fic: Below

[bonnefois]

Title: Below
Series: Neverwhere
Character/Pairing: Marquis de Carabas, Richard. Preslashy. Also Door makes an appearance.
Rating: PG/PG-13 in earlier parts.
Word count: 2151
Author's note: part of a ficverse (masterpost with full timeline) Done for misura at help_haiti. The prompt was 'cats and dogs or milk and cookies.'



When had London Below become his home? Funny, he'd spent most of his time here terrified, hungry, cold and wanting to go home and when he got there, all he wanted was to go back. It was a place like a long dream, where with each new wonder he would think to pinch himself in a discreet manner on his arm to prove that he wasn't sleeping.

The Marquis lead the way with long stride. He was hard to keep up with, especially with the way Richard was taking in the sights of London Below like a tourist absorbing every sight before his eventually blindness.

It didn't help that he was going through a fairly complicated route to a place that he had a definite clue of where it was leading, but Richard didn't have the slightest clue about. Finally, when he was far enough off that he was almost lost in the crowd, the Marquis stopped, turned and cast a caustic glance his way.

"Do you wish to cling to my coattails, or would holding my hand suffice?" The Marquis said. His voice was suitably sarcastic. Richard dodged yet another traveler. Marquis certainly hadn't chosen the path less traveled, that was for sure.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. I keep getting lost in the crowd. You know how bad the London Floating Market is."

"So I see," he replied, sounding more amused than annoyed this time. He waited while Richard made his way to the mass of strange people that came to this sort of thing, and joined him.

"Are we there yet?" Richard said as he caught his breath.

"Almost," de Carabas said in an singsong tone.

"Define 'almost'."

"Forty-five minutes to an hour, I estimate."

"An hour? An hour? We've been walking since five in the morning! I've gotten lost five times and still haven't eaten a bite and we're still not there yet?"

He got cranky when he was hungry, Richard had to admit. He felt a bit childish for that outburst, but his stomach was killing him and his feet hurt and the people were pushing him back. All that didn't combine to make him in a good mood. All he wanted was a nice alcove to curl up in after a bite to eat.

Richard was not, in any way, shape or form, a morning person.

However, the Marquis was not one to be taken aback by this..or much of anything, really. He had one hand on hip and looked down from his superior height.

"We will eat soon enough, there is simply something that needs to be attended to first," he said, slowly, as if he were talking to a child who did not quite comprehend the meaning of the words.

Before Richard could make a retort, he was pushed aside by a stout man and shoved to wall. More people passed and it was only when the Marquis thrust his hand out and pulled him over that he was able to regain his balance and reentry the road without being knocked aside.

The Marquis sighed. "You do know you'll be paying for this."

"Paying for wh—"

It was broken off as the Marquis hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Despite feeling dizzy and chastened, Richard said nothing, because he had a feeling that if he made even one little complaint, the Marquis might drop him on the pavement and leave him. It was always certainly a possibility when traveling with someone like De Carabas. His face was against the coat, and Marquis' back. The coat itself almost deserved to be called The Coat, as if it were the capitol of the land of Marquis de Carabas. Richard noted, as he always did when this near the Marquis, that he smelled good for someone in London Below. He always had an air about him, like spices and musk and mystery, Unlike the sweat and work and metal smell of Hammersmith; the birdshit, and airy scent of Old Baily; the musty smell of Door, like old flowers kept in an attic and dried so that the essence was faint.

Before he knew it, they were there...wherever there was. The Marquis let him down, and was kind enough to not drop him on his head on the pavement.

"That barely took five minutes," Richard said.

"I was adding the time you'd take by being distracted, getting lost or pushed aside by crowds."

It was a lonely end of a courtyard with a brick wall that had seen better days. There was graffiti plastered over it, but it looked more like modern day cavemen art than gang signs. For just a moment, the door seemed to shimmer and ripple, as if it were made of water, and then a girl emerged.

"Richard!"

He'd barely had a chance to react before she flung her arms around him in a hug. He was caught off guard, but in a good way.

"I thought I'd never see you again. Is everything alright? The Marquis said it was important. Did he kidnap you?"

The Marquis lifted a brow. "You can't kidnap the willing...at least, not unless it's a plot involving intrigue and blackmail. Which in this case, it isn't."

"All this time I wanted to go home but in the time I'd left, I'd changed. So...I'm back here now. For good," Richard said. He tried to smile in a reassuring way, but it merely came out awkward and apologetic.

"I'm glad to hear it," she said.

"Any luck finding her then? Your sister, I mean," Richard asked.

Her face fell, which was really all the answer he needed.

"Oh...sorry."

"I've been looking around but they left no clues. But, I'll just keep looking and then..." She finished by biting her lip, and he patted her on the shoulder.

"If you can outwit an angel then you can find your sister."

"Do you have plans on where you're going to go? I'm sure the Earl would be glad to have you in his court."

"Well, uh. The Marquis wants me to travel with him a bit to repay the favor I owe him."

"I guess that's one way to spend it...though I'm surprised he didn't ask for something like entrance to the Earl's court, or I don't know...kept it away for some rainy day like I'm sure he's keeping my favor," she said.

"Yes, because my life is incomplete without Tooley's witticisms," De Carabas said. He yawned to punctuate his point.

"I'm hoping there will be some clue here. Anyways, we should get going. We might miss some of the early birds if we don't hurry. Those are always the best tasting ones."

She walked ahead of him, and Marquis looked back. The morning had left him more than a little tetchy was well.

"If you don't hurry up we'll leave you behind to fend for yourself," he said.

"He doesn't mean it. I won't let him," Door said.

"She's right. As tempting as it is at the moment, you still owe me favors," the Marquis said.

"Plural already? And you've barely been here a week?" Door said.

"I'm pretty sure he's adding up a charge for everything from directions to bringing me here," Richard replied with a certain resignation that wasn't despondent, but simply accepting his indebtedness to be a fact of life.

"I take whatever I can get," the Marquis said with a smile.

*

Learning the ropes the second time around was a lot easier, though the Marquis was a far less patient, or even helpful guide than Hunter and Door were. Richard always had to take a second glance to make sure that he wasn't being toyed with. Even then, it's hard to tell as his smile always has a edge of malice in it even when he was being nice (or at least, the Marquis' version of nice).

Still, Richard was learning his way quite well now. He was learning how to haggle, to bargain, and there were promises of future Ratspeaking and Pigionspeaking lessons, though those were from Door, not the Marquis.

Cats and dogs roamed the streets in every alley and around every corner.. He threw them scraps whenever he found them on the street, even if De Carabas disapproved of giving anything for free, there's still a part of Richard that couldn't resist giving things to anything dirty and needy. They're just so bony and shy, with mange and bald patches that he can never resist helping, even if just a little. The Marquis has on more than one occasion, pointed out that this is entirely the reason how he got down here in the first place – to which Richard agreed. If he hadn't stopped to save Door that night, he'd probably have the same dull job and be married to Jessica in some bland flat. He'd never have known hunger, or cold, or danger, or fear.

Which is exactly his point as to why he should give whenever possible. Who knew what path it might lead him on?

*

Door went off to make some queries, and Richard made his way to the first food stall he could find. The Marquis idled behind him, electing to get food, or simply staying with Richard to ensure that he damn well got his favors and Richard didn't get kidnaped by Sewer Folk or something. He wasn't sure which. With no Croup and Vandemar about, Door could go off on her own without them worrying for her safety too much. So Richard let that worry slide and simply focused on the wonderfulness that was the promise of food. The smell of food to the hungry was a heaven of its own, really. People didn't really know how good spiceless, bland food made from birds and a bit of broth could taste until they'd been really hungry. He'd always taken it for granted up there in London Above, but here he savored every bit as if it might be his very last. The line thinned and he took a look at the food that was placed before him in a little bowl.

"It's starling, right?" He looked to the Marquis for validation.

"No, it's milk and cookies. What do you think?"

"Just making sure it isn't cat."

He never could look at Fluffy, the white Persian in the flat across his the same way afterwards. All he could envision was that little hairless body on a spit, something that looked like it should be some woodland creature and not an animal better suited for sitting on window ledges or walking the streets.

"For your information, cat isn't that plentiful around here. It's mostly a Ratspeaker and Sewer Folk thing. Unless they're particularly desperate, that is." The Marquis said.

"And dog? Do they eat them down here too?"

"I suppose they could eat them, though it's not very common. Dogs are useful as guards and to keep people alert. And of course, companions. But then, when people are desperate enough, they'll even eat human if it means surviving," The Marquis said. He said this flippantly, as if it were little more than talking about London Above's traffic problem and not cannibalism.

"If they're so useful, why didn't you ever get a dog?" Richard asked, if only to take his mind from the horrifying images the mention of cannibalism brought to his mind.

"My dear boy, I have you, which is one step better."

"Wait you're saying—"

He smirked. "Well, if the collar fits."

*

Door left before dark, citing that another lead had come up. That night he settled under the stars with the Marquis possibly asleep there close near him He wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just feigning sleep. Being as it was the Marquis, one could never tell. The ground was cold, and wasn't anything like sleeping on his comfortable mattress. Still, for the first time since he'd gone back, he fell asleep with a clear mind. The aching in his calves from so much walking was a welcome friend.

Richard dreamt not of beasts, but of Anesthesia, and a girl who he didn't recognize, but looked similar to Door. They looked as if they were trapped in a prison of glass and shadows. They said things, but all he saw were mouthed words because the place sucked away all the sound. He could never lipread well.

When he woke up, the sky still dark, and morning a long ways off. He held to the solidity of the quartz, the last remnants of a girl named Anesthesia.