The Friend

By: Jayne Barlow

Entry in Jack Heath com au fanfiction competition.

Agent Six of Hearts was walking home from a successful day of work. He was taking the long route home to see if he could spot Nai anywhere, however it was winter time and the fog in the city was very dense.

As Six walked past a bench, he heard muffled sobbing. He stopped walking and looked back at the bench, he had to squint to make out the figure, as he stepped closer he saw that the muffled sobs came from a girl no older then himself, if not his age. Six noticed that her lip was bleeding really badly and had a bruised cheek bone, there were tears falling off her face onto her jumper, but that didn't stop him from seeing her shiver in the cold.

"Excuse me, are you ok?" Six asked gently.

She looked at him and was hesitate for a moment then said "No I'm not ok thank you very much, I'm cold, I'm crying and all I want to do is have a warm shower, play a card game then go to a nice warm bed and sleep for a good nine hours" She blurted out.

"You're bleeding" Six grabbed a hankie out of his pocket and sat next her, She moved away quickly, an expression came across her face that Six identified immediately.

"It's really ok; I'm not going to hurt you." Six assured her as he gave her the hankie; she took it and pressed it to her lip, "Did you get robbed or something?" Six enquired.

"No! This is the result of my father drinking too much at the pub" Tears swelled up in her eyes again and made there way down her soft, red cheeks. Six suddenly understood, "I usually don't do this but you can come and stay at my place as long as you like?"

"Wont your parents mind having a strange girl in the house, who looks like she's been through hell and back?" she asked.

"No, I don't have any parents; please you can't stay out here"

"Fine I'll come" she and Six stood up and started to walk.

"I'm Six by the way"

"I'm Ruby."

They didn't say anything until they got to Six' apartment. He showed Ruby were she was to sleep then showed her the rest of the house. Ruby first had a long shower, while Six prepared dinner. Is she ever going to get out?? Six thought. Halfway through making dinner Six found a deck of cards and placed them next to Ruby' plate at the table, then Ruby came out in a pair of Six' track suit pants and a jumper he had let her have. Six was surprised to see how beautiful she was without the redness in her cheeks and the bleeding lip.

They ate dinner in silence; they both seemed to be ok with that as they both had a past that neither of them wanted to talk about.

"Why don't you live with your parents?" Ruby broke the silence.

"As I said before I don't have any, why do you have such short hair?"

"When it was long my father pulled it all the time so I cut it shorter"

More silence.

"How long has he been doing it for?" Six asked bravely.

"As long as I can remember, home has never really been a safe place for me and I'm scared to go back, so thank you for this, it means a lot" Ruby said with a smile that could warm an igloo.

"Why didn't you leave him long ago?" Six asked.

"He's all I have, I don't have many friends and no relatives that I know of, so I really don't have anywhere else to go" Ruby replied "Do you know how to play any card games?"

"Well surprisingly no, would you teach me?"

"Sure thing" Ruby was glad to do something productive and also to have some company.

After hours of teaching Six how to play card games, Ruby decided to go to bed. Before Six went to bed he sent Kyntak an e-mail to come around in the morning with some information, which maybe of use to Ruby, then Six went to bed. However as Six went to sleep that night he felt different, like he'd accomplished some good in a city that was full such dreadful, horrible people.

Once Six woke up he started to make breakfast, during this time Kyntak let himself in.

"Smells yum can I have some?" he asked as he put a file down on the table.

"Not yet, we have to wait until Ruby gets out of bed" Six explained.

"Who? Ruby, you mean to tell me, there's a girl in your house! Wait, is she hot?"

"Get over yourself! So did you bring it?" Six demanded

"Yeah, turns out that you can pretty much be any age to leave home but you got to be able to support yourself, that's the only real issue, is she planning to move out?"

Just then Ruby came out of the room, "Good morning, Oh hello whose this?" she asked staring at Kyntak.

"This is my brother, Kyntak" Six replied.

"Look, I got him to look up some stuff, it turns out that you can leave home any time you like, you just got to be able to support yourself but ChaoSonic should help with stuff like that and I'd be glad to help you as well"

"You'd really help me get out of there, and you wouldn't abandon me?" Tears filled her eyes.

"Of cause I'd get you out and in the mean time you can stay here, I'll help you get an apartment and a job" Six suggested.

"Thank you Six, you're the best friend I've ever had" Ruby replied as she hugged Six.

Friend Six then realized that he had a friend, not just any friend, a friend he can help and a friend that made him feel happy and normal for once in his life.