Put them in good hands

Alton was walking around Dahlin, his hands in his pockets, his eyes fixed on the ground. He couldn't stop thinking about his sister's murderer. Every day that went by was a day that that murderer got to walk free. Alton couldn't stand it. If he didn't find Ian soon, he was going to go crazy. The fact that he had no idea where to start made him even more frustrated. His house began to feel suffocating, which is why he was out in Dahlin, walking around to relieve some of the stress, but still lost in thoughts of revenge.

Katsa was out in Dahlin because... she was looking for baby clothes! She didn't have any money to actually buy them, but she could at least look for when she and Keegan could go buy some together.

As she was walking she wasn't really paying attention and accidentally bumped into some really tall guy. (this is because I'm lame and can't figure out any other reason they'd meet. xD)

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Katsa exclaimed.

Alton was too busy obsessing over Ian to pay attention to the world around him, so his thoughts were violently shattered when someone bumped into him. He was about to snap at them to watch where they were going, when he saw it was a girl. She was kinda pretty.

"S'alright," he muttered, looking away. "You didn't drop anything, did you?"

"No," she said. Jeez, he looked angry. Well, he had at first, now he seemed alright. Except not alright. Just... well, it was hard to describe. He looked... distant.

"I really am sorry though, I should look where I'm going."

Alton looked sharply back up at the girl. She looked a little...intimidated. He must look angry or something. He forced himself to soften his expression. He needed to control himself a little bit better. "It's okay, really," he insisted, a little to forcefully. When he realized how he sounded, he sighed. "Sorry," he said, slightly strained. "I've been having a rough day. What's your name?"

Katsa watched him go through his inner struggle with a worried face. "A-are you alright?" she asked.

Then he said he was having a rough day. She frowned a little. "Well I'm sorry to hear that," she said. He looked sad now, instead of angry. She wondered what had happened to make him feel like that.

"My name's Katsa, Katsa Greening. What about yours?" she finally said with a small smile.

Alton's eyes widened very slightly. Did she just say Katsa Greening? Greening as in, Ian Greening? It couldn't be...could it? A relative? A cousin or sister? It wasn't a totally common name. Well if she was related to Ian, Alton wasn't about to give this chance up. He couldn't believe his luck. Five seconds ago he had had no idea where to start looking for Ian, and now he had run into the one person who might be able to lead him straight there. "...That's a pretty name," he said after a long pause. "I'm Alton. Alton Emerson." He couldn't let her know who he really was, just in case.

She watched as his expression changed again. What was up with this guy?

"Thanks," Katsa said with a smile, "it's the only thing my parents gave me that I actually like."

Alton made himself smile back at her, and he thought he even managed to make it convincing. "Should I take that to mean you're not all that fond of your parents?" he asked, trying to sound conversational. This was perfect, Katsa had said something that gave him a perfectly sensible reason to start asking about her family.

"Haha, you could say that," Katsa said. Actually, you could more than say that, but Alton probably didn't care about her family problems.

"Are they strict or something?" Alton questioned. It was partially true, he didn't care about most of her family problems. He just cared whether or not she was related to a certain escaped convict. But he supposed he'd have to suffer through hearing her whine about her parents before he'd find out what he wanted to know.

"I don't think that covers it," she said. "But that's alright, because I moved out. I live with my friend and my brother now."

"Oh yeah?" Alton asked, unable to conceal his interest. So she did have a brother! He could not believe how insanely perfect this was. "So it's just your parents who are mean, huh? Your brother must not be so bad if you're willing to live with him."

"Jeez no," Katsa said with a laugh. "He's one of my best friends, actually," she added. Her three best friends were Seeley, Ian, and Rhint. xD

"I used to live with my sister," Alton told her, "but then we started fighting all the time and she made me move out." Actually Aeria made him move out because one time he got really angry and destroyed their glass coffee table. Well, he had destroyed other things before that too, but the glass table was really the last straw. "Have you been living together for long?"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Katsa said. "We've been living together for about two weeks, he just got back from a long... vacation."

Well that was too close for comfort, definitely.

Two weeks. Perfect. Alton had to try really hard to keep himself from grinning. Everything added up. The last name, living with friends, Katsa's avoidance of using his name, the timing, and even the little pause Katsa left before the word "vacation."

"Ah, I wish I could say I just got back from vacation," Alton said, intentionally changing the subject. He was already 99% sure that it was Ian she was talking about, and it may seem suspicious if he showed too much interest in her brother. "I could really use one."

"Yeah," Katsa said, "he really enjoyed it." Haha, yeah right.

"Anyway, what brings you to Dahlin, Alton?" she asked, also wanting to change the subject.

"Trying to get my mind off of things," Alton replied. He smiled down at Katsa (she was so short!) "It worked," he said in such a way that suggested that Katsa somehow had something to do with putting him in a better mood. Which, in a way, she unwittingly had.

"I'm glad," Katsa said with a smile. She really liked that he wasn't sad or angry anymore.

"How about you?" Alton asked, as if he was actually interested in what she was doing here. If he befriended her she'd be even more useful. "Any particular reason that compelled you to come here?"

Katsa didn't really tell anyone that she was pregnant. She was still kinda embarrassed about it, and she wasn't completely huge yet so she could still hide it.

"I was just clothes shopping," she said. It wasn't a complete lie, just not the full truth. "Usually I go with my friend, Seeley, but she was busy today."

"You don't have any bags," Alton observed. "Oh--So you must be window shopping then?" Of course she could have just not found anything she liked yet, but whatever. "Well since your friend couldn't come...could I join you?"

It was weird. If Alton had been genuinely interested in this girl, he probably would have felt kind of nervous asking to go with her. But since he was just pretending, he felt perfectly at ease. Weird.

"Yeah, just window shopping. But sure, you can come along if you want!" she loved meeting new clio, and Alton seemed really nice. She was just glad he wasn't sad anymore.

She didn't even really mind that she couldn't baby shop anymore. Window shopping for herself was fun too. :3

Oh yeah, Alton is a real nice clio. Well, at least he was good at pretending so, at least to Katsa. So they went window shopping and chatted, and by the end of it Alton really was in a better mood, though perhaps not for any reason Katsa could have suspected.