hey guys! here is chapter 2. i hope you enjoy!

i have also created a playlist for this story if you're interested in some thievery jams. here's a copy paste link: user/horsegirl375/playlist/1ZZ1QxM1Geua4Psz6gPXqD?si=-z7z3qYfS76_yEzweeNBug OR you can go to your spotify and search "we out here... robbing banks & shit"


"This is… pretty ambitious for a one person job," Nino said, tracing his fingers along the lines on Marinette's map of the bank.

"Well, it's technically not going to be a one person job with you involved." Marinette spun around in her swivel chair, legs tucked up under her. She sipped from the coffee she held in her sweater paws. The warehouse she used for planning was always cold, but she didn't mind. Its security was worth it.

Nino pulled his hat off to run a hand over his close-shaved hair. "Alrighty. As long as you're confident, I'll be confident."

Marinette grinned behind the lip of her mug. "Can you get into the system by tonight?"

"God, it's like you don't know me at all," Nino said, seeming offended. He grabbed his laptop out of his backpack and sat on the old couch in the middle of the open room. Marinette rolled her chair to the couch with her feet and looked over Nino's shoulder. Within a few moments, Nino was in the security frame of the Audi Bank French branch.

"Look, here's your cameras." Nino clicked around and brought up a view of 60 cameras spanning the buildings' four floors. "And here's your alarms." Nino pointed to the screen. He clicked around, and bit his lip in hesitation. "Hm. It looks like I'll only be able to silence the alarms for 10 minutes. They have an automatic backup police-contact system in place, and as soon as anything is offline they'll start their countdown."

"I can work with that. It's better than nothing," Marinette said.

"No lollygagging this time, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Nino teased with a wink in her direction.

Marinette groaned. "Ugh, I still can't believe that happened to me. What are the odds?" She pushed herself away from the couch, rolling herself back towards the desk.

"Probably, like, one in a billion." Nino said absentmindedly, chewing on the edge of his hoodie as he became engrossed in the bank's security network. "What did you say happened to him, anyway?"

Marinette slipped her feet back into her boots, and began rolling up her maps and tucking away her own computer into her bag. "I watched the news almost twenty-four/seven once I got home that day. He got picked up and went to jail, as planned." Marinette tapped her head to emphasize. If she was being honest, she'd almost thought about her close encounter every day since her Blonos Bank job had gone awry eight months prior. Despite her numerous robberies, she'd never been as on-edge as she was that evening.

Nino raised an eyebrow at her. "Sure. Maybe this time watch out for guys in black coats giving off douchey vibes."

"Uh-huhhhhh," Marinette drawled, doing the last button on her coat. She tossed Nino a small black box. "Make sure you charge the radio overnight at least. We'll test them before Wednesday."

"Where are you going ?" Nino asked, pocketing the box.

"I need to go pick up one more thing."

Marinette sped through the dark streets of Paris, taking her time to wind through all the extra streets. As she maneuvered her moped through Paris midnight traffic, she thought back to the Blonos job. It was normal for her to be unable to sleep the night after a job. Too much to look out for, and the adrenaline was often still high, especially if she was over at Rouge Hall. However, she's never had a hitch in a job that big. She'd been unable to sleep peacefully for almost a week, her eyes glued to her TV as she switched between news channels. Nearly immediately it had been reported that a man had been picked up and put into custody, but it wasn't for several days that he had been sent to trial. Even after that, it wasn't until most of the money had been laundered and put into her bank accounts and she got the assault rifle out of her apartment that she could finally relax.

Now, she looked back on the event with a certain pride. An obstacle no one could have fathomed, and she had overcome it with mild confrontation (as mild as you can consider shooting a person in the shoulder) and double her originally projected profit. Her hopes were high on this next job, especially with Nino in her pocket.

"You sure we can't have a soundtrack this time?" Nino inquired yet again, his voice sounding close, despite him being all the way on the other side of the Seine back in the warehouse.

Marinette adjusted the earpiece and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Yes. I told you, it distracts my counting."

"And the screams of the innocent don't?"

"I don't hear anything once I'm inside." Marinette quipped, eyes focused on the bank in front of her, feeling the cool metal of her moped key snug in the wristband of her leather glove.

This time, Marinette had parked her moped in the back of the bank. A tiny alley separated the bank from the sports store next to it. Cameras were in place there, but Nino had conveniently keyed them to run footage from the day before for the next half-hour. The Bank Audi France was four stories high, with big glass windows. There were two vaults in the bank, but she was only hitting the smaller one on the second floor. Instead of her usual navy winter coat, she was dressed in a long red peacoat, with a silk black blouse underneath to match the workers. Marinette glanced at her watch. It was time.

One-hundred and thirty seconds.

"Go," Marinette whispered. "Tell me when I'm in sight." As was her routine, she joined a group of people at the crosswalk and made her way towards the front of the bank. Her heart began to beat faster, and the sounds of Paris traffic began to dull.

"Almost… there. Now." Nino said into her ear, not nearly as loud now that Marinette's senses were honing in. She gripped the handle and pulled, warm air rushing from the bank with a whoosh.

Ninety-eight seconds.

Instead of drawing her gun on sight of the tellers lined on the bottom floor, Marinette breezed past them. The teller on the end closest to the door that lead to the back opened her mouth to say something, but Marinette silenced her by reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out her fake employee ID. As she slipped through the door, she gave Nino his signal. "First floor."

Thirty-two seconds.

Marinette confidently strode towards the stairs at the end of the hall, knowing Nino was switching off each camera as she entered it's view and turning them back on once she passed. The stairwell was camera clean, and she took the steps two at a time to make up for a second lost with her employee encounter.

"I'm looking right now, and there's only two guards, as planned." Nino said, his voice coming through crackly in the stairwell. "Make sure you take the second left, someone is walking though the main hall."

"Got it." Marinette exited the stairs and drew her first gun from her coat. It was fitted with a silencer just for this occasion. She followed the path she'd memorized to the vault, counting the seconds all the way.

Nine seconds.

The heels of her boots clicked on the floor as she rounded the corner, her gun momentarily behind her back. Her sunglasses shielded her from the glare of the fluorescent lights in the stark white hall as she took in her two targets on either side of the vault's door.

Three seconds.

The one on the right looked to her first. He'd barely turned his head for more than a second when Marinette drew her gun from behind her.

One second.

Fwoop. As the first guard crumpled to the floor, limp, Marinette's sights were already on the second. The other guard looked at his partner in shock, turning to look at Marinette with wide eyes as she put a matching bullet through his skull. Fwoop.

She casually reached down and pulled the guard's real keycard from his belt to unlock the first mechanism of the vault. Then, she jammed her code-breaker into the slot on the top of the key pad. Within seconds, it automatically entered the six-digit code, and the light next to it turned green with a cheery beep.

"Okay, you've got your ten minutes counting down." Nino said, breaking the spell of silence in the cool vault.

"Perfect." Marinette's internal clock was already up and ticking again. She smoothly whipped out her cloth bags with practiced grace and began her meticulous stacking.

Seven minutes and nineteen seconds.

Marinette reveled in her success thus far, stuffing a few stacks of euros in the pocket of her coat as a little extra. As she started on her second bag, Nino's voice crackled to life in her ear. "Uh, Mari? I think you need to get out of there."

"What?" She pressed her hand to her earpiece.

"There's some guy. He's coming down the hall, he'll be on you in about thirty seconds." Even with the weak connection from being inside the dense metal walls of the vault, she could hear his frantic typing in the background.

"Is it the police?" Marinette asked, stacking the bills more quickly now.

"No, I can't see his face. But he's alone."

"I'll take care of it. Make sure the cameras are still clear." Marinette said through gritted teeth, leaving her bag and reaching into her coat for her gun.

Five minutes.

She still had time. "I don't know Marinette, I think you need to get the fuck-"

Nino's voice stopped suddenly, the metal walls of the vault fully cutting off the signal. Marinette could hear the sound of footsteps in the hall now. She pushed herself against the wall of the vault, hiding in the corner closest to the sound. She heard the footsteps slow, and assumed the person had seen the bodies of the two guards in the hall. Marinette steadied her breathing, then spun around the doorway to aim. She nearly fell over from shock.

Right in front of her was a vaguely familiar coat and black ski mask framing green eyes. She couldn't help the drop of her jaw, too stunned to shoot.

The man standing across from her also had a gun drawn, and had a substantially stuffed black bag slung over his shoulder. "What the fuck?" His voice was muffled by the cloth covering his mouth, but Marinette could hear the rage clearly.

"You…? But… that can't be." Marinette stuttered weakly. It was not. It could not be.

For a moment they both lowered their guns, too stunned to react. He recovered first, swinging the bag off his shoulder with such force it slid across the smooth white floor and stopped against the body of the guard at Marinette's feet.

"What the fuck? It's you! You… YOU FUCKING BITCH!" He screamed, raising his gun with a hand that was shaking with rage, and pulled the trigger.

Time seemed to slow for Marinette. She flung herself to the side, diving into the vault to dodge the bullet. She heard it ping off the marble floor outside, his angry footsteps running toward the door. From the floor, Marinette grabbed her full bag of euros. Nino's frantic voice screeched back to life in her ear as the radio regained connection for just a moment.

"MARINETTE?! MARI, WHAT'S GOING ON? JESUS CHRIST PLEA-"

As the man in the black coat stormed through the entrance to the vault, Marinette heaved the heavy bag of money at him. It knocked him off balance, and his gun fell from his hand and slid across the smooth floor of the vault.

He grunted as he hit the floor in front of her. Marinette scrambled backwards, not daring to look away as she felt around blindly for her own gun that she dropped in her dive. The man looked up at her and she could've sworn his eyes glowed with rage.

"You think I can't kill you with my bare hands?" He growled, pushing himself up on an elbow.

All of Marinette's fear washed away, replaced by her own anger. "Try me." She shoved the heel of her boot right into his face.

He fell back again, clutching his nose though his mask. Marinette jumped up to her knees and went to grab his head to slam it into the floor, but his arm darted out and grabbed the front of her blouse. She slammed into the ground, but held fast to his hair through the ski mask.

Marinette pushed up with all her might, but he was simply too strong. Even with her slipping grip on his head, he rolled over onto her and blindly punched her in the stomach. Marinette choked, curling in on herself. The pain coursing through her abdomen was enough to subdue her momentarily, and when she finally managed to reach out to try for his head again, he ripped free from her hands and put his full body weight on her. As she gasped for air, he hit her broadly across the face so hard she saw stars. Her earpiece flew off, and her sunglasses flew too, cracking against the wall of the vault.

In the back of her mind, Marinette was aware she was now exposed. With all the strength she could muster, she pulled in her legs and kicked straight up at his groin. He collapsed to the side in a wail of pain, and despite her still spinning vision, she rolled so now she was on top of him. To return the favor, Marinette grabbed the top of the ski mask and pulled it off, grabbing a hank of his blonde hair to force his head down.

Marinette raised her fist to punch him in the nose again - he was already bleeding from where she had kicked him with her foot-but stopped short. Despite the blood flowing from his nose and the tears leaking from his eyes, he was probably the most attractive person Marinette had ever laid eyes on.

It was a good thing she'd kicked him as hard as she did, because if he still wasn't in so much pain he surely would've taken advantage of her hesitation. He opened his eyes and looked at her, involuntary tears spilling over his long lashes as he glared at her, his breath ragged. But he was staring at her, too. In a way that made her forget only a moment ago he'd said he'd kill her with his bare hands. And also realize that she was very much straddling his upper body.

Somehow this moment let her forget all that, and the words spilled out of her lips before she could stop them. "You're supposed to be in jail."

"I escaped," he grunted.

"Escaped… jail," she clarified, almost not believing him.

"Yes."

"Okay, let's say..." Marinette began, lowering her raised hand and reaching down near her knee. "...That I know you can escape jail." Her fingers gently reached around, finding what she was feeling for just to her right. "And let's also say…" Marinette wrapped her hand around the handle of the gun and brought it up to point at his chest. "...That you know I can dodge a bullet and best you in a fight. And also, that we now know what the other looks like and could therefore identify each other to the police."

The man looked at the gun with a fresh fear. He involuntarily twitched, probably remember very clearly again that time she'd shot him. "I'm listening."

"Would you be willing to maybe work together, this one time, where I don't shoot you and you don't strangle me?"

He gulped. Overhead, red lights started flashing, and a siren began to wail.

"How much time do we have?" He asked in response.

Marinette almost smiled. "Two minutes and forty-three seconds." She released his hair and rolled off of him, reaching for her earpiece across the floor of the vault. "Nino? Nino!"

She was met with silence but jammed the earpiece back in anyway. She grabbed her full bag and her half-empty one in one hand, sliding her gun back into the pocket of her coat. The blonde man had pulled himself off the floor and was retrieving his own bag from the hall. "We're going out the back." Marinette said plainly. "Did you have an escape plan?"

"It's probably ruined now." He admitted as they dashed through the halls, the white now painted a eerie red from the lights.

"Okay, good. You're going to cover for me then. Move faster!" She said, pulling the door open to the stairwell.

One minute and eight seconds.

"It's hard to sprint after you've just been kicked in the balls," he grunted. Marinette grabbed his coat and yanked him into the stairwell. They sprinted down the levels, and on the bottom floor Marinette's earpiece roared to life once again.

"MARINETTE?"

"Yes, I'm here," she said, wincing a little at Nino's loud voice.

"Oh thank god, I thought it had all gone to shit for a second-"

"Has it ever?" She cut him off. "We're fine, but I'm in a tight spot. Any cops outside?"

"Not that I can see," Nino started, just as Marinette and the blonde guy burst out of the rear door of the bank.

Twenty-two seconds.

"Who are you talking to?" The blonde guy asked.

Marinette internally groaned. Still as talkative as the last time, I see. She ignored his question for the moment. "Nino, we're going to rendezvous at a different place-"

"Stop right there! Hands where I can see them!"

Marinette's blood ran cold. They still had fifteen more seconds left! Where could she have gone wrong? Possibilities filled her mind, and she could almost feel the weak bond she'd formed with her… partner (?) start to dissolve. She turned, horrified, expecting to see a squad of police cars crowding the exit to the ally.

Instead, there was one lone policeman, who looked barely twenty years old, pointing his taser. She almost laughed. The blonde man did.

"You're kidding me." Looking not the least bit threatened, he laughed in the police man's face.

"Stand down!" The policeman yelled again. "I won't hesitate!"

Marinette could've rolled her eyes if she wasn't so relieved. She went to reach with her free hand for her gun, when suddenly the wind was knocked from her lungs. She fell hard on her face in on the dirty Paris concrete, groaning. Next to her, her "partner" slammed down, too.

She yelped as she felt her empty hand jerked back at a painful angle, then froze as she felt the cold bite of metal around her wrist and the zip of a cuff being closed. She flipped her head to the otherside to look back over her shoulder.

Three police stood over them, all looking giddy as could be. And right in front of her face on the ground was her once-free hand, now handcuffed to her new friend's wrist.


:D see y'all buddies later, hope you liked the music! leave a review if you'd like.