Author's Note: This is something that I came up a while ago. Iida is my own character thrown into the Magnificent Seven Tv series world. Maybe I'll write more about her one day, maybe not. I fell in love with the series in the spring and like most of the time I start watching something new, I created my own way to get more time to explore this fandom.
Hope you'll enjoy!
Disclaimer: I only own Iida, everything else recognizable belongs to their rightful owners.
Little Thief
Maybe it was destiny. Or just plain old good luck, but the girl liked the sound of destiny better. As the faint click filled the air, a grin that paled a Cheshire cat appeared on her round face.
Slowly, but with certainty, she pushed the door ajar first then to full ninety degrees.
"Stop!" The girl flinched and her grin fell. It was supposed to work! She had been so close and now she gets caught?
"Hands in the air, little lady!" the voice shouted again. The girl straightened her back, her jaw set firm as she raised her hand above her head and slowly turned around. A tall, muscular but kind looking man approached. The girl tried to decipher what kind of mood the man was in.
"You can lower your hands now." She hadn't even realised she still held her arms up. She quickly put her hands in her pockets and send a pleading look towards him.
"Please, 'Siah, this ain't what it looks like", she said. Josiah Sanchez crossed his arms over his wide chest and arched an eyebrow.
"You sure about that, little one? Because I could have sworn I just saw you picking that lock - which is a crime and also the wrong thing to do. And you were about to steal, that's against the law, too."
She gulped. She was trapped and she knew it. She couldn't lie to Josiah - he was a preacher!
"But I wasn't stealing anything that isn't already mine." As soon as the words left her mouth, the girl knew she had dived head first into a trap. Josiah grinned a little. He lowered his big hand on the girl's shoulder and closed the cabinet with his other hand. He made sure that the wooden doors were locked again.
He started to guide the girl out of the jailhouse and into the broad daylight.
"Iida, I trust you know why what you did was wrong." Josiah's voice had gotten a firm note to it. Iida hung her head.
"Yes, Josiah. I'm sorry."
That warmed Josiah's heart. He knew the girl didn't want to cause trouble and she wasn't a bad girl. She simply sometimes forgot to think her actions and the consequences those actions held.
Iida looked up and the man who was like an uncle to her flashed a grin. She hesitated.
"Are you going to tell Chris, I tried to take the gun back?" she started to worry her bottom lip between her teeth as she asked the question. Her stomach twisted as she waited for the answer hoping the preacher would say he wouldn't tell her guardian.
"No, I'm not," Josiah said. Iida's relief was short lived when the man continued. "You are."
For a moment she thought about running, but Josiah apparently anticipated this as he grabbed the collar of her blouse and started to guide her towards the boarding house.
Chris Larabee suppressed a sigh when he saw Josiah walking the little troublemaker to the boarding house. He stood up from his place on the porch and stumped his cheroot.
Crossing his arms against his black fabric covered chest, he faced the girl he considered daughter.
"What did you do this time, young lady?"
Iida shuffled her feet and looked anywhere but her guardian's way. It took a little gentle shake from Josiah to make the girl answer.
"I tried to steal the gun…" She whispered. She paled as soon as the words left her mouth. Closing her eyes, she waited for the explosion to happen.
Chris tried very hard to keep a hold of his temper. He nodded to Josiah, who nodded in turn and releasing his hold of Iida's collar the preacher left towards his church.
"What were you thinking?" Chris demanded. Iida looked at the feet, not really having an answer to that question. When he saw that didn't get anything out of the girl, he cupped her chin with his hand, making the girl look at him.
"Did I not tell you to stay away from that cabinet and specifically from that gun?"
"Yes, sir. You did, but-"
"No. Guns ain't for kids, especially little girls."
Wrong choice of words. Iida's temper flared, she crossed her arms.
"So, I ain't allowed a gun just because I'm dress folk? That is not fair, Chris Larabee!"
Chris wiggled a finger at her. "Now, little girl, you know that ain't what I meant. Guns are for protection and you don't need a gun to protect you because you have me."
Hearing that, made Iida's temper lower it's head a little. She tried very hard to stay on her mind and have Chris give her the gun back.
"But it's not fair the colt is locked away when it's mine."
"You can have it when you're an adult. That's final, little girl. Do you understand?"
Iida wanted to argue, to throw a tantrum worth a five-year-old. But she wasn't five, she couldn't do that. Besides, Chris was giving her the look which told the girl not to push her limits. She probably was in enough trouble as it was because she had tried to steal, again, after he had already told her not to try to steal the gun back to herself. Not to mention, Iida had gotten few lectures about stealing in general before this.
"Yes, sir. I understand." She eventually sighed.
"I s'pose ya know why your actions were wrong?"
"Yeah, stealing is a crime and could get me in jail." Suddenly the girl's expression turned horrified. "You're not going to put me in one of those cells, right?"
Chris made a show of thinking about it long and hard, making Iida squirm on her place debating about running. In reality, Chris had no intention of putting his little girl in on those little prison cells. He just wanted the girl to sweat over her punishment a little longer.
"Nah, I reckon Mrs. Jones got plenty of chores 'round here for you."
Hearing this, made Iida sigh in relief. But she hung her head as she realized what doing chores for Mrs. Jones, the boarding house's landlady meant.
"But, Vin promised to take me with him to Hetty's place today."
Seeing his little girl so miserable, made Chris soften his firm facade with the girl. He placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sure Vin can take you to Hetty's tomorrow."
"Yeah, I guess…"
Iida had done everything Mrs. Jones had asked her to do. First, she had dusted the furniture in the dining room and common room. Then the landlady had told her to scrub the second-floor corridor floors and whole first floor. She had started from the second floor doing as good of a job she could. She wanted to show Chris and Mrs. Jones that she wasn't a bad girl and could do what she was told.
Iida was tired after all the work she had done. When she was finally ready, she looked at her work with pride. Her face fell, when Buck Wilmington walked in with his dirty boots, leaving mud and footprints in his wake. Inside she was fuming but with the determination to show Chris she had done well on every chore Mrs. Jones had assigned her, she only glared in the way Buck had disappeared apparently not seeing the girl with a bucket and scrubbing brush in her hands. She started to scrub the floor clean again.
Vin came in to fetch Buck after Iida had scrubbed half of the muddy footprints from the floor. He was considering enough - after seeing the girl scrubbing the floor with such determination Vin wasn't sure he had seen on anyone's face before - and left his boots on the porch.
After Iida had scrubbed the floor again, she went to Mrs. Jones to ask what was her next chore. Mrs. Jones, however, saw that the eleven-year-old looked exhausted already and decided the girl had done enough.
"I was going to ask for you to help me in the kitchen, but I don't really need help here now. How about you go get yourself comfortable on that big divan in the parlor?"
"It's okay, Mrs. Jones, I can help you with dinner preparations."
The middle-aged woman lay her hand on the girl's shoulders, and turning her around, gave a gentle push towards the parlor.
"Nonsense, sweetheart. Go on."
"But, Chris said-"
"I will handle Chris Larabee, don't you worry. Now, go before I swat you with my spatula."
Iida smirked, but not one to defy the woman after she took that firm note on her voice, she hurried from the kitchen.
She settled herself on the soft divan. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she worried what Chris would have to say about her not doing chores anymore when dinner wasn't for another hour at least. But the thought quickly left her mind as she remembered Mrs. Jones reassures.
That is where Chris found Iida when he came to fetch her for dinner. Seeing the girl curled up on the sofa, fast asleep, made Chris smile. He would have a word with Mrs. Jones later, but now, his little girl was all that mattered.
After looking at Iida's peaceful features, however, Chris couldn't bring himself to wake the girl.
"I'm getting soft", he chuckled to himself as he got a blanket and tucked it around Iida. He stroked aside some hair strands escaped from Iida's braid and planted a kiss on her head.
Maybe it wouldn't hurt to let the girl sleep just a little bit more.
The End