FIC: Ultimate Fear- 4/5
Title: Ultimate Fear
Fandom: Tekken
Pairing: Kazuya/Lee and also a bit of vaguely implied and one-sided Lars/Lee
Summary: Kazuya discovers a taste for fine literature and Lee is too busy to look deeper at what really lies behind this newfound passion. The most ridiculous of fights ensues.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tekken or any of its characters. I am not making any profit from this.
Rating: R
Warnings: Incest, language, violence. Crack.
Part Four
Stupid book.
Stupid, stupid, stupid fucking book! He ripped it in half, threw it against the wall and then he picked it up and ripped it some more. He stomped on it with all the rage he could muster and far more violence than it deserved, but it was soft and it was flexible and it didn’t shatter in that satisfying way he expected of something when he slammed it against a hard surface. Infuriated, he picked up a piece closest to him and threw it into the fireplace. The paper flared immediately and it brought on a brief surge of satisfaction, enough to calm him down for a moment, but not destined to last very long.
The emptiness overwhelmed him. The den was empty, the entire building was empty. He may as well have been alone in the whole of Japan! The accumulated tension that he’d used to build a dam fell to pieces and the silence he’d been hiding from came crashing down.
Lee was gone and he slammed his fist into a wall.
The panic, the absolute panic overwhelmed him. Three days. It was three days. Desperately, he tried to tell himself that it was only three days. That they would pass in a heartbeat. He tried with anger; anger at himself for the weakness and the idea that he couldn’t survive without him for even a second, but it was too late. The scream welled inside him, the pressure built and he knew, he simply knew that nothing- not reason, not pride, not decades of self-control- would be able to hold it in.
“Time… time, what’s the time?”
Twenty minutes. There were twenty minutes left before the plane took off. Beyond any semblance of control, he spread his wings and jumped down. He stalked into the swarming, unsuspecting office and the bewildered people looked up, all of them suddenly shocked into silence.
“Stop him!” he roared and his eyes blazed red. They all jumped, wide eyed in front of his madness and then scattered in terror to do his bidding. “Stop that damned plane! Bring him back! Bring him here!”
Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes.
Nineteen… eighteen…
He retreated into privacy, not liking the idea of falling apart in front of so many eyes.
There was not enough time. They simply couldn’t get there in time! The plane would fly off with Lee in it and take him to the other end of the world, far away from him, where he couldn’t see him, couldn’t touch him, couldn’t reach him. Lee, who was rebellious and independent. Lee, who did whatever the fuck he wanted whenever he wanted it. Lee, who attracted trouble like a magnet. A million things could go wrong when he wasn’t watching him! Horrible possibilities raced through his mind, each worse than the one before. Did he really sign off on this? What had he been thinking?
He couldn’t understand. He must have gone mad.
Europe! Europe, of all the places in the world! Europe, where Heihachi’s bastard was still at large. The very thought of him and everything that he represented made his heart race and he felt his breath coming short. All the things he never even thought about, let alone voiced out loud suddenly crawled out from the deepest entrails of his psyche and clamoured for his attention. Every terror that had ever weighed him down was suddenly real and present and unavoidable. It was like a tide, like a flood of all the doubts and fears and premonitions. It was overwhelming.
He knew what Alexandersson felt for Lee.
He had seen how he looked at him and sensed all the turmoil. Nobody knew better than Kazuya what it was like to want him and not have him. It drove one insane and there was no telling what he could do.
He paced and the massive auditorium suddenly seemed too small. With each passing moment, his panic grew. He bared his fangs and clenched his fists, struggling to stop himself from roaring again. He was helpless, reduced to waiting, and it infuriated him.
“Sir,” a head poked out from around the heavy door. Kazuya halted in the middle of his step and spun around. “Good news, sir. They caught the plane on time. Mr Lee has been apprehended.”
He breathed out in relief. “Where is he now?”
“The guard is bringing him back. They should be here within the hour.”
“Wonderful!” Kazuya exclaimed, suddenly in a good mood. “Tell them to hurry. The sooner my brother is back, the better!”
“Sir,” the man said. “I should warn you, sir. Mr Lee is not happy.”
Destroyed, relieved and insane, Kazuya laughed. As long as Lee was with him and not half the fucking world away, he didn’t really care.
He looked down through the window.
People crawled below him like ants, until at last, he saw the convoy pulling up. Surrounded by a heavy guard, the black, armoured truck came to a stop and there was a flash of silver as Lee exited the vehicle. The absolute rage was obvious from his his stance and the wary distance of a couple of feet that his escort kept, not daring to lay their hands on him. Kazuya imagined that there had to be some with broken bones who had tried and smiled grimly, feeling a twisted sort of satisfaction that Lee was still forced to come at his command.
Finally, they were inside of the building. Minutes. Only minutes now for Lee to ride up in the elevator. He waited for the sound of his heavy boots with eager anticipation. There would be no peace before he could see him, touch him, feel him again.
“Kazuya!” Lee yelled and forced the doors open with such strength, they cracked on their hinges. Even expecting him to be upset, Kazuya was still shocked by the extent of his pure rage. Lee didn’t drop his masks often, but when he did, he was difficult to behold. He shook all over and his dark eyes blazed.
“Did you seriously just send a paramilitary to drag me off the plane?” he roared.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I changed my mind,” Kazuya said, his eyes glowing red. “I don’t want to do business with London anymore.”
“You changed your mind?” Lee cried. “On the eve of finalisation?”
“Yes!” Kazuya replied. “I no longer think it’s a good idea.”
“Okay, you complete fucking lunatic,” Lee said, his voice dropping in volume but dripping in venom, “do you even realise how much is at stake here? Have you got any idea what massive losses we’ll take if we back out of this now?”
“We’ll survive.”
Lee flew forward and into his face until there were only inches between them.
“You had better have a good reason for this or I swear I will kick your arse so hard, it will land in the next millennium!”
“I… I have a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling?” Lee said icily. “That’s it?”
Kazuya shrugged. He knew perfectly how inadequate it was, but it was the only explanation he had.
Lee’s eyes narrowed. “I asked you what was wrong. I repeatedly asked you what was going on!” he said. “And now you tell me this? Of all times, now, minutes before take-off, and think you can get away without explaining yourself?”
“What do you want me to say?” Kazuya yelled angrily. “I don’t have a better explanation for you and I don’t give a fuck about the losses! It is only money! It’s nothing that can’t be recovered! It doesn’t even begin to compare to…”
He stopped speaking abruptly.
“Finish that sentence!” Lee ordered darkly. “Finish it! You will not hide things from me anymore! I will not tolerate that from you, I swear, so, say it! Compare to what?”
“To losing you!” Kazuya blurted out in rage and regretted it immediately.
Lee stared.
“Why would you…?” he began the question, but suddenly, he understood. Stricken, shaken, he took a step back. All colour drained from his face and he was silent for a long moment.
“This is about Lars again, isn’t it?” he said quietly, wide-eyed and mortified.
“I won’t deny it!” Kazuya snarled. “I don’t want him anywhere near you, and here you were, about to fly off to fucking Sweden!”
“England, Kazuya,” Lee said coldly. “I was going to England. They are not mutually interchangeable.”
“Whatever! They are just one plane ride away from each other!”
“How is that even an issue? Japan is one plane ride away from Sweden too, if you care to make the trip!”
“That is really not helping your case!” Kazuya growled. “Not that it matters anyway because it’s hardly the same thing! Japan is mine!”
Lee pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed, counting silently to himself in an effort to not fall apart.
“You promised me!” he hissed, trembling all over. The calm, final tone of his voice was chilling. “You promised me you wouldn’t bring him up between us again!”
“I am not!” Kazuya cried.
“No? Because you are about to blow a multi-billion deal because… what? You think that the moment you take your eyes off me, I will fuck our brother on a conference table with the delegates of half the continent watching?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Kazuya sneered. Truth be told, that scenario hadn’t yet occurred to him, but now the image lodged in his mind and wouldn’t go away. He felt nauseous.
“Oh, so I am the one being ridiculous?” Lee cried. “I can’t believe you! After everything we’ve been through, you still can’t trust me! Just because I fucked you, doesn’t mean I want to fuck every single member of my goddamn family!”
“It isn’t you that I don’t trust!” Kazuya roared. “Stop putting words into my mouth! This isn’t about that! It isn’t even about him, even though he is the first thing that comes to my mind!”
“No?” Lee yelled. “Then what is it about? Please explain it to me, because it looks pretty grim from where I’m standing.”
“Are you being wilfully obtuse, or what?” Kazuya said. “There are much worse things that he can do to you than fuck you, whether you want it or not! And he is far from being the only thing that keeps me awake at night!”
Lee blinked, not comprehending. “What are you talking about?”
“Alexandersson is neither as benevolent nor stupid as you seem to think,” Kazuya ground out. “And he is not made of stone!”
“I don’t think that he is stupid!”
“Yes, you do. You think that the entire world is too stupid for you!” Kazuya said. “Yet in never ceases to amaze me how you, with your shiny, superior IQ can be so ignorant to think that you can continually fuck with people with no consequences to yourself!”
“Wait, you think…” Lee started in shocked. It had never even occurred to him. It seemed so laughable. “You actually think that he would hurt me?”
“That is an understatement for what I think he’d do to you if he was given the chance!” Kazuya said.
“No, he wouldn’t,” Lee scoffed, dismissing it with an easy wave of his hand. “He…”
“Loves you?” Kazuya finished the thought for him and glared. Lee looked up, his eyes wide and perplexed, and Kazuya sneered. “It’s precisely why he is so dangerous!”
“You are wrong,” Lee said, the little furrow of distress forming between his brows.
“Am I?” Kazuya cried. “Think about that! Think why this is something that I know!”
“You are a fucking maniac,” Lee said. “Not every man shares your pathology. Stop projecting!”
Kazuya grinned bitterly. “Ah, but what are that odds that this one in particular does?”
“I think that I know him a little better than you. Lars is a good man!”
“Do you, indeed?” Kazuya laughed. “Do you really think you can?” Lee took another step back away from him, the furrow between his brows deepening. “There is no such thing as ‘good men’! You know this to be true! But either way, it is beside the point because you will not get the chance to find out!”
“You are out of your damn mind!” Lee cried.
“So what if I fucking am?” Kazuya roared. “You are not going to Europe and that is final! It is so far! It is too dangerous! If something was to happen, if anything was to go wrong I wouldn’t be able to reach you and… and…” Kazuya shuddered and shook his head as if attempting to shed the unwanted fears. “You are the one thing that I cannot replace. I will not risk you! Not now. Not ever. Not for anything. I will sooner see everything burn!”
Infuriated, Lee opened his mouth to reply, but something in Kazuya’s expression stopped him. It was there for just a moment, so elusive and fleeting, he almost thought that he’d imagined it. He blinked and looked again, but Kazuya suddenly turned away from him.
There was no doubt.
Fear. It was fear, or Kazuya would not have felt the need to hide. There was more to this than he was saying. Something had happened and it had shaken him badly. Lee’s mind raced, but he couldn’t remember, he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Kazuya wouldn’t tell him, or he would have done so already. Or perhaps he couldn’t. Perhaps he didn’t even know how to voice whatever it was that was bothering him. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
Suddenly exhausted, he sat down in Kazuya’s massive chair, leaning his elbows on his knees and resting his head on the tips of his fingers. The silence was terrible.
“Chaolan…” Kazuya said and reached out towards him.
Lee stopped him with a sharp, “Don’t. Don’t you fucking touch me! You complete fucking monster.”
His face was pale and drawn and with the anger suddenly defused, Kazuya withdrew his hand, almost feeling guilty for causing this.
Almost, but not quite.
The blaring howl of alarm that had risen to an unbearable pitch was finally silent. In his gut, he knew that he had made the right call.