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Rouge was walking down the main road of a small town towards the market square when a tiny form clipped her hip, shouted, “Sorry!” and sped off.
Instinct had her shooting her arm out and snagging the back of a kid’s shirt before she fully processed what’d happened. There was a slightly choked yelp as the kid came to an abrupt stop, likely not expecting anyone to be that fast.
“Hold it,” Rouge said when her mouth caught up with her hand a scant second later. She hauled the kid up to get a good look.
The kid in her grasp was spitting mad, a tiny, angry little hellcat of a child. Dirty shirt, pants that were edging on too small, and secondhand shoes that were filthy.
Abandoned, likely.
Damn.
“Hand it over.” The kid struggled a bit before relenting, a silent acknowledgment that Rouge had the upper hand.
“Hand what over?” the kid hissed back, too skinny arms crossed over their chest.
Damn.
“My coin purse,” Rouge replied with an ease she wasn’t sure she was feeling anymore. She and hers have stopped in this port before, and she thought she might have recognized the dark hair and eyes of the kid she was holding up.
With a grumble, the kid handed Rouge her coin purse back.
“Thank you,” Rouge stated.
“You’re welcome,” the kid muttered.
The kid’s stomach growled. Dark eyes went huge in mortification, and Rouge felt something in her soften. She wondered if this was how Newgate got all of his kids.
Damn.
“Alright kid, you’re coming with me,” Rouge said, twisting her arm around and slinging the kid across her back against the renewed struggles and protests.
She was feeling peckish herself and knew of a cheap stall where she could get the kid and herself fed without completely wiping her coin purse of its contents.
Rouge probably would anyway, but it was the thought that counted.
“Put me down!” the kid hissed in Parlance. “Whatever you’re after, I don’t want any!”
“Pretty sure a good meal wouldn’t go amiss, kid,” Rouge said airily. She smirked when the kid quieted down, grumbling in a language that had hints of a couple South Blue dialects in it.
Striding up to the stall, Rouge swung the kid back around and plopped them in a chair before sliding in the one next to it. “Two for now,” she said when the stall’s chef asked her how many.
A bit later, when their bowls had arrived – a local delicacy, some sort of rice and fish dish that Rouge’s chef had never quite managed to replicate even with all the exact ingredients – Rouge ate a few pieces of fish while watching the kid eat. There was a hunger there – the kid had definitely gone hungry, and was making sure to get enough in them to last until the next meal.
“So kid, what’s your name?” Rouge asked. She got a glower in return and the kid aggressively shoved a piece of fish in their mouth. “C’mon, I can’t keep calling you ‘kid,’ can I?”
The kid slowly chewed the fish in their mouth and swallowed. “Crocodile,” the kid finally answered.
“Crocodile, huh? Big name for such a small kid.” Rouge tapped the kid – Crocodile’s forehead with the back end of her chopsticks. “I’ll bet you grow into it though.”
Crocodile snorted. “I’m going to sail the world,” they muttered angrily, shoveling another bunch of rice into their mouth.
Oh.
Oh.
Rouge’s crew was going to love this Crocodile kid.
“My crew is going to love you,” she said, matter of fact.
There was an indignant squawk beside Rouge. “Excuse me?!” Crocodile’s voice jumped half a register in outrage.
“Yup. You think you were just gonna try and swipe my coin purse and get fed and that was it?” Rouge was pretty sure she had what her first mate called her ‘mischievous grin’ plastered across her face. While Crocodile spluttered in indignant irritation, Rouge laughed, high and loud.
Yeah.
Yeah, they were going to love this kid.
“Eat up, kid,” Rouge said, putting a hand on Crocodile’s head, ignoring the slightly greasy thin strands. “You’ll be a pirate before you know it.”
The words stilled Crocodile’s angry spluttering.
Rouge got a narrow-eyed yet thoughtful glare. “You promise?”
“Of course.”
Crocodile nodded. “Okay.” Then Crocodile went back to eating, subdued but not in a bad way. More in a curious way.
This definitely had to be how Newgate felt all the time because Rouge couldn’t imagine looking at this worn out, too thin kid and not feeding them.
Crocodile would make a good addition to her merry band of rogues.
Rouge knew it.