(no subject)

[lupintrois]

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.)

Comments

[zenigatcha]

"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?

[lupintrois]

"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.)

[zenigatcha]

"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?

[lupintrois]

"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?"

[zenigatcha]

"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."

[lupintrois]

"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?"

[zenigatcha]

"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."

[lupintrois]

"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.

[zenigatcha]

"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."

[lupintrois]

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

[zenigatcha]

"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.

[lupintrois]

"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.

[zenigatcha]

"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.

[lupintrois]

"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.

[zenigatcha]

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.

[lupintrois]

"Hey, I wore a dress for you more than once. Pretty recently too. Didn't that mean anything? You didn't even ask that time either." Look at him. Look how he's more quality than Klaus. Look at him.

[zenigatcha]

"You wore a dress to spy on me," Zenigata says, pointing at him with one hand. "That's different. Sonia was... a blanket. A-- a cover! You didn't want me to know it was you! Klaus wanted me to know it was him."

That's one way of putting it, anyway.

"Anyway, it's not important. Dresses. Klaus. This isn't about him except..." Why is it about him? Because he's Lupin's double? Zenigata really thinks on this, before he decides honesty is in fact the best policy. "...you know what, so what. He looks like you. There, fine, I said it. Just enough sideways from you to be safe. I'll still get a lot of questions if anyone from Interpol finds out I'm dating someone who could almost pass fore you, but... why does it matter? You mock me every chance you get! Why should I ever think you're-- upset he's sleeping with me instead of you? Are you just... angry? That he does? That you think you're being replaced?"

Does he not understand that he's utterly irreplaceable?

[lupintrois]

"I'm mostly angry you replaced me with an inferior version. Seriously, if you wanted to bang a guy who's a talented thief and schemer who's a crack shot, an expert manipulator and has ten percent body fat, I know a great guy in the French government to introduce you to." Granted Albert tended to go for artsy twinks but that was Albert's problem.

Lupin swirls the monkey cup around in his hand a few times, fuming a bit. "What's this Klaus guy got that I don't, except a waffle fixation?"

[zenigatcha]

"Hard pass," Zenigata mumbled, looking down at his stack of cups. The obscene horse rode on the top, and he wondered not for the first time, why anyone would seriously want this in their home, or consider it a treasure.

"Klaus isn't inferior, he's just different," Zenigata said, brows furrowing over his nose. "He just told me that he wanted me. Nobody else has taken a shot. Ipso facto, Klaus gets laid because Klaus wants me to lay him."

[lupintrois]

“When a fish restaurant suddenly starts putting sausage on the menu but doesn’t advertise, you gotta expect most people won’t know to order the sausage,” Lupin says snidely, his shoulders hunching up protectively. “How was I supposed to know you’d say yes if I asked?”

...but would he?

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata shrugged, hands in his lap. "I'm a closeted man in Interpol. You were never supposed to know. Nobody is. Every time I take Klaus over I wonder if this is the day someone from works sees us and then that's it, cat's out of the bag. Maybe it's stupid to be afraid, but -- I'm a public figure. Things like that come out, and suddenly they're looking close at everything else I do, or was seen with, or..."

Trailing of, Zenigata looks up and finally musters the courge to look into Lupin's face and say it straight: "Or places I might be emotionally compromised."

[lupintrois]

Lupin doesn’t react because he’s not sure if this is real. He’s never sure if it’s real. Dating Fujiko will do that to a guy.

“Right. But you’re also saying that any man who so much as asks gets to have you, and I’m the kind of guy who likes to shove his way to the front of the line.” He leans on the low table, grinning a bit sleazy and a bit drunk and totally smug.

[zenigatcha]

Fujiko does a lot of things to a guy.

"You ain't shoved shit," Zenigata says, looking at him. He picked up one of the still-filled cups. "And not any man. My self-esteem isn't that shitty. Klaus makes me feel like I matter. Like I'm important, what I want... is important. You don't even--"

There's a word at the tip of his tongue, but he changes it out at the last second: "Ask."

He drinks his sake to keep from saying anymore about that.

[lupintrois]

“And if I did?”

Tell him it’d be worth it. Tell him you’d want it. He’s halfway over the table by now.

[zenigatcha]

"I dunno, Lupin," Zenigata put one elbow on the table, leaning over his cups a little bit. "Are you going to ask because you want to take something from Klaus, or are you going to ask because you want to start something with me?"

Tell him he's wanted because he's the partner that Lupin wants, n0ot the object Lupin desires to take from someone else. Tell him he's desired because he's Zenigata. Tell him the risk is worth it, as he leans over the other half of the table, eyes wide and pupils blown.