Unanswered Questions

Disclaimed again!

Laguna looked up from his football game as he saw his son enter the living room. "What do you have there, kiddo?"

Rude came to stand next to his father, holding the square frame out to the seated man, "Who is this?"

Looking down at the picture of himself, his wife and their closest friend, Laguna smiled softly. "That's Kiros. You're mother and I were the best of friends with him since we were little kids. In fact, he was my best man at our wedding."

"What happened to him? Why isn't he around?" the teenager asked.

Suddenly quiet, Laguna felt his eyes grow glassy. "Well, he was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver when your mom was pregnant with you."

Shifting his gaze from his father down to the photo once more, Rude said what had been weighting on his mind since finding the photo. "He's my biological father, isn't he?"

Green eyes shot open to their widest as Laguna heard the question that he had been dreading for years. "Well, ah…you see…I, um…RAINE!"

Father and son stood there awkwardly staring at each other for several moments before hearing a stampede of footsteps coming towards them.

Raine was the first to arrive, hair still dripping with shampoo and tying her robe as she entered into the living room. "What on earth is happening in here?"

Seconds later, Ellone burst in, her youngest brother trailing closely behind her. "Who's bleeding?"

Laguna jumped up off the couch, waving his hands in the air and rambling incomprehensibly until Raine held up one hand to stop him. Taking in a single deep breath, Laguna looked into his wife's face before saying, "Rude's asking all these awkward questions that I don't know how to answer."

Ellone just giggled. "Uh, Dad, Rude's already 14. I'm pretty sure that he already knows where babies come from."

Laguna just stared at his daughter with a dumbstruck look as if she was speaking a completely different language.

Sighing and deciding to take pity on her husband, Raine walked over to him and took the photo from his still flailing arms. "Oh," was all she said as she flipped the frame over and saw who was in the picture. "Maybe we should all sit down." She then took Rude's hand and led him over to the couch to sit between herself and where Laguna was still standing. The long haired man took the cue and plopped down as his knee locked up as it always did when he was this nervous. "What would you like to know?"

"Is this man my biological father?" Rude asked again.

Unsurprised at her son's perceptiveness, Raine just nodded. "Yes, Kiros is your biological father."

Rude just nodded at the confirmation he already assumed to be true. "Did you love him?"

Laguna had suddenly begun to turn a slight shade of pink. "We both did, very much."

Nodding once more, there was another question that Rude felt that he had to ask. "Why didn't you tell me before this?"

Once again, Laguna began to babble and stutter out complete nonsense before Raine looked over at him and shut him up with a raised eyebrow and a single mention of his name. It caused her husband to sigh out a single breath before he laid his arm along the back of the couch behind his son. "Well, to tell you the truth, I was afraid."

This time it was Rude who raised a single eyebrow, a trait he had obviously inherited from his mother. "Of what?"

"I guess I was afraid that if you found out that if I wasn't your real father, you might resent me or stop loving me."

Son then gave his father a look of understanding before reaching down to pat Laguna on the knee in a very reassuring manner to silently tell him that no matter who his biological father was, Laguna was stil was and always would be his Dad.

Laguna let out a sigh of relief and a light chuckle. "Whew. You have no idea how much of a relief it is to know that you understand and accept all of this.

"Did he know?" Rude questioned.

Laguna cocked his head to once side in confusion. "Did who know about what?"

Raine just rolled her pale eyes at her husband's cluelessness with a smile. "He wants to know if Kiros knew that I was pregnant with him before he died." She then turned to her older son with the same gentleness to her face. "No, sweetheart, he didn't. He died just before we found out I was pregnant."

Rude nodded once again as he took the photo from his mother, looking down at the three smiling people in the frame. "Would it bother you if I kept this picture of him?" Although he was still looking down, everyone knew that the question was meant for Laguna.

Laguna suddenly got all teary eyed as he broke into a wide smile. "Of course you can keep it son. In fact, I think that Kiros would want you to keep it. He always did like this picture."

Finally speaking up, Squall just rolled his own pale eyes. "Dad, you're such a moron," he said before turning and leaving his stunned family just standing there.

And now you know why Rude has such dark skin compared to the rest of his family…

If you like this story please check out some of our other stories from our Family Tree Universe in our archives :) And as always, if you would like to see where the pairings and family lines came from please go view our deviant art page, http :/ crymsonpahoyhoy . deviantart . com /, minus all of the spaces ;) The deviations are called FF KH Family Tree.

We love you, please review.