Hello everyone, and welcome to my new story. I'm just going to put this first chapter out to see how people like it before I continue.

Basically the idea here is that a lot of people like to write their favorite characters as depressed and/or angsty, so what if I wrote all of them as tortured souls?

Yes, there will be pain and sadness, but it will hopefully get better (eventually). I am going to focus mainly on this group of four, but I will probably diverge to look at other characters as well. There will be many POV shifts, in order to get a good understanding of what they're all thinking.

Warnings: mentions of cutting, incestuous desires, and angsty teenagers.

Please remember to leave a review, it would really help me see if anyone likes this idea. Enjoy!

Edit: changed the spelling of Norway's name

Eiríkur looked around the gray room. He sat in a metal folding chair in a circle of other chairs. Why am I here? he wondered. I'm not like these other freaks. But he couldn't decide if he was better than them or worse.

To his right sat a blond boy with periwinkle-colored eyes trying to make himself as small as possible. Next to him sat a scary looking girl with long, silvery blonde hair who glared with cold blue eyes around the circle. Across the circle, separated from the rest of the ground by a few chairs on either side of him, was an Asian boy with layered black hair, cold brown eyes, and a condescending smirk.

"Eiríkur?" said the therapist in charge of the group. "Would you like to begin?"

"No," he said simply. He looked at his hands in his lap.

"Okay," she conceded. At least she wasn't going to force him to speak. "Matthew?" The boy next to him looked up in surprise.

"You remembered me?" he asked timidly. His voice was quiet and meek.

"Of course, I did." Matthew breathed a sigh relief.

"It gets so exhausting, having everyone forget about you.

"My twin brother is the 'golden child' in our family. He gets perfect grades, has a steady job, plays football and baseball. Basically, he's perfect. Well, almost. See, he always manages to piss off a lot of people. Those people always mistake me for him and beat me up. I've tried talking to my parents, but what do they care? I'm the other twin who doesn't get great grades and doesn't have a job. The only things I'm good at are hockey and French, and who cares about that?

"Anyway, one day after practice, these guys were harassing me. I just…snapped. 'I'm not Alfred,' I said. Before I knew it, Al was trying to calm me down, and my hockey stick was covered in blood. I guess I beat up the three guys pretty badly."

Eiríkur shivered at the look on Matthew's face.

"Do you blame your brother?" asked the therapist.

"Oh, no, it's not his fault. I mean, it is his fault he's kind of a douche, but it's not his fault we look alike. He's always been there for me, so no, I don't hold it against him."

"Why don't you tell us more about your relationship with your brother?" The way she said "relationship" made Eiríkur think of Niklas. He gripped his wrist and looked down.

"Well, I guess we're, ah, close," Matthew said hesitantly. "We hang out together a lot, when he's not busy with other things." He thought for a second then added quietly "I don't think he knows how I feel about him."

"How do you feel about him?" Eiríkur tensed up, but at the same time he wanted to laugh. Maybe he did fit in here.

"I like him." Matthew wondered why he was able to say it that easily. He had to admit, it felt good to get everything off his chest. He usually kept things bottled up, which probably added to his…incident.

"Good, Matthew. Let's move on. Natalya?" The frightening girl to Matthew's right looked up and smiled.

"I also like my brother," she said. "It's no secret; I've always wanted to marry him. No one else is good enough for him. I've never hurt anyone, but I guess I scared away one too many potential dates. He sent me here, so he wouldn't have to deal with me anymore." Her voice broke, and Matthew felt sorry for her. He thought of Alfred's face when he had pulverized those jerks.

"Mattie?" he had said quietly, looking scared. "What's going on?" Matthew didn't remember what he had said, but Alfred had kept his distance ever since.

"Why was your brother the one to send you away?" asked the therapist, interrupting his train of thought.

"My parents died a long time ago, and my older sister abandoned us to live her own life. Ivan has taken care of me for as long as I can remember."

"Very good, Natalya." Natalya wondered what part of her story was very good. She felt tears prick at her eyes and blinked them away. She wouldn't cry in front of these boys.

"Xiao, why don't you go next?" The boy a few chairs to her right scowled at the therapist. The, looking at the silvery blond boy to Matthew's left, he smirked.

"I'm not going until he talks," he said. The boy started, gripping his wrist and keeping his violet eyes downturned.

"Very well. Eiríkur, are you ready to talk?" He looked up to glare back at Xiao, who grinned widely.

"Fine," he said then sighed. "I'm also in love with my brother, Niklas." He paused, and Natalya watched the Asian boy's grin turn back into a scowl. "But he doesn't know. In fact, he has a boyfriend, a big idiot named Magnus. I honestly don't know what Niklas sees in him.

"I know it's sick and wrong, but I really can't help loving him. And I know if I told him, he'd never speak to me again. That makes me so mad and sad that I—" He paused, gripping his wrist tighter. Natalya wondered what it would be like to have to hide her love from Ivan.

"Go ahead and say it," urged the therapist. "You're safe here."

"I cut myself," Eiríkur whispered. "If I don't, I feel like I'm going to burst. It's how I stay so calm all the time, especially when I have to see Niklas with Magnus.

"But one day, Niklas saw my cuts, and he looked so sad. He asked me what was wrong, but I couldn't tell him. I just kept saying it was none of his business, and it was a big mess." He paused to talk a deep breath. "So here I am."

The scary chick and the quiet guy nodded, but Xiao just crossed his arms and scowled some more. He was fed up with this weird group. He had hoped the cute boy across from him would be fairly normal, but that didn't happen.

"Good, Eiríkur, great job," cooed the therapist, and Xiao rolled his eyes. "Xiao?"

"Let me just start by saying I'm not a freak like you guys," he spat. The other three looked shocked, but he continued. "I don't have any weird, incestuous feelings."

"Yes, thank you, Xiao," clipped the therapist, and he smirked. "Why don't you tell us your story?"

"My mother was Chinese, and my father was English. He went back to his 'real family' before he knew I was on the way. My poor mother already had a boy to take care of, and she had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

"She died when I was young, and my older brother Yao did his best to raise me. Apparently that wasn't good enough, because about a year ago the government sent me to live with my long lost English half-brother. My father had a heart attack and died a couple years ago, so I guess he got what was coming to him.

"Arthur forced me to speak only English, began to address me as Leon, and wondered why I rebelled against him. I'm here, because he deemed me a problem child. He thinks I'll be fixed into a perfect little white kid."

"Okay, good. And you said Xiao is the name you prefer?"

"It's my only name."

"Okay, well that's all the time we have for today. Good work everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow."