I'll Protect All of You... ~ Mandela Catalogue AU (The Guarding Angel)

Part 2

The children muttered and laughed among themselves as Jonah hung out with Adam, Cesar, and Mark.

"Jojo, How'd you get here?" Cesar asked innocently, his Spanish accent rough but sweetly tuned in a singsong tone.

Jonah eyes became hazy, remembering back to when he was stumbling, claw marks raked all over his body, vomit dripping from his mouth, an eye punctured and bleeding out. He must've looked like a monster. No wonder why that car hit him.

Was it on purpose? Did the person see him as a monster or as a human? Did they even see him at all? They should've heard his scream of terror. From what he recalled, the person didn't swerve to try and avoid hitting him.

Maybe it was his fault, It technically was cause he left his best friend to die! He was being such a wuss about it, if he had just stayed for his friend, nothing like this would have happened--

"Jonah?"

He gasped, feeling warm, salty tears leak from his eyes.

"Y-Yeah?"

Jonah's voice was squeaky, trying to hide it - but miserably failing.

"Can boys cry?"

Jonah sniffled, looking beside him to the child who asked the question. It was Mark, and the child put his small hand on top of Jonah's. 

"Can boys cry?" He hesitantly asked again, looking up at Jonah.

"Y-Yeah," His voice quivered as he spoke, desperately trying to stop it but failing once again, "Boys can cry. We all have feelings, after all."

"W-Well, Adam said boys can't cry, a-a-and... I was thinking about Ces's mommy and daddy leaving him here, and..." Mark himself began to develop tears in his eyes.

Jonah sat there, in a state of shock.

He then snapped out of it, grabbing Mark softly and pulling him close onto his lap, in a gentle embrace. The hug was like a mother to her child; comforting, reassuring, and always welcome for a cry on the shoulder.

By now the kids were long gone, having moved into a different room with Cesar leading all of them into the playroom; after all, he was the second oldest of all of them.

Mark cried into Jonah's shoulders, sobbing and sniffling. Jonah let him.

Jonah knew how that felt.

"I-I want my mommy..." He whined. "I want my daddy..."

"Shhhh...." Jonah hushed him softly. "I'm here for you. Don't worry. I can be your new mommy."

Jonah internally cringed at the statement, but what was he supposed to do? Let the poor orphaned kid not live with a "parental figure" at all?

"Really..?" Jonah smiled softly at Mark's pupils growing.

"Of course. I'll take care of all of you." He promised, still keeping the warm and cozy aura around him.

"Thank you, Mr. Jonah sir!" The child giggled, hugging Jonah as tightly as he could, sliding onto the floor, and running off to find the others.

Jonah stood up, letting out a soft sigh.

"Those kids are really something else, huh?"