I'm so glad that I finally managed to post the fic. Even though I started and finished writing most of it by the end of August, I only recently managed to find time to edit and post it.

Thank you Sou-chan for helping me look over it!

"He was talking to himself."

"He started running away out of nowhere."

"Creepy..."

"Go away!"

A rock was thrown at him along with the statement.

Eleven-years old Natsume winced as the rock struck against his arm. Natsume's hand instinctively went to cover the wound, even as he raised his head to the sight of five kids his same age looking down at him disgust or indifference. Natsume bit his lips and hurried away before more rocks could follow. He didn't take more than five steps before a cry of "ow!" involuntarily drew his attention back.

Natsume turned around to the sight of one of his classmate - the same one who threw the rock - clenching his own arm in the same manner that Natsume was.

"Hey, what was that for?!" the classmate cried out, the sentiment echoed by those around him.

Natsume followed their line of gaze to an older boy emerging from behind the slide. Casually tossing a few sharp-edged rocks into the air and catching them again, he was wearing a different uniform than theirs with his shirt ruffled and untucked, and his pants marred with dirt.

The older boy cocked his head to the side like he was confused. The smirk on his face said otherwise. "Aren't you playing catch? Just thought that I could join you."

"Wha -? Who would play with you? You're dirty and - ah!" The classmate cried out as he barely dodged the thrown rock.

"You missed," the older boy said cheerfully. He wound his arm back for another throw. "Let's try again."

"You're older than us!" another classmate cried out. She looked frightened, but stood her ground with a hand on her hip nevertheless. "You can't bully us!"

"Me against you kids is bullying because I'm older," the older boy said, "but you five against that scrawny kid ain't?"

Natsume squawked at being called scrawny. The older boy looked at him for a second, before glancing back at his classmates and threw the rock among their midst. "Scram!"

Natsume's classmates scattered and fled.

The older boy laughed.

"Weaklings, the lot of them," the older boy said with the shake of his head, picking up a rock at his feet. "Next time they bother you again, fight back." The older boy threw the rock against a tree, and it impacted with a loud bam. Natsume straightened as the older boy turned his smirk on him. "You might not win, but they'll definitely think you're too troublesome to pick on afterwards."

"I can't," Natsume said. At the older boy's raised eyebrows, Natsume looked away. "I don't want to cause trouble for the people looking after me."

"It's less troublesome for them to let some kids beat you up?" the older boy asked, skeptical.

Natsume flushed. "That's not -"

He startled and blanched at the sight of an one-eyed youkai that suddenly popped out of the tree behind the older boy.

The older boy, facing towards Natsume and away from the youkai - not that he could have seen it anyway - , whistled. "Your face change so fa -"

"I have to go!" Natsume shouted before running away, his heart pounding against his chest. "Thank you for helping me!"

Natsume was pretty far away by then, so he couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard the older boy splutter, "I didn't do it to help you. I was just bored , alright?!"

The thought of it inexplicably made Natsume smile, just a little.

Xxx

The next time Natsume saw the older boy, Natsume literally ran into him while fleeing from a youkai.

"Ow, who dare run into me?" the older boy said as he skidded back from the impact of their bodies. He glanced down and blinked at Natsume. "Oh, it's you again. The scrawny kid from - hey, what are you doing?"

Natsume heard a roar behind him and grabbed the older boy's arm. "Run!" he urged, and pulled the older boy along with him without waiting for his reply.

Natsume didn't know how long they were running until they finally lost the youkai chasing him.

"Shit, for such a scrawny kid," the older boy said, heaving a breath, "you sure can run hella fast." The older boy glanced at him. "Who's picking on you this time? I told you to stand your ground if they do, didn't I?"

Natsume let go of the older boy as though burnt, and stepped back from him. How could he tell him that he was being chased by a youkai that the older boy could not see? "I told you, I can't fight," Natsume said. He refrained from explaining more, letting the boy come to his own incorrect conclusion that the one chasing him this time was the same group of kids last time.

"That's a 'won't', not a 'can't'," the older boy corrected, easily accepting Natsume's lie by omission. It made Natsume feel guilty, especially since the older boy had helped him before. "Even I know that much of a difference." His eyes trailed across Natsume's slender form. "Although you look like a 'can't fight' too."

Natsume couldn't even protest at the statement, since he knew that to be the truth. He had never once been in a fight in his life and relied on flight most of the time.

"I can tell you're good at running already," the older boy continued. "But that's going to do you zero good if you're stuck in a situation and the only solution is to punch your way out. And when that happens, you won't, because you can't, because you don't know how to."

Natsume said nothing.

"Hey, how much money do you have on you now?" the older boy asked.

Natsume blinked at the non-sequitur and stupidly took out the money he was given by his current guardian for that week's lunch. Half of it were already spent.

It was immediately snatched out of his hand.

"Hey!" Natsume protested, reaching to retrieve the money, but the older boy merely turned and twisted, neatly avoiding Natsume's seeking hand as he casually counted the money.

"Damn, so little," the older boy said, having the gall to sound disappointed. He blinked down at Natsume jumping for the money, as though he had just noticed him now, and then smirked. "Don't you wish you can fight now?"

"Give it back!" Natsume exclaimed, glaring at the older boy. Panic was digging into his chest. Without that money, he wouldn't be able to eat lunch for the rest of the week.

"Good glare, but that's not going to scare me into giving your money back," the older boy said. He looked at Natsume. "Throw a punch at me."

"No," Natsume stated, setting his jaws. "Now give it back." He held out his hand.

"No," the older boy said, much in the same way that Natsume did. He leaned down and grinned at him. "Make me."

Natsume bit his lips, feeling the sting of the bite. His eyes prickled. He felt hopeless, useless, unable to do a single thing. "Why are you doing this?!"

"I told you," the older boy said, infuriatingly calm. "Punch me."

Natsume threw a punch at the older boy with a strangled cry. The older boy swat it away like it was an annoying fly.

"Good try, but no," the older boy said. "Try again."

And so Natsume did, for what felt like hours until he at last managed to punch the older boy across the face. It felt satisfying for about two seconds, and then he was horrified.

The older boy laughed it off. "Now that's more like it. Remember that feeling, alright?"

He tossed Natsume's money back at him, and Natsume fumbled to not drop it. His arms felt like they were made of lead and his entire body was heavy like a weight was on him.

"C'mon, my Ma's not going to expect me back yet," the older boy said. "Let's get some food."

Natsume quickly put his money back into his pocket, and the older boy chuckled again.

"My treat, c'mon," the older boy said, canting his head towards the road. Natsume hesitated, but the truth was that his guardian Tarou-san wouldn't be expecting him either. He rarely cared where Natsume went and never asked after it.

Natsume slowly nodded, and the older boy smiled. "Good. By the way, what's your name, pipsqueak?"

"I'm still growing," Natsume grumbled under his breath, before finally answering, "Natsume. Natsume Takashi." Natsume looked up to the older boy. "And you?"

"Yusuke," the older boy said. "Urameshi Yusuke."

Yusuke brought them to a nearby McDonald's for fast food. It was greasy, unhealthy, but also filling and good. By the time they left, it was nearly nine at night. They had eaten for almost an hour. Yusuke ordered two burgers for his mother to-go, and then they parted ways.

As Natsume sneaked back to Tarou-san's apartment, tiptoeing through the living room and past his guardian sleeping on the couch with several beer cans scattered around him, it occurred to him that just like Natsume, Yusuke had a guardian that didn't expect a kid to be home even by eight or nine at night.

He didn't know whether to feel happy or incredibly sad at the revelation.

Xxx

"You ran out on me last time," Yusuke accused from where he was leaning against Natsume's school wall as soon as he saw him. Natsume would have wondered what Yusuke was doing here, didn't he have school himself, if only Natsume didn't already know Yusuke skipped most of the time.

Natsume can hear murmurs behind him, all wondering if Natsume owed the punk-looking older boy money. It inexplicably made Natsume feel annoyed.

"Literally," Yusuke continued. "One moment we were just hanging and the next you were running like hell. You're always running too."

"Natsume sees monsters," one of his leaving classmates jeered as he pushed past him at the school gate. "Didn't he tell you?"

The classmate's friends laughed.

Yusuke laughed too. He cracked his knuckles. "Didn't he tell you I'm a monster too?"

He took a menacing step forward.

The classmates paled. Natsume saw a passing teacher approaching them from a distance.

Natsume tugged on Yusuke's arm. "Let's go, Yusuke." He didn't want to cause any trouble.

They went to a nearby park, the same one where they first met, and sat down at the swings.

"Kids these days are so mean," Yusuke said as he swung himself high, whooshing by Natsume who elected to just sit there.

"You're a kid too, Yusuke," Natsume said, pointedly looking at Yusuke on the swing.

Yusuke ignored him. "So, what's up with you?" he called out, and Natsume knew he was asking about why he always ran out of nowhere.

"I…" Natsume stared down at his clasped hands. He didn't want to tell Yusuke the truth, didn't want to lose a friend, but Yusuke seemed okay with Natsume so far, despite his eccentricity and strangeness. Maybe, just maybe, he could know the whole truth and still accept Natsume. "I… it's just like my classmates said. I can see monsters. Youkai."

Yusuke's swing skid to a stop as he slammed his feet against the ground. He turned to him and Natsume's heart rate doubled within his chest. "You don't have to mind what they say, you know."

Natsume blinked at him. "What?"

"Just because they say mean things about you doesn't mean that it's true," Yusuke said, as sternly as he could, even as he looked a little uncomfortable at taking on the comforting and lecturing role as the older of the two. "Don't listen to their shit."

Understanding dawned on Natsume. Yusuke thought Natsume was just accepting his bullying classmate's words as truth about himself.

"It's not about them," Natsume said, suddenly desperate for someone to know, to understand. " I meant it, Yusuke. I… I can see things that normal people can't."

Yusuke laughed. "Ghost and youkai," he said, incredulity in his voice. "Really?"

Liar, they hissed at him in disgust, before all leaving one by one.

Natsume flinched.

Yusuke stopped. "Hey, you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice. He stood, walking over to Natsume's swing to brush his hand against Natsume's forehead. Natsume startled. "Seems fine to me. What's up with you? You're so weird."

Natsume stared at him.

"You got another bruise on your arm," Yusuke commented, poking at the spot. Natsume winced. "I told you to just give them a good beating. Promise you they won't bother you no more." Yusuke looked deep in thought for a moment, before an evil smirk crossed his face. "Or should I help you do it?"

That startled a laugh out of Natsume. His voice sounded watery.

"Hey, you really okay? Hate to get all mushy, but you're worrying me," Yusuke said. He leaned down, trying to peer at Natsume's face, but Natsume grabbed the sleeve of his uniform, stilling him.

He didn't believe him. Natsume told Yusuke the truth, and he didn't believe him. But…

Liar, they hissed at him in disgust, before all leaving one by one.

Yusuke was still there, concerned about his wellbeing. He was still there, despite thinking Natsume was weird and a weakling.

Yusuke didn't understand, but maybe, just maybe, he didn't have to.

Xxx

On a nice summer day, Yusuke and Natsume were hanging out in the arcade when Yusuke pointed at Natsume's arm and said, "What's that?"

Natsume glanced past his rolled-up sleeve to his forearm, where the vague shape of a handprint could be seen. He yanked his sleeve down. "I… it's nothing," Natsume said. Tarou-san had grabbed him when, on the way to his room yesterday, Natsume accidentally kicked a beer bottle on the ground and woke him.

"It looked like a handprint," Yusuke said, his eyes razor sharp as he gazed at the spot where the handprint was on Natsume's arm, as though he could see it through the sleeve. "An adult-sized one."

Natsume's stomach clenched. He wished they could continue the fighting game they were playing, before Yusuke noticed his arm.

"Don't worry about it. It was my fault," Natsume said, his hand subconsciously moving to cover over the handprint. "I accidentally woke him up..."

"And he grabbed you?" Yusuke said, his voice sharp.

"It's not like that," Natsume said. He was speaking to the ground at this point. "He doesn't usually grab me or hurt me." He just ignores me. "That time was… different. He didn't want to take me in in the first place, so I shouldn't have caused him any trouble."

"Natsume," Yusuke started, but Natsume shook his head.

"It's nothing, really," Natsume insisted.

"Just like all the other bruises you always walk around with are nothing?" Yusuke asked.

Natsume pressed his lips together, not knowing what to say. Some of the bruises were from running away from youkai, some from his bullying classmates, and recently, some from his guardian. Natsume couldn't tell him that though. He didn't want to cause trouble for Yusuke.

Finally, Yusuke sighed. "Che, whatever," he said, turning back to the game. "C'mon, I'm not done kicking your skinny ass yet."

Natsume smiled. "Alright," he agreed as he resumed, not pointing out that it was actually he who had been winning.

"Oh, shut up," Yusuke said anyway.

Natsume laughed, even as he knew deep down that this wouldn't be the last of the conversation.

Xxx

Three afternoons later found Natsume confused, worried, and dejected.

Yusuke occasionally is late, but he never missed our meeting before, Natsume thought, trudging back to the house after waiting thirty minutes past their agreed time.

He had just rounded the corner when loud shouts caught his attention.

"A broken nose would be the least of your worries if you lay your hands on him again!" a voice hissed, and Natsume's eyes widened. That voice was Yusuke's.

"Sorry, excuse me, excuse me," Natsume said as he quickly pushed his way through the crowd around Tarou-san's house. He froze at the sight before him.

"You're crazy," Tarou-san said from the ground, eyes wide with a hand covering his nose. Blood trickled over his fingers and plopped onto the ground.

"Fuck yeah I am," Yusuke said, not resisting as a police officer dragged him off of Natsume's guardian. "So you better heed my warning, old man. Or else." Yusuke grinned, his expression feral.

He winced as a police officer whacked him over the head.

"Shut up, Urameshi. We're bringing you into custody," the police officer said, sounding exasperatedly accustomed to dealing with Yusuke. "You're already in deep shit for assault and battery. Don't tempt me into adding threats onto that list."

Yusuke was about to reply when he spotted Natsume in the crowd. Then, with his arms still restrained behind his back by the police officer, he grinned, morphing his previous feral expression to something much softer.

"Hey, Natsume! Oh c'mon, don't look so gloom, kiddo," he said when Natsume didn't reply, and then Natsume realized his entire body was trembling.

"What happened?" Natsume asked.

"Don't worry," Yusuke said, neatly avoiding Natsume's question. "This ain't my first time going with the coppers, ya know, and there are definitely perks to being underaged." The police officer looked like he was about to hit Yusuke again. Yusuke looked at Natsume and smiled. It looked oddly final."Try not to get passed back to this shithole, would you?"

"I told you to just give them a good beating. Promise you they won't bother you no more."

"He didn't want to take me in in the first place, so I shouldn't have caused him any trouble."

Yusuke looked deep in thought for a moment, before an evil smirk crossed his face. "Or should I help you do it?"

"A broken nose would be the least of your worries if you lay your hands on him again!"

"No…" Natsume said, when he realized what was going on. "Yusuke!"

"Goodbye, Natsume," Yusuke said, and then they took him away.

Xxx

"I'm really sorry about Yusuke, Tarou-san, " Natsume said, lowering himself to a waist-level bow. "I'm very, very sorry. Please… please don't press charges against him." Please don't press charges against my friend. "He was only worried about me."

"Worried about you?! What is there to worry about? How dare he come up to me and tell me to stop smacking you around. Don't make me out to be the bad guy! I decided to take care of you out of the goodness of my heart, and this is what I get?!" Tarou-san hissed, angrily throwing his hand out.

Natsume flinched as the hand glanced over his head. He saw Tarou-san's hand clench as Tarou-san brought it back stiffly to his side.

"Shit," Tarou-san said. Natsume carefully stood as his guardian nervously running his hand through his hair. "The police got involved. They're going to ask the kid about this and he's going to claim I was abusing you. Kids these days whine about everything and can't even stand a little tough love." Tarou-san started pacing. "This is bad. This can get really bad. Why was I ever saddled with a troublesome, lying brat like you?"

Natsume flinched at those words.

"That's it, you're getting outta here." Tarou-san grabbed a plastic bag and marched into his room, throwing Natsume's belongings into it. There wasn't much. "Let's go, I'm bringing you to my brother's. I don't care what excuse he's giving me this time, or how much more money he's giving me to watch over you. You're leaving and that's final. I'm not going to let the police start an investigation on me. In a small town like this, that's suicide."

Tarou-san took Natsume and drove for three hours to the next town over where his older brother lived. It was well into evening when they finally arrived, and the first thing Tarou-san did was jump out of his car to bang insistently on the door of his brother's house.

Natsume slowly got out of the car, clenching onto his bag of belongings. For a wild second, he considered running. Natsume had long gotten used to the life of being passed from one family to another, and he had long accepted that some of the families considered him troublesome and tried to foist him on to someone else as soon as possible. But for the first time in his life, he found someone who he wanted to stay for. Someone who didn't want him to stay, but who got in trouble trying to protect him.

"Try not to get passed back to this shithole, would you?"

"Goodbye, Natsume."

Natsume couldn't go back; Yusuke did this to keep him away from Tarou-san's neglect and abuse. If Natsume went back, he would be wasting his friend's efforts and be forcing Yusuke back in the same situation again.

Natsume bowed his head, his hair shadowing his eyes, just as the door to Tarou-san's brother's house was finally thrown open. Natsume didn't hear the conversation that followed and only caught snippets of "liar", "troublesome", and "yazuka", but in the end, Tarou-san got his way.

He drove back to Sarayashiki without Natsume.

The first night that he stayed at Tarou-san's brother's house, they sent him to a spare bedroom for him to rest and conveniently 'forgot' to feed him.

Xxx

Whatever Tarou-san told his brother scared him. Within two weeks, Natsume found himself moved to another household, being pushed farther and farther away from Sarayashiki.

It was just as intended by Yusuke. Natsume was safe from Tarou-san now.

He was also very, very alone.

Lonely.

Xxx

A year later, as he was running away from another harassing youkai, Yusuke's words came into his mind: "Next time they bother you again, fight back. You might not win, but they'll definitely think you're too troublesome to pick on afterwards."

It was ridiculous for Natsume to think of those words in this situation. A youkai was chasing him. How could a human child ever beat a youkai - ?!

Oh no, Natsume thought as, deep in thought as he were, he didn't pay attention to where he was going and tripped against an upraised root. He winced as the ground scraped against his elbows and knees, and then the youkai was on him.

Panic clawed at him as long claws wrapped around Natsume's throat and squeezed. It was saying something, cackling, but Natsume was so scared that he couldn't hear anything of it.

Let go, let go, let go! Natsume thought. He frantically clawed at the youkai's hand with no avail.

"Let go! " Natsume finally strangled out. His hand lashed out of its own accord, smashing squarely into the youkai's face. It was the exact type of punch that Yusuke would have labeled weak if he were there to see it.

The youkai flew off of him. Natsume took exactly a second to blink in bemusement, and then he took off running without looking back.

That youkai stopped harassing him afterwards.

Xxx

Three years after that, Natsume met the Fujiwaras. He also met kind people like Kitamoto, Nishimura, Tanuma, Taki, and Natori-san.

And of course, Nyanko-sensei and the forest youkai .

He was walking home with Kitamoto and Nishimura when Kitamoto noted, "Oh, who's that? I don't recognize that uniform."

"Oh, oh, where?!" Nishimura exclaimed, only to deflate when he followed the line to where Kitamoto pointed. "That's just a random guy, Kitamoto. Don't get my hopes high like that, man. I thought it would be girls from another school."

Natsume laughed as he turned towards the direction Kitamoto and Nishimura was looking at. He stopped.

Kitamoto paused as well, while Nishimura continued on walking and complaining without realizing his friends weren't by his side. "Natsume? What's wrong?" Kitamoto asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

The older boy in the unfamiliar uniform turned at that moment. Except that middle school uniform wasn't unfamiliar to Natsume, was it, even if it finally fit his friend properly now without him having to roll up the sleeves.

The older boy grinned. It looked exactly the same as four years ago. "Hey, Natsume, so you got moved here, huh?" he said. He blinked at Natsume for a moment, before letting out a laugh. "Gee, what are you doing?"

Natsume smiled, brushing away the tears on his cheek. "Yusuke. It's been a long time."

Yusuke's grin widened, and then his eyes strayed behind him. Natsume turned. The wind whistled unnaturally in the air for a moment, and then a loud cry of "Natsume. Natsume Reiko, give me the Book of Friends!" echoed through the surrounding forest.

"Woah, what's with this wind?" Kitamoto asked as Nishimura nodded in agreement. He looked at Yusuke. "And who are you? You know Natsume?"

Natsume wanted to explain, but he didn't have time. He readied an excuse and prepared to run.

A hand settled on his shoulder.

Natsume turned to see Yusuke standing beside him. He was tossing a rock in his hand.

"Gee, you forgot everything I taught you, didn't you?" he said. "I told you to take a stand." Then, he wound his arm back and threw the rock.

It hit the youkai squarely in the face. The youkai yowled as it disintegrated.

Yusuke turned to Natsume, a wry smile on his face. "Alright, you can tell me 'I told you so' now."

Natsume laughed.

So while I was rewatching Natsume's Book of Friends during this summer, I noticed that child!Natsume always runs away from youkai in the flashbacks. I've never seen him actually hit a youkai in his youth, even though we know for sure that the present!Natsume has no qualms about that if the youkai is really bothering him. I was musing on what brought on that transition and when it happened, and then it occurred to me that Yusuke teaching Natsume to stand up for himself can act as an explanation for that. This fic grew out from that idea.

In case you are wondering:

Natsume's guardian - I do realize that Natsume's past guardian canonically are described to have treated him coldly and ignored him at most. However, according to a youkai, some foster parents have gotten drunk and hit him, or pretended to 'forget' to feed him, which is how I characterized Tarou-san and his brother by.

Nastume's classmate - Likewise, canonically most of the time, Natsume's past classmates ignore him or verbally teased him at most, but in the anime, I have seen an instance where a rock was thrown at Natsume, which is how I ended up characterizing Natsume's bullying classmate in the fic.

Both extreme cases for the treatment of Natsume by his guardian and his classmates ended in this fic, which in retrospect, probably played a part in why I couldn't really manage to mimic Natsume's Book of Friends' mood no matter how much I tried.

Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it!