Chapter 20: Remembering
Kaito never told his mother about it, he never told anyone, but one night, he remembered.
On a night when he was alone at home, at the young age of only thirteen, he had a nightmare. It felt so real, he could feel it, the hands scraping up and down his sides, the ache in his throat and muscles, the constriction caused by a heavy weight on his chest, and the boring eyes of the numerous finny things around him...
He could feel something slick and slimy as fish-scales move up and down his stomach, chest, neck... He could smell the sick scent of fish and musk and want on his attacker, a scent he hadn't been able to name at the time... It was almost as if he were reliving a memory...
And he'd remembered white, too. He wouldn't know what the white was until two years after remembering, but he remembered an all-encompassing white, soft and wrapping him in warmth, driving away the fear and pain. He remembered his father's soothing voice, and gentle hands, so much more caring and careful than the rough hands that had been gripping him moments before.
Kaito had awoken that night, sweating and panting. Even after he woke, the nightmare didn't fade. It stayed, from then on, as a memory which resurfaced a bit every time he came into contact with the scaly monsters which haunted him. Maybe remembering should have made it all worse...
But it didn't. It made it easier to swallow. It made him feel less like a total fool, knowing now that his reason for being so deathly afraid of the creatures wasn't just illogical: It had real, tangible, logical origins. There was a reason behind it, it made sense, and that helped a little.
The memories that would surface did make it harder when the fear would first take hold, but the moments that followed were what really made remembering worth it. Because from then on, whenever Kaito was faced with his greatest fear, he would soon after be comforted by the white. By the color he (again, for reasons he wouldn't know for years to come) had come to associate with his father. He was reminded of his father's warmth, his scent, and he could hear his father's soothing voice in his ear. He could remember clearly the true worry which had seeped into his father's voice, something that had never before nor again happened in all of Kaito's life. It was the one strongest memory Kaito had to prove that his father truly did, with all his heart, love him. It gave Kaito a sense of self-worth that even the fear of fish couldn't take away from him.
After all, if the one and only thing in the whole world which could break the Poker Face of the greatest magician to-date was him, then he must be pretty damn special. Some people believed him arrogant and egotistical, but how could he not believe in himself while knowing he was the son of a man so great?
Sometimes Kaito would feel as though he could never live up to the legend that was his father, but knowing that his father, the greatest man to ever live, had loved him so thoroughly made Kaito feel more valuable than any gem could ever be.
～終わり～
A/N: I had a little trouble writing the end here, so it came out all sappy. Dang. Oh well...
So, that's all for this one! There are more DC/MK stories on my profile if you wanna check them out; stories less disturbing than this one was...
Reviews appreciated! C'ya~!