Title: The Price of His Past
Author: Ladye Black
Part: 2/?
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Shounen ai, well perhaps not quite yet, implied child abuse
Disclaimer: Eep! Forgot this for the first part. They're not mine! I don't own the characters!
Notes: Wow, I didn't expect to write more so quickly! Thank you for all the lovely reviews, they mean a lot to me!
Chapter 2
Five years later…
Ignoring the pain radiating from his chest, Tsume continued running, narrowly avoiding the humans in the crowded street. Clutched tightly in his hand was a golden earring that had belonged to his one and only true friend, Te.
Te had been older than Tsume by at least several years, though neither one of the boys really knew their true ages. They'd met after what Tsume would later term 'The Incident'. Te had found the younger boy wandering around in shredded clothing, holding a scrap of dirty cloth in one hand and a knife in the other, covered in blood. Most of the blood had proved to be Tsume's, which seeped from long cuts all over the young one's body. That had been the start of their friendship.
But Te, wonderful Te who had given Tsume his name, was dead now and Tsume was alone with only his best friend's treasured earring and a head full of wonderful memories.
Tsume roughly shoved aside his memories in order to concentrate on escaping the people who were following him. He didn't know why, but for some reason these men had wanted to kill Te, and now him. Maybe it had something to do with the earring that Tsume was now carrying. Te had been the one to shove it into Tsume's small hands, telling him to run with it and not to let the bad men have it.
After Te had pushed him away, Tsume ran. He ran as fast as he could in his human illusion, for there was now other way for him to carry his precious burden until he made it a more permanent fixture.
It slowly dawned on the small boy that there were no more signs of pursuit, perhaps he had finally lost them. He ducked into a familiar alleyway, and moved the paneling that hid a very small secret entrance. Tsume was almost too big himself, no way could those grown-ups follow him into here.
Secreted into his hole, he used the dim lighting from some cracks in the wall to study the earring. It wasn't too hard for him since he had really good eyesight, just another way he was different from the other street kids, too.
Te had been like him, he had true form, too. Te had told him all about himself, how he should be proud that he was a Wolf and not a weak Human. Te taught him what it was to be a Wolf, how thing worked for them. Tsume's eyes started to water.
'No!' he thought to himself. He wouldn't allow himself to cry, he had to solve his current problems first, then perhaps he could take some time to grieve.
Firmly set on track, Tsume studied the gold earring. It didn't look very dangerous, just triangular; he distantly wondered why it seemed so important. Hmph, at any rate, he had to attach it to himself and there was only one way for that, self-piercing. Holding it up to his small, human ear, he shoved the point through and bit his lip hard enough for blood to run to keep from howling with pain.
Making sure it was secure, he let his human projection go, and walked out into the evening sky as a grey shadow.
TBC…
Well, there it is, part 2. What did ya'll think?
Te means 'hand', by-the-way. I read somewhere that Tsume means 'claw'. Not exact, but I kinda liked the name anyway.
