Family ties
Pairing: Kei/Sho
Rating: K+
Summary: Sometimes the things you want the most, always end up beside you.
Warning: nothing much.
Disclaimer: it’s all the same no matter how many times I say it.
~*****~
“Mama push me! I wanna go higher!” a child laughed as a woman smiling, came from behind her child and pushed them sending them higher and higher into the sky.
Blue eyes look to the sound with distant eyes, Sho is twenty this year. His birthday was just three days ago and all his friends and brother came to congratulate him.
Toshi brought drinks and his pizza, Son brought Yi-Che who brought her much better cooking, Shinji came too, and Kei as well. The six of them stayed in Sho and Kei’s apartment well into the wee hours of the morning, when Kei had to sleep and everyone had to get to work.
It was a fun day. Sho smiled as he remembered how Toshi and Son had provoked him into a drinking contest, by some miracle bringing even Shinji into the contest. In the end, Kei won; being the only somber male of the party. Yi-Che laughed too, though thankfully she didn’t drink any.
There was food and drinks, people he loved and even a birthday cake.
“Blow out the candles Sho!”
“Don’t forget to make a wish!”
“Hurry I want some of that cake!” closing his eyes, the nineteen year old closed his eyes and wished for one thing, before blowing out all his candles drowning in the sound of applause and cheering.
“Don’t run too fast honey!” the voice of the worried mother broke Sho’s concentration as he opened his eyes again to see the child jump off the swings and run to her father, picking her up as he swung her high above the ground in a large circle, the families laugher ringing throughout the park.
And Sho thought back to all his previous birthdays and the one wish he made every year.
~*****~
“Kei!!!” a young Sho yelled from outside, the sound of footsteps throughout the warehouse echoing against the cement and metal walls.
Kei looked up automatically, the smell of tears pungent in his nose, they were Sho’s tears. Before being able to even finish his thought, tiny arms wrapped themselves around his torso as Sho cried into his large black shirt.
“What’s wrong Sho?” his fatherly instincts telling him to comfort his child rather than press for questions, though he couldn't stop the question from leaving his lips. He picked the young boy up into his arms and set him on the edge of his bed, kneeling before the tearing boy.
“A- a boy at the park--,”
“Sho, what have I told you about people making fun of you,” Kei lightly scolded, he had taught Sho and Toshi, minus Shinji who found other things to do with his time and refused to be anywhere near Kei without having good reason to be, how to protect themselves with their fists. Though Toshi often skipped the practices, Sho was a attentive listener to Kei’s words and a fast learner. Within a few months, Sho could beat Toshi in a match; though that too often lead to hurt feelings and silent treatments between the two friends.
“I did! I fought him but he still….”
“What?”
“He said I was a freak for living with a guy who wasn’t my dad, they made fun of you so I punched him. But then, o-one of them said it must be me that ran my parents away, I was a monster!”
“Sho.” Leaning over to pick the young boy’s wet face up from looking down, Kei’s moss green eyes searched teary black eyes.
“You’re not a monster, if anyone would know that I would.” The vampire smiled melancholically for a moment before Sho shook his head.
“T-that’s not what made me angry Kei,”
“Then what? Them making fun of me? Sho--”
“No! I mean, yes that made me mad but….” the young boy dropped his head to the ground, trying to hide his tears once more; when he asked.
“Kei, why don’t I have any parents?”
The sudden question rang in Kei’s ears like a bad memory, he had always knew Sho would ask him that and he had thought of the answer many times. And many times over, but now…in front of this small child with teary black eyes and flushed cheeks, Kei could only sigh.
“Kei? Why don’t I have any parents? Where are my mommy and daddy? Does Toshi have them too? Where are they?”
“Sho,”
“S-sometimes I wish at night I had a mommy and daddy Kei, did you know that?” Sho smiled sadly, looking directly at Kei from where he sat at the edge of the vampire’s bed, “did they love me?”
“Of course they did Sho,”
“Then why don’t I have any?! Why did they go away?”
“…I can’t answer that Sho, but I will tell you this.” Kei said, still kneeling in front of the young boy as he raised the child’s head to look into his eyes.
Sadness and confusion mingling in Sho’s black eyes, Kei knew he could never replace the part in Sho’s heart where his parents were suppose to be, nor would he try too. He was just… a friend. A person Sho needed to lean on until he was old enough to walk on his own two legs. He could never be anything else, nothing more and nothing less.
“They loved you and your brother, and I’m sure Toshi’s parents loved him too,”
“Then why did they run away? Why are nii-chan and Toshi and I all alone?”
You have me. Kei thought bitterly, unable to hold that thought back from entering his mind before smiling sadly.
“I don’t know Sho, but they must have loved you enough to give you up, and I know that that kind of love is the most important of all.” He gave up his everything for Luka…and even then after everything and everyone was gone, Kei still gave up everything he had. If anyone knew about sacrifice, he did.
“Really Kei?” the sudden gleam of hope evident in the young boy’s eyes as he gazed up at Kei. The vampire smiled as he ran his fingers gently through the child’s hair,
“Yeah, would I lie to you?”
“Nope!”
“Good, now get going.” Standing up to his height, Kei watched as the natural gleam in Sho’s eyes twinkled. A laughter escaping from the boy’s lips as he looked up at Kei,
“Thanks Kei,” running off to go play, young Sho never saw the slightest drop in Kei’s smile nor the lightest hint of sadness in his moss colored orbs.
~*****~
The sound of the door closing registered in Kei’s ears long before his human roommate entered, as the vampire stood by the refrigerator in hopes for some sort of substitute drink.
“What are you home so early for Sho?”
“….” silence answered the blond vampire, sensing something wrong Kei closed the door when strong arms suddenly wrapped themselves around him. Tight and warm against a beating heart, the weight of Sho’s head on his right shoulder,
“Sho, what the hell?”
“I’m sorry Kei.”
“What for.” Knowing Sho was in one of his moods, he knew how fast the man could switch. From being sweet and loving to scolding and temperamental, he was like a flip of a coin; and Kei always treaded softly.
The arms around his body tightened in response, before he felt Sho’s breathing calm then he spoke.
“For all those times I wished for parents,”
“…”
“For all those times I wanted parents,”
“Sho,”
“I’m sorry I never saw Kei, I was stupid. I thought I needed parents to love me, a family line to continue or something. I don’t even know anymore.”
“What brought this on?”
“I thought about all my birthday wishes, and for as long as I can remember I’ve wished for one thing did you know that Kei?” the vampire could feel a smile on the human’s face when Sho lifted his head and turned Kei to face him, moss green on light blue.
“Three days ago, I made my first true wish, do you know what it was Kei?”
“No I don’t Sho,” not getting where this was leading, Kei looked into Sho’s eyes searching for any conclusion to this encounter only to find that Sho’s eyes relieved nothing. Unconsciously cursing himself at showing the young man how to do just that.
“I wished that you would be with me forever,” moss green eyes widen in shock,
“Sho…”
“I never needed parents to love me because I always had you, I didn’t need a family because you were there, I can’t believe I never saw it until now!”
“Sho what--?”
“I’m sorry I neglected you Kei,” seeing the shock slowly fade from the vampire’s eyes and a glow of contentment filled his face, Sho grinned and held Kei to him.
The family at the park were what he thought he had wanted for the longest time. A mother and a father to love him, a family name to pass on, but now. Looking back- Sho could see that the only family he ever needed was right beside him all along.
They weren’t connected by blood, but something stronger. They didn’t share the same last name, but had a past together far longer than most. They didn’t have the same eyes or features, but like family- maybe something even deeper, they could read each other perfectly.
There was no need for anything else to prove to Sho that Kei was his family. His entire world.
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