Gray weaved in between the crowd with shocking ease, darting past unsuspecting shoppers as he made his escape. An experienced pickpocket, silent and quick, the cat sylvan rarely got caught. It was rare for anyone to even notice his sticky fingers, and he'd been certain, very certain, that this stranger would've been an easy target. He'd miscalculated, and badly; he'd only kept his digits because he'd spotted the glint of metal coming for them in time to yank his hand away.

His victim had been keeping up with him, and he shouldn't have been smiling. By the gods, he shouldn't have been. But the rush, the chase, the thrill! He'd found his match, and he was hooked.

"C'mon, I'm just trying to make an honest living here! Can't a guy make some coin on the side?" he said, grinning back at his pursuer as he casually plucked an apple from a passing woman's basket. He bit into it, then threw the rest to a beggar as he made a sharp turn into an alley. A few shacks ahead was a small, broken grate he could squeeze through, a shortcut to his hideout. All he needed to do was not get caught before—

"...Sh*t," he cussed. Of all the days the city officials could've picked to fix the damn grate! The alley was a dead end now. No windows, no doors, no cracks for him to slip into. Normally he would've climbed onto a nearby roof, but the recent rain had made the walls grimy and slippery.

Okay. Okay. Gray was a charmer. He could do this. Silver tongue it. Yeah.

"All right, no need to get violent." The thief turned around to face his rapidly approaching pursuer. He raised his hands in mock surrender, the gold coin he'd snatched tucked visibly between two of his fingers. He put on his most charming smile; the only sign of his excitement was the subtle twitching of his black tail behind him. "I have your coin right here, see? If you just give me a second, I can toss it right back at you, and we can pretend this never happened! Yeah? You go your way, I go my way."

Act disarming, find an opening, make a run for it. Piece of cake.