(A/N): *Once again blows dust of yet another abandon story* I literally titled this document "Story I abandoned."

Trinity pulled her parka around her body as she left the studio. She pushed through the cold, snowy hell that was New York and huffed. "Stupid snow. Stupid cold. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

A voice from behind her laughed and she turned to find Alejandro. He stood behind her a wide grin on his face. "What? Not one for the cold?"

She scoffed as she shoved her hands deep in her pockets. "Who me? I love every inch of my body being numb and spending day after day, nearly sneezing up a lung."

He laughed again as walked closer to her so they were side by side. "You get used to after a while."

"How long is a while?"

"About ten years. Moved here when I was nine. You're new here right? From the west coast?"

"Yup, that's me. Out of the frying pan and into the ice box. Seriously the snow out here is insane." She shoveled some aside with her boot. She hoped that spring would come soon. She'd had her of snow after being caught an avalanche.

"That's cool." He then caught her arm as they passed by a coffee shop and nodded at it. "Join me for some coffee?"

She frowned. "I would but don't have any money. And you know how coffee shops are all involved in some conspiracy to take all our money."

"Then how about I take the risk alone. My treat."

It took her a second to think it over. Free coffee? In this weather? Why not. "Sure. Thanks."

He opened the door for her and they stepped into the shop. Immediately, the new sense of warmth melted some of the numbness away from her face. The shop buzzed with sharply dressed men and women on their phones. The baristas still wore Santa hats and had old Christmas decorations up. Christmas music could barely be heard over the buzz of the customers' voices.

The two managed to find an empty table for the two in the corner of the shop by a large window. Alejandro pulled out Trinity's chair and set his jacket on the back of his. "What can I get you? And don't hold back."

"Coco with whip cream and a splash of cinnamon?" She asked. She began to undo layer, upon of winter wear, but left on a scarf that Leo had made for her. Alejandro nodded and fished his wallet from his pocket. "Wish me luck." He made a big scene of dramatically diving into the frantic, crowded line and bumped nearly bumped into a man talking into a blue tooth on his way out.

Trinity rolled her eyes and shook her head and smiled. She fiddled with the scarf a bit as she waited for Alejandro to return with their drinks. She always liked coffee shops. Despite the frantic customers, the loud baristas and long waits, they still had they still had a certain coziness about them that drew her to them. When she could, she'd come in, find an isolated and sip on hot chocolate while planning out a routine. It reminded of how she and her sister would often visit them. They would exchange funny stories about awkward encounters with guys and laugh loudly until they were asked to leave. A pain had begun to settle in her when Alejandro returned with two mugs, one of them overflowing with whip cream. Her eyes bulged as she accepted it. "Did they remember the hot chocolate?"

Alejandro chuckled as he slid into his seat and began to sip from his mug. "They did. I made sure they did. If they're gonna cheat me out of money, I should at least get what I overpaid for."

She licked some of the ship cream from the top and smiled. "Thanks, I'll pay you back I promise."

He waved a hand and shrugged. "No worries. Just doing you a favor." He winked at her as took another sip from his mug.

"Right…" She said as she raised an eyebrow at him. They sat in silence for a moment before Alejandro finally spoke.

He noticed her expression and raised his hands. "I saw you in the studio today."

"Oh?" She cut her eyes up at him as she sipped her hot chocolate.

"Mmhm. It looked great. How long have you been dancing again?"

"Since I was three. My mom decided I needed a hobby outside of picking fights with other kids on the playground. She put me in a dance class and to everyone's surprise I really liked it." She shrugged.

"Little Trinity being a monster on the playground. I can see that." He grinned at her.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." She said with a small laugh. "I dunno what it was. Dancing just…made me happy. It was just…I-

"Can't explain it?" He finished for her as he leaned back in the chair and watched her closely.

"Exactly." She looked up at him and caught his eyes for a moment before turning her attention back to her hot chocolate. She had eaten a large chunk of the whip cream and the rest sat half-submerged in the beverage. "How about you?"

"Me?" He poured a pack of sugar into his mug and began to stir it around, keeping his eyes down. "I started in high school. Joined the dance team behind everyone's back. My dad wanted to me to get into something he thought would be more…masculine. Like football or basketball. It's what everyone else's son was doing and he didn't want me making him look bad."

"Sounds like trouble."

Alejandro chuckled bitterly. "You bet. Had a lot of stupid fights about it. Well not entirely about it. It went a bit deeper than that. Much deeper actually."

"I hear that."

The tension between them suddenly grew thick as they became silent again until once again, Alejandro broke it. He raised his mug in the air and met her eyes. "Well, rocky relationships with our parents set aside, here's to you me doing what we love."

She smiled and clinked her mug against his before she set it down on the table. Alejandro laughed a bit and began to draw circles on the table. "We should do this more often." He slowly reached out across the table, his hand closer to hers. "Just…put some time aside to talk with each other you know? What about tonight?"

She pulled her hand away from his and put it in her lap. She looked him the eye and said seriously. "That won't work, I've gotta work late tonight."

He pulled his hand away as well. "Oh, okay then. I understand." He faked a smile to hide his obvious disappointment and looked back at his empty mug.

"Well…thanks, for the hot chocolate again. Thought I was going to turn into a popsicle out there."

His smile got a bit more genuine and he waved it off. "Anytime." An alarm on his phone went off and he stood up and began to pull his coat back on. "I've gotta go now. Did you need me to walk you to your apartment or something?"

"Oh, no thanks." She began to pull all of her layers back once she had chugged down the rest of her hot chocolate. "See tomorrow in the studio?"

"See you tomorrow." He then made his way out of the shop. He looked over his shoulder and waved at her as he left. She watched him go for a few moments with a sigh as she left as well. She went in the opposite direction as him as she made her way to her apartment building. She pulled the scarf tightly around her so that it covered her face as she weaved through the crowd on the sidewalk. She came to a crosswalk and leaned against a light pole as she waited for the cars to stop. While she waited, her eyes began to idly wander.

As they did, something caught her eye from across the street. She looked over and almost immediately, she locked eyes with a man. He had long red hair pulled back in a ponytail. He wore Japanese armor and a long, tattered purple cape. No one else on the other side of the street seemed to notice. In fact, is was as if he wasn't even there. Other people literally walked straight through him. He stood and stared. Stared at her. She looked back at him, confused and slightly disturbed. She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. She looked again, and he was gone.

A man behind her roughly walked past her and bumped her shoulder in the process. She looked ahead to find the crosswalk light green. She looked back across the street and he was gone. She glanced across the street one last time and found nothing.

She swallowed thickly and quickly ran across the crosswalk. She walked a little faster as she made her way home. Just a trick on her eyes she told herself. Deep down however, she was not convinced by the lie she had told herself.

When she got to her apartment she double checked that the door was securely locked. She shivered as she began to walk to her room. Her apartment was not much of an escape from the freezing temperature outside. With the heating unit being shut off until she could pay the bill, the place was practically an ice box. She went to the hall closet and grabbed the battery operated heater she kept as a backup. She dragged it to her room and plugged it up close enough to her bed to keep her warm, but far enough so that it wouldn't set her on fire.

She tossed a couple more blankets on her bed and spread them across the comforter. She changed into some fleece pajamas and fuzzy socks. Her other clothes had been carelessly tossed aside, with the exception of her scarf. She kept wrapped warmly around her neck as she climbed into bed, wrapped in her partially cold blankets. The small battery heater near the bed began to warm her up a little and made her feel cozier. Her mind drifted back to the man from the sidewalk. The one she had tried to convince herself was only a trick her eyes were playing on her. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "It was just your imagination, Trinity." She sighed as she dragged her hands down her face. "It was nothing…just forget about it…"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She let her mind go blank. The warmth from the small heater slowly began to envelope her as she began to feel cozier. She slowly began to drift off. As she was drifting off she muttered to herself one last time. "It was just your imagination."

"Repeating that over and over doesn't make it true."

The voice was not her own. And it definitely wasn't in her head. Before she could even think of moving, a heavy weight was suddenly on top of her. Someone's knee was pressed deeply into her rib cage and a large hand had pinned down both of her wrists above her head. She looked up and saw the man from earlier.

Something cold and sharp was pressed against her neck before she could scream.

"Shhh, shh, shh." He said as if he was talking to a child. "Can't have any of that." His eyes drifted to her scarf and his face twisted into a twisted grin. "I bet I know who made this. It's wonderfully crafted and looks lovely on you. But it's missing something…"

After he said that something wet and warm trickled down her neck and seeped into the scarf. It took her a moment to realize it was her own blood.

The only thing that kept from trembling was how paralyzed she was. Her mind was blank, her limbs didn't work. She didn't know what she was going to do. She was going to die.

"No…not yet." The man said. He almost spoke poetically. He slowly traced the blade over her face. He left a trail of her own blood on her face.

"What do want? Please…take whatever you want…"

He leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear. "I will."

He was closer now. Too close.

She took her chance and lifted her head slightly so she could bite his ear.

He grunted in pain and recoiled; blood streamed down from his ear. He released her wrists and eased up on her chest a little when he sat back up. She reached over and grabbed the lamp on her night stand and swung it at him. Before she could even come close to hitting him, he caught her wrist and stopped her. He pushed down on a pressure point on her hand. In an instant, her body went numb and her vision went black.

(A/N): You ever been sitting somewhere and suddenly get an idea of something to write and you just let it all out? That's what happened here. Heh. I forgot how much fun I had writing this and decided to revisit it. I wanted to write and this is what came to me. May continue because I had a blast writing this too and I think I'll have fun writing the next part too.