Snapping Out of It (Rin and Kaspar)

Kaspar couldn't believe that it was almost time for him to head off on tour again, not that he didn't enjoy it, quite the opposite, but he just wished that he got a longer break in between to be himself away from the rest of the band, it could be stifling sometimes.

Sighing slightly, he looked around Golden Street and smirked lightly, dropping his cigarette to the floor and crunching it under the metal heel of his boots, before popping another out the packet and lighting up. Over the years one thing that hadn't changed was his ability to smoke 40 a day without so much as wheezing, the joys of potions.

With another glance around, he sat down properly and sighed again, playing with a stray bit of fabric on his shirt, and he let the lyrics of one of his favourite songs wash over him:

"Ohne dich..." he began to hum "Kann ich nicht sein..."

Kaspar Kaiser. German music extraordinaire, heartthrob of millions. And Rin's next victim, of a sort. The instructions issued on him had been extremely unclear, she had only been ordered to keep an eye on him and locate his favourite haunts, something she was rarely asked to do as the Association's best operative. Rin smiled slowly, amused at the thought. The others may be too inept to track him, but if she put the effort on a target, then she would bloody make sure she was the one to take the life, not anyone else.

But for now....a casual meeting it was. She had conducted her research on him, as she did for everyone she was assigned. The guy liked smoking, beer and music. Simple enough. Rin wondered if she should change her present look, but decided to keep it as it was, dark hair, form-fitting clothes, high cheekbones; and slipped out of the lane where she was concealed. She walked with all of her usual elegance, and sat down next to him, arching her neck back to look at the summer sky, voice nonchalant, "Love that song." No celebrity liked over-enthusiastic fans, which was why Rin made no comment whatsoever on the fact that she was sitting next to the Kaspar Kaiser. She turned her head to look at him, indicating the cigarette with her eyes, "Mind if I take a whiff?"

Kaspar raised his eyebrows a little bit when the new woman stepped onto the scene and started to talk to him, was it really too much to ask for time to be left alone? It would be worse enough if it was a man, but here was a woman, one of the same sex who had enabled his heart to be ripped out twice. Of course, he was aware it was probably a bad thing to label all women as bad because of this, but Kaspar didn't really care.

Needless to say, he was less than cheery when it seemed that she was making herself comfortable for a sit down and chat. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at what she said, of course she would know who he was, even if she didn't like him, or was neutral, he was just one of those figures. Sighing a little bit when she had the nerve to ask for a cigarette too Kaspar took out his packet and rattled it, no sound emerged.

"Sorry, was my last one." he stated "And I don't really want to share." Kaspar smirked, taking a pull on his cigarette and falling quiet again, he wasn't much of a talker these days, especially to people he didn't already know.

Unsocial. Unwilling to talk. Bordering on annoyed, even. That was what Rin surmised from his body language. How interesting.

Men stumbled over themselves to talk to her (her looks had that effect), and here this guy barely spared a glance towards her. If he was trying to drive her away, then he was going about it in an utterly wrong manner. Rin was more intrigued than ever. So she flashed him a Mona Lisa-esque smile, eyes gleaming, voice smooth, "Not fond of sharing, are you? Expected, really. A celebrity is what a celebrity does."

Rin clicked her fingers once, and immediately the air beside her rent apart, forming a void or 'wizardspace', a magical equivalent to a Bottomless storage space. Her long fingers disappeared into it, withdrawing a chilled beer can. Another click of the fingers, and the void closed, and the can snapped open. Drawing a deep draught from the can, Rin ran her tongue over her lip to gather a fallen drop, enigmatic smile intact, "I however have no such compunctions. Care for a sip or..." Rin paused deliberately, " Are you reluctant from being infected by 'common-man' germs?"

Kaspar took another drag on his cigarette and observed the woman out of the corner of his eye. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he watched her watch him out of the corner of his eye? She did seem unusually interested in him and it wasn't like a fan. He'd been around fans enough to recognise when they were trying to be cool to keep from embaressing themselves.

When she commented on his lack of excitement when it came to sharing he gave her a fakely apologetic smile before taking a drag. But when she mentioned that it was because of his occupation his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He took another drag of his cigarette,

"Then I submit to you that a celebrity is the most giving person out there. Expecially a musician." he told her quietly, "Me and my band mates give our hearts and souls to our fans. Fairly good example of sharing to me."

When she made a beer appear from a magical space he raised an eyebrow but eventually shook his head. Holding his half-finished cigarette up, he shook his head,

"The song says cigarettes and alcohol but I prefer to have them one at a time." he told her before chuckling, taking another drag, "You seem to have me confused with someone else Miss..."

Rin threw back her head and laughed, soft and amused. She swept her dark messy curls down her left shoulder, and looked at Kaspar with a faint enigmatic smile decorating her lips, "Fans make celebrities what they are. They give them everything- money, fame, popularity. Concerts would be nothing if people didn't turn up at them. Of course, I don't doubt the fact that you're very, very giving, " Rin stressed on the words, her voice light enough to confuse one whether they were sincere or sarcastic, "But fans have given celebrities much, much more, don't you think?"

"Regalia. Regalia Muse." Rin inducted a faint Mediterranean accent to the words, her finely tuned voice layered with a Greek-like tinge, "I'm pretty much sure that I haven't confused you with anyone, Mr Kaiser. I would say it was a pleasure to meet you, and I mean it from the core of my heart, but......" Rin paused emphatically, her dark eyes flitting up to meet the man's sitting opposite to her, "But then again you'd be compelled to say the same out of courtesy."

The unspoken words: And you haven't found much pleasure in this meeting because you don't like me remained hanging between them, clearly audible. Rin averted her eyes, another enigmatic smile rising to her lips, and tilted the can of cold beer to her lips.

Kaspar sighed, he just wanted this girl to tell him whatever she wanted and go away she seemed to be trying to push all his buttons and it was working to some extent however he was just going to indulge her, to give her what she wanted then he could go back to being on his own in some relative peace.

"Yes of course, the fans are everything and we are just the talentless druggie scum they choose to idolise." he smirked at the woman "What does that say about their own sense of self then, if they idolise people like me? Not very much I'd say."

Already he wanted to just storm off and leave the woman sitting here, he didn't know if she was trying to seduce him or to make him throttle her, although if it was the first one it really really wasn't working. At the moment one of the drugged up roadies looked more attractive.

"Look, Rin, what do you want? You can tell I don't like you, I can tell you don't really like me so, why don't you ask whatever you want to ask and then we can both be on our merry way?" he asked with a sigh.

Rin raised an eyebrow inspite of herself, she couldn't help it. "I never implied that all celebrities were drug addicts or anything of the sort. Except a choice few." Her eyes lingered meaningfully on the cigarette in Kaspar's hand. "And yes, I agree, it doesn't say much for their fans at all. Good thing I'm not one of them."

Rin had initially thought that the man would appreciate someone opposing him for once, instead of people drooling all over his feet like he must be used to, which was why she adopted this approach. It appeared that she was mistaken in her assessment, which was a rare occurrence. Generally, she was sweet as sugar to her prey. But Kaspar Kaiser was different from any other man she had met before. A change in tactic was required.

Rin fixed her unwavering, steady gaze on Kaspar, voice clear and undeniable. "Enough of games then. I'm not here to ask you anything. I'm here to warn you that someone has their eye on you. They're keeping tabs on you. They've even assigned an operative to track you." Rin was practically breaking the Association laws, by telling him this. She didn't know why she was doing it, except her instincts commanded her to. And her instincts had never led her astray. "You've pissed someone off Kaspar Kaiser, and pissed them off very badly indeed." She leaned forward slightly, voice above a bare whisper, "Even your life might be in danger."

Rin leaned back and looked away, voice casual, "Of course if you choose not to believe me, that's entirely up to you. Why should you believe a stranger, with such an impossible story anyway." Rin had never warned her prey before, it was a first. She was feeling strangely exhilarated. She had practically told him everything, except for the fact that she was the operative. Rin smiled with the tinge of amusement, that remained highly classified information.

Kaspar flicked the ash from his cigarette on the floor and turned to look at Rin properly, and of course did she really think that he was going to be taken in by something like that? It was such a wild story, but then again why would she have a reason to come and talk to him, it was obvious she didn't like him, so maybe it was true.

If it was true she was really thick.

Hadn't she basically just told him that she was the person tracking him? Obviously if she had just come up to talk to him out of nowhere with no fangirl tendancies, she obviously had something to do with what she had just said, and the first logical thing was that she was the one keeping tabs on him.

"Right..." he said with a small smirk "Thanks for that but I can rest in my bed knowing I have done absolutely nothing wrong, no controversial songs released, none planned, not broken any laws, just been by myself, keeping to myself, and that's the way I like it."

Throwing the cigarette on the ground he sighed; "So if your tale is true, that operative must feel real shitty potentially sending an innocent guy to his death, but a person like that mustn't really have a heart when they do that for a job."