art at its finest {Charade, blitz}

Scrawling lines of oily black back and forth to make a picture of one of the pumping stations, but one that had wings. It wasn't her best work as she didn't have any other colors, but then again, most of the things she left in alleyways were all black; it came with the territory since most of her "paint" was just grease and run-offs that she had collected. She took a step back and looked at her hands. Filthy. With a shrug, she started using the excess to leave a circle of hand prints around the picture of the winged pump and turned to go.

Orange.

That was the first thing that hit her line of vision, before she realized that the orange was connected to a neck that was connected a face, which was attached to hair and it, he was looking right at her. And the wall behind her. Kelly pursed her lips together and slowly raised her hands as if to shrug like "you got me", before running full tilt past him to see if anyone else was with him, when there wasn't she ran back and yanked him by the end of his scarf deeper into the alleyway. 

"Don't panic." she said in a hushed whisper, before the rest of her words bubbled out of her like a someone had struck a vein of black gold. "I'm not going to kill you and leave your bones to rot in a dark hole, or steal your shoes and make a scarf out of them, but I need to ask you something important." Kelly leaned forward with wide eyes. "Who are you, what are you doing here and why were you watching me and what's in the bag and hi my name is Kelly please don't tell anyone that you saw me do that okay thanks?" She huffed a little to catch her breath and offered the boy a dazzling smile.

Minx? That rhymed with jinx and blink and rink and kitchen sink and a dozen other words. Kelly tittered softly to herself as she continued matching his name up with words that felt like they fit. He claimed that he was just on his way home, which made enough sense, the alleyway was not one that she frequented so it was completely plausible for him to be telling the truth. And that the bag contained clothes seemed true too. Kelly hopped on one foot around him in a circle, making sure that he wasn't hiding anything else. "I said my name is Kelly." she replied with a smile as she continued to hop.

"I put something on the wall, and I'd like you to not say anything because people never see me so this is actually pretty embarrassing."Kelly stopped hopping. "Nice to meetcha Minx, I don't meet a lot of people in alleyways so this is a nice change of pace" Sticking a hand out for him to shake, she wondered what the clothes were for, but managed to keep a lid on another stream of questions. At least for the moment. 

He shook her hand and promised not to say anything; could've been a lie, but it was a chance she was was just going to have to take. At least he was being nice. Kelly smiled. " Like I already said, nice to meet you too minxy,  so tell me something, which way are we going? It's common courtesy to walk a girl out of a dark dangerous place."  And it would give her a chance to see if the alley really was a shortcut to his house. She stared at the bag and started hopping around him again like a tree rabbit on stimulants. "What're the clothes for? And don't say for wearing, that's such a lame answer. Are you planning to start a fire? Did you steal those clothes, is there a body in that bag?" She gasped in mock horror before shrugging. "Hey, I said I wasn't going to murder you in this alley, you never said anything about whether or not you were." With a playful giggle she gave him a light shove and stood behind him, waiting for him to go.

Minx said he was harmless, but he also said he had a uniform. Peacekeepers wore uniforms. Of course, he looked a little young to be one, but that didn't mean anything. She narrowed her eyes at the back of his head as they walked down the alleyway, but told herself not to do anything hasty,, that in turn reminded her of pastry because it sort of rhymed and she realized she was kind of hungry. Thoughts of keeper retribution fading fast, she walked to his side and peered around at his face as they walked, blinking rapidly. "Is there any food in that bag? I was just thinking about pastries, cause my mom makes these amazing chocolate chip cookies once a month and they are just the best ever and they taste like how the sky looks at sunset. Have you ever had one?" Her eyes never left his, as she knew it was bad manners not to look at people when you were talking to them.

Hearing a tone in his voice when he answered, Kelly immediately felt bad. She should have remembered that food was hard to come by for most people. The only reason her family had extra every now and then was when her uncle visited. But at least Minx knew what cookies were and had had them before. "You know, if you aren't busy we could go to my house too. I don't get to hang out with people often but I mean you are probably on your way home from work since you have your uniform in there and my dad always says he's tired after work so you probably are too." What happened next was up to Minx. She was perfectly happy hopping home alone or with him, or following him to his house to see what it looked like. 

Minx seemed hesitant about something (probably thinking that her parents were going to axe him in the face) but he offered to let her go to his house to see his sick aunt and chores. Kelly pursed her lips. Lots of people got sick in the district because of the smog. Or the oil. Or because they got electrocuted. The last one tended to kill people outright, not make them sick, but she felt like it counted to some degree.  "That sounds fun!  Well, actually chores are never fun but that's only when you have to do them alone. I don't mind helping, its not like I have anything important to do today and I wanna thank you for agreeing not to say anything too." Kelly beamed at the boy and started hopping on one foot again. "Can you keep up? Gotta stay ahead of me so we don't get lost!" she called over her shoulder with a laugh. 

It didn't take long for him to pass her and Kelly smiled. It made her happy when other people were happy too.  "No, no no, I 'm good at chores like clothes folding and mopping and sweeping and bed making and I don't mind because like I said it would be a thank you unless you insist for me not to." That was a first. Who turned down help for chores? Maybe he didn't like people touching his stuff. Or maybe his aunt didn't. Or his parents. Or his siblings. Kelly figured she'd learn who else was in the house once they arrived there, so for the moment she was content to keep hopping with her new friend.