The Peninsula

The Fiction and Poetry Archive of Liana Mir and scribblemyname

Learning Curve

Jul
12

Anyone who was going to be Chuuya’s partner was going to be competent at knives.

Dazai winced and blew on his newly bleeding fingers. Chuuya held out his hand. Dazai stepped forward to hand back the knife.

“You meant to do that,” he accused in an undertone.

“You asked for the knife,” Chuuya answered incredulously.

“Yes, hand it to me, not throw it!”

Dazai glared at Chuuya. Chuuya glared at Dazai. They were teenagers, but when they were together, they might as well have been little kids.

Chuuya suddenly grinned, sharply. “I’ll teach you.”

“I am competent.”

“You are bleeding.”

Dangerous Work

Mar
20

Nanere first picked up the knives when she was a little girl. She rammed one into the knee of her mother’s love. When he howled and swung, she slashed his arm.

When he was finally gone, still cursing her, she gently washed her mother’s face and applied salve to her bruises, then fixed her mother’s makeup for her.

“He was our next meal,” her mother slurred.

Nanere thought of the shipyards and dangerous work available for tiny bodies that could fit into the small spaces between mechanical parts. She hardened her face and stiffened her shoulders. “I’m our next meal.”