A/N Hey everyone ! I really hope you like this. It's my first fanfiction ever ! Sorry, but I won't be able to update regularly but I'll try whenever I can. I hope you guys like this because it would be a shame to waste all your time :(

I could here footsteps. Damn, I thought. I was so sure I'd escaped them. I was hiding on a wharf behind some crates. How could they have known? It was such a dark night I really couldn't see anything, but I could here them. Or it. Really, there was one set of breathing, one set of footsteps. The wood on the wharf was creaking, only very slightly, but I couldn't be sure because of the waves, sounding up against the wooden supports of the wharf. They, it, was getting closer. I couldn't take any more and, drawing my only weapon, a twelve-inch knife that I 'borrowed' from a house in Atlanta. I jumped out from behind my crate, with full intention of killing whatever was coming towards me. I faltered. And I NEVER falter. Instead of a monster or other evil thing I saw shape that was vaguely humanoid. Nothing that attacked me ever looked like a human. I couldn't tell anything about it. Way to dark to see anything until the moon broke through the clouds, drowning the wharf in moonlight. It was a boy; guy is probably a better word for it, he looked about my age, tallish and stocky, but not too stocky. He had blond hair, like yellowy-gold blonde- it looked dyed, chin length and did a cute little flippy thing at the end. I couldn't tell what colour his eyes were, as his back was towards me.

I acted as soon as that thought crossed my mind I leaped at him. I didn't think like that. Well I couldn't afford to let myself think like that at the moment. As I was leaping, I switched the blade around in my left hand. I normally used my right, but it was injured. I was pretty sure he hadn't seen me coming, or at least I had the element of surprise, or so I thought. As soon as I landed, he spun around, and, with his right hand, it caught me in the stomach. I, in turn, reacted by trying to slash his arm, which I succeeded in. I then tried for another slash, but he battered my arm away with such a force that I dropped my knife, and it slid away, hitting 'my' crate. 'My' crate wasn't that far away, but it was to far to grab in the middle of a fight. Damn! I thought, he was good. Time to seriously act. I swang out with my foot, trying to trip him up or swipe his foot from under neither him. It didn't work. He grabbed my foot and flipped me. Crap. I was going down, and baldly. I tried to land on my feet, but they slipped out under me. I scrambled up and got a good left hook on the side of his face. Finally, I got a hit on him. Gees, it took long enough. SMACK! While I was congratulating myself, on hitting him, he got me. God, he punched HARD. I saw little black dots in front of my eyes and felt myself going faint. Luckily, I didn't actually faint, I just stumbled around like a headless chicken for a bit. "Gees, are you okay?" Blondie asked casually, as though he goes around punching up fifteen year old girls, then asking if there okay. He handed back my knife, which was nice. "Yeah, I'm fine. You punch hard." "Thanks, my brother taught me." He had an accent, Australian, I think. Now that I could see his face, I saw his eyes were gray, like the colour of clouds before a massive thunderstorm. That kind of bluey-gray colour. "He must be a good teacher then." I said. "He was", Blondie's face darkened, like he was remembering something that was worth forgetting." Oh…I'm really sorry. " I stumbled trying to get the words out. God, he looked really sad about it, whatever it was. "My name's Layla." He reached out and shook my hand where did that come from? "Mine's Caelen." "Caelen? What are you? Irish?" I was trying not to laugh; really, it was such a weird name. " Nope. Pure Aussie." Aussie? Then why the hell was he on the East coast of America? "My mum was reading an Irish book when she named me." That explains it then. "Fair enough." We lapsed into an awkward silence. Since I really couldn't think of anything to so, I turned around and headed to get my 'black' backpack, which I had also 'borrowed' from another Atlanta house. It was black, but now it was covered in mud, had some salt stains and some dark red spots on it. Those guys were so generous. In it I had a toothbrush and toothpaste, a knife sharpener, pen and paper, matches, a cigarette lighter (a new acquaintance, picked up in Portsmouth) a shirt, shorts- one denim and one cotton, a black pullover, a faded orange fleece blanket and a water bottle. Not too much, but enough. Oh and some money at the very bottom of it. "Hey! Where are you going?" What? I turned and saw Blo- Caelen hurrying after me. "Away." I snapped. "Okay, okay, but I'm coming too." "Fine." I was in no mood to argue. I was way to cold to. The sea breeze coming off the ocean was icy-cold. All I had on were a pair of stained and tattered jeans, my best pair, an incredibly worn leather jacket and a short-sleeved black t-shirt. I was freezing and needed a place to kip for the night.

I walked to where the wharf met the street it was located on. It was the 'shady' part of town. The buildings to my right were dilapidated and run down as if no one had been in there for years. But I knew better. It was where quite a few black market dealers had their hideouts. I didn't know what they traded, and I kept it that way. Most of the buildings didn't have all their windows and not one had a pane that hadn't been smashed. The high-rises, only about three stories tall, made out of bricks that had turned gray with the salt and the sea breeze. I couldn't see very well, only by the streetlights, and half of them were smashed. A little way down the street was a back alley, with a couple of rubbish bins and a skip. It was so dark down there, the only light came from the two lamps located at on either side of the entrance, and even then the light only came about half way down the alleyway. I walked down to the darkest corner of the alley, slide my backpack off my shoulder and slumped down the brick wall. Caelen sat down opposite me, on the grimy, concrete floor of the alley. I sighed, I was so tired, I needed a sleep, but first I needed a fire.

So, very gradually I stood up, and stumbled over to the big skip, pushed open the lid. I held my nose as best I could. It really stunk being full of old food scrapes, brown beer bottles and green wine ones. I hated dumpster diving, but, a girl had to do what a girl had to do. I searched around, trying to find some flammable materials; newspapers and furniture are always good but the people who lived in the house evidently didn't read the newspaper or have anything made out of paper. I looked over at Caelen, "Little help, huh Irishman?" "Sure. I'll help if you tell me why I'm helping you." He didn't sound very happy about being called Irishman, but who cares what he thinks.

"What are you doing?" Irishman asked. "Dumpster diving, and your helping me to find food and firewood.' I said, rolling my eyes. Eureka, I FINALLY found an old bible, with a faded crimson leather cover. I knew it was sacrilege to burn a bible, but I really needed something to get warm with. I looked at Caelen, who was standing behind me. "Jesus, you going to help me?" " Maybe." He still sounded pissed at me. " Well, go over to the rubbish bins and find something to burn." He turned around and stalked over to them, took of one of the lids and started looking around in them, a look of upmost disgust on his face. I turned back to the skip, and tried to hold in my laughter. Seriously, his face was just THAT funny. I gave up scourging on the topmost layers, and, with much regret, I pulled my self up-and-over the edge of the green skip and started digging around in the bottom. With any luck I could find some old furniture, which would be quite handy. There was so many food scrapes in the skip, it stunk and was very squishy.

"Found anything yet, Irishman?" I yelled, as I chucked out a broken writing desk. It stood about 50cm high. One of the legs was snapped off, leaving a sharp, jagged surface. The top was stained with coffee rings and grime. "Yes. Two thick old books, a broken walking stick and a can of baked beans, unopened. How about you?" "Ummm, a bible and a broken writing desk," I replied as I climbed out of the skip, smelling worse than before, and that was pretty bad. As I was going over the edge, I slipped and landed back first on the ground, winding myself. God, what was up with me? Okay, apart from the fact that I'm completely uncoordinated. I usually didn't fall out of skips, I climbed out of them. Man I was so tired.

I picked up the bible and the desk then walked over to my backpack, turned around and saw Caelen walking over to me, his arms full of whatever he found. Plonking the stuff he found on the rubbish I found, he sat down and pulled his satchel off, which surprised me because I didn't know that he actually had one. Caelen pulled over a broken faun-coloured ceramic bowl and started tearing out pages from 'The Quinte-Essential French Cookery' and pilling them up in the bowl. The pages didn't look like ordinary modern-day paper, more like thick parchment, perfect for building up a fire. I pulled my bag over and rummaged through it, pulling out my knife, knife sharpener and my cigarette lighter, I had a feeling I might need it. Dragging over the desk, I started smashing it up, very unsuccessfully.

"Here, let me help you with that. You look like you about to crash." Caelen was looking at me struggle with the writing desk. I was on the verge of saying, no, bugger off, but he was right I was so ready to crash, so instead of arguing or answering, just passed the desk to him and watched as he mutilated the desk for firewood. Putting the small pieces of wood on the crumpled up pale parchment. It looked ready to burn so I picked up my lighter, clicked it a couple times to get a flame up and held it near the paper. I had to wait for the flame to catch, but when it did, we actually had a reasonably good fire. Caelen kept feeding it with larger pieces of wood. Well, this was awkward. Neither of us was saying anything and the night was dragging on. God, I was so hungry, I wished that we had more than a tin of backed beans between us, and they weren't even ready yet.

"So…. How'd an Australian end up on the East Coast of America?" I queried, while waiting for the can of baked beans to warm up. Man, this was awkward. "Long story. Too long to tell actually. Maybe some other time, when you're not half asleep." He grinned as he said this. I scowled at him. "I'm not half asleep and why can't you tell me?" I was sleepy and hungry and now I was pissed but not that I'd admit any of it. His face looked… odd, for lack of a better word, in the firelight. The flickering of our minimal fire cast reflections on his face. "I'm not sleepy, I'm just starving. And why can't I hear your story, huh?" "Oh, look. The beans are ready," he smirked. I just gave him a death glare. Dodging the subject, not answering my questions, why did he keep avoiding my question? He pulled his satchel closer to him and opening it, he pulled out a Swiss Army knife with a slate-blue handle. It had a can opening attachment, which I guess was lucky. Pulling out a wad of cloth he wrapped it around the can so it didn't burn too much and broke the can open. My god, I know it was only a can of baked beans but when he opened it, my mouth started watering and it smelt so good. That could be because I hadn't eaten since Monday, and considering today was late Tuesday, early Wednesday, I was ready to eat ANYTHING… and fall over due to lack of food. Caelen looked at me, and I was staring very intently at the open can of baked beans, to absorbed to notice anything. "You want some?" he asked "…. Yes!" I guess I looked a bit crazy because, you know, I hadn't eaten in over 24 HOURS AND WAS STARING AT SOME FOOD! "Okay, okay. How long has it been since you ate anything?" he asked, pulling out two spoons out of his 'white' satchel. I think it's supposed to be white, but it was grey, with some belchy stains on it. "Ummm, too long. Maybe 24 hours…a bit more." "Here" he said, handing me one of the spoons and the tin of baked beans. "How much do I get?" "All of it?" He suggested, with a bit of a smile. "God, no. I'll go half's with you" I said, with my spoon in the can. Oh god it looked so good. And tasted even better. In no time, I had eaten my half of the can, and with much regret, passed the tin to Caelen, who finished the half a tin in fifteen seconds flat. I gawped at him. Wow, he could eat baked beans. " How long has it been since YOU ate?" I asked him " Oh, hmm, maybe, Saturday or Sunday." "Oh." I felt awful. He should have had the entire can. "I should have let you have all of it." "Nah, your fine." " I feel really bad n-n-now," I said, stifling a yawn. " Go to sleep Layla. I'll take first watch. I had a good sleep yesterday." "N-a-a-h-h" I curled up near the fire and pulled out my orange blanket from my black bag and using the bag as my pillow feel asleep.

I woke up after a really, really good nights sleep and, looking around, saw the alley looked worse than it did in the dark. I sat up and looked over at Caelen, who had fallen asleep against one of the grimy brick wall. It was hot. A nice change from yesterday and last night. The sun beat down and, just our luck- my luck, that we were on the side of the alley that wasn't in the shade. I thought about getting changed into my shorts, but I quickly squashed the idea as Caelen moved a little and I really didn't want to start getting changed when there was a guy ready to wake up. I debated whether I should go through his satchel and try to find something interesting in it but, after being in America for 6 months, I lost some of my heat resistance, so, against my better judgment, I pulled out my denim shorts, took off my jacket, my worn ice blue sneakers- and socks, and slipped out of my stained jeans. "Eek!" I may have been hot, but the concrete most defiantly wasn't. My small squeal of surprise stirred Caelen and he started to open his eyes. "Don't you DARE open your eyes!" I exclaimed. "Huh, wha? What can't I do?" "You can't open your eyes. I will kill you if you do." "Yep, okay, sure whatever." He sounded really, really drowsy and I wasn't actually sure if he understood me. I soon got my answer, when he started trying to stand up with OPEN eyes. "Oh no you don't," I said, walking over to him and pushing him back down. "Wow. I don't think I'm awake yet." "Oh shit! Shut your eyes and face the wall!" I was blushing red and ran over to my shorts, and put them on very fast. I took one step and they feel down. "Can I look yet?" Caelen asked. "NO!" I yelled. "Hurry up then." "Hello, I'm trying." I walked around and tried to find some rope. I couldn't. So, I grabbed the clothe that we had wrapped around the baked bean tin last night, ripped them into stripes and tied them together and put that through the belt loops in my shorts. Yay! I now had shorts that stayed up. "Okay Irishman, you can open your eyes and look." "Finally." He turned away from the wall and looked at me, sitting on the ground wrestling with my socks and shoes. His hair looked very cute, all messed up and fluffy. He rubbed his eyes trying the get the sleep out of them. " How long did you sleep last night? Good job with watch as well. I mean, it was just amazing that you stayed up for that long." I said sarcastically with a smile. "Oh, shut up." "Nope. Let's get moving. We've got to move on from this place. Something could be coming to get…" I trailed off. I sounded really paranoid but he didn't question me. That was good. I started picking up some of the more interesting things we found this morning. I was busy putting things into my back; it was hard, more like Tetras. Irishman came over and started putting some things in has satchel. "Okay," I said allowed, " I bid thee farewell. I'm going to… Manhattan, New York." I picked any place at random, and New York sounded quite good. "Oh, would you look at that. I'm going there too. Looks like I could tag along." "Oh my god. Do you really want to travel all the way to New York with me? Wait, on second thought, do I want you coming to New York with me….." I started mumbling and rambling towards the end.

A/N Please R&R !

Constructive critisism welcome.