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Lisanna wouldn’t have told anyone if they asked, but it had been her idea.
Not the whole police showing up part and certainly not the drinking, but the protest itself…
It had sounded like a good idea at the time and every one of her friends had agreed to it. Unfortunately, that meant that every single one of her friends was now in trouble. And it had all been for such a good cause, too…
From the age of fourteen, Lisanna had known she wanted to do something with her life and the something she wanted to do was save the environment. She had a special passion for helping animals in particular, something it seemed to her that the government wasn’t doing very much. So by the time she was eighteen, she had made quite a few friends who felt the same way, although in varying degrees, and they had all set out to do some good, even if it was in a bit of a ‘bad’ way.
Okay, so the government wasn’t a huge fan of their methods, but Lisanna knew her rights, one of which was the right to protest peacefully. And so that was what they did. And they did it often.
Lots of words had been made up to describe people like Lisanna and her friends, but the one she liked the best was ‘hippie’. Although she leaned more to the bohemian side of being a hippie, she was involved in the communities and found she quite agreed with a lot of the beliefs, ideas, and lifestyles. For one thing, she certainly thought the government wasn’t much good. All it did was control people, and it hurt animals and the environment without a care.
That’s where her idea had come in. She and her friends and their friends and their communities protested in a lot of different places, depending on what it was they were against, but this time Lisanna had a specific spot in mind. And a specific thing they were against.
Once everyone had agreed, they had gone bearing their signs and their drinks to the capitol building, to protest the destruction of a feral colony of cats. Although Lisanna had not agreed to them bringing along alcohol, thank you very much. One thing had led to another and soon, they were protesting the treatment of the environment itself.
If Lisanna hadn’t been so caught up in the cause, she might have thought to get everyone out of there. She might have seen how close her fellow protesters were to violence, how rowdy they were getting.
Instead, when the first fist fights broke out between her people and the police, she didn’t notice until it was too late. She and a few other people had started yelling for everyone to bolt before looking to flee themselves.
A random young man around her age had been walking past the capitol building at the time of their protest. On the assumption that he was moving towards a vehicle, she had run after him.
Luck had been on her side and when she saw him unchain a motorcycle and jump on it, she had been just close enough to get on it too.
“Hey!” He’d exclaimed, twisting around to look at her.
“Just drive, you! Get out of here!”
A strange white-haired hippie yelling in his ear and the police closing in had been enough to get the confused pink-haired man racing away from the capitol building at full speed, his unexpected passenger still on board.
Lisanna had wrapped her arms around him, for fear of falling off the rapidly moving motorcycle, and now, twenty minutes later, she still hadn’t moved. Or even spoken to her unwitting savior.
“So where are we going?” She asked him, finally taking her own situation into account. “And what’s your name?”
“Somewhere far away from those police officers!” The man exclaimed. “Oh man, when they find out this isn’t even my motorcycle, having helped you will be the least of my problems!” He took a sharp right, towards the edge of town. “My name’s Natsu, by the way.”
“I’m Lisanna.” She said quickly. “This isn’t your motorcycle?”
Natsu tossed his head roughly, like his hair was in his face. “Do you think I’d drive something this inefficient and bad for the environment normally? Nah, I was just running late to the protest and had borrow a ride out of there.”
“You’re part of the community.” Lisanna realized. That made her feel a lot better about stealing a ride from him. “Who invited you to the protest? And why haven’t I met you before now?”
“Uh…” Natsu thought for a moment. “It might have been… Yukino? Or maybe Max? I don’t know; a lot of people mentioned it!”
Lisanna couldn’t see his face, but she could hear in his voice, beneath the justification and mild panic temporarily taking over, that he was a pretty cheerful person. But then his voice altered and she detected anger and genuine embarrassment.
“I haven’t been to any protests lately.” Natsu admitted tensely. “No one’s said it outright, but I don’t think anyone wants me to go because of how often I get into fights.”
He sounded really frustrated, Lisanna thought. She hadn’t known him long at all, but she felt like she could tell why.
“You feel really strongly about our causes, huh?” Lisanna said. She was fairly certain already, but she wanted to know what he thought.
“Yeah, I guess I do.” Natsu replied.
“I bet you wish you could do more. Maybe that’s why you get into so many fights.”
“Maybe…” He still seemed a bit upset.
Not having anything else to say, Lisanna turned her attention back to the trouble her friends were in. At the very least, several of them would need to be bailed out, assuming they hadn’t been badly injured fighting.
“You still didn’t tell me where we’re going.” She informed Natsu expectantly.
“We’re going to a meeting place on the edge of town. I figured we could get something to eat and drink, along with some help.”
As he said this, he turned left and slowed down for the first time since they’d fled the protest. The motorcycle and its two passengers stopped in front of a dark lot, but inside the one building on it Lisanna thought she could hear music. Her kind of music, as well.
Natsu turned off the engine. He was pretty good with this motorcycle, considering he had stolen it.
They both got down from the motorcycle and Natsu stepped aside from the path, gesturing.
“After you, Lisanna.”
She raised her eyebrows at this, (after all he’d been here before, not her), but started off towards the hang-out none-the-less.
Inside the building, Lisanna found out that word of what had happened at the protest had already spread. Natsu must have taken them on an indirect route if someone else had made it here faster, and with more information of what had happened.
Natsu sat down next to her at the bar. “Did you hear about who was caught?”
Lisanna nodded. A lot of her friends and people from her community had been taken in by the police. And so had a lot of people from the other groups who had joined the protest.
“You know about how you said I wanted to do more for the cause?” Natsu began. “Well, I want to help you get your friends out. Could you use a lift to anywhere? Until I return the motorcycle, that is.”
Lisanna brightened. “I could use your help, Natsu. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Natsu replied. “It’s what we do, isn’t it? Helping each other out, spreading love and all.”
“Totally.” Lisanna winked at him.