Chapter One

A Deal

Rin sighed as she took a seat at a bar. She was too young for them to actually serve her, of course, but people tended to be nice to a young girl travelling alone and would let her sit for a while. Sometimes she'd get lucky and they'd give her some water or juice, and, sometimes, she even managed to get some food. Rarely did she get anything at all, however. Luckily, today was a good day. Rin quietly thanked the bartender and grasped the mug of water he'd just blessed her with, listening to the conversations around her despite her lack of interest in them, wishing to hear one voice in particular.

"Is this seat taken?" came a girl's voice beside her, slightly winded.

"No," replied Rin, casting a quick glance at her.

The girl had a powerful air around her despite her bedraggled appearance. She had her plum-coloured hair tied back, and she obviously was rich enough considering it evidently wasn't her natural hair colour yet her true colour could not be seen at the roots. Rin resisted the urge to snort and the girl's blind following of the newest craze of odd hair colours. Her long, dark lashes were probably the work of some fancy mascara brand, because there was no way to have such perfect eyelashes naturally. Her skin was extremely pale and flawless other than the bright red flush on her cheeks that revealed that she'd been running. Her eyes held green contacts, which seemed more than comical against her purple hair. Even though she obviously must have put a lot of work into her appearance, she had a hood pulled over her head. Rin wished she could say that she knew everything there was to know about that girl from the one glance, but, considering how misleading her own tiny appearance was, she felt she had no place to judge her.

Rin soon lost interest and began listening to conversations again, trying to pick up the one voice she wanted to hear.

"You look shady."

Rin coolly turned to the speaker, whose mature voice had her expecting some punk trying to take advantage of a helpless little girl. Instead, she saw that it was the girl she'd just spoken to, a girl who looked only a couple years or so older than her. Her sharp retort died on her tongue.

"Are you dangerous?" the girl questioned, still standing there.

Rin stared back at her, trying to figure out what the girl was trying to do. Then, slowly, cautiously, she replied, "No."

"That's good," said the girl, leaping up onto the seat beside Rin, who continued staring at her cautiously. "Because I thought we could strike a deal, and I need to know that you're safe before I offer it up to you."

"I'm not interested in any deals," Rin replied shortly. "I have enough on my plate already."

The girl smirked at Rin as a waiter arrived immediately to serve the stranger. "It doesn't look like you have much, actually. In fact, I see no plate in sight."

Rin scowled. Stupid girl. "Leave me alone," she growled, turning away.

But she could help but turn around when she caught the scent of the warm food placed in front of the new arrival. It wasn't like Rin hadn't eaten in days. It was that she hadn't eaten in days. She was absolutely famished, and the people in this area weren't very generous, other than the bartender. She stared at the girl cautiously as the stranger pushed the plate over to her.

"Have it," the strange girl offered. "And, in exchange, listen to my proposition."

Rin inspected the girl's face carefully, but she knew that she was in no position to refuse. So, she accepted the dish and started taking slow, delicate bites, though all she wanted to do was stuff it all into her mouth all at once.

"The contacts are kind of overkill, you know," she commented without restraint, feeling the need to insult the girl in order to make up for her weakness in giving in to the offering of food.

"What contacts?" she asked as she retied her hair and lifted her hood back up. Rin raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't seem to notice. "Oh, right, the green ones. Yeah, well, you know, I thought they would look cute."

Rin rolled her eyes, but she kept her comments to herself. Never bite the hand that feeds. She took a swallow of her drink and noted that this bar was incredibly full today. She recognised a few faces, but most were those of strangers, and the person she was looking for wasn't here.

"So, anyway, first off, you're a traveller, am I right?" the girl wondered.

"Yeah," Rin replied carefully, averting her eyes from the crowd and back toward the girl.

"Well, I want to travel," the girl continued. "But, my parents aren't very supportive of my wish."

Great, Rin thought. A spoiled little girl wanting to defy her parents.

The girl rambled one confidently. "So, I figured that, maybe, if I had someone with real experience to take me along, they might be more open to the idea."

"You're lying," Rin cut her off with a sigh, seeing no point in dancing this dance.

The girl froze, then she smiled slyly. "I should have known you'd catch on."

"You want me to kidnap you," Rin continued on, bored already. "You want to just disappear one day. I'd believe you had your parents permission, and you'd be long gone before they'd notice."

"Correct," said the girl, still smiling. "I like you. What's your name?"

"Rin," the blonde replied.

"I'm Miki. So, will you be my travelling companion?"

"I see no way in which this arrangement benefits me," Rin replied haughtily. In truth, she really wanted nothing to do with the girl. But, at the same time, a part of her begged her to take the girl along. She'd been travelling alone for years, and she was well due for some proper human interaction, as her boss told her every time they met.

"I'll pay for all our meals and lodgement. Is that acceptable?" Miki wondered.

Rin paused in consideration, staring at Miki's outstretched hand. Did she really need the burden of taking care of this girl? In her line of work, it was easiest to be alone. She stared at the girl, whose coloured eyes glittered expectantly, a smirk on her face as if she already knew the answer. Then, Rin took her hand and replied, "Deal."

Author's Note: This story will be updating every Wednesday. Mm this was a oneshot by the same name, and it's more shoujo-ai than yuri but shoujo-ai takes less characters due to the limit. I'm tired after being silent all day so that's all I have to say. See you next week!