Chapter 9: No More Words
Disclaimer: We don't own any characters portrayed in this fic save for Kimi and Chet.
Warnings: Angst, some yelling, mentions of past rape.
Rinoa raised an eyebrow, "Alright, I think I have enough. I'll inform you of what will happen to Duo and Solo sometime in the future. Until then they will be placed under the care of the hospital until they are moved into an orphanage."
"No!" Duo cried out, looking at the woman pleadingly.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but it's law. If Mr. Leonhart wants to keep you then he needs to file for adoption. And seeing as he is living another male, whom I assume is his lover, he may have a few problems doing so."
"No! I want to stay with Squall and Seifer!" The boy nearly shouted as Solo held him back.
Solo meanwhile glared at Rinoa, angry that she would even consider upsetting his brother so much.
Squall stepped forward, a frown forming on his face; he couldn't believe what was happening. Rinoa sighed. "I'm sorry honey. I can't change the law." She replied. "You need to leave now, Mr. Leonhart."
Solo turned pleading eyes on Squall while Duo struggled desperately in his embrace.
Squall reached out and took both of their hands. "I will get you back don't worry okay?"
Solo nodded, averting his gaze, while Duo looked at Squall with tear-filled eyes.
"Please don't go..." The small boy begged quietly.
Squall sighed and glared at Rinoa. "If I am going to get you back, I have to for a while. Okay?" Rinoa let out a loud sigh, showing her quickly dissolving patience.
He looked back at Duo, hugging them both.
"Sorry."
Duo whimpered quietly as he leaned back against his sibling, his gaze falling to the sheets. The crystalline droplets that had gathered at the corners of the child's amazing Amethyst eyes began to slide down his pale cheeks, a strangled sob escaping his throat.
Solo looked up. "We trust you Squall. You'd better go." The older boy said quietly.
Squall nodded and turned, not missing a cold glare from Rinoa, before leaving to go tell the others what happened.
Seifer stood immediately when Squall re-entered the waiting room. "Squall?" He asked. "What happened?"
Squall struggled to keep himself in check, and not break down. He never thought a couple kids could affect him so much. "They're taking them away. We have to try for adoption. She won't even let them stay with us until they find an orphanage."
"What!" Selphie cried out, standing up. Irvine stood also as Seifer pulled Squall into a caring embrace.
Squall let Seifer hold him, both welcoming the embrace. "She said that we would have a hard time adopting since we're gay." He continued, hardly keeping the stress and sadness from his voice.
"Oh Squall...Don't worry... I'm sure we'll think of something..." The blonde man soothed. "Yeah." Selphie chimed in, placing a friendly hand on the brunette's shoulder.
Squall pulled back, "We better, because I refuse to break their trust."
Seifer nodded. "I know. Let's go home." Seifer suggested.
Squall sighed, he didn't really want to leave, but there was nothing else he could do. "Okay let's go."
Selphie and Irvine led their friends out of the hospital and to their car. The drive back to Seifer's place was silent as nobody could think of anything to say.
Squall looked up when they arrived at Seifer's small house. "Thank you for coming though." He directed his comment to Irvine and Selphie up front. "We'll keep you up to date." He unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door to exit the car.
"Alright." The brunette girl said as she watched him worriedly. "You'll get them back. I know you will." She offered as she looked up at him.
Squall gave them an appreciative nod. "Thanks." He said shutting the door and following behind Seifer into the house.
After the couple had entered the house Seifer turned to face Squall. "Are you okay?" He asked. He knew that his lover had become very attached to the orphans, and that this experience had really shaken the younger man up. Hell it had shaken him to hear from the brunette that the children would be taken away from them.
Squall shook his head. "Not really, no." He said truthfully. He was tired as hell, stressed, and depressed. Most of all, he was scared. Scared that he would never see Solo or Duo again.
Seifer pulled the younger male into another hug, lightly rubbing his back. "We'll be okay. We'll do everything in our power to get them back. I promise." He said, kissing the brunette's head.
Squall nodded, letting himself relax. "This is far from over isn't it?" He was thinking about all that happened the past 4 months or so.
Seifer nodded slowly. "Yes. It is far from over. Now let's get some rest..." He suggested. "And in the morning we'll call our lawyer... Okay?"
Squall sighed, "Yeah." He pulled away and got ready for a shower. He needed one after that stay in Zeke's house.
Rinoa had left the boys in their room for an hour to cool off, now she was ready to ask more questions. After talking with the doctors she entered the room.
Solo looked up as the door opened, immediately glaring at the social worker.
"Hello boys, I need to ask a few more questions." She said ignoring the glare and sitting in a chair that was placed on the other side of the bed.
"Tch." Solo scoffed as he looked his little brother, who had just fallen asleep after he had cried nearly the entire hour they were alone. "What are you going to ask about now?" He questioned irritably.
She ignored the boy's obvious hatred, and continued. "I would like to know how you survived on the streets by yourself."
"We did just about everything we could. Stole, begged… anything... The only things we didn't do were kill people and sell ourselves..." He said quietly, thinking, 'Kimbley did that for us...'
"..And yet that got you through all those harsh winters? You're older than Duo so you must have been by yourself for sometime. You sure you were always on the streets? Who is your mother?" She continued confused as how a mere couple of babies could survive on their own.
"I don't remember who our mother was..." The boy answered. "And I told you, my earliest memory is of living on the streets."
"Alright, but you were still very young then. You must have had some sort of help? The streets are very dangerous."
Solo bit his lip as his gaze fell to his sibling.
The raven-haired woman's eyes flickered between the two, eyebrow arched in question. "Any comments?"
"No." Solo said quietly. He didn't want to speak of that part of his and Duo's lives without Squall present.
"..And why not?" She pushed.
"Because." The boy replied, not really answering the question.
Rinoa rolled her eyes, "Okay so you're saying you lived on the streets throughout the harshest winters without any help, by just begging?" She was really started to doubt the boy's stories.
Solo looked up momentarily, surprised, before levelling another glare at the social worker. "I don't wanna talk to you anymore," he stated coldly.
Rinoa sighed calming herself. "You'll need to give us the information we need. If you must be sent to a special family your friends won't be able to get you back. Okay?"
"I don't believe you." The orphan answered angrily. "You don't want us to go back to Squall." He accused.
"Why do you think that? I'm only doing my job." Rinoa replied sweetly.
"You made him leave. You didn't like him being here." The boy pointed out. "You don't like the fact we trust him more than we do you."
The young woman smacked her lips and looked down at her clipboard. "Very well, let's just continue with the questioning. Where did you get food?"
"I'm not answering any more questions unless Squall's here." The youth said dismissively, turning his attention to once more focus on his slumbering brother.
Gently, Solo brushed a strand of hair from Duo's face and tucked it behind the smaller boy's ear.
Rinoa sighed, "Fine, I'll leave you for now. I'll be stopping by again tomorrow morning." With that the raven-haired woman stood up and left, not waiting for any responses. She wondered why she became a counsellor. Her child skills were obviously not that good.
Squall exited the bathroom to find his blonde lover on the phone, from the sounds of the conversation he assumed it was with their lawyer.
Being quiet, so as not to disrupt the conversation he walked over to the bed and sat next to the older male, gently resting his head on the lightly tanned shoulder.
"Well, no we don't need you for the previous case any longer." Seifer turned his head and kissed Squall's hair putting an arm around the brunette's waist before continuing, "The man was killed. We would like to take advantage of your services for a totally different kind of problem, though." Squall heard a few muffled words from the other line then Seifer spoke once more.
"We have been taking care, clothing, feeding, and housing two homeless orphans for a while now. Recently we took them to a hospital, where they found we were not their parents or guardians. We want to get them back."
Squall listened as the lawyers muffled voice came through the receiver, earning a couple of 'hn's, 3 'all rights', and one 'I understand' from the blonde. Then after a few moments of silence to digest the information the jade-eyed man said, "Okay, thank you. We'll call you again soon." before hanging up. A frown made its way to Squall's lips as he asked. "What'd he say?"
Sighing, Seifer began to explain the situation. "He says that the chances of us getting them back are very possibly less than 50, but if we insist on trying, the first thing we need to do is go down to the Department of Youth Services and apply to become licensed foster parents. Because of the boys' past they'll either be put into a foster home right away or will be sent to an orphanage while an emergency custody hearing will be held. At the hearing we can try to get temporary custody of them."
Squall sat up at this. "Temporary?"
Seifer nodded. "After a year, if everything goes well, there will be another custody hearing during which it will be decided whether we can keep them or if they will become wards of the state until a more suitable home can be found."
Squall sighed, "We were going to try no matter what anyway. We need to win this."
"I agree." The blonde said, hugging Squall close. "But for now, we should try to rest... We'll go first thing in the morning."
Rinoa had tried to talk reason with the boys many times, even with Duo alone once again. Neither gave, both refused to talk to her claiming to want to speak to Squall once more. She was desperate, and this morning was her last try and it had failed once again. So here she was on the phone asking the brunette man to come by. She wouldn't explain everything fully until he was in front of her. That is when she would convince him to ask the boys the questions she needed to know the answers to.
Squall readily agreed to go, eager to see the orphaned children once again. After he had hung up the phone he hurried to his and Seifer's shared bedroom where he informed the blonde of the conversation he had just finished with the social worker. He then kissed the slightly older man and slipped on his shoes and jacket, heading out the door to the car. Once he was safely buckled into the vehicle he drove as fast as he could, within the speed limits, to the hospital where the social worker awaited him.
Rinoa took him to an available office and gestured for him to sit in the chair across from the desk. "I came here to ask you to talk to the children; they seem to refuse to answer my questions. I hoped you would be more reasonable."
Squall frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in concern. Having an idea as to why the children would refuse to answer her questions, but not positive of it he asked, "They won't answer you? Why?"
"They wanted to talk to you." she responded. "The questions I asked were ones of their pasts, of how they survived the streets, and grew up. As well how they were treated. I'm sure you would like to know these things as well?"
Squall nodded, he had wondered those things many times, but had chosen not to ask, hoping the children would tell him on their own. "Yes. I do want to know about that." He admitted.
"They refuse to talk to anyone, but you. I am giving you the chance to talk to them because of that reason and that reason alone."
"Alright." Squall agreed. Nodding his head as he mentally prepared himself to hear what he was sure to be an even more tragic tale than what the children had already told him.
Rinoa handed him a visitor's pass, which he clipped onto his jacket, where it would clearly be visible, then motioned for him to follow her. While they walked down the hallways, the social worker informed Squall that depending on how successful his attempt to find the information needed, she might call him again. That was only if she should need more questions to be answered later on. The brunette man readily agreed.
After that, the rest of the trip was spent in silence until they stopped in front of a closed door, which opened to reveal a scene that broke Squall's heart. Both orphans where sitting on the hospital bed once again, the elder of the two holding and comforting his sibling as the younger one cried.
Rinoa entered behind Squall, as the brunette entered, quickly going to the edge of the bed where the two boys were sitting.
Solo looked up as he heard the two adults enter the room. Seeing Squall, he smiled before sending a cold glare at the social worker standing behind the brunette man.
Rinoa ignored the boy as she was used to it by now.
After a moment of silence the older boy turned his attention to Duo, quietly whispering to the still sobbing child. The longhaired youth immediately looked up at his sibling, a hopeful yet disbelieving expression on his face. "Hontou ni?" He asked. After receiving a nod from his older sibling he looked to where Squall was standing, tears still sliding down his pale cheeks.
'Squall?' He seemed to ask as he whimpered quietly with the disbelief that still showed in his large amethystine eyes.
Squall leaned forward and kissed Duo's forehead and hugged both him and Solo. "Yes, I'm here for a little bit."
Both boys returned the embrace in full force before Duo rested his head on the man's shoulder, arms securely around the brunette's neck. Closing his eyes, the smaller boy snuggled as close as possible to Squall as his entire body trembled faintly. Worried, Squall looked to Solo who quietly explained that the undeniably beautiful child had been having nightmares since their first night there, and when he wasn't dreaming, he was crying.
Squall frowned and sat down on the edge of the bed so Duo wasn't bothered too much. "I've got everything under control okay? Once everything is done, and they release you. I'll have you both back." he reassured the younger of the two. Rinoa had gone to hide in the corner pretending to not be there at all.
"Really?" The younger child sniffled, his voice soft and barely audible, as he pulled away just enough to look Squall in the face.
"Yes." Squall nodded.
Rinoa tapped her pen on her clipboard impatiently, and Squall narrowed his eyes. He knew that the girl wanted information, but he wasn't going to make the boys talk about things that were too personal, that they didn't want to in front of her. He was just going to have to keep it general.
Solo also turned a dark glare at the social worker in warning. His brother's comfort and happiness was the most important thing to him at the moment, and he wasn't going to let her do anything to upset the already sensitive child.
"Though you'll have to stick it out, and be as brave as you have been growing up on the streets." Squall continued. "You were brave weren't you?"
Duo tilted his head in confusion. Solo had been the brave one, always protecting him, no matter the danger.
"If you've survived then you are. Even with Solo there, both of you are. Not to mention what you just went through. You just got to be for awhile longer." Squall could almost read Duo's mind. Squall looked at Solo.
Solo looked back at Squall, nodding in agreement. "We can handle this, Duo." He said, moving to be closer to Squall and his sibling. "This is easy..."
Squall rose and eyebrow, "Okay, go ahead."
Nodding, Solo continued speaking. "This is nothing like before... now; all we have to do is sit here and get better... We don't have to worry about people coming to hurt us or about hurting others..." He said, hoping to encourage his sibling. "We don't even have to worry about 'him'. He's never coming back. I saw them arrest him..."
Squall took the hint that they didn't want to talk about Kimbley in front of Rinoa and nodded.
Duo slowly nodded, resting his head on Squall's shoulder again. "Okay..." He said before quietly sighing. Looking up at Squall, Solo asked, "When can we see Seifer, Irvine and Selphie?" He knew his sibling missed them almost as much as he had Squall.
"I don't know. They weren't able to come." Squall answered, directing the answer more towards Duo than Solo. "They miss you though. You should be able to see them soon enough."
The longhaired child nodded again, turning his gaze downward. Noting the sad expression on his brother's face Solo leaned up to whisper in Squall's ear. "Maybe he can speak with them on the phone?" He asked.
Squall nodded, "I'll talk to the social worker." There was a clearing of a throat from the corner of the room. Squall looked up and sighed, "She wanted information. Though I don't plan to give it to her, I guess you don't either." Squall sat back, so that he was in a less secretive looking stance now.
Solo shook his head as he too leaned back, giving Squall a look that clearly showed he didn't trust Rinoa.
The next couple of minutes were spent in silence as nobody could think of anything to say.
Finally Squall spoke up, addressing both boys. "There are some things I'd like to know about..." Solo nodded, knowing Squall was only saying it to please the still present social worker.
Squall continued, "Where did you live usually?"
"There was an abandoned building... a couple blocks away from a church... We stayed there..." Solo answered.
Squall nodded, "How did you eat?" he asked keeping it to general questions.
"We usually begged or stole food..." The elder of the orphans answered.
Squall held back a wince, he knew the boys probably lived in abandoned buildings and begged and or stole food, though he still didn't like hearing it. "How did you meet me?" He realized he really didn't know much about this either; all he knew was one day a couple kids showed up at Selphie's.
"Your friend didn't tell you?" Solo asked, surprised.
Squall shook his head. "Eh, we were a bit to busy."
Solo nodded and looked down. "Umm..." The boy sighed, trying to think of a good way to explain that fated meeting.
Blushing slightly Solo looked at Squall, "We met your friends when we kinda took their wallets..."
Squall raised a brow and his lips quirked. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "And you succeeded?" He couldn't help but think of these two small boys stealing from a much larger Ward and older Kiros as being quite humorous.
Solo nodded. "Yeah... We ran away too... Then a couple of police officers found us..." Solo gave Squall a pointed look before continuing. "They were gonna hurt me and Duo... But... Your friends showed up and saved us..."
Squall nodded, "Then they brought you to Selphie's?" He figured that is why they had ended up in the girls care.
Solo nodded.
At the boys nod he asked another question. "A couple of officers were going to harm you? We should report them to Quistis and the agency to get them investigated."
Solo shook his head before giving Squall another pointed look. "Remember those police officers that were outside of Zeke's place?" He asked.
Squall nodded. The ones that had been rather.. stubborn . Suddenly he realized what Solo was saying without going into detail about it. The two officers that had tried to take Duo at Zeke's place had been the ones who had attacked the children the first night they met Kiros and Ward. He found himself remembering and all of a sudden understanding Solo's need to find his brother after he'd told Squall he'd seen the two officers take the younger boy away from the fight that had been going on.
Squall nodded, "Okay." Good thing that was taken care of.
Solo glanced at Duo as the younger boy let out a quiet yawn, snuggling within the protective circle of Squall's arms, and smiled. He noticed that his sibling's hands had slipped from Squall's neck to clutch almost possessively at the man's shirt.
"Were you happy and healthy with us?" Squall asked, remembering it as one of the things Rinoa mentioned.
"If we weren't, would Duo be holding you like that?" Solo countered, smirking. "I'm sure we ALL," He shot a glance at Rinoa, knowing about her visits to speak with the younger child privately, "know how Duo reacts to people who upset him." He stated before continuing. "And if I were unhappy with you, I probably wouldn't have insisted on speaking with you instead of her."
Rinoa caught herself before sneering at the boys in a very childlike manner and just narrowed her eyes. Sighing she stepped forward. "Well, I'll be taking my leave now." Giving Squall a pointed look, she said, "I suggest you leave soon as well." And with that she turned on her heel and left.
Solo looked at Rinoa before sticking out his tongue behind the woman's back, causing both Duo and Squall to laugh. He then turned back to Squall, lowering his gaze as he knew he would now have to answer the man's questions without the evasive answers that he had provided in front of the social worker.
"Don't worry Solo, if you wanna wait until we're home...you can." Squall knew that a home environment was much more comfortable for such talks as these.
Solo's gaze immediately went to Squall's face as he silently asked the question that he knew would upset his sibling if voiced. 'What if we never get to go home?'
He didn't know that Squall was asking the same question in his head at the same time except, 'what if they never come home?' was accompanied by, 'what if I fail? What if all the promises I'm telling them are broken? They'll think I've betrayed them.'
Squall looked up and shook his head at the boy sadly, "Don't worry about it..." he replied to the silent question.
Solo didn't look convinced as he frowned before nodding and giving him a distracted, "Okay..."
Squall gave the boy a pointed look; he shouldn't be worrying about this...though Squall knew he couldn't blame Solo. Who wouldn't worry about it? It was impossible. Still he tried to ease the boy, "We have a plan, and a great lawyer. You don't have to worry. Just take care of things here, okay?"
The youth nodded again as he turned his attention to his little brother, who had just, began to doze off. Quietly, the emerald-eyed child spoke, "Otouto-san really misses everyone... He also misses his teddy bear... The social worker won't let anyone other than the doctors and nurses in to see us." He explained.
Squall nodded and thought for a moment. "I can try to get a call in. As for the bear, I'm also pretty sure there is at least one nurse that will give it to him, if I ask. Anything else?"
Solo nodded before swallowing as his gaze fell once more. "I should tell you about what happened before Duo and I met you..." He said, raising his head to meet Squall's surprised look with his own determined one.
Squall saw the determination and knew the child was going to tell him now instead of waiting until later. "Okay."
"What I told the social worker wasn't a lie... I don't remember anything before the streets... But..." he sighed, "I only remember it being just me and Duo only for a short time before he found us." The youth said, his voice filled with regret and contempt.
Squall kept his face and body calm and continued to nod. The brunette knew when Solo said he he meant Kimbley, but felt there was no need to mention the name.
Seeing Squall nod, Solo continued on to explain how Kimbley had kept them in less than ideal living conditions, giving them food and clothing only sparingly. He also told the older male of how Kimbley had sold both his younger brother and himself to other people for sex and had, himself, on occasion taken the younger of the two.
He then told the former stripper of the beatings they had received at Kimbley's hand until a woman working for Kimbley took pity on them and helped them escape.
Turning his gaze once more on his brother, the older child continued to speak, telling Squall of everything that had happened to them on the street. Only when he had finished the tale did he return his gaze to Squall's face to gauge his reaction to the story.
Squall's temper had risen to new heights by the time Solo's story was done, but he knew that showing anger right now would only serve to scare the children so he bottled it up inside of him like he knew how to do oh so well. The brunette was silent and reached forward. He didn't know really what to say, he had suspected that something bad had happened between Kimbley and the boys, but nothing of this magnitude. He was going to get that man if it was the last thing he did. The brunette found himself promising this quietly to the boy.
Solo nodded slightly before turning his attention to the door as it opened, allowing the social worker to enter once more. "It's you again." He said coldly as he turned his back on her in an open display of his dislike for the woman.
The boy then turned his attention to the sheets underneath him as he considered how his sibling would react to knowing Squall knew the truth about them.
Rinoa strode into the room feeling quite annoyed. "Mr. Leonhart...I see you haven't left." Squall raised a brow at the stupid and obvious statement. "Is it any infraction to the rules to make a phone call to these children?" Squall asked choosing not to comment on the previous statement.
Solo turned his head slightly to watch the social worker from out the corner of his eye as she thought about the request posed by the blue-eyed man.
Rinoa went through the rules mentally and of course she knew that technically they could call the boys...if she allowed it. Rinoa looked at Solo and Duo. Duo was once again asleep, but Solo was watching her as he kept his expression guarded. She didn't see the harm. "Fine... phone calls are acceptable, but only three times a week, and only during normal visiting hours."
Solo nodded slightly before turning his attention back to the white sheets of the bed as Squall let out a small breath he'd been holding.
The boy then turned to face Rinoa as she approached the bed, his emerald gaze meeting and challenging hers as had become customary between them.
She sighed and continued, "Though I'm afraid Mr. Leonhart is going to have to leave sometime soon."
Solo calmly nodded his acceptance of that fact, surprising the woman, who had expected him to argue with her like he usually did. He instead turned and leaned over to place a gentle hand on his brother's shoulder, rousing the slumbering child. "Otouto.." He whispered softly. "Time to wake up..."
Slowly violet color optics drifted open as the child looked at the room's occupants sleepily. 'Nii-san?' He silently asked, as he looked at Solo, confused.
Solo offered his sibling a sad smile as he spoke. "Squall's gotta leave soon." He explained. The smaller child's attention shifted to the man holding him as he silently begged the brunette not to leave them again.
"I do have to go, but I'll call tomorrow. You'll get to talk to Seifer, Selphie, and Irvine too. I'll also bring your bear over sometime, okay?" he said in hopes of cheering the child up.
Duo looked down as he nodded, giving Squall a final hug before moving to sit beside his older brother.
Squall gave the same farewell to Solo before returning the pass and leaving the hospital doors.
