The thing about living alone was that you got to set your own rules. It was why Falcon's base was located out in the middle of nowhere. The only way anyone reached him was through the Falcon Flyer, and he only went out to buy groceries and to race. Living alone, he had no one to set the rules for him.

It wasn't that he hated rules. He was a bounty hunter, after all, broken laws were the only reason he had a job. It was just that, when he got home, there were a great many things he liked to have the freedom to do. He was a world-famous bounty hunter, he deserved to relax. Who cared if he didn't do the dishes today?

Apparently, Lucina did. She cared a whole lot.

"The dishes must be washed by nine pm every night. If it is your turn to wash the dishes, please let me know, and I will do it for you. The laundry will also have to be shared between us, though since it's only once a week, you will have to do that less often." Lucina paused. "You will be eating here, right? I assume you lack the sufficient funds to eat out for the duration of your stay, mister..."

"Walker. Douglas Jay Walker. And yes, I will be eating here, yes," Falcon said.

"Then you may be required to cook whenever Robin oversleeps. She'll be cooking breakfast and supper, but sometimes running the Barracks keeps her busy. You do not need to bring any food. That would be covered by your rent. Plus, it doesn't cost much to eat the leftovers from the Barracks."

Falcon hummed and nodded, if only to show that he was keeping up. "You've sure thought this through, haven't you?"

Lucina knocked against the wall, drawing Falcon's gaze to a list of things pinned there that he hadn't noticed before. "It's the system my father had when he was enrolled in the academy. I used it too. You must have had a similar system when you were in the academy, right?"

"I did," he lied. He'd never so much as set foot inside of any police academy. His whole Captain Falcon gig had let him skip that sort of thing, but he couldn't quite let her know that.

In hindsight, he should have expected this. Cops always tended to be very by-the-book types. Of course, if this was Jody's friend–or rather, Jody's friend's daughter–she would be much the same. She had been like this back when they had faced Blood Falcon, and it seemed like she was no different at home.

Falcon wouldn't have minded that so much, but as he eyed the many, many other items on the list that Lucina had yet to talk about, he realized that he would be here for quite a while. That was a problem, considering the vial of "subspace matter" still in the suitcase he had on him right now.

"Say, have we ever met before?" Lucina asked, narrowing her eyes. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but you seem familiar."

Falcon clamped his mouth shut. "No, I don't believe we've ever met. I've never seen you before in my life, and I'm sure I would've remembered a face like yours."

Perhaps that was laying it a bit thick. He probably could have gotten away with much less, but then again, he had left quite an impact on her, both metaphorically and quite literally. It should have come as no surprise that maybe, just maybe, she might remember some of his face from last night.

Oddly enough, Lucina didn't seem to care about what he'd said. She briefly frowned, but just as quickly brushed it off with a wave of her hand. "If the shower starts emitting lead from the pipes, don't tell Robin. We know about the problem, but we don't have the money to get it fixed, just use the downstairs shower and–"

"I'm sure that's nice, Miss Lucina," Falcon said, cutting her off, "but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now. Important business to attend to." He motioned to her list. "I don't mean to rush you along, but do you think you could just show me where I'll be staying, and I'll be out of your hair in a moment."

Lucina stared at him. She blinked, and her eyebrows drew down. Falcon had the sinking feeling she would have rejected it even before she opened her mouth.

"Pardon?"

Falcon sighed, and, slowly, he said, "I'm a busy man. I don't have time to deal with this." He tapped against the sheet. "If you're not going to show me my room, I'll head down to the station myself."

"You don't think I'm busy too?"

"I don't believe I said that."

"You didn't need to say it." Lucina huffed. "I'm busy too, you know. I have a very important case I'm working on."

"So do I. It's rather urgent that I finish this case as soon as possible, so if you don't mind, I really must be going."

"I would say my case is much of the same. Do you think I want to be here doing dishes when I have a dangerous criminal to catch?"

"For the both of us, I really think I should go. What's in my suitcase could help you catch Blood Falcon a lot faster."

Lucina paused. She narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe I ever told you I was trying to catch Blood Falcon."

She had. Last night, when they had fought Blood Falcon together. Except she didn't know that, because he was a regular cop to her who she had never met before.

"It said on the case file," Falcon quickly blurted out. "I'm working on the Blood Falcon case, too. Jody said I would be working with you."

"Then why didn't you say anything earlier?"

Because he hadn't thought of that earlier. He didn't even mean for her to know that they were working on the same case. Less awkward conversations, especially because now he felt he had to apologize for punching her in the face.

"I would have brought it up later. Getting this business out of the way first was more important, wouldn't you say?"

"But not important enough for you to wait before I finished talking to send in your evidence." When Falcon opened his mouth to protest, Lucina held up a hand to stop him. "You're worried about the case. I can tell. You must care a lot about catching Blood Falcon, don't you?"

"It sure is! He must be stopped. You don't know what he's capable of."

"I don't, I'll admit that. I understand the urgency for this."

"Then, if you'll excuse me, I need to head down to–"

"But," Lucina cut him off with a frown, "you still need to know what living here will be like for you. You'll be staying here, after all. It won't do for you to get burned if you don't work the stove properly." She held out a hand. Her eyes were, Falcon noted nervously, on the suitcase in his hands. "Robin can fill you in while I bring this down to the station. Like she promised to do before," she yelled over her shoulder.

"Lucina, I'm busy."

"This is police business, Robin! Please, could you help me out here?"

There was a pause. Falcon hoped that meant Robin was too busy. Falcon hoped that meant Lucina would let this silly rules business go. He didn't live by anyone else's rules, anyway. He was Captain Falcon, and he was in a hurry.

Apparently, the world didn't quite understand that, because Robin replied, "Oh, fine. You better get this police business done quickly, though."

"I'll make sure it takes no longer than it has to." She looked back at Falcon, and when she noticed that he was still holding onto his suitcase, she beckoned for him to hand it over.

"That won't be necessary, miss," Falcon said, trying to stand a little straighter. "I am quite capable of handing it over on my own."

"Don't worry. I will handle it with the utmost caution, and I will ensure it goes through all the proper channels. It'll be much faster if I do it, anyway, so you have nothing to worry about."

That wasn't what worried him. There was no one in the police database under his name. Captain Falcon was supposed to be anonymous, and if he didn't hand it over as Captain Falcon, people would get suspicious. They trusted Captain Falcon. They didn't trust Douglas Jay Walker, on account of the fact that he did not exist.

"I must insist," Falcon said, and he stepped to the side and slid right past her. "I'll be back as soon as I drop this off. You don't worry about a thing."

He tried to head for the door. A hand fell on his shoulder. Slowly, Falcon looked back. Lucina stared up at him with narrowed eyes.

"What's in the suitcase, Mister Walker," she said calmly.

"Vital evidence, Miss Lucina," Falcon replied.

"If it's vital, you wouldn't mind if I took it to the station for you, would you? It'll be much faster that way."

She was suspicious. That was understandable, but right now, he couldn't help but feel annoyed. Of course, leave it to Miss Law to get in his way.

"It's not about that, it's that I need to make sure the other people down at the force know what to do with it. Now, if you'll excuse me–"

"If it's so important, why can't you tell me? Hey, where do you think you're going?"

Falcon ignored her. He could talk later because right now, he had the sinking feeling that he needed to get this to the station as quickly as possible. He tried to brush past her, but when her arm brushed against his, his muscles twitched, and the suitcase dropped to the floor.

For a moment, Falcon could do nothing but stare at the fallen suitcase in horror. He didn't even know what "Subspace Matter" was supposed to do, but it had probably been a bad idea to drop it.

"I think you should back away from that," he muttered, holding out a hand in front of Lucina.

"What? Why?"

"Because–"

The suitcase cracked. Falcon tensed, and he clenched his fists. Piece by piece, the suitcase fell apart like an insect shedding its shell. An arm emerged from within, then a body, until a creature pulled itself out, staring down at the two of them with a pair of glowing red eyes.

Falcon grit his teeth, and he ignited his hands. "Because of that."


Yes, it's two days late. Don't mob me, I just forgot to write on Thursday, which caused me to move back a lot of my schedule.

I've had a running joke in my head that it's taken me eight chapters what usually takes other writers one. It's kind of funny, until you realize that because it's so long, it's easy for the things people come here to read about to get bogged down with other stuff.

Funnily enough, I came into this thinking it would be a nice ship-fic. Heck, the whole reason why I started writing for it again was because I wanted something quick and shippy to get off my backlog, and now it's evolved into more of an action/mystery type story. Sort of like much of the other things that I write.

These are just things that I've been able to note as I've been writing this story so far. It can be quite interesting to see how stories can evolve from their original idea, and this is one of those stories that has done so. I'll still finish this story, as now that I've started it, I fully intend to see it through one chapter at a time, but going forward, I think this is something I should probably make clear to all my readers.

Hopefully, I'll be more inclined to write the Wednesday and Thursday after next week, so I'll be able to hit my mark for the next chapter. Until then, take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!