On the Streets
by jilla kala
a/n: here's the next chapter, I would have had it up sooner, I actually had it written Thursday night, but I went to Boston and didn't have a computer to upload it, but here it is.
disclaimer: what you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce… I only own the plot, Jua, her housemates, and umm… that's it so far…
Chapter Eight
Lianne and Roald gasped, Lianne clapping her hand over her mouth in shock. The royal couple looked at each other, do you think? The unspoken question asked with their eyes. Without a word the two got up and practically ran down to the entryway, followed closely by Duke Gareth. All through the corridors on the way their hearts were beating fast, the same question running through their heads, is this boy really the lost prince?
When the reached the entryway Roald flung the door open with a loud bang. The people inside the room flinched. The three people who had just burst through the doorway stopped just inside and surveyed the inhabitants of the chamber.
Lianne was first met with the familiar face of her nephew; Gareth of Naxen, her eyes didn't linger on his face very long, as he was not the one she was looking for. She moved on to see Gary's friend Raoul, another squire, again, not the face she was looking for. Her eyes went to the right, to Page Alan of Trebond, a small redheaded boy that was friends with the two larger squires. Next to Alan was a woman who seemed to be around Gary's age. She had mousy brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Her brown eyes stared back at the queen and the two men next to her. She was wearing a dark brown peasant style dress, although Lianne could tell she wasn't normally in dresses by her stance. Her eyes traveled over the girl and to the boy standing next to her, gripping her hand. The boy was also wearing peasant clothes, his dark black hair disheveled. This must be the one Gary was talking about. Lianne stared at him, although he did not look familiar, recognition uncurled in the pit of her stomach.
"Jonathan?" she murmured. The dark haired boy nodded. The Queen let out a sob and ran over to the boy, her son, and threw her arms around him. The king was only seconds behind her.
~*~
Jua watched as the three people ran into the room, she recognized them as the King, Queen and Gary's father, Duke Gareth. The three individuals looked them over, before the Queen's eyes welled up with tears.
"Jonathan?" she asked. Jua felt his already steady grip on her hand tighten. When the woman enveloped him his hand was yanked, somewhat painfully, out of Jua's palm. Only seconds afterward the King had his strong arms around the pair. From Jonathan's rigid stance, Jua could tell he had absolutely no idea what he was expected to do.
Hug them back, Jon, she thought, hug them back, even if you don't mean it yet, just do it. As if he could hear her thoughts Jon tentatively put his arms around his newfound parents, whose sobs of happiness were the only sound in the room.
Jua looked over at Gary; he looked quite pleased with the things that were going on, and she hid a smile beneath her hand. The man Jua recognized as the Duke Gareth of Naxen came over, putting an arm around Gary. Gary and his father talked quietly for a few moments before they came over to Jua.
"Father, I would like you to meet my friend, Lady,"
"Anna," Jua interrupted.
"Anna," Gary repeated, giving Jua a confused look.
She ignored him, looking to Duke Gareth and curtsying, said, "and you must be the famed Duke Gareth of Naxen, Gary has told me so much about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Duke Gareth smiled, "The pleasure is all mine, my lady."
The group conversed quietly while the King and his Queen welcomed their son. After about fifteen minutes the monarchs, either holding onto Jon's arms or touching his shoulders Jua noticed, came over to where they were talking.
The men around her gave deep bows to their Majesties and Jua curtsied, wobbling slightly. The two nodded their acknowledgement before King Roald addressed the two squires and the page, "For leaving the palace without permission, you three will have to be punished."
The boys hung their heads in shame.
"That is," the King continued, "unless you can give me a good reason that will satisfy all around."
"We went to get Jonathan, Your Majesty," Gary started, "he didn't know he was the prince and we had to explain it to him."
"And then things happened and we had to stay longer than we had planned," Alan chimed in.
"And then we decided to come up when he came too," Raoul finished.
The King looked from the boys to Jon, "Is that true?" Jon nodded.
The king smiled, "I'm satisfied."
The older man then turned to Jua, "And who might you be?" he asked.
"I'm Anna Weaver, Majesty, Jon has been staying with me since he came to Corus," at the look the King gave her she quickly continued, "I did not know he was the prince until Squire Gary told me of his suspicions." The monarchs nodded.
"I think that these boys," Duke Gareth motioned to Gary, Alan and Raoul, "should be getting to their rooms so they can do some of the work that I'm sure they have to finish. And it's getting late and my guess is that it has been a long day for Jonathan, so maybe we should get him to his room and find one for Lady Anna as well," Duke Gareth suggested.
Roald nodded. He motioned for a servant to show Jon to a room in the Royal Wing. "And get a room in the Guest's Wing ready for Lady Anna."
~*~
Jon and Jua followed the servant through the castle. Jon stared as they walked down long corridors, awed by the elegant décor of the palace. The servant stopped at a dark oak door and produced a key, without hesitation the servant unlocked the door and showed the two newcomers into the room.
They both let out an involuntary gasp when they saw the room. Jon surveyed the chamber with wide eyes, mouth slightly open. The walls were covered halfway in a dark maroon cloth; curtains of the same color covered the windows. The furniture in the room, a desk and chair, a table, two chests of drawers, and a bed, were made of a deep mahogany wood. The canopy over the large bed was made of the same color as the curtains. A door on one side of the room led off to the privy. Hanging on the wall by the privy door was a large gold-framed mirror. The mirror alone was worth more than all of his belongs combined.
"Goddess," Jua whispered.
The servant pointed to the chests, "You can put your belongs here, I'll come back in the morning to bring you warm water and some new clothes. Is there anything I can get you right now?"
"No, thank you."
"Alright then, I'll show Lady Anna to her rooms now, your Highness," the servant said with a bow in his direction. Jua gave Jon an encouraging smile and followed the servant out of the room.
~*~
Jon stared at the door after Jua closed it behind her. "Highness." No one had ever called him anything more respectful than street-brat and highness was certainly more than he had ever expected to hear in his wildest dreams. No one had mentioned to him that people would be calling him "highness" or bowing to him. Well, you are their prince, what else would you expect? The idea of being treated in such a way led to other ideas, ideas about exactly what he would have to do as the prince. You might be king someday, the thought rose in his mind unbidden.
Jon barely made it to the privy before he threw up.
He splashed cool water onto his face from the basin on the counter.
"Shit," he swore. This is too much, too soon, he told himself, you're not ready for this yet. You'll mess it up.
Jon's stomach twisted as he thought of all the bad things that could happen. He was about to start crying when he heard a knock on the door to his room. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves he left the bathroom and answered the door.
Jua was standing in the doorway when he opened it. She walked into the room while he closed it behind her.
"You look like you got run over by a horse," she commented, "You alright?"
"He called me highness," Jon said miserably.
Jua laughed, pulling him into a hug when he glared at her. "It's alright kid, you'll get used to it eventually. It's just a name, it won't hurt you. Promise."
He nodded into her shoulder, then pulled back to look at her. "Speaking of names Jua, why did you tell them your name was Anna Weaver?"
She sighed, "I don't know them, and so I don't fully trust them. If they find out my real name they may ask about me and find out I know George and am part of the Rouge. If that happened I'd be in trouble and they could use me or you to get to George. Speaking of that, don't tell them you know George and that you're part of his court, tell them we thieved alone, you and me."
"Fine, but why don't you trust them? Just because they are after George?"
"I don't know them. I don't know how they are going to react to things. I don't know that they won't turn on me."
"They're my parents Jua, even if I barely know them," he said, taking a seat on the bed.
"That means they won't turn on you," she replied.
"But you're my friend…"
"That may not mean anything to them Jon," she said, perching on the edge of the desk, "We don't know them, we wouldn't know until maybe it was too late."
Jon was quiet for a moment before answering, his emotions impossible to read, "Alright, Anna, I won't tell them, and you won't trust them. Now I don't feel good and I want to go to bed. G'night."
"'Night Jon," she said, kissing him on the top of his head. She left, closing the door quietly behind her.
Jon put a hand to his forehead, using his Gift to ease the throbbing behind his eyes. Slowly he undressed and crawled into bed and pulled the silky sheets up over his head, falling into a dreamless sleep.
~*~
Jua couldn't sleep. Her room in the castle was comfortable, but there was too much space. Jua couldn't hear the noises of other people that she could usually hear. At home she could always hear Jon moving about in the next room, or Tilton snoring, or Shiloh mumbling in her sleep.
Finally deciding she had had enough of the tossing and turning she crawled out of bed and dressed in a shirt and breeches. The hallway outside of her room was empty. The muffled sound of her bare feet on the carpet was the only sound.
She wandered around the halls for awhile, exploring and looking at the tapestries and paintings decorating the walls. She ended up outside of the kitchens. When she went in they were silent and dark; no one was there.
She brewed herself a cup of tea to help her sleep and drank it on her way back to her room. She decided to take a different route back to her chamber. Her new route took her through a corridor filled with paintings of famous Tortallan people. She paused and looked at the portraits as she sipped the warm liquid in her cup. Jua recognized some of the nobles pictured and for those whose names she didn't know; she identified them off of the bronze plaques beneath them all.
Next to a picture of the King and Queen was a painting of the baby Prince Jonathan, the one Gary recognized him from. To the side of the picture was one of Duke Roger of Conté, the current heir to the throne.
Jua studied his face, eighteen at the time the painting was done, wondering if he would be happy to have the Prince back or if he would be jealous and angry that he would no longer get the throne.
Shaking her head at her paranoid behavior she left the hall, heading back to her room. The Duke will be happy to have Jon back; she told herself as she climbed into bed again, anyway, why wouldn't he be happy to have his younger cousin back home?
a/n: wow, it's hard to believe, but in six days I'll have been an author on ffn for a year. I was considering doing an anniversary fic (kind of a split off one time shot prequel dealie of this fic) but I decided probably not to, I dunno what I'm going to do though, oh well. anyway, I hope you enjoyed this and please review, it makes me happy *smiles* now, the thank yous…
Thank you notes:
Acura Kasalin: I'm not 100% sure of the pairings I'm going to use yet, any romance probably won't happen for a couple more chapters, but I'm thankful for your opinions on the subject, umm, Jua is about 18 at this point in the story and Jon is 16
MagixPawn: I do the cliffhangers because they are horribly fun to write *evil grin* is this amount of time better for you? ;) thanx, im sick again though (but im writing so who cares) and I won't disappear, I'd feel too guilty
: thanx. I know that I did that, I did it on purpose, to look at the different character's point of views, but thanx for telling me anyway :) to answer your question you can read the other chapters, they explain it all (chpt 7 I think explains it)
Bex: I'm glad you don't find my plot boring, and thanx for your suggestion on romance, romance probably won't happen for a couple more chapters though :)
Devilkitti8: don't give up on me, I feel too guilty if I stay away too long, I hope your problems get better, I'm in all accelerated classes too, they suck, I have no time to write *cries*
LittleMissMe: thank you! I'm glad you found this and enjoyed it, I hope you enjoyed this chapter
Lady Katherine: I'm glad you like it, and of course I'm going to continue :) sorry, I can't tell you the pairings yet 1. It will spoil the suspense *grin* and 2. I haven't fully made up my mind on them yet
Keziah: I hope you feel better! You're welcome. *laughs* random is good, I like random. I know, the cliffhanger was a mean thing to do, hopefully the ending of this chapter works better for all of you anti-cliffhanger people, but they're just so much fun to write! *evil smile* ps: Jewel is an excellent fic and you should continue it, let me know when you do :) and untouched is great too, sorry I didn't leave an actual review for that one
jazy716: thanx for your review, I hope this is soon enough
everyone who reviewed: thank you so very much, your reviews seriously make my day *hugs*