Okay, it's up, yah, kinda slow and short if you ask me, just a bit of history and such, etc. ENJOY! also excuse any errors, I was in a hurry, I have an essay due as well, which I have been procrastinating, leaving little time for editing.

- Laced with Cyanide

02

His Father

Fuu

I run my hands through his tousled hair; it makes me smile.

No matter how much I suffer, no matter how much pain I must live through, it is this small pleasure that keeps me going. This small pleasure forces me to endure.

My son.

His face was wide and plump, a bubbly grin permanently fixated on his face. His eyes were dark as was his hair and no matter how hard one tried, it could never be combed neatly. The child was beautiful, more beautiful than any other child I had ever seen, maybe it was because he was my son, or because of the way he comforted me, or maybe it was because he looked exactly like his father.

It had been four years since he had left me that night. Mugen ran away from me, yet I was left with not one bitter feeling, I was just glad that I had been good enough, even if only for one night. These thoughts confused me, in my mind I knew I should be angry, that I should make him face his decisions but…my heart wasn't so willing, my heart only told me to love this child, that Mugen had already made his decision.

In that time I had his son and found the only man willing to care for me and my child. He knew that the child wasn't his and yet he was willing to make this embarrassing sacrifice, taking me in while heavily pregnant, giving me and my future son a place to live mere days after being fired from my job. At that time I had worried so much about my future, where I would live, how my child would survive; I couldn't bear to let Mugen's son starve.

But this luck came with a price. A month after Sora's birth, Kirai, the man I called my husband, returned home drunk. His nose was bleeding like a tap and his face looked wild, his eyes seemed to look into my very soul, I could feel the hate and frustration pulsing off of him, the anger aimed at me. Carefully I had put Sora down on the mattress, I scooted passed him, a feeling of foreboding running through my body as I smelt the saki on is breath. Kirai had turned with me, that same murderous expression on his face. I knew it was coming, I could feel it already, but at least I had guided him away from Sora.

The first blow was the most shocking, though I had expected it I hardly believed that he would do it. I could feel the dark bruise forming on my face and many more as his hard leather fists pounded into my soft body. I cried as I tried not to scream. He was finished after an hour or so, leaving me broken and bruised on the floor.

Three years had passed since that day and he hadn't changed he'd still return home once or twice a week, the smell of saki strong on his breath, ready to vent. Sora understood what was happening completely, he knew that this man was not his father, he knew that what he was doing as wrong, it made me sad to think that my sons eyes were so open so young.

Whenever Kirai returned in this state Sora knew what to do. He would run. The elderly woman next door never refused him, she felt sympathetic towards me and Sora. I refused to let Sora see more than he had to, I couldn't bear for his eyes to open any further.

I snapped out of my reverie as Sora groaned on my lap, his brow furrowed as though he was having a nightmare, I smiled, how Mugen-like he looked when his face contorted like that. I shook him slightly,

"Sora," I whispered gently, "Sora," his eyes opened lazily and he had a bewildered look on his face, "mummy needs to get up now," Sora yawned and curled back into my lap, I picked him up gently and lay him on the porch, the warm sun shining on his small body.

I turned to look at the road a few metres away. In the stillness of the day I could hear the crunching sound of footsteps as they collided with the dirt road, I began to walk towards the road, Kirai must be home, I thought to myself. As I stood, staring down the road, the familiar figure approached me, but it wasn't Kirai.

It was Mugen.

10 reviews total and I will continue with this.