Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Little Things ❯ Teasing ( Chapter 20 )

Little Things

Chapter 20: Teasing

 

By: eternalsailorsolarwind aka youkai_girl

 

Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei and all of its characters are owned by Matsushita Yoko, her Japanese publishers, and Viz. I only play with them for grins and giggles.

 

A/N: Written awhile back, I sat on this one while I let it gel (and while RL was busy having its way with me). Tsuzuki has always been teased, and it's left its mark on him.

 

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Tsuzuki couldn't remember a time when he wasn't being harassed by someone.

As a child, it had been the neighborhood children. His parents expected him to get along with them; always telling him to “play nice.” As if he were not the one being beaten almost daily; purplish bruises marring his face. A good day involved only being teased mercilessly about his “demon eyes” until he bawled. Truly bad ones ended with a healer being called.

 

By the time he was seven, Tsuzuki stopped looking to his parents for comfort and love. They had none for him, the family disappointment. Ruka was his salvation. His older sister drove off the hordes of brats - he was the monster, after all - attacking him. She dressed the minor wounds, and was the one who called the healer. Because she loved him, she told him the one time he'd asked why she did all those things for him; her one and only little brother. With her, he felt special; safe.

 

Then all hell broke loose and his beloved sister was dead. He avenged her violently, using what had lurked inside him through all those years of torment, destroying himself in the process. Finally, after a short eternity, he died. A blessed relief - or so he thought.

 

The afterlife wasn't any better. He was still teased, and now there was no Ruka to protect him from the harsh words of his fellow shinigami. Somehow, drowning in his misery, Tsuzuki found Tatsumi. The serious man helped him keep his head above water; kept him from being completely swamped. Then Watari came to work, and the scientist helped to buoy him from the horrific pain of leading souls to the afterlife; being a murderer again.

 

His latest partner, Hisoka, seemed at first to be like all the others; spiteful and impatient with his weaknesses. But after finding out the truth behind the boy's tragic death, everything began to change. Tsuzuki finally had something he wanted to protect, and he went about it with dog-like devotion. Hisoka did not tease him, and they started to become closer. For the first time, Tsuzuki felt like he could not be in danger of sinking into his pain.

 

It certainly wasn't all sweetness and light. Kyoto proved that. But Hisoka was there when it counted, and he tried to understand Tsuzuki's pain; tried to help him stand on his own two feet and not dissolve into tears every time someone ragged on him. For Hisoka, he was brave when he could be, and wriggled in puppyish pleasure when the blond showed that he approved of something Tsuzuki did.

 

Best of all was that his partner - now at home as well as work - did not harass or bully him. When he was with Hisoka, Tsuzuki felt safe and whole for the first time ever.