Work Text:
Raindrops pattered on the rooftops as a little boy was dragged to a dojo by his mother.
His name was Issei, and he was only four at the time of his abandonment.
Issei's mother was a worker at a nightclub: the perfect location for the beginning of a disaster.
She was only around twenty-one, with platinum-blonde hair and red eyes. It wasn't too much of a surprise that she was popular among customers at the club.
Unlike his beautiful mother, Issei was a bucktoothed, scrawny, pasty-faced boy with a freckled face, scraggly, ash-blonde hair, and dull gray eyes.
"Mama, where are we?" The little boy tugged at his mother's shirt.
"We...we're...at a place where mommy will leave you for now. We're playing a game, okay? If you don't leave this place until mommy comes back, you win, okay?" Issei's mother's lips curled into a sad smile.
"Okay, but who's inside the big house?" Issei pointed at the door.
Oh, he was clueless.
Issei's mother had forfeited all guardianship over her son, and she'd just handed him off to a sickly, white-haired man--he was a nice bloke, and he'd mentioned something about taking in unwanted children. Without a second thought, she'd handed her son off to him--he'd even signed the adoption papers with his wife.
"It's a nice man living with his wife. Mommy has to work for some time, and she can't take care of you for now. Is that okay?" Issei's mother glanced at the dojo, eyes glassed over with tears.
"Mhm!" Issei nodded, throwing his hands up as his mother carried him onto the porch. She knocked a few times, before she heard footsteps coming from the inside.
She planted a kiss on her son's forehead as the door was opened.
There was a skinny, white-haired man in his pajamas, rubbing his gray eyes with a bony, pale hand.
"Oh, so this must be Issei!" The white-haired man smiled at the little boy.
"Yes, I...I'm leaving now," said Issei's mother. "I...just take care of my son, okay?"
"'Course I will!" The gray-eyed man beamed.
"Well, I...I'll miss you, sweetie, erm...goodbye, I guess." Issei's mother croaked.
"Bye!" Issei squeaked in response--he didn't know what his mother was really doing.
He didn't know that he'd never see her again, that she'd abandoned him for good.
But when life closes one door, it opens another.
In Issei's case, it was the opening and closing of the front door.
As the white-haired man smiled at him, he felt assured that his mother would come back soon, and that this was a good man.
He was only right about the part where he thought that this person was a good one.
His mother had left him, and she would never return.
...
Issei fidgeted with his fingers as a burly, dark-skinned woman smiled at him.
She was, apparently, the white-haired man's wife.
She was white-haired, with pale blue eyes and a soft smile on her face.
And she had two children, both younger than Issei.
Issei was suddenly tackled to the ground by a squealing three-year-old and a babbling two-year-old.
Sakurako, the three-year-old, had introduced herself to him the moment she saw him.
She had also introduced her younger sister, two-year-old Himawari.
"Ow!" Issei yelped as the burly woman helped him back onto his feet.
"Sorry," squeaked Sakurako.
Sakurako was a silver-haired girl with gleaming pale blue eyes and peachy skin, alongside a devil-may-care smile.
Himawari was a silver-haired toddler with gray eyes and alabaster skin--she had a crooked, childish grin.
Issei had started liking their company.
"Papa! Papa! Can I show Issei our room?" Sakurako looked up as her father approached her.
Wait, what did she mean by "our?"
"Does Issei want to see your room? If he does, you better clean it up." Her father patted her head before he picked her up.
It reminded Issei of what his mother used to do after a long night--she'd pick him up and carry him to the overstuffed couch they slept on.
"Oh, we should show Issei where he's going to, uh, sleep," suggested the burly woman.
"Mhm. Issei, your mom told us she'd be leaving you here about a month ago or something, so we thought it'd be nice to buy you a bed. You can share a room with Sakurako." The white-haired man patted Issei's head, grasping his hand.
Sakurako hopped down and grabbed Issei's hand, making a mad dash towards a room.
It had white walls and a wooden floor. White shelves lined the wall on one side of the room, with a desk in a corner of that side. A bed with pink, heart-shaped pillows and a fleecy blanket was on that side as well.
The other side of the room had empty white shelves, a bed that was identical to the other one (minus the pink pillows), and another desk.
A window was on the wall parallel to the door.
"Tada!" Sakurako squealed.
[WIP]