A/N: Hello! Fancy meeting you here.

This author's note comes in two parts. One is for those who are reading this story for the first time with this as the first chapter, and those who are back here that knew the original chapters.

If you are new here, welcome! I hope you enjoy this story that I'm still writing. If you don't, well, at least I tried, right?

If you are here because you've read the original story so far and are back to see if I completely ruined the beginning, I hope I don't disappoint. I also hope that the changes I made aid the consistency of future/past story events and that you understand why I chose to rewrite them.

Enjoy!

Once upon some time in some place,

A young boy named Mike lived a carefree life with his parents and older brother in a large house atop a small hill on the outskirts of a bustling suburban village. His family was well off enough to enjoy the little things, but they were certainly not rich. His father's job as one of the king's messengers, often taking him away from home for several weeks at a time, provided most of the money that sustained their modest lifestyle, though his mother occasionally worked as well. Most of the time she spent the hours of the day at home, however, raising her two sons.

Despite a gap of two years between Mike and his older brother, Mal, any passerby unacquainted with them would say they might be twins. They both inherited tan skin from their mother and dark eyes from their father. In reality, though, they were far from identical.

"So this is how to properly fold a nice shirt like this-are you listening, Mal?" their mother, Kate, asked the eight year old looking off into the distant part of the backyard flower garden where they sat one afternoon. "You'll need this information someday, mark my words."

"I wanna go pick those flowers, you think Dad would smile if we gave him those when he came back home?" Mal asked, his mind on a different plane as his eyes, filled with energy despite their underlying dark circles, surveyed the corner of the backyard. He was pacing back and forth on the grass, feet bare and covered in a thin layer of dirt."Yeah, I'm gonna pick all of them!" And off he went.

"Can I try, Mam?" Mike interjected, his short brown hair spiked towards the sky as he barely held himself up to the table where she had her laundry basket. "I wanna fold." His little hand tried to grab the fabric to no avail.

"No, Michael, I'm afraid I now have to make sure your brother doesn't tear my whole garden apart again before dark," Kate replied with a small laugh. She placed the shirt down and offered to help him into a chair so he could sit.

"Oh ya, that'd be no good," Mike agreed with a shake of his head before taking a moment to think. "Ima go help make sure he picks only da best ones!" He ran off as well, laughing all the while.

Kate watched her sons from afar with a small smile, lifting another article of clothing out of the basket for her to fold.

"Anyone home?" a familiar voice called from inside the house not soon after.

Mike turned towards the voice, flowers in hand. He spotted the figure of his father in the distance kissing his mother on the cheek as he held his messenger's uniform hat in one hand and smiled.

If only it could've stayed that way forever, he would later think.

If only life were so forgiving.

A few years later,

"You're really going to the capital today. That's so exciting! I wish I could go with you… but Mother doesn't think I should," ten-year-old Mike inquired with excitement. "I have my show I'm in. Maybe you'll be back in time to see it?" Sure, he was only playing a supporting role in this one, but it was still important to him that his brother be there.

Mal smirked and closed his bag. "Yep, I'll finally witness what Father does when he's away. I've always wondered what he's out so long for, since he never tells us anything other than 'work'. Who knows, maybe he'll introduce me to the king!" He laughed, his voice still not quite cracked yet. He had grown to be just a hair taller than Mike. "We should be back in time for your acting thing, yeah. Wouldn't miss it."

"Bring me a souvenir, okay? I'm gonna be busy a lot while you're gone, but I'll try to write like we always do when he leaves," Mike said, a big smile on his face.

Mal slung the bag over his shoulder. "I look forward to your awful handwriting," he responded with a grin before hearing their father's voice calling from down the stairs. "Must be time!" He grabbed his brother's hand and dragged him downstairs with him.

Their footsteps echoed through the empty house. Kate was kissing her husband goodbye the way she always did. He was nodding to what she was saying to him quietly.

Mike let go of Mal's hand and stayed back for a moment once they had exited the house. He watched his brother and mother hug each other for what would be the last time, and his father looked in his direction and said something that he wouldn't soon forget, because he said it every time he left for work, followed by an invitation to come and say goodbye.

"Don't worry. I'll be back," was the last thing Mal said to him before getting on the horse behind their dad.

"I know," was Mike's reply.

The messenger who brought the news was sweaty and had a small, red cut on her forehead from a branch that had smacked her after riding too quickly. "He's…I'm so sorry, miss…he wouldn't say a word to me about it. I just found him on the road with nothing but his letters and the clothes on his back." She held her bag that signified her position in both hands. "'E's at the doctor in town, should be home later."

"…he was by himself? There wasn't-are you sure?" Kate's breathing had quickened.

Mike was just in time walking into the room to catch the nod of the messenger and his mother's gasping, followed by a sob that signaled the beginning of the end.

A year can fly by so fast when your world is turned upside down.

"…I can do the dishes after dinner, Father. You should go rest, you just got home," Mike insisted after a dish had fallen from his silent father's reddened fingers onto the floor.

"Mother is working again today. She showed me how to make some of the things you like, I'll get them ready for when you go to work," he promised on a cloudy day that promised rain.

"Did…did y-you see what happened to him?" he asked him one teary night when he'd almost forgotten to remember Mal's face.

"Micheal, your father is very tired-" Kate tried to calm him down.

"Where did h-he go? He s-said he'd come back!" Mike cried to no reply.

His father wouldn't look him in the eye. He hadn't since he'd come home that day. He never gave a single answer, either.

The time came for him to travel to the capital once again. As he mounted his horse he looked down at his wife and son with the gaze of a broken soul.

A guilty soul.

"…have a safe trip," Mike mumbled as he unknowingly watched his father ride out of his life forever.

Just as Mal's vanishing had left its mark, so too had the disappearance of their father.

Five years without steady income made a working man out of the adolescent Mike. His payments from any acting or otherwise job he got his hands on, alongside the scrapings Kate was making as a laundress when she could, went straight to paying for food and helping maintain the shell of a house that was far too big for two.

He grew up from then on an only child with a single mother. Just like his father had when he was still around, he never let her see his exhaustion when he came home after a long day of work, nor did he give her the chance to witness the tears he shed for his lost brother each night, hoping they would somehow make things change for the better. One night she found him curled up at the foot of Mal's bed, shivering, and moved him back to his own bedroom next door, but never brought it up again. She only saw his well-practiced gap-toothed smile in the times he was awake, and he was more than okay with that.

It was the least he could do, to keep her spirits up.

His own spirits weren't broken just yet after everything, but it was getting harder each day to keep it that way.

Special shoutout to the original four reviewers of the first chapter: smilingagged, SideshowJazz, Bloodylilcorpse, and DarkAngelofSorrowReturns. I'm not sure if any of you are ever going to see this, but thank you, again. :)

For any new reviews of this chapter, please let me know what you think, especially if you've read the original since I actually added some scenes that weren't there before.

On to the next rewritten chapter, shall we?