—𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙄𝘼!

❛❛ 𝙄 𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐, 𝘽𝙐𝙏 𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙏𝙊 𝙂𝙊. ❜❜

~ ☂︎︎ ~

"𝙄 𝙏𝙊𝙇𝘿 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙄𝙏 wasn't going to work Luther."

"That doesn't mean I couldn't have tried," he protested. "We should've stayed in Dallas. Instead, we wasted a week traveling to Toronto only for your self-esteem to be shattered by Dad, who, by the way, doesn't even know who you are," I said. I was annoyed with him, like I always was. But now he had to hold up his end of the bargain.

"You told me that if this didn't work, we would be heading straight back to Dallas," I stated. "I guess it's back to begging on the streets." I began to walk away from the not-yet Academy, Luther trailing behind me.

It took a couple of days, but we eventually had enough money for a bus fare back to Dallas. As we were about to board the bus, the driver stopped us.

"Hey, I recognize you! You're the kind girl from last week," he recalled. "Yes I am, sir," I smiled at him. "I wanted to thank you for that tip. I was able to buy something nice for my wife," he said. "If it's not too much, I would be happy to let y'all ride for free. My boss doesn't have to know," he winked at us.

"That would be wonderful," I responded. Luther and I arrived in Dallas, now with some extra cash because of the kindness of the bus driver. We started asking around to see if we could find the rest of our family, but to no avail.

One day, Luther and I were walking down the street when someone pulled me into an alleyway. I could've easily fought him off but Luther had already stepped in and knocked him out with a single punch. I huffed. "You know I could have handled him, but thank you." He nodded. "Now we should go before this looks a little too...shady."

We began to walk away when a man stopped us. I was ready to fight but he didn't look like he wanted to attack us. He pointed to Luther.

"That was a fast knock out. You lookin' for a job?"

~ ☂︎︎ ~

𝙒𝙀 𝙃𝘼𝘿 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙉 working for Jack Ruby for about two weeks. Working as in Luther learning how to fight for show, and me standing in the corner watching it all go down. It started to get boring, but at least we had housing and a little money. Ruby was quick to bribe Luther with care so he would work for him.

Watching another boring fight, I noticed a girl standing in the corner of the room. I had never seen her before. She seemed to be about my age, and she looked bored with the fight too. I didn't realize I had been staring until she looked up and waved at me. I tried to look away but something about her drew me in. I walked over to her.

"Hi," I began. "I'm-"

"(Y/N). I heard. I never miss any of the news here. I'm Maria Ruby," she held out her hand for a handshake. "Ruby? As in Mr. Ruby?" I questioned. She sighed. "Yeah. He's not that special though. Just has enough connections." I shook her hand.

"So, how did you wind up here, (Y/N)?"

~ ☂︎︎ ~

"𝙃𝙀𝙔, 𝙄𝙎 𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙄𝘼 here?"

"Am I supposed to know where the little girl is?"

"She's your boss's daughter." He only rolled his eyes. "I'm sure she snuck out some time ago. Maybe check that diner." I nodded and turned away, running into Mr. Ruby. "Oh! Hi Mr. Ru-"

"I thought I told your brother I don't want to see you again." I gave him a confused look. "What?"

"He completely botched that fight. I can't have my best fighter giving up, it's terrible for business," he explained. "Ok then. I just wanted to ask if you've seen your daughter?" He scanned the room and shrugged. "She's probably at that diner again. Always goes there now that you aren't here to gossip with her or whatever." I thanked him and walked to diner, which wasn't too far from the ring.

I opened the door and received a few looks. I did look a little rushed. "(Y/N)!" I heard a voice shout. I turned and saw Maria coming towards me. "Hey!" Before she could say anything else, I pulled her outside and hugged her tightly. "Oh. This is...unexpected. But nice," she said, hugging me back tightly.

"I know this is a little abrupt, but do you wanna hang out for the next..." I paused to check my watch. "45 minutes?" She looked at me weirdly but nodded. "I'm not exactly prepared, but I'm sure I can whip up something."

"Prepared? What do you mean by prepared?" I asked. "Well, I was trying to get a picnic or something together before you had to leave, but it's fine. It was a stu-"

"No! No, let's have a picnic. I can order something from here while you grab a blanket?" I suggested. She smiled at me and ran off to grab it. Once we had all of our supplies in order, we found a nearby park and ate our food.

Even though I knew I had to rush, it was nice to just sit down and talk with her. I hadn't really been able to do it with all the stress these past few days. We were laughing about something stupid when I interrupted.

"Maria, I just wanted to say thank you. I've had the best time being your friend. When I came here, I never expected to experience what I have. You're just so kind and daring. I wouldn't change anything we've done together. And Maria, this...this is my last goodbye. I'm sorry. I'm leaving, and I don't think I'm going to be coming back. I love you, but I have to go."

Ignoring the rest of my speech, Maria only seemed to be focused in on three words. "You love me?" She repeated. "I uh, yeah. Yeah, I do. It's taken some people to convince me, but yeah. I do." Her smile grew so big, like I've never seen it before.

And then she kissed me.

Maria just kissed me. It didn't process in my brain, but her lips were making contact with mine. Once I realized what was going on, I pulled away and leaned back.

"I-Wow-That was-"

"That was what I wanted to tell you."

"What?"

"The last time I saw you, when I said I had to tell you something. I wanted to say that I love you...or like you. I'm not exactly sure, I guess they're just some sort of romantic feelings." She gazed at me and tried to lean in again. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I going too fast or?"

"No, no. It's nothing like that. It's just...I don't love you...like that. I mean, I do love you, but in more of a sisterly way. And my siblings have told me I've been oblivious to your feelings. I guess I should've told you differently, but now everything is out there."

We sat in silence. No, not the comfortable silence, the most awkward kind imaginable.

"I should-"

"If you're-"

"Oh, you go first," I insisted. "I was going to say, if you're never coming back, at least I got to have my first kiss. And even though you don't return my feelings, I'm glad it was with you," she smiled at me. I stood up and hugged her tightly. "I'm going to miss you so much," I mumbled into her shoulder. "I'm being sappy, but at least you have the memories," she muttered back. I checked my watch. I had about 15 minutes left. "I should get going now."

We looked at each other and hugged tighter. "Thank you, Maria. For everything." She didn't say anything back, she just held me for as long as she could. I waved at her as I walked farther and farther away from the park.

It hurts, but it was the right thing to do.

~ ☂︎︎ ~

𝙄 𝙈𝘼𝘿𝙀 𝙈𝙔 way back the the alley as quickly as possible. When I arrived, I heard Luther and Five talking.

"Where is everyone?"

"You're the first," Five said, sarcastically appalled. "What?" Luther exclaimed. "Yeah." I ran in and stood next to Five. "Hey! I'm here." I huffed, it was a bit of a walk from the park.

"How did it go?" Five asked. "With Maria?" He nodded. "Um...well. I had a proper goodbye." I decided to keep the kiss to myself. Soon enough, Klaus came stumbling in after me.

"We made it!" He shouted. "What do you mean we?" I watched as Klaus tried to push a spirit out of his body. Ben? They struggled for a bit longer. Five and Luther were obviously confused but I saw Ben trying to stay in. Finally, Klaus hunched over and puked all over the floor, Ben coming out with it. I shuddered in disgust.

"I can't believe it. I mean, you're here."

"We've got eight minutes left."

Klaus fell to the floor. "I just had the strangest dream." I went to go check on him. "Where are the others?!" Five shouted. We stood there for a couple more minutes.

"We've got a minute left," Luther said, hitting the dumpster. "What's going on, guys? Are we going somewhere?" Klaus asked, voice hoarse. I was still trying to help him get back up.

"It was a simple task. It was a simple task!" Five was pacing back and forth. "All we had to do was be here. Didn't have to fight a giant sea monster, no. An army of mutants? Nein!"

"I can't believe this," Luther muttered. "It was handed to us in a silver platter," Five continued. "Could you moan a little softer? My head is killing me," Klaus complained. "Listen to me, you useless puke bag, we just blew our chance to save the world!" He shouted at him.

"Hey! Calm down! I'm sure they're coming," I looked down the alleyway, but saw no one. I heard clicking noises from the briefcase. Five scoffed. "God damn it."

"Shit."

Five chucked the briefcase in the air and it disappeared, along with any hope of getting back to 2019.

"We were that close. That close."

—𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀!

Don't me...just casually

watching the SMP

Jackbox stream while

lol. wasn't distracted

at while finishing .

Sorry this chapter is , and

quite , a little bad. My

"improv" writing are a

bit off. , I have been making

a server for all of you.

If you wanna join, be posting

the link next week. So,

me for updates :)