twelfth post; fanfic- itte mitai ni yoso no sekai.
title: itte mitai ni yoso no sekai.
characters: Badou, Mello, Yoite- before his growth spurt, before he's completely learned Kira.
summary: family grows when you skip around the universes. part one of who knows.
also what the hell am I doing
It wasn't raining on the way to the store, but it's raining on the way back, and Badou's pissed because his cigarette is soggy and the bags in his arms are dripping and his hair's sticking to his face. Fucking Mello, the kid really needed to learn that cacao did not equal crack, but Mello had a thing about running around in the rain - something about Ireland, Badou stopped listening once that part was brought up - and they needed condoms and dish soap and cup noodles anyway, so Badou was sent out, moping and grumbling.
Now he's sloshing along the sidewalk, puddles and gullies and water in his boots, and then his lighter falls out of his pocket- that's the last goddamn straw, Badou both thinks and says, and he kicks a metal trashcan that's at the mouth of an alleyway, because brute force is always satisfying.
See, the shitty thing about alleyways, though, especially rainy alleyways at night, is this: There are usually little things living there. Little alleycats - Mello disregards the rats, Badou makes faces at them and sticks his tongue out - little alleycats that Badou likes to coo at. He wants to comb their fur and give them milk and watcht hem play with yarn. They're just pleasant.
"Yeah, yeah, you like kittens," Mello says, "Are you sure I was the initial fag here? Look, Badou, we don't have enough room for cats."
So Badou doesn't bring home any cats. (Unless Mello's out for a while, and then only long enough to get them fed.)
This time, though, the clatter of the trash can scares something that isn't a little alleycat. It's a little alleykid, that's what it is, all huddled up, shivering, and it's wearing a coat but Badou can tell that its arms are stick-thin.
It's referred to as it because Badou can't tell; it's not curvy, but it's dainty. Like, hey, manly lace, you know? So he kneels down, holds his hand out, as if it were a cat, and he says, "Kid, what in the actual fuck are you doing out here, man? It's freezing and you're tiny, you'd probably drown in a puddle or something."
It shakes its head, shrinks away. Badou touches it, and pulls one of its arms away from its chest, and he can see its face: small and pale with big, blue eyes. A babyface, a doll's face, and Badou still can't tell if the it's a he or a she or an it.
It coughs, and it cries, and Badou says, "To hell with it," and he drags it home.
--
Badou's late and Mello's eating cereal at the kitchen counter. He hears the door to their apartment open, though, and lets his spoon clatter against the bowl, and he cranes his neck to look at the doorway and says, "You took forever, what the hell," and then he sees that Badou is carrying both a shopping bag and a small bundle of shivering child.
There's rain outside and the kid's teeth chattering, but otherwise it's quiet for a few moments.
Badou wonders how fast he can run while carrying the kid.
"What the fuck," Mello says, finally, but it's with a sigh; "Well, put 'im down on the couch, wait, no, shit, let me get towels- forget it, put him on the couch and take his clothes off."
At that, the it in Badou's arms starts making jerky, panicky movements, and it seems so scared that Badou thinks it'll up and have a heart attack, right here. Badou listens anyway, he makes a cradle out of his arms and lays him down, and then he realizes he doesn't really know what to do, until Mello's kneeling in front of it - him, Mello said? - and murmuring something in some language, it sounds Japanese. He's asking a question, right? The kid's trembling but he nods his head, and so Mello asks something else.
Scared blue eyes and small hands and a big black coat seem to be all this boy is made up of, but he fumbles for one of his pockets and pulls something out: a crumpled, wet piece of paper. Mello looks it over, Badou rubbernecks so he can see.
宵風
Mello seems to be thinking on it, and then he says, "Yoikaze?"
The it, the kid, shakes his head, folds into himself, but gestures towards the paper. Mello squints at the running ink. Underneath, it says
よいて
"Yoi-te," Mello says. "Fine. Badou, his name's Yoite."
That's how it starts.
--
At first, they think he's mute. Then Badou tries to unbutton his coat, and he's making frightened sounds, starting as squeaks, little baby rabbit squeaks, but as the third button's undone, he's squirming and screaming. Badou doesn't know what to do, on the one hand the kid's obviously scared as fuck, but on the other he sounds like he's being murdered and he needs to stop. "What the fuck," Badou says, "Mello, what do we-"
But Mello shushes him, takes the child by his shoulders, and murmurs close to his ear. Badou stoops in to listen. The boy is going still, still enough that Mello can takes his hands away, and then he's just quiet. The only sounds are frightened breathing and Mello's voice and the rain outside.
"Umi wa hiroi na," Mello says quietly, "Okii na. Tsuki ga noboru shi, hi ga shimizu..."
There's a certain rhythm to it. It takes Badou a moment to realize that Mello is essentially singing, even if it doesn't come off that way.
"Umi wa oonami, aonami. Oonami to aonami."
The kid's coat is off. He's thin and shivering, his shirt clings to his skin. Badou watches.
Mello looks up at Badou and says, "Itte mitai ni yoso no sekai."
They manage to lead the kid to the bathroom and get him inside, and Badou gives him a robe that's five sizes too big and Mello tells him (so Badou assumes) to take a bath. He's still afraid, this little mouse with big blue eyes, but he shuts the door and locks it and runs the water.
"What the hell was that?" Badou says after they're alone.
"He's probably a runaway," Mello says, and he digs through the wet shopping bag carelessly. "Hardcore abuse, or something. I don't like it."
"No-" Badou sighs, because all that's right, but, "No, I mean, you subdued him in like a minute, what were you even saying?"
Mello's on the way to their bedroom. "Just some stupid lullaby."
Itte mitai ni yoso no sekai. We want to see other worlds.
--
An hour and fifteen minutes later, Badou rests his chin on his hand and says, "You think he fell asleep and drowned?" So Mello hits the back of his head with a magazine as he walks by, and goes to knock on the bathroom door.
It opens, and Yoite's standing there, damp and swallowed up by the robe.
"Don't look at me," he says, look at that, he can speak German after all, "You shouldn't-"
Mello interrupts him as if it's nothing. "Go to bed. You'll have breakfast in the morning. Badou and I sleep in the bedroom. Badou-"
"I know, I know," Badou mumbles; he's already setting the couch up as a bed.
Yoite lays down, cries into his pillow a little, softly, quietly. Badou sits at the foot of the couch. They both end up falling asleep there.
Mello watches. Maybe they should leave Munich quicker than Badou wanted to. Yoite should see the ocean.
characters: Badou, Mello, Yoite- before his growth spurt, before he's completely learned Kira.
summary: family grows when you skip around the universes. part one of who knows.
also what the hell am I doing
It wasn't raining on the way to the store, but it's raining on the way back, and Badou's pissed because his cigarette is soggy and the bags in his arms are dripping and his hair's sticking to his face. Fucking Mello, the kid really needed to learn that cacao did not equal crack, but Mello had a thing about running around in the rain - something about Ireland, Badou stopped listening once that part was brought up - and they needed condoms and dish soap and cup noodles anyway, so Badou was sent out, moping and grumbling.
Now he's sloshing along the sidewalk, puddles and gullies and water in his boots, and then his lighter falls out of his pocket- that's the last goddamn straw, Badou both thinks and says, and he kicks a metal trashcan that's at the mouth of an alleyway, because brute force is always satisfying.
See, the shitty thing about alleyways, though, especially rainy alleyways at night, is this: There are usually little things living there. Little alleycats - Mello disregards the rats, Badou makes faces at them and sticks his tongue out - little alleycats that Badou likes to coo at. He wants to comb their fur and give them milk and watcht hem play with yarn. They're just pleasant.
"Yeah, yeah, you like kittens," Mello says, "Are you sure I was the initial fag here? Look, Badou, we don't have enough room for cats."
So Badou doesn't bring home any cats. (Unless Mello's out for a while, and then only long enough to get them fed.)
This time, though, the clatter of the trash can scares something that isn't a little alleycat. It's a little alleykid, that's what it is, all huddled up, shivering, and it's wearing a coat but Badou can tell that its arms are stick-thin.
It's referred to as it because Badou can't tell; it's not curvy, but it's dainty. Like, hey, manly lace, you know? So he kneels down, holds his hand out, as if it were a cat, and he says, "Kid, what in the actual fuck are you doing out here, man? It's freezing and you're tiny, you'd probably drown in a puddle or something."
It shakes its head, shrinks away. Badou touches it, and pulls one of its arms away from its chest, and he can see its face: small and pale with big, blue eyes. A babyface, a doll's face, and Badou still can't tell if the it's a he or a she or an it.
It coughs, and it cries, and Badou says, "To hell with it," and he drags it home.
--
Badou's late and Mello's eating cereal at the kitchen counter. He hears the door to their apartment open, though, and lets his spoon clatter against the bowl, and he cranes his neck to look at the doorway and says, "You took forever, what the hell," and then he sees that Badou is carrying both a shopping bag and a small bundle of shivering child.
There's rain outside and the kid's teeth chattering, but otherwise it's quiet for a few moments.
Badou wonders how fast he can run while carrying the kid.
"What the fuck," Mello says, finally, but it's with a sigh; "Well, put 'im down on the couch, wait, no, shit, let me get towels- forget it, put him on the couch and take his clothes off."
At that, the it in Badou's arms starts making jerky, panicky movements, and it seems so scared that Badou thinks it'll up and have a heart attack, right here. Badou listens anyway, he makes a cradle out of his arms and lays him down, and then he realizes he doesn't really know what to do, until Mello's kneeling in front of it - him, Mello said? - and murmuring something in some language, it sounds Japanese. He's asking a question, right? The kid's trembling but he nods his head, and so Mello asks something else.
Scared blue eyes and small hands and a big black coat seem to be all this boy is made up of, but he fumbles for one of his pockets and pulls something out: a crumpled, wet piece of paper. Mello looks it over, Badou rubbernecks so he can see.
宵風
Mello seems to be thinking on it, and then he says, "Yoikaze?"
The it, the kid, shakes his head, folds into himself, but gestures towards the paper. Mello squints at the running ink. Underneath, it says
よいて
"Yoi-te," Mello says. "Fine. Badou, his name's Yoite."
That's how it starts.
--
At first, they think he's mute. Then Badou tries to unbutton his coat, and he's making frightened sounds, starting as squeaks, little baby rabbit squeaks, but as the third button's undone, he's squirming and screaming. Badou doesn't know what to do, on the one hand the kid's obviously scared as fuck, but on the other he sounds like he's being murdered and he needs to stop. "What the fuck," Badou says, "Mello, what do we-"
But Mello shushes him, takes the child by his shoulders, and murmurs close to his ear. Badou stoops in to listen. The boy is going still, still enough that Mello can takes his hands away, and then he's just quiet. The only sounds are frightened breathing and Mello's voice and the rain outside.
"Umi wa hiroi na," Mello says quietly, "Okii na. Tsuki ga noboru shi, hi ga shimizu..."
There's a certain rhythm to it. It takes Badou a moment to realize that Mello is essentially singing, even if it doesn't come off that way.
"Umi wa oonami, aonami. Oonami to aonami."
The kid's coat is off. He's thin and shivering, his shirt clings to his skin. Badou watches.
Mello looks up at Badou and says, "Itte mitai ni yoso no sekai."
They manage to lead the kid to the bathroom and get him inside, and Badou gives him a robe that's five sizes too big and Mello tells him (so Badou assumes) to take a bath. He's still afraid, this little mouse with big blue eyes, but he shuts the door and locks it and runs the water.
"What the hell was that?" Badou says after they're alone.
"He's probably a runaway," Mello says, and he digs through the wet shopping bag carelessly. "Hardcore abuse, or something. I don't like it."
"No-" Badou sighs, because all that's right, but, "No, I mean, you subdued him in like a minute, what were you even saying?"
Mello's on the way to their bedroom. "Just some stupid lullaby."
Itte mitai ni yoso no sekai. We want to see other worlds.
--
An hour and fifteen minutes later, Badou rests his chin on his hand and says, "You think he fell asleep and drowned?" So Mello hits the back of his head with a magazine as he walks by, and goes to knock on the bathroom door.
It opens, and Yoite's standing there, damp and swallowed up by the robe.
"Don't look at me," he says, look at that, he can speak German after all, "You shouldn't-"
Mello interrupts him as if it's nothing. "Go to bed. You'll have breakfast in the morning. Badou and I sleep in the bedroom. Badou-"
"I know, I know," Badou mumbles; he's already setting the couch up as a bed.
Yoite lays down, cries into his pillow a little, softly, quietly. Badou sits at the foot of the couch. They both end up falling asleep there.
Mello watches. Maybe they should leave Munich quicker than Badou wanted to. Yoite should see the ocean.