Hei was early to the rendezvous.
He usually was. On a normal mission he preferred to be in position ahead of time, hidden in a key vantage point so that he could observe his contact (or target, as the case may be) as they arrived - size them up, make sure they'd come alone and weren't planning on setting up any traps for him. Then he would make them wait well past the designated time before he revealed himself; their natural anxiety would build, working against them as they wondered whether they were merely being stood up - or set up.
This afternoon, however, not only was he at the park early, but he fully intended to be at the agreed upon bench - waiting out in the open - before Chief Kirihara arrived. He felt instinctively that making her wait would not throw her off balance like it usually did to his contacts, but would simply irritate her. It was definitely in his best interest to not irritate her. And, although he wouldn't dare admit it to anyone, a part of him actually wanted to do the impossible and go beyond simply remaining in her good books. He wanted to impress her.
What the hell was wrong with him.
Today he was early, but he wasn't that early. Hei trotted quickly down the broad steps leading from the busy road to the park entrance, two plastic bags of Chinese takeout in his hand. Just a normal waiter on a normal lunch break going to sit down and eat a normal lunch in the park.
A lot of people seemed to have the same idea in mind. There was a steady stream of students and businessmen heading down the stairs as well, boxed lunches and plastic bags dangling from their hands. One lone person was moving against the flow of traffic: an elderly woman with a silver orthopedic cane was making her slow but steady way up the steps, like a white-haired tortoise wading up a rushing creek.
She was about halfway up when Hei passed her. He stepped smartly to the side to give her room; and in that brief moment a couple of teenage boys pushed through the small gap between Hei and the woman, shouldering him hard.
His hand automatically went to his pocket to check that his wallet was still there - but as he did, he saw the old woman stagger. She attempted to plant her cane to steady herself but the shove had pushed her backwards and she missed her footing.
Hei acted on reflex. He dropped his bags, and reached out and caught her shoulders before she could topple over.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked as the crowd of people continued streaming heedlessly by.
The old woman blinked up at him owlishly. "Yes, yes I think so - no thanks to those rude children. I could have broken my neck." She cast a dirty look over her shoulder in the general direction the boys had disappeared in. "Bastards!"
"Uh," Hei said, for lack of anything better to say. The woman seemed steady enough on her feet; Hei released her shoulders. "Do you need help up the stairs?"
"Bless you, no; I'm in no hurry. I'll get there eventually." She patted him on the arm. "Thank you so much for your help, young man. You must be a very dutiful grandson to your grandparents."
An unexpected pain lanced through Hei's heart. "Um, I guess so," he lied. He hadn't seen his grandparents in ten years; he had no idea whether they were even still alive.
And he'd never once heard his grandmother swear.
The old woman gave him a cheery nod and resumed her plodding path up the steps. Hei watched her absently as the crowd continued to jostle by, fighting a mental battle with a surge of old memories and emotions that were threatening to resurface. Of course his grandparents were still alive; they weren't that old.
At least, they hadn't been that old ten years ago.
Lost in melancholy, something drew his gaze higher up the steps, beyond the woman making her slow but steady progress. Chief Kirihara was standing at the top of the stairs, arms crossed and staring down at him like Judgment Day.
His pulse picked up just the tiniest bit, and suddenly he wished that he'd followed his usual strategy of lying in wait; he was feeling far too much like an exposed target. It was unnerving, her eying him like that, knowing exactly who he was. It also made it more difficult to figure out who to be. He couldn't act like the Black Reaper in public, but Li didn't quite work for this situation either. He'd tried that at their first daylight meeting a week ago, and her impatience with the over-friendly persona had been clear.
He stayed where he was, watching as Kirihara stepped lightly down the stairway to join him.
"Did I really just see the Black Reaper helping a little old lady cross the street?" she asked in a low voice.
Hei blinked at her. Something was different about her usual stern expression. Was she - was she trying to a hide a smile? "Um," he said, as usual failing to settle on either the Reaper or Li when in her presence and ending up with a confused mix of both. "She wasn't crossing the street, just…going up the stairs."
Kirihara's smile broke through like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. "That's what I thought. Come on; let's go sit and talk."
She continued down the stairs without waiting to see if he was following. Hei stood frozen for a moment; then he stooped to pick up the bags that he'd dropped and trotted after her.
They made their way down the park's path to the designated bench in silence, but it was a friendly silence. Hei focused his mental energy on not trying to evaluate every movement of her shoulders, every flicker of her eyes, the slight upward curve of her mouth, and simply enjoy being present. It was surprisingly nice.
Kirihara sat down in the center of the bench, leaving Hei no choice but to settle in between her and the wrought iron arm. It made sense from the point of view of their cover - two friends meeting for a casual lunch - but didn't leave much actual space between them. His palms were sweating slightly as he pulled the two styrofoam containers out of the plastic bags.
It was a warm day.
She was watching him again. He cleared his throat. "Are you hungry?"
"I haven't had lunch yet," she said after a long moment.
Hei passed over one of the containers. "Fried rice with shrimp."
"Ooh, I love fried rice! Thanks."
The corner of his mouth quirked up at her enthusiasm, and he handed her a pair of chopsticks with relief. She opened the container, and, after pushing a couple of peas off the top of the huge mound of rice, scooped up a heaping amount.
"Mm," she said around the mouthful of rice, "This is good. Do you get free food all the time at the restaurant?"
Hei shrugged and opened his own container of fried rice and pork. "There's usually at least a couple of orders that someone's sent back; I can take those. And if there aren't any, the cook will make me something."
"That's nice of him."
"Mr. Komori seems to think that since I eat so much at one time, lunch is the only time I eat. He's worried that I'll starve if I don't get at least three meals' worth of food from him."
Kirihara snorted a laugh. "You're like a stray cat."
"What?"
"A cat who's adopted several families in the same neighborhood - they all feed him thinking that he won't get any food otherwise."
Hei thought of Mao and the girl at the Home Run House who set food out for him every day, despite the fact that Huang provided him with all the canned salmon he could eat. "I guess."
Kirihara chewed another mouthful. "You know, in that getup you almost look like a real waiter."
Something in his stomach soured at her words. "I am a real waiter."
"You're acting like one now, but we both know what your real job is." Before he could say anything to defend himself, she continued, "Speaking of which - your star showed an awful lot of activity last night, but we didn't find any bodies. Care to explain what you were up to?"
Straight to business then. He tried not to let his disappointment show as he launched into an explanation of the job. Kirihara asked endless questions, most of them concerning details that Hei either had no way of knowing (why was the Syndicate interested in a wholesale retailer of brown rice flour) or simply hadn't thought to pay attention to (were there health and safety inspection certificates on display). He was quickly learning that the information needed to commit a crime wasn't quite the same as what was required to solve one. Next time, he resolved, he would keep that in mind.
Kirihara was thinking hard, her brow furrowed in that way she had. At last she sighed. "I don't know. Given what you've told me so far, collecting Gate-related artifacts seems to be a top priority for more than just your team; but I can't see any connection here." She looked down at her container; after poking the last three peas towards the little pile she'd built in the corner, she scooped up the last of the rice and shoved it thoughtfully into her mouth. Hei had never seen anyone besides himself polish off that much food so quickly; he was impressed in spite of himself.
"I was able to get a few photos of a man picking up something from your dead drop," she continued. "No hits on it yet; he's definitely not someone with the police, unfortunately - that's who I really want. But I was thinking: what if we were to plant a false message? Something that would spook the moles in the police, stir them up, get them to reveal themselves somehow?"
Hei shrugged. "I can write it out in the right code. I don't know what message that would be, though."
"Hm, me either. I have to think about it some more." She tapped her chopsticks absently on the edge of the container, studying him thoughtfully. Or at least, gazing in his direction while she thought about the problem. "We -" she began, but the buzzing of her phone cut her off. She pulled it out of her pocket and flipped it open to look at the screen. "Damn, I have to go. Well, see if you can come up with anything, and we'll reconvene in the next day or two."
"Sure."
Kirihara stood up, shouldering her purse. "Sorry for giving you a hard time about the waiter thing - that uniform just looks so natural on you, it made me a little sad for a moment." She flashed him a sudden smile. "You know, I'd almost like to see you in a real suit one day." Then she turned abruptly; he couldn't read her expression. "Thanks for lunch."
"Um, sure."
Hei watched her stride away down the path, towards the park entrance and the stairs. He made a mental note to try and schedule their next rendezvous for another lunch break - and to be sure to ask Mr. Komori for a dish without peas.
He definitely wasn't blushing. It was just a hot day.
