Windfall

It had taken a bit to get the split all properly sorted, at least while they were still looking into the knife. Carrying around that much cash made Denise a bit nervous, even though she was in home territory and she was sure no-one around here even had a reason to mess with her.

She was a little later leaving the house than she'd meant to be, which meant that she would probably miss her chance to see mam while she was awake, but she maybe she could stick around for when she woke up later.

She let herself in, listening for signs of where her brother, or anyone else, might be.

Mikel was in the kitchen, unpacking some food he'd bought at the market earlier and getting things ready to make dinner later - a rather scrawny chicken that he was planning to turn into soup, along with some carrots and onions that were getting to be a bit on the old side, but would still be okay for this. At least the bread was fresh, and that would help.

He looked up as his older sister entered the room. "Oh, hey Denise," he said with a somewhat weary smile. "How's things?"

"Things are pretty great!" She threw herself into a chair at the kitchen table, grinning. "How 'bout you?" Of course, no matter how he answered now, she was pretty sure his day was about to get a whole lot better.

"Okay, I guess," he said, eyeing her curiously. "You're happy about something - what happened?"

"What happened is - I am the best big sister ever, is all...." She sat up a bit leaning forward and reaching into the inside pocket of her vest, setting her beat-up wallet on the table. "I got something for ya."

Mikel looked down at the wallet, then back to Denise. "Am I supposed to guess?" he asked curiously.

"Nah, you're supposed to take it, dummy."  She stuck her tongue out.

Mikel stuck his tongue back out at her, but took the wallet and opened it up, his eyes widening at the cash. "Where'd you get all this?" he asked, seeing how much money it contained.

"Workin', that's all," she said, with finality, hoping he'd take the hint and not pry. "Anywa that's for you. Well, you'n mam, I guess, but like - I figured you'll know better what to do with it, ya know?"

"A hundred imps?" Mikel sat down at the table, more than a bit stunned. "I... I dunno." He tried to imagine what to do with that amount of money. "I guess we could get the plumbing fixed, so that it doesn't leak when we fill up the tub... An' I could get a nurse to come in an' stay with Mam a couple days a week, maybe, so's I could finish up my training faster."

He hesitated. "What am I gonna tell Da if he asks, though? When he asks."

That was the trick. "Well, if your smart, ya ain't gonna tell 'im it came from me." Denise sighed. She didn't like lying to her da, but she didn't see any other way. He'd never take the money, or even let Mikel keep it. "I dunno."

Mikel nodded. "I don't haveta let him know how much it is, either... I could just use a bit at a time, here and there, an' maybe he won't think it's too odd."

He leaned over to give Denise a hug. "Thanks. This is amazing. It'll help out a lot."

Denise hugged back tight - this was the whole point after all, to be able to look after her own. "It ain't nothin' but what you deserve." She let him go after a minute. "Now - you want a hand with that chicken? An' you can tell me how things are with Romain."

"Sure, you wanna chop the veggies for the soup?" Mikel stood up with a grin, stuffing the wad of money into his pocket for temporary safekeeping.

"Romain's doin' okay," he told her as they began to work on the meal. "His sister got a place at that place you mentioned, the Boar, an' I guess that's a lot better. Only problem is, he can't stay with her there."

Denise hopped up after him, staking out a claim to some of the limited counterspace to work in. "Oh yeah? Where's he been stayin' then?"

"A boarding house over on Crabtree Lane," Mikel said with a shrug. "Just for now, 'til he can find a place of his own, or someplace to share..."

"Un huh..." She glanced over at her brother, and shrugged too. "Well - see how things go, I guess. But like..." She shrugged again. it had at least been more than a month now, and if they were still together, okay, but still. "Well, you finish your training, see what happens then, maybe?" It wasn't like she could promise another big windfall like that, anyway, but she was pretty sure more work along those lines wasn't out of the question, either.