It was another day for Ren, he had a small patch on his face covering a bruise he got at the end of last week that was almost finished healing. If he was lucky maybe everyone would finally leave him alone after a slip up he had made at the start of the year.
He had always been different, a little smaller, liked different things than other guys. He was really close to another boy since they were very young. Their mothers had been friends in school and planned on having kids at the same time so that their children could grow up together being friends.
Ren had mistaken his friend for having similar feelings as him, and was swiftly proven wrong after telling his friend how he felt. He did not know how much a look of disgust could hurt until that day before school started. He thought a ruined friendship and a broken heart would be the end of his punishments.
He was once again proven wrong when his friend who had been getting close to some delinquents and started matching their style, which he liked, told them what happened. From the very first day of school he immediately became a target for them to harass.
Today apparently would be no different as he rounded the corner and saw two people that had become his regular tormentors.
A tall thin guy with green eyes and blond hair that Ren knew he dyed because he had know Itto in middle school, he even once thought they were friends. Ren was not their friend as it turned out, he was just his childhood friend’s “hanger on”. Next to him was a shorter fatter guy with black hair named Taka, he was basically Itto’s lackey at this point. Ren had no idea when they met but from the last couple weeks he had never seen the two apart.
Itto had a vicious smile on his face as he tapped Taka on the shoulder to get his attention and they met him in the middle of the block in front of an alley.
“We will go easy on you today if you don’t make us chase you again.” Itto said as he pointed with his thumb down the alley.
Ren spent a few seconds thinking about it. ‘This will probably be my best option. Maybe if I put up less of a fight they will get bored and start leaving me alone soon.’
He sighed, resigning himself to probably just getting his money stolen and his clothes dirtied.
“Alright.” He started walking down the alley as the two followed him until they got to a darker spot near the end.
Right before he stopped walking he felt someone grab the back of his shirt collar as they ripped his backpack off.
“This is far enough.” It was Itto who had grabbed him and took his bag, passing it to Taka.
“Taka will go through your bag, maybe throw a book into a puddle, dump your lunch on the ground and we will take some money out of your wallet and call it a day.”
Ren felt he might finally be getting lucky. He had been something of a delinquent in middle school before his peers began outgrowing him and started cutting ties until his only friend was the one he spent his whole life with. So it was not much of a surprise what he let slip out of his mouth as he handed over his wallet. He quickly regretted it though.
“You know if I didn’t know better I’d think the two of you were queer together hahaha..ha…ha….”
‘Fuck why did I say that?’ Almost as soon as he finished the thought he felt himself double over onto his knees. He had not even seen the punch to his stomach coming. Thankfully he had not eaten breakfast today or it would probably be on the ground right now.
He looked up to find Itto scowling down at him, rage blatantly obvious. “To think I was gonna start letting you get by easily because I was getting tired of being asked to do this all the time. Then you go and spit all over my good will like that. If you like having someone bigger on you than you can be my seat while Taka digs through your shit, and if you make a single sound I beat you until they have to call an ambulance.”
Itto gave him one last kick to the side which Ren had to take while holding back a grunt before Itto sat on his back. “Fucking faggots man.”
‘Why did I have to go and say something so stupid. It could have finally been over.’ He felt like crying but he was scared that if he started sniffling it would make things worse, Itto usually followed through on threats.
He heard a rustling sound as Itto dug through his pocket then the sound he recognized as lighting a cigarette. Then the in and out of a drag as Itto smoked while Taka rifled through his things, Ren tried smoking in middle school to stay cool in his gang of friends when they started isolating him but stopped quickly after a beating from his dad.
He knew Taka was not gonna find anything in his bag they would care enough to ruin. He had taken to leaving most of his books at school in his locker and he was currently not allowed to take food to school since “If you can’t take care of the boxes your mother packs then you can be hungry for a few days.” His father told him after these guys kept banging up his lunch boxes.
Eventually after Itto swiped cash from his wallet and tucked it into his pocket he finally heard Taka sigh “There isn’t anything in here.”
Ren had started to shake from holding Itto up for so long. ‘Why is this fucker so heavy.’
“Fine, throw the whole bag in a puddle somewhere. I am gonna kick this little shits ass some more.”
Ren looked over to see that Taka looked a bit hesitant. “C’mon Itto we go at him any harder and the boss finds out we’ll be in trouble.”
‘These assholes have a boss now? This will never end will it.’ He began to feel defeat sink in. What extreme would he have to do to finally just be left alone. Before he could begin crying he heard a new voice from the other end of the alley.
“Alright that's enough, give him his stuff back and get lost. You can leave easily or I can hurt you first. Your choice.”
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Ren could not see who it was because Itto was still sitting on him but he could swear he had heard that voice before.
Ren felt Itto stand up from his back, the relief from not having to hold him up anymore cause him to collapse on the ground.
“This idiot thinks of himself as some kind of hero Taka. I am gonna teach this pretty boy a lesson real fast and we can cut the shrimp loose.” Ren could hear Itto walking towards whoever that was.
Finally being able to look and see which poor bastard added himself to their list of people to mess with Ren saw a crazy hot goth guy with white hair and sapphire eyes that seemed to contain ice when they caught the light and turned white in places. He had a black band that stretched down the back of his ears and a small extended black spike that dangled from a tiny chain on his ears. He was wearing the school uniform but the tie was very loose hanging from his neck and the upper buttons were not done letting Ren see a bit of his collarbone.
‘Why did the guy that I got tangled into my mess have to be so good looking, he is exactly the kind of guy I like damnit.’
Then what Taka started saying next caused his blood to run cold and he realized that things might actually get worse for him.
“Itto wait, that's Kuro the Yakuza guy.” Itto did not seem to be listening.
Ren continued to watch since this was going to take no small amount of pleasure watching Itto get his ass kicked. He had not spent a lot of time around Kuro only seeing him in class and in all the time he saw him in the last couple weeks he never once wore the school’s uniform coat.
He did not think Kuro noticed as he began rolling up the sleeves of the jacket while wearing a smile more befitting a predator than a bully.
‘Damn the little fangs he has like a small animal are really hot… Wait, are those bandages?’ He then noticed as Kuro rolled up the other sleeve the bandage wrapped around his arm and the small stains that suggested where the wound underneath had been bleeding.
Ren had to reevaluate what he knew about the scary loner. Maybe he had a rougher life than Ren thought and he was not actually that scary.
It was right after that he saw Kuro’s eyes looked oddly purple in this light as he ducked Itto's punch and hit him back in the stomach much like Itto had punched Ren. He took a small amount of satisfaction in Itto getting his comeuppance, until he realized his feet had left the ground with how hard Kuro punched him.
It did not surprise Ren then that when Itto landed he crumbled into a heap on the ground before throwing up on himself. Then Taka ran over and no small part of Ren hoped he would try to take a swing at Kuro and get himself knocked out. Ren was swiftly disappointed as Taka knelt down to apologize.
“I am so sorry I tried to tell him it was you Kuro but he wouldn’t listen.” Ren could not believe how quickly he flopped over, not that he could blame the guy Kuro as it turned out was actually as scary as people were saying.
What did surprise him was that apparently Kuro was gonna let them go while just taking what they stole from him as payment for not continuing to hurt them. Which meant now he was going to become Kuro’s new plaything.
‘Best case scenario I become a piggybank or some kind of bread shuttle. Maybe then people will leave me alone if Kuro is my full time bully. Worse case he makes my life even worse than before, Maybe I should make a run for it.’
He looked over at Kuro as the two hobbled out of the alley, he was distracted for the moment so Ren took the opportunity to really get a good look at him.
‘Shit man look at his arms, he is probably ripped. There is no way I can outrun Kuro, why is my luck so shitty.’
Kuro was watching him now while walking closer to him. ‘Oh god Kuro is gonna become my new bully isn’t he, maybe it will be better than before he is really good looking maybe I will like it? Nah, that is an unbelievable amount of cope, Kuro is gonna really beat the shit out of me if I make him angry like I did Itto.’
He was making himself so worried after seeing what he did to Itto that he felt like he might throw up from fear and faint. He had an idea though, Kuro already had his wallet. ‘I can just give him everything I have and he might let me go.’
So when Kuro finally finished approaching him he threw out his proposal before Kuro could demand anything else from him. “You can take whatever you want from my wallet Kuro I won’t tell anyone. Please just don’t hurt me.”
‘Oh god I should not have said that last part, I think I am hitting a new low with how pathetic I can be as a guy. FUCK why is that a turn on all of a sudden.’ Ren was getting an uncomfortable stirring from this between a mix of how attractive Kuro was and his fear.
Then Kuro said something he did not expect. “What? I’m not gonna hurt you. Here, take your stuff back and let me know if anything is missing.”
‘He doesn’t want my money? Oh I get it he is confused why there is not more to take from me.’
“I-I’m sorry Kuro if there is not enough money in it for you. They swiped most of the cash in it but I can get you more if y…”
I was doing my best to explain that I could definitely get money to give him if he promised not to hurt me but he cut me off, scaring me a little. I am not proud of how hard it caused me to flinch, or the things this was making me feel.
‘Stop getting your rocks off to this IDIOT.’
“Wait they took the money” he looked angry now, which was as scary as it was hot.
“Y-Y-Yes but I can get you more.” I was starting to get flustered, maybe being his bread shuttle wouldn’t be so bad.
Despite what weird things were beginning to go through his head, what Kuro said next began to steal his heart.
“I am not gonna take your money. From now on you are under my protection, if anyone gives you trouble they will answer to me. Starting with those two after promising they didn’t take any of your stuff.”
He was at a loss for words, he could not settle on just one emotion. He was feeling a weird mix of so many things, lust, fear, hope, joy.
‘Kuro is gonna protect me? It doesn’t sound like he wants me to be a bread shuttle or his ATM. What do I even say, what does he even want from me. Wait, he has to know that I like guys. Pretty much everyone knows with how much the rumor has spread around school. Is he proposing I be his boyfriend? HERE? In a dark alley?’
I had to be sure so I asked him why. He seemed confused, was it really just that simple. He knows I swing that way and wants me? Maybe I should clarify just in case.
“Why are you doing this? Pretty much every group of bullies in the school are taking shots at me. Why would you put yourself between them and me?”
If he does like me I am not gonna say no, he can protect me and he is attractive. Maybe getting to know him wouldn’t be so bad. Then he said something that solidified it for me.
“Because I am sick of all these idiots having free reign over the school. I am gonna clean Sukimi academy of the lot of them. That starts by saving you, besides someone as cute as you shouldn’t need to deal with these fuckers making your life miserable. I am here to be your hero.”
‘Holy shit he is serious. I did not know he was the same as me. I guess I never asked, I never talked to him before at all actually. Also he thinks I am cute, usually that makes me mad so why does it feel kinda nice hearing him say that? Shit do I already like him?’
Then he heard a noise like someone running outside the alley.
‘Did someone overhear his confession to me? Well they can eat shit now, my new boyfriend is probably the strongest guy in school so now they cannot mess with me anymore.’
He could feel himself blushing when Kuro looked back at him.
‘Maybe this will be a good school year after all. After all, I have MY hero now.’ He could not help but smile at how great today was turning out.