She breathes heavily as she pushes her bike along, something that she has been doing for the last hour. Her heavy backpack is weighing her down and she adjusts the straps in a more comfortable position. Blowing her mahogany bangs from her eyes once again she looks ahead to the dirt road ahead of her. To her dismay, there is still no town in sight, only rows and rows of grassy fields. Normally she wouldn't mind such a surrounding, but if she has to walk all the way, it will be a different story. Annoyed, she is ready to give up, or at least take a break. She was on the road since early that morning after all and it must be around noon right about now, considering the position of the sun.
Dropping the bike in the grass, she flops herself down onto her butt on the side of the road, taking a big swig of her diminishing water supply before returning it to her bag. Tossing off her denim jacket, it leaves her in a simple white tank top, exposing her arms to the warm spring sun. Laying her head on her knees, she sighs, closing her eyes for a moment. Her semi-long ponytails falling over her shoulder. It is only after a minute her relaxation moment is interrupted by a noise that is coming closer.
Curious she looks up into the distance. Her eyes grow slightly wide as they fill with hope. Finally, a sign of life! She gets up, trying hard to contain her excitement as she goes to flag the driver of the truck down. As it comes to a halt she jumps up the step to the passenger seat door to peer inside from the open window. To her surprise, she finds a young boy at the driver's seat, about her age actually, maybe older. 'Is he allowed to drive yet?', she thinks as she looks the brunette over.
Noticing him looking at her strangely with his green eyes staring her down in an uncomfortable fashion, she decides she should probably say something. "Ah, hi there. I was wondering if you could help me. You see, I've got a flat tire and I was hoping to get a ride to the next town. Would you mind helping me out?", she says showing off her best fake smile. That usually does the trick.
The boy blinks at her. "Don't you have a kit?", he asks. She smiles sheepishly. "The road is so bad, I ran out I'm afraid." He looks at her thoughtfully. "I'm sorry, I can't help you.", he says leaving the girl stumped. "Huh? But.. you've got so much room. I promise I won't be a bother, I can pay you…", she tries. "I'm sorry.", he replies shaking his head. The girl can't help but look at him like he's an alien, and not like the illegal kind. "You are really leaving me here in the middle of nowhere not knowing when the next person will come around?!" "I can't help you.", he repeats monotonously.
The girl leans back, still shocked. "Wow. Well, awesome.", she says sarcastically. "I guess your mom didn't teach you about being gallant to a girl in need huh?", she says before jumping down. She huffs before looking up as he starts the engine up again. "I don't suppose you have some water to spare before I die of dehydration as well?!", she yells over the noise, not seeing his face. She barely has time to react when a bottle of water is chucked out of the window. She catches it before it hits the ground. "Thanks!", she yells before he drives off.
The boy didn't get far though as he is blocked by a jeep that came from the other side. It's an Alliance patrol. The girl curses silently, wondering why she didn't notice them coming up. She creeps away, picking up her bike and backpack before she hears a voice calling out to her, "You girl, come over here!" Looking back, she sighs before reluctantly striding over to them. She looks as the boy is commandeered out of the truck and is asked to stand next to her. He is rather tall next to her petite figure. "Well, long time no see.", she grins. The boy glances at her unamused, looking strangely tense.
As two start up questioning him, another turns to the girl. "Show me your identification.", he orders in a heavy voice, fitting his age. "I'm afraid I don't have any on me at the moment sir." "Hn, you should always keep it on you, but we'll get to that later. What's in your bag?" "Just dirty laundry sir." "I'll have to search it." She shrugs handing him the bag. "Just don't wave my undies about.", she comments making him blush in embarrassment.
As the man goes through her stuff she glances at the boy, who seems to tense up more and more. Wondering what is going on she listens in on them. She figures from the answers he's giving, he is hiding something. But what? She glances at the back of the truck. Something big is under that tarp, in both the literal and figurative sense.
Her attention is turned back to the man before her as he zips the bag closed. "It seems in order, but since I am not allowed to search a female, we will have to take you in to confirm your identity and let a female officer do the search." The girl pouts at him. "Surely that won't be necessary. Do I look like I would ever do something criminal? Besides, I barely have enough clothing on to hide my own body.", she says gesturing to her tank top and brown mid-thigh shorts. The man blushes again. "Sorry ma'am. Standard procedure."
Not showing her annoyance she glances around for an escape when a commotion distracts her. One of the soldiers is looking under the tarp yelling, "This isn't scrap metal! It's shiny new! What are you transporting boy? Get this tarp off!" The boys reaches behind him in reaction, making her eyes fall on a gun in the waistband of his jeans. Knowing shit is about to get down, she thinks quickly.
Grabbing her bike with both hands she lifts it, swinging it around to hit the man from before. Seeing that he didn't go down straight away, she turns another round to hit him again before letting go, making it fly into the soldier that made the fuss before. She runs up, tackling the guy before he can recover and with a swift move renders him unconscious. Getting up she is surprised to find a barrel of a gun to her head.
The girl stares at the gun pointed at her. "Well, that's nice. You dare threaten an unarmed girl?", She says glaring at the boy, noticing the third soldier on the floor behind him. "I wouldn't say unarmed.", he counters. "Well, I wasn't planning on hurting you if that's what you were wondering. Just don't give me a reason to change that." "Hm.", is all that comes from him before he puts the gun away, quickly covering up the shiny red metal that was exposed before.
"Why did you do that?", he asks, watching as she pick up her bike only to drop it after seeing the demolished state of it. Gathering her stuff, she says, "It was my fault for putting your secret at risk. If I didn't keep you from leaving, you could have avoided them. Besides, I didn't feel like going with them." She checks to see if she forgot anything, hands on her hips. The boy regards her for a moment, still thinking it odd and especially so the skills she fought with. This clearly wasn't her first fight and it looked rather...professional. "Thanks.", he says making her look at him. He is surprised to see a small but genuine smile on her face. "It's fine. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm getting out of here. I suggest you do the same."
He nods before climbing in the truck. He looks back to see the girl looking a bit lost, not knowing where to go. "Get in.", he says. Looking at him surprised she asks, "Are you sure?" "Just don't ask any questions.", he warns, referring to his cargo. "You don't have to worry about that.", she promises before climbing in on the other side. He starts the vehicle, stepping on the gas, eager to leave their crime scene behind.
The girl turns to him after a moment. "Would you mind though, if I ask for your name?" He shakes his head slowly. "I don't really have a name, but if you must call me something, call me Trowa Barton." This surprises her to say the least. Not believing in coincidences, she realizes that it must be an alias, because the real Trowa Barton is dead. Deciding to disregard the matter she thought it best to introduce herself. "I'm Yua Fowler." He just nods to show he heard.
The ride from there on is pretty silent except for the soft noise of the radio. After fifteen minutes they reach a small town, but to her surprise, Trowa rides right past it. Sensing her questioning gaze on him, he explains, "They will be sure to find you here. I'll take you to a city further off." She is surprised at his thoughtfulness. It's quite different from the first interaction they had, but she supposes that he had good reasons. "Well… thanks."
After perhaps an hour longer they come to a large city. When he pulls over, Yua opens the door. "Well, thanks for the ride Trowa. Let's hope we meet under better circumstances next time." He nods watching her leap onto the ground. Turning to him one more time she can't help but comment on his freight. "I don't know what wild plans you have with that…", she says nodding towards the back, "But try not to get yourself killed. I would be really disappointed." This surprised Trowa a bit. Yua grins mischievously. She already had a pretty good inkling on what it was he was carrying, though she didn't yet know the extent of it all.
After shutting the door, she watches him drive off before setting off herself. She needed a place to stay and some money. What she came across only ten minutes later, she found to be ideal. Hopefully they could use her.
