#set beta

Yahiko could barely remember his past life. He knew his father had died in a car accident when he was still a toddler. His mother, overcome with both grief and the task of raising a child alone, decided to put him into temporary fostering.

He wasn’t immediately put into a home, but was placed in a Government-run Child Institution. Men and women dressed in white uniforms and no smiles took care of him. Many of the other kids in the institution had problems. Kids abandoned because they had deformities. Older kids seemed to act crazy, never knowing the love of a family.

Yahiko was at least lucky in this regard. His mother visited him every week. She told him about all the money she was saving and how soon he would be able to come home with her. That hope was the only thing that kept him going. So blind to that desire, he didn’t even notice how much weight his mother had been losing.

The last time he saw her, she looked like a skeleton. In her arms was an over-sized yellow sweater that she had knitted. She had said it was his father’s favorite color, and that she wanted to make it big so that he could grow into it. As always, she promised that soon they would go home together.

That had been four years ago. She had died of cancer. He was then finally given to the first of many foster homes… becoming an official orphan.

He wore that yellow sweater now. It was now tight on him and full of holes, but it was one of his few possessions. It was also April, and the weather was still cold at night in Tokyo.

A shiver went down his spine, as if his thoughts made it that much colder. But, he wasn’t afraid. He had spent many nights alone in these alleyways. He knew these streets.

He also knew a place that would let him stay the night and give him food. That was where he would go for now, then make plans to get out of town.

Walking down the road, a warmth spread through him as the red neon lights became clearer. “Kamiya Bar”.

It was strange that a bar was his safe place, but the people who ran it had been allowing him to stay with them since he met them a year ago.

Kamiya Kaoru was only 20-years-old, but the bar had been in her family for generations. She had caught him one night when he was digging through their garbage for food. He had tried to escape her, but she easily caught and drag him inside for a fresh meal (thought, after eating her cooking, he rather go back to the trash).

She had also been a foster kid when her dad died. She was only in for two years, but he knew she could understand where he was coming from.

He had also met Kenshin that night, another unwanted soul. A former yakuza hitman, he was now a homeless man living near her bar when he had helped her out. She returned the favor with a job and a place to stay in the apartment above her bar.  

Kaoru offered that same sanctuary to him, and so for the next two times he ran away, he stayed with them.

Yahiko walk around to the back door. She kept it unlocked, and the last thing he needed was the police finding him this early in his latest escape.

It was close to 2 a.m., so he knew they would be busy with shooing customers out the door and cleaning up. Instead, Yahiko went straight up to the apartment. Opening the door, he was surprised to see Kenshin swathed in a blanket on the couch.

“Oro? Yahiko, it’s good to see you.”

“Why are you wrapped like a gyoza?” he asked, taking off his shoes and walking over to sit on the floor.

“Ah, this one seems to have caught a cold. Miss Kaoru refused to let me work tonight and wrapped me in a blanket… thought it seems she did a good job of making sure I could not get out.”

“Gah, she acts like such a mother,” he complained, but tried to hide his smile. He went to help Kenshin out of the cocoon of blankets when the door burst open.

“Calling for back up, huh? I told you to rest, Kenshin! Why are you still awake?” Kaoru pointed as she shimmied off her shoes.

“This one wanted to wait up for you, that I did,” Kenshin smiled, finally freeing himself of the blankets. “The cold also seems to be gone thanks to the medicine.”

Yahiko wanted to gag at the look Kaoru gave the former homeless man. She was so in love with him, he didn’t understand why she didn’t say it. Her blue eyes then moved onto him, her expression changing into a frown.

“Yahiko, you’re back again so soon? Did they switch your family?”

He snorted. “No. They said it was either them, or back to the institution. I’d rather deal with the punches than the institution any day.”

Kaoru’s eye’s narrowed and she went onto her knees, looking him in the face. “Where did he hit you!”

“It’s no big deal—hey!” he yelled as she tried to pull up his yellow sweater. “Stop harassing me you ugly woman!”

He couldn’t help the groan that came out when she ran a hand alongside a large, angry bruise on ribs. Kaoru put a hand over her mouth in shock. Kenshin came over and pulled her away.

“Yahiko, have you been to the police?” he asked.

“Haven’t I said this before?” he rolled his eyes, readjusting his sweater. “They don’t do anything. They will just take me back to them, and tell me off for running away and making my ‘parents’ worry.”

He didn’t want to talk about them anymore. They were his soon to be past. Instead, Yahiko walked over to the guest room she always gave him. “I’m not going back again, though. So, it’ll be okay. I’m just going to stay here a few days while I get my plans in order, if that’s fine.”

“It’s always alright,” he could her whisper. He hated her pity.

He grunted as a thank you and shut the door behind him.

In the morning he told them his plans over breakfast.

“I’m going to hitchhike out to the countryside, and get a job on a farm,” he managed to get out in-between bites of pancakes and sips of juice. Luckily Kenshin had cooked breakfast this morning.

“Yahiko, they aren’t going to hire a child,” Kaoru refuted.

He finished his juice and sighed. He hadn’t been full for a while. “Some farms will. They got a new foster kid about a month ago, and he had told me that he had escaped up to Murayama. There are some farms up there that know they can get cheap labor off runaways, so they hide us from the police. He only got caught because he left to see if he could find some family on his mother’s side.”

“But, you’re a kid! You shouldn’t be working… you should be playing and going to school,” Kaoru sniffed. There were unshed tears on her eyelids, threatening to go over the edge.

Yahiko was at a loss. She had never gotten emotional on him before.

“This one agrees. It could be dangerous to be working in such a place,” Kenshin added.

“Listen! I have been taking care of myself as long as I can remember. All of so called ‘families’ only make my life harder. I would rather be pulling weeds, getting paid single yen coins, then to ever go back to them.”

“What if the next foster family is a good one?” she asked, blinking back her face and looking straight at him. “What if that’s the one that will finally love you and give you a home?”

“Ugly! You know this system! I’ve been with more families than I can count. There are no good ones. The next one might even be worse than who I’m stuck with now.”

Kaoru said nothing, but she kept her gaze on him. After a few minutes of silence, she nodded. “I do know that system… I’ll make you a deal, Yahiko. Stay with us here until the end of June. Let me give you a childhood. Then I will drive you up to Murayama.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, raising his eyebrow. He looked to Kenshin for clarification, but he was met with that usual silly smile. He could never tell what the red head was thinking.

“I want to show you there are good foster families out there, even if we are just a temporary one. I don’t think it’s fair for you to go through all this.”

“I…” Yahiko faltered.

He felt Kenshin’s hand on his arm. “This one knows what’s it’s like to be truly alone. You do not want that. Miss Kaoru and I will give you that encouragement before you go off on your own.”

A weird feeling came into his heart. These two people sitting in front of him were the last ones to ever be a parent… a family. A barely-legal, bar-owning, monster-girl and an older-than-he-looked, former-assassin, homeless-man…

May as well add a foster-kid, runaway to that mix.  

Yahiko smiled. “I guess I have no choice. Just don’t treat me too much like a kid.”

It was weird at first, but Yahiko could never remember a time like the one he was having at Kamiya Bar.

He was cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. Even the days Kaoru cooked, he ate every bite.

Kaoru let him watch all the cartoons he wanted and Kenshin even took him to Akihabara to buy a used video game system.

At nights when they worked, he began to feel lonely and went down to see if they could use help. Kaoru refused, but eventually allowed him to wash dishes. She even paid him for it.

“Your allowance,” she joked.

He could never call her his mother, especially only being 11 years older than him. But every day he felt a familiar bond grow with her. She refused to let him get behind in school, so she set up a homeschool with him. Kaoru wasn’t a bad teacher, but he still had to be the class clown, even when he was the only student.

Kenshin was his idol, though he would never tell him that. He knew he was once a bad person, and even killed, but that wasn’t who he was now. It seemed like he went out of his way to help anyone he could. Yahiko knew his childhood, or lack of one, must have been similar to his. He hoped that he could turn out to be at least half the man Kenshin was someday.

He noticed that it was the first day of June, and he felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Soon they would let him go, and he would be alone again. His childhood over again.

“Why did you pick June?” he asked Kaoru one time.

“Because my birthday is in June,” she answered. “I want you there so you’d have to get me a present,” she teased.

What she didn’t know was that he actually already was working on one for her.

It was Kaoru’s birthday.

The bar was closed today, but all her regulars had thrown her a large party the night before. He wasn’t usually allowed in the front, because he was both under-age and a runaway, but she allowed it.

All the old, drunk men had commented on what a good man he’d be when he grew up. It made him wonder if his dad were alive, would be a happy drunk like these guys? Maybe he would have been a regular at this bar.

Today was just for the three of them, and he was glad for that. His gift was so embarrassing; he didn’t even want Kenshin to see it.

She had just opened her gift from Kenshin. It was just a simple indigo silk ribbon, but her emotions read like he had just given her a diamond ring. Yahiko didn’t get the significance of the thing, but he was pleased to see that the color would match the gift he had for her.

“Uh, don’t laugh when you open it…” he mumbled. It was strange to be nervous, but Yahiko chalked it up to the lameness of the gift.

She tore open the paper and held up a poorly knitted blue sweater. She looked wide eye from the sweater to him. “Did… did you make this?”

He rubbed the back of his head. “I once was fostered by this old bag with a million cats. She had no TV or computer and all she would do was make me help her knit sweaters for all her cats. So… I just thought I’d make you a bigger version of it.”

Yahiko would never tell her he picked blue because it matched her eyes. He already felt stupid enough. He may as well given her a macaroni noodle drawing.

He also felt it was appropriate that he gave her the same gift his mother gave him. He used to dream about going home. Now, he was about to leave his home.

Her arms surrounded him before he could realize she had moved over to him, embracing him. “It’s the perfect gift for summer! Such a smart kid you are, Yahiko,” she mocked.

Yahiko struggled to get out of the hug, but remembering how strong this chick was, he stopped and just accepted it. A hug wasn’t that bad…

“Thank you,” she whispered before pulling away.

She had promised to drive him to Murayama to find a farm to work on. But that would be a promise not kept. Though, it wasn’t her fault.

Yahiko left the night of her birthday. He made the slow walk back the institution, his mind yelling at him with every step. But his heart had won.

He would miss them too much. Even if he spent the next eight years stuck in that hell hole, he could at least see them every now and then. He could watch them from afar. He wanted to see if Kaoru would finally tell Kenshin she liked him. Or if Kenshin would move on from his past and finally smile for real.

And the past two months made him realize that he was still a child. He wanted love and attention. He wanted a family.

“What if the next one is a good one?” she had asked him.

He didn’t believe that was possible, but if those two misfits gave him his childhood back, then maybe there was hope.

His welcome back was about as festive as he imagined it to be. It seemed almost like they were madder he came back alive. It was another body they had to feed now.

To his surprise, they already had a matched foster family for him by the end of the day. They really must have been pissed to get him back.

As he was being lead into the common room where foster kids met their new families for the first time, he could hear a social worker tell his new family about him.

“He’s been known as a pain in the ass, ma’am. Are you sure you, being a single woman, can handle him?”

Yahiko turned the corner and there stood Kamiya Kaoru, dressed in a white skirt and the blue sweater he’d given her.

She looked at him and smiled. “I think I can handle him.”

“If you say so… I’ll give you some time with him. We can finish the paper work in my office later” the social worker said, leaving the two of them alone.

“What the hell are you doing here, ugly?!”

She clutched her fists together. “Hey! Don’t call your new mother that!”

“You can’t be my foster mother!”

“I so can! In Japan, you have to be 21-years-old to foster…” she flushed with embarrassment, her voice going quieter. “That’s why I wanted you to stay past my birthday.”  

His mock rage left him, again leaving him surprised. “W-why?” was all that he would muster.

“Because family is important. We need to stick together.”

He said nothing, only looking down at his shoes.

She bit her lip. “I hope this was okay. We were going to talk it over with you, but you left.”

“You really think we are family?” he asked.

Slowly she walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I do.”

He smiled up at her and put his hand over hers.

“Come on. Let’s get this paper work done and go home. Kenshin is making celebratory meal!”

He walked behind her, watching the sweater she wore. He thought back to his old, worn out one. Maybe it was time to get rid of his old one, and make a new brand new one.

“Right behind you, ugly!”