Wonders

What is this?

Rat left the next day before noon. He walked home. Shion begged him to let him go. He wanted to make sure the other could make it.
“Shion, if I let you walk me home, I would just have to walk you back.” Rat laughed ruffling his hair. “I'll see you at school.” He turned away. Walking to the bottom of the outside stairs he called over his shoulder. “The person you see at school…” Rat turned back to look out at the morning sunlight. “just know, it’s what I have to do.” With that he walked away.
Safu showed up an hour later. They went to his bedroom to work on some school work. The girl watched him.
“So, Rat?” she asked. Shion's shoulders stiffened.
“No.” he said ducking his head back down to continue he his work.
On Monday Shion scanned the crowd looking for the boy. He didn’t see him. Monkey boy saw the waif though. “Hey Goose, would you look at that?” he called out. A guy with sandy blonde hair stood next to the oaf that had been harassing Shion.
“Do ya think she has an old man kink?” they laughed. “Whitey are your balls that wrinkled?” he shouted.
“Do you want another broken nose?” A calm voice asked from behind him. Goose and Monkey boy turned. Rat was leaning on Dogkeeper. His grey eyes narrowed at them. One hand was stuck in his jacket pocket.
“No.” the two idiots chorused.
“Then let this be the last time I say this.” He pulled away from the girl. Limping forward he caught the boys by the back of their necks. He smashed their heads together holding them tightly. “Leave. Him. Alone.” He punctuated each word with hitting their heads together.
Stepping back, he made them meet his eyes. “That's the last time I ask nicely.” He turned away.
“You're hurt.” Monkey boy called out. Rat paused. He looked over his shoulder.
“And you think I cant beat your ass?” when there wasn’t an answer he went on into the school. Shion watched him. He kept his hands in his pockets.
What was this person? How had the kind hearted child he knew became this? Shion watched Rat throughout the day. The boy was mostly alone. The others seemed to follow him, but kept him at a distance. Only Dogkeeper dared to get within sticking distance.
Rat was a loner, but a leader. People followed him, why? Shion wondered as he sat in the cafeteria. The sun beat on his back from the window. Safu was rambling on about something he really didn’t care about, a school dance. Where they afraid of him? Or did he protect them? They all seemed like misfits of a sort.
Monkey boy looked over at Shion. “Oy, Rat, looks like your boyfriend’s watching you. Better be good.” He taunted the dark brooding teen. Rat's eyes narrowed.
“Why have you been taking it easy on him?” Goose asked.
“Yeah by now you would have kicked anyone else’s ass, just to keep them in line.” Rat unfolded his legs standing gracefully.
“Because some losers are too low for my attention.” He turned and walked out of the room.
Safu gasped beside Shion. “I thought…” she began.
“Don’t worry about it.” Shion stopped her. Someone should have. Over the following two weeks, Monkey boy took Rats words as an almost insult. He would follow Shion. If Rat wasn’t around, he would harass him. At first it was verbally. Picking on his clothes, his hair, his eyes, even his name. Sometimes he would throw in digs at Safu. Shion just ignored these.
Next came tripping him in the halls. Pushing him as hard as he could into walls or lockers. He even managed to shove Shion into Safu's locker one day. She came by a few seconds later and let him out.
“This is getting ridiculous Shion.” She told him as she pulled him out. None of it mattered to the boy. Rat was still coming by at night. Shion would change his bandages. They would talk, do homework or watch TV.  Rat never left until well after dark. Safu hardly missed a chance to tell the white haired teen what a bad idea it was to be secret friends with the school’s biggest thug.
“He's not a thug.” He would tell her. He refused to say anything negative about the other boy. He also refused to let Safu put the boy down. Whenever she tried he would tell her something like that and then leave.
One day at school they had arrived early. Monkey boy and Goose were out front. They hadn’t seen Shion yet. In fact they appeared pretty intent on their conversation.
“Rat is loosing his edge. He is becoming weak.” Monkey boy said.
“I saw him on the corner the other night. Do you think he's selling himself?” Goose asked. Monkey boy laughed.
“I wouldn't be surprised. I mean who wouldn't want that. With his long hair. Dress him up just right…” he was tackled to the ground a second later. Small fists bashing into his face and chest.
“You will not talk about him like that!” Shion cried as he attempted to hit every vulnerable part of the other boy. Strong arms wrapped around him from behind. Shion tried to hit the person assuming it was Goose.
“Shion, stop it!” Rat yelled pulling him free of the boy. Rat threw Shion away from him. The pale teen fell to the ground at his feet.
“What the hell is going on?” Rat demanded looking between the boys.
“Nothing!” Monkey boy cried as Goose helped him to his feet. “He's insane!” Goose nodded his agreement.
“They were saying mean and nasty things about you!” Shion cried. He was on his feet again as well. Rat squeezed the bridge of his nose.
“Like what?” he asked, eyes closed. No one spoke. Rat looked to the side at Goose and Monkey boy.
“They said you were selling yourself on a street corner.” Safu informed him. Rat laughed. Everyone jumped at the sound. He held his stomach he was laughing hard. They watched him.
“Uh, Rat?” Dogkeeper came up to them. Rat didn't stop laughing, not until his fist smashed into Monkey boys face. The other was knocked down again. Rat stood over him sober now.
“No one in this town could possible afford me.” He smirked. He spun so swiftly, no one could stop him. He punched Shion. The pale boy flew back a few steps to land on his knees before Safu.
“And I don't need anyone sticking up for me.” He snarled. He turned away walking into the school. Dogkeeper and a few others of their pack followed. Safu helped Shion to his feet as Goose and Monkey boy trailed last behind the others.
“See!” She cried wiping the blood off of Shion's lip. “He is an animal!” she hissed. Shion shoved her away. He stormed over to pick up his books. Tossing a remark over his shoulder.
“He's not. If you can't deal with him. Then, I don’t want you as my friend.” With that he walked into the school. Shion made sure he stayed away from both Rat and Safu for the rest of the day. It was hard since he typically followed one or the other to class. He found himself instead following Monkey boy.
The large blond kid was in most of his classes. He would glare at Shion but said nothing when seeing the boy trailing him in the halls. In class, Shion sat as far from either of his two ‘friends' as he could. Since he packed his lunch he ate it in the library to avoid them.
It wasn’t until science class that he knew he couldn’t avoid at least one of them. Rat had taken to sitting against the wall so as not to talk to Shion. The pale boy avidly ignored him. It had been the compromise they had silently agreed to.
As Shion walked into class, Rat wasn’t there yet. This was unusual. Shion set his things down. He began to look over the items left out on the table for the lessen. “Are you ok?” a soft voice blew across his neck. He only bobbed his head once. Rat slipped past him, putting his things in their typical place. He looked at the boy.
“Shion?” he whispered.
“Not now.” Shion said not looking up. Rat watched him throughout the lesson. As usual the pale boy did everything. This was his favorite class. Rat saw that Shion's lip was swollen. He had heard that he hadn’t gone to the nurse for ice.
After school, Shion walked home alone. He had to turn around three times and in the end called his mom once more. She talked to him until he returned to the bakery. Shion said nothing to her. He headed up to the attic room. He wanted to lock the window Rat always used to get in before the boy showed up that night. He was too late.
Rat leaned on the windowsill watching as the boy walked in. Shion startled at seeing him there. Rat picked up the bag of ice beside him he walked over, placing it gently on the boys face.
“I'm sorry.” He said looking into those startling eyes. “I knew they would eventually put it together.” He whispered. He turned away once Shion's hand took the ice. “The corner Goose saw me on was near here.” He turned to look back at Shion. “I was afraid, with you jumping into a fight to protect my good name…” he flashed a grin at Shion, whose face turned red. “He might eventually figure out I was coming from seeing you.” He pressed a finger to the sweater the boy was wearing.
“You didn’t have to punch me.” Shion hated how whiny his voice sounded. Rat moved closer.
“Violence is all they understand.” He said. He pulled the ice pack off of Shion's mouth. He pressed his own mouth to the boys. Holding Shion's hands in his own, he kissed him. After too short of a time he pulled back. He smiled at Shion, keeping their faces close.
“There a kiss to make it all better.” He purred. He replaced Shion's hand with the ice pack to his swollen lip. Shion just stared at him with huge red eyes. “I'll see you Friday.” Rat said before climbing back out the window. He was gone a second later.