Cael's background
Cael, or Cailean Vincent McArthur, as he’s actually named, is my most fucked up child ever. The son of a Scottish fisherman he never knew the name of, and a Maltese refugee called Angela. He doesn’t know more, and neither do I since I’m the one telling his story.
I’ve come to love him dearly, so treat him nicely. This is my first time really writing about him, he came to me in the middle of the night not long ago. I saw long black hair, messily tied back in a ponytail. Huge blue eyes, a narrow face. 175 cm tall (approximately 5"9). Too serious for his own good. A silver ring in his left ear. Skinny, wears an oversized black button-down shirt as a sort of vest, underneath it a white wife-beater. A thick silver chain around his neck, containing a Maltese cross (his only memento of his mother). Black jeans. Sneakers.
I saw him as a child, maybe 7-8 years old, sitting on a school-lawn all by himself, doodling in the dry earth. He wore this sort of wistful smile, seeming to ask me to tell of his life and how he came to be who he is today. I saw him grow to become just Cael, not the child he once was.
This is his story.
Cael was a quiet child. Kept mostly to himself, spoke only when spoken to. He watched the others play in the playground, sitting curled up and leaning his head on his knees, arms wrapped around his legs. Often he would smile wistfully, his black hair falling down in his face and shielding him from view, wishing that he could be one of them. Once or twice, they had come over and asked if he wanted to join in. Hesitating for the briefest of moments, Cael would decline.
They learned not to ask.
Still, oh how he wished he could join them. That he could run around carelessly and indulge in whatever fancy took him. He couldn’t quite do that though. It would be bad. He had grown up knowing that doing anything that caught attention equalled that someone would get hurt. That he’d get yelled at. Mom and dad often yelled. At one another. At him. There really needed to be no reason. Especially when the bottles came out.
Those times Cael hid in his room, clutching his pillow tightly and hiding under the covers. Wishing it would end. Hoping that nobody would get hurt.
He hated the bottles. He hated the yelling. He hated the sound of mom crying.
Once, he had poured the content of the bottles down the drain.
He never did it again.
Then one day, just after Cael had had his sixth birthday, they died. Just like that they were gone, never to return again. And then there were these men and women who came and asked him all sorts of questions. Cael didn’t say much, just answered a few of them. Mostly he looked at the ground and shrugged.
He was placed in a home with a woman who smelled like stale cigarettes and laundry detergent. Mrs. Winslow was her name. She called him ‘boy’ and made him do all sorts of chores, though none that he hadn’t already learned to do since none else had done them back home. She rarely spoke and gave him the look of that she was disgusted by him. She was his aunt, he learned later on.
The men and women who had taken him to Mrs. Winslow made him go and talk to a person that had him sit on a couch and say what was on his mind once a week. He didn’t really want to say anything, just said whatever it took to please the man. It continued on until he was fifteen and asked to stop it all.
Other than that life seemed to go on as usual. School, that was. Everyone would ignore him just as usual; even the teachers had learned never to ask him any questions. This did, per chance, not mean that Cael was stupid. He studied, just like the others, though made sure never to be the best. As established earlier, attention was bad. So a few mistakes here and there were added to make him look average.
Then she arrived. She was like a storm, disrupting everyone in the entire school with her entering Cael’s class. Cael was eleven years old, having been held back a year because social securities deemed him unfit to join in with others at that age. She was ten, but held herself with the grace of a goddess. A terrible goddess or war and destruction.
She was everything that he wasn’t. She bossed around the class, and they bowed to her every whim. Her being upset was nothing that you wanted. Cael watched with a sort of dispassionate amusement, still sort of frightened of her, having a strange feeling of that she could have him begging for mercy if she wished. He did not want her anywhere near him. She would disturb his temporary freedom.
A month passed by, relatively quietly, and the school established itself to its new ruler, even learned to love and respect her. She became everyone’s Yuri-chan, and as long as Yuri-chan was happy the world was good.
Cael sat in the back of the classroom like usual, just by the window, and he was just reading a book on Greek mythology, when a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him.
“You’re blocking my light,” he muttered.
An ‘hmph’ came from whoever stood in front of him, but Cael didn’t look up. “What are you reading?” A distinctive feminine voice asked him. Cael recognized that voice.
“A book.” He paused for half a fraction of a second. “Now, could you please move so that I can read?”
Cael could hear the growl in her voice, but he still didn’t look up, just kept his attention to the book, hoping she would go away.
“Fine. Read your stupid book. You’re rude.” And with that she stomped away and returned to her seat.
Cael breathed an inward sigh of relief and kept on reading for the rest of the break.
The next day she was back. She tried to make him talk before once again huffing and running away. The following days and weeks this continued, until she actually decided to sit down no matter what Cael said. Cael tolerated her presence but mostly answered her questions in monosyllables; mildly annoyed with that she tried to break his cocoon of protection.
The weeks passed by, and Yuriko, as she actually was named, often dropped by to keep him company. She didn’t seem to really care what he said, just babbled about whatever she felt like. And he, slowly accepting that she was just trying to find someone to “listen” to her mindless babble, learned to tolerate her overly bubbly personality. Those who had been watching heaved a great sigh of relief; they had seen how Yuri-chan reacted when she was upset.
Yuriko once asked him if he had any siblings, and Cael said that he didn’t. She then started prattling about her elder brother who - or so Cael gathered from all her gushing - was absolutely fantastic. Mostly when it came to her babbling Cael half tuned out what she said, only humming sometimes and giving some weak consenting sound of that he agreed of what she spoke of. But there was something in the way that she spoke of him that piqued his interest, and he found himself asking a few things about him. Yuriko, pleased with the attention, told everything she knew about her brother.
Many months would however pass until Cael would meet the infamous Tommaso Salvatore, and as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months Yuriko spoke of so many things that the mysterious elder brother slipped into the river of Lethe. But when they met, Cael’s life would never be the same ever again.
Yuriko was often picked up after school by a dark-haired serious man that never seemed to smile. This was Yuriko’s father, and Cael always had the feeling of that he disapproved of Cael. Still, it was obvious to Cael that the man cared for his daughter, if by nothing else then from that he would gently pat her on the shoulder and pick up her backpack and carry it to the car, then helping her buckle up even though she could do it by herself.
Cael envied her this, because he knew to a point that nobody would ever do such a gentle thing towards him. He’d never allow it, because if he did he was afraid of being addicted.
The first snow had just fallen, a thin sheet of white covering the world. School had just ended for the day, and everyone rushed towards the gate of the school, eager to get home. That morning they’d had math with Mrs. Jones, who had fainted halfway through the class and had to be taken to the hospital. Yuriko had thought it awesome and had spent the entire break chattering excitedly about it, speculating in just what Mrs. Jones had had to cause such a thing. Cael had huffed and tried to read a book on Ares and Mars, the Greek and Roman gods of war.
But now Yuriko trailed along Cael’s side, as she had done pretty much constantly since the first day he had tolerated her presence. She babbled about how awesome it was that snow had fallen. Cael hummed something and scanned the crowds, watching out for any potential fights or people that could bother him.
That’s when Cael spotted him. He was leaning his side against the school-gate, hands shoved down in his pockets. A shock of red hair stuck in every possible direction, and he wore no outer coat, just a white sweater and a pair of rundown jeans. Gold rings glinted in his ears, and there was something about him that screamed “pirate”. Maybe seventeen or eighteen, an aura of badass all around him. He scanned the crowd, sharp eyes going from one face to the other. Cael couldn’t explain it, but his heart was suddenly beating faster and he had problems turning his eyes away from this Adonis who had this little quirky smile while watching the kids streaming around him.
“Who’s that?” He asked Yuriko. Yuriko’s eyes turned in the direction Cael nodded, and she beamed.
“Nii-san!” She burst out and ran to throw herself in the arms of the beautiful stranger who expertly managed to unfold himself from his slouched position and catch her, hoisting her up in the air as if she weighed nothing.
“Hey sis. Man you’ve grown,” he said with a laugh as he gently put her down. “Soon you’re going to be too big for me to lift,” he grinned.
“Baka no Nii-san!” she said and punched his arm lightly, but then grinned at him. “I haven’t seen you in ages,” she said in a whine.
He winced, and Cael watched him apologize profoundly, muttering about that school and work took too much out of him. He then watched him get whipped into carrying Yuriko’s backpack since it was too heavy for her to carry, take no consideration in that she had been perfectly fine in carrying it all day.
Cael found himself amused and somewhat envious by their bantering, even though in many aspects it was abstract for him. He knew it for what it was, but he himself had never participated in it.
He begun walking home, needing to get away from it lest it got too painful.
“Cael,” he heard Yuriko call. It was the first time she had actually said his name, and it was that which stopped him and made him turn around. “Say hi to my brother, Tommaso. His friends call him Tomato,” she added and poked Tommaso in the side.
Cael nodded towards the young man whose intelligent green eyes now turned to study him. Cael’s heart thudded almost painfully in his chest. He felt it as if those eyes could see his every thought, and he had to avert his gaze and stare down at the ground, though his eyes kept on darting up to look at him.
“Nii-san, this is Cael. He’s in my class and he’s very rude.”
Tommaso’ lips quirked. “That so? Well then, Mr. Cael, you treat my sister nicely.”
Cael flushed bright red and gave a quiet nod.
“We should be heading home soon. I’ve got lasagne ready to go in the oven. You want to join in?” Again those eyes were on him, and Cael didn’t quite know why, but he nodded his consent.
Yuriko practically beamed. A few times previously she had tried to drag him home with her, but he had always declined. Those times he had had to slip out of school through another direction, because she refused to give up until she got her way.
Truth to be told Cael was scared of Yuriko’s father. Made him think of dad and all the times he hadn’t run fast enough.
Tommaso scared him as well. But in a way that he didn’t understand. Only he knew that if he got caught it would be a sort of mixed happiness and despair. And he would regret it for the rest of his life. Something about him told him just that. Cael was terrified. But hell if he would give in to that.
The trip to Tommaso’ place was interesting. Yuriko sat in the front seat with Tommaso and prattled on about everything that’d happened during the past four-five months, and Tommaso listened with apt interest, giving the proper sounds just when she wanted them and asking intelligent questions here and there. In the back seat Cael felt a sort of unexplainable jealousy of what they had, and he didn’t quite understand it but he was surprised to feel jealous of that Yuriko prattled on so easily to her brother. Cael had felt sort of special in a strange kind of way when she had spoken only to him back at school.
Tommaso’ place was nothing like he had expected. The living room dominated the apartment. There was a large sofa with a coffee table, a huge wide-screen TV and all sorts of gaming consoles you could ever expect. Cael didn’t know much about technology, but even he could see that the stereo equipment screamed expensive. A thick plush carpet covered most of the floor space. A few bookcases lined the walls and a closed door led to what Cael assumed was the bedroom, but other than that the room was empty. In a weird sense it was strangely aesthetical and Cael found himself wanting to sit down and just chill out.
The kitchen was small. A four-seat table stood by the door entrance, but other than that there was a small isle that lined the large work-space and cooking area. But there was warmth in the kitchen; it smelled like food, spices and tomatoes.
Cael concluded that it smelled like home.
During dinner Cael said little, mainly focusing on devouring his portion of the lasagne, to Tommaso’ great amusement.
“I’m happy that someone likes my cooking,” he commented and mock-glared at his younger sister.
Cael, misunderstanding everything, felt his heart stop and he involuntarily tensed up and made himself as small as possible. Oh dear, here it was, he would get hit again.
The others, however, went on as if nothing unusual went on, and Yuriko stuck out her tongue at her brother.
“Nii-san, you know that my cooking is way better than yours will ever be. I could do this a hundred times better than you.”
Tommaso rolled his eyes, and winked at Cael, who fractionally relaxed. “Sure you could, hun. Sure you could,” he said and ruffled her hair. “Come back when you know what a spatula is.”
Yuriko put her hands to her hair and vainly tried to straighten it again. “Nii-san,” and this time it was a drawn-out wail. “I’ve told you not to ruffle my hair.”
The dinner went on much in this matter, and after dinner they curled up on the couch and watched a comedy. Yuriko promptly fell asleep, and Tommaso extremely gently lifted her up and carried her to his bedroom and tucked her in, all the while Cael sat on the couch and tried to watch the movie.
He heard when Tommaso came back into the room, heard the closing of the bedroom door, but kept his eyes on the screen, somehow scared of what Tommaso was thinking. He could feel those liquid green eyes on him, and Cael instinctively curled himself up, leaning his head on his knees as he tried to figure out what the plotline was about.
“You’re quite something, aren’t you?” Tommaso’s voice came from right behind him, so close that Cael could feel his warm breath at the back of his neck. Cael startled, hands flying to cover his face. His heart was in his throat, and he had without knowing it thrown himself across the couch, trying to get as far away as possible.
Tommaso blinked a few times, tilting his head to the side. “Huh. Interesting.”
“What is?” Cael asked.
Green eyes bored into him. Seeing his very soul. “You are.”
Cael couldn’t keep looking at him. Had to turn away. Had to do something. That voice inside of his head kept on yelling that he was in danger and that he should get out of there.
“I need to go.” His voice was steady.
“Yes, you should,” Tommaso said after a moment’s pause. And just like that the feeling of doom was gone. Tommaso straightened out, reaching for his jacket. “It’s getting late. I’ll drive you.”
“I can walk.”
Those searching eyes on him again. “Very well. Good night. Look after my sister. I don’t want her to come running for me because you’ve hurt her.”
Cael recognized the threat for what it was. “She came to me. I never told her to stay.”
A surprised chuckle left Tommaso’s throat. “Take care, kid. You’re welcome back here. With or without my sister.”
That night Cael dreamed of pale skin and the feel of Tommaso’s breath against his neck. He dreamt of red hair that never seemed to end, and woke up drenched in sweat, not understanding what was wrong with him. He was terrified and excited at the same time, and it drove him a little mad. What was going on, really?
The months went by after that, and Yuriko spoke little of her brother. Every now and then he would pick her up, but Cael didn’t join in. Those times Cael snuck away, trying to suppress the strange thoughts that popped up in his head. Sex-ed was his rescue. He finally understood a few things about himself.
Then one day, not many weeks after that the last of snow had melted and flowers slowly were starting to bloom once more, Yuriko arrived in school looking worse for wear, and Cael actually broke his normal pattern and gave her a concerned look. “What’s up?”
“Nii-san…” Cael’s heart picked up at the very mentioning of him, and he didn’t know why, but her tone of voice worried him. Something was wrong.
“Nii-san doesn’t like girls.” This seemed to bother her a lot, and Cael frowned, not really understanding what was going on. Not liking girls..? What was wrong with girls all the sudden? Then everything dawned, and Cael drew a sharp breath.
“Nii-san told me he’d only love me, but he doesn’t even like girls,” Yuriko whispered, her voice not bearing much more.
Cael didn’t know what to do or what to say. What did you really do in such a situation? She was about to cry, just like mom, and there’d never been a way to make mom stop crying. She’d only told him to go away. So Cael rose from his seat and left her there.
Walking round and round he didn’t know what to do. Class would start soon, but if Yuriko was still there he couldn’t be around. Actually nobody could be around. Class must be cancelled then, he concluded, and walked towards the large lawn area, sat down under a tree and opened a book he had found about the five rivers of Hades. Hoping to forget. But the words kept on repeating in his head. “He doesn’t even like girls.”
Somehow, that made the day so much better.
Eventually Yuriko would get back to normal, though every now and then Cael noticed the sadness in her eyes. Frowning, he watched her, wondering if he ought to do something, but in the end he remained the same, not knowing what to say or do.
Story isn't completed. Will be updated when I have time.
On an off-hand note, I kinda realized where I might have picked up some inspiration for Cael's looks. My wife pointed out that when adult, Cael would probably look something like this.
I’ve come to love him dearly, so treat him nicely. This is my first time really writing about him, he came to me in the middle of the night not long ago. I saw long black hair, messily tied back in a ponytail. Huge blue eyes, a narrow face. 175 cm tall (approximately 5"9). Too serious for his own good. A silver ring in his left ear. Skinny, wears an oversized black button-down shirt as a sort of vest, underneath it a white wife-beater. A thick silver chain around his neck, containing a Maltese cross (his only memento of his mother). Black jeans. Sneakers.
I saw him as a child, maybe 7-8 years old, sitting on a school-lawn all by himself, doodling in the dry earth. He wore this sort of wistful smile, seeming to ask me to tell of his life and how he came to be who he is today. I saw him grow to become just Cael, not the child he once was.
This is his story.
Cael was a quiet child. Kept mostly to himself, spoke only when spoken to. He watched the others play in the playground, sitting curled up and leaning his head on his knees, arms wrapped around his legs. Often he would smile wistfully, his black hair falling down in his face and shielding him from view, wishing that he could be one of them. Once or twice, they had come over and asked if he wanted to join in. Hesitating for the briefest of moments, Cael would decline.
They learned not to ask.
Still, oh how he wished he could join them. That he could run around carelessly and indulge in whatever fancy took him. He couldn’t quite do that though. It would be bad. He had grown up knowing that doing anything that caught attention equalled that someone would get hurt. That he’d get yelled at. Mom and dad often yelled. At one another. At him. There really needed to be no reason. Especially when the bottles came out.
Those times Cael hid in his room, clutching his pillow tightly and hiding under the covers. Wishing it would end. Hoping that nobody would get hurt.
He hated the bottles. He hated the yelling. He hated the sound of mom crying.
Once, he had poured the content of the bottles down the drain.
He never did it again.
Then one day, just after Cael had had his sixth birthday, they died. Just like that they were gone, never to return again. And then there were these men and women who came and asked him all sorts of questions. Cael didn’t say much, just answered a few of them. Mostly he looked at the ground and shrugged.
He was placed in a home with a woman who smelled like stale cigarettes and laundry detergent. Mrs. Winslow was her name. She called him ‘boy’ and made him do all sorts of chores, though none that he hadn’t already learned to do since none else had done them back home. She rarely spoke and gave him the look of that she was disgusted by him. She was his aunt, he learned later on.
The men and women who had taken him to Mrs. Winslow made him go and talk to a person that had him sit on a couch and say what was on his mind once a week. He didn’t really want to say anything, just said whatever it took to please the man. It continued on until he was fifteen and asked to stop it all.
Other than that life seemed to go on as usual. School, that was. Everyone would ignore him just as usual; even the teachers had learned never to ask him any questions. This did, per chance, not mean that Cael was stupid. He studied, just like the others, though made sure never to be the best. As established earlier, attention was bad. So a few mistakes here and there were added to make him look average.
Then she arrived. She was like a storm, disrupting everyone in the entire school with her entering Cael’s class. Cael was eleven years old, having been held back a year because social securities deemed him unfit to join in with others at that age. She was ten, but held herself with the grace of a goddess. A terrible goddess or war and destruction.
She was everything that he wasn’t. She bossed around the class, and they bowed to her every whim. Her being upset was nothing that you wanted. Cael watched with a sort of dispassionate amusement, still sort of frightened of her, having a strange feeling of that she could have him begging for mercy if she wished. He did not want her anywhere near him. She would disturb his temporary freedom.
A month passed by, relatively quietly, and the school established itself to its new ruler, even learned to love and respect her. She became everyone’s Yuri-chan, and as long as Yuri-chan was happy the world was good.
Cael sat in the back of the classroom like usual, just by the window, and he was just reading a book on Greek mythology, when a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him.
“You’re blocking my light,” he muttered.
An ‘hmph’ came from whoever stood in front of him, but Cael didn’t look up. “What are you reading?” A distinctive feminine voice asked him. Cael recognized that voice.
“A book.” He paused for half a fraction of a second. “Now, could you please move so that I can read?”
Cael could hear the growl in her voice, but he still didn’t look up, just kept his attention to the book, hoping she would go away.
“Fine. Read your stupid book. You’re rude.” And with that she stomped away and returned to her seat.
Cael breathed an inward sigh of relief and kept on reading for the rest of the break.
The next day she was back. She tried to make him talk before once again huffing and running away. The following days and weeks this continued, until she actually decided to sit down no matter what Cael said. Cael tolerated her presence but mostly answered her questions in monosyllables; mildly annoyed with that she tried to break his cocoon of protection.
The weeks passed by, and Yuriko, as she actually was named, often dropped by to keep him company. She didn’t seem to really care what he said, just babbled about whatever she felt like. And he, slowly accepting that she was just trying to find someone to “listen” to her mindless babble, learned to tolerate her overly bubbly personality. Those who had been watching heaved a great sigh of relief; they had seen how Yuri-chan reacted when she was upset.
Yuriko once asked him if he had any siblings, and Cael said that he didn’t. She then started prattling about her elder brother who - or so Cael gathered from all her gushing - was absolutely fantastic. Mostly when it came to her babbling Cael half tuned out what she said, only humming sometimes and giving some weak consenting sound of that he agreed of what she spoke of. But there was something in the way that she spoke of him that piqued his interest, and he found himself asking a few things about him. Yuriko, pleased with the attention, told everything she knew about her brother.
Many months would however pass until Cael would meet the infamous Tommaso Salvatore, and as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months Yuriko spoke of so many things that the mysterious elder brother slipped into the river of Lethe. But when they met, Cael’s life would never be the same ever again.
Yuriko was often picked up after school by a dark-haired serious man that never seemed to smile. This was Yuriko’s father, and Cael always had the feeling of that he disapproved of Cael. Still, it was obvious to Cael that the man cared for his daughter, if by nothing else then from that he would gently pat her on the shoulder and pick up her backpack and carry it to the car, then helping her buckle up even though she could do it by herself.
Cael envied her this, because he knew to a point that nobody would ever do such a gentle thing towards him. He’d never allow it, because if he did he was afraid of being addicted.
The first snow had just fallen, a thin sheet of white covering the world. School had just ended for the day, and everyone rushed towards the gate of the school, eager to get home. That morning they’d had math with Mrs. Jones, who had fainted halfway through the class and had to be taken to the hospital. Yuriko had thought it awesome and had spent the entire break chattering excitedly about it, speculating in just what Mrs. Jones had had to cause such a thing. Cael had huffed and tried to read a book on Ares and Mars, the Greek and Roman gods of war.
But now Yuriko trailed along Cael’s side, as she had done pretty much constantly since the first day he had tolerated her presence. She babbled about how awesome it was that snow had fallen. Cael hummed something and scanned the crowds, watching out for any potential fights or people that could bother him.
That’s when Cael spotted him. He was leaning his side against the school-gate, hands shoved down in his pockets. A shock of red hair stuck in every possible direction, and he wore no outer coat, just a white sweater and a pair of rundown jeans. Gold rings glinted in his ears, and there was something about him that screamed “pirate”. Maybe seventeen or eighteen, an aura of badass all around him. He scanned the crowd, sharp eyes going from one face to the other. Cael couldn’t explain it, but his heart was suddenly beating faster and he had problems turning his eyes away from this Adonis who had this little quirky smile while watching the kids streaming around him.
“Who’s that?” He asked Yuriko. Yuriko’s eyes turned in the direction Cael nodded, and she beamed.
“Nii-san!” She burst out and ran to throw herself in the arms of the beautiful stranger who expertly managed to unfold himself from his slouched position and catch her, hoisting her up in the air as if she weighed nothing.
“Hey sis. Man you’ve grown,” he said with a laugh as he gently put her down. “Soon you’re going to be too big for me to lift,” he grinned.
“Baka no Nii-san!” she said and punched his arm lightly, but then grinned at him. “I haven’t seen you in ages,” she said in a whine.
He winced, and Cael watched him apologize profoundly, muttering about that school and work took too much out of him. He then watched him get whipped into carrying Yuriko’s backpack since it was too heavy for her to carry, take no consideration in that she had been perfectly fine in carrying it all day.
Cael found himself amused and somewhat envious by their bantering, even though in many aspects it was abstract for him. He knew it for what it was, but he himself had never participated in it.
He begun walking home, needing to get away from it lest it got too painful.
“Cael,” he heard Yuriko call. It was the first time she had actually said his name, and it was that which stopped him and made him turn around. “Say hi to my brother, Tommaso. His friends call him Tomato,” she added and poked Tommaso in the side.
Cael nodded towards the young man whose intelligent green eyes now turned to study him. Cael’s heart thudded almost painfully in his chest. He felt it as if those eyes could see his every thought, and he had to avert his gaze and stare down at the ground, though his eyes kept on darting up to look at him.
“Nii-san, this is Cael. He’s in my class and he’s very rude.”
Tommaso’ lips quirked. “That so? Well then, Mr. Cael, you treat my sister nicely.”
Cael flushed bright red and gave a quiet nod.
“We should be heading home soon. I’ve got lasagne ready to go in the oven. You want to join in?” Again those eyes were on him, and Cael didn’t quite know why, but he nodded his consent.
Yuriko practically beamed. A few times previously she had tried to drag him home with her, but he had always declined. Those times he had had to slip out of school through another direction, because she refused to give up until she got her way.
Truth to be told Cael was scared of Yuriko’s father. Made him think of dad and all the times he hadn’t run fast enough.
Tommaso scared him as well. But in a way that he didn’t understand. Only he knew that if he got caught it would be a sort of mixed happiness and despair. And he would regret it for the rest of his life. Something about him told him just that. Cael was terrified. But hell if he would give in to that.
The trip to Tommaso’ place was interesting. Yuriko sat in the front seat with Tommaso and prattled on about everything that’d happened during the past four-five months, and Tommaso listened with apt interest, giving the proper sounds just when she wanted them and asking intelligent questions here and there. In the back seat Cael felt a sort of unexplainable jealousy of what they had, and he didn’t quite understand it but he was surprised to feel jealous of that Yuriko prattled on so easily to her brother. Cael had felt sort of special in a strange kind of way when she had spoken only to him back at school.
Tommaso’ place was nothing like he had expected. The living room dominated the apartment. There was a large sofa with a coffee table, a huge wide-screen TV and all sorts of gaming consoles you could ever expect. Cael didn’t know much about technology, but even he could see that the stereo equipment screamed expensive. A thick plush carpet covered most of the floor space. A few bookcases lined the walls and a closed door led to what Cael assumed was the bedroom, but other than that the room was empty. In a weird sense it was strangely aesthetical and Cael found himself wanting to sit down and just chill out.
The kitchen was small. A four-seat table stood by the door entrance, but other than that there was a small isle that lined the large work-space and cooking area. But there was warmth in the kitchen; it smelled like food, spices and tomatoes.
Cael concluded that it smelled like home.
During dinner Cael said little, mainly focusing on devouring his portion of the lasagne, to Tommaso’ great amusement.
“I’m happy that someone likes my cooking,” he commented and mock-glared at his younger sister.
Cael, misunderstanding everything, felt his heart stop and he involuntarily tensed up and made himself as small as possible. Oh dear, here it was, he would get hit again.
The others, however, went on as if nothing unusual went on, and Yuriko stuck out her tongue at her brother.
“Nii-san, you know that my cooking is way better than yours will ever be. I could do this a hundred times better than you.”
Tommaso rolled his eyes, and winked at Cael, who fractionally relaxed. “Sure you could, hun. Sure you could,” he said and ruffled her hair. “Come back when you know what a spatula is.”
Yuriko put her hands to her hair and vainly tried to straighten it again. “Nii-san,” and this time it was a drawn-out wail. “I’ve told you not to ruffle my hair.”
The dinner went on much in this matter, and after dinner they curled up on the couch and watched a comedy. Yuriko promptly fell asleep, and Tommaso extremely gently lifted her up and carried her to his bedroom and tucked her in, all the while Cael sat on the couch and tried to watch the movie.
He heard when Tommaso came back into the room, heard the closing of the bedroom door, but kept his eyes on the screen, somehow scared of what Tommaso was thinking. He could feel those liquid green eyes on him, and Cael instinctively curled himself up, leaning his head on his knees as he tried to figure out what the plotline was about.
“You’re quite something, aren’t you?” Tommaso’s voice came from right behind him, so close that Cael could feel his warm breath at the back of his neck. Cael startled, hands flying to cover his face. His heart was in his throat, and he had without knowing it thrown himself across the couch, trying to get as far away as possible.
Tommaso blinked a few times, tilting his head to the side. “Huh. Interesting.”
“What is?” Cael asked.
Green eyes bored into him. Seeing his very soul. “You are.”
Cael couldn’t keep looking at him. Had to turn away. Had to do something. That voice inside of his head kept on yelling that he was in danger and that he should get out of there.
“I need to go.” His voice was steady.
“Yes, you should,” Tommaso said after a moment’s pause. And just like that the feeling of doom was gone. Tommaso straightened out, reaching for his jacket. “It’s getting late. I’ll drive you.”
“I can walk.”
Those searching eyes on him again. “Very well. Good night. Look after my sister. I don’t want her to come running for me because you’ve hurt her.”
Cael recognized the threat for what it was. “She came to me. I never told her to stay.”
A surprised chuckle left Tommaso’s throat. “Take care, kid. You’re welcome back here. With or without my sister.”
That night Cael dreamed of pale skin and the feel of Tommaso’s breath against his neck. He dreamt of red hair that never seemed to end, and woke up drenched in sweat, not understanding what was wrong with him. He was terrified and excited at the same time, and it drove him a little mad. What was going on, really?
The months went by after that, and Yuriko spoke little of her brother. Every now and then he would pick her up, but Cael didn’t join in. Those times Cael snuck away, trying to suppress the strange thoughts that popped up in his head. Sex-ed was his rescue. He finally understood a few things about himself.
Then one day, not many weeks after that the last of snow had melted and flowers slowly were starting to bloom once more, Yuriko arrived in school looking worse for wear, and Cael actually broke his normal pattern and gave her a concerned look. “What’s up?”
“Nii-san…” Cael’s heart picked up at the very mentioning of him, and he didn’t know why, but her tone of voice worried him. Something was wrong.
“Nii-san doesn’t like girls.” This seemed to bother her a lot, and Cael frowned, not really understanding what was going on. Not liking girls..? What was wrong with girls all the sudden? Then everything dawned, and Cael drew a sharp breath.
“Nii-san told me he’d only love me, but he doesn’t even like girls,” Yuriko whispered, her voice not bearing much more.
Cael didn’t know what to do or what to say. What did you really do in such a situation? She was about to cry, just like mom, and there’d never been a way to make mom stop crying. She’d only told him to go away. So Cael rose from his seat and left her there.
Walking round and round he didn’t know what to do. Class would start soon, but if Yuriko was still there he couldn’t be around. Actually nobody could be around. Class must be cancelled then, he concluded, and walked towards the large lawn area, sat down under a tree and opened a book he had found about the five rivers of Hades. Hoping to forget. But the words kept on repeating in his head. “He doesn’t even like girls.”
Somehow, that made the day so much better.
Eventually Yuriko would get back to normal, though every now and then Cael noticed the sadness in her eyes. Frowning, he watched her, wondering if he ought to do something, but in the end he remained the same, not knowing what to say or do.
Story isn't completed. Will be updated when I have time.
On an off-hand note, I kinda realized where I might have picked up some inspiration for Cael's looks. My wife pointed out that when adult, Cael would probably look something like this.
