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Homeward Bound

Trey's seat shook a little as the plane hit a bit of turbulence, shaking him out of sleep. He pulled his ear buds out of his ears and looked around him. Hanbei was over on the other end of the aisle reading some book that he couldn't see the title of, and right next to him were the two 14 year old dracomon twins, Billy and Jimmy, still sound asleep. He smiled slightly at the sight of them and then looked to his right out the window. To think, it's been over two years since he had been in the US. He thought back to all of the events that had taken place over the past few years and how much he'd changed because of them. He cringed a little as he put a hand over the scar on his shoulder from the very thought of his past, soon shaking it off easily enough. He then put his ear buds back in.

"What's in the past is over and done with," he kept telling himself. "But..."

Even three year later he still couldn't help but go back to the immediate series of events that had gotten him to where he was now.

For as long as he could remember, Tre's life was a hard one. From what he had been able to gather from his mother, a GaiOumon named Kana, he was the result of a drunken escapade she had one night when she was 21. His "supposed" father was a Gaogamon whom she had met one summer night at a local bar. After several drinks and a lot of flirting, she wound up in his bed. She left the next morning, after having given him her number, under the impression that they'd meet again. But two weeks later, she hadn't heard anything from the guy; she was also getting concerned because she was "late." As it turned out, she was indeed pregnant. However, she was anything but happy. Not only had she given herself to a guy she thought she trusted and liked, now she was carrying his child, alone.

Despite her mixed feelings about the subject, she still went through with the pregnancy. By the time little Trey was born, she had kind of gotten over her one night stand and had warmed up to the idea of having a child. However all of those feeling of burning rage reappeared the moment she looked at her new born son: a Gaomon child, who was the spitting image of the man who knocked her up and left her. These feeling towards him would not subside over time either.

Through the years of his childhood, Trey's mother seemed determined to take out her rage of Trey's bastard father on him. Nothing physical, but she never showed any form of affection, appreciation, or anything positive towards him. And when she was drunk, which was most of the time, her true feelings would come forward. She would lash out at him, saying he wasn't wanted, that he was no good at anything, that he was a mere joke that God and his father were playing on her. Because he was a child he, unfortunately, took a lot of what was said to him to heart and kept to himself most of the time, not wanting to let others get close only to see what a, supposedly, terrible person he was. Despite his best efforts, he could not sway his mother's opinion of him, when in fact there was a lot of him to be proud of. Trey was incredibly smart for his age. He had a 124 IQ, along with very high observational and analytical skills. He could read people's behavior patterns easily and form accurate descriptions of them from a five minute conversation with them. In fact, by the time he had started 6th grade, his principal had him take a placement test. After seeing his results, he had recommended he be moved to 8th grade effective immediately, taking mostly advance-level classes.

Even so, his mother couldn't look past her anger towards his father long enough to see what an exceptional son she had.

Through all of this, Trey still had one individual he felt he could trust. That was his mother's brother, Uncle Gaisei, a rather tough-looking, but caring GaiOumon. His uncle was the only relative he knew he had, and lived only about 20 minutes away on the other side of town. Knowing what his sister was like, he had done his best to see Trey as often as he could. Even though he had never come forward to his uncle, Gaisei was fully aware of the abuse that Trey's mother was putting him through and more than once tried to talk some sense into his sister. When that didn't work, he instead did his best to act like a father figure to Trey to the best of his abilities, since the child never had a male role model in his life. He obviously couldn't be with him all of the time, but made sure that he at least talked with Trey a couple times a week. Trey was able to open up to him easily enough and talked to him about things he couldn't with others, especially his mother. Easily the most important conversation by far was when he told his uncle that he was gay; his uncle had applauded him for being brave about coming forward about that, although on the inside he was concerned about what his sister would do if she found out. She wasn't open about those kinds of topics, and Trey knew it too.

"I shoulda known she would do something terrible." He muttered to himself, his thoughts going back to that last week before moving in with his uncle.

"I can't believe you're already 15 years old," Gaisei said. "How time flies."

"Come on Uncle, it's not THAT big a deal," the young Gaomon said rolling his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you, boy? Just Gai is fine, we're family, no need to be so formal."

"Sorry, habit." Trey responded with a smirk. "So, are we almost there yet, I can't wait to see your house!"

"Eager little one, aren't you?" he laughed. "Yes, we'll be there in about five minutes."

Trey had been visited by his uncle on numerous occasions at his home and had been taken out to movies and such, his uncle even showed him some basic Ju Jitsu moves on occasion, but never had he actually been to his uncle's home. But, since his mother was working, to Trey's great pleasure, tonight and it was his birthday, his uncle thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have him over.

"...And you said your son is home too?" Trey queried.

"Adopted son, and yes, Hanbei is home now that he's done with college and will be joining us tonight for your birthday dinner. Are you ok with that?"

"Well, meeting new people isn't something I'm really fond of, and you know that," the young Gaomon said looking out the car window somewhat glumly. "But if he lives with you, I've got to assume he's a nice guy, right?"

"Yes he is," Gai said looking over at his nephew, "and I'm sure you'll get along great. I know he's into all of those fighting games you like."

"Really?" Trey said looking over at his uncle, his interested piqued.

"Heh, you'll find out soon enough. We're here, the one on your right."

Trey looked out his window and what he saw took his breath away. The house was huge, and from what his uncle had told him, was essentially a traditional Japanese style house meant for a four person family, with a few rather modern differences.

"Whooooooa..." was all Trey could say.

"Impressive, eh?" his uncle chuckled as he parked the car. "Well come on, let's get inside. I'm making your favorite tonight: chicken stir fry!"

Trey's face beamed as he jumped out of the car and started taking in the surrounding area. The yard was rather large, and had a decent size pond and waterfall in the center of it that had fish swimming in it. Surrounding the pond we're what he assumed were some sort of shrines, for what exactly he wasn't sure.

"This way, let's get inside and see how dinner's going." Gai beckoned over from the door, the Gaomon quickly running over to him.

Upon entering the house, Trey was, again, taken back by the size of his uncle's home. He was also surprised that much of the furniture in the house was rather modern day America versus more traditional Japanese style like he'd learned about in school.

"Very nice set up you've got going on here," Trey said impressed.

"I would like to think so," said monotonous voice from the door way.

Trey turned to see a fairly tall, well-built, light blue Wartortle standing in the doorway.

"And you must be Trey," the Wartortle said scanning over the youth.

"...And you must be Mr. Hanbei, I presume?" Trey replied attempting to mimic the Wartortle.

The Wartortle gave an enigmatic smirk. "Indeed, but there is no need for such formalities with me. Hanbei is fine.

"Might take a while to catch on with this one, Hanbei," Gai laughed patting his nephew's head, "I've been trying to instill that into this one for years!

"Well SORRY for having respect for my elders," Trey grinned, fixing the bandana on his head.

They all chuckled at his remark and made their way to the kitchen. Trey took this opportunity to try and learn more about Hanbei, which actually proved to be quite difficult as the Wartortle didn't appear to like talking about himself very much. Among the things that Hanbei did reveal were that the estate actually belonged to Hanbei's family, not Gaisei, and that his family was in possession of of a great deal of wealth.

What was even more of a surprise to Trey was discovering that Hanbei was actually only 21 years old. Based on his physical appearance and scholarly tone, he would have guessed late-twenties at best.

"Alright, the food is ready," Gai stated, interrupting the duo's conversation.

The dinner was great. Trey couldn't get over how good a cook his uncle was; he even went out of his way to bake Trey a double fudge cake, too.

After dinner, Hanbei took Trey back into the living room to play some video games for a while. They started with some Wonder Bash Bros, but Hanbei eventually convinced Trey to try something more complex and had him play Soul Calibur. It took Trey a little while to understand the controls and figure out the game engine, but became pretty proficient by the end of the night.

"Alright, kiddo, it's about time to get you home, Gai said walking in the room.

"Aw man, and just when I was starting to get good at this," Trey groaned as his character was shown killing Hanbei's in a kill cam.

"I know, I know, but I promised your mother I'd have you home by ten."

"Tch, she's probably to blitzed right now to remember," Trey scorned.

"Be that as it may, we don't want to get her angry. But before I take you home!" Gai then proceeded to pull out a decorative bag and handed it to Trey. "Happy Birthday!"

Trey eagerly searched through the bag and found both a new iPod and a pair of Skull Candy headphones. "Oh wow, thanks!"

"Just a little something Hanbei and I picked out. Already put a bunch of songs you told me you like on it. Figured having it might make things a bit...easier at home."

Trey immediately understood what his uncle as talking about, and jumped up and gave his uncle the best hug he could muster. "Thank you...for everything."

"No problem kiddo, now let's get you home!" Gai replied with a smile.

"Thank you, too, Mr. Hanbei! Hope to see you again sometime," Trey said looking back over at his new friend.

"Now, what did I tell you about formalities...? And do not worry, I am sure we will meet again." He said with a smirk.

"Eheheheh...I'll work on that. Good night!" Trey grinned.

For once, Trey's life had shown signs of getting better. He was about to start his senior year in less than a month. He now had two friends in his uncle Gai and his adopted son Hanbei. Things were beginning to look up.

They wouldn't stay that way for long, though.