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The first time it happened Jin said he fell and scraped his knees.
Jin was a happy boy filled with life and loved live because he was happy his brother was there to share it with him. As much as the twelve year old scolded him, Jin know he did it out of love. Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes, he would really think he broke Ragna’s love for him and proceed to cry until the older boy comforted him in some way.
As of a few weeks ago, Jin has been trying to pick up more chores and small jobs for seemingly no reason. While it might be odd to Ragna to see him so willingly productive, Jin does have his reason thanks to Sister.
She had explained that Ragna might have “big boy” feelings for the baker’s daughter with how often volunteers to go and spend time there hours on end. Sister thought it was cute and those kinds of feelings come with age, but…
She was wrong. It didn’t “just come with age.” Jin loved Ragna here and now and he was upset that some outsider was taking his attention.
Her story sparked his question of: “What makes a big boy?”
Thus began his quest of being responsible. He washes dishes, sweeps and mops the floors, picks up stray sticks around the church, helps with laundry… Big boy chores that would direct Ragna’s big boy feelings at him. It wasn’t until he was promoted to doing work outside of their home that the hurt came- which seemed impossible since Ragna was even acknowledging Jin and his work and complimenting him.
The first time… It was easy to brush off.
His task had been simple, a trial run for Sister to see how he fared in his duty- pick up their bread order from the baker. Jin had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, this was a step up that would make Ragna really see how much he has improved, but he would probably cross paths with the girl that is stealing Ragna’s attention in the process of it.
It would be okay. As long as Jin returned with the bread and was successful, Ragna’s approval would make everything better.
He knew the route just from having visited the town many times with Sister, but what he didn’t expect was the three older, meaner looking boys that blocked his path after turning the corner. They intimidated him; looked down at him with cruel eyes and analyzed him until they came to the conclusion that he was an easy target.
Though, with people walking about, they couldn’t do much aside from call him a few names, mess up his hair, and push him over. Before they left him, they made sure to warn him:
“Don’t tell anyone unless you wanna be beat up!”
It stuck with him because he really, really didn’t want to get beat up…
After the unpleasant experience that left Jin shaken up, his short legs fumbled around until he fetched the bread and went home. Ragna chided him for not being more careful as he patched up his knees while Sister and Saya made lunch, but otherwise congratulated him on the return home.
The pain in his knees hurt less after that.
The second time was worse than the first.
While Ragna was providing his services to make extra money, Jin was sent out to go pick up cloth and sewing materials so that Sister could start making them new wardrobe for the oncoming Fall. All too happy to do so for the sake of Ragna’s praise, the blond boy excitedly heads out in hurry so that he can catch his brother on his return home.
He decides to take a shortcut, one that runs him by the town’s playground when he is met with his triple threat once more.
“Shorty is back!”
“Got money on you, little man?”
“We saw ya have a whole pocket full the other day!”
Jin’s legs tremble as he stands and watches the three approach him with wide eyes. He was scared; very much so. These kids were tall- taller than his beloved nii-san- and were scary.
They were nothing like Ragna. Their eyes held no warmth as they looked down at him.
“I-I-” Jin starts timidly, trying to find his words, “I don’t… I don’t have money.”
There is a beat of heavy silence, and for a moment, Jin thinks they will leave him alone… That is until one of them seize his arm and tug it up painfully.
“Ow!” he cries, reaching up to try and claw the large hand away, “Let go!”
“Calm down, we are just seeing if you have something to pay the toll fee.”
“T-toll fee?”
“Yeah,” one boy says as he starts to pat Jin down, “Everyone has to pay to get into town, don’t you know? You skipped the other day-” he huffs when he finds Jin’s pockets empty- “and today, too.”
He doesn’t remember that rule; not when coming with Sister on her shopping trips and certainly not when he was being told the dos and don’ts of going to town alone.
His arm is roughly deposited and is followed by a smack to the back of the head that makes Jin’s eyes tear up as he yelps and covers the area. The reaction seems to be amusing to them since they all laugh and proceed to shove Jin to the side hard enough to make him cry out as he hits concrete.
“Don’t forget to bring money with you next time!”
At dinner that night, Jin is relatively quiet and thinking to himself as he rubs his sore arm instead of eating.
“Jin…” Sister calls out, breaking his thoughts.
Looking up, all three of them are gazing at him curiously. Jin fidgets under their gaze and directs his back at his plate of untouched food.
“Is there something wrong? You’re more quiet than usual.”
It’s true. On a typical night, he’d doing everything he can to steal Ragna’s attention from the conversation at hand or telling everyone about his day of big boy duties. Today though…
Jin bites the inside of his cheek and plays with his thumbs. “Nii-san… Is there a toll fee for going into town?”
Forks audibly stop hitting porcelain.
Ragna blinks at Jin. “Huh?”
“Toll fee?” Sister questions.
Saya looks around and asks, “What’s a toll fee?”
Jin starts kicking his legs and continues quietly. “U-um, I heard that there might be a toll fee and… was wondering if I had to pay it…”
“No, there is no fee for going to town, Jin,” Sister says gently, “Where have you heard that? That is ridiculous!”
“Yeah, what jerk makes you pay for walking around in a public area?”
Jin shrugs dismissively, now reaching for his fork to play with his food. “I heard older kids talking about it.”
Ragna snorts. “Well, they are lying.”
Ah, well, good… That’s reassuring.
Even so, Jin isn’t too thrilled about going to town the next time he is asked to do an errand. And the third time is certainly worse than the previous visits.
Jin is nervous and almost asks if he can stay home, but…
Ragna.
Ragna has been praising him so much since this began and he doesn’t want it to go away, so he takes the money he is given and is off. As he approaches, his gut feels heavier as his nerves settle in more and more. By the time he reaches the entrance and is walking the sidewalk, he is trembling in fear of the bullies that want him. Just when he thinks he is in the clear, just when he thinks he’ll make it out alive, a pair of hands grip his shoulder and tug him off the main path to his destination.
One smiles in false kindness as he shoves Jin against a shop wall. “There’s the kid of the hour!”
“Looks like he is finally going to pay his toll.”
“Oh, sweet, we’ll get to-”
Jin speaks on autopilot. “Nii-san said you are liars a-and jerks.”
Silence.
“Give us the money, shorty.”
Jin tenses at the change of tone and squeezes his fists. “N-no.” His refusal earns him another harsh shove against the wall.
“Give us the money!”
“No!”
Another shove that made his head knock against the building painfully. Tears spring to his eyes, but he tries to not let them fall as he struggles in the kid’s grasp. Tears break loose when pain erupts in his left cheek from being hit and he lets out a loud cry in hopes to ward them off. It doesn’t. If anything it provokes them to hit him more.
“Shut up!” yells the kid pinning him before letting him drop to his knees.
A hit upside the head causes Jin to cower even more. “Stop crying!”
The third kid crouches and shoves his hand in Jin’s pocket to snatch the money he had been carrying. Scared and disheartened, Jin looks up and reaches for the money.
“N-no, give it back!” he chokes out, tears streaming down reddened cheeks, “Nii-san wo-”
A smack to the mouth- less force behind that hit than the one dealt to his cheek and head, but still painful- has Jin flinching back and crying into his hands, unintentionally muting himself to the rest of the world.
“You made us do that, kid.”
“If you just gave us the money, we wouldn’t have had to hurt you.”
“Make sure you bring more money next time, okay?”
They leave him and Jin sits there for a while until he can shakily pick himself back up. He keeps his head down as he walks back home, hugging himself.
He really needs Ragna right now… But, what will he think when he doesn’t come back with the goods? Oh, he’ll be so disappointed. Jin had been doing great up until now…! The thought of Ragna’s feelings being lost due to his failure makes him cry once more before arriving home.
“Goodness, Jin, what happened?!” the older woman cried, shocked as she took in the blond’s bruised cheek and swollen bottom lip.
“I-I, um, ran into the door…” he states lamely, unable to look her in the eyes in fear that she’ll catch him lying, “And… A-and I couldn’t- I dropped the bread rolls, s-so I didn’t bring them b-back.”
“Oh, I don’t care about the bread. I care about you! Are you okay?”
No, not really… For obvious reasons. All he wants to do is cry and be alone- he wants to run to Ragna and tell him his problems, but is to ashamed to do so, so he wordlessly lets Sister usher him to the bathroom for a quick look over.
Ragna was not happy when he got home from work to see the condition of Jin’s cheek and lip. Telling the lie was even harder the second time, but he managed to sputter it out under Ragna’s intense gaze. He holds his breath, shoulders tense until Ragna tells him how clumsy he is for running into a door and takes his hand to lead him to the bathroom to wash up for dinner. The gesture was small, but it causes affection to bubble in Jin and he is just… happy to see that his brother isn’t berating him for “dropping the bread.”
Throughout the rest of the night, Ragna’s eyes are on him. At dinner, he spends more time talking to Jin than the girls, but Jin doesn’t really notice since Ragna is too busy taking up his attention. Then, by some stroke of luck, Ragna asks if Jin wants to sleep with him, which Jin has been neglecting to do since the very start of his duties and wastes no time in jumping into his brother’s bed. That night, despite the pain and lurking fear, he sleeps peacefully at Ragna’s side.
The next time he is asked to go to town, Jin dreads the thought of having to go. As his guardian lays the money in Jin’s quivering hand, he is so, so close to telling her the truth- telling her the true reason Jin has been coming back bruised the last few times. She would stop asking him to go and go take care of the problem herself, but then he couldn’t impress Ragna. He would be told to stay home and Ragna’s “big boy” feelings for him would go away! So, despite himself, Jin clenches the money in his hand and sets out in a hurry… If he is fast enough, maybe the boys will miss him.
They don’t because they are at the entrance this time and there is no way they could miss Jin’s little blond head. The moment their eyes meet, Jin frozen in fear long enough to look at each pair, he whips around and makes an attempt to escape.
It was all in vain.
One gets close enough to throw a tackle and send the two of them onto the ground. Jin cries out and struggles, already being turned and pinned on his back by the boy. Tears stream down as he looks up at the other two boys towering over him and feels his lip wobble.
“Trying to run from paying us?”
“Ha! Nice try, pipsqueak.”
“Ugh, look at him cry…”
Jin wants to curl up and not exist anymore; not if he is going to get hurt. He doesn’t like pain… He wants his brother. Ragna would keep him safe. Jin… Jin doesn’t want to be a big boy anymore; he wants his brother to take him out on his shopping trips. He wants his brother to protect him from bullies.
He’s so scared that they will really hurt him this time since they aren’t in town and at risk of an adult walking by. One kicks dirt into his face and causes Jin to whimper and turn his head away.
“You gonna scream, baby?”
“He’s going to cry for his mommy!”
“Waa, waa, waa! I’m a baby who needs his mommy!”
He doesn’t need a mom. He doesn’t need anyone; Jin just needs…
“N-Nii-san!” Jin sobs out, weakly struggling against his hold, “Nii-san, Nii-san!”
The boys laugh at him and kick more dirt into his face which only causes Jin to cry harder. The laugher ends at a crack followed by a wailing screech.
Then, the weight is lifted from his body and he is free.
Now able to rub the dirt from his eyes, Jin sits up and turns to see his beloved big brother serving as a barrier between him and the bullies.
And, boy, is he fuming.
Jin feels a tad scared from just looking at him. His posture is tense and defensive with his lips curled back in a snarl so that his teeth are bared. There is some blood on his shoe from kicking one of the boys off him. Suddenly relieved, scared, and delighted all at the same time, Jin hurriedly scrambles behind Ragna and clenches his shorts as he looks at the two remaining boys, the kicked one currently cradling his nose.
“You bastards…” Ragna hisses, clenching his shaking fists, “Picking on a kid like that…! You guys make me sick.”
“What are you gonna do about it?” growls one of the other boys, getting in position to fight.
“It’s two against one, dummy!”
Ragna snorts and steps forward, urging Jin to let go and stay behind him. “I don’t give a crap. I’ll fight anyone who bullies Jin. Jin, turn around. Don’t watch.”
The younger really doesn’t want to; he wants to keep an eye on Ragna at all times, but the glance of his shoulder startles him to respond to the demand. The moment Jin turns around, he can hear the shuffling of feet before a smack followed by a cry of pain initiates a snowball effect of shouts, screams, and fists. There are a few times where Jin is tempted to turn around, mostly when it is Ragna who lets out a noise of pain, but somehow steels himself into his position. Time seems to go by slower like this- when he can’t see Ragna. The scuffle lasts forever for Jin, but it ends when final punches are thrown, tears shed, and footsteps rushing away.
“Jin.”
He doesn’t wait. The boy whips around and gasps at Ragna’s bruised state. His shirt is stretched and falling over his shoulder, his right cheek is bruised and swollen with a bleeding lip, and he’s certain that he’s developing a black eye.
“Nii-san…” Jin whimpers out, voice cracking as he tears up once more. He got Ragna hurt… His older brother seems to be walking and standing just fine, but… It must hurt an awful lot, right? “N-Nii-san, I’m sorry…!”
Crying again, Jin looks down and covers his eyes with his fists. He can feel Ragna coming to his side immediately, his voice soft but firm. “Hey, why are ya sorry? It’s not your fault those boys were hurting you.”
“B-but, you-”
“You didn’t make me fight. I wanted to,” he states firmly, “They hurt you, so I hurt them.”
Jin looks up, sniffling. “Nii-san is hurt though!”
“Heh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing that won’t heal. I’d hurt more if I just let them get away, understand?” Ragna gets on his knees and sets his hands on Jin’s shoulders, eyes looking into his sibling’s fiercely. “No one gets away with throwing punches on my brother. I’ll kick anyone’s butt if they make you cry.”
The blond’s lip wobbles, and while heavy with guilt, his heart soars. With a loud sob, Jin throws himself at Ragna with his arms around his neck and clings to him there. The older blond pets the back of his head before heaving him up and forcing him to wrap his legs around his stomach. It is an awkward position, but Ragna didn’t dare move Jin from where he was happy at.
When they return home, Sister went and got herself riled up over the state of Ragna and Jin. As she tended to them, Ragna told his side of the story, his arm wrapped around Jin’s shoulder and held close as he did so. Sister promised that she’d pay a visit to the parents of the boys once they were found. As an apology for unknowingly putting Jin in danger, Sister let Jin have dessert before dinner- which was his favorite that night as part of the apology- and even let him stay up later than usual that night just to cuddle with Ragna more.
When time did come around to go to bed, indicated by his drooping eyes and nodding off here and there, Ragna gently took hold of his hand and led them to his bed so that he could be tucked in. There was a moment when Jin thought he was going to leave him and thus made him whimper, but it turned out that Ragna was only getting into his pajamas before crawling in and settling himself next to Jin comfortably.
“Nii-san?”
“Hm?”
Jin moved closer and curled himself against Ragna’s side. “Thank you…”
Ragna snorts but pats the top of Jin’s head affectionately, “Don’t thank me. Just promise me you won’t hold any more secrets like that, yeah?”
“O-okay… But-”
“No buts,” he interrupted, now giving him a mild noogie, “Let me protect you. I love you, Jin, and I don’t wanna see you hurt.”
Jin’s heart rate picked up as well as skipped a few beats. A goofy smile adorning his face, he turns to hide it in Ragna’s shoulder despite the room being dark. “O-okay, Nii-san.”