“Wow, can we be friends too?” Hart and June exclaimed. George nodded. “Yes, of course! I’d be delighted to get to know you!”

“I’ve never been friends with a noble before,” June said, clapping her hands in delight. “I know, right?” Hart said cheerfully. “Well, then I should do this…” He held out a hand towards Edna. She stared at it, and then looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Eh?”

“…I never did it the first time,” he told her. With an ‘ohhhh’, Edna’s eyes widened as she remembered his neglect to shake her hand the first time. She took his hand firmly within hers, the two shaking hands. Even if her hand was dirty, George didn’t care anymore. She was a friend, and she had overturned everything he thought he knew about peasants.

That was worthy of at least a handshake. “Ah…what time is it?!” George exclaimed. Edna frowned, looking up and squinting into the sky. “Ummmmm….”

“It’s been about an hour since the last bell,” Hart said tentatively. Since most people couldn’t really afford watches or typical time keeping devices, there were bells situated throughout the Capital that rang every three hours, at 8 different times. Since it was quite late in the day, George let out a groan. “Oh man, Father is going to kill me! I gotta go!”

“Oops!” Edna let out an apologetic gasp. “I’m so sorry! If I hadn’t dragged you around…”

“It’s fine, let’s head back,” George said with a hand wave. The group made their way back down the stairs, then came back through the hole. Hart and June made sure to cover the hole back up while Edna and George made their way back to the alleyway near the store.

“Well, bye then!” Edna said. George smiled, waving back to her. “See you later, alright!”

“It’s a promise!” Edna called back. George nodded and made his way back to the store. “George! Where the hell have you been!?” his father shouted angrily. George hung his head and meekly explained he had been exploring around. “Good heavens, look at your clothes! They’re all wrinkled and you’re absolutely filthy!”

After being hugged by Edna and then crawling through the hole, in addition to playing with the kids, George was a bit dirty, in addition to his expensive clothes being wrinkled. “Honestly…” From that day forth, the trio of beggars became four, with the unexpected addition of a noble. The friends made for quite an odd spectacle, and unbeknownst to them, they were often the subject of choice for beggars throughout the district to talk about in regards with their unusual friendship with a kid noble.

For weeks afterwards, George used every excuse he could think of and made every effort to regularly visit Edna and play with her. After the first few times he made sure to dress plainly, so as to avoid drawing attention, after Veronica told him that it would be a wise thing to do. Eventually, he made a bold statement while sitting down with Edna and her mother. “I want to take you somewhere!” he told Edna proudly. Edna tilted her head inquisitively. “Eh? What do you mean by that?”

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“Well…you’ve taken me places, so I…want to take you somewhere. Somewhere nice,” George said, becoming flustered. Veronica’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, how adorable! A play-date!”

“It’s n-n-not like that!” George stammered in protest. “But um…Veronica, would you be willing to allow me to take Edna out to eat somewhere?” he asked her. “Eh? Why do you have to ask her?” Edna said, leaning forward to regard George more closely. “It’s…the proper thing to do, Edna,” Veronica told her, although she was happy George was asking for her permission. Usually to make any sort of move on a girl would require her father’s permission- however, since Edna didn’t have a father, George had asked her, the mother, instead. His consideration touched Veronica quite dearly. “I’ll allow it, if only because I think it would be a great experience for Edna,” she said. “However, we’ll have to get her ready…”

“Ah, I suppose that makes sense,” George remarked. Edna was not very presentable currently, not for the sort of place George wanted to take her. “I thought that might be the case, so I uh…got her this…” he handed Veronica a large bag. “Oh?” Veronica looked into it and couldn’t suppress a gasp. “These are…are you sure, George?” she asked.

It was a brand new pair of fanciful dress clothes. “It’s the least I can do for her, as her friend. Besides, I um…kinda have to lie to my Father to get him on board with this,” George remarked. Of course, his Father would certainly not approve of this, and it was not unheard of for a noble to occasionally associate with a peasant, but a beggar was unheard of.

This would make for quite a scene if it became well known. “I…thank you, George.” Veronica said softly, hugging George in gratitude. “I’ll come by in a few hours, is that ok?” he asked. Veronica nodded, and with that, George was gone.

“Wow that was mighty nice of George!” Edna remarked as she carefully scrutinized the clothing George had gotten her. Though he had not said, it had been quite difficult for him to get these, using the excuse of getting them for another friend of his who was Edna’s age, an unprecedented move that George’s parents completely supported of.

Thankfully, they were the right size for Edna. “Come on, Edna, we’re going to visit Serena…” Veronica told Edna. “Yaaaay!” Edna said cheerfully.

The two made their way to Serena’s clinic, where she listened dubiously to Veronica’s story. “You…I’m sorry….what?!” Serena was, understandably, quite shocked. “So you’re telling me some noble kid has taken a fancy for young Edna, and wants to take her out to eat?!”

“Isn’t it adorable?” Veronica said delightfully. Serena chuckled awkwardly, reading into the fairly obvious reason why the two were here. “Well, I suppose she needs to use the bath, right? It’s a good thing my supervisor is out right now…go on then,” she ushered Edna into the water closet, setting things up for her. Edna had already learned how to wash herself, so while she was cleaning herself up, Serena went back to converse with Veronica.

“It’s much sooner than I thought it’d be,” Serena remarked to her friend. “Oh, it’s nothing more than a childish crush. I’m certain even George doesn’t even know too much about love,” Veronica replied casually. “Rather, I’m more impressed she managed to get a noble to play with her, let alone take her on a playdate…”

“Ah, won’t it cause problems with his parents?”

“George said he had to lie, so I’m certain he has things handled. Ah…I hope things don’t go badly for them, however…” Veronica mumbled, realizing that maybe Serena was right. “Well, if their ploy is found out, I think it’s George who will suffer the most,” Serena said, assuaging Veronica’s sudden worries. “They’re both young, so I bet it’ll just be a slap on the wrist. If George says he has things handled, I don’t see the harm in letting him take Edna out.”

“I’m done…!” Edna’s muffled voice came from the bathroom. “Well then, shall we play dress up?” Veronica asked Serena, who giggled in response. “Sure!”