A/N: Hello everyone!
I recently thought of an AU Darren x Evra story and needed to write it. It will be my first multi-chapter story and it's split up into two parts - childhood and teenage years.
I hope you enjoy it~

Special
- By Zombie Red

Part One: Infantile
Chapter One - Snake boy

Evra watched as the football shot past him.

A boy followed shortly after, taking a glance at the other boy. He said nothing and continued to chase after the ball. He was soon united with his friends again and they carried on with the game.

They never asked him if he wanted to play. All he ever did was observe.

Evra curled up into a ball, bringing his legs closer to his face. He pulled down the sleeves of his jumper over his hands. He was stuck in the shade of a large tree by himself. He had no friends, no companions, nobody to talk to. He was just a lonely boy in a lonely world.

o-o-o-o

"Darren, pass the ball over here!"

In the blink of an eye, said boy swiftly kicked the football to his teammate, who wasn't quite able to get hold of the ball. It ended up being taken by the other team. Darren frowned at his friend, who shrugged with a sheepish grin in reply.

Darren loved playing football; it was a sport that really brought out the best in him. He was quite a competitive boy and enjoyed playing football with and against his friends. Nothing was better than team bonding.

It was an extremely sunny day with hardly any wind. Darren had to continuously wipe sweat off his forehead and fan himself with his hand. Playing an intense game of football didn't really help him cool down.

As he ran, he thought about ways of avoiding the defenders by the opponent's goal. He could try and sneak around them while darting from side to side, confusing them. Or he could-

He suddenly managed to trip over, falling to the ground. He felt a pain in his knee and let out a cry. The game was put to a stop at once and all the boys started to gather around Darren. There was a low hum of mixed voices.

"Are you alright?!"

"Should we get the nurse?"

"Look, it's bleeding!"

He winced, taking a hand that one of the boys offered. He could feel small tears forming in his eyes and rapidly blinked them away.

I'm not going to cry! I'm eight years old now! I have to show people that I can be tough!

As soon as he could stand, wobbling slightly, Darren put on a smile. "It's ok! It's only a little gash. I'll go to the nurse for a plaster. No big deal!"

He started to walk, or rather stagger, towards the school building, trying to ignore the sting in his knee, which now had spread to his whole leg. Behind him, he could hear one of the boys say how cool he was for being to brave; he couldn't help but secretly feel proud of himself.

He was almost near the main entrance of the school when he spotted a crouching figure under a tree. Curious, he walked towards it.

As he came closer, and the figure raised its head in alarm, he realised that it was… the snake boy. He had no idea what his real name was, but that's what everyone called him; the snake boy. He knew that a lot of the children in his school were horrified of the boy, and avoided him at all times; they thought that he had some kind of disease. But Darren thought differently.

"Hello." He smiled.

The snake boy looked at him, not replying. He had narrow golden eyes that looked exactly like those of a snake. His skin was green and shiny, made up of hundreds, or even thousands, of scales. His hair was hidden underneath the hood of his jumper. He licked his lips nervously, and Darren could see that even his tongue looked like it belonged to a snake. It was clearly obvious how he got his nickname.

He decided to speak again. "My name is Darren. What's yours?"

At first, the snake boy seemed reluctant to speak. Then, he said in the quietest of voices;

"My name is Evra. Evra Von."

"Evra Von what?"

"Just plain Von."

"Cool!" Darren jumped down and sat next to Evra. He grimaced as he felt his leg ache; he had almost forgotten about it. The blood had begun to dry around it, forming a hard scab. "My surname's Shan. It's Irish."

Darren was sure he had seen Evra before; probably in school assemblies or on sports days, maybe even just passing him down the corridor a few times. He never had the chance to speak to him, though. He wondered if Evra was in the Year above him.

"What Year are you in?"

"Year Four."

"Wow, you're so old!"

"I'm only nine. I'll ten this year."

"Ancient!" Darren laughed. He then poked at Evra's jumper. "Why are you wearing that?"

Again, the other boy hesitated. He suddenly looked ashamed of himself.

"To… to hide my skin."

"Why? It's boiling!"

"I don't sweat," he simply stated.

Darren was puzzled. "Doesn't everyone sweat?"

"Not me. I'm… different." Evra expression changed; he looked distant. "Everyone thinks I'm weird. They all avoid me. I just…" He stopped. He looked like he was about to cry.

Darren placed his hand on Evra's arm and smiled.

"You're not weird at all. To me, you're special."

There was a silence. Evra wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. Was Darren making fun of him? Or did he genuinely mean it? He decided to go with the latter.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"You're welcome, Evra Von." Darren suddenly had an idea. "Why don't you join a game of football with my friends and me? We could do with an extra player, since Tommy isn't in today."

Evra's eyes widened. "I… I don't know. I'm not really that good at football…"

"It doesn't matter. I'll just tell everyone to go easy on you."

Darren stood up and offered his hand. After a few seconds of thinking, Evra decided to take it. He wondered if he had made the right choice. He pulled down his hood, revealing long blonde-green hair.

"Why is your hair so long?"

"So that I can cover my face."

"You shouldn't. You have an awesome face!"

They walked together, hand in hand, towards the football field. Darren realised how smooth and dry Evra's hand was; he was expecting it to be slimy and sticky. He also noticed that Evra was walking slowly, almost as if he were frightened.

When they reached the field, the boys spotted them and gradually began to stop playing. All conversation died. They all stared at Evra.

"It's the snake boy!" One of them shouted.

Evra whimpered.

"His name is Evra," Darren said, looking over at everyone, "and he would like to play football with us. That would be alright, wouldn't it?"

For a few seconds, nobody said anything. Evra felt like he was going to die of embarrassment. Of course nobody wanted to play with him! They would be afraid that they would catch some kind of disease or something.

"That's fine with me," a blonde haired boy replied. "How about everyone else?"

The boys looked at each other and little by little, they began to nod their heads or murmur in agreement. Darren smiled.

"Evra, you can be in defence; you'll be safe there. All you have to do is kick the ball away from the goal."

Evra nodded as Darren lead him to his spot. He stood there anxiously as all the boys kept their eyes on him. He looked at the ground, wishing that they would stop looking at him. Maybe it was a bad idea to follow Darren in the first place…

"Come on, guys! What are we waiting for?"

Finally, the football game resumed. Evra shuffled from foot to foot, feeling uneasy. He didn't want to miss kicking the ball and look like an idiot. He stood and waited for his chance to do something.

When he was least expecting it, the ball rapidly came his way. He panicked and kicked, not caring if he hit it or not. To his surprise, the ball flew across to the other side of the field, past all the players, and extremely close to the other team's goal.

"Yay! Go, Evra!" Darren yelled with joy.

Evra could feel himself blush… if that was even possible for a snake boy. He looked at his new friend and, for the first time in what seemed like years, he smiled.