[IC] You Get What You Give

[EasilyAmused]

The second the phrase ‘I can see it in your eyes’ left Allan’s lips, she very quickly averted them from him. Crap crap crap! He was seeing through her and she didn’t want it to get out like this. Her face flashed a deep shade of red as she continued to eat in a sad attempt to ignore the man’s pressuring about the situation at hand. She didn’t want to dive any deeper with this crush of hers. And half the girls in the city felt the same way about him so why would her feelings make anything all the more special? After chewing more of her pancakes, she took a drink of her coffee. ..

Which she nearly spit all over him when he said claimed she was deeply in love with him and that he could arrange a date for them. “HA!” She said aloud, echoing around the restaurant before pointing her empty syrup covered fork at him. “First off, I never said I was in love with him! It’s just a fan girl crush of sorts; I’m sure there are women out there who are obsessed with him verses my little idea of ‘oh that would be cute’. Second off, even if you actually knew who he was I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to go spreading it around to people. He and the Merry Men are doing good things for the city and really should be keeping themselves under-wraps.” A small roll of her blue eyes was her first response which was followed by a playful twinkle in them with a curled smirk. She didn’t believe that Allan knew who Robin Hood was, the idea was intriguing and it was obvious she was interested in the possibility but logically, as much as she attempted to think logically, it wouldn’t be a good idea for anyone to know who the Merry Men were unless they were Merry Men.

“Speaking of doing good…” She said, her attention moving from her friend to the kitchen doors, “Aria, when you’re free I’ve got a proposition for you!” A small smile played across her lips, if her father was forcing her to go to the stupid banquet charity ball thingy with a bunch of rich class obnoxious brats, she surely didn’t want to go alone and have no one to talk to. Maybe if she begged, and pleaded and ask nicely, Aria would come along. She had the social stands and maybe there was a guy she was sweet on that she could bring. Plus it’s a masquerade theme, what girl doesn’t love to dress up!?

[Rowdyruff]

Aria had gotten a little distracted in the kitchen - one of the new cooks had made a mistake on one of the stoves and nearly caused an outrageous gas fire and set the whole place alight. After giving the young defenseless boy a scolding for his stupidity, she realized that she'd abandoned both Marian and Allan. She had overheard them briefly talking about Marian's fangirl crush, and Aria had smirked when she had. She knew Marian had this crush for a while, though she was unsure if Marian even knew that she knew. Either way, she'd always intended to arrange a meeting with them both but had always ended up being distracted and remembering that was what she aimed to do as soon as she arrived back home. Allan would be a better candidate for making these arrangements, because he was - although not successful in the area for himself - a good "matchmaker" for love. Aria could even call him Cupid if he actually looked at all similar to a stone baby wearing only a diaper. The idea of Marian's love life made Aria realize that she had a very pathetic one. She'd never really "flirted" or "seduced" a male - not really seeing a purpose to - unless it was online and for another motive. Though the idea of a boyfriend intrigued Aria, she'd always wondered why people believed that it "helped" you. Perhaps experiencing one would allow her to understand or at least disagree.

The long awaited coffee was finally prepared for Allan and ready for delivery and as Aria stepped through the kitchen doors Marian confronted her with a supposed proposition. Whatever it was, it was sure to be something of interest to the Merry Men and Aria would absolutely definitely agree to the idea. However, Aria had to keep up her usual personality otherwise it'd just come across as odd.
"As long as it doesn't sound too hilariously dull." She smirked as she approached and set the coffee down in front of Allan. "So, what is it?" She slid up next to Allan, albeit a little closer than expected just to playfully irritate dear Allan, and questioned Marian further on what this proposition involved. Allan could even come with them, just to keep Aria sane from all the madness.

[Phloem]

“Alright, alright. Whatever you say.” Allan raised his hands, palms facing outwards in a surrendering gesture. “But all I gotta say is this: search your feelings, you know it to be true.” Clearly, he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Marian without any backup. And so, he resolved to put together a grand scheme for getting the two of them together. Since he wasn’t able to have a successful relationship on his own, he’d be damned if he let these two down. Maybe he could even rope Aria into collaborating with him. He was pretty sure that she knew about Marian’s crush, and it couldn’t hurt to have one more person on board with the plan. For the millionth time, Allan thought that this ‘secret identity’ thing the Merry Men practiced was more of a hindrance than benefit; all it did was get in the way of their personal lives. Sure, it threw off the cops that were after them, but why they even needed an alias in the first place was beyond him. Historically, robbers and thieves weren’t exactly known to have fancy nicknames.

So engrossed in this train of thought, Allan didn’t even notice Aria’s presence until she sidled up next to him with his long-awaited cup of coffee. He’d say something about her awfully close proximity, but to be honest, he was just glad his coffee was here. Mumbling a quick thanks to Aria, he dumped a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar into the coffee. He was going to need the sugar-rush if he was going to survive the day. It was still early in the morning and he’d already used up a good chunk of his energy. Taking a sip of the piping hot beverage, he listened to Marian talk about some fancy ball she was invited to. Allan really didn’t pay much attention to it at first, mostly because these events weren’t really this thing, but his eyes lit right up when he realised what this could mean for the Merry Men. It being masquerade-themed was only an added bonus, they didn’t even have to risk their covers getting blown. A surreptitious sideways glance at Aria, and he was sure that she was thinking the same thing as well.

“Aw, hey. Aren’t you gonna invite little ol’ me?” Allan said to Marian with a pout. Heaving an exaggerated sigh, he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms and shaking his head. His expression was forlorn, as if he were utterly devastated at being abandoned. Of course, he wasn’t all that upset that she didn’t ask him to go, but he really didn’t want to have to pull a Mission Impossible style break-in when he could just walk right in through the front door.

[EasilyAmused]

When it came down to it, she hated bringing up the topic of doing activities that involved the higher society. While Marian herself may live in it, it wasn’t uncommon to see her giving homeless people money (or in one case a donut), donating time to help as many individuals that she could and even in her job, she does her best to help make sure that everything that is important stays important and she’s been known to talk back to the judge when asked to strike something from the record that she shouldn’t. In fact it’s so common that when she gives a dirty look to the attorneys when they say something and give the judge a look that explains that they should strike that from the record. She may live in the section of society that was doing a lot wrong but she’s always tried to do what was right.

“Search my feelings?” She repeated between bites staring up at him in confusion. Swallowing her final bite of her plate she pushed it away and grabbed her cup of coffee, holding onto it for dear life and spitting on it as a saving grace. “I don’t even know who he is outside of the persona he displays. He could be some weirdo crap or some obnoxious annoying brat.” With that she waved her hand as a single she wanted to drop the subject. If Allan had his way he would most likely try to make something happen, he knew her work schedule since it was practically clock work anyway and so did Aria if she happened to get herself involved. While she secretly liked the idea of getting a chance to meet the infamous Robin Hood, which could probably be read on her face, she had a feeling it couldn’t be done.

Her attention moved to Aria as she opened her mouth to speak, only to have Allan jump in, her blue gaze flicked to him as her eyes narrowed in a playful manner, “I’d rather take Robert Locksley over you, I couldn’t play guard dog if you ticked off the wrong person. I refuse to take that much responsibility on my shoulders!” With that she gave him a playful stick out of her tongue before turning her attention back to Aria. “You, however, could handle that job if you would want to bring him.” Robert Locksley was her fall-backs for insulting people, mainly because when he was lawyer he was a pain in her ass as a Court Stenographer; his ending was a rather sad one. Poor guy was a pain in the ass but he didn’t deserve how it all went down.

“Anyway, the Taylor family, remember Bonnie Taylor, the annoying redhead from our Math group that would paint her toes in class and fuss when someone would bump the table.” The blonde shuddered at the thought. She didn’t get along much with most of the people from her boarding school but Aria, “Her dad’s throwing a fundraiser with intention on running for mayor and it’s a big masquerade party with fancy dresses and the works. Will you please come, your family’s invited but they won’t even know it’s you but you’re still on the invite list and my dad’s making me go. Please come! I don’t want to be alone!”

[Rowdyruff]

As the discussion on Robert Locksley, or Robin Hood, continued. Aria shuffled in her seat awkwardly. It seemed that Allan wasn't doing the best job at realizing Robert could never meet Marian unless he was fully cloaked and wore a mask over his face. For a few moments though, Aria herself had completely forgot about this idea. Although Aria had never really paid males much attention, she had to admit that Allan was what most normal girls would label as "cute". It made her sick just using that word to describe someone, but she couldn't think of any other word without kicking herself for being outright odd. She remembered that Allan had a girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend at some point in time but Aria never remembered ever meeting the girl. She didn't really think that she wanted to.

She was completely distracted from the conversation at hand until Marian mentioned that it was her responsibility to bring Allan if she wanted to, and she laughed. Raising one arm and playfully hooking it across Allan's shoulders she tilted her head at him. "I don't mind bringing you along, you can be my plus one!" Sometimes acting like the 'too cool for school' edgy posh daughter role made Aria sick. Technically, she was always playing that role; but the way she had to in front of Marian made her quite nauseous. Marian mentioned Bonnie Taylor, and Aria replied with a snort. The name pulled Aria back into her schooldays, where she remembered that she once ended up stuck doing a project with the girl before. They had to do something exciting and unique for Science - or just make a model volcano - and the girl had insisted Aria do it herself. Aria, not honestly caring for the sciences herself, didn't do any work either. Bonnie Taylor's family who drowned Bonnie in absolutely everything were horrified to discover that their prized daughter had failed in Science, and Aria remembered the dirty looks that she would get for the rest of her stay from Bonnie Taylor quite fondly. She actually sort of missed them. The fact that she could see the poor idiotic girl far older than what she remembered excited Aria - perhaps she'd investigate the girl's social networking accounts too - but the mention of it being a masquerade upset her despite it being preferable for the Merry Men. It gave her even more reason to insist Allan came with her.
"I'll come. Fine. As long as I don't have to do anything embarrassing." She rolled her eyes and uncoiled her arm from Allan, realizing that it was probably quite uncomfortable after all this time. She noted mentally that she'd have to inform Locksley of this as soon as possible, this was definitely a lead he'd want to follow up on.

[Phloem]

Allan was oblivious, but not oblivious enough to recognise the signal telling him to drop the matter. Shrugging, he brought the coffee cup to his lips and took a small swig. He furrowed his brow, momentarily glancing down at the swirling, black liquid in his hands. His own love life was pretty much in shambles after that fiasco with his ex-girlfriend. Maybe he should work on getting it back on track instead of getting all up in other people’s business, but he wasn’t exactly excited at the prospect of getting his heart broken once again. This wasn’t the time to be upset, however, and he quickly pushed the thought to the back of his mind. All of that was in the past now, and Allan refused to cry over spilt milk. He’d never really given much thought about Aria… not in the douchebaggy way, though. Both of them have been friends for awhile, and Aria had never seemed interested in having a relationship with anyone. Of course, she’d been a target of Allan’s customary flirting, but that was that. Gulping down a mouthful of coffee, he rolled his eyes at Marian’s jape about him being too much trouble for her to handle. Though a wry smile remained present on his face as he did so.

“Oh, yeah! Aria could take me!” Allan exclaimed a little too loudly, right when Aria draped her arm over his shoulders. He sounded like an excited five year-old who’d just found out that he was going to Disneyland. His own hand went to grab the other’s shoulder, giving it a chummy squeeze once his fingers found purchase. It was almost like they were posing for a photo… also at Disneyland. He made sure to let go before things awkward, but not before flashing a grateful smile at Aria for her offer to bring him along. Turning his attention back to the conversation, he raised an eyebrow in confusion. He had no idea who this ‘Bonnie Taylor’ was, apart from the fact that she was rich, and that neither of his companions seemed to like her very much. Which was understandable, to say the least. Not everyone who’s filthy rich was as down-to-earth as Aria. Granted, he hadn’t met many rich people in his life, but it was enough for him to get an idea.

Clapping his hands together, Allan’s face split into a toothy grin. “So, it’s settled! Hope you two are ready for a good time because yours truly,” he punctuated the sentence by pointing two thumbs at himself, “is gonna be there.” It didn’t hurt that he never stayed sober at a party either, even on a job. What can he say? He was just that good. Even when he was drunk, he always managed to shimmy a fat Armani wallet out of some bigwig’s pocket.

[EasilyAmused]

Apparently the innocent pity ‘please OH please’ face seemed to work on Aria as she agreed to come along. But the mention of not doing anything embarrassing caused Marian smirk slightly. “Well, you do have to wear a dress. Don’t know if you’d consider that embarrassing or not. But you also have to get him,” She pointed a finger at Allan, “in a suite. It’s a black tie affair even though it’s a masquerade theme.” At Allan’s comment about a good time with him being there, she couldn’t deny it. He may be an odd character with an interesting attitude but he was always a kick to be around and did make her laugh.

“Great, I’ll text you with the details Aria but it sounds like it’s going to be on Friday at Javits Convention Center. Don’t know the times just yet but apparently it’s going to be a big thing.” With that she nodded and pulled out her wallet. Since she needed to meet a ‘friend’, she didn’t have time to pay with her card so she put down two twenties and gave Aria a smile. “Keep the change.” Sliding out of the seat she gave them a wave. “Good bye guys, I’ll be in touch later today!” With that she left the dinner.

A stop to the nearby donut store left the blonde carrying a small bag of two donuts and two cups of coffee before climbing into her car and driving the rest of the way to her work. The parking precede wasn’t as full as she would have expected, but Marian had always been an early bird but if her father caught some of the homeless people hanging out in front of the courthouse, he’d shoo them away. Then there was Marian, who arrived to the only homeless person who was as crazy as her to rise so early in the morning. “Good morning friend.” She said with a smile as she sat next to the old man on the staircase to have their morning donut and coffee together.

Pulling from the bag, she handed him the chocolate covered delightful donut and took its twin for herself as she handed him the cup of coffee, “I brought the creamer and sugar, it’s at the bottom of the bag because I don’t know how you like your coffee made.” She said with a smile as she sipped her coffee from her disposable cup. “So…” She began softly as she pulled the cup from her lips, the rim now covered in her soft pink lipstick. “I was wondering, and you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to but… how, how did you become homeless?”

[Jones Sparrow]

Robert loved seeing the faces of disgust as they walked on up to their jobs in the courthouse. Robert sat there, his cane next to him, holding out his tin can asking for money, and most of them would continue on without even a second glance. The life of a beggar was never easy... That's why Robin preferred to just simply take it. But there were the few who would put money in to the can, maybe some loose change, some a one or five dollar bill. It kept reminding him that there was always those hidden gems in a mountain of garbage.

During these thoughts is usually when Marian made her appearance. The blonde, to say the least, was stunning. She had the bluest eyes he had ever seen, and they were looking right at man she thought was an old one. "And a good morning to you!" Robert replied with a chuckle, his voice still sounding old and weathered as he gratefully took the donut, and coffee. When told that she had creamers and sugars, he shook his head. "Oh no, I'm a simple man, Miss Anderson. Black is just fine, thank you." He pressed the cup up to his lips, and smacking them like old men do afterwards. They ate mostly in silence, until she asked the question of how he became homeless. Now no one has ever asked this character before. he didn't expect people to! but he was prepared.

"Bad luck, bad decisions, bad people to turn to... It is the same sad tale that most people face, my dear." Robert said in a tone that was up beat, but also held the sadness of his demise. In a way, that was what Robert himself experienced. Now he wasn't a bad man, even when he was a wealthy one. He helped those in need for little money, and seemed to pick on Marian not in a cruel way, but more of a teasing one, one that she probably held a grudge about. One of those things he regrets.

"I'm okay, though... Those Merry Men seem to be fighting for old men like me." He chuckled a bit. "Just hope they know what they're doing..." He said quietly, taking a sip of his coffee.

[EasilyAmused]

The poor old man got dirty looks as he sat on the steps in front of the court house. That bothered Marian more than anything. She never understood the negativity towards polite homeless people; sure there were some that were aggressive and rude but then there were others like her donut friend who were rather polite and just shrugged off most of those people who were rude to them. If the world would just be a bit nicer to everyone than things could change but alas, that is not always the case.

“I see.” She said softly at his sad but less than detailed story about how he ended up homeless. Her lips wrapped around the lid of the coffee as she searched his face for more answered but the old cloaked man kept to himself more than anything. But he had a sense of happiness about him, something that she wouldn’t expect from someone in his situation. Always seeming to be on the brighter side of the dark side of things while his life seemed rather depressing and away from something she would consider ‘comfortable’, and for that all she could do was allow a small closed mouth smile to move across her full lips as she watched him with a sort of tenderness towards him.

The comment about the Merry Men made her giggle softly, as she finished her donut she tossed the little holding wrapper into the paper bag as she gave him a small shrug. “I’ve seen improvements in the city since they started to show up but that doesn’t mean the way they’re going about it is right… then again; well…” Her blue gaze scanned around before leaning towards him. “Quite a few of them kind of deserve it. But you didn’t hear that from me.” She said with a twinkle in her eyes and a cheeky smile across her full lips as leaned back against her right palm on the stairs before looking out over the lovely scenery in front of them; the hustle and bustle of traffic and cars and people… ah the city life.

“Though I will admit…” She began, feeling like she could trust the stranger/donut friend more than she’d be willing to admit anything to Allan. “If they ever catch Robin, I hope I’m in the room to hear his trail. I’d like to know what triggered his want to become a vigilante. How does he pick his targets? Is he really comfortable doing all of this? Or is it just for the thrill and danger of getting caught? Honestly I could see that being a reason. Girls like danger, and he’d really getting a lot of attention from the opposite sex and well…” Her face got a little soft as she bit on the corner of her bottom lip as she scanned the crowd in front of them, “it’s working…”

[Jones Sparrow]

The fact that Robert didn't really go in to detail about his life was a smart one. Why would an old man bore a young lady about something that happened to a lot of people in this city any day? Robert had eaten the donut and drank most of the coffee, and he was very interested on her comments of the Merry Men. Did she approve? Did she hate this as much as she hated Robert himself? Did she think this was necessary? All of those were answered, and he couldn't help but smile, his eyes twinkling a bit with mischief. She approved... well, sort of. She then started to talk about Robin Hood, and his heart started to beat faster. Did she really admit that she was falling for this man of mystery? All of these questions he could so easily answer!

But that would give away his identity. That would make her maybe disgusted with who she was falling for, Robert Locksley himself! The face of failure here in the law business! He couldn't tell her, and he wasn't sure now would be the right time to admit that this old man was a disguise, and that Robin Hood fell for her too! But he gave a chuckle, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I am sure Mister Hood does not plan on going to jail. He seems to be doing a pretty darn good job at avoiding them now! Even with their fancy gadgets and doo-hickeys! Always one step ahead." He gave a smile to her. "And he seems like a charming man... Heard stories of how he doesn't do any harm unless harm is being done to him, and treats people with respect... So my old ears hear from the gossip around town. Although he could be a bit too dangerous, you never know with those kind." He gave another old man chuckle.

"Well Miss Marian I don't want to keep you from your work. Thank you very much as always for the breakfast. Same time tomorrow, eh?" He asked with a smile, leaning over to get his cane, but also getting a good look at the blonde beauty, and the smell of her perfume.

[Rowdyruff]

Aria leaned into the table with a smirk on her face as Marian left after mentioning she had to "visit a friend". Robert thought he was so clever, as if none of the Merry Men had the slightest inch of smarts to figure out his little game, but you can never outsmart the smart.

One time, when the diner had been empty and Aria wasn't needed, as soon as Marian had left she had vanished into the backroom and into what she had assigned as her "little office" at the far back of the kitchen. It was actually a supply closet, but it was efficient for what Aria wanted to use it for. She had accessed the city's camera systems and practically stalked Marian's entire route - following her to where she'd settle with a homeless man, and they'd converse. Originally it hadn't bothered Aria, she'd dismissed the homeless man as some insignificant character that Marian had taken an interest in - but when she'd decided to stalk her "boss" instead of her best friend out of pure boredom, she'd realized it was far deeper. Although Marian was presumably unaware, Aria had discovered that Robert was this homeless individual. She was glad that she'd put hidden cameras in Robert's hangouts when she had, because now he couldn't hide anything from her.

She kept it secret though, she didn't think Allan needed to know Robert's dirty little secret. It'd only make things severely worse and it'd possibly throw the whole Merry Men scheme up in the air and expose it to Marian, and although Marian was Aria's closest friend - she couldn't foresee what her reaction would be. Her eyes shifted onto Allan to her left for a few moments, then back to the door. "I hope you know how to dance - because if my parents find out I'm there they'll want me to. And I'm not dancing with one of the random inbred posh boys that they'll try and pair me up with. Okay?" She grumbled, pushing up to her feet. "This also means I'm gonna' have to investigate the convention center. Do you wanna help, or would you rather stick to your coffee?" She kept her voice low, in case one of the few customers they ever really got overheard.

[EasilyAmused]

As the old man smacked his lips in an enjoying fashion towards the coffee, Marian couldn’t help but smile with joy. It was always nice when you could make someone happy, even if it was an old begging man on the corner. Even she enjoyed his company as well and as her blue gaze turned back to him, she listened closely to his stories. The same sad tale was told over and over again and the tales were always just as the promised; sad and almost exactly the same. Her head lifted and fell in a small nod a gentle smile crept across her full lips. Even though she couldn’t relate, she did wish to show as much empathy as possible. A listening ear never hurt.

His large hand patting her shoulder made her smile at him, flashing her pearly white teeth as she finished up her cup of coffee and slid it into the paper bag. A laugh left her as he began to talk about the gadgets that he never really understood but knew that the Merry Men were attempting to use them for good. But could you blame her for wanting to be in the room when Robin Hood was brought in; a lot of people were after him, it wouldn’t be a surprise that he would get caught. But if that many people could believe it wouldn’t happen than it most likely won’t. People tend to not rat out someone who was helping so many people… even Marian wouldn’t if she knew who he was.

“A charming man?” She repeated with a bit of a giggle before leaning back on her hands. “Charmers make the world go around and sometimes danger can be fun…” Her voice drug on once again, the poor love-sick girl was getting lost in her thoughts as Allan’s famous words about her crush pulled her back into reality; maybe she should be a little bit more focused on work instead of her little crush.

“Oh huh?” She said snapping back into reality and nodding with a smile. “Oh yes, work; that’s right.” A small giggle left her as she crumpled up the empty bag and got to her feet and looped her purse over her arm. “Yes, tomorrow of course.” With that she helped the old to his feet before giving him a bright smile. “See you tomorrow!”

After venturing inside, she made her way to her little cubical and pulled out her cell phone to text Aria.

Text: Hey, I need to go outfit shopping before the party, do you wanna go? We’ll make a girl’s day out of it!