Ch.2: Cake
The twenty-two-year-old came around the doorway, wearing a large T- shirt with the letter five on it and a pair of jeans. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either - in fact, he looked a little smug. Immediately that stung him - how could Shindou be smug at a time like this? He was still waiting for the Round Justice's verdict whether to put him through regular justice or throw him on an island for a year, and here Shindou was looking smug? The researcher even hummed to himself as he made himself at home, brushing some of the old newspapers into the corner and pulling up a chair beside the working desk where Kaga did his homework. On went the coat on the peg by the door, the car keys jingling in the pocket (reminding him of just how little freedom he had in the detention center), and then Shindou sat down with a paper bag. Kaga chose to ignore him for the moment, reading the ads section of the newspaper and trying to find out if anyone had the bike he had wanted before he'd been detained. He caught the researcher looking a little lost for a moment, and he smirked.
"Why don't you like your life?", the twenty-two year old asked finally.
Kaga snorted. Wasn't it obvious? "Everything", he said without taking his eyes from the paper. "What else?"
"Well, this person's a dense person. Care for some specifics?"
Now he put the newspaper down and turned to the researcher. He lounged on the hard cot as if it were actually comfortable, but actually he was tensed, so burningly uptight that he could feel his muscles jerk this way and that. He struggled to keep his voice relaxed as he spoke, but it was hard. "Well, I tried out for the swim team last year." Shindou nodded at the statement. Kaga picked the paper back up, trying to keep his voice level. He couldn't quite succeed - he knew that the researcher could see that he was nervous at the question. For a moment, he felt as if he couldn't swallow anything, his throat had something in it that blocked the air passage and he couldn't breathe - and then the moment passed. He swore lightly under his breath and threw the paper to the side again. "I had to beg my parents to come and watch me."
"Why did you have to beg them?"
He glared at the researcher. "They're divorced, stupid. They won't get twenty feet radius of each other if at all possible. They don't give a shit about me." He looked away from the researcher, as if he were afraid to look now that he was going to pour his entire heart out to this pretender. "The swim team thing? They just pushed it aside. Finally when they went, I lost, and my dad made it sound like I lost on purpose or something." He scowled darkly, trying to will the tears away. It wouldn't do if he bawled in front of Shindou.
"Anything else?"
"They drink and they hate me. I'm not good enough to live in their eyes. Two things wrong with me, you know", he turned back to the researcher, squared his shoulders in an attempt to look like it didn't matter, and poked a finger at his temple, "what I do and what I say. They're not gonna be happy till I'm dead."
A pause. "There's something else, isn't there?"
Kaga looked away and picked up the paper again. "No."
Another pause, and then Shindou smiled a knowing smile. "I know you're lying."
He threw the paper down again, this time towards the researcher, who was smiling almost triumphantly now. "Fuck it! Why can't I get a moment's peace or something? You wanna know?" He stormed over to the twenty-two year old and threw a haphazard punch towards the researcher's face. Shindou caught it easily, but Kaga drew back immediately as if he'd been burned. "Do you know? You don't know what it feels like", he screamed as he vainly tried to hit the researcher, "you don't know what it feels like to be hit again and again until you don't feel anything, nothing at all!"
Suddenly Shindou caught his fist and pulled his entire body into an embrace. Kaga hit the researcher across his cheek as hard as he could, retreating to the back of the cell near the bed, breathing hard. "Don't touch me!", he screamed. "Don't you DARE touch me! You're just like the rest of them, you just want me to go away and die! Dig a hole and bury me then, you son of a bitch!"
Shindou smiled, a gesture that seemed completely out of place. "Your dad, I suppose?"
"Hell yes! He drinks till he's sick! Mom just pretends nothing's happened." He breathed hard, trying to get his anger under control. "You don't understand ANYTHING."
The researcher smiled. "Actually, I do. But that's beside the point." He opened the brown bag and took out an assortment of groceries - salt, flour, eggs, water - but Kaga couldn't figure out what the world they were for. Watching Shindou gave him time to calm down a little. When Shindou seemed to be done and had put the brown bag by the chair, the twenty-two year old was smiling. Kaga eyed him warily, then took the other chair available, his eyes never leaving that smiling face. "I want you to taste everything on this table", the researcher said.
Kaga eyed the materials with distaste. "Raw?"
"Yes. Don't tell me you're afraid of a little bad taste, are you?"
He snorted derisively. "I'm not afraid of anything." One by one he sampled the ingredients - first the butter, which he ate all of it, purposefully taking big mouthfuls of it to show that he wasn't afraid to eat it. Next came the flour, which he ate a handful along with the sugar. When it came to the eggs, he tilted his head back and cracked all of them directly into his mouth. He took the thick molasses and drank that down as well. He shook the salt shaker straight into his mouth and washed everything down with the water. He did not take his eyes from the researcher, whose face seemed unmoved throughout the entire episode.
"How did everything taste?"
"Disgusting, of course. Why would it taste anything different?"
"Then taste this one last item." Shindou reached down, brought up the paper bag, and placed it on the table. Reach in, he brought out a small cake, enough to feed two at a sitting, and placed it on front of him. Looking at it, Kaga wasted no time and broke off a piece of it. The icing was cool in his mouth - he didn't stop until the cake was completely gone.
"And how did that taste?", Shindou asked when he was finished.
"Good, I guess."
"But didn't I make it with the exact same ingredients?"
Kaga scoffed at him. "You didn't mix the ingredients, stupid. Of course it'd taste good with the same ingredients, but you have to bake it to a certain texture or a certain amount of time."
"Bake it? How do you know how much time you need?"
He rolled his eyes and went back to the bed. "You look on the recipe book or whatever you have. If you don't, then whenever it's light brown or whatever."
"I baked that cake this morning."
Kaga stopped laughing at the stupid question before, but he didn't stop smirking. "So what? Big deal. I can bake a cake too, if I tried."
The researcher sighed, and the smile that had been slipping since through the entire exchange finally fell completely. The twenty-two year old trudged out, not forgetting his coat, but leaving the crumbs of cake and all the ingredients still on the table. The door closed without a goodbye, and inwardly Kaga seethed. How dared that guy try and cheek him? He was just pretending like the rest of them, pretending to be his friend so that they wouldn't ever get on his bad side when he finally got out of this hellhole. He was just waiting to kick him in jail, to watch him rot and then that stupid researcher would laugh his head off when he died.
The rage came up so fast that he barely noticed it was there. He knew that they were just grinning masks to mock him. They didn't care - no one cared, except for himself. Abruptly he got up, wedged his hands under the table, and upended the entire thing. The contents were knocked to the ground; in a moment his cell looked like someone had dropped a bomb in it. The anger surged like a tsunami inside of him, unrestrained. The cell now looked as if it were a pig pen with eggshells, salt on the pillow, and baking soda ground under his heel from where the box had done an abrupt 360 in the air and sprayed everything. How dared they come in here and greet him in their falsetto little voices? They were just timid little mice, they couldn't control him, they were just afraid of what would happen when he got out. They were just vultures, hoping he wouldn't escape and just die in his cell.
"The cake sucked!", he screamed to the walls. The small space deadened his voice. "And so does my life!"
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ Author's note:
Well. That certainly was interesting. So, Kaga throws a tantrum like a five year old. That's okay, I guess. *laughs sinisterly* I wonder what I'm going to do to him next? I think I have something (just so this fic isn't going around in circles or something), especially after talking it over with another friend of mine that's also a writer. So, yeah.
Andrea Weiling
The twenty-two-year-old came around the doorway, wearing a large T- shirt with the letter five on it and a pair of jeans. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either - in fact, he looked a little smug. Immediately that stung him - how could Shindou be smug at a time like this? He was still waiting for the Round Justice's verdict whether to put him through regular justice or throw him on an island for a year, and here Shindou was looking smug? The researcher even hummed to himself as he made himself at home, brushing some of the old newspapers into the corner and pulling up a chair beside the working desk where Kaga did his homework. On went the coat on the peg by the door, the car keys jingling in the pocket (reminding him of just how little freedom he had in the detention center), and then Shindou sat down with a paper bag. Kaga chose to ignore him for the moment, reading the ads section of the newspaper and trying to find out if anyone had the bike he had wanted before he'd been detained. He caught the researcher looking a little lost for a moment, and he smirked.
"Why don't you like your life?", the twenty-two year old asked finally.
Kaga snorted. Wasn't it obvious? "Everything", he said without taking his eyes from the paper. "What else?"
"Well, this person's a dense person. Care for some specifics?"
Now he put the newspaper down and turned to the researcher. He lounged on the hard cot as if it were actually comfortable, but actually he was tensed, so burningly uptight that he could feel his muscles jerk this way and that. He struggled to keep his voice relaxed as he spoke, but it was hard. "Well, I tried out for the swim team last year." Shindou nodded at the statement. Kaga picked the paper back up, trying to keep his voice level. He couldn't quite succeed - he knew that the researcher could see that he was nervous at the question. For a moment, he felt as if he couldn't swallow anything, his throat had something in it that blocked the air passage and he couldn't breathe - and then the moment passed. He swore lightly under his breath and threw the paper to the side again. "I had to beg my parents to come and watch me."
"Why did you have to beg them?"
He glared at the researcher. "They're divorced, stupid. They won't get twenty feet radius of each other if at all possible. They don't give a shit about me." He looked away from the researcher, as if he were afraid to look now that he was going to pour his entire heart out to this pretender. "The swim team thing? They just pushed it aside. Finally when they went, I lost, and my dad made it sound like I lost on purpose or something." He scowled darkly, trying to will the tears away. It wouldn't do if he bawled in front of Shindou.
"Anything else?"
"They drink and they hate me. I'm not good enough to live in their eyes. Two things wrong with me, you know", he turned back to the researcher, squared his shoulders in an attempt to look like it didn't matter, and poked a finger at his temple, "what I do and what I say. They're not gonna be happy till I'm dead."
A pause. "There's something else, isn't there?"
Kaga looked away and picked up the paper again. "No."
Another pause, and then Shindou smiled a knowing smile. "I know you're lying."
He threw the paper down again, this time towards the researcher, who was smiling almost triumphantly now. "Fuck it! Why can't I get a moment's peace or something? You wanna know?" He stormed over to the twenty-two year old and threw a haphazard punch towards the researcher's face. Shindou caught it easily, but Kaga drew back immediately as if he'd been burned. "Do you know? You don't know what it feels like", he screamed as he vainly tried to hit the researcher, "you don't know what it feels like to be hit again and again until you don't feel anything, nothing at all!"
Suddenly Shindou caught his fist and pulled his entire body into an embrace. Kaga hit the researcher across his cheek as hard as he could, retreating to the back of the cell near the bed, breathing hard. "Don't touch me!", he screamed. "Don't you DARE touch me! You're just like the rest of them, you just want me to go away and die! Dig a hole and bury me then, you son of a bitch!"
Shindou smiled, a gesture that seemed completely out of place. "Your dad, I suppose?"
"Hell yes! He drinks till he's sick! Mom just pretends nothing's happened." He breathed hard, trying to get his anger under control. "You don't understand ANYTHING."
The researcher smiled. "Actually, I do. But that's beside the point." He opened the brown bag and took out an assortment of groceries - salt, flour, eggs, water - but Kaga couldn't figure out what the world they were for. Watching Shindou gave him time to calm down a little. When Shindou seemed to be done and had put the brown bag by the chair, the twenty-two year old was smiling. Kaga eyed him warily, then took the other chair available, his eyes never leaving that smiling face. "I want you to taste everything on this table", the researcher said.
Kaga eyed the materials with distaste. "Raw?"
"Yes. Don't tell me you're afraid of a little bad taste, are you?"
He snorted derisively. "I'm not afraid of anything." One by one he sampled the ingredients - first the butter, which he ate all of it, purposefully taking big mouthfuls of it to show that he wasn't afraid to eat it. Next came the flour, which he ate a handful along with the sugar. When it came to the eggs, he tilted his head back and cracked all of them directly into his mouth. He took the thick molasses and drank that down as well. He shook the salt shaker straight into his mouth and washed everything down with the water. He did not take his eyes from the researcher, whose face seemed unmoved throughout the entire episode.
"How did everything taste?"
"Disgusting, of course. Why would it taste anything different?"
"Then taste this one last item." Shindou reached down, brought up the paper bag, and placed it on the table. Reach in, he brought out a small cake, enough to feed two at a sitting, and placed it on front of him. Looking at it, Kaga wasted no time and broke off a piece of it. The icing was cool in his mouth - he didn't stop until the cake was completely gone.
"And how did that taste?", Shindou asked when he was finished.
"Good, I guess."
"But didn't I make it with the exact same ingredients?"
Kaga scoffed at him. "You didn't mix the ingredients, stupid. Of course it'd taste good with the same ingredients, but you have to bake it to a certain texture or a certain amount of time."
"Bake it? How do you know how much time you need?"
He rolled his eyes and went back to the bed. "You look on the recipe book or whatever you have. If you don't, then whenever it's light brown or whatever."
"I baked that cake this morning."
Kaga stopped laughing at the stupid question before, but he didn't stop smirking. "So what? Big deal. I can bake a cake too, if I tried."
The researcher sighed, and the smile that had been slipping since through the entire exchange finally fell completely. The twenty-two year old trudged out, not forgetting his coat, but leaving the crumbs of cake and all the ingredients still on the table. The door closed without a goodbye, and inwardly Kaga seethed. How dared that guy try and cheek him? He was just pretending like the rest of them, pretending to be his friend so that they wouldn't ever get on his bad side when he finally got out of this hellhole. He was just waiting to kick him in jail, to watch him rot and then that stupid researcher would laugh his head off when he died.
The rage came up so fast that he barely noticed it was there. He knew that they were just grinning masks to mock him. They didn't care - no one cared, except for himself. Abruptly he got up, wedged his hands under the table, and upended the entire thing. The contents were knocked to the ground; in a moment his cell looked like someone had dropped a bomb in it. The anger surged like a tsunami inside of him, unrestrained. The cell now looked as if it were a pig pen with eggshells, salt on the pillow, and baking soda ground under his heel from where the box had done an abrupt 360 in the air and sprayed everything. How dared they come in here and greet him in their falsetto little voices? They were just timid little mice, they couldn't control him, they were just afraid of what would happen when he got out. They were just vultures, hoping he wouldn't escape and just die in his cell.
"The cake sucked!", he screamed to the walls. The small space deadened his voice. "And so does my life!"
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ Author's note:
Well. That certainly was interesting. So, Kaga throws a tantrum like a five year old. That's okay, I guess. *laughs sinisterly* I wonder what I'm going to do to him next? I think I have something (just so this fic isn't going around in circles or something), especially after talking it over with another friend of mine that's also a writer. So, yeah.
Andrea Weiling