Steal the Stars [REWRITING]

Annabelle - Words I'm Not Supposed to Say Come to Mind

"This is ridiculous," James complained. He'd been complaining for the last hour, and I'd been repeating the same things back to him. It was getting old. And incredibly tempting to knock him out–but I had a feeling that wouldn't be on Leo's list of approved activities.

"It hasn't been that long," I repeated, for what felt like the billionth time. "You're being dramatic. And you're looking for ingredients for a bomb. How is this not exciting enough for you?"

"One minute, you're just as miserable as I am now, and the next, you're Miss Optimist."

"Well, you tend to do the same thing, so..." I shrugged.

"I do not!"

"You do!"

"Not! Why are we together on this stupid shopping trip, anyway?" James sulked.

"Because Leo likes Nicole better than you. Anyway–"

"And you!" He interjected. "You're stuck here, too!"

"Okay, and? I'm not Leo's best friend or his girlfriend, so that pretty much eliminates me. Except Leo still picked Nicole over you, which was my point to begin with before...actually, what are we talking about?"

"How annoying you are," James snapped.

"Oh, just come on." I dragged him into the store. I threw things into James' arms, a growing pile that Liam probably wouldn't approve of. When I added a small crocheted bear to the top of the pile, James grabbed a pack of nails off a nearby shelf and threw them at my head.

I shrieked and threw out my hands, suspending them in midair before whipping them back at him. He swore as he dropped the pile of stuff he was holding, and I raised my eyebrows. "Children should mind their language."

"I'm older than you!" He snapped.

"Are you? I wasn't sure. It's kind of hard to tell, you know, because..."

"Shut up. Let's get this over with." He stomped off towards the register, stuff replied in his arms. I slipped the teddy bear back on top of the pile. He didn't even notice, too caught up with throwing a fit to pay attention to anything else. I skipped after him to the register, beaming.

The cashier looked tired, and not particularly interested in anything–which was probably a good thing. Two teenagers buying a weird assortment of stuff probably wasn't the weirdest thing she'd seen all day, but this was Koyia. Security was tight. We'd already passed at least three signs informing us that, "suspicious personnel should be reported." The reward for it had been pretty good too–James had looked pretty tempted to turn himself in.

It would be a lot less risky, anyway.

But when could we ever do anything the easy way?

James shoved a few of the bags into my arms (ever the gentlemen). "Let's go. Do you think Leo and Nicole are done yet?"

"Dunno." My eyes wandered around the street, taking in the people and shops. It smelled so much better here than back at the inn, street vendors and food carts at every corner. I grabbed James' arm and pointed across the street. "Ice cream!"

"So?"

"So, let's get some!" I was already pulling him towards the shop. A driver shouted at us as he jerked his horses to a stop mere inches from mowing us down; I ignored him, and James flipped him off. Nicole would not have been happy if she'd seen it, and Leo would have apologised (actually, neither of them would have been in the middle of the street in the first place), but they weren't here. James had grown up in a wealthy household–like me–but he sure didn't act eloquently at all.