Chapter Text
The funny thing about life was just how fucked up it was.
Cale Miru was more than a little familiar with just how twisted and shitty the world could be. He’d lost his parents when he was too young to remember what they looked like, his uncle Barrow had beaten him until he ran away from home, the orphanage he eventually landed at wasn’t all that much better, and to top it all off, he had about the shittiest luck imaginable.
There were some good things to his life.
He’d been adopted by a beautiful but grumpy man named Eruhaben Miru and been given a new last name without any connection to his old family. He’d been able to pursue an education that enabled him to become financially independent. And he’d made some really wonderful friends at the company he’d wound up working at.
Of course, when both of his friends died in a tragic car accident and he had to watch both of them die before his own eyes, helpless to do anything to stop it, that was when one had to remember how bad ones luck was.
Cale certainly had to remember it.
One of the wretched aspects of his existence was his nearly perfect memory.
He couldn’t forget things even when he desperately wanted to.
This also meant that Cale wasn’t granted the same ignorance that the rest of society was able to cling to so cheerfully.
He couldn’t just pretend he didn’t see something. He wanted to, oh how he wanted to, it would be so much nicer to ignore troublesome things and live his life unencumbered by difficulty and complication.
He aspired to be a slacker after all and he prided himself on being a selfish bastard.
At the ripe old age of thirty-one years old, Cale was ready to save as much money as he could for early retirement and live the rest of his days on some stupid farm somewhere.
His adopted father, Eruhaben, had expressed a certain amount of disapproval towards Cale’s attempts to disengage with everyone after the loss of his closest friends but there was only so much he could do to curb that stubborn childs guilt induced spiral.
He did what he could do, which was to visit Cale at least once a week and make sure the damn boy was eating right.
That was why it had worried Cale so much when Eruhaben hadn’t shown up on the usual day. It wasn’t like he made any actual plans. Eruhaben barged into Cale’s home with a certain amount of fatherly concern every week and refused to take no for an answer.
If Eruhaben was asked, he would respond that it was vengeance for all the times that Cale had done much the same.
It was irrational but when Eruhaben didn’t show up, Cale feared the worst. When he didn’t answer his phone, Cale became even more apprehensive.
So Cale ventured to visit his father for the first time in quite some time and on the way there, he spotted something he couldn’t ignore.
How much easier would his life be if he could just ignore it.
How much kinder his existence could be if he could just keep walking and mind his own damn business.
Then again, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if he did and that would seriously disrupt his slacker life.
Cale gripped the crazy bastard's arm before he could bring it down again to hit the cowering child. He grimaced under the weight. Cale wasn’t particularly strong or muscular, it was pure luck that this bastard wasn’t either otherwise Cale would have just been target number two.
“Who the hell do you think you are?!” The man demanded, practically spitting with indignation. “Do you know who I am?”
The absolute gall of this bastard to do something so disgusting. The sheer arrogance that he was willing to do it in broad daylight in a public street. His sense of self importance that was so assured that he knew he’d get away with anything, no matter how heinous.
Cale was familiar with the type.
It was then that the small boy won a prize and proved without a shadow of a doubt just what kind of person he was.
Strong, clever, and stubborn.
With his abuser's attention on Cale, the kid took the opportunity to bite his abusers leg with such force that it caused him to cry out and collapse, clutching his now bleeding leg.
Ah, how vicious.
Cale didn’t feel bad for the bastard at all though.
He looked towards the blue eyed boy who was wiping the blood from his mouth with a fiery glare in his eyes.
Cale got the distinct feeling that if he made a single wrong move, he’d be the next target of those fearsome jaws. He held up his hands in surrender.
The boy, bleeding from a head wound, bruised to the point of disgust, and clearly malnourished, kept his glare locked on Cale and his abuser with such an intensity that it had nearly the same effect of his bite.
And then the child finally ran out of strength.
Cale managed to catch him before he hit the ground and picked up the fainted child. Pointedly stepping on the cursing abuser before stealing his wallet so that he’d be able to locate him to press charges later.
For now, he needed to get this kid to a hospital.
Fuck. This kid couldn’t be more than three or four years old.
He kicked the abuser sharply in the head as he left.
A fucking monster like that deserved the worst that society had to offer.
Despite it all, Cale couldn’t help but be impressed with the kid. When he’d experienced his own abuse, all he could do was run away and cower.
This defenseless child had fought back with every bit of his strength. Right up until he couldn’t hold up his own weight any more. A lot of his injuries were defensive but some of them looked offensive. He endured it all and never surrendered to the pain.
Cale held the kid securely as he made his way to the nearest hospital. His thoughts were a morbid mixture of respect, hatred, and worry.
There was always a chance the kid wouldn’t make it.
Cale tightened his grip and kept his gaze firmly ahead.
He’d do whatever he could to help the impressively vicious brat. He’d certainly make sure the bastard behind this suffered appropriately for his crimes.
There was a thought that he couldn’t quite shake off though, even as he passed the child off to a doctor and explained the situation to a nurse.
The blue eyed boy was truly a mighty and great child.