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— Day 5: Children (free day)
Shiro hadn’t really known what to expect when he ducked through the gates of Keith’s pre-school. Kids, probably, and Keith of course, but maybe not Keith wearing screwed-up tissue paper like a crown, hands clasped in front of him with another kid, and yet another kid standing in front of their clasped hands and talking enthusiastically about something. It almost looked like-
“What; Keith, are you getting married?” Shiro asked him, walking up to them and slinging his bag down.
Keith nodded, full of bashful pride, which was very amusing, so Shiro studied his “groom”. The kid was bigger than Keith and darker-skinned, and Shiro could see the appeal when he glanced back up at him and gave him a heartfelt, charming smile. A real catch.
“I’m the bride!” Keith said, puffing himself up.
“There can be two grooms, you know.”
“I don’t want to!”
Shiro shrugged. “Fair enough. So, you almost done with the ceremony?” He went on, crouching down in the shade.
Keith looked over at the remaining boy, who, when Shiro looked at him too, flushed up and yelled at the ground; “You- you can now kiss the bride!” Had Shiro made him mess up the vows? Oh no. He hoped Keith could forgive him.
Kid could be scary vengeful sometimes.
Keith leaned forward and closed his eyes expectantly. The other boy leaned down and kissed his forehead with a big ‘muwah’. Keith then whirled around, the tissue paper circlet falling off, and screamed; “PIDGE!”
A girl with her head down, scribbling in the dirt with a stick, looked up. Shiro squinted, wondering why she looked so much like his buddy Matt (right down to the glasses?), before Keith lifted the dandelions he’d been holding (his bouquet?) and hurled it right at her.
Shiro gasped, shocked, and arguably more so when she dived for it, effectively landing on top of them, before crawling up and standing, holding them above her head triumphantly. The three boys in front of him cheered loudly. Shiro felt he would never understand kids.
“Why did you do that?” He asked Keith anyway.
Keith gave him a very serious look. “The bride has to throw the flowers and then whoever catches it wins! Pidge was my bridesmaid but she got bored and drew a plane instead.”
“Like in basketball!” The “priest” piped up eagerly. Shiro grinned and looked at him, but the priest seemed embarrassed, and covered his face with the piece of paper he’d been holding, which, now that he could see it, had ‘MARIDJE’ written on it in thick red ink. He’d have to tell his step-dad to teach Keith how to spell ‘marriage’. Oh, actually, that was absolutely how he was going to start off telling him about this, because he was absolutely telling him about this.
“That’s Lance!” The groom (husband? Brother-in-law?) said to him, then gave him another charming little grin. Wow. Good thing Keith hadn’t let this one get away. “I’m Hunk! Are you Shiro?”
Shiro pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. “I am!” He crossed his arms playfully. “I hope we don’t have to have a talk about what’ll happen if you hurt my brother, now do we?”
“No way!” The priest- Lance -burst out, followed by Keith’s furious ‘Shiro!’ as he tackled him from the side. Shiro fell back onto his ass, laughing. “Hunk’s a really good guy and Keith’s in love with him!” Lance continued earnestly, trotting up to him as Keith grunted and kept pushing at him.
“I love Hunk!” Keith declared, popping up and stamping his foot. Released, Shiro pushed himself up to sit, regarding the boys with ill-disguised amusement. “We’re married and he’s my husband and we’re gonna have a baby and it’s Pidge!” he waved a wide hand behind him.
The girl waved her new dandelions. “I’m the baby!”
Shiro, in all his fifteen years of life, wondered if anything so hilarious had ever happened to him ever. “I got it. She’s the baby.”
Hunk came to stand next to Keith, and Keith positively beamed up at him, reaching for his hand, hesitating, then shyly grabbing his pants pocket instead. Hunk seemed thrilled at the action regardless.
Shiro covered his mouth with one of this hands. “This is the greatest moment of my entire life,” He wheezed out through his fingers.
Keith snapped his head around to glare at him. “No! This is the s’posed to be the greatest moment of my life don’t steal it!” He ordered. Pidge came to stand on Keith’s other side, and Keith put one of his short little arms around her shoulders, glaring fiercely, as if he was daring Shiro to do something about it.
Shiro held his hands up in surrender. He knew when he was beat. Lance put a little hand on his arm, and Shiro tried to make his face seem open and friendly.
Lance was so red he could see it, even with his tanned cheeks. “Hi… I’m Lance,” He said shyly.
Shiro glanced over at Keith, who had been led by Pidge, along with Hunk, to her spot in the dirt, where she was telling them about her drawing. He turned back to Lance. “Hey, Lance! I’m Shiro.”
Lance’s eyes were wide and he looked weirdly in awe of him. He dragged his gaze off him and pulled his other hand from behind his back, a small plastic ring pinched between two fingers.
Shiro let out a short, strangled laugh, then managed to hold the rest back. He gasped, cupping his hand around his cheek. “Why Lance! What is this?!”
Lance’s little eyebrows knit up in determination. Shiro wanted to pinch his cheeks. “It’s love at first sight! Marry me!”
Shiro gasped again. “But this is so sudden!”
“Yeah! It’s love at first sight!”
Shiro held out his right hand, palm-down. “Then I accept.” Shiro bit back a chuckle at how Lance’s face lit up, and he excitedly slid the ring on. It only went up to the second knuckle, so before Lance could get too frustrated about that Shiro asked him playfully; “Are you gonna give me a wedding, too?”
Successfully distracted, Lance nodded up at him, and then smashed his face down on the back of Shiro’s hand; he was thrown for a second, before he felt a wet little kiss. “But not today! This is Keith and Hunk’s wedding!”
“That’s right! Shiro! I told you not to steal it!” Keith cried, slamming into him from the side again, Hunk and Pidge running up after him. Shiro lurched a little on impact and grinned widely.
“Then how about I take a picture?” He offered suddenly, a brilliant idea forming, and pulled out his phone.
They all seemed excited for that. “Put Pidge in the middle! She’s the baby!” Lance supplied eagerly, and Shiro ended up taking a picture of the little family, Hunk and Keith by themselves, hugging each other adorably, and the entire wedding party, Lance holding up his piece of paper with MARIDJE on it exuberantly.
It was by far the best afternoon Shiro ever had, the sparse few he picked up Keith from pre-school.
And if he was maybe able, seventeen years later, to bring up those photos, and show Keith and Hunk’s real wedding guests their first “ceremony”, then he probably couldn’t fault Keith for attempting to peg him with a champagne flute.