Of Cripples and Naps

Chapter 2

Hey guys! I should totally be working on my homework right now! But I don't wanna – so in lieu of that, welcome to chapter two! Disclaimer: I own nothing but my poor ancient laptop and the grouchy bitches in my head. And debt. A lot of debt. Anywho, here we go! Tell me what you think; the boys are muy curious.

Hakuryuu

"Where is that again?" The indigo haired boy inquired with a confused look towards his boss.

"Fifth floor." She replied with a grin and sent him on his way to the "cultural studies" shelves. He was strangely disappointed to discover that the nap corner was unoccupied as he banged his way through it with the rickety old contraption he tried to pass of as a book cart. He wondered where the raven haired man might be, before shaking it off and continuing on with his day – the other was probably in class, and besides, what did he care?

He sighed and shook his head; he didn't have time to think about other people. Not friends, and especially not passing attraction, he had way too much on his plate for that bullshit. Between his crazy work and class schedule, his family responsibilities, and physical therapy, he was all booked – hell he was lucky he had time to sleep. Who was he kidding? He almost never slept. Every time he closed his eyes he had nightmares. With another shake of his head he pushed all thought of the red-eyed man from his mind and continued on his way to locate the pile of book requests on his cart.

Around an hour of searching later he finally made his way back to the third floor, his trolley overloaded with books, and thusly incredibly difficult to handle. He growled at it angrily as it tried to twist away from his one-handed death grip. With much effort, he managed to get the contrary old beast to straighten out and head toward the now darkened nap corner. Shit. Now he was going to have to try and make the damn thing be quiet. He took a deep breath and slowly maneuvered the trolley through the doorway, or would have if the pissy thing hadn't decided to lock its bum wheel up and go tumbling to the ground, taking him with it.

"Shit!" He cried, just before the massive crash that sounded on his contact with the ground.

Judar

He woke to the most horrendous crash he'd heard since… well he didn't want to think about the last sound he'd heard like that.

"Are you okay?" He yelled as he fumbled along the wall for the light switch.

"Yeah, I'm fine, ow." A familiar voice answered from the direction of the floor. He finally found the light and flicked it on, turning to see the insane mess scattered around the room – complete with one indigo haired boy sprawled next to an overturned book cart, rubbing his head with one hand. The boy looked up at him, blue eyes meeting unnatural red, and Judar felt his breath catch in his throat.

"What happened to you?" He asked gently, falling to his knees at the scarred man's side and gently grabbing his jaw to turn his head toward him.

"I'm fine man, really, let go."

"Sorry, I just… seriously, what's all this from?" Jud asked, awkwardly releasing the other man's face to gesture instead at his burn scars.

"Nothing, it was a long time ago." He responded evasively, one hand still resting atop his head of thick blue-black hair, the other awkwardly stiff at his side.

"Uh, your hand…?"

"It's prosthetic. The leg too." He replied, pulling his good hand down to thump his right shin roughly, causing a hollow sounding ring.

"Damn, I'm sorry man. That sucks. How's your head?" Jud grimaced, once more grabbing the other man's face to feel of where he'd been rubbing on his head. "You've got a nice bump there."

"Yeah, I'll be okay. As you can see, I've had worse." The smaller man smirked with a slight blush, pulling himself out of Judar's grip, and shifting uncomfortably.

"It appears that way. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. You scared me is all – I don't like loud noises." Jud replied with a barely perceptible shudder – he hoped the other didn't notice.

"No, it's okay… I just... I don't know. I hate for people to actually see me you know? They look at me but they don't see me – they just see all this." The boy gestured to his body with his prosthetic hand with a small smile; letting Jud know he had, in fact, noticed the shudder.

"Well, fuck them. You're a person, not a cripple." Jud growled and stood up, making the other look up at him in surprise. He grinned down at him before flipping the toppled cart back onto its wheels and beginning to pick up all the books and papers scattered around the floor. The scarred man shook his head with a small smile and shifted onto his knees to help gather the debris.

"Uh, I really hate to ask, but can you maybe help me up?" The blue-eyed boy blushed once all the mess was cleared up.

"Hm? Oh, sure, sorry, didn't even think about that." Jud replied, and came over to offer him a hand. The smaller boy smiled his thanks before moving to tug his hood back over his face. "What do you do that for?"

"I dunno, I just don't like people staring at me I guess… it's not like my face is an easy thing to overlook."

"You shouldn't have to hide your face away for other people's benefit." Judar growled.

"It's not really for them."
"It is though, you say it's because you don't want to deal with them staring but if people wouldn't react negatively to anything that looks just a little different than them then you wouldn't have to worry about it. Trust me I know, mines just a little easier to ignore." The raven haired man said, gesturing to his demonically red eyes.

"Yeah, I guess." The boy released in a small chuckle. "Why are your eyes that color, I thought maybe it was just contacts?"

"Hell if I know, I was born like this."

"How strange."

"Yeah, I guess." He responded, shifting uncomfortably.

"No, I mean, yes it's strange, but in an intriguing way, not a bad way, I think it's kinda cool." The smaller man scrambled to right his perceived wrongdoing.

"Thanks." Judar laughed. "You know yours isn't that bad either."

"Fuck that man, I know I'm hideous."

"No you're not. Not really. Sure you've got a few scars, but they're not that much of a put off."

"Dude, I'm a fucking cripple with nasty burns all over my face – real hard to pick up mates when natural selection says you're the predator's next easy meal."

"Guess it's good humans are on top of the food chain then, eh?" Jud grinned. "I'm Judar by the way, friends call me Jud."

"Hakuryuu – Ryuu for short." The smaller boy responded slowly, seeming to still be recovering from his shock at the nearly flirtatious tone of that last remark. Seriously though, where had that come from? Jud was way too busy to be flirting with anyone – especially cute cripple boys with pretty blue eyes. "Nice, uh, talking to you. I guess I should get back to work."

"See ya around, Ryuu." The raven haired boy grinned again, apparently unable to control the flirty tone in his voice.

"See you around… Jud." The smaller man blushed and fled the room, the uncooperative book trolley in tow.

Dammit! Judar sighed and flopped back down on the couch with his head buried in his hands – he really needed some damn sleep.

So yaayy! Chapter two! Uh, it's come to my attention that Hakuryuu, in fact, loses both his legs in the manga… but I'm too lazy to explain how he'd be functioning in our society with three prosthetic limbs – I know it's possible, but for the purposes of my story, it'd be real difficult. Kudos to any of you out there living with amputations and such though – y'all got my mad respect, you're way tougher than I could ever be. That being said, what do you guys think of my fic? Reviews if you please! Anywho, why's Jud afraid of loud noises? Stay tuned to find out!