@badthingshappenbingo

Prompt: Backhand Slap

Character(s): Reiji, Beatrix

Warnings: Child abuse, mild self harming tendencies, general DL creepiness

Somehow, nothing Reiji did was ever enough.

He’d studied until he couldn’t possibly stay awake any longer, learned everything his mother required of him, and done whatever possible to be the perfect son, and yet, it wasn’t anywhere near what was expected of him.

No one had looked twice at his work. No one had given a second of attention to the second son who forever lived in his brother’s shadow.

Tension was building up in him, anger and frustration filling him up like molten metal, hot and threatening to set him aflame. He’d do anything, anything to have someone look at him as something other than Shuu’s second best, but that hopeful dream never came.

Reiji felt dangerously close to some kind of mental edge.

Recently, he’d been awake for nearly three days, drowning himself in ancient history texts that were apparently essential for a king.

(He’d always fought to keep up with Shuu’s curriculum on top of his own. Anything so that he wouldn’t fall behind and become even lesser than he had always been, lose his one worth as smart and dedicated.)

Unfortunately, for a child of a mere physical ten years of age, the stress was quickly getting the better of him. Reiji understood his body’s limits well by now, both in the scientific and the personal sense, and even though he was well aware that any further pressure would end in collapse, he couldn’t bring himself to stop before things ended badly.

Just one more paragraph. Just one more page. Just one more chapter. Little extensions quickly multiplied into hours spent reading just a little more, and before Reiji knew it, the sun was rising on morning four.

His eyelids felt so heavy that they may as well have been weighed down with lead. There was a dizzy nauseous headache building around his temples, and every instinct told him to get some rest before he made himself sick. And yet, Reiji couldn’t bring himself to listen.

But all too soon, he knew that he had to be down in the dining room for breakfast, to join his mother and Shuu for their morning meal.

So, Reiji forced himself to get up. He rose on shaky legs, fought the urge to let his eyes close, and descended the majestic wooden staircase to where his mother and brother would be waiting, likely impatient.

Breakfast itself was a tense, miserable affair, with Shuu poking at his  meal, and Beatrix glaring at both her sons with a long-suffering look. Reiji  ate his food quickly and neatly, trying not to draw his mother’s attention when she was in one of her unpleasant moods, but wishing to leave.

He still had piles of books to go through before he slept, after all.

The food tasted fine, but there was a nauseous feeling in the pit of Reiji’s of stomach that made him feel vaguely like spitting it out.

However, just as Reiji was standing up to leave, exhaustion got the better of him, and he slipped, plate falling to the floor and shattering with a deafening crash in the quiet room. Reiji himself was was left stumbling to the ground, toppling over onto his rear with an undignified thump.

A moment passed, silent. Shuu took the opportunity to slip away.

Next thing Reiji knew, Beatrix was hauling him to his feet by one arm, grip so rough he knew it would leave a dark, ugly bruise behind.

Before he had time to react, to stutter an apology through his sleep deprived mind, his mother slapped him with the back of her hand, whipping Reiji’s head to one side with the force of the hit.

It was familiar, the pain of his mother’s ire, and Reiji stayed silent. He was old enough to know that begging for forgiveness wouldn’t save him.

“Reiji, you clumsy child,” Beatrix hissed, and her voice was low and dangerous. There was something wild in her eyes, and Reiji had a feeling that that other woman had been tormenting her again. “Look what you’ve done! That was a good plate, and your inattention broke it.”

Bowing his head, Reiji swallowed the urge to defend himself.

None of his excuses would do any good, not when the most they amounted to were self-inflicted clumsiness. His mother would never accept an accident from him as anything less than failure.

She slapped him again, not quite as hard, but steadier, and then allowed Reiji to fall from her grasp, back onto his knees on the ground.

His glasses felt bent already, the arms brushing against his skin in an awkward way, and Reiji noticed that his hands were trembling. The hits hurt, yes, but there was something much worse coming. No stupid mistake would be allowed to slip by with something as minor as a slap or two.

Beatrix coldly ordered him to his room, eyes colder than they’d been over breakfast, and even though his head spun with every quick movement, both from the slaps and the lack of sleep, Reiji obeyed.

Shuu was long gone, Reiji noticed. He’d probably snuck off to go play somewhere, ignoring his lessons and making their mother even more irate.

Of course, Shuu never suffered for when Beatrix was upset. No, it was always Reiji who bore the brunt of her temper. It wasn’t fair, not in the slightest, and, knowing he was making an awful scowl, Reiji stormed back up to his room. He only barely resisted the childish urge to slam the door behind him, furious that he was always the one to be punished.

But once he was alone in his room, Reiji’s anger quickly faded. There was little point in allowing himself to stay worked up over it, unfortunately, no matter how it stung to always be the worthless one.

His mother would soon call him to be punished, Reiji knew. He could at least spend the time in between doing something productive.

So Reiji sat back down at his desk, and began to memorize another section in his textbook.