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He hadn't wanted to pull this particular tactic, but it was basically a trump card when it came to dealing with Lupin. The Zorua had more than the usual fondness for money, of all things. Well, and other things, but also money.

It was an interesting issue if he thought about it. As someone who professed to be a professional thief, he should have had little regard for property law. Therefore, money was useless, wasn't it? It was just a way to get stuff that was legal and legitimate.

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If Lupin really meant to steal whatever he wanted, then money should be absolutely no object to him.

And yet, he coveted it as much as he coveted anything else. Moreover, he wasn't happy to share the entire team's resource pool, but insisted on having his own, separate from all the others. That was why this tactic of offering him sole dominion over the rewards worked so well. Usually, the fees that they were paid for their work went into the pool of funds for the whole team.

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That money would then be used to buy the supplies they needed and to provide for their livelihoods. Everyone chipped in, so everyone made use of it as they needed. But Lupin didn't like to share anything, least of all the money he loved so much.

Lupin's eyes lit up. "Now you're talking!" he said, his tail wagging. Nico knew better than to point it out. Lupin liked to act all smug, but in reality, his feelings showed pretty clearly through his tail if not his face.

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And even when he was trying his best, he wasn't all that good at hiding his feelings on his face either, actually.

In this instance, however, he was reacting exactly as Nico expected. Nico sighed. There had to be a better way to do this... It wasn't that he was about to begrudge a kid a few coins. To be honest, this particular mission was really just something to keep Lupin busy, and hopefully out of trouble, while the rest of them were swamped with real work.

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But if Lupin kept up this attitude, and they kept having to capitulate to his demands to get him to do what they needed, then it set a pretty uncomfortable precedent that was just going to make him harder and harder to deal with.

Today, though, they were really too busy even for those considerations. The quick and easy method had to be good enough.

"Alright, fine," said Nico. "But you have to actually do the mission properly, alright? Or else they're not going to give you the reward, you know."

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"I know," said Lupin dismissively. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'm the great master thief AND explorer, Lupin! You think I'd mess up on such a measly little mission like this?" He puffed out his chest proudly. It didn't really look all that impressive. He was such a small and scrawny little thing, except for the parts of him that were fluffy...

"Alright, alright," said Nico. And because he wanted to bully Lupin for this, just a little tiny bit, he pet the Zorua on the head.

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"Hey!!!" Lupin immediately swatted his hand away, glaring furiously at him. "I told you not to treat me like a kid, you idiot! Don't pat my head like you're my uncle! Gross!" He made a furious show of scratching at the fur on his head, while Nico smirked and Joli laughed behind him.

"Good luck! We're counting on you!" said Joli.

"Yeah, yeah. Go do stupid old people stuff," Lupin said. Without another word, he grabbed his own bag and dashed out of their rescue team headquarters, on his way to starting off his first solo job.

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"Do you think he'll really be okay?" said Nico, watching him dash off. That Zorua sure could run like the wind when the mood took him. Kids had so much energy... Wait, if he started thinking things like that, it meant he was really getting old.

Suddenly, Nico felt indescribably gloomy.

"He'll be fine! It's just a little dungeon, I'm pretty sure. And the person handing out the quests said it was just a little chick, right?" Joli said with a smile.

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"Well, it's true that I haven't heard of anything dangerous in that area," Nico admitted. That wouldn't necessarily stop him from worrying though. Lupin getting hurt was one thing, and it wasn't something that he hoped for, to be sure... But on the whole, sometimes he was more worried about what Lupin would do to someone else.

A kid that determined to break the law... They'd tried his best to rid him of those tendencies, but Lupin's aspiration was still to be a master thief, at least in theory.

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And he did have a particular talent, if you could call it that, for getting into trouble, or having it find him, or for things to go awry in some pretty spectacular ways... Actually, his initial escapades shouldn't even have blown up in the way that they did, but that was Lupin's magic, Nico supposed. When things involved him, they inevitably got out of hand.

Well, at least it wasn't happening here at the base, Nico supposed. That would have to be good enough for now.