I want to apologize for the late post- I had this chapter posted on AO3 and Tumblr last night, but then my internet went all wonky and so had to wait. So rest assured, it would've been up, had college internet actually be a consistent thing. Oh well, it's here now. :D
"Ah ah ah," Rick said, grabbing the wrist of the pick pocket who had just reached for his sister's wallet. "I don't think so, son."
Lillian turned to look and the siblings studied the urchin before them- he was a smaller boy, heavily on the skinny side (then again, what urchin wasn't?), dressed in rags and with bare feet. His skin was dark from his Egyptian heritage and the sun, and his eyes were a muddy brown. The boy's hair flopped over his head in a black mess, filled with knots and tangles. His age was anyone's guess, but Rick would've taken a stab at around nine or so.
Lillian's eyes narrowed and she flashed a glance at Rick. She was dressed as a man today, and while she could pitch her voice lower, she preferred having Rick talk for her while she was in disguise, as it was one less thing to notice.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Rick asked, eyebrows raised.
"Well, I was tryina take your friend's wallet, Mister."
Rick had to admire the kid's gumption- most urchins would've been trying to sell their sob story to the tourists to get pity.
"And why is that?"
The boy gave a shrug and then grinned- displaying his white teeth and a dimple on the left side of his mouth. The smile was cheeky at best and downright rude at worst.
Rick liked him.
"Because I wanted it. Why else?" the boy shrugged.
Lillian couldn't help but laugh. After returning from Hamunaptra and recovering from heat stroke, dehydration, starvation, and all manner of bad things, this little boy's cheek was like a breath of fresh air.
Pleased he managed to make someone laugh, the boy grinned back at Lillian before his eyes widened.
"I'm real funny," he told her, and in response she nicked a loaf of bread right off the cart they were standing beside and gave it to the boy.
Rick lead them away before the owner could notice and they watched the boy tear into the loaf, no doubt not having eaten most of the day.
"You're alright, Mister," he said, his mouth full yet not stopping that wide grin.
"Glad you think so," Lillian replied, bending down so the boy could get a good look at her face.
He stared for a moment, two, clearly trying to fit some pieces of the puzzle together while Lillian and Rick grinned at his baffled expression.
When it clicked, his eyes went wide.
"Whoa- hey. That's so cool! Are you a jinni?"
Lillian laughed, "Nope, just a master of disguise," she said with a wink.
The boy's eyes went wider, "That's even better! Can you teach me?"
Lillian found her brother in the ship's bar, chatting with Jonathan and some fellow Americans who were sitting around the table playing poker.
"I only gamble with my life, never my money," he said as she stepped up to him, silently taking the space to his left, the way she always did. Due to an accident when they were still kids, Rick couldn't see clearly out of the corner of his left eye to this day, so they got in the habit of making sure Lillian was always there to protect that weak spot.
"Never?" an America repeated, his drawl indicating he was from the south, as he passed out the cards, "What if I was to bet you five hundred dollars we was to get to Hamunaptra before you?"
"You lookin' for Hamunaptra?" Rick asked slowly.
"Damn straight we are," replied another Yank as he took a look at his cards.
"And…who says we are?" Rick eyed the table.
"He does," all three stranger say, pointing at Jonathan.
The man in question gave an awkward chuckle as both Lillian and Rick delivered disappointed glares in his direction. "Well," he said, "How 'bout it? You wanna bet?"
All three Americans looked eagerly at Rick, who gave a quick side-eye to his sister, asking her opinion silently. She pursed her lips and then gave a shrug with one shoulder.
Rick smiled a shit-eating grin as he nodded, "Alright, you're on."
"What makes you so confident, sir?" another man asks from a separate table, where he sat with a hookah and a book.
Rick looked at the fellow, smirking, "What makes you?" he fires back.
"Well," drawled the blonde Yankee, "We've got us a man who's actually been there," he bragged, grinning up at Rick.
"Well, what a coincidence," Jonathan began, sending Rick's bag into motion, "Because-" at that moment Rick hit Jonathan's ribs with his gunny-sack. The Englishman cried out before looking up at the O'Connells. Rick casually continued the motion to rest his bag on his shoulder, "Whose play is it?" Jonathan turns back to the card game, stuttering slightly, "Is-is it my play? Because I thought, I just uh…"
"Gentleman," Rick said with a smile, placing a hand on Jonathan's shoulder as he walked by, "We got us a wager. Good evening, Jonathan," at the man's name he squeezes Jonathan's shoulder tight.
"Night," the Englishman responds nervously.
Lillian follows her brother out of the bar, but not without "accidentally" hitting Jonathan upside the head with her own bag.
The two siblings found Evelyn sitting on the deck, reading a book. Rick unceremoniously dropped his bag on the table, startling the woman, as his sister rolled her eyes and laid her own bag out on a second table- no way would both arsenals fit on one.
Rick gives a cheery grimace and smiles, "Sorry," he says to the brunette, without actually looking terribly apologetic for startling her, "Didn't mean to scare ya." He began to take off his jacket and tossed it over to Lillian who caught it and put it on a chair.
Oh, boy- her brother was flirting.
"The only thing that scares me, Mr. O'Connell, are your manners," Lillian had to hand it to Evelyn- she was pretty witty. If only she said the words with a little more bite and a little less timidity.
Rick sucked in a breath, still grinning, "Still angry about that kiss, huh?"
Evelyn seemed shocked, "If you call that a kiss, and I can't believe you would do so and then bring it up in front of your wife-"
Lillian cut her off here, "Wait- Rick- when did you get married?"
"My wife?" Rick repeats with a chuckle. Poor Evelyn looks mightily confused now, "You mean Lil? She's not my wife."
"But- you live together, and your last name is the same, and you have that boy, and-"
"And I'm his sister," Lillian inserted, "We live together because we look out for each other, our last name being the same goes back to that whole sibling thing, and Haytham we just kinda…picked up," she shrugged, "He's family now."
Poor Evelyn looked all sorts of awkward and stammered, "Oh-oh I see. Yes, now that you point it out you do share some similarities- I just- I-I assumed…"
Rick grinned at her stuttering as he unrolled his pack with a flick of his wrist and Lillian just gave the woman a small smile before turning back to her own.
Grateful for a change in subject, Evelyn took a closer look at Rick's various weapons.
"Um- did I miss something? Are we- are we going into battle?" she gave a small grin at Rick, who sat across from her as he started checking one of his pistols.
"Lady, there's something out there," he told her, eyes concentrated on the gun. "Something underneath that sand," he said forebodingly, making eye contact as he put the pistol into his right side holster.
"Not to mention, last time we were there, everyone we were with died," Lillian added, putting two pistols into her own holsters.
"Yes, well," Evelyn sighed, "I'm hoping to find a certain artifact," her eyes lit up with the discussion, "A book, actually," she continued to watch Rick arm himself. "My brother thinks there's treasure. What-what do you thinks out there?" she asked, fiddling with one of his ammunitions.
Rick looked up sharply at that, "In a word? Evil. The Bedouin and the Tuaregs believe that Hamunaptra is cursed," he took away one of his trick knives from Evelyn before she hurt herself.
"Oh, look," she said, sounding everything that is sensible and British, "I don't believe in any of that fairytales and hokum, Mr. O'Connell, but," and her eyes gleam as she discussed her passion, "I-I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there. The Book of Amun-Ra. It contains within it all the secret incantations of the Old Kingdom," Rick begins cleaning his rifle as Evelyn goes on, "It's what first interested me in Egypt when I was a child; it's-it's why I came here. Sort of a- a life's pursuit."
"And the fact that they say it's made out of pure gold makes," he gestured with his cloth, "No nevermind to you? Right?" he asked as Evelyn's mouth dropped open and her eyes lit up.
"You know your history," Evelyn praised.
"He knows his treasure," Lillian corrected, letting them know she's still there. It seemed they had forgotten her in the discussion and she looks closely at her brother and Miss Carnahan. They were both leaned in towards each other over the table, Evelyn's book forgotten in her lap and Rick's guns only being cleaned properly due to muscle memory. Lillian stuffed a few knives in her boots and pulled off the cap disguising her hair to twist it up in a bun secured with yet another knife. She stuffed the cap back on her head before gathering up her weapons and looking at her brother, "I'm heading to the bunk," she told him, head gesturing in its general direction, "I want to check on Haytham and make sure everything's ready." He gave a nod and she left, passing the camels with a quick pat to each other their heads.
"Um," Evelyn murmurs, looking down as Rick cocked his rifle in test, "By the way," her eyes drifted up to look at the man before her, "Why did you kiss me?" she says, her voice drifting softly on the night air.
Rick gave a chuckle, demonstrating his usual lack of tact, "I don't know. I had just managed to avoid being hanged; it seemed like a good idea at the time." He picked up another gun, not noticing the infuriated expression crossing Evelyn's face. She gave a huff and stormed away from the table.
Rick watched her go, loading up yet another gun, "What?" he asked, "What'd I say?"
At that moment, Rick heard an almost hiccup-sound coming from behind some crates. Looking over, Rick noticed the crates shake slightly and the shadow on the wall of a man's profile. Getting up and walking over to it, Rick suddenly reached behind the crates, grabbing and pulling out-
"What a surprise! My good friend- you're alive! I was so very very worried."
"Well, if it ain't my little buddy Beni," Rick gritted out, before giving a slight nod, "I think I'll kill you," with that he cocked his pistol and pointed it at Beni Gabor's heart.
"Think of my children!" Beni protested.
Rick's eyebrows came together, "You don't have any children," he said, shaking his head.
Beni blinked slowly and pitifully said, "Someday I might."
"Shut up," Rick ordered with a shake, his hand still gripping the front of Beni's shirt tight, "So you're the one who's leading the Americans. I might've known," he muttered before continuing in a louder voice, "So what's the scam, Beni? You take them out in the middle of the desert and then you leave 'em to rot?"
"Unfortunately, no," Beni grimaced, "These Americans are smart," he sighed, "They pay me only half now half when I get them back to Cairo so this time I must go all the way."
"Them's the breaks, huh?" Rick nodded, releasing Beni and shoving his gun in his belt.
Beni straightened his clothes before giving Rick a piercing look, "You never believed in Hamunaptra, O'Connell. Why are you going back?" They heard a camel lowing and the two men turned to see Evelyn petting one of the animals, one foot propped up on the fence.
"You see that girl?" Rick said, eyes on Evie. "She's helping me to save my neck." At that moment, Evelyn turned to see Rick and Beni standing there, Rick gave her a small smile but she rolled her eyes and walked off.
"You always did have more balls than brains," Beni nodded, turning back to Rick with a slap on the back. Beni begins to chuckle and Rick joins in, slinging an arm around the man.
"Yeah," he returned, before grabbing Beni's shirt again, "Goodbye, Beni," he calmly said as he threw the man over the side of the boat.
Beni's shriek ended with a satisfying splash.
Walking off, hands on his hips, Rick took the gun he threatened Beni with and put it away in its place in the gunny sack, rolling it back up as Beni shouted, "O'Connell!" and what Rick thought were some curses in Hungarian. It was anyone's guess though, Beni spoke about seven languages. Or it could just be sputtering. Rick grinned and began to head back to check on the girls and Haytham, but came to a sudden stop when he noticed wet footprints along the deck. He looked over the side, trying to see if Beni was still down there.
He was getting a sinking feeling about this.
Lol, Evelyn didn't realize Rick and Lil were siblings.
I have a brother and on occasion we have had people assume we're a couple. Kinda a fact of sibling life, I think, because the only time I haven't heard my friends talk about that happening to them and their siblings is when it's like a massive age difference.
So rest assured- it's a thing.
Review?