AN: I know its been a while, but mommy brain has officially set in and its hard to get my brain to do anything creative. Feel free to review, it would be like giving me a Scooby snack!
Mugen awoke during the night to scuffling and arguing. It wasn't a rare occurrence where he lived. It seemed people were always filing in and out of the small hut where he stayed with the big man named Maso and the woman named Yuki. After the old woman from before had gone to sleep and hadn't woken up, he had come to stay with them. It seemed like a long time ago, he could hardly remember her, except that she was old and played music sometimes. He could hear Maso's voice now, loud and angry, as usual. The other people were talking louder too. Unable to tune out the sound of their voices, he got up and peeked around the edge of the mat that was covering the doorway to where he slept in the back room. They all stood at the fire, shoving fingers at one another and grumbling. He went to lie back down, his stomach rumbling at him, and fell asleep again.
When he woke again it was quiet, and he rose and looked out into the main part of the little home. The room where he slept was only some boards nailed haphazardly onto the back of the house, with a doorway leading to it from inside. Maso generally used it for storage and Mugen sometimes slept leaning against bags of rice or other things. Hi stomach was really beginning to hurt him now. Everyone seemed to be gone, and the pot of rice from earlier was still over the fire. He went and checked to see if there was any left, and was happy to see that there was. He didn't hear the footsteps outside approaching, and Maso burst in, angry as soon as he saw what Mugen was doing.
"You thieving little rat!" he bellowed at him, picking him up by his ragged shirt. "I put a roof over your head and this his how you repay me, by sneaking food when I'm not looking!" he roared, throwing the boy to the ground.
"Maso please!" Yuki begged from behind him. "He's just a boy, he must have been hungry. You mustn't be so harsh with your son!" she told him. She sometimes called Mugen their son, as they had no children of their own. She had wanted to be a mother so badly, but so far it was a dream unfulfilled.
"You have given me no son!" he shouted at her, his wrath turning to his wife. "The only reason I keep this mongrel is because of your relentless begging!" he told her. "If I catch him eating my food behind my back again, he won't come back in this house! I'm tired of wasting my food on him!" he said, turning back toward Mugen. "Is that clear?" he asked, once again leveling a finger at the boy before walking outside. They could hear him grumbling as he walked away from the house again.
Mugen looked up at Yuki, who had tears streaking her face. She walked over to him slowly and held him to her. "I'm so sorry." she whispered to him, but he didn't return her embrace. He was angry. He didn't ask to come live at this house with them, Yuki had simply brought him there a few years earlier. Ever since then, he had worked for Maso every day, running errands, carrying things, whatever he asked. He was always hungry and people were always shouting at him. It just made him angry, instead of making him sad like it once had. He went back to his makeshift room and went back to sleep.
The next morning, Mugen got up and sat down by the fire where Yuki was making the morning meal. She picked up a bowl for him, but Maso stopped her before she could put anything in it. It was clear that his anger from the night before hadn't faded very much, as he glowered at the boy over his breakfast.
"Don't even think about it." he growled at Yuki. "He doesn't need anything to eat this morning, he should still be plenty satisfied from his fill last night." he told her.
"But, Maso…" Yuki started, a disapproving tone in her voice, "surely you can't be still angry over that." she said quietly.
"You heard what I said!" he said, his voice already becoming louder. "If you have a problem with it you both can get out!" Before anything else could be said, Mugen stood up and began to walk to the door of the hut.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Maso asked. "No one told you that you could just get up and leave. I got work for you to do today." he told him. "You better believe you're going to work off what you took from me last night."
"I'm going down to the ocean, to learn how to catch fish." he said, his tone disdainful.
Maso laughed a hearty laugh full of ridicule. "Is that so? Well, good luck with that." he said, waving him out the door. "You'll be back soon enough."
Yuki watched the boy walk out the door with sadness. It really wasn't fair the way Maso treated him. She almost felt that the anger he inflicted upon Mugen was really to punish her for not bearing him any children. He was resentful of it, and he took it out on the boy. At least, that was how she felt. She worried for him, going down to the shore on his own to try and do something that could be dangerous. He had stayed with them for almost five years now, and hadn't seemed to grow very much since then, still small for his age. Maso was more accepting at first, but as the years passed, his patience had grown thin as well.
Mugen stood on the hill above the shore and watched the other fisherman at work. He had watched them before as well. He was pretty sure of what he needed to do now, if only he could find a scrap of string or rope and a hook to use. He wandered along the beach for quite a while, until he found a small sliver of rope that looked to have come unwoven from a net. Then, after a while longer, he saw a rusty point sticking up from the sand. He pulled it out to find it was indeed an old hook, and he rubbed it against the rocks until it was sharp again. When he found a bug under a rock to use as bait, he went to a quiet patch of water among the rocks and threw in his line. He returned just as the sun set, his skin sunburned but with three fish on his line.
"Mugen!" Yuki exclaimed as he walked through the door, a defiant smirk on his face. She was surprised to see that he had done just as he had told them.
"Well, so you did have a bit of luck today, eh?" Maso asked, but Mugen could see the anger gleaming in his eyes. "You spent all day down at the ocean and didn't come back to work off your little snack last night like I said. Well then, since you took from me, I'll just do the same." he told them, reaching out to snatch the fish from the boy's hand.
"Give it back!" Mugen shouted, reaching for his hard won catch. Maso shoved the boy away, causing him to stumble backwards and fall.
"It's mine now, since you didn't come back to work off your food!" Maso told him.
Mugen got up and stared angrily at the man, but said nothing. Then, he turned and walked back toward the door he had just entered. The only reason he stayed in the miserable little hut was because Maso had given him food for working for him. Now, he didn't need that. He could get his own food. There wasn't any reason for him to stay there anymore.
"Mugen, where are you going?" Yuki asked frantically. She got no answer.
