Disclaimer: I own nothing. The mentioned characters are not mine; they
belong to their respective creators and companies.
Author's Notes:
Oi! I wish I could have gotten this out sooner...I even had the majority of the chapter you see below written prior to the posting the first chapter! Which, in its very, very scarce self, is a big thing! O_ I was a tad dissapointed with the number of reviews for the first chapter, yet because FF.net has been experiencing technical...difficulties, I really don't mind.
Er, I'm just going to be skipping to certain parts of both Usagi's and Hiiro's childhood in this fic. ^^;; Anno, they'll be mostly significant scenes, anyways! So don't get upset! I might throw in a few pointless, quite trivial moments that simply add spice, okay? The symbols *** equal a passing of time. When you see the symbols *** and then see spaces appearing right before it randomly switches 'Point Of Veiws' between Usagi and Hiiro, just understand that that was intentional. ^^
SerenityLNguyen ~ Hai, yet it will most probably become even more harsh. O_o;;
Dragon ~ **glomps** Arigato! ^^ Your review made me feel a lot better...
Usagi Asia Maxwell ~ **laughs** You're not old! I wish I could have the writing experience of a fifteen year-old! ^^ And arigato for being so nice, too.
***
He awoke to the dull ach of a fragile concussion. It wasn't so much the bruises and minor scratches that he minded, but the lack of warmth within the room that did not go unnoticed...
"Bunny..."
Where was she? Usually, she was right there by his side whenever he was in the infirmary, smiling, or sleeping if late at night. But now...
And he recalled the match; looking over for her; then--
He could have berated himself for hours because of his carelessness, however, Bunny came first. She always did, and had since the beginning. One of the many mysteries that complicated his life, for training should have been first; winning should have been first.
Sliding from his modest cot, which really wasn't much of a bed, he padded barefoot to the door of his small infirmary room. The lights were never out in the building, giving him the flawless opportunity to find his way to Bunny, though also a flawless opportunity for someone to catch him doing so.
He figured the general layout of the base, calculating, debating...
He wouldn't have went looking for her, but not having her with him, especially after his accident, felt somehow eerie. Well, someone must have prevented the older boy from beating the stuffing right out of his body earlier, or else the concussion wouldn't have been at all fragile...it would have been perminent.
None of the instructors or even the students or trainies would stop a training session. This information thoroughly confused him. Maybe Bunny--?
The troubling idea brought him to another, and then another, each more horrifying than the one previous.
Trainies who broke rules sometimes got put in a tiny, four ft. by four ft. cubical for multiple hours, depending on the severity of the broken rule and the extent to which it was inforced. Others got public floggings. There were so many possibilities, Hiiro didn't know where in the base he could look.
The base was mostly a male population; girls came scarcely. So Bunny, being a girl, probably would get something like a drug injection, or a few public thrashings; Kami-sama knew it wouldn't be the first time she had experienced such things, either.
He had heard once about a punishment called a rape. A couple of girls had gotten a 'rape' before. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what a rape was. Maybe a ceratin type of flogging?
If so, he wondered why none of the boys were ever raped.
The thought of Bunny darkened his heart greatly, until he was almost completely positive it had been her...Bunny had saved him. She was just the kind of person to do such a stupid stunt. She really wasn't the strongest girl physically, but she was the strongest spiritually and mentally; one of the traits he most admired her for.
She seemed to never give in and never give out. The small girl practically enfolded everyone within her loving embrace, too. An act of sheer innocence and purity that he, himself, could not manage to rescue his life.
Sprinting across the cold tyled floor, he avoided a stray doctor who was pushing a cart of chemicals.
He was surprised at the quick, shallow breaths escaping and entering his lips; he didn't fancy being so weak.
He proceeded to keep searching.
"My, my, my...you certainly have been a bad, bad girl..."
My head...
Kami-sama, it hurt. A memory struck me, like a bullet to the chest, and I shot upward from my laying position on the floor.
"D-doko?" I cringed, eyes landing upon the man in front of me. Darn... "Itai..."
My head, everything...it just felt as if I was burning and--
"Drugs!" I choked on my shocked gasp, throwing myself into an outragous coughing fit.
A sneer. His mouth twisted itself into something horrid, and yet he laughed. "That's right." A large hand at my throat, cutting off my sole air supply. I tried in vain to breath through my nose, but alas, it was blocked, and it burned.
'Probably blood...' I remarked silently. I more than likely had slept through a beating or two...
"You, little girl, are going to be taught!"
Pain...
He released me, merely to pull a gleaming, rope-like object from the wall.
Wearing a smirk, he lifted my chin using one couloused finger. "And a flogging...is just the way to do it..."
The silence was most deafening, indeed. Bunny was taking a punishment on account of him...
Sure, he had no doubt in her ability to survive, but punishments were never light. Ever.
That was part of the training at the base: survival. If you couldn't handle punishments, you were shipped away. Never mind where; it was surely a bad place.
He crept about, using every flexible muscle in its entirety for heightened stealth. You couldn't be too painstakingly careful in any part of this training base.
Slowly peeking inside rooms along the hallways, his eyes met with no blonde- haired girls, and definitely no Bunny.
I had wanted to open my eyes; oh, how I had wanted. But the strokes of the whip had hurt...
Pain...
So much of it weighted down upon my senses, enfolding me, snaring me within its malignant claws.
And the claws were the gashes, deep and long, running the length of my shoulder-blades. I was sure the blood had dried by now, becoming a sticky layer that caked the majority of the flesh on my back.
Strained, sharp, rasping breaths came and went; the only dim command I could force my body to carry out was breathing.
And even such a task drew discomfort. Opening my eyes and keeping them open felt more difficult than anything. It was amazing how the most minimal of things turned nearly unbearable after suffering a flogging.
I managed a small, barely noticeable smile. The instructor had left. He would return, surely, yet hopefully not before I had a chance to escape.
I wondered absently at where I was; the base was huge, a network of mazes almost. For more security precautions, the structure was underground, too. Many children had never seen the light of day, being born, and raised in one of the few, elite Training bases.
I could pray, however...pray that soon, I would be free.
I just happened to be chained to the wall, in a tiny cell. Actually, the cell appeared to be more of a room, not a single sign of furniture in it.
Reaching up (yet not without a bit of trouble), I pulled from my blonde odangoes a pin. I always insisted upon wearing my hair in such a rediculous style for a very specific reason: pins. Often, the instructors forgot the insignificant fact of my hair. This also made it frighteningly easy to use the pins for various tasks, such as lock-picking.
The shackles, or whatever you wanted to call them, felt tight and irritating against my wrists; another nice comfort I had once they were removed.
Then my ankles, and this time, it was easier.
Standing caused a thousand knives to slash through my tender flesh.
"I-Itai..." I panted, the merciless, excruciating spasms of pain spiraling and dancing in every part imaginable. Ignoring the ache, I walked sluggishly towards the door, and placed unstable hands against it, gaining as much balance as my current condition would allow.
Surprisingly, the door wasn't bolted. This was a wonderful aspect; I had expected myself to sit there for hours, just simply breaking out. My arms exerted enough muscle to push past the unbolted door, and the blinding light from the constantly lit hallway flooded my vision.
I blinked, both because of the brightness and because I had water in my eyes. I surmised I must have been crying earlier during the flogging, and not realized. Or maybe I had been crying just now? The tears were exceptionally warm...
I egded along the hallway's wall, and continued until I spotted a few instructors who were merely talking. Fortunately, they didn't block the hallway that I knew led to my shared cubical.
I couldn't run fast--my swollen back wasn't capable of any such performance. I opted to crawl, and soon concluded (the hard way) that that was worse than my former option.
Pacing myself, I had to walk slowly, and press my body as near to the white walls as possible without touching my back against them. Eventually, I was out of their possible veiwing-range, having turned a corner and proceeded.
Drug down by fatigue and weariness, the wandering path I was taking seemed to go forever, and I almost feared I was lost...until the familiar cubical- room doors materialized before my heavy eyes.
A dark thought kept surfacing and probing my mind; I hoped Hiiro was well...
Having given up, dreadful and uneasy ideas plagued him...
"Bunny..."
He sat on his small cot, hunched over. The search-effort had been fruitless, and he had been forced to abandone his persuit and return to the cubical rooms when a group of doctors had nearly caught him sneaking about.
Plus, only after practically looking in every place he would have guessed Bunny could be had he re-traced his steps, and went into some of the infirmary wards; rather frequently, instructors got...punishment-happy, and went a bit far with things. For a time, he was sure Bunny was in the infirmary, brobably broken and beaten to a bloody carcass.
It was strange, and it worried him. Bunny, after punishments, was usually back in her cubical room by this time; she always discovered ways to escape from wherever she was, before the doctors or instructors could come back and give her more of a thrashing.
So he waited for her on his bed, nervously glancing over to the door, expecting the blonde to come in as she had so many times previous.
And if she wasn't already near death, he would be positive to kill her...
She was so young...and yet she threw herself into trouble, threw herself into situations where she could easily meet death. That's exactly why he hated it when she worried about him.
The faint noise of the door creeking brought his attention to focus, and, head raising immediately, he met the sight of a small form, limping.
Closing the door behind her, silently, so as not to wake anyone asleep, she then let out a long, quavering breath. He could hear it even from his position many feet away. He stood and came to stand just by his friend, close, though not close enough to make his presence known.
She seemed not to have realized him being there. He wanted to help the girl stand evenly, as she was obviously another poor example of a heavy flogging, and also wanted to ring her neck. The crisp, old blood stained her shirt black in the darkened room.
Once the blonde turned around, she started, surprised and, at the same second, not surprised at all.
"Hiiro..."
She smiled, bright, happy, and tired. The plain, white T-shirt he wore she could tell concealed no serious injuries. She was relieved, too...
Heading to her bed, and allowing herself the luxery of a semi-soft seat, she didn't stop the drooping of her eyes. "I'm glad...you're okay." She said hoarsely, throat dry.
He bothered not to answer, or even budge. Strangely, the fists at his sides were balled, the knuckles white.
He watched, seeing the long-since dried tracks of tears glisten, haunting him. He understood she had been through hell...and it ate at an unknown part in his chest. Black, blue, green-ish bruises scattered her bleeding face, and surfaced especially prominent on her arms. He was so angry. Angry with himself, angry with Bunny...
"Hiiro?" Bunny caught his distressing behavior.
She gazed at him, confused. He gazed back.
Then, swiftly, the boy lifted an arm, bringing it down across her cheek. The slap almost echoed, and Bunny, moments later, reached up slim fingers to touch the stinging mark. Crystal tears, inevitably, swelled and dripped, absorbing soundlessly into the fabric of her shirt.
The passive expression and demeanor Hiiro retained showed not a stitch of emotion.
"Don't ever try and stop a training session again." Blank, unshifting, monotonous. All these adjectives perfectly and accurately described his tone. He didn't quite know why he had slapped her. Even before he had done it, he had regretted the action. He offered no answer to the hurt question blossoming in Bunny's azure-blue eyes, except, "Go to sleep."
The blonde stared, before obeying his command, though hesitantly, and pulling the thin sheets to cover her stiff, sore body.
He absolutely refused to move until nearly twenty minutes had passed, and he saw her form grow lax, a sign of deep slumbering
She was utterly drained; he had known that, and held his conflicting emotions inside.
"Gomen, Bunny, for putting you through that..."
Gently brushing the sun-kissed locks from her face, Hiiro proceeded to find a damp washcloth, and lightly cleaned all of her wounds. Her drug- injections were holding firm, and she didn't stir once throughout the entire night, giving him the time needed.
***
Author's Notes:
Liked it? Yes? Direct all compliments to me! ^^ What? You DIDN'T like it? Uh...I think the no-talent jerk that wrote this crap went that way. Better run after her - she's getting away!
Anyway, maybe, could a few people please review? I really want to know if anyone wants me to keep going! ^^
Ideas, suggestions, comments, ANYthing! I desperately want to hear all of it! Just, o-negai, take aside a few spare seconds to simply say you possibly believe this fic has some potential? O-negai? **whimpers**
Author's Notes:
Oi! I wish I could have gotten this out sooner...I even had the majority of the chapter you see below written prior to the posting the first chapter! Which, in its very, very scarce self, is a big thing! O_ I was a tad dissapointed with the number of reviews for the first chapter, yet because FF.net has been experiencing technical...difficulties, I really don't mind.
Er, I'm just going to be skipping to certain parts of both Usagi's and Hiiro's childhood in this fic. ^^;; Anno, they'll be mostly significant scenes, anyways! So don't get upset! I might throw in a few pointless, quite trivial moments that simply add spice, okay? The symbols *** equal a passing of time. When you see the symbols *** and then see spaces appearing right before it randomly switches 'Point Of Veiws' between Usagi and Hiiro, just understand that that was intentional. ^^
SerenityLNguyen ~ Hai, yet it will most probably become even more harsh. O_o;;
Dragon ~ **glomps** Arigato! ^^ Your review made me feel a lot better...
Usagi Asia Maxwell ~ **laughs** You're not old! I wish I could have the writing experience of a fifteen year-old! ^^ And arigato for being so nice, too.
***
He awoke to the dull ach of a fragile concussion. It wasn't so much the bruises and minor scratches that he minded, but the lack of warmth within the room that did not go unnoticed...
"Bunny..."
Where was she? Usually, she was right there by his side whenever he was in the infirmary, smiling, or sleeping if late at night. But now...
And he recalled the match; looking over for her; then--
He could have berated himself for hours because of his carelessness, however, Bunny came first. She always did, and had since the beginning. One of the many mysteries that complicated his life, for training should have been first; winning should have been first.
Sliding from his modest cot, which really wasn't much of a bed, he padded barefoot to the door of his small infirmary room. The lights were never out in the building, giving him the flawless opportunity to find his way to Bunny, though also a flawless opportunity for someone to catch him doing so.
He figured the general layout of the base, calculating, debating...
He wouldn't have went looking for her, but not having her with him, especially after his accident, felt somehow eerie. Well, someone must have prevented the older boy from beating the stuffing right out of his body earlier, or else the concussion wouldn't have been at all fragile...it would have been perminent.
None of the instructors or even the students or trainies would stop a training session. This information thoroughly confused him. Maybe Bunny--?
The troubling idea brought him to another, and then another, each more horrifying than the one previous.
Trainies who broke rules sometimes got put in a tiny, four ft. by four ft. cubical for multiple hours, depending on the severity of the broken rule and the extent to which it was inforced. Others got public floggings. There were so many possibilities, Hiiro didn't know where in the base he could look.
The base was mostly a male population; girls came scarcely. So Bunny, being a girl, probably would get something like a drug injection, or a few public thrashings; Kami-sama knew it wouldn't be the first time she had experienced such things, either.
He had heard once about a punishment called a rape. A couple of girls had gotten a 'rape' before. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what a rape was. Maybe a ceratin type of flogging?
If so, he wondered why none of the boys were ever raped.
The thought of Bunny darkened his heart greatly, until he was almost completely positive it had been her...Bunny had saved him. She was just the kind of person to do such a stupid stunt. She really wasn't the strongest girl physically, but she was the strongest spiritually and mentally; one of the traits he most admired her for.
She seemed to never give in and never give out. The small girl practically enfolded everyone within her loving embrace, too. An act of sheer innocence and purity that he, himself, could not manage to rescue his life.
Sprinting across the cold tyled floor, he avoided a stray doctor who was pushing a cart of chemicals.
He was surprised at the quick, shallow breaths escaping and entering his lips; he didn't fancy being so weak.
He proceeded to keep searching.
"My, my, my...you certainly have been a bad, bad girl..."
My head...
Kami-sama, it hurt. A memory struck me, like a bullet to the chest, and I shot upward from my laying position on the floor.
"D-doko?" I cringed, eyes landing upon the man in front of me. Darn... "Itai..."
My head, everything...it just felt as if I was burning and--
"Drugs!" I choked on my shocked gasp, throwing myself into an outragous coughing fit.
A sneer. His mouth twisted itself into something horrid, and yet he laughed. "That's right." A large hand at my throat, cutting off my sole air supply. I tried in vain to breath through my nose, but alas, it was blocked, and it burned.
'Probably blood...' I remarked silently. I more than likely had slept through a beating or two...
"You, little girl, are going to be taught!"
Pain...
He released me, merely to pull a gleaming, rope-like object from the wall.
Wearing a smirk, he lifted my chin using one couloused finger. "And a flogging...is just the way to do it..."
The silence was most deafening, indeed. Bunny was taking a punishment on account of him...
Sure, he had no doubt in her ability to survive, but punishments were never light. Ever.
That was part of the training at the base: survival. If you couldn't handle punishments, you were shipped away. Never mind where; it was surely a bad place.
He crept about, using every flexible muscle in its entirety for heightened stealth. You couldn't be too painstakingly careful in any part of this training base.
Slowly peeking inside rooms along the hallways, his eyes met with no blonde- haired girls, and definitely no Bunny.
I had wanted to open my eyes; oh, how I had wanted. But the strokes of the whip had hurt...
Pain...
So much of it weighted down upon my senses, enfolding me, snaring me within its malignant claws.
And the claws were the gashes, deep and long, running the length of my shoulder-blades. I was sure the blood had dried by now, becoming a sticky layer that caked the majority of the flesh on my back.
Strained, sharp, rasping breaths came and went; the only dim command I could force my body to carry out was breathing.
And even such a task drew discomfort. Opening my eyes and keeping them open felt more difficult than anything. It was amazing how the most minimal of things turned nearly unbearable after suffering a flogging.
I managed a small, barely noticeable smile. The instructor had left. He would return, surely, yet hopefully not before I had a chance to escape.
I wondered absently at where I was; the base was huge, a network of mazes almost. For more security precautions, the structure was underground, too. Many children had never seen the light of day, being born, and raised in one of the few, elite Training bases.
I could pray, however...pray that soon, I would be free.
I just happened to be chained to the wall, in a tiny cell. Actually, the cell appeared to be more of a room, not a single sign of furniture in it.
Reaching up (yet not without a bit of trouble), I pulled from my blonde odangoes a pin. I always insisted upon wearing my hair in such a rediculous style for a very specific reason: pins. Often, the instructors forgot the insignificant fact of my hair. This also made it frighteningly easy to use the pins for various tasks, such as lock-picking.
The shackles, or whatever you wanted to call them, felt tight and irritating against my wrists; another nice comfort I had once they were removed.
Then my ankles, and this time, it was easier.
Standing caused a thousand knives to slash through my tender flesh.
"I-Itai..." I panted, the merciless, excruciating spasms of pain spiraling and dancing in every part imaginable. Ignoring the ache, I walked sluggishly towards the door, and placed unstable hands against it, gaining as much balance as my current condition would allow.
Surprisingly, the door wasn't bolted. This was a wonderful aspect; I had expected myself to sit there for hours, just simply breaking out. My arms exerted enough muscle to push past the unbolted door, and the blinding light from the constantly lit hallway flooded my vision.
I blinked, both because of the brightness and because I had water in my eyes. I surmised I must have been crying earlier during the flogging, and not realized. Or maybe I had been crying just now? The tears were exceptionally warm...
I egded along the hallway's wall, and continued until I spotted a few instructors who were merely talking. Fortunately, they didn't block the hallway that I knew led to my shared cubical.
I couldn't run fast--my swollen back wasn't capable of any such performance. I opted to crawl, and soon concluded (the hard way) that that was worse than my former option.
Pacing myself, I had to walk slowly, and press my body as near to the white walls as possible without touching my back against them. Eventually, I was out of their possible veiwing-range, having turned a corner and proceeded.
Drug down by fatigue and weariness, the wandering path I was taking seemed to go forever, and I almost feared I was lost...until the familiar cubical- room doors materialized before my heavy eyes.
A dark thought kept surfacing and probing my mind; I hoped Hiiro was well...
Having given up, dreadful and uneasy ideas plagued him...
"Bunny..."
He sat on his small cot, hunched over. The search-effort had been fruitless, and he had been forced to abandone his persuit and return to the cubical rooms when a group of doctors had nearly caught him sneaking about.
Plus, only after practically looking in every place he would have guessed Bunny could be had he re-traced his steps, and went into some of the infirmary wards; rather frequently, instructors got...punishment-happy, and went a bit far with things. For a time, he was sure Bunny was in the infirmary, brobably broken and beaten to a bloody carcass.
It was strange, and it worried him. Bunny, after punishments, was usually back in her cubical room by this time; she always discovered ways to escape from wherever she was, before the doctors or instructors could come back and give her more of a thrashing.
So he waited for her on his bed, nervously glancing over to the door, expecting the blonde to come in as she had so many times previous.
And if she wasn't already near death, he would be positive to kill her...
She was so young...and yet she threw herself into trouble, threw herself into situations where she could easily meet death. That's exactly why he hated it when she worried about him.
The faint noise of the door creeking brought his attention to focus, and, head raising immediately, he met the sight of a small form, limping.
Closing the door behind her, silently, so as not to wake anyone asleep, she then let out a long, quavering breath. He could hear it even from his position many feet away. He stood and came to stand just by his friend, close, though not close enough to make his presence known.
She seemed not to have realized him being there. He wanted to help the girl stand evenly, as she was obviously another poor example of a heavy flogging, and also wanted to ring her neck. The crisp, old blood stained her shirt black in the darkened room.
Once the blonde turned around, she started, surprised and, at the same second, not surprised at all.
"Hiiro..."
She smiled, bright, happy, and tired. The plain, white T-shirt he wore she could tell concealed no serious injuries. She was relieved, too...
Heading to her bed, and allowing herself the luxery of a semi-soft seat, she didn't stop the drooping of her eyes. "I'm glad...you're okay." She said hoarsely, throat dry.
He bothered not to answer, or even budge. Strangely, the fists at his sides were balled, the knuckles white.
He watched, seeing the long-since dried tracks of tears glisten, haunting him. He understood she had been through hell...and it ate at an unknown part in his chest. Black, blue, green-ish bruises scattered her bleeding face, and surfaced especially prominent on her arms. He was so angry. Angry with himself, angry with Bunny...
"Hiiro?" Bunny caught his distressing behavior.
She gazed at him, confused. He gazed back.
Then, swiftly, the boy lifted an arm, bringing it down across her cheek. The slap almost echoed, and Bunny, moments later, reached up slim fingers to touch the stinging mark. Crystal tears, inevitably, swelled and dripped, absorbing soundlessly into the fabric of her shirt.
The passive expression and demeanor Hiiro retained showed not a stitch of emotion.
"Don't ever try and stop a training session again." Blank, unshifting, monotonous. All these adjectives perfectly and accurately described his tone. He didn't quite know why he had slapped her. Even before he had done it, he had regretted the action. He offered no answer to the hurt question blossoming in Bunny's azure-blue eyes, except, "Go to sleep."
The blonde stared, before obeying his command, though hesitantly, and pulling the thin sheets to cover her stiff, sore body.
He absolutely refused to move until nearly twenty minutes had passed, and he saw her form grow lax, a sign of deep slumbering
She was utterly drained; he had known that, and held his conflicting emotions inside.
"Gomen, Bunny, for putting you through that..."
Gently brushing the sun-kissed locks from her face, Hiiro proceeded to find a damp washcloth, and lightly cleaned all of her wounds. Her drug- injections were holding firm, and she didn't stir once throughout the entire night, giving him the time needed.
***
Author's Notes:
Liked it? Yes? Direct all compliments to me! ^^ What? You DIDN'T like it? Uh...I think the no-talent jerk that wrote this crap went that way. Better run after her - she's getting away!
Anyway, maybe, could a few people please review? I really want to know if anyone wants me to keep going! ^^
Ideas, suggestions, comments, ANYthing! I desperately want to hear all of it! Just, o-negai, take aside a few spare seconds to simply say you possibly believe this fic has some potential? O-negai? **whimpers**
