Narration POV
Arthur, or rather Aki, stood next to his mother, watching her with eyes that had learned to read every subtle shift in her expression, every tremor in her hands. She was as she had always been, kind, gentle in her movements, her voice still carrying that soft melody he'd known since before he could remember.
And yet she wasn't.
The woman who had once read him stories with animated voices, who had laughed at his childish jokes and held him close during thunderstorms, had become someone else entirely. Someone mad. Someone who switched at the drop of a hat.
And while Aki wouldn't admit it, it scared him.
After social services came that first time, the days passed in a blur of deterioration. His mother's condition only seemed to grow worse and worse with each sunset, each dawn bringing new challenges that Aki's young mind struggled to comprehend.
Her mood changed sporadically, without warning or reason. One moment she would be sitting quietly at their small kitchen table, staring at nothing, and the next she would erupt in fury, or weep without stop, or laugh boisterously. As if hundreds of emotions were constantly surging inside her all at once.
She'd start throwing objects at the wall, plates, cups, picture frames, making them shatter on impact with a violence that made Aki flinch every time. After these episodes, she would close herself in their shared bedroom, barricading the door with furniture, leaving Aki to sleep on the couch for days at a time.
His enhanced hearing picking up her ragged breathing, the occasional sob, the restless pacing that went on for hours. Sometimes he heard her talking to herself, or to someone who wasn't there. Other times, there was only silence so complete it terrified him more than any scream could.
All the while, Aki tried to be there for her, whenever he could reach her through the fog that seemed to surround her more and more each day. He learned to cook simple meals, rice, eggs, instant noodles, sliding plates under the door when she wouldn't come out. He cleaned up the broken pieces after her episodes, his small hands now no longer able to be cut, by anything that shattered like the first night.
He did the laundry in the building's basement, standing on a stool to reach the machines, memorizing which buttons to press because he couldn't quite read all the instructions yet.
And each time social services came by for their scheduled visits, they kept on performing for them. His mother would emerge from her room, shower, put on clean clothes, and smile that empty smile.
Aki would sit beside her on the couch, holding her hand, telling the social workers about the games they played, the books she read to him.
Aki didn't know what was going on with his mom, but he knew he could help her. He had to help her. She was all he had, and he was all she had. They were supposed to protect each other.
He just wasn't trying hard enough, yes, he was sure that was the problem. If he could just be better, cleaner, quieter, more helpful, if he could just figure out the right combination of words and actions, he could bring her back.
He could fix this.
He could fix her.
That's what knights did, after all.
They saved people.
They protected the innocent.
And his mother had called him her knight so many times before.
Until one day.
Aki awoke to the sound of a dripping faucet, each drop hitting the metal sink, in an arhythmic manner.
He could hear someone coming up to their apartment's door, footsteps on the concrete stairs outside.
He jumped off the bed, expecting to see his mom at his side as they only had one bed to share. But no, the space beside him was empty, the sheets cold to the touch. The indent where she should have been was barely visible, as if she had left hours ago.
Immediately his eyes went wide, panic flooding his small body with adrenaline. He burst from the sheets, his bare feet hitting the cold floor as he quickly began investigating the entire apartment. The bathroom, empty. The kitchen, empty. The living room, empty.
His mom was gone.
The realization hit him all at once stealing his breath. She had left. Where could she go? Why would she go? How hadn't he heard her leave?
He walked back into their room on unsteady legs, and that's when he noticed it, a book on the wooden floor-
The book she used to read him... the Henriad. The stories of kings and princes, of honor and duty, of battles fought and won. The book she had called his when he was smaller.
Just as he grabbed it, his fingers trembling as they closed around the familiar worn cover, he heard the ring of the doorbell. The sound reverberated in his enhanced ears. He didn't know what to do.
He slowly walked to stand in front of the door, the book clutched against his chest like armor.
Then he heard it again, the ring of the doorbell.
He stayed rooted to his spot, watching the door handle as if it might turn on its own, his enhanced hearing picking up the breathing of whoever stood on the other side, the slight shift of weight from foot to foot, the rustle of clothing.
Then he heard it, the jingle of keys. The scrape of metal against metal as the key found the lock. The turning of the knob from the outside.
Someone was opening the door. Someone had a key to their apartment. Immediately he felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end, his body tensing like a spring wound too tight. His mind raced through possibilities, the landlord, a burglar, social services coming to take him away...
The knob turned a bit more, and with a creak that resounded in his ears like thunder, the door slowly swung open. Light from the hallway spilled into the dim apartment, silhouetting the figure in the doorway. He saw who had opened the door...
His mom.
She stood there like a sentinel. Her brown hair was thinning and grey at the roots, when had that happened? Her eyes were hollow, sunken into her face like she hadn't slept in days. Her clothes hung loose on her thinning frame.
But Aki didn't see any of that. Not really. His child's heart, desperate for love, for things to be okay again, saw only his mother returned.
"MOM!" he yelled, the word torn from his throat with such force it almost hurt. He ran to her, the book falling from his hands and landing with a soft thud onto the rug on the floor. He didn't care about the book, didn't care about anything except the fact that she was here, she was back, she hadn't left him after all.
He hugged her legs with all his small might, his face upturned to look at hers, searching for that spark of recognition, that moment of connection that would tell him everything was going to be alright. Her face fell down to meet his gaze, and for a moment, he saw something he couldn't place. Maybe regret?
He smiled even wider, willing her to smile back, willing the moment to become what he needed it to be. She simply tousled his hair a bit, her fingers moving through the familiar motion, and then began to walk into the apartment.
He expected her to close the door after she came in, to shut out the world so they could be together again, just the two of them against everything else. But that didn't happen. Instead, Aki saw someone else standing at the door's frame, waiting, watching.
Junpei Mamoru stood there in his customary social services uniform, his kind face trying to project reassurance. Mr. Bubbles, as he himself had said he wanted to be called on one of the occasions he'd visited to check on them. The nickname had made Aki laugh then. It didn't seem funny now.
His mother pushed Aki aside for a moment, gently, but firmly, walking deeper into the apartment as she kneeled to grab the Henriad from where it had fallen. She cleaned the cover a bit with the back of her hand, her fingers tracing the embossed title with something that might have been tenderness. When she turned around, Aki was already in front of her again, drawn like a magnet, their eyes meeting.
"Aki," she began, her voice monotone, stripped of any affection, or emotion, as if she was trying to bottle it all up. "You'll be going with Mr. Mamoru for a little bit, okay?"
"Go? Go where?" Aki asked, though part of him already knew. A sinking feeling began to appear in his stomach, cold and heavy like he'd swallowed stones.
"Mommy has some problems she needs to sort out..." she began.
"You're lying," Aki interrupted, his small hand falling on her chest, right over her heart. He could feel it beating too fast, hear it with his enhanced senses, a frantic rhythm that betrayed her calm exterior. "I can hear it. Your heart. It's beating wrong."
Her face crumpled for just a second before she pulled it back together. "Aki, don't make this harder than it needs to be. Just go with the man."
Aki craned his neck back to look at the doorway, where Mr. Mamoru, Bubbles, waited patiently, his hands clasped in front of him. The man's eyes were sad behind his glasses.
"No." The word came out small but firm, a child's defiance was a futile thing however.
"Aki." His mother's voice carried a warning now, an edge of desperation.
"No, they can't separate me from you. I'm not stupid," Aki said, tears beginning to creep at the edges of his eyes, making everything blurry. "Please just tell me what is wrong. I'll fix it, I promise. I always do. I always fix it. I clean, I cook, I'm quiet when you need me to be. I can be better. I can be perfect. Just tell me what to fix!"
Victoria's hand, the one that wasn't holding the book, cupped Aki's cheek. Her palm was cold against his flushed skin, but gentle, so gentle it made his heart break a little more. "You can't fix this, my knight. Some things... some things are too broken. Even for knights."
"But I can-" He wanted to tell her about his powers, how they were getting stronger, how maybe he could use them to help somehow, but the words wouldn't come.
"Please, Aki, if you love me, you'll leave with the nice man." The words were barely a whisper, but they might as well have been screamed. She was using his love against him, and they both knew it.
"But-" His protest died as he saw her face.
"Please," she pleaded, her own eyes beginning to form tears that she refused to let fall. "Please, my brave boy. Do this for me. Be strong for me, one more time."
It pained Aki to see his mother like that, destroyed something in him to watch her beg. He couldn't see her like that. He'd never been able to refuse her anything.
So he obeyed her wishes, though it felt like tearing himself in half. "Okay, mom. Okay."
He took the book from his mother's hand, her fingers lingering on it for a moment before letting go, as if she were passing it on to him. A family heirloom of sorts.
He slowly walked to the door. He didn't want to leave. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around, to run back to her, to hold on and never let go. But when he finally made it to the door, he turned back one more time.
"I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry I couldn't be better. I'm sorry I couldn't fix it."
"None of this is your fault, my knight," she said, and for the first time that morning, her voice held warmth, held love, held all the things she couldn't give him anymore. "None of it. Remember that. You are perfect exactly as you are."
Mr. Bubbles took his free hand, his grip firm but gentle, and began to lead him away. Aki let himself be led, clutching the book with his other hand, looking back over his shoulder as they walked down the hallway. His mother stood in the doorway, watching, growing smaller with each step until Mr. Bubbles guided him around a corner and she was gone.
They left the building, and he was placed in a car, a generic government sedan. He heard the click of the seatbelt, felt Mr. Bubbles checking to make sure it was secure before closing the door and walking around to the driver's side.
The engine started with a rumble that seemed too loud in the silence. They pulled away from the curb, and Aki watched his building grow smaller through the rear window until it disappeared entirely.
In the suffocating silence that followed, Aki finally asked the question that had been burning in his throat.
"What's wrong with my mom?" His voice was small, broken, barely audible.
Mr. Bubbles' hands tightened on the steering wheel. "I can't tell you that, Aki. I'm sorry."
"Will she be able to visit?" The hope in his voice was painful to hear, even to his own ears.
In the rearview mirror, Bubbles' eyes met Aki's, even through the glasses.
"Maybe," he said, his voice low, noncommittal.
Aki drew the book closer to his chest, holding it like it might keep him warm, might keep him together. He began to shudder, his small body wracked with silent sobs, whimpers echoing in the confined space of the car. The tears came freely now, no longer held back by hope or denial. Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes, the car came to a stop.
Bubbles opened Aki's door. "Come on, let's go."
Aki nodded, his movements slothful as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He remembered his mother's pleading words, echoing in his mind.
"If you love me, please leave with the nice man."
"You'll be staying here, at least for a while," Bubbles said, cutting Aki's train of thought, he then took off his glasses. Both he and Aki looked at the building before them.
"Musutafu Orphanage," Aki read from the sign above the entrance.
"Come on, go in. You'll make lots of friends, I'm sure," Bubbles said as he patted Aki on the back.
A/N: I'm going to upload four chapters this being one of them. These two chapters are going to be one Arthur's full past since I had most of that written out and two the ending of the story, which again I had most of it written it out already, I did not lie about having a full outline, I just don't have the time to write it all. I'm uploading these as a final hoorah.
I'll upload the next and last part of this backstory in two to three hours, as again, It requires a lot of editing, but it's mostly done.
Last hoorah!!!