Life Is But A Walking Shadow

Chapter 1: Once Upon A Time Is Now

I laid on the chaise lounge, staring up at the ceiling. My arms lay by my sides as I breathed in.

"It all started when I was born…"

I was born in January, just a few minutes past midnight, into a lower middle class family. I was raised on Destiny Islands by my mother, Aerith, who was a high school teacher, and my father, Zack, who mostly went from job to job whether it was at gas stations or dealing with cars. I'm sorry, did I say 'raised by'? No, I meant 'financially supported by,' yes, that would be more accurate. My grandmothers, Mirakuru and Jiai, were the ones who actually raised me. Mirakuru is my father's mother and Jiai was not technically a blood relative but she was a close friend of my grandmother and helped raise me, so I considered her my grandmother. They were more like mothers to be honest. They fed me, clothed me, bathed me, looked out for me.

I rarely saw my parents around as I child. At the time we happened to live in our grandmothers' house since my parents didn't make enough money to buy one. I spent a lot of my time in the backyard looking at the plants and picking fruits; trees that blossomed with coconuts, bananas, limes, avocados, guavas, and mangos. It was like my grandma Jiai's personal Garden of Eden. She took good care of it, watering all the plants and checking the ripeness of the fruiting bodies.

I had a younger brother, but we never got along. His name was Oheina, but he preferred being called Ohen. He was obsessed with action figures, primarily the Prowler Strangers or something like that. I didn't care for it. I developed an interest in cooking and was always in the kitchen helping my grandmothers cook while watching them. I got into the habit of watching the cooking channel as well.

A few years later our parents announced that we were moving away from the island to the country of the Divided Territories of Aserica, yeah. Specifically into one of the territories called Mexas. My mother's sister, my aunt, lived there in the city of Austin. Her name was Omoshiroi, Auntie Omo for short, and I got along very well with her. Although not married, she had a son, my cousin, Shitsubo, and he didn't like me very much but I didn't let that bother me. I was enrolled into school at the kindergarten level for the next year before we moved back to Destiny Islands.

I was so happy to see my grandmothers again and the next few years were happy ones, spent just like before. My parents were still distant at best, and my grandmothers continued to mother me. After those years passed, our parents announced yet again that we'd be moving back to the DTA, but this time to the territory of Flowerda. My mother had another sister who lived there in the city of Bloom, or was it Orlando, I can't quite remember. Her name was Keikenna, or Auntie Kei. She lived with her husband, my uncle, Hinikuna. I didn't get along with either of them and their two children, my cousins, were never around very often since they were practically adults so I never got to know them personally.

I was enrolled in another school and another year went by before we moved to a different city called Kissme. For the first time in my whole life, my parents rented a house and we lived by ourselves. I missed my grandmothers but my parents had started to act more like parents. My mother kept her job as a high school teacher and my father worked at yet another gas station. I attended yet another new school and had to adapt. I hadn't been able to make any sort of long term friends due to all the moving around that my parents kept doing. And almost as if expected, we moved to a different house the following year still in the same city, and the same thing happened the following year, and the year after that.

I started attending middle school and I was very nervous. But I made friends, enjoyed my classes, and overall liked my first middle school experience. I encountered people I had never met before. Two of my friends whom were girls told me they were bi, something completely alien to me at the time. I had no previous concept of straight, bi, and gay. I suppose this newfound knowledge is what led me to wonder if I was bi and liked guys. Nevertheless, I met guys, made friends, and experimented. Most people would be either surprised or horrified at how young I was. But now that I look back on it, I believe it shouldn't be taboo for kids to wonder about their sexuality. I believe it should be only natural to wonder and not just blindly believe what you are told, that straight is the norm. Anyway, I liked the results and I considered myself bi.

Finally, after those years passed, my parents announced another big move up north to the territory of Virgin where we spent another chunk of our life. By this point in time, I had struggled internally about my sexuality until I accepted that I was gay. I had no sexual appeal for girls. Then the next fear hit me. What would people think of me? More importantly, what would my parents think? I wasn't particularly close to them so of course these fears were valid. Naturally, I kept it to myself. My second year of middle school was horrible to say the least. I was the new kid, I struggled to make friends, and I started to get bullied.

Around the end of the year, we had a Field Day. A day where we had no class, but we went to school and stayed with our homerooms. We went outside to eat and partake in various prepared activities. I met this one girl in my homeroom who I had never noticed till that day. Her name was Lea. We spent the whole day talking and became fast friends. It had been so long since I had enjoyed myself as much as I did that day. Afterwards, we realized we were in the same Technology class and we hooked up as partners in that class. We became really good friends. But all that changed when she developed a crush on me. She had the nerve to ask me out, I don't know if she had fear of rejection or not but I liked her straightforwardness. I didn't want to hurt her so I said yes. I was strange for awhile cause I knew I wouldn't be attracted to her physically but I did very much like her personality. Was that enough I wondered?

"That's enough for today." The sound of a book being closed emanated throughout the room. I nodded and stood up to leave. "Same time tomorrow then?"

I nodded and started towards the door.

"Oh, and Roxas, enjoy the rest of your day, alright?" I stopped for a second but nodded and continued on my way.

Author's Note: OMG. It's been so long since I've been on here. I'm back now with this idea that was floating in my head. I'm not going to give much back story to it until a few chapters in. I wanna keep the mystery and suspense but this will be a semi-romance fic but also sort of a transition of life with discovery and experiences along the way. So stay tuned! Now, for the rest of my stories that I left unfinished…I don't know if I'll continue them. I lost inspiration for those long ago and have long forgotten the ideas I had for them. Anywho, it's good to be back. Let me know what you think of this little taste of something new.