((CW: abuse))

(Friday, 2pm)

(Sakuma)
It's strange that Yuuto is living with us now, he just appeared out of the blue yesterday, saying that him and Akio had got in some massive fight or something. He didn't seem like he was upset, well he tends to hide his emotions pretty well- but I could tell he was hurt though. He asked if he could stay with us for a while and that's when we both knew it was something serious.

Yuuto won't tell me what happened between him and Akio, only that they're 'on a break'. I'm really worried, and this whole thing isn't making life any better for me right now-it's all just such chaos right now and hate it, just hate it. Genda's been taking extra shifts at work, so he's hardly around anymore. I asked him why he was working so hard but he just pat my head and told me not to worry about it. He doesn't seem like his usual self, I feel like he's hiding something from me and I hate that. Knowing him, it's probably going to be good in the long-run, but I need him right now, in the short-term, I just want him here with me.

He didn't even say goodbye this morning.
And the usual things Koujirou does to keep me calm, they're not working...I don't know maybe it's because Yuuto is here too? We can't kiss or hug much when Yuuto's around since it makes him uncomfortable...it probably reminds him too much of Fudou...

And to top it all off, I've been getting even more messages from my dad, and they're worse this time. 'I wish you were never born, go kill yourself.' Genda keeps telling me to just not read them but they always get to me, I can't seem to stop myself; it's like this is supposed to be normal for me or something. I felt my eyepatch, it was so long ago and yet he was still trying to hurt me...

(A long, long time ago...)
A little boy walked down the long stretch of road to his house, lost in his thoughts he passed by a few school children his age; they smiled at him and one of them said hello, but he didn't notice that, he wrapped his arms tighter around his body-he'd thought they were talking about him.

That's how life was for Jirou Sakuma. He'd been taught from a young age that people were only out to hurt him and make him feel bad, he was always scared of people and whilst he didn't mind school, he hated the fact that he didn't have a single friend-he was just too scared to talk to anyone, he always worked on his own. His teachers tried to get him to mix with the others, tried to get him to go outside at playtime but he would always make up some excuse like that it was too hot or too cold outside, he would much rather sit indoors and read.

Today had been a typical day for him- no breakfast (he was too busy making his parent's breakfasts to enjoy his own), some fruit gummies and a packet of corn puffs for lunch. Today was PE, and that meant problems. Whilst he loved all kinds of sports he always lied to the teacher, saying that he'd accidentally left his kit at home or that he'd hurt himself or that he was feeling ill; he didn't want anyone to see. He was already skinny- an older girl had once come up to Sakuma and asked him if he was 'anorexic or something?' Sakuma didn't understand what that meant, but it didn't sound very nice at all. His teacher knew he was lying but they never got angry at him, it was a routine thing, they would call Sakuma's parents but that didn't seem to stop the issue and Sakuma himself would never tell them what was going on.

He was constantly falling asleep in class due to his lack of energy, but once again his parents didn't seem to do anything about it; in fact, Sakuma's teacher had only met the boy's mum once and had never even seen his father.

On this typical day, Sakuma found the spare key under the mat and went inside his house. Now, if a visitor walked through that door, the first thing they would notice wouldn't be the cute family portraits everywhere, it would be the horrid smell. But the tan boy was used to it - the smell of alcohol. It was just part of life for him. He walked into the living room to see his dad passed out on the sofa, bottles all over the floor, snoring heavily-this was why Sakuma always stayed late at school; he knew his dad usually passed out around four-ish so it was the best time to come home, his dad was not someone you wanted to be around when he was drunk, Sakuma knew this all too well.

The eight year old tiptoed quietly into the kitchen, looking for something to eat, he was so hungry and his stomach growled angrily as he searched through the cupboards. He spotted some leftover chocolate cake in the fridge 'they won't notice if I just take a small slice...' The boy thought to himself, he hurriedly cut a slither of cake before running upstairs as quietly as he could.

His stomach still growled hungrily and he clutched it sadly, there was three hours until dinner. After a while he just couldn't take it anymore, he hurriedly ran downstairs, about to go to the kitchen when-
"Jirou."
His blood ran cold. Sakuma turned around, fear coursing through his body as his dad looked down at him, he looked really angry. "D-dad?" He asked, he so wanted to just run but the huge man had blocked the stairs "Whennthe fuck didjyou get back?" He slurred heavily, leaning on the door frame for support, Sakuma shook nervously.

"J-just now-"
"Andjyou didn even come and say ello to yourown dad? Whadda worthless piece of shit youare!" His dad interrupted, staring menacingly down at his son. "I'm s-sorry." The young boy uttered, taking a step back. He saw his dad's hands ball into tight fists "You little!-" the huge man lunged forwards, Sakuma crouched down at the last second, scrambling hurriedly over to the stairs. "Come ere!" His father grabbed his arms before he could run as Sakuma cried out in pain and fear "You'll fuckin pay for that!" The boy tried to get away but it was pointless, his dad raised his hand.
SLAP.
He slapped Sakuma hard across the face, the poor boy fell to a crumpled heap on the floor, crying and yelling in pain as his dad just watched him, suddenly the door swung open. It was his mum.

She came in and simply sighed "Again really?" Sakuma looked up at her with tearful eyes "Upstairs. Now." He did what she said and ran upstairs as fast as he could, flopped down on his bed and just cried, he hated his life so much. He heard shouting from downstairs, all from his mum like usual, well his step-mum actually; he didn't know his real mum. His oldest memories had been of his dad and who he'd then thought was him mum, they used to both be so kind, so funny...then everything just went wrong. His father lost his job, started drinking- it all went downhill from there.

Sakuma was called down for dinner, he noticed that his dad's cheek was bright red and he wasn't sitting with Sakuma's mother. They ate in silence. Until his mum spoke up "I got a call from your teacher today." Sakuma gulped nervously "Apparently someone's been falling asleep in class again, and apparently that someone today told his teacher that he couldn't do PE because he'd hurt his leg. So now the teacher wanted to know if there was anything going on that the school needed to know about. Now what do you think of that Jirou?" She asked, idly stirring her soup but staring intently at her son. 

Sakuma was too scared to speak, his response coming out as just a mumble, he looked down at the floor "I work so hard Jirou, and this is the thanks I get?! I raised you as my own and this is how you choose to repay me?! You know what'll happen now don't you? The school will think something's up and they'll call the social services, is that what you want?!"

"I'm sorry I-"
"You shut up when I'm talking to you!"
"B-but-" she smacked him across the face "I told you to shut up." Sakuma's eyes flooded with tears as he held his cheek "Stop crying or I'll slap you again." His mother warned and the boy bit his lip, trying to stop the tears but it was just so difficult. "Hmff, I always told you he was a weakling." His dad remarked
The woman stopped him. "Shut up. Those weak genes come from you." She pointed the spoon at Sakuma. "If you and that stupid woman hadn't coddled him so much he'd be able to stand up for himself, act like a man and not a silly little boy."

Sakuma didn't go to school the next day. He knew people would ask questions, it wasn't like with other times when he could just hide it, the bruise was really bad. He left for school but ended up just walking around his neighbourhood-he didn't want to be home with his dad. By midday he had nowhere else to go, he spotted a nearby park and walked towards it. He sat down on the soft grass feeling exhausted as the sunshine beat down on him as he laid his head down, watching the clouds roll by. He didn't even remember falling asleep.

"Hey! Hey kid! You alright?" Sakuma's eyes opened slowly, he moved back in fright- the boy's face was so close to his. The other boy backed up and laughed, holding a hand out to the petrified boy. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you there, I was just wondering why you were sleeping on the grass."
Sakuma scrambled up, he noticed the other boy's uniform-they were from different schools.
"So what's ya name?" He asked as Sakuma looked around nervously, he'd never seen this boy before, there was a girl too and another boy who were hanging out by the swings. The boy smiled happily at Sakuma who just stood there nervously "Hey come on, I don't bite!" He joked, Sakuma looked up at him, for some reason this boy just made him feel so comfortable, he felt like he knew him, even though he definitely didn't. For the first time in a long time, Sakuma smiled.

"Um I'm Sakuma. Jirou Sakuma." The other boy smiled "That's awesome, hey do you want to play with us?" The boy walked over to the other two at the swings. A girl with brown hair and a boy with dreadlocks and striking red eyes smiled at Sakuma "Hi I'm Kidou."
"This is Chaya. My big sister." The boy explained and Chaya held out an open bag of jellybeans to Sakuma. His eyes lit up, remembering that he hadn't eaten anything for lunch, as usual.

"Oh yeah! I'm Koujirou by the way!"

Over the next few weeks, Genda, Sakuma, and Kidou became very close friends. Sakuma learnt that Kidou had a little sister, but that he didn't live with her for some reason, Kidou wouldn't tell him why but he didn't really mind it, he was just happy to have someone to talk to. Kidou lived further away so couldn't always make their 'park meetings' but Genda was there every day, of every week, waiting for Sakuma.

The brunette may have seemed like just a really happy-go-lucky kid, but living with three other siblings he knew when something just wasn't right. He noticed the odd bruises that his friend sometimes had 'I walked into a pole' was always the excuse and Genda saw through it every time, he noticed the way that Sakuma always avoided talking about his parents or his home life, noticed the times when Sakuma would appear with red eyes from crying  even though he would keep on saying he was fine, he noticed the way his friend would look around nervously if it started to get late, and the way he would dash off quickly without even saying goodbye, he noticed how thin Sakuma was and how his eyes always seemed to light up when Genda had food.

He noticed all these things, but he didn't know what to do about it. After all, he was only eight. He thought about telling his mother, because surely a grown-up would know what to do; but Sakuma always got nervous whenever any slight mention of Genda's mother was brought up. Genda may have only been a child but even he could understand that terrified look of his friend-it meant bad things would happen if he told. Besides, Sakuma would just constantly lie to him or try and avoid the subject, and he didn't want to scare his new friend off.

He could do one thing though: he made Sakuma lunches. They weren't all that good, not as good as the ones his mum made, but he'd tried his best, always making sure to put fresh orange slices-those were a favourite of Sakuma's. It may only have been a small gesture but to Sakuma it meant the world, every day he would go to school and eat the lunch that his new best-friend had given him the night before. Sakuma had never felt so loved in his whole life.

And then one day, everything changed.

"Hey so my mum kinda said you could come round mine tomorrow, if you want." The words swum in Sakuma's head as he walked up to Genda who was smiling like a goofball next to his mum. He hadn't dared asked his parents, he was too scared. He was really regretting it now.

It was great. He had a wonderful time, Genda's family was so welcoming and enthusiastic towards him. They treated Sakuma like a King and he had never seen so much food in his entire life! He was full up for the first time ever. But then Sakuma noticed the time- he'd completely forgotten about that, it was already 7:30. He started to panic and Koujirou's mother insisted on dropping him off home, even though he protested, she couldn't quite understand why he was acting so panicky all of a sudden.

"Wherehave you been?! Answer me righnow you fuckin scumbag!" His dad shouted when he walked through the front door, Sakuma could smell the alcohol on his breath but it was worse than ever, his dad could hardly stand up straight and he looked like he had been...crying? "First the fuckin bithch leeeaves, and nowthis! Gone! Goneforgood! Who's she ta leave...me!" He slurred and Sakuma eyed the stairs, this could be his chance. In such a drunken state there'd be no way that the guy could catch him. Sakuma bolted it up the stairs and dashed into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Argghhhh!" Came a yell from behind the young boy, he whipped around to see his dad fling the door open, with such force that the handle made a crack in the wall. "How did you?-" Sakuma trembled in fear, he'd never seen him like this-he looked like he wanted to kill him, it terrified him. From then on things became a blur to him, it just happened so quickly that he couldn't even react or try to defend himself.

He remembered seeing his dad holding something in his hand, he couldn't make out what is was though, a second later it happened. An immense pain seared through him like nothing he'd ever experienced, he grabbed his eye as the sticky blood oozed down his face and arm. He yelled out in pain as he fell to the floor, his vision becoming blurry and the faint sounds of someone shouting before everything went black.