~HOW IT ALL BEGAN~
-14 years ago-
A baby's cries echoed through the empty hallway.
It screamed and screamed, its voice striking terror within any living being close enough to hear it.
The tone... It was as if the baby was being torn apart.
"What's going on?!" A man asked, panic stricken, "Why is she not moving?!" He demanded, eyes violently trailing over a woman's unmoving body, "Doctor?! What happened?!"
He received no answer.
The baby's cries didn't stop.
"Honey...?" The man mumbled out, waiting for the woman's eyes to open, "Can you look at me...?" He placed his hand onto her cheek.
There was no warmth radiating from her pale skin.
"Darling? Kyoya and... and..." he tore his gaze away from her face and glanced at the thrashing baby in the doctor's arms, "Yuma... need you. Love? I need you..."
The stench of iron filled his senses.
The baby's cries didn't stop.
One of the nurses placed her hand atop the man's shoulder, "Sir...? I'm sorry, but she-!" She pulled her hand back as if burnt, taking a small step back. Her eyes soon went wide in terror as she stared at the man's own.
"She suffered..." the man whispered, his fingers convulsing as he pulled them away from his wife's cold ones, "She was in so much pain..." he grit his teeth, vibrant silver eyes staring at the baby in the doctor's arms, "All because of-!"
The door behind them slid open and short arms wrapped around the man's legs, "Papa! It hurts!" A boy, so small he probably wasn't even in school yet, exclaimed, hiding his face in the man's pants.
The man's eyes softened at the sight of him, "Kyoya..." he placed his hand on the boy's head, ruffling his ebony locks, "I apologise, Kyoya."
A shrill cry made the small boy look up, pale, silver eyes wide in wonder, "Is that...?" He whispered, already looking at the small bundle in the doctor's eyes.
The man harshly swallowed, biting back the words he was about to say, "Yes... That is Yuma." He answered, not daring to look at the crying baby.
"What about Mama?" Kyoya asked, stepping around the man's legs, "Is Mama happy?" The small boy asked, but before he could look up at the hospital bed, the man stepped in front of him, shielding him from the sight, "Papa? What's wrong...? Why are you... sad?" Kyoya tilted his head, staring up at the man.
He received no reply.
"Sir... I'm sorry for your loss, but you need to sign some papers concerning the baby." The doctor said, handing the baby over to the terror-stricken nurse. She took the baby with shaky hands.
The stench of blood didn't go away.
The baby's cries didn't stop.
"Kyoya, wait for me outside." The man said.
"Papa? But you're sad, remember what Mama said? When someone is sad, you do your best to make them happy!" The boy grinned, showing his small teeth.
"Kyoya, I said wait for me outside." The man clenched his fist, fighting back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. That threatened to eat him from the inside out and leave nothing behind.
"But-!"
"Kyoya!" The man yelled, vibrant silver eyes meeting pale ones.
The boy took a shaky step back, "You're mad." He stated, lips trembling as he said the words.
"I am." The man admitted, shakily gripping onto the bed.
Kyoya averted his eyes and stepped out of the room, not looking behind.
"Sir?" The doctor asked, stepping closer to him, "I need you to follow after me, the baby will be with the nurse until we finish everything."
The man nodded, reluctantly following after the doctor as they left the room.
Yuma was left with the nurse.
"Shh... Little one. Everything will be alright." The nurse cooed at him, gently rocking him in her arms.
Yuma blinked his eyes open and stared up at the nurse above him.
_
-10 Years Ago-
"Yuma! Hurry up!" Kyoya yelled, waiting for his younger brother.
Light thuds resounded through the hallway and there he appeared. With a toothy grin and flushed cheeks, "I am here!" He raised his small fist in the air, striking a pose.
Kyoya bit back a snort and shook his head, "Come on or I'll be late for school!" He urged the smaller boy, impatiently tapping his foot on the floorboards.
"I'm excited!" Yuma exclaimed, running at Kyoya with arms open wide.
Kyoya braced for impact and a moment later, Yuma collided into him, wrapping his arms around his midsection, "Of course you are! You're going to kindergarten!" Kyoya grabbed his chubby cheeks and lightly pinched them, causing Yuma to giggle.
"Yes!" Yuma pulled away and stopped, "Where's Papa?" He asked, turning around for a moment.
The older boy's chest grew tight all of a sudden. What was he supposed to say? That Papa didn't want to be in his presence? That Papa blamed him for Mama's death? No... He couldn't let him know that. He couldn't ruin his image of Papa.
He didn't want to hurt him.
"He's busy with work... He'll be home soon, don't worry!" Kyoya patted his head, forcing on a smile.
Yuma blinked, before he grinned, "I can't wait to see him!" He said, grabbing Kyoya's wrist, "Let's go! Let's go!"
The older boy allowed himself to be pulled out of the house.
_
-A few hours later-
Yuma's head had been hurting an awful lot these past days. He didn't tell Kyoya because he didn't want to worry his older brother. Kyoya was kind to him, very kind.
He was the best brother in the world!
So, when he was dropped off to kindergarten and introduced to the other kids his age, he did his best to not tell anyone about his head hurting. He didn't like the feeling, but he was sure it would go away.
That's what Kyoya used to say to him when he got hurt. He'd put a band aid on his scraped knee and would say that there's no need to worry, that the pain would go away.
So, Yuma waited for the pain to go away. He waited and waited, but it just didn't stop.
It kept hurting more.
His eyes hurt and he kept rubbing them. He was rubbing them so much, that one of the other kids noticed it, "Why are you rubbing your eyes? Are you crying?" A girl asked, blinking at him.
"I'm not crying!" He replied, but it was a bit too loud, which seemed to have caught the attention of the other kids.
One of the boys came over to him and flicked his nose, "Ha! Yuma is crying! Yuma is a crybaby!" He pointed at Yuma, obnoxious laughter leaving his lips.
"I'm not crying!" Yuma yelled, letting his hands fall down. He blinked, not liking how everything was blurry, "My eyes hurt..." He mumbled out, moving so he could stand up.
Arms pushed at his shoulders, causing him to fall back down, "Crybaby Yuma! Crybaby Yuma! Crybaby Yuma!" The boy danced around him, laughing and pointing at him.
A few other boys started laughing, all the while pointing at him.
Yuma's head hurt. It really, really hurt and he didn't know what to do about it. The laughter of the boys hurt his head even more, it even hurt his ears. Not saying anything, Yuma clamped his palms over his ears, wanting to block out the loud sounds, but it didn't work.
"Please stop, my head hurts." He said, curling into himself.
The sounds got louder.
"Yuma is a little crybaby!" The boy said and Yuma looked at him, "Crybaby!" The boy repeated, his small hands grabbing onto Yuma's hair, "Are you crying? You little baby!"
Stop.
The boy continued.
Stop.
He still jumped around him, pulling on his hair.
Stop...
His voice still threw the mocking insults at him.
Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!
"Stop it!" Yuma yelled, grabbing onto Mahiru's wrist, "Stop it! Just stop it! I want you to stop!"
Silence.
That was all that he heard.
Then, Mahiru slipped out of his grip and there was a light thud. He heard it, right in front of himself. His slowly pulled his hands back, placing them on his knees. Slowly blinking his eyes open, he looked down, soft breaths leaving his lips.
His head wasn't hurting anymore. His ears weren't hurting anymore. His eyes weren't hurting anymore.
He raised his head "Nothing hurts any-!" He stopped, unblinkingly staring at the sight in front of himself.
The boy...
"What?" The question left his lips, as he stared at the boy.
The boy was on his back, a few feet away from him, and his body was twitching.
There was silence, before multiple screams resounded from around him. The other kids were running away, slamming into each other as they ran towards the teacher.
"What's going on?" The young woman asked, staring at the children as they wailed out incoherent words. She furrowed her brows, before she looked in Yuma's direction, "Yuma...?" She said his name, trailing her eyes down his form and towards the boy on the ground, "Mahiru?!" She exclaimed, hastily running to his side, "Mahiru?! Can you hear me?!" She placed her hands on the boy's cheeks, but he didn't react to her at all.
He didn't even look at her.
"Mahiru!" Her yells resounded through the room, joined together with the wails of the other children.
Yuma sat still, not looking away from the boy's broken body.
_
-A few hours later-
"What are you going to do about this?!" A woman screamed, "My boy... My baby boy!" She wailed, choked out sobs leaving her lips, "They said he might never wake up again! They said that the damage done to his brain was too much!"
Yuma sat still, gripping his shorts with shaky hands.
He could hear music coming from another room. Light notes filling the silence when no one spoke.
"It was a quirk accident. There's nothing I can do about that." His Papa said.
The woman went to say something, but only a choked out gasp left her lips, "Nothing...?" A man's voice said.
"That's right. Nothing. Yuma had activated his quirk for the first time, not knowing what it was. There's nothing else to discuss." Papa's voice lacked any kind of emotion.
Yuma gripped his shorts a little tighter.
Harsh notes made his heart drum inside his chest.
"Yuma, come here," at the sound of his name, the boy jumped down from the chair and reluctantly walked inside the room, "Tell them what happened. The truth." Papa said, not looking at him.
Yuma warily looked up and was meet with the faces of the two people in front of him. The woman was heavily leaning onto the man, cheeks stained with dark... paint? The man was holding her, arm wrapped around her waist as he grit his teeth.
"My head... had been hurting, but I didn't want to bother anyone with it. Kyoya always told me that... that the pain would go away when I scrape my knees. And it did! But... the pain in my head didn't go away," he mumbled out, not meeting their eyes, "My eyes started hurting and I rubbed them, but the other kids thought I was crying! I wasn't crying! I wasn't a crybaby!" he pulled at the hem of his shorts, "Mahiru..." he ignored the woman's sharp inhale at the mention of the name, "He called me a crybaby as he jumped around me, pulling at my hair-!"
"Mahiru would never do anything like that!" The woman screamed at him, taking a step forward, "You're lying! Mahiru is a good boy!" The man pulled her back, keeping her in place.
Yuma went still and lowered his head.
"Yuma. Continue." His Papa's voice rang out, making him look at the people in front.
"I wanted him to stop doing it because he was hurting me... I just wanted him to stop... I didn't mean for him to get hurt, I really didn't!" He raised his voice towards the end, feeling a weird stinging in his eyes.
"There you have it. That's the end of the discussion." Papa declared.
"Mahiru! My little baby!" The woman dropped onto her knees, fists weekly slamming into the tiles underneath her.
Yuma stepped forward, small hand reaching towards the woman. But, before he could touch her, his hand was slapped away.
Instant flashes of images went through his mind. Bright pictures and scenes caused him to step back. He could see a hospital bed and a boy lying in it, but the boy wasn't moving. Various machine-looking things were around him, some of them even wrapped around his body.
And then it all disappeared, as if it was never there.
Papa took a hold of Yuma's wrist, "My condolences." And with that, Yuma was pulled out of the room.
The woman's wails echoed through the hospital.
_
Yuma's dreams were filled with her cries.