[Contest Entry] Smokey Paths - Chapter 1
[Contest Entry]
Title: Smokey Paths
Author: brezo1816
Rating: T / PG13 / something like that...
Genre: AU, Drama/Romance
Pairing: Akame, some RyoUchi
Summary: Five-year-old Kamenashi Kazuya was caught in a house fire when he was alone at home. Six-year-old Akanishi Jin managed to climb through a window and get the younger boy to safety...
Seventeen years later the pair meet again...but this time it might be Jin that needs saving...
a/n: I've never written a fic this long before so if it seems slow at first its because I don't want to rush it. I hope everyone likes it :)
...
Smoke…
It was all he could see…
It filled the air, as if it were death itself…
Kamenashi Kazuya could feel his lungs filling up. He coughed violently and held his handkerchief to his face in a futile attempt to breathe in something other than smoke…
His eyes stung and he couldn’t help but begin to sob at the helplessness of his situation. He knew there were fire-fighters outside; he had heard the sirens...
But the fire was by the door and it was too fierce…he couldn’t get out and they could get in…
It was an accident. He hadn’t meant to knock over the candle in the hallway…his mother usually extinguished all the candles when he was at home. She liked the candles; they gave off a fruity scent that filled the little house they shared. Kazuya liked them too…
When he knocked over the table that held the candle, he ran to his room, knowing his mother was going to tell him off for the mess. He didn’t know his mother had already gone to work…and he didn’t know that the candle was still lit…
Later he smelt something funny in his room so he went back into the landing area outside the bedrooms. He almost screamed when he saw the hallway curtains on fire…
Fire…
Kazuya hated fire…
He had hated it ever since he burnt his arm when he was four years old…
And now he was curled up in a ball, upstairs in his room…tears streaming down his face.
The fire hadn’t reached the bottom of the stairs but it completely covered the front door: his only way out. There was a back door but his mother always kept that locked when he was alone in the house.
He could hear the fire-fighters outside, trying to put the fire out. But they would be too late. Kazuya didn’t know much about fire but he knew that smoke was dangerous and you shouldn’t breathe it in…
The tears continued to stream down his face. He was so terrified he almost didn’t hear the crash downstairs.
“Hey!” A young voice called out between coughs.
Despite the danger, Kazuya was curious as to why and how someone was in the house so he crawled back out of his bedroom. He peered down the stairs and through the smoke he just see a small figure crouched next to the bottom of the stairs, shielding his face from the fire that was only a few feet away from him. The figure looked up and met Kazuya’s eyes.
“What’s your name?” He asked in an almost calm voice.
“…K-Kazu…” Kazuya nervously answered. The boy who looked a little older than him gave him a quick smile.
“My name is Jin, come with me!” He gestured for Kazuya to come down the stairs but Kazuya took one nervous look at the fire and immediately shook his head.
“Kazu, you can’t stay here its too dangerous, I’ve found a window in the kitchen, we can escape through there…”
“But…the fire…I don’t like fire…” Kazuya answered in a shaking voice, ready to cry again. The smoke was getting thicker and both Jin and Kazuya were coughing more violently. Jin looked up at the younger boy again.
“I won’t let the fire hurt you, Kazu,” Jin told him. Kazuya looked into the other boy’s eyes and found himself wanting to trust him.
“…promise?”
“Promise.”
Kazuya hesitated for a few more seconds before dashing back into his room. Jin was left looking confused until the younger boy emerged again, a white teddy clutched to his chest.
Kazuya nervously made his way down the stairs and managed to get halfway down before fear of the fire made his knees shake.
Sensing the boy’s trouble, Jin climbed a few steps and gently took Kazuya’s free hand. He then slowly led him down the stairs, making sure that he was always between Kazuya and the fire. Once clear of the fire they both crawled on their hands and knees into the kitchen to avoid the smoke.
Jin immediately grabbed a chair and put it in front of the counter that was under the window. The window in question was very small. It would be a struggle for anyone even slightly bigger than Jin to climb through it.
Once the chair was in place, Jin helped Kazuya to climb up onto the counter and watched as the boy eventually jumped down into the back garden.
Kazuya landed awkwardly and would have cried if it weren’t for the fact that Jin was still in the kitchen. From outside he could hear the older boy coughing very violently.
“…J-Jin?” he mumbled before crying out, “…Jin!” He sat there for a few seconds, eyes fixed on the window until, to his relief, Jin eventually climbed out.
The fire-fighters had heard the shout and two of them were soon climbing over the fence from the neighbour’s garden. At first he only noticed Jin.
“Are you okay, kid?” The oldest looking fire-fighter asked Jin and the boy nodded, “what were you thinking? Charging in like that, you could have been killed!” Jin glanced nervously past the man and the fire-fighters turned around to see Kazuya sitting on the grass, still clutching the now dirty looking teddy bear to his chest. The younger fire fighter approached him with a gentle but concerned expression.
“Were you in that house?” Kazuya nodded shyly to the man’s question. The other man looked baffled.
“The neighbours were sure there was no one in there…” he muttered. The younger man turned back to Kazuya.
“Was there anyone else in that house?” he asked gently. Kazuya shook his head. The man then turned to Jin and affectionately ruffled his hair.
“You went back in there to save him didn’t you?” Jin nodded but there was no smugness or pride in his expression, only relief, “…well, you’re a hero kid.”
…
The coffee was a welcomed beverage for Kazuya, who looked like he had been hit by a train…and felt like it too.
“Last time I go out with that idiot…” Kazuya mumbled, still astonished at how much Yamapi could drink before showing any signs of being drunk. Kazuya was a little different…
Twenty-two year old Kamenashi Kazuya looked in the mirror and grumbled at his shaggy appearance. He had to go to a photo shoot today and, sure, he was going to be the one taking the pictures not posing for them but he still took pride in the fact that he always looked presentable. Well…almost always.
Taking one last sip of his coffee and grabbing the huge bag containing his camera, Kazuya walked out of his apartment and took the elevator downstairs. The face he was greeting with when he reached the ground floor did not surprise him.
“If you’re here to gloat don’t bother,” Kazuya said simply as he walked past the slightly shorter man.
“Oh there’s no reason to gloat when its obvious Kamenashi Kazuya can’t take a little alcohol…”
“Says Nishikido Ryo, who passed out the last time we all went out after only a few vodka shots.” Kazuya smiled at his quick comeback, leaving the other man with a frown.
“That was strong vodka!” He insisted.
“So was the stuff I had last night!”
“Yeah right!” Ryo laughed and Kazuya scowled at him. The banter between the friends continued for three minutes until Kazuya glanced at his watch.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta go, big fashion shoot today.” Ryo’s eyebrows were immediately raised.
“Makes a change from the usual wedding shoots, you’re obviously moving up…”
“Hopefully it means my work is getting noticed.” Kazuya replied with a hopeful smile which Ryo returned.
“Go you…well, I don’t want to make you late so I’ll be off now…hey! Maybe if that media contract comes through I could talk to my boss about hiring you for the photo shoots, he says he needs a fresh face!” Ryo told his friend enthusiastically.
“That would be great, thanks!” Kazuya glanced at his watch again, “Oh! I’ve really gotta go…I’ll see you guys tonight!” He waved as he ran to his car. After putting the camera bag on the passenger seat he got into the drivers seat, fastened his seat belt and manoeuvred the car out of the space reserved for him outside the apartment block.
…
“She didn’t…” Kazuya sat wide-eyed as Ryo explained an incident at his work earlier in the day. Ryo, of course, was only too happy to drag the incident out and maybe exaggerate just a little…
“She did!” He confirmed, “She demanded the pay rise and when he refused she told him where to stick his job and stormed out of the building!”
“Well, if you ask me, from what you’ve said, it’ll be good riddance, she sounds like a cow to me,” Yamapi answered plainly.
Yamashita Tomohisa, known as ‘Yamapi’ or ‘Pi’ to his friends, had a very careless attitude when it came to other people. Except his friends of course. He worked for Tokyo’s most popular gossip magazine and was therefore trained to be cool and careless but also harsh and ruthless when he needed to be.
Ryo was a writer for a culture magazine and not quite as ruthless.
But they both loved gently teasing Kazuya and his young qualities. Including the inability to consume large amounts of alcohol…
“So Kame…” Ryo turned to Kazuya with a smirk. Kazuya immediately narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t-you-dare…” he hissed. Yamapi grinned.
“Aww c’mon Kame, there’s nothing to be ashamed of…” he said in a sing song voice.
“How can you say that? You can drink everyone under the table!”
“True…” Yamapi answered with a smug smirk, while Ryo just laughed at the pair. Kazuya stuck out his bottom lip which signalled to Ryo and Yamapi that he would make no further comment and the matter was closed. They had both learned that it was usually best to leave it at that.
As his two best friends went on to argue about something to do with media, Kazuya took the time to look around the bar.
It was the same as always. A few groups of young women varying in number, here and there, would have a quick drink before hitting the night clubs. Occasionally they would try to talk to Kazuya and his friends but the only one who might show them interest was Ryo and that was only when he was in a very good mood. Yamapi was too busy to show them attention and Kazuya just wasn’t interested.
There were also the university students. Those people, not much younger than Kazuya, came in occasionally, normally in groups of about six or seven. The younger students stuck to soft drinks and the older ones usually drank nothing but beer, unless they were mainly women and then the drinks got a little more exotic. They could be loud sometimes but Kazuya didn’t mind as they usually kept to themselves and didn’t bother anybody.
Then, of course, there were the regulars. Kazuya, Yamapi and Ryo could probably be considered ‘regulars’ although they were a lot younger than the others and were frequently mistaken for university students, a fact that never failed to irritate Yamapi.
The regulars varied in shape and personality.
First there were the peaceful ones, the ones who would arrive in groups of no more than three and order a beer each, followed by a second. Sometimes they would order a third but more often than not they drank too slowly to leave time for more. After saying goodnight to whoever was behind the bar they would quietly make their way home.
The other ‘regulars’ were much louder and could sometimes get a little over excited when they’d had a bit too much to drink but, because they were well known, they were looked after and nobody really minded. The sober ones would take their friends home or the barmaids might order them a taxi.
Kazuya wasn’t really sure which stereotype he and his friends fitted into. This wasn’t the kind of bar successful people like them would usually been found in but because they had been coming here for years they didn’t have the hearts to go anywhere else.
As he continued to look around, Kazuya’s eyes rested a figure hunched over his drink, half leaning on the pillar that stood halfway down the wooden bar. The man was a regular, Kazuya had seen him there many times before but it wasn’t until tonight that Kazuya noticed he had never actually seen the man’s face.
Since his friends were still locked in a now heated debate and his curiosity was getting the better of him, Kazuya stood up and walked to the other side of the bar, a distance away from the man. Kenta, one of the bartenders that Kazuya was familiar with, approached him.
“Hi Kame, what can I get you?” he greeted with a smile. Kazuya looked up and returned the smile. He shook his head gently.
“Nothing thanks, I was just wondering…” he nodded subtly towards the man, whose face still wasn’t visible even from that angle, “…who is that?” Kenta turned to look at the man and paused for a moment before turning back to Kazuya.
“His name is Jin, Akanishi Jin…he’s a local fire-fighter.” Kazuya frowned slightly.
Jin? …why does that name sound so familiar?
“And…why is he so sad?” he asked Kenta, who shrugged slightly.
“Your guess is as good as mine, I’ve tried to talk to him…but his name and occupation was all I could get out of him,” Kenta explained, “He arrives at about seven o’clock every night, sits there for three hours, only ever ordering one beer…and then he just goes home…he only speaks to order his beer and then thank whoever serves him.” Kenta smiled at Kazuya then walked away to serve some other customers.
Kazuya continued to watch the man, who either didn’t notice or was ignoring his attention. Kazuya was tempted to try and talk with him but his friends were here and they would make a big deal of it. But Kazuya’s curiosity wouldn’t let it go. He knew the name sounded familiar but he couldn’t think why… He concentrated for a minute and, after coming to no conclusion, he made a decision.
He would come early tomorrow and, if the man was there, he would try and talk to him. Maybe then he could figure out why this Akanishi Jin seemed so familiar to him…
Title: Smokey Paths
Author: brezo1816
Rating: T / PG13 / something like that...
Genre: AU, Drama/Romance
Pairing: Akame, some RyoUchi
Summary: Five-year-old Kamenashi Kazuya was caught in a house fire when he was alone at home. Six-year-old Akanishi Jin managed to climb through a window and get the younger boy to safety...
Seventeen years later the pair meet again...but this time it might be Jin that needs saving...
a/n: I've never written a fic this long before so if it seems slow at first its because I don't want to rush it. I hope everyone likes it :)
...
Smoke…
It was all he could see…
It filled the air, as if it were death itself…
Kamenashi Kazuya could feel his lungs filling up. He coughed violently and held his handkerchief to his face in a futile attempt to breathe in something other than smoke…
His eyes stung and he couldn’t help but begin to sob at the helplessness of his situation. He knew there were fire-fighters outside; he had heard the sirens...
But the fire was by the door and it was too fierce…he couldn’t get out and they could get in…
It was an accident. He hadn’t meant to knock over the candle in the hallway…his mother usually extinguished all the candles when he was at home. She liked the candles; they gave off a fruity scent that filled the little house they shared. Kazuya liked them too…
When he knocked over the table that held the candle, he ran to his room, knowing his mother was going to tell him off for the mess. He didn’t know his mother had already gone to work…and he didn’t know that the candle was still lit…
Later he smelt something funny in his room so he went back into the landing area outside the bedrooms. He almost screamed when he saw the hallway curtains on fire…
Fire…
Kazuya hated fire…
He had hated it ever since he burnt his arm when he was four years old…
And now he was curled up in a ball, upstairs in his room…tears streaming down his face.
The fire hadn’t reached the bottom of the stairs but it completely covered the front door: his only way out. There was a back door but his mother always kept that locked when he was alone in the house.
He could hear the fire-fighters outside, trying to put the fire out. But they would be too late. Kazuya didn’t know much about fire but he knew that smoke was dangerous and you shouldn’t breathe it in…
The tears continued to stream down his face. He was so terrified he almost didn’t hear the crash downstairs.
“Hey!” A young voice called out between coughs.
Despite the danger, Kazuya was curious as to why and how someone was in the house so he crawled back out of his bedroom. He peered down the stairs and through the smoke he just see a small figure crouched next to the bottom of the stairs, shielding his face from the fire that was only a few feet away from him. The figure looked up and met Kazuya’s eyes.
“What’s your name?” He asked in an almost calm voice.
“…K-Kazu…” Kazuya nervously answered. The boy who looked a little older than him gave him a quick smile.
“My name is Jin, come with me!” He gestured for Kazuya to come down the stairs but Kazuya took one nervous look at the fire and immediately shook his head.
“Kazu, you can’t stay here its too dangerous, I’ve found a window in the kitchen, we can escape through there…”
“But…the fire…I don’t like fire…” Kazuya answered in a shaking voice, ready to cry again. The smoke was getting thicker and both Jin and Kazuya were coughing more violently. Jin looked up at the younger boy again.
“I won’t let the fire hurt you, Kazu,” Jin told him. Kazuya looked into the other boy’s eyes and found himself wanting to trust him.
“…promise?”
“Promise.”
Kazuya hesitated for a few more seconds before dashing back into his room. Jin was left looking confused until the younger boy emerged again, a white teddy clutched to his chest.
Kazuya nervously made his way down the stairs and managed to get halfway down before fear of the fire made his knees shake.
Sensing the boy’s trouble, Jin climbed a few steps and gently took Kazuya’s free hand. He then slowly led him down the stairs, making sure that he was always between Kazuya and the fire. Once clear of the fire they both crawled on their hands and knees into the kitchen to avoid the smoke.
Jin immediately grabbed a chair and put it in front of the counter that was under the window. The window in question was very small. It would be a struggle for anyone even slightly bigger than Jin to climb through it.
Once the chair was in place, Jin helped Kazuya to climb up onto the counter and watched as the boy eventually jumped down into the back garden.
Kazuya landed awkwardly and would have cried if it weren’t for the fact that Jin was still in the kitchen. From outside he could hear the older boy coughing very violently.
“…J-Jin?” he mumbled before crying out, “…Jin!” He sat there for a few seconds, eyes fixed on the window until, to his relief, Jin eventually climbed out.
The fire-fighters had heard the shout and two of them were soon climbing over the fence from the neighbour’s garden. At first he only noticed Jin.
“Are you okay, kid?” The oldest looking fire-fighter asked Jin and the boy nodded, “what were you thinking? Charging in like that, you could have been killed!” Jin glanced nervously past the man and the fire-fighters turned around to see Kazuya sitting on the grass, still clutching the now dirty looking teddy bear to his chest. The younger fire fighter approached him with a gentle but concerned expression.
“Were you in that house?” Kazuya nodded shyly to the man’s question. The other man looked baffled.
“The neighbours were sure there was no one in there…” he muttered. The younger man turned back to Kazuya.
“Was there anyone else in that house?” he asked gently. Kazuya shook his head. The man then turned to Jin and affectionately ruffled his hair.
“You went back in there to save him didn’t you?” Jin nodded but there was no smugness or pride in his expression, only relief, “…well, you’re a hero kid.”
…
The coffee was a welcomed beverage for Kazuya, who looked like he had been hit by a train…and felt like it too.
“Last time I go out with that idiot…” Kazuya mumbled, still astonished at how much Yamapi could drink before showing any signs of being drunk. Kazuya was a little different…
Twenty-two year old Kamenashi Kazuya looked in the mirror and grumbled at his shaggy appearance. He had to go to a photo shoot today and, sure, he was going to be the one taking the pictures not posing for them but he still took pride in the fact that he always looked presentable. Well…almost always.
Taking one last sip of his coffee and grabbing the huge bag containing his camera, Kazuya walked out of his apartment and took the elevator downstairs. The face he was greeting with when he reached the ground floor did not surprise him.
“If you’re here to gloat don’t bother,” Kazuya said simply as he walked past the slightly shorter man.
“Oh there’s no reason to gloat when its obvious Kamenashi Kazuya can’t take a little alcohol…”
“Says Nishikido Ryo, who passed out the last time we all went out after only a few vodka shots.” Kazuya smiled at his quick comeback, leaving the other man with a frown.
“That was strong vodka!” He insisted.
“So was the stuff I had last night!”
“Yeah right!” Ryo laughed and Kazuya scowled at him. The banter between the friends continued for three minutes until Kazuya glanced at his watch.
“Sorry, I’ve gotta go, big fashion shoot today.” Ryo’s eyebrows were immediately raised.
“Makes a change from the usual wedding shoots, you’re obviously moving up…”
“Hopefully it means my work is getting noticed.” Kazuya replied with a hopeful smile which Ryo returned.
“Go you…well, I don’t want to make you late so I’ll be off now…hey! Maybe if that media contract comes through I could talk to my boss about hiring you for the photo shoots, he says he needs a fresh face!” Ryo told his friend enthusiastically.
“That would be great, thanks!” Kazuya glanced at his watch again, “Oh! I’ve really gotta go…I’ll see you guys tonight!” He waved as he ran to his car. After putting the camera bag on the passenger seat he got into the drivers seat, fastened his seat belt and manoeuvred the car out of the space reserved for him outside the apartment block.
…
“She didn’t…” Kazuya sat wide-eyed as Ryo explained an incident at his work earlier in the day. Ryo, of course, was only too happy to drag the incident out and maybe exaggerate just a little…
“She did!” He confirmed, “She demanded the pay rise and when he refused she told him where to stick his job and stormed out of the building!”
“Well, if you ask me, from what you’ve said, it’ll be good riddance, she sounds like a cow to me,” Yamapi answered plainly.
Yamashita Tomohisa, known as ‘Yamapi’ or ‘Pi’ to his friends, had a very careless attitude when it came to other people. Except his friends of course. He worked for Tokyo’s most popular gossip magazine and was therefore trained to be cool and careless but also harsh and ruthless when he needed to be.
Ryo was a writer for a culture magazine and not quite as ruthless.
But they both loved gently teasing Kazuya and his young qualities. Including the inability to consume large amounts of alcohol…
“So Kame…” Ryo turned to Kazuya with a smirk. Kazuya immediately narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t-you-dare…” he hissed. Yamapi grinned.
“Aww c’mon Kame, there’s nothing to be ashamed of…” he said in a sing song voice.
“How can you say that? You can drink everyone under the table!”
“True…” Yamapi answered with a smug smirk, while Ryo just laughed at the pair. Kazuya stuck out his bottom lip which signalled to Ryo and Yamapi that he would make no further comment and the matter was closed. They had both learned that it was usually best to leave it at that.
As his two best friends went on to argue about something to do with media, Kazuya took the time to look around the bar.
It was the same as always. A few groups of young women varying in number, here and there, would have a quick drink before hitting the night clubs. Occasionally they would try to talk to Kazuya and his friends but the only one who might show them interest was Ryo and that was only when he was in a very good mood. Yamapi was too busy to show them attention and Kazuya just wasn’t interested.
There were also the university students. Those people, not much younger than Kazuya, came in occasionally, normally in groups of about six or seven. The younger students stuck to soft drinks and the older ones usually drank nothing but beer, unless they were mainly women and then the drinks got a little more exotic. They could be loud sometimes but Kazuya didn’t mind as they usually kept to themselves and didn’t bother anybody.
Then, of course, there were the regulars. Kazuya, Yamapi and Ryo could probably be considered ‘regulars’ although they were a lot younger than the others and were frequently mistaken for university students, a fact that never failed to irritate Yamapi.
The regulars varied in shape and personality.
First there were the peaceful ones, the ones who would arrive in groups of no more than three and order a beer each, followed by a second. Sometimes they would order a third but more often than not they drank too slowly to leave time for more. After saying goodnight to whoever was behind the bar they would quietly make their way home.
The other ‘regulars’ were much louder and could sometimes get a little over excited when they’d had a bit too much to drink but, because they were well known, they were looked after and nobody really minded. The sober ones would take their friends home or the barmaids might order them a taxi.
Kazuya wasn’t really sure which stereotype he and his friends fitted into. This wasn’t the kind of bar successful people like them would usually been found in but because they had been coming here for years they didn’t have the hearts to go anywhere else.
As he continued to look around, Kazuya’s eyes rested a figure hunched over his drink, half leaning on the pillar that stood halfway down the wooden bar. The man was a regular, Kazuya had seen him there many times before but it wasn’t until tonight that Kazuya noticed he had never actually seen the man’s face.
Since his friends were still locked in a now heated debate and his curiosity was getting the better of him, Kazuya stood up and walked to the other side of the bar, a distance away from the man. Kenta, one of the bartenders that Kazuya was familiar with, approached him.
“Hi Kame, what can I get you?” he greeted with a smile. Kazuya looked up and returned the smile. He shook his head gently.
“Nothing thanks, I was just wondering…” he nodded subtly towards the man, whose face still wasn’t visible even from that angle, “…who is that?” Kenta turned to look at the man and paused for a moment before turning back to Kazuya.
“His name is Jin, Akanishi Jin…he’s a local fire-fighter.” Kazuya frowned slightly.
Jin? …why does that name sound so familiar?
“And…why is he so sad?” he asked Kenta, who shrugged slightly.
“Your guess is as good as mine, I’ve tried to talk to him…but his name and occupation was all I could get out of him,” Kenta explained, “He arrives at about seven o’clock every night, sits there for three hours, only ever ordering one beer…and then he just goes home…he only speaks to order his beer and then thank whoever serves him.” Kenta smiled at Kazuya then walked away to serve some other customers.
Kazuya continued to watch the man, who either didn’t notice or was ignoring his attention. Kazuya was tempted to try and talk with him but his friends were here and they would make a big deal of it. But Kazuya’s curiosity wouldn’t let it go. He knew the name sounded familiar but he couldn’t think why… He concentrated for a minute and, after coming to no conclusion, he made a decision.
He would come early tomorrow and, if the man was there, he would try and talk to him. Maybe then he could figure out why this Akanishi Jin seemed so familiar to him…