Heist

“Is she awake?”

“No! Now be quiet!”

“Are you sure? She’s not snoring like she was earlier.”

“Will you shut the fuck up? Now on the count of 3.…1...2...3!”

I was already half awake when suddenly there was a huge weight on me. I opened my eyes to find Tori, Max and Craig all dog piled on top of me.

“HAPHEH BIRFDAY!!!” Tori screamed and the other two echoed her.

I laughed, “Thank you now can you please get off of me?”

“Only so you can get up and we can finally eat cake.” Max grinned.

“Jesus just use me for my cake why don’t you Green?” I laughed as I sat up.

“I will.” he replied.

Smiling I got out of bed and began to follow my friends to the kitchen. This was a typical birthday celebration for Tori and I. Usually it was just the two of us and possibly Emma but I was okay with Max and Craig being in on it this year.

Over the past few weeks I’d grown attached to Craig and Max. Robert and Monte had to go back to Vegas for a bit to handle something or another a couple of weeks before so I’d seen less of them than I had the two men who had been crashing on the couch every night. Both cooked and helped keep the house up so things weren’t that bad. The only issue was the one bathroom with 4 of us however we were slowly working that out.

Sitting on the counter was a cake with my name written in bright purple on the chocolate icing and a small car that looked almost exactly like mine under it for decoration.

“You like?” Tori smiled.

“Yes. Very much so!” I said hugging her and the guys.

“Well then lets light the candles and dig in!” Craig smiled.

“Fuck yes!” I grinned.

Tori stuck a big purple candle into the cake and lit it with her lighter. They sang me ‘Happy Birthday’ and I blew out the candle. We cut the cake and headed into the living room to eat it.

“Does cake taste any better than when it’s for breakfast?” I asked as shoveled another forkful of chocolate cake in my mouth.

“Never.” Craig said shaking his head.

“As I thought.” I smiled.

“Alright time for presents!” Max said once we’d finished our cake.

“Presents too?” I asked.

“Uh…fuck yeah! It’s your birthday!” Craig said.

I watched as he walked to the hall closet and pulled out two bright pink wrapped gifts. He handed them both to me and I began to pull off the paper. The first one was from Craig. It was a black and white varsity jacket.

“Holy shit this is amazing. Thanks!” I said and hugged him.

“Welcome.” Craig replied returning the hug.

“Now for mine.” Max said and tossed me the second gift.

I unwrapped it to find a Nightmare Before Christmas phone case.

“Wow! I needed a new one!” I replied.

“Yeah Tori told me and I saw that poster in your room the other day so I thought you’d like it.” Max replied.

“Thank you Max this is amazing.” I said and hugged him before quickly pulling out my phone to put on my new cover.

“Hey aren’t you forgetting something?” Tori said.

“What?” I asked looking at her.

“My present?!?” she asked.

“Oh! Sorry! I forgot!” I laughed.

She smiled and shook her head before standing up. From her back pocket she pulled out another package. This one was small and wrapped in pail blue paper.

“What’s this?” I asked. It felt oddly light.

“Open it and find out!” she replied.

I opened the paper and almost screamed. Inside were four lanyards with Comic Con passes attached.

“YOU GOT PASSES TO COMIC CON?!?” I asked.

“YES!!!” She said.

“OH MY GOD I FUCKING LOVE YOU!!!” I screamed and tackled her.

Since I was a kid I had been dying to go to Comic Con. Tori had agreed a long time ao that if we were ever in California at the time it was going on we would go since we shared a love of all that was encompassed in Comic Con. However we had agreed that it would be next year that we would go since we were still getting settled.

“So I take it you like it?” she asked as I stood up, pulling her with me.

“Uh…FUCK YES!” I replied.

“Well I thought that since things were going so well around here I would surprise you.” she smiled with a wink since Max and Craig still had no clue about our side business.

“And does this mean you’re keeping your promise?” I asked.

“Yes I’m going to keep my promise.” she laughed.

“What promise?” Craig asked.

“She promised that if we ever got to go we could dress up and I could pick the costumes.” I smiled.

“We were drunk as fuck and I don’t know how the hell she remembers it but she does. It’s the only thing she remembers about that night. She doesn’t remember trying to hail a cab by jumping in front of it and yelling ‘I command you to stop you big yellow Twinkie.’. Nor does she remember licking the window of the closed candy store and telling me that she could taste the sugary goodness though. Just that one bit.” Tori replied.

“Okay so I lost it that night. You’re the one that dared me to see how many Tequila shots I could do and you know how I get with Tequila.” I replied.

“Remind me to get some Tequila later…I’ve gotta see this.” Max grinned.

“If you’re lucky.” I smiled and gave him a wink.

“So you two are dressing up to go?” Craig asked.

“No…all four of us are dressing up and going. Tori got four passes. That means you two are going and since you’re with us that means you’re dressing up too.” I smiled.

“Are you serious? Is she serious?” Max asked turning to Tori.

“Yes cuz she is. And she’s had years to plan the costumes out so you’re in luck.” Tori said with a smile.

Max sighed, “Please nothing to bad.” he said turning to me.

“Oh don’t worry I have plans for you dear Maxwell. Now we must got get our costumes for tomorrow is the day of the convention.” I smiled and hurried to get dressed.

Once I was dressed I herded my friends into my car and drove off in search of the costumes that I had in head. Twenty minuets later we pulled up in front of a store that sold all sorts of cool stuff like Manga, Anime, Comic books and most importantly Cosplay. I had ducked in here a few weeks before to see what they had and I remembered they had all the things I’d need.

“Alright lets get down to business.” I smiled.

“To defeat the Huns!!!” Tori sung behind me.

I grinned and broke out into song with her.

“Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? You’re the saddest bunch I ever met but you can bet before you’re through! Mister I’ll make a man outta you!!!!”

“Are you two quite done? People are starring.” Craig asked.

“I don’t know. We may break out into the rest later. You never know Mabbitt.” Tori replied and continued back towards the costumes.

“Alright lets see…” I said surveying the costumes.

I grabbed one bag and handed it to Max.

“You get the pleasure of being Ulquiorra Cifer aka arrancar 4.” I replied handing him the costume before pulling down the head piece and sword from the wall.

“Okay…” he said looking at Craig who shrugged.

“Craig you get….oh! Uryu Ishida! The Quincy!” I smiled and handed him his costume along with the bow, wig and boots.

“Now for Torrid. Hmm…okay you get a choice.” I said and grabbed two costumes off the rack and turned to her.

“Alright who do you wanna be? Rangiku or ChiChi?”

“Why does she get to choose?!?” Max asked.

“Because she loves me more.” Tori said sticking her tongue out at Max before turning to survey the costumes.

She looked them for a moment before grabbing the ChiChi costume, “I’m not walking around the convention center with my boobs hanging out.” she said.

“Aww!” Craig groaned.

“You’ll live.” Tori said rolling her eyes.

I grabbed my costume and the accessories I’d need and we headed to the check out. I couldn’t wait for the next day.

************

“So what are we from?” Craig asked as he tucked his hair under his wig.

“You, me and Max are from Bleach and Tori is from Dragonball.” I replied.

Craig nodded and turned to me.

“How’s my costume?” he asked.

“You’re missing a couple of things. Follow me.” I replied crooking my finger in his direction.

I opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of faux glasses and the Quincy cross I’d had forever. I handed them to Craig who put them on.

“Step back and lemme see.” I said and he stepped back and did a turn.

He wore white pants, a white jacket with blue trip and a little cape around his shoulders. His shoes where white with blue trim and he wore a black short wig and carried a large blue bow. With the glasses and cross he looked perfect.

“Great now you look the part.” I smiled.

“Thanks.” he said.

“Welcome.” I smiled and grabbed the jar of body paint I’d bought last Halloween and a paint brush.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“Max.” I replied.

He gave me an odd look, “Do I wanna know?”

“I’m painting a black mark on his chest to look like a hole.” I replied.

“Oh. Okay.” he said nodding.

I walked out of the bedroom and approached Max who wore only skirt type bottom, head piece and boots. I had told him to leave the jacket off so I cold paint him. He’d done the eyeliner and tear lines by himself.

“Alright lets get you painted.” I said and took the top off the jar.

“Fuck that tickles!” he laughed as I drew the circle and ‘4’ on his chest.

“Hold still.” I laughed.

Five minuets later I finished and another five minuets later he put his coat on and grabbed his sword.

I was already dressed in my purple wig, dress with my boots and gloves, the hair piece clipped into my wig. I had decided to go as Cirucchi Sanderwicci who was a Privarone Espada or a lower ranking Espada.

“TORI! YOU DONE?” I yelled.

“Yep.” she replied coming out in the blue and pink dress, white pants and pink shoes that were a part of her outfit and the wig.

“Then lets go!” I smiled and we headed out.

Three hours later we were walking around Comic Con.

“Alright I’m starving.” Craig said after we’d been there awhile.

“Same here.” Tori replied.

“Well I wanna go check out a couple of booths.” I replied.

“No problem then. Jamie you and I can go look at the booths that you wanna look at and they can grab food. We’ll meet back up at the front doors.” Max replied.

“Sounds good to me.” Craig replied

We split up and Max and I headed to look around.

“So are you enjoying LA?” Max asked.

“Yeah it seems pretty awesome.” I smiled.

“Are you getting sick of Craig and I yet?” he laughed.

“Are you kidding? No! We love you guys.” I smiled.

“Well what if I told you that we were going to move into that empty house next door?”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Totally. We move in next week.” He grinned.

“Fuck yes!” I smiled and gave him a one armed hug.

However when I went to pull away he kept his arm around me. And I couldn’t lie it felt nice.

“So um…Jamie I have a question…would you like to-” but he was cut off as my phone rang.

Any other time I would’ve ignored it but it was the ringtone I’d set for Shadows.

“Hold that thought.” I said and pulled the phone from the top of my boot.

“Hello?” I asked.

“It’s me. I’m coming to pick you up. We have a meeting about a job we have tomorrow. You won’t need your cars.” he said.

“Um…we’re in San Diego.” I replied.

“I know. I am too.” he replied.

“Are you fucking spying on us?” I asked.

“Questions later Jinxy. Now you and Torrid meet me out side in twenty.” he replied.

I sighed, “Fine.” and hung up the phone.

“C’mon we gotta find Tori.” I said and grabbed Max’s hand and dragged him towards the food.

We found Craig and Tori laughing as they shared a tray of nachos.

“Hey you and I gotta go.” I said.

“What? Why?” she asked.

“I got a call.” I replied.

She frowned but nodded and stood up muttering curses.

“What’s going on? Where are you going? Who called you?” Max asked.

“Long story. But we’ve got to go. We’ll be back late. Here you can drive my car home but I swear to god if there is one scratch on it I will murder the both of you.” Tori said tossing Max her keys.

With that we headed outside. So much for our first Comic Con.