Many fortnights had passed since Phantom had discovered his feelings were requited, and the young thief would, upon one cool night, awake quietly. Something was odd.
The blond shifted and abruptly realized that Raven was not laying beside him, as his mentor often was at night time. The closeness had become a comforting constant. Phantom sat up and glanced around the cave warily, his amethyst eyes darting about to observe with his excellent night-vision.
Raven was not there.
Phantom rose up and made his way to the entrance of their home, sidestepping the various traps that he had helped set up. Out in the moonlight, he could see a figure sitting in the sand.
"Raven?" The younger man called out softly, cautiously.
Raven turned and said nothing, simply looked at Phantom with eyes that were far too grieving. The apprentice came to sit beside his mentor. Raven felt oddly... Fragile, just then. As if any move Phantom made could break him apart.
"...Would you like to hear a story?" Raven finally asked, his voice quiet and hoarse.
Phantom nodded hesitantly. The young man was practically fearless, and yet he felt strangely timid around this... Different side of Raven. The older male had always been loud, snarky, boisterous and full of himself, even if that was just a cover that a wise man hid behind. It was strange to see the fire of life within him burning low.
Raven inhaled slowly, audibly, and his eyes were distant as he gazed up at the stars.
"Once upon a time, there was a man. He met a woman, and came to love her very, very much," Raven paused, blinking in an oddly detached way. "But the man was a thief, and quite the scoundrel. ...Bless the woman, for she still returned his love," Raven stayed quiet for several minutes, after that, until Phantom could bear the silence no more.
"You were the man," Phantom pointed out the obvious, curiosity piqued.
Raven took another breath, more pained this time. Every word came to sound like a miniature agony. "They caught her. I- I didn't know, I-" Gradually, Phantom's mentor came to sound more distressed. The next time he spoke, the words took on a more robotic quality, as if he was forcing them out. It hurt Phantom to hear this. "She was with child. My child," Raven laughed bitterly.
"What became of her?" Phantom murmured the question anxiously.
"They killed her. Slow and painful and I'm sure she was begging them to let her and our son go," The blond man's voice was caustic. "And I was too late. The legendary master thief, and I was too late."
Phantom blinked back tears, unsure why he felt like crying all of a sudden. This was all too much to suddenly learn about.
I don't want to know any more.
"What did you do?" Phantom whispered anyways.
"I killed the queen's husband," Raven's eyes were half-closed, haunted as they were. "So she would suffer as I did."
When Phantom went back to bed that night, he found himself unable to sleep for hours, with how much was on his mind.
In the morning, neither of them spoke if it any further. And Raven didn't need a physical mask to put one on; he returned to his cheerful, insufferable self.
Yet one thing continued to haunt Phantom.
How can I ever measure up to her?
"We're going on a special mission today," Raven smirked. The man was in a rather good mood today, and, to Phantom's chagrin, that meant that he was constantly being a pain in the ass. Quite literally, considering that he refused to stop pinching the younger man's rump. ("Damn lecherous old man." "Don't lie, you love it.")
"And said special mission would be...?"
And with a completely straight face, Raven uttered, "Panty raid."
"What," Phantom deadpanned.
"You heard me," Raven slung an arm around his disciple's shoulders, bursting out into a grin. "We, are going to steal the queen's underpants."
Phantom shrugged off the arm around him and stared at his mentor with a face that said all of his opinion on this. Has Raven finally snapped?
"It'll be fun."
But hours later...
"Let's steal the queen's underpants, he said. It'll be fun, he said," Phantom grumbled under his breath, awkwardly shifting through the dark. "And now I'm stuck heading through the ventilation shaft."
Stupid Raven and his seeming inability to do the damned work himself. The man even had the gall to cop a feel of his ass before it had disappeared into the shaft.
Phantom peeked through the grates and saw an ornate room with a grand, elaborately designed walk-in closet inside.
Jackpot.
Phantom agilely made his way down a drop in the ventilation shaft, delicately letting himself drop rather than jumping. He landed on his feet and cautiously surveyed the room. It didn't seem like the queen to put traps in her own dressing room, but it was better deliberative than dead, as Raven always told his apprentice.
Phantom rifled through the expensive looking drawers within the room, gloved fingers running over smooth wood. Finally, he found what he was looking for.
The blond wrinkled his nose, pinching a pair of lacy pink panties between his thumb and index finger with a horrified expression.
"They have kittens on them," He whispered.
"...And then I stole her crown, right before her eyes," Raven smirked, only to be met with by a huff from Phantom.
"Remind me again why you got to steal her crown while I had to steal the panties?" Phantom's eyes were drawn back and forth as his mentor tossed the crown up in the air and caught it again and again. He was partially mesmerized by the light of the fire glinting off the ornate gems.
"Because I said so," Raven reached over to ruffle Phantom's hair affectionately.
"You didn't even tell me you were going to steal the crown!"
"Like you need to know. I bet that you would only get in my way."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Phantom crossed his arms over his chest sulkily. "Besides, look at those things," The blond didn't need to fake the shudder that came over him as he jerked a finger towards the offending, lacy pairs of underwear that lay in piles of cloth in the corner.
"Kittens," Raven snrrked.
"Wasn't panty raiding your idea in the first place, anyways?" Phantom grumbled.
"Well, I may have done some panty raiding of my own," Raven smirked. When the younger man blinked, in some sort of stage trick, a pair of underwear appeared in his mentor's hand.
"Wh-wha-?" Phantom stammered as it rapidly occurred to him that those were his briefs.
"Aww, look, it's Phantom's tighty whities," Raven sniggered as his apprentice's face turned beet red and his mouth flapped comically.
"Give me those!" Phantom hissed, making a dive for Raven. The two struggled, Phantom on top and reaching forward while Raven held the briefs just out of reach. Phantom squawked when all of a sudden, Raven's fingers were skittering about his rib cage. The underwear fell to the ground, forgotten, as Phantom squirmed, laughs falling from his lips like music to Raven's ears. It was altogether too easy for the older man to push the young blond down on the cave floor to continue tickling his sides.
Phantom kicked and squirmed, slippery as all hell, yet still, Raven continued the hellish torture until tears were in the thief's eyes from how hard he was laughing.
"St-stop..." Phantom laughed. Finally, Raven relented, a grin on his face that made it hard for Phantom to stay mad at him. He sat back and offered the younger a hand to pull him back upright. The teenager panted for breath.
"I swear that I'm going to kill you someday," Phantom vowed, chest heaving.
Raven's face slowly became somber as Phantom calmed down and caught his breath. Strangely enough, he began to untie and then unwind the scarf from around his head. He held it out to the amethyst-eyed young man.
"This is for you."
Hesitantly, Phantom reached for it, marveling at the silken texture of the scarf and the quality of the raven beak mask. A sudden thought occurred to him and he found his heart pounding.
"You aren't... Leaving, are you?" Phantom asked, attempting to sound confident, yet he was unable to mask the fearfulness in his voice.
Raven looked surprised, and then he chuckled. "Goodness, no. I just want you to have it," The man leaned in and rested his forehead against Phantom's, smiling as their noses brushed in an eskimo kiss, and Phantom felt a violent surge of relief.
"Someday," Raven began, "You're going to leave me behind," Raven held up a hand as his disciple attempted to protest, silencing him.
"You're going to make your own way in life. Play card tricks, for all I know. And when that day comes..." Raven smiled fondly, brushing a lock of curly, sun-colored hair away from Phantom's face, "I want you to remember me."
"I'll never forget you," Phantom promised gently.
They sat in silence until Phantom looked up at his mentor all of a sudden, meeting his grey-blue eyes as a thought struck him.
"Will you tell me about her?"
It didn't take a genius to figure out which 'her' Phantom was speaking of.
Silence echoed loudly throughout their makeshift home and for a moment, Phantom thought he had crossed a line, before Raven began to speak.
And thoughts of a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman, always with a smile and laughter in hand, echoed through Phantom's mind all night and he thought that this was his ideal woman. He could taste the love that filled Raven's every word, every descriptor of her.
And as they went to sleep that night, with Raven's arms wrapped around Phantom, the older man asked a question.
"You do understand that I love you just as much as her?"
Phantom paused to consider it.
"Yes."
"I always will. Can you accept me for my past?"
"Your past is who you are, and I love you for who you are."
That night, Phantom, for the first time, bowed his head in respectful sorrow for a dead woman and her unborn child. He finally understood that it wasn't about measuring up to her. He never would; she had died for Raven.
All the little thief could do was accept.