I haven't been able to see Percy again, since he went back to school. I don't like playing with Ron and Ginny either. I try to keep Wufei's words in my head, to give everyone a chance, but I don't like them. They're… immature. I don't understand them. They see the world as nice and pretty, and I know it's ugly.

Duo says that it's okay for them to believe it, and not to ruin it for them. He says people like us are special in knowing better. I don't understand that either. But I like being special.

Trowa and Duo have been going down to the Preventers building a lot lately. The adoption is almost over, and Trowa says they will want to talk to me. He says to be honest, and don't worry about what they ask. They just want to make sure I am happy.

I'm the happiest with Trowa. I told him so. He hugged me.

I'm going down with them today to talk to one of the 'social workers.' Trowa says they will most likely not let him sit with me. I don't want to be alone in there (I still have a hard time being alone with Nick), but if it gets me to stay with Trowa forever, I will try.

"Ready for this, little man?" Duo asks me, his voice bringing me out of my thoughts. I look up at him, and give a shrug.

"Does it change anything?" I ask him, and he laughs while ruffling my hair.

"No, but it's the nice thing to ask."

I let out a huff of air as Trowa pulls the car into the parking lot. I still get a crawly feeling in my stomach whenever we have to come here, and Aunt Commander is up there somewhere. I don't know if I'll have to see her, but I really really hope I don't. I hold my breath when we step in, hoping Aunt Commander isn't on the other side of the funny painted doors, but the only person there is the lady at the counter. She gives me a smile and waves, so she must be the lady who brought Trowa to me. I give her a wave back, and her smile gets bigger.

"Okay, Davvy, time ta stop flirtin' with the ladies an' get this over with," Duo jokes, and my face goes hot again. Trowa swiftly smacks Duo on the back of the head and walks forward, leaving Duo whining and clutching at where Trowa hit him.

"Come on, Duo, stop wasting time," Trowa calls back, and I bury my face into Trowa's shirt to hide the smile. I am glad Duo came back; Trowa's been much happier.

The room is small, the walls a bright yellow, and the floor is bright white carpet. There are toys scattered around, and a colouring book. Pictures of smiling animals and children are on the walls, each looking different. Some look more like Wufei and Heero, and some look like Quatre. I can't see any like Duo or Trowa though.

"Can you tell me your name?" the woman asks me, and I ignore her, looking around the room. Nick lets me get comfortable before talking, and I've never been in this room before. I have to make sure nothing bad is in it.

"David?" the woman asks again, and I lift up the lid of a brightly coloured wooden box, seeing plastic balls and wooden blocks inside. I close the lid, and open the really skinny dresser next to it. Lego blocks, little log things, and doll clothes. This is a weird room.

"David?" The woman won't stop talking, so I turn to look at her. Her brown hair and eyes, framed by glasses, don't seem to make me scared of her like other women have. I think she looks… weak. And she asks stupid things, like my name, when she already knows it. I glare at her, and she takes a step back.

"I'm looking. Wait."

Doesn't she know I have to check first?

The lady keeps asking me stupid questions. Things like if Trowa is nice to me, if I eat food and sleep in a bed. He was the first to let me do those things, and I tell her that. Her face goes all funny when I say that, and I decide that I listened to Wufei. I gave the woman a chance, and she's just stupid.

I tell her this too. Her face goes all funny again.

-break-

I'm sitting in Duo's office, which is really Trowa's. I kick my legs back and forth while Duo works, because when he's done we are going to go eat lunch.

"Finally!"

I look behind me, and Duo is turning off his computer, a satisfied look on his face. I slide off the top of the desk as he pulls his jacket on. I never took mine off, so I'm just waiting for him to get ready. I freeze though as I head towards the door. I can hear a voice getting louder on the other side. Duo stops too, and is looking at the door.

I know that voice; it's Aunt Commander.

"—have been teaching him?"

"If I knew what had happened, I would be able to give you an answer." That is Trowa's voice. The doorknob turns, and I move away from the door quickly, smacking my back into the desk. I ignore the pain and let my feet slide out so my butt lands hard on the ground, and quickly draw my knees to my chest.

Duo's moved in front of me, but I can still see Aunt Commander. She doesn't look happy, but she isn't looking at me. She's looking at Duo.

"Can I help you, Commander?" Duo drawls, crossing his arms. Trowa's looking around the room, and he relaxes when he sees me. He goes to move towards me, but Aunt Commander throws her arm out and he stops moving. I make out the brown-haired woman I had been forced to talk to standing in the doorway behind them. The lights flicker.

"Miss Bennett didn't seem to think that David behaved appropriately while meeting with her." Her eyes roll, and I feel confused. She doesn't sound angry with me, but her voice is unhappy. The brown-haired lady steps forward, and the lights flicker again. Trowa and Duo look at me, and I take a deep breath. The lights go back to normal.

"He refused to cooperate with answering questions, ignored me for a large portion of the meeting, and then insulted me. This is not acceptable behaviour to be teaching him," she says, and her voice is cold and sharp. Like Aunt's was. Her hair shines blonde for a moment, and the room goes white.

When the room is back, Trowa is holding me in his lap, and we are sitting at Duo's desk that is really Trowa's desk. Duo is arguing with the lady. Aunt Commander is arguing with her as well.

"Welcome back," Trowa whispers, and I give a small hiss as I nuzzle into his shoulder. I can hear Duo's words really loudly.

"Did ya even giv'im time ta adjust? He doesn' feel safe 'round women ta begin with. Tha's why a male worker was wanted in tha firs' place!"

"I am sure it's not as bad as you are suggesting."

"Then why're ya here ta bitch at us?"

"Maxwell, please be quiet," Aunt Commander cuts in, and gives a stern look at the brown-haired lady.

"You should not have come if a male was requested. Had I realized sooner, you would not have met with him," she tells the lady, who shrinks back. She goes to talk again, but I start talking loudly.

"I needed to check out the room first. I never been in it before." I realize too late that I left out a word, but I don't stop to fix it. "I needed to make sure it safe. You push me too fast. I do not know you. You are a stranger. You ask me stupid questions. You asked my name, but you know it. You are stupid."

The lady's face is a dark red. Aunt Commander's is rather blank, and Duo's covering his face with his hands. I can see him smiling. Trowa's nose is pushing against the top of my head, which means his face is buried in my hair.

"You-!"

"Miss Bennett!" Aunt Commander snaps, and the other lady goes quiet. Aunt Commander pinches between her eyes (Quatre does this when he's thinking hard or his head hurts), and then opens them to give the lady a stern look.

"Apparently, there has been a mistake on who is to be conducting the evaluation for the adoption of David Daniels. I offer apologies for not realizing this sooner, and hope your office corrects this mistake immediately."

The woman's face flushes, and she turns to leave the room. The look she gives me has me glaring at her, the thought of the door hitting her in the face flashing in my mind. I've been practicing making things happen, so it doesn't scare me when the door hits her on the way out.

I feel happy as she leaves.

I am meeting Quatre's friend, Percy's oldest brother. They are coming to Trowa's house because of there being more room. I don't understand that, but I would rather meet him at our house than go to a place I don't know.

It's almost eighteen o'clock, and I am trying to get my picture finished. I am seeing Nick tomorrow, so I have to finish the homework he is making me do. I am to draw what I think my family should look like. I had a hard time thinking of it until just now. I stick my tongue out, it curling up against my lip as I carefully draw in the lines that make my hands. Satisfied, I sit back and look at it.

"Hey, little man," Duo says quietly, coming to sit next to me. I scoot over to make room at my table. It's a weird table, like the one in front of the sofa, but in a square. There's a cloth that goes around the sides to hide underneath it. I often sit with my legs under the table, and I still can use the top of it real easily. He kneels down and sits down very low, his braid falling forward as he leans to look at my paper.

"Good job! Nick's homework?"

"Yeah," I answer, picking up my green marker to colour my eyes. I continue to colour my picture as Duo watches, neither of us speaking. It is a comfy quiet though, not like when Duo came back home, and he and Trowa were all quiet. That was scary, but this isn't.

When I set down my marker, Duo wraps his arm around me, pulling me against him. I tense up quickly, but relax against him as we both sit there, looking down at my picture. We don't say anything, but we don't need to. The picture shows it all.

We sit there, silent, until knocking and Quatre's voice signals that it is time to go out and be nice. Duo gives me a grin, and I share it.

-break-

William is… different. In the way that Trowa, Duo, Quatre, Wufei, and Heero are different. William would be the first person I could spot in a large crowd, his hair a deep red and long (but never as long as Duo's) and tied back, and tan and tall, and just… there. His ear had an earring in it, a fang, and it swings each time he moves. It's hard to take my eyes off of it. He smiles a lot too, and even when he isn't, it looks like he is.

I like him a lot. He doesn't try to hold me or touch me or order me around. He just smiles and talks to everyone else I even thought hard earlier to make his earring pop off, but he just put it back in and winked at me! He didn't get mad, or yell at me for it. He acted like it was normal.

I spend most of the time on Trowa's lap. He doesn't push me off, so it's okay to just stay here. Duo's sitting by Quatre and William ("Call me Bill if you want," he told me earlier.), and talking quickly in a weird language ("Arabic," Trowa whispers to me when he sees me watching them.)

The only weird part of tonight is when I met William. He looked at me, then at my forehead where the weird cut is. But he didn't say anything about it or ask, so I don't understand why he sometimes keeps looking at it. It makes my stomach feel weird.

I hate summers. Headmaster Dippet never allows me to stay at Hogwarts during the summer break, so I always return to the orphanage. I hate it here, even though most of the other kids are terrified to be around me.

Some, though, are just too idiotic to stay away. This is how I wound up in my current predicament. All I can see is black dirt as my face is shoved into the ground, the taste of bile, dirt, blood, and semen on my tongue, and all I can feel is a searing pain from behind.

"Y'think ya're s' tuff now, magic boy?" a cruel, nasty, vicious voice taunts me as they push in deeper. I bite my lip harder, refusing to give into the want to scream out. It's what they want. They've tried everything else.

"Lookit dat Stan," another kid mocks. He's the one pushing my face into the dirt with his foot. "I bet he likes it. Ain't cryin' fer ya to stop now, iz'ee?"

"'Course he likes it, Noll," Stan answers, as if it's a matter of fact. "He plays wit' magic sticks. Takin' it up th'arse ain't much of a change!"

As they continue this torture, the pain and anger building up inside of me, I know that these filthy Muggles will never survive. I will become powerful. I will become the best. They will all die. I will kill them all. And I will take pleasure from doing it.

"…avid?" I hear Trowa's worried voice talking above me, but my chest and stomach hurt too much to do anything but throw up again. I am crying, I notice after a moment, as my stomach squeezes in on itself and I throw up once more. I can feel Trowa rubbing my back in circles as I gasp. My fingers find the material of his pants, and grip them tightly as I shake horribly.

"Did he answer you yet?" I hear Duo ask Trowa quietly, and I cough, trying to tell them I can hear them, that I'm back, that I'm not Tom anymore. Thinking of Tom makes my stomach clench again, and I throw up, again.

"T-T-Tom…" I stumble over the word, my jaw and throat hurting bad. Trowa lifts me from my bed (When did I get there?), and he carries me across the hall into the bathroom. The tub already has water in it, and it's even warm water. I know, because I feel it against my skin when Trowa puts me in it. He had to take off my clothes so that they don't get even wetter. He's humming to me as he gets the throw-up off of me, washing my skin and hair.

When he pulls me out of the tub, he puts me in one of his big shirts, wrapping me up in a blanket. We go sit by my favourite window for a while, him holding me against his shirt as I cry. I can't stop, even though I know I'm not the one who got hurt bad. Tom was, but I felt it. I felt everything he did, the anger, hate, and the pain. It's not me. I keep trying to tell myself this, but I don't know how to make myself not feel it anymore.

Trowa stays up with me the rest of the night, and we watch the sun rise together. I'm glad I get to see Nick today. He can tell me why, when Tom got hurt, I hurt for real too. I would ask Trowa, but it's too new. And I have to show Nick my picture anyways.