"How long will it take them to get the cart?"

"Not long..." Minho answered Taemin as the ran down the now empty streets. "We have to get the bank secure as soon as possible." The town looked completely different by night. It was completely silent and incredibly dark. There didn't seem to be anyone about, not even soldiers. It made getting to the bank simple... almost too simple...

"Will you be okay? Running back and forth?" Taemin had to admit he was a bit worried about Minho and Jonghyun wearing themselves out despite their physical strength. 

"Don't worry" Minho chuckled. "If we need to stop we will" Minho had to admit he found Taemin's worry for him rather endearing. 

Before long the three reached the entrance to the bank. They stood, huddled close together listening for any movement both inside and outside of the bank. "Dubu..." Minho whispered.

Onew nodded and set to work on the door and it only took a moment for the door to click open. 

"Remember, there aren't many rooms. We move from room to room and disable the guards as quietly as possibly so others don't hear and come running." Taemin and Onew nodded. One by one they entered the building but found nothing and no one in the darkened room. There were no lights lit in the room which made it seem all that more eerie. Metal bars had been drawn down over the cashiers for security measures but to Taemin it just made the room look like a prison cell.

The three crept through the various tables of the large room and made for the bars. To gain access to the remaining rooms they would have to go through a door located behind the cashiers, but that meant getting through the bars.

With Onew at the head they approached the only opening in the bars, a locked and sturdy door made of the same bars. Onew crouched in front of the lock and inspected it.

"How's it look... Can you open it?" Minho whispered.

Onew nodded back. "I wont be as quick as Puppy though..." Minho nodded in response as he an Taemin waited for Onew to conquer the door.

Time passed slowly, with only the sounds of Onew tinkering floating on the silent air. With each moment that passed the risk of discovery increased putting them on edge, but true to his word Onew managed to get the lock to click open with a sigh of triumph and a smile.

Onew stood and slowly opened the surprisingly heavy door, wincing as it creaked somewhat loudly. They waited again nervously once it was wide enough but it seemed the sound hadn't drawn anyone's attention.

Once they reached the door they paused to listen. All three could easily hear voices behind the door... guards... Minho turned the doorknob slowly, thanking the heavens that it didn't make a sound, and peered through the crack before holding up two fingers.

So only two guards? It seemed quite a small number to Taemin but there may still be more men in the rest of the building.

Moving from the door, Minho crouched down and began whispering to his two companions, outlining a quick plan to dispose of the guards. Once they were all in agreement, they stood and went back to the door.

On Minho's signal they moved, Onew and Minho staying low but entering the room. This only possible to do discreetly because the guards were sitting with their backs to the door. Taemin watched as the two moved into position nervously but refusing to doubt their skills.

When they were in position, Minho nodded and Taemin stood, throwing the door open and banging it against the wall. The two guards jumped to attention, eyes focused on the intruder in the door way and effectively not noticing the two crouched close by.

"Good evening" Taemin smiled to the guards as behind them Onew and Minho stood. As the guards stood and braced themselves to attack Minho and Onew brought the hilts of their swords down on the back of the guards heads, knocking them out with fairly no noise. Taemin ran into the room and helped the two tie the two guards together back to back as they lay groaning on the floor.

"How long will they be out?" Taemin whispered.

"I don't know... Minho whispered back and began dragging the guards out of the room.

Between the three, they managed to tie the guards to the bars around cashiers, out of the way before gaging them and leaving to explore the rest of the building.

They found no one in the offices containing various documents and counting equipment and only one other guard in the room with the walk in safe.

Now having nothing to fear, they simply entered the room and pressed a blade to the back of the guards neck. Sensibly terrified for his life he agreed not to put up a fight as they relieved him of his weapons and bound his arms and legs and bound his mouth, for the moment placing him in the corner of the room but well in the sight of everyone. 

Safe, for now anyway, they relaxed a little and inspected the large safe door.

The air went quiet again.

"What to do you think?" Minho asked a frowning Onew.

"I'm not familiar with the type of lock..." Onew sighed. "It's different to the one on the blue print..."

"Can you open it?"

"I can try..." Onew put a hand on his chin in thought. "But I cannot guarantee anything..." The apology was clear in his tone but Minho just smiled.

"You know we're not really here for the money... If you can open it, great, if not we'll still be able to destroy the lists..."

Onew sighed but smiled back, moving closer to the heavy door.

"So do we wait? Or do we start looking now?" Taemin asked, moving to stand next to Minho.

"Wait for now... we're not in the biggest rush. If Dubu cannot open the door, we search for the records together..." Minho smiled. Taemin nodded back, his attention now going back to Onew and the small frustrated sounds he was making.

Time passed and still nothing, soon Jonghyun would arrive...

From the corner, the guard began to make noises, drawing the instant attention of the three outlaws. Immediately they checked the surrounding areas but found no one the guard could be communicating to and the sounds he was making were not nearly loud enough to be calling to anyone outside the room.

Hesitantly they stood around him and watched as his eyes seemed to plead with them. "What is he doing?" Onew voiced the question softly.

"Maybe he wants us to let him go..?" Taemin offered, making Minho scoff.

"I doubt it... he knows we wont let him go..."

The guard began indicating to the safe with his heads, making the three look back at it, now feeling more confused.

The guards rolled his eyes, but persisted in his actions.

Eventually Minho grew bored with the game of charades and bent down to remove the gag. "This had better be worth our time" Minho threatened, making the guard gulp.

"I-I know the combination to the safe...." he stuttered out.

"Why would you tell us the combination?" Onew said with a frown.

"M-my s-sisters family i-is on one of the lists..."

The three became quiet, out of sympathy but did not lower their defenses.

"But we would have destroyed those lists anyway... Why help us steal the money?" Taemin bore down on the guard making Minho raise an eyebrow. Who knew the innocent teen could look so threatening?

"B-because I want to help you" the guard blurted out. "We all hate Sir Alec as much as you do..." With that the three outlaws looked at each other. "And I know the money may go to helping my sister feed my niece... You are not common criminals are you?" The guards eyes searched their faces for the answer he sought. "You are Flame's gang are you not?"

Taemin looked sideways at Minho, waiting for him to react.

"I am Flame, yes..." Minho said slowly, now trusting the man's words somewhat. "Where does your sister live?"

"To the south, near the police station..."

Minho became silent once more, before startling everyone when he next spoke. "Give him the code..." he said, gesturing to Onew. The guard nodded and began reciting the long number.

"Can we trust him?" Taemin whispered.

"For now... he would not have gained anything by telling us that information..."

"But if anyone finds out what he did, he could be killed..."

"All the more reason to trust his word..." Minho said giving Taemin a smile. "Don't worry"

Taemin smiled back, feeling some of the nervousness leave him.

"It's open!" Onew called out softly.

"Good, you and Makane begin packing the bags, Puppy will be here soon..."

Taemin crossed the room  and walked into the giant safe, marveling at it's size. Meanwhile Minho whispered a thank you to the guard and carted him off the be tied up at the front of the building with the other two. 

When he returned, the two had filled one bag and had started on another.

"How's that for weight?" Onew asked, gesturing to the bag. Minho walked over to it an lifted it, trying it on his shoulder. 

"I can take a little more.... It's uncomfortable though... what on earth is in it?" 

"Mainly coins... we could take the cash but paper money isn't usually found among the poorer folk. But there's some jewelry in there and a few small gold bars...." Onew informed him as he helped Taemin pack the other bag. 

"Gold bars? What will we do with those?"

"Every little helps, besides we're not taking many, we can have them melted down and sold, Puppy can do that himself... besides, Kitty will throw a fit if we don't keep something from tonight..."

"Okay..." Minho sighed... he wasn't accustomed to keeping anything they stole yet, but with would take a few worries off their minds. 

"Try it now?" Taemin said, having added more coins. Minho did as requested and nodded. 

"That's fine" he said with a smile. 

A soft tapping came from the window and Onew ran over to it, unlocking it from the inside, allowing Jonghyun to climb into the room. "We're nearly done," Onew told him.

"Why so late?"

"There  were a few problems opening the safe..."

Jonghyun shrugged and helped Taemin pile the gold into the sack. "You have the other two bags?" Jonghyun asked him.

"Yeah they're on the table... Is that too much?" Taemin asked looking at the full bag.

Jonghyun heaved the bag onto his shoulder, testing the weight. "No that's okay... Flame?"

Minho nodded and reached for his own bag. "We'll be as quick as possible... You two know what to do, yes?" Taemin and Onew nodded. "Okay then, lets go..." he said to Jonghyun as they headed for the window. Jonghyun climbed out first and Minho followed, giving Taemin one last smile before he disappeared from sight.

Taemin and Onew looked at each other for a moment for sharing a smile and splitting up, Onew heading for the offices whilst Taemin grabbed the two bags from the table and set about filling them full of gold.

Soon Taemin began to feel the strain on his arms and back. Gold in large quantities was surprisingly heavy... to him anyway, and Taemin found that he had to take breaks from carrying the metal to stretch out his arms neck and back. But he managed to fill one bag up for Minho soon enough and began work on the bigger one for Jonghyun. When he carrying the last of the gold for Jonghyun's bag, Minho appeared at the window again. 

Taemin added the gold to the bag and dragged the sacks to the window, with difficulty, and Minho heaved them outside. "Are you okay?" the older boy asked, concern laced into his voice. "I'm fine..." Taemin replied. "I'm just not used to heavy lifting... You?"

"I'm okay... any word from Dubu..?"

"None yet..."

"Okay, here's the next two bags..." Taemin took the empty bags and immediately went back to the safe. He paused for a moment, squaring his shoulders at the glinting metal.

"Let's do this..."

~*~

Taemin was quite proud of himself. He managed to fill both the bags, and place them by the window much quicker than the last two. Minho and Jonghyun were nowhere to be seen, so Taemin partially closed the window and headed to seek out Onew. 

He found the older boy, holding a single candlestick as his eyes scanned various pieces of paper. 

"Onew, you okay?"

"It's Dubu, remember?" Onew chuckled.

"Sorry... I forgot..." 

"It's okay, at least this time. I found a few pages" he said pointing to a chair. "But I don't believe that's all of them..." Taemin crossed the room and picked up the sheets of paper that were very loosely held together...

"So many names...." Taemin whispered in shock....

"I know" Onew sighed pausing in his work. "Are you okay? You look tired."

"Yeah... I'm alright, but I am tired..." Taemin said with a smile. 

"Did the other two come and go already?"

"Once, yep" Taemin nodded. Onew nodded back and went back to searching. 

"What have you already gone through?" Taemin asked, moving about the room, unsure where to start. 

"I've done everything on the left side of the room, I've been working my way round..."

"I'll start on the right and we'll meet in the middle...."

After nodding to each other, Taemin lit another candle and began searching through the various stack of paper, not really caring how messy he left the piles, but making sure that if they were of no importance they were no longer in his way. He had gotten through half the amount of papers but still had found nothing, feeling rather annoyed with himself.

"You know, after last time, just before you left the house, I saw you kiss Flame on the head" Onew told Taemin, breaking the silence and shocking Taemin enough to make him send paper flying all over the floor.

"Wha- I..."

Onew laughed as he stopped searching. "I'm sorry but I had to see how you reacted. I haven't told anyone though" Onew said, still giggling.

"You saw that?" Taemin asked flustered.

"I woke up when you got out of the bed" Onew chuckled.

 "Oh, sorry..." Taemin said quietly, eyes on the ground. "I don't think even Min-Flame knows about it..."

Onew made a thoughtful sound. "Well, your arrival seemed to completely distract him from Lady Devaro..."

"Really?" Taemin asked quickly. 

"You sound happy about that!" Onew laughed, making Taemin blush. "Are you?"

"I guess..." Taemin muttered. Secretly he was falling for Minho but he hadn't thought anyone had noticed. 

"Do you like him?"

Taemin blushed harder, becoming incredibly nervous in an instant. "I..."

"You are allowed to like him you know" Onew chuckled. "I won't tell" 

Taemin bit his lip as he studied Onew's soft smile through the gloom. Hesitantly he nodded his head. Well... he supposed he would have to tell someone at some point.

"Kitty's right, you are adorable..."

Taemin blushed harder but smiled softly. It kind of felt good; telling someone. He hadn't even told Dee Dee... but then he couldn't really tell his sister that they both liked the same person...

"Well I'm glad I asked" Onew smiled, going back to searching. 

"Why?" Taemin asked, staying where he was for the moment.

"It was bugging me" Onew confessed. "And after that hug in the square yesterday I thought I had figured it out but I wanted to make sure..." Taemin fidgeted as he remembered the hug and how happy he had felt in that moment. 

They fell into silence once more and though Taemin still felt a bit jittery he felt rather... happy. 

"I'll go check and see if they've come back..." Taemin said quietly before excusing himself from the room. 

When he reached the safe he found the bags gone, the window open and two empty bags left in their place. He had spent too long with Onew... Now he had less time to pack the new bags....

He began filling the bags immediately, running back and forth between the bags and the safe. Almost instantly, his back and arms began to ache, but he breathed through the pain and continued his task. 

As he worked, his mind reeled. Did Jonghyun and Key know how he felt about Minho? Did Minho really not like his sister anymore? Minho had told him that his affection laid elsewhere but Taemin still felt insecure... not to mention he didn't even know who this other person was.

Even though he had come to terms with how he felt, Taemin hadn't really thought about how he would feel, or what would happen if Minho returned his affections, though just thinking of the idea gave him butterflies...

When he finished the second bag he all but collapsed, setting himself next to the bags as he caught his breath. He sat there for a while until he heard a sound at the window, turning to see the object of his affections appear. 

"You okay?" Taemin asked as soon as he reached the window. 

"Yeah..." Minho sounded out of breath making Taemin worry. "Dubu..?"

"He's found some, but he's checking for others..." Taemin relayed. 

Minho nodded and handed Taemin more empty bags.

"Four?"

"All of us leave next time. Help Dubu find the rest of the records and then both of you fill the bags. If you're not done by the time we get back, Puppy and I will help." Minho said as he handed Jonghyun's bag to him.

"Okay, stay safe..." Taemin whispered before going to find Onew.

~*~

"Found it!" Onew exclaimed happily. This list was a lot thicker then the last.

"So many people..." Taemin whispered. All of them unable to pay taxes... it seemed absurd... "Is that a child?" Taemin said pointing to the paper and the date of birth next to it.

"That's just evil..." Onew whispered back, disgust laced into his voice. "Hand me the other list..." Taemin did as asked and gave the papers to Onew. The older boy knelt down and placed them on the floor after using the candle to ignite the corner. He stood next to Taemin and for a moment they just watched the papers burn. 

"Lucky there's no carpet..." Taemin muttered... as he watched the paper burn. Once it was completely destroyed Onew moved over to a desk. 

"Throw as much paper on the floor as possible" Onew told Taemin as he swept his arms over the desk tops, throwing papers into the air and onto the floor. Taemin smiled and followed suit, finding himself laughing as they created a bigger and bigger mess. 

When the desk tops were clear the stood back to admire they handiwork. "That was fun" Taemin chuckled.

"It was" Onew smiled. He fished a little bottle out of his pocket and spread it's contents over the paper. "It's oil..." Onew explained, answer the question that Taemin had just been about to ask. "It'll help everything burn, but it hopefully wont be powerful enough to ignite everything else..." That done, Onew turned back to Taemin and suggested they start packing the bags once more. Taemin agreed and the two headed to the safe.

When they got there, they found Minho and Jonghyun already packing the bags. Both looked thoroughly worn out and flushed, out of breath. "You two rest!" Onew ordered in a voice that clearly would not take no for answer. The two groaned but moved to a wall and collapsed. 

Taemin chuckled but picked up where Minho and Jonghyun left off. 

It took a while as there were now more bags to fill, but eventually the bags were full. The sky outside was starting to look lighter, but it was still dark enough to stay hidden. 

Onew ran back to the office to set fire to the paper and quickly returned. "It looks like it will only burn the paper..." He announced upon returning. 

"Good" Minho said, standing once more. "Let's go". They grabbed their bags, Taemin's being considerably lighter than the others, and one by one they climbed out of the window. 

Having been inside so long, it felt nice to once again feel a breeze on his skin Taemin noticed, but everything was not over yet. "Stay close" Minho whispered and they began running. But they had not even made it down the street when a shout rose up to their left. 

A rather observant guard who thought he had seen unusual movement in the bank noticed the four as they tried to make their escape and began blowing a loud whistle. 

"Puppy, Dubu spilt!" Minho ordered before telling Taemin to follow him. 

Jonghyun and Onew ran down an alley, keeping to the shadows whilst Minho and Taemin headed down another away from the sounds of approaching feet.

~*~

"Do we leave the bags?"

"Why too heavy for you?" Jonghyun teased.

"Oh shush!"

"Well..." Jonghyun popped his head out of the alley way. "They haven't found us yet, so lets keep hold of them." They both slunk back into the shadows as a few soldiers ran past the alley's entrance.

Checking the coast was clear they headed down the next street only having to double back into another alley as more soldiers approached from the right.

"Why are there so many" Onew cursed. "There were hardly any when he arrived..."

"Maybe you were just lucky?" Jonghyun whispered. "Come on, this way" he said, leading Onew down the Alley way.

~*~

"Go now" Minho whispered and the two of them momentarily left the cover of darkness to risk running in the open. The pressed themselves against a wall, hiding in it's shadows as they watched soldiers run past the mouth of the street.

More whistles were sounded. 

"This is not good..." Minho whispered. "At this rate the streets will be too full for us to move..."

"What do we do?" Taemin asked in a scared whisper. 

"I don't know... yet..." Minho chuckled. He would find some way out of this he was sure. They crept along the edge of the street slowly, avoiding all light and soldiers. They had almost made it to the street's cross roads when a flurry of feet could be heard on their tail.

"Get ready to run and don't panic" Minho said quietly. Taemin could only nod in fright.

On their right a window on the first floor of house opened and a young girls head popped out.

"This way!" she mouthed. Minho was skeptical but the sound of feet behind them forced him forward with Taemin close behind. 

They reached the building and found the door of the house open with a small light beckoning them inside. Minho ushered Taemin into the house, taking one last look behind him before entering also.

The light came from a single candle held by a strong looking man in his mid-thirties. "Hide in here" he whispered in a gruff voice, extinguishing the candle.

"They can't stay in here!" A woman's voice called from the stairs making Taemin and Minho's heads swivel.

"They can and they will" the man replied. "You two are from Flame's gang yes? You're too young to be anyone else!" Minho just nodded and Taemin followed suit.

"But we will be killed if they are found here!" the woman protested.

"Not unless we give them away, go upstairs and wait with Jenny!" The woman looked between her husband and the outlaws before sighing and going up the stairs.

"Forgive my wife, she's just afraid..."

"That's okay" Minho replied, understanding completely, "Thank you for this"

"You're welcome, now follow me" He led them over to a door and opened it. "It's small but you should be able to hide here for now." It was a small pantry, barely able to fit one person in, let alone two with full bags of gold.

"Thank you" Minho said with a nod.  

 "I will head upstairs now" The man told them. "Run when you can."

 Minho nodded again. "How many others on the street know of what's going on?"

"I imagine everyone would have heard the whistles, though whether they know it is Flame I do not know. I leave you now." he said before retreating to the staircase. He gave them one last nod and disappeared. 

Minho and Taemin squashed themselves into the pantry, having to press close to each other to fit properly and closed the door. The air became awkward and silent as they tried not to lean up against the shelves and knock any of the foods or jars over. 

"How long do we stay here?" Taemin whispered, cheeks flushed from nerves and the closeness between Minho and himself. 

"Until we can leave..."

"When will that be..?"

"....I don't know" Minho sighed. "But we're safe for the moment..." he said softly. 

"Will the other two be okay?" Taemin whispered, currently unable to make his voice any louder. 

"They'll be fine" Minho chuckled. "You wait and see..."

"Will we be okay?" Taemin asked in a smaller voice.

"Yes" Minho said in a definite voice. "We will be just fine."

Taemin gave Minho a weak smile finding Minho's certain sounding voice comforting but hard to believe. Seeing this Minho sighed and wrapped his arms around Taemin, holding him close to his chest in a hug. "We will be fine" he repeated. "Trust me" 

"I do trust you." Taemin whispered, ignoring the fact that he heart was racing and that he was blushing hard. "But I'm scared..."

"We'll be okay... we just have to be careful..."

Taemin sighed and let himself relax a little. He wasn't going to be any use to anyone he was panicking. He brought up his arms to hug Minho back... For now they would just have to wait...

~*~

"We can't keep doing this!" Onew whispered furiously. They had circled around the same block of buildings countless times now, having been cut off at every turn. 

"We have to keep moving..."Jonghyun panted. 

"I know but we can't keep going in circles"

"Well unless we want to be seen we have to, come on."

They began running once more. The sky was now grey, signaling the morning's arrival and giving them less places to hide. 

Once again, Jonghyun and Onew found all ways shut off to them, there were too many soldiers patrolling the area. They had almost made it back to the same place they had been before when they halted in their tracks as a woman stood in the middle of the road.

"I saw you pass our house by a few times!" she said quietly. "I will try to help you!"

Jonghyun snapped out of his tired daze. "Wha- how?" For now not questioning the offered help.

"When you leave here, I will scream so the soldiers find me and say you ran past, knocking me over. Then I'll tell them that you were headed for the town square and the soldiers will go that way!"

"Thank you. But why go to the trouble?" Onew asked quickly.

"I've always been a fan of Flame... You all saved me and my family once..." she smiled. "Now go quick and hide". Jonghyun and Onew nodded and ran for the cover of an alley way, hoping that she would not be caught out.

Once they had made it a fair distance away they heard a shrill scream rise up from the houses making Jonghyun and Onew duck into another back street.

"Wow, she can scream..." Onew muttered.

The sound of feet storming to the location of the scream and they could hear far off shouting. They stayed in the same place for a few minutes and the soldiers seemed to be on the move again with whistles sounding once more. 

Carefully they slipped out of hiding to find the streets bare....

"Come on, let's not keep Kitty waiting" Jonghyun chuckled.

~*~

"You hear that?" Minho whispered after hearing the scream. Taemin lifted his head off of Minho's shoulder feeling his heart racing. 

"I heard it... What do you suppose happened?"

"I don't know, but this may be our chance..." Minho carefully opened the door, regrettably moving away from Taemin's warmth and crept over to the window. 

"All the soldiers are running off..."

"Off where?" Taemin said taking a cautious step out of the pantry. 

"By the looks of it, back towards the bank..."

"That doesn't make much sense..."

"I know but let's not question it and leave!" Taemin nodded and grabbed his bag. Minho did the same, pausing to rummage around in it first. He left a pile of gold on one of the shelves in the pantry before moving to the door. "You ready?"  he asked and Taemin nodded. 

Together they exited the house and  rand down the now empty street. 

"If we keep going, we'll get there in no time..." Minho chuckled. 

Taemin was still curious about where all the soldiers had gone, his mind instantly worrying about Jonghyun and Onew but he kept running. 

"We're nearly there..."

Taemin could see the tree line up ahead, Key was waiting in those trees. Soon they would be safe! As they reached the tree line they saw movement up ahead and stopped worrying it was more soldiers but it seemed to disappear quickly. 

Minho gestured to keep quiet and they began running once more. Before long they heard voices and eventually arrived in a clearing where a cart and three young men were waiting.

"Took you long enough!" Jonghyun chuckled.

"I'll say" Key muttered. "Can we go now, I'm cold and tired" he complained from his place at the reigns. Minho chuckled, Taemin joining him, laughing in relief. Soon Jonghyun and Onew joined in as well. It had been a stressful night and without a bit of help they may not have made it back at all... it felt good to laugh now they were in the clear.

Key huffed, thinking there was a joke he was missing. "What took you so long anyway..?"

"We'll tell you on the way back" Jonghyun promised, throwing his bag into the cart and sitting beside Key. Minho, Taemin and Onew climbed on the back. 

"Let's get home..." Minho chuckled, putting an arm around Taemin's shoulders and smiling as the cart began moving. 

~*~

There you go guys, sorry it was late but I hope you liked this chapter. 

Let me know what you think of it in the COMMENTS, and let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks ^^

(sorry if the end of the chapter seems a bit rushed)

Micky ^^