Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Zoe and Rookson(1x1)

(Alright.)
Many Years later
It had been so long since that day, but it was still clear in Zoe's mind. She didn't know then that she would have to deal with so much pain a year later. Her sister Diane graduated high school and went to college, after that, her family fell apart. Her parents were always fighting and her sisters all left her behind one by one as they reached eighteen. She then decided to move in with her grandparents, not being able to handle all the fights anymore. She also had many different friends who would hurt her so she finally decided to close herself up to change everything about her, after the accident. She now had a bandage wrapped around her right arm where the cliff had cut her so deeply, but that wasn't the only thing that changed. Her hair was really short know, some freckles on her cheeks, and she dressed like a guy instead of in girly outfits. She had just dealt with the usual beating she would get from the guys at her school who believed she was a guy, now hidden in the darkness that the alley and night provided her with. She was pretty bruises and beaten up, but she was still able to stand up but only with the help of the wall nearby.

Rookson, had delved into much more darker future than he would expect. He was now a senior in high school, and top of his class. Many people didn't approach him in school though, they were all to afraid of the rumors that went with him, everywhere he goes. He had been changed drastically since that day, physically and mentally. He had become physically strong, his appearance was very, toned, chiseled, and muscular, not overly hulking, but defined and rigid, and he became very tall, towering above most people. His mind had changed to something colder, and rude, he was no longer his happy self, and looked serious or angry most of the time. This was due to him fighting in the underground for money, it was literally life or death when you were in the ring. All though he never really killed anyone, because he wasn't like that, many others could have killed him. His left cheek was nicked by a blade in one fight, and cut into his skin fairly deeply, he had to get it stitched up, and it left a scar, only adding to his rugged appearance. He wore his ring out side of his shirt now, and it dangled freely, hitting his chest when he would run. Rookson still remembers the day that he left Zoe, it is kind of fuzzy for him, and he can't remember much details, but he remembers his promise. Rookson was walking down his gangs alley and was almost near the end when he came across a shadowy figure. The figure was leaning up against the wall, so he thought that maybe someone got stabbed, and was left here to die. He casually walked up to the individual, and said, "Are you alright", he stepped closer to the figure, and light coming from the end of the alley shined, and lit up one side of his face. His wild hair, slanted eyebrows, and deep blue eyes were revealed to the figure. He was much taller than the person he stood in front of.

Zoe didn't look up to see who had came to her, she only hoped that it wasn't those guys again, coming to finish the job. She was surprised to hear them ask if she was alright, making her look up at who it was just light hit him, revealing someone she couldn't believe it was. She didn't know if he could see her clearly or not but her mind had raced back to the last time they spoke, she didn't really think that they would ever meet again. "R-Rookson?" She said in utter shock, forgetting the whole fact that she was now dressed like a guy and didn't look much like a girl anymore. She then started coughing and ended up coughing up some blood but she didn't think much of it. She was really beaten now, it was worse than the rest of the beatings she received. She knew how to stop it from happening but she remembered how her older sister, Diane, told her before leaving home, "Don't end up like our sisters. You don't need to fight, you just need to be yourself." She was still really shocked to see him again, but she could tell that he had dealt with a hard life, if not harder, just like she did.

Rookson could not clearly see her, but he heard the familiar splatter of blood after she finished coughing. The voice sounded feminine to him, but he wasn't sure who she was. He didn't really know any friends of his that were girls, he didn't like the girls that hanged around the gang, and most other normal girls just didn't interest him. He said, "Yeah...That's me...Who are you?", he was slightly confused, but went to the matter at hand. Rookson stepped closer to the figure and said, "Now are you hurt? You didn't get stabbed did you?", he reaches out and grabs at her sides, simply inspecting her, he was very experienced at first-aid, and he didn't mean anything by it but making sure her health was okay. He backed up when he didn't feel any wound, if it was anywhere else but the stomach or sides, she wouldn't had coughed up blood, and she would be dead by now if she was stabbed in the chest or neck. He assumed that she was simply mugged and beaten. He let out a sigh and said, "Follow me, I know a place that you can get cleaned up...", he grabs Zoe's wrist and begins walking down the alley.

Zoe was a little surprised that Rookie hadn't recognized her but she pushed it aside with the fact that she had changed. She blushed a bit when he began checking her for wounds, forgetting to answer his question, but she decided to wait for a better time to say who she really was. "I am just called Z." She said, coughing again but no blood this time. She wasn't expecting him to grab her wrist and stumbled a bit when he began walking. She followed behind him, still shocked that they had met again. She remembered because even though he was colder now, he still had the same wild black hair and blue eyes that she remembered so well. She still had the drawing she drew for class the first day they had met. She had no clue what to say to him, half her mind was telling her to run and the other half was just so confused.

Rookson slowed down a bit when he felt her stumble, and walked at a slightly slower pace. He replied to the female, "Well, Z...I'm Rookson...Or Rookie, Rooks, whatever....You're going to be just fine", He went far down into the alley, and then stopped at a dumpster that was on the right. He looked back at Z and let her rest against the wall, while he pushed the large dumpster out of the way. A door was hidden behind it, and he opened it and walked in. This was a small place that Rookson usually slept in, when he was out late and couldn't get to the orphanage until really late. It was also very close to the school, he would hang around her most of the time, if he wasn't doing gang stuff. Inside was a small room, that had a large well-used sofa, a tv, and table in between the two; one lamp stood on a small table next to the sofa, along with an alarm clock. On the other side of the couch was a small refrigerator with snacks and bottled water in it. Rent was pretty cheap since the place was barely a home. Rookson turned on the lamp, so he could see where he was going, surprisingly the room was fairly clean, and smelled slightly of the woods. The room was fairly dark because it was only light by one lamp, so Rookson still could not make out the figure before him. He walked over to a door and opened up a bathroom, that was decent size, it even had a bathtub. He flipped on the light and brought Z into the room, and let go of her wrist, and began to rummage through a cabinet that had bandages, swabs, and other medical supplies.

Zoe was glad be able to rest a bit, but she wasn't even tried out yet. Even while being beaten to the point of coughing up blood, she still could hold up on her own pretty well. She let out a deep sigh and was surprised when after pushing the dumpster, he grabbed her by the wrist again. Yeah, he has really changed, I wondered what happened to him... she thought, following him without a word. She didn't expect to see him live in such a small room but it did seem like it didn't bother him much. She still stood and leaned against a nearby wall then thought to take off her jacket. She removed the sweatshirt she was wearing, which she had a tank-top on under it, even with so little of breast, it could still be since now that the baggy jacket was off, of course so could the bandage that was still tightly wrapped around her right arm and had a bit of blood on it. It was clear the wound was still fresh with stitches on it as well. She folded her arms over her chest, hoping, even though she knew it was close to impossible, that he didn't notice the bandages.

Rookson finished rummaging through all of the medical supplies, and had rubbing alcohol, bandages, swabs, and thread and needle if needed. As he turned around he said, "This might sting a bit, but you'll look and feel much better...", he was cut off when he turned around to see the figure. At first she looked unfamiliar, but her red hair, now short, and bright brown eyes caught his attention. He set the materials down and stepped towards her, he couldn't put his thumb on it, but somehow he knew this girl, and that she was close to him in some way. "Y-you said your name?....was Z?...", she looked bruised beat up and bloody, it wasn't abnormal for him to see someone in this state, but for some reason he felt a very gut wrenching feeling seeing this person like this. He stepped closer to her again, looking her up and down, "I know you?.....", he remembers something about a promise but he doesn't fully know the details. His scar on his left cheek was visible now, and his stern look changed into curiosity, but kept its cold features.

"At school my teachers know me as Zane, which is a fake name to make everyone think I am a guy." Zoe then grinned, knowing that he was know trying to figure out who she really was. "But the name my parents gave me were Zoe Faye. I believe you remember from elementary school, all those years ago." She said, her arms still folded on her chest. Even though she looked more composed now, she still couldn't forget the kindness he had shown her and he was showing such kindness again, that was something she knew would never change about Rookie. "It is good to see that you didn't get yourself killed but you lost your once cheerful smile." She said with a sigh. "Looks like everyone loses that at one point." She got off of the wall that she leaning on, looking him dead straight in the eyes. "Looks like we both have gotten in some trouble."

Rookson simply stared at her in trying to collect his thoughts. All of his memories had hit him at once, he remembered the time that he spent with her, how happy he was, how good of friends they were, but most importantly he remembered his promise. Rookson had never lost faith, he had just forgotten, greater issues got in the way in between then and now. He looked at Zoe and stepped closer, he looked at her very worringly, and said, "You're hurt..." in a very low tone. He looked over her body and felt bad for her, he noticed her bandages and thought that she had a daily routine of getting hurt. He also scanned over her figure, and blushed lightly when he realized she was in a tank-top he usually didn't get that way around girls but she was the exception. He turned his head and looked away, saying, "Well...let's get you fixed up", he motions to the edge of the built-in bathtub, "Take a seat", he said and gathered all of his supplies together before sitting down next to her. He started with her face, cleaning off any bits of dirt or blood, trying his hardest not to look her in the eye. Rookson told her to hold still each time he moved over an open cut. He moved down and started cleaning off the other parts of her, then noticed that her bandages were bleeding through, he wondered what she could have done to cause that. He looks up at her and says, "You need that to be re-bandaged...maybe even cleaned".

Zoe was a little surprised at how Rookie's action towards her changed when he figured out who she was. She nodded and sat down on the edge of the bathtub, blushing a bit when he started to clean her face off. It had been awhile since someone else would clean her wounds, usually her grandparents were asleep about this time and she would come home like this and do all the work herself. It was clear this wasn't the first time, there was some other cuts and healing bruises on her arms and legs that looked old and new. She didn't protest and did as he told her. She looked down at her bandaged arm, she hadn't noticed the bandages had bleed through. "Don't worry about it, I got it. They must have opened it again." She said with a sigh then began to remove the bandages. it was clear that the wound on her arm was on a collective of veins and wrapped around her right arm, stopping at her shoulder. She felt as though she should try to explain but was a bit scared to. "Cliff diving accident. i ticked off some guys and they pushed me off before I could jump. Those rocks are real unforgiving." She tried to play it off as though it was nothing, since now, to her, it wasn't much but something that happened in the past.

Rookson feels bad for her, if he was there with her then it would have never happened. He had scars of his own as well though, and feeling like he should even the ground, even though his scar wasn't that big he pointed to his scar with his thumb and said, "A guy pulled a knife on me...", Rookson looked again at her arm and felt bad, he didn't think she would be able to clean that properly without help, and he didn't want her to get an infection. He said, "No...I need to help you with that...", he pulled off his jacket and laid it next to the sink, estimating that this would get messy. His strong arms were now visible, and his shirt looked slightly small on him, probably because he couldn't afford buying new clothes for himself. Rookson helped unwrap the rest of the bandages and then dipped a swab with alcohol, and looked at Zoe before continuing, "This is going to hurt a lot...", he looked around for something for her to grab onto but couldn't find anything, so he continued, and began cleaning the blood off of her, and eventually cleaning the wound itself with alcohol.

Zoe shook her head and was about to stop him but it seemed like he wasn't going to hear it. She sighed lightly, but smiled a bit seeing that he was so worried about her. She had cleaned this wound plenty of times herself, it was easy now for her but she didn't protest. "Alright, I'll be fine." She said with a gentle smile, trying to reassure him that she would be okay. She simply bit her lip when he started, even though it hurt like hell, she still manged a smile to show that she was alright. She could see that one of the stitches were broken on her shoulder, but that part was pretty well healed. Her grandparents, parents, and sisters all noticed that Zoe healed fairly quick, even with large wounds such as this one.

As Rookson cleaned the wound he saw the smiles that she gave him to signal that she was okay. Rookson healed quickly himself, and never got sick, probably due to his genetics, whoever his parents were they were pretty tough, but mainly Rookson forged his own physical healthiness. He finished with the cleaning, and grabbed a fresh roll of bandages and bandaged Zoe up, once he was finished he gathered up all of the used materials and disposed of them, washed his hands, then put up the rest of the supplies. He began to speak, "Who attacked you?", he said sternly, when he turned around his face was serious and his fists were clenched.

While Rookie was putting everything away, Zoe put back on her baggy sweatshirt, looking back at him as he spoke, surprised to see such serious look on his face and his fists clenched. She shook her head, "They were just some of the guys at my school who like to mess with me, nothing much really." She said, looking at him with worry in her eyes. She put a hand on his shoulder then smiled at him. "Don't worry about it, alright? They thought I was another guy like the rest of the kids at my school do. I actually prefer that way." It was strange, but Zoe didn't like being viewed as one of the Faye sisters, because the eldest was the only known one to be successful and not turn to a life of drugs and crime.

Rookson life had partially turned to one of those, although he was a shining light in the midst of the darkness. He was probably the friendliest and least hostile gangster out there, that was actually legit at least, he barely interacted with his gang anyways, so if they got caught doing something he wouldn't be involved. Telling Rookson not to worry about something like, 'That' would be out of the question, but he wouldn't push it if she didn't want him to, but if he saw her in danger he would most definitely intervene. Rookson was confused at the fact that she wanted to appear as a guy, she was sure tough like one, he wouldn't press the matter. He looks out of the bathroom at the clock momentarily and turns back to Zoe, it was pretty late. He could walk her home, but it would be very late when he got back here. He spoke up, scratching the back of his head he said, "It's late....I could walk you home...but I won't get much sleep....It doesn't mean I won't take you...", he pauses for a moment and blushes. "Well...If it doesn't bother you, you can stay here for the night...", he looks up at her and gets slightly embarrassed. "I mean....I....", he simply looks down at the floor, giving up, he wasn't used to talking to girls that much. He picks up his jacket and puts it on, trying to find something to do to cover up his fumble.

Zoe could tell that he was having a hard time talking to her, which is the reason why she wanted to be viewed as a guy, she wanted to be seen as someone who was strong and independent, which she was but as a girl, most people didn't see that so she decided to dress and act like a guy. She put a hand on his shoulder with a gentle smile. "You don't need to be so nervous about talking with me. It is alright." She said with smile. "I won't mind staying her for the night, I left my stuff at my grandparents house so I'll have to go down there before school starts." She said with a small shrug. She didn't understand why it seemed to be hard for him to talk a girl, she thought it would be easy because he seemed like the type of guy most girls go after, but she guessed that he just didn't hang around girls that much.

Rookson developed quite strangely, once he learned how people worked he wasn't that confident around girls anymore. A lot of girls did approach him, and he would usually not get involved with them, trying to avoid them best as possible, most of them didn't interest him either way. He hasn't really acted this nervous around a girl before, but he wasn't going to ignore or shove away Zoe, so he had no choice but to act this way. When Zoe accepted his offer he nodded and said, "I'll go with you in the morning to get your things...", he said quietly. He looked up and gave a small smile, one of sincerity, he didn't look that childish anymore when he smiled, but his purity and kindness still flowed through him. His stern expression melted away to show a much more positive looking Rookson. He walked out of the bathroom and grabbed on of the pillows off of the couch and threw it on an open space on the floor. Rookson said, "I'll sleep on the floor....You can have the couch", he scratched the back of his head, and said, "I need to shower...", he knew that she might need one too, he kind of thought it was stupid of him bandaging her up, she would have to take it off.

Zoe was glad that he would be going with her to her grandparents house in the morning, she decided to take a shower then. "Are you sure? I don't mind sleeping on the floor at all." She really didn't mind at all, her bed at her grandparent's house was just a futon in the corner of the room. She decided that it would be okay to take off her sweatshirt, since it did cause a lot of heat for her and she didn't care much to wear it. She pulled the sweatshirt over her head, making sure that her tank-top didn't life up with it. She rather not make things awkward between her and Rookie.

Rookson would agree with the last part, he didn't want anything awkward between them either. He replied to her offering that she could sleep on the floor instead, "No, I....You're my guest...", after grabbing his clothes from the dresser that the tv stood on, he stepped back into the bathroom, and closed the door. He opened it a few moments later and poked his head out, "There is water and snacks in the fridge...help yourself". He goes back into the bathroom and locks the door behind him, takes off his clothes, going through the different layers of his clothing, but keeping his necklace with his ring on at all times. He doesn't take long to finish showering, about 10 minutes had passed, and a pleasant smell was emanating from the room, even when the door was closed. He dried off and got dressed into his nightwear, it was simple blue pajamas, and a wife-beater shirt that was 2 sizes to small for him, if Zoe didn't know that he developed a strong physique earlier she would certainly see that now. He put all of his dirty clothes in the hamper, picked up his shoes, jacket, and belt and walked out into the main room. Steam rolled out into the room as he exited, he set down his shoes and belt next to the door in a clatter, and set his jacket down on the table in front of the couch. turned of the bathroom light and closed the door. He looked over at Zoe to see what she was doing.