"My Son" Fanfiction

3. My Other Son

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So, life has become a lot more turbulent for David since last night.

Not only did he get a call from his ex-dealer to be informed of the fact there will be consequences if he doesn't pay him the money he owes in 2 days, but a kid that looks identical to Max came knocking on his door, whom later turned out to be his twin brother, Mark.

"Hey."

David heard a voice call to him, while he was in his bed, clothes on, a bottle of vodka in his hand, his head pounding from the hangover.

"Piss off, Max, I'm trying to sleep."

"Uh... I'm not Max, I'm Mark." the boy corrected him calmly, a cup of tea in his hand.

"Oh." David realized his mistake immedeatly and his voice lowered. "Shit. Sorry, Mark."

"It's okay, I know you're not used to me being around." Mark said, setting the tea down on the bedside table. "I'll try not to be too much of an inconvenience for you and my brother while I stay here."

"Huh?" David sat up on the bed, looking up at his second son. "Why would you be an inconvenience? You seem like a good kid."

"Well... Nevermind, it's nothing." Mark turned around and left the room, without saying anything else.

"Huh." David picked up the cup carefully and sipped the hot drink, thinking.

Looks like the kid has some walls built up. And at such a young age.

He glanced at the clock. And oh boy, it was 12 in the morning on a Sunday.

David forced himself to get up and go to the kitchen, to wash his empty cup. He couldn't help, but notice that the dishes from last night were done, also that the tabletops, that used to be dirty, were wiped. And he found some fried eggs in the pan for breakfast.

Meanwhile, Mark was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, writing something in a notebook with a pencil.

"Hey, Mark. Did you clean up and cook while I was sleeping?" David asked, making Mark turn over to him and close his notepad.

"Yeah. It's not much, but I did something."

David felt warmth in his chest, not used to these kinds of little surprizes. "You didn't have to, but thanks a lot. I appreciate it."

"...Don't mention it." Mark turned away, feeling a little bit awkward and continued doing his own thing.

"Where's Max?" David looked over to the twins' shared room door, which was closed.

"He's, uh... Busy."

David nodded, knowing exactly what Mark meant.

"Teenagers, mate." he sighed and Mark replied with an 'mhm'.

Being aware they aren't really getting anywhere, nor really have anything to do, David sat down next to Mark.

"So... What do you do for fun, ya have any hobbies or something?" he attempted to get to know the child he didn't know he had until yesterday a bit better.

"Well... It's mostly playing indie video games, some programming, editing. You know, computer stuff, as I already said." The kid answered, as collected and reserved as he seemed from when they met.

"That's great, especially for a guy your age. Did you learn all of that in school?"

"Some of it. But I mostly just watched videos on Youtube and taught myself on these things, once I had done all my school and house work at mum's."

"Damn." David thought about himself when he was Mark's age and how he definetly wasn't as succesful as him at the time. And how different Mark is from Max. "You're a really smart kid."

"Thanks, but I'm not perfect. I'm not exactly great at social interactions and never had a lot of friends. I never really fit in with anyone, due to my personality." Mark lowered his head, but David put his hands on his shoulder, making him look up.

"Oi, don't mind your peers, you will be really succesful when you're older. I don't know what Brenda did differently to raise you, but I suppose she did at least one thing right."

"Hmmmm... Maybe." The 12-year old seemed a bit uncomfortable about the topic of his mother being brought up.

"So..." David almost didn't want to ask, but his curiosity got the better of him. "How's your mother been all these years you were with her until she decided to leave the town? Has she been behaving well?"

"...I'm... Not sure."

David got more curious. "What's wrong? Did she still do a lot of...?"

"Drugs?" Mark finished the sentence for him, unphased. "Yes, quite a lot of them. She had a lot of mental breakdowns and anger, which she took out on me. I basically learned to raise myself, had to do most of the cooking and the cleaning as I grew older, along with listening to her problems so she doesn't lash out at me as much."

"Oh my fuck." David was astonished by what he heard. He figured out rather quickly why Mark was so mature for his age : he was robbed of a childhood by his ex-girlfriend, who most likely kept him to get money from the government, so she can continue commiting to her harmful habits.

"She also talked a lot about how much she hates you." Mark revealed. "About how you're heartless and selfish for leaving her all by herself just because you didn't want to have kids. So I kind of just cut her some slack, because it was hard for her to be a single mom."

David couldn't deny that it was true, he did indeed not want kids, until a long while of raising baby Max and getting attached to him eventually, until he started doing disturbing nonsense and his rapid overnight puberty, which put a strain on their relationship, just when they started bonding.

However, he did not believe the difficulty of being a single parent excuse, since unlike Brenda, David sacked up and did his best to let Max live his life comfortably as a kid, despite the problems that came with it, plus his addiction that he's still battling the urges of.

"...I'm really sorry you had to experience all of this. I really wish I was there for you too, but... Fuck, I didn't even know I had two kids instead of just one!"

"It's okay. You don't have to give me any special treatment."

"What special treatment?" David scooched closer to him, putting his arm over his shoulders. "You're my son and I will treat you as such. You deserved better than the life you had before showing up here."

"...If you say so, dad." Mark looked over at him with a small smile on his face.

"Actually... I have an Xbox with some games in my room. We could play something together. Y'know, to bond and have fun. It might take our minds off of this for a while." David offered.

"That sounds good." Mark got up to get the Xbox, to see Max just standing there behind them, his arms crossed, with a scowl on his face.

"Hey." Mark greeted him, only for his twin to roll his eyes and walk towards the front door.

"Where the hell are you going?" David asked strictly.

"Out." Max bluntly replied and slammed the door once he had left the place.

"...Huh." David looked stunned for a moment, but then redirected his attention to Mark, who was getting the console, so they could start gaming together for the day.