Wiping her wet hair out of her eyes, Talia kneeled on the ground of the bedroom in her Grandma's house to shove some sweaters into an oversized plastic bag. The rain had started again after her first success in stealing. Everyone, even Hornet, was ecstatic when they found out about her stealing something as small and useless as glasses case, and it made Talia finally feel as if she had been accepted. She knew that the gang had all been cold, wet and uncomfortable from the rain for the last few days, so she had decided to give them some of her sweaters as a thank-you gift and for giving her a chance. Talia decided it was lucky she wasn't overly girly because she had enough sweaters for the boys to wear as well.

Slinging the bag over her shoulder, Talia tiptoed out of the bedroom. It wasn't late yet, but she would prefer it if she didn't have to run into her Grandma. Hoping her wet sneakers weren't being too loud on the steps, Talia finally made it to the front door, but before she walked back out into the rain, she stopped.

She could hear her grandma talking in the room over, and although Talia wasn't couldn't quite hear her, the words sounded familiar. They almost sounded… English. What, Talia thought as she gently put down the duffle bag. There was no way her Grandma was speaking English because she only spoke Italian!

Curiosity getting the better of her, Talia slowly walked to the room to where her Grandma was talking on the phone. Before she could make it though, her wet sneakers slipped on the hardwood floor. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and with Talia's height, she came crashing loudly onto the ground.

Her grandma's head poked around the corner, looking terrified for a moment at the sight of Talia. After a long pause, she grumbled something in Italian and shoved the phone into Talia's hands. Still lying on the ground, Talia mumbled into the phone.

"Hello…"

"Talia, it's your father. Would you care to explain to me what's going on with you?"

"Sorry?"

"I'm being serious Talia. This is the first time I've spoken to you in five days –"

"Dad, I emailed you yesterday," Talia cut him off, rolling her eyes.

"That hardly counted as an email. It was only a few sentences long explaining nothing as to what you've been up to. Your mother and I especially started getting worried when we ran into Jillian and she asked us what you had been up to because of your vague emails."

Shit, Talia thought as she closed her eyes. She remembered reading Jillian's long emails that she had probably spent an hour on writing, and then replying with no more than a pathetic paragraph. Talia had wanted to write more, but she knew she had to get back to the gang and wouldn't have time to explain everything she had been up to in an email. And knowing innocent, naïve Jillian, she probably wouldn't be able to understand why Talia was doing what she was doing without an explanation face to face.

"Whenever your mother and I call, Grandma always says that you're out and I guess I can understand that," her father continued, "and we even kind of understand not putting any effort into sending an email to your parents. But not even telling Jillian what you're up to when she's you're best friend? Do you understand why we're concerned here Talia?"

"Dad!" Talia snapped, "What are you even concerned about? I'm just doing what you wanted me to, which was to go out and enjoy some city you shipped me off to for most of my summer. Would you rather me sit inside and play checkers with Grandma or something?"

"No Talia," sighed her father with irritation, "we just want to know what you've been doing, here from you every now and then, know that you're still alive –"

"Well I am alive, okay? You're talking to me right now, what more proof do you need?"

There was silence on the other end and a tiny wave of guilt washed over Talia for snapping so much at her dad. Sitting up, she glanced out the window and saw that it had stopped raining. If she wanted to keep the sweaters dry she'd have to hurry.

"Look dad, I got to go."

"Where are you going?"

"Just out."

"Talia, give me more of an answer then that."

"I don't know I'm just going for a walk okay? I'm going to go and look at some old cathedrals or something like good little tourist I am. I'll talk to you later dad, I promise. Bye!" With that she clicked off the phone and slammed it to the ground.

Hesitating with a sigh, Talia slowly got up to her feet. Snatching the bag, she opened the door and ran out into the humid Venice weather. She didn't bother telling her Grandma that she was leaving though. It's not like the woman could understand her anyways.


Prosper had wanted to have a dinner, a real dinner, after Talia's successful morning. When Talia met him where he had asked her to, she noticed he was holding a bag of his own.

"What's in the bag?" she asked him.

He grinned, eyes shining. "Some pasta, pesto sauce and a couple bottles of water. We're going to have pasta tonight, even if it is cold. And what's in your own bag?"

"Oh… it's a gift." Talia felt nervous, not sure how thieves felt about receiving presents, "It's for all of you guys, as a thank you I guess, just for putting up with me. They're some sweaters. I have too many anyways and figured that with this weather you need them more then I do."

Prosper stared at the bag for a moment before nodding and sitting down on the damp ground. His face was blank, lost in his own thoughts, and Talia suddenly panicked that she had insulted him somehow.

"Prosper," she quickly said, sitting next to him, "Prosper I'm sorry. I can take the sweaters back. I didn't mean to be…" her voice faded when a tiny smile flicked back onto his face.

"Don't be stupid," he said although his voice was friendly, "the sweaters are perfect. I swear." He paused before looking up at Talia with a look on his face that was a mixture of embarrassment and something goofy.

Talia giggled. "What?" she asked, not sure where this was going.

"Okay," Prosper suddenly blurted, "I have a story to tell you, although you'll probably think of it as a fairytale."

"I'm a little old for fairytales Prosper, don't you think?"

"Just bear with me, okay?"

Giggling again, Talia nodded that she would. Once she did though, Prosper's face fell slightly as he became more serious. Taking a breath, he began to tell a story about a boy named Scipio. He called himself the Thieflord because he was supposedly the best thief around and all his friends looked up to him. It turned out, though, that the Thieflord had been nothing more but a liar. He wasn't really a thief. He just took things from his wealthy father, claiming that he had stolen them from a store or whatnot. His friends couldn't believe that they had looked up to such a fake and all knew that they could never trust their once-Thieflord again. But despite that, Scipio's friends all stayed with him.

Once day, Scipio had taken his friends to a marry-go-round, stating that if they went on it, they would be turned into adults. None of the friends wanted to go on the marry-go-round for they were too scared, but were also happy staying as children. Scipio made fun of them for being such cowards and said that if they turned into adults, they would be free to do whatever they wanted and not have to live on the streets anymore. Still no one would go onto the marry-go-ground. Scipio decided to go by himself, telling his friends that once he was an adult, he would be able to take care of all of them by getting a real job. So Scipio went on the marry-go-round and boy and came off a man.

As an adult, he was able to get a job and bring money to his young friends and for a while they were all happy. Scipio, who was popular as a child, was also popular as an adult. He began to make older friends and get better job opportunities that paid him more money, but he had to work harder, so hard that he hardly ever had time to play with his younger friends. One day, the youngest of Scipio's friends pointed out that he missed the younger Scipio and wished he had never turned into an adult. After working so hard, Scipio had been tired and got angry at the young boy, yelling that none of them understood and that they were all too needy and dependant on him too much. Scipio then stormed out on his friends. That was the last time any of them saw him, and although his friends looked for him for some time, they eventually stopped. They eventually realized that he had changed and wasn't going to come back.

Once Prosper finished his story, Talia arched her eyebrows in disbelief. "Well that's stupid!" she said loudly with a laugh.

Prosper looked at her closely. "Stupid in what way?" he asked.

"Well first off, I think it's stupid that you told me a fairytale because it made me feel like I was six. But I also think it was stupid on how Scipio's friends stayed with him after he had lied to them, after he had turned into an adult, and how they kept looking for him after he left. They knew they couldn't trust him so why bother?"

"I think it has something to do with the fact that they all loved him when they knew him as the Thieflord." Prosper said slowly, "So even after they had been betrayed and realized who Scipio truly was, they wanted to believe that the Thieflord was still somewhere in him and hoped that he would come through eventually."

"You sound like some therapist or something," Talia laughed, "so tell me Dr. Prosper, why are you telling me some random story like this that's filled with metaphors and meanings?" She laughed again.

"Well," Prosper took his time speaking, "the story that I just told you kind of happened to the gang and I."

Talia immediately stopped laughing. She stared hard at Prosper, waiting for a smile to break out on his face and tell her he was joking, but that never happened. They stared for each other for a long time until Talia finally had to look away, not being able to grasp what was happening.

"Wait… is the whole story about Scipio true to you guys, like how he went on some magic merry-go-round? Or just the part where you were he lied and betrayed and ditched you guys after you still stayed with him?"

A small, knowing smile was on Prosper's face, his eyes flashing mysteriously. He knew the answer to Talia's question, but he decided not to answer. She probably wouldn't have believed him anyways.

"I guess I'm just trying to say that the gang and I have been through a lot," Prosper told Talia, "and I mean a lot. There are things you don't know about the gang and there are probably things that I don't even know about the gang."

The thought of Hornet keeping her being raped a secret from her only friends immediately came to Talia's mind when Prosper said that.

"We had gotten into this weird state where we lived together and worked together, but it wasn't the same. One bad thing after another seemed to hit us and we just couldn't get out of it. I thought we'd be stuck like that forever, but then you showed up!"

This surprised Talia, and she sat up immediately. "Me?"

"Yes you!" Prosper said, grinning now, "I mean you showed up out of nowhere and you were suddenly someone who was interested in us. I can't even explain it Talia, but the longer you put up with our bitter selves, the more we began to change back to normal. I don't know why it happened, but it just did and I mean getting to be able to see my brother smile again… it was like a dream I hadn't seen it for so long." He stopped for a second, slightly out of breath. "So… thank you Talia. Thank you for coming out of the blue and stepping into our lives. I don't know what we'd be like now if it weren't for you. Thank-you so much."

Talia was grinning uncontrollably now. She couldn't help it. Never in her life had she been complimented in a way like that before. "You're welcome," she whispered, for it was all she could think of saying.

The two of them sat in silence after that, grinning at each other. Then, before Talia knew it, Prosper was kissing her. She had never been kissed like this before – it was slow, soft and sweet. While Talia was used to the crazy, heat-of-the-moment kissing that she thought had suited her wild personality, she suddenly realized that she liked this style better. The kiss fit Prosper's personality and she liked Prosper.

Didn't she?

Gasping, Talia suddenly pulled away (which was unbelievably hard to do). "Hornet!" she suddenly cried.

"What about Hornet?" Prosper looked hurt.

"Prosper, I c-can't do this, I'm sorry P-Prosper I c-can't…" she wasn't able to form her words clearly because she wasn't sure if Prosper wanted to hear what she was about to say, "I can't do this because of Hornet."

"What about Hornet?" he asked again.

Hesitating, Talia said, "Prosper, Hornet likes you. I don't know how long she has or if you or anyone else can tell because maybe it's some girl-connection-thingy, but I know for sure she does."

Prosper's mouth hung open slightly. "Hornet likes me?"

Talia sighed. "Yeah, she does a lot actually. She didn't like it that we were getting so close. That was the only reason why she was getting angry at me. So I can't do this to her Prosper. I mean I'm only here for a few weeks longer and if Hornet finds out… oh god if only you saw the way she looked at you sometimes Prosper."

"I… I hadn't even noticed."

Talia shrugged slightly. "Well like you've said, you've been through a lot lately. It's understandable."

Prosper looked up at Talia. "Are you sure she likes me?"

"Positive. I swear girls have this weird connection thing going on that guys are completely oblivious about. It's like we have our own secret language."

Smiling, Prosper nodded and looked up at the sky. It was dark and threatening with rain, but the boy seemed deep in thought and happy all the same. Smiling herself, Talia hoped that he was thinking about Hornet.

And so together they sat in the most comfortable silence ever, feeling even closer then imaginable, until tiny droplets of rain fell from the sky, telling them it was time to go home.


"I'm telling you officer, I'm a regular tourist to Venice and every single time I've had something stolen right out of my back pocket! Something has to be done about these wicked thieves running around."

Officer Moore nodded intently as he listened to a woman who had entered the police station. He was a fairly new cop, yet was one of the best not to mention one of the meanest. Already he had a nasty scar below his bottom lip and another next to one of his pale, grey eyes from fighting a gang five weeks ago. A tall, large tough man, fighting gangs was what he was into; not worrying about some stupid kid pickpockets who stole a wallet every now and then.

"Look ma'am," he said gruffly, bored with talking to old woman in front of him, "why don't you just return to your hotel or whatever. We try to deal with the pickpockets in Venice, but most of the time they're just homeless kids; nothing to worry about."

"Then those homeless kids should be in an orphanage where they belong!" the woman snapped.

Moore and the woman both sighed and rolled their eyes, irritated with each other. Their eyes both ended up looking out the window, where they stared out onto the less-crowded marketplace. As they continued to stare, they both noticed an impossibly small and frail boy with blonde curls slip his hand into the pocket of an oblivious man. His hand slipped out and off he walked with a wallet in his tiny hand.

"Did you see that?" the woman suddenly squealed, her voice so high-pitch that Moore flinched, "Did you see what that little brat just did to that poor, clueless man?"

"Yeeessss, I did." Moore replied slowly.

"Well then why don't you go after him? Why won't you get off your ass and be helpful?"

Because I don't care about some goddamn thief who steals five extra bucks from some over-privileged tourist, Moore wanted to shout, but stayed calm by keeping his mouth closed and taking a deep breath. The woman in front of him suddenly groaned and shoved her hand into her purse and when it came out, she was clutching a thick roll of bills.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she grumbled, "but I am so sick of these thieves running around that I'm going to pay you to go and catch that little boy we just saw. Prove it to me that you've put him into an orphanage and you can expect double the money that I'm giving you right now. Understood?"

The woman suddenly threw her card on his desk as well so that he could contact her when he had succeeded. With that, the woman stormed out of his office.

Moore could only stare. His usual narrow, grey eyes were twice the size as he stared at the money on his desk. There was so much that he couldn't even count it without having to pick up each bill individually. And to think that it could be doubled…

Jumping up from his desk, Moore shoved the money into his wallet and shoved it into his desk before grabbing his coat. He was going to go catch himself a thief.