Happy Friday all my lovely Crystal Thief followers! TGIF!

So is everybody enjoying their last few weeks of school and all that? Yuck, I'm not. Finals and projects and pointless stuff like that. Okay, so I'm really sorry about how I haven't updated in a long while. I got lots of reviews, and I'm going to thank those that reviewed and then get right into the story with you guys, okay? Just a bit of drama and a bit of DaniXFlynn fluff. Hope you guys like it! PS. Do any of my awesome reviewers have a pic collage?

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Thanks guys! Enjoy this chapter!

The biggest idiot in the world is spelled C-L-O-P-I-N.

-Phoebus

In Notre Dame, people bustled and pushed through the crowd, the news of the Execution pulsing like a live beat through newspapers in every New Yorker's hands. Phoebus angrily pushed through the crowd, pulling Meg by one arm and Holli by the other. Quasi led the way through Notre Dame square towards where he thought Clopin might live.

After wading through people for a little while, he stopped, which caused Phoebus to crash into his back. "What? What is it?" Phoebus demanded, a little ticked off.
"There he is!" Quasi pointed. "Look, I heard that woman call him Clopin. I think that's him. That guy telling those little kids stories."

Phoebus rolled up his sleeves and headed forward into the crowd for Clopin. "Clopin!" he called. "Clopin!"

The man looked up. He wore a dark pink mask along with a funny pointed blue hat and matching clothing with little bells on it. Not to mention funny pointed shoes and...stockings.

Phoebus frowned. "I asked you a question. Are you Clopin?"

The man put down the cloth dolls he was telling a story with and set it down on the ground. "Un momento," he said to the children and waltzed over to them. He pointed at Phoebus. "Ah! Phillip, right? Or was it...Florencio? I'm sorry, boy, I really forgot your name. Honestly. It was so long ago, wasn't it?"
"Phoebus," snapped Phoebus.

"Phoebus, why are you upset?" Holli rubbed his arm and moved to Phoebus's side. "Hi, Clopin. I'm Holli Would. I'm Esmeralda's best friend."
Meg frowed. "I beg to differ. I think I'm Esme's best friend."
Clopin gasped. "Wait, Esme? My little Esmeralda?" He rolled out the syllables neatly on his tongue making it sound gorgeous and exotic. Clopin smiled. "Tell her hello from her Uncle Clopin, alrigh', kids?" He started back to the other children.

"Wait!" Meg, desperately, grabbed his arm. "Wait, please. Esmeralda's hurt. Bad. She fell from the top of St. Peters cathedral."
Clopin gasped again, falling back. Phoebus grabbed his shoulder to steady him. "WHAT?" Clopin's eyes were burning black with rage. "As...attempted suicide, you mean?"
"We think so," Holli told him, because no one dared speak.

Clopin facepalmed. "Is she...?"
"She's not dead!" Meg held up her hands in front of her. "No, no. But we need to pay the hospital somehow, for her medical bills. The doctor requested it today, and we didn't know anything about her father and mother. We learned her dad—"

"Facilier," realized Clopin. "Yeah, that good-for-nothing trashbag pulled a runner on his own circus when a few animals escaped their cages. Left all the people out of work and fled the coop so the workers wouldn't beat his sorry ass to death."

Phoebus smiled with relief. "So can you help us?"
Clopin took a deep breath, and then danced away, lightly out of the kids' reach. "Sorry! Can't help. I'd love to, because Esmeralda is very, very very dear to my small and cracked heart, but I'm flat broke and homeless. I live on a park bench. And I get meager money by telling kids stupid stories. I have no life, I'm a gypsy, I'm a dancer, I'm a punk. Half the time I'm in jail, and people take away the hidden money I have while I'm doing time in the Big House."
Phoebus blinked in absolute fury. "Wait, no? You're telling us no?"
Clopin leaned forward. "Can you read my lips? N-O."
"Let's see if you can read my lips!" Phoebus yelled. "You little worthless shit!"
"Phoebus." Quasi tried to hold him back, but Phoebus slipped away and began to smack Clopin. He threw Clopin to the ground, but that he was no match for the nimble and quick Clopin. Clopin danced out of his reach, jumping atop the puppet stand and walking on the stone wall.

Meg glared, her fists shaking by her sides, and Holli just stared in horror as Phoebus tried to knock him down, throwing rocks but missing.

"Clopin, please, please, come down!" Meg begged. "We need your help! Your niece is dying—and you can't spare a few cents?"
"It's an 'every-man-for-himself' world out there, darling." Clopin leaned over the edge of the wall. "I need every penny I have hidden for my own survival and well-being. I can't be focused on the survival of other people."
"But she's your niece!" Holli tried desperately.

Clopin shrugged. "I looked after her while I could. If she stayed with me, we could've made a nice life out of it. We could've gotten more money, combined with her awesome as hell dancing skills. And then I'd have no problem paying for her medical bills. But you guys let her get into trouble."
"We didn't even know she was unhappy!" Meg threw her arms in the air. "Would you get down here?"
Clopin cocked his head.

"Wait!" Holli raised a hand and strode forward, confidently. Her pink minidress barely covered her toned butt, and Clopin looked with interest at her sexy figure, her half-exposed breasts. She batted her eyelashes, flicked a few strands of blonde hair out of her flawless heart-shaped face, and beckoned to Clopin. He slid down off the wall, and let his long thin legs dangle in front of Holli's face. "Call off your guard dog," he said in a sarcastic tone, referring to Phoebus, "and I'll come down and talk to you, girl."
"Phoebus, stay back there." Holli narrowed her eyes at him and turned back to Clopin, smiling. "It's Holli, by the way."
Clopin grinned, his black mournful eyes widening in interest as she leaned forward. Holli grabbed him by the collar of her shirt. "Listen close," she whispered, her breath smelling like mint. "You give us half the money we need for Esme's bill. We'll scrounge together the rest. You give us half, and we'll give you something back. How about it?"
Clopin's smile grew wider as he got closer and closer to Holli. He could feel the movement of her body, smelled the soapy-sweet smell of her perfume. "What will you give me back?"
"The one thing I can," Holli whispered. "Sex."
Clopin looked taken aback. "Oh, dear God," he said finally. "You know, I'd like to say yes. But unfortunately, I've said no to sex. I've pledged myself to virginity. Like I said, I'm focused on survival and not the...er...good things in life that you have the privilege of having."
Holli's shoulders slumped. "Wait, then what else do you want?"
Clopin looked Holli up and down slowly, and then pointed at her charm bracelet. "Is that real silver?"
"It's an heirloom," Holli said. "I'd take it off, but it's rather special."
"Special?" Clopin shrugged. "You sell me that bracelet. I'll give you money to save your friend."
Holli stared at Clopin, shocked. "You want this bracelet? Isn't there anything else? You don't want sex?"
Clopin held up a hand. "Look, I told you my bargain. Now you can choose to say yes or no, Miss Holli." He looked at her expectantly.

Holli didn't say a word. Her mouth opened, then closed.

Clopin turned and began to walk away.

Phoebus saw her expression and narrowed his eyes. "Now look here, you dirty, ground-scraping—"

Holli thought of Esme, bleeding from the head, lying in the hospital with no bills to pay for anything. Those bills could be the difference between life and death. They would build a wall that kept Esme breathing, warm, and kept her heart beating inside her chest. Once the wall disintegrated, all that was left of her would be a silent snow angel, grayish skin, shut eyes, a marble face. Nothing left to remind them of the real Esme.

"WAIT!" Holli charged forward, ripping the charm bracelet off. The Swarovski crystal shepherd's staff charm scratched her wrist and caused a white scrape that soon beaded with droplets of ruby red blood, but Holli scrunched the silver heirloom bracelet up into the palm of her hand and ran in front of Clopin, blocking his way. "Take it!" she snarled, dropping the bracelet into his hand. "Now give us the money."
Clopin stared at the bracelet. "It's beautiful," he said.

"Give us the damn money!" Holli grabbed his arm. "Give it to us now!"
Clopin stared at Holli, and let his eyes drift from Phoebus to Quasi to Meg.

"You freaking idiot!" Phoebus exclaimed, exasperated. "I swear to God if you don't give us the money right now, I will personally kill you with my bare ha—"

Clopin gestured to them. "Follow me. It's in a coffee can in the cemetery, hidden by Mirela's gravestone."

The Bronson Gang followed Clopin through alleys and through the networking maze of the city.

At last, they arrived at Camelot Cemetery. Clopin pointed to Mirela's gravestone. He stood there, gazing at the cemetery. He dug up a bit on the side, removed a rusted coffee can and held it up. It was full of rolled up bills.

He glanced at Holli. "Give me a little kiss and I'll pay for all of it."
Holli hesitated, leaned forward, and pecked Clopin on the lips really quickly. Clopin nodded and handed her a bunch of rolled up bills and smiled. "Let her know I said hi and that I love her."

At the hospital, Dr. Sweet was waiting. "We can't do the operat—" he began.

Phoebus interrupted him. He slapped the bills down on the front counter. "You help my girlfriend in whatever way you can," he said through gritted teeth. "Will this cover it?"

Dr. Sweet looked at the group with wide eyes. "This will do just fine...where did you get it?"

"Is that even freaking important?" Meg walked forward. "We gave you the money, we did not steal it, and you are going to use it to help our friend. Right?"
Dr. Sweet nodded. "Yes. Yes, I am. I promise."

"See to it that you do," Quasi ordered, and soon the children were gone, as if they had never come.

Dr. Sweet stared after the retreating teenagers, saw the poor injured girl in the bed, and grabbed the money and returned to the room, determined to help that girl.

Kids like those inspired him.

This crazy and unexpected love is the loveliest.

-Flynn

Flynn kept staring at Dani as she brushed out her long blonde hair and ran ringed fingers through her bangs. She grabbed a tube of eyeliner and began to apply it.

"Dani." Flynn stood behind her and pressed his lips against her cheek, working his way down towards her lips.

Dani rolled her eyes. "Flynn. Not now."
Flynn knew she was relieved about the execution, and also glad that he had finally made a choice to tell her about the Crystal Thief.

Flynn squeezed next to her on the stool. Dani smacked his arm. "I can't put on eyeliner while you're doing that."
Flynn tilted her face up slowly. "Wanna watch TV?"

Dani smiled. "No. But can we listen to music?"

Flynn tilted his head. "Listen to music? What?"
Dani stroked the side of Flynn's face. "I've always loved music," she said dreamily. "It's what drives dance, and song. It's psychology for your soul. Life isn't life without music, really. For me, anyway," Dani added hastily, looking at Flynn's face.

Flynn shrugged and smacked the radio, turning it on.

"'Cuz all of me, loves all of you."

Dani let out a squeal. "John Legend! I love this song!"
"All your curves and all your edges, your perfect imperfections."

Dani ran to the bed and flopped down onto it. Flynn followed, a soft smile on his face. He laid down next to her and cupped his hands softly around her face. "I love you, Dani," he whispered.

"Why me?" Dani's voice was soft and careful. "Just a question, Flynn. I'm just some random freshman girl and you're, like, a junior."

Flynn shrugged. "You just seem like something out of this world. I've never met a girl like you. Every girl I ever hung out with was a slut. But you—you're amazing."
Dani laughed. "Oh yeah?" She wiggled around. "You too."
Flynn rolled over onto his back. "Eugene."
Dani glanced at him. "What?"
"Eugene. My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Flynn Rider is just a cool name I thought would suit me well. See, I moved here from Las Vegas and I was known as the orphan Eugene Fitzherbert there. So I decided to change my name from Eugene Fitzherbert to Flynn Rider. But this is the real me, I promise."
"So..." Dani glanced up at him. "Does Eugene Fitzherbert love me? Or Flynn Rider?"
Flynn grinned. "Both?"
Dani grinned as well. She leaned forward and they pressed their lips together. Dani slid her hands up and down Flynn's chest and he probed underneath her face, tilting her chin up as he kissed her.

And Dani loved every bit of this strange and crazy and unexpected love as John Legend's song played in the background:

'Cause all of me

Loves all of you

Loves your curves and all your edges

All your perfect imperfections

Give your all to me

I'll give my all to you

You're my end and my beginning

\Even when I lose I'm winning

'Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you.

Hey guys! The End of this chapter! 3+ reviews and I'll update the next chapter!

Have a great weekend-and don't forget to be your awesome selves!

-Crystal