Criminal Love

Teaching A Good Girl Bad Tricks

Lifty's bad mood after being laughed at by his red-haired hostess only grew when a knock sounded at her door and he opened it to find Flippy standing on her front step, the smile on his face quickly disappearing at seeing that the thief. and not his friend, had answered the door.

"Ah, hello there, thief."

"I got a name, ya know," Lifty scowled, "So there any reason why you're here? Or are you just here to give me a headache?"

Flippy shot him a glare, "I'm here because Flaky invited me over for dinner," Flippy wrinkled his nose at Lifty, as though the thief smelled rotten, "Although I didn't know we'd be having company."

Before their arguing could escalate into something a bit more heated, Flaky entered the scene and quickly ushered Lifty back into the kitchen and told Flippy to wait in the living room. As she shut the kitchen door behind her, she let out a sigh and looked at her houseguest with pleading eyes.

"Okay, Lifty. I really want you to t-try and be nice to him," Flaky pleaded, "I know y-you and him didn't exactly click the last time we all hung out, b-but I need you two to be friends. D-Don't you want to be known as the good twin? The one who is nice and c-caring and-"

"Ugh! Okay, okay! Enough with the goodie-goodie crap! I'll play nice with solider boy."

Flaky smiled and clapped her hands happily, hugging the twin for the second time today, "I just k-know if tonight goes well, then g-getting everyone else to like y-you will be a snap!"

Lifty didn't think it'd be that easy to get everyone to like him as he was still known as a thieving crook to most of her friends but chose to not voice that opinion in favor of keeping his friend happy.

Flaky let go of him and told him that she still needed to get the night's dinner ready and went back to the stove, where a pot of pasta was boiling on the heated top. After a few minutes of watching her cook, Lifty got bored and wondered briefly if he should just go back and sit with Flippy in the living room. He soon decided against it, seeing as it would probably end up in another fight between the two men and then he'd be disappointing Flaky.

Lifty frowned as that thought crossed his mind. Why did he care about disappointing the girl? She didn't mean anything to him, she was just a person who gave him free food and a roof over his head without even asking for anything in return. So why did he care? Maybe spending a few days around a person who actually seemed to genuinely care about him, despite his reputation, was being to soften the crook's cold heart. Maybe he was becoming a better person after all, even if it was only slightly. . .

". . .you could do that, Lifty? Lifty?"

The thief blinked, so lost in thought he hadn't realized Flaky had trying to talk to him, eyeing at him with a confused look. He shook his head, coughing slightly to seem like he just zoned out for a second.

"Huh? You say somethin'?"

"I asked if you c-could finish up making the food ready while I go grab F-Flippy."

"I'm not the best cook, Red. . ."

Flaky started to leave the kitchen, speaking to him before she left, "All you gotta do is pour the soup in bowls and add a l-little salt. Easy peasy, right?"

Flaky disappeared down the hallway and left Lifty alone. He stared at the soup with a frown. muttering to the empty air.

"Yea, easy peasy. . ."

Lifty nearly burnt himself trying to pour soup into the bowls but was able to get the meal ready without a lot of trouble. Taking only a pinch of salt he sprinkled some in the soup. His eyes fell on his bruised hand as he grabbed one of the bowls and his expression darkened, remembering the pain Flippy caused him. Sure, it was mostly his own fault for trying to annoy the war vet, but he was still mad at him.