Work Text:
Prompt: One too Many
Child Shuu and his little brother, vex their mom.
The house was quiet.
None of the children were shrieking, screaming, or yelling for her. Most worrisome, Lei-Faun was not indignantly telling her what injustice had been inflicted on him by his siblings in the last 5 minutes.
Wei-Lin frowned, set her tea down, and got up to put a stop to whatever her children were doing.
It didn't take long for her to spot them outside. Both Lei-Faun and Lin-Fei were working to keep Yun-Fat from climbing out of his playpen.
Wei-Lin's confusion lifted when she saw the poster. The childish handwriting was nearly unreadable, but she could still tell it said "Baby for Sale: 500¥."
She rolled her eyes and stalked over to her children, then cleared her throat when she got close behind them.
Lei-Faun and Lin-Fei jumped.
Yun-Fat waved his chubby arms up at her.
"Only 500 yen, Stink-But?" Wei-Lin asked Lei-F guessing whose idea this had been ."That is very cheap for a baby. You should know better then that." Then her tone grew sterner. "And you should know *much* better then to try and sell your baby brother! What were you thinking!"
Lei-Faun's cheeks turned bright red. "Umm,"
Wei-Lin crossed her arms.
"Well, see, mama, some people don't have any siblings and I have two, so I thought it wasn't fair and I should give Yun-Fat to someone who needed a little brother." He looked up at her hopefully.
Wei-Lin glared until Shuu lost the look of hope.
"We don't need a little brother," Lin-Fei chimed in, backing up her big brother.
Wei-Lin pinched the bridge of her nose. With a sigh, she abandoned her plan to tell them tonight that a new baby was on the way.
-End
Circle of Care
Prompt: Secret Messages
The Troopers parents work behind the scenes to make sure their children are ok in the aftermath of fighting Arago
"Are you sure it's ok if Ryo stays with you?" Ryo's father's voice is timid. He can face down the fiercest wildlife to get a photo he knows will provide for him and his son, but speaking to another parent is unpracticed, and therefore the feared unknown territory.
"I know he can be on his own, lord knows," he paused as Seiji's mother spoke. "Really?" He keeps himself from sighing audibly in releif. "Thank you very much. Right, exactly. I just worry about him being alone so much more now." He listened for a moment, grateful to hear his own worst fears echoed in the thoughts of another parent. "Yes, Date-san, not just from physical -" he hedged, not wanting to reveal too much of his son's private fights, but that one thing the other parent should be warned about.
"Just so you know, in case it happens," he paused, and again, the other parent knew. "Yes," he answered in a solemn voice rarely used outside a sacred area. "There are nightmares. Again, thank you so much, Date-San. I am sure Ryo will be much happier with a friend who knows."
_____
Seiji's mother hoped she hid the surprise in her voice well enough. Based on everything Seiji had said, she had not expected one of Touma's parents to answer. "Seiji has been struggling with some of his studies and your son -"
She moved the phone away from her ear. "I am so glad you would be delighted to have him. Ahh," Seiji's mother paused. "We wouldn't be imposing on any of trip of yours would we?" She asked delicately. She brought the phone closer to her ear again. "Ah, I see you are home much of the time now if his father can't be," she paused and listened, smiling in understanding. "Yes, I do feel I am needed more now as well," she said.
She thought she could feel some of the worry and pain that the chipper words of Touma's mother tried to hide. She put on her own mask of a smile in response. "Yes, I have noticed too that the seem to be less distracted together."
Her smile twitched and became more real as she listened to Touma's mother. "I can't say I have put that much thought into it," she answered, "but I know it will be a huge help to Seiji and I am glad to hear you think it will help your son as well," she answered with real smile now. "Let's see what date works best for us."
-----
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," Touma's mother chirped. "I have ... well, I can't put this trip off, and Touma's father has a deadline in his lab that will keep him. Honestly, sometimes I think I should quit. This job has become a...." She paused, cut off by Shuu's mother. The praise given to her journalism made her cheeks flame red.
"T-thank you," She said. "I am glad you feel my work is so important and want to help me continue it." She listened more than laughed, "OK, I promise Shuu-San, I won't quit and leave you as the only working mother in our group. But you really are sure? Touma and Shuu together can be a handful." By the time Shuu's mother had finished, Touma's. mother was griping her side in laughter. "Oh, I am sure you would! I am sure you would." She took a deep breath. "Well, thank you again. I am glad Touma-Kun will be with his friends and not here alone."
________
Shuu's mother grumbled, glaring at the forgotten bag. "I am so sorry I raised an idiot," she sighed. "And don't say he can borrow Shin's, I know the size of my child, and I have seen the size of yours." She waited and then opened her mouth in protest. "You bought pajamas for him. Oh, you didn't -" She paused as Shin's mother politely asked for a chance to explain. As she listened, she had to admit it made sense.
"Well, if you bought spare pajamas and clothing for all of them, I don't feel so bad. I have to admitt I have some things myself for when they are over, especially Touma," She said, thinking of the spare swim trunks she had bought in Shin's size a week ago so Shuu could surprise his friend.
Shuu's mother nodded, and her embaressment faded enough that she could smile. "I do insist you let me pay you back for Rei Faun's frequent forgetfulness causing you trouble." Her grin turned mischievous. "OK, I promise I will not give you any money," she said, as she made a note to herself to take Shin's mother out to a nice lunch the next opportunity that came about.
___________
"I am well," Shin's mother said. "I need rest and-" She paused, trying to decide how honest to be with Ryo's father. "Shin is a mindful, dutiful son, and so he worries when he thinks I am unwell. He spends so much energy worrying about me that I begin to worry about him."
She smiled as Ryo's father praised her child's over attentiveness. "Yes, as a parent, we can't help but worry about our children. I understand you are going out as well, so I thought if Shin is helping Ryo it might allow me to rest without worry, if it is ok with you." She heard the relief in Ryo's father's voice hearing that Ryo would not be alone.
She knew he often stayed with Seiji or another of the five that lived closer, but Seiji was out of the country this time, and the others were equally busy. She had considered asking Ryo to come here, knew Shin would be easier to convince, but he needed time where responsibilities were not resting on his shoulder and she wanted to he sure she gave him that time while he was still young, if he could still be called young after all he went through.
-end
Meant To Be:
Shuu's mother has unexpected visitors, when she least wants them, who help her see some good did come from her son inheriting the armor.
Note: suggestions of Shin/Shuu
The last of the dinner leftovers had been set inside the refrigerator. It wasn’t a chore Wei-Lin usually needed tended to, not with five children. Tonight though, her too oldest were on a trip with her husband, and Chun-Fa had passed her stomach virus to Mei-ling. That had left only two to eat a meal meant for four, and if Wei-Lin was honest, she hadn’t eaten her share.
Grimacing, she accepted the reality that her youngest had likely also shared his virus with her. She glanced at the neatly stacked containers and debated throwing all of it away, but her mother had imparted a near hysterical need to not waste food onto her daughter. If she was sick in the morning, her husband and eldest could be counted on to handle the task of throwing out food.
She went to the counter drawer and pulled out a roll of stickers. As she was affixing a NO sticker to each container, she felt a sudden burst jolt through her body, as though she had gotten a small electrical shock. She frowned.
“Not tonight,” Wei-Lin murmured, closing the refrigerator door. She’d grown almost used to the small jolts. Since Lei-Faun’s friends had realized they could transport around Japan using their new armor’s powers, they’d begun to use it as a preferred means of travel so they could see each other more frequently. Part of her wanted to argue that mystical armor should not be used like trains, but she couldn’t object to the time or money it saved. Or the fact that it allowed five boys who desperately needed to see each other an opportunity to do so more often in a modern world that would otherwise keep them isolated.
She leaned against the fridge a moment, trying not to recall what a year of isolation had done to her normally boisterous eldest child.
“Who was not here,” she reminded herself. “And I have two sick children.”
She marched to Lei Faun’s room. Since young men appearing out of thin air tended to gather attention, they’d all agreed on places in each other’s homes or dorms to appear in. Shuu’s friends entered her home through his closest, and were over so often, she’d even set up a shoe matt by that closet.
Half way to her son’s room, Wei-Lin felt a second jolt and winced.
She went to his room and listened. Mostly likely it would be Touma, but as for the second, not Seiji. Seiji never once visited without calling ahead first. Ryo and Shin rarely visited without a heads up. He had tried to sneak over once though, and she still recalled his and her son’s embarrassment when she let it be known she knew Lei-Faun had a visitor.
That had been her first clue that none of the other parents felt anything when the other armor bearers appeared in their homes.
Shin, Wei-Lin decided. It would be Touma and Shin.
He guess was proven correct as she pressed her ear to her son’s door and heard two muffled voices.
“Budge over!” Shin hissed, and Wei-Lin could envision his annoyed look.
“I was here first! Get your own closet,” Touma responded. “This one isn’t big enough for the both of us.”
“Nothing is big enough for you,” Shin grumbled. “Move your legs.”
“My legs were also here first!’ Touma insisted. There was a thump, and that prompted Wei-Lin to move. The squabbling kept them for hearing her open the door to the bedroom.
“Shut up, you’re going to wake someone,” Shin grumbled right before Wei-Lin swung the closet opened. Two young men stared up at her from her son’s closet floor. Their eyes were opened wide and cheeks slowly reddened.
“If you had woken anyone,” Wei-Lin said, staring at both of them like a mama bear discovering two intruders in her din, “I would be hitting you both with a broom right now, and I promise your armors could do little to save you.”
Shin and Touma had the common sense to look mortified.
“Sorry, Mama Shuu,” they said, lowering their gaze.
“Didn’t Shuu tell you he was out through tomorrow?” She asked. She looked first to Touma, who met her gaze and nodded meekly. Touma she guessed had come because he was lonely. It wasn’t the first time he’d visited, even knowing her son was out. He genuinely seemed to like being in her home, and not just for free food.
She then looked to Shin, who nodded without meeting her gaze. Shin she didn’t want to think about why he might have come. She had a very strong suspicion he was in Lei-Faun’s closet metaphorically as well as literally so the less she considered possibilities the better.
“I’m sorry, I normally would offer you dinner before asking you to go home, but-“ Wei-lin cut off as her stomach tightened and spasmed painfully. She clutched it and realized she must have groaned as both young men took her by the arm. Then Touma swooped her up and got her to the bathroom just in time.
A few moments later, Wei-Lin emerged to see two concerned expression looking at her. “I guess I don’t need to explain why I need you to leave,” She murmured. “Chun-Fa and Mei-ling are sick as well.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Touma said in a way that would be taken as rude if you didn’t know him. Wei-Lin shook her head, but Shin shook his as well.
“If you have two sick kids, and one well one, you’ll need help. We’re here.”
Wei-Lin wanted to protest, but her stomach flipped again. By the time she emerged from the bathroom, she felt exhausted and found she couldn’t come up with a single reason to send the two away.
Shin helped her onto the couch. She refused to go the bedroom, claiming she trusted Shin in her kitchen but wanted to see him all the same. Truthfully the were not children anymore and Wei-Lin felt awkward having them take her two her bed. She knew not a single person would think anything of it, but all the same, the propriety her mother had hammered into her nagged. She snorted. She used to live to upset her mother, and here she was sleeping on the couch because of a ghost.
It did let her keep an eyes on her kitchen, something that came in handy when Touma nearly ate contaminated food.
But aside from that, Shin and Touma worked surprisingly well together. Shin took over making sure she had water and ice chips. She also noticed he tossed out the food and washed all the containers for her.
Touma read, staying out of Shin’s way, until Chun-Fa woke, sick again. She’s tried to get up, but Touma had everything in hand. She’d never have guessed he was an only child watching him comfort Chun-Fa as he changed the sheets and put them in the laundry. Then again, Touma was over often and practically a second older brother to her children.
She glanced at Shin again, watching as he prepped things to quickly make stomach friendly foods in the morning. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the lights in the room were dimmed. She could here Touma snoring, and next to her Shin was reading with a small light.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
Wei-Lin nodded. “Why aren’t you asleep?” She asked.
Shin nodded to Touma, and Wei-Lin smiled and laughed softly.
“Why did you come over tonight?” Wei-Lin asked.
Shin coughed softly. “I.. . . Shu,- Lei-Faun” he corrected awkwardly, “and I shared a room at Nasutei’s.
Wei-Lin nodded. She remembered that.
“We’d talk to each other when we had nightmares,” Shin murmured.
“And you had one tonight?”
Shin nodded. Wei-Lin felt her heart go out to him. She knew she couldn’t even begin to imagine the kinds of nightmare he had, or Lei-Faun. He looked tired, she realized, and guessed this may not have been his first sleepless night, or that Touma was the reason he didn’t sleep now.
“I forgot Shuu wasn’t home,” he sighed. Then he glanced curiously to Wei-Lin. “How did you know we’d come over?” He asked. “You always seem to know.”
Wei-Lin chuckled at that. “You mean aside from you two squabbling like two pelicans over a fish?” she said.
Shin blushed.
“I feel it,” She answered, and noticed Shin’s jolted at that.
“Feel it?” he repeated, “You all can fell it when we appear?” His concerned expression confirmed a long held suspicion of Wei-Lin’s that her little Honeycake snuck out some nights without telling her he was leaving. She made a mental note to confront Lei-Faun about that. He was grown, but she was still his mother.
But for now she simply sat up a little more and smiled at Shin and nodded.
“Oh,” Shin replied weekly and pretended to go back to reading, now looking much paler.
Wei-Lin settled back down without telling Shin she was the only one who seemed to have that sense. She closed her eyes and remembered sitting in her mother’s lap, listening to tales of the armor. She remembered the weight of the sphere in her hand, and the pull of the Kongo.
“Not yet,” the monk had whispered in her dream. “It’s not time yet.”
And so she’d sent Kongo away, and never answered the call again. Wei-Lin sighed. If she’d known listening to the Monk would have meant her child would go off to a war, she’d have punched the man in the face, and called Kongo right back then and there.
But she hadn’t, and as much as she wanted to regret that choice, she couldn’t fully when she knew Lei-Faun would never had made such solid friends if she had taken up the armor.
She drifted off, content things were as they were meant to be.
- End
Changes:
Prompt: Coping Mechanisms
A moment between Seiji and his older sister Yayoi.
The afternoon was pleasant. It wasn't too hot yet, and the breeze brought the scent of a coming storm with it. Yayoi loved storms. She glanced up from her textbooks, hoping to see storm clouds gathering in the distance.
She did see a gathering storm, but it was more of a descriptive metaphor for the glare her younger brother was giving her than the type of storm she wanted. Closing her book, she smiled up at Seiji.
"Give it up," she said in a friendly tone. "You couldn't rattle me with both eyes glaring, let alone with one hidden under that hay you have for hair."
Seiji's glare intensified. Yayoi brought her hand to her mouth to stifle laughter as the words "the storm darkens" lept to mind.
"What?" She said, letting her boredom with his behavior drag out the word.
Seiji sat down beside her, posture formal as though sitting with their grandfather, not her. Yayoi found herself annoyed by that.
"Why aren't you going into business as was planned?" Seiji asked.
Yayoi blinked as his rude bluntness shattered her expectations of the conversation.
"And why should it matter to you?" She snapped, meeting his opening rudeness with her own.
"You were going to run the finances of the Dojo," Seiji said. "That was the plan." His voice took on a higher pitch as his words became more rushed. "So why are you now going into medicine?"
He looked at her with what she guessed most people would see as stern disapproval. But she knew her little brother. Seiji didn't like when people acted unexpectedly, and she and he were usually on a similar wave length.
She sighed and pushed her irritation down, reminding herself how young he was and how much had changed for him in the last months since the armor.
Now, Seiji was facing another change in his world from a person he thought he could predict.
She sighed and exhaled out her frustration.
"Things changed, and I need to change with them," She answered, keeping her voice and tone soft.
Seiji lowered his head, his blond hair now covering both eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Yayoi shook her head as the expected conversation derailed for the second time. "What?" she stammered.
"I'm sorry it came to me. You're the oldest, you-"
Yayoi laughed. She couldn't help it. "Seiji, Oh Seiji," She said. "You think I'm switching career choices because I'm mad? If you were older, I'd be insulted at how petty you thought I was, but geez, I guess that is something a 13 year old would think!" She smiled fondly at Seiji.
She saw him squeeze his hand as he did when he was holding something back. Yayoi considered pushing but took another slow breath. Seiji had his share of undesirable traits, but petty wasn't usually one them. She'd decided to figure out which family member he'd gotten the notion from later. That wasn't important right now.
"So it's not because of the armor?" Seiji asked. His tone and frown indicated he didn't believe it.
"Oh, it is because of the armor, but not because I'm mad...." she trailed off as emotions she'd tried to hide behind rigorous study churned in her gut.
"You are mad," Seiji muttered.
"I am mad," Yayoi agreed, "But not how you think." She looked at Seiji trying to find words to express how she felt. She gritted her teeth a moment against a wave of impotent anger, working to keep her breathing controlled until it passed.
"I'm mad my little brother has to fight and I can't be there." She said. The emotions in her chest tightened her voice. "I'm was mad I couldn't do anything, so I found something to do that is important."
Seiji looked up at her, eyes clear of any storm. They now shone brightly as things made sense to him again. "You can't fight so you're going to learn how to help people if they are hurt!" he said, with a smile in his words.
"Well, that's a side benefit, helping others."
The storm of uncertainty gathered again in her little brother's eyes.
"Idiot," Yayoi whispered. "It's for you. If anything happens to you, I want to know how to help you!"
Seiji's expression cleared for a second, but then darkened. Yayoi smiked though. The conversation had finally shifted back to familiar territory.
"You're going to point out I won't be with you if you are hurt."
Seiji nodded, and Yayoi sighed.
"I know, but," she sighed again. "If you are hurt and I was there and I couldn't do anything at all, I could never live with it. So I am making sure that can't happen. " She looked at Seiji. " The end effect is I'll help others, of course, but,"
Yayoi felt he voice suddenly break and a lump formed in her throat. Her family were not huggers, but she found her arms around her little brother, awkward and unpracticed.
The hug finished the sentence for both of them
-end