"I would have stepped outside myself if you had simply asked me too." Robin flashed her a cheeky grin.
"You might have," she blushed at his grin "But I doubt they would have!" As she finished her sentence, there was a jingling sound as a mobile phone went off in the depths of her bag. Tanya recognized the ring tune and Charli sighed as she dug around among her crap to find the offending phone.
"What?" She half yelled into the phone. "No Harry, I'm kinda busy right now! You wouldn't believe me if I told you!" Tanya looked around to see every single face, except Charli's, staring at her as if she had grown another head. "I'll call you back. Now is not a good time."
"What?" She tilted her head slightly, before realising why they were staring at her. "Oh. Outlaws, meet Tanya's phone. Phone, meet Outlaws." She held the phone out to Robin. "Go ahead, have a look. Just don't press the buttons!"
Charli watched as Robin gingerly reached out and took the phone. "It lets us talk to people far away," she explained. Robin held the phone in his hand and just stared at it. "I don't understand." He went to hand it back but dropped the phone suddenly as if it had burnt his fingers when it started ringing again.
"Here, let me." Will picked it up and hit one of the buttons. Miraculously, he hit the right button. "Hello!" He screamed into the receiver.
"Ok Will," Charli took the phone of him quickly. "Lets not deafen the person on the other end just yet." She held the phone to her ear. "Hi, Tanya's phone, she's a little preoccupied right now. Darren, why are you calling me on Tanya's phone?" Charli glanced at Will uncomfortably. "Oh. No, I'm a little busy. Yeah. I'll call you later. Bye"
"Who was that?" Will asked with a trace of anger in his voice. "And why did it sound like he was trapped inside there…he wasn't really trapped in there was he?" He looked worried.
Robin looked to the skies and cursed. "Don't be so ridiculous."
"No Will," Charli laughed, "He wasn't trapped inside there." She sighed. "Its a telephone. It allows us to hear people far away..." She searched for something he could relate it to. "It's like writing a letter, only quicker. And without the writing," she finished lamely. He continued to look at her puzzled. She obviously wasn't making any sense and it was going to take a lot more time than she thought to explain it. Time that they didn't have right now.
"It's witchcraft!" Cried Little John again.
"Does he say anything else?" Charli asked, tearing her gaze away from the adorably confused Will.
"Yeah" Alan nodded. "Sometimes he says 'We go to Nottingham' as well. Not being funny, but are we going to stand here all day?"
"As much as I find this all fascinating" the Sheriff deadpanned, "We are starting to attracted rather a lot of stares, something which I thought you were trying to avoid." Both Guy and the Sheriff were stood against the glass window, as if trying to shrink away from the passers by. Tanya didn't have the heart to point out to them that the people inside Starbucks could still see them as well.
Robin looked at the two men for a moment before agreeing. "He's right. We need to move." He looked back at Tanya and Charli. "How far away is this…manor of yours?"
Charli snorted. "Dumpster more like"
"Manor?" Tanya laughed, ignoring Charli's remark and causing several more people to stop and stare. "She ain't that rich Robin. Its a Flat."
"Would be nice to have a manor though" Charli said, dreamily. "I could have servants, and Tanya could be my own personal butler"
"A butler?" Much enquired.
"Yeah, sort of like a man servant!" Charli explained.
"Or female servant, in my case" Tanya pointed out indignantly. Before the girls could get into an argument about the politically correct term for a butler, Robin spoke up again. He had known the girls for less than an hour and was already getting the knack of stopping their arguments before they started.
"I'm sorry, a Flat what?" The outlaws had never heard the term before, knowing houses only as Manor Houses, Castles and Cottages. Charli groaned.
"This conversation is getting overly complicated! Looking after my three-year-old niece is easier than this! And there's something I never thought I would say"
"A flat is just a small house, Robin. Usually in a big building with lots of other small houses." Tanya explained. "But you'll see for yourself in a minute. Come on"
"Er-Tanya? What about the duel carriageway? We have to cross it, and I don't know about you, but I don't think they had high speed cars in the 12th century"
"We'll take the bridge. Even I don't want to encounter high speed cars, never mind this lot." Tanya nodded her head in the direction they were about to take. "Let's go."
She and Charli led the group of men down the main pavement and towards the extremely busy main road. She groaned inwardly just thinking about the reaction she knew she was about to get from the men when they saw a car for the first time. Her brain was about to explode at the thought of being bombarded with questions again. They approached the tall steel silver construction, the Sheriff eyeing it greedily again. Charli was about to head up the stairs when an arm grabbed her and dragged her back.
"What in Holy is that!"
"Shit!" Charli swore. "What the hell? Don't do that on the side of a main road! Do you want to give me a heart attack?" She took a deep breath. "That, Will, is a car"
"A car," he repeated simply as they began to walk up the bridge steps. "Okay. I'll not ask what their purpose is yet. Although I do have an idea. There were people inside them and they were moving…so they are some sort of transportation?"
"Well done, Captain Obvious." Tanya rolled her eyes, which earned her a dirty look from Charli.
"Who is Captain Obvious?" Djaq asked. "His name is Will." The group generally ignored her as they drew together for protection from the 'transportation' racing by underneath them.
"Yes Will" Charli grinned. "They are a very fast kind of carriage."
Robin had been very quiet since leaving Starbucks, and Tanya found herself walking next to him as the edged across the bridge.
"Are you okay?" She asked him timidly, unsure of whether he wanted to talk to her, or talk at all.
Robin looked in her direction and his eyebrows shot up in surprise as if he had only just realized she was there. He had been lost in his own thoughts for a while now. He smiled, the first genuine smile Tanya had noticed since they had met that day.
"I'm a little concerned, I think is the right way to put things." He stated plainly.
Tanya wished she could offer some words of comfort but realized it was no use. She'd be lying if she said she knew how to get them home. Although, as lovely as Robin was, and as much as she would have liked for him to stay longer, it was silly to think that he actually could.
"Because your 800 years in the future, stuck with me and Charli, and have no idea how to get back? Yeah, I think that qualifies as cause for concern." She grinned, attempting to cheer him up. And going the wrong way about it completely. "Sorry I didn't mean to say that."
"I'm not easily bothered by the comments of others, milady," Robin cracked a smile. "Although…" He looked over the edge of the bridge and down at the passing cars underneath. "That bothers me somewhat."
"Ah, that." Tanya smiled. "Don't worry about it. This bridge only collapses every other week."
Robin let out a burst of genuine loud laughter, causing Tanya to jump in fright. Now that was odd. Wasn't he supposed to look fearful and question her again?
"Oh, so you do have a sense of humor?"
"Oi! You two love birds!" Charli shouted from the front, interrupting their conversation. "Will you please come and convince Guy that the cars cannot reach him up here? And he isn't going to die a horrible, tragic death?"
Gisborne was clinging to the railings of the bridge; his face had gone rather green. The Sheriff, who, again deprived of a figure to hide behind, was trying to make himself as small as possible and crouch behind Charli, didn't help the situation.
Robin coughed to hide his sudden embarrassment, seeing as all his men were now staring at him with big grins on their faces. Tanya, once again, wanted to be swallowed up by that huge hole. "We need to stop dallying and get you back," she walked ahead to catch up with the others but almost died when Alan shouted over this time.
"Aw come on Robin, stop staring at the poor lady from behind. It's very rude!" She ignored the temptation to turn around and see Robin's reaction. She was intrigued to know whether he had been staring at her ass, or Alan was just being an idiot.
"Right" Charli turned the conversation back to the task at hand, as she seized Guy's sleeve again and began to drag him off the bridge. "Will, a little help?" He moved to the other side of Guy willingly, and began pulling his enemy along. "I've known you for about half an hour Guy," Charli grumbled to the almost shell-shocked villain, "and I keep having to drag you around! Not very flattering on your behalf you know!" Will laughed.
The other outlaws obediently followed. Robin was content just to let things play out, so they would have to be too. Although John had a sneaking suspicion that he found the girl with the strange hair attractive.
"How far is your flat house?" Djaq piped up from where she was walking next to John and Alan.
"Its that building there," Charli indicated a high rise block of flats that could clearly be seen now they had walked over the bridge. The outlaws stopped in their tracks, causing Tanya to walk into the back of John. Robin caught hold of her elbow to steady her as she stumbled. However, at the front of the group it was a different story.
Will had stopped dead, staring up at the block in amazement. Charli had carried on walking. The fact that they were both still holding onto Gisborne's sleeves meant that she was pulled backwards, knocking all three of them to the floor at the Sheriff's feet. The Sheriff, taking the opportunity as it presented itself, aimed a kick at Will. And missed, kicking Guy's shoulder.
The jolt seemed to pull him out of the shell shock, and he jumped to his feet, looking wildly around. Will and Charli were helped to their feet, both of them giggling and apologizing to each other profusely.
"How can there be a building that big?" Alan said, the awe evident in his voice.
"Big? Get out of it! That's small!!" Charli said. "There are some, in London and New York a hundred times the size of that."
There was a clunk as the mouths of all the outlaws hit the floor in amazement. Tanya hurried to correct her friend.
"Not a hundred!" She held up her hands. "Charli is exaggerating. Do you not have buildings that tall then?"
"Yeah Tanya," Charli said sarcastically. "The empire state building was built in the year 1100." Tanya stuck her tongue out at the girl, and thumped her on the arm. "Lets go! I'm starting to get hungry. And I want to introduce our new friends to the wonderful world of Cadbury Dairy Milk!"
"Nestle." Tanya disagreed. "Rolo's are the best!"
"Nothing beats Dairy Milk. Although Rolo's are nice. You just want to give Robin your last one." She teased.
"No one gets my last one!" Tanya gasped, as if the thought of even considering giving her last Rolo to someone else hurt her. "Not even Santa!" The two girls remembered the outlaws at the same time, and turned simultaneously to see eight very confused men staring back at them.
Charli blinked. "Okay then!" She said happily, "Lets go to my flat."
"What's Cadbury?" Will could be heard asking Robin curiously. The man just shrugged. Tanya took pity on him. "It's a type of food. We will show you later."
As they walked towards Charli's flat, which just happened to be on the top floor of the high-rise building, Guy and the Sheriff dropped back, talking with each other in undertones, unnoticed.