Gods, I hated this day.

=oOo=

Pulling up my scarf to cover a good deal of my face – not to mention look a lot more suspicious than I needed to be – Benjamin and I walked into the drugstore. The man had an arm wrapped awkwardly around my waist, making this whole situation a lot more irritating.

Benjamin, Mariota and I found nothing out of the ordinary when we went through the contents of her personal safe. Save for the creepy, beady-eyed, worn-out stuffed toy. If that thing was supposed to be cute, then it was either way past its expiry date, or Mariota had a very obscure definition of the word cute. Heaven above, I was never gonna look at a teddy bear the same way again.

Anyway, when Hibiki came back, he didn't bring anything useful with him besides this god-awful plan of his to catch the creepy stalker-turned-murderer that depended on a great deal of luck that I was not all that known for. Besides, the creep might be delusional, but he wasn't that stupid to fall for a cheap, old trick like this. And as if on cue, the earpiece hidden beneath the fake blonde locks of a wig we bought buzzed to life.

"How are you doing, Mariota?"

"Oh bite me," I quietly hissed through gritted teeth, earning a look from Benjamin.

Apparently, Hibiki's grand plan was to have me dress up as Mariota and walk around town until someone bites. According to him, the stalker had shown a great deal of impulsiveness based on the mess he made back in the clinic and it was likely he'd start acting in a predictable manner. Of course, all of this was pure conjecture – hah, conjecture, where'd I pick that up? – but Hibiki was pretty optimistic about it and it didn't seem all that bad aside from the fact it was so straight to the point, so we decided to give it a shot.

So where was Mariota? With Hibiki, of course, back at the estate. Like hell we were gonna leave the Barcelos, plus Benjamin, unprotected.

"Blonde looks good on you," Hibiki continued to snicker. "Though I personally prefer brunettes."

"Lucky me then."

My companion cleared his throat and I momentarily forgot about Hibiki and paid attention to the box of pills the man was pointing at. "We need this, don't we?" he quietly asked. I pulled out a list of prescribed medicine the late doctor had put together for Mariota to help her. Despite the woman's irritatingly jolly disposition, she was unusually lacking in the health department. Humming, I nodded once I found the name on the box on the list I had. He wordlessly untangled himself from me, took a box and dropped it into the basket he was holding. "What else is on the list?"

Instead of answering, I just handed the older man the list before we continued strolling down the aisles. It was then that the bell chimed and out of some sort of habit, I looked up to check who had just come in. To my relief, it was just an elderly woman with what I assumed were grandchildren in tow. "Relax, cupcake… Just granny with some munchkins. Nothing to worry about." I huffed, annoyed with how easy going my partner was, but then something crossed my mind.

"Wait, how exactly are you watching us?"

"I let myself into the store's security system," he cheekily answered. I stole a glance at the nearest camera. "So don't be too bothered with having blindspot. I'll give you an update on who enters and leaves, alright?" I nodded. "Now that's a good Rookie."

My eyes fell on a particular stack of bottles and I recognized the label as one of the names listed on the piece of paper in Banjamin's hand. I picked one up and placed it inside the basket my companion was carrying. "Thanks," he hummed, pausing to check the list. "Well, this is everything we need… Why don't I pay for this real quick and we could get everyone some dinner?"

I raised an eyebrow. "That's nice of you," I quietly mused as we headed for the counter.

Benjamin quietly chuckled. "You're working hard to end this," he pointed out. "It's the least we could do."

"Hoorah. Dinner!"

"Anyway, do you think this would work?"

Shrugging, I turned away from the counter to get a better view of the shop. The side facing the street was completely made out of windows and the door. Curved mirrors and cameras were set up at each corner to guarantee a view of the whole place from anywhere in the store. "If he's that impatient," I answered. "But who knows? Maybe we're lucky and get it on the first try."

"Suspicious person just came in."

I turned to one of the mirrors and like Hibiki said, a man of suspicious character came in. I dug a hand into the jacket I was wearing – Mariota's, by the way – and grabbed hold of the poor, worn and mutilated photo the stalker had sent us. I enabled Wiretap, but unfortunately, the newcomer wasn't the one. I was about to dispel Wiretap when I saw something odd with the aura. It wasn't a definite, sharp spike, but some of the aura was gathering towards one general direction.

Bingo.

"False alarm, but I'm picking up something," I told Hibiki while I did my best to keep myself smiling. Finally, this was gonna end. "Benjamin, are you done?"

"Yes, why?"

Without a word of warning from me, I slipped an arm through his. "We'll be having company in a while, so follow my instructions if you want both of us to get out unscathed, alright?"

The man gulped. "Yes, ma'am."

"I'll be there in thirty."

"Don't bother. Just keep an eye on Mariota. I've got this covered."

"Alright then. Don't do anything brash, honey."

A smirk crawled onto my lips beneath the scarf I wore. "No guarantees, Hibiki." Just as the words left my mouth, the car Benjamin and I had arrived in came into view and my eyebrows immediately shot up.

Beside me, my companion let out a curse when the sight registered in his brain. "My car!" he exclaimed as he unhooked his arm from mine to attend to his poor car. Not only were the sides heavily scratched – it was honestly such a shame since he really had a very nice car – but all his tires were also slashed. So the creep resorted to vandalism, huh?

Before Benjamin could go though, I grabbed hold of his wrist. "Don't take another step… Who knows what else is wrong with it," I warned in a low voice, my eyes taking quick glances of our surrounding. From what I could see, there wasn't anyone that looked suspicious, but I could feel someone watching us. "I guess we're walking," I chirped, shrugging.

"But-" I shot Benjamin a look and that was all it took to keep his mouth shut. Well now, he learned fast. "We can't walk home, though," the man pointed out and I raised an eyebrow.

"And why not?"

"Because you are supposed to be with child and should be taking better care of yourself," he argued and I held back a snort. "We're taking a taxi, or at the very least a bus."

"Three weeks is not enough to hinder a person's physical capabilities, you know," I confidently said. "Besides, who said of going home just yet?"

Good ole Benny blinked. "We're not?"

I shook my head. "We're not," I reaffirmed. "You're going to buy dinner for everyone, remember?"

An awkward chuckle escaped Benjamin as he slightly shook his head. "Alright, alright," he acquiesced, offering me an arm. Well now, this guy learned fast. I easily slipped mine through his – at the back of my mind though, I wondered what Kurapika would think about the whole thing since he didn't actually look like the jealous type – and we started walking, continuing with this act of ours. "There's a place nearby that we can walk to. From there we can hail a cab." I nodded and it didn't even take fifteen minutes to get to the place he was talking about.

Unfortunately, a lot of people were inside the not-so-big place, so I had to get out. I told Benjamin that I needed some air and would just wait for him outside. He had no problem with that and soon enough, I was taking in deep breaths of the cold autumn air. It was during that time that I suddenly felt like someone was watching and it took a great deal of self-control to go against the natural reaction to look around and find out where it was coming from.

More likely than not, it was the stalker. I could feel it. As discreetly as I could, I looked around and as far as I could tell, no one looked suspicious enough to have my hair standing on end, but that didn't mean that no one suspicious was there. Hibiki told me not to be too reckless, but with Benjamin in a place with a lot of people to serve as witnesses if anything happened to him and the psycho's attention clearly on me, I couldn't help but see the whole thing as an advantage.

After a lot of thought and mental debating, I decided to walk a little further away from the restaurant towards a bus stop for a little test. If he follows, then I'd pursue. If he didn't, then I'd head back to Benjamin before something freaky happens. At the bus stop, I pretended to read the city announcements, the missing flyers – apparently, someone was missing a black cat named Kupuru which was an odd name – and advertisements under some sturdy, clear plastic cover. I waited for what seemed like an eternity before something happened and mind you, it wasn't the kind of thing I expected.

Maybe a few minutes after I reached the stop, while I was 'reading' the flyers, a few people passed in front of me, keeping me from seeing the announcements for a few seconds. But when they cleared away, I could see a person behind me being reflected off of the glass who wasn't there a few moments ago and something in the back of my mind screamed it was him. Acting on instinct, I quickly whirled around to face the stranger, but when I did, I found some odd-smelling rag being pushed into my face. My eyes grew wide as I recognized the smell and before I knew it, I had pushed the man back with much more force than necessary.

The stranger staggered back, surprised that I had actually made him move and I should've taken advantage of the situation, but I found myself rooted to the spot while I fought to keep my eyes open. Goddamn it. Just a little and still… I shook my head. Focus, Demina. Focus. The man was already ducking into an alleyway and I was still weak in the knees. I forced myself to run after him and thankfully, by some stroke of luck on my part – and stupidity on his – he had cornered himself to a dead end.

"Well, I guess this is the part where you turn yourself in," I told him. "It'll be a lot-"

"Mariota! Where's Mariota?!" he suddenly blurted out in a frantic voice. It was only then that I got a good look at him. Surprisingly, he was painfully average. Like, he was the kind of person who'd have a loving wife and adorable kids back at his place. Well, minus the crazed look in his face, that is. To think that this man was capable of beating the poor doctor to death… "Where is she?! I need to see her! If she sees me, she'll explain everything! We're fated to be with each other!"

Now wasn't that a load of bullshit? "Would you please kindly shut up and come with me?"

"Mariota!" he wailed. "Where are you?!"

An eyebrow of mine twitched. This man was definitely not right in the head. "Hibiki, are you there?"

The earpiece I wore buzzed to life. "Been here the whole time, cupcake. Is that our guy?"

"Looks like it," I evenly answered. "Benjamin and I are gonna-" At the mention of the fiancé's name, the man suddenly turned red with what I suppose was a mix of hatred and envy and he all but tried to run me down. But I easily had him flying back into the wall with a quick kick and he ended up groaning in pain, not to mention stinky since he landed on a misplaced pile of garbage.

"That bastard! He took my Mariota away from me!"

I heaved a sigh. It was apparent that I didn't have a chance of having him come along quietly, so I guess I had to land a couple of good blows on the man. I took a few steps towards him, and as a response, he backed up against the wall. I balled my hands into fists, but when I brought them up, I noticed they were shaking. Why in the world were they shaking? It wasn't that cold. I was perfectly fine… right? I shook my head. Not the time to think about that.

Pushing those unnecessary thoughts away, I dealt a few decent blows and had six bright, glowing strings in my hand leading up to the man. "Wirepull," I murmured and the creep immediately shut up and straightened. "So this is what's going to happen," I began and the man just quietly stood still. "You are going to behave and come along with me and Benjamin back to the mansion, understood?" He slowly nodded. "Good. Now let's get going. Benny must be freaking out right about now." The man wordlessly followed and though the rest of the trip back to the estate was relatively quiet, my hands wouldn't stop shaking.

=oOo=

"As it turns out, our stalker was an assistant for one of the photographers Mariota knew back when she was still modeling," Hibiki told me as he cleaned up his table where two boxes of takeout food was also sitting. After bringing the stalker – his name was Ferrin, by the way – back to the Estate and an hour of questioning – he was pleasantly compliant thanks to Wirepull – we finally got the whole picture. Ferrin had served as Mariota's personal attendants during the few photo shoots she had with his employer and fell crazy in love with her so fast that it was sad.

Nodding, I watched my partner stuff the papers into a box, along with other things we had used for this request. Anything and everything we recorded, used and-slash-or accessed during a job was always collected to update our database and afterwards, was kept in a sealed box and put into storage. Anyway, the older man glanced over his shoulder at me when he noticed I didn't really talk. "It's kind of farfetched, but you know pumpkin, that's how delusions and fantasies work."

I nodded again. "Did you call the police over in the next town?" I asked. Apparently, the reason why Wiretap wasn't going anywhere was because Ferrin was on a business trip with his boss until recently. The man was originally from a nearby town, Calor, where he owned an apartment. Obsessions like his was rarely something he'd keep inside, so after giving the Lylet's local police force an anonymous tip to pick up Ferrin, we planned on calling the Calor Police Department to check the stalker's apartment for anything suspicious. Personally, I doubted they wouldn't find anything, but Hibiki and I didn't have plans to stick around any longer to find out.

"Yep," my partner chirped. It was obvious that he was excited to go home. "And love, I do believe it's your turn to do the paperwork."

My eyebrows shot up. "What? No!" I exclaimed. Like I said, we had to upload everything regarding this gig onto the database, but it was a very tedious and technical process to go through. I didn't mind though, since it was work, but it was the kind of thing that got very old, very fast. "Besides, I did it last time."

"No, no you didn't, sweetheart," he smugly told me as he shook his head. "And you've been skipping out on work for a few weeks now."

Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Hibiki, I was on vacation for two weeks, remember? And when I got back to work, I kinda had a few screws tightened-" and probably a lot more loosened "-rendering me incapable of doing paperwork."

"Then how about we settle it with a coin?"

Eyeing the innocent silver coin Hibiki suddenly pulled out, I considered his proposition. Though I was one-hundred-percent sure that it was his turn to do the filing, I didn't mind a coin toss. Fifty-fifty chance wasn't all that good, but it was better than neither of us doing it and getting our asses handed to us by Ranno. "Heads say you do it."

Hibiki smiled and nodded. "Heads it is," he sang as he threw the coin up into the air. He easily caught the round piece of metal and when he opened his fist, I groaned. It was tails. "Well, that settles it."

A frown pulled on my lips as I sighed. "A deal's a deal. I'll get to it as soon as we get back," I huffed. "How are the couple and Polvo?"

"Polvo's still pissed at her, but aside from that, they all seem pretty fine. Mariota's doing a lot better," my partner informed me. Well, that was good news. "Oh, right. You don't mind if we catch the flight back to Colarina later tonight, right?"

I shrugged. "No problem here," I nonchalantly answered. "Now can we eat?" Hibiki laughed before he took hold of one the boxes Benjamin had bought earlier and tossed it my way. I easily caught it without spilling the contents and dug in.

=oOo=

There was no place better than home, but Colarina would have to do. Hibiki and I had gotten back at an ungodly hour, but since Ranno would look for the full report as soon as he remembered – which was very soon – I had to get this over with. I ended up alone in our so-called office with the box labeled with the person who employed us, the date when we took on the job, and the date when we finished it. I had already been at it for a full two hours and I knew that even if I was about wrap up here with my computer, I had to go up a few floors to the storage room to, well, store the box.

My eyes were already getting a bit too heavy and the nearby clock read three-seventeen in the morning. Sighing, I clicked on the 'Save' icon to officially finish the not-so-papery-paperwork, shut down the unit, put everything back in the box and sealed it. I picked the not-really-light-but-not-all-that-heavy box and left the office, locking the door behind me. The storage room was on the fifth floor and since the office was on the second, I had to go up three floors to get to the room and go down two to reach my apartment.

The walk was unnervingly quiet, so I had to keep my thoughts busy before I freaked out. Like, what I still had in the fridge, or what could have gone bad in my fridge or if I had to clean my apartment. Just about anything, really.

The door leading to the storage room had a pretty tricky security protocol that required a retina scan and a personal pin, so imagine my surprise when I found the door cracked open. Immediately, I expected the worst so I made my way in as quietly as I could, but my suspicion was all for nothing since I saw Ranno just going through a few things from an open box, which were mostly papers and a few pictures that weren't really all that good. He was probably just revisiting an old case and forgot to close the door.

I was about to turn around and drop the box off somewhere not too crowded – despite the room having an insane amount of shelves, some boxes ended up staying on the floor – Ranno turned around and I saw his phone pressed against his ear as he skimmed the piece of paper in his hands.

"Yes, yes, I understand…" he murmured. It was evident that he wasn't all too happy with what he was doing, which led me to wonder what exactly he was doing. Because revisiting something just for a good blast from a past was very different from revisiting something since someone asked. "No, everything's still here." My eyes narrowed. What was he doing? Who was he talking to? "Look, you know I don't mind doing these kinds of things, but the situation…"

Ranno fell silent and the already present grim expression he had grew even worse. I think he even grew a few shades paler. "You can't do that… Why? Because she's as good as desperate, that's why!" he exclaimed, slamming a hand on the table where everything he was reading through was resting. A few tense seconds passed and his face smoothed back into a somewhat calmer expression. "Fine, but I'll have Hibiki and Ylana help you out… or maybe the twins if they aren't busy." He paused and this time, a sad look was on his face. "You know, they're hurt that you didn't tell them."

My eyebrows pulled together. He couldn't be talking to her, could he? If he was, then who called who? And for what reason? And if he was going through all this stuff since she asked, what were they looking at? The writing on the box's label was a bit worn but still legible if I got near enough, but moving closer was not an option if I didn't want to get found out.

"Do not start with that sob story of yours," my uncle tiredly sighed. "I'm already helping you, what more do you need?" The man's face hardened again. "You're insane."