Chapter Two
Barney made them breakfast the next morning, which the others assured Lily was better than Mr. Wu doing the same. They had the morning free, which Sid and Sue decided to spend on homework. After a quick word with Nana, Lily gets her money and the money that the woman gives her to buy some clothes and maybe a bike, if they were lucky. She thinks that wearing Tobey's shirt helped her cause a bit with the family, and after breakfast Lily and Tobey head to one of the many clothes shops in Chinatown. After two such shops, she asked if there was a consignment shop, or a thrift store.
"Yeah, of course," he said, walking with her along the road, and pointing in a complicated manner around a few corners. "Right, then that way, then a left, and its right there!" She laughed, and he did as well, grinning. "I didn't think you to be that type of girl."
"What's wrong with getting cute clothes at a cheap price?" She wondered, and he grinned again.
"No, nothing," he assured her.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'that type of girl'?"
"Well, I figured you weren't prissy, which is good, mind. All I was sayin'." He shrugs and starts to whistle.
She shook her head with a laugh. "You're so silly!" She said, thanking him when he opened the door to the shop for her.
"Yeah, I know," he said, and stood by her as she flipped through clothes racks for things to try on, eventually getting a pile over her arm and then disappearing into the changing room, making sure everything fit. She went for just comfortable things—t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, and jeans. She had snuck in a dress, which she found to be quite flattering when she tried it on. "Hey," he called through the door, and Lily, clothes off, blushed despite the wood separating them. "There's a bike here, pretty good condition."
"Oh great! We should get it!" She got dressed back in his shirt and her other clothes again, opening the door to see him leaning against the door frame.
"I was thinking the same thing," he admitted, holding up the orange tag inbetween his fingers with a smile. "Everything fit?"
"Just about," she said, putting back a few shirts and a pair of jeans that didn't flatter her. "Ready?"
"Yeah, and look!" He tugged on her arm and pulled her over to the counter. In the case were a number of old comic books and other objects, but he was lusting after the comics. "They have number 34 of Dragon Robot Warrior!"
"Is that... good?" She wondered, eyebrows furrowed, never having followed comics before. She peered at it through the case.
"Yeah! It's the one where—" he goes on for a minute, complete with sound effects and arm waving, and Lily smiled. "What?"
"Do you want it, Tobey?"
"Yeah, but I don't have enough," he whined, looking back at it.
"I'll cover the difference, if you want—" He hugged her fiercly around her neck, and she almost choked with surprise. "You're welcome," she managed to say.
"Oh, Lily, thank you!" She laughed, and they made their purchases. She had some left over, so she went in search of a new backpack. "Yeah, just think, you have all that homework to make up!" She wrinkled up her nose.
"All my teachers know I do my work. Hopefully they'll excuse me this time." She rolled her eyes. She was pushing her new bike and helmet, with the bag of clothes hanging from one handlebar. He was walking close beside her, hugging his new comic, and couldn't stop smiling. She bought a red backpack in the school supply store—along with some notebooks and small things like that. She returned to Tobey outside, and they walked the short way home to Wu's Garden in amiable silence. She locked the bike on the bike rack outside the restaurant, hanging her helmet from it like the others. Hers was shabby, rusty, but it would do. It was just a way from point a to point b, after all.
After putting her new clothes away, she tried to return the money to Nana, but the woman refused. "Keep it for anything else you might need. Like a hairbrush or something like that." Lily thanked her and returned to her room, setting her new school things on her desk neatly while Tobey laid on his stomach on her floor, reading his new comic. She joined him, laying beside him and watching him and half-heartedly reading the comic. He tried to explain it to her, but she told him not to bother with a laugh.
"I'll get you the first ones, so you can read it from the beginning," he said almost to himself, turning the page reverently. She laughed again and nudged him in the shoulder.
Lunch came, again made by Barney, and then it was time to work. She worked in the kitchen again, Barney trusting her with one of the simpler dishes, which she thought was a compliment. In the afternoon slow-time, Nana took the four of them into the garden to commence training.
She gave Lily a set of moves, basic but could be used to defend herself, to practice, and watched her carefully while she instructed the others. She would occasionally come over to correct a stance or to add another to the set. Sue and Sid finished, and Tobey came over to watch her, sitting on a rock while the others went inside. She stumbled, embarassed, not used to being watched with such intensity.
"Let's try some one-on-one," he suggested after a minute, a smile on his face.
"What, like—"
"Yeah!" He stood up, circling her in a fighting pose. She copied his movements. He made a strike at her neck and she ducked to the side quickly, using her agility to her advantage. He didn't lose a step, sweeping her feet from underneath her, a move she hadn't expected and thus couldn't avoid. She hit the ground hard and glared up at him, but he just grinned, offering a hand. She took it, and they repeated the excercise. This time she remembered to watch the subtle movements Nana had told her about, to anticipate his next move. She didn't fare much better, but she was laughing along with him. "Not bad for an hour of training," he admitted after about thirty minutes of the excercise. He leaned against one of the rocks, and she sat on another, out of breath. "Water?" He suggested, and she nodded, returning inside with him.
After work that night, Nana took Lily outside to give her her first magic lesson, something the older woman told the younger would become routine. They sat together and meditated for a time, Nana teaching her about chakras, and afterwards giving her a number of books to read, ranging from old sorcerers of middle ages to ancient Chinese times, to techniques, and a book that Nana thinks Kong Li has a copy of. Sue joined them after a while at Nana's request, talking of small things, recipes they could use and the like. Nana told Lily of her fortune cookies she was perfecting, among other things. After a couple of hours, Sue and Lily head up to bed, Sue trailing in after Lily to her room, taking a look around.
"You know, ever since he found out, he's had a hard time talking about it. He's been kinda—out of it."
"He hides it well," Lily said, knowing Sue referred to Tobey.
"He's really very mad that Kong Li would do this to you—to him." She paused, looking at the view out of the small window. "I think that Nana was right in saying that Tobey would have turned to some alternative methods to avenge you. He still might."
"But why? We barely know each other."
"You're a cute girl. You haven't escaped notice from the guys, trust me. And you're mysterious. Sid's kinda mad Tobey met you officially first."
"You're just glad I don't like Barney," Lily countered, and Sue blushed, looking at her a little sharply.
"Well, yeah. You noticed huh?" She looked back out at the lights out the window. "He doesn't know I exist. Well, he knows that I exist, because I work with him, but not as a woman. I'll probably be that girl he met always."
"I don't think so," Lily said, yawning and rubbing her eye. "I think you just shouldn't be so subtle about it. If you express interest you might be surprised."
"Yeah, maybe," Sue said doubtfully, but said a quiet good night and left, closing the door behind her. Lily was taking off her shoes when Tobey opened the door sneakily and closed it behind him.
"Hi!" He said cheerfully, sitting on the chair to the desk backwards, arms folded across the back and resting his chin on them. "You and Sue had a good chat huh?"
She lined up her shoes carefully, blushing and trying not to let him see. "Um yeah. I'm guessing you were eavesdropping."
"Yeah, maybe," he said vaguely, feinting aloofness. She just rolled her eyes, sitting down on the floor with one of her new books Nana had given her. "Woah, what are those?"
"Magic books," she said, smiling as he came to sit beside her, yanking the one in her hands from her and flipping through it. "Its all about how he can use the different recipes and the kinds of ingredients and meditating and stuff."
"You and Sue like that kind of stuff," he said, wrinkling up his nose and giving her back the book. "I have a natural talent for it," he said proudly.
"Would Sue and Sid agree?" Lily asked, flipping back to her page, not really paying attention to what she was reading.
"Well, no, not after that one time."
"What time?" She asked, eyebrows raised curiously. Surely any story he had to tell would be amusing.
"I mixed the ingredients wrong and made a living blob," he admitted, hanging his head. "It started growing on me too—er not literally," he amended with a laugh, telling her the full story. After they sat in silence for a few minutes, Lily re-reading a few characters over and over again, but smiling. "Sue was right, darn her," he said lightly. "I don't like talking about it."
"I understand. I wouldn't either," she said, closing the book and placing it and the others up on the bookshelf. She returned to him, sitting cross-legged in front of him.
"It's more than that though. He tricked me—and I won't forget that." She nodded, not knowing the full story, but understanding. "And I keep on thinking, 'what if I turn out just like him?'"
"Tobey," she said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, but surprised when he put a hand over hers. "You're nothing like him. I hardly know anything about him, but I know that. I'm sure he was never this nice, or as loving."
"Yeah, I guess," he said with a sniffle, and she frowned, using her free hand to lift up his chin. There were tears in his eyes.
"Tobey, I'm serious. And I know Sue and Sid have told you the same things, right?" He nodded. "So why be so sad? You're the happiest person I've ever known."
"You must've had some kind of life," he half-laughs, and she nods, pulling him into a hug. He clutched to her. "I'm sorry, I know it might seem silly I'm worried about the future when—" He cut off, clutching tighter.
"It's alright," she said softly in a monotone. The full weight of the situation hadn't hit her yet, but she was sure it would whenever social services showed up. "I wasn't terribly close to my parents."
"You aren't close with anyone," he said.
"Well, I hope I can change that. I'm just guarded is all. I have a large wall."
"Like the Great Wall?" She smiled.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"And I've just started to climb it, huh?"
"You're nearly at the top," she amended, and he pulled away slightly to smile at her.
"Well, good! I was afraid I would have to sharpen my grappling hook!" He made a claw with his hand to demonstrate and she giggled at his random silliness before he tickled her, causing her to break out in laughter. "Oh, you're ticklish," he said evilly, "this is gonna be fun!"
She sat back up from where she had fallen from laughter, and grins. "You're too silly."
"I'm not always," he said with meaning and a sly smile, before Sid banged on the door, and they bid each other a good night. She called a good night to Sid as well, and he stuck his head in the doorway, smiling and saying the same before Tobey dragged him back to their room.
