Back into the swing of things. I know I took forever for this one, but I finally wrote a story for a different fandom and kinda… lost motivation? I'm sorry.

Thank you Ausllybeliever, queenglitch, Momochan77, and Lamis for the reviews on my last chapter!

Disclaimer: I still only own Livia.


GaijinPot Complex in Bunkyo-ku

Exact Location: Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

Apartment Room 204

10:43


Ugh. Yet another Saturday spent away from my perfectly cozy apartment with all my tools and spy stuff. Blegh…

During my talk with Kiku last Sunday, he'd somehow managed to bring me around on this little plane ride. For a few hours at least. But then Monday rolled around and reality caught me right in the chest like a roundhouse kick.

After the Host Club got over the fact that they had a legit brush with death, most of them had immediately focused on the fact that Kyoya and I had run away together. Hand holding and all that, too. Despite their previous "apologies" about cramming our supposed romance down our throats for the past week, they've been doing a piss-poor job of pretending they weren't still shipping us.

And that's not even bringing up Kyoya himself. He's becoming harder and harder for me to get a read on the longer I know him. At first, I had a pretty basic understanding of what a huge jerk he was. So determined to not see the blessings he had that all he could find were his shortcomings. Not even calling his actual friends his friends. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

But for the past week… I don't even know how to explain it. That personality I just described is still there but it's getting harder and harder to see. He wears it on the outside, but there's something else that's starting to surface. He's being kinder to others as of late. I'd say it was because of the dog incident, but it really seems genuine. Like he's finally coming to terms that he cares for the Host Club.

He's just been acting so odd.


Ding!

Livia paused in her recording, leaning over the bathroom countertop to read her phone screen. Recognizing the name paired with the text, she rolled her eyes and went back to brushing her hair. Once she was satisfied with it, she actually read the text on screen.

From: Kyoya O.

My car will reach your apartment complex in two minutes. Please be ready.

The girl growled and shoved the phone into the purse hanging at her side, not even bothering to answer.


Yeah, just send me a text and think that the 'please' will make it seem like less of a demand. Stupid-head.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, Kyoya. What else could I waste my time on?

For the past week he's been fluctuating between being an uptight jerk and demonstrating random acts of kindness which he then immediately backtracks from. Just the other day he asked how our egg project was coming along. He asked in private, of course, since no one knows we're treating it less like a partner project and more of a shared-custody. But I'll admit his question confused me. I told him it was doing just fine, but then he asked if he could come over and see it at least once to help make our story more believable. Before I could answer he was called away by another student and we haven't spoken about it since.

I swear, if I ever turn to drugs and alcohol, the first words out of my mouth in rehab will be 'Kyoya Ootori'.


Ding dong!

Letting out another sigh, Livia slipped the recorder into her pants pocket. Pulling the hem of her dark green shirt over the top of her pockets she opened the door, smiling as she prepared to greet Kyoya's driver.

"Miss Trasic."

The smile died. "Mister Ootori."

If he noticed her less-than-welcoming tone, he ignored it and offered an elbow. "Shall we?"


Thirty minutes later and the two still hadn't spoken another word to each other. Livia stared out the window of the limo's cabin and tried to act as though she wasn't keeping an eye out for pursuing helicopters or black SUVs. As overused as those movie tropes were, they were sometimes accurate.

It wasn't until they were driven into the airport's car-lot that Kyoya spoke up.

"You know, this is meant to be an apology." Livia glanced over her shoulder at her Charge. "I would like to have some sort of a discussion with you seeing as you didn't seek counseling like the others after the incident last weekend."

Livia was surprised that he'd noticed. "Why do you care so much if I'm okay or not?"

"Well, you did save me from being mauled by a dog last week."

"I just knew that if you died my parents would tell me to start getting cozy with your brothers, and I figured that would be disrespectful at your funeral."

Kyoya scoffed and looked back out his window, but she could see a smile in the reflection.

"Either that or they'd take me back home, and I'd miss Haruhi."

She was expecting another scoff, or perhaps an outright laugh this time around, but instead he shifted in his seat. "Right. I had forgotten."

For a brief moment, Livia was confused as to what he was talking about. Then it came back to her. Her previous mission with the Ootori family. She had been almost two months into her mission to protect Yuuichi Ootori at the time, still struggling a little with the language and fighting against the urge to slip laxatives into Aikio's tea the next time they had a tutoring session. That night she had observed on her security cameras men dressed in all black scouting the edge of the Ootori property. With a quick word to Mr. Ootori, she had decided to perform a stake-out in case they came back.

They did.

Livia had watched the men quickly scale the walls of the house trying to reach Yuuichi's window before she ran out to intercept them. A few bullets from her gun severed the wires they were using. The shots woke up the rest of the household, too.

From inside, she could hear screams and shouts as the Ootori's were pulled from their bedrooms, their bodyguards no doubt dragging them to a safe place to wait out the night. She, however, was now engaged in a fight with the three masked men. She faintly recalled slinking silently among the trees as the men fanned out. She managed to knock one man out before ambushing the second one in the garden.

Then she was shot in the leg.

The next day she had been shipped from her hospital bed back to base and that was the end of her first solo mission. Livia hadn't given it much thought, but Kyoya must've noticed how Livia's "parents" had brought her home so soon after his own house was attacked. It was a pretty good coverup, actually. Was he thinking that the same thing would happen if Livia was near danger again?

"So, where are we going today?"

"One of my family's private islands. It's close enough for a short boat ride, but I thought it would be faster if we flew instead."

Livia nodded along slowly. Private was always good, but if someone was waiting there to ambush them there were limited options for getting away. "So, what did you want to talk about? Our project?"

He smirked, the mood sufficiently lightened. "If you'd like. I was more hoping to discuss business on this trip."

"Did you now?"

"Of course. How else do you think I convinced my father to allow me to take a beautiful young girl to a private location in one of our private planes, unsupervised?"

Livia pressed her lips together in a thin line, struggling to not to react to the implications. If some magazine caught wind of this little "outing"... she scowled. Sometimes it really sucked being a girl, because even when she technically didn't have to worry about being overpowered she still had to act like she cared. That is unless she wanted to be mistaken as stupid or naive or even "asking for it".

Hoping to change the subject, Livia decided to ask a question that had been bugging her ever since she had arrived back in Bunkyo. But she couldn't just ask it like she wanted to. Because if his father hadn't told her during the briefing a month ago, then she wouldn't know about it at all.

Stepping out of the limo, she waited until they were picked up by a golf cart and were speeding across the tarmac before speaking up.

"How come your father gave you the business? The last time I was here, he was pretty clear about giving it to Yuuichi. What did you do to change his mind?"

Kyoya raised his eyebrows at her before facing forward. "To give you the short story, I saved the company. It was being bought out by Grand Tonnerre, a very powerful family in France, and I went in as an unnamed backer and purchased the company first. Father was quick to recognize the initials I used when signing for the business."

"But I thought the company was still in your father's name?"

"It is. I gave it back to him the moment I bought it. I suppose that's what convinced him to stop dangling it in front of my face."

"You just… gave it back? Why?" Finally, Livia was able to ask her actual question. As horrible as Kyoya's father was when it came to teasing his youngest with the company he could never have, Livia had been surprised to hear that Kyoya had just… given the company back without a second thought.

The boy beside her leaned back in his seat. "I wasn't going to steal the company if that's what you're asking. I wanted to earn it."

"So it wasn't because you found something better? Something you cared for more than running the company?"

Kyoya finally turned his head to face her completely, face expressionless. "As in?"

She shrugged. "Say, the Host Club?"

At that, her Charge got a funny look on his face, leaning towards her a little. "There you go again. I've been meaning to ask, Miss Trasic, why are you so set on making me admit that I care about the Host Club? Why does that information matter to you so much?"

The two stared at each other for a long moment before Livia turned away. "If you won't answer my question, I refuse to answer yours."

There's a brief hesitating silence, followed by. "I suppose that's fair."

Rolling her eyes, Livia leaned back into her seat, only to straighten up once more at the sight of the Ootori's plane coming into view. It wasn't as big as she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't small either.

"A little more comfortable than another car ride, is it not?"

The brunette was worried that if she kept rolling her eyes they'd fall out of her head, but at the same time did not answer. She had a job to do. Kyoya hadn't exactly asked her about this trip in secret.

"Say, Kyoya?"

"Yes?"

She ignored the hand he offered as she climbed out of the cart, still looking at the plane, "I've become quite interested in planes since my parents have started shipping me around the world more often to various boarding schools and what not." She glanced at her Charge. "Would you mind if the pilot gave me a tour before take-off?"

Kyoya appeared surprised, but didn't comment on the strange request. Instead, he beckoned a man with greying hair over.

"Miss Trasic, this is our pilot for the day. Anno-san, this is Miss Livia Trasic, my classmate and guest."

The two bowed to each other, and Livia almost laughed when she saw the huge, genuine smile on the older man. Geez, was one of the requirements for working for the Ootori's to have a cheerful disposition or something?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Trasic."

"Likewise, Anno-san."

"Miss Trasic would like a tour of the plane before we take off if you wouldn't mind, Anno-san." If possible, the man's face brightened a bit.

"Of course! Right this way, Miss!"

Livia smiled at the man and followed after him, Kyoya at her side. Thank goodness she'd come to the airport the day after he'd invited her on this trip. In her left pocket was an alert that would tell her if someone set off her motion detectors on the roof of the airport. That, unfortunately, had been the only thing she'd been allowed to do. Anything else would've upset the radio towers, which sucked because it meant there'd be no camera footage that couldn't be rewired or altered.

Still, at least she could cross snipers off her list of worries for the day.

The three managed to get halfway around the plane before Livia's eyes caught onto something. It almost looked like a shadow, but something was off about it. Anno-san and Kyoya continued to walk past the wing, moving towards the plane's tail, but Livia stopped. Walking until she was directly underneath the wing, between the body and the engine, she craned her head back.

"Anno-san?"

The boys stopped and, noticing that she was staring at something, walked back to join her.

"Is there a problem, Miss Trasic?"

"When was the last time this plane was inspected?"

The pilot paused, clearly confused. "Perhaps twenty hours ago? We knew you'd want to leave as soon as possible, so as soon as this tour's done we can take off."

"I don't think that's happening today." Without another word, Livia pointed upwards towards the plane's wing. In the shadows, right next to the seam, was a very fine line on the metal. Could be a scratch, but Livia knew better.

A hand lightly touched her shoulder and Kyoya chuckled before speaking. "Livia, the plane's wing won't snap off."

Anno-san joined in. "We can place some sealer over it and have it properly fixed when we-"

Something dripped into Livia's outstretched hand.

Instantly their tour guide was shouting for a ladder and a flashlight, and a few seconds later he was staring in disbelief as another tiny bead of jet fuel slowly began collecting along the crack.


Twenty minutes later, Kyoya and Livia were back in the boy's limousine driving back to town. The brunette ran her thumb over the inside of her palm. She could almost swear she could still feel the oil on her skin. Anno-san's apologies were ringing in the back of her head, which made it difficult to come up with a new game plan.

Her phone was vibrating endlessly in her pocket with airport security and the crew swearing up and down they hadn't seen anyone approach the plane since its inspection, and Livia knew better than to waste her time going through the airport's cameras. Whoever was doing this was good. Too good to make a rookie mistake like getting caught by airport security.

"Livia?"

The American looked over at her fellow passenger. She was surprised to note that Kyoya didn't appear to be as shaken up as she thought he would be. Perhaps the second near-death experience wasn't as shocking as the first time? Or maybe a plane malfunction caught before they were even on board was less scary than an attack dog. That might be it.

Either way, Kyoya didn't look frightened. Instead, he was smiling at her. It was small, but it wasn't his usual smirk. Both corners of his mouth were upturned. An actual smile. That almost freaked Livia out more than the fuel leak.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. You've saved my life yet again. And I suppose I have to apologize for putting your life in danger. Again."

"I… really?"

Ah, there was the smirk. But it was more genuine than usual, which was almost just as surrell. "You must be my good luck charm. Or I'm your bad luck charm." His eyes softened and he reached over to gently touch the back of her hand. Livia was so shocked, she didn't even pull away. Her green eyes were wide with disbelief as he leaned closer to her, their faces now only inches apart.

"Kyoya?"

"Are you alright? You look pale."

"I'm fine. I just… thank you."

He gently squeezed her fingers, and all she could think about was how warm his hand was.

"How about I buy you a quick lunch and take you home?"

"That sounds nice. Thank you, Kyoya."


Welp, I'm fucked.

I'm beyond sure that he's developing feelings for me now. That's what this past week has been all about. He's starting to have feelings for me and he's trying so hard not to, bless his heart, but now that I'm saving his life all the time he's growing infatuated! God damn it!

Thud!

I kicked the couch if you were wondering what that was.

If that's what this assassin is attempting to do, then good on them I guess. It's a good theory if anything. Either get the agent to reveal themselves to the Charge and freak them out, or get them to fall in love with each other and get the agent to stop focusing on the job.

That second one doesn't happen often. R.A.R.E.'s biggest rule was to not fall in love with the client, but it does happen. And when it does it's not typically pretty. Rules are made for a reason. And it's not to be broken.

But that whole mess aside, today did give me a brand new lead. Grand Tonnerre. That sounds promising.

End log.


Wow, once I actually sat my lazy self down and started working, this chapter practically made itself. I had to change the damage done to the plane and the plane itself a few times for it to make sense, but I think I did okay in the end. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, even though it's late.

If you liked it, please favorite, follow, or leave a review! I love reviews! I love them like I love puppies, which is a lot!

See you next chapter!