A Feather Stolen

Helplessly Ensnared

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Bad intel wasn't necessarily hard to come by.

Not in this field.

But whenever it came up, it reeked. There was just something about it that gave Anoel a sour taste in her mouth.

So whenever someone gave her bad intel, it wasn't that hard to pick apart.

Especially when that intel asked her to take a sudden excursion on her own to scout out the person of interest she's been tracking down for a week now.

Sure, she was eager.

But so was the man that gave her the lead.

A little too eager. And he wore it on his face just like the fake urgency in his eyes.

She didn't listen. Who would? Adults liked to think they could think circles around kids her age. She was thirteen.

Which was young, sure, but not all thirteen-year-olds helped run an entire information network. Her semblance made it easy. Her social skills and outward persona helped too, but it wasn't a huge secret that she also may have known the head of the network personally.

He kinda raised her into this life, after all.

Which was why she didn't want to let him down! She was always good at sniffing out bad info, and this really wasn't any different.

So she pretended to leave her quarters. Her little room was close to the head office in the second story of his bar. It wasn't hard to sneak back into it without anyone noticing either. It was just a matter of making her way lightly through the familiar, dark room in utter silence.

Somebody wanted her to leave.

She wanted to find out who.

Still… she almost fell asleep waiting there for three hours with absolutely nothing to show for it. Why couldn't this stupid person break in already-?!

Her eyes widened in her little perch. Wait a moment.

It'd definitely be stupid, unless it was something she didn't think of…

Were they already hiding inside?

Anoel silently growled as she hugged her legs to her chest up on the bookshelf, eyes narrowing as she tapped into her affinity and looked around.

Little wisping heat trails filtered in through the door, probably from people walking around out in the hall, but there was one in specific Anoel found that entered the room.

It was fainter than the others, but still there. Just muffled and dim.

Anoel was a little miffed at herself for taking this long to switch her focus to heat instead of night vision, but she managed to find its source.

Still… it looked like the little heat signature in the corner was just sitting over there.

Motionless.

Small, shallow breaths left its front in a controlled breathing pattern Anoel recognized as something that could lower heart rate. They were trying really hard to make as little noise as possible.

But… how long were they crouched there? They couldn't have opened the door. Anoel would've seen it. Which meant they must've already been inside when Ano last closed the door.

Ano snuck in through the rafters, but that was because she personally knew how to get in and out of her own room without using the door.

There weren't any windows either. And it didn't help that Ano's room was definitely on the second floor too.

W-wait! They were moving!

Anoel peered through the shadow of her dark cowboy hat as she watched the small heat signature start to stand, its glow starting to fluctuate with the first patterns of movement it's shown in the last three hours.

Something flickered in the silhouette of the glow as it started toward the desk. A dark… distortion fluttered into view before disappearing.

The shape of it. They couldn't have been much older than Anoel herself. Which would explain why they were struggling so much to maintain their invisibility while moving.

Still, it was impressive keeping that semblance up the entire time.

Really impressive, actually.

But why wait so long? Were they just being hesitant? Did they know she's there? Or were they just being really cautious?

Dim eyes watched the figure of heat carefully move behind her personal desk, hands reaching down to silently shuffle through the belongings Anoel kept organized there.

Semi-organized, anyway.

Anoel started to move too, crawling quietly to the edge of the bookshelf as the figure peeled out a sheet of paper from one of the files Ano read recently.

It contained information regarding a recent break-in at the building for city records.

The suspect involved reportedly stole information on a third party and managed to somehow erase all CCTV footage at the same time.

It caught Anoel's and the network's interest because there was no evidence of them ever entering the building at all. No forced entry, no picked locks, not even a strand of hair.

Almost like they walked into an unguarded building, took what they wanted, and left without anyone ever batting an eye.

Why was this person breaking in for that though? Official police records marked it off as a fluke in the system. A technical hiccup that caused a corruption in the databanks.

The info network knew better, but now… it seems other people did too. Ano wasn't expecting competition so soon.

Whoever was breaking in and rummaging through her stuff was after the information already gathered from them regarding that crime in specific.

Anoel slowly made her way down from her perch as the invisible figure gave the paper a momentary read. Weird since the paper was just floating there like that.

But with their attention unaware, Ano stayed low once she made her way to the ground and slipped around the opposite end of her desk. Being a faunus helped with night vision to avoid things, and the couch provided nice cover, but nobody knew her own room like she did.

That was why she didn't squeak when she slipped on the edge of her rug and nearly fell.

No. She knew that was there.

Stupid rug.

Anoel quickly caught the corner of the offending object before it could slap back down and cause a noise, silently resting it back into place against the hardwood floor.

A quiet folding of paper sounded out soon after. They were done confirming the paper was what they wanted.

She needed to move fast.

As soon as the paper disappeared into the invisible pocket of the person holding it, Anoel finally made her way behind the one who broke in and took off her black hat.

Here goes nothing.

Ano gave the person a small tap on their shoulder, stuffing her hat onto their head in the same moment to cover their eyes.

A startled, almost high-pitched yelp tore its way out of the person's throat as Anoel quickly moved around the figure trying to turn around.

It was a girl alright. Unless a boy could reach that pitch…

The girl's invisibility fell in the next moment as Anoel jumped onto her desk, keeping out of the way of the offender as she sat herself down.

She's just as young as I am…

When the visible figure finally realized what was going on, she spun herself entirely around and bumped into Ano's leg as the info-broker sat still on her desk.

Long black hair swayed as Anoel tilted her head, watching as the blinded girl stumbled back while moving a hand up. The form's back crashing against the wall behind the desk just as she pushed the lip of Anoel's hat up to see, tearing it off a moment later.

Anoel just watched with her cheek in her hand, trying to play it cool beneath the heat of the situation. And the fact that she wanted answers.

Like, really wanted answers.

"Who're you?" Ano asked simply, punctuating her question with a flick of her desk lamp on switch. She wanted to start with the simple answers first.

The girl stayed silent as her blue eyes darted around, pushing herself as close to the wall as possible as she froze.

She looked scared.

"I-I…" A nerve-wracked stammer was all she could muster.

Not much to go by...

"'I' isn't a name, honey," Anoel pointed out, kicking her short legs a little as she waited.

The girl's hand quickly darted for her pocket, fumbling around as she dug out the information she stole and slid it across the floor between them.

"I-I'm s-sorry…" she stuttered, her eyes shying away from Anoel with an incredulously guilty expression strewn across her pale, grubby face.

She was apologizing? Did she usually not get caught?

Anoel slowly slipped herself off her desk as she kept her gaze on the thief in front of her, the girl's own eyes still averted away. It almost made her feel bad for scaring her so much with the hat thing.

She'd always wanted to do the hat thing.

The info-broker lightly picked up the sheet of paper and leaned herself against her desk, setting it down behind her for the moment.

"What are you sorry for? You're just curious, aren't you?" Anoel asked, tipping her leg forward to rest its ankle over the front of her other boot. "Or is it something else?"

She suddenly felt off-balance, but she needed to do it. For appearance's sake.

And to make it look like she was definitely super calm right now.

Yeah, super calm.

Ano's heart was beating out of her chest.

The girl's messy, unkempt blonde hair swept from side to side as she shook her head quickly. Her bright cerulean eyes staring at the floor as she slowly brought her legs up and hugged them.

She tried to turn invisible again.

Anoel sighed softly as the girl's eyes closed behind the knees of her tattered blue jeans and her body started to disappear, flickering and wavering more than it did before.

But she still managed to vanish.

Ano pushed herself forward as the girl started to get up, placing her small hands onto the girl's rising shoulders to keep her still.

The tiny action broke the invisibility altogether, blue eyes appearing wide as the semblance fell to pieces and the girl fell back against the floor.

Still stunned.

"I can see you like that, you know," Anoel whispered. She crouched herself down to rest on the backs of her heels, loosely hugging her own legs in front of the girl as she peered over her brown jacket's folded arms.

She still looked scared.

It was weird. Anoel almost felt like she had to be careful here. If she wasn't delicate, she could break her. But it looked like the girl was already breaking.

Or already broken.

"Can I have my hat back?" Anoel asked softly instead.

The girl still held the black cowboy hat in her right hand, finally realizing she held onto it before passing it over to Anoel by sliding it across the small space between them.

She was reluctant to make any physical contact with anything outside her small bubble of comfort, or lack of comfort.

Why was she so scared? Ano wasn't being scary, was she?

"I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl looked completely defeated. She looked like she had no will to even fight Anoel. It was confusing, and it was starting to be concerning…

Did she want to be caught?

Anoel kept her voice soft and low, trying to be gentle with it as she picked up her hat and brushed it off. Her fingers feathered the small traces of heat lingering from the place where the girl clung to it, the bright glow letting Ano know where the girl's body temperature probably rested right now.

It was high. Really high.

Fitting the hat into place on her own head, Anoel brought her gaze back to the girl against the wall. They were both low, one was sitting on the floor after all.

But Anoel didn't want to make it seem like she was looking down on her.

So she sat down too.

"Somebody hired you for your semblance. Is that it?" Ano asked.

"C-can I go…?" the girl asked quietly, turning her head down even further. "I won't come back…"

Those last few words stunned Anoel for a bit. They were actually honest.

But the girl still wasn't giving anything away.

"I can't let you," Anoel replied slowly, tilting her head to try to get a good look into the girl's blue eyes. "People get mad when thieves come back empty handed."

Her eyes actually started to water hearing those words.

She… she already knew...

The first tear streamed down the girl's dirty cheek as Anoel dropped her gaze. She hated watching it when girls cried.

But there was something else she hated more than that.

"Listen, I don't know who put you up to this. I don't even know your name." Anoel was starting to feel something heavy start to settle over her, knowing what she was doing would probably set the network back a bit.

This information was exclusive. Nobody else had it.

Which was why this girl probably came here.

But still, Anoel reached back and tugged the folded piece of paper off the corner of her desk. She held it in front of her for a moment, thinking through what she wanted to say.

She wanted to be careful as she said it.

"This is all you came for, right?" Ano asked.

More tears flowed down the girl's cheeks as she closed her eyes and nodded.

Damn. They were such bright eyes to keep shut away too…

Anoel slowly unfolded the piece of paper and pulled out her scroll, laying the information flat on the floor to take a picture of it. After checking that it came out clear, she put her scroll away and folded the parchment back up.

"Turning invisible is a pretty neat thing," Anoel commented, holding the small paper between her fingers for a few long seconds as she looked back to the girl.

She wanted her to open her eyes again.

"This is like the superhighway of information. This one bar. Everyone knows it, even the people downstairs," Ano continued, taking a small breath as she leaned slightly to the side, trying to keep in the girl's view when she did open her eyes. "It'd be… pretty impressive to sneak in here and steal away the only piece of info we have on this particular crime. Especially without anyone catching you."

Anoel tossed the small paper into the girl's lap, resting her hands down into her own as she said that.

The girl's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the paper, her gaze then snapping to Anoel, almost in disbelief.

She managed to muster enough willpower to stammer her only response, "W-why?"

That… was a good question. Anoel could shoulder the weight settling over her from giving precious information away. She could bear that.

What she couldn't bear was seeing a girl like this hurt and punished over something stupid.

"I don't really need a reason. It's just that you're crying and you're cute, and those things don't really mix well," Anoel replied, offering the girl a tiny smile.

Please stop crying.

"C-cute?" she questioned. Her body loosened up a little as she appeared to come out of her regression.

Ano just smiled more at that. She was opening up a bit. "Of course. I'm allowed to think that, aren't I?"

The girl half-shrugged, moving with sluggish movements as she turned her head to the side a little. "I guess…"

"See? That was pretty cute. That little bashfulness right there," Ano pointed out happily. But it was a shame seeing her avert her eyes again.

They were really blue. Anoel's were gold right now.

"I'll let you go now. You probably shouldn't stall for too long if you're being monitored."

She nodded and Anoel managed to pull her to her feet, the girl holding the sheet of paper in her left hand before stuffing it in her pocket.

For a fleeting moment, she looked directly into Ano's eyes, "T-thank you for… this."

"It's just a piece of information somebody wants. That's basically my job description, anyway," Anoel replied, keeping her gaze locked with that blue one for as long as possible.

It suddenly felt rare to see it so directly.

"If you don't have a name, can I give you one?"

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment before she slowly inhaled, taking a small breath. "L-Lylac… my name is Lylac."

Lylac…

Anoel's smile was practically beaming, tilting her head as she happily gazed into the cerulean irises in front of her.

"I'll call you Ly."

"I need to go now…" the girl said breathlessly, but the look in her eyes made it seem like something else was happening beneath that confused gaze.

Anoel held herself back from figuring out exactly what that was. "Then go."

It was almost disheartening letting her go like this, but Ano was fine with this small victory. She didn't see it as losing something. Not at all.

"I'm just happy to know your name now."

Lylac slowly moved her way to the door, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to regard Ano before she opened it slowly.

There was a moment of hesitation before she stepped outside.

She looked like she almost wanted to say something else, but held herself back from saying it.

The door closed silently as Anoel watched Ly disappear, her smile finally faltering before falling completely when Ly's presence was fully gone.

"Lylac…" Anoel muttered lightly to herself. There was a story somewhere that she read.

There had to be. It sounded familiar.

But anybody could've had that name, right?

A small breath left the info-broker's lips as she rested her cheek back into the palm of her hand, thinking about what she wanted to do.

She needed to do some research.

Co-Author: HydraFlow

Stolen Feather is one of the main pairings in Rogue Huntsman. We figured it'd be nice to see how it all started, so this is the story that addresses the origins of them directly.

How Lylac and Anoel first met, how they got so close, and how Ano got Ly through and over one of the most traumatic periods of her life.

And what happened past that point.

You don't need any prior knowledge from Rogue Huntsman to read this.

This'll be a bit of a slice of life kinda thing, and it'll probably become a compilation of shorts as well. It'll mainly just focus on their relationship.

Here's a warning for yuri, obviously. They're both girls. That's the main theme here. You came here expecting that.

You've been warned.