Disclaimer: Nada and zilch. My plot, even, is dependant on another, for which see Acknowledgements and Windswift's "Nezumi."
Dedication: Erm, well, that's probably fairly obvious. It's all really hers; she's just not enough of a dork to actually write it. A dork, yes, but not that bad.
Acknowledgements: This is the spawn of five things - Windswift's story "Nezumi," two personal communication-comments she made, her permission to use the whole thing, and Volume 15.
The comments responsible:
"Aw. How many times did Akito have to force Yuki to eat his vegetables to combat this, so Yuki would grow big and strong? In that thought, how many times would Akito have forced Yuki to eat both their vegetables? Heh."
AND
"Practically normal children. Being able to get along without the nastiness, brought together by the bond but discovering there may be some underlying reasons to stay together, deep within their own personalities, regardless of the spirits. And then... it broke. Too fragile…"
END.
How well I have incorporated these concepts is dubious, and in fact irrelevant now that nearly all the subtext is right there to be seen. Ah well. That's how I like it, myself.
Oh, and I took the name "Harada" from Takaya Natsuki's "Grateful" page. I just needed a name to drop in there, maybe a maid or someone - someone to have told Little Yuki and Little Akito a Hans Christian Anderson story.
Right-o! On with the fic…
"Do you remember," Akito says, twirling a chopstick between her fingers, "that story Harada told us?"
Yuki looks up from his plate across the low table, frowning. "Which one…?" He's whispering, his hoarse one that means he's trying not to cough. He hasn't all day, which is nice. She really hopes he won't start now. That would make her angry, and she doesn't like being angry. It feels like all little black things in her chest and the only way to make them go away, and take their voices with them, is to give them to someone else.
Then people act funny after... they're not as nice.
"About the little girl who went outside because she didn't have food, and froze to death."
Yuki hesitates, as if there's something he wants to say, and then just nods. "The Little Matchgirl?"
Akito shrugs, dismissing the title, and then changes her mind. It's good that he remembered. "You have a good memory, Yuki," she announces.
Yuki's eyes get wide, and then he smiles a little and his cheeks get red. Akito settles back on her heels, humming under her breath contentedly. She's liked today. Yuki broke a yellow crayon in the morning and looked like he was going to cry, so she'd broken it into more pieces to show it didn't matter and then he was much more fun all day. Then Shigure and Hatori played with her later on, and Shigure didn't once say anything to make her angry.
No, not angry…
"Are you going to eat everything on your plate?"
Yuki pauses, startled, and then shrugs. "Did you want some?" The question is undermined by a skeptical glance at her plate; she hasn't touched anything yet and they have the exact same meal. She's not hungry yet, she has to set things straight first.
"No." Akito stabs her chopstick down into the mound of white rice on her plate, making Yuki jump. He's so skittish. "I just wondered. Do you want anything?"
"Um… this is fine…"
"Not for dinner. Anything." Her voice is getting sharper, and she twists the chopstick, crumbling a few grains of rice to splinters. "I don't. I'm special. I have you, and the others, and we don't ever need…" she frowns, searching for the words. "We always have enough food and toys. We don't ever need to go looking for things, like that girl."
She watches Yuki until he realizes it's time to contribute to the conversation again and nods hastily. He hasn't touched his spinach or his shrimp, only his rice.
"So you don't want anything either?" She flicks the other chopstick gently, and it rolls, gleaming. It's almost decorative. Too pretty to eat with.
They'd had lunch together, she and Hatori and Shigure. She hadn't eaten her salad.
"Akito, you have to eat that," Hatori had said, and if it hadn't been such a good day she would have been angry at that. As it was, she just said, "Why?"
"Because it's good for you. You have to eat your vegetables so that you can be healthy." He'd sounded sort of tired and a little amused, especially once Shigure burst out laughing. "Sorry, Haa-san," he'd coughed. "Not to undermine the authority… remember, Akito, if you have your health, you have everything!"
"You're not healthy, Yuki," she says accusingly.
He sits back a little. "But I didn't -"
"If you were healthy, you could go outside and play with other people," she continues. "You're sick, and you could die." Yuki looks down, hair falling in front of his face. "I get fevers a lot," she adds. "Would you be sad if I died?" The question drops onto the table between them, and Yuki looks up from it with wide eyes. Akito smiles. "Of course you would." She reaches across the table, taking his hand. It's smaller than hers, softer and warmer, and she likes holding it.
"So," she says briskly, "eat all your vegetables. Then you'll be healthy and stop coughing and you'll still stay here with me."
Yuki nods again - she's starting to think that's his automatic reaction to most things she says - and picks up some spinach on his chopsticks when she lets go of him. It's gotten cold, and it's sort of black and soggy. His mouth pinches together and he eats it very quickly with his head down so he can make faces.
Akito watches him force the goop into his mouth and chew. "If we don't want anything," she muses, "then we must have everything, right, Yuki? You don't want to be healthy and leave. You will be, because I say so, but you don't want to, and you won't leave."
He nods. She smiles beatifically, arranging her chopsticks into a cross. "Then, since we have everything, we don't need to leave. Not ever. Right?" She grabs his hand again, maybe harder, because this time he winces. "There's no reason to go outside and let anything happen."
Yuki stares at her for a long moment, and then he says, "Right."
Akito lets his hand go. "Okay, then," she confirms. But she doesn't have her hand back across before his fingers close on hers, just for a second, like a small, soft animal cuddling close and then shying back. "I really would be-" he meets her eyes. "I'm glad you're not going to die."
Akito stares at him. Of course he is. She's his god.
Only having him says so feels different, like… it would be sadness for something else.
She wonders if he remembers his old home any longer.
"I know," she states. I do now…
When he pulls his hand back, she pushes her plate after it. "You can have my vegetables too," she announces.
Yuki looks at them, and then up at her. "…Thank you?"
Akito nods regally. "You'll get better for sure if you eat both of our vegetables. And you'll stay inside with me even if I still get fevers. Always." She's though this over very carefully, and made everything line up: Vegetables are good for her. So they're good for Yuki. Yuki is more sick than she is, more often. Therefore, even if it means getting more fevers herself, she will go without vegetables for the foreseeable future. Yuki can have all of them. Of course, she'll be hungrier then, and may have to split his deserts.
Yuki silently scrapes the spinach onto his plate, then hands Akito's back. She sets in, mind quiet again.
Until she notices his shoulders shaking, and snaps, "What's wrong?"
He looks up quickly, covering his mouth, and she realizes he wasn't crying - he was laughing.
"What's funny?" she presses, suspicious.
He thinks out his words for a moment, and then says, "Nothing. I just laughed anyway."
Akito turns this over, and then smiles. "All right." Looking away, she adds, "You would tell me, though? If there was something outside that you wanted?"
Yuki shrugs. "Don't worry," he says softly. "We have everything here."
That's all. Eh-heh. As it is... this is the third version, and the first one from Akito's POV, so there are things missing that only Yuki knew. Bugger. Still, we gain in Akito-ness.
Now - review, I command thee!
Please?