KeixClaude fic, yay~
Title: To Save a Blond
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Death, torture, foul language (mostly on Claude's part), lack of Beta
Summary: Kei's been kidnapped! Now it's up to Claude to save his partner and kill a bunch of people in the process.
“Claude, do you think you could try to calm down a bit? You’re starting to make me nervous.”
Claude was restlessly pacing up and down his boss’s office, Roma calmly watching him from behind her desk. At the woman’s request, Claude sat himself down in a nearby chair and allowed his nervous energy to show through his rapidly bouncing leg. He needed a cigarette - that would definitely calm him down - but Roma disliked smoking in her office. Besides, how could he be expected not to be nervous, given the current situation?
Roma nodded in approval. “Much better. Now you can just sit and relax for a few minutes.”
“How can you be so calm?” Claude asked tensely.
“Because I know that something is currently being done about the situation. Now,” Roma leaned forward a little in her seat as she rested her crossed arms on her desk, “tell me again what happened last night. You weren’t very clear on the phone.”
Claude sighed in exasperation - how was this going to help? “We had gotten home after that job you gave us - you know, the information-gathering one. Kei went out to get something at the store. He should’ve been gone for only half an hour or so. When he hadn’t come back after an hour, I called his cell. It went straight to voicemail.”
“And this morning?”
“He hadn’t come home last night.” Claude should know - he hadn’t been able to sleep with Kei gone. “When he didn’t answer his cell again, I called you.”
“Hm. Well, it hasn’t been a full day yet; things can’t be too bad,” Roma said gently.
Claude gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles turned white. “If the guys who have Kei are any good, they won’t need a whole day,” he muttered.
“That’s true - and that’s why we’re here.”
The intercom buzzed on Roma’s desk, and the woman quickly answered it. “Yes?”
“Your one o’clock is here, ma’am,” a tinny voice said.
“Very good. Send her in.”
“Who’s coming?” Claude asked as his boss leaned back in her chair.
Roma smiled. “You’ll see.”
The door in the back of the room opened and softly clicked shut again. As the newcomer approached the desk, Claude turned to take a look at the visitor. It was a young woman, tall and slim, with short, tousled brown hair. Claude took notice of the girl’s most noticeable feature - a missing pupil in her left eye - and glared in sudden recognition.
“You,” Claude said harshly.
Roma’s eyebrows raised in interest. “Do you know our guest, Claude?”
“I’m afraid he does,” the young woman said, her words tinged with a brogue. She extended her hand across the desktop. “Gail McAedan - your boys and I had a run-in a month or so ago.”
“Ah, so you’re the one who gave Kei his shiner,” Roma said appreciatively as she took Gail’s hand and shook it. “You know, that bruise took nearly two weeks to fade.”
“Well, I take pride in my work.”
Claude managed to get over his initial shock enough to reenter the conversation. “What’s she doing here?” he demanded.
“She’s our informant,” Roma explained breezily. “Once you called, I sent someone to hire her to dig up some information. And, apparently, she’s already done.”
Gail nodded. “You asked about activity in some of the bigger abandoned buildings. Well, only about four are occupied right now. The last one became active about two days ago. I took the liberty of obtaining its address.”
“Wonderful.” Roma took the scrap of paper being offered to her and set it aside. “Did you manage to check out this place as well?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t get very close, though - I didn’t want to risk being caught. But I can tell you there’s at least one armed guard at each entrance.”
“All right. Thank you.” The older woman pulled a blank envelope out of her desk and passed it to the younger woman. “That should cover the job, and there’s a bonus for the quick work.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” The envelope quickly vanished into one of Gail’s pockets. As she turned to go, she gave Claude a mischievous grin and a wink as she said, “See you later.”
Claude sighed in annoyance as Gail finally left the office. “I can’t believe you hired her,” he muttered.
“Despite your personal grudges with Miss McAedan - or Blind Luck, whichever you like to call her - she’s very good at what she does.” With a sigh, Roma reached for her phone. “I’ll call Kudo and get him and his team started on this job.”
“No.”
Roma’s hand paused a few inches away from the phone’s receiver. “No?”
“I want this job. I want to be the one to save-“ Claude cleared his throat, a light blush tracing his cheeks. “I mean, recover Kei. Besides, he’s my partner; he’s my responsibility.”
Roma looked Claude over, her eyebrows raised in interest. After a moment of thought, she finally nodded. “All right, then. You can go after Kei. Take the address and get going.”
Claude murmured a thank you as he took the address from his boss and then left the office. Once the office door shut behind him, Claude’s thoughts were focused on one thing and one thing only: how he was going to save Kei and destroy his kidnappers in one fell swoop.
~*
Claude leaned against the back wall of an abandoned warehouse, smoking idly, his brown eyes never wandering from a similarly abandoned building further down the alley - the building that Kei was being kept in. Claude had circled the building several times before settling his focus on the back door. It was the only door with only one guard attending it. After watching the guards switch a couple times, and now that it was officially night, Claude was ready to make his move.
Taking one last drag from his cigarette, he dropped it and ground it out against the cold concrete. That done, Claude picked up a briefcase he had brought along for the job and moved in on the targeted guard.
~*
The guard’s finger tapped idly against the butt of his gun as his eyes restlessly flit from one pocket of shadow to another. Very faintly he could hear the activity going on inside the warehouse. He sighed. He hated this kind of job. There were so many easy ways to extract information from a subject, and this was not one of them. But his boss was old-fashioned, and who was he to refute his superiors?
The guard began to hum a little when he heard a soft sound come from behind him. He whirled and received a hard blow to the side of his face, shattering his cheekbone and knocking a few teeth loose. As he staggered, spitting out blood and teeth from his ruined mouth, another blow hit him squarely at the base of the skull, breaking his neck and sending him down for good.
Claude shouldered his lead pipe as he glared down at the fallen guard. He shook his head - that had been way too easy. But what was he complaining for? An inattentive guard just made sure that his job went that much more smoothly and quickly.
Putting such thoughts aside, Claude tossed the pipe down next to the guard, pulled out his briefcase from its nearby hiding spot, and headed for the door. He paused once he was there, his hand resting on the knob, listening intently. When he heard nothing directly in front of the door, he spun the knob and opened the door just enough to let his head in.
The warehouse was large and mostly empty, the sounds of struggling echoing faintly off the walls. Claude stared at the group of men at the center of the room for a second before analyzing the rest of his surroundings. A large pile of discarded crates was nearby, and Claude snuck over to it in order to get both a hiding place and a better view of what was going on. Once he was settled in his hiding spot, he cautiously lifted his head until he could see over the crates.
Half a dozen men were ranged around a chair with another man tied to it. Five of the men watched as the sixth man, obviously the leader of the entire operation by the way everyone was looking at him, worked over the captive with his fists. Claude’s mouth tightened into an angry line as he recognized the captive’s blond hair. It was Kei, all right - and he was taking one hell of a beating.
Claude gripped the handle of his briefcase until his knuckles were completely white. If he had one clear shot, he could end this now without any problems. But Kei was right there, so he couldn’t do anything without risking serious harm to the captured blond. So all Claude could do was wait impatiently for an opening.
He settled on his haunches, his eyes never leaving the men, his mouth becoming smaller and tighter with each blow that landed on the blond. They’d all pay for hurting Kei - Claude would make sure of it.
~*
When the brutal flurry of blows to his abdomen suddenly stopped, Kei’s head slumped forward limply out of exhaustion. He coughed weakly, a spray of blood leaving his mouth with each cough. He felt sore all over, and he was still dazed from the intense beating he had just gone through. Thought processes weren’t working quite yet, so all Kei could do at that moment was sit there and recover.
A hand roughly gripped the blond’s chin and forced him to look up at his kidnapper. Kei could only see the man through one eye - the other had swollen shut minutes ago. The man smiled as he saw Kei trying to focus on him.
“You’re a tough one,” his captor said softly. “Most men break before this point. I enjoy the few who stay resolute, however, because that means I get to have more fun.”
The man released the blond’s chin. Kei managed to keep his head from slumping forwards again and instead stared silently and resolutely ahead as his captor began to slowly circle the chair.
“Let me tell you what’s in store for you if you don’t start talking in a few minutes,” the man said as he settled his hands on Kei’s shoulders. “I like to tell people what’s coming up for them and then leave them alone to think about it - to build up emotional anguish, you know.
“But I digress. This is what’s going to happen.” The man leaned forwards, his lips right next to Kei’s ear as he murmured, “So far, I’ve been nice and have only been using my hands. That’s about to change. When we come back in five minutes or so, I’ll come back with a bag full of toys to use on you. I will gradually break every single bone in your outer extremities, from the fingers and toes inward. If you don’t talk by the time I’m done with your arms and legs, I’ll switch tactics. I’ll take my trusty blades, which are actually getting a little on the dull side, and start cutting things off. It’ll be small things first - toes, maybe an ear - but as time goes on…”
The man grabbed Kei’s hair, roughly pulling on his bleach-blond locks so that he was forced to look up at his captor. Kei gritted his teeth as he felt some of his hair being pulled out by the roots but otherwise stayed as still as possible.
“I’m a very impatient man,” his kidnapper said softly. “So I can promise that I will make your life a living hell. You’ll be wishing for death by the end. Think about it.”
Kei’s hair was released and the man walked away. The rest of the men followed him across the warehouse to a door leading to a small side room. The door shut behind the group of men with a finalizing click.
Kei let out an exhausted sigh once the men had left. He slumped as much as the ropes keeping him in place would allow, wincing as the motion made pain spark up in his chest. Apparently he had at least one broken rib. Sighing once more, he couldn’t help but wonder what else had been broken over the last few hours.
He was so caught up in his current condition that Kei didn’t realize someone was nearby until he caught motion out of the corner of his eye. The blond looked up quickly and his good eye widened as he recognized his visitor.
“C-Claude?”
The younger man didn’t say anything, his face expressionless as he set his briefcase down next to the chair. Kei watched Claude’s movements with an air of impatient expectancy.
“I was hoping somebody would show up soon! Now if you can just untie me we can get out of-“
A slap across the face efficiently cut Kei off. His already abused face throbbed as he looked up at Claude in shock. The younger man’s hand was still raised, as if it had frozen directly after the hit. Claude’s face was pale and livid.
“Claude…?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Claude hissed furiously. “How could you get yourself fucking kidnapped? Dammit, Kei, you know better!”
Kei, who had been startled by the outburst, quickly recovered and snapped back, “What, you think I asked for this? You think I wanted to be forced into a car, beaten, transported to a warehouse, tied up, and beaten again?”
Claude blanched at the older man’s short description of the past several hours. He opened his mouth, ready to say something (he wasn’t sure what, though), but all that came out was a small croak. He stared at Kei’s bruised face for another moment and then, with a small cry, knelt and wrapped his arms around the bound blond.
“God, Kei, I was so worried! You didn’t come home last night and you wouldn’t answer your phone and I had to go find you and I was so sure I wouldn’t come in time and you’d be crippled or worse and and-“
Kei winced at the grip around his cracked ribs but still managed to speak. “It’s okay, Claude, I’m okay, I’m in one piece, more or less. Just calm down and stop crying.”
“I-I’m not crying,” Claude said brokenly even as he sniffled back his threatening tears.
“Alright, whatever you say. Um… could you also let go? I think I might have a couple broken ribs.”
Claude quickly released the blond, whose face had become pale from pain. “Sorry,” the younger man murmured. “Sorry.”
He circled to the back of the chair, knelt and pulled out a knife. He brought the blade to bear on the rope, carefully sawing through Kei’s bindings.
“Those sons of bitches are gonna pay for this,” Claude muttered darkly as he worked.
“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Kei said with a small smile. He wiggled a little against the loosening ropes and then suddenly asked, “What’s in the briefcase?”
Claude grinned wolfishly as he pulled the cut bindings away from the chair, effectively freeing the blond. “Nothing really. It’s just-“
Kei suddenly hissed, his face becoming wary. “I hear voices.”
Claude whirled to face the door that the men had exited through. Sure enough, voices could be heard, growing louder as their owners drew closer. Cursing under his breath, he dove for his briefcase and pulled it open.
“Can you handle a gun right now?” Claude asked quickly.
Kei extended his right hand, wiggling his fingers experimentally before making a fist. He winced but still nodded. “I’ve got a broken finger, but I should be fine.”
The younger man swiftly pulled out a gun from the briefcase and passed it on to Kei. That done, Claude reached in and pulled out the weapon taking up the most space in the case: a machine gun. Claude settled it comfortably in his hands as Kei whistled appreciatively.
“I want one,” the blond whined playfully.
“Sorry,” Claude said with a grim smile as he aimed his weapon at the door, “but only one fits in the case.”
“Hmph. Fine…” Kei grimaced a little from the pain of gripping the gun but still managed to steadily aim at the door as well.
After a tense moment, the side door swung open and two of the men walked in. They froze when they caught sight of the heavily armed stranger and then - a second too late - fumbled for their own guns. Claude didn’t give them a chance to clear their weapons. He opened fire, the air filling with the sound of rapid gunshots. Bullets ripped through the men, and blood painted the wall behind them. When Claude finally stopped firing, the bodies of the two men were nearly unrecognizable.
Alerted shouts from beyond the doorway signaled the coming of the other men. Without moving his gun away from the door, Claude backed up a little and crouched next to Kei.
“Can you stand?” the younger man asked worriedly.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Try.”
Kei took a moment to steel himself and then pushed himself off the chair. He was steady on his feet and, encouraged, he tried to take a step. Pain lanced up his left leg as something inside of it ground together, and the blond fell to the side as his leg buckled. Claude was there instantly, catching the blond and hoisting him up before he hit the ground.
“Sorry,” Kei whispered. “I guess walking is out for me.”
“It’s fine,” Claude answered softly. “Just lean on me, okay?”
The blond wrapped a thin arm around the younger man’s shoulders just as the rest of the men rushed in, weapons drawn. Without missing a beat, Kei and Claude lifted their own weapons and fired. With his machine gun, Claude managed to take down most of the men, while Kei also was able to get a couple with his own gun. The struggle (if it could be called that) lasted for only a couple minutes and, miraculously, neither Kei nor Claude had been shot at.
As Claude examined the bodies, he noticed that one man was still alive and groaning, a single bullet in his kneecap. He gave Kei a questioning look.
“He was the one who ‘questioned’ me the most,” Kei explained. His blue eyes flashed dangerously. “I wanted to talk to him before I blew his head off.”
Claude nodded his understanding and then helped the blond slowly limp over to the injured kidnapper. Kei painstakingly knelt, keeping his damaged leg as still as possible, and smiled at the fallen man.
“Now, what have we here?” the blond asked sweetly. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘making my life a living hell’ right now?”
The man growled but made no effort to move. “…Bastard,” he spat.
Kei smiled amiably, though his eyes remained as cold as blue ice. “Now, I know that you were probably just following orders, but you couldn’t have been assuming I wouldn’t end up making this personal.”
The blond brought his gun to bear, pressing the muzzle against his kidnappers side turned face. “I hope you enjoy the same treatment that you gave to me.”
Kei pulled the trigger after that, turning his head a little as blood splattered up from his kidnapper’s now-ruined head. With a small sigh of satisfaction, the blond leaned back and smiled weakly.
“Feel better?” Claude asked as he pulled the older man to his feet once more.
“Emotionally, yes,” Kei answered, allowing the younger man to lead him to the warehouse exit. “Physically… I think I could be better.”
Claude chuckled a bit as they finally left the warehouse and started to slowly make their way down the alley. “You’ll recover in no time, I’m sure, and then we can… Kei?”
The younger man stopped walking as he realized that the blond was reeling dangerously to one side. Before Kei could collapse on his own, Claude steadied him in his arms and gently lowered him to the ground.
“Kei, are you okay?”
“I’m… I’m fine,” Kei answered weakly. “I’m just… a little dizzy. Just give me a minute and I’ll be… I’ll be…”
The blond’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he blacked out before he could finish his sentence. Startled, Claude began to nudge him and call the older man’s name. When that didn’t do anything, he desperately looked up and down the alley before realizing that he was in the wrong place to expect help to come waltzing right up to him.
“Fuck, Kei, why do you have to make things so complicated?” Claude muttered without conviction as he lifted the skinny man into his arms. Once he was sure that he had a good grip on the blond, Claude stood and trotted down the alley, making his way to a hospital he knew was nearby.
~*
The hospital was a small and quiet one that (at the right price) simply did its job of patching people up without asking any questions. That was how Claude was able to submit Kei and get him treated in record time.
The final damage report was not pleasant. Besides heavy bruising on his face and abdomen, Kei had a dislocated right shoulder, five broken fingers, six fractured ribs, a cracked left femur, and a mild concussion. The doctors had bandaged him up and given him a bed for the night, wanting to observe him for the next twenty-four hours before letting him go.
Claude sat next to Kei’s bed, his worried gaze never leaving the blond’s sleeping form. After a moment, the younger man stood, walked over to the bed, and smoothed out the sleeping man’s hair. The doctors had pushed it out of the way to examine and treat all of the bruises, and now it was bothering Claude. With careful fingers he managed to get the bleach-blond hair back to its original style.
Kei’s eyes flickered open at that moment, and he smiled to see Claude standing over him. “Hey,” he said softly.
Claude returned the smile. “Hey. How are you feeling?”
The blond shifted in his bed and winced a little. “Like I’ve been hit by a truck.” His blue eyes settled on Claude’s face and he smiled appreciatively. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.”
“Well, what else was I supposed to do, let you get beaten to a bloody pulp? You’re my partner, after all.”
“No, I don’t think you did it because I’m your partner.” Kei’s smiled acquired a knowing edge.
Claude arched an eyebrow. “Oh?” he asked sarcastically. “And why else would I have done it?”
“Because, as you said earlier, you were worried about me.”
Claude blushed at that. He had completely forgotten about his little breakdown at the warehouse. “Um, w-well, that was…”
Kei smiled and reached for Claude’s hand, squeezing it gently. “It’s okay, you don’t have to try to make excuses. I just wanted to thank you for rescuing me.”
“Y-you’re welcome,” Claude answered softly, too flustered to think of anything else to say. Blindly, he reached behind him and pulled a chair over so he could sit and still maintain his grip on Kei’s hand.
“My hero,” Kei whispered as he lightly kissed Claude’s hand. Then, with a tired sigh, he turned his head and closed his eyes.
Claude turned pink at the comment but he didn’t pull away. Instead, after a moment of watching Kei’s tired face, he leaned in and lightly kissed the blond’s lips. “No more getting yourself kidnapped,” the younger man murmured. “It’s way too much work getting you back in one piece.”
He had thought Kei had fallen asleep again, so he was surprised when the blond smiled crookedly and gave Claude’s hand a squeeze without opening his eyes.
“I’ll try, love, I’ll try.”
~*~*~*~*~*
- Ahaha, I suck at titles, don't I? If I can think of a better one, I'll change it when I post this story up on dA.
- As stated before, this was not run past a Beta of any sort before being posted. So if you see anything that's wrong, feel free to tell me!
- Yeah, the post is dated July 4. I just want it to be high enough on the F-list that it registers to Lucy when she gets home tomorrow night.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Death, torture, foul language (mostly on Claude's part), lack of Beta
Summary: Kei's been kidnapped! Now it's up to Claude to save his partner and kill a bunch of people in the process.
“Claude, do you think you could try to calm down a bit? You’re starting to make me nervous.”
Claude was restlessly pacing up and down his boss’s office, Roma calmly watching him from behind her desk. At the woman’s request, Claude sat himself down in a nearby chair and allowed his nervous energy to show through his rapidly bouncing leg. He needed a cigarette - that would definitely calm him down - but Roma disliked smoking in her office. Besides, how could he be expected not to be nervous, given the current situation?
Roma nodded in approval. “Much better. Now you can just sit and relax for a few minutes.”
“How can you be so calm?” Claude asked tensely.
“Because I know that something is currently being done about the situation. Now,” Roma leaned forward a little in her seat as she rested her crossed arms on her desk, “tell me again what happened last night. You weren’t very clear on the phone.”
Claude sighed in exasperation - how was this going to help? “We had gotten home after that job you gave us - you know, the information-gathering one. Kei went out to get something at the store. He should’ve been gone for only half an hour or so. When he hadn’t come back after an hour, I called his cell. It went straight to voicemail.”
“And this morning?”
“He hadn’t come home last night.” Claude should know - he hadn’t been able to sleep with Kei gone. “When he didn’t answer his cell again, I called you.”
“Hm. Well, it hasn’t been a full day yet; things can’t be too bad,” Roma said gently.
Claude gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles turned white. “If the guys who have Kei are any good, they won’t need a whole day,” he muttered.
“That’s true - and that’s why we’re here.”
The intercom buzzed on Roma’s desk, and the woman quickly answered it. “Yes?”
“Your one o’clock is here, ma’am,” a tinny voice said.
“Very good. Send her in.”
“Who’s coming?” Claude asked as his boss leaned back in her chair.
Roma smiled. “You’ll see.”
The door in the back of the room opened and softly clicked shut again. As the newcomer approached the desk, Claude turned to take a look at the visitor. It was a young woman, tall and slim, with short, tousled brown hair. Claude took notice of the girl’s most noticeable feature - a missing pupil in her left eye - and glared in sudden recognition.
“You,” Claude said harshly.
Roma’s eyebrows raised in interest. “Do you know our guest, Claude?”
“I’m afraid he does,” the young woman said, her words tinged with a brogue. She extended her hand across the desktop. “Gail McAedan - your boys and I had a run-in a month or so ago.”
“Ah, so you’re the one who gave Kei his shiner,” Roma said appreciatively as she took Gail’s hand and shook it. “You know, that bruise took nearly two weeks to fade.”
“Well, I take pride in my work.”
Claude managed to get over his initial shock enough to reenter the conversation. “What’s she doing here?” he demanded.
“She’s our informant,” Roma explained breezily. “Once you called, I sent someone to hire her to dig up some information. And, apparently, she’s already done.”
Gail nodded. “You asked about activity in some of the bigger abandoned buildings. Well, only about four are occupied right now. The last one became active about two days ago. I took the liberty of obtaining its address.”
“Wonderful.” Roma took the scrap of paper being offered to her and set it aside. “Did you manage to check out this place as well?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t get very close, though - I didn’t want to risk being caught. But I can tell you there’s at least one armed guard at each entrance.”
“All right. Thank you.” The older woman pulled a blank envelope out of her desk and passed it to the younger woman. “That should cover the job, and there’s a bonus for the quick work.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” The envelope quickly vanished into one of Gail’s pockets. As she turned to go, she gave Claude a mischievous grin and a wink as she said, “See you later.”
Claude sighed in annoyance as Gail finally left the office. “I can’t believe you hired her,” he muttered.
“Despite your personal grudges with Miss McAedan - or Blind Luck, whichever you like to call her - she’s very good at what she does.” With a sigh, Roma reached for her phone. “I’ll call Kudo and get him and his team started on this job.”
“No.”
Roma’s hand paused a few inches away from the phone’s receiver. “No?”
“I want this job. I want to be the one to save-“ Claude cleared his throat, a light blush tracing his cheeks. “I mean, recover Kei. Besides, he’s my partner; he’s my responsibility.”
Roma looked Claude over, her eyebrows raised in interest. After a moment of thought, she finally nodded. “All right, then. You can go after Kei. Take the address and get going.”
Claude murmured a thank you as he took the address from his boss and then left the office. Once the office door shut behind him, Claude’s thoughts were focused on one thing and one thing only: how he was going to save Kei and destroy his kidnappers in one fell swoop.
~*
Claude leaned against the back wall of an abandoned warehouse, smoking idly, his brown eyes never wandering from a similarly abandoned building further down the alley - the building that Kei was being kept in. Claude had circled the building several times before settling his focus on the back door. It was the only door with only one guard attending it. After watching the guards switch a couple times, and now that it was officially night, Claude was ready to make his move.
Taking one last drag from his cigarette, he dropped it and ground it out against the cold concrete. That done, Claude picked up a briefcase he had brought along for the job and moved in on the targeted guard.
~*
The guard’s finger tapped idly against the butt of his gun as his eyes restlessly flit from one pocket of shadow to another. Very faintly he could hear the activity going on inside the warehouse. He sighed. He hated this kind of job. There were so many easy ways to extract information from a subject, and this was not one of them. But his boss was old-fashioned, and who was he to refute his superiors?
The guard began to hum a little when he heard a soft sound come from behind him. He whirled and received a hard blow to the side of his face, shattering his cheekbone and knocking a few teeth loose. As he staggered, spitting out blood and teeth from his ruined mouth, another blow hit him squarely at the base of the skull, breaking his neck and sending him down for good.
Claude shouldered his lead pipe as he glared down at the fallen guard. He shook his head - that had been way too easy. But what was he complaining for? An inattentive guard just made sure that his job went that much more smoothly and quickly.
Putting such thoughts aside, Claude tossed the pipe down next to the guard, pulled out his briefcase from its nearby hiding spot, and headed for the door. He paused once he was there, his hand resting on the knob, listening intently. When he heard nothing directly in front of the door, he spun the knob and opened the door just enough to let his head in.
The warehouse was large and mostly empty, the sounds of struggling echoing faintly off the walls. Claude stared at the group of men at the center of the room for a second before analyzing the rest of his surroundings. A large pile of discarded crates was nearby, and Claude snuck over to it in order to get both a hiding place and a better view of what was going on. Once he was settled in his hiding spot, he cautiously lifted his head until he could see over the crates.
Half a dozen men were ranged around a chair with another man tied to it. Five of the men watched as the sixth man, obviously the leader of the entire operation by the way everyone was looking at him, worked over the captive with his fists. Claude’s mouth tightened into an angry line as he recognized the captive’s blond hair. It was Kei, all right - and he was taking one hell of a beating.
Claude gripped the handle of his briefcase until his knuckles were completely white. If he had one clear shot, he could end this now without any problems. But Kei was right there, so he couldn’t do anything without risking serious harm to the captured blond. So all Claude could do was wait impatiently for an opening.
He settled on his haunches, his eyes never leaving the men, his mouth becoming smaller and tighter with each blow that landed on the blond. They’d all pay for hurting Kei - Claude would make sure of it.
~*
When the brutal flurry of blows to his abdomen suddenly stopped, Kei’s head slumped forward limply out of exhaustion. He coughed weakly, a spray of blood leaving his mouth with each cough. He felt sore all over, and he was still dazed from the intense beating he had just gone through. Thought processes weren’t working quite yet, so all Kei could do at that moment was sit there and recover.
A hand roughly gripped the blond’s chin and forced him to look up at his kidnapper. Kei could only see the man through one eye - the other had swollen shut minutes ago. The man smiled as he saw Kei trying to focus on him.
“You’re a tough one,” his captor said softly. “Most men break before this point. I enjoy the few who stay resolute, however, because that means I get to have more fun.”
The man released the blond’s chin. Kei managed to keep his head from slumping forwards again and instead stared silently and resolutely ahead as his captor began to slowly circle the chair.
“Let me tell you what’s in store for you if you don’t start talking in a few minutes,” the man said as he settled his hands on Kei’s shoulders. “I like to tell people what’s coming up for them and then leave them alone to think about it - to build up emotional anguish, you know.
“But I digress. This is what’s going to happen.” The man leaned forwards, his lips right next to Kei’s ear as he murmured, “So far, I’ve been nice and have only been using my hands. That’s about to change. When we come back in five minutes or so, I’ll come back with a bag full of toys to use on you. I will gradually break every single bone in your outer extremities, from the fingers and toes inward. If you don’t talk by the time I’m done with your arms and legs, I’ll switch tactics. I’ll take my trusty blades, which are actually getting a little on the dull side, and start cutting things off. It’ll be small things first - toes, maybe an ear - but as time goes on…”
The man grabbed Kei’s hair, roughly pulling on his bleach-blond locks so that he was forced to look up at his captor. Kei gritted his teeth as he felt some of his hair being pulled out by the roots but otherwise stayed as still as possible.
“I’m a very impatient man,” his kidnapper said softly. “So I can promise that I will make your life a living hell. You’ll be wishing for death by the end. Think about it.”
Kei’s hair was released and the man walked away. The rest of the men followed him across the warehouse to a door leading to a small side room. The door shut behind the group of men with a finalizing click.
Kei let out an exhausted sigh once the men had left. He slumped as much as the ropes keeping him in place would allow, wincing as the motion made pain spark up in his chest. Apparently he had at least one broken rib. Sighing once more, he couldn’t help but wonder what else had been broken over the last few hours.
He was so caught up in his current condition that Kei didn’t realize someone was nearby until he caught motion out of the corner of his eye. The blond looked up quickly and his good eye widened as he recognized his visitor.
“C-Claude?”
The younger man didn’t say anything, his face expressionless as he set his briefcase down next to the chair. Kei watched Claude’s movements with an air of impatient expectancy.
“I was hoping somebody would show up soon! Now if you can just untie me we can get out of-“
A slap across the face efficiently cut Kei off. His already abused face throbbed as he looked up at Claude in shock. The younger man’s hand was still raised, as if it had frozen directly after the hit. Claude’s face was pale and livid.
“Claude…?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Claude hissed furiously. “How could you get yourself fucking kidnapped? Dammit, Kei, you know better!”
Kei, who had been startled by the outburst, quickly recovered and snapped back, “What, you think I asked for this? You think I wanted to be forced into a car, beaten, transported to a warehouse, tied up, and beaten again?”
Claude blanched at the older man’s short description of the past several hours. He opened his mouth, ready to say something (he wasn’t sure what, though), but all that came out was a small croak. He stared at Kei’s bruised face for another moment and then, with a small cry, knelt and wrapped his arms around the bound blond.
“God, Kei, I was so worried! You didn’t come home last night and you wouldn’t answer your phone and I had to go find you and I was so sure I wouldn’t come in time and you’d be crippled or worse and and-“
Kei winced at the grip around his cracked ribs but still managed to speak. “It’s okay, Claude, I’m okay, I’m in one piece, more or less. Just calm down and stop crying.”
“I-I’m not crying,” Claude said brokenly even as he sniffled back his threatening tears.
“Alright, whatever you say. Um… could you also let go? I think I might have a couple broken ribs.”
Claude quickly released the blond, whose face had become pale from pain. “Sorry,” the younger man murmured. “Sorry.”
He circled to the back of the chair, knelt and pulled out a knife. He brought the blade to bear on the rope, carefully sawing through Kei’s bindings.
“Those sons of bitches are gonna pay for this,” Claude muttered darkly as he worked.
“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Kei said with a small smile. He wiggled a little against the loosening ropes and then suddenly asked, “What’s in the briefcase?”
Claude grinned wolfishly as he pulled the cut bindings away from the chair, effectively freeing the blond. “Nothing really. It’s just-“
Kei suddenly hissed, his face becoming wary. “I hear voices.”
Claude whirled to face the door that the men had exited through. Sure enough, voices could be heard, growing louder as their owners drew closer. Cursing under his breath, he dove for his briefcase and pulled it open.
“Can you handle a gun right now?” Claude asked quickly.
Kei extended his right hand, wiggling his fingers experimentally before making a fist. He winced but still nodded. “I’ve got a broken finger, but I should be fine.”
The younger man swiftly pulled out a gun from the briefcase and passed it on to Kei. That done, Claude reached in and pulled out the weapon taking up the most space in the case: a machine gun. Claude settled it comfortably in his hands as Kei whistled appreciatively.
“I want one,” the blond whined playfully.
“Sorry,” Claude said with a grim smile as he aimed his weapon at the door, “but only one fits in the case.”
“Hmph. Fine…” Kei grimaced a little from the pain of gripping the gun but still managed to steadily aim at the door as well.
After a tense moment, the side door swung open and two of the men walked in. They froze when they caught sight of the heavily armed stranger and then - a second too late - fumbled for their own guns. Claude didn’t give them a chance to clear their weapons. He opened fire, the air filling with the sound of rapid gunshots. Bullets ripped through the men, and blood painted the wall behind them. When Claude finally stopped firing, the bodies of the two men were nearly unrecognizable.
Alerted shouts from beyond the doorway signaled the coming of the other men. Without moving his gun away from the door, Claude backed up a little and crouched next to Kei.
“Can you stand?” the younger man asked worriedly.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Try.”
Kei took a moment to steel himself and then pushed himself off the chair. He was steady on his feet and, encouraged, he tried to take a step. Pain lanced up his left leg as something inside of it ground together, and the blond fell to the side as his leg buckled. Claude was there instantly, catching the blond and hoisting him up before he hit the ground.
“Sorry,” Kei whispered. “I guess walking is out for me.”
“It’s fine,” Claude answered softly. “Just lean on me, okay?”
The blond wrapped a thin arm around the younger man’s shoulders just as the rest of the men rushed in, weapons drawn. Without missing a beat, Kei and Claude lifted their own weapons and fired. With his machine gun, Claude managed to take down most of the men, while Kei also was able to get a couple with his own gun. The struggle (if it could be called that) lasted for only a couple minutes and, miraculously, neither Kei nor Claude had been shot at.
As Claude examined the bodies, he noticed that one man was still alive and groaning, a single bullet in his kneecap. He gave Kei a questioning look.
“He was the one who ‘questioned’ me the most,” Kei explained. His blue eyes flashed dangerously. “I wanted to talk to him before I blew his head off.”
Claude nodded his understanding and then helped the blond slowly limp over to the injured kidnapper. Kei painstakingly knelt, keeping his damaged leg as still as possible, and smiled at the fallen man.
“Now, what have we here?” the blond asked sweetly. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘making my life a living hell’ right now?”
The man growled but made no effort to move. “…Bastard,” he spat.
Kei smiled amiably, though his eyes remained as cold as blue ice. “Now, I know that you were probably just following orders, but you couldn’t have been assuming I wouldn’t end up making this personal.”
The blond brought his gun to bear, pressing the muzzle against his kidnappers side turned face. “I hope you enjoy the same treatment that you gave to me.”
Kei pulled the trigger after that, turning his head a little as blood splattered up from his kidnapper’s now-ruined head. With a small sigh of satisfaction, the blond leaned back and smiled weakly.
“Feel better?” Claude asked as he pulled the older man to his feet once more.
“Emotionally, yes,” Kei answered, allowing the younger man to lead him to the warehouse exit. “Physically… I think I could be better.”
Claude chuckled a bit as they finally left the warehouse and started to slowly make their way down the alley. “You’ll recover in no time, I’m sure, and then we can… Kei?”
The younger man stopped walking as he realized that the blond was reeling dangerously to one side. Before Kei could collapse on his own, Claude steadied him in his arms and gently lowered him to the ground.
“Kei, are you okay?”
“I’m… I’m fine,” Kei answered weakly. “I’m just… a little dizzy. Just give me a minute and I’ll be… I’ll be…”
The blond’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he blacked out before he could finish his sentence. Startled, Claude began to nudge him and call the older man’s name. When that didn’t do anything, he desperately looked up and down the alley before realizing that he was in the wrong place to expect help to come waltzing right up to him.
“Fuck, Kei, why do you have to make things so complicated?” Claude muttered without conviction as he lifted the skinny man into his arms. Once he was sure that he had a good grip on the blond, Claude stood and trotted down the alley, making his way to a hospital he knew was nearby.
~*
The hospital was a small and quiet one that (at the right price) simply did its job of patching people up without asking any questions. That was how Claude was able to submit Kei and get him treated in record time.
The final damage report was not pleasant. Besides heavy bruising on his face and abdomen, Kei had a dislocated right shoulder, five broken fingers, six fractured ribs, a cracked left femur, and a mild concussion. The doctors had bandaged him up and given him a bed for the night, wanting to observe him for the next twenty-four hours before letting him go.
Claude sat next to Kei’s bed, his worried gaze never leaving the blond’s sleeping form. After a moment, the younger man stood, walked over to the bed, and smoothed out the sleeping man’s hair. The doctors had pushed it out of the way to examine and treat all of the bruises, and now it was bothering Claude. With careful fingers he managed to get the bleach-blond hair back to its original style.
Kei’s eyes flickered open at that moment, and he smiled to see Claude standing over him. “Hey,” he said softly.
Claude returned the smile. “Hey. How are you feeling?”
The blond shifted in his bed and winced a little. “Like I’ve been hit by a truck.” His blue eyes settled on Claude’s face and he smiled appreciatively. “Thanks for saving me, by the way.”
“Well, what else was I supposed to do, let you get beaten to a bloody pulp? You’re my partner, after all.”
“No, I don’t think you did it because I’m your partner.” Kei’s smiled acquired a knowing edge.
Claude arched an eyebrow. “Oh?” he asked sarcastically. “And why else would I have done it?”
“Because, as you said earlier, you were worried about me.”
Claude blushed at that. He had completely forgotten about his little breakdown at the warehouse. “Um, w-well, that was…”
Kei smiled and reached for Claude’s hand, squeezing it gently. “It’s okay, you don’t have to try to make excuses. I just wanted to thank you for rescuing me.”
“Y-you’re welcome,” Claude answered softly, too flustered to think of anything else to say. Blindly, he reached behind him and pulled a chair over so he could sit and still maintain his grip on Kei’s hand.
“My hero,” Kei whispered as he lightly kissed Claude’s hand. Then, with a tired sigh, he turned his head and closed his eyes.
Claude turned pink at the comment but he didn’t pull away. Instead, after a moment of watching Kei’s tired face, he leaned in and lightly kissed the blond’s lips. “No more getting yourself kidnapped,” the younger man murmured. “It’s way too much work getting you back in one piece.”
He had thought Kei had fallen asleep again, so he was surprised when the blond smiled crookedly and gave Claude’s hand a squeeze without opening his eyes.
“I’ll try, love, I’ll try.”
~*~*~*~*~*
- Ahaha, I suck at titles, don't I? If I can think of a better one, I'll change it when I post this story up on dA.
- As stated before, this was not run past a Beta of any sort before being posted. So if you see anything that's wrong, feel free to tell me!
- Yeah, the post is dated July 4. I just want it to be high enough on the F-list that it registers to Lucy when she gets home tomorrow night.