Aneen

Rin didn't think she'd ever get used to the scent of the underground prison.

The cold, mildew smell reminded her of death and ever since she started to live as her own person, Death wasn't allowed to make his presence known to her.

Experiments were eliminated on a daily basis.

Anyone who wasn't seen fit for the mission or stunted in their progress, were tossed aside for a new model; their DNA replicated and manipulated for the best results.

It was foolish to feel attachment to any one person.

But, when she approached the familiar cage, her feet staying safely behind the line, it was clear she'd never honor the detachment she'd preached to herself.

Haru's worn face was enough to make her forget.

He sat, facing the east wall, his hands hanging limply in his lap.

The men in charge of guarding him, gave her presence a brief acknowledgement, but stayed quiet.

Rin took the opportunity to try and get herself settled, before he noticed she'd arrived.

Shuffling inch by inch, she bent her legs and sat against the cold wall, undoing the clasps on her bag.

Haru hadn't moved; his deep eyes focused on one upper corner of the cell

"What's he looking at?" She wondered.

There wasn't anything hanging there, that should warrant that kind of fixation.

Her fingers found the edge of her notebook and slid it onto her lap, pencil at the ready.

Years had passed since she drew Haru, but it seemed like her hands remembered his shapes even better than her mind did.

As if time and death hadn't separated them, the pencil slid down the paper in graceful strokes, capturing his image piece by piece; though now he was haggard and lacked the light she craved.

Her eyes glanced back up to her model and the curve of his shoulders, which slumped into the lazy position he took.

The cuts and bruises peppering him were new, probably from his own hand, but there were marks that never existed before.

A crisscross of intricate scars, laced down his arms and torso, some shallow and small, others so deep, she wondered how he still functioned properly?

It hurt her to draw his protruding vertebrae and hollow cheekbones, the shading nearly using up all her pencil.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of charcoal for the space surrounding him and the shadows under his eyes.

Up until recently, they would have been the deepest she'd ever seen.

Gaara's face came to her mind on that first day. How his gaze trapped her in its exhaustion.

Despite herself, a small smile came to her face. He'd taught her so much in so little time.

Rin set the notepad down, her heart sad when she thought. "I've gotten better since the last time I drew him."

The attention to detail made his transformation all the more real, as she slid her knees up to her chest, holding her arms around them.

It was tempting to stay in this comfortable silence; to keep watching him and pretend like the howling animal he'd become, wasn't real.

But progress never comes from staying in what's comfortable.

She took a breath, steeling herself for the next part, her voice quiet and controlled. "Haru."

He twitched at the sound, his eyes finally drifting away from the spot they were captured by and finding her in the warm afternoon sunlight.

For a moment, it almost seemed like he'd stay in the calm state, she found him in.

His expression was curious.

Rin's heart picked up speed in her chest. "Haru?"

His joints popped and cracked when he moved, making her wonder how long he'd been staring at the east corner before she'd arrived?

He crawled closer, eyes never changing from their inquisitive stance.

She froze in her spot.

Haru came to the cell door, pulling his legs underneath him and staring at her.

Rin's trembling hand raised, wondering if this were her opportunity to get closer?

His eyes drifted from her face to her hand and his broken, dirtied fingers found their way up to reach hers.

Then the screaming started.

The wild animal woke from its stupor, coming to the bars and grabbing at her.

She sighed, dropping her hand to her knees, certain she'd imagined that he was trying to match her expression, before.

"Okay, let's pick up where we left off, then."

He dipped and bobbed and tried to find a way to her, but Rin turned her attention to the guards closest to the cell. "How has he been eating? He looks even thinner since yesterday."

"He hasn't."

Her brow drew together. "He won't eat what you bring him?"

The guard didn't meet her gaze. "We weren't sure if the Kazekage was going to kill him or not, so we haven't been bothering."

Rin's jaw dropped, her feet shooting up beneath her. "You've been starving him?! What kind of torturing asshole are you? Get him some damn food, this instant!"

The guard gestured to the bowl of moldy bread. "It's right there. Go ahead if you want to be the one to get close enough to give it to him. He smells half-dead anyway."

Her face turned a crimson red, fury pounding in her chest, radiating down to her toes. "You can't be serious! He can't be expected to eat this. He needs real food and medical treatment. That smell you're complaining about, is infection. He has a fever! This is cruelty."

"Take it up with the Kazekage, then."

"I refuse to believe he knows about this. Gaara wouldn't allow this kind of treatment."

"That's Lord Gaara, to you, bitch. If you ask me, you've gotten too comfortable here. I think we should be rid of both you and that animal in the cage. Clear the Sand of the Sound's influence."

"Animal?"

The sergeant spit at the cell door, hitting Haru square in the eye. "You heard me. He's more dog than man, even yelps like one when my boot meets him. Waste of resources."

Rin's jaw clenched.

She'd seen this kind of man before; knew what language he spoke.

Haru's fresh bruises made sense.

Her steps brought her mere inches from his face.

The voice that escaped her lips was low, dripping in venom. "You listen to me, you son of a bitch. If you don't get out of my sight and find a doctor who will treat him, I'm going to reach my fingers into your mind and scramble it like an egg."

"You don't frighten me, kunoichi."

Rin's lips curved into a wicked smile, as she grabbed hold of his arm, her chakra fusing with his.

A flash of memories came to her vision, just as dark and wicked as she assumed.

She pulled him close, her lips at his ear. "I may not, but your father certainly did, didn't he? When he locked you in that shed, the sound of his belt unbuckling..."

The guard's breath caught in his throat. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Get me my doctor and you won't have to worry about what I know, Puppy."

"Pu...Puppy?"

Rin broke her chakra contact with him; her eyes deathly serious. "Isn't that what he used to call you, in private? Every time he visited you and breathed in your ear? Before you stuck those sheers in his neck?"

His voice was a shaking whisper. "You can't know that. How do you know that?"

"I know you, Sergeant. You like to hurt people. It's why you've felt misplaced since the war ended. You've lost the outlet you needed for dealing with the pain you're carrying, and I'll tell you one more thing I know."

Her fingers trailed up to his face, holding his chin, so he was looking at her. "If I find out that you've hurt my friend again, I'll do things to you, you can't imagine. I make a business out of nightmares, Puppy, you don't want to make me yours."

By the way his eyes welled up and the explosion of goosebumps raising on his arms, she knew she reached him.

The guard swallowed his fear and turned away from her, going up the staircase.

"Sergeant? Where are you going? Relief hasn't been assigned yet."

He froze on the stair and barked at his troops. "I'm going to get a damn doctor! Maintain position until I arrive!"

"Yes, sir!"

Rin watched him leave, body trembling in anger.

Her attention turned to the moldy bread they'd been offering.

Haru stopped struggling to reach her and was rubbing his eye, trying to get the sting of the guard's spit out of it.

She sighed and grabbed the loaf.

Her steps brought her behind the line and she sat cross-legged, facing him. "I'm sorry, Haru. I had no idea."

He didn't acknowledge her.

She looked at the bread and picked away at the moldy bits, finding some untouched parts in the middle. "Hey, remember the first time we ate cake?"

Haru started pacing, his hands flexing open and closed, her voice wearing on him.

Rin smiled sadly. "It was that nice scientist. Mai, I think her name was. She was always gentler than the others. Remember when she snuck us in cake, that one time? I'd never tasted anything like it. You said you could eat it every meal, for the rest of your life and not get tired of it."

His hands raised to his head, holding it, the pain of something unknown to her, radiating in his face.

She held the safe parts of the bread in her hand. "It's not cake, by any means, but I know you're hungry. Come eat, Haru."

Rin knew there was no way to get close enough to hand it to him and they weren't giving her any plates to help.

Her eyes looked around for some way to feed him, without just throwing the bread in the dirt.

Haru stopped pacing, when he saw her scooching closer to the cage, a painful-sounding groan lifting from his throat. "Aneeeen!"

She jumped at his voice, when he reached for her through the door, but not in the way he'd done in the past.

This wasn't the frantic stretching of trying to reach prey, it looked like he wanted her attention.

"Aneen? What is that?"

His broken fingers grasped at the air around her, the frustration clear in his eyes.

Rin looked down at her bag and saw her notebook. "Let's try this."

She placed the bread on her stiff paper and slid it underneath the small slit of the door.

Haru shifted from grabbing at her, to pouncing on the bread, devouring it in hungry gulps.

The sound of his growling stomach and chomping jaws, made her heart hurt. "I'm going to get you help, Haru. I promise."

His eyes turned up to her, slamming the notebook to the ground and beating his hands against his head. "Aneeen! Aneeen!"

"I don't know what that is, Haru."

"Aneeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!" He howled.

Her hands came to her face, frustrated tears streaming down her face. "What are you saying?"

Haru slid down to his knees, throwing his fists in the dirt, smacking the ground over and over until she looked up at him.

To her surprise, there were tears in his eyes too. The expression on his face wasn't predatory or crazed, it was helpless. "Aneen!"

She stared at him, trying to comprehend this word. "Aneen?"

Haru nodded.

Rin gasped at the acknowledgment.

She rose up on her knees, trying to keep this moment of clarity in her friend. "What is that? What are you trying to say?"

He opened his mouth, the nub of his tongue flicking away in the darkness.

She focused on the way it moved, her own mouth mimicking the pattern. "Aneen... aneen....anee... eighteen! You're saying 18!"

He nodded again, the edges of his mouth curling into a fraction of a smile.

Rin gave a gasping laugh. "You're saying my name. The name you remember me being called for most of our lives. 18! 18!"

The calm on his face dissolved into pain, as he shot his hands up to his head, gripping it.

Haru fell to the ground, squirming under whatever triggered his agony.

Rin rose to her feet, over-stepping the line and grabbing the bars. "Haru!"

"Ma'am! Get away from the cell!" The guards shouted, seizing her arms and pulling her away.

Rin's legs kicked in the air, trying to get back to Haru. "No! Don't you see what's happening, you idiots?! Someone is hurting him! Someone doesn't want him to remember me! Let me go!"

All at once, Haru's eyes met her and he pounced from his crouch, slamming at the bars and reaching for her again.

Whatever came over his mind, it told him to kill her now, or else more pain would continue.

She'd reached him before, there was a small part of Haru still in there.

This meant someone was watching, listening, and they punished him for communicating with her.

This changed everything.