A/N: This story takes place \after "Wine & Sympathy". Warning: this story is rated M for a reason. If lemon is not your thing, you will be safe reading chapters 1 - 3, which contain the actual plot events and aftermath, and are rated T. Chapters 4 and 5 are further character development; while it is not gratuitous (it's not, I swear), it is explicit, hence the overall rating of M. I will place additional warnings at the beginning of those chapters as well.

As always, I do not own DtB, etc.

The light of the setting sun angled sharply through narrow streets, brushing the edges of worn out buildings with molten gold. In another neighborhood, it would have been pretty, beautiful even. Here in the industrial waterfront district, it just served to highlight the years of grime and graffiti that covered every available surface.

The state of the neighborhood didn't bother Kirihara Misaki; she'd seen rougher places, and doubtless she'd see rougher still before the end of her career. No, what bothered her was the fact that they'd had to take Saitou's car instead of her own. Her Porsche would stand out like a signal beacon to any criminals in the vicinity, whereas Saitou's beat up old Toyota blended in perfectly. But it meant that he was the one driving, not her.

"Turn left here," she told him as they reached a cross street. "And not so slowly, we don't want to look suspicious."

"Right, Chief!"

As her subordinate followed her instructions and drove through the quiet, littered streets, Misaki picked up her walkie and pressed the talk button. "Ootsuka, do we still have eyes on our man?"

The radio crackled, and Ootsuka's voice came through in a barely intelligible garble. "Affirmative. Astronomics' surveillance network is tracking him. He's ten minutes out from the rendezvous."

"Roger. Kouno, are you in position?"

Kouno's voice was a little clearer than Ootsuka's, but just barely. "Yep," he said. "Ready and waiting."

Misaki set her walkie back on the dash of Saitou's car. Kouno and Matsumoto were their reserves, waiting a few blocks away in case she and Saitou needed backup. They shouldn't - this was supposed to be simple observation and intelligence gathering - but it was best to play it safe. Misaki had learned that the hard way just a few short months ago.

"Pull over here," she directed Saitou. He obediently pulled up to the curb in front of a row of dilapidated store fronts, but he didn't turn off the engine.

"Here?" he asked. "Uh, why here?"

Misaki looked at him questioningly. "Why not here? We're one block out from the rendezvous - any closer and we risk spooking the contact."

"Yeah, but…" Saitou trailed off. They were in the shadow of the row of buildings and Misaki couldn't read the expression on his face; but she could see that rather than looking at her, his gaze was directed past her and out the window. She turned and looked herself. It was a minute before she recognized the closed and shuttered bar. There was an odd fluttering in her stomach.

"Oh."

It was the bar that Hei's team had been using as their base of operations, where she had followed Huang and Yin only to have the former knock her out and tie her up in the basement for Hei to "deal with". Saitou, of course, didn't know the full extent of that deal. He only knew the lie that she had told all her friends and co-workers - that she didn't remember anything about how she'd come to be bound and left unconscious by BK-201.

She frequently dreamed of that basement. In reality, Hei had cut her bonds gently and almost respectfully, and she had kissed him. In her dreams, she remained tied up and at the mercy of a very ungentle and disrespectful Black Reaper, and she awoke feeling…unsettled. The fantasy was even beginning to spill over into her waking daydreams, which she certainly didn't have time for. And now she'd inadvertently brought Saitou and herself here.

She hadn't ever mentioned the dream to Hei. For one thing, it frightened her. If he had actually taken her like that that night, despite her kiss, it would have been assault and she would have never forgiven him. Secondly, there was no way on earth she'd let anyone have such total control over her. Being rendered helpless like that, the plastic zip ties cutting into her wrists, had been horrifying. And finally - Hei just wasn't like that. Despite the violence that he was capable of - that he lived, day after day - as a lover he was nothing but passion and tenderness, willing to take any direction that she gave him without complaint. He was…sweet.

Misaki turned away from the window and felt a twinge in her lower back, and pressed a hand to the spot. She'd been spending way too much time behind her desk lately; all that sitting couldn't be good for a person. Or maybe it was just stress. To Saitou, she said, "It's as good a place as any. We won't be waiting long in any case."

Saitou shut off the engine of his car, but didn't respond. Misaki hoped that he wasn't still blaming himself for not answering his phone when she called for backup that night. Knowing Saitou, he probably was. She didn't know what else she could say to him, to assure him that he wasn't at fault, and that she hadn't actually been hurt. In fact, she should be thanking him - that was the night that had eventually led to her affair with Hei, which she wouldn't give up for anything.

It was just…she was getting so tired of the lies and the secrecy. She couldn't tell the people she cared about and trusted that she was seeing anyone. Only Kanami knew that she was sleeping with "Li", and her friend had no idea that Li was actually a contractor. A contractor that Misaki was supposed to be trying to arrest, who was killing people on the streets of her city and who would kill any of her team should they get in his way. What would he do if she got in his way? She didn't believe that he would kill her, not really, but…how could she be sure? They hadn't had any run-ins with BK-201 in weeks, but every day she dreaded getting a call that would bring them face to face.

At least tonight there was no chance of that. They had a simple, straightforward job: follow their informant to his rendezvous with another contractor and watch. Their informant, who called himself Grebe, claimed that he was a member of EPR and would be meeting to exchange intel with another member tonight. He hadn't had much to give the police when they'd arrested him; his release was contingent on his promise to be able to deliver something concrete out of this meeting. Misaki had insisted that she and her team keep eyes on him at all times. It was proving damnably frustrating to get any sort of break in the EPR case, and she wasn't about to let a potential lead slip away from her. She needed to stay in control of the situation.

Misaki and Saitou passed several quiet minutes in the car, waiting. The golden light of the sunset deepened to a burnished orange as night crept upon them. Misaki was having trouble keeping her thoughts from straying towards Hei and the basement. He hadn't come by last night, yet his star hadn't been active. What had he been doing…she probably didn't want to know. Their relationship worked best when she could forget that he was the Black Reaper, and just focus on who he was as Hei.

She rubbed absently at her wrist. Maybe she ought to ask to Saitou to move the car after all.

It was with great relief that she heard Ootsuka's voice on the radio: "Subject has reached the rendezvous point; we have eyes on a potential contact, heading towards the rendezvous from the south."

"Roger," Misaki said into the walkie. "We're moving into position."

She and Saitou exited his car quietly and proceeded towards the warehouse where the two contractors were supposed to be meeting. Misaki pulled her gun from its holster under her arm and held it at the ready, angled down for safety. In her peripheral vision she saw Saitou do the same. With the inherent trust of a long-standing partnership, Misaki silently took up position ahead of him, knowing that he would have her back.

She spotted a figure on the warehouse's loading dock. She couldn't see his face, but his build matched that of Grebe: a tall, slim man with a ponytail of red hair hanging past his shoulders. He was standing with the patient ease of a contractor, facing towards the south. Misaki scanned the long, shadowed street…there. Another figure was walking up towards their informant, not a hint of suspicion or hesitation in his stride. Good. It looked like Grebe had been telling the truth about the meeting.

Misaki relaxed her grip on her weapon, but only slightly. She and Saitou concealed themselves in a shadowed doorway; anyone on the street would have trouble spotting them.

Grebe jumped down from the loading dock onto the street to meet the newcomer. The two men exchanged some words that Misaki couldn't hear; then she saw the contact hand over a letter-sized envelope. Grebe tucked it into his jacket and continued speaking to his contact. Misaki regretted not forcing him to wear a wire - was he warning the other man that the police were watching, or was he holding to his deal?

Grebe turned his head to the side as if attracted by a strange sound, though Misaki hadn't heard anything; then without warning he bolted off into the narrow lane beside the warehouse. Misaki had barely even registered the action before the wide door of the loading bay ripped from its supports with a screech of metal. It hit Grebe's contact with a deadly blow to the head. Even as the man collapsed to the ground, another figure - a black-haired woman, wrapped in the fading blue glow of synchrotron radiation - dashed across the street and down the alley after Grebe.

Shit! Misaki had a split second to make a decision: risk herself and her team to chase after the contractors and hope to make an arrest, or go back to headquarters empty-handed? EPR was high priority; Saitou was with her, and the rest of her team was close by.

"Let's go!" she told Saitou, and they raced down the alley where Grebe and his pursuer had vanished.