Two chapters for my readers tonight. Since they're both fairly short. Enjoy!

Chapter 9 Vixens Can Be Cunning Too

When Carmelita entered the Safe House later that evening, Sly was watching Penelope school Murray in a racing game, while Bentley was tapping away furiously on his computer.

Sly looked up to see her. "Hey, how'd it go?"

"Fine," she said briskly, not looking his way. She was a little shaken up to make causal conversation at the moment. With her arms folded across her chest, she swiftly made a beeline for the upstairs bedroom. As she entered the room and slipped off her coat, leaving it carelessly on the floor, she left the door wide open. There was really no point in closing it.

She flopped onto the bed, her lower lip sticking out.

Like clockwork (hah, no not the mechanical owl), she heard the door close and light footsteps coming toward her. And, there it was. His ever so handsome masked face. The face that could brighten up her whole day. The face she adored, even when she was angry.

"What happened, Carm?" he murmured, lying down beside her.

"Nothing."

"You really need to work on your lying skills. It will come in handy when you become a thief."

She groaned and rolled over, facing the pale blue wall.

The persistent raccoon would pry the answer out of her one way or another. He wrapped his arms around her waistline, well what was left of it anyway, and pulled her to him, resting his chin on her shoulder. "It didn't go well with Barkley, did it?" he asked.

"It's not that," she mumbled.

"Girls at the office talking?"

"That too, but that's not what upset me either." She took a long pause before continuing. "It was…Tony."

She could feel him go rigid, and she turned to look at him.

His brow was furrowed. "Did he hurt you?"

"No," she said. "Not physically anyway." She pushed a curl out of her face, on the verge of tears, but victoriously fighting them off, for once. "He just…said some hurtful things. That's all." Her voice cracked slightly.

Sly's hands ran through her head of blue hair and he kissed the top of her shoulder. "Well, forget him. Guys who offend a lovely lady like you don't deserve your company anyways."

She laughed bitterly. "Maybe so, but I never expected him to be angry with me. I never maliciously rejected the guy or anything." She shrugged. "He just tried to date me at the wrong time, ya know?"

He embraced her lovingly from behind. "I know exactly what you mean. He should've known better than to try anything on the vixen who's having my son."

"Or daughter!" she said sternly.

"A daughter would be nice, but I want a son first, because I'm selfish."

She smiled. "I know that all too well, Ringtail. At least you're honest."

He nuzzled her. "Ah! There's the beautiful smile I missed so!" He trailed kisses down her neck and she snuggled warmly in his hold on her.

For a while, they lay in silence, Sly thinking of what he was planning on asking her and how he'd go about it, while she was, well, falling asleep, like always.

He took her hands and began to play with her fingers. "Will you go out with me?" he finally asked.

Thinking she heard him wrong she asked, "Come again?"

"Will you go out with me?" he repeated.

"Uhh, what exactly do you call this?" she asked.

"Well this happens to be called spooning, my dear," he informed her, to which the vixen burst into a fit of giggles. "I was actually referring to getting all dressed up and taking you out on the town," he continued after she regained her composure. "This Saturday. What do you say?"

She smiled at him in slight confusion. "Mmm, what's the occasion?" she asked.

"You are," he answered.

Carmelita grinned. "And if I say no?"

"Then you'll have one very heartbroken raccoon on your hands."

She laughed softly. "Aww Sly, I'd be a total fool to say no to a guy like you."

He grinned, his tail swishing behind him happily.

"Ok, I'll consider it, if you do something for me."

"Ooh, a proposition?" He loved those.

"Train me to be a thief?"

Sly bit his lip.

"Look, this is a happy medium," she assured him. "We can go somewhere out of the way. I won't be in any real danger, but you can still teach me how to be sneaky and whatnot. It'll be fun. Please?"

He smiled. "I still can't believe you actually want to be a thief."

"You're avoiding my request," the quick vixen reminded him, turning to face him.

He pondered said request for a moment, his lips a thin line. He then shrugged. "Eh, why not? We'll practice a little near the edge of the woods."

She squealed in delight and hugged him.

"So…?" he prompted her.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sly Cooper, I will go out with you. Play your cards right and I might even let you kiss me! On the lips!"

He brought her hand up to his own lips and placed feather kisses on the back of it. "Promise?" he asked.

She yawned. "Depends on how good your behavior is. By the third date, who knows? Maybe we can go all the way."

"You mean it? Please don't tease me."

She scoffed sleepily. "We'll see, Ringtail. Can we start training tomorrow?"

"As you wish, mon amour," he answered. She was asleep almost before he answered.

So, the next afternoon, Sly took her out to a peaceful edge of a clearing, on the outskirts of the city, and they trained for a while.

"I can hear you," Sly called from behind the base of a tree. He peeked around to see Carmelita curse under her breath.

She sighed. "I was tiptoeing I swear!"

"Creeping silently is the foundation of any robbery. If you're detected at all, it's game over."

"You always get caught though!"

"Yes, but I can fight off guards or run quickly. You're not so good at that yet," he pointed out.

Carmelita ran her fingers through her bangs, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. "So, what am I doing wrong?"

"You have to walk with stealth, feel the earth beneath you, and mesh with it skillfully." He crouched down, his bushy tail whipping around behind him. "You have to stay low to the ground. It has to become something you do without thinking. It must be instinctual."

Carmelita mimicked his stance, having a little trouble since her center of gravity was thrown off thanks to her pregnancy. Her arms flailed slightly as she stumbled, and Sly couldn't help but snicker.

She glared up at him.

He held his hands up and smiled, another laugh threatening to escape his lips again. "Sorry, sorry. It's just, so cute seeing you try to be sneaky."

She stood up, crossing her arms. "Yea well, cute isn't going to help my escape."

"Well, we can work on that later then."

"I'll get the hang of it," she said pointing a clawed finger up at him. "Vixens can be just as cunning as you master thieves, you know."

He smiled and shook his head. "Sure sure. Now, let's move on to combat."

She smiled. "Finally, something more my style."

Sly chuckled. "We'll see about that." He stepped back several feet, cane in hand. Crouching once more, he motioned her forward. "Try to attack me," he ordered.

She stood there for a moment. Then raced to his position, bringing her fist up to swing at him.

Firmly but gently, he caught her wrist right before the blow reached his chest.

She looked at him, faintly surprised and frustrated.

"Ok, your first mistake was waiting. Most of the time, you'll come in contact with a guard who packs more brawn than brain, but if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile, and you'll be on the ground, cuffed before you can even blink."

She clamped her hands on her hips. "And my next mistake?"

"If you're confronting a guard, you are never ever on the offense. Always defense. Let them come after you. Remember, you're trying to escape, not fight. But if it comes down to it, you have to be absolutely quick with your next move."

She shook her head. "I'll have trouble remembering everything. This is all so different from my job as an inspector."

"Almost like it's the polar opposite, huh?" he quipped.

She shoved him. "Ok Ringtail, so, if we're pretending you're a guard, I'll let you try to come after me first?"

"Right. Let's try again." He stepped back again and motioned for her.

She shook her head and motioned for him to come forward instead, to which he smiled and nodded.

Sly scampered up to her, stopping directly in front of her. He attempted a swing at her head and she ducked low.

"Good," he smiled, pleased. "You're learning."

They practiced a little more and Sly showed her how to use the cane as a weapon, whipping it forward, or shoving it to stun enemies.

Later, Sly trained his lady apprentice to sneak unseen from above, in the upper level of the treetops. She was a little frightened at first, as it was long way down to the ground, but he stayed close to her, taking her hand to lead her.

Sly loved being able to show Carmelita the ropes. He never dreamed he'd get to spend time with her this way. He'd always thought he'd spend his life running away from her, from the girl who only saw crime in a black and white way. But she was changing, adjusting, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

He smiled as he watched her from the ground as she leaped from higher branches overhead. "Keep your balance, Carm," he called. "Pretend you're scaling a clothesline."

"I'm trying," she called back, focusing on shifting her weight from foot to foot. It was quite a rush to take to the higher levels as opposed to chasing from the ground like she used to.

She was really getting the hang of it, and all was going well, until she landed on a weaker branch that snapped beneath her. Flailing wildly, she screamed as she began to fall to the ground below!

"CARMELITA!" Sly yelled in horror. Throwing his cane down, he leaped up and slid forward into the dirt, catching her just in time.

He sat there in the dirt and fallen leaves, clutching her, both of them exhaling heavily in post-fright.

Ok, so maybe leaping through the trees wasn't the safest or most effective form of training.

"Oh mon dieu, Carm!" he cried out and wrapped his arms around her round stomach, cradling his kit he could have lost just now if he had been only a second too late. He felt it kick lightly within her. "Don't ever do that to me again!"

"Sorry," she said, still breathing hard. "I should've been more careful." She looked up at him. "But you know, that was the most fun I've had in a long time. Before I fell I mean."

He sighed and helped her to her feet. "C'mon, let's get back home. I think your training will suffice for today. We can practice more later."

She nodded and they walked hand in hand back to the Safe House.

In the distance, Carmelita couldn't help but feel like there were eyes on her, coming from behind her in the trees, but every time she glanced, all she saw was another oak or sycamore.

Scared ya there for a second didn't I? No? You knew nothing bad would happen to one of the main characters? Aww.

Hope you stick around for the next chapters, as we get closer to the birth of the baby and we see Carmelita progress as a sneaky thief!