AN: So so sorry for the long wait. I didn't get back until the 31st and was exhausted, so I waited until now to upload. Also, I didn't realize that some of my family was coming. I'm incredibly sorry.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, you guys!

Carmelita's dress: .

Other dresses' color: .

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There was an owl. A giant owl. It was made entirely out of metal.

And it was coming for her.

It's hate-filled eyes burned their way into her soul. She was aiming her shock pistol at it, unafraid on the outside, but internally scared to death.

But she was an Interpol agent. She would never falter. Never back down.

It was coming closer. It really was terrifying.

Just a bit closer, and she could shoot it.

As it was flapping it's wings harder, fighting to get to her, a metallic screech sounded from it's beak.

Now! She pulled the trigger.

Click!

Nothing.

Click click click!

It was jammed? Aw, hell.

The owl was too close. She wasn't going to make it. This was really how she was going out? What a shame.

She closed her eyes, preparing for impact.

Right before the bird slammed into her, a figure dove from her left, knocking them and her to the ground and out of the owl's range.

She opened her eyes to see a man hovering over her.

"Carmelita, are you alright?" he asked, brushing her hair to the side of her face, a tender look on his face.

"Sly..." she responded, dazed.

"Carmelita," he said again, his voice slightly different.

"Carmelita?" This time, the voice was... Feminine. And... Irish?

"Carmelita!" called the voice.

Snapping awake, the fox sat up. "Wha...?"

"We're here, hun," said her snow leopard roomie.

"Where?" asked Carmelita, not all the way awake yet.

"The dress shop, Carm. Are you alright?" Artemis asked, clearly highly concerned.

Then, as her mind came back to her, Carmelita nodded. "Right, right. We're shopping for bridesmaids dresses."

And yeah, I'm fine... I was just having a strange... Dream," Carmelita added, not wanting to worry her friend.

Artemis stated at her friend, a concerned look on her face. "Okay. If you say so."

"C'mon. Let's go get some dresses," insisted Carmelita.

Artemis smiled and nodded.

After they went into the dress shop and gave the appointment name, they had to wait for the other women to show up.

The fox and snow leopard waited on the couch in the lobby area.

The first to arrive was a friend of Artemis' that lived in Wales. She was a beautiful tigress that had a slight purple tint to her fur and black hair.

"Neyla!" exclaimed Artemis in her Irish lilt, seeing her walk in. "It's so great to see you!"

"Arty! It's wonderful seeing you, too, love!" replied the other woman.

The two friends hugged each other. When they pulled away, Neyla turned to Carmelita. "And who's this?" she asked, speaking to Artemis.

"I'm Carmelita. Fox," Carmelita spoke for herself, extending her hand for the tigress to shake.

"Yes, I can see that you're a fox...," said Neyla, glancing at Carmelita's extended hand before taking it and shaking.

"Uh, no, Fox is my last name," the vixen answered awkwardly, releasing the handshake.

"Ah... I see."

"So!" interrupted Artemis, sensing the tension between her two friends, "How've you been, Neyla, dear?"

Looking away from Carmelita, Neyla sat on the couch and turned to Artemis. "Well, you remember my old boyfriend, John?"

Carmelita sort of zoned out the two cats as they caught up with each other. She didn't particularly want to listen about how Neyla dumped John and then immediately started "snogging" Arthur because the sexual tension between the two of them was "Just. So. Unbearable."

Eye roll.

Besides, the blue-haired cop had other things to worry about. Like the case she got the other day.

It had seemed like another typical robbery, but the robber was never detected. All that was left in the empty safe was some sort of calling card.

For some reason, the victim burned the card before the police could get a hold of it. So, they really didn't even have that.

The perp slipped in and slipped out quickly and silently. No sign of forced entry and no prints left.

Clearly, Interpol was dealing with a pro.

Carmelita was dragged from her thoughts by the sound of her name.

"Hm?" she asked, looking up. Both Artemis and Neyla were looking at her, the former with a concerned look and the latter with an unamused look.

"What kind of dress do you think you want?" Artemis repeated.

Carmelita shrugged. "Whatever the bride wants," she said, smiling.

Artemis smiled at Carmelita and then turned to address them both.

"Well, the colors for our wedding are emerald green and electric blue. So, I'll probably have the Maid of Honor's dress be emerald green because you already have the blue hair, Carm. The other bridesmaids dresses will be electric blue. All the same style."

"That sounds awesome, Art," commented Carmelita.

Artemis then went on to describe the details of the wedding until the rest of the group started to trickle in one by one.

When everyone had arrived, a consultant walked up to the group and told them to follow her.

After getting Artemis' ideas, the consultant walked off to find some dresses. Coming back with a few, the girls went to the dressing rooms and tried them on.

Many dresses and a few eye rolls from Carmelita later, they decided on a dress.

The dress was tight-fitting at the top with a sweetheart neckline. The bottom of the dress flared out. It flattered all of the bridesmaids and it was gorgeous, so everyone agreed to wear them. Even Neyla, who had been highly opinionated throughout the appointment.

Sighing in relief at the fact that this was over, Carmelita changed back into her clothes along with the others.

Artemis was called into another room to confirm the sizes and colors of the dresses and the date of the wedding, so most of the girls left.

It was just Neyla and Carmelita in the waiting room.

Because Carmelita didn't really want to have to deal with the purple-ish tigress, she decided to wait outside.

The vixen didn't really understand why Neyla didn't just leave. Carmelita couldn't because she rode here with Artemis.

Whatever.

There was a bench against the building on the sidewalk, so Carmelita sat down.

Taking out her phone, Carmelita looked down at it to check if she had any messages.

"Fancy meeting you here," said a voice.

Carmelita's head whipped up, not believing her ears. "Oh my god."

For there, standing right on the sidewalk in front of her, was Sly Cooper.

"What are you even doing here?" questioned Carmelita, a bit annoyed by the fact that he seems to be popping up everywhere she is.

Maybe he's stalking her...

"Ouch. Why you gotta be so harsh, Carm?" he replied, sliding onto the bench beside her.

In response, she slid farther away.

"I'm asking a question! Excuse me for being freaked out that you seem to be stalking me."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not stalking you. I was just walking by here and your gorgeous, unmistakable blue hair caught my eye," he answered, throwing in a compliment to see if he could calm her down.

It... Sort of worked.

Carmelita rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Just as the word came from her mouth and she heard an answering chuckle from Sly, she heard the bell on the store's door ding.

Seeing Carmelita look over and dread cross her face, Sly curiously looks over as well.

Carmelita watched as Neyla sauntered over, her hips swaying.

"So, Carmelita, who's your mate here?" she asked, sitting down much too closely to Sly, never taking her eyes off the raccoon. Sly's eyes widened and Carmelita took that as a "wow-she's-so-pretty" eye-widen.

(It wasn't really.)

Carmelita shoved her phone in her pocket, rolled her eyes, and stood up. "Oh, this is Sly. Sly Cooper. Now you two have fun," she answered, starting to walk off.

Sly stood up. "Carmelita, wait! I, uh," he started, looking at Neyla then back to Carmelita, "I wouldn't want to push you from your spot. You were here first, after all."

Carmelita turned around, placing a hand on her hip and raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, Sly, don't worry about her. I'm sure she'll be fine," said Neyla, tugging his arm so he was sitting again. She then moved so she was practically sitting in his lap.

For the second time in a span of a minute, Carmelita rolled her eyes.

Neyla had one hand on his chest and the other lightly grabbed his chin, tilting it so he was looking at her. His breath hitched at the proximity; it was much too close. But, he'd keep his cool. He always kept his cool.

Tongue darting from her lips to wet them, the purple tigress looked up at him from under her lashes, a smile crawling it's way onto her features. "I'm Neyla, by the way."

Carmelita glared.

"It's lovely to meet you Neyla," he said, holding her eyes with his own and giving a charming smile. At this, Neyla's smile turned positively predatory.

"But I really must be going." Sly took Neyla's wrists in his hands and pushed them away. He slid farther from her, creating the appropriate boundary.

Standing up and walking so he was in front of Carmelita, he glanced at Neyla. "It was great seeing you around, Carm," he softly said, seeing the glare on the vixen's face.

"Whatever. Just get out of here, Ringtail."

"See you at the wedding, Sly," Neyla purred, placing her arms so that her breasts seemed bigger. Sly looked back at her.

The charming thief in him slipped out as he sent her a wink. She giggled and Carmelita crossed her arms over her chest.

Just as Sly crossed the busy street, Artemis came out of the store, huffing in exasperation. "Sheesh. They asked so many questions!"

Then, she fell silent as she observed her two friends. One looked smug and the other angry and... Disappointed? Huh.

Blue catching her eye, the Irish snow leopard looked across the street and saw Sly.

Is that what this was about?

"Carm? Neyla? What happened while I was in there?"

"Oh, nothing, Arty, dear. I just had a little fun," Neyla said, standing up from the bench, tail flicking.

Artemis looked skeptically between Neyla and Carmelita, who still refused to meet her gaze.

"Bye Artemis. Bye Carm," said the tigress, smirking and walking off to her car.

The bride-to-be was confused at Neyla's condescending tone.

"Carmelita?"

"What? Let's get going," Carmelita sighed, grabbing her purse and walking to the car.

Needless to say, the car ride home was silent.

Carmelita woke up to her alarm blaring.

Realizing what day it was, Carmelita groaned.

Today, just two days after the "Dress Shop Incident," was the day of her and Sly's first dance lesson.

Oh, how she was dreading it.

Taking a shower and then putting on workout clothes, Carmelita walked into the kitchen. After eating a small, light breakfast and nursing her cup of coffee, she was ready to go.

Carmelita grabbed her keys, calling a quick goodbye to her roommate.

She heard an answering, "Please try to get along!" and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, mother," she responded teasingly.

Pulling her curly hair into a ponytail, the blue-haired vixen walked out the door and to her car.

On her drive, she tried to keep a certain raccoon and tigress from her mind.

Unsurprisingly, Sly ended up being late. He was held up by an impromptu Cooper Gang meeting.

He told Carmelita it was the traffic. She just rolled her eyes.

They walked through the lobby and into a room with a hardwood floor and a mirror completely covering one wall.

"Hello you two! My name is Natasha and this is my partner, Clint. We'll be your dance instructors for the duration of the next few months," said an orange tabby, stepping out into the middle of the room along with a golden retriever.

"Now, it may be hard, but Tasha and I believe in you... Even though we haven't really met," added Clint. "So, why don't we start with names?"

Carmelita smiled and stepped towards Natasha, who was standing closer to her. "I'm Carmelita Fox. Nice to meet you," she said, shaking both of their hands.

Following Carmelita's lead, Sly stepped forward as well, extending his hand. "Sly Cooper."

"Alright, Sly and Carmelita, before we get started, we need to ask a question," said Natasha.

They nodded.

"Do either of you have any experience?" asked Clint.

"I do. I've danced the tango a few times, as well as other styles," Carmelita answered honestly, but without coming across as arrogant.

Clint and Natasha nodded, turning their gaze to Sly.

They seemed to be really in sync... It was kind of creepy, yet cute.

"I've got no experience whatsoever," he answered cheerily, a goofy smile on his face.

Clint laughed. "Could you walk around in a circle for us real quick?"

"Huh?"

"Just do it."

"Alright," Sly shrugged, doing as the retriever asked.

When he had stopped in his original place, he saw Natasha nodding. "He's light on his feet. That'll be good," she said to Clint.

"Now," she said, clapping her hands together, "for the basics."

"In a tango, your steps must be smooth and your pauses must be sharp. If you falter once, the entire dance will be ruined," continued the tabby.

Sly scratched the back of his head. Uh-oh.

"There's also open-embrace tango, where lead and follow keep a short distance between their entire bodies throughout the dance, and close-embrace, where their chests are touching," informed Clint, looking between the two.

Sly hoped it would be open-embrace so Carmelita wouldn't end up killing him.

"We will be teaching you close-embrace."

Shit!

"There are many, many different styles of the tango. The one you guys will be learning is called the 'tango canyengue,'" the dog explained.

"This style has the dancers dancing in a closed embrace, as I said before, sharing one axis with the legs relaxed and slightly bent."

"It's main characteristics are it's musicality and playfulness and the rhythm is described as being 'incisive, exiting, and provocative,'" he finished.

Carmelita and Sly exchanged a glance, the former glaring at the latter as if to say, "Don't get any ideas, Ringtail."

"Therefore, there must be passion and chemistry between the partners. Chemistry is key. Without chemistry, the dance will not be right," explained Natasha.

"Oh, I think we've got plenty of that," Sly mumbled loud enough for Carmelita to hear, a smirk plastered on his face.

After a quick slap in the back of the head from Carmelita, Sly shuts up.

Natasha looks between the two. "There will be complex footwork involved, as well as some lifts and dips."

Carmelita nodded, expecting as much.

Sly looked Carmelita up and down. Yeah, she should be easy to lift.

Probably taking it as Sly checking her out, Carmelita glared daggers at the raccoon.

Clint and Natasha shared an amused look.

"Okay! Now that all the words are over with, it's time to get started on the action!" exclaimed Clint.

"Nat and I will run through it all the way first, and then we'll teach you how to do it, step by step."

The fox and the raccoon nodded, taking a seat on the edge of the floor, sitting against the wall.

Natasha pressed the "play" button on the boom-box and the music started.

They watched, Sly in awe and Carmelita in admiration, as the couple showed them the routine, doing various turns and dips and lifts. There was so much passion and raw energy between the two. It was obvious they had been doing this together for quite some time.

When it was over, Natasha and Clint motioned for the two of them to get up.

Sly stood and offered a hand to Carmelita.

Glaring at his hand (Sly noticed she had been doing a lot of glaring recently), Carmelita got up on her own.

As Sly watched Carmelita walk past him, he sighed frustratedly. "Oh, come on, Carm. You're not still mad about the other day, are you?"

"'Course I'm not. Why would I be? It's not like you're mine or anything. Neyla had every right to flirt with you, and you with her," answered Carmelita calmly, stopping where she was and turning to face him.

Sly's heart skipped a beat. Oh, how he wished he was.

Wait, what? Where the hell did that come from?

Clint draped an arm around Natasha's shoulders. "Oo, this should be entertaining. Where's the popcorn?" he whispered.

Natasha elbowed Clint in the ribs, making his arm retreat along with a hiss of pain. "Shut up," she also whispered.

"Okay, then why do you keep glaring at me?" Sly asked, walking closer to her. "It's not like I made out with her in front of you or anything!"

"It's not your actions that bothered me. And it would've been your choice if you 'made out with her,' which would've been fine by me," responded the blue-haired woman, putting air quotes around "made out with her."

He pretended not to be hurt that she wouldn't mind if he got with Neyla. "Carm, it was just harmless flirting. Well, on my part, at least," he added the last part uncertainly.

"I told you, I'm not mad."

"Well it sure as hell feels like it!"

"Okay, that's enough you two," Natasha intervened, sending the (sexual?) tension heighten. She heard Clint mumble something about it just getting to the good part. She ignored him.

"It's great that you two are resolving this little conflict, but you came here for dance lessons, not couples' therapy."

Now get in the starting position," she ordered.

The fox sighed and stepped closer to Sly, obeying the tabby woman's command.

"Good." Natasha spoke as if she were talking to children (because let's be honest: she sort of was).

"Now, Sly, take Carmelita's right hand in yours... Great! Put your left hand on her waist. And Carm, can I call you 'Carm?'"

After a nod from Carmelita, Nat continued.

"Carm, you put your left hand on his left shoulder... Like that! Perfect."

When their hands were in the correct position, Natasha nodded. "Now step closer."

They glanced uncertainly at Nat before stepping a millimeter closer.

Clint rolled his eyes. "Chest to chest."

Sighing, they complied.

"Stop acting like school children and look each other in the eye! You'll have to do that for most of the dance anyway," scolded Clint.

Brown met brown as the two looked at each other. Carmelita had to tilt her chin up due to the height difference.

Sly's eyes sparkled with ever-present mischief and Carmelita's shone with anticipation.

"You know, Neyla has nothing on you," Sly remarked gently, looking into her eyes.

Carmelita blushed "Just shut it, Ringtail," she said, the usual harshness in her voice dulled.

Nat raised an eyebrow at this exchange. Oh, this should be easy. She could practically see the static zapping between the two.

When Natasha and Clint were in the same position as Sly and Carmelita, the instructors broke their trance.

"Now, follow our lead."

After hours of doing the steps, getting critiques, then perfecting the steps, it was safe to say that Carmelita and Sly were sufficiently exhausted. And they only got through half of the routine!

"Okay, good work you guys! We'll pick up where we left off next week. Don't forget to practice," announced Clint as he and Natasha exited the room.

Carmelita was sitting on the floor, panting as Sly chugged his water bottle.

"You want some?" he offered, wiping his mouth.

"Yes, please," she answered, catching the tossed bottle and taking a sip.

Once she was properly hydrated, she tossed the bottle back to him, muttering a thanks.

Sly walked over to her, extending his hand to help her up. Hope and kindness shone in his eyes.

Carmelita looked between his hand, his face, and back again before placing her hand in his and allowing him to gently hoist her up.

"Thanks," she said.

Sly gave her a grin and released her hand. "No problem, partner."

Carmelita rolled her eyes, this time playfully.

Sly and Carmelita walked into the lobby and exited the building.

Carmelita got in her car and drove away.

Sly, however, sat there for a while, smiling. That certainly went better than expected.

(He couldn't wait for the next lesson.)

AN: End of chapter 4! Woo!

Did you guys like my shoutout to Clintasha? XD Sorry, I just had to. I've been getting a lot of Clintasha feels, what with the Avengers: Age of Ultron coming! I also thought those two animals suit them best.

(I had to do so much research on the tango for this chapter x.x It was fun, but rather tedious.)

I apologize for any mistakes, I was semi-rushing to get this to you guys. PLEASE, I BEG YOU! Let me know if you see any errors!

Also, drop me a review to let me know what you think!