A/N: In the real series, Mugen is 4 years older than Fuu, who's 15 (making him 19, for those who are too lazy to do math). But in this fic, he's the same age. I just thought it seemed better if he was 15 or 16. Just feels right. Anyway, please enjoy, review, etc. This is my first time writing for S.C., so please don't be to harsh.

I was living a good life. I had nothing to complain about. I lived with my mother in a little village, where she and I both worked. I was a waitress in a teahouse, and she was a tutor to the village children. Both respectable jobs, and neither of us had had to stoop to working in a brothel.

I'd never known my father, or, if I did, I couldn't remember him. He'd left when I was young. My mother told me he was dead, but I'd known her since the day I was born; I could tell when she was lying.

It was a small family; just my mother and I. But we were happy. I didn't have any friends, but I didn't care. All needed was my mother. We were happy, just the two of us.

I was living a good life.

Until he came along. I mean my mother's husband. My stepfather. That kind of thing was a rarity, because once you married, you were married. A woman couldn't leave her husband, but a husband could leave his wife. But, truth be told, my parents had never married. I was born out of wedlock, and therefore, this was my mother's first husband.

It started out as a nice little thing, and even though I never really accepted him (he wasn't my father, so I wasn't going to treat him like he was) I didn't disapprove or anything. For the first few months, he was really into courting my mother. Like, with flowers and gifts and all that, but once she'd agreed to marry him, things started to change. He wasn't as nice as he first seemed. And once they got married?

Yeah, then I knew. First impressions are often wrong, but this was one huge misinterpretation.

Sweet on the outside, rotten to the core. Whenever my mother wasn't around, he was a total nut job. He was angry and violent, and he drank a lot, and a few times, he even hit me. It seemed he liked that, because he kept doing it, more and more often, but only when my mother wasn't around. I tried to tell her, but she didn't believe me, going so far as to think that I just didn't like him because I was bitter about my father leaving.

Yeah, like I'd make shit up about him beating me because I hated my father. That made a lot of sense.

But this man caused my perfect little family to begin to unravel. The trusting bonds we had were suddenly falling apart at the seams, and we were growing distant. It was all his fault, and she couldn't even see that.

My life was falling apart.

A/N: There's my preface. Hopes you likies. And yes, this will be done in Fuu's POV. The good stuff starts next chapter, I promise.