She was tired of waiting. He was over 20 minutes late, and she was beginning to get very agitated. This would all be made easier if he would simply get a cell phone. But nooo-oo. God forbid people were actually able to get a hold of him. 10 minutes. That was all he had left. Then she was leaving.

8 minutes and counting. She heard a familiar gruff voice over the dim chatter of the restaurant. Standing up, she saw his black fedora bobbing in between tables.

"Hmh." A sound of disapproval issued from her throat as he approached her. Before he had a chance to say a word she planned to make sure he understood exactly why she was enticed to pluck out all of the hairs in his beard one by one while forcing him to sit through every season of Sex and the City.

"Sorry, Fujiko I -"

"Sorry? Oh, I'm sure you're sorry mister I don't know how to show up anywhere on time! Ya know, when I asked for you help I didn't mean when it's convenient for you. I'm a very busy woman and when I make appointments, I keep them. Maybe you should learn something called common courtesy Or at least get a damn cell phone."

After her diatribe, Fujiko took her seat once again. Jigen, deciding he had done enough to agitate the busty brunette for one night, sat down and immediately lit a cigarette. The waiter came by, taking their drink orders: a cosmopolitan for Fujiko and a scotch on the rocks for Jigen.

"Now," Fujiko began once the waiter had left. "I am taking this very seriously. This is, after all Lupin's 30th. Whatever you do, do NOT give him even the slightest inkling that we're planning a party, otherwise I know he'll go out of his way to disappear for the night, if not the rest of the month. He's already doing is best to forget he even HAS a birthday."

Jigen snickered. "He's spent the last week in a drunken stupor. Hell, he's even givin' me a run for my money. You should see the kitchen. Filled with empty liquor bottles. I go buy the stuff, he drinks it before I can even get it out of the bag."

Fujiko frowned slightly. "All the more reason to make sure he doesn't find out. And as wiley as Lupin is, it wouldn't take much for him to catch a scent. And then it would be bye-bye monkey boy."

Jigen exhaled a puff of smoke. "This is all fine and good, Fujiko. You seem to have everything under control, so uh... What is it you want from me?"

Fujiko fidgeted nervously in her seat for a moment, then, putting on her best getting-what-I-want-and-I-know-it face, she batted her eyes at the gunman and smiled sweetly.

"I need you to steal his birthday present for me."

Jigen coughed on his cigarette smoke.

"Oh not just you!" Fujiko quickly tried to backtrack before Jigen could make a scathing inquiry into what exactly was wrong with her own thieving ability. "I mean both you and Goemon."

This simply made him cough harder.

After drinking some water, Jigen regained the use of his vocal chords, and, doing his best not to call Fujiko some very inappropriate names chose instead to do what she knew he would do.

"What's the matter, Fujiko? Suddenly lose the ability to keep your eye on the prize and your hand on a guys.. Well, you know how the rest goes."

Fujiko tried to smile instead of scowl. She was mildly successful.

"It's not that, Jigen. It's just that, well, what I want to get Lupin for his birthday isn't exactly something that can be kept in your back pocket."