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Ivy looked around and tapped her foot lightly, nervously. She had never been a patient person, but she was specially stressed that day.
The street was completely silent. The only establishment in the area, a small, old-fashioned café, was about to close. There was no one inside, not even cleaning up. No one strolling down the street, no one looking out of their windows. Still, the feeling that a person could appear at any moment was there, like an invisible shadow.
Carmen had arranged for her to come to that place in her own peculiar way. In her last chase, the thief left a handwritten note next to the statue she tried to steal, which included the address and the exact time.
Ivy had to hide it from Zack, and it certainly hadn't been easy. The note was written in a bright red paper and had her name written with black ink in a cute handwriting style. Her brother tried to read it, of course. He ran to grab the paper from her hands like a little kid.
She could do nothing but told him that Carmen didn't write it and said that it was completely blank.
She hated having to lie to his brother, but she thought she had no choice. What would he say if he knew it? He could tell anyone thinking he was helping, or even worse : directly talk to Chief about it.
Lost in that thoughts, Ivy didn't realize that someone approached her quietly.
"Ivy..." Carmen spoke with a soft tone behind her. Even if Ivy was expecting her, she got startled. Her shoulders were tense while she turned around to look at her face.
"You're finally here" Ivy tried to look indifferent, but she couldn't. "I was starting to think you wouldn't come."
"You know I wouldn't do that" Carmen smiled to her, noticing her weird behavior. "I really needed to talk with you about... This." she took a deep breath before continuing speaking. "I know this is being hard for both of us. Hiding a relationship isn't... something easy."
"You talk about it like you've lived this a lot of times" the detective's voice sounded cold.
"I didn't meant—" the thief started to said.
"Please, listen to me." Ivy had tears running down her face, but she tried to look at Carmen's eyes without seeming doubtful. "I know I can sound selfish, but I'm afraid. Afraid of letting my friends and my brother down, about someone telling Chief about this. Being a detective is my dream since I'm a little kid, and now I'm in love with the thief I'm supposed to put behind bars. Crazy, right?" she had a nervous laugh between tears, trying to put order her thoughts.
Carmen didn't say anything. Instead, she hugged her. Ivy hid her face on her chest, making Carmen notice her fast breath. She caressed her hair softly.
"I think I'm also afraid" Carmen looked at Ivy, who was still in the same position. "I don't even want to imagine what some specific people would try to do if they discover... If they get to know what I feel for you" she tried to correct the sentence. "I know some ACME detectives would start treating you in a different way, but I don't even want to think about... bad people like..." her voice cracked and didn't let her continues.
They stayed like that for a minute, hugged, both with tears in their eyes, trying to comfort each other.
"Oh my God, we're both crying" Ivy laughed between tears, trying to cheer them both up. "Imagine if someone casually happened to pass by here."
"I can already imagine the newspaper's headlines" Carmen smiled. "«Famous thief turns out to be not very straight and dating a detective»"
"Hey, why are you making this about you?" the detective said, jokingly. "I could also be the main character there. Something like «Prestigious detective dates Carmen Sandiego and is probably commiting a crime while doing it» is equal as good"
Carmen laughed. She loved that kind of conversations with Ivy, the ones where they could forget about who they were or, at least, take it as a joke.
"We can't always evade our problems like this" the thief's expression turned into a sad but sweet smile.
"I wish we could. But hey, imagine a book about us called «I'm your crime», like if we were Bonnie and Clyde" Ivy went silent for a few seconds, and then shyly asked, "Do you mind if I tell Zack?"
"He's the first person that should know about this, being honest" Carmen nodded while looking at her. She held Ivy's hand with hers.
"He's going to be so mad knowing I'm dating a girl before he ever did."