A young woman stayed silently crouched behind a wooden box stuffed chalk full of flour and salt bags. She had done this everyday for the past week now, and she now knew exactly what the man ahead had scheduled for the day. He would first open up his small bakery at sunrise and grab two bags of flour and three bags of salt. Then he would retreat inside and clean his counter that he had already washed the night before. After that he would lay the flour down and make bread to sell. And from there on he would do the same thing over and over again until he had made multiple loaves of fresh, warm bread. Then he would go to greet his daily customers and listen as they all gossip about the scams of all the other stores in town, saying how everyone asks for too much now. But it didn't matter about what the baker did after that, because at that point she would already be out of his building with his loaves of bread. She peeked from behind the box and watched as the tall baker walked outside and greeted his buyers. As they went through their pleasantries, she snuck inside of the building. While slowly creeping her way over, she cast her best friend, and partner in crime, a quick smirk. In which he nodded back, a smile akin to hers gracing his lips. Once inside, she instantly headed over to the bread that had been set out to cool and she sweeped it up and into her small brown satchel. Then she shuffled over to the second counter that had the bread that was already cooled down and ready to sell. She added the few loaves to her bag. She noticed her friend from outside gesturing for her to leave, seeing as she had already collected the loot. At first she went towards the door hurriedly, that was until she noticed all the containers full of different goodies. She shook her head.
"Nope, not today." She thought while pulling her attention back to where it should've been. "I already have the food that we need." She quickly headed back outside, knowing if she stayed there any longer, the baker would come back in and catch her stealing his food. Once outside she stood up straight and made sure her satchel was closed, then she walked by the owner and his customers and smiled with a polite nod. Of course, she should've realized that they wouldn't want to be making any sort of conversation with her, since she was more poor than a night full of pouring rain. So all she got from them were quiet whispers and quick nods of acknowledgement. With that she had shuffled by and over to her friend who was already congratulating her for obtaining their dinner for them.
"I swear," He began. "Next time I'll gather the food for us, Samus." He kept thanking her as she passed a loaf of bread to him. He snatched it right from her hands with his own dirt stained palms and began to eat the bread, chunk by chunk. He had been famished, she had known this, so had she been. With that she began to dig into her own food as well. The two sat crossed legged behind a large rusty crate that hadn't been moved for a good four years now. So this had been where the two had been staying ever since then.
"Wait!" Samus whipped her head around to see the baker attempting to stop a young man from walking away. "This is the best bread in town!" The owner boasted, arms outstretched, though the young man didn't seem to care. He just raised his hand to his face to rub his chin, as if contemplating something.
"I really can't." Samus watched as the young man gave an apologetic smile to the baker. "But I've come out to buy a book, a book that I promised I would purchase." He finished and Samus realized who the young man was.
"On no." She muttered under her breath and her friend cast his glance away from his food and to her.
"What's wrong?" He asked popping a piece of bread in his mouth. She stayed silent. "What're ya lookin' at?" He asked while still chewing. She sighed inwardly before turning around to face her friend.
"Nothing." She reluctantly said, knowing that if her friend noticed who it was too, he would also be infuriated at the situation. So instead, she lied.
"Oh. Well alright then, keep eating." He gestured to her hands which were clasped around her loaf.
"Yeah, I'm gonna." She said and he smiled towards her before looking back down to his food. With that Samus took another bite, with one more glance from behind the box to see the young man once more, but he was already gone, and the baker had now retreated inside; to his surprise though, he would be missing a few loaves of bread that day.