October of 2014.

Her hand is clenched roughly by her side as she stands in the entry way of her own home, her own living room open vastly in front of her; if only slightly to the right. The sixteen year old girl’s mother cranes her neck back over the couch and scrunches her nose the way she does when she's pissed off, but doesn't want to show it. The sixteen year old girl’s father, who stood up the moment she walked in, didn't make any movements or noises, just stood up and stared at her with piercing blue eyes.

Right, so this is what happened;

Miki and Brooke got the last bus last night, which came as a shock to the both of them. They got on the bus, and then thought they made it back to town of Morris- where Brooke aunt lives. They arrive in the city Downersgrove instead. Miki doesn't fully remember the entire ride, but she knows that's what must have happened- as they some how made it to Brooke's mom’s house.

"Why are we here?" Miki questioned through a haze as she stumbled back to look up at the trailer in front of them. Brooke turned her head to look up at Miki in confusion then turned to look back at the front door of her home.

"So that's why the bus ride was longer." Brooke mumbled, mainly to herself, and then laughed sheepishly with her cheeks gone rosy, home knows where the heart is she supposes... and she's still a little intoxicated. Miki had gave a wide smile, and they went and knocked. Brooke's mother was never anything but loving and kind, as per usual. Brooke herself wasn't even staying at home at this point, as she was meant to be staying at her aunt’s house in Morris. It was a decision she made to be closer to Miki ever since she was transferred to Steinstill’s school for troubled teens. Despite that fact, her mother didn't question why Brooke, or even Brooke accompanied by Miki, was at her door nearly twelve o'clock in the morning. Didn't question why Miki had no shirt on, although she did give the girl a very concerned, maybe confused, look.

A sweet woman with the name of Karen Kelly, who Miki Miya loves with her entire being; so dearly, not only for the acts of graciousness she's shown to Miki, but just for who she is as a person. Also maybe for giving the world Brooke, because if Miki had to say, she made one fine looking girl. Brooke would definitely smack her for saying that, but it was only the truth.

Miki had ended up staying the night, kind of. They immediately went up to Brooke's stuffy unused room and collapsed on the small bed together. It smelt only a little stale from lack of use. Miki started giggling into the pillow right next to where Brooke's head was, and Brooke was huffing to push the rest of Miki's body off of herself and onto the bed so the girl could lay down next to her instead of on top of her.

That's how it always was, Miki would sleep by the wall and Brooke on the open edge of the bed. It was very opposite to their personalities if you thought about it. Miki was a girl to always be ready to flee, and Brooke was always ready to find a box to hide in. She wasn’t a complete coward, only somewhat of one. It just showed how much trust Miki held in Brooke. She was fine being trapped by Brooke. She was fine if she had no where to go, had no way out, as long as Brooke was there.

Miki kicked off her shoes in the process of sliding her away across Brooke like a snake. The footwear clattered on the floor as the girl flopped over onto her side to face her girlfriend, brushing messy blue hair out of her way and laying her head in the crook of Brookes neck; she for sure smelled like party sweat and alcohol, but Miki threw her arm over the girl’s torso and nuzzled closer, giving a noise of content. Brooke hummed in softly in reply, shifting closer into her hold and closing her eyes.

"Do you want a shirt?" She mumbles to her ceiling, which is plastered in the glow in the dark stars Miki got for her years ago. Miki breathes out, leaving a puff of warm air to cover the entire top of Brooke's chest just as she was reaching with a lanky arm down for the folded throw blanket at the end of her always made bed. Miki grunted as their position switched momentarily, Brooke's shoulder was jabbing into the under of her chin and into her throat.

"No," She says irritably; the words mumbled through grit teeth- sounding only slightly choked out, "I'll just steal one from you before I go." Brooke smiled at that while Miki layed them back into their original position, Miki's leg was still tremoring against Brooke’s own as she laid the fluffy white blanket over them.

"Are you cold?" Brooke asks quietly as Miki cuddles closer against her body. "No." The other grunts again and Brooke can't help but smile fondly at her grumpy attitude. She shoved her arm up and under Miki’s head so the other could lay on her bicep and then brought her hand down to tangle it through Miki's long locks. Brooke closed her eyes again and she was content.

 

Miki did in fact steal a shirt, but it was one of the many shirts of her own that she's left on accident, forgotten clothes that have found a drawer of their own at the bottom of Brooke’s dresser. They fell asleep together at the same time, but Miki jolted awake three; nearly four hours later. Before the sun even started to ride. She untangled herself sadly from the loving hold of Brooke, just wishing she could stay there forever. Miki knew she couldn't though. She slid the random black shirt she pulled out from the dresser- which was labeled as hers now from how many times she'd left her clothes here. The girl ran a hand through her messy red hair and looked for her phone. She slipped her shoes on and grabbed her new, albeit busted, helmet and her phone that was conveniently sitting inside of it; waiting for her with a lot of missed called and angry messages. She sighs quietly.

Picking it out and sliding it into her pocket, she turned around and walked over to Brooke's sleeping form. Miki fixed the part of the blanket she nudged off of Brooke when getting out of bed and then leaned down to give the other a fat smooch against her cheek. Brooke's face scrunched in discomfort as she rolled over onto her side and clutched her blanket. Miki chuckled, bringing her free hand up to pet Brooke's hair.

“Love you.” Miki whispers knowing that the sleeping beauty can’t hear her.
Satisfied, the girl stood up and made her way out of Brooke's trailer. It was a gorgeous home, truly one you'd see in movies. A cottage home with a white picket fence; one of those. Though it doesn't have a white picket fence; and its not on a hilltop or set in a flower field. Just a regular one story house with a pretty porch and great interior design located in a small neighborhood trailer park. It wasn't anything special. Especially in comparison to the gated, coequal, high-end suburbs Miki comes from. The ones for extremely well off people. Brooke’s home was probably low-end compared to Miki’s own, but Miki preferred it to hers. One could argue it's because Brooke was there; but Miki's house had quart flooring that echoed every step you took. It's opened four flooring entry stairway also echoed, echoed every word as if you were standing in the middle of nowhere. It made her paranoid on top of it feeling empty, and lonely. Brooke's house was filled with life; and memories... and Brooke. Also Karen.

She loves the Kelly family.

In the dark of morning, Miki scowls on the side of the road as the dirt crumbles under her shoes. She crosses her arms over herself in irritation, broken helmet between her chest and arms. It then dawns on the girl that she doesn't even have a way to get inside her house. Great. She'd have to wait until around seven in the morning when her Dad is up for business calls. Miki pulls her phone out, it was 4:52am. She huffs. The walk is a lengthy one, it will take her maybe an hour, give or take some. That leaves her with two to maybe three hours of nothing.... Miki shoves her phone into her pocket with frustration and clenches the helmet that she’s holding. Well, now what?

Miki looks around the dark, dimly lit streets. She figures by the time she gets to the area she lives in, some coffee shops and fast food businesses will be open. So, with that knowledge, she continues forward. The girl was exhausted, but also felt like she didn't even need to rest her eyes.

She stayed at a random coffee shop, a twenty-four hour one. Arrived around six, and sat on her phone for a while; texting Brooke funny photos and pictures of stuff outside. Miki ordered a water, and sipped at it till she realized it was now almost eight in the morning. She grinned, not even noticing the pass of time and left a dollar tip sitting under sweating wet cup that she didn’t finish. She should have finished the water. Miki grabbed her items and left the building with no time to spare. Miki was really nervous about getting home, she knew what was coming and didn't want to deal with it.

Everyone must deal with the consequences to their actions though, no matter how big, no matter how small.

--

There were guests over, in her living room. Everyone was dressed nicely; while Miki on the other hand was lucky enough she even found the courage to put a shirt on- instead of just walking home in her bra. The look on her parents faces were no good sign, but Miki is grateful for the save of the company. They can’t yell at her when they have an image to uphold.

"Miki." Her mother greets with piercing eyes, her face quickly contorting into something fake, yet stone. A fake smile appearing as she reaches her arm up to tuck empty orange hair behind her ear, said arm is heavy appareled with sparkly bracelets and a thick costly watch. An earring catches light and shines. "Welcome home, you must be tired from working all night."

The woman's voice is clipped, but she turns away and reaches for her cup on the glass coffee table in front of her. Miki tenses at the lie and she wants to roll her eyes. Working, for sure. Working to have more fun of a life. Her dad hasn't said anything, the man is just staring at her, silent, his lips are pulled in a grimace. He's not wearing a readable expression, so she doesn't even focus on him.

"Yeah..." Miki's voice is raw, she swallows. "So I'm going to go wash up and rest. I have homework I need to catch up on as well." She nods her head a little and starts to make her way to the left side of the entry way so she can climb the spacious staircase. Miki doesn't wait to listen to what her mom says, she doesn't even look back to see. She's halfway up the steps when she hears their chatter resume, and her shoulders relax as does her pace. Miki tilts her head over the banister and sees that both her parents have sat back down- Her father, Bentley, pouring himself a drink and laughing at something one of their wealthy guests have said.

Scowling, Miki rushes up to her bedroom. She doesn't waste time as she shuts the door and locks it behind her. She's lucky and spoiled to have a bathroom conjoined inside her room. Perks of being the kid of a rich family she presumes- maybe also being the oldest child. She tosses her helmet on top of her dresser then kicks her shoes of, she doesn't even bother changing as she flops herself on her double bed and curls into her blanket. Miki quickly falls asleep, nearly passing out, feeling a headache start to pulse her head.

-

The nap wasn't all that peaceful, eventually being interrupted by rapid bangs on her door. She frowns as she pulls herself awake. The suns shining differently, showing hours have went by but yet it only felt like a few minutes. Said headache from a while ago only worsened with rest, her vision blurry with pain. Miki groans in irritation, running a hand through her hair and scratching her head with her sharp nails.

"Miki, unlock this door. We need to have a talk." Is what she hears from her mother, the woman's voice muffled by the door, accompanied by the doorknob jangling. Miki grunts.

"Okay. I’ll be out." is all she says, slowly and slurred from sleep yet loud enough for the other to hear her. Miki sits on the edge of her bed and waits until she hears the familiar clicking of her mothers shoes echoing away. She moves her hand to rub at her eyes as she pulls herself out of bed and drags herself to her bathroom; in search of pain pills mostly. She achieves her goal and looks at herself in the mirror. She looks a mess. Personally, she doesn't care. However, she figures it'd be better if she goes down there looking somewhat presentable. Miki splashes her face with water, and combs her hair out- the two locks of shorter hair poking out of the side of her head accompanied by her usual cowlick propped up right on top, it makes her hair still look messy. She strips her shorts from last night off and throws them onto the floor, leaving them there and walking out of her bathroom in search for some new clean clothes.

Eventually, Miki settles on ripped blacked jeans (her usual), her Mary jane's, and a hoodie that belongs to none other than Brooke. She figures since she will be seeing her later today again; she'll give it back. It's Brooke's favorite sweater, dark gray in the middle plus the hood with the sleeves color blocked into tan. She was still wearing the black shirt from Brooke’s.

Her mom knocked at her door again, startling her. "Miki!" she spins around in irritation and practically stomps over to unlock and open her door. Her mother barges in before Miki even has the door fully open, knocking her back a bit. "What is taking you so long?!" She demands.

Camilla Miya is probably a good woman at heart, at least at one point in her life she was. To Miki, she simply isn’t. She's selfish, materialistic, loves her wealth and presents herself as if that’s all she is. Like it makes her actually worth anything though. Miki sneers at her mother’s snobbish tone. Most would say its teenage angst, Miki argues she was born into the wrong household. That's fine, sometimes you're born into a family that doesn't feel as if it's your own and you have to go find your real family yourself. Sometimes you have to go and find the people that love you and nurture you and grow with you. Family is a word, it isn't a set term. It isn't branded onto certain people just because they are given to you and banded by blood.

"I was getting dressed." Miki says with a sniff, standing straight and clenching her fingers onto the door frame hard. Camilla crosses her arms, shoulders set straight, and sticks her nose up at the mess that is Miki's room as she walks in.

"Where were you last night?" Her mother demands as she spins around on the spot where she stands after surveying the room, her tiger green eyes piercing through Miki as she stalks up slowly to stand in front of her daughter once more. Camilla is a lengthy girl, very slender and sharp at every corner. Much like Miki, but the elder holds more elegance. She's like a mosaic art piece while Miki is but a shattered church window.

"You have a curfew for a reason, you know that? You break every single rule that we give you."

Miki tenses her body, letting go of the door and staring down slightly at her mother since she stands slightly over the woman, her mary-jane shoes giving her an additional boost in height. Miki swallows, "I missed the bus." is all she says as she moves around her mother to walk over to her bed-side, picking up her phone that is laid abandoned on it. Her mother follows every movement Miki makes by gaze, not uncrossing her arm; nor untensing her shoulders.

While her mother starts to tell her to put the phone down and explain what she means, Miki opens text chat messages with her friend Felix;

 

-------
-yesterday 4:37pm-
-Felix -

If you make a right after that turn and keep walking, you'll find it eventually.
-------

- today 12:14pm -
- Miya -

come pikc me up @ my house
--------

 

Sighing as she looked up at her mother, she threw her phone back onto the bed- ignoring the typos in her message. "I stayed late-"

Camilla cuts her off, "Not for detention, clearly. They gave me a call." Miki grits her teeth.

"Yes, I skipped detention." She doesn't lie on that, "I stayed late to help someone finish their project that's due, you know Lucrene? From the dorms, the girl I was going to room with?” Miki says the words lowly, her brows furrowed as she tries to hold off her attitude.

Her mother looks suspicious, "I don't care what you were doing, or who you were with." She says with finality, and Miki lets out a breath of air. The redhead turns around to pick up her backpack, then realizes she left it at Brooke's and mentally curses herself. She turns around to face her mother again, and looks around for any spare bags she might have laying around. She sees the checkered one she uses when she used to sneak out, through her window, to meet up with Brooke at the park in the middle of town at night.

"You're grounded." Camilla says, her tone sharp. She steps forward to grab for Miki's phone but Miki notices her movements and dives at the bed so she can snatch it faster, sliding it into her pocket quickly and sneering at her mother.

"Hand it over, Miki."

"No."

Camilla brings a hand up to rub at her face in stress, Miki plucks her charger out of the wall and then childishly crawls over her bed to get around her mother. She walks over and picks up the bag she spotted earlier,

"Do you always, always have to be this difficult!" The tone is tired, and exhausted. "We set you a curfew, you skip it. That was all we asked of you!"

Miki scowls, "That's such a lie! You moved me away from all my friends, for no good reason!"

Her mother finally drops her arms, clenching her fists at her side and clenching her teeth, "You got expelled! You were also running all around town, getting involved in criminal stuff, Miki!” There’s a pause, an intake of breath, “You deserved it." Camilla practically sneers the words under her breath, Miki can feel the frustration coming from her mother as the woman stands up straight, cooling herself off.

"Phone now."

Miki grips the bag in her hands and walks over to her dresser, opening the drawer roughly and grabs random items of clothing and shoves them inside the bag. Camilla throws her hands up in the air. "What?" Her mother asks, mostly scoffs, "You're going to run away again?"

Miki throws her charger into the bag, and then struggles with the old broken zipper to get it shut. "Maybe I am." She says haughty, and her mother clicks her tongue in reply and then huffs a laugh. Miki narrows her eyes and slings the bag over her shoulders, it didn’t close fully but she decided that she doesn’t give a shit. She shifts her blue eyes to look at her mother, who looks back through green.

"Okay." Camilla says in what is blatant disgust. "Go ahead, leave and when you get back, because you will be back, your consequences will be over ten times worse, girl."

All but shrugging in reply, Miki shakes her head. She bites her tongue, taking the out her mother gives her before her father comes to join the commotion. She makes steps to get around the wall that is her mother,

"If only you we're more like Ena, or even just a little like Flynn." Camilla sneers, and Miki stops in place. Her mother turns to walk past her. "You'd be so much more treasured."

A pause in the woman’s movements, “And easier to deal with.”

Watching her walk down the hallway, Miki clenches her fists and grits her teeth at being compared to her younger twin siblings. As if they are so great. Flynn’s a little kiss ass suck up and Ena-Susie is a quiet, shy, naive girl. Her jaw is set tightly as she pulls her phone out of her pocket, throwing an arm behind her to close her bedroom door without looking.

------
- today 12:16pm -
- Felix -

Why?

- today 12:22pm -
- miya -

i need a ride
-------

She holds her phone tightly in her hand, clenching her grip to the point where its painful in her grip as she makes her way down to the front of her house as quickly as possible. If this were a cartoon, there'd be smoke or steam trailing behind her. But this isn't so she's left to deal with it seething inside of her. Her phone buzzes;

-------
- today 12:21pm -
- felix -

Okay, but it's not free. I’m no taxi. I'll be there shortly.
-------

Locking her phone screen to black, she steps outside into her vast front yard. Their gardener mowing their lawn catches her attention as she watches him push the machinery. Miki scoffs at the scene, stepping down the porch steps and walks down the pathway, its quite a length just to get out of the yard itself, it’s absurd. She opens and closes the big metal gate behind her, turning around to face the road in front of her while she leans against the gray brick wall as she waits.

He was there shortly, she checked the time and it took him precisely seventeen minutes. Miki knows where Felix lives and it isn't no twenty minute drive. Wonder what he was doing in the area. She huffs as she watches the truck he drives pull up, the truck she hasn't seen or ridden in since she got sent away. Her mothers words weigh heavy on her chest as he makes a u-turn to pull over on the side of the road in front of her, he down the passenger window down and gives her an expected look. She stares at him through the hazy sun- it’s only fall but during mid-day its still warm.

"In!" Is all he shouts, impatient. Miki pushes herself off the brick wall and makes her way to the passenger door. The truck is big, so she uses the handle to pull herself up and into the car. The cool air from the AC blows her hair and he rolls the window up as she closes her door. She turns over to glare at him, her face flushed red under her freckles. Felix gives her an amused look.

"You took fucking forever, jeez!" She complains, jokingly. Seventeen minutes isn’t that long. He steps on the gas and she falls back against the seat, not even fully sitting down yet. Miki grunts as she shifts her body to sit on both legs instead of the side of one and reaches around to grab her seat belt.

"Yeah well, you're never my priority." Felix checks his mirrors, he drives efficiently and smoothly. Just another thing he can rant about being good at. She sighs, and leans back. "Asshole." she just mutters and can see him smirk out of the corner of her eye.

"Going to Brooke's or her aunt’s?" He asks the question he already knows the answer to. "Yup, Brooke’s." Miki states backhandedly, "Got any cigs in here?" She questions,

Felix looks over and eyes her bag, then glares at her and smacks her hand as she starts opening the glove department to shift through the belongings that aren’t hers. "No way, you know this is my dads truck."

"Though, this is for you." He takes the same hand he smacked her with and shoved it into his pocket. He kept his other hand tight on the wheel and his eyes on the empty road as he pulled out two baggies. He chucks them at her. The girl flails, only managing to catch one. She leans down to pick up the other that fell down onto the floor board.

"You're kidding." Miki deadpans. She held the two baggies in her hands; staring at them. One was full of clumpy green and the other full of white dust. She scowls over at the boy, "Oh, so you don't have cigarettes in here but you have illegal drugs."

"Weed's legal now." He pointedly shoots back with a nod and a smirk.

"Yeah, medically. And I didn’t know it came in a white powder form.” Rolling her eyes through sarcasm, “Why'd you give this to me?" She asks, and he looks over and gives a blank stare from rusty eyes. It clicks in Miki's head, "Look you know I don't do that anymore."

"Yeah well the ride wasn't free." Chuckling as he reminds her, "So, do the job. I'll text you the details." Felix finishes with no room for arguing and Miki grunts. She takes the bags of drugs and shoves them in her bag; making sure to bury them below her clothes.

"Whatever." She clicks her tongue, and sets her back down beside her shins and sinks low into the seat, staring out the window. "That's right." Is all he says- which irks the fiery headed girl.

"So do I at least get some of the cut?" She asks after a moment, flicking her gaze to look at him. Felix hums, taking a hand to fix his hair while looking in the mirror. "I'll think about it."

It wasn't a no, so she bites her tongue and she doesn't press on it.

"So sorry I couldn't make it to your guys graduation." She mentions, slightly condescendingly and he grunts, giving her a quick look and then looks back at the road. By ‘your guys’ she means Felix, Rune’s, and Koje’s. They all took summer classes to gather all the credits they needed, and graduated early. One month after their senior year started they graduated, it was an odd time. Miki wasn’t there for it, since she’s at the other school.

"Yeah, heard you're sort of on house arrest. You aren't graceful with anything.” He clicks his tongue and shakes his head, “When I said you were the monkey I had no idea I was so right."

Miki snorts at his words, "It's your fault I ended up like this." She accuses, but he scoffs and gives a noise of objection as they pull to a stop light. "You'd of ended up here on your own, maybe even somewhere worse."

She doesn't argue with that, just narrows her eyes at him and then turns her head to look ahead. "Do you have any plans?" Miki asks nonchalantly, reaching over to picks at the rubber on the wheel that adjusts the volume of the radio, he reaches over to smack her hand off.

"Stop messing with everything, you ruin everything you touch." He seethes, checking to make sure she didn't do any damage to his dads precious truck. She scoffs in return to him, then he continues with less bite; "And College soon."

"I'm surprised you didn't go when Rune went." Miki chimes, turning her head to look out the side window rather than through the windshield. He sighs, "Rune had bigger opportunities than me."

Miki nods and snickers at that, "True."

-

The two arrive at the trailer park Brooke’s mom lives in rather quickly, and Miki thanks Felix for the ride. He reminds her about the job he has for her and she closes the car door in his face mid sentence. Felix takes off, the sound of dirt crunching under the car tires sounds out. Miki turns to face the trailer park, and walks through and past the buildings till she arrives at one she knows like the back of her hand. Miki makes her way up the little porch steps with a bounce and knocks lightly on the door. It takes only a minute, but Karen opens the door with a smile on her face, adorned in an apron.

"Oh, Hello Miki!" She greets warmly, unlocking and opening the wooden screen door to let in Miki, "Back so soon?"

Miki gives her a smile, "You know I can't stay away from you guys." She grins a big toothy smile, and Karen laughs. Miki walks in, passing Karen- who is already speedily walking back into the small open kitchen. She calls out behind her to Miki,

"I was just finishing up lunch, would you like me to make you anything?"

It truly was a mercurial feeling to be fed such warm tenderness when she just came from being told she would be better off if she was more like her ten, eleven in about a week, year old brother. She gives the woman a smile, even if she can’t see it, "Yeah sure, I'll take some of whatever you're making, is Brooke in her room?"

Karen looks over her shoulder, "Huh? She’s somewhere around here!" Her voice is cheery and welcoming, it squeezes Miki’s heart- a wave of emotions flooding her senses. The girl makes her way down the small hallway to Brooke's room and opens the door without knocking.

"Mom! I said I'd be out in-" Brooke cuts herself off as she turns around in her chair, sitting in front of her desk and views Miki with wide eyes. Her expression is shock as she fully turns around, but a loving smile is already pulling on her lips.

"I've been looking for that hoodie." Brooke points out as she stands up and Miki walks over- reaching out and grabbing Brooke by the shoulders to pull her into a hug. Brooke’s hands nudge the bag hanging from the others shoulders and pulls back slightly, looking up at Miki with questioning eyes through dark eyelashes.

"Can I stay the night?" Miki questions after a second. She brings her thin and spindly hands to move her girlfriend’s messy blue hair from her face with affection.

"The answer to that is always yes." Brooke lets her know, voice light, "Did something happen?"

Miki's phone buzzes in her pocket but she doesn't budge to look at it. "Nothing out of the ordinary." She gives Brooke a grin and pulls fully out of the other's arms to throw her bag down onto the floor at the foot of Brooke’s bed. She's pulling out her phone charger when an idea hits her. Miki turns to look at the blue haired girl who has sat back down at her desk and is moving to pick back up her pencil to resume what Miki thinks is homework;

"We should go camping!"

Blue hair slides off Brooke's shoulder and down her back when she turns her head with a questioning look towards the taller of the two’s excitement, "Where are we gonna go do that? There’s no campsites nearby." Brooke voices her thoughts, voice traveling across the room to Miki.

The girl makes a noise, it sounds like a whine, "That hardly matters, you have a tent, yeah?" Brooke turns back around to start working on her school work again. "I think so." She mutters under her breath. Miki moves to find an outlet to plug in her phone.

"Then we can go camping." Miki decides, "I'll go ask your mom if she knows where it is." Brooke just barely nods, her attention already taken back to calculus jail as Miki rushes out of the bedroom and down the hall; footsteps thumping as she’s yelling out for Karen’s attention. A small smile finds it’s way on Brooke’s lips.

-

The tent Miki was looking for was acquired and set up with ease. Though apparently it was still way too early in the day to go sit out inside of it. At least that's what Miki complained about. Brooke was confused, and

"Didn't you say you wanted to go camping? Why don't you want to now?"

"Yeah, not in the boiling hot sun. We'll go at night."

It wasn’t that hot, Brooke had mentioned, but Miki waved her off. So they abandoned the tent filled with pillows and blankets in the backyard for a few hours in favor of gathering things for them to do when they did go outside. Miki packed a bag of snacks plus drinks, and Brooke mentioned something about needing light. When the other mentioned a candle Brooke immediately ruled that out; saying Miki will catch the neighborhood on fire and Miki pouted like a sad dog. She went and asked her mom if they had a lantern anywhere, and now the two were out checking the tiny shed on the side of the house looking for it.

"Hey, what are these?" A small pair of dirty and dusty wheels catch Miki's attention as she reaches above Brooke to yank it out- trapping the shorter of the two between herself and the boxes. The pair of four bladed roller skates pull down something with them on their way out; Brooke yelps out in a startled manner, pushing back at Miki’s shoulders to move the two of them out of the falling item’s way.

"My bad." Miki says unapologetically with a snicker. Brooke just glares up at her, using the grasp she had on the lanky girl to shove her away. She looks like she’s pouting and Miki thinks she looks so so cute!

Miki sets down the pair of skates in favor to pick up what she dropped. If she we were at home, she would've left the mess. This was Brooke's house though, and this place was worth her respect. She gather’s the roller skates as Brooke finds the lantern- closing the shed doors behind the two of them and both girls made their way back to the back porch.

"Were these yours?" Miki asks enthusiastically as Brooke sets the lantern on an old dirty fold up table; testing to see if it still lit up and worked.

"Yeah, when I was a kid. Maybe when I was... ten?."

"Cool." Miki breathes out with sparkles in her eyes as she dusts them off. She sits on the equally dirty metal fold up chair propped up next to the table and kicks her shoes off to the side. "There could be spiders in there." Brooke points out, still fiddling with the lantern.

"Nah, I'll crush 'em." Miki mutters, trying to shove her foot in, and Brooke chuckles. "No way those are going to fit on your giant feet." She watches out of the corner of her eye as Miki struggles, it doesn't stop a smirk from pulling on her face as she replies;

"I don't have big feet," A scoff and a pause, "Hey, you know what they say about fellas with big feet?"

Brooke blinks, "That they don't have big brains to match?" she suggests and looks Miki up and down when the other snaps her head up and pauses struggling with the skates to give her a pointed stare. Brooke goes back to looking at the lantern.

"Did you just call me dumb?" Miki asks after it processes, blinking to herself as Brooke ignores her in return; but Miki can see the smirk playing on the girls lips from where she sits. "That's rude, I get better grades than you."

"Sadly." Brooke sighs through her smile- eyebrows creasing as she looks back to Miki with a chuckle. Miki gives her a wolf's grin and giggles back. They laugh together for a second and then pause to steady their breath, Miki blinks;

"Okay baby, come help me put these on."

Brooke laughs more, "They seriously just aren't going to fit."

Eventually Brooke is found kneeling on the concrete in front of Miki, holding the girl’s leg at her ankle, trying to shove it into a shoe that is several sizes too small. They already got one on, so they know its possible. It was a struggle, and Miki isn't sure if her toes will ever work properly again, none the less, if she will ever be able to stand again. Her foot is crushed, it hurt a lot at first but now they just feel numb. It’s a worry for another day. Both of sigh in relief the same time as Miki's other foot finally slides into the roller blade, and Brooke takes the time to tie the laces for her; bunny-ears method just like with the other one.

"Okay, how do you feel?" Brooke asks under a giggle as she stands up and looks down at the small children skates on Miki’s feet, offering hands to the girl who takes them graciously. Miki huffs,

"I don't have feet anymore."

Brook belly laughs at that, tugging Miki up. "Yeah, you have wheels." She steps back to give the girl room. Miki lets out a sharp gasp as she stumbles from being yanked up by the standing girl. Brooke laughs again, "Miki on wheels!" She declares, cackling and Miki snorts. She brings her hands up to Brooke's shoulders, holding on and feeling the giggles shake through the other girl as she steadies her stance. Her body relaxes.

The laughing subsides and Brooke turns Miki around, "Okay so you just... walk, but not walk." Brooke explains, hunching Miki over to talk into her ear like a football coach. The other nods, amusement pulling on her features.

"Okay, yeah sure." Miki agrees, one of her eyebrows move up, "Let me just move without moving." Brooke scowls and shoves her lightly. Miki stumbles and grabs onto Brooke harder. Who finds it funny.

"No, like," The shorter girl pauses to think, "slide?" Miki takes her free hand and brings it to scratch the side of her head, then moves her messy hair from her face. There's a pause of silence.

"Huh?" Miki questions dumbly.

"When you have socks on wood floor." Brooke says seriously, "OH!" Miki exclaims, "I get it now."

The two stand up straight and Miki sways, Brooke tightens her hold on the others arm. "Do you want me to hold you?" Brooke offers, and Miki shakes her head.

"No, Mom, it's okay, I don’t need training wheels anymore." Miki says in the mock of a childs voice and Brooke immediately recoils with a scowl plastered on her face. She makes a noise of annoyance and pushed Miki away some. "Ugh, go ahead and eat shit."

Miki laughs, this time not swaying when Brooke isn't there holding to steady her. She goes to move, her arms out, and she waddles like a penguin which only makes Brooke bust out in laughter. The girl doesn’t move an inch, her legs going forward and backwards in place as her body is tense. The fact that the shoes are way too small make it a bit more difficult. Brooke brings a hand to cover her mouth. "You look like you got a stick up your ass."

Miki swerves around to face the other gracefully, making a smooth turn. "Shut up." She tells her, “I’ll put my stick up your ass.”

There’s a scoff as Brooke rolls her eyes at Miki’s crude comment, “I bet you would.” The girl on wheels grins. Miki does another circle- there isn't much room on the small square of cement, so she can only go so far.

"Oh that was a good one." Brooke tells her, nodding proudly. "Amazing, ten-out-of-ten."

Miki huffs a laugh through her lips as she glides forward in concentration, moving to make a circle around Brooke. "Ridiculous." She states, completing her turn and speeding up; blading away from Brooke, who crosses her arms with raised eyebrows. She wondered where Miki expected to go, really. The girl keeps going straight, right off the square of pavement that makes up the back porch and onto the small side patch of grass. They catch immediately on the greenery and throw Miki forward, she slams into the metal chain-link fence.

Brooke bursts out laughing as Miki stumbles to link her fingers quickly into the mesh holes of the metal before the wheel lets go of the terrain and rolls forward- she loses her grip; falling down flat on her ass. Miki yelped loudly, and then groaned.

"Why are you laughing at my misery?" She questions from the ground, craning her neck back to view Brooke in an upside down manner. Her elbows dig into the cement, but she doesn't care. Miki watches as Brooke approaches with a wide, amused smile. Her girlfriend stops at her side and reaches out a hand out for Miki to grab. "Because you're an idiot."

“I just broke my ass and you’re insulting me.”

She accepts the offered hand and lets herself be pulled up. Brooke reaches up to brush the dirt and stray leaves from Miki's hair, standing on her tip toes for a better view of course. Miki smiles as the gesture, and tips her head down slightly. The sun was basically gone by now, the purple, blues, and dark magenta's of the evening sky getting ready to blur into endless darkness. The stars were starting to become visible- same for the moon, if only very lightly.

"We need to get that lantern working or we're camping in the dark." Brooke tells her, and pecks a kiss to Miki's lips. She then aids her back to the table and chair. Miki has a fight with the skates to get them off, and Brooke eventually finds a working battery to get the lantern actually working. Miki goes inside to get the bag of snacks, and Brooke's mom's iPad which they left to charge. She gets everything ready by the door and Brooke comes in after setting up the lantern out in the tent that they assembled together earlier. The girls change into comfortable pajamas and swiftly pick up their pile of items as they throw open the back door and march to the tent.

 

The grass is soft through the fabric floor of the tent as they press their knees onto it and crawl inside. "Imagine if a crazy storm happened tonight." Miki jokes and Brooke clicks her tongue in distaste. Furrowing her eyebrows and hoping Miki doesn’t jinx it.

"I'd take my stuff and run, leaving you to stay asleep out here and maybe even drown." Brooke states plainly, placing the bag of snacks between the pillows they brought out from earlier.

"You’re so caring!” Miki beams back as she sets the tablet to lean against the bag, facing them as a screen. A tiny movie theater. She grabs their pillows from the sides of the bag and places them flat in front of it. "Get me a bag of candy." Miki demands.

Brooke obliges with no objection, handing a box of gummies over to Miki and grabbing bag of cookies for herself. She grabs two sodas and place them to sit next to the iPad, carefully so they don’t fall over. "We should have made s’mores." Miki whines.

"That would have been nice." Brooke agrees, moving back to plop down on her stomach, propping herself up on her elbows as Miki follows to do the same, already ripping open her candy box with her teeth.

"We're gonna watch Bambi." Miki says proudly, moving her hand on the screen to find the app they use to stream movies. They were far away from Brooke's Wi-Fi so the connection would be a little slow; neither of them minded. Brooke blushes, a wobbly smile fitting to her face; Miki see’s it from the corner of her eye and softly smiles to herself. Brooke hugged the pillow in her arms tighter, she keeps staring at Miki, leaning her head a little bit down so some of her blue hair falls into her face. Miki gets the movie on, but the two have to wait for buffering so Miki pulls back, propping her elbow up on top of her pillow and leaning her head on the palm of her hand, looking Brooke over with her blue eyes.

The two stare in silence, Brooke chuckling a little with her eyebrows raised; still happy from Miki's decision. Bambi was her favorite movie, the fact that Miki took it into consideration makes her heart swell in affection. Continuing to stare, Miki reached up to fix Brooke's hair and then fit her whole palm against the back of the other’s head. A smirk came across Miki's lips and her eyes squinted daringly, she wiggled her eyebrows and Brooke snorted because it wasn’t a smooth guesture,

"Is this the part where we kiss?" She asks, and Brooke rolls her eyes as a reply, moving her head up to press her lips against Miki's and bringing a hand up to cup her face. Miki blew air out of her nose against Brooke's cheek and kissed back. Brooke hums out in delight. It feels like she’s purring and Miki smirks at the vibration. The movie starts playing and Miki pulls back, pressing a wet kiss to the tip of Brooke's nose. Brooke wipes her nose with the back of her hand and moves to pull Miki in for another kiss but the other pulled away, fake offense on her face. Brooke blinked, opening her mouth to ask if she did something wrong.

"Ma'am. The movie has started. Please refrain from talking during it." Miki cuts her off with a huff, raising her eyebrows at Brooke who leans her chin on both of her hands that are propped up by her elbows. Miki continues, "You're bothering the audience."

"Oh, I'm bothering you?" Brooke questions with the roll of her eyes, the intro ads playing on the screen; the light from it illuminating them.

"Oh very much so." Miki narrows her eyes looking down at Brooke, who breathes. "How?" Brooke questions again, and the screen goes dark in loading, leaving them in no light; having turned the lantern off for ambiance when they turned the movie on. "'Cause you get me all hot and bothered, sweets." Miki admits breathlessly, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Brooke’s cheek.

She couldn't see through the darkness, so she missed- her own nose pressing into Brooke's lips as her own lips smooched against Brooke's chin. Miki laughed, and Brooke grunted as she pushed her off. "Sucks to be you," Brooke says, but the screen lights up the tent again and Miki see's the blush is evident on the other's face. "Bambi is more enticing." Brooke speaks through a chuckle. She pops one of her cookies into her mouth.

Miki laughs in return, "Wow, okay, I see how it is." She says as she moves her pillow closer to Brooke’s and shuffles her body so their thighs and arms press against each other's. Brooke smiled through her chews and Miki grabbed her own candy box; picking the one that fell onto the floor and eating it. Brooke shot her a look with her nose scrunched. What? The tent was clean, sort of.

 

The two watch the movie for a bit, eventually Miki leans her head down onto Brooke’s shoulder. Blue hair brushes against Miki’s cheek. "Your hair is soft, do you use Neutrogena?" Miki breathes out with a funny voice, chewing around a gummy and Brooke laughs, one of Miki's favorite sounds. "No, actually its Pantene."

"Wow." Miki says, she already knew the answer, smacking her lips as she chews with a certain level of obnoxiousness, "That's so emotional." Brooke quirks her eyebrows snorts while rolling her eyes, reaching between them to shove at Miki's shoulder.

"Shut up, that doesn't even make sense."

Miki grins, leaning her head down onto the pillow that's halfway under her, and looks up to see little Bambi on the screen. Brooke also settles down, resting her chin on her arms which are folded on her own pillow. Miki hears a cricket at some point which really starts to irritate her, but it's easy to ignore it with her girlfriend lying next to her and her girlfriend's favorite movie playing on a small screen inside of an old small tent in her girlfriend's backyard. It was good.

The two spent the rest of the movie making jokes back and forth, and pointing out characters and calling them each other. Miki threw most of her candy at Brooke who got mad and snatched the box away from Miki who whined in protest. There was only one piece left anyways, the rest scattered around the tent. She spent the rest of the time picking and eating the ones off the ground. Brooke called her disgusting and Miki shrugged in reply, 'you love me anyways'. Which was undeniably true.

They got into a fit of play wresting near the end of the movie, which ended up with them laying horizontal over their makeshift bed. Brooke was laid half on top of Miki with her lower belly between Miki's long legs; which were wrapped up with her ankles hooked behind Brooke's knees. Brooke's head was on Miki's chest under her chin, both of their heads turned to watch the end of the movie as Miki's head was resting on a pillow she dragged over. Brooke reached for the folded blanket and had covered them at some point. Miki took her hand from Brooke's hair and moved it to wrap around the girl in a firm hold.

"You really are Bambi though." Miki mumbles sleepily. Brooke smiles gently. They fall asleep together like that.

They do wake up to mosquitoes in the early morning. Which Miki throws a fit about because how the fuck did they get inside the tent... and isn’t it supposed to be fall?