[078, Reading] Bedtime Story
Challenge Name and Number: #078, Reading
Drabble Title: Bedtime Story
Word Count: 349
Warnings/Pairings: None
Author's Note: Set pre-series, in Jou's and Shizuka's pasts.
Summary: He's not entirely awake when she asks him for a story.
Someone is tugging on his sleeve insistently and that’s what wakes him up. He decides to ignore it and rolls over in his bed. “Nooo,” he mumbles. “Five more min’s.”
When it doesn’t stop, however, he huffs and opens his eyes, rubbing the sleep from them. He’s annoyed at being woken up and he’s about to let whoever woke him up know about this when his eyes land on his five year old sister and he instantly bites back the retort. “What’s wrong, Shizuka?”
She hesitates, her bare feet scuffing the carpet, and then she holds out a book to him. “Can you read me a story?” she asks hopefully.
Jounouchi rubs his eyes again and glances at the clock, doing a double take when he sees the time. “Shizuka, I already read your bedtime story and it’s almost midnight. I’ll read to you tomorrow, okay?”
Her face crumples. “Please, Jounouchi,” she begs with tears in her voice, and it’s then that he hears the raised voices of his parents through his closed door, both of them engaged in yet another stupid argument. Now he knows why she’s in here.
He sighs and then pats the bed. “Come on,” he says, and Shizuka’s dull eyes brighten. She clumsily clambers up onto the mattress while trying to cling to the tattered storybook she’s come to adore, and with a fond and exasperated smile Jounouchi grabs her and manages to haul her on the bed. She settles in immediately next to him and he picks one of her favorite stories to read.
Shizuka falls asleep about a quarter of the way through the story. She seems to take comfort in both the familiar lull of the fairytale and the fact she’s with Jounouchi, because even though the angry voices are still audible she dozes off. Jounouchi smiles, sets the book down on the floor, and carefully settles himself to accommodate for Shizuka’s slumbering body curled at his side. He pulls a blanket over them both and whispers a gentle “G’night,” before he closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.