FicWad

It Was Just A Joke...


With caution he moved the roller over his palette, making sure that it was evenly coated with the thick red ink, and then moved it over the linoleum block that he had carved designs in. Once that was finished, his small hands steady as he could manage; he set a large sheet of blank paper over the linoleum block and began to press down so that the paper would absorb the ink.
He had been in the art room for over an hour now in an attempt to finish a project that he was behind on. And now, after three failed prints, a phone call to his friends telling them that he wouldn't be able to make it to their favorite loitering spot, and the ruining of his uniform he was done and now he could leave, hopefully getting a few extra hours of sleep before returning to school again.
The blond bit his lower lip and gripped the corners of the paper. Then, slowly he peeled the almost finished print away from the linoleum and the ink that it had been covered in. A small chirp of satisfaction emanated from his throat as he took in the details of his finished work. A woman, her dark hair tied up in a loose bun, looked up when she heard the noise from her student.
"Are you finished Tohru?" She inquired, looking back to her paperwork before the blond at the other end of the studio could respond. Her posture told that she was still listening though.
"Hai. I'm finished!" He replied with a smile, not caring if she had used his actual name instead of the nickname that he had adopted. "I'm finally done! Can I go now?"
"Hai, you may leave Tohru... after you clean up your work area. Make sure you didn't get ink everywhere." The woman droned, not in an unpleasant way, but in that way that said she was ready to leave just as much as he was. The teenager set his print aside and picked up his palette and roller, making his way leisurely to the sink near his teacher's desk. The woman began to pack up her laptop and papers, putting them in the bag that she always seemed to have with her.
Brown eyes reflecting thoughts of how he would waste time when he got home, the small teen switched the water on and began to run his hands through the ink. He grimaced a little when he realized how much the substance felt like florescent pudding. His teacher finished packing her things and trudged over to the door, her high heels clacking against the tile floor.
"I have to get my daughter from daycare. The keys are on my desk, can you lock up for me Tohru?" She asked, shouldering her computer case. 'Tohru' looked up from what he was doing, a frown on his face after he noticed how wet his sleeves were getting.
"I'll make sure the doors are locked sensei." The blond warbled, looking back to the paint-stained palette and roller that were still caked with the pudding-ink he had been using to make his print. The black-haired schoolteacher smiled in a motherly way at the short male and continued to the door.
Tohru didn't bother to look up from his task even as the teacher opened the door and stopped dead before she could run smack into a tall figure that had been trying to enter. The woman bristled indignantly, but apologized, as she looked the newcomer over.
"Sir, school hours are over. Most of the staff is gone. Whatever it is that you need, come back tomorrow." The strict woman informed the towering form in the doorway. Tohru glanced up now as a chill fell down his spine like an ice cube and an eerie silence settled in the air around the studio. Only the sound of the still running sink provided any noise.
The young woman, stiffened, her lips pressing into a thin line that was beyond her years, causing the blond to step away from the sink and tense. He didn't know what was going on, seeing as her back was to him, but he sure as hell knew what people did when they were afraid. He'd seen it many a time, in the moments before a bully struck a smaller boy down. The victim would cringe and then impact.
And there was an impact.
A noise like nothing that he had ever heard before, even in movies, rang out through the empty halls of the art building and flew through the room like a literal wall of sound. Tohru couldn't stop himself from crying out and jumping back when the sound hit him, watching with startled chocolate brown eyes as his teacher stood still for a moment, her black computer case falling to the floor with an unceremonious grace, probably braking the machine inside. Her body was still as she stared up at the figure that was too masked by her own body and the partially open door. Tohru held his breath, but any hope that there might've been vanished as his teacher fell backwards onto the floor.
"Sensei!!" He ignored the fact that he was putting himself in harm's way as a moved forward to check on the fallen woman. Just as he reached her the man, he assumed it was a man, made a grab for him. The blond scrambled away and looked up.
The man was in his early to mid-thirties and he was huge. Standing around six three, the assailant was easily four times Tohru's weight and had more than a foot in height against the teen. His eyes were a malevolent obsidian that was almost as lusterless as the hair that almost obscured the hateful orbs.
"Come here, kid." The man said, voice deep. Tohru blinked up at him, mind considering the odds of getting out of his current situation unscathed. He decided that he couldn't and bolted farther back into the studio, towards where he had left several jars of pudding-ink wide open and waiting for him to return them to their respective cupboards. It didn't take anything more than the heavy footsteps to tell the teen that his teacher's attacker was following him. While Tohru had to run, it took the obsidian-eyed man a few long strides to reach the back of the room. "I'm not going to hurt you." The man was talking as if he was to a small child.
"I believe that!" Tohru yelled sarcastically, grabbing a plastic jar half full with blue ink and lobbing it at the large man with as much force as he could manage. Blue ink flew in every direction; staining Tohru's bleach blond hair and round face, and bouncing harmlessly off of the black haired man's chest. "Shit..."
The man, blue paint now covering his shirt, lurched forward and attempted to grab the teenager once again. The small blond darted away again and grabbed another open container of ink, this one full of red, and hurled it. It bounced off of the black haired man's shoulder. The red pudding-ink splattered everywhere, on Tohru and on his attacker, but especially in the massive man's eyes. The obsidian-eyed man bellowed in rage and moved his hands to try and get the ink out of his eyes.
Tohru wasted no time and ran forward, planting a hard kick in a place that sent the considerably larger male sprawling backwards and screaming in a voice that was an octave too high for someone his size.
"You little bitch!" The man screamed, having trouble with whether he should worry about the pigment in his eyes or the pain in his crotch. Tohru was up again, the force required to land a kick that high had caused him to topple over, running to where his teacher lay in an amassing pool of crimson that was too deep to be mistaken for paint.
"Sensei!? Daijobu!? Answer me!" He cried, lowering himself down next to the dying woman's prone body. She was still breathing but barely. After a quick look over his shoulder to make sure that the shooter was still preoccupied, he peeled off his shirt and began to press it against the deep wound in his teacher's gut. The woman gasped tried to move but it was no use.
"Tohru, pull the fire alarm!" She moaned, shoving her student away and pressing his shirt harder against her wound. It was seconds before the gray uniform shirt was soaked through and a different color entirely. The sophomore rose on shaky legs, feeling squeamish as he watched the light begin to fade from the eyes of the older and moved over to the brightly colored alarm next to the door. There were now splotches of ink and blood all over the wife beater he had worn under his shirt. He reached the alarm and had his fingers wrapped around the switch when he realized that the enraged screaming in the background had stopped.
The childish looking blond managed to grip the lever tighter when a strong hand grabbed him half by the back of the shirt and half by the hair, pulling him with immense strength away from the fire alarm. He was thankful, even as an inhuman shriek erupted from within him, that he had gripped it tight enough that when he was pulled back, the alarm was activated. A loud buzzing noise filled the room, the building, and most likely the entire campus. The alarm drowned out the screams of the frightened teenager as his aggressor slammed him onto the table full of ink, knocking the wind out of the blond.
Tohru gasped and his head fell back against the table, his chocolate brown eyes glazed over and stunned. Pigments were now mixing together beneath the small body that was almost unrecognizable with the amount of vibrant colors that were all over his clothes. The black haired colossal was looking around the room now, his expression more than pissed.
"FUCK!" The man roared when he processed that the alarm was going. Tohru eventually managed to take a breath, and in seconds he was kicking again. The man wasn't affected in the slightest by the thrashing of the petite body that he gripped tightly, but when a kick landed square in the obsidian-eyed man's ribs he noticed, though it didn't really do anything to him.
Obsidian orbs clashed with chocolate ones and then the tall man's other hand slammed down into the Tohru's gut. The struggling stopped, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.
"With that -cough- alarm going... I'd say you have fifteen minutes to GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" The boy screeched, trying to kick at the assailant once again. The man said nothing, but removed his hand from the blond's neck, and turned to assess the damage caused by the struggle between himself and the smaller male. Tohru clambered off of the table and made an attempt to run when the obsidian-eyed man whirled around, grabbing him roughly by the wrist. "Let me go!! LET ME GO!"
"You have quite the mouth on you, boy!" The giant of a man growled; raising the teenager clear off his feet. The amount of strength displayed was nothing to be matched by the scrawny teenager now grappling to get away.
"Fuck you!" The blond spat, gripping the hulking man's fist with his free hand. His attempt was definitely futile. "Somebody help me!!" He shrieked, but he only now realized that his voice was being drowned out by the sound of the alarm. He cried out again though, in hopes that someone had heard the alarm and was now searching the building. That hope was as useless as his screams though. When you hear an alarm... you run. "Let go of me you fucking bastard!!"
"SHUT UP!" Pitch-colored eyes flared with contempt, and in an instant the small body was on the floor and unmoving. The expression on the man's face told that he probably had been thinking when he had thrown the boy down, but he had done it. The raven haired man stooped down with a grunt and lifted the blond's wrist up, noting with amusement how limp the small appendage was, and checked for a pulse. He was met with a strong one. "I always get myself into so much fuckin' trouble! Baka!"
He rose calmly and walked over to the place where the teacher he had shot a few minutes ago was laying. Her body wasn't moving and her eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. He didn't need to check for a pulse, she was already dead.
"Always in trouble... always in trouble... always in trouble..." He muttered, ambled back over to the teenager. Thinking for a moment, he finally made up his mind and lifted Tohru up over his shoulder, grimacing as blood gushing and strong-smelling ink dripped from the unmoving body. The boy had a nasty head wound and probably a concussion. The man didn't care, but he also didn't feel like killing any more people today. Witnesses weren't good either.
As he left the trashed art studio, stepping over the lifeless body of the female without a second glance, he smiled. The fire alarm gave one last tired buzz, skipping and jumping, and then it died. It was eight thirty. No one would be coming and once he was far enough away, he would decide what to do with the boy.


Kaoru took a bite out of the slightly bruised apple in his mouth as he bolted down the sidewalk, gripping his schoolbag tightly so as not to lose his books. The young man's school shirt was unbuttoned and wrinkled. Turning the corner, he began to pant from the effort of keeping up the pace, his copper-colored hair flying behind him.
"Can't be late again!" Darting onto the campus he almost plowed down a couple of freshmen, shoving the smaller people aside with a muffled 'excuse me'. He passed a dumpster and tossed the half-eaten apple at it, missed, but didn't stop. If he was late again he'd have a detention and his parents were too easily pissed off for him to want to deal with that.
Upon entering the atrium, his footsteps echoing loudly, he heard someone call out.
"Late again, Niikura!?" The voice was pleasant and joking. Kaoru slowed, his chest heaving, and looked to see another senior, a male a few inches taller than himself. A goofy smile crossed his face.
"Ah, but the bell hasn't rang yet, now has it Kichi!?" He responded. Spinning around on his heel he was off again, flying through the auditorium at breakneck speed. He was fairly sure that his feet weren't even touching the ground, but all he was concerned about was making it to class so that his teacher wouldn't decide to use his head in a game of volleyball against the varsity team. Gym as his first period class had not been fun in the least.
Bursting into through the doors on the other side of the lecture theater he was almost blinded by the sunlight that he had been hurtling through moments before. He halted so that he wouldn't run into any trees by accident and squinted to get used to the irritatingly bright sun. His eyes adjusted and he began to walk down the cement path used by students to reach other buildings on the campus.
It was sunny and the bugs buzzing around signaled that summer, and then end of the school year, were not that far away. He would be graduating soon. It was warm and comfortable.
"Why do I feel so cold?" He asked himself, the good cheer that he had been experiencing during his sprint suddenly dissipating. His hawk-like hazel gaze moved slowly over to where the arts building was and he found himself wondering if Kyo had ever finished his project.
But as it always happens, thoughts are interrupted, and a man dressed rather finely in a suit walked up to him, his black hair cropped short and his stern face lined with age. An intimidating sight for the half-asleep teenager. The sight was made even more overwhelming when he say the police line, cruisers, and paramedics swarming the entrance of the arts building.
"Konnichiwa!" The man said in a somber tone. Kaoru shrank back a little and then took the older male's hand in a firm handshake.
"Konnichiwa..." He tried to look past the stern-man and attempted to get a better look at what was taking place some forty yards away. "Sir, what's going on over there?"
The stern man looked back to where he had come from and then to the disheveled teen.
"My name is Detective Yasumi... and I'm sorry to inform you, young man, but there's been an accident."

=TBC=