lupintrois | (no subject)

The worst heists, in Lupin’s opinion, were the ones nobody knew about. Delicately, in the background of Zenigata healing from his wounds and Lupin gently romancing him into staying in bed, a war played out across France - an informant leaked here, a safe house exposed there, all so delicate and subtle that the media barely noticed it. Pawns were moving but neither man had worked up the aggression to shift their more powerful pieces as they tested each others limits. The key was using just enough power that Albert knew he meant business...and knowing that he’d take losses in the meantime.

Fine. Albert knew better than to try it all at once, anyway, with what Lupin held on him. The stress of it was frustrating, even so, and distracted him from planning anything more fun for his new situation with Zenigata...until things escalated to him planting suspicious data in the office of one of Albert’s underlings, and with an Interpol social event happening right down the hall Lupin decided to multitask.

Threaded | Flat

Once it was time, once he was well enough, Zenigata came home to a tossed and bloody apartment. It had not been pleasant to return to, but he had to erase what had been a crime scene and simply pretend nothing had happened. He had to mop up the place, set things to right, and find out how much damage had been done. Wiping his blood off the floor boards, going through his files, putting away his clothes.

Thankfully, he did it fresh off sleep at Milliways, caught a couple of hours sleep before work, and went into the office like nothing was at all amiss. Nothing had been reported. No one had turned up in the hospital or morgue. It was like the night before had never happened at all. (Except it had, and he could feel it sometimes -- metal in his gut that had been pulled out by magic and grit.)

But things got back to normal. He was doing his own nudging -- wondering who'd set him up, if these were thugs or someone he knew. However, he still put in time with the events, hew still had his job to do. Interpol didn't know he'd nearly been killed, and there was a luncheon with some of the newer teams coming on, and he had to be there. No one new was coming to the Lupin case (which was by choice; Yata was his new guy for now, he didn't need anymore to break in.)

That left Zenigata was standing there in his ill fitting suit, laughing with a couple of newbies over a cup of some non-alcoholic beverage or another, and meeting folks and explaining, yes, he was that Zenigata, thank you for asking, no, he won't regale you with any Lupin stories right now, you'll hear them ove time, he's sure, thank you. He has no idea that a Lupin story is practically waiting to happen, right here, down the hall.

Instead, there's a lot of glad handing hotshots, and it's Zenigata's least favorite thing to do.

Edited 2021-04-28 05:30 (UTC)

A lot of new people meant it was easier to get away with not knowing or being known by the people around him, and 'Edger Wolf', newly minted inspector, slipped easily through the crowd on a string of firm handshakes. When he was presented to Zenigata he didn't flinch, even giving him a slightly harder handshake and saying what a big fan he was of the man's work.

Hopefully this wouldn't get him as mad the Sonia thing did.