A/N: New story! Chase and Ivy are fifteen, picks up a few weeks after the last chapter of Stripes and Feathers.

We were meeting Chase's infamous criminal friend. I told him it was time we got passports and credit cards. So, Chase decided we do it illegally. We had no proof of our existence for the past fifteen years, so it was really our only choice.

I waited, hugging my jacket to me. It was always windy in Baltimore. There was this salty breeze I didn't even know I'd missed. We were at a corner in a abandoned-looking area of Baltimore. Any kind of trouble, and we'd just fly away.

A man rounded the corner. He had a scruffy beard and looked like his bulky, greasy jacket had been dragged through miles of mud. I bet we looked like that too, so I decided not to judge him yet.

"You guys Chase and Ivy?" the man asked.

"I'm Chase," he said, stepping up.

"And I'm Ivy," I said, glaring at him and pushing past. He was not going to get all protective on me. Until he decided on a birthday, I was the oldest.

"You guys need new identity documents?" he asked. Chase nodded before I could.

"Give me two hundred and I'll arrange a meeting," the guy said. Chase handed him the money. He took it and took out a grimy cell phone. As he dialed, I thought the whole thing was pretty suspicious.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Just call me Bub, sweetheart," he smiled with nasty yellow teeth. He spoke quickly on the phone to this guy called Steve. He hung up. "See that diner up the street? In an hour, you'll meet a friend of mine there."

He walked off and I stared after him. "That's your criminal friend? Bub?" I asked Chase.

"Hey, he got us a house," he defended himself. I shot him a disapproving look, but he shrugged it off.

"Let's go meet Steve," he said.

! #$%^&*

"Maybe we should order something," I said to Chase nervously. It had been an hour and this Steve guy still wasn't here.

"Calm down," Chase told me, taking both of my hands in his.

"It's just… when we were with Dr. Martinez, we did everything legally," I said, frowning.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry." I looked again at the door. It opened and this guy, younger than Bub but equally filthy walked in. I lifted my head a fraction of an inch and Chase caught it, dropping my hands and turning around slowly.

The guy had already reached our booth. "I'm Steve," he drew out.

"I'm Chase," Chase said. Steve nodded, sitting down.

"We're gonna start with IDs," he said. "I'm gonna ask you some questions. Who goes first?"

"I will," I volunteered.

"First name?"

"Ivy."

"Middle name?"

"Uh…"

"Just pick something."

"Adelyn."

"Nice choice. Last name?"

"Avenue."

"Birth date?"

"January 3rd 1998."

"Birthplace?"

"Baltimore."

"Hospital?"

"Johns Hopkins." The man nodded, having written all this down on a notepad I hadn't noticed earlier.

"Now you, young man. First name?"

"Chase."

"Middle name?"

"Hmm," Chase thought out loud.

"Oh, pick James!" I said.

"James," he told Steve.

"Last name?"

"Avenue," Chase said without thinking.

"Are you two related?" Steve asked. He looked at our clasped hands.

"Married?" he tried.

"No," I said.

"Yes," Chase answered. I glared at him.

"If you guys are related, it'll look really bad if you do want to get married," Steve told us.

"We're not related. My girlfriend and I have the same last name. Funny coincidence." Girlfriend? Much better. No way am I going to pass off as married, not yet at least.

"Pick something else, buddy," Steve said.

"Ride," Chase said, the only other name he could think of.

"Birth date?"

"January 1st, 1998."

"What? Now you're older?" I asked Chase, indignant. He smirked.

"Scratch that. I'm older. How about his birthday is in February," I told Steve.

"3rd," Chase added.

"How sweet," Steve muttered, writing it down.

"Hospital?"

"Johns Hopkins." The man nodded.

"Hopefully I'll be able to pass off the sweet story of two kids who were born in the same hospital, one month exactly after the other, and later met and fell in love. I'll say it was fate," Steve said. He smiled crookedly and left.

I frowned at Chase. "I'm older," I said.

"How do you know that for sure?" Chase taunted.

"It's what we've always said!" I hissed. "And you can't pick the same last name as me! That would be gross and wrong!"

Chase smiled like it was funny to make me mad. "Let's go 'home'," I told him.

"Why do you say it like that?"

"It's missing a wall.

Can't you make a wall fly up to our house? It gets cold at night," I told Chase.

"Why don't you buy a heater and touch it to keep it running all night?"

"I want a wall, or else I'm leaving for Colorado."

"You wouldn't," he mocked.

"Watch me," I warned.

"Oh, come on, you wouldn't last two seconds without me."

"I was flock leader, and you bet I bloody well can!" I shouted. What can I say, too much Harry Potter in my youth.

"Why are you mad?" he called out.

"I want a wall!" I shouted, storming out of the restaurant. I bet if you see this scruffy-looking teenage girl in a bad part of town, screaming: "I want a wall" to another dodgy-looking teenager, you'd call the cops. I wouldn't blame you.

He ran outside after me. I stopped, turning around. "Please? It would be like a real home then," I told him. Chase sighed.

"Fine. I'll move some trash over and I'll nail it down." I smiled and he looked relieved.

"We also need to fix the Pit," I added. The Pit is what we named the hole in our living room floor. Our house has issues. On the bright side, you have an amazing view of the basement.

I snapped my wings out and flew up to the dump. It's not like anyone was there to watch. Past the dump is the "house" we live in. Yes, the one with the missing pieces of flooring and walls.

We landed in front of it and I took out the key. Why we have a key, I don't know. Anyone could walk through the back wall, because, oh, there isn't one. I turned the doorknob and walked in. It was a little chilly because another hole had ripped in the plastic covering where there should be a wall.

I grabbed the duct tape, one of our few possessions, and patched it up. "Hey, can I start a fire?" I asked. Chase nodded from his couch, something we'd picked up from the dump. It was ripped up, but oh well. The mangled remains on random pieces of wiring from a broken TV's guts were on top of the small pile of wood in the fireplace.

I touched the TV guts and the pile sparked. The wood caught on fire instantly. I love electrical fires. I turned to Chase.

"We can go to the dump. If there are any broken heaters, I bet I can fix them, and you can find wall stuff," I suggested.

"Sure," Chase said. I opened a window and climbed through, flying out. Doors are boring. I flew over the dump and landed in it. Since we'd found a working phone in it last week, I'd regained faith in the dump.

Luckily, our bed came with the house. No way I would sleep on anything from here. I walked carefully, trying not to slip on junk. Chase landed next to me and shuffled over. I spotted a TV.

I straightened the antenna and touched it lightly. It crackled to life and showed the news. I smiled. I felt Chase's arms around my shoulders. "You're amazing," he said.

I turned around and gave him the TV. "Fly this back to the house. I'll see if I can find anything else."

I pressed the power button and the TV fell silent. With a kiss on my forehead, Chase flew away, holding the TV in his arms. I walked forward again. There was another TV, but this one had its screen bashed in.

I spotted a heater and walked towards it. I touched it but it didn't respond to electricity. I moved on, seeing a blanket. It had a few holes but was okay. I picked it up. I saw a computer, again it didn't respond to electricity.

I spotted another heater. Fingers crossed, I waded over to it. I touched it and it vibrated. I touched it again, and it started lighting up. I held my hand over it and felt heat. I smiled in triumph.

Chase landed next to me and I have him the big heater. "It works," I told him. He smiled at me. "Let's carry it together," I suggested. I wrapped the heater in the blanket.

We each took one end of the wrapped heater and started flying towards the "house." We landed in front of it and it opened the door, pulling it in. Our house actually had a second floor, so we flew the heater up to our bedroom.

The TV was already on the dresser, one of the few items of furniture the house had. I sat on the bed and touched the heater until it gurgled to life. I put the blanket on the bed. I lied down on my side of the bed and picked up the charcoal.

I'd drawn a scene like the one in the house I'd shared with Chase and Avery back when all three of us were in Baltimore. I sighed, remembering Avery. She used to be Chase's pretend sister.

I'd drawn snow and huskies and a sled, along with a wolf. I was working on the wolf's eyes. It was almost finished. I scraped the piece of charcoal along the wall, sitting on the bed.

"How do you make the TV work?" Chase asked. The object in question fell into my lap. I touched it quickly then pressed the power button. As soon as I'd let go, Chase flew it back to him.

The man on TV started droning about the weather in Baltimore. Chase watched attentively as I finished the wolf. I took a step back. It was finished. "Done," I announced.

I felt Chase's arms wrap around me. "It's beautiful, as always." I curled into him, his warmth the only thing not cold in this damn house.

"Hey, can I draw on your side of the room?"

"You can draw on my face if you want to," Chase answered, only half-joking.

"'I've always wanted to see what you'd look like in a mustache," I joked. I stood up and walked over to his side. I pulled up a broken, duct-taped chair and sat on it. I wrote in fancy, flowery script: Ivy Adelyn Avenue and Chase James Ride.

"Do you have a mirror?" I asked. A mirror fell into my lap. "Thanks," I mumbled, looking at myself. I had a heart-shaped face, wide gray eyes, freckles, loosely wavy light brown hair.

In a few, imprecise lines, I'd sketched out my face accurately. I didn't need to look at Chase's face. I'd memorized it through and through. I sketched his handsome dark eyes, his nose, his jaw, and his always-ruffled dark brown hair.

I yawned. I'd add in the details. "I'm going to bed," I told Chase. He got up and turned off the TV. I got into bed next to him, shivering a little. I tapped the heater and it started warming up the room.

Chase hugged me closer. We might have been freezing, scavenging, unlawful mutants, but I was managing. I had all I'd ever needed right next to me.

A/N: AWWW! Now review, please!