Am I writing an OC story?! Yeah. Yeah, I am. I have to say, now that I tried it, I understand an appeal of OC stories. It's fun to write a character that is not set in canonical frames. Leon waltzed into my mind one day and refused to leave, so I had to sit and start typing. Although, I think he may have made a different decision if he'd known what kind of dark shit I'm gonna drag him through. Too late, my dear Leon, too late.
This story is rated M for a reason!
Warnings: dark themes, underage smoking, strong language, blood, gore, deaths, violence, indiscriminate killing, macabre images, physical abuse, psychological abuse, psychological terror connected with child sexual abuse (nothing graphic, but lots of suggestions/implications; no actual rape takes place though), depression, suicidal thoughts, hints of insanity, a lot of hurt in general and not that much comfort (until someone gets his shit together).
That said, I suck at writing angst (the real, heart-wrenching angst that would leave you all in a sobbing heap; aah, I wish I could do that!), but damn me if I wouldn't try anyway.
Also, I'm taking liberties in world building (because there wasn't much information given about Flevance in canon) and changes in the development of canon characters (due to the involvement of OC).
English is not my first language, but this chapter was proofread by the most amazing DemonicWhispers!
Remains
Chapter 1. Trafalgar D. Water Leon
"Leoooooooon! Give it back!"
A young teenage boy's lips quirked up into a cocky smirk as he held a hair band in the air above the little girl, just out of her reach. She jumped, trying to grab it, but Leon snatched it away with a cheerful, "Oopsy daisy!"
The girl puffed her cheeks in petulant annoyance, her auburn hair brushing her shoulder on one side now that one of the pigtails came loose. "Oniisan!" she whined.
"I told you, Lami, that I'll give it back if you can take it back from me," the boy said seriously, but his golden eyes were alight with mischief. He wagged his little sister's pink hair band in front of her nose, taunting.
The girl glared up at him, then attempted to seize her property back. Leon was much taller than her, seeing that he was almost five years older and had gone through a growth spurt recently, and so her struggles were in vain. "Not fair, oniisan!" she complained again indignantly.
Leon ruffled her hair in a quick, rough motion, making an even bigger mess out of it and consequently aggravating his sister even more. "You're such a midget," he teased with a playful grin on his face.
Lami swatted his hand angrily, swiveled on her heel, and sprinted away along the hospital's corridor, her whiny cry ringing off its walls, "Moooooom!"
"Oi, wait!" the preteen shouted, but the girl was already out of his sight. "Che." Stuffing his hands in his jean's pockets and his feet dragging, the oldest Trafalgar child shuffled his way to the same direction, steeling himself for inevitable lecture.
"–eon is a jackass!"
Leon entered the office of his parents the moment Lami finished her sob story with a resentful statement, pouring as much enmity as was possible for an angered eight years old kid. Which was quite a lot, the boy had to admit.
"Lami! Your language!" their mother, Naomi, admonished in horror. "Where did you even learn such a bad word?"
The girl blinked innocently, then glanced at her oldest brother and smirked.
Oh, Leon knew that smirk all too well. "Lami, don–" he started, only to be interrupted by his baby sister's happy chirp, "I heard Leon-oniisan saying it!"
The preteen slapped his palm on his face, heaving out a long-suffering sigh.
Law sniggered at his misery. He sat at the desk, a pile of medical books stacked on one of its corners and a thick one together with a notebook opened in front of him.
Their father, North, was standing next to him, a disapproving scowl etched on his face as he glowered at his eldest.
"Leon!" Naomi shouted. "How could you speak like that? Especially in front of your younger siblings?"
The boy rolled his eyes in an over-dramatic manner, his head almost mimicking the arc. "It's not such a big deal," he replied dismissively. From the corner of his eye, he saw Lami sticking her tongue at him. What a brat. "She would have learned it sooner or later."
His mother put her hands on her hips and squinted suspiciously. "It's that boy again. Kian?" she asked. "It is, isn't it?"
Leon's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Well, excuse him that he wasn't born into a prestigious family," he retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"T-That's not what this is about!"
"So what is it about?"
Feeling that the boy gave her a rare chance to explain, Naomi took a deep breath. "I'm not saying that you can't be friends with Kian, but he keeps a bad company."
Apparently, this wasn't what Leon wanted to hear at all. His jaw tightened and lips drew into a thin line – a clear sign of his raised hackles.
"You were such a good child, and then you met him, dropped your medicine studies all of a sudden, and–"
"I just want to live!"
Both adults flinched at his outburst, their eyes widening.
"Live my life free," Leon huffed. "Never wanted to be a doctor anyway," he added. After a moment, he muttered out, "Whatever…" and then turned to the side, indicating the end of their conversation.
His parents never accepted his new choice in the company when almost a year ago his behavior suddenly did a one-eighty and from an exemplary child, he became a real delinquent. Their relationship started to fall apart and the distance between them grew bigger and bigger every day, despite Naomi's and North's effort to mend it.
Leon glanced back at his sister. "And you, don't you think your awesome oniisan wouldn't have had a motive behind his actions?"
Lami scrunched her face in confusion. "Motive?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
A sly smile crossed the boy's face, however, it was gone before anyone could really catch a passing glimpse. The bait was thrown and taken, time to reel it in. "Your doubts wound me," he said, putting an open palm on his chest, right on his heart, and his face morphed into a picture of absolute betrayal and hurt. "Don't you trust me? Not even a bit?"
The girl's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Leon!" she suddenly squealed, rushing forward and tackling her brother into a hug. "I trust you!"
The preteen peeked down at her with one eye in disbelief. "Really?"
"Really, really!"
Law rolled his eyes at his siblings' theatrics. "He's lying, Lami," he stated dryly. "Probably doesn't have a motive at all."
Leon flipped him the bird, eliciting chastising, "Leon!" from both his parents and a displeased scowl from his younger brother. He ignored it all with practiced ease.
Naomi only sighed, rubbing her forehead, always getting so tired and exasperated while trying to communicate with her eldest. North came from behind her and gently put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a half hug. When she looked at him, he offered a small comforting, yet helpless smile.
Lami was staring up at Leon, her big dewy eyes clouded with intense worry.
He flashed a wide charming grin and said, "Don't listen to that nerd."
"Oi! Don't call me that!"
"How could I lie to this pretty little lady?" the older boy continued as if no one interrupted him. "You look so cute with your hair loose…" he trailed off with an apathetic shrug, pretending not to notice the girl's cheeks flushing with a light pink tint. After rummaging around in a pocket, he pulled out the hair band and extended it to his sister. "Here, you can have it back."
Lami pursed her lips. After a brief moment of thinking, she pushed Leon's hand away, then ripped the second hair band out of her pigtail, and beamed at him as her now loose hair spilled around her head.
"Much better, midget," Leon approved with a smirk. "I wish I could find a wife as adorable as you one day."
The girl's rising anger for being called 'midget' evaporated in an instant, and her whole face heated up.
Law shook his head and was about to turn back to his studies when Leon said to him, "You, on the other hand, are not cute at all, princess."
The fuming glare he received was so worth it, the preteen decided, his small smile unconsciously widening into a cheeky grin.
"Eeeeh? I thought all princesses are cute and pretty!" Lami exclaimed.
"The only cute thing about this princess is his gifted hat," Leon explained in all seriousness. "There are princesses who need to be kissed first to become cute and pretty, Lami."
"Oooh," the girl drawled, understanding brightening her face. She then furrowed her brow, looking as determined as one could get, and nodded. "I'll see to it that Law-oniisan becomes a pretty princess!"
Leon flashed thumbs-up in his support of her plan at the same time as Law exploded, "Stop stuffing her head with your idiocy! I'm not a princess!"
Before the trio could continue their usual bickering, Naomi clapped her hands and smiled in joy. "Kids," she said. "Your father and I talked, and we decided that it would be fun to go to the festival all together!"
Leon's smile vanished, replaced by an irked frown. "Not interested," he stated abruptly, pivoting on his heel and marching out of the office.
"Leon, come back here!" North demanded, following suit. When he exited through the door, the corridor was empty and the kid already gone. The Trafalgar patriarch sighed. His eldest had become a real escape master.
"You think he knows?" Naomi asked quietly as she stopped next to her husband, biting her lower lip.
North's eyebrows knitted together. "There is no way that he knows."
"But the way he said that…"
"I don't know, Naomi." The man lifted his glasses up and scrubbed a hand down his face, another deep exhale leaving his chest. "He's almost into his teenage years, maybe it's just that?"
"Mom? Dad?"
They both turned around. Law and Lami were staring at them, worry written all over their childish features. The two doctors forced themselves to smile in unison.
"So, how about that festival?" Naomi asked. "At least, for a short break. We have so many patients to take care of after all."
"Yeah!" Lami cheered, fist-pumping the air, while Law grinned happily.
Leon leaned against the door of a hospital's room where he slipped in to escape his parents. It was located on the opposite side of their office, and it wasn't the first time he used it for this purpose. The old lady that was staying here never said a word to him, probably didn't even realize that someone entered her room.
The boy waited until his family left for the festival, then strolled across the room, snatching an apple from the food tray as he passed it. The old lady still said nothing, and it's not like she ate anything without help. He stopped at the window and opened it.
Music, songs, and laughter filled the air together with a sweet smell of various festival foods.
Leon poked his head out and looked around. He spotted a couple patients sitting on a bench nearby and tsked, slightly annoyed.
"Screw it," the boy mumbled after a moment, hopping on the windowsill and then down outside. He landed in the grass, right on top of a twig, and winced when it snapped. "Yo," he greeted the startled patients as they turned around. "Don't mind me." Leon closed the window, bit into the apple, and walked away along the path out of the hospital's territory, ignoring confused gazes from the people on the bench.
At the gates, he paused, slowly chewing on the fruit. His golden eyes lazily scanned the view in front.
White. Everywhere he looked, he saw white. White streets, white buildings, even flowers bloomed white. Most people wore white clothes and white jewelry, and occasionally a person with white strands of hair or small white spots on their skin could be seen.
Leon was so sick of white that to spite it he wore mostly black, refusing to change even into his school uniform and getting into great trouble because of it.
Not that he cared at this point. He'd probably be dead before graduation anyway.
The death sentence had been written into his medical record that he read a year ago in secret. Lethal poisoning by the amber lead, it said in the neat and meticulous penmanship of Flevance's best doctor Trafalgar D. North.
The boy didn't blame his parents, not really, he wasn't that dumb. But he was angry at them for not telling, for keeping it a secret, for not understanding how he felt – for not finding a cure. It was out of their hands, he knew, though that knowledge didn't make it hurt any less.
Leon flicked the core of the apple into the nearby bush, yanked the hood over his black messy hair and sauntered into the city.
Leon went directly to their group's usual meeting spot – an abandoned one-storied building at the edges of Flevance, isolated from the rest of the city by a small patch of forest.
It had been a kindergarten once, shut down half a decade ago due to the decrease in child births around the area. Now it was just a desolate corpse, left to rot unwanted and forgotten, so out of place amid the sparkling White City.
A once graveled pathway leading up to the main entrance was now almost overgrown with grass. The windows were barred up with timber that was broken in some places. The painted walls that had once been white were peeling off, and the door hung loosely on its hinges and banged in the occasional gusts of wind.
Leon entered the building and went straight to the room at the end of the corridor, already used to the smell of mildew and the stale air thick with dust that clung to decaying furniture, covered creaky floor, and, as he moved through, billowed into clouds. Shafts of light burst through gaps in the boarded up windows, catching on the particles suspended in the air.
There was something unbelievably spooky about this place, about all the deserted toys, crumbling coloring chalk, discarded textbooks full of faded, empty pages, and peeled off colorful paintings on the inner walls. There were rumors that this place was haunted, but after half a year Leon had yet to see or hear any ghosts. The only permanent occupants weaved their webs in the frames of the doors and from the ceiling to the wall, old cobwebs billowing in the draft.
Leon found Kian and the rest of the gang in the room they had claimed as their own. A few months ago, they still had next door neighbors, some thugs who were drunk or high more often than not, but then they decided to come looking for trouble. Despite being mere kids – with Kian being the oldest at barely fifteen – they showed just how much trouble they were really worth. Those thugs never returned after getting their asses handed to them.
Leon entered the room the moment Finn – the rotund teen with a maze of freckles across his cheeks and nose – smacked his cards on the table with a joyful whoop, fist-pumped the air, and started dancing.
The other boys groaned.
"That's what you get, looooooosers~!"
"Aw, man," Aryan moaned, dragging a palm over his face. "I lost my pocket money again!"
"That's disgusting, Piggy, stop dancing," Soren grumbled, pushing his beli towards Finn.
Leon passed the card players, offering them only a distant 'hey', and walked right at the back of the room where Kian was sitting on the ratty couch, an open, small notebook in one hand and a pencil in another. He kept nibbling on its ending, a thoughtful frown etched in his brow as he stared intently at something written on the pages.
Because of this image, everyone started calling him Kian the Poet; however, no one knew what exactly he was scribbling in that mysterious notebook all the time.
Leon plopped down next to his best friend with a sigh, laid his head at the back of the couch and threw his arm over his eyes.
Kian's eyes flicked from his notebook at him and his eyebrow rose at all the distressed signals he was sending out. "What's up?"
The younger boy groaned. "Nothing, just…" He paused. "My family is driving me insane."
Nolan cackled where he dealt the cards for another round of the game. "Your family is all freaks, Leon."
Leon's head snapped back up, his eyes narrowing into furious golden slits. "Pretty ballsy of you, Nolan, to call my baby siblings freaks."
Nolan instantly realized how greatly he just screwed up with his lame joke and his eyes widened. Even if Trafalgar was the youngest among them, he was recognized by all as the second in their group's hierarchy, right after Kian, and had a reputation of a mean fighter and being extremely protective of his brother and sister, especially the latter.
"S-Sorry, Leon," the blond cowered.
"Hey," Kian called out softly, patting his younger friend on his shoulder. "Let's go take a smoke."
"Are you offering?" Leon asked, his glare fixed firmly on the target. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his knuckles – they were getting itchy – and made the other boy sweat in apprehension. "I'm out."
"Yup."
"Alright."
Nolan edged subtly as far as possible from their second-in-command as two boys passed them on their way out of the room and heaved a not so subtle sigh in relief when they exited.
The duo walked along the corridor for a bit, then entered the kitchen area. It had a roof caved in on one of its corners, making it a perfect ramp to climb on the roof.
The boys perched on the edge, overlooking an abandoned playground in the backyard. Kian pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to Leon before taking one for himself. After lighting it up, they both sat there in silence.
Leon was the first to break it with a question, "What do you want to talk about?"
Kian shot him a wry smile. "How do you know that I want to talk?"
"You offered me a smoke. For free." The raven shrugged. "You'd have just said to cut it otherwise."
The teen chuckled. "Right. Always so smart," he commented fondly. "Well, it's more like I wanted to show you something," he explained, biting his cigarette and shifting slightly to the side so that he could lift his shirt and reveal his torso. There was a white patch on his side, easily visible juxtaposed against Kian's natural darker skin. "Appeared maybe a week ago."
Leon's eyes grew bigger for a second, before his expression smoothed into something sad and disheartening with a tinge of defeat. "Damn," he muttered under his breath, his eyes moving from his friend to stare at the forest in front, his smoldering cigarette hanging limply between his fingers.
The silence enveloped them in its comforting embrace, interrupted only by some birds' voices and fragments of merry songs, brought by the wind from the city.
"So, how long do I have?"
Leon shrugged again, taking a drag of his cigarette. "It's different for every person, I'm no doctor," he said, blowing out a cloud of smoke and grinding the leftover butt into the roof. "Maybe as long as me, maybe longer, maybe shorter. Who knows."
Kian looked at him. "How long for you?"
"Five years, give or take."
"At least you won't have to sit through the school's graduation exams."
The preteen unexpectedly laughed. It was a short, bitter laughter, but no other person could have made him even crack a smile while talking about this kind of topic. Kian was his best friend for many reasons.
They sat there again in silence. Two young kids casually thinking about the approaching dates of their death – such a messed up situation.
Kian extinguished his cigarette into the roof, then flicked it away into the grass below with a thoughtful, "Everyone's dying, huh." When he received a soft hum in agreement, he continued, "You know, my dad's a soldier and he's doing his duty on Flevancian borders. A few days ago he came back home and just…" He trailed off, ruffling his own light brown hair. "Got completely wasted, started hugging and kissing us all while sobbing his eyes out. I swear, slobbered all over me," he complained with a kind-hearted grin, eliciting a chuckle from his friend. Mirth was short-lived, however, because after a moment Kian drew his eyebrows together into a grim expression. "It seems that other countries are blocking our borders. I'm not really that good with politics and stuff, but even I understand that it doesn't sound good."
"Blocking our borders?"
"No one can leave or enter."
Leon gawked at him in disbelief. Didn't that mean that they were closed off from the rest of the world? What would become of them? Would they simply die out in isolation? He glared at the distance when some lose words from the song reached his ears. "And they're having a festival to celebrate that," he hissed angrily before suddenly throwing his arms up in the air, frustrated. "Aaaaah! I want to punch something!"
Kian's lips twitched up into an amused smirk. He heaved himself slightly up and then leaped down. "Let's go find that something to punch!"
With a running start, Leon easily vaulted himself over their garden's fence, landing precisely between two blooming shrubs of flowers. A neighbor's cat screeched in fright as it jumped high into the air and scurried away in a flash.
The boy chuckled to himself. This was the cat that kept pooping on his mom's precious herbs and making her sad, so he had no sympathy to offer for the poor creature. What went around came around.
It was already late into the night. The festival ended a few hours ago, people retired to their homes, and the city sunk into sleepy stillness under the starry dark sky.
Leon ran his tongue over his split lip and slowly slinked towards the house. He was already prepared to hear the lecture, chiding, reprimand, admonition – all damn sermon – from his parents, so there was no point stalling what was inevitable.
He entered the house quietly, pricking his ears for any telltale of Naomi's footsteps, but there was nothing. The whole building was silent and dark. That was strange.
The preteen poked his head into the sitting room – empty. Getting slightly worried, he walked into the kitchen and that was where he found Law.
His little brother was sleeping half lying on the table, his arms folded under his head, his fur hat and a small parcel, wrapped into a bright yellow paper, resting beside his elbow.
Leon put a hand on the younger boy's shoulder and gently shook him.
Law stirred, blinking tiredly. It took him a few seconds to orient himself, but once he did, Leon was exposed to his patented scowl topped with an irritated glare. "Where have you been, Leon?"
The older raven shrugged. "Around," he replied dismissively. "Well, if mom and dad don't want to read a lecture today, I'm off to bed. You should do the same, princess."
Law watched him turn to leave. "Lami collapsed today," he said softly before his brother could disappear around the corner. "They both stayed at the hospital with her."
Leon stiffened and closed his eyes, his face morphing into a pained expression. So, Lami would go first, huh. After a moment, he exhaled all air out of his lungs, returned to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Meanwhile, Law lighted up a candle.
"How is she?" Leon asked finally, picking at freshly clotted scrapes and bruises on his knuckles. It had been a wild evening, even for his standards.
"Mom and dad are very scared."
"Yeah, I bet."
They lapsed into silence.
Law's scowl deepened as he observed his brother's action. "You'll make it worse, stop it," he ordered, slapping his hand away. "Idiot," he added in that half-fond, half-annoyed tone that was reserved exclusively for Leon. "Wait here," the boy grumbled, strutting out of the kitchen. Soon he came back with a small first-aid kit in his hands.
As Law began cleaning his knuckles with all the professional concentration ten years old kid could muster, Leon wondered if his little brother knew about the death penalty hanging above all their heads. Probably not. But he was a smart kid, possibly smarter than him, so he definitely suspected something was up. A sudden influx of patients with the same symptoms and their weekly health check-ups weren't painting a picture that everything was perfectly fine.
The knowledge about the impending death was crippling and debilitating, so Leon was glad that his brother didn't know about it. He smiled. "Now, who are you and what did you do with my grumpy baby brother? He never was this cute."
"Shut up!" Law snapped, intentionally spilling more stinging medicine on his scrapes that was strictly necessary.
Leon hissed in pain. "I was wrong. Still not cute at all," he groused, receiving a smug smirk in return.
The younger raven finished his work, packed the first-aid kit, and then glanced at the small parcel. Reaching to take it, he offered it to his brother and mumbled, "This is a gift." His amber colored eyes – a few shades deeper than Leon's – shyly shifted to the side. "Lami and I found it in the festival and thought you'd like it... Mom helped us to buy it, so you better like it," he finished with a threat and a quick glare at his direction.
Leon took the gift, feeling stunned. "A gift? On what occasion?" he inquired curiously, carefully unwrapping the neatly done wrapping.
"Your birthday is in a few months… Lami asked to give it to you now."
The older raven's hands stilled for a brief moment before continuing on with his task. The first thing he saw was a leather string and as he pulled at it, a pendant came loose from the paper.
It was a wolf's head made of black metal with its teeth bared and golden crystal eyes glittering when they occasionally caught and reflected candle's light.
Leon stared at it in awe, speechless.
Law's expression started to falter as his brother said nothing for a seemingly very long minute. He fidgeted. "Sorry, we couldn't find anything with a lion and–"
"It's perfect! I love it," the older boy declared sincerely, tying the pendant around his neck. "Thanks."
A small pleased smile curled on Law's lips.
"I don't have anything for you," Leon spoke, pulling something out of his hoodie's pocket. "But I'm pretty sure Lami will agree to share this with you."
Law stared at the two hairpins with pink, fluffy bunnies attached to their ends, before he leveled his usual glare at his smirking older brother. "You're such an ass," he grumbled, picking up his hat and standing up with the intention to go to his room. In the doorway he hesitated, glancing back at Leon, who still had that shit-eating grin on his face. "Hey… oniisan," he called out in a small, uncertain voice.
The preteen grew serious in an instant. Law only called him 'oniisan' when he was truly scared and needed his big brother to fix the world for him. Unfortunately, Leon couldn't fix everything despite how much he wished he could, but damn if he wouldn't try anyway. He had never teased his siblings when they were this vulnerable either.
"What is it, Law?" he prodded gently when the younger boy didn't elaborate on what was on his mind.
"Will you–" Law stopped, cleared his throat, took a deep breath. After a moment, he looked at his brother with a determination plastered on his face and put forward a hopeful question, "Will you come with me to the hospital tomorrow?"
Leon's eyes softened and he smiled again; this time it was a fond and warm curve. He blew off the candle and stood up to leave too, feeling the intensity of Law's gaze on him. Leon ruffled his hair affectionately as he walked past him with a quiet, but reassuring, "Of course, little brother."
Next Chapter. Streets Ran Red