Natsume

A young boy with red eyes trudged along with a brown backpack slung over his shoulder. There was a dark purple bruise peeking out from the collar of his shirt, and multiple bandages adorned his arms and legs.

"Huh, what a crap day again…"

Akatsuki Natsume sighed once, and looked at himself in the reflection of one of the shop windows. He looked pretty battered. Bullying, abuse… he was used to all of it now. The boy sighed again and was going to start walking when he saw a big apple bobbing behind him.

…wait, an apple?

The redhead quickly turned around to see a young boy around the same age with him, wearing a big apple hat. There were tufts of green hair sticking out from it, and purple eyes met green as the two boys stared at each other.

""…What?""

They said in unison, and after a small silence, they both let out a small 'pfft'.

"Nice hat!"

The green eyed boy gave him a small grin and mumbled a small thanks. The redhead was going to say something again when a 'Chips! Gimme chips!' interrupted him.

"Shut up, Chips!"

Natsume shouted as a green, red and blue parrot swooped down from a tree and perched onto his shoulder.

"…he yours?"

"Yep! This is Chips. His favourite food is chips"

"Chips! Sweet potato chips!"

The green haired boy stared at the parrot, then dug into his bag. The hand returned from the depth of the bag, holding a bag of ready salted potato chips.

"You want some?"

'Chiiiiiiips!'

The parrot flew off the redhead's shoulder and landed on the top of the green haired boy's apple hat. The boy reached up with a potato chip in hand, and the parrot quickly grabbed it with his beak.

'Yuuuum!'

The green eyed boy chuckled at this, and looked at Natsume.

"He's funny"

"Yeah, I know right! My name is Akatsuki Natsume, or Natsume Akatsuki by the way! What's your name?"

"…Fran"

Fran shook Natsume's outreached hand slowly, and smiled.

"That hat is sooooo cool! Where did you get it?"

'Get it? Get it?'

"Shut up, Chips!"

Natsume gave Chips a small flick on the head, and the parrot grumbled. Kind of.

"Haha. Well…"

Scene change

"You good for nothing brat! You're late!"

Natsume held a wince as his father smacked him on the cheek. It was like a full blast of force to the young boy, and he slammed onto the wall at the same time.

"Go to your room! Good thing I'm in a good mood today!"

Natsume quickly scrambled up, ran to his small bedroom and slammed the door closed. Really, what did he ever do to his father in life? He was only 5… Well, he didn't even think of him as a father anymore. Natsume slid down the door, and put a hand on his throbbing cheek.

"…Damn it. Ow"

Scene change

Natsume glared at a boy as he shouted, 'Go away, you cross-breed!' to him. He was getting tired of all this stupid name calling. What's the problem with being half Japanese half French?

The redhead walked along the footpath, kicking a pebble.

"…Ow"

There was a mumble, and Natsume quickly looked up and felt his expression turn into a wide smile.

"Hey, Fran!"

"Hey"

The two boys, though under different circumstances had become quick friends and met up a lot after Natsume's school. Natsume had asked Fran once if he went to school, but the green haired boy just gave a small shake of the head.

"What do you wanna talk about today?"

Scene change again

"Damn it… that bastard…"

Natsume limped down the dark streets and winced as his leg made a weird noise. His father had gone too far tonight. He was drunk, but that doesn't make an excuse that he had beat up his son nearly half dead. The redhead felt like a miracle to be even able to walk!

He tapped on a door that he had become familiar with in the past few weeks, and let out a croaky shout.

"Heey Fran, it's me Natsume… can you let me in…?"

But he was answered with silence, and though he tried again several times, he was unanswered. Then he noticed there was a note on the door, where it was too tall for the young boy to see. The note said words that made Natsume freeze in shock.

'Just moved to Italy'

"What…"

There, Natsume blacked out.

A day later

Natsume woke up as an annoying beeping noise rang in his head. There were figures peering into his face, and unfamiliar voices in the background.

"He's….wake…good…"

As his eyes fully opened, he took in several men and women in white coats, all with interesting hair colour.

"Are you okay? Can you hear us?"

Natsume blinked as a lady with pink hair asked him with a kind smile.

"Where…am I…?"

"…would you believe us if we said we're in mafia headquarters?"

"WHAT!"

In the background, a man with blue hair said to a woman with purple hair,

"I knew we should have kept it a secret!"

A/N That's it, I guess. The next few chapters will be about how the guardians joined the Nastro D'argento, like this one. Hope you liked it.