dancing on bones (our souls of iolites and emeralds)

Chapter 12

A person who exercises parental authority over the person's child is primarily responsible for nurturing the child in good physical and mental health, and must endeavor to respect the interests of the child as much as possible in exercising parental authority.

— Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act [of Japan]（Act No. 82 of 2000), Article 4, Section VII

//

Kusuo woke up to the shattering of glass.

"Vernon!" A high-pitched voice screamed. It gave him a headache.

Kusuo turned over, ignoring the shouting in the background, ignoring the cold and the lights.

Didn't Mikoto know to keep the television volume down when she slept over? His head still hurt. His eyes were swollen. There was no ringing in his ears, thank goodness, but he was tired and if these people don't shut up, he will put the fear of Saiki Kusuo into them and-

Wait.

No.

Not here, anywhere but here.

He tries to recall what had happened before.

Voldemort. A flash of green light. Lots of pain. Severus Snape hugging Lily's corpse. Then the giant. Somewhen between the two events, the previous man disappeared. How? Did he go out a window? Or hide somewhere in the room? Kusuo hadn't heard his thoughts. Something to think about later. After that came Kusuo's embarrassing display of crying and Harry's panic attack. Sirius Black hugging him.

Okay. That was everything, right?

"Take the babies inside first, Pet," a male voice sounded. Kusuo absently observed his current surroundings and tried to recall more information. "The neighbors might see him. And keep your voice down. We don't need more questions."

The basket- and honestly, why a basket, of all things? Couldn't they use a carrier?- was placed on a table and the woman who brought them inside picked up a letter from it. Where had that come from? Kusuo was lying inside the basket himself and never even felt or saw that!

Good grief.

Kusuo kept his eyes on the woman as she read whatever was written, listening to her thoughts as she learned about Voldemort and the circumstances of their arrival.

The woman's - Petunia's eyes widened. Shock. Jaw clenched and face paled. Grief. Brows loosened as she reached the end of the letter. Vindication.

The man, Vernon, stood over the woman's shoulder and read the letter. He placed one hand on her shoulder. In support?

The woman looked at him. There were a lot of emotions in her eyes but one was very familiar.

"So your freaks like her, are you?" she asked harshly. But her eyes were moist. Jealousy laced her words but their tremble belied her sadness.

Great, he thought in exasperation, this was going to be fun.

Harry was a normal baby. Surely a 5-word vocabulary was good enough. How much were babies supposed to babble at each age? Kusuo didn't bother keeping that statistic, especially after James and Lily dismissed his strange behaviour.

So Kusuo raised his arms towards the woman and blinked up at her.

Petunia let out a sob and buried her head in the taller man's chest. The man glared at Kusuo as if he had done some wrong. He lowered his arms slowly.

Well then. That was that. Whatever 'that' was.

Kusuo instead reached for his brother, splaying his little hand over his chest in a movement that looked deceptively like the simple flailing of an infant, but was more a sort of controlled chaos of his limb. Feeling the rise and fall of Harry's chest, and the thudding of his heart under his palm, Kusuo suddenly felt as if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

He would worry about everything else later, he decided; at that moment, he was just heart-wrenchingly grateful that his baby brother was alive.

Deciding that the drama was over, for now, Kusuo determinedly closed his eyes, patting Harry's head and focusing on the sound of his brother's breathing, letting it lull him back to sleep.

A/N

DRINK WATER AND STAY HYDRATED
Last day of school, so that means more consistent updates.