Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. )))))(sob)(((((
A/N: lalalalalala! I'm back! Duh. Shut up Katie, you're here to write, not to talk…
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He remembered this place. The cool stone walls, the echoing rooms, how he could trace the cracks on the floor, leaving dirt designs behind.
He gazed at the ceiling. He could hardly see it, the room was too dark. The musty smell filled his nose, he gulped in more.
This room was everything to him. It was home – his heaven and sanctuary.
It was also his hell.
The smell started to sting his nose and he coughed. His body shook from coughing and he fell to the ground, his knees hitting hard. Tears welled up in his eyes as he silently bid the coughing, the burning, itching, nagging in his lungs to stop.
He pressed his forehead to the cold stone floor, coughing up red liquid onto it. Once the need to cough lessened, he rolled onto his side, staring sideways at the only door – the only portal to the outside world.
By now, his head was throbbing from the stench in the room. 'God! What is that!' he screamed silently.
But he knew, the smell was engraved into the walls; into the very room itself. It was the rotten stink of years of torment and captivity.
It was the smell of his blood – young and old. The blood of the rat. The worthless child, never good for anything. Always wrong, always to blame, always, always, always…
He saw a shape pass in front of the door and block the sliver of light outside.
His eyes widened. The muscle in his chest started thumping faster as sweat formed on his forehead.
As the door screeched open, Yuki slammed his eyes shut, trying to keep the world around him out. He escaped to the only sane part of his mind, the part not polluted by abuse and a deranged, perverse past.
He heard the clicking of heels walk torturingly slow towards him. He held on to that little piece of sanity, and prayed he'd pass out before the heels stopped…
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The first blow came easily to his gut. He didn't have enough energy to nurse his belly.
He thought about school and his friends.
A toe dug into his spine, causing his legs to go numb. He winced, determined to not cry out. That's what they wanted.
He saw Momiji, and Uo and Hanna. He thought about playing bad mitten with them, and the time they went to the pool together.
A hand jerked his head back, arching his neck and ripping some hairs out. Tears streamed from his eyes.
He bit his lip, causing blood to drip down his chin, but he fought to keep from crying out. He wouldn't let them win.
Eyes peered into his. "Do you like this little game we play? I know you do, you try as hard as I do at it. But you won't win, Yuki, I will break you." The eyes disappeared as his head was dropped onto the stone.
The room spun, he felt sick.
"You deserve this, you know. After what you did, you deserve this."
Another kick to his stomach, causing him to throw up. Blood and bile spilled across the floor.
"You really are a disgusting person. Why should I take pity on something as pathetic as you. You can't even sit up! Or do I have to help you do that as well?"
Two arms yanked his shirt collar up, choking off his air supply. He gagged on his vomit, desperately trying to breath.
The eyes were back, closer this time. "You're as weak as she was. You deserve to die like your damn whore!" Spit dripped down Yuki's face, spit that belonged to those eyes.
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He could hear everything, but he did nothing. He knew exactly what was going on in that room, yet he did nothing. In fact, he even smiled when he heard a satisfying smack ring around the room.
He wasn't supposed to hear anything, but he did. He snuck down here, risking the same punishment as the one inside, just to listen.
If he could have done anything, he would have. But he didn't. He didn't know what to do, or what they'd do to him if he failed to help.
Part of him really didn't want to help. The fact was, he enjoyed it! He liked knowing that that damn rat had what was coming to him. 'It's about time someone put a shiner on that perfect face of his. Now he knows what it's like! To be humiliated and hurt.'
But deep down he knew that Yuki already knew what it was like. He had known since he was four.
Still, he listened.
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Tohru was smiling at him as she pruned the strawberries. He could feel his face heating up. He turned away from her, smiling, scratching his nose.
She giggled at him, trying to wipe the smudge of dirt off his nose.
The coughing started again, followed by a sharp pain in his chest.
Blood spattered the cold floor, already soaked with vomit.
He breathed heavily, trying to stay awake.
'I could die,' he thought, and almost considered it. 'But then I'd never see her smile again…'
He decided to give up, for her. He'd let them win, if it meant seeing her again.
The next kick collided with the back of his head and he let out a wail.
He curled himself into a ball and wept.
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From outside, he could hear the sobs. The pathetic, whimpering sobs.
He smiled.
Then came the laughter. Booming - from the gut - laughter. Quickly and quietly he dashed through the corridor and up the stairs, into the main room. He slowed his walking, trying to catch his breath.
He tried to look sad as he passed Hatori, "It's over," he whispered, heading towards his room.
Hatori took that as his cue to go tend to his patient.
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"You've gone too far this time, Akito!"
"What did you say?" Akito hissed.
"Damnit! Don't play games! Look at the boy, he's hardly recognizable!" Hatori fumed, digging frantically in his medical bag.
"If I were you I'd remember my place. Or if you prefer, I can finish where I left off with you."
Hatori's face was flushed, but he kept his mouth shut. 'I'm no better that all the rest…'
After a satisfying moment of silence, Akito spoke, "Clean him up and get him out of my house. He's starting to smell." With that, he stormed out.
Hatori looked down, into Yuki's grey eyes. The life seemed to have faded from them.
Yuki blinked a few times, trying to keep the blood from leaking into them. Then he smiled.
"I let them win, Hatori." Hatori stopped what he was doing, confused.
"But they don't know that I really won. Because….because…"
"Yuki, you're in no condition to talk. I'm surprised you're not unconscious – or dead," he added, under his breath. He cradled Yuki's head, trying not to cry out in frustration – in anger – in guilt – in pity – in all the emotions he felt, wrapped together….
"No, no!...I won!" he said, sobbing into his hands, "they didn't take her away from me. I won!...They can do what they want, but I won!..." He panted in short breaths, his body shivering.
Hatori waved the smelling salts under Yuki's nose, allowing him to sleep. With that, he continued dressing Yuki's wounds, trying to ignore the blood on his hands from the ever-growing puddle under Yuki, and the fact that Yuki was still smiling.
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A/N: I know, kinda violent and ishy, but I hope it invoked some kind of strong emotional feeling inside you…Maybe?….Just a little? ))))pout((((