Feeling Blue: A Smurfs Fanfiction

Chapter Sixteen

The punch to his stomach had caught him off guard. He stumbled backwards, arm wrapping around the area, noticeably wincing as he stared at Hefty in shock. He was used to the idea of being kicked out but being properly hit? That was knew. Brainy was caught so off guard that he didn't even notice the fist heading towards his cheek until it caught him across the cheek, knocking him backwards to the ground where his arm ended up taking the full force of the landing.
"Hefty, why can't you just leave me alone?" Brainy half asked, half pleaded. He tried to get back up but the kick to his leg knocked him back down.
"Because you're a no-good traitor," Hefty snapped, expression hateful as it zoned in on the smaller smurf. "You trapped us all, joined Gargamel and knocked me out! You deserve all of this!"
"It's not like you haven't knocked me out before!" Brainy retorted. "And I can't even remember any of that!"
"Liar," Hefty growled, grabbing Brainy tightly by the wrist and twisting it painfully.

Bruises immediately began to spring up on his arm and when he tried to pull away the grip only tightened. He immediately regretted trying to stand up for himself, as he always did, and fell still hoping Hefty would calm down. He didn't. The grip tightened even more and it felt like fire was travelling from just under his hand to his elbow.
"Let him go, now," a voice ordered. Both looked in the direction of the speaker, seeing an absolutely livid Gutsy.
"Why should I?" Hefty asked, only tightening and twisting further to the point that Brainy yelped slightly, trying to hold back tears. Gutsy noticed and scowled, taking a threatening step forward.
"I said let him go. Don't make me tell you again," Gutsy warned. Hefty just laughed, shaking his head slightly. Gutsy's eyes flashed with rage and his fist connected hard with the top of Hefty's arm whose grip on Brainy instinctively loosened. Gutsy immediately pulled Brainy away from him and stepped between the two.

Hefty's expression was rage filled and he swung a fist into Gutsy's stomach. He retaliated and very quickly the two were fighting. Gutsy was faster but Hefty was stronger and the fight only ended when Papa came over and gave the two a stern talking to. As Papa walked off, after grounding the duo, Hefty shot Brainy a nasty glare.
"See, all you do is get people hurt and in trouble," he said with a smug expression, walking off.

"You okay, Brainy?" Gutsy asked, rubbing his bruised arm slightly but grinning at the memory of punching Hefty in the face. Brainy nodded slightly.
"Thanks, Gutsy," Brainy said, trying to fake a smile but Hefty's statement was ringing in his mind repetitively. Gutsy noticed, and frowned slightly.
"Hey, you know that Hefty is wrong, right?" he asked. Brainy shrugged slightly. "Right?"
"If you say so," Brainy mumbled. It still kept repeating around his head. "I'd better go before anything else happens."
"Okay, see you at dinner!" Gutsy said, a not so subtle hint he was going to have an eye out for the bespeckled Smurf.

He got back to his mushroom, closing the door and releasing a sigh. Hefty was right. He did just mess things up. Yet again there was the strange mix of contrasting numbness and pain and past thoughts flashed into him.  (Author Note: So as a trigger warning recurring though the rest of the story, there will be a theme of self harm). His gaze landed on his letter opener, which was next to never used. He picked it up, weighing it in his hand. He thought back to years ago when, especially when things got tough, that was the only thing he could resort to. He had, since quitting it, had often almost craved the feel of the blade again yet had managed to stop himself giving in by remembering he had quit for a reason. However, since returning from being with Gargamel, it had gotten so tempting that he was losing sleep over it. He had always made sure to do it places smurfs wouldn't see and with the realisation that he was hurting people came the realisation he should be hurting more too.

He kept staring at the blade, deliberating. He almost did it – almost let the silver glide against blue – but with a sigh he relented his death grip on the blade, letting it fall back to the table with a resolute thud. Not now. Not yet. Things will get okay. He wasn't convinced, even at himself, but he needed some kind of hope to hang onto.

By dinner he was desperate to escape from the room where the glint of silver constantly seemed to be calling to him. At the same time though he really didn't want to leave and see everysmurf who hated him so much. Especially Hefty. With a resigned sigh he opened the door, jumping slightly when he saw Gutsy about to knock.
"Hi," he said.
"Evenin laddie," Gutsy said with a grin. "Thought I would walk with you to dinner, especially in case Hefty is still annoyed."
"He's always annoyed at me," Brainy muttered, shoulders sinking. "Understandable though."
"Not really," Gutsy said. "Everysmurf who doesn't like you clearly doesn't have taste. And no arguing with that: you won't change my mind." That was a definitive statement, especially since Gutsy's thoughts were going beyond mere liking with Brainy of late.

Brainy tried to understand the confusing emotions that grew in him when Gutsy said things like that and why it made his heart thud a little more. Trying to understand only made him more confused so he put that on the backburner. Gutsy however noticed Brainy's befuddled expression and tried his best not to chuckle. It was hard though.

They got to dinner and went to their usual table, Star joining them instead of her usual table.
"Hi Star," Brainy greeted, poking at his food with his fork rather than eating it.
"Hi Brainy," Star replied with a grin. "Hefty bothering you again? Your wrist is really bruised..."
"It's fine," he murmured, retracting it under the table and swapping which hand he held the fork with. Gutsy and Star exchanged concerned looks. Nothing good came from Brainy closing himself off.
"Are you sure?" Star asked. "Since we got here you never seem happy."
"I'm fine," he said, shortly, trying to fake a small smile. It wasn't convincing. It just looked weak and extremely tired. Again worried looks were exchanged.

Brainy, noticing, figured he needed to make a better ploy of being 'fine' and finally started actually eating the food. Chef Smurf was a brilliant cook but the food to the Smurf who just wanted the ground to swallow him up it tasted like cardboard and was hard to eat any of. Especially as he could see the murderous death glare that Hefty was shooting him from the corner of his eye. It was extremely off-putting for his meal and established one very clear message: he was going to pay for the earlier later.

"I'm going to go," he said, putting the fork down and leaving the majority of his food. Hefty was halfway through a conversation so likely wouldn't intersect him. He headed off quickly before either could protest.

He was halfway back to his mushroom when a hand roughly grabbed his shoulder, slamming him against a tree. Brainy cringed, eyes meeting the enraged filled ones of Hefty.
"Oh," he said. Okay, that was a miscalculation.
"Now...Where were we earlier?" Hefty mused, cracking his knuckles. Another punch and no chance of it stopping anytime soon.

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He wasn't sure how long it took for Hefty's rage to fade slightly but by the time it did he was sore with a patchwork of purple and blue. Hefty began to walk off but looked back briefly.
"You know, if smurfs are telling the truth about the poison, you should have just let it kill you," he stated and with that walked off. Brainy stared at his retreating form, expression going from hurt to entirely blank and emotionless, building up wall after wall. The remaining spark in his eyes fading into nothingness.
"I know," he said, nearly inaudibly.

Author Note: Sorry updates are so painfully slow, the second year of University had a pretty big workload