This is a 2.5k story about how James met Bill in Tailor Tales.

Beware of spoilers, but they're not that big, just rather subtle.

I love writing James, he's such a fun character. Written in present tense, because I'm still practicing in this style!

Buck looks at him. “Are you sure?”

“Stop asking me that,” says James. He avoids looking at Buck.

They get on the ferryboat, the one that takes an hour to reach the town of Claner, where Buck lives. James is quiet the entire way, deep in thought. His life is about to change—well, it already has, and that’s not an easy feat for a teenager. If only he weren’t a teenager, if only he were as big and buff like Buck. He looks over at the young man in front of him, he’s reading a newspaper as he sips a cup of coffee. James’s brown eyes dart over to his arm, which is wrapped in bandages. He averts his eyes again, then sinks his hands into his hair.

“Thanks,” he says. It could have very well been the first thanks he’s ever said in his life.

Buck looks up from his newspaper. He doesn’t say anything, but instead he smiles. James feels guilty, still avoiding the bandages on his arm.

An hour later, and they’ve arrived. This will be James’s new hometown, for now anyway. They’re not greeted by anyone, and James is glad, he doesn’t want to associate with people right now. But it’s a small town, and news spreads fast. Very fast. Before they even manage to trek through the forest, a young woman pops up and warmly welcomes him to the town. She talks fast, and wears a business suit, she seems very excited that someone is moving in, stating that she’s been trying to get young people to move in for years now.

James doesn’t care, he gives a half-assed introduction of himself, then briskly walks away, towards that cabin in between that cliff, that one that was clearly marked as ‘Carpentry’. He hoists his bag over his shoulder, and walks towards it. Buck excuses himself and follows suit.

“That’s Lily, she’s our mayor. You should be a little nicer to her,” he says when he catches up.

James huffs out loud. “I don’t like noisy people.”

“Anti-social as always,” says Buck with a laugh, then ruffles James’s black hair.

He finally unlocks the door, James can’t wait to go inside already. He sees the large amount of wood lying around the workplace, some seesaw spread on the floor, a half finished chair on a table, and loads and loads of dust. James sneezes and rubs his nose.

“Don’t you ever clean?”

Buck closes the door behind him, and then he scratches the back of his head, embarrassed. “I uhm, I don’t have the time to ...”

James inspects the surroundings some more. It wouldn’t be too hard to clean up. Besides, he’s a neat freak. “Well, I’m here now, I guess I could start cleaning a bit.”

“That won’t do,” says Buck with a shake of his head. “You should go unpack your stuff in your room, and act like a teenager for a while. There’s a boy around your age here as well, perhaps you could play with him.”

James drops his bag on the floor, his tongue clenched between his teeth. “I didn’t come here for a vacation!” he yells.

Buck is silent and still, he’s like a mouse that’s being yelled at, and it makes James feel bad. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s still angry though. Buck knows that.

“I want to work right away. Earn my living. You know that.”

Buck simply sighs. “You’re sharing your room with me, upstairs.”

James glares at Buck’s eyes that are hidden underneath his purple hat, and then manages to find the staircase that leads up to his house. He checks the first door he sees, and he sees Buck’s very neat bedroom. There’s another bed in the corner and James dumps his stuff on it. It takes him over an hour to unpack, because he likes to be organized and neat. When he comes downstairs again, Buck is sweeping the floor. James immediately grabs the broom out of his hands.

“Idiot! Let me do it!” he hisses through his teeth.

Buck says nothing, but stands aside. James takes this as a cue to start sweeping the floor. He ignores the way his broom makes dust bunnies fly up in his nose, he can handle that. If Buck can handle doing this alone for years, then he sure as hell can as well.

“After you’re done cleaning, I want you to ... I want you to find that boy and introduce yourself to him. He’s very shy and timid, he doesn’t have any friends here, you’d be the first to come over here in a while that is his age.”

James looks up and snorts. “I don’t want to.”

He can see the soft glint of Buck’s eyes as he looks up at James. “Please,” he says.

James looks at his bandaged arm, and his heart sinks to his feet. “Fine.”

He spends a long time cleaning the workplace, until it’s been three hours later and the floor is spotless. Even Buck is impressed, and says he hasn’t seen his floor in years. James doesn’t know whether that’s a joke, or the truth, because everything Buck says sounds like the truth. In fact, he might even be incapable of lying, he thinks. Buck instructs him to find this stupid loner boy and introduce himself. He’ll do it, but only because Buck asked him to. He doesn’t care about associating himself with anyone else other than Buck. He didn’t come here to make friends.

James knocks on the door, then loiters around, waiting for an answer. There’s a farm right behind him, and it looks like they’re growing cotton. He’s never seen real cotton before. Then the door opens, and a woman with a mane of red hair answers with a smile.

“You must be James!” she shrieks.

Great, now everyone in town knows him already.

“Hello, nice to meet you, I’m James and I’ll be staying at Buck’s place from now on,” he says as politely as he can.

“I’m Karina, and oh, you must meet my boy! He’s playing in the cotton field right now, why don’t you go and make friends with him?”

James tries his hardest to not flat out say ‘No thanks’, and instead he nods his head like a robot. The woman closes the door, and James turns around. Great. Now everyone expects them to be friends. It’s not like he needs any, much less wants one, but he walks over to the cotton field anyway. It’s big and overgrown, perhaps almost ready for harvest, and he can’t see a damn thing through the fluffy white balls and the ugly twigs. So where’s this boy supposed to be? He just wants to get this done and over with already, then go back to Buck and work.

“Hello?” he calls out. Damn, he didn’t know this boy’s name.

James climbs over the fence, to hell with private property, and starts walking through the cotton. It feels like a maze, even though the farm field isn’t that big, but big enough to not see the house anymore as he goes in deeper.

“Y-you’re not supposed to be in here!” he hears a tiny voice emerge from around him.

James whips his head back and forth, trying to determine where the voice came from, but he can’t see anyone, just stupid cotton balls.

“What’s your name?” he decides to ask as he stands still. Obviously the boy can see him from his hiding spot, wherever that was. What a coward.

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers ...” The voice is shy and timid, Buck certainly wasn’t lying when he described the boy.

“Well, the name is James. Now I’m not a stranger. Please just tell me your name so I can go.”

And then he sees it, the bright red hiding behind a mass of twigs and cotton. Huge green eyes look at him, scared and shaking. He’s small, but he couldn’t be any younger than two or three years than him. James steps forward.

“I’m not gonna bite you,” he says. James doesn’t bite, but he’s very good at insulting. He doesn’t mention that.

The blob of red hair moves, and it’s out of his sight. He ran away.

Now James is even more agitated. He’s about to turn and walk away, when the boy pops up in front of him. It’s a ginger all right, freckles spread across his entire face, as well as his arms and legs. His bright red hair is short and matches his mother’s. He looks as awkward as could be.

James sticks his nose up in the air. “So, are you going to tell me your name?”

The boy shifts his weight and clenches his blue overalls. “Bill,” he says in a very soft voice.

James wants to laugh; his name is Bill? Really? Poor boy must get teased a lot for being the son of a farmer, a redhead, and having the name Bill. Now’s not the time to be pointing that out though.

“Well, nice to meet you. I’ll be living in Claner from now on.”

“Oh, you are? Are you Buck’s pupil?” he asks excitedly.

News doesn’t just spread, it spreads like wild fire and no one can stop talking about it. James nods his head. “Yup.”

“How old are you? I thought you’d be as old as Buck ...”

James can’t help but glare. He wishes he was as old as Buck. “Fifteen.”

“I’m thirteen.”

Aha, so he was right, two years younger than him.

“Well, whatever, I’m going back to Buck now. Don’t disturb me.” James ignores the fact that he was the one to disturb Bill, and then he goes back to Buck.

James ends up getting his wish and works straight away. For two entire weeks he’s been working non-stop, every single day. He’s exhausted, but no way in hell will he ever admit that, especially not to Buck. Then one weekend, Buck sends him on a trip to the nearest town, Gion. He says his sister runs a carpentry there as well, and he needs James to pick up some supplies from her. Buck draws him a map and gives him instructions on how to get there, and even though he doesn’t really want to admit it, it takes him twice as long to get there because he gets lost not once, but twice.

Not like he’ll ever tell anyone.

James quickly picks up the supplies from Buck’s sister (who’s just as big and buff as he is – is that family on steroids or something?), and is about to get back to Claner when he stumbles upon an unsettling scene.

“Whatcha gonna do, cry for your mommy? Well, she can’t hear yah!” yells out a tall and blond boy.

He’s taller than James, and looks a bit older than him as well. Another boy stands next to him, and they’re cornering the much smaller, much younger, Bill. Bill’s clothes are full of dirt, and his face has bruises and cuts on it. His eyes are welled up with tears and he’s sobbing uncontrollably.

It’s instinct, really, James doesn’t much care for people, but seeing an innocent boy get beaten up by two guys who are much larger and older than him—well, let’s just say he won’t stand for it.

“Hey,” he calls out and steps forward. He quickly puts the supplies on the ground, hoping they wouldn’t be in the way in case anything bad would happen. “Leave the kid alone.”

The two boys turn to look at him. It’s the blond one that speaks up. “Ah, and who might you be?”

“None of your business.”

“Well hey, aren’t we rude here. The proper way to introduce yourself would be to tell us your name.”

“I don’t associate myself with scumbags.”

That seems to set off the blond guy, and he lurks forward, his height definitely being in his favour. James sees Bill scramble up in the corner of his eye, and he runs over to him, hides behind his back. Well, at least he’s sort of safe for now.

“I see. You’re that stupid kid, Buck’s pupil aren’t you? My mom told me you were coming over today to pick up some supplies.”

Then James sees the resemblance. “You’re her son? How disgusting, that you’re even part of Buck’s family. They should burn your name off of the family tree.”

Two steps forward, and the boy grabs hold of James’s collar. He glares at him with his eyes, but James merely stares back at him. It’s a gift that his natural stare is already fixed in a glare, so he doesn’t even really have to try and intimidate the guy.

“You know, I was supposed to be Buck’s pupil. I was supposed to be training with him.”

“Oh yeah? Well I’m sorry, someone more worthy than you stepped in to take the spot instead. Life sucks, doesn’t it?”

That was all that needed to be said for the blond to finally pull a punch on James. James quickly dodges, and even though the boy is taller and older than him, James isn’t about to go down and lose. Not when Bill is crying and yelling behind his back, telling them to not hit him. So James equally fights back, and notices that all that guy has got going for him is his height, because he fights like a girl. James gives him one mean right hook, which lands on his nose and soon he’s dripping blood from his nostrils. He holds his nose with his hands, and his eyes are wide as he stares in shock at James.

James stands in front of Bill, then spits at the two other teenagers. “Get lost, don’t ever pick on him again.”

They run away.

Bill clings himself to James’s back. James has to pry the little hands off of him, and he turns around to face the crying redhead.

“Moron, stop crying already, they’re gone,” he says.

Bill sniffs and grabs James’s shirt again, just like a little kid. “Y-you shouldn’t f-fight,” he says through his hiccups.

James pets Bill’s head. “You fight for people who can’t fight for themselves.” He’s not talking about himself.

Bill wipes away his tears and looks up at James. “Thank you,” he says.

And that’s probably the very first thank you he’s ever heard in his life.

Perhaps living in Claner wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

--

“James!” a girly voice yells out at him.

James snaps out of his daydream and looks at the young woman in front of him. “What?” he asks.

“I asked how you and Bill became friends,” she says while pursing her lips.

James turns his head away and runs his hand through his black hair. “None of your business.” But inside, he can’t help but smile at the memory.