Chapter Text
‘What do I do? I can’t teleport a person.’
So Jin runs.
She runs until she spots him .
“Hey!” She calls out, pushing her way through the crowd until reaching the man. “I need help, I’m homeless and I stole food and they’re chasing me. You’re a hero? Please help my son, he-”
“You were stealing?”
“For my son-”
And for the first time, Jin feared for their life.
She landed in a dumpster, back in the alleyway she had been in just an hour ago. (There was no telling whether the safe landing had been intentional or not.)
However tempting it had been to stay surrounded by the trash, reveling in the smell that seemed adjacent to Jin's mental state, it wasn't just her anymore. Running through potential options, she thinks back to the person she met earlier, offering the two shelter, shelter that she had already turned down. She thinks back to Audrey, and to all of the people she had hurt. Did she even deserve shelter?
Climbing out of the dumpster, he notices something on the wall- something he had missed earlier. A poster.
It's there that she makes her choice, a decision that would change the course of all their lives forever.
‘I am looking for a roommate,’ printed in large letters with contact information.
And she takes a chance.
~•~
Jin made her way to the meeting spot she and the person from the poster, Rowan, had agreed on. A café, one that she had gone to while in school. Despite the frequency of her visits, she's still surprised when the barista calls out in recognition.
He hadn't explained his entire situation to Rowan over the phone, only that he and his infant son needed a place to live- the same explanation he gave to Micah when she asked.
The conversation between the two evolved beyond the topic of Jin soon meeting a potential roommate, and they kept each other company until the door opened. Jin looked at the poster from the alley, comparing the picture to the person walking towards the counter: Rowan.
After she ordered, the three of them fell into conversation as Micah made the drink. Despite the short amount of time she had been in their presence, Jin, for the first time since losing everything, felt she had found her missing pieces.
~•~
Jin kept going back to the café.
Rowan had agreed a week prior that Jin would be a ‘perfect fit’ as a roommate, and her name was going on the lease the next day.
And yet…
“Hey! Let me finish this drink and I'll be right with ya!”
Jin found herself smiling as she walked over to the counter Micah was working at. True to her word, as soon as the order had been finished and passed onto someone else, Micah started talking with Jin.
It's not a surprise he kept coming back, necessarily. He had been here often with friends the past few years, and though the friends in question refused to stay in Jin's life, the café was still somewhere he associated with the word friends . (Of course, now it was for a different, much smaller group of people.) And for the first time in his life, Jin looked to the future with something other than indifference or despair.
Jin felt hope .
~•~
That's not to say that they weren't highly concerned about the state of Catalyst.
Something she had quickly learned about Rowan was xyr opinion on heroism, “a corrupt system that was never intended to help everyone,” xe announced one night at the café. Rowan's criticisms were always laced with the ever-present optimism that xe was practically known for, and as a former student of the hero academy, xe knew more about the intricacies of their society than Jin would have even considered to factor in. It was clear that xyr girlfriend, Starr, wasn't particularly fond of the system either, and (like Jin) didn't share Rowan's optimism in regards to reconstruction. As a friend, mother, and partner…Jin couldn't help but be unsure with how reliable the heroes truly were.
Knowing what they did from Rowan's stories and their first-hand experiences with heroes, Jin knew that they couldn't put their full trust into the city's heroes. The city's vigilantes, however…
Rowan had talked animatedly about her hopes for the spread of vigilantism, and even Starr had seemed to agree with her optimism. Though there weren't many of them, it was clear that they existed- especially to people who were watching for signs of them. Especially to people who had run-ins with them.
Bleeding Heart , she called herself. Her suit was mostly black, with pink accents lining her arms and legs in a design that seemed reminiscent of the flower the vigilante named herself after.
Jin didn't trust easily, not after the lessons she learned from her old friends and the Conductor. And yet, standing face-to-face with Bleeding Heart, Jin trusted her.
~•~
Though she hadn't taken up the offer of shelter given by the man in the alleyway, Jin had never stopped thinking of him. She didn't regret reaching out to Rowan, not at all- especially since Rowan was the one that had the idea of thanking the man for his offer in the first place.
It didn't take long to find the shelter, and when they did Jin realized just how different their lives could have been. She had brought Sung with her to meet the group, and they had quickly taken to the two visitors.
It was a couple of visits later when Micah had the idea. “Honey, we toss all of this at the end of the day,” she had said while picking up a box full of food from the various displays throughout the café. Gesturing for Jin to lead the way out of the building, the three of them made their way to the shelter.
As Micah helped people go through the box, Jin brought Sung over to the TV. The kids living in the shelter loved watching the Angel show, meaning it would be playing when Jin and Sung visited- and despite being raised by people highly critical of heroes, Sung was obsessed with Asteria. He wiggled excitedly when it was on the screen, babbling something that Jin couldn't understand.
Micah had joined them after talking with some of the others, listening as Annie gave the same explanation of the ‘characters’ she had given Jin during his first visit.
“He has pretty eyes,” Jin murmured after Annie had walked away, “see?”
“Ya think so?” Micah smiled, still watching the TV.
Jin hummed, leaning so she was pressed closer to Micah.
And together they watched, not thinking much of the old episodes of an old show. Not thinking much of how the show had only ended recently, after the abrupt retirement of Angel and Asteria. Not thinking much of the children on the screen, or how they stopped appearing soon after the episode that was currently playing. Not thinking much of Tamara and Andrés Agbayani.
But still, she watched.
~•~
And perhaps, in another timeline, someone- something would have been watching her.
However, in a fortunate turn of fate, the all-seeing turned a blind eye.