On the Streets
by jilla kala
a/n: i am soooooooo sorry it took so long, but here's the next chapter… also, the beginning of this chapter is probably going to be confusing… because it is a lot of jon's thoughts… which are a bit… all over the place… this chapter starts from Jon's POV when Gary tells him his idea… also, warning: this chapter is very sappy…
disclaimer: what you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce… I only own the plot, Jua, her housemates, and umm… that's it so far…
dedication: this chapter is dedicated to Jip, because great minds do think alike, and to Angel-Goddess, because she said so many nice things, to Giovanna, blacwolve and crazNM for the romance suggestions and also to Devilkitti8 for reminding me to keep writing. thanks guys!
Chapter Eight
"Why did you all tell me this?" he managed to croak out after a few seconds.
"Well," Gary said, looking Jon straight in the eyes, he paused than continued, "We think you're the prince."
There wasn't a sound in the room, it was as if everyone was holding their breath to see how he would react to the probably shocking news, in fact, some of them were. The silence was broken as he stood up, with such force that the chair screeched back and fell over as he ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He fought back the tears that blinded him as he ran down the stairs, tripping and sliding down the last couple steps. Jon fled through the kitchen and out the door, slamming it behind him. He ran out back to the little plot of grass and flowers they called a lawn and fell to his knees.
"We think you're the prince." NO! "We think you're the prince." NO! You're wrong! "…the prince… the prince… the prince!" thoughts swirled through his head crazily, making him dizzy. "We think you're..." "NO!" he sobbed. "NO!" but despite his objections the thoughts kept coming. "…the gold chain… the King and Queen gave… to the prince…" NO!! "…. the only thing …that disappeared with him," He gagged and retched on the ground, the thoughts still surging through his mind.
I'm the prince… NO! I'm not! It's not true… they wouldn't lie to you… but they are… don't be stupid, they're your friends!… So? That doesn't mean anything… you're parents did… NO! or should I say… kidnappers? While his thoughts flew back and forth in his head, arguing with each other, he didn't know Jua came up behind him until he felt a hand on his back and her other hand brush his hair away from his brow. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve before turning to look at her. Jua wouldn't lie to you.
~*~
After Jon ran out of the house Jua and the others just sat where they were not saying anything. Finally Jua got up and excused herself with a quiet, "I'm gonna go make sure he's ok," and left the room. When she got outside she saw him hunched over, vomiting on the lawn. Oh gods… I didn't think he would react that badly… She walked over and knelt down behind him. He wiped his face on his arm and turned his tear-streaked face to look at her. Neither of them said anything for a moment, until he said, so quietly that she almost couldn't hear him, "Is it true?"
Jua's heart wrenched when she looked at him, he looked terrible. She nodded, "Yeah, it is." He broke down into sobs and fell onto her shoulder. Fighting tears herself she held him while he cried.
~*~
Meanwhile, inside the house, Alanna and her friends had not moved, with the exception of Gary, who had walked over to the window to watch the scene outside. While Alanna did not know exactly what Jon was going through, she could sympathize. She knew what it was like to live a lie, yes, her lie was by choice, and ultimately it would be for good, but she still could understand. She knew that he must be feeling very alone right now, and she understood that perfectly. She had lied to her friends, was lying to her friends. They thought she was Alan, the small but tough male page, yet she was a girl, no matter how well she hid it, no matter how hard she tied the bandages on her growing chest, and how hard she worked to be as good as the boys, she was still a girl, and it got lonely. She understood that since they broke the news to him, that he was the long lost prince, that Jon was probably feeling like no one understood, Mythros knows she had felt that way herself plenty of times. With a sigh she turned to look at Gary, standing in the window. The shadows played on his face, making it hard to see his expression. She stood up slowly, stretching her muscles, which were tight and cramping up from sitting in one position for so long, and walked over to stand beside him. He turned to look at her and with a shock she realized he had been silently crying, there were tracks on his cheeks from where the tears had slid down his face and his eyes glistened with unshed tears. Alanna reached over and put a hand on his shoulder, than impulsively she hugged him tightly. Gary stiffened for a second in shock, and than relaxed and whispered in her ear "Thanks Alan."
Alanna smiled at her big friend and looked down at the two people sitting on the ground below the window. They were seated on the ground and Jua was holding Jon tightly against her. From the position Alanna was in, it looked like Jon was holding tightly to her, as if trying to keep the pieces of the life he knew together. Alanna turned away from the window, "Gary," she said quietly, "I don't think we should watch them, it's really personal."
Gary nodded in agreement and the two went and sat back down with their friends to wait for Jon and Jua to come inside.
~*~
Jon clung tightly to Jua, his fingers digging into her back. His face was buried in her shoulder and he was sitting half on her. She rubbed his back and whispered soothing words into his ear but he didn't hear them. His mind was still swirling dizzily with thoughts, but one stuck out the most in his mind, the memory of his dream from a few days ago, and particularly the memory of the woman lying on the ground. He now remembered what happened in the dream that woke him up, he knew who the woman on the ground was. After he had seen her he had fallen onto his knees next to her, clinging tightly to her, sobbing into her blood soaked shirt; he had been repeating "Mother! No, ma, no! Please!" over and over again. Then the man in the dream had come up behind him and said in a cold voice "Long live the Queen," and thrown a jeweled crown onto the body where it bumped up against his arm, waking him up.
A strong shiver coursed through his body as he thought about the dream. The woman in his dream was his mother, the Queen of Tortall, making him the prince. They were right he thought they were right and I have the chain to prove it! he thought as he slid his hand up to touch the chain hanging over his heart.
"Jua?"
"Yeah?"
"Here," he said quietly, taking it off of his neck and handing it to her. She looked at the gold chain in the palm of her hand as Jon stood up and started walking off into the city.
"Jon! Wait! What is this?" she called out after him, rising to her feet as she spoke.
"It's the chain George was talking about," he answered, without turning around, his voice cracking at certain words.
"Where are you going?" she yelled at his retreating back.
"I need to be alone," and with that he disappeared around a corner.
~*~
Jon crossed the busy street, dodging people and carts traveling through the streets. He ran into the dark alley between two buildings and broke down into tears again. He leaned up against the wall, resting his tear-stained cheek on the cool bricks until the tears subsided and he continued down the alley with no particular destination in mind. After a while he found himself standing on the step of a large wooden building. Inside he could hear people shouting. He looked around until he saw the sign hanging out front, which read:
The Dancing Dove
Bar and Inn
With a grin Jon pushed the door open and sat down at one of the tables. It wasn't long before a tall blonde girl came over to ask him what he wanted. Even though he didn't ordinarily drink, he ordered a mug of ale to help calm his nerves.
~*~
Jua walked into the room where the others were still sitting and plopped onto the bed. They looked at her expectantly. "What?"
"Umm… Jua… where's Jon?" Raoul asked.
"How should I know? He gave me something," she said "and than he said he needed to be alone and left."
"Why didn't you follow him?" Gary demanded.
"Because, your selfishness, he wanted to be alone and I respect that. If any of you don't care that we just destroyed everything he's ever believed in and that he needs time to think, than fine, you go follow him, but I'm not."
"I never said I didn't care. I care more than you can ever understand!" Gary shot back, than he added quietly, "I just don't want to loose him again," and broke down crying.
"Gary? Gary I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it, honest." He shook his head and got up and left the room.
Jua swore before getting up to follow him, again leaving the others to sit and think about what just happened.
~*~
The boy gulped down his third mug of ale before waving Marti, over again.
"What can I get you?" she asked kindly.
"Another one of these, please," he said with a slur. Marti nodded before walking off to get him his drink. She had seen the boy around the Dove before and knew his name to be Jon; one of George's favored. She rolled her eyes, that man, while he is a good King, cares too much sometimes about these kids she thought. She knew that if anyone messed with one of his favorites George would have something to say about it. She knew that even though it was against her better judgement to give the kid another drink, he probably wouldn't be able to handle many more, if she did not give him what he ordered George would not be happy. Of course, she also knew he wouldn't be happy if she let the boy drink himself sick either. It was a no win situation. With a sigh she filled the mug three-quarters full with ale and filled the rest of it up with water. If I can't stop him from getting drunk, I might as well slow the process down a bit.
~*~
Gary sat in the corner of the privy, with his arms wrapped around his knees which were pulled up to his chest, crying. Jua sat on the floor next to him rubbing his back trying to calm him down. So far, it was not working. "Gary, please listen to me," she pleaded, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to be rude and I'm really sorry. Gary, please stop crying, it's going to be alright."
He shook his head; "It's not that. It's not you. It's just; he was my best friend. I know, I know, I was only four. But still. I… I'm afraid he's gonna leave again, now that I've found him. And… I know it will be good for everyone for him to come back, and I don't know what I would do if he doesn't come back. The Queen never really got over it you know. And… and…" he fell, sobbing, into Jua's arms, and for the second time that day, Jua was left to offer whatever comfort she could.
A few minutes later Gary stopped sobbing and was just crying softly into her shoulder. Wanting everyone to be happy she made a suggestion, which she hoped, would please Gary but not anger Jon; "How about this, if he's not back by sunset we can all go looking for him? I'm sure he'll be back by then, but if he's not, we can go find him."
Gary nodded in agreement and the two went back into the other room to tell the others the plan.
Jon wasn't back by the time the sun had fallen from the sky, and so, like they had decided, Jua and the others split up into groups and went off to find him. Raoul and Jua were going to take one half of the city and Gary, Alan and George would take the other half. They agreed to meet back at sunrise.
~*~
Jon was sitting in his chair sipping his latest mug of ale, he wasn't sure what number it was, he had lost count a long time ago, thinking. He knew he had a problem, something that was bothering him, but the alcohol had fuzzied his mind. As he was lost in thought and his drink a young girl came up and sat beside him. She looked to be a couple years older than him. Wench. The word popped into his head. This thought was confirmed when she stuck her hand on his thigh, his upper thigh.
"Can help I you?" he asked, his voice stumbling over the words, he swallowed and tried again, "Can I help you?"
She only smiled and nodded before running her other hand up his back. He shivered under her touch.
"Two coppers," she told him.
He looked at her, a bit confused. She bent in and traced his jaw with her tongue. He stumbled back, his face blushing a bright crimson; he fully understood her meaning now. He shook his head violently, making his head ache.
The girl grinned, pushing her dark brunette hair behind her ear, she stood up and walked closer to him, she leaned towards him and put a pale hand on his chest before whispering in his ear, "You know you want to."
He was about to tell her "no" when he felt strong hands pull him away from the girl and spin him around. He found himself looking up into the faces of two large, identical, muscled men. It took him a second before his alcohol-fogged mind realized he was seeing double, and it was in fact, only one, angry face he was seeing.
"I paid for that wench," the man growled angrily, the smell of the ale on his breath almost overpowering, "Don't touch her."
"No…" Jon said, searching for the rest of the words he wanted to say, they came to him too late, I wasn't touching her, she was touching me, I was leaving. The man punched him just below the eye before he had a chance to finish his sentence.
"Don't you be telling me 'No'" the man snarled, his voice slurred, before spitting on Jon, who was sprawled on the floor, the table he had landed on broken beneath him. People were looking at them now. The man behind the bar was making his way over to them.
Jonathan lurched to his feet, swaying as he stood, before putting a hand on a nearby table to steady himself. He tried to explain the situation, but the words he spoke didn't even make sense to him, let alone anyone else in the bar. The man kicked him down before the bartender arrived, stepping between the two.
"Don't kick me!" Jon shouted, his words finally coherent. The man ignored him, talking to the barman who was trying to calm him down.
"Don't kick me! I'm the prince!" Jon yelled, frustrated, trying to get them to listen to him. The room was silent for a moment before exploding into drunken laughter at the foolishness of the young thief. The barkeeper turned from the larger man to face Jon, and, grabbing him by the arm, hauled him out the entrance.
"Fucking drunk!" he bellowed before slamming the door shut, leaving Jon alone on the front steps.
~*~
Raoul and Jua turned the corner just in time to see the barkeep at the Dancing Dove throw someone out side. Without a thought they both walked toward the Dove to see if maybe Jon had gone in there, it was, after all, a place they all frequented.
When the arrived closer Jua realized the person who had been thrown out was, in fact, Jon. She ran the rest of the way to the steps where Jonathan was sitting, slumped up against the wall, his head in his hands. She crouched down in front of him, Raoul right behind her.
"Jon?" she asked timidly, almost afraid of the answer, "Jon, are you alright?" He lifted his head to face her. It seemed to take a second for him to recognize who it was that was sitting in front of him. She saw that a bruise was starting to show on his cheek.
"Jua?" She looked up from his cheek into his eyes. "I'm tired," and with that he slid into unconsciousness. Raoul put out a hand to keep him from sliding all of the way to the floor. He nodded when Jua asked if he could carry Jon back to the house.
She watched as Raoul easily lifted the unconscious boy into his arms. The two walked back to the house in silence.
They arrived just as the sun was rising into the sky. The others were inside already when they opened the door. Raoul and Jon entered first, followed by Jua who closed and locked the door behind her. The others stood as they came in. Raoul looked around for a place to lay Jon down, it struck him as odd that the upstairs rooms had makeshift furniture, while the kitchen (and he assumed the other rooms downstairs, from what he had seen) had no furniture besides a couple of cupboards.
"Can you bring him to his room please?" Jua asked him. Raoul nodded and continued up the stairs as Jua explained to the others where they had found him. He lay Jon down on the bed in what he hoped to be his room before going back down to talk to the others.
"…and we saw someone come out of the Dove," Jua was saying as Raoul walked in. She stopped and looked up at him.
"He's sleeping."
She nodded and finished the story before excusing herself to go check on Jon.
~*~
When she walked into his room she was greeted with the sound of steady deep breaths. He was asleep on the mattress, as Raoul had said. She sat on the edge of the bed next to him and touched the now colorful bruise on his cheekbone. I wonder where he got that she thought to herself. She felt movement on the bed next to her as he stirred and opened his eyes.
"Where am I?" he asked, his voice thick.
"Your home now," she told him, "Go back to sleep." Instead of closing his eyes, as she hoped he would, he sat up, looking her in the face. He reached out and clumsily took her hand.
"Stay?" he pleaded quietly. She agreed and he lay back down, still clutching tightly to her hand. He moved over, making room for her on the bed. She sighed as she lay next to him, this will be a long night she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep, listening to the sound of Jon's steady breathing and the muffled noise of conversation downstairs.
a/n: ok, that was longer than any of the other chapters i've written. i hope that was worth the wait. again, i am sooooooo incredibly sorry that it took so long to write this, it was surprisingly hard to write and i, not so surprisingly, procrastinated. i had wanted to get this fic finished before summer was over, i guess that's not going to happen, oh well, you can all just enjoy this story for longer now ::ignores the laugher from readers:: please leave a review for this chapter, reviews really help me to get going on writing this, the more reviews the more motivated i am to write (i hate people being unhappy) and as usual, comments, suggestions whatever you want are welcome in reviews or email (its in my profile) feel free to use it :)
Thank you notes:
ThePenMage: thanks for letting me know your story had been updated, I read it but it wouldn't let me review! :( but it was a great chapter tho, I plan on signing out and reviewing it tho :)
Wild Mage: lol, that's ok, I do stuff like that all the time, ask anyone :) and thank you for saying I'm brilliant, I don't get that very often *grinz* and don't worry, I don't plan on any NC-17 stuff, I like some things left to the imagination
Devilkitti8: yes, I am going to write more :) and thank you for reminding me to get going, it gave me that extra boost of motivation that I needed (I always get lack of motivation syndrome –LMS- yuck)
evilness: NOOO!!! Don't hurt the twins!!! Hehe, jk
Jarna Hill: your welcome! thank you! and thank you for the offer too, i might have to take you up on that sometime :) if you have suggestions go ahead and give 'em to me anyways… they are always helpful…
mage_bird: thank you!
MogsyCat: please don't hang me! hehe… actually, it's Ireland… lol, my friend is gonna sneak me there in his suitcase ;)
Kaite Rose Potter: thanks and sorry about the cliffie last time *grinz*
Kiria: thank you!
CrazNM: lol, the chair was needed for affect… it wouldn't be as dramatic if it said "he stood up off the floor…" hehe, glad it doesn't bother you tho :) and thanx for the suggestion
Ely's Rose: thanx, you too
Blacwolve: *on knees* please forgive me! I don't do it to be mean…. well… that's not the only reason. ;)
MagixPawn: hehe, i'll try not to have as many "stupid cliffhangers" if i can help it
Emily OF Yarmouthport: I'll get it out as soon as i can (sorry it took so long!)
Giovanna: glad you like where this story's going… but if you're whole existence depends on it, what are you going to do when its done? *grinz*
Keziah: congrats on getting an account! Actually, I was thinking the Yamani Islands (*sheepishly* I forgot about the Copper Islands when I wrote this) but I don't have anything definite yet. I dunno exactly how many years older Roger is, but I always thought he was closer to King Roald's age than Jon, but I have to check on that :)
Angel-Goddess: I'm gonna try to get the chapters up sooner than I have been lately, but glad you understand if I can't :) I'm glad you wanna read more, and I'll send you an email
ps: you are a great writer!… and I'm not that good
Everyone Who Reviewed: thank you for your reviews… and if anyone knows the age difference between Roger and Jon please let me know, cuz that's gonna bug me now *grinz* plus, you just might get a chapter dedicated to you! (and I know that's what you all really want! *winks*)