He hadn't noticed it at first due to Tsubasa's long hair and his excitement over seeing him again.

Now it was hard not to.

Yuu slowly raises his fingers and brushes them over the dried blood gingerly. Where was Tsubasa hurt? How bad? The stream had gone all the way down his face and saturated his shirt, causing a thrill of fear to run through Yuu.

He turns away and shuts his eyes. No. He wasn't going to freak out. Not now. He had already cried enough this month to last him a year and another break down was not what they needed.

After a few deep breaths, he turns back to Tsubasa. Odd. His eyes seemed blank, and the little black middles had expanded to cover a lot of the gold. That was probably a bad thing.

Yuu sits up on his knees and tries to keep calm. Alright. He needed to do something to help. The blood was only making him panic, so he should probably get rid of that first. Pulling up part of his shirt and hooking his thumb in, he stretches up and rubs it gingerly over the blood, letting it flake off onto the floor.

When Tsubasa tries to pull away, apparently not enjoying this, Yuu grabs his shoulder. "Hold still. I'll get it off, ok?"

Tsubasa complies and doesn't move as he rubs the blood away. It takes several minutes, and neither breaks the silence filling the air as he works. "Why didn't I know you were here?" Why didn't you save me? Why didn't I see you? Were you here the whole time? Why didn't you come out sooner?

Tsubasa doesn't reply. He just watches him with eyes squinted from pain, his expression still blank. Maybe he couldn't talk anymore. Yuu wasn't sure why, but it wouldn't surprise him. Yuu had, after all, stopped saying much as well. There was no one to talk to besides himself and his kidnappers, and they beat him when he tried. So maybe Tsubasa just couldn't for some reason.

He didn't want to think that maybe he couldn't because he'd forgotten. Tsubasa had told him a bit about head injuries in the past, and how they could make people forget things. If Tsubasa had forgotten about talking, then why should he remember Yuu?

Just another scary thing to add to Yuu's new little world of concrete cells, pain from grinning Halloween faces, and the fantastic feelings of his stomach caving in from hunger, his throat drying of thirst, and his head spinning from everything listed. It was too much to think about, it was better to just accept it.

The blood was mostly gone now. Tsubasa had begun pulling back whenever he'd gotten too close to the wound hidden under his hair, so Yuu had avoided that part. If only they had band aids, like those long white ones people used on TV. Though, maybe it didn't matter? Tsubasa wasn't bleeding anymore after all.

A new wave of dizziness, a feeling that was getting quite familiar now, hits him, so Yuu lets himself slump back against Tsubasa. Now that he had something to think about that didn't make him feel like something was eating him from the inside out, Yuu didn't push away his mind like usual. And, in considering what these people had done to both him and his friend, Yuu felt a strong sense of revulsion. Evil, horrible, monsters. Yuu hopes the police find them someday. He hopes they give them the death penalty by electric chair. Do they still do that? Yuu hopes so, just for these people.

They deserve it.

Tsubasa shifts so Yuu looks up at him. He was staring longingly at the dark corner, and his face had a painful expression. He wanted to go over there didn't he? Yuu frowns. Well, since it was probably just Tsubasa in the corner that whole time, maybe it was safe now. Yuu stands gradually, his body still aching, and grabs Tsubasa's arm before walking slowly over there. He didn't think about why telling Tsubasa he could go there might be useless. He didn't think about the mice and bugs that occasionally haunted the cell and how they'd be invisible over there.

That was how things were, Yuu just had to deal with it.

-.]...

Some time after he found Tsubasa, the guards began taking him out less.

At first, Yuu's clingy attitude towards the spy only seemed to assure them that he did know something. They screamed in his face and the only things Yuu could make out were "WBBA" and "passcodes". Yuu stopped saying anything back. Pleading and calling for help were tiring. Pointless as well. He only screamed when he couldn't help it.

Yuu knew they enjoyed seeing him in pain. They liked his misery. He guessed it made them feel productive, even though they weren't actually getting any info for it. Yuu resented them even more since finding Tsubasa's wound, so he had decided to try and hold back that small pleasure from them.

Even if they hurt him worse for it.

But now they seemed to have forgotten about both prisoners. Yuu had no way to tell time, but it felt like a few days had passed since they last dragged him away. They'd been fed, but it felt like it could have been yesterday... Or maybe the day before?

Yuu snorts softly. Of course the estimate was probably way off. He was at the stage of hunger where it was just painful, no longer something identifiable as a want for food, so whether or not he was less or more filled than he was while eating was a mystery.

Tsubasa was starving too. Yuu could probably count his ribs by the feel of them against his head. Tsubasa gagged when he ate though, like he needed to throw up.

The older blader never moved from his place against the wall. Yuu was content to lie against him, not moving as well. He was tired all the time now. Tsubasa probably was too.

Maybe it was from not eating.

Yuu's head hurt a lot as well.

Maybe he was getting sick.

Yuu thought they would die here. Bad things happened to super strong bladers a lot, after all. Dying was just one last thing. It happened to everyone right?

Yuu wonders how much it hurts.

Hopefully, it was at least quick.

-.]

Hard to think. No... No ener... What was it? Ener...

Tired. Hurting. But he had Little Boy.

Feeling bad was scary. When he felt bad, sometimes he'd smell something weird, then wake up on the floor. He always hurt even worse for a long time before getting better.

Scary. He didn't more hurting.

Maybe it would stop soon. He hoped it would.

Feeling bad was bad.

Little Boy was good.

Stopping was good.

I'll accept my award for being that author that never updates now. This is actually one of the stories I've done best with.

So Yuu's acting a bit different by now. That's the work of cruelty and too much alone time. He's also just kinda done reacting because starvation has sapped his energy. His body's having some trouble with not shutting down too. Bad stuff.

Guards are being weird too... Could it be? Are we progressing in the story?!

Gasp! You'll have to R & R to find out!