thecapitol | Of all the money that e'er I spent...

Entry tags:

Of all the money that e'er I spent...

WHO| Wyatt and OTA
WHAT| Wyatt takes his unexpected new pet for a walk.
WHERE| A Capitol cafe, not too far from Tribute Tower
WHEN| After this.
Warnings| None.

Loaded down with a pair of Miss Pasha's Tribbles and eager to show them off, Wyatt's escort had been quick to leave him to his own devices after leaving the woman's shop, which was more than fine by the marshal. He was happy to find his own way back to the Tower, his own striped Tribble riding along on his shoulder, purring softly in his ear.

Still unexpected, still surprised Pasha had insisted, without repayment, he still hadn't quite figured out what he was supposed to do with the tiny, trembling beast, but it seemed harmless enough and she had said they were easy to keep.... If nothin' else, he supposed Max would get a laugh out of it. This little bit, looking like something his tiger had coughed up in a corner somewhere.

More than once, Wyatt was stopped on the sidewalk by curious passersby, some who had seen Pasha's broadcast, and others who hadn't, but all wanting to know more about the strange creature cooing happily from it's perch as it was petted and fussed over. Dutifully, he answered what questions he could and for the rest, he directed them back to the little shop with its many baubles.

At a cafe not far from his destination, he was stopped by one woman at a table near the sidewalk, but within minutes had gathered a small knot of a crowd, all of them asking after his new friend.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, I ain't found any yet." He reached up with one hand and pushed his hat up an inch to scratch lightly at his hairline, mouth twisting in bemusement. "No mouth neither."

It seemed be exactly what it looked like, a ball of purring fur, as impossible as that should have been. How did anything live without eating? Without breathing?

How did it even make noise, without taking in air?

A man could drive himself mad thinking about it.

...So Wyatt was trying not to.

"How do it be eating then?" She frowned and held it in front of her. "Maybe we do be holding it wrong." She turned it upside down, just in case.

The tribble squeaked and shook, apparently aware enough even without eyes and ears and mouth to know it was upside down and that it didn't like it.

"It doesn't, as far as I understand," he replied, holding a hand out as a safety net in case the tribble slipped. "Or they're not supposed to, anyways."

Pasha had stressed that, more than once. No food. They didn't need it and he wouldn't like what would happen if it did get any.

"Not supposed to be eating." She wrinkled her nose again and lifted the tribble higher so she could talk to it. "Did you be being a bad tribble?"

Could it hear her, did it even have ears. Pruna really didn't like how useless these things were.

The tribble cooed in response, a long trilling sound, as if promising her that no, no it certainly had not. Either that or it just wanted to be petted some more.

"I believe it's got less to do with bein' bad, an' more that it's bad for 'em." Wyatt chuckled and arched an eyebrow at her, mouth curling teasingly. "Like when little girls eat too much sweets an' get themselves a tummy upset.

"I do never be getting an upset tummy." She told him wrinkling her nose again. "How can food be being bad for them. Everything do be needing food, even plants."

Wyatt just chuckled again.

"Ya ain't wrong," he agreed with a nod of his head. "But the lady was quite insistent. Tribble's aren't supposed to eat an' if they do, it'll be very bad."

"Well I do be guessing if they do just be sitting there making stupid noises at least they do no be using up food."

She wrinkled her nose at the tribble. "You do be being a very strange creature."

That was one way of looking at it, he supposed. Practical, if nothing else.

A strange quality in a little girl, maybe, but not a bad one.

"To be fair, I expect it'd probably say the same 'bout you iffen it could," he teased.

She smiled at that. She guessed that too a stupid, useless furball humans must be really strange indeed. She stroked it some more it cooed happily.

"I do no be thinking it do be caring, as long as it do be being stroked."

He smiled, and reached out to pet the tribble with her.

"It's mighty big of somethin' so small, to like us in spite of ourselves."

She wrinkled her nose, "I do be guessing so. But it probably do just be being stupid. Do you no be being." She poked the tribble at that but soothed it's squeaking with more petting.

His grin turned into another laugh.

"Well, we should be jus' as big, an like it despite itself."

Or, at least, be nice to it, which somehow he figured was a step up enough for Pruna.

Like it despite itself, it was a new concept to Pruna, who didn't really much like anyone, except those she decided weren't as stupid as most of the world.

That list was slowly growing now that she was meeting all sorts of people, but she wasn't sure she could extend her new found tolerance of other people to furballs.

"We can be trying."

His hand shifted from the tribble to her shoulder with a light pat and a gentle squeeze.

"At'a girl. Tryin's where it all starts."

Effie said things like all the time and she looked up at him. "Do you be wanting him back, you will have to be being careful though because I do no be thinking Maximus' tiger." She wrinkled her nose, she really hated that tiger. It had come to represent everything that made her angry in the Capitol. "Will no be liking it for what it do be being, except maybe dinner."

The corner of his mouth twitched. If he didn't know better, he'd have said Pruna was worried about the little hairball.

"Don't ya worry none," he promised, holding out his hands to take the tribble back. "I'll be sure an' give Max the what for where his new friend's concerned."

He couldn't say he trusted the animal all that much, but he was getting used to it, as often as it could be found at Max's said these days.

"There won't be any tribble on the menu, ya have my word."

She handed it back, with a last ruffle. "You do be staying away from stupid tigers okay." She told it with another wrinkle of her nose. "I did no be being worried, it do just be being pathetic and being eaten by a tiger do be being a stupid way to be dying."

Wyatt just smiled as he rose out of his crouch and returned the tribble to his shoulder.

If she said so.

"No tigers, I promise," he assured her.

She grinned and then remembered something she had been wanting to ask for a while, but Wyatt was right here she could just ask him, and not have to risk asking someone who was stupid and knew nothing.

"Do you be being Maximus' boyfriend?"

It was both an unexpected change of subject and a term he wasn't entirely familiar with, and for a moment Wyatt could only stare at her, blinking uncertainly.

(The nearest of the crowd, however, seemed to find the question fascinating and for a heartbeat a silence Wyatt wouldn't have expected possible descended as they waited, none-to-subtly for his response.)

"I am a man," he said finally, nodding slowly. "An' he is my friend, but callin' him my brother might be a better way of puttin' it."

...Though, truth be told, he wasn't really happy with that word either. None of them - friend, ally, brother - seemed... enough. But he couldn't put his finger onto why, and wasn't sure the word existed to really explain it, so he could only settle for the incomplete.

A brother. Enjolras had called his friends brothers as well and that was one relationship Pruna did understand. She nodded. She knew how much brothers and sisters meant.

"It do be being good that you can be having a brother here." She told him, looking around, annoyed at all the people even though she had barged in on this group in the first place.

"It is good," he nodded, replying quietly, "not to be alone."

Then he smiled, small, but warm, and reached out to pat her shoulder gently.

"Ya have a good day now, Pruna. Try an' stay out of trouble, huh?"

She smiled and nodded, "I will be trying." She said sincerely, he had been nice to her so she could at least do her best to behave.

And the Capitolians would never know that it was thanks to Wyatt that their pockets went, for that day anyways, unpicked.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of all the money that e'er I spent...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject