A Bit of Shiro's Past

Makoto suddenly woke up that night. 'What time is it?' He thought, rubbing his eyes. Then, he saw a shadowy figure kneeling near the shoreline. In their hand was some kind of tool that reflected the moonlight, and it looked like a dagger. 'W-Who is that?' Makoto thought, starting to worry. Could they be an Abyss Warrior, sent by the real Abyss King to deal with them? Or were they some kind of mercenary, being paid by someone who was against the Apex?? On top of this, Makoto noticed Shiro wasn't where he had been sitting before. 'D-d-did that person take Shiro away?' Makoto thought, but he thought of something. 'I should probably go see who that is,' he thought, slowly standing up. 'I mean, what if it's just Shiro over there and I was overreacting?' He slowly approached the figure, preparing for as many outcomes as he could think of in that moment. "Shiro?" He said quietly, so as to not wake Chihiro and Ryu up.

The figure turned quickly after hearing him, pointing their dagger at Makoto. But then, just as Makoto had thought, it was just Shiro. And when Shiro noticed it was just Makoto standing behind him, he lowered his dagger and made a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just you, puer," he said.

Makoto sat down beside him and asked, "Shiro?"

"Yes, puer ?" Shiro replied, shifting his position.

"Why are you awake so lateー or is it early?" Makoto asked, wondering if it had already become the next day. Shiro chuckled and looked at his reflection in the water near the shore. "No reason, my hair's just been getting a bit too long for my liking, and I was going to cut it just now." He shifted his position a few times to try and get a better view of his hair, but seemed to be unable to. Letting out an quick, exasperated sigh, Shiro looked at Makoto sheepishly. "Puer," he began, fidgeting with the hilt of his dagger, "can you help me over here? I just can't seem to get a good enough view of the very back."
Makoto looked at the dagger, then back at Shiro before smiling sheepishly back and nodding. "OK, I'll try," he said, taking the dagger and moving behind Shiro. "Woah," Makoto said. "Your hair is really soft, Shiro."
Shiro chuckled, "heh, thank you, puer." Makoto smiled sheepishly to himself, and cut Shiro's hair a bit. "Shiro," Makoto started, "I'm curious; why did you come over here to cut your hair in the middle of the night?" Shiro was silent for a moment, then he answered. "It's because, well," he began, "the mind ties the physical to the mental sometimes, most often when something you'd rather forget happens to you. It's the same for me."

Makoto listened while being careful to not cut Shiro in the process of cutting his hair. "Um, can I know what happened?" Makoto asked slowly. "Only if you're OK with telling me, of course."
Shiro stayed quiet for a moment before nodding slightly. "It was when I had first joined the Apex Paladins," he began. "I was a nervous wreck back then, afraid of everything."
His voice trailed off as he thought of how to continue. "You see, Makoto," he began again, "I lost two people were very close to me to the Abyss. I just don't like thinking about it; I mean, if I had been faster, Hope would've been able to know what both his parents look like."
Makoto stayed quiet for a moment, and when he had finished cutting Shiro's hair, he thought of something. "Um," Makoto started awkwardly, "I actually have a question about Hope." After brushing off what hair had fallen on his shoulders, Shiro turned to face Makoto, and his demeanor seemed to shift in an instant. "What about him?" He asked simply.
Makoto stopped for a moment, then continued.

"You said you were his 'pater'..."

"Yes I did, that time in the Abyss Arena," Shiro replied.

"And then you said you were his father..."

"Mhm," Shiro said.

Makoto stopped again, then gave up trying to make his question sound normal. "What I wanna know is, are you saying you adopted Hope, or took him in, or...?"
Shiro laughed and shook his head. "No, no, puer," he said. "I'm his birth father." Makoto looked at Shiro in confused shock. "B-but aren't you, like," he tried to say, "in your 20s??"
Shiro nodded, "yes, I'm 27. Why, is that young where you're from?" Makoto stuttered and ran his hands threw his hair, trying to make sense of what he heard. "W-well," he began, "on Earth, people usually get married at that age, then have kids at, like, 30!" This made Shiro stare at Makoto, his eyes wide. "Wh- A- 30??" He managed to blurt out. "H-huh, here in Eldoria, most get married at 16 or 17!"
"16?!" Makoto almost shouted, but the remembered Ryu and Chihiro where still sleeping. "Woah," was all he managed to say afterwards. Then he felt suddenly tired, and yawned. "You should go rest, puer," Shiro said softly. "We have to get back to the Apex Tower in the morning, and I'm not sure if I can carry you, hehe."
Makoto chuckled and nodded before standing up to walk back to where the others were. He lay back down and looked up at the stars. 'I wonder,' he thought, yawning again.

'I wonder what's going on back on Earth...?'