There was silence after he managed his question. Then the sound of movement. Metal groaned and wood creaked. The worst part was that the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Leo strained to pin point the sound. His ears trying to catch any wayward sound. Then...
"Don't.....don't be scared."
The voice seemed to come from close by. He jumped a little, but it also still echoed about a little. He resisted the impulse to whip around. His heart pounding in his chest he made himself stand still.
"How did you get in?"
The voice now came from behind him only. His skin crawled at the thought of someone standing behind him. He couldn't make himself stand still anymore. He turned around and retreated a few steps until he was at the center of the floor.
"Where are you?" Leo ignored her questions. There was nothing in front of him but a wall and gears. He licked his lips. Maybe, just maybe, he should have gone home when he had the chance. "How are you doing that?" His voice echoed oddly distorted and loudly to his own ears. It sounded a little thin and nervous, but steady. This had not been the first time he had been discovered. But this time he didn't know what would be done with him.
"I'm in the gears if that makes any sense" Rapunzel quickly said forgetting her own voice. The question caught her off guard, it was something she had done her whole life and was used to. Rapunzel had watched this intruder enough to understand, that he was scared. Taut gave Rapunzel the upper hand and she grinned beside herself. Rapunzel turned away from the place she was peering at the intruder. She jumped from the scaffolding to a near by pipe and then climbed to to a Giant gear. It was a bit of a drop from there to teh ground, but she landed well enough.
She looked up from the spot where she had landed to see the boy in the middle of the floor. Her fear returned and she remembered why she was scared. She didn't know this intruder or what he could or what he had on his person. Rapunzel quickly got up and distanced herself a bit idiotically revealing her scared nature. The minuet she got out of the gears and such she wanted to get right back inside them and hide, undetected. Rapunzel lifted her hand to her mouth and started biting her nails a bit. She paced a bit on the outside of the floor. Looking at he ground and then back at him.
Leo listened as the sound of movement began again. Where was the voice going to come from now? He licked his lips again and listened. Briefly the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Then there was a girl standing right in front of him. He staggered back a few steps. Heart thudding in his chest. If he didn't do anything about it, he'd have a heart attack soon.
"Wh...who are you?" The girl asked. For the voice really did belong to a girl. She was probably about his height. She was a little pale from the lack of sun. Her hair was a pale blond. And it was long! No girl in The City would wear her hair like that! All untidy and unkempt. She was skinny too. Not much to her all limbs and elbows.
Leo finally realized he was staring. He blushed a little. Sure he had seen girls in The City. But nothing like her. She wore clothes like a boy and proudly too. Like she was never told a proper girl wore dresses. Didn't she know it was indecent to show her arms and legs like that? And those shoulders...
Leo blushed again and turned his head. "Its...uh...I'm..." What was his name again?
Rapunzel was confused by his loss of words and his starring. What was wrong with her. He stared at her like he'd never seen a girl before. There was nothing wrong with Rapunzel. I'm perfectly fine, what could he possibly see wrong. Sure her hair was a little differently colored then anything she'd seen and a bit longer, but what was wrong with that. Rapunzel grabbed her own hair and pulled it to herself when she saw him almost gawking directly at it. She fiddled with it trying to bring her attention away from shyness and fear.
"What wrong, you were scared when you first got here. My Tower isn't scary at all, she's beautiful and I'm nothing to be stared at compared to her" Rapunzel was suddenly at a loss as what to call him the first thing that left her lips was almost at a whisper, but echoed into a adequate volume "Theif"."My Tower is perfect and wonderful, and anyone who is scared shouldn't be allowed inside in the first place" Rapunzel told him sternly remembering her anger that was brought on by his judgement. Rapunzel finally took the time to look at the boy though as she circled the outsides of the floor. His hair was nice and kept, like masters and his clothes had a resemblance to the towns folk. This fact thankfully took away the idea that he was the new form of Clockwork monster which stole some fear from Rapunzel. He was built, but not incredibly muscular and Rapunzel guessed that he was about her age.
"I... uh..." Leo said intelligently when the blonde girl began to rant at his bad manners. But her repeated use of calling the Tower a woman confused him. Sure the tower was nice to look at, but beautiful? Maybe to a mechanic who worked with gears and springs. What was beautiful to Leo was discovery. Not actual things, or people for that matter.
"Thief." The girl named him.
All at once his embarrassment and fear went away. He wasn't a thief. He did not steal. He did not rob. He only sought out answers. There was nothing wrong with that. He watched her carefully as she began to circle him.
"I'm no thief. And this tower isn't yours." Leo folded his arms. "You're too young for it to belong to you." He scowled at the girl. His budding opinion of her wasn't all that great. She was turning out to be very prideful and haughty. Very unbecoming for a girl. His mother would have a fit if she knew who he was associating with right now.
"The Tower is mine, or at least it will be when Master is gone" Rapunzel spouted. That made Rapunzel think for a moment. 'Master, master would be so mad' Rapunzel suddenly realized o=how loud they were. She didn't know what to do and because of the way she replied to him she knew he would be loud. Rapunzel tried to listen for creaks of stairs or shuffling of dust even. She couldn't hear a thing.
Rapunzel did the first thing that came to mind. She ran up to her thief and clasped her hand gently over his mouth. She raised her hand to her mouth and made a sign of silence. "please, you don't want to the Master to see you, he wouldn't be happy". Rapunzel listened and thankfully everything was quiet. Rapunzel let out a breath of relief and looked back at the thief. She didn't realize how close she was to him when she originally ran up to him. She looked down and removed her hand from his face. "Sorry" Rapunzel told him retreating a bit.
This conversation was take a turn for the weird. One moment the blond girl was saying stuff like don't be afraid and those people who are afraid shouldn't be in the tower. And stuff like that. Then Leo suddenly found her hand over his mouth before he could retort.
He was startled at the close contact and was about to throw her off then she motioned him to silent. He froze and his fear returned. Her master. She had mentioned him earlier. Was he the man he had followed into the tower? He didn't move as he watched her. She was listening to something intently. Was her master coming? Was she scared of her master? He resisted the nervous impulse to lick his lips again, but only because the girl was touching his mouth. When she removed her hand he sighed. Thank the Gears. He didn't like being that close to someone, well, someone like her.
"He wouldn't be happy?" Leo almost sneered, but quietly. "I thought 'anyone who is scared shouldn't be in the tower in the first place'." Leo threw her own words back at her. "You're scared of him." Leo gazed upwards. That was probably where all the answers were. With the girl's master. What were his chances of getting at them? He looked back down at the girl. First he's have to get rid of her. She'd give him away.
"He doesn't seem to like the city" Rapunzel told him shrugging the idea. "I'm not scared of him I'm scared for you. Plus I meant scared of the Tower not Master". Rapunzel followed the thief's gaze. He seemed to be at least interested in the Tower, maybe he wasn't too bad.
"What are you here for thief" Rapunzel asked again accept this time she said thief as if it was a name, not an insult. Raunzel walked up to the stairs and went up the first couple of steps, she then turned back to the thief. Maybe I should show him the rest of my Tower. If he's here to steal something he'll see there is nothing to steal, that or he'll face Master. Rapunzel imagined maybe if she helped the thief he might com back more often and maybe Master wouldn't be so mad if Rapunzel could show him how interested the thief was in The Tower. Maybe she would finally have a friend, very since the birds had all flown away she had been rather lonely.
Leo frowned at the girl's explanation. Scared not of her master, but for him. Someone she thought was a thief. A girl was afraid for him. It was unnatural. He found he didn't like it. He wasn't some helpless damsel in distress. He could take care of himself, thank you very much. He was about to tell her so but she kept on talking.
This girl never seemed to shut up. She always had something else to say. Leo was beginning to doubt there was anything proper about this girl. Surprisingly he was beginning to get used to that fact.
"I am not a thief." He mumbled as she asked yet another question and went right back to ignoring him. This time it was to walk away from him. He didn't follow and she turned back to look at him. He looked up at her, and she down at him. She was thinking again. A very unladylike thing to do. And he was beginning to wonder what sort of thing she might say next.
"Then what are you" Rapunzel asked him lowering herself to his level again. "You break into my Tower and then act scared when you are caught. Is this not the same as the actions of a thief" true wonder in her voice confused at the denial of him. Rapunzel realized that she must seem rather strange to him by the way he looked at her. How could she convince him that she was at least sort of normal. 'Am I normal' She asked herself for a moment. She had seen other girls in the town from her Tower. They wore their hair up and rarely spoke, not only that they also wore dresses. Rapunzel had never owned a dress and she couldn't help but understand that maybe she wasn't as normal as she thought.
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Originally Posted by Clirkus
