There has to be an After for Us ~ (shadam / klance)

Chapter 34 - Earth Dad and Tex

"Dad?" Keith couldn't believe his eyes, literally as several times already what he'd thought was his dad turned out to be a projection of his own memory.

"Hello son," answered his dad.

Keith stood back, waiting. Waiting for some ghost version of his younger self to step in and talk to what had to be another memory.

"I can understand if you're upset with me," said his dad, sadly.

That's when Keith lunged, nearly tackling his dad with a hug. "You're real. I can touch you," sobbed Keith.

"You didn't get fooled by those memory ghost things downstairs, did you?"

"No," Keith lied.

"I'm so glad I got to see you," said his dad, leaning back to look at his son. "And you didn't even have to die first."

"Only came close a few times," admitted Keith.

Keith's dad got a serious look on his face. "Keith, I've been wanting for so long to apologize to you."

"What for?"

"Well, for not being honest about your mom for one thing. I wanted to wait until you were mature enough to handle the full explanation, but waiting turned out to be the wrong call."

"Or even if you'd just written it down somewhere for me to find after you were gone," said Keith. "Would've saved me a lot of time and wondering."

"I'm sorry and I want to say I'm sorry for leaving you so soon."

"You couldn't control that," said Keith, feeling uncomfortable.

"I went back into that fire, Keith. I never stopped to think about the person I had waiting at home for me. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Keith was definitely crying now. "I forgive you."

His dad pulled him into another hug. "I'm so proud of you, son. Saving your friend Shiro, going to space, finding your mother, fighting the good fight. You've grown into an incredible person."

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been watching over you."

"All the time?" Lance's voice cut into the moment. Keith hadn't even realized Lance was standing behind him. "Like even when Keith's... sittin' in a tree... by himself. Having Keith's special private time because that would be weird."

"I didn't notice you there," said Keith's dad, looking over his son's shoulder.

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," said Lance with a pout.

"So um," said Keith, taking a step back so he could put his arm around Lance and guide him forward. "Dad, this is my boyfriend, Lance."

"Yes, I am your son's lover," said Lance, completely awkwardly. "Well... no... we haven't gotten to that part yet. We've been together like twenty minutes. Not to say if we'd been together thirty minutes we would be lovers, but eventually, over time, I'm hoping..."

Keith was beet red.

"It's great to meet ya," said Keith's dad, reaching out and shaking Lance's hand.

"You too, Mr. Kogane, sir," said Lance, clearing his throat and sounding all formal.

"Well, you don't need to call me sir."

"I don't know your name," admitted Lance. "In my head I've nicknamed you Tex 'cause of the accent. Oh, or should I skip to calling you dad?"

"I like Tex," said Keith's dad.

"Great. Okay. I've never met someone's dad before. I'm nervous," said Lance. "Is it obvious?"

"Not at all," Keith's dad lied. "Oh..." He was looking past them. "I think you're being summoned."

Keith turned and saw Melenor had pulled back the veil again and was signaling for them to return. "Can you meet more people?" asked Keith, grabbing his dad's arm.

"If the Guardian says it's okay."

Melenor nodded and they all walked back through together.

Things weren't exactly as they'd left it. Hunk and Pidge were over talking to Shiro and...

Keith froze when he saw Adam. The last time he'd seen Adam he'd called him a f*gg*t. Keith felt drenched in shame. How could he even look Adam in the eye again? But then their eyes did meet and Keith looked at the floor, but he needn't have because Adam pushed the others aside and came running up to Keith and pulled him into a hug.

"Oh Keith, I'm so sorry," said Adam.

"You're sorry?" gasped Keith. "I'm the one that said –"

"You were hurting Keith. I never took it to heart. No, I'm sorry for not believing in you and in Takashi. You were right the whole time. He was alive and you found him and brought him home!"

"Well, I... brought back his clone," said Keith.

Adam laughed and the sound finally relaxed Keith. "It counts, okay?" said Adam. "And you're his dad." Adam let go of Keith to shake his dad's hand.

"You're one of the adoptive dads."

"Well, I made a very sad attempt at adopting him," said Adam, looking embarrassed.

"Still counts," said Keith's dad.

Shiro came over to shake Keith's dad's hand while Adam turned his gaze to Lance. You were one of my students, right? I wanna say... Taylor?" For whatever reason, this pleased Lance. Adam looked at Keith and said, "Didn't you have a crush on a Taylor back in school?"

"What?" gasped Lance, looking way too happy.

"No!" cried Keith because it was not true and Keith had never so much met a Taylor!

"I'm joking," said Adam. "I know you, Lance. Pidge just paid me twenty dollars to call you Taylor and claim Keith had a crush on you. Not that money has any meaning in the After..."

"I'm gonna kill Pidge," said Keith.

"Get in line," said Lance, looking disappointed. "So like, you're our Earth Dad."

"I'm your what?" asked Adam.

"Yeah, 'cause Shiro is our Space Dad," said Pidge, joining them with Hunk and the rest. "Which makes you Earth Dad. Basically you would've been our step dad had uh... quiznak never mind."

"Yeah, bummer I died," said Adam, demonstrating a lot of comfort with the topic. "Though I'd prefer Earth Mama. I was actually kinda Earth moming a bunch of cadets after you all left the planet. Ina, Nadia, Ryan and... uh, well, James, Keith's bully. I only adopted him to teach him better manners," Adam added quickly.

"It didn't work," said Lance, getting defensive. "I guess if you'd still been alive when we got back and you two got married, we coulda Brady Bunched it and become one big blended family."

"Hey well," said Shiro. "We probably wouldn't have..."

"Shiro, if I had been there when your feet touched soil," said Adam, "I would've married you on the spot."

"No but...," Shiro began, seeming confused. "I let you down."

"I know, but I'm also a really big person," said Adam with a grin. "Maybe the best person."

Shiro sighed. "That just makes me sadder. Thinking I still had a chance to be your husband."

"Why don't you get married now?" suggested Lance. Everyone turned to stare at him like he was the dumbest person ever. "What?"