Waking up in the morning was the last thing Sly wanted. The ritual he had undergone to recover his memory had wiped him out last night. He turned to see Carmelita looking at him with a dreamy gaze.

"Did you wait for me to get up?" Sly asked.

"Of course, Ringtail," Carmelita replied, running her paw through his tail. "I didn't want you to wake up alone."

"I appreciate the gesture, but it wasn't necessary. I'm fine."

"You're a far cry from fine, Sly Cooper. You just watched your parents get murdered yesterday."

Sly bristled, but kept a cool facade. "Still hard for me to believe I ended up working with one of the men who killed them."

"He changed a lot when you beat him. When I was arresting him, he kept muttering to himself about the regrets he had, how he needed to become more humble. I thought it was the usual trash most of these thugs spout to try to convince us law enforcers that they're reformed, but Panda King was different. He became a monk because of you."

"Monk or no monk, he's still a murderer. And it wasn't just my parents. He buried entire villages with snow, and for what?"

"I think you underestimate the power your influence has on people, Sly. You're quite the charmer, you know."

"Makes sense, since I seem to have won you over even though you're usually a hard-nosed cop."

"I look at who I was when I was younger, just starting my career. Everything was so black-and-white for me. Now I'm able to see more shades of gray. I used to think that kind of thinking was dangerous. Now I realize the world is more nuanced. You can't always categorize everyone as good people or bad people."

"I'm sure as a thief by trade, I tend to straddle the line."

"There are a lot more things that you could straddle, Ringtail." Carmelita smiled at Sly.

"As nice as that sounds, probably not a good idea right now," Sly said. "The walls in this safehouse are fairly thin. I could hear Murray snoring all night."

"He should probably get that checked out. It's a sign of sleep apnea."

"He's been like that for years. It's fine. We should get dressed. I'm sure Bentley's plotting our next move as we speak."

Sly and Carmelita dressed and headed down to the living room where, as Sly had guessed, Bentley was on his laptop hard at work with Penelope at his side.

"What are you up to?" Sly asked.

"It's not enough that we got you out of Paris," Bentley said. "These cops are operating outside of the law, so jurisdiction be damned, they could still track us down and try to kill us. We need to put an end to this if we're ever going to sleep soundly again."

"I slept fine last night," Sly said. "I don't think anyone's gonna look for us in this remote part of the world."

"Don't be so naive, Sly. This was the headquarters of that man over there." Bentley pointed to Panda King. "Your history with him has been well documented. We need to get out of here as quickly as we can and find more neutral ground."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, pal. Where's everyone else?"

"Still asleep I guess," Bentley said. "You two hungry? I made French toast and saved some slices for everyone. Might have to warm it in the microwave first."

"Actually, I'm starving," Sly said. "French toast sounds pretty good."

"Help yourself. Just don't eat the biggest stack. I promised Murray those were all his."

"Murray's going to have a heart attack if he isn't careful," Carmelita said.

"Carmelita, while you're eating, can I trouble you for some information?" Bentley asked. "You know more about the cops who are after us than anyone here, given your long career with Interpol."

"Well, not that long," Carmelita said, "but I get your meaning. What do you need to know?"

"Everything," Bentley said. "Any information you have on your old employer would help."

"Sounds like you're going to be grilling me all day, then," Carmelita said. "Can I at least eat first?"

"Of course."

"Thank you." Carmelita went over to the kitchen with Sly, who was already reheating their helpings of French toast. The two of them sat down and began eating. Panda King approached slowly, appearing trepidatious.

"You okay?" Sly asked him.

"I figured after the revelations of yesterday that you would be unhappy with me," Panda King said.

"Ah, I understand," Sly said. "Well, look, a part of me knows there's nothing you can do to make up for the past. Another part of me, though, realizes that everyone grows and changes. We're not the same people we were yesterday, or the day before. I just have to hope that you feel bad enough about what you've done to change for good."

"I have. There's a lot that you have taught me, Sly Cooper, without even realizing you did it. You are right that I cannot atone for all my past sins, but I at least can prevent doing any further harm in the future. Tell me, though, why do you suddenly seem so forgiving?"

"Someone reminded me that there are shades of gray in this world," Sly said, poking Carmelita's leg with his foot.

"That is all?" Panda King asked. "You continue to astound me, Sly Cooper."

"I hear that a lot," Sly said, flashing Panda King a smile.

"You seem to have recovered a lot of your old...how shall I say it...machismo."

"Up until yesterday, I thought I was a stuffy police officer. Someone reminded me that was not the case."

"I see." Panda King bowed to Sly. "I am going out for a walk. It seems we will not be staying in China for much longer, and I would love to taste the fresh air here one last time."

"Suit yourself," Sly said, waving Panda King goodbye as he left the safehouse.

"He's right, you know," Carmelita said through a mouthful of French toast. "You do seem to be back to normal. This is the Sly Cooper I've grown to know all these years."

"I do have a question for you," Sly said. "Of all the stories you could have made up, why did you convince me to be a cop?"

"Oh, gosh," Carmelita said, setting down her knife and fork. "I suppose I should have expected this. You've always been too curious for your own good."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not mad...well, okay, maybe I'm a little mad, but I'm more curious."

"You want to know why?" Carmelita took a deep breath. "Insecurity. All those years I spent hounding you and your gang, I had this insatiable attraction towards you that I could never entertain. I was a cop, you were a criminal, it could never work. I spent a lot of nights getting randy thinking about you, but there was never a way for it to become a reality. Between me and your gang, you were always going to pick them, even as flirtatious as you were with me at times. When you hit your head and lost your memories, I saw an opportunity that I thought would never come, and in my weakness, I took it."

"Wow," Sly said. "I guess I can't really blame you. If the tables were turned, and you had been the one to lose your memory, I might have done the same thing."

"No, you wouldn't have. You're stronger than I am, and by that I mean you have a stronger moral compass. You would never have lied to me like I lied to you. Despite your choice of profession, you have far more integrity than I do. You wouldn't have chosen to live out a lie like that, accept a false version of me like I did of you, even if it meant finally cultivating a romantic relationship."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself. You made a choice in a moment of weakness. You might think I wouldn't have done the same thing, but I think you underestimate how I feel for you."

"Well, in any case, it was wrong of me to do that, and look what happened. We nearly both got killed for it." Carmelita set the rest of her French toast aside, stood up, and walked towards a nearby window. She placed her forehead on the cold glass and looked outside.

Sly walked up behind her, wrapped his arms around her torso, and kissed her on the neck. "You're always so hard on yourself. I think you need to give yourself a break. That choice you made, in the end, actually did bring us together. Neither of us are under any false pretenses now. For the first time in a while, I have full say in what I want for the two of us, and I'm still here. That's how much you mean to me."

"I can't believe you're actually forgiving me," Carmelita said, pulling away from Sly.

"Uh…is that a problem?" Sly followed Carmelita, but she pulled away again.

"Yes, because I haven't earned your forgiveness yet. I derailed the entire trajectory of your life for years, kept you away from your friends, kept you in the dark about your past, and you just up and forgive me for all of it? It's not right."

"Hold on. Do you actually want me to be angry with you?"

"It would make more sense, yes. After you came out of that trance, you should have been screaming at me, throwing dishes at the wall. You should be asking me to kneel before you, begging for you to forgive me after the terrible things I've done to you."

"So...you're mad at me because I'm not mad enough at you? That doesn't make any sense."

"It's not supposed to make sense! God, you're infuriating." Carmelita turned from Sly again, her shoulders slumped.

Sly couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. He cleared his throat. "Fine. I don't forgive you for what you've done. It's going to take years to undo the damage you've done."

"Don't patronize me, Ringtail. I know you're just saying that to placate me."

"Okay, look, I get that you need to be hard on yourself because you think what you've done is irredeemable. But look, up until Interpol started trying to kill us, I enjoyed the time we were spending together. Before the amnesia, I thought being with you was nothing more than a pipe dream. When I was being crushed by that abomination Dr. M was controlling, all I could think about was how cowardly I'd been about you and me. You were able to break me free of that, even if under shady pretenses, and if I wasn't so in love with you, I would be more angry about that. But now, for the first time, I get to have everything I ever wanted. I'm back with the gang with you by my side, and it's everything I could have asked for. And you think you need my forgiveness? Not a chance. If anything, you deserve my gratitude for making the impossible happen." Sly gently pulled Carmelita to face him, and he got down on bended knee.

"Sly...what are you doing?"

"You're not going to believe this," Sly said, fishing through his shirt pocket. He took out a small case and opened it to reveal a dazzling diamond ring.

"What is that?" Carmelita asked.

"I had this with me when I lost my memory. I knew it had to be important, so I never got rid of it, but I didn't know what it was for either. Now, I remember exactly what it was for. This is the engagement ring my father used to propose to my mother."

Carmelita nearly fell over. She had to catch herself to keep from stumbling. "Sly, are you really—?"

"Hold on, let me finish," Sly said. "I've been thinking about this all night. Now, when my dad would tell me about the night he proposed to my mom, he said that even though he could have easily stolen the ring, he made a point not to do this the wrong way. He took a job delivering newspapers and saved the money he earned from that job for an entire year before finally having enough money to buy the ring properly. As soon as he purchased it, he quit the paper route, and he proposed to my mother on a quiet, uneventful night, the night of their anniversary. She was stunned and said yes almost without thinking."

Carmelita was looking at Sly with bated breath as he continued his story.

"Other than my cane and the Thievius Raccoonus, this was the only family heirloom that survived the night my parents died. I made sure to hold on tightly to this ring no matter what. Unfortunately, the orphanage confiscated it when I went over there. They had to fight me hard for it, but I was just a kid back then. When Bentley, Murray, and I left the orphanage, the last heist we ever made there was stealing the ring back. It took a lot of misdirection from Murray, who threw a tantrum in the kitchens to distract the caretakers while Bentley and I picked the lock to their office and stole back what had been rightfully mine.

"The night I first met you...wow, I knew immediately that you were the one I wanted to offer this ring to. Of course, I was too afraid to do anything other than flirt with you, but you changed all that when I was under amnesia. Now I know exactly what I want, and Carmelita, I want you to marry me."

"Oh God, Sly…" Carmelita said, tears streaming down her face. "After hearing that story, how could I say no? But this is not the best time for this. I absolutely will marry you, but we need to be safe before I will do it. We have to take care of this Interpol problem first. Do you understand?"

Sly smiled, a tear trickling down his cheek. He shut the case and put the ring back in his shirt pocket. "That's fine for now," he said.

Carmelita ran over to hug him, and Sly returned it graciously. In the back of his mind, though, came a dark thought. He was from a long line of thieves, and as far back as he could remember, all of his ancestors were raccoons. Marrying a fox and raising a family would break that long line. Whether or not it was scientifically possible was beside the point. Could he continue the family line without having children with another raccoon? At the moment, it didn't matter. Carmelita was the woman he loved, the only woman he wanted to marry. The complication of his ancestry could wait until later.

After Sly and Carmelita finished embracing, Bentley and Penelope came into the kitchen.

"Congratulations," Bentley said to them. "I figured you two wanted some privacy."

"Thanks, Bentley," Sly said. "I know we can't set a date yet, but I would love for you to be my best man."

Bentley's jaw dropped, and Sly could see him getting emotional already. "Sly, that's...it's an honor. But don't you think Murray will be upset?"

"If I could pick both of you, I would in a heartbeat," Sly said. "You know that. To be honest, though, you're much better organized. It would make more sense for you to do it."

"I understand," Bentley said. "When the time comes, I will absolutely accept. We need to take care of business first, though, like you said. Carmelita, Penelope and I wanted to talk to you, pick your brain for every possible weakness Interpol has. We need to figure out exactly what we're dealing with before we make a plan of attack."

"Of course," Carmelita said. She kissed Sly on the cheek and followed Bentley and Penelope back to the living room.

"I'm gonna get some air," Sly said, waving them goodbye and heading outside. The cool, crisp morning air invigorated his senses. Sly could see Panda King strolling back towards the safehouse.

"Did you have a nice walk?" Sly asked him.

"Yes. You seem...oddly buoyant."

"Believe it or not," Sly said, "I just proposed to Carmelita."

"Ah," Panda King said. "Even when I think I know everything about you, you continue to surprise me. If I may ask, what was the result?"

"It's not a 'no,'" Sly said, "but it's a 'not now.' We have bigger problems to deal with first."

"Understood," Panda King said. "I just paid my daughter a visit."

"How's she doing?" Sly asked.

"Believe it or not, she is entertaining a suitor," Panda King said. "After the horrors General Tsao put her through, I did not believe she would ever want to wed, but she has blossomed since you helped me rescue her. On top of everything else I have to thank you for, I think this is the grandest of all."

"I'm glad to hear it," Sly said, bowing to Panda King, who bowed in response. "I was going to go for a walk, take in this pleasant air while I still can."

"I will leave you to it," Panda King said. He strolled into the safehouse, and Sly headed off on his walk. It seemed fitting to be in a part of the world that was so secluded and so beautiful. It was completely antithetical to the bustling to and fro of Paris, and it was a perfect time for Sly to reflect on his newly acquired memories. Perhaps some people may have thought that proposing to Carmelita the day after remembering the first twenty years of his life would have been premature. On the contrary, it had not come soon enough. Even with the ups and downs, constantly wondering whether she felt the same way for him that he did for her, it made sense to take advantage as quickly as possible to try to make up for some of the lost time. The question of his lineage was still hounding him in the back of his mind, but if he had learned anything, it was to take life one step at a time. Sly knew that he could never predict what lay ahead. All he could do at this moment was enjoy the peace and quiet of this paradise before he had to leave and face the problem at hand.