Question for the men about non biological father figures in a fantasy setting
A little back story first.
One of my male mc's who is a morally bankrupt thieft but not entirely a bad person archetype. He's not a robin hood type either. so he'll rob a poor person too and screw them over as well, if he's desperate enough. but he doesn't go out of his way cuz obviously they won't have much to steal to begin with. So its mostly the wealthy by default. But he'll scam anyone to help himself if he really needs something. .
He's also a human shapeshifter called a biomorph in my world. And in my universe they are often stereotyped to be distrustful, thieves, scammers, troublemakers, violent and etc. They also were blamed for starting the last great war that happened centuries prior, that left millons dead from all kingdoms. It was presumed biomorphs were pretending to be world leaders to start the war for their own selfish reasons and thats where the stereotype and hate came from over time.
So this character often prefers to pretend to be anyone else besides himself and has this deep seated distrust of others and has no problem treating others badly cuz he assumes they are going to treat him badly first so he does it to them because they can dobit to him. He also secretly deep down inside wants someone to love him and like him for him. This is his greatest insecurity that he won't even admit to himself. All of the adults imfeom him childhood betrayed or mistreated him at some point so this is where his insecurity also stems from.
His parents were garbage people that sold him for money through an illegal adoption. And his adoptive parents "bought" aka adopted him becuase they wanted to have a biomorph kid they could use for scams. Eventually he was taken from the adoptive parents as they got caught after a few years of running scams.
He then was on the streets after running away from an abusive orphanage. He got unofficially "adopted" into a gang, and became close to one particular gang member who was the one who saved him from getting his hand chopped off when he was caught stealing from the gang as a homeless child.
And yes throughout all of the books he learns to be a better person and blah blah blah. And he meets the main cast of characters and slowly starts to trust them while occasionally still betraying them and blah blah blah. Yall know the trope. (The john murphy from "the 100" type)
Anyways, so i have this arc in my story, (Not fully written but it has been outlined extensively so i know where i am going with it) where this damaged character (Tiago) was taken under the wing of the gang member (Kaizen) who got him into the gang around 8 years old. They became very close over the years. Even doing some father/son type stuff without realizing it. Kaizen protected him from some of the other gang members who weren't very perceptive to having Tiago around. But since Kaizen is the righthand to the head boss he has some sway in the group. So the others know not to touch him. (Or at least not rough Tiago up to badly)
So around 17 years old, Tiago and Kaizen decided to leave the gang. Kaizen started to want more for Tiago. But at the last minute Kaizen chickened out and didn't leave with Tiago who stole a bunch of money from the gang which was apart of their plan upon leaving. And he left Tiago out to dry. And now at 20 years old, the gang is still hunting him down. but could never nab him.
Kaizen is apart of the gangs enemy retrieval unit do he's in charge of the team thats hunting Tiago down dead or alive and to retrieve the money he stole and to dish out punishment for leaving. Basically, since Kaizen didn't leave with him, he pretended to not know anything about Tiagos plans to escape to keep himself alive and punished by the boss and instead now hunts him down.
(Side note: Kaizen is a shapeshifting humanoid creature called Arodile (arrow-dial). thats similar to hawkman/hawkwomen from dc. But their wings and powerset is based on the vulture and an albatross. A creature i made up that can spit stomach acid thats burns flesh. Plus some other cool powers)
Anyways, my actual question is with what little info i gave you about Tiagos history and the instability with his bio family, his insecurity to want to be love, and ultimately his final betrayal from Kaizen who talked about leaving the gang with him but ended up ditching him, i wanted to know if towards the big climax i have planed throughout my series, if it would be weird if its believable if Kaizen (once he goes through that whole arc of being loyal to the gang no matter what and trying to capture/kill Tiago but ultimately betraying the gang to save Tiago and realizing that he does love him like a son) would vocally refer to Tiago as his son and if it was weird if Tiago would actually call him his father?
I'm not sure if men would find this too sappy or not. I also have this scene written out that when he was about 13 or so, Tiago accidentally referred to Kaizen as his father in a conversation where they were having a really great day together, but they both awkwardly never talked about it and pretended it never happened. And at some point when they were still in the gang, Kaizen almost called Tiago his son in front of him, but stopped himself in time.
I have it written that Kaizen was also regularly was teased by the other gang members that Tiago gets special treatment because he's "Kaizens boy". Kinda like saying that his kid.
So at the super emotional climax where Kaizen finally actually leaves the gang betraying them by not killing Tiago or turning him in and they are both finally on the same side, Tiago has forgiven Kaizen for abandoning him, would he be fitting for them to refer to each other vocally as father and son. Or am i thinking like a girl and they should just call each other by their first names insteads. Is this too sappy?
I even have this running joke throughout my book where the other main characters refer to Kaizen as Tiagos dad thats trying to kill him and he regular shouts he's not his dad. Lol.
So what do yall think fellas? Could you call a man who wasn't technically your stepfather even though he practically raised you? Or could you call a kid your son, whom you technically weren't legally responsible for but treated him like he was yours his whole life basically?
Let me know fellas. I know male relationships between men are different from female relationships between woman.