Amias adjusted his mask, looking toward the jewelry store. It would be nearly impossible to fence the unique merchandise there, which meant few thieves would even give this place a second glance. As a result, security had gotten lax. Far too lax.
That was perfect for Amias and Rayne. Lax security, and a decent haul once they swiped the money kept in the store. No, they weren't after the jewels. Maybe an amateur would be, but they were pros. Swipe what they could make use of most easily, then vanish without a trace.
Rayne was probably already in the store, working on disabling the security systems. Setting up a way for them to swipe the digital currency. Amias just had to wait until she gave the signal before waltzing in and taking their prize.
The light flickered ever so slightly. A few people inside looked up curiously, then decided it was nothing and went back to what they were doing. Amias smiled slightly. Rayne was too good. Nobody had even noticed her. Even if she was invisible, she couldn't pass through walls or closed doors. She'd said that she'd wait until an employee went through each door she needed, then follow carefully.
He opened the door to the store and walked towards the register. Everyone stared at him - of course they did. He was wearing a dark blue hood, a full-face costume mask and gloves. No fingerprints - of course Rayne was wearing gloves as well.
"Can we help you sir?" an employee asked, obviously on guard.
Amias nodded. He raised his hand into the air and snapped his fingers.
Instantly, everyone within earshot fell like puppets with their strings cut. Anyone who'd heard that snap would have fallen into a deep sleep. Temporarily, of course, but it was plenty of time for Amias to jam a stick into the register and load it with currency. Sweet sweet money.
It took all of five minutes. All of Rayne's careful preparations and meticulous maneuvering paid off wonderfully. Amias glanced at a camera on his way out, smiling internally at the fact that they'd have no trace of him or Rayne.
"Excellent work, Amias." Rayne laughed in glee when they met back up at home. She'd been able to go directly there, but Amias had needed to take a detour to remove his costume and make sure that no one was following him, and that cameras couldn't identify him. All in all, it had taken longer than the actual theft.
He tossed the stick of money on the table and grabbed the plate Rayne held out for him. She was in a celebrating mood - dinner was far more elaborate and expensive than usual. There was even a faux-mignon.
Amias chuckled as Rayne cooed at their acquisition. She was adorable in the strangest of ways.
"Done fawning over the money?" he asked. Rayne glared at him, fighting the smile threatening to burst onto her face.
"You know I only keep you around because of the money," she said with a laugh.
"Ah yes, the absolute lack of money. What every woman wants." Amias sat down and started eating while Rayne grabbed her food.
"At least you won't sell me out if there's no money." Rayne gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she sat down. Amias grabbed her wrist and smiled.
"I wouldn't sell you out if there was money."
"So sentimental. But then again, I guess I've gotten sentimental too." Amias kissed Rayne's palm as she smiled at him.
"No matter how rough things were, I never regretted sticking with you, Rayne. Someone you can trust is worth more than all the money in the world." Amias grimaced. "We learned that the hard way, didn't we?"
"I think the lesson I took away from that was actually that you couldn't trust anybody," Rayne replied thoughtfully. "Congratulations on changing my mind, Ami. And, while living richly would be nice, I kind of like this humble living we've eked out."
"We might be able to live a bit more richly," Amias said. "Would you want to? More work, more money."
Rayne hummed in thought as she slowly worked her way through her mignon.
"I don't know, Ami," she finally sighed. "As nice as it would be, I don't want to go back to prison. And if we do too much, the military will start looking for us. Today was easy because they didn't expect us to show up. Next time they might be more on guard. And even more the time after that."
Amias looked down at his food as he stewed on her words.
"Rayne, would you ever want to go straight?" he asked, looking at her. She met his eyes with a laugh.
"Not in a million years, Ami."
He grinned back at her as the continued eating their celebratory meal.
