-oOo-

Pudding's Everyday Life

-oOo-

By: Papi


Part One: Pudding's Life is Orderly, 001


The whispers have silenced, recently, and that brings her some level of comfort.

"Why is that child always shopping here?"

"Where are her parents?"

"Maybe she doesn't have any?"

Those were the things they whispered before, just loudly enough for everyone to hear, middle-aged women with little more to do than gossip about the few shreds of dissonance in the homogenous world they lived in.

As the months have passed, she's become part of the scenery, pushing her cart along, examining labels with her head tilted to the side and one eye squinted shut, turning vegetables over in her hands carefully to feel for soft spots.

In the street, she is a performer, in uniform, she is a warrior, and in the cafe she is a menace to both expensive china and sanity, but for now she's quiet and reflective, all too aware that the money in her pocket may or may not stretch to cover the costs of feeding five mouths alongside herself.

Golden eyes roam back and forth throughout the aisles, settling on the lowest prices - the cheapest brand of rice, bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, fish that's marked down just before going off - she'll make sure to cook THAT as soon as she can, probably tonight.

A tiny, tiny jar of ketchup, because Heicha doesn't eat fish without ketchup. A tiny, tiny amount of flour and powdered sugar, for Cake Day towards the end of the week. A tiny, tiny amount of candy - just enough to keep five small children happy, because seeing her brothers and sister happy gives Pudding Fong the energy to keep moving.

Those roving golden eyes pause, momentarily, on a brand of custard pudding she hasn't tasted in years. She remembers the last time she tasted the sweet, creamy caramel topping fanning out across her tongue, sitting across from - beautiful hazel eyes beneath deep purple tresses, a trademark smile that she hopes she's inherited - in a cafe, just the two of them. Smiling was never a chore, then. It came so easily. It's still fairly easy, although sometimes the gesture doesn't come as naturally as she'd like.

The price label beneath the packages always causes her to recoil, so she moves along, never looking back.

Still, as she stands in line, clutching a fistful of bills that will hopefully carry her little family through to her next paycheck (and the next disappointing letter that arrives towards the end of every month), she subconsciously licks her lips, recalling the sweet taste of caramel.

-oOo-

Author's Notes: I haven't written consistently in such a long time, so this is just a series of drabbles intended to ease me back into writing fanfiction. I'm going to try to post a new piece every day. I've sort of chilled on intrusive author's notes, so they'll be pretty limited. Since this is more Family/Friendship oriented than what I usually write, there really won't be much pairing development besides brief mentions of the canon Ichigo/Masaya. And yes, the title and format is borrowed from a webcomic based on Elfen Lied, Nana's Everyday Life, although this won't be NEARLY as depressing. Dear God, not by a long shot. The -oOo- symbols are, of course, my spacing method to get around using those ugly grey bars too much.