A/N: I'm not sure about the child support thing... I mean yeah, my folks are divorced, but we all live with my mom, so of course dad pays child support... as for each parent having a kid it makes sense to not have either pay it... but I could be wrong.

Chapter 5

Bobby stared at the stars in the sky through the window, taking a long drag of his cigarette. Mary was doing well he figured. She already got a new house, and she had just left him a bit more then two months ago. He was grateful he didn't have to pay child support to her. He had recently lost his job and a huge amount of money from gambling. But because he had one kid he didn't have to pay anything, and anyway, Mary didn't want his money. She was really cutting him out of her life. She even went as far as to get a restraining order on him.

He sighed, rubbing his temple. What was he going to do? He had to find a new home now, since he was evicted from his house for not paying rent for the last two months. He couldn't afford it anymore anyway. He only had one week left to find a new home, before he and Joey were out on the streets.

He had a few cheap apartments in mind, but they weren't exactly in the best location- but what did he care? He grew up in a place much like that anyway. Joey could start over at a new school, which would probably be good for the kid. He didn't have any friends at his school, and apparently he beat other kids up. He'd asked Joey once, about why he would do that. Joey claimed they deserved it because they were mean and he wasn't going to let them push him around. Bobby always taught Joey to be tough and not take bull shit from anyone, so he didn't see why this was a bad thing, but teachers still called him about it anyway.

"Dad...I'm hungry. How come we don't have any food?" Joey asked. Bobby hadn't even known he was in the room, let alone being in the room long enough to look for food.

"Cuz I can't afford to buy any right now." Bobby muttered.

"Dad, isn't food important? People eventually DIE from not eating." Joey sat in the chair beside his father.

"Shut up, and go to bed!" Bobby snapped, kicking Joey right off the chair he had been sitting on. Joey yelped, and rubbed his hip where he had been kicked.

"Sorry." Joey muttered, leaving. Bobby sighed, irritated. He needed to get some serious money and fast! He ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. How could his life be so terrible? He'd just lost everything. His wife, his home, his job, all of his friends (no one likes an alcoholic it seems) and one of his kids. Joey was all he had left! Bobby suddenly felt guilty for kicking the kid like he just did, but pushed it aside.

He picked up the phone abruptly, and dialed the number for one of the landlords of an apartment he was looking at. He was going to see if he could look at it tomorrow.

"So... this is it." Bobby dropped a box on the floor. Joey hung around the apartment entrance, staring at the floor. "What do you think?"

"S'okay..." Joey shrugged. Bobby knew that the kid hadn't even looked at the damn place yet.

"Well, you get this room here." Bobby walked down a little hallway, and stood in front of a door. "So put your stuff in here."

"How come we gotta live in a hotel dad?" Joey frowned, eyeing the other doors down the hall.

"It's NOT a hotel, it's an apartment." Bobby huffed. He flopped onto the couch and cracked open his first beer in his new home. He had moved the furniture earlier that day while Joey was in school. Joey disappeared into his room, and Bobby didn't see him for the rest of the day. Not that he cared, he was busy unpacking things. Although the ordeal of unpacking was about as depressing as it was to pack.

Bobby had found it hard to control himself. Soon he was doing more drinking and less unpacking. He was finding things that Mary had bought him, or Serenity had made for him. Everything in the box reminded him of Mary- he even made an effort to put things in similar places as they were in the old house. He never finished unpacking.

Joey came out of his room hours later, finding his dad passed out on the couch. Joey shook his head, and finished what his dad had started. He was ALWAYS finishing what his dad started. The man was completely undependable.

"I wish I had a real father." Joey muttered, looking at a picture of himself and his father when he was smaller. He wouldn't cry though, because his old man taught him to never cry- it was weak and not manly. Real men don't cry, real men face their problems on their own and in their own way; real men don't talk to their friends about their home life.

Bobby had actually told Joey these things to keep Joey from telling other kids, or adults about his father's problem with alcohol and gambling, and to keep Joey from asking him questions. He didn't know it was going to change his son's entire way of thinking. How could he have known?

End of Ch.5

Um... alright, in the next chapter, we get to see the first of Honda...Tristan (damn I can't keep dub and original names straight) and... I think it begins to be more from Joey's P.O.V from then on.