Sly hated everything about this place.

He hated living with the monster who had attacked his family and home. He hated that he had to work for him like a servant. He hated that he couldn't understand anything the people here were saying, and the only time he heard English was when the monster or the monster's sister wanted to scold him for something.

And above all, he hated how helpless he felt. How small and weak and pathetic he was, that he couldn't fight back or even escape. He had tried everything he could think of over the last week – picking the lock to his room or breaking through a wall at night, slipping away from the staff during the day, but nothing he did ever seemed to work.

Sly was trapped, and useless, and he hated it.

The one thing he didn't hate – or, well, he wasn't sure what to feel, exactly – was the little girl who lived here. She was always staring at him, and trying to talk to him, and he didn't know what to think about that. She was the monster's daughter, which meant he should hate her, too, but she was also really young, and it felt weird to hate someone younger than him.

When she'd cornered him alone a few days ago and started talking to him in English, he'd been surprised, but he didn't want to be near the monster's daughter and hoped she'd get the message to leave him alone. Surely, she knew that he hated her family and this place. But she kept going, and going, and then she was asking why he didn't just leave, like it was the easiest thing in the world and he just – he got so angry.

He hadn't meant to push her. He really hadn't. And when he realized what he'd done, his anger had turned to terror. The monster had told him that he would kill him if he hurt her. She would tell the monster and then he'd kill him.

But she hadn't. He had watched her lie to the monster, and then look at him in a way that he understood meant she had forgiven him for pushing her. It didn't make any sense to him at first. Why wouldn't she snitch?

It made sense the next very day after that, when she found him in the kitchen and tried to talk to him again. He had ignored her again and worked very hard not to let his anger make him do something stupid, like his dad always taught. She hadn't stayed very long that time because there were other people in the kitchen, and she seemed to know that they weren't supposed to hang out.

But then she came back the next day. And the next day. And the day after that. Always when he was left alone, and always asking him questions.

"What's your name? How old are you? Can you play with me? Can we be friends?"

It annoyed him, and he always ignored her because he didn't want to accidentally hurt her again and he also wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a trick. Maybe the monster had asked his daughter to test him into letting his guard down, and then do something horrible to him once he had. It didn't quite make sense since she hadn't told the monster about when he'd pushed her, but he didn't care. He had to stay alive in this scary, awful place, and he couldn't get caught doing anything he wasn't supposed to until he figured out how to escape for good.

Tonight, though, was different. Tonight, she had found out where his room was.

The staff had locked him inside again, at the exact same time as every night, and just like every night he looked over the whole room for a way to escape without finding anything. Then, like every night since the day he'd been brought here, he had taken the pillow and blanket off the bed and crawled under the bed with them, curling up into a ball and watching the door, terrified that the monster or the other monsters who had been with him would come inside while he was supposed to be asleep, and do to him what they had done to his parents.

Usually, he would stay awake as long as he could until he couldn't anymore, and then he'd wake up crying from nightmares, and then he'd watch the door again until the cycle repeated itself, but tonight was different, because she had found his room.

She knocked on the door.

The sound scared him so bad that he forgot how to breathe, pulling himself further under his little hiding place and waiting for his family's killers to finally kill him too. But then there was a quiet, young voice joined in by the knocking.

"Hello? Mr. Huàn Xióng? Is this your room?"

Sly was so stunned that he didn't do anything at first. He stayed perfectly still, blinking as he tried to process what was actually going on against the terror gripping his body and mind. Slowly, ever so slowly, he began to uncurl from under the blanket and slide out from under the bed.

"Mr. Huàn Xióng?" The girl called again by the time he was standing in the middle of the room, trying to figure out what to do. "I am sorry if I woke you up. I wanted to come inside but the door is locked."

Still clutching the pillow to his chest, Sly carefully crept over to the door and pressed his ear against the wood. He could hear her shuffling on the other side, but couldn't make out any other sounds no matter how hard he tried. If someone else was with her, they were doing a very good job of being quiet.

Was this the test he'd been so afraid of? Were they waiting to see if he'd use this girl to break out of his room and try to escape? That he would tell her to go find the key to open the lock and let him out?

The boy swallowed and remained pressed against the door. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. His voice had gone away the night that his life had been ruined, and the only time he'd managed to bring it back had been to whisper at this girl to go away. That had been so hard to do that it had left him dizzy and out of breath. Speaking across a wall like this sounded as impossible as walking through it.

She had stopped knocking and calling for him, but he could still hear her there. She sounded nervous, and he didn't understand why she didn't just leave if she was so worried that this was the wrong room, or that she would get in trouble for being here. Of course, he also didn't understand why she seemed so determined to talk to him when he was trying to make it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her.

Against his better judgement, Sly raised his hand, hesitated, then knocked gently against the wood. Just three simple knocks to let her know he was here. She gasped, sounding surprised, and knocked back.

"Is that you, Mr. Huàn Xióng?" She asked.

He knocked once, hoping she'd understand it as a yes. The girl went quiet for a minute.

"Does that mean yes?"

Another single knock.

"Okay!" Now she sounded excited. "Will you come out and play with me?"

Sly's mouth twisted in irritation. Two knocks.

"…Does that mean no?"

One knock.

The girl went quiet again, but he could still hear her on the other side. She was very loud compared to him even though she was smaller. He figured that made sense – no one was as good a teacher about being stealthy as his dad was.

Had been.

Her next question was almost missed as he struggled to blink back sudden tears. "Are you stuck in there?"

A single knock.

"Oh." More silence. "I am sorry, but I don't have a key. I don't know where to find one."

The raccoon closed his eyes. He didn't know why he was disappointed about that, but he was.

"Do you like your room?"

Two knocks.

"Oh. I am sorry."

She really sounded sorry, too, which caught him off guard. Why should she care about how he felt? No one else here did. Why was she being nice right now when she was the daughter of a monster? He didn't understand it and he didn't like how conflicted it was making him feel. He wished she'd be mean so he could just hate her like he hated everything else.

"I don't think I am allowed to let you leave," the girl said, still sounding upset. "If my father or my aunt knew I was here, I would be in a lot of trouble."

Sly rolled his eyes. She had people making food and cleaning up after her every single day, and the monster clearly loved her even though that didn't make sense for a monster. What would "a lot of trouble" even look like to a spoiled princess like her? Washing her own clothes for once?

"I should probably go back to my room soon, so they don't find me here."

There was a long pause, like she was waiting for him to ask her not to leave. The boy wouldn't have asked that even if his voice had come back to him.

"…Okay. I'm leaving now." He heard her start walking away, stop, then hurry back to the door. "Um. Um. Are you going to be here tomorrow night?"

That was the dumbest question she'd ever asked, and she asked a lot of dumb questions. Sly rolled his eyes again as he gave a single, very angry knock against the wood.

"Okay. Can…can I come back tomorrow night? Can we talk more?"

He blinked. Hesitated. Thought about it.

Knocked once.

"Okay!" The girl said, very loud and very happy, which made him wince. "Goodbye, Mr. Huàn Xióng! I will see you tomorrow!"

She ran down the hall, making him wince again, and he stayed listening at the door until he couldn't hear her anymore. He wondered why she wanted to come back when it was obvious he didn't like her.

He wondered why he had just told her she could.

A/N: This took longer to get out than expected cause I got double-whammied with work and being sick. Oh well, at least we're getting somewhere.