"You're sure it's an Innocence? Yes, there are exorcists available to investigate further. I'll send Cross to Spain on the next morning train. Your orders are to stay in the area and watch for signs of gathering akuma, and to protect the accommodator to the best of your abilities. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Toma." The supervisor hung up the phone and turned to his assistant.

"A Finder has reported the existence of a compatible user in Barcelona, a woman by the name of Maria de Lourdes. At first impression she appears to have a Parasitic-type Innocence that makes use of her voice to kill akuma." He turned to his map of Europe and fiddled with the pins that represented the Finders currently on missions. "I want you to find Cross and tell him I have a job for him."

The assistant looked displeased. "Cross? I wonder, sir, if that would be wise when dealing with a… female accommodator. He's also not the most reliable of the staff on hand; I think someone more stable might be more convincing. Marie from Tiedoll's group seems promising, or Tiedoll himself, if the general isn't too busy…"

The supervisor chuckled. "She's a singer, Dashwood. Bohemians rarely get along well with the clergy, and this one is particularly feisty. Involved with Catalan revolutionaries, if the reports are correct. It might take all the, hm, charisma that Cross has to get her to come." An expression of weariness passed over the supervisor's face. "I think everyone would much prefer that Maria become an exorcist of her own free will, rather than being coerced." He turned his attention back to the pile of papers stacked on his desk. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

The assistant bowed grudgingly and left with a muttered "yes, chief."

After about fifteen minutes of poring over the latest research reports, the supervisor's work was cut short by Dashwood's return.

"Um, Supervisor? Cross seems to be missing from headquarters…"

--

"Your taste in wine is impeccable as always, Marian." A blonde woman with a small gray monkey perched on her shoulder sipped delicately at a rich merlot while her drinking partner, a tall man whose long hair matched her beverage, gazed silently across the table. "Is that why I let you convince me to go AWOL tonight?"

He smiled devilishly and placed a gloved hand under her chin, tracing the faint scars there with his thumb. "Beauty attracts beauty."

Cloud was ashamed to find herself flushing, whether from the compliment or the alcohol she couldn't tell, until suddenly Lau Shimin lashed his paw out and chattered jealously at the rival for his mistress' attention. A line of bright red appeared on Cross' hand, and she chuckled smugly. Cross smiled back, ignoring the blood blossoming over his white glove. Only after a brief pause did he remove his hand to take a sip of his own wine.

"I see you already have a loyal companion. 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ admit impediment.'" Cross set down his glass and Cloud noticed a hint of curiosity enter his otherwise suave and flirtatious tone as he asked, "Tell me, does he do that on his own or are you trying to tell me something?"

"What do you mean, on his own?"

"Of his own will, sua voluntate," Cross said, picking up his wine again and swirling it idly. "Is he not a slave to your bidding, as all we humble males dazzled by your grace?"

Cloud couldn't help but giggle at that line, ridiculous even for him. "He obeys me when I synchronize with the Innocence, but otherwise he's just a monkey."

The curiousity remained in his eyes, but Cross' indelible philogyny overcame it and he said, "So that's not what you think of me?"

Cloud closed her eyes and shook her head, taking refuge in her wine glass once again. She was a capable woman in battle, but she felt far out of her league in this conversation; the older exorcist was much better at the art of seduction than she could counter with argument. Finally, after deliberation, she spoke. "I think you are a valuable exorcist with a great deal of skill."

Cross leaned back and lifted his arm in the air, reciting. "'If we had world enough and time/ this coyness, lady, were no crime…' It is precisely because we are exorcists that we should seize the moment. Always living close to death…No? Well, then," he continued, to Cloud's utter embarassment as ladies at the other tables pointed in their direction "'We would sit down and think which way/ to walk, and pass our long love's day…'"

"But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged chariot hurrying near." A deep voice interrupted Cross, and a grey-haired man seated himself next to Cloud. "I must cut your rendez-vous short, I fear. Another mission always presses." Froi Tiedoll smiled warmly, willfully ignoring the relief emanating from Cloud and the irritation from Cross. "I'm terribly sorry, Cloud, but Marian has been called on to investigate an Innocence in Spain. The Supervisor wants him to leave tomorrow morning, so it is vital that he is ready right away."

"No, that's fine, General," she said, as Lau Shimin ran up the general's arm and began picking at Tiedoll's curly gray mane. "I feel a bit tired as it is, Marian. We ought to go back."

Cross stood up and bowed sweepingly. "As you wish, my lady." While Tiedoll was busy disentagling the monkey's fingers from his hair, Cross removed his bloodstained glove to offer Cloud a hand up. She took it cooly, but was astonished to notice that there was no trace of a wound there at all. She looked at him quizzically, and he merely winked with his one visible eye. Tiedoll pulled a crumpled fold of bills from an inside coat pocket and handed it to the waiter, telling him to keep the change and thanking him for taking such good care of his children. The trio of black-garbed figures departed to gazes of awe from the rest of the restaurant's patrons, who were well familiar with the Black Order and her apostles.

"So then, general," Cross began as they walked into the brisk night air, Tiedoll leading and the younger exorcists following close behind, "there wouldn't be a chance that Miss Nine here might be able to accompany me? After all, it's a dangerous job, and it's so easy for one to get lost crossing the Pyrenees…" Cloud believed it was very possible that Cross would take an opportunity such as this to desert the Order he seemed to despise so much, but she was certainly not going to volunteer to babysit the man, who was much more interested in discovering what was underneath her clothes than any new Innocence fragments.

Tiedoll chuckled. "No, there's no need to worry about that. You'll take the train to Marseilles, and then head to Barcelona by boat. No need for mountaineering at all. It's a pity, though, I've heard the countryside is beautiful."

"I'm sure," Cross said irritably. They walked in silence for a few meters, until Cross finally gave in and asked, "Just how did you manage to find us, General?"

"Oh, you really thought that you could blend in?" Tiedoll asked with a grin. "I just asked around for a red-haired man in a mask and a blond woman carrying a monkey on her shoulder. Even if you weren't wearing exorcists' uniforms, you two certainly don't have the most pedestrian appearances in the order."

Cross smiled at that. "Of course not," he said wryly.

"It's been too long since we last saw each other," Tiedoll continued, "so when the supervisor asked for someone to search for you and Cloud I decided to go. It's so rare that I have time to return to headquarters; I miss everyone sometimes when I'm all alone on my expeditions." The hint of a tear began to show in the general's eye. "Little Cloud had just found her Innocence the last time I was here, and Lau Shimin was just a baby…look how much they've both grown."

"Stop talking like an old man already, Tiedoll," Cross scoffed. "Women don't go for the paternal types, you know. For someone who acts like everyone is his child, I somehow doubt that there are any little Tiedolls running around out there."

""I've never been married, if that's what you're suggesting," Tiedoll responded.

"You know perfectly well that is not what I mean," Cross said.

"Perhaps you ought to start acting a little older, Marian," Tiedoll quipped. "Women don't exactly go for the libidinous adolescent types either." Turning an apologetic face to Cloud, Tiedoll said "Please excuse Marian, he doesn't know how to behave around ladies, and sometimes he forgets that he's a priest."

Cloud opened her mouth to protest that she was perfectly capable of handling Cross herself, but he interrupted her.

"Oh, I always remember that I'm a priest. I'm always willing to take the confession of a lady who suddenly finds herself guilty of fornication. Right after the fact, if need be."

Spotting the imposing crenellations of the tower that served as the Black Order's headquarters, Tiedoll broke the mood with an excited outburst, "Ah, here we are! It's good to be home at last, eh?"

"Delighted," Cross said sarcastically.

--

Author's notes

Sorry this took so long... and that nothing really happens. I just had so much fun writing Cross that the conversations ended up longer than intended. I hope I was able to keep them in character. The next chapter should be a little more plotty/explanatory. Enjoy! Review!

-Quercus

I formally apologize for being a lame co-author. Review anyway!

-La Romanesque

edit: I completely forgot to cite my poetry!

The first quotation is from Shakespeare, Sonnet CVXI. (let me not to the marriage of true minds/admit imepediment. Love is not love... etc.) hehe, you can tell I just watched Sense and Sensibility; that's the one Marianne recites to Willoughby, and then the name for the random secretary.

The second poem, started by Cross and then cut in by Tiedoll, is Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) "To His Coy Mistress"