Chapter 14: Feelings...

Things had settled down in the clash of thief egos.

It had been a good few months of things returning to the status quo. Jigen and Goemon had used their one free meal ticket from Carmen, but that was all they really herd from her. Wile Lupin and his little rag tag band had been off pulling their typical heists, Carmen had stayed local. She was raised in San Fransisco so she was oddly confining her current thefts to North America, and mostly the states. This struck CHIEF and the rest of ACME as well, weird, very weird in fact. The AI had said it almost felt like she was avoiding something. The AI could not know how right he was.

Carmen had a hideout in Calarado, tucked away in the mountains that she was currently resting in. She was purposefully avoiding arias where Lupin was spotted, not wanting to run into his jealous ass. Carmen was a professional, but Lupin and his out bursts got on even her nerves. Witch was why she had bribed his friends to take him away when they had their little confrontation in Paris, it was just easier that way, even though she left soon after any way. Now she just wanted some time away from him and that other man.

Carmen sat at her desk with a nice glass of red wine. She did not drink often but when she did it was never anything hard. She was keeping tabs on Lupin's movements almost as obsessively as Zenigata, but for the opposite reason. It wasn't so much out of not wanting to see the other thief, even with how they butted heads over their egos of being the best, but rather not wanting to run into the Inspector. Her feelings regarding the red jacketed thief were easy to define, but her feelings toward his pursuer, not so much. Carmen did not like this feeling one bit.

+ ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . + ° . ๑・° ⊹ . +

Lupin didn't know why he hadn't seen Carmen, nor did he care. His ego told him it was just because he was better. His friends wile fiercely loyal to him knew that wasn't the reason. Neither one was blinded by their pride as he was. They may not have known exactly why, but figured she was avoiding him on purpose. Jigen even found Carmen's presence preferable to Fujiko's most of the time. He would also be lieing if he said he didn't think she was pretty, even with her outfit that left everything to the imagination. That was half the fun.

The swordsman on the other hand had no strong feeling about her either way. She was just another thief, all-be it with a lot more resources at her disposal then they had at any given time.

A/N: I had a whole great opening in mind but of course I came up with it as I was about to pass out. This is kind of what I can remember but I don't think it's worded how I wanted it to be. But I'm trying to be a productive writer again...
This is a short in between chapter.