Darling

Rat was born to a couple of poor folk in Annesburg, their father a coalminer and their mother, like many women, kept the coal-town running. They were in love and a lovely couple by all accounts, but Rat's mother died during childbirth.

It was tragic, and their grief-stricken father began to neglect them, he didn't name them and he couldn't take care of them, he had to work and he threw himself into his work, leaving the nameless babe to be cared for by neighbors, but it was too much for him, the baby a constant reminder of what he lost, and he knew he couldn't provide for it; so one day he took the baby, wrapped them up in a carrier nice and cozy, and abandoned them on a train bound for Saint Denis. They weren't discovered until the train had stopped in the city and by then no one could be sure how they had gotten there or who they belonged to. With no other options, they were handed over to the local orphanage run by the church.

The nuns christianed them Susanne, but they were never adopted. That fussy baby grew into a precocious child who often shirked their lessons and preferred running around with the street kids to spending time in church. The street kids christianed them Rat, a name they liked far better than Susanne. Though the nuns were patient with the frequent occasions Rat was brought back to the church by a lawman who caught them stealing, the older and more troublesome Rat was the less they could handle it. Eventually, the nuns turned them out onto the street where they claimed they belonged.

Rat started a gang of streetkids, a network of pickpockets and spies who'd help folk out- for a price. Everyone paid their weight and they kept their heads down enough so the lawmen wouldn't seek them, but they caused enough trouble to have fun. Some kids aged out though, they got jobs in factories or as errand boys or what have you and Rat figured they'd age out too, eventually. But even once they became an adult they couldn't make themself work and instead stayed with the small, ever shifting gang of kids. They looked after the kids, that's what mattered.

It was Claudia Rose who christianed them Darling. One of her patrons was being less than kind and happened to drag her into an alleyway that was in Rat's "territory", of course they intervened to help her! But they didn't stick around long after. Claudia Rose kept coming around though, determined to meet her saviour and eventually she did, Rat told her they didn't have a name, so she called them 'Darling', and they liked the sound of it.

The two of them remain friends although they aren't close; they'll meet and chat but they live in seperate (albeit similar worlds), Rat keeps an eye out for Claudia Rose and she keeps an eye out for them.