Classified || 2 || ✔️ mature

13 | Andromeda

MONTHS EARLIER

Danger slithers along the outskirts of the room, whispering dark desires to susceptible patrons.

I sit against the bar, my hands folded delicately in front of me, hood pulled up to cover my hair and low to shield my eyes.

At a normal bar, the look would raise suspicion, but here? Here I blend in.

Cheer erupts across the crowd as the glass door slides open, a small body entering the glass box, knuckles dusted with cuts and hands wrapped in a dirty strip of cloth.

The girl stands still in the face of her opponent, back straight, her green gaze cutting through the mans.

I watch my sister lift a hand to her lips, her face so much older then I remember it being.

When her hand drops, her opponent charges. His bulky body wraps around hers but Noah uses it to her advantage, moving swiftly on nimble feet, her eyes tracking his movements.

My heart climbs it's way slowly up my throat as I watch the fight, watch the child I walked away from fight for her own survival.

I swallow the anxiety filling me, feeling the sweat begin at my nape as the first spray of blood splatters the glass wall, Noah's face already swelling.

I drum my fingers on the tabletop, counting down the minutes.

• • •

I slip from the stool as her body moves through the crowd, a grin on her split lips, blood coating her chin.

Her small body looks frail close up, collarbones protruding form bruised flesh, her cheeks gaunt.

I step in dorky of her when she moves beside me, her green eyes flicking up to mine, surprise then betrayal crossing her delicate features. 

"Noah." I hold out a hand before dropping it, watching as she takes a step back.

Her lips lift in a snarl, green eyes darkening. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you."

Noah face twists into a scowl, and she spits at my feet, her fourteen year old body shaking with unspent rage.

"I don't want to see you." She snarls. "Fuck off, right back to where you came from."

I lift a hand, reaching for her. "Noah-"

She wrenches back, gritted teeth bared, blood stained. "You left." She mutters harshly. "You are the one that left. You don't get to come back into my life."

I scoff, looking around the less then perfect establishment we're in. "This life you've built for yourself is a tragedy, Noah. You don't want this for yourself."

"You don't know what I want!" She hisses. "You lost the privilege of knowing when you left me behind. When you ran off."

"I came back." I whisper, thinking of that day all those years again when I'd gone back for her but she wasn't there anymore. And neither was our father.

"You were too late." Noah says what I'm thinking, her expression fierce. "So just leave me alone."

"I can care for you now. I have the funds. The means to look after you where I didn't before."