Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.
Summery: Indiana begins to notice strange things about Mutt, but even he isn't prepared for this. Mutt's having a hell of a time at school. Hated by pupils and teachers both, and not exactly trusting his father's company, an old enemy raises its ugly head, one that Mutt can't fight and Indie's never seen. Can they pull through together?
Inability To Live 1: Fading Away.
A drowsy Mutt was awoken by the heavy banging on the door of his father. The teenager groaned and rolled over, burying his unusually unruly hair into the pillow. This would be the start of his second term at school, he had been dreading it along with the ever cooling weather all the christmas holidays. He feared it was beginning to show.
A few choice threats filtered from his father through the door and into his brain, most containing the words 'bike' and 'junkyard' or 'grounded'. Mutt regrettably decided that school with a bike was at least slightly more bearable then school without one.
Groaning an indistinguishable reply he rolled out of bed and proceeded to dress slowly. 'Yep' he thought as he glanced at his reflection, surely enough there were dark shadows under his eyes, and his face held an unhealthy pale colour.
Mutt refused to look in the mirror until he had finished dressing in his usual attire, but then couldn't help but glance. He stared for a good minute, seemingly at nothing, and then just as suddenly started franticly undressing again, muttering phrases such as 'stupid' and 'ridiculous'.
"Hurry it up kid you're gonna be late!" Indiana Jones barked up the stairs.
"I'm coming!" Mutt yelled back down, jerking a t-shirt over his head. The kid ran to the door, scooping up a plain brown jacket on the way, but stopped again to glance in the mirror. A very different Mutt stared back briefly, the baggy blue jeans and a white t-shirt seemed to make him fade in comparison to his surroundings. Casting an angry glance at the offending glass he pulled the door open and pelted down the stairs with death-defying speed.
Indie and Marion looked up, startled from breakfast at the abnormal blur of their son.
"Mutt?" Marion questioned lightly at his irregular attire, a frown creasing her face.
"Good to see you're finally dressing right for school kiddo." Indie commented briefly before returning his gaze to his paper.
"Mutt what about breakfast?" Marion demanded as she saw her son dash for the door to the garage.
"It's his own fault he's late." Came Indie's relaxed remark that earned a glare, if he'd been looking. Mutt simply scowled all the way to his bike, wincing as he sat down, somehow it just felt wrong to be wearing this attire on his beautiful bike.
Nevertheless, he still kicked it into life and roared away at a speed that earned him another disapproving look from his mother. Luckily she didn't notice Indie's amused smirk, he would never tell her he was actually proud of the kid's driving, that would be a death wish.
Just as Mutt had expected, the day had been terrible. In hindsight, he thought he should have seen it coming. If wearing his usual greaser attire had been bad, stopping wearing it was an even worse mistake. As he still didn't even appear close to normal, the other kids decided that he was trying to cowardly become invisible.
Having nearly fallen asleep in several classes he had earned himself several hits with various unimpressed teachers' rulers. He hadn't been sleeping well for a while, even though he felt deathly tired when awake, his dreams were haunted with memories he'd rather not participate in.
But that was just it, he was participating. He could be fighting this reoccurrence. He wasn't vain enough to pretend he didn't know exactly what was wrong. It had begun again at the beginning of school, as his initial anxiety about not fitting in proved itself to be true, he stopped eating as much. And it had only gotten worse. Now he could barely find the will to eat, at all.
He couldn't concentrate even if he had the will to, every time he snapped back into focus there would be something, a whisper, a snicker, an outright scathing comment or just a plain memory that made him sink back into dull numbness.
He returned from school in a fowl temper that his mother criticised him for and his father didn't comment on. I fact, Indie had barely glanced at him. In the darkness of his room Mutt slammed his fist down on the mirror hard enough to make it rattle, but not smash.
He coughed back a sob at the lack of concern in his new parent, one he desperately wanted to impress even if they didn't get along at all. But instead of cry he opened his eyes to stare disgustedly at the mirror. Of course Indie didn't like him, he winged and complained even though his problems were trivial at best. He was selfish and stupid and worthless, if he could even earn a modicum of attention from the man then he would be lucky.
Taking a deep breath he calmed himself down and started n his homework, he should be at least trying to get decent grades, even if he was too dim to get any.
"Say, the kid's been awful quiet tonight." Indie remarked to Marion as he helped set out the table.
"'The kid' is your son. And he seems to have had a bad day. Now I know schools good for him and you know schools good for him, but that doesn't mean he likes it, and as he's actually going without too much of a fight the least you could do is pretend to give a damn how his days gone."
Indie winced at the stinging tone of his wife's fury. It cut him deep that she didn't seem to think he cared about his own son. So far everything had gone, if not perfectly, at least smoothly between them, but he wanted the kid to get more familiar with his presence before he started really trying to form a relationship with him.
Somehow it all seemed much more strained interacting with him recently.
"Hey I do care Marion and you know it!" He retorted, insulted.
"Well you could help him to know it, he's just a kid Indie! He's not so subtle!" Marion's eyes blazed with fierce emotion as she stared down the taller man. "His previous father never had the time of day for him either after school. I'm not saying they didn't get along, Mutt worshipped the man. But I think if William had been even a bit more enthusiastic then Mutt wouldn't have kept quitting school after he died.
It was at this moment that familiar teenage steps begun making their way downstairs and Marion and Indie sprung away from fighting stances into more table-laying ones.
"Good timing honey, we were just about to call you for dinner." Marion may have been busy dishing out the spaghetti, but Indie didn't miss Mutt's almost imperceptible cringe.
"Cool, hey let me help with that." Mutt hastily exclaimed as his mother tried lifting the heavy sauce pot and it tilted dangerously. Dr Jones shook his head, he must have imagined it.
After a good few minutes into their silent dinner, Indie could no longer bear his wife's accusing stare at her baby's dull expression.
"So, how was school?" He saw his son's eyes almost shine with the question. Mutt's heart did indeed jolt, partly out of the joy of recognition, partly out of fear of the truth. Surely his father, the professor, would be disappointed if he actually knew the real story?
"Yeah, it was fine." Mutt replied hastily, and although Indie felt a subtle inkling of worry, he looked at Marion with a 'you were saying' glance. She responded by rolling her eyes and gesturing her head slightly for him to continue the rare conversation.
"Have you done your homework?" Marion's exasperated expression was not lost on him, even he admitted to himself that that had sounded cold. Indeed, Mutt's eyes shadowed over so quickly the professor thought he was seeing things again.
"Yeah, its all finished." The kid responded casually 'Although it'll be terrible' he thought to himself.
"Good work, its best to keep on top of things." Now Indie knew he wasn't imagining things, as Mutt's face shone with hidden happiness.
"Yeah it is." Was the quiet reply, before conversation died again, until Marion begun talking about her plans to go visit one of her friends in England in two weeks.
Later that night in bed, Indie couldn't help but feel a surge of anger at his predecessor, a man who couldn't even allow his son the simple happiness at being rewarded. The man that had made his kid hate school. And he didn't care what Marion said, or didn't know. The kid's reaction was no normal one to a healthy childhood. In fact his whole attitude since they had gotten home and he had started school was off.
It was at that stage he vowed to find out all he could about his son, after al, if he felt this strongly about his past father, then it was time to show the kid there was a difference between them, and that he'd got the better end of the stick now.
Whoop! My first Indie fanfic is started! I know this is short but there will be more soon, I just wanted to test the waters!
Please let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading! shadowtheo.