Chapter 1: Haruto

"Monster!"

"Demon!"

"You're a stain on this household!"

"Get out!"

Haruto woke up with a start. Just a dream, he thought to himself. Except it wasn't. He's been having the same dream the past couple weeks. A dream remembering his foster family throwing him out of their house on his twelfth birthday. Now he's roaming the streets, trying his best to survive. How his old foster parents could throw out a child was beyond him, but dwelling on such things didn't feed or clothe him.

'Guess I have my work cut out for me,' Haruto thought to himself. He lived in a small town where everybody knew each other. Although the townsfolk didn't have the same opinion that his foster parents did, they did see him as the asshole kid who would pickpocket them. Lucky for him, he was usually fast enough to evade the wrath of the townspeople. If not… the amount of untreated bruises and marks speak for themselves.

'Alright, let's go,' Haruto grunted, the bruises on his calves flaring as he stood up. Let's start another monotonous day of "work."

-

'Whew, not bad,' Haruto thought to himself, looking at the small wad of cash. He wasn't as cruel as to keep the wallets. He'd usually leave them on park benches close to where he stole the wallet. He was relatively unharmed that day after stealing from a kid his age (he had no sympathy), a middle-aged businessman, and a woman with an obnoxious haircut who he saw shouting at a restaurant owner not long before he stole from her. He stuffed the cash in his pocket before looking for his next target. As he looked from behind a wall, he noticed a couple that he has never seen before. He knows he had never seen the couple before because he would have caught two people with such noticeable appearances.

The taller of the two was a woman with long, pink hair that flowed down her back. Contrasting her hair color, her outfit was completely black. 'How can someone wear so much black in the summer?' Haruto wondered to himself. His gaze wandered to the shorter woman.

The shorter of the two had orange hair, wearing a white shirt and denim short shorts. For some reason, she reminded Haruto of KFP, the international food chain where he usually went out to eat. Since he didn't have a lot of money most of the time, their affordable 4 for 4 deal was usually what he ate for most of his meals.

These two will be my next targets, Haruto steeled himself. Sometimes, pickpocketing wasn't as simple as bumping into someone and taking their wallet. Sometimes, he had to stalk his target for a fair amount of time before finding the right time to strike.

"Ne Calli," the shorter one looked at the taller lady. "Why did you want to come here for our vacation?"

"I dunno," the taller woman, Calli, shrugged, turned to look at her partner, one of her crimson eyes revealing itself to Haruto. "I guess I just wanted to go somewhere a bit quieter."

'Vacation?' Haruto thought to himself before stealthily moving to hide behind a tree. 'We don't get vacationers every day. What an odd couple.'

Haruto continued to follow the couple, listening in on their conversations. The two had very interesting conversations which tended to entertain Haruto more than anything he had done ever since he got kicked out. "Ne Calli, do you think there's a love hotel here?" The shorter one, who Haruto learned, was named 'Kusotori.'

'Who names their kid Stupid Bird?' Haruto thought to himself. 'They're almost as bad as my old ones.'

"For the last time, we're both girls. How the hell are you going to knock me up?" Calli asked.

"Well I did read this interesting fanf-,"

"NO!" Calli shouted, causing some birds to fly away due to the noise. "Absolutely not."

"Awh, it would be so much fun," Kusotori pouted. "Maybe we can-, Calli? Where did you go?"

Haruto stiffened when he realized Calli was gone. 'Huh? She was right there,' Haruto thought to himself. 'Where could she have gone?'

"Mind explaining why you've been following us for the past half hour?" Haruto almost turned due to hearing Calli's voice coming from behind him, but was frozen when he saw a curved blade make its way towards his throat.

"Calli!" Kusotori turned, running up to the two. "Why are you threatening a child with your scythe?!"

Haruto would normally correct her (as twelve years old is not the age of a child, at least according to himself), but the scythe to his throat kept him parylized with fear. "He's been following us for the past half hour," Calli explained. "I was just asking for him to explain himself."

"The poor boy looks terrified," Kusotori knelt down to Haruto's level before looking up at Calli. "Put the weapon away. We can talk like civilized people."

"You're the farthest thing from civilized that I know of," Calli grumbled, but Kusotori had succeeded in convincing the psychopath into putting away the scythe.

"So why were you following us?" Kusotori asked. Haruto turned his head shyly to look at Kusotori before looking away. Hey eyes were too inviting. It was most likely a trap. It had to be a trap. "Don't worry. We won't be mad. Right?"

"S-sure," Calli stuttered. "We won't be mad or anything."

"Need… money," Haruto muttered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you," Kusotori said. Her voice was just as inviting as her eyes. Haruto was convinced that she had nothing but ill will towards him. After all, that's how his foster parents acted before…

"Needed money," Haruto said a little louder.

"So you were going to pickpocket us?" Calli growled.

"Don't assume things like that!" Kusotori looked slightly shocked at Calli's accusation.

"'M sorry," to be fair, Haruto did feel slightly bad for attempting to rob the nice couple blind, but he mostly said it so Calli wouldn't tear his throat out. He had a feeling that would happen if Calli caught him lying.

"What was that?" Kusotori asked gently.

"I'm sorry," Haruto looked down, suddenly a lot more ashamed as he had to admit to his crime aloud. "S-she's right. I don't have any other way to make money."

"Oh you poor thing," Kusotori brushed her fingers along Haruto's cheek but pulled her hand away when he flinched. Kusotori then glared at Calli, who ended up not saying anything. "Do you have a home where I can take you to? I'll be sure to give your parents a stern talking to."

The words 'home' and 'parents' caused Haruto to tear up a little bit. His expulsion from his old home was still fresh in his mind, considering he was only kicked out a couple weeks ago. "N-no… I don't have a home. I'm sorry."

"Why would you be sorry?" Kusotori asked. "There's nothing to be sorry about."

"I…" Haruto was about to apologize again, but decided better.

"Ne Calli, can we keep him?" Kiara looked up to Calli, a pleading look in her eyes.

"W-what?!" Calli exclaimed exactly what Haruto was thinking.

"Just think about it," Kusotori said, a malicious yet playful smirk revealing itself on her face. "It's definitely better than two people being after your milk-,"

"Fine! Fine! We can keep him!" Calli shouted, walking around to stand next to Kiara. "Just don't regret it later."

"W-what's happening…?" Haruto thought aloud. This weird couple… was adopting him?!

"We're adopting you!" Kusotori exclaimed. "My name is Takanashi Kiara and this is Mori Calliope. Feel free to call us Mama and Papa. What's your name?"

"I…" Haruto's throat hurt. He didn't realize how unused to talking he was, considering that he barely said a word in the past two weeks.

"What was that, sweetie?" Kuso- Kiara asked.

"I thought your name was Kusotori…" Haruto admitted. Kiara fell over laughing while Calli looked away, covering her burning red face with her hands.