Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ To Catch a Thief ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

To Catch a Thief

By Llewlyn

Summary: Schuldich is a master thief in the city of Schwarz, the capitol of the great nation, Estet. Brad Crawford is a minor, but very wealthy, nobleman who's wife died three years prior. Schuldich, Aya, Yohji, Ken, and Omi are members of a crime ring run by a mysterious man named Persia. Schuldich gets an assignment to burgle a nobleman's house...

Rating: R, I guess, for upcoming lemons and limes and crude language inappropriate for kiddies.

A/N: Damn my muses... *attacks Yohji and Schu with a broom stick in one hand and a golf club in the other* My ideas always come at two in the morning. Also, the street rats have atrocious grammar, which annoys me to write, but I gotta cause they... *points at innocently grinning muses of lust and love* are making me!

Schuldich stirred from a nest of blankets, stretching lazily in the mid-afternoon sun that shone through a high window. His fiery hair was set alight as he poked the naked body sprawled beside him. "Hey... Yotan... wake up... We gotta go meet wid Persia. We gonna be late." The blonde man groaned and rolled over, burying his face in the sheets. "Gods, do we gotta? Can't we just screw again?"

Schuldich laughed and pushed Yohji out of the blankets. "We was late las' time... we can't be late again." He rose himself and began pulling on his breeches, then his custom made boots. "Persia'll have our asses an' I don' mean in a good way..." Yohji sighed melodramatically and got dressed as well. "Persia can go fuck hisself for all I care... we got plenny a jobs `fore he came along, all fancy an' organized." He grinned and grabbed Schuldich's backside. "C'mon... we got time for one more..."

"Oi! Yotan, Schu! Persia's already here an' he's pissed! Get your horny asses down here afore he get worse!" The thieves looked at each other. Ken. The assassin they worked with occasionally, who had a famously short temper and beat up their other friend, Aya, his first day living with them.

"We comin'! Don' get your panties in a twist, KenKen!" Schuldich yelled, pressing his lips to Yohji's one last time. Yohji tried to make it last, running his tongue along Schuldich's lower lip, but the redhead pulled back. "Gah, save it, Yotan... we can have more fun later..." He smirked and headed downstairs from the loft that they used for sleeping and other indoor sports, buttoning up his shirt as he went. Yohji followed close behind, tying his rich golden hair back in a ponytail. "So, what's happenin' tonight?" Schuldich asked as he flopped onto the floor in front of the other redhead in their group, Aya. "Who workin' and who stayin home?" Aya glared at the two obviously rumpled men who'd just come downstairs in their small home.

"Schuldich, you have an assignment, solo," Aya said coolly. Of all the street rats Persia lorded over, Aya was the only one with an education, and with it, proper grammar. "Ken is on a mission, and Omi is working the bridge over by the palace." Persia cleared his throat meaningfully. "Sorry, Persia," he said, nodding to the leader of their group. "It's alright, Aya. You've saved me the trouble." It was obvious Persia doted on Aya, his pet prostitute, but he dared not try anything because Aya's off time was for one person only- Ken- and to intrude on that meant a very painful death at the end of Ken's bugnuks and Aya's katana. Schuldich and Yohji's relationship was nothing like that; they slept together when no one else was in the picture. They were friends who had sex- and lots of it.

"Schuldich, you'll be burgling the baronet Crawford's townhouse tonight. He's extremely wealthy and well guarded; however, his wife died three years ago and tonight his the anniversary of her death. A source within the household assures me that this night each year he goes to the temple where she's buried and spends the whole night there. You'll be able to slip in, raid, and get out before anyone realizes you're there.

"His house is the large one on Black Street, with the gardens. His room faces the street, and a tree will allow easy entrance in. I want a better take than last time's- no excuses!" he said, cutting off Schuldich's impending protest that it wasn't his fault he'd been given bad information and the master of the house had tumbled into the room he was in with a serving wench. "Anyway- you'll have at least an hour with which to work from the time the baronet's bodyguard checks the room for intruders and his lackey comes in to lock the window. Good luck." With that, Persia's attention turned to Omi, telling him where he was supposed to beg and pickpocket that evening.

***

Later that night, after the sun had set and the theater crowd had gone home for the evening, Schuldich slipped over a high, wrought iron gate. His normally flaming red hair had been darkened with soot, and his clothes were no longer the ratty, grimy things he'd worn earlier. He was dressed from head to toe in black cotton, his pants adorned with pockets on the outside for holding the tools of his trade and smaller loot, and his shirt with inner pockets for hiding larger things like necklaces and bracelets. He lightly climbed up the tree that guarded the nobleman's bedroom. Checking to see if any light was on, he grinned to himself when there wasn't, and more when there was no sound of breathing to be heard through the open window. Schuldich slowly crossed the window ledge, padding lightly around the room. These wealthy noblemen always kept their safeboxes under the bed, thinking no one would ever try to steal from right beneath their noses.

He rolled under the bed, grinning when he felt the seams for the panel hiding the safebox. //Stupid rich men, think they so smart, they never gonna get robbed.// He lifted the panel slowly and set it aside. He grinned when he saw that there was no box, after all. //Maybe this one not so stupid.// He replaced the panel, and slid out from under the bed. Unfortunately he ran into a pair of feet. He didn't even bother to look up, he just rolled right back under the bed and out the other side, intending to kick the man's ass and escape, without any loot. He crouched in a defensive position on the opposite side of the bed, looking through the darkness at the person who'd interrupted. Suddenly a light blazed up, blinding Schuldich where he was on the floor, ready to leap.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a deep, cultured voice asked.