“Oops! sorry!”

“Watch it, freak!”

“I’m not a freak, bitch.”

“What was that?” The pale girl barks, “Do you know who I am?”

“Hm, don’t care.”

“You little—!”

Too slow, Lola’s running away now. You’d think being a secret superhero, you wouldn’t have petty fights with strangers, but..this is New York.

And if she happens to see that girl who just yelled at her getting robbed? She better beg for their help, because there’s no way in hell that they’d..okay! That’s a stretch, Lola thinks, I should’ve gotten more sleep last night.

But that girl she saved last night, who she almost walked home..

They kinda can’t stop thinking about her.

Yes, even right now, as they watch a hooded figure grabbing a wallet out of a purse and..wait a minute.

“Hey!” Lola shouts, “Put that back!”

The hooded figure perks up, “Um, I was just..” They say, stumbling away backward, wallet still in their hand. “Ya know..”

“I know what you’re doing,” Lola says, “You can’t distract me and run off. It won’t work.”

“Oh, yeah? And who do you think you are? A superhero? Oh no, I’m scared of a five foot three teenager.”

“Wait, five foot th—you’re literally the same height as me! How does that even make sen—“ The figure shrugs before Lola can even finish, and fucking bolts. “WHAT? WAIT!” Lola yells, “You didn’t explain your stupid insult!”

Lola is fast on their trail, sweat forming on her brown forehead, it’s too early for this. Well, 11 am isn’t that early, but she’s getting used to the city, okay? New York crimes don’t sleep. Annoyingly. Maybe she should just retire, well, she really only just started a week ago—Lola face palms. Why are you so easily distracted?

“Can’t keep up?” The figure yells over their shoulder. “Maybe you should sit down and take a break!”

“Oh shut up!” Lola yells back, and nearly runs into a brick wall. “You should be--“ She pants, “Scared!” They finish, and it’s obvious they’re already tired.

The figure turns a corner, and Lola takes that as a win, well, if it has a dead end.

It doesn’t.

But the hooded figure is halfway up a flight of stairs, and their hoodie is caught on a hook and Lola—beside herself, laughs at them.

The figure whips their head around at her voice, and the hood falls.

And.. Lola freezes, because she knows that girl, and she knows her voice, and how she looks when she’s shy after being saved and.. “YOU!"

“Me?” The pink haired girl gawks back, “What about me?"

“Well,” Lola says, then shuts her mouth. “You’re all talk for someone who is also a teenager. And five foot three.”

“Okay?” She replies, eyebrow raised. “And you’re annoying.”

“Wh—How?"

“Go away!” The pink haired girl says instead, still struggling to get her hoodie out of that hook. “I’m not giving you the wallet!”

“Why not?” Lola asks, walking up the steps sheepishly, “You said you owed me.”

“What? No I didn’t.”

“Hm, but you did. When you were being chased by that old dude last night, and I saved you, you told me you owed me after I walked you to the subway.”

“That was—YOU?” She blinks, “You..”

“Why exactly were you being chased?” Lola asks, “What’d you do to piss him off? Steal his wallet?”

Her eyes shift from Lola, to the apartment wall beside her. “Well…”

“Oh come on!” Lola says with a scoff. “And here I was thinking you were like, this nice girl, with a cute voice and—uh,” Lola freezes, her cheeks warming and she raises a finger then drops it. “Pretend I didn’t say that.”

But the girl is smiling, and Lola knows she shouldn’t like it because, hello, they’re a criminal, but..

“Okay, I owe you.” She admits it, “But you can’t have the wallet.”

“Then what can I—“

Lola see’s the movement of pink hair and her heart flutters, because that girl has leaned in and pecked her right on the lips. But she pulls away way too quickly, and Lola doesn’t even realize that her hoodie isn’t stuck anymore.

She’s already back on the ground, unbeknownst to Lola, who has a hand placed over her mouth, dazed.

“Hey!” She calls from the ground, “Call me when my stealing is as cute as my voice.”

Lola turns toward her, feet stuck on the stairs.

Maybe..she can get used to New York.