A/N: First story on this account here; constructive criticism and reviews are greatly appreciated!
To her credit, as little as it might have mattered when seventeen year old Charlotte Langspur first met Seto Kaiba, it hadn't been her intention to cause him physical harm; in fact the dirty, bloodied raven haired girl had been looking for no violence in the first place, just a hot meal, or at least something that hadn't already spent its remaining tenure on the floor of some disgusting third rate greasy spoon. Not that she'd gotten anything out spending half a day looking, scraping the metal linings of beaten and dented in trash bins or dumpsters, and as such here Charlotte sat, huddled up under the tattered, sickly green awning of a cheap electronics store, the only sound at exactly twelve thirty in the morning being a fuzzy, obviously doctored perpetually running loop of an old duel between…well, Charlotte wasn't exactly sure who, only that they were obviously quite into the projected battle.
"Geez…" Charlotte muttered, pulling her legs, covered in her single, very well broken in pair of jeans, to her chest in an obviously pathetic effort to cease the very near demonic growling erupting from underneath the confines of her equally drab white tee shirt. "I'm so hungry….people throw out food they don't eat all the time, right? So why the hell can't I find any of it?" Just a little, like, a cheeseburger or something…okay, well maybe not a cheeseburger, even in her half starved state Charlotte was aware of that being a bit much to ask; hell, even half a piece of bread would have done just fine.
"Hm…and here I was thinking that the city's underbelly had at least some small measure of class. Guess once again I was expecting too much, but that's what you get when you come down to the less desirable parts of town I suppose." Oh great, the shiny, spotless shoes; though in comparison to her own chewed up sneakers Charlotte had never owned a pair of such shoes, much less even tried them on at a store, the half starved teen knew more than enough to understand what she would find if she happened to look up past those black loafers, and it would be something she definitely wouldn't end up liking. "And just what do you think you're looking at? Drooling the way you are without so much as a sliver of class…pathetic."
"I'll stop drooling when you learn how to dress yourself properly." Easier said than done, however at the very least Charlotte recalled it being good manners to stand tall and at attention when speaking with someone, no matter how irritating said person might be and so after much unfortunate laboring the scraggly teen managed to upright herself with a huff of irritation. "Green and purple, really? For wearing such nice shoes, I would think you'd have a better understanding of how to not look like you dressed yourself in the dark."
"Big words from an urchin girl who looks like she hasn't had a shower or sleep a day in her life." Well…it might have been true about the shower (after all, it's difficult to get one when you can't even get a decent meal), but sleeping anywhere, as unladylike as it might have been, was something Charlotte had always prided herself on; and coupled with that irritating smirk and a lack of any real food for easily two whole days slamming a dirty, comparatively small fist into the blue eyed stranger's face, no matter how rude it might have seemed to the occasional night owl passerby still gave Charlotte quite a sense of satisfaction.
"Go run your mouth around someone who cares." The sensation of flesh twisting into more of the same slung over someone else's body ended up being, as Charlotte decided, possibly even more satisfying then the idea of getting something to eat. "Okay? I really hate people like you."
"Mr. Kaiba sir, are you alright?"
"Urk, you wretched little street monger! Don't you know who I am?"
"Mr. Kaiba sir, there isn't enough time for this! You have a company meeting at seven this morning and you haven't gotten any sleep….besides that, Master Mokuba will wonder why you haven't come home." Knowing full well that behind those thick black sunglasses (though really, who wears sunglasses at night?), a number of vicious glares were being directed at her person, Charlotte merely spat dryly at the scuffed up, gum littered sidewalk, waiting until with a smirk and a ridiculously dramatic turn the hideously dressed man and his many suit clad compatriots left and she was left alone once again. Still though, seeing, illuminated under a nearby sickly glowing streetlight the telltale long black car pull away was more then enough to pass a sigh and that's exactly what Charlotte did, only after collapsing back to the ground. What was that bit of information the long haired girl had picked up on so long ago, something about how long a person can go without food and water? Well, really it didn't matter, fact was that Charlotte was now aware of the exaggerations that often come to mind when people say they are 'dying of hunger'.
"Might as well sleep, if I can't eat." Shifting into an uncomfortable but still manageable position against a cheaply painted display window front wall, it was with the resolve to try again tomorrow that Charlotte finally fell asleep, so deeply that in the middle of such a cold night the seventeen year old coul only subconsciously register a sudden comforting warmth. And though unable to say it, the grey eyed teen could not help but to be immensely grateful, as her lips curled into a smile for the first time in many, many months.