Shion sits quietly as the art class passes by and hopes he could draw. With his pencil he tries to create something "fresh" like the teacher asked them to and it looks horrible. He feels nervous when it's his turn to show the drawing to other students though they are all quite friendly but in school he's quiet and doesn't make friends easily.
He isn't good with subjects that don't consider theories of science so his drawing is about the first thing that came into his mind, that was fresh on his memory - the boy from last night. It still doesn't change the fact that it looks horrible.

"Not what I expected from you," the teacher says when the class is over and Shion meekly returns his paper. It isn't necessary to give it personally, one can simply leave it on their desk, but it's a habit of Shion to deliver it to the teacher. He's a wuss like that, at least that's what he's heard before.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he apologizes that he has created such a monster on the paper.

"No, I'm saying that you haven't tried to draw people before. This looks actually pretty good."

Despite her praise Shion knows that it's not. The angles of the boy's face are ugly and his nose looks like a carrot - there's no delicate features like there should be. "Thank you," he bows anyway and leaves the room. He still has two hours of math before he's free to go home.

It's five minutes break but Shion usually doesn't go spend it outside but sits inside the school halls. If he did go outside he would see a special dark-haired boy near the yard, looking at the school building with hard eyes.

/ / / /

He hates every minute that he has to stay and pretend in the new town, with passion. The whole place looks ridiculous.

Adoptive parents could be worse but nevertheless he doesn't like their hypocritical bright eyes and polite manners - adults are not all the same but they do always think of themselves before anyone else. It's a fact that he knows so there should be no need for them to pretend. He told this to them, his new "mom" and "dad", and they kept smiling though he could see few cracks appearing in the perfect image. "You have had many homes by now so we understand your doubt," they had said. He didn't see a point to argue so he left outside, to see the school that was going to be his next playground by days.

The building doesn't look too polished but it's white like he guessed. The students wear clean clothes and he doesn't see any bad fights between them during the breaks. It's been a while since he has been in a elite school like this one (though it really isn't but after the rat-holes he has been in, to him it is).

He knows that many kids in the orphanage would consider themselves lucky to be where he is now. Only he is one of the few orphans that doesn't mind the orphanage or other departments. Maybe it's crazy but at least in them he doesn't have to stand any charade - no false love or caring, everything is honest. Little whiners, like he calls them but only silently in his head because he's not an idiot, should just stop struggling against the authority. He himself is quiet and doesn't get into troubles too much and so he is left alone most of the time. Playing nice can sometimes drive him over the edge but he lets himself fall from it only when he's out of the orphanage, after all that place never disappears unlike these new "homes".

He is on his thoughts but not enough since he steps rapidly to the right, almost jumps, sensing an attack from his behind. The tackle of a brown-haired boy fails and the boy almost falls over but keeps his balance barely.

"Damnit!" he hisses, his glare dark but grins anyway. "Hey, Nezumi."

"Thanks for your sugarcoated-greetings," Nezumi answers but makes sure his voice gives away nothing but venom. "bastard. Though I did ruin it."

The boy has even longer hair than he has and he is from the same orphanage as Nezumi. But, Inukashi is his call-name, is not his friend. "You ruined nothing," Inukashi is clearly trying to cover his failure and lights up a cigarette. "I just thought the priest and his wife would be shocked to find you with your head open on the ground."

"Oh right, since I would have fallen flat down like that. You couldn't even keep your own balance," Nezumi snorts and glances at the smoke.

Inukashi notices. "You wanna?" he asks with an evil face.

"No," he answers and tries not to breathe in the smell. He decided to quit days ago and it has been going well since his smokes weren't so frequent after all but he is not made of stone.

"So you came to check out our next school. Adorable that you're that excited."

"You are sick in the head," Nezumi says, picking up a stone and throws it towards the yard. "I only wanted to see if I should be prepared for rough treatment tomorrow. Any normal human would. But I guess you like to be the target of bad boys, huh?"

It can be seen easily that Nezumi has struck a nerve from Inukashi's face. Unlike him, the brat has always been like an open book. "Shut your damn mouth."

"You're going to be disappointed though. It's a really tame place, this school here. You should go back to your last place where there's plenty of pricks who can grope you."

Inukashi is attacking him fast as a lightning but Nezumi moves away so the other one can only grab the sleeve of his jacket, not his throat like he intended to. "You promised you wouldn't be as low as those fuckers in the orphanage," he growls and Nezumi is a bit surprised at the betrayed face he's making.

"I'm having a bad day, putting up with both you and Mr. and Mrs. Mother Teresa at the same time," he shrugs Inukashi's hand off. "Also you should know better than trust what I say."

Inukashi snorts, at least tries, and looks Nezumi in the eyes. "I wasn't trusting your word. I just thought for a second that you wouldn't be as disgusting as those scumbags. Should've known better. But I won't make the same mistake again, " he drops his smoke and steps on it. "Don't you dare talk to me when you get back in the house."

"Why would I even bother?" Nezumi shouts at him as he finally walks away.

Nezumi is left with even fouler mood.

He refuses himself to be guilty about reminding Inukashi about what happened a while ago. It's not his fault that the brat is too sensitive sometimes - that's the one of the things he hates about him the most. He had begged for it by following Nezumi here and annoying him.

Nezumi sits down on the ground and stays there for a while though it feels slightly wet. He listens to the silence that has no room back in the orphanage. It's always loud and messy in there.

Inukashi was the biggest reason for the racket at that time, about a year ago. Everyone were talking about the rumors how some school boys had almost raped him in his last school. Nezumi knew from the beginning when Inukashi was adopted to a family that lived in the big city that he would come back soon enough but hadn't guessed anything like the truth. Inukashi did came back soon but with even more bad attitude and Nezumi recognized the hurt in his eyes too clearly.
Everyone were bullied in the orphanage at some point but Inukashi had no time or space to recover from the shock he had experienced. Almost everyone insulted him about his girly figure, saying how he was weak enough to get groped like a bitch, and other few tried to get close to him, pretending they understood but actually wanted something more entirely.

After a while Inukashi lashed out, getting tired of it all, and hurt one of the kids with a knife. Nezumi wasn't on Inukashi's side, never, but he didn't see any reason why the guy hadn't deserved it. Nezumi had seen the situation where Inukashi had been pushed against the wall in the empty hallway of the orphanage and the guy had had a nerve to put his hand on Inukashi's crotch. That had been the second when Inukashi pulled out a kitchen knife which he had probably stolen.

In the end the boy only got hurt in the chest and survived.

Naturally Inukashi was put in the observation section. It wasn't often used method - if a kid was unusually dangerous or violent he was kicked out and sent to other places - but Inukashi's case was about trauma and all so director let him stay.
Eventually he was let out back to normal life of orphanage but no one treated him the same anymore. Nezumi supposed it was understanding, not wanting to die from knife and all. Inukashi had gained respect.

Nezumi himself had never bothered to insult him, not until now, which was strange because he couldn't stand the brat. But like Inukashi, he didn't think he was that low. Apparently he was after all.

He curses under his breathe and lets himself to sit around for ten minutes more.

/ / / /

Shion is pretending.

He is pretending that he doesn't feel lonely and he is pretending that he is doing his homework. His mother should be early home tonight, in other words soon, and he wants to spend time with her so he really should be done with math problems as she comes home.

Tonight is one of those nights that something doesn't feel right. He refuses to sit in his room and sits in kitchen instead. He feels anxious and strange, and he doesn't know why. He honestly doesn't know...

He's lying.

He is starved for company and when he is in that mood, memories catch him too easily and he feels like his throat is closing up. He can't breathe. Shion pushes himself to stand up and looks outside from the window. He hopes for alarm sound or something loud, to break this silence. He wants to go outside and scream so loud that he scares everyone in the neighborhood and so they start to scream too.

He doesn't want to go where his memories are trying to take him, he wants to keep pretending.

He wants to break something.

And still keep it the same.

Shion wakes up from his thoughts as he sees a familiar car on their back-yard. He has never felt more thankful that his mother is home.

He quickly cleans up his homework from the table, remembering then that he still hasn't done all but brushes the thought off and takes out the pizza, that he ordered when he got home, from the fridge. He hears the door open.

"Welcome home, ma!" he shouts from the kitchen. His mother doesn't answer. "Ma?"

Shion walks to welcome his mom home face-to-face but surprise and confusion leave him standing mouth open as he sees her.

His mother, Karan, looks devastated, tired and about to cry, and she is walking a boy around Shion's age in to the house. And Shion recognizes him so well.

"It's you!" he points out his finger.

"That's rude," the dark-haired boy answers. His gray eyes look tired also.

Shion's mother is holding him by the arm like he can't walk on his own but she lets go of him because of the surprise at her son's reaction. "You know him, Shion?"

"I met him yesterday. Ma, what, what happened?" Shion comes closer, worried.

Karan's face falls and she looks very pale. "I-I..."

"Nothing happened, alright," the boy says. His voice sounds harsh but he looks gentle as he looks at Karan and Shion is all more confused.

"Well, we have pizza," he tells them suddenly, stopping his questions and smiles.

"Pizza...?" Karan askes with a small voice.

Shion wonders if he said something wrong. "You want something else?" he tilts his head.

"Air-head," the boy suddenly scoffs at Shion and somehow Shion can't do anything but smile at that.

/ / / /

Nezumi has already been tortured enough as he paces around the streets - all thanks goes to the family dinner. He hates it all with passion.

Everything goes more downhill when he turns left and sees the car lights coming towards him, too late. The car isn't moving fast enough to hurt him bad, actually is moving pretty slow, but it does hit his left leg and hip, also the ground scratches his elbow. He's on the ground and not moving - not because he can't but because he is so furious to the whole world that he doesn't want to do anything anymore.

"Oh dear God! Are you alright?" a woman's voice asks as the car door opens. Nezumi sees her from the corner of his eye - she has a round and somehow kind face, brown hair, and dark eyes which are now red on the edges. "I'll call the ambulance!" she searches for her phone.

"Don't," Nezumi forces himself to sit up. "There's no need."

"But you're hurt!"

"No, just some scratches."

"I-" woman kneels down so that their faces are on the same level. Nezumi doesn't know why he can't bring himself to push the woman away when she reaches out her hand and touches his hair slightly. "I am so sorry. This is all my fault!" with those words she is sobbing, not too loudly but all too visibly.

"Relax. I didn't really watch where I was going..." that is partly true. Nezumi knows though that the woman honestly was at fault too because it was still bright enough to see him clearly crossing the road. But he really doesn't want to say it now to the panicking adult before him - even though he doesn't like adults one bit.

"No, it is all my fault! I- I will pay you! No, what am I saying, money can't fix this! It can't fix anything..." she is making herself even smaller, fully sitting now on the ground.

"Get a hold of yourself," Nezumi sighs. "I don't think anything is broken and this isn't much," he looks closely at his elbow.

Right then the sobbing woman tenses up and grabs his arm. A protest dies in Nezumi's throat before it comes out, he's surprised at the spirit the woman has gained once again into her eyes while looking at his injury.

"Alright, it's settled. You're coming with me so I can at least clean and bandage this."

"Excuse me?" Nezumi tries to pull away but the woman stands up and brings him with her, gently. "I can manage by myself."

"I don't doubt that but please," woman looks at him straight in the eyes. "let me at least do this."

She looks like she's starting to cry again and that would be a bother so Nezumi lets her drag him to her car. He ponders about the irony in it all - he is agreeing to sit in the car which just a minute ago almost drove over him.

The drive isn't long. The best surprise of the night comes after it.

He can see the resembles between the woman and that Shion boy now when they are all in the same room. And the boy has even nerve to point his finger at him - that's adorable.

"That's rude," he chooses to say.

"You know him, Shion?"

"I met him yesterday. Ma, what, what happened?" Shion comes closer and Nezumi wonders when was the last time when he was that worried for someone, for an adult no less.

Nezumi interrupts Shion's mother because he doesn't want to make a big scene out of it all, again. If they want to have a conversation about it then they should have it only after Nezumi is out of here. "Nothing happened, alright."

"Well, we have pizza," Shion changes the topic easily though Nezumi can sense that he is still very keen to know what is going on. But his smile seems honest.

"Pizza...?" Shion's mother sounds like she can't remember what food that is.

"You want something else?" Shion asks so innocently that Nezumi almost wants to laugh. He does remember that the boy was kind of out of it the last time too but he doesn't recall it being this ridiculous.

"Air-head," he has to say because that is the only clear thing he has learn during the whole event.

And the air-head answers to him with an air-head smile.

AN:

This chapter took a while... I honestly thought if I should continue writing this story but then inspiration got me a bang!

Shion's mother is a bad driver, she just had a rough night. Or rough life. You'll see.

Thanks for reading and I hope I will see you soon~