Five Funerals and a Wedding
Title: Five Funerals and a Wedding
Rating: PG13 (mostly language)
Pairing: Kris/Katy, Adam/other, Kradam friendship mostly
Summary: Um, well, it's Kris, Adam et al as old people.
Author's note/Warning: The title kind of says it all: there is character deaths, title stolen form the movies, I swear I wasn't going to end it the way I did, but then it just happened. Huge apologies for Kleenex usage (I have one more death fic coming and I SWEAR I'm done. Stupid plot bunnies). Comments are always welcome
Now with awesome podfic by diane_mckay ! HERE
“Love is the coolest thing that’s ever happened in the world.” Kris Allen
2069
"I swear she looks more like you every day."
Kris turns and miles. He holds Adam tightly, then gives Robert one. "Thank you both for coming."
"You doing okay? When we talked on the phone...."
Kris shrugs. His granddaughter is holding the crowd of people in his house together, just as she had in the funeral home before. Laura looked nothing like her mother, nor her father, but instead had inherited all of her grandfather's features. Which is why she spent so much time here. Why she was his rock for the last week, since Katy had left. Since Katy...
Kris wanders the house after they are all gone, wondering what now. He would normally write music, but somehow all the notes are lost. He dusts the trophies in his studio until he almost breaks his first Grammy. He has had scrambled eggs for dinner three nights in a row.
The house misses her too. Somehow all the walls are darker, and it feels like the kitchen is staring at him angrily, as if he is intruding on a sacred place.
*
"Do I need to come back to LA, Grandpa?"
"I'm fine Laura. You're too bus with your own life. I just... I miss your grandmother."
"Me too. Remember what she said to you though?"
"Yeah I know. Don't get all depressed on me Kristopher. We've had sixty fine years and that's more than a lot of people can say."
"See?"
"I can't stay here anymore. I need to be somewhere else."
"Where you going to go?"
"I don't know. But she's still here, and I can't take it anymore."
*
Kris tries living in an apartment, but the TV is too much silence, and he still can't hear the music. He begins to hang over at Mat's, Michael's, hell, he even lives with Danny for a whole week. The quiet emptiness in his head is slowly killing him. He had always had two things in his life: Katy, and music. And now he had neither.
*
"There's plenty of room here. You owe me at least a week Kris. That's what you gave Gokey."
"Fine."
And that was how Kris found himself installed in the guest bedroom of Adam's sprawling estate. It was kind of ridiculous. It was kind of Adam. Robert rolled his eyes at Kris, and they had begun to bond over telling Adam stories. It was strange. Kris hadn't lived with Adam for almost sixty years and it was as if he had never left. He was laughing again, which Laura took as a good sign.
He kept waiting for Katy to call and ask when he was coming home. Then he remembered he wasn't, that she was gone. It as then the grief was the worst, when he realized she would never roll her eyes and call him Kristopher in her best Katy voice, that she wouldn't get to see their beautiful granddaughter continue to grow and change, that time had stopped, that he was moving and she was not.
*
2072
Adam tried to keep from crying. Robert had been.... Robert had been exactly the opposite of what he thought he needed, and turned out to be perfect. Of course ninety was still pretty old, but Adam wasn't ready yet. He laughed a little when instead of demurely shaking his hand, Allison squeezed him tight and said nothing, because she knew words meant nothing. Kris stood somewhere in the back, chatting quietly with Matt and Michael. Kris had been the most helpful, as well as conniving, in that way only Kris could make endearing.
He had called in Adam's grandson from Paris, had made sure someone from is family as there at all times. Had held his hand in the hospital, told him everything he needed to hear.
A familiar voice spoke up, and Adam sighed again.
"Is that Laura Williamson? Since when do you know Laura Williamson?"
Adam looked at his grandson, shrugged. He sometimes forgot that Laura didn't try to use her connection to Kris, that no one knew she was his granddaughter. He smiled though, because Jason and Laura had met once. When they were three.
"A friend of mine once told me that I could be anyone I wanted to," Laura said, commanding the whole room with her voice. "He told me if I wanted to be a space ninja, then I would be the best space ninja ever. That man was Robert Lambert. In lots of ways, he was family. I'll miss him."
Adam looked over at Kris, the whole room with tears in their eyes as Laura sang "Ave Maria"
*
"Oh my god, naked baby pictures."
Adam shouldn't be laughing this hard, not this day. But he and Kris had decided the best way to deal with it was to keep company with others. Michael and Matt were currently engaged in the worst game of cards ever played, Allison having folded. Family was everywhere. he and Kris and Laura and Jason were laughing over family albums.
"I cannot believe I knew Laura Williamson, way back when," Jason grinned. "I mean really, Granddad, you couldn't have gotten me backstage passes? A phone number? I mean I have this dress that is perfect for you."
Laura raised an eyebrow. "A dress?"
"Uh-huh. I made it." Jason handed her his business card.
"Wait. You're that J. Lambert? Oh my god I have a pair of your shoes that are absolutely divine."
Kris looked over their grandchildren's heads as they dived into a mutual admiration party and grinned. Adam shrugged.
*
When Kris had first moved in with him and Robert, Adam had never understood how he could say a house could feel different. It was just a house. But Robert had been the normal in all of its ridiculousness. Robert had pulled everything together, and without him, everything seemed courser, too bright and gaudy. Kris had spoken of the music being gone. For Adam, it was as if all the colors had taken on a sickly tone, as if the world had repainted itself.
"I can't live here anymore."
"Well, shit Adam, I'm not moving back to Matt's. Or anyone else's."
"Maybe we should get a condo together. Or something."
Kris looked at Adam. "Seriously?"
"Look, Kris, I'm terrible alone. You know that. And frankly so are you. And if I'm going to annoy the shit out of someone for the rest of my life, it might as well be you."
"Thanks."
"Hey. just imagine the headlines: Kradam lives."
Kris chuckled. "Yeah. Sure."
It actually worked. they fell into routine, which helped Adam stabilize. Kris began to rite music again, both accepting and ignoring input from the peanut gallery depending on his mood. Mostly they laughed, remembering old stories, learning new ones they had missed in all the time apart.
*
2073
The bride wore a beautiful ivory gown, not designed by her husband, despite his protests of emotional and business cheating. She was walked down the aisle by her father and grandfather. The crowd was exclusive, friends and family only. When Laura came and kissed Adam on the cheek, called him Granddad, that's when the tears began.
After the traditional dances, Laura grabbed Adam's hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor. He laughed as one of his first singles came on. then Jason grabbed Kris and the whole room lit up. When they did the couples dances to see who had been together the longest, his and Kris' fake swaying dance won out. After all, they had been together sixty one years.
As the car drove away, he and Kris, Matt and Michael sat around playing cards. "They're going to have beautiful babies."
"Hush," Adam shivered. "Don't make me any older than I am."
"Too late, Lambert. So I hear your writing again, Kris?"
"A little. Adam keeps interrupting. Kind of regretting not moving in with you."
"Yeah right, you hated living with me. You said I was too noisy."
"True."
Michael sighed. "So are you two ever going to make it official? I mean living in sin is a very serious thing."
Adam almost choked on his water. Kris shrugged. "Well, you know, Adam's kind of reluctant. He thinks people might think he corrupted me."
"Hmmm. Well, just be careful."
Adam shook his head. After the wedding, the card games became a weekly event. sometimes Allison would come. Sometimes Danny. Sometimes Jason and Laura would drop in and they would laugh so hard. It was like old times in lots of ways. he sill had that empty place, somewhere inside him, but he was content.
*
2074
"If you look up the definition of good man, Michael Sarver's picture should be there. He loved everyone. Everyone. Didn't matter who you were. He continually surprised me, even to the end."
Kris was tired of funerals. It seemed all of his recent memories were here, in a room full of black and grief. When Adam sat next to him he leaned for a minute. Michaels' daughter was speaking, and even though he wanted to hear what she as saying, his heart was too tired to hear it. He made all the right moves, went through all the right motions, but underneath it all it felt like there was nothing.
*
"You okay, Kris?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"Everything. Nothing. Just tired of everyone leaving, you know? Tired of wearing black."
"Ok, next funeral, we're wearing glitter. Orange. "
Kris sighed. "You'll use anything as an excuse to wear glitter."
"Yes, but you won't wear it at all, which would make it so much funnier."
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
*
2075
Kris adjusted his tie, smiling as the orange shimmered in the sunlight. He smiled at Adam, who wore the same one.
""A heart attack while water skiing. Only Matty."
"Only Matty."
Adam slung a hand across his shoulders as they stood at the cemetery. Matt's grandchildren kept grinning at them, they had ll work bright colors. After, there was a loud part,with all of Matt's family talking all at once, smiles everywhere.
"So I hear you have a great-great grandson now?"
Kris grinned at Phillip, one of the grandchildren, and pulled out pictures. "He's got my face."
"But he's got my eyes," Adam interrupted. "We should have totally had a baby earlier."
"Remind me again why I didn't move in with Matt?"
*
Kris was sitting on the porch, working out chords. It was dusk.
"Do you ever stop?"
"The day I stop writing music is the day I die. You know that. I want to write a song for Allen, but I just can't come up with anything."
"You want to write a song for our great grandson and don't even invite me? I'm offended."
"Fine. have at it."
"I will, thanks."
*
"Little Love" reached number one in two weeks. Kris kept smiling, because it was probably the best of all his recent collaborations with Adam. Add in that Laura had recorded it, and it made the whole thing more personal. He sat next to the radio, laying back as Adam sat next to him.
He had just gotten off the phone with Jason, who had called them to turn on the radio.
"Still gets you, doesn't it?" Adam asked.
"What?"
"The excitement of hearing something you were a part of on the radio.The pride. Sill gets you every time."
"Yeah."
It's quiet, as the nights have become lately. It's not like they don't have anything to say, it's just sometimes easier to sit, say nothing. Lately, Kris has slipped his hand into Adam's, held it close. Adam hasn't said anything. Kris hopes he doesn't.
It's not like Katy. Nothing ever would be. But Adam helped him find the music again. Adam was....well Adam. Kris struggled sometimes to define it, but realized it didn't matter. He was spending his last years with someone he loved. That's what mattered.
*
2080
Laura sighed. It was her second funeral in as many days. They had died the same day, within moments of each other. Some people would say they were just old. She liked to think that even though they had never said so, they had loved each other, that the only thing that had kept them here so long was each other.
She checked the casket one last time, folding her grandfather's thumb in. No one would understand why she had painted it blue, no one would probably care either. Jason cared. he had made sure his granddad had one thumb bare, just like in the old days. She smiled. There were her boys.
"Momma, what's that? And why does that have my name on it?"
She looked up at the display, smiled. "That's a Grammy. It's an award for people who write good music. You remember the song that your great granddads wrote for you?"
"Oh. Can I have it?"
"One day."
Laura smiles, looks at the trophy, engraved with "Little Love" Allen/Lambert, 2075 and remembers the two of them, grinning foolishly on the stage.
"I guess the first person me and Adam have to thank is our beautiful great grandson for inspiring this music. Personally I'd like to thank Adam, for pestering me into letting him help write it. Without him, It wouldn't be the same."
"And I guess I have to thank Kris for continually making me reevaluate my music, because without him, it wouldn't be the same."
The rest of the speech had been pointless. But Laura figured it was as close to saying I love you as they had ever gotten in public. It was enough for her. No one had to know they had died holding hands. No one had to know how deeply they felt. That they felt at all was important enough. that they taught her, and so many others that love could come in so many forms. That mattered.
She smiled at her husband, her baby boy. Nodded.Sang.
"There's nothing that you can do that can't be done...."
"
Rating: PG13 (mostly language)
Pairing: Kris/Katy, Adam/other, Kradam friendship mostly
Summary: Um, well, it's Kris, Adam et al as old people.
Author's note/Warning: The title kind of says it all: there is character deaths, title stolen form the movies, I swear I wasn't going to end it the way I did, but then it just happened. Huge apologies for Kleenex usage (I have one more death fic coming and I SWEAR I'm done. Stupid plot bunnies). Comments are always welcome
Now with awesome podfic by diane_mckay ! HERE
“Love is the coolest thing that’s ever happened in the world.” Kris Allen
2069
"I swear she looks more like you every day."
Kris turns and miles. He holds Adam tightly, then gives Robert one. "Thank you both for coming."
"You doing okay? When we talked on the phone...."
Kris shrugs. His granddaughter is holding the crowd of people in his house together, just as she had in the funeral home before. Laura looked nothing like her mother, nor her father, but instead had inherited all of her grandfather's features. Which is why she spent so much time here. Why she was his rock for the last week, since Katy had left. Since Katy...
Kris wanders the house after they are all gone, wondering what now. He would normally write music, but somehow all the notes are lost. He dusts the trophies in his studio until he almost breaks his first Grammy. He has had scrambled eggs for dinner three nights in a row.
The house misses her too. Somehow all the walls are darker, and it feels like the kitchen is staring at him angrily, as if he is intruding on a sacred place.
*
"Do I need to come back to LA, Grandpa?"
"I'm fine Laura. You're too bus with your own life. I just... I miss your grandmother."
"Me too. Remember what she said to you though?"
"Yeah I know. Don't get all depressed on me Kristopher. We've had sixty fine years and that's more than a lot of people can say."
"See?"
"I can't stay here anymore. I need to be somewhere else."
"Where you going to go?"
"I don't know. But she's still here, and I can't take it anymore."
*
Kris tries living in an apartment, but the TV is too much silence, and he still can't hear the music. He begins to hang over at Mat's, Michael's, hell, he even lives with Danny for a whole week. The quiet emptiness in his head is slowly killing him. He had always had two things in his life: Katy, and music. And now he had neither.
*
"There's plenty of room here. You owe me at least a week Kris. That's what you gave Gokey."
"Fine."
And that was how Kris found himself installed in the guest bedroom of Adam's sprawling estate. It was kind of ridiculous. It was kind of Adam. Robert rolled his eyes at Kris, and they had begun to bond over telling Adam stories. It was strange. Kris hadn't lived with Adam for almost sixty years and it was as if he had never left. He was laughing again, which Laura took as a good sign.
He kept waiting for Katy to call and ask when he was coming home. Then he remembered he wasn't, that she was gone. It as then the grief was the worst, when he realized she would never roll her eyes and call him Kristopher in her best Katy voice, that she wouldn't get to see their beautiful granddaughter continue to grow and change, that time had stopped, that he was moving and she was not.
*
2072
Adam tried to keep from crying. Robert had been.... Robert had been exactly the opposite of what he thought he needed, and turned out to be perfect. Of course ninety was still pretty old, but Adam wasn't ready yet. He laughed a little when instead of demurely shaking his hand, Allison squeezed him tight and said nothing, because she knew words meant nothing. Kris stood somewhere in the back, chatting quietly with Matt and Michael. Kris had been the most helpful, as well as conniving, in that way only Kris could make endearing.
He had called in Adam's grandson from Paris, had made sure someone from is family as there at all times. Had held his hand in the hospital, told him everything he needed to hear.
A familiar voice spoke up, and Adam sighed again.
"Is that Laura Williamson? Since when do you know Laura Williamson?"
Adam looked at his grandson, shrugged. He sometimes forgot that Laura didn't try to use her connection to Kris, that no one knew she was his granddaughter. He smiled though, because Jason and Laura had met once. When they were three.
"A friend of mine once told me that I could be anyone I wanted to," Laura said, commanding the whole room with her voice. "He told me if I wanted to be a space ninja, then I would be the best space ninja ever. That man was Robert Lambert. In lots of ways, he was family. I'll miss him."
Adam looked over at Kris, the whole room with tears in their eyes as Laura sang "Ave Maria"
*
"Oh my god, naked baby pictures."
Adam shouldn't be laughing this hard, not this day. But he and Kris had decided the best way to deal with it was to keep company with others. Michael and Matt were currently engaged in the worst game of cards ever played, Allison having folded. Family was everywhere. he and Kris and Laura and Jason were laughing over family albums.
"I cannot believe I knew Laura Williamson, way back when," Jason grinned. "I mean really, Granddad, you couldn't have gotten me backstage passes? A phone number? I mean I have this dress that is perfect for you."
Laura raised an eyebrow. "A dress?"
"Uh-huh. I made it." Jason handed her his business card.
"Wait. You're that J. Lambert? Oh my god I have a pair of your shoes that are absolutely divine."
Kris looked over their grandchildren's heads as they dived into a mutual admiration party and grinned. Adam shrugged.
*
When Kris had first moved in with him and Robert, Adam had never understood how he could say a house could feel different. It was just a house. But Robert had been the normal in all of its ridiculousness. Robert had pulled everything together, and without him, everything seemed courser, too bright and gaudy. Kris had spoken of the music being gone. For Adam, it was as if all the colors had taken on a sickly tone, as if the world had repainted itself.
"I can't live here anymore."
"Well, shit Adam, I'm not moving back to Matt's. Or anyone else's."
"Maybe we should get a condo together. Or something."
Kris looked at Adam. "Seriously?"
"Look, Kris, I'm terrible alone. You know that. And frankly so are you. And if I'm going to annoy the shit out of someone for the rest of my life, it might as well be you."
"Thanks."
"Hey. just imagine the headlines: Kradam lives."
Kris chuckled. "Yeah. Sure."
It actually worked. they fell into routine, which helped Adam stabilize. Kris began to rite music again, both accepting and ignoring input from the peanut gallery depending on his mood. Mostly they laughed, remembering old stories, learning new ones they had missed in all the time apart.
*
2073
The bride wore a beautiful ivory gown, not designed by her husband, despite his protests of emotional and business cheating. She was walked down the aisle by her father and grandfather. The crowd was exclusive, friends and family only. When Laura came and kissed Adam on the cheek, called him Granddad, that's when the tears began.
After the traditional dances, Laura grabbed Adam's hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor. He laughed as one of his first singles came on. then Jason grabbed Kris and the whole room lit up. When they did the couples dances to see who had been together the longest, his and Kris' fake swaying dance won out. After all, they had been together sixty one years.
As the car drove away, he and Kris, Matt and Michael sat around playing cards. "They're going to have beautiful babies."
"Hush," Adam shivered. "Don't make me any older than I am."
"Too late, Lambert. So I hear your writing again, Kris?"
"A little. Adam keeps interrupting. Kind of regretting not moving in with you."
"Yeah right, you hated living with me. You said I was too noisy."
"True."
Michael sighed. "So are you two ever going to make it official? I mean living in sin is a very serious thing."
Adam almost choked on his water. Kris shrugged. "Well, you know, Adam's kind of reluctant. He thinks people might think he corrupted me."
"Hmmm. Well, just be careful."
Adam shook his head. After the wedding, the card games became a weekly event. sometimes Allison would come. Sometimes Danny. Sometimes Jason and Laura would drop in and they would laugh so hard. It was like old times in lots of ways. he sill had that empty place, somewhere inside him, but he was content.
*
2074
"If you look up the definition of good man, Michael Sarver's picture should be there. He loved everyone. Everyone. Didn't matter who you were. He continually surprised me, even to the end."
Kris was tired of funerals. It seemed all of his recent memories were here, in a room full of black and grief. When Adam sat next to him he leaned for a minute. Michaels' daughter was speaking, and even though he wanted to hear what she as saying, his heart was too tired to hear it. He made all the right moves, went through all the right motions, but underneath it all it felt like there was nothing.
*
"You okay, Kris?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"Everything. Nothing. Just tired of everyone leaving, you know? Tired of wearing black."
"Ok, next funeral, we're wearing glitter. Orange. "
Kris sighed. "You'll use anything as an excuse to wear glitter."
"Yes, but you won't wear it at all, which would make it so much funnier."
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
*
2075
Kris adjusted his tie, smiling as the orange shimmered in the sunlight. He smiled at Adam, who wore the same one.
""A heart attack while water skiing. Only Matty."
"Only Matty."
Adam slung a hand across his shoulders as they stood at the cemetery. Matt's grandchildren kept grinning at them, they had ll work bright colors. After, there was a loud part,with all of Matt's family talking all at once, smiles everywhere.
"So I hear you have a great-great grandson now?"
Kris grinned at Phillip, one of the grandchildren, and pulled out pictures. "He's got my face."
"But he's got my eyes," Adam interrupted. "We should have totally had a baby earlier."
"Remind me again why I didn't move in with Matt?"
*
Kris was sitting on the porch, working out chords. It was dusk.
"Do you ever stop?"
"The day I stop writing music is the day I die. You know that. I want to write a song for Allen, but I just can't come up with anything."
"You want to write a song for our great grandson and don't even invite me? I'm offended."
"Fine. have at it."
"I will, thanks."
*
"Little Love" reached number one in two weeks. Kris kept smiling, because it was probably the best of all his recent collaborations with Adam. Add in that Laura had recorded it, and it made the whole thing more personal. He sat next to the radio, laying back as Adam sat next to him.
He had just gotten off the phone with Jason, who had called them to turn on the radio.
"Still gets you, doesn't it?" Adam asked.
"What?"
"The excitement of hearing something you were a part of on the radio.The pride. Sill gets you every time."
"Yeah."
It's quiet, as the nights have become lately. It's not like they don't have anything to say, it's just sometimes easier to sit, say nothing. Lately, Kris has slipped his hand into Adam's, held it close. Adam hasn't said anything. Kris hopes he doesn't.
It's not like Katy. Nothing ever would be. But Adam helped him find the music again. Adam was....well Adam. Kris struggled sometimes to define it, but realized it didn't matter. He was spending his last years with someone he loved. That's what mattered.
*
2080
Laura sighed. It was her second funeral in as many days. They had died the same day, within moments of each other. Some people would say they were just old. She liked to think that even though they had never said so, they had loved each other, that the only thing that had kept them here so long was each other.
She checked the casket one last time, folding her grandfather's thumb in. No one would understand why she had painted it blue, no one would probably care either. Jason cared. he had made sure his granddad had one thumb bare, just like in the old days. She smiled. There were her boys.
"Momma, what's that? And why does that have my name on it?"
She looked up at the display, smiled. "That's a Grammy. It's an award for people who write good music. You remember the song that your great granddads wrote for you?"
"Oh. Can I have it?"
"One day."
Laura smiles, looks at the trophy, engraved with "Little Love" Allen/Lambert, 2075 and remembers the two of them, grinning foolishly on the stage.
"I guess the first person me and Adam have to thank is our beautiful great grandson for inspiring this music. Personally I'd like to thank Adam, for pestering me into letting him help write it. Without him, It wouldn't be the same."
"And I guess I have to thank Kris for continually making me reevaluate my music, because without him, it wouldn't be the same."
The rest of the speech had been pointless. But Laura figured it was as close to saying I love you as they had ever gotten in public. It was enough for her. No one had to know they had died holding hands. No one had to know how deeply they felt. That they felt at all was important enough. that they taught her, and so many others that love could come in so many forms. That mattered.
She smiled at her husband, her baby boy. Nodded.Sang.
"There's nothing that you can do that can't be done...."
"