SUMMARY: Kyo and Tohru were childhood friends when they bonded at an orphanage together, but a few years later they were torn apart, causing anarchy in Kyo's heart. Lost in the pain, Kyo grew up to become part of a infamous group of bandits... Can a meeting with an old friend transform a tainted heart, pure? AU version. KxT

WILTED FLOWER

Chapter 1 - The Shadow Bandits

The hair of the young boy resembled the color of a burning flame.

Even as a child, he had always been labeled as the "different" one, because his hair wasn't brown, or dusty blonde like the other kids. Since his hair was considered "strange," he had always been eschewed by all of the other children at the orphanage that he had been placed in, when he was about year old or so. After another day of being shunned and teased, the little boy would always run into the Kitsune, the head of the orphanage's arms, eyes soaked with tears, complaining sulkily about how the other kids had been teasing him about his hair color again. Then she would simply ruffle his soft silky flames, telling him in a harmonic voice,

"Don't listen to them Kyo. You're hair may be a bit different from the other kids, but that doesn't mean that they don't like you. They're just not... used to it. I accept the way you are... and surely there will be another child along the way that will learn to accept it too, I promise."

A smile would bloom on the child's lips at the kind lady's words and he'd stare up at her with his round, crimson eyes, asking, "Really? When?" Kitsune smiled, showing a small dimple on her left cheek, reassuring him lightly,

"Soon, dear. Now go run along and play with the others."

Kyo nodded furiously, bounding outside with this bursting sensation of newfound hope. His feet scraped against the gravelly pavement of the yard as he raced to where the other kids were playing, but instead of seeing all of the little boys and girls running around like maniacs in the yard, they were all huddled around in a small circle, murmuring all at once. Kyo strided over to the group, trying to see what they were all crowding around, because as a kid, curiosity always got the best of you. He stood on his tiptoes and finally saw over the sea of heads, a petite girl with bony arms and wary eyes, along with coffee brown hair that touched the tip of her chin, who was standing awkwardly at the center of this circle of children.

Kitsune saw all of the hubbub that was taking place outside, so she ran outside to rescue the small girl that had was the newest advent into the orphanage. She thought that since the kids were probably starving for a new face, they had merely gotten overly excited, so she did not blame them for nearly trampling over the new girl like a celebrity. She slid her way through all of the small ones, finally reaching the middle of the crowd. Once they all saw the tall woman towering over them, the talking ceased immediately. They all took a few steps back, in unison, to give them both room. Kitsune looked around at every single one of the kids, giving them all her warmest smile,

"Kids, I know that you are all very excited to meet a newcomer, but there is absolutely no need to overwhelm the poor child. So please welcome Honda Tohru with kindness, and please make her feel at home..."

With that, she locked eyes with all of the kids, holding a secret agreement with each and every one of them, before walking back inside, leaving all of the kids to blatantly stare at the new girl. She looked down at her dirty shoes and stuttered out a few first words, "U-Um... my name is Tohru, what are yours?" The playground suddenly erupted with all sorts of different names, ranging from Akira, to Yumi. Tohru laughed along with the others as her voice got drowned out in the other children's conversations. When they asked her to play with them, she quickly aquiesced to their offer, playing along with their game of hide and seek.

No one even noticed the boy with the flaming orange hair, standing under the shadow of the huge tree located in the corner of the playground, a tear hanging down from the bottom of his eye as he watched all of the kids give the new girl, Tohru, all of their attention. Kyo felt his knees give up as he fell to the ground, crying his fragile heart out, feeling more alone than ever before. After a long minute of a good cry, he raised his head up slowly to see a pair of huge brown eyes staring down at him with concern filing them.

"Are you allright?"

A few boys and girls paraded up beside her, chanting out,

"Don't worry about him Tohru-chan!"

"He's a loser!" another voice added in,

"And an oddball!" piped in another little child triumphantly.

Kyo shuddered under his breath and turned away from the new girl's eyes, not wanting to break out into another fit of tears again. Tohru bent down in front of him, picking up a wilted flower from the ground, handing it to the boy, "I don't remember seeing you. My name is Honda Tohru." The boy looked into her soft brown eyes, quite amazed by this simple gesture, since he had never been shown kindness being willngly given to him by another peer. He slowly took the dry flower from the little girl's warm hands, hiccuping out, "M-My name is Sohma Kyo..." Tohru's eyes traveled upward to his hair and her mouth opened up in a gape, "Wow... I've never seen hair like yours before!" Kyo dropped the flower quickly, his hands flying up to his head, as a defensive habit. Tohru giggled at his reaction to her comment and shook her head with a grin, "No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it in a bad way. I just meant to say that I like your hair."

"Tohru-chan! Don't talk to him! You might catch something,"

said one of the callous little boys of the orphanage. Kyo could feel the tears coming back, but instead of crying, he tightened his fists together, standing up, and yelling at the top of his lungs, "Shut up!" Tohru stood up slowly, standing slightly behind Kyo. The other boys and girls grabbed Tohru by the hand, tugging her to the direction away from Kyo, "C'mon, come play with us. Kyo is not like us. He's... different." Tohru did not follow though, she just stood limply in her spot, not going along with the other's pulls and tugs. She simply shook her head with a gentle smile and told them, "I'm sorry, but I just feel like sitting here right now. Is that okay?" They dropped her arms like logs and stuck out their tongues at the both of them, "You both stink!" called out one of the boys, as he ran off with the other ones.

Kyo gulped and said meekly under his breath, "You didn't have to sit here with me. Now they all probably hate you too." Tohru hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth a little, replying back with a small voice, "I don't believe that they hate me... and I'd rather sit here than play with them." Kyo felt his eyes open up real wide as he asked her with an icredulous voice, "Really?!"

"Surely there will be another child along the way that will learn to accept it too..."

Kitsune's voice seeped into his mind and he smiled at her words, finally beginning to believe in them. Had he finally found someone that accepted him, no matter the color of his hair?

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Ever since that day of generosity he had been offered, the two of them became fast friends, always together talking, laughing, eating; everything. For the first time since Kyo had stepped into this orphanage, he finally felt welcomed and cared for. It was a wonderful feeling that filled his heart. Knowing Honda Tohru was the best thing that had happened to him in his entire existence.

But when a wondrous thing like friendship is broken, the outcome is much more painful than a deep stab in the heart, and that's exactly how it felt like when Tohru was adopted by an old widow five years later.

The ten year old boy sat alone by the big tree in the corner of the yard, watching Tohru hug the new parent that she had just received, feeling scalding pains scar his very soul. He looked away very rapidly when he saw Tohru's pained eyes look his way. She then tore herself away from the wrinkling widow and shuffled over to Kyo, greeting him timidly,

"Hey."

Kyo's hands shook uncontrollably at his sides while he continued to remain quiet, his lower lip quaking. Tohru looked down at her dull gray shoelaces and her eyes softened when she spotted something on the ground. She squatted down for a second, and when she came back up, she had another wilted flower in her petite hand. She held it up to Kyo with the same gentle smile that she had given him five years ago.

"I want you to know that... I'll never forget you, and that I'll miss you a lot. We've been best friends for five years! And... I want you to take this, so you won't forget me either."

Kyo didn't move an inch as he glanced up at her milky white face, seeing that her lower lip was trembling as well, and her chocolate eyes were glittering with fresh tears that had just sprung up. He tried to say something, but no voice came up, his nerves were fried and his voice had died out on him at that very moment. Tohru then leaned in, giving him a warm embrace, gripping the wilted flower in her right hand. When she let go, he felt a coldness rush into his body and he saw a single tear slide down her cheek as she dropped the wilting flower, crying and calling out,

"Goodbye Kyo! I hope to see you again!"

His whole face was blank as he watched her step into the rusting black car of the widow, and oh, how much he wanted to cry out her name, but it was no use, because he had lost the will to speak out to her. To tell her how much she meant to him. His face was still as expressionless as before, until the car zoomed out of sight, and her small face disappeared from the glass window of the car. That's when his entire face just crumpled. He fell down into the grass, and just lay there, crying and crying and crying, until his eyes hurt from all of the tears that poured out. After his whole body shook from the pain, he just lay in the swaying grass, letting the sun bathe him in its strong rays of warmth, but nothing could make the tears stop from flowing. Nothing. His tremoring hand reached out for the wilting, and dried up flower that lay beside him. He then picked it up nimbly between his forefinger and his thumb, staring at it for a long time. He then shut his eyes, wishing for the pain to wash away.

When Kyo woke up, he found himself lying in a comfy bed underneath a layer of familiar blankets. He snapped up, looking around to see that he was back in his little cot at the orphanage, and the moon was shining outside of his window. Night had already fallen while he had dozed off a few hours before. He looked down at his hand and felt as if something was missing from them. Then it hit him. The flower.

He threw off his covers and raced outside with no shoes, feeling the coldness of the air engulf him as he found himself crying again while looking frantically around for the little wilted flower.

Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?!!

He grasped bunches of grass out of their roots and dug his fingernails into the soft dirt as he howled out with anguish. The wind had probably carried the flower away with it into some unknown place. His cries echoed throughout the entire orphanage, causing Kitsune and the other kids to rush outside and see Kyo howling with horrifyingly loud sobs on his knees in the grass. Kitsune gasped and rushed to his side, grabbing hold of Kyo's delicate shoulders, pulling him into a warm embrace, trying hard to soothe the boy's pain away, but it didn't work. Nothing would. He only howled louder, forcefully pushing her comfort away from him and running away. Running and running, until he was so far away from Kitsune, far away from the children, far away from the orphanage; far away from the pain. His legs were sore and his lungs felt like they had inflated while he leaned up against a cool brick wall, feeling sick and nauseous all at the same time. He felt dizzy while staggering along the blackening road, his vision beginning to blur as he leaned his head to the side and feeling his heavy body fall to the cold pavement near a line of green shrubbery.

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"Hello? You awake?"

"Hnh?"

Kyo opened up his eyes very slowly and blinked about three times in celerity, not recognizing this deep voice. He looked around to his side, and saw a shadow of a very slender person with long flowing hair, but that was about all the detail he could see since the room was so badly lighted.

"Hey, hey, I said, are you awake?"

Kyo felt his heart pounding in his chest as he thought to himself while breaking a cold sweat,

Who is this person?

Kyo finally answered with uncertainty, "... Yea. I'm awake." The shadow's hand moved to the wall, and he flicked open a dim light that shined from the ceiling so that Kyo could finally see the features of this man, and he found that he didn't seem to recognize him at all.

"You look dazed."

Kyo shut his eyes, wondering if he had passed out that night.

"Had a rough night?"

Kyo looked at the man with the elegant white hair and sharp green eyes, nodding slowly, when he began to reminisce on all of the events that had happened tonight, before he appeared here. Kyo croaked out,

"Who are you?"

The man laughed loudly and histrionically before standing up with his hands glued firmly to his hourglass hips, his shining green eyes twinkling brightly, "I am... the great King Ayame!! But you can just call me Ultra wonderful Ayame-sama." He put on a big silly grin on his face as he pointed to himself with the tip of his thumb, laughing louder than before. He then plopped back down onto the stool next to the bed, while Kyo watched as this eccentric man stared at him with this confident smirk pasted on his face, asking,

"And what is your name, boy?"

"Kyo... Sohma Kyo."

"And what is a small kid like you lying around in the streets for?"

The man's eyes widened and he pointed a thin finger all the way up in the air before shoving his finger inches away from Kyo's little face,

"Don't tell me that the police were after you because you were stealing!! Or were you on the run because some rabid dogs were after you? Or maybe you collapsed because you merely tripped on the curb. Hmmm? Am I right? Am I?"

Kyo's eyes were round and wide as he watched this man ramble on and on about reasons why he was passed out on the street, before he could even utter out the realreason. Kyo somehow couldn't help but grin at this man's hyperactive reactions though, after all, at least he wasn't dead somewhere on the streets, thanks to this odd man. Kyo leaned back against the graying walls of the small room, replying back with a low voice, "No... none of those are true. I was just running... away from my orphanage because... because...you know what? I don't have to explain."

"Orphanage?"

"Yea..."

The man leaned in closer to the boy and examined his scratched up, dirt covered face, then Kyo saw a slow smile spread on the man's thin lips, "So... have you ever heard of the Shadow Bandits?" Kyo's eyebrows knitted together and he shook his head, "Nope. Never heard of them." A loud gasp escaped Ayame's mouth while he dramatically put the back of his hand over his forehead, his eyes wide in shock, "That can't be!" The man quickly recovered from this and then grinned with a perfect set of sparkling teeth, "Well, Kyonkichi, it's time for you to get to know a little bit about us Shadow Bandits!" Kyo shot up from his spot and looked at Ayame dubiously, "Wait, are you saying that you're a... bandit?!" Before Ayame could open up his mouth to answer, the door creaked open, two more men entering,

"What is all this racket Ayame?"

complained one of the men who was wearing a pale green kimono, rubbing his eyes with a giant yawn.

"Ayame... who is this?"

asked another man who had a very calm tone to his voice and jet black hair that was partly long on the left side, so that his bangs shadowed his left eye. Ayame laughed loudly again, placing his hand over his heart, ready to introduce the new boy, "This is... Sohma Kyo! Wow, doesn't that name just have a great ring to it?"

"What is he doing here?"

The man in the green kimono asked while walking up to Kyo, examining him. Shigure snorted out a laugh as he pointed at his bright hair, "All I gotta say is that he sure has funny hair!" Kyo blushed furiously, covering up his hair with his hands. The tranquil man crossed his arms over his chest, glancing over at the boy for a second before looking back at Ayame sternly, "So answer me, what is he doing here?"

Ayame crossed his legs over one another like a lady on the stool, and then informed him with an overly exaggerated voice, "Well I originally found him on the streets, and I could never leave a small boy like this to die out in the harsh world! And now I've found out that he's an orphan boy! So we can't just leave this poor boy alone now can we? PLUS did I mention that he could make a great addition to our team. Right boy? Right, right?" Ayame looked at Kyo expectantly with his bright green eyes, with one eyebrow raised. Kyo looked around at all the eyes that were boring into his skin, and began to sweat a little, wondering what to say to these men.

If you say no... they might do something bad to you. After all, they are bandits right? But ... they seem harmless...and... I have nowhere else to go.

Kyo remembered the orphanage again and then he looked up at Ayame with burning eyes, yelling out bravely, "I want to be a bandit!"

REVIEWS PLEEEASSEE. :D and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. :D THANKS !!!