Chapter 1: 15 years later
Now, no one panic! I just did a jump of 15 years, meaning that this all is past Sly 1, 2 and 3. Sly isn't faking his amnesia with Carmelita anymore and he has returned to his gang. If you want to know what has happened in these past fifteen years, don't worry! I will explain everything in flashbacks. There will be at least one in every chapter and probably more. This first flashback I just added from the prologue for reasons never to be revealed. Also, about the POV: I'll try not to make it confusing and I try to keep on Izzy's POV and change it only sometimes to get the story flow better. I do hope that it works to that end.
Flashback...
I felt strange again, but good kind of strange. I felt that I had found a good friend. And somehow, I just knew that we would always be together and have each others' backs. We would never fight or anything like that and I would never be mad at him...
Izzy's POV
I was so mad at him! He was just standing there with that stupid smirk on his face, just assuming that we'd welcome him back with open arms after what he did.
He left me... us! Abandoned his gang, his family! Oh, he's not gonna get away with this one!
"I-Izzy?" he asked.
He sounded scared. Well, he better be!
"What?" I spat, making him flinch.
"I said I'm sorry" Sly repeated quietly.
Sorry? He is sorry?
"Do you think that'll fix everything!?" I shouted, again making him flinch, "Do you think that simple 'sorry' will erase everything you have done?!"
I was all but screaming at him for good ten minutes until I had gotten everything out. When I was done, he was literally cowering in the corner. I turned on my heels and marched back to my room, not sparing another look at the damn raccoon.
I slammed the door to my room close to give him the message of not trying to talk to me. I walked over to my bed, collapsed on it and wept silently. I involuntarily began thinking about the whole ordeal. How Sly faked his amnesia to get together with Carmelita. He had been an officer, he had given everything up for her. His gang, his life and... me. It made me so mad.
It broke my heart. It broke it like nothing ever before. Not even my mother's and sister's deaths had broken my heart that much.
"Knock, Knock" echoed from my door.
I growled at the sound. Getting of my bed, I wiped my tears away and walked to open the door. I hoped against hope that it wasn't the one I thought it was...
"What!?" I shouted as I yanked the door open.
He stood there, looking miserable.
"Good!" I thought as I glared at his pitiful face.
"Izzy... I am really sorry-" he started.
"And I already told you that just 'sorry' isn't enough!" I snapped and made a move to close the door.
He grabbed it with his hand and quickly slid inside and closed the door behind him.
"Get out" I growled.
"Don't be like that" he pleaded, "You of all people know that I've always been in love with Carmelita and-" he never finished that sentence.
"I SAID, GET OUT!" I screamed.
I grabbed his face and in one quick motion opened the door and pushed him out of the room. In my rage I used so much force that he fell backwards and hit his head to the floor, but I didn't feel bad about it.
"And stay out!" I snarled and slammed the door close again.
Quick Sly's POV
She threw me out like some beggar from the streets and slammed the door in my face. It made me feel very depressed, knowing that I couldn't even get to apologize to her anymore. It tore me inside to know that I'd caused her so much pain, because believe me, Izzy was in pain, even if she didn't show it. I could hear her silently crying in her room.
Suddenly, I felt large hand press on my back and another, much smaller one, landed on my shoulder. I looked up to see my two other childhood friends smiling sadly at me.
My gaze dropped again and my ears drooped.
"I'm sorry" I whispered to them.
"We know" Bentley replied, "And we forgive you"
Murray yanked me from the ground without warning and crushed me in one of his bear hugs. He didn't say anything, but his embrace said it all. He forgave me too.
"I missed you guys" I wheezed.
Murray put me down and sniffled and wiped his eyes.
"We missed you too, Sly" he said and bearhugged me again.
After that, we went to do what any guys would after being separated for such a long time: We went to play video games.
Izzy's POV
Two hours later...
I was still crying in my room, refusing to come out and face Sly. I was still mad at him, but my stupid brain had worked everything out and told me that I had no right to be angry at him for trying to be happy. And that my reasons were selfish and that I should forgive him. But I didn't want to! I wanted to be angry at him for leaving me. I loved him, but he still left.
"But he couldn't have known that. You never told him that" my brains reasoned.
"Ugh" I grunted.
I heard the guys playing something, they were laughing and joking like nothing had happened. How could they be like that? How can Bentley and Murray just forgive him like that?
Again, my oh-so-helpful brain provided the answer: "They were happy when Sly was happy, even if it meant that he left them. They knew Sly would do the same if it was either of them"
"Ugh" I grunted again.
"We are all a family, we, a bunch of outcasts" my brain forced me to listen, "Do you still remember...?"
Flashback...
Sly and I were in sir Raleigh's fortress's entrance, trying to find the first treasure key. We were also keeping an eye out for the little green bottles that Bentley had told us to find.
"There's another one" Sly said, pointing a bottle on top of spotlight tower.
"Race ya there?" I suggested.
"You got it!" he exclaimed, taking off.
"Hey! No fair!" I yelled and sprinted after him.
I heard his laugh. He was already climbing to another spotlight tower that had a wire going to the tower with the bottle. It was clear that I wouldn't make it there before him, so I just sat on a rock and waited for him to come back and give me that arrogant smirk of his that I loved.
Sly was back in a minute and I watched that grin of his with slightly dreamy expression. I absolutely loved it!
"Uh... Earth to Izzy" he said, waving a hand in front of my face.
My trance vanished along with his smirk and I blinked.
"I'm sorry, did you say something?"
"I said that this was the last clue and the code is 7-9-2 and you're sitting on the safe"
I blinked again and looked down. I saw that under me was indeed a large safe. It's metal surface was wet and it had some moss on it, making it very easy to be mistaken as a rock.
"Oh... Well, what are you waiting for? Input the code!" I said excitedly.
He did as was told and input the code. The safe opened. Inside of it was a page of a book.
"It's a page from the Thievius Raccoonus!" Sly exclaimed right after he saw it.
He took it gently from the small pedestal and left a calling card in its place.
"Come on, let's get somewhere more sheltered so that we can read it" he said.
I raised a brow upon hearing him saying "we", but said nothing and just followed him to small cave nearby.
"Do you have a flashlight?" he asked.
I took a small, key chain kind of flashlight from my pocket and turned it on. I pointed the light to the page and let Sly read it in peace.
"It's the Fast Dive Attack by Drake Cooper. It can be used to knock out guards" he explained.
Then he did something that shocked me. He extended his hand and handed the page to me.
"Why are you giving it to me?" I asked, confused.
"For reading of course" he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But... why? It's your family's secret technique" I replied, even more confused.
"Isabelle"
A shiver passed through me. Sly almost never called me by my real name...
"You are my family and I want to share the secrets with you" he said.
Flashback end...
"You are my family and I want to share the secrets with you" I repeated in a whisper,
That's what he had said.
"Knock, Knock" came from the door.
I was startled out of my thoughts.
There was another knock and then a voice asked: "Izzy, can I come in?"
It was Sly. I thought for a millisecond before deciding that maybe I should listen to him.
"Yeah" I said.
The door opened slowly, as if he was waiting for me to attack him or something. He walked in and laid his eyes on me.
He closed the door.
"Izzy, I'm sor-"
"Come here, Sly" I cut him off.
He looked at me and blinked.
"What?"
"Come here" I repeated and patted the empty space in my bed.
He watched me for a second before walking up to my bed and laying down next to me. He continued to watch me and neither of us said anything.
Then, very slowly, I brought my hands around him and pulled myself against him tightly.
And I broke.
My eyes welled up in tears and I buried my face in his chest. I could feel that he was stunned for a moment, but soon his arms wrapped around me and squeezed hard.
I don't know how long we were like that.
"I missed you" I sobbed.
"I'm sorry" he whispered.
"I was alone. I haven't felt so alone since my mother and sister died"
We tightened our grips on each other. Sly's hand gently stroked my back.
"Don't ever leave me like that again, Sly"
"I won't. I promise, I won't"
We stayed like that for what felt like forever to me. I listened to his heartbeat. The sound was so relaxing and it soon calmed me down.
"Isabelle" Sly whispered and distanced himself from me, so that he could see my face, "I'm sorry"
"I forgive you, Sly" I whispered.
He brought his hand to my face and dried the tears from my right eye. The hand moved to my left eye and gently began to move the hair from in front of the scarred eye.
"Don't" I whispered, taking his hand.
"You don't have to be ashamed of it, Isabelle" he said.
"I don't want you to see it. I hate it. It makes my face ugly"
"No, it doesn't" Sly said with firmness that surprised me, "It doesn't make you any less beautiful"
I was speechless. He had never called me beautiful, not like this. I let go of his hand and let him remove the hair to reveal my marred eye. He wiped the tears away, but didn't pull the hair back to cover it.
"You think I'm beautiful?" I asked with incredulity.
"I think you're very beautiful" he whispered.
I didn't know what to say, so I hugged him again.
"Thank you, Sly. I l-" I snapped my mouth shut before those words could escape my lips.
But he noticed it.
"You what?" he asked.
"I love it when you call me beautiful" I quickly mumbled.
It wasn't a total lie. I did love it, but it wasn't exactly what I would've wanted to say.
"You're beautiful" he whispered again.
I snuggled deeper into him upon hearing that.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you and... throwing you like that" I apologized.
"Don't be. You had every reason to act like you did"
"But still-"
"No. It was my fault. I should've never left you guys"
"You weren't happy with Carmelita?" I was very curious about this.
"I was for a moment, but then I realized that she didn't really love me for me. She loved Constable Cooper, her partner in police force. But she didn't love Sly Cooper. That's why I told her the truth and that's why I came back. I trusted that I could always come back to my family..."
I smiled. I know I shouldn't have, but I felt happy. All this meant that he wouldn't go back to her and maybe, just maybe, I could finally tell him how I feel. I could finally tell him that I love him.
Suddenly, Sly unwrapped his arms around me and sat up. I realized that he was going to leave. I didn't want that, I wanted him to stay.
He stood up, but I reached out and grabbed his hand. He stopped and turned to look at me. His eyes brimming with question.
"Please don't go. Stay with me" I pleaded.
He smiled, a real smile, not one of those smirks he liked to throw around.
I pulled him back and made him lay next to me. My arms found their way around him again as did his around me.
"Good night, Ringtail "
"Good night, Isabelle"
Whew! I hope you liked this 'cause I can tell ya that this wasn't easy to write. Review and stuff...