Petty theft, crows, and failed plans

It all started going downhill when the man with the weird hat finished paying for his vegetables. 

Before then, everything had been going completely fine. Roman had convinced the three of them that everything would be fine as long as they pretended that they were just nice, paying customers picking out some food, so they had been silently filling their baskets with whatever food they could lay their hands on. That happened to be mostly bread, but they also stuck in a few fruits and the occasional vegetable (not too many vegetables, though, because the orphanage always made sure they had a good amount of those). 

After the man left, though, they were the only customers remaining, and the woman manning the stall clasped her hands together and turned to them. 

“Are you all—“ Suddenly, she took in the whole scene, and her eyes narrowed. “I hope you intend on paying for all of that.”

“Yeah, of course!” Avian laughed, picking an orange off of one of the piles of fruit and placing it in her basket. 

“Just give us a minute or two,” Roman added, nodding assuredly. “We’re still deciding what we want.”

The woman’s lips thinned into a line and Magnum glanced nervously over at his friends. Avian stepped on his foot and hissed, “Just. Act. Natural.”

As the seconds ticked on, they continued picking out whatever they wanted as the woman watched them like a hawk. Then, after Roman double checked that all three of them were finished, they abruptly bolted away.

“I knew it!” She hollered, her voice carrying over the crowds. “Filthy little thieves! Someone stop them!”

Making sure not to drop anything, they dashed between the stalls, elbowing people out of the way and leaving a trail of chaos in their wake. 

Luck was on their side, because nobody could be bothered to actually pursue them. Still, they kept running until they were completely out of the market and in the midst of the winding streets in the less affluent part of the city. As they slowed to a jog, Mangum pointed out a rickety ladder that led to the roof of a nearby building, and they climbed to the top.

Avian dropped her basket to the roof’s surface and collapsed unceremoniously, breathing hard. Roman sat down next to her with a sigh, and Magnum gathered the baskets into a small pile before doing the same. 

“Well, that… could have gone better,” Roman muttered, after they had sat in silence for a bit.

“What’re you complaining about?” Avian scowled, turning onto her side. “We got the stuff, didn’t we?”

“Mama Reika’s going to be so mad,” Magnum said absentmindedly. “She’s always telling us—“

“Yeah, yeah.” Avian sat up and stuck her nose into the air, doing a relatively inaccurate impression of the old woman. “Stealing from your own won’t solve anything… we have to join forces if we want to survive… or whatever. Who says she even has to find out? If we share with everyone else, everything will be gone before she even finds out.”

Roman threw her hands into the air, exasperated. “Use that stupid brain of yours for once! If we share the food with everyone in the orphanage, she’s going to find out right away!” 

“Oh well, I’m sorry! Not everyone can be as smart as you!”

“See, even you recognize how dumb—“

“Guys, come on,” Magnus called over them, grabbing a piece of bread and tearing a chunk off with his teeth. “We can jush eat everyfin by ourshelves.”

Roman and Avian both gave him deadpan looks.

“Ok, maybe not,” He admitted, looking over at everything they’d gathered. “We could… hide the stuff somewhere?”

“Where?!” Avian groaned. “Someone would find it.”

He shrugged. “It was just an idea.”

They fell silent, trying to come up with a solution that would satisfy all three of them. After a couple of minutes, a crow landed nearby and hopped over to one of the baskets curiously. 

“Shoo,” Avian grumbled, kicking at it with her leg. It hopped away with a squawk before flying over to another one of the baskets and beginning to peck at an apple on top. 

“Hey, that’s not yours,” Magnum protested, grabbing the basket protectively. 

“Technically, it’s not ours either,” Roman quipped. 

Avian sat up. “Finders keepers, losers—what the HELL?!”

A murder of crows descended from the sky and joined the first crow in circling the baskets and pecking at whatever they could reach. The three friends sat there for a moment, stunned. 

“Do something, Magnum!” Avian yelped, scrambling to her feet. “Try—uh. Try punching them!”

“Are you out of your mind—“

A few of the crows hopped over to the basket in Magnum’s hands, and he dropped it, alarmed. With that, the group of crows had taken over all of the baskets of food.

“Gee, great job, Magnum,” Avian muttered. “You didn’t even try having a go at them.”

“Come on, I’m not going to punch a bunch of crows!”

“I guess this is a sign—we’re leaving everything for these stupid birds. Let’s go, guys.” Roman began heading for the ladder, exasperated. 

“At least they get to have a nice lunch.” 

“It’s ok,” Magnum said, patting Avian’s shoulder consolingly. “We did our daily good deed.”

“Daily? Speak for yourself, man. I do good deeds once every month.”

“That’s because you’re a horrible person, Avian.”

Avian lunged at Roman as she quickly made her way down the ladder and out of her reach. 

——

At dinner that evening, Mama Reika lingered at their table a few seconds too long as she made her rounds across the room. After a moment of consideration, she called out, “you three.”

“Yes?” Roman asked sheepishly, adjusting her hat. The nearby orphans looked up from their food, sensing that an entertaining scene was about to unfold. 

“I’ve heard talk of a market stall being robbed by three hooligans this afternoon.” She paused, letting the words sink in. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Nope!” Avian butted in. “We actually hadn’t heard about that. Until you told us.”

Mama Reika frowned disapprovingly at her. “Don’t lie to me, girl. Were you involved in it or not?”

Magnum suddenly became very interested in his plate, and Roman fumbled for an excuse. After a second or two, she said, “Why would we steal a load of food knowing we’d have nowhere to put it? We’d have to be complete idiots to do something like that.”

“Hmph.” She smiled wryly and turned away again. “That’s a good point. Carry on, then.”

After she was no longer within earshot, Magnum made a face at her. “We’re not idiots.”

“Yeah!” Avian hissed, brandishing her fork angrily. “Couldn’t you have come up with a different explanation?”

“No,” she declared, shoving a spoonful of food in her mouth and abruptly ending the conversation. 

They finished the majority of their dinner in silence, their minds still on their failed robbery from that afternoon. 

…Next time they stole something, they would make sure not to bite off more than they could chew.