Rian dragged himself up over the edge of a rock cliff, his foot scraping at loose pebbles until he found a foothold and threw his lower half over.
He flopped onto his back, chest heaving, automatically throwing up a hand to protect his eyes as he squinted up through the hole in the Underground sky, wanting to see the sun.
But it wasn't daytime.
His hands ached and his feet were bleeding, but he made himself stand anyway.
He craned his neck all the way back and only saw a wide expanse of navy blue. It was nighttime.
That world was topside or up there or what do you think the weather's like right now? or rotation changes soon, be good to be back in the sun again.
He could barely see much from his shelf at the top of a hill of boulders, but it didn't deter him from staring at the slow-moving clouds that covered up all the blue and light from the sky until it looked completely black.
Hey, what about this one? How long have we been feeding him? How long has he been here?
I uh... I don't know, sir. I don't even know what he did. All I know is that the MP's brought him here one day and he's been here since.
What? What unit?
They didn't leave any identification. Sir, it's not our job to ask questions, like it is where you come from. We feed them, and we guard them.
A deep, aggravated sigh from a shadow just out of sight of his cell and then,
You don't seem to understand your own situation. You lot have been living good down here, eating and drinking your fill like the Military Police has an endless surplus. I was sent here to tell you we don't.
Rian watched the sky, open-mouthed, until he heard a soft pitter-pater, like water splashing onto the ground, and it took him a second to realize it was rain. The pitter-pater rose to an abrupt, crashing roar, making him flinch as it splattered against the boulders, and he instinctively twisted away to protect his head as he was near-instantly doused in cold rain.
Empty that cell. This isn't an inn.
I—I can't. I told you, sir, it's the higher-ups who left him here who has to approve of—
Oh? How generous of you to begin fasting so this one can eat your portions for the next week.
The second shadow had gone silent.
Playtime is over. Starve yourself until I don't have to deal with you anymore or throw him out to die. Your choice.
Rian was cold and shivering and his thin shirt and shorts clung to him, but still he felt awed. He hadn't seen it a lot, the rain, and it was still mystifying.
He was still glad he'd come here first.
If he was going to die, there was one thing he had to do first.
Rian made himself look at the sky again, rain pounding him, and raised a finger gun at the hole.
"Bang," he said, miming pulling the trigger.
-p-
Levi drove his heel into a man's nose once, twice, and three times, deaf to the whispers of the small crowd around him and their stares, his heart pounding in his ears as he could only think one thing, over and over, hating that he kept tasting blood from his nose.
Stay down, stay down, stay down.
He didn't care if the only family he'd ever known had set him up, or let his stalker attack Levi as a lesson, or if the man he was kicking lived or died as long as he paid for hitting him ten, no, twenty times over.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a brown overcoat turn away, and a part of himself he'd thought he'd gotten rid of a long time ago sprung to life.
When he and Kenny first met, he'd been hyperaware of Kenny's presence. He still didn't know if it was because he'd been afraid of being abandoned again or losing his food source.
He stopped suddenly, his heel on the man's head, forgetting him as that part of him made him turn his head to watch Kenny leave.
The crowd parted quickly for him, because everyone knew who Kenny the Ripper was.
If he wanted Levi to come with, he would've waited for him to finish.
Fine, he thought.
It was only a few seconds before he disappeared from view, but the moment felt like it stretched on forever.
Fine. I'm almost twelve. I don't need him anymore.
It was better that he left when he was alive, than because he was dead.
It wasn't like they'd spent that much time together anyway. Outside of teaching him to survive, he only saw Kenny long enough for him to drop off enough food to keep him going for a few days until he came back.
The only change would be him having to find his own food—
His head snapped to the side and his mind went blank. If there was one thing he hated more than being punched, it was being sucker punched.
Levi landed hard on his side, scraping his elbows open on the unforgiving ground as he tried, and failed, to break his fall.
He'd need to find water to scrub the dirt out of the wound—
Levi threw an arm up in front of his face as they got on top of him, squinting through the black spots in his eyes, feeling them pulling on said arm as they tried to get at his face again and hearing them grunt when he refused to let them.
A hand clamped down on his other wrist, still gripping his knife, fingers digging in so hard to keep him still his bones hurt.
It was a bad position to be in, for anyone else.
Levi's eyes blazed with anger, a feeling like fire in his limbs as he shoved back against them, lowering his free arm enough to wedge a burning elbow into the dirt and heave them off.
Levi surged at him before the other boy could recover from the shock, fisting a hand in his ratty shirt and shoving him down as he raised his knife—
—and saw wide, ashy eyes.
They narrowed into slits as his knife stopped all on its own right above his chest.
A foot to the chest sent Levi flying backwards, and he rolled in the dirt next to the blood trail the man he'd kicked unconscious left behind. Levi turned his head and saw him running, a small figure that was suddenly meaningless.
The crowd's murmuring stopped, and they went silent as Rian shoved him back onto his back and punched him again.
Levi's fingers curled and uncurled but he couldn't bring himself to hit him back, even if he hated every second of the pain he was in.
Rian raised his fist again and Levi watched him open his mouth and scream at him like a wounded wild animal, his expression twisted in rage.
It made him shiver, his eyes wide, seeing himself in that scream, young and stupid and helpless, watching the MP's take him with blood on his hands.
Rian eventually stopped, his voice giving out, his fist still raised, and they stared at each other.
Levi couldn't help but look upside-down at the crowd still around them. They weren't looking at him anymore, but at Rian.
The strong stand at the top of the food chain. Nothin' else matters.
Fear and strength were power. With power, everyone left you alone.
Top or bottom, it's all the same. No matter where you are, being seen as weak is the same as being dead.
"I hate you," Rian said in a furious whisper.
Levi swiped blood from his nose and only said, "I thought you died."
Rian stared at him, his eyes inky pools of hatred, and dived to wrestle his knife from him, but barely started to move before a long blade tapped the side of his neck.
It was a MP blade.
Levi froze.
"Show's over," Kenny said coldly, his overcoat parted open to show the second blade he had hidden underneath at his side. "Go find something else to do with your miserable lives."
Most of the crowd glared at him, but Kenny had power, so they wordlessly dispersed.
"What do you think you're doing, Levi?" Kenny asked once they were alone, disgusted. "I almost should thank you, Rian, because I didn't know if it was still possible for me to feel disappointment in someone else. But I guess a kid's gotta start sometime. I was just hoping I wouldn't be around to see when he did."
"You know him?" Levi blurted out the question without meaning to, stifling the small part of himself that hurt from that and telling himself he didn't care.
He didn't care either that he knew that Kenny only decided to put abandoning him on hold because he saw something he didn't like.
Rian only looked defiant.
"Trouble recognizes trouble, and it makes one stand out. He doesn't know how to listen to save his life, but this isn't the time for stories. Better question is, why are you letting him hit you? What I just saw was an embarrassment," Kenny said with more disgust. "Did I teach you nothing about friends, boy?"
"It's done. We're even," Levi said quickly, dismissively, pushing him off.
The blade followed Rian, but didn't cut him.
"We're not," Rian spat at him.
"Doesn't matter to me why it happened. What matters is what I saw. You keep him around and he'll be the death of you. You're still young, so maybe you don't see it. Maybe you think ole' Kenny was wrong to teach you to abandon the weak and the normal. But you're still growing. You have plenty of time to learn the harsh truths of life on your own. But I didn't raise you this long to watch you throw your life away before you can learn that lesson without dyin'. You'll have the rest of your life to keep disappointing me, so if you can't cut that connection now, I will."
Kenny raised his arm, his expression cold and blank.
Rian jerked, moving to run, but even he got away, it wouldn't be for long.
Kenny brought the blade down in a deadly arc, a swipe meant to cut Rian's neck open so deeply no one could save him.
Levi didn't know why he moved, but he did, sitting up quickly as he grabbed the blade without thought or reason, stopping it above Rian.
His hand and fingers burned and his arm shook from the effort of keeping it still, but he knew that if Kenny wanted to cut through him, he would've.
Rian stared at him in shock, but Kenny didn't look surprised at all.
He resisted Levi's attempt to push the blade away effortlessly, shaking his head. "You're really breaking my heart, kid. Now let go."
Levi could barely hold on. His hand was slippery with blood and his fingers were numb, but he only said, "I won't die."
Kenny shifted his eyes between Rian and Levi, a suddenly bored look in his eyes.
Levi pushed harder, and the blade made a cracking sound. "I'm strong enough now."
"Fine, then," Kenny drawled, not looking at either of them anymore. "Have it your way."
The blade shattered in his hand, so suddenly that Levi flinched back in shock, a thousand needles suddenly piercing the flesh of his hand.
He dropped to the dirt, staring at the metal embedded in his palm, all the little pieces shiny with his blood, but he sucked it up and forced himself to face Kenny again.
But by then, he was gone.
"What do you know about him? Kenny?" Levi asked.
It was loud, but most places that sold food were. The quiet ones never stayed quiet for long. If they didn't resort to selling drinks on the side for cheap, they usually went out of business.
And adults that drank regularly enough to keep businesses from going under were loud.
Rian, on the other side of the bench table, stopped in the middle of tearing apart half of a stale loaf of bread. He left crumbs all over the table, and Levi looked away instead of commenting on it, because his side wasn't much better.
He had nothing on him to use lay on the table while he picked shards out of his hand, so it was soaked in his blood.
He was only taking a break because he couldn't hide how much it hurt anymore. His fingers were trembling.
Rian swallowed loudly, tilting his head at him, but eventually said, "He's Military Police, even if they say he's not."
Levi shoved down the shock and interest and only calmly asked, "Who's they?"
"Don't you dare call him Military Police. He's not one of us, and never will be," Rian answered immediately, making his voice gruff and angry, and Levi had to lean on the table to hear him.
Levi looked down at his bloody hand, his legs on either side of the bench. What did he care, anyway? He'd never see Kenny again.
"Here," Levi said, pushing his half of the loaf towards him.
Rian looked at the half, then at him.
Levi was hungry, but it wasn't like he wouldn't be again. He used his fingernail to dig out the last, smallest piece and closed his eyes until the pain passed, flicking it on the table without looking.
He stopped when he heard something ripping and looked up as Rian finished tearing the bottom of his shirt. "Here," he said in the same forceful way Levi had asked him questions, holding out the long strip. "For your hand."
It was brown with dirt and grime and Levi really didn't want to put it on his hand.
"So I don't owe you," Rian explained, shaking it at him, like that was why he didn't take it.
Levi eyed the blood steadily dripping onto the floor from the table. He probably wouldn't find anything cleaner than it.
He took it, wordlessly began wrapping his hand, and Rian grabbed the loaf.