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Language:
English
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Published:
2023-02-17
Updated:
2023-02-20
Words:
1,601
Chapters:
3/?
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sleeping beauty

Summary:

In which Izanami finds herself the guardian of a rather strange boy.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Izanami was far from the most generous of the gods. Life and death rested in her hands, bending to her rather fickle whims. People feared death. People feared Izanami. Even under the guise of a human, small and insignificant, it was not uncommon for her chosen form to cause distress.

Mortals lived their lives in an instant. One day, they were infants, delicate and fragile with the inability to tend to themselves. The next, hardly in a blink of an eye, they became elders surrounded by legacies achieved in nothing but a few ticks of the clock.

Although, for mortal men, seconds lasted centuries , their lives passing by with the significance of dust before a god. 

Pain, hardship, fear. Seemingly simple concepts, but ones that remained foreign to Izanami. Perhaps that's why she seemed disconcerting. How could one such as her, so far above the petty conflicts of mortals, ever understand their strife? Their minds?

But Izanami had never been known to be a quitter.

Even if she did not understand the lives of the mortals in her domain, what was stopping her from learning?

Of course, the matter of finding such a mortal would be difficult at best. Not many could stand face-to-face with a god and hold their composure.

The boy was all alone. Quiet and discontent, always moving. Perhaps that is what drew her to him. She did not understand the toil and trouble of transient beings, but perhaps one so malcontent could be the answer to her questions.

Young as he was, he was clearly unhappy.

If she had taken the boy with her, stars as their only witness, no one could protest to the whims of a god.

He’s small in her arms, tugging on her sleeve with a strength unbecoming of a mortal boy such as he. His eyes are teary, lips jutting out in a pout as she begs and pleads to any of her cohorts who might be listening to just make the infernal wailing cease .

Of course, the cries did not stop. Izanami didn’t understand . She had given the boy everything he needed before she began her interrogation. Water, shelter, warmth… there was nothing she should be missing.

The boy rubbed at his eyes, raw and red.

Ah, food. Mortals required food.

Chapter 2

Summary:

Yu finds himself with a rather peculiar ailment.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The boy, Yu, did not seem to miss the mortal realm. If he did, he certainly did not show it. He soaked up knowledge like a sponge, grasping at every story and glimpse of a past unrecorded. Just one more story? He’d beg with a tug to her sleeve.

He had taken to her questioning well, sitting there politely as she poked and prodded for answers about mortal life. 

Of course, unsurprising to all, the life of a bored six year old was far from interesting.

It had taken quite a bit of time to chip through all of her questions, years if you relied on the calendar. And yet, the boy had not grown a single inch. She had been under the impression mortals had grown rather quickly.

While she was not sure of her thoughts on the boy, she was still concerned for his growth. She had brought him here, therefore it was her responsibility to care and provide for him until the day she returned him to the mortal plane.

With this in mind, she had brought her concerns to the only one who might understand what was happening, Philemon. The man had only smiled, very delicately reminding her that mortals grew at different rates.

However, the boy didn’t seem to be growing at all. Like a creature stuck in stasis, he stubbornly remained the same as he always had been.

His rather sudden lack of appetite startled her as well. He had eaten her out of house and home, common for a growing boy, and had halted all indications of even wanting his usual midnight snacks.

Izanami will never admit it, but she was panicked for the boy.

Of course, when she went off to do her own research, things were bound to get lost in translation.

Yu, the poor boy, must have been just as confused as her when she had bundled him into the softest blankets she could find and spoon-fed him canned soup for two weeks.

The thermometer, an invention lended to her by a delightful little convenience store, would have been helpful. Had she not shattered it in her attempt to turn it on, that is.

Of course, her concerns were unfounded.

The reddening of his eyes, the gray hue turning a crimson akin to her own, clued her in.

A godling.

Yu had been a mortal, born amongst the living and treated as such, but even the staunchest of souls would find it nigh on impossible to remain completely human in a realm such as Izanami’s. The boy was under her protection, but protection could only do so much when left to the unfiltered presence of something distinctly otherworldly. 

He had not been hers, but with his humanity removed, he was her responsibility. She had created him, and she would care for him as such.

Izanami could only hope the boy was unlike her. A problem child she had been, and a problem child she had remained. Yu had remained remarkably even-tempered so far, and she could only hope he would refrain from causing her too many problems.

Her hopes were quite quickly dashed, however, when the boy found himself vaulting through the static image of a television.

Like mother, like son, it seemed.

Notes:

Izanami: You're smart, but I bet you can’t make a sentence without the letter “A”.
Yu: I love you, mom.
Izanami:
Izanami, crying: Ok

Chapter 3

Summary:

In which Yu rather startles Minato.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The rain had always been calming to Minato. The distinct sound of the droplets falling against his window panes had been a comfort in his younger years, fond nights with a blaring television and hot tea as he and his sister nitpicked the cheesy dialogue and inconsistent writing. The comfort was lost, however, when you found yourself directly in the downpour. 

His umbrella does little to stop the rain from drenching him, his shoes squelching with every step. Mitsuru had been quite firm about his curfew, and he imagines the rain has very drastically altered the time he has to arrive home before Mitsuru sends a manhunt after him.

He’s the only one on the barren streets, stepping and hopping over overflowing puddles.

Well, the streets should be empty.

A boy stands under an awning, poking and prodding at a television emitting nothing but static. The television is an odd thing, looking as if someone had ripped apart several models and awkwardly pasted them back together with little regard towards form or function.

Even the boy looked out of place, dry even without proper covering. He looks oddly comfortable, cozy even, as he fiddles with a knob on the front of the screen.

Minato takes a step forward.

The boy’s head snaps up, eyes zeroing in on Minato in less than a second.

Of course, Minato will never admit to nearly jumping out of his own skin. The boy stares, eyes more than unsettling, filled to the brim with something akin to curiosity.

“Hello.” The boy says, smiling wide as can be. “Have we met?”

His voice is cheery, but hoarse. Breathy and filled to the brim with cracks. Unnatural.

“No.” He says plainly, eyes going anywhere but the boy.

“I see. Well, we have certainly met now!” The boy proclaims, stepping into the rain to approach him. “I am Yu.”

Minato was tempted to take a few steps back, but the thought of the endless ridicule he would face at Minako’s hands should she ever find out he was cowered by a child stopped him rather firmly in his tracks.

“Minato,” he responded, blunt yet not unkind.

“What a charming name. Say, Minato, can I walk with you?” Yu smiles.

Minato should say no. The boy is a stranger, a rather unsettling one at that. Minato should certainly say no, despite what a certain sister of his might say. He’s quite positive he’s heard cautionary tales against strange demon boys looking to seek refuge under your umbrella.

“I don't care.” 

Minato was a fool, of course. Who allows a boy who looks like he’s dragged himself right out a gravestone into your personal space? Minato did, and Minato is very sure he will come to regret it, should he live through the night.

Yu, ever ignorant to Minato’s internal struggle, slips right under his umbrella to stand at his side humming a cheery little tune under his breath all the while.

“Are you going anywhere?” Yu questions amicably.

Minato is now rather certain he is being haunted by some sort of vindictive ghost. There has to be a ghost story about a strange red-eyed boy looking to follow you home and torment you for the rest of your life.

“Home.” Minato says, not unlike a man who has a gun pointed to his head.

“I see.” The boy pauses for a moment. “I'm going home too, but I need to find it first, you see. After coming through the television, I’ve found myself rather lost.”

What the fuck.

The static is getting louder now, like someone's took a hammer to the delicate wiring of an electrical box. Minato is only now realizing that the static never truly stopped, even as the pair had drifted from the sparking T.V.

Minato isn’t allowed to have nice things, of course, and he can’t quite decide what the worst part of the night is. The sudden shift of the sky to green and his very prominent lack of backup, or the fact that Yu remains completely unchanged and coffinless .

Notes:

Yu: When gods complain that you’re not “working at your full potential”, don’t take it too hard.
Yu: They complain way worse when you do.
Minato:

--
ok so izanami's perception of time is really skewed! surprise bitch its been AGES and you should have noticed he's a god earlier!!! also yu is very much not socialized and he's really terrifying to minato who definitely thinks hes being haunted by some ghost he picked up

Notes:

yall im so fucking sick rn im in bed writing this as i cough my lungs out

this is more an assorted set of snippets than a cohesive story, there will be plot but it'll jump around a lot