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Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I'm enjoying his fights with Crow and Penelope already cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“That’s not very nice,” Crow clicked his tongue when Layth told him to sleep in the dirt. “I don’t think the king would be very happy to find out that you spoke to me like that.” He bit back a smirk when he noticed the knight curl his lip at him. However, before Layth had a chance to retort, they both turned to Penelope, who announced that she’d already prepared a tent for him. The thief casted her a grateful smile, having already expected that she would have made arrangements for him. He just wanted to rub it in her brother’ face as much as he could.

Of course, her news that he would not only be getting a bed for the night, but an entire tent as well just made Layth more upset. Crow stood back and leaned against a nearby tree as the two siblings began to squabble over it. He was pleased to see that Layth’s argument didn’t hold much water compared to Penelope, who was quite right in her “assumption” that the thief had the king’s favor. He found it entertaining to watch her brother inevitably fall silent as he accepted his defeat.

“This is madness… I need to speak to the barons about this.” His bitter words just made Crow grin. He knew it was petty, but he enjoyed seeing Layth be cornered so completely.

“Right, be sure to put in a good word for me,” he casted the knight an impish wink for good measure. “I’ll be sure to pass it along to the king if you do.”

“Disgusting viper,” Layth spat at him before finally spinning around to march back into the camp. He was muttering under his breath as he left, although he spoke quietly enough that the thief didn’t catch what he was saying.

“Nice to see you too,” Crow rolled his eyes and turned to Penelope. He glanced over the area briefly to make sure they were alone before he pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, putting distance between them afterwards in case any of her other comrades passed by. “I wasn’t really that hungry,” he confessed with a shrug and a lopsided smile. “I actually ate supper with my companions before I left. I just wanted to get under your brother’s skin.” He studied her face for a moment, feeling glad to be with her again after spending most of the day apart. His expression softened slightly as he felt his heart swell with affection for the knight. He loved her so much, but he still didn’t know if she would be coming with him to the castle. The thought of spending so long away from her was almost unbearable.

“So, did you speak with your baroness?” he asked in a low voice, a hint of nervousness seeping into his eyes and he waited for her answer.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow definitely isn't helping xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow grimaced as the knight on his left tightened his grip on his arm. He shot the man a foul look, annoyed that the knights weren’t even giving him a chance to prove that he had permission to be here. Once I outrank them, I’ll make sure they regret treating me like this, he promised silently to himself, carefully studying the faces of his captors to ingrain them into his memory. He supposed one perk of accepting the title his father had offered him was that he could look forward to eventually getting back at all the noblemen who had been cruel to him before. It would be fun to simply talk to them and watch them flounder as they had to teat him with respect that he knew they didn’t want to give him.

His eyes drifted to Layth, and his lip curled upward into a devilish smirk. Out of all the knights he had encountered, he looked forward to getting revenge against Penelope’s brother the most. He couldn’t wait to see the merciless knight again and make him squirm beneath the weight of the rank his father had given him. It was going to feel great.

When Layth finally gave a reluctant order for his comrades to let the thief go, Crow let out an indignant huff and straightened out his tunic. He watched the knights leave with a petty satisfaction, knowing that they were just as upset about the situation as their lieutenant was, and then turned back to Layth as the knight demanded to see his letter.

“Right here,” he held out the rolled-up paper with a pleased smirk as he saw a brief flash of astonishment cross the knight’s face, as if he hadn’t fully believed it existed.

With a snort, Layth snatched the letter from his hand and unraveled it. His eyes swept over it in a scrutinizing fashion before widening slightly in surprise. “My gods, this really is the king’s seal,” he shook his head. “Why the hell is the king allowing a criminal to roam free?”

Unsure who the knight was speaking to, Crow took it upon himself to reply. “Beats me,” he shrugged, barely suppressing the amused grin that threatened to take over his mouth. Deciding to prod at Layth a little more, he added: “Now then, would anyone like to tell me what my accommodations will be for the night?” He folded his arms over his chest and eyed Penelope’s brother snidely. “I’m tired from my walk here, so I’d like a bite of food to eat and a comfortable bed.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I figured Layth's buddies wouldn't be very welcoming xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

As Crow trekked through the forest to the knights’ camp, his eyes flitted between the shadows in a cautious search for motion. Even though he had a letter from his father permitting his freedom to roam about the outer villages, he knew it wouldn’t help him if a knight chose to attack without giving him time to explain himself. His hand wandered to his waist, where he had hidden a new set of daggers that he had taken from the haul of weapons he and the other thieves had taken earlier that day. It was the first time in quite a while that he had been armed, and it felt good to know that he could protect himself if need be. Still, he hoped he wouldn’t have to resort to using such measures at all.

Heading further through the trees, Crow glanced back over his shoulder as he felt another pang of longing for the life that he had officially left behind. Part of him wished he could just turn around and run back to the cavern and his companions, but he knew he couldn’t do that. He had to stand firm in his choice to give up thievery for the title of a nobleman. Turning back around, he let out a quiet sigh and watched as his breath left him in a visible vapor in the air. It was a cold night. Despite his reservations about joining the nobles in their camp, he hastened his pace, eager to get to get to someplace where he could warm up.

Eventually, a dim campfire came into view between the trees up ahead, and Crow felt his shoulders relax in relief. He reached into his tunic pocket to retrieve the note his father had given to him, wanting to have it in his hand, so he could present it to the knights if they attempted to apprehend him. As he held it, he looked it over curiously. It was interesting to him how such a small piece of paper could carry so much weight. Giving in to his intrigue, he unraveled the paper and studied the scrawling letters inside. Of course, they were mostly still meaningless to him, but he noticed with some satisfaction that he recognized a few letters like ‘E’ and ‘C.’

Determining that trying to read the foreign looking characters was useless to him, he rolled the letter back up and retied the ribbon that bound it. Looking up again, he saw that he had nearly reached the edge of the nobles’ camp. However, before he stepped past the edge of the tree line, he blinked in surprise as a group of knights rushed towards him from a nearby post. He froze and took a step back, readying himself to run if they pulled weapons on him.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he held out his hands to both ward them off and flash the paper he was holding. “I have permission to be here.”

Unfortunately, his warning did him no good as two of the knights caught hold of his wrists and pinned his arms behind his back. He winced at their roughness. “You didn’t let me finish,” he snarled, feeling a twinge of annoyance at their haste to catch him instead of hear him out. “I have permission from the king.”

“Yeah, we heard,” the knight on his left shrugged. “But we were just told not to hurt you. Nobody said we had to let you have another chance to run away.”

Crow rolled his eyes, “I’m not dumb enough to waltz into a camp full of my enemies if I wanted to escape. If I was trying to run, I would’ve done it a long time ago. Now let go of me, you idiots!”

Suddenly, he caught sight of movement off to his right. Upon turning his head, he recognized two of the knights that were approaching. “Ah, now this makes sense,” he said dryly, narrowing his eyes as he met Layth’s smug—yet also slightly surprised?—gaze.

He turned next to Penelope, “Could you please tell your brother to call off his dogs? I’d prefer not to have my shoulders dislocated tonight if I can avoid it.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I can't wait xD
I'm sad for Crow and his friends xc

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow and the other thieves spent the rest of the afternoon lounging together on the riverbank. His companions caught him up on what he had missed which, luckily, wasn’t much. It sounded like things had stayed rather consistent for them despite his disappearance. Normally, that might have bothered him more, but in this case, he was relieved to know that they were capable of getting by without him around to lead them. Plus, now that they had had so much time to get used to his absence, he hoped they would be able to adjust to the change when he left them permanently. It would be reassuring to know that they were still thriving while he was gone.

As day turned to evening, Crow, Alistair, and Rikki headed to Myrefall, since his friends wanted to run one more raid on the local knights with him before he left. He was excited by their suggestion, as it had been quite a while since the last time they had been able to steal together. So, he eagerly pieced a plan together and relayed it to them once they reached the village. Having stolen from the knights here many times before, the simple raid went by without any trouble, and they came away with a rather impressive haul. Their success put all three of them in a good mood as they wandered back to their camp with bags full of stolen goods.

“This is enough weapons to get us through the whole season,” Alistair said proudly, looking through the bag he was carrying. “Those knights sure did get complacent when we stopped stealing from them for a while.”

“I’ll say,” Rikki nodded. “They probably won’t even notice all their weapons are gone until tonight.”

“Maybe not even then,” Crow rolled his eyes. “Local guards hardly ever check their stock. As long as none of them need to replace a sword, I doubt they’ll realize we took all their blades for a long time.”

“Yeah, well they’re definitely going to notice that their liquor is gone,” Alistair snickered as he held up a pot filled with spirits.

“Alright, so they might notice tonight,” Crow relented with a curt laugh. “Still, we’ll be long gone before then, so it won’t matter anyway.”

“Gods, I’m going to miss going on runs with you, Crow,” Rikki murmured suddenly, lowering her gaze to the ground.

Crow studied her for a moment before speaking, “Hey, things won’t change that much.” He nudged her arm in the hopes of cheering her up. “You’ve both been doing fine since I left before. I’m sure you’ll keep doing just as well after I leave tonight.”

“It’s not about that though,” Rikki looked up to meet his gaze solemnly. “I mean, I am going to miss your leadership and the plans you come up with, but more than that, I’m going to miss you.” She exhaled softly. “Everything won’t be the same once you’re gone.”

Crow fell quiet. “I’m going to miss all of you too,” he said after a pause. “But just because things are changing doesn’t mean they’re going to be worse. We’ll still see each other every once in a while too. I promise.” He offered her a reassuring smile. “Any chance I get, I’ll stop by to visit. You have my word.”

“Thanks,” she smiled halfhearted back at him.

“I’m going to hold that to you too,” Alistair spoke up. When Crow turned to look at him, he shrugged. “Rikki may be the most vocal about not wanting to see you go, but she certainly isn’t the only one… I’m going to miss you, and I know Hazel will too, so you’d better come back to see all of us.”

“I will,” Crow promised with a grin. He glanced up at the darkening sky. “Come on, we’d better hurry up, so we get back in time for supper.”

--

The three thieves returned to their camp behind the waterfall just before sunset. After dropping off the supplies they had stolen, Crow walked with them over to the hearth, where Hazel and Hartley were just finishing filling everyone’s plates for dinner. He took one of the bigger dishes and sat down by Hartley and Rikki. They conversed idly for a while as they ate, until Rikki caught sight of the sky outside, which had grown much darker with the approach of dusk.

“So,” she said in a low voice, avoiding his gaze. “You’re going to be leaving soon, aren’t you?”

Crow glanced at the entrance of the cave and then nodded. “Yeah… I told Penelope I would go to her camp at nightfall.”

“This is going to be the last time I see you too then, huh?” Hartley frowned.

“Maybe not,” Crow shrugged. “The job I took at the castle requires a lot of traveling, from what I know, so I could very well end up in Younis again.” He casted the boy a smile. “If I find myself in your area, we could cross paths.”

“That would be great,” Hartley cheered up right away. “Kip and I moved to Dalry after we got married. It’s right near the border with Brerra. You should come by sometime! Ooh, maybe we could have our stealing competition that we never got around to when Penelope was there to say ‘no’ two years ago!”

“Calm down,” Crow laughed. “Don’t get so far ahead of yourself. I’ll stop by if I can, but let’s not go making any plans that might jeopardize my good standing with my father, alright?”

“Gods, you’ve become just as boring as she has,” the Younisian boy groaned and rested his cheek in his hand.

“It’s called responsibility, dumbass,” Crow smirked. “I have to have at least a little bit if I’m going to be with her.” He glanced back at the cavern entrance. The sky outside was nearly black, which meant it was time for him to leave. Letting out a reluctant sigh, he rose to his feet. “I should get going. Penelope is expecting me soon.”

“Already?” Alistair turned away from his conversation with Hazel.

“Yeah,” Crow scratched the back of his neck. “I need to leave for the castle tomorrow morning, so I can’t stay out too late.”

Rikki looked up at him for a moment before she jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms tightly around him. He blinked in mild surprise, caught off guard by the sudden embrace, but before he had time to react, the others followed her lead. Alistair, Hazel, and even Hartley surrounded him.

“Be safe, and don’t do anything stupid, okay?” Hazel murmured.

“Yeah,” Alistair grinned, though Crow could see a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Show those nobles what it’s like to have power without abusing the lower classes.”

“I will,” Crow smirked back at him.

“We’ll miss you,” Rikki said in a shaky voice. “Please come back sometimes and don’t forget about us.”

“Are you kidding?” Crow smiled at her softly. “I’ll never forget you guys. You’ve been better family to me than my father ever has, so you bet I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

They embraced for a little while longer before Hazel eventually led them all to pull away from him. She offered him one more halfhearted smile and tipped her head towards the entrance. “Go on. Your lover is waiting.”

He nodded, letting his eyes wander over each of them one more time as he thought about how much they all meant to him. “I guess this is it,” he took a steeling breath and then grinned. “Give the knights hell for me.”

“You know we will,” Alistair laughed.

“Well then give them a little extra,” Crow winked. “I’ll see you all whenever I’m able to get away from the castle. Goodbye.” He dipped his head and then turned to head out of the camp, leaving his family of thieves behind as he began the trek to the knights’ camp.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Hazel is a lot nicer now that she warmed up to everyone xD

I can't wait to read it cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Since Crow and his companions only had one more day left together, the other thieves chose to spend it in his company rather than going about their usual routines. After Penelope left, they were rejoined by Hazel, and everyone headed outside to relax in the warm sunlight. Crow spent most of the morning catching the others up on the last month of his life: telling them about what had happened at the knights’ camp, describing their trip to the inner kingdom—though he left out the night at the Gods’ Mirror pond—and even recounting everything that had happened at the castle, from his meeting with his father to his discovery that he had three siblings.

He was much less guarded about the information than he usually was. After being secretive about his life for the last two years, it felt good to finally start letting them get a little closer to him. Plus, he felt like he owed it to them after all the trouble he’d caused them Jaxon had been around. It was because of his lying that they had suffered as much as they had. They deserved to learn the truth about him before he left for the inner kingdom for good and became the king’s viceroy.

When he finally finished speaking, Alistair leaned back on his hands and whistled. “Who would’ve thought that all this time, we’ve been living with the king’s son?” He shook his head. “And here I thought you were just some village idiot.”

“I was barely his son,” Crow rolled his eyes at his friend’s comment. “I’d never even met the man before this past week.”

“Still, it’s pretty crazy,” Rikki mused, drawing her knees to her chest as she gazed out over the river. “You’re the firstborn heir of the most powerful man in the kingdom… I don’t even know what to think about that.”

“Trust me, I may be related to him, but there isn’t a noble bone in my body,” Crow assured her, picking up a nearby rock and tossing it into the water. “I’ve always been his son, but I’m still the same man as before. Nothing has changed except for my title.”

“Yeah,” Alistair shot him a playful grin. “You went from a pain in the ass to a royal one.”

“Shut up,” Crow shoved him roughly, although he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lip.

“I think it’s great,” Hartley spoke up. He was laying nearby in the grass with his head propped up on his arms. “You just got a free ride to nobility, and you didn’t even have to do anything to get it. Plus, you’re the king’s son, so that has to carry some influence, right?”

Crow exchanged an uneasy glance with the other thieves. “Not exactly,” he answered slowly. “It probably will around other nobles, but the king of Brerra doesn’t exactly have the same reputation as the king of Younis among peasants.”

“What do you mean?” Hartley frowned.

“Well, do you remember what Penelope and I told you about the last king?”

“Yeah,” Hartley thought it over. “You said he taxed the kingdom a lot, right?”

“Yes,” Crow nodded. “And my father hasn’t done anything different. The peasants here hate the king, so if anything, I’ll probably be liked even less once word gets out that I’m his son.” He shrugged. “Not that it makes much of a difference. People weren’t that fond of me when I was the most hated thief in the kingdom either.”

“Damn,” Hartley exhaled. “Looks like there’s just no escaping for you, is there?”

“Nope,” Crow tossed another stone into the river. “But that’s alright. I wasn’t trying to win anyone’s favor by doing this. It was just for Penelope.”

“Well you’d better start trying,” Hazel snorted. “I want my son to grow up in a better kingdom than this one.”

“Son?” Crow eyed her curiously. “You already know the gender?”

“No,” she shrugged, resting a hand on her stomach. “I’ve just got a feeling, and my feelings are usually right.”

“If you think it’s a boy, does that mean you’ve already got a name picked out?” Rikki asked, leaning forward eagerly.

“Yes,” Hazel’s expression softened. “I’m going to name him Simon, after his father.”

The group fell quiet for a moment before Rikki broke the silence. “I think that’s great,” she chirped.

“It’s a fitting name,” Alistair agreed with a grin.

Crow and Hartley offered their approval as well. The older thief laid back in the grass and let out his breath contentedly. It was moments like these that he was going to miss once he left for the castle. He was glad that his father had allowed him to visit one more time before he began his training as the next viceroy. He snuck a glance at the others as they continued to talk about Hazel’s growing child, capturing the moment in his mind so he wouldn’t forget it. After all, there was no telling if or when he would see them again, so he wanted to hold onto the memories they were building now.

I’m going to miss them, he thought with a melancholic smile before he rejoined their conversation once more.