Just Another Day (Challenge #47, An Ordinary Day; Gojyo and Jien; PG-13)
Title: Just Another Day
Author: opalmatrix
Warnings: violence against a child; hints of incest
Pairing(s): n/a
Spoilers: Gojyo's and Jien's backstory
Notes: written for saiyuki_time, Challenge #47, An Ordinary Day; time allowed: 30 minutes; time taken: 45 minutes
Summary: Each day begins full of possibilities ... but it doesn't always end that way.
6:00 a.m.
"Get up, squirt!"
Gojyo woke instantly in response to his brother's whisper. He wriggled away from Jien's hand, deeper under the covers. Jien dived after him, grabbing him and tickling his ribs. Gojyo snorted, trying to muffle his giggles. "Get offa me, you big ape!" he mouthed, almost silently. Eventually Jien hauled him out from under the quilt and dumped him carefully on the floor. Gojyo landed perfectly, without a sound. We must look just like the movies!
Jien slipped quietly into the kitchen to make breakfast. Gojyo washed as little as he figured he could get away with, being careful not to splash. He got dressed in the clothes Jien had laid out for him yesterday and then tiptoed out to eat, carrying his shoes. The early morning sun was starting to shine in through the windows, casting shadows from the rice porridge pot and the tea cups. After eating, the brothers stacked the bowls into the sink to soak, slipping them carefully into the water without a bump or clink. They stepped out into the chilly morning, closing the door quietly behind them, and sat on the frosty doorstep to put on their shoes.
A couple of hundred yards down the road to town, Gojyo suddenly emitted an ear-piercing shriek and raced ahead of Jien like a mad thing. Jien laughed at him. It's so good to be able to stop worrying about waking Mom.
10:00 a.m.
Gojyo had a desk at the front of the classroom. It wasn't his idea of a good thing, but Sensei thought that Gojyo needed watching. The first lesson was maths, which Gojyo could actually do. But half the other kids weren't too clear on the fraction business, so Sensei was going over it. Again. Gojyo yawned and looked out the window. The schoolyard was bare gravel and dirt, but in his imagination it bloomed with lush creepers and palm trees. His hero, Jungle Jijo, was outsmarting a smuggler chief over a hand of cards. Jijo's superior mathematical skills were enabling him to divide the smuggler's stash appropriately among the poor, pretty heroine, the orphanage, and Jijo's sick grandmother, even as he won the hand.
Something small and hard hit him in the forehead. Sensei was throwing chalk again. "Wake up, boy! D'you want to end up in a dead end job like your brother?"
Gojyo slumped down in his seat and stared stonily at the board. He didn't bother to try any more of the problems.
5:00 p.m.
The day had turned cold and cloudy, with a sharp wind. It was much too cold for a kid wearing shorts and a too-small jacket to spend hours playing wall ball by himself, but there wasn't anything else to do. Jien's boss rarely let Gojyo hide out in the stock room if it wasn't either snowing or pouring rain, and as for going home - it wasn't even to think about.
Smack, bounce, catch ... toss, smack, bounce, catch ... . Just like every other day.
Noki showed up on the bare playground and edged over toward him, as though she wasn't thinking of anything in particular. Gojyo let the ball bounce toward her. She returned it and smiled.
Noki was kind of pretty. And she never said mean things about his hair. He smiled back. The ball beat out a new rhythm between their two sets of hands and the wall.
"Noki! What the hell are you doing, playing with that halfbreed? Get over here right now!"
Noki gave him a frightened look and ran over to her big brother. The ball bounced sadly across the gravel. When the other two were out of sight, Gojyo kicked it as hard as he could into the bushes.
9:00 p.m.
"Go to bed! And you better not have any more of those cigarettes!"
Jien tried to sound tough, but Gojyo knew it was all for Mom. She'd been all over Jien that evening, even before he'd had a chance to clean up the kitchen. And she'd hit Gojyo because he was in the way, drying dishes. And then he'd dropped the bowl he was drying, and it broke, and then she really hit him for that. Not that that was anything new.
He huddled in the middle of his bed in the dark, looking at nothing, trying hard to think of nothing. When the noises from the next room became regular and rhythmic, he defiantly dug the stolen packet of cigarettes out from under the mattress and lit one up. It tasted cruddy and it was hard for him not to cough, but it gave him something to do.
He knew what was going on in there. Jien had explained it, shamefaced and miserable, because he didn't want Gojyo to accidentally tell someone. Gojyo sucked hard on the cigarette and imagined blowing the smoke into Mom's face. He wished she'd choke and die, and then he felt awful, because she was their Mom, even if she wasn't a good one.
Finally, everything was quiet again. The moonlight was coming in through his ragged curtains, making everything black and white, the way Sensei said things weren't really. His hair, where he could see it out of the corner of his eye, could have been any color at all.
He got undressed, threw his clothes in the laundry basket, and slid under the covers. Bed was soft, even if the sheets were getting kind of smelly, and the quilt was warm. He thought of Jien's smile, the morning sun, Noki's pretty eyelashes.
Tomorrow's gotta be better. Right?