So Close

Chapter One: Two Hearts on Opposite Sides

(This is my first Sly Cooper romance story, I do not own Sly Cooper, Copyrights belong to Sucker Punch as well as it's characters, ( Carmelita's Parents are products of my own creation) I'd like to start a Sly Cooper series as well as I've done with Road Rovers and All Dogs Go To Heaven and recently Balto. Now on with the show, Enjoy!

Carmelita Montoya Fox opened the door to her apartment, dropping her keys onto the coffee table and collapsing on her sofa. She had an incredibly long day at work; it's hard to believe most of the hard work came while she was chasing the infamous Sly Cooper…

"How can I land a clean shot when he's constantly and annoyingly dodging every shot I fire!" her mind yelled, the frustrated vixen sighed as her mind continued to scold her as she picked herself from her couch and opened her balcony door. The cold winter air brushed against her fur, she leaned on the balcony's edge and looked out into the distance, thinking of her previous adventures with Sly; during his quest to retrieve his family's precious heirloom and its missing pages, her file report on him states that it was a very valuable book to the Cooper Clan named The Thievius Racoonus, A book that taught the Coopers' skills that no police officer could possibly try not without breaking some part of their body.

Carmelita has studied most of the moves Sly had known and also used them at some points to her advantage making her Cooper's equal in many cases; in speed, intellect, and prowess. She continues to stare out into the distance, as if trying to discover the very meaning of life itself. Sly Cooper still lingered in her mind; her thoughts were practically centered on him 24/7 of her life, even in her sleep she has found him in her dreams. Her eyes wandered to the dark streets below an eerie aura from the dark streets swept over her.

She shook her head to break her daze and shivered, the outside was becoming even colder then before. She retreated to the warmth of her apartment and closed the glass sliding and locked it and brings the curtains to completely shroud it. Carmelita lies upon her sofa, looking upward at the ceiling. Her thoughts trailed back to Sly Cooper, his debonair smile, athletic body from years of acrobatics training. The stand out feature to her was his heart melting chocolate brown eyes… But why in Hades was she thinking about that?!

The vixen mentally slapped herself for thinking such thoughts. She lied on the sofa for a majority of the hour, still contemplating her unsuccessful plan to capture the elusive raccoon. Her thoughts were broken when a knock came from the door an hour later.

"Who is it?" she asked, clearly not in the mood for any visitors.

"Carmelita, it's your mother, and don't take that tone with me young lady. Inspector or not your still my daughter." Carmelita jumped from her couch and flew to the door and unlocked it, she turns the knob and swiftly opens the door.

"M-mom? What are you doing here?" she asks. "I thought you'd be with Dad. In Spain!"

Mrs. Fox takes a rolled up piece of paper and bonks it over the head of her daughter, "Don't take that tone with me, were here on family business."

Carmelita rubs her head and raises her brow. "What kind of family business?" skeptical written on her face. Mrs. Fox hands her daughter the piece of paper she was bonked over the head with and it reads:

Interpol of France Police Department Notice:

We at Interpol cordially invite Carmelita Fox and her family to the 50th annual Police Ball, There will be a ceremony honoring Julio Fox and other veterans of Interpol.

Please RSVP

Officer Landon Barkley

Head of Office

"Why wasn't this placed in my box at work?" asked Carmelita giving it back to her mother.

"Because they knew you wouldn't come, so they sent it to us, and here we are." Carmelita made a small whine but kept it at a minimal level. Isabella placed a paw on her daughter's shoulder.

"Please come, it will make your father very happy."

Carmelita looks away for a second then looks back into her mother's amber eyes and nods. Isabella smiles and plants a kiss on Carmelita's cheek "Thank you, now get some sleep. You look like the dead." Mrs. Fox kisses her daughter one last time and leaves the invite in her paw and departs. Carmelita closes the door and locks it; she looks at the paper in deep thought and then rushes to her window and throws it to the cold wind, watching swirl and loop in the air as it flies further away from her...

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Sly Cooper perched atop a slender lamp post, his cane hung motionless on his index finger, his chin lie on the palm of his hand as the wind gently breezes through his fur. The pale crescent moon above him had a distinct euphoria surrounding it, like it was lighting his way towards a higher purpose. Sly looked back down to the ground, watching the nightly mist swirl and obscure the streets. The wind picked up slightly, sending bursts of cold down his spine. He shivers.

"I should get going; you know how Bentley gets when you've been gone for hours." He chuckles to himself. Sly carefully rises up until he was straight, the cold wind picking up speed. He crouches down on the post getting ready to pounce onto the building above. The raccoon launches himself upward, the wind gives him an extra air time and he proceeds to somersaulting onto a flag pole and jumping off from there and onto the building's roof. Cooper looks back down onto the streets and sees a young couple enjoying a stroll though the eerie mist. The man spoke sweet nothings into the young woman's ear, she giggles. Sly watches in fascination, he often dreamt of having a girl he could love, but it seemed very unlikely due to his status as a thief. He didn't care for the attention of any other girl that he's known…well, maybe there is one. A sigh escapes from Sly's lips; the one girl he would want have… was the tough as nails, Carmelita Fox.

The master thief sighs at the thought of the hardboiled vixen, a feeling of longing rose from his aching heart, through all the flirting and chases, Sly would like nothing more then to have Carmelita in his arms. Sly looks at his gloved hands, seeing only a ghost image of the inspector's delicate hands in his, he looked to his left and sees the image in question, no chasing or cursing, just her, smiling warmly at him. The "ghost" vixen's eyes brought a shiver down his spine as their warmth enveloped Sly's senses, though only a hallucination, it felt real to him.

He shook his head to bring himself back into reality, the love he yearned for was well beyond grasp, and being the thief, there is always that one thing you could never steal, but earn, in his case, the heart of Carmelita Fox.

Sly's lips formed a frown, he continue to stare at his hand, as if to summon back the hallucination of Carmelita to his side, but no such luck. He sighed and lowered his hand and picked up his cane and stood up on his feet, he looked up at the lifeless moon in deep wonder. The wind picked up once again.

"I best be going." He thought, and turned only to be met with a piece of paper that plastered itself on his face.

"Ah!" he yelped, and ripped off the paper that had made its home on his visage and stares at it.

"An Invite? To what?" he read on, and his eyes widened and a grin had made its way onto his saddened lips. Sly stuffs the invite into his leg pack and disappears into the night with an elated expression on his handsome face. Who knows what could be going on in that Raccoon's head…

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"YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?!" yelled Bentley, his voice was full outrage and discontent.

"I want to crash the awards ceremony." Sly said calmly and unshaken from Bentley's shrieking.

"YOU DO REALIZE THERE IS GOING TO BE PROBABLY THOUSANDS OF COPS READY TO SHOOT YOUR TAIL WITHOUT QUESTION, RIGHT?!" Bentley's nasally voice was so high it could probably break one or maybe every window in the hideout. Sly still kept his composure, and stared his friend down. Murray the Hippo and Bentley's girlfriend Penelope were standing as barriers so Bentley wouldn't strangle his friend.

"Bentley, this isn't on some weird impulse that I want to do this, I want to do this of my own whim for once." Sly's face was serious; there was no hint of mischief Im the raccoon's face. Bentley calmed himself down, and sat back into his wheelchair. Penelope and Murray stepped aside. Bentley wheeled himself towards Sly and looks him straight in the eye.

"Your serious about this aren't you?" he said, Sly only nodded. Bentley cupped his chin in thought. "Carmelita?" his eyebrow raised, Penelope and Murray looked at each other in confusion.

"What about her Bentley?" asked Murray.

"Sly, wants to crash the ball in order to get closer to Carmelita and maybe strike up a relationship." Bentley deduced.

"How the heck did you figure that out?" asked Penelope bewildered, she scratched her head in confusion.

Bentley smiled, "Sly, Me, and Murray have been friends since we were kids, how could I not know what goes on in his noggin." Bentley taps Sly's forehead. Both of them laughed and then Sly playfully pushes away his friend's hand and gave him a thankful smile.

Murray yawned and stretched, "Hey guys, Im gonna hit the sack, its late." Penelope nodded in agreement, "Yea, it's nearly 1 o'clock in the morning, and I need my beauty sleep, Night boys." Penelope gives Murray and Sly a hug good night and turns to Bentley and kisses him on the lips. "Night turtle dove." She says with a smile.

The turtle blushes, "N-Night, love." Penelope giggles and kisses his lips once more and walks out the den and up the stairs to her room. Bentley was blushing wildly and in a love sick trance.

Sly smiles at this and snaps his fingers. "Come on Bent, can't have you sleep in your wheelchair now can we?" Bentley broke out of the trance and nods, his cheeks still had a tint of red.

Later that night, Sly sat on his bed in deep thought, looking up at the moonlight, the pale aura sent shivers down the raccoon's spine. Sly sat up from his bed and undressed, removing his sweater, hat, pants, boots, gloves, and his leg pack until he was in only his boxers. Sly opened a window to let the cool night air into his empty room. He sighs as the cool air brushes against his bare chest and shivers.

Looking up to the moonlight, he envisioned the day, when he can finally hold Carmelita in his arms and gaze up into the clear, starry skies together. Sly crawled into bed and switched off his lamp and fell into the warm embrace of sleep and just before he fell into a dreamless sleep, one name slithered in whisper from his lips…

"Carmelita…"

On the other side of the city, a lone vixen was already in a deep sleep, a name had been on her mind and her lips finally sighed…

"Sly…"

(Ah, Love. Very mysterious and elusive, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter, there will be more to come from this and I hope you all will enjoy it, God bless!)