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Adele de la Plage is not a theif. She's has plenty of necklaces and jewellery of her own, all of which are gorgeous and she looks beautiful in.
But there's something about Cinderella's necklace that's so divine, and Adele doesn't know why, but she just has to have it for herself.
It's not like she hasn't tried asking nicely. She did when she first met Cinderella (Back she was still Eleanor and their Stepfather was still alive, when they might have been friends). She and Marie had practically begged Cinderella to let them try it on, but of course she wouldn't budge. It was the one thing Step-papa wouldn't pudge on either.
"It's Eleanor's necklace, Adele," he would say. Then he'd smile and say "How about I get you one of your own?"
(She liked Steppapa. He was a very kind man. Maybe too kind)
She's asked again and again since, but Cinderella is stubborn when she wants to be, which is most of the time. It's honestly so unfair. CInderella doesn't care about most other jewellery, or anything else pretty at all, so Adele can't see why that
"It's my mothers," is what Cinderella always says. Honestly, she acts as if Adele is going to destroy the thing. She's family now too, isn't she? And isn't family supposed to share? She takes things from Marie's room all the time. Granted, she does do it without asking most of the time, and Marie does shout at her for it, but in fairness, Marie steals things from her room too!
Maybe - she won't admit it, esepcially Cinderella, but just maybe - she's a bit jealous of how much that Necklace means to Cinderella.
So, knowing Cinderella is never going to just let her wear that Necklace for even a few minutes, it's only reasonable that Adele will have to take it without asking. It's not stealing, more so... borrowing it secretly.
She creeps down the stairs, into the living room. Cinderella is asleep by the fire place, as she usually is. Adele doesn't know why she likes to sleep there, when she has the cellar to sleep in. She tries to be quite as she creeps into the room. She's as silent as a black cat, slipping into the shadows, and-
The sleeve nightgown catches a vase on the table and knocks it over onto the floor, shattering it.
Cinderella wakes up, evidently startled by the noise. Adele panics, and dives underneath the seatr. She quitley watches as Cinderella stands up, walk over to the the broken vase and groan. Then, she starts walking towards the seater, and soon Marie can see her Step-sister's rather annoyed face staring at her.
"Adele," says Cinderella, voice flat, tired. "What are you doing up?"
"I was getting water," Adele lies, the first one she can think of.
"Really? Then why were you in the living room?"
"Why do you even care? You were asleep."
"Yes, I was. Until I heard that-" Cinderella gestures to the vase. "Come crashing to the floor. And if you were 'just getting water', then why on earth are you hiding. In a frankly terrible hiding spot, might I add."
Adele climbs out from underneath the seater, huffing. "Alright, I was going to borrow your necklace."
"You mean steal it."
"Well, that's an ugly way of phasing it."
"Phrasing it. And no, it's just literally what you were about to do. Adele, I've told you no about a million times now."
"And you were just going to keep saying no! I was going to give it back eventually, I just wanted to try it on for a bit!"
Cinderella goes to say something, then sighs. "Dios mío- You know what, it's the middle of the night. I'm not going to bother arguing with you."
"So does that mean I can-"
"No."
"Ugh, fine! I don't need your stupid necklace anyways!"
Adele turns to stomp away, then notices the broken pieces of the vase still on the floor. That might be a problem.
Nervously, she turns back around to Cinderella with a smile. "Would you mind terribly cleaning that up?"
Cinderella rolls her eyes, unimpressed. "Fine. Why don't I take the blame for breaking it too?"
Adele willfully opts to ignore the sarcasm in Cinderella's voice. "Thank you! See, you can be a good step-sister when you want to be!"
"Who is still up at this hour?"
Mother's voice booms from upstairs. Adele freezes, even if just for a moment. Even if Cinderella does take the blame for the broken vase, Mother won't be happy that Adele being awake woke her up too. And the last thing Adele wants to deal with is an angry Mother.
"Well, goodnight, Cinderella," she says quickly, then promptly rushes back to her room.
"Goodnight, Adele," she briefly hears Cinderella say back, though by then she's already halfway up the stairs.
The whole incident will be forgotten by tommorow morning. Adele knows it will.