Suddenly, Anybodys was dragged out of his conflicted contemplations of Ice and Bernardo's deaths and his and Maria's plan to leave all the stagnancy and needless violence that had led to them behind by the sound of light, steady footsteps.

They were familiar to him, somehow, even with how little time Maria had been in his life, the day that felt more like a year with everything that had happened and the effect she had on his perception of time, and reassuring like she was.

He still wasn't completely okay with the idea of giving up on his long held and longed for goal of getting his rightful position in the Jets back, his grip on that dream and their grip on his psyche would probably never fully fade, but he felt them loosen a little as his girl who was thankfully still his girl even after he had killed her brother audibly closed the distance between them.

...Right, he would have to tell her that Bernardo killed Ice and that was why he had done it.

That would make him look better if anything, but she probably wouldn't enjoy learning that her brother had been involved in the perpetuation of the fighting between their groups that they had tried to fight against in such a huge way as taking someone's life.

Maria passed by his hideout spot behind the gate near Doc's shop, looking around and then peering into it like she had successfully guessed about where he was but couldn't see him while he had skillfully obscured himself in a cluster of shadows, and he opened the gate.

She looked at him with relief and affection that was heart wrenching in a good way, and Anybodys returned her genuine but still grief ridden smile and gestured for her to join him.

Maria was about to say something, but quickly stopped and looked around a little alarmedly, probably making sure that Chino wasn't gonna spring out from an alley and try and avenge Bernardo with a bullet to Anybodys' head or something, even though he would be able to get back to the safety of his old frenemy the shadows in no time if that happened.

Satisfied, she entered his hideout, looking around a little with interest as he gently grabbed her by the arm, gesturing with his head for them to go further into it where they wouldn't be overheard by any gun bearing vengeance seekers before leading the way.

She smoothly slid her arm up so that she was clasping his hand instead as she followed him, flustering him possibly even more than the first time she had done that despite the circumstances or maybe partially because of them.

They reached the far end of the space, where the already scarce moon and star and street lamp light from outside barely penetrated.

Maria sat down carefully, deliberately, like she was trying to not mess up her dress, and Anybodys quickly slid down the wall to the floor after, not really caring if his jeans met with a little more grime.

He could barely make out her face in this light, and the sharp shadows highlighting her nicely soft and strong features mixed with his anxiety and guilt from his killing of Bernardo that had only been hours that felt like years ago.

She had been so angry with him when she had first seen him after the fact, rightfully so, and she still didn't know about the extenuating, at least a little exonerating circumstances, that Bernardo had...

"Bernardo killed Ice! That was why I killed 'im. Ice was one a the only Jets who supported me, he always said he'd let me back in the gang if he became leader, and I just... I was so angry. I still am, I guess, but not at him, at everything around us that lead to that."

He felt strangely like the full magnitude of what had happened, what he had lost and what he had done, was only descending on him now, after he had acknowledged just how much of the circumstances of his and Maria's lives had contributed to those needless deaths and with how she was looking at him sympathetically now.

Everything around them really had led to Ice and Bernardo's deaths; the Jets and Sharks becoming more and more hatefully intertwined with each other every passing day, closing in closer and closer on each other but never close enough to realize their similarities and the banal sameness of the circumstances keeping them down somehow, the tension mounting further and further until the reaching of the boiling point and resulting explosion and fallout was an inevitability.

Was it really in his and Maria's power to escape the stagnant violence of gang life, when their efforts to fight and stop it had failed, when it colored every aspect of their existence on the cruel, uncaring streets of Manhattan?

Ice had tried to fight it for real once in his life and died because of it, and Tony had managed to escape it for a decent amount of time that was long enough to have surprised everyone who knew him, but Riff had finally worn him down and dragged him back in, and his efforts to fight it had failed too...

Anybodys would normally never doubt his ability to overcome a challenge, or Maria's, but he had just given up on his longest lasting challenge of getting back into the Jets, the one that had meant the most to him until this new one of escaping the toxic cesspool of the guys who were supposed to be their friends and allies but weren't really with her so they could build a better life with a stable, reliable foundation had unexpectedly presented itself to him.

He had dreamed of being back in the gang with Ice as the leader instead of that stupid fucker Riff for so long...

Maria moved from the opposite side of his hideout as him to sit beside him instead, closing the already small distance between them and not bothering with her dress as much this time.

She pressed against his side a little, holding and squeezing his hand supportively.

"We'll get away from it all, then, and make something better together. I know we can."

Anybodys met her affectionate, understanding gaze instead of just looking ahead at the wall she had been sitting against before as if it was a proxy for that future of theirs, suddenly finding himself almost instinctively blinking hard at this tangible support with some real weight behind it, that he hadn't enjoyed with many people before her, usually the opposite, in fact, that felt so nice to know would be reliable like the person who so freely gave it to him and who he supported in turn, that was just as dependable as the strenuousness of the suffocatingly tense circumstances they were going to escape from together but in a good way.

Ah fuck, he usually didn't get mist in his eyes like this, even with how intense and volatile his emotions got especially with the toying most of the Jets did with them, because he was usually so almost instinctively determined to avoid any sign of weakness and effeminateness that they could mock him for and hold over his head forever like the plague.

Of course Maria could bring mist to his eyes, though, when she had put stars in them.

Anybodys was still trying to fight it back, even though he trusted her to not put him through that or think less of him for it, because he was supposed to be the strong one, the one she could rely on for support and protection.

He was supposed to be the one who came up and carried through with a plan to provide her, provide them with a nice life free of all this shit that had led to them hiding near Doc's shop, trying to avoid being detected by the guy who was out looking for him and planning on killing him.

Doc... taking out a loan from him to get out of here might work, he had always gotten along okay with him, Anybodys had talked with him a few times while he and... and Ice had been hanging out at his shop reading the latest Batman comics.

The only time he had taken something from his shop without paying had been... wow, that had only been yesterday... even though he was really good at anything that involved doing stuff without being detected, and he hadn't noticed and thus wouldn't be counting that against him.

Anybodys tried to tell Maria this newly formulated plan of his and quickly got tongue tied for one of the first times in his life as she gently cupped his cheek with her hand, wiping away a... oh, he hadn't fully succeeded in blinking back the tears, that was fantastic...

He poured himself into beating the rest of them back before smoothly cupping her cheek with his hand as well, having to take up a renewed fight against them that... mostly succeeded as she leaned in to his touch and smiled softly, supportively, non judgmentally at him.

Suddenly, a flash of slightly subdued but still excited realization crossed her beautiful face.

"Oh, we should talk to Doc! I'm sure he'll be willing to help us!"

Anybodys expected to be angry with himself for not stepping up to the plate that was supposed to be in his proper domain and proposing a plan before her, but he wasn't, really, just awed and excited that she had come up with the same one as him.

That just showed how surprisingly in sync they were, how well they worked together in a way that Anybodys hadn't thought existed in the realm of romantic relationships until her lips had first met his and hadn't existed for him in the realm of platonic relationships very often.

They were making what normally never worked, especially in surroundings so antagonistic and non conductive to relationships that weren't majorly negative in some way whether through outright hostility to those in the artificial outgroup or enablement and enforcement of that bitterness within the ingroup, work for themselves, so clearly they were doing something right.

Anybodys returned her smile, answering her hastily before leaning in to kiss her.

"I'm sure he will, and after that it'll be smooth sailing for us. We'll make it that way if we have to."