Summary: Sly and Carmelita talk one last time before Sly leaves on his heist.

Sly was surprised to find out that when it boiled down to it, he wasn't really stealing anything that wasn't already his. Bentley explained to him that Kaine Island was where the Cooper vault was, which meant that everything in that vault was from his ancestors, which made it all his. Sly and Bentley would be leaving the next day to start their recruiting, but Sly had one last thing to take care of.

He felt somewhat obligated to let Carmelita know where he'd be, so that she could be there too. She'd come, they'd do their little routine, and then he'd get away, but he'd leave her something. There had to be something in that vault that she could use to keep Interpol off of his back. That night, he had sneaked into the darkness of Paris to let her know.

I really don't need to do this, do I? he thought. She'd find out one way or another, he probably didn't have to tell her. But, he realized, it was an excuse to talk to her. Then again, he didn't really need an excuse, did he? He was always welcome around there, he figured, after all the pair had done together.

As he neared her building, he noticed that the fox was out on her balcony already, looking up into the sky. She was looking at the stars, he figured. I never took her for the type of girl to stargaze, he thought. She didn't see him yet, so Sly decided he'd get her attention. He cupped one of his hands around his mouth, the other on his cane, and called out to her.

"Miss Fox!" he called. It brought her out of her inner world, and her gaze averted from the night sky to down at Sly. He could almost feel her rolling her eyes at him as he climbed up to be with her.

"So, Ringtail, what do you want?" she asked him when his cane grasped one of the bars on the railing, and he jumped up onto the balcony.

"I wanted to come and see you, is all, mi amor. Aren't I allowed to do that?" Sly replied. He moved forward to take one of Carmelita's hands, and kiss it, before grasping it in his own.

A shiver ran through the vixen's body. Every time he touched her, she got nervous, and flustered, and, well...other things. She couldn't name some of the emotions that she felt. She'd never let that show, though. It'd just give him more reason to keep doing it, and make it worse. But he also made it better, didn't he?

"As grateful as I am that you'd run through Paris just to come see me, it'd be nice if you'd call me and give me a heads up or something."

"But then you wouldn't be surprised, and that's the best part."

"I told you before, I hate surprises." she sighed.

"Then I suppose that means you hate me, considering I'm full of surprises, aren't I, Miss Fox?" he responded, with a wink.

"That you are." She didn't say any more, going back to looking up into the sky. She came outside to look at the stars whenever she had something on her mind, something that bothered her that she needed to think about or get away from. But there was something else that got her to forget her troubles.

Him.

He was looking up with her now, she realized. "You know, I remember Bentley telling me once that some of the stars that we can see are dead and that we just can't see that yet."

"That doesn't make them any less beautiful," Carmelita replied.

"I could say that it doesn't make you any less beautiful, either, but that would be cliche," Sly mused.

She smiled at him, and said nothing back.

"So, Carm, I'm going to be away for a while." he stated. She chuckled a bit. He's going on one of his heists, isn't he? she thought.

"What are you stealing this time?" Carmelita asked.

"Nothing that isn't already mine, let's just say," he responded. He wasn't going to tell her any more than that, she understood. They were quiet again, for a while, as she thought about it. She wasn't really entirely approving of his going off and stealing things. It was her job to try and stop him. They were opposites, something like what they had shouldn't exist.

And yet it did.

"Sly?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you steal?"

He had expected her to ask. "Same reason you're a cop. My family's always done it. My dad, he taught me to be a master thief. I only steal from other thieves. He gave me his cane before he...died." he said, hesitant to finish the sentence. It pained him to talk about his parents' deaths.

"Oh." They had told her when she was assigned his case that he was an orphan, but she still felt bad for him. Is this what he hadn't wanted to talk about on our date? she wondered. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you. Since you asked though, my family steals to make a name for itself. To survive. That sort of thing, you know?" he explained. "Not only that, but it's a pretty big plus that it's fun," he finished.

The pair looked at each other, and Sly smiled, shortly before Carmelita did. Sly was smiling because he was fondly remembering some of his escapades as a thief, with his friends. Carmelita smiled because, well, it was difficult for her not to when it came to Sly. His stupid-looking smile, his suggestiveness that was specifically for her, all of it was worthy of a smile. She regretted that they had been so different, born from two families with opposite morals. There was a wall between them, she realized, a wall that kept them from truly being together.

"You ever think about quitting? Settling down, that sort of thing?" she asked.

He slowly nodded. "I have...but I can't just yet. I'm only 21, Carm, I've got my whole life ahead of me. Plenty of time to do what I love to do. But I will. I'll settle down, and have my own family, but...not yet, I'm afraid," he responded.

His grip ever so slightly tightened on her hand at the mention of a family. Whether it was because he saw Carmelita as his family, or because he missed his real family, the vixen wasn't sure. She had a feeling, though, that it was the former rather than the latter. She was disappointed, though, that he was putting his thievery over their relationship. That was something, she thought, that was just one of the bricks in the wall.

"I understand," she said in confirmation, but truly, she didn't.

"I'm leaving tomorrow. I trust you'll be there to stop me, Inspector?" he said playfully.

"I'm going to have to be there, now that you've told me," she confirmed.

He chuckled. "That'll be fun, won't it?"

She couldn't help but laugh a bit with him. "I guess so."

He was quiet for a bit, as if thinking for another thing to say. "So, you stargaze, huh?"

She nodded. "Just from up here. It helps me whenever I'm distracted."

Sly had an idea, an idea that would involve giving her a distraction. With that thought in mind, the raccoon embraced her from behind, arms draped around her neck, locking above her waist as he pulled her close to him. She could feel the hotness coming up to her face as he did so, and she tensed up a bit. Sly could tell, and the vixen could almost feel him smirking from behind her.

"Is something making you nervous, Miss Fox?" he said, as coyly as ever, a look on his face that said he knew exactly what it was.

"Sly, stop it," she demanded, but she knew deep down he wasn't going to, and that she didn't want him to either.

His head was leaning in closer, and he began planting kisses on her neck and cheeks, his hands gliding around from her waist to her hips. He's teasing me, isn't he? she thought. He knew that he couldn't stay with her, because he was leaving, so he was giving her something to think about. A sort of 'to be continued'. He started lightly nipping at her neck, bites that were hard enough to hurt a bit, but not hard enough to break the skin. Her tail started to sway back and forth across his legs uncontrollably, a response Carmelita had no control over. And he was enjoying every minute of it. Oh, you son of a bitch.

She was starting to enjoy it, before Sly stopped altogether.

"It's getting late, Inspector. We'll have to continue this later, unfortunately," he said, a bit of mock sorrow tracing his voice, complete with his ears flattening against his head and his own tail stopping its own wagging. He was a bit sad they'd had to pause there, as well, but not as sad as the fox was.

"Unfortunately," she growled. She was torn between clawing his face and forcing him to spend the night with her, both of which probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

"Yes. I'll see you at the island, Miss Fox." And with that, he briefly locked his lips with hers in a goodbye kiss, and fled from her balcony into the darkness below. She could see his silhouette run through the street lights, and she sighed. Carmelita would definitely be finishing what that conniving jerk had started, whether he was up to it or not. This wasn't over just yet.

She looked up into the stars again. They certainly were good at calming her down. Right now, that was exactly what she needed, considering she was so warmed up now. She was practically a nervous wreck because of him, his strong hold around her, and his obvious love for her. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted the feeling to go away. She had never felt like this around anyone before.

It was so wonderful.