Participants:
Scene Title | I Love It When A Plan Comes Together |
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Synopsis | A few minor alterations to a piece of paper are made in a Tokyo hotel. No big deal, right? |
Date | May 20, 2009 |
A Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
It's a few steps up from a capsule hotel, but it's far from being the Imperial. The room's spartan, rented for the night and no longer, the bed's sheets immaculately made and tucked into place, a small television tucked onto the table. Arrangements were made to meet here, quietly, arrangements that one must imagine have been made at this hotel many, many times… if rarely for such purposes as Cardinal and Xiulan.
As he waits for her to arrive, he's perched on the edge of the bed, dressed in a simple arm-baring tee-shirt and torn jeans, leaning against his knees with both forearms and flipping through the channels with his remote.
"Christ," he mutters, "Japanese TV is weird."
Slipping away from Fedor on the pretense of 'shopping', Xiulan eventually arrives at the hotel. Fortunately, a lifetime of being in and around the triad has left her with a tendancy to err on the side of caution. Erringon the side of caution being a circuitous route rife many a stop at shops of various sorts. Eventually, however, there does come a rapping on the hotel room door. A quiet tapping, as though someone were lightly rapping 'pon the chamber door.
At the knocking, Cardinal pushes himself up to his feet, clicking the television off to silence an image of someone cooking eel. At least, he thinks it's evil. A step around the bed, and he meanders over to the door, pausing just before it to call out, "Who is it?"
"The plumber," Xiulan calls back. "Come to fix the sink." Smirking mildly, she gives a faint shake of her head before jiggling the handle. "Come on Bond, open up before I get picked up by some creepy Japanese business man."
"I'd better see some awesome plumber's crack when you bend over," Cardinal replies with a smirk of his own, drawing the chain free with a clatter and pulling the door open after unlocking it. A step to one side, giving her a casual once over even as he insists, "Getcher ass in here."
"God, your sexy when you talk crack, Richard." Flashing Cardinal a wink as the door opens, Xiulan lightly pats his rump as she steps past and moves to drop onto the bed in a boneless sprawl. And hey, while there isn't much in the way of plumber's crack, there are some artful tears in the jeans she happens to wearing. Mind you, her hindquarters still look pretty appealing, even if they are covered in denim.
The door's pushed closed behind her, chain and deadbolt employed to reinforce wood. Then he turns to follow her along over to the bed, watching the sway of her ass with a shamelessly appreciative grin. "Bitch," he replies fondly, stepping over to where an old, yellowing envelope is set on the television. He waggles it a bit, brows lifting her way, "Got it."
Xiulan's expression as she twists around onto her side is pleasantly surprised. Surprised, however, transforms to a wry smile as she rolls up on her knees, slinks over and braces her hands on against Cardinal's chest. "Of course you got, Richard," she cooes. "You're just that good." Course, her smile does turn impish as she makes a grab for the envelope whilst stating, "Let me see it."
"Hey, hey, careful," Cardinal cautions, his hand's fingers splaying in a 'stop' motion after she's stolen the envelope out've his grasp, "It's really fuckin' old, baby. Be careful with it."
"Pfft. Old. In China we have documents that are thousands of years old." Course, she does immediately treat it more gently. Well, as gently as one can whilst wriggling to the head of the bed to brace her shoulders against the headboard. "So, what happened? How did it go? Did you have any trouble?" Rapid fire questions are fired one after the other as Xui places the envelope attop one updrawn knee. Course, the last one is definately the most important. "And did you find out what it is?"
"It's… well, take a look for yourself." A shake of his head, and the shadow thief drops himself down to sit on the bed's edge, one knee up on it so he can sit sideways and look at her. He's frowning, brow furrowing a little, "I can't make sense of it, but it doesn't look good. Did you know Magnes is in town? He's training under Nakamura."
"/Magnes/?/" Xiulan actually looks horrified at that, more so when Hiro is tossed into the mix. "Ugh. I wish I had known sooner, Cardinal. I mean, what if he'd run into me? Either of them?" They both know her, after all. And if Magnes is training under Hiro, it's a fair bet that he told Hiro what her ability is. "I'll keep an eye out for them," she assures. It is as she open the envelope and pulls out the sheet of paper, that she blinks once before furrowing her brows. "Um. This is only half of the page, babe…" Arching a brow as she slants a glance at Richard, Xiulan grimaces mildly. "We're going to have to steal the rest from your new friend Adam, aren't we?"
"I just ran into him before the job, I used him to get in, actually…" Cardinal gestures to the envelope, admitting, "I know it is. And — hell, Xiu, we don't even know what the fuck it is, let alone if we'd even want it. We stick to the plan, I'll keep an ear and an eye out, see what I can find out for later."
"You used Magnes…" Blinking once, Xiulan open and closes her mouth, finally settling with a slow shake of her head. "Oi." And that is about all she has to say about that. Well, not really… "So what happened? Did you have any trouble getting it? And take off your clothes." Blink. For the tattoo. Right.
"I had to sit around the office a few hours until the big man left, but other than that…" A shrug, and then Cardinal pauses to blink at her, "Oh! Right." Reaching down, his fingers curl about the hem of his shirt, dragging it up and over his head, baring his tattoo'd torso and asking, "Where do you think we should put it?"
"Oh, it's pretty small," Xiulan observes. "We could put it pretty much anywhere." Course, she doesn't really doesn't need his clothes off to do the tattoo…. But she isn't reminding him of that. She does, however, grin as she rolls up to sit cross-legged on the bed. "Safest bet would be somewhere Adam wouldn't think to look. Just in case he decides that he can't trust you." And on that token, she grimaces mildly. "Have you considered making a paper copy and mailing it to yourself, as well?"
"Too easily stolen," says Cardinal with a tight shake of his head, "And in the case of someone searching my clothes… they probably won't look for this. Hm." A glance down the length of his body, "…thigh, maybe?"
"Thigh works nicely, so long as they don't strip you down to search you. We'll go high on the thigh and to the front." Men, after all, are less likely to get too close to another dude's junk. Glancing down at the formula, dark hair spills over her shoulder as Xiulan considers it a moment. "You know what you want me to change on the original?"
"We should keep subtle… it's some sort've chemical formula, so, just transpose four or five numbers and symbols," suggests the thief, pushing himself up to his feet and undoing his jeans; shoving them downwards, just in his boxers once the denim's left in a pile, he drops back to sit on the bed's edge, swinging his legs up onto it. "So it looks the same to inspection."
"Gotcha," Xiulan murmurs quietly. Shifting to sit on her hip, she settles the formula atop Richard's right thigh, her brows rising and falling as she slides one hand up the length of Richard's leg to his thigh. "This will feel a little warm," she advises needlessly. And, it does feel a little warm, although not painfully so. In a few moments, there is a duplicate of the formula on Richard's thigh, albeit about half the size of the original.
"I /have/ done this before," Cardinal observes with amusement, leaning back on his hands and bending his knee a bit to make it easier for her to reach it, foot flat to the bed. As she slides her hand up his thigh, he waits patiently, before her fingers start to slide away… and then his hand reaches out to grab hers, keeping it there and playfully sliding it upwards. "Mm. You taken care of the paper yet?"
"The paper," Xiulan murmurs. "Is about the last thing on my mind at the moment." It certainly doesn't take much effort to slide her hand upward, if that is any indication. She does, however, scoot forward as her palm drifts upward, warm fingers lightly grazing hard flesh as she settles between the thief's knees. "Course, that will only take a second or two, at the most." And since Richard has one hand trapped, the tattooist merely glances at the opened page, a few numbers altering themselves as her free hand moves to just barely touch the corner of the page. "There," she murmurs as she glances back at Richard's face. "All done."
"Ah." Cardinal's other hand reaches out, fingers sliding along the side of her neck to curl against the back of it—pulling her in towards him from where she's settled in between his knees, leaning slowly and patiently to claim her mouth in a kiss, breathing against it, "I love it when a plan comes together."