Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Not for the first time, Irene and Kai found themselves running down a street in an alternate London, several angry thugs chasing after them. Also not for the first time, they turned a corner onto another street and found their way suddenly blocked by a large mass of people.

For the first time in her experience, that large mass of people was taking up the entire street with not only themselves, but merchant booths and stalls, fireworks, statues, live music, and a general air of celebration. Right, she thought, it’s Halloween.

Or not Halloween, she corrected herself; it was still called All Hallows Eve on this world, and this was clearly a festival in celebration of it.

“We can use this,” she told Kai, quickly taking in the environment and all the people in costumes. This alternate had some magic, which was probably the reason this holiday was still All Hallows Eve here: it was a celebration of actual magic.

“Can we use this in the next five seconds?” Kai asked pointedly, glancing back. The thugs weren’t that far behind them when they turned that corner, and Irene had a nasty feeling at least one of them was a vampire, like the woman they’d…acquired...this book from.

“Point taken,” Irene said. They hadn’t attracted any notice from the festival-goers yet, so she hastily pulled Kai behind a couple of statues. The statues were probably meant to represent either saints or spirits, which made Irene feel a little guilty when she whipped the black cloaks off of two of them and handed one to Kai. “To blend in.”

He put it on without hesitation and they slipped into the crowd. Pretty much everybody was in costume, most of them in cloaks like theirs, to either honor or ward off the spirits they were imitating -- the reasons varied from world to world.

“They’re here,” Kai whispered, without looking back. Irene hadn’t heard them, but had figured they must have caught up by now, so she nodded.

“Let’s keep going,” she said. She linked her arm with his so they wouldn’t get separated in the crowd, which jostled them more the farther they went down the street. They ignored the shouts of people trying to sell them various wares, food, or amulets. As annoying as that was, she was immensely grateful for the cover the crowd provided. Even the obnoxious, magical fireworks constantly being set off overhead were welcome. The only downside of all the distraction was that it was hard to keep track of their pursuers.

“Want to bob for apples, miss?” a man asked from her side. He gestured to a platform where a giggling young woman was standing by a large bucket of water, as various men stood around and carved their names into the apples. “You can go next after Miss Lucas there. We’ve got plenty of suitors lined up for the chance to get a pretty girl like you.”

“She’s already spoken for, thank you,” Kai said firmly. Irene shrugged and affected a giggle like the young lady’s as he tugged her away. “What kind of tradition is that?” he asked under his breath, once they were out of earshot -- which here, wasn’t very far.

“A fairly common one for All Hallows Eve,” Irene said. “Men put their names on the apples, put them in the bucket, and whatever apple the maiden picks up is supposed to be her future husband. It’s not binding. Well, not usually.”

“Not usually?” Kai asked, but she had no time to elaborate before someone else, an old woman this time, elaborately dressed in colorful shawls and beads, called out to them. She was standing in front of a tent on the side of the street, which blocked the view of everything behind it. The tent was as colorful as the woman’s outfit.

“Tell your fortune, dearie?” she asked of Irene. Something glittered in her eyes, and Irene felt Kai tense next to her. He could probably sense even better than she could that this woman was Fae.

“We don’t need your tricks,” Kai said firmly, dislike thinly veiled in his voice. But hey, that was better than him not trying to veil it at all. Progress. He was about to tug Irene away again when a bit of commotion caught her ear, and she glanced surreptitiously behind them to see the thugs making their way through the crowd, not caring who they shoved in their search. They thankfully didn’t seem to have spotted them, but they were approaching faster than she would have liked.

“Actually, I would love that,” she said, and tugged Kai back. “We do this inside, right?” She gestured to the tent behind her, with a couple of men standing next to the entrance, trying and failing not to look like they were there to guard it.

“Absolutely,” the Fae woman said with a grin that was almost obscene. “Right this way.” She led them into the tent, the flaps closing behind them. They blotted out of the sounds of the festival outside much more than they should have.

Inside, the place looked like exactly what Irene would picture a stereotypical fortune-teller’s place of business to look like, with dim lighting, incense, and a table with a crystal ball at the center. If it wasn’t obvious that this woman was a Fae before, it certainly would have been now; she was clearly embodying the archetype of a travelling psychic.

“My name is Madame Zelena,” the woman said. Away from the noise of the streets, Irene could hear her necklaces and bracelets jingle when she moved. “What kind of fortune shall I tell for you today? Family? Future? Love?” She glanced back and forth between Irene and Kai with a grin that was definitely obscene this time. Irene managed to avoid blushing and pulling her arm away from Kai’s, with effort. Madame Zelena’s smile towards Kai turned mischievous. “Are your kind allowed to love?”

“I’ll take whatever fortune you see, Madame Zelena,” Irene said quickly, before Kai could ruin their hiding place by getting them thrown out. She dug a coin out of her bag and handed it to the woman.

“A palm reading to start, then, dear,” Zelena said, pocketing the coin. “Give me your dominant hand.”

It was the one she was using to link arms with Kai, so she extracted it to hold it out to Zelena. It would be absurd to miss the warmth of his arm in hers, so she obviously did not.

Zelena cupped the bottom of her hand and traced the lines of her palm with a long, wrinkled finger. Irene could feel her Fae power when she touched her, pulling her into the story as a reluctant young woman who turned believer at the fortune-teller’s amazing power. Or perhaps one who failed to heed her warnings and ended up in trouble farther along in the story because of it. She screwed up her determination to resist the pull.

“Hmm, you are often in danger, my dear,” Zelena said. “But you are good at getting out of it. This is a gift you have.”

Lucky guess, Irene thought. And just vague enough a description that it could fit a lot of people. Just because this world had actual magic in it didn’t mean everyone could do it; there were just as many fakes as the real thing.

“Your love line…” Zelena said thoughtfully. “You are very devoted to someone. Very devoted. You would do anything for this man.” She glanced up at Kai and smirked. “And Zelena senses that he would do the same for you.”

Irene yanked her hand away. “Okay, I think that’s enough fortune for one night. Thank you for your time--”

She was cut off by a sudden yell from outside, that even this tent couldn’t muffle. “Someone has defiled the Saints’ statues! They’ve stolen their cloaks! Demons among us!”

Irene did her best not to visibly react, but she could see Kai tense under his pilfered hood.

“Ah, this could be some of that trouble I sensed,” Zelena said with the self-satisfied air of a cat who’s caught the lizard it was hunting; she must have noticed Kai tensing too. Irene did a very quick calculation: how easy it would be for this woman to raise the alarm that the thieves were here, versus how quickly Irene could silence her.

Of course, there was always a third option.

“Perhaps you also sense a way out of it?” Irene suggested, grabbing a large number of coins from her purse this time and pressing them into Zelena’s hands.

“Ah, yes,” Zelena said in an overly-affected, mystical voice. “I believe I sense that you and your...partner...will escape through the back curtain there and into the next street.”

“Very accurate, thank you,” Irene said hurriedly, grabbing Kai’s arm again and pulling him through the incense-laden room and into the relative fresh air of the alleyway behind. Mercifully, it led to another street, but they continued running until there were several blocks between them and the festival.

“I could have just taken her out, you know,” Kai said, once they finally stopped running. The street they were on now was much less crowded but still lively, and they were far from the only ones in cloaks.

“I know you were eager to,” Irene said, patting his arm. “But haven’t I taught you there are other ways around these problems?”

“Like bribery?” Kai asked. She could see him raise an eyebrow under his hood and the corner of his lips twitched up. The disguise did nothing, after all, to hide the flawless features beneath; Kai looked like he was carved from marble by an angel’s hand, and nothing could disguise that.

“Exactly,” she said, pointedly looking away from him. She’d never listened to a fortune-teller before, and she wasn’t going to start now. She was going to ignore the little voice in her head reminding her that she’d pretty much already proven the lengths she would go to for Kai, and he for her.

“Need anything?” a street vendor called out to them as they approached. “Treats? Flowers for your pretty lady?”

“Is everyone trying to sell something in this alternate?” Kai whispered. Irene nudged him in the side.

“No, thank you,” she said, about to walk past.

This time it was Kai who stopped her, though. “Hang on,” he said, removing his arm from hers and stepping up to the vendor. Irene kept half an eye on him and the other on the street around them, looking out for their pursuers just in case.

It only took Kai a moment to get back to her, and when he did he held out an apple on a stick to her, coated in caramel. “Don’t worry,” he said with a satisfied smile, similar to Madame Zelena’s -- not that she’d ever tell him that. “It’s not binding.”

“Wha--Kai,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not how the game works, anyway.”

He shrugged but he didn’t lose the smile. And she didn’t reject the gift.

Not for the first time, she tried to hide her blush as she took a bite. For the first time in a while, she rather enjoyed All Hallows Eve.

Chapter Text

It was still early morning when Kai returned to the Embassy housing. Irene had been asleep when he left, but he could hear her moving around as he ascended the stairs to their room -- her room, technically, though he had yet to spend a night in “his.”

When he opened the door, Irene was just emerging from the attached bathroom, tying a robe around her waist. Her hair was finally long enough to be tied back, but short enough that a few pieces had escaped their prison and were clinging enticingly to her damp neck.

“I’ve returned five minutes too late,” Kai lamented.

Irene rolled her eyes playfully, but she grinned; though the latter might have been a reaction to the cup of coffee and bag of muffins he was holding. “As we have discovered, that is not a two-person tub. Are those for me?”

“Of course,” he said, handing them over and finding the brief kiss she gave him more than enough thanks. “And I still think we could have both fit in there. But the next time we have to get a hotel, we are going to get a suite with a large tub.”

“Sure,” she said absently, in a way that promised absolutely nothing. She took a sip of the coffee and let out a low sound of satisfaction he was fairly certain she didn’t know she made. He had no intention of ever pointing it out, either, lest she stop.

“I got you something else,” he said casually. He thought he did a good job, but Irene’s eyebrow went up, indicating that she could, in fact, see through his tone.

“Oh?” she asked leadingly. She looked him over, and he noticed her eyes catch at the slight bulge in the side of his jacket, where he had her gift in an inner pocket. “What’s the occasion?”

“Why must there be an occasion?” he asked. “I get you things sometimes.”

“You don’t usually have a preamble to it,” she pointed out, crossing her arms. That was Irene, always suspicious. Not that he thought she suspected him of mal intent, but her guard went up at the slightest provocation.

“Fair point,” he admitted. “Today marks the one year anniversary of our first meeting. By this alternate’s time.” He was unclear as to how to define the beginning of their relationship, and Irene was never fond of discussing that sort of thing. But there was no grey area about the day they met.

Irene’s eyes widened. She clearly had not remembered, as he had expected.

“Don’t worry,” he said, before she could fear that she’d made some sort of faux-pas. “Anniversaries are not commonly celebrated among dragons. Or at least not among my family.” They didn’t often have them to begin with, considering the royal families did not mate for life. That didn’t explain why he felt the need to get Irene a gift for this occasion, and she didn’t ask; again, not that he had expected her to.

“I’m afraid I don’t have anything for you,” she said, an edge of guilt in her tone.

“Please don’t feel obligated,” he said firmly. “Look, I didn’t even wrap it.” He finally took the gift out of his coat pocket: a book, because what else would he get her? Her eyes lit up when she saw it. “This alternate’s ‘The Woman in White’ seems to be much less sensational than most; far more of a detective novel. Not rare enough that the Library would be interested, but still, a variation.”

“I should definitely study it, just in case,” Irene said, undisguised eagerness in her voice as she grabbed it. She threw herself down into the nearest chair, coffee and muffins forgotten, and had already cracked it open when she shook herself and looked back up again. “I mean--thank you.”

Kai just chuckled and shook his head fondly. “You are welcome.” He leant down and kissed her cheek, as she’d already turned back to the book. This was also the reaction he’d expected, and her happiness was truly the only gift he wanted.

Though he remained firm in his opinion that their tub could fit two people if they tried hard enough. Perhaps he could persuade her to attempt it again tonight. After she finished reading, of course.

Chapter Text

“We should get back,” Irene said, without much breath and without much conviction either. She kissed Kai again, completely at odds with her statement, but his lips were right there.

“We’ve already been seen at the party,” Kai pointed out the next time she had to pull away to draw breath. She didn’t go far, though, keeping her arms around his neck, her body pressed up against his as much as could be managed from their position on the bench. “We greeted everyone who matters.”

“I suppose--” she said, speaking between short but intense kisses, “that it’s not--unexpected--for people--to sneak off--at parties like this.” It was, after all, one of Silver’s parties. Irene would be willing to bet they were far from the only people who had split off for activities such as this.

“Exactly,” Kai said. He’d moved on to kissing her neck, probably so she could more effectively gasp for breath, but that wasn’t really making it much easier. She stifled a moan as he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to a particularly sensitive spot. She tightened the hand she had buried in his hair, unclear even in her own mind whether it was a punishment or reward. The way he hummed against her skin certainly indicated which way he chose to take it.

This was not the way she had expected their break from the party to go, not that she was complaining. She had been sincere in her desire for fresh air; there were even more people at this party than usual, and the ballroom was getting stuffy and smelled unpleasantly of alcohol. It was only natural to sneak off to the garden for a few minutes with Kai.

It was a beautiful garden too, with fountains and flowers and perfectly green grass, and benches spread throughout. It was the picture-perfect stereotype of a mansion’s romantic garden, so really, how was she not supposed to make out with Kai in it?

Kai applied a little suction to her neck, and she reluctantly had to pull him away, but she distracted him with another deep kiss. Silver was almost definitely going to know what they’d been doing, if he caught them sneaking back into the party, but there was no reason to make it that obvious.

“A few more minutes,” she panted against Kai’s lips. “Then we’ll go back.”

“Okay,” he said, like he expected to easily be able to talk her into more when the time came. But really, she thought, as he dove in for another kiss, this time bending her back slightly so she had to hang onto him for support -- right now it was hard to care about anything besides this moment.

Chapter Text

“That is the third useless sitting room we’ve passed,” Irene hissed, only refraining from slamming the door because they were supposed to be sneaking. “How can we not have found a library yet?”

“As I have told you,” Kai said, with exaggerated patience as he trailed behind her, “in a high-technology world such as this, there likely isn’t going to be a proper library. Paper books are very uncommon in these worlds.”

“Then why does he even have this book?” Irene whispered, mostly to herself. She was well aware that this was a high tech world before they came here, but she had hardly spent any time in these kinds of alternates. That had been the reason Kai volunteered to come along, or at least the purported reason. It was not like she was complaining.

“He’s a Fae,” Kai said, with remarkably little acid in his tone, considering. “He’s just doing whatever his archetype tells him he should.”

“Including buying an incredibly rare book without even reading it,” Irene said, with much more venom in her tone than Kai. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths as they continued down the long hallway. They were in a mansion belonging to a relatively powerful Fae, embodying the archetype of a rich playboy with more money than sense. They’d managed to get an invite to a dinner party he was having, and snuck off when it broke into the “true” party after, which consisted mostly of dancing and drugs.

The Fae was a deplorable asshole, but nothing had lowered her opinion of the man more than him having a huge mansion but no library. She hadn’t even seen a single book!

“Okay,” she said, after checking another couple of rooms. “So he clearly just wanted it to display it. We’re looking for a room where he would display valuable things, where other people would see them.”

“He most likely has an office,” Kai pointed out. “To receive other wealthy people.”

“Good,” she said, as if she was still teaching him. It was a habit that was hard to break. “Not as good as having a library.”

Kai chuckled, and she turned to glare at him. He smirked at her, unrepentant. “At least this means you don’t have to feel bad about acquiring the book from him.”

“There is that,” Irene admitted, pushing open yet another door and finally, finally seeing some books. “All on display, of course,” she muttered, but at least that made it easy to identify the one they were after and slip it into Kai’s jacket pocket.

They’d just made it back into the hallway and closed the door behind them when the sound of footsteps made them pause.

Irene cursed to herself, doing a quick mental calculation and determining that the footsteps were too close for them to get back into the office before whoever it was reached them. So how were they going to get out of this? The Language would work, of course, but if there was an easier way…

Remembering abruptly that they were in the mansion of a Fae, and that most of the staff were also Fae, the best excuse would actually be a cliche one. What was a story-typical excuse for being in a place they weren’t supposed to be?

She had no time to hesitate, so she grabbed Kai by the shoulders and dragged him with her as she backed herself up against the wall. Then she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down to kiss him fiercely. Either he got the hint or he just liked kissing her, because he returned the kiss without question.

Irene didn’t even have to pretend to be oblivious to the stranger’s approach as they kissed. Kai was very enthusiastic about this distraction. He probably didn’t strictly need to run his hand down to her ass and hoist her hips against his, but she certainly wasn’t about to protest. She didn’t need to scratch her nails against the back of his neck, either, but his groan let her know that he appreciated it anyway.

They only stopped when there was a throat-clearing behind them. She and Kai separated quickly, and Irene covered her mouth with exaggerated surprise. A servant stood there in typical livery, with an eyebrow raised in sardonic amusement.

“You must be lost,” he said politely. “The party is that way.” He pointed down the hall.

“Oh, goodness,” Irene said with a giggle. “We were very lost, thank you.” Still giggling, she took Kai’s hand and pulled him down the hall back in the direction of the party.

“Why can’t we get out of more situations that way?” Kai whispered into her ear. The warmth of his breath on her skin made her shiver.

“Shush,” she told him without conviction. She had to admit, she would enjoy missions a lot more if she could get out of all sticky situations that way. Something to experiment with, perhaps.

Chapter Text

Kai had rarely seen Irene so exhausted. Anyone else probably would have passed out by now, but not her. As it was, she was clinging to his arm, using it to stay upright as they walked down the steps of the palace in the early morning. He longed to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way, but they had to act normal, despite the fact that her leg was bleeding under her long dress.

They’d been at this palace for the entire night and well into the morning. Everyone else who was leaving now was the typical level of tired after a night spent dancing, but Kai and Irene had spent a good portion of the night running around the palace to find the book they were after -- well, the book Irene was after. He came along just to assist, of course. They had to fight a couple of guards along the way, which had resulted in an injury to Irene’s leg that they’d been unable to treat yet. She’d also had to use the Language a couple of times, and this being a high-order world, it was more difficult than usual.

Now they had to get away from the palace and into the waiting carriage as quickly as possible, because he didn’t think she had any more Language use in her at the moment, and he couldn’t guarantee he would leave any survivors if anybody else tried to hurt her right now.

He handed her into the carriage and climbed in after her. As soon as the servant closed the door, Irene let out a low moan of relief and sagged against him, head on his shoulder. He even saw a couple of tears escape her eyes and chase each other down her cheeks, so she must have been truly exhausted.

“Let me see your leg,” he said. She made a noise of complaint at the idea of moving. As much as he wanted to let her sleep, he wanted her to keep her leg more. “You can lean against the seat.”

She grumbled but obeyed, shifting so she was facing him on the narrow seat. He pulled her legs into his lap and lifted the skirt of her dress up to reveal her injured leg.

“It doesn’t look too deep,” he told her, which was true. But it was still bleeding, and the sight of a gash on her leg stroked the angry fire that was already blazing within him. He forcibly dampened it, though, because that would not help Irene right now. “You can probably do without stitches.”

“Thank gods,” she muttered, relaxing even more against the side of the carriage.

He took off his cravat and used it to wrap around her calf. “Do you have your aspirin?” he asked. She shook her head. “We need to start carrying a first aid kit.”

“Noted,” she said. He pulled her dress back down and coaxed her to him again, knowing the position she would find most comfortable: her head and shoulders in his lap and legs stretched out on the seat beside him. “Thanks.”

“I deserve no thanks,” he said, harsher than he’d meant to. Irene opened one eye to look at him questioningly, and he screwed his face into a neutral expression. “We have cared for each other’s injuries before.”

She made a vague sound of agreement, probably knowing that wasn’t what he meant but feeling too tired to argue. She closed her eye again and he ran his fingers through her hair soothingly, hoping she would be able to get some sleep on the ride back to their hotel.

Yes, they had cared for each other’s injuries before, but it never got easier for him to see her hurt, especially when he could have prevented it. If only he had seen that guard sooner, he could have taken him out before he’d been able to hurt Irene. She quickly took him down after, and Kai took care of the two that followed. Watching Irene use her incredible skills to defeat the guard who hurt her did soothe Kai’s desire for vengeance somewhat, but he didn’t think anything could stop him from wanting to hurt anyone who hurt her.

His life before Irene had never prepared him for anything like this. Nobody in his family mated for life. His only exposure to such things had been through his education, and later living among humans and reading their stories. All of the love and romance in the books he’d read had seemed distant, something that only humans experienced. He’d thought he understood them though, in an objective way, above such things.

But now, knowing Irene, having her in his life, he understood how truly little he had actually understood before. He looked at her and he understood how a face could launch a thousand ships, why a man would travel to the underworld for his lost love, why millions of people across millions of worlds would give anything, would do anything, for one person.

And the thing he would do for her right now, he thought as the carriage arrived at its destination, was to gently cradle her in his arms and carry her out. It would perhaps have been more satisfying to start a decades long war in her honor and slay anyone who dared to look at her wrong, but that was neither what she needed nor wanted.

“I can walk,” she protested weakly, wrapping her arms around his neck. They were to leave this alternate as soon as she got some sleep, so if they were being a little improper for the times, well...the world would get over it.

“But you don’t have to,” he said, hoping that she would just let him do this for her. He knew exactly how strong she was, she didn’t need to prove anything to him. But if she wanted to, of course he would put her down.

Thankfully, she didn’t say anything more, just leaned her head against his shoulder. He knew how difficult it was for her to let herself be even the slightest bit vulnerable; perhaps this was something she was doing for him.

Chapter Text

“I am not shopping here,” Kai said the second they stepped into the store.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Irene hissed, tugging him inside by the arm. “The party is tonight, there’s no time to get something custom-made. Besides, that’s not typical here. Everyone at the party will be wearing something like this.” She gestured around at the store which was, admittedly, not her first choice for shopping either, but was the closest thing to them that definitely sold Halloween costumes. Halloween was even in the name of the store: Spirit Halloween. Everything in it was somehow cheap and overpriced at the same time, and smelled faintly of plastic. But that was what she had come to expect from modern alternates like this.

“I now regret coming here with you,” Kai muttered without conviction. Irene knew that wasn’t true, so she ignored him and led him farther into the store. They had stopped even bothering making up excuses for why Kai came along with her on most of her missions. It wasn’t like anyone was buying them anyway.

‘We’ll just get some popular costumes and go,” she said placatingly. “We want to blend in.”

She said that with confidence, but now that she was looking at the huge selection along the walls, she felt a little lost. She was not used to high-tech, modern alternates like this, and she wasn’t sure where to start.

“Look, you could be a banana,” Kai said sardonically, gesturing to the package that displayed a person in said costume.

“Those don’t seem to be common,” Irene whispered, looking around at the other shoppers. Judging by their choices, the brief research she had been able to do, and the most crowded areas of the store, the most popular choices for Halloween costumes seemed to be along the lines of standard jobs as well witches, vampires, and other supernatural costumes that were extremely inaccurate. There was no magic in this world, though, so Irene supposed she could cut them some slack for the inaccuracies.

“I have never seen medical personnel dressed like this,” Kai said, picking up a costume that was also from the crowded area. This one advertised itself as sexy nurse.

“That does seem to be the norm for women’s costumes,” Irene said quietly.

“While that is unpleasant,” Kai said, with a smirk that instantly concerned Irene, “you would look charming in this.” He held it up to her and eyed her as if picturing her in it, which he probably was.

“I am not wearing that,” Irene said firmly, batting the hand holding the costume away.

Kai laughed and obligingly put it down, but then he immediately picked up another one. “Pirate wench?” he said, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Despite the name, you would also look great in this.”

“You’re enjoying yourself far too much,” Irene grumbled.

“Perhaps I judged this place too harshly,” he said with a shit-eating grin.

“You’re only saying that because you haven’t looked at any for yourself yet,” Irene said. She looked around for a costume she could tease him with, but of course none of the ones for men advertised themselves as the sexy version of something.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” an employee asked, walking up to them. “Are you looking for the matching one for that?” She gestured to the pirate wench costume Kai was still holding. Irene had noticed a few couples in the store looking at costumes that would be worn as a pair, so that must have been fairly common.

“Yes,” Irene answered before Kai could. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t protest when the employee grabbed the male equivalent -- just pirate, of course -- off the rack and handed it to him.

“I can show you to the fitting rooms, if you’d like?” the employee asked, and Irene accepted. If they stayed there for much longer, who knows how many more costumes Kai could have found to tease her with?

The fitting rooms here were separated by gender, but one sentence in the Language was all it took for Kai and Irene to be able to share one room. She told herself it was in the interest of the mission for them to stick together and try on their costumes at the same time, and she almost believed herself.

“This is the cheapest fabric I have ever felt,” Kai complained, as he pulled the costume out of its packaging.

“You spent time in a high tech alternate like this before,” Irene pointed out, removing her own costume. It was far from the cheapest she’d ever worn, though not what she was used to, considering she spent most of her time in a Victorian-esque London.

“Yes, but I never had to wear anything like this,” Kai said. Translation: he shopped at the most expensive places that world had to offer.

He didn’t complain any further, though, as he’d started to focus on her getting undressed. She didn’t bother to admonish him, since she was openly watching him do the same. She had to remind herself to keep removing her own clothes once Kai got his shirt off; he was incredibly distracting. Her only solace was that he was having the same problem. She may have gone a little slower than necessary, just for the hell of it.

Her costume was one piece, just a tiny dress that, while long-sleeved, showed so much cleavage it would have gotten her arrested back in Vale’s alternate. And that wasn’t even taking into account how much of her legs it showed; if she bent over even a little, she would end up showing anyone behind her far more than she wanted to.

Kai’s costume covered much more of his body, obviously, but it was at least sleeveless, so that was something. It was also tight across his chest, which could have been intentional or simply because it was too small, but Irene didn’t feel like pointing that out.

“I could be persuaded to like this place,” Kai said, his voice an octave lower than usual. He wasn’t attempting to hide the way he was looking her up and down. Though he was incredibly professional in public, he felt no need to hide his admiration of her in private. She felt a little thrill go through her; it took effort for her breath not to quicken.

“I suppose we’ll just get these,” she said with remarkable composure, she thought. It helped that he looked at her like that a lot lately, though she’d yet to truly get used to it.

“I need to examine it more closely first,” Kai said, deadly serious except for the quirk of his lips. He gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.

“Kai,” she admonished. Her stern voice was ruined by her laugh.

“What?” he asked innocently. “I have to make sure it covers your brand.” He moved her hair to the side and brushed his fingers over the back of her neck, making her shiver.

“My brand is not on my ass,” she pointed out, when his other hand strayed there.

“Are you sure?” he murmured, his lips now against the side of her neck. She couldn’t help but tilt her head back in response. “I better check anyway.”

“We have to get going,” Irene said weakly. Her hands had come up to grip his exposed arms. What else was she supposed to do? They were very nice arms.

“We have hours before the party,” Kai said, nibbling at her earlobe.

“And we have research to do in that time,” she said, her voice high pitched but most definitely not a whine.

“I’m researching,” he responded, squeezing her ass and making her bite her lip to contain a squeak.

“We can continue this research once we’ve got the book we’re after,” she promised.

“Now that’s motivation,” Kai said, pressing one last kiss to her jawline before pulling away. The air at her back felt cold at his loss, and she nearly pouted before she remembered that she was the one who had argued against doing this right now.

“Right,” Irene said, then cleared her throat when her voice was still higher pitched than usual. “So, we’ll get these. And perhaps some accessories as well. We could get you an eyepatch.”

“That is quite cliche,” Kai pointed out. He looked irritatingly composed, but she could tell by the darkness of his eyes that he was far from unaffected.

“Yes,” she agreed. She was about to walk out of the changing room when Kai suddenly grabbed her arm to stop her. She looked at him questioningly.

“I believe it’s customary to change back into the clothes we came in with,” he pointed out, his smirk absolutely criminal, “and then purchase the costumes. Not walk out wearing them.”

“I am aware of that,” Irene said with as much dignity as she could muster. Kai was shaking with silent laughter and she tilted her head back and sighed; there was no way he wasn’t going to tease her about this for at least a week. “Shut up, Kai.”

“Aye aye,” he replied.

She took her dress off and threw it at him. He only laughed harder.