Cold-Blooded: A DC Universe Fanfiction (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 60: Rose, David, Yukie, Tim: Lost and Found

Rose craned her neck, looking around for her family while trying to keep the drinks level on the box of pastries, walk, and carry the bag of presents all at the same time. The issue wasn't the weight, it was the awkwardness.

She wasn't sure how she felt yet about becoming a big sister so soon and without warning. Her dad and Yukie certainly didn't need her permission to adopt a kid, but this kid?

The message had read: 'We're flying into Reno Int'l about eight thirty tomorrow morning, gate D. We're bringing with us a four year old boy we've just adopted. His name is now David Koji Wilson. Remember, all of Yukie's family was in debt to Ra's, and he let them out of the contract. He only agreed because of what we could do for him. David is his grandson, and he's afraid Talia is raising him to be the next Victor Zsasz or something similar. His fears are not groundless. Farming the boy out to us is his solution. It remains to be seen if this will fly. Needless to say, who his mother and grandfather are is something you shouldn't share with your friends.'

Victor Zsasz was a psycho from Gotham, and he was bad even by the standards of that place. It was like he thought he was the only real person in the world, so he could do what he liked with other people. Zsasz referred to everybody as zombies who needed to be put out of their misery and almost always posed his victims like he was setting a scene in a movie or something, then carved a line into his skin for each one, to keep track of them. He said it was the only time he ever felt anything.

And Ra's al Ghul, the head of the League of Assassins, was afraid that was how his grandson would turn out, so afraid that he was sending the boy away. That was scary all on its own, because normally the Assassin believed he and his family were perfect and superior to everyone else on Earth. For him to swallow his pride, and for her father to say al Ghul's fears weren't groundless...

Her first reaction was that she wanted to resent this new little brother for intruding on her life, her place in the family, and be jealous of whatever attention and affection he got, but on the heels of that, a little voice asked and answered the question: What if Yukie had been resentful and jealous when I showed up in Japan? Then I wouldn't have had a great time for more than two months, I would never have gotten to know her or made up with Dad. He would never have learned how to loosen up and share things with me.

If Yukie could give her a chance with an open mind and an open heart, she could give David one, too. Even if he were a psycho in the making.

Was that them? She saw a seating area partly screened by plants, and a head of white hair that looked like her father's. Rose headed toward the spot, hearing someone crying with the unashamed abandon of a child.

It was them. Yukie was holding a little boy half in her lap, rocking him and making soothing sounds while he cried on her, much as Rose had a few weeks before. His face was buried against her middle, as if he were trying to burrow back into the womb. Rose noticed she was wearing a silk suit, and it would have been a nice one if it weren't soaked with tears, didn't have had a long rent in one sleeve or dirty shoeprints on it. Rose had taken a semester of art history, and the two of them together reminded her a little of Michelangelo's Pieta, if Christ were a little boy who wore more clothes and was face-down.

Her father was watching the two of them with a not unsympathetic expression on his face. She caught his eye, and raised her eyebrows at him to ask: What's going on?

"He's just realized this is for real," Slade Wilson explained.

Hearing that, the boy sat up and hiccuped, making eye contact with Rose. His face was puffy and red from crying, creased from being pressed against Yukie's clothes. He had wavy black hair and light olive skin, but his eyes were blue-green, an unusual combination. He hiccuped again, and asked, "If you're named Rose, how come your hair is blue and not pink?"