Ch: 23 Stray

Time skip: 1 year

The streets of Mantle were a pitiful place. If you didn't see some poor sap begging for money that no one down there could spare, you would see a snow covered pile of trash or some kind of illicit activity taking place. If you couldn't tell it was a shithole.

down these pathetic streets you could see a woman in a long brown coat. It was possible to tell she was a woman due to the fairly lithe frame that the coat was trying to hide.

A sight such as this was rather common in Mantle so no one cared to pay attention which is exactly what she hoped for.

The women walked at a brisk pace knowing exactly what streets to turn down to avoid the most amount of people.

Finally the woman seemed to reach her destination. It was an old wooden building that loud voices filed out of, filling the dreary and otherwise silent streets with the noises of happy drunk people, above the old building was a sign 'Cheshire Inn'.

The woman reached out to grab the door handle but the door violently flew open knocking her back slightly. Out of the door two very visibly drunk men walk out laughing at some joke the bald one on the left said.

The man on the right bumped right into the woman , making her take a slight step back and lift her head, the man looks up before sluring out. "Hey! Watch where you're goi-." The man freezes upon seeing her face, it was a face that many within Atlas and by conjunction Mantle would recognise, Maru Arktis the single most wanted criminal in the entirety of Solitas.

The man's companion who continued on his way finally noticed that his friend had stopped and was staring at Maru. "Oi dipshit hurry the fuck up we got another bar to hit."

The man still stood frozen in fear. Before starting to make her way into the Inn whilst pulling her hood down, Maru shot him a glare that said for him to not tell anyone.

Inside the Inn Maru made her way towards the bar, she sat at a stool next to a young man in a green cloak.

putting money on the counter she asked the bartender. "Hatter ale in the biggest mug you got." she turned to the young man with a sigh and a sad smile. "It's hard to believe it's been a year already isn't it".

The young man who was already cradling a drink looked up at her with tired silver eyes. "I know it doesn't feel right." He took a sip. "Thanks for being here Maru. I know you didn't know her long but it means a lot and I know how hard it is for you to move around right now."

Maru lets out a small guilty sounding laugh. "I see you as a friend Orion and i'll do anything for a friend and I still can't believe that those Atlas bastards pinned every bit of damage in that fucking compound on me, I mean it works out for the better but people are telling stories about me like i'm the boogeyman or some shit."

Orion laughs slightly at her exasperated tone as she receives her drink from the bartender before downing it and ordering another. "You gotta be quieter or someone's gonna call for the guards."

Maru snorts after downing another mug of ale. "Like they could do shit to me."

The young wolf faunus just sighed at his friend. "That's beside the point you know I can't get caught."

"You could always just join the fang. We will always have a home for ya."

He just sighed this was a conversation that came up every time they met and she always got the same answer. "Again I can't you and your lot are way too out in the open and i've met some of the quieter people and they are assholes."

Maru snorts to herself thinking about a specific bull Faunus. "I knew you would say no but it's one of the conditions for Sienna to allow me outside to meet ya so I had to at least ask." She downed another mug.

Orion watches this and sighed to himself. "You know each of those is like three drinks right."

She glared at him and sculled another in defiance. "Shut up, you ain't my mother." She was starting to slur her words slightly. "And besides I got a curfew so I need to enjoy this whilst I can."

He sighed into his hand. "Fine, fine, calm down, don't draw attention that we both don't want."

She clicked her tongue. "You're such a wuss."

"You and I both know I have very good reasons to be cautious."

Maru looked away. "I still can't believe that silver eye magic mumbo jumbo is real."

"You know I showed it to you right." He asked in a slight mocking tone.

"Shut up, you glorified flashlight."

The two sat in slight silence before laughing out loud. After they finished laughing Maru stood up and stretched slightly. "I know it's early but I gotta go or Sienna's gonna think I'm dead, so one last toast?" She holds up her mug with a smile.

Orion smiled back and lifted his own mug. "For Thalia my best friend."

They clinked their mugs together and said in unison. "For Thalia." They both downed the contents of their mugs.

Maru gave Orion a sad and guilty smile as she walked out the door.

___

A/N okay so this is a bit of a shorter chapter so sorry but the next one is longer and the one before was also pretty long compaired to every thing else so yeah anyway I hope you enjoyed if you have any suggestions, questions or ideas on how to make this better do tell.

Btw the name of the chapter will make more sense next chapter.

And power stones are apreaciated thx:)