Chapter Text
Hitomi was annoyed with her sisters. They kept bringing up the crush sub-inspector Asaya had on the male persona she had used to scout out their last heist. AND that horrible classmate of Ai! It wasn’t funny. “Don’t pick up any more female fans!” Ai called after her in a sing-song voice as she left. Hitomi fumed.
At the heist, Toshi wondered why the cat moved a bit faster and more forceful than usual. She actually hit him from behind with enough force to throw him into a wall, jumped over him and then was out of the window before he could recover. This time, he had placed his people in a broad perimeter around the gallery, so he hoped he could catch her before she reached her escape vehicle.
Hitomi cursed under her breath when it became clear that all direct ways to her Porsche were blocked. Those guys were starting to learn some discipline. She scaled the 2,5 wall at the back of the gallery, ran through a garden barely missing the duck pond, up a tree and over the barbed wire top of the next wall. A jump, a backflip and she paused on a large branch to listen to her pursuers. And froze when the barrel of a gun touched the nape of her neck. “Hands on our back. Don’t move!” The voice was low. “Now what is a beautiful lady like you doing here?” it purred. Hitomi considered her options. She had no chance to escape a bullet from this position. But it seemed unlikely the person at her back wanted to meet the police. “Escaping from the police,” she replied in a whisper. “A minute max till they start to search the gardens in this direction.” The pressure of the gun increased. The person behind her whispered something too low for her to hear. Then she heard another voice “I told you to not pick up new toys while we work.” That voice was distinctly female, with a hint of a foreign accent, and mocking. “How could I resist?” the first voice said in a serious tone. “Just look at her.” That voice sounded female, too??? Hitomi growled. “What is it with women ogling me lately?” she murmured. A subdued snort was her only answer. “You are lucky. Now slowly raise your hands, grab the branch above you, and step forward.” The barrel left her neck the moment she was hanging from that branch. “Don’t get caught,” the voice mocked. When she whipped her head around, she only caught a glimpse of a young woman with dark short hair vanishing into the next tree. Some alarm sounded in the house next door and Hitomi hurried to get out of there. She abandoned her Porsche for that night and picked up the bike Ai had insisted on placing at the next block, in case of trouble.
The next morning, the headline wasn’t their heist, but the suicide of a well known member of parliament, rumors about whose rather unsavory ways to make money never had been proven. The garden where she was greeted with the barrel of a gun must have been his garden, Hitomi realized.
She took her midday break out on a park bench in the sun, her coffee and bento next to her. Suddenly she heard a voice from behind. “They do say cats love the sun.” Her shoulders were pressed down as a pair of arms with a body’s weight leaning down on them enfolded her. Hitomi froze. She remembered that voice. The hands crossed on her chest were fine-boned, slim and calloused. “I have a proposition for you,” the voice continued, “or rather two.” One of the hands folded back behind Hitomi’s head, slowly stroking a strand of hair behind her ears. Hitomi forced herself to breath out. “I’m listening.” she said, straining to hear if anyone else was near. Nothing. A proposition. If the stranger had wanted to kill her, she’d already be dead, in this position, it would be far too easy to break her neck.
“A weekend to have fun, and a little help to scout out a location. In Yokohama.” A thumb stroking up Hitomi’s neck made her shiver.
“What?!?” her voice was an octave higher than normal. “You are propositioning me?”
A silence fell. After a long moment stretched with only birdcalls and the sound of a car passing on the street, the voice continued: “Maybe I misunderstood yesterday? You did mention women ogling you.” Hitomi sighed. “I dressed up as a man. And it’s just that damn inspector who is out to get m… Cat’s Eye,” she corrected herself at the last moment, “and that annoying brat of a classmate of my sister.” The hand that was stroking her hair stopped. “My sisters keep teasing me about it.”
“Ah,” says the voice from behind her. The stroking resumed. “I can’t really imagine that no women looks at you when you are yourself.” Hitomi could hear a smile in her voice. She found herself leaning into the caress. The fingers started slow circles at the base of her skull. It felt incredible.
“So you just never thought about it before?” “No,” Hitomi answered slowly. “There was always Toshi, practically since elementary school.” She nodded towards the police headquarters, where Toshi just stumbled over the bottom step. “Obviously,” the voice behind her said in a dry tone. A finger wandered down Hitomi’s neck, making her hairs stand and a blush creep up to her ears. “The location we want to scout is rumored to have ‘Begging’ by Heinz on display. Think about it.” The pressure on her shoulders disappeared. When Hitomi turned her head, there was no one in sight.
Hitomi only went back into the café after Toshi left. She felt too confused to meet him. Nami raised an eyebrow at her as she came in. A women with blonde hair was sitting at one of the window tables. Hitomi absentmindedly threw her a greeting. When she caught herself thinking that this European looked gorgeous, she paused. “Hitomi?” Nami asks. Hitomi threw her hair back, laughed and said: “Sorry, the day is a bit weird.” Nami poured her some coffee. Hitomi sat at the bar, looking thoughtful, then confused, then thoughtful again. Nami was just wondering what was going on when the blonde asked in French: “Could you recommend something to eat s’il vous plait?” Nami answered in the same language, suggesting several Japanese options, sandwiches, and added: “Oh, my sister could make you a Croque Monsieur.“ Hitomi looked up at this. The French woman thanked both of them effusively, smiling. Her dark blue eyes looked deep into Hitomi’s. Hitomi smiled back and went off to the kitchen to create it.
In the evening, after they closed up, Hitomi sank down on the couch in their living room. Ai was already in her room, having an early exam the next day. Nami brought two beers from the kitchen and offered one to Hitomi. “So, little sister, what has been bothering you all day?” Hitomi took the beer and looked away. “Can’t I just be grumpy?”, she said defensively. Nami grinned. “Usually, if you are grumpy, it’s Toshi’s fault. Today is different.” Hitomi began peeling the label of her beer, her long fingers moving, scraping, smoothing. “Do you know anything about father’s painting ‘Begging’?” she inquired. “Begging?” Nami replied in an astonished voice. “It was listed as a request work. The description was something like ‘woman on her knees, hands stretched out’. … It was never part of his collection. Why?”
Hitomi looked down at her beer bottle. “I got propositioned today.” Her voice was low. Nami raised both eyebrows and leaned forward. “A long weekend in Yokohama ending with scouting out a location where this painting is supposed to be.” Hitomi drank some beer to hide her discomfort. Nami whistled. Hitomi blushed. “Who, how, why?” Nami asked.
“Why? - I don’t have a clue.” Hitomi shook her head. “How they found me? Must have followed me home last night.”
Nami nodded. “The women you ran into last night. Who had a gun.” Hitomi nodded. “Whom you met in the garden of a just-that-moment-decease sleazeball.” Hitomi nodded again. “And they want to spend a whole weekend with you?” Nami’s voice sounded far to calm for the absurd situation.