Flynn Rider. Like the legend. (not_my_nose) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-04-07 02:04:00 |
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Current mood: | intimidated |
Entry tags: | !complete, flynn rider, obi-wan kenobi |
"Kid, I saw you from across the street..."
Who: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Flynn Rider
What: Fistycuffs!
Where: A random street somewhere
When: Today
Rating: PG-13 (For all the punches)
Status: Complete!
Obi-Wan wasn’t the sort of homeless person to hold a sign. In fact, he wasn’t the sort to beg at all. Life had taught him many lessons, one of which was you’re better off working for everything you get, because depending on charity is a risky business. Odd jobs kept him from starving, honesty kept him sane.
Days without work were typically spent blending into the crowd. He’d been fortunate enough to be born with the sort of face that allowed him to move through many circles. Sometimes he pretended to shop, sometimes he sipped coffee in cafes, always looking relatively normal. On this particular day it was the latter. He had made a rather fulfilling hobby out of people-watching.
Flynn was the kind of homeless person who got through life by doing half the things they told you never to do on television. Joining gangs. shoplifting, occasionally selling fenced medical supplies if he could get his hands on them. That right there was the easiest way to make a buck, but it was risky, and he hadn’t run into some kind of idiot likely to leave their spare vicodin rolling around their wallet for a while now, or any dealers he could knock out, take the drugs they were selling, and profit himself with.
So, he was left to do the slightly less illegal activity of looking for people who were being distracted enough that he could go ahead and help himself to a wallet or two. So far, he noticed a few possibilities, deciding on guy with an only half zipped messenger bag as being pretty likely to be distracted. That? Really useful for him. Flynn quickened his steps, not too much, but enough that he wouldn’t come from out of nowhere when he did the old bump and grab routine. Well, bump and slip his hand into the pocket, but semantics.
Maybe Obi-Wan noticed him because there was something vaguely familiar about the kid. But even so, he just had that sort of look: the look of a kid up to no good. It took one to know one. So, Obi-Wan had his eye locked on him long before the “bump and slip.” He scowled through the large glass window--looking straight through his own reflection, mind you, so he was well aware of the intensity that was bubbling to the surface. He was on his feet and scowling in the doorway a moment later.
Flynn had to be alert to things like this. He hadn’t been living like this for all that long, maybe seven months now, but, he’d developed the senses throughout his lifetime to know when things were going badly and, hopefully, to develop a way to get out of a situation that was likely to end with his ass dragged back to Oregon, but well, this time, it threw him.
Soon as he had the wallet in hand, he felt the glare more than anything, and was pretty sure it was directed towards him. Granted, he wasn’t going to start to look all guilty about it right now, so instead he’d just pretend like nothing had happened. He was a regular high school kid just getting out of class and minding his own business. The cover usually worked, even as his instinct told him that was going to get get shot down today.
He stared at the kid, following him through the crowd with his steely eyes. And suddenly he was no longer in the doorway. He was in pursuit. And then his hands were on the kid’s collar. He didn’t struggle to hold on, it was just enough to announce his presence--which isn’t to say he wasn’t a bit rough about it.
And then he realized where he had seen this boy before. And quite often. The Library.
“Give it back,” Obi-Wan said. His face was set like flint.
“You can’t prove anything.” Flynn tried to come up with, because sometimes the whole posturing thing, well, it worked. Sometimes. This, he was starting to realize, as he tried to tug himself away, was probably not one of those times. It didn’t mean he was going to panic since he relatively knew what he was doing. It also didn’t mean that he was going to go for trying to look cute the way he could with some people, even though in those cases, it was usually more like looking cute as a way of getting the librarians to let him stay a few minutes longer in a reference room.
What it meant was he was going to have to go for the tactic of looking like he was desperate enough to hurt somebody over this. Which meant pretending that he had a weapon and was going for his pocket to pull it now. “Look. I’m going to give you some advice that backing off’s the better way to go here.”
None of those tactics would have worked on Obi-Wan, and the one the kid chose least of all. He could call a bluff from a mile away. And he had little patience for bluffs. “Kid, I saw you from across the street. Do you really think you’re the one to give me advice, on anything? Give it back.” He thrust out his hand. “Or I’ll take it.”
“Shit.” Flynn muttered, realizing, at this point, that he probably wasn’t getting out of this any time soon, no matter what he did here. “It would look really stupid if I said that I did and you had to prove I’m wrong.” he admitted, shifting a little. “So give a sec and let me get back to you on it.” Because really. It all depended on a couple of key factors that he couldn’t really guess about right now.
Obi-Wan wasn’t listening. He swiped at the wallet.
So that worked out okay, actually. Flynn could, probably, if he angled things right, get in a punch and then get out of here. Sure, it meant the extra cash was off the table and he’d be getting by with a few less amenities until he found a new target but this way he could aim an elbow hard at Obi-Wan’s face and with any luck, use the moment to make a break for it.
So, he was just going to try that now.
Obi-Wan tried hard to remember the last time he’d gotten into a real fight. Funny how some skills are retained purely as muscle memory. He got out of the way of Flynn’s elbow, at least enough out of the way to avoid a broken nose, and then he actually let Flynn start running. Better they took this out of the streets. He was after him a moment later, and quickly made up the lost time.
That duck was enough to get Flynn started, and he wasn’t bad at dodging and hiding, really. It WAS better though that not a lot of people would be able to see this somewhere else, but really. As far as he was concerned, the whole thing was pretty much over. He’d gotten caught, gave up, and found a way out of there. It wasn’t as if he was going to find anything else to do while in the presence of this guy, since obviously, and for whatever reason, he got tetchy about things outside of his own business.
This guy who looked vaguely familiar, now that Flynn had time to think about it, as he paused, taking refuge in an alley. So, where had he...Oh shit. It wasn’t like you could avoid someone around the library, where he spent pretty much every hour it was open. Still, for right now, he took a couple of deep breaths, while glancing around ,waiting.
Obi-Wan had followed him into the alleyways, squeezing past the dumpsters and other obstacles with slightly less agility, but agility nonetheless. He was using his ears more than anything. That was how he knew the kid had found himself a hiding place somewhere. Obi-Wan pressed himself against one of the walls, closed his eyes, and listened.
It would be perfectly reasonable for anyone to ask why Obi-Wan gave a crap. Why did he care about the wallet of a man he didn’t know, why was he willing to chase a kid who was clearly down on his luck? But in his experience, there was no such thing as luck. You made your own way. Obi-Wan had learned that the hard way. Maybe it was time to pass it along to the next generation.
Or you made your own luck. One of the two things or possibly both. Flynn’s way of making his way had included this because, well, it was easier than dealing with the waiting around for other things to give him away. At any rate, yeah, he did wonder now. Sure, there was the fact that some people might just happen to get vigilante about things like crime. There was apparently some idiot using the net who made that kind of thing his business for one, but still. After everything was over now, what should some random stranger care as long as justice had been done? It wasn’t like...
Oh shit. Flynn really really hoped there wouldn’t be cops involved here. Not because at this point they could prove a thing, because they couldn’t but he hated dealing with cops anyway, that whole feeling they were watching him, that even out of state, he was likely to get picked up, well, it wasn’t a great one.
For now, he waited though, catching his breath and hoping library guy would find some other potential victim to go and save, which would give him the chance to get out of here before anything else went wrong. And he could wait a while if he had to. He was good at waiting. Okay, so he had to pee, and felt a sneeze coming on, but Flynn could still wait as long as he needed, dammit. Not that it had been all that long yet, mind you.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes, but he didn’t dare peer around the corner. Not yet, anyway. The kid had given away the distance of his hiding spot. If he waited him out, Obi-Wan figured he could take him in a few bounds. His plan was to get the wallet, give the kid a good scare, and then cut him loose. No need to get the police involved. Believe it or not, Obi-Wan was more concerned with the kid’s holistic welfare. He was trying to look out for him... the only way he really knew how to do it.
It was about then that the sneeze came. It was everything Obi-Wan could hope for, and then some. He tore around the corner, running full speed. When Flynn appeared, he threw the whole of his weight upon him.
Of all the things that Flynn had been anticipating, that? Wasn’t among them. He went down, flailing while he did it, and trying to fight to get himself free of this somehow. This time though, well. He was a little too young, a little too skinny, and a little too inexperienced to really do much here.
“Oh come ON.” He complained, still trying to dig in an elbow here. “I’ll go away to thieve no more or something like that.” Like anybody believed that.
Obi-Wan had a forearm across the kid’s collarbones, pressing simultaneously into his sternum and throat. Just enough to make it difficult to catch him breath. He was hoping to get out of this with as little actual damage to either party as possible. With his free hand, he was digging around for the wallet.
Okay, yeah. Breathing was getting pretty hard here. Not impossible, but enough that Flynn was starting to panic. If he wound up losing his breath and passed out in the street, who knew what was going to happen? Probably nothing good, that was for sure.
“Okay, yeah, there IS giving that back.” He managed, panting. “Sorry. I was working around to that.”
“Where is it?” Obi-Wan asked, not really to the kid, but to himself. He was quickly getting frustrated, which was about par for the course for him. He leaned back a little, willing to concede that Flynn might need a little room to retrieve it. And definitely a little more air.
Yeah, room to breathe, and actually move around was useful, as far as retrieving the thing was concerned. Incidentally, it had been shoved in the bottom of his sock where Flynn knew nothing would fall out or got found right away. The things you learned, he thought, shrugged a little as he passed it over.
“See? Completely safe and sound here.” It wasn’t like he’d taken someone’s car.
Obi-Wan took the wallet and backed away. He leafed through it quickly. There was no way to verify that nothing was missing, but it seemed in order. “There. Wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
“Could’ve been easier.” Flynn flashed him a grin now that that was taken care of, and it was obvious he wasn’t going to end up dead, or worse, sent back. “But that’s not really your fault is it? We’ll call it a learning experience thing.” He looked remarkably cheerful for someone who’d gone through all that.
Obi-Wan ignored the cheer. “People like you give people like me a bad name,” he said. “I know who you are. I see you in the library. I know where you live.” He said the last word in such a way that he hoped it was some indication of their shared experience.
“Well, there goes my luck today. Again.” Flynn eyedarted ever so slighly at that because, obviously, that hadn’t been the first time today at all that his luck had gone downhill and they both knew it. “Yeah, come to think of it, I’ve seen you there too.” he admitted. “You have any tips for getting a good name in this gig or was that just an observation? Completely legitimate I’ll probably add.”
For the first time, Obi-Wan’s steely eyes softened. He shook his head. “Advice, I don’t have. For me, honesty is the only way.”
He turned, as if to leave. What else was left to do? But he turned back again. “I know you’re just gonna leave from here and pull this on someone else. I’m not going to hound you. But you better keep an eye out for me.”