#definitely not a lemon but limey??? maybe??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sabraeal · 3 years

Text

Documented for Posterity, Part 2

[Read on AO3]

1:20 Method 1: Subject attempts to sleep off effects

In those first few halcyon moments before Yuzuri reaches for the lamp, Suzu has high hopes. It’s not the first time he’s slept off an inappropriately pitched tent; college dormitories and trips to the field don’t leave much in the way of privacy. He prefers other methods, of course, but as he settles down against a pillow of his jacket and a blanket of Yuzuri’s cloak, he’s got a good good about his chances.

But then her fingers flip the flame down to the faintest flicker, light dancing through the glass with a demure wave, and--

Well, now he’s just locked in a dark room with stiff cock and a girl dressed not only in a clinging chemise-- there’s a flirty ripple of lace sewn to the curve of her decolletage that he’s personally finding very hard not to dwell on-- but also smelling like apples and vanilla. His heart gallops triple time in his chest, not sure if he’s ravenous for pie, biscuits, or her cunt.

It’s a bit much, that’s what he’s trying to say.

“It’s hot in here,” he complains, because anything else will almost certainly end with him doing a walk of shame in his long johns and boots across the university’s main floor. “Don’t you think it’s hot in here?”

“Just try to sleep already,” Yuzuri sighs, impatient, somewhere behind his head. He can’t see her; she’s moved away from the lamp’s hazy glow, and from the sound of it, is back at the table, pen scratching at the rough parchment of the page.

Experiment one, she must be writing, in the looping, fat hand he’s seen in the log book and on placards in the hothouses. Subject trying to sleep away erection of middling size. In this researcher’s experience, it should only take fifteen minutes to reduce to its normal size, though the standard deviation for cocks--

“I can hear you thinking.” Her pen skips to a stop. “Stop it.”

“It’s hard.” He rolls over, half on his stomach before he’s reminded-- ah yes, not a good plan having that touch...anything. Even if it’s just cold storeroom floor. “I’m very smart, you know.”

“I can’t see how.” He can’t see her, but he knows how her mouth is pinched, elongating the elegant oval of her face, and her arched brows drawn down to look like the sternest librarian fantasy. “It’s not like you do it regularly anyway.”

He nearly corrects her-- once a day, whether he needs to or not, just to keep the pipes working and his sheets clean-- but she’s not talking about that.

“Hey.” Suzu’s in no position to put his hands anywhere near his hips, but spiritually, they’re there, arms indignantly akimbo. “I have plenty of ideas--”

“Then have more of them about sleeping,” she informs him, stocking feet scuffling on the floor. “It’s impossible to have results if a test subject refuses to participate in the experiment.”

“Fine.” His arms fold across his chest in a huff. “I will. But you should know--”

“Suzu.” The way her mouth wraps around his name, so soft and resigned, has every bit of him standing at attention in all the best worst ways. Or worst best. He can’t quite decide. “Shut up.”

2:10

Suzu would like the record to show-- if Yuzuri would be kind enough to oblige him, which he knows she won’t be-- he does give it an honest effort.

Five minutes of honest to goodness silence settles him-- at least, enough to realize he’s too scrawny to ever lay on a stone floor in comfort. His shoulder blades jut oddly into the mortared edges, and when he rolls into his side, his ribs grate. It’s cold too; even in his woolens, Suzu feels the frosts of winters past riming his spine. And quite honestly, warm as his coat is, it’s nothing next to a good down pillow. Most bedding doesn’t smell of lab chemicals and yesterday’s lost dumpling. And Yuzuri’s cloak--

Well, it’s soft, warm-- and it smells like her. And, fool that he is, Past-Suzu thinks that’s a plus. Oh, Past-Suzu just catches that hint of dessert on the air and sticks his nose right in, huffing down that sweet scent of apple crisp, letting the soft, flickering of the lamp lull him. He can’t see her, but line of sight has never been necessary, oh no, not when a semi-eidetic memory meets an imagination as overactive as his.

Yuzuri sits up on her chair, one stockinged leg tucked beneath her, the other dangling, foot arched as her toes strain to press against the floor. Her golden hair falls over one shoulder, leaving the other bare, chemise sliding down its pale cusp. It’s chilly in here; she raises a hand to guide it back up. Her fingers hesitate-- maybe it would be better if they shared heat. Suzu, after all, looked so cozy there on the floor. Angelic, even, with the way his hair curled over his jacket.

Slowly, she stands, padding over, dropping to her knees. Her breasts strain against the soft linen of her chemise, nipples aroused by the contact, her hand reaching--

“Nope!” Suzu bolts upright, hunching over his knees. It’s a bit of a feat, now that his tent had expanded into a pavilion. “This is...definitely not working.”

The valve squeaks, the shadows deepening as the lamp brightens. The glare Yuzuri levels at him over the table describes all the way that his fantasies will stay firmly in the realm of imagination, aphrodisiac-induced arousal or not. “Really?”

“Yes,” he informs her a little more manic than he would like. “It’s giving me far too much time to think.”

Yuzuri hum, flatly. “I can see how that might be dangerous to your health.”

“It’s not funny,” he snips, head snapping over his shoulder. “I’ve had an erection for two whole hours. That’s-- that’s at least a whole hour longer than I’ve ever done before.”

The pen scratches across the page, but he could swear he hears a muttered, hour fifty-five.

He frowns. “What was that?”

Yuzuri doesn’t bother looking up. “What was what?”

“You said something.”

“No.” Her mouth forms the word carefully as she crosses her ankles, legs drawn tight together from knee to thigh. “I didn’t.”

His mouth purses, annoyed. “I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously.”

“I’m handling it with the seriousness it deserves,” she informs him primly, her tone implying another half to the sentence, which is none.

“I’ll have you know it hurts.” At least it does now, now that he’s said it. Stings, quite honestly, like skin pinched in a hinge, too full for too long.

For the first time since this whole debacle started, a real thrill of fear rushes through him. The whole situation is ridiculous and mortifying and carries the vague threat of ending his career if someone with more pearls to clutch than Yuzuri found out he was sporting an erection in an educational institution, but it hasn’t seemed dangerous. But now he nudges his cock, just the barest bit, and tears spring to his eyes. Something might actually be medically wrong. This could have lasting implications.

“Oh, honestly.” Yuzuri squiggles in her seat, thighs rubbing together in a way that brings new meaning to the words painfully hard. “Can’t you just jack yourself off?”

Suzu, age twenty-five, of sound body and mind, nearly has a cardiac event.

“What?” He stares at her hard enough to pop a vessel-- which he doesn’t, but it’s a close thing, considering. “Right here?”

“N-no, Suzu!” A blush blooms over the rosy rounds of her cheeks. “I’m not just telling you t-to whip it out in front of me!”

He nearly asks why not-- it’s not like it will be the first penis she’s seen outside of a clinical setting-- but his teeth snap shut around the impulse. That’s one of those things that could be career limiting, if one considered the bedroom a place of employment. Which he didn’t; it was his sanctum sanctorum, the place in which he rested his head at night, but--

Well, if he had a reason to be employed in there, he might. He’d at least like to be conducting interviews, instead of, ah, self-review.

“I meant that you could, I don’t know, go around the corner.” She waves her hand vaguely towards the back of the stockroom. “Use a shelf for cover or, um, something.”

“There’s a closet,” he says, because elaborate self-sabotage could be listed on his curriculum vitae under professional skills. “We use it for storing light sensitive materials.”

Against all reason, she actually lifts a finger to her chin and ponders the suggestion. “You’re able to do it in the dark?”

He could find his cock blind, deaf, mute, and one-handed, but that strikes him as a relatively unimpressive feat, considering how it’s attached to him.

“Yeah,” he says instead, “if you, ah, don’t mind.”

There is a distinct, heavy hesitation before she replies, “Well, it’s not like you’ll be in the same room.”

“No,” he agrees, technically.

“I think--” she worries at the edge of a page, thoughtful-- “that as long as we’re, ah, recording our findings, then it’s fine to be...scientifically rigorous.”

He swallows, hard. It makes a noticeable thunk.

“Right,” he says, weakly, rising to his feet. “Scientifically...rigorous.”

2:15 Method 2: Subject attempts manual stimulation

“What?” Suzu squawks, peeping out of the closet. “You can’t write that!”

Yuzuri flattens the journal against her chest-- that’s not helping what going on down in his whole...Pavilion Street reconstruction down south. “Why not?”

“People are going to read that!” He makes a terrible, uncoordinated swipe for it. She easily sidesteps him, giving him a withering glare. There was a reason Kirito always asks Obi to be on his team for the little snow battles him and his rascally friends enacted on the quad and not Suzu.

“That’s the point,” Yuzuri deadpans, “it’s being documented for posterity, like all you scholars love.”

“Right, yes, I get that.” He shuffles, cock bobbling painfully in his pants. Really, something has to be done about this. “But Shidan will read it.”

Her mouth pulls thin; or at least it would, if her lips weren’t full and quantifiably kissable no matter their configuration. “Shidan is a person, yeah.”

“Which means I’ll have to talk about it.” He licks his lips, nervous, and Yuzuri watches him with ever-increasing incredulity. “In, you know, a meeting.”

She stares for a long moment, then opens the journal with a sigh.

2:15 Method 2: Subject attempts manual stimulation to self-administer proposed course of treatment

“That’s better.”

Yuzuri glares up at him. “Just get in the closet already.”

2:19

This should be easy. After all, Suzu always joked-- with Obi, alone, door locked after surreptitiously checking the halls to make sure no one was lingering too close to hear through the solid oak-- that if they’d handed out doctorates for masturbation, he’d have three. He is, in as much as one could be at a private practice with no grading rubric, a professional.

But as soon as he unbuttons the fall of his trousers, letting his cock sit heavy in his hands, he’s just...lost.

It should be a relief. When he’s left to his own devices, there’s no bigger rush than making it to his room before midnight, work finished-- or at least, avoided-- and stripping down to nothing. Just him, his bed, and a bottle of vanilla-scented oil, with the whole night before them.

But now he stands here in the dark, cramped closet, the scent of herbs so heavy he can feel it pressing against his skin, and even with his aching cock, he just can’t quite, well--

Get it up. No, wait, it’s definitely up, but--

But there’s nothing sensual about this. No romance. No chemistry. Like the dates Yuzuri always complains about-- no dinner first.

“How’s it going?” The wood muffles Yuzuri’s voice, but he can hear each word as crisp as an accusation. “Getting close?”

Suzu’s tongue falls in an exasperated cluck, swiveling his neck toward the door. “Just how long do you think this takes?”

“In my vast experience,” she drawls, her tone vibrating at the frequency glass shatters, “you should already be done.”

He’s tempted to balk, maybe even disparage her previous paramours, but, well-- if she was here, her soft, slender hands wrapped around his cock, whispering encouragement into his ear, Suzu doubts he’d fare much better. His cock gives a good twitch of agreement, and promptly continues to get absolutely nowhere.

“Well,” he manages, mouth utterly dry-- another factor making this whole venture both uncomfortable and unlikely-- “I can’t do it when you’re right out there, listening.”

Even through the door her sigh is heavy, frustrated. “I’m taking notes!”

“I don’t see why,” he snaps, giving his shaft a vengeful stroke. It, like all the others, feels good while also being irrevocably, disappointingly wrong. “It’s not like you’ll be describing this in Methods.”

“Because if I take notes, this is experimentation,” she explains haltingly, “and if I don’t, then...”

Then he’s just a young man fruitlessly jerking off in a closet while she listens, no matter the details. She could sit back at the table, of course, folding those shapely legs beneath her, biting her lip with a longing glance over her shoulder but--

But it wouldn’t change anything. He’s still in a closet, hand around his cock, hoping for some relief, and she’s enabling him. The science is the only thing between her and a scandal.

“It’s just...” His palm squeezes the base of his shaft, a spark of arousal zipping up his spine. “It’s like trying to pee when there’s someone in the next stall.”

There’s a long moment of silence, enough that he wonders if she’s wandered away after all, ready to wash her hands of the whole thing. It’s his problem, after all, not hers, and she--

“Suzu.” Her voice is low, the kind of deep-throated whisper that sends static swirling over his skin. “Are you a shy pisser?”

His cheeks sting, heat prickling like a rash. Unfair-- by any natural law, or at least the ones in his repertoire-- he shouldn’t have the blood to spare for a blush, let alone one that fully threatens to expand its horizons in either northern or southerly direction. Any moment now he’ll start to get dizzy, maybe even pass out in this tiny bolthole of a closet, and Yuzuri will have to drag him out with his pants around the ankles before she goes and writes something like, subject’s delicate constitution precludes finishing trial, and--

“NO ONE LIKES PEEING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE.” His breath huffs out of him in ragged pants, and for once it has nothing to do with the state of his erection. Well, tangentially it does, but-- “honestly, Yuzuri.”

“Strange stance to take when you can pee on any tree you want,” she mutters, just audible through the oak. “Now are you going to finish this up or what?”

Suzu looks down at his cock-- still painfully hard, ridiculous jutting out from the ruin of his trousers-- and glares.

“Why are you even still here,” he grumbles, shoving it back behind his fall, buttons fumbling out of the grip of his trembling fingers. “Nothing about this is arousing.”

2:20

“I just don’t see what the big deal is,” Yuzuri says, incredulous, for what had to be the twelfth time since he’s stumbled out of the closet, desperately aroused and with no relief in sight. The repetition has not made the observation any less embarrassing. “You must do it all the time.”

Suzu hunches over his knees, willing himself to disappear. Like everything he wants, invisibility remains frustratingly elusive. “I’m not talking to you about-- about--”

“Jerking off?” Her brows make a rousing bid for her hairline. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”

He shrivels sullenly. “It’s not fair.”

Yuzuri sighs, but she tips her head to look at him, hair falling like a solid sheet of gold over her shoulder, neck curved in an elegant line, ready for a mouth to--

Ugh. Suzu buries his face between his knees. His suffering is unending.

“How is this unfair?” She asks, annoyance adding spikes to every oblivious word that falls from her lips. “Just because your genitalia is external and obvious?”

It should be impossible to be so angry and so aroused at the same time, not without blissfully passing out to avoid both states, but here he is, still conscious. Still conscious, and the tatters of his brain-to-mouth filter frittered away by the ache in his crotch.

“It’s not fair,” he seethes raggedly, “because nothing is happening to you!”

The silence his shout leaves behind is deafening. What was he thinking? He never raises his voice, not like this, and especially not at Yuzuri. Yuzuri who could be doing anything else instead of sitting here, nursing him through the worst night of his life.

“What?”

He can barely bring himself to look up, to look at the confusion furrowing her perfect alabaster brow.

“I know it’s not your fault, but--” he should really stop himself, but an object in motion stays in motion, and there’s no friction he can provide that can stop the truth from barrelling out of his mouth-- “here I am, experiencing death by erection, and you--” he waves his hand vaguely in her direction-- “are immune or something.”

“Immune?” The word hisses between her teeth, sharp as a page’s edge. “Suzu, I’m dying. I-- I can barely sit upright, but someone has to write this down.”

Suzu stares. Properly this time, gaze fixed to her face, and-- she’s flushed, pink blooming around the gathering at her collar, and twinging up her neck, flooding her cheeks. “W-what?”

“What do you mean ‘what?’“ she snaps. “It’s not like I’ve been hiding it! Just because I don’t have external genitalia doesn’t mean I’m not--”

She throws up her hands, the noise she makes halfway between a grunt and a scream,all frustration. Her one arm drops, wiping at her forehead--

Her forehead, which is coated in sweat. Wiped by her hands, which are trembling. Right above her eyes too, too dark even for the dimness of the room. And her thighs, they rub together, pressed tight at their apex--

His mouth dries. Her chemise is wet, right where it settles over her crotch. The scent in the room now is not just herbs and alcohol, but something earthy and tantalizing, something he’d like to taste on his tongue.

“Yuzuri,” he says slowly, heart pounding in his ears. “Are you...horny?”

She turns to him with those too dark eyes, breath huffing out her small nose.

“You,” she sighs, trembling fingers pressing to her temples, “are an utter moron.”

#suzuri #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #my fic #ans #somewhere on the citrus scale but god knows where it is #definitely not a lemon but limey??? maybe???#listen I know I said this would show up in February #but obviously things rarely work out the way i wish they would #i'm hoping to have the third and definitely final part out this August #but that all depends on bingo and obiyukiweek!

12 notes · View notes

itsthemoofacewriting · 5 years

Text

Black Cat

Welcome to the beast! I did toy with splitting this into chapters, but I like a long one shot and hopefully you all do too.

So, I voted for the superhero prompt and was psyched when it was picked but then drew a blank about how I wanted to approach it. Then I listened to ‘To die for’ by Sam Smith and that was it. It was supposed to be a short little fluffy story… then this thing called plot came marching in, knocked me off my chair and took over. So now there’s fluff AND plot AND a lot of words.

Summary: Sanji’s pretty sure he’s found the love of his life, shame it’s the elusive criminal he’s supposed to be catching. Superhero AU Rating: M for Language, brief mention of violence and a limey moment that can be skipped (Do we still use the terms lemon and lime for sexy times?) Words: 18k, buckle in kids.

@sannamiweek

This can also be found on FFN and AO3

Enjoy

“Ah, Mademoiselle, what a pleasant surprise.”

The lady before him gave a short laugh as she turned, jewellery still in hands, as she gave him a once over.

“Pleasant indeed, have you been working out?” She said in a sultry tone. He knew she was trying to get under his skin, and whilst it was working, he didn’t miss the way her eyes drank him in.

He tried to keep his cool, he wouldn’t be had this time. “I have, there’s a certain Black Cat that I have to keep up with after all.” He said as he began to walk closer, something that her keen eyes instantly picked up on and tensed, ready for whatever move he made.

“Well, I’m flattered, of course.” Her casual words betrayed by the way she took a step back, eyes assessing the room for an exit.

There was a tense moment as they both watched each other, trying to anticipate the others move.

“As ravishing as you would look in them, you know I can’t let you leave with them.”

“That’s such a shame, I really like them.” She pouted and started to play with the gems. “I feel like these would really suit me, especially this one.” She held the diamond necklace up to her neck and laid it across her bust, smirking. Although his eyes were covered by black glasses, she knew he couldn’t keep his eyes on her face.

“Is it hot in here or is it just me?” She looped the jewels through her arms and let them slide down as she pulled at the black leather away from her body with one hand and fanned with her other.

He was frozen at this point and she used it to her advantage. With him like this, she walked towards him, making sure to swing her hips and start playing with the zip hiding her cleavage.

Once she was in front of him, she ran her hands along his shoulders, moving them up to cup his face and move it to one side. She leaned in closer, so her body was pressed against his. At this point his face was bright red, extending further than his mask.

She sighed in his ear before whispering, “Thanks for the jewels.” And then kissed his cheek, leaving a red lipstick mark. “See you next time.”

She shoved him down in his stupor and he watched in a haze as she suddenly took off running across the store. She climbed up the wall, giving him a lovely view of her behind, and out of the open window, which she’d clearly used to break in.

She was breath taking.

Black Cat once again succeeds in stealing jewels, leaving Stealth Black in the dark.

Sanji sighed.

He was in his favourite café as he read the newspaper and although it was frustrating, he couldn’t bring himself to be angry at the headline. They weren’t wrong after all. She was successful and he was still in the dark as to how to capture her. She was smart, beautiful, sneaky, gorgeous, tactical and did he mention she was an absolute bombshell?

He rubbed his hands across his face. He definitely shouldn’t be thinking about her like that. He should be thinking about how to capture her. Yet, he didn’t really want to. She was a petty thief more than anything, she’d never hurt anyone and left the place with minimal damage. Plus, she brightened his day with her wit and sunny smile when she saw him.

His thoughts were interrupted by another voice, “Would you like another refill?”

His head shot up from the newspaper and was met with a young waitress holding a coffee pot. He gave a grateful smile, nodding and going back to his newspaper.

“Black Cat, huh? I don’t mind her; she seems harmless enough.”

Sanji chocked out a fake laugh, hiding his chagrin, “Yet powerful enough to take on Black Stealth, she must be something alright.”

She shrugged. “Black Stealth is something himself, I’m sure he’ll snag her someday.” There was something in her tone that made him look back up at her. She was giving him a funny look, like he was missing an inside joke that he wasn’t privy too.

And with that, she took a step back and turned around. He wouldn’t think anything of it, but her tone was odd, and did she wink at him before turning? He felt a blush rising on his cheeks at the thought but shook his head. Yes, he had a weakness for women but there was only a certain woman on his mind right now. The one who was suddenly leaving lipstick marks on his cheek.

It had been almost 5 months since she’d come into his city. No one knew anything about the Black Cat, she came out of thin air one day when she’d picked a lock to get into a high-end jeweller. He’d been stupefied back then; she was bent over looking at something and gave him the greatest look at her lovely behind in her tight leather cat suit. Then she’d turned to look at him (her suit really was tight, ahem). Her mask covered the middle of her face, starting below her eyes brows and stopping at her nose but revealing big amber eyes with eyelashes fluttering against flushing cheeks and scarlet red lipstick adorning her lips. Adorable cat ears donning her head.

He’d been frozen just looking at her, but then she’d breathily said his superhero name, almost like a moan, and he completely shut down after that. She’d winked at him, gave him a flirty wave and had taken off. He was in euphoria for a couple of minutes after, until he’d realised that he’d just let a robber escape his clutches.

Since then, they’d faced off quite frequently. Every time she used her charms against him, becoming bolder each time. They’d never actually clashed like other villains he’d faced up against, then again, he wasn’t so besotted with the others. He’d faced off against women villains before, he took greater care with them than he did to men, but he always got them in the end. But her. She was something else. It was love at first sight and whilst he’d hoped it’d pass… it didn’t. Every time he saw her, he fell a bit harder. It put him in quite a pickle.

The worst thing though, was that they actually got along. Considering their opposing sides, they had banter and over time, he was feeling like he was getting to know her. She was just intoxicating. As the days went on, he moved further and further away from catching her, simply because he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to capture her. But he had an obligation to. He was a superhero and whilst she was a very smart, crafty thief, she shouldn’t be a match for him. But she was.

It was one of Sanji’s days off and normally, he kept superhero work for night-time only but liked to keep an eye on the news during the day, just in case. It was incredibly rare that the police couldn’t deal with criminals during the day, the night-time was when the real low lives showed their faces in this city.

When the radio was suddenly interrupted by a special report, he felt his ears prick. It was telling civilians to stay indoors and avoid the city centre because a shoot-out had broken out. So far, no lives were lost but a few injured.

No more had to be said and Sanji was abandoning his relaxing day off. He’d never forgive himself if someone innocent got shot.

Stealth was a big part of his image and his suit was black for a reason, to blend in during the night. Right now, the only thing that fit in was his blond hair and tiny bit of yellow on his suit. Normally he would activate the invisibility feature on his suit, but he wanted the attention on him when he arrived. This way the shooting would be aimed at him and not civilians.

He landed with a thump on the police officers’ car just outside of city centre and all heads whipped towards him. He could see the relief on a few of their faces when they recognised him. It must be worse than he thought.

“Focus on civilian safety, get them out and I’ll deal with the gang.” Stealth Black said, launching himself back into the sky.

From above, Stealth Black could see carnage. A car was alight with two officers trapped behind it, surrounded by the gang who were slowly spreading themselves out and strategically using abandoned cars to move forward. His eyes narrowed at their organisation. So it looked like this might have been planned and they weren’t normal thugs.

Over the past few weeks, he’d heard rumours about a gang that had moved into the city. They were apparently recruiting members but nothing other than word of mouth had surfaced. He couldn’t do much else than keep his ear to the ground. Maybe this was the start of it.

He swiftly dropped behind the burning car to retrieve the stranded officers. “Are you injured?” His eyes scanned and found no more than a couple scrapes and a lot of dirt.

They both shook their heads.

“Keep still and brace yourselves.” Without another word, he wrapped his arm around each of them, stood up and activated the boosters in his boots as he kicked the flaming vehicle in front of him towards the gang. This gave him the opening he needed as gang members jumped out the way and shouted to each other about his arrival. He left the officers just outside the shooting zone, where an ambulance was on hand and took off again without a word.

He ran through the shooting zone, bullets flying past him or ricocheting off his suit as their attacks were now focused on him and started taking them down one by one. They were smart thugs, but they were still human, he laid off the boosters that helped increase his kicking power and that seemed to be enough.

He ducked as a thug swung their gun, attempting to hit him in the face and Stealth Black swept his leg out to knock the guy off his feet. Once the thug was down, he brought his foot down sharply onto his chest and heard a few ribs break. He shouldn’t be getting up quickly.

The gang, sensing they were losing to one person, all swarmed him in an attempt to overwhelm him. He backflipped into a handstand, bringing his legs out vertical and spun, hitting some of the thugs that were close enough and stunning a few before they got too close.

“Ben, no!” A scream tore through the air.

Stealth Black’s head whipped in the direction of the voice, only to find a child running across the shooting zone. The child had escaped the grasp of his mother as they were being moved to safety and now the police were having a hard time holding the mother back too.

He knew that no thugs took sympathy, regardless of whether it was a child or not and that if he didn’t get to the child quick enough, one of the thugs would shoot.

Whilst he was distracted, a thug saw an opening and hit Stealth Black on the back of the head. He was dazed for a moment and the world went silent as he desperately tried to catch up. A thug wrapped their arms around him to hold him in place as more gathered. He snapped out of it when he heard the mother screaming again for her child and his senses came back to him.

Stamping his foot down, he created a shockwave of power that launched him, and the thug wrapped around him, into the air whilst the other thugs went sprawling. He sharply dug his elbow into the thug behind him and watched as he fell to the ground below.

Looking again for the child, he was met with a sight that chilled his blood and made time stop moving. One of the gang members had seen the child and was raising his gun ready to shoot. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through him, as he took off charging with everything he had towards the child. Whilst he prayed for a miracle, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to reach the child in time and his brain was working through every possible option to overcome the inevitable.

The bullet was already flying towards the child, who was stood still, paralysed by fear.

He could feel his heart pounding in his ear as his stomach plummeted.

He wasn’t going to make it.

Suddenly the sky turned dark and electric crackled through the air.

“Thunder tempo!”

And then there she was. God, she was so overwhelmingly beautiful. Wind whipped around her face, making her hair fly through the air as a ferocious lightening bolt hit the gun wielding thug. She swooped in and picked the, now crying, child up in her arms and used her baton to deflect the bullet. Interesting, he’d never seen her the baton before, maybe it was new?

When he would look back on this moment in the future, he would this as the tipping point of when he started to fall in love with her and confirm that she wasn’t a villain.

Any tension suddenly left, as the last crispy thug fell to the floor and the crowd around them cheered.

Black Cat looked completely bewildered as people came closer to start congratulating them both. The mother of the child came weeping towards her, thanking her profusely again and again. She managed to stutter out a quiet you’re welcome, as she handed over the child in her arms to the mother.

However, as the camera crews started to come over, he could see her starting to panic. Her eyes darting around the area for the easiest escape route in all the mayhem. To his delight, she’d never had that look around him. She always seemed at ease… probably because she had the upper hand, but he still liked that she was relaxed around him- even if he was a hero.

She jumped when he strolled up to her, his arm resting on the small of her back to get her attention. He murmured in her ear, “You want to get out of here?”

Whilst his words were supposed to be overly flirtatious, she gave him a relieved smile regardless. “Please.”

“Hold on then.” The arm on her back snaking around her waist and they were airborne. Her screaming into his ear as she strangled him in a chokehold and him laughing.

He soon regretted laughing when they landed on the top of a roof building because she soon hit him over the head and was lecturing him about warning someone first before doing that.

She was still angry when he suddenly wrapped her up in a hug and all the anger bled out of her when she heard his heavy breathing.

“Are you okay?” She asked, as she tentatively wrapped her arms around him, unsure what to do.

“I thought he was going to die,” his voice small.

Suddenly Black Cat understood, the moment had passed and now he was forced to deal with the emotions. Her arms wrapped around him surely now and rubbed up and down his back in a soothing manner. He couldn’t see it, but she smiled. He really cared, huh.

“But he didn’t.”

“All thanks to you- I can’t thank you enough, I don’t know how to show my appreciation.”

“You don’t have to. I don’t want to see a child die, or anyone innocent for that matter.”

Stealth Black pulled away but clasped her hands in his and blinded her as if face lit up behind his mask and glasses. “I knew you were good. Join me! We’d make a great team.”

“We’d make a fantastic team. But no. I’m not made for that right now.” She hated that his face dropped. “But you’re great at it. It’s fun to watch you in action when I’m not the one trying to escape.”

“You were watching…?”

She cursed herself for getting too comfortable. She’d been sitting there before he even arrived, ready to step in should she need to. He was impressive, it wasn’t something she had seen him do before, commanding officers and skilfully fighting off thugs. “Well, it’s- uh, yeah.” Her shoulders dropped. “But you know, you can show you appreciation by not telling anyone! I have a reputation to upkeep.”

He felt warm inside. She was rough around the edges but a good person at heart and had his back when he wasn’t enough.

She extracted her hands from his grip as he just stared at her. It was of course flattering but she could only deal with his adoring look for so long without feeling… things… for him.

She really needed to go.

But she couldn’t leave without teasing him a bit, butterflies in her stomach or not. The hand on his arm got his attention as she leaned in to leave him with the trademark lipstick mark on his cheek.

What she wasn’t expecting, was for him to use his other hand to pull his mask down enough to reveal his lips and to turn his head.

To kiss her.

On the lips.

The wasn’t part of the plan at all, she frantically thought. He was hesitant for a second, giving her a chance to break the kiss and kept still. When she didn’t pull away, he applied pressure and moved his lips. She found herself melting into the long overdue kiss.

Black Stealth felt like he’d died and gone to heaven, something he would not be upset about right now. The woman he was pretty sure he was in love with was kissing him back and if he heard right, she just sighed into the kiss. He tightened his arms around her, pressing them together as tightly as possible and she reciprocated by angling her head and running her hands through his hair.

As intoxicating as she was, he needed to breath. When he pulled away and looked at her, she was dazed. Eyes glassy, cheeks flushed and smeared red lipstick, most of it was probably on his lips right now but he didn’t care. She was still in his arms, not hitting him for kissing her.

“That probably wasn’t a good idea,” she whispered against his lips, but made no move to pull away.

“Probably not, but I just don’t care. Do you?” He whispered back.

She smiled at the confession. “I like this, it suits you.” Rubbing her fingers against the scruff on his chin. “I have to go.” She said, leaning back in for a quick peck on his lips before she was pulling the mask on his face back up.

He could only nod, not expecting the second kiss. As she began to pull away, he came to his senses and grabbed her hand before she could go. She turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

“I have a feeling this wasn’t a one off and might be part of a gang operation that’s slowly growing. I haven’t heard much, no one has, do you know anything?”

Black Cat considered him for a moment before answering, “Not really. Same as you, only hear say. I hear they’re dangerous and expanding at a fast rate. That’s it.”

Stealth Black couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face, he’d wanted more information. He nodded anyway, thankful that she’d at least been comfortable telling him something, they weren’t exactly on the same side. Him on the ‘good side’ and her sitting in a weird grey area. “Hm, okay, thanks anyway,” he hesitated a moment before continuing, “Just… be careful okay? I don’t want anything happening to you, especially if they get wind that you helped me.”

She squeezed his hand, smiled and turned around. Just as she was about to leap from the roof she stopped, turning her head and said, “Those were on the house, the next kiss will cost you.”

And just like that she was gone.

But he still smiled in triumph. There was going to be a next time.

The gang had finally made their appearance, the shoot-out in city centre had only been their introduction. It was no longer vague rumours.

He’d seen his fair share of petty gangs, but this was nothing like that, they were the real deal. Highly organised and from the few vans he’d busted they were transporting drugs but none of the lower ranking thugs in the gang didn’t know the identity of the boss. Seemed he was pulling the strings behind the scenes, clever. They’d also committed bank robberies and he’d noticed the police were becoming less effective. There was less urgency in their movements, and he got the impression higher ups were being paid off by the gang.

Newspapers were unaffected, though they didn’t pose much of a threat and didn’t know any more than him. They did, however, keep him up to date with what villains were currently on the loose and supposedly they were linked with the new gang starting up. Yet he never bumped into any of these villains.

Things were starting to get out of control, and he got the impression this is what they wanted. Cause chaos, meanwhile, gain the upper hand in underground dealings and they’d be running the city.

Normally he would listen in to the police scanner on his days off or during the night for anything major going on. Now it was eerily silent, apart from the odd drunk driver. Instead he’d now taken to doing nightly patrols to see if he could gain any leads. He did this in his stealth mode so that no one could see him and catch on to what he was doing. Yet he’d found nothing. Not a thing. They weren’t sloppy and it was starting to irritate him.

Just as he was about to turn in for the night, he saw something jump past him on his left. What was someone doing jumping about on the rooftops? He followed the direction they went and what he saw made him feel like he’d finally hit the jackpot.

Kalifa.

She was part of an organisation that he’d captured a couple of years ago. They ran their own form of justice, which included killing people if they saw it fit. They made themselves judge, jury and executioner.

He landed on the roof, several feet away to observe her before he took any action.

“My, my, Stealth Black, long time no see. What can I do for you?”

He stayed silent; she shouldn’t be able to see him in stealth mode.

“I know you’re there. You thought I wouldn’t learn your tricks after last time?”

He sighed and became visible. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m not doing anything illegal, so that’s not any of your business.” She smirked and adjusted her glasses.

“You did escape prison though. How?” He demanded.

Many years ago he’d struggled to capture Kalfia, he was raised not to hit woman which is hilarious for a superhero. He’d always used his Stealth mode to capture them, it’d been a handy feature. However, that mode didn’t prevent blushing and stumbling around on his part. He knew women would always be a weakness and he had to factor that in when he went up against one. Then Black Cat strolled into his life and raised the bar. It’d been a blessing and a curse. He was somewhat immune to other villains’ charms, becoming more effective at catching them… but then he couldn’t catch Black Cat. Not that he really wanted to. But that was a different matter.

“It helps when you have connections,” she drawled coyly. “Enough chit chat though, I have appointments to get to.”

He just managed to throw up his leg and block the kick meant for his abdomen, what he hadn’t expected was for her other leg to come up and clock him around the face.

“You’ve gotten faster, that’s a pain.” He grits out as his head throbbed. Maybe he needed a helmet, everyone liked to hit him there. He backflipped into a handstand to avoid the foot coming down on his head and when he looked, the concrete had cracked from the impact. Okay, he needed to get serious. Except she didn’t let up and he spent his time dodging or blocking her attacks as they came hurtling towards him. “Appointments, huh? I heard you joined the gang that came into the city.”

She gave a short laugh. “Nosey journalists, how do they find this information out? Maybe there’s a rat… or feline, on the loose.”

He blocked the last kick, shoved his foot out and sent her falling to the ground. He was exhausted and in trouble. Whilst his stealth mode seemed to be useless around her, he used it anyway, just in case he could throw her off and took out the cuffs from in belt. As she started to pick herself up, he used the boosters on his boots to send a shockwave through the ground and succeeded in throwing off her footing. Using this to his advantage, he flew forward and locked one of her hands in the cuffs but just missed the second hand as her foot came out to trip him.

Stumbling back, he managed to keep himself upright but now had to come up with something else. At least one part of the cuffs was on.

Kalifa started laughing and Stealth Black couldn’t be more confused. “You thought that cheap trick would work again?” She boasted. And he watched in disbelief as the cuff slid straight off of her, falling to the floor with a loud clang. Stealth Black could only gape. What the hell was he going to do? He grit his teeth, he couldn’t hit her but he really needed to. It was the only time in his life that he cursed his father for instilling this belief in him.

“It appears I’ve had an upgrade, whilst you’re still left in the dark. Let’s see if you can keep up now.” She said. Her body became slick and shiny as she surged forward.

He threw his knee up again to block the hit and watched as her leg slipped straight off of his to the side and came back around to hit him in the kidneys. He fell sideways as pain erupted in his side. He couldn’t even block her now.

She was now charging towards him, but his body wasn’t responding. He was fatigued. He managed to lift both his legs and hit them against the roof top, creating an even bigger shock wave to send her flying backwards. It would do nothing but buy him some time.

It started to rain, and he groaned. It’d been clear skies just a few moments earlier but as he looked up, he could see clouds starting to form. He really didn’t need this right now. He was getting his arse kicked and he was going to be rained on. It felt like his luck was running out.

Oh god, she was getting up again. He heaved himself to sit upright whilst his mind whirled for solutions.

“You look like you could use a hand.”

Relief rushed through Stealth Black at the sound of her voice and he turned to see her standing there in all her glory, baton extended at the ready. Black Cat. His knotted stomach calmed, and his heartbeat picked up. Oh thank god.

“You really should learn how to deal with women… apart from me, of course,” she said, winking as she walked past him.

Kalfia looked at Black Cat in disdain. “What a surprise to see you here Black Cat, seems you’re quite the accessory to Stealth Black. I’m sure people would be interested to know that.”

Stealth Black had no idea what was going on, but Black Cat’s face screwed up and she went straight on the attack. She whipped her baton for Kalfia’s face, but the woman dodged it. Kalfia started a flurry attack, much like she did with Stealth Black, except Black Cat would allow herself to actually hit the woman. The hits were actually landing this time, did the rain affect Kalifa’s abilities? Black Cat managed to hit Kalifa in the face once and then in the stomach, before sending out a harsh wind from the baton.

Black Cat didn’t give the woman a chance to recover before she was sending a thunder bolt straight through the woman’s chest.

Kalfia’s eyes lost their focus and she opened her mouth to let out a puff of smoke before falling to the floor in a steaming pile.

Stealth Black was speechless. He was in awe of the woman in front of him… and if he was honest, a little turned on. She was a powerhouse. Another quality to add to the list of things he loved about the woman in front of him.

Black Cat turned to him, “Do you still have handcuffs?”

His head filled with images of the lady in front of him in handcuffs… or her using them on in, but he snapped out of it when she coughed and gave him a hard stare.

“Focus, we don’t have time for your daydreams.”

He passed her the handcuffs and she clicked one part around Kalfia’s wrist and the other to the drainpipe up on the roof.

“That should be enough to hold her, she’ll be woozy when she wakes up but make sure to keep her wet and take her to the police as soon as possible.”

“You’ve never been like that with me before.” Black Stealth said.

Nami’s head tilted in confusion before she understood what he meant. “Luckily you’ve never given me a reason to. I used to just bat my eyelashes at you, and you were putty.” She laughed.

“I’m glad, that looks like it hurt.” He walked closer to her and his hands itched to wrap them around her waist, but he wasn’t sure whether he was allowed to. They’d kissed but what if that was too familiar? “What are you doing here by the way? Not that I’m not thankful.”

“Luckily for you, I was passing by and saw she was about to kick your handsome face in. I’m the only one allowed to best you.”

His heart soared at the handsome comment and that she wrapped her arms around his neck, his own hands now making their way around her waist to settle there. The only thing that was odd, was the look on her face. He couldn’t read it. She’d never looked like that before. Normally she was an open book, but he didn’t question it as she pulled his mask down and leaned in to kiss him on the lips.

She sighed into the kiss and tilted her head. Her tongue touched his lips and before he knew it, he’d let her in, and she was playing with his tongue. When they parted, he squeezed her sides, he was just so happy he couldn’t resist. Even though he couldn’t see it, he knew there was a dazed expression on his face, he just couldn’t get enough of this woman.

“What’s the price for that kiss then?” He’d expected her to smile or laugh but he felt his stomach twist when she frowned, eyebrows pinched together in worry.

“Forgive me for what’s going to happen.”

His stomach plummeted but he didn’t get the chance to question what that was meant to mean, she extracted herself quickly from his embrace and was gone.

He felt empty.

Black Cat is the newest member of underground gang

Sanji was at the restaurant on break when he saw the news. He felt like he could be sick.

He went back to work in a daze, and it was only as he was cooking and flipping ingredients in the pan that his mind began to wonder. The puzzle started to piece together. She said she’d been watching him take down the gang… because she was already one of them? That’s why she was there? But why would be intervene and take down some of her own guys? Then again, when she ran into him facing up against Kalfia. Kalfia said she had appointments, was Black Cat her appointment? She was meeting her to join the gang? Or was she already in and they were going to do something? But why stop Kalfia?

‘-quite the accessory to Stealth Black. I’m sure people would be interested to know that.’ That sentence Kalfia had said kept going around in his head. He hadn’t thought anything of it, was she threatening Black Cat? With him? His thoughts were going around in circles and he had no answers coming to mind. He didn’t believe for a second she was a villain, there must be an angle he was missing.

The thing haunting him the most, was her expression as she told him to forgive her. A villain didn’t ask for that. A villain didn’t kiss the hero either.

He had no solid answers to the majority of his questions, but he believed in her and his gut was telling him she needed his help.

It turned out following her was incredibly hard. Normally he was too… overwhelmed after meeting with her to actually pursue her after a robbery. He doubted she’d ever give him the information, but he was curious about her baton. It turned out she could also turn herself invisible using it. It’s like they were made for each other~

He shook his head, now wasn’t the time for fantasies of the two of them but he was seriously thankful that she didn’t use all those moves on him or he’d actually have a hard time with her. He did feel a tiny bit guilty for underestimating her. It did give him an opportunity to use the new feature in his glasses though, the heat signature that Franky had just put in.

Even with that though, he still had difficulty keeping up with her without being caught. She certainly earned the title of cat, she was agile, ducking and diving through alley ways and above rooftops. Where on earth was she going? They were starting to get close to the docks in the rough side of the city. He certainly hoped she didn’t live around here, she could clearly handle herself, but he’d still be worried. Anything could happen in this city.

Since the news broke a week ago, he’d heard absolutely nothing from her. He didn’t exactly know what they were right now, but they’d kissed twice (her initiating the second) and she normally made sure to make an appearance at some point during his week, even if it was fleeting. Something wasn’t quite right.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as she came to a standstill in front of the pier, she appeared to be just gazing out at nothing and for a split second he considered going over to her. But then she was deactivating her invisibility and looking around. He stiffened when she looked straight at him, he thought if might just be chance until she waved and winked at him… she knew he was there? Had she let him follow her? How did she-? Stealth Black smiled to himself, reminded once again how amazing she was. This was planned. Any hesitation he had regarding her allegiance vanished and he kicked himself to doubting her. He knew Black Cat. He should be trusting her.

Ten minutes later and he was in their hideout. Considering it was underground, it had high ceilings, supported by multiple beams or scaffolding where it wasn’t quite complete yet. It did make him wonder how long this took to build and why no one noticed, but then if his information was correct and they were paying off people in high places then it’s really no surprise at all. Nevertheless, the high beams and scaffolding will be handy for him to navigate around here undetected alongside his invisibility.

The voices started to get louder as he made his way further into the hideout. As he entered the large room where the voices were coming from, he saw four men. Three of them were visible and standing in front of the fourth man who was sitting in an even bigger, imposing chair covered in shadows. The three visible men were huge… inhumanly huge.

In front of the group of men was Black Cat, she looked tiny compared to them.

“-and here she comes, crawling back after ruining our gang operation the other week and taking down Kalifa, for no good reason. We should kill you right now for being a rat.” One of the large men walked closer, leaning down over Black Cat.

Stealth Black felt his leg twitch and had to resist the urge to go down there to beat the shit out of him. To speak to her like that and threaten her. He could feel heat working its way up his body, as his anger spiked. Any thoughts were interrupted by her harsh tone.

“Oh cut the shit Kuroobi, if you believe any of that then you’re a fool.” She replied frostily. He’d never heard her voice so sharp and stinging, normally it was smooth and soothing like honey. “Have you not seen the newspaper? You think I want the police to take me as a serious threat? I’m a petty thief, like I want all of the city after me.”

Kuroobi snorted, “Don’t try and make me think that wasn’t you just so you can clear your name with us. You need us now to protect you.”

“And the coincidence that the news broke after Kalifa’s arrest? I told you all along she was the rat and you didn’t believe me. I had to step in, she was having a meeting with Stealth Black-”

“Funny that you mention him. We’ve heard news that you’re involved with him, kissing up on rooftops? You’ve been feeding-”

Stealth Black froze and his body tensed, ready to step in at a moment’s notice, this sounded like it could get ugly.

“Don’t interrupt me!” Kuroobi’s face darkened but stopped talking, “I’ve been keeping tabs on them both. Stealth Black is getting suspicious, I’ve been keeping him entertained- you’re welcome by the way- and he has no leads about what you guys are up to, thanks to me!” She paused and looked at all of them. “So don’t you dare accuse me!”

There was a tense moment as the four men stopped to consider her words, the three men turning to look at the man in the chair.

She was what? Keeping him entertained? His initial reaction was betrayal and hurt before he reminded himself that she knew he was here. She was lying to them to save face.

Kuroobi looked like he was about to argue some more but was interrupted when the deep voice from the shadows interrupted. “Calm down, Kuroobi. We have no reason to accuse her like this, for the time being what she says checks out. She’s our ally after all.” The man’s voice from the chair was calm.

“But boss-” Kuroobi was silenced as the man in the chair got up and made his way from the shadows, slowly walking down the steps in front of him to reach Black Cat.

He was bigger than the other three men, he made them look tiny in comparison. Much taller and vile looking. His calming voice didn’t match the twisted smile on his face. He had shaggy black hair, a long-pointed nose and razor-sharp teeth. He leaned over Black Cat and tilted her chin up so she couldn’t look anywhere else but at him.

“Because allies don’t betray each other and I’m sure Black Cat is smart enough to figure out what would happen if she did. I didn’t get this reputation for nothing.” His voice was still calm but there was an edge to it now, one that was threatening.

Black Cat shoved his hand off of her chin but maintained eye contact. “Well now you know. So stop sending people after me.” She turned to leave and just before she left the room, she called over her shoulder, “Also, I never agreed to killing innocent people when I joined.”

“Shahahaha, but you’ve teamed up with a gang that has no problems with it? You have no moral compass, so don’t get high and mighty on us.” The men continued to laugh as she left without another word.

Stealth Black didn’t miss the way her face screwed up as they laughed.

Sanji was tired. It’d been a long week. Between his day job as a chef and spending his nights and days off patrolling, he’d had no time to relax. Since the hideout he’d heard nothing from Black Cat, or the gang, and he was starting to get nervous. His previous conclusion was correct, Black Cat had let him follow because since then he couldn’t find her, no matter how much he wanted to. That meant it would be another night patrolling to try and find her or see if the gang is doing anything around the docks where they were based.

He’d contacted his friend in the police force to try and get details on the gang. He had a name of one key member and description for the illusive boss, but his friend couldn’t tell him anything. Apparently, things were tense within the precinct at the moment, anyone digging too deep into gang activity were moved onto different tasks or sent on a goose chase that led nowhere. He left his friend with what little details he had and told him to let him know if he hears anything else.

When he’d booted up his own computer to do some research, he’d only found snippets of activity from eight years ago. The name Kuroobi popped up in the article and pictures of him and another man that looked similar to the guys from the hideout, but they looked so much smaller. Nothing compared to the huge bulky men from the other night. The article briefly discussed gang activity in villages before they suddenly disappeared.

It was so frustrating, considering the major events that were going on, no one knew anything. He’d never seen anything like it in his time of being a superhero.

Rubbing his face, Sanji walked to his apartment door and prepared himself for a night of more researching and patrolling. Entering his apartment, he took off his shoes and put his bag down on the table next to the door. He took one step in and knew something wasn’t right. There was a breeze. He always made sure windows were locked before he left. He stilled and waited, no noise. But that didn’t mean the place was empty.

He started to migrate through the apartment, back pressed against the wall and tentatively looking around corners to clear rooms. He’d cleared the kitchen and office, by the looks of it nothing had been touched. Odd.

Even though the apartment so far looked untouched, he didn’t let his guard down. Someone might not be after possessions, after all. He breathed out slowly, to calm himself as he stood next to the opening for the living room. Quickly whipping his head round to look in, he met a pair of amber eyes looking back at him.

“Took you long enough, do you know how long I’ve been waiting?”

Sanji had moved away from the wall and was now standing in the doorway, mouth ajar in disbelief at what he was seeing. There Black Cat was in all her glory, seductively stretched out across his sofa, one arm supporting her head and the other propped on her hip. It was like one of his fantasies come true, he had to remind himself not to faint. But then he realised, he wasn’t currently Stealth Black… he was Sanji.

“Uhhhh...” Damn him. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say, he was too shocked.

She stood up, walking to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Do you want to sit down?” She asked comfortingly. Black Cat did find it funny, honestly, he looks like he’s seen a ghost, all the colour in his face was gone and he couldn’t string together a single sentence. Almost like when they met, ah good times.

When he sat down, she sat down next to him as well… a bit too closely, which certainly didn’t help his brain with thinking. He ended up blurting out, “I don’t have anything worth stealing!” It was almost worth looking like a fool when she started pealing with laughter. It did cause a blush to appear on his face

“For once, I’m not here for that,” she said once she’d calmed down. She leaned in closer all of a sudden and Sanji had to not think about the breasts pressing against his arm or the hot breath on his ear as she whispered, “I know who you are, Stealth Black.”

His stomach dropped. “How- how do you… when did you- what?!” He couldn’t articulate anything, there was too many questions and his brain couldn’t organise them, they just came flooding out all at the same time.

At least she moved back so she could give him a second to breath, but somehow the hand she put on his knee in a comforting gesture made him even dizzier. “I’ve known since the beginning. All those months ago, just after my first theft I found out. I like to know what I’m up against.”

“Why did you never say anything?”

“There was never a need to and I never told anyone either. That information was just for me.”

He’d calmed down by now and rested his hand over hers on his knee and squeezed it. “Thank you. So, why are you telling me now?”

“Things have changed, my plan is now in tatters. I wasn’t exactly planning on your competence, you have a very handy weakness to women, and then there’s us- ah well, I mean-” Her eyes were as big as saucers as she looked at him, she hadn’t planned on having a discussion about their relationship right now, it’d just slipped out.

“That we’re a couple?”

“Well you’re bold all of a sudden, you couldn’t even form a coherent sentence just a few minutes ago!”

“You wouldn’t have kissed me if you didn’t want to be.” Sanji smirked at her.

“And how are you so sure?”

“Because from what I’ve heard, you use your feminine appeal if the situation calls for it, but you’ve never kissed someone.”

“You’ve been keeping tabs on me?”

“I have a friend in the force, and I ask him about you. I worry about you.” He finished before smirking, “You sure give them a run for their money though.” He remembered his friend begrudgingly admitting how difficult she was when they occasionally encountered her. It appeared she kept her criminal activity according to his schedule.

She snorted, pleased with herself.

He flipped the hand still on his knee so he could tangle his fingers with hers. “I want to be a couple, if you want…” His voice trailing off, unsure.

Black Cat could feel a blush forming on her face and she felt flustered, she nodded and choked out, “After all of this is done.” Normally his face was covered with a mask and glasses but to be at the brunt of such a radiant smile was almost too much, did he even realise how handsome he was? “We still have a gang to deal with and it won’t be easy.”

They were interrupted from any further discussion as her stomach grumbled, Sanji raised an eyebrow looking at her. “When was the last time you ate?”

“I’ve eaten today,” she said flippantly.

Sanji’s eyes narrowed at her vague answer and recalled earlier that she’d been waiting for ages. He looked at his watch, it was almost 8pm. “Come on, let’s go to the kitchen. I’m a chef, I don’t like people going hungry.”

“Oh no really, it’s fine!”

Except he wasn’t listening anymore and left the living room to go to the kitchen down the hall, leaving her to trail behind him, insisting that she didn’t need to be fussed over.

“Don’t you at least want to change first?” She asked. He was still in his suit from work at the restaurant.

“Not right now, I can change later once we’re both fed.” His jacket was now hung-over a bar stool at the kitchen bar, and he was rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he started getting ingredients out. “Take a seat.” He gestured for her to sit on the other bar stool.

She sighed. No matter what she said he was intent on feeding her and hadn’t listened to a word she said in protest. Giving up, she took a seat and settled on watching him cook. At least from this vantage point she could give him a once over without him catching her, admiring the way his suit fitted him. He turned to ask her something and raised an eyebrow when he caught her red-handed checking him out, or more accurately, his behind. He didn’t need to say anything when she jumped and suddenly averted her eyes to the side, pretending to take in the kitchen.

When he’d finishing plating up the food, he turned and this time she was actually looking around his kitchen. This was almost surreal, having Black Cat in his kitchen eating dinner with him. He felt like he should pinch himself.

This was one of the best things about being a chef. He’d placed the food in front of her and whilst she’d politely waited for him, he didn’t miss the delight on her face when she’d started eating. He enjoyed people enjoying his food.

Whilst they were eating, he started telling her about his day. They’d held conversations in the past and they did actually get along quite well, but it struck him that he knew very little personal details about her. It wasn’t much of a surprise, she was a wanted person after all, and he wasn’t sure whether she’d even tell him.

He stopped talking midstream, interrupting himself, “What about you? Apart from breaking into my apartment, not that I mind, what have you been up to? Actually, I haven’t seen you for a week, have you been okay?”

She considered him for a moment, deciding on what information to give him, “Well, I circled around the city for a bit today before breaking in, to make sure no one was following me. As for my week, I’ve been at work. I’ve being putting Black Cat away, until I could come here. I think there’s people looking for me.”

That was a lot of information to take in, Sanji thought. “There’s people looking for you?” He asked with concern.

“I think I’m being kept tabs on by the gang, I may have cleared some of my name but they’re suspicious. Maybe let’s get into this after we’ve eaten. I have a lot to discuss with you.”

“So, you also work? Similar to myself then. What do you do?”

She smiled coyly, “Trying to find me?”

It hadn’t even occurred to him before, until this very moment, “Wait, have we met? When I’m me and you’re not Black Cat?”

She laughed and looked amused when she replied, “Yes we have, and you barely looked at me. It was both incredibly flattering and a bit rude. You were too hung up over Black Cat in the newspaper.”

Wracking his brain he couldn’t even think of when this may have happened. To be fair, he was always hung up over her… but to ignore her over Black Cat… but then she was Black Cat, so his attention was on her. His head was starting to hurt.

“You know I am actually interested in you behind the mask, right?” He had to clarify this, whilst they were skirting around the topic.

She nodded and smiled, “I kind of guessed when you showed no interest in any women at all, apart from Black Cat.”

It was now his turn to smile, “So, you’ve been keeping track of civilian me and my personal relationships?”

She couldn’t make eye contact as she replied, “You’ve shown a great amount of interest, I wanted to see whether it was genuine or not.”

It was true. At first, she had been curious when he’d ignored her. She knew she was attractive and knew about his weakness to women, but when she’d started to develop feelings for him in return, she was checking to make sure he wouldn’t break her heart.

“Because you like me?” Sanji couldn’t keep the joy out of his voice.

“Well I think we’ve already covered this, why else would I have kissed you?” She rolled her eyes, trying to stamp down the blush.

“I know, I just can’t believe it.” He paused as he considered her words and the meaning running deeper underneath. “I know I have a certain reputation around the city as being weak to women, but that just came from be inability to hit them.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to pick his words carefully. “I was raised not to hit women; it was ingrained in me and I’ve never been able to shake it off. But please don’t misconstrue it. I’m a one-woman man.”

Next to him, she smiled. She already suspected as much, but it did put her at ease hearing it from him. It appeared she’d picked a good one. She leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for dinner, let me help wash up.” He didn’t even see her pick up his empty plate as she made her way over to the sink.

They continued discussing their weeks, her hedging around any personal details she wasn’t willing to share yet, as Sanji washed and Black Cat dried.

It was nice, Sanji thought. Having her like this, not on opposing sides and just being domestic. Even if she was still is her costume. It was as close as he could have her for the time being.

It was almost 9.30pm by the time they’d finished, and he made them both a coffee. There was still a lot to discuss. They both settled back on the sofa in the living room, leaving their mugs on the coffee table in front of it.

Before Sanji could say anything, Black Cat put her hand on his arm to stop him. “There’s a lot to go through, so I’m going to go from the beginning and stop me if you have any questions.” She said.

“You’ve now seen the most prominent gang members, they run everything but never go out in the field, so that’s why you’ve never seen them. They pull the strings from behind the scenes. They’re incredibly dangerous and if you go against them, they will ruin your life. They either know everything about you or have enough connections to find out.” She paused. “I’ve never been Black Cat before moving to this city, I’m only here because I want to take them down and this suit provides the people close to me safety. Also, it gave me the opportunity to build a reputation so they’d invite me into their gang, and I could find out what their plan was.”

So he had been right, he’d never been able to find out any information about her prior to her appearance here.

She continued. “The gang is run under Arlong. He’s the boss. Without my mask he’d know who I was instantly. Eight years ago, he ran my village into the ground. We were thriving and happy, but he came in to use it as a test run. He brought criminals into our village and imposed a tax on all of us to ensure our safety from them. The police in our village stood up to them. The woman leading them was my adoptive mother Bell-mère,” she paused for a moment to compose herself (‘Bell-mère, no, Bell-mèrrrrrre’), it still stung. “He beat her and publicly killed her in front of the village to make a point.” A tear escaped and ran down her cheek.

Sanji ground his teeth, not only hearing of how they treated women but for Black Cat. For her to go through all of that… and then to be working for them. His hand reached out to hold hers, his thumb rubbing along the back of her hand to rub along it in a soothing gesture.

She paused, gathering herself, before continuing. “The village agreed afterwards no one else should have to die like that and we obeyed his rules, waiting for the day he’d leave. He finally did and took all the resources with him. I swore to myself I would make it right. For Bell-mère and for my village. I later found out he was producing drugs. There’s a reason why they’re all so big. They’re manufacturing drugs that alter human abilities. They’re unstable and have adverse effects, I refused to take them, but Kalifa did and so have they. They’re inhumanly strong and quick. He thinks with a big enough army, no one will be able to stand in his way, so he can start taking over the region.”

“Shit, this isn’t good.” Okay, so they were in deep trouble. He exhaled loudly and started thinking about what they were going to do.

“I can feel you thinking. I already have a plan in motion. I had one from the very start, but someone came into the picture and I’ve had to alter it. I now need your help.”

He shouldn’t be happy about this situation, but he couldn’t stop himself. She wasn’t a bad guy at all, and she hadn’t planned on using him, she genuinely liked him. She’d made it pretty clear by now that this was the case, but it was just so nice to hear. He cupped her face and brought her into a swift kiss. “I’m all ears, m’dear. The floor is yours.”

She coughed to compose herself from the sudden kiss, “Well, ah, yes. The plan. It turns out I actually am the leak; my friend works in the newspaper and I’ve been leaking information to put pressure on Arlong and his men. I was always going to pin it on Kalifa, I’d mentioned her to Hatchan, Arlong’s right hand man, and he fell for the bait and recommended her to Arlong. He’s not the sharpest tool.” She laughed to herself. “Obviously, I had to move up the schedule once I’d taken her down, with her new abilities you wouldn’t have been able to take her down without exerting force, and I outed myself to the papers myself to try and win myself more time with Arlong. I know where the drugs are and where they’re storing their money. They don’t know about my clima-tact; I’ve worked hard to keep that a secret. It’s the only thing I have against them that they won’t be expecting-”

“Sorry to interrupt, but I was curious about the baton, will you tell me about it?” It wasn’t relevant at all, but there had been so many questions going round in Sanji’s head for weeks and seeing most of them were slowly being checked off, he might as well go for this one too.

Black Cat considered him for a moment, before answering. “I have a friend who’s quite handy and he made it for me, as well as some other gadgets. It’s a weather weapon, I have a degree in climatology and with that knowledge I can control the clima-tact.” She finished proudly.

“So you work in weather?” Sanji considered her for a second, she’d make a beautiful weather lady.

“That’s the first thing you think of after I tell you about a magic weather weapon?” She laughed. “But no, hopefully after all of this is done, I’d like to get into the field.”

“You’re amazing, you know. Doing all of this.” Sanji could feel himself falling deeper into the rabbit hole after talking to her. They’d spoken before during the 6 months he’d known her but not like this. She was a beautiful person, through and through.

Moving closer, Black Cat tucked her head in the crook of his neck. She’d never felt so comfortable around someone before. She could hear his heartbeat picking up and she smiled. He was still so nervous around her, it made her like him even more that he technically had her at the point but still had this kind of reaction around her. She moved her hand to twine with his and his free hand came to rest over their joined ones. “Hmmm, this is nice.”

He didn’t say anything in return, just rested his head on top of hers.

Jolting awake, Sanji woke to a pitch-black room, only the streetlights outside giving a dim glow. He could feel a weight in his hand and looked down to see their hands still loosely joined. She’d stayed. And fallen asleep with him. He wanted to squeeze her, he was so content right now, but he didn’t want to wake her.

Looking at his watch it was only 12am, they hadn’t nodded off for long, but he did feel self-conscious, it’d been a long day and he was pretty sure he smelled. The inner gentleman in him refused to leave her to sleep on the sofa, he’d move her to his bed, and he’d sleep on the sofa after taking a shower.

As he picked her up, she stirred and tucked herself in closer to him, mumbling incoherently. How cute. He laid her down, using a spare blanket to lay over her and moved over to his draws to pull out sleeping bottoms before going to the adjoining bathroom to shower.

It was a quick shower, only about ten minutes and he was walking back into his bedroom with a towel wrapped around his shoulders trying to get the moisture out of his hair. He was careful not to shine the light from the bathroom onto her face, only using it so he could make it out the room without stubbing his toe.

There was a sense of déjà vu as he looked at the bed to see her laying before him, amber eyes meeting shocked blue ones. “Oh, you’re awake, did I wake you? Sorry.”

She completely ignored what he said, “You really weren’t joking about working out, you’re ripped.” Except her tone wasn’t joking or coy like usual, she sounded in awe. She’d always known he had a good body; it was hard to miss in his suit but seeing him without a top on. He was lean but muscular. Defined arms, even though he didn’t use his hands to fight, broad shoulders that tapered down to a trim waist and six pack. What a view.

And just like that, the room was flooded with tension as they took each other in. Their eyes moving along the others body before resting on the other’s face. For once, not in a dangerous situation or where they’re trying to read the other’s movements. Sanji could feel his heart pounding and in the quiet room, he wondered if she could hear it too. Her eyes were huge, and they were slowly drawing him in. He’d never seen her look at him like that and he had to convince himself to swallow and breath to keep a level head.

He didn’t realise he’d moved until his legs hit the bed. She was looking up at him now, pushing herself to sit up and her arms slid along his arms to grab the towel around his neck to pull him down, so his face was a hairsbreadth away from hers. His arms came down on either side of her face to support himself as he leaned over her. They slowly drew in closer to each other until they met in the middle to kiss. This wasn’t like any of their other kisses. It started slowly, lips brushing against each other until their kisses became longer as more pressure was applied. They started to become hot, needy and desperate as Sanji slipped his tongue into her mouth. Perhaps it was because it was so long overdue, the time of night or because they were about to tread dangerous waters with this gang takedown.

None of those thoughts mattered though as Black Cat tugged the towel down closer to her, becoming frustrated by the distance still between them and pulled back to nip at his bottom lip. It didn’t take much more than that for him to change his position, his hand sliding along the thigh furthest away from him to part them and make space for himself. She had no issue with this, parting her legs in invitation as he settled his body in between them, no longer leaning over her. She gasped as his body settled against hers and he used the opportunity to slip his tongue back into her mouth. Her hands moved from the towel and pushed it away so she could thread her fingers through his hair, their mouths moving together in rhythm. She earned a groan of approval from him.

They broke apart for a brief second to catch their breaths, before meeting again for another hurried kissing, the bodies slowly starting to move against each other’s. His hands moved along the leather of her suit and groaned when his hand pressed up against the side of her breast. Her body was something else. He nibbled her lip in parting before he moved down to the side of her neck, leaving a trail of blazing hot kisses. She made the sexiest little noises and the way she was wiggling her hips was driving his crazy. He could feel himself hard and ready, only getting worse with each of her gasps, did she know how much he turned her on?

She did in that moment as she ground her hips fully against him. He could feel the heat through her suit and could only imagine how wet she was. Hotly against her neck, he said, “You’re so sexy,” and squeezed her breast over her suit. The moan he received in response was almost dizzying and she slowly started a rhythm of moving her hips to rub against him, her legs tight against his waist, locking him in place. Not that he was going anywhere, his hips moving along with hers and pulling back to thrust against her.

He pulled away to look down at her face. She was breath-taking and he couldn’t believe that he was in this moment with her. His hand moved from her breast up to the zip to slowly pull it down but hesitated. He looked at her face again and was met with smouldering amber eyes, they hazily looked back at him in question as to why he’d stopped. Amber eyes filled with lust… behind a black mask.

He sighed and pulled away to sit up on the back of his heels, trying to reason with himself and resist the urge to ravish her. His hands running through his hair in frustration.

“Sanji, what’s wrong?” She asked, sitting up in concern. Moments ago they were filled with lust, now they reflected nothing but worry.

“I can’t do it like this,” he said despairingly. One of her hands moved to his shoulders to comfortingly rub along them and encourage him to continue speaking. “I don’t want our first time to be like this. You deserve more. I want to wine and dine you first, know everything about you and not have a gang looming over us. And I completely understand you might be uncomfortable taking your mask off right now, but I want to see you properly when we do this. You. Not Black Cat.”

Oh, she’d picked a good one alright. “You’re right. It’s okay.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to offend you. I want you; I really do but, I want everything.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her yet.

Hands moved to cup his jaw, bringing him up to face her. “You’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met. You’re right though, now’s not a good time for this. Come here.” She removed her hand from his shoulder and opened her arms to hug him.

He returned the hug eagerly, bringing her up to him, squeezing her to him and making her laugh. “Please stay the night here though, I’ll take the sofa, I’d worry if you went out this late.”

“Just stay here,” she said matter-of-factly, and he had to ignore the way he twitched in his trousers, he was trying not to think about her in bed with him right now. Pure thoughts, pure thoughts, he chanted to himself in his head.

He nodded, composed. “If you want me to. I have a spare change of clothes; you can keep the mask on. No pressure.”

She went to change, coming back to join him, mask still on but cat ears off. He was laying on his back and to her delight, he hadn’t put a shirt on. They wouldn’t be doing anything tonight, but the eye candy wasn’t something she’d turn down. He lifted his arm for her when she entered the room and she accepted the silent invitation to cuddle into his chest, her hand resting over his heart.

He woke up alone, the light peeking through the curtains and the spot cold where she’d slept last night. He almost groaned in disappointment, he really wanted to wake up to her, but his eye caught the brightly coloured note on his chest.

Went home to shower. I’ll be back shortly.

We still have a lot of planning to do.

xxx

This time his groan was for another reason, the thought of showering with her and his mind running through last night. He’d done the right thing… but still. Shaking away any further thoughts, he went to have his own shower and prepare for when Black Cat got back. What should they have for lunch? Or would she be back in time for breakfast?

She wouldn’t be back in time for breakfast. She’d been gone for hours and he was starting to worry. Sanji couldn’t help but fret, her note had said shortly. He’d begun pacing around the apartment, he didn’t want to be clingy and go looking for her, but he made a deal with himself, if she wasn’t back in 30 minutes, he’d put his Stealth suit on and go out.

Ten minutes later, he could hear the windowsill in his bedroom opening. He sprung up from the sofa in the living room (in vain he’d been trying to distract himself) and was met with a very dishevelled Black Cat. Her normally immaculate hair was all over the place, she was heavily breathing and… was that a rip in her suit? “Holy shit, are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” He was in front of her, arms roaming across her body to look for any cuts. When it ran along her waist, she cringed, and his fingers came back with blood on them. “You’re bleeding?!” He said almost hysterically.

“Sanji, calm down. It’s not as bad as it looks. I was caught off guard. It’s a flesh wound really.” She tried to reassure him. “There was no point in showering though, I’m a mess again,” she tried to joke to lighten the mood, but it fell flat. He was too concerned.

He could kick himself. Here he was, in his comfortable apartment, whilst something happened to her. “Tell me what happened.”

She’d borrowed another of his shirts, so she could peel down her uniform whilst preserving her modesty and he could deal with the cut on her waist. It was just a flesh wound, but it didn’t make him feel better. As he cleaned her up, she was telling him about what had happened. She’d been right, Arlong had not been convinced and instead sent someone to just dispose of her. The thug had caught her by surprise on the way back and they’d scuffled, she’d struggled to get the upper hand but when she did, there hadn’t been any more issues.

“So, where is he now?”

“…Well, that’s the thing.” She paused, as if thinking about how to phrase this. “He’s passed out outside in the alley way, with zip ties around his hands and feet. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon but it does mean we need to strike tonight. I wanted to do it in a few days’ time, but we don’t have that luxury anymore. Arlong won’t like him not returning, he’ll know something’s wrong.”

Sanji rubbed his forehead, this was a nightmare, but he agreed with her. “Any plans for the body? We can’t leave him in my apartment, nor can we hand him into the police because they’re being paid off.”

“Well, I do have one idea… you said you have a friend in the police?”

“What did you say to get him to come here?” Black Cat had already shared her concerns with texting him outright, in case someone saw, or their messages were being monitored.

“I asked him if he wanted to come over for lunch,” he replied casually.

Her eyebrows shot up, “Seriously?! I told you to be discreet but where’s the urgency, we can’t leave an unconscious body outside?!”

“I never invite him for lunch.” He told her, deadly serious. “He’ll know something’s wrong.”

She cocked her head in confusion, they were friends, right? Anything else she had to say was cut off as there was a knock on the door.

Sanji looked through the peephole and opened the door. The other guy looked at Sanji, a bored expression on his face but changed to one of alarm as he saw Black Cat peering over Sanji’s shoulder. His hand went to the gun on his hip and hissed out, “What the hell is she doing here?”

Sanji’s face turned dark as he put himself fully between the man at the door and Black Cat. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, shitty bastard?”

“I’m obeying the law! She’s a criminal, I don’t forget that when a woman bats her eyes at me, unlike you, pervert.”

“What did you call me?”

“Per-vert.”

“Moss head!”

Black Cat could feel her temper thinning as the two grown men in front of her descended into childish bickering. It was the last straw as they both grabbed each other’s collars, tugging at each other. She walked over to them, hitting them both on the back of the head. “Would you two focus! We’re against the clock.”

It turned out Sanji’s police friend was actually a childhood friend named Zoro. They had an… interesting friendship, they were like brothers; easily descending into arguing and fighting, but clearly had each other’s backs like family. Sanji had reassured her that Zoro’s nicknames for him were way behind him. He’d admitted when he was younger, his soft spot for women was a bit more than just refusing to hit them, but he’d grown up since then and the moss head now used it to get on his nerves. She understood he was still a bit perverted; she’d seen that many times during their encounters, but it appeared to be with just her, he wasn’t the least bit interested in Kalifa and she was a stunning woman.

But regardless of their relationship, it was quite clear that Zoro didn’t trust her, no matter how much Sanji waved him off.

That didn’t stop her teasing him though, “Are you just annoyed you’ve never been able to catch me?” She smirked at him.

His face went red in annoyance and he huffed, turning his face to the side and refusing to look at her. It didn’t help that Sanji was next to her, throwing him looks too.

Before anything could start up again, she started talking about her plan. She wanted Zoro to take the guy from the alleyway into the police station but under the guise of public intoxication to get him out of the way for the time being and without anyone being paid off by Arlong to tip him off. She and Sanji would sneak into the hideout tonight.

Zoro wasn’t pleased about being left out of taking down the gang and it took some explaining from Black Cat to make him understand. They were dangerous and he had no disguise, even if Arlong was behind bars, anyone in his life wouldn’t be safe. Arlong had all kind of connections. She would be calling him in, with the rest of the police force, when they were down, and the drugs would be with them. Reluctantly he agreed but told them to contact him in case things went pear shaped.

After their planning, Sanji went down with Zoro to get the guy and make him look drunk. In other words, pouring alcohol on his clothes so he reeked. He’d be disorientated enough when he finally woke up to pass for drunk.

“You sure about her?” Zoro nodded up to Sanji’s apartment, referencing Black Cat.

Hands in his pockets, Sanji nodded. “Absolutely. She’s not a bad person.”

“She’s a criminal.”

“She’s a petty thief- and she’s only doing it to take down Arlong.”

Zoro considered his words and examined Sanji’s face. Not a hint of doubt.

“Worried about me?” Sanji said, smirking at the other man.

“Tch, no.” He responded in agitation.

They loaded to man into Zoro’s police car. Zoro was about to go but stopped as he opened the door, “Good luck tonight, call if you need me.” He got into the car but before he closed the door he called out, “You make a disgusting couple,” and slammed the door, not giving Sanji a chance to respond.

In his own weird way, Zoro had just given his approval.

Sanji smiled before making his way back up to his apartment and Black Cat. They still had to flesh out more details.

“You’re sure about this?” Stealth Black whispered to Black Cat, as they stood in front of a secret entrance she’d made for when this day came. “If you want a few more days to plan, you’re welcome to stay at my place.”

She rolled her eyes. “My plan’s always been the same, only now I have an accomplice. So this way it’s not impossible. Do you trust me?” She looked at him, holding eye contact.

“With my life.” Was his blunt response.

“Then we can do it. Let’s go.”

They’d gone down to the pier cloaked in invisibility. Black Cat had used that very moment to show a handy feature, she also had heat tracking so they could keep up with one another. The ears of her costume came down to become glasses when she needed them. He mentioned the similarity of her glasses with his and she waggled her eyebrows at him cheekily, casually mentioning her tech guy knew his, Franky. Where did he think his guy suddenly got the idea from?

“Right, so we first locate the drugs and money, then we pick them off one by one, that’s our only chance. It’ll only be Arlong and the other three right now, maybe a few strays that aren’t out and about but they’re easy to deal with. It’s those four we have to keep separate.” Stealth Black nodded, taking in the information she gave him.

Black Cat lead them, both masked in invisibility as they navigated through the hideout via the beaming and scaffolding near the ceiling. They were close to the main room where Arlong generally stayed and overheard him, his voice commanding. “What do you mean he hasn’t returned? Where the hell is she now?”

Another voice responded but was too quiet to make out, almost as if they didn’t want to be heard.

“You don’t know where Black Cat is? Did I not make my instructions clear? Don’t return without her body.” Arlong shouted and the body came crashing through the opening. “What the hell are you looking at? Go with him.”

Other bodies scurried out, picking up the man crumpled against the wall.

Stealth Black frowned and looked at the woman in front of him in worry. He wanted her dead and he couldn’t stop imagining it, his heart constricting. Over his dead body. She’d make it through this alive, she’s scarified enough.

Amber eyes turned to him, whispering, “Don’t worry, if they think I’m still out there, they won’t suspect I’m in here and-” she grinned, “-Arlong’s emptied out the place for us.”

Continuing forward, Black Cat did an exceptional job navigating their base and within minutes of entering they were dropping down from the ceiling to land in front of the door. It’d taken her a week to find this room, they’d kept it well hidden and by the looks of it only Arlong and his three most trusted men knew about it, as following lower ranking gang members had led to nothing. She’d had to follow Kuroobi, which was a risk, but it’d paid off and then opening it had been a cinch. They kept their loot in this room, both the money and merchandise. They appeared smart but clearly weren’t, why would you keep two valuable parts of the business together?

But she’d gotten cocky. Hearing Arlong send people out looking for her gave her confidence and she’d entered the room with very little precaution, Stealth Black following in after her, his back to her as he checked to make sure no one was coming.

That’s how they now found themselves face to face with Hatchan and Chew. Chew had been talking to Hatchan before they both heard the door open. Black Cat stilled as the other two men looked just as surprised to see her suddenly appear, Stealth Black still none the wiser as he inspected the hallway. He did turn when she suddenly started tapping his back to get his attention.

“It looks like we’re in undetec…ted,” Stealth Black finished slowly as he turned to see the situation in the room. “Shit.”

Chew looked unimpressed, raising an eyebrow at their carelessness. Hatchan laughed, “Word got to us what actually happened with Kalifa, so Arlong took action.”

Of course it did, Black Cat bit her cheek. There was too many threads dangling in her plan, trust one of them to trip her over so close to the end. Oh well, they’d planned to take them down anyway, this section would just be harder than the rest. At least Arlong and Kuroobi didn’t know they were here yet.

“Hatchan, you take care of them, I’ll let Arlong and Kuroobi know.” Chew said.

“Stealth, you’re in charge of Hatchan, I’ll take Chew.” Black Cat said and Stealth Black nodded back to her. Chew snorted in derision, but still tensed, ready for her attack. They both moved at the same time towards their targets.

“It’s ridiculous to think you can take me on. You’re inferior to me.” Chew spat out at Black Cat.

Her clima-tact out, Black Cat suddenly extended it, so it shot out to hit Chew in the face and he stumbled back, not expecting it. He recovered quickly, seemingly taking her seriously now and shooting forward to punch her. She jumped to the side barely missing it. Right, increased strength and speed, she reminded herself.

Across the room, Hatchan had drawn his sword to use against Stealth Black, something he wasn’t worried about as Zoro had used his kendo sticks against him when they were younger. Stealth Black did glance over to Black Cat to make sure she was okay and watched as he butted Chew in the stomach with her clima-tact.

“You should keep your eyes on your opponent,” Hatchan said and swung his sword towards Stealth Black’s head, but he managed to bend backwards at the last minute to dodge it. He was a few hairs shorter now though. He launched himself into the air to avoid any more sword attacks and came flying down to deliver a swift kick to Hatchan’s face.

So far, Chew had only managed to nick Black Cat with a hit on her shoulder and trip her twice. He was getting more and more frustrated; she was quick on her feet and he couldn’t land a hit. He tried to rush her, throwing constant punches and not allowing her to respond, until he finally cornered her against the wall. She ducked when his fist came flying towards her, his fist colliding with the wall and going through it. Whilst he was stuck, she moved around him but wasn’t expecting him to rip out part of the cement wall and throw it at her. She went down with a scream and just as he was about to kick in her face, Hatchan came flying towards Chew, crashing into him and through the other still intact wall.

Stealth Black was at her side, helping her sit up. He’d seen Chew about to hit her in the face and recklessly kicked Hatchan towards the pair. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s my own fault.” She said, now standing. “Contact Zoro and let him know there’s gang members on the streets, they can easily be handled. They’ll be downtown, the industrial estate, tell him to grab some trusted police officers too.”

They both paused as they could hear footsteps moving towards the room they were in, they nervously looked towards Chew and Hatchan, who still hadn’t gotten back up since being launched into the adjoining room. They looked at each other and nodded, both instantly understanding the other.

Kuroobi entered the room and looked furious as he saw his fallen comrades. He appeared to just stand there a second, before he called out. “Come out here you little rat, I know you’re here.” He turned around, scanning the room and locked onto something in the corner of the room. He launched himself across the room, his punch being blocked but what he wasn’t expecting was someone to come from the other corner and smack him across the head.

From the floor, he watched as the person in front of him revealed themselves to be Stealth Black and the one who had the audacity to knock himself to the floor was none other than Black Cat herself, smirking down at his stupefied face, clima-tact resting on her shoulder.

He picked himself up as Black Cat and Stealth Black tensed. “I’m stronger and faster, if you think you can beat me, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Black Cat, move the money and drugs to another location, I can deal with this.” Stealth Black said, not taking his eyes off of Kuroobi. She nodded to moved towards the money and just as Kuroobi was about to move to stop her, he had to block off Stealth Black who had come running towards him.

Kuroobi and Stealth Black were then locked in flurry attacks. Punches and kicks being thrown from the both of them and they only just about managed to block them. However, Kuroobi found an opening and punched Stealth Black in the abdomen, sending him to the floor winded and proceeded to kick him in the side. Stealth Black laid there, pain shooting through his body, those guys hit hard. He’d have to be careful; he wasn’t sure how many more of those he could take.

Whilst Stealth Black was trying to recover, Kuroobi locked his eyes on the traitor that had her grubby hands on their money. He grabbed her shoulder and threw her back, causing her to drop the bag on money and groan as she felt the rubble from broken walls cutting through her suit. She detached the clima-tact from her belt and twirled it through her fingers as she considered the man in front of him, both of them circling each other.

“What, no whip?” Kuroobi sneered at her, jabbing his arm out, she managed to dodge the first but the second connected with her shoulder.

“Oh, I’ve got something that’ll sting alright.” She responded as electricity crackled through her clima-tact and the confidence melted off his face, not expecting the device to do anything. She stormed forward, whipping the clima-tact round to connect with his face and send electricity coursing through him. She then launched a gust of wind at him and he stumbled back, still standing but just barely.

“Now Stealth Black!” She shouted.

Kuroobi could barely turn before Stealth Black was before him and roundhouse kicking him, sending him stumbling to the floor. Stealth flipped forward, activating the boosters, to send his foot careening into the back of Kuroobi’s head and then kick him in the side to send him towards Black Cat. At her feet, Kuroobi looked up and the last thing he saw before blacking out was her clima-tact coming down to make contact with his face.

It was Black Cat’s turn to move towards Stealth Black. Her hands cupped his face but all she could see on him was a few scratches from being thrown around. She imagined she didn’t look much better. “Well, not exactly how I planned it, but we’ve still got 3 out of 4.”

“Shame he’s the hardest one.” His side was screaming at him not to move but he got to his feet regardless, trying to mask the grimace. He noticed she did something similar, but she was walking towards the door before he could say anything else. She peered into the hallways and found it empty. She gestured with her hand for him to follow.

They were jogging down the hall, discussing what their next move would be when they both heard a rumbling sound. Stopping, they looked around to see nothing and it was only too late that they realised something was running towards them. But not down the hallway, Arlong was running through rooms, tearing down walls to reach them. With all the walls coming down, the hideout would collapse at this rate. He burst through with an enraged cry, and before they could move, they were being lifted by their necks and slammed into the wall behind them.

“I’m going to kill you both to make an example, how dare you do that to my comrades.” He leaned over them, looking animalistic with his nostrils flared and teeth bared at them. They both struggled against him, his grip like iron and Stealth tried to knee him in the abdomen but Arlong barely flinched. “You’ll be first,” he said, eyes boring into Black Cat’s face.

Arlong’s head reared back to head butt Stealth Black and then proceeded to throw him away like a dirty tissue down the hall. With his hand now free he tore the wall down behind Black Cat and threw her through it. She rolled once she’d made impact with the floor.

“I invited you in, trusted you with vital information and you betray me.” He walked towards her as she tried to crawl away from him. She couldn’t keep up and his foot came down on her free hand, she cried out in pain as he started to put his weight on it. “Tell me, tell me why you did it.”

Despite her situation, she looked at him with nothing but hatred in her eyes, “Because you’re a monster and I won’t let you get ruin this city and these people’s lives like you did my village.”

His face twisted into a cruel smirk. “Those people were pathetic and once I’m done with you, I’ll kill everyone in that puny village. You’ll have brought that fate on them. You can’t save shit.”

The clima-tact in her free hand came around to hit him in the face and she used that momentum to kick him in the chest, freeing her hand when he took a step back. When she got to her feet, he looked bored, like she’d barely done anything. It didn’t stop her though and she swung it again, hitting his chest, legs, head, anything she could to get him to the ground.

All the hits were for nothing as he levelled her with a questioning stare, “Finished?”

She smirked, looking past him, “Not quite.”

Arlong was thrown to the side from behind when Stealth Black joined the fight, his foot making contact with the side of his face. They both nodded at each other and moved in harmony. Both of them relentless, he would kick, and she would be ready with her clima-tact, either hitting him or sending him back to Stealth with a strong gust of wind. The man before them both wasn’t given a chance to get a hit in before the other was attacking.

But it seemed Arlong had grown bored, as his hand came out to catch Black Cat’s foot when she attempted to kick him and picked up her before sending her flying into Stealth Black. The impact sent them both flying back and rolling across the floor.

“Stealth, Stealth, are you okay?” Her hand came out to touch his, shaking it.

He looked up slowly and nodded but his face said otherwise. His eyebrow had split from where Arlong had headbutted him and a massive lump was forming under it, the blood trailing down the side of his eye. There was rips in his suit and she didn’t have to see it, but she knew there’d be some nasty bruises underneath that suit. They’d both taken a lot of damage. He attempted to get up, Arlong was slowly walking towards them but Stealth Black slumped back down. “Shit, we might be in trouble here.”

Black Cat frowned, she hadn’t taken as many hits as him, she needed to get up and buy some time. “Mirage tempo.”

Maybe he had a concussion, maybe he was already dead, and this was heaven. But his body hurt too much for that. There was multiple Black Cat’s standing in front of him. They all had a great behind though, he thought deliriously.

“Cheap tricks won’t work on me,” Arlong said, unamused at her antics.

She didn’t reply, instead all the versions of her split apart to run around him, openly mocking him, to stall him. It worked. His temper thinned dangerously, and he lunged one by one at the different versions, swiping his hands out and watching as one by one they disappeared at his touch. Until he was left with one.

But it was too late. Thunder crackled angrily from above him and a second later it came hurtling down. He screamed in pain as he was absorbed by white light.

When the light show receded, black smoke was coming off of his body and his mouth gaped open. He wheezed, but when he wheezed again, it wasn’t it pain. He was laughing. Laughing at her.

Her face paled. That was her strongest move.

“That’s it? Don’t tell me that’s your best move? Pathetic.” He advanced on her. When she brought her clima-tact up to hit him, he grabbed it and ripped it from her grip, throwing it behind him. He swatted the hands away that came to punch him and he painfully grabbed her hair, tugging it to make her stand on tip toes to try and alleviate the pressure. She was forced to look at him in the face as he snarled. “I’m better than you-” he kicked the feet supporting herself from under her, leaving her to dangle from her hair, “-I’m faster than you-” he slammed her into the wall, “-and that’s why you’re going to die.”

Stealth Black blearily looked up to see the love of his life being slammed against the wall. Arlong’s hands moving from her hair to around her neck, slowly choking the life out of her, as her hands clawed at him to no avail. Her face scrunched up and legs desperately kicking when she couldn’t intake air. His hands balled up, he gathered up whatever energy he had left, and he ran towards Arlong. He hooked his foot against the side of Arlong’s head and kicked with all his might, sending the both of them flying in different directions and successfully dislodging Black Cat from Arlong’s grip.

“Diable jambe.”

And Stealth Black was in the air plummeting towards Arlong’s head. The kick sent Arlong’s head into the concrete below him and Stealth spun, flipping over to send a kick into his side. He was in front of Arlong by the time he’d finished rolling from the kick, his foot coming under Arlong’s back to send him into the air and smacking back down into his chest to send Arlong crashing into the floor. Stealth fought to stand on his feet afterwards, his energy depleted and the injuries he’d sustained taking their toll.

It wasn’t enough though. Arlong twitched from the floor and rolled to his side to start getting back up again. What was this man made of? Perhaps if they both hadn’t fought others before hand, they wouldn’t have such a problem.

At least when Arlong got up, he looked a bit battered. The man still had more in him than the both of them combined but their hits were still taking a toll. But his stomach clenched. It wouldn’t be enough.

Stealth Black tried to block the punch but the force of it was too much and he was sent flying back. Looking next to him, Black Cat was laying on her side hunched over, hacking, and trying to intake air that she’d been denied.

Arlong was advancing on them and all Stealth Black could do was crawl towards the woman in front of him, insistent on trying to protect her and take whatever hit Arlong was about to deliver. Stealth was protectively in front of her, hand on her thigh to keep her behind him. She didn’t have the strength to argue this, she merely squeezed the hand on her thigh.

This would be it.

Arlong loomed in front of them, manic grin in place.

A gunshot sounded. Stealth Black opened previously clenched eyes to see Arlong standing there, eyes blown wide with a hole in his shoulder, blood saturating his shirt. Arlong stumbled around in disbelief.

“Get on the floor with your hands behind your head.” Came a rough voice. Black Cat’s arms came to wrap around Stealth’s shoulders as she rested her head against his back, her relieved laugh in his hear.

The moment was interrupted by another voice screaming at the top of their lungs and running into the room. Without hesitation the newcomer ran to Arlong and hit him square in the face, breaking his nose and causing him to fall to the floor in front of Stealth Black and Black Cat. The combination of all the attacks, current and previous, being enough to finally take him down.

“Luffy, I told you to round up the others!” Zoro grouchily said, lowering his gun.

The boy just grinned, sticking his finger up his nose, “Did you?”

“You know he can’t stick to a plan, why did you even bring him?” Black Stealth said from the floor, no malice in his voice, just amusement. Since Arlong was no longer a threat, he’d turned around to face Black Cat and cup her face, bringing their foreheads together. It was over. They’d done it… with help, but still.

“Couldn’t trust anyone at the precinct and at least Luffy has a fighting background, even if he is a firefighter- they aren’t being paid off.” Zoro rubbed a hand across his face. “I’ve called this in, police should be on their way. The news will be having a field day tomorrow.”

It was only then that Zoro looked closely at the two on the floor. “You two look like shit, by the way,” he said bluntly.

Pulling away from Stealth Black to face Zoro, Black cat beat him to responding, laughing despite the state of the pair of them. “How about we throw you around for a bit, then we’ll talk.”

“Right, Luffy you take Black Cat, I’ll take the idiot. We need to get you both looked at.” Zoro said, eyeing the nasty cut on Stealth’s eyebrow. Stealth looked like he was about to protest but couldn’t say anything when his ribs screamed at him to not move.

It didn’t stop Stealth from looking over his shoulder when Luffy went to pick her up, just to check on her. “Calm down would you, Luffy might be energetic but he knows when to dial it down,” Zoro said. Behind them, they could hear Luffy nattering away and Black Cat laughed at something he said, before groaning as she’d jolted something.

Knowing she was okay, he focused on not leaning too much of his weight on the marimo and tried walking himself. “How did you know where we were?”

Zoro shifted his grip on Stealth. “Got in contact with Franky when we’d rounded everyone up, he put a tracking device in your suit for emergency’s. Good thing he did otherwise you two would be in trouble.”

“What will happen now?” Stealth Black asked.

“Leave it to the police, for now. Shit’ll hit the fan at work,” Zoro groaned at the thought. “But Arlong and his gang will be dealt with, they’re no longer paying them.”

Black Cat and Stealth Black join forces to take down the malignant Arlong gang.

Police are currently under investigation after allegations they were being paid off…

Sanji was currently sitting in his favourite café, reading the latest newspaper and eyes skimming for any new information. He’d spoke to Zoro about the headlines, asking him if he was really okay that he received no credit. The other man had just shrugged him off, saying he didn’t need that kind of attention, especially considering the scrutiny they would now be under.

His eyes locked onto the information he was looking for.

Black Cat has not been seen since the gang takedown and the question still looms about whether she is still considered a criminal or not. Police are refusing to comment on the matter and Stealth Black has been unreachable. Can her past crimes be forgiven?

He shook his head, what trash and they call themselves to news. If only they knew what she’d done and everything she’d sacrificed, they’d be begging for forgiveness for even thinking about writing this. To even cast doubt on her was beyond him.

Once they’d made it out of the hideout, Black Cat had directed them towards a clinic her friend, Chopper, owned. The young doctor had looked aghast when he’d seen them and had treated them straight away. Sanji hadn’t managed to stay awake for much longer once they were in the clinic, his body finally succumbing to exhaustion now they were safe.

He’d woken a little later to find Black Cat in the chair next to his bed, dark marks covering her neck but a sunny smile on her face despite it. Sanji had tiredly smiled at her, his eyes fighting to stay awake so he could be in her presence for longer, but it was a battle he was losing. It was just as he was drifting off again then he felt lips pressing into the corner of his mouth and a whisper in his ear.

‘Come and find me.’

The words had been ringing around in his head ever since he’d woken back up to an empty room. Chopper had been angry that Black Cat hadn’t waited to be discharged by him.

Since then, he’d looked for her, he really had. He even had Zoro keeping an eye out on his patrols, but Black Cat had disappeared completely. He’d realised soon after exactly what she meant by what she’d whispered to him in the clinic and his brain was sifting through their conversation they’d had that night in his apartment, ‘‘Wait, have we met? When I’m me and you’re not Black Cat?’ ‘Yes, we have...’’.

She’d wanted him to find her, not Black Cat, but her civilian identity. And he’d kept her waiting so long already.

That’s how he’d found himself currently in the café. He’d spent the day walking around the city, going into his local bank, supermarket, petrol station, anywhere he frequented to try and find her. Every woman that he walked past made him feel paranoid.

But nothing.

He put his head in his hands, running them through his hair. She was a little minx, making him search for her like this with little clues. He wasn’t annoyed though; it was so her that it made him fond if anything.

“Would you like a refill on your coffee?” The waitresses voice interrupted turmoil but he didn’t move his head from his hands.

“Yes please.” He nodded.

‘and you barely looked at me…’ Whispered in the back of his mind.

He whipped his head up from his hands to look at the waitress next to him. Amber eyes filled with mirth, uncovered by a black mask and red lips twisting into a coy smirk. He’d imagined this moment so many moments and, in his daydreams, he was suave, sweeping her off her feet.

A stark contrast to the fool gaping at her, eyes moving frantically around her face, taking all of her in.

She laughed and sat down in front of him uninvited, although he would have invited her to sit if he could get his brain to work and pull her chair out like the goddamn gentleman he was supposed to be, but he couldn’t get his legs to move.

‘You’ve been here for 30 minutes and I’ve walked past multiple times, you’re very unobservant for a superhero,’ she lowered her voice towards the end. “I decided to put you out of your misery when my shift ended. You were looking despondent, so I decided to come save you.” She finished, winking at him.

He laughed at her pun, eyes still sweeping across her face, in fear of missing anything. His face lost all signs of amusement as his hand moved her long ginger hair away from her neck to see fading bruise marks. His mind replaying the moment when he’d looked up as Stealth Black to see her dangling by her neck, legs desperately kicking against Arlong. His eyes snapped open when the woman in front of him moved his hand from her neck to her cheek and resting against his hand.

“Are you okay?” Sanji asked, his thumb brushing against her cheek, looking for any signs of distress on her face.

“Better than okay.” Was her simple reply, her face showing nothing but happiness. He figured any other emotions would probably present themselves over the next few weeks. She was probably too overwhelmed with relief for the time being, a massive burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

It wouldn’t matter anyway; he’d be there to help her through it all.

“I suppose introductions are long overdue, at least on my behalf.” She pulled his hand away from her cheek and held it in front of them both, shaking it in introduction.

“I’m Nami.”

Am I an absolute tease for ending it like this? You bet your arse I am. But am I also writing an epilogue? Yes, I am. So I’m not completely horrible.

I’d had the ending written out roughly in my head since the start, with some changes along the way; the epilogue is completely new though. This has honestly been such a such a wonderful challenge. I’ve only written small little fluff pieces before, so to write something like this has been a pure joy. And a bit of a nightmare. I’ve spent all of February plotting and writing.

Also, forgive me for any errors, I’ve eyed this story multiple times and done the best I could.

Thank you for letting me share my imagination with you.

#sannami week #sannami #sanami #sanjixnami #opfanfic #one piece #nami #sanji

41 notes · View notes