"Does it still hurt?" A bruise had formed over the left side of Dee Dee's face, there was also a small cut on her cheek from Simon's ring. She nodded slowly, eyes downcast. In fact Dee Dee was rather annoyed with herself. After she'd been publicly humiliated she had held her ground against Simon and all the onlookers that surrounded her. In fact she had not even acknowledged that she was in pain until she fell into the arms of her returned brother. 

As soon as she had reached Taemin's room her composure had completely crumbled, reducing her to tears. Taemin hadn't said much for fear of exploding in anger and had simply ordered for their dinners to be brought to his room. 

He, Dee Dee and Tom now sat on his large bed, Dee Dee with her good cheek on Taemin's shoulder as she picked at her food. Tom sat opposite them eating Taemin's dinner reluctantly. No amount of refusing broke through to Taemin and even though Tom was grateful he still felt that it was wrong of him to eat the noble's food, regardless of whether or not Taemin had already eaten. But given Taemin's currently furious expression he thought it best to just eat without complaint. 

They'd managed to take any and all swelling down with ice so now Dee Dee was just left with a large purple bruise. It throbbed slightly but she didn't say anything about it to Taemin knowing her brother was angry enough as it was. Taemin on the other hand was going over every single torture method he knew and could use on his cousin. Whilst out he'd not forgotten about what had happened to Dee Dee but he didn't expect her to burst into tears when he got home. It had both scared and angered him. Dee Dee was strong, but in that moment Taemin felt like he was the elder sibling and he came close to panicking. All he could do now was comfort his sister as she regained herself. 

"I'll get him back for this... You know that..?"

"I doubt I can stop you...?" Dee Dee sighed and Taemin just shook his head, worried by how flat Dee Dee sounded. "Just don't get yourself into more trouble... Alec's certain you have his keys... though he has no proof... you know he's looking for a reason to punish you..."

"I know... but I won't let this slide..." he half whispered as he ran his fingers through Dee Dee's long hair. Out of nowhere Dee Dee smiled and looked up at he brother. 

"I pissed him off when we got to the noble's house" she said with a small giggle. 

"Really, how?" Taemin asked, happy that Dee Dee seemed a bit happier now. 

"Oh easy" she chuckled. "You know the noble that wanted to court me, I just draped myself all over him... not the most enjoyable thing I've ever done but I think it really hurt the fat bastard..." 

"I hope so... he must really have thought he stood a chance with you" Taemin chuckled. 

"I thought he was going to cry at one point... but I doubt he'll allow me to go back there..." They fell into a now more comfortable silence having lightened their spirits a bit. "I'm sorry I broke down... I know I scared you, I didn't mean to..." 

"It's fine" Taemin said quietly, putting his arm around Dee Dee's shoulder. 

"I really hate this place... I feel like I have to wear a mask in front everyone around me... when I saw you... I don't know... I guess I was rather relieved to know I was allowed to be myself again..." Taemin rested his cheek on Dee Dee's head. He seemed to realize in that moment that even though his sister was a head strong noble she was at heart a girl, just as fragile as any other girl, the same way he was still only a boy inside... They were completely surrounded by unfamiliar and hateful faces... to let their guard drop would be ludicrous but keeping up their facades was taking it's toll on the two siblings. 

As he ate, Tom watched the two interact. He almost felt like he shouldn't be there. They were very close, Dee Dee and Taemin and he felt like he was watching something he shouldn't. 

"Next time you should kiss the noble on the cheek, that would really annoy him" Taemin chuckled. 

"I think I just might, and I think I may just mention Flame that bit more" Taemin scoffed at that. 

"How could you possibly mention flame more?"

"Enough to drive Simon crazy" Dee Dee chuckled. "Though speaking of Flame" Taemin inwardly cringed. "Was he with you in the square today?"

"Yes..." Taemin said slowly. 

"Oh was he the cutie standing next to you?!" she exclaimed rapidly pulling away from her brother to stare at him and almost sending food all over his bed in the process. Though while frowning at his sister's eagerness he thought back. Had Minho been standing next to him when Dee Dee was looking at him? He was definitely standing next to him afterward... 

"He might have been... was he tall with dark hair falling to here?" Dee Dee shook her head.

"He was about your height, if not a little taller, and his hair was light brown..." Well definitely not Minho then... or Jonghyun... She must have seen Onew... they had been talking seconds before Dee Dee had entered the square. 

"Well he was with me but who you saw wasn't Flame..."

"Oh... shame" Dee Dee said with a smile and Taemin finally felt like he had his sister back. 

"Did you give Flame the skeleton key?" Tom asked, finally speaking. 

"Yeah I did..." That sparked something in his memory. "Tom, how did you know that key was a skeleton key?"

"It was labeled, all the keys were... though..." Tom trailed off, thinking to himself. 

"Though what?" Taemin asked, nudging Tom from his thoughts. 

"Well, it's just that, the key wasn't with the other keys..." Tom could see by Taemin's eyes that Taemin was after more. "All the other keys were in this big cabinet with loads of hooks to hold the keys and they were all labeled; kitchen, bedrooms first floor, bedrooms, second floor, dining hall and so on, so obviously I grabbed the keys for this floor, but then as I was leaving I noticed something on the table. It was a little brown envelop and on it said "skeleton key" on it in black ink. I probably wouldn't even have noticed it, but the table had this white cloth on top and it was covered in parchments so it just stood out... So I took the key and left the envelop..." Tom said finishing his tale. 

"It was just lying there?" Taemin asked with a frown.

"Yeah, on top of all the paper work as if someone had just left it there..." Taemin began to think back to what Jonghyun had said earlier. It seemed so odd, the Key just lying there...

"Are you sure no one was about?"

"Certain Sir. I had to hide inside the room for a least half an hour before I was left by myself" he recounted. 

Taemin nodded and thought... could someone have wanted them to find the key... if so why... and who..? 

"Tom what have I said about calling me 'Sir'..."

~*~

"You know, I think I know who he is..."

"For god's sake, will you and your over-analysing Dino brain please go to sleep!"

"But's so light!"

"Jonghyun shut up!"

The four of them were lying in bed trying, and failing to get some sleep... Because they would be out so late tonight, they had decided that they would go to bed in the late hours of the morning and sleep through most of the day. 

It seemed like a good plan, they were all tired from being up all night at any rate, but for some reason the resident DinoPup wasn't all that keen on the idea of sleep. Even Onew, who was usually rather passive with Jonghyun and Key's bickering was getting agitated. 

Some part of Minho wanted to know what Jonghyun thought of Tom though... So far Jonghyun had been right on all his assumptions about the boy. Jonghyun always knew more than he let on. His eyes were trained to pick out fine details and he put that skill to good use, but because of his goofy and usually childish personality most people never knew how efficiently the cogs in his brain worked. 

Minho had his own theory about their new little friend, but it wasn't something he was going to voice yet, besides, he wanted Tom to tell him who he was himself. 

"But I can't sleep!"

"Would it help if I knocked you out?!"

Jonghyun paled at the Diva's threat before grumbling under his breath and settling down to sleep. They fell into a comfortable silence but outside Minho could hear the town going about it's business. It wasn't annoying Minho found, in fact it was rather comforting. When he'd first become an outlaw it was purely about revenge, and it still was, but over time, the people of the town became more than just somewhere to put the money once he'd stolen it, he really began to take his outlaw role seriously. A lot of people counted on him, and who knew how many lives he'd saved with the money he'd given them?

Yes the thought was rather daunting, but Minho found himself smiling softly to himself. He cared for the town and it's people, and time and time again the people show him that he was also cared for. He was certain that most of thought he was older than he was though... Any how, he felt he was doing right by them, and planned to continue doing so...

~*~

"See, it's not so scary this time round right?"

"I wasn't that scared..." Taemin half whined as he walked behind Key. They were standing in the graveyard, as they had been before, only this time, Taemin wasn't clinging to anyone.

"Sure you weren't" Jinki chuckled from behind him. 

Taemin pouted but said nothing as they came to a halt at the crypt entrance. As before Jonghyun and Minho opened the crypt and they filed inside. 

Knowing that there wasn't a dead body in the raised grave put Taemin at ease as they stood in the darkness. Though he still didn't like the idea of being in a graveyard as the sun went down. 

Without much fuss they climbed into the grave and made their way into the crypt. Taemin couldn't really understand why he had found this so frightening the first time round... okay maybe he could, graveyards were terrifying, especially abandoned ones. So he had been a bit scared... it was a normal reaction right?

But where he had been awed before by they way they had so casually chatted on the stairway downward, now he was just as easily joining them... though, he was almost tempted to pretend to be scared just to cling onto Minho's arm again... almost...

The journey down seemed so much quicker this time and soon Jonghyun was unlocking the last barrier to Flame's secret base, or maybe it was just Taemin's eagerness to know what they would be doing tonight that made time appear to move quicker?

They filed into the room and began lighting the torches before congregating around the table. 

"So do I get to know now what's happening tonight?" Taemin asked eagerly. 

"So eager" Minho chuckled, ruffling Taemin's hair before moving further into the room and allowing his cloak to fall from his shoulders. Along with the others he placed his cloak on one of the tables in a messy pile and reluctantly Taemin followed suit. 

They gathered at the biggest table in the room, Jonghyun and Key instantly jumping up onto it, Key comfortably crossing one leg over the other, Jonghyun sitting with his legs folded atop the table  happily. Minho, Taemin and Onew opted to sit in chairs relaxing somewhat. 

"Can I know now?" Taemin whined which earned a few chuckles but Taemin found he didn't mind them. 

"Oh alright" Minho smiled, instantly falling for Taemin's cuteness. "But we'll be here for a few hours yet"

"Why so long?"

"Because we need the silent hours of the night to pull this off" Onew answered Taemin from the chair next to him. This just made Taemin more curious and slightly annoyed. 

"Do you know much of what goes on in town?" Minho asked and Taemin shook his head. Minho hadn't really expected Taemin to say yes. "Well, there's a bank which stands in the town center, it's big and Alec's men use it as a base of sorts. They keep all the money they take as taxes in there as well as records on the payments and especially anyone who slips up with them..."

As Taemin listened he was thinking. He thought all the money Alec took from the people he hid away so no one would ever see it again... apparently not. 

"We found out that Alec's planning to look over the records to find people to publicly name and shame in the next week or so..."

"Name and shame?" Taemin echoed confused. 

"Make an example of..." Key said from the table hoping that Taemin would get the hint. Unfortunately he did... So what, Alec was just going to kill people because they couldn't afford to live?

Taemin figured the shock must have been evident on his face by the way the other's eyed him. "It's not the first time..." Key said quietly "But we couldn't do anything about it before..." he said with more vigor. 

"So what are we going to do?" Taemin asked seriously. 

"We're going to destroy the records and steal as much money from the bank as possible" Minho answered, his voice steady and his eyes hardened with determination. Taemin smiled at the elder boy.

"Okay, so how do we do it?" Taemin asked softly. Minho's gaze softened.

"Well it all has to be done quietly... unfortunately it's too much work to be done quickly... But having you on board will definitely help..." Minho paused. "We'll split into two teams, initially Jonghyun and Key will split from us and Onew to grab a small cart and horse and position it on the edge of the forest..."

"Where'll they find that...?" Taemin asked with a frown. 

"There's a few people in the town who leave their resources open for us" Onew offered. "Like the tailor they have never given us away..." Taemin nodded in understanding. 

"When we reach the bank" Minho continued. "The first thing the three of us will need to do will be to secure the bank; check for guards and either immobilize them or knock them out. After that's done, two of us will search for the records while the other start to pile up the money."

"Why two looking for the records?"

"Because the records are more important" Key said from the table. "We figured the money was an added bonus, that's why we decided to take as much as possible rather then just what we could carry like usual."

"Show Alec what we can really get away with" Jonghyun chuckled. 

"Either way, once we find the records, we destroy them along with any other documents we find, just to piss Alec off just that bit more..." They were really going to go all out tonight and it made Taemin both nervous and excited. He'd been so angry at his uncle recently he would only enjoy his uncles rage afterwards. 

"While this is going on, Jonghyun will be traveling back and forth between the bank and the cart, which wont be too far away, and delivering the money to Key who'll be waiting at the cart."

"Just Jonghyun?"

"Hey, I'm stronger than I look" Jonghyun huffed, crossing his arms. 

"Out of us, he can carry the most and he's fairly quiet" Onew told the younger. 

"Right," Minho continued "We need someone to stay with the cart and someone to stay in the bank. Besides once the two finish destroying the documents they can help but I don't want to risk Jonghyun making more than three trips. It wont be the biggest amount of money in the world but it'll be more than we've ever stolen in one go before."

"And it's sure to piss Alec off" Jonghyun chuckled. 

"When we leave, all four of us will grab a bag and head for the cart. Then we'll transport everything here. The money will stay here tonight and we'll set about distributing it on other nights."

"What if something goes wrong?" Taemin frowned.

"We work around it. If something does go wrong, drop everything and run but try not to get separated, it'll only lead to us looking for each other..." Taemin nodded feeling scared all of a sudden. "But don't worry, we'll be fine, we always have been before" Minho smiled trying to reassure Taemin some... and it kind of worked. 

"Will finding the lists take enough time for Jonghyun go back and forth more than once?" Taemin asked... surely it would be fairly easy to find...?

"We don't know yet... We're planning to destroy the lists as soon as we find them as they're the priority, but destroy the rest as we leave."

"How?"

"By fire but if we light it early it could arouse suspicion." Taemin nodded again, but he still thought Jonghyun wouldn't have enough time to do much. 

"Couldn't there be one person constantly looking for the lists, one initially rounding up the money in the bank but then helps Jonghyun, and one that goes back and forth between searching and rounding up money for the next trip?" Taemin offered, trying to reimagine the roles of the three who would be in the bank. 

"That way two people can carry money to Key!" Onew half exclaimed. 

Minho smiled. "I didn't think of that..."

"Well you said an extra pair of hands would be useful" Taemin chuckled. 

"Alright!" Minho said standing. "You two off the table" He said to Jonghyun and Key before crossing the room to get a scroll and returning to the table where he opened it up. 

The remaining four gathered around the table to see what he'd opened. 

"This a floor plan of the bank" Taemin stared at the white paper below him. 

"It's not that big..." he noted. 

"That makes this easy..." He pointed to a room on the map. "The entire building is on one level and this is the room where all the documents are kept... Over here..." his finger swept across the map "is the room with the safe inside and where we'll find the money. After sweeping the building for security, Onew will open the safe as he's the second best with a lock pick. After that Onew, you'll search for the document..."

"I thought you were going to do that?" Onew questioned. 

"I was going to originally but if two of us are going to be carrying the money, it stands to reason that it would be me and Jonghyun..." There was a general hum at the statement. "Whilst Onew searches me and Tom will bag up the first lots of money. When Jonghyun arrives, he'll be positioned outside the window. We'll pass out the money and I'll climb out and the two of us will head to Key. Key, we'll leave the bags with you and it'll be your job to pile them onto the cart okay?" 

Key sighed but nodded. "Okay..." It seemed there would be a great deal of heavy lifting going on tonight. 

"Tom," Taemin jumped but looked at Minho. "After I leave, it's down to you to group up the next lots of money, now it'll be two lots instead of one. If you finish that, put them by the window and go to help Onew search until we return." Taemin nodded. "We'll do this as many times as we can before all of us leave after lighting the fire. We all clear?" There were shared nods around the table. 

"If something goes wrong and we have to run" Jonghyun said taking over for the time being. "Do not head back here until you are certain you are not being followed. Do not try to carry any money and try to stay at least in pairs. but if we do get separated do not go back to look for anyone, just run."

The speech was mainly for Taemin's benefit but it was good to refresh the rules in their heads. "If one of us goes missing we meet in the church above the crypt at midday tomorrow and wait until sundown..."

"What happens after that..."

"We assume that the missing person has been caught..." Key said quietly. 

"Has it happened before?" Taemin half whispered. 

"A few times" Onew smiled. "But we've always been fine." 

"If we do get separated you just have to believe in the skills of everyone and worry about yourself" Key smiled. "We're all sneaky enough to lose a few guards." Taemin smiled at Key's words, if they were anything like the castle guards, which Alec personally employed, he was certain a few of the guards at the bank would be easy enough to lose, especially with a whole town to run around in. 

"Okay then, when do we go?" Taemin asked. 

"Not for a while" Minho sighed. "Taverns stay open late and people are always about around midnight so we have to wait until the early hours of the morning."

"When everything is silent" Jonghyun chuckled. 

"Wow... it really will be a long night" Taemin said with an amused tone to his voice. Hopefully everything would be fine. He didn't doubt the abilities of those around him but instead worried that he would be up to the tasks presented to him. He couldn't really match up to the four who had been doing this for years but he would try his best.

"So what do we do in the mean time?"

"How about a card game?"

"No way Jonghyun cheats!"

"I do not!"

"He counts cards!"

"That's not cheating. That's being clever!" 

~*~

Yeah, I made you wait too long for this chapter... I'm sorry...I could regale you with stories of how I became busy, but I wont.

I'll try to get the next one up quicker than this one took... Also, does my plan make sense?

Please COMMENT ^^

Pretty please?

~Micky