Content Warning: Physical Abuse, Bullying, Depression

There was a time when the closeness between Leonard and Vincent, back when they first met and became good friends, wasn't expressed through grand gestures or deep words. They were just two boys who sat next to each other in class, cracked jokes about boring teachers or how weird the school lunch was. They seemed like ordinary friends, the kind who kept each other company without asking too many questions.

Maybe that’s why they never talked about serious things.

Leonard never did because he didn’t have deep emotional wounds or a traumatic childhood, though that didn’t make him indifferent to the suffering of others. 

He had loving parents, a well-kept home, a normal routine, uneventful.  

And Vincent... his life was very different. He seemed to avoid anything with a personal undertone. His gaze was always sharp, intimidating. He was evasive or would create a planned distraction to avoid talking about things Leonard didn’t feel entitled to ask about. As if there were something he had to keep only for himself.

But everything changed one morning. 

Vincent showed up to class with a black eye.

Leonard tensed. He didn’t know what to say, how to approach it, how to act like an eighteen-year-old who’d always lived a peaceful life. He wasn’t ignorant of the violence in the real world, but he hadn’t been directly exposed to abuse  —not like Vincent.

“What happened to you?” he asked softly, almost afraid of the answer.

Vincent turned his face away.

“It’s nothing. I fell.”

It was a lie. Leonard knew it instantly. But he didn’t push. He didn’t have the courage, not then. 

There were cruel kids at school, teenagers who took pleasure in crushing the quiet ones. Leonard, for his part, had learned to survive by being useful, accommodating, submissive. He’d never crossed any dangerous line, but he knew what it was to act out of fear. It was better that way, he believed —to keep a low profile and follow orders to survive school.

Days later, Vincent came back with another bruise, this time on his cheekbone.

Leonard couldn’t stay silent anymore.

“What’s going on?” he asked, more firmly, more resolutely. Something inside him was still scared, but he resisted showing it.

Vincent looked at him, and for a moment, his mask cracked. As if he’d been holding it in for far too long. He hesitated, but he needed to talk to someone —anyone— and Leonard was standing right in front of him. 

“My family’s a mess,” he confessed. His voice was lower than usual, like he didn’t want anyone else to hear. 

“My old man... he doesn’t work. He hits me when he’s in a bad mood. Mom... she’s lost in alcohol. Barely shows up,” he sighed slowly. “I work part-time. I’m saving up to leave, but sometimes he steals my savings and I... I’m not strong enough to fight back.

Leonard didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have the right words. All he did was stay by his side. 

Sometimes, during lunch break, they’d just sit next to each other. Without speaking. No need to.

**

One time, Leonard was running through the hallway with a tray of lunches he had to deliver to some older kids. It was the price he paid to avoid being their target. A daily humiliation, tolerated in silence. 

Vincent saw him. Understood everything in an instant and he stepped in.

He didn’t hesitate. He got in the way, blocked their path, yelled at them. Told them to pick on someone else, but it was him who ended up on the floor, blood in his mouth and a busted lip. He didn’t fight back much — maybe he didn’t want to.  

From then on, every time those bullies tried to go after Leonard again, Vincent was there. Getting in between. Taking the blows.

Leonard watched it happen, helpless. He was too harmless to defend Vincent in return —too scared to even speak up. He often wondered if the bruises and scrapes he saw on his friend were because of him.  

His problem was always the same: passivity, fear. He was a boy disconnected from life, walking through the world like a ghost.  Unable to raise his voice even for himself.

Until one day, he saw it again. 

Vincent was cornered in the hallway, fists flying at him and something inside Leonard snapped.

“STOP! TEACHER! SOMEONE, HELP!” he screamed, louder than he ever had in his life.

They were words that didn’t feel like they belonged to him yet.  Words that still tasted foreign, but burned true.

“I’m so sorry, Vincent. Please don’t let others hurt you because of me. I promise I’ll be stronger for you.”

Vincent turned to look at him —blood smeared across his face, but something warm behind his eyes. In that moment, he understood there was more than just friendship between them —something deeper, more intimate, more closely bound.

But just one day later, he would once again be beaten down —by his family, by the bullies. And Leonard, without warning, would suddenly collapsed at eighteen. The world they once knew vanished —replaced by one twisted by silence, decay, and creatures called Rainbanes.