Lissez-Vous?
A/N: I know, I've been AWOL. No real excuse except for lack of inspiration. Anyway, I got this particular idea while I was having a shower XD (Don't give me that look. All great ideas happen in the shower).
'Lissez-Vous?' that's French for 'Do you read?' A French title because French is cooler than English XD
Now, you guys are going to have to do me a small favour. Check the spellings as you read this story. I've always had a problem with spellings, and for some reason that I haven't figured out yet, M.S Word's spell-check isn't working. And YES, I'm keeping a sharp eye out myself, but I can assure you that I may miss something. In which case, please tell me so I can correct it.
Thanks ^_^
"You should read this," Piper says to no-one in particular. They're on the bridge, and it's another one of those lazy days. She's holding up a fat tome with musty yellow pages. If you come close to it, you could actually pick up that toasty old-book smell. Junko sniffs the air. He's all the way across the room, but his nose is sharper than the others give him credit for. It's a nice aroma.
Aerrow responds, just making conversation. "What is it about?"
"Oh, you know," Piper says casually. "The main character is a prophesized hero who has to overthrow his evil step father...that sort of thing." She really enjoys books like that. If Junko can remember right, all her favourite stories involve some kind of lonely orphan boy saving the world from some evil dictator type. The way this Wallop can see it, the only difference in these stories are the names of the protagonists.
She scans the room, her eyes falling on Stork. "You'd like it, you know. It's got a lot of deadly spiders and diseases and stuff."
"I tend not to read fiction," Stork says firmly.
"Still."
Junko wonders how long Piper'll be talking about this book. The last time she found something new to read, she talked about it for a whole week, until Finn very rudely told her to shut up. (The argument after that was a whole other thing anyway. Junko decided he didn't even want to think about it.)
Personally speaking, Junko doesn't like reading. He enjoys it less than watching movies. It's not that he hates reading, but he just doesn't have any use for it. It's not like he relates to the story or anything. And it always makes him feel bad about himself.
As it is, Junko is a slow reader. He has trouble stringing the letters together in his mind, and often reads them wrong*. That in itself is a huge blow to his self-esteem. Especially when he sees the others run through big words very quickly. Piper's the worst. She can just blab out huge spellings like there's nothing to it. It makes him feel so stupid.
And then of course, there's the story itself. Oh, how he hates stories! They're always about heroes and adventures and bad guys who lose in the end. They all have these elements of 'bravery' and 'doing what is right' and 'falling in love' and 'facing your fears'. It's not like Junko can actually relate to any of that stuff. And why should he, anyway? He's not exactly a hero.
It seems, in these stories, that heroes always face challenges and tests of courage. They're always orphans in the care of evil step-parents, faced by the threat of war. There's always destiny and justice and the good guys always win in the end. In the last few pages of the novel, the writer goes on about the 'aftermath of the war' and how things are all 'happily ever after' and the hero gets everything he wants.
The only characters Junko truly cares about in these stories are the sidekicks.
Sidekicks...now those are real people. If only their stories were told, Junko thinks. They aren't born special. They aren't born great. They're meant to serve the hero. They're the shadows that will always be ignored. Their names will never go down in history. And that's why Junko can relate to them.
He was, of course, born a sidekick. The weakest Wallop there was. A disappointment. He was the timid and shy one, the last one to be counted, the coward. He would loyally follow his hero to the grave, his Aerrow. He wouldn't let a thing touch Aerrow. That was the food chain, and Junko was at peace with his place in it (there was nothing he would be able to do to change it, anyway, so why bother?)
And then again, there came those small moments in his life when the spotlight did indeed shine on him. He treasured those moments, and saw them every night in his mind's eye before he slept. If he'd dream about them, he'd sleep well. But there weren't so many incidents to last a lifetime, and Junko knew that more often than not, he'd have to stop pretending, man up, and accept his place in the hierarchy.
But like anyone, the Wallop hates being reminded of his place. So when Piper looks at him, smiles and offers her book, he shakes his head.
"Books are silly," he says simply. Piper frowns like she doesn't agree.
Of course she doesn't though. Of course she doesn't.
A/N: And there you have it!
*I have a feeling Junko's dsylexic. Don't ask me why. It seems to fit him. But of course, I have absolutely no proof of this theory. It just feels that way.
Thanks for reading :)