Saga Saga - PT The Cat Burglar - OC Revolution Autumn Challenge

Title: The Cat Burglar
Author: Kit'
Timeframe: Prequel Saga
Characters: Nicco and Zallie from The Family of Scoundrels
Genre: OC Revolution Autumn Challenge and also part of the Snips and Snails and Bantha Tails series. The sentence that had to start the fic was "It was a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard the hinges bent." which is an amazing sentence from GNU Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
Summary: Nicco takes Zallie on her first Family mission, but not everything goes as expected.

Notes: This happens on the same night as this story set from the Drabble Challenge (Part 1,Part 2, Part 3). You don't need to read that story for this to make sense, but it certainly makes this one more complicated.

*~*~*

Pet 38 – Spukamus – Shadow – 27 BBY – (11 1/2 years)

It was a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard the hinges bent. Nicco frowned at his little sister.

“Really Zallie? I know that Rin has been teaching you Force stuff, but have you ever heard of subtly?”

“Sorry,” the younger girl didn’t make eye-contact instead staring at the pavement in front of her, “but you said they wouldn’t be home.” She lowered her hand gently, “I just wanted to try it.”

“Well, maybe not quite so hard next time.” Nicco shook his head in exasperation, “just hope that the neighbours didn’t hear.” He looked around but the quiet, tree-lined street was still dark. They’d picked this neighbourhood for Zallie’s first guided job due to its wealth and this particular night because of the grand ball. Rin and Da were there on stolen tickets and a hand-wave. Nicco was still bemused at the fact that Rin had managed to convince Del that the ball was where they would find some more legitimate jobs to keep them afloat and to build their base. He admired Rin’s ability to wrap his father around her little finger and make it look like it was all his idea. The others had gone off to the fun-fair that the city held on the same night as the ball. Nicco was still slightly worried about leaving his younger sister in charge of the twins. The six year olds were quick to get themselves into trouble and, while he did not doubt their ability to talk their way out of anything, when it came to being subtle in their pickpocketing they weren’t quite there yet. Nicco sent a quiet prayer to Tiviali that the boy’s fear of Essie’s temper and sharp tongue would keep them in line.

Nicco unholstered his blaster and they crept quietly into the house. The crisp white walls and long marble floors of the corridor opened out into a large opulent room stuffed with furniture. Nicco moved effortless amongst it turning over items with his gloved hands and putting the occasional one in the backpack he carried.

“Go check the other rooms Zee,” Nicco instructed, “be quick and quiet and whatever you do don’t take off your gloves.”

“Gotcha,” Zallie gave her scrunched nose smile and ducked out of the door. Nicco grabbed two more items and headed for the next room. The house had been said to be packed with expensive baubles and that Lady Tovan’s taste ran more to the worth of the item than the elegance of it and that certainly seemed to be true. Nicco snuck further up the hallway marvelling at Rin’s ability to get information out of the local servants. He would have to remember to tell her how accurate this particular informant had been. He pushed open a door and found himself in the library. The soft smell of worn paper and leather made him frown at some long-forgotten memory. It was odd to have paper books in a universe of datapads but some people collected them and, obviously, Lord and Lady Tovan were two of them. The room also held a long desk and Nicco quickly made his way to it, using his fingers to prod the lip of the desk. He glanced at the holopictures that lined the edge of the desk and frowned. One of them had a picture of a happy couple and Nicco stopped and stared at it, trying to figure out where he’d seen the red-haired lady in the picture before. He stopped and shook his head, all rich ladies looked alike after a while. His fingers found the latch and a tiny compartment popped out of the desk. Nicco grinned at the contents as the bundles of credit chips twinkled in the torchlight. He quickly scooped them up and dumped them in his bag taking one long last look at the lady in the pictures before making his way to the door.

Zallie grinned at him from further down the corridor. “I hit the rest of the room, not much there.” She said, “did you get anything?”

“Yeah,” Nicco grinned back, “a tidy little sum. Last room is the Master bedroom, you ready sprout?”

Zallie nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Nicco pushed open the door. There was a hiss, then a growl and then his world became nothing but flashing claws, black fur and pain. He staggered backwards across the hallway as the creature clawed at his face, biting his neck and yowling. Careening out of control he crashed into the heavy mirror that lined the hallway and fell with it, hearing the tinkle of glass and the smashing of the wooden frame and he and it hit the ground. The animal, whatever it was skittered away still yowling in fright. Nicco raised the back of his glove to his face, feeling tiny rivulets of blood ooze from the fresh scratches.

“That wasn’t very nice was it.” He could hear Zallie’s voice but it sounded like it was coming from so far away. Nicco frowned, his head was throbbing where the mirror had hit him and each little scratch stung agonisingly. He closed his eyes as he prodded the sore spot on his head. Nothing broken there at least.

“Did the big man scare you?” His sister’s voice again. Nicco opened his eyes and watched his sister sit down on the floor, her hands held out towards the hissing spukamas that had backed itself into a corner and was regarding her with large golden eyes. “He’s a very naughty man,” Zallie was saying quietly, “but he won’t hurt you. Come to me and I’ll make sure you are okay.”

Nicco watched in silent bewilderment as the large Corellian housecat padded across the floor. Zallie continued talking to it as it reached her. She fished into her pocket and brought out a biscuit and the cat sniffed it for a second before taking it and then curling up in her lap. Zallie grinned at her brother.

“Bedroom’s all yours.” She said.

“Thanks. I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Nicco frowned at his sister as he gingerly picked himself up off the floor and brushed broken pieces of glass from his clothes. Zallie smiled at him as she softly stroked the cat.

“I know that silly. That’s why I wasn’t worried.”

Shaking his head Nicco quickly worked through the bedroom, finding the jewellery box easily and even some extra pieces that were laying on the bed, obviously discarded from that evening’s dress choices. As he came out back into the hall way there was a distant crunch on the gravel outside. His sister was already standing, the spukamas curling around her legs.

“We need to go.” Nicco said urgently, “people are coming.”

“I know.” Zallie said quietly, “Shadow here said that there is a way out of that window.”

“Shadow?” Nicco raised his eyebrow, “you are talking to the animals now?”

“No silly,” Zallie shook her head again, “it’s on her collar. It’s just a general sense of where to go. Apparently, she gets out of the window and then it’s a jump and another jump.” She shrugged, “I think it shouldn’t be too hard.”

There were raised voices in the drive, the people, whomever they were, must have spotted Zallie’s attempt at opening the door.

“Let’s just go.” Nicco said exasperated, “and hope your feline friend is right.”

Zallie led the way to another room and heaved open the window to let in the fresh spring air. Shadow leapt up on the sill and meowed plaintively. Zallie cocked her head to oneside.

“She said she’s coming with us.”

“We are not stealing a cat.” Nicco said sternly. The cat hissed at him and narrowed its eyes.

“She’s bored. The people who own this house don’t look after her.”

“Right. You got all of that.” Nicco could hardly keep the scepticism from his voice. The voices were louder now, angry and frightened and Nicco could feel himself starting to sweat which just made the sting from the cat scratches burn. He went to go through the window but the spukamas hissed and swiped at him. Zallie was watching him, hands on her hips.

“I think it’s pretty obvious.”

“Fine.” Nicco sighed, “let’s go and Shadow can come with us. As long as we leave now.” In the distance a voice was talking and Nicco imagined he could hear the distant wail of sirens. For a second he could have sworn the cat grinned and then it leapt through the window. His sister smiled at him too before ducking through and then Nicco was out, feeling the breeze on his face even as his body protested that jumping this distance after being clobbered by a cat was far too much punishment.

As they crouched in the bushes and waited for the security vehicles to pass, Zallie grinned at her brother. Nicco shook his head.

“I can’t believe we just stole a cat.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t see it as us stealing a cat,” Zallie countered as Shadow purred in her arms, “perhaps you should see it as the cat stealing us.”

He shook his head bemused at his sister’s philosophy.

“Fine but you are the one who gets to explain it to Da and Rin.”

 

A rollicking adventure with a broken mirror on top of the purloined items, including a housecat! Tickled by the back-and-forth/banter between Nicco and Zallie

 

This would be a charming story even if I hadn't read most of Snips and Snails (which is also a fun series that I will someday get around to commenting on). And I love the double meaning of the title.

 

Glad you liked it Poor Nicco definitely always comes off second best when it comes to Zallie and now it's going to be worse if there is a cat around!

Thank you Snips and Snails is a lot of fun, even if it's grown far bigger than I ever thought it could be! Glad you loved the title too - it was just too good to pass up.

 

So did the buglars stole the cat or the other way around. It has to be the other way, after all dogs might have owners but cats have servants.

 

Yeah, I think if Nicco didn't adore Zallie it'd be a far more difficult job to try and keep his younger sister on the right track. Luckily there was haul enough for everyone and Shadow will definitely keep Zallie occupied for a long while

Spoiler

Yep! THat's the one. Also this story says that Kit sent them there. Which should make you wonder - did Kit know they were going to bump into Del's ex and set it up to rub salt in the wound or was it just a happy accident? Shadow will definitely get more love now, and given that Nicco isn't his biggest fan - you can guess which person Shadow will gravitate to.

Definitely the other way around! Which means that Zallie hasn't found her own pet yet - just that a pet has found her! Also cats definitely see humans as big, silly kittens who owe them food and tummy scratches.

 

Great job! I can relate to being stolen by a cat. Besides, cats are good luck to have on ships, right?

It looks like they got a pretty good haul on this job, though things got a little dicey for them toward the end with the unexpected arrivals. Nicco definitely got the worse end of the deal between the floof attack and hitting the mirror. That stings just thinking about it.

Great addition to the tales of Zallie's menagerie!