Allen's white hair was matted in mud by the time the two older boys walked away. He had not cried not screamed when the two had beat him brutally for looking so different. Of courser it wasn't his fault. His white hair was natural, his pentacle shaped birthmark was not a scar or a brand of ownership to some kind of Brothel, and his arm certainly wasn't his fault. Some gang members had taken him as a child and permanently died his arm a deep red black and embedded some kind of jewel like cross into he back of his hand.
All in all, his life sucked.
Of course Allen had know this and accepted this until a young boy, a little older than the eight year old himself, walked up and offered his hand to little Allen. The white haired child looked up to the owner of the hand and gasped. The owner was cute to say the least, what with his deep, black-blue hair that hung to his mid back, his even deeper cobalt eyes that looked like rippling pools; Allen couldn't believe such an angel existed!
"Get up." The soft but demanding voice of the older child sounded in Allen's mind like a very loving rule. The boys wide and tear filled mercury eyes squinted slightly as he grabbed the older boys tanned hand, the white haired boy noticed the distinct contrast in ethnicity's by the color of skin. His was a creamy, milk tone, the other boys was a sweet, sun kissed tan. The older boy was Asian, that much was clear to the young Brit. Allen tried to choke out a thank you to the taller of the two, just like Mana had taught him to do, but the other just nodded in return. "Your welcome. Now come with me, okay?"
Allen nodded slightly, unsure of what was going to happen. The older boy started to tug lightly on the white haired boys small, thin arm until he started walking unsteadily in an unknown direction; oh good Lord please let this older boy be trustworthy.
_0.0_
Allen could only stare as he was led towards a huge mansion, one like the others he had only seen in magazine's he had lifted from the small general store on the corner. The dark haired boy, whom Allen still had no name for, turned his head to face the heart shaped one of the white haired boy, except instead of a gaping expression, he had one of slight irritation.
"Please stop that. My foster brothers will think I've brought someone over to gloat." Allen immediately shut his hanging jaw and nodded firmly, making the other boy chuckle under his breath. The shorter of the two had to admit, this Asian boy had a very radiant smile when he did so.
'Almost like what Mana had said about mine…though there really isn't anything to it anymore.' Allen bitterly thought as he passed an open water garden. He halted to a complete stop, almost knocking the older of the two over in the process. The white haired Brit stared at the beautiful Lotus flowers sitting in the middle of the murky water some weren't blooming, and some were too dark to be considered healthy, but their color was almost as radiant as the older boy's smile had been.
"Do you know about the Lotus?" The Asian boy inquired lightly. Allen shook his head 'no' in response. The older boy turned his face and let a somber expression come into the young but sharp features. "It stays as a bud until one day, when it decides to become mature, it blooms a beautiful rose color and stays that way for only a brief time. After that, it wilts and becomes a bud again, then it waits for the right moment and blooms for the second and final time; it's a very long bloom on the second try. Those ones that are wilting, they were here before I came, so I would guess they're very old, but that one in teh middle, the one surrounded by all those lily pads, it just bloomed yesterday."
Allen looked in wonder at the pink flowers. From that day, he would always love the Lotus, or, in it's less elegant calling, the Water Lily.
_0.0_
"You know, Yuu, I've often considered you to be like a Lotus. You bloomed for a brief period when we were little, when we first met. But then you moved and you wilted all the way to a bud. Your shell came back and you just crawled straight to the middle of it." Allen chuckled at the look he was getting from his husband; dark, cobalt orbs looked incredulously at the white haired young man before him. "But then, when we met up again in high school, you came back to your old self. You were pleasant and quiet, but loving and sweet, just like when we were small."
Yuu stared at the mercury orbs looking back at him and suddenly lunged forward, wrapping his white haired husband in a firm, tender embrace. "You know more about the Lotus than you do yourself, Allen."