泥棒

     Howl grins at the original look on her face, but once it changes, the grin goes from that to a frown in .5 seconds flat. “Really? You don’t see what this makes me capable of?”

     He grumbles, his pride stomped on and burnt out by her laughter. “I can shapeshift into anything. Even you,” he says, and it is then when the idea occurs to him, and his eyes light up. Why doesn’t he do just that? And so he does, his form changing in less than a second to match hers.

     When he speaks, his voice comes out of her mouth. “As you can see, you are outmatched. You are only a petty thief and I am a wizard capable of anything you can imagine. Why you are continuing to pick a fight with me, I don’t know,” he says, forming back into himself again. “I suggest you stop while you’re in one piece.” 

“Whoa, what?” The clouds in Jasper’s brain are blown away. They reveal the sun, and once she sees it, she says, “Anything...? For real? No take-backs?” She thinks about that. “Nope--no way. I can’t believe it!” But when he turns into her, she is forced to. Staring at her own reflection, her eyes go wide and her breath ceases to come. She reaches out. Her finger’s brush against her duplicates face.

This can’t be real.

“S-Stop.” Poison slinks into Jasper’s gut. She squeezes her eyes shut--she doesn’t want to see her reflection. She hates her reflection. She wants to shatter her reflection. Stumbling back, she hisses, “I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” She presses her hands over her ears. But she can still here the pop of Howl’s magic. Cracking one eye open, she sighs in relief when she sees not herself, but Howl standing before her.

“I, um... I’m not just a thief, you know.” She points to her shirt. The big red R embellishing the front screams its hello. “I’m a Team Rocket Grunt! So you better think twice before messin’ with me, buck-o. Okay?” Sticking her nose in the air, she asks, “What’s with your god-complex anyway? It’s annoying as hell! And I’ll have you know, the last person who picked a fight with me ran home crying!” 

     Lapis doesn’t believe her for one second. However, the cosplay question catches her off guard. “Cosplaying? I don’t know what that means. But that doesn’t matter now.

     “What matters is that you’ve got my friend, and I’ll need you to give him back.” She finds that she’s got the obvious upper hand here. They’re on the beach; she’s in her element. And if this girl makes one wrong move, she’s done for. “Give me the gem, and I let you live.”

“Yeah, cosplaying.” Jasper raises an eyebrow. Does this kid really not know what it is? “It’s, you know, when you dress up as something you’re not. And, uh... you. And your blue skin. Are doing it right now.”

     Unbeknownst to Jasper, Lapis is not far away, watching the house. She’d been posted to guard Steven’s gem until he heals. And when she spots an unknown person entering the house from a side window, she summons up her wings and waits. She doesn’t know what this person is doing, but she does know that they’re not supposed to be doing it.

     When Jasper exits the house, with a suspicious lump in her coat pocket, Lapis knows exactly what’s going on. She lifts off, flying silently over the beach and coming to rest on the sand. 

     “You! What do you think you’re doing?”

Jasper snickers to herself. Commander Proton is gonna be so, so happy when he sees this baby, she thinks. Bouncing in her boots, she runs down the beach, unable to contain her excitement. However, when Lapis appears suddenly before her, she stops. Her shoes skid against the sand. 

     “Ah, yes, that’s true as well. I don’t deserve friends, nor do I need them. I am a solitary man, and I am content with that. Your insults do not hurt me.” However, the only reason they don’t hurt him is because he has no heart to hurt. “Mm, so this is a name-calling contest now, is it?” He laughs at her circling. 

     “I don’t think it’s in your best interest to be picking a fight with me. Honestly. You’re clearly an idiot,” he says. He wills himself to become a bird, and that he does. The bird that is now Howl crows, but instead of being a bird call, it comes out as, “As you can see, I could easily get the upper hand on you.” And then he transforms back, a smirk plastered firmly on his face.

“Aww, man. What a bummer.” She pouts. “I really wanted to show you the what-for!”

Suddenly, time stops, and Jasper’s jaw hits the floor. Where Howl had been standing, there is now a bird. But that doesn’t make sense--Jasper has never heard of psychics being able to shape shift before. “W-What the hell? How’d you do that?!”

     “I don’t have friends,” he states. “I have no need for them.“ He does a stupid little hair flip thing, just taunting her with his favorite sparkly earrings. “Hmm, isn’t it just too bad. Don’t you wish I wasn’t so nice?” He snickers. Ah, how he loves playing with people. “Really, though. I’m not the kind of person you want to mess with, girl. I’m a wizard of the highest order. I have a lot of power, and messing with me cannot end well for you. I suggest you don’t do what you did last time we met again.”

     Howl narrows his eyes. He wipes at his shirt, as if her touching it could’ve soiled it somehow. “Oh, yes, I know. I’ll have you know that, if I cared enough to, I’d still hate you, as well. And, you act as if I was offering. These earrings are mine and I’ll rip your hands off if you come anywhere near them.”

✩ p3ttythief ✩

     Hmm. How peculiar, that he would run into the same thief twice. There are so many, the odds are ridiculous. “Hmm. You again. Are you going to try to steal my earrings this time, girl?”

     Rubbing his eyes, ❛ Look, if I didn’t want to forgive you or whatever, I wouldn’t. ❜ Plus, in some way or another, it was his fault. He pushed her, pushed her, pushed her; it only made sense for her to push back. He should’ve let the whole thing go from the start – sucks to have a stubborn nature identical to that of a spoiled three-year-old. 

      A puzzled, ❛ Huh, ❜ slips his tongue when she hoists him up. ❛ Wait, you really don’t have to! I’m fine, I swear! ❜ And it isn’t a lie – not to him. He might’ve put up a better fight if the her running hadn’t made him nauseous. Every thump of her feet hits him with another wave of dizziness, so he cups his hands over his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut.

      Eventually, they reach what he assumes is her home. The couch could be better, yeah, but it isn’t like he’s in a place to complain. He’s just glad to have been set down – besides, he’s had to deal with worse. And at this point, he’s too tuckered out to do anything other than lie back and work on focusing his eyesight. 

      Before he can spend too much time doing either, however, she’s back in the room bearing first-aid essentials. ❛ I can do it myself, ❜ he assures, putting out his hands to take the items from her. After all, he’s had more than enough practice. 

      Now that he thinks about it, maybe staying here a minute to get cleaned up is the best choice. He wouldn’t want Ed to question his bruises if he ran into him somewhere ( ‘cause god knows he isn’t going back to that apartment; especially like this ). Not that he suspects he’d care, but on the off-chance that he does ( if only a little ), the last thing Kichiro wants is to worry him. 

Jasper frowns. She doesn’t understand his easy forgiveness; every time she had messed up before, she’d be lucky to come away with all of her bones intact. But this boy isn’t even going to scold her? He isn’t going to get angry? She shakes her head--whatever, she thinks. She’ll worry about it later. Right now, she has more important matters to attend to.

“I don’t give a flyin’ kazoo if you can do it yourself,” she says. “You’re hurt! It wouldn’t be right for me to make you fix yourself up. So... I’ll take care of it, okay? All you gotta do is just sit back, relax, and try not to bleed all over my couch.”

Jasper pops open the first-aid kit. And then she takes out a roll of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant. But before doing anything with them, she hands her ice pack to Kichiro. “Put this on your face.” Rolling her shoulders, she gets to work; she rips a section of gauze off with her teeth, and then she wraps it around Kichiro’s head. Winking, she says, “Don’t be fooled--this one’s just for show.”

But after that, all jokes are put aside. Her brows furrow in concentration while she patches Kichiro up. Once she’s finished, she nods. “I think that’ll do it.” Snapping the lid to the first-aid kit closed, she skips into the kitchen. And then she puts it back in the cupboard where it belongs.

     Most of what’s going on passing right by him; in one ear and out the other without a problem. His vision is hazy, but he can still make out the more important things: the girl who’d stolen his hat, the buildings on either side of them. So that’s a good sign, though the details are kind of foggy.

      A snort, although feeble, finds its way out at her little ‘I don’t hate you’ remark. A stellar comment to make after all that’s happened. What follows, however, just as briskly steals his amusement. ❛ That’s stupid. ❜ Trying his damnedest to keep his voice firm, ❛ You do have power. Over yourself, at least. You’ve just given it away – and you deserve to have it back. ❜ Granted, it’s a lot easier said than done, but it’s by no means ‘impossible.’

      It takes him a second to realize she’d moved. ❛ Ah– ❜ His mouth curves into a grin as bright as he can muster, ignoring the ache of his cheeks to the best of his ability. ❛ Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing that won’t… heal up, y’know? ❜ 

                                                                      ( It’s not like he didn’t deserve it. )

      Couldn’t afford her medicine, huh? He wonders if he’s saved up enough to get her a month’s worth to give her boost…

      With his hat returned to where it belongs, he glances up. She’s okay – or so she says. And he’ll have to believe her ( for now ). 

      The earth shifts beneath him when she decides to lug him elsewhere, resulting in the Master of Coordination gracefully tripping over his own two feet. Smooth as hell. Face buried in cement, ❛ N-No. It’s fine. I’ll just go home and nap. I should be better by then… Thanks, though. ❜

                    Incredible.

Jasper’s head spins. One word is banging around inside her skull: stupid. How many times has she heard that before? How many times has she had it spit in her face? “Y-Yeah,” she says. “I guess...” 

Her fingers turn to claws. Stop lying, they say. Stop lying to me! But the poison piling up in her belly will not reclaim her; she forces it down and takes a deep breath.

“Of course it will! Your body’s a machine, you know; it’s made for that kinda thing!” Jasper puffs up. “But... I wanna help it out a little. You know, like... get it started. ‘Cause...” She looks Kichiro up and down. “...it’s got a lot of work to do.”

Jasper clears her throat. “Um... what I did, it wasn’t--... it isn’t... excusable. I know that, okay? And you... you don’t gotta forgive me for it. So don’t feel pressured or anything, okay? I mean, I know I said I was sorry, but...” she trails off. But she picks back up with a lame, “...yeah.”

When Kichiro face-plants into the ground, Jasper stares at him. What is she supposed to do now? She doesn’t know. But when she bends down, it seems her body has made the decision for her And when she grabs Kichiro’s arms, it’s made even clearer: she will help him whether he wants her to or not. Slinging them around her shoulders, she hooks her hands beneath his legs before standing up.

“You’re a crummy liar.” Her shoes slap against the cement. She runs down one street, and then another, and another. By the time the clock above the city square chimes noontime, she is on her doorstep. And once the hands strike 12:01, she has grabbed her keys and opened the door.

Now inside, she sets Kichiro down on the couch. It’s old and hard, like granite. But she can’t afford a better one, and so Jasper puts up with it. She just hopes Kichiro will too.