A/N This is so, so very AU. It's a story of complication and drama between Marui Bunta and Jackal Kuwahara, with about every other character from PoT that I love stuck in.

Written as a birthday!fic for doroniasobi, the wonderful beast. Yeah, I know this is early. But contrasts are good, remember? =D Anyways, I hope you enjoy this piece of fail, and stick around to help me out with it. Happy birthday, doro-dear~

If you're still confused about what's going on after you finish reading, feel free to PM me or review any questions you have.

And super many thanks to sonofon, who kicked this piece of blargh into shape. You are an awesome beta, m'dear~

Disclaimer: Let's be reasonable now, shall we?

Prologue

The silence was unsettling. It creept up slowly through the slight tremors of the thunderstorm and the whisperings of the wind. It moved into his body, paralyzing him with fear and dread. It took over his mind, crushing all other thoughts. Soon, he couldn't hear anything else. Through the howls and cries of pain and anguish, he felt nothing. He heard nothing. Just… silence.

He didn't dare move. He couldn't. He was bound by the silence forever. Forever until his inevitable death.

That is, until light met his seemingly endless darkness. It was the soft smile of friendliness, the warm eyes of comfort and the soothing touch of skin against skin.

He didn't understand a word that was said. It was spoken in a strange tongue, wildly unlike his own. But, it sounded so smooth, so soft; he could feel the words wrapping him up in warmth and tenderness. Through the darkness, he reached out for the light. Grasping the outstretched hand, he let himself be pulled out of the silence.

The recovery was hard. The silence that had edged itself deep into his bones wasn't fading. It took a total of seven weeks for him to open up and speak.

"Obrigado."

A simple thank you.

At this small sentence, his saviour looked strangely at him. The strange look had then slowly transformed into an explosion of happiness all along his features.

Before he knew what had happened, he was enveloped in a large hug. His saviour, his Salvador, had then spoken to him in that strange, soothing language again.

Maybe that language wasn't as bad as he thought it had been.

He had been brought to a large camping area. Everywhere he looked, the large dry plains were covered with huts and tents of all sizes, shapes and colours. In the midst of all the tents, one large tent the size of an elephant--no, two elephants--stood proudly. A large building that was crumbling around the edges stood a little ways off from the tents. It was the closest thing to civilisation he had ever known.

His saviour then took him into one of the many straw huts and shown him a little mat made of dried grass and straw. He recognized it as a bed of some kind. To him, this hard piece of weeds was a luxury fit for a king.

In the hut, another boy sat anxiously. The small boy, he was probably a little younger, looked at him like a frightened little bird in the presence of a lion.

A flash of hope flickered in the smaller boy's face as he said something tentatively, softly. It was a different language than the beautiful one his saviour had spoken. It was rougher, coarser, but it wasn't the bigger boy's language, either.

The saved boy just stayed there, not moving.

His saviour told the other boy something in the beautiful language. The younger boy looked disappointed. Then he pointed at himself.

The older boy just stood there, not understanding. Finally, he realized the small boy was repeating one word again and again.

Shin. Shin. Shin.

"S…" The boy tried to pronounce it. "Sh-shin…"

Shin looked delighted. Then he pointed in the boy's direction. Continuously, he pointed and pointed.

His saviour took a look at the ragged boy who was covered from head to toe in dirt and was currently staring intensely at the other boy in the room. He smiled.

"Jackal," He told the dirty boy.

The boy just blinked. His saviour repeated it, pointing at the boy just like Shin had been.

"Ja." The boy frowned. "Jaaaa." He couldn't pronounce it the way his saviour could. "Jaaa… ck-al. Ja-ckal." He finally did it, proud of himself.

He turned to Shin. Pointing at himself, he gave a small smile. It felt strange on his lips. "Ja-ckal."

Shin nodded, and pointed at the boy as well. "Jackal."

His saviour stood there, beaming. "Jackal."

At eight years old, Marui Bunta was fully enjoying life.

Shoveling down his Froot Loops at a furious rate, he sat just a meter away from the large screen television that had to be cleaned every day thanks to his messiness. Saturday mornings in the Marui household were always spent with little Bunta sloshing his food everywhere. During commercial breaks, of course. Bunta would never do anything as foolish as moving around while his favourite show was on.

Just as he was just about to yell a shout to his mother in the other room with a mouth full of mush, something on the screen caught his eye.

"Everyday, hundreds of children in Brazil go orphaned, with no chance of obtaining, food, water or shelter by themselves." The image of several small, pitiful looking children crying and huddling in small sheds of straw appeared.

"With your help, you could help this little kid," Here a kind-looking, blue-haired man leaned down to kneel next to a kid so skinny and unnourished it was almost horrifying he was still alive. "Become a great person who has food, shelter, and school skills. Just one dollar a day can make a difference like this. Please, just a dollar a day. Isn't it worth it?" The little boy on the screen gave a tiny, miniscule smile as the blue-haired man ruffled his hair.

"If you have any questions at all, or you want to sponsor a kid, please call this number on your screen. You'll get a free pamphlet about your child and how he's doing. Remember, it's not how you live life, but how you live with others."

Milk dribbled down Bunta's chin and tears clouded up his eyes. He painfully swallowed his lump of cereal and took a deep, shaking breath.

"MOMMY!"

Jackal frowned, hugging his knees in the shade of the tall tent, watching other young boys walk past him, some swinging their worn-out bags while others just smiled and walked on proudly. They were on their way to school.

He was already eight now, but he was still at the same level he'd been when he'd first come to the camp, just four years ago. Of course, his saviour had taught him basic necessities such as "Hello", "Goodbye", "Thank you" and "Please", but he couldn't talk fluently, and that's what bugged him. How he prayed that one day in this dry deserted area that someone would adopt him and fund for his schooling…

Sighing, he leaned down on his bed of weeds and closed his eyes. He tried to imagine what school was like, but all he could see was a bunch of people with bags over their shoulders standing around in a room, speaking that wonderful language that he wanted to learn.

Shin, his now very good friend, crawled over to him and sat beside him on the floor. They took a long sigh together. Jackal almost smiled. It seemed that, sometimes, language wasn't that big of a barrier.

"Jackal! Jackal-kun!" His saviour--no, Yukimura-san came into their hut, face aglow and flushed with excitement. With an excited voice and rushed words, he descended upon the dark-skinned boy, talking excitedly.

Jackal, confused, only tried to comprehend what Yukimura-san was saying.

"School! Jackal, you've been sponsored! You're going to school!" Yukimura-san stretched out the last word, pronouncing it loud and clear.

School? That… that wasn't possible. Wasn't it?

"School?" Jackall murmured disbelievingly.

"School." Yukimura-san laughed and hugged him. A tear fell from the little boy's eyes and he hugged the wonderful man back.

In the midst of his tear-filled giggles, Jackal accidentally looked over the shoulder of the blue-haired man and across the room. Shin, his best friend, was staring coldly at them. A shiver ran down Jackal's back.

It seemed that language was an un-crossable barrier after all.

"School… school…" Jackal softly let the word roll over his tongue so that his sleeping friend wouldn't hear. Shin had been giving him cold glares the whole day, and frankly, it made Jackal sort of… scared. The smaller boy was weaker and younger, but he was also the only comfort and friend Jackal had, and to see that Shin was prepared to let him fend off for himself alone…

Shutting his eyes, he rolled on his side and tried to catch some sleep.

"Bunta, come here!" At the sound of his name being called, Marui Bunta snapped his head up and ran over to his mommy, who was holding a small package.

"You see? This is our sponsored kid. His name is Jackal-kun." She smiled and gave the pamphlet of details to her kid.

Bunta scrutinized it. He looked a bit scary for someone his own age, but he was really thin too. Scarily thin, actually. Maybe with help of their sponsorship he'd get a little more meat on those bones.

Grinning, he popped a piece of gum in his mouth.

"Pleased to meet you, Jackal-kun!"

The first thing Jackal did when he was ten and had his grammar and spelling down somewhat correctly, he sat down at his desk and wrote a long letter to his sponsor, thanking him for the opportunity he had given Jackal.

All he got back in return was a couple of sentences scribbled on the back of a pretty postcard.

No need to thank me, I'm really glad you're okay now. Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas. =D

-Marui Bunta

P.S. Make sure to eat more.

Cracking a smile, Jackal slipped the postcard into his schoolbag given by Yukimura-san, and found a spot in his hut where he could hide it safely.

Very quickly it became his most prized possession.

He supposed he shouldn't have been too shocked. It was only logical that one day, his roommate would also get the chance to go to school. In fact, he'd actually been wondering about it for a while.

Nothing, however, prepared him for the day Shin was sponsored as well.

He supposed he shouldn't have been too hurt when he started getting pushed around and sneered at during school. Even if he was older and bigger than Shin, he was still a rather tame person with a very patient attitude.

For some reason, that just seemed to make Shin unhappier.

It didn't matter though. He still had his friends, he still was able to go to school thanks to Yukimura-san, and he still had the Marui family behind him.

And if that meant shuddering from the cold glares he earned at night in his shared hut, then so be it. He could endure it. He knew things could be better, but at least it wasn't the worst of situations to be in.

That is, until one day at school, when sixteen-year old Jackal Kuwahara felt his whole life change as his saviour, Yukimura-san, groaning, collapsed in the middle of a lesson and was immediately flown back to his home in Tokyo, Japan.

The doctors told the worried children that it was probably not that bad, he just needed some blood tests and X-ray scans. They told them that it would all be okay and Yukimura-san would be back in no time.

They were wrong.

A/N Timeskips are lovely, aren't they? XD I promise to put a lot less in the next chapter.

For all of you who don't understand, the camp is a Japanese camp in Brazil, so they will be learning Japanese, not Portugese.

Once again, happy birthday doro-dear, and be kind, leave a review please?