Young Writers Society

A little. Kate tried to figure out how many bullets were left in the gun.

All she calculated was that she didn't know anything about guns.

In frustration, she turned her attention to their surroundings. A little town, one of those places you went through but didn't really have a reason to linger unless you actually lived here, or knew someone who lived here, but, like, old-timey. Kinda like all of Neverland, really, but with less sparkle-farting pixies flitting around flinging glitter on everything. Those little pests. Kate was going to call an exterminator on them one of these days. As soon as she found a working phone.

"Well I'm sorry that I assumed the guy who owns maybe two outfits and spends most of his time hungover was broke as hell," she grumbled.

James glanced over at her and shrugged. "Fair assumption," he said. "What little money I have I don't get to keep for very long, but such is the nature of living and having needs."

He led the way to a shop across the street, eyes landing on the small wooden sign hanging from the roof that said "General Store." He could see the shop owner inside the windows, rearranging some items in the store's window display.

Kate looked in the window of the general store, scowling. She hated how he'd phrased that. Like she didn't get what it was like to be alive or have needs. She'd spent fifteen years alive, she hadn't even been dead for half that. If there was anything she knew, it was being alive and having needs.

"Whatever," she grumbled, "What do you need now?"

"Food. Something to carry it in, at the least. I'll see what I can manage."

James paused at the door, glancing in.

"And I'll see if I can find something for your head. A hat, maybe."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Well then, let's go and buy you some food." She wasn't letting him waste money on a hat. There was nothing in the world easier to steal than a hat.

When they went in to the store, they were the only people there besides the shopkeeper, and it looked like they had just opened. Displays were neatly rearranged before curious hands moved things around and things were purchased. The shop smelled clean, despite being a little crowded and full of a variety of dried and preserved foods.

James was able to get a few things with the little money he had. He managed to stretch his coins a little by being friendly to the shop-keep, but he could tell that he and Kate didn't look like the typical travelers passing through. They were unprepared, disheveled, and Kate had a torn piece of clothing wrapped around her head. And they probably smelled like forest, among other things. He could only hope that word wouldn't spread and suspicions would stay low.

With a new bag slung over his shoulder, now filled with enough food to tide him over for a few days (with light eating) and a few necessities, he was ready to be on the road again. When Kate inevitably - or rather, hopefully found her way back home, he'd find some job somewhere to get more coin again. At least, that was the plan.

He gave his sack a little pat as they left the store and turned to Kate. His eyes widened for a moment as he realized:

"Ah... I forgot about a hat," he said almost as a whisper.

Kate tightened the cloth around her head and rolled her eyes. Of course he did. It was the least important thing on their list, and the bitch was broke as hell. She would've forgotten it too.

"Whatever," she said, "I'll take care of it."

Would he protest to what she was about to do? Eh. Probably. His opinion wasn't worth shit, though, so she turned on her heel - and immediately regretted the speed with which she did so. Her head pounded with the sudden movement like her dying brain was contracting around that stupid fucking tunnel James's rude-ass friend carved in her skull.

Ignoring the splitting headache to the best of her very limited ability, and muttering a few choice words under her breath in the absence of any pain meds, she marched off to find some poor sop in someplace with suitably low visibility who happened to be wearing a decent hat.

James hadn't been prepared for Kate marching off without warning, but he had a feeling he knew what she was about to do (or try to do). He glanced about the town, noticing at least one or two curious eyes following Kate down the road - but more people were starting to wake, going out and about the town.

He followed her at a walking pace, not wanting to draw more attention to her or himself.

Kate ignored the curious glances and the one or two pairs of prying eyes. The hell did the opinions of these morons matter? So long as they were looking at her, Jamie over there looked like a normal as fuck dude. No one would think 'wanted criminal' when they were busy marveling at what dyed hair looked like.

She shoved her slipping glasses up her nose and waited for the incredibly few people whose eyes followed her to lose interest before she turned down an alleyway and made her way to the backstreets. People didn't tend to open the windows back there, or even happen a glance in the direction of where everyone knew a whole host of unsavory activity could be going on at any time.

People at large were surprisingly good at minding their own business when it came to things like the law, where they would have to do even the slightest bit of work if they did happen to see something illegal.

It took a bit of wandering - quiet wandering, thanks to James being an overall pretty quiet guy - but eventually, Kate found exactly the poor sap she was looking for.

She gave James a look that meant, you don't want to stick around for this, and approached the guy with the feathered hat without hacking if James followed.

James gave Kate a small nod. He stood back, eyes on the man in the feathered hat. He didn't know what exactly Kate was going to do, but he hoped it wasn't going to be excessively violent.

Kate gently took off her glasses and folded them up. She swapped them for the gun and lengthened her stride to catch up with the guy.

He was dressed like a dandy in clean, slightly-fancier-than-average - at least for this town - clothes and, of course, the hat. There was a confidence in his bouncy little walk that implied that he thought muggings were quite impossible in this little town, on this fine morning, as he made his way to sparkle-snorting class or wherever.

She tapped him on the shoulder and, confused, he turned around with a, "Can I help you?"

His voice died when his eyes caught the gun aimed at his chest from where Kate held it low, hidden by her coat. She flashed her fangs in a cheap imitation of a friendly smile, "I'd like to have your hat," she said casually.

The man's hands trembled slightly as he lifted them up, either to surrender or to take the hat off his head. Kate waited.

Suddenly, his hands shot out, one going for the gun, the other for her wrists. Before she could do a thing, the gun fell out of her grip and the man was trying to wrestle her one way or another.

The glow of her eyes brightened as she glared at him. With a sudden shove, she broke his grip on her and drew her sword, lunging forward before he could react. She slammed him against the alley wall with the blade pressed a litte too hard against his neck.

Wordlessly she glared into his eyes, killing his screams for help before they could crawl up his throat. She brough her free hand up and gently lifted the hat from his head and place it on her own.

"You will say nothing about this, got it?"

He tried to nod with the steel digging into his neck and ended up yelping in pain instead.

Kate released him. "Get the fuck out of here."

He did just that as she stooped to pick up the dropped gun.

James watched from afar, out of view, while Kate stole the man's hat. He didn't really condone stealing, but a hat was a very small thing, and not part of someone's livelihood. That, and he didn't know if he could stop her. He was still wrapping his head around Kate being dead, but he knew enough that violence wouldn't work on her. That, and he didn't want to hurt her.

Kate was a little rough around the edges, sure, but she treated him with more human decency than a lot of people who knew him. And she was funny.

Of course, he knew he was going to say goodbye eventually, just like every other friend (or whatever they were to each other - two people in a pinch helping one another).

He walked up to Kate slowly, watching as the now hat-less man disappeared down the street.

"I have a feeling he'll probably report us - er, you. We should get going."

"No shit Sherlock," she muttered, "You got all of your survival stuff? For sure?"

It would absolutely suck to find out they forgot something. James forgot something. Kate would have forgotten everything he'd picked up. Except maybe food. She didn't need food, but that didn't mean she didn't like food.

James nodded, glancing down into his bag just to be sure. He had everything he needed that he could afford. They could make it on this.

"We're good to go," he said, inching to the back of the alley and looking about the street. No one seemed to interested in them yet. They should go now.

He stepped out into the street and walked at a casual pace to the edges of the town.

Kate pulled the hat down to better cover the wound - which was still also covered by the cloth - and grunted an acknowledgment before striding back down the alley the way they came, and the opposite direction of the guy she'd robbed.

"We should head to a port town," Kate said, "I know a thing or two about ships, and all I really need to do is get on one to take it to Neverland." That wasn't completely true - she'd have to get control enough to actually change the course they had plotted out - but James didn't have to know every little thing.