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“Come on, sweetheart. You can do it.” Shiro encouraged softly. He could hear his mother and father chattering excitedly to one another from behind him, but all of Shiro’s focus was on the tiny baby in front of him.
It was one year to the day, that Shiro had adopted Keith and brought him home. Keith was doing well after leaving Korea and settling in with his new dad. He was about eighteen months old now and he was a bright but calm baby. In the past year, Keith had brought Shiro nothing but absolute joy and happiness. Even when some nights went without sleep, or Keith would cry and Shiro felt like a failure, he wouldn’t give up even a second.
Shiro was visiting his parents, after they returned home from their trip back to Japan (maybe one day I can take Keith there), and he was maybe, sort of, kinda showing off what his son had recently learned how to do.
Recently, Keith had learned how to stand up, as long as he could grip something. Like a bed sheet, Shiro, a table. He’d taken a few tumbles onto his butt when he first tried to stand up and Shiro had almost swept Keith off his feet to keep him from crying, but a tiny voice in the back of his mind reprimanded him that Keith needed to learn. On his own.
So Keith had. Now the baby could easily pick himself upright into a standing position, with only the help of a wall or cloth. He didn’t even need Shiro all the time. Why do they grow up so fast?
After that Keith had learned that if you move your chubby little legs, then you can move around. After a couple more stumbles and tumbles, Keith eventually got the hang of it and as long as he had something to hold onto he could make it a couple of feet. Luckily, Keith still needed Shiro often to accomplish this. However, he had yet to take any real steps on his own. Without any help what-so-ever. Shiro was okay with that. He was proud to show off what his baby could do at eighteen-months-old. The little stud.
“Oh Shiro, can you imagine if he takes his first steps here.” Shiro’s mother gushed, holding in a squeal because she knew that Keith did not like squeals. Not at all. “Oh Thace, is the camera ready?”
“Of course it is.” Thace snorted, holding up an old camera.
“Thace, the lens cap is still on! Take it off, we don’t want to miss it if Keith takes his first steps!” Shiro’s mother scolded, causing Thace to wince at the hurt in his pride. He grumbled and turned the camera around to take off the cap.
“Mom, dad, relax. I don’t think Keith is going to walk just yet.” Shiro laughed softly, never taking his eyes off Keith. Keith ignored the small bicker that went between his grandparents to feel how soft their curtains were. Shiro quickly snapped yet another picture on his phone. He was going to need a ned SD card at this rate.
“Oh hush dear, you never know!” Shiro’s mother chided softly. “Today could be Keith’s lucky day!” She beamed before turning back to her husband and sighing dramatically. “Thace, what does that red light mean? Why is the screen all black?”
“I’m trying to figure that out honey.” Thace sighed as he continued to press every button on the camera. “Nothing on this is working.”
“Here, let me see it.”
“I can handle it.”
“Obviously not dear.”
“Sweetheart, I’ve got this!” Thace replied and pushed one more button on the camera before a small icon blinked continuously at him. “Oh. The battery is dead.”
“Thace! I told you to charge that thing before Keith and Shiro got here!” Shiro’s mother scolded her husband when he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. With his back turned to them, Shiro chuckled at his parent’s antics.
At the sound of Shiro’s light laughter, Keith had snapped his attention to Shiro puffing out his cheeks. His grip on the curtains tightened and loosened while he swayed in the spot he was standing. Shiro held his breath when Keith looked right at him – Oh those eyes, how could anyone have eyes like that?
Keith blinked several times until he eventually let go of the curtains completely and the room became silent. You could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. Shiro sucked in his breath, afraid that even the slightest noise or movement would disrupt the spell that they were in. Keith cocked his head, unaware that he was standing on his own two feet by himself.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, Thace, Thace where is a camera?” Shiro’s mother whispered, but Keith didn’t seem to notice her or his grandpa. Instead his eyes were solely locked onto Shiro’s frozen face from where he silently stood up.
“It died! Remember? Oh, darn, where is a camera when you need one?” Thace grumbled and coughed when his voice cracked.
“My phone.” Shiro breathed softly and Keith cocked his head to the other side. “Use my phone.” Shiro repeated and lowered himself to the ground even more so than before. This could be it. This could be the moment that his baby took his first steps. This could be one of Keith’s biggest milestones and Shiro was the one who got to experience it.
“How do you turn on the camera?” Shiro’s mother whispered to her husband softly while her son and grandson remained in a transfixed moment together. She and Thace had snatched up Shiro’s cellphone and were trying to open up the camera to take a picture.
“I dunno. What are these little icons for?” Thace frowned and peered through his glasses to see the little screen better. He glanced back at his son and grandson to see Keith had turned a bit so he was facing Shiro now. They had to be quick! “Oh, wait, that looks like a camera. Push it.”
“I am tapping on it – oh there we go. Wait, why can I see you and me?” Shiro’s mother frowned when the camera had opened only to reveal her and her husband’s face. Thace rubbed at his chin and began to mindlessly tap the screen. “Maybe we could turn the phone so it’s facing Shiro?”
“Then how do we know if we’re recording?” Thace grumbled under his breath until the screen suddenly showed an image of the ground below them. “Ahaha! There we go. Okay, now the red button has to mean record, since that camera probably is to take a picture. Takashi do you why the red button is already blinking – oh.”
Thace was at a loss for words and almost dropped the phone. Luckily, his wife had grabbed it before it could fall and was rushing to move beside Shiro. In order to capture Keith taking his first steps. There was a feeling of unexplainable warmth and a lightness in Thace’s chest when he saw his grandson take his first wobbly step towards Shiro. Then he took another and another, each one was as wobbly as the first but he was still going.
Suddenly, Thace and his wife were hit with a moment of nostalgia, looking at Keith walking towards Shiro. Instead of Keith, it was Takashi stumbling on towards Thace while his wife cheered in the background. He could see nothing but a chubby cheek with a beaming smile on their face, as he stared down with pride at the little baby before him. The nostalgia was soon enough replaced by the present and instead of Takashi’s little face smiling at Thace it was Keith beaming at Takashi.
Thace could feel tears gathering in his eyes and he knew his wife and son weren’t any better. After Takashi had returned from his service in the military, he was a lost and broken shell of the son Thace once knew. It almost killed him to see how much his son was hurting and oh, how he had broken. Thace never thought he would get to experience this magical moment, this time as a grandfather instead of a father.
And he would thank every blessing and every star for the second chance given to Takashi, that was known as Keith Shirogane.
Keith stumbled through another step and then another and another, until he had almost reached Shiro and Shiro could barely keep his tears at bay. His hands were shaking as they rose to meet Keith, and Keith’s eyes brightened before his steps were quickening. At the last moment, Keith tripped on the carpet and was soon tumbling downward, though Shiro was faster than anything. He reached out and snatched up Keith before he could fall to the ground, and pulled him high up into the air.
Keith giggled loudly, when he was tossed above his daddy’s head and his little arms swung wildly.
“Keith, oh, I’m so proud of you! Oh, I’m so, so proud of you!” Shiro blubbered, knowing he must look like a mess right now. He brought Keith back down to his face where Keith grabbed at his head and Shiro peppered the baby’s face with kisses. “I love you so much! Daddy loves you so, so much!” Behind him, Shiro could hear his parents sniffling and cheering for Keith as Shiro continued to pepper his baby with kisses.
“You are my special little star.” Shiro whispered, pulling back to give Keith one last gentle kiss on the cheek. He looked into Keith’s beautiful blue eyes and could see the future for them. It was a future of love and happiness with many more milestones to go after today.
And Shiro would be there for every last one of them.