[o.h.] the robin & the canary; young justice

Prologue II: Pretty Names & Ocean Eyes

S T A R  C I T Y
August 1, 13:35 PDT
ONE  YEAR  LATER

It had been a long year. Since her parents and baby sister, who wasn't even a year old yet, had all been declared legally dead by the SCPD, per a TV broadcast she had caught while walking down the street, Reese had gone to the streets.

It wasn't like there was anywhere else she could go. So, as of right now, what was a nine-year-old Reese Michaels doing?

...trying to pickpocket people in downtown Star City.

What? It's more fun than you might think.

Luckily, today there were a lot of people crowding the sidewalks, so pretending to bump into people in order to lift the hard cash they left loose in their pockets wasn't as difficult as it could've been.

This way, Reese didn't have to resort to digging through abandoned trashcans for her lunch. No, now she'd be able to buy a turkey sandwich or something from one of the outside food stands.

It was the Star City Summer Festival right now, and almost the entire downtown had been turned into one massive street fair.

After buying her turkey sandwich and a bottle of lemon-lime soda with a five-dollar bill she had lifted off a middle-aged woman, Reese sat down lightly on an empty bench, unwrapping the sandwich before taking a big bite out of it.

The vendor had given her a weird look when he saw that a young kid was using her own money to buy something, but he hadn't said anything.

After a minute or two, another person sat down next to her on the bench, and Reese tensed. In the year she had been living by herself, she had learned to be suspicious of people, but this guy seemed like he was harmless.

He was a redhead and looked to be a few years older than her. Fifteen, maybe. He was dressed in a white t-shirt, red-and-black jacket, and blue jeans.

For a moment, he didn't say anything, before he suddenly glanced at Reese from the corner of his eye, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"Any particular reason a young kid like you has been pickpocketing these nice people for the last hour?" For a split-second, Reese's eyes widened, before she controlled herself and narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said firmly, and the guy chuckled.

"I gotta admit, kid, you're a good liar, but you're not the best. I grew up on the streets, I know what pickpocketing looks like,"

For a single second, Reese still sat on the bench next to the redhead, before she suddenly shot up and pushed through the gathered crowd.

"Hey!" she heard the other boy shout behind her, but Reese ignored him, in favor of trying to get away. How could she have been so stupid?

It was about time that someone finally realized what she was doing. Reese wasn't the best pickpocket, she knew that, but she was better than most.

Not good enough, it seemed. Glancing over her shoulder, Reese managed to catch sight of the redhead, and he was following her through the thick crowd.

Pushing herself faster, Reese ducked between two stalls, one a jewelry stand, while the other was another food cart, finally bursting out into a less-crowded backstreet.

She turned around to see if the redhead was still following her but was suddenly bowled over by another person, both of them tumbling to the ground, Reese's head snapping back and hitting the asphalt.

"Ow," she groaned, sitting up, holding the back of her head. But, when Reese looked up, she found herself staring into a pair of ocean eyes that belonged to a boy about her age, with messy black hair.