![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mekachu04
Feveruary | Chapter 6
Spoon Feeding
Category:
Fandom:
Language:
Gen
One Piece (Anime & Manga)
English
He's not sure why it feels like he's still asleep, even long after he's woken up, tiny child body curled up under smelly blankets in a dingy back alley. He wonders where Killer wandered off to this early, his friend's body heat sorely missed in the dreary summer rain of Kutzk. The air is wet and cold and he reaches up to pull the blanket higher, water beading and rolling down the wool as he huddles under it. It keeps trying to slip off his left shoulder, the stub of his arm aching, partially the phantom pain that regularly haunts him, and then something deeper driven by the bleak weather.
Things are not what they seem when Kidd wakes up in the wrong place, the wrong time.
- Eustass Kidd & his mom Brichtrede
Tags & Warnings
Baterilla aftermath
Background deaths
injury and death discussions
De-aging
Kutsukku
Character Deaths
some more vague and unconfirmed
Post-Wano Arc (One Piece)
Unreliable Narrator
kidd has terrible dreams|nightmares
Burn injuries
Art Embedded
Chapter
They have her on a mostly liquid diet; lots of soft mashed foods. Less likely to irritate her throat - still scorched and raw from the burning air. He's very careful not to say what it reminds him of; the less mentions of babies around the woman the better.
The nurse that first day lacks his foresight. He gets annoyed with the woman and bullies his way into helping his bedridden 'aunt' eat after that.
He ignores how the staff coos. He just can't sit by and watch their incompetence any longer. Brichtrede Eustace might be helpless right now, but she's a fully grown woman. The way some of the adults talk down to her is infuriating. She's not glass. She's not... She's not so broken she can't be fixed given time.
The universe tried, but she won. She lived. Yet everyone insists they treat her like she's lost.
So Kidd feeds her, and he sits with her during her physical therapy; its coming along well- she can move on her own - abet slowly. She just... She just has some issues holding things still. Her range of motion no where what it was, her muscles weak and her joints stiff.
But she's not a toddler. And holding the spoon out to her like she is, is insulting. He kept waiting for the nurse to make some 'Here comes the train' comment.
Killer did that to him once- when Kidd was sulking after his arm. But Killer had said it to get Kidd out of his funk. If Kidd wanted to act like a child in a snit, Killer would treat him like one. Killer knew him well enough to know Kidd would call him an ass, but to know to that no harm was meant.
He wishes Killer was here. The man always did have a better bed side manners than Kidd did.
But for all he knew, Killer was a decade and a half away, sinking to Davy Jones' locker with the rest of Kidd's family.
All he had now was the shell of a woman who would never be his mother in this timeline. A woman as lonely as him. Sometimes they talk. But mostly he just shadows her. Sits quietly in the corners of rooms and watches.
He's not sure what else to do. He can't remember being so aimless before. At least with Brichtrede he can offer moral suport.
He's rubbish at it. But its something.
As the slowly marches on. She turns to him one morning. The skin on her face that didn't need wrapped is still red, but peeling. Pale healing skin below. She looks awful. Kidd imaging she doesn't feel much better. He gets her morning mush ready and she balances it on her lap as he climbs next to her on the bed.
But she doesn't let him take it once settled. Not yet.
"A man from one of the Bosses came by last night. They're tired of waiting for the city to stand up to the marines. The underworld is going to start a new war."
He doesn't know much about Kutzk's history; He and Vicky and killer were just trying to survive to the next day. What had he cared about politics?"
"They want to use me and some of the other mothers as... mascots. Essentially parade us around to inspire others to join the cause.”
Stupid, if anyone was asking Kidd. Brichtrede seems to agree, judging by her face. It's starting to heal enough that she's moving it more, emoting - even if its small gestures. Kidd sees them. "They say they'll pay me for my troubles. I'm more worried what they plan if I decline.."
Author Notes
been sitting on a handful of chapters for a while because they weren't quite ready, but at this point, i'm clearly stuck. so i'm cleaning and posting what i have and moving on.
