#is it romantic to plot murder w fyodor or is it just business

[spacexseven]

What would fyodor think about sk darling?

hahahaha i was hoping someone would ask this...

fyodor is intrigued by you. he knows, of course, that there was a serial killer on the loose taking the lives of multiple ability users, including some that he recognized. it was interesting enough that your target appeared to be only ability users, but when he finds out that nikolai has a connection to you...well, now he just had to find out more.

your ability is also quite curious; needing you to kill someone to steal their ability, hence implying that abilities could be transferred. of course, since his ability was intertwined with himself, he was curious as to whether you were able to take his ability.

seeing nikolai follow you around like a lovesick puppy is what convinces him to start watching you.

he knows you're aware of nikolai (he expected that from you—was this warm feeling in his chest pride?) and his ability, as well as his extensive criminal record. it doesn't deter you from trying to run off with his ability, however, and neither does your initial defeat. he watches as you walk away without your gun and with a glove instead, watches as you get back to plotting. fyodor finds it all quite amusing.

as a reward for entertaining him, he drops a parcel on your doorstep with your gun in it. the only other thing there is a message written on a simple card attached to it—santouka taneda's ability may prove to be very useful. he knows that you already knew this, but he was just curious about whether his message would cause you to change your plans and target taneda instead.

it doesn't.

you're very meticulous in the way you go about your plans, and clearly an anonymous message won't get in the way of that. you don't even ask nikolai about the note, which could only mean you knew it wasn't him who had sent it to you. instead, you approach fyodor himself one day when he was walking into a cafe.

"dostoevsky," you say, your smile so unassuming that he'd have never thought you were capable of the evil acts you had committed, "i'll kindly ask you to please stay out of my business."

for a moment, he's caught off guard. and then it comes crashing down on him—you had ango's ability. that's how you knew it was him.

he smiles back, just as fabricated as yours, "please," he takes a seat across you, "i only meant to offer some friendly advice."

you raise an eyebrow, "friendly? do you always use your friends as pawns to eliminate your enemies? or am i just special?"

"we have a common goal," he instead says, "concerning the eradication of ability users."

you scoff at that, "you clearly know nothing about me. i'm not doing this for the same reasons as you."

your eyes are void of emotion, and your hand is gripping the fork on the table—an obvious threat. for the first time in a while, fyodor finds a genuine smile replacing the fake one from before, "in that case, why don't you tell me about your reasons? we may be able to cooperate on certain matters."

you can say no and leave. after all, fyodor is asking you to help him kill off some ability users that can become problems later, and he knows you don't have to say yes. you can decide that you don't want to get involved and walk away, and he can't do anything about it. holding a stranger hostage wouldn't cause you to surrender yourself, nor would a threat to your life. there's nothing forcing you to stay, but you don't leave anyway. instead, you let your polite facade drop, an unreadable expression taking its place.

"alright," even your voice, he realizes, sounds cold and blank now. it only makes him more curious, "but i have one condition."

"nobody touches nikolai gogol. i'll do with him as i please, so don't involve him in your plan. if you can do this for me, i'll hear you out."