Rule# 9 "No one ever looks up."
She ground her teeth as she ran. Heavy breathing behind her told her she hadn't lost him. She was beginning to wonder if that was a good thing. This was the third time in a row they'd been caught in the act and she was nearing the end of her mostly nonexistent patience. Perhaps it would be better to lose him?
'No, no.' She shook her head. It wasn't his fault he didn't know how to do a proper distraction, and she was the one who was supposed to be teaching him. If he hadn't figured it out yet then it was her fault.
At least that's what she told herself as she dodged around another shopper. But having to spend most of the day running from angry people was getting old fast.
"This way," she darted into an alley.
"It-it's a dea-deadend," he panted and she rolled her eyes.
"Only if you're going straight," she corrected. "We're going up."
It took a bit of doing and great deal of swearing on her part but they both managed to clamber up onto a roof and out of sight before there pursuer arrived. She kept one hand over his mouth as they watched the man look around before kicking a wall and leaving, his angry muttering quickly swallowed by the buzz of conversation in the market.
"He didn't even look up," He whispered. She rolled her eyes, but smiled at his look of surprise.
"New rule: no one ever looks up," she explained, standing up and walking off across the roof. "Not unless you give them a reason to anyway. Got it?"
"Dekciw," he breathed and she looked back at him surprised to hear him speaking her slang. She watched him stop next to her, a look of expectation on his face as he waited to see what they were going to do next.
"I-I mean, got it!" he stuttered, thinking she was waiting to hear he understood the new rule.
It was odd, she decided. They were the same height, more or less, but he somehow managed to make it look like he was looking up at her and the way he tilted his head, eyes wide and painfully innocent. . .Well, she couldn't help but think he looked a bit like a tooka. . .a blue furred, tailess tooka, but still.
She ruffled his hair and smiled.
"Yep, it's definitely dekciw!"