Chapter fifteen:

"Um." The woman glances around before turning to Near. "You should come inside before someone sees." She steps aside and Near moves inside the house with the woman closing the door behind him.

Near politely takes off his shoes then follows the woman deeper into the house to the living room where a man lays in an armchair.

The man has light blonde hair and is wearing a black quarter sleeved shirt with jeans and no shoes or socks. He turns and his light grey eyes land on Near in which he jumps to his feet. His eyes scan Near as if to see if this is really real before turning to the woman obviously worried about this.

The woman gives the man a look before going around and closing the living room curtains. She turns to the man and Near when done. "Both of you sit on the couch. We have a few things to discuss." She says.

Near nods and moves over to the couch where he sits down while the man settles back on the armchair and the woman sits closer to the man on the couch.

The woman takes a deep breath and turns to Near. "I'm sure that you have a lot of questions." She begins and Near gives her a nod. "Well we will do what we can to explain everything as well as answer any questions you have." She tells him.

"Thank you." Near nods softly.

"Well…. Where do we begin?" The man asks.

"Perhaps we should begin by explaining what happened." The woman offers an idea as Near begins to twirl a strand of hair.

The man nods and the two turn to Near. "Well. First thing is introductions." He says. "Nate. My name is Shadow and this is my wife Astelle." He says and gestures to the woman as Near looks from the man to the woman as they are introduced.

"You may call me Nate or Near." Near informs them. "Near is my nickname."

Astelle smiles gently. "It's cute." She says gently. "Now before we start having any questions asked we should explain what happened."

Near nods and listens to what they have to say.

"Well… It started with that my dear Astelle here could not bear children without help. But she wanted a child and so did I." Shadow begins. "So we went to a special medical center designed to help those like us. After all Astelle could carry but her eggs would die before reaching the womb." He says. "So using a donated egg and my sperm the team was able to get Astelle pregnant with their technology. We were excited." He pauses as he shifts slightly. "Then when you were born…. We thought that everything would be fine… Until you began to show the power of water…." He trails off looking away.

Astelle takes over. "We panicked. We thought that if this was found out about then we would get in trouble or killed or something. Out of our panic we made a rash decision… One we do regret… We gave you away to the streets… And we are sorry for that." She tells Near looking down to her lap. "For the time after that we worried about you and regretted our choice of what to do… But we were too scared of something happening if we went to look for you… There might have been an investigation and then it would be found out you'd have the power of water… something that there was no way civilians like us could hide. So we stayed away from even investigating why you ended up with the power over water and we didn't look for you. When we heard that you got accepted into the royal family we were relieved that you had been taken in someplace safe. And someplace that would be perfect for you with your powers. Then of course you know the rest of what happened." She concludes. "Since we did not investigate out of fear we do not know how you came to possess the power of water. We are very sorry for everything."

Near had stopped twirling his hair while the story was being explained and now has the strand wrapped around his finger as he rubs it between two of his fingers. "I can understand why you did what you did." He assures them. "You were scared and did what you thought was best to do."

"Best for us. Not for you." Astelle sighs hanging her head. "We should have been better parents and thought of you before ourselves."

"No. I believe that in that time you made the correct choice." Near tells her stopping playing with his hair letting his finger still have the strand wrapped around it. "The choice you made would give not only you both but also me a chance to survive better. If it was found out that you were the parents of someone with the power over water it might have resulted in death because I was not born in the castle as a Yagami. As you said there was no way civilians like you could hide my powers so one day it would have been found out about that would be inevitable." He tells them and as he speaks Astelle raises her head to look to him while Shadow looks to Near for a moment then turns to glance to Astelle. "If I was left to the streets and found no one would know who were the ones that had me so you would not be killed. Then it would be a good chance that I would be possibly taken in by the royal family instead of being killed."

Astelle smiles softly and sniffles barely holding back tears. "Thank you." She says. "When I saw you had found your way here I thought the least we could do was give you an explanation."

Shadow leans over placing a hand on his wife's shoulder to try to assure her.

"I'm glad you did." Near admits.

"We can still try to answer any questions you may have." Shadow says turning back to Near.

"I believe most of my questions have been answered. And any I have left you would not be able to answer." Near explains.

"We could give you the address to the place we went to so we could get a donated egg." Astelle offers.

"I don't think they will be of any help." Near says. "I have a feeling that they would not know anything and telling too many people of the truth might cause deaths that could be avoided."

Shadow smiles. "You'd make a good king. One day I do hope that we fall under your rule."

Near smiles and lowers his hand to his side. "Thank you. I promise I will do all I can to stop Light's evil reign." He tells them. "No matter what must be done. Though we will make sure that if something happens to me it will be made sure that there is someone to take the throne. Someone who will not cast the kingdom under another dark rule."

"Please do be careful." Astelle says worriedly.

"I will." Near assures her. "And thank you for all of this."

"If you ever need our help our door is always open for you." Shadow adds leaning forward a little.

Near smiles a little more. "Thank you. You both are very good people."

…

"Do you also wish to do this one?" The guard asks.

Light nods. "I have a plan on how I might be able to get them to crack." He explains. "Let me try at least."

"Take as long as you need your highness. We will watch and standby." The guard says with a salute to Light.

Light nods. "Good." He heads into the room as a servant takes the cart into the room behind Light before dashing out of there to get away from the room.

A looks over to Light and smirks. "I was expecting some guard to walk in to talk to me. Not a lying evil king who doesn't even deserve the throne."

Light clenches his teeth with a low quiet growl.