Confliction

Disclaimer: I don't own Sly. If someone said I did, they lied. The only ones I own are the ones you don't recognize.

AN: Long wait again. I really am sorry and I know I keep saying it'll change, but things keep popping up. You know how it is.

The D

Roxy loved bars. She loved the music, she loved the food, she loved the drinks… hell, she was even fond of the people. It was a trait she had inherited from her father, Ilya Blue. Ilya was a cat of the Russian Blue breed; he had immigrated to America when he met the Brooklyn Persian who was Roxy's mother. While Ilya was tough and badly tempered, her mother was in tune with the world and let things flow. The two made an evened out pair.

Christina, her mother, had died when she was rather young and Ilya had to take over both responsibilities as father and mother. He took the extra role well. Ilya wasn't the ideal citizen, but he knew how to get by and taught Roxy that all she needed to get what she wanted was determination and strength.

When she was young, Christina tried teaching her that life was beautiful and one needed to deal with it with care. It didn't stick. Roxy was her father's daughter through and through. Though, some of the things she learned from Christina proved very useful. She almost wished that she could have learned more, she never used these special talents unless it was absolutely necessary of course, preferring greatly to use her fists.

She looked around. So this was Paris. The feline found herself unimpressed with the fancy restaurants. What she needed was a bar. She stopped in front of a building. Leroy's was the name of it, written in the sign with neon green letters. It was a bar. "Here we go."

----

"He's so miserable."

Bentley and Murray looked up from the table at her. Bentley was typing on his computer. Murray was eating a chilidog. Penelope was looking across at Sly who was currently lying on the brown moth-eaten couch, ripping off pieces of it. The two males followed her gaze.

Bentley sighed. Murray looked down at his chilidog. Both of them knew what Penelope said was true, but neither had the courage to agree out loud. The truth of the matter was… life with the Cooper Gang was slowly changing.

It started with Sly throwing himself into their work. Then, when Carmelita was sent away, he became further tempered. He began to obsess over finding anything he could about the people who would try to harm Carmelita and her family, about Lacienica--the possible surviving Fox other than the Inspector--and, of course, about where Carmelita could be.

Sadly, as time went on and their searches came up with nothing after nothing, Sly became more depressed. It was suddenly easy to anger him--he had actually snapped at Bentley while he was telling his latest plan, saying that if he was so smart he should have found something on Carmelita--and the tension around him grew out so far it filled the entire safe house.

They could all feel it. And not one of them knew what they could do about it. At first they believed he would get over it and turn back into the good old Sly they knew before Carmelita. Only Penelope knew better. And by now… both men were beginning to believe what she insisted from the start.

Sly was in love with Carmelita. It was bad enough when she wouldn't see him, when she would ignore his heists and refuse to come after him. But at least at that point, he could sneak around, find her and at least watch her. After the deaths, he had no clue where she was, or if she was even still alive.

The only thing that would make him happy would be for him to see her again. Penelope supposed it wouldn't matter if she had a shock pistol aimed at his head so long as his heart could soar at seeing her face once more.

Penelope looked at her intelligent turtle. She wasn't confused about Sly's feelings at all. All she had to do was think about herself in Sly's boots--not ever being able to see her sweet Bentley again--and her heart broke for him. She was surprised Sly was able to hold it together.

Penelope looked back up when she heard the creak of the floor boards. Sly had abandoned his place on the couch. "Where are you going?" she heard Murray ask.

"I'm going to the bar. Leroy's is open all night," he answered.

"I'll come with you."

Penelope smiled at the big guy. He was such a good friend. She knew that he didn't drink, but he'd go to the bar with Sly to keep the raccoon out of trouble. Not another word was spoken as the two thieves left the safe house. Penelope sincerely hoped things would work out. She knew better than to think Sly would get over and forget about the Interpol Inspector; after all she knew she would never be able to forget about her Bentley. But she did hope that he would learn to cope and realize that he wasn't alone. And he never would be, he never was.

And she truly wished that she could find Carmelita for him. She sighed, but time was moving on and she was no closer to that goal than she was when the young officer was first transferred.

----

Roxy sat down with her beer in hand. She'd never been one for those fancy drinks, give her an ice cold beer in a bottle and she was happy. She took a swig of the drink and looked around. Paris wasn't that bad.

The entrance opened. Roxy lifted her head to see who it was. Two men, a large pink hippo and a raccoon walked into the bar. She immediately noticed the air of discomfort that followed them. The raccoon had a distant look in his eyes and the hippo seemed worried for his little friend. Her eyes followed the pair as they sat down just a few stools away from her.

She watched them quietly. Something… some sort of alarm went off in the back of her mind. She should know them… or know of them…. What was it?

They were talking. Or rather the hippo was talking to his friend as the raccoon simply drank his own bottle. Roxy strained to hear, but the endless prattle and drunken laughter of the other customers was overpowering the conversation she had been attempting to listen in on.

A hand was placed on her shoulder. She glanced up at the cat. He was tall, gray fur, green eyes, and his breath smelled of sardines and alcohol. She shrugged his hand off. He put it back and she hissed at him, once again removing his hand from her.

"Don' be like tha'…" he slurred. He grabbed her shoulder again and again she twisted out of his grasp.

"Get lost and I won't break your nose," she warned. She looked back at the hippo and his friend. Something was missing. As she looked at the two men, she felt that something was missing. "A turtle…" she whispered.

That was it! That was Sly Cooper and Murray! She kicked herself for not realizing it sooner, but then without Bentley, she was a little thrown off. And this was her first time ever actually seeing them. Everything she knew about the three came from Interpol reports and Carmelita, though Carmelita was usually focused on the leader of the group.

She moved a couple seats closer to hear better, unnoticed by the thieves. Cooper was miserable, that much was certain… was it because of what happened a year or so ago? She wouldn't doubt it. Carmelita still seemed broken up about it… at least when she wasn't thinking about her younger sister.

Still, she couldn't hear a lot. Cooper was mumbling into his drink and that idiot was back on her tail. He took hold of her and pulled her to him. "Dance wi'me."

Her fur stood on end in rage; she pulled back and slammed her clawed fist right into his face. She had warned him and she was not in the mood today. The man knocked into a bigger man; a gorilla.

The ape threw the pesky feline across the room and into a table of drinking dogs. The poor drunken fool, Roxy shook her head in pity. His luck was not to be envied. She looked back at Murray and Cooper, it seemed she had their awareness now…

She grinned, showing off her pearly fangs. Now that she had their attention, maybe some use could come out of it.

--

Murray and Sly blinked at the aggressive cat. She grinned at them at sat next to Murray. "Hey," she spoke in an accent that was clearly American… she was from New York it sounded. "Name's Roxy."

Murray smiled, "I'm Murray!"

Sly glanced at his large friend. Momentarily forgetting his problems with Doberman and Carmelita, he chose to turn his attention to the fierce young lady acquainting them. "I'm Sly," he said.

To both their surprise, Roxy smirked, "Oh, I know who you are."

Murray's brows shot up and Sly's furrowed. "How do you know us?" he asked.

"Everyone knows who you are, especially if you're in the right circles…" she trailed off with a smile staring straight at Murray.

Sly raised a brow. Something was off with this woman. And she wanted something, he knew it. He wasn't so sure he was willing to trust her… he looked from her to Murray. The poor guy looked like he was caught in the headlights of his own van.

"What do you want?" he asked.

Roxy looked back at him and blinked, "Who said I wanted anything?"

Sly stared intensely at her. He wasn't in the mood for games. Especially not whatever type this girl was playing.

--

Impressive… the raccoon wasn't as dumb as he looked, though she had known that how many times he's outwitted her friend. The way he was looking at her, unnerved Roxy for some reason. He wasn't playing with her. His expression said that much.

"Dimitri. You know him, right?"

Cooper blinked, "What do you want with him?"

"I need something from him. He has information that can help me."

He just looked at her,--distrustful and suspicious--saying nothing. Roxy felt her anger rise, why wouldn't he just tell her how to find the man? How hard could it be? She took a deep breath, reminding herself that this was for Carm. Dimitri had information that could help them with the search for Lacienica. If Cooper knew where they could find him, she wasn't about to blow her chance by losing her temper. Something told her threats and a well placed fist would do little to persuade this particular man.

She decided a new tactic. "Please. It's very important, I need to find Dimitri."

----

She walked out of Leroy's with a smile. While hesitantly, Cooper had told her what she needed to know. Dimitri was still in Paris, thankfully. He owned a club around here. It was big, flashy, everything Carmelita said Dimitri liked to be. The D was what they needed to find. It would be easy to find the slimy lizard, but would it be easy to get the information? What if he didn't know anything about the Poison Rogues?

She shook her head. He'd know. He'd know… or she'd break all of his fingers.

A groan of pain interrupted her thoughts. She looked to her right, in the trash bin was that annoying cat. So this was where they threw him… she walked over to see if he was still breathing. He was fine, just passed out. She nodded, let him sleep out here for the night, that would teach him to drink more responsibly… or he'd just do it again the next time he had the chance.

Oh, well. It wasn't her problem.

----

Evil sun… evil light… evil lack of curtains. Carmelita grumbled as she forced herself up out of bed. She had jetlag from Hell, a migraine and she needed coffee. She watched thankfully as the dark liquid fell into glass. The scent of ground coffee beans was soothing. She briefly wondered why the motel would have a coffee machine and no curtains.

After filling herself with caffeine she looked back at the beds. Roxy was happily snoring away; the light didn't seem to bother her at all. She was sprawled on the bed with her head hanging off the side of it. What did she do last night?

She walked over to her friend with a cup of coffee in her hand. She held the mug under the cat's pink nose, the smell of it seemingly pulling her out of dreamland. She groggily took the drink from Carmelita.

"Where'd you go?" she asked.

"Bar."

Carmelita shook her head with a small smile. She couldn't be mad at Roxy for being Roxy. She should have known that would be the first place the woman would go.

Roxy coughed, "You won't believe who-" she stopped.

The fox looked at her in curiosity. "I won't believe who?"

She looked contemplative for a minute before shaking her head. "I know where to find Dimitri."

She blinked, she wasn't sure that was what Roxy was going to say originally, but it was good news nonetheless. She'd let it go, whatever it was. "Where?"

"A dance club or something. It's called The D. He runs it. Chances are we'll find him there."

Carmelita nodded. "All right. Let's get dressed and we can go."

----

The D… it was a large building. The sign was in bright purple letters. Both ex-officers of Interpol walked in. From what Carmelita could see, it was a slow day. But, it was the morning. She doubted any of the good customers came until late at night. Still, she strolled over to the bartender. He was a tough looking monkey, "Is Dimitri here?"

He nodded and pointed up, "He lives upstairs. Why?"

"I need to have a word with him," she said as she went over to a door she assumed led upstairs. She walked up the stairs with Roxy in tow. When they reached the top, she knocked on the door.

No answer.

She knocked louder.

Still no answer.

She jiggled the doorknob.

It was open.

The women entered the apartment. Carmelita grimaced at the sight that greeted them.

Well that's that. This chapter actually had changed a lot from what I originally had planned. Oh, well. I guess that's how it goes sometimes. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Please review.