[Jaden Wolf]

Koji

Koji's knuckles ached slightly as he shifted his backpack higher up on his shoulder. He didn't know what those guys had been babbling about - something about some loser behind the school - but they had picked the wrong day to pester him. Always picking fights with him one day and then kissing his ass the next, crying "big brother! boss man!"

Damn if he wouldn't just hospitalize them and be done with it.

But in the end, that seemed more trouble than it was worth and Koji let them off with a few bruises and a potentially broken nose. Technically the last one had been an accident and, for a moment, he felt kind of bad for the guy, but quickly squashed the feeling. Something churned in his gut every time he felt the need to do so and he liked to pretend he didn't know why.

He lightly punched the edge of the dumpster as he rounded the building, aching knuckles nearly splitting open at the impact. It was sufficiently distracting, as he'd intended.

The sun was shining and the grass was green, but back here behind the school it was downright miserable. Dirty concrete perpetually in the shadow of the building, with cigarette butts and trash strewn about. Delinquents liked to leave a mess behind, for some reason. He never actually understood that particular inclination. Especially when there was a dumpster right next to them.

He made his way around it, heading for the back wall. A quick hop over and he'd be free of this stupid place and its stupid assholes.

[crow]

Rael didn't know how he kept ending up in these places. One minute, he'd be having a perfectly nice conversation, and the next, well...

These people had seemed so nice at first too. There were a lot of them, and they didn't smell very good -- like cigarettes, strong in a way that made his head hurt -- but they'd asked him to meet him behind the school. Said they'd like to get to know him better. It was a new school, and making friends seemed pretty important.

He didn't even know when exactly it had started going south... Maybe when they found out he didn't have any money? But then the mood had soured, and a couple of the guys had grabbed him, and tossed him into something and closed the lid on it. He had thought it might have been a game at first. He could hear them laughing, so he did his best to laugh along, even though it smelled even worse in here than the guys had and now the inside of his mouth tasted kind of bad too.

But then there was some sort of commotion, and he couldn't hear anyone laughing anymore. Rael listened carefully, his ear pressed to the slick wall of the container he was in -- which turned out to be a mistake when someone struck it from the other end.

With a yelp, he fell back over onto the damp, squishy stuff beneath him. "Um," he said. "Hello? Can I come out now? It doesn't smell very nice in here and I'd like to leave!" Hopefully he'd said it loud enough for them to hear him. He really did want to get out of here soon.

[Jaden Wolf]

He was but two steps away when Koji heard a very muffled voice. He paused, more confused than anything as he looked around to find the source. It only took a moment to realize there was someone inside the dumpster - an obvious conclusion, given there were no other hiding places around here.

In that same moment, he vaguely recalled the "loser behind the school" his would-be lackeys were babbling about before. He couldn't believe they actually put someone in the dumpster. It was ridiculously cliché and - more importantly as far as he was concerned - absolutely disgusting.

Though he did have to wonder what kind of person would let themselves get thrown in. And why they weren't freaking out. And why they hadn't attempted to get out on their own. The more he stood there glaring in confusion at the slimy metal bin, the more questions he had.

He did - eventually - realize he was just staring while the loser was still in there. He reached out automatically and flung open the lid. It wasn't even a heavy lid.

"The hell?" he asked. The hell are you doing in there? The hell did they want with you? The hell are you just staying put for?

He didn't deign to elaborate the question as he crossed his arms and waited, face as scary as he could manage, for the loser to poke their head out.

[crow]

Light burst into the space as the lid was thrown open, and Rael blinked hard for a moment. Then his eyes adjusted, and he blinked again, realizing he didn't recognize the face he saw. But he broke into a smile anyway. "Thanks! It smelled pretty bad in there."

Now that the lid was open, Rael lifted himself out -- or tried, anyway. Jumping out didn't work; the surface underneath him was too soft and unstable for him to push off properly. He had to grip the side of the bin and heave himself over, thin arms shaking with exertion, before finally his center of gravity tipped over and he tumbled out of it and landed in an ungainly heap on the ground.

For a moment he simply stared up at the sky, contemplating the situation. Then he rolled onto his side and sat up, picking a banana peel out of his sand-colored hair. He looked at it, and then at himself. His clothes were stained in places, and the smell of the bin clung to him now, cloying and unpleasant.

The thought of smells brought him to another realization, and he looked around him in confusion. "Where did everyone else go?"

[Jaden Wolf]

A twitch of one eyebrow was the only response he gave to the stranger's gratitude. He didn't get thanked much - at least not by young people - generally because he didn't do things worth being thanked for. He wasn't really happy about it though, it just made the weak boy seem even more pathetic, as far as Koji was concerned.

Which is why he just tilted his head at a slightly higher angle to glare sharply down at the boy who had tumbled so gracelessly out of the dumpster. His nose wrinkled at the smell, making his glare all the more intense. He'd yet to meet anyone who didn't react negatively to this particular expression, most out of fear and the odd few with anger and aggression. Of course, it was usually unintentional, but in this case, he wanted to get this loser out of his sight as soon as possible. He wouldn't admit to it, but he practiced the scowl in the mirror for this precise reason.

The idiot still hadn't answered his question-that-wasn't-really-a-question.

Which is why his only answer to the question was a growled "hmph."

[crow]

Rael busied himself looking around for the other boys, peering around behind the big bin as if he might find them hiding there. They weren't, so with a sigh, he turned back to the stranger who was still there, only to find that stranger staring at him. He smiled, because that was the thing to do to get along with people well, and he wanted to get along well with someone who had helped him out.

"I guess it's just us! I'm R-- er. I'm Avery!" He held out his hand to shake, still smiling, before the smile and the offered hand both faltered as he clocked the expression on the stranger's face. "Hey, are you okay? You look like you're not doing so good." He frowned, eyes narrowing as he leaned in to have a closer look. "What is it? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

[Jaden Wolf]

It shouldn't have been possible with the scowl on his face, but Koji's face nonetheless froze stiff at the idiot's reaction. The bathroom!? This guy was some kind of airhead, he was sure. Avery, his brain supplemented belatedly, which he promptly decided to pretend not to have heard. Though in his shock, he really hadn't caught the near slip the boy had made.

After what must have seemed like an eternity - though was really only a second or two - Koji's expression relaxed. He almost started to say something but was startled yet again when he realized how close the airhead had gotten. Reflexively, he snapped his head backward and his fist closed itself around Avery's shirt. Sore knuckles protested the action as his brain struggled to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. Was he trying to hit the guy? Push him away? Kiss him? (Wait scratch that last thing, where did that come from?)

The end result was him awkwardly shaking Avery as he tried to simultaneously push him away and pull him closer. (To hit. TO HIT.)

[Crystal Synthesis Complete]