Chapter Text
The fire was started by a gas leak. The spark from the stove was all it took for the orphanage house to go up too fast for anything to be salvaged. When emergency crews did arrive the only help they could offer was to the 12-year-old blond boy with a broken arm being dragged out of the wreckage by his equally young friend.
A policeman was one of the first to the scene and took pity on them, seeing as they were the same age as his little sister-in-law. He sat with them on the sidewalk and allowed them to bury their dirty, wet faces into his uniform as they cried over the loss of the only family they had ever really known. When the rest of the emergency crews arrived, he accompanied the orphans in the back of the ambulance while the firemen worked to stop the blaze from spreading further.
The hospital staff, after treating the broken arm and the rest of their burns, allowed the boys to share a bed - for the sake of trauma recovery, they said. Officer Guren thought it probably had more to do with how much noise they made if anyone tried to separate them. He stood in the hallway outside, fending off the news reporters that were so eager to get an exclusive on the orphanage fire that they didn’t mind traumatizing them further.
The day after, someone new came to the door: a tall man in a pristine white suit with a long black braid, accompanied by a blonde woman in an equally expensive-looking white gown. As the boys obviously had no next-of-kin, Guren was immediately wary of the strangers. The man requested to see the boys, explaining that he had seen their story on the news and might be interested in adoption. The nurse on duty at the time allowed the visitors to pass on the basis that her patients were awake and reasonably emotionally stable at the moment, though Guren suspected she might also be hoping for a tip later. The man sure did sweep past him like he owned the place, and with the CEO vibe he radiated, there was a distinct possibility he might. Either way, Guren didn’t like him. He smiled too much, too insincerely. The officer kept watch over his interaction with the boys until he left.
Guren’s suspicions of the rich man’s intentions - and general asshole behaviour - were confirmed when adoption papers arrived by the end of the week, but only for one of them. He was going to take the blond one, the boy named Mikaela. What kind of man would separate a 12-year-old from his trauma partner and only family he had left? They lived the next prefecture over too, so it wouldn’t exactly be easy to visit.
Well, with enough money and influence you could do anything you wanted, he supposed. The man would probably even be praised for adopting an orphan, no matter the circumstances.
Guren was impressed with the other boy, Yuichiro, as he watched them take the news and say goodbye in the front entrance of the hospital. Mikaela was crying and insisting he’d rather stay, but Yuichiro eventually convinced him to get in the car sent for him, telling him to make the most out of the opportunity and be happy, as well as promising to write as frequently as possible.
After the car was out of sight though, Yuichiro stopped waving and dissolved into tears on the curb of the pickup area. Guren sat down beside him and immediately got a wet face in his uniform again. He made a disgusted noise and sighed.
“Hey, kid.”
“What?” the boy hiccuped out.
Guren sighed again, hardly believing he was actually going to do this. “Would you want to come home with me? I can start filling out the adoption papers tomorrow. I have a girl your age I’m taking care of too, she can be your sister.”
Tiny hands made fists, clinging tightly to his uniform, and he felt a nod against his shoulder.
“Mikaela, your food.”
“You must eat, Mikaela. Must we remind you of this at every meal?”
Mika looked up at his adoptive parents, Crowley and Horn Eusford.
Parents, he thought spitefully. They weren’t real family. A real family would care for him, and ask him how his day was, and –
“Mikaela.”
He wasn’t even allowed outside.
“I’m eating,” Mika said after a long silence. Horn frowned at his behaviour.
“You’ve had two bites,” she replied.
“Leave him.” Crowley said, apparently done playing parent. “If he doesn’t want to eat the food we’re providing, what are we to do?”
“I’m eating,” Mika repeated.
Crowley barely glanced at him as he replied, “We took you away from that tragic little wreck, gave you a home, sustenance, –“
“–clothes on my back, and a good education. I know.”
It had always been like this. For the past six years, Mika had been transferred between their countryside mansion and their city penthouse. Occasionally, they would bring him to a social event, telling him that he was to keep silent and smile and tell everyone how thankful he was that the Eusfords had adopted him. Mika was their little accessory, their shining example of what good people the Eusfords were.
In truth, they had told Mika from the beginning that he would be immediately disowned if he brought any shame upon the family name. He was forbidden from associating with anyone that wasn’t brought into the house, and forbidden from attending a public school – instead, he had tutors brought to him, teaching him anything and everything he wanted to know. Crowley and Horn – he refused to call them his parents – cut off even his most basic connections to the outside world. He wasn’t allowed to use the phone or the Internet, for fear that he would come in contact with someone who wished the family harm.
It was always about the family.
“Speaking of a good education, what are your plans for school? I hope you’ve chosen an appropriate one with a good business program.” Crowley looked at him expectantly with that disgusting fake smile.
“I haven’t decided on a university just yet, I would like to browse some more up-to-date information than what we have in the library before making a decision, if possible.” Mika hoped this would work. Crowley nodded, showing a mild approval of his answer, until he continued, “though I have decided I want to study law.” At that, Crowley’s smile fell into a stony mask.
“Law?”
“Yes.” Do not back down on this, Mika told himself. If he wins, you play right into his hands and you’ll never be able to escape them. You’ll never find Yuu.
“Why not business?” Horn smiled indulgently, leaning forward and placing her hand over his. Mika resisted the urge to snatch his hand away as he saw Crowley nod approvingly. “You’re a Eusford.
You might as well use the name we’ve given you as a springboard to a career.”
“I don’t want to use my last name to get places.”
“That’s fine,” Horn said, still smiling, still trying to indulge him and control him at the same time. “I’ll have a laptop sent up to your room and you can look into some more options, how about that?”
Mika glanced at Crowley, noticing that he had that stupid smile plastered to his face again. “I’ll…look into it,” he conceded.
Mika had lied. As soon as he was allowed access to the laptop and had the room to himself, he typed ‘Yuichiro Hyakuya’ into the search bar.
Unfortunately, nothing of worth came up aside from the news story six years ago. He clicked on it anyways to see if there was any further information he never heard about, and found that Yuu had been adopted right after him by the police officer who had watched over them. His name was now Yuichiro Ichinose. Mika typed that in the search bar instead and was mercifully able to find his Facebook page. There wasn’t too much information on it that was public, but he managed at least to find a gallery of photos Yuu was tagged in that his friends hadn’t made private. Mika scrolled through them slowly, seeing how different and grown up Yuu looked now and fighting back the emotion that was threatening to pool in his eyes. He hadn’t ever let the Eusfords see evidence of him crying and he wasn’t going to start now.
But Yuu was okay. He was okay and smiling up at him through photos with his graduating high school class, at his prom with a girl that had purple hair, in the middle of roughhousing with a tall boy on his rugby team...
Mika’s heart ached, seeing how much of his life he had missed. And what a good life it seemed compared to Mika’s. He wondered if Yuu ever missed him the way he did.
He took a deep breath and tore himself away from the photos, looking for any more information in his profile. A twitter account was linked, so he clicked again and scrolled through. A few posts down, Yuu was celebrating his acceptance to the University of Tokyo.
Mika sat back in the desk chair and stared at the tweet. The University of Tokyo would be prestigious enough for the Eusfords, wouldn’t it? He could play it like he actually thought it would be the best for him academically. Would Yuu even want to see him, if they were able to find each other on campus? He had a real life now...
It wasn’t as though Mika had anything to lose though. The possibility of seeing Yuu again was worth the risk. He deleted his history and then typed in the address for the university’s website, reading through the application process.