I tightened the scarf around my neck as Sly and I snuck around on our way to unlock the rockets. It might just be the cold weather talking, but...

"Why are there always so many goddamn keys?" it was a rhetorical question, Sly snickered.

"I don't know you ever had something important you had to protect?" Bentley asked over the earpiece. I shrugged. We grew up in an orphanage with barely anything. The only important thing I have right now were the gang.

"I guess but I can't protect them with lock and key," I looked at Sly for his opinion, but he put his finger on his mouth, signalling me that a guy was nearby. They had their back towards us, but then turned around and shined their lantern in our direction. We both ducked down just below where the light shone. They thought nothing of it and turned back around to continue their rounds. Clearly, we had no problem slipping by in the shadows. I tried to make things a little more light-hearted, despite that we were on our way to confront the Panda King. "How many locks would you put on yours?"

"My what?" he was already unlocking the locks one by one.

"Your 'something important'," he paused for a second and looked back at me. I waited for an answer.

"I don't need any, I have my cane and she has her own little stick. We're okay," he said smiling as he unlocked the last one. I nudged him for teasing, but I was quite happy with his response. Since our talk however many nights ago, I was looking forward to more of those types of comments from him. It was easier to sleep through the night, and when I couldn't sleep, he was already brewing a cup just for me. I watched as he unlocked the last one, he turned towards me holding an arm out.

I readjusted my gloves before taking a step closer to Sly. He then used his cane to hook on to the machine, and held me by my waist, as my arms are were tightly wrapped around his torso. Like always we launched ourselves into the enemy's pit.

Upon our landing, the Panda King was already preparing himself for battle, bouncing off one leg and landing on the other as we spoke.

"I see you carry the cane of the notorious Cooper thief clan. Have you come here for revenge? To steal back the Thievius Raccoonus?" He held his head high, showing no emotion.

"That was my plan at first, but now I'm more interested in putting an end to your avalanche extortion racket." Sly said, bitter and disgusted. The Panda King scoffed.

"Why should you care if I bury a few worthless villages in snow? You are a thieves, just like me"

"That's only half right. I am a thief, from a long line of master thieves, while you..." Sly scowled, twirling his cane. He was ready to fight. "You're just a frustrated firework artist turned homicidal pyromaniac."

"Insolent child! You shall pay dearly for your disrespect! Still to honor your Cooper and Lorian ancestry, I will send you to your doom with the beauty of my new firework technique... Flame-Fu!" A mixture of rage and excitement flashed acrossed the Panda King's face.

"How considerate," I grumbled under my breath, as Sly pulled me towards the closest statue we could use to hide. From there we decided to split up, seeing that there was no way he could target us both at the same time when we're separated.

For a moment, the Panda King was focused on taking out me, which allowed Sly to sneak up onto him and land a couple hits. However, he was pushed away by the Panda King, almost landing on me. I duck in cover.

"Can you stand?" I asked still crouching low as Sly was pushing himself to get up.

"Yes, but less talk and more running," he picked me up by my arm and pulled me along. Flames flew by all around us. The heat was getting to me but I refused to back out. Pushing off Sly's hand from me, I made my way up to the Panda King. I dodged and dashed, and managed to get him a couple times. It wasn't long before Sly joined me, hitting him from one side, and I got him from the other. Like an odd game of catch. But he didn't give up that easily, he bounced us both back to opposite sides of the room.

I landed on my dominant arm. I felt a dull pain in my shoulder, but I stumbled back up. As the flames licked my tail, I started running around again. I couldn't see Sly yet, and I thought of the worst. I kept running, but he wasn't where I thought I'd find him. That was when I noticed the Panda King wasn't focused on me. Sly had snuck up from behind, and the Panda King was so startled nearly tripped over. Did he really forget one against two? I made my way over to help Sly out. I divided my sphere in half, but it seemed like Sly had already taken care of it. With another slash of his cane, the Panda King had fallen over, showing no intention of getting back up to fight.

"Your skill with that cane is unparalleled. Aaahhh!" He then passed out, and I rushed over to Sly.

"Are you okay?" I asked running up to him. I almost pushed him over when I couldn't stop myself in time. He steadied me by grabbing onto my shoulders, but at the same time he had squeezed a little too hard, and I let out a muffled cry. He immediately moved his hands from my shoulders to my arms.

"I'm fine, but are you okay?" I nodded, explaining that it was just from the push. It'd heal in time. He didn't seem to buy it.

"This is not the worse case scenario, relax," I said shrugging off his hands from me. I tried smiling to convince him. He huffed a bit. It worked for the time being.

"I bet that's not what you thought when you couldn't find me." He poked my nose, and now he was back to teasing.

"Okay, but it didn't take that long to realize you were fine! You won't believe that I'm okay this," I pointed at my shoulder, "'will just bruise." I placed my hands on my hips, Sly rolled his eyes.

"You have a low pain tolerance, I'm just looking out for you," he leaned in towards me.

"I do not! What do you know?" I took a step closer and we were nose to nose, arguing for no reason. Our debate was then interrupted.

"Sly!" Bentley called out into our earpieces. "I did a cross analysis of the metal used in that high tech blasting vehicle and it turns out it can only be found in one place - The Krack-Karov volcano in Russia. That's got to be where we'll find the fifth member of the Fiendish Five," I shared a look with Sly. Just one more mission and we were done. One more mission and we can restore the Thievius Raccoonus. "So get what you came for and let's get out of here!"

Sly took a step forward to search in the Panda King's pockets. He pulled out a couple pages, and I joined him to look at what chapter the Panda King stole. Sly flipped a page, and there were blueprints of Otto Van Cooper's old designs. I looked back up at him to see his reaction. He was smirking, most likely thinking about how Murray could upgrade the van. He looked at me after a while.

"Ready to escape the cops?" he asked, taking my hand in his. He was gentle this time, squeezing my hand lightly. Meekly, I nodded.

"Ready to get back to the warmth of the van," We shared another small laugh, before we made off into the night, not wanting to keep Bentley waiting any longer until the next heist.