The night before my first kill was completely devoid of sleep. And the rough mattress of the pull-out couch didn't help.

The giant window against the wall was the only source of light in the room. The moon was bright, illuminating our room in a faint and mysterious glow. The outline of Rin's sleeping form against the light reminded me once again how exhausted I would be the next day. While I spent the entire night tossing and turning, she slept like she was dead. I don't think I could have woken her up even if I wanted to. The only thing reassuring me that she was still alive was the steady rise and fall of her breathing.

It was one thing to train for a murder. It was another thing to carry it out. It was one thing to talk about how to avoid the law. It was another thing to successfully do it.

The thing bothering me the most, I figured during my restless hours in the night, was that after this, there was no going back. I would be a criminal. A murderer.

I didn't like the sound of it. Assassin fit much better. But was there really a difference?

I turned the question over in my mind until the sun rose, and Rin awoke with a sigh. "Morning," she said, her voice muffled from sleep and her eyes squinting in the light of the room.

"Morning." I leaned against the back of the couch, my eyes heavy.

"Sleep well?"

Should I lie? "No. Not really." No point in it.

Her arms stretched over her head. "You tired?"

"Exhausted."

"Then go to bed."

I huffed in grim amusement. "It's not that easy."

"Why not?" It was a stupid question, but she asked it anyway.

I sighed. "What if… what if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong."

"How do you know?"

"I've been doing this for a long time, Len. And things never go wrong."

"It did last time," I muttered with a frown.

Her shoulders slumped. "That was the first time in a while."

"I'm still worried."

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. "You can't worry when you're asleep."

I glanced out the window at the awakening city. "Don't we have to go, anyway?"

A laugh escaped her. "They have to wait until it gets dark. So no. We have nowhere to be until then."

"We don't have to… like, set up?"

"What's there to set up?"

It was a valid question, but I still felt like this was too easy.

"Just go to bed."

"...Are you going anywhere today?"

"What? No."

The fear of waking up alone in this hotel room was enough to keep sleep at bay. I had never been here before, I had no way back, and, without Rin, I'd be hopeless.

I didn't voice my concern but Rin seemed to sense it anyway. "I'm not going anywhere."

Do you trust her? It was an intrusive thought, but a valid one. Did I really trust the girl who'd almost gotten me killed, dragged me into this whole situation, beat the shit out of me my first few weeks here, and more?

She trusted you. I could have left the hotel. Easily. Hell, I could have grabbed one of the guns, too. I could have abandoned her in this room with nothing while she was sleeping. And she didn't warn me against it, she didn't threaten me, nothing. She had trusted me.

I curled up into a ball and pulled the thin sheets over me. The thought was comforting enough to lull me into sleep.

Rin shook me awake.

"I knew you were tired," she said smugly, looking down at me with a grin.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. "What time is it?"

"Time to go."

"What?!" I shot up. Through the window, the city was already descending back into darkness. "I slept the whole day? Why didn't you wake me up?"

She shrugged. "I didn't need to. Plus, we'll probably be up all night, anyway. Our flight leaves at five a.m. We have until then to eliminate the target, and locate our pay." She walked over to her bed. I followed, grabbing my outfit from the table next to me. She was already in hers.

"They didn't pay us yet?" I asked on my way to the bathroom.

"Nope. We're picking up the cash after the job is done."

I paused in the doorway. "We're going to fly eighty-five thousand dollars in cash?" I asked in disbelief.

"We'll shove it all in the hidden pockets of your bag."

"Will it fit?"

She let out a laugh. "It's not that much money. It won't take up too much room at all."

Never in my life did I ever think I would hear eighty-five thousand dollars being referred to as 'not that much money.' I didn't believe her but I knew she had way experience with this kind of stuff, so I let it go.

Emerging from the bathroom a minute later, her half-face mask hung around her neck, her bag was slung over her shoulder, and she was ready to go. "Grab all your stuff," she said, her mouth hidden behind the mask. "This is our official check out."

"You're going to the front desk with your hood up and your mask on?" I asked with a grin.

"Smartass. I did it just before I woke you up."

I frowned. "You said you weren't going to leave."

"It was just to the lobby, Len. And it was for less than five minutes. Get your shit on. We have to go."

I pulled my hood up as well, my bag over my shoulder, and lowered my mask around my neck. It'd be a little too suspicious walking around the hotel with one of those on.

Rin checked the room one last time, looking for anything we had left behind. I stood patiently by the door.

After concluding that the room was clear, she took a deep breath. "Remember," she said as she appeared at my side. "We shouldn't get separated. But if we do," she held up her radio, which hung on her belt. "Codenames only over the radio."

"Got it, Kára," I grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "It's weird in person. You ready?"

Hell fucking no I'm not ready. "Yup."

Her hand fell on the doorknob. "Then let's go."

We followed our previous route. We had drawn a lucky card with the weather. It was a cold, clear night, so no one glanced at us more than once. With our hoods up, we just looked like any other pair of pedestrians. But Rin had a disassembled sniper rifle in her bag.

We had just reached the alleys when a question popped into mind. "What about the cameras? Don't you think the apartments have them?"

"Kanon and Yuma outfitted our bags to have scramblers in them. Makes the screen go all static when we get too close."

"But what about yesterday? We didn't have the bags, then. If they have cameras, then they already saw us."

She led the way through the alley. As we turned a corner, an animal, probably a raccoon, dashed away. "We weren't doing anything suspicious."

"Except going up to the roof."

"You're worrying too much."

"I don't think you're worrying enough."

She flashed me an amused look. "I haven't gotten caught yet, Len."

I didn't respond.

By the time we reached the warehouse, the sun had completely set. I widened my eyes at the building. There were way more people there tonight. So many, in fact, that they were spilling out into the courtyard.

"Damn," Rin said, impressed but not concerned.

"What are we gonna do?" I whispered, peering over her shoulder.

"What do you mean? We're gonna go with the plan. I don't see Dex out there, so he must be inside."

"How do you know he's here?"

Her eyes scanned the streets. Other than the crowd laughing, yelling, and drinking outside of the warehouse, it was devoid of life. "Because the client said he would be."

"How can you trust him? Do you know him?"

"Never talked to him in my life. But we share a common interest. That's how this whole thing works. Clients want people dead, we want money. He wouldn't lie to us."

"Unless he's setting us up."

Another quiet laugh. "You're too careful."

I was going to respond similarly, but she shushed me.

"Let's move."

We crossed the street, avoiding the lights. We blended into the night perfectly with our masks pulled up. My bag bounced against my leg as we ran.

We reached the door to the building. My heart was beginning to pound. Rin took an odd-looking contraption; a plastic card with wires coming off of it, leading to a small screen. She inserted the card into the reader and typed in a few buttons. While she worked, I let my eyes scan the walls. Sure enough, there was a camera staring straight at us.

She told me it couldn't see us, but looking up at it, I felt like the Chief of Police himself was staring right back. I gulped.

The door unlocked with a click. Rin pulled it open. "Inside."

I did as she was told.

That was one door down. I rubbed my hands on my jacket as we began ascending the stairs towards the second door I was worried about. I wiped them off again on the second floor. By the third, they were covered in sweat once again. What am I doing?

I held my breath and Rin reached for the final door. She pulled the handle down and pushed it open.

Here we go.

One final staircase later and we were on the roof. From here, we could see the party occurring below us with even more clarity.

Rin dropped her bag on the ground and pulled out the parts to begin assembling her gun. I watched carefully. Flower and I had gotten a little further in the disassembling practice, but only with the simple guns. Not this monster that Rin seemed to favor over the others.

It was impressive watching her work. In less than five minutes, she turned a pile of seemingly unmatching parts and built them together to create a deadly killing machine. I was pretty sure it was the same rifle she used in my apartment. If we leaned it against the wall, it would be almost taller than her.

The rifle was completely black as well. She rested the bipod onto the ledge, sitting cross-legged, and peered through the scope. I watched her silently.

"Len," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Grab my phone out of my bag."

I did as she told.

"I need you to text this number-" she relayed the phone number to me, and I typed it in with shaking hands.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked.

"Just say, In position."

I nodded, typing in the message. Once it sent, I closed the flip phone, and set it on the gravel. It vibrated as soon as I dropped it.

"What's it say?" Her eye never left the scope as she talked.

"Back of the room. When you're ready." I read.

A small grin tugged at the corner of her lips. "I like this guy. Straight to the point. My binoculars are in my bag. Help me find him."

Once again, I did as I was told. I peered through the scope, looking for any sign of the grey-haired kid. "Standing next to the table he was at yesterday," I spotted after a few minutes. "Talking to some blonde girl."

Rin adjusted her aim. "Spotted."

After giving the guy one last look, I lowered the binoculars. My hands were trembling too violently to see through them clearly, anyway. This is it.

"Get behind me," she suggested. "This thing kicks noise out to the side. You'll go deaf sitting there."

I jumped behind her, throwing the things into my bag and preparing for our escape.

"Target in sight," she said softly. "Three, two, one-"

I watched as her slim finger pulled the trigger. The gun exploded in sound, pushed back against her small frame and making her shoulder jerk back. It looked painful, but she paid little attention to it.

Glass broke, and someone screamed. Rin pulled the gun in and began to disassemble it with the same ferocity as before.

"Hold onto that phone," she ordered, her words calm, but quick.

It's done. We just killed someone.

I closed my eyes. He was eighteen. The thought suddenly occurred to me that maybe eighty-five thousand wasn't enough money. It was a lot, yes. But for a life?

A life.

"Len."

I blinked my eyes open. Rin had finished, her bag on and her mask up, and was staring at me, concerned.

"I'm fine," I reassured her before she said anything else.

Her eyes seemed unconvinced, but she stood tall. "We need to move."

The fun part. Running away.

We descended the stairs much faster than before and pushed our way out of the building.

"That was loud," I huffed as we disappeared into the alleys. "Don't you think… they heard it?"

"Gunshots are probably pretty common on this side of town," she reasoned. "They definitely heard it. But they can't be surprised."

"They'll know where we shot from. And if they check the cameras-"

"Faces with no names," she interrupted me, dashing around a corner. "Even if they did see us, they have no idea who we are. And, as unfortunate as it is, people die all the time in the gang world. Honestly, they probably won't look into it too much."

I wonder who that girl he was talking to was.

I pushed the thought out of my head as soon as it appeared. It was over. It was done.

"If it really bothers you, think of it this way-" she continued, her breath growing uneven at our running. "He was a big member of this thing. He's probably killed people, too."

For some reason, it didn't make me feel better.

The phone in my hand vibrated, taking me off guard. "The phone-"

"What's it say?" She slowed to a halt. We were deep into the jungle of buildings by now.

I glanced down at the phone. "Third floor, men's bathroom, fifth stall, in the tiles," I read. "And then an address."

She huffed. "Looks like you're grabbing the cash, then."

After navigating the city for another few hours, we found ourselves across the street from a casino. Its obnoxiously bright signs lit up the night like the sun itself, and people streamed both in and out of the front doors. It had to be midnight by now.

We watched the building from the safety of an alley. Rin turned to me. "I'll stay here with our stuff. You go get it."

I blinked. "By myself?"

"Len, all you have to do is walk in, walk up to the third floor, and go to the bathroom."

"B-but, where do you want me to put the money?"

She rolled her eyes. "It'll only be, like, three or four stacks. You'll be able to fit it all in your holster, easy."

I had almost forgotten about the pistol still tucked into my waistband. "I don't know-"

"It'll be easy," she promised. "And quick. I'd go with you, but I'm not leaving this stuff alone here. Plus, our plane tickets are in here. If someone steals our bags-"

"Fine," I huffed. "Fine. I'll go."

She nodded. "The quicker you go, the quicker you'll be back. I'll be right here. I'm not moving until that money is in our bag, okay?"

"Okay." I clenched and unclenched my hands.

"I'll see you in five minutes," she said.

"Five minutes." I can go into a casino for five minutes without drawing attention. Totally. I removed my mask, throwing it with our stuff, and left the shadow of the alley for the sidewalk.

Entering the building was easy. I just stepped into the never-ending wave of gambling-addicted drunks. Once I was swept into the building, the real fun began.

People of all ages, races, and genders occupied the slot machines. I noticed with a frown that security was tight, most-likely to keep people from cheating. There were poker tables and other card games I didn't recognize. I had never been much of a casino guy myself.

I spotted a staircase. Too scared of being stuck in an elevator in a time like this, I walked towards them.

People dressed in suits traversed the floor with platters of drinks and food. There were no clocks to be seen. I had heard that casinos never have clocks, just to keep people inside for as long as possible, but I'd never confirmed the rumor. It was true.

On the second floor, there were even more tables and booths. The staircase to the third floor was harder to find, tucked away in one of the corners. I bumped into someone as I passed the floor.
"Watch where you're going," the bald man snarled without looking at me twice. It was strange. I felt like I stood out more than anything. But to these brainwashed people, I was just… one of them.

But I wasn't.

I grinned, climbing the stairs to the final floor. The bathrooms, to my great relief, were right at the top.

I pushed my way in, happy to find it empty. The third floor seemed to be the staff floor, so I probably wasn't allowed up here, but that also meant that it was much more empty than the other floors. I counted to the fifth stall and entered.

In the tiles. He must have meant the floor. I looked down, my eye caught by a single white tile with a corner chipped out of it. Lifting it up, my eyes widened.

Four stacks of neatly rubber-banded hundred dollar bills were sitting in the little hole carved into the ground. Four stacks equal eighty-five thousand dollars? I couldn't believe it. I was so doubtful, in fact, that as I gingerly picked each stack from the ground, I counted it. I didn't need to get through the full stack to discover that it was indeed true. The first one I counted, I stopped a little more than halfway through at the 170th hundred dollar bill. I just counted seventeen thousand dollars. And there were three more stacks to go.

It was enough to convince me we had received our full pay. Rin would probably count it when she got the chance, just to be sure, so I decided not to worry about it.

I'm shoving my entire college tuition in my pants right now. I laughed at the thought.

Two minutes later, I pushed my way out of the bathroom and back down the stairs. Out of everyone here, I had definitely hit the biggest jackpot.

Without a care in the world, I waltzed out of the building, straight into the alley where I had left Rin. My heartbeat picked up. I couldn't see her, or the bags, at all.

Until I nearly walked into her.

"Did you get it?" She asked, leaning against the building. The shadow completely disguised her. People walked on the sidewalk only a few feet away, and even they didn't spot her.

I tapped my holster. "Yup."

She grinned. "Sick. Come on. Let's put it in the bags, and then head to the airport."

We retreated further into the alleys until we were out of sight from the main streets. Only then did I pull the stacks out, placing them in the secret pockets of my bag.

"See?" She said, flipping through one of the stacks. "Not so bad, right?"

"Are you sure this is all the money?" I asked.

"This one had twenty-five thousand, and the others look the same. Except for the smallest one. That's the ten-thousand. We'll be sure when we get home, but I doubt the guy shorted us. He seemed smarter than that." She placed the final stack into the back.

I zipped it up, standing tall. "What now?"

Rin brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Now," she began, her voice strong with victory. "We go to the airport, and fly home."


Eyyyy. That easy. In and Out.

Sorry Dex. I'll make it up to you later.

Thanks for reading :)