Wonders

A little dream

Rat walked home in a daze. It had been stupid, he told himself. His fingers touched his lips. Shion. He had thought about kissing the boy a lot lately. He had hit him so that the others would see he had no feelings for him. A physical lie. It had nearly crushed him to see those red eyes looking up at him so wounded.
He shook himself. Shion hadn’t even looked at him the rest of the day. It hurt more than he wanted to admit, even to himself. When had he gotten under his skin so badly? He thought back to when they were kids, Shion had been strange, different from all the others kids Rat played with. It was what he liked about the boy.
He hadn't lied to him. It had been his smile, the memory of his friendship that had kept Rat going. Through all the tests and operations. He had always hoped that one day he would find Shion again. After his mother died. Well he had turned.
Foster home after foster home had taught him he could only take care of himself, any way necessary. He had learned to fight. He had learned a few other skills he was pretty sure the pure little pale boy would hate him for. Rat only did bad things to survive. Since seeing Shion again, he began to hate himself. Hate what he had become. He just wanted to go back to the sandbox.
Rat had taken the picture of the two of them from Shion's room. His mother had burned all of the ones he had had of the pale boy. Maybe she had been jealous of the fact Rat had someone to hang on to. Or maybe she had hated the boy for surviving when her husband hadn't.
“Well looky here our fearless leader.” A snide voice called out. Rat looked up. There they were. Dogkeeper, Monkey boy, Goose, Squirrel girl  and the others. Rat had given them all animal nicknames.
“What are you losers doing here?” he asked in the most bored tone he could muster. Fear gripped him. Shion was too close to this.
“Well Goose said he saw you walking around here.” Monkey boy challenged him. Rat dropped an arm around Dogkeeper’s shoulders.
“You do know I live around here.”  He pointed out. Dogkeeper glanced at him.
“You live several blocks that way.” She pointed in the direction he had been heading. He scoffed.
“You haven't heard of going for a walk?” he pulled away stuffing his hands back into his pockets. He looked around at them all. “Why would I just hang around the house?” he asked narrowing his eyes at them. His heart was racing. They couldn't find out where Shion lived.
Before anyone could say anything else, the pale white-haired boy came around the corner. He was on the phone, not looking at the group. “Ok, I’m here.” He said into the phone. He had paused at the other corner. Those with Rat watched the boy.
“No, I don't.” he said still not seeing them. “Safu, seriously I don't see it!” his voice rose in frustration.
“Well, well what do we have here.” Monkey boy called out. Slowly Shion turned. His eyes widened as he saw the boy. Rat stood watching him, a blank look on his face.
“Shion, there you are. I told you the other corner!” Safu cried coming across the street. Shion looked at her as he hung up the phone.
“There are four corners to every building.” He pointed out. She glared at him. Rat's anger grew as she threaded her arm around Shion's. She pulled the boy into the small convince store.
“I swear Shion…” her voice got cut off as the door closed.
“Well, that was a surprise. Weren't you coming from that direction?” Monkey boy turned on Rat. The dark teen was leaning against the light pole.
“So what if I was, it's not like I know where the idiot lives.” Rat narrowed his eyes watching the large blonde teen. “He doesn’t even know where he lives.” He added cruelly. Dogkeeper and the red haired squirrel girl laughed. Monkey boy didn't.
He came up to Rat. The other boy pushed off of the light pole to meet him. “I think you have a thing for the little boy. Sneaking around visiting your boyfriend, Rat?” he asked. Rat spun around. His hands gripped Monkey boy's shoulder as he threw the teen head first into the light pole.
Monkey boy bounced off, his scream of pain made Rat laugh. The larger boy turned to face him, blood spilling from his split lip. A tooth was missing in the front of his mouth. Rat moved to him.
“I'm getting tired of this, Monkey boy.” He stressed the word boy. “If you want to challenge me, then do it like a man. Stop hiding behind your stupid feeble insecurities.” Rat growled at him. Monkey boy glared at his leader.
“You only get this upset when it's about him.” He snarled pointing a blood stained finger to where Safu and Shion emerged from the store. Rat didn’t even turn around to look. He leaned closer to Monkey boys face.
“You have yet to see me upset. Trust me, when you do, you won’t forget it.” He grinned evilly as the boys face paled. Rat took a step back. “Get outta my sight. And get cleaned up.” He ordered walking away. Goose stayed with Monkey boy, but the others followed Rat. He lead them to their favorite hang out in the park. His mind on what Shion was doing with the weirdest kid in school. A smile twitched at his lips as he realized, that was Shion. He collected weird.
Safu lead Shion through the park to where a walking trail was. She didn’t say anything as they ate their ice cream cones. When finished, she glanced at the boy beside her. He was intent on looking at the trees and bushes around them.
“Shion?” She spoke up to get his attention, even if it was a thoughtless, hmm.
“You and Rat…” this brought him up. He turned swiftly to look at her.
“Why do you always bring him up?” he demanded. “Aren’t I allowed to have other friends?” he asked. She held up her hands.
“No, that’s not what I was going to say.” They had stopped on the side of the trail looking at each other. She sighed throwing her hands in the air.
“He's dangerous, Shion. He will hurt you.” She yelled. Shion's red eyes narrowed.
“No he won't.” his voice had taken on a dark tone. They glared at each other for a few heartbeats. Safu turned away first.
“I don’t want to fight with you.” She said softly.
“Then stop talking about him.” Shion's tone was gentler. Safu nodded. “Let's just go to the creek.” They walked on. Neither one seeing the two blonde boys above them on the bike trail. Monkey boy turned to Goose. With a silent nod, they agreed to follow the pair.
Safu and Shion collected specimens for Shion's attic room as they talked about neutral things. Like the show they both loved and hated as it was a pretty corny cartoon. Or school, as long as Rat wasn’t brought up. They even discussed the new pastry Shion's mom had found a recipe for. She was going to try it out at the store this weekend.
As the sun began to set, Safu walked the lost Shion back home. She helped him set up his jars before declining to stay for dinner. She hurried away as Shion got cleaned up to eat.
Surprisingly the next few days at school were uneventful. Monkey boy left Shion alone. Shion refused to talk to Rat. And Safu was happy being his only friend once more. This all changed Friday night.
Shion and Safu were doing homework in his room. His mom was getting ready to close up the shop and make dinner. Shion had told Safu she would have to leave after dinner as Rat was coming by. This had been the first time since their walk in the park, that either of them brought up his name.
They had walked downstairs to help with the clean up involved in closing up the bakery. As they came out of the kitchen and into the store, Shion was looking back at Safu. “But I thought…” she was saying as his mother cried out his name. She yelled for him to run.
Shion stood frozen in the doorway. The scene before him was out of a nightmare. Three people in ski masks stood between him and his mother. A fourth was holding his mom's arms behind her back. One was trying to get the register to open. They all had guns, aside from the one holding his mom.
As the scene was locked in a frozen second the door chimes jungled. This seemed to start time up again. Safu pulled Shion back into the kitchen they dove under the decoration station’s silver table. A gunshot made a hole in the door where they had been standing. They could hear a lot of commotion.
Shion climbed onto the table to look out the opening. Rat placed his hand on the counter. Kicking out with his feet he shoved the first guy backwards. He tripped sprawling on the floor. Rat took his gun. He shot the second man as he was running out the door. The man fell gripping his bleeding leg.
Rat had already knocked out the man holding Shion's mom. She was crouched hiding under a display table. The other two people raised their guns at Rat, who was in the middle of them. Shion didn't hesitate. He snagged a heavy frying pan from a rack near by.  He burst through the hole, over the counter and swung the pan like a baseball bat. Smashing the other's face. He fell down unmoving.
As Shion took out one man, Rat turned. He disarmed the other man, who ran out the door. Police sirens could be heard in the distance. Rat helped Shion's mom stand up.
“Are you ok?” they both said at the same time. Neither answered as they heard the pan fall to the floor. Looking over they saw Shion standing over the man he had hit. Safu was beside him still holding her phone. Shion had taken the mask off of his face. Slowly he raised his eyes to Rat.
“It's Monkey boy.” Shion said as the door chimes sounded again. Rat had taken a step toward the shorter boy.
“Stay where you are, hands in the air.” The police officer yelled. Rat froze, raising his hands slowly. Shion and his mom leapt between the police and Rat.
“He's the one that saved us!” Karen yelled at the officer whose gun was now pointed at her chest. The man quickly lowered the gun. He looked around.
“One ran away.” Rat said, keeping his hands up.
“There's another car chasing him.” The officer said. The two police men checked on the unconscious people on the floor. They were all members of Rat's school pack. Dogkeeper had been the one holding Shion's mom. Squirrel girl and Monkey boy had been the ones standing between the kitchen and his mother. Along with the man Rat shot. Rat said his name was Moose. Monkey boy had been the one to shoot at Shion.
“That means Goose was the one to run away.” Rat said looking at them all. Dogkeeper was the first to wake up as the paramedics loaded her onto a gurneys. They had already rushed Moose to the hospital.
“Why?” Rat asked her. She glared at him.
“You knew we were hitting convince stores.” She growled.
“This is a bakery!” Rat yelled. Dogkeeper nearly spit at him as she snarled.
“Yeah, his bakery.” Her glaring eyes fell to Shion. Rat took a step back. Sliding over he kept her from looking at the pale boy.
“How did you find out?” he asked. She snarled.
“Monkey boy and Goose followed him and his little girlfriend home. Convenient that you were in the neighborhood tonight.”  The paramedics took her out to the ambulance after that. Rat turned away from Shion.  This was all his fault. How was he ever going to be able to face Shion again. Rat turned toward the door to leave.
The doorway was blocked by the very person he was trying to avoid. “Shion"  he whispered the name. He couldn't even force himself to look him in the face. His eyes wouldn’t go any higher than the middle of the boys chest.
A moment later Rat found himself on his knees in front of the pale boy. His face buried in Shion's stomach. He wasn’t aware of just what he was saying. He just wanted Shion to forgive him for this. Shion's small thin hands patted his head.
“It's not your fault.” Shion's voice seemed to come from far away to the lost boy he was holding. Shion bent forward to place his head on Rat's. He started to sway them side to side. Rat felt his tears hit his hand. How was someone like Shion allowed in his life? The boy was pure. All Rat did was mess things up. He couldn’t let anything hurt Shion, not even himself.
“I'm sorry.” He shoved Shion gently away before running out the door.
“Rat!” Shion cried. Rat ran off blindly as to where he was going. It wasn't until his racing mind caught up to him that he realized he han'tt out ran the pale boy. Shion was only a few feet behind him
Rat turned to look at him in awe. Shion flew into his arms, breathlessly he kissed him. Rat stood stunned.