You cant run forever 1

Rain poured ceaselessly upon the once-dusty path, mud mixtures swirling in strange patterns before being washed into thin blades of grass and vanishing. Trees whispered loudly, leaves rustling as they gazed down with their silent earthy stares at the figure below their boughs. Branches creaked in laughter as the wind grew in power, shrieking cruel jokes into the tree’s ears about the lost boy.

His black hair was plastered to his head and nape, blue eyes half closed against the stinging rain. Shadows crept and lunged around him, teasing him with dark movements in the corners of his icy gaze, only to dissipate when alarm caused him to turn.

His clothes were dark and heavy with rainwater, purple backpack nearly black from moisture. Soft breaths were emitted into the chilly air, despite the exaustion plaguing his body.

The blood stains around his chest area were nearly invisible with the rain water around it, something he was thankful of. The world did not need to know of his wounds.

‘You cant run forever’

The voice inside his head was taunting, painfully joyful about the torture the boy’s body was taking.

‘They will find you…and carry out their little promise’
He let tears stream down his cheeks, knowing the pouring rain would hide them from the world. The music of rain still pounded in his ears, pain still throbbing from the wound on his chest. Such was the folly of attempting to leap over a barbed wire fence.

His white shirt clung to his chest as a sudden gust of wind slammed into him, forcing shivers down his spine, and goosebumps to lift along his slim arms.

‘I know you can hear me, Danny….you can always hear me.’

The boy merely bowed his head, refusing to acknowledge the hissing voice in his ear. The one that tricked him into revealing his duel identity in the worst way possible. The phantom that haunted his mind, and would not leave. It no longer mattered whether or not he used the device that removed his powers for a few hours. The voice refused to leave.

He was not native to this country, nor did he speak the language fluently. He simply knew enough words to be passed off as either rude or terrible shy by the people who lived here. Japan. The country where his favorite television shows originated, and where he wanted to go on vacation.

He wanted to come here. Little did he know, there was more ancient magic in this place than his unique abilities could ever make up for. His mind had separated from Phantom’s.

And his parents found out.

‘You are going to hurt yourself if you don’t look up’
Stupid phantom, like he would fall for that trick agai-

Oomph.

A sharp cry of pain was bit back when he landed, head twisting around to look at the damage.

‘Told you so’
Danny screamed at the voice to shut up, blue eyes blazing with anger and pain. His ankle was sprained beyond ability to walk, and his entire left side was coated with thick mud.

It seemed to scorn him, refusing to be scraped off by his trembling hand.

‘so cold….’

‘I know it is, moron. You should have brought a coat.’

Danny whimpered softly as he dragged himself to the side of the road, not noticing the hill in front of him. Rain and tears obscured his sapphire vision, not letting him know of the sharp decline in the earth, nor the house located at its bottom.

‘Why is it so cold?’

‘Are you comepletly insane?’
‘you are in my head’

‘That’s a yes, I assume?’
‘shuddup’

‘make me’

He shed his backpack onto the ground, laying down in the rain-soaked grass. Mud was slowly washed from his still form, fingers slowly going numb from the cold. His feet had done so long ago.

‘You really should get up, nitwit. Before you, oh, I don’t know… Die?
‘I was going to….but now I think I will stay here’
’WHAT THE HECK!’

Phantom was silent in his mind for a moment, letting the boy drift toward sleep. However, he was rudely awakened by the combination of a mental image and words to describe it screamed into his head.

They were both disturbing.

‘TUCKER IN HIS UNDERWEAR, DOING THE TANGO!’
‘What the hell was that for!’

‘what do you think, nitwit’

Danny groaned, pushing himself into a sitting position, just now noticing that his backpack had come loose with some mud, and was now sliding toward the bottom of the hill.

‘And now you have to get up, and retrieve your picture of sam, huh? Go ahead, I wont stop you’

‘why would sam’s picture aid me in death?’

‘I was hoping it would convince you to get your depressed butt into gear, phone her up, confess your undying love, kill yourself by phone bludgeoning, and fade into oblivion while I take over your body, steal half your soul and destroy the world….’

‘phone bludgeoning?’

‘Odd, I thought you would hone in on the ‘steal your soul’ part. Or at the very least world conquest’

‘For a part of my mind, depression doesn’t effect you much, does it?’
‘Nu uh. The psychotic, sadistic parts of you does, though. I am impressed with your mental capacity for planned destruction, but I had hoped you would at least kill someone before you die.’

‘I could always start on myself’
‘that doesn’t count.’

‘why not?’

‘because you need to confess to sam first’

‘how would you steal my body when I die anyway?’

‘because I wouldn’t die, I’m already in your body, and all I have to do is heal a few parts, and take over the space your soul departed from’

“So killing myself wouldn’t kill you, would it?”

‘Nope’

“Still want me to stick with phone bludgeoning?”

‘Sure, if you make it bloody enough’

“What is with you and blood?”

‘I like blood’

“Where’s my cell phone?”

‘You left it at home, dumbass’

“Thank you for that beautiful piece of poetry. Now if you don’t mind, shut up before I poke you with a q-tip”

‘That doesn’t work'

“I realize it doesn’t work, But I like the mental image created. You being prodded by a large ball of cotton.”

“Who are you are you talking to?

A voice interrupted his conversation, and had not been spawned by his head. During the last half of their argument, Danny had slid gingerly down the hill to retrieve his backpack, and had started digging through it for said portable phone. His conversation with phantom had switched from internal to vocal…and apparently, someone had heard.

A shadowy figure stood leaning against the house, arms crossed. Reddish amber eyes stared at him with barely veiled aggression, spiky orange hair falling in front of one of them.

‘Truth time, nitwit.’

Putting on a thick, beefy-sounding voice, phantom bellowed ‘you can’t handle the truth’ into Danny’s mind.

Great…. Now he was giggling.

Danny forgot about his ankle for a moment, rocking back on his heels in a giggling fit at phantom’s impression.

The orange-haired teen raised one eyebrow, obviously making the correct assumption that this boy was mentally unstable.

A short yelp of pain was torn from his lips as he crashed sideways, his sprained ankle having giving out under his weight. Thankfully, the house shielded them both from much of the downpour, but his already soaked form made up for that, grabbing any and all pieces of earth and sticking.

His chuckles faded with the presence of more pain, his chest choosing this time to flair up in agony.

‘Damn, danny. You really know how to make an entrance’

The teen approached him, surprising Danny when his eyes immediately flicked from his ankle, to his chest and up to his eyes. Danny’s blue gaze had been sharpened by phantom in his body, but normal humans would not be able to see him in this light, especially not in this storm.

Another wave of pain washed over him, causing him to become nauseous. He groaned softly, tearing his eyes away from the teen that had chosen this moment to look worried.

‘Well, you can sleep now, nitwit. I doubt this dude is going to kill you in your sleep’

‘g’night’

Danny closed his eyes, finally surrendering to his tiredness.

Branches still creaked at his slumped form, but his ears no longer heard the threatening noises. He was blissfully unaware, and asleep.

From Kyo’s POV:

‘What the hell does that kid think he is doing! His freaking insane, and stalking around shigure’s house, talking to someone in his head!’

The feline growled softly, shaking a few droplets of rain from his orange hair before making up his mind. He would scream and rant later. For now, this moron needed medical assistance.

Unfortunately, it was only he and haru at the house. Tohru, the damn rat and the perverted dog were currently at the shops, while hatsaharu had stopped by a while ago to see if yuki could help him with something.

At least there was no way of the family secret getting out, since there were no girls around to hug him or the cow.

Wait a moment…

His eyes flicked over danny’s chest, making sure of his assumption.

Yep! Not a girl!

But still a moron.

Kyo groaned to himself, crouching down and lifting up the boy’s slim form into his arms. Wet and muddy, the stench of blood heavy about his body. The odd thing was, fear (a smell so pungent it usually just made him angry) was not hanging around the boy. That was weird, since one would assume being discovered by a stranger while wounded and unable to flee would make a boy as small as this start pouring out the smell in bucket loads.

He was light, probably from starvation, but his skin wasn’t pale… it was abnormally flushed. A fever perhaps? He would check as soon as he was back in the house.

Kyo flicked his toes into the strap of the boy’s backpack, snapping his foot up, and catching it nimbly with his fingertips.

Now to get out of the rain.

Resisting the urge to shake his head like the disgruntled cat he was, Kyo traipsed back toward the front of the house, tapping the doorframe with his foot in an attempt to get Haru to open it.

‘Dammit, cow! I’m tired enough with this blasted rain, would it kill you to get off your lazy rear!’

“Haru! Open the doo- Ah, yea.”

He was cut off in mid sentence as the black and white haired boy calmly stepped aside, his mind taking a moment to register what the mud-soaked thing in kyo’s arms was.

“Mind getting a towel or something for the kid to lay on?”

Kyo growled softly, grateful that his strength was starting to leak back into his muscles with the absence of that dratted falling water.

Haru returned within a minute, arms laden with thick towels that kyo didn’t remember them having.

Orange-top shrugged, deciding to question it later, before spreading out two towels atop each other, and moving the sleeping boy onto them. He quickly removed the kid’s shirt, eyeing the thick gash that spread from the base of his ribs to the top of his sternum. As if he had read kyo’s mind, haru handed him first aid kit, wandering toward the kitchen for some warm water.

‘What the hell has this kid been doing?’

The cut didn’t seem very deep, though was emitting a rather nauseating amount of blood without the presence of his shirt. He waited until haru returned with a bowl of warm water and a cloth before continuing.

Thankfully for both him and the boy, kyo had been in enough fights to know how to clean a wound.

A few minutes later a very annoyed cat realized haru had abandoned him and this intruder in favor of attempting to find the bathroom.

‘Probably got lost’ he thought with a mixture of concern and contempt.

Nimble fingers bandaged the various cuts and scrapes the boy possessed, thankful that there were no scents of blood coming from his legs.

That would feel very wrong…to take off another boy’s pants.

Kyo shivered in disgust.

He unconsciously fingered his maroon and white bracelet, tracing over the beads. He idly wondered if he should go searching for haru before a thump from upstairs and a muffled grunt of pain told the story. The stupid cow just fell into the bathroom.

His attention was brought back down to the boy as his sensitive ears picked up a soft moan, and the rustling of cloth from danny shifting in his sleep.

At least, that’s what he thought, until he spotted the brilliantly glowing green eyes.

‘glowing? That’s not possible!’

But still, in the dim lighting, those eerie yellow green orbs of liquid fire continued to glare at him, the light shining from them creating small shadows along the wrinkles in his towels.

After what seemed like ages, the glow died, leaving kyo blinking furiously and glaring at the boy in turns. His eyes were back to the clear blue they had started out as, the fire extinguished. Meek, apologetic eyes stared unblinkingly at him, reminding kyo alarmingly of a helpless kitten caught in a place he shouldn’t be.

“You have a fever”

Danny blushed lightly, mumbling something kyou couldn’t understand.

“What?”

He spoke louder, and apparently in a clearer voice, but he still couldn’t understand. Something about sushi? Gah!

He really should have taken those English classes!

Haru at this moment, decided to come back downstairs, black and white hair ruffled, and overall looking as if he had just come out of a scuffle.

“Toilet attack you?”

Haru looked at him in annoyance, replying “Was it just me, or was someone speaking English?”

Kyo nodded toward the boy, sitting back a bit to watch.

“Whats your name?”

“Cant tell you”

“Why?”

“I don’t want them to find me.”

“them?”

The boy gave him such a hard glare, he backed off, hesitating for a moment before asking “What do you want to be called?”

The kid stared for a long while, before laying his head back on the towel-padded floor and saying softly “Danny”

Once he was sure that ‘danny’ was asleep, kyo opened his backpack, spreading the junk out to dry.

In doing so, he couldn’t help noticing a few things.

One, the boy did not carry around a wallet of any kind, nor money.

Two, there were a few pictures sealed in a plastic bag, as if he expected his pack to get soaked like this.

And three, the only thing that really needed drying was a worn out copy of a strange blue book with a fierce red dragon on its cover…and…. For some reason…. Something that looked like a cross between a cattle prod and a string less slingshot. It was sparking lightly, giving kyo the impression that he really shouldn’t touch.

Hatsaharu was looking at the boy with curiosity, his own mind thankful that he had been able to pass English class. Their written language was absurd, but at least the spoken part was manageable.

While he slept, his two guardians waited patently for him either to wake up to another round of twenty questions, or the other house members to get home.

Rain pattered softly on the roof, slowing gradually. Soft beams of light filtered through forbidding clouds, refracting off gathered droplets from the storm. A hazy rainbow arched across the sky.