Work Text:
Alexander has been doing his chores around his families small house for the past few weeks, not really ever leaving except to do some more work. He doesn’t really have any friends, but the one friend he does have he misses. Nobody really wants to be friends with the one of the black sheep of the town.
But his friend is really nice. His name is Matthew and he plays with Alexander and he says he doesn’t care who Alexanders parents are, not that Alexander really understands why it matters. As long as he’s nice why should who his parents are stop people from liking him? It makes him sad sometimes seeing all the other kids with so many friends but then he reminds himself he doesn’t need twenty friends to be happy, he has James and he has the best friend of all of them and to him, that more than makes up for it.
But Alexander is tired of staying around the house and not seeing his friend anymore. And he’s tired of walking on eggshells around his father. His mama always tells him to try not to make his father angry and he does try, but he doesn’t always succeed. Then he gets hurts from his father. Alex tries to like him but, he’s mean. Alexander used to try and get his father to like him but it never worked and he eventually gave up. He’d do everything he was told and more but it was never enough, it never made father happy and love him. Then James told him that it never would and James is older and really smart so he stopped trying so hard.
Alexander finished his chores as quickly as he could. He’s meeting his friend at a little lake and they are going to play. When he had gone into town last he ran into Matthew and they made plans to go down to the lake.
Alexander puts away the last of his supplies and creeps out of the house into the small yard. He looks around to make sure his father is out of sight before darting out across the yard to the pathway that goes into town.
As he runs by the shed a hand grasps the back of his shirt pulling him backwards and causing him to fall into the dirt. He lets out a cry of alarm and tears fill his eyes as he looks to his hands and sees the red dripping scrapes on his palms. Alexander looks up to see his fathers furious face.
“Where do you think your going? You think your too good to help out around here!” He screams down at Alexander who does his best not to cry. Father doesn’t like it when he cries.
“N-no sir, I finished my chores so I was going to go play with Matthew.” Alexander stammers out trying to keep his voice low.
“If you finished then you can help your brother and I with the rest of the work! It doesn’t just disappear! Your seven not three so grow up and act like it!” His fathers face is red with rage as his hands form tight fists.
Alexander’s mother runs out into the yard after hearing the yelling and then kneels down next to Alexander, helping him stand up and brushing him off. She wipes his hands off with her apron while looking down at him with sad but loving eyes.
“Come along amour, you can help me clean in the kitchen.” His mother gently takes his hand and starts to lead him to the house.
His fathers hand reaches out towards him again and pulls him back throwing him to the ground.
“James please! He’s just a boy!” Alexander hears his mother cry but he’s busy quickly wiping the tears off his face.
His fathers hand flies through the air colliding with his mother’s face making Alexander cry out. “Do not talk back to me like that! And when I was his age my father was already having me working much harder than he is now! He can do more and he will come help me with my work!”
Alexander leaps to his feet and grabs his fathers hand after he hit mama. Father looks so angry Alex wonders if he should run, and after a split second decision he takes off.
He spins around breaking out into a sprint towards the tree line. But he’s too slow.
Father catches him, grabbing his arm roughly and pulling him back. Alexander once again falls to the ground. He curls up and puts his hands around his head to try and protect himself. The only thing he can hear is his father screaming at him and his mother’s pleas, he sees his fathers rage filled face while his mother grabs at fathers arm which is swinging down towards him quickly.
Luckily for Alexander, he blacks out after a few minutes.
—-
Alexander is sitting up in his bed looking out the window into the black night. James is sleeping in the bed next to him. James could sleep through anything, and that includes whenever their father makes a ruckus in the house. Alexander couldn’t sleep and then he noticed the light bangs from the next room. Now he’s listening to his mother’s quiet voice and his father throwing things around in the main room, doing who knows what.
Then it goes quiet after the ten minutes or so of noise and Alexander frowns looking to the door. He slowly moves to the side of the bed, careful not to shake it and wake James, and creeps over to the door. He opens it a crack and sees his mother sitting in the floor against the wall next to the open front door. Alexander opens the door and quickly walks over to her.
“Mama, what happened?” He asks kneeling in front of her and looking around the messy room.
“He’s gone, he left.” She says quietly before a small smile comes across her face and she whispers, “And he’s not going to come back.”
Alexander’s eyes widen at that and he sits down next to his mother while she wraps her arms around him.
“I know things will be hard, and we’re going to have to work twice as hard to make money but, we’ll be fine. We can do this ourselves, things will be better from now on.” She says before pulling him to her chest and hugging him tightly.
Alexander hugs her back as tight as he can whispering, “I’ll work extra hard mama! And I know James will too, and I can do more around the house and learn to cook for while you work and-“
His mother laughs softly before kissing his forehead gently, “I know you will.” She sighs before pulling back and holding his face in her hands, “What would I ever do with out you, mon petit amour.”