The king of afternoon naps

Freed from a life of enslavement one lacking in sleep of that Ryner  was certain, he found himself over that past week finding new comfortable places to take a nap. Down side....Zuma always found where he was napping for Mujo. Ryner  had gotten up eaten something and found a nice warm knook in the apartment to curl up and take a nap. His agruement he could take a nap for thirty hours a day. Zuma and Mujo disagreed saying there was more to life then napping his days away. Although he had confused Zuma with his insistence that he needed thirty hours in one day to nap.

Zuma squatted there now looking at the slumbering Ryner  before looking back at Mujo.....he had been up for half an hour. If there was a kingdom of naps, Ryner  would be its king as far as Zuma was concerned.

Sighing, Mujo pulled Ryner up and shook him awake. Gentle wasn't one of Mujo's qualities, so he would certainly never wake Ryner up gently. Especially since the kid refused to stay awake for more than an hour. "Oi! If you keep sleeping the day away like this, I'm just gonna cut your eye lids off so you can't close them..." he told Ryner and dropped him on his ass.

He was ready to be serious with Ryner, a need to explain himself and answer questions, and of course ask them if need be. It was rare that Mujo ever got the time to be home, and when he was, it was usually to rest so he could go right back out and work some more.

"It's time we talked Ryner, so come on and sit with me...and wake your ass up..." he told him lowly as he turned, his feet bare and his clothes, for once, normal street clothes. He wore black jeans and a baggy, red tank top that had some band logo on it, but it was faded from being washed so the only thing that could be read were 'Fuckers'. His hair was pulled up in a pony-tail and some sections of his tattoos could be seen under his clothes.

For once, Mujo So looked completely normal and it was a rare sight to behold, and a blessing if anyone got to see him like this.

Ryner yawned opening his eyes and stretching. Standing up he rubbed at his eyes wearing just a torn up T-shirt and torn up jeans. His shoulder length hair a shaggy mess. Ryner moved past Zuma who suddenly darted over to his favorite spot and settled in. 

Ryner followed Mujo not happy about the threat of losing his eyelids.....it would certainly be much harder to take a nap then. He followed behind Mujo who was now his father and legal guardian. "You wanted to talk to me?" Ryner asked casting an almost forlorn look back at that spot. It had been comfortable too. Oh well it wasn't often in the past week that Mujo had time to talk so it wasn't a big deal he'd just catch up in sleep later.

Sighing, Mujo sat in the chair closest to the front door. He wasn't in some big hurry to leave, rather, this chair was his favorite chair. As usual though, he sat poised in a way that made him seem like some punk with no manners. Legs sprawled out and spread wide like he needed every possible inch of leg room available to him. "This is the first time I've gotten to be home with you since you got here...I'm going to take this time to get to know you and let you ask me questions and all of that shit..." he said as he looked at Ryner.

"Once we've gotten that out of the way, we will then move into my round of asking questions should I actually have any..." he explained, moving his hand in a sort of 'yada yada' gesture as if he were bored. Though if he were honest, he just didn't like this part of getting to know someone.

Ryner  managed to look owlishly puzzled at the asking questions comment. His head actually tipped back as he tried to think of one single solitary question. Just one brought his head back up, opened his mouth as if to ask a question, then covered his mouth yawning. Followed by shaking his head no and shrugging. "Nope I've got nothing I can think of....I know your busy with work a lot, that Saigo or Zero is your boss and father, your adopting me?......there's this cranky strawberry blonde who comes by off and on all week while you out.....can't really think of anything..." Ryner  said as he looked at Mujo.....twenty-twenty wasn't his strong point.

Ryner snapped his fingers and leaned forwards. "how come you and Zero look to be the same age if he's your father and.....what's with the strawberry blonde guy he seems to hate naps even more the you two do? Ryner asked as he looked at Mujo.

Mujo sighed and closed his eyes. This one..would be difficult. "We look to be the same age because our bodies are at about the maturity level...In your terms, I suppose you could say that our physical bodies are around the same human age...however...he's an original vampire and is much older than I...he is my father because he sired me, turned me when I was dying and saved me from a illness that nearly destroyed my mind and body..." he explained, answering as much of the question as he could without making it too complicated.

"As for Ichigo...well...he's my son and he's got a thing against slackers...and he sees you as lazy...or perhaps he's just not warmed up to you just yet...either way..he's a very special person to me..." he told him as he opened his eyes to look at Ryner again.

Ryner listened to him as he explained things. Against lazy people? "I'm not lazy, I really am tired, and could honestly sleep thirty hours in a day.....don't think a week would be enough really.... Ryner had nodded at his words about being sired or changed which brought him to his next questions. "Do you plan on changing me into a vampire......What are your plans for use of me? What do you intend on having me do.....What is it....you wish to have......erased?"

Mujo actually sat up, leaning in close to Ryner, his gaze becoming serious and intent. "I have no reason to use you to erase or kill. I can do those things on my own. I don't have a purpose for having you other than you adopt you and have you be my son...I will never use you for your powers. They are yours to control, not mine," he answered lowly. His eyes had actually widened when he heard Ryner ask such a thing.

This kid...had seriously been used so much by others that he would expect even Mujo to want to use him? It had hurt somewhere deep in the depths of Mujo's heart to know that he, of all people, were expected to want to use Ryner as a puppet.

"As for turning you...I will never turn anyone against their will. I adopted you legally according to human standards, and if that is all you wish to have as proof, then that will be it. However, should you ask me to turn you...I will do as you ask. Freedom of choice is required by our laws and even if it were not required...I would still let you choose..."

Ryner loomed at Mujo the Alpha Stigma always present, always other in his eyes wither or not they were glowing vermilion with active use lit up now as he looked at Mujo a moment or two making Zuma tense. If Ryner lost control of it would Mujo be able to help him again? Ryner though regarded him quietly while looking at Mujo before closing them. "Without changing me the world you live in will never fully accept my being your second son, cause hardship and yet you will continue down that path." Ryner was quiet for a moment, he had nothing no memories of a past at all, just knowledge of use and being used. Of being a monster made to erase and kill. "Knowing what I am....knowing what lays in my eyes....why do you want me......why keep something that if it goes out of control will erase all you hold dear?

Mujo just sat there and looked at Ryner for a long while before he sighed and sat back. "I don't care what others think about me...all of my life I have been a monster to others, a psycho who knew only how to reap and kill..." he explained lowly. "Even if they say shit about you not being turned, I don't give a damn if they gossip. If you want to remain human, you will do so because I'm not an ass who thinks that in order for you to be my true son, you have to have my blood."

He looked down at Zuma though and then back up at Ryner. "Is it such a bad thing that I want you to be alive and be able to be free from being a slave to the will of others?" he asked as he looked at Ryner. "In this world we live in, I am death, but death lingers all around me that I could not control if that is the events that are to unfold. If Zuma or Kira, or even Aoi were to lose control of themselves, they have the power to devastate all in their wake, thus leading me to the same ending. In this world, in my world...there are far more dangers than just one human child with special powers...In my world, every day I go to do a job, I risk losing Zuma or Ichigo or Zero...but it's a risk we all take for fear of what would happen should we just turn our backs and refuse to do anything at all but stand still and watch our lives pass us by without even the slightest glimmer of joy or sadness or pain..."

Ryner listened to him. Before closing his eyes and sighing. "I....have nothing. No past, no memories of anything.....just.....endless equations of things already done. If I choose to become a vampire.....is something like that even possible after he gave his blessing? Does the body die and be reborn during the change?" Ryner asked.

He sighed and looked down at his hand. Do I have the right to be happy when I can't remember what I have done? The people and places I have erased......A right to have.....a family?"

Mujo shook his head before he stood up and walked over to Ryner and put his arms around him, hugging him in an oddly warm embrace despite his cold skin. "Memories are something that can be regained...at least...should you ever believe you are strong enough to handle them. Until that day comes, you will live your life and make new memories," he told Ryner lowly as he held him close.

"You have some of it right," he began as he leaned back, holding Ryner at arm's length to look at him. "When you're turned, your body's organs die and your DNa rearranges itself and changes so that only organs such as your stomach, brain or heart are altered to accommodate the vampire genes. The process itself is almost like dying, but being revived once you've changed to vampiric DNA..." He explained, shrugging at the end, not really sure it he explained it so that it was understood.

Sighing, he flicked Ryner in the forehead. It was an extreme display of self-control for Mujo, who could have easily put a hole through Ryner's head or broken his neck and killed him. "Don't say stupid shit Ryner. Of course you have the right to be happy and live. Everyone of my family, grandparents included, are a bunch of misfits or what others consider monsters and demons...you belong with us and don't you ever fucking say that shit again...or next time, I'll use some of my strength on your ass..." he told Ryner as he stood up and looked at him before he moved back to sit in the chair beside the door.

Memories could be regained. He had it mostly right and then he was flicked in the head. With a threat of don't be stupid or the next time strenght would be used. "ah shit! What the hell was that for seriously??? I was being serious.....had....you not closed my eyes....those kids. And I couldn't stop it. You....that Equation you have....would have shielded you just long enough to end my life and I would not have blamed you.....how did you know....that to stop the Alpha Stigma.....was to close my cursed eyes....anyone else would have ended it by killing me unless they wished to continue to use me as a weapon......your different.....why....why did you choose to make me one of your sons instead......of ending my cursed existence?

Mujo snorted and answered lowly, and as always, honestly, "I didn't know for sure...it was just a guess...just so happened, I was right."

"In the end, it came down to what I knew in my mind to be right. I couldn't help but think the whole time, 'this kid needs to be saved' It kept playing in my mind like a broken record...it screamed at me from my very soul. If I would have killed you...I would have never forgiven myself for it...even if you're different, and maybe even a bit dangerous...you're still just a kid who needed a parent..I could never have left you like that...not without knowing someone in this world of ours would be willing to help you, to love you..." he explained as he sat there, looking at Ryner. Even if he himself didn't express much, his eyes would at times express small glimmers of emotions that once ran rampant in his body.

"No existence is cursed...living, no matter what kind of life or what your problems are, is special. Life is precious and fleeting...if you spend the whole time wondering why you're alive, you'll just end up dying before you ever found the answer."

Ryner  listened to him and then tipped his head sitting back in the chair to stare up at the ceiling. "I don't think....Ichigo likes me all that much." Ryner mused as he looked up at the ceiling. "I honestly can't think of anything else to ask.....I think that's all the questions I have at the moment."

Snorting Mujo sat up once more to look at Ryner seriousness once again washing over him. "Ichigo...takes time to warm up to people. Until now, it's been just us and him...I'd say that what he's truly doing, is trying to understand you...if you talk to him a little...You might find, that he likes you much more than he lets on..." he told him lowly before he smiled and laughed, flopping back in the chair.

"You're going to be fun...I can already tell..." he mused lowly as he looked at him. He fell silent, sitting there for a long while before he sighed and sat back up, that seriousness there once again. "I'm going to ask this now that we've gotten some of the useless shit out of the way..." He liked to play around a little, beating around the bush for long though, was never his style. "What do you want? Do you want to be a vampire? Do you want to be able to learn things about yourself...you had never thought possible? Do you want to unlock a path that you had not been able to walk before?" he asked lowly, the point of this all finally becoming clear.

"Do you want to meet everyone in my family Ryner?"

Ryner listened to him. What did he want? What was his choice? His choice to meet the rest of Mujo's family and if he said yes...would that make him part of that fully. Ryner looked at Mujo no matter how hard he tried he could not be afraid of vampires of them. In fact part of him deep inside already felt like he had just come home. "I suppose the simplest answer is yes. Yes I want to become a vampire, yes I'd like to meet your family....I suppose because something inside already feels like......I've come home."