The aroma of coffee tickled his nose as Keith poured the cup of jo into the silver thermos he planned to take with him that morning. He would need a waking up in order to deal with the annoying 'soulmate' of his before they drove down to the testing center to find out if their pairing was a mistake. The radio in his living room was playing Private Fears in Public Places quietly in the background as he tiredly put milk and sugar into his cup before stirring it and twisting the lid onto it.
He wanted to stay at home rather than spent the morning taking a test that was probably made by some child who didn't understand a thing about love, but then again who was he to judge? He was wearing his red jacket, boots and a black button up shirt with black jeans for when he had to go into his workplace in order to finish filing and signing off on papers from his last case that he finished just the other night. He was in no way wanting to have another job, having the call meant having to find someone who was killed in cold blood. He didn't enjoy his job he only tolerated it, he liked to think of it as him saving people from being the next victim rather than just solving a case and he took his job seriously compared to the other detectives who goofed around like idiots half the time.
He grimaced the thought of even having to go back to that office where his coworkers thought that victims were cash cows to them, and he loathed the fact he had to see his partner again. Irene was a short woman who wore slacks with a blouse, overcoat, and heels. She had a button nose, thin white eyebrows and hair, and she had dark grey eyes that set her apart from the other junior detectives in his department. She was clumsy and would forget to put her hair back sometimes or she would even forget to carry her ID on her. But the worst thing about her was that she was the clumsiest person Keith had ever met in his life, on her first case working as his partner she had been trying to keep up with his long strides and she ended up tripping on her own feet and fell right onto the victims body; it definitely didn't go over well with the chief.
Keith sighed slightly, even if she were a thorn in his side, she had great deduction skills just like him which made her tolerable, she was the one who solved most of the prostitute case by gathering evidence for him. She was someone he would greatly fear if she were investigating a crime he did, she never missed a clue. He took a short sip out of his coffee before nearly spitting it up; he forgot that it was still freshly brewed and scorching hot.
"Dammit!" He exclaimed wiping his mouth, his tongue was burned and throbbed slightly. He grumbled and grabbed a few ice cubes before dropping them into his drink. Once he did that he turned off the radio and left the apartment once he grabbed his keys. He found Lance locking up his apartment outside as he was mumbling something under his breath with a deep frown.
At the sound of Keith's door, Lance's blue eyes darted over to meet Keith's own. He looked disappointed in a way as he looked his friend up and down. "That outfit clashes with each other, it doesn't look good with your mullet," He sounded like one of those fruity fashion designers as he raised a thin brown eyebrow with annoyance.
Keith looked at his friend in annoyance as he glanced at his outfit. Lance was wearing the most cliché thing ever; a flannel shirt, a pair of khaki shorts and canvas shoes. He looked like a teenager. "And your outfit isn't even fit for winter, who are you to judge?"
Lance rolled his eyes and yanked his key from his door before twirling the keychain around his index finger, "We're taking my car!" He exclaimed cheerfully.
They approached the elevator and Keith scoffed as he jabbed the down button, "I don't think so, I'm not going to be driven around in a little mini cooper; it will destroy any will I have left to live."
"Rude," Lance rolled his eyes and pouted slightly, "Missy is a very good car, I've had her for the last three years. Never failed me," He mumbled to himself.
Keith let out an exasperated sigh and glared at the man, "You even named that piece of trash?"
"Yeah, what's the deal man? You can't appreciate a beautiful car, can you?" Lance turned his nose up into the air and crossed his arms. "You're missing out."
The amount of annoyance Keith felt at that moment was incomprehensible, Lance couldn't be a normal adult could he? He always had to act like a kid about certain things and to a point Keith could deal with it but at the moment he wanted nothing to do with it especially since he had to deal with adult children at work.
God answered his prayer as the elevator doors dinged open and the two stepped inside together before Lance clicked the parking level and the elevator closed and began to move down. The silence between the two was tense until Lance took his phone out of his pocket and began to snapchat one of his brothers. Keith leaned against the wall despondently and began to think to himself about what type of self sufficient animal would be best for him when he decides to buy a pet. A bird would be nice, they don't need to be let out to go bathroom like dogs, but the downside was that they're loud and never shut up. He had a pet parrot as a kid in one of his foster homes, it's name was Peetsy. He would always screech and make disturbing noises as if someone were cackling in the game room. The thought of the creepy thing sent a shiver down Keith's back, a parrot was definitely out of the question. A fish would require a lot of care, a rabbit could work but it would require a lot of attention.
A cat seemed like it would be the only other possible option, it also came with extra perks like something to cuddle with at nighttime but he couldn't think about buying a new cat after what had happened to his last one. "Keith? Earth to mullet," Lance's sassy voice sounded and brought Keith back to reality as he stood straight and saw that the tanned man was holding open the elevator doors for him.
"R-right!" Keith hurriedly pushed past Lance and tried to hide the blush of embarrassment crossing his face. He was out of it this morning, the coffee didn't seem to even be waking him up in the slightest.
"Let me drive today, you're distracted and I value my life thank you."
"I don't know why you would, it's pretty sad," Keith replied without missing a beat and saw Lance narrow his eyes and wrinkle his nose up into a scowl.
He raised an index finger in a 'matter-of-fact' way and moved his head with attitude, "Excuse me but at least I'm not the one who sits in elevators and dreams about god knows what."
"Okay fine you drive, just let's make this quick I need to get to work too so you're driving me there after we sort out our issues," Keith told him bluntly and followed the tall man to the white mini cooper parked near the staircase across the parking lot.
"Fine by me, just tell me when I need to pick you up babe," Lance winked and blew a sarcastic kiss to Keith and laughed as he watched the black haired man cringe in disgust.
Keith took in a deep breath and walked to the passenger side of the car, "Never do that again and I won't complain about the car anymore."
"Deal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The car ride was a free trip to hell for Keith since all that Lance seemed to listen to was either his Latino rap music, Brittany Spears, Ariana grande or some other pop singer that made Keith's ears bleed. They had argued about the music a few times but in the end Lance won and got to keep playing his music meanwhile Keith sat on his phone with a bilious face plastered on. They sat in the testing center with the twenty question test in front of them on a table, they were seated across from one another to ensure there was no cheating. The receptionist seemed overjoyed about seeing her first gay soulmate couple, she practically threw them the tests as she squealed in excitement.
Keith stared down at the test with a blank look, the questions were so dull ranging from what you look for in a person to whether or not you like messy or clean environments. 'Just like I thought, a kid probably designed this', he thought to himself as he bubbled in the messy choice just to make sure he didn't get paired with Lance.
The next question was different from the rest: What type of family did you grow up in?
He frowned and glanced up to see Lance happily writing away, he was seemingly able to not worry about the questions as he hummed Problem by Ariana Grande. 'Why does this even matter?' His eyes fell back onto his paper and he pouted slightly as he answered it truthfully; never had a permanent family.
The last ten questions were personal ones ranging from 'weird habits' to 'do you trust easily'. Once the both of them were done they had to wait in the lobby in silence as the receptionist ran the results with an all to enthusiastic smile plastered onto her face as she glanced at the two of them. She was wearing her locket meaning that she was still waiting for the day for it to open up for her. People usually take the accessory off once they find their special person which was why Lance and Keith weren't wearing theirs anymore.
A sudden thought occurred to Keith suddenly, 'wait people only take those off when they find the person they love, does that mean that I subconsciously like Lance as more than a...' His eyes slowly looked over to the man taking selfies beside him, Lance was holding the camera at certain angles in order to catch one of those pictures douchebags took to look hot. 'Yeah, I don't think I do after all.' Keith sighed in relief until his phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
He slid it out and looked at the caller ID to see that it was Irene calling him, her happy smile appeared on the caller ID and it caught Lance's attention. "Oh hello~" he purred and leaned in, "Who is that beautiful individual calling you Keith?" He asked, his voice had an edge of annoyance in it.
Keith pushed his face away and stood up before swiping the 'answer call' button quickly. "What's wrong Irene, I'm busy right now so make it quick if you don't mind," He stated.
The woman's chipper voice sounded on the other side of the phone, "We got another job Mister Kogane. I'm sorry but you need to get here as soon as possible, we're looking at a potential serial killer."
~~~~~~~~~
"Are you sure you want me to go back home Keith? I can wait out here for you if needed, who's going to drive you home?" Lance parked the car in front of the house that had dozens of police littering the front lawn as they marked certain areas with cards for evidence.
Keith slid on his black gloves he was keeping in his pockets and looked at Lance gratefully, "Thank you for driving me here on such short notice but I can get a ride from Irene. And here, so you can put the test results in my kitchen for me to read when I get home," Keith tossed Lance his apartment key and opened the car door before stepping out of it and shutting it.
The window rolled down and Lance's voice shouted from inside, "H-hey, why don't we have dinner tonight at your place, I can cook it...."
Keith was surprised by the offer. The last time he was ever invited to dinner was when Irene kindly offered him a place at her families thanksgiving table when she learned he usually spent it alone. He never had someone cook for him ever since he began to live on his own, he wasn't a good cook either so he usually got take out. Something about Lance's offer warmed his heart slightly. He leaned down to look inside the car and he offered a kind smile. "I would like that very much actually, I'll see you tonight Lance."
The olive colored man tried to hide his red ears by covering them with his brown locks as he nodded quickly and sped away down the street. Keith watched the ugly mini cooper turn around the corner with a small smirk until he heard the familiar sound of heels scraping against the ground. "Kogane sir, there is one body outside and three inside," Irene shouted before she nearly fell over herself coming to a stop next to Keith.
Keith looked at his partner and lost his smile as he became serious, he needed to focus solely on the victims ahead of him and stop the killer before they begin to harm others. He twisted on his feet and began to walk towards the body in the front yard. "So why do you think it's a potential serial killer case Irene?"
"You see sir, the bodies each have a mark on their left wrist. It's a star, so I was thinking that since it's like Jack the Ripper back then, with the star and all-"
"Make it shorter Irene..." Keith sighed as he held up the caution tape for the woman to slide under before he followed her.
"Serial killers leave certain marks as a trademark to their killing so that police will know that it is their work. Like some will leave notes to play games with the detectives. Our Mr.X marks victims with a star," She summed up her little prediction and Keith stood above the crime scene victim.
It was a teen boy who had one bullet hole through the back of his skull. Keith slowly walked behind the body and frowned down at him, "He was executed from behind, by a person of average height," He stated before crouching down to look at the victims star on his wrist. It was neater than expected, if the killer used a gun without a silencer then they would have been in a rush to make their trademark but it was all too neat. "Irene, were there sounds of gunfire in the neighborhood?" Keith looked up at his partner to see her dark grey eyes scanning the body with a serious look.
She nodded her head slowly and crossed her arm over her chest before touching her chin with her other hand as she went deep into thought. "Yes sir, I too noticed how neat the star was. It wouldn't make much sense to waste your escape time to do something that requires concentration like this," She knitted her silver eyebrows together and crouched down across from Keith as she kept her hand on her chin.
Keith felt pride in his junior as he watched her examine the body carefully. He remembered when she first started this job, she was so inexperienced that her first body made her lose her lunch. It didn't help that she had to fall on the body but it wasn't the best thing for her to throw up so close to the scene that ended up destroying vital evidence to the case. "Unless something else happened, can you guess what might've happened to our victim here?" Keith asked his partner as he patted the body down for something to help lead the investigation.
"There's only one other possible theory that could fit this; the killer originally thought to believe that our teen here was dead so Mr.X carved the star into the boys skin as he tried to pretend to be dead but he got a surprise when," she stood up and looked over at the one story house who's front door was wide open with police going in and out as needed. Irene lifted her gloved hand and pointed a slender index finger at the home, "The victim ran out of the house, possibly fell down and tried to crawl away before Mr.X had to execute him and run before the neighbors saw him."
"Great deduction skills Detective. My thoughts exactly, so I don't believe there's anything out here we're looking for, it has to be where the real crime happened," Keith stood up and lead his younger partner inside the home to find two bodies in the front room and one in the living room.
The two bodies in the front room were both adults, one male and the other female. Keith paused to look down at the faces of the victims. The woman had a blank expression as she stared up at the ceiling through dead brown eyes, her mouth ajar and her strawberry blonde hair matted onto her face. The husband had his eyes closed but blood trickled from the corner of his mouth though his brown hair wasn't as messy as his wife's.
Loud laughter caught Keith's attention and he glanced into the living room to see the Tweedledee and Tweedledum detectives taking selfies next to the body. Antonio was tall and muscular which is all he had going for him as a junior detective meanwhile his senior and mentor was skilled as a private eye but not so much of a homicide detective. Antonio crouched down by the body and flashed the camera a peace sign as Harry took photos of him.
"This is so great, are you gonna send this to your mother for a post card?" Harry joked loudly
Both Keith and Irene grimaced at the sight, one thing they both had in common was their undying hate for the detective team nicknamed Velvet. The two were always messing around like idiots and they always had their work passed onto Keith and Irene to solve. Keith led Irene into the living room cautiously before stopping to glare down at the disappointed Antonio.
"Great, crimson know it all's are here now," He mumbled and slid a hand through his thick curly brown hair before standing up to retrieve his phone from Harry.
"Antonio, have you ever wondered why your team never gets promotions or increased pay?" Irene asked, her hands in her pockets as she smirked widely, "It's because taking selfies next to your victim doesn't look good for our company and you haven't solved more than three cases since you first joined the Velvet team."
Keith sighed internally as his junior began to argue with Antonio. Harry visibly rolled his eyes, his balding head reflected the light on above them. "Tell your dog to be silent Keith, a bitch shouldn't talk out of place," The older man chuckled loudly and Keith felt himself becoming angry toward the pair of idiots.
Irene shut her mouth instantly and frowned. She was clearly offended so Keith decided to intervene. "The day I tell my 'dog' to be silent is the day your mutt can beat her at a game of fetch the clues," He raised his hand to point down at the victim who was approximately around his early twenties. "Irene, do your thing and show these two how real detectives work," He ordered her.
Her grey eyes were staring at him in awe as she nodded enthusiastically to him. "Right sir!" She exclaimed before she began to walk around the victim slowly, taking in each detail, then she began to look around the room. Keith followed her gaze to see a table with a square in the middle of it as if there had been something resting there for a long time, collecting dust.
"There's a vase of some sort missing from that table there," Irene said quietly as she glanced down to look at the victims head. The young man had a deep cut on his forehead as if he had been sliced with something. "Perhaps our Mr.X smashed the vase into his face to knock him unconscious..." She trailed off quietly
"If your...Mr.X had actually slammed our victims face with a vase then it wouldn't be one small cut like that Volkov," Antonio sighed and leaned down, securing his gloves onto his hands before tilting the victims face towards them to show the wound in better light. "This looks more like a skillful knife swipe across the forehead in order to daze the victim. A vase would've shattered."
"Not unless it wasn't a real porcelain vase but I do see your point Smith," Irene nodded slightly and Keith slowly walked over to where the missing vase was.
There was scratch marks across the top of the table, a knock of vase couldn't do that easily. This object had to have been heavier. "What makes you believe it was a vase?" Keith questioned Irene as he ran his black gloves across the cherry wood surface to leave a trail in the collected dust on the table top.
"Hunch, I know my art and also," she pointed towards a bookshelf with her nose and looked back down at the victim. "There's a picture of the family standing in front of the same table with a vase on it."
Keith slowly followed to where she had pointed and noticed that she was right. The family was happily smiling as their picture was taken but it raised a suspicion with Keith, who had snapped that photo of them? Keith looked back over to his partner and nodded slightly, "Let's give our Mr.X a name, Pyxis killer."
"Pyxis?" The velvet team said in unison.
"Pyxis as in the star constellations, Mr.Kogane knows the constellations like the back of his hand," Irene piped up with a happy tone.
"Irene, my personal interests don't get involved at work so please do not-" VVVVVVVRT. VVVVVRT. VVVRT. Keith's attention was stolen from his coworkers and directed at the sudden buzzing of his cellphone.
"Real professional Kogane," Antonio scoffed and Harry glared at Keith in annoyance while Irene got second hand embarrassment from Keith's own forgetfulness to place his phone on silent.
"Excuse me..." He said quietly left into the dining room to make the call. He didn't look at the caller ID, he instead automatically answered it just to make it stop vibrating, "Hello?"
"Keith..." Lance's voice sounded on the other line and Keith felt himself wanting to scream every swear he knew into the air in frustration, he knew he was working and yet he still called him.
Keith tilted his head back and let out a quiet groan of anger. "I'm working you idiot, what do you need?" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper, not wanting his coworkers to hear him.
"It's about the test results. I wanted to tell you that-"
"Kogane, Sir!" Irene called out and Keith internally screamed as he pressed his hand against the phone to turn to see his partner saving him over. "The forensics team just told me that they've gathered all the evidence they could find so we can go home until they run DNA analysis on the stuff," She called out.
"Alright thank you Irene," he turned back to face the dining room and he sighed, pressing the phone against his cheek he began talking to Lance again, "How about you wait to inform me about the results until dinner, I need to relax to some good news when I get home. Oh yeah I'm coming home early today possibly in the...next..." Keith's train of thought vanished when his eyes focused on a trophy that seemed out of place in the dining room.
"Uh Keith I think you might want to know that-"
"Hush," Keith ordered Lance suddenly and put his gloves back on quickly before rushing over to the trophy. He noticed the plaque on it was for a third place winner in a soccer tournament addressed to Connor Walker, the youngest victim. He slowly lifted the trophy ignoring Lance's annoying shouts from being hushed. The edge of the trophy had faint bloodstains on it and the black base was chipped in places.
"Irene, can you tell me if Connor, our victim, had black pieces of stone in his cut?" Keith raised his voice loudly and heard Lance shut up finally after ranting about how he deserved respect.
After a moment of silence the junior confirmed his thoughts, "Yes sir, he does."
"Found the murder weapon. It's a trophy but," he swiped it from its place and noticed there was an oval shape under it like a vase. He quickly jogged into the other room to place it onto the square on the table perfectly. He stepped back with a smile on his face, "The vase and trophy were switched after that photo, this was the real murder weapon for Connor. You stay here and find where that vase went, get forensics to check the brothers body to see if the bullet is still in his skull, and find what killed the parents," He began to list off objectives for his apprentice to do while he went home in order to relax and see Lance and those test results.
"Yes sir!" Irene bowed to him and began doing her work as the velvet team walked away.
Keith lifted the phone once more with a smile this time and sighed, "Lance, I'm coming home to see those sweet test results saying that we are not-"
"We're one hundred percent compatible with each other, our lockets didn't malfunction," Lance cut Keith off and for the next few moments Keith felt like his world had crumbled around him.
"W-what!"