Nicholas: A Chapter fic to replace What Makes Me Different because I hit a major writer's block (The type of thing you don't come back from). Becki and I are co-writing this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Connor, Murphy or the concept of their Sainthood that Duffy came up with. Becki owns Malise (pronounced like Melissa) and the other characters that are to come up such as Tony Trosera and the Roe family are real people and The Mug (you'll see later) is a real diner.
Rating: T...future stuff like cursing, violence and some naughty sexualness will make the rating go up, but for now...
The day was too warm for Connor to be accustomed to. From New York, New York to Southern California is a big change—big change. A hot sun burned mercilessly down on the back of his neck and he suddenly understood why all of those kids had long hair…Still, he loved the sun, so it wasn't too bad. He snickered to himself when he thought of how his vampire-like twin was faring. No doubt Murphy had secluded himself in their current place of residence—a dingy motel.
Finally sweating too much to stand it, Connor took off his p-coat and slung it over his shoulder after taking his newly-purchased pack of cigarettes out and stuffing it into his right jeans pocket. He was walking down a loud, busy drive called Kendall looking at his surroundings, getting to know this place he was staying in. San Bernardino, it was called.
He was in no hurry to get back. They'd just got here yesterday and he was almost sure they wouldn't do anything drastic until they were certain of all of the details and that usually took a few days or weeks to work out. They had to have everything perfect or they'd fuck up again, like they'd done with Rocco and even Da. Nope, they would not fuck up again.
Then, he was jarred from his unconscious, thought-filled wandering by a body flying out of nowhere. A loud cry that he knew wasn't his own because of the feminine tone quality of it. The next moment passed in slow motion. Connor stumbled backward and off of the sidewalk with the girl still falling, pushing against him. A notebook of some sort flew from her arms and a loud, heart-wrenching gasp caught in her throat as she reached out to grab it before it fell into the street. Taking advantage of his longer arm span, Connor quickly snatched the note book back, hooked an arm around the girl's waist and pulled the whole package back on to the sidewalk just in time to not get hit by a city bus—because the bus drivers of San Bernardino could care less if you jump in front of them.
In an instant, Connor was sitting crossed-legged on the ground, slowing his heart rate as time sped up again. The girl that'd run into him was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest and that notebook once more bound tightly to her chest with arms that had turned to steel. She stared astounded at the bus that had just passed.
"Thank ye, Lord Almighty," Connor muttered on a gasped breath, crossing him self as he spoke. He looked up at her, noticed that her black, messenger hat almost covered her eyes. "Are ye alright?" he asked more concerned than angry that he'd just almost been killed.
Abruptly, she looked up. It seemed to be the first time she'd noticed him at all and her eyes went wide—revealing the hazel green with the ring of gold around the pupil and all of it's glory. "Um…uh…" She was scared stiff.
As if her random, and rather startling arrival wasn't enough to throw him off, the next few seconds were taken over by three high school boys—rather large in relative size—coming forth from the street she'd just ran out of. "Hey Malise, where the fuck do you think you're going? Hand over the damn notebook." The tallest, thinnest guy—with the longest hair, as well—reached down to her and gripped the bundle of papers, tugging sharply.
Connor was completely ignored in the following proceedings and for a moment he just watched what was going on. Malise clutched desperately to that journal as though it was her life that these kids were trying to take away from her. With a sigh, Connor pushed himself up, picked up his coat and smacked the tallest guy with it. He didn't care how much intimidating stature the teenager had, Connor had more.
"Who the fuck are you?"
With an acute glare, Connor shoved the kid backward. "That en't any o' yer fuckin' business, now get yer hands off the girl er yer gonna get a fuckin' knife in yer ribs." To add effect, Connor inched his switchblade from his left pocket.
It's amazing what a tiny threat can do to a kid with only half a backbone. The long-haired high school student and his friends gave Connor strange looks, most like for his accent and the fact that he'd basically said he'd kill one of them. Then the three took off back down the street they'd come.
"Are ya alright?" Connor repeated, offering a hand to help Malise to her feet.
With a hesitant, but sharp nod, she took his hand and pulled herself up—doing most of the work as opposed to actually letting Connor help her. "I'm so sorry," she muttered meekly. "I didn't mean to run into you."
Wait a sec…Connor noticed something odd about her then. "Are ye cryin'? What's wrong?" He bent his head down to see under the brim of her hat were there were definitely black, mascara-ish tear tracks rolling down her cheeks. "Don' cry 'cause o' those jerk offs."
She looked up at him at last showing him her entire face with a slight smile. "No, I'm alright, really." Something about the way she said it told him she was lying, but it wasn't really his business. She giggled quietly at him and looked away shyly.
"What?"
"You…you have a strange accent," she commented quietly, almost inaudible over the sound of the traffic.
Finally having made her a tad bit less distraught, Connor smirked lightly. "Aye, well I think it's cool."
"It is, it's nice." She almost sounded apologetic, like she hadn't meant to insult him—even though there was no insult in her words. "Thank you, again for scaring them off. I'd like to repay you if you let me…"
"Ya don' have ta, really."
"No, I feel like I should. Would you like to get lunch? I know a good place."
They walked together, introducing themselves and making the air between them less stiff and dry. Working out the uncomfortable chinks to replace them with something like a mutual familiarity where they could laugh a bit more easily. Connor helped her get the mascara from her cheeks with a piece of cloth that she apparently carried around for just that purpose.
"Thank you," she said appreciatively.
"No problem." He handed her back her handkerchief and put his hand in his pocket—his other still held his coat over his shoulder. "Just payin' me debt ta society."
"There's no such thing as a 'debt to society.' It's stupid thinking that you owe something to the people you are forced to be with." Malise felt an uncertain silence creep in between them and she looked up from her shoes for once.
"D'ya see it that way?" her new travel companion asked. She nodded indifferently. "Well, if that's yer point o' view, then it makes some sense I s'pose. Still, if that were true, then ya wouldn't o' had someone save yer notebook, an' I wouldn't be gettin' treated ta lunch, now would I?"
She smiled slightly and her shiny, metal braces poked out from the boundary of her tight, full lips. On a strange train of thought, Connor realized that she was quite pretty even though she seemed to hide it beneath her hat. "I have yet to meet someone that I truly desire to live with. Someone who would make this world just a bit less dry and boring."
"Ah, yer a romantic." He said it as though he'd just reach an epiphany.
"So what if I am?" Her smile hadn't gone away. "I'm young, as they tell me. I'm supposed to be eccentric, right?"
Connor chuckled lightly and lifted his hands to concede to her explanation. "Sorry, that just seems like something my brother would say. 'Cept he en't that young anymore."
"You have a brother?"
"Twin actually," he stated, with so much pride that he almost seemed childish. Malise smiled once more, very widely and Connor noticed just how…empty it was, and painfully void of anything that could be called happiness. He didn't comment, but it made him suddenly go silent and they finished their walk that way.