Kizuna

Everyone bears scars, both mental and physical ones. For these boys, the scars are cut a bit deeper than normally. Follow them as they struggle with their pasts and presents, through joy and grief, hate and love and heartache.

V: Rousing Friendships Dion woke up to a comfortable warmth wrapped around him. Without thinking he snuggled closer to it, but his eyes flew open as the warmth, that was another living, breathing human being, moved slightly in its sleep. He drew back a bit, staring down at the auburn head that was resting on his collarbone, and the boy's arms and legs that were throwing over him, holding him rather tightly. He turned his look upwards, staring at the ceiling as he smiled for himself. H

IV: Chance Meetings It was late when Josh made his way home later that night. He was tired, still a bit drunk from the escapades he'd had with Chad earlier, and his whole body was still aching from his stepfather's rough treatment. The ache in his body hadn't stopped him from going to the bar though, but he hadn't been up for having sex with anyone. He'd just given a few guys a blowjob. He didn't make as much money as usual that way, but at least it was some. Josh walked slowly throug

III: Bodily Harm Josh was alone when he awoke the next morning. He didn't remember much from the previous night just that after Andrew had finished beating him with his goddamn belt he had carried Josh into his bedroom and raped him brutally in the very bed Josh was now waking up in. Josh had been almost unconscious by the time he'd been carried into bed, thanks to the pain of being hit again and again with the leather belt and even sometimes the belt buckle. He hadn't even felt the r

II: Second Encounter "So, Spence, did you find yourself a job yesterday?" Chad asked as the three friends met at the school gate the next morning. "No," Spencer sighed. "Not many want to hire teenagers these days. And especially not teenagers with no experience whatsoever." "Don't give up, though," Josh said, grinning encouragingly as they started to walk towards the main doors. "I'm sure you'll find something eventually." "Yeah," Spencer spoke in a low voice, giving his two friends

When your life is a total mess, when nothing you do or say feels right, when nothing around you matters... What are you going to do to make things right again? When you feel so detached and out of it and just don't care anymore, when you are almost beyond redemption... Can your scarred soul free itself from its prison and find salvation? I: First Impressions Night to February 20th, 2002 Josh Slater was sitting on his bedroom floor, leaning back against his king-sized bed, with his two

Aiden and Alex have been best friends for almost a year. They’ve also had feelings for each other for just as long. The problem? They don’t dare to tell each other.

A week later, Aiden managed to oversleep. He wasn't starting school until second period, but had overslept nonetheless. And because everyone else had started school or their work earlier, no one had been there to wake him up. So now he was hurrying to school. Third period was already finished, and if he hurried he might suffice to get in time to the fourth class. But when he was halfway to school, he heard some commotion from a nearby alleyway. As he moved closer, he recognized three of th

Aiden bumped the ball alongside the floor. He had a clear view of the basket, and he dribbled an opponent player, took the ball in his hands, jumped and then threw it. The ball went straight through the basket. He turned, took a high five with Peter who was on his team, and then ran towards the other end of the court. It was a few hours after his visit down at Eden, and he was now at basketball practice. The other team now had the ball, but with a simple tackling from Peter, they had it ba

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. Alex stayed at the house, as did Catherine. It turned out that Thomas and she had been dating for over a month, but she hadn't been at his home and met the kids he was living with until this particular weekend. Monday arrived with warm weather and the sun rising slowly in the horizon. When Aiden woke up something just didn't feel quite right. The first thing he noticed was that he didn't have his arms around Alex, and neither was Alex lying clos

When Aiden woke up on Saturday morning by the sun shining in through the small window on the wall opposite the bed, he felt both cold and alone. He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head to the side. The space next to him was empty, which meant that Alex must have gotten up already. Alex was nowhere to be seen in the room, so he sighed silently and got up from the bed. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he walked over the floor and opened the bathroom door. But there he stopped dead in h

On Friday Aiden had come home from school with a huge headache. It had been so bad that he had just taken some painkillers and dropped down on his bed, where he had soon fallen asleep. But he got startled awake a few hours later when his bedroom door slammed open and Sarah trudged inside. He blinked his eyes for a moment, focused on her, and could still feel his head throb in pain. "Have you been sleeping?" Sarah asked in surprised. "Yeah, I have a hell of a headache," Aiden mumbled and

THREE At lunch break, Aiden and Alex slid down on their usual table in the canteen with their lunch. Sarah and Peter were already seated there, talking lightly now and then. "Hey, you two," Sarah greeted. "Where have you been all day? Forth period is finished and I haven't seen you like at all!" "We haven't been doing anything special," Aiden shrugged. "You're the one who's always busy, young lady." "Ah, that's so true!" Sarah snickered. "It's hard juggling my time between

Alex sighed as he locked himself into his house. Loud voices could be heard from the living room, and he quickly walked up the stairs. He didn't want to come between his parents when they fought. He didn't want to come between them at all, actually. Alex didn't like his parents that much; but he was glad they had decided to move away from their old town. He had hated it there. This place was a lot bigger, everyone didn't know each other here, and it wasn't quite so strict for everything to be

Shelters Cove, September 1st, 2003 First day of their senior year in high school was finally over and Aiden Lister was on the soccer field with his two best friends, Alex Gordo and Peter Bennet, plus some of their team mates for a practice match. When they had been playing for quite a while, they got spectators and Alex was the one who saw the two girls first. He was on the opposite team of Aiden, and when they tried to dribble each other he made Aiden become aware of their presence. Ever