Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter, nor do I profit commercially from these writings. And nor do I own the songs used for these chapters.
SUMMERTIME
By Charlotte Church from the film "I'll Be There" (2003)
For Fino, Meta was almost like her first child.
Meta was technically shared between Kurapika and Fino, due to Kurapika's unfortunate circumstances. Not only that Kurapika was a first time mother with Meta, she also had no authority figure to instruct her in the art of raising children—especially babies. Therefore, Fino felt compelled to help Kurapika in that regards. Of course Fino's own parents were more than happy to help the single mother with her newborn baby. It had been too long since the last time they held an infant in their arms, and for those two adorable elderly couples, Meta's arrival was perfect. In fact, Fino sometimes wonder whether at some points her parents were planning to abduct the much-too-adorable baby Meta.
Therefore, perhaps it was suffice to say that Meta grew up with two mothers and a set of silly doting grandparents—at least for the first four years of his life.
Fino loved Meta like he was her own son. She really did. She had always wanted children, and Meta was her first child. But sometimes, good things had to come to an end.
When Meta finally found his father, he stopped treating Fino like his parent. He no longer went to Fino for comfort when he was being disciplined by Kurapika. He no longer sought her out when he was feeling lonely, when his mother had to leave him behind for missions. He didn't need her anymore, not when he finally found his father and gained a sister along the trip.
Fino understood it. Fino understood that Meta no longer needed a surrogate when he finally found the other counterpart of his parent. He no longer needed her. Still, the loss hurt. The sense of abandonment and rejection—no matter how many times she tried to convince herself that Meta wasn't rejecting or abandoning her as the boy still did come to her for other things—still pained her.
"Fino?"
She gave a start, surprised out of her miserable thoughts. She felt a tug to her skirt, and when she looked down she found a set of concerned blue eyes staring up at her.
"Yes, Meta?" She was surprised to hear her voice steady and calm when her heart was far from so.
Meta didn't reply immediately, instead he stared at her with his soulful eyes. It only lasted for a few seconds, but for Fino it seemed like an eternity.
"Why are you sad? Someone hurt you?" The six-year-old asked, voice full of concern.
Fino smiled wistfully at him, touched and yet even more pained by the boy's concern for her. She could no longer call him her boy. That was a prerogative reserved only to Kurapika and Kuroro. She caressed the boy's round cheek lovingly.
"No, Meta. Nobody hurt me."
"Then why are you so sad? You're crying."
She wasn't crying, but Fino understood that Meta was talking about the crying of her heart. Ah, the kind little empath.
"I just remember something that makes me sad. I'm not hurting, Meta." Lies, but Meta didn't need to know that.
Meta wasn't convinced, but decided that it was probably one of those complicated adult stuffs. He had learned that once the adults talked those complicated stuffs, he was better off not trying to understand because he just ended up getting more confused and lost. Perhaps he could distract Fino from those sad thoughts?
"Fino, sing something for me." The boy said with a bright smile. Bright as the summer sun.
Fino smiled at that. Meta was born during summer, and he seemed to embody the spirit of summer.
"Of course. Anything for you." Singing was one of the things that Meta came to her for. Kurapika couldn't sing to save her life, and she doubted that Kuroro did singing despite the many skills in his possession.
Meta grinned at her.
"You're the best!"
With that, Meta promptly climbed to her lap and settled himself there quite comfortably. Fino made herself comfortable as well, before she took a deep breath and started singing gently:
.
Summertime
And the living is easy
Fish are jumping
And the cotton is high
Oh your daddy's rich
And your mom's good looking
so hush little baby don't you cry
.
One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take the sky
But till that morning
There's nothing can harm you
With daddy and mommy standing by
.
Fino continued singing even after Meta had drifted into slumber in her arms. As she sang, rocking back and forth gently as she did so, Fino thought that perhaps, just perhaps, she could secretly called him her boy. Just in the closeness of her heart.
Author's Note: I came up with the idea of using music lyrics as inspiration for my chapters. Suggestions are most welcome.
This particular chapter is to respond to some readers' with to know more about the time before Meta found Kuroro. I thought that Fino would be more like a mother and Kurapika more like a father, considering Kurapika is more disciplinarian than Fino. With Kuroro's arrival into Meta's life, Kurapika could then take on the full mantle of a mother as Kuroro took the father role. That made poor Fino feel deprived… Of course it was soon rectified after Shalnark gave her her daughter Sherry =D
Also, I found some part of the lyric amusing. "Oh your daddy's rich and your mommy's good looking"? Hell yeah XD