Title: Carmelita's Musings
Summary: Carmelita is genuinely happy.
Author's Note: I just really want more of these two, and there is a possibility that Sly Cooper is going to be turned into a animation series! How awesome would that be? The problem is, the people behind the companies interested in SC aren't sure if there is enough demand for a show like this. If you're in on Sly Cooper: The Animated Series, just go to /IWantSlyCooperInHisOwnAnimatedSeries and like the page. It's kind of like a petition. And I promise you, the page is legit. One of the people behind the team setting this whole thing up is Kevin Miller, who is the voice of Sly himself, and if you don't know that, you should google Sly Cooper more often. Now, without further ado… read on to the story.

'Hm...hm…'

Carmelita Montoya Fox was exceptionally happy.

He hips swayed ever so slightly from one side to another as she softly hummed along to the rhythm of the beat coming from her speakers. She had no ordinary reason to feel so chipper. In fact, the previous day might have been one of the most hectic days of her work life.

She woke up at the break of dawn, barely had enough time to freshen up and eat something before she had to rush over to work and get started on an enormous pile of paperwork she had yet to fill in about at least five cases she had solved in the past few weeks. (If there was one thing she hated about her job, it was definitely the paperwork.)

And it was not just the work that was overwhelming. It was also the little things that happened that day that frustrated her greatly. Like the way she was drenched in muddy water as she was walking down the street and a car raced through a puddle of water, or the way a pigeon dropped its bomb exactly on her bagel and she basically had to throw a tantrum to get another one for free. (She made a mental note to herself to never go to Mr. Bagel again, all of the employees were absolute jerks.)

To top all of that as the crapicing on the crapcake, she ran into Vernon Zeen. Vernon was a fox she had dated briefly, a long time ago. A time she wished had ever existed. Vernon had – despite the fact that his name was a giant turn off for her initially – a disastrous effect on her as a woman. He was a good-for-nothing, immoral know-it-all who had accomplished next to nothing in his life and still loudly proclaimed to be the best person that walked the earth. Everything Carmelita thought about him (and she cursed herself for doing so, because the memory of him making her putty in his hands felt absolutely disheartening to her) she wondered how he could put such a spell on her. To this day, she ever figured out the answer.

Vernon hadn't changed a bit in all those years. Their encounter was a brief one, and it started off bad. Vernon crashed into her on the corner of the street and was about to disappear around the corner but she had stopped him, demanding an apology. She immediately regretted doing so though, because she then saw who he was and so did he.

'Hm…hm…hm!' Carmelita started humming louder, trying to distract herself. She was thinking about Vernon again, and it was about to ruin her mood. I should start thinking about something that made me happy.

That was a very easy one.

'Hello, gorgeous.'

His voice surprised her and her heart forgot one beat. She shrugged it off and turned around as casually as possibly could. 'Sly Cooper,' his name rolled off of her tongue with comfort. 'you came.'

'Of course.' Sly's lips formed a genuine, familiar smile. He held his arms by his side, indicating his outfit. 'Is it the way you wanted it?'

Carmelita swallowed, then stepped forward to her plus one. 'It's perfect.'

She didn't think it was possible, but his smile grew even wider when she stood next to him. One of his paws settled itself on her lower back and she had to try her best to focus on her breathing as he led her into the ballroom.

'Carmelita,' Walter Benedict's voice was a bit loud but warm, fitting his personality. 'I'm so glad you could make it.' He was a rather plus sized dog. In fact, you could consider him an older version of Murray if you painted his fur pink.

'A charity ball for the children who can't afford proper education. Education is what keeps our future country alive, I wouldn't miss it for the world if I had a say in it.' Carmelita offered her old friend a smile as the two gave each other a quick embrace.

'I don't believe I've ever officially met you, young man. I'm Walter Benedict, and old friend of Carmelita's.' The two men shook paws.

'Walter, this is Sly Cooper, he's-'

'Oh, really?' Walter interrupted Carmelita before she could finish. The sudden twinkle in the dog's eyes surprised both Carmelita and Sly. 'You are the infamous Sly Cooper I've heard so much about? Why, it's an honor to finally meet you in the flesh.' Sly had no choice but to shake paws again, this time, more firmly. A lot more firmly. Sly thought that Walter might shake his arm off.

Carmelita didn't know whether to blush at the fact that Sly now knew that she had been talking about him a lot, or if she had to chuckle at the sight of a slightly uncomfortable Sly and an overly excited Walter. Her face decided to do a little bit of both.

'You've heard a lot about me, huh?' Sly said with amusement in his voice.

Carmelita felt something bubbling up inside of her. 'Don't flatter yourself, Cooper. Walter is exaggerating. It's only been complaining.' She said nothing and kept it inside.

Walter waved it off. 'Oh, only once, or twice… or five times…' He laughed again and this time, Sly was just as amused as Walter was.

It was quite enough for the lady fox. She cleared her throat loudly and grabbed a hold of the raccoon's arm. 'Excuse me, Walter. I believe Sly here owes me a dance.'

Thump!

The sound of her knife crashing into her kitchen counter startled her and pulled her back to reality. The carrot she was slicing up was long ago sliced. She grinned at herself (something she rarely did, but a lot of things she did were new to her lately) and slid the chopped up carrots into a bowl.

Perhaps the reason she was feeling so ecstatic was that her favorite kind of family was coming over, and this was the first time she would actually have a party, a get together in her usually lonely apartment.

There was no reason for the party though. A few weeks ago, Bentley had invented a machine to communicate with Sly's family members, the ones she had met only a year ago. And not only that, the genius turtle had found a way to bring them to this time period. Bentley could literally pull someone like Tennessee from the mid-west and bring him into the modern age. It was only for a time span of 48 hours though, but it was still extremely impressive.

After Bob, Rioichi, Tennessee, Sir Galleth and Salim were all reunited with the gang again, Tennessee had 'suggested' that they had to celebrate by getting together in Carmelita's apartment and eating 'the food that you modern folks like to eat'. Both Rioichi and Sir Galleth were in as soon as the words were uttered. Salim just wanted to know if there would be climbing involved. When Sly said 'no', Salim shrugged and said that he was quite curious about the food. There was no point in asking if Bob wanted to go, because Bob was too busy putting the radio in his mouth while Bentley tried to pull it back out.

Now, that could be a reason why she was feeling so happy.

She knew that wasn't the real reason.

If she had to be completely honest with herself, the reason why she was feeling so happy was that it was almost Sly's birthday. It was one week from now, and Bentley and Murray had a big party planned. But, those guys were still the same guys who knew her almost as well as Sly did, and they just had to make sure that everyone was forced to have a date, and Bentley insisted that Carmelita was Sly's. But, with it being Sly's (surprise) party and all, Carmelita had to be the one asking him.

So… the part with her asking him to be her date was not what was making her feel so good. It was simply the thought of Sly's face as he opened the door to find every person he loved wish him a happy birthday, and the fact that she would be right by his side to witness that moment. That made her happy.

Author's Note: This is a possible multi-chap. Let me know if you're interested. Also, I suck at titles.