Single-Dad!Shiro AU: Shiro has a job to do, so he asks Kuro to watch Keith for a while. Keith sees this as a chance to do things that Shiro forbids in the house. Kuro, being the cool uncle he is, agrees. Unfortunately, both end up ruining Shiro's stuff & the house is a mess. Worse, they got news that Shiro done his job a lot faster than the expected time. Cue both Keith & Kuro went into panic mode as they scrambled to restore the house back in order before Shiro arrives back...
Hello! Thank you for the wonderful prompt! I had a ton of fun with this one! I was cackling to myself the whole time, so I hope it makes everyone else laugh. You can bet Kuro and Keith are great together. Not great for Shiro… Thank you for sending in prompts and for everyone else sending in prompts! Enjoy some fluff after that last angsty prompt and who is ready for season 6?!! I won’t be on tumblr until after I watch it to avoid spoilers.
However if anyone likes pictures of nature and animals, feel free to check out my instagram @jaime__roy. I’m there when I’m not on tumblr! Enjoy!
“Bed-time is eight-thirty. Eight is always good too.”
“There’s no running in the house.”
“No movies rated over PG.”
“And please be sure to keep an eye on him.”
“Takashi, I can handle this. Don’t worry,” Kuro finally sighed dramatically, before bouncing the five-year-old Keith on his hip. Keith nodded seriously. “I will keep two eyes on him instead of one.”
“I was talking to Keith,” Shiro deadpanned as he looked up from his son. “I trust him not to leave the house a mess.” With that Shiro tickled Keith’s chin, sending the boy into a flutter of giggles and wiggling limps.
“My own brother!” Kuro whispered hotly, causing Keith to giggle again.
“Yes daddy!” Keith saluted when Shiro gave him a bright smile. The two ignored their uncles dramatics in favor of peppering each other with kisses. Keith was a giggling mess as he tried to messily kiss his dad’s cheek, but Shiro was determined to plant as many kisses as he could.
“Alright buddy,” Shiro said softly, finally pulling away. “Daddy will be back before by dinner time tomorrow. You be good and take care of your silly uncle, alright?”
“‘Kay daddy.” Keith mumbled quietly. He reached out towards Shiro in an obvious attempt for a hug, to which Shiro gladly complied. He hugged Keith tightly and held on him a tad longer than normal, before Keith was squirming to get down. Ah, kids.
As Shiro was calling goodbye to Keith, Keith was already in the other room, setting up blocks on the ground. He was completely immersed in the activity and ignoring everything else around him. Eventually, Shiro sighed and turned to his twin brother.
“I’ll take care of him.” Kuro said honestly, in a rare moment of seriousness with his brother. After three years, even Kuro knew how much Keith meant to Shiro. Keith was Shiro’s whole world, and honestly he was Kuro’s too. Kuro would rather die than let anything happen to his precious nephew.
“I know you will. I’ll be back by six tomorrow. We can all go out for dinner then.” Shiro smiled as he headed for the door. Kuro beamed and nodded, already looking forward to when Shiro returned home.
Shiro looked at Kuro with such a disappointed look that Kuro almost apologized. However, he was a man of firm beliefs. A man who stood his ground. Even in the face a ad Disappointed Dad.
“Welp, you better leave now if you’re gonna catch that flight! Don’t worry, Keith and I will be just fine. Goodbye Takashi!” Kuro roughly pushed his brother out of the door with a happy wave. Shiro sputtered but allowed himself to be pushed out the door.
“Bye bye.” Keith called from where he was in the house.
“Bye!” Kuro grinned before slamming the door close in front of his brother’s face. He could just picture Shiro’s fuming face on the other side, but Shiro didn’t have time for another lecture for Kuro. He did actually have a plane to catch, so Kuro figured he was safe. For today at least.
With a clap of his hands, Kuro grinned and raced into the room where Keith had already constructed a mighty tower of blocks.
“Alright bud. Let’s have some fun.” Kuro rubbed his hands together. Keith hummed, rubbing his hand along his pants.
“More blocks?” He asked softly.
“I was thinking about making a volcano experiment. Maybe we could cook that pasta dish that I’ve been wanting to try. We could even turn the tub into a pool!” Kuro replied rapidly. He was already planning a night of fun and excitement for Keith, knowing that Shiro could sometimes be slightly overprotective over Keith. Shiro had many rules to follow but Kuro figured that Keith could use a break. For just one night.
“But that’ll make a mess.” Keith replied, blinking owlishly at his uncle.
“No it won’t. Don’t worry. We can be extra careful.”
“Of course I can!” Maybe.
“But daddy usually doesn’t do that with me.”
“Oh come on bud,” Kuro said down on his knees beside Keith. He kept his distance from Keith and his tower of blocks, knowing that the kid usually didn’t like people bothering him when he was building. He especially did not like anyone touching his towers. Not even Shiro.
“It’ll be fun. I promise. Don’t you wanna have some fun with your favorite uncle?” Kuro pleaded with a small pout. Keith blinked again.
Kuro sighed heavily and buried his face into his hands. “Alright bub, I didn’t want to have to do this. But you leave me no choice.” Kuro knew what he was about to do was a risk. There was no way that he would be as effective as Keith as this, but Keith was a master. Still, Kuro had to try. He needed to get Keith to say yes.
He would try his infamous puppy dog eyes.
With a deep breath in, Kuro prepared himself to give Keith the best pair of puppy dog eyes that anyone had seen. And boy, did he put everything into it. Kuro even made sure his eyes twinkled when he looked up at Keith, and his lower lip trembled. Just a bit.
Keith merely stared at Kuro and Kuro began to sweat. He did not, however, give up. Instead he pushed all of his determination even further into his look.
Eventually, Keith gasped loudly.
“You look so weird! Is that how I look?! Please don’t ever do that again.” Keith cried dramatically and Kuro froze in surprise. A second later his look crumbled as he burst into uncontrollable laughter. Kuro rolled onto his back still laughing when Keith scrambled to his side.
“Uncle Kuro? Are you ‘kay? Are you sick?” Keith said anxiously as his uncle continued to laugh. Kuro tried his best to control his laughter, but he could only manage to calm himself to quiet bursts of giggles before pulling Keith into his arms.
“Don’t ever change bub.” Kuro said in between giggles and even Keith cracked a smile. When he finally had calmed himself enough to speak properly he shared a grin with his nephew. “How about we start with dinner?”
Keith nodded eagerly and the two made their way to the kitchen.
Shiro shuddered to himself with a sense of dread pooling in his chest, in the middle of a meeting. It was as if he could feel a disturbance in the Shirogane timeline.
A sudden flash of the house burning down, with Kuro standing over a pot of boiling water, filled Shiro’s mind.
“Well…that went well,” Kuro mumbled, as he slurped up the noodles on his fork. Beside him Keith shrugged, but eagerly munched on his own bowl of noodles. Kuro swallowed and glanced back at the blackened wall above the stove.
In all honest, this was Kuro’s best attempt at cooking. He actually had two edible bowls to eat. There were no injuries and the stove only caught fire once. Luckily, Kuro had lightning fast reflexes and put out the fire immediately with Keith nowhere near the flames.
“Don’t worry about the wall. I’ll clean it tomorrow before daddy comes home.” Kuro mumbled through a mouth full of noodles. Keith made a face.
“Don’t speak with your mouth full.” Keith chided, despite having food in his own mouth.
Kuro nodded and continued to eat his food.
“Do you ever regret everything you’ve ever done?” Shiro mumbled, face buried in his arms. Beside him, his coworker awkwardly patted his back.
“Naw Takashi. I heated up pasta. It was fine,” Kuro mumbled distractedly. His tongue was poking out as he concentrated while on the phone with Shiro. Beside him, Keith’s own tongue was poking out with anticipation. Kuro almost cooed at the sight of his nephew in oversized goggles and a large trash bag around his body.
“Uh, huh. Keith ate it all, right little man?”
“Yes daddy! It was actually good.” Keith said seriously.
“Oh, okay sweetheart. Is everything okay? Is Uncle Kuro getting you ready for bed soon?” Shiro asked half-heartedly.
“We are playing and then bath time.” Keith replied.
“Shiro it’s only seven thirty. The kid still has an hour. Don’t ruin his fun.” Kuro mumbled distractedly as he concentrated on the task before him. Suddenly, Keith slapped his arms and began bouncing excitedly.
“Uncle Kuro, Uncle Kuro! It’s happening!” Keith clapped his hands excitedly.
“What’s happening? Kuro, what’s going on?” Shiro asked through the phone.
“Yes! Gotta go Takashi. We’ll call you before bed!” Kuro said cheerfully as the paper volcano before him began to bubble.
“Kuron, don’t you dare hang up-”
“Look Keith! Look at it!” Kuro said excitedly when the paper volcano bubbled once more. Keith grinned excitedly from atop the chair he was standing on. He and Kuro shared a look before the volcano erupted right in front of them and shot white foam straight up.
Keith shrieked excitedly when the volcano erupted and Kuro laughed maniacally. After an impressive ten seconds, the volcano ran out of white foam and the two sat in awed silence. Until Keith started bouncing up and down excitedly. Despite the mess on the ceiling, Kuro and Keith clapped loudly and high-fived each other.
Keith decided then to scoop his hand into the white foam on the volcano before his entire face scrunched up. He was then trying to flick the foam off his hand, only getting more and more frustrated by the second.
“Off! Off! Gross!” Keith moaned and waved his hand in front of Kuro. Kuro grimaced. He figured that the foam would have a weird texture.
“Off! Get off!” Keith pleaded, causing Kuro to scoop him up into his arms.
“I think it’s time for a bath.” Kuro announced and headed up the stairs. He glanced back at the mess in the kitchen and shrugged. There would be time tomorrow to clean it up.
“Dive! Dive! Dive!” Kuro commanded before taking a deep breath and submerging himself entirely in the bathtub. Keith laughed loudly and followed his uncle, causing the water to ripple widely and spill all over the floor.
Kuro surfaced with a gasp and more water flooded onto the floor.
“Commander Keith, ready the torpedos! We have a niner-niner, code yellow attacking!” Kuro claimed and pointed towards a rubbed duck.
Keith surfaced too and grinned with a large splash.
Suddenly the glass of water in Shiro’s hand gave him vivid flashes of floodwaters.
He swallowed and set the glass down.
Did they have water insurance?
Kuro was having a pleasant dream that involved bacon, a field of dogs, long walks on the beach, and…a phone ringing?
Wait, that was his phone.
Kuro snorted awake with a jerk, realizing he and Keith had both fallen asleep in Shiro’s bed last night. The bed was slightly damp since Keith and Kuro had barely dried off before heading to bed. Kuro looked over and noticed that Keith was still curled up, fast asleep on Shiro’s pillow with his stuffed lion tucked under his chin. He smiled before realizing that his phone was still ringing.
Scrambling to the side of his bed, Kuro finally reached his phone and answered without checking the ID.
“Hey Kuro! Sorry to wake you.” Shiro’s voice floated through the phone and Kuro rolled his eyes playfully.
“Don’t worry brother. I was getting up soon.” Kuro replied tiredly.
“Oh good. Then you guys’ll be awake when I get home!” Shiro said happily. Kuro nearly choked on his spit and he was unable to form words. However, Shiro seemed oblivious to his brother’s panic and continued.
“Our last meeting got canceled so I left early this morning. I should be home in about ten minutes!” Shiro said, causing Kuro to have a heart attack. The kitchen! The bathroom! Everything was still a mess!i
“Oh. Keith will be so happy!” Kuro replied, racing out the room. He raced into the bathroom, heart hammering at the still wet floor and soapy tub. His heart sunk and he could only imagine how the kitchen looked.
“Yeah! Is he there?” Shiro asked.
“Uh, um, he’s still asleep. Plus don’t you want to surprise him!” Kuro rambled. He scrambled around the bathroom, grabbing as many towels as he could and flinging them all on the floor. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Oh yeah! He’ll be so surprised.” Shiro said. He won’t be the only one.
“Great! I’ll see you in ten then! Bye!” Kuro replied quickly and hung up before his brother could even protest. Kuro raced down the hall, figuring the bathroom would be okay, in order to survey the kitchen. He was so dead. Shiro was going to kill him. He had survived terrorists. Kidnappers. His dad’s training. But Shiro was going to be the one to take him down. There would be no mercy with an angry dad.
Kuro was just entering the kitchen when he heard the front door opening. It had not been ten minutes!
“Hey Kuro! Keith, I’m home!” Shiro called out.
Kuro felt his heart freeze over. He could hear tiny feet pattering down stairs and Keith raced past him. Keith did hesitate to lock eyes onto Kuro, before looking at the state of the kitchen.
“Save yourself.” Kuro whispered hoarsely. Keith’s eyes widened and he raced towards Shiro.
“Daddy! You’re home!” Keith screeched and Kuro heard him laughing happily as Shiro picked him up. Then Shiro was kissing his son all over.
“Yep, daddy came home early just for you sweetheart!” Shiro said. “Did you have fun with your uncle?”
“Yes daddy! So much fun!” Keith replied. At least our last time together would be memorable for Keith.
“That’s wonderful baby! Where is your uncle?”
“Kuro?” Shiro called and his footsteps were slowly getting closer to the kitchen. Kuro eyed the kitchen window, momentarily calculating how much time it would take to hurl himself through it and run.
Suddenly Shiro’s footsteps were right behind him. Too late.
Here lies Kuron Shirogane. He died too young, at the hands of Takashi Shirogane. He will be missed.
