Her apartment was a mess. A complete and utter mess. Twinkie had been unable to make it to her apartment this week due to her mother's sick sense of humor. Just because she had flat out refused to invite Dillan over for another, congratulatory tea her mother was withholding house elf privileges. Which was rather unfortunate since Dillan was supposed to be by in twenty minutes and she still wasn't even dressed properly. Which left Sofia with a very important dilemma.

Dressing or cleaning first?

She could do both! At least her room would be clean. Really that was all that mattered and the living room/kitchen/makeshift office part of the house. Sofia was so screwed - and helpless at cleaning charms.

With a quick wave of her wand she started a few simple cleaning spells that would at least stack all her papers in nice neat little piles. With another wave of her wand she pulled out the ensemble she had picked out. Actually Arty had done all the work to be truthful. The woman had a real gift. She had managed to find Sofia some... how had she worded it? Ah yes outside the office wear from the Sinistra Shop.

She seemed to think that Sofia could use it more than something sparkly, but something colorful as well. For some odd reason her new found friend with terrible relationships seemed rather disgusted by her pallet of greys and whites. Thus the purchase of her first non undercover set of jeans.... and the edition of something green to her wardrobe. There clothing on and bedroom clean! Wonderful. Now onto the kitchen and her hair!

Knock Knock

Her hair was down! The living room was a minor disaster area! Papers still littered the coffee table, the bookshelf, the side table... now in neat stacks however. The kitchen was... wait she never used the kitchen. Was there even food in there? Wonders never ceased! It was merely dusty. Thankfully. Dillan would never notice, or have reason to step in there. After all this was a causal get together... the first one not in a neutral location.

"Just a moment!" She cried, searching in vain for her shoes, while giving her hair a frustrated flip as it once again got in her way.

Shoes now on Sofia flew to the door and there he was. "My you're early." She managed breathlessly before giving him a sheepish smile. "Come in. Please excuse the mess - Twinkie has other obligations this week."

Wendell appeared outside Sofia’s townhouse with the usual crack that accompanies apparation. In one had he held a bag, from which the delicious aromas of Chinese food wafted. A quick glance at his watch showed that he was about fifteen minutes early, but that was nothing to signify. He was usually a few minutes early for things, it gave him extra time to scope out the premises. Sofia on the other hand was always abominably late. It was usually the result of her having been too caught up in her work to take notice of the time. However, this evening he was coming to her, thereby circumventing a good half hour of waiting by himself in a Chinese restaurant while people shot him strange looks.

He knocked twice on her door and was answered by a faraway voice somewhere within.

"Just a moment!"

Putting his waiting time to good use, he began to scope out her neighbors properties. Sofia lived on the upper side of Rowlings Terrace, where all the wealth was situated. Most of her neighbors were the town houses for the elite when they left their country estates, or their well-to-do children. The security was no doubt tight, but he imagined that the profits from any of these houses would be worth the extra effort.

His new position in law enforcement had sadly not done anything to curb his criminal ambitions. If anything it had simply amplified them. He was quickly becoming aware of how the auror office ran. What loopholes he could use to get himself out of trouble, and how to exploit their weaknesses. Furthermore, he observed first hand other people's mistakes. Frankly, it was a bit like school, only instead of learning stupid useless things like how to repot a mandrake, he was learning how to avoid capture.

Suddenly, the door flew open to reveal a slightly out of breath Sofia. However, he might not of noticed at all because he was momentarily stunned by Sofia, herself. It wasn't so much her new wardrobe, though it was a bit strange to see her casually dressed (and in color too)! Frankly, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, except that for the first time since he had become acquainted with her, she had her hair down. Her lovely long brown hair floated freely about her instead of its usual imprisonment in one of her tight, practical buns. And he decided that he absolutely loved it.

"My you're early."

"Fifteen minutes is barely early, you're just too used to showing up a half hour late!" He joked and then held up the bag. "But I brought Chinese!"

"Come in. Please excuse the mess - Twinkie has other obligations this week."

He tore his eyes away from her, and her miraculously free locks to look around her house. It was a bit of a mess. No worse than his by any means, but somehow he had always imagined her house would be exceptionally clean, unlived in even. Appearently, she had never seen the necessity in learning cleaning spells with a house elf at her every beck and call.

He was staring at her in what could only be described as oddly. She shouldn't have listened to Artemis. It was to early for color. Much to early. She needed to be at least six months into her grave before she could even begin to think about such things. Luckily for her Dillan held up a bag containing her reason for living in a box - what the less devout called chinese food.

She led him and his delectable counterpart further into her house and into her living room - which literally was her most lived in room. She stepped into the kitchen upon occasion to pick out some nonperishable food items upon occasion, she slept in her bedroom three out of seven nights, and the other rooms - her mother had had them furnished but what they contained was a mystery. Embarrassingly enough she hadn't explored her flat since she had purchased it. For all she knew there was another bedroom, a vault, and a gallery behind the never used doors in her hallway. A project for a rainy day.

Right now however she had a very attractive man holding a bag of some very seductive smelling food. He would not be exploring her flat if she could help it. There were other ways to entertain each other...

If only he still wasn't staring at her!

"Is something the matter?" She asked, taking the bag from his hands and setting it on her somewhat clear coffee table. "You haven't stopped looking at me since I opened the door. As my boyfriend you are supposed to inform me when I have bits stuck in my teeth."

He stared a bit longer. Maybe he wasn't staring and she was imagining things.

Sofia began to nervously pull at her hair. "I'm going to the kitchen to grab some plates... and maybe some... would you like something to drink?" She could feel herself becoming flustered. The last time someone had stared at her like that had been when - dam. She had promised herself she was not going to think of the other man.

"Make yourself comfortable. Be back in a minute." She fled to the dusty kitchen.

She awkwardly fidgeted for a few moments, and sputtered something about food in her teeth. He wasn't paying too much attention to what she was saying, alternatively inspecting her abode and staring at her. She looked so much less severe with her hair down, and much more human.

"I'm going to the kitchen to grab some plates... and maybe some... would you like something to drink?"

"Whatever you're having." He responded with a bit of wonder as she practically ran to escape his presence. He was entirely unsure of what he had done to elicit this sort of reaction from her.

He wandered about her living room giving the place an interested look over, the furniture was fashionable antiques. There were long rows of old books on a shelf that lined one wall, and her coffee table held several neat stacks of paper. Glancing over his shoulder at the doorway, he ascertained that Sofia was not there, and he picked up the top paper. Looking at it more closely he realized that it was part of his file, not Dillan Wentworth but rather Wendell Darrow. The top page simply had some rather general information about his person: height, weight, hair coloring, date of birth, (and in much fresher looking ink) date of death.

Terribly interested he proceeded to flip through the thick stack of pages. It was a rather huge file, filled with his arrest reports, all of the tips both real and falsified that he had ever given. Further down he found photographs of him walking down a street and information on him that had undoubtedly been obtained whilst some auror or another had been tailing him. It wasn't surprising, he had made a career out of being purposefully indiscreet. There were hand written notes scrawled across the edges with observations such as his favored drink and snippets of conversation that the spy had managed to overhear.

Most of them were worthless pleasantries, or coded conversations that he remembered in retrospect as being about an illegal potions drop, but which the auror had frustratedly believed had something to do with underground slug raising.

The true question was why did Sofia have this file sitting on her coffee table. He had known of course that she had been searching for his body. But as the weeks and months had dragged on, he had thought that she had given up the search. Apparently he had been wrong, she hadn't given it up, she had simply removed her search from the office and taken it home. His case had officially gone cold, and while it was technically still open the powers that be were perfectly content to let it sink into the dark library of unsolved mysteries. Who particularly cared what happened to one annoying but insignificant informant and serial criminal? Only Sofia Robards it seemed.

He so engrossed with his reading material that he didn't notice the sound of her footsteps until they drew just outside the door and he hastily tried to restack the papers before she entered the room. But he already knew he was caught even before he heard her displeased voice interrupt him.

After a quick regrouping in the kitchen, and two hastily poured glasses of wine Sofia returned to her living room with the intention of apologizing for acting so peculiar. It was the new clothes that had her in a fluster no him – well the fact that he was in her inner sanctum, no matter how little used was also worth a brain spasm or three.

“Dillan I – ” She stopped mind sentence, the man not even turning at her entrance, her eyes quickly darting to pile of papers he was trying to restack. Her pact with herself was never going to work now. He had Wendell’s file and probably reading its contents with an avid interest.

Hexing Dillan seemed like the logical answer. No one ever entered her house and read her personally smuggled out ministry files! That was betrayal... and a violation of her personal privacy. Maybe he was he was some worm for the higher offices checking on how a criminal had managed to escape from the very heart of the ministry. If he was she was screwed if he had gotten to the last page...

Sofia took a large gulp of her wine in an attempt to calm herself down. She and Dillan were in a relationship, he was not a mole, and she was not going to hex him. She was going to approach the situation with calm rationality.

“What are you doing?” She asked, her voice sounding politely removed (at least she hadn’t yelled), as in one fluid motion she set down the filled wine glasses and sent the all the papers flying off to some unused room she would have to try and locate later on. Or she could summon them… that would be infinitely easier than exploring her own house.

Getting back to the matter at hand, her desire to find Wendell Darrow’s body was not something she was ready to openly discuss with Dillan. They could kiss and fool around with each other all they pleased but she would not be discussing the other man in her life. Not now not ever. She just needed to find it. To bring some sort of closure. Artemis would support her on that closure bit. Maybe not so much on the dead body bit however.

Sofia focused her attention back on Dillan. Had he said anything? At any rate he was staring again.

“That was just a silly pet project. Not something I would want to bore you with – or allow to use up valuable table space.” She remarked, her fingers twitching for her wand – which she pulled out again this time to set up the food. Busy hands leave little room for thoughts. “Ready to eat?”

”What are you doing?”

“Well you did leave it out in the open on your coffee table. This is the Darrow file, isn’t it? I thought that case had been shelved.” He replied innocently.

He was subtly attempting to shift the focus of reproach away from himself. He was more alarmed that he hadn’t succeeded in distracting her from her investigation as well as he had believed. There was no pressure from inside the office to continue the investigation, and he had been doing his up most to provide her with outside office hour distractions. All in all he hadn’t believed she had time to still be pursuing this case. He thought he was in the clear, but as it turned out he was wrong. She had to drop it, before she found out that there was no body to find. There was certainly enough information in that file that she might be able to determine who his friends were. Not that Jasper would ever expose him (he had too much at stake himself) but Wendell couldn’t be too careful. Should she believe that he was hiding something, and find something out about Jasper’s questionably legal business practices, he feared that self-preservation might induce Jasper to be more forthcoming. Hell, Wendell might have done the same thing if put in that position. No it was best to attack the source of the problems. And that source was an auror that just couldn’t admit defeat and let it go.

It was a bit ironic that the only person trying to help him was the one that was doing him the most harm. He still didn’t understand why she was so determined to find the body. Yes, it technically was her responsibility, but her inability to let it go when the body was clearly gone and not coming back was befuddling. She was utterly incapable of accepting failure. Which was strange, because everyone should be allowed to fail every now and then. Indeed, depending on who you were talking to, some people would consider Wendell’s entire life a failure (though he was inclined to object to such a opinion). Just because he had done terribly in school, descended into a life of crime, and for all intents and purposes gotten himself arrested and then killed, all by the age of twenty-six did not mean that he was a failure.

In spite of his interest in discussing the papers more, Sofia banished them out from under his fingertips. The papers careened out of the room and down the hallway to be hidden away from his prying eyes. As he watched them speed away, he made a mental note to find them again and get rid of them.

”That was just a silly pet project. Not something I would want to bore you with – or allow to use up valuable table space. Ready to eat?”

She was trying to distract him from the task at hand with Chinese food. It was a low blow as he really did enjoy the stuff an inordinate amount. Luckily, he was much less ADD about things that he felt were important than he had been about his Transfiguration homework.

“Have you made any headway on finding the body?” He asked trying to sound as though he were simply bored and curious rather than fidgety and concerned. He took a sip out of the glass of wine she had brought for him, and began to help open the carton’s of Chinese food. “Dumpling?” He asked nimbly maneuvering his chopsticks to set one on his own plate.

“I know how irritating it can be when a case goes cold. Everyone starts to lose interest, but it’s always sitting there in the back of your file cabinet. You just want to put it to bed with all the others.”

Sound empathetic, not pushy. He ordered himself. She didn’t seem inclined to discuss it. But he had to know how far she had gotten, how far she still intended to go. Because as long as she was willing to pursue the investigation, he would have to be there to sabotage it.

“I had a case do that, back in the States. Never did manage to close it before I transferred back here. I suppose it got handed off to one of the other agents when I left. A shame, but there you go.”

"You like the Beef and Broccoli right?" He asked flipping open the carton which he knew contained her favorite. He glanced at it doubtfully.

"Because if you don't want it...I'd be more than happy to take care of it for you." He said with teasing grin.

“Have you made any headway on finding the body?”

So much for a quick and easy distraction. He was almost as bad as Wendell - yes she was saying his name again - she had lasted a full ten minutes, and would have lasted longer had not Dillan insisted on talking about him. He was not going to get his information easily.

"Maybe."

“Dumpling?”

She smiled and sat down next to him, grabbing her own set of chop sticks and deftly talking the one he had just set on his plate. "Of course. No one quite makes the the way they do. How ever did you find such a..."

Apparently Dillan was not going to play that game...Or was it vengeance for having stolen his dumpling? Well really he had offered and he was holding the box she had had no other choice. It really had been a rather good dumpling. “I know how irritating it can be when a case goes cold. Everyone starts to lose interest, but it’s always sitting there in the back of your file cabinet. You just want to put it to bed with all the others.”

Sofia took the dumpling box from his hands and proceeded to fill her own plate. Knowing him he would be more than content with the abundance of lemon chicken he always ordered, and his terrible choice of topic. Really couldn't he see she didn't want to talk about it? She owed it to Wendell but she wasn't about to explain why to Dillan. There was this wise rule her mother had once told her. Never talk about your exs to another man. While she hadn't exactly been in a relationship with Wendell he counted in this case. How many repeated flings did they have? After the kiss in the bar... and in front of the ministry... and the various other ones she had day dreamed about... it was only a matter of time till nature played it wicked course. At this point in time Wendell and Dillan had both gotten about the same distance - Dillan maybe a bit further but they were dating after all.

As Sofia's mind once again took a perilous u-turn into the gutter Dillan was saying some apathetic nonsense. "...A shame, but there you go. You like the Beef and Broccoli right? Because if you don't want it...I'd be more than happy to take care of it for you."

There was nothing better than beef and broccoli in Sofia's mind. There just was something about the sauce, and the broccoli. Just as there was something about the way Dillan was holding the box. Was he taking her order hostage? Really that was low. The beef and broccoli was always hers! He didn't even like how it tasted!

"Dillan you aren't honestly going to hold the broccoli hostage are you?"

He gave her a look that said he was more than willing to do so - and eat each of her beloved broccoli pieces in front of her if she didn't give him something to go off of. If only he hadn't been holding the beloved broccoli she could distract him in a much more pleasant way. That was still an option.

"I have several cases like that, all you have to do is look at my record and you will see the other open one. I'll let this one go eventually - when there aren't so many unclosed aspects to the case. I just met this woman who was very insightful to his character and gave quite a few ideas. I didn't even think to look to his friends." She stopped long enough to munch on her dumpling for a bit before continuing. "They might know more of what transpired. I've decided to start with her brother and try that angle for a bit. " She remarked, chop sticks waving at important points.

Dillan's hold on her quarry had loosened. Mission completed! She grabbed her beloved meal. "How did your open case get away?" A quirky smile appeared unbidden, her thoughts having been on Wendell far to long. "We might be able to enact it later, see if it gives you any... new leads." She remarked, before innocently going at her food.

Though outwardly calm, Wendell immediately began to panic a little.

“I just met this woman who was very insightful to his character and gave quite a few ideas.”

Well that could be just about anyone, though he had little luck with the auror girls before Sofia, that didn’t mean he’d been forced into celibacy by any means. Some girls found his sappy poetry quite endearing.

”I didn’t even think to look to his friends. They might know more of what transpired.”

Dammit! That was just what he was hoping at avoid! Although, it narrowed down the list of potential women who she might have been talking with. It wasn’t that often that he bothered to introduce a girl to his friends. Despite his oddities, the ladies found Apollo quite charming, and Jasper never had a shortage of supermodels hanging off his arm.

I’ve decided to start with her brother and try that angle for a bit.”

Oh. Shit. He had only one friend with a sister. And her name was Artemis Sinistra. The same Artemis Sinistra who thoroughly disapproved of him, and may have never quite forgiven him for taking her to the Hogs Head that one time. Artemis could be quite terrifying when she chose to be, normally in the defense of her brother. She was clever and level-headed, traits that often made him question his choice of prank partner back in Hogwarts. All in all, she wasn’t the sort of person that he particularly wanted Sofia spending loads of time around.
But as to questioning his friends, Sofia could question Apollo all day and not get any useful information out of him. He had the attention span of a goldfish, so any question she asked would be undoubtedly diverted to topics such as hair gel and shoes. Besides, Wendell hadn’t informed him of his plans for the simple fact that he knew Apollo was a terrible secret keeper. Ply him with alcohol and he’d spill the deepest darkest secrets he didn’t even have. She already knew Will and clearly that hadn’t helped her case particularly. But then there was Jasper, his favored partner in crime and the only person who knew Wendell’s secret. He’d have to warn him about the probability of Sofia paying him a visit in the near future.

” How did your open case get away? We might be able to enact it later, see if it gives you any…new leads.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her suggestive tone, and couldn’t bite back the retort that came unbidden to his lips.

“I arrested a burlesque dancer who murdered her club’s owner. It appeared to be some torrid romance gone sour, but I’m sure there was money laundering going on at that club. Sadly, there was not enough evidence to convict. But any insight you could give me into her business would be greatly appreciated.”

Okay, so baiting her with sexual innuendos was probably not the best way to maintain his cover, especially considering the recent revelations. But he just grinned saucily and took an innocent bite of his lemon chicken.

Sofia looked up from her nearly devoured beef and broccoli just in time to catch the remains of what was most definitely a cheeky, no saucy, grin. Thankfully Dillan was to busy with his lemon chicken to notice the sudden flash of surprise mixed with a ting of longing his unexpected response had prompted.

Wendell.

Floods of innuendoes began to flow from her brain to her mouth only to be met with a tightly clenched jaw. This was NOT Wendell. She had to proceed with caution least she scare the sophisticated auror with some raunchy fun. A small smile was allowed as Sofia began to filter through responses looking for the one best situated for the situation.

All of this took place in the space of Dillan's chewing. " How dreadful. How did she killer her lover? Handcuffs and a whip? Or did she tease him to death?" Was her most tame response as her finger began to draw lazy circles on his leg, the other hand reaching over for a fortune cookie. Dragging him off to the bedroom had been one of the more forward responses that had come to mind. Had it been Wendell in front of her she wouldn't have even bothered with a response or bedroom dragging. They would have never made it that far.

Sofia cracked open her cookie, pausing to read her fortune and giving Dillan a chance to respond.

Your Past and Present Loves Are One

Why were fortune cookies always so vague? This was probably yet another spiritual circle of life one.

"How dreadful. How did she kill her lover? Handcuffs and a whip? Or did she tease him to death?"

Dillan Wentworth might have been scandalized that a well brought up young woman like sofia Robards would ever utter such scandalous words, Wendell didn't know. But he certainly wasn't. It was sexy as hell, and those words combined with the circles it felt like she was burning into his thigh with those light fingers were making it damn difficult to keep from jumping her right there on the couch. But he couldn't. Dillan Wentworth was a gentleman; he wouldn't just molest his date the first chance that he got her alone, over some Chinese takeout!

He'd take her to the bedroom, and do it there instead. It was only gentlemanly-like after all. He grabbed her offending hand and stood up, dragging her with him.

"It was something like that," he said still smirking just a little.

He pulled her in for a kiss, and noted to himself that he wasn't entirely sure where her bedroom was at. It could pose a problem, why was he so beset with these annoyances? His lips were far too busily with a much more interesting task, so he couldn't exactly use them to ask her if she could, "Please point him in the direction of her bedroom, so he could proceed with a much more thorough rehash of the events leading up to his victims murder?" And frankly he preferred her tongue's current employment over the task of actually answering.

So deciding that at this point it was probably best just to wing it and hope for the best, he guided her along after him.

Sofia's eyes opened slowly as she was suddenly faced with the perturbing question - when did her sheets change color? She snuggled closer to the warm body next to her, finding the answer easily enough. Dillan had done all the guiding last night, and he had somehow found this bedroom. How he had managed to find it though the mess of hair, lips, and hands they ended up in was beyond her. Actually she didn't actually know which bedroom they were in or how to get back...

On the bright side she was pretty sure there was a trail of clothes that would lead them back to the general area of the kitchen. Point she had lost track of how high Dillan was in her standings were but he was very high up there, especially after last night.

Last night had been amazing.

She curled further into him, reveling in the feeling of being enveloped by someone who might actually care about her. Not that it mattered much if he didn't, she could still pretend now and maim him later. Right now she could be as vulnerable, and needy. Speaking of needs - Sofia's stomach gave a little gurgle, as the sudden desire to eat came over her.

With a look akin to a satisfied cat she flipped around, body now facing Dillan's, and gave his ear a little bite before whispering, "Shall I find us some breakfast?" He gave some type of moan in response as Sofia's smile widened. She didn't have to eat right away. "Or we could stay here all day till one of us gets called in?" She offered.

Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind a little word of warning was whispered. Something was not right with Dillan not all was as it seemed. But this was shrugged off, attributed to being the nerves that usually prevented her from starting office romances and this was one romance she didn't care to end. Right now she was going to be happy and lie in his arms and quite possibly eat breakfast.