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There were a lot of different kinds of people in the Crossroads. And Arin had met a lot of them!
There were Serpentine, like his old buddy Frak (wonder what happened to him…he’d have to go track him down at some point), little rock guys, fish people, skeletons, small purple guys, frogs, and just plain ol’ humans! Arin himself was just a human, and he was mostly okay with that, but sometimes he wished he was something…cooler.
But, anyways, Arin has met a lot of different people since the Merge, and most of them are really nice! There weren’t a lot of kids—not many his age, at least—but that’s okay! He had always gotten along better with adults than other kids, so not much has changed in that sense.
So, no friends for Arin, just pies, customers, and acquaintances. Well, until about a year after the Merge. Not a full year—it was around late February, early March, he thinks—but approximately.
He had been on his pie run—as usual—when he’d heard yelling and footsteps. And then someone had scrambled into the clearing, eyes darting wildly, before spotting him.
His first thought at the time had been please don’t stab me. His second thought had been hey, a potential customer!!
The person—someone small, even smaller than him—had ducked behind him. And, naturally, he placed the boxes and pies in her hands, hiding her face from the group of shouting adults.
They ran right past them.
Ha, suckers. No one ever expects the little kid delivering baked goods.
He waited a few minutes before turning to his new pie assistant and grinning. “You can come out now! They all left,”
She hesitated, but carefully began lowering the boxes to the ground. And he finally got a good look at her!
She looked mostly human, but her hair was cotton candy pink, and there was a golden dot where her pupil should be.
So, basically, she looked so much cooler than him.
He also noticed how she favored her left arm, and kept her sleeve securely covering her right arm.
“Hi!” He stuck his hand out, and she jumped, glaring at it suspiciously. “I’m Arin! What’s your name?”
She slowly and hesitantly reached out to shake his hand. “…Sora,”
He gasped. “That is SUCH a cool name!! So much cooler than mine, but, y’know, I don’t mind being one-upped every once in a while,”
She blinked at him, the faintest smile starting to form on her lips.
And that’s how Arin became best friends with the coolest person in the Crossroads!
Well, no, actually, they didn’t become best friends immediately.
He showed her where he was camped out for the time being (despite his parents always telling him not to lead strangers to his home), and she nodded, promising to come by eventually.
He started leaving a pie out for her, just in case, as if she was a feral cat. Which, to be honest, she kind of seemed like sometimes. It was always gone when he went to check on it in the morning, so either Sora was eating it, or an actual feral street cat was. Honestly, he didn’t mind either way.
A few weeks after they had first met, Arin saw Sora digging around Kreel’s junkyard while he was out on a late night walk. He waved at her, but she didn’t seem to notice, so he did the obvious thing! …he snuck into the junkyard and popped up beside her!
“AGH—” she yelped, jumping away from him, her eyes wide.
He smiled sheepishly at her. “Sorry, sorry! I tried to wave but you didn’t see so I figured I’d come say hi!” He paused, eyes focusing on the…arm?? WAS SHE HOLDING AN ARM?? OHHHH FUCK WAS HIS FRIEND A SERIAL KILLER???
She must have caught on to his staring, because she glanced down at the metal—now that he looked closer, he could tell that it was metal—limb in her hand, and quickly hid it behind her back.
“I—it’s not—” she stammered, taking a step back.
“Is that yours?”
She blinked. “…yeah?”
Squinting at it, he noticed the random colored plating and different metals. “Did you build it yourself?” He asked.
She nodded, and his eyes widened. “That is SO COOL!!”
“It—“ she blinked down at it, then back up at him. “…it is?”
“Yeah!!” He exclaimed, flapping his hands excitedly. “I mean, built an arm out of scraps from a junkyard! On your own! With one hand! That’s the coolest thing anyone has ever done!!”
She smiled at him. A real smile.
“Hey, Sora. Pssst,” Arin poked her arm. “Can I move in with you? …wherever it is that you live?”
She tensed. “Uhhh…what happened to your old place?”
“Raccoons,”
“Well, I mean, you can come stay with me,” she hesitated. “But, uh, I’m kind of homeless?”
“You—” he blinked, staring at his friend. “You’re what,”
She shrugged, and kept walking.
“Wait, Sora—” he called, moving to catch up to her. “You’re not getting out of this conversation—!”
“Okay, I’m gonna be honest,” Arin glanced around at the rooftop they were standing on. “When you said homeless, I was expecting alleyways, and, like—dumpsters, or something. This is actually pretty nice,”
Set up on the roof was a canopy, the edges lined with fairy lights. Under the canopy there was a desk, a tent, and some chair cushions.
“So!” He clapped his hands together, turning to her. “Where do I sleep?”
“…you’re serious,”
“Well, yeah, obviously,” he looked down at his three backpacks. “I mean, I carried all my stuff up here,”
“…touché,”
That night, as the two of them lay side by side in the tent, Arin wondered. He wondered a lot of things—what caused the Merge? Where did his parents go? Where did the Ninja go? But the most important question floating around his mind—
“Sora,” he whispered.
“Yeah?” She murmured back.
“Are we friends?”
She hesitated. “…I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend before,”
“Oh,”
“But,” she continued, “I think…I think I’d like to be your friend. If…if you’ll have me,”
“Of course I will,” he smiled. “You’re my best friend in the whole world,”
“…I like the sound of that,”