She watched it happened. It had been like hearing the beginning of a familiar song playing from one of the 10 inches through an open window along Fifth Avenue and continuing to hum the tune until it's end even several blocks later. Some things were undeniable. Inescapable, the way the curling of a Brooklyn boy's fingers always meant a fight. Or how a bird when in Brooklyn will always let their focus be drawn by a newsboy.
Sitting high in a fire escape, she caught sight of his gait immediately. No one walked quite the same as a newsboy and none of the Brooklyn boys could match the swagger of their leader. He was unmistakable in the crowd meandering the streets in the early afternoon. And to Raindrop, Slingshot Kai was always undeniable.
Slingshot's black hair gleamed under the early summer sun, a dark contrast to the golden glint of Conlon before him. Conlon had always been an easy mark with his red suspenders and gold-tipped cane and now Kai drew attention with his billowing oversized red shirt with cutting black suspenders.
She was supposed to be back at the nest. She was supposed to be asleep. She was sternly instructed to be back at the nest. She had easily ignored her orders. She had crossed the bridge, making sure to hurry along past Filly without notice. She had ducked into a building, one near the docks and climbed out a window on the sixth floor to the fire escape. She settled curled into the metal ladder to fight the weight of her eyelids waiting to spot him.
He was cutting through the milling crowds of the early evening, his chin tilted down and his shoulders hunched forward. But it was his curling fists that made her skin crawl with enough energy to jolt her awake. Slingshot Kai was itching for a fight.
He moved as fast as her heart was beating. His stride lending to the swing of his arm, a fist soaring before any time had passed at all. His knuckles landing with a dull thud into a soft part of skin between neck and shoulder. An elbow knocking into the part of the throat under the jaw eliciting a choking noise. Another fist into a check, while a knee bounced up to crash into a thigh. All before the other boy, no not quite boy any longer but young man, managed to swing wildly.
Slingshot Kai was quick, quicker than Spot Conlon had been at his age, though no one would remember that any longer. Raindrop had tumbled down from her high perch, without a thought. An inexplicable fear running through her, propelling her thin and awkward limbs into graceful movement. She was on the street and around the corner before Slingshot landed his second series of knocks deep into the offending young man's belly.
"If I ever," Slingshot was growling menacingly, "see you near her again, I'll bring my boys to help bloody you up a bit."
He kicked then, holding his foot straight to jut out his heel to create a hook that caught and pulled without mercy. The young man crumpled into the dirt, letting his shoulders smack painfully into the wall behind him. His arms instinctively lifting to protect his face. The motion of defeat.
Slingshot stopped his onslaught long enough to crouch down and lean forward. Raindrop let out a distressed little whimper as the young man's arm shifted from defending to attacking. Slingshot did not spare her the glance, though the set of his shoulders let her know he had heard her. An elbow struck the leader of Brooklyn hard against the jaw, near the chin. But the boy didn't even sway at the impact. He reached out and curled his fingers harshly around the back of the young man's neck pulling him closer.
"You'll stay away from her, or next time I'll have brass." Slingshot warned. "Understand?"
The young man violently shrugged out of the hold, spit a good amount of blood onto the dirt at his boots and then nodded.
Slingshot grinned a bloody smile as he sprang back up to stand. He turned his head to find her. She took a step forward but the slightest shake of Slingshot's head and frown stopped her.
The whistling was sudden, loud and incessant around her and above her.
The leader of Brooklyn, Slingshot Kai, fight.
Where was Bottle Cap?
Was that Raindrop standing there like a fool?
It had something to do with Cammie.
It had something to do with the heat.
The twitter was endless, and made her suddenly dizzy. Slingshot had moved towards her, his hand wrapping around her waist and leading her away. He weaved her through the crowd, under the afternoon sun, slipping into a patient whistling tune. He walked her to the docks, the ones the Brooklyn Boys often swam at during the summer months.
"Raindrop, isn't it?" Slingshot hummed at her quietly. Holding both his hands up to show her each of his fingers before lifting her at the waist and setting her on one of the dock posts. She nodded dumbly at him.
"Never seen a fight before?" He smiled easily, tugging at one of her braids. The heat rose in her, a blush burning across her face. She remembered her neatly done braids, and her short skirts, and her missing tooth and how much she must seem a child.
"No." She snapped at him. Slingshot rubbed a hand against his chin, the very spot he had been knocked as he studied her. Her eyes grew rounder as she noticed the reddening of his knuckles.
"What were they saying then?" He sighed.
"You got into a fight because of your girl." Raindrop accused more than stated.
Slingshot puffed out his checks, poking about his tongue before spitting out into the East River. He nodded once.
"Where is Bottle Cap?"
"He ain't with me every moment. I can fight my own fights." Slingshot growled. He glanced back towards the building, searching.
"Does your hand hurt?" Raindrop whispered. He turned back to her now, the slow and easy grin back.
"What a curious creature, don't you care to know why?"
"I heard you, he was near your girl."
"He was a masher. And not just with Cammie." Slingshot muttered darkly. "You're just about the age a girl should stop wandering the streets alone at night."
"Daisy wanders the streets alone." Raindrop defended. She didn't share that Jasper thought children shouldn't wander the streets alone much either at night and the leader of the birds undeniably thought her a child still.
"Daisy has seen a fight before." Slingshot nodded at her. "You can't be even ten yet?"
"I'm almost eleven!" Raindrop squealed indignantly and Slingshot snorted in a way that let her know he didn't believe her.
"Daisy knows how to handle herself, don't she?" He asked. She nodded.
"How?"
"She's got one of them pins for her hair. And a small knife in her shoe."
The newsboy nodded, snapping at his suspenders mindlessly. Raindrop kicked her foot impatient. She had been watching Slingshot Kai from afar for months, she had rarely been this close to him and she was absorbing every detail. She hadn't been able to absorb in his details that time months before when he had saved her from Jasper's wrath at the nest. But now she studied the way his eyes slopped downward, or his nose curved up elegantly. The patch of lighter skin in the crook of his elbows or how his thumbs seemed unusually long. She knew it couldn't be much longer before a bird, an older bird, came to collect her.
She reached out to catch his hand and he let her. As she ran her fingers along the ridges of his knuckles, pressing into the parts that were swelling.
"And my cousin?"
"As reckless and inconsiderate as the leader of Brooklyn himself." The reply came from down the dock, the sharp voice making itself heard at the same time as the clack of a boot heel. Flustered but determined, Daisy strolled down the dock.
"Yes, yes. But how does the reckless and inconsiderate young lady protect herself from mashers and the sorts when she insists on traveling alone?"
"A good hairpin." Daisy winked upon reaching them, before whipping her hand out to grab hold of Raindrop's chin. Raindrop tried to resist until Slingshot pressed his fingers into her palm.
"I didn't mean to." Raindrop whispered. Daisy glared at the girl and shook her head.
"You didn't mean to cross the Brooklyn Bridge?" Daisy demanded. Her sharp and pointed tone reminded Slingshot of his mother, every time he had wandered in late to dinner with his trousers torn and muddy. And the way Raindrop muttered something intelligible and sullenly, was even more familiar.
"Did you follow your mark uptown? Or did you peel off and head across the bridge from Broadway?" Daisy's tone had taken on a dangerous edge. Slingshot leaned back on his heels, fighting the urge to take a step back.
"I would never peel off from a mark, ever." Raindrop spat, angrily shoving at the arm on her chin. Slingshot clicked his tongue, censuring the girl quietly, but enough that her cheeks flushed yet again.
"So you went all the way uptown, to the brownstone on 40th street and sat until supper before taking the elevated all the way back downtown and walking to Brooklyn for the night?" Daisy leaned back folding her arms across her chest and looking entirely unimpressed.
"I wasn't tired." The girl shrugged. Daisy snapped her hand forward and pinched the girl's ear and Raindrop let out a distressed cry.
"That's the same noise she made when she saw a swing coming at me." Slingshot stated nonchalantly. Daisy was really fuming now, and Slingshot knew from his own experience if the errant child did not being to demonstrate remorse it would end badly for her.
"Please," Raindrop squeaked, her eyes roving to Slingshot once more. Daisy twisted the girl's ear before, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have."
"Jasper grows tired of your disobedience and disrespect. I grow tired of it." Daisy snapped, pulling the girl to her feet before releasing her ear. "You are hardly the first bird to take a fancy to one of the newsboys, but you endanger yourself, you endanger us with this nonsense."
Anger was something Slingshot Kai had always known, understood. It might be why he always understood Spot Conlon. There was a way a body stood, tense and taunt that defined muscles, and curled the fingers itching for a fight. Matthew had never much spent time around girls growing up but saw the anger boiling in Raindrop in front of him. Seeing through the watering of her eyes and the reddening of her ears, the girl was furious. He frowned trying to understand her right to anger and not shame. She had done wrong, there was no way around it, and yet.
"But I'm small enough to put in danger with orders when you wish it? You don't even care about me expect for what I'm worth to you." Raindrop practically growled.
The slap was quick and powerful, and Slingshot saw the regret on Daisy's face immediately. But the older bird didn't apologize, her jaw was set and her open palm hung at her hips. It was undeniable how Daisy cared a great deal about this insolent little girl in front of her.
Raindrop whimpered softly, as red fingerprints marked her small cheek. The anger had wilted from her, her body resigned to the shame she should have found sooner. There was light running footsteps that drew everyone's attention, Slingshot and Daisy immediately stepping protectively in front of the sniffling girl as they turned to find the source of the sound.
"You told me you would wait." Bottle Cap pitched an exasperated sigh before slowing his jog. He spared a curious glance at Daisy before catching sight of the openly crying child behind her.
"I got bored." Slingshot shrugged unapologetically.
"Best we keep any word about any encounters a Miss Audrey may have away from her hot-headed cousin." Bottle Cap nodded at Daisy.
"Are there such encounters?" Slingshot jerked his attention to Daisy, but the bird's expression didn't change. He spun on his heel to stare at the younger bird.
"Do not answer that." Daisy gritted out without turning around. Slingshot glared impatiently at everyone around him. Bottle Cap frowned as he studied the birds.
"How familiar." Bottle Cap sighed. "A rebellious young girl, dismissing her own safety."
"Go on then, apologize for the wrong you've done." Slingshot ordered growing impatient with the crying and the tension rolling around him. Raindrop hiccupped back a sob and shook her head.
"I embarrassed her." Daisy whispered to the boys.
"Doesn't excuse her for taking off like she did, stumbling into a fight she wasn't ready for." Slingshot frowned. "Does it, Raindrop?"
"No," Raindrop squeaked.
"She fancies you, enough to risk her own wellbeing and my wrath. Jasper believes I've been too be lenient with the child." Daisy explained, clenching and unclenching the hand she had used to slap the girl. Bottle Cap had explained as much to him after their last visit to the nest, how the young Raindrop thought he hung the moon. Cap had also explained her history, how Daisy had found a girl small enough to be carried on her hip. Jasper had been unable or unwilling to deny his best bird the only thing she had ever asked for, to take the child in.
"May I help?" Slingshot pressed confidently into Daisy's elbow, as he asked permission.
"Do try to help and not make it worse." Bottle Cap mumbled under his breath. Daisy gave a curt nod.
Slingshot took one long stride and then dropped to one knee. He settled right in front of the crying girl, her eyes popped as she followed his motion remembering how he had used it to intimate the man he had recently beat. Slingshot sucked on his front teeth, taking a second to decide how to proceed. He remembered being her age, feeling old enough and invincible enough to do all he wanted. Even working with his father's associates in Little Italy when he was not. It had been Wes, in his patient and matter of a fact way, that made him remember he was still a boy.
Slingshot pulled out a handkerchief and leaned forward to clean her face. Wes had done this, and it wasn't until this moment that Matthew understood, the older man had reminded him he was a child by treating him like one.
"Blow," Slingshot grunted at her, as he pressed the handkerchief around her nose. He sensed her wanting to pull away and instantly reached back to hold her neck in place. She huffed but blew her nose as his fingers gripped into her neck.
"That's a good girl." He crooned, pocketing the dirty handkerchief.
"I didn't mean to say it." She whispered to him.
"I know." He smiled softly, knowingly.
"I was bored, like you, and Bottle Cap didn't shout at you." She pouted.
"Ah, well it turns out Bottle Cap ain't the boss of me." He held up a hand as she opened her mouth to protest.
"Daisy is well enough the boss of you. She makes sure you've a bed to sleep in, food in your belly, clothes to wear. She takes care of you?"
"And Jasper." She whispers.
"They want to keep you safe, but they let you be a bird to give you purpose too." Slingshot explained. "But there are rules."
"I didn't mean to." She tried again. He shook his head.
"I think we know you did, mean to. You came looking for me?"
She sniffled and gave a nod.
"Because you fancy me?" He pointedly asked.
She nodded again, throwing a glare over his shoulder at Daisy's back.
"If I find you again because you haven't minded Daisy or Jasper, I will be angry with you." He warned carefully.
Her eyes got wider immediately, the innocence of a child confused with a threat.
"I can take care of myself." She snapped.
Slingshot nodded, once and then twice, before leaning back on his own heels. He let his gaze settle on her before reaching out to tug on one of her braids before lurching forward and in one motion picking her up like a rag doll. He held her against his hip and jostled her a bit.
"What would you do now then, girl?" He asked, striding towards Daisy and Bottle Cap. She kicked and squirmed and tried with all her might to get him to release her, but she wasn't strong enough. And even though he knew she would resort to biting, as he had when West had done it to him, it still elicited a grunt from him. She bite his arm, but he didn't drop her. He threw her over his shoulder and kept walking down the docks. Her fists pounded against his back and he smack her bottom once, sharply. Ceasing her protest she fell to sniffling again.
"Please?" She tried softly.
"Do you understand?" He asked her.
"You could lift Daisy." She argued.
"He could try." Daisy snapped.
"Laces could be hurt and she travels alone all the time now." Raindrop kicked at him again. Slingshot swung her onto a rotting barrel in the alleyway they had stepped into and settled his arms on either side of her.
"She could be." He nodded. "Would you be willing to watch her for me?"
"Watch Laces?" She repeated uncertainly.
"When you've done your other chores, maybe watch my cousin for me?" He glanced towards Daisy once, making sure he wasn't overstepping.
The older bird seemed interested and not opposed.
"When you're bored, instead of troubling yourself with finding me, I will find you for your report?" Slingshot proposed.
The little girl mulled the idea over and it was Bottle Cap that jumped on the next problem.
"And when she gives you the slip, as we all know she might, as Laces hardly ever minds her keepers well. You do your best to stay on her and send word. Do not come looking for us, understand?" Bottle Cap's tone was stern.
The silence settled, long enough for Daisy to let out an impatient sigh. The older bird had run out of patience.
"Every two weeks?" Raindrop pressed.
"Long as you've been a good girl," Slingshot reinforced her childhood once more, "and I don't receive reports you've run off again."
The little girl nodded, spitting into her hand and holding it out. Slingshot shook on it.
"Now, apologize and take your lumps." He whispered to her. She jumped down, stepped towards Daisy keeping her gaze on her boots. He didn't hear the muttered apology, but Daisy's hand shot out and grasped the girl's tightly. The older bird pulling the younger away towards Manhattan. Not stopping to bid the newsboys farewell.
Bottle Cap clicked his tongue and lit a cigarette, watching Daisy pull out an apple from her skirts and give to Raindrop without releasing her hand.
"Think I should whack you for not minding me?" Cap smiled.
"Not if you enjoy seeing through your eye. You mind me, Cap." Slingshot chuckled.