Disclaimer: Don't own anything except original characters. All material (c) to respective owners. I write these for fun and make no profit. They're just random plot bunnies that live within my strange mind.

A/N: Thank you to all my readers, watchers, and those of you who favorite. It's muchly appreciated.


Chapter 4: Mission In Progress

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Sabina tossed aside her wet things over the back of a chair momentarily and slid into dry underclothes and a pair of jeans, she was debating on a shirt when she heard a hesitant sound outside her door. "I hate wet." She paused in her shirt search and stepped back glancing among her things and resorted to pulling out two pairs of black slacks, one black dress shirt and oddly enough a crimson colored one.

Satisfied she had something to offer Willy and Ichabod she turned to continue her search and jumped. "Shit." She grabbed an oversized blue sweatshirt and covered herself up; Willy was a very deep red and backed out of the room rapidly. "I warned you nosy was bad." She slid into the shirt and walked over to her doorway.

Willy's gaze was currently on the floor and he was leaning slightly on his cane, she could see the red still lingering in his face and couldn't help the cheeky grin on her face. "So you do embarrass easily." For once he didn't retort he was oddly enough embarrassed and also a bit humiliated by her oddly amused reaction. Since meeting Sabina he had found her to be a challenge, and the more he and Ichabod got to know her, the harder it was for him not to start to like her. Seeing her half dressed by accident was not his intention and he knew she would use it to her advantage, what was worse he had no excuse, again he was nosing around and found something rather interesting; depending on ones point of view.

Ichabod heard an odd startled sound from Willy and was in the hall moments later, he glanced back and forth curiously. He couldn't remember seeing Willy ever as red as he was at that point, and the highly amused grin on Sabina's face had him really interested at the moment. Violet eyes met Ichabod's dark ones and he flushed even more red then he already was, she allowed her smile to fade slightly but couldn't stop from completely grinning. "Squirm baby." She walked past Willy and around Ichabod to go investigate the current attempts to get into her house.

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Ichabod noticed her saunter casually away, almost catlike knowing something intriguing had happened during his absence. "Willy…" Willy glanced up feeling his cheeks burning still. "What happened? You look like an apple at the moment, you're far too red." He felt his face burn some more and snorted in response.

"None of your business." Willy stuck out his tongue and proceeded to go back into the room full of all her unusual fetishes in hopes of finding something to deal with the blade demons.

Ichabod wasn't about to let him off that easily and followed him into the room. Willy carefully started to go through the various trunks, closets, chests, dressers and other things in the rather large room finding several swords, daggers, and various other weapons. He took notice that nothing in the room involved a firearm of any kind, but various other sharp and dangerous weapons were present and appeared to be part of her interesting collections. Ichabod scanned the book shelves studying various titles and casually stepped into Willy's path, Willy was very familiar with this trick and turned walking to the other side of the room to nose through some other things. "Evil girl…'I told you nosy was bad'…I should have known better." He couldn't stop her comment from ringing in his mind and frowned shutting a trunk rather forcefully.

"Willy, what happened?" He ignored Ichabod and proceeded to shuffle through another chest. "I haven't seen you that flustered…" he paused considering his time around the chocolatier for a long few minutes. "To be honest…ever. What caused you to turn into a walking tomato?" Willy paused staring at one of the mirrors in the room seeing his face was still somewhat pink in tint, he was still embarrassed and the image of her half dressed wouldn't get out of his minds eye.

Willy studied a decorative sword with a dragon engraved in the blade; the handle appeared to be made of some blue colored metal. "I would rather not talk about it." He ignored the annoyed sound from Ichabod and allowed a brief smirk, he knew how to push buttons very well. "She knows how to push my buttons too." He frowned at the thought shutting the lid of the chest.

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"Ouch!" She winced watching another of the demons burning themselves against her doors, before she continued to gather the first aid supplies she had retrieved from the bathroom during her wet clothing drop off. "Ichabod, Willy…you need those bandages changed!" she glanced up as another demon seared himself on the door. "The clothes are in the bathroom for you to change into, bring your wet ones out and I'll toss them in the dryer."

She heard Ichabod still quizzing Willy on what had happened earlier and smiled, she could really get him red now but considered waiting for a few minutes to see how he acted. Willy could see the glimmer of mischief in her blue gaze and almost decided it would be safer to go back to the room and continue snooping. "Payback, I know it's coming." She noticed him adjust the crimson shirt uncomfortably before he took their wet items from Ichabod and all but run down the basement steps. Ichabod eyed him stunned at his sudden willingness to go back down there; he then heard a giggle from Sabina eyeing her suspiciously.

"I'll tell…eventually." She motioned him over to the chair and took of the sodden bandages from his arm. "At least this didn't open and start bleeding all over again." She easily cleaned and redressed his wound waiting for Willy to return, it was taking a very long time to put those cloths in the dryer. "Don't make me come down there and drag you back Willy." She called down the stairs returning to the kitchen and waiting for him to re-appear.

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Willy had easily taken care of their wet cloths and was patiently standing there trying to contemplate what Sabina was up too. She had him, he knew it and it bothered him more then he cared to admit. Ichabod was right about him getting flustered, but his embarrassment was far from over, she made it very clear with that smile hidden in her eyes.

"Don't make me come down there and drag you back Willy." He glanced up at the sound of her voice and almost winced, he didn't want to face her and have her openly tease him. He also knew have soaking wet bandages on his wounds was a bad idea, he surrendered making his way reluctantly back up the wooden stairs.

He pouted glancing about the basement. "I don't want to." He felt his face scrunch before studying the basement. The room was nothing but white walls, cement floor, and a cluttered amount of workmen's tools taking over the back wall. He saw a wood stove, pool table covered with various boxes and other stored things. The two freezers on the wall under the stairs looked to be in use and hummed quietly among the cool room. "I think I would rather stay here then face her." He felt his feet reluctantly taking him up the stairs; he knew she would probably come down and tease him until he couldn't stand it anymore.

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Ichabod glanced up when Willy sulked into the kitchen; he couldn't remember ever seeing him so nervous, except maybe around Sands and realized whatever happened Sabina had something to use against him. "This is going to be amusing." He observed Willy sit down in the chair and ignore her amused smirk removing his shirt so she could redo his wounds.

Sabina was finding it very hard not to say something to him at the moment, and Ichabod's curiosity was working overtime making it even harder. "Thanks for saving my ass earlier, those falls do hurt." She noticed a smirk quirk at the corner of his mouth.

"Do you fall over yourself often?" she narrowed her eyes at him; he was right back to normal. "Or just when we're around?" she felt her face tint slightly at this and concentrated on her work.

"At least I didn't resemble a traffic light…get a good look?" Willy felt his mouth open in an 'O' of surprise, before he felt his face turn red again. "Exactly…I fight right back." Ichabod couldn't help but smile; apparently it had something to do with watching her.

"Just a minute there missy, it wasn't entirely my fault." Willy ignored the flush he felt creeping further around his body.

Sabina offered her own impish grin, she wasn't through yet. "Really? That's funny because last time I checked being nosy wasn't polite, most people would knock before walking in on someone half dressed…did you need to know if my underwear matched my bra?" Ichabod felt his own mouth open in surprise, Willy only turned redder and lowered his gaze quickly to the floor. "By the way…they do." She almost purred noting him cover his face in mortification.

Ichabod felt his own face flush at the way she was teasing Willy, the almost purr sound of her voice with the comments created a rather interesting imagery. "That is not appropriate." He shook his head as those apparent thoughts crossed his mind, he for once actually felt sorry for Willy and yet he was very amused that someone could easily put him in his place.

"I know you're demented and love to match wits with others Willy…but I like to fight back and also can push buttons." She finished up his wounds and went about taking care of things again, she left them in the kitchen to return everything and collect some of her own supplies.

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Willy and Ichabod both sat at the table in silence for a very long time, apparently she was busy doing something which gave them time to talk. "Should I actually say anything?" Ichabod knew both of them found her attractive, but he wasn't sure if anything would come of it and clearly Willy was too embarrassed to admit to anything at the moment.

Willy finally removed his hand daring to raise violet eyes to meet Ichabod's. "I didn't know…she's so…so…(growl)…I don't know what she is, that wasn't fair I couldn't fight back." He looked strange out of his usual attire still wearing his trademark top hat, but he also looked more vulnerable than Ichabod remembered.

"I don't think she wanted you to." Ichabod offered a weak smile; Willy was not amused with this and narrowed his gaze crossly. "She's rather blunt and to the point though." he knew his face was flush but ignored it.

Willy snorted and crossed his arms. "Understatement…she's manipulative, maybe even more demented then me." Ichabod furrowed his brows at this, Willy sounded oddly panicked and amused it was a new characteristic he had apparently hidden well.

"Not possible…she's close though, you started it when you met her, and she's just finishing the battle." Ichabod studied Willy for a long moment before daring to say another word. "You do like her."

"Point?" Willy tapped his cane easily on the floor. "You do too, I don't think she could stand me though." He offered a cheeky grin; this made Ichabod even more confused. "Then again…she's off somehow, we'll have to see what happens." His eyes gleamed with an almost amused challenge to them, Ichabod was not about to play his game of seeing who she would fall for first.

"That's Jacks department, I'm actually honest." Willy shrugged, just because Ichabod wasn't volunteering to play along did not mean he wouldn't try to involve him.

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Sabina grabbed the leather pack she had always carried with her to various sword shows and things. She put in her throwing knives, daggers, and various other weapons, remembering to strap her katana to her back. "I'm not going to some monster world without some sort of weapons." She glanced at the weapons and frowned, she knew better there was no way she would be able to use them on any of the monsters, she wasn't the type. She tossed the bag back onto the couch in the room and resorted to tucking a dagger down her current comfortable black boots, she then walked back out into the kitchen wondering how things were going with the others.

Sabina noticed Willy was no longer red and his violet gaze was now narrowed at her, there was a gleam in those eyes that unnerved her and yet made her curious at the same time. "Feeling better?" he stuck out his tongue ignoring the amused chuckle from Ichabod. "Where too now, clearly we aren't staying here forever while those six morons beat themselves up." She winced hearing another demon hurl themselves at the door before glancing up at the ceiling with a disgusted look. "It probably smells like fried demon outside by now."

"Ew." Willy made a disgusted look of his own, which made her giggle in delight she always did find some of his antics amusing. "Not funny…ew, you're too good at imagery." She smiled shrugging at the sarcasm in his voice.

"What do you expect from my warped mind?" Ichabod exchanged curious glances with Willy before scanning over the familiar black box in his hand.

"Nothing but cobwebs." Ichabod glared at Willy's sarcasm before narrow his own gaze.

"Just because she knows how to put you in your place doesn't mean you have to insult her intelligence." Ichabod noticed Sabina nod in agreement while glowering at Willy. "Besides you two are somewhat alike in some aspects" He pressed a few more buttons on the device, ignoring the scathing look from both figures sent his way.

After a glare off at Ichabod, Sabina went back downstairs to retrieve their formal attire and once they were done dressing, they returned to the kitchen moments later. While Ichabod continued to play around with the odd device; Willy walked over grasping Sabina's arm without warning and pulled her to his side holding onto Ichabod's arm.

"We're off again." His broad grin annoyed her, but for the moment she couldn't shift enough in his grasp to elbow him, she also knew she might hurt one of his many bruises and that stopped her from considering it.