Yasashisa Amai ("Sweet Charity", sequel to Honest Love)

-----part 1-----

"Duo's back! Duo's back!" the children of the L2 Colony, those with and without families, ran happily to the landing center to great the braided boy as soon as they saw the familiar Gundam pass by overhead.

Duo was surrounded by a sea of joyous children as soon as he was firmly on the ground. Ranma was, too. But it was Duo they were holding onto as if he were a long lost brother.

Duo knelt down and turned his attention to one nearby child. "Niji," he said, "it's good to see you up and about. How are you feeling today?"

"Better." the girl smiled. "Mommy says thank you for sending the medicine."

"She's more than welcome." Duo ruffled the girl's hair and smiled when the girl reached up and did the same.

"Can I...?" she asked, innocently.

Duo nodded and the little girl reached back to touch his braid, a look of awe in her eyes as she did so.

"I touched his braid." she bragged to her pals, as she rejoined them.

Duo smiled, then spoke. "Kids, this is Ranma Saotome. He's going to be helping me out."

"Is he your boyfriend?" A boy of about eight asked him. He was too young to know about sex of any kind, but he'd seen men go out on dates with each other, so the concept of boys having boyfriends wasn't foreign to him.

"It's a little too soon to know that." Duo blushed.

"Duo's got a boyfriend! Duo's got a boyfriend!" the boy sang.

The other children cheered approvingly and Duo had to admit that he agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment. Still, he decided, it would be better not to rush this.

-----part 2-----

Duo lead Ranma to the Freecloud food bank, both of them carrying the food and clothing Duo had brought back from Earth.

"I guess this has a lot to do with your experiences growing up." Ranma guessed, as they stocked the food pantries.

"It was everything to do with it." Duo replied. "I don't want these kids to have to do what I did." He lead Ranma into the distribution shop. "Everything here is free." he told the other boy. "Right back here we have a chart that shows who has come in for what. Each person is allowed a certain number of each item, that way everyone gets their fair share. The cashier just checks the number of items each person picks out and then subtracts that from the family's monthly quota. Also, we don't give freebies to offworlders. It takes money away from people here on L2 who are trying to earn a better living for their kids."

There was a knock on the door.

"Hang on, Ranma." Duo went to answer. A tall man pushed Duo inside and closed the door, locking it. "Give me all the money in the register."

"Don't have any." Duo shook his head. "This is a free store for local people."

"Really? No money?"

"None in the register." Duo replied, he opened it to show the man.

"Fine. You'll just have to pay for your protection some other way... Let me think."

"I don't know you. And you're not local. And I don't like protection rackets." Duo pointed out.

"You're gonna like this even less." the man said, pushing Duo down to the floor of the little store and tearing off his shirt with one hand while covering Duo's mouth with the other. He fumbled with Duo's pants and pulled them down, taking his under shorts down with them. Then, he began to fondle Duo, roughly.

Duo tried to scream and protest, but the hand covering his mouth would not let him. Ranma was in the next room, taking inventory, and didn't know Duo was in danger.

Careful not to remove his hand from Duo's mouth, the man wrestled Duo over onto his stomach.

Duo thrashed beneath the man, but could not get free. He heard the man undo his pants and a moment later, felt the man's erection pressing against his virgin ass. 

The man rammed himself into Duo, hard, fast, and deep.

Duo's entire body went rigid with agony.

In the next room, Ranma had just finished placing items on the shelves. He went into the next room to ask Duo what he needed and saw what was happening.

He pulled the man off of Duo and punched him in the mouth.

Duo was lying there, unmoving.

"I killed him." the man laughed, wiping the blood off his jaw and grabbing his blood-stained cock. "I killed him with this." he tucked it back into his pants and ran out laughing.

"Duo..." Ranma said, gathering the motionless boy in his arms. He pulled Duo's pants and under shorts back up and fixed them. Then he carried Duo into the bedroom behind the store and placed him on the futon. He checked for a pulse and was relieved to find that the man had lied. Duo wasn't dead.

A small group of children ran in, crying.

"Is Duo dead?" one asked.

Ranma shook his head. "No." he replied. "That man hurt him. But Duo's alive."

"Yay!" they cheered, glad that Duo hadn't been killed by that horrible man they'd just met.

"Kids," Ranma said, gently. "Could you come back some other time. Duo's hurt and he's gonna be really upset when he wakes up."

The kids nodded and left the room.

-----TBC-----