A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Magi and its characters.
This is a story I wrote for the Juhaku week in tumblr. I combined two of a day's prompts (scars & childhood) and here is the result.
The fire incident at the Ren mansion was the town's gossip. People just couldn't stop talking about it. How the fire started in the attic and then expanded to the rest of the house and how it was too suspicious to be a mere accident. How the mother and the daughter of the family were lucky enough to be away during that time and how the others weren't so lucky.
Hakutoku Ren, an upstanding man and a successful businessman was burned to death to that ill incident. Alongside with him perished his two sons, two boys barely old enough to be considered men. Those two young men would have had the life ahead of them. But alas, fate had other plans for them…
They weren't the only ones present on that fire incident, though. The youngest member of the family, a boy around eight, was also there and he survived.
Poor boy! Not only he witnessed his father and brothers' deaths but he is also in a critical condition as the fire left him with heavy burns.
It's a pity! I heard he was scarred.
Such a shame! And he used to be a beautiful child…
Hakuryuu had heard their whispering words of pity so many times now. During their visits to the hospital they would always whisper such things to each other when they thought he couldn't hear them. After all, nobody could ever accuse them of impoliteness. Their only offense was being extremely insensitive. Oh, and noisy, too. Because the reason they kept visiting him in the hospital wasn't out of concern; they wanted to satisfy their curiosity instead so that they could have another topic to talk about in their daily gossip gatherings.
Hakuryuu thought that he could grow to hate the lot of them. It was the first time he was experiencing such a negative feeling. Prior to that fateful event, he could be irritated at best with something. His eldest brother used to say that hatred only brings people further down and Hakuryuu looked up to him and always took his advices at heart. But he was dead and he could no longer offer him his words of wisdom. Just like his other brother he would never playfully tease him anymore. And his father would never smile proudly to Hakuryuu's achievements. For they were no longer part of this world.
Hakuryuu didn't know how to cope with their absence. But he knew that he didn't want to have people to remind him of his terrible loss on top of that.
That was why when the doctors announced that it was time for him to be released from the hospital he didn't feel as relieved as they thought he would be. Returning to his home meant returning to reality and facing it and Hakuryuu wasn't sure if he wanted to. But alas, life goes on whether we like it or not.
Soon came the time for him to return to school as well and once again he felt reluctant to face it. If the adults could only talk about his poor circumstances then he had no doubt that the same would happen in school as well. Only the situation would be far worse for him. He didn't want to see his classmates pity him. Those people were the same age as him and they used to admire him for his good grades and his achievements in sports. They were never supposed to pity him and yet deep down he knew that such would be his new reality from now on.
"Will they ever see anything beyond my scar?" I doubt they will…Hakuryuu touched with his left hand his burned skin while he locked his eyes to that scarred boy that was looking back at him on the mirror.
His thoughts were interrupted by his sister entering his room. She didn't say anything; she only gracefully approached him and gave him a big warm hug.
"I came here just to say goodnight" she explained herself "and also to tell you that I believe in you. Everything will turn out fine".
"I know" he replied returning the hug "I'm okay. I really am".
That was a lie.
He wasn't okay and he doubted he would ever be.
But he didn't have to add more worries on his sister's mind so he lied to her.
When he finally walked through the school's gate the next morning things happened exactly as he had predicted them. Heads were turning as he was passing through the corridor and he could hear whispers around him.
Don't they have anything better to do? He thought bitterly.
But if he was fair with himself he had to admit that had he been in their place he would do the same thing. Children's curiosity is a strong feeling.
Things only got worse when he entered the classroom. His classmates, people who once would gather around his desk to ask for help at some subject, were now looking on his scar so intensely as if the rest of his face had ceased to exist. Two or three girls, turned their heads from him with a disgusted look on their face.
He wanted to scream at all of them. But instead he went to sit on his desk and endured their curious stares the whole morning.
It was then that he decided to avoid everyone on the lunch break. So, he found an isolated table that hadn't been occupied to sit.
Unfortunately for him, a group of girls thought that they were obligated to be helpful to "poor Hakuryuu" so they decided to sit with him. Hakuryuu was about to tell them that he didn't need their company but one of the girls was the daughter of his mother's boss so he decided against it.
Once again he found himself enduring company he never asked for, wishing he could be anywhere but there. He sat through the girls talk about several of their activities. He didn't understand half of the things they said but he couldn't care less. Now apparently, a girl was talking about how she spent her Sunday morning.
"Then I baked a cake with my mom" she said with much excitement "and then my dad..." just when she said that word she stopped talking and she looked at her friends with a terrified look.
"Momo!" her friend on her left scolded her.
The girl named Momo was now bowing in front of Hakuryuu and apologized to him.
"I'm so sorry I spoke about…such a sensitive topic in front of you".
The world won't ban the word "dad" just because I lost mine! Hakuryuu wanted to shout at her.
And if you think that by stopping in the middle of your sentence and apologizing you are making things easier, you are wrong.
Just as Hakuryuu was thinking a way to get himself out of that awkward conversation and away from that irritating girls, he spotted the last person he wanted to meet at that moment. Judal was heading towards his table.
Judal was a year older than Hakuryuu and Hakuryuu considered himself lucky enough not to be classmates with him.
Unfortunately, they lived in the same neighborhood. Hakuryuu and his sister often played games with a ball in their garden. Hakuei, being the kind soul she was, when she had realized that there was a lonely boy in the next garden she invited him to join them in their games.
That wouldn't be bad if it was about any other person but Judal was weird. He talked about things which made little sense, he was rude and he liked to troll everyone. On top of that, he had also taken a liking to Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu had realized early on that Judal was seeking opportunities to be with him both at school and in their neighborhood. He couldn't understand the reason, though. Why had he picked him and not Hakuei? After all, Hakuei was the one who invited him in the first place. It didn't make sense! But things hardly ever made sense when Judal was involved.
Judal also had the annoying habit of calling Hakuryuu "my friend". Like who addresses others on such way when he's past five years old?
Watching Judal approaching him, made Hakuryuu have a nausea feeling in his stomach. If everyone was only focusing on his scars what would Judal do who made a living by laughing at others? Things were bound to get worse.
"Yo" Judal said in a loud voice and sat at a chair across from Hakuryuu "Where have you been my friend?"
The girls all gasped at his question. He couldn't ask poor Hakuryuu such thing, right? Everyone at school knew about Hakuryuu and his unfortunate circumstances.
Judal paid no attention to them. "I missed you" he declared and with one of his hands he grabbed a potato from one of the girls' plate.
"You don't mind, do you?" he asked before he devoured it.
"Actually I do!"
The girl casted a disgusted look towards him. But Judal didn't care.
"Good for you" he replied before he turned his attention to Hakuryuu once again. "Woah! There is something on your face!"
The girls were all looking too shocked now.
One of them stood up and yelled "You can't be that insensitive! Apologize now!".
Her loud voice caught the attention of the students in the nearby tables. Once they realized that the quarrel had to do something with Hakuryuu, the scarred boy, their interest peaked.
"Huh? Why should I apologize?" Judal looked genuinely confused. "Because Hakuryuu's face is stained with mustard?" he turned to Hakuryuu and said in a lower voice "it's just on the corner of your mouth".
Hakuryuu didn't believed what he had just heard. He had a scar on his face, a terrible and ugly scar that people couldn't let him forget and there was Judal talking about a stain of mustard!
A weird feeling started to blossom within him. A feeling he thought he had forgotten. And so Hakuryuu, the scarred boy who had recently lost half of his family, busted into a loud laughter.
Everyone was looking shocked at him but Hakuryuu really couldn't help it.
When his laughter started to die off, he wiped the mustard from his face and casted a look on Judal. He always thought the worst when it came to him. And yet, today Judal proved him wrong. When everyone was pitying him Judal was the only one who treated him in the same way he always had. For that Hakuryuu was grateful.
"I finished my meal" Hakuryuu announced to no one in particular. Then he turned to Judal "Would you like to go outside, my friend?"
Judal's eyes were wide open. He never thought he would hear Hakuryuu call him like that. "You mean the two of us?" he asked with excitement evident on the smile on his face.
When Hakuryuu gave a positive nod, Judal's smile grew bigger. "Yeah! I'd love that!"
With that Judal stood up and started leading the way, moving way too quickly and smiling way too brightly. Hakuryuu followed him in a quiet manner. From that day that would be the new reality for the two of them.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please review and let me know your thoughts on my story :)
Also, I don't know about you but personally I'm very excited for the upcoming Judal-Hakuryuu meeting. Will Hakuryuu cry? Will they hug? Or will they act all calm and collected? We can't say for sure but I'm rooting for an emotional reunion!