The main deck of the space station rippled in waves of glitter and splendor with every sway of expensive fabric. Fai adjusted the collar of his top to show a curated slice of his clavicle; clad in Earthian silk and dreamy shades of powder blue, he hardly needed the gold adorning his neck and wrists to draw the other party-goers’ attention. He looked like wealth, and wealth was what tied all these people together.

“Security to your right,” Yuui’s voice crackled in his ear. A pause, as Fai’s brother no doubt zoomed in on the security guard posted by one of the massive windows of the deck. “Tag reads ‘Kurogane’. I think that’s our man.”

Fai plastered a languid smile on his lips. “How are we holding up?”

“I’m in position.” Sakura’s voice joined in. “And Mokona is almost done hacking into the core. We should be inside the vault in… eight minutes.”

Which meant that, for the duration of those precious eight minutes, they needed the chief of security to be a little distracted.

“Got you,” Fai whispered. He glided through the crowd of mind-numbingly rich people here to compete on who could spend the biggest fortune under the guise of “charity”. The grating laughter and aggrandizing posturing made him sick with bile, but he forced himself to tune it all out. Sakura and the rest of his team needed him to do his job. 

Even if his job meant sharing breathable air with the sort of folks his mother’s parents would’ve gotten along with.

Thankfully, up close Kurogane looked like a delicious morsel of a man: broad shoulders, a confident, relaxed stance, and black hair styled just tidily enough not to be called scruffy. Fai couldn’t have asked for a more attractive mark.

“Hello,” he said, looking up through his lashes. Sakura had applied blue mascara to them, giggling every time the wet feeling sent him into a blinking frenzy. “So sorry to bother you.”

Kurogane glanced down, red eyes sweeping from the top of Fai’s head to his anti-gravity heels. He must have assessed no one could possibly pose a threat to him while floating on egregiously unsteady stilettos, because he cocked his head and huffed. “No bother at all, Mx.”

“Oh, male Earthian language is fine.” Fai waved a hand, biting down a pleased grin when Kurogane’s gaze followed the naked slice of his wrist like a hawk to a lure. He had this in the bag. “And please, just call me Fai.”

“Mr. Fai, then,” Kurogane said, and wasn’t that so endearing. “How may I assist you?”

“Well, you see,” Fai said, a curled hand artfully hovering over his mouth. He let his gaze drop, as if in shyness, and snuck a quick, calculated look at the windows. “This is my first time on a space station. The scenery is beautiful, but also a bit… overwhelming.”

The fact that Fai had piloted an escape pod through an asteroid field once, while high on whatever weird substance had sprayed right out of the safe the moment he cracked it, was a detail of no consequence. He wasn’t a renowned thief now, he was a damsel in distress. And space was scary.

Kurogane huffed once more. “You’d be surprised by how many of the big shots in here are downing alcohol like underage kids just to cope with that very same sentiment.”

As if on cue, a magnate of the solar industry chugged a whole flute of champagne as if it were a shot. Most guests, Fai noticed, were religiously facing toward the bouffet, the live orchestra or each other.

“Will you drink with me, then?” he asked, voice sugary and breathy. “To take the edge off.”

Tipsy chiefs of security were just so convenient, after all. In general, sitting down with a handsome man like Kurogane while sipping expensive spirits and making fun of the crowd sounded like a splendid way to pass the time, but that was not the point.

“Six minutes,” Yuui chimed in his ear.

“No drinking on the clock,” Kurogane said. Then he snatched a wide, low glass full of amber liquor from a server’s tray, extending it toward Fai. “Company—that I can do.”

Something warm and melty spread across the walls of Fai’s stomach. Not the point, he reminded himself, and flashed a crestfallen smile he didn’t even have to fake. He accepted the glass from Kurogane, fingers alight and electric where their hands met; when he took a generous sip, the liquor burned all the way down his throat. It edged toward dry, while Fai preferred his alcohol sweet, but he kept sipping anyway. The warm, melty feeling wasn’t going to purge itself without some help.

“Tasty?” Kurogane asked. He cocked one eyebrow and lifted the corner of his mouth by a fraction. Not enough to be called a smile, but enough to make Fai think unwise thoughts.

“Fai is making doe eyes at the chief of security!” Mokona cried out.

“Please focus on hacking, Mokona,” Yuui said, but his protest went ignored. The little white fuzzball was already running a play-by-play of the situation on the deck for Sakura, who kept interjecting with delighted “ooh”s and “aah”s.

Fai cleared his throat, unwise thoughts thoroughly dashed. “It’s quite strong.”

“Ah, I’m sorry about that,” Kurogane said, still with that not-smile. “I got the feeling you could hold your drink.”

For a split second, the sweet, ditzy persona slipped off Fai like his silks. A flare of competitive fire caught in his eyes, and he could have sworn a reflection of the same fire danced across Kurogane’s stare as they glared at each other. Then the both of them looked away.

“What just happened?,” Mokona asked, helpfully.

“Nothing,” Fai muttered against the rim of his glass. His cheeks were prickling in the way he knew meant he was blushing, and the shame of dropping the act in front of his mark burned hot under his skin. To chase it away, he took another sip.

“I guess I do hail from a cold climate,” he said, forcing cheer into his voice. “Lots of heavy drinkers there.”

His earpiece crackled with a sigh from Yuui. “Four minutes.”

“A classic,” Kurogane said. Despite his casual tone, pink lingered on the tips of his ears.

Fai allowed himself a small smile, far too genuine, and exhaled; the shame receded. “Indeed! Nothing warms you all the way to your belly like a nice pint of beer.”

He congratulated himself on diffusing the weird tension between them, until Kurogane, for some reason, made the executive decision to ruin his efforts with a lazy smirk. “Nothing, huh? A lesser man might take that as a challenge.”

Stay calm, Fai thought. You can’t throw your glass at his pretty head. It’s impolite.

Instead, he should take advantage of whatever game Kurogane was trying to play. “Well,” he drawled, tilting his head so his neck was in full display. “I suppose, if I do get drunk, I will need someone to make sure I make it back to my quarters safe and sound.”

“Wow, unzip his pants while you’re at it,” Yuui said, prompting a cacophony of cackling from Mokona. Dear, precious Sakura had the decency of keeping her thoughts to herself, which was why she remained Fai’s favorite.

Thanks to some benevolent divine intervention, Kurogane wasn’t laughing at his pitiful attempt at flirting. If anything, the intensity of his gaze was making Fai a little sweaty, as if he were standing underneath a stage light.

“Right,” Kurogane said, slightly gruff, which was both mortifying and a little heavy. “Want to go for a walk?”

Technically, Fai should’ve congratulated himself on a job well done right there and then. The chief of security had been distracted. He would be looking the other way while Sakura and Mokona absconded with a charity auction’s worth of treasure. Instead, he gulped down a knot of anxiety. He could make “doe eyes” at anyone he wanted, and he was damn good at it, but reverse the roles and Fai was suddenly out of his depth.

“Of course,” he rattled out. Then he drained the last of his liquor, let another ubiquitous server take his empty glass, and put a hand on Kurogane’s arm. “Lead the way, big guy.”

Kurogane snorted. “‘Cause you’re so drunk.”

“You wish.”

“And what of it?”

“Fai’s gonna shag our man!”

Mokona, I will kill you where you stand, Fai thought in her vague direction. Once he was released from this hell, he would shake her plump, fluffy body like a chew toy. For now, though, he had to play the game. 

He deflected and pretended not to notice the lingering heat of Kurogane’s attention. The two of them glided across the deck, skirting the edges of the crowd and whispering to each other about the guests’ most misguided fashion choices. It was fun. Comfortable. And utterly fake, Yuui reminded him with each update on the countdown.

“Are you feeling all right?” Kurogane asked.

Fai, who had been staring at the expanse of stars outside like a maudlin fool, remembered he was pretending to be afraid of space. He wrenched his head back to an especially ridiculous hat that crowned the head of some prince or another; Sakura had tried to help him memorize the guest list, but Fai had no interest in any of it.

“Look at how many feathers that thing has,” he said. “I bet they’re all synthetic.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Kurogane said, “but yeah. Hat looks like shit.”

Fai’s grandparents had dressed like shit too, but his memories of that time had gone hazy with lingering fear. As far as he was concerned, his and Yuui’s lives began after their mom had managed to haul them both off-planet.

“Sorry,” he said, fishing for an excuse to explain the dip in his mood. He had almost settled on something about his feet hurting, when his earpiece crackled.

“Something’s wrong,” Sakura said.

Fai’s shoulders tensed.

“My scans are picking up a heat signature. Mokona, are you finished?”

“Just about!” Mokona announced, not especially concerned. “Aaaand, done!”

“Ding,” Kurogane said, at the same time as Sakura’s voice cut off mid-yell.

Cold gripped Fai with its iron fist; he whirled to face Kurogane, skin prickling with the rush of adrenaline. Before he could so much as take a look at the man, strong hands curled around his hips and dragged him close.

“The girl will be fine,” an infuriating warm voice murmured against his temple. “Syaoran just knocked her out.”

Fai hissed. “Who the hell are you?”

“A colleague, let’s say,” Kurogane said, still low and warm and amused . His stubble scratched Fai’s cheek, and his skin carried the minty scent of aftershave. “Certainly not chief of security for this shitshow.”

Another thief, then. Parading as Fai’s mark to keep the competition occupied while his partner closed in on Sakura. All while letting Mokona do the hard work of cracking the vault open.

“I’m going to rip that smugness off your face.”

Kurogane had the gall to laugh. The sound tickled Fai’s ear, dancing down his spine in shivers despite the righteous fury he burned with.

“We can try that next time,” Kurogane said. “Right now, I gotta go haul the boy and the loot off this glorified tin can. See ya?”

Fai ground his teeth. “You know it.”

The hands at his hips lingered one moment longer, skirting upward as the live music swelled around the two of them. Half-drowned by the strings and the flutes, he almost missed the next words Kurogane whispered.

“Name’s Youou, by the way.”

Then he was gone, carrying his warmth and that awful smugness with him. Leaving Fai standing alone in a sea of people he hated.

He sighed. “Let’s go get poor Sakura.”