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It was Lupin's third theft in as many weeks. After his conversation with Sunshine he'd gone off and gotten himself properly drunk, just to get a third perspective on the matter, and then struck out twice with two increasingly annoyed women and gone home alone.

The question was never 'is Zenigata worth it'. Obviously, Zenigata was great, but Zenigata was not the treasure he was trying to hunt down here. The question was 'is trying to get a relationship with Zenigata that's more than occasional drinking buddies and sworn rivals worth it'. Was it worth it to disrupt the status quo, and would the treasure he got by disrupting it be worth the loss?

Klaus had, unfortunately, been incredibly unforthcoming about whether the sex was any good and Sunshine hadn't had as much perspective on romancing him as he'd hoped. (Boy, he'd read that one totally wrong.) He'd poked Fujiko about it a little but she'd assumed he was jealous and played up Zenigata's prowess and romantic charms just to needle him, only to find him storming out on her.

The next week, a diamond quietly went missing in Sweden. After that, a gold-plated vintage car in Australia vanished from a mob boss's personal collection. It wasn't quite the same without Pops but it also wasn't boring...losing Pops as a rival wouldn't shatter what made theft worth it. He'd had to convince himself of that before he could escalate to the next step.

(Of course he hadn't bugged the apartment. That would just be rude. But he had hidden a camera next to the door, just so he could see when Pops started residing in it again.)

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Roppongi turned out to be an adventure. Three locations, three thefts, three failures-- but despite it all, Zenigata couldn't even be mad. He was doing what he was supposed to -- chasing the thief, trying to catch the thief, and failing to do so. (This was not intentional; they did at least foil the theft of the Renoir, but the Mori gem exhibit and items from the 1900 World Fair vanished too.

Evem though museum thefts were his least favorite and the ones he worked hardest to prevent, one out of three felt like something of a win, so he took what he could get, and went with it. He'd go home, have a nice cup of something alcoholic, and take what he could as a victory.

When he came back to his shiny new condo, Zenigata brought groceries to the place. He'd inspected it on his first visit before he left for France at the new years, and now a month later, he was back inside it. A few things had been added -- personal touches (he refused to just live in a sterile empty space -- he got enough of that with hotel rooms) and so some things had migrated here. Art on the walls, knick knacks...

And he swept for bugs previously, so he took a shower, got into a cozy robe and his shorts, and settled at the high class kotatsu in front of the television with a beer to watch the news.

Swept for inside bugs, but that's why Lupin hid the security camera in the hallway light fixture. And why when Zenigata got out of the shower and came out to his kotatsu, there was a monkey-faced man leaning against the wall with his lanky legs out, one knee curled, and a bottle with a set of familiar sake cups laid out for him.

Zenigata got the ox, of course.

In retrospect, Zenigata shouldn't have gotten comfortable. He should have expected something like this. But he wanted to get the soot off his skin, and work the kinks out of his muscles and just... be clean after a long day of running, sweating, and chasing the thief.

"Are you here to turn in the things you stole and come down to the station?" he asked gruffly, standing there with his arms folded over his chest. "I need to know if I should put pants on."

"Nope." Lupin gestures for him to come sit down. "Would prefer not to have either of us go to the station tonight. Unless that's really how you want to end your evening?" He pours a drink into the tiger cup too and lays back again, grinning.

This is, in part, a test. He wants to see if Zenigata can handle himself even outside Milliways without snapping the cuffs on him instantly.

Edited 2021-02-02 21:02 (UTC)

What I want right now is for him to serve his debt to society...

Zenigata's steps forward are measured. He's not rushing, not leaping, not scrambling for cuffs. He's just taking one step after the other to come and sit down before the kotatsu and look into his sake cup.

and then, share a drink with him.

They have skipped a step, somehow. There was supposed to be an ending between the theft and the drink. A time without theft. More than a few hours of time, even. A service to others. But he takes up the Ox cup and looks into it.

The lurid image painted in the interior of the cup gives a new meaning to 'bull riding.' Jin Guangshan seemed to be perverse on all levels. He grimaces; it's tasteless and lewd, and right up Lupin's alley.

"Kanpai," he says, and takes his drink.

Lupin raises a cup emblazoned with a monkey getting horrendously creative with its tail and clinks it to Zenigata's before drinking. His pose is completely casual and loose, but inside he's tensed and twisted up. "Santé," he says, and drinks in kind.

The way he's gazing at Zenigata is the one thing he can't hide. It's intense, hungry. The way he looks at a diamond behind bullet proof glass.

Klaus looks at him-- not quite that, not with the same burning intensity. It's hungry, yes, but not like he'll perish if he can't cradle Zenigata in his hands. So Zenigata tosses his drink back and sighs as it burns its way down his throat, smooth.

Nice aftertaste. Slight lingering melon on the tongue. Good sake, he decides. Very good sake.

The detective in his takes in the tenseness, that the muscles try and lie for. The hunger for something not yet attained. So much greed.

"Brazen monkey," he says, and it could be about Lupin or the cup.

Edited 2021-02-02 21:51 (UTC)

The monkey is set aside and he picks up the rat instead. "If you're not into monkeys, I got a full set more," he points out. "Courtesy of the Jin Clan. Now, did you tell him to set them out for me or did he figure it out himself?"

"Why would I send in a thief, and not make sure there wasn't something to steal? I didn't pick the objects, though -- he did," he says, taking up the tiger and drinking the liquor out of that one. Seems it's going to be a lot of sake shots. Thankfully, Zenigata can drink like it's his job. He takes up the sheep, which is being ill use by a shepherd and his crook.

"I thought of it as-- enrichment for you, punishment for Jin Guangshan," he said, tilting his head as he looks into the cup. Really, they were absolutely awful. No wonder Jin Guangyao wanted them gone.

Lupin snickered. "What, am I a bored hamster now?" Enrichment, geeze. He's laughing, though, hardly offended.

"And how are you holding up without me, huh?"

"I do what I always do when you're between heists," Zenigata said, tilting his head. Did Lupin think he just sat by the phone waiting for a call to action? "I worked. I saw friends and I made plans. I have-- I have a life, you know. People. Friends, even."

Not just in the Bar, either. He has others outside it.

"Ami's back at school, and the new semester began," he started with the familiar, and then work it out from there. "When I go back to France, I have two weddings and one funeral to go to; two of my coworkers and unfortunately, a retired commissioner passed. One I liked well enough, but he was quite advanced in years. One of my team's got his five years with us coming up. I'll make an appearance at the party, probably, and then leave early. I've got a list of trainings to complete, if you go right for another theft, or if you rest on your stolen laurels for a bit."

He tilts his head, and watched him. Curious to see if the man's minutiae matters at all. Is he a person to be engaged, or just a prize to have and occasionally bring down off the shelf to admire?

"Huh. So much for 'no life without you', huh? If you finally locked me up for good or I kicked the bucket, you'd have plenty to do." It's said...not spitefully, but it feels like less than a congratulation. As if it hurts, that Zenigata doesn't need him.

(It does.)

"If I fell in front of a train tomorrow, you'd go on just the same," Zenigata said, blinking owlishly at him with his wide, heavily lashed eyes. "Just because I have other things-- doesn't mean that I want... I want a life without Lupin."

How can he say you add value to my life without showing his entire ass the process?

"Okay, but." Lupin points the bottle at him. He doesn't bother to argue the first statement because...well, he's long ago learned the foolishness of arguing with Zenigata on literally anything.

"When you say Lupin. Do you mean CHASING Lupin, or me just...existing. Like if I actually settled down in Italy with Rebecca or some bullshit like that and tended my garden, you'd never talk to me again, right?"

"I should hope you paid your debt to society, first, but-- even if you didn't, I..." Zenigata thinks on that, taking up the next horrible up. Ox, Tiger, Sheep. Dog, this time, and... the obvious is occuring. He sighs, but does not drink from it yet.

"Would you want me there? Or would I be a relic of something you left behind? Something to forget about." There's a little tightness to him now, a hunching up of shoulders. He's suddenly very aware he's in a robe and his boxers and Lupin is calm and composed and fully dressed and...

"If -- if you wanted, I would come."

"You say it like you'd be visiting my sickbed. Or my grave." Lupin takes the cup from his hand and drinks from it instead. A small, petty act of theft, like a child would do.

"Would you actually give a shit about being around me if you weren't chasing me? Let's say you got fired again, this time for good. Can't legally chase me and I'm still doing thefts. Would you give a shit?"

"I'm saying it like -- I don't know if you'd want me there, if I weren't..." he stops, and tries to figure out how to phrase it, how to phrase the thing. He leans over on the table, taking up the next cup (the rabbit, predictably in an orgy) and downs it. "Would I matter if I wasn't there to be an obstacle to you?"

Then he grabs the horse, doesn't even look at whatever perverse thing it's doing on its cup, and downs the contents. He sets it down heavy straight after.

"We're asking the same damn question," he blurts after it's burning in his gut, four shots of potent liquor in quick succession starting to cloud his judgment. "Without the game, who are we to each other? If the chase isn't there, do we even matter to each other... or would we walk away."

He puffs up a little, holding his breath trying to keep all the blurting, all the stupid things outside his brain, and then brings both hands down on top of the kotatsu.

"I'd follow you! Fired, I'd still-- I'd still want to see you."

"It's like...okay, at Milliways, yeah?" Maybe the booze was a bad idea. Or a great one. Most of his ideas are both. "You didn't say just fuck off, I don't even want to see you, you said let's be nice to each other and not keep up the chase all the time. And then you go stick your dick in the first guy you find who fits my profile, too."

Welp. Just lay it right out there, then.

"Klaus came on to me!" Zenigata blurted, turning red in the face. He's not ashamed of saying yes, but Lupin makes it sound dirtier. "Do you know how infrequently that happens? Like I'm going to turn down someone who-- who wants me. Why would I do that? Who cares how he looks? He wanted me."

A sip of desire to a parched man only makes him thirstier, and Zenigata's had a hell of a dry spell.

"It's friends with benefits, that's all!" Zenigata continued, turning red. "I'm not in love with him, anymore than he is with me. I'm a safer alternative to turning tricks and I don't think he looked at my wallet when he asked me to bed with him."

"So you're saying you absolutely weren't attracted to him at all, right? A total pity fuck?" He's skeptical.

"I never said that," Zenigata said, grumbling. "The first time, I took him up because it'd be crazy not to. The second time, third time, fourth time... He's a perfectly attractive man with big doe eyes and and a smile that lights up when it's real. If that means I have-- have a type, then so what?"

Nothing criminal about having a type.

Even if the type is hard-drinking monkey men.

"You and I really have very different taste," Lupin grumbles. "Tiny little shoulders like that, no muscles, concave cleavage? Not my style at all."

Huh. Wonder who he might be describing.

"What's wrong with my taste? Wiry and lean, flexible as all hell, hips with perfect hand holds," Zenigata shot back. He can't believe he's defending Klaus in this -- or laying out what he likes. Either or. He folded his arms over his chest. "I like similar things in men and women: short, petite, dark haired, and doe eyed. He's dark haired, big doe eyes, smart and witty, and not afraid to go after what he wants, even if it's a busted old cop. Loyal to a fault, too, even to people who may not deserve it. Thankfully, as he frequently reminds me, nearly everybody is short for me."

He sniffed disdainfully. "Also, a big chest isn't necessary! He filled out that demure dress he wore last week just fine."

Better than fine. He's still confused about that one, but eventually someone will explain genderplay and everything will be far more clear.

"Oh, you like guys in dresses, huh?" It's...it's weird hearing Zenigata talk about what he wants. It suddenly strikes Lupin that aside from justice or whatever the fuck, this isn't something Zenigata does much.

Lupin likes it. Ought to do it more.

And like a switch is flipped, Zenigata turns downright bashful, the pink on his cheeks half from quickly consumed liquor, half from sudden embarrassment that he is being seen. He reaches for another cup, but then thinks beter of it and starts to stack the ones he's collected.

"Was nice," he said, eyes on the cups. "Different. I didn't even-- ask. He just did it. It suited him."

It wasn't a want, he didn't ask for it, it was simply... a gift. A surprise gift. Everything about Klaus is a surprise gift. He's so damned lucky that the man likes him even a little bit, that he can feel desirable again after so long.

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