Drabbleme - Rated R – word count: 593 – line: 'Maybe it's too late to save you.'
A tiny trickle of blood ran down her face; it started, warm and wet, at her hairline - and trickled down the bridge of her nose to end, cool and sticky on her lip. She licked it away. It tasted like she was sucking on a gold ring - not that she really knew what that tasted like.
Ai was the only Love Shocker left in the area - the GGs had took off in pursuit of the big mechanical beast Rokkaku had set on them, and her companions had either scarpered back to Hikage Street - or gone off to watch the fun, leaving fourteen year old Ai behind to fend for herself.
Who wanted to be lumbered with a bleeding, moaning fourteen year old? Ai sobbed, but tears seemed to have escaped her, and it stuck in her throat.
She had been captured only a few hours ago – or was it longer? Time had no real meaning when you were miserable and had no watch. Either way, she'd been just as miserable before – trying to practise tagging, again.
A few days ago, after messing up yet another small tag, Glister had told her, laughing:
"Maybe nothing can save you now."
Her heart had twisted with dread but there was no need - Pearl was the leader, and Pearl seemed to have decided that Ai was a good enough skater to stay.
Today, she had to prove that. Made to race against the GGs in a game of Death Ball for Lord Yoyo's (the only thing about this situation that made her smile was that name) amusement, she had thought that for once, she'd be able to do something useful for her gang. Maybe they'd actually treat her like an equal, not just the annoying tagalong…
Then the silver haired renegade Rudie had kicked her in the face, stolen the ball and took off, leaving Ai lying there in the dust, blood pouring from the slash down her head like water from a broken pipe.
She sobbed again - her whole body jerked and a ribbon of coagulated blood slid from her forehead to rest on her eyelashes. She rubbed it away with a shaking hand.
She sat up and examined her skates, feeling a slightly unreasonable need to make sure they weren't broken – after all, she was bleeding like a stuck pig.. As she stared at them, newly formed tears blurring her vision, a tiny clump of pink-red hair drifted downward to lie on them, leaving a little track of scarlet; a vision of a sharp skate flying toward her forehead hit her and she bit back a sob as the pain spiked.
"Ai!" Her eyes widened and filled with tears as she heard Glister's rough, smoke-ruined voice tearing through the air at her. She was in for it now...
"You gonna sit there and blubber all night?" The other Love Shocker crouched down to her level and prodded her on the arm; her claw-like nails dug in and Ai bit her lip.
"N-no," she tried to say defiantly, but it came out as a whimper. Glister sniggered.
"Well, come on. You've got tagging practise to do," the older girl singsonged, before taking off into the night.
Ai got up, a little unsteadily. She'd go back and try again. And again - and she'd keep trying until eventually, Pearl kicked her out or she ran away. Her only saving grace was her skating skills - or she'd really be screwed.
Ai laughed shakily. No; she'd been screwed for a long time.
Look Here - By AngryScientist - G Rated
((I was a bit surprised to be asked to put this on here, but I'm happy to, so here it is. By AngryScientist, but my picky self has picked through it a bit – sorry, sweetie!))
"And then – and then – and then…they-…..they said-," Rhyth whiningly babbled, as she crunched a tear soaked and rather rough tissue into her eyes which had already turned a well established shade of red from all the rubbing and crying.
"It's okay, Rhyth," said Gum, embracing her friend. As heartfelt as it was or how much it may or may not have meant to her, such attempts to calm Rhyth down when she was having an emotional outburst were purely futile. This event was no different.
"And they said, they said…they don't wanna see me in 99th Street again or they'll hurt me more!!!" Rhyth burst. It was really loud too, and almost all of the GGs who were in the Garage (and maybe a little beyond) heard her.
This was nearly all of them, and they gathered around Rhyth, who was sitting, legs splayed, on the floor, bawling her eyes out, Gum valiantly trying to calm her down and restore order.
Noticing the absence of both Cube and Yoyo, Rhyth glared for an instant, but this melted back into tears and histrionics as she noticed the attention she was getting.
The scene was familiar, so some of the GGs then began to grumble. Yeah, it was typical Rhyth, alright. However, they knew that if they left, she would cry even more, and they just couldn't stand hearing her moans and bellowing all night long.
"What happened, Rhyth?" asked Beat.
Rhyth sobbed once, loudly drawing in breath, before letting out as the loudest cry yet – Beat clapped his hands over his ears almost comically and snarled at her, but the young girl didn't hear or see it over her own hysterics.
That was the only response she could give. When she was telling a story, no matter how disjointed or how badly she told it, she did not like to be interrupted, and crying louder always shut people up.
This last cry attracted the rather belated attention of Cube and Yoyo, who pushed their way to the front of the crowd – Cube elbowed Clutch in the gut when he wouldn't move, and the resulting argument caused enough interest to make Rhyth think she was being forgotten. Another screech from her (this one sounding remarkably like how most people imagine a banshee to sound like) quickly sorted that out.
Cube, who often got pretty impatient with Rhyth at the best of times, mimed hitting the girl to Gum, who gave her a 'not now!' glare. Yoyo simply huffed at the distraction from his Game Boy.
"And then, they…they, and then they, and then, and they…" Rhyth began, as soon as she was sure she had the undivided attention of everyone in the area.
"God, Rhyth! What else?" Gum asked with a flustered tone, getting frustrated and impatient with Rhyth, who was becoming increasingly difficult to talk with.
Rhyth instantly screamed again, and the GGs who had leaned forward slightly to hear what she was so upset about jumped back.
"Okay, okay!" Gum babbled quickly, holding her arms out in a placating gesture – then she said, in a little calmer manner, "Rhyth, what else happened?"
"They, they, kicked me…and- and- and-," Rhyth said.
"And what?" urged Gum.
"And it hurt!" Rhyth spat.
Gum rolled her eyes. Why did Rhyth always have to do this? It was so annoying! Can't Rhyth cope like a normal human being, instead of telling the whole world how bad she felt like she was from planet Whine-a-lot?
As if Rhyth heard Gum thinking, she then said, "But why should I tell you guys all this? You all think I'm annoying and you don't care one bit!"
This made all the GGs suddenly feel guilty, as they did feel that, and Rhyth knew it well too. Gum felt it especially, but she had to say something
"That's not true, Rhyth. We care for you!" Gum declared.
Rhyth's tears, whines, and bawling all stopped. "Really?" she asked meekly.
"Yes," said Gum.
"Is it true?" Rhyth asked, glaring at all of her companions.
All of the GGs nervously replied with either a 'yes', or 'yep', or 'sure', or even, 'that's right'.
"Awww, really?" Rhyth said, flattered, as she lifted her arms closer to her heart.
The GGs gave a collective nod.
"Aww, I love you!" Rhyth said, giving the closer person, being Gum, a tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.
If there's one thing she loved, it was attention. It didn't really matter that Rapid 99 had hurt her earlier, because she never felt hurt when some attention came her way.
