AKA Sense Evil (I)

Kevin knows he shouldn't do that.
It's only eight o' clock in the morning and he's fully aware of the fact that Jessica is anything but a morning person, unless it's for some investigations.

- Oh well, in a certain sense, it does concern her investigations... - the gorgeous persuader ponders, as he walks through the corridor that leads only to a certain room.

Kevin knows he shouldn't do that.
He made such huge efforts to allow Jessica her spaces, he gave her her own bedroom and now he's about to violate her privacy.

- It's a good cause... okay, it's also to see her out of the usual context.- his oh-so-selective conscience tells him, before he presses the switch.

Kevin must have more than a lucky star, or Jessica is a heavy sleeper, because neither the door opening nor the electric light invading the room - otherwise it would be swallowed up by dark- manage to wake her up.

Despite the winter season, during the night she must have got rid of the bedspread, kicking it away roughly, and now she's lying face up, wearing only a light grey tank top and knickers that match it.

Her head, still with her eyes closed, is bending towards the door, so also towards Kevin. One leg is folded, while the other one stretches out, just like her opened arms, occupying as much space as possible.

Kevin knows he shouldn't do that.
He shouldn't stand there, staring at her bewitched, stealing from her that gash of intimity he shouldn't be a part of.

But she's such a show to him.

After one last glance he decides to wake her up, but he chooses the most hazardous way to do that.
He bends down towards her, so damn close to her lips.

"Rise and shine, Princess!" he murmurs and can't fight the urge to kiss her, a chaste and tender kiss, just like the one a Charming Prince would give to his Sleeping Beauty.

And the Sleeping Beauty in question at first smiles and even deepens the kiss, maybe because she's not fully awake yet, but then she seems to recall the current situation and Kevin flies to the other side of the room, landing on the soft carpeting, although the impact is a bit harsh.

"I gave you permission for the goodnight kisses, we didn't say a fucking anything about the morning ones!" she snaps, before instinctively covering herself with the sheet. "And stop staring at me, you, fucking sick pervert!"

"Ouch! Oh, please, being so scandalized for so little? I've seen you naked countless times, I know the map of your moles by heart." he chuckles, as he tries to get up, ignoring his aching bottom.

"Try to join them with a pen, you'll read the words 'FUCK YOU!'" she snaps, showing him the third finger, but she gets rid of the sheet, because she knows he's right.

"My sweet Jess, as usual!" he says, sarcastically, but he's amused.

"It's just that I'm not accustomed anymore to wake up and find you here in front of me..." she starts to explain, her tone much calmer.

- Why the fuck am I justifying with him? - she asks herself, confused, but goes on talking.

"Save for new year's eve, this hasn't happened since..." she leaves the sentence incomplete, she doesn't want those unpleasant memories to assault her.

To her it's a cross, to him it's only delight.

"Oh, I remember very well our awakenings, we used to do so much more than this. To begin with, I was there with you, under the sheets, much less dressed than this," he murmurs, hoarsely. "Let me refresh your memory." he adds, loosening his tie.

"Just dare to do that and I'm going to make a necklace with your guts!" the awesome detective growls.

"Someone still needs to take her morning coffee!" Kevin chuckles. "C'mon, killjoy, don't ruin the mood, I have a gift for you."

"I'm a bit afraid of your gifts... last time there was a corpse in my bed." Jessica grumbles, biting her lips, nervously.


Actually, she's more than aware than his last two gifts were a very expensive dress and a trip in London, and she appreciated both things a lot, but now she's just trying to make him feel guilty, a rather hard task, knowing the guy.

"He wasn't my gift, of course, he was just an obstacle on my way, an obstacle to eliminate." he shrugs. "However, I don't do certain things anymore. Path of redemption, blah, blah, blah." he replies, a little bothered. "Have your breakfast, then reach me in the living room." he adds, leaving.

The breakfast had on Jessica the desired effect and when she reaches Killgrave in the living room she's way more affable.

"So, where's the gift?" she wonders, stretching out her hand with expectations.

"Oh no, it's not the kind of gift I can give you like that," he chuckles, enigmatic. "Besides, we'll need this before," he draws out of the pocket of his blue jacket a black satin blindfold.

He stretches his arms, with the purpose of wrapping the blindfold around her eyes, but she grabs his wrists, glaring at him.

"If you're planning an erotic game, you can fucking forget it!" she growls.

Her mood after breakfast was just temporary.

"My darling, I'm really flattered you constantly think about doing kinky stuff with me. What's wrong, you have a latent wish, maybe?" he laughs, taking advantage of her confusion to get free from her grip. "I want to blindfold you, in order to take you to the room where there's your gift and I swear that in said room there won't be a bed, not any tool not suitable for younger audiences." he points out. "Where will you learn to trust me?"

"Never!" is Jessica biting remark, but at least she allows him to blindfold her and he leads her through the corridors, until they reach that room.

She hears Kevin dealing with a key and opening the door. She also feels his gentle hands removing the blindfold.

"Ta-dan!" Kevin singsongs. "I've managed to put the finishing touches in a few days. You said you wanted to work here in my place, too, now you'll can, undisturbed.

It's a room isolated from the rest of the house. In the middle there's a desk of solid pine with a curve at the corner. There's already one of those foldable lamps, a memo pad, a phone book, a cordless, but obviously there's still room for her laptop and many other things

Behind the desk, made with the same wood, there are shelves with paper archives to fill, a locker with a coffee machine on the top and a thermos. On the wall there's an abstract painting, just to give an extra touch and on the opposite wall there's a dartboard with arrows, one of the best ways to relieve stress.

A little wheeled drawer unity and a cream leather office armchair with wheels complete the furnishings. At the wall on the left there's an office display cabinet, perfect to store some bottles inside - true or fake alcohol - . On the other side there's a comfortable cream leather couch.

Kevin has always had a great taste.

"And if you need to freshen your ideas, there's a door behind the desk opening into the garden," he explains, as the detective is still busy admiring every corner.

"Kevin, it's beautiful. It really is. Thank you..." she murmurs, very amazed.

"Is it so beautiful that you want to give me a kiss?" the enchanter pushes his luck, bending over her.

"I wouldn't go that far!" she protests, pinching his lips between her thumb and index, before letting him go.

"See? Not even a purple furniture piece!" he made her laugh.

"Well, if it makes you feel more comfortable, I might allow you to put a couple of them. This could also become your study/office, you know?"

Now she is the one surprising him.

"Do you mean that..."

"That chatting on the balcony in London on New Year's Eve... there was a purpose. I told you I would make you do good things, do you remember? I guess that the time has come." she informs him, sitting on the armchair, to test how comfortable it is.

"So will we work together again? The hell of a dynamic duo is back!" he lights up with excitement, sitting on the desk, where there's the curve, his long legs dangling. "I'll prepare a thermos with coffee so we'll stay up until late night, making assumptions, with the pictures on the walls. With those pictures that you'll take, hidden from anyone... or maybe you'll also teach me how to take those pictures and we'll write notes and dates on those pictures and..."

"Exaggerate much?" Jessica interrupts Kevin's daydreaming, resting her elbows on the desk to watch him better.

"Why, isn't this the way detective stuff works? I've seen 'Broadchurch' a couple of times, I know this is how it works!"

Jessica bursts out laughing.

"I have to say, your delusions of grandeur show is very funny. Maybe yes, this is how it works, but not for me and you, not immediately, at least." she points out. "I'll give you some cases to solve, you have to solve at least a dozen of them to get to the cases that require pictures on the wall."

"Deal, my darling!" he sneers. "What are you going to give me? A madman who is holding someone hostage? A robbery to stop? A pyromaniac to catch out? A terrorist attack to prevent? A..."

Jessica pushes the wheels of the armchair, in order to get up.

"I guess I'll try the path to refresh my ideas right now, the only difference is that I'm going to reach the gate, jump and I'll be back once I have the proper idea. Something really suitable for you." she warns him, before going out.

"Huh, I like this less..." he grumbles, left alone, but he doesn't anything, nor makes someone do anything to stop her.

-------------------------------------------------------

Jessica rings the bell, but before opening Trish checks if it's really her by the video entry phone.
At least, the last visit from Killgrave taught the speaker one important thing: cautiousness .

"Hi Trish, can I bother you for a minute?" Jessica steps inside, without too much shame.

"Since when do you bother to ask?" her sister teases her.

After all, bon ton has never been one of the detective's distinctive features.

"Anyway, you don't bother me, don't worry, I was just gathering some stuff for the next episode of my talk show," she explains, pointing at some magazines and sheets on the table. "What's happening?"

"Do you want to know why I'm in such great shape? It's because I haven't been drinking a single drop of alcohol for more than two weeks." the brunette informs her, as she sits on a chair, not very gracefully.

"What are you blathering about? You practically drink every night!" the other strikes back, sitting in front of her.

"Oh yeah, sure, the bottles that Killgrave used to bring to me every night. Well guess what? It wasn't real alcohol, he just made me believe it was. He hired some scientists who know their stuff. Not like that laboratory turned into an unlivable bunker, when he wanted those people to work at his empowerment. These ones are happy, calm ... and even salaried. Just like his staff at home..."

"Jessica..."

"And this morning, in my bedroom, he kissed me and, like an idiot, I kissed him back, even more deeply, before I put him in his space!" the brunette goes on with her tale, without accepting Trish's attempt of interruption.

- If she's so scandalized for a kiss, then Malcolm is right, those two didn't have sex yet!- the blonde figures out.

"So are you telling me that you two never kiss each other?" she asks her in disbelief.

"This is not the point! It's me who decides how to kiss him and when to kiss him and the few times I let him do it first are surely not in my bedroom! This way everything risks becoming too intimate!"

"Are you afraid it could become too intimate?" Trish investigates.

"I... I... I don't know. Fuck, Trish, do you want to know what else he did? He set a room up in order to make me have my study/office, but not how it happened when he brought me to my old house, Nightmare Barbie style... this time it was something nice. He keeps doing tons of nice things and I..."

"You're falling in l..."

"Don't you dare to finish that fucking sentence!" Jessica snaps. "I meant that i can't let my guard down. I told him he'll start doing some investigation, trivial things, very trivial things. It's just that I still don't know what I could make him do. I just know I want to humiliate him." she reveals.

"After he did so many nice things to you?" Trish stares at her in confusion.

"A few weeks when he's acting so kind and cute can't sweep aside whole months when he acted selfish and as a total asshole," Jessica retorts.

"Those months can't be swept away, sure, but maybe something can change." Thris reads her sister like an open book.

- Maybe I should replace the next topic of my show with 'How thin can be the line between cohabitants and lovers?'- she ponders, well aware that Jessica doesn't listen to her talk show, but then she recalls that Killgrave could.

"This something doesn't need to change. We don't try to kill each other anymore, to me this is already an excellent achievement." Jessica shrugs ready to reach the exit.

"Just let me know if you have a good idea for a trivial mission!" she greets her, leaving.

As Jessica walks through the tree-lined avenue, full of luxury houses in that upscale neighbourhood, from afar she sees a friendly face.

"Malcolm! Why are you here, were you going to Trish?" she walks towards him, noticing that he's holding a pile of leaflets.

"That was the main idea, but then I met a desperate woman. She has been searching for her cat for three days and I'm helping her to put these missing ads in the nearby." he explains. "The last time I did it I was fighting for a lost cause, but this time my hope is much higher." he grumbles, recalling very unpleasant memories.

Jessica grabs one of those leaflets and reads it with vivid interest.

- Dear my Killgrave, here's your first case! - she establishes, with an evil sneer.

"Malcolm, you're a genius!" she pats his shoulder, before running away, leaving him puzzled.

-------------------------------------------------

"You're kidding!" Killgrave snaps, after she gave him that mission.

"I've never been more serious than this." Jessica crosses her arms against her chest.

They're in the living room, waiting for lunch, although after that news Killgrave lost his appetite.

"Are you sure that this... thing is a cat?" he wonders as he stares at the leaflet where there's a picture of a splendid specimen of Sphynx Cat.

Sure, maybe the sand cloured nude skin, so wrinkled, those eyes so bright baby blue they almost seem unnatural, combined with that not so friendly expression make that poor pet a little disquieting.

"Of course it's a cat, among the most prestigious ones, nonetheless!" she nods.

"Just looking at that sort of cat gives me the creeps!" the persuader whines, placing the leaflet on the footrest table.

"Don't you think I know that?" the smart detective challenges him with her look.

"My powers don't even work on animals!" he protests.

"Don't you think I know that?" she sneers, enjoying the moment. "There's no redemption road that is not an uphill road. Either accept this mission or try to be a better man just on your own, because I'm going to pack my bags and leave!"

He frowns.

"Are you giving me an ultimatum?"

(End I)

Notes:

I apologise, but this time the chapter is soooo long that I preferred to split it in two.

If you want to know what's going to happen, don't miss next part, hope you had fun with this one, pleeease let me know.