A/N: Here's a little love from me to you, if you're still reading and still with me on this journey to the end. I have always written the story I wanted to read - but honestly, I've always loved the feeling of sharing it with others. Take care, stay healthy and I shall see you in the next chapter! - 20 March 2020
Syndicate
By Tanya Lilac
Chapter Twenty Five – Sober Thoughts
60 hours earlier
01:17 January 17. Hitomi's apartment, Sendai.
Neji came to meet Tenten in the foyer, still dressed in the clothes he had worn to the cabaret club. Tenten had gone back to her hotel after meeting up with Suzune, only to find a coded message waiting for her on the white phone – Neji had finally secured a sample of Lucia in its powdered form, and perhaps similar to its sister; the pills that were spreading across different cities in Japan.
One question had lingered in her mind on the taxi over – why now? Why had Lucia come back to Sendai in a different form, and why was it something no one here had seen before? Had the other cities merely been test runs for the syndicate leader?
Tenten stamped her feet as she waited for Neji to open the door. Why he hadn't just let her up through the intercom was a prudent question – why she didn't have her own key was another altogether. He was walking a little unsteadily, she realised, as he leaned on the exit switch for a few moments before heading out the door, draping his arm over her shoulders as he pulled her close.
"Hello, gorgeous," he said, and Tenten sighed.
"Are you kidding me? Are you drunk?"
"A little bit." It turned out, disturbingly, Kazuma had quite a high tolerance against sleep-inducing drugs – it had taken him longer than expected to finally doze off. It wasn't a matter of dosage, since too much Sleeping Dragon would have killed the man, but time – and Neji had needed to wait it out while drinking, which turned out to be an difficult task as Kazuma had spent a lot of time talking about his conquests as they'd tried to pick up strangers.
"You didn't have any Daze-breakers on you?" Tenten grumbled as they started making their way to a convenience store. She always carried some on her when she knew she would be drinking, mission or otherwise.
"… That would be a negative. Come on, I need some of those anti-hangover meds. And … an American dog. And some oden."
Tenten groaned. With those criteria, it would be an extra block if they wanted to cover all of items in the same convenience-store run. "And you need to use me as a crutch."
"Come on," Neji scoffed. "You're my heater." He paused. "Get it? 'Cos you're hot."
Tenten snorted. This was one way to fix their current communication problems – get Neji drunk so he would stop being so cold towards her. "Did you actually get any numbers with those lines?"
"… Four or five," the Hyuuga said. "Not to brag, but I was totally winning."
"Out of how many attempts?" Tenten asked, almost amused by the state he was in. "Come on, I thought we were going to talk about work."
"Business later," he paused, and turned so his lips brushed against her neck. "… Pleasure first."
She stopped and stared at him, and she could tell from the fire in his eyes that he was enjoying testing her reactions to see how far he could push her. In fact, it seemed like all he wanted to do was push her up against a wall and have his way with her. Dangerous thoughts that belonged in the past.
"If you buy me oden with egg and an expensive ice cream, I won't object," she said. She was nothing if not opportunistic. If Neji was in the mood to talk, she would let him.
They continued walking in silence for some time, and Neji stopped leaning on Tenten, simply linking their arms together so they could share some warmth, apparently still parading as Neji and Miyako. Once he fell silent, he didn't seem to be all that drunk, but he definitely wasn't sober. She had to admit, though, it was nice walking with him like this – it wasn't something that they had ever been able to do in Tokyo, too caught up in their lives and being young spies – showing their relationship out in the open had always been something they'd both been uncomfortable with, but she supposed it was further proof that something had changed. But, a part of her began to ask, how would they act back in Tokyo, where half of the city knew Neji by his eyes alone?
Why was she thinking these things, when she couldn't even decide if she wanted to be with him? It wasn't like they could pick up where they had left off. Tenten was glad for the silence, which was familiar and comfortable for the first time in weeks.
They finally arrived in the convenience store, announced by the electronic chime. Neji lingered by the cashier to pick what he wanted in his oden and Tenten chose an ice cream – it was sweet potato flavoured – and on her way back to the cash register, stopped in front of a foreign newspaper. 'Kazakhstan Terrorism Crisis Resolved', the headline read, in one of the left hand columns. The by-line continued, 'Nationalist extremist group targeting embassies arrested by international anti-terrorist unit. Story continued on page 3'. On a whim, Tenten picked it up and took it with her to the cashier where Neji was waiting. He paid in cash and carried their bags, but his mood had begun to drop once more as he regained control of himself once they started walking home.
"So about Hitomi and Isaka's meet up tomorrow …"
"Have they set up any details yet?" Tenten asked.
"It doesn't seem like it," Neji frowned. "She said she would text if he returned her calls but … maybe he didn't. We might be going about this the wrong way."
"What do you mean?"
"Hitomi was never trained as a spy."
"She seems pretty confident in her abilities," she said, frowning. "And we already have an extraction plan. Are you having second thoughts?" Tenten asked.
"We should be prepared for anything. What did you learn from Calico?"
Tenten winced. She wasn't going to lie, it had been awkward. "Well, my hunch was correct and she had met up with Isaka Kengo three months ago. So he's interested in paradise engineering. It's a tenuous link but it could point to a motive."
"I doubt his intentions are as benevolent as that," Neji sighed.
They arrived at the apartment and fell silent as Neji opened the door and they finally escaped the cold. When they got up to the apartment, Tenten noticed Shinji's shoes were also in the entrance.
"Hitomi has company." Tenten observed. They had tidied everything up before leaving for their respective tasks earlier in the evening, but having someone around the house meant they couldn't talk as freely as they liked.
"They're not having sex, I don't think, seeing as I'm not simultaneously pissed off and turned on like last time," Neji rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen to eat.
"You got pissed off because they were having sex?" Tenten smirked.
"No, no, I was pissed off because I was hung over," Neji sighed. "And then I finally got in contact with you about Saito fucking Kazuma stalking you."
"Let's just eat for now," Tenten said hastily, and put her ice cream in the freezer. She opened the newspaper and turned to page three and she somehow knew that was where Sasuke had been deployed. She had been waiting for something to jump out at her, something to make sense about where he was going, that connected the dots between the coded message in the lighter clicks. He was safe, at least. They would meet again.
They ate, talking quietly about tomorrow's plans – Neji was going to send the sample of Lucia he'd obtained to Konoha, along with Kazuma's 'tips' on how to use it. Hitomi's mission with Kengo tomorrow would determine if their suspicions were correct, and if it was somewhere on the continuum between the simple leaves they drank as tea, the commercial drug Kengo was developing and the pills that had led them to this case in the first place.
Warm and satisfied, Tenten remembered to take her ice cream from the freezer before they went to Neji's room so they could speak a bit more freely. "It's freezing outside and you're eating ice cream," Neji muttered, taking off his shirt. Tenten happily began to eat her dessert and sat down on the bed.
"That's the point – it's warm inside so I want to eat ice cream. Are you still drunk?" She asked.
"Of course," he said, tossing her a dark, long sleeved tee shirt. "We drank far too much." Neji turned to look at her, and chuckled.
"What?" Tenten asked, pulling a face. "Do I have chocolate on my face?"
"Yes," Neji said, walking over to her.
Tenten hastily wiped her nose. "Is it gone?"
"No."
She jumped up to look in the mirror, but he moved quickly, sliding an arm around her waist as he pulled her close. Tenten gave him a flat stare, but did not push him away.
"You missed a spot," he said softly, and kissed her on the tip of her nose. Tenten broke away, protesting that her ice cream was melting. Neji caught her hand and licked the offending trickle of cream from her skin. She wrenched her hand away as if he'd burned her. This was not how she'd expected tonight to go, not after weeks of being given the silent treatment outside what they needed to get through their work. Sensing her unease, he let go of her, and she smiled wryly. "Note to self – stay away from ice cream."
"Tenten, I –"
"It's fine, Neji. I'm just … you surprised me." Neji was silent, waiting for her to continue. "I'm not going to apologise. You weren't in my life, and when I saw you in Tokyo it wasn't like I was sleeping with him then, as well. I know you need time to process everything. I do, too." She backed away, putting some distance between them. "I'm trying my best."
"I'm still mad at you for hiding him from me for so long, because you knew it would hurt." He sighed. "But mostly … I'm mad at myself."
Tenten nodded. She saw the familiar lines of tension in his shoulders, she knew the cycle of self-loathing he was running through. But that wasn't their relationship anymore. If they were going to really have an honest try at building a proper relationship, she couldn't afford to be lost in him completely. Not anymore.
"I know. But you don't get to take it out on me. You made me wait in the cold for weeks, Neji for something you know I don't need to apologise for. I'm not angry at you for that, but you need to accept the fact that I was with someone who wasn't you, because I chose to be with him, and stop using it against me. It's not fair." She stepped around him to sit at his desk and turned on his laptop. "You should shower. I'll start writing the report."
By the time Neji had finished showering and fully blow dried his hair, Tenten was fast asleep in his bed, the report finished and waiting for his co-signature. Neji sighed, added a few comments in, and emailed it to Shikamaru.
He switched off the desk lamp, rubbing his eyes. The light on one side of the bed – his side (did it make the other side hers by default?) was still on, and Tenten slept facing the window, a pillow behind her back, like they had in her hotel room. Don't come near me, she said, even when asleep. Don't get too close.
Neji slid into bed and turned off the light, relaxing with a sigh. Something they had realised in the last week was they both needed complete darkness to sleep.
"Tenten."
No response for a very long breath. Some moments passed. Or was it minutes? He didn't know.
"Are we going to be okay?" Her voice was small. He hated that. He had done that.
Neji stared up at the ceiling. He couldn't make out the colour in the dark but he knew the blue would greet him in the morning. "Yeah. We will be."
She was very still, and her breathing never changed. "I need my partner back. I can't do this alone."
He closed his eyes. "I know," he breathed. I'm sorry, he thought, but the words were only half formed and never came to life before sleep swept him away.
11:23 January 17. Hitomi's apartment, Sendai.
Hitomi woke feeling cold and pulled the blanket up over her shoulder with a groan. Wait, something was missing. No, someone. Hitomi bolted upright, but knew it was futile – she already knew he was long gone. On the pillow was a word on the back of a business card, in Shinji's neat writing – Sorry. Sighing, she tossed the card onto the floor and sank back into her pillows. "I'm going to fucking kill him."
She heard someone – Tenten – come out of Neji's room further down the hall, presumably in search of coffee and something to eat. Hitomi could only feel a general sense of contentment from the spy, rather than fully formed thoughts, so she was probably wearing some jewellery to protect herself. With a sigh, Hitomi stretched and finally stood up. She checked her phone on the bedside table and saw that Kengo had called her this morning and didn't leave a voicemail, and carried it with her to the living area.
Tenten was eating some blueberries straight from the punnet, sitting on the kitchen counter as she waited for the kettle to boil, bare legs swinging. She was wearing one of Neji's pyjama shirts, her long, wavy hair draped over her chest.
"Morning," Tenten said, continuing to eat. "Where's Okuchi?"
"Gone," Hitomi said. "And I don't think he'll be back for a while. Though …" she said thoughtfully, "he did come over in a state last night. Drugged."
That caught the spy's attention. "Lucia?"
"Not like the one I've been using, but some part of him was similar. The nostalgia was there … but he got aggressive for a while."
Tenten had been waiting for a suitable time to bring that up, glancing at Hitomi's arms. "I … can see."
Hitomi looked down at her wrists. Her fair skin, easily bruised, had dark, splotchy marks on her wrists from where Shinji had pinned her down in his drugged haze.
"Morning," Neji said, his voice an octave deeper than usual as he sauntered in behind her and headed over to the kitchen. He checked the fridge momentarily before turning to take some of the blueberries Tenten was offering.
"Hey," Tenten said, her voice softened. "Coffee?"
"On it," he replied with a nod, grabbing the drip coffee maker, coffee beans and a scale from the cupboard as she poured the now boiling water into three mugs to warm them, and prepared another kettle full of water. Neji weighed out the beans and put them in the electric grinder, flashing Tenten a smile from across the kitchen.
Hitomi sat at the counter, silently watching them as if in a daze. What were they, a married couple now? Hitomi sighed, and rubbed her temple, combing her fingers through her hair. There was no lingering afterglow, no traces of that edgy tension that made them want to keep touching each other, looking each other longingly in the eye. Then it hit her. They were finally in sync with each other and they knew it.
The water finished boiling, and Hitomi broke out of her thoughts. She cleared her throat, blinking to re-establish herself in the room. "Shinji was drugged last night and sent, presumably as a warning or a message, to me. I think … it was Kengo. Shinji told me he was out with Hiro last night but I can't be sure."
"What makes you say that?" Neji asked, pouring the water from the gooseneck kettle over the coffee grounds.
Hitomi crossed her arms and leaned forward. "He had one of Kengo's business cards on him. He already has all of Kengo's details – why would he need a card?"
"That's a pretty big conclusion to jump to," Tenten said, hopping down from her perch on the bench. She rummaged around in the fridge and retrieved a loaf of thick sliced bread. "Toast?" she offered the pair, and they nodded. "Our only concern is gathering intelligence – something that other parties can act on. We're not the ones arresting him, nor will we be the ones who end up putting him on trial if it does come to that."
Tenten sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Are you ready for tonight?"
Hitomi blinked. "What more is there? We go out, you two put spy things at his place, we both go home, end of story." She thought for a moment. This sounded eerily familiar. "Don't tell me … on New Year's Eve … Did you bug my house?"
"I live here. I don't need to bug anything," Neji said, crossing his arms.
"Because I know you two didn't come back here to sleep together," Hitomi said.
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Fantastic reminder of a great evening."
They were interrupted when Hitomi's phone rang again. "Speak of the devil," she said, staring at her phone, exhaling. The two spies watched her intently as she answered. "Hey, you."
"Hello yourself," Kengo said warmly. "I was surprised to hear your voice last night. You don't normally leave voicemails."
"I thought about letting you call me back …" Hitomi said, wincing. "But a girl can change her mind. You know what my schedule's like. Are you free for dinner tonight?"
"Of course." He spoke a bit louder than normal to cover the sound of traffic in the background. "You know I'll always have time for you, Hitomi. Where do you want to go?"
Tenten's jaw was almost on the floor and Hitomi spun around so she wouldn't lose her composure. "Great. Well … we can go to that place with the guy who always plays Brahms on the piano." That was the tactic – and the theme. Everything about this meeting was for 'old times' sake'. Their relationship had always been based around Lucia; she had met him just when he'd started the second stage of trials for the drug, and that was when she first tried it … and met Shinji shortly after.
"Ah, Jun's place? Yeah, that's a good idea. I'll pick you up at seven?"
"Perfect. Oh, and Kengo?"
"Hmm?"
"Wear something nice this time."
"Your wish is my command, Hitomi," he said, and she knew he was smiling.
She hung up and turned back around to see Tenten trying her best to hold in her laughter.
"What?"
19:23 January 17. Junsen, Aoba-ku, Sendai.
Kengo had indeed worn something nice this evening – nicer than the outfits he normally wore to work. Tonight, he was sharply dressed in black dress pants with a matching vest, which he wore open. His shirt, ivory, was freshly pressed, and he'd had a haircut since she'd last seen him – worn short on the sides and back, and longer at the top, it showed off his striking cheekbones, strong jaw line and the piercings she had once been incredibly attracted to.
It was interesting to see how comfortable everything seemed with him – when she saw him, she felt like she was twenty again, and he was coming to pick her up for the first time. She had stood on tip toe, even in heels, to kiss him on the cheek, and he'd turned his head at the last moment to catch her lips for a brief kiss. He was always unpredictable, wild, and that was something else about him that had excited her, especially after the sheltered life she had led in Tokyo. He didn't think – he acted on his impulses.
However, there was one vital difference – six years had passed and he knew her almost better than anyone, even though they barely met anymore. She felt almost ashamed to admit that he knew more about her than Shinji ever would. They had talked amiably in the taxi over and when he held out the crook of his elbow for her to slip her arm through, she didn't disappoint. They were led through the restaurant, past the vacant piano and into a private dining room in the back of the restaurant.
Neji had brought her up to speed that afternoon, after dropping his sample of powdered Lucia with a classified courier. It wasn't clear whether or not Kazuma was getting his drugs from Kengo, but it seemed likely. One thing that had cropped up in the messages they had sifted through between the pair was a girlfriend.
"A girlfriend?" Hitomi echoed sceptically, turning around to look at him. Neji was sitting on the chaise at the end of her bed as she was getting ready. "Definitely not. What do they say?"
"Typically, Saito asks Kengo what he's doing, and if he's with his girlfriend. Kengo usually says no, but sometimes he says yes – and then goes on to say, 'If you want to catch up later, can I bring her?' Which … if we hypothesise that Lucia is the girlfriend, then they're setting up an exchange. Are they close?"
Hitomi frowned. "Well I have to admit this is the first I've really heard. Kengo drifts in and out of our circle; it's not really an issue if he's around because we all get along. Well, except…"
"Shinji?" Neji guessed. "I can imagine he has a hard time accepting your relationship."
Hitomi turned back to the mirror, and picked up her brush. "I feel like I should be more worried about whether or not my abilities are contagious," she mused.
"Drunken words are sober thoughts," Neji sighed. "Shinji's told me a lot about you two and how you met. Also, this is kind of what I do for a living."
"It was a long time ago … and time flies," Hitomi said lightly. "I was a child then …"
And, she thought, sometimes in his presence, Kengo could bring her back to that time, with that smile and that gleam in his eye … a darkness that spiralled into itself – one that threatened to pull her in and never let go. At the time, she had been willing to give him everything, and then some. She almost had.
"I've been wondering," Hitomi said, after the waiter took away the extensive sake menu, slipping away discreetly. Kengo had ordered the seasonal set menu for both of them. "What you've got in your pocket." He was a wall of silence tonight – and he'd never been on guard around her before. Most likely, he was carrying a large silver coin on him, perhaps inset with a black tourmaline stone.
"Sorry, Tomi, it's all business," Kengo was saying. "I didn't want to kill your buzz with the boring stuff that's going on in here, what with the launch and everything. Besides, I thought you liked it when I was unpredictable, unlike Okuchi, the legendary rice counter."
"That rice counter just might be the love of my life," Hitomi muttered under her breath and gave him a cool smile. "Have you seen him lately, by the way?"
Kengo grinned. "Not knowing how the love of your life is doing?"
"He said he saw you last night when he was out drinking with Hiroki," Hitomi said carefully. Hiroki had been too hungover to recall when she called him this afternoon, so she hadn't been able to verify the business card. "He stayed over last night but he left in a hurry this morning."
"Maybe he was so drunk he mistook someone else for me," he said dismissively. "Are you two having … trouble?"
"You don't have to sound so smug," she said grudgingly. "We've been distant lately."
"Or have you been distancing yourself?" he asked. "You're not the easiest woman to get a hold of in this city."
He was dodging the question, and she let it go, exhaling. "It's … I have other priorities right now. We don't usually see each other all the time anyway, even if he isn't seeing someone else."
"I heard about that – the underwear model, right?
"Why does everyone remember that?" Hitomi muttered.
"A man has needs, you know. Emotional ones," he clarified when Hitomi glared at him. "It's no secret Okuchi has abandonment issues."
The bruises on her wrists burned as if in warning.
They fell silent as the waiter announced his presence and entered the room with their drinks. Hitomi cleared her throat and readjusted her necklace, which was on loan from Inoue. She had been hesitant wearing it since it was made of black tourmaline, but she recognised it as a necklace the other woman had started wearing around the time she had started 'dating' Neji. It turned out there was a secret compartment within that was the perfect place for storing a small tracking device. Hitomi had asked her if she'd known what it could do when she received it, but Tenten had merely shrugged.
"We were still having problems communicating," she had said. They were sitting in the back of a van, in an alleyway a block away from Hitomi's apartment. The spies had picked it up in the morning from a secret warehouse, and it was packed full of equipment.
"And now?"
"We're still having problems communicating," Tenten said with a wry smile. "Much like you and I. It might be a genetic thing – perhaps I don't get along with Hyuugas very well."
"Quite the opposite, I think. We like people who are straightforward like us. You're just letting other things complicate the situation."
Tenten did not bother to reply or hide the roll of her eyes.
"You are also going to need this watch – it doubles as a microphone," Tenten continued as if she'd said nothing, handing her a digital watch with a dark metallic face and a silver mesh band. "It's made of stainless steel so I'm assuming it's not going to affect you in the way that silver would."
"How thoughtful. Do I get a code word?"
"What?" Tenten asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Oh come on, allow me to be at least a little genre savvy. You all have a code name … or a word to signal you're in trouble."
"Your code name is actually Silver – Neji picked it for you a while back when he started writing status reports. We didn't want to use Oracle, given how much time has passed. It doesn't matter so much because you won't be on the radio with us. You can test the microphone now," Tenten said, putting on her headset.
"My code word … will be sunset," Hitomi said, maintaining her normal voice without lifting the watch to her mouth.
"You're crystal clear," Tenten smiled, and took off the headset. "You're ready to go. Break a leg."
Hitomi returned to the present as the waiter withdrew. "And you?"
"Hmm?"
"What about your … needs, as you put it?" she asked coyly.
"No time for that," Kengo chuckled, as she knew he would, and sat back in his chair. "Come on, work is my only mistress." He looked her right in the eye, almost as if he was searching for something. "We haven't changed in that respect, it seems. There is a person, though …"
Hitomi arched an eyebrow. "Oh?" In the past, Kengo's conquests had been a topic of many of their conversations. After she'd met Shinji, she had realised that the conversations had always bothered her; he was too frank with her and made her question everyone's ulterior motives.
"Yeah. I met her in Tokyo at a conference," Kengo said easily. "But I'll introduce you two the next time she's in town. You'd like her."
But here she was, with ulterior motives of her own. "I look forward to it," Hitomi smiled. Her phone started ringing and she knew who was calling. "Sorry, I have to take this," she apologised, and left the room. She briskly walked down the corridor into the bathroom, and locked the door behind her as she swiped the screen to answer.
"What's wrong?"
"She didn't even say hi."
"Cousin, now is not the time to joke," Hitomi said testily. Thankfully the establishment had single occupant bathrooms to provide more privacy, and she couldn't sense any presences in the rooms nearby. "I thought you two would be done by now." It was almost eight, and they had dropped by the apartment as soon as Kengo had left, at six-thirty.
"Well about that," Neji said, sounding tired. "There's been a hiccup."
Hitomi sat down on the counter and ran her hands through her hair. "What?"
"His room is sealed shut, electronically, and he's got cameras in there we can't touch, and we can't blackout that block to reset them because it's on the same supply grid as a hospital. We need … you to get into that room."
It was actually getting worse the more he spoke. The Hyuuga blinked. "So what does that actually mean?"
"We need you to get into his room, with a device, and leave, taking that device with you. Tenten's working on the programming now, but it's a box … the size of two packs of cigarettes, stacked on top of each other."
"No, no. Let's go back a bit. Are you asking me to sleep with him?"
"I'm asking you to do what you feel is necessary-"
A voice came out of the background. "Give me the phone, Neji, and do not touch the computer. Hello?" It was Tenten.
"Oh, hi Inoue. It seems like my cousin has lost his mind," Hitomi said.
"Are you alone now?"
"Yes, and you?"
There was a slight muffling of the phone as Tenten put the phone against her chest. "Neji, can you go sit in the driver's seat for a bit? Please? Thank you. Okay, I'm alone," she confirmed, as the van door slammed shut in the background.
Hitomi sighed. "Shinji isn't on the same wavelength about Kengo. If it gets out that I'm sleeping with him again … things won't end well."
"I'm not going to comment on the obvious double standard," Tenten said dryly.
"It's not about me sleeping with someone else, it's Kengo that Shinji has an issue with. Especially after last night … How can I explain any of this to him?"
"If you don't want to sleep with Isaka, it's your call – it's your body. You can watch a movie with him or play board games, even. But if you don't get in his room and help us copy data from his computer which could help us figure out who the supplier is, Lucia – or whatever messed up Okuchi yesterday enough to hurt you, the most important person in his life right now – is going to tear apart this entire city, and everyone you know. We just got some preliminary results back from headquarters and it's not looking good."
She took a deep breath. "I know you weren't close but think about what happened with Nakagawa Rina – she was scarred by past traumas and was driven to suicide once Lucia broke through her mental barriers, and this was just the leaves. Now imagine something five times more potent and ten times as addictive. No one can walk away from that after a few weeks. I've seen some of the kids and adults they have in rehabilitation centres. The withdrawal is agonising but most of the time they can barely remember who they are or what year it is. And that was just a test run."
"You're not giving me much of a choice," Hitomi sighed.
"By the way, we found Okuchi," the spy said, after a beat.
"And?" It came out a bit sharper than she'd intended and she winced.
"He was recuperating with Saito. He's fine, there's no lasting damage if you think he was drugged with Lucia last night. They're out of harm's way tonight, but Okuchi seems really upset about what happened yesterday."
"Good," Hitomi said. "Then maybe what I'm about to do won't hurt as much. I trust I'll see you again tonight?"
"We'll know when you're coming," Tenten said, sounding relieved. "Get ready for a brush pass as you walk into the building."
By the time Hitomi returned to the private dining room, the waiter was waiting to serve their appetiser. Hitomi stared unseeingly at the man as he explained what was on their plates and left them alone to eat.
"Trouble?"
"Something like that," Hitomi smiled wryly. "But I don't want to ruin the mood."
"Shinji found out you were here?" Kengo guessed.
Hitomi didn't correct him and picked at her food. Her appetite had long left her, but it was a cardinal sin to not eat something that had already been prepared for her.
"So how have you been lately?" She asked, changing the topic. "If you won't let me read your mind, you're going to have to do the talking."
Kengo smirked. "Things have been … well normal and not normal at the same time," he said. "The launch has been a long time coming but won't be a huge client affair, since the nature of the final product is for organisations that pride themselves on keeping things secret."
"Have you found a buyer?"
"No domestic organisations have piped up yet," Kengo said easily. "But we're looking overseas – that's where the money is."
A missed opportunity for Konoha, then. "Have you done field tests yet?"
"Results blew everyone's minds," he said. "Even my father was impressed."
She chuckled. "It does take a lot to impress him," she mused.
"He's not the only one."
Hitomi met his gaze steadily. "There's nothing wrong with having standards."
"True," Kengo said. "But changing them all of a sudden, three years ago …"
"It's not like you to be jealous," Hitomi teased.
"You turn heads wherever you go. You could make a model jealous, looking the way you do."
"Come on, Kengo, quit it," she said, and realised her cheeks were warm. "I can't eat with you staring at me like that," she said, leaning forward.
"There is something I want to eat," he said softly, his eyes dark. "But if I said it out loud you'd probably blush the way you used to."
Hitomi laughed. "It wasn't what you said," she said, covering her eyes with the back of her hand. "It was the way you'd always picture it as you said it."
"And it always worked," he said, so sure of himself. The truth was, everything about him had moved her back then – the way he talked, his smile, his range of emotions and his aura, even down to the way he held his cigarette had completely dazzled her, like she was staring at the sun.
"I was so young," she sighed. "Naïve. Why did you like me then?"
"Because you … were so pure," Kengo said unabashedly. "In every sense of the word. I loved how much you loved life, and emotions and humanity. You faced everything without flinching. But I have to say, you're more beautiful now."
"Age suits my hair, I suppose," Hitomi said, running a hand through her locks.
"It's more than that," he replied thoughtfully, leaning back. "You seem much more … present. You used to reflect the things you had once experienced, like a mirror into the past. But now … you're here, and I know if I hold you, you're not going to disappear into the ether."
She laughed, trying to hide the chill that crept down her spine – Shinji had said the exact opposite. "What's gotten into you lately? You're not normally this whimsical."
"I've always been this way," he said defensively. "Perhaps I could say you inspire me. I like you most when you're free to be whoever you want to be – it's only natural that I get jealous when I have to … share you. But I know you'll always come back to me. You always do."
Silence.
Hitomi said nothing as she pushed her chair away from the table, and stood up. "This was clearly a mistake," she said softly, turning to leave.
Kengo bolted up to stop her from leaving, standing in front of her with his hands on her arms. She crossed them and glared up at him. He looked abashed and sufficiently contrite as he apologised.
"I didn't mean to make you angry," Kengo said. "I'm sorry, Hitomi I said something crass and selfish."
"And?" she prompted, crossing her arms.
"I'm selfish and stupid and unworthy of your love. Is there anything I can possibly do for your forgiveness?"
Hitomi recalled an online payment on one of his credit card statements. Neji had made her take a look over the list for anything unusual just that morning. "You can pay me back with a good bottle of wine. The wine list isn't exactly impressive here," she said flippantly.
"That I can manage," Kengo said, with a warm smile as he caressed her skin, his palms coming to rest on her shoulders. "I just had a great shiraz come in from overseas – Penfolds-"
"The 2008 Grange?" Hitomi finished for him. "That's your father's taste."
"Sometimes he gets things right," he replied dryly. "Please, Hitomi, let me make it up to you," he said, watching her carefully.
She wasn't the same woman who had woken up that morning, pining for Okuchi Shinji. She knew what she wanted; to go home with Kengo to see what he knew … if he was the one who was trying to destroy the only peace she had ever known.
Hitomi took the olive branch. "Fine," she said softly, blinking and breaking past his stare. He relaxed, visibly relieved. "But I have every intention of collecting what is owed to me, Kengo."
