DETERRENT - Apply Fic

05

Kae peers after George Rooney as he heads deeper into their house. He's got rolled-up sleeves on his brown shirt, jeans, and a toolbelt strung over his hips. She wants to make him turn around. How make pockets on him? How many crevices where her hands could find purchase? Things she's never seen. Nothing here is worth stealing, but stealing is never about what Kae can buy.

She thinks of the donut, it's sugar glaze coating her fingers. Kae rubs the palm of her hand, expecting to feel its sticky touch. Her bracelet clinks, and she lowers her hand.

"Your shoes," Kae says.

The man named George turns around to face her. He looks down at his work boots and his face beats red. It's not much different from the rest of him.

"Sorry," he manages. He bends over to take off his boots, unlacing them carefully. "I guess I was distracted that you're here and all. How long have you and Benji known each other?"

Kae shrugs. She has no idea how to talk to him any more than anyone else, North Marcadian or otherwise. She leans closer to get a better look at him, counts the pouches on his tool belt, the flaps on his tool belt. There's a hammer, a screwdriver, probably nails or screws in a pocket. She wonders what would happen if she were caught with one. They aren't supposed to have weapons.

George stands. He leaves his boots on the ground and moves away.

Kae traces him down the hallway. When he's rounded into the living space, she kneels down to pull the shoelace from his boot.

It is at that time that the others see George. He enters the room, staring at the North Marcadians, trading clothes with each other. Half of them in jumpsuits the colour of the muck near the pond just outside of Benji's property line, the other with shirts that colour and black pants. George looks up at Benji, who has yet to notice him, and is folding discarded clothes in the corner.

Eurydice is the first to notice him. Even in her disgust, she sees him out of the corner of her eye. Would-be bounty hunters are always showy. They think you need special combat techniques, particular holds, access to the best stun guns and illegal darts. Maybe that works for many people. Eurydice finds it best to work unseen in the cover of darkness, and is not acutely aware of when she is being watched.

"Who are you?" she looks at the man, the frown curling down her face, her teeth still hidden. "I thought the labourers were supposed to keep to themselves."

"George Rooney, fruiter," he averts his eyes, and Eurydice wonders what he would do if he saw her teeth. "I didn't realize Benji would have company."

Cosmia is the only one tuned into their conversation, watching the man who has introduced himself. She can't see Eurydice's face, but if she talks to him at all in the way she talks to Benji, Cosmia might spend the next three years in a Medfack. She looks at the people around her, acutely aware of her own sharp teeth. She looks at the people around her, Norbu, Calath, both unpredictable. The only other one she can reach is Faris.

She smacks the back of her hand against his shoulder, a reflex quicker than her judgement. There isn't space in real time to think it over.

Faris looks to Cosmia's face and then the object of her gaze. The farmer in the doorway, and Eurydice who undoubtedly is going to eat him alive.

"You looking for Benji?" Faris calls over loudly, a smile on his face.

Benji perks up, looking at the sound of Faris' voice. Then, he looks to where Faris waves, to the man in the doorway. Benji pushes through the room, going to see them.