He grinned wickedly at her, his eyes dancing as she returned the fierce expression.
Together they moved, Graydon blocking the person's escape on one side as Kira reached in and snagged an arm, yanking the watcher out of their hiding spot.
Snarled hair and a dirty face were the first things to register. Kira realized she held a young child, her face scraped and bruised, blood dotting her shirt.
"Ziva," Joule exclaimed in horror.
"Didn't your mother tell you it's rude to spy on others?" Kira asked, setting Ziva gently down, mindful of the bruises that covered the child.
Ziva looked like she'd been on the losing end of a fight. Her left eye was beginning to turn purple and swell while her expression remained rebellious and truculent.
"My parents told me a smart first watched friends and enemy alike to make sure they weren't plotting against them," Ziva said defiantly.
"It sounds like your parents would have gotten along nicely with Jin," Kira observed.
The response was odd enough for Ziva to lose some of the defensiveness, her natural curiosity serving to make her more receptive to questions.
"What happened?" Kira asked.
Ziva's shoulders rounded as she stubbed a toe into the ground. She kept quiet, her head bowed as she made a concentrated effort to avoid meeting Kira and Graydon's eyes.
"She probably picked a fight," Joule accused.
The way Ziva hunched in on herself, like a turtle seeking the safety of its shell, told Kira he'd guessed right.
Kira glanced up at Graydon, expecting him to take the lead since both children were under his care. He arched an eyebrow at her, signaling with a supercilious expression she could deal with this problem.
Kira shook her head.
Why her?
She glanced to where the defiant child watched her carefully.
Kira sighed. She remembered what it was like to be that age and mad at the world. She’d had so much rage at the injustices dumped at her feet that sometimes it felt like her skin was a balloon. One wrong word could make it pop, causing all that rage and pain to come pouring out, oftentimes in violent and destructive ways.
She saw too much of herself in Ziva. More so, even than she did Joule. Ziva was a survivor, scrappy and stubborn. Her family had been taken from her in a manner Kira suspected had been bloody and violent. She'd been uprooted from all she knew and thrust into a House that didn't seem to want or need her.
Demands and angry recriminations were more likely to make her retreat further.
Kira waited patiently, crouching so she was eye level with Ziva.
"Stop stalling," Joule said impatiently.
Kira held up a hand, motioning for silence. She waited until Ziva looked up at her, the expression in her clear blue eyes trying to tug at Kira's heart.
Kira lips curled in a small smile. Ziva would have to work harder than that to get the sympathy vote from her.
Kira lifted her eyebrow's expectantly. "Well?"
"They said we were mutts," Ziva muttered. "And that we should be grateful for what we were given and not get uppity."
"And?" Kira asked.
Ziva shrugged. "And I challenged them to a duel."
Kira glanced up at Graydon, asking silently if this was normal protocol for children.
"As long as no one is injured permanently and there is no danger of death, an adult will not step in. We believe children should learn from their own experiences rather than being told what to do."
