They skirted the rooftops below a full moon, security patrolling far below. Harry leaped ahead of Nate, catching the adjacent ledge with minimal noise and keeping up a forward flux of momentum as he raced ahead. Nate smirked as he kicked it up a notch, dashing silently until he passed the cursing Englishman. Determined, Harry sprinted, and gained but a few meters behind his successor before he toppled over a beam, consequently creating such a raucous as to attract the attention of the sentries below.
Nate's accelerated gait came to an abrupt halt as he turned and dragged the sprawling man beyond the searching luminosity of a sentry's flash-light. The two thieves laid flat on the serrated surface of the tiled rooftop, breathless with adrenaline.
'Okay,' Nate exclaimed between gasps for air, 'No more fooling around, let's go'.
Harry flashed a sarcastic grin, 'Yes father.'
Despite Harry's affected nonchalance, he was still dwelling on how Nate and Chloe had exchanged glances earlier in the sewers. It was almost as if they were sharing a familiarity, and he could not fathom why it still bothered him.
All this shit was meant to be gone; he had spent way too long dehumanizing himself to suddenly have these feelings return.
Nate ran ahead of him, seemingly heedless of Harry's afflictions.
But indifferent facades have always been my forte, my shield; a front that even Nate's constant emotional awareness could never see through… Until I dropped my shield, and that was when it all crumbled. Have I still not learned my lesson?
'There, we need to get up into that skylight,' Harry forced his thoughts back onto their contract.
He lunged over the buildings threshold, bridging the gap and grasping the distant gutter before pulling himself onto its surface.
Nate subsequently vaulted, catching the gutter that broke from its fitting. He kept hold as it slowly bent and angled downwards, Harry leapt forward to catch him as Nate's purchase fell from its placement.
A sentry yelped with surprise at the shattering tile, he looked up to see nothing. The sentry returned to his idleness, dismissing the occurrence as aging masonry.
Harry's pulse was more intense than even Nate's, the pure dread he felt as he saw Nate hanging fifty feet above the solid ground, that same fear he'd faced once before.
'You've put on weight mate,' he jested.
'Shit,' Nate listened for the tell-tale exclamations before the sounding of an alarm, which never came. 'I owe you one.'
'No more doughnuts for you.' Harry continued ahead.
They dropped down into the building and rounded a corner. Three uniformed men with flashlights skulked ahead. The thieves took cover below a floor elevation.
'Great,' Nate fretted. 'Now what?'
'Time to tip the odds,' Harry reached into his backpack, 'Back in our favor,' He revealed two pistols.
'Guns?' That same look of disgust flashed through Nate's eyes, just another reminder of the past. 'Are you insane?' He shoved at them dismissively.
'Relax Gandhi, they're tranquilizer guns,' He laughed, veiling the pit in his stomach. 'Totally non-lethal. Your conscience will remain unscathed.' He offered one to Nate.
Nate fixed his eyes skeptically on the gun, looking for indications of it being what Harry proposed. Finally, he submitted, 'Oh, well, good idea,' He accepted the offering.
Harry excited and unconsciously used the priority of hushed voice as an excuse to edge closer to Nate. His brow furrowed in a fleeting remembrance of self-hatred.
'Okay, little bit of advice. These things have lousy range so we still have to get in close.' He noticed Nate had trailed off, and he wondered if their current proximity had triggered a bout of reminiscence in Nate. 'You okay with that…?'
Nate sobered, smirked, 'I know how to shoot a gun genius'. He readied his aim, propping himself just high enough to train his gun on the closest sentry.
Harry followed suit, he repentantly glanced sideways at Nate as he took aim. Does he remember, or rather, does he choose to forget?
'You deal with the two on the right, I'll take the remainder,' Nate said.
They fired simultaneously, vaulted over the ridge and took cover in perfect synchronization. Harry received a bout of nostalgia, and grieved the days they had been partners in the business. When they were inseparable.
They immobilized the remaining two.
'We have to get up there,' Harry indicated a higher floor that was open to the rest of the chamber.
'Here, help me push this cart over so we can reach the ledge.'
Harry watched Nate from the corner of his eye; he had always had an envious admiration for his physical aptitudes. He vaguely found himself looking the other man up and down.
'Keep pushing!' Nate grunted; eyes closed.
'As if you need my help you lazy bastard,' Harry remarked, regretting it already.
'Was that a compliment Flynn?' Nate sardonically questioned.
Harry looked up to see Nate's eyes were open, and his jesting expression dulled to an inquisitive confusion.
How long was his eyes open? 'Of course not you cocky bastard,' but he stumbled for a proper explanation.
Nate laughed, 'Just keep pushing.'
Harry's self-hatred swelled. He could feel the past creeping up on him again, and he had the sudden urge to smash his head against a wall.