He'd sit there, like he was now, on the edge of the bed dangling his feet over the floor. It wasn't that his feet didn't reach the floor, but the childish fidgeting was something he did when he was thinking. A discrete smile blossomed over his lips and he blushed, even though he was alone. The exhuasted bed springs gave a squeal of complaint as the boy flopped back on the comforter. Rolling over on his side, his arms neatly folded around his torso and his eyes closed. He hid the smile in the crook of his shoulder.
Happiness was a secret to Jack, one he kept from all of them when they taunted his emotions. Garet thought it was pointless, but what did he know? That the world was round and the sky it's constant red? Or that the moon bled down carnal abberations which attacked the mind and the soul? Every child knew why they could not play in the forests or swim in the craters. They had all lost someone. That's why Jack hoarded and cherished each moment his heart flooded its chambers with this pure feeling.
Breathing it in, Jack could feel his own high sink far down into the heavy soles of his feet. His toes, with their pastel-painted nails, curled and uncurled in response. Then, as if deflated, his body relaxed with sleep.
---
Angry. Shion was an angry person by nature, but when that mixed with an awkward situation, it made for a volitile solution. Normally Shion found a reason to be angry, whether a person or minute event, and it suited him to growl his words and jerk his movements. Today it was the pillow's fault. Taking his first step out of bed, or mattress on the floor rather, Shion had tripped over it. Not just tripped, cursed, and recovered with a steadying hand, but tripped and fallen face-first into a bowl of wet catfood. The pillow's punishment was to sleep in the garage for a week.
So, not only had the pillow already ruined Shion's day, but here he was standing in front of the freezer section at a grocery store many miles from his home. The orange sherbert stared back at his glare coldly. The more distastefully he looked at it, the easier it seemed to resist the urge to grimace. Shion felt a strange kinship to the sherbert and immediately bought it.
---
"Pancakes...?" The odor wafted into his dreams and pulled him gently out by the hand. Strawberries and blueberries tinted the air with it, and Jack's eyes watered with longing. Pancakes, Korelia's and Jill's pancakes, were his favorite. Not realizing that he had already risen and followed his senses, Jack found himself in the kitchen.
"You said you would get it yesterday!" Jill yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Well, I'm sorry! It was closed on Sunday, and I would've broken in, but there was a cop right across the street." Kore was defending herself like only she could do.
Jack attempted to sneak by them and grab the lone disk of golden cooked batter. As soon as he reached the plate, he stuffed the entire thing into his mouth and turned to creep out again. He was met with two angry sets of eyes.
"That decides it then! Jack, you ate the last pancake, it's now your job to go out and get milk!" Kore commanded him.
Mummbling incoherently around his mouthful, he looked pathetic in his boxers and rumpled, loose hair.
"What was that, fairyboy?" Jill growled, pointing a fork at her twin brother with the intent to use it should he decline.
Swallowing and wetting his lips, Jack nodded. "Do I at least get more when I get back?"
"We'll see..." Jill and Kore chimed in unison.
---
Despite the arctic temperatre of the city at night, he gobbled the frozen desert greedily in the back of the cab. An odd flash of purple eclipsed the hood and windsheild for a moment, disdainfully distracting Shion from his sorce of citrisy joy.
(TBC...)