Azure: 19

Navy: 18

No, no. No, no, no.

"ILY!" he was screaming, but he didn't remember where his cat was. "ILY!" People turned to look at him as he ran by, screaming at nothing, running from something that was no longer there. But Azure was coming...he was coming...

He felt it on his back. Heard his father screaming at him. Heard the sound of his own flesh tearing apart. Azure was going to whip him. Azure was going to scream at him. Azure was going to tear his flesh to shreds. He felt it against his skin, that cool, steely buckle. He felt it relentlessly...he heard his father whisper that if he ever showed anyone his back, next time would be much, much worse. And all he could see was Azure approaching him with that thing in his hand, whispering that he was going to beat him and wouldn't stop until he was...

"ILY!!!!!" he screamed to the wind. Where was he? It was high. Oh. He was on the roof. He wanted his cat. He wanted to swim. He wanted to feel the water against his body like he had felt when he was eight...he wanted to feel ok...and as he clawed at his back, trying to rip off the scars that reminded him, digging his fingers into the bloody, oozing wounds his father had created the day before, what was he supposed to do? He had nowhere to go now. They would find him everywhere. They would beat him and beat him and beat him and beat him and BEAT-

"Navy...?"

He screamed, finding solid contact and pushing, the other boy screaming as he was thrown off balance, pushed off the edge of the 54-floored building.

All Navy heard was the wind. His eyes flying open, he found the edge, where the boy was desperately hanging, his elbows over the sides, his hands looking for something, anything to pull himself up. But in the gaze of Azure, all Navy saw was fear. Fear that was pleading for his help. Fear of dying and fear of...fear of Navy. There was no... there was no anger...Moon was always angry. But all Navy could see was the belt, the belt the belt, all Navy could feel was the belt, the belt, the belt.

He really needed his cat.

"NAVY!" Azure screamed as the wind buffetted his face, tears streaming down his cheeks, from the wind or something else, Navy wasn't quite sure. But as he saw the struggling hand, all he could feel were the calloused ones that held him down, held him down as he did anything but try to fight, resigning himself to it before it even began...

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"NAVY!" he screamed as an elbow slipped, then another, and he screamed and screamed until he let go altogether, and Navy was sure the boy would spiral to his death, except his body moved of its own accord, running over and latching on, grunting from the effort, his face turning red as he dragged him across the roof, felt the clammy hands beneath his. Dad's hands...Dad's hands weren't like that.

"WHAT THE FORK!!!!" Azure screamed, jumping to his feet and kicking him over and over again. "I COULD HAVE DIED." Realizing what he just said, he placed a hand over his mouth and started laughing hysterically, screaming "I COULD HAVE DIED!!!!!" He bent over and laughed and laughed, his face pale and his eyes bloodshot when he looked back at Navy, and it was like nothing had changed. Like they were still enemies, like they were still broken and useless children who had no right being in this world at all.

When they locked gazes, Azure's shiny eyes and quivering body shaking in the wind, he just whispered, "What did I do wrong?" Because of course. Of course he was going to blame himself when Navy literally let him fall off the side of a building. OF COURSE!! What did he do wrong? He did everything wrong. He trusted Navy, that was his downfall. And Navy let him down, just like he always had, and always would. Laughing and crying and screaming, Azure just asked, "WHAT DID I DO WRONG!?"

And suddenly Navy's body seized. It was like staring at this boy, this boy who had threatened to hurt him like his father, this boy who had the sweetest smile and kindest heart and stupidest face, made his body break. It was as though Navy was seeing two things at once. He saw the man who could never be his father as he dragged a crippled boy into his office to break him and beat him and break him and beat him. And he saw the boy who had done nothing wrong, who had wanted friendship and only gotten pain. It was like two realities combining, and his soul was stuck between. And something about it just let him crack. All fears, pains, regrets washed off like dirt in the shower until nothing was left but pure, unchecked rage, blazing brilliantly hot within his chest, melting a hole through him, blistering every inch of his body as he simmered and burned. It wasn't the warmth he had felt when he'd been intertwined with Azure; that was hot chocolate and cuddles and warm fires. This...this was pain and fear and hurt that had all been tucked away neatly behind his mask, building and roiling in his soul until nothing could prevent it from exploding. It was hot and it was fire and it was big and it was going to swallow everything it saw.

And so this 19-year-old boy and 47-year-old man that was pain and joy and love and fear and hurt and fun and scars and band-aids was the perfect target.

That was when Navy learned that with enough anger, their powers could do anything.