A Working (Martini) Lunch...

[zenigatcha]

Life is slowly getting back to normal. He'd been in France long enough to send Ami a little bit of chocolate and a cute bear for the holiday before getting back down to work after a nice stay in Japan. A couple of threads had popped up -- missing diamond, missing car -- that had some familiar stylistic fingerprints on them dated before the Roppongi thefts. Zenigata wasn't 100% sure, but he believed Lupin definitely could have been involved, which meant he probably was.

Neither victim -- especially the mafioso -- was reaching out for help. That meant Interpol was at an impasse. He had to note it down, go back to work, and leave it until something hooked him to it. If it didn't, it didn't. Sometimes that was just how it goes.

Today, he opened the door to his shared office saying, "Yata, do you have the requested holiday roster? I swear somebody's got a wed--" But he stops as the bar greets him, and then smirks.

Tie a little loose, suit jacket and long coat missing, a Zenigata that was expecting to be anchored to his desk most of the day pauses there, tablet in one hand and laptop under his arm.

"...guess it's a martini lunch for me."

He gets himself food, curls up with whiskey and not a martini, thank you, and can be found occupying one of the comfy couches in a half lean with his laptop on his knees. A half-eaten Jewish hoagie and empty tumbler of whiskey rest on the table next to the couch, with a pack of cigarettes is right next to that, weighed down by a gleaming silver Zippo.

All things told, he looks pretty damn comfortable.

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[lupintrois]

Lupin, meanwhile, looks incredibly confused when he opens the door about twenty minutes later. The much thicker and heavier door.

“How’d you get in here so—wait, is this that bar?” Lupin steps in and squinted at the decor Suspicously, as if Zenigata’s transported it here himself.

“Huh. Guess they’re gonna have to wait on it,” he mumbles to himself.

(House doors and closet doors, he gets, but bank vault doors? Anyway, Zenigata doesn’t need to know what he was up to before he came in here, does he?)

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata looks up from his place on the couch, brows lifting.

"Did I hear an alarm sounding?" he asks, blinking his big, round eyes up at his... nemerivalfriend. "You know what-- don't tell me. We might not be from the same chronological point."

Which is one of the weirdest things he's ever said, and Zenigata has said some pretty weird things.

[lupintrois]

“Haha, it’s fine, don’t worry about it, hey, is that a martini?” Lupin steals a sip from his drink and slides in next to him, his best flirty and distracting best.

[zenigatcha]

It is now, though it wasn't Zenigata's. He's swapped to whiskey.

"Don't, despite all instincts, want to know," Zenigata says again, shifting to allow more space at his side, balancing the laptop on his knees. "Welcome back. Haven't been here long myself."

[lupintrois]

Lupin isn't fully on his lap like a cat, but he's at least very up in Zenigata's business. He's not hiding how much he's looking at the paperwork, too - might be related to him, after all! "How's work treating you, huh?"

[zenigatcha]

"I'm doing budget for the team," Zenigata says, looking at the man at his side before he finally lifts one arm and stretches it along back the couch itself. There, Lupin can have a space, and slide right into it if he wants. "It's not exciting, but it has got to be done."

Budget is tangentially related to Lupin, yes, but boring. Also, because it's the police, there are a ton of acronyms for equipment and supplies.

[lupintrois]

Lupin awkwardly sits in the span of the arm, but not so much that it's not plausible that he just happened to be sitting here. He's still a little unsure how much affection to show in public, between the gay and the bar's prudishness.

"Does that mean you get to make up however much your booze budget is?" he asks, eyeballing the spreadsheets.

[zenigatcha]

Seeing the brief pause, Zenigata drops his arm and tugs him in. It's fine, you little shit, get cozy.

"Booze is out of pocket," Zenigata says, matter of fact. "I have to expense for travels, so I get reimbursed for what Interpol thinks is fair. Or did you think I chose to stay in cheap hotels in economy rooms because I like them?"

[lupintrois]

"Oh, I knew they didn't pay you crap, I didn't know they also made you budget the crap. Seems to add insult to injury." Lupin sits back and sips the drink the rats bring him, watching Zenigata work and occasionally checking his phone for new messages (there are none).

This lasts about two minutes before he gets bored. "Hey, you want to see if we can get away with fucking in the broom closet?" he mutters.

[skyhigh_seance]

"Hey cutie!" Klaus settles into one of the armchairs, towel slung over one arm, a basket full of bottles of nail polish in the other. "Don't you look all cozy?"

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata blinks, coming out of his focus on the screen as he's greeted. The return of his smile is easy and natural, genuine as he warms at Klaus's presence.

"You look like you're going to have some fun," Zenigata says, closing the laptop. "And I am comfortable, thank you."

[skyhigh_seance]

"You know, gotta keep up the glam." Klaus snickers, spreading the towel over one chair arm before folding himself so he can prop his foot up on it.

His shoes are, once again, MIA.

"What do you think, purple with the gold glitter?"

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata leans over and looks around. Mmm, very bright, very glittery. Most of them are. But then he pulls out a burgundy with a soft shimmer.

"Burgundy roses stand for unconscious beauty," he says, waggling it in Klaus' general direction so he'll take it. "I think it'd look good on you, with your fair skin and dark hair."

[skyhigh_seance]

"Hey, starting a second career as a fashion designer?" Klaus teases with a grin, swapping out bottles.

[zenigatcha]

"I have to have a wide variety of skills-- including disguise work. Sometimes I need to be up on trends."

Is this a tacit admission that he's either A: Consulted on a woman's disguise, or B: Disguised himself as a woman? Could be either. Could be both.

[skyhigh_seance]

"Well then, I'll have to consult you on my fashion choices more often." Klaus declares as he settles in to painting his toenails with careful strokes.

[zenigatcha]

"I'll do my best," Zenigata says as he reaches for his tumbler of whiskey, draining it the last bit of amber liquor left.

Zenigata took a breath once the alcohol had burned it's way down his throat, and then said: "I'm sorry about what happened with Lupin. He's... You scare him in a way I didn't know he could be scared."

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying rounds the corner of the couch, and promptly whacks his shin into the coffee table. Hissing curses under his breath, he flops onto the couch in a disgruntled heap. This new body - new to him body? Slightly underused? One previous owner, only went to training on Sundays?

Anyway. Proprioception is turning out to be a bitch.

"I see you found a friend while I was gone." All of this is ignored in favor of hounding Zenigata about his love life.

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata, languid and relaxed as he's been in a while (something about working out twenty years of tension,) looks up from his work and blinks. "Huh? Are you talking about Klaus? Or Lupin?"

Because he found two friends while Wei Ying was gone. One almost explicitly because he was in a weird emotional place before Wei Ying's death, and the other because they finally figured out their shit as Zenigata worked through grief and tried to get back to 'normal.'

[alongfallfromgrace]

"Oh ho, two friends! You are a busy man, I should let you get back to it." Wei Ying teases gleefully. He really is happy Zenigata has found someone - two someones at that!

[zenigatcha]

Oh. Oh.

Zenigata didn't realize that Wei Ying had already ferreted out the nature of things. (Not that Zenigata is subtle, honestly.) Now he shuts his laptop and sets it asidee.

"Er-- ah-- I -- It is to say, ah-- it's a bit complicated," Zenigata starts once he gets past the hemming and hawing over the truth. "One relationship is coming to a close while the other is starting. Not with ill will! We -- I -- will be friends. The two of them? Probably never."

Zenigata can muster some guilt about that,. and more guilt when he feels selfish about not wanting to share them with each other, thank you.

[alongfallfromgrace]

Well, he did see one guy in Zenigata's lap, which was something of a clue. He's a clever lad like that.

"I am glad." Wei Ying assures him, just in case he's about to get himself worked up about it. "You cannot be all work and adopting waifs off the street."

[zenigatcha]

"I am still predominantly work and adopting waifs on the street," Zengiata points out, even if his ears color red at the tips and his face turns pink. He is a blusher, and he will never not be a blusher. "Now I just occasionally... stop and rest. With someone."

Strangely, that's a huge appeal to him. To simply stop and be. Whether it was Klaus enabling him to indulge or Lupin making him pause the chase to enjoy the capture. These relationships make him slow down, and smell the proverbial roses.

[alongfallfromgrace]

"Good." Wei Ying notes firmly, absently rubbing at his abused shin. "Rest sounds... good."

Technically that is what he's doing now, with Lan Zhan, but he knows it is only a matter of time before they're on the road, hunting down the cause behind all of the unusual drama. It will be good, being on the road with Lan Zhan. All he's really wanted, actually.

But it certainly won't be restful.

[zenigatcha]

"Do you need some rest?" Zenigata asks, sitting up a little. "You have been working hard, but you must balance that with rest, too. Nourish your spirit, let your body mend and become ready for then next challenge. You could come home to France with me, if you like."

Hopefully neither Klaus nor Lupin will think he's stepping out with another man. Though Lupin knows better, now.