Little Kazu waited patiently until he was sure they were all gone from the kitchen, before he slowly revealed himself from his hiding place. He took tiny steps towards the kitchen, as he surveyed the entrance, only after he was sure of no one approaching did he quickly scurry inside, since it was still somewhat early, though breakfast would have already been served he was able to find some buns after looking around the cramped kitchen area with much effort. Without much thought he shoved two of them into the crook of his arm and quickly dashed outside, as soon as he turned a corner to go back to where the little dog hole connected to the cold palace, a group of maid servants rounded the corner to the yard of the kitchen as they chatted with each other. He had narrowly managed to make a safe escape after his petty theft.
He nimbly climbed through the dog hole that connected the cold palace to the rest of the palace, careful not to dirty the buns he held in the crook of his arm like treasures. Once he was through, he again checked his surroundings to make sure no one was present around the area before running towards the furthest end of the cold palace where buildings stood abandoned and decrepit overrun with crawling, flying and slithering pests. Behind all that, the little hut stood strongly weathering any and all disasters including wind and rain.
He quickly ran inside to see his big sister huddled up on the bed with her eyes closed while facing the door. He thought that maybe she was asleep and instead of waking her up he went and found their cleanest cloth they had and wrapped the two buns in it. Then he went to the corner where a bucket was place. Looking at the bucket full of all that his big sister had managed to poop out since he had gone, he lifted it with both hands with his face not once flinching at the horrid scent and took it outside to dispose of its contents and wash the bucket as cleanly as he could with the limited amount of water they had in the two old containers they had in their small yard, which they had actually snagged after it was going to be thrown out by a concubine.
He then busied himself with cleaning up their little yard, he had noticed that his big sister did not seem to like the uncleanliness of their current home. He realized that before she had never really minded it before, as she was always grateful for any little thing they had but has, of lately, been very repulsed by it all. Though she was not as scornful as the other little kids or adults they interacted with in the cold palace, her disgust was evident in her mannerisms despite her trying to hide her thoughts without hurting his feelings.
Their usual days would be spent doing hard labor for the concubines and servants within the cold palace just for a bite of left-over food as payment. As in the cold palace the hierarchal structure was quite different from the outside; the servants who were not sent in along with their masters but were hired directly by the head maids after various tests and interviews to work in the palace and were only stationed in the cold palace held the most power as they were able to move in and out freely and could acquire things that were a necessity for those who lived within the cold palace, closely in line behind them were the abandoned consorts (legal wives ranked below the main wife, the queen) and concubines (legal mistresses ranked below consorts) who had some backing from their paternal families and would be able to bribe the servants to help deliver and receive letters and money as well as other items on their behalf from their families, and far beneath them were the likes of little Kazu and young Hazia who neither had the support of a powerful force outside or inside the palace walls, nor the resources to bribe the servants above them to receive better treatment. They could only survive on the scraps of dog food they received after toiling night and day from spring to winter. They had often been likened to roaches, with how tenacious they were surviving through every bone freezing winter with tiny fires and too small blankets with more holes countable and every heatstroke inducing summer.
By the time the sun had risen to its peak to show that it was the middle of the day, he could hear the light rustles from inside the little hut indicating that his big sister was awake. Quickly putting a pause on his tidying up of the little yard, he washes his hands and dashes inside as he dries his hands on the clothing on his body.
"You're awake, sister!" he exclaimed. "I brought you something."
He was very excited as he reached for the cloth he had put aside before doing some chores and unwrapped it before her eyes like if they were precious treasures as he knelt on one knee by her side.
"Here, you can eat now." Little Kazu pushed both buns in the cloth towards the girl half laying on the bed in a weakened state. He had gone through all that trouble, risk losing an arm if ever caught just to get her to eat something.
Still somewhat dazed from her long slumber, Carmen hummed before mumbling a low thank you as she let out a yawn. She reached out her hands and took one of the buns and within three bites it was gone and as she finished chewing, she looked at the other bun that was still held out in front of her. She was more awake after eating and stopped herself as she went to grab for the next one and looked at the little boy watching her with attentive eyes.
"You can eat the other one, if I eat anything else I might puke it all out. That would be a waste," she said as she turned her head dismissively. Without question she knew that he had not saved anything for himself and had only thought of her. Food was scarce and since they have eaten, she wasn't sure when the next time they ate would be. She, as the adult (technically speaking), couldn't let a child die of hunger right before her eyes so she could only concede.
Little Kazu looked at his big sister, whose head was turned away from him, then looked at the other bun she had told him to eat. It was true that he had not once thought of eating one himself as he had only gotten them for her. He had thought that he would be fine with some grass washed down with some water as he was always fine doing so before, but... admittedly, he also wanted to eat what other people eat. He also wanted to eat normal food with his sister. He quickly ate the bun in two and a half bites and almost choked. Hearing him, Carmen turned around and patted his back with the little strength she had to help the food go done properly.
After eating, Carmen felt a little better and asked little Kazu to help her outside the hut to which he agreed. When her eyes caught sight of the yard outside the hut she was a little surprised, it was a bit neater than when she last saw it the day before. She gently nodded her head in approval which Kazu took note of.
They both found a place and sat together in silence, as Carmen tried to sort out the ideas she had slept on. Though her forte was cooking, doing some menial tasks to earn some rewards was not impossible, the problem was that they would be taken advantage of as they were children without any form of protection, so she had to figure out a way to one-up the adults and earn a little more in return for their hard labor.
Thinking of food, her mind wondered back to the bun she ate and with the help of her foresight she had learned that they were in the era of still learning about the ways to mix and use different herbs for general meals, as they were mostly only being used in medicines and some were also still waiting to be discovered.
Carmen turned to little Kazu, "Where did you get the buns?" she asked.
Honestly, he told her, "I got them from the servant's kitchen outside."
"You stole them?" Carmen didn't have to think much, with the memories of their situation in mind she knew there was no other way for him to have gotten the buns they ate.
Lowering his head, the little boy silently nodded his head out of shame.
Seeing this, Carmen took a deep breath and raised her hand.
Her palm gently touched the boy's head as she patted it, "No need to be ashamed. You can only have pride when you have life. Right now, there is no other way for us to get our full in earnings even if worked ourselves to the bone. It may not be right for us to do, but for now at least... we have to do is we want to live. I want to live, and I want you to live with me."
She allowed him time to digest the meaning behind her words, she would've thought he may be too young to understand if he wasn't forced to have matured faster than his peers.
"Tomorrow, we go again." With a plan brewing in mind.