[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 104 ~D'accord~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. They immediately clash but is that all they'll ever be? How much is fate and how much choice? And how will their meeting change the world around them?
Author's Note: Here's Chapter 104. Enjoy. The two principle players in this chapter were both pretty uncooperative but I think it's as good as it's gonna get.
BANNER BY going_dangerous!!
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 104 ~D'accord~
If you had asked a fifteen-year-old Kame what he was capable of and willing to do, he never would have predicted this. How had he gotten here? Blood on his hands - he’d killed so many people, even if he had reasons - and for all he knew, there was about to be more. But Kame found that he didn’t really want to kill the man if he didn’t absolutely have to.
He could have, which surprised him. The fact that he’d gotten the drop on a drug-dealing gang leader in his own house was mindblowing and it took a lot of focus to keep that thought from fatally distracting him.
“Do you have any weapons on you?” That position wasn’t the best for searching a person. He’d either have to let go of his knife or… well, maybe if he leaned more forward, he could hold the man down with the weight of his body and use the other hand? God, his heart was beating so fast. Really, how did he get here?
“You would really trust any answer I gave you to that question?” A pause, then, “How old are you? How did you live as long as you have?”
Yasu didn’t seem afraid of him at all now. That was probably bad. “Old enough to have done my research. I heard you were a reasonable man, willing to kill but not relying on that as a solution to every problem. And, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t want to kill you. I’m a reasonable man, too-” and that earned him an incredulous snort from Yasu, “but I’m willing to. I was trying to give you the chance to start this honestly so we could deal with each other properly. I could remind you that your men are tied up and mine aren’t.”
He had no idea where he was pulling these words from. He had no idea what he was doing. And even though Yasu wasn’t afraid, Kame was. He was just doing his best to not show it.
Yasu seemed to consider his words. “And if I answer honestly, then what happens?”
“I disarm you if needed, back away, and let you sit properly. Then we’ll talk. We’ll come to some arrangement that sooths your conscience or at least your wallet and keeps my people safe.” By this point, Kame was praying it worked. The longer they stayed like this, the more likely Yasu would figure out how clueless he really was.
“There’s a switch blade in my left pocket. I didn’t think I’d need more tonight. But if you take it, be sure to give it back before you go. It’s my favorite.”
So Kame took it, tossed it over his shoulder to land across the room and backed away. Yasu turned and stood properly. He adjusted his clothing, sat down almost leisurely and gestured for Kame to start.
“First turn off that horrible tape.” For the tape of Yurina was still playing on the big screen television.
Yasu did it without comment or complaint. The man actually seemed to find the whole thing in bad taste, anyway. Good to know he wasn’t the only one.
“The way I see it, you have a problem. Two of your men have been killed. I don’t think it would be productive to deny the circumstances. My people-” Kame said, as if Yurina and Shuta belonged to him. They didn’t but it seemed much safer to let Yasu think they were like a gang or at least working for him. “-also took their money - your money! - and I imagine that is also important to you. I know you have just cause to kill them but I can’t let you do that. So I ask you, what is more important to you? Avenging the deaths of your men or getting back the money stolen from them?”
Yasu looked amused more than anything. “I didn’t care about those men, save that they were mine. I don’t like people messing with my things. I was able to recover the drugs because they were left untouched by your people and, I’ll be honest with you… the drugs were worth far more than the money. It’s the principle of the thing.”
“So you’d rather kill them and get nothing than let them go and have your money (or at least what I could find of it) returned to you?” Things weren’t going all that well, were they?
But Yasu just laughed. “I have to admit that I was pissed at first but after the third kill, I decided I could use this to my advantage instead. I had no intention of killing your people unless they refused my terms.”
“Those being?”
“Even though she is highly recognizable in certain circles, the two of them were still able to take out three different men who should have known better. In killing the last one, they saved me the trouble of doing it myself. At that point, I realized those two could be very useful to me. Especially her. They were already killing drug dealers and didn’t seem to care which ones, so I wanted them to do it for me instead of against me. It would serve both of our purposes.”
Actually, this might be going better than he thought. But… “If that’s the case, why the drama with the tape? You had her here already.”
“Payback. I may be a business man but that doesn’t mean I can’t be petty when people take my things.”
“You actual enjoy watching something like that?” Despite the circumstances, Kame found himself getting mad.
But Yasu shook his head and he seemed to actually care that Kame was judging him for this. “As I’m sure you just overheard me say to the woman, I’m not those men. That is not how I get my kicks. That’s a sign of lesser men, more animals than anything else. I’d never seen the tape until my men were killed. I tracked it down so I would have some idea who I was looking for and what sort of person I was dealing with.”
Kame didn’t have to like it but he couldn’t fault the logic. After all, he’d also watched part of the tape for reasons other than enjoyment so he recognized the fact that someone else might also have a different motive to watch it. But the rest… “Have you ever thought that being petty is also a sign of lesser men?”
He didn’t know why he was judging the man or where he was getting the confidence to chastise him. The strange thing was that as more time went by this evening, Kame was finding the role he played really suited him. That he had it in himself to both strongly and directly face dangerous men like this. That when it was for the sake of those he loved, he could call upon some inner fortitude and keep his wits about him and actually solve problems without resorting to shooting answers out of someone.
Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised since he did go face Takeshi at the prison for Aoi’s sake. It was true that Takeshi turned out to be a decent guy but he didn’t know that at the time. All he knew was that the man was a murderer but he still went and faced him.
As for Yasu, he didn’t respond to Kame’s comment but instead said, “You know, every man in that tape is now dead.”
All Kame could say in response to that was, “Then you know how seriously I take her safety, Yasu-san.”
And the two of them talked for what felt like forever but they did reach an agreement. Kame gave back the money and promised to “watch his people” better. Yasu agreed to wash his hands of the whole mess and also to destroy his copy of Yurina’s tape which he admitted he planned to do anyway because he had no more interest in it.
And even though Kame planned on sitting both Yurina and Shuta down for a nice, long talk about how seriously they’d messed up, he couldn’t watch them every minute of every day. Therefore, as a sign of good faith to Yasu, he gave the man the phone number - but not the address - of the apartment and told the man that should he ever have problems with any of his people again, he should call him directly because he would take full responsibility for it.
Yurina would probably be pissed at how Kame kept calling them “his people” as she was a fiercely independent woman but at that moment he really didn’t care.
After handing over the cash, Kame slung the backpack over his shoulder and said, “Thank you for seeing me. This really is a lovely home you have, if you can overlook the carpeting. Hopefully I won’t have to see it again. I believe I’ll leave it to you to untie your men. I don’t want to be outnumbered before I go.” Because despite their arrangement, Kame was pretty sure the man was perfectly willing to kill him if he thought he’d gain something by doing it.
Then he got Shuta and Yurina and they all walked in silence to the car. Shuta drove them back to the apartment. By then it was three in the morning and though Kame would love nothing more than to just collapse, he still had to talk to the two of them. Not just the lecture, though they’d get that, too. What he really wanted to make sure they were okay. Shuta was beaten pretty badly and Yurina had suffered a major shock.
While Shuta went to clean himself up a bit, Yurina sat down on the couch with a groan. Apparently the hangover had kicked in.
“Do you know h-” Kame started, but he was interrupted by Yurina.
“I did it wrong, didn’t I? Maybe I wasn’t careful enough…”
She still didn’t see it? “Did you ever stop to think that maybe it wasn’t that you were doing it wrong so much as it was wrong to do?”
He hoped she would see that now despite her anger. Otherwise… this wasn’t Yurina anymore. It would mean the loss of her daughter had broken her more completely than any light he might have could heal.
Please… make her still able to understand why this was so very wrong...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 105 ~The Girl~
A/N: Yet again, I didn't fit everything in the chapter. The sad thing is, this was all supposed to be one chapter starting from when Kame left the prison all the way through to the impending discussion Kame's going to have with Yurina next past!chapter and then the one with Shuta. So.... yeah, it got kinda spread out and I apologize.
Expect next chapter to be back to the present, include a hot smut scene, and introduce a new character.