[[Author's Notes: (To those who have read the other version) I've changed the title from "Partners in Crime" to "Falling in love with a Criminal." I have edited this story line from Chapters 1-2 and added some parts.]]
Chapter One: Introduction
Night time has fallen and it has yet to strike midnight. The full moon has made its appearance, shining brightly in the dark sky, alone in solitude, with no stars to be seen.
Downtown of Magnolia, there's an important event being held at Central's Main Hall where the auction house will be taken place. All of the society's high upper class has come to attend such a special occasion that occurs once a year. With such unique paintings, extraordinary gems, legendary weapons and etc., has been presented on stage as people debate and bid for the item they are throwing their money on.
The place was entirely pack with people wearing masks preventing others to see their face. Even the guards that was on duty inside of the building. A masquerade ball was the lovely theme of this occasion. Making things easier for a particular woman in disguises.
Juvia had her curly hair up in a ponytail. On her head was a little miniature hat that was shaded in a brighter color of blue. She wore an elegant royal dress that fit the style that came from the late centuries, similar to all the females in the room; it easily allowed her to blend in with the crowd without looking suspicious. As for her mask it was colored in purple with a nice white feature hanging on the side. On the right side of her earhole was a transparent earphone,
"Juvia, could you hear me?" said the voice from the other lane.
The blue-haired girl raised up her right arm, spreading her floral fan wide open in front of her face. She was making her way through the crowd in an elegant manner, whilst she analyzed the room. "I could hear you perfectly fine." Juvia responded in a low volume. She was talking through the badge that was clipped on her collar of her dress. "I am quite impress, Levy, how you came up with this idea."
"Of course with my brains, I was able to come up with something pretty impressive. That badge is like a miniature walkie-talkie."
Suddenly another female voice came up on the other lane, "Yeah, stop flattering yourself."
"Juvia, how are things going for you in there? Have you found something that could help this blonde bimbo out?"
"I heard that!"
Juvia rest her floral fan on her right cheek and scanned the whole entire room, "Well it's pretty tight in here. There's actually guards in disguises all over the place, precisely as you predicted. So I assumed that there's a good chance of being able to get in from the window above, located at the east side of the building. The escape route should be from the ceiling window, centered in the auditorium."
"Good work Juvia, you got that Lucy?"
"Loud and clear."
"Alright, I'll let you know when I am almost finish hacking into the system of the building and what location I parked the van in, once you lost the cops that is… As for Juvia, just stand by."
"Roger." Lucy and Juvia said in unison.
Juvia then begun to fan herself as she glanced over at the east side of the room, and continued to walk onto the opposite direction.
On top of the rooftop, located at the east side of the building, was where Lucy was patiently waiting. The roof was clear with no security cameras or guards in sight. But she did notice the police cars surrounding the main entrance of the building and a few in patrol at the back. The blonde put her long hair up on a ponytail. She wore a tight black outfit that revealed the curves of her body figure and a black mask that covered the upper portion of her face.
"It sure looks like Chief Erza is fully aware that we would strike here at midnight." Lucy chuckled. "Hey, by any chance have you spotted Miss Scarlet tonight?"
Juvia's voice came up on her earphone, "Actually speaking of the devil, I just did. She's socializing with other guests right now."
"Is everyone in position?" a strong determined voice said. Juvia somehow managed to capture Erza's voice inside the building, though the room she was in was filled with a buzzling crowd.
"Ah, so she still hasn't quit on capturing us." Lucy smirked. "It's almost time for the clock to strike midnight."
"Hey blondie, I am about to hack into the system in three…"
"Two…"
"One…"
Inside of the building of where Juvia is currently in, the lights all shut down altogether making the crowd gasp loudly. It didn't come back up immediately when one of the staffs were flicking the switch, as the audience started to wonder what was going on. Now, it was time for Lucy to jump into the scene and do her thing! She quickly put on her black gloves and made sure the sticky patch was on the tip of her fingers in order to open the transparent glass without leaving a trace of her prints on the window. After she successfully slip right on the small opening, she made sure it was close shut like it was originally.
Lucy hurried to the back of the auditorium's storage room, where all the valuable items were being kept in place. As much as Lucy could carry on her small bag, she made sure to pick up the expensive jewelries. "Come to mama!" she chuckled. She picked up a handful of them from a wooden crater and toss it into the brown bag.
Back to Juvia; she was making sure to keep a keen eye on the head Chief of the police station. Erza was standing nearby, enough for the bluenette to see her from the corner of her eyes in the darkness. She watched as the red head glanced at each direction of the room. "That's strange?" Juvia wondered. "Why is she acting like that?" right before Juvia could assume about the situation, she heard Levy's voice speaking up on the lane.
"Hey Lucy, you have to hurry up in there. They're already sending the electricity engineers to bring back the power at central hall!"
"Yeah, yeah, just give me a second will you!"
"Listen you cow, if you don't want to be busted I suggest you get your ass out of there right this instance!"
"I said wait you twig! I still have some left over space in my bag!"
"You fat-ass, you better not get caught or you're dead you hear me!"
"Whatever."
In the storage room, Lucy finished getting what she could retrieve and fit it into the small brown bag. Before she swung it onto the air and place it on her shoulders, she made sure it was completely sealed. The blondie lift her head up at the ceiling, looking at the escape route that Juvia mentioned earlier. She could see some parts of the moon shining from above her through the glass frame. "I should really find an easier way to get out of here…" she sighed. "I don't want to break the window with my slingshot… It'll ring the alarm…"
Lucy looked around the room for a moment if she was able to discover another way to escape without making too much of a chased. She spun her head in each direction and thought of what will happen if she were to "get out through here or there" on the process of pondering about the results that it may lead to. The young infamous thief didn't realize how much time she has wasted just standing there in the darkness for merely about thirty minutes. There was footsteps and voices coming closer to the door that leads to the room she was in.
"Shit!"
Reacting quickly to the situation, Lucy immediately opened the wooden crater that was now half empty and hid herself in there, as she wrap her arms around the brown bag.
Just in time before she was spotted, the door creaked open, in a rather slow pace. "Hello…?" said one of the voice. "Is anyone here?"
Lucy made a grimace expression once she heard those lines coming from the unknown intruder, "Who in the world would say that?" she thought to herself, "Erza should really pick better police men if she's going to capture us…"
The unknown intruder let out a small chuckle, "Seems like no one is here, Natsu. Why don't we just hang out here for a while?"
"Ughh… I seriously hope we don't have to come face to face with the Phantom Thief…" the person named Natsu let out a deep sigh. "Jeez Gray, how are you so calm?"
"Well, it's not a crazy psycho we are capturing, so I guess I have nothing to fear." Gray grinned.
The two friends sat on top of the wooden crater, not fully aware that Lucy was hiding in there. The young girl was slowly feeling a bit cramped inside, she didn't know how long she was going to be stuck inside, but there was no time to lose. Lucy listened to the conversation between the two unknown men, until there was a loud running footsteps coming towards the room.
"Shoot! They found it!" someone shouted out in surprised in a high-pitch voice.
"Who the heck are you guys?" said another with a deep voice. "You aren't one of us."
Natsu and Gray slowly stood up as they nervously came face to face with the shady looking men. "Step away from the wooden crater." They ordered. The two young lads did as they were told and kept a distance.
"Hey COW!" Levy's voice shouted from her earphone, "where the hell are you?! What is taking you so long to get those jews!" Lucy's eyes widen up in shock and let out a gasp, on the process of not being found, Levy's loud voice was heard. Everyone in the room turned their heads at the crater.
"Damn it Levy! Now wasn't the time!" Lucy shouted inside of her head.
"What the hell was that?!" the two shady men exclaimed. The man with big muscular arms (who had the deep voice) quickly ran over to the crater and attempted to open it and find out who was inside. However, his movements wasn't quick enough, he end up meeting up with Lucy's hard kick; breaking through the wood and striking him under his jaw! Causing the big guy to be thrown back and crashing onto his partner. "UGHH!"
Natsu and Gray just stood there frozen on their feet. They were on a paralyze state that they just watched Lucy's shadow jumped out and took out her slingshot and aimed it onto the ceiling's window. Hearing the loud sound of the glass breaking, the alarm in the building started to make a RIIINGG-ing noise. The boys' watched as the slingshot pulled her body up in a flash, and just like that she escaped. Leaving Natsu and Gray speechless.
"What did you do?!" Levy shouted.
"Hey, I was just doing what Juvia said."
"You idiot, couldn't you find a better routine?!"
"Shut it you twig! If you want to be the one stealing the goods than be my guess! I wouldn't mind being the person from behind the scene! Besides, something came up…"
"Like what?"
"Er, let's just say thanks to you I finally got out of the situation!"
"Ugh, just lose the cops already!"
"I am already doing that!" Lucy shouted as she put on a black beanie over her head and tucked in her golden blonde hair.
*'It has been four years now that we done this. It is quite surprising for us that we were able to last for that long.
It was during the time when the three of us were all in middle school, thinking about an important decision of what path we will chose for our future.
Juvia, Levy and I… we were so young, but came to the conclusion on becoming great infamous thieves.
Levy was the master mind behind the scenes, she was the one who would plot the whole entire schemes. It was her job to make sure that everything goes according to plan.
Juvia was the master in disguises, she was the bait and the one who lures all the attention of everyone in the room to her direction. Also the one who analyzes the place to find a way to break in and an escape route.
As for me, Lucy, I am the one who goes ahead and steals whatever we are aiming for without fail, and making sure to hide my identity to those who are chasing after me…
Apparently, I was the one who they were mostly after since I was doing the stealing after all. The reward is twenty billion jewels! But with such luck in my side, the citizens don't have a damn clue if I am a female, including my own identity. Only my reputation was increasing instantly, but for Juvia and Levy they were solidly clean.
Surprisingly, they don't know about the girls working along with me. Since I am the one with the cops chasing me all the time. So it'll be pretty obvious that they were clueless about the situation from the start.'
Lucy was jumping over the next building after the next. Holding the bag filled with jewelries' over her shoulders. The cops were trailing after her on their vehicle, helicopters and the news reporters were also determined to chase after her. Eventually the reporters were having a hard time keeping up with Lucy's stamina, which they were now slowly reaching their limit. As for the helicopter, Lucy managed to slip off into a dark area on the rooftop. By the time the chase was finally over, she hurried to meet up with Levy and Juvia. It took her a while to find the location where Levy parked the vehicle, which was of course one of the dark streets of downtown.
Lucy opened the back door of the van that they were both waiting in. "It's about time you got back." Juvia said. She was already changed into a different outfit; a white button shirt, black combat boots, and shorts. "What took you so long?"
The blonde closed the door immediately before anyone who might still be lingering around this late, spotted her. "Stuff happened. And hey, if you want to switch positions with me I'll gladly take the opportunity to do so." Lucy sighed, taking off her beanie as her hair slowly fell out.
"On second thought, I am good with the job I am currently on." Juvia quickly sat up on her seat.
"Exactly." Lucy smirked at her.
"Anyways, since you finally got what we need blondie. It's time for us to head back to our headquarters." Levy said as she started the engine.
"Good. I am exhausted from all that running."
"Well for a cow like you, you sure needed that exercise anyways."
"I swear you are just jealous of my body you flat chested tard!"
"What did you say you blonde bimbo!"
"Will you guys just knock it off?! I want to get back home already!"
Along the way home Levy and Lucy decided to do this argument another time, since we they were all exhausted from the event. It was already 2 AM and they have to start school the next day.
End.
