Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow laughed softly as Penelope wrestled against his grip and threatened that she really would fall asleep on top of him. He met her lips when she kissed him and then opened his eyes again, grinning at her playfully. “Oh yeah?” he mused, discreetly shifting his hold on her so that he was holding her down with only his right arm. “I’d like to see you try.” Without giving her a chance to react, he quickly let go of her with his left hand and reached down to tickle her stomach, while keeping her pinned against his chest with his other arm.

“Mind keeping it down over there?” Rikki’s irritable voice grumbled from where she was laying nearby. Crow glanced in her direction to see that the thief was rubbing her eyes tiredly as she shot them an annoyed frown. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”

He rolled his eyes, knowing she was still just frustrated that he was with the knight to begin with. However, he didn’t feel like starting a fight over it when he wanted the others to fall asleep, so he complied with the request, slackening his grip on Penelope to let her move freely and shifting to lay more comfortably against her side.

“You got lucky this time,” he whispered to her with a wink as he drew his blanket over them. Suddenly feeling a bit more tired—he supposed the small portion of sedative that he had consumed was beginning to affect him slightly—he yawned and nestled closer to the knight, closing his eyes again. “We really should get some sleep though,” he murmured. “Night, Penelope. I love you.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow is kind of a goofball cx

A dollar is pretty good for a raise, especially at a place that starts you at minimum. A nickle is just insulting xD
Do you know how long it will take for the promotion to go through?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

When Penelope finally caved to his insistent pestering, Crow felt a strange mixture of emotions. Part of him was pleased with himself for having been able to convince her to take the chance with him so easily, but there was another part of him that felt vile for manipulating her like this. He supposed he had always known that he was going to have to use their relationship against her at some point—it was only logical, since her trust in him would give him just the opportunity he needed to get away—but he still hated using her.

Right after I promised her that I would try harder to be honest, too, he bit the inside of his lip to keep from grimacing at the thought. He hoped his efforts to appease Jaxon would pay off. As long as she stayed safe from harm, everything he was doing behind her back would be worth it. It has to be, he added silently. Otherwise I’m betraying her trust for nothing. Feeling his resolve return, he managed to push aside his doubts and guilt for the time being.

“If you say so,” Crow shrugged when Penelope insisted on finishing the rest of her guard shift without help. “Just let me know if you change your mind, okay?” Despite her confidence, he knew it was only a matter of time before the stubborn knight folded to her weariness. Between the valerian root he had slipped her and the act of sleeping together later in the night, he didn’t doubt that she would be too exhausted to stay awake later. It was just a waiting game now.

As she offered him a hand to stand up, he took it willingly. “That sounds good to me,” he agreed, stretching lazily as he made his way over to set up his bed for the night. Off to the side, Alistair and Olivia were fast asleep already. It looked like the thief had pulled his mat up next to the knight’s, as they were in separate beds, but still laid close enough to each other that they were practically touching. Next to them, Rikki had also just finished unfurling her bedroll and was settling down for the night as well.

Crow made quick work of putting out his own mat and then sat down, gesturing for Penelope to join him when he was done. Once she was beside him, he smirked playfully and wrapped his arms around her middle, dragging her down with him as he let himself fall back on the bed. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and held her tightly against himself, pinning her against his body. “I think I could fall asleep like this,” he sighed with mock contentedness, despite the rather uncomfortable position he had put them in. He closed his eyes, pretending to drift off, “Goodnight, love.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow is persistent xD

Makes sense ^^
The most insulting raise I was ever offered at any of my jobs was 5 cents lol It's kind of a funny story
I used to work at Kohl's, and I was one of their best credit card solicitors I was a manipulative little scumbag xD so when I was moving to a new city for college, they wanted to keep me on at their other store because I brought them good money. They were like "we'll pay you more" and when I asked how much, they literally only offered me a nickle. Like bruh, that's going right into my taxes anyway lmao
Obviously, I turned them down and put in my two weeks right then and there xD
My boss wasn't pleased, but I wasn't about to keep working my tail off selling credit cards (while taking full-time college credits, mind you) for a freaking nickle

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow studied Penelope for a moment when she turned down his offer to get away during the night. It wasn’t difficult to tell that she was feeling the effects of the herb he had slipped into the food, but he had been hoping that she would be tempted enough by the thought of escaping with him that she would be willing to do so. Thinking over the dilemma, he absently picked up some dried leaves and tossed them into the burning fire, watching as white smoke began to swirl off the plant matter.

If he wanted to sneak off during the night to fulfill his word to Jaxon, he knew he was going to have to pull it off during her guard shift. While he didn’t doubt that he would wake up on his own when Gavin roused her to take over the watch, he needed a way to nudge her into letting him go without knowing what was really going on. There was only one way that he could think of to do that.

“Come on,” he took on an alluring tone and leaned into her a little more, shifting to slide his arm around her waist so his hand rested against her hip. “Those thieves have no idea we’re even after them, so they don’t have any reason to come out of hiding to attack us. Besides, it’s not like we’d be gone for very long either.” He touched a kiss to her neck, just below the edge of her jaw, and then pulled back to offer her a reassuring smile. “If it makes you feel better, I can take over the rest of your watch tonight too. I’m not very tired, so I don’t mind doing it just this once.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

It'll be hard for him to pin the blame on Crow though, if his plan works ;3

Ah, okay. Hopefully you figure out what works best for you ^^
Would the promotion come with a pay raise?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As Crow sat down beside Penelope again, he stretched out his legs contentedly and leaned back on his hands in a relaxed posture, as if he was feeling tired from digesting his supper. He took a moment to subtly look over the other people around the firepit, noticing that there were already signs of weariness amongst them, especially amongst Alistair, Rikki, and Olivia, who didn’t have the discipline to act alert. It seemed like the valerian was working perfectly. All of his companions seemed to be fading slowly, but none of them appeared affected enough to pass out from the sedative. A pleased smile tugged at his lip, and he hid it with a yawn.

At Penelope’s question, he turned to her with a grin. “Of course,” he answered, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek. Now that he was getting used to showing affection for the knight in front of Alistair and Rikki, he was growing more brazen around them. Alistair was even more obvious about his flirting with Olivia than he was with Penelope, so the bold thief was drawing more attention to them anyway. As for Rikki… Crow peeked at her from the corner of his eye. After her attempts to get between them yet again, he didn’t care what she thought anymore. She could dislike the fact that he was with a knight all she wanted. He wasn’t going to pretend like they weren’t together for her sake.

He reached out to place a hand over Penelope’s, turning back to her and leaning in a little closer. “I was thinking,” he murmured, smirking at her mischievously. “When you get up for your guard shift tonight, you should wake me too. It could be fun if we get away for a little while.” He trailed his hand gently up the length of her arm and shifted closer, so his breath was warm on her ear. “What do you say?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow barely managed to fool Gavin this time

Wow. Are you gonna stick with it or start looking for a new job?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow shook his head as the knights began bickering amongst themselves. He raised one more bite of food to his mouth and chewed slowly, deciding to hold back from eating anything more of the poisoned meal. It tasted great, and his empty stomach tempted him to finish off the plate, but he didn’t want to risk consuming too much valerian root and sleeping through the night. He needed to be alert enough to finish everything he had planned to do before sunrise.

As Penelope spoke up, he turned to her with a smile, focusing on the present moment rather than what was to come. “You still did good,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to hug her against his side. After a moment, he pulled back again and shifted to rise to his feet. “I have something to take care of,” he announced, looking down at the knight and resting a hand briefly on her head as he stood over her. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” Gavin asked coldly.

“Relax,” the thief rolled his eyes. He reached for the sleeve that covered his right arm and pulled it back, revealing the bandages he had wrapped around his forearm from Jaxon’s cut. “I just need to change these out quickly. It won’t take long.”

“When did that happen?” Rikki asked with a frown as she studied his arm.

“A few nights ago,” he shrugged, letting his sleeve fall over the bandages to hide them from view again. “A bounty hunter found me while I was sleeping. Fortunately, he was young and inexperienced, so this was the worst he managed to do.”

“Too bad,” Gavin muttered.

Crow ignored the knight’s bitter comment, “Anyway, I just need to take care of this before I forget tonight.” He leaned down to press a quick kiss to Penelope’s forehead, casting her a playful wink as he picked up his plate of food. “I’ll be sure to finish this off while it’s still warm.”

Feeling satisfied that he had convinced the others of his story about a bounty hunter attack, he turned and walked over to his bag, where he had packed away the spare bandages. On the way there, he could feel Gavin’s suspicious gaze on his back, but after a while, the knight seemed content that the thief hadn’t left his range of sight, so he looked away to continue eating in silence. Crow smirked to himself as he sat down facing away from the group and dug through his things to retrieve the fabric wrapping. He really did need to change out the dressing on hi injury, but that wasn’t the only reason why he had chosen this particular moment to do so.

Casting a furtive glance over his shoulder, he made sure that no one was looking in his direction and then swiftly poured out the rest of his dinner beneath a nearby bush. Between the cover of the foliage and the darkness of the night, no one would be able to find it unless they were looking. He sighed softly, Sorry, Penelope. I’ll be sure to enjoy your cooking next time.

With that done, he made quick work of replacing the bandages on his arm and got up to rejoin the others at the firepit.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

No worries! I've been going to leadership training for the club I'm part of for all of last night and today
I probably would have only been on for like an hour or two, even if you did get a post up lol
I actually just got home from a 7 hour session like 10 minutes ago xD

Cool. As of right now, I'm completely free until Wednesday (aside from my classes), but now that my friends are back in town, we've been arranging a lot of hangouts, so I have no clue if my schedule will stay that way or not ^^;