The large London town house was silent save for sound of rain pounding the windows ruthlessly and the soft ticking of the grandfather clock that stood proud in the corner of the spacious living room. A small, messy haired, blue eyed boy sat curled up on the sofa with a book on his lap. But Daniel Williams was paying the words on the page no attention, instead he was watching the rain batter the window, lost in thought. His mother had left him alone again in favour of going to yet another one of her work parties, or meetings. Danny wasn't quite sure, he'd stoped asking years ago. The boy sighed heavily and turned away from the window and towards at the large airedale terrier lying at his feet. He smiled softly as he lazily scratched behind the dog's ear.

"It's just us eh Gatsby" He murmured, stroking the dog's head absentmindedly. "Just us, as usual" he finished, a bitter note in his voice. Seemingly sensing the boy's mood the dog turned around and started licking his hand enthusiastically. Danny laughed but was distracted by the buzzing of his phone. He grabbed it and smiled when he saw that it was from Katie, his best friend since the age of 6.

'Can I come round? mum and dad are fighting again, need to get out'

Danny texted back a quick yes and trudged down the corridor into the kitchen. He supposed it would've been a very nice and inviting room had it been used regularly, but the constant absence of anybody left the room feeling cold and lifeless. The rain waging war on the window panes doing nothing to help the room feel any more welcoming. When Danny was younger he used to imagine what this house would be like if he had a normal family. He used to imagine his mother cooking dinner in the kitchen, singing along to whatever song was on the radio while his father would lay the table, cracking jokes and chatting to Danny. He would have brothers and sisters running around too. But he would always be brought back down to the miserable reality that was his life.

Daniel Williams. A boy whose father walked out without any explanation when he was five and a mother who valued her career over her son. And not a brother or sister in sight.

Sometimes, when he was feeling particularly lonely, he wondered why his mother even bothered adopting him in the first place, he occasionally felt as if she only saw him as a burden to her thriving career. Danny knew his mother loved him, but after hours with no company he couldn't always stop those traitorous thoughts from creeping in.

He could barely remember parents being together, or his father at all, but sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours at home with only the dog for company, he came up with a strange vision: a man with light brown hair and bright blue eyes ruffling his hair, grinning affectionately down at him. This had always confused him, he knew from the very few photos he had of his father that he was blond. So the memory wasn't of him, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that that man was someone who cared for him very much. He had spent hours scouring family photos for him, but he had yet to yield any information about his identity.

Danny was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the doorbell. He heaved open the heavy front door to reveal the form of his best friend. Katie Thompson.

Almost half the boys at Danny's school had had a crush on Katie at some point, something which both amused and annoyed Danny to no end. He could easily see why though. What Katie lacked in height she made up for in personality. Always friendly and very outgoing, Katie would talk to anyone and everyone. She had an ability to make anyone feel at ease when talking to her. Katie had dark skin and bushy black hair that was usually tied up in a bun on top of her head.

She stood shivering at the doorway, completely soaked but despite everything she was smiling. That was something Danny had always admired about his best friend. She managed to smile no matter what was going on in her life.

"Hello Gatsby!" She said brightly, stroking the dog's head as he jumped up and down in excitement. His tail was wagging so much Danny was amazed he hadn't knocked anything over yet.

"You alright Kate?" Danny asked as he closed the front door and walked into the kitchen, Katie following behind.

"Yeah I guess" She said softly, but Danny knew her well enough to notice the sad note in her voice. "It's so stupid, they were fighting over the TV remote, the TV remote of all things. One minute we were watching and the next they're screaming at each other because mum wanted to change the channel. And then if that wasn't enough, my brothers join in on this stupid fight!" She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "Oh don't look at me like that!" She snapped, referring to the sympathetic look Danny was sending her. He smiled apologetically and grabbed a bag of popcorn from the cupboard and some lemonades from the fridge. They made their way back into the living room and flopped down on the sofa with an exaggerated 'oomph'.

"Sometimes I wish I just had a functional family you know?" Katie asked as she popped open the can. Danny smiled wryly at his feet. He understood that feeling completely. Next to him Katie paused, and looked towards her best friend.

"Do you ever wonder what your life would be like had your dad not left? Or if you weren't adopted?"

Danny let out a dry laugh and met Katie's eyes.

"All the time." Katie didn't say anything, but stayed quiet. She knew he would elaborate in his own time.

"I don't know…." He said eventually, quietly. "If my dad hadn't left I guess I would have hopefully had some brothers or sisters. Or mum wouldn't have to work all the time so I'd be alone less often."

He went quiet and looked back down at to his feet.

"And if you weren't adopted? If you stayed with your real parents?" She asked carefully. Katie had tiptoed round this topic for a long time, she wasn't quite sure what Danny felt towards his birth mother and father. But she was pretty certain that Danny didn't know what to feel towards his birth parents either.

"They're not my real parents" Danny snapped "They didn't raise me, mum did. They gave me up."

The anger in Danny's voice startled Katie. It wasn't something she -or anyone- heard that often. But she couldn't help but noticed the tinge of sadness at the end of his sentence either.

"What do you know about them?" Katie pressed cautiously, scanning his face for any signs of discomfort.

Danny ran a hand through his hair, and sighed before looking up into the concerned, yet curious face of his best friend. "Mum told me once that they were probably American, she doesn't know if I originally came from the States or if I just lived with American parents here. But I had an American twang when I was first adopted, like not strong enough to be an accent, but still there. I'd use the American terminology for stuff too. It went away by the time I was four or five." Danny paused for a moment, thinking about what to say next. "Mum also said that there's also a chance that I was abused, or at least mistreated, because apparently I was terrified of tall, bald, muscly men. I would just freak out if one came towards me, especially if they were running or something" He noticed the look on Katie's face and smiled very slightly "I know, oddly specific right?" Katie reciprocated his smile but said nothing, just motioned him to continue.

"That's about it I guess. It was a closed adoption so she doesn't know where I came from, or anything about my birth parents." He paused for a moments and furrowed his eyebrows, looking pensively and the floor. He hesitated, opening his mouth then closing it again. "This isn't really related to my birth parents, but remember that bear I used to bring to every sleepover we had until we were about nine?"

Katie paused, she did vaguely remember Danny dragging round a tattered teddy bear. "Oh yeah" she grinned at the memory. "You were really attached to that thing."

"I got him when I was three, a couple weeks after I was adopted. Apparently I kept asking for a 'Baba bear', neither of my parents had any idea what I was talking about, and I didn't like any of the stuffed animals that they had got me. Eventually my dad took me to a toy shop and let me pick out any stuffed animal, because I was so set on having 'baba bear'. I picked out that bear and called it baba bear junior."

"Junior was short for baba bear junior" Katie laughed "I just thought you had called it Danny junior or something" Danny grinned at her.

"Danny junior?" He asked incredulously, a smile on his face. "I'm not that uncreative" When Katie continued to laugh Danny couldn't help but join in.

"Anyway, I have no idea if that has anything to do with my birth parents or if I was just being fussy, but that's all I know about them." He finished quietly, his eyes going back down to his fingers.

Katie looked at him pensively. "Do you want to know more about them?"

He looked up at her and thought for a moment.

"They gave me up" he stated bluntly, then paused "But at the same time…I mean obviously I'm curious…I don't know. Maybe I'll find more about them when I'm older."

Another silence engulfed the room as Danny turned the TV on and flipped the channels until he found something he knew Katie liked, but Katie's questions were playing at the back of his mind. What were his real parents like? The naïve, childish part of him wanted to believe they were like the family he had always dreamed of. A mother and father who loved each other more than anything, with younger siblings for him to tease and older siblings for him to annoy. He wanted to believe that they lived in a huge house -similar to the one he lived in now- but this house would be full of love and laughter. Realistically he knew that the chances of that were minuscule. Why would a family like that give up a child for adoption? He knew that his birth mother was most likely a teenager who couldn't take care of a baby. He knew that he was most likely abandoned somewhere, unloved, unwanted.

He looked down at Katie, who was absorbed in the drama playing out on TV and smiled faintly. He had his friends, he had a mum who although was often absent, loved him. And of course, he had his dog. He took a long swig of his drink. For the moment, at least, he was content with his lot in life.

Ok wow. The response to that first chapter was AMAZING, thank you so much.

I know nothing really happens in this chapter, but I promise it gets more interesting next chapter.

Thank you again for all the reviews, follows and favourites.

ChocoholiclikeLupin x