Trash Panda

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As Crow laid in the tent for a while longer, he began to slowly grow more alert and noticed more about his surroundings. The first thing he realized was that it wasn’t just his wrist that had been chained. Someone had taken the extra measure to bind his right ankle to the bottom bed post too. He shuddered as the chains reminded him of the ones he’d worn in prison years ago. Normally, cuffs like these wouldn’t have bothered him much, since he could get out of them easily enough, but whoever had set him up in this place—whether intentionally or not—had made quite sure that he couldn’t get away. Both his tunic and boots were missing, both of which were where he kept all of his thievery tools, including his pick lock key.

He sighed and stared dully up at the fabric canopy over his head. By now, he was also certain that he was in the tent of a physician. The temporary shelves of books and medicines were enough to give that away. The real question was why he was in the tent of a physician. He was a wanted criminal. What reason would a noble have for keeping him alive, especially when they could have collected his bounty if they had let him die? Even other thieves would have done that, as was proven by Jaxon’s readiness to kill him during the fight. He couldn’t think of anything someone could gain by letting him live.

As his mind wandered back to the battle, he suddenly remembered that Penelope had kept saying to him that she was going to get him help. At the time, he hadn’t been convinced, but now he was beginning to think all of this was her doing somehow. He looked over the tent one more time. Am I at the battalion’s camp? he thought hazily. It seemed logical, but he’d been wounded in the woods to the west of Wheldrake, nowhere near the knights’ camp. Even if Penelope had been trying to save him, he couldn’t understand how he could have made it all the way there from the thieves’ camp.

Fortunately, it seemed like he was finally going to get an explanation.

Crow glanced down at the entrance to the tent as it curled open and a figure stepped inside. It was a woman he didn’t recognize with long, dark hair and a disgruntled expression. By her lack of armor, he guessed she was the physician who had treated him. He was just about to start questioning her to find out what was going on, when the front flap of the tent shifted again, and a second person entered. His heartbeat quickened as he recognized Penelope right away. She really had been the one to save him after all.

“Of course,” he grinned when she commented on him being awake. “I couldn’t stay asleep forever. That’s far too boring.” His gaze shifted to the physician, who had approached to look over the bandages around his wound. He noticed that she seemed hesitant, as if she was wrestling between her duty to tend to him and her own personal feelings about treating a thief. Luckily for him, duty seemed to win out.

“Can you sit up?” she asked curtly in a manner that almost made her words sound like a command rather than a question as she retrieved a roll of fresh bandages to redress his injury.

“Well, I could,” Crow rolled his eyes. “But that was before I got this hole in my gut.”

Jane pursed her lips, clearly unamused by the thief’s difficult attitude, and then glanced back towards Penelope with a pleading expression, as if silently begging her lieutenant to be released from having to treat a criminal.

Crow ignored her. “By the way,” he turned his head to look at Penelope as well. “Is anyone going to tell me where I am?”

Match Up in Malibu [Bee & Summer]

The longer he danced with this woman, the more impressed with her Jett became. When she had made her challenge to him earlier, he had just assumed she was being cocky with him, but now that he’d had a glimpse of her skills for himself, it was starting to seem like she really did have a reason to make such a haughty comment. Even though he was talented from his years of experience in dance, she kept up with him effortlessly. His eyes swept over her with interest as she kept up with the series of complex steps he led her through, following the beat of the song. This girl may not have been a celebrity guest, but she definitely had some moves. He smiled to himself, enjoying dancing with a partner who could match him so easily.

As they continued to move to the music, Jett also noticed that she was getting a little friendly with him. His lip quirked upward in an amused smirk as she rested a hand on his chest. She isn’t wasting any time. He hadn’t met many women who were bold enough to get a little physical after meeting someone for the very first time. For a moment, he wondered if she’d had a few to drink, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She was dancing far too smoothly to be drunk, so he brushed off the theory. She must have just been a genuinely confident person who wasn’t afraid of a little light touching.

He glanced off to the side, where one of the cameramen had his lens trained in on them like a hawk. It looked like production had taken notice of them and were searching for broadcast-worthy moments. I guess we’ll just have to put on a good show for them, he thought as he turned back to the woman in front of him. It was obvious that of all the pairs of dancers, the two of them were the most visually interesting to watch. There were a few other celebrities on the dance floor with their own partners, but he could tell that they were taking it easy, so they wouldn’t overwhelm the people who had little to no experience with this sort of environment.

“Anna, huh?” Jett quipped when she told him her name. “I like it.” In the next moment, he felt her hand slide to his shoulders, and he raised a brow. She just kept getting closer to him, didn’t she? He was just beginning to wonder if she was a fan who was trying to coax him to make a move on her, when she asked him what his name was. Now that was surprising. It wasn’t that he was conceited, but he’d been expecting the non-celebrity guests of the show to all be followers of famous people like himself. Why else would anyone audition to join a cast like this, if not to meet their favorite stars? She doesn’t have to be a fan of mine though. Maybe she came here to meet one of the other celebrities.

“The name’s Jett,” he answered with a grin. Now that he felt confident she wasn’t a fan pandering for attention, he decided he might as well test the waters with this girl a little—see if he could find out whether her confident front was real or fake. As he led her through a simple turn, he slid his hand from her back down to her tailbone and pulled her closer so the space between them disappeared. From there, he guided her into a series of close-quarters dance moves that were more difficult than what they had been doing before.

While he had only done so to challenge Anna, Jett found that being so close to her got his heartrate up a bit. He may not have known anything about her other than her name, but she was hot. It was only natural that he would get a little excited. He met her gaze as they danced, near enough now that their whiskey-tinted breaths mingled. “You’re a lot better at this than I was expecting,” he complimented, maneuvering expertly through the thinning crowd. With a quick glance up at their surroundings, he suddenly realized that most of the other dancers had stopped to watch him and Anna.

He chuckled and leaned in to lower his voice slightly as he alerted her: “Don’t look now, but it seems we’ve got an audience.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

It's about time xD

Alright, I threw it in!

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow smiled faintly when Penelope called him stubborn and placed her hand on top of his. He wished he could take it to comfort her, but he couldn’t even bring himself to bend a finger by this point. Despite her request to stay with her, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could last. The pain that had been ransacking his body was finally beginning to fade, but it was being replaced with a numbness that made him think its disappearance wasn’t a good sign. His eyelids drooped again as he was tempted once more to stop fighting against the weariness that was tugging at him more strongly with each passing second.

Vaguely, he heard an unfamiliar voice call out something he couldn’t make out. He saw Penelope begin to look around, and in the next moment, a sword was being aimed at his throat. Somehow, the sight didn’t frighten him as much as he’d thought it would. If the knight chose to kill him, he could do nothing to defend himself, but he knew he was already dying, so there was really no point in fighting anyway. At least if his throat was cut, death might come quicker.

But the sting of the blade never came as Penelope intervened. His eyes flicked towards her with a mixture of surprise and worry. What was she doing? If she protected him now, she would certainly give away their closeness. There was no reason for her to try and keep her comrades from killing him when he was a dead man already. He wanted to tell her to let him go, but he was too tired to speak anymore. Instead, he watched silently, focusing on breathing, as she told the other knights to look for bandages to treat him.

You’re wasting your time, Crow wanted to say, wincing as another dull wave of pain spread through his body. He wished she wouldn’t bother. It hurt him to see her trying so desperately to save him when he could tell it was too late. He’d lost quite a lot of blood already, and bandages wouldn’t be enough to treat a wound this serious. His eyelids fluttered as he slipped towards unconsciousness again. He couldn’t hold on much longer.

“Penelope,” he managed to murmur her name as he felt her work vainly to patch his injury. Again, he felt a strong desire to take her hand, both to comfort her as well as give himself some peace as he edged closer to the darkness. He supposed just speaking to her would have to be good enough. He looked up to meet her gaze, feeling a deep pang of sadness at the thought that it wouldn’t be much longer before he never saw her again. “Penelope,” he said again, a little weaker as his strength faded. “Just… wanted to say… I love you.”

Unable to fight any longer, he closed his eyes as he finally gave in and let the darkness overtake him.

--

The first thing Crow was aware of was a dull ache that filled his body. He groaned and shifted on his back, wincing as the motion just made the pain worse. Feeling disoriented, he slowly opened his eyes and looked up, only to be further confused when he saw a fabric canopy over his head. He was… in a tent? He knitted his brow and lifted his head, wondering how he had gotten there. From what he could see, there was no one else in the room with him, but it was clearly a noble’s tent. For a moment, he wondered if he’d died and this was some sort of strange afterlife. However, the pain in his abdomen quickly disproved that theory. He was alive, and he was in the tent of a living noble.

He lifted his arm to bring a hand to his head, but then frowned as he found he was unable to. Glancing at his wrist, he saw that someone had chained him to the post of the bed he was lying on. Whoever owned this tent may have given him shelter, but they certainly didn’t trust him.

Slowly growing more aware of himself and his surroundings, Crow shifted slightly to look down at his own body. He studied his chest curiously as he saw that his tunic had been removed and his middle had been adorned with professionally wrapped bandages. Someone had treated his wound. He laid his head back down and let out a long exhale, exhausted by the small effort of raising it. Whatever was going on, he hoped someone would show up soon to give him an explanation.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Sounds good! I threw in a bit with Hartley in mine

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

It was hard to breathe. Crow laid his side in the grass, his jaw hanging open slightly as he panted to get air into his lungs. Every inhale sent a wave of pain through his body that was strong enough to make him feel tempted to stop trying altogether. With his head lolling on the ground and his eyelids drooping from weariness, he couldn’t see the wound in his middle, but he could tell it was bad. He was vaguely aware of the warm liquid pooling around his chest, and he was beginning to get delirious from blood loss. Even the injury he had taken to his leg in the last battle in Grimsby hadn’t been this bad.

Dazedly, he looked down at his arm that laid outstretched in front of his face, and he made a feeble attempt to lift it. However, he couldn’t raise it far, and the effort was so straining that he was forced to drop it back into the grass after just a short moment. He closed his eyes, grimacing as a deep pain spread like wildfire throughout his body. He’d had other serious wounds in the past, but none had ever made him feel like this. The pain inside of him was completely different than anything he’d experienced before, and his heart fluttered fearfully in his chest as he realized he was dying.

With the realization came a strange sense of detachment. He could still feel the ache in his body, but his mind wandered to other things. He forced his eyes open again as he saw that Penelope was now locked in combat with Jaxon. It was hard to see them through the fuzziness in his vision, but he was able to catch sight of a flash of crimson on her arm. He felt a wave of panic. He wanted to tell her to run before the murderous thief got her too, but his voice had been stolen by the weakness in his body. Instead, he was forced to watch helplessly as they fought, Jaxon handling her every blow with grace and precision.

Crow didn’t want to see her die. With a faint burst of energy, he tried to lift his head, wanting to get up from the ground and use whatever little strength he had left to help her. But it wasn’t enough. After he managed to just barely raise his head, it dropped again, and he coughed as he felt more blood pool against the inside of his cheek. It was no use. The wound Jaxon had inflicted was too serious. There was nothing more he could do.

“Crow!”

As he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness, he heard someone call his name. In the next moment, Hartley was kneeling in front of him with wide, frightened eyes. “Oh gods,” the boy trembled as his eyes landed on the gaping wound in the older thief’s abdomen. “What do I do… Crow, what should I do?” He turned to meet his gaze, clearly hoping to help somehow.

Crow held his gaze for a moment, and then cringed, squeezing his eyes shut as another wave of pain ravaged his body. “Nothing… you can do,” he managed to gasp when the feeling passed. “Just get out of here.”

Fear flashed across Hartley’s face at his words. “But—”

“Go,” Crow snapped weakly, opening his eyes again to meet the boy’s gaze. “Save yourself before… before the knights kill you.”

“B-but I don’t know where to go,” Hartley stammered. “Younis is too far away.”

“Head east,” Crow murmured. “There’s a river… Follow it north until you hit the waterfall.” He paused, unable to speak for a moment as another brief wave of pain struck. “There are more thieves there… Tell them I sent you. They’ll help you.”

Hartley stared at him for a moment longer, biting his lip, before he finally nodded. “Okay,” he said softly, rising to his feet again. “Thanks, Crow… You’re a good man.”

“You too, kid,” Crow nodded faintly. “Now get lost.” He watched as the boy turned and ran out of the clearing, hoping his companions would be willing to give him sanctuary until he could figure out how to get back to his home in Younis.

The effort of speaking with Hartley had exhausted Crow, so he closed his eyes for a moment to rest. However, it wasn’t long before he began to feel himself slipping out of consciousness, so he forced them open again. He may have been on the verge of dying, but he wasn’t ready to let go yet—not until he knew Penelope was safe. Looking up again, he was surprised to see that the tables had turned, and Penelope was standing over Jaxon’s body with her sword in the now-lifeless thief’s chest.

She did it, he thought, feeling a surge of relief. She killed him. Knowing that Penelope was now safe, his eyelids fluttered as his weariness crept over his body. He was starting to feel tempted to let himself succumb to the darkness. After all, it had to feel better than what he was going through now, right? Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to let go.

However, just as he began to close his eyes again, he saw the knight run to his side and start speaking to him in a voice that was breathy with panic. As tempting as it was to pass out, he didn’t want to leave her like she was now.

Crow managed a weak smile as he looked up at her. “Sorry,” he mumbled, finding it difficult to speak between the pain and the blood that had collected in his mouth. “I know you didn’t want my protection, but… I couldn’t stay away.” He grimaced again as the effort of talking sent another deep ache through him.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Maybe split it up? I could work with it either way though. I just planned for him to maybe tell Hartley to go to his camp with the other thieves if Hartley hasn’t already left. Figured it would be a way to keep him around a little longer if you didn’t already have something else planned for him ^^

I’m having a date night with my husband, so I’ll be on in like an hour or two

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Nice xD
Writing that post made me hate Jaxon so much

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow panted heavily as he ran through the forest, each breath straining him more than the last. It had been a long time since he had run this far, and his lungs burned from the effort. But he couldn’t slow down, not while there was a chance that Penelope was in danger. For the time, all of his worries about what had happened between them had vanished from his mind. It didn’t matter that she had caught him with Jaxon or that she didn’t trust him anymore or even that she didn’t want to be with him. None of those things changed the fact that he was hopelessly and completely in love with her. He had to get to the battle to make sure she was safe.

Time seemed to pass sluggishly by as the sun sank lower to the horizon and darkness eventually fell over the outer villages. Crow staggered as he ran, pushing himself to keep moving though his legs threatened to give out beneath him. He was just beginning to think that he couldn’t make it, when Wheldrake came into sight up ahead. The sight sent a wave of relief through him. Jaxon’s camp wasn’t much farther. He could still make it. With a fresh surge of energy, he pushed himself to pick up his pace just a little more as he hurried past the village towards Aramoor.

After a while longer, he could see the light of a fire up ahead. It was the thieves’ camp. He had finally made it. He slowed to a jog as he neared the edge of the clearing, trembling uncontrollably from the strain of running at a near sprint for a quarter of the day. However, he couldn’t focus on the weakness in his legs or the ache in his chest at the moment. The commotion in the camp meant that the battle had begun. He had to find Penelope.

His wide, green eyes darted over the moving figures in the camp as he searched for the knight, but it was difficult to see with just the light of one firepit to dimly illuminate the countless faces. He circled the clearing, keeping his gaze fixed on the battle as he looked for her, growing desperate the longer he couldn’t find her. Was it possible that he had arrived too late? What if she was already dead? The thought filled him with panic, and he edged closer to the fighting, hoping to catch a glimpse of her familiar face amongst the crowd.

After a while, his efforts paid off, and he felt a rush of relief as he spotted Penelope, alive and well, in a fight with one of the thieves. He took a step forward to aid her, but then paused as he noticed something else about the two. The knight wasn’t just fighting any thief; she was locked in combat with Hartley. The sight was surprising, but his shock didn’t last long before another figure caught his attention. His heart stopped as he followed Jaxon with his eyes, watching as the thief crept soundlessly towards Penelope’s back with his sword poised to strike.

No. Without a chance to think of a plan, Crow sprinted across the battlefield, forgetting his exhaustion as he raced to stop the man before he could kill her. Fortunately, Jaxon didn’t seem to have noticed his presence yet, since his focus was on the knight in front of him. The thief leader had a stony expression on his face, and Crow stared in horror as he drew back his arm to thrust his sword into her back. His arm tensed, and a cruel smirk twisted his lip, but just as he brought down his blade, his cold look gave way to one of surprise.

Crow cried out in pain as the sword sank into his abdomen, cutting cleanly through his flesh as it impaled his body. Without time to draw his own weapons, he had thrown himself in the path of the blade to stop Jaxon from killing Penelope.

The thief leader stared at him in astonishment for a moment, but the expression was quickly replaced with an amused grin as he began to laugh. “Oh, Crow,” he shook his head. “You really are a fool.” He wiped tears of laughter from his eyes as he looked at the other thief, who stood before him with a grimace of anguish as blood began to trickle from his wound. In the next moment, a sadistic smile spread over his lips, and he stepped forward, pushing his blade further through Crow’s body and making him whimper in pain.

“It’s too bad, really,” Jaxon went on with a click of his tongue. “I was hoping I would get at least a little more use out of you before the end of this war, but it looks like I’ll be claiming my bounty early.”

Crow forced himself to meet the other thief’s gaze, panting as he began to taste blood. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he managed to spit out.

Jaxon smirked, “You didn’t really think I wanted to take back the rebellious mutt who ran away with my thieves, did you?” He chuckled. “No, I came here to kill you for the price on your head. The fact that you were willing to be used first was just a bonus.”

“Bastard,” Crow snarled.

“You can call me whatever foul names you’d like,” Jaxon shrugged. “Because no matter what you say or do, I’ve already won.” His smile widened cruelly. “Goodbye, stray.” With a sharp flick of his wrist, he twisted his sword and then ripped the blade back out of the thief’s abdomen.

Crow gasped, unable to make a sound as a searing pain took over his body and he collapsed to the ground, lying still in a slowly forming pool of his own blood.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow's panicking now cx