A Marvel's Runaways Fanfiction.

Chapter 11: Briar

   I stand in front of the bathroom mirror trying to work the tangled knots out of my hair before I go to bed. It's already around 11 p.m. Nico, Karolina, Chase, Victor, and I watched Jurrasic Park since it was on after the younger ones went back to bed. I feel... too comfortable. They've welcomed me like one of thier own after I was a bitch to them like, a few hours ago. It's putting me on edge, then again it seems that's where I'm always hanging out. I sigh trying to expel my irrational throughts of them stabbing me in the back... or vice versa.
   "Hey." The goth girl, Nico, yeah that's her name, leans against the bathroom door frame.
   I freeze, then I decide to stop because the postion makes me look submissive... And stupid. "Thank you. I mean for, you know, saving my butt." I choke out. I don't know why I'm so afraid of this girl, maybe she gives me an inferiority complex. Honestly, it wouldn't be the first time.
   "That's what we're here for. If you don't mind me asking though, what were to doing at a Shell in the middle of the day in the middle of nowhere with a backpack?" She asks.
   I sigh. "Tragic backstory time I'm guessing I say pulling my hair into a ponytail. My clothes are still dripping wet.
   "Everyone around here has one, you're no stranger." She says like she's bored, or tired of carrying her own story like it's one of those chains prisoners have attached to their ankles holding them back.
   "Except I am."
   "Whatever." She says perching on the side of the bathtub like a slender black raven.
   I purse my lips and push myself up onto the bathroom countertop. "I grew up on the streets, like just about every other tragic orphan. Rasied by a gang. Turned 15 and got tired of robbing so I left. Being alone is harder than you think, or at least I think." I stop and swallow then I pull up my still wet sweatshirt to reval a scar on my stomach. "Thought I could take on the world, turned out I couldn't. Ended up getting picked up by some thugs. Not a gang
More like drug dealers. They'd bought a... thing."
   Arsenic pops up on my shoulder. "I am not a thing. I am a who. We are a who."
   "Let me finish the story!"
   "Fine."
   She stays out resting on my shoulder.
    "They'd gotten her from who the hell knows where, but where afraid of relasing her 'cuz they thought she'd kill them all or something."
   "Which was accurate." Explains Ari.
   "They thought they'd release her on my first, ya know, to see what'd happen. Turns out we could bond, which is rare and something those dumbasses never thought could even happen, so naturally we both used this new connection to escape."
   "And we've together even since. B is too good a host to pass up."
   "Oh shut up Ari, I know you love me."
   "Oookay." Says Nico. "So no standing deals or relations with any of these people. Nobody's going to come after you?"
   "Not to my knowledge."
   "Ok." Nico says walking out, leaving me on the counter.
   "I like her." Says Ari. "Would make a nice host too..."
   I roll my eyes. I've known Arsenic long enough now to be able to tell her threats are meaningless. She slides under my skin again. Contrary to what you might think, it's actually a comforting feeling. It's feeling that reminds someone will always have your back. Ari and I need eachother. To survive, but more importantly, to live.