Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I bet! Probably makes your work situation even worse, huh? :'D

I still think Rikki is adorable

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow nodded, accepting Penelope’s words as she said she could handle the accusations when she returned to her camp the next day. He felt a smile tug at the corner of his lip. Even though he still believed it would be better for her to go back before nightfall, he was grateful to have the additional time with her. With the war going on, they barely saw each other anymore, so he wanted to make the most of their time while she was still with him.

“If you say so,” he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. “I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting away with it.”

--

The rest of their walk was passed in comfortable conversation interjected with occasional silences as Crow and Penelope kept watch for patrols. The thief found the time to be entirely enjoyable, since he hadn’t been able to talk with the knight so freely in years. He was reminded of just how much he liked spending time with her, and he looked forward to a future when they could do so again. As long as the war didn’t drag on, it wouldn’t be much longer until that future came. He could already feel the excitement welling up inside of him at the thought.

Around dusk, he began to notice that the scenery around them looked familiar. They were getting close to the meeting point. His heart beat nervously in his chest as the time was fast approaching when he would find out if all of his companions really had made it out safely or not. He prayed he would see all four of them when he arrived.

As they neared the valley, a thought came to him suddenly, and he turned to Penelope, “I forgot to mention this, but don’t bring up anything about my illness to anyone except Hazel. I haven’t told the others about it, and I don’t want them to—”

“Crow!”

The thief startled at the sound of a voice and turned to see Rikki sprinting towards him from the edge of the valley. Before he could react, she barreled into him and wrapped her arms tightly around his middle in an embrace. “Thank gods! You made it,” she breathed. After a moment, she blinked and jumped back again. “I have to tell the others!” Without waiting for a reply, she spun on her heel and ran back to the valley, calling out loudly, “Everyone, Crow’s alive!”

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Crow watched her go with a shake of his head. “You know, I don’t think she even noticed you were here,” he snorted, glancing at Penelope. He hesitated for a moment and then let go of her hand. Considering the other thieves’ opinions about knights, he still didn’t want them to know he was with her now.

“Well, I guess you should get back to your camp, huh?” he said to her with a halfhearted smile. Even though he had gotten to spend the entire length of the walk with her, he still felt reluctant to part ways. He missed the days when they had been able to sleep in each other’s arms and spend all of their time together. Compared to that, only visiting every once in a while felt like torture.

Suddenly, another idea came to him, and he shifted his weight. “Unless… you’d like to stay with us for the night,” he offered tentatively. “You already won’t get back to your camp until tomorrow. If you stay here, you’ll at least get some sleep in between… What do you think?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I've heard it's terrible when the clock goes backwards and you lose an hour of sleep
My friends from Cali who go to school here love the fact that they don't have to reset their clocks xD
Vote it out cx

Cool cool. I'm excited!
Want to to throw in a short time skip to when they get to the valley?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Nice xD
Wait I just remembered something
Is DST a thing right now? I heard something about it starting yesterday, but I have no idea how that works
AZ is one of the only two states in the country that doesn't do it cx We lucked out
If it started, I think we're on different time zones now lol

Also, I could go either way if Penelope wants to stay or go
If she leaves, Crow would probably just talk to Hazel about the physician idea
If she stays, I see him offering for her to spend the night with the group, since she already won't get back until the next day
Either he would bring her to Farhill for some time alone, or they would stay with the others and there could be interesting character interactions between her and the other thieves
Or there could be both because why not

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow listened as Penelope explained that her baroness had chosen to send a different lieutenant in her stead. He was mildly surprised to hear the pride in her voice as she spoke. When he had known her before, she had seemed to care much more about what her equals and superiors thought of her, but now it sounded like she was indifferent to their opinions. He was glad she had started to be more independent. It was a freer way to live.

He smirked as she went on to call him a bad influence. “Darling, you fell in love with a man who lives outside of the law,” he teased, lacing his fingers with hers when he felt her take his hand. “What more did you expect?” Shifting to walk a bit closer to her, he thought about all the ways he had noticed her change after being around him in the beginning. Though she called his habits and skills a bad influence, he didn’t consider them to be bad at all. His ability to lie in particular had saved his life on numerous occasions. If anything, he felt like he had done her a favor by teaching her how to do the same.

As Penelope mentioned how she had continued to use the tricks she had picked up from him even while they were apart, he squeezed her hand proudly. “I have plenty more tricks where those came from,” he said with a grin. “Maybe I’ll teach them to you… if you make it worth my while.” He winked at her coyly before glancing up at the sky. Noon had passed, and the sun was already starting to sink westward. The rendezvous point was still far from where they were, so he doubted they would arrive before nightfall.

“In all seriousness, I do hope you’ve gotten as good at lying as you say you have,” he said somberly, turning back to meet her gaze. “The place we’re going is about a full day’s walk from your camp, if not longer, so you won’t be back for quite a while.” He frowned, thinking something over before going on, “Are you sure you want to come with me the whole way there? I mean, I appreciate the company, but at this rate, you’ll be up all night to travel back to the other knights, and even then, you won’t make it until tomorrow. It might be best for you to leave now, so they don’t get too suspicious.” He offered her a small smile. “I’m sure I’ll be fine to walk the rest of the way alone. You should go.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I love Philip Philips! cx

Sorry that one took a while. My husband surprised me with take-home dinner and cookies because his friends were asses last night xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

When Crow and Penelope got close to the camp, the thief felt his heart begin to race as he heard voices he didn’t recognize. The knights had found them. He strained to listen for the other thieves as they neared the edge of the ravine, hoping both that he would hear them, so he would know they were still alive and that he wouldn’t hear them, because that meant there was a chance they had escaped. Feeling stressed, he followed Penelope’s lead as she took his hand to guide him to a cluster of bushes near the edge of the ravine where they could watch the knights without being seen.

Once they were hidden, he crept as close to the hillside as he could get, peering over the edge in dismay as he watched the patrols tear apart the camp. While it was discouraging to see them ruin the hideout he and the other thieves had worked so hard to build, he was more concerned with locating his companions amongst the small crowd. His nervous green eyes swept over the ravine as he looked for signs of Simon, Rikki, and Alistair. However, it didn’t seem like they were there. He felt himself relax as he realized they had gotten away safely.

Now able to focus on the scene in front of him more clearly, Crow watched as the patrols collected all of the supplies the thieves had stolen from the Brerratic and Younisian knights. He clenched his hands into fists, feeling a pang of frustration. All of their hard work to prolong the next battle had been wasted. With the weapons back in the hands of the knights, there was nothing stopping them from engaging with Younis again.

He cursed under his breath, and then glanced at Penelope as she spoke up in a whisper. “They’re probably on their way to our meeting spot by now,” he nodded, pushing aside his annoyance with the situation to focus on the next step. “We should start heading that way.”

Drawing back quietly from the edge of the ravine, he casted a quick look around the area to make sure they were alone and then stood up straight again. Once they were both ready to go, he took the lead again, guiding Penelope southeast towards the villages of Azmar and Farhill, where he hoped the other thieves would be waiting.

After they had walked far enough from the ravaged hideout that he felt confident they wouldn’t be overheard, Crow turned to Penelope with a curious look, “So… with all of those knights being sent out to look for us, how did you manage to slip away? I would have thought you would be heading your own patrol, since you’re a lieutenant and all. Isn’t anyone going to notice you’re gone?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

She did xD

I was thinking Crow and Penelope would get back to the camp to find that the knights had gotten to it first. They'd see them overturning it in search of their missing supplies (which are mostly still there, since the thieves couldn't take much with them when they escaped). None of Crow's friends would be there though, because they got away

Oh, and the knights would also find the Younisian supplies that Crow and Simon stole

Feel free to include that in your post if you want

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow walked quickly as they headed back towards the camp, eager to find out what had become of the other thieves. He hoped Hazel had made it back in time to warn them about the patrols—in fact, he hoped she had made it back to them without running into any, herself. Besides the fact that he needed her help to reach a solution for his illness, he also cared about the herbalist at least somewhat as a person. She was abrasive, yes, but she wasn’t bad. As a thief who was looked down upon by most of the people he met, he knew better than anyone not to judge someone based on just one unappealing characteristic. Hazel was rude, but she was also kind and selfless and empathetic, and she didn’t deserve to get caught up in their trouble.

He glanced back at Penelope as she spoke up, drawing his attention. “I know,” he murmured, not looking forward to what was to come. The thieves had needed to relocate their camp multiple times whenever patrols of knights had accidentally stumbled upon them. It was a big job that usually took most, if not all of a night to complete. They needed to find a new location first, then transfer all of their supplies over without getting caught, and then make a covered shelter to protect themselves from bad weather. It was a lot of work, and none of them enjoyed doing it.

“Do you think your companions are still near your camp?” He turned to the knight again as she asked the question.

“That depends on whether or not Hazel got to them in time,” he answered tensely, rounding a tight cluster of trees. “We’ve prepared for situations like this, so if she alerted them, they should have gone to the meeting location we chose to use if we’ve been separated. It’s a valley between Azmar and Farhill.” He frowned, hastening his pace slightly. “I’m hoping that’s where they are, but I want to check the camp first, just in case something went wrong.”

Suddenly, he stiffened as he caught a faint glimpse of movement off to his right and immediately reached for Penelope’s hand, diving to take cover behind a patch of bushes. Peering through the leaves, he saw a patrol of knights walking by. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have noticed him or Penelope and after a while, they passed out of view again. He let out his breath and stood up again with a concerned look. “I don’t like how close they are to the camp,” he muttered, turning to walk again. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I saw! She looks like an interesting character ^^
I can't wait to see how she interacts with the others
Same~ I feel bad for Penelope already xD