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Cygnus stared into Rabastan's eyes as they opened. His panic disappeared as soon as his icy blue eyes met Rabi's dark blue ones. All that mattered now was that Rabi was finally awake and with him.

"Hey little one." Rabi whispered. His voice was hoarse as if he had spent days screaming.

"Where were you!?" Cygnus scolded Rabi, frowning deeply as his worry came back full force.

Rabi chuckled weakly which, weirdly enough, made Cygnus want to hit him. "I missed you too, little one."

"Here." Rodolphus said as he walked to Rabi, a glass of water in hand. Cygnus had nearly forgotten that his uncle had been here all along.

Rabi drank slowly, Cygnus hanging on his every movement, and let his head drop back on the pillow. He then looked himself over, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline when he noticed that he was clear of any injury. "Am I not supposed to be in a bad shape? Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

Cygnus sheepishly looked down at his hands. He didn't know whether he should tell Rabi that he had healed him or not. He didn't want to look vain and full of himself.

"Cygni healed you." Rodolphus answered, cutting Cygnus's musings off. "How did you do that by the way?" He asked Cygnus.

Cygnus shrugged, eyes still fixed on his hands. He didn't want them to think that he was a freak. He had understood that being able to do magic was not freakish. He had understood that being an Elf was not freakish. All thanks to his family. But from what he had gathered, people weren't supposed to heal other people, not without a wand at least. That could only mean that he was a freak, right? "I don't know." He muttered under his breath. He wanted to avoid his uncle throwing him out. He didn't want to be away from Rabi. He had been away from him for a month already, he didn't want to leave him anymore. Never again.

"Thank you." He heard Rabi say. His head snapped up to look at him in shock. He nearly gasped in surprise when he caught sight of Rabi's silly grin. "I'm glad you did it, Cygni. Stop beating yourself up."

"How did you-"

"S'not hard to guess. Could read it all over your face." Rabi cut him off. He pushed himself up and kissed Cygnus's temple, making him blush like mad. "Thank you." He said once again.

Cygnus smiled, his blush quickly spreading down to his neck. Rabi's eyes were shining with mirth which made Cygnus flush even more. He felt like he would die any moment from embarrassment. He wished he could disappear into the bedclothes.

"Are you feeling up to walking?" Rodolphus asked Rabi out of the blue.

"I think so." Rabi answered, narrowing his eyes. "I feel great."

"Let's go for a walk then. We need to talk."

Cygnus frowned. Why would his uncle need to talk to Rabi alone? Couldn't he talk while he was here? "Wait for me, okay?" Rabi told Cygnus.

Cygnus nodded mutely as Rabi slowly got out of bed. He was only wearing an hospital gown but didn't seem to mind it. But Cygnus saw it and blushed as he noticed that he had stared. Luckily, both Rabi and his uncle had left the room before they could notice the deep flush on Cygnus's face.

He obediently remained in the bed. He lied down and pulled the covers over him, feeling cold without Rabi against him, his body warmth warming up the entire bed. He hugged the pillow to his chest and breathed in Rabi's sweet scent. It smelt like a sunny winter morning. It smelt fresh with a hint of mint. Typically Rabi and he loved it. Cygnus wanted to know why Rabi always smelt like mint though. He would remember to ask Rabi later on.

He felt full and complete with Rabi back, he didn't really understand it but his heart felt full and the ache was gone which he was grateful for. Cygnus wanted to wait for Rabi to come back but his eyelids were growing heavy and he was asleep before he could even fight it.

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Cygnus woke up in the middle of a street. How did he end up here? He was sure that he had fallen asleep in Rabi's hospital bed. He could have sworn he did. Why was he lying in the middle of a road? He sat up, a traffic light was hanging above his head, but it kept changing colors, going back and forth from red to green in a couple of seconds.

He looked around and noticed that he was in Little Whinging. He could see the Dursleys' house from where he was. He didn't want to be back here, he was supposed to have his family. Did they abandon him again? Surely Rabi wouldn't have let them do that, right? He quickly got to his feet when he noticed the front door of the Dursleys' home open, revealing a whale of a man.

No, no, no, that was not supposed to happen.

Vernon's gaze fell on Cygnus and he quickly walked toward him, his face red with anger and his eyes twinkling with a mad glint. Cygnus's heart stopped beating when he realized that Vernon was going to hurt him. He wanted to flee but his feet were glued to the ground. He was paralyzed with fear.

"Finally decided to come back, boy?" Vernon's voice snapped Cygnus out of his trance. He began to run away from the man, moving just in time to avoid Vernon's huge hand grabbing his arm. "Come back here, you freak!" Vernon yelled from behind Cygnus.

He ran as fast as he could. He wanted to be back at the hospital. He wanted to be back home with his mum and his dad. He wanted Rabi to be here. He wanted Rabi to be here to protect him. Cygnus kept running even as tears started blinding him, praying that he would wake up and see Rabi come back into the room with his uncle, his real uncle.

Cygnus ran even as his lungs started to burn and his legs started to hurt. He went through endless streets, he didn't even know where he was going. He had never been allowed to go out when he was living with the Dursleys. They didn't want him to infect other people with his freakishness so they had kept him locked up in the house all this time. It made sense that Cygnus was unable to recognize any streets.

Cygnus was beginning to tire so he looked back, to check whether Vernon was still following him or not. He nearly tripped when he saw the man running after him, only a couple of inches separating them.

A broken sob escaped Cygnus's lips when he felt Vernon's body collide with his back. He fell forward, landing hard on his hip. Cygnus heard a bone snap and he cried out in pain.

"Crying already?" Vernon said as he pushed Cygnus on his back, hovering over him threateningly. "We haven't even started yet." A wicked smirk made his way onto his lips.

"Please." Cygnus whimpered as he tried to fight the man back.

"I told you that you're mine. You can't get away from me. I'll always find you." Vernon licked Cygnus's tears away. The mere thought of that whale's tongue on his skin made Cygnus sick to his stomach. "No one can save you, not even that Rabastan of yours. You're all mine."

Cygnus cries doubled. He knew about Rabi. He wasn't supposed to know. Cygnus tried to push Vernon away as he started to unbuckle his pants but the man was too heavy. "What do you think he'll say once he's aware of how filthy you are? How filthy I've made you? How I used you for years?" Vernon chuckled darkly.

"Please, stop." Cygnus whimpered, his struggles never ceasing as he felt Vernon take his pants off, leaving Cygnus naked from waist to toe.

"He'll never want you. You're all mine." He whispered into the teen's ear.

Cygnus managed to kick the whale's crotch and quickly got to his feet. He was back to running. Never paying attention to the fact that he was half naked. All he cared about was escaping.

He ran and ran and ran until he collided with something hard. A chest. He whimpered, thinking that it probably was one of those men Vernon brought home to have funwith Cygnus for an hour or two. He was surprised when he felt strong arms wrap around his waist, preventing him from falling back down on the hard ground. He looked up just in time to see dark blue eyes smiling down at him.

*CM*RL*