Chapter Text
The wheels of her roller skates hit her shoulder blades with every step she took, hanging from its laces as they were being held over her shoulder. She spotted a bench not far away, and strolled towards it. Her roller skates were dropped to the ground as she took her regular shoes off, tugging those in her backpack. Her skates, encased in dirt that covered up the shiny silver underneath, although tight at her toes, still managed to fit.
Miku sighed, these were still from her first year middle school. Next year are her finals.
She wasn’t going to grow a single centimeter is she?
It was another usual night; after hours of not being able to take her rest, she gave up and decided to sneak out. She wasn’t the kind to spend her time drunk and stoned off her ass on the streets, though there were a fair few occurrences of that happening. She preferred her roller skates rolling her through the city during its sleeping times, earbuds tucked deep inside her ears blasting out whatever song she thought fit the mood.
The fog that the news forecasted was already building up, the streetlights together with a few fellow insomniacs being the only source of light, the cars parked way too close together on an already small road, giving her street a rather haunted look. She was used to this sight however, as she has been doing this rather odd hobby for 2 years now. And knowing this city, or more specifically this street, nothing is ever going to change here. She’s even sure that she could roll through this street with her eyes closed.
As she rolled out of the street, she started to hear shouting, even through her earbuds.
Miku groaned. It’s nearing 5 AM, those assholes should've passed out in some shady corner already, covered in puke and alcohol with an unlit firework next to them.
While her neighbourhood is inhabited by old grannies and a few other black families, the surrounding neighbourhoods nearly seemed like those shitty parties she’d gone to, where people beat each other up, have sex, drink alcohol, smoke, puke and god knows what else. She’d only been to one, and that’s shown her enough.
She turned her head, immediately spotting the source of the noise. A few guys were trying to light some kind of firework, the bottles surrounding them proving that they were three sheets to the wind. The group didn’t even see her, a girl slowly appearing through the fog roller skating at 5 AM. It brought her some relief, as she had been unlucky plenty of times.
To avoid being spotted, Miku picked up her pace. She was nearing a split path, where she had the choice between going to the train rails, or to the city centre. Rolling towards a nearby streetlight, she grabbed onto it firmly, bringing herself to a stop as she considered her options. At the train rails it was difficult to skate, and if she had bad luck some gangster pretending assholes would try and ravish their surroundings; throwing bricks through left-behind buildings and throwing smoke bombs through the broken window. But then again, at the train rails was also beautiful graffiti. And to be honest, she was more in the mood of seeing graffiti than closed down shops and broken bottles, common sights in the city centre.
Miku let go of the street light, slightly losing her balance doing so. But she was an experienced roller skater, and wouldn’t fall that easily anymore. Hell she wasn’t even wearing knee-or elbow pads anymore, although her mom would probably scold her for that if she knew. She directed her strides towards the right path, the one leading to the train rails. The path was starting to get more rocky, as rolling over the stones made her entire body vibrate, the tremors disturbing the quality of her music.
The more streets she skated through, the more scarce and abandoned the houses were starting to look, indicating she was close. She also started to hear more yelling, bracing herself mentaly for some cocksuckers again. All the experiences she had with dickheads resulted in her just skating away for her life, hearing multiple racist threats and n-words thrown at her. It was a shame that place had to be a hangout spot for those asswipes, since the train rails was one of her favourite areas to visit during her insomniac times.
Through the fog, she spotted the sight of the crossing point. She turned right, and to her surprise nobody was there. The screaming was probably from some of the surrounding neighbourhoods. The road besides the rails was very brickely and covered with weeds. It wasn’t the most ideal spot for skating, but Miku couldn’t care less.
She skated at a snail’s pace, looking carefully at each graffiti on the brick walls. Most art she had seen thousands of times, but she also saw plenty of new ones. She stopped at a new piece; a green zombie-like ice cream, with a rotten tongue sticking out and two completely white eyes. Most art she saw here were tags, so a cartoonish drawing was always nice to see.
Taking a few more slow strides, she approached her most treasured piece; a yellow-ish full moon, with a silhouette of a wolf howling in front of it. It has been there for a few months now, and despite this being a hotspot for writers, she never saw any piece like this again. A shame honestly, as she’d much rather have more work of that writer on these walls than any of the graffiti of dicks.
Miku gradually rolled through the street, stopping at a few more pieces. However, as she nearly reached the end of the street, she noticed a writer. She hasn’t seen any yet tonight, so she stopped at a fair enough distance so as to not disturb them. The writer wore a hoodie, sunglasses (during the night?) and a mask, together with an almost completely black outfit. They hadn’t brought a lot of bottles, only about four. It didn’t seem like the artist was trying to make a big piece anyways, something like a throw-up.
The writer carefully sprayed, often stopping for a few seconds to look in their black book if the design was still correct. It looked like they were spraying a four letter word, but Miku couldn’t tell what it said, maybe because of the still existing fog. But what she definitely could tell is that whoever the writer was, sure a good one is. The colours matched nicely; a bright red and blue piece. The font was sharp and flashy, sure to catch anyone’s attention when passing by it.
Eventually, they stepped back. The piece was done.
‘’Well? What do ya think?’’
Miku jumped up, nearly falling doing so.
The artist, now facing Miku, took their mask off. A bright grin was hidden underneath it, as she playfully looked at her.
‘’You knew I was here the whole time?’’ Miku yelped back, ripping out her earphones.
Her laugh confirmed that the artist was a girl, and now that she was facing Miku, she could see pink streaks hidden inside that hoodie.
‘’I’m always observing my surroundings here, even when spraying,’’ she explained, taking out her phone ‘’ya don’t wanna know the pricks that live here, ya know?’’
Miku approached her a bit more, still shaky on her legs. It was first of all unusual for a female artist to spray here, and second of all it was even more weird that they were nice, and didn’t shoo you away. Now closer, she could read what the graffiti piece was saying.
D.A.D.E.
‘’Alrighty...there we go…,’’ she took a picture of her piece ‘’I’m Luka.’’
‘’Is that your artist name?” Miku asked, pointing at the piece.
Luka smirked.
‘’No, I don’t have an artist name, it’s just Luka.’’
Miku’s jaw nearly dropped to the ground. This writer sure was a weird one.
‘’What’s yar name?’’ Luka asked, taking off her hoodie, revealing a messy pink ponytail.
‘’Miku.’’ she mumbled, blood rushing to her cheeks. Oh god she’s hot af.
‘’Miku, Mi-kuuu,’’ the pinkhead dragged the last syllable out ‘’nice name, what are ya doing here so late? Making a piece?’’
Even with sunglasses on, Miku felt Luka’s gaze all over her. She awkwardly rolled her left skate over the ground, fidgeting with her hands. The pinkhead towered over her, and Miku didn’t know if it was because she was short as hell, or because Luka was freakishly tall.
Oh and worse of all, she's hot.
‘’I skate...,’’ she muttered.
‘’What?’’
‘’I skate.’’
Luka took off her sunglasses, looking down to the tealhead’s feet. Now with the glasses off, Miku could see her face more clearly. Her cheeks were covered with acne, giving her a permanent red face. And what was hidden beneath those glasses were grayish blue eyes, looking like a sky on a cloudy day; blue, but covered up by gray. Miku also noticed a rather reddish tone to her eye whites.
But fuck, she’s hot.
‘’Are you stoned?’’ Miku asked.
‘’Yah,’’ the pinkhead laughed ‘’helps with the anxiety I get from spraying. It’s stressful, ya know?’’
‘’But like, dude. There isn’t an eraser for graffiti paint,’’ Miku argued back ‘’What if you laugh because you’re wasted af, and end up with some crooked line.’’
Those gray eyes observed her for a moment, and Miku felt herself cowering back slightly. Out of everything she had expected to happen, she didn’t expect to meet some kind of junkie spraying down a piece, and especially not expect them to be an asshole and fucking hot as well. If only the pinkhead wasn’t such a stoner, then maybe Miku would ask her about being a graffiti writer. But big chance she’ll get some kind of half-assed answer.
‘’Ah, who cares. Have ya seen the dicks sprayed?’’ Luka groaned ‘’bet ya that those are more crooked than my pieces.’’
Okay, that was pretty funny. Miku snorted.
‘’But what are ya doing here? Just skating?’’ Luka leaned down to grab her bag filled with graffiti bottles, throwing it over her shoulder.
‘’Pretty much, I can’t sleep so I come here to skate and look at the art here,’’ Miku responded.
‘’Ya never sprayed then?’’
‘’Nope.’’
A big grin appeared on her face, creating dimples in her cheek. She opened her bag and pulled out a graffiti bottle.
‘’Spray some tits here,’’ the pinkhead laughed ‘’something else than those dicks.’’
‘’What?!’’ Miku yelped ‘’dude I haven’t even known you for 10 minutes!’’
‘’Who cares? If ya are so fascinated by the pieces here, spray something!’’
Miku looked down to the bottle, seemingly containing black paint. Was she serious? Not only did she gladly start a conversation with her after she was watching her spray for a couple of minutes, but now she was offering her to spray something? She couldn’t be serious. Most writers here would’ve called her the n-word and thrown a brick at her. Or they’d just run away, thinking she was the police or something. But that chick was so weird, and Miku was contemplating whether that was because she was stoned, or a strange one in general. Hell, maybe she's acting so nice and pretending to be nice, just to drug her and tie her down to the train rails and leave her for death.
As unrealistic as that sounded, the psychopaths around here aren’t disproving her that it isn’t possible.
‘’Why are you offering me this?’’ Miku asked cockily ‘’if you’re using this to frame me to cops then I’m smashing your face straight into these brick walls, hoping your blood leaves a nice piece.’’
‘’Fuck man,’’ Luka held a hand to her chest, pretending to be offenended.
But still, her eyes trailed back down to the bottle laying in the taller one’s gloved hand. Then again, she didn’t earn enough money from her side line to buy graffiti bottles. And it has always been a dream of hers to spray her own pieces, even if her black book was filled with terrible sketches. And hell, to be offered this by this goddess looking lady, although a stoner, should she really let this chance slip?
Luka took note of her staring.
‘’Listen Miku, I ain’t armed or anything and I don’t have any connections to cops or a gang or sum, I just see that you love graffiti, and I want to see you try it,’’ the pink head admitted.
Miku’s hand reached out, glancing up one more time to Luka’s stoned eyes. She gave her an encouraging smile, those dimples stretching out even more.
‘’Okay, fuck you,’’ she grabbed the bottle ‘’I don’t even know how to use this, should’ve known what you signed up for man.’’
‘’Take of yar skates first, or it’ll be your blood on the bricks.’’
The tealhead rolled her eyes, squatting down carefully before falling butt down onto the ground. She took hold of the laces on the right skate, as Luka strolled off to find a clean spot. While she untied the laces, she looked up, staring straight at the pinkhead’s ass.
Fuck, why did she have to be so hot.
Now only having her pink pastel Pusheen socks on her feet, she walked through the fog to find Luka, cringing at the damp and rocky feeling it left at the bottom of her feet. Better wash these socks herself or her mom will find out that she still goes out late at night, on socks even.
"Found a nice spot over here," she heard Luka yell not far away, seeing her faint silhouette in the distance.
Said spot was on one of the last brick walls located besides the train rails. It barely had any other pieces on it. Miku stopped and stood besides Luka.
"Okay, how do I use this?" the teal head questioned, rolling the bottle from one hand to the other.
Luka grinned and placed her gloved hand over Miku's. Miku could've sworn all the blood inside her vessels flew up to her freckled cheeks.
"Watch and learn."
///---///
Not in a million years did Miku think the first piece she ever would’ve made, would be a smiley face with crosses as eyes, while she was instructed by a stoned pinkhead. Said pinkhead laughed loudly, applauding as Miku sprayed the last line for the left cross eye. Now that her piece was finished, she uncovered her mouth, tugging her hoodie back underneath her jacket. The stank of the paint hit her nose instantly, making her scrunch her face up. But even with the terrible metallic stench, a smile crept up on her face.
Who would’ve thought that on a night like this, she’d get to experience this?
‘’And?’’ Luka asked close to her ear, placing her hand on her shoulder ‘’Did ya like it?’’
‘’Dude, I never thought I’d learn how to graffiti from someone like you,’’ Miku smirked, although her voice was slightly shaky.
Luka laughed, wrapping the arm that was on Miku’s shoulder around her neck, and pulling out her phone with her other hand. Miku averted eye contact with the taller one, looking back at her just sprayed piece.
‘’Say Miku, it’s nearing 6 and big chance we both have our jobs to do,’’ Luka spoke, shoving her phone underneath the tealhead’s nose, showing the time ‘’so-.’’
‘’Fuck!’’ Miku blurted out when seeing the time. 5:54 AM? Her mom would wake her up at 6:30 AM, so big chance her mom’s alarm would go off in a few minutes. And fuck, she also had school at 8:30 AM. Why did her insomnia have to curse her under these circumstances?
She bolted towards where she left behind her roller skates, quickly stepping into them and tying the laces.
‘’Wait! Give me ya my phone number real quick!’’ Luka called back.
‘’Fine! Make it quick!’’ she responded, now tying her left skates’ laces.
The pinkhead walked over, holding out her phone ready to make a new contact. Although about wobbly on her skates now, Miku typed in her number. Once done so, she quickly turned around and started skating, her strides short and fast as she picked up pace rapidly.
‘’Great, thx!’’ Luka yelled ‘’I’ll text ya again sometime!’’
Miku had absolutely no idea what just happened. But one thing she was now sure of.
She has a new crush.