The Thieves Of Our Time

Turtleneck Weather

ALICE was brought to an empty apartment. He must've been too smart to let her see his real home. She wasn't angry about it, though.

She'd also realized he'd acquired some cuts and scrapes once they weren't surrounded by darkness.

She sat on the small kitchens counter and Nash stood in front of the sink, washing his hands on blood and dirt.

He cleaned the scratch and wrapped her neck and right collarbone with bandages.

Alice had asked, "where's my bandaid." He had a focused face on, she could imagine how he looked in his head, but he pulled apart a pink bandaid and placed it on her shoulder.

"There." He said calmly.

She approved of this.

After he took care of her though, he adressed some wounds on himself. He had a cut on his cheek and a few of his arms.

She hasn't realized it before, but that woman knew who Nash was, and that made Alice curious. She needed answers.

"Did you kill her?" Alice asked, her voice filling the silent void that crept between them.

The silence followed afterwards. He looked over at her solemnly. Alice felt her heart drop. "No." Alice's eyes looked up into his. His face may have been unmoving, but his eyes couldn't hide a single thing. They were glazed with emotion and memory, deep with thought. "I injured her badly, but,' he let out A breath. "She's alive as long as she's gotten medical attention." He said as he wrapped more bandages around his hand.

Alice nodded. "Okay."

Silence was horrible. She realized Victorias annoyed voice was simply a filler of the emptiness that would otherwise consume all of them.

"Nash." Alice said so quietly, it came out as a breath.

"Yes," he replied softly.

"Who was she?"

He was silent once more. He didn't want to talk about it, Alice could tell; but she needed to know.

"A woman who doesn't like me." He said simply.

She looked at him, defeatless. She needed more than that. His eyes showed his hesitant unwant.

"She's a part of an organization - one of the theives organization throughput the country." 

Alice knew at that moment, she'd made a dangerous agreement on that day in the abandoned building.

"They don't like me because I'm competition. I'm a hell of a good theif," his intense eyes stared into hers. "They wanted me to be one of them. I didn't want to be a member of their cult. I wasn't going to be confined to the scarlet five." He didn't break his eyes away from her green ones. "They didn't like that. So they've been trying to kill me ever since."

"So they're tracking you?" Alice asked. It made sense. She was going to kill her because he thought she was trying to kill him. He thought she was a scarlet five, whatever the hell those people were.

He nodded in return. "They must've seen you with me, I must've slipped up," he had a contemplative look on his face. "They'll want to find me through you. We'll need to make our meetings more secretive."

"Alice felt pain sear through her neck as she tried to move. "I agree," no more knifes, she wanted to say.

He looked at her neck, following her rigid movements. "I'm sorry about that. I acted a bit quickly, I should've been more collected. You'll have a nasty scar now."

Alice almost laughed. "You're apologizing for saving my life. It's a bit silly, don't you think?"

His face seemed as if he were shocked. Or perhaps surprisingly amused at her response.

"I suppose so," he said.

Alice smiled. "Yeah, it's fine with me, but what the hell am I supposed to tell my father?"

He gave her plain look. She knew that his heart wasn't as careless as that damned face. He was worried for her in the alleyway, she'd never leave him alone for that, at least, in her head she wouldn't.

////

Alice looked in the mirror of the vanity in her room. Nathaniel barged in her room, the light from the hall entering her room.

"Whats on you neck?" Alice touched it.

"A turtleneck. Haven't you heard, they're in style again."

He gave her a weird look. "Whatever. Come on down, We must come to Victoria's disposal again." Alice grudgingly stood up and walked beside her brother. "Are you ever going to tell me where you disappeared last night?" Alice smiled.

"No."