For the greater month, there had been only consistency as far as the weather was concerned. Warm days which progressively got colder and colder as nightfall descended upon Crocus, setting up the usual scene of merchants and traders alike flocking from their stalls to the network of taverns and inns which lined through the city. She had only been in Crocus for a short while herself, but even Leyaria was quickly getting a familiar feel for how to operate within the city. Though she was reluctant to say, she was becoming far more familiar with some of the usual faces she had come to see on a nightly basis, almost to the point of perhaps being friendly?

She had at first assumed it to have been another such night. Enter with a large group of patrons to a nearby tavern, one in which she hoped she would be able to disappear within, find a nice warm place to rest for a bit before either being removed or otherwise leaving on her own accord – ideally the next morning. It had worked more times that she had originally expected it to have, though there were a few notable problems, particularly the one tavern she had gone to a couple of nights earlier, the one where she had been forced to flee and as a consequence, doing some considerable damage to her leg. Though having patched the wound up, it was still not at 100%; there was still discomfort to it. Not enough to stop her from being able to walk, but little more than that.

There was a certain familiarity to wherever she had wandered into; the names at this point being nothing to her other than a way to notate that this one was in the slightest of ways different from that one. It had taken her a moment before she could exactly tell what it was that that seemed off. There were more than what she usually expected of people there, possibly on account of some concerns that the weather might be ‘less than ideal’ as some described it. Most didn’t pay much heed to it, instead wondering what to drink first, and Leyaria was no exception. She had been just about ready to grab whatever the bartender put before her when he stopped, causing her to look up and stare as the color escaped from her face.

“I thought I had made it clear before! You are NOT welcome here!” Roared out the bartender, the same one that had been present and shunned Leyaria away just the few nights prior. By all luck, or misfortunate as it would probably be more appropriately described as, she had returned to that very same place! Fully intent on getting up herself, she felt a pair of powerful hands forcing a tight hold onto both of her shoulders, physically lifting her up and out of her seat. If there was anything to take positively out of this situation, it was that the man seemed to try to make this process as discrete as possible.

Once she was thrown out of the bar, flying several feet in the air as landed on the ground, on the same leg which she had hurt earlier no less, whatever effort to be discrete there was had faded. Pain rung throughout her leg, as Leyaria held back tears, making what little of an effort she could to find shelter of some respect. Looking up, the amassing of clouds only managed to get Leyaria to curse under her breath; rain, and by the looks of it, a good bit of it at least. With the streets otherwise abandoned and nobody from the bar likely to go out and check on her given her exit, she struggled on her own to get out of the main path, left to practically drag herself along the streets, unable to put any real pressure on her leg. By the time she had reached the nearest alleyway and gotten a chance to rest against the wall, the chance of rain had eroded away into a full-fledged downpour, torrents of rain falling down upon Leyaria, masking her tears as she wished to have been anywhere else but here.

There seemed to be no indication that the rain was going to relent. If anything, it appeared as though it would continue, at points even seeming to be even more heavy in downpour than before. It wasn't long until the downpour drowned out whatever tears Leyaria still shed, the pitfalls of her situation simply being as they were, outside of her control from this point forward.

Alone. Injured. In Crocus without any idea as far as to what might happen tomorrow or even what may happen in a couple of hours for that matter. And without any reasonable ability or keen proficiency to rely on her Magic, she was as vulnerable as anyone, if not more. She looked down at her leg, seeing a faint reddish stain appearing over the bandages that had been wrapped around it. The wound reopened... Damn it... Although it did look bad, even from that view, it could have been much worse; though Leyaria was hardly in the mindset of looking on the brightside to what amounted to a poor situation regardless. After all, what was worse than being effectively trapped in an alleyway in the pouring rain?

She lifted her head up in defeat, hoping that the rain might lessen, even for just a briefest of moments, so that she might have gotten a bit of sleep. The greater likelihood of all of this was that she was going to have to spend her night here, and if so, she would have at least liked for something to rest comfortably on. Peering her head down, she expected to have found something, maybe a piece of wood or something that could have functioned as an impromptu roof, but rather she found something that surprised - if not also shocked - her; what appeared to have been a woman, who looked to have been watching her.

In her hands, she held something, though Leyaria struggled with trying to decipher just what it was. Had the rain stopped, even for a moment, she might have been able to tell what it said, but right now she was confined to struggling to make out individual letters between the blanketing rain. Giving up on this useless vantage point, she got up, disregarding her leg for the moment which immediately she came to regret. Even before she stood up fully, Leyaria found herself falling back to the ground as her leg completely gave out. A scream of pain echoed out from her, partially drowned out by the sound of rain, very quickly by a boom of thunder that resonated through Crocus.

Grasping her hand in hopes of calming the pain that resonated even further now through her, Leyaria began to basically crawl towards the woman, very slowly moving towards her before finding the pain in her leg to be non subsiding. After making some more of an effort to travel what would otherwise amount to a couple of steps, she found herself leaning back against the nearest wall she could find, panting with exhaustion, pain still running through her body. Looking up, she hoped that the distance covered would be enough, and as she looked at the direction of the woman and her sign, Leyaria couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the message.

If she had been OK earlier, now wasn't so much the case.

The feeling of the rain as it fell against her face was becoming a numbing one, barely managing to as much distract her away from the pain in her leg as it did torment her, in a sense almost mocking her for her existence. Seemingly alone in the alleyway, the closest thing to company at this point being the mysterious woman who now Leyaria wasn't even sure was there or not still. But after the preceding moments, of Leyaria's leg giving out, of the pain that resonated and how she effectively collapsed in agony, there was little to suspect that she would stay very much longer.

Hardly a shock. Not like anyone would want me as company anyway... Her mind trailed as sadness overtook her. Her present predicament as much reflected the idea of isolation and loneliness that she felt often, though only worse at the moment. It was in her despair that she had completely failed to notice the figure moving towards her, the soft hands outstretching and wrapping around her. Opening her eyes in shock, Leyaria saw her, the same woman - the who she had believed had left her - assisting her. Someone actually offering to help Leyaria; a rarity that she couldn't remember the last time happening.

Almost too shocked to even react to what was going on, Leyaria simply followed the woman's lead, leveraging what of her body weight she could to assist in moving her as the pink-haired beauty brought her out of the rain into a nearby sheltered area. It wasn't much, but it certainly served its purpose, and in her current state, she was hardly in any sort of position to complain. Pain still coursed through her leg as the reddish color to it began to wane away, grasping the lightest indication that the worst of the damage was done. Once safely laying on the ground, Leyaria simply looked at the woman, trying to as much decipher her motivations as she was trying to find the right words to say, the right way to thank her.

Her voice was hoarse, weak. At first she hadn't realized that the ordeal only moments earlier had so heavily drained her. "Thank... you..." she managed to stammer out, emotion running heavy in her words as the older woman spoke. Bianca. It was the name that she gave herself and with her name came more words of concern and care. To Leyaria, it was almost too much, foreign even. She was more than accustomed to being ignored and left to fend for herself, but what she was seeing here, it was actually a bit odd, if not even surprising.

It took her a moment, but she finally spoke again, her voice slowly starting to return as her trust in the woman began to grow, "I don't know what to do. It hurts, but it doesn't hurt as much as it did before." An awkward silence took over as Leyaria exchanged glances between her leg and the woman who was trying to tend to it. "Bianca," she began as she looked at the woman, "That's a nice name. I'm Leyaria... Thank you..."

They could hear the sounds of the rain as it continued to pound down against Crocus, the roof in their makeshift providence away out of the rain being one of the true benefits to their current predicament. Tragically, it provided little assistance to the matter of Leyaria's leg, whatever strength she might have been able to provide to it having long since been drained away earlier. That even with Bianca's help she was able to move at all was a remarkable thing, but that the same woman was still there with her rather than just leaving her behind was perhaps the most incredible thing of it.

Leyaria adjusted herself slightly so that she could get a better angle at her leg. It wasn't a pretty sight; the only positive takeaways that she could immediately see from it were the lacking of any bone protruding from it, nor any signs of infection, though the latter would take longer to notice than the former. She also caught another glance at Bianca, a look of concern on her face which only caused Leyaria to frown in return. It's not your fault; it's mine! An echo of thunder rippled through Crocus, though the sound seemed to weaken compared to earlier, giving hope to the young woman that the rain might begin to let up itself. Glancing out to see the rain drops continue to pelt down furiously onto the ground, Leyaria looked back again at Bianca, mustering up a small smile in spite of the pain that she was still feeling.

"It's my fault really," she said, hoping to alleviate Bianca, "I hurt it earlier when I was here. Just stupid of me, once the rain... Or should I say if the rain lets up at all, I'll see to getting it checked." With how the rain was coming down, even with the thunder sounding like it was beginning to travel from Crocus, there wasn't any reason to think it was actually going to let up. It had been how long now that it had been raining; to think in the next few minutes that it would be better was foolhardy.

She listened as Bianca asked a few questions about her, to which she smiled. "Hargeon actually. Can't tell you why my parents chose the name, unfortunately." She never knew why she was named the way she was, but in the back of her mind, Leyaria always imagined that it was reflective of her mother's dreams for her. But that left the question was it actually her mother's dreams or just what the drugs made her think. Because of that, she opted to never give it much thought. When Bianca asked about her hair though, a smile appeared upon Leyaria's face. "My sister actually. Growing up, she always worried about me, said that a girl with blue hair and a green highlight, it was going to be something that stood out." A tear began to descend down her cheek, "She'd always be able to find me. And I guess I just kept it going since..."

She noticed the tear and swiped it away; memories like that, the level of care that her sister displayed towards her, they were as precious to her as they were painful to remember. But now was neither the time nor the place to lament and mourn; she had done enough of that since she had arrived in Crocus. "I really like the pink color your hair has too! Looks really nice!" It looked almost like a fine silk, even in spite of the two of them probably being equally drenched. "Uh, Bianca. If I may ask, what were doing in an alley?"

As the rain pounded against the hard cobblestone pathway which paved the alleyway, Leyaria thought slightly about the tavern that she had been thrown out of only a short time earlier. Had it been anywhere else, any of the numerous other places located within the city, the circumstances would be different. She wouldn't have been thrown out, she wouldn't have re-injured her leg, and perhaps she would have had a normal night, at least as close to normal as she could get. But at the same time, as she continued to listen to the sound of the rain as it descended down, she realized that had she gone elsewhere, she might not have met Bianca. It felt strange, even foreign, to Leyaria, to have someone express any sort of concern or caring towards her. It had been so long since anyone had shown any degree of care towards her, she had forgotten what it was like.

Bianca reassured her that the rain would stop soon, to which was almost immediately met with the sound of another loud boom of thunder. It was almost a comical sequence of events, to which Leyaria couldn't help but chuckle very slightly at. But what her laughter didn't show was how touched she was by the generosity that Bianca was displaying towards her. "Thank you..." She stammered out, a part of her unsure if the woman was serious or if she was just trying to trick Leyaria. Leyaria was reluctant to believe the latter; perhaps it was her past experiences, but she felt like this was time was different. There was something different about this woman.

"Oak Town? I don't think I've ever been there before," Leyaria remarked as she thought about where she had been in Fiore. Her travels had taken her throughout a number of different locations now, but she couldn't recall every having arrived there before. Perhaps it was for the best that she hadn't, the more she thought about it. She perked her head up upon hearing that Bianca had been in Hargeon before. I wonder if she was there when... It's possible, I suppose. While possible, a part of her was inclined to think that the two of them weren't in Hargeon at the same time. She felt like she would have recognized someone like Bianca had the two of them met before.

What perhaps most surprised Leyaria was the request made of Bianca, to call her Ley. Only one person had otherwise called her Ley; her sister. "Uh, sure. You can call me that," she said slightly uneasily. She didn't have a problem with Bianca using the nickname; it just felt odd having someone else call her a name that otherwise had been exclusive to her sister. As she watched the woman take a seat next to her, Leyaria smiled slightly. Seeing the woman next to her, it almost made her forget entirely about her leg. They were just two women waiting out the rain, rather than Bianca tending to an injured Leyaria.

"That's incredible," she remarked as the pinkette explained what seemed like an unnatural ability to tell when it could rain. Once upon a time, Leyaria might not have put much belief behind it, but with how her world had changed in the last few years, that stance had changed. Although reluctantly, she had come to start accepting the reality that there were things outside of what conventionally happened in the world, or rather, the normal world.

When Bianca asked about Leyaria's leg, she looked down and frowned very slightly. Since the woman had taken a seat next to her, Leyaria had completely forgotten about her leg. To some degree, it was probably for the best that she had been reminded it, as had she attempt to stand it would have only caused more damage beyond what else she had inflicted upon it. She leaned her head back slightly as it gently made contact with the wall of the enclosure, sighing as she prepared herself. "My leg... I uh, well I guess it happened a couple of nights earlier. I got, how should I put this?" She paused for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe what happened, "Something happened, something bad that forced me to run, and I guess I was careless and lost my footing. And between trying to scrounge up a couple of jewels and finding a place that's even somewhat warm and dry, I haven't had much time to rest."

She closed her eyes, embarrassed at having admitted that. It seemed like most people had already come to an opinion about Leyaria once they saw the black marks that littered her body; rarely did she ever have to reveal that she was about as poor as poor could be. And to reveal it to someone like Bianca, a woman who quite clearly lived under much better circumstances, Leyaria prayed that this woman would not view her as trash like how most people had come to.