So I guess I'm actually posting fic in my own blog now. How about that?
Title: On Teaching Lessons And Letting Go
Pairing: Lucci/Kaku
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,630
Summary: Kaku and Lucci meet the new recruits. Some of them are impressive...others, less so.
A/N: Spoilers for recent cover pages, technically. This is for maldoror_gw, because she requested it and, more importantly, because she is awesome.
"Ugly bunch," Lucci proclaimed, looking over the trainees with a cold, practiced eye.
"You say that about all children," Kaku pointed out, noncommittal.
"That's because all children are ugly." He stepped up and down the line, slow and stalking. Kaku could see some of the littler ones shaking. Finally, he stopped, two from the end. "You. What's your name?"
"S-Sammy," the kid stammered, stumbling back a foot. Lucci gave him a look that managed to express both disappointment and vague amusement.
"When someone asks you where you come from, what do you say?"
The kid looked baffled, as if trying to work out the intricacies of that question and becoming hopelessly lost in the process. "Bark Island?" he ventured at last. Kaku couldn't see the look Lucci gave the kid as he turned away, but judging by the way Sammy whimpered and sat down suddenly, it hadn't been pleasant.
"Send him back," was Lucci's snapped command to the trainees' instructor.
The old man looked confused. "But sir, this one has shown marked improvement in the areas of control and accuracy, unprecedented for his age--"
"Send him to the reserves," Lucci suggested. "The Marines. Make him a sniper. I don't care. I won't have him in my organization."
If possible, the instructor looked even more befuddled, gaping like a fish. "But...he's one of my most promising--"
"Do I look like I care?" Lucci asked, perfectly calm, rounding on the man so fast that he nearly stumbled like the kid. "I'm sure he's very talented. Find something to do with him if you'd like, but take him out of CP9 training, or I will show you 'promise'."
Shakily, the man nodded. Lucci smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"You're going to give everyone on this island a heart attack," Kaku admonished faintly. Lucci arched an eyebrow, but stood back as Kaku traversed the line as he had. They were an ugly bunch, he had to admit, but luckily you didn't have to be pretty in this organization, and Kaku ought to know. He stopped in front of a tiny girl wearing a pale pink dress highly unsuited for combat training. "Which one is the youngest?"
"That one," the instructor declared of the tiny girl in the dress. "She's six." Kaku nodded once and dropped into a crouch, looking the girl in the eyes.
"What's your name?" he asked, a far sight kinder than Lucci had, but no less seriously.
"Chiori," squeaked the tiny girl. She was looking up at him, wide-eyed and apparently unafraid. Looking a little curious about the nose, it seemed, but otherwise unaffected.
"If someone asks you where you're from, what do you say?"
She put her fist up to her mouth and glanced off to one side in what Kaku guessed was probably thought. Finally, she wrinkled her brow and looked back to his face. "If you ask?"
"Does it matter?"
"Mm-hmm," she chirped. "If you ask," and she pointed to Lucci, "or he asks, or somebody else..." She appeared to be thinking again. "If a commanding offer asks, I say Cherry Island."
"What if someone you don't know asks?" said Kaku. "If we sent you away to another island and someone asked where you were from, what would you say?"
She looked at the ground for a moment, then up. "Wherever commanding offer says," she declared.
Kaku nodded once. "I'm your commanding officer. I asked you where you're from. Why didn't you answer me with your home island?"
Chiori looked confused. "But you said...you asked what I say if someone asks, not just you," she pointed out.
"Good girl," Kaku murmured, appraising. He stood up, looking down at the tiny girl from his comparatively great height. "Chiori, can you say 'plausible deniability'?"
"Pausable denility."
"Close enough." He reached down to ruffle her messy hair, and turned back to Lucci and the instructor. "I like this one. Where'd you find her?"
"Crimson Reef."
"I like her even more. Devote special attention to her training."
The instructor gave Chiori a dubious look. "The other trainees will beat her bloody when they catch her alone. You know that."
"Let's see if she can take it," Kaku said mildly. He turned back to the lineup, scanning for hopeful prospects. One boy was taller than the rest, thin, a little too old, maybe thirteen or fourteen at a stretch. But if they'd picked a kid outside the usual age range... "What about that one?" He pointed. "What's your name?"
The kid opened his mouth, but before he could speak, one of the other big kids in the back hocked up something vile from the back of his throat and spit it on the ground. "You don't want him," the kid in the back said disdainfully.
"Why not?" Kaku asked. This promised either to be interesting or insipid.
"He's a faerie," loogie boy proclaimed, pointing. The tall kid didn't react beyond staring straight ahead and creasing his lips into a flat line.
"I'm sorry?" said Kaku, although he knew perfectly well what that meant.
"Faggot," a younger boy elucidated. "Queer!" somebody else in the lineup added. A girl giggled. The tall kid looked down.
"I see," Kaku said mildly. "Well, that's certainly something. Lucci," he said, without looking away from the tall kid, "do me a favor."
"Hmm?"
"Help me show the recruits what we think of that sort of behavior."
"Certainly," Lucci said, perfectly free of inflection, and before Kaku had time to brace himself, a strong hand landed on his shoulder and jerked him around, and then he was being kissed with the sort of intense, uncalculated abandon normally reserved for places significantly more private than this. He hadn't intended for this, not like this, but one of Lucci's hands was around the back of his neck and the other was on the small of his back, holding them together, bracing him, and Kaku was grateful for it as he clung to Lucci's shoulder, wound fingers through his hair and tried to kiss back as good as he was getting, because he had a distinct impression that otherwise he would have fallen over.
And then Lucci let go, taking a judicious step back that yanked all the breath in Kaku's body with it, and Kaku had to swallow hard and swiftly piece together the remains of his composure before turning back to the staring trainees. Some of them were horrified. Some were fascinated, albeit mostly in a horrified way. The tall kid looked shocked...and triumphant.
"Now," Kaku announced, curtly smoothing down his rumpled shirtfront with a yank at the hem, "no more of that. You'll have plenty of time to verbally butcher your comrades once you get out of training, but for the time being you have more important things to focus on. Survival, for instance. I'm looking at the one you've been making fun of, and I can tell you right now he could take the arms of over half of you and tie them in a knot behind your back, and without using faerie magic, either. More importantly, I find myself sympathetic to kids with big noses on my bad days, and I could ball the lot of you up and crush you down for scraps. Dismissed."
With that, and a polite nod at the instructor, Kaku walked away, down and past the line of stunned trainees and away toward the tower in the jungle. He could feel Lucci following several yards behind him, but he caught up in an instant as soon as they were out of sight.
"In front of the children, Lucci?" Kaku muttered, picking up his pace.
Lucci kept stride easily. "You asked. And you put on quite a nice show as well, in my opinion."
"That's as may be, but it wasn't entirely fair," Kaku snapped. He couldn't walk any faster without breaking into a jog, but he was not going to run.
"All's fair in love and war," Lucci said mildly. "Race you back to the tower."
"Which one is this?" Kaku muttered. Now he was going to run.
Six and a half record minutes later, as Kaku's back slammed into the wall next to his bed hard enough to rattle the stone foundation and scare Hattori, complaining, out the open window through which they'd entered, he struggled to get enough of his breath back to say "That little one was impressive, you know."
"Shut up," Lucci said flatly, just before sinking his teeth into the side of Kaku's neck.
Kaku fought down a groan and twisted his wrists where they were trapped firmly against the wall by Lucci's hands. "She was," he insisted, trying to ignore the lazy, insistent movement of Lucci's hips long enough to make his point. "And you would have thrown her out, wouldn't you? For the dress. For…mm…you would have found something. You're being too hard on them."
"The first brat had no place here and you know it," Lucci almost growled to the place behind Kaku's ear.
"I know," said Kaku, suppressing a shiver. "But you look for excuses. You're too tense lately. You'll have to let go sometime, Lucci."
Just for a moment, Lucci stopped, still pinning Kaku mercilessly to the wall, face hidden to Kaku's view. Kaku could feel his lover's chest moving in time with his breath, and underneath it, faintly, his heartbeat. Against his ear, Lucci murmured something half-soundless that might have been "I know." And slowly, one finger at a time, he released his iron grip on Kaku's wrists and, just for once, let himself be drawn down to the bed.
So just for one day, if only for an hour and only on that island, the world was a brighter place for tiny girls and rejects and kids with big noses.
Pairing: Lucci/Kaku
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,630
Summary: Kaku and Lucci meet the new recruits. Some of them are impressive...others, less so.
A/N: Spoilers for recent cover pages, technically. This is for maldoror_gw, because she requested it and, more importantly, because she is awesome.
"Ugly bunch," Lucci proclaimed, looking over the trainees with a cold, practiced eye.
"You say that about all children," Kaku pointed out, noncommittal.
"That's because all children are ugly." He stepped up and down the line, slow and stalking. Kaku could see some of the littler ones shaking. Finally, he stopped, two from the end. "You. What's your name?"
"S-Sammy," the kid stammered, stumbling back a foot. Lucci gave him a look that managed to express both disappointment and vague amusement.
"When someone asks you where you come from, what do you say?"
The kid looked baffled, as if trying to work out the intricacies of that question and becoming hopelessly lost in the process. "Bark Island?" he ventured at last. Kaku couldn't see the look Lucci gave the kid as he turned away, but judging by the way Sammy whimpered and sat down suddenly, it hadn't been pleasant.
"Send him back," was Lucci's snapped command to the trainees' instructor.
The old man looked confused. "But sir, this one has shown marked improvement in the areas of control and accuracy, unprecedented for his age--"
"Send him to the reserves," Lucci suggested. "The Marines. Make him a sniper. I don't care. I won't have him in my organization."
If possible, the instructor looked even more befuddled, gaping like a fish. "But...he's one of my most promising--"
"Do I look like I care?" Lucci asked, perfectly calm, rounding on the man so fast that he nearly stumbled like the kid. "I'm sure he's very talented. Find something to do with him if you'd like, but take him out of CP9 training, or I will show you 'promise'."
Shakily, the man nodded. Lucci smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"You're going to give everyone on this island a heart attack," Kaku admonished faintly. Lucci arched an eyebrow, but stood back as Kaku traversed the line as he had. They were an ugly bunch, he had to admit, but luckily you didn't have to be pretty in this organization, and Kaku ought to know. He stopped in front of a tiny girl wearing a pale pink dress highly unsuited for combat training. "Which one is the youngest?"
"That one," the instructor declared of the tiny girl in the dress. "She's six." Kaku nodded once and dropped into a crouch, looking the girl in the eyes.
"What's your name?" he asked, a far sight kinder than Lucci had, but no less seriously.
"Chiori," squeaked the tiny girl. She was looking up at him, wide-eyed and apparently unafraid. Looking a little curious about the nose, it seemed, but otherwise unaffected.
"If someone asks you where you're from, what do you say?"
She put her fist up to her mouth and glanced off to one side in what Kaku guessed was probably thought. Finally, she wrinkled her brow and looked back to his face. "If you ask?"
"Does it matter?"
"Mm-hmm," she chirped. "If you ask," and she pointed to Lucci, "or he asks, or somebody else..." She appeared to be thinking again. "If a commanding offer asks, I say Cherry Island."
"What if someone you don't know asks?" said Kaku. "If we sent you away to another island and someone asked where you were from, what would you say?"
She looked at the ground for a moment, then up. "Wherever commanding offer says," she declared.
Kaku nodded once. "I'm your commanding officer. I asked you where you're from. Why didn't you answer me with your home island?"
Chiori looked confused. "But you said...you asked what I say if someone asks, not just you," she pointed out.
"Good girl," Kaku murmured, appraising. He stood up, looking down at the tiny girl from his comparatively great height. "Chiori, can you say 'plausible deniability'?"
"Pausable denility."
"Close enough." He reached down to ruffle her messy hair, and turned back to Lucci and the instructor. "I like this one. Where'd you find her?"
"Crimson Reef."
"I like her even more. Devote special attention to her training."
The instructor gave Chiori a dubious look. "The other trainees will beat her bloody when they catch her alone. You know that."
"Let's see if she can take it," Kaku said mildly. He turned back to the lineup, scanning for hopeful prospects. One boy was taller than the rest, thin, a little too old, maybe thirteen or fourteen at a stretch. But if they'd picked a kid outside the usual age range... "What about that one?" He pointed. "What's your name?"
The kid opened his mouth, but before he could speak, one of the other big kids in the back hocked up something vile from the back of his throat and spit it on the ground. "You don't want him," the kid in the back said disdainfully.
"Why not?" Kaku asked. This promised either to be interesting or insipid.
"He's a faerie," loogie boy proclaimed, pointing. The tall kid didn't react beyond staring straight ahead and creasing his lips into a flat line.
"I'm sorry?" said Kaku, although he knew perfectly well what that meant.
"Faggot," a younger boy elucidated. "Queer!" somebody else in the lineup added. A girl giggled. The tall kid looked down.
"I see," Kaku said mildly. "Well, that's certainly something. Lucci," he said, without looking away from the tall kid, "do me a favor."
"Hmm?"
"Help me show the recruits what we think of that sort of behavior."
"Certainly," Lucci said, perfectly free of inflection, and before Kaku had time to brace himself, a strong hand landed on his shoulder and jerked him around, and then he was being kissed with the sort of intense, uncalculated abandon normally reserved for places significantly more private than this. He hadn't intended for this, not like this, but one of Lucci's hands was around the back of his neck and the other was on the small of his back, holding them together, bracing him, and Kaku was grateful for it as he clung to Lucci's shoulder, wound fingers through his hair and tried to kiss back as good as he was getting, because he had a distinct impression that otherwise he would have fallen over.
And then Lucci let go, taking a judicious step back that yanked all the breath in Kaku's body with it, and Kaku had to swallow hard and swiftly piece together the remains of his composure before turning back to the staring trainees. Some of them were horrified. Some were fascinated, albeit mostly in a horrified way. The tall kid looked shocked...and triumphant.
"Now," Kaku announced, curtly smoothing down his rumpled shirtfront with a yank at the hem, "no more of that. You'll have plenty of time to verbally butcher your comrades once you get out of training, but for the time being you have more important things to focus on. Survival, for instance. I'm looking at the one you've been making fun of, and I can tell you right now he could take the arms of over half of you and tie them in a knot behind your back, and without using faerie magic, either. More importantly, I find myself sympathetic to kids with big noses on my bad days, and I could ball the lot of you up and crush you down for scraps. Dismissed."
With that, and a polite nod at the instructor, Kaku walked away, down and past the line of stunned trainees and away toward the tower in the jungle. He could feel Lucci following several yards behind him, but he caught up in an instant as soon as they were out of sight.
"In front of the children, Lucci?" Kaku muttered, picking up his pace.
Lucci kept stride easily. "You asked. And you put on quite a nice show as well, in my opinion."
"That's as may be, but it wasn't entirely fair," Kaku snapped. He couldn't walk any faster without breaking into a jog, but he was not going to run.
"All's fair in love and war," Lucci said mildly. "Race you back to the tower."
"Which one is this?" Kaku muttered. Now he was going to run.
Six and a half record minutes later, as Kaku's back slammed into the wall next to his bed hard enough to rattle the stone foundation and scare Hattori, complaining, out the open window through which they'd entered, he struggled to get enough of his breath back to say "That little one was impressive, you know."
"Shut up," Lucci said flatly, just before sinking his teeth into the side of Kaku's neck.
Kaku fought down a groan and twisted his wrists where they were trapped firmly against the wall by Lucci's hands. "She was," he insisted, trying to ignore the lazy, insistent movement of Lucci's hips long enough to make his point. "And you would have thrown her out, wouldn't you? For the dress. For…mm…you would have found something. You're being too hard on them."
"The first brat had no place here and you know it," Lucci almost growled to the place behind Kaku's ear.
"I know," said Kaku, suppressing a shiver. "But you look for excuses. You're too tense lately. You'll have to let go sometime, Lucci."
Just for a moment, Lucci stopped, still pinning Kaku mercilessly to the wall, face hidden to Kaku's view. Kaku could feel his lover's chest moving in time with his breath, and underneath it, faintly, his heartbeat. Against his ear, Lucci murmured something half-soundless that might have been "I know." And slowly, one finger at a time, he released his iron grip on Kaku's wrists and, just for once, let himself be drawn down to the bed.
So just for one day, if only for an hour and only on that island, the world was a brighter place for tiny girls and rejects and kids with big noses.