The Phantom Thief, Snowrabbit [i have read the book .TXT] 📗

him? As in... like

like?” I nodded slowly and she slapped her forehead. “God, I’m so stupid! Sorry! That doesn’t make it easier though, does it? And... does he

know?”
I wondered why she took everything so calmly - the police was our ‘enemy’ after all - but I shook my head anyway. “I mean, he’s not stupid, he knows that I like him somehow, but he probably has no idea how much.”
She thought about it. “You know that you eventually have to tell him, right?”
“Yes... I even have an idea when I might do it, but I don’t know what he’ll think about me afterwards...” I sighed once more, letting myself drop on the couch. She sat next to me, patting my head. Looks like she finally got why I was acting the way I did.
“It’ll work out. Lily and I will find a way to help you, okay? Don’t worry, we’ve experience.”
I frowned. Not only was my younger sister comforting me - which was already pretty strange - but... “What do you mean, experience? With what?”
She blinked. “You don’t know?” I raised my eyebrows, shaking my head. “Well... Alecs boyfriend is a policeman, just like Alan. Though he’s mostly doing desk work as far as I know. And Lily and I also helped him back then, so... we’ll help you too.”
Wait, what?! I mean, I knew that Alec had a boyfriend, I was his twin brother after all, I even knew the guy, but nobody had told me that that guy went to the police afterwards (since he hadn’t worked yet as they got together). But oh well, as far as I knew him he was okay, so... why not?

In the end, Lucy and I talked for a while, with her asking me a whole lot of questions - especially the ones I didn’t want to answer, naturally - and finally clearing up the misunderstandings between us. She even encouraged me in the matter of Alan. Well... at least she knew now, what meant that Lily and Alec would know soon too, but it was okay, we supported each other so it would work out in the end...

The next morning - I got up pretty early - Lily made my wig ready and I went to visit Alan.
The streets were surprisingly empty - well, maybe not that surprisingly, it was a cold Sunday morning and it looked like rain so most people probably were either asleep or inside their houses - so it wasn’t a problem to get to him and I was pretty fast.
I opened his door (something I grew accustomed to instead of ringing the doorbell) and went inside. I waited a second before walking to the kitchen, having heard the clattering of dishes. It seemed as if Alan just ate breakfast.
And really, when I entered the room he was just washing his dishes. In his pajamas. How cute. He hadn’t seen me yet because his back was turned to the door so I walked up to him unnoticed.
“What are you doing, washing your dishes? Aren’t you ill? Just stay in bed, doing stuff like that later when you’re feeling well again.”, I said after I was directly behind him, making him jump and nearly dropping the plate he held.
He spun around before backing away to the sink, wide-eyed. “Could you stop doing that every time?!”
“Doing what?”, I asked innocently.
“You know what I mean! Every time you visit you sneak up to me from behind! Can’t you just ring the doorbell like every normal person?”
“Nope! You know you like it! And otherwise it would be boring.”
He shook his head. “Whatever... to your question: I might be ill, but I can still work at home. Better than having to do all the work the first day I’m healthy again.”
I thought about it. “Well... I never thought about it that way, maybe you’ve got a point?” Shrugging I tousled his hair.
“Of course I have. It’s not the first time that I’m ill, I know what I can do and what would be a bad idea.”
“Okay, okay...! But whatever, did you like my soup?”
Now it was his time to shrug. “It was... okay, I guess.”
I grinned, knowing that that probably meant a ‘Yes, it was awesome.’ in the Alan-language. He just couldn’t give - or take, for that matters - compliments very well, so it was alright.
“Great! But go back to bed now, kay? You should rest. Then you’ll be fit again in no time!”
I shooed him into his bedroom, pushing him with slight force into his bed and covering him with his blanket. He wanted to protest but I put a finger on his lips. “Just relax! Work can wait, don’t worry...”
Of course, he glared at me, but he stayed put, so I just smiled and sat on the edge of his bed.
“So... do you need anything else?”

The days after that I visited Alan every day, helping him a bit, watching out that he rested instead of working. Though I got the feeling that he got frustrated with staying in bed the whole day. But his fever only went down slowly, so I insisted that he didn’t work.
“Oh come on

! I’m not a kid anymore! Let me do my work dammit! Where is your problem?”, he grumbled as I pushed him back into his bed the hundredth time this day.
“Easy: You should rest now. I told you already. Just stay in bed, then you’ll get better in no time!”
“But I am

well! I mean, my fever isn’t really high anymore and my cold got better too, so what do you want?”, he protested and I shrugged.
“I want that you get healthy fast. Who says that you won’t get worse again when you work? Stress is bad. And not only for ill people.”
Just like that, we discussed quite a lot as time went on, until it finally became really uncomfortable. Sure, I understood his motives but I had hoped that he understood mine too. Because really, was it that hard to just lay down and relax a few days until it got better?
So in the end - his fever had disappeared mostly anyway - he snapped.
“Let me do my work! I don’t care if I get worse again after that, but it has to be done. It’s not your business and I’m tired of you always trying to not letting me out of my bed! So go away and stop bothering me!”
That was the moment, when I had enough too. My patience was wearing thin and I really didn’t want to snap too.
“Okay. Fine. I was just worried about you but it doesn’t look like you even want

someone that worries about you. I don’t get why you don’t understand that sometimes it’s simply easier to rest a while before doing a great job than doing the same thing in a bad condition, maybe even with a bad outcome, but whatever. Do what you like if you think it’s so much better. But think of my words if it goes wrong in the end.”
With these words I left, earlier than planned. I’d give him some time to calm down I guess. Maybe he’d get better until then, especially since he actually wasn’t that ill anymore anyway, when I’d return he should be completely healthy again. At least I hoped so, because I’d really feel guilty if he wouldn’t be. I’d probably see.


Chapter twelve

Soon after the last visit of the thief, Alan got better again, but while his health improved he started to feel pretty guilty about what he had told him. Sure, he had been really annoyed by the fact, that he wasn’t able to do anything but sleeping, reading or talking with the Phantom, but now, after he had cooled down and thought about the whole thing again, he knew that there would’ve been nicer ways to say that.
So maybe he even thought about apologizing the next time the blue haired guy visited. The only problem: He didn’t.
In the first week after that incident, Alan didn’t worry too much about it. He had his work to do and normally, the other guy visited only once or twice the week anyway. The second week was still okay. That was the time when he got to the conclusion that he probably had to apologize, so he thought that maybe the Phantom stayed away for exactly that reason, to get him to understand he hadn’t been very nice.
But as the third week began, Alan got increasingly nervous. He began thinking about the thief pretty often, wondering why he still hadn’t visited. Some part of him even worried, maybe something bad had happened? Because he himself had no choice but to wait, as he hadn’t any contact information about the Sapphire Phantom. (Not that it was strange, because he probably would’ve found out his identity with any given information)
Still, by the end of the week he started to get distracted during his work, beginning to make careless mistakes. Even his boss asked him one day if everything was alright because he seemed slightly distant. Of course, he told him that everything was alright but it still wasn’t that easy to concentrate anymore.
The whole thing went on - on some parts even getting worse - until a few days before Christmas.
Alan sat in his living room, trying to write a report without getting distracted by every single noise he heard, somehow hoping that his usually frequent visitor would be there when he looked at the door. But as always, every time he did, he was just as alone as before.
Suddenly though, he heard the slight sound of knocking and spun around. And this time, it hadn’t been his imagination. In the doorframe of his living room stood the master thief himself.
Before he could open his mouth though, the policeman had already jumped from his chair, striding through his room and stopping right in front of the guy.
“Where have you been?!” One could clearly hear the anger in his voice, but there also was some kind of relief. Relief that the thief was okay. Not that he’d ever admit it.
The Phantom himself seemed mostly surprised though, it looked as if he’d expected a different reaction, but he answered anyway.
“Well... originally, I just wanted to wait until you calmed down a bit, but then I got ill myself and had to stay home. I’m sorry.”
Alan shook his head. “Don’t be.” It seemed wrong to let the other one apologize as he didn’t even do anything wrong. “It’s me who should be blamed. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, it wasn’t your fault anyway...”
The last few words came out pretty quiet, but the other one still seemed to have understood them as he smiled.
“Let’s forgive and forget, okay?” A nod. “Great! So... ” He paused for a second, probably searching for a safer topic. “Will you go to the annual masked ball?”
Yes, that definitely was a safer topic.
The annual masked ball was a tradition of the town they both lived in, every year on Christmas eve everyone came together in the town hall. There was great music, everyone danced and generally had fun. And of course, as it was a masked ball, everyone had to wear a costume and a mask, which made the whole thing interesting, as it wasn’t always easy to guess who the person behind the mask was.
Alan nodded again. “I have to. Most of the police will be there, some of them for fun, some to supervise the whole thing a bit and watch out for crimes.” Of course, crimes were easy