Decorus
"He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so." -Walter Lippmann
Saguru licked his lips, the biting cold wind drying them out before he had even completed the motion. His nose twitched, the thick scent of oil and gunpowder tickling the sensitive nerves, forcing him to suppress the violent urge to sneeze. A soft breath escaped him as he felt the cold metal of the small caliber handgun pressing harder against the flesh of his temple and he stilled his body even further, desperate to keep even the smallest of twitches from occurring, even though the harder he tried, the more he trembled.
He turned his focus from his body to the man across from him, barely twelve feet away, though that snow covered distance had never seemed further the in this moment. The wind kicked up again, sending up a mourning cry, blowing soft flakes of snow across the space between the men, blocking out Saguru's focus for a second before the man came back into sight, cape moving gracefully in the wind.
Swallowing thickly, Saguru's eyes darted to the side, seeing a hint of the man behind him, mostly a hand and an arm connected to a black trench coat, the search lights from the museum in the building next to them playing off the dull material, illuminating it for a moment before they vanished again, still searching fruitlessly for a vanished phantom.
There was a movement to his other side and Saguru's eyes shifted, watching the man's free hand as it gestured in the air, punctuating words the blond no longer heard. Saguru hadn't heard anything for the past several minutes, having gotten a bit too close when all hell broke loose from a mis-timed trick of Kid's.
He could feel the man behind him take a breath, pausing in his words and then it was expelled in a rush over Saguru's head, ruffling his hair as the man spoke with such force that droplets of spit hit Saguru's bare neck. In between one blink and the next, Kid's poker face cracked, the thief's eyes widening as his attention turned from the man behind Saguru to Saguru himself, those shadowed blue orbs staring hard into the detective's, as if communicating some forbidden message.
Saguru rotated his jaw, a fine ache starting from his temple down his cheek and into his neck from holding his head oh so perfectly still, pressed tightly against the muzzle of the gun. His right index finger twitched and he slowly curled it against his palm, followed by the rest of his finger, before relaxing them, trying to keep the movements slow and even.
His attention once more turned outward as Kid moved, reaching ever so slowly into his white suit jacket, carefully removing the target of the night, a shining mass of diamonds and rubies whose name escaped the detective at the moment.
Kid opened his gloved hand slightly, the necklace hooked on one finger, dangling over the snow, swaying in the wind. Saguru watched as Kid's mouth moved, and he shifted his mouth, almost trying to follow the thief's movements before giving up, instead focusing again on his body, trying to keep the now more constant shivering from jerking his body around.
As he got his body back under his control, mostly by clenching his teeth and stiffening his body as best he could, he started cataloging the man behind him again, staring with the basics, feel, sight, smell, doing his best to remember everything he could, despite the fact he was facing away from the man and only had the barest of clues to go by.
A flicker of light, and Saguru was distracted from his role as detective, eyes fastening on the falling sparkle of gems. He was temporarily struck by the poetic beauty of the moonlight reflecting off the flawless stones before they vanished into the snow drift at Kid's feet. There was a sudden sharp rush of air and Kid jerked, clutching at his chest.
Saguru blinked, a moment of curious stupidity hitting him before horror burned it away, watching as a crimson stain spread from under the thief's gloved hand, soaking into the cotton of the thief's jacket, spreading quickly across the once pristine fabric.
He felt a hand against his back, before he was suddenly face down on the snow covered roof, closer to Kid then he had been most of the night. Kid lay there, gasping like a fish, staring at Saguru, one arm thrown out as if reaching for the blond, the other still clutching at his chest, a rather comical attempt at stopping his very life from flowing from the wound.
Saguru pushed himself to his knees, ignoring the biting cold as snow melted against his heated body, soaking into the knees of his pants as he pushed himself across the roof towards the thief, reaching out for that grasping hand. Saguru's mouth moved, trying to speak, to take away that desperate, haunted look from Kid's face, though he doubted words were actually leaving his lips.
There was a flicker in the air, a horn honking, men shouting, then silence again. Saguru clutched at the hand he finally managed to grasp, using it as an anchor to pull himself even closer, one hand resting over the thief's on the bloody chest, pressing down, desperation clinging to him as he watch the stain spread even further.
"...sorry...couldn't..."
Saguru shook his head, an almost violent jerk, not understanding, not wanting to hear, not willing to listen.
Kid's hand clenched around Saguru's and a look of pure pain crossed the thief's face, body jerking with a cough, blood staining a too pale face. "...Pandora...no one gets hurt...can't..."
"Shut up," Saguru whispered, barely hearing his own words, clutching tightly at Kid's hand, his grip tightening even more as warmth started to leak from the hand, Kid's own grip failing. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..."
"...die..." Kid whispered brokenly, eyes shifting up, looking up at Saguru. There was an explosion of sound around Saguru, the cops on the street, the choppers in the air, the crowds, the wind, the very city, all coming back into to sharp of a focus as another gunshot sounded, Kid's head jerking sightly, life fading from those dull eyes.
Saguru swallowed, bile burning against his throat as he stared into those eyes. He could hear the crunch of snow as Kid's assassin approached and he closed his eyes, lowering his head. His hand slipped from Kid's lax one, drifting down the thief's side, slipping into the dead man's jacket.
It was a smooth motion, pulling as he rose, turning before the gun was fully raised, finger already pressing down on the trigger. Three cards sliced through the night, whistling as they cut through the particles that made up the air before cutting into flesh with hardly a sound beyond the startled gasp from the trench coated figure.
Saguru kept the card gun focused on the man as he stepped closer, not even pausing as he spit out the mouthful of acid that had gathered against his tongue, instead swooping down and picking up the man's fallen gun. He swallowed again, coughing against the burn, dropping one gun in favor of the other, not even giving the man more then the barest of moments to realize what Saguru was doing before he fire, repeatedly pulling the trigger, not even stopping as the gun started to click, empty of bullets, spent and useless.
Saguru finally collapsed, still firing the now worthless gun, body trembling, hands jerking all over the place, tears streaming down his cheeks, falling onto his knees to mix with the snow and blood.