Chapter Text
Halfway through the party, Lance somehow found himself hiding behind a tree with Keith. Both men stood rock still as they listened to Shiro talk to the gaggle of small children that had trapped him on a few feet away, all of them oblivious to their presence.
“So do you have to work out like crazy to work as a fire fighter?” Benjamin asked curiously. “Because Keith works out and he doesn’t have half of your muscles.”
“Rude,” Keith grumbled.
“Oh yeah, of course,” Shiro said with an amused grin. “I wouldn’t be able to carry people out of burning buildings if I didn’t work out. The key to success is always working out.”
“Lameee!” Yunior gagged. “I don’t wanna lift weights! What if I drop one on my toe and they have to cut my foot off?”
Grimacing, Shiro murmured, “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”
“But it could happen! You never know, Cap!”
“They call him Cap,” Lance cooed quietly. “That’s so cute.”
“Shhh, I want to hear what else he has to say.”
Shiro hummed. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know that. But I’m pretty sure that I’ll never break my toe lifting weights. Keith, on the other hand…” Silence. “Let’s hope Lance is there to carry his weights when they’re too heavy for him.”
“Haha, yeah! ‘Cause Keith has chicken arms!” Yunior clucked, and soon after the six other boys around Shiro were clucking too. “Bawk bawk! I’m Chicken Keith!”
Smothering his laughter, Lance managed to wheeze, “Are you happy you shut up to hear that?”
“That man is dead to me. I’m making Lotor my best man.”
“Hey, what gives?” A new voice piped up, sharp and confused. “What are you all doing over here?”
Lance heard Keith let out a muffled giggle. Turning to look at him, he saw a wide grin overtake his face, his eyes trained on Adam.
“Uh, babe? Why are you making that face?”
“Shh. I’ve been waiting for this all week.”
“Huh?”
Placing his hands on his hips, Adam said, “Antonio’s been waiting for you guys to play soccer. Don’t tell me you boys forgot about it after making him buy that new expensive ball for today.”
“Yeah, but Shiro’s cooler than Antonio’s lame soccer stuff!” Sylvio huffed. “He’s a firefighter, you know. That’s so much cooler than being a pro athlete.”
Valentino wrinkled his nose. “Uh, no. You are so wrong. Athletes get paid like a bajillion more. And people know who you are.”
“Yeah, like Ronaldo!” Francisco nodded aggressively.
“Eugh!” Yunior gagged. “Everyone knows Ronaldo sucks. Messi is the best!”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Okay, we are not starting this again. It only ends up with both of you crying and calling each other comemierda.”
Sniffing, Francisco said, “Well if the shoe fits–”
“Come–”
“Enough!” Grabbing both boys by the shoulders, Adam pushed them away with an annoyed look on his face. “If you two don’t go play with Antonio, I will tell your moms that you’re saying comemierda again, and you know exactly what’ll happen if they find out you’ve been saying it without permission.”
Yunior and Francisco both paled at that. “Okay, okay!” Francisco cried out. “We’ll go play with Antonio, just please don’t tell my mom! I don’t want to go to Wednesday mass with tia Victoria!”
“I’ll think about it.” Adam tapped his wrist, and raising a brow, he said, “I’m giving you all ten seconds to get out of here. One, two, five, ten–”
The group of boys all let out horrified shrieks before making a beeline for the far side of the yard, Yunior and Francisco running ahead of everyone.
Adam watched them run off with an unimpressed look, adjusting his glasses briefly before turning around to look at Shiro.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you at a party before. You’re not a long lost cousin, are you?”
Shiro blinked owlishly for a second before letting out an amused huff. “Is that a common occurrence at these parties?”
“It stopped being one above five years ago.” Raising a brow, Adam continued, “You’re too non-Cuban looking to be a lost cousin, though.”
“Ah, yeah.” Shiro sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. “I’m actually Keith’s older brother. My name’s Shiro.”
Adam hummed, and Lance watched with keen interest as he visibly straightened up.
“Oh, so you’re Shiro. I heard Keith had finally brought his family around, but I didn’t see you when I bumped into your sister and Veronica.”
“Yeah, I was with them up until twenty minutes ago when Sylvio pulled me away to ask some questions about being a firefighter. Then I sort of got ambushed by the other kids and, well, now I’m here talking to you.”
Adam snorted at that, a small smirk creeping up his face. “You should try to say no to them. It might send the wrong message to some people if you avoid adult interaction to talk with children all night long.”
Shiro gasped at that. “It wasn’t with any malicious intentions, I assure you–”
“Sure. I totally believe you.”
“I mean it! I swear!”
“Right.”
Lance bit back a laugh as Shiro visibly floundered for a response, despair in his eyes and hidden amusement in Adam’s. Keith wasn’t doing much better with tears in his eyes and his cheeks pink from holding back his own laughter.
Finally settling on what to say, Shiro blurted out, “I am not a child molester.”
“What the fuck,” Keith wheezed, burying his shaking head between Lance’s shoulder blades.
Adam’s brows shot up. “Wow. I wasn’t that concerned before, but now I am. That totally sounds like something a child molester would say.”
“I’m not! I’m just a firefighter with a passion for education!”
Humming, Adam set a hand on his hip. “There’s only one way I’ll believe that you’re actually telling the truth. Tell me why you became a firefighter instead of a teacher if you have such a passion for education.”
Shiro blinked slowly again, staring at Adam with his jaw agape. “Seriously?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“No…?” Shiro shifted his legs as he leaned back against the tree, arms stiff at his sides. “I, uh…”
“I take it back. I don’t believe you.”
“I haven’t even gotten the chance to explain anything to you yet!” Shiro cried out in despair.
“Tic-toc,” Adam sang, tapping the imaginary watch on his wrist. “I don’t have all night, Shiro.”
“Okay, okay!” Taking a deep breath, Shiro said, “I became a firefighter because my father was one before he died.”
Keith’s laughter suddenly died down, and Lance watched curiously as his fiancé poked his head over his shoulders to look at his brother.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Shiro continued, “My whole life has been about firefighting. I was practically raised in the fire station since I was there so often. My father was actually captain of the station in Texas, if you can believe that.”
“Oh. I see,” Adam said, oddly tame.
“He and my mother passed away in a car crash when I was five,” Shiro continued with a sad smile. “I was the only one that came out more or less unscathed. Keith’s dad had been a long-time friend of my father since they worked at the same station together. He and Krolia took me in about a year before Keith was born.”
Adam frowned. “So you and Keith aren’t biologically related? Huh. You two look so alike, though.”
“Keith’s dad used to joke that he and my father were long-lost siblings because of that,” Shiro explained with a crooked smile. “But I don’t really see the similarities, if we’re being honest. I look more like my adoptive dad if anything.”
“Seriously?”
“We sort of have the same build, but that might be because I’ve taken to working out for my job.” Snorting, Shiro said fondly, "People say Keith looks exactly like Krolia, but he does have a lot of his dad’s features.”
Adam wrinkled his nose at that. “Well that doesn’t make sense. You’re saying you two look nothing alike, but you both have a lot of his dad’s features?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain.” Standing up straight, Shiro held up his hands. “It’s like…Keith is a perfect mix of his parents. You can tell he’s their biological son, whereas I just happen to look physically similar to his dad. Does that make sense?”
“Somewhat. But you’re lucky it’s me you’re explaining that to, because the others probably wouldn’t understand that mumbo-jumbo.”
Shiro laughed at that, amusement filling his eyes. “Yeah, I guess it does sound confusing.”
“Keith and Acxa, though…they are biologically related, right? Because they look like twins. And I know what twins look like after being surrounded by a lot of them.”
“They’re what people call Irish twins.” Grinning, Shiro said, “Their birthdays are only about three months apart.”
Adam’s brows shot up in surprise. “Are you serious?”
“Yup. Keith’s birthday is in October and Acxa’s is in July. She was already here before Keith could even blow out his first birthday candle.”
“Wow.” Smothering a laugh behind his left fist, Adam said, “You should tell Carlos that. He’d be super impressed that a non-Cuban family had a second so quickly after the first.”
Shiro shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll come up in a conversation sometime tonight at the rate people are asking our mom how old she is.”
“I’m sure it will.” Tilting his head to the side, Adam said, “You mentioned Texas. You’re not originally from the East Coast?”
“Nah. We moved up here after Keith’s dad passed away,” Shiro said with a small smile. “Keith was only five when it happened.”
“What is it with five being your unlucky number?”
Shiro’s eyes widened at that before he burst out laughing, horrified amusement in his eyes when he met Adam’s brown eyes. “God, I wish I knew. I’ve been asking myself the same question for years.”
Adam hummed. “My condolences, either way. It sounds like you were really fond of both your fathers.”
Shiro’s eyes softened at that. “Yeah. It sucks that all of it happened this way, but to be honest with you, I wouldn’t change a thing if it meant getting to have those three as my family. Everything I do is always for them.”
Lance risked a glance at Keith, curious to see his reaction. His lips pulled into a fond smile when he noticed Keith smiling softly at his brother, looking entirely different from the Keith who argued with his brother over burnt water.
“So being unmarried at thirty-two is also for them?”
Lance held back a loud snort of laughter at Adam’s question, and Keith also choked on a startled laugh.
Shiro’s smile dropped and his brows flew up. “Excuse me?”
Adam shrugged. “Sorry, it’s just that all I’ve been hearing about you all night is that you’re a thirty-two year old firefighter who isn’t married yet. So? Are you trying to marry your siblings off before you even consider getting married?”
“No!” Shiro blurted out, cheeks visibly pink. “No, that’s not it at all. Who told you this? Was it Keith? It has to be Keith.”
“News flash, Captain, this is a Cuban family.” Setting his hands on his hips, Adam said flatly, “Gossip spreads faster than the flu in an elementary classroom in December here. Once one person knows something, everyone knows it within the hour.”
Sighing, Shiro said defeatedly, “I should’ve known after Lance’s dad offered to set me up with a family member.”
Adam raised a brow at that. “Carlos? Carlos McClain? The man who has been making your brother’s life hell since he started dating his son because he’s not Cuban? That Carlos?”
“I know, it confused me too. But I guess it’s fine with him if the non-Cuban person is dating someone that isn’t his child.”
“And who is this mysterious person he was trying to set you up with?”
“Uh, someone named Adam?”
“Coño,” Keith whispered somewhat hysterically.
Lance couldn’t even focus on Keith’s too-perfect pronunciation of the curse word as he watched in horrified amusement as Adam folded his arms across his chest, his eyes betraying the nonchalance his actions gave off.
“Someone named Adam?” Adam asked, brows raised. “Wow. And what did you say? ‘No thanks, I’m waiting until my sister also gets married to have my own wedding?’”
“No, I said very politely that I do not need to be set up with anyone,” Shiro corrected with a pleasant smile. “Especially not one of Lance’s cousins.”
“No,” Lance whispered horrifiedly.
Adam narrowed his eyes at that. “What’s wrong with Lance’s cousins? Are you too good for them, Mr. Hotshot Firefighter?”
“What? No!” Shiro shouted with wide eyes, defeat visible in them. “No, of course not. I’m sure that Lance’s cousins are very delightful people and even better partners.”
“But?”
“But I cannot give Keith the satisfaction of being right,” Shiro said with a shudder. “He’s been telling me all week that Lance has plenty of eligible cousins, and if I end up dating one of them he will never not hold it over my head until I die.”
Adam stared at him, visible disbelief on his face. “You are going to die alone.”
“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are.”
“Am not.”
“I’ll be sure to write that on your tombstone when you die unmarried,” Adam said flatly. “Onto more important things, what makes you think one of Lance’s cousins would marry you?”
“Um…maybe for my pension?”
“Good lord.” Adam sighed. “No wonder you’re still single. You’re a bigger mess than Lance was before meeting Keith.”
“Hey,” Shiro pouted.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Adam said tiredly, “Cubans don’t marry for pension. Give me three other reasons why any of our cousins should consider dating you. Other than for your okayish looks.”
“Well–” Shiro perked up at that. “I have okayish looks?”
“Focus.”
“Well, maybe my first aid? I’m a trained paramedic as well as a firefighter, so I can help treat sick family members.”
“Tough luck, we already have Veronica as our family doctor.”
“Damn. So, maybe I can be the designated driver for school drop offs? Since I drive an SUV?”
“Everyone drives an SUV,” Adam deadpanned. “Give it a year and Keith will be driving a minivan.”
“Fuck. Um, okay. Maybe I can be useful with cooking?”
“Aunt Nicole has been boasting loudly all night that you’re bad at cooking and that she’ll be teaching you how to cook soon, so no, not cooking.” Putting three fingers down, Adam said, “That’s three. You are clearly not boyfriend material in Cuban standards.”
“I’m not sure if I should be relieved or offended by your assessment...”
“Depends.” Pushing his glasses up his nose bridge, Adam asked, “Putting aside your ridiculous notion of not giving your brother a win, what do you think about dating Adam?”
Scratching his cheek, Shiro said slowly, “Well, I don’t even know the man. But assuming that he’s as nice and welcoming as everyone else has been tonight, I don’t see why I couldn’t try at least asking for one date. You know, just to test the waters.”
Adam nodded. “Okay.”
Looking curiously at Adam, Shiro asked, “Putting aside my useless skills, what do you think? Would I have a chance with him?”
“I don’t know. How would you ask him out?”
“I’d talk to him like I’ve been talking to you to strike up a nice conversation before asking, ‘By the way, I think you’re a very interesting man. Would you be interested in going out sometime?’”
“I see.”
“So?”
Lips curling up into a smirk, Adam answered, “I’d say you have to try a little harder than that to get him to agree to a date with you.”
“Aw, seriously?”
“Adam!” Ximena screeched as she ran up to him, pigtails flying wildly behind her. Ignoring Shiro’s loud gasp, she shouted, “Antonio won’t let me play soccer! Tell him he needs to let me or else I’ll kick his nuts!”
“Ouch. Let’s not jump to extremes yet.” Taking her by the hand, he said, “I’ll go, but you have to promise me you’ll demolish all those stinky boys.”
Ximena beamed up at him, mischief clear in her eyes. “Yes, sir!” Looking back at Shiro, she smiled excitedly and waved at him. “Hi, Mr. Fire Captain Shiro!”
Glancing back at Shiro’s stunned expression over his shoulder, Adam smirked and aimed a two finger salute at him. “Bye, Mr. Fire Captain Shiro.”
Adam and Ximena walked away hand-in-hand, leaving Shiro to gape after him with his jaw practically on the floor and his eyes wider than dinner plates.
Lance and Keith burst out laughing loudly as they tumbled out from behind the tree, the latter almost purple in the face from how hard he was laughing.
“I can’t breathe,” Keith wheezed, doubled over and clutching his stomach while tears streamed down his cheeks.
Wiping tears from his eyes, Lance hiccuped, “Geez, Shiro, did you not study the flash cards?!”
“I…what…” Shiro opened his mouth and closed it, forming words but not saying any. Finally, he said, “Huh?”
“I didn’t expect him to make it easy for you, but you made it too easy for him to play you!” Slinging an arm around Shiro’s shoulders, Keith said somewhat breathlessly and rosy-cheeked, “So what do you think of Adam now?”
“I think…I think I’m going to kill you.”
Keith let out a shout before taking off for Krolia’s table, laughing the whole way there while Shiro chased after him with flushed cheeks and mortification in his eyes. Lance ran after the siblings with tears in his eyes, and not even watching Shiro try to strangle Keith over Krolia’s head could get him to try and stop to help his fiancé.
By the time it was time to cut the cake, Lance was confident the night had been a massive success.
He’d long lost sight of Krolia after his aunts had gathered around her to look at pictures of Keith and his siblings when they were younger. As of twenty minutes ago, he swore they were arguing over whose genes would overtake the others whenever they had a baby. Oh, and they were already picking baby names, too.
“I vote for Yorak if it’s a boy,” Krolia had said before Nicole, Penelope and his mother screamed in dismay and fell into an argument over better names if the baby was a boy.
What baby, Lance didn’t know. It wasn’t like he or Keith could get pregnant.
Keith snorted as Lance told his thoughts on the matter, eyes filled with amusement as he stuck a fork into his slice of cake.
“It’s not like we can’t try to have one. It’ll certainly be fun, anyway.”
“Get your head out of the gutter!” Lance spluttered, cheeks red while Keith laughed and dodged his swat.
“Alright, alright. But there are other ways of having kids that don’t involve either of us being pregnant.” Pulling out his phone, Keith said, “Nadia actually showed me this surrogate program at a clinic we got called to last week for a gas leak. It’s actually gotten some good reviews over the last few years.”
Rachel walked up to them then, brows raised as she held out two chocolate covered strawberries on a small plate. “Does anyone want these? Mateo said Yunior and Sylvio abandoned them twenty minutes ago.”
Keith snorted at that. “Yeah, they abandoned them because they’re too busy playing soccer with Shiro.”
The trio turned their attention to the far end of the yard where Shiro was kicking a ball around with pure glee on his face despite a nasty left black eye, Sylvio shouting at him to kick the ball his way while Yunior screamed at him to go for the net. A crowd of Lance’s uncles had gathered around Adam, who was also watching the match with a deceivingly unimpressed look, Kosmo sitting beside him. Even Carlos was watching the game with interest.
“Your brother sure is good at soccer,” Lance observed curiously.
Keith shrugged at that. “As good as he can be with that black eye.”
“I still can’t believe Adam whacked him in the eye with a piñata stick.” Lance snickered, eyes twinkling with mirth. “I thought that would’ve been his last straw.”
“Please. He’s so ridiculously down bad for Adam that not even a black eye could stop him from showing off for him.”
Nodding, Lance glanced back at the makeshift field. “I’ll say. He’s super good. I don’t think I’ve ever seen tío Manolo put down his beer to watch the kids play.”
“I’ll say!” Rachel snickered. Throwing an arm around Keith’s shoulders, she said, “I’ve never seen tio Felipe and tio Diego this happy before. They’re one-hundred percent planning on how to get Shiro to play with the church men’s soccer team.”
Keith shrugged. “He’d be a valuable asset. Shiro was ranked the top forward player in the state when he was twenty.”
“No way.”
“He and I both played soccer all throughout high school and college. We also both got scholarships for it.”
“And you just…quit after college?” Rachel raised a brow. “Why not go pro?”
“Shiro was already working his way up the ranks at the station and I didn’t really want to play soccer for the rest of my life,” Keith explained with a lopsided smile. “He said that if I didn’t want to go pro, then I could tag along on a shift and see if I liked it.”
“And you obviously did,” Lance teased.
“And I obviously did,” Keith laughed.
Rachel hummed before asking, “So if Shiro was one of the top ranked players in the state, does that mean you were too?”
Keith’s lips curled into a smirk. “Who do you think took the title when he quit?”
“Holy shit!” Lance laughed at Rachel’s shocked expression, pointing at her with his fork. “Your face! Babe, please take a picture, holy shit–”
“Already done,” Keith said, snapping a picture of Rachel.
Shaking her head, Rachel closed her jaw and shot Lance an irritated glare. “Oh, chupa mis huevos, Leandro. I’m just thinking of how much of a beast your children are going to be. I mean, you were a nationally ranked swimmer, too!”
“I knew I wasn’t imagining your muscle tone,” Keith huffed amusedly. “Swimming, huh? That’s hot, McClain.”
Faking a swoon, Lance dramatically exclaimed, “Your flattery will get you everywhere, including my heart.”
“And your pants,” Rachel grumbled.
“I can just see it now!” Hands spread dramatically in front of him, Lance said, “Picture this. An Olympic winning figure-skating daughter in one room, a World-Cup winning son in the other, and a marathon winning daughter in the next. Forget being lawyers or doctors! They’ll be the pride of the family once they have their own Wikipedia page!”
Frowning, Keith said, “That’s great and all, but we have to have an artist in the family. She’ll be our free spirit.”
“Our sanity,” Lance nodded as he picked the chocolate covered strawberry off his slice. “I agree.”
“I can’t believe you’re talking about children like this when Keith isn’t even pregnant yet.”
Lance let out an undignified snort as he pounded his chest for air, face flushing red while Rachel watched him choke with a smirk. Keith was also red, the tips of his ears matching the color of his shirt.
“Unless my mom has been hiding something else from me apart from my baptism, that’s really not how that works.”
Lance nodded to agree, opening his mouth to say something when he realized he couldn’t breathe.
“Sure it is.” Innocently, Rachel said, “You just have to try hard enough.”
“That’s…no,” Keith sighed.
Lance continued to loudly choke on the chunk of strawberry lodged in his throat, hands hastily coming up to his throat. Rachel paid him no mind, but Keith finally turned to look at him with sudden worry in his eyes.
“Lance?”
“Eugh. You need to cough–”
By now, almost everyone had stopped what they were doing to see what was going on.
Lance stumbled forward into Keith’s chest, hands clutching onto his throat. That was when Keith’s blows flew up and his shouted, “Fuck!” and Rachel squawked, “He’s choking for real!”
Krolia and Rosa shot out of their chairs as Veronica and Acxa sprinted across the lawn to them from their place at the back porch. Rachel was freaking out, borderline hysterical as she tried to hit Lance’s back to get him to cough.
“He’s choking! He’s choking!”
“Move!” Keith barked, and before Lance could blink, he was spun around and Keith was thrusting his fists upwards below his ribs.
Lance let out disgusting choked sounds before finally coughing the strawberry chunks up. They fell to the ground with a splat, and Lance sagged backwards into Keith’s sturdy arms while his family crowded around him.
“Leandro! ¿Estas bien?” Rosa fretted as she brushed his hair back with her fingers. “Can you breathe now?”
“Coño, Raquel, what did you tell him?” Veronica hissed.
“I didn’t say anything! He started choking out of nowhere!”
Panting, Shiro came up to them with sweat clinging to his brows and concern in his eyes. For some reason, Adam was right behind him. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay?”
“Water,” Lance rasped.
“Rachel, get him water,” Keith ordered, looking down worriedly at Lance. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Can you tell how many fingers I’m holding up?”
“Three,” Lance rasped before coughing. “Ow. That hurts.”
Frowning, Veronica said, “Choking will do that to you.” She pushed her way forward to flash her phone light into his eyes with one hand, the other coming up to touch his throat. “Doesn’t look like any major damage. You’re lucky Keith got you to cough it up when he did.”
“Yeah, and that he didn’t stand around like Rachel did when he was choking,” Marco said, reappearing with a glare aimed at Rachel.
“I thought he was kidding!”
“Hands on the throat is the universal sign for choking.” Krolia frowned. “You should all be trained for basic life saving measures. Does anyone know CPR?”
Veronica sighed at that. “Don’t even bother, Krolia. I tried to teach them and the kids told their teachers I was showing their parents how to kill people.”
A disturbed look crossed Krolia’s face. “Serious?”
“Yes,” Rosa, Lance, Marco, Rachel and Adam all sighed.
“Well that won’t do. There are too many of you at these parties for Keith to heimlich if you start choking.” Holding a hand up, she said, “I propose a CPR class before the wedding.”
“Is it free?” Beto asked suspiciously.
“Yes,” Krolia said flatly, “because I don’t want anyone choking at the wedding.”
“Then I think it’s a wonderful idea!” Beto clapped his hands. “We will make an event out of it. Penelope, you can make flan, can’t you?”
“No! It will be at my house, so I will be making the flan–”
“–ahí viene Rosa la bebé–”
Visibly lost, Krolia asked Keith, “They do know this isn’t a party, right?”
Keith shook his head. “You still have a lot to learn. We should bring another cake, by the way.”
“To a CPR class?”
“Yeah.”
Krolia stared at her son for a good five seconds before sighing. “Sure. It’ll be good for maintaining energy throughout the day.”
Peering down at Lance, Shiro repeated, “Are you okay, Lance?”
“I’ll be fine.” Lance sighed, and tilting his head backwards to look up at Keith, said, “I can’t believe your pregnancy made me choke.”
“Lance!” his boyfriend shouted, his face a mortifying shade of red.
Rachel burst out laughing at that, and pretty soon everyone around her followed with their own laughter. Even Carlos shook his head at that, the makings of a small smile on his face.
Then Sylvio, visibly confused, asked, “Is Keith really pregnant?”
It took the whole family ten minutes to stop laughing after that.
By the time it was one in the morning, half of the family had bid their goodbyes and had made sure to get Krolia’s contact information. For ‘in case of an emergency,’ was what one of Lance’s uncles —Manolo, Keith suspected— said when jotting it down.
Standing at the back porch, Keith watched with amusement as Lance pressed kisses to Kosmo’s snout.
“You were such a good boy tonight! Yes you were!”
“Do I get a kiss goodbye?” Keith asked, playfully raising a brow.
“Not in front of me, please,” Acxa said from behind the tupperware containers with desserts and meals alike balanced precariously in her arms.
Keith rolled his eyes. “I’ll be sure to say that at your own wedding in like six months.”
Acxa glared at him pointedly and Keith matched it. Lance most likely hadn’t figured it out yet, but based on the way Veronica had given Acxa the biggest pieces of flan and extra capuchinos, he was sure the two had more than ‘just hit it off’ at the party.
“Stop bullying your sister.” Keith’s glare smoothed into a pleased smile as Lance pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
Pulling away, Lance looked at him with visible amusement in his eyes. “I expect to see you at mass later, Keithy boy. You don’t want tia Victoria to come searching for you to repent at Wednesday mass, do you?”
“I would dream of missing it.” Glancing back at Krolia, who was chatting with Rosa, Nicole and Carlos about something, he raised his voice and said, “Now I don’t have to feel guilty about going to church since I’m apparently already baptized.”
Krolia turned away from her conversation with Keith’s in-laws to shoot him the flattest look she could muster.
“What?” Keith raised a brow.
“I’ll be sure to quiz you on what you understood tomorrow after mass is over,” she deadpanned. “Biblical citations and all. And I will confer with Rosa to make sure you’re not making things up.”
Grunting, Keith turned back to Lance. “I’m going to need aunt Victoria’s notes after mass tomorrow.”
Lance snorted at that. Draping his arms over Keith’s shoulders, he said, “She’s not going to give it to you without a catch. Just put your Spanish to use and translate it yourself.”
“But I’m still a beginner with Spanish.” Keith pouted.
“Relax,” Lance said with a laugh. “You know I always translate for you. I’ll make sure to write the biblical passages too.”
Smiling, Keith said adoringly, “Te amo.”
Rosa sighed dreamily behind them, Carlos grunted, and a camera flash went off somewhere to his left, but Keith paid no attention to it while taking in the sight of Lance’s face brightening like the sun itself.
“Hey, that was pretty good!” Laughing, Lance patted his left cheek. “We’ll make a Cuban out of you yet.”
“Great, because I don’t think any of us mind the change,” Keith replied with a fond smile.
Acxa snickered loudly behind them, making both men pull apart to look at her.
“What is it?” Keith asked.
Nodding past them, she said with twinkling amusement in her eyes, “I think Shiro has been chasing that man for the last fifteen minutes. He looks like a fool.”
Keith and Lance watched with stifled giggles as Adam walked up to them with an unimpressed look on his face, Shiro directly behind him with wide eyes and arms gesturing widely despite the huge black eye on his face.
“But that makes no sense! You had to have seen me make that score! You were watching the whole game!”
“Of course I was watching the game. I was watching Ximena weave through all you boys like a pro,” Adam replied flatly. “Why would my eyes be on you?”
“Because I have okayish looks?”
“Says who?”
“You?”
Adam hummed. “I don’t recall ever saying that. Regardless, it’s a bold assumption to make that I was standing there to watch you play. I hardly know you.”
“Come on.” Shiro pouted. “We had a whole fifteen minute conversation!”
“And yet all I know about you is that your name is Shiro, you’re a firefighter, you can’t cook, and you will die alone.”
Adam sighed, shaking his head. “That, and that you’re supposedly a good soccer player. But seeing how I didn’t see you play, I wouldn’t know whether that’s true or not.”
Shiro stared at him, eyes wide, and to Keith’s genuine surprise his brother looked a little heartbroken but smitten at the same time.
Adam raised a brow when Shiro didn’t say anything, but when he opened his mouth to speak, Shiro was quick to open his own mouth.
“Then you should watch me play next time.” Determination in his eyes, Shiro declared, “And the next time I play, I’ll score for you.”
Adam visibly faltered at that, unimpressed facade falling for a split second to reveal shock. But as quickly as it fell, the facade reappeared with the crossing of arms and a snort.
“Bold talk for a man who wasn’t even worth watching today.”
“Then I’ll practice and get better so that I’ll be worthy of your attention,” Shiro threw back with determination. “After that, you won’t be able to say I’m not a man of my word.”
Adam shrugged. “You can play all the soccer you want, but you’re still not marriage material. You’ll have to try a lot harder than scoring against ten year olds to get me to agree to a date.”
“Then if I score against adults will you agree?”
“Sorry, but I can’t date a man who doesn’t know how to cook.”
“If I learn how to cook then?”
Pitifully, Adam said, “By the time you learn how to cook, I will probably be married. But keep trying. Maybe you’ll manage to woo another cousin before me with your soccer skills and mediocre looks.”
“But I don’t want to woo anyone else,” Shiro insisted. “I want to date you.”
Adam leaned forward, and squeezing Shiro’s left bicep, he said pitifully, "Then you’ll have to try harder to get me to like you, Mr. Fire Captain Shiro.”
He squeezed Shiro’s bicep again before letting go. Turning to look at Keith and Lance, he walked towards them.
“Leaving so soon? Manolo still hasn’t pulled out his guitar.”
“There’s mass in the morning,” Keith reminded him with a smirk.
Noticing the smirk, Adam raised a brow. “What?”
“Nothing. So, do you have an answer to my question now?” Keith asked, smirk widening.
Adam let out a startled laugh at that, his eyes full of amusement as he glanced back at Shiro, who was saying his goodbyes to Sylvio and Yunior and promising he’d see them soon.
To Keith’s surprise, Adam’s smile settled on something just on the edge of fondness as he watched Shiro high-five the children.
“I think,” he said, turning to look back at them with amusement, “that any man would be lucky to date him.”
“Huh? So why won’t you agree to a date?” Lance asked, staring at Adam like he had three heads.
Shrugging, Adam said, “I can’t make it easy for him now, can I?”
“You literally hit him in the eye with a piñata stick,” Lance retorted with incredulity. “Going on a date with the guy would be the nice thing to do, don’t you think?”
“Nah.”
“Adam! We’re leaving!” His mother called out, a container with Krolia’s chocolate cake in her hands. “Are you staying?”
“Coming,” Adam called out. Sighing, he turned to flash a hopeful looking Shiro an unimpressed look. “What are you looking at?”
“You. You’ll come to my next game, right?”
Snorting, Adam asked, “What are we, eighteen? You’ll just have to wait and see if I can make time in my busy schedule.”
“Adam!” his father called out.
“¡Ya voy!” Turning back to Keith and Lance, he smiled. “Congratulations to both of you, again. It’s nice to see the family be so supportive of you two.”
“Thanks,” Lance said with a smile. “See you around, Adam.”
“I guess so.” Adam waved at them before walking away, leaving Keith to watch Shiro sigh softly where he was glued to his spot.
Krolia wrinkled her nose as she approached him, four purple-top containers balanced in her hands. “Why are you sighing like that?”
“I think I’m in love.”
“With the man who is clearly not interested in you and gave you a black eye with a piñata stick?” Krolia flashed him an unimpressed look. “You are out of your mind, Shiro.”
Shiro waved her off with a shake of his head, smiling as he took the containers from her hands. “You just don’t understand him. I’ll be married within the year just like Keith, watch. That man will be my husband.”
“The poor fool,” Acxa murmured. “It’s going to take him at least five years to get that man to the altar.”
Lance sighed at that. “Yeah, and that’s being optimistic. Adam can really be a brat when he wants to be.”
“At least he likes Shiro,” Keith commented with a shrug. “I’m not worried about how long it takes. I just need Shiro to get married.”
“True.” Acxa then yawned loudly, and shaking her head, said, “We should get going. I have a shift in eight hours.”
“Yes, and Shiro apparently has a wedding to plan in his dreams,” Krolia said as she turned to them with an unimpressed look on her face. “Keith, say goodbye to your in-laws. It’s rude to leave without saying goodbye.”
Laughing, Rosa came up to Keith and punched his cheek. “You don’t have to worry about that, Krolia. This one has always been a gentleman. He always says hello and goodbye to everyone.”
“Thank you for dinner,” Keith said as Rosa pulled him down for a quick hug. “It was delicious.”
“Only the best for you, mi niño.”
Separating from Rosa, Keith looked up at Carlos. The older man was looking at him with an unreadable expression, lips pulled back into a frown.
Holding his hand out, Keith determinedly said, “Thank you for allowing me to bring my family here today. I hope to bring them around more, if that’s okay with you.”
Carlos stared at his outstretched hand for a few seconds before sighing and shaking it.
Looking up at Keith, the older man said gruffly, “They are wonderful. Please do.” Letting go of his hand, he said, “I will see you at mass tomorrow." Then he walked away, leaving everyone to stare at him with different degrees of shock on their face.
“Wow,” Veronica whispered from where she had suddenly appeared behind Acxa. “That’s the most civil he’s ever been towards Keith. Mami, what did you say to him?”
Smiling mysteriously, Rosa said, “All I told him was to be on his best behavior tonight. It seems he chose to listen to me after all.”
Krolia cracked a grin at that, sharing a conspiratorial look with the woman that made Keith and Lance shake just a little out of fear.
“I’m not so sure introducing our mothers to each other was a good idea,” Lance whispered. “They’re never going to let the family know peace again!”
“Because the family is already so peaceful,” Keith flatly whispered back.
Veronica sighed behind them, one elbow balanced on Acxa’s left shoulder. “It’s too late to go back. My mom’s already planning how to get you to string up lights this Christmas.”
“What?! That’s my job!” Lance squawked.
Grinning, Keith said, “Tough luck. I told you I did a good job last year.”
“Alright, alright, it’s time to go.” Adjusting her purse strap over her shoulder, Krolia smiled at Lance, Veronica and Rosa. “Thank you for having us tonight. I think Keith did well when picking which family to marry into.”
“You are welcome anytime!” Rosa smiled. “I will be in touch this week to discuss more about the wedding.”
“Thank you. I will keep an eye out for the call.”
“Well,” Keith sighed, taking Lance’s hands into his. “This is it. I’ll see you at mass later?”
“Duh.” Pressing a kiss to Keith’s cheek, he said softly, “Drive safe. I’ll see you later.”
Flashing Lance a grin, Keith saluted him before stepping away to walk away with his family. Acxa eventually peeled herself away from Veronica after whispering something that made the other woman laugh, and then they were walking out of the McClain yard with everyone shouting goodbyes.
Keith looked at Acxa and Krolia as they walked, eyeing the tupperware containers. “They gave you so many containers.”
“Well, I have a glutton for a son, so I’m sure their contents will be gone by dinner tomorrow,” Krolia deadpanned.
Keith sighed at that. “You criticize me, but I saw Acxa finish the three plates that Veronica brought her.”
“It’d be rude not to,” Acxa said with a frown. “I also see why you never come home for dinner anymore. I’d love to eat this food for the rest of my life.”
“Gluttons, both of you.”
Noticing Shiro’s silence, Keith suspiciously glanced over at him, only to find him walking with his hands in his pockets and his eyes sparkling up at the moon.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m just thinking about how my first date with Adam will go.”
“Good luck getting him to agree to one,” Acxa said dryly, making Shiro glare at her.
“Your pesimissim can’t ruin this for me.”
“Adam’s refusal to date you might.”
“Hey–”
Keith watched with a grin as his siblings fell into an argument over whether or not Shiro had a genuine chance with Adam. Walking side by side with Krolia, he was the happiest he had been in a while. He knew the night would go well, Lance’s worries ultimately unnecessary.
“You look happy,” Krolia commented with a raised brow. “Don’t tell me you actually brought us here so your siblings could meet someone.”
“No, but it’s a plus, don’t you think? That way you’ll have grandchildren before you’re sixty.”
Krolia opened her mouth to respond before closing it. Sighing, she shook her head. “Somehow, I know I’ll have one before I’m fifty.”
“You’ll be just like Lance’s mom.”
Krolia smiled at that. “She’s a wonderful woman. It seems she really does love you, too.”
Keith blushed at that. “I don’t know about love, but she does like that I make Lance happy.”
“Every mother wants to see their child be happy. I’m sure she feels the way I do when I see you smiling and laughing with Lance.” Her smile growing fond, Krolia said, “You did good, Keith. Your father would be proud of you.”
Smiling down at the ground, Keith softly said, “I hope so.”
“Acxa, please. You can’t accurately judge whether or not he’s interested in me when you were clinging to Lance’s sister all night and fawning over her job.”
“I was not fawning–”
Dryly, Krolia said, “Make sure to pray for Veronica and Adam’s souls tomorrow at mass. They’ll need it for the headache your siblings are about to give them.”
Keith only laughed at that, contentment in his heart and excitement in his veins.
He couldn’t wait to be married to Lance.