Blood Past, Foster Future

"Are you sure you want to meet with this specific boy?" asked Mr. Nanashi, an old asian man who frowned softly. He was the boy's current foster care provider. The boy in question was surprisingly rude to most people, and had something of an attitude. "He's not the kind of boy who you can tame. He doesn't listen if he's in a bad mood, he goes out at all hours of the night, and he simply won't cut his hair," the asian man said, frowning a bit. "Still, if you want to meet him, why don't you come inside..." he said, leading her into the room. He hoped that Bartiel would actually keep himself acting somewhat nice. Nervously, he entered the door to the room...and frowned. "Bartiel! Would you please get out of that chair?!" the man asked as he frowned.

Bartiel Schwarz Onyx clearly wasn't trying to impress anyone. A smirking sixteen-year-old sat in the man's swivel chair. He was definately striking. Bright red hair travelled down a little past his waist in a fine braid. Bright green eyes hidden lightly behind glasses looked at the man, focusing on him for a moment before he pulled his legs back and stood up, smirking a little bit. Oddly enough, though, he was dressed nicely, in a formal chinese military jacket and a pair of gray slacks. "Mr. Onyx! Can't you refrain from your antics for ten minutes?!" the man asked, exasperation filling his expression.

Bartiel rolled his eyes and sat on the chair across the desk where he would sit next to the woman who wanted to 'adopt' him. "Hah, what's it matter? When Papa died, nobody else wanted to take in an eleven year old. Then a twelve year old. Then a teenager. Babies are all the rage; they're so cute, cuddly, and obedient," he said, waving a hand dismissively in front of him.

According to his bio, 'Papa' and 'Mama' were an elderly couple who acted as his foster parents when he was a baby, and unlike many foster parents, they happily fostered many teenagers. Bartiel was partially so messed up because he witnessed a fifteen-year-old foster son murder them when he himself was eleven. He wouldn't bring it up, but this was all on his psychological profile.

Alexandria Nightengale McCain stood with Mr. Nanashi, her hands tucked into the pockets of her leather coat. She had been in contact with the elderly man for the past few weeks because of a young man she wanted to take in. She understood the mans hesitation and concern about her decision but she was set on it. "Yes Mr. Nanashi, I'm absolutely sure." she said as she brushed her bangs out of her face. She turned and began to follow the older man towards the room. "Sir, he's a teen and he's been through a lot in his life. Besides, if I were searching for a person to tame, I'd search for a husband." She smiled at him before entering the room behind him. She chuckled softly and shook her head as Nanashi scolded the sixteen year old about sitting in his swivel chair and she then understood about what he said about the boy not cutting his hair.

Slowly she moved away from the doorway while gazing at the young man. Alexandria had strawberry blonde hair that fell in loose silky curls. Her hair usually reached just past her shoulder blades when it was down but she had it pulled up into a high ponytail that day with her bangs falling down in her face. Alexandria was Irish so she had a speckling of faint freckles across her nose and the crest of her cheeks with hazel blue-green eyes and pale skin. The woman was dressed in a pair of jeans, a cream colored sweater and knee high boots that her jeans were tucked into with her brown leather jacket over her clothing.

She was a beautiful woman in her early thirties and she had been a pretty girl in her teens. And that's what had gotten her in trouble when she was fifteen. She had gone to a party with a nineteen year old who had gotten her drunk and in the end, gotten her pregnant with a son. Shaking her head again as she pushed away her memories, she moved over to the chair next to the boy while saying to him. "Yeah, they may be cute, cuddly and obediant. But they're also loud, stinky and messy. Have you ever taken care of a baby? I'd prefer to skip the diaper and babyfood stages as well as the potty training years."

Alexandria sat down in the seat next to him and smiled slightly while sitting her purse down at her feet.

Bartiel looked at Alexandria as she looked at him. There were a few similar features, such as he also had freckles, though they were much harder to notice on him. sitting back rather disrepectfully lazily in his chair. Still, he seemed to be thankful that she was relaxed. Looking over, he nodded when she said that they were loud, stinky, and messy. "Finally, somebody has a brain," he said, smirking a little bit at the woman, trying his hardest to ignore his japanese caregiver. The man let out a soft cough, frowning harshly at Bartiel, glaring daggers into him.

"Please forgive Bartiel. He's...well, he's usually about this bad," the man admitted. "If you do want to take him into your home, you could have a hard time... but he could benefit from having a parental figure around again," the man said as Bartiel rolled his eyes a little bit. He couldn't believe he agreed to this. After all, he'd been saying that he'd wanted a permanent foster home until he turned eighteen, but now he was having second thoughts. Still, he wouldn't let Alexandria know that he was beginning to feel fear; he would only let her know that he had no real intentions of obeying her.

"Although I will be honest with you, Alex," he said, turning to her in something of a show of disrespect with his way of addressing her casually. "While it seems you have a bit of a brain to want to take care of a kid who isn't going to crap all over themselves and everything else, I'm not a very good kid," he said, looking straight at her quite directly. He was barely older than she was when she got pregnant, and while he seemed like a rebel without a cause or a clue on the surface, those green eyes seemed surprisingly serious. Every move he was making was rather calculating. As he spoke, for a moment, he glanced at Mr. Nanashi. The idiotic old japanese man had always gotten fed up with his antics, but he never saw malice in his eyes.

Malice was something that Bartiel had gotten used to finding in peoples' eyes and moving cautiously around them. Every time he did something disrespectful, he always glanced at Mr. Nanashi first. After all, the old man would protect him if it came down to it, because he really did care. This woman, he wasn't too sure. He didn't want to show it, but there was some fear welling up in his throat as he looked at Alex. "I'm only two years from eighteen. I don't really need you, the juvie officer just said I had to make a showing for getting a permanent foster parent. If I'm too much troble, nobody'll fault you," he said, leaning back, silently hoping she actually would say that he was too much trouble. Nothing against this woman, who did seem nice, even according to his strong intuition, but...

He'd gotten used to being a headache-inducing troublemaker.

Alexandria glanced over at Bartiel as he spoke and she laughed softly before covering her mouth and clearing her throat when she noticed Mr. Nanashi glaring at Bartiel. Even though she was in her thirties, when ever she saw that look on the face of someone older then her, she always felt like a child again. "Oh, it's quite alright Mr. Nanashi. There's nothing to forgive." She pulled her feet up so she was sitting indian style on the chair, leaning back in the chair in a relaxed and casual style. Something that most potential foster parents wouldn't do. "Mr. Nanashi, sir, I was much the same way when I was his age. He's a teen and alot of teenagers these days tend to cause some kind of trouble."

She looked over at Bartiel and arched an eyebrow when he called her Alex and a strange look washed over her facial features. But it wasn't a look of disapproval or disgust. It was one of curiosity and slight amusement. Alexandria smiled gently and listened patiently and calmly as the young man talked and she nodded. "Bartiel, I appretiate your honesty." she said, speaking casually to him as well. "I'm not looking for an angel. Can you imagine how boring life would be if I took home a child that did everything I told them to? I just want to offer you a secure home until you're ready to leave. I won't try and change you or force you to follow rules. I probably wouldn't be able to if I wanted anyways."

Taking a deep breath she softly sighed and shook her head with a small smile. "The only thing that I wish to do is make sure that you have a roof over your head, food on the table and when or if you need it, offer your help and guidance." she said softly to him. "When I was your age, I got into my share of trouble. You're a rebel and a 'bad' kid, but I don't think that you're a terror. Just... give me a shot. Okay? I won't take you home with me if you don't want to."

Bartiel kept his eye on her when he wasn't glancing at Mr. Nanashi, gauging her reactions to see what sort of expression he saw. He actually was surprised to see a lack of anger, disapproval, or disgust. He was also surprised to see that she even seemed slightly amused. He didn't show his surprise more than a raised eyebrow, though. He knew good, kind people in the world existed, but they were so rare it always shocked him when he ran into one. So as she spoke, listening to how she just wanted to offer him a secure home, he paused, looking away, thinking about it. Well, he had shown interest in getting a stable foster parent for quite some time. He would be an idiot, and not to mention an asshole to Mr. Nanashi and all the effort that the agency put forward if he said 'no' at this point.

"Well, I'm not the kind of person who's going to hide my personality just so I can get somewhere. It would be a right bastard of me to hide exactly what I am," he said proudly. Standing up, he approached Alexandria, looking her over. She was a beautiful woman. If not for the fact that she was out of his age range, likely out of his league, and going to be his foster parent he would hit on or flirt with her, but he actually had some form of decency...plus he didn't attempt things which he simply knew weren't going to work.

"Alright, Miss McCain, you have yourself a foster son. I'll make sure to clean up after myself, and not make a lot of noise at night," he said, giving her two guarentees of decent behavior. "...I can't promise anything else, though." At that, he was rather serious. The boy was feircely independant, and if she ordered him around he would rebel.

Alexandria watched Bartiel look away and she knew that he was thinking about what she had just asked him, softly smiling as she calmly waited for his responce. She slowly nodded with a small smile. "Well, I would hate to not experience your personality." she said while pushing her bangs out of her hair. The woman looked up at him as he stood up and approached the chair she was sitting it and she smiled with a curious look on her face. She could see that he was looking her over and it made her blush a little.

Usually when she got embarassed even the tiniest bit, the irish lilt in her voice that she had worked so hard to get rid of tended to rear its head and make its way into her voice again. And that's what happened then. "Well Bartiel, I'm glad ta hear that." she said to him, blushing a little brighter when she noticed her accent and she cleared her throat. "And I thank you ahead of time for not making alot of noise at night because or work and I will promise not to order you around. But I will ask a favor once in a while with something if I really need some kind of help. I'll always ask though, I won't order or demand."

She turned to Mr. Nanashi and smiled. "Well, is there any kind of paper work that I have to sign or fill out Mr. Nanashi?" she asked him with a small smile.

Bartiel kept his eye on Alexandria, absorbing what she was saying. If he said that sort of thing about her personality, it would have been completely sarcastic, but she seemed to be telling the truth. He did, though, notice the light blush on her cheeks, aided by their similarly pale skin. They were likely of similar genetic backgrounds, as he was clearly rather irish, although with the shape of his eyes, it seemed like he was partially chinese. Still, he blinked a bit when she spoke with that light irish lilt. For a moment he hesitated.

For an older woman, she's really cute, he thought to himself, almost staring at her for a moment before she cleared her throat. Shaking his head, he nodded a bit when she said that she would ask instead of ordering or demanding. "Thank you," he said politely, before Mr. Nanashi looked falsely angry at Bartiel, glaring at him comically. "You thank her and show her respect! But show me nothing! Why don't you show me anything!" Mr. Nanashi asked somewhat loudly, his japanese accent coming out. Bartiel only chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his head. He suddenly seemed a lot less like an arrogant prick and more like a cheerful teenager.

"Well, if you were a fair lady then you might get a little more respect," the redhead said, dashing as the man in his fourties jumped from the desk and started chasing him. Bartiel hopped on the desk to get away from him, smirking and sticking his tounge out as Mr. Nanashi gave Alexandria the paperwork, before Bartiel flipped up onto one hand and gracefully hopped off the desk, continuing the chase.

Alexandria smiled a little wider when he said thank you to her and she nodded slightly. "You're welcome Bartiel." she said before beginning to laugh at Mr. Nanashi's exclamation, slowly shaking her head in amusement while gazing at the two men. She could hear Nanashi's accent in his voice and it made her giggle again. Alexandria liked how Bartiel could go from an arrogant young man to a nice cheerful teen. Upon hearing Bartiels comment about Nanashi getting more respect if he were a fair lady, her cheeks turned a little darker red as she began laughing and she covered her mouth.

She picked up her purse so that they wouldn't trip on it and she took the papers from Nanashi. "Thank you." she said through her giggles. Curling up in the chair like she used to as a child, she removed a pen from her purse and began going through the papers, filling them out and signing them where needed while Nanashi chased Bartiel around. She kept chuckling and giggling every now and then.

When she finally finished filling out the papers, she sat up and brushed her bangs out of her face. "Here you are Mr. Nanashi. All filled out with all my i's dotted and my t's crossed."

The redhead casually darted around the room with all the grace of a gymnyst, doing handsprings and somersaults to screw around, gracefully darting around as the rather short man chased him around. When she finished signing the papers, the two men stopped, looking at Alexandria, the shorter man looking quite winded and red-faced where the younger man only had the tiniest hitch to his breath. The Japanese man took the papers and looked at them, nodding lightly. "I'll take care of the rest of the paperwork and give you a call when you're ready. Why don't you go to the house you've been staying at and get your things packed?" the japanese man said, looking at the man. With a frown, he shook his head.

"I don't like it there. They rifle through my shit, so I started using some of the stipend to invest in a storage unit. I just keep my shit there. It's not that hard to walk there every morning to change," he said coolly, before looking at Alexandria. He didn't intend on taking his stuff out of storage just yet, because while he had a good feeling about her, she hadn't proven herself to be trustworthy yet.

"Well, I'm ready to go wherever, I guess," he said, before he gave a light pause, then looked at Mr. Nanashi, and bowed low. "...Thank you for putting up with me. Sumimasen," he said politely before standing and facing Alexandria. "Well? What're we waiting for? Let's kick up some dust."

Standing up, Alexandria brushed her jeans off before shouldering her bag and sighing softly with a smile. "I want to thank you Mr. Nanashi for all your help." she said after he took the papers from her and she adjusts her coat. She took note of what Bartiel said about the people going through his things and she would remember that he was careful about who he trusted. She looked over at her new foster child and nodded. "Lets go then." she said with a grin. Bowing her head to Nanashi once more, she turned and left the room, heading out to the parking lot. Pulling a set of keys from her coat pocket, she grabbed the small remote that unlocked her car from the many keys and keychains.

She led the way towards her silver 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder which was sitting locked up with the hood up several rows away from the door of the agency. Pressing the unlock button, she heard the familiar beep of the cars locks opening and the alarm shutting off as they approached it. Alexandria opened the passenger side door for Bartiel before moving around to the drivers side and sliding in, setting her purse in the back seat. She buckled her seat belt and started the cars engine as he got into the car.

The man bowed lightly to her, panting softly still, as the two of them got ready. Bartiel smirked lightly when she grinned in response to his impatience, getting ready to go before all of a sudden he heard Nanashi speak up. "Mr. Onyx, just so you know, we're getting closer to finding the information on your birth parents," he said, causing Bartiel to turn back and face him. "Aah. Thank you," was all he said, before he returned his attention back to Alexandria, watching her as they headed out, raising an eyebrow when she pulled out the rediculous amount of keys. Well, he guessed that gathering far too many keys to carry around and not look silly was just a fact of life.

Getting in the car, he frowned softly as he clicked the seat-belt. "...Can we pick my bike up from the storage unit before the end of the week? It's on South Street," he said quietly. He bit his lower lip, glancing away as he thought about it. He didn't really know how to drive, either, so he supposed he might end up asking Miss McCain for lessons...maybe. He wasn't terribly sure about that. "So do I get a bed? Or am I gonna be tossed onto your couch?" he asked after a moment of hesitation, thinking.

Checking her rearview mirror, she made sure everything was clear before backing out of the parking spot anthen putting it into drive. "Yeah, I'll call my brother tomorrow and ask to borrow his truck so we can pick it up." she said as they left the parking lot, leaving the agency behind. She didn't really like places like the agency. Reminded her too much of her past which she hated to remember very often. She had tried to keep contact with the people that had adopted her son, but they had moved and changed their number and she never heard from them again.

Bartiels speaking brought her out of her throughts and she glanced over at him with a smile. "Of course you get your own bed. You get your own room down the hall from my own." she said to him. "Though I have to warn you, the room has the faint scent of paint in it and it doesn't have a door just yet. I just recently had several rooms remodeled and the painters never put the door back up."

The redhead nodded when she mentioned calling her brother. "Thank you," he said softly to her for a moment, although he was off in his own world. His first adoptive parents, Delilah and Lowe Onyx, were such loving people. The thing is that they didn't talk much about his birth mother - they mentioned that she seemed like a nice girl, but they'd lost contact when the family went into witness protection, and his adoptive parents had died not long after they came out of the witness protection program.

As that was on his mind, he almost mentioned that the room had the faint smell of paint. He frowned a bit. He liked privacy, so he could pull out his girly mags which he had gotten through...well, he technically stole the item, but he DID leave the money behind. So it wasn't really stealing, it was just obtaining items that weren't allowed to be sold to him.

"I have a very strong nose. The smell of paint gives me headaches," he mentioned as an offhand comment. "I can sleep on the couch for a few nights," he said without having any real problem.

Alexandria frowned slightly and sighed before nodding slightly. She gave him an appologetic smile and she turned the corner. "I'm sorry. I'll set up some fans in the room to get rid of the smell faster and I'll see to the door being put up as soon as possible." she said to him. "I'll put out a blanket and a pillow for you." She shifted gears on the car and sped up a little as the speed limit changed.

She lived about twenty minutes away from the agency. As she pulled onto her street, she slowed down a little before she reached her house and pulled into the drive way. Her house wasn't the greatest but it was nice enough for a single woman in her early thirties. It was a nice single story house. "Well, this is it." she said softly. "I know it's not very big, but there's enough room for the two of us."

Bartiel nodded when she said that she'd put some fans in. "Thank you, Miss McCain," he said as he glanced out of the car when she mentioned she'd put out a blanket and a pillow. That was all he needed. It actually wasn't all he needed, honestly; once he had ended up running away from one pair of foster parents and he was found by the police in a half-crazed, super-violent state where he bum-rushed them. That was when he was charged and sent to juvie for a while, but to his dismay he was released early and put back into the system., on the grounds of temporary insanity from hunger and bad living conditions. He preferred juvie to where he was before.

When they got to the house, he looked out, nodding a little bit. Openning the door, he got out and looked around, pocketting his hands with a light whistle as she said there was enough room for the two of them. Looking at Alexandria, he nodded. He didn't take up too much space, he just needed one room where he could move around effectively and he would be happy. Pocketting his hands and approaching, he smelled the air. "The air in this neighborhood is clean," he commented to himself as he relaxed slightly, approaching the front door, looking back at his foster mother.

"Hurry up!" He wanted to get into her kitchen and see what she had.

Alexandria removed the car keys and reached into the back to grab her purse before getting out of the car. She shouldered her purse while slipping her keys back into her pocket and walking around to the trunk. Opening it, she removed a duffle bag and a small box of folders before shutting the trunk and heading up the walk towards the house. "I'm coming, I'm coming." she said while softly laughing.

Shifting her things so that the box was balanced on her hip, she removed her keys and unlocked the two locks on the door and she pushed the door open. She walked into the house and made her way through the living room to the small den where she placed the box of folders down on the desk before stepping out of the room, closing it behind her. Alexandria walked down the hall into the kitchen where she turned on the lights and dropped her purse and keys on the table before tossing her duffle bag into the laundry room that was just off of the kitchen.

Bartiel let out a chuckle as she said she was coming before he headed into the house, standing up straight. Looking around, he crossed his arms and looked around. It wasn't bad, not bad at all; he could get used to a place like this. Looking around, his serious expression relaxed slightly as he looked around, moving into the kitchen after a moment. Looking around, he pulled the garlic powder off of the spice rack and he chuckled softly, shaking his head a little bit.

Looking around, the redhead sat down after a moment, smiling softly. When he heard that he was going to be adopted, he was afraid he'd have to move to another city. Again. But it turned out that he didn't have to, that the person who wanted to take him in for the last couple years before he could most easily gain legal independence was in town, so he would still have access to his storage unit, his high school, and the very small number of friends he had.

"So where's the room where I won't be staying until it airs out?" he asked Alexandria.

Alexandria shrugged off her leather coat before hanging it on the back of one of the chairs in the kitchen and she moved over to the fridge where she pulled out a bottle of water. She turned to him as he asked about his room and she nodded as she opened her water and took a drink. "Right this way." she said to him before leading the way back down the hall away from the kitchen towards the living room where she turned down the only other hallway in the house. Down the hall was a bathroom and a closet on the left then a bedroom on the right with another bedroom at the very end of the hall.

She stopped infront of the bedroom across from the bathroom and she entered, looking around the almost completely empty room. "This one will be yours." she said to him. "I wasn't sure what sort of things you liked, so I had it painted white and you can change it as you wish." The only thing in the room was a five piece bedroom set. The furniture was made of solid cherry oak, but it all had an oriental style and design to it.

The headboard of the bed had dragons engraved into the wood with what looked like some kind of Asian symbol in the four corners that were ment to bring peaceful sleep and keep away any bad dreams. The matress was bare, but sitting in one of the corners was a set of white sheets and a comforter with a pillow, but it was all packed up so it wouldn't absorb the smell of the paint. The dresser, desk and side tables were designed much in the same way as the bed. "I wasn't sure if you would actually come home with me, but I had ordered the bedroom set just in case. I was told you liked oriental things and I saw this."