Kingdoms (kaimaki fantasy AU)

Chapter 7: Gaining Trust and Respect

This was an interesting turn of events.

Kaito would never in a million years expect this to happen. If he had been asked a week or even a year before, he would never have believed that he would be a guest at a bandit's camp. As night had fallen upon them, he realised that this solved the problem that he and Maki had faced earlier in terms of food and shelter. That gave him some relief. Kaito looked up briefly from the letter he was writing (he was able to grab some parchment paper, ink and a quill pen from someone), and scanned the camp. There were more people than the ones that Kaito and Maki ran into, at least more than thirty. There were a couple of women who were married to a few of the men. Everyone around him acted like normal people he'd encounter in the streets of his village. Some were telling jokes and laughing or complaining about the littlest of things. Others were just going over some of the things that they had stolen previously. There were even some that were playing music that Kaito had never heard of before. This whole camp felt oddly normal to him. After talking to a couple of them, he almost understood why. Almost all of the bandits used to be normal people that were forced out of their homes by the Queen. They had nowhere to go other than here. Kaito felt sorry for them, but he couldn't do anything to help them.

Kaito was interrupted when he heard someone approaching him. He looked up, smiling as he saw Maki making her way to him. She was carrying two bowls full of steaming hot stew. She still had a stoic look on her face, but Kaito thought that he could see some kind of emotion in her eyes. It was probably just him thinking that.

"Here. I'm assuming you're hungry." Maki sighed, passing him one of the bowls.

"Thanks." Kaito smiled, carefully putting his stationary aside. He carefully took the bowl, hissing a little at how hot it was in his hands. He let out a satisfied sigh as he took a bite of the meat in the stew. He didn't know what it was but he assumed that it was deer or something like that. Either way it tasted good. As he ate, he couldn't help but glance over at Maki. He was still baffled at the fact that Maki had decided to take him with her instead of their things. He didn't know if she had planned that or not but it worked in getting them some kind of security in a way.

"Hey. Thanks for not leaving me behind." Kaito finally said, glad to finally get that out. He and Maki had almost finished eating at that point, leaving at least a quarter of the stew left in their bowls. Maki she glanced him, but didn't say a word. "I hate to admit it, but I don't think that I could've taken these guys on all by myself."

"Why would I leave you? After all, you're the only one who can slip into towns without problems for me." Maki sighed, focusing on the bonfire at the centre of the camp as she took another spoonful of her stew

"Ouch!" Kaito chuckled with a mock hurt look on his face, hand over his heart. Maki made no reaction to that which caused him to grin even more. "And here I thought you started to care about me, Maki Roll."

"Maki Roll?" Maki repeated, staring a him with a raised eyebrow. Kaito wasn't able to hold back a smug smile as he nodded. He looking like a kid that got thought he had accomplished something great. Maki rolled her eyes at the look on his face. "Don't call me that again."

"Sorry, but no promises, Maki Roll." Kaito laughed, unable to hold himself back. Maki suddenly glared at him darkly. It wiped the smile right off of his face as he felt like he was shaking a little. If looks could kill, he had no doubt that he'd be in a bloody state right now.

"Do you want to die?" Maki asked, her voice completely monotone. Kaito felt a bead of sweat go down his face. She had asked him that earlier, but he was sure that Maki wasn't making this threat lightly. He needed to think of something fast, or he will be dead. Thankfully his prayers were answered when he noticed someone coming towards them.