New Lives Are For Suckers

The year is 2132 and single-parent households were just outlawed seven months prior. Not that Axel gave a damn. He wasn't about to subject his kid to some fucked-up nutjob. The kid had it bad enough with him as a dad. He knew that. He was damn well aware of the fact that he was an asshole and selfish; spontaneous and reckless. He was so not cut out to be "good father of the year" and he'd never get an award for his parenting skills. What the hell was he supposed to know about parenting, anyway? His loser mom took off with the family dentist when he was ten, how pathetic was that, and hewas left behind with his violent, abusive deadbeat dad. His drinking went out of control and without his usual punching bag to take it out on, he'd found another avenue. He swore after his mom left he would never have kids. He didn't want to subject them to such a miserable life. He'd been doing a pretty good job at preventing it before his son was dropped into his life.

It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to avoid it. This was the last thing he wanted, to be a parent. Heck, at first, if there'd been anyone else he could have shucked the responsibility off on, he would have done it in a heartbeat. That was before he held his kid, watched him grow, and actually begun doing a decent job taking care of him. Glaring at the long ass line that he'd been shoved into, Axel fought the need to go down memory lane. He was above that. He didn't do fond memories and crap like that. It wasn't his style and this blip on the map wasn't going to change anything. It would still be him and Sora when everything was said and done. No one was going to be shoving some random stranger into their lives. There had to be a way around this, a loop hole, and he was gawddamn going to find it. Couldn't this count as child endangerment or some shit like that? There had to be a way out. There just had to be.

The line inched forward, tired parents trying to shush crying children and keep them entertained. What were they thinking, anyway? They shouldn't be subjecting kids to this kind of madness. The government was insane. He hadn't been the only one to try to avoid getting help, of course. There had been others but their cries of protest and outrage had been drown out by the gratitude and relief of the others. He was one of the minority but when the hell wasn't he? He shifted, pushing the sleeping kid in his arms up higher. He watched a world-weary looking mom hand her kid off and enter the courtroom. He grits his teeth but he knew that expression. He's seen a dozens, hundreds of times at the other support groups for single parents. It's the look of someone who had given on trying to fight, who's ready to lay down and accept whatever the world threw at them. He understood her feelings but damn it, he didn't agree with them. He wasn't about to just hand off his kid to some stranger and take whatever the government threw at him. He'd fight tooth and nail against the system, alone if he had to.

That's what parents did, that's what they were supposed to do for their kids! The line inched forward a little more and he couldn't fight the memories sweeping over him. That's what she'd taught him. He'd been a total player. He never cheated, although several times he came close to straying. Whatever his previous lovers might have thought, he had never cheated. Nor did he go under the age limit. He was fond of high school kids and college kids, but more because he shared their same mentality than out of attraction. Come on, that was just gross. He didn't want to bang some not even legal chit. He only did it with rich, older women who could afford to shower him with expensive gifts. He wasn't interested in the little college girls with the trust funds that daddy gifted them. They were more likely to get too clingy in six months and the blame him for their money problems. That wasn't his style. He also made sure he always used protection and anyway, most of his lovers were on the pill or something anyway. The last thing he wanted was a bratty kid he had to pay child support toward. He knew better than the women; he wasn't marriage material. He wasn't the settling down type. That just wasn't him.

Claire, though. Claire challenged all his preconceived conceptions about the world and especially about himself. Meeting her had been a mistake, chance at best. That's what he told her but she said it was destiny. She always did believe in crap like that. Figures. That night, he'd been at the club, fishing for a new sugar mama. It wasn't that he didn't have a job, he did. He simply liked being pampered better than using all his money to pay the bills. He wasn't the good guy, but that night, he didn't mind stepping in to take out an even bigger monster than himself. Because Claire, Claire drew him in from the start. Big, crystal blue eyes and slightly spiky long brown hair. Sora inherited her looks, thankfully, and her temperament. His hair was much more spiky, something that made the kid look adorable at times, but he had her eyes… Her eyes when they first met had been nervous and she'd been slightly jumpy. Axel recognized his mom in her and he'd kept his eye on her and her scumbag boyfriend the rest of the night. He was more of a Black King than a White Knight but he didn't mind coming to her rescue when that abusive drunk raised his hand to her.

It should have ended with him taking her home and dropping her off that night. He'd only felt a little guilty when she invited him and then offered to let him spend the night in her plush apartment. Murmuring drew him out of his daydreaming long enough to look up. The mother had come out and was trying to tug along her unruly boy to the opposite exit. What seemed to surprise most people, and made his brows furrow, was her partner was a woman. With gay marriages legalized, although gay divorce still eluded such couples, it wasn't exactly a shocking or uncommon phenomenon. Still, none of them had expected such an occurrence to happen here. The mother didn't seem to mind, though, he observed as he watched their progress out. Her new wife touched her arm and murmured something. The mother gave her a grateful look and the new woman tried to pick up the boy. Thankfully, he gave her less of a fight, but it seemed more likely it was because he was nervous about her. Man, that was a hot picture though. Two moms? Lucky kid.

The next one to go was a single dad. He almost shoved his ten year old daughter at the social worker or who ever the hell that person was. Axel growled low in this throat and glared in the direction of the disappearing back. Asshole. How could he treat his kid like that? He was probably just a deadbeat, good for nothing not fit to be a parent. He'd drag some girl from the courtroom into the kid's life and if they were lucky, the new "mom" of the family wouldn't be abusive. Not that it mattered; child abuse was so common nowadays it wasn't even reported as a crime unless something major was done or it was done in public. His grip tightened as his outrage grew. The sleeping boy gave a little whimper and he immediately relaxed, tamping down the growing rage. Not yet. He couldn't let his temper flare yet. He would wait until he got into the courtroom. He brushed aside the memories as well. He didn't need anything to dull the edge of his anger and Claire always brought out the best in him. Even now, after being gone four years.

He didn't remember how he managed to survive standing in that line for the next half hour. All he knew was that every single parent he watched walk into the courtroom seemed like a looser. Twice, they stopped the procession of parents to let the singles hand-picked by the system to go in. He barely suppressed a groan when he stepped up behind some woman and a new line of idiots was paraded through. She handed off her kid and went inside the courtroom. Just as the stranglers were going past, he broke out into an angry, hushed argument with the social worker. "No, I'm not going to just hand my son over to you, lady! Are you nuts? If he wakes up and I'm gone, he's going to freak! I'm not subjecting my son to that just because you're uncomfortable with the setting. Trust me, both of us have been twice as uncomfortable and we've been here for almost three hours!" He noticed a pink haired man glance their way, looking vaguely emotional. Was that concern? Or curiosity? He stepped out of line, glancing at the sleeping child and then the social worker. Obviously, he felt he should say something on the matter but the guard was looking at him as if he was trouble. Axel just waved him off with an equally vague gesture of 'it's alright' before returning his attention back to the social worker. "Fine. Here's the deal. You stand right here with my son. He wakes up and freaks out, you let him come in to me, courts be damned. Capiche?" He glared at her but her response was adequate enough that he finally let the matter go. With extra care, he let her take Sora from him, making sure she was minding him properly. That taken care of, he squared his shoulders and stormed into the courtroom.

Ten minutes later, he could tell the judge was really beginning to hate him. He'd vetoed every option he'd been given, his temper riling the longer he stood here. He'd hoped he could just say 'no' to it all and be let go but it could never be that simple.

"Then what is it you want, Mr. Cambion?" The judge snapped.

Axel's temper flared an all-time high and the rant he spewed forth would have made his sister proud. "What do I want? What do I want? I want you to end this gawddamn farce! Get the fuck off your high horses, all of you! What do you know about raising my kid? He's my son! You expect me to just waltz in here, go thank you very much for fucking up both our lives, and let you do whatever you damn well please? Hell no! You can't just expect me to accept some stranger around my kid without me knowing the particulars about them!"

"Mr. Cambion, we did a very through background check on all the applicants—"

"And what the hell does that matter? So they didn't get caught! You could be sticking me with a violent drunk, a drug addict, a weed enthusiast, a smart pedophile, anyone, and it's supposed to be alright because you did a background check? News flash, lady. People lie! They lie on their taxes, they lie about their coffee, they lie about how they feel about kids!" He could see that he was making the singles uncomfortable. Well good. He didn't want to marry any of them anyway, so that worked out just perfectly for him. He did notice the pink haired man again though. He seemed on the verge of laughter. Was this funny to him? This was his kid's safety he was thinking about here! He decided to ignore him and continued to hammer his point in.

"Half these people don't want to be here any more than I do! And I can guarantee that none of them want to be stuck spending the rest of their life with me."

"Amen to that." The judge drawled but he ignored her. She looked like a fifties something bitch who had had a permanent stick up her ass since the last president took office.

"There you go! None of these people are happy about this. I'm not happy about this. You're not happy about this. Why don't you let me go on my merry way and be done with all this? No matter what you say, I'm not going to let some stranger wreck my son's life."

"That's the point, Mr. Cambion. This is about improving your son's life. He obviously needs positive influences in his life," and from the look the judge was giving him, she was convinced he wasn't one of them. She could go screw herself for all he cared. "We intend to give him some, whether you feel he needs them or not. You can't walk away from here without some sort of partnership being formed."

"Why the hell not? I've got rights! My kid's got rights! You are abusing our Constitutional rights not to mention probably endangering my kid—" He was really getting into his rant when he froze, hearing a small wail come from the other side of the door. All his muscles locked in place and for a moment, the veins in his neck bulged. There was a guard on either side of him, to keep him in place for the hearing and probably stop him from attacking the judge. Right now, it was only their presence that stopped him from making a total fool of himself by trying to jump over every obstacle in the room. He whirled around, about to demand to be let go, when the courtroom door cracked open. A crying little boy ran in being chased by the matronly and very much despised right now, social worker. Axel shoved the guards off him, ready to jump the gate separating him from everyone else but Sora was already climbing it.

He picked up his son before he could get himself hurt and gave him a little hug, murmuring quick and quiet words in his ear. The pink haired man got out of line and waved off the guards, making their way to them. Axel didn't know if it was out of concern, focusing solely on Sora. He was close enough that he could probably hear what he was saying, which sounded stupid no doubt, but it worked. Sora seemed to calm down, tucking his head under Axel's chin when he was done and wrapping shaky arms around his neck. He glared at the social worker, who held out her arms expectantly, like it was somehow obvious he'd hand over the child now that he'd finally calmed him down. He turned around and marched back to the table, glaring daggers at anyone who came close. He wasn't going to let them take his son from him. He didn't notice the pink haired man talking quietly to the lady with a honey sweet smile, or how nervous she suddenly looked as she backed up and headed for the door.

His attention was solely on the judge, waiting for the verdict. She looked bored before finally heaving a breath of contempt. "Are there any volunteers?"

His head jerked back. "Volunteers?" He ground out. What was he, some lottery prize? No way in hell.

"What's going on?" Sora asked in a hushed voice.

Axel gentled his tone, stroking his son's back. "We're picking out a new mommy for you today. Remember? We talked about this."

"You said it would happen over your dead body."

Axel winced and shook his head a little. "Well, I was wrong. It looks like it's happening today." Despite all his efforts to stop it.

Sora peeked over his shoulder to look shyly at all the potential mothers. None of them looked motherly, he whispered to Axel and he silently agreed when he turned to view them. None of them looked eager to marry him either. He regarded all of the singles with Sora, making soft comments on all of them as the seconds turned into minutes. The pink haired man grinned when they got to him and gave Sora a little wave. He gave a hesitant grin back, then a wider one and waved. That drew a few smiles. Axel's expression softened with love and he gave the man a heartfelt nod.

At that moment, two simultaneous things happened. The judge began to speak, saying, "Well, if there are no volunteers then someone will have to be chosen through lots." At the same time, the pink haired man stepped forward, ignoring her speech and the guards. "I volunteer." He spoke up, a slight melody to his masculine baritone. The judge blinked at him as if she thought she were hallucinating. Axel couldn't blame her. He was pretty sure he was as well.

In the middle of the silent spell that followed, Sora announced in a clear voice, "He doesn't look much like a mama."

Axel felt something in him crack and he gave a strangled laugh as the first bit of his control over his life slipped away before his very eyes. "No. He doesn't look like a mama, Sora. Not at all."