(a.k.a. I love Stu's character and I'm hella projecting here)

"This isn't what being good is! You have to think more about other people, not yourself!"

Stu pressed down on random keys on the piano, letting the sound of the white keys drain themselves out before dramatically pressing another. The pattern held no tune nor rhythm and he sighed. Kay's words kept replaying in his mind and the notes were no help in drowning them out.

"Uh, are you okay?" Brick appeared beside him and rapped his knuckles against the piano top, raising an eyebrow at him. "You didn't say anything on the ship ride back."

"I'm fine, just...feeling down? I guess?"

"You look terrible, and not just because of your horrendous fashion; are you sea sick or something?"

"I don't get sea sick so no." Stu rocked his hand over a set of keys. A simple melody of ascending notes played and Brick leaned over to harshly press a low black key. The dull sound cut into the air, hitting his chest with a pang, and he took a deep breath. His hand moved on its own up to his chest, feeling for a coin that was no longer there.

Why had he joined the Wandering Coins in the first place? He wanted gold, right? Something he hadn't had before, living on the streets for so long. It was a place he could let go, not get attached to anyone, and just do what he wanted. And stealing seemed to be the easiest option at the time...which gradually turned into the mess that was the others leaving them without warning. So the two of them also left. Left a thieves guild to create...another thieves guild.

Is that what S-Class was meant to be? Kay wasn't a thief, but it wasn't like he and Brick were planning on stopping their stealing ways when forming the new guild. It was just going to be less obvious that they were.

'She would've found out eventually,' Stu tried to reason with himself. Brick was right, she was naive, young, still saw the best in others-

'Like us.'

He practically slammed all his fingers on random piano keys. The resulting sound was a monsterous mixture of blaring notes, all ramming against each other. Brick jumped, holding up his hands like he was the one who played it. He glanced at Stu, his small playful smile still on his face but starting to waver.

Stu cracked his fingers. Being good wasn't something he was good at, ironically enough. Something always went wrong when he tried; someone got hurt, he was kicked out of whatever was his temporary home at the time, he blamed himself for something he didn't do but probably still caused unintentionally.

The earth behind him was scorched with his good deeds. At some point, Stu just...stopped trying. Stopped thinking of others. When he joined the guild, he took Brick, Josh, and Marsh into consideration with what he did. Only that dwindled to just him and the blue-haired mage.

Less people to think about. To worry over. To depend on for companionship or whatever.

Then they met a lovely girl who wanted to protect others with all she had and he and Brick tried to drag her down with them. The look on her face when she came back for them and found them with the staff would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.

'Why pretend to be good when I'm not? I'm just lying to everyone.'

"Don't you feel even a little bad for what we did to Kay?" he suddenly asked, looking up at his guildmate.

Brick gave him a wry smile and dropped his still-raised hands down to his sides. "What did we do? She knew we were thieves when she joined us."

Stu shrugged again and stared at the empty music desk. "We also lied to her about that crown. I'm surprised she still wanted to create a guild with us after that."

"She made that decision herself." Brick bumped his shoulder with his fist. "Come on, it'll be fine. We'll get other members and find more valuable things to steal. We're great thieves after all."

Great thieves. Yeah, right. He stole one non-gold thing on his own and it was a typewriter that he ended up losing track of. He was pretty sure Silver had it, wherever he was. 'Oh gosh, Silver.' He stole an old man's typewriter and made the best thief in Atlantide complain about him to other guild leaders.

Stu banged his head against the piano and groaned along with the keys' pitiful sounds. He could feel Brick's eyes still on him, uncharacteristically letting him moan and groan over his internal conflict.

He raised his head and pressed his palms against the sleek, cracked wood of the piano bench. "I...I don't know if I can keep being a thief. This, all this," he gestured to the guild hall, "doesn't seem right. Like it's not what we're meant to be doing."

"Well what do you want us to do? Join the Protectors?"

Stu paused, mulling over the suggestion for only a couple seconds before tilting his head slightly. "Well..why not?"

Brick laughed. "Are you serious?"

He nodded, feeling a sense of relief wash over him as he smiled. "Yeah I am." He leapt up from his seat and waved Brick towards the door. As he ran out of the guildhall, his chest felt lighter with the incoming breeze. "Come on, let's go!"

Brick, surprisingly, didn't resist and simply followed him. He made a mental note to ask him about it later, but for right now, he was set on making it to the Protectors' guild and putting his improv skills to use to apologize.

Being a good person didn't have to come easy, but Stu supposed it would be worth it to work towards it being so.