7. Biscuit.

T: Cliff-hangers are becoming a bit of a theme at the moment….sorry guys. Warnings on the up, though to state which would constitute a spoiler so… I still own only the plot.

X

Hisoka is there waiting for him when he steps out the bakery to lock up, posture visibly more relaxed than it had been only seven hours previous.

"Things went well then."

"Well enough," pausing he steps close enough that he can feel the heat radiating from his body before enquiring, "Can I steal you for a little while?"

He has only to raise his eyebrows the barest of inches for the younger man to flush, clip him softly about the head and state,

"Not like that, perv."

"Spoilsport."

That has the younger man smiling despite himself and, he presses down for a swift, chaste, kiss before stating, "Give me a minute," and stepping a little from the other's side, rescuing his mobile as he goes.

Watari picks up on the third ring, a swiftness that is explained all of a second later when the Inventor enquires,

"You're not hurt are you, Tsu?"

"No…oh they've released the details of the most recent murder."

"About an hour ago…is Bon with you?"

"Yeh…it'll work out Watari, I promise."

"Right, ok, I'm holding you to that, alright."

"I'll look forward to being all smug." He responds, pausing a moment before enquiring, "Would you mind house sitting for an hour or so?"

"Ooh, you and Bon going on a hot date?"

"Something like that."

"In which case count me in!"

"Thanks, feel free to help yourself to biscuits and the TV, alright?"

"Hahaha like I needed your permission." The other retorts before hanging up and leaving him to silence.

"Right I'm all yours." The remark earns him the subtlest of blushes before the younger man is striding away, hands thrust firmly in his pockets.

He jogs a little in order that he might draw again level with the other and deliberately pretends not to notice when the younger boy deliberately slows his pace a moment later.

"I was sixteen when I was introduced to him by my father, I was told that he was to be my body guard, that he would protect me from the dangers in the world and he was so kind, so accommodating, that I actually believed.

"A week later he took me to a stranger's house on some pretext or another, made me watch as he slaughtered everyone inside and then simply left me there. The man who owned the house was a young police detective who'd made catching him his lives goal despite the warnings, the brutal murders a message that he was not to be underestimated both for that detective and for myself also.

"Yet the detective saw the bodies of his most treasured people and did not flinch, he simply cried a little before cleaning me up and asking me to tell him that he would never give up. That his message had simply made him angry rather than scared."

"He laughed, didn't he?"

"Of course, what threat could someone like that be to him, after all?"

"This is the mistake you were on about earlier, isn't it, Hisoka?"

The younger man nods slowly, his face so lost that he can not stop himself from catching a gentle hold of a thin, chilled, hand and wrapping it tight within his own.

They walk a long while in silence as such, Hisoka pressing close enough to him now that he can almost feel that slight weight against his shoulder…can almost imagine what it would be to have that weight tangled against him in the softer edges of twilight.

Eventually Hisoka stops before a well weathered brick building, a building that looks precisely as all the other's nestled tight about it, as so many mid rent properties in this area of Brooklyn, and, leasing his hand at last, he states,

"That detective found me the week after the matter at the Museum, he told me that he had pierced his network under a false name, that he had been at the very heart of the discovery of the forgeries, that the investigation had been forced underground thanks to the murders rather than set aside as the press would have everyone believe. He offered me the chance to help then, the chance to step away from him but I said no because I had also begun to believe that that man was untouchable."

"You were frightened, Hisoka, there is no shame in that."

"Not frightened, Tsuzuki, but selfish, for I was thinking only of my own life…my own welfare."

Again distress writes a clear path across the younger man's face and again he finds himself stretching to bridge the divide between them, this time by simply drawing the other into a firm embrace.

The softest of sighs and then Hisoka says,

"Having you in my life has made me want to change that aspect of my character along with so many others…has made me want to believe in the impossible." As the younger man presses up for another hard, unrelenting, kiss, he can not help the idle curiosity of just how much he deserves such sacrifice, nor the discomforting sensation that he has somehow manipulated the other at his most vulnerable.

That guilt has him breaking the contact as it becomes clear that the younger man is loosing himself in the rush of desire and, deliberately placing space again between them, he enquires,

"So why are we here?" voice thick and heavy despite his best efforts.

Hisoka simply watches him a long moment with a shocked confusion and then, blinking slowly, he responds,

"The detective told me that if ever I changed my mind I would be able to find him here, he even wrote me down the directions and made me repeat them…it seemed so pointless at the time…"

The understanding that this unknown other had also been able to see that there was more to Hisoka than the prideful, abrupt and unsociable façade that the younger man wore as shield, sparks a contracting mix of jealousy and comfort.

Jealousy because he had liked feeling as though he was the only one with such insight…liked how connected to the younger man that sensation made him feel...and comfort because the insight meant that he had realized just how at threat the younger man had been and had had patience enough to wait until Hisoka felt able to risk himself rather than simply push as many others would.

"Would you like me with you, or perhaps for me to wait out here for you?"

"Thank you…" He turns his head to the sky and, lips twisted into a smile that speaks more of gratitude than joy, he continues, "I think that I would be better talking to him alone for now…it'll do my confidence some good if nothing else…as to you waiting out here, there's rain coming and I have no want for you to get a chill for my sake."

"In which case make certain he finds someone to walk you home…I know that company is likely not something he would worry about but it'll ease my mind a little."

"Mm, I may yet call you to walk me home again…would that be ok?"

"Of course." A long moment where it is clear that Hisoka is waiting for him to press in for another kiss, to ease the odd atmosphere that his guilt has settled between them and then the younger man is stepping up into the meager shelter of the doorway without so much as a goodbye.

He waits until the slight figure is inside the building, in what he has to believe safety for the sake of his sanity, before he trails the long, lonely, path back to his neighborhood.

He is just taking the shortcut though a small, cluttered, alleyway when a stranger's voice bids him a good evening.

Panic like ice across his skin, then, chastising himself for allowing the paranoia to leach so hard into his life that he feels almost as though he is jumping at shadows, he smiles a half felt smile and responds in kind.

The stranger, a tall, elegantly dressed man of some indeterminable stage of his lives journey glances up at the sky and enquires,

"Is your home close by?" The stranger laughs a little but a moment after and adds, "Sorry for being so forward, but I notice that your coat is somewhat expensive, that the threatening rain will ruin it entirely and being as I have but a few more feet to walk and an umbrella to hand…"

"Ah, thank you but I'm also close enough that I should be able to escape the worst of it." He responds before adding, "I haven't seen you around before."

"I'm stealing a couch for a few days…you know how work is."

"Indeed, thanks again for the offer."

A beautiful roll of shoulders as the stranger shrugs off the matter as empty nothing and then he is off again, humming now some happy tune.

He is humming the thing himself by the time he is stepping into the house and he had expected some remark on this fact by Watari.

There is only silence.

Again the ice chill of panic and his feet walk him into the living room.

Blood.

Oh god there is blood everywhere.