A few months after Ursula’s attack on Hyades

 

Jay can't help his grin as he lazily strolls through the market. His pockets slowly growing heavy as he easy moves through both marks and tents. He subconsciously scans the market for anything that even vaguely resembled a lamp; maybe today would be the day he could bring his dad ‘the big score’. 

Yeah. Right. He can’t help the scoff that darkens his features. Like anything of value still lingered in this shit hole. The adults swiped anything of value before he was even born. If there was anything of magic or financial worth, he doubted pick pocketing was going to be the way to find it. 

He didn’t want to think about why he still tried despite that truth though. Living on the isle had  taught him better than dwell on thoughts like that. So when he suddenly hears a familiar chiming of giggles he can’t help but to smile at himself. A distraction sounded great just about now. He turns, eagerly looking for Evie, only to groan when he notices who she was with.

Hyades. He liked the tiny demigod, he really did. But when she and Evie were together... Evie or Hyades alone was one thing, putting them together was a potential disaster in the making. They drew attention everywhere they went, even when they weren’t trying.

They were the perfect distraction for a thief like him- And the many others that prowled these street.

He curses, debating the pros and cons as he scan the market. He could keep looking for the fabled big haul; which would be mostly boring, tedious, and in the end nothing but unsatisfying- 

Or, he could go see what was so damn funny that they had to draw all sets of eyes to them in the middle of a crowded market. 

His dad would be disappointed, he should be robbing people blind right now, but that was nothing was new. His feet make the decision for him as he turns and heads towards the laughter slowly making its way down the street.

Jay suddenly stops mid step, his instincts making him dive into the nearest shadow as the hair on the back of his neck stand. Something was off. 

He takes a quick inventory of the market again, searching for whatever it was that alerted him to danger. He tilts his head to the side as the tail of a cloak snaps around a corner and vanishes from view. Him again? He frowns. The shadow. 

His eyes narrow in suspicion.  He’d seen the damn kid (He hoped it was a kid) more often lately, flying across the rooftops, doing fuck only knew what, and fuck only knew who he was. He’d tried asking around, but it was rare anyone knew what he was talking about. 

This was the first time he’d ever seen this infamous shadow fall though. He frowns. Maybe it was a copycat. One of the pirates trying to pick up a new skill, and sucking at it as per usual? He shrugs it off. 

Well this day had quickly gotten interesting. Thieve, chill, or stalk?

The shadow had been bothering him for a while… And Mal would probably be pissed if he didn’t follow the freak in the cape. The shadow made his decision for him however when it heads in the same direction as Evie and Hyades.

With a predator’s grin, he takes off after them; turning predator to prey.

He can’t help the smirk that tugs at his lips when he notices the kid already back on the roof tops. If nothing else, he would be able to practice doing similar stunts. He races to the closest surface and jumps, pulling himself up to the second story.

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed by the shadows cat like maneuvers as it sprang over his head. The shadow was quick. But he relished the challenge as he quickly worked his way up the building and takes chase.

He frowns as the kid pauses again, for what had to be the fifteenth time. Jay hated how long it would take him to relocate the shadow each time it ducked out of sight. 

This guy was good. But he was better. 

Jay would never admit how grateful he actually was for those pauses. The last twenty minutes of this chase had definitely redeemed the kid’s earlier fall. 

At times he’d barely been able to keep up. He found himself second guessing how well he could jump some of the wide gaps, and the narrow ledges this kid was actually landing on were hard to nail as well. If this wasn’t the shadow it was one hell of an impressive copycat. 

But what the fuck was up with the stops? What the fuck was this shadow doing? 

He glances towards the girls, frowning when he realized that Dizzy was also with them.  He bites back a sigh of frustration. 

Fucking girls. 

Jay rolls his eyes. What the hell did they think they were going to do? Throw a picnic in the middle of the marsh? He wanted to throttle them for not paying better attention to their surroundings; too caught up in fucking shopping to notice the fact that two people were tailing them. He shakes his head in disbelief as he catches sight of the dark hood again.

And what the fuck was this guy's deal? A grin lights up his face after the cloaked figure jumps into the third floor of a dilapidated abandoned building . It was finally time to shed some light on this shadow.  He rolls his eyes as more laughter peals out from below before he pushes off the half wall he takes the opportunity presented. 

“Hey there.” He calls out after perching in the window. 

The figure freezes for a moment before turning in his direction. 

“Can’t help but notice that you’ve been-” Jay pauses for a moment as he hops down from the ledge. “-following my partners in crime.” He steps closer, unsure of what to expect. “What’s up with that?” He asks sizing up the covered figure, surprised to see this kid was about Carlo’s height. Nothing else particularly stood out or drew his attention though. Even the kids face was hidden. Jay purses his lips, slightly frustrated he couldn’t get more off the kid due to the many layers he was rocking. 

“You caught the fall.” Comes a soft, resigned, response.

Jay grins. “Yeah.” He crosses his arms over his chest and lazily leans back against the wall. “I gotta hand it to you, you’ve got some raw stealth skills.”

The figure studies him for a moment before mirroring him across the wall. 

“I’m Jay by the way.” He offers after a few awkward silent moments.

“I know.” The figure responds shortly.

Jay snorts. “Well that’s great and all, but it doesn’t really let me know who I’m talking to.”

“Oh…” And then a longer than there should be pause. “I’m T.” He finally shrugs. 

T? What the fuck type of name was that? “Great. Sup T?” Jay asks with a smug head nod.

T looks up and studies the ceiling briefly. “A crumbling ceiling.” 

“Stick to the stealth kid, ya got more talent there.” Jay says with an eye roll. “Why are ya following those girls?”

“Was I?” T questions.

“Yeah, every stall they stopped at and everything.” What was with this guy? When you’re caught, you’re caught.

 “Coincidence, then.” T shrugs.

“Yeah.” Jay shakes his head and pushes off the wall. “I don’t think so.” He walks over to a window on the wall T was near. He could still easily see Evie’s black and blue hair, Hyades white and blue hair, and little Dizzy’s hood.

“Well… Nice speaking to you-” T pushed off the wall.  “I’m leaving.”

“Hey woah, we’re just talking.” Jay holds up a hand. 

“Well if you're going to be here loitering around, no real reason for me to stick around.”

“Why? Am I keeping ya from picking their pockets?”

“I have better things to do with my time.” T deadpans.

“Well, if you weren’t looking for easy marks…” Jay’s eyes narrow as he studies the boy in front of him. He was much shorter, though his actual shape was hard to make out under the layers of baggy clothing. He grins, obviously that made it easier to store stolen treasures; he was kind of dying to see what the kid had hidden under there. “I mean, I know the princesses are certainly easy on the eyes.”

“No shit.” T responds with a small frown.

Jay snorts. “Hey, I’m just trying to figure out your angle.”

“Angle?” T repeats quietly as if testing the word, his fingers tapping together to form a triangle, slowly before he blushes and drops his hands. “Oh, right.” He face palms. “I had nothing better to do.”

“Nothing better to do than follow obnoxiously giggly girls around?” Jay’s head cants to the side slightly. He couldn’t tell if this guy was messing with him or not.

“Well, now there is.” He corrects with a small smile.

Jay shakes his head as he slowly takes a few steps closer to T. “So you were just spending your free time, what, watching them?”

“Yeah.” T nods. “I like watching people.” He shrugs.

“Oh yeah? Me too.” Jay nods agreeably. “I like watching to see if they have anything worth stealing.” He grins. “With a little help you’d probably get a lot better at hiding and sneaking around. You know, in my professional opinion.”

“How humble.” T responds tonelessly.

“Humble isn’t really villain style.” He teases darkly. Just a few more steps and he could see just what kind of ‘hobbies’ T was hiding in his baggy clothes.

T shrugs as he takes a step back. “Are we done?”

“Almost…” Jay slips up closer, finally close enough to pilfer pockets. With a grin he swiftly gauges the bulky fabric. To his disappointment, he can’t find a single piece of loot. That didn’t stop him from freezing in surprise when his thumb brushes something peculiar though. He doesn’t have time to investigate though, T’s hand shoots out and knocks his arm away; both boys jump away from each other.

T’s lip is pulled into a snarl; knife drawn. 

Jay frowns. “Really?” The kid had startled. Like Carlos startled. He studies the enigmatic figure for a moment, his eyes dropping to the knife before looking back to his shadowed face. If he was serious about attacking him he would already be bleeding. He was pretty sure this was the kid he and the others had seen watching them off on and for a while now. 

He felt torn. 

On one hand the kid hadn’t actually done anything except be creepy and weird, on the other he was a walking red flag. No one on the island would put so much effort into this long of an endeavor for no reason. He huffs. 

This totally wasn’t his thing. Mal usually made the calls when it came down to this shit. He wished the kid had just been a thief looking’ for a mark. At least that was simple and to the point. Now though, now he had to figure out exactly what this kid was planning.

“Shut the fuck up.” T growls, as he rocks back and forth with indecision.

“You do you bro.” Jay shrugs. “But you come at me with that knife and you’ll see exactly how big of a gap there is between us.” He could literally feel the kid oozing with suspicion,

T growls before his eyes drop to his own hands. The movement causes folds of T’s hood bunches up, and Jay is finally able to make out the barest bit of dirt stained face. As T steps back a blush crawls over one visible cheek.

“Are we done?” T asks as the knife disappears back up his sleeve.

Jay shrugs again. “You ever want some lessons-” He offers taking a step back and crosses his arms over his chest again. Maybe spending some time with T would help him figure this all out. 

T is silent for a long moment, as he studied Jay for an uncomfortable length of time. “What lessons…” He responds slowly. 

“Stealth?” Jay’s eyes narrow, “Knives? Swords? Pickpocketing? Ya know,” he gives the other boy a grin, “anything that I’m particularly good at.”

T blinks, “Oh.” Another uncomfortable pause. “I’ll keep that in mind… Thank you.”

Jay nods. “And hey, who are your parents?” He frowns as he asks, wondering why he’d never seen him, or even heard of him before.

T pauses but Jay can see the way he tenses at the question and quirks an eyebrow.

“Why?” T finally asks.

Jay tilts his head to the side in surprise. Everyone introduced their parents, that was just common practice. 

“When I addressed you, did I call you Jay? or Jay son of Jafar, the grand vizier to some half wit Salton and the worst reader of fine print perhaps in history?” T deadpans. 

“No need to get snippy. I just asked.” He shrugs. It didn’t really matter who T’s parents were, but it might have offered clues. “Since you know who my dad is it only seems fair that you tell me yours.”

“Sorry, just a whores kid.” T shrugs.

“Right…” Jay rolls his eyes before he turns to look out the window again. “Offer still stands, even if you are being a baby about the heritage thing.”

T shakes his head. “Nah man, it’s not like that…” He frowns. “I just….What the Christ is the point of it? So you can gauge how much of a threat I am?” He sighs. “Or at least the potential, because we’re what? Fucked at birth? Destined to be like them? The next them? Jesus, Mary, and fuckin’ Joseph I fucking hope not.” He shakes his head. “Life is just another roll of the dice. Most people come out okay. Some come out good and turn out to be shit, and some might come out shit and turn out decent.” He huffs. “Do you seriously think with a kingdom as big as Auradon they were actually able to lock up every single piece of shit in the land? That the people on this island are the only villains in existence? That the people who condemned infants and children to live with the literal worst villains are really the heroes?” He asks with a frown as he studies Jay curiously.

Jay stares at the other boy in surprise, unsure what had spurred that- whatever that was- on. This was one of the most personal conversations he’d ever been a part of, and he was talking to a complete stranger. It made him incredibly uncomfortable. 

Jay shifts uneasily as the other boy’s dark green eyes bore into him, as if the he actually expected him to answer. Like he would even know how to begin to answer those questions, or  wanted to. Who just asked people that type of shit?

What the hell had he been thinking offering to teach this kid anything. He’d spent less than five minutes with him and could already tell there was something really off with this kid. It was just hard to put it into words. 

 “If you say so.” He replies coolly in the attempt to hide how awkward he felt. If he wanted more information about this guy, he was going to figure something else out. “If you’ve got more important shit to do… I don’t want to hold you up.”

T nods glancing from him to the window down at the girls who had picked up and started walking away. “Are you staying on top of that?” He gestures outside. “It’s only getting darker and one of them glows.” He adds dryly.

Jay can’t help the lift of his brow. Maybe T was just worried about the girls? But that didn’t feel right either. Evie and Hydes had never met the shadow, T, apparently. 

Except his last outburst, which Jay was doing his best to pretend didn’t just happen, for too many reasons. People weren’t supposed to think like that... Well, besides Hyades, but that was different. This kid was… Trouble didn’t really seem like the right word. “Yeah, I’ll get ‘em. They probably got so caught up in ‘fashion this or fashionable that’ that they haven’t even noticed the time.”

T nods before pulling himself up onto the window ledge. He stares at Jay for a moment, his fingers tapping against the window sill nervously. “Thank you for the conversation.” With that he turns and jumps out the window. 

Jay frowns as he stares at the window. Well that wasn’t much shedding light on the shadow so much as naming it... T was definitely someone he would need to look out for in the future. Thanking him for this weird ass conversation. He shakes his head. Still, he wasn’t sure what to think about the kid. The whole interaction had been utterly unsatisfying and left him with more questions than he had answers. However he had more tangible problems to attend too, so he shakes his head before vaulting out the window.

He catches Evie and Hyades as they leave the Cut and Dye, having walked Dizzy home.

T had given his a lot to think about, and it definitely felt like while he’d figured out the name of the shadow, he was walking away from this encounter with a hundred more questions.

And of course he was going to have to think of the best way to tell Mal. 

But for now, he had a couple of idiot girls to yell at for being so oblivious all day. That just wasn’t something you could do when everyone around you was a villain.