Chapter 15- A New Bond
"Let's take another look, " Kane said as he picked another drawing. It was a picture of a tiger prepping on his elbow as it was seemingly were relaxing on the ground, but in front of him was a penguin sitting under a tree, which Dean colored in orange and blue . It seemed strange but at the same time Kane was quite amused at the boy's imagination. How often do you see a tiger hanging with a colored penguin?
"This is my favorite. It tells a story of a friendship between a penguin and a tiger, " Dean told him.
"Really? " Kane chuckled, " How did you get an idea like that? I mean, penguin's habitat is different than a tiger, right? " He asked keenly.
"I know penguin live in cold climate like Antartica, " Dean's admitted . " But this one is different. Daddy told me about a story of this penguin who was separated from its family and friends and getting lost. So he keep on walking alone until he reached into the deep forest where a lion tried to eat him. Until the tiger came to his rescue and fought the bad lion to death. Since that they became best friends, "
Kane almost tempted to laugh because of the complete absurdity of the story, how can a penguin survive living in a forest? But then he realized it was only a story mean to entertain children , after all it was only imagination in a child's head, so he guessed the funny story make pretty sense to a boy like Dean. Besides, it was narrated by his father, so of course Dean would take the story seriously.
"I see you were inspired by his story," Kane nodded, "I think the penguin and tiger looked so cute together." He acclaimed sincerely, loving the way Dean's little face shining with pleasure and pride as he saw Kane admiring his artwork. I bet his mother never do this to him, he thought with sympathy. But the thoughts of imagining a penguin in a forest getting chummy with the tiger was just hilarious to him, so he couldn't help laughing anyway.
"Why are you laughing? " Dean asked , puzzled.
"Nothing. It just reminded me of Winnie the Pooh, "Kane replied, "But these are cute. Seriously cute, " He prompted honestly.
"Tell you what, " Kane added after he was finished laughing, "We'll stick this to your fridge. Your Mommy will definitely love this, " He suggested. Dean nodded excitedly.
"Cool! I'll tell Mrs. Lilian to do it, " Dean grinned. Kane placed the drawing aside and they browsed through more drawings of random stuff. There were sketches of racing car, random animals, cartoon and some superhero characters, and Kane picked an illustration of a little girl with blonde ponytail, dressing in school uniform.
"Is this your girlfriend, by any chance?" He asked Dean teasingly. Dean blushed, but he snatched the paper from Kane's hand.
"Nooooo, " He denied, "That's Renee Young. She's the prettiest girl in the school." Dean admitted, embarrassed.
"Oww. The pretty girl, " Kane snickered, " She definitely look pretty to me. Is she in your class? "
"No. She's one year older than me. She's in second grade, but she's very nice to me." Dean answered sheepishly. "I mean to give this to her as a present, but I'm scared that she will not like it."
"Why not? This is the most awesome thing I ever seen in my life. Trust me, she'll love this. People will appreciate it when you think of them in special way like this, " Kane encouraged. "Tell you what, tomorrow you are taking this to school and at lunch break, go find her. Just say a simple hi and tell her you got something special for her. Now that's how you hit on ladies, got it? "
Dean was speechless for a brief second, but he looked hesitated. "I doubt I could do that. I'm scared, I guess, " He said, "Besides her classmates are going to find out and they will laugh at me, especially Dolph Ziggler and Mike Mizanin. They are your brother's best friends now, "
Kane was quite taken aback. "Wait a minute, " He contemplated. "Seth did told me that they were his friends. But I thought they were his classmates. So these two are in second grade? "
Dean was surprised as well. "Yes, " He confirmed.
"Dean, " Kane said, "Did you know your friend Roman passing by while you were in my house? He came to check on you. He was worried I will eat you raw for dinner, and I had a good talk with him, "
"Really? " Dean laughed . "I'm unaware of that. I guess the fever really knocked me out. Did you both talk about us and Seth? "
"Sort of. " Kane rubbed his chin. "Apparently, there was something Seth never told me about you three were fighting. Why all these overwhelming hate towards my brother, Dean? What exactly had took place that even Seth refused to tell me about it.?"
"I thought you knew, " Dean repeated what had Roman said before. " I really thought Seth told you."
"No, I didn't. Tell me what's its all about. Seth avoided me when I asked him, and you certainly not going to do that to me, too." Kane demanded.
"Okay then. " Dean nodded. "We were best friends, the three of us . We spent so much time hanging together. Sometimes Seth invited us to your house after school to play. I still remember how jealous I was every time I saw your family, I wished I have big brothers like you and Randy , " He paused.
"You jealous of Seth? " Kane laughed, "You had no idea how painful it was to have little brothers like Randy and Seth. And I'm sorry because I never remember you or Roman coming over to play with Seth. I guess I hardly spent any time home because I never get along with my parents, especially my mom."
"Seth told me you fight with your mom and dad all the time. You always broke their rules, you never listen to anything they told you. You may not remember me, but I remember something about you." Dean said. " There was a time , your parents celebrating Randy's birthday and Seth invited me over. Randy was about to blow the candles when you appeared, looking like you are going somewhere. Your mom stopped you in the middle and forced you to stay behind to celebrate with Randy. You refused and started fighting with her. Then your dad yelling at you, and you said, "Fine. I'll party with you." Then you picked the cake up and you smashed it to Randy's face. Randy was crying and screaming and your parents were mad. But you just laughed like an evil person and then you just left."
Kane burst into laughter when Dean brought up the story about the disastrous birthday party. " It was one hell of party. But that feels damn good. It was one of the craziest thing I ever done just to piss my mom off, " He stopped laughing. "Okay, back to Seth. What happened after that? "
"Well, there was this time our teacher assigned us a school project that involving the second graders. We are given selected partners from second graders, boys and girls. Seth got Dolph and Mike. Roman got Damien Sandow and Adrian Neville. I got Renee and Kofi Kingston. It was all started from there. Seth became closer to Dolph and Mike and they still hanging together even when the project was finished. The thing is, Dolph and Mike did not like Roman and I. So, Seth began to distance himself from us and rather spending more time with them. I think Seth preferred their company because he got to hang out with the second graders and I guess it seemed much cooler to him then hanging with me and Roman. We became estranged and our friendship was falling apart little by little."
Dean paused for a few seconds.
"So it was just you and Roman left then. " Kane said.
Dean nodded before he continued. "One day, Roman and I were playing in the school backyard. Then we saw Dolph and Mike were bullying our classmate and Seth just stood there watching, so Roman went to interfere them to help the poor kid. Dolph and Mike started to beat on Roman, and I came along to help him. Dolph yelled at Seth to help him and Mike. At first I noticed Seth was hesitated and he seemed like he did not know which side he should take. Then Roman kicked Mike down, so Dolph tried to fight him, but Roman countered. That was when Seth interfered.. He hit Roman's head with his school briefcase. I was in shock, I could not say anything when he attacked Roman like that. I tried to fight him but he hit me with the briefcase too. After that , Dolph threatened me not to tell the teachers anything or they will beat me again."
"Whoa. Just...whoa. I.. I ..did not even know what to say." Kane gasped, completely bewildered by the revelation. He did not want to believe it, but the honesty in Dean's voice while he was narrating the story forced him to take the whole new angle seriously.
"Well, that was the truth. " Dean shrugged. "It's up to you if you want to believe it or not. And I'm sorry for the times I bullied Seth. I guess it was the only way I could pay him back for what he did to Roman and I." He hung his head down, as if he was guilt-stricken.
"I do believe you. " Kane convinced . "No wonder Seth never want to be honest with me and our dad. I could tell he was scared, but that does not justify his actions towards you. I guess he had a lot to explain to me when I got home later." He tapped on Dean's back a few times to put the kid at ease.
"I'm so jealous of Seth. He was lucky he had a cool big brother like you." Dean suddenly confessed.
"I'm not that cool, Dean. My parents and my grandpa hate me." Kane murmured. "But I can be your big bro too, " He offered, grinning.
"No way. We are not related, " Dean shook his head. "Besides, Seth would hate me even more."
"So what? " Kane shrugged. " It does not take a blood relation to be someone's brother. Ever heard of "brother from another mother" phrase? We could be brothers too even if we had different parents,"
"So.. I can be your brother too? "Dean asked curiously. " Like, brother from another mother? " Kane nodded.
"Exactly. My brother from another mother, " Kane repeated, patting Dean's auburn head . The kid giggled again.
"Cool! I love that! " Dean yelped excitedly. "But wait.. " His face suddenly changed. "What about Seth? We still hate each other..And Roman? "
"Leave out all the rest to me." Kane assured softly. "I will handle Seth on my own. But for now.. Bros?" He extended his hand towards Dean.
"OK. I think I loved it, " Dean retrieved Kane's palms and shook his hand . "Yippee! I had a big brother ! " He stood up, began to bounce up and down the mattress happily. He did not even realized his fever had subsided, he was feeling agitated and overjoyed. Kane watched him with a smile.
"Dean? " Kane asked.
"Yeah?"
"Are you hungry?"
"Umm.. a little." Dean answered, but then he shook his head. " No, I'm starving! I want to eat, " He whined.
"Let's get those framed on your fridge and tell your maid to cook something, " Kane gathered the sketching papers that were scattering on the bed and selected a few that would be displayed on Dean's fridge . He separated aside the ones he was going to take home with him.
"Okay! " Dean jumped off his bed and ran off towards the door impatiently.
A/N : So that's it! Now we know why Dean and Roman hate Seth so much. He's kinda bad, right? I hope you guys like it. To all guest reviews and readers with account, I would like to once again thanking you guys for keeping up with this plain story, I appreciate all your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the story, so yeah, thanks again! :) :)
Anyone watched Raw last night ? I'm so heartbroken now that Randy had officially a face turn, but of course, we had seen it coming. No more happy Authority family, but I'd still looking forward what is next for him after he's done doing his movie. Till then, have a nice day everyone :)