His shoes graced across the stonework roof silently, shadow falling long across the buildings before him. It was midday, and the cars in the street were quiet when he was so far in the air.
"We've got a 10-7, eyes on target, moving eastbound." A familiar voice crackled across his earpiece.
"Asylum, shut up." A different - but familiar all the same - voice.
Keiren chuckled at the exchange. "Jeez, fine," Asylum grumbled, and Keiren could see his figure moving gracefully across the beams that held the stage lights. Had he not known already that Asylum would be there, he wouldn't have noticed him. "Jackalope, what've you got?"
"I think Vix is on security. I can hear him walking around. He's got a light step but a heavy resonance."
"Uh-huh," Asylum hummed, "because that makes sense."
Keiren dropped over the side of the building, his grip on the concrete ledge stronger than he expected. He wasn't the parkour expert that Asylum was, and he certainly didn't have as many gadgets as Jackalope, but he could hold his own, and that was all that mattered.
"Jackalope, is that you grunting or is it Keiren?"
"It isn't me," Jackalope replied, before the distinctive click that told Keiren he'd muted his microphone.
"Just trying to scale down the hotel wall," Keiren breathed, dropping down onto a wooden balcony that creaked a bit too much for comfort when he did so. "You make this look easier than it is, Asylum."
"Only people with cool code names get acrobatics and parkour skills."
Keiren snorted. Asylum sounded like a name an edgy fourteen year old would come up with, and Jackalope was flat out dorky. Keiren thought his own name was cool enough.
It took him longer than he would've liked to reach the balcony he was looking for and he was drenched in sweat from the descent. Nevertheless, he wiped his forehead off with his forearm, the sweat slicking off.
"Heh. He didn't lock the balcony."
"Oh! Keiren, be careful!" Asylum hissed, causing his grip on the balcony door's handle to falter, "I'm not seeing Syrus. Ryan got on the stage, but Syrus is absent. He might be in the room, if all the rumors about those two's relationship are true."
Keiren made a face, well aware of the fact that Asylum could not see it.
He was convinced the rumors were true. Syrus was young - only 22 - and Ryan wasn't exactly old, per se, but Keiren knew that they did everything together. He watched those two. He'd followed Ryan Solomon through the streets, followed Syrus, too, and not once had he seen them apart in public. Ryan was the only one who went out alone. Syrus was probably his sugar baby. Or something like that.
He wasn't scared of Syrus. He always looked scrawny on the television, and each time he'd stalked the two, he looked even scrawnier.
But Keiren kept his microphone live. Just in case.
The balcony door silently slid open. Keiren wasted no time slinking inside, through the heavy blackout curtains and into the dark room.
"R...Ryan?"
He instantly recognized Syrus' voice. He'd followed them too many times, listened to too many speeches. Keiren ducked beside the bed, watching the shifting mattress with a close gaze. He'd never been so close before. It was like he could reach up and touch Syrus; not that he particularly wanted to. He was grateful that the man had only just woken up. There was a chance he wouldn't notice Keiren.
