Treasure [Klance/Leith]

おかあさ - Mother

For those of you who haven't read the original story, there was a bonus chapter which would have been part of the original concept of Treasure where it was still a romcom before it turned into a thriller styled story. In the bonus chapter it's brought up that Aerum Lanner, the governor's wife, is Keith's birth mother. This chapter is all in her point of view of watching Keith mature through the years she was able to see him.

Edit (2019): Aerum used a private investigator in order to get information on certain details of Keith's life. Sorry for those of you who got confused by how she knee certain things :(

There was once a young child who had been born into a world of sin and greed. He was blessed with a kind mother forced into adulthood from his birth, she loved and cared for him as if he were her only saving grace in the tainted and sinful atmosphere around her. People passed by without a second glance at her or the infant, quietly thinking to themselves that the two of them were merely trash that had been kicked to the curb however, some offered kind smiles and gifts that came in small green pieces of paper for the mother to use on her child. The young woman was so delighted as she thanked them, saying that god had blessed her with their existence but they would all say the same thing to her which made her wish to shrink back into the shadows and cry herself to sleep.

'No my dear, god has blessed you with such beautiful eyes, your child too.'

They were a curse upon her and her child's future that was uncertain, her mark of shame she was doomed to live with. The purple iris's had only brought her misfortune; she had been forced into a life of escorting young men around the slums of her city in order to make money for her sister who blew it off on alcohol and drugs much like their own mother had done before she had left the world before them. She was however, blessed with the young boy in her arms that smiled gracefully at her with long black hair atop his head, she would smile and giggle whenever he would do something goofy or whenever he began to cry because to put it simply; he was the blessing of her life.

She lived in a tiny shack on the outskirts of the city with her husband and son. She always seemed happy but if anyone knew her they would've known that all she wanted was to escape her dead end life of poverty and escape into one of luxury and one with a husband who would love her and her son no matter what; even if the child wasn't his but rather one of her clients. However, she wasn't given this blessing since her husband would often throw beer bottles at her head in anger whenever the boy would cry, he was always smoking and he even gambled away all their money leaving them barely able to pay for baby formula. Soon after the son turned two, he ahead been murdered by a group of debt collectors from a casino who would visit in his spare time. This only furthered the stress on the now nineteen year old mother as she struggled to care for her and her child. She turned to drugs once more, unable to find joy in her toddler anymore and did them whenever she had the chance even if he watched her with giant light purple and blue eyes that were brimmed with curiosity.

At four, she gave the child to the local crack house in order to get an exchange of drugs. After a week she regretted everything for she missed his smile, his laugh and his giddiness. She reported the place to the police and they rescued children who were about to be doomed into a life much like hers, including her own son. She watched as he grew up slowly, she too also maturing in her own ways. She had gotten a steady job and met a young man with so much kindness in his heart that it overjoyed her and brought tears to her eyes. However, her child suffered poorly from her selfish mistakes, his body being beaten and sexually abused by foster homes he was in and out of within a month. His shoulder bared the scars of his own mothers sins and she wept tears of guilt for the suffering boy as she lived in the lap of luxury as a wealthy politicians wife with his two children. She wished she could've gone to the orphanage and swept him up from his feet and cradled him in her arms but she was never given the opportunity as she watched him be brought into a kind and loving family that raised him to love others and forgive them. She wished she could've been the blonde mother who got to laugh at the dark purple eyed boy whenever he would get flour on his nose from baking, that she could be the kind young girl who got to learn of his secret and accepted him for who he was, or even be the father who taught the child and fueled his passion for stars.

She lusted for moments she had given up selfishly for sins and greed and regretted it with each breath she took as she held her husbands hand with a forced smile to mask her grief inside. She watched in sadness as he too fell into a path of greed and sin, he had given up his family much like she had done in her past and lost everything that was important to him. She cried rivers upon rivers as she watched him suffer through hard times in another country, she watched in warmth as he tried to make friends with an unlikely group and she watched in joy as the child became a great detective in another city, her city. He solved so many cases and saved so many innocent people that she felt proud. She watched as his locket opened up for the first time and revealed that his enemy was his future, she watched as the two fell in love and he fell into despair once more. She wished for him to see the things in front of him that mattered like the young child who desperately needed a family but was too afraid to move on so he used sarcasm and attitudes to push people away. For him to see the spicy boy in front of him who became jealous easily of the white haired Russian, and finally the mother wished that he hasn't grown to be like her

Sinful and oblivious to the real world around her.

Like they said, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.