c024

Who brings snacks to a stakeout?

Kim Hani, that's who. When she demanded he stop outside of a Yum Mart for an emergency, he had assumed her leg was bothering her again despite the fact she'd been walking on it fine all day. That was his first mistake. Because ten minutes later, Hani had practically waltzed out of the grocery store with a large bag of junk food and a smug, satisfied smile.

Now, as they sit in the undercover car in front of Dok-hyun's empty home—a modest two-story sandwiched in between two other homes with the same gray paint and nondescript black shutters—Hani crunches loudly on shrimp chips, her legs propped up on the dashboard of the passenger seat, and her eyes glittering in the semi-darkness as she stares at Seokga. He shifts uncomfortably in the driver's seat.

"What?"

"I really think you'd like them," she says, nudging the box of Choco Pies even closer to him from where they rest on the car's console.

Seokga pinches one of the chocolate-coated atrocities in between two fingers and scowls. "No," he says, dropping it back into the box, and focusing again on Dok-hyun's house. It has been fifteen minutes, and nothing on the street has even so much as moved. Inaction breeds restlessness, he'd said, and even now it holds true. He can already predict that this stakeout will yield nothing. Unlike Shim, Seokga doesn't think that Dok-hyun will go back for his weapons. They can be easily replaced.

The ropes and gags, though, do seem to indicate some sort of propensity for kidnappings. Perhaps they are meant for Seokga. The thought is not comforting.

Hani polishes off the bag of shrimp chips, licks her fingers, and dives back into the Yum Mart bag. She surfaces with a lollipop.

"Your stomach is a bottomless pit," Seokga says in amazement.

"Thank you," she replies around the bright red candy, tossing the wrapper on the floor.

Seokga's mouth dries as he watches her suck on the lollipop with a cheeky glitter in her eyes that lets him know she is perfectly aware of what she's doing. He clears his throat and looks back, fixedly, at the house. Hani sighs.

"I'm bored. Let's play a game."

"We're on a stakeout, Hani," he says, still staring at the house and trying very hard not to think about her now bright red lips. "We don't have time for games."

"Truth or dare?" she asks, ignoring him, and damn him if he can't ignore her. Seokga can't help but to look back over at her and feel a flutter of…something…at her mischievous expression.

"Truth," he says after a long pause. He is extremely suspicious of what Kim Hani will dare him to do.

Hani pauses, considering. "Why did you tackle me? In the forest?"

Shit. Seokga winces and reflects that he does not like this game very much.

The gumiho smirks, but there's something almost like hurt hiding behind her eyes. Seokga swallows, hating that he's the one who has made her feel that way. "I'm serious," Hani continues around her candy. It clicks against her teeth as she speaks. "Why? I'm going to assume that you no longer hate me very much, seeing as you like to cuddle me. And maybe even kiss me. Right?" She peers at him expectantly.

Seokga can't even deny it. He nods, heat rising on his neck, and triumph flits across Hani's face.

"Ha!" she crows. "You like me!"

"Hani—"

"Seokga the Fallen likes me!" Tears of mirth brim in her eyes, and she brushes them away. "Hwanin's tits. Oh, this is good. I bet it pains you to admit that."

"Actually," he finds himself saying quietly, hoping she will not ridicule him for this, "it doesn't."

Hani's eyes widen, and something in her expression softens. Her lips, glossy from the lollipop, begin to curve into a smile that is as sweet as any of the candies in the gumiho's bag.

Seokga hesitates, glancing out to the street. Still no movement, but it'll be easier to say what he has to say if he isn't facing her. "I tackled you because—I was angry. I didn't hate you, though. I don't think I have for a while. It's just…" He grits his teeth. "A touchy subject."

"Your fall?" she asks.

"Yes," he mutters. "It is embarrassing."

"I can understand that. But you didn't need to knock us down a giant hill—"

"I didn't…I wasn't thinking. We were hot, and tired, and—and you called me a dick." The words spill out before he can stop them. Embarrassed, Seokga leans his forehead against the cool glass window.

Hani is quiet for a moment. "You were hurt."

He thinks back to how his chest tightened when she'd spat that word at him, how he'd felt—bizarrely—shame when she accused him of treating the creatures of Iseung poorly. Maybe it was true. Fine. Definitely it was true. But for some reason, Seokga hadn't liked hearing it from Hani. "Maybe," he grumbles. "I reacted…poorly. I shouldn't have tackled you."

"It's not a big deal," she replies softly. "I mean, it helped us find Ji-ah."

Seokga finally cuts her a glance. She's looking at him with gentle eyes. "You got your leg gnawed on by a hungry ghost."

Hani shrugs. "It healed. In all fairness, maybe I shouldn't have called you a dick."

"I've been called worse," he admits reluctantly. "I don't understand why I…" He rubs the nape of his neck. "Why I care so much," Seokga finishes hoarsely, and his voice sounds bewildered, even to himself. "I don't know why I care so much."

In the semi-darkness, Hani is all glittering eyes and glossy lips. The angles of her face are soft, blurred by shadow. Staring at her, Seokga wants. He wants to kiss her again, he wants to wake up with her again. He wants her. His fingers twitch, and he fights the urge to pull her toward him and meld his lips against hers. What if she doesn't want him as much as he wants her? What if…

"I have another one for you," Hani says, and is he wrong in thinking perhaps her voice is a bit husky, too? "Truth or dare?"

Seokga is hardly able to breathe. "Dare," he whispers.

She grins, pointing her lollipop at him. "Good choice."

And then she's closing the distance between them, tossing her lollipop onto the floor of the car. Shim will have a fit about that later, but right now, all Seokga cares about is how she's slinking a hand around his neck, tugging him closer to her. Their noses bump awkwardly together and her smile grows in that split second before her lips are fitted against his, warm and soft and slightly sticky from that godsdamn candy. Crushed sugar and cherries. That's what she tastes like.

Seokga's heart pounds wildly in his chest as he tries to tug Hani closer, but the Choco Pies and the car's console get in the way, and he groans low in frustration. Hani laughs, and the sound is so clear, so bright as she breaks away. Seokga feels the bite of disappointment as the distance between them once again widens, and he's overcome with anxiety that this was all a joke, a cruel sort of ruse—but then Hani is impatiently shoving her beloved Choco Pies back into the bag, clambering over the console, and fitting herself neatly on his lap. Two surges of relief overtake him: One, that there's enough room for her between him and the steering wheel. Two, that she's again nestled against him, hips bracketing his own, bending her head down and surrounding them with a curtain of her lush brown hair that smells heavenly and tickles the sides of his face. As her lips crush against his, he runs his hands over her waist, marveling at the soft curves, and then the smooth feeling of her back as his hands slip underneath her sweater. How, Seokga thinks, is it possible for anybody to be this beautiful?

He could get drunk on kissing Hani. Could get drunk on the way her teeth tug impatiently on his lower lip, just enough for him to feel her canines, but not enough to truly hurt. To his complete and utter mortification, he is trembling as she rolls her hips atop him, atop the straining evidence of his arousal, sending waves of delicious heat through his body and up his spine—and then her hands are unbuttoning the top of his pants. "Is this okay?" she asks, and Seokga closes his eyes, thinking, Yes, yes, it's more than okay, it's perfect, the feeling of her fingers toying with the waistband of his briefs. "Seokga?"

Seokga pants, nodding, and then her hand is slipping inside, cupping the length of him, and he groans, low in his throat. The trickster's breathing grows husky, hot desire seeping down his spine as Hani's slender fingers wrap around him, stroking upward—

Two brisk knocks on the car's window. His eyes flare open in alarm. Shit. They're on a stakeout, and they've been doing anything but staking out the house. Is it Dok-hyun? Seokga is ready to grab his cane and transform it into a sword, but…

"Hwanin's tits!" Hani screeches as Chief Shim—out of uniform, incognito in a nondescript hoodie and, bizarrely, a giant pair of sunglasses—peers through the window. She yanks her hand away and practically dives back to her seat. Seokga, having the inane feeling that he's been caught fooling around with a girl like a teenage boy, quickly rebuttons his pants, smooths down his hair, and tries to calm his breathing.

"It's okay," he says hoarsely. "It's fine. The windows are tinted."

"Seokga?" Shim asks through the glass, glancing around the street. "Hour's up. The two officers on the back of the house didn't see anything, either. We'll let you go now."

Seokga closes his eyes and reflects that he has never been so thankful for tinted windows before in his life.