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Another Me	By : Resting-Madness Category: +S to Z > Wolf's Rain Views: 1788 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Wolf's Rain. I make no profit from this work of fiction. I also don't own the Wolf's Rain environment.

Chapter List
- 4
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- 6
Kiba Wolf was haunting the pet shop. Every day the boy would do a drive-by after school, walking slowly and keeping an intense gaze upon the long glass door and windows. He really wanted to work in the pet store, but he has to know that he really isn't allowed. But the employee was weakening to continually telling the kid to 'shoo' and just wanting to hand him a broom and a pooper scooper and tell him he wouldn't be paid much, but he should be lucky he's paid at all. Then one day, the boy just stopped coming.
Frank was glad to not have to see the child anymore, but he did wonder what happened to him and if he was still looking for a job only now he's found one suited for someone his age. The kid may be mowing laws, or even walking dogs if he's still geared towards working with animals. Whatever he was up to, with eyes such as the ones the kid has, Frank was sure the boy wouldn't back down to accomplish whatever it was that he's after.
Kiba Wolf left school and dashed straight for the bus. He needs to hurry home and change out of his school clothes so he can then go to work. He finally managed to snag an easy and decent paying job that doesn't pay him in change. Sure he had to lie about his age and say that he's a short twelve-year-old, but he was gonna do whatever it took and sometimes it took lies. He learned this from the Fish project when the little pet died of natural fish causes- undoubtedly it saw it's reflection and was shocked to death.
But this job would work. The best feature is that there's nothing foul to clean up, and nothing that you'd lose sleep over if it died in your care. He's working in a flower shop. Theshopkeeper, Miss Lewis, has her job at the counter and she makes the arrangements with her assistant, Mrs. Rathbone. Kiba is in chargeof keeping the clippings of dead foliage off of the shop floor along with turning the sprinkler system on and off when the flowers need watering. He makes two dollars an hour, which, when you consider he shouldn't even be allowed to work isn't a bad offering. He'd like minimum wage, but he didn't expect it from any job he took, not until he's old enough to actually earn it without anyone making a big fuss.
'Where are my play sneakers?' Wondered the Wolf boy.
They should have been under the clothes on the right where they always are, but the space that's set for them is vacant. Kiba has made his place in the Lewboski home as sufficient as possible for his schedule, there was a place for everything. The school clothes are hung in the middle of the closet, the play clothes on the right and his work clothes on the left. His play sneakers go under his work clothes instead of his play clothes because during the week he has to be at the flower shop.
'Rats. Toboe...'
It could have only been his little brother who took them, he's been sighing sadly and whining around that he, Kiba, isn't around enough to play with him anymore. He could wear his school sneakers to work, but there's a lot of dirt and water involved with tending to flowers and he'd rather not get them messy.
"Toboe!" He called over his shoulder as he backed away from the closet then he does an about-face for the bedroom's exit. "Toboe?" He called out into the hall knowing that his voice will carry downstairs. "Where are my play sneakers?"
"I don't know!" Toboe called from wherever he was in the house.
"I think you do know! Bring them here, I have to leave!"
He went back into the bedroom to search through their things in case they were simply hidden in the room and not somewhere in the entirety of the house. Kiba's becoming impatient now, this is the fourth time this has happened in the past two months. Where it was endearing, at first, a fifth time is just asking for a firm talking to.
"Dammit, Toboe, this isn't funny." He muttered to himself. Kiba doesn't swear often, but when he does it's usually under his breath. He doesn't want his guardians thinking he's turning into a delinquent.
"But why can't you stay home and hang out with me?" Toboe asked when appearing at the doorway; he's got his hands behind his back, clearly hiding the missing sneakers.
"This is too important, Toboe." He approached his little brother with an empathetic expression, but a determined one as well, he plans on getting his sneakers if he had to wrestle them from Toboe. "I have to work, why won't you let me?"
"Because you're never here, it's like you're..." He lowered his gaze to the floor.
"You have Cheza to play with, I'll be back at five," His hands went out in a shrug. "It's only two hours, you won't give me just two little hours?"
"Well..." With a sigh of regret, his arm shot out from behind his back holding the missing sneakers. "Just... just don't go to Hige's to hang out with him like before. I wanna play with you two."
Wrapping his arms around Toboe, he gave him a kiss atop his head. "I promise I won't. Get the Transformers ready by 4:50 and I'll be here to play."
"Thanks, Kiba." His grip squeezed around Kiba just a bit tighter before he let go of his brother.
Kiba slipped his socked feet into the sneakers then hurried down the stairs and out the watched from the window as his brother disappeared down the street.
0 0 0
Kiba led the garden hose about the shop washing the foliage through the room and to a drain over in the corner. When he was through with rinsing the floor the young employee went into the back storage room and began coiling the hose back around its spool. He listened to his bosses talking about some promotional deal that's going to be at the shop one the 23 this month, how some young model will give them amazing business once his Ad. gets featured in a magazine.
Kiba instantly wondered about getting a raise. To be paid actual minimum wage if the business went on a rise. He's never paid bills, but he's done his homework alongside Mr. Hubb for a while now and he can tell there's a lot of calculating that goes into it. He's an A student in every subject, but the math Mr. Hubb uses is a far more advanced than that of a fourth grader.
Kiba picked up the pile of clippings that he washed through the flower shop and stuffed them into a small bag. 'I wonder if I could ask him to teach me how to manage bills?' He moved the mop back and forth across the wet floor; the spongy pores soaked up the moisture easily and the water is then drained off into a bucket.
Miss Lewis looked over her shoulder from the lean she has against the countertop to see what her young employee is up to. A smile spread across her corner-of-the-mouth wrinkled lips. "Kiba, you're doing a good job with that."
"Thank you, Miss Lewis," replied the youth. "And, can I ask you about the model that's coming here?"
"That reminds me," Miss Lewis snapped her fingers straightening up from her slant. "you don't have to come in one the twenty-third, the store's going to be used as a location for a model shoot- isn't that exciting?"
"That's fine, but," Kiba tried steering the woman back towards the unstarted conversation of his getting a raise, but his attempts continued to fall on deaf ears.
"He's a bit young for me, though." Commented Mrs. Rathbone with her lips poked out in a pout.
She's in her early thirties but already behaved like a washed up spinster without a shot at love. She looked past the shopkeeper to a mirror on the wall behind her and with a couple of well-placed flicks of her fingertips she fixed her blonde bangs so that they're fluffed up and voluminous in appearance. She's in the middle of a separation and looking for some in-between entertainment before deciding whether or not she really loved her husband enough to change the situation of 'Taking a break' to 'Divorce'.
Kiba went back to cleaning up as the women giggled and chatted about a time when they'd dated a younger guy, though not as young as a twenty-year-old but close enough. The young boy didn't understand it when Miss Lewis said: "If I had dated a twenty-year-old I could have taught him a thing or two". What did something like that even mean? By the end of his shift at the shop, Kiba found himself in the storage room with the shopkeeper. He figured it would be a good time to talk to her since Mrs. Rathbone was out front making a new bouquet.
"Miss Lewis, can I ask you about the modeling thing?" He began swaying back and forth but steadied his nerves by pretending to admire the bouquets set up on the shelves. Each bundle of beauty has a label for the delivery boy to take to the addressed.
"Yes? Did you want me to put in a word for you?" She teased. "You're cute, but I think modeling companies want handsome, I'm sorry."
Embarrassed, Kiba scratched a hand through the back of his hair. "I definitely don't want to model, I wanted to ask you about a raise..."
"A raise?"
"Yes." He turned to face her, his face serious and his tone even and full of authority. "You and Mrs. Rathbone were talking about the store getting publicity, and how the customers will come pouring in... I thought if there's a boost in customers that I could get a raise."
The aging woman crossed her arms and asked him with a kind tone. "How much are you thinking?"
"Normal minimum wage?"
Miss Lewis took a seat on a stool before one of the shelves of the flowerbeds then shrugged. "I could give you a raise, but, Kiba... You have to understand that you're barely at legal age to be working here as it is. The true workers permit age is fourteen to fifteen, you're only twelve."
"I'm more responsible than most of the fourteen-year-olds I know, that's not fair to judge me based on age."
Miss Lewis looked weary but also understanding. "Kiba, can I ask you why you want a raise?" She's seen that old bike he's always riding to work, and his sneakers look like they are hand-me-downs because of the excessive dirt. She doesn't have kids of her own but she was sure their footwear looked a little more wearable than that. "Is it to buy a new bike? I can lend you the shops bike to get to and from work,"
"No. I'm saving it up." Replied the child with a determination in his tone that silenced any more questions she might have had.
"Alright, Kiba. When the models leave, I'll see about giving you a raise."
A smile brightened the boy's face and he fought the urge to hug the woman, though she needed to relent to the idea she still decided to do it. Kiba removed the store apron and set the cleaning materials back into their rightful place before saying goodbye to his employers; his joyful feet could barely find the pedals on the bike as he climbed on and headed for home.
...
"That's great, Kiba!" Hige cheered when his best friend just told him the big news about his job.
Hige was in the same boat as Toboe insofar as Kiba never being around to hang out, but he, unlike Toboe, was very happy that his friend could at least do what he wanted to do- however odd he found it for a guy his age to want a job. Kiba had been a mystery to him since day one. He didn't know what happened to his best friend's parents, just that they're dead. And Kiba's made no indication that he'd ever tell him, which is kind of bothersome but also slightly appealing. Hige's never known someone like Kiba, and he's not gonna lose his best friend over some stupid curiosity kick. He'd find out someday, he was hopeful, at least.
"So how much is it gonna be?" Wondered the Moon child.
"Normal minimum wage, but it's still pretty good."
"Yeah. I say we spend that first paycheck on eats and rides at Five Flags or somewhere... I've never been to one and able to get on the decent rides."
Kiba's brows furrowed, perplexed over the statement. "Huh?"
"I was taken to a park when I was four, I was only allowed to ride the merry-go-round."
"The merry-go-round's pretty good, though."
"Not when you're seeing other kids riding roller coasters." Hige pouted. "There was a train for six to ten-year-olds, it didn't even have loops or anything! You mean to tell me a four-year-old can't sit still and ride around a slightly elevated oval-shaped track?"
"Good point, but Hige," Kiba took on the tone he got with Toboe whenever his little brother was particularly impossible to reason with. "I'm not making money for playing around, I've gotta get that family out of my old house so I can buy it back."
"Your old house? Ahaha," he didn't mean to laugh, but Kiba's plans were so fantastic that that was all he could think to do. "Kiba, do you have any idea how much owning a home cost?"
"Yes, and that's not exactly what I meant... My family already owns the home, and we're renting it to keep it that way. But... I'd rather have the house empty. But I can't do that to the Lebowskis when they were so nice to take us in."
"You're not an act of charity, Kib', anyone would have done it."
"They wouldn't, Toboe and I would be in foster care and separated." His voice lowered. "No one ever wants to adopt two children."
"Remind me again of how old you are?" Hige sounded sad, then his tone became hopeful. "Hey, so when can we hang out? Are you free this weekend?"
"I am, that's when the model is coming through. What do you wanna do?" Kiba's attention left the phone call and landed on his little brother who's setting up the large building block along with a few of Cheza's interchangeable-limbs dolls.
"Frisbee at the park; maybe I can get my mom to pack us a picnic- we can play jungle explorers again!"
"Yeah!" Kiba loved that game.
It had been spur of the moment, they were at the park avoiding the lazy drifting bees when Hige began narrating that they'd just spotted a rare striped bee. They were having so much fun with it that they got up from the bench and grabbed some sticks long enough to pose as a walking stick and they then explored the park like it were the Amazon rain forest. Toboe and Cheza had been adorable as the local natives telling them about the land and the best places to find anything.
"Hige, I'm gonna play with my brother, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay. Later then, say good night to the squirt for me."
"I will. Good night." Hanging up the cell phone, Kiba left it on his bed as he slid down to the floor, crawling over to where his brother is setting up a fort wall. "Hige says good night."
"Oh. What were so excited about?" His small hands snapped a large block into place; the castle wall or possibly the wall of a house looked like subliminal messaging for a ketchup and mustard ad.
"We're going to the park tomorrow to play explorers again, you can be an explorer too this time." Picking up the doll Cindy he tugged her legs free and swapped them with Paola because she's wearing purple tights. But he wanted the doll with the bright orange hair. "Are we building separate houses?"
"Yeah, I don't need many blocks," Toboe took two dolls and one of their ninja action figures then set them down inside of the ketchup and mustard structure. "Shoot, I forgot the front door." Removing a couple blocks in one section to create and opening he looked across the distance and smiled at his brother. Kiba always keeps his promises.
The Wolf brothers played pretend, starting with a barbecue between neighbors then an alien invasion happening while they slept. Being the only survivors the two families hide together in one home and plotted how to stop the aliens.
The game went on until bedtime; Cher came in and kissed them both asking if they needed anything before she turned in, and after a cup of milk and saying good night to Cheza, Toboe returned to their room ready for bed... Well, almost.
"Kiba?" Rolling onto his side he looked at his brother's darkened-over shadow. "Do you think I could get a job too?"
"Why would you wanna get a job, you're six?"
"You have a job... I wanna help you."
Chuckling, Kiba shook his head. "Toboe, you're helping me by going to school and being good for Mr. Hubb and Mrs. Cher." Hearing the sad sigh, he added a little more water to the flames trying to extinguish the younger boy's burning need to join in on his brother's activities. "Working is hard, especially when you're young."
"Are you much older than me?"
"I'm nine. They won't let really young kids work, look how long it took for me to find a job."
"Yeah... Kiba, why're you working again?"
"For the future, our future." Kiba nodded to affirm his standing. "Let's just focus on tomorrow, we're gonna have a ton of fun at the park."
"You don't have work?"
"Nope. I got the day off."
"Good." Snuggling under the blanket he closed his eyes. "Can we get an ice cream too?"
"Sure."
"Thanks, Kiba." With a smile on his face, the younger Wolf boy fell asleep.
Kiba tried to fall asleep, but he remained awake for a couple of hours worrying about Toboe. He wondered if he was really setting a good example for his brother if his working is burdening him to feel that he needs a job too. He's robbing Toboe of his childhood.
'Maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe Toboe is just a sweet kid who wants to help out?' His large blue eyes looked over at his brother. 'I should cut back on my working, make it three times a week instead of five... That'll look real good asking for fewer days after I just asked for a raise. Damn it.'
Kiba let out a sigh into the silent atmosphere then closed his eyes. Growing up was beginning to be cruel.
0 0 0
It was a gorgeous day to be at the park. The sun was shining and there were clouds drifting through the sky at a good pace because of an unexpected breeze passing. The four kids walked along a bench pretending it's a rickety, old bridge in the deep reaches of a newly found jungle.
"What to next?" Hige looked over his best friend's shoulder; Kiba's looking over an imaginary map that they're drawing up as they go along the uncharted land.
"It looks like there's a fork in the road," Kiba looks left then right at the areas divided in his mind by a cavernous cave and a slither of trees caked together by thick vines when in reality it's just the footbridge that exists in the actual park, separating nothing more than the left side of the lake and the right.
"Cheza and I will explore the mountain side on the right," Toboe said when debating the divided areas for himself. It would seem their imaginations had gone in different directions but Toboe could imagine whatever he wanted when their thoughts weren't always expressed. "Hopefully, we'll meet on the other side."
"Watch out for snakes you two," Hige mentioned, having seen the jungle and cave that Kiba has.
"And you watch out for crocodiles," Toboe informed before taking Cheza's hand and leading her towards the rocky cliffs.
Scratching his head, Hige perplexed. "Crocodiles? In a cave?"
"I think he meant cave dwellers. Come on, Hige,"
Following after Kiba the two began to grope their way through the dark tunnels of a cave.
After about ten minutes of wandering around the park, Hige took Kiba by the wrist and led him back over to the bridge and under it.
"Did you see a cave dweller?" Kiba asked about the sudden covert behavior from his best friend.
"No. I just wanted to... I don't know," Hige suddenly lunged at him wrapping his arms firmly around his best friend's shoulder hugging him tightly.
Chuckling, Kiba hugged Hige back. "What's this for?" He asked, still in within the embrace.
"It's just been a while since we've had some fun, you've been working so much... I missed you."
Kiba wasn't sure why that made his cheeks heat, but he couldn't look at Hige and instead his gaze brushed past his friend's eyes and behind him. "Umm, yeah... thanks, I missed you too, Hige."
Hige let out another unexpected laugh and hugged Kiba again. "Now," he moved back a step "let's find the exit before the runt and Cheza have to come get us."
"Okay."
Kiba watched as Hige turned on a flashlight, which in reality is a small stick, and started off. The Wolf boy waited a moment for his heart rate to stop rapidly pounding before he followed after him with his own flashlight turned on.
It was kind of embarrassing to have Hige express himself like that, he never has before, so it was kind of strange for it to happen. First Toboe now Hige... Kiba couldn't figure out why he was on such high demand with the two. He missed them, but not most of the time because he knows he's working towards a goal. Maybe he's too blind to the real situation? Maybe he should seek some counseling?
When the kids wandered home for lunch after another hour of playing around by the lake, Kiba took his plate of a honey ham and cheddar cheese with a side of carrot sticks and a bag of sour cream and cheddar chips sandwich upstairs to the master bedroom where Mrs. Cher was reading a book.
Cher looked up from the work of fiction when the cracked bedroom door widened. "Hello, Kiba, did you bring me a snack?" She asked when seeing the plate in his hand.
"Sorry, this is my lunch," he set the plate down on the bedside table then climbed onto the bed to sit beside his guardian. "Can I talk to you? Privately?"
"Kiba, this is private," Cher explained "Hubb's downstairs. Is something the matter?"
"I meant private as in you won't tell anyone what I'm about to say?"
"Oh," she blinked, setting aside her book she gave her attention to the troubled child. "Go ahead."
"I've kind of been spending my spare time working," Kiba felt his stomach tighten having admitted his secret life to the woman.
He planned on telling them once he was actually old enough to be allowed a job, but this was too important to not ask about. He didn't want the newly acquired stomach aches come on every time he left the house for work, or when has to turn down invitations to play whenever Hige called him up. Kiba just needed some solid assurance that he's doing the right thing or that he's making a mistake. Cher Lebowski has taken another job in order to support three children in her home, why should all the responsibility be on the Lebowskis?
"I know, you've been walking the Poynter's and the Cranston's dogs." Cher's expression softened. "Is that it, you don't want to do it anymore?"
"No. I meant another job, one for a real job." He sucked in a breath to steady himself. "I've been working at the local flower shop got under minimum wage."
"How? You're not old enough to apply..."
"It's because I'm not making as much as an actual employee would make that I was hired," Kiba picked up his sandwich and took a few bites from it to find the right words to say. Once he swallowed he continued. "I don't do anything too strenuous, I just clean up, but," he stopped her lips before the reprimand could come out by cutting her off "I clean Toboe and my room each week." He shrugged. "It's not a big deal to mop a floor or pick up dead flowers."
"But, Kiba... You're just a nine-year-old boy, it's not your business to be working and saving up money for anything other than bubble gum and fake vomit. ...It's breaking my heart, and Hubb's too. You should be relaxing over the summer not working." Pulling the boy to her she hugs him tightly, rubbing warmth into his skinny little arms. "Your only job is to go to school and get good grades, and you're very good at that."
"But, it won't help me get our house back from those people..."
"Kiba, the rent they're paying..." She stopped herself when the Wolf child's big blue gaze fell upon her own, the sorrow there could have drowned her in her own personal troubles. "How can I explain this? ...Kiba, when the renters pay their bills a small portion of it goes into a bank account that Hubb started for you and your brother."
"Yeah, towards college..." Grumped the nine-year-old going on 40.
"Well, what if we put it towards your savings to get your house?"
Cher isn't sure what exactly Kiba was working for with his many jobs and worries. Was it to have the home emptied of anyone? Or was it so he and his brother could live in it? Kiba had to know that that wasn't possible. Children can't live on their own like that, it bad for them and society. Someone would notice and report the situation, then where would they be?
"Would you really do that?"
"If you promise to cut back on your worrying. A little boy,"
"I'm niiiine."
"Excuse me, a nine-year-old shouldn't have the worries that we adults have." To further example to her point, she says. "I got a second job because we need more money for you and your brother's clothing, school supplies, food for a larger family... It isn't because we see you and your brother as a problem, it's because Hubb and I had planned our budget around ourselves and Cheza. You and Toboe were unexpected but not unwanted... You don't have to feel like a burden. That is why you want your home back, isn't it?"
Kiba shifted uneasily from Cher's embrace. She sort of hit the nail on the head. It wasn't just that he wanted his home back for Toboe and himself, he didn't want to be a bother to the Lebowski family. It's been three years almost and each Christmas and birthday, Halloween- even Easter, he feels like a bigger jerk because he and Toboe are costing the kind family time they should have with each other working. How can she sit here and tell him to stop working when there're so many things about him and Toboe that are going to cost them?
"Kiba, even if you were to be able to afford the bills for your house you're not ready for what it takes to live there on your own. You boys need a skill-set you don't yet have."
"But we could learn... And at least we'd have each other."
Cher didn't know what to say, Kiba seemed determined to go through with all of this no matter what. With a hapless sigh, she tousled the boy's shaggy hair and thought it was time that he got a trim. "Go on, eat your lunch and don't worry about anything anymore. I'm serious, Kiba... I'll help you anyway that I can, but you're going to have to meet me halfway."
Sliding from the high bed to the floor, Kiba grabbed his plate from the table. "What does that mean?" His brows furrow with question.
"If we get the renters out of your house, then you're going to have to remain here with us until you're old enough to take care of yourselves. And even then, I'm going to continue checking up on you boys and caring for you."
Cher withheld the fact that with the borders gone, she and Hubb would have another home to pay for, Kiba can't do it on his own and still expect to be fed on one paycheck. But she didn't want the kid dropping out of school in order to get another job. That meant another job for Hubb as well.
'Oh, well, I'll just call my mother to take care of Cheza when Hubb and I can't.' Seeing Kiba approach the bed she looked confused when the boy stuck out his hand to shake hers.
"Deal?" He asked.
Smiling wearily, she took his hand and shook it. "Deal."
"Thanks, Mrs. Cher." With his lunch, he exited the bedroom with renewed assurance that he's right to continue working in the sacrifice of fun.
'With any luck, he won't be able to afford the place until he's twenty-one.' Cher grabbed her book and feigned reading around her own newly acquired troubles.
x x x
Commentary: The next chapter will be about love, wish me luck I stink with love T_T ahaha. I'll do my best for you guys, I promise.
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