A/N: I really can't wait to see what happens, since I haven't read the manga at all. The first episode of season 2 came out last week, and I was elated. It brought back everything I loved about the characters, and perhaps a little more. Drama seemed to become more apart of it. Anyway, this is the second installment of one-shots for this series. If you haven't read Morning's Foal, go read that one first, as it sets the stage for this.
In case you didn't know, foal is the name for any horse that is under a year in age, and goes by two names. A suckling (one that still drinks milk) and a weanling (One that no longer drinks milk as a dietary staple). A foal that is being weaned will often be fed something called "creep", a supplement that helps it to maintain weight before it is fully weaned entirely. Foals are normally more drawn to creep than they are to normal feed at first, so it sometimes makes the process easier...just like with human babies, there are many ways to wean a horse, and creep is only one method.
Since horses have many names as they grow, and play such a large part of the series, it only fits to name a story series after those stages. Because Yugo is often compared to them, I'd like to think of his emotional growth in such a way, since he's often struggling to and find himself as a person.
Also, if you don't know what chicken sexing is, it's the process of determining if the chick in question is male or female...it's actually quite the disgusting job, TBH, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I don't own Silver Spoon.
Morning's Foal II: Weanling
The air was temped, the water in the bath was hot, and he was tired. Trying to relax, he had his eyes closed, listening to the random banter of the others in the bathing area. It would end all too soon, as it always seemed to do. Without preamble, the upperclassmen would come to bust the door down, and when that happened, he knew any measure of serenity would fly out the window. The male students would cause a near riot over bath time. It was such the regular occurrence in fact, that the girls could normally hear their shouting from above. Some teased them relentlessly for it.
Another long day was coming to an end, he sighed contently as he let his eyes wander upwards.
It was a bad habit to look at the vent just above his head, it was an even worse habit to know where it would lead to. A man's dream... He frowned in thought, that was something he disparately wished he could grasp onto. What is that, anyway? He couldn't come up with the answer, try though he might. It isn't like we all plan to get married or to... He bit his lower lip and sunk down deeper into the water. His face turn a little red, unused to the feeling of insecurity, knowing it was because he was thinking about girls. It would be nice...but girls our age don't go for it, do they? He'd never had to think about girls before, he never had the time. Now, he lived along side of them, worked with them...just about the only things he didn't do was bathe and sleep with them. They're not focused on weird things like this, it's stupid anyway.
A droplet fell from the vent, landing on his knee.
He'd be lying if he didn't say that he somehow felt closer to the girls above him because of that. "A man's dream." His voice echoed slightly as it reverberated off the tiled walls. "What do you suppose that is?" He asked, to no one in particular.
"It depends, I guess." Keiji said, stretching out a little before humming to himself. "Regardless, I think it takes conviction, not that it matters right now." He looked up to the vent that kept dripping. "We can relax, we have time."
"That's too easy going." Yugo mumbled offhandedly. "You'll regret that one day." His cynicism got the better of him, as he huffed out a sigh. "Who really cares about dreams anyway? It's the reality you make that matters the most."
"I doubt it." Came the reply. "I think dreams are more important, without them, we have no motivation." It was with an air of cockiness that Keiji crossed his arms with a splash. "We're not the sons of city men who work for a salary. If you ask me, I'd rather spend every day sexing boxes full of chicks."
"Menial labor found in city isn't that bad." Yugo laughed. "It isn't the greatest, but it's better than sexing chicks, I never want to do that again."
"I dunno, I guess it's all in how you look at it." For a brief moment, Keiji thought about the fast food industry, a paper route, and even being a janitor. All of it made him cringe. "When I was a little kid, my first chore I was ever told to do, was to put feed down for the animals. I did that every morning, and the older I got, the more I had to do." Besides not knowing anything about the other jobs, he couldn't deal with the lack of fresh air and open spaces. "A guy like me wouldn't be able to survive in the city."
"I think you could." Yugo said, more offhandedly than anything. "Daily life is just a grind. Simple tasks, one right after the other. For me it was always school, followed closely by cram school, and then studying over my dinner. That was all I had to do, and that part of it, well that was easy." It was everything else that he found hard, trying to face standards he couldn't reach. "Even now, all we're really doing is repeating the same things, day in and day out."
"Sounds pretty hard to me." Keiji muttered in disbelief. "You gotta realize, I learned to count eggs, not numbers. I can repair a coup or a feeder without thinking twice, and that's the kind of man I want to be." He found it so easy to say, and, it also made him proud to say it. "I want to take over for my family, and I want a wife who can live up to that...I want to raise my kids in the same house, and teach them the same things."
Ichiro had overheard, and he nodded. "Keiji is right." His brow was wrinkled as he thought about it, a frown on his face. "Families like ours, spend every day wondering about just what sort of money will be made." This conversation made him think about his mother and two little sisters. There were often times that he worried she was taking too much on. "Our lives depend on the health of our animals. Our farms are small, so we don't mass produce. If something were to happen, our income would be gone." He scratched his head, but it was because of the twisting feeling in his gut. It was one he wished not to display in his voice, and hid it well. "You can't live the way we do halfheartedly."
"People do though, all the time. I think anyone can." Yugo protested. "Trust me, I'd take farming up instead of life in the city any day...even if I thought of it as only just a job and nothing more." Yugo wondered if he should say anything about his parents, but he took pride in keeping his life as vague as possible. "There is a lot less stress involved, when you live in a place like this..."
"I think there would be more." Keiji said, now thinking about what little he'd seen whenever he went into a large town. "There are a lot of different things that can go wrong on a farm, and if it does, you're not simply talking about looking for a new job. You're talking about a flock gone...before you know it...it would be like losing countless Porkbowl's, all at once...not to mention doctors are few and far between."
"The city is large and complicated." Yugo complained while shaking his head. "People there work for very little enjoyment. They're starting to lose their values too, and that's never a good thing." He grew quiet then. "As painful as it was, letting Porkbowl go to slaughter, that's a pain I'm willing to endure over and over again...I don't have to get used to it." He finally sighed. "In the city, you have to get used to a lot of things that no one should ever have to..."
"They keep a wall up, you mean." Ichiro sighed, he was a farmer's son after all. "We do here as well, in different ways. It comes with the lifestyle, farming is never simply a job." He knew well just what sort of trials were put in front of him. He understood the risks of a failing farm, and without his father, he also knew what it was to fret over a family. "Life here isn't easy, and as you know, the choices we make last with us." There was something in him that stirred at such a thought. "It takes more than most people can handle, to run a good farm." As he said this, he got up, exiting the warm water. "Hard work and commitment isn't enough either. I envy your freedom, Yugo." Ichiro said as he walked away.
Ichiro was always the stern one among them, and his eyes were often on the road ahead, rather than in the past. Even so, his words brought Yugo and Keiji to silence. Something about them felt off, as if, the normally confidant young man lacked something within himself. As if, inwardly, he was trembling. Still, his words were rock solid, and in such times it was best to ignore fleeting weaknesses. It was an unspoken promise among his male friends, they let each other just shrug matters aside often.
Still, Yugo felt that pang of uncertainty, even as he was up heaved from his warm spot in the bath moments later by upperclassmen.
…
The next morning was his study day. There were no classes. Other than caring for the animals and mandatory club time, he was free to do as he wished. Still, that didn't mean he had time to rest, far from it, in fact. Most of the students were horrible in academics, and math was a heavy hitter. He often found time to tutor his friends, but, he was also a student in need of a guiding hand. He could do the back breaking work, and could deal with the complex formulas when presented with one, still applying the theories were much harder.
He lacked their life experiences.
The tables turned when Aki secretly began to tutor him on the topics that the class left vague. Her words were always gentle, her voice wafting in the breeze whenever they sat in the grass among the horses. Often times, the young foal would lay down beside her. Absently, she'd toy with the soft, silky strands of chestnut. With their studying done for the day, she had been sitting quietly, the animal protesting once again at the food it'd been offered. "You know I can't." She murmured quietly, to the dismayed creature, who was seeming to attach to her hip like glue. It continued to nudge at her, making unhappy sounds.
"Don't you think you should do something?" Yugo asked, seeing how little the foal eaten recently. "He's starting to slim down."
"They do, at first." She told him, grabbing a hand full of creep, trying once again to offer it to the young animal. "Since he only knows to drink from a bottle, he doesn't understand what food is. In the wild, its mother would wean it by simply not allowing it to use the teat. Eventually, through observation and desperation, they get the idea." Offering Yugo a smile to let him know this was normal, she continued to hold out her hand, as if insisting that the foal should try some. "The thing is, he's a little young still, but since he was orphaned, it's best to wean him early. The sooner he learns not to rely on the milk and supplements, the sooner he can start learning how to be a real horse, grazing like the others do."
"Sounds kinda harsh." Yugo sighed, though he really didn't know what to do about it. All he knew, was that Aki was starting to spend more and more time in the barn, to help the acclimation go more smoothly.
"The hard part will be over soon enough." Aki said then. "He got curious about the creep last night and nibbled at it a little bit." Keeping her hand flat, she rested it in her lap, wondering if the stubborn animal would partake of it, thinking the negative. "He's just being difficult because he knows I have milk, I just won't give it to him." Then with a lingering thought, she hummed to herself. "If he was with his mother, we would wait until he was about six months old...but four months is plenty old enough, he has the mentality for it...this isn't true distress."
"Maybe not, but even so, I think he's still a little guy." Yugo told her.
"You were little once too, and probably put up just as much of a fight." Aki returned. "I've seen what babies do when they don't want rice cereal."
"Oh yeah, where?" Yugo fired back.
"The twins." Her voice remained soft, and unwavering. "My family used to babysit them every day."
"Why couldn't Ichiro do it?" In that moment, his words tore through the air in the most insensitive of ways, without meaning to. The question provoked a frown from his friend, and he instantly regretted it. "N-never mind." He said, mentally kicking himself. "You don't have to answer that." He already knew...he should have assumed...should have just known instinctively.
Yet, she forgave him of the question. "Hmm." Aki nodded, she could see the worry in Yugo's eyes. "It's alright." She sighed, and stretched, leaning back a little, her head resting on a much larger, fully grown horse. "Our community is small, so, all of the families are close. It's almost like we're all relatives, cut from the same cloth, and struggling for the same things." Distantly, she could still feel the pain that resonated so deeply, but it was only a figment of her past. She was at ease with it now. "When one of us suffers, we all suffer...his dad was kind of like an uncle to me."
"If...if you could have one dream, what would it really be?" Yugo asked. "You say you want to work with horses...but you also say family and friends are more important." He looked down at the ground. "You can't make both sides happy, can you?"
Aki thought about it. "My grandfather and my father are both getting older, and weather or not I want to devote my entire life to horses doesn't matter. The truth is, I should probably find a husband." She took a breath. "You see, we raise horses to race them, we deal with the cows, and keep an eye on the chickens. The problem is, we can't do that without young blood around again. It's too much work for the two of them anymore." She shrugged. "I guess the thing I want most, is to keep the family together. To make everything run smoothly."
"You sure do take a lot of things onto your own shoulders." Yugo said, a bit skeptical. It earned him a small laugh.
"It isn't so bad." She looked down at the little foal. "If I can accomplish it, then sooner or later, I'll bet everything else will fall into place the way I want it to. One day, the farm will belong to me, and my husband. Then, we can shape it in our image...for whatever he and I would want to do."
"It's really that easy, huh?" Deep down, Yugo wasn't sure. "You can accept things, just like that?"
"Yes." Aki nodded. "That's why it's so complicated." She could could feel a nose press curiously into her palm, and she regarded the foal with a smile. The animal was growing curious again. "In the end though, things somehow work out...that's all they can do." She looked back over to Yugo, confidence once again in her eyes. "Really, that's all it ever needs to do."
"Yeah..." Yugo whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder, he'd startle the now nibbling animal. "I guess so."