What to do with a Drunken Sailor (Sophos)

Sophos was sitting on the roof two stories above them, her legs hanging over the edge, watching curiously as Troylus protested, and one woman took her top off. He didn’t look especially as though he was enjoying himself, but she knew she wasn’t a good enough judge of people to be sure. Watching through windows she had seen lots of people engaging in activities that they didn’t look very happy about, or doing things that did not look at all pleasant. She understood that at least. Most of her training exercises were not enjoyable, particularly at first.
She leaned forward, watching Troylus from between her feet. The woman beside him had her mouth on his neck, but from inside her coat she pulled out a small black jack.
Sophos opened her mouth, wanting to call out a warning, but her voice seemed to freeze. All her life she had been trained to be silent. Almost too fast the moment to yell was gone and she had hit Troylus in the head.
He tried to turn, and staggered, sagging to his knees and then onto the ground. The three women knelt beside him like a swarm of starving rats, beginning to rummage through his pockets, and Sophos stood up and stepped off the edge of the roof. It was a long drop, but she’d learned to fall further, and landed almost silently in a crouch on the ground behind the women. With the element of surprise she chopped one of them sharply on the side of the neck, her fingers stiff and hard, and the woman shrieked in pain, stumbling to one knee.
The other two turned and Sophos dropped to one knee, bringing her fist up into the gut of the second woman, who doubled over with a cry.
She straightened up and turned to the third woman, making sure she didn’t turn her back on the other two. It wouldn’t do to get taken down by an opponent you had disregarded because you thought they were out of the fight. Her uncle would have been proud. Two down with barely a sound.
“You’re just a little kid!” the last woman cried, sounding a lot more afraid than her words implied. “What are you doing?” Her hand snuck behind her back, feeling for the knife blade she kept hidden under her skirts.
Sophos pointed to Troylus and found her voice at last, speaking softly, “I want you to give him back his money and the things you stole. Then you can go and I won’t hurt you. You can take your friends with you.”
“We need to take SOME money,” she tried to haggle, one hand raised defensively, the other finding the knife and circling the handle. “He took up our time, and our pimp’ll kill us if we don’t get money to cover the time lost.”
“Shouldn’t you make sure he wants to pay before you spend time with him then?” Sophos asked curiously.
The woman scowled, “What would you know about it, kid? You work the streets? I don’t recognise you, but I don’t know no other reason for a girl to be out alone so late.”
Sophos felt a twinge of pleasure that this woman didn’t know who she was. There was no reason for her to know, but her uncle had been so severe about people not finding out, that it pleased her anyway. “You don’t know me,” she agreed watching the woman’s arm closely. She was clearly holding something behind her back. Probably a weapon. She pretended she hadn’t noticed and asked, “Are you going to give his money back, or do I have to make you? I’d rather you just give it back.”
The woman drew the knife from its sheath, and brandished it awkwardly, clearly having next to no idea what she was doing. “Fuck off, girly. Get your own score.”
She seemed to Sophos to be moving so slowly, holding the knife entirely wrong and overextending her arm. It might have been a feign, but Sophos doubted it. With all the speed her training had given her, she stepped forward, staying outside the line of the weapon so she couldn’t get stabbed, reached out and almost casually plucked it from the woman’s hand. It was poorly weighted, but she tossed it into the air, catching it and juggling it one handed while she stepped back and continued to watch the woman. “I can just knock you all out and search your bodies,” she pointed out pleasantly.
Troylus groaned and tried to sit up clutching his head. “What’s happenin’?” he asked, sounding bleary and out of it.
The woman, realising she was no match for Sophos, and now unarmed, dumped the contents of her pockets onto the ground. “That’s more than we took, covers what the others have. Now let us go! Please!”

She licked her lips nervously, “Sticky-outy?” For the first time in her life she wondered what it would be like to have someone kiss her. Troylus’s lips were so close…
With an effort, she turned her face away and nudged him forwards, “Come on. I’ll find somewhere for you to sit, at least.”
“Back to the bar, I got a room I think.” He was confused as to why he’d left the hotel in the first place if he’d had a room, but perhaps he hadn’t told the girls that, and they had wanted him somewhere they could attack him. Besides, he hadn’t been assuming they would lay with him when he left the bar and followed them blindly.
“Alright. She nestled under his arm and lead him back to the hotel.

The bartender gave her a funny look as she lead him through the bar and upstairs. His room was the smallest and least fancy the hotel offered, barely enough room to stand next to the tiny cot like bed. Sophos wondered how a man of Troylus’ height possibly managed on such a small bed.
There wasn’t a chair, so she lowered him down to sit on the bed, and straightened, rolling her shoulder to ease out the soreness from supporting Troylus. “This is a nice room.”
He looked around the pitiful place, agreeing with her, “S’nice, yeah, all mine too. Hard to sleep sometimes though, I’m used to the others snorin’ and fartin’ and that.” He grinned roguishly up at her, “You should sit down, you half carried me all the way here and I’m a heavy bastard.” He realised what he’d said and added quickly, slurring with the speed of the words he needed to say, “I ain’t an actual bastard, ‘coz me parents were married when I were conceived. I meant the word like...the other way.”
She let him ramble on, enjoying the sound of his voice. It didn’t even seem to matter what he was saying, he still sounded so nice. She tried to think of something relevant to say, “I don’t have any parents.”
He frowned, “That’s sad.” He looked at her, “You’re still standin’ so I gotta stand and let you sit. It’s gentlemanly.” The last word gave him significant difficulty to say.
“No. You’re hurt.” She sat quickly on the bed beside him, not wanting him to get up again. “They really did hit you hard.”
He nodded his head just a little and smiled at her again, showing his white teeth and charming smile. The effect was ruined a little by the smell of alcohol on his breath, though. “They did. I’m also real drunk but too, since a’fore they hit me but.”
His garbled sentence made her giggle, “You’ll be alright then. I think drinking wears off, right? You won’t be like this forever.”
“Yeah, wears off.” His hand brushed the back of hers gently, noting the redness of the knuckles. “You sure you’re not hurt none?”
She nodded, “I’m fine. They didn’t know how to fight at all. It was kind of...sad.”
“They hit me ‘coz they was mad at me, or what?” He pressed his much larger hand over hers, lacing their fingers together.
She wasn’t sure what to do about him gripping her hand. She left it there for now, “Because you wouldn’t pay them money for spending time with them.” She rummaged in her belt pouch one handed and offered him a handful of coins and the other items the women had given back. “Is that all of it?”
He released her other hand and snatched up the locket, examining it carefully. “They took this? And you got it back fer me?”
“Uh-huh. Is it important?”
“Yeah, lemme show you.” He tried to open it carefully but his fingers were clumsy after the night’s events.
Sophos reached for it, “Want me to do it?” and he handed her the precious locket. Inside was a small black and white photograph of a woman with a small girl, practically a baby.
Troylus jabbed his finger at it, “Me Ma, and me sister when she were a baby. She died.” His voice cracked with emotion as he said the last words.
Sophos cradled the locket in her hands, and studied the photograph. “I’m sorry,” she had heard other people saying that in similar situations. She hadn’t understood why until now. She offered him back the precious item, “They’re very pretty too.”
He realised they were sitting very close now so that they could both look at the locket, “Thanks.” He tucked it away carefully in his deepest pocket and folded the material over so it couldn’t fall out. His hand rested on her knee, warm and heavy. “You fought them?”
“Wasn’t much of a fight,” his hand felt nice on her leg. The touch was comforting, somehow, instead of threatening. She smiled slightly.
“Thank you. I would have been so sad without it. It keeps me company when I’m at sea and I miss me Ma and Pa.” He leaned closer, his lips brushing hers just barely. He meant it as a means of saying thankyou, when words just didn’t seem enough to show how much he appreciated her saving him the terrible loss. It was the only picture he had of them, and his parents only had one other of their daughter.
She had never been this close to anyone ever before. Even her uncle, when he punished her, was never touching her like this. She could feel the warmth of Troylus’s breath on her lips. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, and was suddenly certain that she was going to do the wrong thing. Other people she had seen kissing seemed to act so naturally. She couldn’t stand the thought of Troylus laughing at her and she turned her face away, blushing. “I just didn’t like them hitting you and stealing your things. They never asked you to pay, and then they took you out there to ambush you.”

“I wish you didn’t have to do anythin’ that could get you caught and in trouble with the law. I’d like ta see you in a nice job, earnin’ respectable pay, and not havin’ ta do all this bad stuff. Would you like that too?” He sounded sad, as if he knew it were not possible, but was curious as to if she would even want it if it were.
“What kind of job?” she wondered. “I don’t really know how to do anything else. Plus, I’m not allowed to leave my uncle.”
“You could...be in the circus!” Troylus suggested excitedly. he’d never seen one himself, but when he travelled on the ship people sometimes spoke of exotic things like that in the more rich Districts of Panem.
“What’s a circus?” She’d never even heard of such a thing, but she trusted Troylus, if he thought she could be one.
“It’s a show, a performance, where people pay to see the circus folk do amazing things. Like one had people walk on a tightrope, high up overhead. And they have lions and elephants and they train them and make them jump through hoops and walk on two legs, instead a four!” He sounded animated and excited as he described what had been described to him.
She smiled as he spoke, more entranced with his enthusiasm than anything in particular he was saying, “Sounds nice. Is there one near here?”
“Nah, rich Districts like one and two maybe.” He frowned, “So that ain’t gonna work, sorry.” He thought for a while, but he couldn’t think of any jobs other than working on a ship, and a tiny girl like that would not have a very good time of it on most ships that he knew of. Even if she would be excellent in the tops and the rigging with her balance and lack of fear for heights.
“Are the other districts very different?” she wondered curiously.
“I don’t really see much of ‘em. Just go close to the borders sometimes. Most of the time I’m out at sea and I don’t even see land for months at a time, see?” A thought occurred to him from their previous topic of conversation and he asked without waiting for her to anser his last question. “How do you practice not tellin’ things if you’re caught, anyways?
She grimaced, “Well, Uncle always just told me ‘Don’t tell.’ But then you caught me an’ made me tell you everythin’ an’ I got in trouble for that. I think I was supposed to…” she trailed away awkwardly and picked up the conversation somewhere else, unwilling to tell Troylus what her uncle had said. “Anyway, so I started thinking about how it hadn’t really worked, and I’m pretty good at other stuff, because I practise. My uncle doesn’t really want me keeping things from him though, so I just had to make up my own practise for it. I’m not sure how good it is.”

She blushed deeper, watching her feet rather than looking at him, “I...I hadn’t really ever thought about it.” Until he had brought it up. She had only recently even seen people kissing. It looked kind of awkward and strange. Like you were trying to eat another person, and how were you supposed to breathe so close to another person?
“Way I kissed you afore. That weren’t quite it, by the way. In case you were wonderin’ and thought that that was all there were to it.” He really wanted to kiss her again, properly this time, but he felt the strong need to be a gentleman about it and only do it if she made it clear she wanted him to.
“It looks so strange,” Sophos admitted quietly. ‘I don’t know why people want to do that.”
“Feels bloody amazin’ is why!” he laughed, and patted her leg gently. “Why else would they do it?”
She giggle embarrassedly, “I guess so. But it does looks funny. And WAY too close to another person.” Even Troylus’s hand on her leg felt strange. Nobody beside her uncle ever touched her, and he certainly never did like this. He only touched her if he was punishing her, or if her training required it.
He noted how close they were now, both sitting side by side on his tiny bed. “You want me ta sit on the floor? You uncomfortable any?”
“Um...no, it’s alright.” It was a little odd, but she found it strangely pleasant as well. She wondered if that was how it was with kissing.”
“Lot’s a things that look funny don’t always seem so bad when you actually do ‘em. Like swimmin’. That looks weird and like impossible, when a person is all floatin’ on the water, but water in a bucket don’t hold up yer hands.”
“I can’t swim,” she admitted, “And I only saw someone do it once, from a distance. It did look funny though.”
“You should come down to the ship in summer. I swim when we’re on leave every day when it’s warm enough. I love it! Feels so good, movin’ through the water, so free and you can go up and down, like flyin’ only in water.”
Once again his enthusiasm was infectious and she found herself listening with rapt attention, wide-eyes fixed on his face. “I wish I could swim now.”
He winked at her again, “Only I usually swim naked so you might get all embarrassed if you swam with me.”
She blushed again, looking away quickly, “I think...um...I probably shouldn’t.”
“He laughed, trying to ease her discomfort, “It’s bloody freezin’ right now. You wouldn’t wanna be in that. Sometimes it’s so cold that even a strong swimmer gets cramped and can die in the water. Or when we haul ‘em out they die afterwards. Just too cold. But on the coast it ain’t so bad. More when we sail a long ways north, where the ice is.”
“Ice?” she breathed, intrigued. “What’s it like?”

Sophos sat a little stiffly, not sure what she was supposed to do in response, worried that if she tried anything then it might be wrong, and for some strange reason, not wanting him to stop. His lips had been warm and soft and he smelled nice this close up, like soap and salt.
He sat back, feeling emboldened by his efforts to explain and enlighten her, like teaching a lesson rather than just kissing for the sake of kissing alone. For the next one though, he felt it was best to ask for her permission first. He didn’t want to be like those lecherous men who took advantage of innocent young girls. “You want me ta show you how a man kisses a girl he likes?”
He asked so casually, like it was perfectly normal, and more like he was handing her information that she might find useful. She nodded slowly, “I think so.”
It was one of the least enthusiastic responses he’d ever had from a girl on this topic, but he decided it was enough to act on anyway. If she didn’t like it he would stop and he would never do it again unless she asked him to.
He lifted his large hand up to her face, cradling her chin in his thick fingers, tilting her head towards him. He moved in slowly, taking his time so as not to alarm her. He angled his own head to the side so that their noses would not clash, and pressed his lips to hers, gently at first, barely even touching, just sharing the warmth of one another held so close. When he felt her lips part ever so slightly, he pressed more firmly, sliding his hand from her chin to the back of her head so he could hold her close to him. After several long moments of this, his tongue darted tenderly into her mouth, teasing her lips apart further. His tongue found hers and playfully danced across the tip, daring her to play with him, while his lips continued to caress hers.
Sophos had never been this close to another person before. Especially one who was holding her face and pressing his lips to hers. For a moment she felt trapped and worried, but she pushed the feeling aside, and concentrated on trying to see what people found so enjoyable about this. It didn’t take long, as he held her gently and the second his tongue touched hers, she knew what he had meant about not wanting to lose hers. She lifted her own hands to cup his face, and daringly slid her own tongue back against his. His breath was warm on her face, which was especially noticeable, because as soon as she moved her tongue against his he started to breathe more heavily, intoxicated by her response. His skin was slightly rough from his stubble and she brushed her fingertips over it wonderingly.
His own fingers massaged her neck and the back of her head, drawing her close still, the passion of the embrace slowly building to a crescendo.. He shifted helplessly so his chest was pressed against her.

“You’re sweet,” she countered, “but you’re not responsible for me, and you don’t owe me. He’s my uncle, my family. I can’t just say no and run away. Could you do that to your family?”
He thought about that long and hard, wishing the conversation were still about kissing rather than this. “I wouldn’t run from ‘em. But if my only family were your Uncle, I’d stand up to him and say no, I ain’t gonna do it no more. And then I’d leave.” He gave her a furtive sideways glance before adding, “But if I were a tiny girl, and a bit scared of my Uncle, I’d make sure to have me new friend what is as tall as me Uncle and way stronger, with me when I stood up ta him, in case things got ugly.”
“What if he gets angry at you? What if he finds out where you live? Or where your parents live?”
Troylus sighed, “That would be very scary. But I reckon I’d go ta the Peacekeepers and tell ‘em what he makes me do, and they’d lock him up so my friend’s family were safe.”
Sophos paled, “The Peacekeepers? But...they’ll hurt me. They do bad bad things to thieves.”
“But you ain’t a thief,” Troylus objected, “Not really. On account of you only doin’ it ‘coz yer Uncle makes you.”
She squirmed, thinking about all the tiny things she had palmed and pocketed when exploring the city on her own. Or her search for a ring to steal to replace the one she had stolen back from her uncle, and still hoped to replace before he noticed it was gone. In any case, her uncle had drilled into her that Peacekeepers were the enemy, and it was too hard to shake, “No. I don’t think they’d understand. It’s not a good idea.”
“I could scare him enough that he wouldn’t dare come after you or me family?” Troylus suggested, but even he thought it was unlikely to work if the man was as hard and cruel as Sophos described him to be.
“Just…I should go home.” Sophos murmured, pulling away and standing up. “I’m glad you’re alright. Try not to get attacked again. I might not be watching next time.”
Troylus struggled to his feet, still slightly clumsy from his heavy night of drinking, even though his mind was mostly clear now. “Alright. I’ll walk ya. Make sure you get home safe.”
She giggled and poked his chest to see him stagger slightly, “And then I’d have to walk you back to make sure you got home safe. I’ll be fine.”
He looked concerned about the plan, not liking the idea of such a small girl going out on her own, but he knew she was right. She was far better able to protect herself than he was right now, or perhaps, he admitted to himself honestly, even though it stung his male pride a little, she was better at it all the time, even when he was sober. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Goodbye kiss?” he asked cheekily, pushing his luck. “Some people reckon it’s a tradition.”