Kingdom Come

It started when he was nine. It could have started before then, but Aster remembered it beginning then.

When Aster was four he was taken out of the orphanage and adopted by Mrs. Toothiana and Mr. North. Amelia Toothiana was a kind, eastern woman with bright violet eyes. She was very bubbly and motherly. With her being a dentist, she was fascinated with teeth and always bothered Aster, telling him to keep up with his dental hygiene. That earned her the nickname Tooth from both her husband and her new son. She was infertile, always wanting kids of her own.

His father, Nicolas North, was very similar to his wife. He was a big Russian man, always smile and expressing his emotions to the fullest. He was a toy maker for his own little shop. He made a variety of toys, ranging from older kinds of toys to newer, electronic toys. Some times when Aster listened he could hear his father talking about his distaste of big companies.

"They show no love for the toys," he would say as he tightened a screw on his newest toy to his coworker, Phil. "They do not care about the children. Just money." Phil would grunt as he continued painting one of his own toys.

Aster was a self-proclaimed artist. He would always be drawing and painting. Sometimes when Amelia came home from work she would see him sitting at the kitchen table, paint all over the table, floor, and all in his brown hair. She would never be mad at him, and would smile at him as he gave a toothy grin to her and his newest masterpiece.

Aster would often be found in his father's workshop, helping make all of the toys as extravagant as they could be. North always accepted help from his son, finding it to be good bonding time between the two without him having to leave work.

As Aster grew older, his artistic skills were greatly improving, but he seemed less joyful. Even whenever he was working with North, he would start to think of it more as work then father-son bonding time. His parents were hardly home, so he rarely could have real bonding time with them. He wanted someone to spend time with him at home when he was there and not at school.

Whenever Amelia and North found out that was why Aster was sad, they quickly tried to find a solution to his sadness.

It was whenever he was nine that his parents decided to adopt another child, a brother for Aster.

His name was Jack. Aster was elated. He was finally going to have someone to spend time with. Jack was four, five years younger than himself. When Aster had seen the small brown haired child clinging to his mother, he had been ecstatic to finally having someone to care for.

"Shush Aster, he's sleeping." Aster quieted down his excitement, still looking at the young boy in his mother's arms in wonder. Jack's fists were opening and closing around the fabric of Amelia's jacket. The small whimpers that left his mouth started to get louder and he started to cry. His cry was loud and piercing, making up for the now silent Aster.

Amelia quickly started bouncing the small child up and down, making shushing noises as she did to sooth him.

"Aster sweetie, do you think you could get Jack a blanket?" Aster nodded before running farther into the house and up the stairs, trying to find a blanket for his new crying brother.

Grabbing one of his smaller, older blankets from an upstairs closet, he sprinted back down the steps. Following the sounds of crying, he found his mother, still in her winter jacket, trying to sooth the restless child.

"Here mom," Aster said, thrusting the blanket at his mother. She looked at him and gave him a warm smile.

"Thank you Aster. He's probably so cold." Aster could understand why. All he had on was a short sleeved white shirt and a pair of khakis. It was freezing outside. Even when Aster was in the house he was wearing a long sleeved shirt and sweatpants.

Amelia wrapped Jack in the blanket. "He had almost nothing at the orphanage." She looked down sadly at her new song as his loud cries quieted down to soft hiccups.

"Well we could always buy him new stuff," Aster said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And he can have my old stuff. In fact, we can share everything!" He was beaming at the thought of everything him and his brother could do.

Amelia smiled down at her son. She couldn't be any more proud of him at this moment. Shifting to make sure Jack was still comfortable, Amelia reached down and pinched Aster's nose. He smiled and let out a soft giggle.

"I'm positive you are going to be the best big brother out there." Aster gave a nod. She hoped her family would always be like this.

Aster loved his younger brother. He was a very bubbly and hyperactive child. Amelia would always say he acted just like her whenever she was his age. Maybe even more joyful and fun loving. Aster tried spending as much time with him as possible. But with school, helping North, and his own hobbies, it was sometimes hard spending time with him.

It was the nighttime that was the worst and stopped all the fun, though. Jack could never have a full night's sleep. He was terrified of the dark and couldn't be alone if there were no lights to comfort him. Whenever he had to go to bed, both the hall light and a night light had to stay on just for him. The darker it was in his room when he went to bed, the faster he would wake up, either crying or frantically screaming for someone to help. It was a nightly occurrence that Aster still was not used to. He wasn't sure why his brother was so scared of the dark. There was nothing wrong about it. But Jack never told any of them why he was scared. He just shook his head and cried as ether Amelia, North, or even Aster sometimes comforted him.

Even whenever Jack went into middle school he had to keep his nightlight and have the hall light on. And whenever Jack got into his freshman year of high school, he switched from a nightlight to a lamp, since it appeared to be more adult.

When Jack got into high school, Aster was already in his senior year. Now in their teenage years, the brothers hardly spent any time together at all, always off doing their own things. It was still comfortable in their house, just separated.

But not everything can stay the same forever though. Not whenever the nightmares plagued the mind.

A/N Here is my second story. As you can see it is an AU, and it will be darker than the first one. Please read and review with any suggestions.