A/N: This one finished itself quickly. I'm pretty suprised. o.o Anywho, things are going to get a bit depressing here... sort of. For a bit, anyway. Of course, if you think this is bad, then that other thing down the road is gonna be ten times worse. Or just as bad.

Warnings - There's crappy kid drama and Shinji's got a mild potty mouth. Did I mention crappy kid drama?

Lastly, I think I can say I've got a couple of regular readers here. XD Thanks very much for reviews/faves/alerts, guys, seriously. I never really expected to receive any.
Review responses will be at the end, to keep this top note up here short.

I don't own Persona 3/FES/Portable and the related terms/concepts/whatever. They belong to Atlus, d00d.

Chapter 8

The Ones without Parents - II

Miki was not happy.

Sure, the orphanage was empty, but that was because all the big kids went to school.

Sure, that left her with all the toys she could play with, but aside from Usa-kun, she didn't have any to call her own.

Without Aki and Shinji, she was almost always alone.

To make things worse, she still felt alone even when they were there. They always had their books in front of them, doing homework and practicing their writing.

They didn't sit in the backyard together as much as they used to. And whenever they did, no one said anything. Akihiko would get annoyed and start complaining about the kids at school but it always ended with Shinji saying the same thing: "Shut up, Aki."

Naganaki Shrine - Daytime

"Don't touch! It hurts!"

Akihiko was gingerly holding his swollen, bruised knee, an unfortunate result of trying to run his way up the slide. At some point, Miki observed, he slipped and tumbled backwards, banging his knee in the process.

"Stupid," Shinjiro was chiding him, as usual, "I told you not to do it. Now look at you."

"I almost made it, though."

"Onii-chan only took three steps," Miki spoke up, pulling on the bottom of her red shirt. "Then you fell."

"You were keeping count?" Her brother's eyes widened.

The brunette sighed. "Whatever. It needs to get- Miki, don't poke it!"

The younger silverette hastily withdrew her outstretched arm, lifting up her old stuffed rabbit. "It wasn't me, it was Usa-kun!"

"… You're a bad liar."

"It still hurts really bad, Shinji," Akihiko complained, wincing. "I think it's broken."

"Then why don't you get it cut off, Weird Kid?"

Miki, Akihiko, and Shinjiro looked up to see a small group of boys standing by the horizontal bars, two or three of which looked pretty wary looking at the trio. The one who spoke had light brown hair and dark eyes, glaring at them with arms crossed.

"What do you want?" Shinjiro asked, his voice low.

"What does it look like?" A second boy stepped forward. "We wanna play here, and you bratty orphans are in the way."

Miki decided she didn't like these boys. They weren't nice like her brother and Shinji when he wasn't mad.

"You're mean!" she said, glaring at them as nastily as she could. "We're NOT orphans!"

All was silent, and all eyes were on the small girl. Then, the group of boys started to laugh.

"Hey, check this out, Daikichi! She's says they're not orphans!"

"Is she serious? Who is this girl?"

"This has got to be Weird Kid's sister or something. They've got the same hair!"

"Leave her alone!" Akihiko snarled, standing up. At once, he nearly stumbled over; it was too much for his bad knee.

The boys only laughed harder. "What are you gonna do, stupid?" the first boy managed to ask.

"Gonna try an' fight us just for messin' with your baby sister? You're such a dummy!" the second boy added.

"You can't do nothin'! Your leg's messed up, moron!"

"S-stop it! Stop making fun of Onii-chan!" Miki had been trying to hold back her tears this whole time. She didn't think this would happen; she just wanted those kids to leave her and her brother and Shinji alone. Now they were bullying them.

While she was rubbing her eyes, she noticed that Shinjiro was gazing at them, but he hadn't said anything else. The third boy noticed this and nudged the leader.

"Hey, Daikichi, that kid there's lookin' serious."

"Oh?" The leader's eyes lazily shifted to the shorter brunette. "What're you lookin' at? You think you're tough or somethin'? You may scare those other first-graders at school, but that ain't gonna work on us."

"Unless you're scared," a fourth kid chimed in, laughing.

"Go on, get off the slide," a fifth added, "You're in our way!"

The atmosphere was noticeably heavy. Shinjiro took one look at Miki, who was already backing away. He looked back at the boys, keeping his face impassive as he spoke.

"Bug off."

The boy called Daikichi's face twisted in anger. Before Miki knew it, Shinjiro had fallen to the ground as the punch connected with this stomach.

"SHINJI!"

Akihiko, in as much pain as he was in, all but threw himself at the group of older boys. He, too, was down for the count once another boy kicked him in his bad leg and shoved him into Shinji.

"ONII-CHAN!"

"Daikichi, this girl's screaming's getting on my nerves."

"Do something, then, stupid. Get her to shut up."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, take her rabbit or something."

"NO!" Miki held her rabbit closer to her. "GO 'WAY!"

"Tch, shut up!" A hand snatched at the toy's ears, and the sound of tearing cloth was unmistakable.

Orphanage, Boys' Room - Evening

Akihiko sat on his bed, leg propped up on a few extra pillows, knee wrapped in gauze with an ice pack sitting on top.

Shinjiro was curled underneath his duvet, seething, not in the mood to talk and turned towards the window.

Miki was on the floor, futilely trying to dry her eyes and stop her sniffling. The only possession she truly called her own was no longer with her.

It had been torn apart at the shrine.

The laughing was still haunting her even now as a fresh wave of tears came, and they refused to stop.

Her brother looked forlornly at her. He wanted to comfort the girl, she knew, but he couldn't take two steps without complaining about his leg. He wouldn't be able to go to school until it got better.

It was alright. She had to learn to be a big girl some time. But it still hurt.

Shinji was just being Shinji. He never wanted people to see his face when he was feeling bad.

It, too, was alright. He was crying, just like Miki was. It was silent, but she knew.

"O-onii-chan." It was the first word she managed to say coherently since they all got back from the shrine.

Akihiko looked at her, but he didn't reply.

"Onii-chan, what's orphan mean?" The word she was called earlier that day. More than anything else, she was confused about it.

"Miki…" The older silverette bit his lip. "It's… it's when…"

"It's what grown-ups call kids like us." Shinjiro's tone was blunt and harsh. "Kids who don't have any parents end up here cuz they ain't got any other family to take 'em in. That's why we're orphans. That's why this place is called an orphanage."

Miki brought her knees up to her chest, gazing at the brunette. He in turn sat up so he could look her right in the face.

It was probably the first time she noticed that he seemed like he was lacking something; she could see it in his eyes. There was a kind of emptiness in them that she really didn't understand.

Still, the words the boy spoke really stung her. She looked up at Akihiko. "Onii-chan…"

He already seemed to know what she wanted to ask, because he averted her eyes.

"Onii-chan, do we have a mom and dad?"

"… Th-they…" Akihiko bit his lip. She could tell he didn't want to talk about it, and was struggling to do so. "… you were small… when they…"

"… Died?" Miki finished his sentence.

"Tch. Can't ever tell anything to her straight," Shinjiro grunted.

"Can it, Shinji!" Akihiko snapped, glaring at him. "Miki's MY sister, not yours!"

Miki could see that frightening look in the brunette's eyes again. "You damn moron," he said through clenched teeth, "whether you're related or not's got nothin' to do with it. If you're gonna tell somebody somethin' then spit it out. You're just like those stupid kids at school, beatin' 'round the bush and avoidin' everything 'stead of just being straight with stuff."

He climbed off his bed now, and walked towards Akihiko's bed and stood right in front of him, fists clenched. "You got a lot of nerve to get mad at me when you're the one bein' stupid."

"I ain't stupid, Shinji!"

"Then what are you, Aki? Look at you! You can't do squat cuz you hurt yourself bein' slow, then you try an' pick a fight with a bunch of clowns!"

"They wouldn't leave Miki alone!"

Miki covered her ears. The shouting… she couldn't take the shouting…

"So what? You got yourself beat up for nothing, dumbass!"

"Shut up! You don't know anything, Shinji!"

"Onii-chan…" Miki shut her eyes tight; she couldn't stand to see them like this…

"I gotta look out for Miki! I'm the only one who can! Because…"

"Because your mom and dad died? What a load of crap!"

"… Shinji… please…" She pressed her hands over her ears, trying to block out the noise…

"Take that back!"

"OR YOU'LL DO WHAT? Try and fight me? Go ahead, Aki, give it a shot!"

"… STOP FIGHTING!"

Gray and brown eyes turned to Miki, who was glaring at them with tears streaming down her cheeks. "S-stop fighting," she sobbed. "… Please…"

The two boys exchanged defiant glares. "Don't think for a second it's all about you, Aki," the brunette warned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the silver-haired youth said testily.

"… You haven't seen anything that I have." Shinjiro stalked back over to his bed, all but flopping on it. "Not a thing."

Jeering faces, shouting monsters, and the memory of seeing her only possession being torn from her small hands plagued Miki's dreams that night.

Suoh's presence was no comfort to her at all. For the first time that the young girl can remember, she had never felt so scared and alone.

… Her world was all topsy-turvy and broken, and it was all THEIR fault.

A/N (Round Two!): Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I actually don't have that many more scenarios in mind at the moment that still need to be written (Summer Festival again, Shinji's watch, stolen toy, and Christmas!) but I don't really want to jump ahead to the major turning point in the story so soon. So, I'm taking suggestions. What other things do you wanna read in The Old Days? A cameo by P3's/P3P's MC, FeMC, or both in a scene? An appearance by Officer Kurosawa? Send me a PM or write a comment. I'll pick a few and see what I'm working with. :)

To answer Reviews:

SourL - Yep, that's Shinji for ya. Someone's gotta look out for hot-headed Aki, after all. Of course, there are times that Aki doesn't listen, and, well, you see how that turns out here.

Rewritten Ennui - Shinji may actually end up ditching school soon enough, though. Aki may follow because he's Aki. And Aki's a dork (sorry, Aki fans, that had to be said! -.o; ).

Deidara'sgirl19 - Sadly, while Shinji has gotten better at putting up a front, there are times when it fails. That was one of those times. And in ten years, it'll fail again during P3P. ;p

Last thing: I'm still writing the second chapter to Episode Alternate. Don't know when that will be up, so don't be surprised if this story updates again before it. And now I must go to sleep.