It was getting chilly in the dying sun, the autumn frosts would arrive soon and damn it, he hadn't managed to 'commander' a new jacket for himself yet.
One by one the street lamps flickered their sickly iridescent glow, attempting to light the desolate roads. Broken hollow shells of what were once known as houses lined the sidewalk, the glass of the windows (if they weren't broken) was caked in a thick layer of uncleanable grime.
With a reproachful sigh the young man slunk through the shadows of Sector five, making sure to keep his sharp green eyes alert. With a cautioned movement he lifted the plastic bag he carried up to his shoulders and tucked it securely between his chest and tattered sweater which was three sizes too big. There were worse things then ravenous dogs that haunted these streets. He knew all too well if the scent of his parcel was picked up…
Well, he didn't want to think about it, really. In the slums it was survival of the fittest, or the dirtiest fighter. Lea found himself leaning to the secondary option most of the time. He wasn't the tallest, or biggest of, well, anything really.
But he was a "mother fucking genius", he smirked, quoting his self description. The young Maero could con anyone out of their high prized dollar. He was a smooth talking, scheming little punk. At age five, he had started with petty theft, at seven, he had taught himself some useful 'magic tricks' with a pack of cards he'd found in the men's room of the subway station, and at nine, he had mastered the art of conversation (despite his horrid use of slang). And now, at age eleven, Lea had become a pro of all the 'underground trades' and lead a self sufficient life as a hooligan who made his way by the means of taking what he needed. He had to be good, if he wanted to survive.
But even pro's have their strokes of bad luck.
Shit. That was the only way to describe his day. Pure and utter shit. He found himself clutching the small amount of Gil in his pocket, afraid it might slip through the hole he hadn't to sewn up yet.
Today hadn't been as productive as he had originally intended. This time of year was always hard, people saved what little money they had so they could use their heaters. He couldn't really blame them for that, it just made his wheeling and dealing a bit more difficult.
Lea ran the cool fingers of his other hand through the mesh of red spikes, trying to keep the delicate hair from tangling. It was always a bitch to brush out.
Especially when you had a comb with only seven teeth on it. Sigh.
The eleven year old paused for a moment and stood on the protruding metal rail of the train tracks. He turned his gaze back over his shoulder at the glorious white obelisk of the Shinra building.
"FUCKER!" he snarled at the top of his lungs while shaking an angry fist "I'm going to get you, asshole! Do you hear me up there in 'yer tower?! I'm going to fucking get you!"
With an angry snort Lea whipped his back to the taunting high rise. The very thought of that bastard sitting on his throne while people suffered, it rubbed him everyway but right. Of course, he had no idea how he would get him. Maybe he'd egg his precious car. Lea smirked, he'd willing go without eating for a few days if it meant ruining that glossy paint.
"Hey, punk" a gruff voice shook him out of his vengeful thoughts. A large hand descended his shoulder and whipped him around "Whatcha' hidin' there?"
"Bar of soap" Lea replied flippantly, raising a red brow "Not that someone with such amazin' hygienic standards such as yerself have heard of such a thing" he stuck his tongue out while crinkling his nose in an exaggerated expression.
The man narrowed his eyes in an frustrated aggression, the wrinkles etched on what should have been a young face reflected the harshness of life in the slums. Lea scolded himself (briefly) for being so damn hilarious, some people just couldn't take a joke.
"Like you smell any better, you little fucktard" another voice snarled. Ah, so the idiot had an accomplice. Lovely, just fucking lovely, Lea sighed
"Come on fellas, you wouldn't heckle a little kid now would ya'?" the red head attempted "Just lemme go, yo, and we can pretend this never happened" in what he hoped was a peaceful gesture, Lea held his hands out, flat, and attempted to back away from the first man who held a firm grip on his collar.
"Unless you hand over that bag you've got stuffed in your shirt, you wont be going anywhere ever again" the second man sneered, pressing the cold edge of a blade to Lea's throat."Life's hard on this side of the tracks, kid, now hand it over!
"Guys—" Lea attempted once more.
"Hand it over!!" the first man demanded, giving him a good shake.
By now Lea had lost his patience "Hey, ya know what? Fuck you!" he dropped down out of his sweater. After securing the bag beneath his arm he lunged forward, head butting the first man in the crotch.
His captor shrieked in agony before flopping over like a pathetic doll. Before the second, armed man could react Lea brought his foot up to kick him in the same area, causing him great amounts of pain.
Soon as the armed man dropped to the ground Lea sprang up to grab the discarded knife, as well as his sweater. "That'll teach ya'bitches!" he cackled, darting away from the scene. Who did those assholes think they were? Both sides of the track looked pretty shitty to him.
Lea took great care in covering his tracks, literally, to make sure those two assholes didn't follow him home. People in the slums could be vengeful, he didn't need them taking their anger out on someone undeserving. He climbed the ladder of a stationary train car and stood on the roof.
The red head peered around. Across from him he saw what appeared to be a halfway stable fence. For a moment he stared it, willing his brain to make some sort of connection. Ah ha! Jump!
"Whoo hoo!" he grinned madly with a mighty leap of faith. Lea grabbed the top of the fence and pulled himself up. "Hehe, bastards, don't be messin' with Lea Maero" he chuckled to himself.
Carefully he lowered himself down from the fence, making sure to keep the parcel close to him. He couldn't afford to lose it. Lea allowed himself to grin in hopeful optimism:
"Maybe tonight will bet—" BOOM. Lightening cracked the sky. In a matter of seconds the boy was not only cold, but drenched "Great" he muttered "Just fuckin' great"
Lea pulled the large sweater over his head while hastily picking up his pace. Last thing he needd was to get sick. Couldn't afford it, someone depended on him.
His 'home' quickly came into vision, Lea narrowed his eyes. From inside the crumbling walls, sounds of violence resonated in drunken rage. They were fighting again. That was much was evident by the slew of curses and flying bottles.
With a roll of his eyes Lea bounced up the concrete steps of his porch and carefully opened the door.
"You fucking whore!" snarled a haggard looking male, his shaggy and matted red hair clung to his scalp like a beanie, he hadn't washed it in…who could even remember?.
"Freeloading asshole!" a woman snarled back, her sunken face twisted in rage. Furiously she snatched a half empty liquor off the coffee table. With all her mighty she threw it at the older man.
"Whoa!" Lea ducked when he entered. Goddamn, what a way to come home, having a bottle chucked at your head. Although, given the situation, he concluded it hadn't been deliberately thrown at him, this time.
"Way to go, Vivian! Impale the goddamn kid why dontcha!?" the man scolded.
"Like you give a damn Snyder!" the woman, Vivian, Lea's mother countered hotly "Don't start playing the loving father part now, you asshole!"
"You ain't exactly mother of the fucking year!" Snyder retorted. The alcohol burning through his veins made Snyder's already hot temper unsteady, he lunged and gave Vivian a violent shove. "If ya kill him that other one would never shut the hell up! Constantly crying the little pansy!"
At his Snyder's remark Lea's eyes darkened. "Don't you talk about him like that!" he nearly screamed "Don't you ever talk about him like that again, I'll kill you!"
Vivian caught her balance on the kitchen table just in time to witness her husband lift the glass chimney off of her favorite kerosene lamp.
Lea saw it too. The eleven year old tried to scramble backwards, but his legs weren't tall enough to match his father's long stride. Snyder swung and the glass connected, shattered, across Lea's face. The youngest red head fell back on his rear.
"Goddamn! Snyder! That was my favorite lamp!" Vivian hissed. She turned briefly to Lea "Don't bleed all over my rug!"
While Lea sat on the floor, the two adults engaged in another battle, this time about breaking the few possessions they owned. Groggily the boy pulled himself to his feet, goddamn it, now his entire face hurt.
Muttering a brief 'fuck you' under his breath, Lea grabbed the bag he had been carrying and slunk up down the hall. He entered the 'bathroom' (he used the term useless, there was no bath, or even a functioning sink) and stood in front of the cracked mirror. Slowly, Lea began to pluck the shards of glass from his skin. One particular piece had gouged him rather deep, when he removed it, he noticed the triangle mark left beneath his eye, it was going to leave an awful scar.
Great. Just what he needed. "I'm going to look like a fucking clown" he snorted in distaste. Lea pressed a compress to the wound to try and quench the bleeding, never taking his eyes off of his broken reflection in the mirror.
A few minor cuts and bruises etched his face in angry, red welts, heat rushed to the wounds. Slowly he pulled the compress away, observing the very clean, straight shape of the triangle. Hmm. An idea began to take shape.
Glancing down at the piece of glass responsible for the mark, Lea picked it up off the counter and held it between his finger tips. Almost admiringly he glanced down at the shard, twisting it in his finger tips. On his unscathed cheek he measured where it would have been, if it were symmetrical to the bleeding triangle under his right eye.
Taking a deep breath he impaled the glass into his flesh, leaving a nearly identical mark. He pressed harder, and once he was sure it had gone deep enough Lea removed the glass and held the compress to his self inflicted wound.
Fuck being a clown, he thought once he removed the compress to observe his handiwork. In all honesty he had no idea why he just left an unnecessary mark on himself. Perhaps he didn't want to give his 'parents' the satisfaction of knowing how it had hurt, and how he had taken it as his own.
What the hell ever. It didn't matter.
Discarding the compress and the shard Lea silently slunk out of the bathroom, not giving a damn if his 'parents' killed each other. They were still fighting, of course.
At the end of the hall Lea pushed the door open "Yo?" he blinked poking his head in before entering. The young man felt his heart start to thump, the room was empty. "Bro??" he asked again, this time a little louder.
"Mfft!" came a muffled cry from the closet, accompanied by a sudden desperate pounding beyond the door "In here Lea!"
"Reno!" Lea gasped. He dashed over to the closet, finding that had been locked. Who the hell put locks on closet doors anyway?
Oh, right. Asshole parents did.
He jiggled the knob in vain. "Reno, back up" Lea instructed. He heard the light steps of his younger brother.
"Ok I'm back, yo!" Reno called back.
"Cover your face!" the older boy commanded. He brought his leg up to fiercely kick the door. Once, twice, three times, splintering the wood to the point where he simply ripped the knob out. Lea immediately dropped down to a crouch and opened his arms. "What're ya doin in here?" he asked.
"T-they put me in here" replied the younger child, trying to fight back a sniffle. Reno dashed into Lea's embrace, his tiny arms clinging as much as possible around the neck of his older brother "You were gone a long time, I got scared..."
"Nah, no reason to be scared, a'ight?" Lea murmured giving Reno a loving nuzzle "It's cool now."
"O-ok, yo.." Reno sniffled. He pulled away to rub his small blue eyes. When he glanced up he gasped "Lea! Your bleedin'! What happened to your face?!" the little one gasped, hastily using his shirt to wipe away the streaks of blood running down his brother's cheeks.
"Oh this? Nah, it ain't nuthin" Lea mused but allowed Reno to clean his cheeks "Hey, hungry?" Duh. That was the world's dumbest question.
"Starved, yo!" Reno nodded swiftly, the wild red spikes of his hair flaying madly.
"I thought so" the older boy grinned. Gently he scooped Reno up in one arm and set him down on their 'bed', which consisted of the world's crappiest piece of foam and a sheet. Eagerly but patient, Reno sat and waited. Lea set down the plastic bag he had so valiantly guarded and pulled from it's contents a foam take out container. He suppressed a grin at Reno's wide eyes "Here, eat up. It's from that fancy place in Sector two. Some chump had thought he could leave the his lunch unattended while he paid the bill, sucker "
Without a second invitation the little one took the box and opened it. He practically drooled at the sight of the half eaten sandwich and sparse fries, which he munched on first. Reno blinked, swallowing what was in his mouth "You want some too, Lea?"
"Nah, you go ahead, I got something earlier" Lea lied with a smile and pulled away.. He crossed the room to the back left corner, and knelt down once more. Using the knife he had taken from his attacker he carefully pried one of the splintering boards away from the rusty nails that held it down.
Soundless Lea dropped the few pieces of Gil he had collected from his daily routine into a shoe box, then resealed the board into place. He beamed in pride. His stash was getting pretty heavy now, soon he could get the hell out and take Reno with him.
"Is that good?" the older boy asked, returning to the side of his little brother.
"Uh huh!" Reno smiled and gave Lea an affectionate nuzzle.
"heh, I got sumthin' else fer ya" Lea smirked. He reached into the bag, and pulled out what appeared to be a set of goggles, brand new goggles at that!
Promptly, the little child's jaw slacked and his eyes bulged "Lea!!" he squealed in delight "You got me my—"
"Super awesome goggles of doom? Hell yeah" Lea finished with a grin. Tears stung Reno's eyes as he took the package into his tiny hands. He opened it without shame and slipped the long strap over his head. The goggles were far too big for him, but he didn't care.
"Lea.." he began to sniffle all over again "Thanks, yo." Reno threw himself at his older brother, clinging like his life depended on it.
"Ooof!" Lea blinked slightly caught off guard by the sudden force of the little one. He shrugged it off, merely squeezing Reno tighter in his warm embrace "happy birthday Reno"