"Keep up," huffed Ruth, a bag in either hand, each looking quite heavy, her arms swaying slowly under the weight of them as she marched. "This should be the last of it."

"Comin'," promised her daughter, Laura. Only a young teenager, the child had far smaller bags than her mother, but they were still considerable, struggling to keep up as they worked down the hallway.

"Now I know this ain't the ritz, but when daddy moves-"

"-I know, I know." Laura hurried ahead of Ruth. "We're almost there!" She darted only for a door ahead of her, a neighbor's door, to swing open. A person lumbered out just in time for Laura to crash into him. "Sorry!"

"Yeah, yer gonna be sorry," barked the taller and angry looking man, raising a balled fist.

Ruth's things hit the ground and she darted forward, grabbing the wrist that was coming down on her daughter and swinging it around, wrenching it behind the man's back. "What was that?"

"Aw shit! That hurts lady! Let go…" He wriggled, trying to shake her off even as he swung at her, but she was out of easy reach of his other hand. "Damn it all."

"Say sorry and we'll get back to acting like civilized people." Her words were cool and precise, holding his arm at an uncomfortable angle and threatening to go further.

"Sorry I missed," he spat verbally before trying to make it literal. Ruth shoved him back into his apartment before he could finish the act.

"Let's go." Ruth went to fetch the bags she had dropped. "We're almost there, like you…" She trailed off, seeing tears welling in Laura's eyes. "Aw shit, c'mon." She scooped up Laura's bags right out of her hands, adding them to the great weight she already had. "Just follow me, it's alright."

They were quiet the rest of the way, pressing into their new small apartment. Laura suddenly had energy enough to dash, running into her room and slamming the door shut.

"Bloody hell…" She set her bags on the counter. "If it's not one thing…" She began putting things away as quickly as she could, but she could hear little noises of a hurt child, preventing her from focusing. "Fuck it all…"

With a soft grumbling, she approached her daughter's door. "Hey, Laura? Little bear, you in there?" Not that there was much room for doubt as to the location of Laura.

"No," came the soft rebuttal in outright denial of the facts.

"Oh, then you won't mind if I come in there and snoop around." She reached for the knob, giving it a soft shake. When no further answer came, she opened the door, and caught a sudden pillow in the face. "There's my girl." She picked up the fallen pillow and lobbed it lightly at Laura's bed. "My little firecracker."

"I was… scared," suddenly confessed Laura. "I hated it!" She stomped a foot down even as she bounded up off the same bed. "Why was he like that?! I barely touched him!"

"Some people are born dumb, and others have to practice real hard. I think he worked many years to hone the craft." She moved her cigarette to hang more at the side, making it flare with a puff. "It's alright, it's over. We're home and safe."

"For now…"

Ruth reached for her child, gently squeezing her shoulder. "I'm here, and I won't let anyone lay a single finger on you."

"What about when you're not…"

The shoulder-hold turned into a soft hug, the two going quiet for a bit. "Feeling better?"

"A little."

"Good, gonna finish putting things away." Ruth released Laura with a little smile. "Kitchen's in no shape, we'll order out tonight." She left Laura behind, though with a smile, echoing the bright smile Laura had given.

As she resumed putting things away, she grabbed the phone in one hand, dialing a number only to pause and hang it up. "Damn it, it keeps changing, right." She paused to get a notebook and dialed a different number. "Yeah, Ruth Powers, get Max Powers on the line. Ah huh… mmhmm… I'll wait…"

She cradled the phone between her shoulder and head as she worked, slowly reducing the mess to just a pile of bags. Her new home was looking just a step closer to livable.

"Honey?"

"Max, there you are, figuratively." Not that she could get to talk to him in person all that often. "Your daughter was attacked today."

"What?!" She could hear him go straight. Did he hit something? "Is she alright?!"

"I was there, the perp didn't get a chance to do more than scare her."

He let out a gust of relieved air. "Oh thank goodness… Were you in the bad part of town?"

"We were two doors away from our apartment," dryly noted Ruth as she leaned against the counter. "Some wasted near-vagrant got pissed she ran into him."

"I'll rip him in half…"

"That doesn't solve Laura's problem. She's spooked, and she has every right to be. We won't always be there to protect her. Why don't you show her some of what they're drilling into you over there?"

"I would…" There was a pause, the sound of other people talking. Max was replying. Laura rolled her eyes, waiting for her turn to come back. "I'm not on leave for a while, you know that."

"Yeah, I get that. For king and country." She hung up without waiting for his next reply. "Son of a…" She dropped down and scooped out a great yellow book from under the counter, setting it out heavily on the counter. "Time to do some exploring…"

Her fingers danced through the pages, flipping from one to the next in her search. "Kid's got energy, just needs to learn how to use it…" In an ideal world, she mused, she'd learn from her father, who was already a soldier, and knew how to fight, but that wasn't the world she existed in. "Here we go…"

Springfield Martial Arts Academy? She hiked a brow at it. It was in the local mall, so that was easy enough to get to… "Hey, Laura?"

"What?" came her petulant cry, her door opening and her voice becoming clearer. "What is it?"

"How would you like to learn kung fu?" She pointed down at the book, still pointing as Laura came around the corner.

"You're kidding." Laura blinked softly as she closed the distance and pulled herself up to see the little advertisement of a fist coming through the paper. "You mean it?"

"Won't be easy." She puffed her cigarette. "Your father sent me to bed with bruises when I wanted to learn some moves. Can you be as tough as your mom?"

"Mom! Please." She fell back to her feet and crossed her arms, peering at her mother. "If you can do it, I'll get it done, like, twice as fast."

"Bet you will." Ruth rubbed the top of her daughter's head. "But you can't hurry this too much. You'll hate it, promise. You'll hate it and it'll be work and you'll want to quit, but you can't. Not if you don't want to be helpless ever again."

"Is that an order?"

Ruth raised a brow. "It is, and I'll be telling your father you're joining, so he'll be expecting some moves out of you when he gets home."

Laura cringed, edging back a half-step. "Yes, ma'am! I won't let him down."

Absent or not, the fear he could instill was still there. "You do that. I'll go down there after dinner and see how we get you signed up, alright? You still have school, so once a week is probably more than enough."

"I have to do school and learn martial arts?!" Laura threw up her hands, but a stern glare from Ruth had the hands falling. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good girl. You'll like being able to defend yourself." Confident that she had parented successfully, Laura reached for the phone. "Now, in better news, what would you like for dinner today?"

With a cheer, they moved on to more pleasant things.

Ruth snubbed her cigarette as she entered the mall, eyes sweeping side to side in search of her destination. "There you are…" There it was, just beside the bathrooms. How convenient.

As she came up, she could see young people inside performing moves in unison, each wearing the white clothes that came with the motiffe. Most had white belts, but some of them were in other colors. The teachers and older students had black belts, she spied fairly quickly. "Hm…"

"Interested in learning self-"

She came around with a fist at the ready, only to have it caught by a shorter asian man. "-defense," he finished with a little smile. "It would seem you already know some techniques. Your stance is off, your swing was spirited but unfocused."

She drew her fist away with a snort. "I only do it when I have to, like when strange creepy sneak up on me."

He raised a lone finger and lowered it towards the storefront. "This is my dojo. I have reason enough to be here. What is your reason?"

Ruth darkened swiftly, realizing her mistake. "Really? Shit, sorry. Look, you're the one I want to talk to then." She hiked a thumb into the dojo. "I want my girl to learn self defense. She should be able to rearrange the face of anyone that looks at her funny."

"This I can do. I am Akira." He bowed towards her formally. "And if you give me your daughter, I will hurt her, and show her how to hurt others, but she must have focus and dedication."

"She's got plenty of both of those." Ruth smirked faintly. "We don't let her do otherwise."

He waved one hand towards a young boy with a white belt. "Some students learn slow. Others learn fast. No guarantees, up to her. We teach, she learns. She does, we teach."

"Yeah yeah, I get the idea." She rolled her eyes lightly. "What do I need to do to start?"

"Come with me." He bowed once more before moving inside with a happy smile, for his bills were being paid that day.

"Your classes will be on Saturday." She hiked a thumb at a hanging calendar. "Eight in the morning."

"Eight?! So much for sleeping in…" Laura peered balefully at the calendar that bespoke of her ill fortune. "Are they really going to show me how to kick butt?"

"First they'll go through a thousand boring things that lead to butt kicking. You'll pay attention, do what they say, and if you do well enough, you'll get a chance to kick his butt for making you wait through all the boring stuff." Ruth smirked softly at the vision of her little girl kicking the asian man right in his back end. "Be sure to invite me before you do that."

"You got it, Mom." She gave a strong thumbs up of solidarity. "I'll do good, promise. Maybe I'll knock dad over too while I'm at it." She punched one open palm with the opposing fist, a wicked smile on her face.

"Don't get your hopes up too high there…"

"Yeah…" She shrugged softly. "He practices, like, every day, right?"

"Something like that." She was fairly certain he did not actually do that. "But do good enough and maybe he'll pass on some secret military techniques."

"They legit have those?!" Laura blurted, eyes widening with hope. "Hell yeah!"

"Language."

"Yeah yeah." Laura lifted her shoulders. "Sorry. But cool! I'll be the best, uh, martial art person ever and start beating people to a pulp. That'll be fun!"

Ruth squeezed Laura's shoulder lightly. "You just have to make it past the unfun parts first. I know you can do this."

"I can," hotly defended Laura, squaring those same shoulders and making a test punch at the air. "Wax on, wax off for days, then win the tournament, got it."