Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions.
Claimer: I own all of my original characters.
A somewhat long oneshot idea given to me by "2541wawa". I also want to thank "2541wawa" for the story idea and I hope you like it. I'm still working on The Girl Who Cried Yurei and it's starting to wind down, a few more chapters and that'll be done. I'm still thinking of story ideas to do after that (I have two in the work, but not a complete story ideas), but I'm always up for suggestions. So if you have any ideas, please let me know. So, please read and review and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Cold Winter Nights
I cursed under my breath as I tried to step through the knee high Canadian snow. I had been on the middle of a heist when the snow started coming down and Bentley had told me to head on back to the safe house and we'd continue it in the morning. But, the snow was coming down quickly and it was getting cold. The safe house was a good two miles away and it was getting harder and harder to walk through the snow and the fact it was starting to get dark wasn't helping at all. I wasn't looking forward to trudging through the snow but I didn't have a choice. I knew there were patches of ice and there was also a lake somewhere around here but the snow was so thick I couldn't see what was what. It all looked like a hilly landscape of snow and ice. I grumbled as I crunched through the snow and shivered at the wind. I heard another crunch beneath my feet and I felt the ground give out under me. I was dunked in the icy Canadian waters instantly and I could feel my lungs start to freeze. The air itself was nearing twenty degrees and the water was even colder. I didn't know how to swim, despite the multiple attempts by Bentley to teach me, and the cold made my mind loose all logical thinking. I shivered violently in the water and felt something grab me by the scruff of my neck. I was lifted up out of the freezing water and into the cold, dark air of Canada. I could already feel the water on my fur start to freeze in the air as I was pulled out of the water.
"What are you doing out here, Cooper? It's freezing!" Ramona's voice filled my ears and I looked up to see her pulling me away from the hole I had fallen through. She got me to my feet and started pulling me with her.
"I-I've got t-to get back t-to my s-s-safe house." I was stammering from the cold and shaking violently.
"You live over two miles from here, I live ten feet. You're staying with me tonight, Cooper. You're going to get hypothermia if you stay out here much longer and try to go to your hideout," she pulled me again and I followed, "Come on, we've got to get you warm." She supported me as we walked to her small cabin. My knees were shaking, along with everything else, and my chattering teeth echoed in my head. I could feel warmth as soon as I entered her cabin but I was still freezing. I heard the door click behind me and Ramona pulled me with her. She gently pushed me into the bathroom and left briefly only to return with a few towels and a change of clothes.
"Dry off, get changed, and then go sit in the char by the fireplace. You've got to get warm, your lips are turning blue." She said quickly before darting away and closing the door. I did what she told me to do and dried off with the towels and changed into the dry clothes before briefly looking into the mirror. She was right, my lips were a cross between a shade of blue and purple and I was still shaking.
I trudged out of her small bathroom and flopped down in the chair in front of the fire. I looked for the thief but she was no where in sight. Her cabin was a one room solid log cabin, with the exception of a bathroom and a small laundry room branching off to the side near the fireplace, so she couldn't be hiding anywhere. Sure, the cabin was small but it had that rustic feel to it. It was a solid log cabin that had a large fireplace on the wall next to the bathroom. The kitchen was connected to the living room and the only light n the entire room came from the fireplace and a small table lamp next to the crouch across from me. The room was carpeted with a soft rug and the combination of the fire and the logs made everything feel cozy. I sat in the chair, shivering and my fingertips felt like ice. My chair faced away from the front door so I was forced to crane my neck so look at the heavy, wooden door when I heard it open. Ramona stepped through a moment later, her arms filled with chunks of wood, and she closed the door with her foot. She passed by me swiftly and tossed the logs on the fire before pulling a thermometer from her jacket pocket.
"Open." She said softly. I opened my mouth and she placed the thermometer under my tongue. She left me there when she darted to the laundry room and opened the dryer. I watched as she pulled out two blankets from the dryer and returned a moment later and wrapped one of the warm blankets around my back and the other around my front. I started feeling warmer already, but I was still shivering. She pulled the thermometer from my mouth and looked over it.
"Ninety-four degrees." She muttered before heading towards the kitchen connected to the living room.
"I-is that b-bad?" I was still stammering but I wasn't as cold as I was before.
"You bet it is," she called out from the stove, "If it's gets any lower then we have serious trouble. What you're in now isn't great at all but if you hit ninety-two…" she shook her head and returned her attention to the stove. She was filling two tea kettles with water and putting them on the stove to allow them to heat up. She darted past me again to the bathroom and she started moving things around. She came back a few minutes later with a long, wide, plastic tub and placed it at me feet.
"What were you doing out there, Cooper? It's freezing outside." She sat on the armrest of the chair and waited for the water on the stove to heat up. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and quickly ran her paw up and down my arm. The friction caused my arm to start heating up and my other side was warmed by her body leaning on me gently.
"Trying to get back to the safe house," I muttered, "But that storm c-caught me off guard," I wasn't stammering as much, but I still wasn't at normal body temperatures, "What were you doing out t-there?"
"Getting more firewood from the pile outside," she smiled softly, "I hear the ice on the water break and I decided to go make sure no one fell through." I felt her slide her arm away and she stood. She strolled to the kitchen and removed the kettles from the stove.
"I'm glad you did. I can't swim and that water was freezing." She rolled her eyes with a chuckle as she came back into the living room
"I know you can't swim," she raised and eyebrow, "But I've tried to teach you to swim so don't give me that excuse." I snorted a laugh and watched as she poured the steaming water into the tub in front of my feet, "Stick you feet in that," she said as she straightened her back, "that should bring your temperature up." She trotted off to the kitchen to return the kettles before returning to her place on the armrest. I placed my feet in the water and could already start feeling the cold melt away from my feet. I felt Ramona's fingers run through my hair slowly and constantly. Her fingers were warm and her touch was gentle. We sat in silence, the only sound coming from the crackling logs in the fire beside me. Her fingers continued to flow through my hair as she placed a finger over my lips and sighed.
"Your lips are still cold. The color's coming back but they're like ice cubes." She shifted her paws to random parts of my face, checking to see if anything was still frozen.
"You know," I said in an attempt to start up a conversation, "Bentley was explaining hypothermia and he said that if the lips are still cold after a good amount of then you really need to try to warm them up to prevent nerve damage." I flashed her a smile and she laughed. I had to admit, I flirted with her often and I always loved seeing her reactions.
"Nice try, Cooper," she laughed and glanced down, "Not going to happen." I gave her a wink and she continued to stroke my head softly.
I rested my head on her thigh and we sat in silence as she ran her fingers through my hair and across my neck. I shifted on my side, still using her lap as a pillow, and sighed contently. My eyelids started to get heavy as her fingernails gently raked across my back, causing me to start to drift off to sleep. She somehow always knew how to put people at ease or calm someone down to where they felt comfortable. I was included in that group and with the combination of the warmth from the cabin, the time of night, and Ramona's soft touch, I was starting to fall asleep. I honestly felt like a little kid at the moment, but I didn't see Ramona as a mother figure towards me. She certainly could be one to others but I felt that we were equals but we had a special bond. I felt that if she really didn't like me, then sure she might have pulled me out of the lake and let me stay here, but she wouldn't stay around me at all. She wouldn't be sitting her with my head in her lap and she wouldn't be rubbing my back.
"Well," Ramona said after a while, "it looks like you're having loads of fun." I laughed and lifted my head from her lap.
"More fun than you could ever imagine." I heard her laugh with that child-like giggle she had and I smiled in return. The silence between us returned and I was finally warm. That's what made me think of what I was wearing. It was obvious that these weren't Ramona's clothes, but she was the only one in the cabin besides myself.
"Ramona," she stopped running her fingers through my hair and looked down, "Whose clothes are these?"
"Sitka's," she brushed her bangs from her face, "whenever we travel we split our clothes up in the bags we fly with," I raised an eyebrow and she laughed again, "It's incase they loose our luggage at the airport. If we do it this way we at least have some of our clothes. His cabin's about thirty feet away on one side and Charlotte's is about thirty feel away on the other side. It'd be crowded with three people in here. It can work with two but you'll have to sleep in the recliner tonight." I nodded and dropped the subject.
"I'll wash your stuff tonight and make sure they clean for tomorrow." She started running her fingers through my hair again after sticking the thermometer back in my mouth. I clamped down on the glass tube and waited for the red mercury to rise. She stood to poke at the logs in the fire while I peeled the blankets off me and took my feet from the water. I dried them on the towel she had placed beside the bucket. I suddenly sneezed in our silence and laughed as best as I could when I realized the sudden noise had caused Ramona to nearly jump out of her fur. I quickly glanced to me and her eyebrows twisted on her face.
"Are you getting hot?" I nodded and she pulled the thermometer from my mouth. I was starting to get hot and a headache was forming in my temples.
"Hmmm," she hummed. She wiped off the thermometer and stuck it back in her pocket. She stood over me and pressed the back of her paw to my forehead. Her eyebrows were knitted tightly on her face as she moved her paws to press her palms on my cheeks. She gently placed her palm on my neck and I could feel the nerves start to ache; the common sigh of a cold. My nerves stung at her touch, causing me to bunch my shoulders together, and her face twisted to one full of concern.
"You've got a fever," she said, "Now we've got to get your temperature down." She picked up the bucket from my feet and carried it to the door.
"Hot, cold, hot, cold, make up your mind, Ramona." I teased. She barked a laugh as she opened the front door and dumped the water outside. She disappeared from the doorway briefly and returned with another armful of logs. Again, she shut the door with her foot and tossed the logs in the basket next to the fireplace.
"I should be telling that to you." She ruffled my hair and strolled into the bathroom. Medicine bottles could be heard dropping or being moved around while the thief was inside the bathroom. She came back out with a bottle in her paws along with a box of tissues. She handed me the box and took two pills from the bottle. She dropped them in my paw and quickly trotted off to get a glass of water or something to take the pills with. I thanked her when she handed me a glass of water and I quickly swallowed the pills.
"That'll bring your fever down and any aches if you get them. It looks like someone's getting a cold." She punched my shoulder playfully and smiled before returning to the bathroom. I stretched in my chair and yawned. I was starting to get tired and was ready to get to sleep. I jumped when I felt my seat fall backwards and stopped quickly. I realized Ramona had kicked the lever on the side of the recliner I sat in. She tossed a pillow onto my chest and yawned herself. She had changed into her pajamas and had an unfolded comforter and another pillow in her arms. She also picked up the two blankets she had given me earlier and handed them to me. She tossed the pillow onto the couch and did the same with the comforter.
"If you get cold, throw another log on the fire," she yawned out as she walked to the front door to check the locks, "You can stay up as late as you want, I don't care really," she smiled, "but I'm going to bed." She walked by me to get to the couch and I pulled her into my lap. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.
"Thank you," I whispered into her ear, "I owe you one." She giggled in her child-like voice and smiled.
"You already owe me, Cooper." I flashed her a smile and she rolled her eyes with a laughing snort. I kissed her on her cheek and she scoffed playfully.
"You're getting a cold, Cooper!" she laughed, "If you get me sick I'll beat you down." I laughed again and kissed her cheek again before nudging her off my lap. She closed the curtains on the window and flopped on the couch. She clicked the lamp off and the only light left in the room was from the fire. We situated ourselves in our places and I glanced back to Ramona.
"G'night." She said with her heavy Australian accent and a small smile before pulling the comforter up to her neck and her eyes closed soon afterward.
"Night." I muttered in reply and shifted in my seat. I sniffed and knew I'd wake up with a cold but for now, that didn't matter. I watched as the light from the fire danced across her face and it was obvious she was a protector. She had a natural sense mothering and loving nature about her that made me feel completely comfortable around her. I gave her one last look before finally drifting off to sleep.