Nightingale's Song (Revised)

Life of an orphan, from thief to musician.

Warnings for this chapter: Mentions of molestation. Just mentioned though, nothing like the other chapter.

I do not own Tag You're It by Melanie Martinez.
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Danny wakes and finds himself laying in a dirty alley in England. He stands and stretches, feeling his back pop painfully as he rolls his shoulders. He looks down at himself, checking to see that nobody robbed him in his sleep and sees that he is still wearing his dirty brown shirt, trousers, and worn shoes that are a size too small. He runs his hand through the greasy and tangled mess he calls hair, and looks at his surroundings, finding himself alone as usual. When he feel his stomach growl, he sighs tiredly.

'Let's get this over with.' He thinks in resignation to what he has to do. He walks into the crowd, sizing up the people strolling the wide and dirty streets. He spots a man in a fine suit and begins to follow him, making sure to keep far enough back so people won't suspect what he is about to do. The greying haired gentleman makes the mistake of turning down a street with fewer people and Danny sees his chance.

Danny gets closer to the oblivious man, and carefully puts his hand in one of his pockets. He makes sure to keep pace with the man, slowly pulling out his wallet.

"Boy, what do you think your doing?"

Danny jerks back, dropping the wallet. The man turns and raises a brow at the frightened boy, said boy speaking nonsense as he tries to apologize. The man waves a hand, silencing him.

"Either you're not a very good thief or the people you stole from were moronic. Tell me, which do you think is the case, young one?" He inquires menacingly.

Danny is silent as he only knew half of what the man was saying. He is familiar with the tone the man used though and braces himself for what the man might do. The man seems to consider him, "You don't know how to speak do you? Where are your parents?"

Danny actually knows that word and looks down at his shoes in dejection. He shakes his head slowly, tears coming to his eyes.

The man sees this and gazes at the boy pityingly, "I see..." He seems to think for a moment before a kind smile spreads on his face, "Well I can't leave you out on the streets, and I see you don't like that you have to steal for a living, so..." He picks up his wallet and holds out a hand to the boy, "Why don't I take you in? I have a ship that caters to the most refined people in the world, so I'm well off. You won't have to go hungry again."

Danny should have known better than to trust a stranger, seeing how his life was, but it looked like the man was willing to help him. Danny grins and nods, almost making himself dizzy with the force. The man chuckles as he takes the boy's hand, walking with him to the docks. "My name is Vlad Masters, do you have a name Little Badger?"

Danny thinks about what the man said. It sounded like he was introducing himself, so Danny figured that it wouldn't hurt to do the same. He told the man the only words he somewhat knew how to say.

"Dan..nee..Jame..s-son..."

Life was bad once, then it got better...

A year later, Danny is able to speak pretty good english, though because he hadn't learned it until he was seven, he still has to think about what was said and what to say, causing him to have a bit of a stutter. Nobody on the staff seemed to have a problem with it though; in fact from what he could decipher they thought it was cute.