Year of the Dragon [ Second Gen ]

Raizo slowly curled his hands into fists at his sides, not daring to lift his head to look at either of them, even as the girl suddenly rushed past him, abandoning the basket with the cub inside. His face was burning, and when he heard Ren actually kneel, it was just about all he could take.

"You don't have to do that," he said softly. "Please get up."

Ren felt his heart skip a beat. He slowly rose from his postion, but even though he was a thief, he didn't dare look the prince in the eye. W-we're talking, he thought.

"Thanks... I guess..." he mumbled. "But what brings you here, Le-I mean, Prince Raizo," he asked. Surely, the girl would be back home now.

---

On the way, Shi ran into Yan, who was staring into space. Nobody ever saw Shi frightened often, and it put his guard off. What scared her so? He grabbed her wrist and wrenched it upward. He grimaced as she fought back and cringed in pain. "What's happened?" he demanded.

"I... I saw Prince Raizo..." she murmured, voice shaking. Yan stayed silent for a moment, then laughed.

"Impossible!" he said, still giggling. "You're going senile, Shi."

"I'm serious! I saw him! I---I--!" She silenced herself. Yan giggled again.

"Show me to him, then. I'll prove you wrong," sneered the boy. Fei shrieked a little, and Shi, taken aback, nodded her head.

"I will not be called a liar," she ground out and, with Yan holding onto her wrist, led him back to the alley.

"I wasn't lying when I said I wanted privacy," Raizo answered, shuffling uncomfortably. Even with his cover blown, he felt so exposed without his mask that he slid the scarf back into place. "So... I should thank you. For the lunch, and the good conversation."

Ren blushed. It was a rare sight to see him blush. Scratching the back of his neck, he replied, "No, it was nothing. Just a little interested, is all. And a bit of freeloading. I should be thanking you for lunch, actually..." He was puzzled, but it didn't matter. Such a lowly life-form such as he can meet a high-ranking person like Raizo. His heart fluttered again. Jie was crawling out of the basket and was squealing as he came over to the two.

---

Yan was blocking the doorway, shoving Shi in front of him. "Excuse me, sirs," he said, deepening his voice. Shi glanced back at him, incredulous. No need to put her in front first! She would rather cower behind a thirteen year old! "Who is the one called Prince Raizo?" the boy boldly asked. Shi gave a small gasp, but Yan wrenched her wrist behind her again and she held her tongue (and breath).

Raizo didn't answer at first, glancing down at Jie; he was glad the cub was all right, and admired his ability to sleep straight through all the commotion. It was charming, really. "It's nothing. Your little friend is finally up."

He heard someone speak, and looked over to see an unfamiliar boy, and -- the girl? She was back? What was this, reinforcements?

One eyebrow arched on Raizo's face. "How old are you? Twelve?"

Ren snickered, while Yan growled and hissed, "Does it matter? And what about you, impostor?" Shi managed to snicker too, though her wrist was starting to throb.

"You should go home before you get into trouble," Raizo said dismissively, well aware of the ironic hypocrisy.

Raizo frowned; he was well aware that the boy wasn't the girl's master, that much was plainly obvious; but they didn't seem to be all that friendly with each other either way. And if they were going to start a fight in the middle of the street, they would eventually bring the guards, and then... well, Raizo didn't want that, naturally. Ren and Jie already seemed just a few moments from fleeing completely.

"What are you doing? You're going to make a scene," he said sharply to the boy and girl.

Shi had Yan pinned to the floor, twisting his forearm. She looked up and shrugged. "I'll have to be getting back anyway," she said icily. "And the stupid thing is, I have to bring this extra baggage home, too." She yanked him up and twisted his arm behind his back. "You won't be seeing us, I hope," she murmured as she withdrew from the alley. Going home would be rough, and Yan was sure to tell the landlord about her, twisting the story, somehow.

Suddenly, Yan gave a panicked squeal. Fei was gone!

Fei was perched on the top of the wall of the alley, looking things over. When her master was gone, she made an attempt to go after him, but tripped and fell to the floor, barely able to break her fall with her outstretched wings. She cried pitifully, knowing that Yan wouldn't be able to hear or see her.

---

Ren was no expert on animals, beside platypus bears. He knelt to get a better look at the lemur. "Uh, what is this?" he asked.

Raizo watched as the other two departed, none too gracefully; that's when he heard the squeak, followed by Ren's curiosity. He glanced down, and was immediately surprised.

"That's a flying lemur." He knelt as well; it seemed very young. "What's it doing here...?"

Raizo searched around in his head for a minute, and remembered the small bag of dried figs he usually carried on his person for days out on the town, such as it is. He rummaged in his cloak until he produced the bag, and a small fig from within, which he held out to the distraught little lemur as a peace offering.

Fei, hungry as usual, though hurt, looked at Raizo, then the fig. Of course, hunger took over and she snatched the fig out of his hands and began eating happily.

Ren widened his eyes. "Wow," he said. Jie struggled out of his grip and went up to the lemur. He sniffed it for a second before Fei turned to stare at him, almost done with the fig. Both had begun to squeak a little. "Uh, animal communication, I suppose," Ren said to no one in particular. This little white thing with wings was quite interesting. Should he raise it?

Raizo watched the two young animals chatter to each other, thoughtful. "It must belong to someone," he murmured. "They aren't native."

At least the lemur didn't seem injured; he wasn't exactly prepared for something like that. But the tricky part now would be figuring out just who it did belong to. There was always the possibility of traders, of course, but it seemed to trust humans well enough and that usually wasn't the case with escaped animals. Odds were, it was someone's pet -- but he couldn't just put up 'FOUND' posters for a flying lemur kit; the response would be virtually overwhelming.

Ren shrugged. "I say just take it in. Whoever abandoned this thing isn't a very good master," he muttered. He barely remembered Jie being bear-napped by that dancer girl.

Yan struggled against the surprisingly strong dancer. "Fei's still at the alley!" Shi snorted.

"Serves you right, master," she said. "Let's go, before you lose your 'favorite servant' thing."

Raizo nodded distractedly, and reached out his hand to the lemur kit. His other hand held up another dried fig as a bribe. He tried to remember what Aang's flying lemur had been like; Momo was outrageously friendly, he was sure of that much, and it hadn't ever taken much more than the offer of food to get some attention from him. This one was much younger, of course, and could very well have more trust issues with humans than meets the eye, but Raizo was prepared to take the chance, at least.

Fei scampered up the empty hand and grabbed the fig. Jie still chattered on, turning his head where the lemur had gone. Ren stared, obviously fascinated at such a sight. "Hey, do you think it'll go up mine's, even though I'm empty of food?" he asked. He brushed the lemur's ear as it jumped down, and she shuddered, but turned to stare at the boy, nibbling the fig.

"You could try." Raizo continued to observe the lemur's behavior for the time being. For the most part, it simply seemed too young to have been trained very well, and it was obviously in an unfamiliar situation, as well. "Here's a fig, if you want to try that, too."

He offered a fig to Jie as well, for good measure.

Raizo sat back on his heels, and held up the small bag containing the rest of the figs, shaking it a little bit to attract the kit's attention. He waved his fingers a bit, for it to come closer.

"You'll have to come up here if you want any more. We'll see if we can find your owner."

Momentarily blinded when his hood came down over his face, Raizo managed to catch the mischievous lemur kit, promptly rewarding her with a fig to discourage a tiny lemur hissy fit. He tentatively scritched the top of her head with a sigh. "It's fine as long as my sister doesn't find out."

"She was training when I left," Raizo answered, the red flush creeping back into his face. "The guards were with me, then. She won't come looking for me herself unless the guards really have no luck with it."