The Invisible Superheroes

Inspired by 'next to normal's' song Superboy and the Invisible Girl

Yukio was used to being in the spotlight.

Not always for the best of reasons, of course.

First, he was one part of a set of twins; from a very young age, he and his brother realized that people could not help but be a tad bit fascinated by them. They'd coo, and laugh, and ask them all sorts of questions about each other. When they were young it was fun and they lapped it up; but, inevitably, as they got older, it started to get older. He was sure it must be a common thing to happen in the lives of twins all over the world. One day it just wasn't fun anymore, to be stared at and asked questions.

At some point you start to get angry because you feel like you're not seen as a person, but as a thing (a strange and wondrous thing). At some point you get angry at your twin for existing in the first place and making you special at all.

Then you get older still and get over that and just start to live.

Then there was his mind; again, from a young age he'd been creative and verbal, eager to learn. His father, his brother, and his teachers all encouraged him to do everything he wanted, and everything he could. He slowly gained knowledge, knowledge that sometimes surpassed those his own age. People stared at him and whispered about the 'genius' walking the same halls as them.

This, at least, he could handle a little bit better.

He couldn't forget about the day he was given the official title of 'Exorcist' either. The youngest exorcist ever known? Nope, definitely cannot forget that.

Men and women years older than him had to share their offices, their supplies, their lives with a child who had reached the same professional skill level as themselves—it didn't always go over well, but he found that the most mature, and therefore more worthy people of his time and effort, didn't let it bother them.

He'd had to do all of his training in secret from the one person who he'd have liked to share it with the most though. He couldn't go to Rin when he'd done especially well on an exam, or when he'd succeeded in completing another round level at the batting cages—no matter how proud or excited he was he had to pretend that nothing was different. And sometimes it sucked.

But he knew why he was keeping this part of his life (and their father's life) a secret from Rin. It was important to do so (not that he'd necessarily agreed in the very beginning when he was only 7).

He knew that he was doing the right thing. He was learning how to protect people from things they didn't know of, and from the things they couldn't protect themselves from. Most importantly, he was learning how to help his brother, or how to save him should the need arise.

Rin didn't know how to feel about being the centre of attention. Did he like it, or dislike it? Should he like it, or should he dislike it?

He'd always kind of had attention put on him; his father told stories about how when he would take he and his brother out as infants that people would stop him in the street and gush over his twins.

The whole twin thing has never really stopped; it just died down a little. Not that he cares really. People can't help but be curious, and he gets that. But there is a line of course. Some questions are just a little too...intense, and totally not anyone's business.

Then there was the fighting and the intense anger that got him into trouble more times than he can count. Teachers would give him time-outs, detentions, trips to the principal's office...all of these 'officials' watching him and labelling him as a lost cause. His father telling him otherwise, but still watching him and telling the others in the monastery to do the same.

He especially feels like the centre of attention when he's in his Cram School classes at True Cross and can tell just by the looks his professors give him that they know who and what he is.

He feels it when he's sitting at his desk chair in his dorm, supposedly studying but really not, and can feel his brother looking at him. At first it made him angry, feeling Yukio's eyes on him; it could have been because he'd just found out that his brother's life (or most of it) has been hidden from him, or that just a few hours ago he'd had a gun pointed at his face by the one staring him down. But he eventually figured out on his own that Yukio probably couldn't help but be curious about Rin either. Sure, maybe there was some resentment in there too (and how could Rin blame him? Their father's death, while not his fault, still hangs over the both of them), but Yukio has shared a life with him and now he's suddenly someone slightly different than he was before.

Ok, a lot different.

He always lets his tail free from his body when they're at home in their dorm, and he knows that Yukio stares at it from time to time. Not to mention the teeth or the ears, or the fingernails, which he has to cut every day lest they become too long and sharp.

But his friends (he's never had friends before) don't know any of this.

They don't know anything about his father, or his biological father. They don't know anything about what happened one terrible night that changed him forever. They don't know anything about him or Yukio.

He feels as though he's wearing a mask for the world that doesn't know about him. And he's never prided himself on being a good liar. He doesn't like having to hide himself, even though he knows why he does it.

He knows it's for both their safety, and his own.

But he has this power inside of him; he can feel it. A warmth that's in the centre of his very being. He knows that it's something terrible...and that it comes from someone terrible, but why can't it be used for good? Why couldn't he use it to save someone, and to protect people?

Why can he not use his flames for a gentler purpose, like his father wanted?

I know what it's like to be invisible, to have to hide and to pretend.

All I want to do is protect him.

All I want is to be strong enough to protect everyone.

I just want to help people.

A/N: This is literally the first thing I have written in months. My muse left me completely. Utterly. I haven't drawn, written...I've hardly read anything. Then a couple of weeks ago I started hearing the words again, and I've been so excited to get to typing. Honestly, this isn't even the first one I was thinking of writing, but it's the first one that wrote itself, so...yeah.

So, to try and explain: each chapter will not be in relation to each other unless I specifically say so. They're each just their own individual ideas that have come into my mind; some of them are going to be funny, some of them cute, some of them sad. Whatever I think of, really.