A Snake in The Hen House (2/6) spots opennenneenenenen

Shane slid down the worn wooden bannister, the folder tucked under his arm. He hopped off a few steps from the bottom, and paused as he heard the sound of crying from the study. Carefully, he crept forward, only to step on floorboard that let out a loud creak. He winced, cursing internally. Shit!

(is unsure how to respond)

(oops sorry do you want Chris to like be angry at Shane for walking in or smth?)

(Nope, sorry, my brain froze when I read your response so it took me a little longer to process what you'd actually said. Hold up, I'll have my response up in a sec)

(it’s ok!)

Upon hearing the creaking floorboard, Chris immediately took a deep breath and wiped the tears from their cheeks.
Chris was never usually one to cry, but sometimes it hurt more to hold it in than to just let it all out. They turned their head slightly and peeked out of the door. "Come on in Shane, you have the file right?" Play it off as hayfever.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it,” Shane said quietly, placing the files down on the desk. Leather creaked as he perched on the side of the chair. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked gently. “I didn’t mean to get so angry. I’m really sorry.” He scratched awkwardly at the stubble on his cheeks and glanced down at the floor.

"Yeah I'm fine, just allergies." Chris waved their hand dismissively. "You had every right to get angry, don't apologise." They gently patted Shane's knee and offered him a warm smile. Only a professional would know Chris was lying behind the calm demeanor and smile. "So! Shall we get to work on your documents then?"

Caught off guard by Chris’s touch, Shane didn’t notice the falseness in their expression. “Yes, we probably should.” He offered a small smile in return, and returned to his folder, spreading the papers across the coffee table. “Alright, these will be very helpful,” he said happily. The papers were covered in a mess of scribbles and symbols, with lines and lines of tiny script filling in the margins.

"No offense, but I can not read your writing." Chris hummed as they scanned over the sprawled out papers. They recognised a couple of the symbols, though Shane always had been one for illegible handwriting. "Have you written these using ciphers by any chance?"

“Believe me, that’s only sort of on purpose,” Shane admits with a blush. “And yeah, I’ve always written in code. Paranoia runs deep.” He lets out a sigh, then continues shuffling through the papers. “These are written in a way that you need every single paper to understand all of the information. If you’re missing a single document, it’ll make no sense,” he explained. “So hopefully I didn’t lose anything.”

"I will admit, I'm impressed." Chris nodded in approval, clearly a little surprised that Shane had been so thorough in his documenting. "If I'd been allowed a partner on my missions, you'd definitely have been one of the first choices. Now all we need to do is decipher them."

At this, Shane’s smile faltered. “Yeah, about that…” He looked away bashfully. “To decode these, I need a specific keyword. One per page, to be exact. However, I, uh, may have lost the passage that contains said keywords.” Shane hoped desperately Chris couldn’t tell that he way lying. He appreciated Chris’s willingness to share their story, but he didn’t trust Chris enough to do the same. The documents had to be shown to Chris, to prove he wasn’t lying about them, but there was no way he was gonna spill these secrets. Not now, not ever.

Chris knew immediately that Shane was lying. They weren't an idiot, nor could they be fooled that easily.
I didn't risk my life in war zones only to be lied to by the people who are supposed to be my family. They kept their warm smile on their face, and slowly began gathering up all of their own documents. If one looked close enough, they would notice that Chris' smile had turned a little grim. Once Chris picked up the coded list of major enemies, they calmly tore it in half, and half again, and half once more, and rose to their feet with every file held against their chest. "Well," Chris' voice had turned a darker, no longer the sweet melodic voice it had been earlier, that warm smile still on their lips. "Let me know when you're willing to trust me." And with that, they turned and walked out of the room.

Shane backed away with every rip of paper, flinching like he had been hit. He could only stare as Chris exited the room, his coveted files clutched in their arms. Shit. Shit! Why did he think he could lie to a spy of all people? “Chris, wait!” he cried desperately. “I’m sorry. I’m just…” he paused. “Scared. So, so goddamn scared.”

Chris could hear Shane's cries but they kept on walking, that warm smile was now purely grim. If Shane wanted to speak to them, he could do so in private. They went around to the back of the house to retrieve their things, taking the cases and the files back up to the room that Chris used to use when living with Bear. They dumped everything onto their bed and rummaged through the cases for new clothes.
Chris didn't look like 'Chris' when they'd gotten changed and removed what little makeup they'd been wearing. Cargo pants and combat boots replaced the leather pants and heels, a tank top instead of the halter neck. They swept their hair up into a ponytail and put their glasses on.
They caught a glimpse of themselves as they wandered back downstairs with the files, and paused for a moment. Even Chris forgot what they really looked like sometimes, and oh how they were looking forward to everyone else's reactions.
With the files in hand, they took themselves to the dining room, and sat down with the papers on the table. Would Shane bother looking for Chris there?

Shane heard the stomp of combat boots enter the dining room, and knew it had to be Chris. He carefully tiptoed into the room and gingerly sat down as far from Chris as he could. The change in outfits was surprising, but wasn’t exactly the issue at the forefront of Shane’s mind. Watching Chris flip through the papers that basically made up his entire life was painful, and he winced slightly. He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. I’m sorry, really. I’m clearly the one at fault here, and I know I need to apologize.” He let out an awkward laugh. “Apparently everything’s about me now. I can’t stop talking about myself.” Shane looked down at the polished hardwood floors and started over. “You shared a lot earlier, things you didn’t have to say. It makes sense you’d expect the same thing in return, and be angry when you were lied to instead. I am really sorry that trust wasn’t returned.”

(The user who created this RP won't be on for a while and I don't know if we can say yes in their place…)

(Yeah we didn’t start this bad boy so I don’t know how much authority we have exactly)

"I don't mind being lied to." Chris shrugged and looked up at Shane, their voice was a lot deeper, naturally husky. "Lying is how a spy survives, so I know why you lied to me." They continued to flick through the papers, eventually pushing them away with a sigh. "Do you fancy talking about them, now that we are here in private?"

“Sure. Sure,” Shane said hurriedly. “These files are from the last 10 years, and should be organized by the type of event that occurred. The cipher key should be the fifth page down. If you hand me that page and the first one I should be able to get started with the decryption.”

Chris did as Shane said, passing him the required pages. They crossed their legs on the seat and watched proceeded to watch Shane work. Honestly, they would have given Shane a hand should he want it, but something told Chris that the former would have it done a lot quicker by doing it himself.

Shane squinted as he examined the papers, a little pout forming involuntarily on his lips. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and began to scribble in the English translation. Sitting back, he smiled a little in satisfaction. He turned to Chris and passed them the page without really comprehending the contents. A shame, because that page was a diary entry from the first day he had joined ‘the family’. “Here. I’ll get started on the rest of them,” he muttered.

Chris didn't bother looking at the page Shane had translated, at this moment in time they were more intrigued by just watching the man work rather than looking over the things he had written. Besides, it would have been easier to assess the documents after all of them had been translated.

Shane’s brow furrowed as he continued to work through the stack, mumbling shreds of what they contained as he translated. “telephone… remote explosive… Operation Daydream- wait a second! Chris, I might be onto something!” He jumped up from his chair and began pacing. “Operation Daydream was a mission to make contact with a rival ‘family’ about forming an alliance. At least, that’s what it looked like on paper. It was more like a massacre. 37 of their guys slaughtered. Anyone would want revenge for that.”

"You're right, and that does give us more of a lead on who would want Bear dead." Chris found a blank piece of paper and started scribbling stuff down. "Do you remember what the name of the leader is?"
(Sorry it's so short, I couldn't think of anything else)