Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Another Me	By : Resting-Madness Category: +S to Z > Wolf's Rain Views: 1788 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Wolf's Rain. I make no profit from this work of fiction. I also don't own the Wolf's Rain environment.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
"He's gone!" Cher burst through the bedroom door of the master suite.
She'd gotten up his morning to make a nice big breakfast for the boys, something that would bring them comfort on a day like today. But when she walked past their bedroom, she noticed that one bed wasn't occupied. Now that wasn't so unusual, Kiba could be anywhere in the house, he' not confined to the bedroom. But when checking the bathroom, there were no signs that Kiba had even been in there. He wasn't in the kitchen like the morning before. He wasn't even in Cheza's bedroom- he could have been. But as Cher hurried around the house in search of the boy, she found that he was nowhere!
Roused but mentally still in dreamland, Hubb asked. "Hmm? Who's gone?" He scratched his fingers through his bed-head.
"Kiba! Kiba's gone!" She snatched up her robe and slipped her feet into her purple house slippers. "Come on, we have to find him."
"What!" Hubb came alert at that, mimicking his wife's actions of getting into his robe and slippers. "Did you check everywhere?" he was in the hall following after her. "Where would he go?" Hubb's blue gaze glanced into the open doors along the way down the hall. He honestly thought he'd find Kiba standing in one of them, a look of wonder on his face as to why everyone was so worked up.
"Toboe," Cher shook the child's shoulder, "Toboe do you...?"
Hubb was checking the locks on the doors when he heard his wife calling out that Toboe was gone too! Nothing but a pile of pillows and books occupied his bed, is what he was told when entering the bedroom.
"I checked the doors, the front entrance was unlocked," he explained to his wife, "maybe they went outside?"
"Why would they be outside at seven in the morning?" Barked his wife. "Think before you speak, you're not helping the situation."
Hubb couldn't help but exasperatedly roll his eyes with a shrug. It was a statement, not a solution to their problem. If no one took the boys by force it would only stand to reason that they left on purpose. But where would they go? That's it!
"Cher, I know where they are..." Hubb took his wife's hand.
"How do you know?" She was about ready to call the police to track them down, when Hubb said that to her.
"Today is the funeral... The boys must be feeling terrible..." Hubb explained. "I'm almost positive they went home."
And Cher wilted into her husbands arms. Of course that's where the boys had gone. Why wouldn't they? "Hubb, I am so sorry for yelling at you... I over reacted." She wiped tears from her eyes, "Those boys are my best friend's children, I feel responsible for them in every sense of the word. Mikado would never forgive me if anything happened to them."
"I know, I feel the same way," he rubbed his wife's back to comfort her.
"I'd better go get them," Cher removed herself from the embrace. "Can you start breakfast for me?"
"Sure."
"Thank you."
Cher left their home for the Wolf's house, hoping against bad luck that the kids were actually there and her husband was right; she has her cell phone stuffed in the pocket of her robe just incase the boys aren't safe and sound in their house. She could call the police and Hubb afterwards.
It was a good sign that the door was unlocked when she tried the knob. If the boys weren't inside, it at least showed that they had been. Ascending the stairs, she paused outside of the master suite when hearing voices on the other side of the door.
"Why do we have to bury mommy and daddy?" Toboe asked in a sob, "what if they wake up? How would they get out?"
Kiba sniffled back his tears and running nose, shaking his head. "They're not sleeping, Toboe..."
"But maybe they're just in a coma," suggested the younger Wolf child. "There was a guy at the hospital, I overheard the doctors saying that he woke up from it."
That only made Kiba cry harder. It was such a nice idea to entertain. That his parents have been in a coma all this time, and the doctors just didn't know. What if they buried them and then their parents just woke up? Nobody would know... They would die down there for real. All alone. And nobody would know.
Kiba squeezed his little brother tightly in his arms. "No, Toboe... We have to accept what happened... Mom and dad are dead, and they're never coming back."
"Stop saying that!" spat the high young voice; he began to wriggle around in his brother's embrace to free himself of the liar and the evil lie spoken, but Kiba held onto him to well. He couldn't let go of the only anchor left in his life.
Their sorrows silenced verbally, but their tears picked up where their words left off. Cher held her actions to go in the room and take them into her arms to calm their misery. The Wolf children need this moment. They need to get it out of their system or they would be a mess during the funeral. They'd continue to miss their parents in this state. It wouldn't be good for them to always be that miserable. Once they come to their own understandings about death, then they'll start the process of healing.
"It isn't fair, Kiba! Why did it have to be them?" Toboe was shouting, angry at the situation and angry at his parents. "Why did they have to die?"
Toboe wasn't even sure how it had happened. He just woke up in the hospital to a life that has changed all around him! Doctors told him how to treat his burns if he felt any further pain once going home. Burns! How on earth had he gotten burned? It was such a whirlwind, it was insane! He just wanted to go home and hug his parents, who would take charge of the bad situation and make it stop. But none of that happened. There was no longer a home that was his, it was the Lebowsky's. There were no secure arms of his parents holding him... That strength was the Lebowsky's. And where he loved them, it wasn't the same. So... inside... It was just suffering upon suffering. And it was made worse when he was told that his parents were dead. How could he escape it all? He couldn't. All Toboe could do was hug his brother and cry.
"I'm sorry, Toboe..." Kiba whispered into his brothers burnt colored hair.
And he was sorry. It was his fault. If he hadn't lit that fire... If he hadn't fallen back asleep- left it unattended... None of this would have ever happened. He burned his brother. He killed his parents. Kiba knew he should be punished for it, and he told himself that the pain he's been in in these past months isn't even close to paying back what he owes. But what was there for him to do? He couldn't take his life, it would only hurt the situation more. He'd leave Toboe behind. Completely alone. His brother didn't deserve that, he'd done nothing. Toboe was a victim of Kiba's negligence.
"I want them back..." Toboe wept. "I want them back..." He sobbed over and over into his brother's shoulder.
"I can't..." Kiba's words hurt him the moment his ears heard them. That started his own floodgate, and he sobbed just as hard as his brother.
That was Cher's cue, and she opened the bedroom door; she could barely see them in the dark bedroom, and the light from the hall was anything but bright and sunny. The sky was dusty in color with thick gray clouds. Rain clouds. But the room was bright enough. Only just enough.
"Boys?" she made it seem as though she'd only arrived and located them. Cher didn't want to intrude on their private moment, or at least, she didn't want them to know she had done so. "So this is where you've been hiding..."
Walking over to the bed, she wrapped her arms around the huddled children. Neither child moved from their desperate embrace of each other. It wasn't a surprise really. Cher had no expectations from them today; if Kiba and Toboe wanted comfort from her family they would seek it out. Right now they only need each other, to them they're all they have from life before.
"Hubb's making breaking... You kids should come eat," she was sure not to use anything that would trigger pain for either child, such as calling their house the Wolf children's home. It may be temporary in Kiba's mind, but Cher couldn't tell him that his plans for moving back into their home just weren't going to come true. Not all at once. Not until he was much older. "It's a big day, and you need your energy to face it."
"But why do we have to bury them?" Toboe sobbed, "If they're not treated like they're gone then... then maybe they won't be gone."
Cher took a breath in then out. "Toboe... nothing new is ever easy... This won't be easy, but you can overcome it." She kissed the child's head. "You're a strong boy, both of you are strong... Show this- show them just how tough you are."
"I don't want to! I just want my mommy and daddy!" Toboe shouted, muffled by his brother's enclosure around him.
"...You may not think so today, but the day will come... And when it does, you'll see that you can still remember your parents, that you still love your parents... Even when they're gone... Even if you don't remember them, that love won't have gone anywhere." She kissed both boys on the head and hugged them all the more tightly.
'How can you know? How can anyone know?' Wondered Kiba, who felt that their familiar scents were already leaving the room in place of nothingness.
0 0 0
Hige lingered around the entrance of the school until the bell rang. Then he lingered around at the classroom entrance until, once again, the bell rang. It didn't stop Hige from looking wistfully at the closed door once class had started, in hopes that Kiba would walk through the door late. Everyone has a late day once in a while.
But when that late morning stretched to a late afternoon, Hige's mood wilted knowing that Kiba wasn't going to come to school today. It was weird though, because there were a few other students absent too. And the kids in class were very muted and subdued today. It was like their world's had gone as gray as the clouds drifting in the sky.
'Maybe they all got sick? Or are at some party that no one knows about!' he straightened up in his desk wondering if something like that were true? 'Naah. That's completely stupid. But I'd sure like to know where they are.' Bored posture resting forward, fist to his cheek, he looked over at Aaden and asked in a whisper. "Hey, do you know what's going on with everyone today?"
Aaden looked confused, then took a moment to look around the classroom when Hige's dough eyes glanced about. He seemed shocked that he hadn't noticed their classmates have dwindled, then he nodded. "Oh, today is the funeral."
"Funeral? What funeral?" he straightened up at full attention. Was this something the strange new school was in to, going to open funerals?
"I keep forgetting you're new here," Aaden commented, "the Wolf's funeral. Kiba lost his parents in an accident. I'm not sure what happened, but, I know he's living with a family friend now."
'Wow... No wonder... That poor guy...' Sitting back, completely consumed by that information, Hige could only shake his head in disbelief.
"The other kids must have gone because they knew them," Aaden continued speaking, only now to deaf ears. "The Wolf family could be pretty cool."
'Gee, and I didn't even know so I could say I was sorry.' Hige's red gaze dropped to his lap. 'He must think I'm the worst friend in the world... I should call him... I wonder if there's time between class and lunch to do it?'
Hige frowned realizing that he doesn't even know where the funeral is being held, or what the number is. He doesn't even know Kiba's number! What was he gonna do? Hige sank to his desk top, his chin rested on the cold wooden slab. Today sucked.
0 0 0
Kiba straightened his tie. He didn't care that it wasn't even crooked, he just needed something straightened out. Something that made sense, even if it was as mundane as a straight tie. He frowned at his reflection as he took it in. He looked like a different person with his hair brushed that way, all slicked back and out from around his face.
'I wish I was somebody else, then this could be happening to them instead of me.' Kiba knew it was a cruel thing to think, but grief knows no logic nor kindness. 'Maybe Toboe was right, maybe if there's no funeral we'll wake up and find out it was all a dream... Maybe, if they really are gone, if we don't go... our parents will stick around and not be dead...'
"Kiba? Kiba come on," Cher walked in front of the bedroom entry way, "it's time to go, everyone's waiting in the car..."
"...Do we have to go?" the young boy's voice was heavy with tears.
"I'm afraid so... The funeral will go on with or without us, the funeral director would handle it. Don't miss this chance to say goodbye..." Walking into the bedroom she wrapped her arms around the child from behind, hugging him. "I'm sorry this is happening.. But it'll get easier, even if it doesn't get better. I promise."
Kiba nodded and turned around to face the woman, to hug her tightly. "I... I believe you."
He didn't want to lie to Cher, but he didn't want the woman who chose to take the two boys in to feel a failure because they're inconsolable. He didn't think he could survive without Toboe, and the chances of the two of them being adopted into the same family were very slim. Kiba knows very little about the adoption process, but from what he's seen on television, he knew it wasn't anything the young wanted to mess with.
"Let's go." Cher left one arm around Kiba's tiny shoulders, steering him, because he needed to be led, to the door and out of the house.
Kiba went with her, not a tear in his eyes, not a word or utter from his lips. He had to be strong for Toboe...
The room was decorated beautifully. He's never seen so many flowers in his life; his mother would be gushing if she could see this. But Kiba hated the greeting line. He hated the well-wishers mourning his parents like they knew them from a distant relative. Toboe remained latched onto Cher's side, weeping. He shook no hands, and took no well-wish. Chances are he wasn't even slightly of present today. And Kiba preferred it that way. He would rather his brother remember nothing but exhaustion from crying. Toboe wouldn't hold up watching their parents get put in the ground.
"I'm sorry, Kiba," a girl from his class wrapped her arms around him hugging him tightly. "Your mom was always so nice to me."
Kiba swallowed back his words, his cruel but insincere words, and just allowed the hug. It wasn't Caitlin's fault. This wasn't any of their faults. He just wished it was, to keep his own blame away. And once everyone who meant to be there arrived, the mourners moved into the main room and the funeral began.
The caskets were closed. Of course. Enlarged photos of Isao and Mikado were placed in the center of the room between their resting beds. Kiba hated the sight. His parents were inseparable, they should have been put together. But he said nothing. He watched the many faces approaching the front of the room, listened to the kind words, or funny stories that their friends had to tell. Kiba thought about his own funny stories that he would have to tell.
How their mother liked to tease them into hygiene by making up this silly story or that. They already knew about Santa and his intentions around Christmas, but they didn't know unwashed kids could get jipped on Easter or Halloween as well. Not until now. At 6 years old Kiba knew better, but he still liked to take an extra good bath around Easter just for his mother's sake.
Their father always did funny voices when calling them on the phone. He liked to pretend he was a Bubble Guppy or Spongebob, their heros. Kiba hoped their father knew that he was their hero.
"Kiba, would you like to say something?" Cher brought him from his thoughts to ask.
"Huh?" he needed a moment to process those words, before giving a wobbling nod.
Walking up to the front of the room, just a bundle of nerves with watchful eyes on his every step. He felt sick, and worried that he'd say something stupid and embarrass them. Standing before them, he looked over all the caring, grieving faces, and just blinked. Looking over his shoulder he stared through tears at his parents smiling faces in the photos.
"I don't... know what to say that... I haven't known them for very long..." He whispered. He steadied his trembling voice then tried again, but his words failed him and instead he shouted. "I don't want them to go!"
He ran out of the room, past the reaching arms, and comforting words. He ran and ran until he hit a wall at the end of the hall, then he swerved around a corner and hurried down another hall then out a pair of double doors. He didn't have anyone to turn to there. Out in the naked world, in a strange area to their neighborhood. Out here he didn't have anyone who would lie to him that he'd be fine. All he had was an emotionless tree that he wrapped his arms around before sinking to the ground.
The gray sky had been like Kiba's nerves. They started out light and airy, then deep and rich with rain, until finally the fracture was made and the rain spilled out. He could hear the crowd moving from the home. The death march. They were taking his parents outside to be put into the ground.
He couldn't let them do that! Getting up, he hurried across the field towards them. In his head, Kiba saw himself bursting through them; the caskets would fall to the ground popping open, and his parents would gasp for breath. They'd be different, but they'd be alive... Just like Toboe and himself.
"Stop it!" Kiba called over the noisy rain. "Don't do it!" he yelped when someone wrapped their arms around him.
"Kiba, calm down, please." Hubb whispered into his ear. "You have to calm down."
"I want them back!" he reached and struggled within his guardian's grasp, but their was no breaking free.
"I'm sorry, but you have to say good bye."
"I don't!"
"You do! Kiba, please listen to me," Hubb took a blow to the crotch, releasing the boy as pain shook through him. "Kiba, please come back!"
Hubb was calling to the wind because Kiba had cleared the distance between himself and the grave-diggers. The boy sprinted across the cemetery towards his parents. Kiba was halfway there to do anything he could, but he staggered and fell to the grass. A fit of coughs broke from his mouth; he was left to lay there staring longingly at the activity going on.
'It's not real... They won't just come back to life because I pretend it isn't real.' Kiba looked at his worn down, sleeping little brother resting in Cher's arms. It was then that a thought occurred to him. 'They're gone. Burned away because of me. They're dead.' He curled in on himself, and when he sat up he then stood. 'I can't just quit, Toboe needs me. Toboe needsme...'
Kiba wasn't sure where he was going, but he had to get there. Out of the rain and storm to a safe haven. Somewhere safe. The young boy burst through the doors of the funeral home; a mess of water and mud left anywhere he travelled. He didn't see Hubb in the distance, so he knew the man must have joined the others. Kiba would apologize for what he did later, but right now he just needed somewhere safe.
He found himself in a room with chairs and tables. A sitting room. Over by a flower print sofa he saw a telephone. Lifting the phone from the receiver, he removed a slip of paper from his pocket then dialed the numbers written down.
'Please pick up, please pick up.' But then Kiba realized something... Hige wouldn't pick up. He couldn't. School is still in session, and Hige is undoubtedly there and in class, oblivious to anything and everything going on today. 'Nooo,' his mind croaked and he shrank in on himself and the arm of the chair... But the line went through.
"Hige," Kiba whispered as if needing his friend was a secret.
"Kiba!" Hige shouted in contrast to the whisper. "I wanted to call you, what's happening?"
"Make it stop," Kiba mumbled into the phone, "make it all go away."
"...Oh..." It was the only thing he could think to say. He's never dealt with death before, not with anyone he's known closely. But he's dealt with divorce. And he knows that the last thing anyone wanted when they're grieving is to have to talk about it at any length.
"I don't know what else to do..." Kiba sobbed into the puffy arm of the chair.
He recalled his mother's arms around him, hugging him close and telling him he was a somebody. Words like that mean a lot to a child, and she always knew when to apply them. Kiba remembered his father taking him out for camping trips that Toboe was too young to go along. He loved their manly talks about Hot Wheels and junk food they'd like to eat forever. Who would do things like that with him now.
Kiba's face scrunched and his gentle sob turned into a downpour. It's over! It's all over. Their home will be lived in by some other family. Their lives, their memories will imprint there. He wouldn't be allowed in, he would no longer be able to hide in his parents bedroom when he just wanted to be with them. Whoever moved in there wouldn't understand. Kiba knew they wouldn't respect Cher's request that the family not touch their parent's bedroom.
'All their things will be moved into storage too... Their scents will be gone. Their memories...'
Hige listened quietly from his end. He wished he was there, he wished he could hold Kiba in his arms to let him get it all out. Poor Kiba was going to be altered by this, just as he was altered by his parents splitting up.
"Have I ever told you about the time I went fishing and caught a koi for my backyard?"
Sniffing, Kiba calmed his sob enough to ask, "What?"
"My pet koi fish," Hige repeated. "I was out at the lake behind my old house in Burnswood, and I was fishing for minows. I saw this orange and white flash going by every now and then and wondered what it was, next thing I know I've got this big fish hanging on my line."
Kiba's brows scrunched wondering what exactly the story was supposed to mean? Why would Hige tell him something so frivalous?
"I pulled that old fish from the water and ran it home. We didn't have a koi pond, so I dug a hole in the garden and dumped lake water into it."
"So?" he wiped his tears. Turning in the chair, his muddy feet came down from the cushion to dangle above the floor; his butt planted itself onto the semi-dry earth he'd tracked in.
"Ssssoooo, it turns out the koi wasn't a real fish... it was some kid's toy."
Kiba blinked at those words, then a smile tugged the corner of his mouth. "Yeah right, how did you not notice?" He could see Hige shrugging comically as an explanation.
"It was on a battery, it had gone from the kid's side of the lake to mine and one of the holes where the screws goes got caught on my hook. It was flailing so much I thought it was alive."
Kiba snickered. "What happened? Did the kid want his toy back?"
"I'll say he did! That kid must have rode past my house every day leering at my bedroom window wanting his toy back."
"Why didn't he just take it from the front yard?"
"He didn't know I thought it was real, and figured I had it up in my bedroom playing with it in the bath- dumb kid." Hige laughed.
Kiba smiled and chuckled too.
Hige told him all sorts of funny little stories, some made up- Kiba could tell- and some the goofy Moon kid probably embelished. By the time he hung up the phone he couldn't believe that he was feeling better. Kiba found a bathroom and washed his face from his tears. He had found his laughter... And he knew that if he could still laugh, maybe things really wouldn't turn out so bad.
"There you are," Hubb said when spotting Kiba coming up the hall. "Everything is done now. We'll be heading back to the house."
Wrapping his arms around Hubb's waist, Kiba then released him and backed up, bowing. "I'm sorry I kicked you, Mr. Hubb."
"Just Hubb is fine," his guardian waved his hand at the comment, "I know it wasn't your fault. I mean, it was, but it wasn't intentional."
"Yeah."
An awkward silence fell between them, then Hubb knelt down placing a hand on Kiba's shoulders. "Kiba... You know how when you start to grow up, you find yourself saying- or wanting to say- to your parents that you can do it by yourself?"
Kiba thought about that, remembering all the times those very words came out of his mouth, and he nodded.
"Think of this as one of those times. It's not a trial-run to see if you can, it's a chance to show you can. And while you're doing it, you can bet your parents are watching on and cheering for you."
Kiba nodded. And surprised himself by smiling, sincerely, at Hubb. His new protector. A guardian for him and his brother if things get tripped up while he's trying to find his way. And Cher, the other half of the whole new picture. Even if he made mistakes. Even if sometimes he needed somebody... He wouldn't be ashamed to ask for what's gladly there. It was time to do it. He will do it.
...
Commentary: It's too late for saying Christmas, but I've always preferred Happy any Holiday you celebrate! Even if it stank, you can always dust it off and do it again.
- 2
- 3
- 4
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Another Me