Forums » General Roleplay » How did she get here? (1x1)

Natalia had noticed which room he went into before taking her shower and gently pushed it open, "Nero?" she whispered and peered around his room. Even with all 8 of her siblings and herself, they couldn't get a room to be this clean, but Nero managed to do it on his own... It didn't seem like he had a lot of just stuff though.
She took a deep breath of the air in the room and found the scent to be very... Appealing to say the least. It didn't take her more than a few seconds to realize the boy was asleep and she backed away and looked around for paper and a pencil. Upon findin some, she wrote him a little thank you note.
"Thank you very much Nearo," it said, since she had no idea how to spell his name, "I owe you. Enjoy your nap" and she finished by drawing a little smiley face at the bottom then folded it and silently tiptoed into his room, which wasn't too hard since her paw pads barely made a sound at all on a hard surface. The hybrid set the not on his pillow then grabbed her dress and silently left.

Nero woke up a few hours later to the sound of his sister entering the house. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and noticed a note on his pillow and opened it up. He read the note, and realized that he had dozed off when she was taking a shower. Nero scratched the back of his head, not knowing if it was rude or not, he surely didn't want to offend her. He got up and redressed into clothes that were appropriate for working out, he had a vast supply of those. He walked outside and ran his usual route before coming home and doing various other exercises. He took a shower and headed straight to bed once more. Nero awoke to his loud and annoying alarm clock, waking up and putting his usual wear on he walked down stairs, grabbed an apple, and started to head for school. He arrived at school and was walking down the hallway, heading for his classroom.

Natalia was at her locker but seemed more... Holed up than usual. Out of the corner of her left eye she spotted Nero and she turned forcing a smile at him, "H-hey... Thanks again," she said weakly. When she turned it revealed that her right eye was so black and bruised that it could be seen even through her fur. It was swollen shut too, but no teacher seemed to have noticed yet, that or they didn't care. Natalia was willing to get on the latter.
She rushed off to class, her short claws skittering against the tile floors as she went, trying her best to keep her head down.

Nero turned to Natalia and gave a small smile saying, "You're...", he was caught of guard when he saw her bruised eye, and a look of concern, confusion, and shock was drawn over his face, "...Welcome". Before he could stop her she ran off to her class, Nero wanted to stop her but didn't, he would have a word with her at lunch. He walked to his locker and grabbed his wallet stuffing it into his back pocket and grabbed some of his books. Like usual he walked over to his seat and looked out the window, eventually his classmates came in like usual but slightly less rowdy. Nero caught some of them staring at him, each time he would turn his head to look they would quickly shift their gaze to something else. It kind of made him slightly agitated. He waited patiently for the lunch bell to ring as he went through the classes lesson.

Natalia was sitting alone at lunch again that day, but it didn't really look like she had anything to eat. Usually she had a paper bag with a sandwhich, a yogurt and a piece of fruit but all that was in front of her today was a single string cheese wrapper which was now empty. Her arms were folded on the table and she was hiding her face in them. The boys from the day before looked a little bit regretful. Yeah, they were trying to make her cry but they hadn't wanted her to get physically hurt and they knew it was their fault.

Nero let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang for lunch, he was fairly hungry, and was the first out the door. He walked into the cafeteria to see Natalia sitting alone like usual, but this time she looked like she had no food. Nero went through the lunch line and bought enough to feed two, easily paying the bill. He walked over to Natalia and sat down beside her, gently placing the tray down onto the table. He turned to her and asked, "You hungry?" he said, taking a bite off a large slice of pizza and sliding one on a plate to her, along with fries, carrots, and a carton of milk. Nero was going to question her, but right now she looked like she needed to eat.

The girl blushed bright red, "Y-you...? You got me food?" she looked at him in disbelief, "But... Why?" she asked. Still, age didn't want to wait for him to change his mind and bit into the pizza. She let out a happy growl as the warm food hit her tongue. It tasted fantastic.

Nero felt like he didn't need to answer her question, especially since she began to eat. He felt happy that he could provide her nourishment, she certainly looked like she needed it. What worried him though was the fact that she had a black eye, he cursed himself mentally thinking that he should have walked her home. If only he hadn't fallen asleep, nevertheless, he finished eating his food and waited for Natalia to do the same. After only a few short moments of silence he looked to her, and asked, "What happened....Who did that to you?", he asked as casually as he could, they still had plenty of time during their lunch break.

Over the course of the day, the swelling had subsided, thanks to a wolf girl who had been kind enough to give her an ice pack, and her eye had at least opened.
She looked down in shame when asked that question and a low whimper escaped her lips, "M-my foster mother... When she saw my dress and told her where I got the other clothes, she got really mad at me..." she whispered and tears came to her eyes, "My foster father... He got mad because I made her mad and he almost ripped my dorsal fin off..." she took a half bite out of her pizza. She was wearing the same clothes that he had given her except the shirt now had a hole in the back for the fin to stick out and it was covered in dried blood around the base where the man had dug his claws in.

Nero didn't want Natalia to cry, that would especially make him feel bad, but he felt even worse when he heard the rest of the story, if he hadn't helped her none of this would have happened. He looked at Natalia's back and saw the dried blood on the fin. A silent rage began to burn within Nero, his fist was clenched hard and his eyebrows slanted, but it subsided after a few moments. He wasn't a push over, he won the high school boxing championship last year, even against other species considered to be stronger than humans, and was probably going to this year without a hassle....And that wasn't even the greatest thing he has accomplished. He fights in other places as well that isn't all that legal, but he wasn't going to hurt anyone, it would only make things worse. Natalia's parents were not fit to raise anyone, and he really questioned whether or not she should even stay with them any longer, he was going to have a talk with his mom about this. He turned to look at Natalia, and said quietly, "You're not going back to your place today....", he didn't care for the consequences, in fact he was probably doing the right thing. She was going to stay over at his place for the night, or longer depending on how the situation is handled. No one was going to be treated like that when he was around, especially his friends.

She blushed again, "B-but they said if I don't come straight home... Then I'll be in more trouble," she looked at him fearfully, "I can't... They'll hurt me," she shook her head and looked down at the food. She felt sick now but at the same time she was starving and she continued to eat.

Nero quickly responded, "Whose to say they won't hurt you when you return?", he said with slight agitation. He took a deep breathe and sighed, "Natalia....No ones going to hurt you...I promise", he felt like he was being slightly intrusive though and tried to think it over. He thought about it for a moment before saying, "Natalia....I know that if you stay at my place...Nothing will happen to you...You could even get better parents, but if you go back, something like this will happen again and you will be hurt further more, a nice and pretty girl like you doesn't need that", he let out another deep sigh, "But it's up to you..."

Her entire face turned bright red when he said that last bit, "Y-you think that... That I'm pretty?" she said doubtfully and looked back at her pizza, "You don't mean that... Please don't lie to me," she said quietly, "I-I want to go with you, honest, but I can't... As long as I listen to them I won't get hurt..." she finished off her pizza slice then began eating the carrots.

Nero did mean what he said, but he would be too embarrassed to say it again, it was the spur of the moment thing. He didn't want her to go back, thinking it was just a bad idea, and she was only further hurting herself. "Natalia, you need to stop doing that....It won't be okay, you'll get hurt again, and next time you might get your dorsal fin torn off", Nero shook his head. "No, for your own well-being I can't let you go home, just for tonight, and I talk to my mother she works for the city", Nero clearly had his mind made up, he wasn't going to let her hurt herself, she was too afraid to think for herself. He honestly thought that this was the best decision.

She whimpered and shook her head, "N-no! I need to go home!" she protested though it was obvious she wanted to go with him. He was right too, it would be better if she went with him, but if she went home, she'd probably get hurt no more than usual, just the occasional mocking from her siblings.

Nero looked at her for a few moments his expression one of full concern. He wasn't going to drag Natalia away kicking and screaming. He just stared at her for a few moments, trying to understand why. After a few moments he nodded, and gave out a weak, "Okay....", there wasn't much he could do. He looked at her dorsal fin again and said, "If you don't get that properly cleaned it's going to get infected".

"I can go to the nurse... She might help me," the hybrid said quietly, "Thank you for buying my lunch..." she gave him a hesitant hug, "And thank you for caring... It means a lot," she whispered and then threw out the now empty disposable tray and milk carton then left the lunch room, even though the period still wasn't technically over.

Nero tensed up when she hugged him, not used to other people touching him other than throwing punches at him. He watched walk out of the cafeteria before he got up and headed back to class early. The rest of the day went by slowly and he couldn't concentrate on any of his assignments but he pulled through. Today the clouds blotted out the sun with a dark grey, it was going to rain soon. The bell rang signalling the end of the school day and he got up and walked down the hall to put his books away, he stood by his locker looking around for Natalia.

Her heavyy, furry shark tail would catch his eyes just as it disappeared around a corner. She was headed for the exit and for home, several books held tightly to her chest and her ratty, holey back pack on one shoulder so it didn't crush her already injured fin.

Nero quickly ran out of the exit and up next to her, he didn't think it would be best to walk her the whole way home. Her parents would probably get angry. He didn't say anything as he walked on next to her, but his mind was racing with thoughts.