Roy had been called a cold person too many times for a seven-year-old. He didn’t understand why that label was said with such negative air to it. Roy took pride in his ability to remain calm and objective. Now, this lanky kid stood with his back turned to him, his fists raised. Roy could hear him sniffling. Roy was numb as the kids surrounding them pounced, pulling and shoving and biting at both Roy and his “protector.”

When it was over, Roy was the only one left standing. The bullies had left long ago, fear in their eyes when they realized Roy wasn’t as weak as he looked. He had taught himself to fight long ago when his life could have depended on it. He was glad for that now, bruises would have been an inconvenience, especially with how pale of a boy he was.

He turned to his “protector,” who was lying on his hands and knees. He was coughing. The boy looked up at Roy, tears in his eyes, and flashed a toothy grin. “You’re so strong!” He wheezed between coughs. Roy felt something catch in his throat. Ignoring it, he turned to walk away. He could hear the boy shakily stand up and clumsily jog after him. “Don’t go!” He said a little too loudly, “I didn’t even get your name!”

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Roy was slightly perturbed by the idea that this boy wanted to know his name, he didn’t hate it though. No one else had asked for it. Finally, he stopped. “Roy.” He said, without turning to face him. The boy grinned. To Roy, who was very observant and now facing the boy, he looked excited. “That’s such a cute name!” Roy cleared his throat when he felt it catch again, but it didn’t help anything.

“My name’s Daniel.” The bo- Daniel smiled.

Roy looked at Daniel, really looked at him. His dark curly hair and thick eyebrows over his forest green eyes. He didn’t look like he had as much money as Roy did. Roy felt the need to feed him.

Daniel, in turn, looked at Roy. Roy with his bright auburn hair and freckles beneath his steel-blue eyes. He didn’t look like the type of kid you’d want to hug, but that just made Daniel want to hug him more.

Roy froze up at the contact. It wasn’t that the hug didn’t feel nice, more that Roy had only ever been hugged by Mary, his adopted father’s secretary. On top of only ever being hugged by one person, it had only happened a few times, and he still wasn’t sure how one was supposed to respond to being embraced.

Daniel didn’t mind though; his hugs were free.

When Daniel finally pulled away, Roy was acutely aware of the loss of warmth. Daniel, however, merely grinned that toothy grin of his.

That was ten years ago.