A Day in the Life Plus Extra

A/N: I felt like writing a fic concerning some of the time CC might have spent with Mao when he was a little boy, before he went insane and all. This is part one of a two-part story.

Please be advised, Halloween's recently passed, so I've been eating more sugar than usual....

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"CC! CC! Wake up, sleepyhead!" came a small voice. CC opened her eyes, feeling little hands shaking her shoulders.

"M-Mao...," she murmured groggily, "C-can't you give me five more minutes?"

"Aww, CC, I woke up so, long ago!" replied the little boy, as he pressed himself against her and dug his fingers into her clothes. "I had breakfast.... It's time to get up!"

This time, CC stood up straight. The bright summer sun shone through the broken roof of the little shack where she and Mao slept together. "CC, why do I always have to get up first?" Mao groaned, and he folded his arms in a pout. "Why can't you ever get up before me?"

"My teenage circadian rhythms, probably," CC said to herself. Her permanently older-teenage body never seemed to grow out of those old biological patterns. But what she said to Mao was: "Well I'll just have to try harder in the future, okay?"

"Aww, okay...," said Mao. He brightened up instantly, "So, just eat your breakfast, and then we can play!"

CC ate what remained of the bread she had been saving since yesterday, and washed it down with a handful of berries from some nearby bushes. She looked to see Mao wiping sweat off of his face. "It's so hot here," he whined.

"Oh, when you're wearing that big, thick sweater...," said CC affectionately.

"I'll just take it off," said Mao; and before CC could stop him, he pulled it over his head. He wasn't wearing any shirt underneath. "You need to take off your shirt too, don't you?" he said to CC, cocking his head to one side.

"Oh, no; I'm very comfortable," CC said, though even she felt her hairline and armpits tingle with sweat.

"I know!" said Mao, "Let's go swimming!" He ran out of the brush toward the lake right beside their shack. In a second he had thrown off his pants and shoes and was in the water up to his waste. The cold water sent a shock through him, and he began shivering. "C-come on in, CC! It's so nice!"

"No, I like it out here," said CC, sitting on a rock where she could watch him.

"Aww, come on!" Mao pleaded, "Just a little while?!"

"No, I... really couldn't...."

"Why not?!"

"Well...."

"Pleeeease?!"

Mao was so persistent that at last, CC gave in. She tugged her clothes off piece by piece, and waded slowly into the lake up to her knees. "Haha! You're naked!" Mao laughed, running up to her and splashing her.

"M-Mao, s-stop!" CC squealed, her face turning red. She was used to being ogled and sized up everywhere she went, but... hearing such statements from a little boy was somehow too much for her. It was strange.

"Come on, all the way in!" said Mao.

"I'm coming...," CC sighed, at last submerging herself in the lake where the water reached Mao's neck. CC bent her knees and knelt down. Now she and he were at eye level. Mao splashed her in the face. CC giggled and splashed him back. The two of them continued to play like this for a few more minutes, before Mao flung himself on CC, nearly knocking her underwater.

"CC!" he said, "Can I ride on you?"

"Okay," said CC, putting her arms around him and crawling on her knees slowly into deeper water, until her feet barely touched the ground. Mao kept his arms around her neck, occasionally removing one to shoo away a fish or point at something. CC held his soft, slippery body against hers and floated slightly, relaxing. She was surprised to find herself at a sort of peace, as though nothing else mattered. At last Mao said:

"CC, let's go back to shore." CC engaged her senses once again.

"Okay, Mao," she sighed softly, swimming slowly back toward dry land, where they had put their clothes. When CC at last reached an area of the lake where Mao could stand, she let him down, and the two of them walked back toward the beach together.

"Someday you have to teach me how to swim," Mao pointed out.

"Okay," said CC, "You wanna do that now?"

"Nah," said Mao, "Maybe tomorrow."

"Okay," said CC, with a small laugh. She watched the little boy run back onto the beach with a small smile.

"Come on, CC!" Mao called, spinning around quickly to face her.

"I'm coming," said CC, running after him. They both stopped when they came to their clothes.

"I'm all wet," Mao complained, "How do we dry ourselves off?"

"We don't," said CC. There were no towels anywhere in sight, and they couldn't afford to get their only outfits wet and, inevitably, dirty. "Maybe if we just lie in the sun for awhile...?"

"You mean, naked?" said Mao, his eyes wide.

"Well... yeah...," CC managed, feeling like a martyr resigning herself to something unpleasant.

"Okay... where?" asked Mao.

"I...," said CC, scanning the area for a place to lie down. As an albino, Mao had very sensitive skin so he couldn't lie directly in the sun; but there was a small group of rocks under some shade trees that looked big enough to fit both of them. She knew he would go wherever she would. "Let's go over here," she said, running to the rocks as Mao followed eagerly. She lay down on her stomach, and Mao lay down next to her back, with his arms around her neck.

"CC, you're so nice," he crooned into her ear.

"So are you," she replied, not knowing what else to say. It really was so peaceful, lying on the flat rock on this summer's day, with her little disciple right next to her. No sounds except the animals in the woods and the breeze rustling through the trees, no obligations, no one to watch out for but the two of them.... Soon CC heard Mao's breathing become deeper and slower, soothing her even more than she already was. Before she knew it, she, too, was drifting off into a doze.

She woke up sometime later to find that Mao was no longer around her neck. CC sat up quickly, scanning her surroundings just as Mao ran back up to her, holding fistfuls of flowers and wearing only his pants. "CC!" he cried, "You're so beautiful! You're so beautiful, CC!" He flung flowers at CC as he ran around her. When he was satisfied, he jumped on her and proceeded to stick some more flowers deliberately in her hair. "Now you're even more beautiful! You're the most beautiful ever!" He jumped back to observe her, beaming.

"Aww, thank you, Mao!" said CC, smiling at him before standing up. "I'm going to go put my clothes on now," she said, patting him on the head as she passed.

As CC put her clothes on, she pulled the scratchy flowers out of her hair and shook her head. She didn't like them; they made her hair into unnatural clumps. If Mao complained she could always explain that.

But Mao didn't complain; he seemed to have forgotten all about the whole thing by the time she saw him again, and the two of them resumed playing.

"I'm hungry," said Mao at last.

"Okay," said CC, "You wanna catch some fish?"

"Oh, fine," said Mao, "I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything!"

So CC used a hook she and Mao had made to catch a few fish, while Mao ran around looking for twigs and leaves they could use to light a fire. As the two of them cooked the fish, Mao said: "I'm tired of fish all the time. I want something else to eat."

"Well, the next time we eat I could maybe kill a rabbit, or something...?" CC offered.

"Oh, no! It's fine, don't kill anything!" Mao gasped. "I just... Can't I have any of the stuff we got in the city anymore?"

"Well... there's none of that around here," said CC, her face reflecting the disappointment she hoped to convey, "And it's too difficult for me to go to civilization and bring any back; it wouldn't keep. So... I don't know what to tell you...."

"Aww...," Mao sighed, hanging his head.

"Well...," CC said, in a desperate attempt to cheer Mao up, "If... if I ever get a chance to bring you any of that kind of food, I will. Okay?"

"Oh, okay!" said Mao, looking back up at CC and smiling.

As the two of them ate, CC noticed that Mao seemed to grow increasingly uneasy. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I hear... voices...," Mao replied.