SSKK Orphanage AU [Working Title]

1

There on the outskirts of Tokyo, up high on a hill, its only accompaniment, a scraggly, dying maple tree, is The Orphanage. Its owners were even too lazy to give it a proper name.

In this dark, damp place where rats and roaches reign, there is a boy, a boy who does not know who or what he is. Nakajima Atsushi. But right now, we're talking about another boy, one a year older.

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke crawls along in the gutter, his legs shaking, too weak to carry him any further, he hates it. His sibling, Gin crawls behind him, long, ratty hair dragging along through the sewage.

'We need a place to rest. Stopping is dangerous, but if we continue on like this Gin may not make it. My lungs . . . burn. We haven't eaten in days, and all the soup kitchens are closed with this weather. So much for community service. I guess even the warm-hearted have their limits. Where can we go?'

After nearly another day of walking, they reach The Orphanage.

Ryuunosuke raises an eyebrow at the dismal place. 'It looks abandoned, but I'd rather not deal with people anyway.'

"This place, brother? Are you sure?"

"I promised Uncle I would care for you. I will do what I must. An abandoned house is better than no roof over our heads at all."

Gin says nothing, throat too raw with thirst to talk and stomach too hollow with hunger for them to form another thought.

-

Carefully, the siblings enter, and upon entering, the shouting fills their ears.

"You useless brat! How dare you think you've finished! For a wretch like you, labour shall never end! Do you think you can get out of paying your debt to society? Get back to scrubbing!"

"Call us when you have completed this room. I don't want to see a single dirt speck. If we do, you get a strike for every speck we spot, and then you will re-srcub the entire place." Another voice, a woman says. Through the cracked door, the siblings can see her holding out a cane.

"And when you're done you can move on to the next room!"

The adults turn, their cloaks swishing viciously as they stride from the room.

"That- that was . . . We shouldn't be here." Gin mumbles, sacred.

Ryuunosuke nods, "No, we should not. Let's go." But when he pulls on Gin's arm they don't budge.

"Gin."

"But, onii-chan, what about that boy?"

"What about him?"

"Shouldn't we . . . help him?"

"Why? He's trapped here, that's none of our business. Our only business is making sure we don't get trapped as well."

"But maybe he could help us, or we could steal some food."

Ryuunosuke considered this for a moment, looking at the boy, then back to his starving sibling.

'Gin has always been small for their age, and around here, everyone shares the skeletal mark of starvation, but even I know that they are especially weak.'

"Fine. But you stay here."

Gin nods.

Quietly, ever so quietly Ryuunosuke sneaks in, using the shadows as cover. The boy twitches, looking right at the shadow that hides Ryuunosuke, but it's too dark for anyone to see anything.

Gin is not like their brother. They have not learnt to think only of themselves yet, have not learnt that others will only drag them down, despite how many times their brother drills those words into them. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe it means there might still be hope for their psyche, or maybe it's a terrible, terrible thing that will only serve to cause them more pain.