Street Mouse [Yandere Archduke x Female Reader]

3. All Because of a Pie.

"I can't believe Demetrius had the nerve to send us on such a challenging quest," Paety complained, as he and Y/N staked out the marketplace.

"You know that he means well," Y/N said, trying to defend the President's actions. "It must be a challenging job, trying to make sure that we have what we need to survive."

"True," Paety conceded, casually swiping a small block of hard cheese from a market stall while the owner's back was turned. "But that doesn't make him any less of a hypocrite ."

"That's a big word, you sure you know what it means?" Y/N teased, poking Paety's cheek playfully.

"Well... No," Paety said, blushing from embarrassment. "But it sounds like something he is."

"You really shouldn't be so tough on him, Demetrius has his good points too," Y/N scolded her friend lightly.

"Like?" Paety challenged, arching a snowy white eyebrow.

"Well, he... He..." Y/N let her words trail off as she tried to think of some redeeming quality that the President had.

She was just about to give up when a mischievous light found its way into her eyes and she looked up at her companion. A wide grin stretched her face as she said, "He doesn't use words that he doesn't know."

After Y/N finished her mockery, she quickly scurried up the street before Paety could catch her.

"HEY! THAT'S NOT KIND OF YOU!" Paety yelled as he began to pursue the girl up the street.

Y/N dashed through the Market place, passed the village folk doing their weeks shopping, through unattended stands. As she continued to run, she looked over her shoulder and caught sight of Paety closing the distance between them.

Speeding up as fast as her little legs would go, Y/N run forward into a gap between two small shops, hoping to come out on the next street over. Y/N felt her panting breaths get caught in her throat as she realized that the alleyway she had run into was a dead-end. Before she could leave, the fair-haired boy had reached the same spot and pounced on her.

He began to tickle her mercilessly. She laughed loudly, tears coming to her eyes as she said, "cut it out, that's enough."

"Do you apologize?" Paety asked with a smirk.

"Fine," Y/N muttered, looking away and pouting. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Paety said, sitting back with a cheeky grin. "We best get back to work looking for that food, Demetrius will be upset at us if we don't finish our quest."

"I guess you're right," Y/N agreed, getting to her feet and doing her best to shake the dust from her already grubby dress.

"Look at that," Paety pointed at the shop to the right of where they stood. It was a pleasant timber building with large, open-air windows that looked out onto the street. From the windows was emanating the smell of freshly baked bread.

"A bakery," Y/N questioned, feeling a wave of nostalgia as the scents of baked goods washed over her.

"Come on, let's check the window sills!" Paety said excitedly, grabbing Y/N's hand and pulling her towards the bakery.

On the wooden window sill, the children found several meat pies cooling after being taken out of the cook oven.

"Come on," Paety whispered. "Quickly, let's take some before the baker sees us."

Y/N's mother always said that stealing was wrong, but she had learned that when you lived on the streets, there was no guarantee of getting what you needed to survive unless you took it yourself. The children on the streets seemed to be as unseeable as the wind to everyone else, moving like vermin in the shadows, but the children had learned to be as uncatchable as the wind too, especially when it came to stealing what the people would not give them otherwise.