A/N: It's me again! I did have a bit of a hard time writing this chapter, mainly trying to imagine what Shinji would have been like as a little kid. I don't really know if I pulled it off or not.
Also, thanks for the fave and story alerts, LilLaoRyo704, Totschafe, and Zanscythe!
Ok, enough rambling from me. Here's the next chapter of The Old Days. Comments and/or constructive criticism really help!
Disclaimer: Persona 3 and related stuff (c) Atlus.
Chapter 2
Lone Kid and New Kid
It had been a week since that new kid and his baby sister showed up at Iwatodai Orphanage, bringing the number of children from a dozen to fourteen. For Aragaki Shinjiro, it just meant two more annoyances he had to deal with.
Before, Shinjiro was one of the youngest there, and the only other kid his age was some dork with glasses named Ichigo… he didn't know his last name.
The rest of the kids were older than him, and six of them were girls. Mai and Atsuko were the two oldest (twelve and eleven respectively) and formed some kind of "club" with the other four, Hanabi, Sakuya, Yuu, and Shinobu (nine, eight, eight-and-a-half, and six respectively). They always talked about pointless things that he didn't care about, played with dolls, had "tea parties" wherever they could get away with it, and glared at him whenever he walked by.
… Girls were annoying, anyway. So was their stupid fascination with all things pink. The only two kids more annoying than them were those idiots Masaru and Kenta.
Masaru and Kenta (who were seven and five, respectively) were the only set of siblings living in the orphanage. Both of them were always playing pranks on anyone they could… the girls, his brother, Ichigo, even the others in his little 'gang', Kouji and Hiro (both of them six years old). They tried to prank him once, but Shinjiro got them back by tackling the much larger Masaru before Suoh intervened. If it weren't for that, Masaru would have lost a few of his teeth much sooner.
Shinjiro was a little short for his age, with unkempt brown hair and eyes. His attire was nothing special, a black shirt, tan pants, and a pair of white sneakers. He mainly chose to be alone, away from the other children. It was almost as if there was a wall that separated him from the rest.
It was too annoying to deal with others, as far as he was concerned. Except for Ichigo, no one else seemed to get the message… heck, the worst offender was New Kid (the name Shinjiro decided to give him, he didn't bother to remember his name), who, after a couple of days, decided he'd try being the most annoying of them all by trying to talk to everyone every chance he got even while his sister followed behind him…
…especially Shinjiro himself.
Orphanage Backyard – Early Afternoon
"Hey, are you deaf or something? This is the Dazzling Beauty Pretty Shoujo Club for Girls Only. NO BOYS ALLOWED!"
Mai's voice was unusually harsh today. Out the corner of his eye, Shinjiro noticed from where he sat on the far right swing that the dark-haired girl whose wardrobe had to be nothing more than the exact same frilly pink dress and pink shoes was screeching at her latest victim… New Kid. New Kid's sister had her small fingers gripping his shirt and a free hand clutching a toy rabbit, as though all the hot air in Mai's head threatened to blow her away.
"… but Miki wants to play over here," New Kid was protesting. Shinjiro had to admit, he had guts. "She likes the slide."
"Then let her play on the slide while you go away someplace else." The other shrill voice belonged to Hanabi, who tried to copy Mai in every single way but failed. "'No boys' means 'no boys'."
"NOOOO!" New Kid's sister, apparently called Miki, screamed at the top of her lungs. "I wan' stay wit' Onii-chan!"
There was a moment of silence. New Kid looked kind of sad, then he told the girls right to their faces, "You're all mean." Then he turned about face and walked away from them, Miki following behind with a tight grip on his hand.
Shinjiro couldn't help but smile. New Kid had some guts; he left those stupid girls dumbstruck, and Mai's head seemed to inflate with newfound anger. He imagined it exploding into confetti and chuckled to himself.
His momentary happiness was rudely interrupted a moment later when he heard Miki start talking again, this time from nearby.
"Onii-chan! Swing! Swing!"
Before he knew it, the silver-haired siblings were headed right in his direction, with the girl running ahead of him. How old was she supposed to be? She was so… short. Her short hair was neatly styled into two pigtails-Suoh's doing-and she was wearing a lavender-colored sweater with a purple scarf, purple pants, and purple shoes. She was grinning from ear to ear as she reached the swing right next to Shinjiro, oblivious of the boy's glare.
"Miki! That's the big kid swing! Suoh-san said you can't play on that!" New Kid wasn't too far behind, wearing a red turtleneck, dark pants and sneakers, carrying the stuffed toy rabbit she'd abandoned on the ground. It really looked like it was loved.
New Kid didn't notice Shinjiro's eyes on him until he'd caught up with Miki. Gray hues stared the brunette right back in his face, confused. The other set of gray looked on warily once the heavy atmosphere registered to her.
"Uh… whatcha staring at me for?"
"You're in my space, New Kid." Shinjiro tried to sound as belligerent as possible.
New Kid just kept staring, taken aback at this nickname. "New Kid?"
"Are you some kinda idiot? You're the new kid here, so you're 'New Kid'."
"That's not my name." New Kid's brow furrowed.
"Well, I forgot," Shinjiro lied. "What is it?" He got up from the swing and crossed his arms. He thought he looked intimidating enough, but all it did was make Miki's grip her brother's sleeve even tighter.
"…Sanada Akihiko. This is my li'l sister Miki." His expression never changed. In fact, he looked deep in thought. "Um… I don't remember your name, either…"
"Shinjiro. Now leave me alone." The brunette turned to walk away. This was the longest he'd ever talked to anyone, and he wasn't about to stick around here and keep wasting time talking. One of Akihiko's hands, however, grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait. What's your last name? When you introduce yourself to people, you tell them your last name."
Was this boy nuts? The brunette wrenched his arm free and glared at him. "Leave me alone," he said, louder this time. "I told you my name, ain't that enough for you?"
Apparently not, because Akihiko kept talking. "No. Why are you over here all by yourself anyway?"
"Cuz Lone Kid thinks he's too cool to hang with anybody. Ain't that right, Lone Kid?"
Great. The last voice Shinjiro wanted to hear.
The two boys, with matching charcoal hair and eyes, which Shinjiro recognized as Masaru and Kenta, were standing a few feet behind the silver-haired youth. Masaru wore a navy puffed coat, denim jeans, and black and white sneakers. His brother wore a red puffed coat, dark jeans, and red and white sneakers. Both of them sneered at the younger three, especially Akihiko, as though sizing him up.
"Whaddaya want?"
"It's nothin' t'do with you!" Kenta was jumping up and down like an idiot. He must have gotten his hands on some source of sugar. "Aniki wanna say hi to New Kid."
"That's not my name," Akihiko protested, getting visibly tense as Miki retreated behind him, clutching her rabbit.
"Well, I don't care what your name is." Masaru's black eyes seemed to drill into Akihiko, rooting him to the spot. "You're still the new kid here, so I'm gonna call you 'New Kid' till I come up with something else."
"Onii-chan," Miki whimpered. "I wan' go inside."
"'I wan' go inside,'" Masaru mocked the girl. "Seriously, New Kid, you'd be a lot better off if you ditched the baby."
"She's my sister!" Akihiko told him through clenched teeth. "Leave 'er alone!"
"New Kid's got guts, Aniki!" Kenta seemed more hyper than before.
"Yeah, he does." Masaru clapped a hand onto his fist. "I wonder how tough he's gonna be after I show 'im how to listen to big kids."
…Masaru had to be on another level of stupid, trying to pull something like this. He and his brother were so busy grinning like the dummies they were that neither one of them noticed Shinjiro's foot smashing down on the older one's foot.
The girls hogging the slide on the other side of the yard had to have stopped what they were doing and poked their heads out of their hiding places (even Mai's abnormally large cranium) to see Masaru on the ground howling in pain and holding his foot.
Shinjiro crossed his arms and huffed, inwardly pleased to see the older boy knocked down a couple of notches. The moment didn't last long, however, as Suoh's voice echoed from the building.
"What's going on out here?"
Kenta froze, his eyes locked on the brunette youth and a goofy grin plastered on his face. Shinjiro could even feel Akihiko's and Miki's stares on him.
…Crud.
The sound of her crunching footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped nearby. Shinjiro simply looked up into Suoh's stern face, his expression indifferent as usual.
"Shinjiro, you're coming with me."
…This was going to be a long day.
Orphanage, 1st Floor Dining Room – Late Afternoon
"I haven't heard Suoh-san sound so upset in a while. That Aragaki kid is nothing but trouble."
"Trouble is an understatement, Mai. He's rotten to the core. Trust me, I know…"
There they go, talking about him like he wasn't even there. Not that Shinjiro cared or anything. He'd gotten used to this a long time ago.
He had spent the rest of the day inside after Suoh got through talking with him. To his surprise, New Kid-er, Aki-something, he couldn't remember the rest of it- had burst into the room, telling Suoh the whole incident wasn't entirely Shinjiro's fault. It didn't really help as the other boy must have been hoping, because Suoh told him, "Two wrongs don't make a right," and told him she would talk with him and Masaru later.
Now, he was sitting with his head on the table in the dining room, trying to ignore the conversations and noise coming from the next room. Of course, he would be denied his peace yet again…
"Um… Sorry… if I got you in more trouble."
Brown eyes focused on the silver-haired youth standing next to where he sat. His sister stood behind him, looking wary.
"Forget it," Shinjiro muttered, sitting upright. "'S not about you, anyway."
"But you stood up for me…"
"I said 's not about you." Shinjiro's voice was a bit louder now. "Masaru got what he got, an' that's it."
There was a short pause. Akihiko shifted his feet, looking down at them before he spoke again.
"Shinjiro, why are you always by yourself?"
"'Cuz I wanna be. How come you won't leave me alone, Aki… um…" The brunette child trailed off, deep in thought.
"Akihiko," the other boy said. "You say it like A-ki-hi-"
"Shut up, I ain't stupid! It's just too much to say, 's all. So…" Shinjiro pointed a finger at him. "I'm just gonna call you 'Aki'."
The newly dubbed "Aki" looked offended. "Well, if you're gonna do that, then I'll jus' call you 'Shinji' 'stead of your real name!"
"Fine by me."
"Eh? You're s'posed to get mad!"
"I told you I'm fine with it, moron!"
"I'm not a moron, you are!"
"You are!"
"You!"
After a while, the bickering simply turned into laughter...
…Shinjiro would never admit to it, but he was glad someone dared to chip away at that wall.
A/N: The beginning of friendship? Probably not yet. Aki and Miki did sort of just get there, after all. The nickname thing took a bit of fudging around because, well, they're still little kids.
As for why this is "Friendship & Drama," the "Drama" part is for later. At this point it'd just be kind of silly. :p
See you next chapter!
-Kaze