A/N: New update at last! Not getting enough free time to write these days.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Characters and universe in this fic belong to Natsume, Marvelous Entertainment, etc.


Chapter 9. A thing too fragile - Prelude: Part 5

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"Nice thinking Matt..." Away from the dangers of the family's internal affairs, an inner monologue, "Why wouldn't locking yourself outside the house wearing pajamas on winter morning be a good idea? Do tell.."

His mouth stirred with embarrassment, giving the blatant stupidity an astounding eleven out of ten.

The self-hug had holed into underarms to prevent whatever little warmth remained from flowing out. Just how much longer was it gonna take for Gus and Jack to duke it out anyway? Their past brawls wouldn't last half as much, were they going at each other for real or something? Frankly they had been making quite a ruckus inside, a situation giving birth to dark questions about the current state of the living room... the glimpse of ruin he just had was actually worthy of turning on the waterworks in him.. On the bright side, it was one hell of a reliever his wife wasn't coming back for another couple of days, he'd have every last bit of the house sparkling clean by then, a good opportunity to have his housekeeping survival skills finally acknowledged by Sheila, maybe earn him some loving appreciation as a bonus?

Still, what were they doing in there? They had fallen quiet for a while now..

Every time the hand on his watch made a full revolution one minute appeared to be more and more like an endless hour, the doctor clearly unable to stand the pace not knowing what's going on. For the first time in his life Matthew wished Gus would just open the door and give him that tacit sissy eye and whatnot for being the chicken he was. None of that mattered as long as the knob rotated and clicked, the sweet sound that'd allow him to worm his way back inside; to his recliner, his newspaper, his coffee, the ordinary and uneventful actors of his mornings. He'd smile at the thought if it weren't for a frown disallowing him, concern accumulating downwards, his slippers a wall too thin to protect him from the refrigerator he stood on.

"Warm thoughts, warm thoughts, warm th—"

"Come, come now Duchess, be a goood girl!" An old woman's excessively screechy and drawn out articulations, grating at the ears.

"...This isn't happening..." Matthew's view traipsed from his feet, to the set of stairs, then made a stop on the last step to mentally prepare for a second —his glasses cut to the sidewalk— oh... ohh... and there it was...

...the ball of brown fur padding briskly on its short paws like it was trying to strut out, a pace so elegant it made Matthew's eye bend out of shape.

"Give me a break.."

Even its damn hand-sized head was high on a pedestal, almost with the air of a snob. A seemingly gorgeous and well-trained pekingese lapdog, if it weren't for a single issue. Matthew becoming allergic in the mere idea of an animal being anywhere near him.

The fact they were here must've meant the clock just ticked at 10 a.m., the punctual time Matthew's wrinkly saggy-cheeked neighbor would leave her house to go for a morning leisurely walk, a habit apparently resilient to tedium even after seventy-two years of bachelorhood. For what's worth, Matthew firmly believed that her notorious animal loving personality —particularly, the twenty-seven domesticated cats, likely all of them unvaccinated, running wild in her house— was the sole reason society had shunned her somewhere down the road. Why would anyone even want to be friends with someone fawning over hairball-spitting fleabags?

...That definitely lacked morals of him... He quickly regretted treading into such a reasoning. Perhaps ill-willed and masked thoughts like this one was what Jack hated living with in the first place.

He flinched when the petite companion actually caught his scent and pinpointed him in an instant, for not a hunting dog it surely had a nose to boast for.

"Duchess?"

Despite its owner trying to keep it going on the leash the pet had halted in its tracks and no one was telling it otherwise. A wicked low growl started to pour from its snout, sheen of menace rising in dark-orbed pupils. Could it be this fur ball was somehow able to sense his cynic mind? He flew the thought. Meh, no way.. right? Whatever the case, now hell was about to break loose.

"DUCHESS! DUCHEEEESS!"

The old woman had trouble controlling her dog, it had gone completely berserk pouncing on a stretched leash, obviously out to rip the doctor to shreds. What a gush of irritating yapping barks it was spitting at him... A thing so small, yet so passionate to challenge Matthew and bring him to justice. Ridiculous. Even so, its owner's distressed calls were ultimately enough for the dog to tuck its tail under and crouch back to her, almost with the awareness how it had been a bad child. Matthew could not find any other word to describe the situation as any less than yet again, ridiculous. The woman finally addressed the source upsetting her companion.

"H-Hey Mrs. Parston!" He put on an artificial smile, "Nice weather we got today hu—"

"GOOD GOD!" The old lady gave an infected huff as soon as she yielded half a look at his bedtime garments. She skipped off the greeting on short notice.

"Well fine with me! That makes TWO of us."

Matthew winced in his frustration, he was swallowing a big nasty pill here to abide by the social decorum, what a hag. However he then happened to remember something and frustration gave place to a smirk.

"...but guess who's administering your knee shots next week..!"

The doctor's glasses flashed a sadistic glint as he stared into an unwrapping palm.

"Kuhu.." In those hands, which could not brag superior physical strength like his father's, there was still power. "Kuhuhuhu...!"

Maybe not today, maybe not this year, but someday he'd make them all come to witness the greatness of those hands.

"Hey.. Ya think your old man finally lost it?"

"Beats me.. That's one weird laugh though.."

"Weird doesn't even begin to cut it I'mma 'fraid.."

Grandfather and grandson were quiet bystanders in Matthew's looming dark clouds of upcoming dictatorship. Jack was not even sure what expression to wear, but for Gus, watching his son act like he had a loose screw was simply nerve-racking.

"MATTHEW!"

"Gaa~ah!" Gus's harsh yell landed like a thunder on him.

"Dad, what gives?" Jack was still on the fence how to feel about it.

That was something Matthew was not inclined to elaborate on. He sighed all of his air, nearly on a cardiac arrest..

"What's wrong with you two? Half an hour? I thought I was going to turn into a popsicle!"

"...Ah" Gus let his glare slide, "Guess that 'splains it.. Ya always were kinda oversensitive to cold.." and there was the cocked sissy eye, "..even if it be a mornin' breeze."

Jack himself succumbed to a couple of nods, going down a long checklist of factual examples.

Ohh... so it was two against one then.. Like father like grandson.. but more importantly, the alarming issue here was that Jack was siding with Gus. For some reason, their mutual standpoint was an oddity on the brink of unburying envious syllogisms.

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Why would Jack feel more comfortable around Gus than with him? Why had he raced to the city as soon as his grandfather dangled a letter at him, when in three years he had not taken one step to see his father? Why did he look so elated when he realized Gus had arrived, to the point he would rather have a fight than be in his father's safe arms? When did Jack develop such a bond with his crude grandfather? They hardly ever got to see each other once in a blue moon. Where had Gus gone right and where had he gone wrong? Was Jack still angry at him for trying to push his ideals over his? Did he like Gus better for being a farmer from Leaf Valley, a faraway land he'd never seen? Natural curiosity about the unexplored then? Questions piling up atop more questions. Matthew was not a man easy to sentimentalize, but the feeling from seeing Jack and Gus being close and buddy-like, was simply...

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"So uh.. Did you two work things out?" Those were not the words he wanted to say.

"Ah." Gus grappled Jack's neck and easily subdued him into a head lock, zero chances for escape, "It's all water under the bridge."

Jack was ruffled but he did not dare to complain, this was a consequence he had to endure. His grandfather's scolding eye whispered at him a piece of advice.

"Never punch a guy in the gut Jack.. The gut is everything.. The fatter the gut.. the better the dump."

". . . . ."

An idle line of thought travelled above Jack's head, totally boggled how his grandfather's mouth suddenly peeled and his front teeth touched with a gleeful lightness. Even the tips of his mustache were tingling?

A ringing tune scattered from inside the house and startled the party. The phone. Matthew had already jostled through Gus and Jack.

"Hey!" Gus quickly caught on his role at playing offended, "Ye're not gonna get to tackle my years if ye're always on the edge like that!"

"Just roll over and die then!"

"Aww.. Now he's squealing like a piglet.."

Gus just adored how his pushover son could probably punch a hole in the wall right now. Too bad they didn't broadcast such reactions on the box, he'd be a devoted audience for sure.

"Doctor Blackwood speaking."

Matthew was ready to start sweating any second the receiver spoke, this was likely an emergency call from work that required him to lend his experience and skill, probably another Sunday morning speeding accident with another intoxicated young driver bleeding all over the operating table. Whatever the case, any plans for his day-off were about to go down the drain, his duty as a doctor a priority above all else.

"O-Oh..! Hey hon!" His head bumped against the wall and glued there, relief. "Yeah yeah, you got me.. Didn't expect you to call this early. Everything good right?"

Mute seconds passed while keeping his ear attached on the handset. Stories about jungles, waterfalls, campings, wildlife photos.. he lost the count after a while.. Good, good, all sounded like his wife's ordinary call, no reason to be sitting like a cat on hot bricks...

He blinked and bounced off the wall.

"W..What do you mean you're coming home today!?— No no I was just...—" Matthew was losing his color as she raised her voice. His hair spiked. "TODAY IS WHAT!?"

His figure skewed to zap through the calendar on the wall, a calendar that had already served its annual purpose.

"This can't be.. How did that manage to slip my..— Ughh no no honey! Of course and I haven't forgotten. I mean.. How could I forget, right?"

He in fact had. Matthew covered his mouth, he couldn't let anyone hear about this.

"Yeah.. Yeah, I promise.. This time we're actually going to him.. No more phone calls or sappy letters. We're going there." She finally sounded more calm, "Uh.. Okay.. Evening it is then.. Love you.."

She hung up, but Matthew was pulling at his hair.

A husky and skeptical breath that did not belong to him made his eyes shoot up and snap around. The other standing there was staring into the distance, a grim look on his face.

"..I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you but.. It's just when I realized you were talking with my daughter-in-law, and not the clinic, I thought about saying a hi to her, poke my nose between you and the phone with my goofy antics and all.."

Things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

"Don't worry, Jack ain't here. I told him to fetch me a beer from that kiosk around the corner. You know I always feel like a beer after getting worked up, so.."

Words would not come to Matthew, not while Gus was going on about Jack's errand, and certainly not now that he was finally lugging an eye at him, an eye suggesting that even a vowel's interruption would end really bad.

".. We're all human, we're not perfect.. Just like what you said.. each and every one of us comes with their own set of flaws."

Matthew could not fathom what was going through his father's mind, though the words he had chosen to start out were giving him chills.

".. I for one have a bad habit to pull tricks on my friends, god damn do I have a sailor's mouth, and being the man I am I've got my own issues to break my head over. Like why I'm scared to show how chubby I've been getting year after year and why I so much try to hide it from others."

Matthew's throat went up and down in discretion, why was Gus confessing to him all of a sudden? And why was he tensing up listening to those things? Gus slowly raised the back of his index finger at his son's face.

"But not once in my life... Not once in sixty years... Have I told a lie."

Eyes widened and gave away how deeply the last phrase rippled in him, Matthew's expression had betrayed his thoughts rather easily.

Gus's stare released Matthew from asphyxiation as he glanced away, not because he wanted to, but because he couldn't bear to watch that guilty irredeemable look in his son's silence.

The old farmer spotted something interesting sitting on the wooden drawer chest, just next to the phone. He couldn't exactly remember how they called that thing, it was a pendulum of some sort with a single row of hovering balls that were meant to swing. Gus was about to crack his skull.. Oh, Newton's cradle..! Or was it cuddle..? Names, whatever.

"People lie, because it is convenient. You might start with a small lie to get you off the hook, you tell yourself it's a harmless one-time thing and you won't have to do it ever again.. But at this point, you're still not aware of it.."

Gus lightly pulled one of the metallic balls sideways and let it collide with the rest.

It was not the first time Matthew was seeing how the cradle worked. You pull one sphere and let it swing, then you see how energy and momentum are conserved and passed on the opposite end with minimal losses. As a result the two spheres on the opposite ends keep going back and forth in alternation... Yet why was he looking at the repeated effect as if something was amiss..? The more he tried to focus on it the more the sound seemed to get sluggish, the iterations slowing down. The sound was eventually ringing in his eardrums with a dull clunking impact that lingered. His vision was blurry, and his pupils dilated... What was happening?

"...you're not aware that one lie.. will bring another. Before you even realize it, you're caught into a vicious cycle with no way out. You reach a point where you're not living your life anymore, but the very lie you put yourself in."

A vicious cycle.. just like..! Matthew stopped the spheres. A moment ago his father's eyes were scaring him shitless, now he was seeking those same eyes, a need to learn more from this farmer's way of living. Gus would not refuse him the path, he stared into him in return.

"Back then I told you I don't know how relationships in the city work.. but there's one thing I know for certain. That is, the foundation stone upon which all relationships start to build on, be it a parent and a child, two lovers, heck, even a couple of rivals..."

"..What is it..?" He hesitated. Communication, understanding, respect, good manners? It had to be one of those things.

"Honesty."

Matthew was struck numb, "Honesty?"

Well, yeah, of course.. Honesty was everything.. Matthew himself had wanted Jack to be honest with him about his ends meet..

"When you start solid with honesty, you can go on and build on trust. Then that trust will allow you to truly bond with someone. When you tell lies, you know what happens to that trust, right?"

Matthew could do the reverse math. He shied away.

"Trust is a really fragile thing, it stands atop a roof that can cave in with a single dishonest word. It might take you years to earn someone's trust, yet only a moment to destroy all you've built on."

"..I guess so.."

Even half-heartedly, Matthew agreed. Gus hadn't really pulled a bunny out of a hat like he had expected him, but instead he had backtracked to the very basics.

"That said, you wanna come clean out of this mess?" Gus stretched his neck to take a better look at what was under that withdrawn face.

"Yeah, of course I do.."

"Good. Then first thing you do is tell my daughter-in-law you lied to her about not forgetting—"

"What?! You must be joking.."

"Cut that yammerin'. I raised you to be a doctor, not a politician. You apologize to Sheila. She will slap you a new one but there won't be any more mist between you. Take my word that you'll feel a lot better being true to her than carrying the stupid lie with you for the rest of your life."

Matthew shook his head in compliance, the 'she will slap you a new one' part sounded disturbingly much like a prophecy.

"Now.. I'll tell you one thing, and you better not take it lightly either."

Gus cast a glimpse along his shoulder and towards the door, he wanted to make sure Jack wasn't back yet, kinda odd that he weren't. Attention returned to Matthew who had his undivided attention.

"If I am able to see through dishonesty.." Gus's thumb showed the door behind, "..your son out there can see it coming from a mile away."

Matthew blinked. What? He almost grimaced this time, now this was taking it too far. Jack? Who actually believed Matthew was going to start planting lawn due to a misunderstanding?

"Yeah. I'm talking about Jack." Gus was not letting him take it with a grain of salt. "When you tell a lie to him he doesn't go with the flow because he's a numbnut, it's because he accepts that lie."

Matthew did not even begin to understand. This was all like a mountain of news to him. More importantly, how come Gus knew such a thing about Jack? Something not even his parents did?

Gus sighed and scratched his cap.

"Jack believes that everything in this world happens for a purpose, so even when you lie to him, he won't ask or judge you why you did it. He simply assures himself that you had a good reason for doing so, that something good can come even out of something like this.."

He was staring down at the floor with hands planted under the sides of a plump waist.

"... this is actually where his good heart kicks in, his naivety you might say.. Because he refuses to let go of his trust in others, every time he accepts dishonesty, something he keeps for himself chips away."

"Something..?" That was worthy a nobel for ambiguity.. "What do you mean by that?"

"Hmph."

Gus finally mounted a smile, that was an answer Matthew would have to figure for himself.

"All those words you said to me back there about you and Jack.. Those were true words, I could see it in your pain, in your grief.. However, I'm not the one that needed to hear those words the most.."

Gus was suggesting someone else, and Matthew knew who he meant..

"He's a kind person, if you open up to him, your bond will be good as new."

"You think so..?" Matthew drew his brows, he smiled.

Gus nodded, 'believe you can reach it and you're already there' was what the confidence in his eyes said.

"Anyway, looks to me ya got enough on your plate for the day as it is. Why don't ya lemme borrow Jack for an hour or two till ya prepare everythin'?"

Knuckles joined overhead and cracked in anticipation for Jack's return as he departed from the room.

"It's a strange feeling, that even after sixty years.. I could once again fulfill my duty as your father.."

Matthew watched with reserved awe, only proud to be the son of such a great man.

"I get it now, why you visited all of a sudden.. you remembered today Jack is—"

"Mh..." He grunted.

Of course, Jack could be standing outside after all... "Dad, bring Jack home by evening, try not to wander too far."

"Oh!" Half of Gus's face popped back through the door's entrance, "Third time's the charm Matthew! How 'bout ya just start callin' me dad from now on?" He disappeared before an answer.

With Gus and Jack out of the scene Matthew could only direct his attention back to the living room. The coating rack was broken, clothes would be found laying on the floor on his every step, the carpet had been yanked from under the furniture, chunks of mud everywhere... Was that a plunge-like crack on the floor? Surely an asteroid had landed in the living room. To top it all, he had to tell his wife he lied to her. Matthew donned a bright smile, he had come to terms with the outcome.

"I'm so dead."

[...]

Jack was standing with his back against the mailbox, still collecting his breath.

On his return trip he bumped on an old lady with a small dog and caused a big mess. At first she got the wrong idea and criticized him harshly about drinking beers and stumbling on people early in the morning, which was an awkward train to explain.. Nevertheless, he immediately volunteered to help the old woman gather her shoppings which were scattered on the pavement, most of it bags of dry cat food. He knew she was an animal person. She warned him to stay back because her dog wasn't fond of anyone besides her, and screeched when Jack actually approached the little thing against her warnings. However her dog didn't even growl a threat, only tilted its head at a scent that was strangely familiar. Jack started to pet its back with a characteristic brush of his hand. To her shock the dog instead of biting off a finger climbed its paws up on the boy's knees, barking happily and wagging its tail. When the speechless old woman asked for Jack's name, her eyes welled up.

"Jackie..? My dear Jackie, where have you been all this time?"

"Mrs. Parston and Duchess haven't changed one bit!" He partly stifled a laugh.

There was still an issue though, which was the undelivered beer in his hand. Just as he began to wonder if the refreshment would even be drinkable after his long delay it went missing from his possession.

He popped the can, gulped it all in one go, crumpled it.

"BUUUU~RP!"

Jack's hair blew back and turned into stalactites "..Whoa!" That had to be a new record, Gus was still getting better at it.

"I got permission from your old man to take ya for a spin. I promised if ya could land a single hit I'd give ya somethin', remember?"

"You did?"

"Uh, I was goin' to... But y'know.. I got that cramp before I could finish..

Jack scowled recalling the crafty play, but it slid from his face as soon as he connected the next thought, "..Where are we going then?"

Gus wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulder and clapped his skinny chest, he had a good idea how to make those muscles grow.

"I think today I'm gonna make a hiker out of ya!"

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17.04.17

End of CH.9

~TBC