Hey guys! I really wanted to thank funkyhusky for reviewing my last chapter, it really supported and helped me to keep writing and to make this chapter possibly. But not just funkyhusky but everyone else who favorited and followed this story. :)
So here it goes Chapter Three: At Nogi's doorstep
Please remeber to favorite, follow and review! (they really do help ... even if it's just one!)
.
.
.
"Umma, wha's dat?" a blonde little boy asked his mother as he tugged on her long sleeve shirt. He was just about two years old and was wearing a pair of blue flannel pajamas that matched his eyes.
He was currently sleeping but was awaken by a pitched shriek. At first he was scared but he gathered up all his courage and put on his big-boy pants and went to his mother. Since he and his parents all slept in one room, he only had to take a few steps to get to his parents' bed.
His father was at a business trip at the palace, so it was just he and his mother in the room. The boy's father had a high ranking in the palace, even though they lived in the outskirts if the city. But it wasn't like his father was forced to live there either. It was rather his father's choice.
He went to his mom and called out to her. The boy's small voice made the mother open her eyes and look at her son. She looked in her son's eyes; she could tell he was scared.
"What's wrong, Ruka?" She asked the small boy as she pulled him in bed with her. The feeling of being in his parents' warm bed made Ruka feel safe and he began to calm down and relax. He looked innocently at his mom before he began to talk.
"I … I hurd sumting outside." Ruka said trying to pronounce his words correctly, but failed in the process. His mother raised an eyebrow and pulled out a playful smirk.
"Outside, eh? I wonder what it could be?" She said as she put her index finger to her chin, "Thieves? A Monster?" She amusingly watched Ruka's adorable shocked expressions. "Or maybe … Papa?" She said.
Ruka's face lit up and sat up in the bed, "Appa! Appa!" he said as he flew his hands in the air. He quickly crawled over his mother and landed on his feet in the floor. He scurried towards the door and left the room.
His mother got up too, and followed him to make sure he wouldn't fall down the stairs or trip over his own feet, like he usually did. When they finally got the stairs, instead of going one by one like Ruka usually does, this time he seemed to be overexcited and sat down on the stairs and planned to slide all the way down.
But his mom caught his little planned just before he started to slide and grabbed him before he could be anything else. "No you don't." she said as she heaved him up on her hip.
"Umma! I like go DOWN~!" Ruka whined as he squirmed in her arms. But this had no effect on his mom; she just simply ignored him till they reached the bottom of the stairs. There she let him back to the ground and he ran off again, but she could still see him in sight.
"Appa! Appa!" he yelled out as he ran to the front door. He ran so fast he could almost not stop himself from smashing face first into the door. He swiftly opened the entrance door but didn't find his father, but another future family member, a little sister.
He curiously stared at the small baby on the doorstep, trying to figure out if it was alive or not. Suddenly the same ear-piercing scream, he heard in his bed was heard again but the sound came from the baby. Ruka flinched and unconsciously gripped the handle off the door.
"RUKA!" His mother called, when she heard the scream she raced towards the door. Her heart began to race and the hair in the back of her neck began to stand straight. She had recently had a miscarriage and the terror of losing her own child took its toll on her. And now if it really was a thieve or a robber at her front door, she wouldn't be able to live with herself; knowing she let Ruka go over there. She was already tearing up.
"Ruka!" she shouted again as she got to the front door. Ruka turned to her and innocently pointed at the baby on the ground. She quickly looked at the baby as it made another high-pitched scream, and bent down to her son and hugged him, hard. It felt like the weight of the entire world was off her shoulders, but now she had to face another problem; why is this baby doing on her doorstep and whose is it?
She slowly released Ruka and turned to the small baby on the ground. She took compassion on the newborn and carefully picked it up. Still crying and screaming, she rocked and cooed the baby to relax and calm down. Gradually the baby began to follow her lead and began to fall asleep.
"Poor thing" She frowned at the small infant in her arms. She reached out to the doorknob and closed it shut.
"Umma … " Ruka said as he looked up at his mom and she looked back. She smiled at her son and bent down on one knee to Ruka's eye level.
"Ruka, come on let's go to the living room." She said as she got up and let one hand go for Ruka to grab, while the other carried the newborn. Ruka caught the message, almost instantly, and grabbed her hand and walked with her to the living room.
Once the got to the living room Ruka let go of his mother's hand and hopped on the couch. He cheekily smiled at his mom, who was turning on the lamp that was right next to the couch. She sat right next to Ruka and they both looked down at the baby in her arms.
Her light brown hair glittered in the light and her cheeks were bright pink like she had applied another coat of blush on them. And if you looked even closer, you could see she had a light tint of blue. This struck the mother's curiosity. She lightly laid the back of her hand against the babe's soft cheek. She widened her eyes. The baby was stone cold!
'How long has she been out there?' She thought. She began to fret about the poor abandoned newborn. 'I need to get her warm! Or else she might get sick!' Her motherly instincts were turned on.
She turned to Ruka, and said "Ruka, can you please hold the baby while Mama gets some firewood?" Ruka beamed. "Hai!" The mother carefully gave the small baby to Ruka, head first then feet. She also made sure before she gave him the baby, his back was on the couch, so he could he as steady as possible.
"Be carful, Ruka." She said anxiously. "You must not move around when you hold her, and make sure you hold her tight. And don't forget to hold her head." Ruka just nodded. And with that she left.
She ran off to the storage room, where they kept the firewood for the winter. She grabbed two half logs before she ran back to the living room. When she came back, Ruka was in the same position he was left in, thankfully. She turned her back towards the two infants and started to make a fire. After a couple of tries, she finally got it going.
She hurried back to the couch and cautiously took back the baby in her arms. She quickly went back to the fireplace and gracefully sat down near it, trying to warm the freezing baby. Once the baby was out of Ruka's arms he jumped of the couch and followed his mom to the fireplace.
"Umma?" Ruka sat down right next to his mom and put his hand on her arm. He stared at her with his big blue innocent eyes. She turned to him and locked eyes, as if she was reading his mind. She smiled at him warmly before answering him, "Umma's trying warm baby up, Ruka."
Ruka gave her a questioned look, "Wae?"
"Because~ baby is cold and I don't want her to get sick … do you want her to get sick?" She said changing her tone to a playful one. Ruka widened his eyes and instantly shook his head. She started to chuckle.
"Then we should get her warm so she won't be sick," she said as she rubbed the newborn's small arms, trying to generate warmth.
Ruka saw what his mother was doing and decided to do the same thing, but a bit different. Instead of just rubbing her limbs, he decided to 'catch the fire's heat' by going the closet to the fire he could and cupping the warm air and quickly bringing it to the baby. And then start rubbing her feet. He did this every five minutes since he thought the heat would be gone after that time period.
His mom just laughed as she watched him go and back and forth to the fire.
Gradually the infant began to turn to a normal color, and she no longer felt cold, but warm. By then Ruka had gotten tired of 'catching heat' and, along with the baby, fell asleep in his mother's lap.
The mother smiled down at the scene before her, they looked like a real family. And at that very moment Ruka's mother decided to keep Mikan as her very own daughter and not give her up to anyone.
The open door of the Nogi manner squeaked open and there stood the man of the house, Izumi Nogi. He had just come back from an important business trip at the palace where he worked as one of the kingdom's councilmen. It was late at night when he entered the house, but surprisingly there in the living the lights were still on.
'Odd~, Why are the lights on? It's not like Yuka to forget to turn off the lights,' he thought as he referred Ruka's mother as Yuka, which really was her real name.
He slowly took his shoes of and entered the house, trying not the make as little noise as possible. He was getting closer to the living room, where the source of light was, and saw his beloved family, Yuka, asleep, on the couch and Ruka on her lap sleeping too. He let out a cheeky smile, 'Awwwwe, they were waiting for me!' he thought, as his ego grow even larger.
As he came closer, he noticed that his beloved Yuka was carrying something, or more like someone. It was a small baby. Izumi widened his eyes, 'why does she have a baby?!' he started to panic. He started to pace back and forth; not noticing the noise of his stomps was waking his child.
"Mmmm …" Ruka stirred from his sleep as he lifted his head from his mom's lap. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his small hands. At first he could only saw blobs and outlines of thing, but gradually his vision came to him.
"Appa?" Ruka said still half asleep. Izumi swiftly turned back around to his small son, shocked that he was awake.
"Appa!" Ruka repeated, he didn't raise his voice higher from a whisper but you could still tell the excitement in it. He tried to get up, still fighting back his fatigue, but failed when his arms gave out on him and he started to fall of the couch to the ground, but fortunately his father was sharp and sharp, and caught him, before he landed.
Ruka took a big breath and let it out as he was in his father's warm embrace. He began to mold to the shape of his father's arms, trying to become more comfortable to sleep. Izumi let out a warm and gentle smile as he stared at his son.
He stood up from the ground and began to walk upstairs to his room and placed the small boy in the middle of the gigantic king-size bed. He pulled the covers over Ruka and left downstairs, to do the same with his wife and unknown child. As he came the couch he stared at the infant in his wife's arms.
Her light brown hair and rosy cheeks made her appearance so irresistible to squeeze her soft plump cheeks. It was like God gave him the small little girl he always wanted. He had almost given up all hope when his wife had a miscarriage and knew how she felt about losing the child, he thought he could never have a daughter anymore, but he was proved wrong. Here she was in front of his eyes, in his wife's hands. He couldn't be happier.
All he hoped is that the child wasn't a child she was just babysitting or a child she could have gotten while cheating on him, but of course that would never happen since he trusted her and she trusted him.
He carefully took the small babe from his wife's hands, making extra precaution about her head, and also put her upstairs in the king-size bed, next to Ruka. Now lastly it was his wife's turn. He scooped her up in his arms, one arms under her legs and the other under her shoulders, and carried her bridal-style up the stairs. He placed her on the other side of Ruka, at the nearer end of the bed, but close enough to the middle so even if she could roll twice she wouldn't fall out of bed.
Now that everyone was in bed asleep he chose to take a quick shower and to turn all the lights off and jump in bed with everyone. It was a perfect night to be in bed with everyone since the night was cold and everyone's body heat kept each other warm.
In the morning Yuka and Izumi discussed about what to do with Mikan, even though they both wanted to keep her there were also things that would stop them from doing it. Like the fact that they were not her birth parents and her birth parents could be right now looking for her. (Which they were) They came up with a final decision; if they couldn't find her birth parents within the one-week period of time, they would officially take the infant as their own.
And of course they didn't find her birth parents, which made them really happy since they didn't have to give her up, and then Mikan officially became their daughter, and Ruka's younger sister.
And that's what happened, Mikan became a part of the Nogi family. Though ironically her name never changed because Ruka's Mother, Yuka Nogi, had a hunch that that was her name.
Mikan social standing was as a daughter of a palace official so naturally she lived a life full of things that were given to her somewhat easily, but she never was over spoiled nor did she become a rotten brat. Mikan had an easy yet moderately challenging childhood as she became and was a family member of the Nogi manner. With Yuka, Izumi, and Ruka there for her everything was sunshine and daisies, and even if it weren't that good Mikan would find the good in everything.
But unfortunately for her other triplet, Sakuno, it wasn't like that at all. Her childhood was actually almost the opposite of Mikan's and Hotaru's, Sakuno didn't get parents … but something else, which was entirely different from theirs.
But what do you expect? Since just on the second day of birth, she was already at a slave action ready to be sold and bought to anyone who had enough money to buy her.
So how did you like it? Isn't great I finally answered your question SoshiGee here's Ruka for you and this is one of his roles in the story, Mikan's older brother. And yes, I would like to say Ruka is going to be one of Hotaru's love interest (outside of Natsume and Ryoma since they are her fiancées)
Like I said in the beginning, please review! They can really make a different in how fast these chapters may come. :)
- Mika Zaraki 141
(P.S. check out my other story Secret, it's a Ryosaku story! It's not in fantasy world but in Seigaku, and here's the part that makes it interesting ... in my story Sakuno has to cross-dress as a guy for school and not let her true identity be known! She has many challenges and times where she is suspected as a girl, but off couse I can't tell you anymore! you have to read it yourself!)