Falling Away

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Author's Note: Bleh. I hate traveling. Well, with my family at least. I won't bore you all with the details, but just know that I'm back from my trip, and I'm trying to get this chapter up as soon as possible. This chapter is actually a little longer than I intended...oops.
Oh, gangsta of love, go read the very bottom of last chapter. =P

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Chapter Two: Meeting Elie, Part II

Musica walked around his new town, hating every inch of it. It wasn't Blues Town, where he had lived with his foster father, Rize, and it wasn't Punk Street where he had lived the first several years of his life. It was too quiet, too small, and definitely too…pretty. There wasn't any character to this place.

To make things worse, every single person he had seen looked exactly the same. Brown eyes, black hair. He was much more accustomed to seeing all the different hairstyles – especially some of the weird guys Rize-sama had served.

"I hate it here! I wanna go back with Rize!" he screamed, kicking a nearby lamppost. Several people on the street – even the streets of all places were quiet! – stared at the teenager in a mix of confusion and amusement. Musica resisted the urge to tell them to mind their own business. Suddenly, a small giggle from his right caught his attention, causing him to turn.

The person giggling was a young girl – maybe three years younger than him, with golden bronze hair and round brown eyes. She was standing next to a boy who was looking at Musica with wide purple eyes, his white hair sticking up in every direction.

Already in a very bad mood, Musica scowled. "What?" he demanded angrily, while rubbing his sore foot gently. The girl giggled again at being seen, turning to her friend and whispering something in his ear. The boy nodded, and grinned.

"You must be a new guy," the girl said, stepping forward happily, "I'm Elie, and this is my friend Haru." The boy nodded cheerfully, following her protectively. "What's your name?"

Musica scoffed. "Beat it, kids. I don't have time for little elementary school annoyances," he told them, rolling his eyes and turning to leave.

"We're not in elementary school! We're heading into Middle School this August! Besides, I'm turning twelve next month, and Elie turned eleven last January!" Haru said indignantly. Musica laughed again, stopping. Haru had his arms crossed against his chest, and his lower lip was sticking out. "What's so funny?"

Rolling his eyes again, Musica shrugged. "Besides the fact that the two of you are really immature, even for a couple of third graders? Nothing, really," he said with a smirk. Haru stamped his foot and turned to leave while Musica roared with laughter.

Elie kept on looking at him, a smile playing at her lips. She hadn't been affected at all by Musica's words, obviously. "Yeah, let's go Haru. I bet you couldn't take him anyways," she said happily, following her friend. Both boys, who had turned and began walking away stopped. Haru turned back to him, sizing up the older boy as Musica did the same.

"How old are you, anyways?" Haru asked, stepping forward again. Musica glanced at Elie with his eyebrows raised – was this kid serious? Musica told him his age, and Haru smiled. "Thirteen? I beat the crap out of my older sister's boyfriend last year, and he was sixteen."

Musica laughed again, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Way out of your league, kiddo. I've taken on adults," he lied easily. Haru scoffed, placing his hands on his hips. Elie smirked, standing behind Haru expectantly.

The air was filled with silence for so long that Musica had turned away to leave again. Just as he had taken a few steps, however, a force hit him in the back, knocking him forward. Fists were connected to his back, and the wind was knocked out of him. However, Hamrio Musica was not to give up, so he fought back, landing quite a few hits on the small boy.

Within thirty seconds, Haru's nose was bleeding and Musica was sporting a black eye and a swollen lip. Next to them, a crowd was forming, their words blending together to something that sounded like words but made no sense.

"Yeah! Kick his ass, Haru!" Elie was screaming.

"Dude, is that…Haru Glory?!"

"No way, that scrawny freak? Impossible!"

"I heard that Haru beat the shit out of Branch a year ago, actually."

"Forget that! Who the hell is he fighting?!"

"Dunno, never seen him before!"

"H-Haru?!"

"Hamrio!"

Before their fight could worsen – Haru was now bleeding from his forehead, neck, nose, and lip while Musica was bleeding from his knuckles, eyebrow, lip, nose, and mouth – two adults came and pried the two apart. The one holding Musica was an older man, with long silver hair pulled back into a pony tail and a hammer around his waist. The man holding Haru had thick eyebrows and short black hair and looked a mix of amusement and anger.

"What the hell are you doing, Hamrio?!" the man asked, shaking his Grandson slightly. Musica grinned up at him, wiping blood from his mouth and wincing – at least two broken fingers. Haru was trying to explain that Elie had been the one to start it, but neither adult was listening. "If your parents could see you now, they'd take you straight back to Punk Street!"

Musica laughed, feeling lightheaded. "Good! Oh, too bad they died when I was little," he said cheerfully. Turning back, he waved to Haru happily. "Nice fight kid. Guess I'll see ya' around."

"What are you talking about? Meet Haru and me at the bench at noon tomorrow, OK?!" Elie called, grinning widely. Musica stared at her for a second before breaking out into a painful smiling, waving his arm at them both. Elie smiled and waved back, following Haru and the man that was dragging him along.

Before he could say or do anything else, his Grandfather had grabbed his arm was dragging him back, lecturing him angrily. Musica didn't pay attention – he already when what the man was saying. "Thank God the two of us pulled you apart when we did – you could have seriously hurt yourself, Hamrio!" he said once they got to their small house.

"Stop calling me that! I told you – I haven't gone by that name since Mom and Dad died!" Musica scowled, pulling his arm free. Not amused, his Grandfather knelt down to his eye level, waiting patiently for his Grandson to look him in the eye.

Reluctantly, the teenager snapped his head back to look at him, ready for punishment. "Do you need help cleaning yourself up, Musica?" he asked softly, placing a hand on the younger boys black, blood-crusted hair. The boy smiled, and shook his head.

"I think I broke a couple fingers, actually," he admitted, laughing. The older Musica sighed in slight amusement, but nodded. Without another word, the two left the house and started the walk to the local doctor – as there was no actual hospital on this island, Musica realized during his previous walk.

Eyeing his Grandson, the older man sighed. "That kid really gave you a beating didn't he?" he whistled, laughing. "What in the world even prompted the two of you to even start?" Musica didn't really have a good enough excuse for this, so he decided with the truth.

"You know that girl that left with him? Elie? Well, she came over and started talking to me and then I told them to beat it because they were too young, and she says 'yeah, let's go, Haru couldn't beat you anyways' and then he starts sizing me up. Naturally, I would never throw the first punch to a little kid, so I start walking away and you know what? The kid comes and starts punching me!" Musica said, holding his nose to cut the bleeding.

Again, the older man whistled. With a laugh, he guided the younger Musica into a small house, bowing slightly to the receptionist. "My Grandson here belives he might have broken several fingers. And, I'd like to get him bandaged up properly," he explained. The doctor appeared, rubbing his hands with a towel and staring at the teenager.

"Ah, is this the kid that Haru got into a fight with? Man, he really has been training every day," he said cheerfully, gesturing to a small room with several beds. One of the beds – undoubtedly Haru's – was blocked by a white sheet, but his friend Elie was sitting on the chair next to it, swinging her legs.

Musica had no time to wave or say any form of greeting as he was bandaged up, but he could feel her gaze on him. By the time he had finished, he was lying in the bed with his nose clamped shut to stop the bleeding, hand wrapped up tightly, and head bandaged carefully.

Elie appeared by his side then, grinning happily. "You never told us your name, you know," she said innocently, sitting next to him. Musica blinked, nodding. His Granddad had left to go work, with permission from him, of course, so the two were free to talk without fear of being watched.

"Musica. I just moved here from Blues Town," he said, smiling. Elie smiled back, swinging her legs again. "Haru in that bed over there?" he asked, nodding at the other bed. Elie followed his gaze rather reluctantly, her eyes glazing over.

With a sigh, she shook her head. "Nah, his sister can take good enough care for him. That's my foster mom," she explained shortly, shrugging. Natural curiosity took over, and Musica continued bugging her about it until she caved. "I moved here a couple years ago on my own, because I had a foster parent waiting here or something, but a couple months after I got here, he died, and I got passed onto a different one. Then that couple died, and I went to like…ten more families in the four years I've been here."

He was shocked. "What happened to them?" he asked quietly. Elie laughed ruefully.

"The first three went to the mainland with me for a weekend getaway, and died in a car crash. The others died of 'natural causes', except for one, who was shot. This one is in here because she fell down the stairs and hit her head."

Silence settled over the two, leaving Musica without a clue what to say. She had seemed so cheerful, so carefree, he would have never guessed. Before he could give his condolences, she sprang up, grinning once more. "But, I don't really dwell on it, you know? I have Haru, so I don't need any parents!"

"What about me?" Musica asked. It was a question only very small children asked, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to be her friend, and Haru's, and not just because of how her life had turned out. If she had been through twelve foster families in the past four years, how many had she been through the first six?

Elie blinked, and then laughed. "Well, we can be friends too! So now I have you and Haru!" she replied happily, sitting back down. Musica laughed with her, rubbing his hand absently.
If this girl could live such a carefree life, then he could to. Actually, Musica felt that he could probably learn quite a lot from this young girl, regardless of her age.

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Author's Note: Yay! Done! I realize how sad I made Elie's life, but I think that since she will not be losing her memories twice and skipping fifty years of time, I had to compensate. There's a bit of theme going on here – everyone that is attracted to her has some sort of issue. Haru doesn't have any parents, Musica saw all THREE of the people he considered parents, and Let and Julia…that's a surprise. ;P Thanks for reading, next chapter will be up ASAP~