Hero Valhos D8 (Done)

There's a piece missing from him.

An ache that seemed to never disappear, no matter how happy or unhappy he was. A heart beating to the sound of emptiness that resides in his soul. There would always be a piece missing from him as he would never truly know who his family was. A bottle and a basket, loud sobs ringing as the abandoned sits unhappily away from their mother outside the orphanage. This is the story they told him. Only the note that his mother had written, Hero is his name. Take care of him please. was all he had left of his mother. Nothing else. Only mysteries that lead to dead ends and tearful nights.

In the end, he would never find her. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. Losing a way of communication did that to a person. They knew he was losing it from a young age, yet they never told him that he was. Secrets kept from him about himself, but deep down he knew it was happening too. The loss of hearing the sounds that he used to be able to know was both frustrating and upsetting. They kept it from him. No cure for the cursed who had to suffer through losing the pleasant sounds of the world in front of him.

The pot in his hands falls to the ground. Nothing but an object colliding with another object that he can't hear. Memories of the same situation play by in his head, as the twang of the pot would hit the ground, but even imagining it didn't feel right. A lost piece of another puzzle that was Hero Valhos. The woman shrieks in terror, but frowns at him, like a worried mother, if he had one. The caretaker of the orphanage that knows his situation. A hand rests on his shoulder as she speaks. Lips hard to read as he's only getting the hand of catching the words that he once could hear. Cursed to be lost in a world full of so much hope and hopelessness. Only one word he catches from her lips, Okay, simple and full of worry. His guess would be that she's worried about him, checking in on if he's okay. His lips move like they always had been able to. Sounds used to be a window into the beauty of the world. You never know how much you miss something, even as simple as sound, until it's gone. Taken away from your possession. Leaving only a tattered and broken man behind.

"I'm alright, ma'am."

Tears fill her eyes. Curiosity hits him as he thinks if he had interpreted what she said correctly. Arms wrap around his body. We have a surprise for you. She speaks it and he reads it somehow. Things get easier after the first time reading lips. Once he can get used to how someone speaks, catching onto words was easier and harder, depending on how he looked at it. The caretaker was easier as she helped him learn to read lips at a young age. Knowledge of his suffering to come deep within her mind. She knew longer than he did, but once solved, the puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. His mother gave him up. His guess was the fact that he was hard of hearing at a young age, until his hearing would vanish completely at the age of seventeen. A year of silence.

No ringing of the wind in his ears. He can still feel it, but feeling and hearing it were different. His heart lapped up the sounds that it could hear, storing the sounds within the confines of his mind. Something as simple as the ting of a bell was lost to his ears. The first days of knowing that he would never hear a sound again had torn not only his life away, but his heart too. The idea of his mother giving him away because of his ears caused sickness to crawl up and threaten to stab him with an emptiness that made him barely able to breathe. All of the pain and sorrow coming from two defective things upon his head.

Worry washes across her face. A surprise was supposed to be given to him, but all he ended up doing was running. Running somewhere where he could feel alive for once. A place where no one can stare at him and pity him. Reading lips wasn't the only thing he could do. The eyes were the windows to the soul, pity lies underneath hers like he's seen since he could remember. How he wished to make it stop, but no matter what he did. The pity stayed within her gaze. No one came for him. No one wanted a defective child who could never hear their voice. Silent words that his mind tell him, never soothing the burning feeling in his heart. An emptiness that no one could understand, but the broken.

His sobs echo throughout his body, only the vibrations and wetness of his cheeks tell him what he is doing. Knees clutched to his chest as he sits upon the pavement, cold and covered in a layer of dirt. Her hand upon his shoulder only made his jump in fear and sadness. The pity in her eyes still present. Her lips go to say something, but he's faster.

"I'm okay. Just... leave me."

Hearts separate away from one another as his rough hands pull away. Pushing through the blonde expanse of hair that is rather soft for being an orphan's head of hair. Eyes of a pale blue staring forward as he feels her drop something in his lap. The words upon her lips striking his cheek, like a gentle kiss from a mother, that he didn't know. The caretaker was basically his mother now, but as he stared back at her. A small pitiful smile pulls at her cheeks. The note in his hand becomes a letter from what he can see of it. The neatly scrawled words pulls tears to the blue eyes. The caretaker had written him a letter, only a year ago. His name scrawled upon the top and his heart feels like it's breaking.

No matter where you go, Hero. No matter what you do in the future. You'll always be welcome at the orphanage. You're my hero, Hero."

The signature at the bottom gleams with the black ink. This is all he wanted when he was younger. A place to call home. Family after family that turned him away shattered his heart solid. Creating the pitiful man who called himself Hero Valhos, but with the letter in his hands. His home was always at the orphanage, even if he never realized it, the only person who had ever been there for him was the caretaker. Everything he thought was ending with his eighteenth birthday. His home leaving him once he was old enough to do his own thing. That was all a lie now, even if he would pitied. He would still have a place to call home where he could hide away from the pain and avoid the confused faces of people as he couldn't hear their shouts or voices.

In the orphanage's walls, the kids pitied him. Their eyes always filled with a certain look that sets his heart uneasy. All he wants is to be like the boy who could hear in the past. The sound of footsteps. The wind's breeze grazing the ground. The noisy hum of the world around him. He missed sound more than anyone could ever realize. The sounds gave beauty to the life around a person. No one truly knows how important sound is, until it's gone.

Living in the orphanage taught him so much. He learned what the world truly is. It isn't something that is awful, but beauty lies everywhere. Appreciation for everything flows from his form. A hand upon his shoulder as the caretaker smiles. Pity still lies within her eyes, but he has to learn to deal with the pain of it all. He'll never be normal like the rest of the kids he grew up with. The sounds didn't just disappear in one day, a gradual change, until he was seventeen. then all of the sounds were gone. The orphans got to know him before he became a mess of a man.

As a child, he was about as normal as any child could be. The only difference was that he was an orphan, who found joy in the world. Stories of adventure and heroes told him at a young age. His memories of the words he would say to the woman who raised him.

"I was named Hero because I'm gonna be a hero like the characters in the book!"

During that time, he truly didn't know that he already achieved that. The surprise that day wasn't over. As he walked into the dining room for dinner. Orphans, caretakers, and all the friends he's made throughout his life greeting him. Overwhelming amounts of people he's known in his life. Laughs that he couldn't hear, but imagined them all the same from what he could remember. A banner hung from the ceiling. Happy Birthday Hero!

A chuckle escapes from his body as he stares at the woman who raised him as a boy. Her smile grew when she could see the happiness upon his face. In the end, when you feel lost, there's always someone watching and waiting to pick up the pieces. Hero hasn't broken once, until that day. The sorrows had gotten to him, but now he felt alive. The real man who was childish lies underneath. A tackle from the ten year old orphans knocks the wind out of him. Memories of reading to the children when he could hear their laughs, cries, and so many other emotions.

Then his friends when he was younger, who argued about who was the hero of their imaginations. Never did it cross his mind that he became a hero to them in his own way. One of them looks like he's about to cry. Hero just wraps an arm around his shoulder. They throw a party for all the kids who will grow too old for the orphanage if they hadn't been adopted. Typically a cupcake would have been the gift to any orphan on their birthday. As the sounds that he used to hear still hide in his conscious, memories of the laughs, the tears, the sobs, the comforting words, and everything inbetween. He feels alive. The empty feeling in his heart gone.

The orphanage was his home, even if he was supposed to leave, he'd find a way back to it. Surviving on your own in District Eight was harder than most even know. Many of the orphans who moved onto their own, ended up either dead or suffering. His heart ached for them, stories of what happens to children who never get adopted, haunted him, until they gave him the letter. Allowing him to stay as a caretaker with the other workers. A special case for a special boy who couldn't imagine doing anything else in his life. A friend taps his shoulder. Only two words he catches. Help and carry. A guess forms in his head as he follows them to the kitchen. They needed help carrying stuff for the rest of the people that were going to be around for dinner.

Arms thing and toned from working around the orphanage, even though he was an orphan. They allowed him to help them when they needed it. Sewing, cooking, cleaning, and so many other chores became a strength to him. A smile pulls upon his pink lips. Hands, rough and large, carry out dish after dish. Legs and feet carry him to the table where he sits at one end. The laughs that he wished he could hear are seen upon their lips. Silent words that he could imagine. The voices that he would remember from the time when he could hear, until it gradually vanished. His lanky body sits in the chair at the end, friends and what he would consider his family all sat at the table for his eighteenth birthday.

One of his friends comes out of the room, a cake in hand. A rarity for the orphanage to have. One of the friends who got adopted must of brought it for the event. A nice thought and a good friend. Usually they received a small desert for their birthday, but an eighteenth birthday was special as it was when he would become a man and have to work to be able to live in the orphanage. The caretaker who he considered his mother speaks slowly for him to be able to read her lips.

"Hero, blow out the candles and make a wish!"

Lips blow at the candles, they flicker out of existence with a burst of gray smoke. A hand pulls the candles out and he smiles politely to his friend. They probably were saving it as some things were a rarity in District Eight, unless it was cloth, textiles, or fabric. As he stares at the people who had learned to know him over the years of childhood that were rather uneventful. Filled with memories of playing games, helping around the orphanage, and sorrows of losing the one way to communicate with the world easily. His heart feels not as empty when surrounded by the lives he's touched. He may not be the typical hero, but he was a hero in different ways to many different people. His caretaker speaks out to him, lips read faster than he ever imagined he could have read them. Still learning lips was rougher. A challenge for him. He could tell the sentence though.

"What did you wish for Hero?"

Heart beats softly. Eyes stare at him. How he wished to hear the hum of the room when all eyes were on him. The suspense eating away at the others hearts. He smiles slightly. His words calm and loud enough for everyone to hear him.

"Nothing, all I want is right here, in this home, with all of you."