The flickering glow of the laptop screen cast long shadows against the dimly lit walls of the safe house. The air smelled faintly of old books and burnt coffee, a scent that had become strangely comforting over the past few weeks. Audrey sat cross-legged on the worn-out couch, her eyes scanning the files spread across the wooden table before her. Pages filled with cold, hard truths—names, dates, crimes that had long been buried beneath the corruption of the city.
A soft sigh escaped her lips. She ran a hand through her hair, exhaustion creeping into her bones. The weight of everything they had uncovered pressed heavily on her shoulders.
"You're thinking too much again."
Audrey glanced up to see Hana leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed, a faint smirk on her lips. The soft blue glow from Hana's tablet illuminated her sharp features, casting her in an almost ethereal light.
"It's what I do," Audrey replied with a small smile.
Hana arched an eyebrow as she walked over, plopping down beside her on the couch. "You and Kenzo both. I swear, if overthinking was a competition, the two of you would be stuck in a never-ending battle."
Audrey chuckled, shaking her head. "We just want to make sure we're doing this right. There's too much at stake."
Hana hummed in response, reaching for a random page from the pile and skimming through it. "Speaking of Kenzo…" she began, her voice holding a teasing edge. "You two have been getting pretty close lately."
Audrey stiffened slightly, but forced herself to remain composed. "We're just working together," she said, too quickly.
Hana's smirk widened. "Sure. Just working together. Because 'just working together' includes those deep, soul-searching conversations you two have when you think no one's paying attention."
Audrey felt warmth creep up her neck. "Kenzo has been through a lot. He needed someone to talk to."
"Mhm." Hana leaned back, stretching her arms. "And you just happened to be that person."
Audrey exhaled, shaking her head at Hana's antics. "Why does this even matter?"
Hana shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because it's nice to see someone get through to him. I mean, let's be honest, before you, Kenzo was practically a ghost in this team. Now he actually… exists."
Audrey hesitated. It was true. Kenzo had been distant at first, shrouded in his own ghosts, haunted by the past he had tried to expose. But little by little, he had started to open up—to her, at least. She didn't know what that meant, if it even meant anything at all, but she knew one thing: she wanted to keep him from slipping back into the abyss.
Before she could respond, the front door swung open with a loud bang, and Damian's voice filled the room.
"Ladies! What's with the serious faces? You both look like you just discovered the meaning of life and found out it's disappointing."
Hana groaned. "Could you not barge in like that? Some of us enjoy peace."
"Peace is overrated," Damian declared, dropping a bag of takeout onto the table. "I got food. That automatically makes me everyone's favorite person in this room."
Audrey shook her head in amusement while Hana rolled her eyes.
"You're unbearable," Hana muttered, but still reached for one of the boxes.
"And yet, you'd all be lost without me." Damian grinned as he plopped onto the chair opposite them, his presence filling the room with an undeniable energy. "So, what were you two gossiping about before I heroically arrived with food?"
"Nothing," Audrey said quickly, but Hana shot her a knowing look before turning to Damian.
"Audrey and Kenzo have been getting closer."
Audrey shot Hana a glare.
Damian's face lit up with wicked delight. "Oh, really? This is interesting."
"It's not," Audrey interjected. "Can we focus on something that actually matters?"
"Come on, we never get moments like this," Damian teased, nudging her shoulder. "You're always so serious. Let us have this."
Audrey groaned, covering her face. "Why are you both like this?"
Damian and Hana exchanged a look before grinning in unison.
"Because it's fun," Hana answered simply.
Kenzo chose that moment to enter the room, his hair slightly disheveled from what looked like hours of staring at the evidence files in his own corner of the safe house. He paused, taking in the scene—Damian smirking, Hana grinning, and Audrey looking thoroughly exasperated.
"Do I want to know?" he asked, his voice cautious.
"Absolutely," Damian answered immediately. "Audrey was just—"
"No, she wasn't," Audrey cut in quickly, glaring at Damian.
Kenzo's lips twitched in amusement as he took a seat beside them. He didn't know when it happened, but somewhere along the way, this strange, chaotic team had become his family.
Audrey, with her quiet strength and unwavering resolve. Hana, with her sharp mind and dry wit. Damian, with his reckless charm and endless energy. And him—a man who had once thought he had lost everything, now sitting among people who made him feel found.
He watched as Damian and Hana continued to tease Audrey, their laughter filling the room. For the first time in a long time, Kenzo felt something stir in his chest—something warm, something real.
He wasn't alone anymore.
The night stretched on as they ate and talked, the weight of their mission momentarily set aside. They would return to their battle soon enough. But for now, in this fleeting moment, they were just them—a team forged in shadows, bound not by blood, but by the promise of justice.
And for Kenzo, that was enough.
The dim glow of the safe house's worn-out lamps cast long shadows across the room, flickering slightly as if mirroring the lingering tension in the air. Papers, maps, and documents were strewn across the wooden table, their contents a testament to the tangled web of corruption they had been unraveling. Yet, for the moment, strategy had taken a backseat to something more pressing—Damian's relentless teasing.
"So, Kenzo," Damian drawled, his voice dripping with amusement as he stretched his arms over the back of the couch. "When are you and Audrey making it official?"
Kenzo, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, barely spared him a glance. "Making what official?"
Audrey let out a sigh, already exhausted by the conversation before it had even begun. "Damian, please."
Hana, who had been silently watching from the corner, smirked. "You're going to have to be more specific, Damian. Are you talking about their endless brooding sessions or the whole deep, soulful eye-contact thing they do?"
"I was going for both," Damian said cheerfully, tossing a peanut into his mouth. "But now that you mention it, yeah, the eye-contact thing is borderline scandalous."
Audrey rubbed her temples. "Can we not do this right now? We have an actual mission to focus on."
Kenzo, for his part, remained unfazed. "I think you're projecting, Damian."
Damian gasped in mock horror. "Me? Projecting? Never. I'm just an observer, here to make sure we don't miss any… romantic developments amidst our whole 'fighting against corruption and exposing deep-seated government conspiracies' thing."
Hana snorted. "Romantic developments? Kenzo barely acknowledges that he's a functional member of this team."
"I'm right here," Kenzo pointed out dryly.
"And yet," Hana mused, "you say nothing to refute my claim."
Damian grinned. "Exactly! The man is an enigma wrapped in mystery wrapped in a permanently exhausted expression."
Audrey took a deep breath, willing herself to remain calm. "Alright, that's enough. We have an infiltration to plan for tomorrow, and I'd rather we not get arrested because you two were too busy being insufferable."
Hana leaned back, propping her boots on the table. "Audrey's right. We should focus."
Damian feigned an exaggerated yawn. "Fine, fine. Killjoys, the lot of you." He sat up, stretching his arms. "So, what's the plan, fearless leader?"
Audrey ignored his nickname for her and turned towards the table, where a series of documents outlined their next steps. "Tomorrow, we go in disguised as auditors from the Internal Affairs division. The police station is already on edge after the last time we were there, so we can't afford to make any mistakes."
Kenzo moved closer, his sharp gaze scanning the files before him. "And if they recognize us?"
Hana shrugged. "Then Damian gets to punch his way out, like always."
"See, this is why I'm the favorite," Damian said smugly.
Hana shot him a glare before continuing. "We need to be careful. I've been analyzing the officers' behaviors during our last visit. Most of them are corrupt, but there's one… something about him was different."
Kenzo frowned slightly, recalling the feeling he had gotten when his truth-seeing ability flickered over that particular officer. "I noticed him too. He wasn't lying the way the others were."
Damian raised an eyebrow. "So, we have a good cop in the midst of a rotten station? That's rare."
Audrey nodded. "Rare, but not impossible. If we can reach him, we might have an ally inside."
Kenzo's expression remained neutral, but there was a weight behind his words. "Or he's a liability waiting to be eliminated."
Silence fell over the group for a brief moment. The reality of their work meant that even the rare good ones were not always safe.
Damian, ever the one to break the mood, clapped his hands. "Well, no use worrying about it now. We go in, do our thing, and if anything goes south, we improvise."
Hana smirked. "That's your plan? 'Improvise'?"
"Works every time," Damian said with a wink.
Audrey sighed again, but there was a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "Alright, get some rest. We leave early."
Kenzo lingered as the others began to settle in for the night. He stared at the documents, then at Audrey, who was busy organizing their disguises.
"You're worried," he observed.
She looked up, her perceptive gaze locking onto his. "You are too."
Kenzo hesitated, then nodded. "This isn't just another mission. If we're right about this officer, it could change things. But if we're wrong…"
"I know," Audrey murmured. "But we have to try."
He held her gaze for a long moment before nodding. "Then we try."
And as the night stretched on, the weight of their mission remained heavy, but for the first time in a long time, Kenzo found that he didn't mind carrying it—not when he wasn't carrying it alone.