Standing and looking at the grey street, Liesel visibly deflated. Out of all the city, why was she standing in perhaps the dreariest, and most boring street she had come across? Everything about the scenery caused her to slouch her shoulders, sigh heavily and look around with half lidded eyes full of boredom. It also didn't help matters with the weather turning drizzly. Heavy grey clouds hung low in the equally bleak coloured sky. Standing underneath a canopy she was saved from the pathetic drops which fell from above. But even still, even if she did get rained on it wouldn't make the day more boring than it seemed to be already.

"Stop being such a child." Sitting at the table behind her, Erik glanced up from his newspaper and looked to her. Despite it being miserable weather, it was still rather humid as if a storm was looming. Because of the heat, the small cafés along this stretch of street had kept outside seating, only they now covered the seats with the overhead canopies and parasols positioned in slots on the tables.

"But you made today sound so exciting. This...this is not what I expected. Stake out? Really? What happened to the distracting thing?" Liesel turned and looked at him with her arms crossed. She didn't mean to have such a childish moment earlier, let alone be called out on it. But this was so anticlimactic!

Erik lowered the paper and crossed his arms too. "I believe when I was talking to you about today, you were so engrossed in your room service that you did not listen to me. Therefore you actually fabricated what you thought today would entail, and it differed hugely from what I had actually said." He said while getting glared at by her. He shrugged innocently and smiled, "What? Does the truth hurt?" Picking up the cup in front of him he casually sipped at the coffee while she trudged over and sat back down in her original seat. He had to resist saying anything else because of the way she just collapsed dramatically, and sighed heavily again. On the ground scale of things, it couldn't be the worst thing she's had to do, that she didn't want to.

"Why do you have to be like that for?"

"Well why do you have to whine like a seven year old?"

"Because I can."

"And there's your answer." Erik frowned and narrowed his eyes as she sat muttering under her breath. He wasn't too sure whether she had forgotten that he understood perfectly well what she was irritatingly ranting to herself in German. Regardless, he opted to ignore the slightly childish insults which she was referring him to, and placed his cup down on the table with more force than needed. This caused Liesel to suddenly jolt and look alert. Well, at least that got her to stop her moaning and whinging. "I do apologise Liesel, that you believed today would be some sort of adventure. However I did mention how I was looking out for one person in particular last night."

"Are they special?" Liesel asked absentmindedly while she leaned her head against her fist and pushed crumbs around on the table.

"Special as in...they're special enough to have safety deposit information."

"How do you know this?" Liesel's eyes looked at him suspiciously as she moved away from her hand and placed her hands in her lap instead.

"Do you honestly think that you were the only one who was information seeking? Honestly, Liesel I don't mean any offence, but I wouldn't put the whole importance of that solely on you."

"You make it sound like I'd fail."

"I have upmost faith in you." Liesel looked sceptical but ended up smiling and accepting his words. Erik smiled in return thankful that she had got over her little mood.

"But seriously, this is boring." Or perhaps she hadn't. Erik looked around, there wasn't many out in this weather, not that he blamed them. There wasn't exactly anywhere for her to even go to kill some time before he needed her aid. This part of the city seemed to be built up of offices and other such important buildings.

"What?" Erik snapped out his thoughts when he heard her muttering away to herself, again. He frowned, was this a bad habit which was suddenly springing up? He hoped not. It was an awfully rude habit which would get increasingly irritating if it kept up.

Liesel sighed, "I said I can't believe I left my apartment for French pastries and staking out a bank." She whispered so no one else who was around actually heard them.

"From what I can remember it didn't take much for you to leave."

With a wistful sigh she looked equally wistfully into the sky. "I had a job, an income, even a possible other half...and then you appear on my doorstep after, what was it...three years?" Liesel mused rather dramatically, even waving her hands in the air, as if that got the meaning across anymore.

"And your point is?" Erik wasn't wholly following where she was going.

Drumming her fingers on the table, she frowned. "I'm merely stating that I sort of had a life. A life which did not result in sitting in rubbish rainy weather in another country."

"Seriously, can you quit being such a child? What is with you today? Let me be honest with you here Liesel, you're being annoying. Let me also say that your little office job was not wholly fulfilling, was it? Even you yourself told me it bored you. An income to spend on what, exactly? And also, even I could see that you and that William man weren't going anywhere. If you cared for him, or for your life nearly as much as you're trying to make out; then you wouldn't have left so freely."

"Your guy has just appeared." Liesel said dryly while changing the subject and watching as a man of average height in a dark suit ran out of a taxi and up the stairs to the bank which the two were meant to be watching. She did sideward glare at Erik however, she didn't approve of him ripping her past life apart, no matter how true it may have been.

Erik turned in his seat and watched the man disappear through the large double doors. Flicking his eyes to Liesel, he couldn't help but sigh. She suddenly looked very sorry for herself, which against wishing to; was really playing on him and making him feel guilty. "Sorry for going off on you. But this is important, today is important. The last thing I need to contend with is you having a temper tantrum over irrelevant things." He got nothing from her, she just looked at him darkly, her hands fisting slowly on the table. "You're up, by the way."

The chair screeched against the ground as she pushed herself back and stood up. Pulling the collar up on her coat to protect her from the rain, she stepped forwards. Stopping, she turned and looked over her shoulder at him. "Blame the weather for my mood. The tense feeling of brewing electricity is hurting my head." Looking forwards she sighed, she was hyping herself up for the dash through the rain to get across the road. "And just to answer your earlier words, my life was uneventful, but I did care for William. Just...just...I left because it was you." Liesel said quietly, but not too quiet that he did not hear her. Looking over her shoulder again she smiled. "I'm going to disable most of the electrical stuff in there, I can't be specific, just find your guy and that certain something we're looking for and then get out again." Stepping forward she missed the thoughtful look which was being sent her way. Perhaps the promise of looking out for him did still linger somewhere. It caused a moment of thought while his eyes flicked upwards as the first streaks of lightning appeared in the sky.

It was so indirect, the fact that a bolt split off and travelled to her awaiting outstretched hand could be so easily missed, but not by him. For all pretence and purposes it looked like she was feeling the rain hit her skin. But the sudden white blue spark which was suddenly taken in and fisted in her hand said otherwise. It was a good thing there weren't many people around or else she'd have got noticed. Erik stood slowly from his seat and pulled his coat more around himself. Placing his hands in his pockets, he simply braced himself against the sudden drizzle which hit against him and crossed the road. He made sure no one was paying any unwanted attention to him as he moved closer to the grey bricked building.

Stopping when there was a faint flash through the windows, Erik frowned and rolled his eyes. He wasn't expecting Liesel to be discreet, perish the thought of that happening. Looking to the side when there was a creaking noise, he looked around confused before walking briskly down the small alley between the bank and the building next door. Putting a hand to a now open door, he pulled it fully open. A wooden floored corridor greeted at him. Looking it over he realised by a rather rushed sign that this was the designated fire escape. That'd explain why there was a lack of a handle on the outside. And that the only way for it to suddenly open was from the disrupting attack from Liesel.

Moving silently through the corridor, Erik looked about expecting someone to leap out at him. No one did, there was nothing actually. Turning a corner he looked to the foyer. With a frown he rushed forwards. "Liesel?" Erik inwardly despaired at the sight of her laying on the ground. "When I suggested this to you, I didn't mean for you to take yourself out of the equation too." Clearly the release of lightning, and then her own powers had taken a toll on her.

"I'm recollecting some energy, what else do you want me to do?" Liesel asked tiredly while opening her eyes and looking up at him.

"Come on, up you get." He clasped a hand to her shoulder only to flinch back. Shaking his hand he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Sorry," Liesel smirked and pushed herself onto her side before placing her hands on the cold wooden floor and edged herself upright. "I don't have the knack of fully reigning it in." She said while shaking her own hands and watching wayward sparks flick off of her fingers. Luckily none of them hit against the unmoving people laying on the ground all around them. Truthfully she had really done a number on them.

"Are they alive?"

"I'm not a killer, Erik." Liesel stood up and cracked her neck. "Of course they are. What took most of my energy was disabling everything." Brushing herself down she looked around. "So much wiring and whatnot. What are we doing just standing here? Let's go." She sounded suddenly very excitable.

"Come on then." Erik clasped a hand on her arm and pulled her along in a slow jog. Luckily enough this time he never got a shock from touching her.

"You know the layout?" She whispered while they ran through another corridor before reaching the office areas.

"Yes. As I said earlier, you weren't alone in information gathering." Erik replied while looking around the empty corridor. Looking to Liesel, he tilted his head to the side.

"What? I couldn't reach this far! Face value...that's all I can do." Which meant there were still people milling about back here.

Inhaling deeply, Erik shut his eyes and exhaled slowly. Leaning against the wall he looked upwards. Frowning slowly he looked to the side at her, she looked confused. "This way," he turned off from the corridor and walked towards a doorway. Liesel frowned and followed after him quickly.

"What are we doing? What about your guy?"

"We're diverting off the plan." Erik whispered while they moved closer to the safes and deposit boxes which they needed.

"Why?"

"Because I don't know what room he's in. You can't exert yourself anymore, or else you'll faint. And if we enter one room, we'll get into a confrontation. That confrontation will alert the others in the rooms and then we'll most likely have to fight our way out." He looked down at her as they came to a stop in a low lit corridor. "All in all, the plan so far has been for nothing." Honestly, the plan he had managed to come up had only partially happened. And also, he didn't want to suddenly get into fights and end up having to go underground, most importantly: he didn't want the police coming after them. He did secretly wish though that everyone on the premises was unconscious and Liesel could easily wake the man up, once they had found him.

Turning into a room which was lined with silver small doors, they exchanged a look. They had found the deposit boxes. There were so many, Liesel looked hesitantly up to Erik. "What now?"

"Simple," Erik looked slowly down at her, Liesel frowned at him. In this lighting she looked slightly more pale and peaky than she did back out in the foyer. Using that much of her power really did take it out of her. "We open the doors."

She smiled, "You open the doors." She placed a hand to her chest, "I can't exert myself, remember?"

Erik rolled his eyes and simply held up his arm. Extending his hand, he splayed it out in the air. Palm facing the boxes surrounding them, he frowned. Standing in silent heavy concentration, he shifted his weight and pushed more against the air before him. Slowly curling his fingers, he created a fist which resulted in the boxes rattling more than what they were moments ago. With one fluid motion, Erik pulled his arm back and the doors all swung open and clattered in the small area.

Letting out a breath, he looked down as Liesel clapped him on the arm. "Well done." Looking around she winced, there were so many open doors. "We best hurry." Moving forwards she commenced peering into every box she crossed. "What are we looking for, exactly?"

"A case...briefcase, perhaps. Something big enough to hold...good job, Liesel." Erik was explaining only to glance over at her as she stood holding a rather plain looking brown briefcase. Even from the other side of the room he could sense a large amount of metal within it. Moving forwards he took it from her, it was heavier than it seemed. Turning it and resting it on his forearm he put a finger to one clasp and then the other. When both clicked and the case opened, Erik looked to Liesel as she peered over his arm to catch a glimpse at the content.

"How can something so beautiful be and feel so evil?" She whispered while he shut the case and held it by the handle. Shaking herself out of it, she looked up at him.

"I don't know, truthfully. But what I do know, is that we need to leave." Erik said while turning out of the room with Liesel walking quickly after him. Sneaking through the corridors, they managed to go back the way they came. Liesel was going to walk towards the main door, only to have a hand clasped onto her shoulder and to be pulled in another direction. She sent a questioning look to Erik, he nodded forwards. Someone had come into the bank and seemed to be raising an alarm of some sort. Pulling Liesel along Erik managed to get them both to the fire exit door without being noticed. Once they got out they walked through the adjoining alley until they were a safe distance away and joined the usual busy commuters rushing around, regardless of the torrential downpour falling down on them.

----

Edited: 7/June/2019

Reedited: 13/August/2021