~Authors Note~

After constant nagging from a friend of mine to post the next chapter, I finally decided to comply with her wishes. Noticing all my mistakes in the last chapter, I made sure to double and triple check everything. Still, I am sometimes bad at catching minor details so please do excuse them. The favorites and such were greatly appreciated. I swear I was giggling like a fool when I read my first review. So, many thanks to everyonegocrazy~

I have had slight trouble with writing, recently. I'm afraid I made Valentyne too poetic and sophisticated, and that I will not be able to give him decent dialogue. Any tips and hints on that would help. I imagine him with such a Shakespearean tone now, I have to laugh. Mainly because he is supposed to have an Irish accent and I completely think of him as English now. But enough rambling, here is the next chapter~

The market area was a swarming mass of people the next morning. In the large crowd, it was hard to dissect out the thieves that were surely watching every pocket of the innocent. Young children scampered about, wandering away from the safety of their mothers' sides. The sun lay hidden from the world behind a few lazy clouds, and the warmth of the wind was a welcoming blanket of false safety. The ringing of loud voices sounded off in Valentyne's ears as he followed Durga out of the Bee and Barb. The circles under his eyes were accented by how he could barely keep them open as he stumbled a bit on his feet. Never the graceful one as it had been, he couldn't function without an average of eight hours in bed. Bumping into Durga, he let out a soft yawn, covering his mouth with a delicate hand.

"How can you be so exhausted, V?" Durga pushed the boy off of her, almost sending him into a tall Argonian man. Muttering little squeaks for apologies, Durga chuckled as he scrambled back to her.

"I just could not sleep last night. This whole arrangement… I do not enjoy the idea of it, Durga. You know how I feel about people such as these... these thieves." Oh she knew very well. The only time V had ever spurted words of hate was when Durga brought them up. When threats were given by such a frail thing, they were nothing more than false and empty. But when given by V, they had a way of chilling your bones until you backed away from fear. Sometimes, she didn't doubt that V could make it through a battle with just the power of his words. "You were silly to fathom I would not figure out the intent behind this so called 'arrangement'."

Durga sighed. "I know, I know. Just try and put your hatred aside just this once, for me?" She knew there was no more argument for him to give after that. V would kill for someone if asked. It was against his nature to say no to even the sickest sin. "Alright, put on a decently awake face. There he is."

The Nord was at a stall, talking to what seemed to be a costumer. When he noticed the two approaching, he sent the brown haired woman away and smiled at the two. Valentyne felt the unease in his gut, forgetting about his clumsy feet until he almost toppled over again.

"Whoa now lad," He said as he put a hand on Valentyne's shoulder to steady him, feeling the way the boys muscles tensed in response. "You sure you're up for this today?" After shrinking away from him until he was comfortable with their distance, Valentyne nodded his tired head, fearing that the stutter would return in his voice.

"Well we're here, so tell me where I can my friend and V will help you with whatever it is you need." The slight annoyance in Durga's voice was clearly directed towards Valentyne himself. He hung his head in silent shame.

"And if he doesn't succeed? That leaves me in on a bad end of our arrangement, lass." It was clear he doubted all of this. Who wouldn't? Valentyne was a scrawny, pretty looking boy who didn't know left from right at this point. The useless feeling washed over him quickly, and the little confidence in him flared up. He spoke with smooth grace before Durga could muster a single word.

"I may not look like nothing more than a child, but I can handle my own in a given task. In all honesty, I am nervous enough for an army of young men, but we tend to get lovely surprises from such feelings, do we not?" Durga smiled wide at him for finally gaining an ability to use his voice. The Nord seemed taken aback himself, but smiled after a moment.

"Aye, lad." He told Durga where she could find a man who could quite possibly be Esbern, and after a quick goodbye to Valentyne, she ran off into the crowd. They were silent for a few moments, Valentyne awaiting his illegal orders and the Nord still trying to figure out how to exactly handle the boy. "You can call my Brynjolf," He said finally, messing with a few things behind his stall before standing in front of Valentyne. "The lass calls you V, I'm guessing it's short for something?"

"Valentyne," He said quickly, but the smooth tone of his voice was still present. "You can call me whatever; I harbor no preference in the matter. Now, what is it that I am supposed to be doing for you?" The skepticism was clear in the way he crossed his arms in front of his chest in a protective manner, as if shielding his heart from the truth of what he was about to do. Valentyne felt terribly uncomfortable with not only the presence of the thief, but with what he was allowing himself to comply to.

"Simple," He began. "I'm going to cause a distraction and you're going to steal Madesi's-" He made a quick motion with his head towards an Argonian man standing behind the stall next to his. "-silver ring from the strongbox under his stand. Once you have it, I want you to place it in Brand-Shei's-" His gaze darted over to a man sitting on a box close by. "-pocket without him noticing." Valentyne raised an eyebrow at this. Stealing something just to up and plant it on someone else?

"And why frame the man? It seems a bit silly, does it not?" Brynjolf shook his head at his naivety, smiling at him.

"There's someone who wants him put out of business permanently. That's all you need to know." Valentyne's nose scrunched a bit, as it usually did when he was confused.

"Alright, but I hope you do realize I have no tools for this task you are asking me to complete for you. I have not done something this ridiculous since I was a young child." The doubt that Valentyne's honesty caused Brynjolf was settling on his face. What in all Tamriel had he agreed to? He could only hope that somehow the boy could pull through. Sending him off with about ten lock picks, he began his completely false rant about Falmerblood Elixir.

Shuffling through the crowd uneasily, Valentyne tried to remember the few things he had learned of lock picking from the books he had read. Maybe it wouldn't be as difficult as he suspected. Maybe, by some Talos given miracle, he would succeed. Valentyne could only hope, for he hated to disappoint.

Once he noticed that the crowd of people was decently distracted and no one else was around him, he crouched down behind the stand. The first lock pick broke within a matter of seconds, and the second was gone just as quickly. Panic awoke in his failing composure, and he looked over at Brynjolf to see if any assistance could be given. The thief was busying himself to distracting the crowd, leaving Valentyne to feel even more alone than he should have. With only eight more lock picks left, he had to somehow manage to get this to work. Using precise movements and the gentlest of care, he finally managed to get the door open. A soft sigh of relief followed by darting eyes, and he was off to work on the strong box. He could tell that Brynjolf was running out of things to say when he finally managed to open it, and so he quickly located the ring amongst the other things and calmly made his way around to the next stand, right behind where Brand-Shei was sitting.

It didn't occur to him until that moment that he had no idea how to get this ring into this man's pocket without getting caught. As he sat crouched behind the boxes, his mind frantically searched on how to go about this whole mess, finding no hope in simply just placing it next to him. He actually had to place it in his pocket. Without being noticed. How was he to do something like that? With a spot of luck on his side, he noticed a small opening between the two stacks of boxes. It was just large enough for Valentyne's petite hand to fit through with little trouble, and was perfectly positioned to give him a clear shot of Brand-Shei's pocket. Glancing around one last time, he cautiously reached his hand out and, as gently as possible, placed the ring inside the man's pocket. After that, he scurried off, trying to make his panicked movements natural with his trembling. Lucky for him, most of the people were still listening to Brynjolf and he made it safely behind the stone wall that had been encircling the small market area.

Falling down to the ground with a shaky sigh, he attempted to calm himself. He had actually done it. He had actually stolen something from an innocent being and framed another. He couldn't even say anything for his self, not even 'assisting a friend' could work in this matter. Guilt welled into his gut with sickening churning motions. Rubbing his forehead, he tried to close his eyes and forget it all, but it proved useless.

"Looks like you pulled it off after all, lad." Valentyne looked up to find Brynjolf smiling down at him. He only wished he could share his happiness in the matter, but he could only stare up at him blankly, frowning as if he had just committed the worst act of treason. "Don't look so down, you even get a bit of coin for your work." Groaning, Valentyne buried his face into his hands in shame. Again he asked himself: What had he done?

"That does not matter," Valentyne said with a sign, looking back up at him. "Why would I want money made from an immoral thing such as this? It may be simple for you, but for me- and mind you I have never done a dishonest thing in my life- it is just a tad bit more difficult for my brain to comprehend the fact that I just got a man thrown in prison." Valentyne motioned toward Brand-Shei, who was now struggling with a few guards who were attempting to take him away. Brynjolf shook his head, putting the coin purse back into his pocket.

"It's just business, no need to get upset about it." Valentyne shook his head frantically, knitting his brows tightly and staring at the ground. Was he pouting? Brynjolf held in his laughter at this. In regular circumstances, such childish activity would annoy him. But with Valentyne, it was strangely… adorable? Almost like a redeeming quality he had. Such innocence was hard to come by within Skyrim now-a-days.

"Well that is clearly an opinion I shall never share with you. I simply did this for Durga." The last bit had been said to himself, like he was still trying to convince himself that because of this fact, it made it right. He brushed a few loose curls away from his eyes and tucked them behind his ears, then looked up at Brynjolf. "Terribly sorry for disappointing you on the matter, though. But it is quite difficult to please everyone." He smiled a bit, his trembling slowly starting to stop as he regained his composer.

"No need to apologize. I'm actually surprised our plan went off without a hitch with the way things have been going." To this, Valentyne cocked his head to the side a bit, confusion spreading over his face. Brynjolf just shook his head, brushing the topic off. "Never mind that, you managed to get it done and you did well. How about we set you up with another task?" Valentyne's eyes narrowed. Was this man crazy?

"And give me a reason as to why, after I just explained my moral ways, would I do another 'task' for you?" His words tipped with ice daggers, Brynjolf found it hard not to flinch at the animosity behind his sentence. It came to a surprise to him that such a gentle boy could be able to carry such venom in his speech, but nonetheless he kept an easy going look on his face.

"Don't worry; it's nothing illegal this time." Valentyne's shoulder's immediately slackened as the hostility left him. "The group I represent has its home in the Ratway beneath Riften… a tavern called the Ragged Flagon."

"I'm guessing you want me to find my way down there?" The idea wasn't too pleasant for Valentyne. The Ratway? The name itself caused a shiver to crawl down his spine.

"Aye. That is where your friend has also traveled to, so if you can manage to get there in one piece you can meet up with her." It was almost as if he was taunting him, as if he thought Valentyne actually managing to succeed in planting the ring was just some miracle. Which, it probably was, and Valentyne wouldn't deny it at all. But something about the way he had said it made his pride flare, and he immediately sat up straight and looked straight into his eyes.

"What do I gain if I manage on succeeding with getting to this little tavern in one piece?" Brynjolf grinned. Now that was just the right attitude he liked to see.

~Authors Note~

So that was it~ I hope you all enjoyed. If you hadn't been able to tell yet, this story will not strictly follow the Thieves Guild quest line. Why? Valentyne just isn't the type of person to willingly become a thief. Anyway, I will hopefully have the third chapter up soon~ Much editing must proceed beforehand, though. Ciao for now~!

Yours Eternally, Erin