You'll Never Catch Me Alive, COPPER! // Nick Alvarez

Ildas hated cops. Sinking lower in the uncomfortable chair, Ildas scowled, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. Hating the woman behind the desk with a badge on her shoulder proudly. Ildas spent the entire time the woman was rambling on and on about how Ildas was going to be sent to a new and better home, and that it was for the better, insulting the woman in her head.

Don't think so, lady, Ildas thought, not trying to hide a glare up at the woman. Turning her head to the left, she noted a security officer standing by the door way out. Turning her head to the right, Ildas was disappointed to find that hallways led deeper into the building and not to a way out. The woman finally finished, smug to herself about taking a child off the streets and resigning her to a family that didn't want her.

And she didn't want them.

Ildas had Moo, though, Moo was completely lost now a days. The story being one that seemed to be set in stone, like it wouldn't change, like being alone and on the streets was her new normal. Ildas hopped up off the chair, putting her hands behind her back with an innocent smile, swaying her dress in a bell like fashion and curling her toes into the carpet.

"Hold on, 'kay? Which way's the Ba'hroom?" The woman smiled, pointing down to the right hallway, immediatly looking back down at her paperwork. Apparently, you needed three things to legally kidnap and imprision a child in another 'family' that was paid to feed them. First, was the child. Second, was a pen. Third, was a paper. Lots of paper. A reason, wasn't on the list. Ildas walked towards the exit, with a swagger that she was to leave and wasn't sneaking out in the slightest.

Noticing a lone child coming his way, the security officer leaned down, crouching on the floor to her level with a friendly smile.

"Hey there.." He started, and Ildas beamed, tilting her head to the side and stood up on her tip toes. "Hullo~ She asked for you. Said it was important!" Ildas pointed urgently towards the desk lady, to which the man nodded, stood and walked over to consult the woman. Happily, Ildas pushed the glass door open with her tiny hands splayed on the polished glass. Stepping out onto the sidewalk street, throwing back smirky grin at the confused desk lady and security guard who were chattering amungst one another.

Then she took off, straight into a crowd, her tiny body weaving in and out of small spaces. Dodging bodies much bigger then her with ease, and danced about on her tip toes. Blocks away from the police department, Ildas stayed in crowds, hiding from any patrolling men in blue with shiny badges with experianced ease.

Nick slowly walked down the busy street. For the first time since he was sent to London, he actually went out for lunch. Unlike other cops and agents, Nick didn't wear his badge on his belt. He had it stuffed in the pocket of his sport jacket. Nick rarely wore his badge visible to others. Only when he was out on official FBI business. Right now, he was just a regular guy out for lunch at some fancy restaurant. Or not so fancy, he didn't really care. Not to mention that he had to keep it within his financial means.

A small sigh escaped the Latino's lips. The man still wasn't quite used to his new surroundings, yet. He really missed the Miami sun and climate. He rarely got to wear short-sleeved shirts without a jacket out here. He had to choose a different kind of wardrobe now, hence the sport jacket. At least it wasn't raining today.

At a red pedestrian light, Nick stopped. He watched the London traffic go by, the only thing that really reminded him of home. For some reason that brought up the slight feeling of homesickness – again. He hated that feeling, in fact he wasn't happy with himself even feeling that way. He had to get used to this new life, because there was no telling when he would get home again. Maybe for a visit in a couple of weeks, when he could afford it. Looking to his right, people were walking up and down the street in crowds, busily heading to their destination. In that moment, the little girl he was about to meet, was still hidden from his view by the people on the streets.

Her green dress stood out in the gaps in the crowds, and though she held the ability to keep hidden in large clusters, the group she was hidden within was dispersing! Ildas wasn't panicked by this very thought for two reasons only, one being that children were often times immune to the fear that came with slight change in the world that lead to other changes in the world, specifically, hers. The second reason being that Ildas wasn't paying this world any attention in the least bit.

Oh, she'd meant to!

But the sky drew her gaze to it like gold to a dragon, the swirling clouds spun into shapes, almost like a future teller's crystal ball with white smoke inside. Oh, her eyes were drawn upwards, towards the sky, towards the sun! How bright it was! Almost as if it was a fire ball, stuck to the glue of the blue of the sky! Ildas could picture it now, two mages (one HAD to be evil, naturally) having a duel for the state, no, the world! And a stray fireball hit the sticky side of the sky and couldn't be scraped off after the battle was won!

A police car pulled up beside the dwindling crowd, and Ildas blinked, scanning around only to find that her crowd that hid her from the police officers had scattered and left her around with a total of ten people. Not a shield from the police, that was for sure.

Ildas wasn't a fool, the desk lady had raised an alarm, and sent out a description of the small 'needy and desperate' child to nearby police officers. And one of them had noticed her. In her green plaid dress with a plain white T shirt underneath. Both were large in size, the dress falling to her ankles, and the sleeves of the T nearly coming to her elbows. Ildas didn't wear shoes upon her barefeet, and wore her blonde hair back and underneath a yellow decorated bandana.

So, she stood out.

Cunning, and drunk on the fact that she knew such termonoligy about desk ladies and descriptions, Ildas skipped over to the nearest random person in a cross walk. Couldn't be to old, couldn't be to young. Stealing that person's hand, Ildas did her best to look affectionate, like the person was someone dear. Leaning forwards Ildas smiled over at the police officer who started to get out of the car. The officer looked at her, looked at a paper on a clipboard, shook his head and went back in the car, pulling out of the street.

He'd assumed that the person with her hand was her care taker. His description was of a small child who didn't have one.

Ildas let go of the stranger's hand, and crossed the street as the crosswalk sign turned green. Completely forgetting the entire encounter within a moment, and ignorant that the person she'd just used to con a police officer wouldn't just fade to the background.

-ooc
The stranger she held hands with is Nick (if you can't tell) but she let go as soon as the police officer was done

A heavy sigh left Nick's lips, standing at the edge of the street, waiting for the light to turn green. At least it was a decent temperature today and no rain. Even though he had been here for a little while now, Nick still hadn't fully adjusted to the city of London. Oh, and the way people talked around here!
Well, he understood what they were saying most of the times, but the British accent was new to him, still and sometimes he stood in front of a person, not really knowing what they actually said, until they said it much slower.

No, he wasn't from here. And he probably stood out in the small crowd that surrounded him now. Probably because of his Latino looks, because he was the only one tanned as much as he was. Not that he cared much.

Standing there, waiting, Nick noticed a police car stopping nearby and an officer about to get out. It was then that he felt how a little hand quickly took a hold of his. He looked down in surprise, seeing the blond girl holding his hand and giving the police officer a grin. It was as if she was playing them, but Nick couldn't tell for sure. He didn't know about the girl that ran from the police every chance she got. And he also didn't know that they were looking for this particular girl. He was just an FBI Agent, working in the embassy, he didn't get any of those descriptions, unless it was a missing child and even then it wasn't his field of work.

As soon as the police officer was back in his car and drove away, the sign turned green and the little girl let go of his hand. He watched her walk across the street for a moment, before he quickly followed, remembering that he wanted to go that way, too. But there was something about this girl that made him curious. “Hey! Hold on a minute, sweetie.” he called out to Ildas, not too loud of course and his voice warm and friendly.

Ildas promptly decided to play a new game as she walked from the man a few paces, his entire presence entirely gone from her mind, as, perhaps, as quickly as pebbles on a slide. The road, like all cross walks, had horizontal white lines, to signal to drivers, of course, that pedestrians would cross there and to take care, lest an accident occur. Such reasoning was beyond the little girl's interest, as well as current compreheshion. She was a smart girl, learning quickly and curious, at least, Moo claimed so! Oh, he'd always been so very praising of her, looking at the pavement, her heart grew heavy with a longing that she had not quite remembered being so intense before.

Of course, she felt the same for every passing thought of Moo, memory, however, faded with her interest, and as such, when she felt such pangs once again, imagined them to be worse then ever before. And so, Ildas was quite sure that she was getting worse, that eventually she'd hit the  very bottom. Ildas wasn't quite sure what the bottom was, and quite wondered if she had already hit it with the cold, creeping, clutching longing the envoloped her. She hoped with, all of her tiny body that it was the very worst that the world had to give. And promptly forgot that thought, it slipping out of her open grasp to be lost as though it were a discarded toy, to be piled upon the thousand other lost ideas of her own mind.
Holding her arms outwards, she decided upon a game, hopping from one white line to the next. It was for some that she had to stretch her tiny legs as far as she could, a sound of 'oof' and strain coming from her slightly parted lips in effort. Some were simply a hop away, and it was on one of these, that she heard the man, whom she had completely forgotten in all entirety of, call for her attentions. Her arms still out, she turned, putting her arms behind her back, folding her fingers into one another, and swaying from side to side slightly, the hem of the dress firmly touching at her legs when she swayed.

"Hullo" Ildas reached out both widespread hands, waving with outstretched fingers in a childish, excitedly, frantic manner. The crowd bustled past, all rushing to leave the cross walk before it turned red, so intend on them to get to their destinations.

Without really noticing, Nick kept an eye out for the young girl, as she hopped from stripe to stripe. A warm smile played around his lips, because he remembered that he used to do that all the time when he was a kid. Oh, those were good times! Really good times. But that thought disappeared from his mind as quickly as it came on. Mostly because he himself was trying to get to the other side of the street. He knew the light would turn red eventually, so it wouldn't hurt to hurry a little.

Nick didn't think that the girl had heard him and actually gave up hope of actually getting the chance to talk to her for a moment. He was curious why she acted so weird when the police car stopped. And most of all, he wanted to know why a little girl like herself was out on the busy and dangerous street seemingly all by herself. Maybe he could help her somehow. Somehow, without any obvious reason, he was interested in hearing her story, even though he had no idea what it was, or if she even had one. She might as well just be a regular child living nearby.

So, when she turned around and he noticed that she did hear him, a friendly smile came to his face. He didn't want to scare her, nor seem like a guy who would do harm to a sweet little girl. With all the criminals he had seen and hear about, God knows what people would think if a male stranger was talking to a girl without actually knowing her.
"Hey there." he said, getting a little closer to her. He spoke in a soft and friendly kind of way. "What's your name?"

Ildas hummed, tilting her head to look at him wonderingly " 'm Ildas!" Ildas hopped, punctuating her words as she spoke. And beaming up at him with a tilt of her head, seeing as, of course, he was marginally taller then her, though, this was fairly common to herself by now. 'It's not very smart to stop in the middle of the road.." Ildas remdined him, he looked friendly enough, and honestly, Ildas quite imagined herself to be an AMAZING judge of character.

The blonde child didn't wait for an answer, and he didn't seem to be moving fast enough for her, so she walked beside him, swinging her feet before her, arms outstretched and wandering over. Her tiny fingers wrapped around his hand, and she pulled him to the other side of the street insistantly. "You walk SLOW!" Ildas complained, her voice nearly to the tone of whining and her atttention elsewhere. At the end of the street, the sidewalk at her feet,

Ildas immediatly let her fingers slide off of his hand, clasping her hands together behind her back and swaying slightly with a smile. She rather liked how this dress hit her knees like a bell,

Nick couldn't help but smile at the young girl's actions. He wasn't really used to it, but he did know how little girls could be. After all, he had a niece of almost three. And once again he was reminded of how much he missed that little bundle of joy. But he couldn't think about that now, he had to deal with the task at hand: that blond child next to him.

"Ildas... a pretty name." he said, his voice soft and friendly. He didn't mean any harm to the child, he just wanted to get to know her and maybe see if he could help somehow.

Willingly he let her pull him to the other side of the street, giving an amused chuckle at her complaint of him walking slow. For him it was usual pace, but it seemed that children always wanted to run and walk fast. Or perhaps he was just getting old? Nah, he wasn't that old. But then, he sadly didn't have children of his own yet, either.

"Well, I guess I do walk a little slow for a quick girl like you." he admitted with a small smile. "How come you are all by yourself?"

Ildas beamed wildly at his compliment to her name. Yes, she thought that it was pretty name too. Though, it had taken her a few tries to say it right, which, at the time, she found rather suspicious. Even now, she wondered lightly about that scar beneath her blonde hair, tucked under the yellow patterned bandana that was tied by amature hands. She couldn't recall how she'd gotten that little battle scar.

She'd never thought about it before, but she couldn't remember a lot of things. Her parents, her first home, other details. She couldn't remember before the point of trying to pick pocket Moo as he passed her in a crowd, and how he had dragged her all over the city, trying to find a home she couldn't remember, and eventually attempting to drop her off at the police station.

Ildas had left, taking Moo's hand and followed him since.

But now? Now he was missing, and Ildas was going to find him. No matter what.

"How come it's so surprising that I'm here all by myself?" Ildas mumbled, swaying back and forth, her eyes adoring.

Nick offered the young girl a warm smile and shrugged lightly. To him it was surprising that a young child like her would roam around the city all by herself. Especially since she didn't even wear a school uniform that would explain her being out here by herself. And those two police officers who were obviously looking for a young child were another thing that had him concerned. It also made him curious though. He wanted to know who this little girl was, that just came into his world. Little did he know how much Ildas would turn his world upside down.

"Well... for me it is surprising. Usually you see girls your age with their parents or older siblings." he replied gently, but not really pressing the matter. However, there was a hint of curiosity in his voice. He still was a detective and the things that had just happened definitely caught his attention. He wondered if he would get anything out of Ildas, other than her name.

Maybe she needed help? Perhaps not from the police, but maybe... a different kind of help.