She watched the jostle of metropolitan night life as she waited for the go signal in silence. The dress was not doing her any good, considering the cold was worsening by each passing minute and she forgot to bring her jacket out of pure idiocy on her part. Immune as she was to low temperatures, there's always a certain limit to how much she could take while wearing the damned stilettos.
Kurapika, on the other hand, was facing the window for quite some time now. She noticed that he was a bit less focused than usual and a little less sharp-tongued, like there's something bothering him. She tried her best not to think about it and paid attention to the road.
They arrived just in time for the convention to start. Repeating the assignment on her head, her arm automatically wrapped around the young bodyguard's arm and they entered the sliding doors with practiced grace. The mission was to act as a budding business couple for the first half of the night while scanning the vicinity for a rich artisan named Haegle, Light's ex-associate who had a humongous amount of debt on his sleeve. Then they would have to pin him down in private after a few sweet talks.
The guard in the entrance made a bow. "Good evening, Mr. Kurapika and Miss Clandestine. His Eminence Almerante is expecting you both."
"Thank you." They replied in unison.
Several people in formal dresses and suits already filled the hall. Both of them blended into the crowd easily to avoid catching any attention.
Then she noticed a generously large man walking towards their direction. She could easily tell that the tuxedo he was wearing was worth a dozen of expensive cars, at least. A broad smile flooded his lips as he stared at the person beside her. "You must be Kurapika, my young man. I am Almerante. I presume Light sent you here to negotiate on his behalf?"
"Yes, sir. I apologize for Mr. Nostrade cannot be with us today."
The man made a mock scowl, "So selfish of him to leave me be, that old bastard." His eyes then travelled to her, and it made her skin crawl when he spoke in a buttery voice. "And who might this fine young lady be?"
Kurapika turned to her and gave a frozen smile. She fought the urge to squeak when his warm hand lightly travelled to her waist. "She is Clandestine. She is my... lover."
She inclined her head towards the man who looked like a bug could crawl out from his eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."
"Pleasure's all mine, I daresay." The man gave her another once-over, as if he could not quite believe what he just heard, and then led Kurapika elsewhere. She and the blonde shared a meaningful look before he disappeared completely amongst the crowd.
Keep watch and be alert.
The first few times they did these kinds of inside jobs were personally mortifying for her. Although not equally as ending someone's life, the prospect of being someone's lover made her uncomfortable. It made her somewhat vengefully ecstatic when she found out that he was also immensely awkward in the field.
Well hell, she refused to be the only one who had to suffer, for crying out loud.
She was about to move forward when a hand took hold of her wrist. She turned to see who it was, and then her blood ran cold.
"Fancy seeing you here, my darling Clandestine. I never thought you'd hook up with an endangered specie."
au/n: thank you, everyone :)