Frayed

A/N: I love DTB and I find Hei fascinating beyond all reasoning! This is my first Darker Than BLACK story attempt. I intend for this to be no more than five chapters, as I've never really been 'novel-esque'. Rated T for now, but may be changed to M in the future. Please read and review. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Darker Than BLACK.

I

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"Wickedness is a myth invented
by good people to account for the
curious attractiveness of others."

-Oscar Wilde

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Hei gazed into the abysmal bronze depths of his umpteenth shot of liquor. He barely registered the mugginess. The lackadaisical drizzle of rain against his window. Above him, a single dim light bulb swung from a rope of frayed wires. A fly landed on his knuckles, measuring the small hairs there with it's fickle limbs.

His home was a practical little square amongst an innocuous district in Tokyo. Perfect location. Mostly only older couples were tucked here, attending to their lives in the quiet way that was expected of them. He reveled the persistent lack of excitement at best and did not mind the occasional greet from his neighbors.

The contractor's thoughts shuddered; numbed. Without thinking, Hei drew the drink to his lips and guzzled mechanically. It was a strange, yet familiar sensation, of warmth, adrenaline, and poison all the same. And once he could see clear to the bottom, Hei grasped the near empty bottle to the right of his elbow and drained the last of it's contents into his glass.

He hadn't heard her approaching at first…or rather, he hadn't really cared to know. Rain muffled high heels cutting over the concrete patio just outside his door. The careful click of a well attended gun locking into place. His eyes easily registered the set of double-bladed knives thrown across his coffee table.

He heard no one else, just her, and the fabric of her perfectly pressed blue suit scratching against the wall adjacent to his front door. Of course. She'd be foolish enough to come alone. Irritating that she would make such a spectacle of her curiosity of him. Pitiable what she was willing to risk for it.

Hei took a final swig and leveled his eyes with the doorframe.

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It was strictly against protocol.

…turn left, fifteen yards.

The cool voice of her compact GPS funneled over the faint hum of rain and engine. Misaki was off duty. No…Misaki was on vacation, and instead of exhausting her time via tropical beaches and a much needed massage, she was satiating her workaholic compulsions and tracking a dangerous contractor.

She'd spent the last few days confined to her apartment, crosschecking private sources and reevaluating references. Misaki had never been so sure. BK201 (Li Shengshun…) was currently in Tokyo and was biding his time in a quiet suburban area. He'd disappeared from the radar for two years. In just two years, both his sightings and reported activity had plummeted severely. It was rumored that he was somewhere in Eurasia, but it wasn't long before she'd buried the case. Still, it wasn't without more than a little self-restraint.

In that time Misaki had taken to smaller local cases-burglaries, grand theft auto, petty theft-as a way to pacify the stresses that came with the dark and political underworld of contractors. She was not sure which had jarred her back into mobility the hardest: the reemergence of the Black Reaper, or her compressed sense of justice. Perhaps it was a combination of both.

Now approaching destination.

Kirihara's thoughts emaciated with the very sudden proclamation. Through the filtered view of rain and windshield wipers, she caught a glimpse of a very modest neighborhood. Trees; kempt, sparsely decorated lawns; tidy looking drives tapering off at wooden doors. A cool, fragment of shock rippled through her. She could not place it's origin.

'Li Shengshun…BK201...'

His memory was etched painfully clear and constant. After nearly two years of searching, two years of disregarding her own mental welfare, the Black Reaper was within walking distance. It was a curiously traumatic thought…as incomprehensible as it was satiable.

She remembered him with stunning clarity.

That white buttoned down shirt, peeled slightly at the chest. Those aged, frayed jeans, bleached and paled from one wash too many. A fine curtain of liquid black hair. Thin, expressionless lips. Inky blue eyes, flat as they were dark. He was every bit of 'Li' as he was the fiend in the mask and black trench coat. Every bit as normal as he was an anomaly.

Misaki turned the car off two blocks away from his drive. Up ahead, she could see no vehicles. No lights. Hardly any sign of life, except the maintenance of the small lawn. The curtains were tightly drawn and the surrounding area seemed desolate.

It was all against protocol. Misaki could lose her job, let alone her life-but she had driven too far to turn back now. She'd invested too much heart-too much of herself into this. Exiting her car, Misaki slipped quietly into the rain and made haste up the street. Senses were blaring, heart racing in her chest, gun heavy at her hip. She cut through trees and yards before darting out in front of his door, suit rain-soaked.

The rain was menacing now, and she was aware of the risk…

Gun at her chest, she pressed her back against the wall and listened for any sounds of movement inside the house. Nothing.

'Move, Kirihara!'

It was so easy, was it not? Kick down the door, lift the gun, take aim, and declare him under arrest. But her fingers felt like stone. She palmed the firearm and miserably noted that it felt slippery in her tentative grasp. One bullet, and she could down Li Shengshun, couldn't she?

'Damn it…' For god sakes, she was Misaki Kirihara! She'd busted far too much ass to jeopardize her sense of justice via cognitive dissonance. He was BK201; The Black Reaper; a contractor. How much pep talk was it going to take for her to get that through her head. There was no Li-kun.

'Now…'

Forbidding second thought, Misaki spun forward, thrust her gun front center, and prepared to kick the door in…

…but it opened before she could even take an inventive stance.

Misaki's heart exploded in her chest as she stared up into the eyes of the man who'd been eluding her for all of this time.

"…always so put together, aren't you?"