StarLit / Yaoi

StarLit / Chapter 17

For years Kioko and I were curious about our past. It first started with Ayase and why we called her by her name. I was five, Kioko four, and both if us were getting patronized on the school playground for calling our "mother" by her first name.

"Why do you call your mommy Ayase?" My friend Takashi asked as we oscillated back and forth on the playground equipment. "My mommy says your should never call mommy's by their names"

"She wants us to" Kioko blurted out from where she was. Her class also had recess and she took it upon herself to bother us all the time. "She always says to call her Ayase!"

"That's weird!" Another kid, a rather chubby, pale kid named Kenta, spoke up from his side of the playground. It was so typical that he'd have two friends right beside him with their arms crossed. His henchmen.

"Yeah!" His two friends chuckled.

The other continued snickering. "I bet they don't even have a mom!"

"Not true!" Kioko jumped in front of him, crossing her arms and glaring. "We have a mom. We have a mom and a dad"

"Then where are they?"

"They're..." She trailed off and frowned. She looked back over at me, expecting an answer that I didn't have.

That was when we realized we didn't actually know where our parents were. We didn't even know what their first names were. We knew as much as they came to see us on holidays and for our birthdays, but that was it. They never even called.

We were made fun of after that by all the other kids in the playground. Kioko cried, but I sat beneath a tree thinking about why our situation was so bizarre. Why was it that our parents were never around? Why did Ayase raise us? Who was Ayase to them? -we didn't even know that much. So when we got home Kioko angrily ran to her room, leaving me to ask the questions.

"Your mom and dad love you very much" Ayase would always say. It didn't matter what the question was, she always answered it like that. "And you know I love you too, of course"

"But... Why aren't they ever around?"

"Their work. You know that"

I finished remembering the past and realized what Ayase just said. I could tell Kioko was listening in and only when Ayase mentioned a miscarriage did she sit up and pay attention. "What?" Kioko nearly dropped her jaw in shock.

"Your parents and I were friends since middle school. In university I got pregnant but it ended in a miscarriage. Your parents consoled me on the loss of my child, but they always seemed to be really happy together and I was jealous of that. So they agreed to be a surrogate"

"Wait-" I frowned. "That means they agreed to birth a child for you?"

She nodded. "I discovered that I can't have children. It was any miracle I got pregnant the first time. But before we did it we made an agreement"

Kioko made a face. "So that puts us in the present? The agreement was you raise the child, but they got parental rights? Are you kidding me?"

Ayase shook her head, sadly. "It turned into a weird situation, I'll be honest, but I finally got my child. It was kind of like having three parents"

"Weird" Kioko jumped up to stretch. "Honestly I thought it would be something like that. Not exactly that elaborate, but something similar. Can't say that I'm surprised or even really care"

She had a point. It was great hearing the truth and all, finally, since all these years. But it wasn't surprising or that major. We still knew our parents and Ayase was the one who raised us. Honestly she's more of our mother than anything and I treated her as such. My biological mother and father are merely my creators. Nothing more, nothing less.

I looked back over at Drew and glared. Nothing really changed about my hatred for this kid, but I did have an idea. I didn't want Yuki to be all alone once I graduated and with Drew staying here until his final year it would be a perfect set up. Provided he didn't steal my boyfriend away.

We left the beach shortly after Drew swam into a rock and broke his nose. I wanted to laugh, but I felt that would be inappropriate given the fact that a lot of people were surrounding him. Still, that didn't stop Kioko from laughing her ass off. Not even Ayase's hard glare could stop her from rolling in the sand.

"Why is she laughing?" Yuki asked, mildly offended.

I shrugged. "He swam directly into a rock"

"So?"

"He ran into that rock" I pointed at the largest boulder near the shore. Seriously, you could see the rock from space it was that huge. "His eyes must have been full of salt water"

"His nose broke!"

We started following Ayase back to the car who was guiding Drew, who held a million tissues to his nose to stop the bleeding. He kept whining like he'd never gotten a bloody nose before.

"You know, you bitch a lot" Kioko grinned. Everyone, but me, glared at her as she said this. Still she didn't stop. "Like, you couldn't see the rock you were about to smack into?"

Drew shook his head irritably. "No, I didn't see it. My head was under the water"

"You should learn how to swim. Whatever you were doing was not swimming"

"You weren't even in the water, so just shut up"

"I was tanning" Kioko glanced over at Ayase who was still glaring. "What? He's a big baby!"

"Enough, Kioko. Both of you, Misato, need to be nicer to Drew. He's a guest in our house" Ayase sighed.

I just shrugged. "Alright. We'll be nicer. But then Drew has to do it too"

Drew turned his head to the side to glare at me. "What the hell am I doing?"

"You snore"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do!"

"Shut up!" Ayase hit the steering wheel. "Stop yelling. For the love of God just get along!"

"I can't get any sleep with Drew in the room. He's annoying and I haven't gotten sleep in days"

"Then leave the room"

"And go where? You won't let me sleep in the living room"

"Because I don't want anyone in the living room"

"Then what so you expect me to do?"

"Move into Kioko's room"

"Hell no!" Kioko butted in. "I already said no"

"Then sleep in Yuki's room"

Everyone paused instantly. I don't know if we were expecting her to change her mind, for Yuki to say something, or for me to respond. But we fell into an uncomfortable silence.