I like this chapter! It is a fun chapter.

I've gotten suggestions from a few people that I should make Ahanu and Ritsuka a spin-off story. What do you guys think about this? I'm not saying I'll do it, I'd just like to know your thoughts.

On with the chapter!

"I can't believe you hit me," Sly said for the fifth time, probing his jaw with the hand that wasn't in a sling, "I'm pretty sure that's not a medically recognized form of resuscitation."

"Yeah well you're alive aren't you? And you hit me back and I got a lovely little cut in my mouth that keeps me from eating oranges, so don't even start because if we're complaining, I'll win." I scratched idly at the wrap on my ankle. No one had come away from Blood Bath Bay unscathed except the Panda Kind (guy was made of adamantium or something, seriously) and Dimitri (who seemed to have fallen in love with himself).

Bentley and Penelope, however, seemed to have come out on top anyway. They were over at the front of the ship, putting their heads together, smiling and giggling over something it would probably take at least one doctorate to understand. Somehow, it was cute anyway.

"Well, in my defense I didn't know it was you." Sly and I were perfectly happy to sit on a pair of barrels and poke fun at each other while not speaking of anything serious under unspoken agreement. Our system, it worked.

"Well in my defense I don't know CPR."

"Yeah, what's the deal with that?"

"Oh, shut up." I ran my tongue over the inside of my cheek where my teeth had cut into the skin, "And since when are you left handed?"

"I'm not, I'm ambidextrous."

"I hate you."

"To be honest, though." He leaned back against the mast bonelessly. "I'm surprised you actually freaked out that much. You don't seem to get scared of anything but heights."

I gave him a look that question the state of his mentality. "Um, Sly, are you serious? Because if you are then you should see a doctor because you have gone blind and that is bad. I get scared all the time."

He gave me an amused grin, "Seriously?"

"Yes, 'seriously'. Just because I deal with it by cracking wise instead of huddling in a corner and giving in to a panic attack doesn't mean I'm not scared."

"Aw, look at you, so brave! Come, cry into my manly bosom."

"Bentley! Bentley, Sly's sexually harassing me!"

The turtle just rolled his eyes at us.

"Pssh, that's not sexual harassment. This is sexual harassment." Sly took off his hat, set it aside and ran a hand through his hair before leaning even more against the mast, giving me this sly little grin, and speaking in a voice made of velvet, "That cut you mentioned... want me to kiss it better?"

I just stared at him as I took a minute to really visualize that suggestion, "How has Carmelita not shot you yet?"

"I'm just too charming."

"Uh-huh."

"Though, speaking of Carmelita," Sly dusted off his hat idly and flipped it up back onto his head, "I do believe this is the first time in memory that she hasn't shown up after a heist and hauled everyone off to jail."

"Really? Wow, she must be tearing her hair out back in Paris. We should send her a post card or something."

"That is an excellent idea."

Carmelita Montoya Fox had never considered herself a particularly violent person, but at that precise moment she really wanted to just start breaking things.

It had been nearly a month and not only had Cooper disappeared from the face of the Earth, but he'd taken Kaia Jenks with him. Allegedly. This meant an unwelcome addition to her office.

Speaking of which.

She turned a persecuted gaze over to the loveseat that had replaced her ostentatious safe. The intruder had his legs dangling over one armrest and his back propped against the other as he perused a file, reading glasses perched precariously on the tip of his nose. She wasn't quite sure what sort of file he was reading, but considering he had a stack of identical files a foot and a half tall within reach, she figured it probably wasn't relevant.

Inspector Garter was, to be fair, a good agent; before being assigned the Jenks case, his solve rate had been perfect. The problem was that their cases were directly linked and they were not only expected to work together and help each other, they were required to. So, since Paris was where the Cooper gang had first been incriminated in a crime and was therefore the center of the investigation, Garter had relocated from an office in London to Carmelita's loveseat.

It wasn't just that she didn't want anyone interfering in the case she'd spent years working on, though that was a large portion of her ire; her style of investigation and his did not mesh at all. She preferred to hit the streets to gather information, maybe jam her shock pistol into a few faces. He just sat there, a cup of tea at hand; looking over obscure reports that, going from the amount of dust on them, hadn't seen the light of day for years.

To add to that, he was extremely condescending. He was cooperative, sure, and openly acknowledged her as the authority on the subject of the Cooper gang, but she got the feeling he didn't believe she could do more than lace up her own boots, for all he was at least a year younger than her both in age and Interpol experience.

They had never actually argued, but had come very close. Currently, they hadn't exchanged words for almost two hours. Carmelita just wanted to be able to pace her office in peace, something she always did when she thought. She'd pace, take a few shots at the beat-up punching bag hanging in the corner, and drink coffee.

The fox took a glance over at the coffee pot sitting on her desk. It was woefully empty.

"I think I found something."

She took a deep, calming breath.

He continued, "Remember the connection we discovered between Venice and Holland?"

She'd discovered it, but she decided to be tactful and not point that out, "In Venice, Cooper aided the escape of the fugitive Dimitri and in Holland, there's evidence that his gang recruited a local Remote Control specialist by the name of Penelope." Unable to discover what these out-of-character actions meant at the time, they'd stopped looking into them after the arrest of Kaia Jenks in China.

Garter took another report from the middle of his stack, somehow managing not to knock it over, and added it to the report in his hand before offering them to her, "I found similar connections for Australia and China.

That got Carmelita's attention. She quickly strolled over to pick up the reports. They were thin and pristine, showing they were minor details filed for the sake of formality or policy. Opening up the first, the static electricity of the paper offered some resistance, showing Garter had likely been the first one to open it since it had been filed.

"In the follow-up investigation of the events in Australia, investigators were directed by locals to question a local guru, known for his mastery of the mystic art of Dreamtime. He reportedly lived near Ayer's Rock, where the largest concentration of miners was found. Investigators found two potential places of residence, but were unable to find the guru. It was speculated that he may have been killed by the miners, but no evidence was found to substantiate this… You think the Cooper gang recruited this guy?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Her fellow Inspector pulled a small cloth out of his pocket and ran it over his glasses. "But nothing was stolen from the mining operation, was it? And plenty of opals were lying around that would have made a fortune on the black market. The only thing the Cooper gang seemed to do was make life hell for the miners. It's possible that the guru may have recruited them to help clear out the area in exchange for his services. Don't give me that look, it doesn't matter if I believe this guru can perform feats of supernatural prowess, it matters if they do. Take a look at the other report."

Carmelita flipped through it, "It's an interview with a woman named Jing King, Tsao's unwilling bride-to-be before we crashed the wedding. She vanished from his estate the night before they were to be wed and, out of local concern for her well-being, a missing-person's report was filed. She was found over three hundred kilometers from the estate, staying with a relative. When asked, she said her father had rescued her and had left to provide aid to the nobleman who had helped him execute her escape… Wait, Jing King? Is her father-"

"The Panda King? He is. And it's possible the agent mistook the translator saying 'noble man' when he wrote it down as 'nobleman'."

"So that's… four people. Three we know for sure are in Cooper's debt, the fourth, going from the pattern, probably is as well."

"Well, you're the expert," Garter unfolded himself from the couch and stood, "Why would Cooper need that many people?"

"I'm not sure… the Cooper gang tends to keep to themselves and just pull the jobs they can with their skill-set, which doesn't really narrow it down. But if they need that much specialized talent…" Carmelita drummed her fingertips against her forehead in thought, "The Panda King is a fireworks artist turned crime-lord, turned monk. That girl from Holland, Penelope, she's an RC specialist. The Guru… the art of Dreamtime? We need to look that up. Dimitri is a world-class forger. And who know what Kaia can do by now? What could Cooper possibly be up to…?"

"I have an idea where to start looking." Garter reached over and selected a file he had put aside some time ago, "A month before Cooper surfaced in New York and recruited Jenks, there were a handful of convenient security glitches at Heathrow Prison. Aside from finding a way to repair the equipment, there wasn't much panic because, after a thorough roll call, it was discovered that no one had escaped."

To her surprise, Carmelita found herself following his train of thought, "You think that the security glitches were because someone got in?"

He nodded and gave a thin smile, "Got in and got out, very quickly. Dimitri and the Panda King were both incarcerated at this prison at the time, but what really interests me is this man." He passed the file over.

This file was heavy in Carmelita's hands, the edges were worn as though it had been handled many times by many different people and pictures and notes stuck out slightly where they were paper-clipped to relevant pages. She opened it up, "James McSweeny?"

"I'll summarize, as going through that file in its entirety would take all night. McSweeny was well-known for several burglaries and brawls, your typical criminal muscle man until about thirty years ago when he met a man named Connor Cooper. That's right, Cooper's old man had a team too and this guy was their heavy-hitter. Thirteen years ago, he turned himself in to the surprise of the authorities. Three days later, Connor Cooper was murdered."

"You think Cooper snuck in to meet with McSweeny?" Carmelita asked, flipping through the latter half of the file, "It would certainly fit."

"I do. McSweeny might have clued him in to something. We find out what that was, and we can find Cooper."

Carmelita grinned, feeling her fatigue vanish. Finally, a lead. "Well," She snapped the file closed and planted a hand on her hip, looking up at her impromptu partner, "Looks like we're going to Heathrow."

"She is going to kill you the next time she sees you," I informed Sly as he walked out of the 'post office'. We'd anchored in at a little island that barely qualified as civilization, but it had an air strip and a mailing center, so it was able to accommodate our few needs.

He smiled and tipped his pirate hat (I'm not kidding, he stole the thing back from Murray, apparently), "Always nice to know you think of my health, Jinx."

"Well someone has to, you certainly don't give the job much thought." I fell into step with him, threading my fingers together behind my back and looking around. The island town was small, but it wasn't so bad. There was an oil rig a few miles out to sea, which meant there was a boosted population, but not nearly enough to turn this place into a tourist trap, probably due to its remote location and the lack of beaches. The locals seemed nice, though Sly was the one doing all the talking, I didn't even know what language they were speaking. All in all... not too bad. "So, what did Bentley ask us to get? Not like this isn't a thinly veiled excuse for him and Penelope to get some time by themselves, of course."

The raccoon at my side chuckled, "Of course." Having decided just to go straight for the Cooper Vault without heading back to Paris (as the police were probably still looking for us there and we were pretty close to the island where the vault was anyway), Bentley sent everyone out to get supplies.

Food, water, essentials and such were being handled by the Panda King, the Guru, and Murray. Sly and I were to find some specialty parts for the gang and some specifics requested by Bentley and Penelope. The geeks in question were either having a romantic candlelight dinner on the ship, or they snuck off somewhere for a date. My money was on the candlelight dinner, Sly's was on the date.

Dimitri had slunk off somewhere to 'find the party beat in this joint'. He had informed us not to expect him back until sunrise. We had unanimously decided to leave him there should he not show up by noon.

Sly pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and opened it up, "Apparently, they need gas for Penelope's RC chopper and car, sulfur and potassium nitrate for the Panda King, and hydrochloric acid. I don't know who put that on the list and I don't want to know."

"Well, you never know when hydrochloric acid will come in handy." I ignored the horrified look I received and skipped ahead a bit, "So, I'm thinking we can find a bunch of this stuff at a local high school chemistry lab, if they have one, or any sort of hardware store. Shall we get started?"

It was a rare and enjoyable treat to be able to stroll the streets with Sly without either of us having to wear a disguise. We wandered and got a bite to eat before finally getting down to business when the sun started to set.

When we'd collected everything we needed, we headed back to the dock. The rowboat Murray used, in addition to the two lifeboats the ship had, were docked there. Sly untied ours while I got in and steadied the boat.

"One thing I do like about the ocean," I confessed to Sly as we rowed toward where the ship was anchored, "Is how much sky there is to see."

"You are such a sap."

I kicked him lightly, "Seriously, though! Look over there!" I pointed off into the distance, where the barest sliver of sun was still illuminating the surrounding clouds, "See those really bright clouds that are somehow pink and orange at the same time? If I could pick only one color to see for the rest of my life, that would be it."

"If I only had to pick one, do you know what it would be?"

"What?"

"Hey, I asked you, I'm not telling."

I kicked him harder this time.

I rubbed my head as I walked up the stairs to the deck. After Sly and I had returned to the ship, no one had come back for nearly three hours. About eleven, I decided to go ahead and go to sleep, I was really tired for some reason; Sly stayed up to wait for everyone.

I'd woken up to the sound of some sort of commotion on deck. It didn't sound like anyone was fighting or being attacked, which was why I was shuffling instead of sprinting, but I was still wondering why anyone would be making so much noise at midnight-thirty.

I opened up the hatch and, with a 'pop!' my face was attacked by colors and the smell of sulfur.

I would've reacted, probably by yelping and batting the colorful paper away from my face, but my arms were pinned to my sides by a bear hug.

"Happy Birthday, Kaia! I'm glad you were born!"

"Wh-" I found myself looking over Sly's shoulder at a completely transformed deck. What looked like Christmas lights had been strung through the rigging, from which tiny paper lanterns hung as well. A long table laid out with every party food I could possibly imagine also housed champagne poppers, like the one Sly had just loosed in my face, noisemakers, and various other things, not the least of which was a small mountain of presents. "What?"

Sly laughed and I was spun around to face the rest of the gang, "It's March twenty-fifth as of thirty-two minutes ago, happy nineteenth birthday!"

I was floored, even as he pushed me forward, "Guys, you didn't have to make a big deal out of my birthday."

"Maybe not, but it sure was fun," Murray was the next person to come over and hug me. I was still having trouble processing what I was seeing.

Once I was freed, I looked around again, noticing something, "Hey, where's the Panda King?"

"Oh, I am so glad you asked," Bentley said with a smile, nodding toward the island.

I turned to follow his line of sight and didn't see anything at first. Then I heard two faint sounds in the distance and an instant later, the sky exploded into color. Fireworks. They were shooting off fireworks for my birthday.

It caught up to me then. You know that feeling, when you're just so happy the you tear up and have to fight back the urge to make very strange, high-pitched noises? It can't just be me that gets that feeling, right?

I coughed to cover up said feeling and tried to control the grin that was threatening to break my face, "Thanks, guys."

The night passed in a blur of colors and music and a truly outrageous amount of activity. I'm pretty sure that Dimitri slipped something into the drinks when he got back and found out there was party he hadn't been invited to, considering I woke up in the captain's quarters and had no idea how I got there. It would also explain the dancing.

I shoved Sly's ridiculously heavy arm off of my shoulders and noted with amusement that he appeared to be defying gravity by simply still being on the bed; considering the only parts of his body that were actually supported by the mattress were a single leg, an arm, and where he seemed to have wedged his head between the bed-frame and the side table.

I wasn't really that surprised by his presence. He had a tendency to make a beeline for the nearest warm object in his sleep; it wasn't the first time I'd woken up to find him half-sprawled on top of me, even if he'd previously been on the other side of the room or in another room entirely. He swore up and down that he sleepwalked. I suspected he had nightmares and too much pride to admit it.

I eased off the bed as quietly as I could, an effort rendered moot when I stood and a vast majority of my skeleton decided to crack loudly with a volume to rival popping bubble wrap. Still, Sly slept like the dead so I was free to lace my fingers and stretch my arms over my head, pleased to find that my side no longer stung at the effort. Goodbye, Sly's over-sized shirts; hello, wearing my own clothes!

Speaking of, I needed to change as soon as possible. I hated sleeping in clothes that weren't pajamas, it made me feel like my skin had generated another layer overnight. Fortunately, there was a dressing screen in the room and my backpack hadn't moved from the corner, so I was able to realize my desire for clean clothes rather quickly.

I felt infinitely better, stepping out into pale, grey light of the early morning. It seemed to dissipate my slight headache immediately. I made a mental note to remove one of Dimitri's limbs at the earliest convenient opportunity. Preferably as a celebratory action after the successful completion of the Cooper Vault job.

I shook my hair out as I felt the cool breeze coming off the waves slide through my fur. The world was so still early in the morning; it was a phenomenon I was usually unconscious for. I'd probably leave the realm of consciousness pretty soon, but it was nice to witness the sunrise on one's birthday. It wasn't really a tradition of mine, but I did make a note to do it whenever I remembered.

Everyone else was presumably below deck, considering I didn't see them around, though it wouldn't be that big a deal if a certain salamander had fallen overboard during the night. Not at all.

I'd made my way to the stern, as it was the part of the boat facing east and therefore offered the best view, before I heard the door to the captain's room swing shut.

"Why're you 'wake?"

I almost laughed. That was the most articulate I'd ever heard Sly be within the first hour after he awoke, "I'm watching the sun come up, why are you?"

"Y'took all th' warm with you." He somehow made it up the stairs to half collapse against the railing, "Sun's not that special."

I rolled my eyes with a smile, "It is on my birthday. And I've seen you take a nap half-buried in a snowdrift."

"Extenuating circumstances." Apparently those two words were quite enough for his pre-coffee brain because he let out the rest of his breath in a huff and buried his face in one arm as the sun started to glow against the horizon.

I shook my head, the smile not leaving my face as I curiously ran a hand through his hair, wondering how it could defy gravity as it was currently doing and still be soft. Seriously, it had seemed to form a sort of alliance to congregate completely on the left side of his head and from there look like an electrical experiment gone wrong. I silently blamed it on the fact that he always wore a hat.

"Are you happy?"

I was kind of surprised and kind of not by the question. On the one hand, it seemed to come completely out of the blue, on the other Sly had seemed kind of pre-occupied lately and since he'd just woken up his defenses weren't quite in place yet, so it was likely he'd just say whatever was on his mind. It was probably one of the reasons he avoided talking after having just woken up.

"Of course I am. I'm an exceedingly selfish person, Sly; if I wasn't happy, I wouldn't be here." It was true. If I didn't want to stay with the gang, I'd just disappear one day and leave a note that declared I'd gone off to save the endangered kittens of Zanzibar or something else completely ridiculous. It would be the only way to leave without making it into a huge deal and not hurting anyone's feelings in the process. It felt kind of weird to know I'd already planned that out, for no conceivable reason.

"It's dangerous, though. You got hurt, coulda died."

"If I died today and then got to live my life straight through again, I'd do the same thing." Also true, I'd lived more in nineteen years than most people could claim for a lifetime. "Though I'd probably try to avoid dying the second time around."

He made an odd humming noise; I couldn't tell whether it was satisfaction with my answer or something else, mostly because he then sighed lightly and tilted his head to the side so my fingers would go behind his ear.

Once upon a time, I'd read a quote in a brilliant book written by a brilliant man about a girl and a boy: "I fell in love with him like I fell asleep; very slowly, then all at once."

Standing at the railing, one hand buried in Sly's mussed up, slightly sweaty hair; I had my all at once.

With irritation, I punched the conviction in the face and sent it scurrying into a dark corner of my mind to think about what it had done. It wasn't really surprising; in fact I'd been expecting it for some time now, hence the 'very slowly' part of the quote, ever since my chest cavity had started feeling warmer whenever Sly was nearby. I'd loved him as a friend since Prague and we'd only gotten closer as time passed.

I'd just hoped to hold off on feeling anything more at least until after the Cooper Vault job, mostly because I was so bad at hiding emotions I wasn't used to experiencing. He'd know something was up within a handful of hours and I was not looking forward to that conversation; we were both far too stubborn for it to go well. Hopefully I could hold it at bay at least until after the Cooper Vault and come up with a more permanent solution then. I determinedly did not think about what that would be.

So immersed was I in my thoughts, I jumped when Sly let out a low groan, "Sun's up, can we go back to bed now?"

I laughed, "Yes, Sly, yes we can."

"Well, that was a complete waste of time." Carmelita muttered irately, unwinding the scarf from around her neck and hanging up her coat.

"Oh, ye of little faith." Kristian didn't bother removing his outerwear, instead coming around to stand by her desk while she sat and let her head fall against the surface.

"He didn't tell us anything. I've never seen someone clam up like that, especially with the offer of cutting his sentence to time served. Usually they'll at least make something up if they think it will get them out of prison."

"What if that's the point?"

She only lifted her eyes from her folded arms to have them question his mental status. He sighed.

"Come on, I know you're not that thick. Think about it. If you were trying to avoid a criminal, a smart, cunning, dangerous one with almost a zero percent chance of getting caught, what would you do? Yes, I know you would arrest and/or shoot him, but think about it. McSweeny turned himself in. Just a few days later, his known partner was murdered. You really don't think there's a link?"

Carmelita sat up straighter, her eyes snapping to focus directly ahead of her, "You're right. How did I not see that?"

He decided it was in his best interest not to answer. "When you met Cooper, what was your impression? The very first time you saw him, what were you thinking?" Kristian watched intently as she remembered, it didn't take more than a moment.

"It was at the opera… he was on the roof. I think it was one of his first jobs, he was going after a diamond. He wasn't at all like he is now, his clothes were worn and he was still a little clumsy, especially with the tools he was using."

"Worn out clothes?" That confirmed it, "Inspector Fox, what would you say the Cooper Clan's fortune might be like?"

The fox ran a hand through her dark bangs, "Incalculable. Even without what Sly has accumulated, his family's wealth, just what we've confirmed they've taken and not even adding up all the things they've been accused of taking..."

"A master thief worth more than his weight in diamonds was sitting on top of a roof with second-hand tools and ragged clothes?"

It was with satisfaction that he saw the light come on behind her eyes, "He never got his inheritance."

"So where is everything the Coopers stole?"

She stood, "You think McSweeny told him where to find it?"

"I definitely think it's a possibility," Kristian took a step back and rubbed his forehead, "But that doesn't tell us where it is or why he needed to recruit all of those people."

"Or… maybe it does." Carmelita went to her filing cabinet and unlocked it, "Sly Cooper's gang consists of himself, Murray, and Bentley; a thief, a muscle-man, and a strategist."

Kristian was not used to not being able to follow a train of thought, "So?"

"So…" Inspector Fox pulled a file from the very back of the cabinet and slapped it onto her desk. "Who was Connor Cooper's strategist?"

Now he could follow, "You think the strategist has the Cooper money? If he betrayed Connor Cooper to the Fiendish Five gang so he could have all of the loot to himself; that would explain who McSweeny was trying to escape by turning himself in… That would also explain why Cooper needs all that extra help, how would you rob a criminal who has a thirteen year head-start on security?"

"Exactly," Carmelita was scanning one of the back pages of the file when she abruptly stopped and pointed about halfway down the page, "Here it is."

Kristian leaned over her shoulder, "Dr. M?"

She nodded, "Inspector Berkley, my predecessor, headed up the Connor Cooper case. He always suspected that there was a member he never got to see and, after spotting Dr. M at a scene, he was convinced that it was him. He could never find any leads on him, though, he was incredibly careful."

"Okay," The cougar dropped onto the loveseat he had claimed for himself and closed his eyes, "So now we know who the Cooper gang is stealing from and what they're stealing. The question is, where are they stealing it from? We can hardly put out a world-wide search for a paranoid ex-criminal under the pseudonym Dr. M."

"Maybe not," Carmelita had picked up her mail and flipped through it, before halting at a particular piece and drawing it out of the file, "But I think I know where to start looking."

Kristian stood and strode over to her, taking the postcard and looking it over. After that, he had only one thing to say.

"Get your coat."

...

I feel like I should be hiding.

Also, apologies for any typos, it's two in the morning here.