Disclaimer:

Let's just skip the giant disclaimer you can find in Chapter 1!


x.

FS

x.

x. ENCOUNTER in VENICE x.

(new version)

x.

Fate seemed to pull the strings

I turned and you were gone

While from the darkened wings

The music box played on

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

After lunch…

(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)

x.

After lunch—a simple minestrone and a mixed salad, which Seiya has devoured with ravenous appetite (all the time darting the cook appreciative, sunny smiles as though he had skipped breakfast and been starving)—they routinely speed-clean their apartment together. He wipes the kitchen counter, does the dishes, and hangs the laundry he has washed on the clothes rack on their bedroom balcony while she changes the bedding and the sheets, dusts the whole apartment, and puts miscellaneous items into their respective places. Now that Shiho has finished her tasks, she comfortably ensconces herself on their sofa and stretches out her legs, pretending to focus on the daily planner in her hand while watching her boyfriend wipe the floor. Crouching next to the water bucket, Seiya is stoically listening to his agent's lecture on the phone, which is hanging from the chain around his neck, while scrubbing the parquet floor in quick, efficient movements.

"I haven't asked you to take a vow of celibacy—I've only asked you to wait until their comeback before you drop the bomb, Seiya! This Christmas, dammit! Was it so difficult to manage?" Igarashi Shizuka's voice cracks. "The hospitals are bursting with female patients and their distraught families because over a hundred lovesick girls have slit their wrists or tried to hang themselves until now! That's a new record, and I'm besieged by reporters—but we really don't need this sort of publicity before Taiki and Yaten's comeback! You're hogging the limelight again! Don't do it unless you plan to return to the stage with them!"

He is extremely sorry about the fans, but it wasn't exactly his idea to make it public, and he is just as frustrated with this situation as she is—Seiya protests as he wrings out the rag.

"Tenoh-san wouldn't have had anything in her hands if you hadn't moved in with your girlfriend. You two could even have done the business in public and Miyano-san would still be only one of the many affairs of yours! The gutter press would have slandered her for a while and then forgotten about her, but now…" Her sonorous voice shakes in frustration. "I've told you over and over again that I'm against this! You three were supposed to stay single until you're at least thirty-five! I don't need any steady, official girlfriends running around ruining my darlings' images—especially not yours!"

"Well, my reputation can't get any worse," her darling dryly remarks. He has arrived at the sofa and removed his gloves to stroke Shiho's knees and to press silent, lingering kisses on her feet and legs, which are conveniently at the same level as his chest when he is sitting on the floor.

"Work before pleasure!" Shiho reluctantly draws away when he begins to nibble her knee, blowing hot breath onto her skin and trailing warm, seductive kisses up her thighs. Fearing that she could give in and go along with his outrageous suggestion—while she loves his irreverent sense of humour, Shiho firmly believes that Igarashi-san's voice should never be connected to this form of entertainment in her mind—she leaves the sofa and walks to her handbag to put her daily planner away.

"You were cool before this mess, Seiya. Cool!" rants Igarashi-san, oblivious to the proceedings on the other end of the line. "You were once the cool, wild bad boy of the group. Barhopping is fine! One-night stands are great as long as you stay away from your insane groupies. You're supposed to be the adventurous mystery man every woman dreams of and no woman can touch—at least not for longer than a few hours!" Whenever Igarashi-san is on the verge of tears, her deep voice flutters until it rises to a dramatic soprano. "You're the unattainable romantic dream, which I have created! You don't only have the ideal looks and the ideal voice for your image, my love—you even have the perfect personality and the perfect name for it. I've put my heart into you! You're not supposed to get yourself a steady girlfriend and play the adoring, boring, plain-vanilla boyfriend, who does all the mundane daily things like grocery shopping and sharing the housework with his woman." She goes into hysterics. "The damn role doesn't suit you at all. No one wants to see you in it. It sucks! You suck in it!"

"I'm changing my old image into that of the adoring, adventurous, cool boyfriend—so what?" Disappointed by Shiho's rejection and tired of his agent's antics, Seiya nonchalantly wipes the legs of the chairs and the floor under the coffee table. "You can't seriously expect us to meet up in hotels and pensions for years. And renting a second apartment is much too expensive. You know the prices here."

"It wouldn't be expensive for you at all, sweetheart, if you had agreed to revive Three Lights. And don't get me started on all the movie offers and the millions of Hollywood dollars you've foolishly refused just because you can't bear the thought of neglecting your pretty girlfriend for a few years and doing a few harmless love scenes with some of the most beautiful women in the world in front of the camera! We're all still waiting for you to grow up and change your mind—preferably before December." Igarashi-san heaves a weary, heartfelt sigh. "If you intend to starve and waste your talent, idiot, it's fine, fine, fine to me! I'm looking forward to the day when your lover finally dumps you for someone else with more money and, above all, more brains and you're alone and broke. You'll have lost years or decades by then but you'll still shoot to stardom again and the brainless groupies will still slit their wrists out of unrequited love to you even when you're as old as the hills. Dad said they were running after you when you were still a skinny arrogant brat working for some spare change in the circus. A rascal like you never loses! But your two hyper-sensitive, chronically depressed, too-beautiful-to-survive-in-this-world brothers can't piece themselves together on their own—and you haven't only selfishly abandoned them, you're also dragging them down with you, ruining their careers, stealing their limelight. I'm not going to accept it!"

"Aren't you being melodramatic?" Seiya blinks at the phone dangling from his neck, amused by his agent's tirade. Yet Shiho can see that Igarashi-san has opened old wounds when she mentioned his brothers. When he returns to the bucket to wash the rag, he looks distracted, almost sorrowful.

"Thirty-nine editors called me within an hour this morning, Seiya! No comment, I said—since Shizuka-sama doesn't know what her darling does in his spare time! He shuttles back and forth between New York and Venice, runs off to Chicago, Rome, or Paris, and disappears for weeks or months without notifying anyone. He accepts roles in random musicals in Italy or France without telling me in advance. His phone is always muted or turned off, and he never, ever, calls back. At twenty-five, he is still the enfant terrible of the group—just as he has been right from the beginning: refusing to give interviews, hiding from the girls, roaming cities in disguise, lazying around on park benches whenever possible, waiting until he is stony broke before accepting a job, doing half-hearted rehearsals just to awe the audience during the performances… Any other agent would have kicked him long ago—and I only stick by him despite his cavalier attitude because I'm masochistic and addicted to his voice and because it's my deceased daddy's last wish! Who am I kidding? Even his two brothers—once the two closest, dearest people in his life!—are now thrilled when they learn from time to time that he's still alive and doesn't only get himself into senseless fights. No one knows why he is continually assaulted by bandits on his way! His brothers won't tell me anything, and he always blames it on his bad karma when I ask him. At least he has never done drugs! Apropos editors…" Igarashi-san pauses to catch her breath, changing her tone to match the new topic. "What are you going to tell the reporters tonight?"

"The truth." Seiya continues to scrub the corridor with his usual composure. "They won't believe me if I tell them that she is my secretary. Apart from that, I've already told you that I'm not going to hide this."

"Friends with benefit?" Igarashi-san rapidly suggests. "Open love affair? On-again, off-again lover? Woman friend? Anything but 'this is my soulmate' or 'she is the woman I love and plan to marry some day' or another corny line… I swear I'm going to make you suffer and skin you alive if you dare to do that to me!"

Seiya sighs, darting Shiho a wry smile before he wrings out the rag for the last time. "Let's agree on 'steady girlfriend' or 'life partner'," he suggests, resigned, and carries the bucket into the bathroom.

"'Girlfriend' is bad enough! Well, your 'first girlfriend' since you're going through a rare romantic phase and want to try out the lovey-dovey stuff for once. Adding the 'first' makes it sound more ephemeral… And please, please don't say more than that! You can also hint that you're still keeping all your options open because being in a real relationship is much harder than you thought…"

"I'm leaving my options open, too," Shiho, who has followed her boyfriend into the bathroom, darkly murmurs.

"I'll just tell them that she is my girlfriend and that I'd like to keep my private life private," Seiya—who has emptied the bucket into the sink, washed the rag, and removed the gloves in the meantime—pulls the chain with the phone over his head. "Are you finally done now?"

"Not yet! I'm flying tomorrow morning with Yaten and Taiki and your former love-of-your-life and her vicious black cat from hell that Yaten loves so much—you and your brothers are all retarded when it comes to romance!—and we're staying at the Gritti for two nights. You, my dear Phantom, are going to have dinner with us tomorrow after the musical so that we can discuss this… Also, Akane-sama has asked me to send her favourite actor a message."

"And, what did she say?" For the first time during the phone call, Shiho can hear genuine interest in Seiya's voice.

"She said: 'The boy will show the world that he is the ideal Phantom, no doubt about it—but he should really try to stay professional this time…' Is it what I think it is, Moriarty? You gave her such a hard time back then. She has never forgiven you for what you did to the crew."

Seiya laughs, winking at Shiho with a faraway look in his eyes. "It certainly seems so…"

"What did she mean?"

"I think what my favourite film director meant to say was, 'Don't get carried away by your role and murder your enemies with a lasso!'"

x.

To Shiho's relief, Igarashi Shizuka-san hasn't used the word "murder" as cue to bring up the topic of Seiya being the prime suspect in the La Fenice case. Either she is the opinion that the matter is too delicate to be discussed via phone or she is honestly not interested, believing that the rumours would only support Seiya's bad boy image. In any case, she wouldn't have had the time to address the issue. Fearing that his agent could get the idea to repeat the whole lecture in different words to hammer it home, Seiya quickly ends the call with a curt "See you tomorrow" and mutes his phone.

A silence like velvet descends over the sparsely furnished, bright apartment, peaceful and soothing like the calm before the storm.

"Do you think Gorowitz is still watching our bedroom?" Even though they've lowered the blinds in all rooms, the feeling of being watched is unnerving.

"I don't know. Would you like to give her a little performance?" he winks. After the talk with his agent, he has returned to his flippant, carefree self. The Phantom of the Opera is gone.

"I'll pass. What are you going to do with the creep tomorrow? You can't seriously expect to have a sensible talk with Gorowitz out of all people. She is able to assault you and rape you in your own dressing room."

"She is so crazy that she's almost interesting. It doesn't cost me anything to speak to her in private for once."

It costs you the free time you could spend with me, Shiho thinks, hurt by his sudden willingness to meet up with an infatuated fan who has been stalking him for years. Knowing that Seiya hates to be controlled and is likely to run away if he feels caged, she has always tried to give him as much space as possible. But now she begins to wonder whether she has given him too much freedom at the expense of their relationship.

"You can't seriously believe that I'd ever start anything with someone like her," he remarks as though he has read her mind.

"I don't believe anything!" she snaps, irritated. "Don't pretend that you always know what I'm thinking!"

"That was… cold and harsh." He pouts in a soft, whiny voice, fluttering his long, gently curved eyelashes—and Shiho laughs, instantly forgiving him for his few thoughtless actions. He has always treated her mercurial temperament with humour and patience, after all.

Why has she suddenly become so moody, she wonders, and ascribes her anxiety to Seiya's agent, who has touched a raw nerve when she once again reminded her that their relationship costs Seiya a brilliant, glittering, world-class acting career. Shiho has always tried to support her boyfriend's passion and respect his choices—but she can't lie to herself that she is cut out to be the partner of an actor of his calibre when she despises almost everything his job encompasses. With effort, she can tolerate the publicity, his fanatical fans, and the stunningly beautiful women he meets every day—"Odango's" friends are all so attractive, even fascinating—each in her own special way—that Shiho has more than once wondered how Seiya had stayed immune to their charms for all those years. Even his travels and the long waiting hours in his dressing room or in the backstage area, which she can while away with a book and her own studies, are things she can get accustomed to. But after four years, she can no longer bear to see him losing himself in his role, leaving her behind to love other women and live another life until he finally snaps out of it and returns to her at night with his rueful, knowing smile, lavishing her with attention and love and caresses and gifts to keep her by his side.

Gin was always controlling and possessive, which she found unattractive and which bored her with time. But now that Shiho herself is burdened with an overly attractive partner, who turns heads wherever he goes, she can almost understand her abusive ex-lover, whose jealousy had always seemed ridiculous and stifling to her. She can't tolerate another woman's hand on Seiya, much less another woman's lips on his. Although she knows that hugs and kisses don't mean anything special in the world of acting, she feels something close to hatred boiling inside her when other women throw themselves at her boyfriend and grope him whenever he can't flee from them in time.

In the last months, she has even begun to hate The Phantom of the Opera (their musical, which Seiya sang to her at Tenoh-san's place!) with passion since she had to watch Hino Rei and Seiya together during the rehearsals, knowing that her boyfriend can forget himself in any role and that the lyric soprano, who is one of Odango's smartest, most elegant, and certainly Odango's most beautiful friend, is in love with him. Deciding that his career is more important than her jealousy, Shiho has often encouraged her boyfriend to return to the screen, which he has always declined, knowing that it will be impossible for her to deal with it if a role like the Phantom is already pushing her limits. Deep down, she is relieved. Even though she is still trying hard to adapt to all the demands of his job, she knows she is capable of murdering Seiya or at least leaving him for good if he ever agreed to do the "harmless love scenes" his agent mentioned. She still nurtures the hope that they will find a way to reconcile their relationship with his career someday. But sometimes, she wonders whether she is chasing an illusion, which has already received the first cracks, whenever she sees his eyes light up at the sight of something as simple as a new screenplay.

"Kudo is going to interrogate you again," she changes the topic, pushing her dark thoughts aside to focus on the important tasks. She still feels a surge of euphoria when she thinks of Kudo—the real, socially challenged, eternally mystery-obsessed Kudo Shinichi, who has immediately propelled her back to her time as Haibara Ai when she saw him again last night. But she is also apprehensive about Kudo's troublesome curiosity, which can smash the house of cards she has built and ruin her relationship with Seiya within a few days.

"I know."

Her lovely boyfriend is infuriatingly relaxed and fearless as usual, as if it doesn't mean anything to him that he has to defend himself under these circumstances.

"We have to agree on what we tell him." She leans against the sink and folds her arms, shooting him a piercing look à la Sherlock Holmes. "Where were you during the first act?"

He remains perfectly unimpressed.

"You've already given me an alibi in front of commisario Carrara, haven't you? Although I'd told you that you shouldn't do it. It has ruined your reputation completely—"

"It was enough for the commisario," she gives a dismissive wave, "but not for Kudo. Kudo knows me. He won't believe that I've forced you to miss your friend's concert. So, where were you during the first act?"

"We could tell him the truth," he suggests. "Just tell him that I was in Haruka-san's dressing room."

"And what were you doing there? That will be his next question, and don't tell me you're going to tell him that you've been sketching Kino-san's lilies."

"I was reading Sherlock Holmes?"

"Great idea!" she sighs, inwardly cursing Tenoh-san once again. "Forget it! You'll need another alibi for the first act."

He ruffles her hair, chuckling about her distress.

She shouldn't worry about him because he doesn't need an alibi at all, he asserts. He can tell Kudo that he has been reading in Haruka-san's room—and even though Kudo will know that it's a lie, Kudo will have to accept his lame excuse. What he did during the first act is insignificant, anyway, since the police will only focus on the second interval of the concert: the time of death. The case will be closed for lack of evidence after the autopsy, and even this publicity mess—courtesy of Haruka-san's meddling—will be over soon.

"And after the musical…" he trails off with an enigmatic smile full of unspoken promises to kiss her temple and her earlobe in silence, leaving her to imagine what will happen afterwards. A long, well-deserved holiday together; travels; having his attention on her (and only on her!) for a few months before the spring season comes like in the beginning of their relationship when they locked out the outside world and pretended that only he and she existed; a reunion with the Professor and the Detective Boys in Beika… But before her inner eye, she can also see Seiya checking the mailbox the day they return to Venice, where he is going to find an old letter from Tenoh-san, which has been delivered by one of her informants. After reading it, he will either stick by her and try hard to love her again like he did before he learned the truth—or he will break at the realization that she has never been the woman he believed her to be…

Tenoh-san's message is likely to come via post, in form of a letter or a card, because a physical object that can be touched suits Tenoh-san's style more than an email.

"Where is the key to the mailbox?" She steps out into the corridor. The key is not in his bunch of keys on the hook. Seiya tends to keep it separately, as he has become too lazy to remove it from his bunch of keys every time he goes abroad.

"In my pocket." He indicates his old leather jacket in the corridor and flashes her a wondering glance. "Why do you want to know?"

She walks over to his jacket, feels the pockets, and draws the small key out of his breast pocket with a rush of light-headedness. Despair has many faces, and after staying apathetic or rather frozen with fear for too long, she feels like going with the flow although she knows that this can only be a short-term solution.

"Because I'm going to fetch our mail from now on!"

Leaping to her side, he grabs her waist and snatches back the key, bursting into laughter when she tries to free herself and seize the key from him.

"Why are you so keen on fetching our mail all of a sudden?" He insolently waves the key in front of her nose. "I've fetched it for years. Most letters are addressed to me. I'm going to keep the key!"

She hasn't expected him to put up any resistance. But then again, he has never failed to surprise her.

"Since I always choose the fan letters you're allowed to read, I should keep the key," she insists, tries to free herself from his arm with the few movements she has learned in the self-defense classes at Infinity, and discovers once again that they all don't work on Seiya, who has more practical experience. Knowing that fighting is not one of her strong points, she uses her powers of persuasion instead. "Aren't you glad that you don't have to fetch our mail anymore? Or are you having an affair and are trying to hide her love letters from me?"

"I'm only having an affair with you, according to the press." He cheerfully twirls the key ring around his index finger until the key draws perfect circles in the air, catching the sunlight streaming into the corridor from the glass roof above.

"This isn't an affair, this is a long-time relationship—marriage sans papers. You're not supposed to read other women's love letters without my consent!"

"That's not marriage—that's prison! I read whatever I want to." He is still holding her waist, which she misuses by pulling him down for a kiss. Although she can feel how much he is enjoying it by the way he leans into her lips and deepens the kiss, he is still holding on to the key, keeping it away from her roaming hand.

"Please give me the key now," she murmurs into his ear, "and we can shower together afterwards." Since words aren't enough to convince him, she has to resort to bribery. "You'll have to hurry. We only have an hour before my detective visits us." It's already five past one on her watch, and Kudo has sent Seiya a message that he is going to visit them at two p.m.

He stops in the middle of his movements, pushes her away from him, cocks his head, and studies her with a mistrustful expression.

"Are you expecting a letter you have to hide from me?" His eyes narrow as his voice takes on the timbre of the Phantom's voice. For a moment, Shiho is left speechless by the fact that he has dared to use his Phantom of the Opera voice on her.

"Yes," she admits, amazed at her own boldness. She has never really lied to him, and she is not going to start now. "I'm keeping a few secrets from you. Does it bother you?"

Gin would have drawn the Beretta—but Seiya only gazes at her thoughtfully, contemplating her with serious eyes.

"Maybe I'm expecting mail which I have to hide from you, too." He smiles at last, amused. "Two people with secrets and only one mailbox. How are we going to solve this?"

She can't tell whether he is joking or whether he is telling the truth, as he looks exhilarated by the whole talk. To him, it might be only a game and not a calculated move.

No matter what he is hiding from her, it can't be as terrible as what she is hiding from him, she tries to reason with him. Hence it's in her best interests to keep the key.

"I'm going to keep the key, but I won't ask any questions about the letters addressed to you," he suggests in an attempt to haggle with her.

"No, I'm going to keep the key—but I'm going to deliver all of your letters to you from now on, even the spam from your stalkers and the fan letters you agent sends you in packets." She holds out her palm, waving it impatiently. "The key, please!"

With an exaggerated sigh, he hands her the key, which she victoriously attaches to her bunch of keys. Then they shake hands like business partners before he laughs at the situation and she throws her arms around his neck to kiss him again.

Irene Adler, the "well-known adventuress" with the "face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men," who dared to oppose the king, wouldn't let any well-meaning friend and her murky past ruin her happiness. She would simply take what she wanted and drag her Mr Norton by his ponytail to the municipal office, conventional morality be damned—Shiho decides. Irene would protect her relationship at all costs, destroy the dreaded letter, and outwit all her opponents—Mr Sherlock Holmes included. And then her husband and she would live happily ever after, for he would never learn the truth about whom he had married…

Perhaps Tenoh-san was right and she is unapologetically selfish when it comes to Seiya while she was self-sacrificing when it came to Kudo, but Shiho also thinks that she has made enough sacrifices in her life to earn the right to be completely selfish this time. Notwithstanding the many ups and downs in their relationship due to the stress with Pandora's Box, Seiya's job, and the pressure Tenoh-san has put on her, their time together has been sublime. And now that the greatest source of trouble is gone, she is not going to throw the towel.

"Shower?" She winks at him. If hell existed, she'd have just secured herself a place in it. On the other hand—Shiho muses—she would already have done enough in her life to earn a permanent place in hell, which is why she will postpone worrying about her soul or her peace of mind to afterlife and deal with the immediate future now.

"Of course. You can't go back on your word, Ai."

He gives her a mischievous smile and brings his hands behind her neck to help her with her zipper and her bra while she pulls at the knots of his d'Artagnan shirt, undoing each knot with quiet, childish pleasure.

"I really like that name," she remarks in passing. It used to remind her of sorrow and death and the innumerable shades of grey in life. But its meaning, too, has changed since he used it for the first time last night.

x.


A/N: I'm posting two chapters this time because they sort of belong together but squeezing them into one chapter would make that chapter too long.