Work Text:
Kayla was a thief and a street rat put plainly. She had to eat to live but had to steal to eat. Both of her parents had died as victims of assassinations, leaving Kayla at the age of 5. Now, she was 12 and just trying to survive one day at a time. One day, she had heard rumours that it was the day imported tiger cubs arrived at the palace so she snuck in. Why did she want a tiger? She didn't. It just happened. Kayla was looking at all the cubs in the room but stopped when she saw on with an amputated paw. Feeling sorry for it, Kayla lifted the cub into her arms and ran back to her rooftop 'home'.
"You're ok not.", Kayla whispered to the cub as she set it down on a pile of cloth, "I think I'll call you Saffron.".
The name earned a tiny mewl from Saffron.
"Hey kid!", called the Sultan, suddenly behind Kaylar, "Give that tiger back.".
"No way.", replied Kayla, stepping in frount of Saffron, "I know what you do with disabled tigers. I'm not naive.".
"Fair, but I'm still the Sultan so you have to listen to me. Hand over the tiger.".
"My Sultan!", yelled a soldier, running up to the pair, "All the tiger cubs have disappeared!".
"You.", Jasmine said, pointing at Kayla, "You're coming with me.".
Kayla carried Saffron and followed Jasmine all the was back to the palace and to the room where all the tiger cubs had formerly resided in.
"When you stole Saffron,", Jasmine said, emphasising the 'stole', "were all the tigers still here?".
"Yep.", Kayla replied.
"How do we know that you didn't steal all the tigers while you were here?", questioned the soldier.
"How would I even do that? Why would I even do that?".
"I guess so.", Jasmine sighed, "Well, we'll launch a search and you and Saffron aren't going anywhere. You can stay in a spare room.".
So with that, Kayla scooped up Saffron and went to their new room.
"Well, I guess this is where we're going to be staying for a while.", Kayla sighed. At least she had good company.