The girl soon realized that the red-haired boy had been telling the truth about his place being nearby and also that they were in the slums of the city. She kept her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he piggy backed her up the three sets of stairs until he came to a door that read 'C 6'. He knelt down so she could climb off his back, which she instantly did. He fumbled around his cargo shorts pockets until he pulled out a single silver key and unlocked the apartment. Sticking his head into the unit he called out, "Killer?"

'Killer? What?! Who names their son 'killer'? That's a weird name,' she thought to herself. Not hearing any response and seeing that his brother's shoes were gone, he entered the apartment and glanced back at her, signaling with his head for her to follow him in. She did indeed follow him in and was shook by what she saw. The dining table looked like it was once a patio table and the chairs were the collapsible kind you'd use at a barbeque.

The kitchen cabinets were noticeably old, she likened them to her grandfather's and the same with the countertop. There was a gas stove, and an old refrigerator that had paint chipping away from it.

She glanced into the living room seeing an old beat down couch she was sure came off of Craig's list. It had multiple stains, one of which looked to be ketchup or something similar. There was no TV, but an acer laptop did rest on coffee table by the couch.

Kid scowled, feeling as if she was judging everything she saw, he waited silently for a few minutes. When she was still silent, he bristled and snapped, "he does his best. Our parents died in a drive by almost two years ago. It was completely unexpected, and it's been rough since then. His focus isn't on decorating the apartment nice it's keeping me fed and clothed."

She looked to him, her steel grey eyes blinking as she calmly replied, "I never said anything? And honestly it seems like he has his priorities right."

At this he seemed to relax, realizing then that she hadn't been critiquing the furniture but had maybe been trying to figure out a way to breach the topic without coming off as mean. He rubbed the back of his neck while mumbling about getting the coffee.

He went into the kitchen and grabbed an old fashioned black, metal kettle off the countertop. He opened the lid and ran the water from the tap into the kettle.

She wordlessly sat at the table and asked, "so—you never told me your name."

"Neither did you, Pip," He pointed out as he put the lid back on the kettle and set it on the burner, turning the flame on underneath it.

"Well, it isn't Pip or Pipsqueak, it's Nia," she revealed.

"Everyone calls me 'Kid'," he offered as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

"That makes you sound like a child," Nia commented, wrinkling her nose. He chuckled a little at her expression, commenting that she looked like a rabbit.

Nia crossed her arms and asked, "So what name is on your birth certificate?"

Kid raised an eyebrow, "Oh, we're getting that personal, huh? Okay—when you tell me one thing: what's Nia short for?"

She rolled her eyes before mumbling under her breath.

Kid moved his head a little closer, and turned his head so his ear was facing her as he pushed, "didn't catch that?"

"I said 'Virginia'. You can imagine why I prefer 'Nia'," she repeated.

A smile crept across Kid's lips as he remarked, "I can imagine you get a lot of virgin jokes."

This was met by her rolling her steel coloured eyes at him and demanding, "your turn. It can't be worse than 'Virgin-ia'."

"Christopher," Kid admitted. He scratched his cheek while adding, "and my brother is Killian. So, he goes by 'Killer'."

"Okay Killer from Killian, I get- but how do you get 'Kid' from 'Christopher'? Still- it's a nice name," she commented.

"Thanks, I guess? I dunno. It's not exactly religious like it's in the bible or anything but it does have 'Christ' in it, and Christ knows I'm not a believer," Kid responded, shrugging his shoulders at the start and finishing off with an attempted joke.

He didn't know why he was cracking jokes, he just felt like it and went with the whim. Nia smiled a little until the kettle began to whistle, signaling that the water had boiled.

He turned off the flame and poured the water into a cup, asking what she wanted in her coffee.

"Umm, sugar and milk?"

'Okay, I think we have that,' Kid thought to himself as he got the milk out of the fridge but found no sugar. He did however find honey.

"Is honey okay? Unfortunately, we're out of sugar," he asked.

"Yeah, that's okay just umm two squeezes, I guess?"

'At least she isn't picky,' he thought to himself as he squeezed the honey bottle twice. He stirred the contents of the cup before taking it over to her and a cup of peppermint tea for himself. She thanked him as she took the cup from him.

He nodded a little as he sat across from her and sipped the tea. It wasn't his favourite beverage, nor even his favourite flavour but it was a hot beverage on a hot day, and ironically the heat would help him sweat which would ultimately help him cool down.

"I didn't see you at school last year," Nia mentioned. He realized she was just trying to make conversation and decided to indulge her.

"Well, if you live on the other side of town that'd be one reason," Kid pointed out.

Nia shook her head 'no', "I don't actually. My Grandpa's friend does—and I'm supposed to stay with him tonight. I don't really want to. He's kind weird. But Grandpa has to work so—I got nobody else I could stay with."

"Your Grandpa, what about your parents?" he asked before realizing the irony of him asking something like that.

"My mom got sick a few years ago and she didn't get better… my dad—well—he couldn't cope. So, my grandpa stepped in and got custody of me. He's a fire battalion chief, " she answered.

"I'm sorry. I know that whole raw deal can be tough," Kid sympathized as his eyes became focused on the hot green liquid in his mug.

Nia nodded, "Yeah, I know you do."

Kid nodded again and asked, "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," was the immediate answer. Kid gave a soft laugh while answering, "that explains it. You're in Junior High, and I'm not. I'm fifteen. Tenth grade next year."

The blonde quickly agreed, "Oh, yeah, I guess that does explain it. But I'll be fourteen before school starts and I'm starting in high school, so I might see you around, I guess?"

"Maybe—if so, we could hang out at lunch—if you're going to New World High, I mean," Kid suggested.

Nia nodded as she drank down some more coffee and admitted, "I'd like that."

Kid messed around with his phone a bit and asked, "what do you mean your grandpa's friend is 'weird'?"

"I might be just reading into it more than I should," Nia replied, waving off the question.

"I'm a guy. Let me judge that," Kid insisted.

Nia shrugged her shoulders a little and began listing the things about her grandfather's friend that bothered her, "he tends to comment on how I'm filling out – and I don't know I just feel creepy. It makes my skin crawl."

'Interesting choice of words,' Kid thought to himself.

"I'm gonna need to hear it verbatim and I can tell you if it's weird or not," Kid pressed.

"Let's see that'd be 'you're filling out nicely, Nia.' 'You're going to make a good wife for a lucky man one day.' 'Too bad I'm not younger.' 'I'd date you if I could…'"

Kid had been taking a sip of his tea and upon hearing the last two ended up spitting out the tea, choking, coughing and sputtering. His blood was now boiling. He wanted to find this old geezer and break his jaw.

"What?! Uhh—yeah that's… That's not okay," Kid replied, shaking his head from side to side.

"I didn't think so, but I can't be alone at the house. The neighbour usually lets me stay with her but she's away on vacation right now," Nia replied.

'Shit… well- there's my room. I could crash out in the living room with Killer tonight if we had to. There's enough steak for us all to eat tonight too. Hmm,' Kid thought to himself as he began messing with his phone and sent a text off to Killer explaining the situation.

He'd already punched a Celestial Dragon in the face earlier today, so as far as he was concerned, he was walking around with a target sign on his back no matter what. Their members didn't take lightly to one of their own getting injured, no matter why it happened. So why not sink himself in a bit deeper and get ostracized by the fire battalion chief?

Killer's reply came quickly with: Yeah sure. See if you can get her grandpa's number from her—I'll talk to him myself. There's some money in the cookie jar in the cabinet above the fridge, should be enough for you guys to get some eggs and pancake mix, and still have enough left over incase an emergency comes up. I don't care if you guys end up needing to use all of it as long as it's a necessity.

Kid looked to Nia and asked, "Well—there might be another option. How do you feel about staying here tonight, if your grandpa's okay with it? Fair warning though, my brother works late, and I work from eight to noon tomorrow. So, there might be some time when you're kinda fending for yourself here."

"Umm I never met you before today? I doubt my grandpa has. I don't know how he'd feel about it. I'm okay with it I mean if you wanted to hurt me you probably would have by now," Nia admitted.

"Tell me his number, I'll give it to Killer, and he'll talk to your grandpa," Kid offered.