Maybe just ask, next time?

It was nighttime in Alderburgh. Which didn’t necessarily mean that the streets were quiet and abandoned, but it still gave Em and Stephen a certain sense of security. More so than moving in the middle of the day. Thankfully, the common sandstorms in the dust zone made them fit right in with their masks, which Em had insisted on to look cool. In fact, these sandstorms had made them necessary. Stephen would be more annoyed by these weather conditions, but he had gotten fairly used to sand in general, ever since Em had dragged him to Sandfall. He’d still welcome the return to their sand-free home. How could one voluntarily live here permanently?

Stephen sighed quietly. They had been wandering around this city, pretty aimlessly in his opinion, for quite a while now. “Are you sure you know where we need to go?”, the brown-hair asked as he caught up with the orange-hair. “You could just admit that you’re lost.” “No! I know where we need to go!”, Em protested, his voice carrying a trace of indignation. “You just have no patience. We’re close.” Stephen raised an eyebrow quizzically, but decided to not waste his breath on arguing about that. “Enlighten me, why exactly did you drag me here again in the first place?” Em sighed exasperatedly. “Gosh, Stephen, honestly. Okay, so I met this cat guy, a fancy fella by the way, and he talked about like… these weird stones… crystals? Stuff that the bunny guys here apparently have and the cats want. Don’t even start interrupting me, he’s giving us some money for it, BUT I personally would have done it for free too. He was very charming, a real sweetheart. And if he wants some stones, cause that’s ‘only fair’ as he said, who am I to not help out?” Stephen narrowed his eyes lightly and this time not because some sand was trying to get into his eyes. “So this guy you obtained the address from has these things?” Em nodded. “And we’re not gonna politely ask him for it?” Em nodded again, earning a groan from Stephen. Not like he was someone who always followed the law closely… on the contrary… but this just sounded like trouble they were about to walk right in.

Em saw his doubt right away. “Okay, but this guy is like, low risk, high reward, or so I heard. And I trust my sources. He’s pretty harmless, usually pretty kind, a little inane… He probably won’t even notice we were there! In, out, 5 minute job and we make a Felis happy and won’t even really bother a Lovabun, no biggie.” Stephen wanted to open his mouth again, pointing out that if said Lovabun was home, he would like take notice of two strangers entering, but Em already raised his hand to silence him. The orange-hair pointed towards a plain-looking building that luckily didn’t seem to get too much attention from other passerbys. “That’s it”, he whispered and then hurried over, looking around to see if anybody was observing him. Stephen rolled his eyes and followed more casually. If one wanted to commit a crime, one had to act normal, not awfully suspicious, but where was the point in lecturing Em right now?

“Open!”, Em chirped excited, before he quickly covered his mouth. Open indeed, seemed like the unsuspecting Lovabun had not locked his window. A questionable decision in an area like this, though could Stephen really judge him? Not like the brown-hair actually knew this city pretty well. Em wasted little time to open the window fully and then climb his way inside and Stephen couldn’t let his silly lover walk into trouble all on his own, so after him he climbed.

So far so good. They were not standing right in front of an enraged Lovabun, so Stephen booked that as a plus. “Okay, so look for anything that looks like some magical-seeming sliver or something!”, Em hissed quietly to his partner-in-crime and went over to the first dresser he found. He started rummaging through the drawers with little to no shame in his actions. “Oh dear…”, Stephen murmured and wandered around the room instead, checking the open shelves. If it was magical-looking, maybe that guy was just displaying them as decoration? Sadly, he quickly had to realise that it didn’t seem to be the case. Em didn’t seem to have found what they were searching yet either. If this Lovabun even had it. Stephen didn’t trust Em’s sources as openly as his lover did. He didn’t even know who these sources were most of the time. 

But the most sad fact was probably the door that squeaked open, even though neither of them had touched the doorhandle. Stephen whirled around and automatically positioned himself in front of Em, acting as a shield. The orange-hair widened his eyes. “Oh damn…” There he was, the presumably flat-owner, a lovabun with black hair and tips that were colored like fire. Hopefully not a sign for his general temper. For a moment, the Lovabun just stared back at them, mouth open. “Fuck, we should leave”, Stephen said, trying to shoo the orange-hair back towards the window. “Leave??”, the lovabun named Caleb asked. “I’m sorry, you come into my house in the middle of the night, very obviously violate my privacy and then you don’t have the decency to tell me what this mess is about?” And Caleb thought Eren was the general trigger for disaster.. These humans were not him though and he didn’t seem to be with them.

“Erm… Sorry man, we kinda were searching for something and heard you guys have so much of it, that you wouldn’t like… care too much if some of it is missing”, Em answered the Lovabun and pushed himself past Stephen with raised hands. “We don’t mean harm.” Caleb snorted. “Yeah I can see that”, the Lovabun noted with a tilt towards his messed up dresser. Though, minus breaking into his flat, they were not very threatening indeed. They didn’t even carry weapons with them.. Who breaks into a stranger’s house without a plan of self-defense? Some humans… Made Caleb almost feel sorry for them, they were pretty lucky it was him and not a more violent fella. Both were just staring at him still, likely waiting for Caleb to make a move. “Okay…”, the lovabun said slowly and massaged his forehead. “Why don’t you come over to the living room and tell me again what exactly it is you were hoping to achieve here.” Stephen would have loved to politely decline and just make their way out of there again honestly, but Em was beaming and answered already. “Oh yes, surely! Sorry again man, in retrospective this was really rude..”

Half an hour later, Em had basically told Caleb what their ‘visit’ was all about and Stephen had to honestly wonder if this guy was really a little dense to welcome them this openly after they had broken in. But he wasn’t going to question it too much as long as they came out of this unharmed… which they apparently would. Caleb had nodded mostly and sighed when Em explained, but he hadn’t appeared to be very angry at any point. “Yeah I know what you’re talking about.. I don’t really plan to use them and I don’t really mind, if someone who wants to actually use them gets their.. paws… on them, but guys. Maybe just ask, next time? I’ll give them to you, but promise me to not act so stupid anymore. This could’ve gone very bad for you.” Em jumped from his seat and bowed in gratitude to the lovabun. “Really? Thanks a lot man! Caleb, I mean. No breaking into houses anymore, promise! And if we visit you again, we’ll ring the bell!” “No pressure to..”, Caleb answered. One chaotic human was enough for him for now. Still, as promised, he had gotten up and handed over a few of the strange slivers they had come for. And after another round of ‘Thanks’, ‘Don’t do it again’ and ‘Promise’, Stephen and Em left the Lovabun’s flat. Lucky to be unharmed still and WAY too lucky to have gotten what they came here for on top. The Felis that Em had done this for would surely be pleased to hear of the pretty positive outcome of their little mission. And he better be…