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Our Beginning	By : Eliza_Kitty Category: +S to Z > Wolf's Rain Views: 2797 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or series of Wolf’s Rain. They belong to BONES & Keiko Nobumoto. This story is non-profit for my own and others’ enjoyment. Thank you. :)

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Hello all! Here is the third installment to the story. I don’t have much to say but I hope you all enjoy it!

Caution: Further chapters will contain mature content such as language and yaoi, Tsume/Toboe. Be forewarned.

Rain Falling Down

“Paradise,” He kept repeating the word in his head; he could not let go of it. “Paradise. …Why paradise?”

There was something unknown to him, something unsettling about those words. He had so many thoughts cluttered in his mind, his dreams, his Gran, his mother and now this word, paradise. It was a word Gran had used to describe heaven, but why did it strike something so deeply in his mind?

His thoughts were interrupted by sudden raindrops that began to pelt his coat and hat. It actually made him smile, because he had finally remembered to bring an umbrella this time. “I knew it.” He thought to himself. As he extended the yellow umbrella over his head, his thoughts retraced back to Gran and her condition this morning. It was too much for him to accept. It was something he did not want to think about, but he couldn’t help it.

He shook his head and continued down the sidewalk next to others, each in their own thoughts and paths. He wondered if he would get in trouble for being late to work; but it had been a difficult morning. Mr. Jon would probably give him a hard time, but would soon let it go. He was a kind, older man but expected everything to be a certain way. But it had only been an hour ago that he was scheduled to work. Today was trading and buying day so he was looking forward to that. How long had it been since he started working at Mr. Jon’s bookstore? Two or three years maybe? He didn’t know.

The rain continued to wash down on the busy city, clearing out any debris in the streets into the gutters. Cars drove by and a few sometimes honked at the resisting traffic, puddles splashing onto the sidewalks as they sped by. There were many without umbrellas who improvised with their coats or newspapers as they made their way. Others just ran to escape the drenching droplets. The buildings towered over their inhabitants as they each partook in their own separate businesses, just living out day to day.

The sound of a motorcycle speeding by amidst all the busy chaos caught his attention and he looked up from his thoughts. He immediately found himself lost in a trance, caught in a spell by the man on the bike. He too glanced his way and their eyes met, everything around them slowing down to the very millisecond. This moment that only lasted a mere second but seemed much longer. As the man with the red helmet and dark clothes zoomed past him, the younger boy followed him with his eyes. Even a moment as he and his bike disappeared in the distance, the man turned his head back to him once more. He couldn’t breathe.

The young boy kept his eyes on him, even after he had gone out of sight, lost into the traffic and miles ahead of him. “Who? …Who was that? Did I know him?” he spoke to himself, out loud. He felt lost, every other thought that he’d had that day lost. It seemed that nothing else mattered, nothing else could fill his mind except for this thought, a mere moment, a simply by chance occurrence.

His mind was racing and he thought he was going to go into some sort of a panic. But he didn’t feel like that at all. He didn’t feel anxious, fearful or even worried.

He just felt lost.

“Meooow…” The small sound woke him up and he looked down to where it had come from. In between the two buildings he stood by, in a small brown and worn box was a kitten. His heart skipped a beat and he quickly knelt over. The little kitten was all by itself, cowering in one corner of the box. The boy smiled and picked up the cream colored ball of fluff. It nuzzled him under his chin and he giggled a little, holding it closer to him. He looked around for an owner maybe, but there was no one; everyone was content with going their own way in the crowd.

“Hmmm,” he spoke gently to it, “we’ll figure something out.”

Moments later, he sighed as he finally walked up to the old bookstore in the corner, gold font on the windows, a few tattered books on display. He looked down at the kitten in his arms and bit his lip. Just then an older girl with dark, short hair barged out of the store, the bell rattling on the door.

“Fine!” she yelled, “I’ll just find somewhere else!” The young boy stopped when she accidentally bumped into him. “Ah, I’m sorry!” She grimaced. He noticed her bright blue eyes and was amazed at how striking they were. “What?” she asked. When he didn’t say anything, she shrugged, dipped one hand into a pocket of her coat and walked away in the rain with a box in the other arm.

He wondered what had happened and entered the little shop, the bell chiming. He quickly grew comfortable as it was much warmer inside; it was an unusually cold and rainy day for it being late spring. The inside of the store was filled with wall to wall bookshelves, stuffed with various readings, old and new. An old man looked up from the counter at the young boy, frowned and went back to his work, stacking books to his left and going through the ones on the right.

“I’m sorry I’m-“

“You’re late?” The old man interrupted him, “Well yes, I’m sorry too.” He didn’t look up from his work.

The young boy looked down, embarrassed, and walked to the back room, the kitten covered under his coat. This room too, was filled with many bookshelves fully stocked, but also a small table and couple of chairs among other things. There was one box on the floor that wasn’t completely packed with books, so he emptied out the few that were there and placed the little kitten in it. It meowed at him and the boy held his finger up to his lips, “Shhhh.”

“Toboe!” his boss yelled.

“Coming!” he patted the kitten on the head, threw his coat and hat on the cluttered table, umbrella against the side of the door and ran out to answer the call. He hurriedly walked up to the old man with a smile on his face, “Yes Mr. Jon?” he asked, nervously straightening the books in front of him. “Don’t touch those! And why have you got a smile on your face?” He grabbed the few books and front of Toboe and moved them a few inches over on the counter. Toboe followed the gesture and frowned. “I am sorry.” He looked down, waiting for a reply but there was none. He continued, “My grandmother had some trouble this morning.”

Mr. Jon’s face softened, “Oh, is that so? How is she now? It’s been a while since I’ve seen her.”

Toboe didn’t smile, but he felt better on the inside because the man’s tone had become relaxed and sympathetic toward him. He still did not meet his eyes however, “She’s doing all right.” He said slowly and then went to change the subject, “What did that girl want?” he asked.

That sent Mr. Jon off on a hissy tantrum, as Gran would’ve put it. “Well! Let me tell you! She brought in a box full of moldy, old books.” Toboe almost regretted the question when the bookseller became immediately angry again. “I can’t sell those! Just because I sell and buy old books doesn’t mean I’ll take anything. These young people, no offense,” He glanced at the young boy who nodded as an excuse, “they think an old coot like me won’t see it coming, like they’ll pull one over on me.” He started to calm down and began sorting his books once more. “They don’t understand. I tried to explain it to her, but she was just so rude.” He spoke in a hushed voice now.

Toboe continued to listen, feeling sorry for him, but also slightly afraid to say anything. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe she badly needed some money.” He sighed, “But the thing is, we all do. Everyone is struggling right now it seems.” He didn’t say anything more, just continued working on his project.

Toboe waited a moment or two and finally decided to speak up, “Well I know something that will cheer you up!” He took a chance, wondering if he should’ve crossed his fingers or not and ran to the back room. Mr. Jon looked after him curiously and almost excited, that is, until the boy brought out a kitten instead of sugar cookies. “What is that?” his voice held no tone of any kind.

“It’s a kitten!” Toboe smiled, holding the little thing up for him to see. “I found it on the way to work. Someone abandoned her, can you believe that? And it’s pouring out there!” Each sentence came out nervously as he was afraid of the reaction. He sat the cream puff on the counter top who began to explore everything within reach. She jumped on top of the book stack and off again, knocking a few of them onto the ground with a big thud. She looked startled at first, but continued to check everything out.

Mr. Jon stared vacantly at the little thing, “And I’m supposed to keep it since your grandmother is allergic, is that it?” he asked and looked at the boy who shyly scratched the back of his head. “Oh, so you remembered that?” he replied sheepishly.

The old man laughed a little, which made Toboe relax completely. “Well of course, isn’t that how it turned out with the last one?” He hinted to the back corner of the room, where on top of the tallest bookshelf napped an old, black cat. “What if Max doesn’t like her?”

Toboe thought for a second, “Well, what if he does? She’s little. And besides, if he doesn’t, I’ll figure out something.” He paused, “Maybe I could keep her in a box on the back porch.”

“For heaven’s sake, no!” He snapped. “She’ll be fine here.” The boy then knew that that was all it took and smiled.

Mr. Jon picked up the kitten and began to pet her as she meowed in reply. As the old man was enjoying his new little friend, Toboe decided to get to work sorting the new arrivals, organizing the usual ones and replacing the bought ones. He went over to the display window, noticing some dust on the tops of the books sitting there. “Mr. Jon?” There was no reply aside from a chuckle. He looked back at the display of purring affection and love. Toboe rolled his eyes. His boss pretended to be tough but he wasn’t really, not at all. “Mr. Jon!”

“Y-yes, what’s that?” He looked up.

“Do we need to put out new books for the display? These ones have been here a while.” He asked and began to pull the books out of the window, knowing the reply would be yes, but he still had to ask; he also knew Mr. Jon.

“Yes, that’ll be good.” He sat his little friend down on the ground and picked up a box on the floor left of the counter. He brought the box over to the display window as Toboe continued cleaning it out. “A gentleman brought these in first thing this morning. I wish you’d been here. He was an odd sort.” Mr. Jon also liked to study people and gossip about them; he found humans a “fascinating subject”. Toboe was almost glad that he was late; he felt uncomfortable talking about people he hardly knew, especially when the words were not always pleasant.

Mr. Jon sat down in a chair next to the boy and began pulling the old books out of the box. After Toboe finished emptying the window and dusting, he assisted in helping his boss. It was a large box and there were quite a few things varied from all different sorts of genres. The old man handed the boy a few books at a time and Toboe sat them on display in the window, carefully placing them in the perfect spots to be noticed. “Oh, this one was the most interesting.” He handed him the book, “Look at it, isn’t it beautiful?” Toboe examined the cover, detailed letters thickly bound in leather. “What does it say?”

“That’s just it, the man who brought it in didn’t know. It must be an old, ancient language. But the pictures inside are lovely as well. I think it must be a children’s book of some kind. Take a look.” He continued sorting as the boy began to flip through the pages.

Wolves. Again, here they were, but in a book this time. What was going on? Going through the book, he examined each page with detail, the wolves running with the flowers, many flowers. He closed the book and held it down by his side. He felt like he was going to lose it. “Mr. Jon,” he asked, “I know I just got here, but would it be okay if I left? I’m really worried about Gran.” He had partly lied about that. That was only half of the truth.

Mr. Jon didn’t say anything for a moment,“If you think you must.” He stood up, a few books in hand and began to place them in the window with the others, repositioning the ones Toboe had already sat in there. Toboe felt a little hurt when he did that, but it was also expected of Mr. Jon. He was very particular. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine here all by my lonesome self.” He sighed.

Toboe frowned but quickly changed his expression when his boss turned to him with a smile, “I’m just fooling with you, Toboe. You can go.” He turned back to his books, “There’s just not enough time left in this world for all of us to live full lives. So enjoy the time that you have.”

“Yes sir!” Toboe ran to the back room to grab his things and quickly returned to the front of the store. Realizing he still held the old book in his arm, he stopped for a moment. “Can I buy this one from you? I don’t want you to sell it.”

“Well Toboe, that’s fine I suppose. That’s neat, isn’t it? I thought so.” he exclaimed.

“Uh, yes… Do you want to take it off my check?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll discuss it later. You go home and say hello to your grandmother for me. Take care now, all right?” He shooed at the young boy, holding a book in the other hand.

Toboe nodded and hurriedly headed out the door, the sound of bells ringing as the rain fell down.

***

What did you think? It’s starting to get exciting, huh? I hope there is no one that is getting turned off. I understand that sometimes you just want to get to it already, but have patience. We’ll get there soon enough. You know what I mean. ;) Please review!!! <3
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Our Beginning