The day wasn’t a bad day, by any means, and the at the end, she was enjoying a little card came with her friend, Johnny. They were seated in the one of the back tables of the restaurant that Johnny’s family owned, the Dragon Inn. The Dragon Inn was a Chinese restaurant located in the heart of the business district of New York.

It was about 9:30 pm. The streets outside were still cold and by the looks of it, the weather wasn’t going to improve over night. Snow was coming down in thick clumps and for once, Sara was extra happy to have a belly full of food, and the time to spend with her human friend where it was warm.

The inside of the restaurant was almost empty. Not many people were venturing out in the cold to get Chinese takeout. Most were ordering in, and with the rest of Johnny’s family out on delivery runs, the inside of the restaurant seemed darker. Naturally the lights had been dim. The inside of the restaurant and it’s many booths resembled the inside of a ship. Thick wood panels covered the walls and were made out of the same type of wood that the tables and chairs had been. Lanterns hung from the ceilings but rather than risking a real flame, they hung from electric lights that flickered in attempts to provide a timely atmosphere and tried to look like they held real flames. Behind Sara, a huge Chinese dragon was carved into the back wall and decorated with cold paint and red trim.

Johnny peered at Sara from behind his five cards. Sara back at him from over her four. Her tail twitching. Johnny was 23 years old, but he still looked like he should be in his late teens. His body was more lean than most his age from going to college and helping to run his family’s restaurant, and his eyes had never lost that glint of a mischievous child. The fact that he had never grown into his ears didn’t help either.

“Got any sixes?” Sara asked.

Johnny smirked and shook his head. “Go fish.”

"Okay, keep hair in place over face and walk in as if I belong there, confidently. Ask to see the menu, then wait." Ember silently repeated this in his head as he stared across the street at the Chinese restaurant there. Stealing from a take out place shouldn't be too hard right? He had never tried to steal from a restaurant before, but he was hungry, and he couldn't just exactly pay for it, now could he? This would likely be a stupid stunt that could get people looking for him, but a guy's gotta eat right? The problem with taking anything from muggers is that they can often tend to be just as broke as he is.

Ember rearranged his long golden blond hair to conceal his face and features as best he could without looking outright suspicious, then, taking a deep breath, he trudged across the street, and wrapped his arms around himself against the cold. The homeless boy hesitated outside the door for just a moment, rethinking his plan once more, then shoulders his way into the restaurant. There was a lot that could go wrong, but he was bloody hungry. Ember took a quick look around, and walked up to the counter as naturally as he could, but his breathing came a little quickly. He was about to really become a criminal, not somewhere he had ever wanted to be, but here he was. Beating the crap out of muggers didn't really count, as far as he was concerned. He Stepped up to the counter, and quickly asked the person behind the counter, "Is there a menu I could look at?"

Being gestured towards a little stand of menus on the counter, Ember nodded and took one, leaning against the counter, trying to appear nonchalant, opening up and pretending to stare at the menu, but he couldn't really focus on it at first, his eyes darting around the room nervously. Finally, after a few seconds of this, Ember took a deep breath, counting backwards from ten in his head to calm his nerves, and began to really look at the menu. After another moments hesitation, Ember turned back to the cashier and ordered a decent sized meal, take out. Once that was done with, he then had to wait, and his nervousness started to show through a bit; he started tapping his foot tunelessly, his eyes darting around again.

By the time the person came out with his order, Ember had gradually turned into a jumble of nerves. He had nearly jumped out of his skin, before giving a slight snort at his reaction. He made sure to do his best to make it hard to make out many details of his face, keeping his hair in place, head bowed slightly, and he made as if he was reaching for a wallet, then he shot his hand forwards, grabbed the bag of chinese take out, and be-lined for the door, running as fast as he could, and keeping his head down, prepared to shoulder it open. 

Sara’s card game was put on a temporary hold when a customer walked through the door. Johnny had gotten up to help him, and Sara pulled her attention away from the door, and her pile of cards and pointed her nose into a book. Waiting for Johnny to return so that they could continue their game.

Time passed and she paid no attention to the man at the front of the restaurant, waiting for his take out meal. Other wise she would have definitely picked up on the odd way that he was acting. Instead, Sara’s attention was moving between her book, and the hand of cards that Johnny had left face down on the table. It was way too tempting to look at his hand. Knowing Johnny, he could have been cheating. So there Sara sat, with the faced down cards seeming to mock her as she tried to read her book when the truth was that she’d really only read the same three lines over and over again.

It wasn’t till there was some action at the front of the restaurant that Sara pulled herself away from the backs of the cards on the table, her hand hovering a few inches above the face down hand that Johnny had left. There was a quick stream of exclamations from Johnny. His dark hair making a particularly messy mop about his ears as he yelled at the Dine and dasher. Johnny tried to step in the man’s way, but Johnny was short and still a bit of a bean pole. Even the lack of authority in his voice made few people take him seriously. Johnny was easily shouldered to the side.

Sara was out of her chair, and headed to follow the crook. “What’d he get?” Sara yelled at Johnny, who was picking himself up off of the floor.

Johnny rubbed the back of his head where it had bounced off of the door frame. The crook was already out the door and Sara was leaning out to look and see where he was going. “He just got some food. Nothing important.” Johnny told Sara but she was out the door and he leaned out yelling after her. “It’s not worth it.”

“That’s not the point.” She yelled over her shoulder. Then set off to follow the thief through the crowd on the street. "Hey! Stop!"

The other boy’s attempt to stop him was almost laughable really. He barely even slowed Ember down on his sprint for the door. The scrawny kid had probably never been in a real fight before. ‘He should learn to toughen up, because the world is a cruel place and the weak get trampled by those who decide to take what they want.’ Embers thoughts were of disdain, but he didn’t like that kind of world either, he just feels he has adapted to the circumstances and there is not much you can do to change it, so why bother with being the nice guy who gets stepped on time and time again?

Once he was out the door, he shouldered past anyone who got in his way and cut straight across the street, judging he could easily make it to the other side without getting hit, but he did cause one driver to hit the brakes and slide out of control as he sprinted past. Luckily he didn’t seem to have hit anything, but he did step out of the car and start yelling profanities at Ember as he glanced over his shoulder to look back after he was on the other sidewalk. He kept running, but he also gave a quick flip of the finger over his shoulder as he turned down the sidewalk towards the corner.

He didn’t really pay Sara’s shouts any mind, just focusing on getting out of there quickly and then maybe stepping into an alley or something to help throw off pursuit. He was really figuring this part out as he went. He wasn’t really happy about running with this food like this, he would have preferred to do something less cowardly, less out in the open, but he knew that it would have been far less practical at this time, but it still frustrated him. He glanced back again, almost hoping for someone to be coming after him.