Ruby ducked and wove, twisting and turning between shoppers as she sprinted away from the store, cutting through the crowd, trying to get to the main doors. She had always been fast, much to the exasperation of her older sister, but ever since they had run away Ruby had done nothing but get faster.

She was coming up to a jam-packed escalator, and the whispers and mentions of a shoplifter were swirling behind her like a swarm of angry bees, closing, threatening to surround her. No other option came to her mind as her hand gripped the slick metal railing, eyeing the drop to the next floor below. The whispers were getting closer, and she'd always wanted to do this anyways, so she jumped.

Her hand pivoted on the rail as her legs rolled over it, one following the other as her other hand grabbed one of the uprights, sliding down until both of her hands closed around the lower railing.

Her wrists were already aching with the tension as she cast around, searching for something else to hold on to, as her fingers were slipping and people were turning, staring, shouting at the red-clad teen dangling from the ceiling. She let go with one hand and grabbed for the support beam that ran along the floor (or ceiling?), a metal I-beam with perfect handholds, but just out of her reach.

A snap decision firing her synapses, she flipped so her hands were on the uprights again and rotated, slowly, slowly, eliciting gasps from the gathering crowd as she let go, her feet hooked around the lower rail. She wormed back and forth, her fingers grazing the edges of the beam and bringing noises of dismay from the people below at each near miss.

Glancing down, she spotted the lone security guard forcing his way through the crowd, shoving people aside to point at her.

"Thief! Get her down!"

Ruby's eyes widened as people on the escalators reached for her, trying to grab an ankle, a wrist, anything. Panicked, she made a last-ditch effort to get over to the beam, letting go of the bar, her stomach falling to her shoes as her fingers touched the surface of the beam, scrabbled…and held.

Her confidence returning some, she swung hand-over-hand along the beam, the crowd following her as she flung herself from beam to beam, making for a support pole right near the doors that should could slide down and make a break for it. She had just committed to a jump, in midair, her hands outstretched for the next beam, when…

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Ruby's head snapped around to find the source of the voice, but as her head turned her torso turned with it, and her hand slipped. She her heart lurched as a feeling of vertigo shot through her, her momentum carrying her forward. There was only thing sparking across her neurons, spiraling through through her mind.

She fell.

She never fell. Not for as long as she could remember.

She had finally betrayed herself, let herself fall to the ground and slow to a stop. For all this time since she had run away, she hadn't stopped moving. If she kept moving, the sadness couldn't keep up, the shadows would remain just tricks of the light and her fears would stay imaginary.

Her grey eyes closed, a weight settling on her eyelids, the weight of the knowledge that no matter how fast, how far she ran, the darkness would always catch up.

The knowledge that her past would never stay buried.

Her head made contact with the unforgiving metal with a sickening crunch, and she landed on the cold pavement with hardly a sound.

A touch on her shoulder made her force open her eyes, and the last thing she saw before she passed out was a pair of concerned eyes.

Huh. She blinked. Blue.


Yang didn't run. She walked with a purpose, radiating such a forceful persona that everyone knew to get out of her way and stay there. She was pissed, that much was clear. Ruby had run off AGAIN. And now Yang was lost, unable to remember the meeting place they had set up that morning.

She remembered with no small amount of exasperation the beautiful motorcycle, named Bumblebee, that she had left behind when she ran away. As much as she had longed to bring her baby with her, she left it because it was rather...distinctive. A black and yellow Kawasaki Ninja with a large black flaming heart emblem emblazoned in the side, they would've been found out immediately.

Lost in her thoughts, Yang's feet led themselves absently through the streets, over bumps and cracks in the sidewalk. Making turns at random, she found herself walking down Beacon Avenue, one of the busier streets in Vale.

Absent-mindedly weaving through the crush of people, all with their own places to go, albeit far too slowly, something made its way into the back of her mind, worming into her consciousness, telling her that she was hearing shouting. Snapping herself out of he reverie, she moved towards the source of the commotion, nudging people aside, more often than not receiving dirty looks from those in her way.

As she neared the cause of the panic, the crowed around her slowed and stopped entirely. Elbowing her way through the tide, Yang finally reached the edge where a small, circular clearing had opened around the ruckus. She was about to push into the circle, but her feet hit an obstruction. Lying at her feet was an unconscious man, who appeared to be in his forties, sprawled across the pavement.

Crouching next to him was the person in black from the store. Now that Yang could get a better look at them, they was wearing a black zip-up hoodie with a white t-shirt barely visible under the zip and a pair of black skinny jeans (not that Yang minded). What surprised the blonde, though, was the dangerous-looking knife they held in their left hand, the non-pointy end facing out. Glancing back down at the man at her feet, she could make out a rectangular mark on his temple, already bruising. Yang nodded, impressed.

The person didn't even shift, their thumb rolling back the man's eyelid and examining his pupil. Apparently liking what they saw, they turned.

As if noticing the crowd around her for the first time, the raven-haired person straightened up and spun the knife in their hand before tucking it point-first up their sleeve. Glancing around at the crowd, they gestured to the man on the ground.

"Severe concussion, probably. He touched me."

They said it without much emotion, and that stabbed at Yang's heart. The thought that someone not very different in age than her little sister, the one remnant of her family that she had left, had that happen to them so often that it elicited such a neutral response from them tore at the very fibres of her big-sister being. The dark-haired person gave her a nod and and spun on their heel, walking away, hair streaming out behind them.

On an impulse, Yang followed. Not getting too close, she followed them through the streets, up and down twisting alleys and through the mess left by the rain, noticing that they were getting closer to the place where she and Ruby had spent the night. It was close enough to the business sector of the city that it wasn't too dangerous, but it still had an abundance of back alleys to sleep in.

After some time, the black-haired person called back, without so much as breaking stride or even throwing a glance Yang's way.

"Why are you following me?"

Yang shrugged. "'M lost. 'M s'pposed to meet my little sister somewhere after we got split up in that crowd, but I forgot where. Followin' you seemed 's good a shot as any."

"Your sister?"

"Yeah. Ruby. Speakin' of which, where's that girl you were with? Y'know , the one in white?"

Still walking, they shook their head. "We were separated too. However, I remember our meeting place."

Yang shook her head in exasperation. "Thanks for the help there, by the way. I thought we were screwed f'sure."

"It's not a big deal. I've been in that situation a couple times, and I would've appreciated a little help like that, so I thought I'd lend a hand." They shrugged. "Why were you stealing that much, anyway? I saw the little red one...Ruby, was it? I saw her pocketing all the tech she could get her hands on."

Yang glanced down, embarrassed. "Well...we've gotta eat somehow, yeah?"

The other person stopped suddenly that Yang nearly walked into her. They turned to face Yang, and their strikingly amber eyes -which had been so hard when Yang saw them standing over that man- softened, then hardened again, distrust clouding their gaze.

"Even so, that much stuff would be much, much more than a meal would be worth. That would be more along the lines of a week's worth." Confused, they shook their head. "And even that's beside the point, don't your parents feed you? Why would you need money for food?"

Yang shrugged, not used to talking to others about this, and all the emotional inflection left her voice, the normally bubbly, enthused blonde turned empty shell. "Well, me 'n Rubes don't have parents anymore. Died about 8 months ago. They were out walking, and some jackass hit 'em with his car. 'Parently, he w' so drunk he didn't even notice it. We stayed with a family friend for a couple weeks, until we heard them talkin' with child services workers about splitting me 'n my sis' up in foster care 'r adoption 'r somethin'. So we decided t' run away before they could do that t'us. We hafta feed ourselves now. We only have each other."

Yang's head lowered and she studied the sidewalk, convinced that she had turned her new friend away. Who would want to be friends with a street kid, anyway? Then she felt a touch on her shoulder. Yang looked up, her lilac eyes meeting catlike amber full of sympathy.

"We...only have each other too."

Yang blinked. "Huh?"

"Yeah. My parents died as well. Long ago, though."

Yang looked down again. Who wants to be friends with a street kid, indeed. Maybe, just maybe…

This might work.

"Well…mebbe ya' don't hafta be alone anymore." She looked back up, her usual confidence returning in a big way as she returned the touch to the shoulder, her hand closing around warm skin and bone, the doubt warring in her mind not showing anything on her face. "You and your friend c'n come with us! You c'n be part of our family!" She stuck out a hand. "I'm Yang! Nice ta' meetcha!"

The dark-haired person couldn't help but crack a smile at the blonde's natural exuberance, and clasped her hand. "Blake."

Yang grinned, looking over her new friend. "Blake? S'a cool name! Oh, and d'you have a pronoun preference, before we wrap this up?"

Blake couldn't help but be taken aback at the blonde's thoughtfulness. No one had ever bothered asking before, they had just assumed.

"W-well, yeah, actually. I'm genderfluid, so could you use they and them for now? I'll keep you posted."

"'Course! My pleasure!"

Yang grinned as the two of them turned and kept walking, her thoughts on her new friend.

Her- THEIR smile is the only thing prettier than those eyes...


A/N: there it is...Again, thanks so much for your support! And if you have any questions or suggestions or just wanna say hi, feel free to PM me. (I'm definitely not just wanting to talk to people cause I spend all my free time writing I don't know what you're talking about...)

-Ai

Ooh P.S. here's a sneeeeeaky peek at the next chapter!

"You think that I would be shoplifting for fun? You think that I would do that? You think I don't know what stealing does to a business?

Of course I do. I don't steal-" she spat the word like it was venomous, "-because I want to. I do it because it is a necessity. I do it to survive."

"And it's heiress, actually."