Siana wasn't really sure what had happened, but somehow, she had ended up a rather...dirty part of town. The noble girl picked her feet daintily around a puddle, careful to keep the hem of her deep blue dress well away from it. There had been a large crowd at the market place and she had gotten separated from her escort and was now terribly lost.
It could have been worse she supposed. It wasn't quite the slums, but the area where butchering and tanning and other dirty jobs were done, a number of stalls and shops, but they were for the poorer residents of the city. Siana felt this was bad enough and she really had no idea how to get home from here.
People crowded around her, dirty and unfriendly of the obviously upper class girl in their midst. Siana hoped she was going in the right direction, but she wasn't quite ready to ask for directions yet, still half hoping her escort would show up and she wouldn't have to try talking to people.
Keani meandered through the crowd, searching for a good target--which could be difficult here. There was no use stealing from people who probably had nothing themselves, and this wasn't even his typical hunting ground. Still, he needed to pass through here to get to the marketplace proper, and if he got lucky he might earn a little along the way.
It was when he shouldered through the crowd that he saw her. The perfect hit. She didn't look like she belonged, with her pretty clothes, clean skin, and shiny hair (quite unlike his patched clothes, unwashed hair, and dust-coated body) and the way she gawked and moved said she was lost, that she knew she didn't belong, either.
Perfect. Lost, unfamiliar, utterly oblivious of her surroundings, and--if looks were anything to go off of--wealthy. Keani moved with the crowd and watched her from the corner of his eye so as not to draw attention to himself, planning his move and sighting her coin purse. Stupid, too, not knowing that she should hide it. Well, today she would learn a valuable lesson, wouldn't she? Wasn't like it wasn't a lesson she couldn't afford.
Finally, he started for her and acted like he wasn't paying attention to her, but he had drawn a small, sharp knife so he could cut her purse strings, half hidden up his sleeve and concealed by his hand.
It would have been a clean steal, a beautifully no-hassle affair. It would have been one of the easiest jobs in his life. He brushed by her, flicked the knife out, made the cut, and grabbed the purse--
Right as someone rushed by his other side, roughly bumping shoulders.
It all happened so fast, far too fast for Keani to recover. It threw him off balance and pitched him against the girl, and with a yelp and some helpless flailing in a last-ditch effort to save himself, they both went toppling to the cobblestone street, Keani landing hard on top of the girl.
...And the knife and coin purse falling from his hand to clatter across the ground.
Siana tried to sidestep away when the grubby boy moved closer to her, not really even realizing that he might try and rob her. She just didn't want him to touch her. Then all of a sudden he was flailing against her. Siana shrieked and tried to push him away, but they both ended up on the ground, her dress hiked up around her legs, which he was currently lying between.
She stared at him in outraged shock, her face going a bright red, about ready to lay into the awful boy when she finally noticed the coins and her purse scattered over the ground. Next to some strange knife. A thief! He was a thief!
Sucking in air, Siana glared at him, smacking at his shoulders and face, "Help! Help! Thief! RAPE! Help! Get off me! HELP!"
For a moment, Keani could only stare down into the girl's face in horrified shock. The fact that he was on top of her, between her legs, with her dress hiked up hadn't even registered, and it never got a chance to.
"W-WHAT?" he gasped, right before her hand got him good across the mouth, and then he was being battered across the shoulders and face. He jerked back and grabbed at her arms, too stunned to realize how bad that must look. What the HELL?! "What're ya--what're ya doin'?! Shut up, ya crazy bitch! It's not what--I wasn't--wouldja shut up an' listen?!"
Panic screamed through Siana when he grabbed her arms, pinning her down. She started squirming, flailing her legs and trying to use her hips to buck him off, screaming the entire time. She had never been in a situation like this and she was terrified.
"Get off me! Stop! RAPE!"
The whole debacle had not gone unnoticed. While some people only stared, a couple of others came pushing through the crowd toward them.
Keani didn't notice them at first, too bewildered to focus on anything but the screaming, crazy girl who was now thrashing beneath him, screaming about rape and--
That was when it clicked, and his eyes grew wide and his face flushed red. That was when the girl part of 'crazy girl' registered, that he was on top of a girl and that, with her bucking and him pinning her...
Dear sweet balls!
"Hey! Hey, you!" a rough voice suddenly called, and Keani's head snapped up in time to see some burly man jogging his way. SHIT! With a curse, Keani let go and rolled off of her, lurched to his feet, and took off at top speed, shoving people out of his way and ducking under arms as he ran for his life.
She was going to be violated by this horrible disgusting boy right in the street. Flailing harder, Siana shrieked again. Unaware of the spectacle they were making, it came as a surprise when the boy suddenly pulled off of her and bolted down the street.
Sitting up, Siana was a mess, her emerald hair falling down in a tangle, her dress hiked up to her thighs and the fabric dirtied and soiled from the street. And a crowd was staring at her! Witness to her shame!
With a scream of rage, her face burning, Siana jumped up, fists balled at her side. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. How dare he?!
Well she was not going to let him get away with shaming her like that! Gathering her skirts in her hands, she took off after the boy. He cleared the way through the crowd and Siana's long legs covered the distance.
With a harsh, angry shriek, Siana hurled herself at the thief, tackling him around the waist, "You awful PERVERT! How dare you!"
Keani didn't even know he'd been followed until another body collided with his like a sack of bricks hurled by a giant. It knocked the air from his lungs in a loud whoosh, threw him off balance, and down he went. Thankfully, he only just managed to catch himself on his hands, but he still skinned the palms and knocked his chin on the cobblestones hard enough to rattle his teeth.
Then came the shrieking.
HER?!
He struggled, desperately trying to wriggle out from under her. "Get OFFA me!" he shouted, scrabbling at the ground. His chin was bleeding and his palms stung from the dirt that had lodged under his skin. "What the hell's wrong with ya?! Let go!"
Siana smacked at the boy's head and shoulders, straddling his back, "Don't you dare try to run away!"
The crowd milled, not really sure what to do anymore. The girl no longer looked quite so victimized, as she was now hitting the scrawny kid around the head and shoulders, shrieking at him.
"Are ya RABID?" Keani yelled, his senses finally starting to filter through the thick layer of shock--and not to mention the embarrassing realization that he was getting pummeled by a girl. Levering himself up, he twisted, grabbed her wrists, and abruptly flipped her over and off of him. It didn't matter if she was a girl anymore! She was insane! And she hit pretty hard, too!
He scrambled to his feet and backed away from her like he was backing away from a strange animal that might attack if he moved too suddenly. Which, you know, she might! Either that or start crying rape again, so it was probably best he keep his distance and not risk touching her.
Grimacing, he wiped his chin off on the back of his hand and glared at her. "What's your problem?"
Never mind that he had started it.
When the boy shoved her off, Siana flopped back into the dirt with a squeal of alarm. She glared up at him, her vivid hair falling into her face. Scrambling to her feet, anger over riding reason in her brain, Siana jabbed a finger into the boy's skinny chest, "My problem?! Mine?! You are the one that STOLE ME PURSE! Then! Then!" She jabbed her finger into him a few more times, "Then you assaulted me in the street! You-you animal!"
Common sense might have told her that brawling with some streetrat was a bad idea, but Siana lived in a sheltered world. The very real danger she could be in hadn't really registered yet and might not ever. After all, truly awful things only happened to other people.
"Stop that!" Keani growled, grabbing her wrist and holding it so she'd stop jabbing him. He glared at her, golden-brown eyes narrowed. Now that that craziness of the past few minutes had calmed and he wasn't getting battered and shrieked at, reason was finally kicking in. He had to get her to stop yelling.
"Listen, girl, it wasn't what it looked like, alright? It was an accident. I got knocked into ya."
Okay, Keani, let's try being reasonable. Besides, it wasn't a total lie; it just wasn't the full truth.
Siana jerked on her wrists, her pale, almost white eyes glaring back at Keani, still somewhat oblivious to the situation she was in, her emotions running high, "Oh really? You just happened to bump into me with a knife and cut my purse!"
The purse in question was most likely long gone, picked up by someone after she had chased after the urchin. It was the principal of the matter!
"S'not unusual to carry knives 'round these parts," Keani snapped back, knowing he'd been caught in his lie--but he'd dig that hole a mile deep before he fessed up. He tightened his grip on her wrist even as she jerked it. "'Sides, it's--hey, where is your purse, anyway?"
REDIRECTION! When all else fails, change the subject!
Tugging harder, Siana's expression darkened, her pretty features twisted in irritation, "Oh back there somewhere...Oh!" She turned in the direction she had run from, realizing the purse was still back there. And she wasn't so naive to think it would still be there.
Whipping her head back to Keani, she gave him another glare, though she looked closer to tears again, "You! You-you ass! You owe me for that purse!" Her cheeks flushed a little when she cursed, stumbling slightly over the rarely used word.
Keani released her then and took a step back. "Owe ya?" he repeated, and couldn't help but bark a laugh. "Oh, yeah, sure thing, lady! I'll get right on that! With what money, huh?" He spread his arms wide so she could get a good look at the patched, dirty, and tattered clothes he wore.
"Ain't my fault you're wanderin' where ya shouldn't be, princess."
"I'm not a princess, I'm a lady!" Siana snapped at Keani, glaring at him and rubbing her wrist. Her rage was wearing down, replaced by a simmering anger, "And yes! You do owe me! You tried to steal my purse and molested me! I suggest you start figuring out how you'll pay me back!"
"Yeah, some lady," Keani snorted, backing away slowly. The situation looked about ready to escalate again, so it was probably time he made his great escape. "And I toldja, it was an accident! You're the one that was thrustin' her hips at me!"
Siana's jaw dropped and her pale cheeks flushed again, not the most flattering look with her complexion, "I did not!"
How dare that dirty little urchin say that about her! She did no such thing! As if she would even consider it! She was a lady! A gentlewoman! "Don't you dare say that I did anything of the sort!"
"Well, ya did," Keani said, laughing now at her righteous indignation. And hey, at least he'd gotten her mind off the whole thieving thing. Crazy rich bitch wasn't very bright, was she?
Grinning wickedly, he backed up another couple paces and held his hands out as though in surrender. "I'm just sayin', who was molestin' who? Now, this has been fun and all, but, y'know...gotta run. 'Fore ya try feelin' me up again!"
Siana stomped her foot and made another angry sound, glaring hard enough at Keani that he was lucky looks couldn't kill, "I did no such thing! I was trying to get you off me you disgusting pervert! There is no way I would be interested in...in that with someone that looked like you!"
"Good! So stop followin' me, crazy!" Keani said, then turned and fled down the alley he'd inched towards, running as quickly as he could.
Siana glared at the fleeing figure of the thief, furious and red faced with embarrassment. Tears stung her eyes and she wiped at them, determined to not make a bigger fool of herself than she already had.
She heard a voice calling out and her escort seemed to have found her. Straightening her shoulders, Siana tried to clean up at least a little. It wouldn't really do to be found this much of a mess.
Several weeks had passed since that confusing incident and, for the most part, Keani had pushed it out of his mind. Life was back to its usual routine with few surprises and the usual ups and downs of struggling to get by, stealing to eat, avoiding those that would turn him in or take his spoils, and making sure his brother was provided for.
It was late morning when he headed to market. Early enough to ensure there was still plenty of stuff available for the picking, but late enough that there would be a crowd to blend into. Moving easily among the crowd, mostly ignored--because few people paid much mind to a scrawny, dirty kid--his empty stomach rumbled when he caught sight of a table laid out with apples. He'd given Keoni the last of yesterday's bread that morning, lying and saying that he'd already eaten earlier, and he could feel his mouth watering.
They'd been living off bread the past few days; the prospect of sweet fruit was far too tempting.
Weaving his way through the crowd and closer to the apples, he feigned getting bumped into by a taller man and knocked his hip against the table hard enough to spill some of those apples to the ground.
"Shit!" Keani gasped, and stooped to start picking them up and putting them back. He shot the seller, a younger woman, an apologetic glance as she rushed around and started shooing him off. "Terribly sorry, miss! Some people are just so rude! I mean, didja see that guy?" he said, putting the last apple back on the table despite her hurry to get rid of him, annoyance written all across her face.
"Go on, now! Yer gettin' my apples all dirty!" she told him, waving her hands at him. With another apologetic look, Keani retreated back into the crowd.
She never noticed the pair of apples he'd slipped under his shirt.
Siana was enjoying the market place. It was always a favorite location of hers, all the people and excitement and the shopping! Siana was always on the look out for things she could spend her father's coin on.
As she moved through the crowd, a figure caught Siana's eye. At first, she was sure she was wrong. There was no way...but then she saw the apples vanish under the boys shirt. Gasping, Siana marched over, but Keani had gotten quite a ways a way from the stall vender before she was able to grab his arm, "You! How dare you steal again!"
Keani just about shit himself when a hand grabbed his arm. He let out a high pitched yell of surprise and the apples he'd been carrying tumbled out of his shirt and onto the cobblestone ground. Whirling around, eyes wide with fear that he'd been caught, they only got wider when they landed on the familiar girl.
"YOU!" he gasped. "What the hell're you doing here?!"
"I was shopping! You know, where you pay for goods instead of shoving them up your shirt!" Siana was actually a little surprised at how thin the arm under her arm felt. There was hardly any flesh over the bones.
But that wasn't important! What was important was that he had been stealing.
With a sharp huff, Keani jerked his arm away and bent down to start scooping up his apples, which were all bruised now thanks to her. "Oh, how nice for you! I'm so sorry some of us don't get to be privileged princesses," he snapped.
"Princess? I am not a princess!" Siana glared at the boy, fuming, her pale skin flushed red with anger and embarrassment. How dare he speak to her like that! "And you are expected to pay for things! It's wrong to steal!"
"Listen, princess," Keani said, straightening up again and glaring right back at the girl. "You're so worried about doin' the right thing, you go pay."
"That is not the point here! Why should I have to pay for your stealing things!" Siana made a disgusted sound, "You are awful! Didn't anyone ever teach you right from wrong?"
This was quickly going beyond the bizarre, surreal hilarity of their last encounter and straight into sensitive territory. Stiffening as though struck by a physical blow, Keani shot the girl a withering look, real anger coloring his words. "Don't you fuckin' patronize me. If I could afford to do the right thing, I'd do it. Okay?"
Maybe it was unwise to argue about this in public with a noble. Anyone else, and he would have been long gone by now. But something about her just pissed him off, triggering that old pride that still flowed through his veins. Even though he'd been brought low, even though he lived in dirt and competed with rats, that could never be stamped out.
That actually took the wind out of Siana's anger and she deflated a little, "Oh...well...you should have asked then. Stealing is still wrong! That seller has their own bills to pay and mouths to feed...so....don't steal."
"Oh yeah," Keani snorted, rolling his eyes. "Ask who?"
"Asked the apple seller! Or, um...at...a church or something!" Siana frowned, trying to regain some ground here. It was wrong to steal, but, he was starving and that didn't seem quite fair either. Reaching over, she grabbed his wrist, "Come on. We're going to go pay for those. Then we'll...go get you some food. Then you wont have to steal!"
"Are ya nuts, lady?" Keani jerked his wrist free of the girl's grip and backed away, keeping his voice hushed and urgent. "We can't pay for 'em now! Then the seller'll know I stole from her! She'll turn me in. Look, girl, I don't got time for this, alright?"
"Oh? And what's got you so busy, hmm? It's not a job, that's for sure. Probably off to do more dastardly things!" Siana was not impressed. And the more he snapped at her, the more her pity dried up, "And don't you think you can get away with stealing from that poor vender!"
Keani made a frustrated sound, wanting to throttle the girl, but it was on him to be the bigger man. Uh, person. The girl acted boyish enough she could almost pass for one if it weren't for the skirts and assets!
He drew a deep breath and counted to five, which was half of all the numbers he knew. "Then what d'ya suggest I do, huh? You're so smart, you figure it out."
"Well...Something! I don't steal things so I'm not sure how one fixes it!" Siana was red cheeked again, which clashed with her vivid hair, "But it's not...well...fine! At the very least, you need to go to a Temple and repent!"
Keani gave her an odd look, then just snorted. "Yeah? That's it, huh? That makes it better? Okay. I'll remember that next meal I swipe."
"Well you have to stop stealing for that to work! Work! That's what you need! You need to get a job instead of stealing!" Ha! Siana smirked, finally having found some mental footing in her argument with Keani.
"Yeah? Where?" Keani asked, crossing his arms over his thin chest and scowling.
"Well, what can you do? Do you have any honest skills? And I bet if you cleaned up a little you could apprentice somewhere." Siana wasn't actually totally sure how all this worked. It was something peasants did.
Keani rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ya think if it was that easy I would be here?"
Then, smiling, he looked Siana up and down. "But ya seem like an awful charitable sort, since ya know so much about this. Your family need any workers?"
Siana blinked, then gave Keani a brilliant smile, "I'm positive we can find a use for you. Let's go get you a job."
"What?"
Keani had not been expecting that.
Eyes widening, Keani stared at Siana like she was speaking Thanati. "Wait. Are ya serious?"
"Oh yes!" Siana kept her smile bright and reached over, grabbing Keani's wrist, "Come along. We'll get you a job!"
"HUH? But--wait just one minute, where're we even goin'?!" Keani exclaimed even as he stumbled along after her, far too bewildered to resist--and a little curious. She couldn't be serious. She had to be joshin' with him.
"My house of course. Where you will be given a proper job." Siana had the confidant smugness of someone who knew she had just won the upper hand here. Her father would make sure he got a job if she asked, she was sure of it. Then he couldn't steal anymore!
"Y-your house?" Keoni stammered, still not quite sure what was going on here. However, the mention of taking him to her home sent a small wave of panic through him. How was he to know she wouldn't just turn him in? And the idea of being around nobility--nobility that wasn't just a snobby girl who acted like a boy in a fancy dress--sent all kinds of dread coursing through him.
He dug in his heels. "How do I know this ain't some trick?"
"Trick? What would I trick you with?" Siana tugged harder at Keani, huffing as she tried to keep him moving. For all that he was skin and bones, the other boy was pretty strong.