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[chosemyname]

When they find her she's a wreck. A scrawny, dirty girl barely old enough to vote let alone run from an corrupt system. She tries to run from them too, but she's exhausted and malnourished and not at all prepared to survive the desert. It ends up falling to Jet Star to coax her away from the burnt out shell that was her car, to lower thehammer she's adopted as a weapon of choice. She's still got handcuffs attached to her wrists even if she's managed to cut through the links between them, and when they ask her about them she just shuts her mouth.

She doesn't say anything for another two days. They call her Jailbird.

Her story slowly comes out in the form of little offhand comments and a lot of reading between the lines. For weeks she's difficult, and on more than one occasion one of them suggests just letting her go when she wakes up screaming and tries to run, but the idea never quite gets off the ground. One of them always manages to get her back inside, whether it's soft words of encouragements from Jet, a few shouts that are meant to sound welcoming from Party or a winning smile and an outstretched hand from Ghoul. They get her back in, get her back to safety, and that's when she talks. It's never much, but slowly the story unravels. The escape from the institute she was kept in after a bad reaction to drug trials to her parents death, her arrest and subsequent break out. Eventually they hear it all.

She's with Ghoul when it happens. He's teaching her to fight, and she's a fast learner but still underfed, still slim and all in all it's not a huge success. It doesn't help that the conversation is peppered with flirtatious comments, because really - how is she supposed to try to swing a punch when she's being derailed with comments like "come on sweetheart, it's how I like it" and that dumb grin. She bursts out laughing, the first real one anyone has heard since she got pulled into the strange group of runaway misfits, and suddenly she's laughing so hard she has to stop and turn away for a moment. It's not even about the comment any more, now that she's started she can't seem to stop.

When she turns back he's much closer, and she falls quiet. A moment passes, a strange silence hangs in the air and she just looks at him. Finally she speaks, just a few words but loaded with meaning that she can't quite explain just yet.

"Anna. My name, it's-."

She doesn't get any further than that, she's cut off by his lips against hers, and it's warm and inviting and takes her completely by surprise. When they pull away he's grinning, she laughs awkwardly and Ghoul just shrugs as he slings an arm around her shoulder, leading them back to the rest of the group.

"You don't gotta tell me a thing, Jailbird. They're your secrets to keep." They're not far from the others, Party's within earshot already, but before they get much further he adds quietly, a quick murmur kept between just them, "But I'm glad you did, Anna."

It's never mentioned again. He doesn't share anything with her, and she doesn't tell them any more than they need to know, but every now and then, when they're alone and no one else can hear, he'll use the name just for them now, and she'll laugh all over again.