[Regular] Treasure Hunting (Ari & Toby) [Fin]

[Zoobey]

Ahh, there was nothing quite like a busy Saturday afternoon in one of the most ritzy districts of town. Toby watched a group of high school girls pass by, bags dangling with all sorts of expensive charms and ornaments. Pretending to bump into one of them (most girls didn't pay much attention to a 'punk' like him anyway) and apologize profusely, he unsnagged a couple of choice keyrings from closest girl's bag strap, quickly hiding the one hand behind his back and bowing his way out in apology.

Too easy.

Whistling a little bit and tossing the charms up and down in one hand (they were quite the impressive pair too, seemingly made out of crystal and silver - perfect for his 'shiny' collection of course!), he scanned around in the thickening crowds, trying to find his next pick.

That's what he liked about rich people: they were always greedily buying more.  

[kalindara]

To be honest, Ari felt more than a little uncomfortable shopping in places like this. Despite the string of fancy stores being conveniently on her way home from school, Ari really didn't stop in very often. She didn't see the point of all the labels the other girls at her school obsessed over, and despite her parents' assurance that they wanted to give her money to spend, she never felt quite right spending their money on silly things she didn't need.

The only shop that continually lured her in was one that stocked a small bute cute range of stationary. It was this shop that she walked out of now, carrying a flowery gift bag containing several notebooks and journals. And one day-to-day diary, just because it had a cute petal-motif cover (and would be handy for keeping track of future appointments and school assignments).

Outside on the street, Ari transferred the gift bag to the same hand that held her leather briefcase-slash-schoolbag (filled with already-in-use notebooks and journals). And while neither of those bags were an adequate target for a thief, the motion made the light sparkle off the heavy gold charm bracelet on her wrist. Just to make itself more tempting, it gave a delicate jingle as Ari shook out that wrist.

Swinging both bags over one shoulder, Ari began walking slowly down the street, looking into the windows of the other shops as she went. Hey, just because she didn't feel right spending money on those silly things didn't mean they weren't pretty to look at!  

[Zoobey]

When it came down to it, Toby felt sometimes guilt-ridden by that moral ethical issue of stealing, or as he liked to put it "borrowing, while forgetting to return it." They were items that hardworking, and mostly honest people bought, for themselves, with their hard-

- oh hello!

It was the jingling sound at first that distracted his attention. It was nothing but a light chime amidst all the late mid-day bustle, but his ears were all but 100% attuned to that certain timbre of noise. It was the sound of something, well, 'shiny'.

Nothing interesting on his left, most people seemed to be more in a rush to catch their bus, but on his right were a couple of stragglers, staring at shops, probably hoping to empty their wallets out a bit more. And there she was, Public Target Number One (for now). It was hard not to spot her brilliant red hair, and he couldn't help but grin to himself at how easy this should be: nothing like single hapless girls ready for the picking.

Slowly, he ambled over, devising a proper strategy. Time for Ye Ole Bump Into Someone method. Pretending to be fixated on the ground, he trekked over, slouched a bit, hands in his pockets, trying to look like he he was unaware of his surroundings. Keeping the same pace, he took a few more steps and - bam!- brushed straight into the unfortunate girl.

There were only a few seconds to act at this point. Putting one hand up as to attract her attention with it, he gave the most surprised look he could muster. "Oh crap, I'm so sorry!" He quickly leaned over to blindsight her on the bracelet side, pretending to check her for injuries, one hand framing his mouth in concentration, while the other hand worked to unfasten the bracelet behind his back. It unslid easily into his hand, and his work done, he clamped the far fist closed, item secured inside.

"Anyway, you look ok, I really didn't meant to bump into you, I was thinking about how, err, pretty you looked and stuff, yeah!." While saying this, he pretended to back away abashedly.  

[kalindara]

Ari let out an undignified yelp as someone slammed into her. The bags dropped from her hand, landing on the ground behind her. Turning, she noticed the newly bought books had spilled out - though thankfully the school briefcase hadn't unlocked and split open.

Crouching down, she began gathering the journals back up when the young man crouched down and began speaking. She shot him an understanding look as he apologised. It wasn't like she'd been paying attention either.

"It's okay," she said as she straightened back up. "I should have been paying more attention..."

She trailed off as the young man began checking her for injuries. Freezing up slightly, she wondered if this was normal behaviour. Was this chivalry at work, or was he just trying to cop a feel?

Definitely the latter, she decided as he began stammering about how pretty he thought she was.

"Uh, okay," Ari hedged, raising her eyebrows. "Um, thanks, I think... wait, 'and stuff'?" Something was really weird here. She'd heard of shy guys, but 'pretty and stuff'? ... Unless that was code for 'picturing you naked doing xxx things'. Eww.

"No harm done, I guess," she finished. Apart from the disturbing realisation that even relatively normal-looking boys were total perverts.  

[Zoobey]

As she apologized back to him, he almost felt bad for this girl. She really seemed like a nice person, if you could- wait what?

- he froze up a bit as she questioned his vocabulary, face looking somewhere between skeptical and confused in his option. Oh crap, so much for a clean getaway. Quick, come up with a clean lie!

"Uh," he stammered, suddenly feeling a little more nervous than he should, "I, uh, ah, just really like your...." he quickly scanned around trying to look for something non-offensive to possibly placate this girl before she caught him redhanded, "books! Yes, those are some amazing books that you have there!"

Oh yeah, lets just choose the one item that you knocked out of her bag when you 'bumped' into her. "I mean, I feel bad for knocking those books over!" He tried to cover up, mentally berating himself. "Let me pick them up for you or something."

Hastily with just that one hand, he scooted over to grab the bindings, offering them to her.  

[kalindara]

Ari's confused smile turned to amused as the boy scooted around to pick up the few remaining books. Accepting them gratefully, she tucked them back into the gift back with the others.

"Is 'books' codeword for 'boobs'?" she asked, the beginnings of a grin tugging at her mouth. This guy was a horrible liar, but it was kind of funny to watch him try and cover up. He didn't seem too horrible. For a pervert.

"Anyway, I'm Ari." She stuck out her hand to shake. It would just happen to be the arm that had held the bracelet. Though Ari had yet to look down and notice - her attention was still on Toby's face.  

[Zoobey]

He was a little more than relieved that she took the books without fuss, hand still lingering in the air from the ghost feeling of them in his somewhat-sweaty palms.

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. What was she imply- Aw man and he wasn't even thinking of that! Suddenly embarrassed, he forgot for a second about more pressing issues at hand and tried to cover up for himself. "No! I mean I really wasn't looking at you- uh, you know - that-" At this point, he simply decided shutting up might be smarter, and simply resigned to shaking her hand.

With the hand holding the bracelet.

It slid out of his hand with a innocent tinkle, right onto the floor. Oh, s**t.  

[kalindara]

As her hand was about to grasp the boy's, something slid from his offered hand and landed on the ground. Ari looked down. A gold charm bracelet? That was a pretty strange accessory for a boy.

"Oh hey," she said, getting a closer look. "I have one just like this."

She waved the hand that normally would have an accompanying jingle. This time there was no noise. Ari glanced down at her bare wrist. Then to the very familiar gold bracelet on the ground. Then back to the boy.

Purple eyes began to harden and narrow. Had that slid off her- ...no, no, it had definitely dropped from the kid's hand when he'd reached out to shake hands. She quickly scooped the bracelet back up, hands clenched and trembling in rage. "You little s**t!" she snarled. What guts, to stand there and flirt after stealing from her. And she'd never felt a thing!

She dropped into a fighting pose. One leg raised up in front, a few seconds warning, before striking out at chest level.

... And since she was still in her school uniform, giving a great view of her lacy white underwear. Y'know, assuming anyone was still looking and not running or being struck down.  

[Zoobey]

"Look um," oh god, oh god, "I can explain, really! I-"

He never quite got to finish that sentence as he saw a blur of skirt, panties, and leg, and was quite suddenly, down on the pavement, all but seeing stars. What was it with girls and their super strength anyway? - he was pretty sure he couldn't even feel his legs anymore.

"Look!", he all but whined, half wheezing, half crawling (he winced a bit extra at the bruises that hadn't healed from his last encounter with Furious Girls of the Magical Kind x2) , "It wasn't what you thought ok! I saw it-" cough, gasp, -" fall from the ground. I was gonna pick it up and give it to you, really!"

Well technically the view from down here wasn't TOO bad. But dear lord so much pain. Maybe some horribly corrupted god or deity out there just lived to see him suffer.  

[kalindara]

Ari paused when the boy claimed the bracelet had fallen and he was simply returning it. Had she made a mistake? Was it possible the bracelet had fallen off on its own?

She held the chain up for inspection. No breaks anywhere, the clasp wasn't loose... nothing indicating that it hadn't been removed the normal way - by a person.

"You spent an awful lot of time waffling on for someone who intended to return something," she said, reclasping the bracelet onto her wrist. "All that talk about watching me and thinking I'm pretty. Wouldn't it have made more sense to offer my bracelet and use that as an icebreaker?"

Her eyebrows rose as she stared down at the boy. Her expression clearly stated I. Do. Not. Believe. You. But she was willing to watch him dig himself deeper into his hole.  

[Zoobey]

Crap, he couldn't really tell if she had took the bait or not. Ok, thought Toby, if I were a girl, how would I treat this situation?

Probably something like: Oh my god there's a boy who's kinda cool looking but he just took my bracelet, but I'm going to shop for more because I'm a girl, but wait taking the bracelet is still bad because there was a sale for it last week, and the ex of my ex-boyfriend told me this because...

Ow. His head hurt. Why couldn't they think like the other half of the normal people?

Quickly, he darted his eyes upwards, chancing in reading facial expressions instead, and was met by pretty much a solid wall of disbelief. Well, she really was kinda pretty, but now was not the time to be potentially caught by the cops... again.

Here, Toby feigned looking at his non-existent wristwatch. "Oh man, phew, look at the time. I'm glad you got your bracelet back um, miss. Hope you figure out who took it and stuff yeah!"

And with that rushed comment, he quickly turned to leave: the sooner the better!  

[kalindara]

"You hope I-?" Ari was stunned by the sheer amount of gall this kid had. Those split seconds of surprise were all the boy needed to take off, and Ari found herself staring at his retreating back.

"Wh- Get back here, you little s**t!" The words were spat out before Ari had time to think. Taking off after him, her mouth continued to run without consulting her brain. "I'm gonna kick your a** so bad!"

Of course, just to spite her, the sidewalks were suddenly more crowded than a few minutes ago. Ari ricocheted off the shoulders of strangers, barged her way through tightly-clumped groups... In the end, it was no surprise that the smaller, slimmer boy receded further and further into the distance.

"Grrr," Ari snarled, then raised her voice to yell after the little thief. "When I see you again, you're dead! Dead!"

Feeling as though all eyes had just swung her way, Ari's face heated, trying to match her hair in shade. She glanced around, hoping that none of these people knew her or her family. Others from her school, she didn't care about. But the last thing she needed after an afternoon like this was her parents hearing about how she'd assaulted, chased after and sworn at some smaller kid. Adjusting the grip on her bags, Ari quickly turned back in the direction of home.

But that kid had better hope they didn't cross paths again.  

[Zoobey]

Running, gotta.. keep..running was pretty much all that was playing in his brain right now. He skidded another corner, hopped through a red light, much to the resentment of passing cars and squealing tires, finally stopping for a second, satisfied.

Quickly, he looked behind him. HA! See if she could catch up to him now!

Actually, forget the catching up part, either she was nowhere in sight, or she was the stealthiest teenage girl he had ever met. Furtively looking around to catch the sight of any redheads, Toby all but crawled into the next alleyway, pivoting onto another busy intersection.

She was stalking him, he KNEW that somehow she would get him, just when he was watching!

It would be at least two hours later before he finally was distracted enough to forget that he was still out to get him forever.