A Little Unsteady [Closed Log]

[warped_replica]

Date: February 20th
Characters: Benjiro and Sadie


The quiet sound of the engine cuts completely as Benjiro pulls off the street and up the drive of his great aunts’ house. Rolling up to the door of the storage shed, Benjiro plants his feet on either side of his motorcycle to steady it as he waits for Sadie to dismount from behind him. He follows after, sweeping his foot to pull out the kickstand and lean it to rest momentarily. He reaches up to unlock the strap under his chin, and pulls off his helmet with a shake of his head to free his hair from sticking down after the drive. Helmet under one arm, he walks over to the shed to pull up the door, then rights his bike to walk it inside.

Motorcycle parked for the night, he hangs both his helmet and Sadie’s, and then moves to unstrap their bags from the back rack. As he starts to undo the straps while speaking to her, his words trail off briefly as his eyes fall on the blanketed heap in the back corner left untouched since they visited the mouth of Moss River, “So, for dinner, do you want....um...” He shakes his head and finishes as he picks up the bags, “Sorry. A-anyways, I was thinking noodles.”

Comments

[dragoonrouge]

Following Ben, Sadie is curious about what this was all about almost despite herself and knowing that she cannot be seen here makes it all the easier to want to poke around. The way the child pauses and fidgets with his hands just makes her all the more certain that this somehow a memory of Ben, it was something she had noticed that Ben still slipped into on occasion whenever he was nervous or worried about something. The fact that it was his own mother that he was nervous about was like a rock in her stomach.

Not a rock, a gasoline canister. Sadie hisses at the unbelievable sentence that just came out of that woman's mouth, and as Ben freezes, Sadie snarls and growls, the volume growing in crescendo as Sadie steps up to Ben's mum.

"How bloody dare you say that about your son?!" Claws prick at her palms as she snarls at the shorter woman, "How could you be so damn cruel about a child even when he isn't supposed to be around to hear it?! Be lucky that we've never met in real life because I will not stand for this!" Her growl drowns out Emiko's crying and her next snarl does not come out as a snarl but instead a roar.

It is only Ben fleeing the room that pulls her away from Ben's mum and planning her bloody murder, Sadie shoots one last dagger-filled glare at Ben's mum before quickly following the child form of her boyfriend.

[warped_replica]

The snarls and roar may drown out the crying for Sadie, but the reflection of the past continues as it once had for Benjiro in the memory. He hears his sister even as he leaves the light to return into his dark room. His hands slap down on the mattress with the apparent intention to follow his mother’s direction, but instead, the boy halts still standing at the side of his bed once he reaches it. Slowly his arms relax to rest on the top of the bed, and his eyes search the fabric of his covers as his attention stays snagged on the sounds of his sister.

He looks over his shoulder first. Then lifts one hand. His second hand falls from the bed as he starts to step away from it, and he walks towards the door with steps shortening across the distance. Peering around the door left open enough for him to pass, he looks with wide eyes down the hall. His mother has not left the kitchen and is still talking on the phone as she laughs again.

Benjiro creeps from his room and over into the next dark room, which is illuminated better than his own by a night-light beside the crib. The crib is set in the master bedroom, one that speaks of two adults that keep awareness on their presentation to others by the looks of the arrangements for him and her. That however, may not be worth exploring as Benjiro approaches the crib where his sister lies crying with her voice starting to crack from strain. He steps up to the slats of the crib and reaches his hand through, feeling around as though looking for something near her as he speaks, “Emiko, she doesn’t like that.”

Sadie has the vantage point that would allow her to spot the pacifier on the far side of Emiko that Benjiro is after, but when he starts to try to reach over her, his hand brushes where she can feel it. Shaking as she is, Emiko responds to the touch with eyes opening, and a momentary delay of her next bar to come. His hand slides under her arm, and before he can withdraw it to check her other side, her hand catches his finger. Benjiro is too surprised to retract his hand forcefully and he watches as she undergoes a diminuendo to less strenuous cries accompanied by whimpers and whines.

He simply stares, bewildered. The pacifier is usually what has such an effect, even if this is not as dampening to her cries. Inquisitiveness replaces everything else for the boy, and he reaches his other hand in to lay over the top of her head. More contact. And again she quiets a little more. He has done nothing for her, no bottle, no change, no pacifier, and yet…she seems to be calming down from his presence. His captured hand settles on her chest, and he leans in to rest his head against the slates as he starts to brush his hand on her head in mimicry of what he has seen others do.

Minutes of this, and Emiko has quieted down, looking at Benjiro while her big brother stays fixated on her. He smiles at her, and she kicks her feet with a happy squeak. That prompts a bigger smile from Benjiro, and he whispers to her, “I can’t sleep here, you know.”

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie settles down into dissatisfied growls at Ben's mother, she had no idea that Sadie was there, all she was doing was riling herself up. Flipping the bird at the awful woman, Sadie turns to shadow Ben. She watches from the hallway as Ben appears to head back to bed, only to watch him double back and head towards Emiko. And dear god that was both upsetting and wonderful; seeing the care and wonder as his presence starts to settle Emiko is so heartwarming, but the fact that Ben is having to do this whilst still a child himself has her growling again.

She hated his mum, and if they ever met it would certainly be a struggle to remain polite towards the woman.