It had been an insane morning for Yao. He fell asleep minutes after arriving home but woke up when the chief called to his house in the middle of the night. When he turned on the television he couldn't believe it. His case was on the news, all of the murders presented one after the other, then wrapping it all up with Heracles' death in front of the station. How did the media know all about it? Someone from the station snitched, that was for sure. He was very careful with his cases and never talked with outsiders about them. It certainly wasn't Ivan spreading the news either, why would he? So it had to be someone else in the station that knew about the case. But the culprit didn't matter much at the moment, not when reporters were outside of the station trying to get an interview from him or a declaration from the chief. It was an absolute nightmare, there was nothing he hated more than being the center of attention of the media, and it had already happened before. Once in a while, his most notorious cases would be broadcasted on the news and then the reporters would try chasing him down, desperate for more information.

"What? How!?"

Detective Braginski couldn't understand how the media learned about their case. This was bad news for them, now there was going to be widespread panic about a serial killer on the loose, and much more pressure on him and Yao to catch that bastard. Judging by Yao's troubled expression as he drank his coffee, he could tell that it had already happened to his partner before. How were they going to investigate now? It was going to be a problem to have the media following them around and harassing them.

"Obviously one of your coworkers snitched!"

Feliks commented, still flipping through the files. Who would have thought working at the station would be so entertaining? Although he very much enjoyed the gossip of the coffee shop, this was so much better.

"And I know exactly who did."

The Chinese man put down his coffee mug, a frown on his face as he thought about the person that deliberately ruined their case by speaking to the media about it.

"Who in the station knows about the case other than you, me, and the chief?"

The Russian was cut off by Yao who replied to him with another question. He paused for a moment to think about the only two people beside them and the chief who knew about their case and were working in the station.

"Feliciano and Gilbert."

Feliks looked up from the paperwork, the second name sounded pretty familiar. He was certain that he had heard the detectives talk about that person before.

"And where is Feliciano right now? In the fucking hospital, so who do we have left?"

Ivan knew that his partner had a particular hatred for Gilbert, and when Yao felt a certain way about someone, it was not difficult for him to jump to conclusions. However, Ivan had to agree with this assumption. Knowing how Gilbert was, his careless and clumsy nature, it made perfect sense.

"So it was Gilbert, who would have seen that coming?"

Detective Wang sighed, squeezing his nose bridge in distress. How much messier could this case get? He thought it couldn't get worse when Heracles died, but now they had the media after them. He was definitely not in the mood to deal with any of the nosy reporters outside. His hangover was far from being cured, and the coffee was not helping. At least he got Feliks to accept the job, or else he would have been stuck with Ivan alone, and he was not ready to face the Russian after what happened last night.

"Are y'all talking shit about me?"

The Prussian spoke, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and extinguishing it on the ashtray that was on Ivan's table. He did not appreciate his coworkers talking about him behind his back, and seeing their sour faces, he could tell they were not saying positive things about him.

"So that's the moron we've been talking about?"

Feliks was stirring the pot, he just couldn't help it! It was within his nature to do so. He immediately noticed the angry glance pierced at him by Gilbert across the room.

"And who's this bottle blonde?"

The Russian didn't even notice Gilbert coming inside the room, now this was uncomfortable. He was slightly upset that Gil had used his brand new ashtray. His sister had gotten him that! Even though she knew very well that Yao was not going to let him smoke indoors.

"Excuse me? I'm a natural blonde! And I'm the new secretary here, for your information."

Detective Wang needed to step in, if they continued they would end up killing each other. Feliks was not to be underestimated, the man was feisty and petty.

"Gilbert, what the fuck were you thinking? Why would you tell the media about our case? Who the hell have you been talking to!?"

Ivan remained silent, not really wanting to get into Gilbert and Yao's dispute. He was certain that it would end badly, and he was just going to stand there and be ready to stop them when one of them decides to throw the first punch.

"Look- I didn't know okay? This chick just wouldn't stop asking me and then-"

The Prussian then remembered what happened, so yes, it was technically his fault that the case got out, but in his defense, he was tricked into telling everything! Elizabeta was a sneaky reporter, and she came over last night apparently just wanting to talk. He got him talking about his case with Lien Chun and whining about how his case got taken away from Yao. Then she started asking about Yao and his cases, and just like that, she found out about the serial killer on the loose.

"A chick? Did you tell your hookup about a classified case?

Detective Wang knew that Gilbert was an idiot, but he didn't know he was that dumb. How could he just freely talk about his job like that? Did he not know that as detectives they were not supposed to discuss their cases with outsiders?

"Hey! She's my ex girlfriend, and I'm not hooking up with her!"

The Polish man was holding back a laugh. This Gilbert guy was truly a laughingstock. Even Feliks knew that he couldn't talk about his job with random people, even though he was just an assistant. He knew very well that all this was top secret, and he was not willing to lose his new job for gossiping around.

"You told your ex? God, you're pathetic."

Ivan had a feeling that things were going to go south very soon. He could see how triggered Gilbert was getting and Yao wasn't holding back either. He was about to step in and tell Gilbert to be more careful with the things he says to other people about their work when the chief walked in.

"Gilbert, get out of here."

Chief Beilschdmit had been standing outside for a while, listening to Yao argue with his brother. Needless to say, Ludwig was disappointed by Gilbert's actions. He would talk with him later, in private and in his office. Right now there was a more pressing matter he had to discuss with the detectives.

"Lud! How long have you been standing there?"

The Prussian gasped, a shiver going down his spine when he heard his brother's voice. Great, now he was going to get scolded by Ludwig, and he knew he deserved it, but he still didn't want to hear it.

"Long enough, now go to my office. I have to talk with Detective Wang and Braginski."

Feliks snickered, covering his mischievous grin behind his hand before tossing his blonde locks back as he watched Gilbert grumpily walk out of the room. His satisfaction was however short-lived when the chief stared down on him.

"What? Me too? Ugh, fine."

The German closed the office door after Feliks walked out. Was that the new secretary Yao told him about? He only authorized it because he knew that Yao and Ivan had no time to do any paperwork with how busy they were with the case.

"Gilbert has compromised our case, again."

To say Yao was frustrated was an understatement. He was tired of Gilbert fucking up things for him. It all started with the shitty report he did on Lien Chun and now this? The Chinese man never wanted to see the Prussian ever again, that man should be fired for what he did, even if it was unintentional.

"I know. I'll talk with him about it later, right now we have something more important to deal with."

The Russian listened to his boss, expecting the chief to talk to them about the reporters and the media that surrounded the station. Maybe he wanted them to go out and give a statement? Ivan didn't like that idea very much, and he was sure Yao would be against it too.

"We found out that Heracles has a brother, a half brother to be precise, and apparently lived together. The brother's name is Sadik, perhaps he knows something about what Heracles got himself into."

Detective Wang immediately snatched the file that Ludwig had tucked under his arm. He didn't care if it was disrespectful or if it was the chief. He opened it, looking at the picture of Sadik and the address.

"We're going to see him, right now."

Finally, something good was happening today. A new clue, hopefully, Heracles' brother could give them some relevant information about Heracles' relationship with the mailman. He saw Yao walking towards the door and was ready to follow, except they were forgetting something.

"But what about the reporters outside?"

Yao was so excited about this new piece of information that he forgot about the reporters roaming outside of the station, how the hell were they going to leave without being followed around?

"Boss! I got an idea!"

Feliks peeked his head through the door. He had been overhearing the entire conversation, but that didn't matter now, his brilliant idea to distract the media was more important.

"I'll go out as the bait and distract them! They'll go crazy if I go out wearing a uniform, maybe they'll think I'm a detective!"

Yao was about to tell Feliks to get out but his idea wasn't actually that bad. The media know him because of his other cases but they didn't know Ivan. They could just send Feliks out and they would think it was his partner.

"It could work, or at least buy us enough time to get out and drive away without them noticing."

The Polish man nodded with a grin, this job was so much more fun than what he was expecting! Now he got to play dress-up? He was living his Charlie's Angels fantasy to the fullest. He shut the door close, on his way to get changed.

"Well, that settles it."

Who would have thought that the new assistant would be more efficient than his own brother? The chief certainly did not expect it. He turned around to leave the two detectives and go to his office where he would have a serious talk with Ludwig.

"Here, you'll need this."

Yao spoke up once the chief had left, opening one of the drawers of his desk and took out a pair of sunglasses, and tossed it to Ivan.

"Oh? Is this so we don't get recognized by the paparazzis?"

The Russian was glad that his partner was making some small talk with him now that they were alone. He was so afraid about them being awkward about what happened yesterday but apparently, Yao moved on from it. He wasn't sure if he was happy about that or upset, but he was definitely relieved, the station was not the ideal place to talk about feelings. Ivan caught the sunglasses, putting them on.

"No, you dumbass. It's for your hangover."

He grabbed another pair from the drawer and put it on himself. He barely slept last night and the hangover was giving him migraines, going out to the sun was going to make it so much orse, which is why the sunglasses were necessary.

"Oh...right."

Ivan gulped, the nervousness invading him all over again. So Yao was aware of what happened? He honestly had no idea, but the sunglasses were a reminder of how awful he probably looked. The hangover was definitely not over, but at least the glasses could make him look a bit more decent.

"I'm ready to go!"

Feliks walked back inside, fully changed into uniform, and even pulled his hair into a ponytail to appear more professional.

"Let's do this."

The Chinese man had high hopes of the plan working out. Felix had turned out more useful than he expected. In all honesty, the reason he decided he needed a secretary was because he refused to be alone in the office with Ivan after last night. Not because he didn't like Ivan or didn't enjoy the kiss, quite the opposite actually. He just hadn't made up his mind yet about what he was going to do about it.

"Detective Wang? Detective Braginski? Is that you? Can we please have a word with you?"

Just as expected, the reporters rushed to the front door when Feliks stepped outside. Ivan and Yao went safely out the backdoor, immediately getting inside the car and driving away.

"That was a close call."

Ivan looked out of the window as they drove past the station. The reporters were all surrounding Feliks, he honestly had no idea how the Polish man had pulled it off, but he admired him for it.

"Yeah, now look at Sadik's file, tell me if there's anything relevant about him."

Detective Wang wanted to focus on work and work exclusively. He was going to avoid the topic for as long as he could. At some point, they were going to have to talk about it, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be the one bringing it up.

"Umm..let's see. A high school dropout, unemployed, and apparently has been to juvie when he was fifteen."

It seemed like Heracles' brother was not the guy to mess with. The guy definitely had something shady going on. Ivan was certain that Sadk was going to ask them for a warrant before going inside, and that was going to be a problem.

"Well, something's definitely not right about those brothers. I just hope he can give us information about the killer, any little thing could help us piece it all together."

Fuck. Yao had run out of conversation topics for the meantime. But he had to say something else or they were going to be stuck in uncomfortable silence for the next fifteen minutes of the ride. The silence would eventually lead to one of them speaking up about last night and he was still not ready to face it, and he honestly felt like he would never be ready for it.

"Yao?"

The Asian froze, could it be that Ivan...wanted to talk about it? Right now? On their way to Sadik's house? Yao didn't want to do it, not now, not ever! What was he going to say? Admit that he indeed has feelings for him? Tell him that he actually remembered the kiss very well and that he hadn't felt that way for anyone before in a very long time? No, he couldn't do that, no way! He would only end up hurting Ivan and then everything would go to shit. But what about what Natalya said? Was he just running away from his problems? And what if he regrets not getting together with Ivan? Yao was having an intense internal monologue when Ivan spoke up once more.

"Can I turn on the radio?"