But she was still a little girl and it hurt a lot. It still took her a while to stop trying to cover the bump on her head, and she couldn't quite stop the tears streaming down her grubby cheeks. It wasn't all because of the strike though.
Part of it came from being pushed away yet again as had happened many times before. The catgirl got taken care of and was well fed, but the wolfgirl had to make due with what she could scavange and steal, and usually found her way to be full of nasty people with things to hit her with. It wasn't fair, and she knew that she was always going to be shunned like that.
As she came over to a canal, she knelt by the water and looked at her reflection, sniffling at the sight of what seperated her from most girls.
"Hey..," came a voice from behind her, "Are ya okay?"
Twirling around, she found herself looking at the boy from earlier. "What do you want?"
"To see how ya were doin'. Ya looked pretty bad."
"So what?"
"So..," he murmured as he moved carefully to manage to look through her hair before she knew it, "Ya got a nasty bump on your head."
"It's from that mean old lady..."
"I know that."
"Then what do you want to do about it? It's not like it's your head."
"I just wanna make sure that you're okay," the pigtailed boy said as he gave her a slight grin. Reaching into his clothing, he pulled out a ratty old piece of fabric that he soaked in the water of the canal before squeezing it out so it would leak as he put on her injury. "Sorry 'bout all that, but we've been alone for a bit, and those people we just met. I shoulda remembered that we're supposed ta set up places and times for challenges, and if I did, ya might not have gotten hit by her."
"It's okay..," she admitted grudgingly, "You didn't know that she would hit me..."
"I shoulda. I've seen it happen, and have had it happen ta me plenty of times."
"You have?"
"Yup. Been on a trainin' trip with my Pop, and some folks don't take to people wanderin' around like us," he replied and moved to use the cloth to wipe her cheeks. "There ya go. Gotta try ta clean up a pretty face like yours, right?"
Her eyes widened. "You think I'm pretty?"
"Well... yeah. Why not?"
"Ummm... I... I don't care."
He shrugged. "If ya say so. Still, I'm really sorry about all that."
"I said..."
"Rrrranma!" called out a new voice.
Ranma turned to it and smiled as he saw a familiar shape coming up to him. "Hotaru!"
"Hi! What happened?"
"She..," he began and looked to find the wolfgirl gone. "She left..."
"She was herrre?" The catgirl gave a slight sniff. "She was..."
"'Cept she ain't now."
"What do we do now?"
"I'd like ta go after her again and find her, only... I don't think she wants ta be found."
"So... no go afterrr herrr?"
"Nah. I ain't about ta force her ta make friends," he replied with a sigh, "'Sides, she could be anywhere by now. We can only hope ta see her again later."
"Then we go?"
"Yup. Let's go..."
Reluctantly, Ranma led his friend away, and wondered if he'd see the other girl again, but thought it unlikely, as she could have been kilometers away by then.
However, Makoto was much closer than that, and was watching him leave. She hadn't wanted to confront the catgirl again, and decided that it'd be best if she kept apart for the moment. Yet, as she saw the other girl, a plan formulated in her mind. She decided then and there that she would get that human's affection from the kitty. He was so nice and kind that she wanted that for herself, and the only way that she knew to get it would be like how she got everything else she needed, which was by taking it.
Still, she needed time to plan out how to win his affection, and so she couldn't go running after him.
Following would work though, and so she did so at a distance while:
(Posted Thu, 22 Apr 2004 22:35)
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