Till the end

Chapter 3

Kuroko's Pov

I closed the door behind me and sunk to the floor, clutching my chest as my heart thumped loudly. His hands had been so warm, his eye so kind. And that colour! Everything about him reminded me of what I had lost. It hurt but at the same time I wanted to jump in that strangers arms and beg him to take me away from all of this.

"Tetsu-chan?"

I scrambled to my feet and over to the fire place where my best friend was sitting, wrapped in blankets to ward against the cold, her pink hair shining in the fires light.

"It's me Momoi, how are you feeling?"

She jumped up swept me into a hug, spinning my small frame around and placing me down on the ground a huge grin on her face.

"As you can see I am fine thanks to my own personal nurse."

I grinned up at my best and only friend in this place, glad she was feeling better. Momoi was the niece of the headman who ran this small settlement. Her family had lived a little outside of the walls, not entirely comfortable with the way things were run here but that had been their downfall. While Momoi had been in town to grab some supplies her family had been attacked. That left her an orphan under her uncles' care. She had befriended me instantly despite her uncles' protests and demands to stay away and we had been inseparable ever since.

"I expected you here a while ago, what happened?"

"Oh, Kagami had some guests"- my eyes slid away from hers, I had never been able to lie to her face.

She grabbed my wrist before I could move away and pushed the sleeve back to reveal a bruise I had got from the men who had hurt me.

"Tell me who," she said, her bubble gum eyes blazing in anger.

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does Tetsu-chan! I won't let them do this to you any longer!"

She tried to shove past me but I grabbed her arms and shook her.

"You can't make a fuss! We are walking on thin ice as it is since you stopped the flogging the other day!"

Her blazing eyes softened a little and I saw her bow her shoulders in defeat. A week ago she had interfered with one of my 'punishments' and her uncle had been furious. I was the settlements slave, they could and did do whatever they wanted to me without rebuttal but Momoi didn't stand for that and had swooped in to help me. In response her uncle had put her under house arrest.

"Well then you need to get out."

"You know I can't do that either."

I moved away from the doorway and headed over to the fire to begin making her some soup for lunch and dinner.

"He has made sure to shackle me to this place in more ways than one since my failed attempt so long ago."

"I don't think he would really sell me," she begun but when I looked over I could see the doubt in her eyes.

"He would Momoi. You know he would. Something in him has changed, broken. He would whore you out if I were to try and escape so here I am."

"It isn't fair. Be selfish Tetsu-chan! Run away! Save yourself. You can survive out there where no one else could find you."

I knelt down beside her and brushed her pink hair behind her hair and pressed my forehead against hers, both of us closing our eyes.

"You have known me your entire life, you know I could never do that."