AN: from the prompt any, any, sometimes, humans are worse than demons from the comment fic community at LJ (not posted there because I lost the link to which day/theme the prompt came from. -_-;;; ) I've wanted to write a Natsume fic for a long while. While this is less a story and more a bunch of snippets, it was still fun to write. :) I love Natsume's character.

Uncle Minoru smiled when he took Takashi in. The smile lasted through the first week. It lasted through Takashi dropping a plate when an ayakashi appeared through the window while he was doing dishes. He smiled through catching Takashi talking to someone only he could see. He smiled through Takashi waking screaming from nightmares. He smiled when he brought a glass of water and a tissue to dry Takashi's tears. He even smiled when Takashi slammed into him when an ayakashi tripped him. Uncle Minoru was still smiling as he systematically went through the list of things that were wrong with Takashi and how he planned to "fix" them.

Takashi didn't trust smiles by the time Uncle Minoru deemed him unfixable and passed him on to another relative.

There were two choices; the angry ayakashi behind him or the angry human classmates in front of him, and Takashi wasn't sure which the worse choice of the two was. The ayakashi wanted to eat him, but the kids before him wanted to eat him in a more metaphorical sense, eating away his self worth and confidence.

He had hesitated too long. The bullies had noticed him and he could hear the ayakashi's growl behind him. Takashi dove at the bullies and hoped they'd be surprised enough that he would pass by them. It was too much to hope. A hand closed over his wrist.

"Where are you running to, Natsume?" one boy said.

"Running from the voices in your head?" another laughed.

"Let me eat you child!" the ayakashi bellowed. "I promise it will be quick and painless."

Takashi closed his eyes and wished with every scrap of will he had that he was somewhere else. Someone else. Something else. Of course nothing happened. Wishes were empty and only ever led to disappointment. So why did he keep wishing?

"Is he crying?"

"No, he looks more like he's praying. Trying to contact the spirits?"

Takashi took one breath, then another. The air was vibrating with the ayakashi's roars. The other boys didn't notice at all of course. Hopes and wishes or not, he still did not want to be eaten. He twisted his wrist free and elbowed his way past the boys. They shouted behind him, a high pitched echo to the ayakashi. Two threats behind him now. Well, that was all the more incentive not to stop running.

Ueda Arisa smiled and laughed and teased Takashi all throughout his first dinner at the Ueda household while her parents smiled approvingly and encouraged Takashi to eat more. The smile lasted until Takashi was shown the room he would be living in and was told to unpack. The moment her parents had left the room, Arisa was in Takashi's space, crowding him against the doorjamb.

"Never forget that this is my house not yours. They are my parents, and you are nothing more than problem child they are taking in out of pity. Understand?"

Takashi looked at the Western carpet and the window and the bookcase in the back of the room that hinted that the room had once been an office. He could feel Arisa's breath on the side of his face. "I understand."

"Good." She gave him space and smiled, bright and cruel. "Keep it that way."

He was starting to hate smiles.

There were two little ayakashi in the bushes. Takashi had been trying to do his homework outside for once, but it was hard to focus with tiny, squeaking voices chattering back and forth.

They were building something, weaving flowers and twigs and pieces of grass into a shape that so far looked like a bowl, or maybe a nest.

"Feather!" one of them shouted, tugging it along behind it with spindly arms. The feather in question was a dusty brown dove feather. The other ayakashi squeaked.

"It's too big! Where are we going to fit that?" It tucked a piece of grass toward the top of the bowl shape and frowned over its edge.

"It'll bend!"

Takashi hid a smile. Neither ayakashi had noticed him watching. Takashi flipped a page in his book and tried to read a few more lines, but he looked up again when the one with the feather started trying to talk the feather into fitting when it wouldn't bend properly under his weight.

When Takashi ran into ayakashi like this, he had to wonder how there could be ayakashi that only wanted to harm and devour. Sadly he ran into the latter more than the former.

"Look out!" someone yelled, and Takashi ducked without thinking. A ball sailed over his head and he heard the ayakashi in the bush shriek.

One of the neighborhood kids ran Takashi's way, eyes wide. His eyes flicked between Takashi and the ball like he thought Takashi would curse him. Who knew what rumors were going around? Takashi tried not to listen to them if he was able.

"I lost control of the ball," the boy said. He edged toward the bush.

Takashi followed his eyes to the ball. The tiny ayakashi were gone. The structure they had been building was crushed and mangled out of recognition.

The boy moved past Takashi and snatched up the ball, not noticing the mess of grass and twigs beneath it. "Sorry," the boy blurted, then he was running for his friends.

Takashi watched the group of ball players move on. He listened for some soft sound of the ayakashi returning, but there was none. In the wreckage of their construction, the dove feather stood upright. It looked like a bird nest that had been damaged. Takashi tucked the feather in the pages of his book. Though he stayed until he finished his homework, the ayakashi didn't return.

The ayakashi's fingers were tightening around his neck and Takashi couldn't breathe or move. Normally this would be where he punched the ayakashi in the face to get free, but his arms were more concerned with keeping weight off his throat and trying to loosen deceptively thin fingers to try and fight.

A roar and a whirl of white fur filled the space and the ayakashi holding him shrieked as it was ripped into by teeth the length of Takashi's hand. Takashi thudded to the ground.

"Insolent being!" Madara growled. The ayakashi gasped pleas. Madara's eyes flicked to Takashi and his teeth tightened before they let go. "Flee, before I regret showing kindness." The ayakashi slipped free, gasping. "Return and I will be less merciful!"

Madara stood tensed and ready until the last presence of the ayakashi had gone. Then he curled around Takashi's side, burying him in fluffy white fur. "Still alive?"

Takashi rubbed his throat. "I'll be fine." His voice came out a little raspy and he would have to hide his throat for a few days, but there was no lasting harm. "Thank you, Sensei."

Madara huffed a breath. "I leave for five minutes—"

"You left hours ago, Sensei."

"Five minutes and you are being attacked by a weakling. Can you never stay out of trouble?" His heavy muzzle rested on Takashi's head.

Takashi pushed him away. "Well it's a good thing you have good timing."

Madara snorted and said, "You need to get stronger or I might just eat you myself."

There was a poof and he turned into cat form. Takashi pulled him onto his lap. "Of course, Nyanko-sensei."

"You think I won't!"He batted at Takashi's face, fur fluffed up, but compared to his giant form he was amusing rather than intimidating.

"Yes, yes, you'll eat me and take the Book of Friends." Takashi patted Nyanko-sensei's head and he settled down in Takashi's arms. He smiled at the familiar exchange.

"And don't you forget it." The cat huffed and squirmed in Takashi's arms to get more comfortable. "Ne, Natsume, I'm hungry, buy me manju!"

"It's almost dinner time!"

"Is dinner shrimp?"

"I think it's yakitori…"

Sensei wiggled from Takashi's arms. "What are you waiting for, let's get dinner!"

Takashi laughed and followed Sensei home.