It was just sounding half past ten. Luc had been in his room all morning listening to the noises coming from downstairs. The sounds of the younger kids playing, the nannies gossiping while cleaning, and of Ms. Kelly on the phone. He had been listening for hours, wondering what was going to come through the orphanage doors on this day.
At twelve to eleven someone could be heard knocking on the front doors. He didn't know who or what was here, but Lucien knew something was going to happen. Whether it impacted him or not, he didn't know. So he just sat up in his room and relaxed. Ms. Kelly had called all the children in and asked them to line up. She only did that when there were possible adoptive parents here in search of a child. Luc didn't move when the children were called, he never did anymore. No one wanted him after the discovered his 'difference'. Luc knew one of the kids was going to be adopted today and was happy for them. He chose to go about his normal routine since he wasn't needed downstairs. He was prepared for the day. What he wasn't prepared for was the sound of his roommate, Jason's, voice a few minutes later telling him he had visitors. It was the first time in many years at the Oxford Orphanage in London for him and it scared him.
Joseph and Lycander had just arrived at Oxford Orphanage, hoping to adopt a child. Looking at his partner of seven years, Joseph couldn't help but smile. When they arrived the children were presented. After looking at all the children, Lycander looked at him and shook his head. No child there seemed to be right for them. Joseph looked at the nanny, and quietly asked
"Are there any other children here? Any at all?"
She studied the couple for a moment. After a long silence the whispered reply left them baffled.
"Just one," She said "but he's…Different."
"Different how?" asked Joseph
"Why don't I let him tell you, Jason, come here."
A young boy, about thirteen or fourteen came over.
"Yes Ms. Kelly?" He said.
"Why don't you bring these gentlemen up to your room. They would like to meet your roommate."
"Yes Ma'am"
And suddenly they were being brought upstairs to wait outside a door that had a name plate that read 'JASON & LUCIEN'.
"Please wait here a moment." He said as he opened the door "Luc-" and quickly, the door was shut.
They could here muffled conversation and movement from beyond the door. Suddenly the door opens and the boy, Jason, steps out.
"When you go in," he says "please sit on the bed, don't make any quick movements, and wait for Lucien to start talking please." And then he walked off.
Slowly the couple enters the room. Seeing nothing in the room, they go and sit on the bed to wait for the child. They didn't have to wait long because as soon as they were seated and the door closed, out from the shadows stepped a beautiful child. Very slender, even for a child. He had long, raven black hair tied behind his head. His skin, alabaster in color, was not unblemished, but beautiful nonetheless. His eyes, just as startling and beautiful as the rest of him, were covered by ugly sunglasses.
Once the child sat down on the chair in front of the desk he turned his back on the couple to fiddle with something in front of him. When he started to speak the Joey and Lycander were stunned at how strong yet gentle and shy his voice was.
"So, Jason tells me you wanted to see me…Why?"
Confused as to why the child asked that, the couple remained quiet.
"What did you want to see me for." he stated more clearly.
Joey was the one to answer him.
"We wanted to know if there were any other children here that were not downstairs when we arrived. We were told there was one, you, and we were curious as to why you weren't downstairs."
"Oh." He replied nonchalantly "I don't come down when potential adoptive parents are here, after the first few it just becomes too tedious to deal with since once they discover it, they run."
This time Lycander was the one to speak up.
"It? What's 'It'?"
"You mean, they didn't tell you already? That I'm … Different?" Luc asked.
"Well, they said you were different, but when we asked how the nanny said she would let you tell us…"
At this Lucien turned around to face them with a look of sorrow on his face. He stood up and walked over to the couple, stopping in front of them.
"Before I tell you how I came to be at the orphanage and how I'm 'different', I must request your names first, and the promise that whatever I tell you does not leave this room because not even the nannies know the whole story."
Joseph answered.
"My name is Joseph, or Joey, and my partner's name is Lycander and we promise it will not leave this room."
"Thank you Joey, I must also ask that when I am finished you don't treat me with pity or sorrow or anything different then if you're treating me now, okay? Okay."
Taking off his sunglasses, Lucien spoke.
"My name Lucien Calcifer Micheals, son of James and Darcy Micheals. I was born on June twenty-seventh, nineteen-eighty-one. On October twentieth my parents were killed in a car accident and I was sent to live with my father's brother and his family. At the age of five-years-old I was forcefully blinded by my uncle." And he opened his eyes to reveal scarred, ice-blue orbs that stared straight ahead.
"What do you mean forcefully? Did someone purposely blind you?!"
Lycander had been the one to ask this, appalled that someone might purposely hurt a child. He was completely unprepared for Lucien's answer.
"Yes, I was forcefully blinded by my uncle in front of his coworkers."
Horrified barely describes the look on Lycander's face. He was completely disgusted. Who would do that to a child?
"And that's not all he did to me." Lucien whispered "That day my uncle had invited five colleagues over after work. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was the first with so many men. He told me to go up to his room to wait for him and his 'friends'. So I did. I wasn't alone for long. They came up a few minutes later, all of them high and drunk with creepy smiles on their faces. All except for one, he was that one that went and sat in a chair in the corner of the room with a look of despair on his face. My uncle then walked in counting something, money I think, with a look of pure joy on his face. When he was done he looked at me and said to the men 'Have at it boys, he's all yours' and stood back as the men came forward.
It was the worst day of my life. I wanted to die just to end the pain. I was raped by four men at least twice and forced to 'perform' on all four as well as my uncle. The fifth man was still sitting in the chair, staring ahead. It hurt so much, soo so much. I begged them to stop, but it only drove them to make it worse. They started to hit me, cut me, and carve words into my back. Words like 'freak', 'disgusting', 'queer', and 'abomination'. They cut me up and made me bleed, they hit me to make me scream, and it got more and more brutal."
Lucien has paused for breath. Turning around, his back to them, Luc lifted his shirt and showed them his scars. He heard a gasp as his scars were revealed. Staying turned away after lowering his shirt, Lucien continued.
"Finally they stopped being so brutal and began slowing down. My uncle was pissed because I wasn't yelling or screaming anymore. Considering his wife had left with his son only a week ago his fury was worse than normal since he blamed me. So he turned me on my back and had a couple of the men hold me down so I wouldn't be able to escape. As they did this I looked over to the guy that was still sitting in the chair. He hadn't moved since he walked in and sat there. I looked over to see him crying and typing something on his phone. At that point they had tying me down so they could watch as my uncle had turned my face towards him as he spoke. 'You, freak, are going to get what you deserve' he said to me 'you should die, but I can't do that.' Next thing he does is pull out pocket knife and made incisions on my eyes that burned and stung badly. It hurt but I could still see at that point. But I was crying because it hurt so much. I looked over to the man in the chair who was staring at what they were doing to me. Then my uncle pulled out a bottle of bleach, and with a sick smile on his face he uncapped the bottle and poured its contents onto my freshly cut eyes. It burned, it hurt so much. I cried and cried and with a final thrust the last guy finished and they all left, all but one. The man in the chair was still there.
After those men left I curled up and stifled my pained cries, my vision getting blurrier. The man finally got up and came over and kneeled down beside the bed, took my hand in his and cried, saying over and over again 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry', loud yelling coming from downstairs. He picked me up, wrapped me in his jacket and cradled me against his chest. Last thing I remember is saying 'It's okay, it's not your fault' and seeing his crying face. Then my world went black. I woke a while later in a hospital room. I could tell by the smell of the room. I opened my eyes and everything was black. I could hear gentle breathing next to me. That was the day I met Mark, the closest thing to family I have. He brought me here and visited me every week until he was deployed for the war. I haven't seen him for over a year. After he told me the men that did this to me had been arrested and that the doctors did everything they could, but they couldn't fix what happened to my eyes or reduce any of the scarring with the technology they had. After I recovered they brought me here to the orphanage and I've been here ever since."
He turned back to face them and they could see that he'd been crying and was trying to hide it. With a quick look shared between them, they grabbed him in their arms and held him as they all cried, telling him that it's okay and not his fault and just held him. They all three lay down on his bed and cocooned the small boy between them as he cried. Luc held tightly to Joey as Lycander held them both. Soon Lucien had fallen asleep in the arms of the men, comforted by the feeling of safety and love that was emitted from the couple. Joey looked at his partner of seven years and saw a look that tore at his heart, knowing it was the same look that he had. They couldn't believe this had happened to such as young child, yet he remained so innocent. He then looked back at Lycander with a look he knew would be reciprocated. He wanted this little boy and he knew 'Cander felt the same. Luc belonged to them. They unraveled themselves from around the small boy and quietly left to talk to the nanny about adopting the little one.
Luc awoke a short while later to no one. Nobody was in the room, let alone on the bed with him like before. He started panicking, not knowing where they were. He quickly left his room and made his way downstairs. He started searching for anything to tell him where the couple had gone. He heard voices coming his way and he recognized two of the three voices coming towards him as the voices of Joey and Lycander. He ran towards the sound of the voices, crying in relief colliding with a warm body he knew to belong to one of them, Luc cried out.
The nanny that had been talking with them before Lucien showed up had a confused look on her face. Not once in the many years Lucien had been at the orphanage had he ever showed much emotion, or even cried. Yet, one talk with the couple had him sobbing. What had they talked about up in Lucien's room that would have the child acting this way?
The body Luc had collided with incidentally, belonged to the younger of the two, Lycander. Looking down, Lycander sees Lucien desperately clinging to him as he cried his eyes out. Gently lifting Lucien, he listens as the little one sobs out "I thought you had left! I woke up and you guys weren't there. It scared me…" as he timidly wraps his arms around Lycander's neck. As Luc calms down he starts to fall asleep again. Before he falls fully asleep the little one mumbles sleepily "Don't leave me this time, not again…"
Holding the sleeping child in his arms, Lycander looks at Joey desperately. He didn't know what to do. He wanted the little boy; he wanted Luc as their son. But taking him from the only home he's ever really had? They didn't know how Lucien would feel.
The group continued with their activities from before Lucien had appeared. They arrived at an office and sat down, Lucien still attached to Lycander. The nanny, Ms. Kelly, had just asked the men if they would like to adopt Lucien. The men shared a look between them. They both already knew that they wanted to make him part of their family. Before they could give their answer though, there came a knock at the door. Ms. Kelly gave the signal for the visitor to enter. The door opened and in walked a man in uniform. Apparently Ms. Kelly knew the man for a small gasp escaped her lips.
"Mark?" she said "Is that you?"
The man gave a gentle smile before replying.
"Yes Ma'am, it is."
The man, Mark, looked exhausted and had the haunted look of a soldier. The look that says they have seen things they should not have to, war. But he also had a look of anticipation and excitement on his face, which confused the couple. Before they could inquire as to the reason behind the look, the man spoke.
"Excuse me Ma'am, but where is Luc? I went to his room when I got here, but he wasn't there…"
Before Ms. Kelly could answer, Luc started to stir in Lycander's arms, gaining the man's attention.
"Lucien?"
"Marky?" came a sleepy voice. Luc lifted his head off Lycander's shoulder towards the source of the noise that woke him up.
"Yes, Lucy, it's me." said Mark, alerting the boy to his presence. Disentangling himself, Luc slowly made his way to the source of the voice, stopping a few feet away.
"Is it really you Marky?" he asked skeptically.
"Yes, Luc, yes it is me" he said almost desperately. Luc ran towards the voice, all but crashing into Mark, quickly wrapping his small arms around the man. Mark did the same, encircling the small body within his arms and abruptly started to cry. Bending down with practiced ease he picked up Lucien and cradled him against his chest.
"Oh how I missed you Luc, missed you bunches." said the soldier
"I thought I'd never see you again Mark! I missed you too." muttered Lucien in reply.
Quietly, Lycander and Joey sat back and watched the exchange. When Mark had first entered he hadn't seen the two men present, but after he set down a now quiet Luc did he finally notice them. After giving Mark one last hug, Lucien walked back over to the couple. Going over to stand in front of, not Lycander but Joey, Lucien held out his arms in a silent request to be held. Joey was all too happy to oblige and picked up the little boy and settled him on his lap. Curious as to why Lucien was so relaxed with these men, Mark spoke up.
"Luc? Who are these men? Do you know them?"
Looking back over to the place where Mark's voice was coming from Luc nodded.
"Their names are Joey and Lycander."
"And why are they in 's office with you?"
"I don't know, honestly. I just sorta tagged along" Luc said a bit pathetically.
It was here that Lycander spoke up.
"We are here to discuss a few things with Ms. Kelly" he said "Private things."
"Oh well please excuse my interruption then, I was just a bit worried when Luc wasn't in his room" he confessed "I'll just take Lucien with me so he doesn't bother you. Come along Luc."
At Mark's command Lucien tightened his grip on Joey slightly. Feeling Lucien's reluctance to let go Joey said, "No, its fine, Lucien may stay here with us while we discuss things, he isn't a bother."
With a hesitant look on his face, Mark slowly left the room. Elated he could stay, but confused as to why, Luc asked.
"I can stay with you guys while you talk? Really?"
"Yes little one, you may stay, after all it does involve you." answered Lycander.
"You mean…?"
"Yes Lucien, we wish to adopt you and have you as a part of our family" Joey supplied this time.
As Lucien listened to Joey answer, he couldn't believe his ears. They wanted to adopt him. Someone actually wanted to adopt him. And not just anyone, two people he had told everything to. And apparently they weren't disgusted by him like everyone else would be. They actually wanted to adopt him.
"What we wanted to know, little one, was if you would like to be part of our family." Lycander said.
Wait they wanted his opinion on joining their family? Of course he does! HE felt so close to them. He was so happy they wanted him.
"Yes! Please! Yes, I want to!" Luc exclaimed.
Massive grins touched the couples face at the boy's answer. He wanted to be part of their family. He wanted to. Joey and Luc clung to each other as Lycander wrapped his arms around both of them.
As they untangled themselves the men went to sign the paperwork that made Lucien a part of their family. Luc was ecstatic. He finally had a family! One that wanted him. But his uncle's words continuously ran through his head.
"You're a freak!" "No one wants you!" "Your own parents didn't even want you!" "We're stuck with you! But you will be put to use soon enough."
And then he was 'used'. Remembering those words had Lucien terrified. What is his uncle was right and he was filth? Joey and Lycander didn't want a freak like him, no one does. Shoving away from the arms holding him, Lucien ran. He ran and he hid so no one would have to see him for the freak he was. He hid and he cried, mumbling his uncle's words.
"You're a freak! Filth! No one wants you!" repeating it as if it were some sort of mantra to him.
Joey sat there dumbfounded. Luc had suddenly got up and ran away. Then Joey started panicking. Why had Luc run off? They had just finished signing the paperwork that made Lucien their son. And now he was nowhere to be found. They had searched everywhere for him, including out in town. He was nowhere to be found and they were getting more and more worried.
A few hours later Lucien still had not been found. Lycander and Joey were sitting in the parlor waiting for any news on Lucien.
"Where could he have gone?" Joey cried out "We finally found the perfect little boy for us, and now he's gone! I want our little boy back."
The last few words were whispered. Lycander had tried comforting Joey, but unless Luc was back in their arms soon, nothing would help.
"I know Joey, I do to"
They sat there alone in each other's arms for a while thinking about where their little boy had gone. Unbeknownst to the couple, Lucien was in the closet across from them, hiding from the world.
"Why would he run?" Joey whispered to himself "Does he not like us?" a bit louder he says "Does he not want to be a part of our family?"
Lucien could hear the desperation and sadness in Joey's voice and felt terrible. 'Why would they care about a freak like me?' he thought to himself. 'No one wants a freak, no one wants me…' he said repeatedly to himself. He was saying it louder and louder each time and Joey and Lycander began to faintly be able to hear him. They walked over to the closet, the source of the noise. As they got closer the words became more audible. Standing in front of the closet they could make out what was being said.
"…a freak, no one wants a freak…"
Hearing those sad words, they opened the closet door slowly and peered inside. Within the confines of the closet sat Lucien, curled up in the fetal position and crying while whispering those words. Upon seeing Luc inside the closet, Joey broke down crying, happy they had finally found their little boy. Lucien hadn't known he had been found until Joey had cried out. Looking up Luc shrunk back further into the closet upon seeing who was in the doorway. Lycander bent down and picked up the reluctant and frightened boy to cradle him against his chest. Grabbing Joey's hand with the one no cradling the too small boy and walked back over to the couch, and sitting down. Lycander and Joey tried to sooth the small boy, telling him that he was theirs and they did want him, that he was their perfect little boy and nothing was wrong with him. Slowly, Luc started calming down and relaxing. They repeated everything over and over until he was calm.
" Really?" he asked timidly "You really think that? You really want me?"
"Yes Luc, we really do" said Lycander
At hearing those words Lucien broke down and clung to Lycander. Joey wrapped his arms around Luc as Lycander did the same to him. Cling to each other, the new family created a bond that would be indestructible. After calming down quite a bit, Lucien got down and started to drag both Lycander and Joey out of the room. Confused, Lycander spoke up.
"Where are you taking us, Little One?" he asked.
"To my room, I need to pack my belongings since I no longer live here and I have a family now." replied Lucien, smiling like a child at Christmas.
Dragging his new parents up to his room, Lucien began to pack what little he called his possessions into a small brown suitcase he grabbed from under his bed. Finishing very quickly, Lucien handed his suitcase to Joey.
"Please wait here, I need to say goodbye to my friend Jason." said Lucien.
Walking quickly out of his room and down the stairs, Lucien headed towards the place he knew his only real friend would be hiding, the broom closet. Jason and Luc had discovered the broom closet soon after Jason had arrived at the orphanage, determining then that it would be there hiding place, their safe haven. Opening the door slowly Luc walked in and felt his way over to where Jason was sitting and sat down beside him. Grabbing Jason's had Luc began to cry as he came to the realization that he was leaving Jason behind.
"I'm sorry Jay" whimpers Lucien into their clasped hands. "I always thought you would be the one to leave me here, not the other way around. I'm sorry Jay-bird."
"I know Luc, I know." says Jason soothingly. "Come visit me sometimes?" he says as a joke.
Luc chuckles a bit but doesn't respond. He doesn't want to leave his best friend behind but he also doesn't know how Lycander and Joey would feel about adopting two kids instead of just one. As the two boys sit there in their own little world, relishing their last few moments together.
