Another blade nearly found its way into his head as Twilight made his escape. Were it not for his lightning fast reactions and devil's luck he'd have been dead at least five times over. So far the Thorn Princess had only been able to lodge projectiles at him, staying out of sight for the most part. He'd only caught a flash of her hair, long and dark, which reminded him of his wife's– fake wife's hair. That wasn't the only familiar thing as the grace with which she moved also had him feeling dejavu.

He pushed thoughts of his family– fake family from his head. The assassin needed all of his attention.

He practically dove into a building–a shopping mall–hoping to lose her in the crowd. Fortunately for him, the Thorn Princess wasn't known for her killing of innocents. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a crowd on a Tuesday afternoon.

How she'd found him was another worry. He switched disguises again, but still felt her tailing him. He wasn't going to lose her, so she needed to be neutralized. Twilight had a gun on him, but he couldn't exactly start a fire fight in a shopping mall. She didn't need a gun to kill him; all she needed to do was prick him with her poisoned needles and he was a goner.

He needed to stay moving.

In his moving he was forced to the upper floors of the building. They were empty due to a remodel or something. Twilight looked out the window, checking for a sniper. He breathed a sigh of relief, it didn't look like they thought that far ahead. He didn't have to wait long before he heard the door shut and then lock.

Good, no interruptions.

"You impress me, Thorn Princess," Twilight said, hoping to catch her off guard, "Few have been able to track me for this long."

He expected a witty retort, or an attack, but when he turned he saw–

"Yor?"

There was his wife, holding a few poison needles. He shouldn't have faltered, he was a professional, and he knew that, but why was she–

"Why do you sound like–" Yor was in a state of shock. "How dare you mimic my husband's voice!" Her shock quickly turned to fury. She leapt to attack him, and it was all he could do to grab his gun.

It was futile, both for the fact Yor was incredibly fast and he wasn't sure if he could knowingly shoot her. Twilight needed to escape, he couldn't kill her!

She had no qualms about killing him. Well, she didn't know it was him. They fought for only a few seconds before it was clear Yor was superior at hand to hand combat. Her strength bordered on inhuman.

One of her poison needles ripped at his face mask, so he quickly ripped the rest of it off. He wasn't sure if the poison would hurt his skin, but wasn't going to take the chance to find out. Twilight didn't think it through, as now his identity was no longer hidden.

"His face too?!" She was even more enraged. "You fiend!"

"Yor–" he tried.

"Don't speak," she commanded, "Just DIE!"

"Yor, I didn't want you to find out like this," he tried again. Her movements faltered when he spoke, letting him say, "to be honest,, you weren't meant to find out."

"Shut up!" She was getting sloppy. Her eyes flashed dangerously, but it was as if her body couldn't help itself.

"Yor, just stop," he said, seeing an opportunity to grab her wrists. She tried to kick him, but he moved in closer, pinning her body to the wall. "Just…"

He trailed off as with their position the air shifted. It was still heated, but not as violent. Yor blushed.

He normally would've let go if she looked at him like that normally, but with the poison needles all over her person, he didn't dare. Which somehow led to him leaning in.

She too stopped struggling and was now straining to meet him. Needles clattered to the floor as their lips met in an explosive kiss. Unconsciously his hands made their way to her neck, and hers buried in his hair, probably mussing it worse. When the kiss finally broke, both were dazed.

Twilight snapped out of it first, and reached for his handcuffs, or tried to, before Yor flipped their positions and pinned him to the wall. Her lips her on his, hungry and inexperienced. It set a fire in him he'd never felt before and all thoughts of escape went away. If he had to be caught, he'd rather it be like this. Twilight met her fervor and then some.

She wasn't to be outdone and pressed her body even closer. They lost themselves in each other until it got just a touch hotter and heavier closer to a line that shouldn't be crossed in a construction site.

The (somehow) married couple, broke apart panting and blushing heavily. Yor had never kissed anyone before. Twilight had never kissed someone for reasons other than work. Neither could really articulate what they were feeling, but the imploring look in Yor's eyes told him he needed to come clean.

He grasped her shoulders to look in her eyes. "Yor, I swear I'll tell you everything just–" he stopped. "Where's Anya?"

Her eyes went wide. "The chase went longer than expected, I–"

"It's fine, we'll just pick her up together." Twilight righted his suit, trying to tell how noticeable the slash marks were. He lost the suit jacket. Yor was still staring at him. He met her eyes with the question.

She reached up to brush her thumb against the corner of his mouth. "You have lipstick all over your mouth," she explained through her embarrassment.

"Oh," he said intelligently, "We should probably clean up." He motioned to the disaster of the room. Yor nodded, and went to pick up her needles. He was helping her when he felt a hard metal something poke him. Twilight turned to see Yor with his (very much loaded with the safety off) gun, poking the muzzle into his side.

"Were, were you going to shoot me?" she asked in a small voice.

He was frozen.

"I–" he should lie to her, but the words he found himself saying weren't lies. "... I couldn't. You're formidable and… I was going to try and bluff my way out of it." That was pathetic to admit.

Yor loosened her grip and Twilight wrapped his hand around hers, slipping the gun back into its holster.

She kept blushing. "I, uh, was trying to kill you. I thought you were using that voice to trick me."

It was his turn to blush. For someone to care so much– But the mission! Was it compromised now? He glanced over at Yor. He didn't know what to do.

Once their attire was in the right place, Twilight (or was it Loid now?) offered her his arm. Yor took it and together they walked out of the shopping center. Anya's school was actually quite close by, so they were there quickly.

As they strode. Twilight could tell there was something on her mind. "Do you have anything on your mind that's not related to… work?"

She frowned and seemed to fight with herself for a moment before asking, "When you kissed me, that wasn't you… seducing me, was it?"

How to answer that? "You kissed me first," he finally said, "And it was seducing in the sense I want to do it again."

That answer had her blushing, but it was the truth.

"So you do like me?" she asked.

"Probably. I've never felt this way before."

"And how's that?"

"Selfish."

The answer puzzled her, but she could sense the genuine feelings behind it. Soon enough they were at Anya's school, only 10 minutes late.

Anya's face lit up when she saw them. The teacher she was with looked slightly annoyed.

"Sorry we are late," Loud started, "I got off work early and decided to… surprise my wife."

The teacher took in their disheveled appearance and Yor's blush and smirked internally.

Bet I can guess what kind of surprise he gave her. A little irresponsible to do that during the day, but Anya could do with a younger sibling.

Younger sibling! Anya thought. That sounded like a great idea! Her parents' thoughts had nothing to do with babies though.

I'm sorry Anya. I'm such a bad mom, was Mama's internal monologue.

Papa's was surprisingly just as emotional and way more expletive filled.

Anya was pretty sure they weren't getting her a little sister, but liked the thought better than either of their thoughts.

"Can I have a little sister?" she asked.

Mama turned red and sputtered for an answer. Papa was less visibly surprised, but glanced briefly at Mama. Anya knew they weren't in love like a normal mama and papa, but she knew they did love each other enough.

Papa finally chuckled and Anya couldn't tell if it was for show or not. "What brings that up?" he asked.

She couldn't very well say her teacher's thoughts, so she shrugged.

Papa took her hand and thanked the teacher again. Mama took her other hand and apologised again.

"Is that a no?" she asked.

Mama turned red again and Papa thought, is she old enough to know? No, even I was older.

She turned to Mama to see if she would budge at all. She indulged her more sometimes.

"Well, you s-see, when a man a-and a woman–"

Papa cut her off with a look. "Babies are a lot of work and a big responsibility. You'd have to give up things you like to do if you had a younger sibling."

Mama came out of her embarrassed state. "Yes, you'd have to be a good role model and take care of your little brother– or sister."

Responsibility? Anya made a face. She had enough responsibility as it was. Content to drop it, they continued on the day.

...

After Anya went to bed that night, the adults talked.

"It seems neither of us were honest with each other," Twilight said.

"Some more than others," Yor responded coldly.

"Okay. Fine. I'm a spy. This is a mission. I need to get close to the president to prevent a war."

"I may not seem like it, but I am a patriot!" Yor said, "And you've made me betray my country."

"I'm doing this to prevent a war!" he argued back, "This is how we work– stopping threats before they escalate."

She lowered her head into her hands. "I just don't understand how we missed this about each other. Both too good at our jobs."

"And your brother?" he asked.

"What about my brother?"

"He's secret police, did you actually not know that?"

"Yuri's a– You're mistaken!"

"Whether you believe me or not, it doesn't matter. You can't tell anyone about me. Especially your brother," Twilight pleaded.

"If I harbor you then I'm a traitor. I could be killed." Before he could retort, she became stricken, "But who would believe me, especially now that I haven't killed you."

"It's okay Yor. We'll figure this out," he comforted, placing a hand on her back. "I won't tell my people about you either."

"You better not." She moved closer to be in his arms and he found himself holding her. "I should have known it was something like this. Why else would a handsome man with manners tolerate someone like me?"

He couldn't help but smile. "If you didn't have a mark on my head you'd actually be the perfect partner for this kind of job. I know you can take care of yourself." He held her closer. "And you should know I more than tolerate you."

She shivered and Twilight knew enough about women to know it probably had nothing to do with the cold.

"I can believe an enemy spy seduced me," she whispered as their faces drew closer. And closer and closer.

Twilight's true thoughts were too raw, too sensitive to share, even with all the barriers broken down. So he let his actions speak for themselves and leaned forward to kiss her. It was just as electric as before and she responded eagerly. After a few moments of fumbling, Yor pushed him down to the couch and tried to straddle his waist. Her skirt hindered her efforts, so boldly Twilight pushed it up past her knee, letting his hand brush her stocking covered leg. In response, she grasped the collar of his shirt to bring him closer.

Twilight had never quite been manhandled like this in an intimate situation, but considering this was the first time he's ever been like this with a woman for personal reasons he couldn't compare it.

His other hand came up to let her hair down. Her hands started unbuttoning his shirt, which made him wonder how far this was going to go. They were married, so no chance of a scandal– Yor nibbled on his lips in a way that derailed his thought completely. He just wanted more of her. More of this feeling she gave him.

Things became more heated until it probably wasn't appropriate to do it on a couch in the living room. Reluctantly, Twilight pushed Yor off of him.

She looked confused and worried.

"We should probably go to bed," he told her.

"Bed?" she asked. Her lips were swollen. Slowly, she got off of him and helped him up. He made his way to his room, only to be followed.

"Yor?" he asked.

She turned red and looked away. "Oh, you don't want to…"

"I do, just… Yor, you had your first kiss earlier today. Going from one to one hundred is… well…"

"Oh… I see…"

"Also I don't have any condoms," he admitted, "So unless you want to help Anya with her sibling request?"

"No, I– I think you're right… but…" Her eyes flickered down to his crotch. "There are other things we can do, right?"

She had a point.

He pulled her with him through the door, and closed it behind them.

She had a point.