A Rude Awakening [China + Austria]

[sachertorteforall]

Night had fallen many hours ago, and Roderich knew that he should have been home much earlier. Despite the warm orange glow of the streetlamps, he didn't exactly place his trust in the city at this time of night. He plodded across the cobblestones and shortly made it to his apartment. Taking one last distrustful glance at the outside, he entered the building and sighed when he remembered how many stairs he still had to climb, since the lift was out of order (and had been for a week and a half).

As he embarked on his expedition up the stairwell, he made sure to grab hold of the railing. He knew himself well enough to recognize when he was a tad tipsy. Even though it wasn't his fault. He'd run into an old friend, and they'd got to talking, and a few glasses of champagne had been shared to celebrate the happenstance. Only a few, though. Nothing he couldn't manage, he'd made sure of that.

By the time he made it to the fourth floor, exhaustion had nearly overwhelmed him, and he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and oversleep the next morning. He fumbled with his key for a moment, then the tumblers fell into place, and he swung open the door. Perfunctorily, he hung up his coat and pulled his shoes off in the dark, seeing no point in turning on the lights if he was only going to have to extract himself from the warm confines of his bed to turn them back off.

He crossed the kitchen, which eternally smelled of ground coffee, and turned into his bedroom. With a satisfying plop, he fell back into his blankets and shut his eyes, willing nothing to wake him until the sun was well risen.

[china]

Yao preferred working during the night. It was easier to hide, fewer people around and he could easily get around, having done this for years already. Climbing buildings was no big task for him, so he easily scaled the wall of this apartment building tonight. He'd seen this fancy rich snob come and go and decided he'd raid his place tonight and see what he had to "offer"....

After finding an open window, he jumped in quietly and looked around.
Was that coffee he smelled? Gross... He wrinkled his nose and proceeded further in, looking around until his eyes fell upon a couple of nice little statuettes. They'd be worth something... He quickly plucked them and stuffed them in a backpack before searching further, finding a few coins scattered and several other small items.

He also found some delicious homemade cookies in the kitchen that he snagged. Tasty... He smiled, shoved one in his mouth and headed to the window again.
What he didn't expect though, was a cat that had snuck in after him. It must have come from the roof, jumped down on the balcony and gotten in. Yao stepped on its tail, causing it to meow in rage and run off.
"Dammit!" he whispered and hurried to the window.

[sachertorteforall]

Groggy as he was, Roderich's eyes fluttered as the clamor in his apartment woke him. He pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes, wondering how long he had been asleep. It had only felt like seconds.

Even so, the screech of a cat was enough to set his heart hammering, and in his muddled thoughts, he realized that he hadn't locked the door behind him when he'd come in, and the window was still open too. A flurry of panic threatened to overcome any semblance of sense in his head, and his eyes darted around in the dark, searching for the source of the noise.

Standing in the doorway of his bedroom, he could make out the form of a what was most definitely a person scampering on light feet toward the window, a gaping mouth leading out to the city air, polluted by faint traces of yellow light. Without a second thought, Roderich--running on adrenaline alone--launched himself across the kitchen. He dove for the intruder, aiming to tackle him, but only managed to entangle his arms in the stranger's legs and bruise his own ribs on the floor.

"Stop!" he shouted, quite belatedly, his words finally catching up to his thoughts.

[china]

Stupid cat, ruining his escape plan. Stupid resident for waking up. Yao frowned and was so close to getting out, but he fell over when he was suddenly tackled. "Ack!" he smacked his chin against the floor hard as he fell forward. "Ow..." he groaned, rubbing his poor chin. He didn't turn his head, not wanting the other to see his face.

He didn't want to hurt the person, but if he didn't let go he wouldn't have much choice. Yao never let people see his face when he was out doing this. This was the first time he'd been spotted and stopped. Not a good day/night for the guild leader... Not at all.
"Let go of me." he said, not looking at the other man.

[sachertorteforall]

Roderich hadn't exactly planned this out well. Now that he had his intruder more or less incapacitated… he really had no idea what he was going to do. Well, he certainly wasn't going to let him go, that was for sure.

He felt strangely brave all of a sudden. He couldn't place where the feeling came from, but it was probably thanks to a few contributors: the lack of sleep, the adrenaline, the alcohol. And the fact that he had just tackled what was probably some kind of ninja, who was trying to escape by jumping out his window.

"What's your name, and… what are you doing here?" he demanded, his voice shaking from the suddenness of this whole fiasco, despite the rush of fortitude. He thought about contacting the police, but he wouldn't be able to unless he got up off the thief, and by then, he was sure the mysterious man would be out the window and gone.

[china]

Yes, like he was gonna be so dumb and give him his name. Yao frowned and figured that if the man wouldn't let him go willingly, he'd make him let go.
The best way to do that, he decided, was to use his bag, turn around so he could aim and hit the other man over the head with it. Not the most graceful plan but he was kinda desperate to get out of there.

He was tired too, wanting to just hurry home and get some sleep before heading out tomorrow and sell some things. This house was filled with goodies...

[sachertorteforall]

As he lay splayed across the intruder in his home, Roderich's heart didn't slow its pouring in the least, but his mind began to function sensibly. This man was most likely dangerous and merely biding his time for a few moments before he would try to escape again. Or he had a whole band of partners-in-crime that would be here any second now, and he would wait patiently until Roderich was incapacitated.

Or maybe not, he began to realize. It was either a very stupid or very cocky thief that would try to burgle a man who was still in the house. And only an amateur, he worked out, would actually allow himself to be caught. He suppressed a half-hysterical chuckle at his luck, if one could call it that.

"You're not very good at this, are you?" he casually mentioned instead, trying to sound as suave and even-tempered as he would be on any other day. Belatedly, he also realized that if he could get the thief to talk, he might be able to identify him if he was ever caught by the police.

[china]

Yao frowned. One hit hadn't been enough to make the other let go so he decided to hit him again, aiming for his face. "Let me go." he hissed, not wanting to shout and wake up the neighborhood. This man seeing him was bad enough and he hadn't even seen his face yet...

The thief also tried to flip around and kick the other off him, not wanting to waste another second in this building. He had what he came for and was determined to leave with everything he'd taken.
"I'm the best, actually." This had just been a slip up. One of few and he was not gonna make this mistake again.

Yao growled but kept his face out of view.