[center][h3][color=7bcdc8]Ming Hua/Noah[/color][/h3][/center]
The night before, Ming Hua had returned to the streets.

Or, perhaps rather, he had dreamt about it. The memory of a thing that hadn't been was foggy in his mind, but he could remember bare feet slapping against gravel paths, stinging as they bled and left crimson footprints in their wake, but the pain bearable because he was laughing, and silhouettes around him were too. He thought there was an angry voice behind them, but their chuckles and boisterous giggles were too loud for them to hear, or indeed care. They had cut across the road as one fleet, one flock of runaway geese, and right before them was a stream. They had jumped right in - five children, wearing their only set of clothes, without a care because there was no one to scold them for it - and before Ming Hua could feel the slap of water against his face, he had started awake.

His blood was pumping, and his forehead was dotted with perspiration. He could hear his heart thundering in his ears, and as he focused on the room around him - safe, four-walled, and closed - Ming Hua felt a smile come to his face.

Five hours later, with the sun well up and fierce in the sky, Ming Hua was strolling down the streets, with his hands in his pockets. It was a good day to be outdoors, and he passed by a woman in a biking helmet, her bicycle propped up against a tree as she tended to her toddler in the attached pram beneath the shade. Most, however, were at work or school. But the weather and the dream that had had Ming Hua's blood rushing in his sleep had lured him out of the classroom.

So far he had haunted the roads, sprinted barefoot with his shoes in his hands as he felt the callouses on his soles being beaten alive again. But it wasn't the same. Not when he knew Mrs Rochester was likely to ask him about his truancy when they reconvened in her home again, and he would be expected to be indebted and remorseful for his behaviour. It was her roof after all, and Ming Hua was nothing but an intruder.

Ming Hua turned into the beach, grains of sand coming to stick between his toes. He wouldn't stay too long, or else risk having his skin rubbed raw. He thought he saw a napping figure resting in the yawning shadow of a moored boat, but he wasn't close enough to see. He walked the length of the beach for a while, seeing a fishing boat out in the distance, lulled by the crystalline waves of the sea into a gentle rock. With nothing left to see, Ming Hua began to turn around and head aimlessly to another place.

And then he heard a scream.

Ming Hua whirled around. The boat that had had two figures standing on it was now empty, and he felt a sinking feeling of ominosity in the pit of his stomach. Around its hull, he could see a body splashing in the water in a bid to recover from going overboard. But where was the other one?

There was a cry from the road, and Ming Hua looked over his shoulder to see the pram, unattended, chubby fists waving at nothing from inside.

[color=00a99d][i]Something's not right,[/i][/color] Ming Hua thought, his mouth turning dry. Before he could reconsider - and regain his senses - Ming Hua chucked his shoes on the shore, and began to run into the sea.

He jumped in, and felt the cold lick of water he didn't know until now he had been craving.

Stroking the water with clean cuts, Ming Hua swam his way over to the boat, going against the current but keeping his eyes fixed on the floundering shape ahead. When at last he reached, he gripped shoulders tightly so the person would know he was there. His heart was beating wildly again, and Ming Hua would have smiled at the wonderful, tight feeling in his chest, too small to contain the powerful organ.

Wrapping his arms around the girl - he could see it was a girl now, with light blonde hair that was now matted with seawater - he began to kick them towards the boat. With the last of his strength he hauled the girl over the hull of the boat so she could pull herself back on.

Ming Hua crossed his arms over the side of the boat, keeping himself afloat by hanging onto its wooden side. His feet lazily pedalled in the current of the water, and slowly he felt his breath return to him.

He looked over at the girl. [color=00a99d]"Were you going to look for mermaids, or did you just fall in?"[/color] he asked between low pants, his eyes sweeping the bottom of the boat. [color=00a99d]"Decent-sized fish. Would make a good dinner."[/color] He swept his sopping fringe out his eyes, before he squinted at her, as though it was the first time he was peering closely at her. [color=00a99d]"What's your name?"[/color]