Stairway to Heaven

Random Playground
Philadephia, Pennsylvania
2051
-- Age: around eleven


The young girl, small for her age, though far from frail squealed slightly as the cold drops of rain began to spatter down on her, and after a slight glance back to the playground she scampered after her father, her slight pout at his behaviour earlier, gone for the moment.

Of course, Ashleen never followed orders completely, and despite the rain or perhaps because of it, she felt more incline to take her time as she went, stopping to quite literally smell the flowers...

Or well the few measly weeds that had popped up in the half dead grass.

"Ashleen," her father called exasperatedly at the young girl, who only looked up from the spot where she had plopped herself, with a wide grin.

"But look Daddy!!"

The man just frowned and told her to hurry up, holding out his own hand indicating just where he wanted the girl to be walking now. Of course, Ash was known for her own stubbornness.

She pulled herself up, and shook her head.

"No, I'm walking with Tre," she stated firmly, looking around to find where she had left the boy to go look at flowers and grinned at him.

Tre wandered toward the swings, looking at the older children jumping off. Daddy had said that Mama could fly. Could he...?

He turned his golden eyes to the sky as he felt a fat drop of rain hit his blond hair. The older kids cheered on the rain, and Tre watched in his usual silent, detached way. No one ever wanted to play with the freak with the yellow eyes and the weird accent. It was a truth he had long since accepted. It was as known to him as his ABCs.

He looked over at his wife, Ashleen, and smiled, running over to her and slipping his hand in hers. He ignored the glare her dad shot them too. He was used to being glared at. In his short time in America so far, all everyone had seemed to do was stay away and stare. He supposed everyone born in America was like this.

Everyone but his wife, that is.

Raising their hands to his mouth, he stuck the Ring Pop into his mouth for a brief second before putting their hands back. Like he was going to let the candy just waste away on her finger? He practically owned the ring, and the finger with it too, he supposed. Marriage meant you belonged to each other right? That's what mum had said before she....

Tre's eyes darkened slightly, as they were apt to when he thought of that night.

He glanced over at Ashleen, watching the way the rain streaked through her bright yellow hair. She was just so...

"Pretty." he said in thick American. or... English. That's what the lady had called it. He didn't see why the Americans didn't have their own language. Russians did. The English did. The French did. "You're pretty." He grinned angelically at her, tugging her under the umbrella his father held out for them. Her dad had his own umbrella, and was walking decidely ahead of them. Tre figured they were playing 'Follow the Leader' and didn't dwell on it. He didn't know how to tell that the set of D'Angelo's shoulders meant he was angry. Not yet.

"I got this for you. Over there." He held out a dandelion from his pocket, ignoring the rumpled look of the flower in favor of its golden color. He figured it was a flower, not yet able to tell it was a weed. "It matches your hair."

Ashleen only gave her father a childish glare back as she placed her hand firmly in the boys, feeling entirely giggly about it. That's what the older girls always did; they did other stuff too, she had seen them doing that around town, with other members...

Daddy said she didn't need to worry about that.

Ashleen wrinkled her noise at the compliment, her blue eyes still sparking, unable to hide the fact that she was pleased about it, "No I'm not... I'm too boring to be pretty - all the older girls with their flashy clothes and-and stuff are pretty.... I dress like a boy too much."

She frowned at her scuffed up jeans, the left knee torn not out of a fashion statement but because she had tackled Jimmy Cutter to the ground the other month for stealing her Gameboy. She had scrapped the crap out of her knee that day too - but she had gotten the toy back, and given Jimmy a hell of a black eye. Her father had been so proud.

The young girl giggled slightly as she was pulled under the umbrella, completely ignorant - or more specifically, not giving one damn - about her father's growing black mood. She curled closer to him, away from the rain.

"I think," she said slowly, taking the weed as if it were a rose, giving the boy a quick bashful grin before going back to her usual self, "You need to put your arm around me now... or else we'll never fit under the umbrella."

She nodded her head as if she was a complete expert on the object. At least, that was how they always did it on television.

Tre frowned. He didn't think she looked the least bit ordinary. To him, she might as well have been the prettiest girl on the planet. "I think you're pretty." He argued, slipping in and out of Russian like a dolphin slips through waves. "I've seen tons of people. You're they prettiest girl ever." He smiled, the single movement innocent and bright. "I know."

He smiled again as she took the flower, taking it from her to place behind her ear. It was pretty with her hair. Another slight frown tugged at his lips, his eyebrow furrowing in confusion. "How are we going to keep holding hands if my arm's around you?" He asked, quite distressed. He didn't want her to get wet, not if she didn't want to be. He pouted slightly, completely confused.

Ashleen returned his grin with an almost giddy one of her own, her face flushing slightly, but she refused to behave as if she was doing so.

"Prettiest girl ever huh?" she teased slightly, "Then you've must seen a lot of girls to make a fair judgment."

She frowned slightly at his question, that did seem to be a slight problem. She looked at him for a moment, and their hands before smirking slightly, and letting go of his hand for the briefest moment, only to place the arm around her shoulder.

"Well," she said slowly, "I'd say you put your arm right there and then I can just," she bent her arm and grabbed his hand, "Hold your hand like this."

She grinned up at him, proud of herself for solving the problem, completely ignoring her father who was already well ahead of them and glaring at her shenanigans with disapproval.

Tre shrugged his shoulders. "There's a lot of them all over the place. Boring." He looked back at her, smiling. "But none are pretty like you."

His face got weirdly warm as she pulled his arm over her shoulder, unused to being so close to someone who was...wasn't...was...as pretty as her. He blinked down at her, before smiling again through the blush he didn't understand. "That works." He said cheerily. He barely noticed his father pass the umbrella off to a different member and run ahead to catch up with D'Angelo and continue to talk. The rain started harder, and he pulled Ash closer instinctively, wanting to sheild her from the cold, the rain, and the wind. "Why didn't we bring a car?" He asked the man holding the umbrella.

"We're only a few blocks over. A car would be troublesome." Francesco said in his deceptively high voice. Tre gazed up at the burly man, unnotably pulling the girl in his arms even closer. "Do not worry, Angelboy. We will be there soon enough."

Ashleen gave a short little giggle, unable to help the sound that came from her, "Does that mean I'm not boring then? Or am I still boring, but just get to be prettier than all those other girls?"

She wrinkled her nose playfully at him, already completely at ease with where she was, not the least but flustered or unsure of herself, even though this was entirely new to her. Ashleen was use to being in control. She had many people do as she wished. This was merely....

A new way of doing so.

Though she could help the odd little blush that came over her every time she looked up at him.

"Franny!" the girl's face light up as she finally looked over at who was presently holding the umbrella; her face fell, at the declaration of having to walk, into her favourite little pout, that usually got her most things, "But-but walking is so troub-troubl-" she boggled the oddly formal sounding word, "Annoying. I think we should wait here and Daddy bring the car."

Francesco just snorted and shook his head.

"Don't you go using that face on me girlie; I think you're tempting your father's patients enough, don't you?" he looked pointedly at Tre, and then where the two children's fathers were speaking up ahead. He only laughed in response to Ashleen's pout.

"Cesco?" Tre asked, widening his golden eyes and looking up at the man. "Can't we just-just... wait for a car?"

"Don't yeah try too, Angel." Francesco warned, looking decidedly away from the boy. Tre glanced down at the girl next to him for a brief second, and then, for the first time, he winked at her.

"Cesco....." He whined, looking up at the man. "Can't we...?" The man slowed to a stop, and looked down at the eleven year old, who stopped also.

"Yeah'll be gettin meh in trouble one uh these days, Angelboy." The man said, looking down at him. Tre smiled sweetly, and Francesco looked away.

Turning back to Ash, to his wife, he grinned at her, wrapping both arms around her in a hug. "We'll just wait here for a car, yeah?"

Ashleen couldn't help but let out a little giggle as he winked, glancing back up at Francesco and trying very hard not to giggle anymore.

He was such a softy, it made everything easy.

"I love you Franny," she grinned at the mobster as he grumbled into his walkie that the two "little buggers" were not going to move until a car came to get them.

Ash just used her free hand to blow the man a kiss and turned to hug Tre back.

"But waiting is so boring," she pouted, eyes sparkling. "Amuse me while I wait!"

Tre, for the first time since he met the girl, had stopped paying attention to her. His eyebrows furrowed as he gazed through the rain, his focus on a small blur across the street. Hestitantly, his hold loosened before it dropped, and he took a measured step toward the busy street, ignoring the cars speeding by and splashing through puddles.

What was...

"Angel-?"

Then he was running. Dodging the cars speeding past and getting absolutely soaked in the process - the puddles in the street reached over his ankles - the eleven year old barely seemed to think about the danger he was in, a trait that would stick for years to come. He didn't hear the sigh of relief from Cesco as his sneakers his the oppisite sidewalk, nor did he see the grip on his wife's arm that Franny had taken the second he stepped away from her. His focus was on the blur he could barely see through the pouring rain.

The mystery blur was a box.

Made of cardboard and small, it had probably originally housed something like an ordinate pot, and decidedly told the world that "this way up" was down. That wasn't what caught his focus, however.

Inside, soaked and trembling, was a tiny golden puppy. Her big brown eyes stared up at him, hopeful and wary as he stared back. Gently, Tre dropped to his knees, reaching down and scooping the poor thing up. Unzipping his jacket, he tucked the small thing inside, where he could feel the small being trembling against his chest. Keeping his arms around it from the outside, Tre carefully made his way back to the street, actually taking care to wait until the cars had passed to walk - not run - across.

He stepped back beneath the umbrella, completely and absolutely soaked, the puppy's little nose peeking out from his jacket as it took stock of the two other people around it. Cesco laughed, reaching down to pet the small creature, only to stop when it cowered away.

"Why did the Angel cross the road?" He mused, looking down at the boy. "To get to Heaven."

"Heaven." Tre repeated, moving closer to Leenie and showing her the small puppy. She barked softly at the sound of her name, tail thumping against Tre's ribcage and the inside of his jacket. "You can pet her, if you want. She's for you." He grinned, hair matted to his head from the rain. "Isn't she beautiful?" Heaven barked again, and Angel grinned.

Spoiler:

All whining the young girl had been doing, as she struggled to get out of the man's grip watching the boy run across the street stopped as he returned, and her blue eyes locked on brown ones.

And she was instantly in love.

"Hi there Heaven," she cooed softly, completely ignorant of everyone else around her for the moment, as she hesitantly stuck a hand out, softly touching the poor creatures nose, which hesitantly sniffed her hand before licking it.

Ashleen let out a giggle as it tickled, and turned her bright eyes to Francesco.

"Franny! A puppy," she stated the obvious, her infectious smile causing the man just to grin, and shake his head. "My puppy."

She bit her lip, and turned back to Treshawn, meeting his gaze.

"My Heaven," she said softly, standing up on her toes to graze his cheek lightly with her lips, "From my Angel."