Glass Heart Casket [Kaede, Sora]

Kaede sat on the ledge of a bridge, her legs curled to her chest, arms tightly wrapped around them as she stared down at the water. The sound of cars grew as they came by, causing the girl to flinch and squeeze her eyes shut, only for them to recede, leaving her in silence once again. Her eyes were red from crying, cheeks dry and raw from rubbing them.

Everything had gone wrong today. It started out okay, she'd left the house to try and do some job hunting. Despite no responses for months from all sorts of places, she still kept trying. As she was walking home, someone had ambushed her from an alleyway and, under gunpoint, was robbed of what little she had. They didn't bother taking the backpack, but they had taken its contents.

She'd thought they'd take her phone, too, but with how outdated it was, all they did was laugh at her. She had been too afraid to try and chase them, so, all she could do was try and start the walk back home over again. As she started to cross the bridge, her phone had gone off, and a small light of hope came. Maybe she'd finally be able to start working.

...Her hopes were quickly dashed as she opened the email. The first response she got, and not only was it a rejection, but they were "moving forward with another candidate." She hadn't been good enough. It wasn't really a surprise -- she never was. In a fit of anger, Kaede had thrown her phone over the side of the bridge. But, regret set in immediately as she frantically looked over to see where it had fallen, to no avail.

So, she sat down on the ledge and cried, eventually coming to a stop, and just stared at the water. She remembered a story from when she was a little younger, of a man who flew close to the sun wearing wax wings, only to fall to the water. From this high up...the...the impact of the water would knock her out first, right?

'I...It's not like anyone would look for me. It wouldn't even show up on the news, either...I'm a nobody. I'm not even good enough for that, anyways...'

Besides...the City of Lights was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She'd eventually just float out there...right? Nobody would find her. She didn't have anything left in her backpack that could identify her, either. Her arms slowly began to loosen from her legs, moving to hold onto the ledge itself...

One of the cars that Kaede was flinching because wasn't a car, but a motorcycle, and it came to a stop about fifty feet away. She probably didn't notice, since there were enough people driving on the bridge that one vehicle was drowned out by the rest. Sora dropped the kickstand and took off his helmet in one quick motion before running over to the bridge where he knew that he saw someone sitting there. Leaning over the railing, he saw her again and the ran up behind her.

Sora hopped once to give him just enough height to lean over the railing. He swiftly swooped his arms under her own and latched on like his life depended on it. Even if she fought, he firmly picked her up and used his own body weight to pull her back over the railing, even if it meant he ended up on his back. Luckily, she was light.

She never thought anyone would waste what was left of the day trying to do anything with her. She was just some nobody on the ledge of a bridge. It's not like anyone who was passing by knew her, or that they'd feel any real guilt toward just walking away. Breathing shakily, her fingers gripped the ledge tightly, her arms trembling lightly as she looked down at the water. She wouldn't even be awake to experience it. It'd be like...going to sleep, and...not waking up.

But, before she had a chance to let go, or even contemplate it further, she suddenly felt someone latch onto her arms. On pure instinct as the adrenaline spiked, she started to scream and flail, trying to kick, punch, and scratch at whatever she could find. She hadn't even realized that the unknown party had pulled her back over the ledge until she finally connected, flinging her body backward to kick the guy square in the jaw and get herself free.

Falling to the concrete of the bridge, Kaede didn't even care how scraped up her arms were, she immediately turned around, scooting away as fast as she could. All thoughts of wanting to throw herself off the edge left as she fought to get away, and, under pure delusional terror, fought to live. Her eyes wide as she looked at the person who saved her, her arms immediately slipped out of the straps of her backpack, clutching the object close.

"What the fuck is your problem, asshole!?"

Sora had expected everything that happened. Women were chaotic; he experienced a lot of that in life. The scratching, punching, kicking… He was fine with it and released her the moment she was on the safe side of the bridge. He let out a grunt as her foot hit his jaw and brought his hand up to make sure it wasn’t broken.

“Are you okay?” Sora asked, three simple words, and ignored her question. He knew there was nothing wrong with him. She was the one on the edge of a bridge. He glanced to her backpack for a moment, noting how tight she held it. It was likely important to her. Getting a better look, he could tell she wasn't the healthiest...

Was she okay?! He asked that after literally dragging her kicking and screaming from the ledge? Kaede just cradled her backpack, only taking a hand off to grab her shirt and wipe her eyes and nose, before quickly going back to glaring at him.

Her feet instinctively shuffled to try and push herself further away, inching closer to the ledge again, but she didn't get up. All she did was push herself into the small corner, ensuring that not only he'd be in sight, but that, on the chance that he had friends, they wouldn't be able to grab her from behind. A hand frantically felt around for a rock, only ending up finding a small pebble, to which she quickly threw at him.

"What do you care!? Leave me alone!"

Tears slowly started to stream down her cheeks as she tried to find another rock to throw at the guy, but ultimately found nothing but dust. She couldn't even succeed in something as simple as this. She couldn't even die right.

Sora blinked as a pebble hit him in the head. It didn't hurt at all... He looked down at it, picked it up, and then flicked it away from both of them. The man stood up from the ground and dusted himself off before stepping closer.

“I asked… I care,” Sora said and then held a hand out to her. Even if he was tall and somewhat imposing, especially compared to what was obviously a frail girl, nothing about his expression would show any aggression. He only looked worried, especially when he saw tears. She looked terrified. “Don’t cry. You’re safe.”

Despite being backed in a corner of her own making, Kaede's eyes widened as the man started to come closer. Her hand digging at the ground became even more frantic, dust, dirt, and even tinier pebbles then before lodging themselves under her nails. Eventually, her hand clamped tightly around a large handful of dirt and dust, squeezing her hand shut tightly.

"Y-You...you don't..."

She tried to lean away from the outstretched hand. She wanted to run, but, with her being on the ground and against a pillar and railing, he'd reach her before she even got to her feet. Those words bounced around in her head, only sounding more and more hollow with each time they repeated in her head. She knew what she wanted to say, so badly. She tried to say it, but that only caused her to panic more, her words getting caught in her throat.

"N...No..."

Just that one word brought a wave of bad memories back, and a new wave of tears. Instinctively, she hid behind her backpack, trembling. The guy was bigger than her, probably stronger than her too. He grabbed and pulled her off the ledge without any real difficulty. Even hiding behind the backpack, Kaede squeezed her eyes shut. She fully expected the pack to be taken away from her, anyway. If she closed her eyes, maybe it would all go by faster.

"Just...Just make it quick..."

Sora kept his hand out for a while, but she kept hiding more. He knelt down next to her, set his hand on her backpack and pressed it down to try and see her face. He did it slow because of how terrified she was, that fear clearly expressed in her tone. He was nervous about trying to help someone like this, but something about her was just… Well, weak. She didn’t come off as a manipulator, more… in need of help.

“I'm Sora,” he introduced himself, a way to break the ice. He kept a calm look, hoping that she would at least gain the courage to tell him her name.

She hated when she was right. She could feel his hand pressing down on the backpack, and, despite every instinct telling her to fight it, she just...let him push it down. It was going to go down regardless. She turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands still gripped one of the arm-straps of the pack like her life depended on it.

"Shut up...I don't care what your name is, just get it over with and leave me alone."

She didn't want to be in this situation. At this point, she didn't even know if she wanted to be on the bridge anymore. She knew -- or, at least thought she knew -- what he wanted from her. She just wanted it to be over so he could leave. Nobody was nice to her without wanting something in return. She hadn't been able to figure out what Ehefra wanted, but, people didn't just pity someone like her.

Sora looked up and down the street before returning his attention to the girl. He was clueless to what she was thinking here. He saw a girl sitting on the ledge of a bridge and pulled her back over before anything stupid could happen. There was some fucked up assumptions happening here, which only made him curious about her past experiences. Clearly, they weren't anything he would consider "good."

“Get what over with?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.