I'll Catch You
Pairing: Marco Bodt/Mina Carolina
Universe: Modern AU, present day Brooklyn, New York.
A/n: I may or may not have started building this big-ass SNK AU where all the characters live and grow up in New York. Marco's a rich kid from the Bronx, and Mina's an ex-circus performer from Brooklyn. By the way, Mina Carolina speaking in a Brooklyn accent is probably one of the best things I've tried to do.
If you like the fic, review! And all in all, enjoy!
Marco was told that he was a rather patient guy. However, he only believed such an observation to a certain extent. In his classes at school, he was often patient when waiting for his teacher's lessons to be over, especially during the classes that he didn't enjoy. But there were other times, even at school, where he could barely wait at all. One example were all the times a classmate of his would take too long at the water fountain, his patience was tested every damn time. Marco even knew he got impatient when having to wait for things such as test results. Though, that could have been simple panic over potential failure instead of impatience.
The present afternoon was no exception at all. Marco's father had previously told his son to sit down quietly in the waiting room of his office and not disturb anyone while he worked on a case. At first, Marco accepted the task easily and sat down. But as time passed on, he realized that the case Mr. Bodt had to work on was taking far longer than Marco expected.
He and his father entered the office building at noon, but by the 1:00 hour, Marco had already read through the comic books in his bag, looked through all the magazines on the waiting room's coffee table, and shot enough photos of anything in the room that seemed photogenic enough on his camera.
Marco had peeped into the meeting room his father was in enough times. However, a bunch of stuffy lawyers didn't seem too fond of the idea of a 13-year-old boy poking his head into their meeting room. Apparently, it disrupted their 'working atmosphere.'
After being shooed out enough times, Marco didn't have much else to do but to look out the window to glance at the Brooklyn skyline. Having grown up in the Bronx, it was refreshing to see a different part of New York than what he was used to. However, he knew he would better prefer to explore Brooklyn by actually going out the walking through it; as opposed to sitting in a stuffy building all day and looking at the skyline from afar.
By the time 15 minutes passed the 2PM hour, Marco was practically asleep on the chair he was on. He did not intend on falling asleep that day, as he expected that his father were to pop out of the room at any moment. However, sometimes, shit just happened, and he had to deal with it.
Resting his head on his hand, and his arm against his knee, Marco was just about to fall over and give into slumber completely when a voice startled him out of his sleepy state.
"You know you drool when you sleep, right?"
Marco woke up in a startled fashion, "Ahh! What?"
The person who spoke to him was sitting across the waiting room, happily planted down on an armchair. She seemed about a year younger than he was, and radiated a notoriously powerful aura of confidence. From appearances alone, she appeared to be remarkably sporty, terrifically daring, and surpassingly spunky. The leather jacket she wore seemed a little big for her, and the goggles on her head did seem out of place, but all in all, she seemed like someone completely confident with who she was.
She spoke once more to him, "You drool. See?" She pointed to his cheek, "Right there?"
Marco touched his cheek and nearly blushed when he realized that her observation was very true, "Oh, uh… oops."
"It's fine," the girl laughed off. "It was funny to watch for a while."
Marco raised an eyebrow, "You were watching me sleep? For how long?"
She checked her watch, "About 2 minutes. I came in a bit ago and just started watching now." She shrugged her shoulders, "What can I say? I was bored."
Marco wanted to reply to her words in a proper manner. However, what he said instead came out as: "Who are you?"
She held out her hand to him, "Mina Carolina. Nice to meet you. And you are?"
"Marco Bodt," he answered, shaking her hand.
"Marco, huh?" commented Mina, looking up and down at Marco's outfit. "Tell me this, Marco, what's with the school boy get up? You skipping?"
He didn't often like going anywhere in his uniform that wasn't school, the sweater vests and khakis made him look like more of a dork than he had to be. "I had a half day and my dad didn't know what else to do with me, so now I'm here. What about you?"
"The mystery meat in the cafeteria made about 12 kids throw up, so the school's closed down for today until we know why," Mina explained. "Public school can have both it's ups, and it's down." She eyed the logo on Marco's uniform, "You go to school in the Bronx?"
"Yeah, Wexler Preparatory," Marco answered. "How did you know?"
"I go to Brooklyn heights. I competed in gymnastic meets against your school," Mina informed, recalling all the times where she witnessed just how awkwardly sheltered certain private school kids could be. "What the hell do you feed the athletes there? Steroids?"
Marco shrugged his shoulders, "Beats me. I avoid the cafeteria, to be honest."
Mina nodded her head, "Hm, I should probably do that too." She leaned forward in her seat just slightly, "So who are you waiting for here?"
"My dad," Marco informed, looking over to the same meeting room yet again. "He said he'd spend time with me after he finished a case, but he's been in there for hours."
Mina looked sympathetic, "Oy, don't I know that feel."
"Your parent a lawyer too?" wondered Marco.
"No, but my legal guardian is," Mina explained. "I'm her ward, so I guess that makes her a bit like my parent, kinda?"
Marco looked both curious and sympathetic, "Oh, are you adopted?"
"There's a difference between being an adopted child and legal ward," Mina informed. "But if that makes sense for you, then yeah, I guess so."
Marco nodded thoughtfully, "Oh, uh… interesting."
"Yeah, Rico's claims that she would be a good mother towards me, but she sure makes one hell of a parent," Mina claimed, adding a smile onto her face after she spoke. Looking over in Marco's hands, Mina noticed the rather fancy-looking camera in his grasp, "You a photographer?"
Marco looked down, "I'm trying to be." He raised the camera up, "I really just play around with this when I'm bored. I'm no pro, to be honest."
"So you take photos for fun?" asked Mina.
He nodded in response, "Yep. But I took all I can in this room, there's nothing else left for me to shoot."
Mina nodded her head in comprehension at first, but suddenly, a daring glare took her eyes, "Oh, you're bored?"
Marco nodded plainly, "Very."
A grin took her face, a grin that was in the middle of being mischievous, sporty and bold, "You know, if you're bored, I do have something in mind that you and I can do. If you're interested, that is."
Marco looked at her oddly with an eyebrow raised, "Uh… what do you have in mind?"
"Are you allowed to leave the building?"
"Not sure."
"Don't worry, I won't tell your dad."
In the end, Marco ended up shrugging his shoulders and saying the words: "Sure, what's the worst than could happen?"
When Marco loaded his camera and books back into his backpack, he expected Mina and him to leave the building by going downstairs and exiting through the front door. However, he absolutely did not expect that in order to leave the building, he and Mina would have to go, out of all places, to the roof.
Mina had lead Marco out of the office and up a staircase. Eventually, they reached a door. And when Mina pushed it open, what they saw was the sight of the Brooklyn skyline lit up by the afternoon's sun. A breeze moved through his dark hair, effectively ruffling it, and chilled his freckled cheeks as it moved across.
Mina looked around with confidence, as if being on the roof of a 5 story building was one of her favourite places in the entire world. In a contrast, Marco looked around with both fear, amusement, and nervousness.
"Uh… this is a nice view, I admit," Marco started, glancing down at the streets briefly. "But how are we gonna leave the building from up here?"
"Like this," Mina started, pointing over to the edge of the rooftop. In between their building and the next was an alleyway, an alleyway that was several feet wide. She pulled her goggles down on her now spunky-looking eyes, "Watch a learn, Bronx-Boy."
"Okay, what are you- WAIT, MINA!"
In seconds, Mina broke off into a run and dashed towards the edge of the building with great speed. She got to the edge in mere moments, and with all her momentum, leapt off and let her form soar across the gap with natural grace.
In all honesty, what Marco expected in the next few moments was to witness the demise of a new friend and being faced with the task of calling 911 to scrape a smushed Brooklyn girl off the concrete. However, what he became witness to instead was the exact opposite.
Mina ascended across the alleyway with acrobatic grace and actually made it to the other side, landing on the tar roof with a roll to break her fall. It did seem notoriously simple for her, as she did mention having gymnastics experience before and the next building was a few stories shorter than the one Marco was now left alone on.
Mina looked surprisingly chipper for someone who just risked certain death. She looked back to Marco with a smirk on her face.
Marco spoke first, "Mina! You scared me half to death! What was that?"
"That was me showing you how we're gonna get down from that roof," Mina grinned, dusting her knees and shoulders off. "Come on, you try it."
"I uh…" He looked over the edge rather nervously. "That's a pretty deep fall."
"You don't have to if you don't want to. I really just show this to people to freak them out," Mina added on, doing her best to be compassionate towards his comfort levels. "But if you do, give yourself a good run and throw your hands forward to get more distance and height. And if you can, land in a roll like I did."
"I… ok. But what if I fall?"
"I've been spotting people while practicing tricks like this ever since I could walk," Mina told. Her voice quickly turned from spunky and confident to assuring and caring, "Don't worry, Marco. If you fall, I'll catch you."
"For sure?"
"For sure."
Marco sucked in a breath, doing anything he could to find the courage in his heart. He quickly slipped off his backpack and tossed it across the alley way, "Here, catch!"
Mina caught the backpack easily.
Once his bag was across, Marco walked back on the roof until there wasn't any more room to walk back on, ensuring that he would have the maximum amount of room for him to run. Inhaling deeply, he looked across the alley way with a determined expression. Mina was standing near the edge, arms ready to catch him if he were to fall.
With every amount of bravery in his being, Marco started to run. He ran at a pace that would make his gym teacher proud and didn't slow down a single bit. When his legs got him to the edge, Marco summoned all of his strength and guts with all his might before leaping off.
Flying through the air and towards the next roof, Marco suddenly understood why Mina seemed so confident in doing such a risky stunt. He felt, there wasn't a different word for it, free. Being airborne was amazing; it was like for a few seconds in Marco's entire life, he was soaring. Like an eagle in the sky, or a plane above the world.
He glanced over to the edge of the next building, and a wave of confidence flowed through his entire being when he realized that he wasn't going to fall down on the alley way and get turned into mush. He was actually going to make it.
Moving across, Marco's feet finally touched the surface of the tar roof. He landed on it quite roughly, stumbling a bit and nearly falling onto the tar. But all in all, Marco had just jumped building-to-building across an alleyway, and he was alive.
Breathing heavily, Marco was both in a state of relief and joy, "Oh my god, I just-" He looked behind him at the alley way in amazement, "Wow…!"
"I know, right?" Mina grinned widely, patting Marco on the shoulder. "The first time's freaky, but you get used to it with time… and practice."
"Yeah, totally," Marco agreed. "How did you even learn how to do this junk?"
"My mom and dad were acrobats for the Big Apple Circus," Mina informed with a confident smile. "They taught me everything they know."
"Oh, I can tell," Marco grinned, standing up straight. "Man, that was awesome."
"I know!" Mina agreed wholeheartedly. "Wanna do it again?"
Marco smiled boldly, "Bring it."
Disclaimer: I do not own a thing