First Chapter of Forbidden!
I have no idea how long this one will be, but it's for the prompt Forbidden. It's AU and if all goes well should be followed by Forgotten.
Title: Forbidden
Author: remorsful_rain
Genre: Humor, angst, hurt/comfort
Chapter: 1/?
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Warning: Un beta'd, so there may or may not be mistakes, but most likely there are. AU
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot
Summary: He never new his summer would be spent like this.
It was a hot mid-summer day. One of those days where it’s so hot, it’s not. You sit outside with a half-melted glass of lemonade and just watch the clouds float past because you have nothing better to do.
Well you would if you weren’t some kind of genius, or allergic to citrus. The clouds never held his attention long, and thanks to the fact that no one in his house had gone shopping in the last two weeks all they had in the fridge was an old jar of mayo and a half drunk gallon of that death juice called lemonade. You think his family would be smart enough to remember that the stuff could kill him. Maybe they were just trying to kill him. He shrugged, wouldn’t be surprised.
The splintering wood of their fifty year old poorly maintained deck bit into his palms and the back of his thighs below his shorts; but he couldn’t make himself get up just yet. He flopped onto his back allowing the scorching heat to melt his body, if only he could stay like this forever, not a care in the world.
He heard the sharp snap of a screen door shutting behind him, before padded footsteps stopped next to his head. He opened his closed eyes to stare up into the cute face of his ten year old sister. Long curly blonde locks framed her defined face, and blue eyes. She was absolutely adorable, not that she ever let her brother tell her that. Ten year olds could be defensive, but he could think it.
“You should get up. You’re going to miss work”, she said, bending over him.
“I still have an hour Jeannie”, he lazily replied closing his eyes.
“But Mom said to get up”, Jeannie told him prodding him with her foot.
“What does she care?” he asked swatting her curious foot away.
“Rodney”, his sister scolded using that tone.
He sighed, “Fine, I’m getting up.”
He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, running a hand through his short brown hair as he yawned.
His younger sibling continued glaring until he was standing.
“I’m up. I’m up, you can stop with the look-of-death now” he said, ruffling her hair as he walked by on his way to the door.
“Hey” she snapped flicking his hand away and following him into the rundown old mobile.
“You know one of these days we’ll actually get around to fixing this place up. It definitely needs a coat of paint”, he commented walking down the hall and into the kitchen.
“Yeah right” Jeannie agreed rolling her eyes.
“Hmm well we don’t have much to eat do we. I think it’s about time we threw away this mayo. It’s growing its own civilization of mold” Rodney said rooting around in the fridge and pulling out the mayonnaise.
He made a grossed out face that caused his sister to giggle, and threw the mayo jar into an already over flowing thrash can.
“Well it looks like we need to take the trash out and go to the store,” he paused to look at his watch, “And it looks like we have just enough time.”
“Come on lets go get cleaned up, and where’s mom?” he asked looking around.
“She already left for her night job and Dad has to work late tonight” his sister informed him, as they mounted the stairs.
“What? But I have to work today too and I don’t like having to leave you home alone. That’s right and Mrs. Miller went to visit her son and won’t be back till Sunday” he said sighing in aggravation.
“I don’t mind going to work with you, I like spending time with you and I don’t like being home” she said softly as they paused outside her door, hinting heavily that she wanted to come with him.
She was using her little puppy eyes and he could never resist them.
“Fine, but you’d better behave yourself at the store” he answered. She had him wrapped around her little finger and they both knew it.
“Go get ready” he said shoving her towards her room.
She gave him a quick hug before bounding into her room and shutting her door. He shook his head and continued on towards his room at the end of the hallway. It was the smallest bed room in the house, but it had the best view. A knarled old tree grew right outside, and due to its facing it always got the most amount of sunlight, fading his already old and faded blue painted walls. His bed spread was an old blue and white quilt that his grandmother had made soon after learning her daughter was pregnant. The carpet was a medium, neutral gray that dimmed down the room.
Odd trinkets and half finished projects dotted most of the available flat surface of his room. Opened and unopened manuals and textbooks lay scattered among the odd and ends, and though this would make one think Rodney was disorganized and his clothes and such were also in disarray. However this was incorrect, everything else had its place and stayed in its place.
Walking over to his closet he quickly selected a nicer blue t-shirt and a clean pair of jeans. Quickly stripping and putting his other cloths in his basket he quickly tossed on the new ones, tugged on his sneakers and stepped out of his room. Jeannie was standing outside her door patiently waiting for him.
“Took you long enough, let’s go” she said walking towards the stairs.
“You one to talk” he snapped following down the stairs.
“By the way mom took the other car” she informed him as the re-entered the kitchen.
“What?! So now we have to walk to the store and back?!” he exclaimed pausing mid-trash bag tying.
“A little exercise never hurt anyone” his sister replied back with a grin.
“Tell that to the guy down the street who died of a heart attack while walking to his mailbox” he threw back hefting the bag out of the trash can.
“Put a new bag in there while I grab my keys would you?” he asked walking over to the key rack.
Sure enough the keys for the Ford and Toyota were gone. How considerate of their parents to leave them stranded. His mother knew he had to work and no one could watch Jeannie, yet that hadn’t seemed to stop her. Both of his parents were irresponsible, they had little interest in education; he’d been the one to sign his sister up for kindergarten. They woke up had a smoke, went to work, came home drank a few beers, fell asleep where they lay, and woke up to start the cycle all over again. He and his sister had to practically had to raise themselves. He had to manage their finances, because they wouldn’t do it. He kept a separate account for emergencies, that’s where he put his paychecks from the handy man shop he worked at, fixing machines. With their parents drinking and smoking habits they had barely enough to live on. If they house hadn’t already belonged to his grandfather, he didn’t know what they would do. They couldn’t afford a house payment on top of everything else.
“Come on we have to be back in time to put everything away and get to work” he said heading for the door keys in hand. At least his boss understood what was going on; Jeff was a middle aged hippie that just adored Jeannie, which was quite convenient when he had to bring her along with him to work.
After they’d stepped outside he paused to lock the door. He threw the trash bag in a can at the end of the drive. Thankfully they were in the city limits and had trash pickup. If they didn’t he suspected they’d have a huge pile of trash in the back.
The walk to the store was long and blistering hot and for once Rodney wished he owned a pair of sunglasses; at this rate he would be blind before he got home. He was glad that they’d put on sunscreen before they left, so they wouldn’t die of terminal skin cancer. The actual trip through the grocery store was uneventful. He had no appreciation for the old, dank and dingy super market. The building had been built back in the fifty’s, and the fire codes it had been built for had expired years ago and he doubted the sprinklers work, even if they did he doubted they could do much good with all the dust and god knows what else on them. They didn’t have best selection of produce, meats, or really anything, but it was the only grocery store on this side of town that wasn’t near the beach, and those stores sold all the organic, tofu-y stuff and all the specialty items that tourist either didn’t want to go to town for or had forgotten to pack them.
The cart was nearly full by the time they’d finished, which wasn’t necessarily the usual, but they didn’t have a bit food in the house. He’d made enough at work to cover it and hopefully all the food would last another two weeks; though their parents tended to eat while they drank and ended up puking it all up later anyway. Rodney felt that it was idiotic, but hey his parents were idiots. He was just glad he didn’t have to live with them; with all the weird hours they worked, they never had family time, which was fine with him. He did worry that Jennie wasn’t getting any social interaction and she’d end up anti-social like him, but over the last part of the school year she’d made several new friends and that took some of the weight off. He’d graduated with top honors, not that it took much effort in a public school like this crummy town’s. He was hoping to go to college next year, that’s he was working the entire summer, even with scholarships it’d still be expensive. Hopefully colleges weren’t as strict in there stereo-types, and he wouldn’t be harassed day after day. Last year he’d been asked if he was gay, he was sure it was just a prank or someone that was dared to come up and talk to him, but not being one who sugar coats the truth, and being blunt, he’d told the truth then promptly tore into the poor kid for even standing near him. Word had gotten around fast, and he’d always been the school resident geek, he could fix everything, so naturally he’d been picked on. He just ignored it and moved on, but after what had happened… Their leader’s name was Terrence Kramer and whenever their paths crossed; he never hesitated to make Rodney’s life a living hell, well more so than usual. Thankfully he and his crew had left for his father’s summer house somewhere further south and he didn’t have to deal with him for another two weeks.
He paid for the groceries and they took a bunch of bags each, and headed for home. The sun was still beating down. The milk would be spoiled and the eggs fried, by the time they’d make it back, at this rate. One would think that living only a mile or two away from the ocean that there’d be some kind of cooling breeze floating around, but no it just couldn’t work like that. Between the condo’s, tall rundown buildings on this side of town, and a giant hill not much breeze got through. So they had to suffer through suffocating summers. Not that the beach wasn’t nice, he enjoyed spending there. He could walk miles in the sand letting the surf roll around his ankles, sometimes he’d even find a place to sit and think about quantum physics as the tide came and went.
When they made it home they dumped the groceries, and put them vaguely where they were supposed to go, then turned around and ran out the door. It was 5:43, he was supposed to be at work by 6:00, and it was at least a twenty minute walk, so he ran. He wasn’t exactly the most physically fit teenager around so his sister easily kept up with him ,but hey he was a geek. Geeks weren’t fit anyway.
Sweat was running down his face by the time he reached Jeff’s headquarters’, an old brick building next to a drycleaners. Why had he worn jeans again? He opened the door, letting his sister step through before him, chivalry wasn’t dead…yet. Stepping over the threshold was like walking into a freezer. His skin instantly prickled and he gave full body shiver as the chilled air made contact with his sweat damp skin. Jeff’s place and other businesses were constantly cold, well except for places he went to fix air conditioners, obviously.
“Hey Jeff. What’ve you got?” He asked walking up to the counter where his boss stood filling out some paper work.
“Hey Rodney. Nothing much so far, just a couple of haywire T.V.’s, a broken security camera system and Marge’s dishwasher is broken again. Oh, hey Jeannie, it’s good to see you again” Jeff said, looking up.
“Okay so I might actually get done before three in the morning this time.” Rodney growled.
It never failed, things just broke down too often and it was due to idiot engineers who didn’t know a lug nut from a high power fan motor. So he and his insurmountable genius was forced to slave in this hot weather to fix their mistakes.
The phone rang distracting Jeff.
“I’m gonna grab the list. If anyone else calls I have my phone with me.” He turned and left at Jeff’s nod, Jeannie in tow.
They were doing well as a business probably because word was getting around that he could fix anything. He didn’t know what Jeff would do once he left for college in the fall. If he got to go to college that is, his parents seemed determined to stop him from doing so. Yet, he was stubborn and anyone that knew him, however few they were, also knew once he got his mind into something he wouldn’t easily give it up.
He sighed squinting up at the blazing sun that shone down on them. At least it was moving towards the west, slowly. He glanced down at his sister as she dutifully followed along behind him.
“Alright. Come one let’s get this over with.”
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