READ THE LAST CHAPTER!! IT IS DIFFERENT IN A VERY IMPORTANT WAY!!! THANK YOU!!!

Potatoes, Part One

Cain could tell Riff was upset. All semblance of propriety had been thrown out the window at Cain's move. Clothes were now slightly wrinkled, and his butler's hair was slightly mussed from hands running through it. Now Cain was sitting on the sofa, his hand hiding half his face, but still watching the older man. Riff himself was leaning on a window, staring out at the rain.

"Riff—"

"We're going to get in so much trouble if somebody finds out."

"That's all you're worrying about?" Cain couldn't hide his surprised, and even more his relief. "There's not even anything to really be caught at!"

"There's something to be caught at, believe me," Riff said, finally looking around. "Starting with the obvious. There's also the fact that you're not even eighteen yet, despite how you act. And what about class? You're my employer. You know how your family would react."

"I could care less what they think. Unless you feel whored, or that I took advantage of our situation—"

"People could very well think the opposite."

"—And it's not like anyone has to find out."

Riff finally gave a small, if somewhat frustrated smile. "You're not making this any easier."

Cain turned away, smiling in a would-be-innocent way. "I'm quite sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Master Cain—"

"Don't," Cain said. "Not under this kind of circumstance. It feels dirty."

"Huh?"

"I feel like a dirty old man when you call me that in this situation."

Riff laughed, and Cain realized the irony of what he just said. Even after Riff was done laughing, they just looked at each other for a few moments. It was suddenly much less tense, and Riff turned back to the window for only another moment, as if weighing the pros and cons.

"I guess we'll just have to be careful," he said, when he looked back at Cain.

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"We should go back to the beginning."

Riff looked up from where he had been writing for Cain.

"The beginning?"

"The first victim was found with a spoon in his windpipe, and this was reported to the police. Except that we can't assume this. We don't know who found the body, when, where, and the police got to look first," Cain said. "We started this from the middle. Except that it didn't seem like the middle, because it felt like the beginning, because that's where I always start from."

"What are you suggesting, Sir?" Riff asked. However, he already knew.

"We're going to the graveyard."

"Master Cain, this is becoming a bad pattern. Have you no respect for the dead?"

Cain walked up behind the older man and put his arms around his shoulders, and rested his chin on a shoulder.

"Of course I do," he said. "Or else I wouldn't bother."

"We're going to get arrested as grave robbers someday."

Cain frowned slightly, and said, "You've been rather argumentative lately."

"It's only for your own good," Riff said, and pressed a kiss to the young earl's temple.

"So you'll help me." It wasn't really a question.

"You know I will."

Cain studied what Riff had written for him for a moment. Then Riff saw a familiar expression cross the younger man's face. Something had just clicked into place somewhere. Cain grabbed the pen from Riff's hand, and started scribbling as hard as he could across the most recent victim. The only way he was able to stop him was by snatching the pen back.

"Master Cain, what—"

"That person doesn't fit!"

"Doesn't—"

"I take that back, I'm not sure. We'll know tonight, when we're done at the graveyard."

Riff worried slightly at the furiously determined triumph on Cain's face.

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Notes: OMG! I'M BACK!! Yes, I am very happy. This is the first think I've written since the brain-ninja in November. I actually had to print out my entire story, read it, and make as short notes as possible. I started with a timeline, and finding another specific pattern. Which will be explained, as soon as I find my biology notes.

It was strange reading the notes from previous chapters, cause it was like reading only one side of a chatroom conversation. I was thinking "What the Hell am I talking about?!" I think I should stop putting such random notes at the end of my chapters.

Okay, as always, tell me if they start drifting from ICness. Tis very important to me, since I haven't written in a while, and it's now also a romance (btw, you won't see tons of that, since I really do want this to be a mystery, first and foremost.)