Abuse

Sorry for taking so long, I completely forgot about that one! But here is a really long chapter now^^

Murtaghirl: I hope you like the new chapter and so sorry for the long wait! Actually this story is already finished, I just need to post it, so I really feel very bad about forgetting it *sigh*

Ainaloth: Hehe, here you kinda get Seph/Yaz^^ I just finished the promised smutty oneshot yesterday and sent it to my beta. I hope I can put it up here tomorrow! Thanks for reviewing!

mayleaf: Oh wow, thank you for the compliment!!! Now I feel even worse for having to make you wait, but the next chapter will be up sooner, I promise! Thank you for reviewing!

AyaFujimiya: Thank you^^ This story is already finished, and I will see that I update soon for the last two chapters. I´m sorry to be that slow...

Elenna: Ah, I understand your reasoning... Well, I don´t think the boys see Sephiroth as a ´father´ anyway- he´s a stranger to them, a person they fear and that much was taken from Advent Children. But I´m glad you still like it!

6

When he entered the school yard Yazoo couldn´t find his whining brother anywhere in sight. Not feeling like hearing another round of accusations anyway the middle brother didn´t bother searching for Loz and instead leant next to the pillar of the school entrance. He lazily let his gaze wander over the last few pupils, looking for nothing in particular until two small arms wrapped around his waist from behind. Somewhat startled Yazoo looked down and into the smirking face of his youngest brother.

“You´re early. No more classes today?”

The boy shook his head, still smiling, but it faded when the older one freed himself from the close embrace, looking uncomfortable.

Not knowing what to do with his arms now Kadaj let them hang down his side and looked to the side. The silence between them stretching and nearly becoming unbearable, the youngest searched for a way to start a conversation when he noticed something was missing. Looking up at his brother again, who was still watching him, he asked “Ne, where´s the crybaby?” Not that he missed him or something, he was just… well, trying to start a conversation.

Yazoo´s lips curled up into the faintest of smiles “Crying.”

Kadaj´s eyes widened a bit and he snickered into his hand.

After he had calmed down a bit, Yazoo turned away and was about to leave the school yard, saying over his shoulder “We should get going.” Then he bent his head towards the little one and added with a small smile “Maybe we can make a short stop to get you some ice cream, hm?”

“That´d be cool!” Kadaj beamed and hurried to gather his belongings from the ground and running after his brother. When was the last time they had had a few minutes for themselves? He couldn´t remember and with the awkward feeling between them gone he would make sure that this rare moment would become a precious one.

-----

When Loz came home and walked into the kitchen he was greeted with a grinning Kadaj, sitting at the big kitchen table, feet swinging and face stuffed with chocolate ice cream. Yazoo was casually leaning against the fridge, doing nothing in particular aside from watching his little brother with a slightly amused expression and acknowledging his older siblings arrival with a quick glance.

Loz felt rather good at the moment and the petty comment from his youngest brother, involving him and not getting any ice cream didn´t do anything to ruin his mood.

“Pff, who cares about ice cream. I´ve got something much better, you won´t ever get, sprog.”

Yazoo raised an eyebrow whilst Kadaj licked recuctantly at his precious sweet, disappointed and slightly pouting that his statement had failed to piss the oldest off. After all, what could be better than spending time with Yazoo?!

“Hng, you wouldn´t understand anyway…” Loz said with an air of condescension, falling heavily on one of the kitchen chairs.

“I guess you still managed to ‘make conversation’?” Yazoo stated in a slightly mocking tone, smirking a little.

But Loz felt too good to take the bait and instead explained with a proud smile “Yeah, I caught up with her at the backyard and told her that it was just because her breasts confused me. I mean they are really big and round and all…”

Kadaj suddenly didn´t feel like licking at his ice cream anymore and threw the rest of it into the trash, looking disgusted. “Great. You just killed my appetite.”

“Shut up brat, I told you you wouldn´t understand.” Loz snapped and turned to his other brother, hoping to get more sympathy from this sibling. Yazoo however looked at him somewhat alienated “And after that… she still talked to you?”

“Yeah, of course…” Loz answered, being slightly startled as to why she shouldn´t. “Why wouldn´t she? She said she likes people who are honest.”

“I see,” Yazoo murmured.

“Well, I guess there´s something true about ‘fortune favours fool’…” Kadaj snorted, still looking disgusted.

“Shut up! You´re just jealous,” the oldest growled into his direction, ignoring the ‘as if’ eye-rolling of the brat.

“We talked and took a stroll together and all. I even got her phone number,” he stated proudly. Yazoo just raised an eyebrow, though inwardly he agreed with Kadaj and his earlier statement.

“Yeah,” Loz elaborated when he didn´t get an answer, leaning further into the chair and bending his knee over his left leg. “And she said she´d eagerly await my call.”

Kadaj snorted in disbelief, while Yazoo possessed more sense of tact and just watchd the kitchen tiles, refusing to make any comment on this at all. As long as Loz was happy he didn´t mind him showing off a little…

“Yeah…” Loz continued, now looking somehow uncomfortable. “And she asked for my number, too. So…” he rubbed his hands together and shot his middle brother an apologetical look “Since I don´t have one and I couldn´t bear to put the poor girl down… I gave her yours…” He gave a nervous laugh, watching his brother´s face for any signs of annoyance.

Which he surely got. Looking abruptly up from the floor, a deep scowl graced Yazoo´s fair face. “Loz.”

“Yeah, I know, I know. But what should I´ve done, she was on the verge of tears and her boobs are just SO big and…” Loz helplessly gestured with his hands to emphasize just HOW big Tifas breasts were.

Yazoo watched his desperate attempts to make excuses, and finally hmpfed in resignation.

Loz -knowing that the storm was over (luckily before it had even started)- let his hands fall back onto his knee, but dropped his head to show that he still was rueful. But there hadn´t been any other way, and he had known that Yazoo would definitely understand, wouldn´t he?!

“Fine then. It can´t be helped now.” Yazoo unfolded his arms which had been crossed over his chest, but was still a little sour. “We´re getting you a phonecard tomorrow and you can relocate your lovetalk to a public phone box.”

“´S Okay,” Loz hurried to agree. That was better than nothing.

“And tell her to not call me. Got it?” The middle brother was already on his way out of the kitchen and almost smiled at the “Sure thing.” from the other. Sometimes Loz was just too obedient… Not so his youngest brother. “Hey, why does he get a phonecard?” Kadaj called out in protest, giving Loz a dead glare.

“You got ice cream, remember?” Yazoo replied and was through the door, but could still hear the dissatisfied murmuring from Kadaj and the not so nice reply from Loz. Sighing he went upstairs and just hoped they didn´t kill each other while he was occupied with HIS business.

*

Later that evening Sephiroth parked his limousine in front of the mansion and shut the car door with an angry bang.

To say that he was in a foul mood was a blatant understatement.

After dealing with some unworthy, annoying brats who dared to call themselves recruits and some incompetend co-workers he just felt like ripping someone´s head off and spreading their intestines all over the floor.

Fortunately for the kids they were nowhere to be seen when he entered the moonlit, dark entrance hall. At least he didn´t have to deal with THEIR stupidity, although they still seemed to be clever enough to not bother him at a time like this. The general had a short, disinterested look through the kitchen, ignoring the plate of food that was prepared for him and sat on the table. Then he went back to the hall and made his way up the stairs.

He needed something to relax. Hence he stopped in front of his favorite protege´s room and, not bothering to knock, stepped inside uninvited. Not that he needed an invitation anyway. This house and everything within it was his and at his will.

The room was dark, only lit by the moon light which came shining through the high, open windows, a soft breeze moving the curtains lightly. It first seemed to be abandoned, but the general could clearly hear water rushing from the shower next door. Silently he walked through the darkness to the bed and made himself comfortable.

It wasn´t like he was in a hurry. He would get what he wanted soon enough and the longer he waited and withheld himself the more exciting it would get. Watching the bathroom door with slight anticipation and growing impatience Sephiroth wasn´t aware of the small smirk that crept over his lips. Yes, he would make sure he had a good time tonight…

He was thrown out of his musings by a low sound. Looking around the room with narrowed eyes he detected it coming from the boy´s school bag which was neatly placed next to his desk.

With an elegant move the general unwillingly rose from the water bed, crouched down next to the bag and fetched the noisy item with two fingers from between some books. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at the cellphone, which kept ringing in his hand. Expressionless he lifted the receiver, waiting for the caller to speak and he didn´t have to wait for long.

“Hi.”

He was greeted by a female voice.

“Erh, this is Tifa. Remember me? We had kind of a date in the backyard today.” She gave a nervous chuckle. “Well, uhm… I´m just calling because, well, I wanted to thank you for the nice afternoon and all and I thought maybe we could talk a little bit more about my boobs-” She laughed and continued to say something else.

He never heard the rest of it. Sharply directing his gaze to the bathroom door he shut the phone with a snap, his look making the room temperature drop to zero.

A few minutes later said bathroom door opened and Yazoo entered , one towel wrapped around his slim hip, drying his wet, long hair with another one. If the presence of the general had startled him his face didn´t show it. He gave his father a short nod and a calm “Good evening”, then he walked across the room, leaving a wet path on the red carpet and vanishing inside the wardrobe.

Sephiroth watched the boy from his position on the bed, where he had taken a seat again and didn´t look less calm and even relaxed.

“Good evening,” he answered in a friendly manner, not taking his eyes off of the boy. “How was school today?” Sepiroth asked with the same amount of interest he always put into the question, which was neither too enthusiastic nor too bored to assume that he wasn´t interested at all.

“Nothing special,” came the short reply. Yazoo just wasn´t one for unnecessary words, one reason why the general prefered him over his quarelling and permanently blabbering siblings.

“Is that so?” Sephiroth wondered aloud, pretending that he was busy flicking through a book on the nightstand, which was placed next to the bed.

“Hn.” Yazoo had finally found his nightgown, although he was pretty sure he wouldn´t wear it for long.

Fumbling with the upper button of it and momentarily forgetting the general´s presence he came back into the bedroom.

“Then I´m wondering what you consider interesting if not screwing one of your classmate sluts.”

That, and the icy tone of Sephiroth´s voice, didn´t fail to get Yazoo´s attention immediately. He stopped messing with his pyjamas and stared back at his foster-father, who was still occupied with the book, but the boy wasn´t fooled by his seeming tediousness.

Sephiroth never spoke in that tone, at least not with him. But he had heard it often enough to know perfectly well what it indicated. Usually that edge crept into the general´s voice before one of his brothers was beaten into a bloody pulp. Frozen to the spot the boy just continued to stare at the man on the bed.

Said man looked up from the lack of an answer, and his cool eyes made chills run down Yazoo´s spine. Still calm, but with an underlaying aura of malice, the general slowly rose from the bed, absently tossing the book away, his moves predatory and sleek.

“Well? Tell me. Because I really am curious about your answer. At least Tifa seemed to have enjoyed herself.” He tilted his head interrogatively.

Yazoo´s eyes widened a fraction and he finally let go of his pyjamas.

“I can explain this.”

“Of course you can.” Sephiroth was a mere inches away from the boy, his voice now as icy as his eyes, betraying the smile he had donned to his beautiful features.

Tilting his head to the side Yazoo kept observing his father, searching for the right words.

“I am listening,” the general encouraged, but it came out more like a threat.

“Tifa is a transfer student who happened to become our new classmate. Loz met her earlier today and they got along quite well, I think.”

“Really.”The general absently eyed his fingernails. It was impossible to tell if he believed or even had listened to his protege´s explanation. Eventually he rather lazily raised his gaze, pinning the boy with his piercing stare. Sephiroths face didn´t betray any sign of wether he was pleased or satisfied by the boy´s answer as he stood looming over Yazoo, his expression utterly unreadable.

The intimidating and minatory aura radiating from the impressive figure that was the general was only further intensified by the pale moonlight, which cast sharp shadows over the man´s face, letting his eyes glow in the darkness like that of a wild beasts.

Becoming more and more uncomfortable, Yazoo made another attempt to convince his foster-father of his innocence. “See, I had absolutely nothing to do with th-”.

He didn´t come any further, because Sephiroth had already thrown his fist into the boy´s stomach. Calmly he watched the boy doubling over, gasping and trying to catch his breath. Kneeling on the ground he clutched his abdomen and tried to not black out from the pain.

“You know, that is not nice, blaming your own brother for the mistakes you made.”

Yazoo barely heard the nearly bored statement as Sephiroth gripped him by the hair and with little effort dragged his foster-child bhind him towards the bed in no hurry.

“Have I not treated you kindly? Have I not been considerable?”

Speaking more to himself, he flung the boy face first into the matress. There was an insane edge in his voice, one that made clear that he wasn´t amenable for arguments or logical reasoning. Though even if he had been able to, Yazoo had enough to do to breath through the cushions over his mouth and with his struggling to get away from Sephiroth´s iron grip.

Easily the general just pinned his arm on his back, causing the boy to gasp in pain.

“I guess I have spoiled you just a little too much. I´ll show you what it means to belie me. Time to learn some manners, Yazoo.”

The words were hissed into his ear with such rage that the silver haired boy stopped squirming and dared to look at his tormentor from out of the corner of his eye. The normally collected and beautiful face of his father was now a mask of sheer anger, but there was also a strange excitement. Seeing Yazoo´s widened eyes Sephiroth´s lips curled up into a mad, vicious smile. “I see you begin to understand. Good boy.”

And then Yazoo knew no more.

*

He was woken from of a dreamless, deep slumber by his ringing cell. Dizzily he grabbed for the item, smashing his full water glass down in the process, until he finally got the damn and still ringing thing. Cursing and pulling his long, ebony hair out of his tired face Tseng shot a look at his watch, condemning the person who had the nerve to call him at 3.17 am in the fucking night. Normally he was a rather patient and composed person, but everyone, even Tseng, had his breaking points, hence he answered the phone with a not so nice “What the hell!”

His anger was immediately gone when he was answered with heavy, uncontrolled sobs.

“Hello? Who is this? Loz?” He knew this voice too well, had heard it after almost every math test when the big bulky boy had wiped his puffy eyes and had handed him a nearly empty paper. But this time it wasn´t just his normal whining.

“Loz, what is it? Are you alright?”

“This is Loz *sob* I´m *sob* sorry to *sob* wake you…” Obviously the boy had a hard time to articulate himself.

“It´s all right Loz, calm down. I´m sorry, I didn´t mean to sound rude. Tell me what happened.”

There were some more sobs until Loz tried again.

“It´s… Something bad happened, I don´t know what to do…”

And then he lost it.

“He´s gone insane, I mean more than normal, first I didn´t even notice and then he… he… gods Yazoo…*sob*. You have to come before he comes back, he´s killing him, I don´t know if he´s alive by now, you must come and save him-” The boy´s voice was shaken with hystery. Tseng´s blood ran cold.

“Calm down Loz, calm down. I´m coming. Just stay where you are!”

Hastily he got out the bed and reached for the car keys, not bothering to change his pyjamas or even taking the time to put on his shoes. Cold sweat had built on his forehead when he rushed down the stairs and to his car. He needed at least tree attempts to start the engine and had to force himself to calm down before he finally got it.

What the hell was going on ?!

With Loz still weeping on the phone he managed to get the boy´s address out of him. Fortunately the streets were empty so he didn´t have to care for speed limits.

All the way to the mansion Tseng tried to get some more information out of his desperate student, which turned out to be a futile task since Loz couldn´t get a full sentence together and only encouraged the teacher to push the gas.

There was a feeling deep down in his guts, a feeling that something tremendous had happen and he didn´t know if he would be able to handle it.

Eventually he arrived at the castle-like mansion. Killing the engine he exited the car and ran towards the open fences.

He was welcomed by the shivering wrack that had once been Loz and who nearly fainted in relief when he recogniced his saviour, totally ignoring the man´s attire and lack of shoes.

“Loz, where is he?”

Tseng shook the boy´s shoulders to interrupt his babbling. From what he had understood something was wrong with Yazoo and if it was serious they may had to go to a hospital and there was no time to waste.

“You´ve come! You won´t let him hurt him, no? Oh gods, we´re safe!”

“No, Loz I won´t let him hurt you. Now tell me where your brother is.” Tseng forced himself to calm down and take a deep breath.

“He´s upstairs, I and Kadaj hide, I told Kadaj to stay in our room, I thought it was safer there and he wouldn´t come down!” Loz had a nearly proud look on his face that changed back to fearful the next second.

“We have to hurry before HE comes back, I don´t know where he is right now, but if he finds us here he´ll kill us all, even you!”

“He… is your father?”

“He ´s NOT our father!” Loz growled.

“Okay, Loz. You did a great job. Now go get Kadaj and wait in my car.” Tseng handed him his keys and the boy hastily vanished inside the house, screaming for Kadaj.

Tseng wiped away some sweat from his eyes and followed.

He headed for the broad stairs, absently noticing how big, expensive and CLEAN the mansion was, but mainly searching for the room Loz had told him Yazoo was in. Mentally cursing himself for not asking for more details he stopped at the end of the stairs. It was nearly pitch black up here, but he had no time to search for light.

There was only one open door anyway and so Tseng made a beeline for it, hoping the owner of the house was absent. Even if he didn´t believe Loz´ ‘father’ would kill him, he hadn´t much intention to meet him. At least not now.

When he reached his destination he slowed down without noticing.

Pushing the heavy wooden doors open, he searched through the room with vivid eyes. The moon was hidden behind dark clouds which made it too dark to see anything other than black shemes. With slightly trembling fingers he searched for the switch. The light turned on and he had to cover his eyes for a moment. When they had adjusted he wished he had left them shielded.

The room was large. It was dominated by an overdimensional bed. And in this bed was a small figure with silver hair. Naked. And bleeding.

Wide eyed, Tseng -due to his shock slower than was appropriate- strode to the bed.

Yazoo had curled into a ball, or at least he had tried. His body was covered with fresh wounds, deep cuts and bruises, building a stark contrast to his pale skin. Thin trails of dark, red blood ran down his legs, soaking the white sheets. There was so much blood!

“Yazoo…” His voice came out in a rasp.

He got no reaction, only one empty eye stared straight through him from under the curtain of silver hair that covered the boy´s face.

“Yazoo, what happened here…”

But Tseng didn´t need an answer, did he? It was very much obvious what had happened here. The eye just stared into nothingness, not acknowledging his presence.

Wetting his lips Tseng pulled himself together, telling himself that there was no time to be shocked.

He had to do something. Carefully he leaned over the still figure on the bed, wrapping one arm around his shoulders, one under his knees and gathering the boy into his arms, half expecting him to struggle, but he didn´t move at all. With a grim look on his face Tseng made his way down the stairs, nearly hoping for this ‘father’ to come back, so he could teach him a lesson about what real pain felt like.

Before he left the mansion he grabbed a wollen fabric from one of the sofas to cover Yazoo´s abused body as much as he could.

Loz and Kadaj already sat in the car, impatientky waiting for Tsengs arrival. Avoiding any rough contact, as Yazoo was in enough agony right now, he arranged him in the front seat and with a shaking sigh started the car a few moments later after he had wiped the blood on his hands on his pyjamas.

“You know, this time you´ll get it. He´ll kill you for sure.”

This almost triumphant whisper made the teacher risk a look into the back mirror. Kadaj was sitting behind him -and as far way from his still crying brother as possible- arms crossed over his chest, scowling.

“Shut the fuck up, brat!” came the enraged reply.

Gods, these kids had been living far too long under this roof…

Tseng pressed his lips together and drove a little faster.

“What´s with Yazoo?” This time Kadaj addressed him, sounding slightly worried.

“He…” Tseng paused. How should he explain to a nine year old that his foster father had raped his brother nearly to dead?! “He is ill.”

“Oh.”

There was silence for a few minutes, only interrupted now and then by Loz´ sniffles, until Kadaj´s voice filled the car again.

“Where are we driving?”

“Hospital.”

“NO!”

The sudden outburst almost caused Tseng to make a full break, the car dangerously close to break away and he cringed. The two boys stared at him in bewilderment as if he had gone completely nuts.

“Your brother needs medical treatment!”

“No! No hospital! He wouldn´t want it,” Kadaj snarled, matter-of-factly, sending a dead glare at the teacher.

“Kids, I know you are worried and all, but we have to be rational now…” Tseng tried to reason with them.

“Stop the car.”

“Loz…”

“.Car.”

Loz´s voice was suddenly low. There was no crying and wailing anylonger. Instead he sounded very serious and somehow… very deadly. Even at his young age he had built up some respectable muscles and Tseng wasn´t so sure he would win a fight. Especially when driving and when Loz was in an overprotective mood and willing to safe his brother from whatever he thought was a threat…

“Fine, alright. We are not driving to a hospital. But if he dies you are responsible for his death.”

Actually Tseng had hoped this would let them come back to their senses again. Unfortunately, the boys remained stubborn.

With satisfied expressions the brothers leaned back and relaxed.

“He won´t die. He´s stronger than he looks.” Kadaj informed the man proudly and somehow, as absurd as it was, Tseng suspected that he was right. With a shake of the head he drove the car through the night towards his apartment.

*

Since there was no other option he took them to his apartement. After ordering Loz and Kadaj to go ahead and make themselves at home he gathered the still apathetic Yazoo and followed slowly behind. It wasn´t necessary that they saw their brother in this condition…

Closing the door behind him he was welcomed by the arguing voices of the other two. Tseng decided that they were fine as long as they were able to fight and that his priority had to be his messed up student.

With his left elbow he opened the bathroom door and hit the switch, then he carefully laid the boy into the bathtub. Since he was still wrapped in the wollen cloth, which had changed from formerly white to a rusty brown where the blood from the boy´s body had dried, Tseng had to remove it, averting his eyes from the abused body as much as he could, a deep frown clouding his face.

Yazoo however didn´t seem to notice what was going on around him, he just lay lifelessly in the cold bathtub. If Tseng hadn´t checked his pulse only a few moments ago he could have missed the body for that of a corpse.

SighingTseng rolled up his sleeves and held one hand under the tab to check if the water was warm enough. When it had the right temperatur the teacher slowly carried the shower head over the abused body, making sure to wash all the blood away. The boy didn´t even flinch when the hot liquid rushed into his fresh, open wounds.

Carefully Tseng lifted his arms to clean him up entirely, noticing more bruises and scratches.

Absent-mindedly he heard Kadaj throwing a fit in his living room and Loz laughing smugly. He didn´t get what they were on about, but he didn´t really care anyways. Right now his top priority was Yazoo. Though there had been a lot of blood, and some still oozed out from some wounds, mixing with the water and running down the boy´s body, it didn´t seem to be life threatening. In fact it had looked much worse than it actually was, at least where physical damage was concerned. To his relief there were no broken bones, at least none that were visible.

Tseng wasn´t sure how to proceed with the wounds on his students lower parts, he didn´t want to unnecessarily scare him by touching him anywhere within that region. He decided that it had to be enough to just clean him with the running water.

Eventually he finished his task and put the shower head away.

Reaching into the cupboard under his sink he pulled out a big blue towel. He put it over the boys body and took him out of the tub, wrapping him into the cloth in the process. The teacher sat down on the edge of the tub and started to dry the teen, avoiding to touch the wounds as much as he could.

With one tip of the towel he finally stroked over his face, which had been fortunate enough to not meet the destiny of the rest of his body. Although there were no cuts or bruises, Tseng found it especially hard to deal with this part. Some of Yazoo´s wet silver hair stuck to his cheek and the teacher wiped it out of his face, casting another look at the boy´s eyes.

His pupils appeared unnaturally wide, so that his green iris only consisted of thin lines around two black holes. But deep within that darkness there seemed to be… something.

Tseng couldn´t quite catch it through the half closed lids but it was definitly there. Quietly the teacher asked “Yazoo?” but the boy didn´t answer nor show any sign that he had heard him. Tseng breathed an almost desperate sigh.

But then he wouldn´t have known what to say anyway. He guessed there wasn´t a script for this kind of situations, so he just squeezed the boy´s shoulders lightly and decided to let it stay at that for the time being. He felt like there wasn´t much he could do. Thus Tseng stood up again and carried the boy out of the bathroom.

When they entered the living room Loz and Kadaj finally stopped fighting and silently watched the man vanishing in his bedroom. Both of them looked rather worried, but kept quiet for the moment, for which Tseng was thankful. He closed the door behind him and placed Yazoo onto his dishevelled bed. Not having expected to host guests tonight, or any time soon for that matter, it was the only option he could think of for now.

Carefully the dark haired man put the blanket over the bruised body and knelt down next to the bed for a moment, observing the rise and fall Yazoo´s chest. The boy looked somewhat lost and fragile between the white sheeds and the moonlight made him look even paler than he already was. Tseng stroked away another strand of silver hair out of a blank face and murmured “Try to sleep a little. I´m in the room next door should you need anything.”

He didn´t get an answer, but hadn´t really expected one. Still he felt like a sudden weight had befallen his chest and he added a very quiet “I´m sorry.” before he left the room and it´s occupant.

Closing the door he leaned against it for a second, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he tiredly strode over to the sofa where Loz and Kadaj had decided to take a seat and have a ceasefire for once and fell heavily onto it.

The boys looked at each other, unsure what to do, and decided to waited for their teacher to speak. Minutes passed by, with neither of them opneing their mouths. The only sound that interrupted the otherwise perfect silence was the ticking of the clock, hanging over their heads.

Kadaj, never one to be patient, couldn´t bare the silence anylonger. “Nee, he´s okay?”

Tseng looked up from his hands, finally acknowledging the boys presence and giving a slight nod. Although in his opinion there was no use in worrying them more than they already were, he still had to know what had happened. Not that he was too anxious to hear about the details, he already had enough for one night. But now wasn´t the time to consider his own well being. He needed Loz to tell him. But he didn´t want to scare Kadaj either. The boy surely didn´t need to know the nasty details. Therefore Tseng forced a smile on his face and turned to the smallest person of the group.

“Kadaj, I´m sure you´re cold. Won´t you make us some tea?” The boy looked uncertain, but then nodded and scuffled into the kitchen. When he was out of sight and earshot, Tseng leaned over to Loz, who looked rather uncomfortable but against an inner urge didn´t back away.

“I know this is not easy for you, trust me, I wouldn´t ask you if we could avoid it. But I need to know what happened tonight. Okay?”

Loz gulped, looked to the side, but nodded nonetheless. After a short pause he started in a hoarse whisper:

“I´m not so… sure either. I just… First it was just like always, he… I mean… our foster father…” -he said this with obvious disstress- ”He was in a bad mood, but nothing too out of the ordinary. He´s always like this, best not to get in his way then. But we can tell by the way how he drives into the garage, so we knew to not met him and went into the cellar, just like always.”

Tseng just nodded with his lips pressed into a thin line, encouraging the boy to continue.

“I guess he went straight into Yazoo´s room. He always does when he´s… like this.” Loz paused again and stared at his trembling hands.

“What happened then?” Tseng asked, with one ear assuring himself that Kadaj was still busy in the kitchen.

“He… normally he would do just…you know…?” Helplessly Loz gazed at the teacher without facing him directly and Tseng just nodded. There was no need to force the boy to verbalize what he thought happened to his brother. “But today was different…”

The big boy´s voice faded away and he stared back at the carpet again.

“What was it?” Tseng hated to force the boy, but it couldn´t be helped. Loz shrugged in a somewhat tired manner.

“I don´t know how to explain… I…I could just feel it. Yazoo…he felt …intensive…” he paused again and Tseng narrowed his eyes, not sure if he understood what the other was talking about, but Loz explained shortly after. “I don´t know how to describe it… It´s like… a bond we share. Sometimes I just feel when something is… wrong with him...” Tseng nodded, encouraging again.

“When I felt it, it was like someone had pitched ice water over my head… So… I just told Kadaj to hide under the bed and ran upstairs, I mean I didn´t even think about it, I just ran and then…I-I nearly crashed the door open but he was already gone and… Ya-Yazoo… goods, he felt so cold!”

Loz clutched his left chest and his voice broke. Apparently he had to struggle very hard to keep his countenance. After a heart wrenching sob he continued again.

“I just saw the blood and remembered your number. I didn´t know who else to call,” he added shyly, but the teacher had laid a reassuring hand on the boy´s arm and said “You did very well to call me.” Loz simply nodded, a tear rolling down his cheek. They were quiet for a while with only the sound of boiling water from the kitchen filling the apartment. Tseng had balled his hands into fists and glared at nothing in particular in the dark living room. Loz had nearly vanished in the arm chair next to him, but suddenly shook his head and put the teacher out of his brooding.

“I didn´t think he would ever do something like this. At least… not to him…” Tseng gave him a questioning look. “What do you mean, not to him?”

Shaking his head a little the short haired boy explained “I mean, he´s… kind of… short tempered… when it comes to Kadaj and I. Especially Kadaj. Though the brat´s pushing it quite often. At least at the beginning…” For a moment he looked a bit angry. “But he´s never… touching us. Just beating.”

Tseng felt the overwelming need to just rip this person who dared to call himself a father into two pieces and was glad for the darkness, so the boy couldn´t see his homicidal expression.

Just beating, eh?

“For Yazoo…” Loz continued. “Actually he´s never mad at him. I mean he´s always really nice and stuff, always bringing something along for him and privileging him. I´d never thought he´d… do something like this…”

“Do you have any idea what could have been the reason for.. this?” the black haired man carefully inquired, but Loz just shook his head. Before Tseng got another chance to ask further questions, Kadaj entered the room, balancing a tablet with three steaming cups of tea in his small hands. He put the tray on the glass table and gibed with a glance at his brother, “Oi, crying again?”

His smirk disappeared when he noticed the sad and tired faces of the two men in front of him and bit his lip. Quietly he grabbed his cup and sipped at his tea. Then, just like nothing had happened at all, he exclaimed “I only found green tea.”

Taking his own cup, Tseng smiled at the boy and assured him that it was okay and that his tea was very good. The boy just nodded and remained silent. Loz´cup was left untouched. After a minute of silence, Tseng finally spoke up again.

“I guess whe had enough action for tonight. You must be tired. I´ll find you something to sleep on and we can talk about what happened tomorrow, mh?” Both boys looked relieved and when Tseng had managed to find a place for them to sleep they were already fighting again about who had to sleep where. And though he felt drained like never before in his life, Tseng didn´t find any sleep that night.

TBC