the lady and the tramp [juliet]

[alice "rio" grand]

Tags: Juliet
Soundtrack: Love Me Dead
Author's Note: Haha, sorry if the plot is weird. I'm totally making this up as I go along.

"So hungry..."

This miserable announcement really didn't come as much of a shock to anyone, especially not the girl who said it. The small redhead was draped across the counter of the small cafe, water seeping off of her and onto the floor, the counter and the chair. She'd been outside and on her feet all day; it had started raining early that morning and it hadn't let up since. She'd spent most of her time ducking into shelter after shelter, but inevitably something happened and she would be forced to move on, searching around until she found somewhere new. She had gotten to the point now where it was obvious that staying outdoors just wouldn't work. It had taken her almost an hour to fully decide and pull herself off the ground. It had taken her just a bit longer than that to realize she had nowhere to go. In a rare stroke of luck, she'd stumbled upon this cafe, which she had only ducked into because she knew the owner.

Now, though, she was sorely regretting her choice. The smell of the food was only making her constant hunger worse and she didn't have any money. She knew she wouldn't get any free food. That wasn't how this place operated. She sighed deeply, sitting up and shaking out her hair, which of course sent more water splashing around. A few people around her grumbled and complained at being sprayed, but she ignored them.

Even though she knew where this would lead, Rio couldn't help herself. She shook the excess water off her hands (much to the displeasure) and reached carefully into her pocket, pulling out her wallet. It had survived the day mostly unscathed, but she was extremely careful pulling out the measly amount of bills and coins out and laying them out on the the nearest area of dry surface. They looked so pitiful...she sighed deeply before bowing her head, laying it down on the counter. Her money was, of course, within sight, but the girl behind the counter knew not to let anyone steal it. That meant Rio was free to wallow in her misery.

"I'm hungry," she mumbled again.

Words: 365

[ele]

Juliet had been having a pretty good day so far, until she'd made the mistake of deciding to go visit her brother in his bakery. Well, it wasn't as if she wanted to visit him, but she had nothing better to do and was rather bored, so she decided to visit him as he was always one to entertain her. However, when she'd gotten there, she found him quite busy at the shop, and he apologised but said he couldn't spend any time with her at the moment because of the midday rush hour. Juliet had been upset, so of course Lukas had wanted to fix it. And so, he told her that if she took care of a few deliveries for him, he'd be able to finish work earlier and spend some time with her. Grudgingly, Juliet had agreed, but mostly only because of her seemingly incurable boredom, and had set off to do her- or rather, his- errands.

She had already made a few stops and was at her last one, a café. She was carrying a large basket of fresh, warm bread in her arms and strode irritably up toward the counter with it- they'd ordered it because they were getting low. If owning and running a bakery weren't such a stupid and common job, Juliet would almost be proud of her big brother, who was good at what he did and it showed, for he had many regular customers to provide for.

Juli had only barely gotten to the counter when she was nearly sprayed with water by a very drenched girl. Now, Juliet was quite dry despite the rain, for she had been smart enough to bring an umbrella (and she had taken a private cab so only had to walk a few steps under said umbrella before being inside the café), or rather, have a valet carry an umbrella for her, so needless to say she was very annoyed by the carelessness of this girl. She frowned and narrowed her eyes at her, turning to look at her as she did so, and said, "That's very rude of you. There are people in here that are actually intelligent enough to stay dry on a rainy day, you know. They'd rather not be wet due to your carelessness." Juliet was already in a foul mood due to having to run stupid errands for her brother, but now her day was getting steadily worse thanks to almost getting sprayed with water by this girl who quite obviously was too stupid to remember an umbrella or too poor to have obtained one, both prospects equally annoying in Juliet's mind.

[alice "rio" grand]

Tags: Juliet
Soundtrack: Love Me Dead
Author's Note: Still makin' it up!

Rio sighed deeply once more, her thoughts completely consumed with her hunger and her inability to do anything about it. Her stomach made a growl in protest as plate after plate of food went right past her to their designated people to be consumed and thus thrust out of her reach forever. She was much too lazy to even raise her head and acknowledge her discomfort, so she settled for glaring weakly every time she saw food that she couldn't have.

But her thoughts were interrupted by a snide comment that was quite obviously made at her. She had been too lazy to raise her head before, and she was far too lazy to do it now. She just turned her head over and stared at the blonde girl, whom she knew immediately she was probably going to dislike. Just the way she held herself screamed "snobby", and the fact that she used so many big words didn't improve her standing in Rio's book. She blinked slowly, waiting until the girl was quite finished with her little fit. She considered apologizing, but that thought left her head just as soon as it entered it. Why the hell should she apologize? Who really complained about a few drops of water.

Rio was in a pretty damned foul mood by this point, and even on a good day wouldn't have taken kindly to basically being called stupid and careless. Rio's flaws were many, but she was pretty sure that those two were not on that list.

And so, in a moment that truly showed her maturity and good spirit, Rio raised one still wet hand and flicked her fingers at the blonde, sending a weaker but still significant shower of water flying towards her face. She sat up after this and fixed the blonde in a stare that was none-too-pleasant. The smell of food was really starting to mess with her. Her only regret at this point was that she couldn't come up with a decent comeback to the girl's statement, and thus would have to stick with her physical, if somewhat juvenile, response.

Alright, so maybe now she could add "rude" to her list of flaws.

Words: 365...again

[ele]

Well this was annoying. Water flicked at her twice by the same person! And it almost hit the bread. Not that Juliet cared much about the bread- it was only bread, after all, and it wasn't her problem if someone else damaged it, it was the café's problem and fault for letting such a hooligan in the place to begin with- but it was irritating that someone would purposefully ruin something like that without a care in the world, as if they owned the place. Juliet narrowed her eyes at the girl before setting the bread basket carefully on the counter, turning momentarily away from the rude girl as she looked at the owner and explained the delivery with a rather bored tone. They thanked her, and she merely gave a slight nod in assent to the thanks before turning straight back around to look the girl in the eye.

Her eyes quickly broke the gaze between them and traveled around to inspect the girl from head to toe. She looked rather scruffy and unkempt in Juliet's opinion- she was probably some vagabond from the streets. Her brother had always felt bad for the poor people and would often give them fresh bread for free, just out of the "kindness of his heart" as they would call it. Well, Juliet wouldn't have anything of it. She found the poor to be needy and, as this girl proved quite clearly, rude, and she did well not to associate with them at all if she could help it, in her opinion. But here she was associating with this little ragamuffin, though it was hardly true that she wanted to. She hadn't even wanted to step foot in the café to begin with, much less talk to anyone there. She was far too good for them. She was far too good to go on this stupid errand for Lukas! If she hadn't, she wouldn't have had water sprayed at her twice, one of those times making it splatter a bit on her face and hair.

Finally realizing this state, Juliet quickly took out a small handkerchief from her coat pocket and dabbed at her face, then going to gently wipe her bangs with it. How disgusting- rain water. She'd definitely have to take another shower and a bath when she got home: the shower to wash away any hint of the rain water, especially the common rain water coming off this dirty girl, who knew how long it had been since she'd taken a shower; and of course, a bath to make sure that she was clean after travelling to such a common place as this café, where common and even poor people would apparently spend their free time.

That was another thing that Juliet hated about the poor people- they always acted so pathetic. They would act all tired and exhausted and hungry because they "never had free time" or whatever, but that wasn't true because most of them didn't even have jobs! All those homeless people would do was walk around begging. They weren't even willing to do any work, and to Juliet that was annoying. That's what the common people were for, after all, weren't they? They were the ones that were supposed to work and to buy things to keep the country's economy going.

Usually she didn't associate with those types of people at all, much less for this long. But something about this defiant little pipsqueak of a girl irritated her to no ends, and she had to make sure the girl learned her lesson, one way or another. "You would think that someone like you would at least be grateful to someone obviously better than them trying to teach them a bit of manners. Is this what the world has come to these days?" she asked, clearly miffed. Honestly, was it really? If it was, then Juliet wanted out. Perhaps she'd move somewhere exotic like Xing, where the people actually respected their rulers and their betters.

[alice "rio" grand]

Tags: Juliet
Soundtrack: Love Me Dead
Author's Note: Still makin' it up!

Though her response to the jibe had been far from mature, Rio couldn't deny that it had been damned satsifying, at the very least for the look on the blonde's face. The redhead's head lowered back down the counter as the blonde turned away from her. Part of her wished the snobby girl would just leave and Rio would be left in peace, but another part entirely kind of wanted her to stay so she could mess with her some more. Not that Rio enjoyed being insulted and jabbed at, but it was kind of a sick bit of fun to jab right back.

But the first part of her experienced no such luck as the girl looked right back, her eyes looking Rio up and down in a snobby, judgmental manner. Now that she was under scrutiny, Rio pushed herself upright for the second time, a bit resentful that she was doing it. She returned the girl's gaze with contempt and dislike shooting from her eyes. She was stubborn and pigheaded at times, and this was one of those times. She disliked people that disliked her, and tried her best to dislike them just as much. That would prove to be quite easy with this girl; Rio already she was about as kind as a snake and about as endearing as a cactus.

Rio couldn't help the small snort of laughter as realization finally hit the blonde and she began to dab at her face as if the water was acid. She couldn't stand people like this. "Oh, I'm sorry," she finally spoke up, resting her chin on her hand and looking at the girl with eyes that now also showed twisted amusement. "Did the poor rich cat get all wet?" Though Rio had no clue if the girl was actually rich or not, she was certainly acting like it. She certainly wasn't from a poor family, that was for sure. "Poor kitty...want some help with that?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a scrap of cloth...honestly, she wouldn't even use the thing to dry off, even if it weren't soaking wet. The sarcasm was so heavy it was like a boulder falling from the sky, dropping from Rio's mouth with finality. And so the war began. Though Rio highly doubted the two of them would ever meet again, she would devote the remainder of this encounter bugging the girl as much as she could. She was drying off quickly, though, so she supposed she would have to rely on her wits, those darling little things.

"Oh? You were trying to teach me manners?" Rio repeated, her voice a high mockery of surprise. "Oh, I'm so sorry, kitten...I was unaware that insulting people these days was considered teaching them manners...my, I must be so behind on the times." She let out a huge sigh. "You must forgive me, then, o great and wise one....it must be because I'm so unintelligent." She bit her tongue about the "better than you" comment, only because her response to that wasn't quite jabbing so much as angry stabbing. Violence wasn't something Rio really ever resorted to unless guns were involved, but she'd already sold her guns, so she was SOL for the moment in that regard.

Words: 550

[ele]

Juliet was very close to just leaving the stupid place. She didn't even want to be there in the first place, and as soon as she got back to her brother's bakery she would most definitely give him an earful about everything, including how rude the commoners were and how she most certainly would not do any work of this sort for him again, ever. She'd much rather mind the shop than doing this, and that was saying something, because she really hated doing that quite a bit. But making deliveries was far worse, because people were rude to you (example A would be sitting right in front of her). Even though it was annoying that when she worked in the shop while Lukas was out doing the deliveries because people actually expected her to do things for them, it was far better than doing the deliveries, because at least when she was in the shop, people were polite, for the most part.

Juliet had to remember that some people weren't civilized enough to know to be polite no matter where they were, including within their own 'turf' as the commoners called it, or rather, on their own grounds and not on someone else's property. It was still very frustrating, though, and so she did have quite the hard time remembering this. Besides, it was their problem that they were rude and insignificant, wasn't it? It wasn't her problem, to be sure. And so she really couldn't imagine why she'd tried to give the ignorant little street rat girl some lessons in manners- she should have known that it wouldn't work, and that the piece of dirt would still be ungrateful and rude.

Honestly, it was disgusting, and so was that- oh, good lord what was that disgusting thing in the rat's hand? It was some sort of handkerchief she supposed, but it really just looked much like a dirty rag- and was the girl actually offering it to her? Was she actually expecting Juliet to use such a thing? The rich blonde merely took a step back and wrinkled her nose at the object, lifting her face a bit in disgust so that she was looking down at the street rat even more so than she already was. "Keep your dirty rags, thank you. Who knows what kind of disease you might have...." Juliet said, looking the girl over as if she were just a piece of meat that she had to inspect before eating.

Juliet hated the girl's tone of voice and that she called her 'kitten', how annoying. What a rude little creature this girl was, very rude indeed. Juliet very much hoped that someday she'd have the pleasure of driving by her on the streets and splashing mud onto her or something, to pay her back for what she'd done earlier. "Yes, I'd expect so." Juliet answered, frowning slightly as the girl admitted her unintelligence. It was in, admittedly, a rather rude and unintelligent manner, but it had to be expected. In fact, Juliet shouldn't be so unkind, if anything she might pity the girl for being as she was. But she was already miffed, so pity was a lost cause, not that Juliet really ever had any in her anyway.

[alice "rio" grand]

Tags: Juliet
Soundtrack: Love Me Dead
Author's Note: Sup

This was far more satisfying than it should have been. The bad mood that had draped over the street rat like a blanket was starting to lighten, ever so slightly. Rio was well aware of this, and yet, even if she tried really really hard, playing with this girl could not have been any more fun. Perhaps it was her already dampened mood, or perhaps she was just like this anyway. Who knew. Something about this girl pissed her off to no end...Rio wasn't one to hate rich people just because they were rich, but damn. Having money really could distort some people, couldn't it? Believing that they were better than her just because they had more slips of paper than she did. Rio really hated those kinds of rich people. It was just her luck that that seemed to be most of them.

Yes, she had already decided that this girl was most likely one of those snotty rich girls who believed that the whole damn world belonged to them just because of their imagined social status. She chanced a look outside, to see if she could see any more signs. She was greeted to the sight of a car lying in wait and a man standing just outside the door holding an umbrella. Though Rio hadn't bothered to watch the girl come in, she bet anything that she had come in being followed by that man like a dog with a pathetic puppy. Which was the dog and which was the puppy was a thought that was too amusing to continue. "Damn," she murmured under her breath, shaking her head and looking back at the blonde. This girl really had it good, didn't she? If she weren't so nasty, Rio might actually envy her.

Rio's eyebrows shot up at the girl's first retort. "Who knows," she chirped agreeably, flicking the rag away. As she'd thought earlier, even she thought the thing was filthy, but in this moment she was kind of glad she hadn't thrown it away. Of course, it went in the snotty girl's direction, but it landed inches from her; Rio was more interesting to see what would happen if it didn't touch her, if only because she had a feeling that if it touched her, there would be a hissy fit to end all hissy fits. And, as amusing as that would no doubt be, she didn't have the patience or the stability to deal with that. Her head was starting to ache in that familiar fashion.

She grinned at the second statement, an agreement to her false admittance. She sat up for the first time, her chin resting on her hand on the counter. "Would you do me the honor of teaching me manners, then, kitten?" she asked. The sarcasm in her voice could not have been heavier. "Do a poor little rat a favor?" She turned now to completely face the girl, looking her up and down once more. Just the thought of spending much more time with her was grating. She could only take so much before she went from amused and sarcastic to violent and angry.

Rio yawned and ran her fingers through her hair, which was finally starting to dry out. She was no longer dripping wet, but she still felt heavy and dirty. She'd have to see if someone would let her borrow their shower. Another plate of food passed her by, and to her shame, her stomach rumbled rather loudly. She put a hand on it and sighed, shaking her head. She didn't particularly like showing weakness, especially not in a situation like this. Curse her body for ruining those plans.

Words: 614