Hello little Ducklings~ Here's the long awaited third chapter! Sorry it took so long to get out, when writing this it's all one large document, so cutting it up is something that is a bit hard to keep it broken up into chapters, not that I don't have them mapped out already in my head, its just easier to see the progress better when you can talk chapters instead of words. SO Ima tell you that this does have over 56.000 words all together so far as of right now, so yeah. Progress is a very real thing. Make sure you go and reread the first two chapters too little Ducklings~ i updated them too because i had edited them since i posted them last~
The next day throws the twins for a loop. Their father has decided that they will no longer be living in the three story townhouse that they were born in. Instead, they will be living in a three-bedroom downstairs apartment with a nanny on the other side of town. The single bathroom the twins share was very small, having only room for a small tub and a toilet. There was no mirror or sink. Cherep puts his trunk on the bed the movers had placed in his room. He opens it up and begins to put his clothes away. Cheshire pokes her silvery head in, making the door squeak open. Cherep looks at her. She looks sad and confused. "Don't worry, Cheshire. Soon we won't be under any roof that Father puts over our heads." Cherep says "Then we don't have to have to take any of his shit." He opens his arms and Cheshire runs into them, sobbing. He pets her hair, humming soothingly, a lullaby that Jake remembers to sooth her nerves. He looks at the coin purse in his suitcase. Every ruble is dedicated towards getting out of Russia. A few weeks later, Cherep and Cheshire notice that they have a tail. He follows them everywhere. It doesn't take much to lose him, though. They've had a few days to find out. One day, when he was being particularly tricky to lose, they find themselves in their old neighborhood. They duck into the garage where they have seen that shiny gold and chrome Harley. The tail walks right passed them. "OI! Not you twerps again!" Shouts the mechanic from a month ago. "Get out of my shop or I'll beat ya 'till ya can't see!" Cherep and Cheshire jump in surprise. "Sorry сэр we were trying to lose a tail. We didn't mean to intrude." Cherep says and they start backing out. "I don't care what you were doing! Get out!" the mechanic shouts. Cheshire frowns at him. As she allows her brother to drag her from the building, an uneasy feeling settles in her gut. She looks up at the back of her brothers purple head, and she is afraid of whoever is stalking them. She tugs his sleeve urgently, heart pounding in her ears as they walk down alleyways towards the apartment. Cherep looks at her just in time for a shot to be fired in their direction. Cherep is hit and something in Cheshire snaps and shifts as she watches blood flow down her brothers chest. The gun is in her hand before she knows what she's doing. Its not loaded, but she shoots all the same, the bullet, the one that should not be in the empty gun, is curving around the corner due to the angle she tossed her arm; but shes no longer paying him attention after she hears the thud of a body. She can't feel for hurting someone else until she knows that her brother is alright. Hes sucking in shaky breaths of air and she knows he got hit in something vital but shes too relieved that hes alive to question it, not when shes shaking and burying her face in his chest, already sobbing, for what she stopped being sure of and with her emotions in such a turbulent state shes not even sure she cares. Cherep hugs his baby sister tight as he feels what he assumes is his flames heal the hole in his lung and the rest of his chest. He picks her up gently as she cries and carries her home.
The next morning, Cherep opens the front door of their apartment and picks up the morning paper. The headlines read: "Wanted Criminal Found Dead on Street Corner!" His eyes widen and looks down at his chest where the hole used to be. He turns around and looks at his sister who is eating breakfast, blinking in surprise. "Well... This should be interesting." he says and sets the paper in front of her. Her eyes widen in shock and she begins to get pale. "Cheshire, relax. You saved me. It's alright." he says soothingly as he rubs her back gently, small hand smoothing her silvery hair. She starts to sob. The nanny looks confused and sits next to her. "What happened, young one?" she asks. "The less you know, the better." Cherep says grimly. She frowns. "Young One, tell me." Her voice is soft. Lady Sonya is the nanny that has taken care of them since they were children. She had always known they were special, different, but a special different. She hated her Traffic Stats+boss and would leave and take the two brats with her if she ever could. Cherep blinks at the soft steel in her tone, but hands her the paper. Lady Sonya would probably be the only one to ever even believe them about what happens to them. Her face is grim as her ash colored eyes meet Cherep's purple. "Did he hurt you?" she asks getting up to begin fussing over him. "I'm alright." Cherep protests, squawking in indigent protest when she tugs his shirt off to check after she notices Cheshie's eyes lingering on Cherep's chest. She raises shaky fingers to run over a smooth round scar on his chest over one of his lungs. Her eyes flicker up to really look over both her charges and she notes the way they're eyes glow just a tiny bit in the dim light of a cloudy Russian morning. She makes a decision in that moment to protect them as much as she can, maybe helping them with the running away plan she knows they are planning, and she honestly doesn't blame them for planning. "I am going to find you a teacher." she says "So you can defend yourselves." Cheshire and Cherep exchange a look of shock. "We will be entertaining him for dinner tomorrow night, so be on your best behavior." She says and pushes Cherep towards his breakfast. "Eat, boy." she says and begins washing the dishes. When they're finished, they run off to pick pockets. Sonya sighs and goes into her room. She heads straight for the birdcage by the window. She opens it and the canary lands on her shoulder. "Will you take a message for me?" she asks it. It whistles in response. She reaches into a drawer in her bedside table and pulls out a pad and a pen. She writes a note and ties it to the bird's leg. "Bring this to Demy, please." she says and opens the window. It flutters out quickly.
Cherep and Cheshire walk down the street pick-pocketing anyone who could afford it. Cheshire stops and looks in the window of an antique store. In the window was this beautiful pair of purple diamond stud earrings. Her eyes widen in awe. "Do you think we should start learning how to pick locks?" Cherep asks her. She looks at him, eyes huge. "It's really pretty Cherep." she says. "Then we'll get it for you." he says with a smile. She smiles brightly and they continue down the street towards the locksmith's shop. "You distract him and I'll grab us a lock-picking kit." he whispers in her ear. She nods and Cheshire goes in first. She shyly walks up to the counter where the owner was reading a newspaper. "Excuse me?" she says softly. The owner looks at her. "Get locked out or something, brat?" he asks, putting down the paper. "No... I just.." she says softly. "Out with it girl." he says stoutly. "I'm...interested in locks.." she says very softly. The locksmith raises an eyebrow. She points to a lock in the display case under the register. "What's that one?" she asks softly. He sighs and begins to tell her all about the lock. It's a fairly common lock mechanism that is put in door locks. He teaches her all the tumblers it has and how little it takes to get it to freeze up. He teaches her how one would take care of it so that it didn't freeze or break the tumblers. After about a half hour Cherep pokes his head into the store and calls to her. Just before she leaves, she notices the Mafiya symbol for lock-picker and cat burglar on his arm. "Can you teach us to pick locks, сэр?" she asks. Cherep looks confused but steps in. The man looks confused and surprised. "I'll have my lock-pick kit back now, boy." the old Vor says, holding out his hand. Cherep pulls it out of the back of his pants and hands it back. "I'm impressed that you took it without my noticing, but I will not forgive you." the Vor says. "As punishment, you'll have to work in my shop." Cherep and Cheshire share a look. "After you've done enough work for me, I'll teach you to pick locks." he says. They nod the Vor shoos them out of his shop. "Come back tomorrow." he says.
Cheshire smiles and they go back to pick-pocketing. Cherep is frowning not wanting to be indebted to someone else as they are to the Vor. Later that night, when they go home, they find the angry mechanic sitting at their kitchen table. Cherep pushes Cheshire behind him and they slowly back out of the room. Sonya is right behind them and pushes them towards him. "Brats, meet your defense teacher Demy Petrov." she says. "Not these kids again." Demy growls, standing up, looking angry. "The first time either of you step out of line, I'll tie you in a burlap sack and teach you how to swim!" Sonya glares at him. "You'll do no such thing!" she shouts. Demy looks at her, a heat in his eyes Cherep can't identify. "Fine. I won't kill them. But they will learn if they disobey even the smallest order." Demy says. He sits down and crosses his arm. Sonya makes the kids sit down and she gets to cooking dinner. You can cut the tension in the room with a knife. Demy glares at the boy, grinding his teeth. Sonya serves beef stroganoff. Demy blinks at it, face blank. He eats it without a word. "So what did you do today?" Sonya asks Cheshire. She looks up at her. "I distracted the lock smith while Cherep stole a lock-pick set from his store." she says voice bland, taking a bite of her food. "He had a Mafiya tattoo. When I asked him to teach us to pick locks, he caught Cherep with the kit he stole. Now we have to work in his store to pay him back." Sonya's eyes widen and Demy spits his wine out in shock. "Old Blockirovaniye is finally talking to someone in the Mafyia? He retired a decade ago and refuses to speak to anyone who's even remotely related!" He says. Cheshire's big multi-colored eyes look up at him and blink. "He's a really nice man." she says as if this isn't something big, looking down at her fork twirling it between her fingers. "Maybe it had something to do with an actual interest in his craft, people can get rather tetchy about things they rather enjoy." Cherep's eyes having once looked rather soft and innocent as he gazes at his little sister across the table from him have adopted some steel in his gaze as he flicks them over to Demy, making Demy blink at him. His next words are sharp, extracting his revenge for the threat at himself at his little sister. "Just as people can get rather tetchy about a motorcycle a young child is merely admiring?" His purple eyes show no mercy as he throws him under the bus to his nanny Sonya who whips around to glare at Demy. "Also threatening harmless brats is an amazing past time, no? Sonya, I don't think I can work with him." Cherep's voice is flat, inflection-less as he excuses himself from the table and heads to his room. Cheshire scurries after him, not fond of the Vor who is sitting at her kitchen table and not feeling safe under his gaze without her brother.
There is a lot of yelling in the kitchen that night. Cheshire spent the night in Cherep's room, shaken by the stony mechanic. Cherep sat on the floor, leaning against the front post of his bed. He has a book in his lap, reading by candle light. There's a light tap on the door. Cherep gets up and answers the door, expression flat. It's Demy with Sonya standing behind him. "I've come to tell you... that I'm sorry." Demy says, Cherep frowns at him "I can't forgive you until you apologize to my sister and she forgives you." He says flatly and closes the door going back to his book. Sonya shrugs. "You're sleeping on the couch it seems." she says and hands him a stack of sheets and blankets. "Good night Petrov." she says and goes to bed. He sighs and makes himself comfortable on the couch.
The next morning, Sonya makes pancakes with a syrup she made from scratch. Cherep and Cheshire sit as far away from Demy as possible. Demy sighs. "Cheshire..I'm sorry." He says and everyone stops eating for a second. She startles and makes herself smaller, nodding timidly. "Alright, we will work with you." Cherep says, sharp purple eyes on his little sister. The twins finish their breakfast and head to the lock smith's store. There, they unpack boxes, clean the older and rusting locks and set them on display properly. After the locks are on display, Blockirovaniye puts the correct price tags on them. Three people come in and buy large quantities of locks and pick kits. When a customer would come in, Blockirovaniye pushes them into the back room. They give him confused looks but comply. Halfway through the day, the lock smith shoos them out. Cherep and Cheshire are really confused but go amuse themselves by picking pockets. When they get home, Demy is gone. Cherep and Cheshire relax. They help Sonya with dinner and go to bed. "Tomorrow after you help Mr. Blockirovaniye, Demy will see you at his shop. He freed the whole day for you." Sonya says. Cherep nods. "Okay Sonya." They say in unison. That night, Cherep actually slept well, Cheshire sneaks in after he's asleep to curl up under his arm in his bed after she has a nightmare. Cherep wakes up to Cheshire sleeping curled up under his side, like a tiny kitten. He smiles softly at her and tugs her closer to fall back asleep for awhile, curled around her protectively. Sonya comes in the next morning to wake Cherep and her gaze softens as she sees Cheshire curled up into his side, she reaches out to shake Cherep gently to wake him for breakfast. Cherep blinks lazy purple orbs up at her sleepily. "mh?" Cherep groans a little shifting making Cheshire mumble and curl into Cherep's chest a bit more, Sonya's eyes are soft as she peers at them, "time to get up, the both of you." she says amused. Cherep yawns and sits up as he gently wakes his sister. She wakes rubbing her eyes slowly and really adorably, Cherep unable to resist smooths her bed hair down as she rubs her eyes. "what are you doing in here Chesh?" Cherep asks as Sonya bustles off to the kitchen "i had a bad dream so i came in here because big brother is safe.. so i know big brother would protect me.. and the Vor still scares me Cherep.. i don't know if i want to go to his shop later today after the lock store.." she says voice soft burying her face in Cherep's neck. He rubs her back, "its alright baby sister, ill protect you." He says, voice fierce and full of steel. She hugs him tighter in response.
They both get up and get dressed for breakfast, Cheshire a bit more reluctantly than Cherep as she dresses in her warm long johns and her blue dress with the white apron. she puts her hairband in to hold back her silver hair making sure she has hair ties for later to put up her long hair out of her eyes. Cherep pauses in dressing as he looks over his sisters clothes, His mind calculating how he can use the look she has going for her right then to his own advantage. A slow grin crosses his face as his mind makes plans, he looks in his closet and puts together some clothes. He puts them on and looks in the mirror at his reflection, Cheshire peers at him standing next to him and her lips quirk up as she looks her brother over. "The Hatter?" she asks her eyes meeting his in the reflective surface. "you've always seemed more like a Cheshire cat to me.." she says amused as she takes in his startled expression. "Why?" he asks as he turns to look at Cheshire. "Your like him, unable to be truly pinned unless you want to be." she says softly as she smooths her hands over his shirt. Cherep chuckles and hugs her. "Love you sister." he says. He leads her down to breakfast. Sonya made banana bread which Cherep shoveled down like it was no tomorrow, Cheshire eats slower than Cherep, not wanting to choke on her breakfast bread. After breakfast they head to the lock shop where Cheshire peers up at the Vor and smiles a little at him in their matching clothes. The Vor behind the desk rolls his eyes at their outfits, "what are you doing brats?" He asks, Cheshire blinks at him confused. Then looks down at her outfit, "I'm Alice, from Alice in wonderland." Her hetrochemic eyes are bright. "I know." He says "Contrary to popular belief, I read." Cherep chuckles and Cheshire lets out a little giggle. Cherep then schools his expression into a serious one. He looks at the Vor and says "What do you think of Petrov?" Blockirovaniye looks him in the eye. "He's my sister's child. He's a little shit." He says "I'd kill him if it wasn't against the code to kill someone for being stupid." Cherep and Cheshire have a hard time keeping their faces blank. They both fail and bust out laughing. Blockirovaniye smiles for a moment. He then gets very serious. "Now get to work!" He barks. The kids quickly run into the back room. They put in a good days work cataloging all of the inventory, so Blockirovaniye lets them off on good behavior.
For lunch, Cherep takes Cheshire out to eat. There, the waitress thinks they're so cute, she gives them their meals for free. Cherep smiles as Cheshire eats her stew with vigor. Afterwards, Cherep takes her to a park to play like normal children. They play Secret Police with a few of the kids from the neighborhood. When they all started going home, Cherep reluctantly lead Cheshire towards Petrov's shop. When they get there, he's under a car, installing something. "Through the door there, there is a hallway. Go down it to the door on the end. In that room, there is a closet. Pull the mats out and lay them on the floor wall-to-wall. Then wait for me." He says without even looking up. Cherep nods and leads Cheshire to the room down the hall. The room is very large, styled like a Japanese dojo. There are not any windows but the room is lit with several oil lamps hanging from the ceiling. Cheshire goes over to the closet and looks in it. This closet it huge and filled to the brim with fold out wrestling mats. "Whoa.." Cheshire says softly. Cherep pulls the top one off of the stack in front and drags it over to the farthest corner from it. Cheshire pulls off the next one and Cherep drags it into place. It takes a good twenty minutes to get them all in place. They close the closet door and wait for Demy. Its another ten minutes before he comes in, carrying a large jug full of ice water. Hes wearing a sleeveless Japanese style fighting uniform. Its white with yellow and orange trimmings. On the back is his last name. "Get that fancy stuff off." Demy says shortly, tossing similar uniforms at them. He sits across from them and waits, eyes respectfully closed.
They quickly change into the jersie's and Cheshire hangs the clothes they were wearing on the wall hooks next to the door. Demy opens his eyes and sits with his legs crossed. "Sit like me." He says. Cherep and Cheshire comply. "Take deep breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth." Demy says. "Sit up straight and clear your mind. But don't tune out your senses." They comply. Cheshire dodges Demy's smack. "Good. Better than i thought." Demy says. "Keep your eyes closed." Demy attempts to smack them from many angles. He manages to smack Cheshire a few times but that's to be expected. "Alright, that's enough of that. Stand up." Demy says. He hands them both sparing poles. "Now fight each other. Make an effort to win."
They spar for a while as Demy gets a feel for their skill levels. He doesn't let them stop because he could tell Cherep was going easy on Cheshire. "I want to see your skill, not your restraint." Demy says. Cherep quickly disarms his sister. Demy nods. "I'll take you home now." He says and leaves the room. Cheshire bites her lip and they get dressed. When they're dressed, Cherep and Cheshire get in the back of the car Demy was fixing. He starts the car and takes them home. Cheshire looks miserable in the back seat her hair still up in a sloppy bun, her eyes are on the neighborhood instead of the Vor or her brother, and her eyes look far away as she stares off into Russia with sad eyes. Cherep frowns but doesn't know of anything he can do to help her mood so he just stays quiet as Demy drives them back to their apartment. She peers down at her tiny hands and bites her lip in contemplation. When they get to the apartment, she gets out of the car and walks into the house with Cherep. When they get inside Cheshire lets her hair back down after she takes off her shoes. Cherep takes a comb to it, getting all the tangles out of it. When he's done, he helps her get the dress off for a bath. She takes a bit longer than she normally does, so Sonya comes in to check on her. "Everything alright?" she asks softly. Cheshire shakes her head as she pushes her little boat across the surface of the water. "Cherep is so much stronger than me.. I want to protect him too.." she says softly. "I just want to be on his level..." Sonya kisses her head. "Then you'll have to work extra hard." she says. "Tell Demy that you want to be as strong as Cherep. He'll help you." Cheshire looks at her, eyes wide. "I.. I'm afraid." she says softly. Sonya just smiles. "It'll be OK. And your dinner's getting cold." she says and leaves. Cheshire quickly hops out of the bath and gets into her onesie pajamas. She dries her hair and heads to the kitchen. Cherep is waiting outside the bathroom, waiting for his turn. He smiles reassuringly. She nods and goes to eat. For dinner, Sonya is serving hamburgers. Cheshire cracks a smile and eats three of them. When Cherep comes in,he chuckles at the sight.