Chapter Text
“Sir, we’re approaching the abandoned toppat base, ‘sure you don’t want some backup?”
The pilot asked, keeping his eyes focused on the building in the distance.
The newly appointed General, stood up from the bench he was sitting on and opened the helicopter’s door, looking out through the harsh snow, in the distance he could faintly make out the building. It was easy to tell it was abandoned even from a far off distance.
From the large weeds wrapping along the outer wall, to the missing part of the roof on a corner of the building. It was long since abandoned after the government discovered it years ago, no one should still be living there.
Which is why Galeforce found it so odd when they discovered a signal was being transmitted to the base’s location.
An SOS signal to be exact.
Even if it was a false alarm or even a trap, Galeforce went, as if there was a part of him that felt as though he needed to check it out.
“I should be fine, if we’re lucky it’s just a false alarm.”
Galeforce said tiredly as the helicopter landed right in front of the worn down building.
As he stepped out of the helicopter he was met with a smack of bitter cold wind, with an irritated huff he pulled the jacket he was wearing closer to him as he walked inside.
Whoever sent that signal must be a polar bear or something if they could stand this cold for so long.
The base was just cold when Galeforce entered, though at least there wasn’t any wind blasting in his face. Looking down the ruined hallways and destroyed rooms of the base he couldn’t seem to find where the signal could possibly be.
Until he entered the base’s rather large garage, he found planes and vehicles that were worn and broken beyond repair. Just outside the garage was a small cargo plane. It didn’t look like it belonged to the clan, and unlike the rest of the vehicles it didn’t look as worn down as the rest. But something caught Galeforce’s eye, the shattered windshield and the bullet holes running along the side of the plane.
A knot formed in his stomach as Galeforce approached the copter, suddenly feeling as though he was being watched.
He opened the door to see blood on the floor of the plane with a man laying against one of the cargo boxes. Dried blood covered the lower half of his torso, a pair of broken glasses next to him. Galeforce’s stomach dropped as he entered the plane and checked the body. No pulse.
“Fuck…” Galeforce muttered, thinking he’d been too late. He turned his head to the side, this time he noticed a woman’s body, slumped against the pilot’s chair, her hands clutched onto the controls, her chestnut hair over her face. Covering the blood on her forehead from where she had been shot. Galeforce examined her as well. Also dead.
Shit.
Galeforce sighed in defeat, due to the cold they would have no way of knowing how long they’ve been dead for. But judging by the state of the plane it must’ve been fairly recent.
He then noticed the wedding bands on both of their hands and felt a pang of guilt. If only they had gotten word of the signal sooner…
Just as he exited the aircraft, he pulled out his walkie talkie to report back to base. Then he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye.
Something’s here.
He kept his hand on his gun as he headed where he saw the movement, the minute he turned the corner he froze.
In his defense Galeforce was expecting to be face to face with the ruthless individual who killed the two, or possibly a toppat member.
He definitely wasn’t expecting to see a small child covered in cuts and dirt huddled into the corner of the room, staring at the older man with the most fearful face he’s ever seen a child make in his life.
There was an awkward silence between the two, both sides having no clue what to say to the other.
Galeforce took a slow step forward and paused again as the boy tried shrinking further into the corner.
“Hey, it’s alright… I’m not going to hurt you” He said as softly as he could, raising his hands up to show he wasn’t going to hurt him.
The boy stopped trying to move further into the corner and blinked for a moment, he was still shivering but he didn’t look as afraid anymore, just on guard.
Galeforce took a few more slow steps before he was able to kneel down infront of the kid. He was able to get a proper look at the kid, he had a few bad cuts, one being a deep gash running along the side of his leg. It looked as though the kid tried to bandage it himself; the worn bandages cling loosely to his leg.
Taking off the bomber jacket he had on him, Galeforce wrapped it around the child.
“Sorry, I don’t have anything warmer but this should help a bit…” the boy merely stared at the oversized coat, tears pricking up in his eyes from the sudden warmth as he touched the fluffy part of the coat. With that settled, as carefully as he could, Galeforce scooped up the boy, who didn’t seem to mind it, as he buried his face into the crook of the general's neck.
He looked around the room, before walking out back to the garage, intentionally keeping the child’s view away from the plane.
“Was there anyone else with you?” Galeforce asked, the boy didn’t seem to respond, he just clung onto the jacket tighter. He’ll take that as a no then. But just in case he double checked all the rooms on his way out.
He flinched a bit as he stepped outside, forgetting about the cold wind. He hugged the child closer as he quickly made his way back onto the helicopter.
“Hey! Did you find anything about the transmiss- oh…” the pilot asked, cutting himself off when he saw the child bundled up in the oversized coat. He had a puzzled expression, Galeforce simply sat back down on the bench as he turned to the confused pilot.
“The transmission came from a cargo plane… both pilots were shot…”
“And the kid?”
“Found him near it, no bullet wounds as far as I can tell, but he has a few deep cuts. I’ll handle getting him to the medical tent myself…”
The pilot nodded as he turned to start up the helicopter again, the moment the helicopter made the loud startup noise the child screamed. It was the loudest he heard the kid so Galeforce was caught off guard as the kid covered his ears, the pilot quickly turning off the engine and turning around. Galeforce was panicking, he had no idea what to do, was the noise too sudden? Or did it remind him of his parents being shot?”
“L..loud..” was all the child could muster, burying his face into Galeforce’s chest.
“Ah, he’s probably sensitive to how loud the sounds are...give me a second” the pilot said, going to the co-pilot seat and grabbing the spare headphones from the chair. He walked back and handed them to the general.
“I turned ‘em off, but they are pretty good at canceling out noise.”
Taking the headphones gratefully he took a moment to let the kid calm down before he placed the headphones on the child’s head, making sure they covered his ears.
The child at least didn’t react as badly to the noise now, he still clung to Galeforce for a majority of the flight. He didn’t mind, he just kept the child close. Not wanting him to be in any more pain then he’s already gone through.
“What’s your name kiddo?” Galeforce asked, keeping his gaze out the window, the kid moved a bit before answering softly
“C...Charles..” his voice sounded so broken, Galeforce nodded slightly
“Well Charles, we’re almost to the base, once you’re patched up I hope you don’t mind if I ask some questions…” the boy nodded before his face disappeared into the fuzziness of the coat.
The two remained in silence for the rest of the flight. Once they arrived on base Galeforce stepped out, thanking the pilot before heading towards the medical tent. It wasn’t surprising that everyone looked intimidating to the small child, so Charles kept his head down to avoid eye contact. Entering the tent the doctor who was working walked over to examine the boy’s injuries, Galeforce explained he needed to leave for a short moment to report back what was found at the base. The Doctor nodded and reached out to take Charles, the kid had a pretty tight grip on Galeforce’s jacket and refused to budge.
Galeforce’s eyes furrowed a bit, as he noticed the boy looking at him, his eyes full of nervousness.
“I have to go for only a few minutes, I’ll be right back” Apparently that was a poor choice of words on Galeforce’s part because Charles began to cry, burying his face into his uniform.
“Don’t go…” Charles silently pleaded,
Galeforce let out a sigh, honestly he should’ve expected this, the boy did just lose his parents. He’ll worry about reporting what happened later.
He looked to the doctor “Would it be alright if I stayed?” The doctor smiled and nodded “of course, it’ll probably be a lot easier if you did, since he seems to be comfortable enough around you.”
After a lot of convincing and promising not to leave Charles was able to let go of Galeforce long enough for the doctor to properly bandage his wounds. Thankfully nothing was infected, but the doctor tells Galeforce to come back again in a few weeks to make sure. The doctor left the tent for a short bit leaving Galeforce alone with Charles, who latched onto the general’s arm the minute the doctor finished, muttering something under his breath.
“Sorry Kiddo, I didn’t catch that…”
“A..are they really gone? my Momma and Papa?” the kid asked innocently, looking up at Galeforce with eyes that held nothing but defeat. He already knew the answer. How could he not?
Galeforce inhaled and looked away awkwardly and gently wrapped an arm around the child.
“I’m sorry Son, that must have been a hellish event to witness...” Charles nodded solemnly before leaning against the taller man, he felt nauseous, but was far too tired to let out anymore tears as he closed his eyes in a feeble attempt to hide from the world around him.
At this moment a head poked through the curtains of the medical tent, Galeforce looked up tiredly as he noticed the face of his friend.
“Ah...there you are Dmitri…” Galeforce said waving him over, The other giving no greeting other than a soft ‘hm’ as he sat on the bed across from the two.
“So zis is the boy?” Dmitri curtly asked, already having been filled in by the pilot after he failed to meet galeforce at the barracks. The tired general nodded, gently pulling the child onto his lap. To which Charles curled up in a way of trying to make himself appear smaller.
The two older men sat in silence for a short bit, Dmitri furrowing his brows before looking up to Galeforce “So what are you planning to do now?” Galeforce looked to him quizzingly
“What?”
“Well you know you can’t keep him right? No offense but I don’t think you could even take care of yourself.”
Galeforce hummed in a silent agreement, ever since he joined the military he knew he had a difficult time caring for himself, but he thought he’s gotten better at it so maybe…?
No. This kid deserved so much better, he’s gone through so much and Galeforce doesn’t know the first thing about being a parent. Let alone a good parent. Sure the kid’s attached to him now. But he doesn’t think he is what the child needs… right?
So why did his heart feel so heavy?
“Well if he still has family left it’s most likely we’d be sending him with them…” Galeforce responded, if he’d noticed the boy’s grip tighten he didn’t mention it.
-
It had already fallen late into the night when Galeforce woke up, not realizing he’d passed out in the medical tent until he felt someone tugging on his jacket. It was Charles, who seemed to have been given a different jacket that looked eerily similar to Dmitri’s, Galeforce would have to ask about that later. The boy only pointed nervously at the entrance to the tent. Two older men stood there, Galeforce sighed “Hello Gentlemen, I apologize for-”
“We don’t need an apology General, we’ve already been filled in” one of the men said as they took a seat on the same bed Dmitri had been sitting at hours earlier. Rubbing his eye’s Galeforce sat up now realizing the child didn’t seem to have moved an inch since his talk with Dmitri. Not wanting to deal with arguing with the clingy child he let him stay there as he focused on the two infront of him.
“We took the liberty of going back and collecting the bodies, The couple worked with some Cargo company, transporting supplies to anyone who paid for them.” The man continued as Galeforce shifted uncomfortably, Shouldn’t they not be talking about this in front of the kid? He kept his mouth shut however as the man continued.
“We did a bit of digging and we figured out Apparently his folks were estranged from their family, so most turned us away or have passed away a long time ago. Kid’s got no one.” Now it didn’t take much to break his heart, but hearing how the child who’s now shivering in his arms was
completely alone now made his heart crumble a bit.
He knew the feeling of having no one at his side, being alone in your little corner of the world with no one to turn to. This was different, This kid had no choice, the only two constants in his life being stripped away so suddenly.
A small part of Galeforce wants to keep this kid safe, make sure he’s aware that he’s not alone. Galeforce barely scraped by during that low point of his life, but this Child was so much younger, he couldn’t- no- he absolutely refused to think about how this kid would get by on his own.
But what could he do? Knowing his current line of work there’s no way they’d let him keep the kid. Even then he doesn’t know a thing about child care. Dmitri was right about him barely taking care of himself.
A gentle poke on his cheek pulled him out of his spiralling thoughts, looking down at the Kid’s Honeycomb colored eyes, that looked too exhausted to belong to a kid this small.
“So that’s why we’ll be leaving him in your care until further notice.”
Wait.
W H A T ?