Some life(Drea/open)

[Quan Tian Meng]

Ah the period before lunch time. Such a wonderful time. Kid's pockets held wallets brimming with cash. It was one of the busiest times of the day for Quan. Why? Because it was an active time. A time where money was out more often then not, without being spent just quite yet. It was one of the best times of the day for a pickpocket as thievery came easier in the time where there were more resources. This was good for Quan seeing as if he didn't pickpocket he didn't eat. This was not a just some illegal hobby, it was a livelihood. Not having ate since lunch yesterday Quan wanted to have a good haul today. He had thought that he would be good until it started raining last night and he needed to get a hotel room at one of those cheap motels. Sure it cost him two meals but it was better then having hypothermia. You win some you lose some.

Quan wandered through the halls lifting wallets off of people with skill that was rarely seen. He bumped into a kid using the contact to lift the wallet from the pocket with out notice. Quan didn't even half to utter a sorry as the hall was crowded enough so that a bump here of there was expected. Upon taking the wallet Quan would take out all the cash and then drop the wallet on the ground. That kid had thirty on him. Quan would quickly shove the money in his pocket and hit another kid and do the same money/ wallet drop. If one were to be following him, looking down on the hallway they would notice a line of empty wallets on the floor.

He meant to be as quick and efficient as possible which he was able to do so it was a plus that he was moving so quickly. Today was being kind as he was able to find the people with wallets that weren't well hidden. Usually it was tough to find people with wallets that were visible so Quan could steal without looking suspicious. As he thought of that he sighed. If he had a partner this would be so much easier as ideally pickpocketing was a two plus man job. One person to locate and pick out marks and one person to actually steal. Of course it was more efficient to have a couple of people in the group but two was more ideal then one. He couldn't help but to think of an old friend, though he would quickly shake his head, dismissing that thought. Today was a good exception to the one person rule though or so he had to hope.

Quan stopped at the end of the hall, leaning up against the wall as the halls started to clear up. He pulled the money out of his pocked and began to count it up. The final count came to $35. He sighed, it was a few meals, maybe but he had needed new pants. Whatever.

Damn debit cards...

[Drea]

Drea was sitting comfortably against a wall, working on a bit of prose, looking up only occasionally. Despite the fact that she'd been pulling facts from various articles of information that she'd mentally filed and was snagging inspiration from the people walking to and fro, some with lunches and some without, and was using snatches of their conversation and a glimpses of accessories and bags and all kinds of things.

And Drea was very detail oriented.

That, really, was the reason that she noticed the trail of wallets. A short cry of "My wallet!" brought her attention to the first, and her eyes naturally trailed to the second. Since she was sitting on the ground, she had a fairly easy view. She followed the trail - and it led her to the person himself.

She recognized him. Vaguely. She frowned, before quickly packing up her things to follow him. He was dropping the wallets, so it wasn't as though it was identity theft. Which meant he was after cash. Cash that she had plenty of.

She followed after him, a hand on the cash in her pocket. Tapping him on the shoulder, she'd speak quietly.

"You know... It's not good to steal..."

[Quan Tian Meng]

"You know... It's not good to steal..."

Quan looked up when she touched him on the shoulder. He gave a quick look over. No, not that kind of look, he was not checking her out. He was looking to see if there was any threat in her. If she was a person he ought to be aware of. Because if she was a thread well that might be a problem. He might be more likely to ditch the money and run. Why? Simply put thirty five dollars was not worth dying for. Not yet anyways. Give it a few more days and it might be but not now.

He wasn't quite able to make out if she was a threat or not but he was able to notice one thing in particular. She had her had on cash in her pocket. At least that was a logical assumption when her hand was covering something, he could see that through the pants. That and only one hand was in her pocket. The other one dangled. Yea asymmetry happened but not usually with the hands, not like this anyways. That meant one thing in particular to Quan, she did not see him as some push over. If she did then she would have been confident enough not to cover her wallet. It meant to him that she was not likely to be a threat. He would not be handing the money over then.

"Zhè shì bù hǎo de huò zhě sǐ./It is not good to die either," Quan said in a beijing accent. He spoke with a slightly confused grin as well. He wondered if he could get her to back off by faking not to know english. He knew that it was unlikely that she would know what he was saying so he would give his truthful reply under the guise of trying to explain that he knew no english. Normally he probably would have lied but what the hell, she probably wouldn't understand him anyway so what did it matter? And even if she did it wasn't like he looked the part of a rich kid with a worn white and black t shirt and fairly badly torn jeans. But hell until then he'd fake it.

Such was life eh?

[Drea]

"Zhè shì bù hǎo de huò zhě sǐ."

Drea frowned at the incomprehensible words. All she knew was that it was some Asian language. She mentally cursed. She knew she should've gone on to take Chinese. She knew some Japanese and was fluent in Korean and Filipino, but still.

She sighed, pulling the wad of cash from her pocket before counting it out.

"Here," she said, offering it to him. "I don't know what your situation is or why you have to steal, but if you need money, you should try asking." She paused. "Well, try asking me, anyways. I don't think many people here are that friendly, but there are quite a few rich people that are."

She shrugged. "This should be about three or four hundred dollars. Surely you can make use of this and stop stealing for at least today?" She cocked her head to the side. She wasn't sure if he understood her, but it was worth a try, right?

Anyways, his clothes pretty much said he was in a rather... Well, they did say that poverty was the mother of all theft, didn't they? Or was that something else. Bah.

But... she couldn't help but wonder. Would he take the money?

[Quan Tian Meng]

Quan was speaking to her in another language and the next thing he knew she was pulling out a wad of cash. He looked at it frowning. He was rather confused. Why would she be pulling out money in front of a thief? And by the looks of it that was no small sum of money. It, too Quan, was probably the most money he ad ever seen together. If she had meant to throw him off guard, well she had certainly pulled it off. He honestly had no idea what she was trying to pull off. And then?

What was this? She was going to give him the money? What was this? Quan was even more confused them before and his face showed it. He was not use to this, especially not from people who were rich. He thought and until now that rich people were particularly stingy with their money, even more so then a common man. It was weird to Quan because he figured, so what if they lost a bit? They had so much more that it didn't really matter now did it? Whatever there were things that Quan doubted he would ever understand about the world and even then he didn't really have time to sit and think about those kinds of things. But all the same she had offered him the money.

"Xie-," fully intending on playing his cover but then he realized the sheer pointless of it at this point, reverting back to flawless english with a very different boston accent, "ah what the hell, thanks."

But he had not taken the money...

A pause

"But no thanks," Quan said, "I can't take the money."

If she asked well then, Quan couldn't quite explain it. Thoughts formulated in his head trying to reason it out because hell, he thought it would be easy...

[Drea]

Drea blinked at his obviously confused expression. Why was he so confused? She turned her head further to the side. Was it the language barrier? Hmmm. What to do?

Just as she thought she might have to find someone to translate - or simply place it in his hands - he spoke, starting in Chinese, but reverting to English.

She smiled. Somehow, she hadn't thought that someone unable to speak English would be thieving so quietly and discreetly. He'd have been more likely to get hit, after all. But...

Drea quickly frowned when he turned the money down, declaring that he couldn't take it.

She blinked, before sighing a bit. "Can't take it?" she asked, "Or won't?"

She bit her lip. She didn't want him to keep stealing from other students - not everyone had the easy money that some of the others did, and some even less - but she couldn't help him if he didn't want it... Maybe they could come to some kind of compromise?

[Quan Tian Meng]

"Dōu," Quan answered honestly, "Both."

He chuckled uneasily. He had really thought that taking the money would be an easy no brainer right? Take the money and go. but he just couldn't some sort of barrier kept him from doing so. It was kind of a moral thing. Call it honor among thieves but he didn't take the money because it was a hand out. It just didn't seem right for him to get it without working for it ya know? Sure maybe it was a work ethic that some saw twisted, some worked hard landscaping, some worked hard painting, Quan well he worked hard stealing. But at the same time there was more to the story.

He didn't take hand out because he didn't want to tie himself to anything or anyone. He felt almost if he took the money he would owe a favor to the girl. That it would put him in some sort of weird and strange bondage. Yeah it was a weird paranoia but that was why he didn't take handouts like that. Possibly a commitment issue? A certain fear of commitment tied along side or produced because of a fear of attachment? It wasn't too hard of one to guess if you knew his past. Sure he wasn't anti social but he hadn't had a friend in years. He could socialize and hangout with people but he had intentionally avoided making friendships or any sort of attachments. Why? Simply put just about all the friends or people he had cared about were dead and the one notable exception was an unconfirmed monster.

He finally gave a real answer, staring at the ground about ten feet ahead of him, in almost an uneasy tone of voice, "I don't take handouts."

[Drea]

"Dōu. Both."

At that, Drea paused. Both, huh? Sounds like it was more complicated than she'd originally thought. Just as she was about to ask him why, he continued to speak.

"I don't take handouts."

Ah. That made a lot more sense. He'd rather steal his money fair and square than accept free money from a stranger. She shrugged, retracting her hand, but not yet putting the money away. She stared at him thoughtfully.

"It has no strings attached," she said dryly before continuing. "But... If you're adamant about not accepting it for free..." She cocked her head to the other side. "How about working for it?"

A bit of an interesting arrangement perhaps, but he'd have to agree first. She didn't want to see him getting caught - he obviously needed the money - but nor did she want others to lose money to a thief. Ah, circumstances. They really were a bitch, weren't they?

[Quan Tian Meng]

Yeah, something was not sitting right with Quan here. He was starting to distrust her. That head cock was not the best thing for his already dwindling trust. It seemed to him rather suspicious. That or he was just getting paranoid. It wouldn't have been the first time. But why didn't he trust her? Well it could be a mistrust of people with money, but more probably the fact that she said no strings and then offered him a job. A job inherently had strings. He didn't like committing, that was a lie wasn't it. Was that head cock supposed to mean this was a joke? His concern was clearly plastered on his face. The lack of trust, concern of trickery.

He was getting uneasy so he went back to the old standby. He laughed a grin wiping everything else away, "You mean stealing it? Pickpocketing? That would work."

He laughed the concern leaving his face. Yes that was how he dealt with things. He laughed and he made jokes. Finding funny things diffused situations that he felt uneasy in. To tell the truth, he had laughed through a lot of his life. He had come to the realization that if you couldn't laugh at life then there was no way that you could make it. It became his defense mechanism. It sheltered him from the things that he didn't particularly want to know about or see. Looking at things less seriously he never had to do any serious thinking. He never really had to associate himself with things.

He started to walk away, get away from an uncomfortable situation you know?

[Drea]

"You mean stealing it? Pickpocketing? That would work."

She frowned at his words, and her frown only deepened at his false laughter. Was that the kind of person he thought she was? She wasn't sure whether she should be offended or not, but decided to assume that he was simply cynical and jaded. He certainly looked the part. But still. She couldn't help but want to help him - it was simply in her personality to do such things.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Something else."

She paused as she considered the audacity of what she was about to do. How insane the idea was. Impossible, even. But... could she pull it off? She certainly realized that such skills were going to be important, though she wasn't interested in the skill itself as opposed to the schematics of it. She'd always know what to look out for so she wouldn't have to worry about it... Not that she had to anyways, but any information was still good, wasn't it?

She sighed a bit as he started to turned away from her. "All I wanted was for you to teach me..." she said wryly as he began to move.

[Quan Tian Meng]

"All I wanted was for you to teach me..."

Quan stopped in his tracks turning his head towards her and lifting an eyebrow. The face said all he was thinking, 'the hell?'

"You want me to teach you how to steal?" Quan asked, his voice in disbelief. Wasn't she the one who had just criticized him for stealing? That it was bad? Wrong? He shouldn't do it? If that was the case then why the hell did she want to learn how to steal? Wasn't that a little counterintuitive? Yeah, Quan was good he'd admit. It was the only real skill that he had so yeah, he did take a little pride in it. This still didn't add up though...

Well maybe she meant mandarin? She looked to be the smart type. You know one of those types who went out of their way to go and learn other languages even if there was no real end goal in sight. No real purpose for them to know it. Those bookworms that he kept hearing about who basically got paid to go to school. Sounded like a fairly good deal to him. Still though he didn't see that one as much. He was no teacher, especially not a language he was fairly illiterate in. He knew a few of the characters, enough to get by in china town but not much else. Sure he could speak it but that was about it.

Yeah, it was probably the stealing...

[Drea]

Drea mentally cheered as he turned around, his expression obviously one of some amount of shock.

"You want me to teach you how to steal?" And his voice was entirely filled with disbelief. Not that she blamed him. She'd only just asked him not to steal... Then again, he had jumped to that conclusion entirely on his own.

But that wasn't the only thing she wanted him to teach her.

"That, too," she said, nodding. "We obviously come from different walks of life. To you I'm probably some pampered sissy. To me, you've got your freedom." That last part came out almost bitterly.

She shrugged it off and continued. "But the fact is, I could probably use whatever I learn from you, and you could gain from whatever you get from me."

Drea paused. "And of course, we'll negotiate a fee for the lessons."

She thought he might like that. It meant that he'd get a chance to drive his earnings up, and he was probably aware that she didn't mind losing money since she'd just willingly offered him several hundred bucks.

[Quan Tian Meng]

"To me, you've got your freedom."

Whoa, there was certainly something going on there. He wasn't quite sure who exactly it was directed at. There were two places really. Wither it was himself, for the whole freedom thing, or it was at her parents and upbringing. He started to wonder if he should be doing what he was about to be doing. Was he going to break apart a family? Condemn someone to death on the streets? Well he then had to realize that he probably wouldn't be feeling any of this if she didn't put emphasis on the last part. That and he probably wasn't going to ask anyway. It was best to stay out of others affairs, you could wind up dead. At least that guideline hadn't lead him astray, not yet anyway at least.

"But the fact is, I could probably use whatever I learn from you, and you could gain from whatever you get from me."

Shrewd... Though Quan never really did the whole business thing. He just got the money and paid. No negotiating involved. So honestly he had no idea what to ask for. It was just not something he had ever had to think about. Sure he was good at teaching people how do steal having done it a number of times before but never for payment. So he shrugged, "Whatever we steal in the process? I dunno I've never taught this to anyone for money."

Then he realized. She had mentioned other things for him to teach her. What exactly did she have in mind? Aside from possibly mandarin he couldn't think of anything else. Hell he wasn't even sure if he could actually teach mandarin. He could speak it but that didn't mean he could teach anything. But he did have to ask, "What else exactly did you want to learn aside from stealing?"

[Drea]

"Whatever we steal in the process? I dunno I've never taught this to anyone for money."

She smiled warmly at him. "You'll get more than that," she said in response to his words. "Certainly more. Perhaps two hundred and fifty dollars per lesson in regards to theft?" She was almost surprised that he expected so little. It was no wonder he was in such bad condition. He didn't know how to negotiate or haggle in the least... And he needed to be able to argue someone down to get the better end of a deal. Else he'd just be losing money.

"Food, maybe," she said thoughtfully. "Whatever we might get at whatever location we may be at, even..."

And then he asked what she'd been expecting to hear: "What else exactly did you want to learn aside from stealing?"

Her smile widened as she spoke. "Mandarin, for one," she said cheerily. "Your lifestyle, for another." She shrugged, hundreds of thoughts already in her mind. "And whatever else comes along, I suppose."

She looked up at him, curious to see how his expression might change.

"Well? Are you interested?"

[Quan Tian Meng]

Two hundred and fifty dollars per theft lesson? Sure he may not ask or expect a lot, if anything from people but to him that seemed like a lot. The other end of the spectrum to be exact. Because even if the lesson was ten hours long it would still come out to twenty five dollars an hour, and he highly doubted the lesson would be that long. Not that he was about to say no but still, if she thought he was undercutting himself and that was a flaw he thought she was throwing money away. And that offer of food, well that was not going to be turned down.

Though there was something going on here that was kind of odd, well enough of that. She was about to answer his question.

"Mandarin, for one"

Yeah, that might be a problem. Mandarin was possibly the hardest language for a native english speaker to learn. Quan had certainly gotten lucky to have been born into a family that spoke it as a home language so he had already known it, only to be reinforced, living in china town for many years of his life. But Quan wasn't quite sure that it was something that he could teach. There were various reasons why that was a problem, one that he was for the most part illiterate in his own language. Sure he had a knack for remembering the differences in characters better then those who had no familiarity in the language but aside from signs and very basic information he was largely illiterate. That was already a barrier, let alone the fact that Mandarin was a tonal language which always confused the hell out of speakers who had never dealt with a tonal language. There was also the fact that there was no sort of letters. Yeah there were a lot of things going on here. So Quan said truthfully, "I'm not sure I can teach you mandarin. I'm illiterate and its a tonal language, something that is generally very difficult for people who have never had any experience in them. That and the sounds are fairly different then what we're using."

And then she wanted to learn his lifestyle. Why would she want to learn that? She saw it as freedom but there was absolutely no security in it. He had to watch his back almost every second of everyday. Sure he valued the freedom he had in it greatly but he wasn't exactly sure that the pros out weighed the cons. He had never had any reason to figure that out seeing as he had never really had an alternative so he hadn't wasted the time. But she was paying him so what the hell right? No, there was something in him that said he ought to at least inform her, "And learn my lifestyle? Why exactly would you want to learn that?"