Song playlist: Rainbow Veins by Owl City

Chapter 3

Family

/ˈfamɪli/

1. a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for

2. a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals and, frequently, live together

Ding a-ling a-ling, ding a-ling a-ling!

The chimes of a hand held bell being rung dragged Yuu into the world of the living. What…?

"Rise and shine! It's morning time!" the director's voice called from behind the bedroom door. The bell carried on ringing, fading out as its ringer walked down the corridor.

Yuu felt weirdly disorientated as he stared at the starry ceiling. That's right…he wasn't in his bedroom at home. He was living in the orphanage now. The rustle and murmurs of the other children climbing out of their beds filtered through the walls.

Clasping his hands above his head, Yuu arched himself like a cat as he stretched his body. Inhale, hold for a few seconds, let the arms drop down, exhale. Ready to start his day, Yuu shook his arms loose and pushed himself out of bed-

-only to stumble as a sudden wave of vertigo washed over him.

"Woah, woah, woah!," he yelped, trying to catch himself on Mika's mattress. Cue some flailing before falling face down on the carpet.

Yuu groaned loudly. He flopped over on his back only to freeze as Mika's sleepy blue eyes caught him red handed.

"…"

"…?"

"Don't. Not a single word."

"…Mm."

"Hey, what's up with you?" Mika only gave him a bleary, muddled look in reply as if Yuu had just asked him to recite all of pi in less than ten seconds. 'I don't know what you want from me,' that look seemed to say. 'I am a lost soul in this overwhelming and confusing world.'

"Yuu, you're actually surprisingly funny," one of the girls giggled at breakfast. Akane, that's what she said her name was. She looked pretty in a simple and plain way, with her brown hair braided into a side plait over her shoulder and tied with a pink bunny bobble. "That's not what Mika's thinking at all, he's always like this in the mornings. He's just tired."

"So he's not a morning person, huh. Who would have known. He looks like the type to be annoyingly hyper twenty-four seven."

"I know right? Maybe he just uses up all his energy and has none left in the mornings. I think he's pretty cute like this actually, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Yuu glanced over at the topic of their discussion who was currently staring at his spoon as if he'd never seen such a device before. Yuu was half worried Mika would simply give up and flop over face first into his cereal.

"Don't worry, once Mika starts eating he wakes up by himself."

"What a weirdo…"

"Eat your food everyone, the older children need to get ready for school," the director reminded them kindly. From her motherly smile, Yuu could tell she was definitely a morning person.

"Yeeeesss," came the drawn out chorus of replies.

As the children stuffed their faces with cereal, toast, eggs and the other delicacies laid out the director turned to Yuu. "Yuu, I've arranged for you to enrol in the same school as everyone else next Monday. We always give children a few days to settle down and get along with their new family first. Does that sound okay to you?"

"Yeah, sure."

But Yuu still felt a bit lost when he breakfast was over- where was he supposed to go? What was he supposed to do? He didn't know any of the other children so he ended trailing after Mika upstairs like a baby duckling.

Yuu lounged on his stomach on his bed as he watched the phenomenon that was Mika waking up in gradual stages of awareness. By the time he had changed into his uniform and was pulling on his sunny yellow hat, Mika was his usual cheerful self.

"I'm so excited for you to start at Hiruma Elementary School! We can walk together to school then and share packed lunches and sit next to each other in class. No one else in our family is in my class, you know. I always wanted someone to join me."

"I bet you're friends with the whole class though. You seem like the popular guy type."

"Yup! Yuu you're quite observant sometimes, aren't you?"

"You're not even trying to be humble at all- wait, what do you mean 'sometimes'?!"

Mika only laughed deflectively and abruptly switched the topic to, "So how did you sleep last night?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I slept okay. Actually I slept really well. I didn't wake up at all so it must have been one really deep sleep. Maybe it's because the mattress, pillows and blanket are so much softer than what I'm used to."

"A deep sleep huh…" A strange look shuttered over Mika's face, a look which would take many years for Yuu to recognise as Mika trying to hide his thoughts. But to the Yuu at this point, it simply looked vaguely contemplative.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's just that I'm a really light sleeper. I usually wake up in the middle of the night every so often. But ever since I arrived here last week I haven't woken up a single time."

"You're worrying too much. Isn't sleeping well a good thing? The bedding must be helping you too."

"You're right," Mika grinned widely. "Bedding can really make a big difference, can't it? Let's go downstairs!"

Yuu didn't see Mika's smile waver as he turned his back and led them out of the door.

"Bye bye! Have fun in school!"

The toddlers were waving enthusiastically at the door of the orphanage- in fact they were waving with so much energy Yuu could picture their arms flying off if they waved any harder. Standing at the gates were the children aged six and over who were old enough to attend elementary school- Mika, Akane and a third girl who Yuu didn't know. They beamed waved back before walking down the pavement with their packed lunches bundled in their hands.

"Hey, who's she? The one with the round glasses and short black hair?"

"That's Kagame, she's the same age as Akane so they're in the same class. That's right, you haven't been introduced to everyone yet." The director looked surprised at her own forgetfulness. "Okay everyone, line up for your older brother Yuu now!"

"Okaaay!"

The other four kids scrambled and shuffled in a vague semblance of line that made the director shake her head fondly and laugh.

"Now introduce yourself one by one please, name and age."

"I'm Ken, I'm two," mumbled a boy clinging shyly behind his friend

"You always speak too quiet Ken! Speak louder!" the other boy puffed. Yuu recognised him as the one who had made everyone laugh at dinner last night. "I'm Jun and I'm going to be three in June!"

"We'll have a nice big birthday cake for you, dear," the director smiled making Jun bounce in excitement. "Come on girls, you too."

"I'm three, my name's Rika," introduced one of the girls with a short hair bob and a blush on her face.

"Why am I last? That's not fair!" the other girl grumbled before breaking into a ear splitting grin. "I'm Sora and I'm four! Welcome to our family Yuu! You're going to be our big brother now, right?"

"Um…" Yuu felt blinded by the shining expectant faces of the children as they crowded right up into his space. "S-sure. Yeah. I'll be your big brother, I guess?"

"Yaay! Yuu, Yuu, guess what, come look my drawings!"

"No fair, Yuu's gonna look at my drawings! Come on!"

"Wait, woah," Yuu's protests went unheard as his arms were manhandled by four different sets of tiny arms and he was dragged inside. How the hell were small kids so strong?!

He turned his head and shot a frantic look at the director. She smiled and said benevolently, "I'm so happy you're getting along with your new family. Lunch is in a few hours, okay?"

Yuu was completely at their mercy.

Someone, anyone, please save him!

"Ahahaha!"

"S-stop laughing at me!"

Mika was actually rolling on the floor, his hysterical laughter loud and clear. He managed to calm down slightly before looking at Yuu and breaking into a fresh wave of laughter.

"Seriously, I'm gonna kill you!"

"Sorry, sorry," Mika chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye.

"You're not sorry at all, you little shit."

"Don't be mean now Yuu. But really, I can't take anything you say seriously when you look like that."

Yuu thought his blush couldn't get any deeper. Evidently he was wrong.

It had all started out so normal too. Sure the kids had been eager to show their new brother their drawings but they had managed to occupy themselves for a good hour or two with their crayons and coloured paper in the playroom.

Yuu blamed this all on that chocolate cake. More specifically, the chocolate cake that had been served for dessert after lunch. If his new found family had been excitable before, it was nothing compared to those four kids on a sugar high. They had clambered over him like monkeys, the girls had pulled out hairbrushes and clips from their bedrooms and it had all deteriorated from there.

As soon as the dress was found, Yuu had babbled out an excuse about needing a nap and had run off before they could get a single word in.

"So? Are you going to stay hiding here in our bedroom then?"

"I'm not hiding."

"Whatever you say, Yuu. Whatever you say."

"I'm not."

He was totally hiding.

He had buried himself under his blankets until Mika had come back from school. Then of course Mika had to ask twenty questions over why he was buried under his sheets before simply pulling them off by brute force and then bursting into laughter.

Yuu's hair had been pulled into several sloppy bobbles that ranged from cute cartoony animals to love hearts. His lips were a glossy sparkly pink which matched nicely with the hairclips and his cheeks were dusted with a toy blusher set.

Mika crouched down to where Yuu had curled up to hide his face. "Well it does suit you, but if you hate it so much why not just take it off?"

"Then they would start crying…"

"Awww," Mika had that obnoxious grin on his face that Yuu was quickly getting used to seeing. "Yuu is a softie at heart after all! How adorable!"

"Shut up!"

Luckily all it had taken was for Yuu to (reluctantly) come down for dinner before the director took one look at his face before amusedly asking him to go and clean up.

"But big brother looks so pretty! Can't he keep it?" Sora whined. The director was shot four puppy eyed looks from the toddlers and one even more pleading look from Yuu.

"You know playtime ends at dinner time, dear. Go and wash up Yuu, there's a good boy."

Everyone else groaned in disappointment, and Yuu could have sworn Mika's was the loudest. He shot him a suspicious glare before rushing to the upstairs bathroom to fix himself.

Dinner was as noisy and chatty as the night before. Yuu dug into his food as eagerly as all the other kids but this time it was Mika who was idly picking at his food.

"Why aren't you eating?"

"Ah, I was just thinking," Mika reassured before spooning some of the jacket potatoes into his mouth.

"Don't hurt yourself. But weren't you the one to say you should look after your health? You should eat."

"Thank you for caring about me," was the soft reply.

Yuu's full dinner plate suddenly looked much more interesting to him.

"Aren't you going to sleep, Mika?" Yuu asked sleepily. He was burrowed snugly into his blanket, feeling incredibly tired.

"I want to finish this chapter." Mika was resting against his pillow with a book in his hands. It was large and thick, like a medical textbook. Yuu vaguely remembered seeing the title as they were getting ready for bed. 'Properties of Plants' or something boring and nerdy like that.

"I thought they were really strict about bedtime. One of those few rules."

"It's fine if they don't find out."

"So you're not…as goody-goody two shoes…as you look…"

"I can practically hear you half entering your dream world. Go to sleep Yuu, you're tired."

"Yeah, I am…I didn't even do that much active stuff today…good night, Mika…" Yuu trailed off before his eyes fluttered shut, falling asleep in seconds.

Mika frowned at him, a million thoughts racing through his head. He turned his gaze back to his book and tried to carry on reading, because he needed to research more and find out...but the words were blurring together like an out of focus camera...

He blinked rapidly, trying his best to stay awake...

The textbook slipped from his fingers and onto the floor as he too fell asleep.