Even Urchins Come Of Age (Prosper/Hornet, R)
Title: Even Urchins Come Of Age
Chapter: 1 (so far)
Pairing: Prosper/Hornet
Rating: R leading to X
Genre: Angst, Romance
Warnings: CrimeScene (menstrual blood involved), more romance and gratuitous sex in later chapters
Summary: Nobody stays young forever. Hornet(Wespe) is growing up, and Prosper is the first and only one of the boys to notice.
Author’s Note: Hi! So I'm new to both this community and to Thief Lord fic. I'm going to link to the story on AFF as well as put it behind a cut, since that will definitely drive it home to younger readers that there's adult content in it... let me know if I shouldn't do it this way. Also, I encourage everybody to post their Thief Lord lemons there too so I won't be alone!
http://books.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=600094886
Even Urchins Come Of Age
by AladdinAbu
----------------------------------------
Note: Hey, don't know where this is going or anything at all, I just know it's crazy that there's no Thief Lord fic up here so I'm gonna start things off with a little Hornet love. Sorry if the crimescene makes some people squeamish but it's what I thought of to write. There'll be more, I promise.
----------------------------------------
Part 1
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a story of two orphans; one who still had a family and one who didn't. One whose life still had worth in the eyes of others, and one who didn't even feel any self-worth. A story of how they changed each other more than they meant to... perhaps for the better.
Propser couldn't sleep a wink that night. He had been up and down from his mattress several times, sneaking out from behind his little brother Bo. The child squirmed but did not wake. He never did; Bo always slept like a small blond rock. Riccio and Mosca were completely oblivious, and Hornet was hidden behind her mountain of books, as usual. Why did it seem he was the only one who ever had trouble sleeping?
This time, he had jogged his bladder enough times by his restless movement that the time finally came when he had to use the facilities. Luckily for the orphans, the bathrooms in the abandoned Stella Theater still functioned; it was bad enough living without electricity that running water was a godsend. Squinting in the semi-darkness, he was just able to make out the doorway by the thin bands of light that bordered it. There was a small, high window in each bathroom that provided just enough to see by without needing to use up one of their precious candles for a simple trip to the toilet.
He had just put a hand to the door when he heard a thumping sound from the ladies' room. Was Hornet awake after all? Or was it an intruder? Prosper shrank back into the shadows, steeling his fist, hoping he wouldn't have to do anything dangerous...
But it was just Hornet after all. He could see her thin braid swinging behind her back as she stumbled toward the beds at the back of the main viewing room of the dilapidated cinema. Stumbling? She didn't seem to be feeling well, he guessed. Shrugging, he pushed into the men's room as quietly as he could and did what he had to do. Then he washed his hands and looked at himself in the mirror.
Prosper looked old. Not really old, but too old for his age. No, that still wasn't right. He didn't look old, nor tired, nor pained. He looked weary. Like any normal twelve-year-old would look after a long train ride, or a shipwreck of a few days; still mostly the same, but with that unmistakable look of fatigue that reaches down into the bones. He always looked like that now; he had since rescuing his brother from his aunt's snooty household and running away to Venice so they could stay together. Without any real hope, he tried a great big smile, flashing his teeth. Nope. Still weary and weathered, no matter how much he tried to feign otherwise.
As he turned back to the door, he heard its neighboring twin being pushed open again. Now he was beginning to wonder; there certainly weren't two girls in there, because there weren't two girls among them. Just Hornet. What was she doing, running in and out of the bathroom? He listened for a moment but there weren't any more sounds. Figuring it was best that he left well enough alone, he began to creep out and back to his cot.
"Stop it! Just stop it, I said!"
That was an awfully strange thing for anybody who was alone in the restroom to be hissing. What's more, Hornet sounded distressed. Terrible images flashed through Prosper's mind; someone had broken in and was threatening to call the police unless she handed over all of the Thief Lord's bounty. Or what if he was kidnapping her? Maybe nothing was going on. He paused outside the door, not sure if he should knock; that would be the last thing he'd want to do if there was an intruder. It would let them know he was coming and they would have that much more time to prepare to bash him over the head with a heavy object. Oh, what was the right thing to do?
"No! No more, damn you!"
That was it. He shoved the door open, eyes peeled to take in the situation-
"AAH!"
Prosper went beet red when he saw Hornet hiking up her knickers. She didn't pull them up all the way, though, and her other hand was inside them. What had she been doing? More importantly...
"Wh-who were you talking to?" he asked in a whisper.
"Nobody!" she told him in that slightly-husky voice of hers. He often wondered if she'd had a bad cold when she was smaller and had never quite gotten over it, or if she might have screamed herself horse so badly one day that it had become a permanent condition. "Prop, what the hell do you think you're doing? Get out of here, this is the girls' room!"
"I heard you say- I m-mean, you were telling somebody to stop it, and I thought... I don't know what I thought, but I was worried!"
"Well, I'm fine, okay? Now get out before I scream - or give you a black eye!"
"Hornet, come on, what's the matter? You sounded really upset. I only want to help."
She glared at him in outrage for a few moments, then seemed to realize something that wiped al the fury from her face. Then she just looked frightened and embarrassed. "Well, you are kind of a boy... I guess it's not your fault."
"Yeah, it's not my fault I'm a boy." She almost smiled at that. "But it's... I'm not trying to be nosy, honest, I just had to use the loo. I didn't know you were up."
"I believe you," she sighed. "But I'm not sure how to tell you what's going on, since... well, since you probably wouldn't know what I mean." She bit her lip for a second before withdrawing her hand from inside the panties. "Do you see this?"
It was a paper towel, he could see that much, but the darkness of it stated that it was no longer clean. "Okay... what about it?"
"It's because I'm a girl. It's that time of the month, you know?" When he only looked at her, she flushed a deeper shade and whispered, "Come in and close the door. It's bad enough having to say this to an audience of one."
Prosper obeyed. He came a little bit closer to Hornet so she wouldn't have to speak above a whisper, but remained a foot or two back. Then she continued. "It's my period. You know what a period is, right?" He shook his head, and her eyes widened. "Seriously? You've never heard of it before?"
"Well, sure, at the end of a sentence," he said with a half-smile. "But I get the feeling you're talking about something else."
"It's when girls... you know." Frustrated, she tossed the paper towel she had been holding into the nearest cubicle and pulled another from the roll between her ankles. "Okay. You know where babies come from, right? PLEASE tell me I'm not starting from scratch."
"Yeah, I'm not a toddler; I know it isn't the stork."
"Okay, good, that helps." As he watched, mystified, she wadded the towel up and shoved it inside her panties, holding it in place. "When the boy and the girl do what they're supposed to do, they, um... they make something together. From the two."
"A baby."
She shook her head. "Before it's a baby, it's made of... uh, materials. With me so far?"
He considered this. "I mean, yeah. I kind of knew that, but I guess I never really thought about-"
"Anyway," she interrupted, "the girl's body does certain things to get ready for the baby. It makes room. Only problem is, girls don't always need the room because they don't always get pregnant." Then she grinned. "Obviously I'm not pregnant right now."
"Right," he laughed. "So... okay, so the body doesn't need the room anymore. That's where you were going with that, right?"
"Exactly. And if it doesn't need the room, it doesn't need the room's materials. Even though it already made them. So then, they have to get thrown away since they have an expiration date."
She had started to lose him. Mostly he understood what she was saying; he'd heard adults talking about that kind of thing once or twice, very long ago. "And... and what you were doing in here has something to do with not being pregnant. But what exactly is it?"
Frowning at the hapless boy, she took her hand out again and looked at the paper towel. It was dark, like the last one had been. A sneaking suspicion began to creep over him he did his best to shrug it aside; that was preposterous, it was so macabre... but then she held it out to him. Even before either of them spoke or moved, his next breath fed his nose a sharp smell that he didn't recognize. It made him feel funny. "Th-this. All that's left coming out is blood, so you don't need to worry about, um, about other things."
"BLOOD." It wasn't a shout, or a question, simply a statement filled with near-panic. "Really?"
"Really." Catching the look on his face, she laughed a little. "I'm not hurting or anything, it just has to come out, like I told you." She then waved the towel around a little bit. "See? If I don't use these I'll have permanently stained underwear. Which I cannot afford."
He reached up his hand to take it, and she jerked it back. "What?"
"D-don't..." She blinked at him, then awkwardly re-folded the paper towel until the outside of the wad was white again. "Merda, Prop, how can you be so dense? Can't you tell where I keep putting this?! And you're j-just going to touch it?"
He had been a tiny bit warmer than usual already, but this statement caused his temples to begin sweating. "I... well, yeah, but I thought you wanted me to see. Sorry."
"It's a lot heavier this time," she whispered to herself. A moment later she looked up and saw him still watching her and hurriedly looked away again. "That means I'm bleeding more than usual, okay? I... you have no idea how stupid I feel, standing here and trying to soak it up with you w-watching me... I hate being different from the rest of you boys... I hate it so much, it's so damned inconvenient..."
Prosper took a tiny step forward and asked her, "Do you need any help?" The death glare he got in return could have melted the ice off the North Pole, but he persisted. "Look, I know you probably don't want my help with something like that, but I'm asking if you NEED it, allright? Just... just in case you do."
"Okay." Her eyes were glistening with tears, but she nodded. "Can you reach down there and get me another one?"
He did. While he was bent to do so, he noticed with a queasy pang that there were a few droplets of blood on one of her bare feet. It had probably run down her hand when she retrieved a fresh towel. He looked around cautiously and finally saw her patched trousers lying in the corner. Then he forced himself to straighten so he could hand her the new towel, which she grabbed after tossing the other one into the toilet bowl with its friends. Then she wadded it up expertly and inserted it, gasping a shaky breath as she did so.
"What is it? Something else wrong?"
"It's just..." She lowered her voice even more, looking away. "It feels more sensitive now that you're hanging around me while do this. I kind of wish you'd leave."
"Oh. I... I'm really sorry, Hornet, here I am standing around even after- I thought you were being hurt or something, I'm so stupid. I should have known better than to jump in here like some idiot who thinks he's a hero."
Then she actually smiled. "You mean like Scipio would do? Yeah... don't worry, that isn't how I see this. I know you were just trying to help. Come here."
Hesitantly, he walked forward until they were standing a few inches apart. Then, without moving either of her occupied hands, she leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. He drew back in surprise. "What was that for?"
"For being concerned. Maybe I'm not too thrilled that you saw me like this, but that doesn't mean I don't understand why you came in."
For some reason, he found himself putting his hand on her cheek. She flinched - really flinched, but didn't move otherwise. In spite of the chill night air, she was warm to the touch. Soft. It took him a couple of tries to swallow, but once he did he lowered his voice and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help somehow? Yeah, I'm useless, but I hate the idea of you sitting around in here and going through this all by yourself. That doesn't seem right."
"Millions of women are doing it right now, too," she guaranteed him. "I... I'll be fine. Thanks, Prop."
Reluctantly, he pulled himself away from her. She didn't move; she COULDN'T move until she had finished with what she was doing to control the blood flow. Prosper's head was full of questions about what he had just experienced, but he didn't want to bother her with them while she was already clearly suffering because of her own body's normal functions. He would wait until tomorrow to ask them, at the absolute least.
"Goodnight, Hornet."
"Night."
Of course, the oddness of his encounter with Hornet in the restroom threatened to keep Prosper awake all night, wondering about it. Girls were different from boys; he knew that already. He knew they had differences between their legs and upon their chests, in their voices and the way they moved. They also had other differences that came from what they learned; boys learned how to fight and how to talk tough and use weapons (even if just in play), and girls learned how to be cute and wear frilly stuff and take care of babies and cook food. Of course, this wasn't strictly fact, but it was how things usually turned out. For example, Mosca was a better cook than Hornet, and he guessed Hornet could probably beat somebody up with a baseball bat more efficiently than Riccio could with his weak little arms. Still, she did almost automatically look after Bo when Prosper was absent or busy with something else. Different.
But this was something that wasn't just different, it was BAD. Being a girl made her bleed sometimes for no good reason? Like she said, it was a normal occurrence, but she still didn't enjoy that it happened. The whole thing made him feel a little helpless. Grateful that he didn't have to suffer through that himself, but it was a hollow gratitude when his friend was suffering.
It really was too bad. But maybe he could cheer her up in the morning somehow. Yes, that was it; he resolved to try very hard to make Hornet feel like a million lira in the morning. Then he rolled over, careful not to elbow Bo in the head, and listened for her quiet footsteps to return her to bed.
They didn't come for a long time. As she passed him, he heard her stub her toe on something on the floor, and the tiny sob she let out was definitely not simply from the pain of tripping. She had already been crying before that added insult to injury - or injury to insult, as the case was. Then she threw herself into her bed and all was silent once more.
Prosper didn't sleep a wink that night.
~~~~~~~~~~~
~TO BE CONTINUED
By the way, I probably won't make a new entry in the community every time I add a chapter, so watch AFF for the rest to be posted soon! AND PLEASE REVIEW ^_^
Chapter: 1 (so far)
Pairing: Prosper/Hornet
Rating: R leading to X
Genre: Angst, Romance
Warnings: CrimeScene (menstrual blood involved), more romance and gratuitous sex in later chapters
Summary: Nobody stays young forever. Hornet(Wespe) is growing up, and Prosper is the first and only one of the boys to notice.
Author’s Note: Hi! So I'm new to both this community and to Thief Lord fic. I'm going to link to the story on AFF as well as put it behind a cut, since that will definitely drive it home to younger readers that there's adult content in it... let me know if I shouldn't do it this way. Also, I encourage everybody to post their Thief Lord lemons there too so I won't be alone!
http://books.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=600094886
Even Urchins Come Of Age
by AladdinAbu
----------------------------------------
Note: Hey, don't know where this is going or anything at all, I just know it's crazy that there's no Thief Lord fic up here so I'm gonna start things off with a little Hornet love. Sorry if the crimescene makes some people squeamish but it's what I thought of to write. There'll be more, I promise.
----------------------------------------
Part 1
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a story of two orphans; one who still had a family and one who didn't. One whose life still had worth in the eyes of others, and one who didn't even feel any self-worth. A story of how they changed each other more than they meant to... perhaps for the better.
Propser couldn't sleep a wink that night. He had been up and down from his mattress several times, sneaking out from behind his little brother Bo. The child squirmed but did not wake. He never did; Bo always slept like a small blond rock. Riccio and Mosca were completely oblivious, and Hornet was hidden behind her mountain of books, as usual. Why did it seem he was the only one who ever had trouble sleeping?
This time, he had jogged his bladder enough times by his restless movement that the time finally came when he had to use the facilities. Luckily for the orphans, the bathrooms in the abandoned Stella Theater still functioned; it was bad enough living without electricity that running water was a godsend. Squinting in the semi-darkness, he was just able to make out the doorway by the thin bands of light that bordered it. There was a small, high window in each bathroom that provided just enough to see by without needing to use up one of their precious candles for a simple trip to the toilet.
He had just put a hand to the door when he heard a thumping sound from the ladies' room. Was Hornet awake after all? Or was it an intruder? Prosper shrank back into the shadows, steeling his fist, hoping he wouldn't have to do anything dangerous...
But it was just Hornet after all. He could see her thin braid swinging behind her back as she stumbled toward the beds at the back of the main viewing room of the dilapidated cinema. Stumbling? She didn't seem to be feeling well, he guessed. Shrugging, he pushed into the men's room as quietly as he could and did what he had to do. Then he washed his hands and looked at himself in the mirror.
Prosper looked old. Not really old, but too old for his age. No, that still wasn't right. He didn't look old, nor tired, nor pained. He looked weary. Like any normal twelve-year-old would look after a long train ride, or a shipwreck of a few days; still mostly the same, but with that unmistakable look of fatigue that reaches down into the bones. He always looked like that now; he had since rescuing his brother from his aunt's snooty household and running away to Venice so they could stay together. Without any real hope, he tried a great big smile, flashing his teeth. Nope. Still weary and weathered, no matter how much he tried to feign otherwise.
As he turned back to the door, he heard its neighboring twin being pushed open again. Now he was beginning to wonder; there certainly weren't two girls in there, because there weren't two girls among them. Just Hornet. What was she doing, running in and out of the bathroom? He listened for a moment but there weren't any more sounds. Figuring it was best that he left well enough alone, he began to creep out and back to his cot.
"Stop it! Just stop it, I said!"
That was an awfully strange thing for anybody who was alone in the restroom to be hissing. What's more, Hornet sounded distressed. Terrible images flashed through Prosper's mind; someone had broken in and was threatening to call the police unless she handed over all of the Thief Lord's bounty. Or what if he was kidnapping her? Maybe nothing was going on. He paused outside the door, not sure if he should knock; that would be the last thing he'd want to do if there was an intruder. It would let them know he was coming and they would have that much more time to prepare to bash him over the head with a heavy object. Oh, what was the right thing to do?
"No! No more, damn you!"
That was it. He shoved the door open, eyes peeled to take in the situation-
"AAH!"
Prosper went beet red when he saw Hornet hiking up her knickers. She didn't pull them up all the way, though, and her other hand was inside them. What had she been doing? More importantly...
"Wh-who were you talking to?" he asked in a whisper.
"Nobody!" she told him in that slightly-husky voice of hers. He often wondered if she'd had a bad cold when she was smaller and had never quite gotten over it, or if she might have screamed herself horse so badly one day that it had become a permanent condition. "Prop, what the hell do you think you're doing? Get out of here, this is the girls' room!"
"I heard you say- I m-mean, you were telling somebody to stop it, and I thought... I don't know what I thought, but I was worried!"
"Well, I'm fine, okay? Now get out before I scream - or give you a black eye!"
"Hornet, come on, what's the matter? You sounded really upset. I only want to help."
She glared at him in outrage for a few moments, then seemed to realize something that wiped al the fury from her face. Then she just looked frightened and embarrassed. "Well, you are kind of a boy... I guess it's not your fault."
"Yeah, it's not my fault I'm a boy." She almost smiled at that. "But it's... I'm not trying to be nosy, honest, I just had to use the loo. I didn't know you were up."
"I believe you," she sighed. "But I'm not sure how to tell you what's going on, since... well, since you probably wouldn't know what I mean." She bit her lip for a second before withdrawing her hand from inside the panties. "Do you see this?"
It was a paper towel, he could see that much, but the darkness of it stated that it was no longer clean. "Okay... what about it?"
"It's because I'm a girl. It's that time of the month, you know?" When he only looked at her, she flushed a deeper shade and whispered, "Come in and close the door. It's bad enough having to say this to an audience of one."
Prosper obeyed. He came a little bit closer to Hornet so she wouldn't have to speak above a whisper, but remained a foot or two back. Then she continued. "It's my period. You know what a period is, right?" He shook his head, and her eyes widened. "Seriously? You've never heard of it before?"
"Well, sure, at the end of a sentence," he said with a half-smile. "But I get the feeling you're talking about something else."
"It's when girls... you know." Frustrated, she tossed the paper towel she had been holding into the nearest cubicle and pulled another from the roll between her ankles. "Okay. You know where babies come from, right? PLEASE tell me I'm not starting from scratch."
"Yeah, I'm not a toddler; I know it isn't the stork."
"Okay, good, that helps." As he watched, mystified, she wadded the towel up and shoved it inside her panties, holding it in place. "When the boy and the girl do what they're supposed to do, they, um... they make something together. From the two."
"A baby."
She shook her head. "Before it's a baby, it's made of... uh, materials. With me so far?"
He considered this. "I mean, yeah. I kind of knew that, but I guess I never really thought about-"
"Anyway," she interrupted, "the girl's body does certain things to get ready for the baby. It makes room. Only problem is, girls don't always need the room because they don't always get pregnant." Then she grinned. "Obviously I'm not pregnant right now."
"Right," he laughed. "So... okay, so the body doesn't need the room anymore. That's where you were going with that, right?"
"Exactly. And if it doesn't need the room, it doesn't need the room's materials. Even though it already made them. So then, they have to get thrown away since they have an expiration date."
She had started to lose him. Mostly he understood what she was saying; he'd heard adults talking about that kind of thing once or twice, very long ago. "And... and what you were doing in here has something to do with not being pregnant. But what exactly is it?"
Frowning at the hapless boy, she took her hand out again and looked at the paper towel. It was dark, like the last one had been. A sneaking suspicion began to creep over him he did his best to shrug it aside; that was preposterous, it was so macabre... but then she held it out to him. Even before either of them spoke or moved, his next breath fed his nose a sharp smell that he didn't recognize. It made him feel funny. "Th-this. All that's left coming out is blood, so you don't need to worry about, um, about other things."
"BLOOD." It wasn't a shout, or a question, simply a statement filled with near-panic. "Really?"
"Really." Catching the look on his face, she laughed a little. "I'm not hurting or anything, it just has to come out, like I told you." She then waved the towel around a little bit. "See? If I don't use these I'll have permanently stained underwear. Which I cannot afford."
He reached up his hand to take it, and she jerked it back. "What?"
"D-don't..." She blinked at him, then awkwardly re-folded the paper towel until the outside of the wad was white again. "Merda, Prop, how can you be so dense? Can't you tell where I keep putting this?! And you're j-just going to touch it?"
He had been a tiny bit warmer than usual already, but this statement caused his temples to begin sweating. "I... well, yeah, but I thought you wanted me to see. Sorry."
"It's a lot heavier this time," she whispered to herself. A moment later she looked up and saw him still watching her and hurriedly looked away again. "That means I'm bleeding more than usual, okay? I... you have no idea how stupid I feel, standing here and trying to soak it up with you w-watching me... I hate being different from the rest of you boys... I hate it so much, it's so damned inconvenient..."
Prosper took a tiny step forward and asked her, "Do you need any help?" The death glare he got in return could have melted the ice off the North Pole, but he persisted. "Look, I know you probably don't want my help with something like that, but I'm asking if you NEED it, allright? Just... just in case you do."
"Okay." Her eyes were glistening with tears, but she nodded. "Can you reach down there and get me another one?"
He did. While he was bent to do so, he noticed with a queasy pang that there were a few droplets of blood on one of her bare feet. It had probably run down her hand when she retrieved a fresh towel. He looked around cautiously and finally saw her patched trousers lying in the corner. Then he forced himself to straighten so he could hand her the new towel, which she grabbed after tossing the other one into the toilet bowl with its friends. Then she wadded it up expertly and inserted it, gasping a shaky breath as she did so.
"What is it? Something else wrong?"
"It's just..." She lowered her voice even more, looking away. "It feels more sensitive now that you're hanging around me while do this. I kind of wish you'd leave."
"Oh. I... I'm really sorry, Hornet, here I am standing around even after- I thought you were being hurt or something, I'm so stupid. I should have known better than to jump in here like some idiot who thinks he's a hero."
Then she actually smiled. "You mean like Scipio would do? Yeah... don't worry, that isn't how I see this. I know you were just trying to help. Come here."
Hesitantly, he walked forward until they were standing a few inches apart. Then, without moving either of her occupied hands, she leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. He drew back in surprise. "What was that for?"
"For being concerned. Maybe I'm not too thrilled that you saw me like this, but that doesn't mean I don't understand why you came in."
For some reason, he found himself putting his hand on her cheek. She flinched - really flinched, but didn't move otherwise. In spite of the chill night air, she was warm to the touch. Soft. It took him a couple of tries to swallow, but once he did he lowered his voice and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help somehow? Yeah, I'm useless, but I hate the idea of you sitting around in here and going through this all by yourself. That doesn't seem right."
"Millions of women are doing it right now, too," she guaranteed him. "I... I'll be fine. Thanks, Prop."
Reluctantly, he pulled himself away from her. She didn't move; she COULDN'T move until she had finished with what she was doing to control the blood flow. Prosper's head was full of questions about what he had just experienced, but he didn't want to bother her with them while she was already clearly suffering because of her own body's normal functions. He would wait until tomorrow to ask them, at the absolute least.
"Goodnight, Hornet."
"Night."
Of course, the oddness of his encounter with Hornet in the restroom threatened to keep Prosper awake all night, wondering about it. Girls were different from boys; he knew that already. He knew they had differences between their legs and upon their chests, in their voices and the way they moved. They also had other differences that came from what they learned; boys learned how to fight and how to talk tough and use weapons (even if just in play), and girls learned how to be cute and wear frilly stuff and take care of babies and cook food. Of course, this wasn't strictly fact, but it was how things usually turned out. For example, Mosca was a better cook than Hornet, and he guessed Hornet could probably beat somebody up with a baseball bat more efficiently than Riccio could with his weak little arms. Still, she did almost automatically look after Bo when Prosper was absent or busy with something else. Different.
But this was something that wasn't just different, it was BAD. Being a girl made her bleed sometimes for no good reason? Like she said, it was a normal occurrence, but she still didn't enjoy that it happened. The whole thing made him feel a little helpless. Grateful that he didn't have to suffer through that himself, but it was a hollow gratitude when his friend was suffering.
It really was too bad. But maybe he could cheer her up in the morning somehow. Yes, that was it; he resolved to try very hard to make Hornet feel like a million lira in the morning. Then he rolled over, careful not to elbow Bo in the head, and listened for her quiet footsteps to return her to bed.
They didn't come for a long time. As she passed him, he heard her stub her toe on something on the floor, and the tiny sob she let out was definitely not simply from the pain of tripping. She had already been crying before that added insult to injury - or injury to insult, as the case was. Then she threw herself into her bed and all was silent once more.
Prosper didn't sleep a wink that night.
~~~~~~~~~~~
~TO BE CONTINUED
By the way, I probably won't make a new entry in the community every time I add a chapter, so watch AFF for the rest to be posted soon! AND PLEASE REVIEW ^_^
