Disclaimer: I don't own anything I didn't create.
A/N: So sorry I didn't post last night. My internet connection had a hiccup.
So I was originally going to post this in two chapters, but due to the way it flows, I couldn't do it. So you have a nice long long chapter once again. Enjoy. and remember to review if you want an early update.
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It was a couple weeks later, and I was still hanging around with the guys. I was surprised that they had kept me for so long. I shivered at the way of thinking I had gotten into. It had slowly been ingrained into me by the organization, which I absolutely despised.
Crow and I were as close as ever, and he had taken me around to meet the little orphans he had adopted into his life when he was younger. Because of the link they had with Crow, I felt connected to them instantly. I smiled when I remembered their first reaction to me.
*~**~**~**~**~**~*
"Big Bro Crow! Big Bro Crow!" A chorus of little voices greeted us from inside the clearing where the little ones lived when Crow rounded the corner on his D-wheel with me sitting right behind him wearing the helmet I had gotten on by myself this time, and I stilled. It sounded as if there were at least four little people in there, and when Crow rounded the corner, I saw I was wrong. There were at least six.
All the little children stopped running around, and froze to look at me when they noticed there was another person on Crow's D-wheel.
"Big bro…?" A small girl asked curiously, yet in a somewhat cautious way. Crow parked the bike, standing up and lifting it slightly to get a good purchase on this ground. So far, he was silent.
"Is that a girl?" a little boy asked. The other little boy who was standing next to him who had been looking at me curiously as well turned and punched him in the arm. "Ow!"
"That's not a girl, Alex!" The boy told him off. "She's a woman- she's got tits!"
I was thankful I was still wearing my helmet as I blushed, and let my head fall lightly against Crow's back in embarrassment. Crow had taken his helmet off by now, and he was looking at the boys in surprise as he heard that exchange of words. When he felt my head tap against his back, he closed his mouth.
"Alex, Hikura." The two boys cringed at the tone of Crow's voice, but they looked at him apprehensively. Crow looked at them for a few moments, and then sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. I smiled through my helmet as I watched him do so. It was such a cute habit. "-watch what you say around women, ok?" The two boys' faces brightened when they figured they weren't in trouble, and they grinned- looking absolutely adorable.
"Ok, big bro Crow!" They squeaked in their happy, tiny voices, and they ran off to play catch.
Crow dismounted and started talking with the kids when I took my helmet off, and I shook my hair out. Suddenly I noticed there was a lack of noise, and I looked around. All the kids were gaping at me in awe. I felt a blush coming on, and I looked at Crow, who looked at me with a puzzled look, and then I heard the little girl from before whisper.
"She's so pretty…" I blushed and looked down biting my lip so that my hair swung down to cover my face.
"Is she your girlfriend Crow?" I heard one of the little boys ask, and I looked up. This would be funny. Crow jumped up and his hand jumped to the back of his neck as he laughed awkwardly and blushed.
"Uh…. No she isn't my girlfriend, but um…" He muttered, looking for words. I smiled at him. He was so cute. I felt I little hand pat my knee, and I looked down. I smiled. The little boy Alex was looking up at me with big blue eyes and a hopeful face.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked, and I couldn't help but grin at him, he was so cute. He reached up to me, so I reached down and picked him up as I got off the bike and I sat him on my hip, leaning the other way so that he had a bit more hip to sit on, holding him on with one arm and a hand. I smiled at him.
"What's your name?" I asked him even though I knew. He smiled shyly at me.
"Alex." He was so adorable.
"Well Alex," I started, and he looked at me hopefully. "-I'm too old to be your girlfriend, but I can be your big sister if you want?" I asked him. Alex's face fell and then he looked thoughtful as I spoke to him. "What do you think?" I asked him. He didn't answer for a second or two, but then his face lit up.
"OK!" He squeaked. "You'll be my big sister-" Alex squeaked, and then paused and looked at me curiously. "What's your name?" I couldn't help but laugh. He was so adorable!
"Mai." I said. Alex grinned and started bouncing again, but I had a good hold on him, so he didn't fall.
"You'll be my big sister Mai!" he squirmed, and so I put him down, and he ran to the other kids and got them to join him, and they danced around me chanting and singing:
"Big sister Mai! Big sister Mai!"
I laughed, watching them all singing and dancing around me, and I looked up at Crow. He was looking at the kids and me and laughing too.
*~**~**~**~**~**~*
I smiled at the memory. Those kids were so adorable, and they had adopted me as a big sister right away. They were all so happy. All the time. I didn't know how they did it. I sighed and looked back at the sky, leaning against the junkyard fence. I just needed some time to think, and so I came here. Crow wasn't too far away, looking for some more parts.
When I had told Yusei that his mother was still alive, I couldn't tell what he felt, because he didn't really react. His eyes had only widened a little, but other than that, he was as frozen as a statue. Jack had reacted though, and he now had a bruise on his stomach to show for it. He had responded rather violently, in what I'm sure was a protective impulse for his friend, but he had advanced on me with his fists up, and so that had triggered my protective instinct, and I had snap-kicked him before I was fully aware of what I was doing. He was on the floor in seconds, and I then felt really guilty. It took a lot of talking from Crow to get me to stay then.
So I was confused. Confused as to where that left me, confused as to if anyone other than Crow's kids needed me around. I sighed.
"Find a place for me,
A place where I belong,
A place where I am needed,
And a shoulder I can cry on…" I sang quietly, straight from my heart. In my subconscious, I heard something moving beyond the trash heap to my left, but I didn't really care at the moment. I looked back up at the sky sadly, as if I could find answers there, watching the clouds shift and change shape. I took in a deep breath and sang louder.
"When the world got tough,
I moved on,
When I saw there was no hope,
I moved on,
Once I was lost,
But I made myself found,
But when he didn't care,
I found myself fighting…" Sadness was starting to push itself at my heart, and it was starting to catch in my throat, making my voice waver, and my eyes burn and water. I swallowed, and went on. These memories were painful, but- I had to work through them somehow.
"My brother,
Didn't want me,
So he left me,
Behind." My voice broke, and I felt a tear slip out of my eye, and that one was followed by others, and I found myself hugging myself as I looked into the sky. Still, I couldn't stop singing. It was how I expressed my emotions. I took a deep breath, and tried to make myself stronger, so I could sing.
"I followed him,
Tried to make him see,
That who he used to be,
Was still there,
Somewhere…" My sense of a tune was pretty much gone now, and I let myself slide down the fence so that I could sit on the ground, and I looked up into the darkening sky. I heard slow, careful footsteps walking over the junk towards me, and as I looked up, they stopped.
There was Crow, and he was looking at me with that look in his eyes that showed me that he felt a familiar pain, that he could relate to what I had been singing. I saw him standing there, and I felt my heart yearn for him. I knew I was still crying, but I didn't care. I needed him. In my mind's eye, I saw another taller man standing next to him, and I felt a smaller me inside, begging the man for comfort. He had the same color hair as Crow, and he had looked at me like I was gum on the bottom of his shoe. He was a memory.
When I reached out for Crow, the younger me inside me reached out for the man, and the man looked at her in pitying disgust and turned around and left, just the same time as the more real Crow came over to me, sat next to me, and held me in his arms, letting me cry on his shoulder just as my brother hadn't done back then, leaving the younger me to cry his name in vain.
Crow was all I had.