#kennyfuckingackerman

ficlet for @the-bark-is-worse | @sans-regrets | @kennyfuckingackerman

“Marie do we need to move your seat again?”

Eight year old Marie Ackerman looked up at her teacher, then to the student her desk abutted in the two by two rows of the classroom. 

“No…” she said quietly, scooting back over to her own personal space.

Not six seconds after the class resumed did she lean over again. 

“I really like your erasers. Can I see one? I like the cat. I like cats. Pink ones too.”

The girl next to her looked over and scowled, scooping up her brightly colored animal erasers and fitting them back into the plastic netted bag they came in, stuffing it onto her lap, away from the prying eyes of the blonde. 

“Did you want to play with me at recess? I think we can bring the jump ropes out today.”

“Marie stop,” the girl hissed, using her elbow to push her away, “you’re gonna get me in trouble.”

“I’m just asking—“

“No—stop—and your hair stinks, move over.”

“MARIE.”

Frozen in her seat, Marie looked up this time only with her eyes.

“Here,” demanded her instructor, tapping the empty desk next to Levi, “up here next to your brother, where I can see you.”

The class exploded into a buzz of tiny whispers, most of them having wondered which one of the Ackertwins would be the first to get in trouble today. Marie had won by a landslide, as Levi had sat so far the entire morning, alone and undisturbed. 

She sat obediently, pushing her hair from her face and lowering her chin to the arms she crossed atop the desk, a signal of defeat. She couldn’t help it. Her mouth wanted to talk; she didn’t know how to make the words stop.

“Another sound from you and your father gets a phone call.”

Marie opened her mouth to protest that Kenny was her uncle, not her father, but for once, thought better of it, and settled back down, not bothering to open up the social studies book they were all learning from. It’s not like she could read it anyway. 

For about twelve minutes she listened to the class unscolded, bobbing her head back and forth slowly until finally she couldn’t handle it anymore and lifted herself up, leaning over towards Levi. 

“Levi what did you bring for a snack today?”

Her brother was faster than their teacher and, annoyed that he was trying to listen, turned and gripped his sister by her shoulders, shoving her off her chair and onto the floor where her little legs went up over her head as she backwards summersaulted into the art table, her hair catching on the screws that held the legs in place and she exploded into wailing sobs.

Levi returned to his textbook with a frown, his cheek resting in his open palm.

Their teacher grit her teeth. 

When the two boys parked their motorbikes in the drive, nineteen year old Levi Ackerman made no acknowledgement of his cousin, unstrapping his helmet from the back of the machine and peeling back his white tee shirt, revealing the wet, shivering kitten inside of it. She’d made it through the drive safe.

“You’re going to have to make an appointment for the vet,” Nile reminded him, long(ish) legs coming up to match Levi’s shorter stride, the taller of the two peering into the helmet Levi carried.

“You think I’m a fuckin’ retard?” Levi asked, shoving his cousin with his elbow, “It’s not like I can make the appointment now.”

Nile pouted at the abrasive action. No, he supposed not.

They climbed the steps to Ackerman House in silence, Levi wondering just why this idiot had followed him here. Shouldn’t he be climbing a trellis to visit his Rapunzel in distress or Cindermarie or whatever fucking fairytale princess the barely mustached young man wanted to equate her to today?

Levi noted the black car parked by the fountain—Nile’s parents. Ah, so that’s why he was here. Fuckin’ mama’s boy.

“If your mother comes at me with her Holy Water, I’ll deck her,” Levi muttered, giving the giant wooden door a kick to announce their arrival, his hands otherwise occupied with precious cargo.

“No you won’t,” Nile sighed, rolling his eyes, “besides, it’ll be like she’s baptizing the kitten.”

Though Levi already felt the strong pull of attachment to the animal they had rescued from the harbor, he didn’t appreciate his cousin’s flippant words regarding the Sacrament, especially coming from such a devout mouth.

“Don’t make jokes,” he hissed, “or you’ll need that Holy Water.”

Nile shrugged as the door opened for them, stepping into the warm light of the foyer. Maybe he’d confess the implication that the kitten had a soul, maybe he wouldn’t. That would depend on how the rest of his week went.

Though Levi fully intended to bring the kitten upstairs, dry her off and make a space for her, then head down to the kitchen for some meat, his plans were foiled by the lazy, yet pretentious footfall of the one person who, in this moment, Levi might have wanted to be around even less than Nile Dawk.

Fucking Uncle Kenny.

He wouldn’t have asked if he wasn’t showing off, but his nephews were here and Kenny seemed to make a point of brandishing his power over people when they came to visit. Or rather, when they came to discuss business, as Marie doubted the two would ever willingly visit their uncle.

When he dropped his trousers, laughing at her and issuing his demand, Marie scowled and turned away, waiting for him to pull up his slacks and slap her cheek a bit, grumbling about how she was no fun around company, but he didn’t. He waited. And waited. And waited.

He was serious.

It wasn’t the first time he’d degraded either her or her sister-mistress in front of young men and it wouldn’t be the last. Still, the nephews were…different. They might have been in the business of shady dealings but they weren’t sleazy men themselves. From what she knew, they kept to themselves mostly.

Marie didn’t mind being looked down upon by filth, but when good people wrinkled their noses at her, she felt ashamed at what she allowed her life to become, an embarrassment that would rise up each time she saw them.

Still, doing as Kenny asked was far better than the alternative so she allowed her face to melt into a smile, leaning forward and laying a perfect lipstick print on his left cheek, giving him a playful swat when she pulled away.

“I’m pretty comfortable here if I do say so myself. ‘sides, what’s a midget shit like you gonna do ‘bout it?”