Charley buttoned her lip at the copper's threat. He didn't even need to say 'or else' or what came after that, it was written on his face and his stance. Every inch of him screamed what would happen to the urchin if she didn't obey, and so far she had done plenty of not obeying. So she stopped and shut her mouth, waiting for the copper to hand down his sentence.

Maybe she could still smash his foot and run, only Charley didn't know how well that worked on wizard coppers.

"A ticket?" she asked, confused for a moment until he explained. More like a fine, a slap on the wrist. Hers was screaming worse than a banshee at the moment, but the urchin would gladly take another slap on top if it didn't mean something worse. "So I en't getting sent up?"

Charley's voice brightened for the first time since she'd greeted her customer an hour —no, it couldn't have been that long— ago. Her face was dry of any streaks and the street was spared of watching her frogmarched down the street to jail, leaving most of the bystanders to turn back away from her. It was just the urchin and the copper now, no audience and no witnesses.

She stood up tall, not pulling or resisting him this time.

"I said I'll pay and I will. Now lemme go and we'll shake on it like real men," Charley told him, holding her chin high and her eyes steady into his. She dared not blink, almost daring him to question it. The only time she let her eyes move was to lean down, stretching her wrist the barest of inches back at her to hock a loogie into the palm of her fastened hand.

If some of her spray got on the copper, it was just more reason for him to take her way out. She'd make good on her word, so long as it was sealed the right way.

The only way Charley would honor.

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