave up the guitar

And opted to follow his dad around like a puppy, cuddling up to him at every table the man stopped to talk to family members. His dad very very much didn't seem to mind having his twenty five year old son gluing himself to him like a baby koala and hugged him back with one arm,

Rubbing his back slowly. Shiro watched them, soft, and it made him miss his own dad. Romelle sneaks an arm around his prosthetic and kisses his cheeks- he really has to get used to those.

"Keith is the oldest grandson" she explains, "which makes him both the most spoiled and bullied by all the ladies in the family. He stays close to Pop a lot because that way the aunties don't bother him."

Shiro doesn't realize he's being dragged to the big table where the grandmas and aunties are until Romelle forces him to sit down.
"Won't work this time because you're here, though."

Then Takashi Shirogane proceeded to get his entire life interogated out of him (now he knows where Romelle got it from) and then was asked when exactly he and Keith were getting married.

"No! No" Keith rushes to the table and grabs Shiro's arm to help him up. "You're all so mean, I told you he's just my friend!"
His argentine grandma was just having a screaming conversation with Krolia who was readying desserts inside the house furthest from them suddenly

pretended to be deaf and and asked Shiro yo please "repeat" the wedding date again. Shiro was sure his face was as red as Keith's as he explained. "No, this isn't funny" he sounds almost begging, "you all know the difference between boyfriend and friend who's a boy and you

can't do this to me."
His Japanese grandma nods once, twice, and has a sip of the wine Shiro brought. "I'm sorry dear, my mistake" she says, and she's extremely soft spoken in comparison to the other women in the table. But just as mischievous when she adds, "you know I

misunderstand sometimes, my English isn't very good."
Everyone in the table laughs. She's been speaking to Shiro for the past twenty minutes, and Keith's utter look of betrayal can only be matched with the scandalized way he cries, "YOU taught me English!"

Keith spends the entire roadtrip home apologizing. "She was an English Literature teacher!" He says, " you know what happened? She became besties with my other grandma who's a walking hurricane and then their children married and I was born and they literally live to troll me."

"They love you" Shiro says.
Keith sounds way too furious when he replies "and I love them too! So much!! But they need to stop scaring off all my boyfriends--"
And then he stops himself.

Romelle hisses and keeps her eyes on the road, driving quietly.
"Oh" Shiro says.

Keith swallows and redirect his eyes to the car window, watching the trees pass.
"I'm sorry, I know you aren't- we're not." He sighs, "it's just habit."
The conversation feels way too awkward to have with Keith in the copilot seat and Shiro in the backseat, so

Shiro just hums, face as hot as Keith's is red, and they keep quiet the rest of the road.
But it is a conversation Shiro wants to have, so now that he's home on his couch, sore in most wholesome way and full of food and with more to store in the fridge, he picks up his

phone and texts Keith,
"Come over?"

Keith doesn't come over.

Shiro wakes up to a text in which Keith apologizes profusely while explaining he got home and simply passed out, but he does want to come over, and he will after work.

But then he doesn't, and Shiro eats through the first batch of leftover alone. He hasn't had dinner alone in a while and it's.
Weird.

He wakes up the next to a bunch of texts of Keith, full of typos- which he only does when he's either very drunk, very high or very tired, and a lot of them are gibberish Shiro doesn't understand.
He manages to decipher Keith making a promise to actually come over tonight.

He doesn't, though. And Shiro anxiety-eats the rest of the leftover food alone in his home before marching down to Keith's apartment.

As he knocks the door, Shiro has panicky thoughts about something between them getting ruined on the roadtrip, the conversation not happening, Shiro going to the wedding alone.
His grandma patting his back and telling him softly, "I told you so" while pushing him towards Adam.

No.

This isn't like Keith. Keith is honest and sweet and caring. Keith cares about his people, and he wouldn't have invited Shiro over to meet his family if he didn't consider Shiro his people.
He can't lie and treat Shiro like this.
There has to be an explanation.

Romelle answers, sighs, and smiles at him.
"I'm sorry, Shiro, he's not home" she hugs him and drags him inside, kisses both his cheeks because apparently she saw something in his face she needed to smooth over. "Uncle Kolivan and Uncle Antok got upset stomachs after the cookout,

"And Keith is the oldest grandson, so he has to take over the family business" she takes him to Keith's room- sits him in Keith's bed. "He has to look after everyone in the garage, which means he goes to work very early and gets home very late."

"You can stay over" she tells him, and actually helps him take off his jacket and shoes and pushes him to lie on the bed. "I'm sure he misses you."
She leaves then, and Shiro hears her on the phone talking that fast sing song spanish with italian accent that he

listened so much on Sunday and grew quickly fond of. He falls asleep to that.

He wakes up to movement on the bed and a sudden weight on his chest. The smell of Keith is all over the room, but now it's his hair on Shiro's face and he takes a deep inhale while Keith nuzzles his jaw and presses his lips to Shiro's neck to whisper, "Shiro, Shiro, I'm sorry."

Keith sounds so tired.
Shiro's eyes sting a little with all the anxiety that build up for days and dissipated with just a hug from the sleepy boy he fell in love with.
He wraps his arms around Keith and hugs back tight, whispers softly, "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Keith repeats, and falls asleep.
Shiro waits until he's sure Keith won't wake up, squeezes him one last time and gets up, so Keith can rest more comfortably.
He picks up his shoes and his jacket, and goes home.

Shiro wakes up to no texts, but he doesn't mind. He gets ready for work.
He texts Keith once, an hour before lunch, and gets a voice recording as reply.
Ah!
He likes when Keith does that.

They're not common, because voice recording means Keith can't text because he's too busy and his hands are too dirty and has to ask someone to hold the phone for him. He also only does them because he finds a message very important to reply to.

"Don't worry- my uncles are back and Romi has work today so I'm totally coming over!" he chuckles at someone whispering to him- probably whoever is holding the phone, before he adds, "I said coming, not staying- you're just like my grandmas-"

The recording stops, but another one pops up on the chat and it's a double miracle.
"Sorry" Keith says, "I'll be a little late, but I'll bring dinner."
Huh, usually Keith cooks dinner at Shiro's- doesn't bring anything. But Shiro won't argue. He replies with a recording of

his own, "Can't wait, see you" but cowers to send heart emojis along with it, so he leaves it at that and goes back to work.

Shiro kind of changes his mind a little when he gets off work, and decides to surprise Keith and pick him up from the garage.
Except Keith isn't there. But Kolivan and Antok are.

"Boy covered for us, worked hard" Antok said. "We gave him the day off."
Huh!
But, the voice recordings-
"Oh yeah" Shiro recovers, "are you guys okay?"
Both uncles gave him a firm nod and pat his back hard, but they sound pleased.
"Yes, thank you."
"Thank you for asking, kiddo"

Shiro stumbles out of the garage with burning ears as both uncles comment on how Shiro is a very polite boy, and would make a good nephew.

He gets home then, plays the recordings one more time and Keith sounds cheerful, honest as always, and well rested. It relieves him.
There's a knock on the door by the time Shiro gets out of the shower, and he knows it's Keith.
He rushes to put on a shirt and sweatpants,

opens the door in a flash and his eyes barely register and recognizes Keith before launching himself over him and hugging him tight because god, he missed him.
It's been only three days, but he missed him.

Keith stumbles a little, juggles with the tupperwares of food and hugs Shiro back with one arm.
"Missed you" he whispers, and it's so small and honest and Shiro falls in love all over again.
"God, missed you too" he replies, and then-

--there's one thing he'd always recognize just as quickly as he recognizes his own hand and his own twin and that's-

the smells of Grandma.

Shiro's eyes snap open as they fill his nostrils and he takes a deep inhale and yep. It comes from Keith.

He pulls away to eye Keith and squint.
"Why does your clothes smell like my grandparents' clothes?"
"Um"
"Why does the food smells like my grandma's food?"
"Um,"

Keith swallows, and his face begins to redden quickly enough to almost worry Shiro, and he explains. "I had my day off today, but your Grandpa called me mid morning to tell me his car wasn't starting."
Oh, my God.

"So I rode there to fix it, and then I helped him get the groceries?" he continues, nervous, "then I helped him fix the fence in the backyard, and then the sink on the kitchen flooded to I fixed that, too."
Jesus. Oh gosh.

"I mean," Keith titters, "They think I'm your boyfriend, which kind of makes me family so I wanted to help them, obviously" he swallows a little.
Shiro is So Embarrassed. "Please tell me this is where it stops-"

"Then I helped your grandma in the garden-"
"Oh my god." Shiro groans and hides his face on Keith's neck.

"Your grandma likes me now" Keith tells him, and Shiro doesn't need to see him to know there's a smile on his face. "She fussed over me and washed my clothes and let me shower in their house, I knew she was a pudding."
He shows him the tuppers full of tasty tasty grandma food.

"This is all mine by the way, I'm the one who earned it" Keith tells him, "but I'm willing to share it with yo-"
Shiro pulls him by the shirt and kisses him on the mouth.

They don't stop kissing as Shiro drags Keith into the house and yes, they still have to have a convesation, but first Shiro is going to--

-- put the food in the fridge.
Can't get spoiled.

And then, he's gonna take Keith to bed and have lots of sex with him.

There's just something so hot about a guy genuinely willing to care for his family the way Shiro cares for them.

++
A month and another (even bigger) family cookout later passes.
And then there's not even pettiness, not even a sense of victory when the wedding day comes and Adam's face falls at the sight of Shiro holding hands with a beautiful man.

Keith lets go to walk towards Shiro's grandparents, kissing them both on the cheek.
Shiro walks over Adam to give him a short hug and a pat on the shoulder, "It's been a while, man."
Adam swallows thickly, but keeps graceful and smiles at him. "Yeah."

They both watch Keith and Ryouta pretty much jump at each other, hugging and rocking each other from side to side, laughing.
They're so happy.
"That your new boyfriend?" Adam asks, calmly.
Shiro is so happy.
"Yeah, he is."