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A.E.D groaned with the effort it took to open his eyes. Once open, however, they were firmly clamped shut again against the light seeking to blind him. It felt like he’d been hit with a truck, his entire body ached but most of it was centered around his chest, a stabbing pain that intensified the more he sought to wake himself. He bit his lip as a small sound escaped him. He tensed as he heard someone move near him, a hand placed on his chest to lower him back to the bed. He hissed as pain lanced through his clenched muscles.

“Will you just ******** lie down!” The person growled.

A.E.D frowned but did as instructed; it seemed to be the way to cause him the least amount of pain. Daringly, he cracked his eyes open a fraction and tried to look at the other person whose voice he knew irritatingly well.

“Izm?” The injured prefect asked with a less than healthy sounding crack to his tone. The black marketer swayed into focus, the light illuminating him from behind slowly fading until he could see the other and A.E.D was surprised to see the teen had a mix of anger and worry on his face. With a grunt he shuffled beneath the sheets of the bed he lay in and was surprised when the dull ache in his arm turned into a stabbing pain. He looked down and saw an IV jammed into it. His frown deepened. “Izm… why am I in the hospital?”

“Cos you’re a ******** idiot, that’s why.” Izm snapped.

A.E.D scowled. “******** off; I don’t remember a thing will you just tell me what happened!”

Izm shrugged. “I’m sure the doctors will tell you.” With that he turned and left the room. A.E.D had a feeling he wouldn’t be coming back.

A few moments later a white garbed man with a worn face and glasses entered the room he was in. A.E.D watched as he came over. “It’s good to see that you’re awake.” The man announced. A.E.D didn’t reply. “So… what’s your real name then, son? Your friend told us to call you A.E.D and said he didn’t know you’re real name.”

“That is my real name.” A.E.D said bluntly, refusing to divulge anything.

The doctor gave him a hard look but continued as though A.E.D hadn’t spoken. “For a while there, you gave all of us a pretty bad scare.” With a raise of his eyebrow A.E.D interpreted the man’s words to mean that for a while they didn’t think he’d make it. Well, there was a wonderful thought.

“Doc… what happened to me?” A.E.D murmured, getting straight to the point.

The man frowned. “I’m not surprised you don’t remember: you have a light case of trauma. But… didn’t your friend tell you? I passed him on my way in.”

The prefect scowled. “He is not my friend.”

The doctor’s eyebrows shot up. “Well he sure acts like it. He refused to leave the hospital since you were brought in until you woke up.” A.E.D grunted. The doctor sighed. “You were brought in five days ago.”

A.E.D’s eyes widened. Izm had stayed that long? There was only one reason the teen would do that… for whatever reason he was in the hospital, Izm was mostly responsible for. Or felt he was.

There was a clatter as the doctor flicked through A.E.D’s charts and then placed them back down. “I don’t know much of what happened. Even the police who investigated don’t know, and they won’t approach you’re friend, seems their a little afraid of him.” .D grinned. “But in any case… somehow, you managed to get four bullets lodged in your body.” With that, the doctor left.

The prefect looked shocked. He’d been shot? Repeatedly?!


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The doctor refused to let him leave until he was back to full health, foiling every escape attempt he made and even going so far as to tie him down when he was being particularly violent. A.E.D frowned as he left the hospital building finally, this time with permission.

Izm hadn’t been back to see him.

It was only a short walk back to the school and once safely back behind the school walls, A.E.D headed straight for his dorm. He wanted a shower now.

As he stepped into the shower, he looked down to his chest, his mouth forming a little ‘o’ of wonder. There were four almost star shaped scars scattered down his torso, the stitches sticking out defiantly from the pink, angry skin that was still sore from being shot at. Frowning, as was his usual expression, the prefect tried to remember. Anything. But all he got was a blur of movement and the gunshots reverberating in his head… and a cry of his name.

Finishing in the shower, head filled with more questions going out than it had going in, A.E.D got dressed again and promptly went to Izm’s room, tired of the way the other seemed intent on ignoring him. He could feel himself steadily growing more and more angry as he went, each step fueling the frustration of not knowing what the hell had happened and sparking his infamous temper.

Damn, he needed a cigarette!

By the time he reached Izm’s dorm room he couldn’t even extend the courtesy to open it normally and the poor wood was kicked wide on its hinges by a heavy boot with a restrained growl from the owner of said boot.

A.E.D started and the video game controller he held fell from his grasp to the floor as he stared, wide eyed, at the practically steaming individual stood in his doorway, the screen on which the game was shown exploding into brilliant colors and a taunting ‘you lose’ parading about.

“.D?!” The game quickly forgotten and its irritating music washing over them as the surprised teen eyed A.E.D warily.

“Oh, sure. You remember me now…” A.E.D grumbled. “Look, I’ve no idea what happened to me and I can’t promise I won’t be angry when you tell me, cos you are going to tell me, but I can promise you I won’t hurt you or destroy anything of yours.” Still staring at A.E.D in a shocked stupor Izm merely blinked. “Make it quick, I need a cigarette and a strawberry.”

The smaller boy laughed suddenly. His gloved hands slamming into his face and his whole body shaking as he buried his face into the leathered palm in which he was currently trying to hide. Then A.E.D heard a sob and he nearly collapsed in shock, his angered stance faltering and his arms falling to his sides. He reached out uncertainly and gaped at the male before him. Izm NEVER cried!

“Izm? A-are you crying?!”

The teen leapt up, his hands clenching into fists as he glared at A.E.D angrily. “Of course I’m ******** crying! I mean: no! I’m not! I’m just ******** allergic to you” He pushed A.E.D hard and gripped his collar roughly. “You ******** git! You could have been killed but no! You had to be the ******** hero!” He threw the taller boy away from him and roared in anger. “They came for me you p***k! THEY CAME FOR ME!”

Shaking himself free from the shock he’d been in at seeing Izm actually cry he scowled and punched the other hard making him double up in pain. “What are you yelling about?! I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about!”

“You!” Izm uncurled his hunched over body and they began to circle each other as the smaller jabbed a furious finger at him. “I’m talking about you and you’re ******** hero complex! You just had to jump between me and them!”

In a flash A.E.D launched himself across the little circle they were pacing around each other and slammed Izm into the floor, his hand tight but not crippling around the teen’s throat, a snarl on his face that made the smaller male question whether A.E.D wasn’t willing to crush his windpipe. “That’s enough!” Slowly he took a few deep breaths until he was able to speak without yelling. “Just… just tell me what happened.” He sat back and allowed Izm up and they sat facing each other wearily, the black marketer checking his throat cautiously.

“Well… I’d snuck out of school again.” Izm began and A.E.D merely nodded. “And you, my ever irritating shadow, had to follow.” The smaller sighed in frustration as he recalled the events. “I’d been pissing off a few too many big shots lately… and I was due to pay the price. I was cocky and thought I could handle it on my own, I didn’t even consider that you’d follow but I should have known…”

BANG BANG BANG!

“A.E.D! ********!”

There was a scraping and thudding footsteps as the hired thugs made their escape, Izm barely making it to catch A.E.D in time before the idiot fell to the floor.

“Stupid, stupid, idiot b*****d, why the hell did you do that for?!” Izm demanded of the teen he shook angrily in his arms, his panicked eyes not quite registering the blood spreading like ink on paper through the boy’s uniform, the red on black only making it appear to stick to him even more.

“Oh ********, oh ********! I'm gonna kill them! s**t, s**t, s**t!” He pressed his palm to the closest bullet hole and gasped at the amount of blood slicking his fingers when he pulled his hand away. “It won’t stop bleeding! C'mon .D, it's just a bit of lead, you can take this! Why did you get in the way you stupid ******** b*****d?!” Throwing his head back he demanded of the sullen sky. ”AND WHY IS IT RAINING?”

“Oh my god, oh my god! Hey, hang in there! The paramedics will be here soo- NO, NO, NO! Stay awake you ********!” He almost laughed as he heard A.E.D’s croaked reply. “Yes, ******** you too, but you can’t sleep yet not yet.”

“Idiot, idiot, IDIOT!” He felt like wringing the idiot’s neck. “Hang on. You can’t go! You die and I’ll kill you! I'll ******** piss on your grave if you die, I swear, if you die I'll kick your a**, if you die I'll kill you! Don’t you dare die! I’ll kick your a**! Don’t… c’mon… hang on… hang on-“

“They were never there to simply beat me up a little… they actually wanted to kill me. I had felt so ******** untouchable; I didn’t think they’d be able to kill me. Then, when they pulled out those ******** guns… I really thought I was gonna die…” Izm looked at A.E.D with confused, incredulous eyes and sighed. “Then you jumped in the ******** way…”

“W-what?!” A.E.D frowned, not quite allowing himself to believe he’d nearly died trying to save Izm but then all the memories had rushed him at once he could see it all, the two burly men who had threatened Izm, the way the other had arrogantly told them to ‘blow it out their asses’, the icy fear that Izm, the one consistency in his life whether he be ******** annoying as hell or not, was going to die. And then, the way he jumped in the way of those bullets and then finally the desperate face Izm had had when he rudely demanded he stay awake.

“You saved my life, you b*****d.” Izm murmured. He rubbed his chest and hissed in pain. “Though I could have done without the punch, ya know.”

A.E.D huffed and dusted himself off as he rose to his feet. “You left me with no memory of what had happened in a creepy hospital with three bullet wounds in my chest, trust me, a punch is the least you’re gonna get from me in the next few weeks.”

Izm winced and laughed nervously. “Ah well, if I’d seen you then I’d probably have beaten the crap outta you for being so stupid anyway. At least now you can defend yourself.”

The prefect snorted and turned to the busted door, facing the audience they’d collected by their antics who had been watching in awe at the events through the open door. “You can ******** off now.” He growled. The all vanished pretty quickly. He gave Izm a nod and then left the room.

Izm watched him go and laughed, shaking his head as he was left alone with his thoughts. He’d given A.E.D the abridged version, he’d never tell the other boy just how frightened he ‘d been, just how damned scared he’d been with the prefect bleeding so badly in his arms when there was absolutely nothing he could do.

Suddenly Marcus came into the room, A.E.D’s little lackey. “Hey, Izm, have you seen .D? Someone said you two were at it again in here.”

The black marketer smirked filthily. “The way you say that, you make it sound like we’re having sex…”

Marcus rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean…”

The delinquent laughed. “Yeah, he was here. You just missed him.”

“Oh, which way did he go?”

“Just wait here, I have a feeling he’ll be back in a moment.” Izm held up a hand in which he clutched a half used packet of A.E.D’s favorite cigarettes.

Marcus froze at the sight, his eyes flickering from Izm’s content face to the packet. “You didn’t…”

“I’ve told him to quit. If he won’t do it on his own I figure he just needs a helping hand.”

The other boy seemed about to reply when-

“IZM!” Came the roar from A.E.D’s room.

Izm twirled the packet lazily with a satisfied smirk as Marcus tensed up worriedly. “I swear, you gonna make him have gray hairs.”

“One can only hope.” Izm laughed.