On the Streets

by jilla kala

a/n: ok… here's chapter two… Not much to say but… enjoy and please review, thanx…

Disclaimer: what you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce… I only own the plot, Jua, her housemates and umm… that's it so far…

Chapter Two

When the bath was drawn Juanee went and knocked on the door to Jon's room. He answered the door with a big smile on his face. She grinned back, "You can go clean up in the room at the far end of the hall, I left some clean clothes in there on a crate for you, ok?" Jon nodded and walked down the hall towards the washroom. Jua turned and went back downstairs to pick up the bowls they had left for the cats earlier.

About twenty minutes later Jon walked into the kitchen. He was dressed in the tunic and breeches she had gotten for him. "The blue looks good on you kid," she told him. He smiled, "Thanks." She looked him over, now that he was clean he looked a lot better, a little on the handsome side, she thought to herself with a laugh.

"Do you need a brush?" she asked out loud.

"Huh?"

"Your hair. Do you need a brush for it?"

"Oh," he reached up and touched his tousled hair, "yeah, thanks."

"Ok, come on then."

The two walked up to Juanee's room where she pulled a brush out of a drawer in the dingy old desk by the wall. "Sit." Jon obediently sat down on the bed. Jua went and knelt behind him and started to run the brush through his hair. Or she tried to at least. "Mithros! When was the last time you brushed your hair? Its all tangles!"

"Umm… my brush got lost someplace… so it's probably been like a month since OUCH it's been brushed with anything OWW besides my fingers."

"Sorry if I'm hurting you, I'll try to be more careful. Are you serious? A month?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you just steal another one?"

"There aren't many brushes just lying around in the desert you know."

"The desert?"

"Yeah."

"Why were you in the desert?"

"I was coming from Persopolis."

"Persopolis?"

"Yeah, I'd been living there for about two months, I think, and I decided it was time to move on. So I packed up my stuff and went to Port Caynn and I stayed there for about a week, cause I was really sick, I don't really remember it much. But anyway, after I left Port Caynn I came here."

"You didn't walk did you?"

"No. I walked about halfway to Port Caynn but then I stole a horse. I rode the horse till I was just a few days ride from Port Caynn and I got really sick and passed out. Someone found me by the side of the rode and nursed me back. They gave me another horse so I could get back to Corus to where my parents were," He grinned, "People will fall for anything."

Jua laughed. "So I was right, you aren't actually from Corus?"

"No. Never been here before. How'd you know?"

"Well, you have a bit of an accent plus, if you were from Corus I'd 'ave seen you around before today."

"Oh. What kind of an accent do I have?"

"I don't really know, maybe something from the Islands?"

"I've never been out of Tortall."

"Oh." She finished brushing his hair in silence.

~*~

By the time Jua finished brushing his hair it was time for lunch and the smell of food cooking was wafting up through the floorboards. She put the brush away and the two walked downstairs. Jon decided he liked this place, even if it was only going to be temporary.

"What's for lunch?" Jua inquired of the girl standing in the kitchen.

"Eggs. I got 'em from the man with the chickens by the man with the bees," Shiloh answered. She was standing in the kitchen holding a wrought iron pan with fried eggs in it out for them to inspect.

"Beautiful," Jua said as she grabbed some mismatched plates out of the cupboard. Jon helped by putting an egg on each of the seven plates as others filed into the kitchen. As they came in Jua gave Jon each of their names; "That's Zack," she said as a man with dirty blonde hair came in. Jon handed him a plate.

"And that there is Leech," she said as a brunette boy came into the room, "He doesn't live here, he just hangs out here and we can't get rid of him, he's like a leech. Hence the name."

Jua pointed at the man coming in just then; "You've already met Tilton." Jon passed him a plate; it was received with a friendly smile.

A girl walked in with long red hair tied up in a knot at the back of her head, "And that's Laura."

When everyone had a plate they sat down in a circle propped up on pillows. Jon wondered why they didn't have furniture, "but then again," he thought, "none of the places you've ever lived did either."

He was broken out of his thoughts by Jua nudging him in the ribs. "What?" he asked.

"I said, 'you look good, if I didn't know better I'd say you were a noble,'" Shiloh said.

"Oh, thanks." The group laughed and went back to their eating. He didn't know why, but when Shiloh had said he looked like a noble he got a weird sensation in his stomach, and he wasn't hungry afterwards.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Basically everyone just lounged around and talked all day. When it got dark they had some dinner, more eggs and some bread. After dinner Tilton and Laura went out to a bar and Leech left to go to wherever it was he called home.

Sometime around midnight Jon decided it was time to go to bed. He said goodnight to everyone and went upstairs. The others, Jua included, stayed downstairs talking and laughing about nothing yet something at the same time.

It was dark and cold. He didn't know where he was. Suddenly he heard a woman's voice, "Come. Come. Come to me." He walked in the direction of the voice, his arms outstretched to keep him from running into anything.

"Come. Come. Come to me." He walked for what seemed like hours. The more he walked the warmer it became.

"Come. Come. Come to me." The voice was more urgent this time. He tried to reply and tell the girl, the voice, that he was coming, but his own voice wouldn't work.

"Come! Come! Come to me!" the girl's voice was getting louder and much more urgent now. He put his arms down and started to run blindly in the direction of the voice. He had the feeling that if he didn't hurry something horrible would happen.

"COME! COME! COME TO ME!" the voice was now a loud shout that hurt his ears. It was now very hot.

"COME! COME! COME TO…" the voice was cut off with a strangled gasp. He stopped short and listened. Everything was silent. Then, softly at first but louder as time went on, he heard a man start laughing, an evil sound, and he knew he was too late.

Jon woke up with a yell as a cold hand gripped his arm.

~*~

Jua had been asleep for only ten minutes when she was awoken by a yell coming from the room next door. She jumped out of bed while at the same time grabbing her dagger from under her pillow. She ran quickly and quietly over to the door joining her room to Jon's and pushed it open.

Jon was sitting up in his bed, his eyes were fearful and his face was pale. He was covered in sweat. "Jon?"

He looked at her; he appeared bewildered for a moment then, as if realizing who it was, smiled weakly.

"You ok, Jon?"

"Y-y-yeah."

"What happened?"

"I just had a dream is all."

"Oh," she tucked the dagger into her pocket, "You gonna be ok now?"

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you up."

"That's ok, now go back to sleep, it's almost morning." And it was, outside the little window she could see a streak of yellow where the sun would be coming up in a while. "Goodnight, kid," she said as she smoothed the blankets over the shivering form in the bed. She went back to her room for a couple hours of sleep before she had to get up in the morning.

a/n: well, that was chapter two… hope you all enjoyed it… sorry that the story is going kinda slow right now but it will get better… one of Tammy's characters comes into the next chapter… maybe even two… also, we find a little, more about Jon's past… well… REVIEW please… thanx