He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Eighty Seven - Waking Up To A New Life

Kyan lie still, keeping his eyes closed and his breathing calm, even though he was inwardly terrified.  If he opened his eyes, he would die.

It was a strange sensation and a fearful one, not only having this fact stirring around in his mind, but the fact that he had no sensation from the neck down.  He could feel the thickness of a pillow below his head, feel his breath expel lightly across his lips and even feel the air travel down his throat, but that was where things stopped.  He had returned to his useless body and there was nothing he could do about it, but breath.  Despite that, despite the fact that it was useless, that he couldn't feel anything from below his neck and couldn't instruct his limbs to move, he did not want to die.

So he breathed in and out slowly, burning each breath to memory as he kept his eyes firmly closed.

"Kyan," a deep voice crooned softly and the warmth of a finger brushed across his cheek.  He felt his neck turn involuntarily as he pressed against that warmth, just to feel it more, just to feel something.  "Kyan, I know you are awake, my dear."

A sob broke from his throat and he shook his head.  So this was it then, the moment he died.  His eyes blurred as he slowly opened them, but it wasn't to see a weapon nor needle or anything threatening, just the bright ceiling light and the silhouette of someone with a mop of curly hair.  He swallowed down his nerves and blurted; "Leif?"

The silhouette came into focus and Kyan quickly realised this person did not resemble much his old friend, despite sharing the same unruly and untameable locks.  This man had skin of dark coffee and jet black eyes and hair.  His grin was broad and his expression loving, although he did seem familiar, Kyan retracted his words; "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone I knew..."

"Saewulf, you were not wrong," the man continued to caress his cheek softly.  "It's me.  Oh, but my name is actually Orion."

Kyan blinked and shyly returned his smile.  "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" Orion question, but with jest.  "We are here for you, silly!"

"We?"  A slight cough had him move his neck as much as he could to the other side of him and a large man with sun-kissed skin and brilliant sea blue eyes peered down at him.  His hair was shorn quite short and was golden treacle in colour.  He appeared quite intimidating with his square jaw line, heavy brow and being as tall as he was broad, but there was a slightly nervous expression in his eyes.  "Five?" He questioned and received a curt nod in response.

"Hey, little Seven," came the gravelly response.

"I hope you don't mind," Orion began to say as Kyan wondered over their presence for a moment, "however, after I learned about your circumstances here in the real world, I applied for guardianship of you.  The papers came down just a few hours before the Master expelled you from the Archive.  Lucky break, don't you think?"

"You adopted me?" Kyan whispered, tears filling his eyes.  He wasn't alone anymore, without family, without being wanted, was this really true?

"Of course!  And as your guardian, I had a few words for those soldiers and officials who took advantage of you!  What sort of human being takes advantage of a desperate child!" Orion rambled on for a moment, before seeing the tears pouring out of Kyan's eyes and dripping unrestrained down his face.  "Hey, I didn't mean to upset you!"

"You didn't," Kyan said, trying to reassure him and then his uncertain smile faltered for a moment.  "Does this mean that I don't have to die?"

"Of course not!" Orion replied, horrified.  "Is that why you were pretending to sleep for so long?  The Master informed us that the System was no longer a threat.  Although to be on the safe side, I did continue to pester the officials until the paperwork for the adoption and transfer of ownership of the Archive was all settled.  Kyan, we would never let anyone hurt you!"