Summary: Sly and Carmelita go on their actual first date.

Sly did, as he had promised, go back to Carmelita's the same way he had last time, except he had knocked on the balcony door instead of letting himself in. Before getting to the topic at hand, the fox mentioned that she had thought it cute that he had given back her champagne bottle with one of his calling cards, to which Sly smiled at, and told her it was his pleasure. Formalities aside, they discussed the matter of actually going out, and eventually set a date and time before Sly got back to his hideout as fast as he could. The raccoon didn't know why he was going so fast, there wasn't really anyone waiting for him except maybe Bentley, but he was probably asleep and bedridden. The only times Sly had ever seen the turtle awake was when he was working on schematics for a wheelchair he would build that could get him moving again, perhaps even more efficiently than he had when he could have walked. He missed having his whole team together, and the only good thing to come of it was that he could get to know the Inspector a bit better.

That date and time was quickly approaching, and Sly was scrambling to get himself ready. He had attempted to make himself look a bit less scraggly, with the top half of a suit - no tie, though, he didn't own one - and a pair of jeans - considering he didn't have dress pants either. He had reluctantly left both his favorite hat and his beloved cane at home. The former because it made him look messy, and the latter because someone might recognize him if he brought it with him. He left his mask, too, even though he didn't look much different without it.

Carmelita had asked to be brought to some brand-new fancy restaurant somewhere on the outskirts of Paris that she had heard about. And, of course, he had accepted, the following day getting the reservations and listing them under her name, since he hadn't yet thought of a fake name for himself should someone ask who he was while they were together.

The thief descended the stairs from his room to the front door, and glanced back to the rest of the hideout out of habit. He sighed, a bit melancholy now, and left quietly so not to disturb his friend. As he closed the door behind him, he tucked his hands in his pockets and walked briskly to the complex where his date lived. He couldn't get up the way he usually went, now that he had left behind his cane, so he was just going to have to buzz himself in the normal way. Thankfully, he didn't look like he usually did, and would most likely get in and out without a hitch.

As he neared the building, he got a bit anxious as to whether or not he might be noticed. He stopped at the door, and looked for the button that had her name on it. There it was, under the top floors, 'Carmelita Fox' written in immaculate cursive, complete with adorable girlish heart replacing the dot on the I. He chuckled a bit to himself at the absurdity of someone like her writing it like that, before pressing the little white button.

A few seconds of ringing, and her voice came in with a crackle through the intercom.

"Hello?" she said. There was a bit of hopefulness in her voice that he picked up on, her hoping it was Sly there, he imagined.

"Guess who," the raccoon replied.

"Ringtail? I'll be down in a minute," she said quickly, before Sly could clarify that it was, in fact, him.

Sly waited for what was perhaps four minutes, and then he saw her.

She was wearing a dress, which was a bit shocking in and of itself, seeing her in anything that wasn't the outfit she had on whenever he was chased, but, this dress was magnificent. He didn't know too much about fashion, but he imagined something like this was coveted. It was blue - his favorite color - with a bow tied in at her waist, white fringes, and the actual solid part stopping over her chest, the rest of it that covered her shoulders and part of her back being a sort of transparent blue. He was a bit mesmerized at the sight of her, and Carmelita caught on to the fact.

"Are you going to stand there and gawk at me, Ringtail, or are we going to go?" she inquired, tilting her head. It didn't come out as forceful as she had hoped, because she was a bit infatuated with the idea that Sly liked her enough to be entranced by something as simple as showing up.

"...Right. Yeah, we should probably...go," he said slowly, fumbling for words, with a nod of his head. He was slightly embarrassed he had been caught staring at her, and turned back towards the lot where all the cars were. "Which one's yours, again?"

She didn't give him a verbal answer, instead opting to fish her keys out of her handbag, press the button twice so that it beeped, and tossing the keys towards Sly which he instinctively caught.

"Wonderful."

He opened first Carmelita's door, letting her climb in first, before he got behind the wheel, pulled out of the lot, and headed towards the place. It was quiet at first, before Carmelita broke the silence.

"You look nice."

"A compliment? Who are you and what have you done with Carmelita Montoya Fox?" he said back, a wry smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Oh, come on, Sly, I'm not that cold-hearted," she sighed.

"I know, I know..." Sly shrugged. "You do too, you know."

"I can tell, considering it took you a bit of willpower to get your eyes off of me."

Sly laughed a bit. "Is that really a bad thing?"

"No, I don't suppose it is," she replied, and laughed with him. She turned away from him at that moment, however, the faintest of blushes painting her cheeks. She was right. Sly really did like her.

They talked like that for a while, until Sly figured out where exactly he was supposed to be going and got the two of them into the parking lot leading up to the building. He hadn't exactly figured out what it was called, considering it's name was in French, and the raccoon had never gotten the hang of the language, only learning bits and pieces of it.

He opened his door, closed it, and then walked over to the side the fox was on. He opened her door, let her get out, and closed the door behind her. The thief then chose to take one of Carmelita's hands in his own, and walk like that up to the building. Carmelita smiled at him when he did so, and didn't say anything up until they were actually there. Sly had let go of her hand momentarily to open the door for the both of them, and took it again when they were inside. Someone at the front asked for their names, and Sly gave them Carm's, since that was what he had put their reservations under. There was a moment where they checked the name, and then led the two to a small circular table, Sly sitting on one end and his date on the other.

Two glasses of water were set next to them, and then their waiter asked for their orders. Carmelita got some kind of salad, it sounded, and Sly chose not to get anything - food wasn't what he was there for - but he did ask for a bottle of wine, which they promptly brought a few moments later along with whatever it was his date had ordered.

Sly picked up the bottle, and looked at it for a moment before pouring the liquid into both of the glasses they had been given. He set the bottle off to the side, picked up his wine glass, and drank. It tasted pretty good, he thought. It was quiet for a moment, a few moments, Sly occasionally drinking the wine or the water, and watching Carmelita do the same.

"Isn't that wonderful?" he said.

Carmelita wasn't sure what he meant. "What's wonderful?"

"That we don't have to say anything. We can just...be here, you know?" Sly clarified.

"I guess it is, yeah," she agreed after a while. "Thanks for coming out here with me, Sly. It means a lot to me."

"The pleasure's all mine. After all, I asked you."

She laughed a little bit. "Yeah, I know."

"You know, we didn't do the whole 'first date' thing yet. You haven't told me anything about yourself," Sly said.

"Why is it I have to go first?" Carmelita asked.

"Because it's your job to know everything about me, and I know hardly anything about you," he said with a smile.

"Oh, fine," she huffed, and began to tell Sly a few things about her. She was born in France, but both of her parents were from Mexico. She had always wanted to be a police officer, ever since she was a little girl. Her favorite color was orange, Sly noticed. That was noteworthy to the thief.

"Alright, now you know just as much about me as I do you. Your turn," Carm said between sips of water.

Sly simply shook his head. "I can't. Maybe some other time, okay?"

"Aw, come on, Ringtail, why not?" his date inquired, her head a bit tilted.

"There's some...bad stuff in there that I'd rather not talk about right now. We're supposed to be happy right now, after all, right?" he sighed. His ears were flattened against his head, as if it made him sad just to make a passing mention of what had happened when he was younger.

Carmelita nodded, understanding. She wouldn't have told the raccoon anything she didn't want him to know, regardless. She shifted the topic to something else, more for Sly's benefit than it was hers, and the raccoon eventually stopped being sad, perked his ears up, and smiled that ridiculously mischievous smile of his.

Neither of them knew how much time had passed, but what was certain was that they were the last patrons to leave, considering their waiter had come at some point and told them that the establishment was closed. Sly had paid for everything (he had to reassure Carmelita he hadn't stolen any of the money he paid for it with, either) and now there they were, in front of Carmelita's building. He had walked her to the front, and smiled.

"Well, that was fun, huh?" he asked.

Carmelita giggled. "It was, Cooper. It certainly was."

Sly sighed. "As great as that was, I should really be getting home. It's, like, 1 in the morning, and I've got a lot of thieving to do, so..." He let it trail off.

She giggled, again. Sly loved her laugh. It always made him happy whenever she was. "Whatever you say, Cooper." She paused. "Okay then...goodnight, Ringtail," she said.

"Night," he said, shortly before giving her a quick hug and a wave goodbye. He watched her go, and sighed to himself. He was already going to be counting the seconds until the next one. As he turned to walk home, he realized something. Her birthday was going to be coming in a matter of weeks. He was going to have to do something special for her then. He was going to make it the best day of her life.