estirise

This is Taiga, in foster care. Spoilers 30+

Finding the Right Home
by Estirose
c 2009

Taiga kicked a can as he tried not to do something to his guardian. Shima Mamoru didn't understand; never understood. He tried to feed Taiga food that wasn't all good for him and yelled at him when he followed his instinct. Somewhere inside, Taiga knew he couldn't live entirely on human food; therefore, he only had said food when he had no choice. He couldn't be what he was if he followed his foster father's instructions.

He knew he was different. He knew what was good for him. He'd known that the first time he found a human and drained them on instinct. He'd refined what he did as he could, sometimes eating adults, sometimes children. Adults were easier to hunt - just start crying, and somebody would come up to be nice to you - but they gave him stomachaches, so he mostly stuck to kids.

Besides, the mark on his hand had to mean *something*. He'd read it millions of times, figured it out. It said "King". His guardian said that he'd been born with that mark but it didn't mean anything, but Taiga didn't believe him. He had it, it didn't wash off like ink did. It had to mean that he was special. Maybe he was King of people who ate humans! That's the only thing that made sense.

But his guardian didn't like eating people, so of course he was going to be sent off to some school. His guardian had explained that it was because if people started disappearing, it would be suspicious, so he couldn't hunt at school. Taiga thought that was a stupid idea, how hard would it be to slip off of school grounds? The only thing that it would do was remove Taiga from the only friend he had - Wataru - and make him resent his guardian even more.

He hoped Wataru would be okay; he'd felt strangely protective of the human boy ever since they'd met. Plus, Wataru was nice and he loved playing with him. Wataru needed him and he needed Wataru.

Not that Shima cared. Shima only cared for making him eat things he couldn't and forbidding him to eat things he could. Taiga wasn't sure why, but he looked forward to the day where he could eat the man. When he was older and Shima wouldn't give him a stomachache.

Until then, he'd put up with Shima's moves... because then he could learn more about who he was, what he was. Then someday, he'd return. Eat Shima. Find Wataru. Find his people.

Find home.