Author: CONTACT_con-589113507 Sparkle Itamashii

Title: Just Because

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Chapter One

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            Shandra sat quietly in the front room, legs curled under her as she concentrated on the book lying in her lap. She blocked out the commotion in the kitchen as her mother set about preparing dinner for the family. Dutifully she ignored the ramblings of her younger sister, who was stretched out on the floor like a cat, soaking up the copious amount of sunlight streaming through the large bay window. She even managed to brush aside the scrabbling at the front door when it came- at least for a couple of moments. Several minutes of continued noise, however, drew even Shandra’s acutely focused attention.

            “Josie, get the door!” She sighed irritably, interrupting the child in the middle of a sentence. “It’s probably Kira, back with mother’s groceries. She left her keys.”

            The little girl rolled onto her side and popped to her feet in a way that only small children can and padded over to the door like she’d been asked. Without ceasing telling her story, she began to undo the three bolts that held their door shut. As soon as the first one clicked open the noise outside stopped cold. Josie opened the door and peeked around, thinking only of helping her sister bring in the food so that dinner would be done more quickly.

            With a scream she scrambled away from the door, attempting to slam it closed again. A stronger force caught the door before it could reach the frame, and pushed it lightly back open, wider this time. Josie clambered hastily onto the couch with Shandra, who had dropped her book and taken as defensive of a position as she could. But it was only a girl who rounded the corner, giving them both sharp looks at the commotion.

            “It doesn’t bite, Jose.” She spoke as though Josie was being completely moronic in her reaction.

            “You can’t bring those in the house!” Josie shrieked shrilly, braving a look around Shandra’s still form.

            “Bring what in the house?” Shandra asked worriedly, trying to see around their sister. “What did you bring home this time, Kira?”

            Kira grinned broadly, turning to pull on the lead string she was holding tightly in her hands. It went taught for a few seconds before slowly bowing toward the ground. A small creature rounded the corner, big, blue eyes looking at the girls in a very terrified manner. It had dirty skin and a lanky build, with hind legs far too long for running properly. But it was small and seemed pretty harmless, especially with how it cowered at Kira’s heel, tethered around the neck by a neatly done lasso job.

            She gave it a ponderous, puzzling sort of look and rolled her shoulders in a shrug. “Well, I’m not really sure what it is, but I thought it was kind of pretty with all that beautiful black hair and just take a look at its eyes. I was hoping that if I cleaned it up right then mom would let me keep it, at least for a little while.”

            “Mom’s gonna murder you!” Josie trilled, taking off for the kitchen before Shandra could latch onto her.

            “Mom’s not gonna murder me…” Kira muttered, glaring after her sister. She looked to Shandra and gave a sigh of defeat. “Maybe she’ll tell me what it is beforehand, yeah?”

            Shandra laughed, a light, high noise that Kira had never been able to copy, despite how much she loved to hear it. “Yeah.” She agreed, still smiling. “If you’re really lucky.”

            “Kira,” came their mother’s voice from the next room over, “have you brought home another stray?”

            “You might come and see it before writing it off, mother. This one’s really cute.”

            Kira looked to Shandra with a startled expression, mouth open to present just such a protest. She mouthed a “thank you” instead, grinning. If her new found pet had Shandra’s approval their mother was far more likely to accept it and possibly even let her cage it for a little while. “Yeah, come on!” She added. “At least take a look first!”

            They listened to their mother put down whatever she had been using and bustle into the front room. As soon as she caught sight of the creature she froze, a sulky looking Josie nearly running into her at the abrupt halt. Her hands fluttered to her mouth and she stared, unabashedly, at what Kira had brought home this time.

            “Do you realize what that is?” She breathed, tearing her gaze away to look at her eldest daughter.

            “Well… no.” Kira looked nervously to Shandra and then met her mother’s eyes again.

            “It’s filthy!” Whined Josie from behind their mother’s skirt.

Kira ignored her and raised an eyebrow to her mother. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

            “It’s… It’s a man, sweetie.” She said, as though the concept had finally piqued her interest. “Well, I suppose one that little would be called a “boy” but, Kira, honey, you can’t just keep animals like that! Where do you think you’re going to keep it? It’s probably got all sorts of diseases- Light help you if it starts marking anything, Kira Rei…”

            “Mom!” Kira protested, interrupting her mother’s angry tirade. “I can’t just let it go!” Kira protested. “It doesn’t even look like it’s old enough to live on its own. If we just let it go in the city who knows what could happen to it!”

            “Light above, use your head!” Her mother cursed, tossing us her hands, though she didn’t take her eyes off the boy again. “They don’t live in the city. They don’t even live near the city. I’m sure you have to have a permit or something to keep one at all!”

            “Okay, okay!” Kira surrendered. She felt bad for the boy, because it looked very scared of all the yelling they were doing. She purposely lowered her voice and looked calmly at her mother. “Please. Just let me keep it for a few days while I look into care and permits and everything else. I’ll keep it in my room so even if it does spray, which I don’t think it will, no one will have to deal with it but me.”

            Her mother sighed, searching Kira’s face for any sign that her resolve was not absolute. Unfortunately her daughter seemed to mean what she said, and looked utterly determined to keep the boy, regardless of what her mother thought. Rolling her eyes, she waved a dismissive hand and turned to go back to the kitchen.

            “I don’t care.” She said, though her tone implied that she did indeed care quite a bit. “But you make sure it doesn’t leave your room until you know whether you need a permit or not.” Pausing in the doorframe between the front room and the hallway she looked over her shoulder at the creature. “Make sure you get it some water, the poor thing’s probably dying.”

            Kira nodded and contained herself until her mother was at least out of sight before taking a happy hop-skip in the air. “Yesssss!” She hissed, moving forward to give Shandra a high-five. Her younger sister only returned the gesture and a quiet smile.

            “If that’s quite all, I’d like to get back to reading my book, lovelies.” Shandra looked pointedly between her two sisters.

            Kira took the hint easily, pulling on the rope that bound the boy. “Let me know how it is, later.” She looked to Josie, who was still pouting because Kira had not gotten into trouble for bringing such a dirty animal into the house. “Why don’t you help mother and bring in the groceries. Maybe you can yet turn her against me on this.”

            Josie stuck out her tongue in an ornery fashion but she headed out the door all the same. With one last look at Shandra, Kira moved across the room and the boy followed with a loping, stilted gait, looking very much like the monkeys she had seen at the zoo as a small child. She enjoyed the sight of him and he seemed much more at ease going up the stairs- she thought maybe he was a climbing creature and vowed that if that were the case she would try to build him something to climb upon outside.

            After the commotion had died down and the noise had receded to a bare minimum, Shandra was left alone in the front room again. Without the constant banter of her youngest sibling the room was near silent, save for the distant noises from the kitchen or creaking of the floorboards of the second floor that drifted around her every now and again. Shandra curled her legs beneath her once more and lost herself to the story waiting so patiently to be read.

End Chapter One, Just Because

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Notes: This just popped into my head today. I think I might write a couple more chapters just to… well, humor myself.