[Fic] Kissing It Better

[kittydesade]

Title: Kissing It Better
Source: Eve and Dawn
Genre: Mainstream
Characters: Grace and Joy
Word Count: ?
Summary: Joy gets bullied, and Grace tries to make it better.
A/N: Written for origfic_bingo prompt "Kissing it better"


She'd been at this job for at least a couple years now, and she still didn't think she'd ever fully understand Sam. Her boss had sent her home upon hearing that Joy had gotten into a fight at school, and how he'd heard that before she'd even got the phone call from the principal she had no idea. The man was more than a little scary.

But in a good way. He was scary in favor of her, and she didn't mind that so much. Particularly given the circumstances.

Joy sat with her arms folded and her shoulders hunched in sullen silence, a hairsbreadth away from angry tears and slumped back in her seat. Grace didn't even approach the subject until they were home, everyone's stuff was in the apartment and she'd seen to the scrapes and bites on her baby sister's knuckles and knees. "You're too young to be sporting fight-bites," was all she commented as she wrapped the tiny hands.

"Hmph." Joy hmphed.

After that it was time for a glass of water each, and sitting on the couch, Joy with her knees tucked up again her chest and Grace stretched out with one arm over the back of the couch. "All right. What happened?"

"Nothing."

Grace gave her a look, and when that didn't bring anything to light, a sigh. "You know I don't believe that. You know better. So why don't you go ahead and tell me and we'll save us both the uncomfortableness of me drawing it out of you or going to the principal?"

Joy squirmed in her seat, digging her heels into the couch cushions.

"All right," she sighed, reaching for the phone.

"It's the boys again."

The boys meant a small set of three or four boys who had picked on her and harassed her ever since she'd gotten into the sixth grade ahead of everyone else. Most of the class was cool with it, even friendly, she was their little baby sister person. But these boys decided that small and younger and a girl meant easy pickings, and fussed her at least every other day. According to Joy (and backed by the principal) this mostly involved jeering at her as she passed between the lunch tables, or trying to get a rise out of her when she was on the playground. She'd taught the girl better than that.

"What did they say this time?" It had to be something new, something more inflammatory than usual.

She curled her arms tighter around herself and started picking at one bandaged elbow. "They said… they said that the reason Mom and Dad weren't around was 'cause I suck. 'cause I'm small and can't talk and they didn't want me or my freak sister anymore."

Grace took in a breath and let it out slow and not at all shaky, keeping her body and expression and even her thoughts as still as she could manage. The strange thing, that occurred to her as soon as she had recovered from that and was thinking how to fix this, was that it didn't hurt her particularly much. Her parents were gone, their parents were gone, and she had at least come to terms with the reality of that years ago. But this had clearly upset Joy, and that was not to be tolerated.

"Well, they're stupid," she said finally. Matter-of-fact and calm. "They're stupid and they're mean. And… some people are like that. Some people never grow out of that," she added, thinking of some of the clients they'd encountered. "And some people have reasons for trying to tear other people down, and some people just… don't know how not to be mean."

"They're just stupid," Joy scowled. "You're NOT a freak, and I can too … You're NOT a freak."

Grace laughed, startled into it. "Of course not. I know that, and you know that. And my boss knows that, and so do your teachers, and that's what matters. Not the opinions of some stupid boys. We know what happened…" and now the laughter was gone, the smile was gone and she pulled her sister into her arms, sullen and grumpy and upset as the girl was. "We know why our parents are gone, and the people who need to know for legal reasons know. And … that's it. Boys are just being stupid boys. If they try that again…"

Joy made some kind of cranky huffing noise.

"And they will try again, now that they know that works. If they try it again, just hold your head up and walk right past. Remember that they're just being stupid boys, and they don't know any better. And it's not your job to teach them better. Your job is to learn things in school, including how to deal with bullies. And to do good, and make me and our Mom and Dad proud."

She nodded, head bowed, with more huffing noises, which was when Grace realized she was crying. She hugged her sister tighter and kissed the top of her head, reaching for a tissue from the coffee table.

"It's okay, baby girl. Bullies and jerks happen every day, and we get upset by them, and that's okay. And we have a good cry…" Fingers combing down the soft, soft falls of the girl's hair, one hand rubbing a tiny shoulder. "And we pick ourselves back up again and start over the next day."

Joy nodded, mumbled something that sounded like an assent, and kept sniffling. Tissue after tissue, until there was a tiny pile of them on the coffee table. And until they could both breathe again.

And then the sniffles stopped. And Grace kissed the top of her head again, took her tiny curled fists one in each hand and kissed the white gauze and Princess band-aids on the knuckles. "My baby sister, warrior princess. Would the warrior princess like her dinner?"

Joy nodded, scrubbing her face with one last tissue that she'd dipped in the glass of water.

"That's for drinking, not washing," Grace pointed out with some amusement. "You, drink. And get started on your homework while I get started on dinner."

And, maybe not just like that, but eventually that evening, everything was all right again.