Roman's scroll pinged. He was laying in his bed, his dress haphazardly hiked up, pushed back by his bent knees. Even if he didn't get to be seen by the outside world, he still had to be dressed properly and not in pajamas, it was something about common decency according to Mr. Amble. The ping was a text from Neo, whom he had bought a cheap scroll for, one of the ones that easy to buy, and hard to track. They had pickpocketed for weeks to get it, trailing behind airheaded ladies and gentlemen that were much too busy with other things to pay attention to their purses.
The text was a picture of a cat laying on a fence, with a blurry hand barely identified as Neo's pointing to it. The caption of the text was just the word "cat." Roman sent back a smiley face and the word cute. Most of their conversations were like this.
There was a light, somewhat hesitant knock on the door, yet the knock was still firm in its intention. "Come in Mr. Amble." Roman said, sitting up and pulling down his dress. The door swung open and Mr. Amble stepped in with his matter of fact way.
"Miss Clementine, Lady Hatchet and Miss Hazel are going to be out this evening." Roman nodded.
"The Opera right, Hazel won't stop talking about it." Roman gave a soft smile. The smile was quite sincere, for Roman still loved his sister even if he didn't love the rest of his family. Roman's ear twitched, flouncing a lavender strand into a soft swoop before it settled back down.
Hazel loved to tie bows in his ears, and always told him they were cute and that she wished she had cute ears too. Maybe one day she would understand what the ears meant, but for now, she tried making paper versions of them so she could match Roman. The servants always seemed worried as she did so, trying not to look. Once, Hazel had come up to their mother with the ears on, and her mother had merely excused herself to another room. Hazel didn't understand why.
"Yes Miss Clementine. The staff was wondering if you would like to join us for dinner and some cards, we thought it might be fun."
"Mother doesn't approve of cards." Roman said, the soft smile turning into a sly grin.
"Lady Hatchet will be out for the evening." Mr. Amble's voice, nor expression changed, but Roman could see a slight twinkle in his eye. Roman let out a small laugh.
"I would be delighted to, but only a few rounds of cards I'm afraid. I'm awfully tired, so I think I'm going to turn in early tonight."
"As you wish Miss Clementine, dinner is in fifteen minutes." Mr. Amble left the room as neatly as he entered, only a soft click sounding as the door closed. Roman flopped back down on the bed, and brought up his scroll.
Roman: Neo!
Neo: Roman!
Roman: Rdy for plan Juno
Neo: You mean the rob the opera while they're busy plan
Roman: Let me have
My cool code names
Plz
I have spent so long on the pland
Plans
Neo: :/
Roman: ok so
First
Give me like an hour or so idk
I'll txt u later when I leave
Also hey do u want some food I can bring u som
Neo: yis
Roman: Ok.
After that we meet up usual location
Make sure u have everything rdy
Imma send u a checklist
:)
Roman typed out a short list and put his scroll away, walking downstairs as he finished.
"Hey shortstack." Roman cooed, tossing a lump of bread at Neo. Neo caught it with ease and tossed Roman a small bag, which Roman fumbled to catch. Neo pulled out her scroll and typed to Roman one handed while she bit into the bread.
You sure about this one? It seems more risky than what we normally go for.
"I thought you liked risky."
I do.
But are you sure you do?
"I have been planning this for weeks Neo." Roman drew himself up into a confident stance. "One, I know that the place is short staffed, due to my mom and the lady in charge of the opera house being friends and blah blah they are loud while gossiping, Two, I also know they don't want the people who are attending the opera to know that they're on rough times, so almost all the staff will be up front for impressions. Three, we have the full schematic of the building and its weird they just keep that on file in the library but whatever. Four, we have all this stuff." Roman jingled the bag, letting it clink into the tepid night air.
"And five, I have you." Neo rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway. "Also this is the perfect plan I am so great." Neo thumped Roman and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Ow." Roman protested. He shuffled the bag onto his shoulders. "Let's go."
The Opera House was seemingly devoid of people, but it emanated the soft sound of singing from within.
"Too many people are at the front, I have a side way in, its like a fire exit or something, cmon." Roman whispered. Roman was dressed in all black, a back shirt cropped to mid forearm, black gloves, a black beanie, and even a little bit of black makeup, but that part seemed more for style than stealth.
Neo, however, was dressed in a bright, formal dress, one of Roman's old ones, and was cleaned up to look just as noble and pristine as any of the other kids attending the opera.
They slipped into the door without much problem, the only two people they saw were in front of the entrance to the performance hall, most likely to keep people from interrupting the performance. Roman and Neo neatly slipped around them, and slunk off towards a back hallway. A sign on the wall held up several arrows.
Bathrooms ←
Performance hall ←
Offices →
Roman pointed to the right and they treaded carefully down the hallway until they heard muffled whispers that floated out of a closed door labeled,
E
"-in shambles, Rosemary! We won't be able to afford new chandeliers next year if this continues- and four of them are already partially dark!" The first voice was shrill, and Roman immediately recognized it as his mother's friend, the one who owned the opera.
"Have you ever considered replacing just the lightbulbs instead of replacing the entire chandelier, Miss Willow?" This voice was much softer, and was presumably Rosemary's.
"What? How tacky! No, I would never!"
"Miss Willow we just need a bit of rearranging in our financial spending and we sh-" Miss Willow started weeping.
"If only father were here, he would know what to do."
"He's only at the beach for the weekend Miss Willow-"
Roman swiveled his head towards Neo, and gave her a nod as he slipped into a supply closet, leaving it open a smidge to watch. Neo walked a little bit behind the door, and started bawling. The whispers stopped. The tapping of feet grew closer, and the door clicked open. Miss Willow and the other woman, Rosemary, stood in the doorway. Neo started crying harder. Tears streaked down her cheeks. Roman really quite admired her acting skill.
"Oh little girl, where's your mommy?" Rosemary asked, kneeling down to Neo. Neo answered with sobs.
"Oh you poor girl!" Miss Willow exclaimed, her own tears miraculously gone. "We will amend this immediately, come along." Miss willow grabbed Neo by the hand and strutted off as the other woman struggled to catch up.
"Miss Willow, don't you think we should ask questions first? Miss Willow?" The three girls grew farther away, and Roman slipped back into the hallway. He walked into the office, an extravagant affair with velvet drapes and overly embellished furniture, and immediately spotted the big safe that lay behind the desk. Roman smirked. He had been reading about safe cracking for months now, and was excited to try it out. He took out some tools from the bag and plopped down in front of the metal box.
"Easy peasy" he whispered, holding up a stethoscope to the side. He started turning the dial. Nothing. Wait. What was he actually looking for. Uhm. Wait. He turned the dial some more. A couple minutes passed. Hmm, was that, was that the noise? Roman pulled out his scroll, typing in some questions. Oh. Maybe that wasn't the noise. Uh, wait what kind of safe was this?
"Excuse me? What do you think you are doing?" Miss Willow's voice screeched behind him. Oh, he had forgotten to close the door. Shit.
"Haha, well you see M'am I…it's….. well you see my mother….um….school?" Shit.
"School? Young woman if you even knew half the trouble I already have in my life you-" Wait. Roman had an idea. Roman turned around and tucked the hair swooped over his eye behind his ear. His eye flashed to the deep brown, matching that of Miss Willow's eyes.
Feeling swept into him, an overwhelming fear, a need, a need to be seen and to be listened to, fear about life and chandeliers and business. A want for style, for admiration. A want for love.
"Does she know?" Roman asked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Rosemary, does she know about your feelings for her?"
Neo walked back into the office sometime later, having evaded her escort, to see Roman and Miss Willow sitting on the couch. Roman had Miss Willow's hands held in his own.
"I just- I fear if there's no reason for her to be here, she'll leave." Miss Willow was crying.
"I think you just need to be honest with each other." Roman darted his eyes to Neo, and gave a slight tilt of his head towards the abandoned safe. Neo looked puzzled, but softly walked over there.
The two conversed a while, until Rosemary walked back in.
"Miss Willow that young lady seems to have- oh dear, uhm, what is going on?"
"Go to her." Roman whispered with a smile. Miss Willow nodded and walked up to the other woman.
"Rosemary. There's been something I've been wanting to tell you." Roman nearly leapt over to the safe, to see the entirety of the safe door nearly folded in half and laying on the floor. Neo was shoveling the money into the bag as Roman decided against asking what happened.
"I, I feel the same way Miss Willow."
"Please, call me Emma." Emma smiled. And then her smile turned to a frown.
"Wait." She swiveled her head just as Neo was zipping up the bag. "You two! Stop where you are!" Roman opened the window and the two hopped out.
They ran through alley upon alley before finally reaching their hideout. The place was pretty decked out, blankets and pillows draped and nestled in a little fort like pattern. They even strung out little lights like stars in between. The place was an abandoned warehouse in a not very populated neighborhood, with roof access and several escape routes available. They had searched for ages for the perfect place, and it had become their haven.
Neo pulled out some planks from the floor, revealing a little hole that had some trinkets and cash already in it. Neo plopped down the bag into the hole, and covered it back up. It was more money than the total that they had ever stolen in their whole career as criminals.
"So, Neo, what do you want to do with the money?" Roman asked, plopping down on a bean bag chair, and opening a can of soda. Neo sat down in a small nest of pillows, after pushing away some books on asl, Neo and Roman had been learning it together, out of the way, and brought out her scroll.
Froyo.
Roman nodded as he looked up from his scroll. It was a good choice. He sighed, and settler deeper into his beanbag.
"Have you ever thought about, y'know, leaving? Like leaving Mistral?" Neo looked at him quizzically. Roman nervously plucked at the soda tab.
"I...I don't want to be anywhere near my family anymore. I can't do it. There's nothing for me to do in this damn continent besides be the eternal family shame." Roman pulled the tab off, looking startled as he did so. He sighed, and his voice softened. "...I accidentally looked into my mom's eyes again. Two days ago." Roman pulled at the hair over his eye, tugging it down, and he felt his eyes start to water. Roman's scroll pinged and he looked down to see that Neo had sent him a picture of a cat. Roman snorted, and gave a half hearted smile. "Thanks." He whispered.
He looked back up, a little more determined this time. "I've done the math, and we just have to make a little more and then, well we could move to Vale, start a new life of crime somewhere where I don't have to worry about them. Change our identities, own the criminal underbelly." His smile grew wide and he clenched his fist in a victory pose above him. He lowered his fist. "If, if you would want to come with me I mean. I know it's asking a lot." Roman's scroll pinged.
I would follow you anywhere.
Roman smiled. "Then it's a plan, the two best criminals go to take on the world!"
You do realize that I'm the only reason that plan worked.
"Hey wait no, I helped." Neo rolled her eyes and picked up a candy bar.
Hey while we lay low, want to watch a movie?
"As long as it's not a psychological horror, yes."
Fine.