There was a loud crunch under her kitten-heeled toes as she walked, and it was hard not to notice the bitter chill that was biting its way through her coat with icy teeth. The bag over her shoulders ached, and once again she cursed the day her mother had signed her up for a job at a local’s lawyer’s office that required her to bring her own typewriter. Couldn’t the lawyer do his ow trying? she’d asked. He has fingers, doesn’t he?
Her questions were met with an evil look from her mother (but a poorly-hidden chuckle from her good old dad), so she zipped her red-painted lips and walked the 5 blocks to work that morning in the cold. Still, the day hadn’t been all bad; there was another typer there, and her name was Piper, and she was really nice (even if Amelia Amy had some trouble understanding her accent, sometimes).
She was on her way home when the snow beneath her feet became less interesting. The sound of a fight --- a grunt, the sickening crunch of a punch, and the sound of something hitting the snow and scrambling back up --- caught the 22-year-old’s attention, and she peered into a dirty alleyway that Brooklyn was full of, and gasped at the sight.
There was a fight, alright. Or at least... half a fight. The very large man was sending most of his time above the remarkably small one, although he had his own stamina to hold him up. Bloody, bruised, with an eye almost completely swollen shut, the underdog looked a little worse for wear --- but the big guy didn’t stop!
“Hey!” Amy screamed, not sounding very ladylike at all. She marched into the alleyway, red hair flipped behind her shoulders in the cold wind and kitten heals slicking slightly on the icy, wet concrete. “What the hell’s wrong with you? You’re gonna kill him!” The big guy barely gave her a glance before punching the littler one again, square in the handsome, chiseled jaw. As usual, she didn’t think through her next decision. “Hey, fuck you!” Amy said, thinking that might shock the big one long enough for the little one to get away.
It was a bad decision. The big one turned around abruptly, shocked and obviously quite appalled that a dame would say such a thing, and to him, of all people! He stalked over to Amy, only a few steps, and she looked over his shoulder at the littler one and made a motion to run. Run, you idiot! He won’t hit a girl! Run!
The big guy raised his arm, fisted his fingers, and made to punch Amy. But the sound of a police whistle stopped him, and soon there were several officers detaining the (drunk, Amy now noticed) man. One of the officers gave the littler man a tired look and rolled his eyes. While the other officer led the big man away, he spoke to the little one.
“Damnit, Rogers. You gotta quit doin’ this, y’hear? D’you think if your mom was still with us --- God rest her soul,” he paused to cross himself, “ --- that she’d want y’to go off fighting’ everybody who pissed you off? Go home, Steve. Clean up. And don’t let me catch y’again, okay?”
Both officers were gone before Amy regained enough intelligent consciousness to walk over to the little one, Steve, with worried eyes. “You okay?” She asked quietly, suddenly extremely shy, and not sounding anything like the sailor she must’ve seemed like before. “Oh, of course you’re not! You’re bleeding. C’mon. My house is right around this corner. My momma’s not home and we can get you cleaned up, yeah?”