Asako Minegishi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sawthelockdown) wrote2011-11-27 06:43 pm
sawthelockdown) wrote2011-11-27 06:43 pm
Entry tags:
[fic] a crack in everything
Summary: AU of the AU, based on some very specific comments from Reverse while Rever-tan was watching the Evil Overlord 8th Day:
"one of the tags on this vid: "big bro is the legal guardian?" - as well as other commentary to the tune of "catphones seems to regard Naoya possibly as a guardian."
.... And so this happened.
Warnings: Violence, some of it graphic, and Asa being more depressed than usual - for entirely justified reasons!
Dedicated to: Rever-tan for getting this idea in my head, Kaji for putting up with my silly when I have ideas in my head. :)
---
She was twelve when it happened.
Her parents had left town to visit a relative - most of the day, but they'd be back by evening, they promised - and she stayed over at the Tanikawa household because she was kind of scared to be by herself for most of the day.
(Naoya had moved out earlier that year, and she tried to convince herself she didn't still miss that jerk of an older brother please come back, why don't you see me?)
She and Yuzu had spent most of the day reading things together, stories, playing games with other girls in the neighborhood that they knew they were getting a little old for, but well, why not?
(Kagome, kagome, the bird within the cage--)
And after a while Yuzu noticed that she looked a little pale and brought her back indoors so that she could take a rest, and the rest turned into a nap. She liked Yuzu for noticing things like that. She might've been a bit younger by a few months, but.... she thanked Yuzu before falling asleep.
(When oh when will you come out?)
And of course she had one of her nightmares and it was worse than usual. It was a car crash, a drunk driver, glass and blood everywhere, cars bent out of shape, heads through windshields. But that wasn't the worst of it.
The worst of it was that it was her parents in one of the cars, not the drunk car (never them they wouldn't do that they wouldn't they WOULDN'T,) - it was her parents bleeding out, deep gashes into muscle and bone, eyes lifeless and glassy and shards of glass where they should never be--
And Yuzu woke her up, hugging tightly while the smaller girl cried, and once she was feeling a little better, teased her juuust a little about being a scaredy-cat, nyan nyan, and everything was all right.
... Then the phone rang, and Ms. Tanikawa went to answer it, and she hung it up horrified, and the world broke.
"Asako - there was an accident - oh, dear, I'm so sorry---"
(The crane and the turtle slipped out at dawn.
Who's that behind you?)
----
The next few weeks were a blur - Asako stayed at the Tanikawa house until the situation of where she should go was resolved, and both Ms. Tanikawa and Yuzu scared the ever-living daylights out of the poor man in the suit who came by to suggest otherwise. It was kind of funny, in a distant, grayed-out way.
All she could think about, though, was that--
And yet, she couldn't really think about it. It hurt too much to give what had happened a name.
Her aunt and uncle on her mother's side, both of them not the nicest people, argued that she should go with them - "After all, we'll raise her right!"
(They'd never liked Mother. Something about Mother having a different father - she didn't know the details, but anyway, you didn't need to be an oracle to know that they wouldn't be very nice to her.)
Then they found the will, and everything went up in smoke.
"And in the event of our demise, we leave custody of our daughter to--"
---
Her aunt and uncle railed angrily against it, claiming that someone who was barely an adult, could not possibly raise a child correctly!
The counter-charge, delivered by yet another extended relative (some distant cousin thrice removed who she really didn't know) was that they were only interested because her parents had left her their earthly possessions. While not much, the monetary value certainly couldn't have hurt to have.
(Apparently her aunt and uncle couldn't get a hold of Naoya for the meeting, but Asako suspected that they were lying. She hated them, and the hate was like a tiny burning ember and all she could hold on to in the whirling mess, it was warm even though some days she felt like she couldn't stop shaking.)
Eventually, the mess was sorted out, Asako would indeed be staying with her elder brother cousin person - that was what the will said, the lawyer in steel-rimmed glasses said, brooking no room for argument - unless, he hesitated and continued, unless he said otherwise.
So they were going to make a call.
---
Ring-g-g--
"It's going to be okay, Asa-chan! Your big bro will come to pick you up real soon!"
"...He might not...wanna."
"Huh? What are you talking about?! He's your brother, right?!"
Ring-g-g--
"...Well, yeah, but...I was such a bother to Mom and Dad 'cause I get sick so much-"
"And?"
"And...he's got his own things to deal with...and I was kind of a brat to him sometimes...and I'm not actually his sister, you know, he's my cousin..."
"And you think he's going to just leave you to stay with those stinking meanies 'cause of that?"
"...Hee hee, they do kind of stink, don't they? Why do grown-ups wear stinky stuff like that anyway?"
"Yeah, I don't get it, haha"
Ring-g-g--
"...I don't wanna bother him, Yuzu. If he doesn't wanna deal with a kid, then--"
"But you don't know that!"
And it was true, she really hadn't seen whether or not--- she hadn't Seen the outcome of the phone call.
"Yeah...And even if I was kind of a brat to him sometimes, he still put up with me...still got me to the hospital when Mom and Dad weren't around..."
Ring-g-g--
"... Yeah, you're right, Yuzu. He's my big brother, after all, even if he's really my cousin."
"Girls, what are you talking about out there?"
"Oh, hey Mom. Asa was just scared that Naoya wouldn't wanna take care of her and started saying silly things."
"Hey, I'm not silly, Yuzu, you take that back!"
"Oh, girls..."
Ring-g-------
"Ah, hello, Mr. Amakura. This is your aunt and uncle's legal representative, Hasegawa. My apologies for interrupting your day, but---"
"one of the tags on this vid: "big bro is the legal guardian?" - as well as other commentary to the tune of "catphones seems to regard Naoya possibly as a guardian."
.... And so this happened.
Warnings: Violence, some of it graphic, and Asa being more depressed than usual - for entirely justified reasons!
Dedicated to: Rever-tan for getting this idea in my head, Kaji for putting up with my silly when I have ideas in my head. :)
---
She was twelve when it happened.
Her parents had left town to visit a relative - most of the day, but they'd be back by evening, they promised - and she stayed over at the Tanikawa household because she was kind of scared to be by herself for most of the day.
(Naoya had moved out earlier that year, and she tried to convince herself she didn't still miss that jerk of an older brother please come back, why don't you see me?)
She and Yuzu had spent most of the day reading things together, stories, playing games with other girls in the neighborhood that they knew they were getting a little old for, but well, why not?
And after a while Yuzu noticed that she looked a little pale and brought her back indoors so that she could take a rest, and the rest turned into a nap. She liked Yuzu for noticing things like that. She might've been a bit younger by a few months, but.... she thanked Yuzu before falling asleep.
And of course she had one of her nightmares and it was worse than usual. It was a car crash, a drunk driver, glass and blood everywhere, cars bent out of shape, heads through windshields. But that wasn't the worst of it.
The worst of it was that it was her parents in one of the cars, not the drunk car (never them they wouldn't do that they wouldn't they WOULDN'T,) - it was her parents bleeding out, deep gashes into muscle and bone, eyes lifeless and glassy and shards of glass where they should never be--
And Yuzu woke her up, hugging tightly while the smaller girl cried, and once she was feeling a little better, teased her juuust a little about being a scaredy-cat, nyan nyan, and everything was all right.
... Then the phone rang, and Ms. Tanikawa went to answer it, and she hung it up horrified, and the world broke.
"Asako - there was an accident - oh, dear, I'm so sorry---"
Who's that behind you?)
----
The next few weeks were a blur - Asako stayed at the Tanikawa house until the situation of where she should go was resolved, and both Ms. Tanikawa and Yuzu scared the ever-living daylights out of the poor man in the suit who came by to suggest otherwise. It was kind of funny, in a distant, grayed-out way.
All she could think about, though, was that--
And yet, she couldn't really think about it. It hurt too much to give what had happened a name.
Her aunt and uncle on her mother's side, both of them not the nicest people, argued that she should go with them - "After all, we'll raise her right!"
(They'd never liked Mother. Something about Mother having a different father - she didn't know the details, but anyway, you didn't need to be an oracle to know that they wouldn't be very nice to her.)
Then they found the will, and everything went up in smoke.
"And in the event of our demise, we leave custody of our daughter to--"
---
Her aunt and uncle railed angrily against it, claiming that someone who was barely an adult, could not possibly raise a child correctly!
The counter-charge, delivered by yet another extended relative (some distant cousin thrice removed who she really didn't know) was that they were only interested because her parents had left her their earthly possessions. While not much, the monetary value certainly couldn't have hurt to have.
(Apparently her aunt and uncle couldn't get a hold of Naoya for the meeting, but Asako suspected that they were lying. She hated them, and the hate was like a tiny burning ember and all she could hold on to in the whirling mess, it was warm even though some days she felt like she couldn't stop shaking.)
Eventually, the mess was sorted out, Asako would indeed be staying with her elder brother cousin person - that was what the will said, the lawyer in steel-rimmed glasses said, brooking no room for argument - unless, he hesitated and continued, unless he said otherwise.
So they were going to make a call.
---
Ring-g-g--
"It's going to be okay, Asa-chan! Your big bro will come to pick you up real soon!"
"...He might not...wanna."
"Huh? What are you talking about?! He's your brother, right?!"
Ring-g-g--
"...Well, yeah, but...I was such a bother to Mom and Dad 'cause I get sick so much-"
"And?"
"And...he's got his own things to deal with...and I was kind of a brat to him sometimes...and I'm not actually his sister, you know, he's my cousin..."
"And you think he's going to just leave you to stay with those stinking meanies 'cause of that?"
"...Hee hee, they do kind of stink, don't they? Why do grown-ups wear stinky stuff like that anyway?"
"Yeah, I don't get it, haha"
Ring-g-g--
"...I don't wanna bother him, Yuzu. If he doesn't wanna deal with a kid, then--"
"But you don't know that!"
And it was true, she really hadn't seen whether or not--- she hadn't Seen the outcome of the phone call.
"Yeah...And even if I was kind of a brat to him sometimes, he still put up with me...still got me to the hospital when Mom and Dad weren't around..."
Ring-g-g--
"... Yeah, you're right, Yuzu. He's my big brother, after all, even if he's really my cousin."
"Girls, what are you talking about out there?"
"Oh, hey Mom. Asa was just scared that Naoya wouldn't wanna take care of her and started saying silly things."
"Hey, I'm not silly, Yuzu, you take that back!"
"Oh, girls..."
Ring-g-------
"Ah, hello, Mr. Amakura. This is your aunt and uncle's legal representative, Hasegawa. My apologies for interrupting your day, but---"