Chapter Text
It could always end up good. That's what it always is, isn't it?
That family of his sure makes him tired, but at the end of the day Manye knows that his Mother is just.. gods, he should stop excusing his Mother's behaviour.
She has all the reasons to feel like everything's slipping away and she's allowed to be sad about it, but hitting children should never be okay.
Dad's dead. Yes. That is indeed something that happened. But it's not like the children were the cause of that.
Being the oldest of the three, Manye knew Mother would get even more violent with him after Dad's death. Broken rock climbing equipment while 400± feet up.
As if verbal abuse wasn't enough, Manye ended up being the kid that teachers always left after class to ask about his new bruises.
The teachers.. bless their hearts, he knew how lucky he has it with his teachers. So caring and observing. They're the only reason he's not failing school.
It's not exactly fair to the other kids that Manye is the one teachers fret about. He's not the only one who was born unfortunate.
How unfortunate that the only class he actually puts effort into is art class.
The art teacher is the only one who didn't bother helping Manye, yet he's the teen's favourite.
Something about cats liking people who ignore them.
But eh, not everything is bad at home. At least he has Danny and Katie, his younger siblings.
These two came from his dad's previous marriage, so Manye doesn't know if they're twins or just born on the same month.
The thing is - only the late wife was keeping track of these two kids, so after she cut contact with the dad, he had no idea when each kid's birthday was or if they're actually twins.
The kids are actually pretty nice company, aside from the fact that they just love to bother Manye. It's like he's a kid magnet.
Everyone tell him he'd be a great parent. But if anyone would know how bad he wants to crash out and yell at his siblings, those comments would quiet down.
At least Manye thinks so. Many parents do that either way, without feeling any guilt.
Speaking about his siblings.. Mother was going to be staying at her job up to midnight today, so Manye's in charge of taking care of his siblings.
One of the kids waddled into his room, standing for a few minutes, like they're confused as to why they're here.
"Mam" Katie called out when she finally came back to herself, not quite able to say Manye's name properly.
He sighed and put down his pen, resting his eyes for a few seconds before he has to face entertaining his siblings.
It never really occured to him that he can ignore their requests if he's tired. Even if he knew he could do that, Manye would still not do it. He doesn't know why.
"Coming."
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When Danny woke up from his midday nap, he decided to join them.
Katie sat on a high chair, kicking her legs and drumming a rhythm on the table with her utensils. Danny chose a normal chair, barely able to reach the table but too stubborn to change seats.
Both wanted to eat.
"Okay. So.. we have pasta- no, Katie gags when she eats pasta. So then buckwheat. Oh wait, right, they loose any appetite when they're offered that.." Manye mumbled to himself as he himself sat on the floor.
It's not like he doesn't know how to cook, it's just that he's too lazy to do anything more complicated than boil and season something.
He looked at Danny. "Hey buddy, what do you want right now?"
"I don't know." He continued to stare at Manye with the typical confused toddler eyes.
Sometimes Manye wonders why they always look confused or surprised.
"Okay. Whatever. We have shredded chicken and mashed potatoes from yesterday." He stood up with a groan, thinking to himself how could he let his heath get so bad that standing up is a problem.
Katie, hearing the word "potatoes" stopped drumming and turned her attention to Manye, joining in on the act of staring with Danny.
"Okay, so you two are happy with that choice." He nodded to himself but stopped. "Or maybe you're traumatised by the yesterday's potatoes so bad you freeze when they're mentioned."
Manye stare back at the.. twins? Who cares. "Do you even like to blink. Is blinking a bother for you two." He pointed an acusing finger at the both of them, knowing they don't know what he's saying.
Receiving no answer, he went to retrieve the leftovers.