SMACK!

The smaller fell backwards heavily, not trying to fight back against his attackers. It happened so often and had done for so long it was the norm as far as he was concerned: a daily occurence that couldn't be changed. Not even if he tried.

At first he'd hated it, the seemingly endless pain as blow after blow rained down on him like some heartless downpour of fists. Now he welcomed the pain. At least it showed he could still feel something after all this time.

So he lay back, and let the fists batter his weakening frame as he waited for the darkness to consume him. It wouldn't be long now: the black spots were already threatening to remove his vision altogether...The sounds of fists hitting skin were slowly getting softer...drifting away.....

"HEY...HEY! WHAT IN THE NAME OF GAIA D'YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

Wait. This wasn't right. Nobody had ever interrupted before.

The punches ceased, and he heard them running away, footsteps echoing into muffled thuds before disappearing altogether. Silence... This was wrong...

"Hey...Buddy? You all right?"

A blurred face invaded his vision... Lightly tanned skin, a shock of spikey black hair, and a concerned look in violet eyes.

Who the hell are you, and why do you care?

The semi-conscious figure on the floor lifted his head, dazed. Normally he'd be left there on the hard tiles to recover, but now there was this stranger pushing his nose in. He was about to tell the stranger in no uncertain terms to 'go away', when suddenly he found himself not on cold, hard tile, but supported in warm, strong arms.

"You don't have to talk just yet, friend. Gotta get ya cleaned up first, huh? That was quite some beating you took there."

He could hear the smile in the others voice, and was surprised to discover that it didn't infuriate him.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that this spikey-haired stranger had been the first person to ever call him 'friend'.