Chapter Ten

A Moment

"DAMN IT!"

Red lights flashed, illuminating the basement of the apartment building with its fiery, warning light. Lily picked herself up off the ground, waited until the laser beams turned back to a safe, florescent green, then jogged back to where she started.

Rusty leaned in the stairwell doorway, watching her tentatively. The a series of twenty different lasers moved in a truly randomized fashion, weaving around the room. He gazed at Lily, rolling her neck in an effort to loosen up. The last fall she had taken had been a nasty one, her head crashing down on the cement floor due to an overly awkward position.

She studied the movement of the green beams for a second longer, just enough time to watch one pass over the floor before her feet, then she stepped into the field. Her first move was to bend backwards, limbo-ing underneath three lasers passing over her at a higher distance. She folded in half, then collapsed on the floor. Rusty could tell she was holding her breath as the forth laser narrowly passed over her nose. After the fourth laser cleared completely, and she was sure it was safe to move again, she jumped into a kneeling pose to position herself on her hands. She hovered for a moment, then let her feet fall over her head until she was on the floor again.

Rusty cocked his head, an amused smile fixated on his face. He knew the next move she performed was called "Proud Warrior", although he had never seen it performed to the extant that Lily had stretched herself to. The reason why he knew the name to that position he would take to the grave with him.

Coming out of "Proud Warrior", Lily planted her palm on the floor and swung her legs through the air, bypassing lasers seventeen and eighteen. She tried to short her one handed cartwheel, her toe narrowly missing laser nineteen, but too much of her weight had shifted to one side. It caused her shoulder to come crashing down on the cement, the lasers turning that deadly color red. If it had been a real recreation of the bank's security system, a loud siren would have started screaming in its high, pitched wail. Lucky for their ears, and the peace of everyone within a four block radius, Livingston had advised on keeping that little detail out.

"FUCK!"

Rusty straightened himself, concerned when she hesitated to get up. Even when vertical, she clutched her shoulder. From the distance between them, he could see her nails digging into her skin. Lily tended to do things like that when she hurt herself, mostly due to her incredibly small tolerance to pain. She'd cause herself some other bodily harm to transfer the pain to a less painful area.

He felt that his silence has completed its purpose and disposed of it. "You okay?"

Lily's head snapped up, her hand dropping from her shoulder to her elbow. "Fine."

Rusty reached out and checked her shoulder. "Nothing's dislocated," he responded. She collected herself, slowly walking away from him. "How many times have you…"

"Sixteen." That was a lie.

"And how many…"

"Not once. Not one fucking time! I can't do this." Another beautifully acted out lie.This was her chance to see just where sheand Rusty stood with each other, and a little acting was going to get her some answers.

First, he wondered just when they had formed such a relationship that she could finish his sentences. Then he voiced his next thought. "You can do this. I know. I know how flexible you are…"

"Real nice, Russ. Turning my failure into a sex joke."

"Okay, not what I meant."

Lily gave him a sideways glance that senta tingle down his spine. A good tingle. Just like the kind he got right before he would lay his hands on the particular item he was stealing. The kind that made him smile the perverted smile of a teenage boy commandeering his first Playboy.

That was always how Rusty looked at their relationship, and both of them knew it. Lily was a job to him, and he hadn't walked away with the prize in the end. The mission was not accomplished - whatever that was, he had yet to figure out - so the shivers and tingles and all other adrenaline ridden feelings were still there, waiting to be satisfied.

"I waiting," Lily chimed, tapping her foot impatiently. A devilish glare was hidden behind her steely blue eyes, smirking at him along with her intentions. She couldn't help it. Not only was Rusty's smile contagious, she needed some answers. And she was going to get some. Except…Rusty had yet to break eye contact with her, and she was finding it a little hard to concentrate on what she was really doing.

She blinked several times, brushing it aside and focusing on the tapping of her foot.

Then, she realized the aggressive approach was not the way to go this time. With that, the devilish glare and the smile disappeared.

She forced tears to form in her eyes. Lily figured she would give him the classic 'Damsel-in-Distress' routine. "I just…Dad…I told him I could do it….and now… I'm just going to disappoint him again and again and again. All he ever wants from me is the best… I messed up with the maps, and now I messed up on this…"

Rusty walked up to her, lifting her chin with his thumb and pointer finger. "You can do it, Lily. You just need to calm down. Take a few deep breaths and reassess the situation." He gave her the exact advice he would have given herself. If nothing, it comforted himself.

Lily tried to stop the tears - or at least tune them down a bit - but she just couldn't. Rusty had moved his hand from her chin, and now cupped her cheeks in his hands. He wiped away her tears - which had become uncontrollable, because the truth in her act was starting to hit her harder than expected - with the pads of this thumbs, drawing her closer in towards him.

She latched onto his wrists. At first it was an attempt to push him away, but Lily just couldn't let go.

"Screw Danny," he comforted, leaning his head forward until his forehead was touching hers.

Lily closed her eyes. She felt that if she couldn't see the situation, she didn't have to deal with it.

She was getting her answers, and she didn't like them.

Her stomach began twisting in knots, her mind racing about where to go next. She didn't want physical contact. Physical contact was what was going throw her over the deep end. Correction, it had thrown her over the deep end. Along with the knots she was experiencing extreme heat just south of her belly button, memories rushing back to her. Memories she had worked hard to suppress.

Lily's hands stayed clenched onto his wrists, although he moved his hands to her hips. Lily felt him twist her hips, contorting her pelvis to his own. He was fitting the puzzle pieces back together. Lily found at an early stage of the relationship that her body fit perfectly into his. It was like she was made to fit specifically into each and every groove in his body.

"Rusty…"

"Shhh," he cooed. He, too, was trying to detach himself from the situation, but was finding it hard to. Talking was only going to complicate things. His lips lingered over hers, too close but yet too far away. He could feel her breath sweeping into his mouth, and the taste of chocolate covered strawberries filled his taste buds. Oh, how she tasted so delicious.

"Rusty, do you know why I wanted you to build this for me?"

"To practice."

She turned her head, but was still rendered motionless by the past. "Oh, come on. You know that isn't why."

Yes, he knew. He just wanted to pretend that it wasn't true. With that, he realized just why he wasn't able to pull himself away. He didn't want the moment to end. Now that Lily had ruined it, he wanted to be as far away as possible. Especially since anger was starting to overpower him because the moment was ruined. "Just stop, okay. Don't…"

"Have you been in your room today, Rusty?" She let his wrists go as he finally pulled away.

"Look, I know it's because you didn't want me to snoop. Okay? Can we just let it go?"

"…Partly. But there was something else…"

"Lily, please. I'm asking nicely…"

"… I called Isabel."She wished that was a lie, but, sadly, it wasn't.

Rusty's jaw dropped. He had just been hit by a verbal bus. "You what?"

Lily took a much needed deep breath. "I was in your room the other day, and I found her number in your cell phone… well, I was actually looking for it… I asked her to come to New York."

"You what!"

Lily startedspeaking more rapidly, trying to explain as much as she could before his fuse ran just a little too short. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of a single, non-crazy sounding excuse. Instead, she simply stated, "Rusty, I did what was best for you."

"Tell me you didn't just say that," Rusty grunted, running an agitated hand over his face. He was trying to keep his composure, but both of them knew that he was more easy to anger than one Danny Ocean.

"Whether you want to admit it or not, I did what was best for you and you know it!"

"Oh, fuck you, Lily. You don't know what's best for me! If you did, then you wouldn't have left in the first place!"

"You made me!"

Part of him - the part deep, deep down, that no one ever acknowledges - knew that it was true. He preferred to keep it down there. "How the hell do you think that that's what's best for me? You don't know me anymore, Lily."

The words coming out of his mouth made her heart sink. "I know that you love her, Rusty. And I know that she's running away from you!"

"You don't know shit!"

"You never called me, Rusty! Not when I left, not once. You must really care about her to try and hold on to her, because that's just not you…" They had started circling each other, faces growing red with frustration and a little embarrassment.

"This is none of your business. Butt out, Lily. I mean it. It's none of your business." His head was angled down now, causing him to look over his eyebrows at her. It made him look more menacing and threatening, and that's exactly what he was going for.

She didn't buy it. "No, Rusty. You made it my business when you started jeopardizing the job because of everything that's going on around you. You've been letting this all get to you, and that makes it my business," she argued, copying his stance.

They continued their dance around each other, shoulders hunched and eyes squinted. They were like two lions, locked in a battle for dominance, and neither of them was going to back down without a fight to the death. Lily cocked her head, looking at Rusty as prey. Something to be stalked. Rusty glared at Lily as the enemy. Something that had to be stopped.

On the back burner of his mind, Rusty had the perfect retort to put her in her place. He had often used it when they were getting into a heated battle, when he really wanted to make her cry. Now was one of those times.

Mentally preparing himself for her backlash, Rusty straightened to his full height. "God, you're just like you father!" he sighed, pivoting to storm back to his room.

"Oh, fuck no!" she screamed, her mouth flying open. She couldn't believe he had just used that against her. The one thing Lily had never told anyone - until Rusty came along - was that she secretly loathed her father for putting such great expectations on her. Another part of her deep, dark feeling was because Danny had that habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong. It ate away at her soul because she felt the way she did, but there wasn't much to be done about it. To get it off her chest, she told Rusty, and Rusty just planted that mental time bomb on her as revenge.

She ran after him, catching up with him at the bottom of the stairs. She clamped onto his shoulder, twisting him with such force that he felt like he was suffering from whiplash. Before his eyes could even adjust to the change, her palm collided into his check, jerking his neck to the side.

He recovered just in time to see her wind up again. He reached out, grabbing her forearm before she could make anymore contact. She tried to wrench her arm away, but he held on tighter. She tried again, and only succeeded in pulling herself closer to him. "Let go of me," she ordered, thrashing her hardest. "Goddammit, Rusty! I said let go!"

Rusty's eyes darted around Lily's raging figure. He didn't know what he was doing, but he sure as hell had no intention of letting her go. He was going to be the one to walk away this time, not her. No, not her.

But then…

It was like he had left his body and was watching the entire scene from somewhere above them. Rusty watched himself as he silently, somberly, reached out with his other hand and grasp onto her shoulder. He pulled her body into his one more time, then moved his arm to encompass her waste so he could pick her up.

Lily stopped thrashing, now staring down at Rusty's figure. She wrapped her free arm around his neck to secure herself, then let him manipulate her position until her lips were almost on top of his. He stopped there, then let her make the next move.

Without hesitation, she reached her neck out and parted her mouth against his. She rememberedhis kisses. Oh, how she lovedhis kisses. Open mouthed, tongue-dueling, teasing, mint flavored kisses that reached to her core.

He allowed her fully, falling back against the steps. He didn't care that the cement stairs were pressing against his spine, contorting it in an extremely painful fashion. All Rusty cared about was that she was on top of him, her weight resting on his own. Then, suddenly, he was back inside of his body. He was aware that that steps were beneath him. He was aware of the pain it was casing. And he was aware that her lips were gone, and she was no longer where he wanted her to be.

He plucked himself up from the bottom of the stairway, taken back by what had happened. She was standing back by the lasers, her arms wrapped around herself. Here eyes gaped at him, widened with a confusion he had never seen on her before. Instead of making him feel the same thing, though, it strengthened his decision to walk over to her and pick up where she left off.

Lily stepped away from his advance, getting into the path of one of the lasers. The color change startled her, and she was forced to step out of the lasers path. Into his chest.

Rusty took her into his arms once more, but Lily resisted him by holding her head down. He tilted her chin up so she could meet his gaze. This was all wrong, but he just couldn't stop himself anymore. This was the reason he kept those pictures of her with him at all times. This was the reason he agreed to come to New York and help with this job. This was what made him smile when he heard Danny say "settle down".Those twowords.

Lily shouldn't have smiled, but she did.

The urge was just too strong for Rusty to ignore. Seeing her so defined and elegant, her skin glowing pink from all the exertion she had put herself through. Her eyes were glittering in the dim lighting; it was just too much for his willpower. Or lack of will power, apparently. His actions were without thought. Pure instinct.

His mouth molded over hers, never questioning. Her lips parted instantly, her upper body falling into his arms. Every muscle loosened with the passionate demand of his tongue. Everything around them melted away, making both of them the only ones in this space and time. Lily felt herself completely let go as Rusty pulled her into a deeper hug.

His kiss grew deeper, still demanding the moment that seemed to never end. He kissed her in a way that caressed her entire being, creating a rolling sensation in her blood. All the knots in her stomach released, giving her a rise in desire where his skin touched hers, and a craving where it didn't.

Lily's eyes shot open, her fists fighting against his chest. She pushed him away, then ran as fast as she could up the stairs.

Rusty stared in her wake, still left in the moment. She had run awayfrom him again.