Title: Rite of Passage
Summary: "I have enough on my plate, okay? I have school, I have trying to get out of this hellhole, I have trying to raise my siblings away from a deadbeat mom, I have at least attempting a social life, I have work… and now I have ten fictional criminals to take care of. Great. Just what I need."
If you'd gone back in time five years and told a ten-year-old Alexander Martland that when he was creeping up at sixteen years old, he would be spending his days at school and his afternoons and nights working his ass off to raise his three sisters, he would have told you to seek professional help.
But that's what Alex found himself doing; sitting at the computer with his five-month-old sister asleep on his chest, his face contorted into a mask of worry.
Alex sighed and lightly bounced Stella, praying that she wouldn't wake up. She's five months. Worry gnawed at him as he scrolled through all of the sites he had bookmarked. They'd always helped let him know that he was doing this right, up until now. She should be at least babbling by now. But no, not a peep. He sighed and looked down at her, then at the computer, then stood up. "Why aren't you talking, Starry-Eyes?" He muttered as he walked to her crib, humming a random tune as he did so. Stella opened her eyes and wailed sleepily, and he hushed her quickly. It was almost midnight; the other people in the house needed sleep.
This was definitely not how he'd been planning to spend his high school years. He should be going out and hanging with his friends and fumbling with some girl in the backseat of his car and getting ready for college and any of that stuff. Instead, he had Stella, Dawn and May to worry about. He was working for every cent he could – now he understood what single parents were constantly bitching about when it came to money. It just seemed to disappear down the drain.
"Alex?"
He turned around to see five-year-old Dawn rubbing her eyes in the doorway, her stuffed rabbit hugged to her chest. Alex gently set Stella into her nest of stuffed animals and turned to face the middle sister. "Yeah, kiddo?" He asked.
"Mrs. Erikson wants us to bring a parent for Job Day." Alex felt his heart sink in his chest. He hated this time of the year, because it always ended in one of two ways. "Can you come?"
"Dawn…" He sighed and rubbed his neck. "Why didn't you ask Mom?"
"I can't find her. Besides, Mommy scares me. She's mean."
Damn it. "Dawn, kiddo, you shouldn't be scared of Mom." He knelt in front of her, hoping that he could make her understand. "We don't have a dad, so that's why I'm here all the time. But Mom's our mom, and she does the best she can."
"But Mom doesn't even work." The kindergartener insisted. "You come and visit me at lunchtime. Mrs. Erikson said that Job Day was gonna be during lunch. Can you please come?"
It had been a losing fight from the start. Alex sighed and rubbed the back of his neck again before nodding. "Okay. Sure, kiddo. I'll come. When is it?"
She grinned and threw her arms around his neck. "It's in two months." She piped. "Mrs. Erikson just wanted everybody to know."
He nodded, already thinking of the kissing-up he'd have to do to maybe get the day off, or skip school that day, even though the thought pained him. "Okay." He kissed her forehead. "Now you go to sleep like a good girl."
"But it's Friday-!"
"Dawn Tracy Martland…" He raised his eyebrows in warning.
Her shoulders slumped and she stuck out her tongue, but she kissed her brother's cheek before skipping down the hallway. He half-smiled after her and stood back up, dropping onto his bed without changing out of his clothes. He had to go shopping the next day; he'd just change his shirt, and boom, whole new outfit and minimal dressing.
He tried to sit up for as long as he could, waiting for a car to pull into the driveway, or for a knock on the door. As his eyes closed, he thought dully that he wouldn't mind if it were his mother or the police coming to tell him that she was dead.
.
"Alex bought the Lucky Charms for me!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too-!"
With a great heave the bag of cereal exploded over the two surprised-looking sisters. The looked at the cereal in surprise, then at each other, then shrugged and set to picking it up, occasionally plucking pieces into their mouths when the other wasn't looking.
"He totally bought them for me." Nine-year-old May grumbled as she mournfully scooped the food into a bowl, her nose wrinkling when she saw the dirt and hair stuck to some of them. It was only a few specks, but it still grossed her out.
"No, he didn't!" Dawn protested with a pout. "You're just being mean."
"I'm older, so I'm the grown-up, so you have to do what I say!"
"Nu-uh! Alex is the grown-up!" Dawn crossed her arms in a gesture that dared defiance.
May was caught between a rock and a hard place, as the saying goes. On one hand, she considered herself on the cusp of adulthood, so close she could almost taste the freedom. She and her best friend, Marcy, stole Marcy's mother's makeup and high heels and dresses and jewelry to put on and practice putting on makeup and acting like ladies. On the other, Alex was the adult in their situation. He took care of them, did their laundry, fixed their dinners, made their beds, bought the food, took them to school, and so on. She couldn't deny Alex's superiority, but at the same time, she wasn't about to admit defeat to a six-year-old. What would her friends think?
"Well, we're both the grown-ups." She primly stood up and snatched Dawn's bowl from her hands. "And you're not, so I get to tell you what to do. So I get to go out and play with Marcy, and you need to stay here."
"That's not fair." Dawn sulked and stuck her tongue out as May dumped the cereal into the trash.
"Yeah it is, because I said so. God, you're so stupid!"
Dawn stood up and punched her sister's arm with hurt written into her face. "You're mean and I hate you!" She ran out of the kitchen with tears brimming, down the hall towards her room. The back door slammed, telling her that May had run out into the backyard. Probably on her way to play with stupid Marcy. She was halfway there when she crashed into someone, knocked back a few steps.
Dawn squeaked in surprise, then looked up to see a blue-haired woman regarding her curiously. She sniffled, then surged forward and hugged the woman's waist, deciding that being comforted was more important than questioning who the pretty lady was.
Konan blinked a few times, then started petting the little girl's hair as she sniffled. Whoever she was, she was obviously distraught. "There, there." She muttered, then knelt in front of her. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
"My sister's really mean and I hate her because she calls me mean names." Dawn sniffled and dragged her arm across her nose. "A-and she hits me and calls me stupid, but I'm not stupid, but she keeps on calling me that even when Alex told her to stop it and I just hate her!"
Konan pulled the little girl into a hug before she knew what she was doing. "Shh," She murmured. "You are not stupid, no matter what anyone ever tells you. Never believe it. Not even for an instant."
Dawn nodded, then looked up at the woman. "Who're you?" She asked, the thought occurring to her for the first time that she didn't know the woman who was right outside of her bedroom.
"My name is Konan. What's yours?"
"I'm Dawn." She smiled shakily.
"There you go. You're much prettier when you smile, you know."
"Konan?" A man poked his head out of Alex's study, and Dawn looked up at him too. He was taller than her new friend, and he had a bunch of piercings like May wanted to get in her ear but Alex wouldn't let her. "Where are we? Who is this child?"
"I found her here." Konan stood and took Dawn's hand in hers. "She's not a threat, Nagato. Just a child."
More men started appearing, muttering and complaining the entire time. Dawn tugged on Konan's hand, smiling when the woman looked down at her. "Konan, who're they?" She asked.
"These are my friends." She said. "This is my oldest friend Nagato, and the others – Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, Kisame, Tobi and Zetsu."
Damn nodded and beamed up at the entire mass of grumbling men. She heard one of them say something that started with an 'f' that she'd never heard before. She decided that she was going to ask Alex about it later.
The screen door from the back door slammed open and shut again, followed by footsteps. "Dawn! Who're you talking to?!" May came running down the hallway, then froze in her tracks. She stared at the congregation of people for a long minute where no one moved. Then, she opened her mouth and let out the most blood-curdling scream that any of them had ever heard, and went running down the hall.
Pein cursed under his breath. "Deidara! Sasori! After her!" The two ninjas in question rocketed off after her.
"Alex!"
Alex grunted as May jumped onto his bed, followed by a piercing shriek from Stella's crib. He cursed and sat up. "May, what are you thinking?! You just woke up Stella-!"
"There are strangers in our house, and they've got Dawn!" May was screaming with tears running down her face, clinging to him as the blood drained from his face.
As the door to his room was broken down, he opened the window and shoved Stella into May's arms. "Run! Get help!" He ordered before wheeling around, in time to get a fist to the face. "Call the police! Run, May!"
May screamed and bolted towards the window, though her path was cut off by the guy with the dark red hair. "Leave us alone!" She cried, holding Stella close to her and running the other way, though she soon found herself trapped in what seemed like a circle of dozens of the man. Stella was howling at the top of her lungs now, and May just held her tighter, setting her face and running straight towards one of the clones.
Alex was flipped over onto his back with a spike of pain down his spine. He grabbed the guy's wrists and planted his feet on his chest, flipping him over as well and jumping to his feet. "Who are you?" He demanded before ducking to avoid another fist. He dove under the arm and spin it around to pin it behind this new man's back. He had time to demand "What do you want?!" before he was shoved to the ground. He jumped right back up and threw himself at this guy, desperate to leave some kind of wound.
"Stop, or the children die."
Alex froze and turned to see some redhead holding the wailing Stella in one arm and pinning May's arms behind her back. "Put your hands behind your head." He commanded calmly, in a voice that could have been asking about the weather, or what time it was. Alex glared, but slowly raised his hands above his head. The blonde man he'd been fighting forced them down behind his back while Alex glared at the redhead, wishing more than anything that looks could kill. "If she even has a scratch," He growled. "I swear to God, I will kill you and everything you love."
One of his eyebrows arched in amusement. "Someone's already beaten you to that." He said flatly.
The blonde pushed him down the hallway. "Walk, yeah." He snarled.
"At least give me the baby." Alex continued, not breaking eye contact with the redhead.
"Alex…" May started to whimper. "I-I'm sorry…"
"It's not your fault, kiddo. You tried your best." He raised an eyebrow of his own. "I will bet you a hundred bucks I can get her to stop crying in under fifty seconds. Just let me have my sister."
The redhead and the blonde exchanged glances, then nodded. The blonde gracelessly grabbed Stella with one hand, and Alex snatched her from him. "Careful!" he hissed, holding her in the crook of his arm and quietly shushing her. True to his word, she was silent in about thirty seconds.
"Damn, yeah." The blonde guy said in an impressed voice. "You're good with kids."
May took the chance and broke away from the redhead, running to Alex and coiling her arms around his waist. He sighed and kept his arm around her shoulders, glaring at the two men in a way that said I fucking dare you to try and take them away from me. "I'm scared." May whispered.
"You don't have to be." Alex recoiled and pulled May closer when the blonde guy started speaking. "Calm down, yeah. Sorry for beating the shit out of you; that was just business."
"Watch your mouth around my sister." Alex warned instinctively, not thinking of the possible repercussions of the statement.
He raised an eyebrow, but continued. "I'm not gonna hurt the kids, yeah. That's just not what we do."
"Then what do you do? Kidnap? Burglary? Where's my other sister, you-?!"
"I would watch my mouth if I were you." The redhead warned evenly. "Now. Leader-sama is waiting."
The two men led the trio out of the bedroom, but not before the blonde procured a clay statue of a bird out of nowhere and handed it to May with a little half-smile. She looked at him mistrustfully before accepting it, cradling it close between her and her brother.
So I actually like all of those Akatsuki-dropped-into-real-world stories, even though I've kind of left the fandom. But I noticed that a lot of them were the same and I want to change that. So, I give you, a male protagonist!
Anyway, reviews would be much appreciated. God knows I need feedback! Let me know if you have any suggestions - anything!
~UY
