I was a good listener. It paid to be, after all. My mother had often told me that any person would tell you everything you needed to know about them at least three times before they realized they'd said it, so long as you listened. So I listened.

It was listening that had made me realize that Takeshi was an ajin; listening to that slight familiar crackle in his voice that made my skin tingle but too mild to do more, listening to the faint whoosh of a large other presence that I couldn't see, footsteps that were unaccounted for. It was listening that had made me decide not to say anything to Takeshi, less because of how I thought Takeshi might overreact and more because of who I was afraid would overhear. And it was listening that had made me realize that I would need to kill someone.

A conversation I couldn't have been meant to overhear, that I might not have paid any heed to were it not for the experiences I'd already had with ajin. Certainly I wouldn't have realized what they intended unless I'd already figured out what Takeshi was. They were going to take him away. Quietly, in the hopes that they could surprise him. Not here, in case he had allies they didn't know about.

They're plans weren't in motion yet. This visit from some government official had been meant as a confirmation before they made their next move. If I worked quickly, I might be able to silence that one voice before Takeshi's identity was compromised. This was something I could do.

Takeshi was leaning against me in the yard, not talking but still saying a lot, like usual. It was drizzling, but somehow I wasn't getting wet. Takeshi mumbled something about angles and wind, but I was almost one hundred percent certain it was something else. At least I was warm.

A raindrop trailed down Takeshi's cheek and to his neck, passing by a thin white scar I had only noticed recently. It was faint, and looked old. Any number of mundane things could have caused it, but that wasn't really what mattered. Everyone accumulates small lines and dots and blemishes throughout their life, it's just a question of what and where and when. Even Kei had had the faint ridge on his knuckles from that one time with broken glass, and a slight tendency to favor his left foot after landing wrong when he'd fallen out of a tree. Dots on his shoulder when Eriko had bitten him when they were very young. Countless others.

I remembered with nauseating clarity the first time I'd seen Kei after everything had changed. It was been so dark that I hadn't noticed at first, but that morning by the river, Kei slicing a knife across his throat and rising up, reformed and unblemished as a god, I almost hadn't recognized him. It had been then that I'd known in my heart that he was going to abandon me again.

Takeshi glared at his soggy cigarette and groaned, giving up and throwing it vaguely in the direction of the trash can. It made me want to smile. Perhaps I was wrong, but I had a feeling that the boy wouldn't kill himself just because it was convenient. Takeshi looked at me curiously. Ah, I was staring. Kei had often complained about that when we were younger.

"Gotta go," I said nonchalantly, brushing the dust off my jumpsuit pants. "bathroom."

Takeshi raised his eyebrows and leaned against the wall, not saying anything. A raindrop landed on my nose, and I suddenly felt a lot colder. Maybe I should tell him...

No. It wasn't that I couldn't tell him, but I couldn't risk being overheard. And I couldn't let this human being in front of me that could die a thousand time but never wanted to die again be taken by people who would hurt him. Takeshi wasn't Kei, but honestly that was a good thing.

Takeshi wasn't Sato either.

As soon as I was out of Takeshi's sight, I adopted a different posture and gait, one old and familiar but not comfortable. I knew exactly which guard to approach, and said quietly, "I'm going out. I'll be back by roll call."

Another nearby guard barked a laugh. "Yeah yeah, back to your cell."

This might have been concerning, but this second guard was clearly low-ranking and new. The older guard put his hand on his shoulder and said, "You don't know who you're talking to, Kenji."

He then bowed quickly to me and said, "As you wish, Princess."

Ah, there it was. Could I maybe never hear anyone call me that ever again for the rest of my life please? Then again, I was taking advantage of it right now, so I probably shouldn't complain...

Within half an hour, I was in skinny jeans and a dark blue blouse and outside the prison, on my way to the nearby hotel where I knew the government official was staying. It was a bit of a walk, and water from the rain was dripping off my hair and into my eyes, but it was good to have this time to think. It had been a while since I'd flipped my switch.

I hadn't bothered stealing a gun from one of the guards. One look at the official had told me that this was someone who was useless in a fight, and if he had any guards I would be very surprised. It made me grateful and a little sad. This was going to be very easy.

Walking into the hotel without having anyone notice me was child's play, and sneaking a knife out of the kitchen was even easier. I could have probably gotten access to their admission records in some way, but thus found out exactly which room I needed to go to, but honestly, it was a small hotel and I had a fairly good sense of where the man would be. There were quite a few vacancies on the ground floor after all and only one of the rooms had the curtains on the windows drawn. It almost made me feel guilty. It's not like anyone should have suspected that someone like me would be coming after them.

The man was sitting at a desk, typing away on a laptop. He hadn't noticed me breaking in. Gently, I shut the window and closed the curtains behind me, leaving the room dark once again. We appeared to be alone. I crept across the room, and was pleasantly surprised to notice that the laptop was disconnected from the internet. I supposed that made sense. The government probably wanted as much information off the cloud as possible. Perhaps I'd acted quickly enough that Takeshi's identity hadn't been compromised yet?

The knife slid easily enough into the man's chest, and I snapped his neck for good measure, my victim's gurgles being cut off abruptly. I left the knife in for now; less blood that way. I quickly took stock of the information on the man's laptop. It was surprising how little there was, honestly. He hadn't even sent out an email saying that he'd found an ajin. His phone was not different. He hadn't made any calls at all in the past several days. Nothing was in his pockets except for a lighter and some cigarettes. I pocketed the lighter, a gift for Takeshi later. Really? It couldn't be this easy.

"So cold, Kairi, ignoring me like that."

In an instant, the knife was back in my hands, and I was scanning the room. Someone here? Someone I'd missed? Then my heart skipped a beat. Sato was sitting nonchalantly in a darker corner of the room, his face eerily calm. Slowly, I shifted into a better fighting stance, stepping out from behind the desk.

"Am I to take this as meaning that you're protecting Takeshi Kotobuki?" Sato asked, his eyes open and following the bloody knife in my hand closely.

"He's my friend."

His eyes flickered over to the corpse of the government official, and back to my knife. He sighed. "So ruthless, Kairi. And I'd had such high hopes for this plan. You're making a habit of surprising me."

Sato's eyes were still following the knife, the same laser focus that I always stared at him with. Without really being aware of what I was doing, I raised the knife to my lips and slowly licked it. Something feral glittered in Sato's crimson eyes, and I could feel more than hear a faint rumbling. "You were telling the truth when you said you'd killed people before," he said.

"Yeah," I said calmly, and threw the knife right into Sato's neck.

As he collapsed to the floor, I bounded across the room, quickly arranging myself over Sato so that when he awoke, he would be unable to move. Seconds later, he grinned up at me and licked the blood off his teeth. "That was fast," he purred, a familiar weight pressing his words into my skin.

I shuddered and stiffened, but as Sato started struggling against my hold I realized that I could still move, just clumsier. Well enough to keep the man pinned down, though he did manage to free one of his arms. The knife pressed lightly into the small of my back, and my heart started beating faster. "I know you won't kill me," I said, sounding more confident than I felt. My eyes betrayed my bravado and averted themselves to stare at the buttons of Sato's white shirt.

"Are you sure?" Sato asked, pressing just a little more firmly with the knife.

I was sure...kinda. I let Sato guide me down with the knife at my back, until we were lying flush against each other with my breasts mashed into his surprisingly hard chest, and then Sato was kissing me.

Well, it was more like he was biting as much of my mouth as he could reach, and happened to be using some tongue also, but a bloody kiss was still a kiss. I could feel his heart racing under him. Was Sato shaking? Or was that me? Slowly, Sato pulled back, drops of blood dripping from my bleeding lips and onto his face. The knife was still pressed firmly into my back, while the man's other hand cradled my face. When had that gotten free?

In hindsight, this had been a really bad idea. I should have just abandoned the hotel room after killing Sato, and hoped I could make a run for it. Not that there was a good chance of getting away, but certainly I would have made more progress than I currently seemed to have made. What possessed me to do this?

Sato's hips moved under me, and one of his legs slid up, and I started to panic, seeing that he was going to flip us over. I quickly closed the distance between our mouths and sealed our lips together in an open mouthed kiss, letting his tongue in, and swallowing his surprised noise. I clenched my fists, coaxed his tongue further in with my own, and bit down hard.

Immediately, Sato fell back, coughing on the blood that rushed out of the stump of his tongue. I spat out the piece in my mouth and rolled away, grabbing the knife from Sato's hand as I did so. I shivered from the sudden lack of warmth, and quickly pushed myself up to a low crouch, springing back toward him and slicing his throat. Blood sprayed onto my face, and I mourned the fact that this was becoming something of a routine.

With Sato dead for the moment, I made for the window. Not fast enough, as I felt the man's iron grip on my wrist, and suddenly the knife was gone. A sting sliced across my back. It was shallow, but fuck it hurt. Okay, so killing him didn't buy me enough time to get away. Maybe tying him up? Thank God Sato didn't have a gun.

"Leaving already, Kairi?" Sato asked softly, his voice no longer enough to paralyze me but plenty enough to slow my reaction time. While I dodged the worst of it, his next slash also managed to graze my lower thigh. That would have had me on my knees if Sato had landed it properly.

The man tsked, but looked as ecstatic as I had ever seen him. "You just aren't going to make it easy for me, are you?" he said.

Here came the knife again. This time, I managed to get a grasp on Sato's wrist, and redirect the blow right into his own thigh. Sato gritted his teeth and fell to his knees, yanking me down with him as I wound up a kick. I still solidly landed my kick to the side of his face, but Sato made me unbalanced, and we both fell to the floor. As we fell, I looped Sato's arm around my smaller shoulders and pressed into his shoulder socket, feeling it pop out as we landed. Well, at least I'd accomplished something.

He seemed undeterred by any of this, lunging at me with a feral laugh while his arm dangled loosely and blood came steadily from the stab wound in his thigh. Scrambling back, I misjudged exactly where I was in the room and crashed into one of the bedposts, knocking the wind out of my lungs. My eyes watered as the back of my head cracked against the hard wood.

Apparently ambidextrous, Sato used his other hand to press the knife into my neck, just enough to break the skin. My head was spinning. "Do you really want to get away from me so badly, Kairi?" he asked. Maybe it was just the head trauma, or I'd lost more blood than I thought, but I couldn't seem to move.

Sato chuckled. "I'm not so bad, you know," he said blithely, leaning forward and pressed an open mouthed kiss onto my neck, adding enough pressure to know that I'd have a bruise. Feeling the man suck at my skin, I couldn't help but sigh at the feeling, and felt Sato smile against my throat.

"What do you want from me, Sato?" I whispered.

He pulled back, looking at me curiously, before pulling the knife away from my neck and frowning thoughtfully. I felt tears pricking the back of my eyes, feeling stupid for being reminded of Kei once again by this man's crimson eyes. It needed to stop. It made my heart fucking hurt.

It was for strategic purposes, definitely strategic, that I leaned forward and placed my hands on the sides of Sato's neck, and said softly, "I think I know..."

I pressed a feather light kiss to his lips, and held my lips on his gently as I pressed my thumbs into a certain lock against his throat and slowly strangled him. I waited until Sato had stopped moving for a minute before I let go, tugging the knife out of his limp hand. I sighed in relief. I should have at least a few minutes before the older man woke up. I pushed him off of me so that his body rolled over onto his back and pulled myself up.

Luckily, there was a first aid kit in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so after peeling my bloody clothes off myself, I proceeded to disinfect and bandage as best I could. The scratch on my back was already scabbing over, and there wasn't much to be done about my lips, but I could at least bandage up the smaller cuts and scrapes I'd gotten.

Thankfully the knife had missed my bra, but the blouse was a lost cause. I took the knife to my jeans and cut off the bloody fabric until they were shortened into cut off shorts, and gingerly pulled them back on. I walked back out into the bedroom and let out a sigh of relief at seeing Sato right where I left him. I looked over the government official that I'd almost forgotten about. I couldn't borrow the man's shirt since it was bloody as well, so I would need to find something to wear so I wasn't walking around shirtless in public. My eyes landed on a jacked slung over a nearby chair. Much too big, but it would have to do.

As I reached for the jacket, I suddenly heard a static like giggle, and Sato's voice saying, "Game over!" before a slice and blood was welling up from the gashes in Sato's chest.

Shit. The shadow was here. Where was it?

A rough force slamming into my side abruptly answered my question, and I went flying into the wall, landing on the desk and a wastepaper basket. Weakly, I tried to do a leg sweep in the direction the swing had come from, but couldn't connect. Damn, this was bad.

Sato was sitting on the bed with his legs crossed, a predatory smile on his face as he stared hungrily at me. I was suddenly reminded that I had way too much skin exposed to his darkened eyes, and resisted the urge to cover my shirtless torso. His gaze paused at the small happy face tattoo on my hip, something I had gotten the same day as my earring. His mouth didn't move, but I could hear his voice, presumably from the shadow. "I think I want to see you covered in my blood, Kairi," he said, "from killing me over and over and over again."

A whisper of a breeze made me roll away just in time to protect my leg from a blow that would no doubt have broken it. Fuck, Sato was playing it much safer with his shadow this time. Without knowing where it was, I was more or less helpless.

I felt a something jab into my hip bone, and felt that it was a something in my pocket. The lighter! I'd wanted to avoid something as attention-getting as setting a fire, but at this point, I was getting desperate. I crawled toward the waste paper basket, fighting past the paralysis as Sato said, "I think I want to never let you get away..."

The papers caught fire easily, and while I knew it wouldn't last the room started to fill with smoke. Sure enough, there was a space that the smoke swirled around, and armed with this knowledge I was able to land my next leg sweep, sending the shadow tumbling to the floor. The fire alarm started blaring, and the sprinklers went off.

Then something strange happened. For a moment, the shadow completely froze, then happily said, "Kairi!" and nuzzled my neck.

I blinked, and Sato tsked. Think quickly... "Hey, do you want to play?" I asked the shadow.

"Play! Play!"

"Okay! Let's play tag! He's it!" I said, pointing at Sato.

The shadow picked me up, and before I could fully process what was happening, the shadow had smashed through the window and was running across the parking lot. As it ran, I felt it crumble around me. I fell to the ground and trapped a whimper in my throat as the rough asphalt dug into my half naked body. I desperately tried to push myself into rolling under a nearby car, and clung to the undercarriage for dear life. Sato stalked through the parking lot, coming alarmingly close to my hiding spot.

"You know, Kairi," he said flippantly, "I can't help but wonder if Kei ever gave you what you wanted like I do. If he ever made you feel like how I make you feel."

I felt my heart jump around in my chest and my throat constrict. He must know where I was. I was fucked, so so fucked. Maybe literally, I thought, remembering the way Sato raked his eyes across my body back inside the hotel. I was ashamed and appalled at the pleasurable heat that coiled low in my belly and the shivers that gripped my spine.

Then, inexplicably, Sato walked away, and left me there alone. I waited for what felt like half an hour before I crawled out from under the car and slipped away.

True to my word, I managed to make it back to the prison in time for roll call, though I wondered why I actually went back. There were bruises the shape of Sato's hand around my wrist, and no matter what position I was in I could feel my clothes rubbing against a scrape or scratch left by him. There was no hiding the hickey, not when I had no make up available.

Lying in bed that night, alone and cold, I worried my abused lips between my teeth and tasted blood. I fell asleep thinking of all the places I wished Kei would kiss me, and wondered if Sato would do it instead.

8888

The next morning, everyone stared at me. Mercifully, apart from one inmate's gibe ("Shit, did you make out with the warden's dog?"), no one actually said anything. But the weight of everyone's eyes on my mouth had me feeling flustered and more aware of my body than I had in a long time. The hickey on my neck didn't help.

Takeshi's eyes were solemn and soothing, and he didn't say a thing about it, choosing instead to wait for me to bring it up.

It was raining again, harder than yesterday. Almost everyone else had opted out of going into the yard, but Takeshi wordlessly followed me out to our usual spot. We were drenched in seconds. It was harder for Takeshi to get away using his shadow to cover us in such a downpour, after all. The cold feeling felt good on my back anyway.

"Sato is looking for you," I said, seeing no point in beating around the bush.

He blinked owlishly at me, but said nothing. "He's come here looking for you," I continued. "we need to get out of here."

I knew better than to expect Takeshi to show any surprise, but he could have at least looked a little nervous or something. Then again, he probably hadn't met Sato, hadn't seen firsthand what kind of person he was. I hoped he never would.

"Is Sato why you look so fucked up?" Takeshi asked.

"...why ask a question you already know the answer to?"

He glanced at me wearily. "A guy can hope."

I didn't say anything to that. The boy sighed. "So, where are we going?"

I shook my head. "We aren't going anywhere. If we split up then we'll split his attention too...less likely we'll both get caught."

That seemed to surprise Takeshi. "You mean he's looking for you too? Aren't you just a normal human?"

"Yeah, aren't you?" I retorted with a raised eyebrow.

He glared, then blinked. "Wait, seriously? Then why is he..." his eyes flickered to my mouth, then away. "Shit, Kairi..."

I shrugged and looked away. What was there to say? I saw Takeshi staring at me incredulously from the corner of my vision. "Well, fuck. How long before he comes back, do you figure?"

How the hell was I supposed to know? "He was in the area yesterday...who knows about today. I want us both gone as soon as possible. I can get myself out, but you'll be harder."

The boy faintly narrowed his eyes. "I can get us both out once this rain stops." Takeshi said slowly.

I nodded, then thought about that. "Do your shadows not like water or something?" I asked curiously, remembering what had happened with Sato's shadow in the sprinkler.

Takeshi surprised me by laughing. "Man, you've just got us all figured out, huh?"

I grinned despite myself, then winced when it pulled my lips too much. "Well, it's been said I'm a pretty smart gal."

"Ah. Someone other than me must have said that."

We went back inside soon after that, not seeing much point in sitting out there in the rain. Takeshi said he'd find me when it was time to go. I just hoped that time came before Sato paid us another visit. All I could do was hope that the rain dissuaded Sato from coming.

The rain didn't let up all night, only starting to show signs of stopping the next morning. As the guards crowded me and my fellow female inmates into our shower room, I looked back and saw Takeshi standing at the end of the hall by the cafeteria and exchanged a glance. Thank God, we'd leave soon.

I let myself zone out a little bit, not having the energy to deal with the other girls staring and wondering about my battered body. I noticed a sudden silence in the room without really processing it, more aware of the water pooling around my feet near the drain. The water stung a bit, but it was important to keep clean. Also, I wasn't sure when I'd have my next shower...

A sharp gasp sounded just moments before I heard three rapid gunshots. My half lathered head whipped toward the exit to see the guards dead on the floor, blood washing down the drain with soap and dirt. The girls all around me were running, some not even bothering to grab their clothes as they left the room behind them, soap still on their skin. Sato watched them go with an indulgent smile.

I caught sight of Takeshi hovering past the exit behind Sato, watching me with wide eyes. I swallowed and shook my head at him, hoping he got the message not interfere, before I turned my head back to face the wall. If this was happening, I was at least going to finish my damn shower. Also, I would like to hide my body from Sato for as long as I could.

I'd almost finished rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when I felt the man shove me into the wall, and just managed to get my hands up to keep from hitting my face. My wrists hurt, but didn't seem broken. "Hello," I said to the wall, testing lightly at the strength in Sato's hands and finding no weak points.

"What have I said about ignoring me, Kairi?"

I shrugged as best I could. "Technically, you haven't said anything to me about it..."

I got a bite to the shoulder for that. I bit my lip to keep from giving Sato the satisfaction of making a sound. The force across my back was unbalanced now. Mourning and resigning myself to the fact that I was going to have to fight this man in the buff, I quickly turned around to face him and tried to ignore the sharp pain as I dislodged his teeth. I tried to get a sense of the room, and did a double take when I saw Takeshi by the entrance with my clothes in his arms. He was staring at me with even wider eyes and a red face. Why was he still here?! I pushed the thought of him seeing me naked as well to the side as a faint distortion in the steam caught my attention, and assumed that it was a shadow's presence and location, hopefully Takeshi's.

The younger ajin being here was a problem. Calculating my moves with Sato was complicated enough without adding another variable. I needed to get Takeshi out of here, quickly. For that, I needed to completely monopolize Sato's attention. I glanced back to the man in front of me. His eyes were wide open and riveted to me, but I could tell that Sato was still much too aware of everything else going on in the room. I needed to change that.

"Aren't you bored of me yet?" I asked, going for a playful start and putting a hand on my hip. Sato cocked his head to the side and let his gaze drift down my wet, nude body. I couldn't help but flush in embarrassment and kicked him in the face.

Without seeming to expend any effort at all, Sato caught my leg with one hand, stopping it short before it reached its mark, and responded by pressing his gun into my neck. Really? His eyes flashed back up to my face as I grinned at him with a smile with too many teeth, my lips splitting, causing blood to bead on them. "You seem distracted," I said lowly.

His grip tightened on my leg a bit but not enough to bruise. "Maybe a little bit," he admitted, eyes darting down to the apex of my now spread legs, before biting my calf.

I couldn't help from crying out from the pain of that one, and the sound distracted Sato enough that I was able to grab the gun and quickly shoot him in the face. Sato collapsed to the ground, pulling me down with him, but for the moment I at least had the upper hand. I landed on his face, barely managing to keep a hold of the gun. Pushing myself up to sit on Sato's chest, I groaned at the blood that was now covering my stomach from the man's bleeding head wound. I just had a shower!

I cast my eyes about and saw Takeshi standing a few paces away, still watching and still clutching my clothes. I blinked at him in disbelief. "Why are you still here?" I hissed, "Get the hell out of here! I'll catch up with you."

Takeshi gulped. "I..."

I sighed and glared at him. "And you say I'm a stupid bitch?! Go!" I was about to follow that up with something else when the feeling of something wet on my stomach had my flesh quivering. I glanced down to see Sato licking his own blood off my skin with a strange expression on his face. I didn't really think this position through...

"Are you ticklish, Kairi?" he asked, without seeming to actually care about the answer. He dipped his tongue into my belly button to lap at the blood pooled in there, and my legs twitched.

"Wait your turn," I said coldly, and shot him in the face again.

"Kairi!" Takeshi suddenly shouted, before a whoosh of warm air and a loud crash. I looked up, but couldn't see much aside from my friend standing in the same place. Oh, the shadows. So much for convincing that dummy to leave.

"Takeshi, are you going to be okay?" I called, but he didn't reply. His teeth were gritted and his eyes were glued to the place where I could only assume the shadows were fighting. Hoping that Takeshi would be able to handle the shadow for now, I slid down to sit at Sato's hips, feeling around the belt for anything I could use. Five shots that I knew of from the gun, it was very unlikely there was more than one shot left.

"I didn't bring much with me," Sato rumbled, his voice making me curl my toes but not seeming to have any greater effect than that, "I knew that you'd use anything I brought against me."

"I'm flattered." I said dryly, and tried to ignore the fact that Sato was hard beneath me.

He brought up his knees, and I leaned back on them, eyeing him critically. So no knife this time. Damn.

Sato couldn't seem to find a place to focus on. His eyes swept across my many injuries, both old and new that were caused by himself, to sliding across the many little scars here and there around my torso and legs. They flickered once again to my smiley tattoo at my hip and then up to my tits, before burning a trail down to my exposed sex, crimson orbs going even darker at the sight. I clenched my jaw, and wished that I could clench my thighs instead.

His eyes shot back up to my own. "What are you going to do with your last shot?" Sato asked curiously.

"Hmm..." I pretended to consider, twirling the gun in my hand. His eyes followed it, narrow like a cat's. A quick glance told my that Takeshi looked exhausted over there. Shadow fights must take a lot out of you. I smiled and leaned down until Sato's mouth was almost close enough to kiss. "I guess I could kill you again. Maybe shoot you somewhere more exciting than your face..."

"Will you?" He asked, calmer than I felt.

My smile turned impish. "Nah." I lifted my arm up and shot one of the overhead pipes.

Immediately water began to spray everywhere, and the sounds of fighting shadows stopped. I hit the man underneath me in the temple as hard as I could with the butt of the gun. Without stopping, I leaped up and grabbed Takeshi's hand. "Let's go!" I shouted, practically dragging the boy after me as we made our escape.

"Hey, work with me, we got a plan?" I huffed as I hopped over the bodies of the fallen guards.

"We have to get out of the yard," Takeshi replied, "once we're outside we're home free."

"Got i-" I got cut off with a yelp when suddenly a hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked me down. I hissed when I felt my ankle twist. Letting go of Takeshi's hand, I kicked back without aiming, and was pleased to feel something crunch beneath my foot even though making contact hurt.

"Takeshi, go!"

"But-"

"I swear to God, Takeshi! Just trust me, I'll catch up."

A hesitant look, then he was gone, leaving Sato and I alone. I twisted so that I was facing the man behind me, leaning up on my arms into a crouched position. Blood was dripping down from Sato's broken nose, the water washing it away and streaking his clothes red. He knelt on the floor, watching me intently. It was fear that had my heart beating so fast. Definitely fear, and nothing else.

"You're not going to go after him?" I asked warily.

Sato smiled, smoothly rising to his feet. "He won't leave without you," he said, "and you're not going anywhere."

I tested my weight on my ankle as I stood. The pain from when I'd fallen hadn't lessened, and it was the same leg Sato had bitten earlier anyway. I could walk, but I probably couldn't outrun him, even with the small head start killing the man would give me. No good way to bar the door shut quickly either. I glanced at the fallen guards for a moment, walking slowly towards Sato as I did so.

I smiled back at him, and reached forward and grabbed his hat from his silver head and placed it teasingly on my own. "Isn't this moving a little fast for our third date?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sato responded with a grin and a strike at my exposed ribs. I barely managed to block the hit, and let out a pained gasp at the sharp pain that erupted from my forearm, and staggered back several feet from the blow. By looking at the thin gouge mark, I concluded that the man must have been using some nail. I don't think any bones were broken. I tripped over one of the guard's hands and landed on top of their torso, which saved me from hitting my head on the floor. I gulped in a few breaths, but despite my outward appearance felt completely calm.

Deliberately, I rolled off the guard and onto the floor, pushing myself up to sit. The floor was freezing. I looked up to see Sato stalking towards me, and panicked. I quickly grabbed the guard's nightstick and chucked it at Sato's head. Teeth chattering, I scrambled up, only to fall backwards as he ducked the flying weapon and swept my feet out from under me with a leg sweep. I let out a cry of pain when my body hit the hard unyielding floor. My skin still smarted and stung everywhere, and blood oozed from the places where Sato had bitten and scratched me.

Warmth covered the entire front of my body, a startling contrast to the cold beneath me. Another bite, this one fonder and more controlled, at the place where my throat met my jaw. His body was warm and firm and way too pleasing between my legs. My whimper at the friction was swallowed my lips and teeth. All of his other kisses had been so frantic, the slow pace of this one was surprisingly nice. One Sato's hands was on my cheek, and ran up to loosely grip a handful of hair, and the other was firmly on the floor. I took hold of it, rubbing my thumb over his wrist.

Sato rolled his hips and I bit his bottom lip and tried to smother my groan.

When he pulled back to let me breathe, Sato relocated his mouth to my chest, biting his way down the valley of my breasts. I suppose he thought he'd won.

"Still distracted?" I asked lightly, proud that my voice was only slightly breathy.

The man laughed and rolled his hips again, harder this time, causing me to let out an "Ah!" before I could smother it. Click.

I smiled triumphantly, glad that my expression was hidden from the man currently buried in my bosom. This was getting too nice, it was time to stop. I pressed a kiss to the top of Sato's head, and as I expected, he immediately recoiled, glaring at me furiously.

"Stop doing that," he hissed.

"Doing what?" I asked, evenly meeting his eyes.

"Looking at me like I'm a person."

The angry bloodlust in Sato's eyes had a thin veneer that made my heart hurt. If I just let myself not think about it too much, I could pretend that that thin veneer was what was really there. I could forget, just for a moment, about the eyes that I wished I was looking at now. I lifted my hand up and cupped the man's cheek gently for a moment.

"Then stop acting like you want me to."

Moment over, I abruptly stood up, wincing as I put weight on my ankle but otherwise feeling fine. I stepped away from the wall quickly, putting distance between me and Sato before he could react. "Well," I said, shrugging my shoulders, "It's been fun."

The incredulous look on Sato's face was actually pretty amusing. It was quickly overtaken by a smirk. "Where are you go-" He froze, finally noticing that he'd been handcuffed to one of the pipes.

"Neat trick, huh?" I said, hands on my hips. "Thanks for making it easy for me...knocking me into that guard like that."

"Let me out, Kairi." Sato said dangerously, his voice layered with intent that danced fire through my veins but ultimately did nothing more than that.

I picked up his hat from where it'd fallen to the floor, and spun it around on my finger. "You'll probably be there a while," I mused, "since you took such care to not bring anything useful that I might take advantage of with you. Well, eventually the water will stop running and then you can get your shadow to bust you out I guess."

Sato's eyes gleamed with bloodlust and something a little more familiar, giving me goosebumps despite myself. "I'm going to kill you," he said softly.

I raised an eyebrow, and started walking away. "I like this hat," I said, putting it back on my head, "I think I'll keep it." I looked over my shoulder to flash a smirk at the man seething on the floor. "Until next time, Sato."

With that I fled the room, heart still beating wildly and the taste of blood still in my mouth.