A/N: Bonjour tout le monde! Je suis un peu obsédé par français en ce moment, alors j'ai écrit la note de l'ensemble Auteur en français!

Juste pour info, je mettrai à jour ce tous les dimanches, au lieu de tous les jours de la semaine putain de dieu maudit. C'est difficile à gérer lorsque vous avez d'autres histoires.

Amusez-vous!

(Ps, translate the second paragraph if you want to know when the next update is!)

Chapter 1: Everything Settled

I yawned tiredly and dragged myself out of bed, opening my door and glaring daggers at Lindsey.

"This had better be damn good, Lindsey. It's six o'clock in the frecking morning and I got home at two and was up for another hour writing in the Thievius Raccoonus."

"Where'd you out the Venus de Whalo?"

"Kitchen counter, right beside your grow ray."

"Kay. You can go back to bed now. Sorry for waking you up."

I grumbled and did so, passing out instantly. What felt like a second later there was another knock on my door. I growled and got up, vowing to kill whoever woke me up this time.

"Sophie, it's noon." Henry said disapprovingly.

"And? I've gotten twelve hours of sleep out of the 36 I missed planning last night's heist. Screw off."

I slammed the door and collapsed onto my bed, hoping to be able to go back to sleep. But, of course, my door opened and Henry came in, shutting it behind him. He sat down on the edge of my bed and rubbed my back.

"Why were you up so long?"

"The security, Lindsey's lack of ability to actually help me plan around the security, the security, and, oh, did I mention the frecking security?"

He nodded. "Alright, get some sleep then, Ringtail. You deserve it."

He stayed and rubbed my back until I fell asleep again. When I woke up, he was gone, and there was a note on the pillow next to me.

Sophie, you slept for something around a day and a half, depending on when you read this. I had work to do, so I told the others to leave you alone until you got up and left your room of your own free will.

I smiled. "I love you, Henry. You are the most awesome older cousin ever." I whispered to thin air.

Feeling much better, I got up and stretched before tugging an old Metalica shirt on and some shorts. I was too lazy to find anything else and I reserved the right to dress comfortably. I stumbled out of my room and found I needn't have bothered - it was the middle of the night and chances were I was the only one up.

I made my way downstairs and past a sleeping Ritchie, who had apparently been watching TV when he fell asleep.

Ritchie had turned out to be a very good adition to the team. What he lacked in bravery he made up for in his ponderously sharp knowledge of explosives. In Lindsey's words, 'he knows his way inside, outside, upside down, and backwards through almost every lock we showed him!' That had me radiating pride for my second 'big brother' for the rest of the day.

I shook my head and smiled, continuing into the kitchen. Deciding to listen to my complaining stomach, I began the search for food. Just as I poked my head into the fridge, a covered plate and a note caught my eye. Uncovering the plate I found my favorite meal of all time, just waiting to be reheated.

Soph, Lindsey told me you liked this stuff, so I saved you some. Rudy. I smiled again and began to heat up the food.

Rudy had come really far since the Great Keaton Caper, as I called it, and he was more suited than ever to fill the brawn position in the gang. He had abandoned his more cowardly actions, favoring charging right in with or without a strategy. Not only did that make him awesome, but also the only person on the team besides me who Henry got to yell at for being irresponsible and reckless. We considered it hilarious, especially since the other three were so terrified of him.

As Rudy had stayed during the time the rift occured and separated the then four member team, he was treated much better by Henry when he got in trouble than if he would have been neutral or had taken Lindsey's side. Quite frankly, the worst thing Henry had said to him by then was something along the lines of 'idiotic brute', and he had almoat immediately apologized for the remark.

I got my plate out of the microwave and sat down to eat. Lindsey had reminded Rudy of my love for this stuff.

Lindsey, as our brainiac, had not really advanced much. Both of us felt a lot more comfortable with her just being a computer geek with some general knowledge of other things while we eventually got experts on the other stuff. Like Ritchie with the locks.

But thinking about the two of them so soon after one another brought back the conversation Rudy and I had had way back when, when he had realized he was in love with her. Had he told her yet? If he had, was it unrequited? I was confused, to say the least. But the thought of love brought up thoughts I preferred to avoid: thoughts of mine and Rajan's relationship.

The two of us had managed to be relatively good friends since the talk we'd had while I was still recovering, but my feelings for him were still there. I didn't know for sure if he'd ever actually felt the same, which made me sort of scared. Had he only wanted me for my body? I do have a rather nice body, for a raccoon, if I do say so myself.

The only thing I knew for sure was that I was in love with him. If you have a crush on someone for three to four months you either move on or you fall in love with them. I think a year and nine months can prove that point quite clearly, as I still, very keenly, felt the pain of breaking up with him. I wanted so badly to get back together with him, but I don't really think nine months consitutes being older. Getting into relationships scared me to death anyway, and I really didn't want to be one of those on again off again types.

I shook my head and took another bite of my food, chewing slowly and concentrating on the heavenly taste to try and distract myself. It proved completely futile as the subject of my musings walked in.

"Hey Sophie. Thought I heard you heating something up down here." He smiled.

I smiled back. "Yeah. I gotta have food to stay this fabulous." I flipped my messily braided hair and drew attention to my choice of clothing.

He chuckled, "Yeah...Fabulous is totally the word I'd use." He said sarcastically, "Lazy and unmotivated is more like it."

I held my hand over my heart and strived to look offended. "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

He raised an eyebrow, "Don't you mean resent?"

"Nope." I shook my head, "I was agreeing with you. Lazy and unmotivated is exactly right - I reserve the right to be a complete and total slacker where thieving isn't involved."

He laughed and shook his head at me before sitting down. "You are very beautiful, though." He said.

"Thanks." I tried to smile, but only managed to bite my lip. I hadn't been expecting that sort of compliment, but I supposed it was okay. It was okay for a guy friend and ex-boyfriend to tell a female friend she was pretty right?

Not pretty. My mind reminded me, Very beautiful. He's hitting on you, you idiot.

-But we broke up forever ago and we agreed we'd only try again when we got older!-

Do you really think he cares? He's a man for crying out loud!

Rajan looked faintly worried. "Am I not supposed to say that?"

"No, no, it's fine! I just...Wasn't expecting you to, that's all."

But he still looked worrried, "Look, Sophie... We left a lot of things unsaid when you broke up with me... I never got a chance to tell you what you meant to me, and believe me, it was a lot more than you thought. I'm still really sorry I took Lindsey's side - I don't even know why I did. I just - ."

"Rajan."

He stopped and looked me in the eyes.

"It's all in the past now. Whatever I meant to you then...Well, some parts of me doubt it stayed the same and I'm sorry to say I agree with those parts. I don't care why you sided with Lindsey, I just know it hurt. A lot. But it doesn't matter anymore. I forgive you."

He stared at me for a second before he dropped his gaze to the table and said the words that made that night so hard for me to look back on.

"How I feel about you... How much you mean to me... Neither of those things are ever going to change."

And then he got up and left without another word. I sat there for a minute, staring at my mostly empty plate while a sick feeling crept up through my entire body. I don't know exactly what about the situation made me feel like that, but I do know the thought of eating any more of the food on my plate made me want to throw up. I just wanted to curl up and go back to sleep. And, preferably, never get up again.

So much for everything finally settling down for once in my life.