Disclaimer: Skip Beat and its characters belong to Yoshiki Nakamura, the only thing that I own are the crazy ideas, which I come up with on the spot, and the words that I so indiscriminately use to try and make my point across.

The meeting

Little feet ran through the dirty streets of London making small pit pat noises as a pint sized girl, no more than 7 years old with rebellious grey eyes and light blonde hair, escaped from an irate fat man that, on the same morning, baked the fresh loaf of bread the running girl held between her thin underfeed fingers with the strength of someone desperate to eat after two whole days without a decent meal.

-Come here you little street rat! I´ll show you just what we do to thieves like you! - Screamed the forty something year old, face completely red from both anger and exhaustion, barely holding his breath until, finally, he could no longer keep up with the swift wisp of a girl that, with no difficulty, disappeared from his sight maneuvering expertly through the familiar dark alleys and crevices of the British city.

Of course, leaving behind the fatso didn´t stop the dirty looking girl, no, the life on the cruel streets had taught her better than that so, even if the man was nowhere in sight and her steps were the only sounds in the empty alleyway, she kept running full speed until the familiar looking old abandoned building, with wood planks obstructing its doors and broken windows, was right in front of her. Only at that moment, the child let her tired legs decrease their fast pace and took a deep breath, fillings her lungs with the much needed air they were deprived of during her race.

With no need to think twice, her bare feet moved effortlessly through the, many times walked, path she so painstakingly created and memorized to the inside of the building, no one the wiser. Once in, fragile looking structure of the building sheltering the girl from the drizzle starting outside, she couldn´t help but fall to the old wooden floor in an exhausted sort of satisfaction. Today she´ll finally put some real food into her continuously sounding belly, no damn scraps from the trash nor pieces of food from pitying strangers.

These thoughts running across her mind, the kid looked at the appetizing loaf of warm bread in her hands and carefully pinched a piece between her forefinger and thumb, the soft and airy food leaving small crumbs in her stolen dirty jeans but this little mattered to her as she put the piece inside of her mouth and, then, proceeded in the same fashion to eat half of her treat, slow movements aimed to keep her from chucking down what made her go through so much trouble to obtain.

Half the bread down and the other half carefully saved for later in her back pocket, the blonde girl laid on the floor in fetal position, a thin blanket found on top of a dusty piece of furniture over her lithe figure and arms acting as pillow, and closed her heavy eyelids effectively relaxing and falling to Morpheus arms thanks to the sound of the rain hitting the asphalt on that, particularly, cold night of October.

Sadly, her unusually blissful sleep wouldn´t last long as, mere hours later, a loud noise of a body colliding against metal in the vicinities, along with the sound of the heavy rain, would break the light sleep of the girl, conditioned by living in very hostile environments and constantly being on the run. So, rubbing away the sleep from her eyes, she hid her blanket in one of the corners of the room and, with silent animal like movements, made her way to the blocked window, nearest to the alley where the noise came from, to watch what was going on from one of the gaps of the horizontally placed wooden planks.

To, not so much of her surprise, in the adjacent alley some big guys were beating to pulp a much smaller figure that, futilely, tried with all its might to defend itself. Already knowing how this was going to go, grey eyes watched bored as again and again the small figure fell just to stand once more, all the while giving and receiving punches and colliding with the walls or metal trash container until, naturally, it couldn´t stand anymore and the bullies, probably as black and blue as the victim but still in a better condition, decided to leave it like that, abandoning the unmoving body of their unfortunate target.

*Well…that was so anticlimactic* she couldn´t help but think as the place returned to its former calm where the only sound was the splatter of the rain. Done satiating her curiosity, the girl disregarded the situation observed as non-important to her person and went back to the floor pulling her blanket and trying, once again, to sleep…

*It is cold in here*…she turned to the other side and rubbed her hands but stayed in the floor…

*It must be freezing outside with this rain*…she turned, again, trying to find a comfortable position but strangely not being fructiferous in her endeavor…

*And this is wooden floor unlike the asphalt streets*…her brows furrowed in dissatisfaction at the unrest of her mind and she, stubbornly, blanched it hearing the pouring rain, but still no rest came as the small nagging feeling at the back of her mind wouldn´t let her sleep…

*Damn it*

A sigh escaping her lips, the girl resigned herself to not getting a wink of sleep so she decided she, might as well, deal with the sudden and incredibly stupid charge of conscience that moved her to relinquish her ok shelter to go out, in the bloody pouring rain, at night, just to check if a damn stranger was on his way to become a corpse or if he simply was laying in wait for hypothermia to settle in so he could go his merry way. *What happened to the "every man for himself" bullshit? I thought I had that covered!*

Moving reluctantly from her spot, the kid followed the same path between rotten wood and small holes in the walls until the freezing rain greeted her petite figure, positively soaking her body by the time she was in front of the unmoving…boy? And yep, definitely in wait of getting hypothermia and becoming a corpse, the one who came first it seemed *Just dandy*

-Hey wake up- She loudly called him, annoyance clear in her voice, trying in vain to make him react but when not even moving him with her feet got the objective done a sigh left her. Resignation and a heavy annoyance, not only at the unresponsive boy but also at her normally non-existent compassion, coming into conflict she looked at his paling face. Resignation winning the war, another sigh escaped her and she really hoped that she wasn´t going to regret this later.

Tiny trembling hands took a hold of the black jacket the 13ish year old boy was wearing and, with great effort, pulled him all the way to the back of the building, near her usual entry, just to realize that even if he fitted through the external door there was no way someone as big as him could pass across the passages that barely fitted her small figure. She looked at him and, with no small amount of bitterness, got him to the only place where he could go; the first room of the building, where the cold was biting but no rain could intrude *I am so tempted to forsake you, if only you weren´t at the brink of death with no one but me to pity you*

Sharp eyes observed, now more closely, the bruised shivering body she dragged and got slightly worried when a little pool of blood formed near his head covered in silky black locks. *That ain´t good* Taken over her instincts, she ripped a good portion of her hard earned jeans and, with the clean side of the parchment, applied pressure on the bleeding right side of his head before, ripping a part of her t-shirt, she bandaged it as best as she could. *You better be damn grateful for this*

Lastly, seeing as the other injuries were only bruises, she took off his black jacket and t-shirt along with his drenched jeans, shoes and socks, taking off her own in the process, and finally covered them both with her trusty blanket, all the while praying that the little warmth of their bodies close to each other was enough to keep sickness and hypothermia away.