What the heart wants

The school bullies

TW: bullying, harassment, possible abuse

Sky

Sky's earliest memories were of his parents arguing. He wasn't old enough to understand the words they used but the anger in their voices often made him hide on his bed under the covers. Sometimes even worse than the arguments were the long cold silences. When he was with either of his parents separately he could feel that they loved him, but when they were together he could only feel the dislike they had for each other. So he wasn't the least surprised that his parents divorced when he was ten. His mother had taken a job abroad and Sky was to live with his dad. It was almost a relief to him to be honest.

Sky didn't know he was lonely. He had no brothers or sister or even close friends but he had his manga and he worked hard to be a good student. It wasn't until he moved to Bangkok at 15 to go to high school did he know what it was like to have a true friend. That's when he met Rain, who talked too much, was annoying and the best friend Sky could ever have.

Now they were nearing the end of their second year in high school. That's when they met the thug brothers as Rain dubbed them. Stop and Gun had transferred at the beginning of the school year but Rain and Sky had avoided their notice up until now.

"Gun has a terrible reputation," Rain had told him, "everyone is afraid of him. I heard they had to leave their old school because the girl he was dating ended up on the hospital. Stop's not much better, he's a terrible bully."

It really had been a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sky's luck had run out that day. Rain had to go back to their classroom for a book he had forgotten, while Sky had decided to wait for him in front of the school.

"Well aren't you a pretty one." Came the voice next to Sky making him jump. He had been daydreaming about the new manga series he wanted to start reading and hadn't noticed he wasn't alone anymore.

Sky looked at Gun with a cold expression. He's not sure if he would have been flattered if Rain hadn't already told him about Gun, but knowing what he did the compliment made his skin crawl.

He could see Stop a couple feet away, grinning at his brother's antics. Sky had never been in a situation that scared him more but he felt he had to stay calm. He looked at Gun as coldly as he could manage and said, "Not interested."

"Oh, come on baby don't be like that." Gun said running a finger down his cheek.

"He said he's not interested!" Came Rain's angry voice. He moved between Sky and Gun. Rain was half his size, but managed to catch him off guard enough to push him away.

Stop moved on Rain,  "who asked you?"

Rain stood up to the older boy, refusing to back down, "No one asked me, but Sky is my friend so I'm answering since your brother is too stupid to understand the word 'no'"

Things probably wouldn't have ended well for Rain but at that moment a group of seniors came out of the building and Rain and Sky were able to getaway.

Rain

The next day Stop caught Rain by the lockers before class. There were too many people around for him to do anything, but he said, "I know you, you're name is Rain right? Well Rain Cloud I think we have a discussion to finish, I will definitely see you around."

"Bring it on," Rain said. "I'm not scared of a barking dog like you." Stop no longer cared about the people around him. He grabbed Rain's shirt and pushed him against the lockers. Rain hit his head hard and would have a nasty bruise on his back later.

"See you later, Rain Cloud," Stop promised, pushing his way through the crowd that had started to gather round.

After that it seemed no matter where Sky or Rain went one of the brothers were laying in wait for them. Rain wasn't sure which was worse. Stop's bullying or Gun's creepy advances on Sky. They tried going to the principal, but he told them that he couldn't do anything without proof. Rain suspected that he didn't want to offend Stop's and Gun's father who was influential in the community.

Rain began to notice that Sky was looking nervous and pale from the stress and it really worried him, so he went to his cousin Ren for advice. The first thing Ren did was to take steps to make sure neither Sky or Rain went anywhere alone while at school by recruiting a few of his friends. It was a little embarrassing to have an escort everywhere, even to the bathroom, but at least that temporarily stopped the bullying and harassment.

For the first time in weeks Rain was able to relax. It was less than a month before the school break and Rain had heard a rumor that Gun and Stop might not be returning next year. Apparently their father was being transferred another city and he wanted them to attend a preparatory academy.

Rain even began to look forward to the school trip, they were going for a weekend to repaint classrooms at a local orphanage. It was some sort of "character building" activity that the school sponsored once a year.

Sky

Sky was staying at Rain's house the night before the school trip. Ren was also staying, Sky suspected that it was partially so he and Rain would have one member of the escort team when they arrived at the school the next day.

Sky was glad, he had never let on exactly how much Stop and Gun scared him. Rain might have suspected it though, Rain always seemed to be extremely empathetic. The last few weeks has made Sky realize how lucky he is to have Rain as a friend. He's not sure how he would have handled the situation alone.

The weekend is actually a lot of fun, Rain always seems to manage to get more paint on himself than the walls somehow and Sky can't help but laugh when the teacher forbids him to pick up another paintbrush or roller. After that he and Rain are assigned cleaning duty instead, which means a little cleaning and a lot of tossing bubbles at each other.

The trouble starts when they are sent to dump and wash the buckets that everyone used. They forgot to be careful, didn't even think to get some of their escorts to go with them. They hadn't seen their tormentors all weekend so Sky had even began to think they hadn't come on the trip.

"Hello, baby, miss me?" Gun's creepy slick voice behind him made Sky freeze. Rain reacted first but Stop grabbed him from by the arms before he could come between Gun and Sky.

"Not so fast Rain Cloud, Gun just wants to talk to Sky." Stop said.

"Leave us alone." Sky tries to sound brave but he isn't exactly feeling brave at the moment, especially when Gun caresses his cheek like he did on that first day. Rain is struggling and spewing curses at Stop and Gun. He finally manages to twist out of Stop's hold by giving him one extremely hard stomp on his foot. Rain runs at Gun but Stop spins him around and punches him, making the smaller boy drop.

To Sky's immense relief he hears their teacher demanding to know what is going on. He rushes to Rain's side where Ren is helping him sit up. Rain is dazed and will have a hell of a bruise on his cheek but otherwise seems unharmed.

The teachers calls the police, and everyone's parents, although Sky's uncle comes instead since his father lives so far away. After that it's a blur of questions. Sky and Rain tell the entire story about the harassment and bullying, backed up by Ren and some of his friends.

Monday at school, Rain is surrounded by a group admiring his bruise. He is practically preening at the attention, which Sky is happy to let him have. To everyone's delight Stop and Gun have been kicked out of school. Rain and Sky weren't the only ones being harassed by them.

Sky looks at Rain and is once again happy that Rain stopped to talk to him that first day of school.

********

Notes:

I know this is slightly darker for a fluff story but I really wanted to explore the back story of Rain, Sky, Stop and Gun from earlier chapters.

It's been in mind from the time I first wrote the story summary that the reason Sky has no history of trauma is because he met Rain first in this universe and I wanted to showcase that.