"Ricky. Ricky! ๐๐ด๐ด๐ต!" Kira whispered from behind the pillar, trying to grab the boy's attention who at this point had upturned the mug above his head, hitting the bottom to allow the few drops inside to drop in his mouth.
"๐๐ช๐ค๐ฌ๐บ!" She tried again, and he finally, finally turned towards her, pleased as a cat.
She huffed, annoyed at the situation in general. But what she had planned to do next annoyed her even more. Yes, that was what it was- annoyance. No way was she feeling guilty for trying to survive.
'Come on, Kira! You can do it! You ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ to do this if you want to get out of here.'
Much more calmly than she felt at the moment, Kira said to Ricky, "Hey, Ricky. I have something I need you to do for me, as a friend..." She felt terrible, using his loneliness against him, but for now she could not see any other way. She had to make sure, "Will you do it?"
Ricky immediately straightened, or tried to straighten up with the alcohol buzzing in his veins, as he looked over at her, mouth agape. He blinked innocently up at her.
"We...are friends?" He inflicted the sentence as a question, and Kira felt her heart going out to him. At least this was something she wouldn't be lying about.
Doubt plagued Kira again, but she shoved it down.
"Of course we are, silly!" Her voice squeaked even at the truth, for what she was about to ask of him next would surely get him in trouble. "Will you go to your Uncle Gerry over there," She pointed out the direction of the man to the kid, "And tell him that you saw me go through there?" She pointed again at one of the far away exits, one that would lead to the other side of the inn and one she did not intend to use.ย
She would use the one out in the open, one in the front and blend in with the crowd she could spy outside. She just needed Gerard and Pete led away...
The guilt reared its ugly head again when she thought about how it would lead to Ricky getting caught drunk by Gerry, and how it would make him feel when he would realise she had used him. It would break his trust.
'He would be fine!' She reasoned.
She pushed the guilt down again, and focused back on Ricky. Her only hope to getting out, safe.
He was looking down at the thin beautifully crafted iron band wrapped around his wrist, from where he and Kira had been to the market and she had dipped into the small envelope of money Suki had put in her hands before she ran from the village.
The smile on his face had been worth it when she bought it for him. He had been taken by it in an instance.
"So, this is...a friendship bracelet?" He was looking at the band with a sense of wonderment now, twirling it around as he looked more closely to the engraving with a new understanding.
Kira's smile, which she had forced to spread across her face, froze.
She thought back to when she and Ricky were in that cart, discussing anything and everything under the Sun. All they had for company, was each other. Gerard remaining steadfastly quiet.
'๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ, ๐๐ช๐ค๐ฌ๐บ?'
'๐๐ฉ๐บ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ!'
'๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐จ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ...๐ด๐ฐ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ.'
๐๐ช๐ด ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ, '๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ?'
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐บ, '๐ ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ถ๐จ๐ถ๐ด๐ต.' ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ฆ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ, '๐๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ- ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ. ๐๐ต ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ข ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ.'
'๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ?'
'๐ ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ.'
'๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ!'
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ค๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ, '๐ ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ.'
Kira still remembered the joy on his little face, and they had then spent a lot of time discussing their friends, whom neither of them could unfortunately meet for a while. Or never, in her case.
She had brought the bracelet for Ricky in the market, seeing his enthusiasm about her traditions. Never thought she would be using it this way.
Thinking back on that moment, had Kira musing on her friend, from back home- Violet. She was a spitfire- fiery, strong, had many frineds, and spoke her mind. She would have been a far better person to be brought here.
Not Kira. Kira liked her solitude, and her work, and her books.
"...is it?" Ricky asked, voice more downcast than before as she continued to be quiet.
She shook herself back to the present, to focus on the child in front of her...
...And her heart melted.
She couldn't do this.
Kira abandoned her pillar to reach his, and kneeled down in front of Ricky, who even now looked to be bracing himself for inevitable disappointment.
And to think she had been about to betray his trust.
She took his hand in hers, and squeezed, making him look up into her eyes.ย
"Ricky, with or without the bracelet, you are my true friend. One of my fewest, and purest friend." She saw the way his face shifted, the self-deprecation giving way to a small hopeful smile, and continued, "And I got the bracelet for you because I like you. I like you very much, my friend. So I think, that automatically makes it a friendship bracelet."
Ricky was full on smiling now. He was grinning so wide, she could see a tooth missing to the far right of his mouth. Kira returned his smile in full. She couldn't do any less in the face of such innocence.
When he raised their joined hands to wipe at his running nose, she smiled disdainfully at herself, wiped his face and took him in her arms. He melted in her embrace as she tightened her hands around him.
He was sniffling, when she saw over his shoulder...
...meeting Gerard's eyes with her own watery ones.
"Hey! There she is!"
It was Pete. He shouldered his way from around a frozen Gerard, and ran towards her.
It was no use. She was caught.
She momentarily tightened her arms around Ricky and then promptly let them loose to avoid jostling him when Pete reached the pair, and harshly snatched her up by her upper arm.
Kira didn't resist as she was pulled up, breaking her gaze with the conflicted looking Gerard who stood still in his spot to look at the child who was now struggling to break Pete's grip on her arm.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" Ricky pulled at the strong arm, but Pete only tightened his hold against the onslaught, fingers pushing on her skin.
Kira winced at the added pressure. 'That will leave a mark,' she thought sullenly.
Ricky had started hitting the bar owner on his hand that was around her, and Pete was irritatedly shirking him off.
Ricky did not relent.
Kira could see the exact moment he got too annoyed, and raised his large hand to smack the young child who jerked in fear, but bravely stayed rooted to the spot. Two voices shouted out in the same instance, one scared and one furious.
"Ricky!"
"๐๐๐๐๐!"
She turned, covering the little body with hers, hiding the child in her body and dropping her head even as the arm in the hold of Peter twisted behind her. She braced for the hit on her back.
The furious voice, the second one, roared from across the Inn and Gerard finally moved from his spot. He thundered towards the scene, taking large strides towards his friend whose hand was frozen in midair and the woman and child who were cowering before the display of rage.
Gerard forcefully took Pete's arm in his own as he pushed it away from its position, and then removed the hand holding Kira with power.
Kira looked over her shoulder incredulously, her body still covering Ricky as she watched the scene unfold with trepidation.
She moved her arm slowly, feeling the pain in her shoulder from where she had twisted it as she turned fully, putting Ricky behind her.
None of the men paid them any mind as they stared down the other.
Kira held her breath.