Through Clear Glass

Kyouya sighed as he looked at Alice, "Please, sit." he motioned to a space on the bed next to him and waited for her to sit. "I used to be in the military in Africa. Though, it wasn't a regular military. Obviously, I'm no African. From what I can tell, I was taken in the night while my family was vacationing there. It wouldn't have been the first time and I'm not the first Australian Japanese either. In any case, I was raised for special missions so, I wasn't blood thirsty like many of my comrades." Kyouya stopped for a moment as he looked at the drawings other kids had done in schools while he was looking for POI's (Person of Interest). "My job consisted of espionage, sabotage, basically general gathering of information. This required me to get close to certain people and sometimes that involved.... being intimate." Kyouya's gaze shifted down as he spoke. He used to be proud of the special position he held in the Invisible Army but, when he spoke of it to her he couldn't help feeling a little ashamed. It was strange that she could invoke all these emotions that he had locked away so long ago.

She took up the offered seat and waited patiently for him to start. Her eyes never strayed from him as he told his tale - from being kidnapped to being... well, a trained soldier. Her heart clenched and reached out for him. But at one point in the story, she was glad that he had been put into the espionage and information gathering group despite how she disliked (with a damned passion) him being with other women.

"I see..." A mounting source of anger was now bubbling up inside her. Alice wanted to go to Africa and burn down that military. They had no right to use children in their little world of wars.

"Yeah." Kyouya said. "It was a brilliant idea though. Even if it was dark and immoral. Children are easily manipulated while they're still very young and who would expect a child would be a soldier?" Kyouya explained the brilliance of the idea even if he didn't exactly agree with the method.

"Brilliant, yes," she agreed. "But wrong. A child shouldn't have to be manipulated into doing things that adults can do for themselves. They were simply going the easy way about it."

Her tone had started out small, but as she continued to speak it grew angry and hateful.

"They had no right to take you away," Alice was seething. "They didn't have any damned permission to take away your childhood!"

Alice mind was bending and twisting as she tried to take everything in. Her emotions were all over the place. Sadness and guilt. Anger and hatred. And an unconditional love that she could barely understand.

Kyouya smiled. It was easy enough for someone to say those things when they didn't understand. "You think it was easy to take the children from their homes, from their schools? You think it was easy to train them to use guns, grenades, drive tanks, rabbits? Most of them didn't know which end was the business end of the weapon. You think it was easy to watch kids walk past your check point, knowing what was waiting for them behind you? I know it all too well. Better than most of them, even as I had to help them sell away their souls. Our childhoods weren't stolen from us. The country was riddled with war and fighting. I watched as a mother and two children constantly looked over their shoulders because they thought they heard a rustle in the bushes or the wind blew in their ears. We were almost better off in the camps, at least there we were safe from the real bastards that wouldn't have thought twice about killing me or raping you. It was hard but, we were fed, clothed, and had a solid roof over our heads. In exchange, all we had to do was fire a weapon." Kyouya's voice was smooth though shaken at the places where he cursed but, he wasn't mad at them. He was only mad that he couldn't save the others.

Alice looked down in shame. She hadn't known how bad or good it was for the children. Sighing and looking at her hands, Alice came to a conclusion that even though she knew his past, she wouldn't be able to understand him fully.

"I'm sorry," she pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Alice berated herself for having judged his past life harshly. If their life was better in the camps then why say anything - why do anything.

Kyouya sighed. "No, don't apologize. You're right. It wasn't the best of childhoods but, it's all we had." Kyouya then looked up at her, "And now I have you." he said with a smile.

"I guess..." Alice was not lightly tugging at her long hair. A random habit she picked up when she felt like she stepped on someone's expensive shoes and was ready to be punished for it.

But she stopped and looked back at him with a shy smile. Kyouya really did have a way with making her smile despite the situation. "Yeah. And I have you too."

Without much thought Alice leaned forward and tried to kiss him on the cheek.

Kyouya was kissed on the cheek and blushed slightly. He hadn't expected her to do that and he was embarrassed to be caught off guard. He smiled though, he was glad that she was taking initiative. If it had been anyone else to make him feel vulnerable he may have taught them what he learned in Africa. "I'm quite rather taken by you." he said, looking in her eyes.

Color filled her cheeks and neck as she stared right back into his eyes - the ones that pulled her in. Alice unconsciously leaned forward a bit as she asked, "Why? I'm nothing special."

And that's what she thought with her entire being. Alice Walker was simply a girl who loved to read books. There was never interesting about her.