Inspiration courtesy of Underdog Hero, at around 3 in the morning. Now if only she could kick my butt into writing that Suikoden fic I always wanted...

"What are they talking about?" Tormod asked.

Despite his keen ears and thief skills, Sothe was only catching snippets of the conversation below him. It was almost painfully hard for him to hear anything with Tormod's warm breath puffing against his ear with every word, not to mention the constant attempts to wiggle his way into a more comfortable position. He'd almost gotten used to having an elbow or a boot jabbing into his side, but the real problem was their location – the wood supporting them was old and soft, and every time it flexed under their weight Sothe worried it would make noise that would give them away.

He wondered how he'd let Tormod talk him into this in the first place. It wasn't like he shared a proclivity for listening to gossip. Although he was, perhaps, starting to develop one for hanging around Tormod, which wasn't something he particularly wanted to think about…

"Sothe!" Tormod urged, the pitch of his voice dangerously close to rising.

"Money," Sothe replied.

By now, he was starting to wonder if money and war tactics and supplies were the only things Soren ever talked about. This was exactly like the time they'd tried to eavesdrop on a war meeting, except it was only Ike and Soren in the room below them right now, and they were trying to escape Aimee and Tormod just so happened to be weirdly fascinated by all of it.

(Well, from Sothe's perspective it looked more like Ike was trying to escape Aimee, and Soren like he wanted to punch her in the teeth so hard she'd need more than vulneries to heal them. Except his arms were weak and noodle-y, and there was no way that would ever happen.)

At any rate, Tormod was strangely fascinated with Aimee as of late. He thought Ike and Aimee were secretly paired, and that Ike only hid their courtship to protect her. Sothe thought Tormod was insane, but in an almost endearing way, and he never would've admitted the last part out loud. And now here they were, Tormod pushing him into "using his talents" on things that had nothing to do with theivery at all, tagging along everywhere, snapping twigs, and making lots of noise… Even worse, Sothe for some reason allowed it.

"That's boring! They're in a restaurant! They should be eating food!"

"It makes sense to talk about money in a restaurant," Sothe hissed in return, wishing the other boy could find it in himself to be quiet for just two minutes. "Restaurant food costs lots of money."

For some reason, Tormod still had no concept of how important money was to everyone in the world except himself. If he were a real thief, he would've been a terrible one.

"And where's Aimee?"

"Not here."

"Wasn't Ike going to invite Aimee to eat a romantic dinner with him?"

"Tormod, this is probably the least romantic dinner setting on the continent."

The building was worn well beyond its years, the patrons all of lower class, the restaurant only employed two serving staff and a single chef, and the food wasn't fancy, but it was cheap... So the type of place Soren would probably pick if he were somehow forced into a romantic dining experience, Sothe thought. Which he was going to stop doing. Right now.

Besides, he didn't want to ruin Tormod's impression that Ike and Aimee were somehow courting. It was so... innocent.

"But Aimee said they were eating dinner together!"

"No, Ike said he and Soren were going to eat at a place called the Whisperwind. Then Aimee invited herself along, told Soren he could go back to camp if it was really such a chore, and Soren glared at them both, and – "

"We ran all the way here to beat them to it, climbed in through the open window, and not even the owner knows we're hiding in his attic!"

Now it was Sothe's turn to glare at Tormod, with possibly more venom than Soren's had contained. Thieves weren't supposed to be this exciteable. He knew that Tormod wanted to try playing his hand at thievery, but breaking and entering wasn't a game and they could get in serious trouble if they were caught.

"First of all, you never run away from the people you're spying on. That looks more suspicious than anything."

"Second," Tormod interjected, moving his face closer to the floorboard hole they were spying through, "our 'people' are about to leave. I think I heard Soren say something about food poisoning."

Sothe, who was definitely not doing this just because he couldn't say "no" to Tormod's demands, nor had he recently gotten comfortable feeling Tormod's body heat next to his, let out a soft curse and immediately scrambled to all fours. That was about as far as he got before he heard a crack, accompanied by the sound of Tormod whispering "Doesn't that – "

Which was as far as he got.

The sound of Tormod's whisper was quickly replaced by the sound of two children screaming, as the old wood finally gave way under both of their weights and they crashed onto the floor below. More than a few customers were staring at them, but the only person Sothe saw was Soren – who looked like he wanted to add both of their names to his hitlist, just under Aimee's.

"Again?!"

Yeah, this was pretty much how the war meeting they'd spied on two days ago had ended too.