Amor Fictus
Written by Sakki-san
Anything you haven't heard of belongs tome.
Anything you HAVE heard of, doesn't.
Ken finished up his German lesson a little later than all the other kids. That was to be expected; it was Ken's style. He was always just a little behind but always keeping up with everybody else. Everyone knew this, and everyone accepted it.
Ken hated it, but what could he do? Society rules, majority rules, PR among the masses. They were used to him by now. If he didn't do what was expected, his entire life could come crashing down around his shoulders.
Not that it wouldn't do that anyway…
The bell had rung a few minutes ago, and most of the class was already gone. It was lunchtime already. Ken was packing his stuff up when the only other kid in the room shot out the door, not wanting to miss lunch at all. Ken didn't mind this.
Until he heard the door shut.
He stopped moving and looked up, thinking maybe the other student had moved so fast that the door had shut by accident. But no. There was Schuldig, standing by the door, one hand on the doorknob, and a sadistic grin on his face as he looked at Ken.
Ken's breath caught in his throat. Those jade eyes were gazing at him in a way he really didn't like. Now he remembered why this class made his stomach turn. He'd forgotten that he had to get out of the room before everybody else.
"So where were you yesterday, Ken, leibe?" The man locked the classroom door. "Ahhh…that's right. You had a game. Such an early game…you missed my class." Schuldig turned and started walking toward him. "And I missed you. It's been all summer, Ken!"
Ken backed up at the same pace Schuldig was advancing until he hit the bookcase at the back of the room. This brought back enough memories to terrify Ken, but he'd learned not to show his emotions.
"You never talked to me over the summer," said Schuldig in a soft voice as he stood in front of Ken, who was looking to the side. "I wondered if maybe you'd forgotten my address."
"You never gave it to me," Ken said almost inaudibly. Schuldig heard it, though. And he laughed. He smiled a cold, cruel smile at the boy he'd chosen for his own. He wanted a piece of this beautiful, athletic figure.
But Ken never liked him in return. Despite everything he'd done, all the subtle tactics he'd used, Ken had never shown any feelings for him. So Schuldig had one day simply decided to take action…
One hand reached out and cupped the side of Ken's face, making the boy's head turn to face him. Ken's eyes were shut, as if he was trying to ignore what was happening to him.
"I know…but I hoped you'd find out." Schuldig leaned down a little to plant his lips on Ken's forehead. The boy's body temperature was higher than normal, proving that he was nervous. Schuldig smiled internally. It was so much fun to manipulate his students.
"I…I need to…get to lunch…"
"Do you?" Schuldig asked, playing with Ken's hair.
"Y…yes….they'll wonder where I am…"
"So you'll just tell them what you told them before," Schuldig whispered as he ran his free hand along Ken's back, under his shirt. "You'll just tell them that you needed help with the homework."
"There hasn't…" Ken couldn't finish as Schuldich put two fingers over Ken's mouth.
"I assigned some today. You needed help with that." Ken kept his eyes shut as he felt Schuldig's breath on his face. He hated this. He hated this. He wished to God that Schuldig hadn't picked HIM to be the little love slave of the year. The first time this had happened, he'd been so shocked that he hadn't spoken to anyone the rest of the day.
"Ken," said Schuldig, pulling the boy close to him, "you know you don't have to spend the rest of your life alone. You could be mine…"
Ken's eyes shut tighter, and tears appeared at the corners of his eyes. He was afraid of this. He had prayed every day since the beginning of this horror that Schuldig wouldn't ask him that. But now…it had come.
"Schuldig…I…already have…someone."
He felt the man tense around him. Suddenly the arms around his body became unbearably tight; he gasped for air as it was forced out of his lungs.
"You…do?" said Schuldig quietly. "But…I've never seen you with anybody…never! Never in the halls. Never at lunch. All the girls flirt with you but you've never gone out with one of them…how? Who?!"
"It's…it's none of your business," Ken whispered. Schuldig crushed Ken to himself. Ken could hear the man's heartbeat, could hear his breathing. Schuldig's breathing was hard and fast.
"It's all of my business."
Suddenly, Schuldig put his head next to Ken's and began to whisper into the boy's ear.
"I don't care what you say or what anybody else says. I will have you one day. No lover can stop me, whether student or not." As if he wished to slam his point home, Schuldig then forced Ken into a rough, painful kiss, commanded by Schuldig. Ken winced as his spine was rubbed painfully against the bookshelf behind him. Schuldig had an almost agonizingly tight grip on Ken's arms, so as not to let the boy get away.
Then it was over. Schuldig let Ken go and pushed the boy into a desk.
"Go on. Get to lunch. I'd hate for you to miss it."
That smile…Ken wanted to rip it off his teacher's face.
As he put his stuff away, he felt Schuldig's gaze all over him. Ken kept his eyes shut and forced back the tears. He knew he couldn't tell anybody about this. It wasn't that he was afraid of Schuldig would do; it was that he was afraid to ruin his reputation. Everyone would be shocked by a scandal like this.
If he had told somebody after the first time it happened, all would have been well. But no, he kept it a secret, and now if he told, he would be called a slut and a whore. His entire life would, as he said, come crashing down around his shoulders.
Before he left the room, Schuldig shot him one more lust filled glare. Ken pulled himself together and left the room so fast the door slammed shut behind him.
Despite the heat of the school building (they had already turned on the heat even though there was no snow on the ground yet), Ken felt icy cold. Schuldig made him feel small and insignificant. So small that Ken just wanted to curl up and scream forever. To hide from everyone who had ever seen him.
He was so lost inside himself that he didn't notice that someone was coming in the opposite direction. They crashed right into each other, books flying, papers scattering, limbs tangled.
"Ack!"
"Aaah!"
Ken landed on his knees. Gently rubbing his forehead, he looked over at victim of his clumsiness. It was a boy who looked hardly older than 15, with wheat colored hair and pain filled cerulean eyes. He was wearing a red sweater and faded blue jeans. He had managed to land on his rear end, and was rubbing his head absentmindedly.
Then he noticed that Ken was looking at him, and just about flew into the air before landing back on his knees.
"Ahhh!! Gomen! I wasn't watching where I was going and, well, argh!" He started shuffling through the papers, trying to determine which were his and which weren't. He was obviously distressed.
"It's ok," Ken said, smiling slightly and separating books. "I wasn't watching where I was going, either. What's your name?"
"Tsukiyono Omi!" said the boy with an unusual amount of happiness in his voice for someone who'd just been run into. He smiled at Ken, a smile full of sunshine and flowers. Sweet, innocent, and pretty.
"I'm Ken. Here, this is yo – "
"Ken?!" Omi interrupted, blinking rapidly. "Y-you mean, Hidaka Ken, the master goalie of the school soccer team?!!"
Ken sighed internally and nodded.
"Yeah, that's me…"
"Oh, maaannnn!!!" Omi wailed. Ken stared. "I can't believe this! I was so clumsy that I tripped you! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to do it! Are you ok?!"
"I'm fine," he said, a little taken aback by Omi's apparent distress. "What about you?"
"I'm just fine! I'm really sorry, really really sorry! I didn't mean to – "
"It's ok," Ken said a little angrily. He didn't like people who thought he was some kind of God that held precedence over life and death. "You don't need to keep apologizing, it was my fault, too."
"Oh! A-ano…ano…sorry."
"It's ok. Sorry that I sounded angry." Ken picked up a few of his books. "I'm just…a little preoccupied right now."
"Oh. Oh, ok." Omi picked up all of his stuff but didn't stand up. "Um…you look a little pale. And…is that a bruise?" Omi leaned nearer to Ken to look at his face. Ken immediately blushed bright red. Had Schuldig really left a bruise?!
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"Here." Omi reached out and gently tapped the side of Ken's mouth. "You have a bruise. Right there."
Ken reached up and pressed on the spot. Pain instantly flared up, although it wasn't bad.
"Oh…oh, man….I didn't know it was there…"
"It doesn't look that bad," Omi said, sitting back on his knees. "How did you get it?"
Ken blanched, but quickly regained his composure.
"I m-must have gotten hit in the face with a ball or something earlier," he muttered. Omi nodded, still looking concerned.
"Well…it was nice to meet you, Ken-kun." Omi looked at his watch and suddenly leapt into the air again. "Aaaaaaahhh!!! I'm late!" He took off down the hall. "Gomen, Ken-kun! I'm really late!!"
Ken watched him go, his hand still on the side of his face, and laughed a little. The kid must have been pretty scatterbrained to forget entirely about a class while he was talking to someone, especially when he was supposed to be in class. Not all the kids ate lunch at the same time.
Ken headed down to the lunchroom and was greeted by a chorus of hellos by his friends.
"Oi, Hidaka-san! Sit here!"
"Ke~n-ku~n! I've got an extra lunch for you!"
"Ken, come over here! I want to talk to you about the game!"
"Yo! Ken!" Ken saw the soccer team, all sitting together, and went over. They had a lunch ready for him. "Where were you?"
"I had to get some help for tonight's homework and someone ran into me in the halls."
"Ah, figures. Well, eat up!" One of the forwards, Akira, slapped him on the shoulderblades. "We've got P.E. next, and it's with another class! Us against them!"
"What are we playing?" Ken said around a mouthful of hamburger.
"Frisbee," another boy said offhandedly.
"It'll be hard! We're playing against juniors."
"Yeah, but we won't loose. We've got Ken on our team!"
"I can't do everything," Ken murmured, blushing as his team hooted with laughter and threw food to each other. He looked around the lunchroom as he ate, wondering who he would be playing against.
His eyes followed a path across the lunchroom, and Ken suddenly found himself looking at a redhead sitting on a bench some distance away. His hair was darkish red, instead of flaming, like Schuldig's, and he had eartails…
Ken blinked. It was the boy from this morning, who had turned down Ken's offer to open his locker. Looking closer, Ken saw that this guy looked like he could easily be out of high school by now. He was wearing all black, and didn't even have a lunch. Didn't people usually eat lunch at lunch…?
"Oi! Hidaka! Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Ah! Nothing. Just looking."
"Mhm…come on, it's time for PE!"
Ken blinked. That seemed short…VERY short…was lunch really over?
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Ken noticed that everyone else was indeed getting up and heading out the doors. He picked up his stuff and dumped his lunch in a huge barrel.
The gym locker rooms were total crap, but Ken had a great spot because he was on the soccer team. He and his buddies went over to their economy-sized lockers and changed, laughing and talking. Ken didn't notice anybody other than his friends until they all got outside, and then realized that they WERE playing against juniors.
"Ok! Juniors, line up here! Sophomores, over here!" The PE teacher pointed to two spots, and everybody gathered according to their grade level. "All right. Today we're playing frisbee, but it's an official game, not just throwing this around." He flipped a beaten white frisbee into the air. Ken followed it with his eyes, and noticed that the sky had begun to cloud over. He stuck a foot into the ground and dug around.
The ground feels wet…
"You'll play it like you play football. Throw it to your teammates, try to get it down the field to your goal. The first team to reach 15 points wins. Got it?"
Everybody nodded.
"Ok! Here are the teams." The teacher started dividing everybody up into four groups, boys and girls. There were two fields on the grounds for football, so they would be playing in two groups. Plus there were two teachers and both could coach a game.
Ken followed his team to the field, and smirked at his opponents as the teacher for this game pointed out positions and explained the rules.
"All right! You boys ready? GO!"
The frisbee whipped into the air. It was pursued by twenty-two pairs of feet while the other eight ran down the field both directions to catch the frisbee depending on what direction it was thrown.
"I got it!" One boy snatched it out of the air and flung it down to one of his teammates, only to have it intercepted by an opponent and thrown the other direction.
Thus the game was off to a furious start. Ken played as hard as he did in his soccer matches because he was smaller than most of the juniors. He pushed himself insane amounts past his limits in order to outrace the older boys, and eventually he almost collapsed.
"Oi, Hidaka! You all right?" asked the teacher.
"I'm good!" he said. "Just pushing myself!"
"That's the athlete!"
Ken smiled and trotted back to his position while his guts twisted and squirmed. All the teachers expected him to be the perfect, wonderful athlete he made himself out to be…what if he just stopped…
"All right! Ready? GO!"
The frisbee whirled madly overhead. Ken saw where it was heading, and he ran, ran, ran like he'd never run before. He had been the furthest away from the frisbee when it started, so he had the best chance of catching it. He knew where it was going to land, he just knew! He tore like lightning, a wake of mud behind him. He never noticed the other boy, racing mere feet behind him and gaining.
"I've got it!" Ken screamed as he leapt into the air to catch the frisbee and land over the goal line. His fingers stretched, and his hands clasped over the white edge triumphantly –
Suddenly, someone else's hands slid over his, gripping the frisbee just as tightly as he was. Ken was so shocked by the sudden intrusion that he forgot to land properly, causing both him and the other boy to crash into the ground. Ken landed on his back, clutching the frisbee as close to his chest as he could, and looked up.
Right into two stunning violet eyes.
If anyone had been close enough to see this happen, they would have next assess that Ken apparently pinned to the ground under a junior with red hair and fairly pale skin. The junior's lower right arm was three inches from Ken's head to support his weight now that he had landed, and his left hand was clamped on the frisbee. Both boys were completely splattered with mud and breathing hard.
Ken stared into the face of the older man and, although he was in desperate need of air, felt his breath leave him. He knew who this was. The one from this morning, the one he saw at lunch.
His mouth was slightly open so he could breathe easier, and his eartails hung down, nearly brushing Ken's nose. But it was the eyes that Ken really only noticed; the beautiful amethyst crystals that stared right into his own plain brown ones.
Who knew someone could have such deep and piercing eyes?
The older boy hesitated for a moment before pushing himself off Ken and standing up. He extended one hand to Ken, offering to help him up. Ken blinked, coming out of his daze, and accepted it, feeling a blush spread across his face. He tried to brush the mud off his shirt, only succeeding to smear it further across the gray.
"Great catch, Hidaka!" Yelled one of his friends, who was running at him. Ken waved the frisbee a bit in response. He glanced over at the other boy, who was walking back down toward the end of the field, arms crossed, eyes averted. Ken gripped the frisbee, unable to say anything.
His friend crashed into him and ripped the frisbee from his hands.
"Hey, Ken! Great move! That was the last point, we won!" The sophomores were cheering down at the other end, while the juniors were groaning and yelling at the readhead who had just arrived near them.
Ken's friend noticed the apparent redness in Ken's face.
"Hey, Ken, you ok? You're blushing." Ken jumped a little and rubbed his face.
"Oh, um, I'm fine. Just out of breath."
"Heh. I don't blame you. That was an amazing catch. And you even beat a junior to it!"
"I…hey, Li, who was that guy, anyway?"
"Him?" Ken's black-haired companion squinted down the field at the target of junior ridicule. "I think his name's Ran. He's a real loner, nobody likes him. I've seen him once or twice at lunch, he doesn't have any friends."
"Oh…"
Li smiled at Ken.
"So what? You caught it! He's supposed to be a super runner, and you beat him!" The boy landed his hand on Ken's left shoulder. Something sharp shot through Ken's arm when he did this. Something sharp and extremely painful. Ken gasped and clutched at his arm.
"Ken? Ken! Are you ok?" asked a new arrival.
"Ken, what's wrong? Did I hurt you?" Li asked, obviously agitated.
"N-no…I think I hurt myself when I landed…" Ken glanced at his shoulder through partially open eyes.
"Here, let me look at it." Li pried Ken's hand off his arm and lifted the sleeve. Ken heard a whistle. "Oi…"
"What? What?" Ken looked over. His arm didn't look that bad from where he could see.
"You've got a huge bruise here, Ken. Did that stupid junior do something to you?"
"No!...well, not on purpose…he landed on me…"
"Jeeze!" A nearby blonde shot a nasty glare down the field. "He wasn't careful at all! He landed right on you. Coulda broken your arm!"
"But…I'm fine. It's just a bruise." He smiled a little as the teacher came down.
"Excellent catch, Ken. Are you hurt?"
"Nothing serious, sir."
"Ok. Well, that's it for today. Get to the locker rooms and get changed!"
All the students, sophomores and juniors, headed for the locker rooms, chatting happily about wins or gloomily musing over losses. The junior boys were especially cold; one of them shoved Ran into a wall, yelling at him about being so incompetent as to not be able to outrace a stupid little kid. Ken winced slightly when he saw the force with which the violet-eyed boy hit the bricks.
It didn't seem to matter, though, because the other sophomore boys dragged him into the locker room and held a small celebration before the bell rang. Ken was the center of attention the entire time. Kids congratulated him, the teachers talked with him, people did replays of his amazing catch.
Ken kept his usual façade of merriment up while on the inside he knew it was just a lucky fluke. If he hadn't left the moment he had, then that junior, Ran, would have gotten there first. He could feel his stomach twisting with shame as he graciously accepted praise after praise.
He pulled his shirt on and turned around, fully dressed, to put his shoes on. As he did he saw Ran standing in the office, being reprimanded by the junior PE teacher. What for? Ken sighed a little. If it was because he had landed on him…
Ken saw a flash of violet in his direction, and instantly he felt another blush rise in his cheeks. He quickly sat down and began pulling on his shoes, quickly tying the laces so he could get to his next class as quickly as possible.