what

“You can’t just sit here and fucking wither away, Haitani.”

Ran shut his eyes as Sanzu Haruchiyo’s grating voice met his ears, willing the other man to go away. Much to Ran’s immense displeasure, Sanzu only drew closer, letting out an irritated breath. 

“You’ve barely left your apartment in three weeks. You can’t just sit in here for the rest of your life… Look at this, your room’s a fucking mess, what’ve you been eating, scraps? The fuck are all of these maps? Are you trying to-” 

The judgment in Sanzu’s voice was loud and clear as he eyed all of the news articles and maps that Ran had set up around the apartment. Ran’s eye twitched. “Fuck you,” he said, voice low.

Sanzu scoffed, “As if I would ever touch you, much less fuck you,” he said snidely. “Your wallowing is pissing Mikey off, snap out of it.”

There it is, Ran thought to himself, teeth grinding, the real reason Sanzu was at his apartment--Mikey. 

“Rindou is gone, Sanzu,” the words sounded cold and bitter to Ran’s own ears, a nauseating taste on his tongue. His chest felt hollow and Ran felt sick to his stomach admitting the words out loud for the first time. His brother was gone, and Ran was alone. “Will you give me a fucking break?”

Sanzu paused, and for a moment, Ran hoped and prayed that he had managed to get through to him. His prayers went unanswered, unfortunately, when Sanzu opened his big mouth a few seconds later. 

“Right. Gone. He’s not dead, he’s missing,” Sanzu said. “We’ll find him.”

Ran laughed, but it was a cruel and unhappy sound that made his skin crawl. “He’s been missing for a fucking month,” Ran spoke coldly, but he couldn’t force out the implication of what that might mean.

“He’s missing,” Sanzu said again, more firmly this time, “and he’s going to stay missing if you don’t stop trying to do all of this on your own, if you work with us, we’ll find him faster. Stop sitting here all miserable, come out with us tonight.”

“Are you joking?” Ran finally looked up from his hands, glaring dark at Sanzu, “Was that supposed to be a joke, Sanzu?”

Sanzu gave Ran a thin, clearly fake smile, “Do I look like I’m joking?” he shot right back. Sanzu took a step back when Ran rose to his feet, livid, and a small part of Ran couldn’t help the sick joy that bubbled in his chest when he noticed. “Look, all I’m saying is that you’re no help as you are right now. Kokonoi and I are going to a casino up in Shinjuku, pretty sure Kakucho and Mochi are gonna meet us there. You should come, relax tonight and try to get your mind off things, and then tomorrow during the meeting we’ll get together a better game plan for finding Rindou--it’ll be easier with you there to help, you know him best.”

Ran looked away, eyes trained on the ground, the sick feeling in his chest only grew. Rindou was dead, the dark voice in the back of his head whispered, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.

And Ran tried to calm himself down, take in deep, even breaths. He’s not, Ran wanted to scream back, what if he’s out there alone, captured, waiting for help? The thought made him feel ill, imagining his little brother out there, chained up, hurt, waiting for Ran to come save him while Ran was sitting in their apartment, drowning his miseries with alcohol and trying to put all of this stuff together on his own instead of utilizing all of Bonten’s resources. 

He felt Sanzu’s hand curl around his shoulder, “We’ll find him, Ran,” Sanzu murmured, “I promise.”

Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Ran wanted to snap back but the only thing that left his lips was a soft sigh, and a nod. 

“Okay,” he agreed. “Let’s go.”

---

Ran wondered if Rindou would hate him for going out and trying to enjoy himself when he was missing. Stress on trying because no matter how hard Ran tried to distract himself at the roulette table, or by playing a round of poker with Kakucho and Sanzu, he simply could not take not get Rindou off of his mind. 

What if he was suffering right now? What if he was in more pain with every passing second and Ran was just chilling at a fucking casino? What if-

Kokonoi knocking his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts, and Ran sighed when he realized he had to place his chips. Pressing his lips together tight, he picked up his chips, letting his eyes drift over the roulette table.

10, 19, 20, 13. Four on each. 

He leaned back in his chair once the chips were placed, waiting for the dealer to spin the wheel. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know how much money he had gone through so far, all he knew was that it wasn’t as much as Kokonoi--who somehow managed to lose every single bet he had placed. Usually he would have tapped out by now and taken his losses, and Ran honestly wasn’t sure why he hadn’t yet… or well, he supposed that was a lie. Kokonoi looked miserable with every chip he placed but Kakucho kept throwing dark glares right back at him that he probably thought Ran wouldn’t notice. 

Ran nearly rolled his eyes, but he figured that it was at least somewhat entertaining watching Kokonoi’s money flush down the drain, knowing how stingy the man usually is with it.

Ran circled his glass of whiskey slowly, watching how the amber liquid sloshed to the top edge of the glass, his gaze flickered up when he caught movement across from him. His eyes trained on a hand reaching over the roulette table, placing chips right over where he had placed--six of them on each.

Ran’s lips twisted down at the blatant one-up, eyes drawing up further to land on you sitting across from him at the table. His brows furrowed at the smile playing at your lips, the light look dancing in your eyes.

You leaned back in your seat as soon as you placed your final six chips over the nineteen and Ran’s eye twitched in annoyance, but he couldn’t help the curiosity that built when your eyes didn’t leave him, even as the dealer spun the wheel, drawing the attention of the other players.

Who the hell were you?

He’d never seen you around before--and he had frequented the casino often before Rindou disappeared, and as far as he knew, they didn’t usually get new patrons considering this was a place where Bonten tended to hold business. And you seemed comfortable, as if you had been there a million times before. 

He wanted to ask Kokonoi if he had seen you before but Kokonoi suddenly had a sly smirk on his lips, no longer weighed down by the gambling losses as he looked between the two of you. Ran’s brows furrowed and he opened his mouth to speak but the wheel had stopped spinning before he could. 

20. A win. 

His eyes darted up to you. 

For both of you. 

You only smiled easily as the dealer handed you copious amounts of chips, placing them in an expensive looking coin purse before leaning slightly over the table. 

“Thanks for the win,” you murmured, an amused lilt to your tone, tossing him a wink before leaving the roulette table to go over to the bar. 

He stared after you, eyes drawn to your retreating form even after the dealer finished handing him his chips, watching your hips give a subtle sway with each step, the way your dress rode up your thighs, the way your hair swished as you looked back over your shoulder once, eyes meeting his one last time before you reached the bar. 

Kokonoi nudged him once again. “You gonna go after her?” he asked. 

Ran raised his eyebrows, “Hm?” he questioned, pretending not to know what he meant, even though he certainly did. He considered Kokonoi’s question as the other man rolled his eyes. There was something about you that made him feel rather drawn to you, and he didn’t know why--maybe it was the teasing little smile that was on your lips, or the indecipherable look that lit up your eyes as you looked at him, he wasn’t sure what it was and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

As if you could hear his thoughts, you looked back over your shoulder again as the bartender handed you some sort of martini--lemon drop by the looks of it. Your eyes met his, darted down to the open seat next to you for just half of a second before you started making conversation with the bartender.

A request, he realized, to come sit with you.

Every cell in his body urged him to go after you, his fingers twitched around the chips the dealer had placed in front of him, his legs tensed.

“Go,” Kokonoi said. 

“Rindou,” Ran shook his head, a gross feeling sweeping over him as he remembered that his little brother was missing and he was out at a casino ogling some girl he had never seen before. His heart sunk to his feet, his shoulders slumped. 

“Ran,” Kokonoi said firmly, grabbing his shoulder and forcing Ran to look at him. Reluctantly, Ran met his eyes. “We will find Rindou. Go get your mind off all of this.”

Ran let out a heavy breath, still not really willing to get up and go over to you, still cursing Sanzu out in his head because fuck him for convincing Ran to come with them. 

“I’ll watch over your chips while you go over there,” Kokonoi’s pulled up into a smirk and Ran scoffed, rising to his feet and pointedly putting his chips away before shooting Kokonoi a dark look and walking in your direction. 

As soon as he made his way to you, an anxious feeling began to tug at Ran’s chest, one that made him want to turn on his heel and go right back over to Kokonoi--maybe rejoin Sanzu and Kakucho at the poker table. He shook his head, pushing the feeling away as he drew closer to you. 

Haitani Ran was not one to get anxious over many things. He was smooth with his words, usually had a tight lid on his emotions, and he wasn’t sure why he was suddenly feeling that way with you, just like he wasn’t sure why he was so drawn to you to begin with. Maybe it was just the weight of what was going on laying heavy on his shoulders, affecting his mental state, but Ran couldn’t help but feel that it was something more.

Who the hell were you?

The question rang through his head yet again, begging for an answer as he finally approached you at the bar, sliding into the seat next to you.

“You came,” your voice was soft and smooth as honey, there was not a hint of surprise in your tone. You knew he would come, and a part of Ran twisted in irritation when he realized he had walked into whatever trap you had laid out for him--even more so when he realized he hadn’t even known there was a trap, he had never been this unobservant before. 

Focus. 

“You don’t sound surprised,” Ran noted off-handedly, watching your lips tug up around the rim of your glass. 

“Because I’m not,” you said simply, not bothering to elaborate.

“And why’s that?” Ran pressed, voice faltering when your gaze slid to the side, watching him carefully from the corner of your eye.

“Because you’re a man,” you said lightly. “Men are rather predictable.”

Ran raised his eyebrows, trying to push away the amusement that bubbled in his chest at your words. “Oh? Are we now?”

“Mhm,” you agreed, not bothering to elaborate, and Ran had half a mind to keep trying to get a more straight up answer from you but he could tell from your expression that pushing on the subject would get him nowhere. Instead, he tried to take a route that would actually bring him results.

“What’s your name?” Ran asked curiously, taking another sip of his whiskey.

You smiled slightly as you told him your name, and Ran repeated it, letting the words fall off his tongue easily--a pretty name, he noted, a pretty name for a prettier girl, he wanted to say but the words died in his mouth just as he went to voice them aloud. He had a distinct feeling that you would not be impressed by the cliche line, even if it were true. 

“I’m Haitani Ran,” he said after a moment, “Pleasure.”

You smiled thinly, eyes crinkling, “All mine.”

---

You were… something else, to say the least. 

Ran still wasn’t quite sure what it was about you that had him so entranced, or maybe he did--your tongue was sharp and kept him on his toes, your eyes danced with a sort of mischief that had his blood running hot in a way it really never had before, all of your movements were fluid and graceful from the way you sipped at your martini to the way you walked across the casino, following him to one of the pool tables. You had him captivated and Ran just couldn’t draw himself out of it.

You were younger than him by a few years, a law student at a prestigious university in Bunkyo. You were smart. You were smart, and you were pretty, and had similar interests to him, and you took Ran’s mind off of everything else shitty going on in his life, off of what was going on with Rindou, off of how shitty his mental state had been the past few weeks, off of Bonten, off of his uncertain future. It was crazy, really, how you seemed to always know what to say to keep him at ease, to keep his attention, to keep him happy. Ran had never quite been a believer in soulmates, but he swore that you made him question his skepticism.

He was smiling for the first time in weeks as you rambled on about a case you were studying for one of your classes as the two of you were taking shots at the pool table, talking about your professors and classmates, about future job opportunities. And it was quite comical to Ran--a gang executive getting all friendly with a law student, the idea itself nearly made him laugh.

“What’re you smiling about?” your voice knocked him out of his thoughts, a smile teasing at your lips as you leaned against the pool table next to him, head cocked to the side. “Is my suffering so amusing to you?”  

The smile that tugged at his own lips matched yours, eyes lidded as he looked down at you, “Not at all,” he murmured.

“Mmm,” you hummed, eyes glittering beneath the lighting, “I bet.”

Ran raised his eyebrows in mock offense, “You don’t believe me?” he asked.

“Not for a second,” you giggled, eyes bright, lit up with a type of energy that Ran hadn’t experienced in a long time, one that had him scraping his tongue against his teeth, trying to push away the feeling that pooled in his lower abdomen. 

This was new. 

Haitani Ran was no stranger to sexual desire. Or, he supposed that wasn’t entirely true. He was no stranger to the advantages of sexual desire, and he was no stranger to being the object of other peoples’ sexual desire. Lust and love were powerful emotions, ones that Ran had learned to make use of with his looks over the years to his and his brother’s advantage. Seduction was an art that he had learned to wield as impeccably as he could his baton. Information, money, assassinations, there was nothing he hadn’t been able to get done in the name of Bonten just by utilizing his tongue and appearance.

He had made a game out of it, really, trying to see just how quickly he could get someone to fall. He loved watching their breath quicken, the way their pupils would dilate, the way sweat would bead at their foreheads and the way their fingers would tremble. He loved even more the devastated expression on their face when they realized that they were just a game to him.

Ran had never been able to get enough of it.

But for all of his games, Ran had never felt that feeling himself--he had never been on the opposite end until standing with you at the pool table. Maybe it was just from how often he’d be the one trying to lure people in, he knew all of the tells, and because he knew them, it would just never work on him

Sure, there had been fleeting moments of attraction, but it was nothing like this where he could feel his body heating up every time your eyes met his, where he could feel that coil tightening in his abdomen when you brushed against him, where he was hanging off of your every word like they were dripping honey. 

He wanted you, the thought rang loud through his head, his heart raced. He wanted you in a way he had never wanted somebody before and it made his skin crawl with equal amount of nerves and anticipation, because Haitani Ran was good at reading people and he knew you wanted him too. 

And in the back of his head, he knew this wasn’t the time. He had to be focused on Rindou, and finding him, and getting him back, but Sanzu’s and Kokonoi’s words echoed in his head--telling him to relax tonight, and tomorrow they would all get down to business and they would find Rindou. Ran would be no help to them, stressed and panicking, and he knew damn well that’s the state he would wind himself into alone tonight. 

But for all of his charm and smoothness, Ran did not know how to ask you back to his place. One, because his place was a mess and he knew damn well you’d think he was crazy for all of the articles and maps he had strewn around the floor and pinned to the walls. Two, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to force the words from his lips even if he had decided the mess wasn’t an issue. 

You made him nervous in a way he had never been before--he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not, he hated being thrown off guard like this but… the feeling was almost addicting, thrilling, even. It wasn’t often that he was the one in this position, in fact, this really might have been the only time in his life he’d been in this position. A part of him enjoyed it--you were not predictable like others that have tried their hand with him, you kept him anticipating your every word, itching to hear the words that left your lips, itching to inch closer to you as you leaned over the pool table to take another shot.

Ran’s eyes followed the way your body moved, shifting as you aimed for the eight ball. He held his breath as it knocked against the cushions of the pool table once, and then twice before the black ball sunk into the pocket, signaling your victory.

Ran exhaled disappointed, eyeing the three striped balls of his that were still laying out on the table. 

“You win… again,” he added, dryly, but he couldn’t find himself to be irritated at his three strong losing streak from the way your face lit up at another victory. “I suppose I owe you another round of drinks.”

But you only shook your head, and Ran’s heart faltered as he wondered if you were going to leave--he supposed it was getting late already, nearing two in the morning, but he still hadn’t worked up the courage to ask you to come home with him and he wasn’t ready to return him to the eerily silent apartment, too empty and cold without his brother living there with him.

“How about we take the next round of drinks back at my place?” you asked lightly, looking up at him through your lashes, and Ran paused, caught off guard by the question. He couldn’t help but wonder whether or not your request was just a coincidence or you could read his mind… or maybe you really could just read him that well. The final thought was a bit off putting because he was not used to people being able to read him, much less read him with ease, so he pushed it away. 

“Funny,” he smiled, “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Your eyes lit up oddly, the same way they had when you had sunk the eight ball into the socket--another victory, he realized was what you considered this but he felt like it ran deeper than just you wanting to bring him home, he just wasn’t sure how though. 

Your lips tugged down suddenly, as if you had caught the sudden bout of suspicion. 

“I always play pool with the guys I want to take home, I use it to dictate how my night goes,” you explained. “If I get three wins in a row, I usually take it as a sign to try my shot if they haven't already. It hasn’t failed me yet.”

The suspicion that clouded his mind drifted away, smiling lightly at your words. “Ah, so you have a thing for men that you kill in pool,” he said, nodding toward the exit of the casino as the two of you made your way through the large room, a giddy feeling of anticipation swirling around his gut. 

With his back turned to you, he totally missed the way your eyes had flashed cold. “Yeah,” you agreed with a laugh, “something like that.”

---

Perhaps he was out of his element, Ran considered as he laid back on your bed, the buttons of his dress shirt undone, chest heaving as you straddled his waist, still fully clothed. A smile danced at your lips as you watched him, unbothered by either of your positions. 

For a moment, Ran couldn’t help but curse himself for his big mouth, he always talked himself up too much, made too many boasts, implications of experience that he did not have. For as often as he was all up in other peoples’ business, playing the charmer, the seducer, he had never actually taken it this far. 

And you knew, he knew that you knew if the delighted look in your eyes had anything to say about it, trailing your fingers up and down his body, nails grazing his skin, tracing his tattoos. His body shivered under your touch no matter how hard he tried to stop it. 

“You’re so sensitive,” you murmured quietly, gaze drifting down his body briefly before you pulled it back up to meet his. His face burned at the comment, and from the way you smiled, he knew his face was beet red. 

“It’s been a while,” he lied, and you raised your eyebrows.

“A while?” you teased and Ran let his eyes slide shut and his head fall back against the pillow in embarrassment.

“Is it that obvious?” he complained, and you laughed.

“Just a bit,” you told him, and Ran swore that he had never felt so humiliated in his life, remembering how he had talked himself up at the pool table.

“Hey,” you said quietly, and Ran leaned his face into your touch as you cupped his cheek, lidded eyes looking up at you. “It’s okay, we can take it slow.”

And maybe he shouldn’t have, because he knew you were still technically just a stranger, but Ran felt at ease with you in a way he had never felt with anyone before, relaxing under your touch, letting you lead the way when lack of control was usually something that gave him anxiety.

You leaned down, pressing your lips to his, and Ran sighed against your lips, bringing one hand up to cup the back of your head while his other rested at your side. You moved your lips slowly against his, easing him into the kiss, and Ran wanted to tell you that he had kissed a million times before, you didn’t need to take it this slow, but Ran’s intentions slipped away as your tongue darted out to swipe against his bottom lip. 

Your kiss was as intoxicating as you were. Ran supposed he should have expected it, but it still left his head fuzzy and his fingers trembling. He wanted more. Your lips weren’t enough, he wanted to feel every inch of your skin, he wanted to map out your body with his hands and lips, he wanted to learn who you were in the most intimate possible way. 

His grip on your waist tightened, and he tugged at your dress, indicating that he wanted it off. He could feel you smile against his lips and Ran couldn’t help the way that his own lips twitched up in response. You pulled away, a thin string of saliva connecting the two of you for a moment. 

Ran’s hands slid beneath the bottom of your dress, long fingers splayed out across your thighs, and he paused, brows furrowing when he felt something strapped to your outer thigh. 

A sheath? 

Ran faltered, pulling back, frowning deeply. Alarm bells rang around his head but you only slid up your dress, showing him the sheathed knife. 

“It’s been dangerous around here,” you said quietly. “Lots of break-ins. Disappearances. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Your answer didn’t really do much to ease the suspicion--because for one it didn't make any sense... you wouldn't have been able to get in the casino with that on you, and then when you slipped off your dress, you did not remove the sheath but it was hard for him to stay concentrated on that with your nails scraping against the contours of his abdomen and your lips dragging up and down his neck. Sucking, licking, teeth grazing the skin just enough to make his body shudder. He tilted his head back to give you better access, something you took advantage of instantly, lips pressing against beneath his jaw, trailing behind his ear, and Ran could barely even hold eyes open much less keep a stable train of thought. 

He felt as if he were drunk off you, you and your touch and your lips. He couldn’t get enough. You knew how to work his body as if you had been with him a million times before—you knew just where to touch, just where to kiss to have him biting back whimpers. And he supposed it was something he should have questioned but he couldn’t bring himself to.

All of the bravado from earlier was gone as he let you take the lead, sliding down his pants and looking up at him as your fingers wrapped around the waistband of his boxers.

“You sure?” you asked—from the look in your eye, you already knew what his answer would be but Ran felt something warm in his chest bubble at the way you waited for a verbal answer.

“Yeah,” and he hated the way his voice sounded soft and breathy, anxiously watching as you freed his cock from its confines. Ran let out a low groan, head falling back, when he felt your hand wrap around his length, pumping experimentally once, and then twice, thumb sliding over the precum beading at his tip.

He swallowed thickly as you straddled his waist, hands coming down to rest on your thighs, body tense with anticipation as he waited for you to sink down on his cock. You didn’t immediately, and it nearly had Ran’s hips jerking up in impatience.

“I want you to keep your eyes on me the whole time,” you said, tapping his lips once with your pointer finger.

Ran blinked, brows furrowing as he processed your words before he nodded, opening his mouth to agree but you didn’t give him the chance—instead finally taking the moment to sink down. Ran’s eyes nearly rolled back at the feeling of your warmth enveloping his tip, hips bucking up to bury himself deep in your cunt.

The sound of your gasp had his fingers digging into your thighs, trying to keep some semblance of self control as your walls fluttered around him, sucking him in as you rolled your hips slowly. Ran let out a low groan of your name as you leaned down to press your lips against his, biting down and tugging at his bottom lip.

“Feels s’good,” Ran choked out, eyes meeting yours just for a minute before they fluttered shut again as you began to rock your hips at a steady pace. You tapped his cheek twice gently and Ran remembered your request, reopening his eyes to try to focus on you. He felt hot, and he felt dizzy, and he could feel the heat pooling in his abdomen all too quickly.

“Gonna cum already?” there was a mocking edge to your voice that had Ran shaking his head.

“No,” he lied, even as his cock twitched inside you, “No, can handle it.”

You only smiled at his words.

He tried to push away the feeling--try and failed that is, when his unfocused gaze shifted down to where the two of you were connected, watching the way you bounced on his cock, watching the way it pushed in and out of you, the way your cum ringed around the base of his cock, sticky against his pelvis. 

He watched as you tilted your head back, lips parted, another pretty moan leaving your lips adding to the lewd noises of skin-on-skin and the sloppy sound of his cock splitting open your cunt. Your hands slid up and down his chest, lips trailing up his neck, teeth nipping at your jaw, and Ran tried to match your pace, hips snapping up against yours, but it was uneven and erratic. The coil in his abdomen tensed and tightened, his heart raced and his body shook and he couldn’t push it away this time, a haze settling over his head as you fucked him closer to his high.

His eyes knocked back as you brought your hips down as he bucked his up, jaw slack and an obscene moan of your name escaping him as he spilled his cum deep inside you. His fingers dug into your skin, bruising to hold you in place, and his thighs tensed and trembled as he stuffed you full of his cum until it was leaking out and dripping down his cock.

Ran was reeling, body shaking violently, grip on your waist weak in the aftershocks of his orgasm. His gaze was unfocused and his head felt light, and the pleasure bordered on pain as you continued to roll your hips against his once his grip loosened, ignoring the slurred pleas to slow down that escaped his lips. 

You looked more than pleased as you eyed him, and Ran hated the way he couldn't hold back the hisses, how he couldn’t stop the way he tried to squirm away, how his grip on your waist wasn’t strong enough to stop your movements. He couldn’t stop the way the tears pooled in his eyes, blinking them away furiously but it only caused them to spill down his cheeks.

You cooed, mockingly, and Ran’s face heated up in embarrassment. “Are you crying, Ran?” you giggled, “I thought you said you could handle it? Did'ya lie to me?"

“I can,” Ran gasped, “I can, just gimme a second, gimme a sec-”

His voice broke off into another strained moan, vision flashing white when you rocked your hips hard against his. He could feel the way your walls fluttered around his cock, he could feel the way your skin slid against his, he could feel the way one of your hands were intertwined tight with his hair, and it was just too much for him. His body was spasming beneath yours, he couldn’t hold his eyes open, his jaw was slack. His words were garbled and he wasn’t even sure if you could understand what he was saying--if you did, you didn’t care. He didn’t want to know how lewd he must look from your perspective, the thought itself had embarrassment flooding his body.

It wasn’t long before he was lost in the pleasure again, hips instinctively bucking up into you as you fucked yourself on his cock faster, nails digging into your thighs, trying to keep some sort of leverage as you pushed him closer and closer to his second high all too fast. 

“Are you gonna pass out?” you asked him, fingers wrapping tight around his chin, forcing him to look up at you. His gaze was blurred, and he tried his best to shake his head under your hold, trying to tell you that he wasn’t going to pass out but he wasn’t even sure he wasn’t, his entire body felt fuzzy and weak, his head felt heavy.

“I’m not,” he tried to say but from the way he could make out the smile twitching at your lips. You didn’t believe him. Of course you didn’t, he didn’t even believe himself.

"You're such a pretty crier, Ran," you cooed softly. His hands dropped from your waist as another low moan escaped his lips at your words, eyes sliding shut. 

At once, he felt something cold and sharp pressed against his neck.

His eyes flew open, wide and alarmed, throat bobbing underneath the blade you had pressed to his skin. “Wh-wha-” he began, still half out of it but acutely aware of the sudden danger. 

“I said keep your eyes on me,” you said quietly, and Ran’s mouth dried, blinking up at you before he nodded, waiting for you to remove the knife from his neck.

You did not.

“Relax,” you told him, and he wanted to tell you that it was easy for you to say because you weren’t the one balls deep in a girl who was holding a knife to your neck, but he couldn’t force the words out. He knew he should push you off but he felt boneless, still trying to recover from the intense orgasm. “I won’t hurt you.”

Your voice trailed off oddly, as if you had wanted to add something at the end but decided against it. Blood roared in his ears as he stared up at you, fingers twisting the bed sheets beneath the two of you. He tried to relax, tried to do what you asked of him but couldn’t. 

You shifted on top of him and Ran hissed as the knife dug just a bit deeper into his skin, just enough to draw blood. He froze when his cock twitched at the sting of pain, and his breath shook when he noticed how sharp your eyes had gotten, clearly noticing it as well. 

“You liked that,” there was no question to your voice. Ran opened his mouth to deny it but no words left his lips--he couldn’t bring himself to deny it because there was a part of him that knew it would be a blatant lie. 

The smile that tugged to your lips was unlike the others you had given him throughout the night, there was a more excited, predatory edge to it, and combined with the way your gaze was trained rapt on where you were holding the knife to his neck, it made his blood run hot. 

You rolled your hips again, experimentally this time, and Ran would forever deny the whimper that escaped his lips as the knife pricked his neck at the same time as his cock dragged against your walls. 

Your breath was erratic, pupils dilated, eyes darting around his body observing how he reacted to you. He supposed his only consolation was the fact you seemed just as turned on by this as he was. He should be alarmed by the sudden switch but he was too lost in the feeling of your pussy wrapped tight around his cock to bring himself to be.

At once, you began to move your hips faster, bringing yourself down on him hard, fucking him in a way that had his eyes knocking back with every rock of your hips. His body shuddered, hips snapping up recklessly even as each movement had the knife digging deeper into his neck, blunt nails ripping into your bedsheets.

He moaned loud as you leaned down, tongue darting out to lap up the blood dripping down his pale skin, your free hand sliding up his body, nails scratching deep into his skin, drawing even more blood. 

The pain, the overstimulation, the feeling of your body sliding against his and your walls fluttering around his cock as you used his body to get yourself off--it was overwhelming. Ran was gasping for air, tears spilling over his cheeks. He brought his hands to your thighs, palms smoothing over your skin, feeling them tense with each bounce.

No noise escaped him this time as he felt his orgasm hit him before he could hope to push it back, back arching up off the bed, lips parted in a silent moan, head dizzy and body hot, as he finished inside you again. His chest heaved and his body trembled, limp against the mattress as he looked up at you, hair matted to his sweaty forehead and body half-numb as you continued to fuck yourself on his cock.

And he swore he had never seen something more beautiful than you in that moment, head tossed back, lips wet and swollen, chest rising and falling rapidly, letting out pretty moans as your walls fluttered and spasmed around him, knife dropping from his neck as you pushed yourself closer and closer to your high. His body shuddered as he felt your cunt tighten around his cock as you finally finished with a loud cry of his name. 

A cold feeling settled in Ran’s chest as his blurry gaze slowly focused on something sitting on your dresser, a piece of jewelry that he hadn’t noticed before when he was still so lost in you. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at--his half hazy mind just couldn’t process it. 

A ring.

A ring that matched the one that Ran wore on his right hand.

Rindou’s ring. 

Ran’s brows furrowed, chest heaving as he tried to figure out what that might mean. Were you with him the night that he disappeared? Did you know something? He ripped his gaze from the ring, looking back up at you with a string of questions prepared to let loose. 

The words died on his tongue when he felt something cool and sharp pressed to his neck--the knife again. His eyes darted up to meet yours— taking in the cold and unfriendly expression on your face, a total contrast to the warm look you had set on him earlier in the night.

A thin smile curled at your lips, one that didn’t reach your eyes. He swore that in that moment, even if it was only a few seconds in reality, all of those things he had taken note of throughout the night but dismissed came back to the forefront of his mind, all of the red flags, all of the things that had made him double take--the knife, the way you had been able to read him so easily, how you always knew what to say, how you had all of the same interests and all of the same opinions...

“Smile, Ran,” you murmured. “You’ll see him again.”

—

You washed hands, wiping your face off with a towel before looking into the mirror.

It had been a bit of a challenge, this time. You were used to each target only taking a few days to lure in and finish off but Haitani Ran had been on guard after his brother’s ‘disappearance.’ There had been a good moment there where you were worried you would have to move on when he refused to leave his apartment, which would have been unfortunate, really, considering that you had spent so much time observing him and his brother.

You supposed you would have to leave the area now—the men he was with had seen him leave with you. You would be under watch, surely, once they realized he wasn’t around or answering messages.

But a part of you couldn’t help but hesitate, mind drifting back to the white-haired man with sharp eyes that had been at the roulette table with Ran.

You smiled lightly to yourself, pulling on a pair of gloves before leaving the bathroom.