Dark clouds loomed outside. Equally dark letters, drawn in by the bullies from earlier, spelt out the word 'FREAK' on Kid's forehead, aswell as a variety of other asymmetrical drawings scattered across one cheek. And these letters soon blended together to make a wet, watery mess as he slowly dried them off with a sponge. Every wound on his body still hurt, and the pain just didn't seem to go away; even after the event had happened, the pain still lingered. Both inside and outside, it was agony.

He took a deep breath, and ran his finger over the plaster on the left side of his face, which was doing a poor job at covering the large gash down the side of his face. He hated the bruises, all of the wounds... Now he was completely asymmetrical, and it was their fault. But for once, that wasn't his main concern at the moment. In fact, he wasn't concerned about anything; he was just depressed. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he wiped his eyes on his wrists.

"I'm nothing but shrivelled-up scum." He whispered to himself, the salty liquid falling down onto the sink. He hopelessly sunk down against the door, crying into his hands quietly. And he didn't even notice the doorbell ring, all he heard was voices going around in his head, countless insults and remarks that he knew were just fact.

After receiving no reply, the person outside the door let themselves in, and this time, Kid did notice the door open. He quickly scrambled backwards, looking for the bathroom lock, and immediately turned it back to lock the door. The hot tears running down his face stung his cheeks, and since his wounds were still sensitive, this caused some discomfort. A familiar voice called his name, and he suddenly realised who it was. But why was it, on the one rare occasion he visits, it just had to be this one?

Kid pressed his knees up to his chest, and bit his lip trying to contain the tears. He heard his name called again, and rested his head on his knees, trying to see if he'd go away. He tried to silence his cries, although wasn't quite able to, and it seems this made him heard.

"Kid?" The same voice called, tone slightly worried and quieter than usual. "Are you in there?"

Kid sniffed, and couldn't quite make himself answer. He couldn't suppress the sadness anymore.

"Kiddo what's wrong? Can you come out here?"

He sniffed. "Go away. N-Nothing's wrong, I'm fine."

"I'm your father. I know when you're unhappy, Kiddo. I haven't heard from you in a while and I wasn't sure why. We can talk about it, if you'll open the door..."

"You'd only be embarrassed. I'm a pathetic worthless excuse for a son and all you'd be is disappointed."

"That's not true! I love you Kid. There hasn't been a single moment when I haven't." He said, a loving yet defensive tone in his voice. "Now come on, we can't talk about anything if you don't come out."

Kid eventually unlocked the bathroom door, after having cleaned off his face, and hesitantly walked out.

"What happened?" Shinigami-sama asked, suddenly very disquieted. "Did you... get into a fight, or something?"

"...I don't want to talk about it." He replied solemnly, a shadow hiding the golden orbs stained with tears. His last-minute plan had been to make up an excuse, to cover up the regretful truth, although he was in so depressed a mood now he didn't even want to discuss it.

Shinigami-sama's mask was off, and Kid could see the upset in his eyes, his worried expression. All he wanted was to simply know why his son had come home crying, beat up and unwilling to talk about the matter; he hated seeing his little Kiddo-kun upset. But this was more than upsetting, this was worrying, and he felt more than a desire to know.

"...Who did this?"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it." He answered, eyes watering up again.

"Was it at school?"

He stayed silent, and his attempts to suppress tears became weaker. Countless unwanted memories swum around in his head when he closed his eyes, streaming in like a flood, and the tears trickling down his face gradually became uncontrollable. He buried his face in his hands and fell down to sit on the bed behind him, head on his lap.

"I'm nothing but worthless scum... They were right to do it..."

"Don't say things like that Kiddo-"

"Ever since this all started, I deserved it..."

"What started?"

"They bullied me." He replied, forcing himself to stop crying.

Shinigami-sama was rather shocked, both at the fact that his (reaper) son was getting bullied, and secondly because he hadn't told him about it. And so, seeing the best thing to do, he simply stood in front of Kid, and reached his arms out. Kid looked up, slightly surprised. But he then tightly held onto his father, having gotten the prompt, and felt the cold tears running down his face as he sobbed into his father's chest.

"It's alright." The reaper whispered, stroking his head softly, watching the sanzu lines in Kid's hair move with his hand. "I'm here."

And finished... Sorry if it took a while (for this series) to come out ^^ and, if Kid is slightly OOC in this fic, just remember that this is Kid when he is slightly younger, so if you thought this whole chapter was just completely OOC, that's probably why. As usual, thank you for all the favs, reviews, I love you all etc- Awkward Neko out :3