Born in Black and White

Chapter 1

Kairi stood at the sink, scrubbing furiously at the stain widening on her breast. She whined a little bit at its position. The longer she stared, the longer she rubbed at it, the more and more in looked like a nipple. She sighed heavily, throwing the wet paper towels into the sink in defeat. She leaned forward, her hands providing balance as she stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes kept being drawn to the perfectly positioned stain.

She grabbed the paper towels again, rubbing at the nipple-esque stain and letting out a dismayed cry as she stomped her foot in frustration. The sound of her stomp echoed off of the walls of the bathroom, causing her to flinch and feel stupid. It was just a stain! It can't be that bad! No one was going to even notice. Kairi adjusted her clothing and gave her most winning smile to the mirror. She looked a bit off with her bleached blonde hair and crystalline eyes shining back at her. Most people would call her striking or maybe stupid for choosing such an obnoxious hair color with her clear eyes and pale skin. She wore bright red lipstick to break up the monotony of her face, accentuating her full lips and her thousand watt smile. She nodded to herself, trying to remain positive.

Then she looked down again and whimpered. "Seriously?" The stain looked like it was spreading, getting rounder, and darkening in the middle. Now it really looked like a nipple. She wanted to kick something but she was afraid to strike the innards of Scotland Yard lest the building collapse around her. Though they gave the building a major face lift just a few years ago, it was all smoke and mirrors. Recycled fixtures that were considered "new" and cheap paint that had already started to bubble in some odd places. She leaned back down onto the sink, wishing she could crawl inside the basin and just stay there for a little while longer.

A sound behind her startled her and she shot up, standing straight, and gripping the sides of the porcelain sink. She held her breath for a moment when a door to a stall opened and her worst fear came true.

Someone was coming out of the stall, a witness to her cursing and murmuring threats to her lactated coffee stain. Kairi hoped against all hopes that it was not one of the inane secretaries that hated her. She had enough problems at Scotland Yard, being the only American there, and a socially awkward one at that. Now she'd be the American intern with the nipple stain who didn't know how to speak in public. She closed her eyes and wished to be invisible. Being a poorly paid intern meant that she interacted with a lot of officers, she handled the scraps of cases from every department that no one wanted to deal with and no one seemed to like her, well, that's if they even noticed her.

Her heart was beating a little faster and she sucked in her bottom lip to gnaw on it. The door opened and Kairi saw the top of the unknown's head as they began to look up: curly brown hair, then chocolate skin, dark eyes, and a patronizing smile tweaking her lips.

Sally Donovan.

She smiled wryly at Kairi, "Alright there Aria?"

Kairi tried not to glare at her, "Fine." She muttered through grit teeth. Donovan was not one of the people that Kairi got along with. The damn woman just rubbed her the wrong way and Kairi seemed to do the same to her.

"Nice bit you got there." Donovan didn't even try to hide her snicker.

Kairi nodded, a tight smile on her lips, "Yeah, guess its my lucky day."

They washed their hands at the same time, Kairi keeping her head down and pretending not to notice Donovan glancing at her and chuckling. Kairi kept her eyes shut and dried her hands slowly, biding time until Donovon left the restroom so she could run to her desk and hide.

Once Donovan exited, heading in the opposite direction of Kairi's desk, she made a bolt for the door and walked briskly to her desk, sitting down and wrapping her sweater around her now less than white blouse. She stared down at her chest buttoning and positioning the sweater in order to conceal her indiscretion. She sighed heavily when it seemed like she couldn't conceal it any better and she glanced at her desk. The damn thing was covered in files. She was starting to think that people just left their shit there, believing the desk didn't actually belong to anyone. She pulled out a hair band and wrapped her shoulder length hair up on the top of her head in a chaotic looking bun that didn't deserve a second attempt. She slid on her glasses and she attacked the files breeding on her desk, cross checking them with the database to see what she actually needed to do with them.