Broken Art
"Here are your orders my favourite bunch of weird people."
Maya Penelope Hunter smiles at her group of friends as she and her best friend Riley Matthews brings everyone's drinks and cakes. They were about to start their junior year in a weeks time so Riley managed to rope all of them into hanging out at Topanga's as much as possible.
While the group of kids were sitting on the couches, chatting and laughing, the adults of the group were all sitting at the counter having a conversation between themselves.
"Topanga, I need a small little favour." Shawn Hunter says.
"Sure Shawn. What can I do to help?"
"Well I know you are a man down lately in the shop so I managed to find someone who could fill the position. He is starting at the kids' school this year so I figured this was a good chance for him to meet everyone."
"Shawn," Topanga says slowly as if she were talking to a toddler, "that sounds like you doing me a favour."
"Well, that's where the favour part comes in." Shawn says as he rubs the back of his head nervously.
"Oh come on, Shawnie. How bad could it really be?" questions an optimistic Cory.
"Picture a male Maya, without anything close to a Riley, my work ethic from when we were kids, and Topanga's brains." deadpans Shawn.
The groups sits in shocked silence at that revelation.
"Where are his parents and where does he stay?" Topanga asks.
"Right now, both parents are out the picture and he's actually staying the floor above me, which means he's two floors above-"
"Nobody move! We just want the cash!"
Everyone turns to look at the door to see two men in ski masks run into the shop, one of them holding up a gun and the other waving around a knife. They all freeze in shock.
"I'm not going to ask twice!" the man with the knife says as he grabs a hold of the closest person to him.
"Maya!" Riley shouts in terror as she watches her other half struggle in the man's grip.
"Don't move little girl, or your friend here gets hurt."
"Now," the man with the gun says as he throws a bag at the adults, "put all the money in the bag and we'll just leave."
Before the adults can move, Maya stomps on the man's foot and pushes him away. "Don't give him anything!"
"Ow! You bitch!" he yells as he thrusts his knife at Maya.
An arm appears between Maya and the knife, protecting Maya from the knife by having it imbedded in a bicep.
"Huh." A voice grunts in pain and discomfort. The owner of the voice grabs a hold of the knife man's arm and pulls him forwards to knee him in the stomach. "Dumbass." He says as he pulls out the knife. His gaze looks over Maya, head to toe, before moving her out of the way. "Heroes are overrated, princess. Don't get in the way."
"Stay where you are or I'll shoot!" the newcomer turns around and the room finally gets a glimpse of his features.
A tan face that holds hardened hazel eyes gazes around the room, seemingly unconcerned about the man in front of him. The young man was wearing a pair of sneakers and faded jeans that hung low on his waist. A tight white shirt covered his torso so tightly that they could all see the hint of muscle underneath. He held a black leather jacket in the hand that wasn't currently dripping with blood.
"Of course you are." He says with an eye-roll as he walks forward without a care in the world. "In fact," he says as he stands directly in front of the gun," I dare you, would probably be the best thing to ever happen to me." The gunman stands in shock for a split second before begins to shake. "No bullets? Thought so."
The young man throws his jacket at the gunman before tackling him into the table directly behind him. The gunman swings the gun and connects with the young man's face, yet it does nothing to slow him down. He leans his head with the blow before twisting his body and sending a punch right into the gunman's solar plexus, forcing the air out of his body. He puts grabs a hold of the back of the gunman's head and brings it down as he drives his knee upwards with force.
The crunch of the gunman's nose breaking makes everyone else in the vicinity flinch. The gunman crumbles to the ground in a daze before being knocked out by a well place kick to the temple.
The young man pays no attention to the downed assailant as he steps over him and walks towards the adults. He casually picks up his jacket on the way and takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights one up.
"So," he says as he blows out a cloud of smoke, "I guess I'm not mentioning any of this to Uncle Luke, right Shawn?"
Everyone turns towards Shawn who sighs in resignation before nodding his head.
"Yeah, that would be best." He makes walks over to the young man and checks on his arm. "We need to get you to the hospital."
"Don't do fucking hospitals." He says with an eye-roll before getting smacked behind the head for his language. "I'll wrap it up when I get home. Just glad he didn't get my jacket."
"Shawn," Maya calls out cautiously as she takes a step towards the two, "who is this?"
"Guys, this is who I was talking about." Shawn says as he gestures to towards the young man walking towards the counter.
"Jess Mariano." He says with a nod and looks towards Topanga. "You got a towel or anything I can use to wrap this up?"
Soon everyone is trying to talk over everyone else. Riley and the rest of the gets, along with Katy and Shawn, go over to check on Maya. Cory is on the phone with the police. Topanga stays at the counter with Jess, making sure he is okay.
"I can't thank you enough for what you did." She says as she hands Jess a towel. "Maya would have been really hurt if it wasn't for you. Although," she grabs the cig out of his mouth and puts it out before throwing it away, "besides being a minor, smoking is bad for you."
"Don't mention it." Jess says with a grunt, uncaring about the cig. "Shawn probably would have been pissed if something happened to the princess." He says with a shrug.
"How do you know Shawn?"
"He's a good friend of my uncle. Met him a few times recently." He says as he tries to tie the towel. "One of the very few annoying people in the world."
"Need any help with that?" a voice that sends chills down his back. he turns around to find the blonde haired girl from earlier standing in front of him. Even Jess had to admit that she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen.
As he looked into a pair of blue eyes that reminded him so much of another pair, he saw her take in every detail of him that she could. He gave her the chance to analyse him, to try and figure out what makes him tick. His infamous smirk appeared on his face as soon as he saw the spark in her eyes that let him know she was done.
"Wrong." He says as he finally manages to tie the knot on his arm.
"What?" she says with a bit of feistiness in her voice. The smirk on his face turns into a mocking one as he steps into her personal space.
"You haven't figured me out, princess." He says as he stands chest to chest with her, pleasantly surprised that she doesn't back down in the slightest. "Now, why don't you walk yourself back to your friends before Cowboy Joe over there tries to save the day?" Jess turns back to Topanga and offers a small smile. "Thanks for the towel. I'll do my best to get you a new one."
He turns to walk out the shop but is stop by the fiery princess poking his chest with her finger. He takes note that she is at least a head shorter than he is.
"Listen here you asshole." She says with no small amount of irritation in her voice. "Thanks for saving me back there but that gives you no right to be an ass to my friends, that's my job. So why don't you go back home and let mommy and daddy teach you some manner since obviously they haven't done a good job so far."
"Maya!" the adults shout out.
Before anyone can diffuse the situation, Jess lets out a dark chuckle that scares everyone in the room besides the little spitfire in front of him.
"You are so right about that fact. Wanna know what they taught me?" He asks with a dangerous tilt to his voice as he leans his head towards her. "My oh so loving 'daddy' was the first of many people to teach me that you can only depend on yourself. Wanna know how? Told my moms he was going to get milk, she's still waiting for him to return." He says as he begins taking steps forward forcing Maya to reluctantly backpeddle. "Mother dearest decided that till dear dad got back, she would fill her time with drugs, booze, and men. Home? Haven't had one. School? Kicked out of three. Me being an ass? Little me decided to stop giving any kind of a shit when he was forced to sleep on a fucking bench in a park when he was five cause 'mommy' had another 'friend' over."
Jess stalks the entrance of the shop. Just as he reaches for the handle of the door he starts swaying unsteadily on his feet.
"Jess!" Shawn calls out in concern as he rushes towards the injured boy, only to have said boy smack away his helping hand.
"I'm fine." He says with a growl. He turns and gives Shawn a mocking smile. "Lovely daughter you got there, Hunter."
Jess leaves the cafe as if he owns the place; unafraid, unapologetic, and completely unforgiving.
"Fuck!" Shawn hisses out as he slams his fist into the wall before him.
"Shawn," he turns to see the sight of his daughter's apologetic face, "I didn't know."
He takes a breath to calm himself before walking over and giving Maya a hug.
"I know, kiddo. Don't worry. Knowing Jess, you'll probably get your chance to apologise." Maya knew that he wasn't asking but telling her to apologise.
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