Jay meets Shin

He sat at the grave of his parents. He was a lion cub animoid, around 13 year old, in an empty graveyard kneeling on the ground in front of graves of his parents, candles and flowers in front of it, his head hung, face down. He was crying uncontrollably, the tears fell and wet the ground under his face, tap tap tap, and he mopped his eyes with the long sleeves of his sweater. His whole body was trembling, it was too much pain for the little cub-child. Too much pain.

[Flowers were expensive and costed a lots of energy points as they were created artificially through a very tedious process, that's why people preferred candles]

He had run away from house. His parents had died the day before, his father, a cyborg, malfunctioned and went rogue and his mother died protecting him. And before he could hurt him, a hunters squad came and eliminated his father. All in front of his eyes.

He was in shock, he couldn't utter a word, couldn't even cry. None of the relatives who came after that understood it, all just said, "We are very sorry to hear, may their soul rest in peace". Everyone said "We are with you" but no one sat beside him and tried to actually be with him, even in a state of shock he could tell their main concern was who will do the jobs, who will pay the expenses of the burial.

"I have spent so much on the flowers already! Those who are giving candles should handle it" he had heard a relative say.

It was at the burial that he overheard some people speak, "They were quiet well to do" "Yeah I've heard" "Who will take the ownership of the property?" "I heard the siblings of the father were arguing over who will take the property. I think they will split it up" "And the child?" "What else? They'll throw him in an orphanage!"

It hit his heart, all the things that had fallen in his ears in the past hours but couldn't make it to his head because of the shock, he could finally hear them. The "I am so sorry" "We are with you" and taps of affirmation on his back were all just formalities, their greatest concern was who will take the property and what to do with him. 

He couldn't say anything, he wasn't in a state to, and went home, they all charged themselves but no one even ask if he had charged, not even if he had drunk a glass of water since his parents died, nor did he care, he was completely silent, numb, didn't say a word didn't even cry. Some had started to criticize behind him, saying "What a monster, his parents died and he doesn't shed a tear!" and he could hear it all but didn't react, nothing mattered to him, his mind was too numb from what happened to him, how his perfectly happy life had turned upside down, and everything else only added to that. He couldn't process it, it was too much, all of it.

He couldn't feel the evening crawl by, and when it was night he just stood up, expressionless and went to bed and fell flat. Night crawled by and he just lay on his bed, eyes wide open, no tears, not even blinking. That's when he heard a heated argument in the other room.

"I am the older sibling! I should get the property!"

"But I was the closer one! I should get it! I even got the flowers goddamn it! That bastard promised me to give it to me anyway but he had to die before he wrote the will!" 

"That's a goddamn lie, he would never!"

"Shut up! Both of you can split the property! For now think about what to do with the kid"

"I don't care, throw him in an orphanage or something"

"You should keep him"

"I have my own kids to take care of! Why don't you keep him?!"

"I have my own kids too! And when he grows up he's gonna ask for the property so it's for the best to get him in an orphanage, we'll see after that"

And he could hear it all, understand it all. His body was shaking, he couldn't take it. They didn't give a single shit about him or his parents, it too much for a 13 year old to handle, first losing both of his parents in front of his eyes, witnessing his own father kiss his mother and try to kill him, and now this. He couldn't bear it, he was feeling suffocated, choked, he wanted to run away from everyone and everything, just run away. And so he did, under the nose of everyone in the middle of the night he ran away and head to the graveyard because he didn't know where else to go.

The graveyard was about 5kms away and the cub-kid set out, bare foot in the middle of the cold night, not feeling a thing because the pain, the emptiness and the suffocation of having witnessed such horrors and then being just a bother and no one to sit with you and understand you was too greater than the pain he felt walking this distance on bare foots. He hid from the patrolling government robots and other cyborgs and animoids on duty because he didn't want to answer any questions or go back to his place, to those people.

He walked and walked, spending last of the energy in his system, and reached the graveyard, worn out, cuts and wounds on his foot, looking like a corpse. He went through the gate and fell on his knees in front of the graves of his parents, he was at his limit.

He sat there for a while, and then tears started to roll down, for the first time since his parents died. He was shaking hard, and he broke out sobbing uncontrollably. His nerves were standing through his fur and his fists were clenched so tight his nails pierced into his skin. It was too much, this pain, this suffocation.

And someone standing at a distance watched it all.

An 18 year old cyborg watched from distance, a sorrow on his face. He was wearing a hoodie and had mechanical arms. He signed and forced a warm smile on his face and went to the cub-kid. He crouched down beside him, the cub-kid too much in grief to notice, and slowly kept his hand on his shoulder. He could feel the shaking which made it even more difficult for him to keep the smile, but he forced it.

The cub-kid slowly turned his face to the man, his eyes red and swollen from the crying. there were dark circles under his eyes and he looked like he has neither charged nor drank a glass of water since a day. The cyborg couldn't hold it, he turned his face to the other side quickly to hide his face and mopped the tears forming in his eyes, sighed and forced on a smile again and looked back the boy. It was hard for him but he had to do it, only he could, because no one understood the pain of the boy-cub more than him.

The kid had turned his face down again, he assumed this was just another guy who had come to console him and say "It'll be alright, they are in a better place" and he was tired of hearing them. He was tired of everything.

But this cyborg didn't.

"You know" he said, "My parents were buried here too". This resonated with the boy-cub and he looked at him, at the heartwarming smile of the cyborg. 

"Yeah!" he added, pointing at a distance as the boy-cub's eyes followed, "right there, the two old graves you see? They were my parents"

He then turned the face of the boy-cub towards him, eyes meeting eyes, his palms on both of his furry cheeks, and said with a smile, "Look at me. I understand what you're going through, I really do. It feels empty inside, it's hard to take in, sudden absence of the two people you love the most. But I'm here for you, and I will be here!"

The boy-cub couldn't hold it any longer, he broke out crying and screaming. The cyborg hugged him tight, getting on his knees, caressing the back of his head as he cried uncontrollably. HE was shaking and the harder he shook the tighter he hugged him, saying, "cry it all out, you're ok. It's gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine. There, there, cry it out." 

He was in tears himself.

After a while the boy-cub calmed down. He stopped shaking and let go, so did the cyborg, who mopped the little boy-cub's tears and his own too with the long sleeves of his hoodie and said, "there there, it's ok"

And when it all calmed down the cyborg asked with a smile, "So, what's your name big guy" even though he knew.

"J-Jay" said the little boy-cub with a low voice, shy, sniffing in his snort.

"Hi Jay! I'm Shin" said the cyborg, holding out his fist for a fist bump, and the boy smiled a bit, softly, and bumped the fist of his new big-brother friend.

They got up, Shin dusted his own knees and then the knees of Jay. Jay then stared at the graves for a while, Shin didn't interrupt, and then went and from inside his sweater brought out a flower and put it in front of the grave. The flower was a bit darker now, he has had it in sweater since the last day, it was for something else but now didn't matter. He was too much in trauma during to funeral to remember about it, but now he did. 

And he noticed another hand put another flower at his parents' graves, it was Shin's hand. They both stood up and joined their hands to pray, and then Shin said with a smile, "don't worry, they'll be fine where they are! We'll come back to them ok?" and the cub-boy nodded.

"Here" said Shin, holding his hand out, "Wanna come with me?" and waited patiently. He didn't want to force him, the cub-kid had to make his own decision.

On one side he could go back to his house, and get thrown in an orphanage while his relatives jump over his parent's money, on the other side stood a man holding his hand out to him, a man who appeared like an angel and held him from breaking apart, the only person who understood his pain. Yes, he was a stranger and if he followed him his future was uncertain, but the idea of going back was way more suffocating than following a stranger, the idea itself was too repulsive. And somehow, he didn't feel any fear from this man he just met, it felt like he would be safer with him than he would be back home, felt he had more life with him than with whatever his 'relatives' decided for him. He had run away and he absolutely didn't wanna go back.

All this time Shin didn't say anything, he just stood holding his hand out. He let Jay take his time, make his decision. The story of his life depended on it.

Finally, Jay made his decision, he will follow Shin. 

He sighed and said, "Yes" under his breath, taking Shin's hand.

"Great!" said Shin with a bright smile, visibly happy. He walked and Jay turned back to look at the graves one last time and then followed Shin, hand in hand, to an unknown future.

Jay passed out after few steps though, naturally, all his charge was drained. Shin connected his own charging pod to Jay's transferring some of his charge to Jay while he had lifted him in his arms and walked to his plasma bike.

"You've had enough, kid" said Shin, looking at the unconscious Jay, "Rest for now, your life is gonna turn around"