WHERE: Vallo Forest: Kogane Cabin WHEN: February 22nd, 2023: 5AM WHAT: It's a big week for the Kogane family as Keith gets his father back for a few days. WARNINGS: NPC Death, Parental Loss STATUS: Complete
Despite his habit of falling down conspiracy theory holes and well, falling in love with an actual alien... there were certain things Tex Kogane thought were true about the universe. One being that when you died, that was it. You were dead. Gone. Finished.
Not suddenly finding yourself in what appeared to be a very nice living room that had hints of the less than nice living room from your home. Dressed in clothes that you didn't die in - which he'd be grateful for later just wait - and feeling generally pretty gosh darn alive.
That was… weird.
The house seemed quiet enough and well, he was a little nosy. Besides, if the owners didn't want the photographs on the fireplace mantle looked at they would have put them somewhere else. So he inched closer, brow furrowed as he stared at the one man in the photos that looked an awful lot like the nine year old he'd left behind.
Tex reached up and pulled the framed photo down, held in one hand as his other pressed lightly to the glass. "Keith?" he mused quietly.
Ever since Kipp had come into their lives, it wasn’t unusual for the young fae child to be up at strange hours and exploring the house. He and Shiro had spent three panic-filled days toddler proofing their cabin, but there was still always the chance a hidden knife or sharp corner hadn’t been properly taken care of. So whenever Keith happened to stir from sleep and hear movement or noise around the cabin, he checked to see if his husband and their new son were still in bed with him, with a faithful Kosmo sleeping at the end of the bed, before he went on red alert.
Tonight, when he heard movement somewhere in the cabin, he groggily checked off his mental list before he fully woke. Sleeping husband, check. Sleeping toddler and space wolf, double check.
So, intruder? Good thing he always had his blade on him.
Keith shook himself awake further, when his hearing picked up a soft voice that sounded strangely familiar. A flood of adrenaline hit him, as he slipped carefully out of bed and called forth his mom’s blade, the weapon growing in his hand to full sword form as he slinked toward the living room. He wouldn't wake the others yet, knowing this was probably just his innate paranoia at play.
Except he wouldn’t get to use his weapon. Not because it was his hearing playing tricks, but as he peered into the living room with eyes glowing slightly in the dark, he took in the figure at the mantel place. The width of his shoulders, the familiar haircut and clothes…his heart pounded for a whole other reason when he realized who this had to be.
“Dad?” He asked, voice cracking in a way that it hadn’t since he was a teenager. His blade shifted back into its smaller form, as Keith unconsciously clutched it tighter around the handle.
Tex had been so lost in looking at the photo, trying to determine if his placement of it was right and what that even meant that he hadn't heard Keith sneak into the living room. Or, he'd later figure out, he never would have heard it in the first place. But the sudden voice startled him and he almost dropped the photo he was hanging onto.
The man behind the voice matched the face in the picture and it hit Tex like a truck really.
Keith. His son.
"I…" he started, lost the thread because really what does one say to their suddenly grown child. "Keith…" he took a few careful steps towards his son. He laughed, a little nervously really and used his free hand to scratch at the back of his neck as he tempered down the urge to just run over and hug his kid like he would have when Keith was nine, but knew it might not be welcome right then. "You got tall?" a sheepish grin.
Too much was happening in too short of a time period. Losing Zia and Zeph, Kipp coming into their lives so abruptly, and now his dad back from the dead?
Vallo was something else.
"You got less dead," Keith said bluntly, body numb and mind racing just as fast as his heart. Rude, Keith! An inner voice that sounded way too much like Lance said in his head as he shook himself a little to break himself out of the stupor he was feeling. He cleared his throat and blinked away the tears he could feel threatening to spill. "Are you really here or am I dreaming?"
It was blunt, but if it bothered Tex he didn't show it. And really, it didn't bother him much. If anything it reminded him so much of Krolia.
"I'm really here," he answered. It felt real enough at least. Even if he couldn't explain it. And if it wasn't? Well, it was enough for him at least. He'd take what he could get. He set the photo down on a side table and moved closer to Keith.
"I didn't think I'd get to see you like this - all grown up," he said, his own voice breaking a little. "You look like her, your mother," he added. He'd seen it before of course, in the eyes, in the face a little - but it was even more apparent now that Keith had settled into his adult looks. The expressions were almost uncanny and it made Tex's heart ache.
The comparison to his mother was new. In the past - comparatively more distant for him than his father - they rarely spoke about his mother. Keith had given up on trying to learn more about her from a very young age, once he had learned she had left them. In his way too young eyes, that had meant she had abandoned him and his dad. And Tex…
Well, Tex had never corrected him because it had been safer. The man couldn't exactly explain to him that his mother was an alien and that was why they lived in such isolation. It was better to not talk about Krolia, for everyone's sake.
So to hear his dad talk about her now, brought up a confusing mishmash of feelings. Anger, sadness, and loss, chiefly, but a thread of amusement somehow still found its way to the surface. "Less purple though, most of the time," he offered lightly, an olive branch of sorts to try and redirect their conversation to safer territories.
He took a step forward and then another, until he was standing in front of his father, uncertainty radiating off him. Though he was older and taller now, he still had to crane his neck a bit, to look up at Tex. "I missed you, Dad." And any composure he might have had broke then, as he threw his arms around him in a long overdue hug.
"That's all me," he offered with a small chuckle at the lack of purple skin comment. Though that Keith went with that (and "most of the time") brought up a million questions. Tex just prayed that the answer to all of them was that Keith, somehow, had found Krolia. Or Krolia had found him. And hopefully in a good way. But for now, the answers could wait. They'd, hopefully, have at least a little time to get into the story behind it.
Because right then his son was hugging him and Tex wasn't sure he'd ever get that again. So he hugged Keith back, tight. "I missed you too, Kiddo," he said and pulled back after a long moment. "Though I guess I can't really call you that anymore," he added as he took in Keith again, a hand reaching up to rub at the tears in his eyes.
There were a million things he wanted to say, needed to say, but it was quickly turning from A Lot to Too Much and instead as he tried to put his mind into some kind of order he grabbed the photo of Keith and Shiro he'd set down and held it so Keith could see. "Friend of yours?" he asked with a playful smile. Because clearly this was more than a friend.
With the sheer amount of emotions he was being forced to face, from losing Zia and Zeph, to Kipp coming into their lives, and now his dad showing up, it was a wonder that Keith hadn't thrown up from the tension of it all. But he let his dad pull away to apparently give him shit about Shiro.
Honestly, he probably should have expected this. His dad had always been the kind to gently tease him into answers.
Rubbing the back of his neck and quickly making sure that there were no embarrassing photos that he would have to explain around, Keith coughed and looked down at the ground. "Um. Husband, actually? You missed the wedding by a year, but our registry is still up." He peeked up shyly to reach behind his dad to pull another photo off the mantel. It was a wedding photo that he handed over to Tex. "His name is Takashi Shirogane…Shiro to me."
Married. His kid, who was not a kid anymore, was married. The pair of them looked beyond happy in the photo he was handed and Tex smiled softly. There was guilt, of course, at missing it, at missing everything really. But he was happy to see his son had someone. Someone he clearly loved.
"I'd love to meet him," he said, though it was more a question, asking Keith if that was okay. He had no hesitations, but Tex knew his years with Keith hadn't been easy, and knowing his actions had resulted in Keith being alone? He wouldn't blame his son if he wasn't ready to open up his life. "And you'll have to let me know what's still available in the registry that's…" a pause as he patted down his pockets, pulled out some change and counted it. "Four dollars and twenty cents."
“I want him to meet you too,” Keith said, softly, though there was clearly some kind of hesitation there. How did this all work? He got his dad back this easily? No way. Not after the decade plus of trauma and loss, there was no way it could be easy as this. Keith still wasn’t convinced this was a very realistic waking dream that Vallo was putting him through, but Keith was nothing if not stubborn about bulldozing past his own hesitations. “I know he loves hearing the stories I do have of you.” Sadly, there weren’t many memorable ones seeing as Keith lost Tex at nine, but what he did have was precious to him.
He rolled his eyes at the offer of a registry gift and nodded at the kitchen. “How about we call your arrival here enough and I make us some coffee instead? We can try to figure out what’s going on here because coming back from the dead is kind of a lot.” Understatement of the century, but also not unheard of in Keith’s life.
"Well hopefully we can make a few more stories while we have the time," Tex replied and dropped a hand on Keith's shoulder. He wasn't sure this was a permanent thing, something in him said no, but it was better than what they had. He wasn't about to waste it.
"Coffee sounds good, Keith," he answered. But before they could move he used the hand on Keith's shoulder to pull him into another hug. One he held for a long moment before he pulled away and gave Keith's shoulder a few little pats.
"It is a lot," he admitted. "But I'm glad I'm here. I know we got a lot to talk about and I have no idea how any of this is working - but getting to see you all grown up? Getting a chance to know you like this? I'll take whatever I can get, Keith." There was a tight smile at that, and Tex knew the tears in his eyes were most likely visible.
The idea of this being temporary fucking sucked, but Keith refused to let it get him down. If this was it, if this was all he got, he was going to make the most of it. A large part of him didn’t want to leave his dad’s sight, but after hugging Tex back for a long hard while, he pulled away and said, “I’m going to wake up Shiro. We…we have a kid? Kipp. And he just came into our lives, but let me wake up Shiro and make sure Kipp is fine and I want to introduce you two properly and catch you up with him.” Mostly because he had no idea if his dad would disappear with the sun and miss out on meeting Shiro, but also partly because he needed that support of knowing that his husband was at his side while he got through some, frankly, pretty tough questions.
Asking your dad why he decided to go back into that burning building when he knew he was the only person in the world that cared for him was going to be hell of a conversation. There was still a good chance that he wouldn’t be able to ask it even with Shiro at his side, but either way, Shiro was about to meet his dad.
He reluctantly pulled further away and took a step in the direction of his bedroom, before turning around. “Promise not to disappear?” Which was asking a lot, when they didn’t know what was going on.
Tex's heart ached at the request. He honestly had no idea how any of his worked, let alone if he could keep from up and vanishing. And a very large, well, all of him really, hoped it never happened as Keith mentioned a husband, a kid. A life that he'd give about anything to be a part of.
But he figured the next five minutes were mostly likely safe. And so he nodded. "Promise," he said. "I'll get the coffee started while you wake the troops," he added with a smile, excited to meet the important people in his son's life.
He waited until Keith disappeared around the corner and then hummed a little as he moved to the kitchen to get the coffee going. And as he started to putter around the kitchen, finding what was needed and hearing the sounds of the rest of the house waking up he could almost pretend like this was just a normal occurrence. Popping over for a morning coffee with his son and son in law and their kid. A nice thought that he wanted to hold onto.