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The streets were silent apart from the sound of falling rain.
Most preferred to stay inside while it was raining as much as it did, only one person seemed to be out walking. He had no umbrella and was soaking wet, but he didn't seem to mind.
His black and green hair lied flat against his head and he occasionally removed his bangs from his face, but he didn't care much when it fell back to the same place.
There was nothing depressing in the way he moved, nothing angry about it either. He simply... seemed to enjoy the walk, despite the falling rain.
It was corroborated by that he suddenly stopped walking and faced the sky with his eyes closed. He began to smile just so slightly. The rain against his face was a wonderful feeling, a proof that he was indeed still alive. Still, after so many years.
Soon enough, he began to walk again, but after just a few steps he stopped again. He looked around, he had heard something through the rain. He stood silently and waited to hear the sound again.
Moments passed before he heard it, it was a small whimper. From a child.
Worry suddenly struck him, was a little child out in this downpour?
Carefully listening to where the whimper came from, he began to search. The sound seemed to come from the woods, or at least its outskirts. Suddenly he became suspicious, there was a possibility that someone was trying to lure him in and who knew what they would do. Not that he didn't know how to defend himself, he sure did, but he had long ago learned to never assume that nothing bad would ever happen. He noticed that he had stopped moving.
He sensed no threat. There was only a small presence, matching a small child's – even smaller than he had first assumed.
Knowing that, made the decision for him and he began to move again. He let the child's presence and the sounds it made to guide him.
He soon spotted the child, wrapped into blankets next to a tree. The tree had provided it with little protection from the cold rain and the child was evidently agitated and most certainly wanted to get away from the cold and the wet.
After looking around for any threats, he quickly walked over to the child. It was a mere toddler and couldn't have been old at all, he estimated that it couldn't be more than a week old. It... hurt him in a way that couldn't be described, a child shouldn't deserve such fate. An innocent child.
He carefully lifted it up in his arms. It was a little girl and he quickly realized that she was about as wet as he was. For a small child, it wasn't good. It worried him and the fact that she sneezed, didn't make it better. On the contrary, it made it worse.
He looked around, he wanted to make sure that no one saw him, before he suddenly disappeared into thin air without a sound.
He reappeared in the safety of his own home and quickly released the little girl from the wet blankets that no longer served the purpose they were meant to – to keep her warm. The little girl shivered and whimpered, she didn't seem to have any energy to cry as all had gone to trying to keep her alive.
After quickly taking out a dry, warm blanket he gently wrapped it around her. She didn't need to suffer from the cold more than was necessary, she had already been forced to suffer enough.
It was only after he had done that, when he realized that he needed to tend to himself. He was still soaking wet and he was starting to feel the cold. After checking the little girl, he decided that he could afford to leave her alone for the time it took for him to dry himself and get some dry clothes. After all, she wouldn't really be alone.
His pet wolf carefully approached the little girl, she had an almost familiar scent – it was wolf-like. The wolf clearly couldn't understand why, yet he decided that he'd try to be close to the little girl and try to protect her.
When Michael returned, he noticed his pet wolf lying on the floor, next to the armchair where the little girl was now sound asleep in. He couldn't help but smile at the sight.
“You noticed that she's not all that different from you, didn't you,” he whispered to the wolf and scratched him behind the ear. “You keep an eye on her and tell me if she wakes up or if something's wrong.”
With those words, he rose up to his full length and silently walked out of the room to go to the kitchen and prepare something for the little girl to eat once she woke up.
Over the course of a few days, the little girl had made tremendous progress when it came to her health. While she hadn't reached full recovery by far, she was still better than when he had found her.
She had become more playful and curious and was often trying move around in an attempt to find something interesting to play with or discover.
Michael didn't really seem to mind keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't do anything that would be bad for her and he had help from his wolf pet – Cuetla.
As time passed, he noticed that he had began to grow so attached to the girl that he knew that it would be difficult to give her away. Yet, he doubted that he'd be able to adopt her, there really didn't seem to be any chance for it to be possible.
Who in their right mind would allow him, when nearly everyone thought that he was a teen?
He could always try to wait until he'd – supposedly – would turn 18 and hope that the Social Services wouldn't take her away before it happened. It was only a few months away, but it still wouldn't guarantee that he'd get legal custody of the little girl – they could easily consider him to be far too young to take care of her, despite in reality being so much older than anyone thought.
“I'm not fond of the idea to lose you,” he said as he picked her up.
As if she somehow had understood the meaning of his words, she clung to his neck and gave off a saddened sound. She must have felt his saddened emotion.
“Oh, don't worry, I'll do my best to keep you. My dear Rain.”
He had began to call her Rain early on, much due to the fact that it had been raining when he had found her. However, he had never really expected that it would stick in the way it did, it had merely been a nickname of sorts – in the lack of a name for her.
He put her back down on the floor and ruffled her soft hair, that was as white as snow.
She giggled and then looked up at him with her dark brown eyes. His attention meant so much to her, but she was still far too young to understand why.
Winter slowly came creeping in and Rain was still under Michael's care.
He simply couldn't bring himself to give her away, but he couldn't help but wonder how long it would take before she was forcibly taken away from him. It was something he really didn't wish to think of, despite occasionally finding himself doing it.
“You really care about the child, don't you?” the man asked.
“Oh, Oscuro, if you only knew,” Michael sighed. “I dread the day when they come and take her away.”
Both men fell silent for a moment as they sat on the couch in the living room, the baby monitor on the table.
“Drago...”
“It's Michael now.”
“Sorry, old habit. Michael.” Oscuro glanced over at him. “You know that we would help you, especially considering everything you've done for my family; for my mother and for my sons.”
“How? Bribe the right people to allow me to adopt her?”
Oscuro shook his head.
“Just give me the word and I'll make sure to talk to the right people. I don't wish to see you lose the girl.”
Michael sighed, but didn't yet reply.
Moments passed while the two men sat silently, one thinking and one waiting.
A whimper was heard through the baby monitor, Rain had woken up. Michael immediately got up from the couch, there was a moment of hesitation before he spoke.
“Do it,” he said, before he walked out of the room and walked up the stairs.
Oscuro had nodded, before he picked up his phone and began making calls. He was still a very powerful man, despite that his eldest son had already taken over his place. He still had his contacts and still knew the right people.
Michael carefully lifted her up from her crib and quietly hushed her as he calmed her down. She was still whimpering, but still calmer.
Cuetla sat next to the crib and observed them. He whined slightly, as though he was apologizing for not being able to console the little girl.
“Don't worry, Cuet,” he said as he scratched the wolf behind the ear.
Once Rain had fallen asleep in his arms, he carefully put her down in her crib again and put her blanket over her.
“Watch over her” he said quietly to the wolf.
Cuetla licked his hand, as if telling him that he sure would and Michael walked out of the room again. Ensured that Rain was asleep and that she was safe.
“The process has already begun,” Oscuro said once Michael walked into the living room. “Keep in mind that it will take a while to avoid raising suspicion.”
“I'm counting on it.” Michael sat down on the couch again. “I hope they'll keep in mind that I'm supposedly still too young, just 17.”
“Don't worry, I've told them that it is still a little over a week left until you're 18.”
Michael nodded approvingly.
It felt as though it took ages and it had been a time of almost constant worry. Yet the process had taken far less time than it usually did, before Michael finally received the confirmation of him adopting Rain. It was most definitely only thanks to Oscuro that it had been possible and he planned on calling him to tell him how grateful he was of his help. Before did so, he walked over to the soon 1-year-old Rain and gently lifted her up.
“From now on, there is no need to worry,” he said to her. “I'm your father now, I'll look after you.”
Noticing that he was happy, Rain let out a sound of happiness before she began to giggle and clung to his neck.
“Daddy,” she said, or at least sounded very much like it.
~*~*~
“Father.”
Michael was disrupted from his thoughts and looked up. He saw Rain coming towards him, he hadn't heard when one of the double doors had been opened.
“Hm, yes?” he looked questioningly at her.
“I've done as you ordered and everything went smoothly.”
“Good.” Michael nodded approvingly. “I'm proud of you.”
Rain's face was lit up by a smile, she always strove to make her father proud. Little did she know, however, he had always been proud of her.
It slowly began to rain outside.