Miscommunication is a Bitch

Peering around the hallway, the figure of a young woman moved silently, placing her foot where she knew no sound would occur. Swift and with stealth she descended the staircase and made her way to the door. A turn of the knob and she was free. Although not a Romantic, she played with idea of being a nocturnal one. Breathing in the night air, the woman ran out to the lawn and hummed songs that would enter her head as they pleased.

The young woman was none other than our familiar friend Jessica Abraham. She still resented her name, but beyond that she had changed a great deal. School follies were leaving and the prospect of a new life was the chief aspiration. College brought with it a great deal of freedom, which every 18 year old dreams of. With her new found mind set came the action of escaping at night since the weather permitted such actions. Summer was fast approaching, quite a while since he left. Two months…she thought of him again. Silly her. He was gone, she promised herself to stay strong, but it was awfully hard to do so when she was visited by a fedora clad gentlemen every other night in her dreams.

"It's of no matter," said the nocturnal lady as she stared up into the sky, "graduation is not far off and then I will be able to escape from this place." She always wanted to escape but to where she never really knew. Her wants were very half thought through, but all she knew was that staying here was not what was in the best of interests.

With a sharp turn toward the house, sudden and from no apparent stimuli, Jess ran back to her home and again returned to her odd dreams that betrayed her wish to stay unhurt. Down in a more humid and balmy climate, the said fedora wearing man was sitting aimlessly staring into space.

"Hey, did you hear anything I just told you?" an angered man in a red jacket retorted.

Brought back to reality, the gunman quickly remarked, "No, your voice is so high pitched – probably only dogs can hear it."

"Oh, so you heard it then," the before insulted man now laughed at his own joke while the latter merely mumbled an incoherent response.

"Lupin, as much as I enjoy your constant prattling, I must ask you to get to the point in whatever you were attempting to tell us," said the until now silent samurai.

"Right, well, I don't know about you two, but this Brazilian heat is hot as a crotch and by that I mean the crotch of an 80 year old man with a prostate the size of a walnut. I need to get out of here and by the two of your tempers, we all need to leave. As far as prospects go, I found there is to be a huge benefit ball in Washington D.C. for the children, or so they say. It's actually a huge cover up for some illegal campaign fund raising. Well, we can't have them cheating the children, can we?" The last part was added with a wink and smile but neither companion made any verbal reaction. Of Goemon Lupin received the nod of approval, but from Jigen he got nothing.

The man in the black suit hadn't heard much beyond the fact that they were going back to D.C. He knew Lupin picked that place for some reason other than the heist.

"He probably knows about Jess," Jigen thought to himself, "It's none of his business to interfere, I can handle the situation myself." He looked up to his friend and saw the master thief looking straight at him as if knowing what he was thinking. Getting up, Jigen left the room leaving Lupin convinced of his own suspicions.

"Jess, it isn't right to be left alone all the time," Kim remarked as the two young ladies sat down to watch TV.

"Listen, when my dad leaves I am able to do as I please and come and go like a stray cat. I haven't found a home I feel right in, so for now I enjoy playing the part of the stray."

"You speak in the oddest way sometimes."

"I always say odd things like that, its part of my charm. Now, how are events in your life?"

"Well…wait, you are throwing me off the subject again. Are you sure you are alright with being by yourself? And what about that guy…" but Kim was cut off by a sharp glance from the Jess. "Right, well my life is going fine I guess…"

Whatever Kim related to Jess for the rest of the night was lost on her. Her trail of thoughts was heading in a direction she never enjoyed speaking of, so the usually talkative lady let her friend speak for the night. The thoughts continued on in such a way that she found herself in class the next day quite unsure how the previous night played out. The only reason she came to was a sudden shaking of her shoulder by the teacher.

"Jessica, one of the administrators needs to speak with you." With a blush at being called out for not paying attention, she slipped outside to see what trouble she was in.

"Jessica Abraham, right?" the familiar administrator asked.

"Yes?"

"You do not have the sufficient amount of credits to graduate and need to start planning for summer school."

"WHAT? That's impossible! I haven't failed a class in my life; much less receive lower than a B in a course. You must have made a mistake."

"You little overachiever," smirked the administrator.

"What? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Yea," the administrator began to laugh, but this time the laugh was very familiar. "I'm sorry Jess, I had to do it, and it was so easy." The "administrator then pulled off his mask and revealed the all too familiar face of Lupin III.

"Oh, you bastard! Don't freaking do that to me when I'm about to graduate. Wait, why the hell are you here anyways?"

"Right, listen," his voice got low as he explained his sudden appearance back in her life, "with the huge convention in the city, we can't get hotel reservations as everything is booked up, well reservations at anywhere worth staying. So…"

"So, you were wondering if you could stay with me?"

"Yea! How nice of you to help us thanks!" He began to leave but was stopped by a grab of his arm.

"Lupin, you can't stay here."

"Yes I can. Your dad is gone for a week and a half."

"How did you…?"

"I'm Lupin III; don't ask silly questions like 'how?'"

"OK, whatever. But really, you can't stay…"

"Jess."

"And what if my dad found out…"

"Jess."

"And I'm not sure it's really right for me to see…"

"JESS! Listen; think of it as payback for not leaving you to die at the Smithsonian, OK? We are really in a bind and I will make it worth your while with a cut of the profits among other things." The last part was said with a quick glance from the not so gentlemen thief at Jess' chest and was responded with a slap to his face. "Damn."

"Fine then, but you must be gone before my dad returns and keep your eyes on my eyes you horny boy." Her own remark produced a smile on her face that put Lupin at ease.

"Great, oh yea, and I swiped these from the office," Lupin produced excused absence passes, "want one to get out?"

"No, I need to learn this crap. By the way, someone will have to sleep on a couch, but make yourselves at home." Lupin left with a wave, donned his mask again and walked right of the school. "What have I gotten myself into?" the brunette muttered to herself.

The return home was done with some hesitation. Jess stepped slowly out of the car but continued singing what had been currently playing.

"Our hostess has returned. Listen gentlemen, it took a lot to get her to comply with this so be on your best behavior. That means no smoking in the house, this pertaining to Jigen and I, and here she is!" Lupin flashed a smile and nudged Jigen to do the same.

Jigen was already happy to see her again, although his somber expression didn't exactly show it. He wasn't an extrovert like Lupin and kept most of his reactions to a mere mouth twitch. Goemon for his part expressed his thanks through the usual dry speech, but Jess just kept walking straight to her room past the men in the living room.

"What was that all about? Did you piss her off, Lupin?" the gunman whispered to his friend.

"No, at least I don't think so…" Further reasoning was shut off as the brunette reemerged from her room in workout attire and claimed her destination to be the gym and that there were some old pork chops in the fridge if they were hungry. The three men were baffled and shrugged their shoulders as they thought she was just in a bad mood.

Unfortunately the usually complacent lady kept with this odd quietness all through the night. Goemon and Lupin thought nothing of it as the former was meditating and the latter was planning the upcoming heist. Jigen on the other hand was bothered by the cold shoulder he was receiving. When his two counterparts had gone to bed, he got up to talk to her, but seeing this sudden advance Jess made her way to her room.

"Let's have a chat," he said with command more so than suggestion as he blocked her escape. She wasn't going anywhere, so Jess complied with a heavy sigh and seat in the nearest chair. "What has you acting like this?"

"Are you serious?" she inquired with some shock.

"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't serious."

"Maybe it is the fact you left with no warning or goodbye." She was being sarcastic and though Jigen usually thought this a good attribute she possessed, he wasn't appreciating it at the present moment

"What? That's crap. I left you a note explaining everything."

"I never received said note. For all I know you're just covering your ass. To be honest, I don't appreciate being used like a cheap whore." While she said it all very calmly her eyes had narrowed and the corners of her mouth curled in an angry fashion.

"Listen, I did leave you a note. You receiving it seems to be some friggin' mystery. I didn't just up and leave with no explanation and I don't think you're some cheap whore."

"Just some girl you can come back to when you feel like it? Right, got it." She didn't let him explain any further as she was ready to cry and didn't need him seeing it. Instead she got up and left him sitting in complete bafflement. He heard a door quietly close, got up to try and clear things up but ended up standing outside her door.

"Something happened to piss her off bad," he thought to himself while contemplating if he should knock on her door. "She doesn't even yell and scream like most girls. A silent angry; this isn't good at all." The gunman decided to make his plead the following day so as to let her blow off steam and for the fact he didn't want to draw attention to his alleged slip.

The dark of night had approached and so did the appearance of the young woman making her nocturnal escape. The path was well known and no noise was made, but her movements didn't go unnoticed. With a flick of the wrist she turned the knob of the door and made her way outside. The grass was warm tonight and allowed her to do some star gazing as she hummed her wandering tunes.

"It is awfully late to be out," a voice from above remarked.

With a jump, Jess came to her feet, but realizing who it was settled back down on the ground again. "Have you taken to scaring me then, Goemon? Come down from that tree and talk to me like a normal person."

The samurai complied and came down from his post to sit by the reclining brunette. The two sat in silence for bit, appreciating the night or merely feeling a bit awkward.

"He would never mean to hurt a woman, unless possibly Fujiko, but he especially wouldn't mean to hurt you. Whatever he did you must do the honorable thing and forgive him."

"For someone so observant, you are rather unknowing in the ways of women. We are so complicated that we can't even figure ourselves out sometimes."

"That may be so, but I know the true nature of that man whom you are angry with and he has taken a liking to you that both Lupin and I have noticed. Jigen will never say a word about how he is feeling, but his body language explains all."

"Is that so? He has an odd way of showing it then with just up and leaving."

"You must understand he has a duty to perform and the fact that we aren't allowed to contact others while on jobs prohibits much interaction with the outside world. We do that so as to keep our loved ones safe, no to shut them out. To be honest it was a huge stretch for Lupin to stay at your house, but since we had no other option, it had to be done."

Jess was silent for a moment. She didn't like being convinced her anger was ill founded, but saw no loopholes in the samurai's explanation.

"Thank you," the brunette whispered and leaned over to give her rock of reason a hug for his guidance.

"Uh, this is unnecessary…" But, she had already embraced him which led the usually modest man to blush. The thoughts rushed back to the night he watched over her after the stealing of the Hope Diamond. It led to his right arm reaching around her, but at that point it was too late as the now content lady walked away to go inside. His right arm moved quickly back toward his body, pretending his lapse was merely by accident. "I must transcend this."

The interaction didn't go unnoticed, though, as Jigen had woken up right when he saw the flash of the escaping woman. He had watched the entire act, but never heard a word. Not knowing what to think, he scratched his head but felt slight anger inside of him rise. His resolution on the matter would be considered in the morning as he went quickly to his bed so that Jess would never know he had seen her.