[Aside] Siblings in Crime

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Kokuten
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[Aside] Siblings in Crime

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Even with running practice, Percival became winded somewhat easily when Riley took off to explore some place. The park seemed to be one of those particularly explorable places, which is where they took their sunday for that afternoon. The sun was bright and warm, shining brightly onto green, frosted leaves which brightly reflected their pale glow. The lake sparkled brightly, and brought many a hand to the eyes with its brilliance. Due to winter's chill, the birds and cicadas which sung at that time were long gone, replaced with the whistles of the wind and the sounds of the rare person cresting the hill.

Despite the park being relatively empty compared to the summer months, the winter times brought a kind of serene peace which was all the better with the snowy weather. Percival couldn't help but feel somewhat energized by the environment, as if the park's hibernating energy was flowing through him. That, and Riley had nearly escaped his sight.

It had been two weeks since the training with Duncan, the pair of kids none-the-worse for wear.

"Riley! Slow down!" called Percival in english, turning a few eyes as he hustled down the concrete walk-ways and off onto a beaten path. "You-- You know! I d-d-on't have th--..."

He started to wheeze a bit, as he had been running for quite a bit. "...-- I don't have your stamina!"

The small stage magician in front of Percival must cut quite a sight, clashing eras seeming to meet with her trademarked cloak paired together today with a simple black ballcap to shade the girl's eyes.

Turning on her heel Riley stuck her tongue out at Percy as she yelled back in english. "Zulan needs to baby you less! We're barely a few miles from the house and you'd think we'd gone day upon day in some mighty mountain the way you are huffing and puffing!"

"I-- I- read books," haffed the hoarse lad as he took this moment to catch up, biting from a deep reserve of stamina to power him forth. "And do experiments! I don'-- I don't run!" He stumbled a little bit, in that awkward way, before toddling a little further, "And besides! A few miles is a lot!" He closed his eyes, holding his hand over his face, "Don't you know... that walking... can get you places, too!"

"Not as fast! You never know when you might miss something Watson - how'd you feel if we just walked here and came upon something horrible... hmm, like a murder scene!" As she talked Riley fished around in her cloak and pulled out a rather old looking, but well cared for, book that mostly likely was part of her rather large collection of outdated academic material. It passed from hand to hand - pausing in each for only a few moments - before disappearing back to somewhere. The stage magician's eyes gleamed a tad as she smiled lopsided at the older boy, the message of 'I read too' sent quite clearly.

"Walking could endanger the whole fabric of universe if things really come down to it! Nope, you just need to learn how to run."

"You should appreciate your surroundings," scolded Percy, who had caught the message from her little books juggle. He stood up straight, and adjusted his beret rather professionally, the unusual pair garnering a few stares from passers-by. "Running's too chaotic!" Argued the boy, after restablishing the elder atmosphere, "If you simply run everywhere, you miss things that go by in a blur! Plus, you trip a lot easier when you run."

He put his hands on his hips, putting on a rather austere presence in contrast to Riley's loose and lively posture. "Running is simply too dangerous for your budding intellect and body. I suggest walking to preserve the fabric of the universe, so you can learn to appreciate things. Slowly."

"You might run the risk of tripping. But..." Riley shrugged and then with a quick look around made sure no one was looking. Satisfied that no one was paying attention the girl put forth her hands and then pushed the right through the palm of the left before wiggling her fingers about a bit. "I don't tend to worry on that too much."

"And, also, where did you get the idea in your head that running is more chaotic than walking?" Riley tipped the brim of her hat up a bit so she could look at Percy's face without turning her head upwards. "It simply gets you from one place to another the most effeciently. Walking is where you'll end up wandering and that certainly ends in more chaos!"

He crossed his arms, and puffed his cheeks at that.

"If you run, you're more likely to run into things! You're more likely to step on something you didn't mean to, and you most certainly do more carelessly things when you're doing such a chaotic thing as running," Percival bent his knees and took a short walk around Riley, almost marching in his gait as he went all the away around and stopped back where he started. "See? I took a brisk walk around you, and nothing bad happened! I stepped rather peacefully, and I actually observed my surroundings without bumping into you. Thus, proving the superiority of walking, where running would utterly fail."

Riley took on a thought full, and slightly morose, expression as Percy proved his point. The girl sighed and shook her head. "Looks like I'll need to send a letter to the board of Alchemist that saw you passed through the Academy Watson." Shaking her head again the girl sighed even more. "A terrible tragedy when such a fine establishment graduates someone who finds their proof in a single field test."

Dropping the serious look and sticking her tongue out at her partner for the second time for that outing Riley got a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Taking a few steps back the girl ran in a curved path, stepped up onto a raised platform of concrete and then jumped off of it mid run.

Tucking into a ball the stage magician arced over Percy's head and then landed behind him firmly on to feet. To keep her side of the discussion going freely the little girl held back a wince from her showing off and landing as she had, but kept a smile up none-the-less.

"Mmm hm." said Percival after standing up straight again, trying not to get his beret clipped by his feet. He knew Riley was graceful enough to avoid it, but he still did so out of reflex. The young man crossed his arms, and closed eyes, turning his nose up at the acrobatic stunt. "Utterly chaotic."

He stepped off in a neutral walking pace, turning his back to her again, moving with a certain calculated grace. The boy seemed to watch about all in front of him, keeping his eyes open. All about the wind blew in that moment, wisping his hair under the edges of his beret, before pulling his eyes down towards the walkway. "Oh!"

The young welshman knelt down a pinked up a coin, "I found one-hundred yen, look at that! I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed that without walking."

Riley had stayed behind, being too stubborn to follow so quickly, but at Percy's exclamation of "Oh!" the stage magician's ears would of perked up if they were able. Holding herself back with all her will the girl let out a sigh of relief when what had brought the sound about turned out to only be a 100 yen coin.

Then a very familiar and as of a recently extremely forboding shiver ran down Riley's back. Without a thought for who might see the girl's cloak faded away in nothing more than flash revealing a tee-shirt with a tiger printing on the front and a pair of cargo shorts.

Walking up behind Percy at a brisk pace Riley tugged on his sleeve.

"Percy, glance over your shoulder and -" All of a sudden Riley's mouth went dry. " - please tell me your mum isn't following us."

A little chill ran up Percival's spine, mostly from the cold, as he felt Riley meekly tug on his jacket. The true chills came when Riley mention his mother, and he stood frozen there for a moment. If that were true, then 'why' did she follow them? Had they done something wrong? Had he done something? His mother always had that strange ability to find out things he hadn't even known he had done. So, for a moment, he looked over his shoulder.

As Percy's head turned, to Riley he seemed to stare behind them for an eternity. If Mrs. Caxton was indeed following them, the stage magician girl knew perfectly well the reason 'why'.

Upon getting out of the shower this morning Riley had found her pair of jeans having been replaced by a black and green skirt that there was no way anyone would ever manage to get her into - with the exception of Elizabeth Caxton.

In fact the pairs whole adventure out into the world had been spawned (and approved by Mr. Caxton of course) because of that disturbing morning moment.

"Riley," said Percy with a mild tone of discomfort, putting a single hand on the crown of her head. He seemed to be calling for her attention.

"Watson. If I am to die, I'd rather do so with danger facing my back not looking me straight in the eyes." Riley stayed rooted in the direction she was facing and had even at this point squeezed her eyes shut as she awaited whatever outcome came. That response simply caused Percy's fingers to sink onto Riley's head a little tighter.

"Why is my mother dragging my father through the park in broad day-light, by his ear." demanded Percival rather forcefully, his tone rather neutral in the face of what he saw. The mild bickerings of the tightly-knit couple would reach their ears, especially Riley, as they seemed to discuss just why their adoptive daughter was not wearing her skirt and walking around without permission.

Riley sighed and allowed Percy's hand to swivel her around. When she opened her eyes though the stage magician was looking to the side at Percy. Trying desperately to keep the Caxton pair even out of even her peripheral vision.

"I told you it would end up with less chaos if we had just kept running."

"No wonder why you were running so much faster today," said Percy with a mildly mute tone, "you were just trying to escape, with me in tow."

"PERCY-KINS!" bellowed the Caxton matriarch, literally tugging the man behind her by the ear, a searing mound of fury. Her fire magics started to spark around her, causing people to look at her as she passed. They couldn't puzzle what the sparks were. Perhaps the woman was just exceedingly beautiful? That's what her spirit magic made them believe as she stomped up towards them.

"And now, I'm in trouble by association," said Percival in a muted mutterance.

"You'll be fine. I'll defend you all the way through if need be!" Riley's muffled exclamation would do little to inspire much confidence in her partner though - seeing how it was said with her hiding almost completely behind his back, only eyes and a hat peering around him, with her face almost pressing into the back of his jacket.

As adopted daughter of the Caxton family, Riley picked now as the time to make use of her 'little sister' privileges.

This was point where Percy was forced to be the 'big brother' he had never been until Riley had come around, stealing away his status of only child.

"You two are in BIG TROUBLE," snarled Elizabeth stopping barely half a meter in front of them to loom over them both. While a normal woman, a normal mother would be intimdating in this sense, this mage's mother had the back up of an oppresive magical heat which seemed to melt the frost around her feet. They could feel the amount of energy she was channeling, and subdueing. "First off, young lady, you get out from your brother this instant."

Though the order was firm, and very direct, she had intimidated Percival enough for him to reflexively place his hand out to keep her from stepping into the line of almost literal fire.

Riley was radiating waves of relief as Percy stepped up to intervene, but the girl steadied herself in her mind as she remindered herself that she had promised to help her partner in this.

Squirming around behind Percy, the younger girl somehow ended up perched up on her surrogate brother's back with her head and a little bit of her shoulders showing above one of his own.

"Percy is in no way responsible for this situation!" Riley managed to get out one confident statement before Elizabeth's menace shook her resevoir of bravery to its foundations. "An..an..and we re-refuse to go any further wi...wih-with this parley unless the... ah," Riley's eyes alighted on Mr. Caxton like a drowning sailor to a life-raft. "Unless the Good Lord Caxton swears to be the impartial mediator of the current...er, dispute!"

"Sorry lass, but my hands are tied," admited Alistar as he put his hands up, still being held from the ear of his wife. There was a short silence, the matriarch turning her eye on the man, before turning her immense, and nearly choking presence on the two children. Percy had quickly adapted to Riley's climb, scooping his arms under her thighs and slightly bending his back. Luckily, he had gotten used to the weight of the girl.

Yet, the way his knees bent, they way they appeared to buckle, Percy looked as if he were about to give up. Alistar had already spent every ounce of it's clout, it seemed, and no one was going to stop Elizabeth Caxton.

That's when Percival revealed that his knees weren't buckling. He was bending them.

Riley's vision was suddenly changed of fire, park, and lake, and suddenly by a ridge with a steep incline. With the girl on his back, Percival turned tail and ran, stumbling over a stone wall, and then darting down the side of a hill into a thick brush of trees with the sounds of an angry woman screaming for her children to return this instant. Of course, that didn't happen, as Riley soon found that Percival was bursting his way through the brush and into the the depths of the park's forest with a speed she had never seen him possess.

Riley let out a loud laugh as Percy saved the both of them and the little girl did her best to call out any obstacles in the boy's way - but her help seemed wholely unnecessary as Percy, while stumbling a bit, moved almost fluidly around any serious impedement to their escape.

While she couldn't control her laughter, the girl did manage to reign herself in and made sure she didn't make even any kind of slightly antagonizing gestures back at Elizabeth - she had feeling if either of them did, it wouldn't just be the two of them running wildly through the park but everyone around except for the local fire department.

Besides, the two of them would have to be home by dinner. Many things in the Caxton house were acceptable, but dinner time was an ironclad rule.

As they ran - er, well Percy ran - deeper into the park Riley wrapped both arms around the boy's neck and gave a small, gentle squeeze.

After several minutes of speedy running, having completely over-exerted himself, he was glad to stop. His legs hurt a little bit from the awkward landing on his first few steps, and his legs were screaming for a break. He had shot deep into the park's tree'd areas, cut across a few paths, and a few hikers, and eventually the had been tugged to a slowing stop next to a large oak tree, which was in a brush filled clearing.

He came to his knees, completely out of breath, allowing Riley to slide off if she wanted.

Riley rolled off Percy's back as best she could and then took over from there. Gripping under the older boy's arms the best she could the girl manuevered the two of them to where Percy could lean against the large oak instead of on the ground. Still providing support for as long as he needed the stage magician girl flashed him her biggest grin.

"Best team in the world partner!" Riley told Percy as she gave him a thumbs up with her free hand.

Wheeze, huck, heave, haugh was most Percival could say in response as he was guided over to the tree. He offered her a thumbs up, with a gasping smile, before shakily leaning against the oak, greatful for her help. Riley had definitely pulled Percival into whatever mess she had caused, but for some reason, it had felt right to step in and provide an escape. Even if mum was going to be mad, for the first time, it felt inexplicably right.

"Mum's," Percival spoke with deep breaths, staring up at the mildly cloudy sky, "Mum's gunna' be miffed when she sees us again."

Riley glanced around the clearing before whispering to Percy. "It was pleated Percy. There was no way I would survive through that."

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Percy through a wheeze, instantly knowing what Riley meant, "That happened because of a skirt!?"

"Yeap and yeppers. It was a serious matter Watson." Riley said, but seemed to be distracted as she looked around at their surroundings. "We'll need some kind of peace offering to get out of this even with an inch of our lives remaining - and that's between the both of us."

Looking back towards Percy finally and helping by scrubbing some sweat off his face Riley shrugged and smiled sincerely again. "It's a debt you got from me unpayable with this Percy! Now, you see anything we could use as a decent gift?"

"Why don't you just put on the skirt? That'd sort this right quick." The boys went back up against the bark of the tree, letting his wind pipe flow un-obstructed when he had a cleaner face to present the sky with. "Besides, we'd need a druid like Ruarc to find something worth stealing someone's eyes off something like what we did."

Riley just shrugged at her partner's question but her eyes narrowed noticeably. "I dunno Percy. I'll wear it if you'll parade around for your mum in a matching piece with me. I'm sure the humour of that would set her real right with tha' both of us."

"For one, that'd just make mum worse off at me, and for two, skirts like the one she's trying to get you in aren't made for boys like me."

"And they aren't made for girls like me." Riley shot back with eyes that clearly conveyed that was an unbending position. The boy was a little silent at her declaration, as she was hard to convince otherwise in that state. Percival knew better than try to put logic in skirts without making it sound like everyone else should be wearing them. Instead, he simply looked at his hand, a little stained with dirt and dead leaves, pale from the cold.

"Riley," began Percy, still staring at his hands, "how long are you going to stay with us?"

"Hmm?" Riley responded, slightly in question to herself. "Me and my father never really set a time frame to my whole 'go out and see things' thing. I think he just assumed I'd make sure I saw my way back when I was ready."

Shrugging once more Riley's brow nit together as she tried to parse Percy's question. "What for? Y'know I'm always good for a week or two on the ground if you want your bed back to yourself."

He had a look in his eyes that spoke of something a little different, a look of longing that she could recognize when he had talked about how his friends seemed so distant in the late. The boy didn't frown, but he didn't smile either, "Are you going to go back home after leaving Japan?"

"Not sure. There's a lot of world between here and there - no matter which way you go. And," Riley paused and lifted a hand in which a multitude of indistinct illusionary figures moved about and went through various motions. "A stage magician has a lot of ways to slip through cracks past all the stuff that makes travel unfun."

"I imagine so," mused the boy as he leaned back a little, playing with a few leaves in his free hand, "It's just... Well. I've been thinking about it." His lower lip curled up a little bit in a sort of pressured, thoughtful gaze. He seemed definitely troubled, by something, though he wasn't letting on too easily.

"Percy. My dah's blind and I... I know he's gotta be getting lonely half of these days now." Riley had a bittersweet look on her face as she talked. "I miss him too. But, he... I don't... he wouldn't want...it's -"

Riley closed her eyes and breathed in slowly through her nose.

"I'd be back. 'sa promsie."

Percy blinked a little bit, rubbed the edge of his eye a little bit. There was a small smile on his face as a bit of the pressure alleviated, but the determination returned soon enough.

"I want to go with you."

Riley's brow knitted back up again and she gave Percy a slow - and tiny - half glare before poking him in the ribs and grinning like an imp.

"That's what has gotten you all worried and wound up like a spring about to explode?" Riley seemed almost cruelly amused by Percy's worries, but then the little girl engulfed the Welsh boy as best she could with a hug.

Pulled back and looked down at the ground, a blush on her cheeks Riley paused a moment before speaking again in more uncertain tone. "You shouldn't a' been worrying... 's like ya-your mum said, we're siblings right? Anywhere I go, I'd be making sure I had a spot for you planned out no matter where it is."

"So..." Percival nervously straightened his beret, trying to appear the older brother again, despite what he was saying, "... you don't mind? I'd do my best to keep up with you, and I know a little bit of a few languages... And... I'm rather knowledgable. Dah's taken me places before, but--..."

Riley poked Percy on the nose and then repositioned his beret - which his nervousness had left slightly off - to its perfect position. "Partners. That's what I've been calling you almost every day since I escorted you home and out of mopeland. There's no matter in what either of us are capable of alone - together, as partners, a team unstoppable!"

There was stunned silence permeating the air, what caused Percival's eyes to mist in the cold weather. His eyes hurt just a little bit, but after wiping them dry, he gave her a firm thumbs. "Tha-that's right! Once we set off together, not even the world will be able to stop us from seeing everything it has to offer!" Certainly, this young man was touched as he was fired up, "We'll see the rest of this world, together."

He held out his hand.

Riley smiled and gripped Percy's hand pulling forward only a few steps before returning to standing right by his side.

Raising an inquisitive eyebrow the stage magician gave her brother's hand a little squeeze. "What do you say, walk or run whichever matters not a wit, but we go together - side by side and ready for it all?"

Percival held up Riley's hand a big smile on his face, an unusual sight to say the least.

"We'll make our own pace."
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