Post by Elda Forever on May 29, 2011 3:22:16 GMT -5
CLARENCE IS FUN TO WRITE.
KTHNX.
Kind of a lame way to end things, but heck, I've always sucked at that 'wrapping things up' bit anyways. Enjoy some lava from Clarence, Timmy and Yukito.
~~
♪ Let's Hear It For The [Home]Boys!♪
~~
It was one of those cool, thar's-a-storm-a-brewin' kind of evenings, with the wind tugging at Clarence's jacket and stinging at his eyes. The streetlights cast eerie glows, and he could hear some kind of bug making an annoying racket up in the trees in front of the Spensers' abode. When he came up to the doorway, he could already hear voices inside, calling out to each other. There was a warm light spilling out of the windows, where somebody had left the curtains open. Clarence smiled a little to himself, then knocked on the door.
“I'll get it!” someone called, muffled through the walls but still discernible. A man answered the door, clutching some ridiculously large book under one arm and looking at Clarence curiously for a moment. Then, he smiled. “Ah, Clarence...it's good to-”
“Clarence?!” came Timmy's elated voice. They must have just eaten dinner, the sound of clinking silverware and an amused, half-hearted reprimand from Mrs. Spenser before the arrival of a small boy that raced up to throw himself at Clarence in jubilation. Laughing, Clarence caught Timmy in a hug of two brothers reuniting.
“Hey, kiddo. You got any plans tonight?” he asked. Timmy looked up to send him a cheeky grin.
“We get to go out?!”
“Well, yeah,” Clarence said, kneeling down to meet Timmy's gaze. “Actually, I need your help. See, Erin is going to this party tonight, and we need to keep Yukito company.”
“How come Yukito isn't going with Erin?” Timmy's question earned a few laughs from both the Spenser parents, as well as Clarence.
“Erm...well, it's a girls-only party, kiddo. But don't worry, we'll make sure he doesn't sit there staring at the wall all night or something. You game?”
“Yes!” Timmy crowed, then caught himself and looked up at Jacob apologetically. “Uh..is that okay?”
Jacob smiled, then gave a nod, patting the boy's head as he raced off to get his jacket and things. Once he was gone, Clarence stood up, brushing off his knees. Mandi walked up to Jacob's side and sent Clarence a smile, “After he's been out with you, when he comes back he won't stop talking for hours.”
“Really?” Clarence chuckled. “Wow...he's doing great with you guys.” He shuffled, a little awkwardly as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy jacket. “I really appreciate you guys taking him in, and all. I mean, I know you didn't have to...” He let the sentence drop, looking away as if embarrassed. Both the Spensers were sending him this cheesy grin thing, with Mandi holding onto Jacob's arm just because. Clarence had seen Erin do the same thing to Yukito's arm. It was like a “hey, I'm right here, right next to you” kind of gesture, and it made something in Clarence's stomach clench up tightly like a fist.
'I'm just glad he has a proper family now, you know?' he wanted to say, 'Just glad he doesn't have to worry about being slugged when he comes home from school or forgotten about altogether. Some kids just don't know how lucky they are.'
But before he could say anything more, Timmy came rushing back into the room, his jacket yanked on roughly and his shoes in both hands. “I'm ready!”
Clarence shook his head. “Get your stupid shoes on, airhead.” He leaned down and ruffled Timmy's hair as he begrudgingly flopped down onto the front steps to pull his shoes and socks on.
“See? They're like Yukito's,” Timmy held up one foot, proudly showing off his Converse knockoffs.
“Yeah, I noticed that,” he commented, pushing the foot back down towards the boy and chuckling. “At least they're not sparkly.”
Timothy said his goodbyes to the Spensers, and they quickly headed off. It was nice and cool, so he hadn't bothered to bum off a vehicle for the short trek. Or maybe it was really too cold and Clarence just liked to see the grin on Timmy's face as he hopped from sidewalk square to sidewalk square.
”Clarence? Am I gonna be taller than Yukito?”
A snort. “Shyeah, I would think so. Your feet are already bigger than his.”
“Am I gonna be taller than you?”
“Hmm...now there's a good question. I don't actually know. We'll just have to see, I guess.” Clarence sent his little brother a grin, ruffling his hair and noting how short it was now. It used to be shaggy and unkempt, or cut into some godawful looking style that was parted straight down the middle. “You got your hair cut.”
“Yup! Mandi said I can grow it back out for school if I want, though. But now it's short like yours!”
“Haha...it sure is. Okay, you wanna knock?”
Timmy shot forward to the door to bang on it with his fist as fast as he could. Clarence noticed how much taller he was now than he had been a few months ago. That fist-like feeling came again to his stomach, making him wish he wasn't recovering so well from his bullet-wound. Wishing he could have been disabled enough to stay with Timmy a little longer. As it was, he was down to counting the days he had left like a dorky, overprotective parent or something.
Yukito's face appeared at the door, confused but not unhappy at their arrival. “Hey...what are you guys up to?”
Clarence looked over at Timmy, who still got quieter around Yukito, even though they always seemed to get along. No one seemed sure what to make of it, so they all ignored it beautifully. Stepping forward, Clarence gave a shrug, “We're here to crash your sad excuse of an evening home alone while Erin is out having real fun. Isn't there some dumb saying about cats being away so mice can play?”
Yukito just stared at him for a moment, expressionless.
“What? You saying you don't speak English, scrawny?” Clarence gave a smirk when Timmy started to giggle.
With a roll of his eyes, Yukito finally let them inside, adding, “Is this part of your Best Man duties, too? I thought your party planning ended after my bachelor party.”
“Hey, man, I'm there for ya,” he responded with a shrug, holding up his backpack. “I brought some DVDs and...” his hand lowered, his brows furrowed and he sent Yukito a sort of glare. “What were you planning on doing, anyways?”
Yukito lifted on shoulder in a shrug, and he turned away to walk further into the apartment. “Just reading, I guess.”
Clarence let out a snort, striding boldly into the house and dumping his backpack and his hefty self on the well-loved couch. Timmy came in after, a little more timidly, and sat down on the couch next to his older brother. “As long as it wasn't something dopey like a romance.”
“Not exactly,” Yukito scowled, heading into the kitchen to bring out a couple of sodas for them all. The instant he was out of sight, Clarence began casually digging through the cushions of the couch, feeling crumbs and pencils while he searched mostly out of boredom. After a couple of moments, he procured from the couch a notebook, four guitar picks, a few M&Ms and some stupid poetry book by some guy Clarence had never heard of. He held the book up for Timmy to see, sending him a mocking look, making Timmy smile. So much for not reading some dopey romance. He started flipping through the pages, kicking back into the now-cleared cushions for his half-hearted read.
“Any idea what the girls are out doing for the evening?” he called out toward the kitchen, flipping more pages than he really glanced at. Okay, so most of it looked like a story-poem thing, not just some flowery words that people called something even more flowery like 'profound' or 'transcendent' or 'dirigible'. Whatever that meant.
“No, it's apparently against the rules,” Yukito wandered back in, setting the sodas down on their messy second-hand coffee table before he noticed Clarence rifling through his reading. “Hey...”
“'He holds him with his glittering eye -” Clarence began in a booming, boastful tone, “The Wedding-Guest stood still, and listens like a three years' child: The Mariner hath his will.” He smirked, making his words harder to understand as he read, “The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: he cannot choose but hear; and thus spake on that ancient man, the bright-eyed Mariner.' Sounds like it'd be pretty cool to be 'the bright-eyed Mariner.'”
“You would think so, wouldn't you?” It was Yukito's turn to smirk. “If you read the whole thing, you would think otherwise.”
“Pfft...” Clarence flippantly waved a dismissive hand, looking down at the book, “No way. This thing looks way freaking long. I'll leave the odd poetry to you, pixie stick.”
“Whatever...” Yukito was still smiling a little, his gaze falling over on Timmy, “So what did you bring to watch?”
Quietly, Timmy held up Batman Begins.
~~
“Dude, you're totally cheating!”
“I am not. All I did was take your rook.”
“I know you've gotta be cheating somewhere, scrawny. You can't move that piece that far!”
“It's a totally legitimate move-”
“Just shut up and let me take my turn,” Clarence snapped, glaring down at the chess board between himself and Yukito. The movie still played on behind them, forgotten except for an occasional glance. A pizza box lay on the floor between them and an assorted junk food collection of powdered doughnuts and whole 2 liters of soda were strewn about in a boyishly admirable fashion. Timmy lay on his stomach, chin propped in his hands as he watched his brothers play a very explosive round of chess, a thoughtful look on his face.
“How do you know for sure if yer winnin'?” he queried. Yukito lined up the discarded pieces and pointed to each piece in demonstration to answer the boy's question.
“If you take a pawn, that's worth one point. Bishops and knights are worth three, rooks are five, and the queen is worth ten.”
“Oh..” Timmy stared at the pieces for a moment, then reached out and touched each piece in turn, counting out the pieces slowly and their corresponding scores. The older boys went through several turns before he finished, but finally he declared, “Yukito has ten points an' Clarence has five.”
“Yeah, but the game's just started!” Clarence parried, taking a chance and moving his last remaining knight out into the open.
“Clarence?” the boy queried, wisely after the boy had finished his move, “Isn't Yukito older than you?”
Both Yukito and Clarence paused, staring at each other across the chess board. “Umm...” Yukito began with a smile he couldn't suppress.
“So?” Clarence cut in curtly, “I'm still bigger than he is.” To Yukito he added an embittered, “You could've played an extra in Munchkinland. Since you're so old and all.”
“But at least I'm the smart one.” Yukito rested his hands on his knees, and Timmy began to grin.
“Ha! As if! Just because I'm able to gain a little muscle and look as sexy as I do doesn't mean I have crap for brain cells.”
“You can prove it by beating me at this chess game,” Yukito retorted, flippant calm to his voice as he moved forward and took out Clarence's queen. Timmy giggled as Clarence let out a series of swears, glaring more intently at the board as if it could be intimidated into giving him some sort of offensive strategy.
“Whatever, I can still win the game. Having a queen doesn't mean life or death.” He looked over at Timmy, pointing a commanding finger, “And you make note of that, caterpillar.” Timmy just giggled some more, reaching out to inspect Clarence's removed queen piece.
“So Yukito has...” Timmy counted on his fingers, needing help to make it all the way to the large number, “Twenty points. And Clarence has five.”
“Shut up, that's getting really annoying,” Clarence growled, moving a pawn forward and slipping Yukito's bishop. Yukito pursed his lips together, disappointed that he'd had to lose the piece.
“Now Yukito has twenty points...and Clarence has...eight!”
“Will you stop that?!” Clarence snarled, and even Yukito was starting to get irritated by the point-keeping. Luckily, his cell phone rang just then, and he moved away to answer it while Clarence told Timmy several places he could go amuse himself instead of irritating them, all of varying degrees of danger to the boy and to nearby toilets. While Timmy grinned knowingly up at his brother, Chica peered out of the kitchen, deciding to take her chance and flash past toward the bedroom, knocking over chess pieces and sending both brothers into gasps and Clarence into another rainbow string of profanity.
“No, Aidousan,” Yukito was hissing into the phone, “I get the whole new-baby thing being exciting and all, but if you send any more photos over here, I know Erin is gonna go crazy on me.” A beat, then a sigh. He wasn't getting it, and Yukito resigned himself to the fact that he'd have to explain his reasons point-blank. “No, email won't make it easier. I know you love your brother, and all, but...” Yukito lowered his voice even further, almost whispering, “Erin and I are just about to get married, Aidousan. I'd like to take things a little slowly at first... you know?”
Not having realized that Timmy and Clarence had ceased their arguing and were looking over at him with different levels of interest, Yukito nearly jumped out of his skin when Clarence began to laugh. “Oh my God, you're worried Erin's gonna jump onto the baby wagon?!”
“I need to go, Aidousan,” Yukito snapped, hanging up the call and sending a glare in their direction. “It is none of your business,” he snarled. This earned more laughter from Clarence, but Timmy's eyes just widened at the idea.
“Clarence, would that mean I can't come over to play anymore?”
The older boy wiped at fake tears in his eyes, still chuckling at the idea of Yukito and Erin's hypothetical kids. “Naw, it'd mean you'd be an uncle, caterpillar! That puts you in a position of power.” When Timmy just tilted his head in confusion, Clarence held up two pieces, “It means you go from being a pawn to being a knight. Kinda.”
Timmy's face lit up in a grin. “Are you gonna have lots of babies? What will they smell like?”
To this, Yukito just let out a sigh, “We're not having babies. It's just...” he shrugged a little, coming back to sit next to them. “At least not right now.”
“Okay,” Timmy said breezily, distracted by the flicker of a black tail in the bedroom doorway. “Why won't Chica come out and play with me?”
“Because she is a very grouchy old lady,” Yukito explained, sending the pompous cat a glare. He went to put his cell phone back in his pocket, then noticed the time, wordlessly holding it out for Clarence to see.
After peering into it, Clarence let out a hiss. “We'd better wrap this game up and get home, caterpillar. It's getting late.”
“Aww...”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We should set up an all-night visit sometime,” Yukito suggested, “Hey, then you could actually sleep in all the places you've dozed off to all evening.”
“Have not...” Timmy complained sleepily. Yukito grinned.
“I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about Clarence.” They both looked over at him, laughing openly at his dumbfounded expression.
“Hey, if your conversation wasn't as boring as watching C-SPAN, I wouldn't have fallen asleep so many times. Your move.”
Wordlessly, Yukito took his turn, watching Clarence inspect the board again, his brow furrowing as he planned out any possible escapes from the dangerous pieces set all around him. Then, Yukito leaned forward and whispered, “Um...that's check-mate.”
“What!? No it isn't! Look, I can...” His hand halted over the piece, and he began to snarl, muttering, “Aw, crap!” Then suddenly, the whole board flipped over, flying away from them and landing halfway in the pizza box. “I know you cheated!!” Unable to regain his pride from a moment ago, Clarence stomped off into the bedroom.
Puzzled, Yukito called out, “Eh..Clarence? Where are you going?”
“TO TAKE A LEAK! WHY?! YOU GONNA JOIN ME?!”
Yukito gave a skeptical expression of half-disgust, half-concern, then looked over to see Timmy practically bursting into two with giggles. “He's always such a sore loser,” Yukito declared.
“Yup, he is. But he'll come back and fix it. He ain't really mad.” Then, while the two of them started to pick up the forgotten cups and emergency clean-up towels and extra pizza, Timmy turned to Yukito and asked, “Are you and Erin really gonna have kids?”
Not meeting his eyes, Yukito gave a shrug, “I don't know. I don't think it's too likely. But...maybe.”
“Will you name your boy Yukito?”
To that, Yukito gave a chuckle, “Definitely not.”
“Will you name your boy Timmy?”
He considered for a moment, “No, not Timmy either.”
“Why not?” Timmy began to pick chess pieces out of the pizza box, moving more slowly than Yukito but still half-attempting to be helpful in his distraction.
“Because,” Yukito explained, “There's only one Timmy for our family, and I think you are plenty enough. We wouldn't want two Clarences, would we? And we would have our hands full with two Erins.” They both grinned, then Timothy looked pensive.
“Yukito?”
“Hm?”
“I wish you were the only Yukito for our family.”
He stopped short at that, halfway in the fridge. What had brought that up? But he couldn't help but feel the pang of Timmy's words. He tossed the pizza box into the fridge and slammed it shut. With a sobered nod, he mumbled, “Yeah, sometimes I wish that, too.”
“I don't know what's scarier, Erin's conditioner or yours,” Clarence bellowed, strutting into the kitchen and letting out a little post-soda belch. “An' I'm guessing all the razors are for her, right?” Yukito crossed his arms and leaned against the fridge.
“What the crap are you doing going through our shower, anyway?”
Clarence didn't answer, walking up and wrapping an arm around Timmy's shoulder, “Okay, crackerjack. Time for us to head out. Don't wanna be here when the rest of the females get home.” Timmy gave some notes of protest, but went to get his stuff anyways. When it came down to it, he really didn't mind going home to the Spensers very much, and as much as he adored hanging out with his two big brothers, he enjoyed being home with Mrs. Spenser the most.
“Well, I guess next time I'll see you two will probably be the wedding,” Yukito commented as he pulled his Volvo in front of the Spensers' house. Then he stopped, considering. “Holy crap. The wedding is in three days...”
“Yeah, I know...” Clarence smirked.
“The wedding is in three days...” Yukito murmured again, letting it sink in. Clarence leaned forward and gave Yukito a comradely clap on the shoulder.
“It'll be okay, man. You'll make it through. Really. See you later!” He loudly clambered out of the vehicle, followed closely by Timmy.
“Yeah...later..” Yukito gripped the wheel, still a little stunned.
“Bye, Yukito!” Timmy piped up, waving as they headed off into the darkness. Yukito gave him a little wave, starting up the car just as someone else pulled in across the street. The headlights glared in his mirrors, and he blinked hard until he had pulled away, not letting him see the driver's face but somehow getting a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he passed the truck. He quickly brushed it aside, attributing it to nervous butterflies about the upcoming wedding. He was actually glad that the two of them had come over. It was nice to just relax with this strange, half-adopted half-related family he had acquired. He wasn't sure when they'd started acting more like brothers than strangers, and it had certainly taken awhile to get used to, but he was glad they'd began to get closer.
He hurried back home so he wouldn't be away when Erin returned. That would bring on a huge influx of questions. Instead, the house was – almost – spotless on her return, with a very bored looking Yukito on the couch listening to music and reading a book of collected poems by Coleridge.
“'He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.'
Leave me shiny comments with your fave/least fave quotes and such!
KTHNX.
Kind of a lame way to end things, but heck, I've always sucked at that 'wrapping things up' bit anyways. Enjoy some lava from Clarence, Timmy and Yukito.
~~
♪ Let's Hear It For The [Home]Boys!♪
~~
It was one of those cool, thar's-a-storm-a-brewin' kind of evenings, with the wind tugging at Clarence's jacket and stinging at his eyes. The streetlights cast eerie glows, and he could hear some kind of bug making an annoying racket up in the trees in front of the Spensers' abode. When he came up to the doorway, he could already hear voices inside, calling out to each other. There was a warm light spilling out of the windows, where somebody had left the curtains open. Clarence smiled a little to himself, then knocked on the door.
“I'll get it!” someone called, muffled through the walls but still discernible. A man answered the door, clutching some ridiculously large book under one arm and looking at Clarence curiously for a moment. Then, he smiled. “Ah, Clarence...it's good to-”
“Clarence?!” came Timmy's elated voice. They must have just eaten dinner, the sound of clinking silverware and an amused, half-hearted reprimand from Mrs. Spenser before the arrival of a small boy that raced up to throw himself at Clarence in jubilation. Laughing, Clarence caught Timmy in a hug of two brothers reuniting.
“Hey, kiddo. You got any plans tonight?” he asked. Timmy looked up to send him a cheeky grin.
“We get to go out?!”
“Well, yeah,” Clarence said, kneeling down to meet Timmy's gaze. “Actually, I need your help. See, Erin is going to this party tonight, and we need to keep Yukito company.”
“How come Yukito isn't going with Erin?” Timmy's question earned a few laughs from both the Spenser parents, as well as Clarence.
“Erm...well, it's a girls-only party, kiddo. But don't worry, we'll make sure he doesn't sit there staring at the wall all night or something. You game?”
“Yes!” Timmy crowed, then caught himself and looked up at Jacob apologetically. “Uh..is that okay?”
Jacob smiled, then gave a nod, patting the boy's head as he raced off to get his jacket and things. Once he was gone, Clarence stood up, brushing off his knees. Mandi walked up to Jacob's side and sent Clarence a smile, “After he's been out with you, when he comes back he won't stop talking for hours.”
“Really?” Clarence chuckled. “Wow...he's doing great with you guys.” He shuffled, a little awkwardly as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy jacket. “I really appreciate you guys taking him in, and all. I mean, I know you didn't have to...” He let the sentence drop, looking away as if embarrassed. Both the Spensers were sending him this cheesy grin thing, with Mandi holding onto Jacob's arm just because. Clarence had seen Erin do the same thing to Yukito's arm. It was like a “hey, I'm right here, right next to you” kind of gesture, and it made something in Clarence's stomach clench up tightly like a fist.
'I'm just glad he has a proper family now, you know?' he wanted to say, 'Just glad he doesn't have to worry about being slugged when he comes home from school or forgotten about altogether. Some kids just don't know how lucky they are.'
But before he could say anything more, Timmy came rushing back into the room, his jacket yanked on roughly and his shoes in both hands. “I'm ready!”
Clarence shook his head. “Get your stupid shoes on, airhead.” He leaned down and ruffled Timmy's hair as he begrudgingly flopped down onto the front steps to pull his shoes and socks on.
“See? They're like Yukito's,” Timmy held up one foot, proudly showing off his Converse knockoffs.
“Yeah, I noticed that,” he commented, pushing the foot back down towards the boy and chuckling. “At least they're not sparkly.”
Timothy said his goodbyes to the Spensers, and they quickly headed off. It was nice and cool, so he hadn't bothered to bum off a vehicle for the short trek. Or maybe it was really too cold and Clarence just liked to see the grin on Timmy's face as he hopped from sidewalk square to sidewalk square.
”Clarence? Am I gonna be taller than Yukito?”
A snort. “Shyeah, I would think so. Your feet are already bigger than his.”
“Am I gonna be taller than you?”
“Hmm...now there's a good question. I don't actually know. We'll just have to see, I guess.” Clarence sent his little brother a grin, ruffling his hair and noting how short it was now. It used to be shaggy and unkempt, or cut into some godawful looking style that was parted straight down the middle. “You got your hair cut.”
“Yup! Mandi said I can grow it back out for school if I want, though. But now it's short like yours!”
“Haha...it sure is. Okay, you wanna knock?”
Timmy shot forward to the door to bang on it with his fist as fast as he could. Clarence noticed how much taller he was now than he had been a few months ago. That fist-like feeling came again to his stomach, making him wish he wasn't recovering so well from his bullet-wound. Wishing he could have been disabled enough to stay with Timmy a little longer. As it was, he was down to counting the days he had left like a dorky, overprotective parent or something.
Yukito's face appeared at the door, confused but not unhappy at their arrival. “Hey...what are you guys up to?”
Clarence looked over at Timmy, who still got quieter around Yukito, even though they always seemed to get along. No one seemed sure what to make of it, so they all ignored it beautifully. Stepping forward, Clarence gave a shrug, “We're here to crash your sad excuse of an evening home alone while Erin is out having real fun. Isn't there some dumb saying about cats being away so mice can play?”
Yukito just stared at him for a moment, expressionless.
“What? You saying you don't speak English, scrawny?” Clarence gave a smirk when Timmy started to giggle.
With a roll of his eyes, Yukito finally let them inside, adding, “Is this part of your Best Man duties, too? I thought your party planning ended after my bachelor party.”
“Hey, man, I'm there for ya,” he responded with a shrug, holding up his backpack. “I brought some DVDs and...” his hand lowered, his brows furrowed and he sent Yukito a sort of glare. “What were you planning on doing, anyways?”
Yukito lifted on shoulder in a shrug, and he turned away to walk further into the apartment. “Just reading, I guess.”
Clarence let out a snort, striding boldly into the house and dumping his backpack and his hefty self on the well-loved couch. Timmy came in after, a little more timidly, and sat down on the couch next to his older brother. “As long as it wasn't something dopey like a romance.”
“Not exactly,” Yukito scowled, heading into the kitchen to bring out a couple of sodas for them all. The instant he was out of sight, Clarence began casually digging through the cushions of the couch, feeling crumbs and pencils while he searched mostly out of boredom. After a couple of moments, he procured from the couch a notebook, four guitar picks, a few M&Ms and some stupid poetry book by some guy Clarence had never heard of. He held the book up for Timmy to see, sending him a mocking look, making Timmy smile. So much for not reading some dopey romance. He started flipping through the pages, kicking back into the now-cleared cushions for his half-hearted read.
“Any idea what the girls are out doing for the evening?” he called out toward the kitchen, flipping more pages than he really glanced at. Okay, so most of it looked like a story-poem thing, not just some flowery words that people called something even more flowery like 'profound' or 'transcendent' or 'dirigible'. Whatever that meant.
“No, it's apparently against the rules,” Yukito wandered back in, setting the sodas down on their messy second-hand coffee table before he noticed Clarence rifling through his reading. “Hey...”
“'He holds him with his glittering eye -” Clarence began in a booming, boastful tone, “The Wedding-Guest stood still, and listens like a three years' child: The Mariner hath his will.” He smirked, making his words harder to understand as he read, “The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: he cannot choose but hear; and thus spake on that ancient man, the bright-eyed Mariner.' Sounds like it'd be pretty cool to be 'the bright-eyed Mariner.'”
“You would think so, wouldn't you?” It was Yukito's turn to smirk. “If you read the whole thing, you would think otherwise.”
“Pfft...” Clarence flippantly waved a dismissive hand, looking down at the book, “No way. This thing looks way freaking long. I'll leave the odd poetry to you, pixie stick.”
“Whatever...” Yukito was still smiling a little, his gaze falling over on Timmy, “So what did you bring to watch?”
Quietly, Timmy held up Batman Begins.
~~
“Dude, you're totally cheating!”
“I am not. All I did was take your rook.”
“I know you've gotta be cheating somewhere, scrawny. You can't move that piece that far!”
“It's a totally legitimate move-”
“Just shut up and let me take my turn,” Clarence snapped, glaring down at the chess board between himself and Yukito. The movie still played on behind them, forgotten except for an occasional glance. A pizza box lay on the floor between them and an assorted junk food collection of powdered doughnuts and whole 2 liters of soda were strewn about in a boyishly admirable fashion. Timmy lay on his stomach, chin propped in his hands as he watched his brothers play a very explosive round of chess, a thoughtful look on his face.
“How do you know for sure if yer winnin'?” he queried. Yukito lined up the discarded pieces and pointed to each piece in demonstration to answer the boy's question.
“If you take a pawn, that's worth one point. Bishops and knights are worth three, rooks are five, and the queen is worth ten.”
“Oh..” Timmy stared at the pieces for a moment, then reached out and touched each piece in turn, counting out the pieces slowly and their corresponding scores. The older boys went through several turns before he finished, but finally he declared, “Yukito has ten points an' Clarence has five.”
“Yeah, but the game's just started!” Clarence parried, taking a chance and moving his last remaining knight out into the open.
“Clarence?” the boy queried, wisely after the boy had finished his move, “Isn't Yukito older than you?”
Both Yukito and Clarence paused, staring at each other across the chess board. “Umm...” Yukito began with a smile he couldn't suppress.
“So?” Clarence cut in curtly, “I'm still bigger than he is.” To Yukito he added an embittered, “You could've played an extra in Munchkinland. Since you're so old and all.”
“But at least I'm the smart one.” Yukito rested his hands on his knees, and Timmy began to grin.
“Ha! As if! Just because I'm able to gain a little muscle and look as sexy as I do doesn't mean I have crap for brain cells.”
“You can prove it by beating me at this chess game,” Yukito retorted, flippant calm to his voice as he moved forward and took out Clarence's queen. Timmy giggled as Clarence let out a series of swears, glaring more intently at the board as if it could be intimidated into giving him some sort of offensive strategy.
“Whatever, I can still win the game. Having a queen doesn't mean life or death.” He looked over at Timmy, pointing a commanding finger, “And you make note of that, caterpillar.” Timmy just giggled some more, reaching out to inspect Clarence's removed queen piece.
“So Yukito has...” Timmy counted on his fingers, needing help to make it all the way to the large number, “Twenty points. And Clarence has five.”
“Shut up, that's getting really annoying,” Clarence growled, moving a pawn forward and slipping Yukito's bishop. Yukito pursed his lips together, disappointed that he'd had to lose the piece.
“Now Yukito has twenty points...and Clarence has...eight!”
“Will you stop that?!” Clarence snarled, and even Yukito was starting to get irritated by the point-keeping. Luckily, his cell phone rang just then, and he moved away to answer it while Clarence told Timmy several places he could go amuse himself instead of irritating them, all of varying degrees of danger to the boy and to nearby toilets. While Timmy grinned knowingly up at his brother, Chica peered out of the kitchen, deciding to take her chance and flash past toward the bedroom, knocking over chess pieces and sending both brothers into gasps and Clarence into another rainbow string of profanity.
“No, Aidousan,” Yukito was hissing into the phone, “I get the whole new-baby thing being exciting and all, but if you send any more photos over here, I know Erin is gonna go crazy on me.” A beat, then a sigh. He wasn't getting it, and Yukito resigned himself to the fact that he'd have to explain his reasons point-blank. “No, email won't make it easier. I know you love your brother, and all, but...” Yukito lowered his voice even further, almost whispering, “Erin and I are just about to get married, Aidousan. I'd like to take things a little slowly at first... you know?”
Not having realized that Timmy and Clarence had ceased their arguing and were looking over at him with different levels of interest, Yukito nearly jumped out of his skin when Clarence began to laugh. “Oh my God, you're worried Erin's gonna jump onto the baby wagon?!”
“I need to go, Aidousan,” Yukito snapped, hanging up the call and sending a glare in their direction. “It is none of your business,” he snarled. This earned more laughter from Clarence, but Timmy's eyes just widened at the idea.
“Clarence, would that mean I can't come over to play anymore?”
The older boy wiped at fake tears in his eyes, still chuckling at the idea of Yukito and Erin's hypothetical kids. “Naw, it'd mean you'd be an uncle, caterpillar! That puts you in a position of power.” When Timmy just tilted his head in confusion, Clarence held up two pieces, “It means you go from being a pawn to being a knight. Kinda.”
Timmy's face lit up in a grin. “Are you gonna have lots of babies? What will they smell like?”
To this, Yukito just let out a sigh, “We're not having babies. It's just...” he shrugged a little, coming back to sit next to them. “At least not right now.”
“Okay,” Timmy said breezily, distracted by the flicker of a black tail in the bedroom doorway. “Why won't Chica come out and play with me?”
“Because she is a very grouchy old lady,” Yukito explained, sending the pompous cat a glare. He went to put his cell phone back in his pocket, then noticed the time, wordlessly holding it out for Clarence to see.
After peering into it, Clarence let out a hiss. “We'd better wrap this game up and get home, caterpillar. It's getting late.”
“Aww...”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We should set up an all-night visit sometime,” Yukito suggested, “Hey, then you could actually sleep in all the places you've dozed off to all evening.”
“Have not...” Timmy complained sleepily. Yukito grinned.
“I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about Clarence.” They both looked over at him, laughing openly at his dumbfounded expression.
“Hey, if your conversation wasn't as boring as watching C-SPAN, I wouldn't have fallen asleep so many times. Your move.”
Wordlessly, Yukito took his turn, watching Clarence inspect the board again, his brow furrowing as he planned out any possible escapes from the dangerous pieces set all around him. Then, Yukito leaned forward and whispered, “Um...that's check-mate.”
“What!? No it isn't! Look, I can...” His hand halted over the piece, and he began to snarl, muttering, “Aw, crap!” Then suddenly, the whole board flipped over, flying away from them and landing halfway in the pizza box. “I know you cheated!!” Unable to regain his pride from a moment ago, Clarence stomped off into the bedroom.
Puzzled, Yukito called out, “Eh..Clarence? Where are you going?”
“TO TAKE A LEAK! WHY?! YOU GONNA JOIN ME?!”
Yukito gave a skeptical expression of half-disgust, half-concern, then looked over to see Timmy practically bursting into two with giggles. “He's always such a sore loser,” Yukito declared.
“Yup, he is. But he'll come back and fix it. He ain't really mad.” Then, while the two of them started to pick up the forgotten cups and emergency clean-up towels and extra pizza, Timmy turned to Yukito and asked, “Are you and Erin really gonna have kids?”
Not meeting his eyes, Yukito gave a shrug, “I don't know. I don't think it's too likely. But...maybe.”
“Will you name your boy Yukito?”
To that, Yukito gave a chuckle, “Definitely not.”
“Will you name your boy Timmy?”
He considered for a moment, “No, not Timmy either.”
“Why not?” Timmy began to pick chess pieces out of the pizza box, moving more slowly than Yukito but still half-attempting to be helpful in his distraction.
“Because,” Yukito explained, “There's only one Timmy for our family, and I think you are plenty enough. We wouldn't want two Clarences, would we? And we would have our hands full with two Erins.” They both grinned, then Timothy looked pensive.
“Yukito?”
“Hm?”
“I wish you were the only Yukito for our family.”
He stopped short at that, halfway in the fridge. What had brought that up? But he couldn't help but feel the pang of Timmy's words. He tossed the pizza box into the fridge and slammed it shut. With a sobered nod, he mumbled, “Yeah, sometimes I wish that, too.”
“I don't know what's scarier, Erin's conditioner or yours,” Clarence bellowed, strutting into the kitchen and letting out a little post-soda belch. “An' I'm guessing all the razors are for her, right?” Yukito crossed his arms and leaned against the fridge.
“What the crap are you doing going through our shower, anyway?”
Clarence didn't answer, walking up and wrapping an arm around Timmy's shoulder, “Okay, crackerjack. Time for us to head out. Don't wanna be here when the rest of the females get home.” Timmy gave some notes of protest, but went to get his stuff anyways. When it came down to it, he really didn't mind going home to the Spensers very much, and as much as he adored hanging out with his two big brothers, he enjoyed being home with Mrs. Spenser the most.
“Well, I guess next time I'll see you two will probably be the wedding,” Yukito commented as he pulled his Volvo in front of the Spensers' house. Then he stopped, considering. “Holy crap. The wedding is in three days...”
“Yeah, I know...” Clarence smirked.
“The wedding is in three days...” Yukito murmured again, letting it sink in. Clarence leaned forward and gave Yukito a comradely clap on the shoulder.
“It'll be okay, man. You'll make it through. Really. See you later!” He loudly clambered out of the vehicle, followed closely by Timmy.
“Yeah...later..” Yukito gripped the wheel, still a little stunned.
“Bye, Yukito!” Timmy piped up, waving as they headed off into the darkness. Yukito gave him a little wave, starting up the car just as someone else pulled in across the street. The headlights glared in his mirrors, and he blinked hard until he had pulled away, not letting him see the driver's face but somehow getting a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he passed the truck. He quickly brushed it aside, attributing it to nervous butterflies about the upcoming wedding. He was actually glad that the two of them had come over. It was nice to just relax with this strange, half-adopted half-related family he had acquired. He wasn't sure when they'd started acting more like brothers than strangers, and it had certainly taken awhile to get used to, but he was glad they'd began to get closer.
He hurried back home so he wouldn't be away when Erin returned. That would bring on a huge influx of questions. Instead, the house was – almost – spotless on her return, with a very bored looking Yukito on the couch listening to music and reading a book of collected poems by Coleridge.
“'He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.'
Leave me shiny comments with your fave/least fave quotes and such!
And the whole baby names talk with Yukito and Timmy. And...