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Stealing babies is in fact not the easiest thing Strae has ever done. Though as long as it remains far, far away from the more ridiculously difficult things she has accomplished in the past, she will stay (relatively) happy about the job. Why the hell Fate would decide to tell her something like this is necessary to the mission is anybody's guess. Those bastards don't usually give a reason for their whims.

Chances are there wasn't one to begin with, but Strae is in no position to argue.

So now she is stuck sneaking around somebody's house at 3 A.M. looking for babies to grab.

Wonderful.

Seriously, though, she could not be bothered to think up a more original way to snatch up little rascals. They're ********' BABIES, for crying out loud. It's not like she could just offer them a trail of candy and they'll trek happily along behind her. Can those things even walk yet? Strae did not think so.

She just thinks she'll regret doing this later. But choices are not part of the equation. If anything, deviating from what was assigned to her would only lead to worse consequences.

Before she could pull her thoughts back together for long enough to survey her surroundings, she felt her hand collide with something on the kitchen counter. The contact had barely registered in her mind before the sound of glass shattering against tile hit her eardrums. Against the silence of night, it was loud enough to leave a ringing sound as a souvenir.

Well, s**t.

The whole house is probably awake by now.

Strae quickly made herself invisible as she stood next to the wall, waiting for somebody to react.

Nevada hardly noticed at all.

While easily the more sensitive of the pair, it would seem he was only alert while he was awake. When he was asleep, the wintery child was practically dead to the world. Nevada didn't hear the bump in the night, hardly even noticed the way Solomon curled closer to him. The child simply yawned, burying his head against his twin. He was asleep, and there was no need to be concerned.

Tsar, on the other hand, was the image of paranoia.

He'd been like that for years, since their brother disappeared, really. However, the young man was so used to being jumpy...a bump in the night could really be dismissed as his imagination playing tricks on him. It could also be Alex or Blue arriving home for wherever they went, though Tsar had thought they were going to be away until the weekend. The cripple shrugged and rolled to the side of the bed, reaching for his crutches before struggling to his feet. He limped to the door and peeked out into the dark hall, useless without his glasses.

"Blue? Alex? Is that you?"

Nevada finally stirred when the door opened. The boy cracked open an eye and gave a great yawn, stretching his little arms as he drifted out of the land of dream time. Hmmm. He felt his brother right there, but, something didn't feel right. There was something around that just didn't settled well. The young child turned a bit, as much as his blankets would allow, and gave a great wail.

Well. That couldn't be good.

"s**t," Tsar muttered, fumbling around to get his crutches underneath him. Blue and Alex might not be home, but now he woke one of the boys up. And if it was Nevada...well, it would be a while before he got the fussier of the pair to settle back down and go to sleep. The young man started shuffling towards the twins' room.

...why was the door open!?

Strae did a quick scan of the room as she entered. Aha. So there are the little children, and luckily no serious obstructions. Having decided that she had wasted enough time, Strae quickly got to work, tracing the familiar signs into the airspace above the infants. The marks gave about a gentle flare for about half a second before dying down into a dull, pulsating silver-white glow. A few well-placed touches, and the two infants became surrounded by the circle of runes.

The room, bathed in the calm, silvery light, looked serenely content.

Solomon remained passive as he watched the stranger, nonplused. He was uncertain but unafraid; what was happening was unusual but it felt familiar at the same time. The sunny boy lifted a chubby hand towards one of the runes, grasping at it with curiosity. To say the youth lacked a sense of danger might have been accurate.

Grey eyes turned again to the woman who was decidedly not his mother nor anyone he'd met before. Or was she? He was too young for complex thoughts despite his keen awareness and simply acknowledge that she might have been a dream or a fairy tale that he'd heard before. The light made him feel sleepy again, like when his mother held him in her window seat under the moonlight. Solomon yawned widely, turning his bleary gaze to Nevada. If his twin was okay with it, he would be too. It couldn't be too bad if Neva was here.