"That was a halfway decent landing, sweetie. Maybe some day you'll actually be entirely capable of not falling on your face!" Topaz gritted her teeth, flicking the switch on her communicator, muttering into it.
"Synced." She paused, looking back up. "Thief."
"Still not past that?" Rouge sighed theatrically, before letting a sly smirk slide across her face. "Aw, you made it a pet name."
"…Shut it!" Topaz hated working with the bat. She'd never even really liked bats- they were just rats with wings, belonged on Halloween and nowhere else. Rouge, though… she could do everything almost effortlessly. Most of the Mobians could, really, from what she'd seen. It was like humans were big clunky dolls next to them. Too tall, too big, not agile enough, not strong enough. Hell, Rouge was only three and a half feet tall and she could lift Topaz into the air and maintain flight.
She'd trained in the academy for years, and her partner was an 18 year old animal that was better than her without a second of practice in a legitimate school. She'd learned from a lifetime of sneaking around, a lifetime of stealing and selfishness and tricking and thievery.
Her wings were tucked tightly against her back now, and her catstuit (or would it be batsuit?) clung tightly to her skin. Maybe she'd worn it before so she wasn't likely to brush anything when she stole things, and it was just a force of habit now.
Certainly left nothing to imagination.
Rouge led. Rouge always led, which Topaz supposed was logical, she had far better hearing, and had technically been in the field of 'sensing any sort of obstructions' for years. She'd been doing it to steal jewels, but that still technically counted, right?
Rouge moved with the grace of a cat, more lithe and predatory than any human alive. Her ears twitched occasionally, and she ducked into a hallway just in time, hearing and sensing things the sensors couldn't hope to catch. Loathe as she was to admit it, Topaz was probably the safest person on this mission, straddled to Rouge's hip like she was.
When Rouge turned to look back at her, she opened her mouth to make what Topaz didn't doubt was another pick-up line, or something flirty.
"You do anything with that mouth other than come on to me?" Topaz snapped, before her eyes widened. Did I really just say that? Rouge looked surprised for a moment, before grinning, wings snapping out to the side with a sound almost like a baseball hitting a mitt. In an instant, Topaz found her lips covered with Rouge's, gloved hands cradling her cheeks, and when the bat broke away, her lipstick had somehow remained perfect, even though Topaz could still feel it. Her eyelashes fluttered as she turned back.
"Watch that mouth of yours, gem. You might find it otherwise occupied."
Yes, Topaz hated that bat.
Hated that maybe she loved her.