Chapter Text
Age Six
Ike was going to be in so much trouble.
He was supposed to stay within eyesight of his parents, and he knew that. It had been thoroughly drilled into his six-year-old little mind that anything could happen and that he should always be careful. The thing was, he was sure he saw a boy his age who didn't look like he had anyone to play with. It was just a glimpse, really, but Ike knew they had to be someone around his own age because he was even shorter than Ike himself—the boy kinda looked closer to Mist's height.
They only made eye contact for a second before the strange boy sprinted off, and well, Ike was curious, so naturally he ran off after him, clutching his little brown bagged lunch. He ran deeper and deeper into the park, chasing after the boy, and that was when he realized he was lost.
He spun around, looking for any identifying marks or signs—something— that he recognized, but nothing looked familiar. Worse yet, there was no sign of the other boy as far as he could tell—but that was when Ike heard a soft sob coming from the other side of an old oak tree. He crept around the base of the giant-sized tree, and to his delight, he saw the boy.
"Hey! It's you! I've been looking for you."
Ike waved while the other boy flinched. Ike was taken aback by this. He knew he was big for his age, and that—what was the word his mom used? Imitated? No... Intimidated? Yeah!— intimidated some people, but no one had ever flinched away from him before. Why had this boy done that? Was he actually afraid of him?
"H-Hey, I'm sorry," Ike started softly. "I didn't mean to scare you."
He offered up his best smile, remembering the time Mist told him that smiling at people helped her make new friends. He also thought it might help him seem less scary.
It did not help. The boy looked like he was trying to move as far away from Ike as he possibly could, but he could barely move. Was he hurt? Sick? Ike should have told his mom that he thought he saw someone before he ran off. He should have stayed within eyesight.
Ike walked toward the boy slowly. "Hey, um, I really didn't mean to scare you. I just thought you might have wanted to play with me and my sister. Her name's Mist. Are you hur—"
He was interrupted by a loud gurgling noise coming from the direction of the other boy's stomach.
"O-oh! Are you hungry?” Ike asked. “I—um, I have food! It–um–it's not much, just a BLT and some carrots, but it's really good! My mom made it!"
The bag crinkled as Ike took the sandwich out and held it out to the hungry boy with scarlet eyes. He looked like he was going to take it for a moment and then stopped himself and flinched away again.
The kid was definitely hungry. Why wouldn't he take the sandwich? Ike's mind drifted back to when Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf were adopted by Rhys. They didn't like taking food from strangers. It had something to do with the woman who cared for them before, Ike thought he remembered someone saying. Maybe his mom? He wasn't sure what happened, but Ike's mom and dad used to say that the boys would talk about it when they were ready. Ike and Mist always respected that. Still, that detail didn't exactly help him now…
Ike wracked his brain, but the only thing that stuck out was that, in the early days with Rhys, the only meals Boyd and Rolf trusted came from Oscar. It wasn't until Rhys started making meals with all three boys together did they trust his cooking.
And maybe that was all Ike needed to do? Ike could show this boy that the food was good.
Ike's stomach let out its own growl, which was just as loud as the boy's, if not louder. The boy looked at Ike, bewildered, and that made Ike blush something fierce, but it also gave him an idea. He took out half the sandwich, which was cut diagonally in the shape of triangles, took a bite out of one half, and swallowed it while he held out the other half for the boy to take.
"Sorry, guess I'm hungry, too. Do you want to share?"
The other boy was hesitant, slowly inching closer, before gingerly taking the other half of the sandwich from Ike's hand. Then he proceeded to inhale it.
"Whoa, you must be real hungry! Um, I still have carrot sticks! Would you like some of those, too?"
Ike handed them over quickly, and the boy took them. Ike noticed two things. First, that the boy was still inhaling food like… well, he didn't know what. But it gave him a bad feeling. When he noticed the second thing, which were the tears gathering in the boy's eyes, it made the feeling worse.
He tried to imitate his mom as best as he could. Even if you were in trouble, she had a way of speaking that made you feel safe.
"Um… you should slow down, though. You're gonna choke or get the hiccups—at least, that's what my mom always says,” he said as gently as he could. “I'm Ike, by the way. What's your name?"
The boy began crying. It started out soft but quickly turned into hiccuping sobs.
But Ike couldn't have known then. The frightened, starving boy had no name.
~~~~~~
It was quite a dramatic affair when Ike returned to the picnic.
He noticed a couple of things on his arrival. For one, Mist was sobbing, and his mother had a look on her face similar to the time Ike had almost stepped on a piece of broken glass in the kitchen. His father, who he'd only ever seen calm, looked as scared as Mist when she woke up from a nightmare.
Whoops.
"Oh! Thank the goddess, Gawain, there he is! Ike!” his mother exclaimed in a strange tone that sounded like fear mixed with relief. “W-Where have you been?!"
Right before she lost it, she started crying with Mist.
Ike had carried his new friend on his back the whole way to the picnic, and it was a miracle that he managed to put the boy gently on the ground before his father came running and scooped him up into his arms.
"Ike—we've been looking for you everywhere!" Gawain kissed the top of Ike's head. "Please don't ever run off like that without telling us ever again."
For some reason, seeing his dad like this made Ike want to cry, too.
"I-I'm sorry, please don't be mad… I had a reason."
"Oh, Ike, I'm not mad, okay, buddy? We were just so scared something had happened. I'm sorry for yelling."
Ike hadn’t thought his disappearance would have caused this much of a stir. He’d guessed wrong. He sniffled and looked over at his new friend, who seemed equally terrified at the commotion.
Once Gawain was satisfied his eldest was okay, he turned his head slightly and noticed the boy Ike had been carrying.
"Oh, who's your little friend here?" he asked.
"I-I don't exactly know,” Ike sniffled. “I think he's lost, but he's really nice and really hungry."
That was evident to Gawain, judging by the state of this mystery boy's appearance. His clothes were stained and hung in tatters and, while Gawain didn't have his wife's medical training, even he could tell by looking at the boy’s wrists alone that he was much too skinny. He was also seemingly very afraid. It didn't take a lot of mental gymnastics to see that this child was in a bad situation.
After the tearful reunion and introduction to Ike's new friend, Elena gently asked many of the same questions Ike had and a couple more besides. When the boy was asked about his parents, he squirmed, which twisted both Elena's and Gawain's stomachs into knots. Still, the boy clearly needed a lot of care. It didn't help Gawain and Elena’s protective instincts that, when the boy had appeared with Ike, they'd had been in a panic over where their eldest had gone.
Wordlessly, the two adults shared a look, and without missing a beat Gawain gathered all of their personal belongings while Elena herded all three children towards their home.
Elena's top priority was treating any injuries the boys had. They’d figure out the rest later.
Happily, the rest of the day was uneventful. After her brief examination of the boys, relief washed over her. Nothing looked like it would progress into an infection for either of them. However, a bath was definitely in order.
It seemed to calm all three kids down and for that she was wholly grateful. It took no time at all for Ike and Mist to start playing a couple of games, and Elena was happy to see them making sure to include the silent little boy in a way that most children might not have. The scene filled the Greils with a sense of pride, especially when Mist and Ike even got the boy to giggle.
Gawain, who wasn't great in the kitchen but had decent knife skills, started cutting up veggies for Elena while she made an array of food for the kids. Her daughter and son dutifully took the food and shared it all with their new little friend, who slowly nibbled away at everything that the other kids were eating.
Elena sighed in relief at that. At least he was eating, and at an even pace.
Yes, she thought to herself, they'd have to call Titania tomorrow.
Gawain hugged Elena as they looked on at the children, hoping beyond hope that Titania could accommodate one more child, since Rhys had taken in the Green boys, but that was a concern for tomorrow. For now? They just let the kids play until they tuckered themselves out.
Bedtime had never been so easy.
~~~~~~
It was a warm, breezy morning when Titania got a call from Elena Greil telling her to come over.
Gatrie and Shinon, her two teenage foster sons, were about to head out to their summer jobs, which they enjoyed even if they did complain about them.
Titania thought Elena was probably calling about moving around girls' night, and not without good reason. She knew Elena had picked up some extra shifts at the hospital; the frequent dark circles were evident of that. Gawain had them, too. While the move from Daein had been absolutely necessary for the family’s mental health, the financial burden of picking up everything was taking its toll. It was getting better, Titania knew, but the stress of paying off the mortgage was something fierce.
However, when she picked up the phone, it turned out this was not a call about switching up girls' night. Titania was surprised and concerned about the immediate invitation to the Greil home, along with Elena's claim that it was "nothing urgent." Her tone suggested something else entirely: please come soon.
She offered the boys a ride to work, which they accepted. (Shinon was a bit more reluctant, but even he acquiesced fairly quickly.) After dropping them off, Titania went over to the Greils' place to see what kind of situation her friends were in. She may or may not have paid attention to the speed limit.
When she arrived, she tried ringing the doorbell at the Greils' newly painted front door three times. She waited ten seconds and then sighed; the doorbell was probably broken again. Normally, she had much more patience than this, and she would have called or texted for someone to come answer the door.
But Elena calling her about "nothing urgent" wasn't normal. The last time this happened, she and Rhys had been welcomed by three boys who ranged in age just as much as their green hair did in different hues.
Rhys, thankfully, had room for the brothers, whereas Titania, who was already fostering Gatrie and Shinon, only had room for one more child. The idea of splitting the brothers up—even now, almost two years later—sent discomfort rippling through her entire body. It was lucky that it had worked out the way it did.
The memory of the boys' adoption made her give up on the probably broken doorbell and she opted to head to the backyard instead, hearing giggles coming from that direction. She assumed it was Ike and Mist playing, which meant at least one of their parents would be close by.
She forced herself to calm down because if Ike and Mist were playing then surely it couldn't be that bad.
"Elena? Gawain?” she called. “Are you there? What was the—"
She stopped short at the gate when she saw not two but three children look up at her. Two sets of blue gazes and then a scarlet pair of eyes greeted her with a curious gaze.
"Oh, hi kids," Titania said nonchalantly, even though her mind had made the instant connection that she must have been invited over because of Ike and Mist's new little friend.
"Hi, Auntie Titania!" Little Ike and Mist waved, but the mysterious little boy recoiled slightly.
"Hello, Ike, hello, Mist, and hello there." She greeted them again and smiled warmly.
Mist and Ike grinned while the mysterious little boy—who was wearing some of Ike's old clothes, she realized, now that she got a better look at him—huffed indignantly, which got a chuckle out of her.
My, what a severe little lad.
"Do you happen to know where your parents are?" Titania asked Ike and Mist.
Before any of the kids could answer, she heard a familiar baritone.
"Titania, hi!" Gawain scrambled from the patio to unlock the gate for her. "Come in."
"I'm guessing the doorbell's broken again, huh?" she teased.
"Yeah, I thought I fixed the da—darn thing, but I guess not."
Titania hummed in acknowledgment, attempting not to laugh. Gawain most definitely had been going for a different word than "darn" at first. She followed Gawain into his kitchen, where Elena waited, her face etched with worry.
"Hey, Titania…"
Ah, down to business.
"Hey,” she said, leaning back against the counter. “So, who is the cute little munchkin out there?"
The Greils brought Titania up to speed, telling her the whole story, including their not-so-mild proverbial heart attacks when their eldest went missing after discovering this boy. Titania glanced at the three kids playing in the yard. The little boy looked so hesitant, like maybe they'd change their minds and decide to be cruel to him.
He also kept glancing her way.
He’s wary of strangers… What happened to this poor boy?
Titania looked back at the Greils. "So you don't know anything about him? Where he came from? Nothing?"
"No," Gawain said grimly. "Elena did a brief examination yesterday, and..."
"It's a miracle he's not in worse shape,” Elena confessed. “There are lesions on his back, which were a little tricky to clean during bathtime, but nothing so bad that I couldn't fix here."
"He was a good little trooper about it, even though he was clearly scared," Gawain added.
"Mm…" Elena nodded in agreement. "He was, but I've seen enough of these cases in the pediatric ward. If I'm being honest, if he had come in from the ER, we would have called Child Protective Services. He's much too thin for his approximate age and height, his skin is dry, his hair is brittle, and if that weren't enough to diagnose him, his bones protruding ribcage is more than enough. And these injuries…”
She broke off with a long sigh, casting a worried look at the little boy.
“I suppose some could be caused by kids playing too hard during recess, but even if he were bullied by a bigger kid… Physically? It's impossible for a child to inflict this level of damage. All signs point to neglect and abuse."
"Goddess…” Titania said. “I'm sorry I keep asking—I just—do we really not know anything else about him?"
"Not really…" Gawain rubbed the back of his neck—an old habit he had never shaken from childhood. It helped him regroup his thoughts. To Elena’s amusement, it was a habit that Ike was slowly starting to pick up.
"He's had a hard time trying to talk, but when we asked him for his name, he started sobbing…” Elena said, her voice defeated. “Titania... we're not even sure if he has one."
Titania shifted her gaze towards Gawain. "I'm assuming you contacted Volke already? I mean, I know in cases like this one it's possible he was kidnapped rather than his parents doing this to him. It makes little difference regardless when the child isn’t safe, but…"
"No, I know what you mean. Yeah, I contacted Volke. He was between cases, anyway, finally got his PI license and quit the Daein's Special Intelligence Force. He was just setting up his office when I called, but you know Volke always pays his debts, even though I consider us square.” Gawain rubbed the back of his neck again. “Ya save a guy's life one time, heh…"
He let out a humorless laugh; it wasn't a pleasant memory. They were both on the Force back then, and one explosion and two medals later, Gawain "retired." (He ran like a bat out of hell.) Volke had followed Gawain Greil's example shortly after.
"No, but really, he's happy to help. That being said…" Gawain let out a sad sigh. "He hasn't found much. He's checked all active amber alerts and missing persons reports that describe a kid his age and none that look like him. We actually had the same thought about the boy being kidnapped, so Volke started looking at reports from the last three years. He'd go even further, but you know as well as I do usually after the first year kids go missing, they stay missing…"
"We don't know what to do,” Elena confessed. “We’re worried the system will destroy this little boy, but we're a little tight on cash at the moment."
Titania looked over at the little boy again. He looked back at her at the same time. She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, gazing at each other, but by the time Ike and Mist pulled the little boy away for a game of tag, Titania had made up her mind.
"I'll take him."
"Titania—" Elena started.
"No, I'll take him. I have room, remember? We cleared out that spare room for Rolf before Rhys got the stipend for all three boys,” Titania said. “And Gatrie and Shinon will be off to college in the blink of an eye… I have room and I'll take him. I might need a couple minutes with him, though. Make sure he knows he's safe."
"Are you sure?" Gawain asked.
Titania smiled.
"Look at that inquisitive little face and those big bright eyes. How could I possibly say no to him?"
~~~~~~
"Hey there,” Titania said as she walked out into the yard. “Mist? Ike? Can I borrow your little friend for a minute?"
The boy didn't know what to think of this lady with the red hair and soothing voice. Well, no, he had some kind of an idea. He was going to be sent away, and she was trying to make it sound like a favor or something. He realized with a sinking feeling that he must have done something wrong. It did not help that he knew this woman could clearly read the blatant distrust in his eyes.
The only thing that stopped the boy from panicking was how Mist and especially Ike treated this woman. They smiled at her and called her “Auntie Titania,” and they had whispered to their new friend when she’d gone inside the house that she was really nice. He reminded himself that Ike seemed to trust this woman. Ike hadn't lied to him so far. There was no reason he'd start now.
He simply nodded to Ike when the other boy looked at him, and the siblings ran off to their parents.
"Hi again." Titania gave the boy her softest smile as she lowered herself onto her knees in front of him. It was practiced behavior, but it had long become second nature. She wanted him to feel safe and, in her experience, being eye-level produced far better results than looking down at someone. Especially someone as little as him. She had to stifle a laugh when their eyes met.
He pouted. Just because he trusted Ike, it didn't mean he had to like this.
"Heh, you really are a tough cookie, aren't you?"
The boy froze. He was sure she didn't mean it as a threat, but he was in no position to cause trouble, and this most certainly was causing trouble. Would she wait to yell at him? Or not care if there were onlookers like his previous guardians? He was prepared for the worst but instead there was a shift in her tone and body language that was much more like Ike's mother, and not like the other woman .
He shivered, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. Honestly, hadn't he cried enough by now?
"Aw, I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just a little funny to see someone so small act very grown up."
He felt himself relax a little, but he wasn't about to try speaking. Everyone liked him right now; he wasn't about to mess this up. So he did what he was "best at," and he remained silent.
"I hear you're having a little bit of a hard time speaking—I just want you to know that's okay. Everyone learns at their own pace. You know I had a lisp until I was ten?"
Titania felt like she was being met with a wall of silence, but that was okay. He'd clearly been through a lot. He just needed time and kindness.
"Do you have a name?"
The little boy's eyes watered. Titania winced.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Please don't cry." Titania reached out slowly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind the little boy's ear. "All that means is that we can give you one now."
The boy shifted from foot to foot before crossing his arms, causing Titania to giggle—so much for trying to contain her laughter.
"My, you really are a serious little guy, aren't you? Maybe we should call you Serious, hmm? What do you think?"
He huffed at the suggestion, which made Titania want to burst out into full-on laughter, but she held it together. It was a little too early for joking with him.
"You're right. That's a little too on the nose. How about Ernest?"
The boy scrunched up his nose at the mere suggestion.
"Ah, yeah, you're right. It is very old-fashioned.” Titania said. “Hmm… how about… Soren?"
He blinked.
"Oh? What do you think of Soren?"
"S-So—"
Everyone froze at hearing the boy's voice, including himself.
"That's okay, take your time,” Titania quickly said. “You're doing great."
He waited before continuing, as if to test to see if Titania was going to reprimand him—ah, if only he knew what she'd gone through with the boys (Shinon in particular). But after another few moments of delicate tension-filled silence, he tried the name out again.
“S-So-Sor-ren?”
Titania grinned. "That was great! But, heh, what do you think of the name? Do you like it?"
Soren nodded.
"Well then, hello there, Soren. I'm Titania. It's so nice to meet you."
The little boy—Soren's—lip started to wobble, but for the first time since he could remember, he felt safe.