Here We Go Again [TAG: RAFAEL

[KEIKO WATANABE]

"Lumos!" Keiko's voice echoed throughout the abandoned warehouse where the auror's office had released their latest batch of foolish 'defenders'. Defenders. Ha! From what? Certainly not from her. The problem was the higher ups who had sent them. Everyone was blinded but not for long... except for the one who just had the bright tip of her wand shone in their eyes. He would have some sight issues.

Using him as a shield from two other spells flung at her by another man she chucked him to the ground with a loud "HA!" that could be heard over the beating bassline of Here I Go Again by the muggle band Whitesnake. Keiko really loved music. She loved fighting for her cause to sick jams even more.

Spinning around she aimed her wand. "Petrificus Totalus." Twice and both aurors, one woman and one man fell. She didn't like killing those who didn't deserve it so stunning spells would have to do. Walking over them she shook her head tisking. "Someday you'll learn. Someday." A spell ricocheted off of some metal and grazed her shoulder. Turning to face her attacked she stretched out aiming another spell.

"Muffliato!" A loud buzzing sound surrounded her attacker who now couldn't cast spells because their voice couldn't be heard. "Stupefy!" And down they went. The path now clear she took a nice leisurely stroll, skip, and hop over some hanging lights before reaching the next rafters which is when she felt a presence around her. Painted aqua marine lips curved into a smile and she turned her glittery high heeled boots to face her friend... er.... adversary... er...

"Mitsou..." She smiled, biting her bottom lip casually leaning on one foot and blowing a bubble with her gum. "There you are." Pop. Chew. "I was worried that you forgot all about little old me..."

[Deleted]

La Fantasma. The Ghost. Assignment priority - 0. This meant Rafael was to focus on no other task auror-related task while he drew breath until The Ghost stopped drawing theirs. Or was brought in for a fate worse than such. But Rafael refused to believe that was the case. He was determined to bring The Ghost in alive. Everyone deserved their day in court. This fugitive was no exception.

Rafael was to go in last. The last resort. The last hope. Fights here often got messy. Too many bodies ended up doing more harm than good. He didn’t love the strategy, but he followed orders. It was difficult to do nothing as he heard screams, shouts, and other various combat-related noises followed closely by a deafening silence. Either they had their fugitive, or the fugitive had them. Without a second thought, he moved to infiltrate. To clean up the mess.

She was dispatching the last of them. Another failed mission. Unless he could succeed alone. He apparated up to the rafters and waited as she turned around. Keiko Watanabe. The elusive. The specter that haunted more than the most wanted list - this ephemeral being permeated much of his waking, and non-waking life. “No you weren’t, abejita.” He kept his wand lowered. No need to spook her yet. Respect was mutual. “That color looks beautiful on you. I hope you know that.” He grinned. She looked good in anything. But it was hard not to compliment her outwardly. His eyes moved down to scan the floor beneath him. His squad was writhing. In panic mostly. No one was dying. Which was good. Because then he’d have to bring the pain. He turned his attention back to her, and paced the light fixture. “Is this the right place? For you to answer the question I posed to you before?” He pointed his wand at her. It was playtime. “Or will you make me force an answer out of you?”

[KEIKO WATANABE]

At his response her blood lips pulled into a lopsided smirk. He knew her so well and yet not at all. "You're right." One of her hands saddled at the side of her hip giving a sassy almost lazy lean showcasing just how little she was worried about her current predicament. "I wasn't." Most would find the jab insulting, especially an auror focused on ascending the ladder at The Ministry. Thankfully, Rafael seemed to be the exception (in a lot of ways). He seemed to relish in a lot of her playful burns, he could trade them with her, he could keep up - the same couldn't be said for a lot of folks (including the distinguished aurors currently lying on the floor some distance away).

"After all, it's not every day that you run up against someone like me is it?" Her sparkly boots clicked against the metal floor beneath them as she bravely and calmly stepped toward him. No fucks given. "Though it is turning into every day almost, isn't it?" She circled him, her wand tracing his chest, his shoulders, his back, then retreating as she stepped backwards. "If I didn't know any better, and I always do, I would say that you missed me." She understood cats more and more every day. It was good to answer to no one. It was equally good to play with your food before you ate it. 

"Well, did you, Mitsou?" She now dragged her wand down the side of her cheek and then over her lips smearing her lipstick downward on one side. Again - no fucks given. "Miss me?" She smirked knowing full well the dangerous territory that she was treading on, but god she loved doing so as far as he was concerned. His wand not raised, good move on his part, she didn't feel threatened but certainly didn't lower her own. That would have been foolish with others about (though far behind).

"Everything looks beautiful on me.." She waved her wand at him slowly in playful warning with a soft tisk tisk. "But I guess you're correct. I'll give you that. Thanks, hun." She winked before eyeing him up and down. "You on the other hand, you knew we would be seeing each other this evening. You couldn't put on something a bit nicer?" A light jab that she couldn't resist. He always looked good though he tended to stick with neutrals and boring things himself. Whatever. He made boring look good. "Ah. In a happy mood today are we?" She smiled noting his grin almost boyish in nature. "Did I have a little something to do with turning that frown-" She made a curve gesture with her wand. "Upside down?" A cheeky smile was now on her features. She knew full well what she was doing.

"And what question would that be?" Hopping over to another light fixture across from him she cocked her head in playful ignorance. "I seem to have forgotten..." Except not at all. She just enjoyed being asked. Wand now pointed at her she felt her smile grow like the Cheshire cat's from Alice in Wonderland. "Oh. You know how I do enjoy your brute force." Her wand reached out and tapped his nudging it away before it was aimed right back at her and she did the same thing, holding onto the light fixture as it swung, using the thick rope it hung from she did a little stripper like spin to the music that blasted around them, hanging upside down facing him. "You haven't even mentioned today's song choice." Cheekily her smile grew already eager. "Not a fan of Whitesnake?" And immediately she began to sing quietly, just for the two of them, like a siren a show for one. 

"Here I go again on my own. Goin' down the only road I've ever known. Like a hobo I was born to walk alone. 'Cause I know what it means To walk along the lonely street of dreams..." A pause and still hanging upside down she threw another question at him. "Not a fan?"

[Deleted]

I’m right? Well, this isn’t going the way I thoug- ah. Nevermind. It’s going exactly how I thought it would. She was in rare form that night. She was always in a rare mood perhaps. But never the ‘W’ word. He wouldn’t use that, even while trying to apprehend her. In fact, he had subconsciously struck it from his vocabulary altogether. Some of his colleagues would use the word sometimes when casually chatting about case details. Peculiar. Odd. Weird. Weird. He grew to hate that word. No - she wasn’t weird. She was unique. And fun, and beautiful. And, if Rafael had anything to say about it, under arrest.

“No. It is not.” He stood, unmoving as she approached. Most people - hell, even most aurors would either be fleeing expeditiously given her reputation or at least preparing to defend themselves to the death. She was unpredictable. But in a way, to Rafa, that made her all too predictable. And in that, he knew he was safe when others would not be. “The frequency of which we meet is certainly increasing.” He stared ahead as her wand touched him. Two words could have him dead. One could have him wishing he was. Yet he stood unphased. Moreso entertained if anything. “Touching an auror with your wand is a criminal offense. As is pointing it at an auror.” Like she would care. Her rap sheet was bad enough. Those charges wouldn’t even be the cherry on top. They’d be two ice cubes in the untouched glass of water.

“I missed having the opportunity to apprehend you.” Still stalwart enough. She was a problem child. For who though? For him? Or for someone else? Try to focus a little bit. “Are you trying to win some good favor?” He offered her a raised eyebrow. “If anything it sounds like I am the one who stokes some sort of fire within you.” Was that appropriate? No. Could anyone hear him? Maybe. Did he care? Somewhat, but not really.

“I love your confidence.” He noted the additional point of the wand. Unpredictable, but predictable… right? “Though admittedly, you are correct. A rare trait to be so universally beautiful in everything. Though, I prefer you in green.” He smirked, the remark hearkening back to her periods of jealousy. It was the only way he knew how to draw her real opinion of him out. He hoped that in the future, that wouldn’t be the case. But for now, it was a means to an end - that end being reconciling his feelings for the eccentric criminal. He looked down at his apparel. He was more emboldened now. “That wouldn’t be me. That’s not what you like.” His smile breached further, just short of a brim. “You like drab Rafael. I’m more colorful with my words, abejita.” Abejita. How fitting. Always buzzing. Singular in purpose. More and more necessary in so many ways. “How presumptuous of you. I’m usually in a happy mood. Whether I’m on the verge of capturing you, or not, you see.” His fingers twitched. Was it wand time? No. No, not yet. Wait for it.

He sighed. She was so wonderfully frustrating. The wand had to be raised now. “You should get your memory checked. That seems to be a recurring issue with you.” But even with his wand raised, he couldn’t. “Brute force-” He was cut off by her lowering his wand with her own. “-would not involve me using my wand, I assure you.” It was subsequently raised again, watching her own brand of entertainment. Now he was brimming. She was so free. Free to be whoever. And yet, despite this freedom, she did not choose Rafael. Not in earnest. Not yet. She still fled. She still wasn’t quite there. His smile faltered, despite the pseudo-show that he so enjoyed. “Whitesnake?” He scoffed. How could he miss it? It blared unpleasantly - the distorted guitars, and crooning 80s voice popping in and out. “Drivel. And that is on a good day.” He widened his stance. “I’m more of a bolero man.” A mistake. Too honest for the situation. Sure, boleros typically spoke of love. But often, soured love - unrequited in nature, and longing. Even betrayal. But what were the odds that she would know that? “I won’t hurt you, mi flor. But I will catch you. I will bring you in.” His smirk reappeared, as his eyes met hers, still upside down. Now. “Diffindo!” At once, a pink light flashed from his wand to cut the rope she hung upside down from so gracefully. The first real move had been cast.

[KEIKO WATANABE]

"Oh... Cuff me then." She purred the challenge presenting her two wrists in a flimsy manner accompanied by a little pout. She knew full well that she was playing with fire here and maybe that was the intention all along. "Are you gonna bring me in then?" She twirled, wand up over her head as she spun around him before walking normally once more wand still pointed at him ever on guard. "Big strong Mitsou going to take me down and bring me in like a prize?" Over her dead body - literally - but even so teasing about it did things to her. To both of them. This cat and mouse game was electrifying. Both fun and arousing all at once. Enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up in anticipation and it had been so long since Keiko had felt like that.

"At the risk of sounding boastful, a risk I am all too willing to take mind you, I believe that I already have some favor." She flicked her wand and sent a spell his way, a purple butterfly fluttered out of the tip of the wand, flapping it's wings as it made its way toward him quickly booping him on the nose before disappearing. "Yours in fact." Not exactly a boop with her finger but would do in a pinch.

"Oh you flatter me. By all means go on." At his compliment she smiled. What lady didn't love being praised? She sure did. By herself, by others, by anyone really. But somehow coming from Rafael it meant even more. "Such kind words, Mitsou. Are you not concerned your friends will overhear you?" Her wand gestured to the aurors injured, moaning and groaning on the floor quite a bit away from them. Smile growing she brought her wand to her eyes changing the strip of color from blue to emerald green. "How's this, sweet boy?" The term of affection rolled off her tongue like sweet honey.

Abejita. The pet name nearly sent the most delightful shivers up her spine every time that it was uttered. Still, she couldn't let him know for that meant that he had the upper hand and that quite simply would not do. "You don't know what I like." Except that he did and that was part of the problem.

"Really now?" At his comment about what sort of force he would use her smile grew. God, she loved when they talked about that if only because the act was so fun. "That is something I would like to see. If you could manage that is." Twirling her wand she hummed as she did so. "I can be a bit of a handful." That was putting it mildly as she hopped down from hanging upside down and stood before him. "Though I don't know if I can duel a man who cannot appreciate eighties rock." Her own stance widened, wand at the ready. "Though I'll make do as usual." Instantly he shot a spell at her, with a swing of her whole body the light fixture sways causing the spell to ricochet off of it. Unfortunately that meant the cable was severed and the light plummeted to the ground. She hopped over to the next light just in time her own wand shooting off a spell.

"Bombarda." Tiny explosions went off at Rafael's heels growing larger every step. She did greatly enjoy watching him from this angle though. The tush in flight was a very good tush. Relaxing her wand hold she twirled it a bit waiting for his next step. "Still think you would look good in a blazer."

TAG: @rafael