Orphans Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next thing he remembered was waking up, and finding that he couldn't scream. His mouth was open, but not a single sound came out, not even a whimper. Was this death? Then the air returned to his lungs, bringing pain alongside, and he let out a cry.

"Guess that means he'll live," said one of the bystanders. Rufus looked up see a crowd of people had gathered around him as he lay in a pile of squashed vegetables in the remains of a fruit cart.

"Who cares if he lives? What about my cart? What about my cabbages!" A portly man snapped, whose face was as red as the tomatoes Rufus had crushed.

"Lighten' up. S'not everyday it rains kids," Said a red-headed boy.

"Where did he fall from?" Asked a woman.

"Probably trying to climb out to upper plate," Another speculated with an air of annoyance. "Kids these days."

Rufus sat up, and winced in pain. How long had he been unconscious? It seemed too dark to still be day, though all the light was artificial - the sickening green glow of mako electricity - but even that was muted. Everything was grim and dirty. Then he looked up. There was no sky above him, just the plate.

He'd fallen into the lower plate. A crowd had gathered around him, all dressed in rags and filth, as dirty as the world around him. Most looked surprised, except for the vendor, who looked stunned, an expression which soon shifted to anger. The vendor grabbed Rufus by the hair and hauled him to his feet.

"All right, you little shit," he spat. "How you going to pay for that?"

"Get your hands off of me!" shouted Rufus. "I demand you let me go at once!"

"Who in the hell do you think you are?" he asked. "Yeah, I'll let you go once you pay for the damage you caused, or I'll I swear I'll take it out of your hide."

"I... I... I'm Rufus ShinRa!" he cried. "If you let me go I can get you money from my father?"

"Rufus ShinRa?" asked the man. There was no mirth in his laughter. "Sure you are."

Rufus saw the redheaded boy help himself to the man's wallet though the man didn't notice. He carefully put it into his own pocket, but kept some Gil in hand.

"Oh come on," the redhead drawled. "Look, I know the kid. He's nuts. One too many hits to the head fallin' off of stuff, yo. Don't be so hard on him, it's not his fault. Look, how 'bout this, I'll give you thirty Gil? You know he ain't got no money, and beatin' him won't help you fix your cart."

The man snatched the money from the redhead and shoved Rufus toward him. He grabbed Rufus' hand and pulled him along. "Get ready to run," he whispered.

A moment later the man noticed his wallet was missing. He turned towards them. "You little street rats!" He cried, "They stole my wallet!"

Rufus ran alongside the redhead, weaving through crowds, and ducking around the rusted shacks that passed for buildings in the slums. The red-haired boy easily scrambled over a fence, then swung back over to give Rufus a hand. Once they were over, and a few blocks down, they stopped.

The redhead grinned at him. "That was pretty good," he said. He removed the wallet from his pocket and counted up its' contents. "You made a pretty good diversion, yo. Consider the Gil I gave him to let you go your share. No need to thank me."

"I had no intention of thanking you," said Rufus. "I had the situation under control."

"Not from where I'm standing," scoffed the boy.

"Then move," said Rufus. He moved to walk past the boy, but winced in pain.

"Think you mighta broke something in the fall, yo?" asked the redhead. He sighed and shook his head. "You know, I'm not usually in the business of being nice, but here." He fished into his pocket and handed Rufus a potion. "Got if off a monster I killed, it'll heal you." Rufus looked at him. He'd given the boy no reason to be nice to him. The street urchin didn't know -or at least didn't believe -who Rufus was, so why was he helping him? "Go on," he said. "Take it. I wasn't gonna fence it anyway, thought it'd be useful to have on me in case of something, and you count as something right?"

Rufus nodded, and took the potion, downing it in one gulp. Immediately his pain ceased. Rufus let out a sigh. "Thank you," he said.

"Consider yourself welcome," said the boy. "Anyone with the guts to climb to upper plate is ok in my book. The name's Reno."

"Well, actually I was climbing down from upper plate," admitted Rufus.

"What? Why would anyone want to do that?" he asked. "Wait, you weren't serious about all that ShinRa stuff… Were you?"

Rufus' silence was all Reno needed. Reno grabbed him by the wrist and pulled Rufus' hand forward to look at it.

"What are you doing?" asked Rufus.

"Seeing something," said Reno. He touched Rufus' hand. "Well you're certainly not from the slums. Not with hands like these. You've never done a day's work in your life."

"I most certainly have!" said Rufus. He pulled free of Reno's grasp and crossed his arms. "I work very hard at school."

Reno just laughed. "I mean real work."

"And I suppose you consider theft real work?" Rufus retorted.

The redhead just shrugged. "You gotta pick a pocket or two, kid. It ain't easy to get by down here."

Rufus nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to sound-"

"Don't worry about it," said Reno. "Come on," he waved his hand for Rufus to follow. I figure you ain't got a place to stay, and trust me; A kid like you don't need to be wandering around here at night. You'd get killed. Anyone who took the time to look would see you don't belong around here. You're too shiny."

"Shiny?" asked Rufus. Reno had already begun to walk away, so Rufus was forced to keep up with him if he wanted the conversation to continue.

"Like somethin' new that hasn't been all scuffed up and broken yet," said Reno. Although the redhead spared a glance at Rufus, he kept walking all the while. "You're all pretty boy, soft. Clothes are dirty, but nicer than anything I'll ever have. And those eyes, you don't look like a slum rat. You've never been hungry, or hurt, or scared for your life. 'Cept maybe for that fall. Which proves you can't look out for yourself. Don't know if they told you this in your world, but jumping off really high places tends to get ya killed, yo."

"I didn't jump, I slipped," said Rufus.

"My point exactly," said Reno. They turned a corner, and made their way down an alleyway.

"And why exactly are you so keen on looking out for me?" asked Rufus. "Do you think you'll get some sort of reward if you take me back? Because I don't want to go back, and I don't need people pretending to be my friend." Why was he still following Reno anyway?

"You really think I believe you're Rufus ShinRa?" asked Reno. He laughed again, and shook his head. "I know you're a top-sider, but that don't make you royalty. And I don't think you're gonna give me nothin' for helping you out. The only thing your gonna get me is more trouble than I need. All the same, I don't like the idea of you ending up dead or worse."