Chapter Text
(Kidd 6yo and Kil 10yo)
“What are you doing here? I’ve never seen you around.”
“Uhm??? What ye care? Leave me alone bastard!”
“What? I was just asking.”
Kil sighed and turned around, continuing his search through the metal scraps, always keeping an eye on the kid just in case. A kid like that in a place like this? He acted tough but he was mostly bones, his arms and legs like twigs, he had no chance with the usual bandits that lived there. And with that hair? That just made him a bigger target.
He glanced over him quickly, damn it, why did it bother him so much? The kid looked lost, and obviously hungry, and usually Kil would turn around, it was nothing with him, but the kid… he was like a baby! And he looked on the verge of tears, though he tried to hide it, one hand drying his eyes every few seconds. It was a cruel island but even so, what could they have done to the kid to look like that!? So skinny, bruised and covered in rags. He felt a shiver through his body just at the thought and quickly tried to think on something else.
The kid was searching through the metal scraps too, glancing at him occasionally. He didn’t run away from him, Kil thought maybe he wasn’t scared of him, maybe curious? Maybe he was the first one who talked to him in a while. He looked at him again, the kid was a bit far away from him, but the sight of him… it was just… heartbreaking. The kid barely had any strength to lift the smaller pieces of scraps, his arms thin and bruised from whatever hurt him, his breath heavy from the effort, and…
Kil made up his mind, and decided to try talking with him again, maybe he could be lost or decided to go on adventure alone and… Ah, that was funny. He knew very well that those who ended up on that place had no one and no where to return. It was just… the kid reminded him of himself a bit. He was left abandoned there, years ago, and what he wouldn’t give to have someone, anyone, who would help him. He was going to try and talk with him again when he heard some voices and suddenly some other kids jumped in, even startling him, leaving him just a moment to hide behind some scraps.
“Hell, leave me!!!” Kil left out a gasp when he saw the other kids grabbing him. The kid had nothing they could steal, just some pieces of metal scraps on his hands, so they just wanted to mess with him. They had grabbed him by the arms, leaving him defenceless. Kil just took a moment to think. He was used to get beaten, nothing unusual there, but since from a while he had managed to avoid it and even win some fights. But they were more and bigger than him, and he… ah, it didn’t matter, he had already decided he was going to help him. The kid was frightened to death, though he tried not to show it, and… he was just a baby! Before they could hit the smaller kid, he jumped from his hideout and put himself in front of him, quickly moving the kid to his back, and taking the punch directed at him. It hurt like hell, but at the same time it surprised the attackers, so he managed to kick a few of them before they started once again hitting him. He noticed the kid gasping in surprise and quickly hiding somewhere, without no one following him. Thanks gods, he thought, they had forgotten about the kid, and then it was all dark.
He woke up with a tremendous headache and feeling all his body hurt. The Sun was setting down, the sky of so many colours that for reasons unknown resembled him the kid’s hair colour. Some famished birds chirped far away, but mostly there was silence around him, just the birds, his breath, coming uneven from his chest, and the breath of someone else, together with some sniffing. He turned his head, wincing at the pain, when he felt a small and skeletal hand leaving his arm, and quickly hide away behind the kid’s back, who was now crouched beside him. Their eyes locked, but before he could say anything, the kid moved back a little, his eyes still scared. But… gods he couldn’t even think clearly, and when he tried to move a little, his whole body ached again. He waited a bit until that sharp pain went away and then tried to look at the kid again. Their breaths were still uneven, and when his eyes finally settled on the kid, he saw tear marks on his face.
“Why the hell you do that?”
It came so abruptly and loud that he had just closed his eyes out of reflex, but opened them straight away when he heard the kid talking to him.
“They were bigger than you. Are you… (his head was killing him) are you alright? Did they hurt you?” He looked at him but didn’t see any injures. At least they didn’t touch him! He sighed in relief at that.
“Uhn??? Why!?” The kid had now moved a bit closer, kneeling beside him and staring with wide eyes.
“Why?”
“Ya! You got hurt!”
“This? Oh, this doesn’t hurt at all! I’m used to it! If they were less, I would have kicked their butts, but, they were just too many and ahh… (he took his hand to his head, which throbbed again) and I’m glad you are alright.” Kil said, trying to reassure him he was alright and even managed a smile. But when he looked at the kid again, he felt his heart clenching again. He was heartbroken, his eyes wide and red of tears, his lower lip quivering and his bony hands clutched on his ragged top. “Kid?”
“Why?” He whispered so lowly that Kil almost thought he imagined it, lowering his head and hiding his eyes from Kil. “I can defend me! Why?” The kid repeated, raising his head again to Kil, new tears rising in his eyes. Kil felt his heart throb, that kid… did no one ever helped him or gave him a warm word or something? He was acting like no one ever cared for him and that… he gasped in surprise, ya, maybe no one ever cared for him, and he didn’t know how to react now and… Damn it all, damn this hell of an island! That little kid…
“Because you are little, and they were going to hurt you badly or worse. And you are alone right?” Kil said gently, trying to not scare the kid away.
“What about alone!? I can fight and survive alone and… You not know me!”
Kil sighed, and tried to sit, which just made his head hurt more. He looked at his own body, the bruises already forming, and then moved his eyes to the kid again. “I’m alone too, since I was seven. I know it hurts a lot and it’s hard as hell, and usually I don’t care about what people do, I just try to live. But you are just so … I couldn’t simply stand there watching.”
“But…”
“There’s no but.” He said, and tried to get up. Jeez, it would be a long way until home. “I did it because I wanted to, that’s it.” He said, and sunk on the floor again.
The kid stared at him again, then cleaned the tears on his arm, staring back at him. “You crazy then, you could have get killed!” Yes, he could, he knew that. And what if he had died? There was no one in this world that cared for him. And the kid would have survived until tomorrow, that would be a good thing. But he didn’t die, and now he had terrible pains in his body that he knew would stay for a few weeks. Whatever, at least the sunset was pretty. At the least, the kid was fine.
He noticed the kid was staring at him again, waiting for him to say or do something. His hair was really red and spiky. It looked like the Sun. But those bones sticking out, the rags he was wearing, the paleness in his skin…
“But I didn’t.” He finally said.
He was thinking what to say to the kid. He could take him with him to his hideout, they could try to live together. Maybe it would be easier to find food and… He heard his stomach growl. He stared back at the kid, who was now blushing and trying to hide the fact he didn’t eat in … days? weeks? The kid would die of hunger sooner or later.
“What???” The kid asked suddenly, breaking his thoughts.
“Do you have a place to stay? I would say it is better to leave this place and go to somewhere safe, but this bloody island has no places like that, and it’s already getting dark and some different kind of people hang around here at night, so it’s definitely not safe here. Where did you come from anyway?”
“I…” He moved his eyes away suddenly, a shadow covering his face. For a moment, Kil thought he might have talked too much and scared him, but then the kid started talking again. “I lived in houses with other orphan kids in the main town.” Kil sighed, so he was orphan or abandoned. But if he had a place to stay why would he… “But I ran away.” The kid continued surprising Kil.
“Ran away? Why? You had food and a bed there and…”
“They beat me, so I left. I was living in the forest but wasn’t nothing to eat or do and I…” His belly growled again, finishing his sentence for him. He just put his hands over his stomach, trying to silence it, and a sudden blush covered his face.
The kid had no family and no place to get back, as he had imagined. And the Sun was giving place to the first stars, so he should hurry back home and … (gods, his body hurt so bad!)
He managed to get up, the kid copying him, but always keeping some distance. “Are you sure you alright? You bleeding.” He said to him, staring at him with those big eyes.
“Don’t worry.” He looked at him, trying to smile. But then, once again, he noticed his bones sticking out, the kid was… he was so thin he felt sick just of thinking what they have done to him to make him run away and starve like this. “Do you wanna come with me?” He asked. He wouldn’t mind, he… the kid looked like a baby and he couldn’t leave him alone there. Maybe they could be friends and help each other. He missed talking to someone or just being around someone that didn’t want to hurt him, and the kid would be safer there.
“What???”
He almost laughed, but instead just smiled at him (he couldn’t laugh in front of him, that would just scare him away, he thought). “I have a hideout, no one knows about. I can cook something for you and you can sleep safely there.”
“No way. Why? You can’t…” And as the Sun finally set, some tears started falling down his face, and Kil turned to him as he heard sniffling and sobbing. “Why?” He cried, making Kil’s heart clench even more in his chest.
“Oh akachan…” The kid didn’t know what help or being nice was, and that broke his heart. He tried to move closer to him stretching a hand but the kid just jumped back scared, so he tried something else. With a little effort (his whole body was aching terribly), he just composed himself, cleaned the few tears that dared to fall, and started walking home.
“Ahh, you leaving???” The kid suddenly cried, his eyes wide, afraid of being left alone.
“I’m going home, you can just follow me.” He continued walking slowly, and just a few steps ahead he heard the kid following him.
Relieved finally, he looked at his side. The kid had run to catch him and was now walking beside him.
“Is far away?” He said, his eyes shining at Kil.
“Maybe ten minutes.” Kil said to him with a gentle smile that the kid imitate.
“Uhm.” He nodded, walking slowly with him until his hideout.