Tell Me WHY

From the beginning of time, there has always been one question: Why?

Why me?

Why this?

Why now?

Kain set another damp washcloth on the boy’s forehead and watched him for a moment before leaving the room. He decided to let the beautiful boy be. It was better not to scare him if he woke up.

He slipped out of the room and went to his own room across the hall. He was sporting an erection and had no intentions to deny himself the pleasure of release simply because he had no idea what the name of his fantasy was. Pulling his trousers halfway down his thighs, he sat on the bed, stroking himself as he imagined that beautiful being he found in the street. His magnificently blonde, shoulder-length hair in disarray framed his angelic features as the freezing snow fell from the gray sky. His almost blue lips were slightly parted as he lay curled up in a ball in rags and shook fiercely. Kain couldn’t help but acknowledge him.

After only a short pause to think his decision over, Kain heaved the frail boy into his arms as he made his way to his flat. Although the boy was stick thin and very light, he had never been more relieved to live on the first floor before. It wasn’t so much the weight, however, but the immense amount of shivering that the boy produced frightened him and he was desperate to return to his warm home.

The man in the apartment above him was a doctor and agreed to check out the shaking boy. After a thorough check-up, he announced that after being given a warm bath, wrapped in as many blankets as possible, and a warm meal when the pathetic creature woke, he would be well. After some begging from Kain, the old doctor agreed to come back and check on the boy again once he woke up.

Now Kain remembered the bath he had given the unnamed boy. He had made the bath so hot, the glass fogged and Kain often stopped bathing the boy to admire his sweaty expression. No matter what he did, it seemed, the boy would not wake. The thought caused Kain to think of the most deliciously naughty things and he forced them out of his mind but now used them to his advantage.

He sat in the warm bath, the boy now awake and very aroused as he lowered his hips onto Kain’s ready organ. The boy closed his eyes and opened his mouth in a silent moan as he raised and lowered his hips. Kain stroked faster, announcing his release with a series of gasps and low moans. Although the experience was, no doubt, satisfying, Kain frowned after he regained his composure. He had been hoping for something better, something more. He wanted to hear the boy’s voice, to know his name.

After cleaning himself up, he returned to the room across the hall to find the boy still asleep. He sat in the chair he had set next to the bed. He freshened the washcloth on the sleeping boy’s forehead again, a bit absentmindedly. The boy stirred slightly and with an evil grin, Kain began to poke and prod at the sleeping figure, coaxing it to wake. Slowly, the boy’s eyes opened slightly, revealing their beauty in a flash of brilliant green. Kain quickly brought back his fingers and looked worriedly upon the boy.

“How do you feel? Can you sit up? Would you like something to drink?”

The green eyes widened as the boy focused upon the room.

“Où suis-je ? Qui êtes-vous ?” (Where am I? Who are you?)

“What?”

“Où suis-je ?” the boy stuttered again. ( Where am I?)

Kain sighed. French was not his best subject. “Savez-vous l'anglais ?” (Do you speak English?)

The boy seemed a bit comforted by his native tongue and nodded slightly.

“Please,” he begged, his voice like honey, “ Am I where?”

Kain smiled at his stumbled words. “England, my lost one. It is not too far from your homeland.”

“England? I get here…how?”

Kain frowned at the obviously frightened expression and placed a calming hand on his arm. “Please don’t be frightened. I’ll help you out. I need to call the doctor again, though, to make sure you’re all right.”

The boy clutched at his white shirt cuff. “Please. I am who?”

Kain stopped to stare back at the boy for a moment before gently leading the boy’s hand back to his own side and rushing into the hallway to call the doctor in the flat above him.

Dr. Guérissez was, thankfully, French. When Kain took his French lessons in his college freshman year, he snickered at the fact that the doctor’s very name meant ‘heal’. This caused him to receive many a tweak to his ear by the strict old Frenchman. Even though Kain could be a bit rambunctious and mischievous, the doctor was kind enough to help him at all times.

Within minutes, the doctor was at the door to Kain’s flat. Kain answered the door immediately and practically dragged the gray-haired man to the boy’s room.

“He’s French, Doc. Ask him about himself in French. I don’t think I’m getting everything right.”

“So this has nothing to do with his health condition then?” The strict older man demanded.

Kain shifted his weight a bit. “It does, a bit. But talk to him first. Please?”

The doctor sighed and turned to the frightened youth.

“Don’t be frightened, child. I’m a doctor, here to help you. This dolt, here, took you off the streets. Now, have you any idea of how you got here?” the doctor asked, in French.

The boy shook slightly and shook his head. “I am thankful to ‘that dolt’, Sir. But I don’t know how I got here.”

Dr. Guérissez laughed softly at the boy’s blunt politeness, Kain glared at him when he gave no explanation to his mirth.

“You have absolutely no inclination as to how you got here? Then, tell me your name and I’ll help you find your family.”

The boy looked away slightly. “But, Sir… I don’t know my name. The only thing I remember is it being very cold and someone calling me ‘love’.”

The doctor could only frown in reply, then, “Then that is what we’ll call you, child. Beloved Aimé.”

Aimé smiled slightly at the comment but it was obviously forced.

“ Kain, here, is an idiot but he has a good head on his shoulders when needed,” the doctor continued. “He’ll take care of you and I’ll come to check on you.”

Now Aimé looked to both the doctor and Kain. “I would like to, Sirs, but I don’t know either of you. How can I trust you? I don’t even know who I am. I just want to go home…wherever that is.”

“Enough of that!” The doctor cried, a bit insulted by Aime’s last comment. “How can it be that we don’t earn your confidence? This boy, who should be studying hard in his junior year of college, took you in from the streets and nursed you in bed for the past two days. You’re being ungrateful!”

Aimé blushed, looking directly at Kain now. “I…am sorry. I did not mean to be non grateful,” he forced out in English.

Kain cocked his head to the side and looked to the doctor for an answer. With a scolding glare at the boy laying in the bed, the doctor rose with one last reprimand in French. The boy slumped even farther down in bed and Dr. Guérissez led Kain out of the room.

“What were you guys saying?” Kain demanded.

The doctor shut the door to the guest room and turned to the younger man.

“I asked him where he was from and what his name was. He remembers nothing. A sad thing for someone so young. He has no idea how he even got to the island.”

“Then…what will we do?”

“I, young man, will go back in there and make sure he’s in good health. You, on the other hand, will start cooking. That boy must be hungry.”

Kain nodded slightly. “There’s nothing we can do for his memory?”

“If he’s able to regain it, it’ll come back on its own. We can do nothing to help. I think that perhaps a stew will work well. He needs something to warm him up after his dreadful experience.”

“Doc...”

“The food will be my payment. For your sake, I’ll try to get him speaking English more.”

“Wait! What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t remember it. I told him that we’ll call him Aimé.”

With that, the doctor returned to the room. Kain thought the name over. Beloved? Why would that old doctor name him something so sweet? Kain shrugged and shuffled to his kitchen, pulling out a large pot for the stew.

It wasn’t until after Kain had the beef and vegetables chopped up and boiling in the pot for a good while that the doctor appeared again. He looked a bit angry.

“What’s wrong?”

“Stubborn boy,” Jack Guérissez sighed.

“The French are stubborn,” Kain teased as he sat down at the kitchen table with the doctor.

“Oh,” Jack laughed brokenly, “Is it really smart to insult the very doctor that could easily harm you during your next check up?”

Kain smiled, still. He had played this game before. “To so openly threaten a patient puts your license in danger, does it not?”

The doctor shook his head. “You’re incorrigible.”

Kain smiled. “I win, Jack. The stew will be done soon, so don’t worry. We’ll all have full stomachs soon. Now tell me how that shaking boy is so stubborn.”

“He’s dead-set on leaving. He refuses to trust either of us.”

“And you think that’s stubborn? Of course he won’t trust us! But…we have no right to keep him here. If he wants, he can easily leave. But we’ll have to bring him to a hospital if he plans to go on by himself.”

“I said the same thing. Hospitals seem to scare the boy beyond help, though. He hyperventilated for ten minutes straight before I got him to calm down.”

Kain sighed. “What’ll we do?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe I let you drag me into this. Well, if he agrees to stay long enough that he’s in good health, then I suppose we’ll help him find a place to stay afterwards…. I’ll give his description to the authorities so we might have a chance of getting him back to his family.”

“Oh. Doc! Did you ask how old he is?”

“Too young for you.”

Kain pouted. “I’m thinking of him, not me! Did you?”

“He’s sixteen and, as far as I know, pure. I won’t have you interfering with that fact, either.”

“And you say I have the dirty mind! You’re the one with those thoughts in the first place.”

He rose and went to stir the stew in a thickening texture. Jack’s pager began to beep loudly and the man pulled it off his belt loop, cursing softly when he saw it.

“Something wrong?”

“I have to go. The office needs me.” The doctor rose to fetch his coat that Kain had pulled off his shoulders and thrown on the couch when he stepped in the door earlier.

“But its your day off,” Kain protested, moving away from the kitchen counter and over to the door.

“The sick don’t have a day off. I need to get going, now.”

“But….”

“Move, Kain. When someone leaves a household, you give them an elegant farewell,” Jack instructed.

Kain sighed and nodded. Bowing slightly, he bid the doctor farewell in a sweet voice. “Au revoir, mon docteur garce. Jusqu'ensuite à nous nous réunissons.” (Goodbye, my bitchy doctor. Until next we meet.)

“Non drôle, gosse. Vous avez besoin de quelques leçons d'eginner des façons.” ( Not funny, brat. You need some beginner lessons in manners.)

Kain smiled as he waved the doctor down the hallway. He could hear the stew bubbling under the cover of the pot. He returned to the pot, lifting off the top and stirring it briefly before going to the guest room.

He knocked on the door. “Mind if I come in?”

A muffled reply in French came through the door and he came in, smiling brightly.

“Hey. I’m Kain. I’m sorry for not introducing myself first. I hope my doctor friend didn’t scare you.

“He get…I mean, got angry at me.”

Kain smiled. “He does that to everyone. But you do speak English very well, don’t you?”

Aime blushed slightly. “I’m not good.”

Kain looked over the embarrassed boy a bit, wondering why he kept wrapping the sheets tighter around his shoulders.

“Are you cold?”

Aime nodded. The fact that he wasn’t wearing any clothes suddenly came back to him. Kain laughed softly.

“I’m sorry, Aime. You’re old clothes were so torn up I didn’t think they would survive a washing. Let me get you some of my clothes.”

Aime nodded and bundled the blankets around his shoulder tightly as he shifted to look out the window by the bed. So this is England…

Kain returned with a large, heavy sweater and shorts.

“Sorry ‘bout the shorts. But you’re shorter than me so you’d trip over any of my other pants. Put them on, I need to take the stew off the stove.”

Aime closed the curtains of the large window and slipped from the bed. The cold wooden floors sent a chill up through his legs and he shivered, immediately jumping back onto the bed before pulling on the sweater.

He slipped on the shorts that reached past his knees and grudgingly left the warm bed, shuffling out of the room to follow the delicious smell of the stew Kain had prepared. He was grateful to find that his host had already prepared two bowls and they were set out on the table.

“Hello there,” Kain greeted warmly, laughing softly. “Those pants are way too short for me, but they fit you perfect.”

Aime blushed, looking away indignantly.

“Aw, I didn’t mean to insult you. Come and eat. Please?”

Aime could feel a growl coming on in his stomach and didn’t believe he could face the embarrassment so he glanced quickly at Kain and nodded curtly, agreeing to eat the tempting food. Kain smiled in reply, pulling out a chair for the obviously hungry boy.

Kain watched him eat quietly. He was surprised he was able to eat so politely after obviously been so hungry. It was just another thing he found attractive about him.

“Aime.”

Aime stopped eating and looked up at him.

“Are you sure you want to leave? I can help you – at least until you’re well again, please stay.”

“T-That’s very nice of you, but… I don’t know you and I have no idea why I’m here.”

“It’s very easy to solve that,” Kain said, cheerfully. “I’m Kain Rainas, I’ve lived in England most of my live and have traveled to France only a few times – hence my weak ability to speak it, I like animals, I’m attending college now, and I’ve been living in this flat for…two years, now. I didn’t like the dorms very much.”

Aime giggled slightly. “You’re funny, Kain. But I’m, still not very comfortable. “

“Please, Aime. I can’t just let you go without means to live or survive on. Please just stay a few nights and if you still don’t feel well about this, then I’ll help you find someplace to stay.”

“You’re very nice, Kain…alright. I’ll stay for a few days.”

Kain grinned. “I’m glad. Finish your food and I’ll set up your room. I just threw some random sheets on it and I need to replace them. You can watch television, if you like.”

“Um, okay.”

Aime watched him leave, looking back down at his empty bowl again before moving to curl into a ball on the couch.