Fan Fiction ❯ Heart of a Thief ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Shiro: I'm alive! I'm alive! (falls over)

Bast: (pokes Shiro) Shiro... Shiro, wake up. You know, scaring your yami is not a good thing. Hikari... oh shit...

Shiro: (springs up) BOO!

Bast: (shrieks and then whacks Shiro in the head)

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“Takara, hurry up!” Mai yells, banging on the bathroom door. “You’ve been in there for fifteen minutes! It does not take that long to put on a dress!”

“Jeez, relax, Mai.” Kin comments, looking up from his card game with Yoshi and Kisho momentarily. “It’s not like Takara can fall in the toilet or anything.”

The others look at the blonde like he’s insane.

“Kin, you’re an idiot.” Yoshi announces, laying down a card.

Kisho sighs. ‘This seems vaguely familiar…’ He thinks as he lays down two cards.

“Please tell me you did not just realize that.” Mai says.

At this time, Takara steps out of the bathroom in her dress. The red dress has sleeves that cover Takara’s shoulders, leaving the rest of her arm bare. The dress falls down to the floor, hiding the black shoe’s she’s wearing. The bottom of the dress is trimming with an inch-wide strip of white leather and tied around Takara’s middle is a two-inch white sash. Her black hair is tied up with a white ribbon, which is partially hidden by her red and brown bangs. On her hands are thin red gloves.

Kisho’s aw drops and Kin and Yoshi whistle enthusiastically. Mai smiles brightly, anger forgotten. “Perfect! What do you think of the modifications I made?”

Takara shrugs. “It’s alright. I wish the sleeves were a bit longer though…”

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter now.” Mai says, dismissing the issue. “Okay, your turn, Kin.”

Kin sighs. “Fine…” He despairingly replies. “Hey Vix, come take my place.”

Takara lifts up the dress, revealing the pair of black pants she’s wearing underneath it, and jogs over to Kin, taking the cards from his hand.

Kin smiles. “Thanks, Takara.”

“No problem, Kin.” Takara replies, sitting down.

Kin sighs and unhappily walks over to Mai, who holds out a bundle of clothes wrapped in a forest green cloth. Grumbling something under his breath, which causes Mai to smack him on the head, he takes the clothes and walks into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

Chuckling, Takara looks over at Yoshi and Kisho and asks, “What’s the game?”

“It doesn’t really have a name.” Kisho replies. “Kin and I made up this game when we were kids. It’s quite complicated so we’re playing a modified version. There are three different piles. One’s for matches, one’s for nonmatches, and the other is the deck. You can only lay down one pair and one un-matched card per once a turn. Simple enough, right?” Kisho asks.

Takara nods. “There’s more.” Yoshi comments.

“Yes, there is.” Kisho agrees. “If someone lays down a card in their un-matched pile and you have the card that matches it, then on your next turn you can take that card and put it with yours in the matched pile. And also, each turn you draw one card from the deck.” He finishes explaining.

“He and Kin have about a billion more confusing rules, but we cut them out for this game.” Yoshi says. “Now, it’s my turn!” He says, laying down his two matching cards.

“What’s the point of this game?” Takara asks Kisho, knowing Yoshi won’t know.

Kisho sighs. “With all the rules in play it actually has a point. In this version it’s just for fun and to pass the time.”

“C’mon, Dragon! Your turn!” Yoshi exclaims.

Kisho calmly draws a card, lays down two red kings, and then sets down a black two. “Alright, your turn, Takara.”

Takara nods and draws a card. Carefully, she looks over each of them until her eyes find a match. She pulls the two red tens from her hand and lays them down. Then she lays down a red four.

The three go a few more rounds before a highly disgruntled Kin steps out of the bathroom. Poor Kin is dressed in a crisp white shirt, forest green pants, and shiny black shoes, an outfit completely different from what he’s used to.

“Perfect!” Mai says happily. “What do you think, Takara?”

Takara glances up and gives Kin a ‘thumbs up’. “Looking good, Cat.”

“I hate this.” Kin replies.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now.” Mai replies, picking up a blue bundle. “Alright Yoshi, your turn.”

Yoshi sighs and stands up. “Here you go, Kin.” He says, handing the blonde boy his cards.

This process repeats once more after Yoshi, except when Kisho comes out in his white shirt and black pants, they restart the game while waiting for Mai to come out. She comes out fifteen minutes after she went in. There are a few obvious changes in her dress, like the white lace being changed to black, and a less obvious change- the added black sash. Her grayish-brown and mahogany hair is half pulled back, half down; the front side pieces are pulled back while the rest is down.

Kin lets out a high-pitched whistle which causes Mai to blush.

“Aww, Cat. You made Wolf blush!” Takara teases.

“I told you she can’t resist me.” Kin jokingly replies, running a hand through his short blonde hair.

Takara, Kisho, and Yoshi laugh and Mai turns even more red.

“Come and sit down, Mai.” Kin says, patting the empty space beside him. “We’ve got a while before we have to leave, so we figured we’d go over the plan one more time.”

“Unfortunately…” Yoshi grumbles.

Mai nods. “Alright, if you all want to.” She replies, walking over to the group.

Yoshi raises an eyebrow, his eyes a deep violet. “‘If you all want to’.” He repeats. “As soon as we actually want to go over the plan it’s, ‘if you all want to’? As soon as we want to go over the plan, you don’t want to.” He complains.

“Actually,” Mai starts. “I’m in shock that you all actually want to go over the plan without me nagging you about it.”

Yoshi mock-gasps. “My heart is wounded, fair lady. To think you would think so lowly of me-”

“Yoshi,” Mai interrupts him. “you have serious drama issues.”

Yoshi stands up and bow, his eyes a light amethyst. “Why thank you, beloved c-”

“Shut up, Yoshi.” Mai says, sitting down in between Takara and Kin.

Disappointed, Yoshi sits down and crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to go over the plan anymore.”

“Don’t be stupid, Yoshi. We’re going over the plan one last time.” Mai replies.

“See! As soon as-”

“Yoshi, shut up.” Takara says. “We all agreed to go over the plan one final time.”

Yoshi sighs heavily. “Fine…”

Kisho reaches back behind himself and pulls his pack toward him. Almost carelessly, he drops the deck of cards into it and then reaches in and pulls out a folded piece of paper. Then he unfolds it and sets it down on the table. “Alright, we know the basic plan-”

Yoshi snorts. “Yeah, seeing as how we’ve been over it-”

“Shut up, Yoshi!” Takara, Kin, and Mai all yell.

Kisho continues, ignoring Yoshi’s grumbling. “The basic plan is us going in there, mingling a bit, and then slipping off to the king’s vault. We also know that the jail cells are exceptionally hard to escape from, so we cannot risk being caught.” He smoothes out the paper and points to a large rectangle. “This is where the party is being held- the ballroom.” He moves his finger halfway across the paper to a small square. “This is the king’s vault; halfway across the castle from the ballroom. There are guard posted throughout the hallway and I estimate there’s at least ten guarding the vault itself. This means Yoshi and Takara will have to go first through the vents to take out some of the guards.”

“Why do we always have to be the ones to crawl through the vents?” Yoshi complains.

“Because you two are the smallest.” Mai replies. “Now stop interrupting Kisho.”

“I’m the second tallest, Mai!” Yoshi argues.

“Well then you’re both the skinniest!” May snaps.

Yoshi raises an eyebrow. “So you’re calling yourself fat now?”

Mai glares at Yoshi. “You two work best together in fighting. Now drop it and shut the hell up!”

“See, ou tell me I should ask more questions, but when I go you yell at me!”

“Only when you ask stupid questions! If you ask smart questions I wouldn’t be yelling at you!” Mai yells, before taking a deep breath to calm down and then slowly letting it out. “Kisho, please continue.”

Kisho, Kin, and Takara all sweat drop.

Kisho clears his throat. “As I was saying, Yoshi and Takara will go through the vents and take out the guards-”

“I thought you said ‘some of the guards’.” Yoshi interrupts, earning himself yet another glare from Mai.

Sighing, Kisho corrects himself. “Yoshi and Takara will go through the vents and take out some of the guards. When you two give the signal, the rest of us will come in. Kin takes the first guard position and then Mai takes the next one. Yoshi, you’ll be positioned right outside the vault while Takara and I go in. We obviously can’t go back the same way we came since guards will be rushing in by that time, so we’ll have to go out a window. Or more specifically, this window.” He points to a window about three rooms away from the vault.

“Why can’t we go in through the window and save ourselves a hell of a lot of trouble?” Yoshi asks.

(“Now why can’t he always ask smart questions like that?” Mai grumbles.)

“Because the window is on the third floor.” Kin says, finding the thought of climbing up the side of the wall amusing.
Yoshi gives the two a disbelieving look. “You expect me to jump out a third story window.”

“Why is this such a surprise to you, Yoshi?” Mai asks. “We’ve been over this plan at least three times! Have you not been paying attention to the plan all the other times we’ve been over it?”

“I didn’t know the vault’s on the third floor!” Yoshi protests.

Takara nods. “I didn’t even know that. Are Yoshi and I the only two who didn’t know?”

Mai frowns. “I thought I told you.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now.” Takara says determinedly. “We’re sticking with this plan. Now, where are we going to regroup at?”

“Our old camp in the forest.” Kisho replies. “And then we’ll go from there.”

“Sounds good. Everyone know the plan now?” Takara asks, looking around expectantly.

The others either nod or murmur a small ‘yes’.

“Good. Now lets at least start walki g there.”

“Hear, hear!” Yoshi agrees, getting a little laughter from the group.

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Kyle: Yoshi sure argued alot in this one.

Shiro: Hmm? Oh, that's just him being stubborn.

Keitaro: More like him being him.

Shiro: (nods) True, true...