To Be Okay

I don't normally do the "strong knight and fair lady" scenery but Philomina offered me art and I'm a whore for it so this is what I came up with.

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To be okay

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Wufei jumped as someone was suddenly slammed into the locker next to his, making him stumble back to avoid the swinging arms.

A tall brunette wearing a black studded leather jacket was holding one of the school's known bullies to the locker with an arm over his throat.

"What was that about the hair?" The boy demanded loudly, his sharp words ringing throughout the suddenly quiet corridor. The hair in question was a long, thick braid that reached halfway down the boy's back and Wufei just knew that this was the last time anyone ever made a crack at it.

The trapped boy wheezed helplessly for a moment before he managed to get one word out. "N-nothing."

The leather wearing boy grinned curtly, before taking a step back, letting the bully breathe. "Anyone else?" He asked loudly, the mad looking grin still plastered over his face.

Wufei found himself shaking his head along with several others. The boy seemed satisfied with that and with one last glare at his gasping victim, he turned away.

Wufei held his breath as the boy brushed past him and disappeared down the corridor. As soon as he was out of sight, a wave of gossip flooded the students.

Wufei's eyes wandered over to Tyler, the guy who regularly made his life hell. He couldn't say that he felt sorry for him, far from it in fact. The large boy was rubbing his throat with a pained look on his face until it turned into an angry mask as he caught him watching.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Tyler's words were closely followed by a sharp shove to Wufei's back that slammed the smaller boy into the open locker door.

When the worst of the pain had subsided, Wufei cursed his luck, reaching down to pick up his fallen glasses.

Just what he needed, more violent bullies. As if school wasn't bad enough already.

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Later that day, Wufei stopped to admire a picture of a blue exotic bird in the book he was lazily flipping through. He had stayed behind in the classroom after the last class with the excuse that he wanted to finish his homework. Having a lot of siblings was a great excuse to stay behind in a calm and quiet environment and none of the teachers ever questioned him. He didn't do it every day, just on the days when he had a feeling that 'they' were out to get him more than usual and on Fridays. Leaving on a Friday was always a bit of a health hazard since bullies got a bit too much taste of freedom and felt the need to take out their renewed energy on someone fitting. Most likely Wufei.

That he knew that Tyler had been walking around like a storm cloud all day since the new boy had humiliated him could only mean that someone was going to suffer for it. Most likely Wufei.

This was why he had claimed one of the desks in the back as he waited for people to leave for the weekend.

He had long ago finished his homework and had been flipping through some encyclopedias to pass the time. There was not much else to do in a classroom. He glanced up at the clock on the wall and decided that it was probably safe to leave now. The thought of staying behind for an hour on a Friday had probably never even crossed his tormentor's minds.

Wufei put the books back in the bookshelf and straightened up a few chairs before he put his arms though the straps of his backpack and secured it on his back. With one last look around the room, he left it and started walking through the empty school. The sound of his sneakers echoing softly through the corridors was calming and reassuring. Wufei never enjoyed school as much as he did on these occasions.

Then suddenly the sound of a door opening and slamming closed broke his blissful silence and as he came around the corner he saw just who was responsible. The new boy in his easily spotted leather jacket was pacing along the corridor, radiating pent up anger.

"Fuck!" The boy kicked one of the trash cans that were attached to the wall, giving the metal a large dent.

Wufei was about to turn back and return to hiding in the classroom, hoping to go as unnoticed as possible when a whispered 'fuck' made him pause. The word was filled with so much hopelessness, so much sadness that he could not let it pass. He knew that it was stupid and that he was probably going to get his ass kicked for his trouble but before he knew what he was doing, his mouth had opened.

"Are you okay?"

The boy whirled around, eyes burning. "Does it fucking look like I'm okay?"

Wufei flinched back, turning eyes down to the floor with a tight grip around the straps of his backpack. "No, sorry." He mumbled as he quickly turned and started to hurry away. There was still a small chance that he could get away without being beaten up.

"Hey." The boy called out after him, making Wufei quicken his steps. "Hey! Wait up." The sound of running feet was heard, making Wufei freeze. There was no way that he would be unable to outrun the other boy and bullies always hit harder after chasing you.

A shadow fell over his face as the other caught up to him and Wufei tried to mentally prepare himself for the pain.

"I'm sorry alright, I got some shitty news. Didn't mean to snap at ya."

Wufei looked up meeting the new boy's eyes for the first time. They were blue, a soft blue like the sky. They were also very sad, lonely eyes.

Wufei nodded and the boy smiled slightly. A smile that never reached his eyes.

"I'm Duo." He said, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jacket, pulling it forwards so that the silver spikes on the collar brushed his neck.

"Wufei." Wufei just about whispered in responds as he turned his eyes downwards again.

"You're in my class right?"

Wufei nodded, pushing his glasses back up as they started to slide down.

"Just ignore me if I go off, okay? I've got a nasty temper."

Wufei nodded again, still looking at his shoes.

"Right… well thanks for asking." With that, Duo turned and walked away.

Wufei glanced after him as the other boy passed the damaged trashcan. The long haired boy's head was bowed in despair and Wufei couldn't help but wonder what kind of bad news the seemingly so self-confident boy had received.

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Wufei was as usual the first into the classroom and as usual he choose the desk in the front where he at least would be a bit protected from peoples boredom.

He had a few minutes of peace before his classmates started to pour into the room. Most ignored him, but unfortunately there were exceptions.

Wufei didn't move a muscle as someone emptied a pencil-sharpener over his head with a mocking laughter.

He waited a moment until the guy and his friends had passed before he calmly did his best to brush the litter out of his hair and off his clothes. It was nothing new and there would be worse things.

A second later someone shoved him roughly as they passed but he pretended not to care. That someone, Nick by the look of the arm that suddenly reached out, pushed his book to the floor with a sharp sound.

Wufei knew that something bad would happen if he tried to pick it up so he waited. More people poured in and a group of girls gave him a dismissive look as they breezed past them, leaving a cloud of cheap perfume behind. Wufei pretended not to care. He breathed in a sigh in relief when the teacher showed up. He was relatively safe now.

He picked his book up and brushed off the dirty sneaker mark on the front. In the back of the room, someone was laughing with one of his many hated nick names thrown in.

Wufei wondered if he was ever going to get used to this.

Then in the last second before the teacher closed the door, Duo strolled into the room, carrying his books in a loose disinterest grip. He didn't spare his classmates a look as he dropped down at an empty desk not far from Wufei.

The teacher started talking, handing out a stack of paper. The sighs and rude noises around the room said it all.

Wufei happily accepted his copy. This was his sanctuary, this was something he was good at. Questions that only had one answer, only one solution. Numbers made sense, numbers didn't betray you, didn't trick or hurt you. They were just numbers.

But the numbers didn't capture his full attention like they usually did.

Instead, Wufei watched the new boy as he leaned down over the paper, biting into the pen relentlessly as if he could force it to write down the right answer for him. When it didn't, he slammed the pen down on the desk, leaning back in his chair with his long legs out and crossed.

Wufei watched the lean shape in the corner of his eye. It was hard to connect the sad, lonely eyes he had seen yesterday with the cocky troublemaker he saw now. Duo did not look like a nice guy, he looked like the type of guy that would rather punch you in the face than shake your hand.

Wufei looked back down at his numbers, but his thoughts were still with the boy. It didn't appear like Duo was making any friends, only several enemies if the rumors that Wufei had overheard were accurate. Tyler wasn't the only one who had tried to get one over the new kid, but he was the only one who had gotten away with just a sore throat.

Wufei had seen Mason from the other class with a black eye and Tommy who had been kind enough to empty the sharpener over him had one wrist bandaged.

It appeared like the bully code didn't just apply for the victims, but also for the bullies. Because no one had tattled and the new boy had gone unpunished. For how long that would last was still a mystery.

In the corner of his eye he saw the new boy uncross his legs, choosing instead to spread them as wide as the tight jeans would let him, one leg bouncing restlessly. The move gave Wufei a great opportunity to drop his eraser so that he could bend down and inspect the nice package on display. It was the little things in life that made it bearable.

It was obvious that Duo had reached the end of his concentration and was now looking for another way of entertainment.

Five minutes later he was thrown out for disturbing the class.

Wufei watched the boy leave, still throwing insults over his shoulder until the door closed behind him. Like a beaten soldier, fighting all the way to the bitter end with his very own type of dignity.

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A/N – So that was the first chapter, please let me know what you thought about it :)