One dance and two opportunities: fateful encounters

Levi and Valerie: How it all started.

He looked up to his perpetrator and suddenly felt his eyes sink even further.

"What's wrong, ice block?" The person in question asked in a voice mixed with mockery, spite and hatred. He knew who they were. He had to. Like himself, today was also the induction ceremony for these brats who had nothing else to do but shove and sock him around due to his stature, - which was smaller and leaner than most- his pretty face, a compliment he had been trying to rid himself of for ages and his new position that they, the closest distant relatives, had been vying for themselves or to give it to their own kid.

Levi had a strange gut feeling that the old woman (his grandmother) had know about all these, which was why she had taken him from that hellhole, to which he was eternally grateful. He got the opportunity of a lifetime that even other slum kids could only dream of for the rest of their lives, he got that. But, wasn't his reason of living in the first place so that he could finally be free from all the physical abuse he got?

What was the use of a palace being externally pretty but internally sickening? He just couldn't phantom. 

"What's the problem, slum boy? You miss me?" The red haired kid, who shoved him, said with a ting of annoyance beginning to show on his features as his antics bore no fruit. This kid just doesn't know when to wince, does he? The boy thought. No problem. He would solve that for him tonight. And with that, an evil grin settled on his features.

"Boys," the redhead called to both boys who stood on both of his sides, "It seems our friend here doesn't know what sort of a reaction he ought to have for his best friend who had finally found the time to catch-up after a long time of separation." And with that, Levi who was trying to pry himself from the surprisingly steel grip of the kids by wiggling, what suddenly smacked to the floor without much time to recover from the earlier assault, his arms being twisted to the extent of turning his pale skin blue and bulging with veins from the pain.

He suddenly felt hatred for everything and everyone. For his mother, who left him to die at the hands of a drunkard of a father. For his father, who filled his childhood with horrendous scenes of violence, abuse and death. For his flabby bellied aunt, who took her space in a place that wasn't even her from the beginning and for the kind  old woman who did nothing but deceive him that his life was going to change for the better.

For the so called 'family' and 'relatives' who did nothing but stand and watch as his so-sorry-and-little excuse of a dignity get constantly trampled upon multiple times and later come back and warn him not to retaliate. Giving him more and more absurd rules and regulations to follow with him knowing fully well that they did that to mock him and constantly put him in his place.

He had hatred for the world, his life... but majority of that same hatred went to himself who just allowed people to use and run over him as they please. The twisting of his arm became more severe and a few blows began to rain down on him along with it but it did nothing but fuel his resolve to become better... better than all of them.

His thought process was cut short with the sounds of surprised unregistered squeals and grunts, followed by a few cracking sounds, dull thuds and the absence of weight or mass pressed against his body to incite pain.

As he slowly, but successfully, tried to regain his posture in an attempt to look less of a mess to the  spectators - whom he sensed - had gathered, a hand suddenly stretched to him from his peripheral vision causing him to look up and identify the owner.

Levi had seen a fair share of fake smiles and people with fake intentions. The way most of their words never matched their expression or their treatments and how their eyes would squint into a thin line and droop downwards, expressing their disgust or dissatisfaction.

But this was the first time in a long time that he had seen someone smile at him as though she ignored his past and present status and, from the way her breathing was  uneven, he had a feeling that she was the one who had knocked down these brats who were bigger than her who was of smaller stature than him.

The owner of the hand suddenly retracted the hand in a fluster and Levi thought she had changed her mind about him until he saw her stretch it again but this time with a handkerchief.

Stunned, he didn't reach out to the hand that was overhead him until it began to slowly but awkwardly retract. Levi, quickly snatched it from her hand, eliciting a giggle from her and a deep blush all the way to the neck, from him.

"I-I'm sorry." He said, embarrassed about his actions and that granted nothing but a smile from the little girl.

After he had cleaned up a bit with the handkerchief, he looked back and forth from the handkerchief to it's owner and another deep blush graced his face to his neck and probably to his shoulders.

Understanding the boy's dilemma, the girl let out a chuckle that put shame to the wind chimes he had heard at the front door of many houses.

"It's alright, you can keep it." She smiled and he felt his heart race. Am I sick? He questioned within but his heart didn't calm down.

The girl was still looking at him till she let out a gasp that sounded like she had realized something significant. He thought that maybe she had finally recognized who he was. The thought sent a pit to his stomach and he so, more than anything, wanted to be anybody but himself at that moment. But soon, he'd realized that had been overthinking.

"I've been talking to you and neither have I helped you up nor have I introduced myself." She said with a giggle and smiled brighter than the sun. Well, to him at least.

Stretching out her arm to reach to him, she finally introduced herself with her blinding smile. "Hello, my name is Valerie Siaha. Your new Cousin."