Chi: XD This just seems so weird. You've come to the wrong place if you're looking for the old-fashioned Cinderella. Why? Because...this one is done by the Saiyuki gang!

--instant groan--

--Ha sweatdrops-- Ha: This could be...fun?

Chi: Hurray! Time to get to work...for once.

Hakkai rocked back on his aching knees, wincing as he got soapy, dirty water in some cuts on his legs. He set the broom against the

wall and leaned against it, desperate for a brief break in the constant work he had to do. Even though he had been slaving away all day,

hewas nowhere near done with his chores, nor would he be. Then would come the berating, the punishment, and he would be sent to

bedhungry once again.

The broom clattered to the floor, knocking the pail of water over completely. Hakkai watched the water run down the cool stones and

he sighed, pulling a dirty rag from his ragged pants as he bent down to absorb as much of the liquid as he could.

"There..you are. I've been...looking all over for you!"

The young man looked up to see one of his cruel stepbrothers towering over him. The said stepbrother was named Ni, and he had an

odd fancy for a little stuffed bunny that had never been explained. At the moment, the teen was holding his bunny out to Hakkai, who

looked at him quizzically.

"Um...Ni...?"

"You are going to wash...him and get all the...dirt off!"

Hakkai stopped scrubbing the floor and looked up at Ni wearily, some of his dark brown hair falling into his face and into his emerald

green eyes. "But Ni! You're bunny doesn't need to be washed! It's perfectly fine!"

Ni looked as though he would have a seizure right on the spot. Carefully, he restrained himself as he brushed dirt away from his

immaculate labcoat, and he pushed his glasses farther up onto the bridge of his nose. "Brother..." he spat, as though Hakkai wasn't

REALLY a brother; more perhaps a bug you might squash given the chance. "Bunny..is dirty and you...WILL wash him...or I might

perform some experiments that wouldn't be...pleasant."

Hakkai blanched, remembering some of the animals that Ni had "experimented" on. Bowing his head, he sighed. "Yes...I will."

"Make sure...to do so."

"Boy! What are you doing?"

Hakkai glanced up to see the one woman who had created this living hell for him.

His stepmother.

His father had died off soon after they had been married; some people said she had given him a good dose of poison, others had

reasoned just living with the woman had sent him to the grave. Hakkai had then been left alone with the horrible woman and her equally

horrible children, who had decided that Hakkai was not a person as much as someone who would do any chore they forced on him.

"Speak to me when I talk to you!"

His mother didn't seem to care his father had died; in fact, with him dead, she could freely use his money to fund a project she was

quite fond of: Resurrecting her FIRST husband, who wasn't quite dead, but not truly alive either.

"I'm doing the chores you told me to complete, ma'am." Hakkai didn't look her in the eye; perhaps she would go away and leave him

be.

"You call this doing the chores! You're slacking off! Do them right, and do them quickly! I won't have my husband looking at filth when

he finally comes back to me!"

Hakkai was kicked sharply in the ribs like a dog, and he slipped and fell into the grimy water, wincing.

At least she hadn't decided to abuse him for not working to her satisfaction.

"Brother. You will tidy my room. I have guests coming and I need everything to be perfect for them!"

Inwardly sighing, Hakkai pushed himself up, eyes burning from the contact of soap. His youngest stepbrother, and perhaps the nicest

(if that could even be applied here) glared down at him, crimson eyes flashing as he ran a clawed hand through his flowing red hair.

"Kougaiji! Ni wants me to wash his bunny, and I already have chores from your mother-"

"Don't call her my mother! She is not my mother!" Kougaiji vehemently cast these words at Hakkai, who recoiled away from the angry

demon. His stepbrother absentmindedly touched the thin lines underneath his eye. "I only put up with her to get to my real mother."

Hakkai and Kougaiji shared at least one common trait: They both disliked their stepmother with a passion. Seems she had a thing for

men, and Kougaiji was not her son either.

"Just do what I told you to do, and I might not have to tell...her."

As if poor Hakkai didn't have enough work to do, up popped something else for him to contend with.

"What's this? How's come you will do what they ask...and not what I request?"

Hakkai's skin crawled when he heard his oldest stepbrother speak. If the others were horrible, then there were no words strong

enough to describe this male. His hair was a wild blue color, and his skin was quite pale. Almost as though he were not alive. Of course,

Hakkai would never ask lest the brothers decided to punish him.

"What do you want, Chin?"

His brother's name was Chin Yisou, and most of the family members decided to wisely avoid him. His malicious eyes were usually so

narrow they appeared to be shut, and he controlled a puppet that was mildly unsettling.

"Where is it? Where did you hide it?"

Hakkai frowned, wringing dirty water into the bucket. "I don't know what you're talking about. Please, I have to do this or else they'll

punish me."

Chin shot forward quickly, grabbing the front of Hakkai's dirty, worn shirt that was a size or two too small for him. "You shouldn't

worry about what they'll do to you. You should worry about me."

Hakkai's heart quickened it's pace. "Chin..what do you want?"

"Where is my puppet?"

"I don't know!"

"Tell me!"

"I told you! I don't know! I haven't touched it!" Hakkai was telling the truth; the thing's eyes frightened him.

"Tell me! Tell me tell me tell me!"

Chin was now violently shaking Hakkai, who was trying to stop his brother.

"Please! Stop! I don't know! You're hurting me! Stop!"

Chin, thoroughly enraged, flung Hakkai down.

Hakkai smacked the stone roughly, and that was that.

Chi: What is it with me and the Hakkai abuse anyway? Until next time Of course, what would the next chapter be with out the abuse of Hakkai? TT Im sorry but he's cinderella and we all know Cinderella had it bad. And if she didn't...too bad XD because that's the way it will turn out here.