klance ~ Who are you?

12. Memories

~ A few months earlier ~

----Keith's pov----

I'm sitting in the hallway on a chair in front of the counsellors office waiting for them to arrive. However they seem to running a bit late, because apparently a couple of the students thought it was a good idea to start the day by getting into a fight at eight in the morning. If its like this everyday than its going to be a long year....

Let me explain, I just moved from Texas with Shiro my adoptive brother, our parents are always travelling, our mother Taya is a famous actress in Korea and our farther Noah is a business man, he's a high up in some big fancy company that I don't remember the name of. I've been with them for three years now, it was originally a temporary thing, I always used to fight with the other kids at the orphanage so they sent me to live with Shirogane family. The Shirogane family were used to taking in kids with problems and helping them. I was only supposed to stay with them until the orphanage found a more appropriate foster family for me, you see I was not the exactly easy to deal with, I constantly got into fights at school, never paid attention in any of the schools I went too, I always answered back and I had a short temper. So it was hard to find a foster family willing to take me in for more than a month. After about a month with the Shirogane family the orphanage still hadn't found a family willing to take me in permanently. I have always had nightmares ever since I was put into foster care, they were manly about my dad at first. However the more time I spent at the orphanage and the more the foster familys I went to, the more the nightmares started to be about not ever being able to find a family who would be willing to put up with me. They also got more and more frequent, sometimes I would wake up in a cold sweat. One night when I was at the Shirogane family I woke up shouting for my dad, it was one of those dreams where I relived his death, I started to cry as I remembered the event. We were staying at grandmas house, it was the anniversary of my grandpas death so we decided to spend the week with her. It was night time and everyone was asleep, I had woken up with a dry throat, so I got to get a glass of water from the kitchen. When I open the door to the hallway smoke flooded my room. I ran to my fathers room and, shook him until he woke up, I pointed to the door as the smoke slowly made its way in, when he saw it he got out of bed he picked me up and rushed down the stairs and out the front door. He ran across the street to our neighbour Mary Smiths house. He knocked frantically on her door until she answered. She was rather cross at being woken up in the middle of the night but as soon as she saw us her annoyed look vanished and was replaced with shock. I didn't understand why at first but after dad handed me over telling me to stay with her he ran back towards grandmas house and I understood.  Grandma's house was blazing. Mary hurried me into her living room and set me down on the sofa.  As soon as she put me down I rushed to the window to see what was happening, I heard her calling the emergency services in the background. The fire department soon showed up and put out the fire but Dad never came out of the house.

I tried to keep my sobbing to a minimum and not make too much noise, but the wall at the house were very thin and I was in the guest bedroom which was next to Shiros room. I soon heard a knock on my door and a voice soon followed.

"Keith are you ok in there?" the voice asked, it was Shiro.

"Yeah... I'm fine Shiro" I respond weakly.

"Are you sure? Do you need anything?" He sounded worried.

"Yeah I'm *hic* fine. Go back to bed Shiro." I was crying quite a bit at this point so it was hard to hide it.

"Keith...... I heard you yelling for your dad... Are... Are you sure you're ok? If you need anyone to talk to... I'm here ok?" I didn't respond. "It doesn't have to be me who you decide to talk to, it could Noah or Taya they would be more than willing to listen if that's what you need..."

I stay silent, he starts to talk again. "I'm worried about you Keith... Please... please at least tell someone soon ok? I want you to be ok." I hear him start to leave.

"Wait...." I didn't want him to go if he left the nightmare of that night would be all I could think of and I really didn't want that right now. "Don't leave please..."

"Keith..." He paused. "Can I come in?"

After a long pause I say "Yeah." The door opens and he comes in and walks over to sit on the edge of my bed.  "Do you want to talk about it?" he asks. I'm silent for a moment thinking about everything he said at the door. Is he really worried about me? He's only known me for about a month why would he be worried about another random kid who was sent to live in his house? But the Shiro in front of me looks so different to how he normally is. Most of the time he's straight faced, serious and always seems to have a good idea on how to solve anything. However right now he looks genuinely worried and his eyebrows are knitted together in a concerned frown.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to or if you don't feel comfortable." He says breaking me from my thoughts. "It's up to you Keith.  You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, ok? If you want I can just keep you company for a bit?" I look at him, should I tell him? I've never really talked about what happened before, even with the counselors the orphanage arranged for me to see. After a few more moments of comfortable silence I make a decision. I'm going to tell him.

I take a deep breath and start to tell him my nightmare and before I knew it I was explaining everything, how my dad used to be a firefighter, how I never knew my mother, how after the fire people treated me as if I didn't understand what happened saying things like "You're daddy is just going on a very long trip" or "You're going to a orphanage, it's a wonderful place where children go when they're parents go away". I tell him how I was treated like an outcast at the orphanage by the other children, how they bullied me.  I tell him everything.

It was the very first time I had  opened up to anyone since my dad died and it felt good, it felt so incredibly good getting it all of my chest after so long. After that night Shiro and I became really close, we would always share things that happened throughout the day. If I had a bad day or had another nightmare he would always be there to help me through it and sometimes, on rare occasions, I would be the one helping him out. It was nice having someone to share with, who was there for me when I needed it, having.... having a friend.

In the months that followed Shiro and I became as close as brothers and I found myself opening up to Noah and Taya about how I felt after dad died and how I worried about never having a family again. How lost I felt without a family of my own.

I had been fostered for a year and still no family took me in which meant that I was still with them. But that doesn't didn't bother me any more, since I was closer to them. Soon my 16th birthday came around and they gave me the best present ever, they adopted me. It was so wonderful that I cried with joy. It was the best thing anyone has ever done for me.

My thoughts are cut short by the sound of footsteps making their way towards me, it was a woman and two students.

----------------------------------------------------------AN

Hi guys!
I'm sorry its taking me so long to get the chapters out but I'm trying out a new tactic so hopefully more updates will be coming, maybe? We'll see. Sorry again.
Anyway I hope you're all still enjoying the story and thank you for your support, I'll (hopefully) see you in the next chapter. <3