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Now, Lupin doesn’t cry very often. He had gotten used to bottling any negative emotions he felt inside a dark part of his brain while he smiled and joked. Tonight, though, his brain had gotten the best of him.
This happens from time to time, even the most put together of thieves have to cry every once in a while. The only difference between now and every other time is he’s in a back alley, slumped up against a dirty brick wall with rain pouring down on his already wet face.
There had been an unsuccessful heist just a few moments before this. Lupin wasn’t a stranger to having his heists be foiled, by either a near capture by Zenigata or by Fujiko snatching the loot at the last minute. But this one was different, it had been entirely his fault.
The dragon statue had slipped from his hand as he was running away, shattering once it had hit the ground with a gut wrenching sound. As the clatter of porcelain breaking filled Lupin’s ears, it seemed like the world was suddenly far away. He could barely make out the sounds of Jigen and Fujiko screaming at him, could barely process running away as Zenigata started to chase after him once more, could barely make out the twists and turns he took to escape.
That was what had led him here, soaked by the frigid rain with nothing but the smell of a nearby dumpster and the sound of the roaring storm to fill his senses.
The saddest part was that he had no idea where he had ended up. The hideout could be miles away or five minutes away, but Lupin had ran for so long without knowing where he was going that making his way back now would be a trainwreck. If he even should go back.
More tears made their way down his face, becoming mixed with the rain. Would any of his crew even want to see him after such a bad mishap? It had been months since their last heist, and who knows how long it will be until Lupin could let the chaos die down and find another target. At this point, he just felt like a disappointment. A crash of thunder covered up his sobs.
Lupin slammed his head back against the brick wall, slightly harder than he had meant to, filling his vision with stars momentarily as the cool pain started to crawl up his skull. Maybe if he sat here long enough, the rain would wash him away. He would be as forgotten as that statue he broke, and he wouldn’t have to disappoint anyone anymore.
The thief was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of approaching footsteps. It was more than likely just some salaryman on his way home from a dead end job. He would pass the alley and not even spare Lupin a glance. He let his eyes fall shut, a few more tears slipping out.
“L-Lupin?” an extremely familiar voice echoed down the alley. Lupin’s eyes ripped back open and he whipped his head around to see the source of the voice. He was met with none other than the wide eyes of Inspector Zenigata himself.
“Pops,” Lupin started, his voice sounding foriegn even to his own ears, “what… are you doing here?”
“I was walking back to my hotel and…” the inspector trailed off, starting to move toward the other. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he said, making a move to get up a little too quickly and immediately falling back down on his ass. He hissed out a curse and got up again, this time slower.
He was eye to eye with Zenigata now, and Lupin could see the concern in the other’s gaze. The inspector was also soaked from the rain, but not to the extent Lupin was. His hat brim sunk down, covering his eyebrows and the water dripped from his long eyelashes. His cheeks were flushed from the cold, and his breath was coming out in small puffs that disappeared into the air like cigarette smoke. The sight of the inspector like this made the thief forget why he had been crying, for just a moment, as if his mind were reset.
“I can tell you’re lying Lupin,” Zenigata stated, worried tone clear in his voice. “Your eyes are red, and your voice sounds like someone just killed your lost puppy. So, are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or am I going to have to arrest you and force an answer out?”
The threat was empty, they both knew it, but Lupin still felt the need to tell the other exactly what had happened. Something in him was dying to reach out, needing to just say what was bouncing around in his brain.
He sighed, putting a small smile on his face, “I’ll talk, but can we get out of the rain first? I think we’re both hurting for some warm air right now.”
Zenigata grinned and motioned for the thief to follow him. They both walked out of the alley way and down the street, stopping at a shabby motel just a block away from the alley Lupin had been sitting in.
“This is going to sound… weird,” the inspector grumbled out, turning to Lupin but not meeting his gaze, “but… I’m going to have to put my cuffs on you. Don’t worry, I’m not arresting you tonight, it would just be… odd for me to show up to my room with the thief I’ve spent my life chasing after, ya know?”
Lupin let out a small chuckle, but nodded in understanding. He held his wrists out, Zenigata attaching the cuffs to them with a satisfying *click*. After that was done, Zenigata grabbed Lupin by his arm and dragged him into the motel doors.
The thief only half listened as Zenigata explained that some made-up story about how the inspector had arrested him and decided to keep him here instead of risking the walk back to the station. The older man was then handed a small key and they made their way to his room.
Once they were situated inside, Zenigata started stripping himself of his wet trench coat and hat. Lupin cleared his throat loudly, attracting the other’s attention.
“As much as I would love a strip tease right now, I’m kinda still in handcuffs,” Lupin joked, causing Zenigata’s face to turn bright red.
The inspector quickly fumbled to get the key to unlock the cuffs, pulling it from his discarded coat and unlatching the trap from Lupin’s wrists. The thief rubbed where they were absentmindedly, turning his eyes back to Zenigata.
The man was already across the room, digging through a suitcase beside the bed. Lupin was abruptly hit in the face with a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
“They’ll be big on you, but it’s what I got.”
“Thank ya, Pops.”
The younger man grinned and made his way to the small bathroom to change out of his drenched clothes. The feeling of taking off a wet suit is perhaps one of the most freeing feelings ever. He stripped out of his soaked underwear too, hoping that Zenigata wouldn’t mind too terribly much if he went commando in the basketball shorts he let him borrow.
He admired himself in the mirror after putting on the inspector’s clothes. Pops wasn’t wrong, they were fairly large on him. The blue shorts were held up with a drawstring so they were cinched at the waist but baggy and flared at the bottom. The plain white t-shirt slumped over to one side more than the other, exposing a large portion of his collar bone. He looked like a child, but he would have to deal with it for the night.
When Lupin walked out of the bathroom he saw Zenigata sitting on the small couch beside his bed, dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a graphic t-shirt. He was fiddling with the end of his pant leg as he had his legs crossed. When he finally noticed Lupin had emerged from the restroom, the inspector shifted his gaze to the other. His eyes widened at the appearance of the thief, quickly shifting his focus back to his pant leg as his face flushed pink.
Lupin just smirked and walked over to sit on the cushion next to Zenigata. Once he had sat down, the inspector started talking.
“So… why were you in an alleyway by yourself in the rain?” he questioned, voice picking up the concern it had been filled with earlier.
Lupin felt the dam inside him snap, and all the emotions he had been hiding since the older man found him slumped against the brick wall tumbled to the forefront. “I fucked up,” he said, voice cracking in a way that betrayed how close to tears he was, “I lost the loot, I made my crew mad at me, and I’m sure somewhere out there my father and grandfather are rolling in their graves because of how much I disappointed them.”
Zenigata looked shocked for a moment before the shock melted into just confusion. “It was just one statue though, wasn’t it? And not even a very big one, just a small porcelain dragon that’s maybe worth a few thousand. Does it really bother you that much that you broke it?”
The thief pondered for a moment. Was this really about the statue, or was there something more beneath the surface that he hadn’t touched yet? Zenigata had a point, the thing was only worth a couple thousand if you could find the right buyer, so why was he so upset? His crew had been mad at him before. Hell, there had been points they would all leave him because he made some stupid, rash decision over a girl. No, this wasn’t about the heist or the statue, or even his closest friends being angry at him, this was deeper.
“When’s the last time you let yourself feel something, Lupin?” the inspector asked after the younger man had been silent for a long stretch of time. “And I mean really let yourself feel something?”
Suddenly, the composure Lupin had was kicked out from under him, and he sobbed. The realization that it hadn’t been the failed heist that got to him, rather, that it was just the straw that broke the last straw in a long-time-coming breaking point hit him as Zenigata spoke. Tears poured down his face, his body moving with silent sobs.
He felt arms wrap around him and instinctively leaned in. Lupin laid his head on Zenigata’s chest and drained all of his pent up feelings into his shirt. One hand moved from the smaller man’s back to his hair, thick fingers running through the short black strands. The feeling was comforting in a way Lupin hadn’t felt in a long time, and he fully relaxed into the inspector.
The two stayed like that until Lupin calmed down, Zenigata petting his hair and rubbing gentle circles into his back. Eventually, the thief looked up at the other, sure his face was a wreck, and realized how close they were now. He felt his face grow warmer and saw Zenigata’s do the same. They stared at each other for a long time basking in the closeness they now shared. This was until Lupin decided he had some questions that needed answers.
“Pops, why did you take me here?” he asked, pushing himself back slightly from Zenigata and immediately missing how it felt to be against his chest.
The inspector’s eyes became distant for a moment, lost in thought. He stayed silent for a minute or two, as Lupin stared at him expectantly. His hand moved to the back of his neck, rubbing it in the way he always did when he was nervous.
Zenigata took a deep breath before speaking. “Lupin I… I might try to arrest you but I still care about you. A lot, actually. I’d like to think of you as my… as a friend, you know? And you don’t just leave friends alone in the rain.”
Lupin stared at the other, a small smile creeping onto his face. He heard the inspector’s voice strain when he said “friend.” He knew there was something more to it.
He leaned back into Zenigata, wrapping his arms around the inspector’s neck. Lupin gazed up into those large, black eyes and smiled wider.
“Just friends, Pops?” the thief questioned, a playful yet nervous lilt to his voice, “Is that really all you see us as? All you want us to be?”
Zenigata’s eyes widened and Lupin felt as if he was being pulled into those beautiful irises. The older man blushed so hard he could feel it from his spot on the other’s chest.
“Well I-” he sputtered, “I mean… if you- if you were okay with something else, then that would be fine.”
Lupin was sure by now he looked completely lovesick, but he didn’t care. This man had found him at his lowest, taken him in, and comforted him. The inspector who had been hunting him to the ends of the Earth while still crying any time he faked his death, constantly made sure no other person got the honor of capturing him, making sure he was never hurt when other officers shot at him. A lot of things clicked into place tonight, Lupin thought.
“I think okay with it is an understatement, Pops. There is nothing else I would rather do.”
Before Zenigata could get a word in, Lupin leaned up and closed the gap between them. Something in the universe seemed to be put into place right as he felt the other start to kiss back. Although it wasn’t full of electricity and fireworks like all the movies and books say, it felt right . As if two pieces of the same puzzle were finally fit together to complete the bigger picture.
Even though the kiss wasn’t much, and only lasted a few seconds, Lupin felt as though all of his breath had been vacuumed out of him when they pulled apart. Before he could catch his breath, he felt himself being pulled in for another kiss.
This one was longer, and held more longing (probably because it was initiated by Pops, the thief couldn’t help but think), but still just as chaste as the last. It tasted like cigarettes and tears, but also like mint and chocolate. A strange combination, but not an entirely unpleasant one.
When they pulled away this time, Lupin took it upon himself to decorate Zenigatas face with small pecks, before stopping back at his lips and laying just the gentlest of kisses on them. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw Zenigata’s blissed out, flushed face and couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re probably the cutest person I’ve ever seen,” Lupin sighed out laying his head on the inspector’s chest and taking in his scent.
“I-I’m sure that’s not true,” he practically could hear the blush in the man’s voice. “You’ve met so many people… there’s no way someone like me …”
“Nope! You’re the cutest. No time for debating, I’m tired.”
Lupin heard Zenigata sigh, but he made no further complaints. He did, however, wrap his arms around the thief and scoot down the couch so the both of them were laying on the cushions. They would probably have way more to talk about in the morning, and he would definitely have to call Jigen and tell everyone where he had gone off to, but that was a worry for tomorrow Lupin.
For now, he just cuddled into Zenigata’s chest, listening to his heartbeat and feeling the rise and fall of his breaths. He pressed one more lazy kiss to the other’s chest, mumbling a “goodnight Pops,” before feeling himself drift into sleep.
What he didn’t feel was the inspector kissing the top of his head, before whispering an unheard, “I love you, goodnight.”