[JE] [JEF #4] Past Flaws 9/12
Title: JE Fleet IV: Past Flaws 9/12
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 9
Over the next three days, things didn't improve much. Kame kept quietly to himself, his back to the others as though he hoped not to be noticed; this strategy worked, for the most part, as everyone else was too busy bickering to pay attention to him.
Koki was pretending his head didn't hurt, which didn't fool anyone when he snapped at them, and spent his time complaining about how crowded it had gotten. Nakamaru was kind enough to go along with the pretense, but was too wrapped up in his own injury to make his usual peace. Ueda was constantly on the comm, trying to keep up with his network of contacts so the Yunaka could avoid trouble, and Taguchi...misread the atmosphere completely and suggested going to Saturn for the upcoming billiards tournament.
As for Jin, his worries could be summed up thus: they were running out of supplies (the Yunaka was too old to be equipped with a replicator), they still hadn't managed to find the diamond (had Ishida taken it after all?), and...
Kame.
It all came down to Kame, in the end, because food was important and survival was important and neither of them meant a damn if he couldn't figure out what to do about Kame. Koki had asked him several times why he'd gone back for the disgraced LIPS officer, why he'd felt the need to save him and bring him aboard, and Jin hadn't been able to answer him. It was an honest response, at least, because he really didn't know.
Was it enough of a reason that Jin couldn't have walked away, knowing he'd be leaving a man to certain death? If he said that he wanted Kame to owe him one, that he got a kick out of holding someone else's life in his hands, would anyone believe him? The first reason was true, the second was nonsense, but neither was an answer.
Jin couldn't quite put his finger on it. He hadn't fallen madly in love with Kame at first sight, hadn't swooned at that sweet rasp of a singing voice, hadn't misread a tractor beam as a sign of affection and certainly didn't think that Kame's drug-induced touch was an indication that the other man felt anything for him. No matter what Yamapi thought, Jin wasn't *that* delusional.
Not delusional, but fanciful, perhaps? There was something that caught Jin's attention, made him look twice. Brown eyes desperate and determined, shadowed in black and blue; eyes of a child seeking strength to become a man. Hands that were gentle without reason, healing, caressing; care given without desert. Kame had been half out of his mind when he'd been sent in to interrogate Jin and despite the accusations, the threats and the insults, he hadn't hurt him. Hadn't even tried.
It wasn't a particularly solid basis for a friendship, much less something more. Jin tried to run interference between Kame and the others, but their relationships were equally shaky. To be sure, Koki and Nakamaru were close friends, and they were slowly accepting Jin into the crew. Ueda seemed to have some sort of fondness for Taguchi, though Jin had given up trying to understand why, and thanks to Nakamaru's easy kindness, they, too, were less like strangers than Kame.
But it was difficult to get to know Kame when he barely spoke unless spoken to, and Jin was getting sick of conversations dying after a couple of exchanges.
"Let's go search for Kizuna," he suggested.
Kame looked up from the datapad Nakamaru had lent him. "The diamond?"
"Unless you think we're going to find bonds in the cargo hold, yeah. Come on, it's got to be back there somewhere. Besides," Jin grabbed Kame by the arm, forcing him to drop the datapad, "you won't talk to me and the others keep telling me to get out of the cockpit because apparently I'm getting in the way. I'm going to go crazy if I don't do something!"
"I'll hold you to that," Kame muttered, but he allowed himself to be led to the hold, where he proceeded to arrange all the stolen jewellery neatly by type, then by carat, then by stone.
"You're a lot more organised than I expected," Jin said. His contributions so far had been mostly opening boxes and bags when instructed to do so by Kame.
Kame flicked a chunky gold chain at him. "It's the only way we're going to find anything in this mess. Anyway, how do they expect to sell this lot if they don't know what they've got?"
It surprised Jin to hear a LIPS officer, even a former one, talking so casually about selling stolen goods. "Didn't know you'd be interested in that."
"I'm not an idiot, Jin, and I'm not deaf either. Taguchi's broke, Ueda refuses to talk about his financial situation which means he's probably not much better off, and the other two don't have anything except what's in here with us. I can't get to my savings - I sent most of my pay to my family, anyway - and I don't suppose you brought much with you when you ran away from Kitagawa?"
"Not much," Jin admitted. If he'd had more time to plan, perhaps he'd have been better off, but he didn't have a great deal of hard currency on him and if he used his bank account he could be traced.
Being right didn't improve Kame's mood. "Then if we want to resupply - and we're going to have to, soon - we need to do something about all this jewellery. We're hanging around in limbo and if we stay here too much longer, someone's going to come along and pick us off."
Cheery thought. "The buyer we were going to meet when you caught us fell through, so I think Ueda's looking for alternatives. It's not easy keeping a low profile when there's an APB out for the ship."
That didn't surprise Kame in the slightest. He'd been expecting Ishida to claim that his crazed subordinate, Kamenashi Kazuya, had, in a fit of jealousy, started a riot in the prison and taken up with the prisoners, leaving Ishida for dead. "What do they want us for? Attempted murder, perhaps?"
"Kidnapping you."
Kame dropped the pearl necklace he was holding. "Say that again?"
"Kidnapping you." Jin couldn't suppress a giggle. "Ishida's claiming that a bunch of prisoners escaped, stunned an entire LIPS unit, captured you and then left him unconscious in the shower when he tried to rescue you. According to the gossip Ueda keeps getting, Ishida's vowed to get his precious junior officer back, no matter how long it takes, and your old unit is going to track you down personally."
Kame snorted. "How very noble of him. He just wants to find me so he can make sure I don't talk - and since you were with me, you're next on the hit list. He'll probably come up with some excuse to destroy the entire ship, just to be on the safe side."
Despite Kame's irreverent tone, Jin's blood ran cold. The Yunaka's shield generators were too old and worn to hold out against a concentrated attack, and if they were fired upon by someone with a serious reason to kill, they wouldn't last long.
"We have to leave the ship," he said slowly. "We're too obvious like this. It'll put everyone in danger if we stay."
"The entire ship's obvious," Kame pointed out. "We'd all have to leave. The only way out of this is discrediting Ishida and proving you didn't kidnap me."
"But if we go public we'll get arrested anyway!" Jin waved at the neatly arranged piles of jewellery. "Your unit knows about all this."
"They do, but..." Kame grinned at him. "That information was never recorded. I checked. They didn't want any evidence logged before they could help themselves; the only charge being brought against the Yunaka was for firing a weapon in a secure zone.
"And they can't change their minds now. If Ishida's claiming they were all stunned, they're covering up the fact that they were all blind drunk - possibly even drugged - and that what they planned to do was illegal in the first place. They can't afford to have anyone show up with a different story - which means I'm a dead man."
For a dead man, Kame seemed quite cheerful, Jin thought. He kept talking as he continued his search for the diamond.
"The weapons discharge'll get you a fine, Ueda's got a fortune in unpaid parking tickets - which are all fake, anyway - and Taguchi got thrown in for brawling. None of you are likely to get the death penalty for that. Kidnapping a LIPS officer, though..."
Jin groaned. "They'll just keep chasing us, then, and with public support unless we can prove we didn't kidnap you. But if you try to tell the truth, Ishida'll say we brainwashed you or something, or that I stole you away to satisfy my own twisted desires and you were unable to resist my good looks and charm."
Kame's laughter - the real thing, not harsh, sardonic bites - was a full-body experience, involving hops, claps and the occasional joyful whoop. Jin wasn't sure whether to take offense or not, but he figured that even if he was being insulted, it was worth it.
"Not that your good looks and charm aren't irresistible," Kame said once he recovered his breath, "but I think we'll have a better chance with *this*."
A small velvet box lay open on his palm. Inside...Kizuna.
"It really does look like there are rings in the centre. Tiny ones." Jin had a gift for stating the obvious. The two circles were roughly the same size, entwined at an angle so that they formed a pair of butterfly wings rather than a figure-of-eight. "When did you find that?"
"While you were bragging about how I'd be unable to resist your good looks and charm."
"I wasn't bragging!"
Kame reached out and ruffled the tips of Jin's hair. "True. It's not bragging if it's the truth."
"K-Kame?"
Bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. Kame had relaxed, had allowed himself to get comfortable around Jin, and that wasn't wise for anyone with a target painted on his back. "Good looks and charm" didn't cover it.
It wasn't that Jin was perfect, because he wasn't. Since that first conversation over the comm, Kame had learned that Jin was a little clumsy, not a candidate for the Milky Way MENSA by any means, and could be quite scathing when he wanted to be - if his mocking of Taguchi, in particular, was any indication.
He was also sweet, protective of his friends, and keen to make people smile. There *was* a charm about Akanishi Jin, though Kame couldn't have named it. Couldn't have described it. Couldn't have told anyone how good it felt to hear Jin confess that he'd gone back to help Kame, knowing full well that he might die - or get horribly lost - in the process. Kame knew he hadn't done anything worthy of such a reckless act.
He also knew he hadn't done anything worthy of the look Jin was giving him right now - curious and hesitant and worried and...hopeful?
"Kame? You all right?"
Kame snapped the jewellery box shut. "I should go tell the others," he mumbled, turning towards the door.
Jin caught his wrist, clamping down hard over the slim, silver datband. "Just...wait a second, will you?"
"What for?" Kame demanded to know.
"Uh...shouldn't we make sure it's the right stone first?" The look Kame gave him made Jin wish he hadn't opened his mouth. "Of course, you're right, how many other diamonds are there with rings in the middle?"
"It's usually the other way round," Kame said. "Are you going to let go of me or do I have to drag you all the way back to the cockpit?"
That was no good. Jin couldn't talk to Kame in the cockpit. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to say, mind you, only that he couldn't have said it in front of the others. The cargo hold, with its dim lighting and silent stacks of crates, was far better suited to private conversation. Inanimate objects couldn't eavesdrop and use it against you afterwards.
"There's no way you could drag me back," Jin said smugly. "Not a skinny little thing like you."
"You're *that* heavy, are you?" Kame raked Jin up and down with his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think so. Even if you do eat more pasta than anyone I've ever met."
He tried to yank his arm free; Jin's grip tightened until the datband cut cruelly into their flesh. Kame's other hand shot out to pry Jin's fingers free and that's when they both heard Ishida's voice, muffled but unmistakeably his.
"You know that's not gonna work without the code, Kamenashi.
"What the..." Jin released his hold on Kame.
Kame looked around frantically. "Ishida?"
"Or this. I took it off Akanishi earlier. He's not as innocent as his record makes out, you know - not if he's carrying this around."
"Ah!" Kame clapped his hand to his mouth. "Your lock pick. He said this in the shower! So why..."
They both looked at Kame's datband, where a small green light was flashing to indicate playback mode. Kame had left the band switched off since leaving the prison, in the unlikely event that they ever got within range of someone he knew; Jin's clumsy grip on his wrist had switched it back on.
"You were recording him?"
Kame pressed pause. "Not intentionally. I must've switched to record mode when I was struggling against the cuffs."
They listened to the rest of it - the recording ended with the sound of Jin fumbling with the cuffs, presumably pressing stop in the process. It was more than enough to nail Ishida.
Except...Kame wasn't sure he could present it as evidence.
Jin didn't seem to notice anything wrong, babbling on excitedly about how all they had to do was take Kame back to Lunacy and play the recording for his boss, and he was sure that everything would be sorted in no time, especially if Kame really was, as Ishida claimed, the captain's pet.
Kame wasn't nearly so optimistic. "Jin, were you even listening to that?"
"Of course I was. Ishida admitted he's in debt to the Kitagawas, and he was quite clearly attacking you. No one would believe he's innocent after that."
"Yeah, but...that "interrogation". He mentioned that, too." Kame opened the velvet box again and stared at the diamond till the rings began to blur. "About that...I'm sorry. I should've said it days ago, but I'm sorry. I wasn't..."
Jin shrugged. "The chair thing kind of threw me, but I suppose as kinks go, it's not that bad."
"I wasn't talking about the chair - which, by the way, is not my usual preference!"
At least, it hadn't been, but there was an old, overstuffed armchair bolted to the floor of Koki's cabin, one that seemed to invite Kame to run his nails along the ragged seams of the cushions, and press his fingers hard against the arms to feel the sturdy frame beneath the fabric. After a minute of wrestling with temptation he'd walked out, breathing hard, and vowed never to peek in Koki's cabin again.
But there was, he hoped, no need to inform Jin that Ishida's attempt to set him up for humiliation had had unexpected side effects. Besides, chairs couldn't talk.
"Shame, because I know a really cute couch who's just your type..." Jin teased.
That got Kame to stop staring at the diamond and actually look at Jin. It was hard to tell under the hold lights, but he seemed a little flushed.
"Look, Kame, I'm...I'm not good at talking about this sort of stuff, okay?" He chewed on his lower lip for a moment; Kame gave him the silence. "Yeah, you kind of freaked me out. But I could've kicked you, or overbalanced the chair, or something, and I didn't. You didn't do anything to me that I didn't want, so stop beating yourself up about it. You could've treated me a lot worse, could've let me keep bleeding - you were so doped up you could've done anything. But," Jin swallowed hard, "I think your situation was even worse than mine."
The last thing Kame wanted was pity. He muttered something about making a copy of the recording for security purposes, and slipped away before Jin could stop him.
-----
Responses were mixed when Kame produced Kizuna. Taguchi couldn't believe Ueda had wanted him to steal *that* instead of a pair of glorious antique Famicom controllers. Koki had appreciated the sparkle but would've preferred it set in a chain - it wasn't one he'd stolen intentionally, merely swiped on one of their many raids. Nakamaru thought it was quite lovely, though had no particular attachment to it.
Ueda's attachment was purely financial. "You want to discredit Ishida, correct?"
Kame wasn't certain. "I thought that would be enough, but if he's coming after us..."
"You can forget discrediting him." Ueda looked Kame straight in the eye. "He's going to die. The moment word gets back to the Kitagawas that he doesn't have Kizuna for them, they'll close in, and you won't have to worry about him talking."
Jin understood that better than any of them. "But he's the only one who knows we've got it, and he's certainly not going to tell anyone."
Ueda hit a button and brought up a starchart, showing their current course. "He won't have to. I've managed to make contact with my original buyer, a member of the Watanabe Clan; he's interested in a few other items too but he'll be particularly pleased to get hold of this diamond."
Now Jin understood why Ueda hadn't revealed his buyer earlier, when they were locked up together. He had to be certain Jin was no longer working for old man Kitagawa - there was no love lost between him and the Watanabe Clan, and when one side got something the other wanted, they flaunted it for all they were worth. Within seconds of the sale, the Kitagawas would know that Kizuna was out of their reach...and that Ishida was a dead man.
"We resupply and split the rest six ways, right?" Jin was very concerned about the money.
Everyone agreed to this, especially the part about resupplying as they'd somehow managed to run out of coffee.
"It was the good stuff too," Koki mourned.
"Cheer up - Deimos is known for its coffee," Nakamaru said.
As a manufacturing moon supplying the Martian shipyards with parts, Deimos was known for a lot of things - coffee included. But the JE Fleet had a constant military presence around the inner planets of the Sol System, which meant that security was heavier than the occupants of the Yunaka would've liked.
Nakamaru considered the situation. "I think we're going to have problems approaching Deimos," he said. "It might be better to get as close to the asteroid field as we can for cover and get your buyer to come out to us."
"He might be willing," Ueda said. "When we made the deal originally, I hadn't anticipated being in a ship wanted for kidnapping."
Nobody was actually looking at Kame, but he felt every eye in the crowded cockpit on him anyway. It wasn't his fault, damnit. "What do you want me to do, send a message out on all channels to tell the universe that I wasn't kidnapped?"
"No good, they'll just think you're part of a conspiracy and hunt you down anyway," Ueda pointed out. "At least right now, you're the innocent victim."
Kame had to elbow Jin to get him to stop laughing. "What, you don't think I'm innocent?"
They hadn't played the recording for the others, so Jin couldn't all very well explain why he had his doubts about Kame's "innocence". He had to settle for, "You kicked a man, left him unconscious in the shower and stole his nerve disruptor."
"Which was an illegal weapon anyway," Kame said. "Besides, you stunned him first."
"You should've done a lot worse than stun him, since he's causing us all this trouble," Koki grumbled. "And I owe him for my head."
"Then I'd be looking at a murder charge. I'm not sure that would help the situation." Kame might have been willing to shoot Ishida in the heat of the moment - in self-defense, maybe - but he couldn't have fired at an unconscious man. That would have been pure cowardice.
Ueda held out the diamond to Kame. "If we go ahead with this, you'll still be guilty - just not in court. We all will."
For once, Taguchi wasn't smiling, though his eyes were soft. "And you're the only one of us from the other side of the law."
"Which means you've got the most to lose." Nakamaru's contribution from the pilot's seat.
Koki, over by the weapons, was peering over the top of an enormous and wholly inappropriate pair of sunglasses. "But no pressure."
Pressure was exactly what Kame felt, though - the pressure of Jin's hand on his shoulder, offering wordless support.
Kame didn't hesitate. "Let's go see what our buyer has to say."
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Rating: R (m/m activity)
Genre: AU, crack, sci-fi
Word count: 54,000
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the guys or random song lyrics that appear in this fic. Credit for naming the Yunaka goes to maya_morning.
Summary: When Akanishi Jin runs away from Earth, falling in with thieves along the way, the last thing he expects is to attract the attention of rookie Lunar/InterPlanetary Security officer, Kamenashi Kazuya.
Chapter 9
Over the next three days, things didn't improve much. Kame kept quietly to himself, his back to the others as though he hoped not to be noticed; this strategy worked, for the most part, as everyone else was too busy bickering to pay attention to him.
Koki was pretending his head didn't hurt, which didn't fool anyone when he snapped at them, and spent his time complaining about how crowded it had gotten. Nakamaru was kind enough to go along with the pretense, but was too wrapped up in his own injury to make his usual peace. Ueda was constantly on the comm, trying to keep up with his network of contacts so the Yunaka could avoid trouble, and Taguchi...misread the atmosphere completely and suggested going to Saturn for the upcoming billiards tournament.
As for Jin, his worries could be summed up thus: they were running out of supplies (the Yunaka was too old to be equipped with a replicator), they still hadn't managed to find the diamond (had Ishida taken it after all?), and...
Kame.
It all came down to Kame, in the end, because food was important and survival was important and neither of them meant a damn if he couldn't figure out what to do about Kame. Koki had asked him several times why he'd gone back for the disgraced LIPS officer, why he'd felt the need to save him and bring him aboard, and Jin hadn't been able to answer him. It was an honest response, at least, because he really didn't know.
Was it enough of a reason that Jin couldn't have walked away, knowing he'd be leaving a man to certain death? If he said that he wanted Kame to owe him one, that he got a kick out of holding someone else's life in his hands, would anyone believe him? The first reason was true, the second was nonsense, but neither was an answer.
Jin couldn't quite put his finger on it. He hadn't fallen madly in love with Kame at first sight, hadn't swooned at that sweet rasp of a singing voice, hadn't misread a tractor beam as a sign of affection and certainly didn't think that Kame's drug-induced touch was an indication that the other man felt anything for him. No matter what Yamapi thought, Jin wasn't *that* delusional.
Not delusional, but fanciful, perhaps? There was something that caught Jin's attention, made him look twice. Brown eyes desperate and determined, shadowed in black and blue; eyes of a child seeking strength to become a man. Hands that were gentle without reason, healing, caressing; care given without desert. Kame had been half out of his mind when he'd been sent in to interrogate Jin and despite the accusations, the threats and the insults, he hadn't hurt him. Hadn't even tried.
It wasn't a particularly solid basis for a friendship, much less something more. Jin tried to run interference between Kame and the others, but their relationships were equally shaky. To be sure, Koki and Nakamaru were close friends, and they were slowly accepting Jin into the crew. Ueda seemed to have some sort of fondness for Taguchi, though Jin had given up trying to understand why, and thanks to Nakamaru's easy kindness, they, too, were less like strangers than Kame.
But it was difficult to get to know Kame when he barely spoke unless spoken to, and Jin was getting sick of conversations dying after a couple of exchanges.
"Let's go search for Kizuna," he suggested.
Kame looked up from the datapad Nakamaru had lent him. "The diamond?"
"Unless you think we're going to find bonds in the cargo hold, yeah. Come on, it's got to be back there somewhere. Besides," Jin grabbed Kame by the arm, forcing him to drop the datapad, "you won't talk to me and the others keep telling me to get out of the cockpit because apparently I'm getting in the way. I'm going to go crazy if I don't do something!"
"I'll hold you to that," Kame muttered, but he allowed himself to be led to the hold, where he proceeded to arrange all the stolen jewellery neatly by type, then by carat, then by stone.
"You're a lot more organised than I expected," Jin said. His contributions so far had been mostly opening boxes and bags when instructed to do so by Kame.
Kame flicked a chunky gold chain at him. "It's the only way we're going to find anything in this mess. Anyway, how do they expect to sell this lot if they don't know what they've got?"
It surprised Jin to hear a LIPS officer, even a former one, talking so casually about selling stolen goods. "Didn't know you'd be interested in that."
"I'm not an idiot, Jin, and I'm not deaf either. Taguchi's broke, Ueda refuses to talk about his financial situation which means he's probably not much better off, and the other two don't have anything except what's in here with us. I can't get to my savings - I sent most of my pay to my family, anyway - and I don't suppose you brought much with you when you ran away from Kitagawa?"
"Not much," Jin admitted. If he'd had more time to plan, perhaps he'd have been better off, but he didn't have a great deal of hard currency on him and if he used his bank account he could be traced.
Being right didn't improve Kame's mood. "Then if we want to resupply - and we're going to have to, soon - we need to do something about all this jewellery. We're hanging around in limbo and if we stay here too much longer, someone's going to come along and pick us off."
Cheery thought. "The buyer we were going to meet when you caught us fell through, so I think Ueda's looking for alternatives. It's not easy keeping a low profile when there's an APB out for the ship."
That didn't surprise Kame in the slightest. He'd been expecting Ishida to claim that his crazed subordinate, Kamenashi Kazuya, had, in a fit of jealousy, started a riot in the prison and taken up with the prisoners, leaving Ishida for dead. "What do they want us for? Attempted murder, perhaps?"
"Kidnapping you."
Kame dropped the pearl necklace he was holding. "Say that again?"
"Kidnapping you." Jin couldn't suppress a giggle. "Ishida's claiming that a bunch of prisoners escaped, stunned an entire LIPS unit, captured you and then left him unconscious in the shower when he tried to rescue you. According to the gossip Ueda keeps getting, Ishida's vowed to get his precious junior officer back, no matter how long it takes, and your old unit is going to track you down personally."
Kame snorted. "How very noble of him. He just wants to find me so he can make sure I don't talk - and since you were with me, you're next on the hit list. He'll probably come up with some excuse to destroy the entire ship, just to be on the safe side."
Despite Kame's irreverent tone, Jin's blood ran cold. The Yunaka's shield generators were too old and worn to hold out against a concentrated attack, and if they were fired upon by someone with a serious reason to kill, they wouldn't last long.
"We have to leave the ship," he said slowly. "We're too obvious like this. It'll put everyone in danger if we stay."
"The entire ship's obvious," Kame pointed out. "We'd all have to leave. The only way out of this is discrediting Ishida and proving you didn't kidnap me."
"But if we go public we'll get arrested anyway!" Jin waved at the neatly arranged piles of jewellery. "Your unit knows about all this."
"They do, but..." Kame grinned at him. "That information was never recorded. I checked. They didn't want any evidence logged before they could help themselves; the only charge being brought against the Yunaka was for firing a weapon in a secure zone.
"And they can't change their minds now. If Ishida's claiming they were all stunned, they're covering up the fact that they were all blind drunk - possibly even drugged - and that what they planned to do was illegal in the first place. They can't afford to have anyone show up with a different story - which means I'm a dead man."
For a dead man, Kame seemed quite cheerful, Jin thought. He kept talking as he continued his search for the diamond.
"The weapons discharge'll get you a fine, Ueda's got a fortune in unpaid parking tickets - which are all fake, anyway - and Taguchi got thrown in for brawling. None of you are likely to get the death penalty for that. Kidnapping a LIPS officer, though..."
Jin groaned. "They'll just keep chasing us, then, and with public support unless we can prove we didn't kidnap you. But if you try to tell the truth, Ishida'll say we brainwashed you or something, or that I stole you away to satisfy my own twisted desires and you were unable to resist my good looks and charm."
Kame's laughter - the real thing, not harsh, sardonic bites - was a full-body experience, involving hops, claps and the occasional joyful whoop. Jin wasn't sure whether to take offense or not, but he figured that even if he was being insulted, it was worth it.
"Not that your good looks and charm aren't irresistible," Kame said once he recovered his breath, "but I think we'll have a better chance with *this*."
A small velvet box lay open on his palm. Inside...Kizuna.
"It really does look like there are rings in the centre. Tiny ones." Jin had a gift for stating the obvious. The two circles were roughly the same size, entwined at an angle so that they formed a pair of butterfly wings rather than a figure-of-eight. "When did you find that?"
"While you were bragging about how I'd be unable to resist your good looks and charm."
"I wasn't bragging!"
Kame reached out and ruffled the tips of Jin's hair. "True. It's not bragging if it's the truth."
"K-Kame?"
Bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. Kame had relaxed, had allowed himself to get comfortable around Jin, and that wasn't wise for anyone with a target painted on his back. "Good looks and charm" didn't cover it.
It wasn't that Jin was perfect, because he wasn't. Since that first conversation over the comm, Kame had learned that Jin was a little clumsy, not a candidate for the Milky Way MENSA by any means, and could be quite scathing when he wanted to be - if his mocking of Taguchi, in particular, was any indication.
He was also sweet, protective of his friends, and keen to make people smile. There *was* a charm about Akanishi Jin, though Kame couldn't have named it. Couldn't have described it. Couldn't have told anyone how good it felt to hear Jin confess that he'd gone back to help Kame, knowing full well that he might die - or get horribly lost - in the process. Kame knew he hadn't done anything worthy of such a reckless act.
He also knew he hadn't done anything worthy of the look Jin was giving him right now - curious and hesitant and worried and...hopeful?
"Kame? You all right?"
Kame snapped the jewellery box shut. "I should go tell the others," he mumbled, turning towards the door.
Jin caught his wrist, clamping down hard over the slim, silver datband. "Just...wait a second, will you?"
"What for?" Kame demanded to know.
"Uh...shouldn't we make sure it's the right stone first?" The look Kame gave him made Jin wish he hadn't opened his mouth. "Of course, you're right, how many other diamonds are there with rings in the middle?"
"It's usually the other way round," Kame said. "Are you going to let go of me or do I have to drag you all the way back to the cockpit?"
That was no good. Jin couldn't talk to Kame in the cockpit. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to say, mind you, only that he couldn't have said it in front of the others. The cargo hold, with its dim lighting and silent stacks of crates, was far better suited to private conversation. Inanimate objects couldn't eavesdrop and use it against you afterwards.
"There's no way you could drag me back," Jin said smugly. "Not a skinny little thing like you."
"You're *that* heavy, are you?" Kame raked Jin up and down with his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think so. Even if you do eat more pasta than anyone I've ever met."
He tried to yank his arm free; Jin's grip tightened until the datband cut cruelly into their flesh. Kame's other hand shot out to pry Jin's fingers free and that's when they both heard Ishida's voice, muffled but unmistakeably his.
"You know that's not gonna work without the code, Kamenashi.
"What the..." Jin released his hold on Kame.
Kame looked around frantically. "Ishida?"
"Or this. I took it off Akanishi earlier. He's not as innocent as his record makes out, you know - not if he's carrying this around."
"Ah!" Kame clapped his hand to his mouth. "Your lock pick. He said this in the shower! So why..."
They both looked at Kame's datband, where a small green light was flashing to indicate playback mode. Kame had left the band switched off since leaving the prison, in the unlikely event that they ever got within range of someone he knew; Jin's clumsy grip on his wrist had switched it back on.
"You were recording him?"
Kame pressed pause. "Not intentionally. I must've switched to record mode when I was struggling against the cuffs."
They listened to the rest of it - the recording ended with the sound of Jin fumbling with the cuffs, presumably pressing stop in the process. It was more than enough to nail Ishida.
Except...Kame wasn't sure he could present it as evidence.
Jin didn't seem to notice anything wrong, babbling on excitedly about how all they had to do was take Kame back to Lunacy and play the recording for his boss, and he was sure that everything would be sorted in no time, especially if Kame really was, as Ishida claimed, the captain's pet.
Kame wasn't nearly so optimistic. "Jin, were you even listening to that?"
"Of course I was. Ishida admitted he's in debt to the Kitagawas, and he was quite clearly attacking you. No one would believe he's innocent after that."
"Yeah, but...that "interrogation". He mentioned that, too." Kame opened the velvet box again and stared at the diamond till the rings began to blur. "About that...I'm sorry. I should've said it days ago, but I'm sorry. I wasn't..."
Jin shrugged. "The chair thing kind of threw me, but I suppose as kinks go, it's not that bad."
"I wasn't talking about the chair - which, by the way, is not my usual preference!"
At least, it hadn't been, but there was an old, overstuffed armchair bolted to the floor of Koki's cabin, one that seemed to invite Kame to run his nails along the ragged seams of the cushions, and press his fingers hard against the arms to feel the sturdy frame beneath the fabric. After a minute of wrestling with temptation he'd walked out, breathing hard, and vowed never to peek in Koki's cabin again.
But there was, he hoped, no need to inform Jin that Ishida's attempt to set him up for humiliation had had unexpected side effects. Besides, chairs couldn't talk.
"Shame, because I know a really cute couch who's just your type..." Jin teased.
That got Kame to stop staring at the diamond and actually look at Jin. It was hard to tell under the hold lights, but he seemed a little flushed.
"Look, Kame, I'm...I'm not good at talking about this sort of stuff, okay?" He chewed on his lower lip for a moment; Kame gave him the silence. "Yeah, you kind of freaked me out. But I could've kicked you, or overbalanced the chair, or something, and I didn't. You didn't do anything to me that I didn't want, so stop beating yourself up about it. You could've treated me a lot worse, could've let me keep bleeding - you were so doped up you could've done anything. But," Jin swallowed hard, "I think your situation was even worse than mine."
The last thing Kame wanted was pity. He muttered something about making a copy of the recording for security purposes, and slipped away before Jin could stop him.
-----
Responses were mixed when Kame produced Kizuna. Taguchi couldn't believe Ueda had wanted him to steal *that* instead of a pair of glorious antique Famicom controllers. Koki had appreciated the sparkle but would've preferred it set in a chain - it wasn't one he'd stolen intentionally, merely swiped on one of their many raids. Nakamaru thought it was quite lovely, though had no particular attachment to it.
Ueda's attachment was purely financial. "You want to discredit Ishida, correct?"
Kame wasn't certain. "I thought that would be enough, but if he's coming after us..."
"You can forget discrediting him." Ueda looked Kame straight in the eye. "He's going to die. The moment word gets back to the Kitagawas that he doesn't have Kizuna for them, they'll close in, and you won't have to worry about him talking."
Jin understood that better than any of them. "But he's the only one who knows we've got it, and he's certainly not going to tell anyone."
Ueda hit a button and brought up a starchart, showing their current course. "He won't have to. I've managed to make contact with my original buyer, a member of the Watanabe Clan; he's interested in a few other items too but he'll be particularly pleased to get hold of this diamond."
Now Jin understood why Ueda hadn't revealed his buyer earlier, when they were locked up together. He had to be certain Jin was no longer working for old man Kitagawa - there was no love lost between him and the Watanabe Clan, and when one side got something the other wanted, they flaunted it for all they were worth. Within seconds of the sale, the Kitagawas would know that Kizuna was out of their reach...and that Ishida was a dead man.
"We resupply and split the rest six ways, right?" Jin was very concerned about the money.
Everyone agreed to this, especially the part about resupplying as they'd somehow managed to run out of coffee.
"It was the good stuff too," Koki mourned.
"Cheer up - Deimos is known for its coffee," Nakamaru said.
As a manufacturing moon supplying the Martian shipyards with parts, Deimos was known for a lot of things - coffee included. But the JE Fleet had a constant military presence around the inner planets of the Sol System, which meant that security was heavier than the occupants of the Yunaka would've liked.
Nakamaru considered the situation. "I think we're going to have problems approaching Deimos," he said. "It might be better to get as close to the asteroid field as we can for cover and get your buyer to come out to us."
"He might be willing," Ueda said. "When we made the deal originally, I hadn't anticipated being in a ship wanted for kidnapping."
Nobody was actually looking at Kame, but he felt every eye in the crowded cockpit on him anyway. It wasn't his fault, damnit. "What do you want me to do, send a message out on all channels to tell the universe that I wasn't kidnapped?"
"No good, they'll just think you're part of a conspiracy and hunt you down anyway," Ueda pointed out. "At least right now, you're the innocent victim."
Kame had to elbow Jin to get him to stop laughing. "What, you don't think I'm innocent?"
They hadn't played the recording for the others, so Jin couldn't all very well explain why he had his doubts about Kame's "innocence". He had to settle for, "You kicked a man, left him unconscious in the shower and stole his nerve disruptor."
"Which was an illegal weapon anyway," Kame said. "Besides, you stunned him first."
"You should've done a lot worse than stun him, since he's causing us all this trouble," Koki grumbled. "And I owe him for my head."
"Then I'd be looking at a murder charge. I'm not sure that would help the situation." Kame might have been willing to shoot Ishida in the heat of the moment - in self-defense, maybe - but he couldn't have fired at an unconscious man. That would have been pure cowardice.
Ueda held out the diamond to Kame. "If we go ahead with this, you'll still be guilty - just not in court. We all will."
For once, Taguchi wasn't smiling, though his eyes were soft. "And you're the only one of us from the other side of the law."
"Which means you've got the most to lose." Nakamaru's contribution from the pilot's seat.
Koki, over by the weapons, was peering over the top of an enormous and wholly inappropriate pair of sunglasses. "But no pressure."
Pressure was exactly what Kame felt, though - the pressure of Jin's hand on his shoulder, offering wordless support.
Kame didn't hesitate. "Let's go see what our buyer has to say."