Kurapica hated when Kuroro was being cryptic. For all of his his show of deceitful honesty, he sure liked to keep an air of infuriating enigma. He glanced at him and after a moment, the older man flicked him a look too.
"Something the matter?" he asked, for the umpteenth time in their two-day journey since they'd left the university town.
"No," Kurapica lied again, not because he wanted to deceive his companion – he knew better – but because he wouldn't know how to answer further questioning. Silence returned to the car – a new one; black, this one. They'd gotten rid of the green one as soon as they could. It was far too easily linked to them, after all.
"Have we gone back to staring at each other in silence?" Kuroro asked him.
The blond shrugged. "It depends. Do you have anything to talk about?"
"Not exactly," Kuroro answered.
Kurapica huffed a half sigh. "Then I guess we have."
Kuroro sighed too. "Well," he said after a moment," tonight, we'll stop at a small hotel I know."
"Okay," the younger man replied, closing his book and twisting around to place it down onto the backseat.
"When we leave tomorrow, we'll drive for a couple of hours before we reach Merro. You'll have to dress as a woman again, I'm afraid."
"Okay," Kurapica said again. After a minute or so, he asked, "Why Victorian etiquette?"
"Our next mark is Lady Florenzia. She has a thing for extravagant Victorian parties."
"So we're going to infiltrate one?"
"Yep!" Kuroro answered cheerfully. "I've thought of something to get men to stop giving you grief, too."
Kurapica glanced at him again. "What men?" he asked, although the image of the ugly professor immediately came to mind.
Kuroro sent him a look. "Playing dumb doesn't suit you," he commented. "Men like Forkey. Unless you like that sort of attention."
Kurapica's temper immediately flared. "Don't be ridiculous!" he exclaimed. "Of course I don't like when old men try to touch me inappropriately or watch me in such a way that I know they are mentally undressing me! Why –"
"Who tried to touch you?" Kuroro interrupted. "Forkey?"
There was a dark, dangerous look in his eyes, which gave Kurapica pause.
"He would have," he said, treading carefully now, "but you got there early, thankfully."
Kuroro's shoulders lowered a fraction. His reaction to all of this intrigued the blond, but he knew better than to ask him. "So," he asked after a long, tense moment, "what was that special plan you mentioned?"
Kuroro glanced at him. He was silent for a moment. Kurapica would have given anything to know what was going through that sharp but dark mind.
Well, almost anything.
"Have you heard of the Wholfir people?" Kuroro finally asked him.
"Is this another way to get me to agree to a tattoo?" he couldn't help asking. He was mostly joking, but he was also intrigued; the Wholfir were pretty much living works of art. With every milestone in life, no matter the path they chose, more and more intricate tattoos were added to their bodies to commemorate the event.
Kuroro's eyebrows rose for a moment and his lips curved into a near-smile. "We'll use professional special effects makeup," he explained. "The only tattoo you need is the twelve-legged Spider."
Kurapica flinched. He felt pretty impressed with himself when, rather than lash out, he focused on the plan that Kuroro had obviously concocted. "Am I going to go as a married woman, then?"
"You look a tad young to be married," Kuroro replied. "Engaged would be more believable. I'll go as your brother, since after a betrothal the Wholfir, male or female, must be with a family member at all times."
"I know," the blond replied. He looked at the older man again, detailing his features; the large, dark eyes, the black hair, the tall nose. "I don't understand how people would believe that we could be siblings," he commented. "We look nothing alike."
"Not all siblings look similar," Kuroro replied.
"Usually, there's a bit of resemblance, no?"
Kuroro shrugged. "So long as people don't question it, I don't think it's a bad plan."
"And if someone does question it?" Kurapica wanted to know.
"I'll find something to explain it," Kuroro replied with another shrug. "I'm a pretty good liar."
Silence descended onto the car. Kurapica observed the older man's face for a moment longer. Finally, he too shrugged and then turned away. After another few minuted, he turned towards the back and picked up his book again. The rest of the day went by quietly.
They arrived at the hotel late that night. It was dark out, but not so late that the front desk was unoccupied. They shared a bed, something that was getting uncomfortably normal. Once upon a time, Kurapica would have shuddered in disgusted anger at the thought. Now, he shuddered still, but for a completely different reason. He tensed and heard Kuroro chuckle at his back. Neither said anything, however. It took some time before he could fall asleep.
The morning sun woke him up. The curtains were open a crack, and the light was falling straight across his eyes. He turned onto his back and stretched, the held still as Kuroro put an arm across his waist.
"Good morning," the older man said, his mouth dangerously close to his ear.
"Morning," Kurapica said in return, resisting the urge to rub his ear against his shoulder. It tickled.
"How do you feel about wearing the black wig, today?"
"Are you hoping that we might look more like siblings?" the blond asked, amused.
"Mm," Kuroro hummed, "maybe."
"Which one should I go for?"
"The more elaborate one will be for the party," Kuroro answered. "Shal is supposed to send me the invitation we need. I expect it'll be waiting for us at the suite I've secured for us in Merro."
"So I'm going to wear the simple black wig when we drive into town," Kurapica ackowledged. "All right, I should –" He made to get up, but Kuroro's arm stopped him, pulling him back against the strong chest behind him. "What are you doing?"
"Holding you," Kuroro said, laughter in his voice.
"Obviously," the blond replied. "Are we going to do this again?"
"Ask obvious questions and you'll get obvious answers," Kuroro replied.
Kurapica sighed. The older man always tried his patience. It was as if he enjoyed having any kind of effect on the blond, be it passion or anger. "All right," he sighed, deciding to play along. "Why are you preventing me from getting up?"
"There's no hurry," Kuroro explained, "and I happen to like having you in my arms."
Kurapica didn't know what to answer to that, so he stayed silent, let Kuroro hold him. He expected the movement, when the older man's hand started sliding up his chest, then down to the waistband of his cotton pants, where he paused. The blond held his breath in anticipation. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, but he could still hear Kuroro's show breaths, the warm air ghosting over the back of his neck. After a moment, the older man's hand travelled up his torso once more.
Kurapica had to let go of the breath that he'd been holding. He bit his lower lip, intensely attuned to every move from Kuroro. The blond felt like he shouldn't be feeling good about the touch. Even now, after all that had happened between them, his conscience was pulling at him, demanding that he stop this mad little game, but he wouldn't, couldn't listen. He'd long grown accustomed to the survival guilt that had plagued him from the moment that he had learned of the fate that had befallen his clansmen. This guilt he now experienced was nothing in comparison.
Kuroro's hand travelled up and down his chest twice more, before coming to rest on the side of the younger man's hip. He paused there, then finally pulled away. When Kurapica turned towards him, Kuroro was sitting up at the edge of the bed, facing away from him.
The sudden change of pace took Kurapica by surprise. He pushed himself up with one hand on the mattress. He looked at Kuroro as the Spider Head got to his feet. Kurapica didn't know what had happened to make Kuroro pull away, but he did know that he found himself feeling disappointed, a fact that didn't sit too well with him. He turned away.
Sitting on his own side of the mattress, he reached for his bag, digging for a change of clothes that could quickly be converted to a feminine one as they reached the city. When he'd selected everything that he needed, he got to his feet and made his way to the bathroom and shut the door behind himself. He shoved the guilt, the self-doubt and all of his misgivings away. It was far too late to turn back anyway; and not just because he'd already gone this far.
Yes, it was far, far too late to turn back now.
He took his time to shower, patted himself dry, then used the hairdryer. Another minute to compose himself, and he stepped out of the washroom. Kuroro was sitting at the desk, laptop open in front of him, and he glanced up, then went back to his screen for a moment. Whatever he was doing, it looked important, so the blond went to his bad to put his things away. He took out a girly top to slip over his tank top in the car, a bit of makeup in case, then packed up everything else and closed his bags.
He heard a door close and he turned to find Kuroro gone and the bathroom door closed. A moment later, the shower turned on. Something about this didn't feel right, but the blond couldn't put his finger on it. Still, they had to get going eventually, so he started going around the bedroom to make sure that they had everything. They'd been on the road for months now and as much as he liked travelling, he was starting to look forward to a few days of rest, something that he could not see happening, could not agree to – not until all of this was over, until the Scarlet Eyes were returned to Lukso, until his connection to one Kuroro Lucifer was severed for good.
He wasn't sure that last one would ever be completely, entirely successful. Even in the event that he managed to get as far from the older man as he could and never, ever saw him again, Kuroro was always going to be his first.
The thought brought heat to his cheeks and a frown to his brows. Of course, this was the moment Kuroro chose to come out of the bathroom. As he caught sight of the blond, he paused in the doorway, hand still on the doorknob. Kurapica didn't look at his face, certain that he'd see amusement in the dark eyes. Instead, he fussed at his bag, unwilling to look at the older man. Kuroro didn't say anything, thankfully, but went to his own luggage instead. Finally, after a long moment, the Spider Head spoke up.
"I don't know about you," he said, amusement clear in his voice. He marked a pause, where Kurapica braced himself for whatever embarrassing thing that the older man would say. To his relief, what came out next had nothing to do with the blond's flushed cheeks, "but I'm desperate for a decent cup of coffee."
Kurapica's shoulders relaxed quite a bit. "Yeah," he agreed, feeling relieved, "me too. I'm also hungry."
Kuroro made a grand gesture with his arm. "Shall we go, then?"
It was the blond's turn to feel amused. The corners of his lips pulled upwards despite his best effort, and he preceded Kuroro out of the room. The older man put their luggage away and they made their way down. They paused by the front desk to pay for their room, then left. If actually took nearly an hour's drive to find a decent coffee and doughnut shop. They went to the drive-through window and ordered breakfast, then they hit the road again.
It started raining. Kuroro tuned into a classical station. Soon, the most famous track from the opera Carmen drifted into the car, the soprano's clear floating over and around them. The theme of the song bothered Kurapica more than he wanted to let on, so he picked up a book and started reading. It took a couple of hours to even see the lights from the city.
Kuroro got the blond's attention and let him know they were close to Merro city, so Kurapica got out of his hoodie and slipped on the pale top that he'd selected. He lowered the mirror and applied a bit of makeup, put the wig on and brushed it, then pushed the panel up again.
They stopped at a curry restaurant for lunch, then made their way to a grand hotel. They had reservations, and the clerk told them they had mail waiting for them. In the envelope, they had the invitation for two to the party that Kuroro had mentioned. Now, they had well over twenty-four hours to get everything just right.