Tender is the Night

AN: And the moment you’ve been waiting for, cousin of mine! :) Well, not really, but it’s something at least moving forward. (Stop pestering me about the lemon, shesh! It’s coming, not yet. Hold your horses!) ;) Hope this tides you over.

Thanks again for reviews. :) Nice to know other people than crazy Ciara are enjoying this.

Disclaimer: Standard

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Tender is the Night

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In all actuality, the police barely gave them the once over before turning back to their coffees in hand. Obviously on break. One tried a brief, “Name, please?” before recoiling slightly as Hiei spit out his surname once more. Gods, he hated using that name. This whole ordeal needed to end soon.

However, it was working well enough for the fix they had gotten themselves into. Rounding the corner in record time, the two paused as they looked down the end of the hall. Botan was glancing at the doors.

“Well, where’s your room?”

“Hn. Penthouse, where else?”

Pink eyes rolled. “Of course.” They strolled down further, stopping outside the locked door while Hiei began flipping through his wallet for the appropriate card.

Back near the elevators, the police were having a different disagreement. One of them, it seemed, was feeling a bit guilty.

“We really shouldn’t be hiding up here anyway, and it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I thought you were exhausted from the long shift? No way! Did you see the way he glared?”

“But he might have information. His name is on the guest list Nakano gave us. I remember because it’s not his sister. She came by the station last year helping out in the charity ball. Pretty little thing, bluish hair? Made you trip over your feet?”

“Oh, can it! I doubt he’ll appreciate the fact that we’re barging in on him to talk about his sister.”

“No, we’re going to ask about police business, it’s our duty.”

“Fine. But you’re asking the questions, got that?”

“Whatever.”

Botan watched the cards flip with growing nervousness. This whole waiting thing was getting to her, she absolutely hated the anticipatory pause before she could set to action. And the fact that there were a few people down the hall that had the power to arrest her, Botan, officer of Interpol and recent assistant, no, driving force! - she had done most of the work herself - of the crime that they were now investigating... “Hurry!”

A frown was across the short man’s features. “Be quiet, it’s stuck.” Indeed, the card was refusing to come out of the tight back pocket of his wallet. Hiei cursed. He knew he should’ve gotten a new one instead of using Yusuke’s cheap rip offs.

The call from down the hall caused both to freeze. “Koorime-san?”

Both thieves looked at one another, wide eyed. Conversation erupted in hissed half sentences and not quite listened to thoughts.

“They know!” Botan was panicked, her fists clutching her dress and going white. “The door-! Inside!”

Hiei ran a hand through his hair, grabbing her arm. “They can’t know! Not possible, no links!” He scanned desperately for tactics of aversion and fell on the only one at short notice that might work. She was spun around to land against the door. “Don’t move!”

“We’ve got to get out of here!”

“Shut up!” Her shoulders were pulled down swiftly as he leaned in against her, pressing a knee beside her into the door to steady his balance. The last words he managed to get out were “Baka onna, don’t move,” and then the policemen were rounding the corner, one innocently swinging his arms while the other looked agitated.

And Hiei shifted to block their direct view and rest his face mere centimeters from hers, becoming the very image, at least from the right direction, of affectionate lovers.

Against the door, Botan swallowed, her vision suddenly dominated by startling red that stared at her eyes with evenness and an undescribable calm, as if waiting for the axe to fall behind them. But what distracted her from upcoming doom was the sudden hitch in his breathing, which she seemed to reciprocate, and the hand that now unexplainably rested on her back, holding her in this position. Exhalation mingled between them and heated their cheeks.

“Koorime-sa-! ...oh...um...”

Fascinated pinkish violet watched as something in the back of his eyes seemed to spark and ignite, along with the hand twitching along her back. She held his gaze a moment longer, before her own sunk, lowered, down to something else that was currently catching her attention.

“Idiot!” The other policeman was stage whispering to his partner. “I told you this was a bad idea!”

Fingers fisted into the dress fabric at her back as soft lips hit his, fusing easily with the heat to become welded in place. It was all too easy to sink into the part he was supposed to be playing and let his eyes flutter shut as well, feeling her shift into a more comfortable embrace. As she leaned backwards more to support her weight, it was simple to follow her into it, to tighten that arm around her and move to take control of the kiss. Pressure increased as the kindling began to smoke, changing meeting of lips from that of flirtation into the preludes of passion. And it was the only thing natural to make that odd but definitely masculine sound of satisfaction that had little right to be out on public display when she all but melted into it as the moan came lowly.

“Maybe if I just tap him on the shoulder...?”

The question drifted off as the two on the door shifted, breaking for air, and Hiei’s head falling slightly to begin exploring further with his mouth.

“Shesh! Let’s just get out of here!” His fellow policeman hauled the still uncertain one off and back to the elevators.

Botan’s mind had barely registered anything else that was going on around her, but she did manage to make out a few details. Hands took his chin and brought Hiei away from her now moist and shivering neck as she attempted to convey the message to him. A breathy “Key, open the door,” was all she got out before she was pressing into him again, biting his ear slightly while kissing it as she felt his fingers fumble at her back as he brought the wallet out again and began tugging at the key. If this was where all the tension between them was going, hot tempered words turning into high heat chemistry, she wasn’t sure she wanted to stop the fights at all. Rational thought that she should not be making out with this man was not really important right now if he - ah, leave the neck, wait! Don’t leave the neck alone!- kissed this good.

Vaguely, fingers noted the feel of the key card free in his hands and the wallet was tucked back into his pocket as he pulled the woman in front tight against him. He didn’t really want to pause to open the damn door, but thoughts came of something horizontal and probably softer inside, along with the fact that there could be no interruptions, unlike the one he had purposefully ignored out here in the hall, which he was certain he had another important reason to do so, but it kind’ve fell by the wayside to ending this kiss with her. Mumbled and most likely unintelligible words came out as he pulled to the side for a moment - gods, why did that leave the base of his chin open at a time like this?! He could barely think! - to whip the card in and out of the slot and push the door open.

They fell through, not stabilized enough on their own to stand the change in balance, and stumbled apart, Botan turning slightly in the process. Broken gasps of air sounded through the dark apartment as each strove to catch their breath from the activities. Amazing, that it could take this much energy between them and they hadn’t even moved a step.

Fresh air seemed to be the key element in clearing her brain, however. Botan felt the discorporate reality of their recent situation set in. Had she really just been doing that? With Hiei? It felt alarmingly good, in fact, better than she had expected from that first kiss back in his office, but then that really hadn’t been much - and where the hell were her thoughts going?! No, no, no! She was here to get a job with him! Business before pleasure, the sore part of her mind whispered but she managed to ignore its underlying tones that she would rather be kissing the thief silly than heisting something. In her dreams! ...okay, bad phrasing, Botan shook her head wildly. More like, never in his lifetime. That was better. Her first objective was to obtain work, and from there she would move on to collect first hand evidence of his usually hard to trace capers and finally be able to turn him in to Interpol successfully. If she managed to pull this off, no doubt she’d be promoted! And she could use the extra money to send her parents on a vacation, maybe to the Carribean, she had to keep on thinking like that!

She calmed her breathing and, in the silence that she could suddenly hear, noticed the growing awkwardness between them. The words fell out automatically, not even thought out before voiced.

“Nice acting, Hiei.” The wince took her immediately, but she couldn’t stop. “I-I was really convinced.” It ended in a whisper, regretting that she had ever made the move to speak at all.

At her statement, his shoulders tensed, and unlike Botan’s steady shift back to herself, it came crashing down rather swiftly for Hiei. He recovered just as quickly, repairing the cracks to his mind almost immediately. He had been frozen after entering that door, unable to get past the fact that he, he, Hiei ‘don’t touch me’ Jaganshi had just made out with a woman he had barely known for a week. And not just any woman, a bouncy woman, an inexplicably happy woman, a woman who seemed to defy all laws of what a thief should be like but still managed to pull off the occupation with a large amount of technique - not that she had shown too much tonight, but that was partly his fault for just shoving her in and seeing how much she could take - and grace when she put her mind to it, the image of her climbing the ledges easily flashing back to him. But her words had easily put an end to his rouge thoughts. Hiei clamped down immediately. This woman’s nature was slightly deceiving, he had forgotten that it would probably be the job first for her, like it was for him, and then, maybe, other people. Of course she would only be acting to fool the police. She was good at it too if it was only acting, but who cared at this point? The fact was that it should not have been more than acting to him, and so he determinately pushed the thoughts of kissing her again away, along with questions of who exactly had started that. Didn’t matter, he didn’t want to examine it.

“Hn.” Her soft sigh in the shadows was ignored. “Whatever. They’re gone, we need to get your things now, don’t we?”

“Yes.” An agreement to cover up her unseen blush in the dark. Hastily, she shut the door behind them, then flipped the switch, illuminating the room. It’s layout was pretty standard to what she saw in Europe, and much better than the hotel rooms she had been living in for over a month. A large area, sitting lounge to the side, a mini bar on the table against the wall, backed by an ornate mirror, large king size bed in the back, separated from the main area by the illusion a couch provided, along with a subtle change in decor, and - Botan almost let out an audible sigh at this one - a personal bathroom just a few feet away. She barely stopped herself from dashing off to feel the hot water that would not be used up like that in the communal bathrooms. Barely. It was time to get down to business.

Hiei shook himself out and stalked forward into the room, tossing the bag over his shoulder onto a chair with disregard. His eyes were waiting for her to do something.

There was nothing left but to comply. “Right,” Botan said, gathering her thoughts. It’s all rather simple, we’ll just have to get my things out of that room without any of the police knowing I was there.”

An eyebrow of his shot up. “You call that simple, onna? This isn’t the kind of job I like sprung on me!”

“Who said you were going to do anything?” she shot back, a little annoyed. Honestly, it wasn’t as if he had done much to help the first heist this night either.

The return glare was poisoned. “I did. I’m not letting some kuso baka onna get killed over a bag of luggage! And if you get caught, I get caught as well! Don’t forget that the police just saw us together out there in the hall!”

The room stilled as the tension returned. The hall, no, they didn’t want to think about that. It was with slow recognition that each saw in the other’s stillness a kind of mutual agreement. That incident would be forgotten, at least for now, along with all the rest of it. They had a job to do.

It was, not that they noticed much, one of their first agreements as professional partners.

Botan moved to the luggage, lifting it swiftly over to the couch. “Computer?”

“Laptop, second pocket. The cords are in the front pouch.”

“Best not to use them,” Botan replied simply. “We can’t connect to their system directly, I don’t want them tracing our power supply. I’ll hook up us to a different router.” The laptop was out in seconds, set down on the shorter coffee table and flipped open, power running quickly.

Beside her, Hiei was already emptying out the small carry bag of the simple clothes and instruments they had used last time. He laid them out on the table next to her, then began gathering other basics from his own things. The demand was made easily as he clicked open the back of his bags, a inlaid compartment lined with rubber. Inside was a strange foamy material. “Jewelry.”

A hand left from clicking rapidly on the keys as Botan hurriedly unzipped the band that went around her chest underneath her dress. It was a bit of finagling to get it free, but she handed it over without complaint. Hiei took it without question and began methodically placing the pieces into the substance. They sunk in and remained firm in their places. He’d remove them later when he reached his own residence.

The voice was cooly questioning as he snapped the space closed again, letting the lines blend back into the black upholstery of the suitcase. “Since you wanted to do this by yourself, what were your ideas on the process, onna?”

“Um...” she paused as another password clicked into place, connecting her into a satellite network used, by those who knew how to get in, predominately by people with ties to Interpol. Hopefully, since it was a highly hushed thing, Hiei wouldn’t know her sources. But for the freedom her company had given her for this job, she’d take the chances. His inquiry was registered as she began hacking into the hotel’s basic systems. “Oh, well, I was going to get my things by climbing in the window. Not,” she continued hurriedly, “from the top floor, but just one floor above it.”

Hiei’s return was dry. “And how do you intend to get into that room?”

“Oh!” She turned a bright smile at him, almost grinning as she held out a hand. “That’s the fun part! May I have your key card?”

“Why?”

“Do you have to question everything?” Botan huffed out, shaking her hand slightly. “Come on. I’m going to change the room it registers for. I’ve already got into their mainframe, will you please hurry? I should be undetectable, but quite honestly, the programs that you’ve got into this computer aren’t as good as the ones I’ve got on mine.”

Red eyes narrowed quickly. “How did you get into all that without my passwords? And who says the system I’ve set up isn’t as good?! I spent a damn lot on that thing!”

The girl sighed. “Didn’t I say this was my specialty? It’s one of the reasons you hired me. Your passwords I saw you typing in on the train ride over here, it wasn’t hard to memorize the keystrokes, and trust me, whoever installed all this for you ripped you off.” She gave an ironic giggle here. “Of course, since a few of them keep tabs on the black market and things you need for work, it’s no wonder. You won’t get that cheap.” No mention was made on the mere speed she had used to deduce all this, and Hiei was left turning away sourly, tossing the card in her direction.

“Do what you want.”

She fumbled the catch and had to make a dive to the floor to retrieve it. When she came up, there was the slight imprint of carpet on her cheek where she had bumped it, but a smile displayed. “Good! This makes it easier. I don’t want to tap their security any further without my own computer.”

“Hn.” Hiei wasn’t really paying attention as she made small noises to herself above the rapid typing, instead taking out another suitcase and beginning to rummage through his clothes. Idly, he spoke again, fingers sorting through pockets at a quick pace. “If you can change the code on this card, I don’t understand why you just don’t change the one on yours. That would be simpler.”

Blue hair bobbled up and down as she nodded in agreement. “Yes, but I said I didn’t want to hack any deeper. I’ve got the serial code for this card.” She held it up in one hand, not noticing that he never turned away from his own task to glance. “I don’t know the one on that, so I can’t change it as easily.” She frowned at the screen, then pulled up the index of the programming. “Goodness, the inventor of this must have been high when writing the script! Nothing’s named normally.” Soft mutters came as she scrolled through the available root commands. “No, no, no, oh please, who calls your guest hub ‘kami’?! Hmm... no, no, n-wait... we’ll try this one.”

Botan whistled to herself as she waited for the command to register, then grinned as it displayed the correct codes. “Fantastic!”

A zipper cut sounded behind her along with a voice. “You’re loud when you work, you know that?”

“I get the job done though.” She didn’t glance up from the screen, picking out numbers happily to herself. Hitting the return key, she flipped and lifted the card once more. “See? Piece of cake!”

“Baka. Now we can’t open this door. How are you going to get in?” The smallest smirk was displayed on his face.

She blinked as if it should be obvious. “You’re going to open the door for me.”

Contrary to what was predicted, there was no outright denial of this, no insults, and no temper tantrums. Just the simple eyebrow lifted with the smirk still in place. “Oh, really?”

“Y-yes.” She swallowed and continued nervously. This different type of response was unsettling. “It’s too dangerous for you to go down with me, they’ll recognize you on security. I’ll just pretend that I was, um, invited to stay the night here or something and as another guest I’m retrieving my things.” Her cheeks were slightly red as she finished and she didn’t dare look him in the eye, but silence was her only answer.

Finally, he just shrugged. “That sounds reasonable for you, surprisingly. Go ahead, onna, go retrieve your things.”

Violet eyes flew back to his own in slight confusion, before she nodded quickly, not wanting him to change his mind and go back to being obstinate. Maybe Hiei was beginning to understand that she knew what she was doing? Perhaps he was seeing her as a valuable asset?

Or maybe he was just making her clean up her own mess. Unwillingly, she sounded slightly unsure for her next statement. “Do you think... Hiei, do you think the police have already searched the room?”

The short thief snorted. “You’re asking this after you’ve already set everything else up?” He shook his head. “No, they probably don’t have a search warrant yet, and I doubt they’ll get one until tomorrow morning, if that. Right now they’re just trying to find whoever is staying in the room.”

She firmed at his assurance. Standing up, Botan brushed out the folds in her dress, tucked her hair back into place, and moved for the door. “I’ll be quick,” she assured. The securing rope he handed her, a short one, was accepted with a brief smile and tucked away. “Don’t worry! I’ll do my job.” She opened the door to the hallway and was off before he had fully shut it behind her, striding to the elevators.

Hiei was left closing the door with a decisive snap and moving towards his small pile that he had made, shedding his coat in the process and snapping off any article that might get in his way. She’d do her job, and he’d do his.

--

The smile couldn’t be suppressed as her makeshift key easily opened the door on the sixth floor. It was impossible to get a room that lined up straight with her own and that was unoccupied, but one askew wasn’t too bad, and she was pretty sure she could make it. Shutting the door softly behind her, she turned back to the dark room and walked over to the window, pushing it open and gazing down.

The window frames themselves were pretty big, as if the hotel didn’t want the room to feel as small as it actually was. Staring at the city life, she was glad it was late at night, less people around to see her. Looking down at her dress, she sighed, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d forgotten to bring her extra set of clothes. The short rope was looped securely to the main pipe of the air conditioner beneath the window and then wrapped twice around her waist and once around her hand before she turned back to her goal.

Only to almost jump out of her skin as she found another person sitting there on the window, looking idly out at the city.

Red eyes turned back to her with slight accusation. “You could have told me which room you opened, onna. Blasted people next door thought I was some kind of bird scratching on their window.”

“You!” Botan’s mouth flew open. “What are you doing here! I thought I told you to stay in the room! Oh, crap, now I’ll never get back in! They’ll know it was us! We’ll be found out, go to jail-!”

“Shut up, woman!” He ground out, face turning annoyed as he grabbed her and wrapped a hand over the noise. “Do you want everyone to hear us?! I said there was no way in hell I was letting you scale this stupid building all by yourself!”

Her expression was slightly petulant under his hand, but she didn’t try and retort. Grumbling to himself, the thief let up and released her, looking back down over the side. Botan’s voice was still slightly put out. “How did you get down here?”

He glanced back at her, then tugged at the near invisible rope tied to him. It was connected via what appeared to be a custom made suspension unit. “Baka. I have my own things. You’re not the only one who’s good at breaking and entering.”

“If you had that, why did you give me this pathetically short rope?!” The one in her hand was held up with indignation.

“Because I knew I’d get here before you!”

It was her who finally turned away. Job, job, she had to remained focused, no matter the distractions. ‘Give it up, Botan, with his temperament, he’ll never let you win an argument,’ she thought with exasperation. “Oh, who cares. What are we going to do now?”

Hiei rolled his eyes, then held out a hand. “Come on. I’m taking you down.”

Taking his hand almost immediately, Botan levered herself with assistance to the ledge beside him, holding on and speaking softly in the night air, traffic noises helping to drown out most of her own. “I don’t understand why you didn’t let me scale this myself!”

“Experience,” he replied swiftly, releasing her rope from it’s place on the piping then restringing it around her before securely attaching it to his own unit. “And you’re too large to fit into this.” The smirk he flashed was mocking and thoroughly enjoying the round about insult.

She couldn’t keep back the slightly disbelieving chuckles. “That’s only because you’re so small! A man with your reputation is not supposed to be this tiny!”

The ironic eyebrow rose. “I am short, not small, onna, you’d do well to remember that.” The eyes flashed once with the smirk growing wider, dark humor surfacing, before his mind seemed to catch up with what he was saying and he closed up again, becoming all business. Eyes looked purposefully away as his expression turned cold. Had he just... dear gods, had he just flirted with the woman? Thank goodness her face, which was staring down at the quite vertical wall with some apprehension now, didn’t register the fact.

An arm wrapped around her swiftly before he was repelling down the face of the building, too quickly for her to do anything but gasp at their sudden motion and cling. She hadn’t been expecting that. But when they reached the appropriate window, she was yanking up the pane without a moment’s hesitation, hopping inside before hurriedly pulling him in as well and then checking for anybody who could have noticed them on the street.

Botan’s sigh of relief was audible when she ascertained no one had. “Good.” The smile was back in place as she moved towards the middle of the room. “Now, luggage, clear prints, we-”

“Wait.” His hand caught her arm before she could pull too far away.

“What?” And then it didn’t matter anymore, the rope binding them together released. He tossed it in her direction before moving to gather the bags. Botan snagged one away before he could get it to the window.

Looking back to her unzipping it on the bed, Hiei began tapping his foot. “Look, you can’t do this here, wait ‘til we get back to the room!”

“Hold on.” She muttered it, not paying attention. A small case came out, and from that a canister of some sort. Picking out a few more items, Botan turned away, blue hair twisting behind her. “I changed over here...”

It was with slightly impressed and yet narrowed eyes that Hiei watched her begin some sort of sanitizing method. If anything, she was thorough, never letting the chance of identification be left behind. Finger prints on dressers were erased swiftly, any disturbances corrected with carefully gloved hands, the doorhandles wiped, and, with that little spray bottle, any overtly human DNA, like that found in hair strands, shuffled off into a bag she carried. The question spilled forth, level from the side. “Where did you learn this, onna?” And where did she get those supplies?

Botan started sharply, glancing back with an almost guilty look before smiling brightly. “Oh, this? Well, my last partner was really a neat freak, pain in the butt sometimes because of how much a perfectionist he was, you know the type, everything had to look like some ornate trick that the police could never figure out, made clean up very difficult and all and-”

“I wanted an answer, not an essay,” Hiei grumbled back, cutting off her tirade and brushing it off as an idiosyncrasy.

Obligingly, the girl gave the appropriate “meep” of embarrassment and shut up, thanking her lucky stars that at least he would ignore her easily if she began annoying him. She hated it most of the time, that facet of him that she had learned early, but times like these made it almost worth it. Putting her things away, she grabbed the case and moved with him back to the window. “How are we going to get these up? They’ll definitely see us for sure!”

Hiei was already strapping the first to himself, not really paying much attention. “Baka. We’re only taking them one floor up. You’ll handle it from there.” He finished and leaving in an instant.

“Oh!” The girl watched him go, blinking, before clapping her hands. “Oh, right! Of course, that is what we had decided, wasn’t it?” Trying to stay calm, she watched as he carted her two bags up, then helped him tie her securely to his own device again. It was a brief moment clinging to him as he, hand over hand, moved up the rope again. “Is this how you always climb?” A breathless whisper as she vacillated between watching the unknowing street and his shoulder and arm muscles shift with what appeared to be only slight effort.

The thief grunted, suggesting that reality was otherwise, it was hard work. “Usually I go faster.” A mutter to himself as he barely raised an eyebrow at her added weight before hefting them up the ledge and into the empty room she had already broken into.

Silence in the room was only broken by the slithers of the rope straps as Botan quickly freed herself again, shaking out her dress from its tucked position and smoothing her hair. The bags were grabbed as she headed towards the door. “I’ll be there in five minutes, give or take a few.”

As the latch clicked back into place, the window was already closed and her accomplice gone from sight.

--

Keys chattered to themselves incessantly, much like hens, back in the penthouse room. In a pair of boxers and a comfortable tank top, with her hair up and unseen in a towel, one of Interpol’s finest showed off her qualifications. Not that they would really like what she was doing now, but still, a job was a job, and if it meant she had to pass this test, even if it had become much longer and more involved that she had expected, she would finish it. Her brain ticked away with the computer in front of her, bouncing off ideas with rapid fire pulse even as the electrical circuits worked.

There was no question. Her first job with Hiei was just not enough. Never mind the fact that the target was much smaller than his usual ones, there was just not enough evidence to use against him. If she brought this to court, the only one who would be indicted was her. She was the one who had done most of the work, after all. The climbing, the break in, the theft. Even the covering of her butt when she slipped up. Practically nothing would point to her short partner in crime. Botan sighed as she toggled up her alternate screen, finishing a letter to Koenma. No help for it. She was in, but there was nothing yet. She had to stay longer.

Sending off the message, the girl winced. That was, if Hiei let her stay longer. She had no illusions that she had impressed him tonight. The job was shoddy. It was supposedly a very simple target, and she had almost gotten caught for it, over a very stupid mistake. If he let her stay after this one, she’d be very surprised. Lines hardened around her eyes, unnoticed except in the mirrors beside the bed on dressers. But she would do anything, absolutely anything required to remain. Because going back to Interpol empty handed was not an option. Koenma hadn’t been very vocal about it, perhaps he thought otherwise, but she knew, instinctually, she knew it. If she came back to them without Hiei on a silver platter, it was her head they’d take instead. She no longer had a clean record, they had trained her, they could break her.

Oh, she wouldn’t go to jail. That would be highly unfair, cruel even. But they’d shuffle her down severely in ranks. The jobs no one wanted, that would be her prize. Perhaps they’d even terminate her as an employee. Reassign her to the mundane world, a bank teller or - no, they’d never let her work with money now, that record again. More likely a caretaker in a retirement community, they’d say she was a nice girl, misguided, and she’d be reintegrated into society. They would tell her she’d enjoy it more, less pressure, more relaxation time. But she’d hate it, she’d die. Her job was her life, every breath was excitement, adventure, and taking in that stale air would suffocate her.

This wasn’t just an assignment, this was a test on her very way of life. If she failed, she’d be doomed to moldy existence, but if she managed to pull it off...! A shiver ran down her back. She couldn’t even imagine it, automatic entry into one of the most respected circles in Interpol. That of members who knew the workings of the criminal mind well enough that they could capture and corral even infamous targets. She’d not only be promoted, she’d be in. She’d be an authority on the subject. It was like earning tenure at a university. Difficult would not begin to describe the process it would take to discredit and get rid of her. Basically, if she won, she would be set for life.

And that, that was why she would do anything for this job.

The sound of water stopping in the bathroom had the window she had opened closing abruptly. The clicking of keys was again at that rapid pace as Hiei exited the bathroom, towel fluffing his hair into spiky tufts as he rubbed it down, and his body clad in a pair of pajama pants, ones with snowflakes on them and that had obviously come from his sister. A Christmas gift from a few years back. One of many she had enjoyed giving him, trying to make up for lost time, but also to return the favor of the seemingly endless trinkets he always had for her whenever he visited.

Red eyes gazed around the room, and narrowed as he tossed the towel over one shoulder. “What are you doing on the bed, onna?”

“It’s more comfortable up here,” she replied, barely glancing at him as she hit in another key sequence, pausing a moment for the next screen to flash up, then flying through more codes. “I’m almost done with the hard work, don’t worry. I’ve already finished changing the code that will unlock my old room. The key card the police have won’t work anymore, and when they check the computers again, it will be registered to another room. Right now I’m changing their check-in files to report that I called in late to cancel the hold on the room, as I had to cut short my stay in the area.” She looked up to smile at him, expression revealing that she was enjoying this. “After that, I’ll probably try to hack their security camera systems and see if I can’t erase their hard copies of me in the hallways. You never know, sometimes people are stupid and try to save money by recording over their old tapes or not even saving the data into a physical copy anymore.”

“Hn, why not just change the room you were assigned to?” Hiei walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

In contrast, Botan remained concentrated on the screen frowning a bit from the information it was displaying. “Directrix error, hmm...” Mouth twisting for a moment, she reached up and undid the towel bun at the top of her head and handed the damp cloth over, letting her wet hair twirl down her back to air dry. As a lady, she had managed to finangle first dibs on the shower, though in reality it was mostly because Hiei was too focused on setting any incriminating items away. “Um, I didn’t because the police probably already have records on the occupants of the room. Don’t worry, it’s not my real name, they can’t link it to me.” The enter key was tapped a few times before another command went in. “We’ll try a different focus, shall we?”

“But it could be linked to me,” Hiei muttered, wrapping up the damp towel in his own and tossing it back towards the bathroom. It almost made it there, landing with a soft thump barely outside the door frame. The dark haired man was forced to sigh. Whatever. It was really only her dress that could be linked to him, she’d registered for the room under another name, not Amelia Bird, so if she erased pictures of that, he should be fine as well. Chances were close to ziltch. He had to give her points for that one. The onna was absolutely marvelous at cleaning up her tracks.

Scooting back, leaned against the headboard. “Just move when you’re finished.”

“Hai.” Her reply was distracted.

It took him only a glance to know that whatever she was doing was beyond his computer skills. Making a short face of resignment, Hiei let his thoughts drift off, a short frown of contemplation coming as he stared at the ceiling. In his head, thoughts tumbled over one another, contradictory, but fairly even. When he thought about it one way, the answer was obvious, but when he put a different spin on the situation, it changed and flowed into the opposite.

As he hit the same road block for the millionth time, his tired mind finally gave up on it. It was with a slow kind of realization that he noticed the noises beside him had stopped, replaced with a soft and steady breathing.

Asleep and innocently sprawled on the bed, the onna lay, one arm flung out towards him, the other still resting with fingers at the ready on her keyboard. The smirk was insuppressible as he watched little toasters wing themselves across her screensaver. Odd woman, that would be something she would choose.

Sighing, he lifted her hand away, and tapped the touchpad out of curiosity. When the password box flashed up immediately, Hiei didn’t even bother to try. It was not worth the effort. Closing down the laptop, he pushed it off her lap, nudged the onna over to the far side of the bed, not bothering to cart her off to the couch, then flipped off the light. Let the darkness take the problems that he couldn’t solve. For now, he would sleep on this.