Make Believe

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When the boat finally settled on the shore James lowered a plank and we all snuck down it.

Before hand, the men had dressed me up in some old rag clothing and basically ripped the neck open making it so a good amount of cleavage was showing. I, for one, was not to happy about this but Archer got a good kick out of it.

"See, at first, I didn't know if you were actually a lady or not. Now it is pretty clear." he mumbled with a smug look on his face. My hand lunged out to slap him but before it even touched his face he grabbed it. "I'm only kidding, my dear. I can even agree that Roger might have stretched it to far." He lowered my hand back down to my waist and his face fell back into the same smirk it was in before. "Although, I'm not complaining about-"

Before he could even finish his sentance, I caught him off gaurd with a slap. He had no chance to dodge this one because he seemed to caught up in his own cloud of smug.

"Pig." I mumbled under my breath as I crossed my arms, trying to cover up.

Archer laughed a bit as he rubbed his now red face. "You've got a fast hand, that's for sure."

"I swear, one more comment and next time it won't be your face I hit." I said as I glared at him with eyes like daggers. He took a cautious step back and then tried to draw his attention away from me.

Every so often I would catch him looking over at me but surprisingly not in the way you would guess. He had more of a curious look on his face, as if I was doing something that was foreign to him. When he noticed I was looking back his eyes would shoot back down to whatever he was doing. I rolled my eyes.

Men are so strange.

As we walked down the plank, Mark grabbed my hand and smiled up at me.

"We're supposed to be siblings! I've never had a sister before so I'm not really sure how to act..." He trailed off, almost as if he was ashamed.

"Don't worry. I haven't had a brother before either." My face began to form a warm smile. Mark was so full of joy and regardless as to how a person could be feeling, if he was around, you were going to smile.

Roger filled his basket with arrows and James stuck six or seven knives in his belt. Archer was moving through the forest with the slyness of a fox, barley making any noices as he stepped through the brush.

We all assembled around a tree as Archer began climbing it.

"Alright, Roger and I will go up this tree, on top of the house and through the window. James will stay as watch out just in case things go bad with the tax collector. Remember, the signal word is 'mockingbird'. Gale, only say that word if you're in trouble and James will come to help you. When Roger and I are done, James will flash one of his daggers in the sun and you'll see a flash of light. That's your cue to get out of there." I nodded along with all the other men. "Good luck, and Gale, don't forget to be seductive." He winked at me before rushing a few more steps up the tree.

"You're an ass, you know that?" I asked as I rolled my eyes. He chuckled a bit before he began swiftly dashing up the tree, Roger following closely behind.

Mark and I walked up to the door and I looked down at my shirt and ripped shorts. Yep. Just enough cleavage to make me feel uncomfortable and just enough leg to make me feel like a prostitute on the side of a street. Awesome.

Mark knocked on the door weakly, obviously trying to get into character with reminded me to do the same.

'Now, come on Gale. Sexy. Think sexy. Oh come on, think of all those old movies with those seductive women... like... uh... Katharine Hepburn or Grace Kelly or something.'

I pushed my hair around a little bit as the door swung open.

A short, angry looking man was standing in front of us. His eyes shot directly at my basically exposed chest. I suddenly became very happy we were robbing this man.

"Hello sir. We were just wondering if you happen to have any food? We haven't eaten in two weeks and-," Mark paused for a moment to make a very well faked cough, "we don't know how much longer it'll be until we get another meal."

The man seemed to take no pity on Mark which was surprising to me because I was even taking pity on him and I knew he was faking it. Damn, kid's a good actor.

"Please sir, my little brother is very sick, he might die." I said in possibly one of the worst sexy voices in the world. I felt more like I was whining. This was my interpretation of Grace Kelly and Katharine Hepburn? They are rolling around in their graves, I swear.

Suddenly the man's face grew red as his eyes shot back at me. "Well um... It all depends. What do you have to offer me for the food?" A dirty smirk grew on his face and I could tell exactly what he was hinting at. My stomach began to turn.

I blame Archer for this. Next time, I'm going to be the one going with Roger and he'll be the one that's acting seductive and getting basically sexually harassed by a creepy old man.

"W-What do you mean sir?" I tried to act as clueless as possible, stalling for time. My eyes began darting around more quickly as they searched frantically for a flash of light but I saw nothing.

He didn't say a word, his smirk only grew much bigger and dirtier. Suddenly, Mark coughed again.

"Big sister, what does he mean? We have nothing to offer." Mark stared up at the man with large, watery eyes. The tax payer's smirk melted away when he said this and I also pulled my shirt up a good amount. Thank god for child innocence.

"Yes sir, we don't have anything to offer..." He was now glaring at the two of us. He looked down at Mark for a moment and rolled his eyes. Obviously, he wasn't interested anymore.

"Well obviously you don't have any money... No... No. I don't have anything to give you peasants. Go beg someplace else!" His face suddenly became very red and scrunched. Marks eyes dropped down to the floor as he tugged on my hand.

No freaking way Archer and Roger could be done by now. We needed to stall more.

"Please sir! My brother might die and you're not going to offer him anything?!" My voice began to raise a bit.

"Excuse me!? I am the lord of this manner and you are yelling at me?! I'll have you know, I could have you banished in a nano second! I have connections to King Clovis! Now be gone with you!" This guy was actually starting to piss me of. I was holding my fist behind my back, trying to keep myself from smacking this guy upside the head.

Mark pulled a little harder on my hand and began stepping backwards. It was only now that I noticed the flashing light above the taxman's head. How long was that going on for?

I through my hair behind my back in a huff and stomped away, completely offended.

James jumped down from the trees and startled me. He covered my mouth so that I wouldn't scream.

"You're horribly bad at being sexy. You have the looks but you need to work on the charm." I rolled my eyes and pulled myself away from him.

"Well excuse me. I wasn't raised in the freaking middle ages where women are so subjected!" I crossed my arms and turned away from James as we found our way back to the ship.

"Definitely missing the charming part." James mumbled under his breath and he put his knives back into his belt and patted Mark on the head quickly. "Good job."

Mark's face shot up with happiness. I could tell why he got so excited. With a brother like James, he obviously didn't get the attention or compliments he deserved. Especially not with a brother as unemotional as James.

"I don't even see why we had to steal from that specific guy! There are probably men much richer then him around here!" I whined as we marched through the forest. My eyes explored every tree and plant, none of which I could identify.

"He works for the king. That's why." James said bluntly as his long black hair swayed in front of his eyes. How does he see like that? "He works for the man that has killed so many and taken so much. Everyone in the kingdom knows of the wrongs that the king has committed and few still follow him. We only steal from those who follow the king. Anyone who doesn't is on our team."

"There are teams now?" I asked loudly. He didn't answer my question.

We arrived back with the other men and the first second I saw Archer and stormed up to him and raised my hand to slap him. Before I got the chance he (once again) grabbed my hand before it could touch him.

"Tsh, tsh, tsh, someone doesn't know how to keep their cool." His smirk was growing large on his face. "He still bought it, nonetheless, and we still got what we needed so, good job Gale." He smiled down at me as he pushed my hand back to my side and proceeded to pat me on the head. "Besides, I like a girl with spunk. You sure as hell got that." his smirk grew wider but his eyes stayed gentle.

"Archer, you're an asshole." I mumbled under my breath, hoping he would hear it.

"Exactly why I'm so good at what I do, my darling. I'll grow on you." his voice had a certain cockiness to it that was sexy and annoying all at the same time.

"Yeah, right." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes as I followed him up the plank behind the rest of the crew.

"Yeah, right." He repeated mockingly as he letting out a small chuckle.