Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten and Alone ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

Forgotten and Alone

Chapter Four

Diana calls him on a Tuesday morning telling him she's in Tokyo and will be stopping by in ten minutes. Aya is asleep on the couch and doesn't like being disrupted when Berkeley picks him up and carries him to the bedroom. He deposits the boy in the bed and shuts the door then opens the living room curtains. Diana arrives exactly when she says with a frown at the mess of the apartment. It isn't his fault he spent half the morning chasing Aya around the house for a bath that left several papers all over the floor. Plus there is still the cushions and blanket on the top of the book shelf where Aya likes to take naps. In fact the redhead has seemed to take all Berkeley's attention now-a-days.

Berkeley leads her to the kitchen for some coffee explaining he's been busy and hasn't had time to clean. Diana offers, but he knows that will be a bad idea. That's when the yowling starts and the scratching because Berkeley can't keep Aya's nails trimmed and the redhead found the file while pawing through an open drawer in the bathroom.

"You got a cat?" Diana asked listening to the cries, her frown deepened. "You don't like animals, and that sounds like a big cat."

"Oh well I felt like some company so far away from home." Berkeley said as Diana gets up and walks toward the bedroom. "Diana…"

"Oh, poor thing, you shouldn't lock it up-" she said and opened the bedroom door. Aya scrambles away from the door and under the bed. She gasps in surprise at the boy then turns on Berkeley. "What's this? You can't have Ryo so you get a house boy? I knew you were a dirty old man but I always thought I was joking."

"Diana," Berkeley said annoyed shutting the door and led her back to the kitchen. "Its not what you think, and having a house boy would require having sex with said boy, and that is one thing I haven't done to him. In fact there are a lot of things I haven't done to him except attempt to de-claw him."

"What do you mean?" Diana asked listening to the yowling again. "He sounds just like a cat, it's creepy."

Berkeley sighed, "I'll be right back don't move around much or you'll scare him." He said and went back to the living room to close the curtains, then opened the bedroom door. Aya catwalks out of the room and back onto the couch where he curled up again. "Spoiled." He tells the boy and goes back to the kitchen.

"What's the matter with him?" Diana asked in a low voice.

"He's been on the streets for several months with sever psychological damage. He's lived among cats for the majority of that time and has adapted to their ways. I've spent the last few weeks trying to help him; it took almost a month for him to come to me. He's very skittish." Berkeley explained watching the boy jump from the couch to the top of the book shelf. "He's come a long way; two weeks ago he was eating on the counter, now he more or less sits at the table."

"Why not just let the mental ward have him? They are better handled to rehabilitate someone." Diana said.

Berkeley shook his head. "No, you should have seen him before all this happened, it was heart breaking. He was just a kid then suddenly it was like no one but I could see him. He stole to survive because no one noticed he was at the check out counter that was until he moved to this deserted factory. He's so light sensitive that he will never recover; you notice that no lights are on. He's ok with lamp light but all the bulbs are soft light. I could have helped him sooner and I didn't; I'm partly responsible for what's happened to him."

Aya slinks into the kitchen as if sensing Berkeley's plight. He rubs against the blond's leg and crawled into his lap careful with his claws. Berkeley looks down at him with a sigh and starts rubbing his hand trough the redhead hair, soon soft purring fills the air.

Diana watched them for a moment. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked softly.

"No," Berkeley said watching the boy carefully. "There isn't much I can do either."

"Will he ever recover?" Diana asked tears in her eyes.

"I don't know." Berkeley said brushing the boy's hair from his eyes.

88

Later that night as Berkeley lies in his bed and contemplates, not for the first time, if he should just give up and send Aya back to his former friends. Aya nudges the bedroom door open and jumps on the bed, then dose the unexpected. Instead of settling on the bed above the covers he slides under them and lays his head on the blond's chest before falling asleep. Dryly Berkeley can pride himself in the only accomplishment he's made with the boy, to get him to trust the blond completely.

Just like a cat with a good owner.

8888

Wednesday morning Berkeley leaves to follow a lead that might tell him why Aya has been ignored for the better part of seven months and why it's worn off now. Unknown to him he isn't the only one looking into such leads. Half way into his search he's confronted by an irate blond man that slams him against an ally wall and demands to know where Aya is. They struggle for a moment until Berkeley throws him off and picks up a lead pipe to defend himself. Unfortunately the blond isn't the old one there and he soon realizes these flower boys aren't ordinary flower boys.

"What make you think I have this Aya?" Berkeley asked.

"Call it an anonymous tip." The blond, Yohji, said standing from where he had fallen.

"Maybe I do have him." Berkeley said, "Where were you when he was forced to live on the streets and steal to survive? Where were you when he lived among cats in a subbasement to stay warm with the on coming winter?" he asked angrily, "I'll tell you where I was. I was feeding him and providing warm blankets until he trusted me enough to follow me home where he's safe from people who would hurt him because they don't know what has happened to him in eight months. I was the only one who noticed him for eight months while his mind was shattered. Do you know what damage being treated like you don't exist can inflict? A lot! A hell of a lot in a very short time. So don't you dare demand to know where he is, because frankly you don't deserve to know!"

Dropping the pipe he turned on his heel and pushes his way past a brunette young man sick with the three men.

"Wait!" the youngest; a dark blond Berkeley vaguely remembered whose name was Omi. "Please, whatever happened to Aya we are to blame, but we couldn't help it. We were so scared of what could have happened to Aya when whatever it is that affected us wore off. Please, is he safe?"

Berkeley took pity on the younger boy. "Your friend is safe, but I'm afraid he is very damaged. I don't think he would want to see you, I don't know how he, or you, would react. I know where you live I can try to bring him, but you must understand that he can't stay."

Omi nodded tears streaming down his face. "I understand. But there is something you need to know." He glanced at the others. "Now that everyone that knows his is remembering him, some rivals of ours might come looking for him as an easy target and they won't hesitate to hurt whoever in the way." He gave Berkeley a card. "If that happens call this number and we'll come running."

Berkeley took the card. "I'll do that." He said and headed back home.

88

A few hours later Berkeley drive into the large garage of the Kitten in the House. As it was still day Aya was under a blanket in the back seat. The redhead didn't protest as he we lifted out of the car with the blanket still over his head and carried as he was barefooted. Yohji ushered him inside to the living room where the curtains where flung wide open letting in the afternoon sunlight.

"Close the curtains." Berkeley ordered waiting for them to comply before setting his burden on the couch. However as Omi started turning on lamps he knew it wasn't safe to take off the blanket yet. "No turn off the lamps except that one in the corner." The boy gave Berkeley an odd look but did as told. Only when the room was dimly lit did he take off the blanket revealing a scruffy looking Aya.

Aya blinked owlishly then stretched with a yawn before getting off the couch and catwalked around the room curious about his new surroundings. He jumped and hissed at Omi when the boy make a squeaking sound and growled in warning when Ken made a move toward him.

"What happened to him?" Yohji asked stepping around Aya but jumped back when the redhead made a swipe at him with his claws.

"You happened to him." Berkeley said emotionless. "When he vanished from your minds he went mad, it shattered his mind and inflicted severe damage on his psyche. The cats where the only ones to give him attention so he started mimicking them. So much so that mentally he is a giant feline." He walked up to Aya who immediately calmed and began to purr. "He isn't used to humans and will act just like a high strung cat introduced to strangers. He might even remember you and act hostile I don't know."

"And what makes you so high and mighty that he doesn't try to claw your face off?" Yohji asked accusingly. "Did you have some part in him becoming that feline?"

"Matter of fact I did." Berkeley said guiltily, "By not helping him sooner, when I had the chance before I lost him for six months. It took a lot of work to get him to trust me. Now do you see why he can't stay? It's a matter that he simply won't, even if I left him, the first chance he gets he'll run away and then he'll be in more danger now wont he?"

Aya hissed at Yohji as the man took a step forward in anger. The blond looked hurt that his friend was defending someone else against him. "He's staying here." He said shooting out his hand to grab Aya with fast reflexes. However his reflexes where half as fast as the redheads. Aya jumped back then onto the coffee table dodging the arms that tried to grab him. He flung himself at a wall and bounced off of it to the other side of the room and on top of the counter then jumped onto a book shelf where he hissed and growled and even cut Yohji with his claws.

"Yohji stop." Omi begged, "You're just scarring him. This isn't the old Aya; you can't just make him stay. Let them go, Aya trusts this man, he can't be in anymore danger then he would be here."

Yohji hit the book shelf then stormed out of the room moments later a door slams.

"You can go, we understand now." Omi said whipping the tears from his face. "Just promise to take care of him, and remember if anything comes up to call."

Berkeley nods and watches Omi drag the brunette away before turning to Aya. "Alright you've made your point and a spectacle of yourself. You can come down now and we'll go home."

Aya stares at him lick his hand then jumps down and rubs up against Berkeley's leg. The blanket is put back over his head and he's carried back to the car. Driving out of the garage Berkeley notices Yohji watching from a window and knows this won't be the last of him.

He just hopes the man won't do more damage to the boy that Berkeley's starting to think of as his.