![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/f15002a5841f978f788e718348d16903\/tumblr_inline_nfclofcqcS1rms2iz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It had been kind of a stupid setup, really, and Hakuba wondered if it would even work. He had his doubts, despite the preparation, but there was really nothing more that he could do about it. One of his high-brow clients was receiving death threats surrounding the particular event \u2014 a ball\/charity auction with open bar and catered dinner \u2014 and everyone had to have a date. The detective wondered if his client had mentioned this specific detail on purpose. Hakuba normally went to these sort of socialite events going stag, content to do his own browsing and mingling without any sort of preformed attachment, but since it had been required\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least Nakamori-chan had acknowledged that it was just for a case. Sort of. He wasn\u2019t actually sure how she felt about the whole thing. As honest and up front as he\u2019d been about it, he was never really clear on what, exactly, went on in a teenage girl\u2019s mind, and even he had to admit that they were a smart-looking pair as they walked up the steps to the mansion, arm in arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He glanced at her, brows lifting, and offered a small, reassuring smile. They\u2019d gone over all of the protocol for this sort of event at least a dozen times, so things would be all right. She would be safe, Hakuba would get the bad guy, and all would turn out to be a lovely evening. He was sure of it.<\/p>\n
Slipping his other hand up to give Aoko\u2019s a squeeze, he chuckled, and gestured for her to step inside the opened doors, first.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s now or never,\u201d he whispered, and moved his closer hand to the small of her back to direct her inside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It had been kind of a stupid setup, really, and Hakuba wondered if it would even work. He had his doubts, despite the preparation, but there was really nothing more that he could do about it. One of his high-brow clients was receiving death threats surrounding the particular event \u2014 a ball\/charity auction with open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[128,1427,1622],"class_list":["post-2075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-memes","tag-nakamori-aoko","tag-whisper-meme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/whiteknighthakuba\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}