Buy Me Last Pape, Lady? ((10))

[Meadowlark]

Ricky adjusted his hat on his sandy blond hair and shrugged his coat so it would look even thinner and more tattered than it actually was. He glanced around and stashed a half dozen of the papers he had left to sell and took the two he kept with him, selling one of them on his way to the store. Most of the time he hated being the "little one" but damn if pity didn't sell papes just as well as any newsie he'd ever known. He pushed the door to the shop open, hunching his shoulders and making sure to shiver a bit. He hadn't actually tried this before, but it might be worth a shot.

[victoriousscarf]

Electra had been glancing toward the clock every once and a while, counting down until lunch. It was the second day that she had asked Munkustrap to stop by and have lunch with her, and yesterday it had gone well.

She turned her head at the sound of the door opening. "Can I help you honey?" was out of her mouth before she got a good look at the costumer walking in, especially since she had to adjust her line of sight to actually see him, looking a good foot above where he was. She blinked at his honestly pathetic appearance.

[Meadowlark]

The kit looked up, his green eyes wide in apparent surprise. "No...it's okay, jus' came in t' warm up. That is ifn' y' don' mind a course." He kept his tone small, good a lady behind the counter. A fella might be harder.

[victoriousscarf]

Electra blinked down at him. She... wanted to hug him and sit him down with the most massive bowl of soup ever made. "Of course," she said. "You sure you don't need something, honey?"

[Meadowlark]

He shrugged very slightly, making sure to continue to sound meek--cat he'd forgotten how hard that could be sometimes. "Can't find any'un who'll buy me last pape...but I'm a'right. Jus' wanna warm up a bit 'fore I go lookin' again."

[victoriousscarf]

Electra blinked at that. Oh, that sounded like a set up... this early in the day there was very little way he could be on his last paper. On the other hand, she certainly did like reading the newspaper, and it wasn't like it wasn't cold out... "How much for it, honey?"

[Meadowlark]

He watched the queen carefully. Damn, he'd gone too quick, oh well. "Two cents."

[victoriousscarf]

She nodded, fishing around her pocket for the change. "That seriously your last paper?"

[Meadowlark]

Yeah, she had him pegged. He shrugged, straightening and adjusting his coat so it looked a bit better. "Last one I got on paw." The small cat came over to the counter, setting the paper on it.

[victoriousscarf]

Electra smiled faintly. "You come around this area often?" She pulled the paper over, flipping it so she could read the headlines the right way up.

[Meadowlark]

He nodded. "Best place for hawkin' papes is down near th' park durin' th' warm months. This timea year it's best t' wait near businesses an' restaurants."

[victoriousscarf]

Electra nodded. "Seems a smart plan of business. I'll tell you what, I like reading the paper, so if you have any extra to sell or anything like that and I'm here, stop by and I'll probably ask for one."

[Meadowlark]

Ricky grinned at that. "Sounds good. Thanks."

[victoriousscarf]

Electra shrugged though she smiled at him. "It's not like I'm giving you charity. I just like reading the paper and having it delivered doesn't sound half bad."

[Meadowlark]

"Hey, it's one less one I gotta eat if I don't sell." He grinned, the bell over the door ringing as he spoke. "So you got a name or I gotta figure one out for you?"

"I'd just tell him your name if I were you." Munkus' voice held a light laugh. "Hello, scamp."

Ricky turned, grinning. "Well if it ain't th' Prince 'isself."