Fic: Finding (parts 1-3)
These are set prior to anything written so far. Xie hasn't been to prison yet. All of these were written specifically for the prompts but they all go together so I put them into one prompt.
Title:Finding (part one)
prompt: Secret (Weekly Drabble #7)
Word Count: 511
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
The cold wind coming off the water brought with it the smell of decaying fish. Aja lifted her face toward the cool air, as if searching for a lost scent. She wasn't looking for a scent but there was no other way to put it. Not to her herself and definitely not the person who was supposed to be shadowing her every move. While she should have been thankful to her brother for the assistance, it irritated her that he didn't think she could navigate the docks alone. It wasn't so long ago that she was finding someone to shadow him around while she'd been at work. With her eyes failing her a little more every day, her music was the only job she had. That, and finding things that no one else could find.
For that, she would just follow her nose. "Lec, I'm going over in that direction. Are you coming?"
"That's a pile of trash. You know that, right?"
She smiled to herself. While she'd had a pretty good idea that she was walking straight into something awful, that was where the item she'd been hired to find was located. This was the second time that he'd let her know what she was headed for. If she didn't know better, she'd think that Lec was softening toward her. A few weeks ago, he would have mumbled something and ignored her as she fumbled her way to the right spot. Now, he was positively helpful.
"I'm looking for a small box. Do you see anything from there that looks metal."
"Metal? In a trash pile? Scrap isn't thrown away here."
She held out her hand in the direction of his voice until he took it and laid it on his arm. "It's not scrap. It belongs to Mella, the woman from Dragon's Brow. She lost it and asked me if I could find it." His silence was thick with the question that he was refusing to ask. Once again, his softening made her smile. The fact that he cared about what she might think of his crass words was interesting enough that she decided to let him down easy. "Yes, I can't see anything. That's never changed but I have an amazing sense of smell. I use it to earn some money now and then."
"Not a lot of money in the music business?"
"Business? How kind of you to call it a business when it's only me and my guv." He made a snort of some kind that sounded as if she was saying something funny. She would have considered her tone more sarcastic than funny. "To answer your question, no. There isn't much money playing my music. There is more in sniffing out secrets for other people."
"And this is a secret?"
Aja stuck her foot out and tentatively began to touch the items in front of her with a leather-covered foot. After pushing aside a crumpled newspaper (she smelled ink; also, the paper was much thinner than regular writing paper), she tapped Lec's arm. "Not any more."
Title:Finding (part two)
prompt: Quince (Weekly Drabble #7)
Word Count: 367
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
"My Billy's medal." The woman was weeping as she took the box from Aja's hand, a salty tang filling the air until Aja wasn't sure if maybe she should offer the woman a cloth to wipe her eyes with. "Thank you, Aja. Thank you so much. This was worth every penny of your finder's fee."
"I'm just glad I could find it before the tide came in. It would have been swept out into the Sound if we'd gotten there any later." She could feel Mella notice Lec for the first time. While she had no idea what he looked like, she had a good idea of what other people saw. From the angle his voice came from when he was walking beside her, she knew that he was much taller than she was. His voice was deeper than most of the other boys. In her mind, she imagined that he had dark hair but even her memory couldn't fill in the other blanks. That irritated her more than she realized until this very minute.
As if he understood what she was thinking at the moment, Lec put his hand over her so that she couldn't even think about pulling away from him. When she would have tried to offer the woman more comfort as the tears kept flowing, he tugged her, not so subtly, toward the door. "The finder's fee?" he asked, getting the conversation back on to a professional level that she could never keep for long. That just wasn't who she was but it was, apparently, who he was.
There was a clink of coins that Lec intercepted before they hit her palm. "It's a little less than we agreed upon," the woman murmured, most likely because Lec was glaring at her. She could feel the dark look as if it was a fourth person in the room. "But I have some fresh jam for you. Quince and pear."
"It sounds lovely." Her elbow contacted with his side. "And that's fine. I understand-"
"I'll be by tomorrow for the rest of the money that you owe the Mistress of the Song." Before she could protest his growl, he had her turned around and out the door.
Title:Finding (part three)
prompt: 05. Blowing Off Steam (Prompt Table)
Word Count: 1146
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
She was refusing to talk to him. Not that she hadn't appreciated what he'd done because she needed the coins, but there were better techniques than intimidation. If all her customers got scared away, she wouldn't have much of a continuing business. She'd done just fine before Lec had decided to be helpful.
"Have you gone quiet on purpose?" he asked, his own voice pitched low even though she couldn't sense anyone nearby. "Or has the hunt tired you out?"
Now she didn't know if she was more angry at him for being a bully or considering her to be the weakest link in this uncomfortable partnership. "I did this for years without your help. I'll do it for years more. Do not treat me like a child."
When he stopped walking, she nearly tripped and would have gone down, face-first, on the uneven cobbles if he hadn't tightened his hold on her arm. Her pride was a bit bruised but nothing else appeared to be harmed. When she was safely upright once again, he let go of her arm and stepped completely away. After the constant contact, Aja felt off-balance. She'd put away her cane when she'd had his help but she reached into her leg pocket for the walking aid. If he was going to take her at her word, she was going to prove that she didn't need him even if, she had admit, she'd liked having him there for the few days that he'd lasted. Longer than any of the sitters her brother kept forcing her to take along on these missions. As her vision dimmed, he grew more insistent that she have someone along when she was away from her corner on Tremble and Gats.
Well, she'd show him that she didn't need anyone to get her back home. Except she did. Instead of concentrating on her surroundings, she'd let Lec do the navigating. Except for the feel of the uneven cobbles under her street and the aroma of garlic, she had no idea where she was at the moment.
"I'll be sure to tell my brother you were a veritable paragon of virtue," she muttered before starting off in the direction she was facing.
"And I'll be sure to tell him you aren't a child."
It took every ounce of willpower not to round on him, her stick all the weapon she would ever need. Instead, she glanced over her shoulder, ever mindful that she wasn't even seeing the flickers of movement she could see in the murky gray fog just last week. "And who will he gut first? Me for not accepting your pity or you for failing to see your job to completion?"
"Neither. Because you're going to see reason and I'm going to see this through without throttling you." His breath was hot against her face but she didn't back away. She did close her eyes but they would have been nearly invisible behind the smoked lens of the glasses she wore out in the elements. It was the only barrier she could put between them but it wasn't enough when she could feel his glare.
"Reason?"
"I don't pity you. I never have. I'm right here and I'm not leaving. You perceive pity where there is none because that is what you're used to. I'm not your usual whipping boy, Aja."
It was the first time he'd ever used her name. For that gift alone, she held out her hand to him again. Even still, she flinched when their hands connected. "No, I'm sure you're much prettier than the usual whipping boy Xie sends with me these days."
"And outshine you? Not likely."
To show her thanks, she allowed him silence for the rest of the trip back to her rooms. When she would have walked up the stairs alone, leaving him at the bottom to make his way back to wherever it was that he spent his days, she found herself pausing. "Would you like... some tea?" She wasn't completely sure there were any leaves left in the tin but she was willing to stretch what she had if he accepted the invitation.
When he cleared his throat, she could have kicked herself for the kindness. Of course he was going to refuse. He had, not ten minutes ago, wanted to throttle her. Surely he didn't want to stick around longer than he had to.
But she suddenly felt the air move as he nodded. At least, she thought it was a nod. It was hard to tell for sure until he followed up the movement with a verbal assent. "I don't much like tea. Water would do, though."
"Water it is." She led the way up the stairs, confident of where she was taking him. As was her custom, she stopped at the door and listened for a few seconds before pushing it open. There was never any real expectation that someone might be laying in wait for her but she'd long since decided it was worth the effort. Anyone could follow the "poor, little blind girl" home from her corner and decide to break into her rooms because she couldn't do anything about it. They would be wrong, of course. The first thing she'd spent her coins on when she moved here was a protection charm. Xie didn't like that it even kept him out but she was taking no chances. This was her home and she was damned if she wasn't going to be safe.
Even so, Lec laid a hand on her arm as they stepped in the room. Every one of her senses was telling her that he was on high alert, watchful for anything that was out of place. When he deemed it safe, his hand dropped away once again. "You don't have locks?"
"Locks? In this neighborhood? I don't want to advertise that I have anything to steal. My guv would be gone in an hour if I had a lock on the door."
"I could get you something that would keep them out. For the windows, too. Where is your instrument?"
Aja really wanted to say That's none of your business but he had been kind to her and she knew that he wouldn't fawn all over the instrument as if it was a bit of magic made real. It was just strips of wood and some strings all bound up together by a master craftsmen. And if she hadn't started losing her sight, she might have become something more than a street corner hack. But that was neither here nor there. Not any longer.
She walked to a wall panel and pressed a pattern of whirls in the grain. When she executed the pattern successfully three times, another panel slid aside. "See? No locks. It's safe and sound." She pulled the cello from it's hiding place. "Lec, meet my guv."
(There is more to this part of the story but I'm too tired to get the next section done. With any luck, I'll have the next one and the one after posted tomorrow.)
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
Title:Finding (part one)
prompt: Secret (Weekly Drabble #7)
Word Count: 511
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
The cold wind coming off the water brought with it the smell of decaying fish. Aja lifted her face toward the cool air, as if searching for a lost scent. She wasn't looking for a scent but there was no other way to put it. Not to her herself and definitely not the person who was supposed to be shadowing her every move. While she should have been thankful to her brother for the assistance, it irritated her that he didn't think she could navigate the docks alone. It wasn't so long ago that she was finding someone to shadow him around while she'd been at work. With her eyes failing her a little more every day, her music was the only job she had. That, and finding things that no one else could find.
For that, she would just follow her nose. "Lec, I'm going over in that direction. Are you coming?"
"That's a pile of trash. You know that, right?"
She smiled to herself. While she'd had a pretty good idea that she was walking straight into something awful, that was where the item she'd been hired to find was located. This was the second time that he'd let her know what she was headed for. If she didn't know better, she'd think that Lec was softening toward her. A few weeks ago, he would have mumbled something and ignored her as she fumbled her way to the right spot. Now, he was positively helpful.
"I'm looking for a small box. Do you see anything from there that looks metal."
"Metal? In a trash pile? Scrap isn't thrown away here."
She held out her hand in the direction of his voice until he took it and laid it on his arm. "It's not scrap. It belongs to Mella, the woman from Dragon's Brow. She lost it and asked me if I could find it." His silence was thick with the question that he was refusing to ask. Once again, his softening made her smile. The fact that he cared about what she might think of his crass words was interesting enough that she decided to let him down easy. "Yes, I can't see anything. That's never changed but I have an amazing sense of smell. I use it to earn some money now and then."
"Not a lot of money in the music business?"
"Business? How kind of you to call it a business when it's only me and my guv." He made a snort of some kind that sounded as if she was saying something funny. She would have considered her tone more sarcastic than funny. "To answer your question, no. There isn't much money playing my music. There is more in sniffing out secrets for other people."
"And this is a secret?"
Aja stuck her foot out and tentatively began to touch the items in front of her with a leather-covered foot. After pushing aside a crumpled newspaper (she smelled ink; also, the paper was much thinner than regular writing paper), she tapped Lec's arm. "Not any more."
Title:Finding (part two)
prompt: Quince (Weekly Drabble #7)
Word Count: 367
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
"My Billy's medal." The woman was weeping as she took the box from Aja's hand, a salty tang filling the air until Aja wasn't sure if maybe she should offer the woman a cloth to wipe her eyes with. "Thank you, Aja. Thank you so much. This was worth every penny of your finder's fee."
"I'm just glad I could find it before the tide came in. It would have been swept out into the Sound if we'd gotten there any later." She could feel Mella notice Lec for the first time. While she had no idea what he looked like, she had a good idea of what other people saw. From the angle his voice came from when he was walking beside her, she knew that he was much taller than she was. His voice was deeper than most of the other boys. In her mind, she imagined that he had dark hair but even her memory couldn't fill in the other blanks. That irritated her more than she realized until this very minute.
As if he understood what she was thinking at the moment, Lec put his hand over her so that she couldn't even think about pulling away from him. When she would have tried to offer the woman more comfort as the tears kept flowing, he tugged her, not so subtly, toward the door. "The finder's fee?" he asked, getting the conversation back on to a professional level that she could never keep for long. That just wasn't who she was but it was, apparently, who he was.
There was a clink of coins that Lec intercepted before they hit her palm. "It's a little less than we agreed upon," the woman murmured, most likely because Lec was glaring at her. She could feel the dark look as if it was a fourth person in the room. "But I have some fresh jam for you. Quince and pear."
"It sounds lovely." Her elbow contacted with his side. "And that's fine. I understand-"
"I'll be by tomorrow for the rest of the money that you owe the Mistress of the Song." Before she could protest his growl, he had her turned around and out the door.
Title:Finding (part three)
prompt: 05. Blowing Off Steam (Prompt Table)
Word Count: 1146
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original - Streetlight People 'verse
Pairings (if any): pre-Lec/Aja
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Aja has a job to do and Lec gets in the way.
She was refusing to talk to him. Not that she hadn't appreciated what he'd done because she needed the coins, but there were better techniques than intimidation. If all her customers got scared away, she wouldn't have much of a continuing business. She'd done just fine before Lec had decided to be helpful.
"Have you gone quiet on purpose?" he asked, his own voice pitched low even though she couldn't sense anyone nearby. "Or has the hunt tired you out?"
Now she didn't know if she was more angry at him for being a bully or considering her to be the weakest link in this uncomfortable partnership. "I did this for years without your help. I'll do it for years more. Do not treat me like a child."
When he stopped walking, she nearly tripped and would have gone down, face-first, on the uneven cobbles if he hadn't tightened his hold on her arm. Her pride was a bit bruised but nothing else appeared to be harmed. When she was safely upright once again, he let go of her arm and stepped completely away. After the constant contact, Aja felt off-balance. She'd put away her cane when she'd had his help but she reached into her leg pocket for the walking aid. If he was going to take her at her word, she was going to prove that she didn't need him even if, she had admit, she'd liked having him there for the few days that he'd lasted. Longer than any of the sitters her brother kept forcing her to take along on these missions. As her vision dimmed, he grew more insistent that she have someone along when she was away from her corner on Tremble and Gats.
Well, she'd show him that she didn't need anyone to get her back home. Except she did. Instead of concentrating on her surroundings, she'd let Lec do the navigating. Except for the feel of the uneven cobbles under her street and the aroma of garlic, she had no idea where she was at the moment.
"I'll be sure to tell my brother you were a veritable paragon of virtue," she muttered before starting off in the direction she was facing.
"And I'll be sure to tell him you aren't a child."
It took every ounce of willpower not to round on him, her stick all the weapon she would ever need. Instead, she glanced over her shoulder, ever mindful that she wasn't even seeing the flickers of movement she could see in the murky gray fog just last week. "And who will he gut first? Me for not accepting your pity or you for failing to see your job to completion?"
"Neither. Because you're going to see reason and I'm going to see this through without throttling you." His breath was hot against her face but she didn't back away. She did close her eyes but they would have been nearly invisible behind the smoked lens of the glasses she wore out in the elements. It was the only barrier she could put between them but it wasn't enough when she could feel his glare.
"Reason?"
"I don't pity you. I never have. I'm right here and I'm not leaving. You perceive pity where there is none because that is what you're used to. I'm not your usual whipping boy, Aja."
It was the first time he'd ever used her name. For that gift alone, she held out her hand to him again. Even still, she flinched when their hands connected. "No, I'm sure you're much prettier than the usual whipping boy Xie sends with me these days."
"And outshine you? Not likely."
To show her thanks, she allowed him silence for the rest of the trip back to her rooms. When she would have walked up the stairs alone, leaving him at the bottom to make his way back to wherever it was that he spent his days, she found herself pausing. "Would you like... some tea?" She wasn't completely sure there were any leaves left in the tin but she was willing to stretch what she had if he accepted the invitation.
When he cleared his throat, she could have kicked herself for the kindness. Of course he was going to refuse. He had, not ten minutes ago, wanted to throttle her. Surely he didn't want to stick around longer than he had to.
But she suddenly felt the air move as he nodded. At least, she thought it was a nod. It was hard to tell for sure until he followed up the movement with a verbal assent. "I don't much like tea. Water would do, though."
"Water it is." She led the way up the stairs, confident of where she was taking him. As was her custom, she stopped at the door and listened for a few seconds before pushing it open. There was never any real expectation that someone might be laying in wait for her but she'd long since decided it was worth the effort. Anyone could follow the "poor, little blind girl" home from her corner and decide to break into her rooms because she couldn't do anything about it. They would be wrong, of course. The first thing she'd spent her coins on when she moved here was a protection charm. Xie didn't like that it even kept him out but she was taking no chances. This was her home and she was damned if she wasn't going to be safe.
Even so, Lec laid a hand on her arm as they stepped in the room. Every one of her senses was telling her that he was on high alert, watchful for anything that was out of place. When he deemed it safe, his hand dropped away once again. "You don't have locks?"
"Locks? In this neighborhood? I don't want to advertise that I have anything to steal. My guv would be gone in an hour if I had a lock on the door."
"I could get you something that would keep them out. For the windows, too. Where is your instrument?"
Aja really wanted to say That's none of your business but he had been kind to her and she knew that he wouldn't fawn all over the instrument as if it was a bit of magic made real. It was just strips of wood and some strings all bound up together by a master craftsmen. And if she hadn't started losing her sight, she might have become something more than a street corner hack. But that was neither here nor there. Not any longer.
She walked to a wall panel and pressed a pattern of whirls in the grain. When she executed the pattern successfully three times, another panel slid aside. "See? No locks. It's safe and sound." She pulled the cello from it's hiding place. "Lec, meet my guv."
(There is more to this part of the story but I'm too tired to get the next section done. With any luck, I'll have the next one and the one after posted tomorrow.)
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.