A/N: Hello there peoples. This chapter is extremely long for me, mainly because I wanted to get so much in to it. As promised FreezingSapphire there is a lot of lovely fluff for you. :) As always I don't own Thief Lord in any way, shape or form. Enjoy.

Eva

Almost two weeks past with no more news of Scipio. I spent most of my time watching the others in the Stella, and assisting Hornet with the some house-work… or theatre work, whichever. I wandered down one morning to find her making breakfast, a lovely display of pastries and fruit. "Morning," I said as I perched on the table next to her.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" She smiled as she plated up some more squashed pastries.

"Fine, what happened to these?" I asked, picking up one of the croissants.

"They mysteriously fell off a market stall this morning." Prop grinned slyly as he snatched it from my hand and bit into it. "Mmm… still warm from the bakery, too. It seemed a shame to let them go to waste," he shrugged.

Hornet smiled at him, and I felt a flutter of happiness for this oblivious couple, "Are you hungry Eva, I'd take something now if I were you," she batted Prop's hand away from a second croissant, "they might be gone very soon."

Prop grinned and held his hands up in mock innocence. I grabbed an apple and one of the pastries, and settled into one of the theatre chairs. Prop put his fingers to his lips and blew, giving out a harsh whistle that was meant to wake the other sleeping children upstairs. There was a chorus of groans as they woke up, which just made us laugh.

Bo was the first to get downstairs, "Hi guys," he bounced up to us, "what's for breakfast? I'm starving!"

Hornet laughed, "You can't be starving Bo," she ruffled his blonde hair, "here have a croissant."

Bo tucked straight in to his breakfast, he wandered over to me and sat down, "What's up?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

I smiled sadly at the little face looking up at me, "Nothing, Bo. I'm fine."

Bo wasn't convinced, "Is it Scip? He'll be okay. I know he will," and with those brief words of youthful encouragement, he was off to harass someone else.

I took a deep breath, calming myself, and turned to watch Hornet and Prop at the table. They were talking quietly to one another, Hornet moving cleaning up and Prop following closely behind her. He put an arm over her shoulder to reach something, and I almost squealed with childish joy. They were utterly adorable! I managed to compose myself though, and clamped a hand over my normally overenthusiastic mouth.

Hornet caught my eye with a smile, which she was hastily trying to hide… and failing in the process. I winked conspiringly at her, making her giggle. Prop frowned, "What?" he asked looking between us.

"Nothing!" we chimed together, and then giggled again. Soon we were beyond all hope as we laughed until we could no longer breathe properly.

Prop watched this hysteria utterly confused, "Girls are weird," he concluded.

"You can say that again, my friend." Alexi said as he leaned over the balcony above us, he gave me a quizzical look, "Girls are most definitely the weirdest thing I've ever come across."

I tossed my apple in the air and lobbed it at him with as much force as I could muster. It whizzed through the air and in an almost straight line towards Lex, but much to my annoyance he was a lot quicker than I gave him credit for and he caught the apple neatly in his hand. He grinned at me, and raised an amused eyebrow.

"Nice catch." I smiled coolly; I took a bite of my croissant and watched as my friend took a bite of my apple. "Enjoy your breakfast." I laughed before an awful thought put me off my own completely. I was flirting with my boyfriend's best friend while he was stuck being beaten to death somewhere. I suddenly threw the food away from me and ran back to the confines of the bathroom, closely followed by Hornet and Prosper.

I slammed the door of the cubicle shut and locked it, before sliding to the floor sobbing; outside I heard Hornet's voice, "Eva? Eva, are you alright?" she sounded so worried.

"Yeah," I whispered, "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine." Prosper noted.

I gave a harsh bark of laughter, "Yeah, okay… maybe I'm not."

"Eva, come out." Hornet almost pleaded, "Come on, you can't stay in there all day."

Try me, I thought rather bitterly, but instead I sighed and unlocked the door. I stayed sat on the cold tiled floor and looked up as Hornet pushed the door open.

She held out a hand, "Come on, let's get out of the bathroom shall we?" She gave me a rueful smile and helped me up. We walked back into the main auditorium and I looked up to see Alexi watching me with panic in his eyes.

"What is it?" I asked tentatively.

Lex slipped his phone discreetly in to his pocket, but not discreetly enough, "Nothing," he choked out.

"Lex, what were you just looking at?" I asked calmly, maybe too calmly.

He shook his head, "Nothing, it's nothing!" he said.

I stalked up to him and snatched his phone from him, I scrolled through the texts and images he'd found and suddenly came across a news story.

News through that the father of kidnapped school boy Scipio Massimo has refused to negotiate with his son's kidnappers. The Dottore made no comment on the situation when asked about it earlier today…

I stopped reading at that point. I couldn't bear it any longer. I threw the phone back at Alexi and stormed out, again followed by my shadows, Prop and Hornet. I spun around on them, "What? What are you expecting me to do?" They both looked down at their feet and I suddenly felt overwhelmed with guilt, "I'm sorry, I just… I don't know."

Hornet put a gentle hand on my shoulder, "Its okay Eva, You're allowed to be upset." She pulled me into a hug, "You're only human after all."

"Thanks," I said, reciprocating the hug, I pulled away and squeezed her arm, "but I really don't need babysitting."

Prop smiled, "We'll let you go then, unless you fancy the company?" They just couldn't let me be alone could they?

I sighed, "Whatever." I turned and unlocked the door, "Back soon guys." I called back.

A chorus of voices replied as Prop, Hornet and I walked out into the soft sunlight. We wandered along the canal; I shoved my hands deep in my pockets and watched as Prop put an arm around Hornet's shoulders, at least someone was happy in this living hell of mine.

We walked for a while before Prop stopped suddenly and turned his head slightly, "What is it?" Hornet asked in a low voice.

Prosper held up a hand, "Just stay here a minute," he murmured as he walked away from us. He wandered past a woman sat on a bench nearby, and the woman stood up and followed him.

"What's going on?" I asked Hornet.

She shrugged, "Don't know, but I'm going to find out." She grabbed my wrist and ran across the street, following Prop and the woman. We stopped at a corner in an alley, and Hornet raised a finger to her lips. We listened silently to the hushed conversation.

"…you want?" Prop was saying.

"Don't worry, this isn't another job proposition," the woman said.

"Well what is it then?" Prop sounded angry, really angry.

"News of your missing friend."

There was a long pause, and Hornet and I shared a worried glance, before Prop said, "Scipio."

"Yes. The professor has him."

Hornet gasped next to me, I guessed she must know who they were talking about. I raised an eyebrow, but Hornet shook her head, not a good topic then.

I realised Prop was talking again, "Have you seen him?" he asked, his voice quiet and shaking slightly.

"Yes, I've seen him. He's not too bad considering…" the woman trailed off, "Who's there?" she asked suddenly.

I jumped and looked at Hornet; her eyes grew wide for a second before she put a smile on her face and stepped out into the middle of the alley. "Hey Donatella, how's things," she waved calmly.

"Hornet!" Prop sighed, "What are you doing, I told you to wait with Eva."

"I did," Hornet retorted, "I just waited around the corner."

Prop must have realised what was implied in that statement, "Eva heard that too?"

I stepped out to join them, "Yeah I did." I nodded at the woman, "You said you know where Scipio is, tell me."

The woman, Donatella nodded, "He's being kept at the old base," she told Prop. He seemed to know what she meant, "I can get him out of there, but you'll have to do the rest."

Prop nodded, "How bad is he?" he asked darkly.

Donatella looked genuinely sad, "He's got two broken ribs, possibly a fractured cheek, he had concussion for a while but that seems to have cleared up. And definitely a broken arm."

I gasped involuntarily, and felt Hornet's hand fly up to my arm. Prop glanced at me before saying, "When can you get him out?"

Donatella frowned for a minute, "Tomorrow night, the church in the plaza. Meet us at twelve minutes to midnight."

I thought this was a peculiar time but Prop agreed, he pushed up his sleeve and for a moment I was confused until Hornet whispered in my ear, "They're synching their watches, no use having different times when they need to be exact."

Prop finished synching his watch and walked away from Donatella, he grabbed Hornet and stood her next to Donatella, "Swap coats," he ordered, "we might have been followed by someone else."

Hornet stripped off her hoodie and passed it to Donatella, who also shrugged out of her own rather more luxurious coat and handed it to Hornet, they both pulled on their respective coats and pulled up the hoods. "So I take it I'm walking off by myself for a while then?" Hornet asked suddenly very sullen.

"It's only until you decide you're bored." Prosper smiled, he walked over to her and whispered something in her ear, whatever he said it must have worked.

Hornet was walking out of the alley with no more than a glance in my direction. "Ciao, children." she said coolly, her voice every part the sophisticated woman.

Prop turned to me and Donatella with a grin, "Right," he said stretching his arms, "We'll go this way I think." He pointed behind himself, further in to the alleyway. He set off whistling and with a look of exasperation, Donatella followed.

She linked her arm through mine and smiled, "Put your hood up, and keep talking the pair of you." she said quietly.

I pulled my hood up and realised, in a way, Donatella and I looked very similar. Similar hair colour, similar skin tone… I wondered why Prop hadn't asked me to swap with Donatella; I would have been easier to pass off as her.

We walked for a long time before Donatella stopped and glanced at a café next to us. "Mmm. Anyone fancy a coffee?" she asked suddenly.

I followed her line of sight and saw Hornet sat casually in the far corner of the café, right next to the toilets and the fire escape. "Yeah, I do." I piped up quickly.

Prop followed the hint and we all piled in to the café, and since I was the least known here, I was sent to order while Hornet and Donatella did their swap again. I knew she wouldn't stay, but I bought the coffee she had asked for anyway, so that it didn't look like a planned escape.

I set the drinks on the table and sat down heavily next to Hornet, who was now back in her own hoodie, "Has our friend left us?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so, sad to see a good coffee go to waste." Hornet smiled, she grabbed her own drink off the table and downed it almost in one.

Prop gave her an exasperated look, "I still don't know how you can drink coffee so fast. It's boiling!" he sighed.

We didn't stay long. We had to get back to the Stella, the others would be worried. So after Prop had managed to drink half of his tea, we set off home. And I watched gleefully as Prop's arm hooked itself around Hornet's waist. She glanced at me with the biggest smile I've ever seen plastered across her face.

I couldn't help but smile back, Hornet had her Prosper, and I was going to get my Scipio back. I had never felt as relieved and excited and nervous as this in my entire life.

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