"Hey you dirty rats, get back here!" a deep and angry voice yelled. It was a large man who was chasing two kids that were running away from him, a food marketer. He was chasing them because they had stole some food from his shop and both of them were running away from the very angry shopkeeper.

The two kids who were running from the scary man, were only adolescents who were very poor. They were both bare foot, making their feet unprotected from the hard ground and they were also dressed in very dirty old rags. The young girl who was one of them had a beautiful head of long golden hair and lovely purple eyes. she had a fair figure and very beautiful. She was covered in dirt, scratches, and had dirty bandages wrapped around her left leg. She was carrying three beautiful red apples in her small arms.

The other one was a young petite boy who was shorter then the girl. His hair was a pretty blond that almost reached to his shoulders, and had lovely violet red eyes that looked like beautiful rubies. He himself was also covered in dirt and scratches and he was carrying some bread. "Your Thieving brats!" the man yelled from behind them, "I'll rip you apart!"

"Run faster Utau!" The blond hair boy said to the dirty girl. O-okay! The girl said, who's name was Utau.

However because she was running so long and fast on her injured leg, it had finally began to have caught up with her tired body. An awful feeling of pain had burst through her leg. "Ah!" she screamed in pain. she then fell face down in a puddle of dirty water dropping the apples every where.

The boy stopped, "Utau!" he shouted, frozen in his tracks. Utau tried to get up but the man had caught up with her. "Caught ya!" He shouted and with one strong hand he grabbed her left arm, nearly lifting her off the ground. "Do you know what the punishment is when dirty rats like you steal my food?" he asked her, smirking. "Uh"... Utau whimpered afraid of the answer she might get, as a few tears filled her eyes.

"Hey leave her alone!" The boy shouted, he threw the bread to the ground and began running to Utau and the angry marketer, But as soon as he was close enough to them, the man punched him on his left cheek. "Ah!" he screamed in pain. "Tadase!" Utau screamed as her tears began to fall from her beautiful eyes. Tadase for that was the young boys name, fell on his backside and clutched his aching cheek, his eyes where filled with anger.

"You slime!" Tadase spat bravely. "Let go of my sister!" he shouted. "Tadase..." Utau whispered, crying. The man griped on her arm tighter causing Utau to whimper in pain. "Not a chance!" he said cruelly. "I'm not letting you discussing rats go until you pay the consequences!" He angrily shouted.

Tadase clenched his teeth in anger. He was too scrawny and weak to fight him, and he didn't know how to protect his dear beloved sister, what could he do?

Just then out of know, there was a very fast figure, that was faster then lighting! It came running toward them. It came face to face with the shop keeper and said grinning. "Let my little sister go now!' Then it kicked him making him let go Utau's arm and sending him flying into a bunch of empty wooden boxes. The fast figure was actually a young man with dark Blue hair and blue eyes, he seemed to be more stronger then most men, despite his young age.

He then picked up Utau, bridle style. "Ikuto!" Utau said happily. "Brother!" Tadase shouted with relief and happiness. Ikuto, the young man picked up Tadase on his back and told him to hold on tight to his back. Tadase nodded and held on his brother tight.

The young man then darted away swiftly carrying the two kids. "Hey you rats get back here!" The man yelled rubbing his head that had a big huge lump on it.

Ikuto ran and ran until they were far enough away and then he turned to left and ran in a deserted ally that was slightly filled with some old boxes that had some old plates and cups in it, not to mention some old ragged clothes and ragged blankets, the place they were in was being passed off as their home.

Tadase then let go and Ikuto put down Utau gently.

"Utau are you alright?" Ikuto asked, his voice filled with concern. "Y-yes". Utau lied. "No your not!" Tadase shouted. "Her left leg is still hurting her and she's too stubborn to even say anything about it!" he told Ikuto. "Utau." Ikuto began. "We told you that you should not have come. you broke your leg a month ago and it will not get any better if you keep straining it."

"Please Ikuto!" Utau pleaded "I want to help!"

"No Utau! If you do, you'll hurt your self even worse." Ikuto scolded. Utau looked down sadly.

For a moment there was silence until the growling in Utau and Tadase's stomach broke the silence, they both touched their stomachs, blushing. "Hungry are we?" Ikuto asked, smiling. "Sorry brother but we dropped the food we got, so we didn't get a crumb." Tadase said looking down sadly.

"Don't look so sad, while I was out I was able to get these." he held out a basket filled with red tasty looking apples. Utau and Tadase stared at them drooling. "Help yourselves." Ikuto said with a gentle smile. Tadase and Utau each quickly picked up an apple and began to chomp on them in large hungry bites.

Tadase and Utau bites then began to slow down as tears filled their eyes. Ikuto is the only person that cares for them. They where hated by people and were left with out a family. Ikuto is like there whole family and they both loved him very dearly. But even so they knew that Ikuto had his share of hardship even though he kept it to himself by disguising the pain in his eyes with a gentle smile that never left his handsome face.