Several days later, Kaiji and Ami were sitting in their favorite lounge chair on the back porch. They'd spent most of the afternoon in the ocean, and were now relaxed with one another. Ami found that her favorite part of the day now, staying with Kaiji here at the villa, was sitting with one another in the lounge chair, watching as the sun was setting.
She sighed and stretched against him. "What time is it?"
Kaiji pulled his arm up and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Around six o'clock. We should probably get started on dinner here soon if we want to eat."
Ami groaned in protest. "But I'm comfy."
The arms around her waist tightened and Kaiji chuckled. "I am too, but I'm starving, I don't know about you."
"You go inside ahead of me then, I'll be right behind you." She replied, moving so that he could get up. Groaning, he stood up in front of her, stretching his arms above his head.
Ami smiled as she watched him. Despite the fact that her life was still supposedly in danger, she'd been enjoying her time together with him. Since they were now dating, the alone time did some good for them. They hadn't told anyone about their relationship, as Ami had expressed her desire to wait until all of the excitement had died down from everything going on lately. Especially her father. She'd only spoken to him a few times on the phone since they'd arrived, but she wanted to wait to tell him in person about her relationship with Kaiji. Not that he would be opposed to it, however, because she knew how much he liked Kaiji, and had even asked her in previous conversations months ago if she liked him in that way. He'd probably be happy at the idea, but she just wanted to tell him in person about everything. She was pretty sure, however, that Subaru and Katsuragi knew what was going on. At least from the things they would say every now and then when they'd come to check in on them.
Kaiji turned around and stooped down in front of her, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "You really think I'm going to just leave you out here?"
Ami giggled. "I'll be right behind you. I just want to sit here a few more minutes. Besides, where am I gonna go?"
Kaiji smiled and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "Alright fine. But don't stay out here too long. Don't want to eat dinner all by myself." With another quick kiss, Kaiji stood up and shuffled inside, heading towards the kitchen.
Ami leaned back into the lounge chair, taking a deep breath in of the salty ocean air. A smile came to her face as she heard Kaiji in the kitchen, pots and pans clanging together noisily as he stumbled about. He was so used to the kitchen at his house that the kitchen here at the villa was like a whole new world to him, and she often giggled at his attempts of finding all of the kitchenware. He tended to be quite noisy in his nightly treasure hunt to find the proper utensils. Well that, and right now she was pretty sure he just wanted to be noisy to get her to come inside. She giggled and hugged her knees to her chest, closing her eyes. Her nightmares recently had prevented her from getting a decent night's sleep, and she often tried to catch a few minutes of sleep whenever she could. Kaiji would be pretty sore with her if she didn't come in pretty soon, but she suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness, she decided to just take a quick nap. Kaiji would come wake her when he wanted her to come inside with him.
Inside, Kaiji began collecting ingredients for dinner from the refrigerator. There wasn't really much to choose from, as the few groceries they'd gotten when they'd arrived were starting to dwindle. He made a mental note to get one of the guys to bring some groceries for them when they came to visit. He finally settled on some sort of pasta medley, and turned the stove on to let the water boil. He yawned sleepily and looked towards the door. Ami said she'd only take a minute, where had she run off to? He walked over to the door and leaned against the frame, smiling as he saw her dozing quietly in the chair. Shaking his head he turned and walked back into the kitchen, letting her sleep. The nightmare's that Ami had been having recently had kept her, and him, from getting a decent night's sleep for a while. She needed the sleep, and he decided to just wake her when dinner was ready.
Kaiji was walking back into the kitchen when he heard a knock come from the front door. Three synchronized knocks followed, indicating one of the guys was here. Kaiji had been ordered not to open the door for anyone unless a specific knock was given, and upon hearing it, he made his way towards the door. Subaru and Katsuragi stood on the porch, and Kaiji quickly ushered them inside. The weather had improved since that thunderstorm that had knocked the power out, however, as Kaiji looked up at the sky as the guys walked past him, he saw that it could change at any minute as clouds hovered over the villa.
"How's the investigation going?" Kaiji asked.
"That's what we're here to talk to you about… where's Ami?" Subaru replied, glancing around the room.
"She's taking a nap. What's the word?"
Katsuragi stepped forward. "Well, the investigators were able to find an account that had been set up at the World Bank for the men in prison, and they were able to trace it to its origin. It was much higher up than they'd initially suspected. They had at first suspected a few people who were in the lower ranks, but it's much higher up."
"How much higher?"
"It was one of the prime minister's ambassadors. Are you familiar with Haku Takahashi?"
Kaiji sneered. "We've met… And it would also explain why he'd been so interested in Ami at the ball."
Subaru nodded. "Well the investigators were able to dig a little deeper and they found out that he's actually brothers with one of the men we caught. Their parents had been part of radical extremists that would have been highly opposed to the prime minister's new foreign policies; however, they were killed many years ago."
"How was this not discovered when he was appointed? Don't they have background checks?"
"They do, but he changed his official name years prior to being appointed. His brother is very skilled at computer hacking, and was somehow able to erase most of his previous record. He was smart, he'd added a few little things in there to make Haku's record more believable. But one of the computer analysts at the police station managed to catch a few mistakes that he had made, and that was how they were even able to find all of that."
Kaiji nodded. "So have they arrested him yet?"
Subaru and Katsuragi exchanged glances. "No."
"Why the hell not?"
"He's missing. Nobody has seen him for days, which is why we're here. Ami's going to need the extra protection with him still on the loose. It's particularly dangerous now because all of the prime minister's ambassadors know about this villa, as they often vacation here. So Haku knows where this place is."
Kaiji's eyes widened. "We need to get her out of here."
Back outside, Ami's eyes slowly fluttered open. Sleepily, she looked up at the sky, seeing that the clouds were once again hiding the sun. It didn't look like she'd slept long though, as it still looked fairly early in the afternoon. Stretching her legs and arms, she sat up in the lounge chair. She could hear voices coming from inside and assumed that some of the guys had come to check in on them. Yawning, she stood up and cracked her back, smiling slightly as she heard the popping noises reverberating down her spine. She turned to head inside with the others when she felt a hand grab her from behind, and she screamed.