chapter 19: Moon child

Kaino's POV

"Madam, who is that boy? Is he new here?" Parker asks the head lady as we watch the kids receive their gifts.

Hearing his voice, I look at him and find him watching the little boy standing at the other corner of the room and gazing at Parker. Even though Parker asked her a question, his full attention is on the boy that he didn't turn to the lady while talking to her.

"Oh, yeah. He's new. It's just been a week since he came here." The lady says after seeing whom Parker is referring to.

"What happened?" He queries her and I assume that he's asking about the boy's parents and family.

"Suicide. Last Monday, like every normal day I opened the front door and found him sleeping on the steps with a blanket covering him. I scanned the surroundings but didn't find anyone so I took him in. We found a letter in his hands. It stated that the parents left him at the orphan as they were going to commit suicide because of some financial issues. We informed the police immediately but it was already late. The police later confirmed the parents death so we took him in." She explains and I glance at the boy who looks too innocent for this world.

He looks some where around two to three years with his big honey brown eyes and golden silky hair. His skin so white and looking soft.

"How old is he?" Parker questions her still gazing at the boy.

"He's just two years old." She replies to Parker.

After hearing to her, Parker nods at her and starts walking towards the boy. I follow him from behind. When he reaches the boy, he bends down onto to his knees and levels himself to match the boy's height. The boy looks at Parker by tilting his head from one side to another and Parker chuckles at him before ruffling his hair.

"What's your name?" Parker asks the boy with soft voice.

"M-Moon." He states in his baby voice, as he spoke his cheeks turned pink, making him look cute.

"That's a nice name." Parker comments making a smile pull on Moon's face, "why don't you go and take the gift like others?"

"I no lik it. I wat to go bak to mama." Moon says almost on the verge of crying.

I divert my eyes from Moon to Parker and find him looking at the boy with sorrow. He wipes the single tear that fell on Moon's cheek before standing up and lifting Moon up in his hands while Moon wraps his hands around Parker's neck. Parker smiles at him and walks to the table while carrying him. He stops at the table and gazes all the gifts before his eyes land on one particular gift which is wrapped in ocean green wrapper. He picks it up and hands it to Moon.

"Take this, this is my gift for you. Even if you don't like it or want it, you should accept it because you shouldn't say no when others gift you something." Parker tells him.

Moon looks at Parker confused for a minute before he nods at him and takes the gift. I smile seeing Parker picking up the gift I specifically brought. It was just a ordinary toy but looked different from the other gifts present in the store. I couldn't take my eyes off so I picked it up and made them wrap it in different color from others. I just wanted to see which kid was going to get that gift which I felt special.

"Tanks." Moon thanks Parker while hugging him.

"You're welcome." Parker chuckles patting his hair.

Soon the gifts giving comes to an end and now it's time to eat lunch. All the kids gets seated at the huge table as they get served with food, all except one. Moon isn't here with the others but he's with Parker, sitting in the living room. From the time they met, Moon isn't leaving Parker. He sticks himself to Parker and is playing with him all the time. And Parker have no problem with it. He seems absolutely fine with Moon, in fact he looks happy and is always laughing. I didn't know this before but he's good with kids.

"Moon, aren't you hungry? The others are eating." I ask him as I walk to them.

I was in the dining hall monitoring the kids while they eat but then I remembered Moon, so I made my way here to see him sitting on Parker's lap as they talk.

"No, I no hngry." He replies turning to Parker and hugging him as if I would take him away without his interest.

Parker and I exchange looks before Parker nods at me and glances down at Moon.

"But it's so late, you should eat now. Come on I'll help you." Parker says and before Moon would say anything, he gets up from the chair and walks to the dining hall while carrying Moon.

He finds a empty seat and sits. The helper brings a plate filled with food and places it in front of Parker. Parker thanks him before he starts feeding Moon. I sit next to Parker and watch him feeding Moon. This boy eats eagerly as Parker feeds him and I laugh because he told me he don't want to eat when he is this hungry. They both turn to me and watch me confused because I laughed suddenly without any reason.

"Sorry, it's nothing. You guys continue." I state and Parker shrugs before going back to feeding him.

After lunch finishes, we stay for some more time and finally decide to leave as it's nearing evening and we had spent almost all day here. I don't regret coming here. At first I only wanted to surprise Parker by bringing him here but by the end, I enjoyed being here and felt happy with every second I spent with the kids. It's good that I brought presents or else I would have felt bad because the gifts made the kids so happy.

Parker thought I was sleeping as I didn't get up early today but what he didn't know is that I woke up before him and called the store to order the presents. I collected them on the way here but Parker was so content and almost sleeping that he didn't even know about it. Overall, this is like lifetime experience which I would like to experience again.

Here comes our trouble. Moon won't let go of Parker. They have been together all day along and now the boy won't leave Parker. He cling to Parker, crying and saying he don't want Parker to leave him. And Parker isn't anything different, he's on verge of crying. His eyes well up with tears as he hug Moon tightly. It looks as if a child and parent is been getting separated from each other without their consent, like they're being forced to leave each other.

"I'm sorry, Parker. I don't know why he's being like this. He has always been quite and by himself all these days. He didn't speak to us much, he distant himself from everyone. But now he's suddenly like this and behaving like this with you. I'm not understanding why is he like this now!" The head lady says, sounding apologetic for Moon's behaviour towards Parker.

Parker don't even mind what she's saying because his whole attention is on Moon as he's trying to calm him down. The lady takes a step forward and moves to Parker. He looks at her confused but she nods at him and grabs Moon from Parker as she takes him away from Parker. Moon let's out loud screams and withers in her hands asking her to let him go. However, she hurriedly walks away and to the rooms. She takes him and goes into one of the room and gets out alone. She closes the door back before making her way to us.

"I'm sorry again, Parker." She apologies again by holding his hands.

He gives her a sad smile and gently takes his hands from her before turning around to face me. He stares at me, his eyes trying to convey something while his lips aren't cooperating. He opens his mouth to talk but closes them again without saying anything. Like he wants to say something but he's hesitate to do so. It doesn't take a genius for me to understand what's going on his head or what he's thinking. I smile as I grab his hand and hold it on mine before squeezing it slightly.

"You want to take him home with us, right? You want us to take him in, is that it?" Though, I put it as a question I don't really need his confirmation because I already know the answer.

"H-how do you know?" He mumbles, his voice shuttering.

"I always know what you think," I smile before continuing, "so, am I right?"

To my question, he puts his head down before nodding at me.

"Okay, we'll adopt him then." I state making him snap his neck and look at him.

"What? Y-you're agreeing to it just like that? I mean don't you think I'm just being indecisive and just getting into feels after spending sometime with him? Or you won't actually take time to think even if I'm very much confident about doing this? Doesn't it feel just too sudden? We didn't even think of this, heck! We never once thought or talked about something like this. Kaino, I'm confused." He rumbles, as if everything is suddenly coming together.

I chuckle at him before I hold him by his shoulders and bring him to the chairs. I make him sit and face him by sitting in front of him. I still hold his hands and look into his eyes.

"Parker, calm down," I tell him and he takes a breath and slowly calms down, "now let's talk. I know it's sudden and that we never talked about this before. But now, at this very right moment whatever you feel like doing, we'll do it. If adopting is what you want to do then adopting is what we do. Some things, we don't have to plan, they just happen. We didn't plan this but if you feel it's right to do, we'll do. If you want to bring him with us, I'll agree if not, I'll still agree. But in later days you shouldn't have any regrets. That's why I'm okay with anything you choose. It's all your choice." I explain him, trying my best to make him understand.

Even if it's just out of feels or if he's being indecisive, it's something he wants to do now. Sometimes, the things we do just at the heat of the moment makes our life better, not all things need to be taken time to decide. By thinking or without thinking, he thought of it and I agree to him because in the future, I don't want him to regret. I'm sure he won't regret if we take Moon with us because I can already see how much he got attached to the boy. And it's same with Moon, he got connected to Parker so quickly depending on how the head lady talked about his behaviour.

But taking a step back now, he'll regret one day. Giving a life to other is something great. Even if we face problems later because of this, it would still worth it. But the regret of not doing it will hunt us forever. It might be a sudden move but that doesn't mean it has to go wrong. Life is always full of surprises. We happened suddenly, without any plan but Parker is the best thing happened in my life. Who knows Moon would turn out to be same? That's why I'm ready for anything he decides and support him.