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Another Me	By : Resting-Madness Category: +S to Z > Wolf's Rain Views: 1787 -:- 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
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Disclaimers: I don't own any character, creation of universe, or make profit from this free and fun work of fiction. I just do what I do with what's been put out there to work with.
Warnings: Sexual situations. Language.
Commentary: This short, possibly six chapters, story is dedicated to Bella13blue for asking if I could do more KibaxHige stories.
This is a relationship/friendship story, so the flow of time will be based around that, making it move quickly and that's why it'll be a short but hopefully meaty short story of Kiba and Hige through their relationships. And some time next year I'll do another AU or maybe watch the show over and do a semi-au with future them based on the shows ending. I hope you all enjoy it, thanks for reading! I'm so mad at my brain for misspelling names and other stuff, but I'll be fixing Love Object and Italian Sushi from the copious mistakes, and what-not, if you've been getting alerts from that, that's all that is.
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Beep. He hates that sound. Beep. He's pretty sure whatever the reason for it is, he doesn't need it, when he's doing nothing but sitting in the hard mock-bed for days. Listening. Just listening to that annoying beep. Beep.
Kiba Wolf, age 6, was going to have a nervous break down. Tilting his head back, he glared at the machine he's hooked up to by the finger and chest with a bunch of wires attached to sticky pads.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Maybe he could ask the nurse to remove it all? Would she? Could she? He isn't sure of the duties of nurses, but he's pretty sure someone has to be aware of his situation well enough to know that he doesn't need to beep. Rolling over onto his left side where the I.V. isn't hooked into his arm, he tried getting some rest. Sleep'll drown it out until lunch.
Truthfully, sleep has become a hard task. Kiba'd rather be up and seeing his 4 year old brother, Toboe tan going to sleep and dreaming about the fire. His younger brother is far worse than he is in the situation, and he needs someone. Toboe needs the only family member he's got left. Kiba wanted their parents, to hold him, to tell him that everything will be ok. He's still so young. He needs them! But he knows that Toboe will want them and need them more. His azure eyes looked down at the starched white gauze around his forearm. Beneath that tight binding is an ointment-coated burn from his wrist to his elbow. Deep partial thickness. Second degree, said the doctor who'd been cleaning it and caring for it for. The man told the young boy a bunch of things along the lines of skin grafting and procedures, but he could hardly listen.
Kiba kept screaming for his parents and for his brother's whereabouts, because Toboe wasn't with him. He's sure that when he'd left the forest his brother was on his back, as he'd been the one to carry him to safety away from the burning home, and the- quickly following- blazing forest. He'd been delirious from smoke inhalation and exhaustion, in severe pain from his smoldered and badly blistered arm. But he knowsToboe was there.
When he'd finally calmed down enough to listen- due to a shot to the arm- the nurse informed him that his little brother was getting treatment in the I.C.U, that Kiba could see him once he was stable. They didn't know that Kiba had heard them when they'd said "The younger one may not even make it through the night".
Their neighbors, and friends to the family, the Lebowskys were the one's who'd brought them to the hospital on that terrible night. Their third day in the hospital was when Kiba was alert enough to understand the things being said to him. He was calm and able to listen and understand all the new changes that have been made, and all the things that are now going on.
He and his brother would now be living with the Lebowsky family. The Wolf's had no living relatives that could take them, and loving their mother like a sister, Cher would never allow the boys to be placed into adoption. Toboe's condition was bad. Because it had taken Kiba some time to get the burning piece of wood from his body, his burns were leaning on third degree. It was a miracle they've got him stable on isotonic crystalloid solution, that he'll need extensive graph work done, and constant treatment to keep infection away, hydration, and possibly a transfusion. But they were hopeful it would not get to that point. As for Kiba, he'd be scared but within 3-8 weeks his arm would be healed with maybe slight muscle spasm.
Cher informed Kiba that when he got home; Toboe wouldn't see a house for a long while, but for Kiba, he'd have to pack some things to bring over to their house. And that the Wolf home would eventually be put on the market. Those words stirred something in Kiba, and as Cher kissed his forehead before telling him to get some sleep, he stopped her from leaving his room.
"Miss Cher, don't!"
"I'm sorry. I'll stay in here with you."
"No. I meant, don't sell our house."
"But Kiba, if no one is living there then i-.."
Determination practically strangled him as he spoke his next words. "I wanna keep it! It's the only place Toboe and I have known, and I wanna keep it!" Sniffling, he started to cry. "Even if it takes me whole life, I'm going to stay living there with my brother."
Her blue eyes blinked as she took in this brave child before her. His words resonated through her, until eventually she found herself nodding. "Okay, Kiba. I won't sell your house." She didn't know how she'd pay the bills on two houses, but she'd find a way, for this poor boy and his dear brother.
2 weeks later.
Kiba lost his 'beep' and became the young boy with a 'squeak' and a low thrumb, as he was wheeled through the hospital to the I.C.U. room where his little brother remained getting treatments day in and day out. Toboe wasn't awake, not any of the times he'd visited. But he knew his little brother could tell that he was there.
"Sweet heart," his nurse, Elaine, said to him the fourth day he'd asked to visit. "How's about I get you an ice cream cone, and take you down to the children's playroom. You can play with some kids your age, make some friends to talk to."
"Why would I wanna do that?" Asked Kiba in reply. He doesn't want to be here making friends while his little brother is laid up in bed with tubes coming in and out of him. Doctor's talking about his condition like he could still go at any minute, and he's off playing karate fighters or some nonsense with the other kids. No way.
"I think it'll be good for you, so you don't have to see nothing but that room you're in... You can do something other than worry."
"Is that what you think I'm doing, ma'am? Worrying?" He looked over his shoulder to where the woman is standing behind him, pushing him towards his brother's room. "I'm talking to him. I'm telling him that he's going to be fine. Seeing that he's happy. I'm not worried about my brother."
"You're such a strong little boy." She ruffled his hair. "They say it takes tragity to really allow a person to show how brave they are, how strong. I think you're really one of those brave and strong people." Nurse Elaine smiled warmly. "I'm glad that you're not worried for your brother."
She walked from around the wheel chair to open the door for them into the I.C.U, from there she wheeled Kiba over to his brother's incubator, putting the break on the chair to keep him in place, not that she thought he'd go anywhere, Kiba is capable of moving, the chair is just protocol.
"I'll go and get you some books to read to Toboe, would you like that?"
"Sure, thank you." Replied Kiba. He's already leaning forward in the chair to look at his brother, who's asleep and breathing deeply with assistance. "Hey Toboe, I'm gonna read to you today, doesn't that sound good?"
Nurse Elaine looked over her shoulder, watching Kiba from the door with a sad expression. She'd meant what she'd said about strength and bravery. But she also knew the boy was going to have a rough life. He'd lost both parents, and his little brother is badly burned, he could actually die from it. But he's going to put on a brave face, because he feels he has no other choice. And for that, she could only feel sad for him.
2 1/2 weeks later.
"He's awake Mr. Hubb! Hurry!"
Kiba beamed as the man wheeled him down the hall towards his brother's new room. He's left intensive care, and has moved into the normal patients' wing with the others, getting to share a room with his brother. Kiba had been showering when he got the news from a nurse.
"I don't want Toboe to think he's alone when I'm here."
Laughing at the kid's understandable enthusiasm, Hubb pushed with a bit more speed; it's a hospital after all, he can't exactly go all Speed Racer here.
"I promised him I'd read to him once he woke up."
Kiba was practically out of the chair and crossing the room when pushed across the threshold of his room, seeing his brother laying in bed with his eyes open was all the older boy could stand. Toboe looked confused and miserable, until spotting his brother then he perked up, but not by much.
"Don't speak," Kiba said taking his brother's singed hand.
It would heal away to non-existent, just like the ones on his hand when he'd been smacking at the flames. When he was trying so hard to put the fire out on that board that pinned his brother on the bed. The flames danced before Kiba's vision before they died away leaving him with his bandaged brother. He's wearing a gown, he looks unscathed. But Kiba knew what lied beneath that printed fabric gown. The same thing under his bandages, large blisters of yellow and white, wrinkled discoloration, and pain. So much pain. He has to wrap his arm, Toboe will be getting sponge baths... God, he can't imagine the list of instruction for upkeep treatment until the burn just becomes a deformity he can wash over.
'Why did you have to get it worse?' He wondered, trying to keep the tears at bay. 'It should have been me, we were both in that bed... So why? Why you?'
A hard frown sagged the corners of his brother's mouth, tears welled in his eyes. "Kiba... What's the matter?" Toboe asked in his tiny voice. "Where's mommy and daddy?" He began to cry. "Where are they? Kiba?" He sobbed harder. "Where're mommy and daddy!?"
The younger Wolf was in full hysterics, sobbing violently, while his brother wept beside him. Tightening his grip on his hand.
Hubb and Cher stood beside them, watching. Just watching. They can't truly understand their pain. Being so young and losing their parents like that. It'll never be the same. Parents can have more children, not replacements for whom they've lost, just more. But children... The devastation was permanent. Foster parents, relatives... None of them can be mom and dad.
It went like that... off and on. Toboe would ask for- cry for- their parents... And Kiba would distract him by telling stories or reading them. Making jokes or just sitting with him, holding him until his sad shaking sobs ceased. And it took a while, it took a long while. But eventually, Toboe just stopped asking for them. Treatments were rough on him, and through it all there were the Lebowskys, and there was Kiba. There would always be Kiba. And for Toboe... That became enough.
December 15th, 2021.
It had been a long awaited day of arrival. The day Toboe no longer needed to be in he hospital. He could go home with his new family. It was actually an event for both Wolf brothers, because Kiba wasn't about to leave his brother in the hospital alone, he remained in their room with him until the day of his brother's release.
"Are you boys excited to get out of the hospital? Sleep in a real bedroom, in a real bed." Cher spoke to them through the rearview mirror; Hubb's driving, and now and then he stole a glance at the Wolf brothers through the rearview as well.
He's always wanted a son. He loves his adopted daughter Cheza, don't get him wrong. But it's different with girls and boys. He felt a need to protect his daughter, to be her father. With sons... He'll have best friends amongst his children. He didn't mind giving up his office for the boys to share as a bedroom, they couldn't very well share with Cheza. Hubb and his daughter had fun shopping for bedding for the boys while Cher took the trips to and from the hospital on some days, on others it was Hubb who went to visit them. Their guardian had some time wondering what the brothers would like to decorate their room with.
He's never fathered a six year old, because of Cheza, four he thought he could handle well enough. Cher seemed calm, like none of it was new of different, but she used to be an elemenatary teacher, until they'd adopted Cheza as a baby and she was needed at home to raise her, so she's got experience with slightly older children.
"We're almost there," Though Hubb knew it was a useless comment, but he wanted to say something.
The air was very charged; Kiba seemed anxious at one point during the drive to the Lebowsky home. He knew a few houses down from their's was his own. Empty. Kiba took his mind from out of the window and instead focused on his little brother. Toboe is playing with Cheza, laughing and pretending he's stuffing food into a baby dolls mouth while she's making hungry gobbling sounds.
"Ahaha!" Toboe laughed when Cheza laughed.
Kiba smiled warmly at the scene. His brother and Cheza grew up together, from the crib to concrete. He'd always wanted a friend like that. But he'd always had his dad; Isao Wolf was Kiba's best friend. But now...
The car pulling to a crawl brought him out of his slump, and he watched the Lebowsky home, a place where he and his family enjoyed barbecues, birthdays, and sometimes babysitting, grow into view. It looked foreboding now. Like it wanted to eat him up and spit him out as someone else. Will he have to change his name? Will he be- could he live as Kiba Lebowsky? The thought of it threw his mind into a panic.
"I can't go in there!" He declared loudly. "I can't go in!" His chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath from an attack of panic that was numbing him.
"Kiba?" Cher climbed from the car, pulling the door open to hold onto the boy. "Kiba, it's ok!" She had to raise her voice over his volume, thinking he wouldn't have heard her otherwise.
Hubb was managing Toboe, who became worked up when his brother began to freak out. "Ssshh... Shhhh.. Ssshhhh. It's ok... Everything's ok."
"I want my mommy and daddy!" Toboe cried in Hubb's embrace.
He and his wife stole looks at each other from around the weeping children. This wasn't going to be as easy as they'd originally thought. The Wolf brothers were brought inside and put to bed, they'd cried themselves to sleep.
Hubb poured his wife a cup of coffee then fixed a mug for himself. He knew that once the brothers woke up they'd still be afraid, and weary of the changes.
"What're we gonna do?" Cher wondered out loud after a long chug of caffeine went down her throat. "We still have medical bills to tend to, we still have the funeral now that they're home." Setting the mug down, she leaned on the island-counter with a purpose. The woman could switch from frantic to 'beast-mode' at the drop of a dime. "I need to go back to work teaching, and get a part-time on weekends to make up the cost."
"Cher?" He began to protest but ceased when his wife's hand came up to silence him.
"Hubb, it's fine." She gave him a stern look. "Cheza will be starting kindergarten this year, so she'll be at school until twelve; I'll ask Mrs. Duran to pick her up and sit with her until I get home. Weekends... That beauty salon, you know, the one for skin care just opened three weeks agi and they're still highering. I can apply there."
"I'm sure you don't have to go through all that, I can make up the cost with overtime."
"Hubb, don't be ridiculous." Patting the counter, she pushed away from it grabbing her mug. "This is happening. I'm going to make the calls, you cook tonight." She walked out of the kitchen speaking as she departed. "Those kids need a homecooked meal tonight."
"Of course, honey. I'm on it."
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"Miss Cher, Mister Hubb?" Kiba stood in the doorway of the master bedroom. "Can I talk to you for a minute."
The pair moved their books aside to give their attention to the child. They thought he'd be in bed asleep by now, after he and his brother cried through dinner, the couple were sure they'd be tuckered out again.
"Of course, come in."
Walking over to the bed, Kiba held his head up high before he lowered it with a quick bow. "I'm sorry my brother and me were a handful today." He straightened. "I should have set a better example, and shown better judgement. It won't happen again."
"Kiba... You lost your parents, and you almost lost your brother" Cher got up from the bed, placing her hand on the boy's shoulder giving it a light squeeze.
"No one is expecting you to be perfect. This is a hard situation for everyone." Hubb spoke in his wife's lack of words. "It's new for us to have you living here, and it's new to you to have to live here, as well. We're all in the midst of adjustments."
Looking into the boy's misty gaze, Cher asked. "Do you understand?"
"Yes."
But now he felt like crying because the couple is being so understanding. He'd said he'd set a better example so that Toboe wouldn't feed off of him and be miserable too, but Kiba really wasn't sure he could pull it off. Not without fault.
Throwing his arms around the woman, he began to cry again. "How could it happen, Miss Cher? How could they just be gone? Don't they know we need them? Didn't they care at all?" He sobbed.
"Ohhh," she wasn't sure what else to say. She really had nothing. But she held him, and rubbed his back. And after he'd cried it all out, Cher tucked him into bed.
The next day proved harder than yesterday because Cher took the boys over to their home so they could collect their clothes to put into their new bedroom. Cher is helping Toboe, since he's just a little guy and wouldn't be able to properly pack a suitcase; Kiba however was at a stand-still in his bedroom.
'The house is so quiet and cold...' Tears welled his azure eyes. 'Mom and dad'll never be here again. They'll never wake me up waving a plate of french toast under my nose. I'll never get to hear dad telling weird jokes to mom when he thinks I'm not listening. Mom won't 'bink' me on the nose whenever I space out... I'll never see them agai...'
He let out a breath when a flash of Toboe laughing joyfully in the car with Cheza yesterday when they left the hospital, and he remembered what he'd said to Miss Cher yesterday. He'll be strong for his brother. He'll make things easy on the kindly couple, who's taking them into their home.
Sniffling, he wiped the back of his hand across his nose. "I remember what you said, dad. I'll take care of you Toboe. I'll get through school, and get a job... Then we can live our house like always. I'll grow up right, and take care of you properly." His little hand balled into a declarative fist.
Cher walked into Kiba's bedroom, taking a seat on the small bed covered with a web-slinging super hero. "It's hard, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." He looked at her trying to remove his frown, but it remained firmly intact. "But, I'll try my best, just like I promised."
"And Hubb and I will do our best." Rubbing his back, she said very assuredly. "We're going to rent your home out to a family in order to relieve the bills and keep the house in your name. But only if it's okay with you?"
Kiba had to think about that. People in their home, strangers living their lives different from the Wolf family's. Their home would be altered. Their stuff gone.
"We'll move all your things into storage, and keep what we can in the basement of our home." She could tell what inner turmoil he was having about renters. "We'll tell them that they're not allowed to change a thing about the place. No faucets, no removal or additions. The home is to be left as it is." Cocking her head to meet Kiba's gaze, she asked. "Does that sound good?"
"Do it." Kiba said with a nod.
Cher gave his shoulder a squeeze of 'thanks', then she got up from the bed. "The funeral is in three days."
Kiba nodded.
"I'll get you and your brother a suit."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
When she was halfway out the door, she paused.
"Miss Cher..." He looked over his shoulder at her. "When I'm old enough, I'll get a job... And I'm going to pay you back for everything you've done for me and Toboe."
Smiling, she knew she couldn't argue with the boy. "That sounds fine, Kiba. Thank you."
Nodding, he returned to packing his suitcase. His hand skipped by the blue ribbons he'd won for good grades some years back, and he reached for a hair brush to stick in the suitcase.
'At least that's one thing that won't change.' Regardless the death of their parents, school would always be school. Or so he'd thought, he never knew another change would walk into his life.
x x x
Commentary: Don't worry. That's the end of jumping around like that, first chapters are always scene set-up. And since this is fresh work instead of my putting fics from another site on here, I'm not sure when I'll update but it won't be too long away.
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