On the Streets
by jilla kala
a/n: I was watching Aladdin and the King of Thieves one day and I got the idea of one of Tamora Pierce's characters somehow ending up being on the streets… also I was thinking about why Roger didn't try to get rid of Jon earlier… I mean come on… why didn't he just get it over with? So… yeah… I hope you like it and REVIEW please… I guess if u must flame, go ahead… But I prefer "constructive criticism"…. now enjoy…
Disclaimer: what you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce… I only own the plot, Jua, her housemates and umm… that's it so far…
Chapter One
Juanee rolled out of bed with a thud. The sun wasn't even up yet. The small crack of a window in her room showed nothing but blackness. It must be the middle of the night, she thought to herself. But it was too late; she was awake and there was no going back to sleep now. Juanee untangled herself from the blankets and walked over to the box at the foot of the bed and pulled out a pair of black breeches and a torn white tunic. She quietly snuck out of the house and down the back alley to the Market Way. She realized that it wasn't so much the middle of the night as it was almost sunup. She could see just over the housetops a light orange hue to the sky.
As she walked down the empty Market Way she looked on the ground hoping to find a stray coin or bauble that she could sell for money. Within ten minutes merchants started coming in with their carts to set up for a day on the market. As she walked by a man putting up a stand selling cakes she realized just how hungry she was. She walked further trying to find the perfect place to thieve her breakfast from. While she passed by an elderly man setting up a fruit stand he dropped a bunch of mangos on the ground. She bent down and put her hand on two of them. The man smiled gratefully as she handed him a mango, "I think you dropped this, sir." As she walked off she bit into the other juicy mango she had hidden in her sleeve and thought to herself, Well, that was easy.
By the time the sun was all the way up, the street was busy with merchants and customers getting an early start on their shopping. It was also already full of thieves. As she munched on the mango she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and bumped into a boy who was running in the opposite direction. The two fell to the ground. She looked up into his face and rolled over so she was looking down on him. "What's the rush boy?" She stood up and grabbed his hand, hauling him to his feet. Before he could answer two guards burst through the crowd shouting, "STOP THIEF!"
Juanee looked at him, "Oh." Without letting go of his hand she took off at a run through the streets.
"I can run by myself you know," he hollered as they rounded a corner.
"Fine," Juanee dropped his hand, "just follow me." The two ran down another alley jumping a fence on the other end, the guards still behind them. Juanee turned a sharp right into a dark hole. The boy didn't see where she went until a strong hand grabbed his leg and hauled him in, too. He disappeared into the hollow just in time on account of the fact that the guards ran by a few seconds later, searching for the direction the two thieves took.
After a few minutes without the guards coming by again Juanee crawled out followed soon by the boy. "Come on," she said and the two went down the alley until they came to a large tree. Juanee grabbed a branch and swung up into the leaves. She reached down to give the boy a hand up but he swung up on his own.
"I'm not as helpless as I look you know," he said.
Juanee laughed. "Come on," she climbed higher followed closely by the boy. When she was about halfway up the tree she crawled out onto another branch and shouldered open a window. She clambered in and motioned for the boy to follow her. When he was inside she closed the window and walked into the center of the room. She knelt down and lifted up a board in the floor. She jumped down into the room below. The boy followed behind her. Juanee reached up and pulled the board back into place.
She turned and looked at the boy standing in her room, "You have to be more careful when thieving you know."
The boy shrugged and took a loaf of bread out of the purse at his waist; he broke off a piece and offered it to her. Juanee shook her head.
"I'm careful, it's just sometimes even the best get caught."
"And I suppose you're the best?"
"I never said that, don't you go putting words in my mouth."
Juanee shook her head and walked over to the bed and took a seat. She didn't say anything. For the first time she studied the boy; he was wearing dark green, almost black, breeches and a dirty gray tunic, which looked to be about two sizes too big. One sleeve was ripped completely off and the other had a large hole in it. He had coal black hair, or what Juanee assumed was black under all the dirt, and bright sapphire blue eyes.
"What's your name boy?"
"Jonathan."
~*~
Once inside the building the girl he was with walked into the center of the room, well, attic was more like it really, and lifted a board up off the floor. She jumped down into the room below. Jon shrugged and followed her down. When she had moved the board back into place she turned to him, "You have to be more careful when thieving you know."
He lounged against the wall and shrugged, pulling the loaf of still warm bread he had swiped out of his purse. He offered her a piece but she didn't want any.
"I'm careful, it's just sometimes even the best get caught."
"And I suppose you're the best?"
Jon didn't like her tone. "I never said that, don't you go putting words in my mouth," he snapped.
She sat down on the bed and watched him. She didn't say anything. After a few minutes Jon started to get uncomfortable and was just about to say something when she asked, "What's your name kid?"
He almost sighed with relief. "Jonathan," he answered truthfully.
"Well, I'm Juanee," the girl said.
"Juan_ what?"
The girl laughed, "Juanee."
"I can't pronounce that."
"Jua then."
"Well, if I'm going to call you by a nickname you can just call me Jon."
"Deal then, Jon," she said, "Now, you look like you might be hungry. Do you want something to eat?"
Jon nodded. He was starving.
~*~
Juanee took Jon downstairs and into the little kitchen. Already two other people were down there. Juanee nodded to her friends and walked over to the one cupboard they had. She pulled out two cracked clay bowls and some fruit. She cut the mangos and bananas into little pieces and put them in the bowls. Then she got out some bread and broke off a chunk for each of them. Juanee walked over to the corner where her friends were sitting and picked the pitcher of milk up from between the two.
"Jua! Come on, that was ours!" the boy, Tilton complained.
"Yeah, you didn't milk the neighbor's goat, we did!" Shiloh whined.
Juanee laughed. "I have company you two, so be nice." She quickly introduced Jon to Tilton and Shiloh.
"Do you want milk Jon?" she asked.
"Sure."
Jua poured some of the still warm goat's milk onto the bowls of fruit and into two glasses she had just gotten. "There you go."
He ate quickly. Watching him eat the food she thought to herself, Poor kid; hasn't had a decent meal in a long time. "When was the last time you had something to eat?" she asked him.
"Other then the bread I had this morning… about two days, I think."
"Two days!" Jua wasn't really that shocked; he looked like he hadn't eaten for at least that long. "You know you have to eat more if you want to stay healthy."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, calm down. Sheesh, what are you? My mum?"
"No. And speaking of your mum, where are your folks?"
"Don't got none. They died a long time ago." He said in between bites.
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You didn't kill them did you? No. So you have nothing to be sorry about."
"How old are you?"
Jon paused for a minute as if trying to decide if he should lie or tell the truth. "Fifteen."
"You're not lying to me are you Jon?"
"I thought about it, but I didn't. I honestly have no reason to tell you anything else."
"You're all right, kid."
"If you don't mind my asking, but, how old are you?"
"Why?"
"'Cause you keep calling me 'kid', so I was wondering how much older then me you were."
"Oh, ok. I'm seventeen. So that's two years older than you."
"I can count you know."
"I figured as much."
Jon nodded and drank down the goat's milk in his cup.
"Thanks for feeding me. But, well, I should probably be on my way. I'll come by sometime and pay you back for the food."
"Nonsense, you don't owe me a thing. Listen, where do you live?"
"Wherever I can find a place. At the moment I'm in a tree down by the temples."
"Do you have a partner?"
"No. I thieve alone. Always have."
Jua thought for a moment. "I don't have one either, and we have a spare room here. Plus, believe me, trees are no good when winter comes. So, if you want, you can stay here and work with me."
~*~
Jon was shocked. No one had ever offered him a place to stay before. He wasn't real sure how a partner would work out in the long term but he thought, I can always leave come spring, it'll be nice not to freeze when the snow comes.
"Alright. I'll be your partner."
She smiled at him. "Do you have somethings you need to go and get, or do you carry all your personal property in your purse?"
"I'll need to go and get somethings."
Jua stood up, "Ok then, let's go get 'em."
The two got up and walked out of the house leaving their bowls and cups on the floor for the many stray cats to come and clean up.
As they walked towards the temple area neither of them said anything. Jon was grateful for that. He wasn't sure what he should say. She was his new partner, should he thank her or not mention it all? He wondered if he had made the right choice in saying yes.
When they got to the tree he lived in he told Jua to wait at the bottom and he swung up into it. All he really had to do was grab the bag that was stuffed into an indentation in the trunk. He checked to make sure nothing had fallen out and jumped out of the tree onto the ground below.
"Got all your stuff?" Jua asked.
"Yeah," Jon said and held up the bag. The two then turned and walked towards the house.
When they got back Jua led him back up the flight of stairs. But instead of turning left at the top into Jua's room they turned right into an empty room. "This is where you'll live," Jua told him, "You can unpack your things while I go and get a bath ready for you, ok?"
Jon nodded, "Thanks."
"No problem. Hey, do you have some clean clothes that you can change into after? Or do you need me to grab you something?"
Jon looked at the torn tunic he was wearing and blushed, "Could you grab something? If it's not a problem, 'cause all my tunics look like this."
Jua laughed, "Of course I can kid, I wouldn't 'ave offered if I couldn't."
After she left Jon just stood there. Looking around his room. "My room," he said quietly. It felt funny on his tongue. He had never had his own room before, actually, he had never really had anything that was his own before. "My room," he said again, a little louder this time, "My room!" he said loudly. He had a big grin on his face as he set to work unpacking.
a/n: hey everyone, i hope you like it, i know, Jon is very OOC, but if he actually lived on the streets he wouldn't be the same as in SOTL being as he hasn't grown up as the spoiled crown prince we all know and "love" but as an orphan thief, so being OOC is not an excuse to flame ok? Ok. Hope you all liked that. And review. Oh, by the way, all our favorite characters will show up at some point…