Never had I ever thought to end up in a place like this with my life on the line every case and my mental health at stake with each crime scene. As a child I would always tell my father that I wouldn't become like one of the men that had taken my mother from us before I turned ten. My father was the police chief of Brookfield, Wisconsin. Everyone loved him for his charitableness and the lengths he would go to protect his citizens. Every Halloween I would dress up as a policeman, to dress just like the man I admired the most was something I had loved the most in my short life; not the stupid laughter at dad jokes nor the late night football nights we would spend together screaming at the top of our lungs with the guys as we watched our favorite team score right as the final second hit.

Now I stood in front of a mirror wearing a white button up with a black tie and vest. My pants and shoes wear black as midnight and my once curly hair had been straightened enough so that it laid flat on my head. The room I stood in smelt like the bittersweetness of honeysuckle and vanilla, it was most certainly a woman's room speaking that the walls were a soft shade of mint, the decorations inside the room consisted of art pieces and 'inspirational quotes' scattered across the walls and the bed was made with white sheets and quilts to stand out against the minty walls much like the rest of the white furniture in the home.

I had spent the entire afternoon shopping and helping Irene with getting our undercover investigation to look and be perfect. Together we were the Jennings, Adrienne and Celestine. At least that's what our aliases were. We were planning the entire act from the moment Keith sent us out of his room in a fit of annoyance after Areum and James Lanner left the room, he seemed to have been mildly disturbed by something but neither of us chose to pester him about it.

I fixed my tie and smoothed out my vest slowly, it was my first undercover detective work and already I felt nervous about it however, it was for the best interest of the citizens within my city that I solved the case as soon as possible. "Antonio, are you done yet?" Irene shouted from outside the door as she impatiently knocked on the door.

I let out an aggravated sigh as I let my arms flop down at my sides. Aren't I supposed to be the one rushing her? "Yeah, what do you need?" I called out.

"I'm ready to go, the meeting takes place in thirty minutes and I do not want to be late because lateness is not-"

Before she could finish I groaned in annoyance as I opened her door, "Lateness is not tolerable, yadda yadda I get it you've said it about-" as I rolled my brown eyes they settled onto the woman in front of me and my voice got stuck in my throat abruptly.

Irene stood in front of me wearing a white, skintight dress with heels that made her my height and her hair was placed into a dutch bun. Her grey eyes shined against the smoky makeup on her eyelids and her lipstick made her thin lips look some how larger. She stared at me with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows in a deep frown, "What. Is. This." She demanded as her grey eyes glided down my body. "What are we doing? A theme of the nineteen forties? How disgraceful." She stuck her nose into the air and scoffed slightly as she began to walk towards her front door to her one story house.

My jaw dropped slightly as I stared at the normally shorter woman in shock. And here I was about to call her beautiful, glad I didn't waste a compliment on a complete bitch. I ruffled my hair slightly before I begin to chase after her with my eyes narrowed. "So, you remember what I told you?" I asked as I tucked my hands behind my back and looked at her from the corners of my eyes.

She refused to even glance my way as she unlocked the door, "We have to act like a couple in order to not alert the dealer, which means we have to hold hands and...yeah." She cringed slightly at the thought of us having to possibly kiss in order to sale the act.

You and I both. I thought to myself as I let out a small sigh. "We can avoid the kiss as much as possible but you need to act energetic because you're supposed to be twenty years old, basically a cougar." I snickered slightly as she swung open the door in annoyance.

"Of course I have to act like a cougar however," before she stepped out the door she spun around on her heels and pushed my body up against the wall suddenly causing me to help in surprise. She stared into my eyes with her slightly larger grey orbs as she smiled slightly, "Antonio, I can't wait to say this but..." She blushed slightly and then she began to inch forward to lean in to kiss me, "you're so adorable in that outfit."

I narrowed my eyes and pushed her away from me in annoyance, "Yeah, don't practice you're acting skills on me Irene." I stated bluntly.

"Was it good though?"

"Not in the slightest."
~~~~~~~~~

When the clock struck midnight we were outside the old warehouse that was the meeting spot. I slowly took out a cigarette and placed it between my teeth as Irene and I sat inside of the car scanning for any suspicious activity. It was only eleven fifty so we had ten more minutes to spare. I searched my car for a lighter however, nothing turned up and it caused me to groan in anger. "Do you have a light?" I asked as I glanced up to Irene who sat back staring out the window quietly, she had a distant look plastered across her face.

When no answer came I grabbed her arm to shake her but stopped when I felt how cold her skin was. My eyes widened as she tore her arm away from my hand in disgust, "Don't touch me." She growled, her grey eyes full of hatred.

"I was just seeing if you had a lighter, do you uh...need the heater on in the car or..." I sat back and pulled the unlit cigarette from my mouth slowly.

She rolled her eyes, "I don't need the heater, my skin is always cold. And also no I do not have a lighter because one; I don't smoke because it causes cancer and there are approximately..."

Her voice trailed off as I felt my IQ slowly drop from listening to the girl talk about useless facts to me, as if I were actually going to quite smoking in this type of job. I watched as her lips moved to form words and realized how much the thesaurus sitting in next to me actually annoyed the hell out of me, "Irene, my god..." I pointed my cigarette at her and scowled slightly, "Shut the hell up." I barked.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me, "Typical male, always trying to silence a woman who's smarter than you." She tilted her nose into the air and huffed.

"Oh are you going to teach me the ways of feminism now?" I joked as I looked at the time to see that it was time for us to get moving.

"Excuse me but-"

"Let's go, I'm sure the dealer is inside by now." I cut her off without a second thought and opened the car door with the cigarette back in my mouth.

Without any further arguing, Irene quickly got out of the car clutching a small handbag to complete her rich wife look she was pulling off quite well. It took a minute to cross the parking lot in order to walk through the large doors that were the entrance to the giant warehouse. It was full of all types of art ranging from sculptures to tapestries, all sold for an extremely unreasonable price. A man sat on a foldable chair with a fedora covering his eyes as if he were asleep and smoke rose from a cigar in his mouth as he huffed it. The place smelt musty, as if it had been untouched for years and there were pieces of art that were covered in dust making me grimace slightly.

"You don't get a lot of business eh?" I chuckled as I looked around the large warehouse.

The man glanced up in surprise as his golden iris's rested on us. He stood up suddenly and threw his arms into the air welcoming us to his museum, "Ah, you must be the Jennings!" He exclaimed. He was taller and wore an outfit similar to mine which made me extremely uncomfortable the longer I stared at him and he hand long blonde hair with it tied into a ponytail midway and it was pulled over his shoulder.

"Yes we're the-" I began but I was suddenly caught off guard by a strong hand falling onto my shoulder, I jumped in surprise and my unlit cigarette fell from my lips as my wide eyes rested on the white haired girl beside me as she glared down at the ground with a dark look on her face as if she were regretting ever coming here.

Then, something truly terrifying happened as she looked up to meet my brown eyes with overjoyed grey orbs that were on the verge of tears, "Darling, look at all of these marvelous pieces of art!" She exclaimed, truly meaning her words as she threw her arms around my body and jumped up forcing my to catch her body. "You're simply the best for taking me to a man with such exquisite taste in culture." She exclaimed with an adorable smile.

I was beyond shocked by the 180 Irene had taken and so I stood there motionless with a pair of wide brown eyes, a stiff body and a very light woman in my arms as she let out child like laughter. The man seemed slightly taken back by her sudden outburst as his arms remained in the air before he quickly fixed his tie and blushed, "Oh I wouldn't exactly call it exquisite taste..." He coughed slightly trying to hide how much he loved her compliment.

I turned my head away from the happy Irene and felt it darken slightly, That was my last damn cigarette... I whined to myself pitifully before forcing a smile on my face and looked at the man respectably, "I'm sorry for my childish wife, she's just easily excitable when it comes to..." I laughed awkwardly as I tightened my grip on Irene's body, "well art."

"Ah, don't be so embarrassed by her! I am actually quite fond of women who like these types of things." The man smiled kindly before he motioned towards himself in an introduction, "My name is William Benning, the art collector." He bowed down politely as I set Irene down onto her heels, she was quivering in excitement.

I guess some things you can't act, I thought to myself fondly as I saw the true excitement in Irene's eyes. She was a completely different person as she gasped in awe at the shelves upon shelves of different art. "I am Adrienne and this is my wife Celestine."

"What a beautiful name for a lovely piece of art." The man cooed as his eyes slowly looked at Irene's body.

I scowled slightly and pulled Irene closer to me in order to show him that she was off limits, uhg what a pervert. "Sir, you do have the two art pieces we asked to see, correct?" Irene asked as she held her purse close to her side.

"Oh yes, if you would madam, follow me really fast so I can find it. And sir, treat yourself to one." The man pulled a cigar from his pocket and tossed it over to me along with a lighter.

I caught it, barely. "Ah- t-thank you Mr. William." I thanked him awkwardly and watched Irene begin to walk away with the man slowly, "Hey, maybe I should go with y-"

"Babe, leave this to the professionals, but I'll leave you with something so you can look forward to a little something later." Irene spun around and then pulled my face close to whisper into my ear quietly, "Just let me handle this one, I'm only here to see if the painting has the same black frame as Kouki's family had. Go wait in the car and...sorry for this." Before I could even speak a word she slid from my ear to my lips and gave me a gentle kiss.

I stared at the woman with large eyes as my heart began to beat rapidly in my chest, I thought she said no kissing! I was practically screaming inside my head as she pressed against me causing me to step back to keep balance. The man seemed annoyed and suspicious of something as he stared at me. I turned bright red and pushed Irene off gently, "Ahaha, don't do that in front of the man Iren- I mean Celestine."

I had just royally fucked up and Irene knew it as she stared at me with wide grey eyes full of fear and her hand on my shoulder squeezed the living hell out of it making me wish I could cry for a moment. "Oh, I told you to not call me by my middle name sweety." Irene growled as she stared at me.

I itched my chin awkwardly and laughed as I avoided eye contact, "Yeah I forgot, sorry Celestine but maybe you should go with Mr. William so we don't waste anymore time." I stated

"Oh I really should shouldn't I?" Irene laughed and then spun around to nearly skip over to William's side before she waved goodbye to me, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

I waved to them with a smile on my face as they disappeared behind a shelf. Once they were out of sight I gave myself a moment to process everything, I had just been kissed by the girl I found to be the most annoying person in the world and to top it off, William didn't question why I said Irene. I slowly turned around to walk out of the warehouse as I lit the cigar and tossed the lighter onto the foldable chair. The walk back to the car was long and full of bizarre thoughts as I puffed out air of smoke into the cold surroundings, oh how could this undercover investigation get any better? I had originally suspected the white haired girl of being up to something since she had somehow known about the vase so quickly when she hadn't spent more than two minutes inside the home of the first victims which wasn't enough time for her to see the picture. But now the more that I put bought into it I realized something serious, I had never heard Kouki describe the frame of their picture.

That's when I heard a quiet click inside my shirt. I stopped in my tracks and frowned slightly, there wasn't anything I had on me that would make such a noise. Then it hit me and once again the cigar fell from my mouth and onto the thin sheet of white below me. The locket! I fished around inside of my shirt to grab it and sure enough it had unlocked meaning there was only one person it could be.

Slowly my shaky hand pressed the button on the side and my eyes tracked the fast movement of it flipping open. Before I could identify the smiling face of my soulmate I hear snow crunch underweight behind me and my head turn to look over my shoulder. I had only seen a flash of black gloves before a voice growled, "Goodnight mal'chik." Then the gunshot sounded and my world played in slow motion.

First the pain erupted in my back, then the locket slipped out of my hand as I gripped my vest to grab my gun or where it would have been if I were in uniform. I coughed up blood as I fell face first onto the snow below me and watched a woman grab the locket from the ground. Why of all people? I thought to myself as I struggled to keep my blurry eyes opened.

"Oh that's a beautiful photo of me, too bad you won't ever get to see me smile again." She chuckled then fired one last shot into my back that finally forced me to black out. But I did see her face before I suffered the last painful shot.

Of all the people in the world, why was I destined to be stuck with a psycho?

-------

"Keith, Keith, keithhhhhh." Lance whined like a child as he tried to get Keith's attention away from the phone he had been glued to for the last hour, waiting for any sort of update from his juniors.

Keith looked up and stared at his soulmate in annoyance. "Lance go back to your room dammit, you're being annoying."

Lance placed his hand to his forehead as he began to act overdramatic. "Oh how dare you say such a thing to me! I'm so hurt!" He flopped over onto the bed and then looked up at Keith with big blue eyes that looked pitiful, "Why don't you pay any attention to me?" He whimpered.

Keith felt his heart ache as he stared at his friend, he wanted to lean over and hug him until he felt loved again. "Because I have a job and also, someone's supposed to be watching Kouki." Keith stated bluntly before he locked his phone and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Lance rolled his eyes and stood up again. "I found those advertisements of you when you were younger, and might I say," Lance smirked smugly as he flicked a piece of brown hair behind a red ear, "If I had known you at that age, I would've made you mine on the spot Seung."

Keith turned pink as he felt his heart pound in his chest, was Lance flirting with him? But he used his middle name and he knew he disliked the name so it couldn't possibly be flirting...or was he teasing or.. Keith's mind suddenly short circuited as he felt his face burn. He couldn't figure out whether it was flirting or playful banter. "D-dont call m-me S-s-seung." He stuttered, clearly flustered beyond belief.

"What are you gonna do about it? Get in your wheel chair and run me over?" Lance snickered as he looked down as the cherry red Korean. Then he looked away as his large ears grew a shade darker, "Uh hey Keith, I wanted to know if you wanted to have dinner again when you get out of the hospital. It won't end up like last time." He was not being the normal Lance as he nervously gripped his arm and stared at the ground with worry.

Keith finally managed to get his heart rate back to normal as he stared at Lance. He wanted to recreate that night again but without the entire awkwardness of kissing but a part of him didn't mind it since after all, he really did like how Lance had bitten him. Wait, what am I thinking? I liked how lance had bitten me? Is that normal? But it did feel really good and... Once again his heart began to slowly speed up as he thought about the way Lance had made him feel when he had marked him as his. He wanted to feel it again but he didn't quite understand why he was thinking about his friend quite like this. Then, he finally got smacked across the face with a brick labeled reality. The way he felt for Lance wasn't a normal friendship feeling, it was something deeper. It was more caring, more passionate and it was enough to make him run across a park bleeding just to save the Hispanic mans life even if it coated his. Was this what the gods above would cal love?

Keith's cheeks took on a pink color once more as he nodded in enthusiasm, "Okay. Let's do it again and also, I don't mind if anything happens like that again." He didn't even think about his words as they fell out of his mouth.

He had just told his soulmate that basically, he wanted Lance to do what he done before all over again. Lance looked at him in shock but before he could say anything, Keith's phone began to ring like crazy. He looked down to see Irene's contact calling and didn't waste a second to pick it up. "Irene?" He asked.

There were loud sirens in the background and Irene's crying voice was barely audible as she choked out the words, "I saw pyxis shoot Antonio..."

Keith sat up straight in his bed and winced in pain as his stitches warned him to not move like he did. "Wait what? Irene, what exactly happened!" Keith began to panic and his heart monitor started to go nuts causing a team of nurses to rush into the hallway and into his room.

"Antonio might be dead."