PG-13 for Gojyo's past and all that goes with it.
Young
by sasateq
Gojyo is no young fool. Childish, immature at times, but never young.
Not for a long time.
He has seen what sludge the world abandons upon some; seen it gloss over others with unjust mercy; been on the receiving end of what felt like all of the three universes’ enmity. And sometimes, it wasn’t just what it felt like. No innocent child, since blood (as thin as water) trickled where it should never have, and breathy cries echoed where he who touched was the one hurt (unbeknownst by the woman), and children were shunned as never should have been. As pure a child (wash it white as snow) as any other child alongside him, yet fouled by a name, and the screams of heritage unwanted.
No naïve emptiness, since elders, watched so closely, unwittingly showed a boy (so quickly a man) the way to desert his childhood, to lose the small youngster to a seductive gambler; claret-red ignored (the scarlet poppies of Flanders’ field) on the path of a new night to a new bed, a new chance at deserting his memories, and yet the same way for cruel Fate to twist her truths and tales into reminding him once more that he is no innocent young fool any longer.
And because he knows so much, he knows so little. And because he is not young, he must be, and he is both.