The museum had been broken into again. The police had been trying to catch the thief for ages, but this time, they were right on their tail.

Yukari raced through the European night, the cool wind whipping back her hair and hitting her face as her heels clicking rhythmically against the roofs helped her time each jump. She clutched the small unassuming satchel close to her side so it wouldn't slip off, it's weight heavy with a new piece.

A stolen necklace.

It was a simple run. The necklace had been at the museum for a month. The press had died down and the tourist had stopped coming to see it. Nobody would expect someone to steal something that's out of the limelight.

So on a quiet night - hours after the museum closed - there was a dip in the security and Yukari striked. Her feet touched the floor safely and the artifact was one grab away when all the lights suddenly came on.

Officers had surrounded her. All of their guns trained on her.

"Shit," Yukari hissed. The artifact was to her immediate left. With a quick motion she could still grab it.

"It's over!" She guessed the police chief yelled. "Turn yourself in!"

Watching the guards closely, her hand slowly slipped down to the satchel hidden behind her back. "Come on guys. Can't we work this out in a way that doesn't involve me going to jail?"

"You should've thought of that before you went on a stealing spree."

"Hey, a girl's gotta eat." Using the bow on her back, in a quick motion of her hands she aimed it up at the skylight and shot an arrow. A line erupted from the arrowhead and snagged the edge of the roof's lining, acting as a perfect grappling hook.

"Bye~" A small tug and she was airborne. The cops started shooting at her. The bullets whizzed by her but none of them touched her.

"Sir! The necklace is gone!" She heard one of the soldiers yell below her while she had already pulled herself over the ledge. Yukari rolled her eyes. After two years of doing this, she's really lost respect for police departments everywhere. Though there are a few she admits caught her off-guard a few times.

"She's getting away! After her!" The police ran away like scrambled foot soldiers beneath her and she took off by roof.

Leading to her current predicament.

The police were on a full search, setting the nightlife of the town into high alert with how many cops were running through the streets and she was quickly running out of level roofs to jump to.

The next building had a fire escape. Seeing as she had no other option and seconds from the edge of the building, she clutched the bag of satchel closer to her side and on the edge of the building she leaped off, her hand quickly finding the iron railing of the fire escape and flaring up from the impact.

'Why did I have to grab that with my gloveless hand?' Yukari winced. She made sure to switch hands to her gloved one as she dropped down to the rest of the railings until her feet were safely on the ground.

"Yukari?"

She spinned around, quickly pulled her bow and had an arrow notched and pointed it in the direction the voice came from.

Minato, an old classmate and close friend she hasn't seen in a long time, stared wide-eyed with his silvery blue eyes at the sharp tip of the arrow aimed at his throat.

Yukari gasped and quickly equipped the bow back on her back, "Minato!"

"Wha-"

"I saw her fall down here!" Someone yelled from somewhere close by. Yukari panicked. The police had already seen what she looked like and with her pink bow and quiver strapped to her back there was no chance they wouldn't recognize her.

She was about to make a break for it when a sharp tug to her arm twirled her right back around into Minato's chest. Something warm was draped over her back and her vision was obscured by fabric. She recognized it as a jacket before her back was pressed uncomfortably against the wall and the hard ridges of her bow and arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her front against a hard chest.

A different type of panic began to fill her after she realized Minato quite literally had her pinned against the wall. She pressed both hands to his chest to push him away. In retaliation the arms wrapped around her waist tightened and the next thing she knew she could feel his warm breath on her neck.

"Shh." The contrast of the cool air to his breath so close to her ear sent a shiver down her spine and a blush rose up her neck.

The running footsteps stopped in front of the alleyway, the officer's heavy panting adding to the tense atmosphere of the alley.

Minato had her sandwiched between himself and the wall. The material of her suit did well in keeping away the cold, but it did nothing to hide the warmth radiating from the boy so valiantly pressed against her to hide her from the justice-seeking law, or keep away the fresh scent of peppermint and moonlight that was so uniquely him and brought back memories of late summer nights on the pier, both of them a lot in love and a little too tipsy to keep it to themselves.

"Is she down there?"

"False alarm! Just some kids trying to get it on." She couldn't help her little squeak of indignation. Minato squeezed her a little tighter to remind her to keep quiet, though the slight shakes of his shoulders delivered him a swift pinch to his side. She reveled in the small twitch he made.

"Everyone split up! She's only one girl! She couldn't have gone far!" They could hear the running steps of the man retreating, leaving both of them alone in the alley once again.

And leaving her to her growing anxiety.

He started to loosen his grip when she started to wiggle in his arms as she also started to curse herself in her head. 'Of all the people I could've ran into…"

"What are you doing here, Yukari?" Those same blank eyes she remembers back from high school were staring at her now with an intensity that made her want to look away but the underlying concern kept her eyes on him. They made her want to spill to him everything that has happened to her for the last three years but something tied her tongue.

"I was just running a few errands." Even she wouldn't believe that lie with how small her voice sounded.

His eyes shifted from hers to the pink satchel hanging from her arm. "Does that errand have something to do with whatever's in that satchel?"

She unconsciously tugged the satchel closer to her side under his scrutiny. Of all the people she didn't want to find out her 'side job' Makoto was the very last. She could've handled Akihiko's rage-filled speech. She could've taken the pitied looks from Fuuka. She could've taken Aigis' barrage of actually insightful advice. Hell; she could've even gone through one of Mitsuru's frosty 'executions'.

She couldn't handle the gentle edging and complete understanding that was Minato Arisato. She couldn't, can't, face him. So she did the next thing she could think of.

"I'm sorry."

She ran. She could hear him yell her name as she ran around the alleyway's corner.

Old Man Shu is a well-known salesman and buyer in the undergrounds of Shibuya. She always goes to Shu with her take-aways. After running the shop for years, he has an impeccable eye for cash and worth. The old man could be stubborn as a battle axe when it came to money though. Nothing a little bargaining can't fix.

"30,000."

"What! This thing costs at least 100 times that!"

"It does, when it's brought to a certified pawnbroker and when the item isn't stolen."

"Come on, Shu. I've seen you buy shitter items for far more than 30,000."

"30,000. Nothing more nothing less."

"Seriously!"

Old Man Shu opened his mouth to say something when the bell above the door rang. He left her alone in her frustrations to see who opened the door. The grin that sprouted immediately left Yukari confused. She's never seen Shu smile a day since she's started coming here.

"Arisato-san! I haven't seen you around here in a while." Yukari whipped her head to the door to see the familiar shag of blue hair and slouched over-stance that was Minato Arisato. He had ditched the jacket this time - or rather she guesses it less that he ditched it and more that she hasn't given it back yet - and was sporting a khaki turtleneck and black pants, very similar to what he wore during the cold days at Gekkoukan High.

"Yeah. It's been a long time, Ushio-san." His grin back at the mid-aged man confused her even more.

"Ushio-san?"

"I used to help Ushio-san sometimes around the shop during our third year at Gekkou."

It made sense. During their third year at Gekkoukan High, Makoto had been more active than the year prior. He never stayed in one place for too long. He woke up early in the morning and was at school before anyone, even Akihiko and Mitsuru. And once classes were over he'd be gone before anyone could stop him and wouldn't be back until way past curfew except on the days he fell asleep during class; though Aigis, who had appointed herself as his personal protector, had always watched him intently in that robotic, unblinking way of hers.

Everyone had started getting worried and had had enough when he almost fainted upon coming into the dorm one night, Mitsuru had put her foot down and condemned him to his room for the next two days. He wasn't too happy about it, but he wasn't suicidal enough to argue with Mitsuru, especially when he knew she only meant well.

With him being confined to his room, she was able to see him more often. For those two days, even though she couldn't walk to school with him she was able to see him before she left and spend time with him after she came back.

She might be a little full of herself by saying those moments he spent with her were the only moments he didn't complain about his two-day lockdown.

But even while she spent the day in his room, her sitting on his bed reading a magazine and him playing a game at his computer or both of them forgoing the bed and just sitting on pillows on the floor with his head resting on her lap as one of his earbuds in her ear and they just relaxed and vibed to the music, he was still restless.

"Huh. I never knew. You never really told us what you were up to back then."

Minato had the decency to look apologetic as even he remembers his frantic behavior the last year before graduation.

Shu, or Ushio, looked between the two young adults standing in the middle of his shop. One of which he's known for years, and the other he's known for two. It may have been a while since he's been in a serious relationship, but even he could feel the tension between the two. "You two know each other?"

Minato answered him. "We went to high school together." He said nothing more and he expected nothing less from the teenage boy he met back when, though he'd hoped that the years could've taught him to open up a little more. The pawnbroker guessed that was just his character.

But during those years of having him help around the shop, Shu learned that most of what the boy wouldn't say, spoke volumes though his body language, and with that one sentence and that interaction when he came in, he didn't need to hear anymore.

He patted his hand on the counter. "Wait right here." The bulky man walked away from the counter into another room behind him.

"This is pretty stalkerish of you, you know." This was too soon of a meeting to call it a coincidence.

"We never got to talk." He answered. "You ran away so fast. I was worried."

"You could've called…"

Minato raised his eyebrow and fished his phone out of his pocket to raise it up to her face. "Your phone is disconnected."

Oh. She knew there was still a bill she needed to pay.

Old Man Shuu (Ushio?) walked out of the back room. He was holding a white envelope in his hand as he walked up to the register and held his other hand out. "Let me see that trinket."

Yukari passed the necklace back over the counter into Shu's open palm. He pulled that hand back to place the envelope in hers. She stared flabbergasted at the envelope. Clutching it in her hand, she could tell there was a lot of money inside of it.

"Maybe that little trinket was worth more after all."

"Arigato, Ushio-san," Minato thanked him.

"Ahh, whatever. Now both of ya out." Yukari was too stunned to do anything but she was slightly aware as Minato grabbed her other hand and started to guide her to the door. She stepped through the door but before Minato could follow her out, Shu stopped him with a firm grab of his shoulder. "Hey. You visit more often."

Minato nodded, that small smile of his making a reappearance. "Understood."

Neither of them spoke a word after they left the small out-of-the-way pawn shop. The air between them was heavy and somehow the space between them felt even further than the night of graduation.

Now that she actually looks at him, he looks different. She sneaked a side glance at him. Even in the dark of night with no moon in the sky, the glowing street lights and neon advertisements and the absence of his jacket allowed her to see his face clearly.

His hair had grown longer, the blue strains wisping at his shoulders now. He's gotten taller too. He was already half an inch taller, now it seemed like she had to strain her neck a little more just to meet his eyes. He's filled out more too. The years have been good for him, the lean and lanky build he had in high school now sculptured with muscles obvious even under his turtleneck.

Her mind immediately went back to the other night when those muscles were pressed against her so intently that she could feel every crease and-

"I didn't know you moved to Shibuya," Minato said.

'Mitsuru must've given him my address.' "Uh, yeah. Most of my modeling gigs are here or somewhere close, so I just got an apartment here."

"Isn't it really expensive? I know it cost at least three times as much as it would in Port Island."

Huh? "Yeah, but the modeling gigs help pay most of it out."

"And your second job helps you pay the rest?"

Yukari stopped walking. Minato stopped a few paces ahead after he realized she had stopped. He didn't turn around to face her though.

"What are you trying to say, Makoto?"

"That night I saw you in the alleyway. They said a special artifact was stolen from the museum. The assailant was female and holding a pink bow." He turned to shoot her a knowing look for the last sentence.

"I…got into a situation." No point in hiding it anymore.

"You could've asked Mitsuru for help?"

"No way I could've asked Mitsuru-senpai for help."

"But stealing is better than asking for help from your friends?" His voice raised slightly from his normal monotone. Minato rarely raised his voice when they were in high school. Even when someone pissed him off the worst he did was glare. She was surprised.

But this was exactly why she didn't want anyone to find out.

"Why are you so concerned about me anyway? You left!" She stepped closer to him now, getting right in his face, her finger jabbing his chest. "No calls." Again. "No messages." Again. "Not even any letters!" Again. "What gives you any right to care about me now!"

He stopped her hand at the next jab, holding her hand against his chest. His eyes were intense as he stared into hers. She always loved his eyes. Everytime she stared into them it felt like he was sharing his very soul.

Only with her.

"I've always cared about you, Yukari. I love you. No amount of distance or radio silence ever changed that. And leaving you, I didn't have any choice. That last year before graduation, I was doing everything I could to find a way to stay with everyone, with you."

There were very rare moments when Minato would say more than just a few words, but it's funny how each time he did, they would take her breath away.

She pulled away.

"I-I have to go, Minato." She needed to get far away from here, maybe leave town. She heard there was a new exhibit opening somewhere in Hokkaido.

"Wait." He pulled back her arm again, something he seemed fond of doing now. She didn't spin back into his arms this time. His hand trailed down to hers and she felt him press a folded piece of paper in her hand before he let go.

"My address. You're always welcome."

Her fist closed around the folded paper.

"Goodbye Minato." She walked past him, not looking back even once.

But she slipped the note into the envelope when she was sure she was out of his sight.

I think I prefer Yukari as a spy rather than a Phantom Thief. She makes it work though.