2
Among Friends

The next morning, Kiyoshi was pleased to discover he felt better than usual. It wasn't just being tucked into a warm bed with a reasonably steady heartbeat. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something felt right with the world that hadn't in a long time. He stretched luxuriously and sat up.

The straw of his mattress rustled slightly as he moved, and Chizu was immediately at his bedside. "You're awake? Good, you feel better. Come on." She grabbed his hand and hauled it out of bed. "Hurry it up. You're not an invalid yet."

Kiyoshi followed for what he assumed was his own good, rather scandalized. Throughout his life, he'd been treated like he was made of spun glass. Even his neighbors' bullying children had been careful never to do anything that might set off his heart. Chizu, apparently, wasn't quite the cookie- dispensing old grandmother he'd thought.

"Here we are." Kiyoshi started. He'd been so engrossed in his musings he hadn't noticed their progress. When Chizu threw open the door, he was unprepared for and momentarily blinded by the sudden stream of sunlight. When his eyes adjusted, he was amazed by the scene before him.

The door opened up to a huge, green lawn, dotted with large, leafy trees and enclosed by a low white fence. The northeast corner was occupied by an assortment of wooden scraps nailed together to support swings and a slide with plenty of room to climb around aimlessly. Wherever two trees were close enough together, a hammock was strung between them. Close to the house stood two large tables painted the kaleidoscope of random, clashing blotches of color only a sizeable troop of small children with paintbrushes can produce. The southeast corner held a picturesque pond, covered in water lilies. The middle of the enclosure was a large, open field. Around the fence and on the patio occupied by the tables were several chairs, looking made for short legged, slight occupants. Most striking, to Kiyoshi, were the thirty-odd boys and girls between about two and perhaps fourteen years swarming over the whole place.

"Well, go on." Chizu gave him a little push, and he didn't move. She sighed and crouched down so their eyes were level. "Everyone's always told you you couldn't, haven't they?"

"Eh, excuse me? Told me I couldn't what?"

"Listen to you. You even talk like a little adult. Look, go out there, make some friends, get into mischief, be the little boy you are, and forget your heart for the time being. If you feel tired, stop, but it'll do you more good this way. Now go. I'll be out in about an hour and a half with lunch."

"Yes, ma'am." He took a few tentative steps into the yard, and the door slammed decisively behind him. A few heads turned towards him, but their owners returned to their games without interest. Despite the pep talk, Kiyoshi felt no desire to join them. When had anyone ever wanted to be around him, and why would it be different here? He wandered over to the pond.

He stared between the lily pads into the water. Fat, sparkling koi swam lazily along among a few turtles and perhaps the odd crab. Kiyoshi had always had a bit of a soft spot for anything that lived in the water. Not only had he grown up along the ocean, but there was a family legend that the Albatous were descended from a mermaid, captured by pirates who had wanted to rape and sell her, then rescued by a dark skinned Draconian. When father was still alive he'd often told his sons that the tale was ridiculous, a mermaid is an animal and couldn't interbreed with even a junin, and there was certainly no demon Draconian blood in the line. It was undeniably true that children born to the family almost always developed an inexplicable interest, almost obsession, with either the sea or sky. Kiyoshi was among the latter, but he still rather liked water creatures.

He noticed a metal cup, bolted to the rock, which seemed to contain tiny shrimp. On impulse, he took a pinch and sprinkled it into the water. The koi immediately swarmed around the specks as they sank into the pond. He almost laughed at the spectacle.

There was a small wicker bench near the water's edge. It seemed a better place than many, so Kiyoshi settled into it. It was sort of nice here.

"Hi."

Kiyoshi jumped up and spun around. The speaker who had startled him so profoundly was a small, skinny boy, about his own age, with jet-black hair, enormous amber eyes, and ears and a tail to rival any cat's. "You're sure jumpy."

"Yeah. .Hi."

"You're new, right? Chizu told us there was someone new today."

"Yeah." Kiyoshi was half enjoying, half confused by an entirely new experience: someone being nice to him.

"What's your name?"

"Kiyoshi Albatou."

"I'm Akiyama. Wanna play with us?"

"Play?"

Akiyama gave him a long, penetrating look. "You had it hard, didn't you?"

"Huh?"

"We all did, sorta, but you didn't have a nice life, didja?"

"No."

"Come on. Play with us." Akiyama grabbed his arm and squeezed slightly. "It's okay. It's nice here." Kindly but firmly, the little catboy led him over to three others. One of the boys was a few years older than the others, with very pale blonde hair and haunted eyes that seemed to look into somewhere long ago and far away. The girl next to him looked like a specter out of one of the ghastly ghost stories Kisho used to tell him: pale as death, scarred all over, tangled, matted hair spilling all across her face, and one hand cut off. She couldn't have been older than he was! The last of the three was a wispy, slinking, almost invisible specimen of indeterminate sex and maybe humanity.

"This is Kiyoshi, everybody."

"Hi." said the first boy vacantly, still gazing into whatever nonexistent universe so captivated him.

The girl grunted.

"Hello." floated a vague sigh from the last one.

Akiyama motioned to the soft grass, and Kiyoshi sat down. "So, what happened to yours? Your family, I mean."

Kiyoshi was about to refuse, but sensed this was some kind of ritual. "Father died when I was very little. He and some friends went out during a storm, and the boat went down. Mama was a seamstress, which didn't make much, so my oldest sister had to go into the city to work. She sent us money for a while, then disappeared. We got on okay, but then. Mama died. My uncle killed her. I don't know why. My brother and I traveled for a little while, but I have a bad heart, so he left me here." It sort of felt good to summarize it so neatly. "What about you guys?" Initial reluctance aside, he was easily warming to companionship now that it was offered.

Akiyama swallowed. Kiyoshi wasn't the only one who's life had forced him to grow up too quickly. The junin's manner bespoke an old, heavy soul in a young body. "My tribe was living in the forest and tried to stop some humans from overhunting. It was hurting all of us. They came back and. they killed everyone. Two girls also made it, but they left the day before Chizu found me."

The girl smiled crookedly as she began. "I'm Tora. My Dad was a crazy drunk. He killed my mother when I was little. He tried to kill me. Chizu rescued me." She didn't seem to have anything else to say, and her eyes held a glint of what might have been insanity.

The blond boy seemed to come out of his stupor, but he still didn't come across as all there. "My name's Kin. I don't remember parents. I lived alone, in the forest a little ways from here. Chizu found me last year."

"Amida is my name." The words didn't exactly seem to be sound. Kiyoshi couldn't help feel they were spoken inside his head. "My family left me when they realized I wasn't human."

"What?"

"He's a changeling," Akiyama explained.

"Not exactly. My mother gave birth to me. I remember it. But I seem to be some spirit that entered her. Angel or demon, I don't know. It wasn't so bad. I don't need to eat often and," he. she. it paused to hold up a gray- tinged hand that was definitely translucent around the edges, "Weather doesn't affect me much. But it's much better here."

"It really is?" Still digesting what he'd heard, Kiyoshi managed the first real smile he could remember ever having. "That's good."

A/N: Well, it's going somewhere. I don't know where, yet (or, rather, I do, but it's not readily apparent to all of you, haha). Please review. It feeds my poor, helpless ego.