Their next meeting did end differently, but not exactly in Kylo's favor.
In an infuriating countermove to his usual prowess, she had somehow figured out his decision process and was beating him at his own game.
Everytime he showed up at a gallery, a private collection, a public auction, there were small sticky notes that were undeniably meant for him, always left on an unmoved piece of art that he had predicted she would take. Sometimes encouraging, often sarcastic, there was a collectively mocking tone to every single post-it he found.
Wow, that was really close! Good effort!
The Raphael? Really? Talk about cliché!
Can you at least try to make this fun?
Why so grumpy? Smile! :)
Soon, even a glimpse of that trademark neon yellow was enough to send him into a frenzy that sent people scattering in fear before him.
He was the one who got into the enemy's head. He was the one who played mind games. Thieves were supposed to be paralyzed by the thought that he knew their next move before they made it. Not the other way around.
Grabbing his coat in a sudden motion, he headed for the elevator, ignoring the timid inquiry about his destination from the newest assistant. The ever-changing rotation of assistants, all instructed to inform Hux about his every move, was another hindrance to his process.
He needed air. Needed space to figure out what she was going to do next. Somewhere quiet, where he could think in peace. Where he could think like her.
...
"Okay, so… explain it to me again?" Poe asked, eyebrow raised in confusion.
"It's easy! I figure out my first instinct, then, instead of stealing whatever it was, I write a note, leave it on what I wanted to steal, then go hide in the vents and watch him throw a temper tantrum! It's hilarious!"
"Rey, baiting one of the best thief-catchers in the world is not fun. It's suicide." Finn told her as he sipped his coffee. "One of these days he's going to get there before you, and then you'll be in jail forever."
Poe leaned over and whispered, "Until we break you out."
Rey nodded and winked as Rose giggled from behind her laptop.
"Look, the guy has made some good guesses, but that's all they are. Guesses."
"Really good guesses." Finn pointed out.
"And so," Rey continued, shooting Finn a rebuking look for his interruption, "I'm going to take a few days, lay low, and figure out a new MO."
Rose frowned. "A new MO?"
"Yeah. I just take what I instinctively want to do, then reconsider and go with my new style instead."
Poe tilted his head as he finished his scone. "And if he catches on to your 'new style'?"
"Then I switch back to the old one! Take my first thought, consider my second one, then go back to the first. He'll be completely confused."
"Right. He's the one confused." Finn added, and Rey elbowed him in the side.
Scooting back her chair, Rey stood and announced, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go think of what kind of new MO would be the most fun."
"Good luck!" Rose called out to her with a smile.
Rey waved, then let her grin fade as she left the coffee shop (and Finn suddenly realizing she had put her drink on his tab) behind her. As much as she was trying to pretend she wasn't rattled by how good this Kylo Ren guy was, there was a still a tight knot in her stomach that took her back to her runaway days, terrified that Unkar Plutt and his gang were waiting for her around every corner.
She needed somewhere to breathe, to soak in serenity, to remind herself that there was still beauty and peace in the world. Somewhere she could center herself. Find herself.
Somewhere without thoughts of Kylo Ren.
…
He growled a little as he marched inside the Ahch-To Museum of Art. He hated this place, but (or perhaps because) it was the only place that he was able to think clearly. No one from IYS would ever dream he came here, and since all the art was insured by someone else, he could sit and watch without thoughts of work intruding on him.
He came to watch the people, not look at the art. It was all chemicals on canvas to him, stupid subjective things that someone else declared valuable. No, the only points of interest here were the people. Within seconds, he could tell why someone was here, and predict where they would go next.
For instance, the couple who walked in were clearly on a date. First date, judging by how cautious the girl was and how overeager the boy seemed. Kylo rolled his eyes. The boy was obviously trying to impress her, so he'd most likely head straight towards the flashiest, most famous pieces.
"Did you know that they have Van Gogh's Sunflowers here? Although it pales in comparison to the Mona Lisa. Did I mention I saw that at the Louvre in Paris?" The boy asked, placing a terrible faux French accent on 'Louvre' and 'Paris'.
The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes. You did. At least three times."
"Well, I did."
"Four. Do you know if they have any Gauguin here? He's one of my favorite-"
"Well, actually, Gauguin's style was purely reactionary to the Impressionist movement…"
Their voices trailed off as they walked further away, and he let out an annoyed breath. Looking around the room, he could see a group of art students with their teacher, a clearly blocked artist pacing the hallway and staring pleadingly at the paintings as if to grant him inspiration, a family of tourists, and a brunette simply sitting and looking at the artwork.
He blinked. Most people didn't sit and look. They gawked for a few moments, whispered a pretentious judgement about the piece, then wandered away to a different section to rinse and repeat. But she was just… sitting. He moved closer, then was startled to realize that her eyes were closed. Who on earth sat in an art museum with their eyes closed?
He tried to puzzle it out, just like he did every day with most people. No cane or dog, so she wasn't blind. Perhaps it was for meditation? To calm herself? Although he could tell her that compared to him she had nothing to complain-
He froze as the rest of her face came into view.
It was her.
The Scavenger.
Here. In the flesh. Sitting a few feet away from him, blissfully ignorant and alone.
What should he do? Call the police? Of course not, he had no evidence about anything. It was only his word against hers that she was a thief at all. Call IYS? They had a security team, but he found imagining Phasma dragging this girl out to be trapped in IYS until Hux got a confession out of her oddly distasteful.
So what should he do?
Unbeknownst to him, while his brain was conjuring a million and one possible outcomes to every scenario, his feet decided to take advantage of the one scenario he hadn't thought of.
Sitting next to her.
They sat in silence for a few moments, her eyes still closed while he stared straight ahead at the painting, thinking of all the many, many ways this could go horribly wrong.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A softly accented voice came from his left, and he jerkily turned to see her hazel eyes watching him, a tug of amusement at the corner of her mouth.
"I…" He glanced at the artwork in question. The painting was mostly white with slight suggestions of grey that indicated ridges, with violently bright, jagged lines of red marking the surface.
"... it's fine." He muttered, a small part of him strangely noting this was the first time she had ever spoken to him.
"You don't even care about art, do you?" She asked in a combination of curiosity and mockery.
Opening his mouth to argue, he saw her shake her head and smile in bemused pity.
"Really? You're only in it for the money? That's just sad."
"And you're not?" He barked at her, a bit more harshly than he intended.
She tilted her head. "What do you think?"
Pausing, he tried to come up with a witty retort, but instead became frustrated at how slow his mind was working all of a sudden.
She laughed, a bright, delighted sound that reached no further than his ears. "Well, there's a thought. You don't actually know anything, do you? They were all just clever guesses. You almost had me worried."
And then she winked.
That same damn wink she had thrown him from the ground after escaping his clutches. Twice.
The fury and frustration that had been building since the day her file landed on his desk suddenly exploded, words pouring out of him in a mocking, deadly sneer.
"I know this: Five years ago you worked jobs all over Europe; in Paris, Versailles, Milan, and Munich. You specialize in physically rewiring security systems, and if you don't recognize the system, you steal the system itself to study and one item of value to throw off suspicion. You only crack Glenn-Rieder safes, prefer Impressionists, practice some kind of martial arts, and are definitely a runaway. Want me to keep going?"
…
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.
How the hell did he know all that?
How the hell did he know she was here?
When she caught his reflection in one of the plastic informational plaques, she told herself that she was seeing things, that he couldn't possibly be here, in this building, at this moment. So she closed her eyes and willed him away.
And then he sat next to her.
Heart in her throat, she tried to breathe long, slow, breaths while counting the exits in the room. But when she cracked her eye, she saw that he was sitting awkwardly, as if unsure of what to say. Then it dawned on her.
He was afraid of her.
Confidence suddenly coursing through her veins, she tilted her head coyly and stuffed the small, frightened voice deep down and away, asking him what he thought of the painting.
It was fun teasing him, poking at him as he sat there, holding himself stiffly as a flush crept over his face, giddy with relief that he was no different than any of the other faceless, hopeless police officers trying to catch her.
But now-
Now he knew far more about her than she thought. Than he should know. Than anyone should know.
She did her best to keep her face impassive as the pounding of her heart got even louder and she started reviewing which escape route would be the most efficient.
Poe's voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
Nothing is true unless you say it is.
As much as he loved driving getaway cars, Poe was the best grifter she knew. He once landed a multi-million dollar land deal with two glasses of Chianti and very intimate tango, and had insisted on teaching her the basics, despite her complaining that she was a thief, not a con artist.
"Don't care. Everyone can benefit from knowing the art of the grift."
Her exaggerated eyeroll went unnoticed.
"First rule of the grift, nothing is true unless you say it is. They think you're conning them? Accuse them of being a thief. Get upset and walk away. Admit to nothing. Put them on the offensive. They won't think you're a grifter if they're trying to prove something to you."
Letting out a long breath that she desperately hoped sounded calm, she shrugged and leaned back.
"That's a nice collection of random facts you have there," she observed, channelling every ounce of Poe's infuriating smugness. "But that's all it is. Random facts."
"That is what we call a profile." He hissed at her, "and it means I know who you are, what you are, and where you'll go next."
She raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Well, if you know what I am," she blinked slowly at him, "why aren't I being arrested?"
The brief, barely noticable tensing of his jaw made Rey break into a genuine smile. "Oh, I see. You don't have any proof at all, do you?"
His breath started coming loud and angry through his nose.
Tapping her chin in thought, she added, "In fact, I don't think you even know my name."
The way his fists clenched gave her that answer. Time to make him sweat a little.
"Well, that makes one of us." She paused for dramatic tension, then said his name almost offhandedly. "Kylo."
His eyes snapped up and flashed dangerously, reminding her of the photo on Rose's computer, the way Finn paled when his name was said, how very precarious her situation was at this moment.
But, if she was channeling Poe, his next move would be to get the target so blinding mad that he wouldn't be able to think straight.
Standing up, she stretched with a long, fake yawn, all the while painfully aware of the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the rage building in his dark eyes.
"This was fun," she told him, attempting nonchalance. "I'll see you around. Kylo."
As she walked backward, mentally tracking the group of German tourists she could hear behind her, she glanced up at him and tossed out one last barb.
"Although, you'll probably be a few steps behind." Shooting him a feral grin as his entire body tensed up, she added, "As always," then gave him a wink.
The instant he lunged forward from the bench, she ducked in the middle of the tour group, then took a sharp left into a narrow hallway that led to the employee's only area. Once behind the door, she tried to calm her breathing and listen for any signs of pursuit. Satisfied that the hallway was empty, she pulled herself up into the air vent and headed for the alley, one thought pounding over and over in her mind.
That was too kriffing close.
…
"You did what?!" Finn shrieked in disbelief as Rose gaped.
"I am so proud of you!" Poe shouted and grabbed her in a bear hug. "We'll make a grifter out of you yet!"
"I didn't do anything Finn, and I don't want to be a grifter, Poe. I wasn't even there to steal anything! I just wanted someone quiet to think and he just showed up!"
"Talk about a bad penny." Rose shook her head from behind her laptop.
"My question is, how the hell does he know that much about me? No one knows that much about me!" Rey ran her hands through her hair as she paced through Finn's living room.
Rey had texted everyone for an emergency meeting at Finn's as soon as she was clear, and was desperately trying not to freak out as Rose typed away on her computer.
"I honestly don't know. Your online footprint is still pretty ghost-like, made up mainly of rumors. Whoa, did you seriously boost a Matisse during Carnival a few years ago?"
Shrugging, Rey absentmindedly started picking the lock on Finn's door. "I'm not really big on parties."
"Rey, focus. Could all his intel have one source? Maybe a buyer blabbed, or… have you used a different fence? I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed."
"You know I only go through you or the people you recommend, and his information was… scattered. Like, he knew I was in Europe, and the kind of safes I like, but also that I do martial arts. It was almost…"
The others looked up as Rey trailed off, the door clicking open as she held herself tightly.
"Frightening."
Poe and Finn immediately exchanged glances of worry, then quickly went over to her.
"Whoa, hey, sunshine, like you said, he just has good guesses." Poe told her comfortingly, patting her on the shoulder.
"Exactly. We'll figure this guy out, no worries. We just need a bit more intel. Rose? Can you get into his computer?" Finn asked as he brought Rey a chocolate croissant.
Rose stared at him like he had asked her to hack the moon. "His IYS computer? With Dubertech database security? Maybe if I had six months to prep, I could-"
"What if we get you an in?" Rey interrupted suddenly, a spark of an idea in her eyes.
"A what?"
"If I can plug a… thing into his computer, would that work?"
Rose gave a long-suffering sigh and correct, "You mean if you plugged in a flash drive so I could bypass his firewall entirely and establish a remote link?" She blinked, then thought a moment. "I mean, yeah, that would work, but how are you going to get that close?"
"Well, he knows far too much about me," Rey said, a hint of a smile appearing on her face. "Let's even the odds."
