“At least you’re learning fast,” Crow grinned at Penelope teasingly. They hadn’t even begun the real raid, yet he was already feeling excited about working with her again. It had been quite a while since the last time they had been able to do something like this, and he looked forward to having her by his side again. It was going to be quite different than teaming up with Rikki or Alistair. He’d always known he could rely on the other thieves, but he trusted the knight with his life. Even though he doubted they would encounter anything dangerous in such a simple job, he was glad to know she would be watching his back.

Penelope seemed to share his eagerness. When she moved in to kiss him, he didn’t skip a beat. His arms slipped around her back, and he leaned into her lips with fervor, closing his eyes as he let himself melt into her touch. Between his excitement about the raid and the distance between them lately, the kiss sent his heart racing with new energy. “Well then I think we’re going to be very lucky,” he smirked at her playfully when she pulled back from him again.

At her following question, he stepped over to the cord that laid in a pile on the floor and picked it up in his right hand. “It’s not too hard,” he said, glancing over at the knight. “The most important part is just trusting your body to get you where you want to go. If you don’t think you can do it, it’s much harder to keep from panicking.” As he spoke he took a few steps backward from the bedpost, where Preston had tied the end of the cord, until the linens pulled taut.

“It goes a bit against intuition, but when you climb down a cord like this, you need to lean back and use your arms to hold yourself up,” he instructed, rocking back on his heels and bending his knees to let the rope hold him up. Even though he was standing upright, it was a decent enough demonstration. His mother had taught him the same way when he was young. “When you lean back, your weight will help you keep your footing on the wall without slipping. If you try to lean up because you’re afraid of falling, you won’t have enough traction to hold onto the wall, and you really will fall, so try not to let your nerves get the best of you.”

He stood upright again and turned back to Penelope, “I’ll go first, since I need to open the window underneath us, so you can watch me to get a better idea of it.” He began to gather the rest of the cord in his arms, preparing to lower it through his own window. “Do you think you’ve got a basic understanding of it?”