CB: Cat and Mouse, -XI-

I don't bother to knock before stepping into the bathroom. The shower is running, and I know she heard the door open. "Close the door, you're letting cold air in."

I press the close sequence on the keypad and step closer to the shower curtain, tracing her silhouette against the hanging plastic with my fingers. "Did you come to bring me a towel?"

"I thought I might return the favor you keep doing me, bandaging me up all the time." I respond, leaning against the wall. I light a cigarette.

"That's nothing that we need to discuss while I'm naked in the shower." Her voice is chiding, "Don't smoke in here."

"We smoke everywhere else. Besides, are people ever anything but naked when in the shower?" I tap the ashes into the toilet and take a deep breath of the scent in the air. The entire room smells distinctly of her.

"You got the point." Fresh and clean and…

"Yes, I did."

She resumes washing herself, and there is silence for a long moment. "So I take it there is a reason you came in here, right?"

"Five years ago I left the Red Dragons, and turned my back on the Syndicate." The words are out of my mouth before I know what exactly I'm saying. She is silent for a long moment, and I don't know if she's heard me.

And then the shower water turns off.

"There was a friendly rivalry between Vicious and I, when we were younger, over who would become the next head of the family. He was the grandson of one of the old guard father's of the Red Dragons, but they told him, early on, that he would never be the next leader of the family." I pause, seeing if she's listening. "They chose me instead."

"And something else." She lifts a pale hand and draws the shower curtain open. "Julia." She really is naked in the shower, and apparently, she doesn't care if I know it. "He wanted her."

"He had her," I reply, "but Julia loved me," I hear myself say, looking hard into her eyes and trying not to stray my gaze from them.

"It killed her," she says, taking a step towards me and putting her hands on the collar of my shirt. My eyes are drawn to them. She pulls me forward a step. "Vicious killed her because of it. He couldn't have her, and so he killed you. But you didn't die, and so he had her killed, to get to you. And then you killed him."

"Your wrists are really cut… did they hurt you?"

"Five years ago… I don't know what I'm saying, you've heard it all, and I'm still as lost as I was then. More so. It's easy to get lost when you're trying to look back and remember something just outside of your grasp."

I put a hand to her cheek, and tilt her face up to mine, pressing my lips against her forehead. "You told me to stop living in the past, and I tried." She leans against me, and even through my clothing I can feel the warm dampness of her body where she leans against me. "But instead I latched onto you. And then you died."

"I didn't die," I say, slipping one arm around her waist. "I woke up."

"You died," she says, leaning her head against my shoulder. "Just like she did."

I lift my other hand to stroke her short wet hair. After a long pause I add, "The White Tigers aren't going to let this go that easy."

"The White Tigers? I thought Jette said it was the Blue Phoenix that followed the Red Dragons onto Venus."

"He did."

"Then what have they got to do with this?"

"It wasn't a Blue Phoenix that fired the shot in the parking lot. It was one of the White Tigers."

She turns her head slightly and presser her cheek against my neck. "Well, whatever. I don't care what they think, I worked long and hard to get this far, Spike, and I'm not going to give it up. White Tigers or Blue Phoenix, it doesn't matter to me," there is something feral in her voice. Something dangerous that I have never heard there. Something that reminds me very much of how Julia spoke to me before the end.

The same phrase in different words.

"Then I'll be with you, until the end."

Not again. I put my arms tightly around her shoulders and hold her against me, closing my eyes and burying my face against her wet hair. She swallows, tightening her fingers on my shirt, "That's why you went after Vicious, isn't it?"

"She didn't want to, the first time. When I left the Syndicate, she stayed behind. And then the second time-," I hear my own voice say, but my eyes are closed tightly. It's not entirely true. She wanted to be free of it. It was the only way. "She wanted to run away, to disappear… but he wouldn't let us."

"And you want to, now."

"I don't remember what it's like to not be fighting, Faye." She tips her head towards me and puts her lips against my neck. "Ever since I was adopted by Mao… I thought that it might be nice to know, for a little while."

"And Jette?" she asks softly, her breath tickling my skin.

"He's wanted me off the ship for a long time," I reply, letting my hand slip down her wet back. The water has long been turned off, but it still clings to her skin, making it soft and precious.

"You're wrong," she says, burrowing into me for another moment before she lets go and pushes on my chest hard enough to send me staggering backwards. I notice the blush on her cheeks as she pulls the shower curtain closed. "And I was in the middle of a shower. If you don't have a towel then whatever else it is you have to say can be said after I'm done."

Nodding my head, I retreat towards the doorway. "There are towels in the cabinet. Where they've always been."