Dream ЖЖ 003
It is late. The sun has fallen so deep into the horizon that his shadow stretches out far before him like the gnarled branches of a weary, long-lived tree. He stares at it as he walks, almost wondering if it is a merely a shade or a true reflection.
He turns the corner and looks up to see his home waiting in the distance hand reflexively beginning to raise in greeting...only to stop the movement when he sees that no one is there to meet him. There is nothing but silence down the deserted road, where normally calls would have rang out--Nii-san! Welcome home Nii-san!--the instant he was visible from the veranda.
This is a break in the routine that he has come to be used to, and various scenarios for why it has been disrupted fill his mind, but he continues anyway, finishing his journey down the road and stepping onto the porch just as his mother opens the door.
"Welcome home!"
She smiles at him sincerely, and yet he can tell that there is something else behind that affectionate smile. Something is wrong.
He nods to her as he enters and removes his shoes, placing them neatly in their place against the wall. He does not ask where his little brother is, but the brief scanning of his eyes at the otherwise empty corridor does not escape her. The smile on her face becomes more rueful, showing both exasperation and empathy.
"There...has been an...incident."
His eyes widen slightly, but he can feel no dangerous aura in the area, so his guard is not immediately raised. Instead, she motions him to follow her, and he does so, into the kitchen...which looks as if a powdery bomb exploded over half of the room. The rice cooker sits used on the counter, a plate with one lone...lumpy and misshapen facsimile of what he assumes to be onigiri abandoned a short distance away.
It is the condition of the kitchen table which catches his attention the most, as not only is it covered in flour, but also in a thick red substance. In the center of it all is a platter of something he does not quite know what it is supposed to be.
He turns to his mother, waiting for an explanation and she lets out a soft sigh.
"Your little brother wanted to surprised you."
That soft, exasperated smile is back on her face, and he can feel his own lips twitch at the images that develop in his own mind of what had occurred to leave the room his mother kept so clean and tidy in such disarray, then she continues.
"So he decided we should make you onigiri and dango...only he was very adamant about doing everything "by himself..." The dango didn't come out as he planned and he was only supposed to eat a few of the onigiri...but since he had me help him make his favorite...he ate almost all of them. He became very upset when he thought that he had ruined his present for you."
She places a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Please go cheer your little brother up. I'll take care of the...clean-up."
He lets out a soft sigh of his own and doesn't even have to ask where to find his little brother. He walks up the stairs, onto the second floor and heads down the hall, but instead of stopping at the door to his little brother's room, he continues on to his own room, seeing that the door is already cracked open as it had not been when he left. He can hear soft, near inaudible sounds coming from inside.
He opens the door and enters the room quietly, now clearly hearing the sniffling and hiccuping of sobs that were being forcibly stifled, but ineffectively. He doesn't bother to shut the door behind him, but makes his way around the side of his bed. Huddling on the floor of his room in the corner between his bed and the wall is the one he had been searching for, one hand wrapped firmly around a miniature, green, stuffed, prehistoric reptile--Mr. Roary likes to sleep in your bed bestest, too, Nii-san! It's safest here!--while the other repeatedly rubbed at his little brother's cheeks and eyes in a fist.
He kneels down beside the distressed figure, hand reaching out to card through the flour caked locks on top of his little brother's head, briefly wondering how he managed to get that much flour stuck in there.
The head jerks up slightly, dark eyes staring at him in shock for a short moment before the face contorts in the utter, hopeless despair that only a child can feel, tears filling again, salty rivers streaking over his face, which is covered in flour, rice, and hints of what he thinks to be the red substance he had seen covering the kitchen table. With it so close, he can now tell that it smelled of tomatoes...which only made a small smile break out uncontrollably at the corners of his mouth.
"I'M SORRY NII-SAN!"
Suddenly he crashes to the floor, arms filled with a completely distraught small form that it smearing foodstuffs and tears all over his shirt and wailing much louder than his little brother had been before.
"I'm really really sorry I messed up your present! Please don't be mad at me!"
He stares in shock at the nigh inconsolable child that clings to him as if they are almost one being, unsure for a moment what he could possibly say that would ever lift the desolation and fear from his little brother's eyes.
So he does the only think he can think of--reaching out and pulling his little brother down until his head rests on his chest and continues to stroke his fingers through the powder-covered, blue-black strands.
"It's all right. You didn't ruin anything. It's all right."
"But the onigiri are gone and the dango don't look like dango at all and taste funny! I couldn't do any of it right!"
The wails begin to get louder again and the tears flood his shirt anew, but all he does is keep up the strokes until they subside once more.
"They look fine. I'm sure they taste fine as well. And you can always try again another day. I'm just happy that you thought to make something for me."
That dark head jerks up and stares at him with wide, familiar eyes as if what he has just said was one of the most scandalous things his little brother has ever heard.
"But Nii-san, I can't just try again!! It's not the SAME. Today's your BIRTHDAY!"
The exclamation makes him blink for a second. He has not even realized that the time of year was so close, as he has been so busy with missions since graduating from the Ninja Academy. The day of his birth, the day of the year that marks the turning into the next cycle as he ages--has it really been eight years already?--is not something that he gives any particular attention to, as it is really only just that: a day to mark his aging and nothing more. But he can see how much this meant to his little brother and rather than tell him it should not matter, he chooses to give him this moment that he so desperately wants.
"Then we shouldn't waste your efforts, should we?"
He sits up, pulling his little brother with him as he gets to his feet. The child does not protest, but keeps his head down and hand clenched tightly in his own--the other maintaining its death-hold on the neck of the stuffed dinosaur. They return downstairs to the kitchen where their mother has already cleaned up a good portion of the...aftermath of his little brother's first cooking experience. The rice cooker has been washed out and put away and the kitchen table wiped off, but the platter of deformed dango--covered in what he now knows is some experimental tomato sauce--remains.
Leading his little brother to the table, he lets go of his hand, only to pick up a stick of the red...surprise. The smell of the treat is strange--too strong--to his nose, but he does not hesitate to pop the first lumpy mound into his mouth.
He wishes he had.
The taste is completely unlike anything he had ever had in his life, with the tomato and salt overwhelming his tongue. He almost reflexively spits it back out...but stops when he looks out the corner of his eye to see the intense and hopeful look on his little brother's face--the way his hands twitch and squeeze his stuffed animal in anticipation of rejection.
So he continues to chew and swallows the gooey, tart--Why tomato?--food facsimile, taking a second before smiling encouragingly.
"They're really good for your first try."
"Really?"
Those eyes light up in a way that he will never get tired of seeing--of causing.
He nods, taking the next one into his mouth and eating it as well, ignoring the protests in his mind that told him he would really regret this.
"Really good for your first try. Thank you, little brother."
A smile breaks across that face, eyes overflowing with pride and satisfaction. His little brother lets out a call of happiness and success.
"Yay! I knew you would like them! Tomatoes are really good, and so I knew you would like tomato-flavored dango, but the first batch Mother helped me make was too sweet so I added more salt to them!"
He listens to his little brother ramble about all of the hard work he had put into making his surprise gift--The dango are better than the onigiri were anyway, Nii-san. And if you want anymore I can make them!--and continues to eat the food with as much enthusiasm as he can fake, ignoring the soft snickers that escaped his mother as she cleans up around them.
Once he had completed three full sticks and insists he doesn't want to spoil his appetite for dinner, his mother distracts his little brother by telling him he needs to bathe before dinner. So the other three sticks remain untouched and he is spared from having to finish them all. His mother takes his little brother's hand to lead him to the bathing room, and he lets out a soft sigh, eyes closing while he fights down the worrisome pangs and churning in his stomach.
Hands suddenly wrap around his neck and a small body presses close to his own in much the same fashion as it did before, only now there is a smile pressed into the curve of his neck.
"Happy Birthday, Nii-san!"
His arms wrap around the boy in return for an embrace that could have lasted forever and he wouldn't have minded at all.
"Thank you, little brother. This was the best birthday gift I could ever receive."
The arms tighten around his neck and he can feel the grin in his neck widen, but eventually the small hands let go and pull away. His little brother jumps down and runs to their mother, not seeming to really mind all of the foodstuffs caked to him in the least.
"Now don't try to sneak anymore before dinner, Nii-san, or Mother will be mad when you don't want to eat!"
There is another soft snicker hidden behind his mother's hand as she leads his little brother down the hall, and Itachi stares at the space in the door that they had previously occupied. Once more his stomach reminds him what a foolish decision he had made--Why did it have to be tomatoes?--and knows he won't be eating again that night.
"Happy Birthday, Nii-san!"
But it was more than worth it.
------------------------------
*Black eyes open and stare into nothingness for a moment, as if unsure if the dream has truly ended, then slide over until they stare directly into the screen of the Hitomi. There is movement to the side--an arm that reaches out--and the screen goes black.*
He turns the corner and looks up to see his home waiting in the distance hand reflexively beginning to raise in greeting...only to stop the movement when he sees that no one is there to meet him. There is nothing but silence down the deserted road, where normally calls would have rang out--Nii-san! Welcome home Nii-san!--the instant he was visible from the veranda.
This is a break in the routine that he has come to be used to, and various scenarios for why it has been disrupted fill his mind, but he continues anyway, finishing his journey down the road and stepping onto the porch just as his mother opens the door.
"Welcome home!"
She smiles at him sincerely, and yet he can tell that there is something else behind that affectionate smile. Something is wrong.
He nods to her as he enters and removes his shoes, placing them neatly in their place against the wall. He does not ask where his little brother is, but the brief scanning of his eyes at the otherwise empty corridor does not escape her. The smile on her face becomes more rueful, showing both exasperation and empathy.
"There...has been an...incident."
His eyes widen slightly, but he can feel no dangerous aura in the area, so his guard is not immediately raised. Instead, she motions him to follow her, and he does so, into the kitchen...which looks as if a powdery bomb exploded over half of the room. The rice cooker sits used on the counter, a plate with one lone...lumpy and misshapen facsimile of what he assumes to be onigiri abandoned a short distance away.
It is the condition of the kitchen table which catches his attention the most, as not only is it covered in flour, but also in a thick red substance. In the center of it all is a platter of something he does not quite know what it is supposed to be.
He turns to his mother, waiting for an explanation and she lets out a soft sigh.
"Your little brother wanted to surprised you."
That soft, exasperated smile is back on her face, and he can feel his own lips twitch at the images that develop in his own mind of what had occurred to leave the room his mother kept so clean and tidy in such disarray, then she continues.
"So he decided we should make you onigiri and dango...only he was very adamant about doing everything "by himself..." The dango didn't come out as he planned and he was only supposed to eat a few of the onigiri...but since he had me help him make his favorite...he ate almost all of them. He became very upset when he thought that he had ruined his present for you."
She places a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Please go cheer your little brother up. I'll take care of the...clean-up."
He lets out a soft sigh of his own and doesn't even have to ask where to find his little brother. He walks up the stairs, onto the second floor and heads down the hall, but instead of stopping at the door to his little brother's room, he continues on to his own room, seeing that the door is already cracked open as it had not been when he left. He can hear soft, near inaudible sounds coming from inside.
He opens the door and enters the room quietly, now clearly hearing the sniffling and hiccuping of sobs that were being forcibly stifled, but ineffectively. He doesn't bother to shut the door behind him, but makes his way around the side of his bed. Huddling on the floor of his room in the corner between his bed and the wall is the one he had been searching for, one hand wrapped firmly around a miniature, green, stuffed, prehistoric reptile--Mr. Roary likes to sleep in your bed bestest, too, Nii-san! It's safest here!--while the other repeatedly rubbed at his little brother's cheeks and eyes in a fist.
He kneels down beside the distressed figure, hand reaching out to card through the flour caked locks on top of his little brother's head, briefly wondering how he managed to get that much flour stuck in there.
The head jerks up slightly, dark eyes staring at him in shock for a short moment before the face contorts in the utter, hopeless despair that only a child can feel, tears filling again, salty rivers streaking over his face, which is covered in flour, rice, and hints of what he thinks to be the red substance he had seen covering the kitchen table. With it so close, he can now tell that it smelled of tomatoes...which only made a small smile break out uncontrollably at the corners of his mouth.
"I'M SORRY NII-SAN!"
Suddenly he crashes to the floor, arms filled with a completely distraught small form that it smearing foodstuffs and tears all over his shirt and wailing much louder than his little brother had been before.
"I'm really really sorry I messed up your present! Please don't be mad at me!"
He stares in shock at the nigh inconsolable child that clings to him as if they are almost one being, unsure for a moment what he could possibly say that would ever lift the desolation and fear from his little brother's eyes.
So he does the only think he can think of--reaching out and pulling his little brother down until his head rests on his chest and continues to stroke his fingers through the powder-covered, blue-black strands.
"It's all right. You didn't ruin anything. It's all right."
"But the onigiri are gone and the dango don't look like dango at all and taste funny! I couldn't do any of it right!"
The wails begin to get louder again and the tears flood his shirt anew, but all he does is keep up the strokes until they subside once more.
"They look fine. I'm sure they taste fine as well. And you can always try again another day. I'm just happy that you thought to make something for me."
That dark head jerks up and stares at him with wide, familiar eyes as if what he has just said was one of the most scandalous things his little brother has ever heard.
"But Nii-san, I can't just try again!! It's not the SAME. Today's your BIRTHDAY!"
The exclamation makes him blink for a second. He has not even realized that the time of year was so close, as he has been so busy with missions since graduating from the Ninja Academy. The day of his birth, the day of the year that marks the turning into the next cycle as he ages--has it really been eight years already?--is not something that he gives any particular attention to, as it is really only just that: a day to mark his aging and nothing more. But he can see how much this meant to his little brother and rather than tell him it should not matter, he chooses to give him this moment that he so desperately wants.
"Then we shouldn't waste your efforts, should we?"
He sits up, pulling his little brother with him as he gets to his feet. The child does not protest, but keeps his head down and hand clenched tightly in his own--the other maintaining its death-hold on the neck of the stuffed dinosaur. They return downstairs to the kitchen where their mother has already cleaned up a good portion of the...aftermath of his little brother's first cooking experience. The rice cooker has been washed out and put away and the kitchen table wiped off, but the platter of deformed dango--covered in what he now knows is some experimental tomato sauce--remains.
Leading his little brother to the table, he lets go of his hand, only to pick up a stick of the red...surprise. The smell of the treat is strange--too strong--to his nose, but he does not hesitate to pop the first lumpy mound into his mouth.
He wishes he had.
The taste is completely unlike anything he had ever had in his life, with the tomato and salt overwhelming his tongue. He almost reflexively spits it back out...but stops when he looks out the corner of his eye to see the intense and hopeful look on his little brother's face--the way his hands twitch and squeeze his stuffed animal in anticipation of rejection.
So he continues to chew and swallows the gooey, tart--Why tomato?--food facsimile, taking a second before smiling encouragingly.
"They're really good for your first try."
"Really?"
Those eyes light up in a way that he will never get tired of seeing--of causing.
He nods, taking the next one into his mouth and eating it as well, ignoring the protests in his mind that told him he would really regret this.
"Really good for your first try. Thank you, little brother."
A smile breaks across that face, eyes overflowing with pride and satisfaction. His little brother lets out a call of happiness and success.
"Yay! I knew you would like them! Tomatoes are really good, and so I knew you would like tomato-flavored dango, but the first batch Mother helped me make was too sweet so I added more salt to them!"
He listens to his little brother ramble about all of the hard work he had put into making his surprise gift--The dango are better than the onigiri were anyway, Nii-san. And if you want anymore I can make them!--and continues to eat the food with as much enthusiasm as he can fake, ignoring the soft snickers that escaped his mother as she cleans up around them.
Once he had completed three full sticks and insists he doesn't want to spoil his appetite for dinner, his mother distracts his little brother by telling him he needs to bathe before dinner. So the other three sticks remain untouched and he is spared from having to finish them all. His mother takes his little brother's hand to lead him to the bathing room, and he lets out a soft sigh, eyes closing while he fights down the worrisome pangs and churning in his stomach.
Hands suddenly wrap around his neck and a small body presses close to his own in much the same fashion as it did before, only now there is a smile pressed into the curve of his neck.
"Happy Birthday, Nii-san!"
His arms wrap around the boy in return for an embrace that could have lasted forever and he wouldn't have minded at all.
"Thank you, little brother. This was the best birthday gift I could ever receive."
The arms tighten around his neck and he can feel the grin in his neck widen, but eventually the small hands let go and pull away. His little brother jumps down and runs to their mother, not seeming to really mind all of the foodstuffs caked to him in the least.
"Now don't try to sneak anymore before dinner, Nii-san, or Mother will be mad when you don't want to eat!"
There is another soft snicker hidden behind his mother's hand as she leads his little brother down the hall, and Itachi stares at the space in the door that they had previously occupied. Once more his stomach reminds him what a foolish decision he had made--Why did it have to be tomatoes?--and knows he won't be eating again that night.
"Happy Birthday, Nii-san!"
But it was more than worth it.
------------------------------
*Black eyes open and stare into nothingness for a moment, as if unsure if the dream has truly ended, then slide over until they stare directly into the screen of the Hitomi. There is movement to the side--an arm that reaches out--and the screen goes black.*