Star wasn’t entirely sure the majority of the information on the redhead was reliable, as some of his exploits were a little on the ludicrous side. But a current address had come from that scattered litter of information, which inferred that at least some of the talk was accurate.  In that case, his fanboy had skills to back up his…well…invitation.

Finding Rin had started out incredibly difficult and worked its way to obscenely easy.  The key piece was his hair color. No one knew his name, but everyone in the freak/occultist community knew his red hair and the trail of dead, violated bodies he left in his wake. Shit, from the way they told it, he didn’t even make any attempts to cover up his tracks; he was the little redheaded psycho who never considered the possibility of being caught or killed.  Only a psycho AND an idiot would think that. Star smiled.

It was a shame he was going to die before he knew the dance had begun.

Rin was pacing. No, not pacing, more like meandering lazily between the main apartment and a small bathroom, muttering to himself; drapes wide open. Unless he bent down to take a shit, or went out the door, Star, from where he was perched on the roof of the next apartment complex over, wouldn’t lose him. The apartment was obviously temporary, barely furnished and he’d only inhabited it a week. From the way it seemed, he was town hopping, staying in a town a month or two, then heading further west. Strangely, during his digging, Star noticed that he wasn’t the only person who seemed to be migrating. Not that it mattered to Star.

The redhead finally stopped his wanderings in front of the small sink and mirror in the bathroom. He was wearing a white, button-down shirt and nothing else. Star checked his watch: 2:34 am. He pulled in a deep breath. The redhead started brushing his teeth. Star exhaled and squeezed. The redhead leaned forward. The bullet sprayed plaster. The redhead looked out the window, smiled, and then ran out of the room.

Shit. Star swiftly packed up his rifle even as he considered whether the miss had been skill or dumb luck on the part of the redhead. People did not doge bullets. And as far as Star knew, neither did demons. But either way, he was getting the fuck out of there, and in a hurry. Later he would berate himself for missing at all, or evaluate why he didn’t take the second shot. He’d had time. At least he thought he’d had time.

He dropped off the side of the building; landing on the pile of trash heaped up on the landing of the fire escape to minimize impact and noise, then took the stairs two at a time. His truck was in the parking lot behind the apartment complex; better there then parked conspicuously on the street or in a vacant lot a block away. And this way he could easily make it to his car if-

Star slammed into the brick wall of the corner of the building a moment after he’d dropped down from the last steps of the fire escape, followed closely by another body. He was staring into crazy, two-toned eyes; pupils heavily dilated. The eyes were framed by a disheveled mass of bright red hair.

“You came.” A voice said huskily in his ear as Rin flattened Star against the brick with the length of his body.

“Not yet,” Star said simply, and then there was a sneeze.

“Motherfucker!” The redhead exclaimed, jumping back a foot, hand pressed against his side. Spidery veins of blood crawled along the fabric of his white shirt from underneath his fingers. “You shot me!” The exclamation was accompanied by a wide, white-toothed grin.

It had been a clumsy shot, but Star knew he’d needed to make it before the overly affectionate nut job noticed his movements. Star smiled back, raising the gun. The second shot missed its mark, ripping off the redhead’s ear before he’d entirely ducked around the corner of the building and out of sight of a third shot.

Star glanced in the direction of his truck, smiled, then shrugged off the rifle, removed the remaining ammo and set it carefully down. He didn’t want it getting in the way, but he certainly didn’t want it used against him either. Not that it appeared his fanboy would ever take the time to USE a gun, but predicting his movements was like predicting the weather.

“You know, I’ve never been shot before. This really hurts!” The voice that filtered from above was positively delighted. Star looked up to find Rin dangling over the railing of the fire escape at the top of the building above him. A droplet of blood splattered on Star’s forehead. Rin was moving back as Star shot again.

Had Rin climbed a drainpipe up the 4 story building in the time it’d taken Star to set down his rifle? The Fucker was fast, even if he appeared to have absolutely no common sense.

Star followed the redhead back up the fire escape, hefted himself up, and rolled over the edge onto the rooftop. He felt fingers on his neck. He drove the heal of his hand up into the redhead’s chin, sending his head backward. The rest of his body followed into a handstand which knocked Star’s hand away from his face and abruptly reminded him that the other man was only wearing a button down white shirt.

Star removed his gun again from its holster, but Rin was already moving towards him again, latching onto his wrist and twisting. He noticed, mildly, through the grinding in his wrist, that the eyes that were watching him gleefully were suddenly both a freakish amber color. Star’d have preferred to kick him in the shin, hopefully slow the redhead down, but since he was still squatting, he had to resort to just punching him in the face.

But the redhead didn’t back off. Star punched him again. He still didn’t let go. Star’s wrist snapped and the gun finally fell from his fingers. It should have hurt, but his heart was pumping pure adrenaline, and the redhead was smiling sweetly as he grabbed his other wrist in a tight grip.  He didn’t apply any extra pressure, but used the contact to help push Star fully onto the blacktop. The redhead climbed on top of him, pinning Star’s hands to the ground with his scrapped up knees. Rin wiped absently at the blood that finally started to ooze out of his nose. He was breathing hard, although Star couldn’t tell if it was from physical exertion or something else.

The smile Star was flashed, accentuated by lips colored brightly with blood, was warmly affectionate. “Yay. This is my favorite part…