i'll keep all your secrets by the dozen

The answer to Calan's prayer comes with the violent clatter of pots and pans being hurled down a staircase, though there is no staircase anywhere nearby. A spirit bursts into being around Finch in a whirl of thick smoke that plumes around him in great rolling clouds, bright enough at their edges to look almost gilded in the sun and dense enough through the middle to swallow him whole. For several precious seconds, there is nothing visible inside it, and the thief will be unable to see out of it.

no thank you is how it should have gone, I should stay strong

Carlo considers himself very successful in his pilfering of the candy that he had originally and rightfully pilfered from the beach, though later he might find himself weighing up the philosophical dilemma about what it had all been for, ultimately. This has been a lot of work and threats to his wrists for a bag of sweets, after all, and while Calan's kick had been impressive, he's not sure they're as casually violent as Finch when it comes to threats of breaking something (or causing testicular explosions, in this case).

Then his nine-year-old brain catches up and he remembers the candy is exactly what it had all been for, and while his brother fixes him with a look he know will lead very quickly to the sound of them running away, his hand finds its way into the bag almost without his permission. "And we're already keeping the candy," he says, before stuffing a handful (almost exactly half, strangely enough) from the bag straight into his mouth. 

Let's see Finch steal it from there.

At that point Calan is channelling and there's a lot of banging and smoke, and the Carlo takes the opportunity wherever it comes. "WWWWUM," he yells (that's run with a mouth crammed full, to you and me), promptly turning on heel and doing just that.

but I'm weak, and what's wrong with that? boy oh boy I love it when I fall for that

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

The chaos overcomes Finch and he can do nothing but wave at the thick smoke billowing around him, trying to dispel it, ears ringing from the maddening ringing of metal upon metal. He's just starting to think that he'll be stuck forever when the smoke dissipates, leaving him completely alone in the street, staring at dust settling over the empty space where two precocious thieves used to be. 

He sighs and rubs his eyes as if that'll help the nothingness. Perhaps those two weren't lying about growing from a seed in the ground. If they could do that... Oh, well. There were weirder types. But to Finch, it once again begat the question: what kind of terrible, negligent parents would let their two magical children waste their lives and their talents prying candy off of violent strangers? Those two deserve more; Finch can recognize that, even as his shin and nethers ache with the violence dispelled upon them. Carlo and Calan are too smart to be getting themselves into these kinds of scrapes. If Finch hadn't been them once, hadn't had a bleeding, sympathetic heart that saw the face of a ghost in the edges of his vision where his eyes skipped across their faces, what could have happened to them? 

Limping back home, he took stock of his pockets. True to their obvious intentions, the two had only taken the candy and bolted. That was a win. 

They needed someone to watch them. Not as a parent or guardian would hover, hemming, and hawing -- they made it quite clear they had no interest in that, nor any patience for anyone who would try -- but someone to keep an eye on their backs to make sure there weren't any daggers headed for them. It couldn't be himself, Finch reckoned. There was too much bad trouble headed for the bad-luck thief. He'd only suck them down into his shitstorm. They'd be better off back as seeds. 

No, it couldn't be Finch. As he walked down the street, his shadow matching his pained hobble, he hoped it would be someone worthy of their spunk. Someone who could keep them alive. It couldn't be him. 

He wondered if he'd ever run into them again, and if they'd have all twenty of their collective fingers between them.

[FIN]