Golden [BokuAka]

Chapter 1

Akaashi is woken before his alarm by the sound of a scream. It only takes him a few seconds to register that it's an angry scream and not one of pain or fear. He puts a hand on his chest and takes a few deep breaths to calm his racing heart before he slips out of bed and heads down the hallway towards the sound of yelling. The noise is coming from his eldest son's room and when he pushes the door open he is not at all surprised by the scene in front of him. His eldest son, Kei, stands in front of the bed with his hands on his hips and his golden-brown eyes shooting an icy glare through thick-framed glasses at the bundle of blankets on his bedroom floor. For a moment Akaashi thinks that the look would be rather scary if it didn't come from a six-year-old with sleep mussed blonde curls clad in dinosaur footie pajamas. The bundle of blankets on the floor moves and reveals the youngest Akaashi boy. Shouyou's bright orange curls stick out in every direction and his tiny fists are clenched as he wiggles about on the floor throwing a tantrum. Akaashi lets out a long sigh, he'd hoped that the terrible two's would have been over now that Shouyou was three.

"Boys it's too early," he scolds them as he moves into the room. He lifts Shouyou off the ground and holds the small toddler over his shoulder. He'll have to apologize to the neighbors again for the noise. Shouyou has started to quiet down some now that he's being held but big fat tears still pour from his eyes and there's a glob of snot hanging from his nose. "What happened?"

"Kei... Kei pushed me!" Shouyou sobs as he rubs his face into his father's shirt.

"It's not time to wake up yet Shouyou. Why are you in Kei's room?" Akaashi leans against the wall and looks at his oldest. Kei has climbed back into his bed and is carefully placing his folded glasses onto the nightstand with care. He doesn't speak, he hasn't in years actually, he just pulls his blanket up to his chin and turns his back to the door. Akaashi moves out of the room and heads back to Shouyou's to get him cleaned up.

"I wanna sleep with Kei" Shouyou whines. Akaashi sets him down on his own bed and then gets a wipe to clean the toddler's face with.

"Shouyou, baby we talked about this remember? Kei is a big boy and that means that he needs his own space sometimes. When you wake up early you can come to my room okay?" He tosses the wipe into the trash can with practiced ease then helps Shouyou out of his pajamas, now that they're up they might as well start the process of getting ready for the day.

"But I want Kei," Shouyou sniffles. Akaashi wishes that there was something he could do. His boys were like night and day when it came to their personalities. Shouyou was always so bright and energetic. He bounced about from one thing to the next and his mouth was always moving. He made friends no matter where they were and was never shy. Kei on the other hand was very subdued. He always seemed to be mad at the world. He didn't like to be around people and hated to be touched. He'd hide behind Akaashi's legs whenever people tried to address him. He also hadn't spoken in three years. Not to Akaashi nor any of the multiple therapists or doctors or teachers that had tried. It wasn't that he couldn't speak, he just refused. The doctors called it psychogenic mutism. The last time that Kei had spoken had been the day that Shouyou was born.

Akaashi blames himself. He should have been home with his family, he'd left for Kyoto on a business trip and left his wife and Kei at home. His wife wasn't supposed to be due for another six weeks but she'd suddenly gone into labor at home. Little three-year-old Kei had called 1-1-9. He'd unlocked the front door and because the ambulance hadn't been fast enough and the toddler had been there as his mom gave birth on the kitchen floor. The paramedics had arrived but she had lost too much blood and Shouyou hadn't cried and in all the chaos the paramedics rushed her and the newborn to the hospital and Kei was left behind. Alone in the house with a kitchen covered in blood.

He doesn't know exactly how long the toddler had been left alone. He'd received a call from the hospital that his wife and the baby had been admitted. The next flight back to Tokyo had been two hours later and the flight itself took an hour. He'd gotten to the hospital and had been informed that his wife hadn't made it but the baby had. He was in such a state of shock that he doesn't know how much time passed before he asked where Kei was. A cop had been in the hospital, being treated for a dog bite. He'd heard Akaashi's desperate attempts to find his son and had offered to go to the house. The officer, Daichi Sawamura, had found Kei in the blood-soaked kitchen. Akaashi would probably be in Daichi's debt forever. The young cop had packed a bag of Kei's clothes and taken the toddler home with him to his boyfriend Suga. Suga was a daycare worker and had experience with kids. He got Kei cleaned up and into fresh clothes, fed him, and tucked him into the couple's own bed. Akaashi would probably owe them for the rest of his life. It'd been nearly midnight by the time he was able to leave the hospital. Daichi had picked him up and brought him to their apartment. Suga treated him like an old friend, made sure that he showered and ate some food, and then tucked him into bed beside his son. Kei had woken up then. Akaashi will always remember that moment. The room lit only by the moonlight coming through the window, the haunted look in Kei's eyes. He'd spoken his last words then. "Papa, Shouyou hurt mama." Akaashi's heart had broken. He'd hugged his son tight in his arms and for the first time that day he had cried.