He’d officially have to rethink his strategy, Ryo mused the next evening as he leaned against the chain-link railing on the roof of Mick’s building, arms crossed over his chest, face schooled into a bored expression, listening to the blond bastard indignation.

He’s been trying to trip him up all day. Arranging for him to be alone near the female changing room. Not a twitch. Alone with a gym client who actually wouldn’t have minded some hands-on approach judging from the glances she’d been throwing him. Barely a blink. He’d gone even so far as to steal a bunch of lingerie and left it in Mick’s locker. The bastard had simply gathered it all in a bag and delivered it to the reception desk. There hadn’t been a drop of drool and the idiot hadn’t even kept any of it.

The fact he himself hadn’t kept any pieces was completely irrelevant at the moment.

He couldn’t think of anything else, lest of kidnapping a woman and tie her and Mick up in a compromising position. He had his standards, but he might just do it. He had to think of something to keep Mick’s filthy paws off Kaori.

He certainly was getting punchy. He hadn’t slept last night, not after having the nightmare about Kaori writhing in ecstasy under Mick. He’d woken up with a start, gun in hand...And hadn’t slept since. He wouldn’t sleep until she was back under his roof and safely out of Mick’s grasp.

Mick’s elbow in his gut brought him out of his musings. “Are you even listening to me?!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m listening,” he grumbled. “You’re complaining like a little old granny.”

“Of course, I’m complaining,” Mick retorted heatedly. “You’re not playing fair.”

“Meaning?”

“Why did you dismiss my doubts about Hazuki, eh? Even after what happened this afternoon? The guy was shot, she smelled of gunpowder. Do the math, man. Start taking this challenge seriously.”

Ryo was in his face in an instant. “You have no idea how seriously I’m taking it.”

Mick looked at him skeptically. “Oh, really. Then what was today all about, huh? Arranging for me to hang around the female locker room, the one-on-one exercise session with that cougar. What about the stolen lingerie mysteriously ending up in my locker.”

“I was trying to win.”

“Win?” Mick snorted. “We’ve established the winner will be the one to solve the case first, asshole. You didn’t do anything to keep the City Hunter name today.”

Ryo clamped a hand in Mick’s shirtfront, pulling him closer. “I couldn’t care less about the name, Mick. You can keep it for all I care. But you won’t get Kaori.”

“Well, well.” Mick grinned, shaking him off. “We’re finally at the gist of things. If I win, she stays with me, remember? That was the deal.”

“Forget the fucking deal,” Ryo growled. “It will never happen.”

“And why is that?” Mick asked slyly.

“You can’t protect her, Mick.”

The sly smile was gone in a heartbeat. “What are you talking about?”

Quick as a snake, Ryo grabbed Mick’s wrist, recoiling at the feel of just how frail the bones felt in his grip. “I’m talking about this,” he snapped. “Angel Dust, the electric shock; all that happened before the ship, on it, after it...No matter what you say, you’re distracted. Too focused on Hazuki, on this stupid challenge, to see the bigger picture. That’s why the guy was shot on your watch today.” He shook the wrist, he was still holding. “You lost your nerve, Mick. And your strength. I doubt you can still hold a gun with these. Even less pull the trigger.”

Mick was free in a move that was much slower than it should’ve been and Ryo wasn’t really trying to keep him pinned. But then came the surprise. Mick swung his entire arm in a chopping movement and small, sharp and rather lethal looking darts shot out of his sleeve.

“I might not be as strong as I used to be, but I have other weapons,” Mick hissed, shooting darts at him.

It took some maneuvering, but Ryo managed to dodge all of them, until he saw Mick has drawn him into a trap, drawn him into the corner of the roof. With no way to go and a dart zeroing on him, he pulled the Python, catching the projectile on the butt of his gun.

“What do you say now?” Mick asked, pride in his voice, a smirk on his face.

Ryo slowly straightened and pulled the last dart free. Inspecting the sharp end, he threw it to the side. “And what happens when you run out of?” he asked softly. “What happens when you have to use your fists to protect her, to save her? What happens when you have to kill to keep her safe?”

Mick frowned. “We’re back at Kaori?”

“She’s all that matters.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, but she’s been with me for almost a week and no one tried to kidnap her or do her harm.” Mick grinned again. “Under the circumstances, she’s much better off with me, don’t you think?”

With a calm he didn’t really feel, Ryo pressed the muzzle of the Python to his friend’s forehead. “You can’t have her. You won’t have her.”

“It was her decision, Ryo,” Mick reminded him, his eyes twinkling with merriment, utterly incongruous with the fact he had a gun pointed at him. “She’s a grown woman, she can make her own decisions.”

“She’ll just have to remain disappointed on this one,” Ryo replied, slightly appalled at the fact his hand didn’t shake as he pointed his gun at Mick. Was he really capable of killing a friend over a woman?

The answer was a resounding yes.

He was able and willing to do anything for Kaori.

He waited for the familiar recoiling sensation in his gut, in his soul, at the thought of being so tied-up with someone, anyone, the sensation that had always kicked in so far, the knee-jerk reaction that had him forgetting all that he’d said and done before and immediately after the duel with Kaibara and using the saving grace her amnesia had offered to go back to his old ways.

The same knee-jerk reaction that had brought him to this particular point in life. Facing off with his friend over the woman he...

Loved.

“You can’t have her, Mick,” he snarled.

“Why not?” Mick asked in a light tone.

“Because she’s mine.”

Mick snorted, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. “She’s a person, Ryo, not a possession.”

“Don’t debate semantics with me, Mick,” Ryo growled. “You know exactly what I mean.”

Mick chuckled, then looked up into the sky as if contemplating. In the end, as he looked back at him, his eyes were filled with laughter. “Sorry, don’t have a clue.”

“Goddamn it, do you really want me to shoot you?”

Another chuckle. “I’ve never seen you so rattled before, my friend.” He placed his hand on Ryo’s wrist and pressed until the gun lowered. “That’s better. But tell me, would you really shoot me?”

“For her in a heartbeat.”

“Hmmm.” Mick scratched at his nose. “Interesting. It’s a rather strong reaction for an obligation, a thing, that’s been entrusted to you by a dying man.”

Ryo gritted his teeth, feeling a headache looming behind his eyes. Funny, he’d never gotten headaches before this shit started. Then he sighed at Mick’s obtuseness. They’ve been over this before, Mick knew full well what Ryo felt, how Ryo felt. Jesus, he’s been the one to provide the first much needed kick in the ass for him to actually face the depth and strength of his feelings for Kaori. So why was the man playing dumb now?

“Did you fry your brain as well as everything else?!” he roared. “She’s not a thing, she’s Kaori!”

Mick’s shrug made him want to knock all his teeth out. “I know she’s Kaori. But it’s not like you care, right?”

Ryo merely stared at his friend as if he’s lost his mind. “Not care? Not care?!” He had this inexplicable urge to pull his hair. ‘Care’ was such a pussy word compared to what he felt. “I fucking love her!”

Mick grinned, rolled back onto the balls of his feet, and slipped his hands into his pockets. “Oh, really? Do you now?”

“You know damn well, I do. You used those feelings to your advantage shamelessly the last time, remember?”

“Oh, no you don’t.” Mick shook his head. “We’re talking about you, now. Your feelings for Kaori. Tell me, if you really love her, as you claim, why did you abandon her after she lost her memory? Why did you pretend nothing happened? Why did you pretend not to care? Why did you balk?”

Ryo sighed. Wasn’t that the question of the century. “Because I’m an idiot. And a coward.” He holstered his gun and sat cross-legged onto the ground, hands clasped tightly behind his neck, head down. “I could go on and on about the survival of the race instinct, how, when in times of danger the man naturally gravitates toward a woman to propagate in case of death, but it would be bullshit. We’ve grown so close on the night before Kaibara, I finally told her I remember our first meeting, when she was still in highschool. We spent the night together, we weren’t intimate, but she spent the night in my arms.”

He sighed, bittersweet memories assailing him.

“And then on Kaibara’s ship, when she threw herself at you, trying to save you, I’ve never been more scared in my life than in that moment. Scared that you’d hurt her, that you’d kill her, and I’d be powerless to stop you. Powerless to save her. But she saved you, didn’t she. She reached you and then refused to leave me there, convinced I’d stay there and die with my father. Like that could even happen with her somewhere waiting for me. We kissed. It was through the glass, I never got to touch her, hold her, but it shook me to the core. And it scared me shitless. All the feelings, all the emotion warring inside me. It scared me shitless.”

He swallowed convulsively, massaging his neck. Oh, the headache was proving to be a real doozy. “But I was ready to embrace it, embrace it all. And then she woke up and didn’t remember a thing. I saw it as a saving grace, a do-over, a means of getting out of the mess scot-free...And I fucked it up.”

“Royally.” Mick nodded sagely, his eyes still dancing with laughter. “Tell me this; if you had a do-over—”

“I’d take it in a heartbeat,” Ryo said softly. “I’d try to make her remember...I’d wait for her to remember.”

“So you know she remembers everything?”

Ryo lifted his head, merely looking at him. “She’s like an open book, Mick. I knew the moment she remembered.”

“Then why didn’t you say something, man?”

Ryo shook his head. “It was already too late then. I could see it in her eyes, on her face. It was already too late. And then, because I’m a stupid fucking coward, she left and—”

“Did you do anything more than just go out with that woman?” Mick interrupted, looking into the distance above and behind Ryo’s back. “Did you sleep with any of the women you hooked up with since Kaori woke up?”

“I never touched any of them. Jesus, I couldn’t, no matter what I told myself, no matter what happened, I never touched any of them. Not even before, not since I realized what I feel about her; even before you appeared, asshole. I might’ve tried, I might’ve put up a nice little front, but fuck it, it felt like betrayal.”

Mick shook his head, looking at him like he wanted to kick his ass. “Then why didn’t you tell her? Why don’t you tell her the truth?”

Ryo huffed, half-laugh, half-sob, and didn’t that just blow. “She’d never believe me.”

“Try me.”

At that soft, well-known and so-loved voice, Ryo’s heart ended up somewhere in his gut.

Mick sighed, then grinned and scratched at the back of his head. “Well, I don’t think I’m needed here any longer.” He chuckled. “I might as well go see what the sweet Hazuki is up to.” And there was the drooling grin Ryo hadn’t seen on his face for more than a day. “You two kids go ahead and talk.” Then he winked down at him. “Don’t do anything I wouldn't do.” Then he lowered his voice, so only Ryo could hear him. “And whatever you do, don’t fuck it up again.”

And he was gone, leaving him and Kaori all alone on the rooftop.