Hey guys. What's up with you?
SO… in this chapter we meet our good friend, the evil provider of sweets, Mr. Wammy!! Whom L's older sister distrusts? Gasp.
I have a horrid canker sore. It's right under my tongue, too. I just try to keep drinking water. It should come out soon.
I also love the band Bowling for Soup. I heard a few of their songs in AMVs and I'm IN LOVE with 1985. I listen to most of the bands in that song… even Blondie. And I LOVE U2!! WHOOOOOOO!!
But this was written mostly listening to Creep by Radiohead.
Oh, and if anyone wanted to know, there will likely be three (maybe two… I'm having trouble with Mello) companion fics for this one. They will all be Wammy House back stories. Matt is a druggie, Mello is a Jesus-freak, and Near is a rich kid who randomly got kidnapped XD. Yes, my mind comes up with these depressing situations.
And also, my power keeps going out temporarily. This summer is messed up weather-wise.
On with the chapter!
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Since the incident in July, I had gained a general distrust of those around us. Not just men, not just adults, although those two groups of people did put me on edge. I was wary of everyone who stopped to talk, or paused to stare, even in disgust, at two street kids.
Speaking of those staring in disgust, the number had been increasing. Lawliet, being small for his age, and myself, looking old for my age, had offset many people. The truth was, by a quick glance, it was easy for us to be seen as a teenage mother and her fatherless son. It was, really, rather embarrassing to have a young woman come up and say she was 'in the same boat' as I was, and leaving a good fifteen pounds in the coffee cup before leaving with their child.
That, among other things, also lead us to another rather drastic decision, and we cut down on pan-handling. We started stealing, but not a lot, and only things we really needed. Clothing was one thing. It was hard to afford clothes, so we used to go a day or two without food if we needed new clothes. So fall was a hunger season.
And over the next year, we really stopped focusing on surviving. We were having an easier time, and also learning about what was around us. We found a few easy-to-break-in-to houses, and met several people who worked and lived in the area. This included a few concerned citizens caring for the homeless, and business men emptying change from their pockets.
The most curious thing that we had seen this whole time was, without a doubt, the elderly man who stopped by more-and-more often to talk to us. Being both a man and an adult made me incredibly nervous, and that nervousness what not in the least dulled by the fact that he mostly talked to Lawliet.
He wasn't the kind of person to take interest in any street rats, either. He was well dressed, and as far as I had seen, he drove a Rolls Royce. Or was driven in. It didn't matter. The point was he was stinking rich.
And when I woke up one crisp morning in May, I was surprised to see that Lawliet was not with me behind the shop. And I immediately worried.
I stood up, not taking even a moment to enjoy the nice morning, and pulled a stolen hoody around my shoulders. I craned my head in all odd directions to see if Lawliet was still behind the building, but besides the dumpsters, the concrete area remained vacant.
I slipped around the two corners that still gave me an eerie feeling. I shuddered, a luxury I didn't allow myself when my brother was with me. I broke into the light and noise of the busy street, and blinked a few times at the early morning rush hour, then looked around.
I found who I was looking for several meters away, sitting in his usually odd position, talking to… great. It was the rich guy.
Lawliet had likely gone out to sit with his coffee cup for a while, and that guy happened to drop by. I kinda wished he hadn't.
I wandered up towards them, and rubbed an eye quickly before shoving my hands in the pockets of my cheap jeans.
"Morning, Lawliet." I yawned, attempting to force back any signs that I was still half asleep.
"Oh, hello!" He grinned. "I'm happy you're up. I was talking to Mr. Wammy!"
I sighed. "That's nice, Lawliet, but Mr. Wammy is probably very busy, so let's go get some breakfast, alright?"
Before Lawliet could reply, Mr. Wammy, as we knew him (and I did believe it was a fake name. No body had a name like that) stepped in.
"It's quite alright." He said. "I'm not really busy at all. If you would like, I could buy you both breakfast."
"That's fine." I smiled, try to be as inconspicuous as possible as I tried to grab Lawliet's arm. "We'll be fine. We really wouldn't want to be a bother."
Mr. Wammy looked surprised. "I insist. Besides, I have something I would like to talk to both of you about."
Uh oh, where had I heard that before? Or was I just being paranoid? Before either of us had time to think, he turned and began to walk off. Confused, I decided to at least hear the man out, and followed him.
As we walked, I heard the usual chatter of people talking to each other, talking about, maybe, the homeless kids walking by.
"Weird." One might say. "Do you think their related to that older guy?"
"No, they don't look it." Another would reply.
"Ew, grubbies." A teenage girl would mutter. "I mean really, did she get that outfit from a trash can?"
It was comments like that that made me laugh inwardly. Actually, bitch, I did get it from a trash can. Got a problem with that? It was really a hobby of mine, listening to people on the street. But I had little time for it, as I soon found the café we were going to eat at wasn't that far from the shop.
As Lawliet and I crashed into the booth seats, I closed my eyes and smiled. Ah, the soft seat cushions. I missed furniture.
After we got our food, I slowly released my vice-grip on Lawliet's arm, allowing myself to relax slightly. I soon forgot about any worries I had before, and completely lost myself in the idea of a nice, warm, real meal.
"So I wanted to talk to both of you about something." Mr. Wammy began, and I quickly became tense again. "I have been working for some time on the concept of an orphanage for gifted children, and I had been thinking that Lawliet is, indeed, quite bright.
"So I thought that maybe Lawliet may consider joining."
At that moment, time seemed to slow down ever so slightly. Lawliet? An orphanage? It wasn't something I could imagine.
"Well, that's-" I began.
"He would be provided with a full education, including all the grades he has missed, and I do believe he has potential to become a great figure of authority someday."
It was silent for a very long moment. "Lawliet?" I asked.
"Hm?" The small boy looked up from his food.
"This is a hard thing to think about. What do you want to do?"
He thought about it for several minutes, and abnormally long time for him. "I want to go to school again, but I want to stay with you, too."
I sighed, pushing my hair out of my face. "Is there anything else, in particular?"
Mr. Wammy hesitated, as if I had asked just the wrong question. Something he didn't want to admit. "We would have to completely erase his past. Burn any photos, birth certificates, anything with his name or photo. And he wouldn't be able to see anyone he may have known again."
I stood up quickly, trying to hide the anger in my voice. "I really don't know," I said. "We really have to think about it. It's not my decision, its Lawliet's too." I wrapped my fingers around his hand and tugged him towards the door. "Thank you very much for breakfast." I quickly said before walking quickly out the door.
(#0#)
It was maybe three days later that Lawliet and I were sitting in the normal place, not doing much of anything, when I brought up the topic again.
"Lawliet." I said. "Do you want to go with Mr. Wammy?"
"Do you want me to go?" He asked me.
"I don't know what I want. I don't want to never see you again, but I don't want your brain to go to waste." I sighed. "It's really hard."
"I know…" Lawliet replied. "But I think I want to go."
My heart hurt. For a split-second, I rejected the thought, but quickly accepted the truth.
"Okay." I said, the smallest tear falling down my cheek. "I'll miss you, Lawliet."
"I'll find you again someday, right?" He asked. "At least once. We'll see each other again, Okay?"
I smiled. "Yeah."
It was only another week before we ran into Mr. Wammy again, and with all of the things Lawliet owned stuffed into a small bag, we sat out on our mat, staring out at the traffic, waiting for the car that would take Lawliet to this new orphanage, and away from me.
I had made a few calls from a pay phone, and it turns out our father burned down our whole house. Everything was lost, himself included. Lawliet barely existed anymore.
So we sat, almost silently.
"So…" I said. "This is the last time a used coffee cup does you any good, huh?"
He nodded solemnly.
"You're gonna work hard to make up for the years of school you missed, right?"
I received the same head bob. My eyes remained unfocused, and the street was unusually quiet today. "Gonna make me proud?"
"Yeah." He said, finally responding vocally.
As if on cue, the familiar Rolls Royce pulled up on the side walk. The door opened and Mr. Wammy stepped out of the flawless black car. Lawliet stood up, and I grabbed his bag of stuff. The small bag, unfortunately, carried everything he owned.
I handed the bag to my ten year old brother, and knelt down so I wasn't looking down at him. I placed my hands firmly on his shoulders.
"You're going to work hard, okay?"
"Okay." He replied.
"And you aren't going to forget me, alright?"
"Mmhm."
It was silent for another moment, before Lawliet's eyes began to bulge up with tears. "I'm gonna really miss you." He sobbed.
"I know," I said, pulling him into a hug. "I'm gonna miss you too."
"You-you aren't gonna forget about me, either, right, Page?" He cried into my shoulder.
"No, I promise." Tears slid down my face as well. We both cried for several minutes, until Mr. Wammy coughed, bringing our attention to the fact that Lawliet did have to leave.
I took one long, shaky breath before finishing up. "Be good, okay?"
"Yeah." He said. "I'm gonna miss you, Page."
"I'll miss you too." I replied, leaning away from him, and letting go. I let go of him physically, and prepared to let go forever. "Goodbye, Lawliet."
"Goodbye." He said.
And with that, my brother got into the car, and left. He left the side-walk that day, he left the life on the street, and worst of all, Lawliet left my life, for good.