I wanted to make a christmas story, so I got myself to sit in front of the computer and write this. Me and my friend thought about the idea together, she's making one about Orlando Bloom and I'm making this about Sly. But the ideas are really different, we just want to compare them later. I'm really really really trying to make this good, a lot better than the Long Ride Home. I have really thought about the idea this time and I hope it comes out well. (You see, as I'm writing this I have just started to write the fic.) So this is maybe supposed to be a one-shot (I haven't thought about it yet), and it is made for the honour of christmas. So this is going to be a happy one! Yay! So, with no longer speech, I shall start it.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Sly Cooper characters, but I do own Jenny, Jessica, Jack (why do they all begin with a J..?) and some other my OC's.

Exquisite Christmas

By: Heiduska

Paris, 10.p.m.

It was a cold winter evening. It was the darkest time of the year and it was really cold. There were no people seen except for a jogger who ran pretty fast and disappeared as soon as he came. Everyone seemed to be at home because they didn't want to go out into the cold. It was only a few days to christmas and it seemed no one would be working. They should be home with their family or with their girlfriends or boyfriends. Well, not everyone have the chance to do that. Hey wait, there's a dim light. Who in the earth would work near christmas?

Carmelita sighed and put away another report she had been working on. She only had one more and then she could go home. She stretched and took a sip from the cold coffee she had on her office's desk. Carmelita's thoughts wandered and she thought about her past few years. She came into a conclusion that she had always spent her christmas' alone. Of course she had friends, she wasn't ALL alone, but it isn't the same thing. When she thought about the last christmas, all that came into her mind was that she was with Jenny and Rebecca and some other girls which were their friends. And in the evening she just went home and so on. She got two presents from her parents, (and a present from Sly Cooper himself who wished her a merry christmas and sent a photo of the Cooper Gang opening presents with the gift) but they were too busy to come over, and Carmelita couldn't visit them because she had to work. She sighed. Apparently the same thing was going to happen with this christmas.

She snapped out of her thoughts when the pen she was holding dropped and she realized that she had to get back to work. She took the last paper and looked at it with such anger that you could imagine the paper back away from her. Finally after an hour she put the papers away and rose from her seat. Carmelita stretched and took her car keys and her mobile phone, switched off the light and locked the door. She walked alone in the quiet corridors of Interpol until she came to the great outdoor. Once outside she chilled from the cold and put her coat around her more tightly. She half jogged to her car to keep herself warmer.

Carmelita saw on the way home that the huge christmas tree had been put up. They had just inserted the lights and right on the moment when Carmelita drove past the enormous tree, the lights went on and she sighed with happiness. The lights were so beautiful. But the lights and the tree reminded her of christmas again so she decided to drive home really fast and just go to bed.

The next morning Carmelita woke up around 10 a.m. when Rachel (her friend at Interpol) called that she should be at work already. Carmelita muttered something unintelligent and went to work. She had a horrible day; first, she got another huge pile of paperwork, then she accidentally poured coffee all over the desk and the papers went wet, AND she had to stay overtime because she was late in the morning. She dragged herself at home around 2 a.m.

The following morning was the day before Christmas Eve. Carmelita woke up around 11 a.m. and panicked that she was late again until she accidentally watched her calendar and saw that she had a day off. She couldn't believe it. "How did I forget this?" She thought in disbelief. Well, if I really have the day off, then maybe I should call someone. Maybe Jenny would be home".

"Hello." A voice was heard from the other side of the phone.

"Hi Jenny, it's me, Carmelita. I just called to-" But she didn't have the time to go on when Jenny cut her off.

"HI! I just thought that I should call you! Say that you don't have any work today! Please!" Carmelita could hear how excited Jenny was. Probably something big was going on.

"Yes, actually I don't have any work today. But why-" She was cut off yet again by Jenny.

"You won't believe me! Jessica's family is leaving from town to England, so Jessica's having a huge party at their mansion!"

"Wow, you mean in that mansion? I have been there only once, and it's enormous!" Even Carmelita started to feel like partying again.

"YES! The party starts at 8 o'clock this evening, and it lasts two days! Don't be late because even that place isn't that big that there could be an unlimited mass of people. And what else? Oh! There's free drinks, so you don't have to buy anything." Jenny explained.

"Wow I still can't believe this! And I thought that I was going to have a boring christmas! But what should I wear? I don't think I have anything that delicate to wear on a place like that!" Carmelita panicked.

"Hey don't worry, I don't have either. Maybe we could go shopping together and buy something to wear? It's been like months since we had this kind of an opportunity to shop and have fun at the same day" Jenny said happily.

"That sounds good! How about an hour later on the mall?" Carmelita suggested.

"Okay. I'll wait you at the parking lot."

"Bye." Carmelita put the phone down and hurried to go and take a quick shower before she would hurry to the mall.

12:30 p.m. The Mall

As Carmelita drove to the parking lot, Jenny was already waiting for her there.

Carmelita had hardly came out of her car when Jenny took her hand and started to drag her to a closest store. "Hi! Let's go already, you're like umm.. one minute late." Jenny exlaimed unpatiently.

First they went to a cute little shop which looked really pretty from the outside, but was horrible from the inside. Either the colours were too bright or they were really dirty. They tried on one dresses just because they couldn't just come inside and then just leave. And because the shop assistant was really eager to show them all of the clothes there was in the store.

Carmelita took a horrible green dress and Jenny took a bright yellow. They went to their own bathing boxes, and when they came out they really had to struggle so that they wouldn't laugh. They looked like garbage bags! They ran back to their bathing boxes to laugh silently and changed back to their normal clothes. When they came out, the shop assistant took another even more horrible dresses out, and recommended for them to try them on. Carmelita and Jenny looked at the dresses, then at each other and made an excuse to the girl that they were late from an appointment and they quickly shoved the dresses away and left.

Next they went to a big shop, which was really much better than the last one. They stayed in the shop about two hours until they finally found dresses that were appropriate. Carmelita bought a black dress, which was really tall and Jenny bought a light blue dress which went just above her knees.

They went to have lunch and then when the clock was about 4:30 p.m. they went to the hairdresser's to have their hair made. After an hour they both had beautiful hairstyles and make-ups.

"Hehe did you see that poor man's expression when you said that you didn't want your hair dyed!" Carmelita laughed.

"No! He was annoying, don't you think it's a little bit rude to say to your customer that their hair is emotionless?" Jenny said dryly.

"Hmm.. Maybe it is. Hey, what's next?"

"So, we have about two hours left. We could go to my place and then just walk to Jessica's family's mansion because it's not far from my home. I don't think we are cabable to drive home from there." Jenny suggested and laughed at her last sentence.

7:40 p.m The Mansion

Carmelita and Jenny left early so that they would be there on time. The place was so big, that they didn't know where the front door was. But they didn't have to wonder that for long when Jessica came out and showed them the way inside.

There was a lot of people inside, maybe all of them had had the same idea about coming early. Carmelita didn't even know that Jessica knew this much people.

The place was huge. The ceiling must be at least 25 feet high, Jenny thought in awe.

"Yo, Jessica! Where did all these people come from? I don't think I have ever met even half of them." Carmelita remarked.

"Well, you're not the only one that hasn't. I put some posters around town saying that everyone's welcome from age 18-26 and I mentioned that if they break something, they're liable to pay the damages. And many of these people are nice. It's a great chance to meet new people." Jessica explained and winked. Oh, and the skating rink is open for everyone. I put the lights on there and there's some music too, so just go if you want to."

"Thanks Jessica" Jenny said in agog, "so.. can we look around?"

"Sure, feel free to. Hey, there's some people coming I should go and greet them. I'll see you later, have fun." Jessica smiled one last time and hurried away.

"So, are we going?" Jenny asked enthusiastically and was already going.

"Okay." Carmelita said and they went to see what it was like in the upstairs.

There were a little bit less people than downstairs, but not much. Carmelita noticed that there was some punch and champagne on one of the tables, so they took drinks and went to the third floor. They noticed that there was a lot of rooms which were probably for the quests. There were about twenty of them. Some of the doors were closed, so they didn't go anywhere near them. As we all can quess, probably nothing appropriate. They went back to the 2nd floor and took a bottle of champagne wih them and went to one of the rooms, but they kept the door open.

11 p.m. The mansion

"Hehe you have to..have to.. what is it? flirt with him! And then.. hehe" Carmelita was a little bit inebriated and struggled to even stay up.

"Neverr... Jenny put her weight on Carmelita and they both fell over. Hey.. can.. can you hear?"

"Ouch.." Carmelita took support from the wall and raised herself up.

"There's a dance floor! What we.. here when can go there?" Jenny said woolly and started to drag Carmelita towards the sound.

They both giggled and went down the stairs (only falling twice) and made their way to the dance floor. The place was huge, the atmosphere was merry. There were a lot of pairs which were kissing while dancing. That made Carmelita really sad, because it reminded her about her own loneliness.

They must've been a sight back there. Two girls who could barely stand up and on the same time trying to dance. The dance floor was round from it's shape, and there were tables surrounding it. Even if Jenny and Carmelita were drunk, they could see two guys staring at them as they were dancing. Carmelita leaned over to Jenny and was just about to whisper how cute they were, when she leaned too far and they hit their heads together and they fell over. They both were surprised and confused about the fall so they didn't get up right away. Carmelita saw a young fox helping Jenny up and she felt that someone was helping her up too. The guy helped her to sit on the table were they were sitting earlier. He sat next to her and she got to look at him more closely. 'Those brown eyes. Like I would have seen them before..'

"Are you sure you're all right?" The vixen nodded slightly but rubbed her head from the place where her and Jenny's heads had collapsed. She just couldn't get her eyes off of him. He was a raccoon (A/N: yeah yeah, we all know were this is going..), maybe twenty years old.. And.. was kinda.. familiar. But Carmelita couldn't quite put her finger on it. Her thoughts were disturbed when the other guy came and said to the 'coon that he and Jenny were going out to get some fresh air. He just waved his hand at the fox and smiled at Carmelita.

The suddenly Carmelita remembered what Jessica had said:

"It's a great chance to meet new people."

Carmelita would have usually been a little bit quiet around new people, but with intoxicating liquids along, nothing mattered. They just looked at each other and finally Carmelita broke the silence.

"So, shall we.. go?" The raccoon laughed a little bit at her, but just said "Sure, where do you want to go?"

"Uhm.. hot."

"You mean out?" Carmelita nodded happily and he helped her up as they went out to the teracce. There weren't any people on the teracce, but the skating rink could be seen from there, and it was really crowded. They sat into one of the tables. Carmelita was starting to feel a little bit sleepy. She tried to keep her eyes open but if she did, she felt like she would be in a rollercoaster so she shut them. The guy asked her many times if she wanted to go back inside but she kept arguing that she wanted to skate just a little bit longer. So, he took her into his arms (which wasn't hard because she was almost passed out already.) He found his way into the 3rd floor and went into one of the rooms which were still open. He laid Carmelita gently onto one of the beds, and had just put her on the bed when someone called out for him.

"Psst! Sly!" It was Jack. He was at the door. Sly tiptoed into the door and saw Jack standing there without Jenny. He looked at Jack with a questionable look.

"Hi! I just put Jenny into one of the rooms so, so.. shall we go back down?" Jack suggested.

"Nah, I think I'm going to watch over Carmelita, she's kind of tangled. I wonder what they took."

"Well, we're going to find out tomorrow, shall we?" Jack said and grinned. He went to watch over Jenny as Sly went back to the room where Carmelita was sleeping in.

Christmas Eve, 10 a.m. The Mansion (Still in there!)

Carmelita woke up with a splitting headache. She got up with extreme difficulty and almost had a heart attack. Sly Cooper was sleeping beside her bed on a chair. Not really a comfortable place to sleep in. With the headache or not, she got out of the bed with full speed before she realized she wasn't at her home. She realized that she was still in the mansion, and clipses of yesterday came into her mind.

"Oh my..." She thought in embarrasment. And I said that he was cute without even realizing it..." She didn't turn her back at him, she just searched for the door handle and found it. She quietly opened the door and slipped to the corridor. She ran right into Jenny when she was closing the door, which almost gave her a heart attack.

"Carmelita! I've been looking all over for you! I got into some embarrassing situations back there when I bothered other people while looking for you..."

"Well, that couldn't have been as embarrassing as what I've gone through." Carmelita said and blushed fiercely.

"Tell me everything!"

"I can't believe that I actually said that Sly Cooper was cute! I hope I didn't do anything else stupid." Carmelita said regretfully.

"Hah! I recognized him immediately, but I didn't get the time to come and say it to you because I was with Jack..." Jenny said chagrined, but smiled.

"Ohh, you and Jack! Welll..?" Carmelita asked deviously.

"Well what? I wish I had something naughty to tell you about it but I don't even remember how I got to my own room! I just remember when Jack and I went skating."

"Well, actually I don't remember anything else than that I was sitting in the teracce with.. a-hem. with Cooper." Jenny looked at Carmelita with the I-knew-it- smile.

"I have told you a million times that you two would make a great couple! Why can't you ever listen to me? I just see it, he's your type. Or can you say that you have a relationship with somebody else right now? huh?" Carmelita snarled in defeat.

"Couldn't we just go home? Pretty please?" Carmelita begged.

"Home? No way! These parties won't end till tomorrow! And who'd want to be alone in christmas?" Jenny tried to persuade Carmelita.

"Well. Okay. But my hangbag is in that room, and I'm not going there when he's there." Carmelita blushed at the thought.

"I'll get it for you. Just you wait." Jenny turned and opened the door to the room. "He's not here! Damn, I would have wanted to talk to him."

"What? Then I can come and fetch the handbag myself." Jenny kept the door open for Carmelita and as soon as she had went inside, she closed the door and rested against it, like waiting for something.

A startled yell was heard from the inside. "What the..? JENNY! I insist that you open that door immediately!"

"Not until you two speak things over. I'll be waiting.." Jenny was bugging Carmelita.

Carmelita couldn't bare to even look at Sly in the eyes. He just stood there, and it annoyed her even more. Sly sat upon the bed and waited for her to say something.

Carmelita just stood there with folded arms, but after a few silent moments she gave up and sighed.

"So- " They both said in unison.

"You go on" Sly said kindly and let her speak.

"Well, I can tell that this is really akward. Normally at first I would have hauled you straight to jail, but.. Even I can't be that cruel, it's christmas after all."

"Or you would have tried to do that, but you didn't even recognize me because you were so drunk." Sly pointed out and grinned.

"Don't give me that, ringtail." Carmelita snapped. She was so pissed off. "Why does he always have to have that grin on his face?" "How come you end up in the same place as I?"

"Well, actually I didn't even know you were coming in here, and everyone except Jack are out of town visiting someone, so I didn't want to come alone. He shrugged. Look, couldn't we just forget our professions for one day and enjoy ourselves?"

"Well.." Carmelita was really doubting this. But for once she wouldn't be all alone in christmas... Her mental voice was saying: "Stop being such a hard-ass, just go for it!" "But, this isn't right. What if someone sees us? What if..?" Carmelita was roughly awaken from her thoughts when Sly suddenly spoke up.

"Why don't you sit next to me?"

Carmelita looked at the bed for a second, but though she thought differently, her feet took a step after step towards it, and she sat. Not very close, but anyways.

-------

Meanwhile Jenny was trying to eavesdrop the two but she couldn't hear anything. "Just like they would just stand there and stare at each other... Though that could be possible.."

"Hi Jenny!"

"AAH! Oh.. Hi Jack." Jack was looking at her with a funny expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" Jenny looked at her nails and then at Jack.

"Umm.. Well.. I set Carmelita up." She finally admitted with a satisfyed grin.

"Uh-o." Was all what was heard from Jack.

"Well, she's there with Sly. But their awfully quiet. It's been like twenty minutes already." Jenny complained. Hey, what if we go inside at the count of three? You're in right?"

"Okay." Jack prepared himself for anything.

"Okay, here goes. One ,two, THREE!"

-------

Sly and Carmelita were really bothered at first to even talk to each other, but then they started to have the same atmosphere like in that helicopter which would have taken Sly to jail over a year ago. They talked about everything, there were some sides on both of them that the other one didn't even know about. Carmelita laughed, something she didn't do very often. (but if she's drunk, that's different. but then again, that's giggling!) Sly was happy to see her laughing.

"I'm so glad to see you happy. He glanced up. Hey look, a mistletoe. Doesn't it mean that whenever you stand, or in this case, sit, under a mistletoe, you're allowed to kiss the one who happens to be under it at the same time?" Carmelita looked delighted.

"Maybe, it depends." They started to lean on each other...

"Depends on..what?" They were only a few inches away from each other.. Their eyes were only half-open..

"I..don't know." Their lips met. The kiss lingered, Carmelita put her hands around Sly..Carmelita thought that it would last forever...

And then they heard a loud "THREE!" And Jenny and Jack burst in with such speed that they fell on top of each other. Jenny had a huge burst of laughter but Jack was worried if she had hurt herself. "I'm..fine..!" She got to say between the gasps while Jack helped her up.

Carmelita and Sly quickly let go of each other, coughed nervously and went further away from each other.

When Jenny had calmed down a little, the little (in this case) vixen looked at them with a guilty face and made circles with her left foot.

"Uhh.. How're you guys doing? We were.. about to ask if you'd want to come and have a snowball fight with us?"

They were startled about Jenny and Jack coming just like that, but they composed themsleves really fast and Carmelita managed to speak even if she was caught out of breath because of the kiss.

"Hmm.. I'd like to. We've been inside pretty long. I really need to clear my headache. But then she realized that she didn't have anything warm to wear, except a coat.

But I didn't take any mittens or anything else with me."

Jenny looked surprised "Don't you remember, this is a huge mansion with all the facilities! I think Jessica can borrow us some clothes. Let's go, peoples!" With that, they all headed downstairs.

Half an hour later, The Mansion's yard

There was a huge amount of people having the same snowball fight. There were big slopes that people had built and they hid behind them and now and then threw snowballs. Carmelita was panting and sat down hiding behind one of the slopes. Just when she peeked behind the hill, she saw Sly running head-down towards her. There were raining snowballs, literally. He made it to her and sat down too, panting. Carmelita started to laugh when she saw his face. His face was covered with snow.

"Umm.. you got snow on your face" she giggled.She was just about to laugh a little bit more when someone saw her from the side and threw a snowball right at her face.

"YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" She started to sprint towards that someone, and saw that certain someone running behind a slope. She didn't even have time to realize anything, when a huge flock of snowballs flew towards her. "Never mind." She ducked and turned and ran to the opposite direction.

When it was starting to come a little bit dark, people started to go inside, and right when they went inside, the dinner was ready.

Christmas Eve's evening, 8 p.m.

Jessica had decorated the highest floor's teracce so there was a perfect view for the night's firework show. She was cunning and only let a limited mass of people to spend time at the 4th floor this evening. The floor contained a dance floor, a lobby, dining room and 5 bedrooms. There was a table in the dining room that had champagne, punch, wine, bevvy etc. just for the ones who came there first.

Carmelita was at the room where she had spent her night and was warming herself in front of the fireplace. After all, they had spent many hours outside, and it was pretty cold. She was sitting there with her eyes closed when someone knocked at the door. It was Jenny.

"Hi! Did Jessica already tell you?" She said cheerfully.

"No..? What is it? Well, tell!" She arched an eyebrow.

"Well, Jessica said that she has decorated the 4th floor, and she doesn't allow everyone to come, and quess who's got 4 tickets...?" Jenny made a little happy dance.

"Four? Where do we need four, when there's only two of us!" Carmelita eyed her and folded her arms.

"Well duh! Of course Jack and Sly are coming too!" Jenny said with an obvious voice.

"But.. I don't know.. This just doesn't feel right. What if someone like from Interpol finds out what I've been doing, and you know that I'd get fired!" Carmelita said and sighed.

"I know! But do you rather spend your whole life all alone or go for it once you have someone who loves you? You-" But she was cut of by Carmelita.

"Whoa! Who said anything about love!"

"Well, I did. Stop denying it. And we're going, and that's final. Well,come!" And with that she took Carmelita's arm and started to drag her towards Sly's room. There was nothing what could stop Jenny when she got into that mood.

"Now, you go in there and say the same thing that I said to you just a minute ago, and I go fetch Jack. Understood?" Jenny explained eagerly.

"Yes, but-" She couldn't escape anymore, when Jenny knocked the door for her.

"Jenny!" Carmelita hissed, but didn't have a choice when Sly opened the door.

Carmelita gulped and got herself to say a quiet "Hello."

Sly smiled when he saw her and beckoned her to come inside.

"So, what brings such a beautiful lady as you here?" Sly asked and grinned.

"Well.." Carmelita started and sat upon Sly's bed. I heard from Jenny that the 4th floor is open just for few people so she was thinking if.."

"If me and Jack would like to come too?" Sly said amused and grinned.

"Well..yeah..God this is embarrassing. Jenny made me come. I didn't come voluntarily. But well.. as hard it is from me to admit, I'd like it if you came." Carmelita said and even managed to smile without blushing.

To say the least, Sly was dumbfounded. Well, of course he accepted it. They met Jack and Jenny at the hall and went to the 4th floor together.

The decorations were really beautiful and Jessica had thought about everything. She had put some very good christmas songs playing and they were heard all over the hall. There was even a dj playing on the dance floor. Jenny was overzealous and she and Carmelita went to dance right away. After a few songs they decided to get some champagne, and then they went to sit with Sly and Jack. They really had a good time, and even Carmelita or Jenny hadn't taken too many. Okay maybe they all were just a little bit too drunk, but still. Precisely at 12 p.m. the dj said that he'll play a slow song. Carmelita giggled and motioned for Sly to come with her. Jenny or Jack didn't move. They were actually kissing, and I'm telling you, they weren't to be disturbed. It was really a good thing that Carmelita was drunk, because that way she wasn't too embarrased and she could show her true feelings.

The song what was heard was a romantic slow christmas song. They looked at each other in the eyes, and danced. At first they weren't really close to each other, but Carmelita made the move and put her head against Sly's chest. After a moment she raised her head and whispered into his ear

"Right now, I don't really care if someone sees us" And with that, she held on to him more tightly.

"I have never" Sly whispered and lifted Carmelita's chin up with his other hand and kissed her right on the lips. Carmelita wasn't startled at all and kissed him right back. It would have lasted longer, but then the song ended and they decided to get some fresh air. They noticed a small glass teracce and went inside. Carmelita was starting to feel a little bit tired, but she wasn't going to fall asleep, like last time. Actually she was enjoying herself, so she didn't even want to. She was blinking from sleepiness but didn't give up.

Sly was struggling too but not about the same thing. He had bought a christmas present for Carmelita earlier but he was really thinking if he had the courage to give it to her. Personally at least. Carmelita noticed him thinking something deep and asked while resting her hand to her cheek

"So.. what are you thinking?"

"Nothing much.. but this" He took out a nice red packet from his pocket and put it on the table right in front of Carmelita. Carmelita was dumbfounded to say the least.

"No, you shouldn't have."

"No, I insist. Open it."

Carmelita held out her hand and took it. She opened it and found a very beautiful golden neckless. She thought in amazement that it must have cost so much.

"Wow. This is so beautiful. Thank you." She said and rose from her seat to hug him. A tear rolled down her cheek. Sly pulled her onto his lap. They stayed there for a while, both really quiet. Finally Carmelita broke the silence.

"It's a little bit cold in here. There wouldn't be any chance that we could go to my room?"

"Sure. I'll go anywhere you want to."

They took a bottle of wine with them. They got just a little bit lost on the way and it took them an hour to find the stairs going to the third floor. They had drunk all the wine and you can just imagine the rest. (Suprise suprise!)

"Finally! You...coming?" Sly laughed and pulled Carmelita along up the stairs. Carmelita just giggled and followed.

They finally reached the third floor. The door to Jenny's room was still open.Jenny and Jack were probably still at the dance floor. Carmelita opened the door to her room and they went inside. The fireplace was working with electricity so Carmelita switched it on to warm the place just a little bit. She took off the bedspread and went to lie down. She motioned for Sly to come. Sly flicked off the lights and when they were both in the bed he tucked them up. They cuddled closer to each other. Right before Carmelita fell asleep she thought that this was the best christmas she had ever had and was going to remind herself to thank everybody.

The day after christmas, 8 a.m.

Carmelita woke up with a splitting headache yet again. "I really should stop drinking.." She got up from the bed to wash up her face. Sly just turned around, fast asleep.

Carmelita snorted at that. She took a shower, changed her clothes and put her hair, and still Sly was nowhere near awake. An evil idea formulated in her head. She sat next to him and started to pinch his ear. His ear flicked. She did it again. It flicked again. She did this a dozen times, and to no avail. She was just about to get a bucket of freezing water, when someone knocked at the door. She ran to get it. She was so bored when she didn't have any company. It was Jessica.

"Hi! I'm just wandering around here to announce that my parents come back today around five, so if it isn't too much trouble, the house should be empty around noon."

"Okay. I just got to get him awake." Carmelita smiled and motioned towards her companion.

"Oh. So you did meet some new friends." Jessica smiled widely and winked at Carmelita.

"Well.. yes and no. We have met before." Carmelita just nodded.

"But that's even better!" Jessica winked and grinned.

"Maybe." Carmelita just smiled mysteriously.

"Well..you two have your fun! I need to go through all the quests. But I'll call you some time, okay?"

"Sure. See you."

Carmelita had just closed the door and thought about yelling at Sly's ear or jumping upon him, when she realized he had already woken up while Carmelita was talking with Jessica so Carmelita deduced from the noise that he was taking a shower. Carmelita had already packed all of her stuff, and she was actually struggling with that should she just leave so she wouldn't have to say goodbye. She took her stuff, cast a last glance at the room and closed the door.

She was spared to go and get Jenny when she too was standing in the corridor with her things. They went outside together, and went to sit on a bench which was just outside the mansion. Jenny called a taxi (so they wouldn't have to walk home with high-heels again) but they were so busy that the next taxi would pick them up after an hour. For the first time Carmelita was actually thinking about leaving her career for a man. When they were waiting for the taxi she really had thought about the thing and when the taxi arrived, Carmelita had planned it all through.

"I'll come fetch my things later Jenny, I'll see you!" And with that, she sprinted back towards the mansion.

"What! But..!" But she was already far away. And the taxi was waiting for Jenny. She shrugged and decided to call Carmelita later.

What Carmelita didn't notice was a van turn to the yard but what she did notice was Sly opening the front door. She kept running towards him and straight to his arms. She was overjoyed. For once in her life she had decided something, and that meant something.

"I'll go with you." Carmelita whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks "If you just accept me."

Sly kissed her right on the lips.After a moment he whispered "I love you."

"I love you too."

And with that they left together to the van, where Bentley and Murray were waiting with Jingle Bells- playing with a maximum volume and a huge "Merry Christmas"- sign strapped to the side of the van. Maybe this was the beginnig of a new, happy life.

Author's notes: Well, well.. I got it finished. :DD This was so fun! How have I ever done this before? Yes I know, a pathetic try ro write romance, but think about it this way: I have never tried it on Sly Cooper- fandom, so it's my first time. :DD Not the first time ever in my life, no no. :D I thought a long time should I even publish this, it's so embarrassing! But go easy on me, please! So, I hope you liked it, and please do review!

Merry Christmas to you all! Especially to my friends in here! Kit-Karamak, AngelLadyG, Sgt.Ace. Cooper, Heistmaster, Purple Carnation, erickdragon101, messenger of darkness, Odairu64, RatchetSly, SlyCooper222, Vanguard Ziggy. etc. there's just few. ;D -- If some of you don't consider me as your friend, still have a happy christmas:DDD If I forgot someone's name, then happy christmas to them too! Gaah! JUST HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 oh ps. If there's many grammar mistakes, I'm sorry. Don't eat me. 3

Heiduska signing off for the duration of Christmas