7 Years Old

Kaoru swung his legs steadily against the edge of the old, yellow chair, munching on his animal crackers. Occasionally, he hummed to himself, wondering when daddy was coming to pick him up tonight. Not that Kaoru liked it there any better; it was just that Kaoru didn't like staying at either of his parent's houses for long.

A sharp squeak lifted his eyes to the mismatching red couch. Skittering close to the floor was a lone rat, sniffing along the garbage-laden floor.

"Mom!" Kaoru whined loudly, jumping from the chair and dropping his crackers. He ran across the room, down the hall to mom's room. The small square room was littered with junk and mom was shuffling through the tall boxes.

"Mom! There's a rat in the living room!" Kaoru cried.

"That nice honey," she mumbled, scratching the dirty hair caked to her forehead. "Kaoru, I'm missing my glasses again. Will you look in those boxes over there?" She pointed to the horrid stack of small boxes overtaking the area below the window.

Kaoru paled, seeing something move in one of those boxes. But he forced a small smile across his face. "Sure, mom."

Hours later, after Kaoru had found mom's glasses sitting on the windowsill and long after he had grown bored sitting on the couch with nothing to do, a knock sounded at the old chipped door. Kaoru's head jolted up. He glanced around for any sign of his mom, but all was quiet.

So quickly Kaoru bounced off from his seat and crossed the room. His father didn't like to be kept waiting, so the little Hitachiin wrenched open the door. "Hey, dad," Kaoru greeted softly. He tried his best to hold his smile.

Dad just swept by without a word or even a glance. He just entered the room and glared around. He turned around; his face was darkened in a way that made Kaoru take a step back against the door. "Where is she?"

Kaoru shook his head. "I don't know… the kitchen?" Kaoru mumbled.

"Go sit in the car," he commanded, turning away and heading to the kitchen.

Slowly, Kaoru exited the small apartment, closing the door behind him. But he stopped to lean on the door, listening to the raising shouts coming from within the house. He sighed and continued on to the car.

After his parents had finished yelling at each other, which they do every time they see each other, dad came out and entered the car, not looking anywhere but straight ahead. It wasn't anything new really. Kaoru had dealt with this his whole life, so he just glanced out the window, waiting for the weekly rant.

"You know," dad began. Kaoru closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool window. His father continued, "If your brother was still here, none of this would have happened. If your mother hadn't given him up…"

Kaoru just nodded, knowing from experience that he wouldn't want feedback.

"I knew I should've told her no. He was special to me. I should have picked him…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

Kaoru tuned the man out; he knew this whole speech by heart. He just watched the houses race by and focused on the setting sun.

Hikaru dragged his spoon through his frosted cereal with a frown on his face. School was in a few minutes but he was still planning on taking his time.

Zen, Hikaru's older brother, walked into the kitchen and ruffled Hikaru's soft orange locks. "What's eating you, little guy?"

Hikaru looked up; Zen opened the fridge and grabbed the milk, flicking his black hair out of his eyes. The light gleamed off his silver earrings. Zen was only a few years older than him—thirteen. Well, it was a six year difference but they were close nonetheless.

"Mom told me last night… that I was adopted."

Zen glanced up with wide eyes. "What? She told you? I thought she wasn't going to do that till you were older."

Hikaru shrugged. "I asked her why I had orange hair when everyone else has black," Hikaru mumbled.

Zen poured cereal into a bowl. "Well it doesn't change anything. You are still my annoying little brother."

Hikaru pouted. "I'm not annoying. I'm in the first grade!"

Zen chuckled, now pouring milk. "Yeah and I'm in the seventh grade and that doesn't change anything. You are annoying and you always will be." He grinned as Hikaru shot a spoonful of his cereal at Zen's head. "What else did mom say?"

"Nothing really," he said. "She just said when I'm older I can meet my…" Hikaru searched for the word mom had used. "Biological parents. But she said that's only if I wanted to."

"And do you want to?" Zen asked as he lifted his prepared cereal and threw a spoon into the cold milk.

"Why would I want to?" Hikaru asked. "I already have a mom and a dad." Hikaru waved his spoon dramatically in the air, flicking stray flakes onto the counter at which he sat.

"And you have a brother," Zen reminded, chewing with his mouth opened. "You can't forget that!"

Hikaru giggled. "Yeah, one annoying brother is all I need."

So, if you didn't know already, I like to post in short chapters but update often. I work a lot better this way. But I promise the chapters will get a little longer as we get further into the plot. These first few are just to get the background story straight.