*Revised*

Ryou's POV

The four of us were now sitting at a small round table inside a rickety tavern and inn as a gentle rain poured onto the city. I was sitting in between Malik and Bakura, who were both still glowering at the man seated across from us. He had told us that he went by 'The King of Thieves', but we were more than welcome to just call him 'King'. He was currently busy wolfing down a hefty meal and a drink, and he seemed a lot more relaxed than he was several minutes when Malik had a knife up to his neck (I mean, who wouldn't be?).

I was a little weary of him at first- considering he just told us he was a literal king of thieves- but he did seem to regret his actions in the end. Besides, I think he was smart enough to figure out that Malik wouldn't hesitate to rip him to shreds if he tried anything. So, I didn't feel too worried about having him as company while we ate and drank.

"So where are you all headed again?" King asked in between mouthfuls, looking up at us curiously. Malik, who had taken off the hood to reveal his face at this point, said nothing and instead lifted his cup up to his mouth to drink. I noticed that King was looking at him with an unnerved expression, which I found a bit odd coming from a thief. I would've thought that someone like him wouldn't be scared of much; he appeared to have several scars, tattoos, and various markings, with a particularly large scar running across his left eye and cheek. Then again, perhaps he knew something I didn't.

"It really isn't any of your business," Bakura huffed, his arms still folded across his chest, "in fact, you should be lucky we even agreed to this. You're not really in any position to be asking questions, thief."

King seemed vastly less intimidated by Bakura, giving a quiet chuckle and a slight shrug of his shoulders, "You got me there, pal. I was just curious because the three-" he stopped halfway to give a quick glance at Malik, then back at Bakura "-the two of you don't really seem like you're from around here. I know this place like the back of my hand so I figured that I'd offer all the assistance I can, especially since you were nice enough to forgive me for that little incident back there." He gave another little awkward laugh, but he quickly dismissed it with a slight cough before going back to his meal.

"That's an awfully nice gesture, Mister… uh… King, but I hope you understand that we can't really go around telling a lot of people what we're up to." I spoke up sheepishly.

"Especially the likes of you." Bakura cut in curtly with slightly narrowed eyes.

The thief let out a small sigh and prodded at his food with his fork with a dejected demeanor. Bakura and Malik didn't seem to feel any sympathy towards him, but I couldn't help but to feel a little sorry for him. After all, even thieves were people, too.

"Look," I piped up quietly, "what if we were to make a deal?"

Instantly, all three men turned and looked at me in surprise; even Malik, who, for the most part, had been quietly observing and enjoying his drink.

"What kind of deal?" inquired King curiously. His sullen mood had vanished almost instantly as he sat up and leaned forward a little in anticipation.

"Yeah, what kind of deal, Ryou?" Bakura spoke up this time, but his tone seemed one of suspicion rather than innocent curiosity. Malik still said nothing, but I could feel his gaze upon me, which only served to make me nervously tighten the grip around my cup out of instinct. I attempted to look and sound confident by sitting up straight and with determination, but my voice failed to carry the confidence and instead trembled as I spoke:

"Well… you did say that you 'know this city like the back of your hand', and I think I can speak for my companions when I say that we aren't as familiar with Seiya as anyone else here. Perhaps you can guide us out of the city and in return we can-... we can…" my voice trailed off as I paused to think; what could we possibly give him in return? Money? That seemed unlikely, considering we barely had enough for the three of us. Additionally, we didn't carry anything else of value (at least to my knowledge) other than the map, and giving that away was out of the question. My cheeks felt hot as I grasped for any ideas, but instead it was Bakura that spoke up.

"We can promise that we won't turn you into the authorities." As he cut in, he turned his attention to King with a smug look. In return, I saw King flinch nervously at the mention of the guards- I assumed they don't call you the 'King of Thieves' by getting caught. However, I had to admit that this proposition was most likely better than anything I could've come up with.

After several minutes of silence, King gave another defeated sigh and finally leaned back in his chair. "You three really don't hold back, huh?" At this, he chuckled quietly and gave what appeared to be a genuine smile. "Alright, I'll take you across the city. But," he added, his smile transforming into a mischievous grin, "we gotta do it my way."

"Should we even ask where you got this from?" Bakura asked dubiously, but I had a feeling he wasn't really expecting a legitimate response. King gave him a wide grin and placed a hand on his shoulder while saying nothing else; Bakura let out a sigh of acceptance in reply.

Waiting in front of us was a creaky wooden wagon attached to an old, gray horse that snorted softly in the stillness of the night. Just minutes before, King had told us to wait out behind the tavern while he 'gathered some material'. That's all the information we received, but none of us seemed willing to press any further at the time. To my surprise, however, Malik began to climb into the wagon without any hesitation. He sat at the front, pulling the hood of his cloak up over his head. He turned to us patiently, letting us know he was silently asking if we were going to board or not. King let out a playful laugh and hopped on next to him, grabbing the reins while leaning forwards to look around Malik at Bakura and myself.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get in the back, I'll have you guys out of here in a flash!" he nodded eagerly to the back of the old wagon. The back of the wagon wasn't a huge space to begin with and it didn't help that there were bags filled loose gravel taking up a majority of the space. Bakura groaned as he climbed into the back and helped pull me up alongside him. We shifted uncomfortably, barely managing to squeeze together as King pulled on the reins and made the horse begin to trot slowly forward. The wagon made its way through the empty streets of Seiya with little difficulty, even though the potholes would cause the wagon to jump and sway occasionally. Yet, besides the rhythmic trotting of the horse and King's jaunty whistling, we all remained unnervingly quiet.

Bakura shifted in his spot restlessly and frowned, desperately trying to turn in around to look at our companions in the front but finding it quite a hassle with both me and the bags in the way. "Couldn't you have found a nicer wagon? Even a couple of other horses would have been far superior to this crammed hunk of junk." He grumbled impatiently as he was finally able to sit up to look up ahead of us.

"I told you from the beginning that we were going to do things my way. Besides, you're lucky that I was able to get both a horse and a wagon. We could always get off and walk… if you don't mind walking a couple of miles…" the thief replied with a teasing tone and was met with another groan from my companion.

After shifting around some more and getting back into his normal position (if you can call being squished between a sack of rocks and a person 'normal') and shut his eyes tiredly as he folded his arms across his chest. I wasn't surprised by it, we had been traveling, had a near death experience with a falling bridge, and gotten robbed all in one day- who wouldn't be exhausted?

I nudged myself as close as I could to the other side of the wagon to make as much room as possible, but I could only allot an extra inch or so. I rested my head against the back of the seats and also felt a wave of fatigue wash over me; my eyelids felt heavy and I could feel myself wanting to drift off to sleep with the slight rocking of the wagon. I was almost completely asleep… that is, until I suddenly felt something small and wet hit my cheek. Begrudgingly, I opened my eyes and lifted them to the dark sky, feeling as more little drops of rain began to come down.

From right next to me- but with his eyes still completely closed- Bakura grumbled in annoyance, "You have got to be freaking kidding me…"

"Don't worry; I know a place where we can stay for the night." King replied with a much more untroubled tone. I glanced back at him as he pulled up the hood of his own cloak and steered the wagon down a different street. Eventually, we reached a quiet little neighborhood filled with cabin-like houses and proceeded to pull up to one of the last houses on the street. King hopped off and motioned us inside as he led the old horse and wagon around to the back side, leaving the three of us standing inside a humble little home with what appeared to be a kitchen, one bedroom, and a little dusty couch.

He came in after us after a moment or two, taking off his soaked cloak and throwing it over a little wooden chair in the kitchen. "Well, what do you guys think?" he laughed as he motioned around the room with his arm. "It's not a super fancy inn or anything, but it beats the rain. There's a kitchen over here, a couch someone can crash on, and a bedroom with one be-"

"I'll take the bed." Malik cut him off before he could finish, also hanging his cloak on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

"Oh, uh… well, I was actually…" King responded somewhat sheepishly, but he took one look at Malik's face and seemed to instantly regret it. "Yup! Yup.. go right ahead! No problem!" He laughed nervously.

Malik gave him a condescending smile and simply added, "I'm glad there aren't issues with it. I'll see you all in the morning.", right before disappearing into the room and closing the door behind him. Those of us that were left in the room merely glanced awkwardly at each other for a moment before moving on to other matters. I helped King in finding some spare blankets and pillows for us to set up on the floor while he prepared his spot on the couch right next to us. I sat down on one of the blankets and set my things down by my feet, making sure to give Bakura plenty of room to lie down on the blanket to my left. I watched as he proceeded to lay down… and then twist and turn while making dissatisfied grunts.

"That's it. There's no way I'm sleeping on the ground in this form." he finally mumbled, sitting up with an annoyed scowl on his face. A sudden flash of blue light caused me to blink reflexively and before I knew it, a small white cat was now sitting in the spot Bakura just was. "Ah," he spoke in a much more content mood, "now I can finally find a comfortable spot."

I couldn't help to laugh a little as he circled around in his spot, but he shot me a quick glare that essentially said to 'cut it out'. Meanwhile, I hadn't noticed that King was sitting right behind me slack-jawed as the whole thing unraveled until I turned around to face him.

"Don't worry; I had a very similar reaction the first time we met." I tried to console him with an understanding smile. I could tell he probably had a million or some questions running around through his head, but it seemed that he decided it wasn't worth it and merely shook his head.

"You certainly don't see that everyday…"

As tired as I was before, I couldn't seem to gather any ounce of sleep as the night carried on. I did my best to not shuffle around too much out of concern that I might wake up Bakura, who was currently curled up in a little ball right by my head.

"Can't sleep, huh?" a quiet voice rang out from the dark, startling me slightly. I looked up from the ground to the source of it- the couch sitting to my right.

Slowly and quietly, I sat up to turn and face the couch hidden in the dark. "I.. guess I just have a lot on my mind." My confession was quiet and meek, and I wondered if the thief had been able to hear me.

"What's been on your mind?"

"...Just, this whole situation I've gotten myself in I guess," I started softly, straining slightly in the dark to be able to see his face, "it's all very new for me- not to mention pretty stressful." I let out a little sigh, rubbing my tired eyes a little. "But I appreciate the fact that you've treated us with so much hospitality- after the whole incident, that is. May I ask why the sudden change of heart?"

He let out a soft, lighthearted laugh and, even though I couldn't see him very well in the dark, I could tell he was smiling fondly. "For starters, your teammates did sort of threaten me with death and/or prosecution. But, I guess I did feel a little guilt… and it's not very often the King of Thieves feels remorse for, uh, thievery." He laughed again, and this time I couldn't help but laugh a little myself. "Usually I'm taking things from the snobby rich folks, or even other outstanding thieves in the city. I admit, you guys looked like an easy picking, but I wasn't really expecting you all to fight tooth and nail for a piece of paper!"

"I'm sorry, it's just… this map is really important to me, and I don't know what I would do if I lost it. I've gotten this far, I can't…" my voice quivered at the thought of not being able to help my mother; was I just supposed to go back empty handed? My hands gripped anxiously at the blanket on my lap as I sniffled, and I could feel warm tears beginning to streak down my face. Suddenly, I felt a hand gently placed on my shoulder. I glanced upwards into the darkness and saw that King had moved to sit next to me with a sympathetic embrace on my shoulder.

"Hey, it's all good. You certainly don't have to explain yourself to me. Everyone's got their own problems to deal with." His voice was soft and gentle in the quiet darkness, and I was genuinely surprised at the stark difference between his attitude when we first met and now. After all… he's a person too…

We sat in mutual silence for a couple of minutes while I composed myself, rubbing my eyes in a feeble attempt to wipe away the flow of tears. Without me saying a word, he started talking again in that gentle tone, "Believe it or not, this was the house I grew up in." I perceived him as he glanced around the room with a faint smile, "Just my parents and me. I like to think we were happy; back then, anyways. But, life has a way of proving you wrong sometimes." his quick snicker cut through the silence, "My father was the one that began with the stealing business. He claimed that it was just petty theft- stuff that was easily replaceable, or things that wouldn't be missed if they were gone. As time went on, it was harder to believe it, though. I was young and didn't know any better at the time, so I would go with him during some of his outings." He paused for a moment, then again, "Do you ever feel like… like you know you're doing something wrong, but you can't help but do it anyways?" I could feel his gaze back upon me now as he asked, yet he didn't wait for me to reply because he continued on, "That's how I felt going out with him. It was such a strange thrill, but I knew it wasn't right. Eventually, that happy little family we were turned into three people living their own separate lives from one another."

"Do you still keep in touch with them?" I spoke up timidly, hoping that I wasn't treading in too deeply in a conversation he didn't want to have. However, the thief king replied much more nonchalantly than what I was expecting.

"Not really. When I was around 19, I was beginning to pick up some reputation of my own, so my focus wasn't on anything but that at the time. I heard my father got caught and shipped out to some prison outside of the city, and my mother remarried into some noble family. Then there's me… I can't say that I don't ever feel any remorse, but at the end of the day there isn't much I can do now. Maybe I could call it something like... the 'King of Thieves dilemma'!" his jaunty laugh reverberated through the small wooden shack, startling me a little at first. Yet, there was something contagious about his energy that made me laugh a little too.

Before long, King climbed back up onto the couch and wished me a good-night's sleep right before he dozed off himself. I returned the sentiment as I lied back down onto the blankets, thinking about my own 'dilemmas'. While I would normally fret and toss around, this time was different: I closed my eyes with a new sense of determination, drifting off to sleep.