Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Okay! I'll leave it open then and see if we can fit her in at the end of their meeting ^^
Also, I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten a post up, wow xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow made quick work of his walk to Myrefall, scouting the area for knights along the way but finding none nearby. He shook his head to himself. His companions had no reason to worry as much as they did. He would have understood their worries if he had been going on a dangerous trip, but Myrefall was so close to their camp, he didn’t feel even the slightest bit tired from traveling all the way there. He was fine on his own. As long as he kept watch for knights, he wouldn’t find himself in any sort of trouble.

When he reached the edge of the village, he turned to head down the road that led to his old home. Again, he glanced about for local guards, but the streets were empty. It seemed he was lucky this time. As long as he didn’t see any knights on the rest of the way there, he wouldn’t have to hide at all. Feeling a bit more confident, he hastened his pace to a brisk walk, eager to see Penelope again as soon as he could.

Eventually, he saw the house down the road and a faint smile crossed his lips as he noticed the flicker of a lantern in the window. She was already inside. Heartbeat quickening in his excitement, he closed the rest of the distance and reached for the door handle, pushing the door open as he stepped into the room. He looked up and saw the knight sitting on the edge of the bed. Closing the door behind him, he didn’t even bother to take off his cloak before he made his way over to her and pressed a long kiss to her lips.

“Gods, I missed you,” he sighed after pulling back to meet her gaze again. Slipping his cloak off his shoulders, he hung it over the chair beside hers and then sat down next to her on the bed. “How did your camp react to your disappearance?” he asked, taking on a bit more serious of a tone. “They didn’t give you too much trouble, did they?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

So I was thinking that here, Rikki could disregard Crow's orders and follow him to the meeting. She wouldn't go inside with him, but would eavesdrop outside the house and figure out he and Penelope are together
I'm not married to the idea though, since this meeting is already gonna have a lot going on
Yay or nay?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Two more days passed, and the time drew near for Crow to meet with Penelope again. He spent most of the afternoon sparring against Simon in the woods outside their camp, both to keep his skills sharp and to test how well he was able to handle fighting with his progressing illness. Even though he knew he had told Hazel he would take it easy, he still wanted to find some way to help his companions whenever the next battle happened. It might look different now than it had before, but he wasn’t going to just sit around in the camp while they went out to defend the villagers.

After a while, Simon managed to disarm him and lowered his own blade, while Crow moved to collect his dagger, shaking out the hand the blonde thief had struck to make him drop it in the first place. “You’re slow,” he commented, breathing slightly heavier after the exertion of sparring against his leader. “Your skills haven’t deteriorated, but I can keep up with you easily now.”

“Again,” Crow panted, raising his weapons in an offensive stance. “I can do better.” Suddenly, he flinched and let out a startled yelp as he felt something hit him in the back of the head. Spinning around, he saw Hazel standing behind him, one shoe in hand and a glare of her face.

“What did I tell you about straining yourself, dumbass?” she snapped, swatting him with the shoe again in the arm.

Crow cringed and rubbed the spot on his arm where she had hit him. “It’s just a little light sparring,” he retorted, shooting her an annoyed look. “I feel fine.”

“You might feel fine now, but what about tomorrow or next week, huh?” Hazel snorted. “If you keep pushing yourself like this, you’re going to shorten your lifespan, idiot. And you,” she turned on Simon, who visibly shrank beneath her cold gaze. “I told all of you to make sure he doesn’t pull this crap, not encourage it. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Simon flushed scarlet and averted his gaze, mumbling a meek apology under his breath.

“I swear, I’m babysitting children around here…” Hazel grumbled, grabbing Crow roughly by the collar of his shirt as she stormed off towards the waterfall. “Let’s go, snake. You’re coming with me.”

“O-okay,” he blinked, stumbling after her as she dragged him along.

Once they were back in their camp, the herbalist whirled on him with an accusatory glower, “I hope you’re not still thinking about joining in the next battle after everything I told you last week.”

Crow shifted his weight but didn’t reply.

Hazel raked her fingers through her hair, letting out an exasperated groan, “Just when I thought you were starting to listen to me… What the hell, Crow? Why are you so insistent on getting yourself killed? You know I only told you to stay out of the fighting because it’s for your own good, so stop treating it like it’s some kind of punishment.”

“I agreed with you then, but things are different now,” he argued stubbornly. “I feel a lot better, and I even went through a whole sparring match with Simon without wearing myself out. Maybe the disease is slowing down, or maybe your medicine is finally working, but I don’t even feel sick anymore.”

“That’s because you’ve finally been getting some rest, moron,” she slapped a palm to her forehead. “If you go back out and fight now, you’ll undo all the good that rest has done for you. Do you really want to do that to yourself?”

Crow hesitated. “I can handle it,” he said after a moment. “I don’t plan to join in the battle as I usually do. I’m going to figure something else out that I can do that won’t be as strenuous.”

“Why do I find that hard to believe?” Hazel said dryly, propping her hands on her hips.

“I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “You’ll see. I’ll think of something.”

“It’s your funeral,” the herbalist shrugged. “Whatever. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With that, she turned and headed back out of the cavern.

Crow scoffed as he watched her go. He would show her. He wasn’t going to let his illness get the best of him—not as long as he had the capability to come up with a plan to work around it. Suddenly feeling irritable and uninterested in being around the others, he picked up a bedroll and headed down the rightmost tunnel, navigating his way by memory to one of the smaller caves that laid deeper in the labyrinth. When he reached it, he unfurled the mat and laid down to take an uninterrupted nap.

--

Eventually, Crow was awoken by his growling stomach. He blinked tiredly and sat up, looking around as he took a moment to remember where he was. Climbing slowly to his feet, he rolled up the bed and carried it back to the main cavern, where he was greeted by the smell of freshly cooked chicken. All four of his companions were gathered around the clay hearth near the entrance, splitting the meat amongst each other for supper. Now in a better mood after getting some sleep, he walked over to join them.

Rikki, as always, was the first to greet him. She moved to sit down next to him as soon as he had reached them and then offered him a plate. “I got this one for you,” she said with a smile.

“Thanks,” he nodded, still a bit groggy from his nap. Ever since their conversation two days ago, things had gotten a little tenser between them, but neither one was willing to acknowledge it. Rikki was still clearly hoping he would come around and eventually choose to court her, while he was afraid of telling her the truth and popping the fragile bubble of friendship they still had left. So, they both said nothing and continued to pretend like nothing had changed between them.

Crow dug into his portion of the food, eating with a ravenous appetite. Glancing outside through the cave opening, he saw that the sun had nearly set on the horizon, meaning it was almost time for him to leave for his next meeting with Penelope. He could already feel his heartbeat quicken in excitement. It had been a full week since he had last seen her, and his desire to be with her again had grown even more insatiable than his appetite for supper. He couldn’t wait to see her again.

“Hey, Crow,” Rikki spoke up softly beside him.

He turned to see her looking up at him with a concerned frown. “Yeah?” he asked, wondering why she was suddenly acting so nervous.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to meet with Penelope alone?” she went on tentatively. “I mean, what if you’re seen by a patrol? I think you should bring one of us with you, just to be safe.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said reassuringly. “We’re even closer to Myrefall now than we were before, and I’ve never had any trouble before.”

“That’s not true,” Simon spoke up. “There was one time when you were out late because you and the knight got chased by local guards.”

Crow cursed inwardly as he recalled the incident Simon was referring to—when he had been running with Penelope and they had stayed out almost until morning because she had twisted her ankle. He shot the blonde thief a subtle glare for bringing it up, and then raised a brow when he caught his indiscreet glance towards Hazel. He rolled his eyes. Of course. Simon must have just been trying to impress her by proving that he did take her instructions seriously. “That was one time, and it was just an unfortunate coincidence,” he said defensively. “It won’t happen again.”

“You can’t say that for sure,” Rikki pressed. “Let me come with you. I’ll make sure you stay safe.”

“No,” Crow shook his head. “We’ll draw less attention to ourselves if it’s just me and Penelope. Besides,” he offered her a confident grin. “Who’s the most talented thief here when it comes to avoiding capture?”

“You are,” she frowned. “But—”

“Then it’s settled,” he stood up and headed over to grab his cloak. Slinging the heavy fabric over his shoulders, he drew his hood and headed for the opening. “I’ll be back later,” he said, nodding in a curt goodbye. Without waiting for a reply, he slipped out of the cavern and began the short trip to Myrefall.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Sure! I'm good with that

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Rikki confessed x'c

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Over the next few days, Crow and the other thieves spent most of their time building their new camp. The caverns were turning out to be an even better location than they had hoped. After the first night, they had all lit torches and explored the three tunnels that led away from the main cave, finding that one was a dead end, while the other two spread out and branched off like a small labyrinth. Simon, who had taught himself a bit about mapmaking, took it upon himself to spend the next few days making a map of the caves for the others to use, tediously marking out areas that were still unexplored or had been found to be dangerous.

While he did that, the other three thieves went to the nearest marketplace to buy some of the supplies they were missing since their move. They purchased animal skins to use as insulation—the moist, stony tunnels were frigid at night—enough food to last them for a while, a few medical supplies to replace the ones they had lost to the knights, some spare clothing, as many oil lanterns and fuel as they could carry to light the tunnels, and a few other miscellaneous things that they would need to get through the coming days. In buying so many supplies, they exhausted most of their coin reserves. However, they still had just enough left over for an emergency, so they weren’t overly concerned about it yet.

Another challenge the thieves had to solve was how to light a fire at night without smoking themselves out. The second night they had been there, they had found out the hard way that they couldn’t simply burn tinder in a cavern without filling the whole room with smoke. So, for the next two days after that, Crow and Alistair worked on using clay they had found along the riverbanks to make a hearth near the entrance of the cave that would funnel the smoke out. Fortunately, it worked, and they were able to light fires again once it was finished.

During all of this, Hazel focused all of her time and energy into refining the medicine she was giving to Crow for his illness. She checked in with him every morning to see how he was feeling and mixed a poultice for him to take every night. Her unwavering diligence was reassuring to him, and he began to have hope that she would find a cure for him after all. With a rekindled spirit, he spent more of his time with the other thieves again, going out with them on simple errands, drinking with them in the Ivory Hatchet tavern, and playing games with them in the cavern when they didn’t feel like going out.

For the most part, it seemed like things were returning to normal. After the initial shock of learning about his illness had faded, the other thieves began to treat him as they had before. Simon still followed his orders and Alistair didn’t go out to do anything rash. The only one who continued to act differently around him was Rikki. The female thief spent much more of her time at his side, trying to help him with simple tasks and making sure he was never alone when he left the hideout. Hazel managed to separate them sometimes by giving her jobs to do—searching for herbs, mixing poultices, sketching records of different types of plants, etc.—but even she could only do so much to keep the thief away from him.

Even though he knew she was just trying to help, Crow found her constant presence to be something of a nuisance to him. Not only did he get annoyed by her unnecessary coddling, but he also had to put a lot more effort into keeping her at a distance during the day. She still believed his lie that he couldn’t sleep with her lying next to him at night, but when they were together at any other time, she became clingy and tried to get physical with him. He found that he had to dodge her attempts to kiss him more often than he would have liked.

After a while of this, the situation became even worse, because Rikki started to notice that he was avoiding physical interactions with her. On their fourth day in the tunnels, she pulled him aside from the rest of the group to confront him about it.

“Something’s different about you, Crow,” she said with a frown once they had distanced themselves enough from the others to speak privately. “I know you’re sick, but you’re acting a lot stranger than usual.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“I mean, I understand why you don’t want me to sleep beside you anymore, but it’s more than that now. You won’t even let me kiss you, and I know you’ve been avoiding sleeping with me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s going on? Did I do something to offend you?”

Crow shifted his weight slightly. This was the conversation he had been trying to stay away from for so long. “It’s just…” he sighed, averting his gaze. “I know we’ve been having fun and all, but I’m sick now. Honestly, I just don’t have the energy to sleep with you anymore… That’s why I’ve been avoiding it.” He scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I don’t want to keep you on the hook when I don’t know if I’m going to get better or not. You shouldn’t keep waiting around for me. You should go be with someone else.”

Rikki didn’t say anything, so he went on, “It’s fine. Really. I had a good time with you while it lasted, but I won’t be offended if you move on. You know, I’m sure Alistair would be more than happy to sleep with you. He’s been saying—”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Rikki said softly, shaking her head. “It was never about that, Crow. Well, maybe it was in the beginning, but…” She bit her lip and lowered her gaze as she continued in a quiet voice, “I know we never defined our relationship, and we’ve both slept with other people, but that’s not what I wanted. Not at all. I-I really like you.” She looked up at him with rosy cheeks. “I know you’ve said you’re not looking for a serious relationship right now, but I was hoping that… when you do feel ready for a real commitment, you’d see that I’ve been by your side the whole time and that I care about you.” She hugged her arms around her torso. “So please, don’t ask me to give up on you. I’m not going to do it.”

Crow stared at her in surprise. He had occasionally suspected that Rikki harbored deeper feelings for him than just physical attraction, but this was the first time she had confessed to it out loud. He blinked, realizing she was waiting for a response. After a moment, he shook his head, “I don’t know what to say. I had no idea… How long have you felt this way?”

“Since the war started,” she answered sheepishly. “And look, I understand if you don’t feel the same way about me right now. I know you’re not looking for that sort of relationship. I just wanted you to know that I’m not going anywhere, even if you’re ill—even if it means we have to wait a while longer before we can be together again.” She smiled softly. “I’m going to stay by your side until you get through this.”

“Darling…” Crow faltered, still finding himself without words after everything she had just said. How was he supposed to tell her that he could never be with her; that he was in love with someone else; that he would never feel the same care for her that she did for him; that he was lying to her about everything? He didn’t want to break her heart like that. Even though he didn’t love her, she was still his closest friend. He didn’t want to lose that.

“It’s okay, Crow,” she said calmly. “You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know how I feel.” Stepping forward, she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek and then walked back to join the others, leaving him behind to stare at the ghost of where she had just been.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

For real xD
I think he threw her off his trail pretty well there

Okay! I don't have anything big planned for Crow either, so I'm good with a skip

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

The next morning, Crow was the last to wake up again, but no one said anything or made any snide remarks now that they knew the real reason why he was resting so much. He sat up on his bed and stretched tiredly, looking around to see that the others had already finished packing up most of their camp. The only things that were left were his bedroll and a pot of what he guessed to be the cold leftovers of the other thieves’ breakfast, left out for him to eat whenever he woke up.

He climbed slowly to his feet and ambled over to pour himself a bowl of porridge. The food had definitely been sitting out for a while, and it smelled bland—Simon had probably made it—but he was too hungry to care. Once he had filled up a dish for himself, he made his way over to join his four companions, who were all sitting around on the other side of the camp, talking casually. It looked like they had purposefully moved as far from the sleeping area as they could so as not to wake him while he had been resting. He shifted slightly at the realization. He still felt strange receiving special treatment from them all, and he wished they would just go on with their lives as if nothing had changed.

As he approached, Rikki was the first to greet him. “Morning,” she chirped cheerily, though he could see it was clearly midday. “How did you sleep?”

“Good,” he answered, taking a seat between Hazel and Alistair. After what had happened the previous morning, he wanted to keep some distance between himself and the female thief. “I see you’re all ready to go,” he commented with a good-natured smile. “Looks like I have some catching up to do.”

“I can help you get ready,” Rikki said quickly.

Crow rolled his eyes, “I can do it myself, love. Don’t bother.”

Hazel glanced between them for a moment before turning to Rikki with a friendly smile, “If you really want to help someone, I could use some extra hands to pack up my herbal supplies.”

“Sure,” the female thief perked up slightly.

Crow shot Hazel an appreciative look, at which she just shrugged nonchalantly and averted her gaze. Despite her harsh exterior, he knew she had a bit of a soft spot for her patients, even one she didn’t necessarily like. After treating all sorts of people of all sorts of illnesses, she knew better than anyone how coddling and special treatment typically only served to make a sick person feel useless, especially if it was unnecessary. He was grateful that she was willing to intervene to keep Rikki from doing just that.

The two women left to put away Hazel’s remaining supplies, while Crow finished off the rest of his food and Alistair and Simon discussed the best route to take to avoid patrols. Once he was done eating, Crow packed up his own bags and shouldered them as the group prepared to leave. It didn’t take long before everyone was ready, and they headed out to their new camp.

--

After a long walk with only two breaks for meals, the group finally arrived at the northwest riverbank just after sunset. Crow looked up at the waterfall that cascaded over the edge of the drop-off, crashing loudly into the pool at its base. Even up close, he couldn’t see the entrance to the tunnels the others had told him about. All it looked like to him was a simple ridge covered with mossy vines. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it as far as he could see.

Beside him, Rikki began to fidget excitedly. She looked up at him and grinned, “Ready? Watch this.” She reached to grab his hand and led him to the edge of the waterfall. Now even closer, he narrowed his eyes slightly as he could see the edge of what looked like a cave behind the curtain of water, masked by the misty spray.

“See?” the thief went on proudly. “It’s perfect! Those knights won’t ever find us again.” Tugging on his hand, she shimmied around the rim of the water to lead him behind the waterfall. Crow followed after her, cautiously watching where he planted his feet along the narrow pass. He still didn’t know how to swim well, so the thought of slipping and falling into the river was unnerving to him. Fortunately, it wasn’t too difficult to get to the cavern entrance, and he made it without any trouble.

Ducking down slightly—the opening was a bit short for him—he stepped inside of the tunnel after Rikki and looked around. In the low light, it was hard to see, but he could make out that they were standing in a larger cave that seemed to branch off in three different directions. He straightened his posture as he realized the ceiling stretched high enough over his head that he didn’t have to crouch anymore. Glancing back at the entrance, he saw the other three come in after them.

Hazel’s eyes widened as she looked over the space, and she whistled, “Impressive. If you all hadn’t told me this was here, I don’t think I ever would have found it on my own.”

“How did you guys find this place?” Crow asked, looking between his companions curiously.

Simon and Rikki exchanged a knowing glance, while Alistair averted his gaze, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. “Let’s just say that one of us decided to take a piss in the river and fell in,” Rikki snickered, elbowing Alistair in the side. “When we fished him out, Simon noticed something behind the waterfall; and when we checked it out, we found these tunnels.”

“That was pretty lucky,” Crow laughed, glancing up at the ceiling of the cavern as he listened to his voice echo off of the rocks.

“So, I guess you could say I was the one who found this place,” Alistair stood up a bit straighter.

“Oh, shut up, piss-for-brains,” Rikki snorted. “All you did was fall in the river and nearly drown yourself.”

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have seen the cave.”

“If anyone should take credit for the discovery of these tunnels, it’s me,” Simon puffed up proudly. “I saw the entrance first.”

“I don’t care who found it,” Crow shook his head, hoping to put an end to their squabble before anyone threw a punch. “I’m just glad we’ve got a new camp.”

“Seconded,” Hazel nodded, wandering around the edge of the cavern as she explored its layout. “No one will ever find us here.”

“It’s a great spot,” Crow agreed. “It’s well hidden, close to the border, next to a fresh water source, and close enough to the knights’ camp that we can keep stealing from them if we need more supplies. Good job, everyone.”

“Now all we have to do is set up our camp, and this place will be our new home,” Rikki grinned, rolling her shoulders to drop her bags.

“Right,” Crow nodded, following her lead by taking off his own packs. “Let’s get to work. I want this camp finished before we go to bed tonight.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Got a head start on that one cx
Crow finally did something about Rikki