darker_london | Reason (Autumn, Kindof!Flynn)

Autumn was working so often now, she hardly ever got home. The shelter was absolutely chock full, and she was surrounded everywhere by people who needed to be fed. And fed they were. Autumn was a gourmet chef, and while I was harder to mass-produce gourmet food, she managed to make the things they served at Libero much better than the things they served at other shelters. The food had taste and individuality. It was delicious. And more than that, it was feeding the hungry. Autumn had never been so fulfilled, or she thought she hadn't until she met a girl named Amy.

Amy was sixteen and it was clear she had had a hard tie of it. She would sit in the cafeteria, separate from everyone else, much like their other girl Annie. Amy spoke, however. She just didn't speak unless spoken to. And the poor dear had yellowing bruises all over half of her face.

Autumn couldn't leave it alone. She couldn't not speak to this girl who had, most probably, been through what she had been through. When she was relieved, Autumn moved out to the cafeteria where Amy was still sitting. The crowd had thinned, which was usually when Amy chose to take her meals. After everyone else has eaten. "Hello," Autumn said with a smile. "Can I sit here?"

Amy looked up and she nodded. Autumn took a seat and she indicated the food. "Do you like it?"

"Sure," Amy replied. "It's nice."

"Have you settled in here, Sweetheart?"

Amy shrugged. She hadn't been one of the girls who had come off the street. She had been taken from her parents and placed here to keep her safe. If a family wanted a sixteen-year-old, she would go to them...if not, this place was probably her best chance not to be left behind by a system that tended to forget about children who had no parents. Libero would give her a place to live beyond legal age, and it would help her find a trade or a school, and not just that, it would help her achieve her goals. That was what Libero was for. "I like the big telly."

Autumn laughed. She liked the big telly too. "If you haven't played video games on it yet, you really should," she winked. "It's incredible."

Amy shrugged again. "I don't really like video games." She looked up at Autumn and smiled as much as she could. "It's weird being here with so many people..."

"I know, honey. It won't always be this crowded. It's just because of the terrible winter. Most of them are here short term. We're having to act as a normal shelter as well as the youth home this was intended to be. It wouldn't do to turn anyone out into the cold would it?"

Amy shook her head. She hadn't ever encountered that, but she had encountered enough hardship to know it was to be avoided.

"Amy...I wanted to tell you...if you want to talk about anything, I'll listen. I'm not one of the counselors here, but I...I can understand. Particularly..." Autumn licked her lips and she continued. "Particularly the things you've been through.."

Amy looked up at her with interest. "You?! But...you look..." Amy looked at a loss for words for a moment and then she found one. "...happy."

"I am," Autumn said with a grin. "But it took me a long time to get here. I had friends to help me, and even then, sometimes I slipped..." Like when she had tried to kill herself after Jake, her abusive ex-boyfriend had stalked her. "They got me through it. And, if you'll let me, I'd love to help you through it as well."

Autumn felt eyes on her and she lifted her head to see Flynn watching her. Watching over her, more likely. Flynn was her oldest friend, and he had never given up on her. She gave him a little smile and he returned the expression just the same, before leaving her and Amy alone. He understood. Helping Amy was part of healing too, just like, for him, opening this shelter was part of his own healing.

Amy chewed on her lip, but she smiled shyly at Autumn. "Was it your parents?"

"No," Autumn shook her head. "I was older. It was a boyfriend of mine."

"How did you get out?" Amy asked, her nearly finished meal now forgotten.

"Well, that's a long story. Why don't we clean up and then I'll tell you everything?" Amy nodded and Autumn felt vindicated. If her suffering could help some poor girl, then even that, in a way, had happened for a reason. And reason gave her what she needed to go on.