Amongst Thieves

1.

The sound of the explosion a block away brought a smile to Maize's face.

She'd grown deaf to the panicked screams that an unexpected event could cause years ago. They had vetted the areas as best they could, chose the least-populated bridges or emptiest warehouses closest to their mark. In her years, she could count on one hand the number of casualties from their heists, and even then none of them were at any fault of their own.

At least, that's what Maize told herself to get to sleep at night.

"You need to stop looking so joyful when you destroy public property," Ress muttered at her shoulder, and she glanced at him from where they both crouched behind the wall with a gleam in her eye.

"Maybe you should enjoy it more."

"If you blow everything up, they'll be nothing left to steal."

"There's always something left to steal." She grinned.

Ress gave her a smirk that made even his dark eyes shine, and it took everything in her power not to press him against the brick wall behind him and steal a few things of her own—

A shout sounded outside the alley where they hid, and the sounds of pounding feet on the cobblestone of the adjacent street took her attention from her erotic fantasy.

"Shit," she cursed as she stood, her back pressed against the wall as she tried to think of their next move.

"Looks like the Guard was more prepared than we thought."

With no other obvious escape route, she looked up. "Then it seems like we best start climbing," she surmised and dug her fingers between the bricks of that same wall before, wasting no time in hoisting herself up without waiting to see if Ress followed.

Maize had it all planned out, and she hated it when she had to improvise.

While the attention of the Guard and the remainder of the city would be focused on the chaos from the explosion of the abandoned storehouse along the river, she and Ress would scale the wall and leap among the rooftops for three blocks until they reached their mark's destination, an apartment on the western side of the city, owned by an uppity diplomat who had a lot of money, and even more enemies.

They were supposed to be in and out with the requested stack of papers, having been delivered just that morning, and bringing them safely them to the Den would get she and Ress enough money to stash away into savings.

Only a few more jobs just like it, and they'd finally be away from Dreduor, finally starting that life they promised each other they'd have so many years ago, closer to the best healers in the realm and—

"Why are we always climbing?" Ress groaned as he dusted himself off once he completed their ascent.

Maize was already walking across the roof towards the opposite edge, nonplussed about the brick dust in her braided blonde hair or on her already-dirty leathers. Leaning carefully over the edge of the building, she looked across the distance to judge the distance between their side and the next. "Because no one looks up."

"Maybe they should," he muttered as he closed the distance between them, "and then we wouldn't have to climb so high next time."

"Would you rather the sewers?" she asked as she held a hand in the air to test the wind as it brushed over the rooftop.

"It would keep us on the ground."

She gave her partner a smirk as she glanced back at him over her shoulder. He was one of the best the Den had to offer- after her, of course- but his fear of heights still remained one of his most adorable downfalls.