ES21 Fanfic: Burning Paper Dragons (Habashira/Agon, R) 5/??
Title: Burning Paper Dragons
Author: persepolis130
Beta: none (Please let me know if you see any issues!)
Pairing(s): Habashira/Agon, various minor pairings (m/m and m/f)
Word Count: novel (WIP)
Rating: R
Summary: As a new member of the yakuza Syndicate, Habashira Rui has been assigned the nightmarish job of assistant to Kongo Agon.
CHAPTER 1 / CHAPTER 2 / CHAPTER 3 / CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
I changed the channel on the television and lit another cigarette. I was starting to get used to smoking now, so it was fine. Since I hadn't seen Agon for the past few days and wasn't planning on seeing him any time soon, I had extra packs sitting around anyway.
The stockholder meeting hadn't required as much yelling as I'd hoped, but then, what did? After I got what I came for, I checked in on my boys at our behind-the-scenes gambling locale. It was in the back of a bar that served watered-down sake and sushi with fake crab. Even now, I wasn't sure if I felt pride that I'd trained them well enough they could manage without me, or shame that I wasn't the lynchpin in the operation I'd thought I was.
In the end, I was just glad to be away from Agon and all the crap that went with him. When the boys asked what was going on with him, I called them nosy good-for-nothings and told them it was under control. They seemed satisfied and left me alone about it.
Kah, why was everything on television crap nowadays? I flipped through the channels again, feeling a strong urge to chuck the remote at the screen. I flicked my ashes into Megu's ashtray and cursed under my breath. Why the hell had I spent good money on a television if it didn't show me anything I wanted to watch?
"What the hell, Dad?" came Ryo's voice from the hallway. He had a dirty look on his face and a package the size of a tea table under his arm. "How am I supposed to quit when you're doing it now? Huh? Have you thought about that?"
"Don't talk to your father that way," I told him. "What are you carrying?"
"I'm serious, Dad!" he insisted. "I haven't had one since last night, and I'm feeling all good about myself, and I come home, and you're sitting in a cloud of fucking smoke--"
"Swearing in this house is a privilege, not a right, and it's one you haven't earned!" I snapped. I took one last drag off the cigarette and tossed it in the ashtray.
Ryo made an exasperated noise. "I'm in serious nicotine withdrawal, okay! You told me to quit, so I'm quitting! And I've been going to every practice and every class even though I hate it all just so you'll sign my damn transfer slip! All I want is a chance to--"
"Do they have football there?" I demanded.
"What?!"
"Where you want to transfer, idiot!" I snapped. "Is there something wrong with your ears? I said, Do they have football!"
He blinked. "Yeah, they're crazy about it."
I was getting this idea in my head. It had to do with what Agon had said when I mentioned Ryo to him. Not about me being jealous-- because I wasn't-- and not about my face looking like a monkey's ass-- because it didn't! But he'd implied I was holding my son back by keeping him at a school he hated, and even if he only said it to get under my skin, maybe he wasn't completely wrong.
Well, no, he was completely wrong. I wasn't petty like Agon was. I was doing what was right. But I doubted Ryo saw things that way.
"You'll miss the fall tournament," I told him. "You know there's a six-month waiting period for transfers."
He rolled his eyes. "Zokugaku's not going to the Christmas Bowl, Dad."
Ah, what the hell. I was sick of him bothering me and acting like his problems were my fault, like I was an obstacle to his dreams. When he bitched about his new slacker school later, at least I could lord it over him that I'd been right the whole time. Yeah, give it a month, and he'd be on his hands and knees crying to be transferred back. We'd see who was rolling his eyes then. "Alright. I'll sign it."
He gaped. "Eeh?!"
"I said I'll sign your damn transfer slip!" I shouted, annoyed at the stupid-looking face he was making. "Now hurry up before I change my--"
He was up the stairs faster than the ace of Notre Dame Middle School, the package he'd been holding leaning cockeyed against the wall like a drunk old man. The picture on the box showed a happy baby lying in a sparkly white crib.
I tilted my head at it.
That couldn't be a good sign.
Ryo thrust a pen in my face.
"Did your mother buy that?" I asked, motioning toward the box.
"Yeah, she had me pick it up. It was damn hard carrying it on my bike," he said. "You think I could have the car when you get a new one? For errands and stuff."
"Don't push your luck," I told him, taking the pen. "Do you know what she was buying a baby crib for?"
"Maybe to put a baby in?" he offered.
I threw him a look.
"Dad, sign? Please? Please?" he begged, tipping his head in a sort of half-bow. He held out a notebook with a packet of papers clipped to it.
"You owe me," I told him, pen hovering above the paper.
"I know," he said.
"Front row seats to the Christmas Bowl," I added.
"Definitely," he confirmed.
I signed the paper.
Ryo ripped it out of my hands and bounded up the stairs.
"You're welcome!" I called after him. Ungrateful brat.
Ah, what did it matter? What did anything matter anymore? Life was crap. I sat back down, picked my cigarette up, and went back to channel surfing.
*****
The warehouse was empty. My boys and I stood and stared at the rusting metal walls, the smell of the docks in our noses. The merchandise we were supposed to secure? Nowhere in sight.
"Shit," murmured one of my boys. "Shit, we are so dead."
"No one's dead," I told him, my stomach sinking. Yet. "Spread out and search the place."
There had to be some mistake. We were missing something. The stuff was slated to have been dropped off half an hour ago, and nobody told me about any change of plans. I'd followed my orders by the letter. It had to be here. Right?
Weak light from the painted-over windows filtered through cobwebs, illuminating my boys as they rummaged through a pile of weathered aluminum and a few cardboard boxes. Kah, it was no use! Why were those idiots still looking? Some serious bullshit was going on here, and a big part of me wanted to beat the shit out of one of them just on principle. But there was no point in flying off the handle. Yelling and busting heads together wouldn't solve anything.
If it did, I'd be the once-in-a-century genius.
"Aniki?" One of my boys said. "What should we do? There's no place else to look..."
When the boss had called me in out of the blue and told me to bring my boys here tonight, I'd taken it as a career move in the right direction. Namely, away from that bastard Agon. Instead, I found myself staring at the warehouse's old metal frame, hoping a solution would come to me and I wasn't totally fucked. It didn't, so I aimed a kick at the wall. My toes met with a clang and a sharp pain shooting up my foot.
Shit. We were so dead.
"We'll figure this out. Nobody panic!" I shouted, panic creeping into my voice. Panicking pissed me off. "Anybody loses their head, and I kill you, do you hear me?!"
"I-- it'll be alright, aniki! Somebody else must've screwed up," one of my boys said. "The guy who delivered the stuff... maybe he never got it here!"
"Right, yeah! Or... maybe there's some mistake, and everything's fine," someone else suggested. "The stuff got delivered someplace else, or the time got changed."
"So why the hell didn't I get a phone call?" I demanded. "If something changed, why don't I know about it? Do I look like someone who can be taken lightly?"
My boys shuffled their feet.
"Maybe it's a joke?" one of them suggested.
"Kah, somebody punch that idiot!" I snapped. Since when did Habashira Rui have a sense of humor? Never, that's when!
Damn it, I had the worst luck ever. The first assignment the boss gives me since chaining me to Agon, and it's a total fuck-up. What were the chances? Come to think of it, why did he assign a guy from the gambling rooms to a shipping operation? I was a trustworthy and valued employee, but despite my work ethic and obvious potential, I wasn't the most qualified man for the job. And my boys were rookies.
I pulled out my phone. I should've known from the beginning.
"Aniki? Who are you calling?" one of my boys asked. "You got a plan?"
I didn't answer him. I was seething with anger. I wanted to kick the whole world in the nut sack.
The phone rang once, twice, three times...
"Is there something about eight o'clock every morning that you don't understand, trash?" Agon asked.
"This is a setup, isn't it?" I demanded.
"Aah?"
"It's your fault the shipment got fucked up," I snapped, "isn't it?!"
"What shipment? I didn't make any shipment," he told me.
"Don't lie to me, asshole!" I shouted. "I know it was you!"
"Stop yelling in my ear, motherfucker!" he shouted back. "I don't know anything about any damn shipment!"
Somehow, I knew he was telling the truth. Maybe because he wasn't using his fake-laugh or calling me obnoxious nicknames. Or maybe because I knew the way his face looked when he came. I ran a hand across my sweaty forehead. Shit, this was bad on so many levels.
"Now, where the hell are you, you idiot?" Agon went on, not skipping a beat. "What's it been, a week? No one told you you could go on a fucking extended vaca-- Hey, just because I'm on the phone doesn't mean you can stop. Ah, there's a good girl. That's nice... Now slide the skirt up a little more for--"
"Look, we've got a problem," I interrupted, wishing to god I hadn't called him. I had my neck in the guillotine while he was at a hotel fooling around with some floozy with fake eyelashes and silicone tits. What an asshole!
If he had me with him, none of this career-ending bullshit would be happening. As a matter of fact, as soon as I found out what over-decorated pay-by-the-hour hotel he was at, I was going to bust in on him and shove him face-first against the mattress and fuck him until he--
"We have a problem?" Agon demanded. "Who the hell is we?"
I took a deep breath to keep from screaming, adjusted my fly, and then explained the situation.
"Fuu, you're going down on this one," Agon laughed. "Kiss your pinky finger goodbye!"
"We didn't do anything wrong, I'm telling you! Someone else fucked something up!" I snapped, my face going red at the mention of my pinky. In corporate Japan, you screwed something up bad enough, and your boss gave you some harsh words and a pay cut. In our world, you cut something else, one joint at a time. One of my boys was missing three.
"Yeah, it's somebody else's fault," he agreed. "Which is the same thing the other guy is going to say. Your word against theirs, why the hell would anyone believe y-- No, the bra next. Leave the panties for last. Yeah, that's it. You've got some amazing--"
"Agon!" Focus, damn you! "You're supposed to be some sort of genius, right? So just get me the fuck out of this mess, already!"
"Look. Rui-kun," he said. "I don't give advice to trash who bail on me. You're screwed. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to be very busy. See you at eight tomorrow morning."
I gripped my cell phone so hard, it made a creaking noise. I was going to kill that bastard! "Eight o'clock? Don't make me laugh! If I take the fall for this bullshit, you can bet your Ferrari the boss will replace me! You think he'll keep a failure assigned to his star consultant? He won't even put us in the same room together! Good luck training another assistant, asshole!"
Agon's end went dead silent.
Kah! "How dare you hang up on me, you fucking piece of--"
"I'm still on the line, shit-for-brains! Shut the fuck up so I can think!" he snapped. "Hey, whatever-your-name-is. Get your clothes back on, I'm not in the mood anymore."
"Agon--" Shit, what was I doing? I never wanted to see the asshole again, and fucking up a big assignment like this was the perfect solution! If he bailed me out, I'd owe him!
"Aah? Money for the train?" Agon asked. "What do I care if you have to walk home? You couldn't striptease your way out of a paper bag! Just get out!"
But I had my reputation, and a family to support, and my boys to look after. Everyone's lives hung in the balance here. I couldn't give up now. I had to fix this, no matter what it took. "Look, just tell me what I should do."
"What you should do," he told me, "is go home. You and your boys both. Leave and pretend everything's fine."
"That won't solve anything!" I insisted. "Everything is not fine!"
"I'll fix it. Just do what I say," he ordered. And then he hung up.
I swore and kicked the wall again. It hurt so bad, I almost threw my phone but caught myself when I remembered I didn't have the money for a new one. My boys were staring at me.
"Go home!" I shouted at them all.
And because I was their aniki, and because they trusted me, they did.
*****
I went home, but I didn't go in. I sat in my car, not wanting to deal with Ryo and his school transfers, or Megu and her having-another-baby talk. Staring out the window at the yellow-tinged Tokyo night and working my way through a pack of cigarettes was much more calming.
What kind of man felt unwelcome in his own home?
Kah, this was stupid! Here I was again, waiting on Agon, with my career on the line and completely in the dark because that was how he wanted it. Agon always got everything he wanted, and what did I get? An empty pack of cigarettes and a hard-on. Fuck, why couldn't I stop thinking about that night?
I tossed the cigarette butt out the window with an annoyed flick of my wrist and ran a hand through my hair. Shit. Losing a finger was nothing compared to this.
When my phone rang, I almost didn't answer. I didn't want to deal with it. I barely had the motivation to tell whoever was on the line to go fuck himself. The only person I wanted to talk to was the person I never wanted to lay eyes on again because I couldn't get the image out of my mind of my dick sliding into his ass. Anyway, it was too soon for Agon to be calling.
Except it was him. "What happened?" I demanded. "Did you talk to the boss? What did he say? You didn't tell him I fucked up, did you? Agon, you better not have screwed me over!"
"Listen up, Habashira," Agon told me. "I'm not the idiot teenager I used to be. I'm not the kid who lost the Kantou region championship to some no-name team because he couldn't see the value in anyone but himself. Eleven of the same card isn't a hard hand to beat."
I didn't know what kind of fucked-up deck he was playing with, but I felt the need to point out, "That wasn't the championship. Deimon beat you in the first round."
"Shut up," he told me. "That's not the point."
You shut up! Asshole! "Then get to the point! My future is on the line here!"
"The point is that even trash can have a use if you know where to look for it," he said. "If you think of everyone else as worthless, you'll never get anywhere in--"
"Agon! We can talk football later! Just tell me what the boss said!" I ordered.
He was silent, and I could almost feel him grinding his teeth. "Fine. If that's all you want to hear, I'll tell you. You're off the hook," he said.
I blinked. "What's that supposed to mean? It couldn't have been that easy."
"Don't be an idiot, I can charm my way out of anything. I told you I'd fix it, and I did. As far as your boss is concerned, the fuck-up tonight never happened," he told me.
"Never happened?" I repeated. "Kah! I've heard that before." Right before I threw your money back in your face. Why did I do that? I needed that money!
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" he demanded. "I just did you a huge favor, and you're bringing up shit like that?"
"You owed me that favor!" I insisted.
"I owed you th-- This isn't what I called you for!" Agon shouted. "Do you have to ruin everything?"
"Aah?! What did I ruin?!" I shouted back. "You ruined my whole life!"
"I gave you money! I said it never happened!" he accused. "You're the one who wouldn't accept it!"
"You insulted my pride as a man! I made you--" I paused, my mind racing trying to find the right words. Ah, fuck it, I'd go with the wrong ones: "I had you moaning like a whore, and you know it! You know you liked it! You're a fucking liar!"
"I know that!"
"You--" Wait, he was admitting it?
"If you'd let me finish instead of screaming, I'd have already told you that," he said. "The only time your mouth needs to be open is when my cock is in it."
"Kah! How do you expect me to be quiet when you say shit like that?!"I demanded. "Show some damn respect!"
"Respect?" he asked. "That's what I was trying to do before you interrupted. Now keep your mouth shut, and I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen here."
"Ordering me around is not showing respect, you asshole!" I snapped.
"First," he told me, "you're going to pull your head out of your ass."
"Still not hearing the respect!" I announced.
"Then you're going to drive that ugly ass over here--"
"It's almost midnight, I'm not going anywhere! And my ass is not--"
"--and you're going to fuck me."
When I picked the phone up off the floor, Agon was saying, "...not to the office. To my apartment. It's in the high-rise across from the Oujou station, room 422. Twenty minutes, you hear me? A minute late, and I rip your balls off after I'm done with them. That is not an idle threat."
"Don't threaten me!" I screamed. "I'm already in my car!"
"Oh?" he said in his fake-sweet voice. And he probably said more after that, but I threw the phone over my shoulder, so I didn't hear.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
My hands were shaking as I turned the ignition and forced the car into gear. The grinding as I shifted into second almost drowned out the sound of the blood thumping in my ears. What the fuck was I doing?
Well, it didn't matter. I was doing it, it was happening, whether I liked it or not. I swallowed against a throat suddenly gone dry and knew I was going to like it.
The drive felt like an eternity. Too many idiots on the road. Get out of my way!
There, finally. Oujou station, high-rise complex.
Two wheels up on the sidewalk, slamming the door.
Into the lobby, up the stairs.
Fourth floor.
Room 422, 422...
The door swung open before I could knock. "Took you long enough," Agon said.
"Shut up," I told him, and grabbed him by the shirt.
I knew he let me do it, could've thrown me off in an instant, but it didn't matter. His mouth was hot and tongue slick against mine, and when I pressed a knee between his thighs, he was as hard as I was.
Then his hands were at my waist, fingers tugging my shirt from my pants and working my belt free. I pushed him into the room and kicked the door shut. Do not fuck this up! I ordered him mentally, my tongue wrapping around his. Do not say a word, do not stop this, do not--
He pushed my shirt from my shoulders and undid his own pants when my fingers fumbled with the button. I wrapped a hand around his neck, held his mouth to mine, and begged, Don't let this stop, don't let it stop, don't stop this, Agon, Agon...
NEXT CHAPTER
Author: persepolis130
Beta: none (Please let me know if you see any issues!)
Pairing(s): Habashira/Agon, various minor pairings (m/m and m/f)
Word Count: novel (WIP)
Rating: R
Summary: As a new member of the yakuza Syndicate, Habashira Rui has been assigned the nightmarish job of assistant to Kongo Agon.
CHAPTER 1 / CHAPTER 2 / CHAPTER 3 / CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
I changed the channel on the television and lit another cigarette. I was starting to get used to smoking now, so it was fine. Since I hadn't seen Agon for the past few days and wasn't planning on seeing him any time soon, I had extra packs sitting around anyway.
The stockholder meeting hadn't required as much yelling as I'd hoped, but then, what did? After I got what I came for, I checked in on my boys at our behind-the-scenes gambling locale. It was in the back of a bar that served watered-down sake and sushi with fake crab. Even now, I wasn't sure if I felt pride that I'd trained them well enough they could manage without me, or shame that I wasn't the lynchpin in the operation I'd thought I was.
In the end, I was just glad to be away from Agon and all the crap that went with him. When the boys asked what was going on with him, I called them nosy good-for-nothings and told them it was under control. They seemed satisfied and left me alone about it.
Kah, why was everything on television crap nowadays? I flipped through the channels again, feeling a strong urge to chuck the remote at the screen. I flicked my ashes into Megu's ashtray and cursed under my breath. Why the hell had I spent good money on a television if it didn't show me anything I wanted to watch?
"What the hell, Dad?" came Ryo's voice from the hallway. He had a dirty look on his face and a package the size of a tea table under his arm. "How am I supposed to quit when you're doing it now? Huh? Have you thought about that?"
"Don't talk to your father that way," I told him. "What are you carrying?"
"I'm serious, Dad!" he insisted. "I haven't had one since last night, and I'm feeling all good about myself, and I come home, and you're sitting in a cloud of fucking smoke--"
"Swearing in this house is a privilege, not a right, and it's one you haven't earned!" I snapped. I took one last drag off the cigarette and tossed it in the ashtray.
Ryo made an exasperated noise. "I'm in serious nicotine withdrawal, okay! You told me to quit, so I'm quitting! And I've been going to every practice and every class even though I hate it all just so you'll sign my damn transfer slip! All I want is a chance to--"
"Do they have football there?" I demanded.
"What?!"
"Where you want to transfer, idiot!" I snapped. "Is there something wrong with your ears? I said, Do they have football!"
He blinked. "Yeah, they're crazy about it."
I was getting this idea in my head. It had to do with what Agon had said when I mentioned Ryo to him. Not about me being jealous-- because I wasn't-- and not about my face looking like a monkey's ass-- because it didn't! But he'd implied I was holding my son back by keeping him at a school he hated, and even if he only said it to get under my skin, maybe he wasn't completely wrong.
Well, no, he was completely wrong. I wasn't petty like Agon was. I was doing what was right. But I doubted Ryo saw things that way.
"You'll miss the fall tournament," I told him. "You know there's a six-month waiting period for transfers."
He rolled his eyes. "Zokugaku's not going to the Christmas Bowl, Dad."
Ah, what the hell. I was sick of him bothering me and acting like his problems were my fault, like I was an obstacle to his dreams. When he bitched about his new slacker school later, at least I could lord it over him that I'd been right the whole time. Yeah, give it a month, and he'd be on his hands and knees crying to be transferred back. We'd see who was rolling his eyes then. "Alright. I'll sign it."
He gaped. "Eeh?!"
"I said I'll sign your damn transfer slip!" I shouted, annoyed at the stupid-looking face he was making. "Now hurry up before I change my--"
He was up the stairs faster than the ace of Notre Dame Middle School, the package he'd been holding leaning cockeyed against the wall like a drunk old man. The picture on the box showed a happy baby lying in a sparkly white crib.
I tilted my head at it.
That couldn't be a good sign.
Ryo thrust a pen in my face.
"Did your mother buy that?" I asked, motioning toward the box.
"Yeah, she had me pick it up. It was damn hard carrying it on my bike," he said. "You think I could have the car when you get a new one? For errands and stuff."
"Don't push your luck," I told him, taking the pen. "Do you know what she was buying a baby crib for?"
"Maybe to put a baby in?" he offered.
I threw him a look.
"Dad, sign? Please? Please?" he begged, tipping his head in a sort of half-bow. He held out a notebook with a packet of papers clipped to it.
"You owe me," I told him, pen hovering above the paper.
"I know," he said.
"Front row seats to the Christmas Bowl," I added.
"Definitely," he confirmed.
I signed the paper.
Ryo ripped it out of my hands and bounded up the stairs.
"You're welcome!" I called after him. Ungrateful brat.
Ah, what did it matter? What did anything matter anymore? Life was crap. I sat back down, picked my cigarette up, and went back to channel surfing.
*****
The warehouse was empty. My boys and I stood and stared at the rusting metal walls, the smell of the docks in our noses. The merchandise we were supposed to secure? Nowhere in sight.
"Shit," murmured one of my boys. "Shit, we are so dead."
"No one's dead," I told him, my stomach sinking. Yet. "Spread out and search the place."
There had to be some mistake. We were missing something. The stuff was slated to have been dropped off half an hour ago, and nobody told me about any change of plans. I'd followed my orders by the letter. It had to be here. Right?
Weak light from the painted-over windows filtered through cobwebs, illuminating my boys as they rummaged through a pile of weathered aluminum and a few cardboard boxes. Kah, it was no use! Why were those idiots still looking? Some serious bullshit was going on here, and a big part of me wanted to beat the shit out of one of them just on principle. But there was no point in flying off the handle. Yelling and busting heads together wouldn't solve anything.
If it did, I'd be the once-in-a-century genius.
"Aniki?" One of my boys said. "What should we do? There's no place else to look..."
When the boss had called me in out of the blue and told me to bring my boys here tonight, I'd taken it as a career move in the right direction. Namely, away from that bastard Agon. Instead, I found myself staring at the warehouse's old metal frame, hoping a solution would come to me and I wasn't totally fucked. It didn't, so I aimed a kick at the wall. My toes met with a clang and a sharp pain shooting up my foot.
Shit. We were so dead.
"We'll figure this out. Nobody panic!" I shouted, panic creeping into my voice. Panicking pissed me off. "Anybody loses their head, and I kill you, do you hear me?!"
"I-- it'll be alright, aniki! Somebody else must've screwed up," one of my boys said. "The guy who delivered the stuff... maybe he never got it here!"
"Right, yeah! Or... maybe there's some mistake, and everything's fine," someone else suggested. "The stuff got delivered someplace else, or the time got changed."
"So why the hell didn't I get a phone call?" I demanded. "If something changed, why don't I know about it? Do I look like someone who can be taken lightly?"
My boys shuffled their feet.
"Maybe it's a joke?" one of them suggested.
"Kah, somebody punch that idiot!" I snapped. Since when did Habashira Rui have a sense of humor? Never, that's when!
Damn it, I had the worst luck ever. The first assignment the boss gives me since chaining me to Agon, and it's a total fuck-up. What were the chances? Come to think of it, why did he assign a guy from the gambling rooms to a shipping operation? I was a trustworthy and valued employee, but despite my work ethic and obvious potential, I wasn't the most qualified man for the job. And my boys were rookies.
I pulled out my phone. I should've known from the beginning.
"Aniki? Who are you calling?" one of my boys asked. "You got a plan?"
I didn't answer him. I was seething with anger. I wanted to kick the whole world in the nut sack.
The phone rang once, twice, three times...
"Is there something about eight o'clock every morning that you don't understand, trash?" Agon asked.
"This is a setup, isn't it?" I demanded.
"Aah?"
"It's your fault the shipment got fucked up," I snapped, "isn't it?!"
"What shipment? I didn't make any shipment," he told me.
"Don't lie to me, asshole!" I shouted. "I know it was you!"
"Stop yelling in my ear, motherfucker!" he shouted back. "I don't know anything about any damn shipment!"
Somehow, I knew he was telling the truth. Maybe because he wasn't using his fake-laugh or calling me obnoxious nicknames. Or maybe because I knew the way his face looked when he came. I ran a hand across my sweaty forehead. Shit, this was bad on so many levels.
"Now, where the hell are you, you idiot?" Agon went on, not skipping a beat. "What's it been, a week? No one told you you could go on a fucking extended vaca-- Hey, just because I'm on the phone doesn't mean you can stop. Ah, there's a good girl. That's nice... Now slide the skirt up a little more for--"
"Look, we've got a problem," I interrupted, wishing to god I hadn't called him. I had my neck in the guillotine while he was at a hotel fooling around with some floozy with fake eyelashes and silicone tits. What an asshole!
If he had me with him, none of this career-ending bullshit would be happening. As a matter of fact, as soon as I found out what over-decorated pay-by-the-hour hotel he was at, I was going to bust in on him and shove him face-first against the mattress and fuck him until he--
"We have a problem?" Agon demanded. "Who the hell is we?"
I took a deep breath to keep from screaming, adjusted my fly, and then explained the situation.
"Fuu, you're going down on this one," Agon laughed. "Kiss your pinky finger goodbye!"
"We didn't do anything wrong, I'm telling you! Someone else fucked something up!" I snapped, my face going red at the mention of my pinky. In corporate Japan, you screwed something up bad enough, and your boss gave you some harsh words and a pay cut. In our world, you cut something else, one joint at a time. One of my boys was missing three.
"Yeah, it's somebody else's fault," he agreed. "Which is the same thing the other guy is going to say. Your word against theirs, why the hell would anyone believe y-- No, the bra next. Leave the panties for last. Yeah, that's it. You've got some amazing--"
"Agon!" Focus, damn you! "You're supposed to be some sort of genius, right? So just get me the fuck out of this mess, already!"
"Look. Rui-kun," he said. "I don't give advice to trash who bail on me. You're screwed. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm about to be very busy. See you at eight tomorrow morning."
I gripped my cell phone so hard, it made a creaking noise. I was going to kill that bastard! "Eight o'clock? Don't make me laugh! If I take the fall for this bullshit, you can bet your Ferrari the boss will replace me! You think he'll keep a failure assigned to his star consultant? He won't even put us in the same room together! Good luck training another assistant, asshole!"
Agon's end went dead silent.
Kah! "How dare you hang up on me, you fucking piece of--"
"I'm still on the line, shit-for-brains! Shut the fuck up so I can think!" he snapped. "Hey, whatever-your-name-is. Get your clothes back on, I'm not in the mood anymore."
"Agon--" Shit, what was I doing? I never wanted to see the asshole again, and fucking up a big assignment like this was the perfect solution! If he bailed me out, I'd owe him!
"Aah? Money for the train?" Agon asked. "What do I care if you have to walk home? You couldn't striptease your way out of a paper bag! Just get out!"
But I had my reputation, and a family to support, and my boys to look after. Everyone's lives hung in the balance here. I couldn't give up now. I had to fix this, no matter what it took. "Look, just tell me what I should do."
"What you should do," he told me, "is go home. You and your boys both. Leave and pretend everything's fine."
"That won't solve anything!" I insisted. "Everything is not fine!"
"I'll fix it. Just do what I say," he ordered. And then he hung up.
I swore and kicked the wall again. It hurt so bad, I almost threw my phone but caught myself when I remembered I didn't have the money for a new one. My boys were staring at me.
"Go home!" I shouted at them all.
And because I was their aniki, and because they trusted me, they did.
*****
I went home, but I didn't go in. I sat in my car, not wanting to deal with Ryo and his school transfers, or Megu and her having-another-baby talk. Staring out the window at the yellow-tinged Tokyo night and working my way through a pack of cigarettes was much more calming.
What kind of man felt unwelcome in his own home?
Kah, this was stupid! Here I was again, waiting on Agon, with my career on the line and completely in the dark because that was how he wanted it. Agon always got everything he wanted, and what did I get? An empty pack of cigarettes and a hard-on. Fuck, why couldn't I stop thinking about that night?
I tossed the cigarette butt out the window with an annoyed flick of my wrist and ran a hand through my hair. Shit. Losing a finger was nothing compared to this.
When my phone rang, I almost didn't answer. I didn't want to deal with it. I barely had the motivation to tell whoever was on the line to go fuck himself. The only person I wanted to talk to was the person I never wanted to lay eyes on again because I couldn't get the image out of my mind of my dick sliding into his ass. Anyway, it was too soon for Agon to be calling.
Except it was him. "What happened?" I demanded. "Did you talk to the boss? What did he say? You didn't tell him I fucked up, did you? Agon, you better not have screwed me over!"
"Listen up, Habashira," Agon told me. "I'm not the idiot teenager I used to be. I'm not the kid who lost the Kantou region championship to some no-name team because he couldn't see the value in anyone but himself. Eleven of the same card isn't a hard hand to beat."
I didn't know what kind of fucked-up deck he was playing with, but I felt the need to point out, "That wasn't the championship. Deimon beat you in the first round."
"Shut up," he told me. "That's not the point."
You shut up! Asshole! "Then get to the point! My future is on the line here!"
"The point is that even trash can have a use if you know where to look for it," he said. "If you think of everyone else as worthless, you'll never get anywhere in--"
"Agon! We can talk football later! Just tell me what the boss said!" I ordered.
He was silent, and I could almost feel him grinding his teeth. "Fine. If that's all you want to hear, I'll tell you. You're off the hook," he said.
I blinked. "What's that supposed to mean? It couldn't have been that easy."
"Don't be an idiot, I can charm my way out of anything. I told you I'd fix it, and I did. As far as your boss is concerned, the fuck-up tonight never happened," he told me.
"Never happened?" I repeated. "Kah! I've heard that before." Right before I threw your money back in your face. Why did I do that? I needed that money!
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" he demanded. "I just did you a huge favor, and you're bringing up shit like that?"
"You owed me that favor!" I insisted.
"I owed you th-- This isn't what I called you for!" Agon shouted. "Do you have to ruin everything?"
"Aah?! What did I ruin?!" I shouted back. "You ruined my whole life!"
"I gave you money! I said it never happened!" he accused. "You're the one who wouldn't accept it!"
"You insulted my pride as a man! I made you--" I paused, my mind racing trying to find the right words. Ah, fuck it, I'd go with the wrong ones: "I had you moaning like a whore, and you know it! You know you liked it! You're a fucking liar!"
"I know that!"
"You--" Wait, he was admitting it?
"If you'd let me finish instead of screaming, I'd have already told you that," he said. "The only time your mouth needs to be open is when my cock is in it."
"Kah! How do you expect me to be quiet when you say shit like that?!"I demanded. "Show some damn respect!"
"Respect?" he asked. "That's what I was trying to do before you interrupted. Now keep your mouth shut, and I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen here."
"Ordering me around is not showing respect, you asshole!" I snapped.
"First," he told me, "you're going to pull your head out of your ass."
"Still not hearing the respect!" I announced.
"Then you're going to drive that ugly ass over here--"
"It's almost midnight, I'm not going anywhere! And my ass is not--"
"--and you're going to fuck me."
When I picked the phone up off the floor, Agon was saying, "...not to the office. To my apartment. It's in the high-rise across from the Oujou station, room 422. Twenty minutes, you hear me? A minute late, and I rip your balls off after I'm done with them. That is not an idle threat."
"Don't threaten me!" I screamed. "I'm already in my car!"
"Oh?" he said in his fake-sweet voice. And he probably said more after that, but I threw the phone over my shoulder, so I didn't hear.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
My hands were shaking as I turned the ignition and forced the car into gear. The grinding as I shifted into second almost drowned out the sound of the blood thumping in my ears. What the fuck was I doing?
Well, it didn't matter. I was doing it, it was happening, whether I liked it or not. I swallowed against a throat suddenly gone dry and knew I was going to like it.
The drive felt like an eternity. Too many idiots on the road. Get out of my way!
There, finally. Oujou station, high-rise complex.
Two wheels up on the sidewalk, slamming the door.
Into the lobby, up the stairs.
Fourth floor.
Room 422, 422...
The door swung open before I could knock. "Took you long enough," Agon said.
"Shut up," I told him, and grabbed him by the shirt.
I knew he let me do it, could've thrown me off in an instant, but it didn't matter. His mouth was hot and tongue slick against mine, and when I pressed a knee between his thighs, he was as hard as I was.
Then his hands were at my waist, fingers tugging my shirt from my pants and working my belt free. I pushed him into the room and kicked the door shut. Do not fuck this up! I ordered him mentally, my tongue wrapping around his. Do not say a word, do not stop this, do not--
He pushed my shirt from my shoulders and undid his own pants when my fingers fumbled with the button. I wrapped a hand around his neck, held his mouth to mine, and begged, Don't let this stop, don't let it stop, don't stop this, Agon, Agon...
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