Making his way through the crowd, he kept his excited smile to himself as he observed each of the people, as they walked by. He liked the feeling of being able to do this, to have the confidence of knowing he wasn’t going to get caught.

No, too observant. That one doesn’t have much on her. No, that one is with too many people. One of them might see. No, definitely not that one, no one can get past that species. Wait, ah found one. His tongue slipped between his teeth in concentration as he fought his way through the crowd, taking care to look normal. He didn’t look around, he didn’t keep his head too far down. He was one with the crowd, just another person trying to make it to where he was going.

It didn’t take long to reach his victim. The victim was reading a local newspaper and muttering to himself at times, shaking his head to himself as he did. His long black hair often fell into his face, and the man would mutter angrily even more and flick it back. It’s called a haircut, Zachariah thought to himself before purposely running into the man.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I was trying to make my-” Zachariah exclaimed, knowing right away that the man wasn’t a pleasant one from his angry look.

Before Zachariah finished his sentence however, the man yelled, his yellow eyes flashing, “You clumsy ass fool! Its not that hard to look at where you are going-”

“But I truly did not mean it, sir, I was-”

“Excuses! Excuses, excuses, excuses. Stop looking at your feet when you walk and watch out for people!” They were starting to gain attention from other people. Zachariah grimaced and backed away, his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

“I’m am sorry, truly am. Now, I think I will take my leave and take your advice seriously and never look at my feet again as I walk. Can’t run into another poor unsuspecting man who doesn’t deserve it, oh no... that would be horrible.” Zachariah grinned at the man’s even angrier expression and dashed away, silently thanking the crowd for parting enough to make room for him.

* * * * * *

“He wasn’t a pleasant man,” Zachariah complained, fiddling with the wallet he had pickpocketed from the yellow-eyed man. “Apparently,” He paused to look at the name of the man, using the man’s card. “Bertrand Ealae- wait, how do you pronounce that?” Zachariah handed the ID to Amaris, who wrinkled her nose.

“Dude, is that even possible to pronounce? Maybe his unpleasantness comes from his name,” she suggested, waving her feet back and forth in the air. With a cheeky smile, Amaris handed back the ID and lay down on the roof, the bottom half of her legs still waving through the air. She fiddled with the piercings in her naturally pointed ears, and ruffled her pixie hair cut. Zachariah had always admired Amaris species, the Yailes, because they had been forced off their home planet due to hunters. The Yailes had fought off the hunters long enough to escape to planet Earth, where intermingling of species were becoming more and more welcomed and wanted. Now 50 years later, the Yailes had firmly established themselves on planet Earth and were starting to slowly try to make their home planet safe again once more. Zachariah wished he had that much determination sometimes, to want and fight for something that seemed pointless.

“Or maybe because somebody ran into him,” Jen interrupted suddenly, coming up from behind them, breaking his train of thought. She had a tray of food in her hands, with a jar of honey, some wheat bread, a wedge of cheese, and a jug of watered wine. “Hungry, my little pick pocketers?”

Amaris had sat up quick at the sight of the food and brought her feet back to solid ground. “Food!” She cheerfully cried and grabbed a piece of the sliced wheat bread.

“Food,” Jen agreed and sat the tray between Zachariah and Amaris. “Get much today?”

“Eh, just a little I suppose,” Zachariah started, a smile creeping onto his lips.

“Just a little,” Amaris added, giggling.

“Enough to pay for a bit of food.”

“For like… five days.”

“Maybe some rent too?”

“And a new pair of shoes for the lovely Jen!” Zachariah and Amaris both exclaimed at the same time, nearly knocking down the wine.

Jen rolled her eyes at them and quickly saved the wine. “You rehearsed that didn’t you.”

Zach shrugged and shoved a piece of cheese and bread into his mouth as Amaris said, “No we are just that talented.”

He shoved a hand down his pocket and brought out a handful of paper money. “Its both of Amaris and my collection today,” He managed to get out after quickly swallowing the bread.

Jen let out a low whistle at the sight and clapped Amaris’s shoulder. “Good job you two. Now, I’m going to let you eat your lunch and go deal with some more customers. Well, if I get any to buy anything.” Jen grinned at them and started making her way down the ladder.

They stared at where she disappeared for a while, munching on the food as they did, until Amaris exclaimed, “We should become rich.”

“Because that’s so easy,” Zach replied dryly, tempted to take off his cotton shirt. It was way too damn hot, due to being directly under the afternoon sun.

“No, I’m serious!” Amaris put down the rock she had been playing with and stood up. “Aurea… this city, you have heard how easy it is to get rich. Just, all we have to steal a few more things, get more money, and get your drawings sold more. Get Jen’s fabrics more popular. Then I could start designing buildings and- will you stop giving me that look?”

Zach sighed and bit his lip. “Amaris, lets be realistic. We are never going to be well off, heck not even decently off. “

“Stand up, look at Aurea, the entirety of it, and tell me that again,” Amaris commanded and Zacharias obeyed reluctantly. Amaris had a way of making him do whatever she wanted, by glaring at him, with her freakishly pure white eyes. Her eyes were a rarity- even in her species.

“Okay bossy ass,” He muttered but looked anyways.

He let his eyes trail the city. He took in the way that the buildings were different yet the same. They were all elegantly built, with extravagant decorations (all influenced by the many cultures combining due to the multi-species population), and all shone with brilliance, no matter the age or how worn down it looked. But they all had their sense of personality, of history. Each told a different story.

He then took in the people. Some were part of the Rhina species, with their blue skin and their hairless bodies. He even saw some of Amaris’s species. Others were just human, but with different skin tones, hair colors, clothes. Zach spotted a Porcelain to his surprise- the nickname of the human-like species with extremely delicate skin and bones but all looked extremely beautiful. It was unusual to see them in public, they were often too paranoid to risk their health to venture off in public.

But…. Aurea looked, well  beautiful. Aurea was truly an odd ball of cities, with its multi-species inhabits, the wide variety of culture, and the fact there was rarely violent disputes. All of a sudden, he could see what Amaris was talking about.

They could someday be rich enough, to have to look out for pickpockets, instead of looking at who to pickpocket. Though, he had a feeling that even if he was rich enough to not need to, he would still do it. It was fun. It wasn’t just a way to survive for him.

“Amaris,” He started slowly, a grin taking a place on his lips. “You might want to start thinking of more fancy building structures ideas.” Amaris then grinned back at him and hooked her elbow with his.